That’s not how the real world worked! Bec stomped around her room. I’m not in some pulpy anime, this is real life… right? Panic set in and she desperately grabbed a seat to keep herself from collapsing on the floor outright. She started gulping air as her chest clenched tight. The air even feels fresh. This couldn’t be Earth, oh god, oh fuck. Where is my phone? She pulled it out of her pocket and saw no signal. Shit, no hacks connecting me to the real world. In frustration, Bec banged her head on the table shaking everything. The syringe rolled and clattered to the floor.

“You…” She growled in condemnation. Grabbing the syringe, she looked at it closely. It looked like poison. It really looked like poison. She was basically on the verge of tears. I know the forces that be really want me to inject this. She whimpered as she uncapped the needle. If this gives me super strength, good. If I die, good. No wait not good, what am I am talking about? She closed her eyes and took 5 minutes of the needle hovering overexposed thigh, whining, cringing, and crying of both of the normal and war varieties before she worked up the courage to stab down.

“ARRRGH,” She flexed her arms like she beat the final boss of a brutal video game, her brain bathing in adrenaline. The syringe just jutted out of her thigh. “Oh right, the plunger.” She pushed it. The fluid disappeared into her thigh. “Huh. Nothing?”

WAVE

“What?”

Then she blacked out.

~~~

“Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep.”

Bec hurt. She groped for her phone. When she couldn’t find it, she realized she couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from. Her eyes creaked open, her vision like television static. She rubbed her eyes and the world came into focus. This was when she realized the sound wasn’t coming from the phone in her pocket. It was coming from inside her head… and it wasn’t a beeping noise, it was someone saying “beep.”

I’m up, dammit.

“I am aware. Based on your alarm schedule and wake up protocol, you are not a morning person. I decided that I should persist until your alpha brain waves elevated to normal adult male levels.”

Are you in my head?

“Yes, and in your Timelet and in your phone. Interesting construction, that phone. I have not seen one like it.”

Who are you? Bec sat up and smacked her lips. They were dry which was odd.

“I’m your new temporary AI assistant. My name is Al.”

Okay, that’s cool. Bec felt like she was going completely and utterly mad. Too much, too fast. Things were really happening too fast and, well, she was kind of getting numb to it.

“So, you are an AI assistant? What are you assisting me with, Al?” Bec asked aloud.

“I’m designed as a stop-gap measure until you bring the Timelet to the central core. My primary objectives, in order of most important to least important, are 1) to help you live, day to day, 2) to help you process data into a consumable form, and 3) to guide you to the central core. My secondary objectives are to 1) assist in the gathering of data, 2) to advise you, within my capacity, on the nature of myself, the Timelet, the intel Shop, and 3) to preserve my existence until I can merge with the central core.”

That was a lot to unpack for Bec. Frankly, too much to process all at once.

“I’ve apparently taken the liberty to transcribe the protocols to a document on the Timelet. I can add it to your phone if you wish.”

“Timelet?” Bec was frazzled but, even then, that word kept coming up.

“Ah, fantastic. We can address my secondary objective right away. Do you see the black datapad on the table?” She looked at the underside of the table from her seat on the floor.

“Exactly! But on top of the table that you’re looking at. That’s the Timelet.”

“You can tell where I’m looking?”

“I’m wired to all your sensory data. I can sense everything that you sense.”

“Are you familiar with a man called Dr. Samuel Sterling?”

Al paused for a moment and cheerfully answered, “Yes, I found his name in a section called ‘Head Developer’ within the file titled ‘Lauds SensoLink System Credits’ within my core programming. It would seem he played an integral part in the creation of the part of me that allows us to interface.”

Interface. “Please don’t call it interface. That sounds so dirty.”

“I’ll call it ‘making the beast with the one back’ if you prefer.”

“You’re making complex jokes using Shakespeare, you seem to be perfectly self-aware… and you’re using contractions. Are you sure you’re an AI?”

“As sure as anyone can be sure of who they are.”

“You’re philosophizing now. I would be impressed if I weren’t so tired…”

“I wouldn’t recommend sleeping for another three to four minutes. I’m currently repairing a concussion that you suffered during the integration process.”

“Concussion?”

“Yes. You hit your head pretty hard on the ground.”

“Well… that explains why I feel scrambled. Repairing me?”

“Yes. The fluid you injected yourself with was mostly a slurry of nanites that are now coursing through your entire body, self-replicating, and repairing all your injuries. You really need more minerals in your diet, but that’s another thing. You also have some abnormal pockets of subcutaneous fat that I can repurpose. The damage elsewhere will take much more time.”

Bec glowered. “I’m a woman.”

“Yes.”

“You said I’d recover from a concussion in three to four minutes?”

“Two minutes now. Yes. The nanites are good for many things including rapid injury recovery.”

“I have super healing?”

“Incorrect. Super implies that you have abnormally high healing. You will find that almost all humans have this level of healing, usually more. You’ve started late and you are definitely on the lower end of average.”

“Other humans?”

“Yes.”

“Care to elaborate?” Bec crossed her arms.

“In what way?”

“I- uh, humans… are we on Earth?”

“No, we are on Dust.”

“Another planet?”

“Yes.”

“And there are other humans on this planet.”

“Quite a few.”

“Where are they and how many?

“Not sure, I could buy those answers for you in the Shop for 250 LuCre a pop, if you’d like.”

“It cost LuCre to find out where other people are? What’s that?”

“Luxury Credits. It’s the one and only currency on Dust.”

“Do I start out with any?”

“No, but you have lots of resources that we can turn into LuCre.”

“This is ridiculous. Can I get a concise tutorial? I feel like I have to ask the right questions to make heads or tails of this situation and I don’t understand what the fuck is going on.”

“I do not have a tutorial system. This is not a videogame. I can give you a rundown based on what I perceive to be a gap in your understanding?”

“Okay. Do that.”

“Exposition dump initiated: We are on a colony world called Dust. You are in the middle of nowhere and I am supposed to guide you to the City so you can complete your orientation. You have four tools given to you by the benevolent Lauds Inc.! The Intel Shop is an information exchange where you sell your data for LuCre and buy data with the same. Everyone on Dust has access to this Shop in one way or another. The nanites in your blood have given you health, a way to digitize your senses, organ development, the textura, and, most importantly, me! Oh, and the Timelet is a datapad that receives data from the future.”

“WHAT!?”