“This way.” Damien walked into what looked like a laboratory with his blaster pistol pointed straight ahead.

“What is that chittering noise?” Amelia asked.

“Mic no like damn bugs!” His cleared his throat as if something might be wrong, “Hey, why me talk like this?”

“Easy big guy, I doubt there are many bugs in space. Especially on a space station.” Reyes assured the diminutive alien.

“Then what that!” Mic pointed to a spider-looking thing with a wolf’s head feeding furiously on what was presumably at one point a lab worker.

“Wolf 359-3, crap!” Reyes hit the palm of his hand on his head and then pulled out his blaster. “Wolf 359! Remember the spider wolves? This was one of our first role-playing adventures.”

“Oh yeah,” Ris laughed, “I remember. Duran Duran was playing and you kept singing hungry like the swolf!” He took the sword hilt from his side and held it out. A disk-shaped piece on top raised in front of a plasma charged telescoping bar. When the disk and rod finished extending it burst into a cold flame.

“Oh, that’s cool!” Reyes said, “What do you call it again?”

“It’s called a power sword,” Ris said. “Obviously, it’s supposed to be this game’s knockoff of a light sab – “

“Guys, I don’t mean to interrupt, but I think it saw us,” Cornelius said, pointing at the swolf as it chittered excitedly and began moving toward them. “I got it.” He confidently pointed his blaster and fired. It dodged his blast, screamed and charging faster. Cornelius fired again and again but his blasts were going everywhere but not finding their mark.

“Here, let me,” Damien said. He fired with much the same result. Soon a horde of the swolves emerged from other rooms and began skittering across the floor. Ris began swinging his sword and he did manage to hit a few but his swings missed more than they connected.

“What the hell is wrong with us?” Reyes shouted in between blasts. “We can’t hit anything!”

“We first level!” Mic said. “Can’t hit nothing because no skill.” He let his weapon swing on its strap and he ran full speed at the creatures, “Agggghh, Mic hate damn spider-dogs!” Pieces of spider began to rain down on all of them as Mic De’gene ripped them to shreds with his bare hands. A blue haze appeared around the huge alien and then a bunch of yellow sparkles rained down on him accompanied by the sound of a bell and the computer voice saying:

Ding! Mic De’gene is now level 2

“What! Level 2!” Reyes jumped into the fray and started punching at one of the spiders and then he finally hit it in the face with the butt of his rifle. A few more fell.

Ding! Dean Reyes is now level 2

One of the spiders attacked and then started gnawing on Damien’s leg. He heard a loud beeping sound coming from his wrist. He knocked the spider away for a moment. The pain of the spider’s venom stung as he gazed at the beeping wrist interface. His red life bar was at about a quarter full and flashing. A green icon appeared above his life bar. It read poison underneath. He managed to get to his power dagger and stab the creature in the head.

Amelia kneeled down to Damien and injected him with her hypo-spray. He felt strange like he was the strongest man alive but his heal bar was still beeping. “Crap, I gave you a strength stim! Hold on.” She started rummaging through her pack.

“I hate level 1!” Damien said. “I always have. We need to be level 10 at least to do anything.”

“Here,” She injected Damien with another hypo-spray and he immediately felt better. “There, that should do it.”

Ding! Damien Storm is Level 2.

Ding! Amelia Mann is Level 2.

“Thanks!” Damien said getting back to his feet. The others had finished off the spiders and were covered in goop.

Ris manipulated his wrist interface, “Hey, did everyone level up? We have points to put into skills and abilities for level 2.” His face went grim, “Uh oh. We need to get off this station, now.”

“Why, what is it?” Damien asked.

Ris pointed his wrist interface projector to the wall and pressed a button. It projected his interface onto the wall.

“Hey, I didn’t know it did that,” Reyes said.

“Look! Ris said. The interface showed a bunch of red blinking dots. “I just put my new skill point in tech expertise to learn what this wrist thing will do, so now, if I read this right, those are the hundreds of swolves coming this way!”

“I’m going to put my skill point into blaster!” Damien said.

“No wonder dog spiders hungry. Stuck on space station with no food.” Mic cleared his throat, “Mic hate talking like stupid alien!”

“That’s true, as soon as the crew is gone, they will begin to eat each other.” Amelia said shifting her med kit, “Or us, if we can’t find a way off this station.

Ris went to the consoles and began to work the buttons and screen slides. He swiped left a few times before he stopped, “Here, we have to go through those doors and down one level to the escape pods.”

“Is there a hanger with ships?” Damien asked.

“Sure, there is but who will fly it?” Ris asked.

“I’m a pilot.” Damien pointed out.

Ris cocked his head sarcastically, “You’re only second level and you just put your one skill point in blaster!”

“Oh, yeah.”

“To the escape pods!” Amelia said. She opened the door and carefully peered outside. “It seems safe.”

“Out of Mic’s way!” The small alien pushed Amelia aside and ran down the hall.

“He really does hate bugs,” Reyes said.

“Come on,” Ris motioned for Damien to follow the others to the pods, “We have to get out of here before it’s too late.”

They followed Reyes, Mic, Amelia, and Cornelius down the narrow stairway to a big room with several open pods embedded into the walls. Half of them were gone.

Ris went to the control console. “They all went down to the planet. The other pods are set to the same coordinates.” He rounded the console and entered one of the pods. “Now, how do we get these pods to activate?”

Skittering sounds from the hallway began to be accompanied by a strange barking.

“Ewww, they’re barking,” Amelia said, “That’s so weird!”

“Get us out of here!” Cornelius said.

Ris found the launch button and hit it just as the swolves entered the room. The back door of the pod whirred shut as the swolves thrust their bodies against it and the pod ejected from the station.

Loading the first planet …

Loading Characters…

Name: Harne, Ris Name: Jorrell, Cornelius

Race: Human/Alternate Replicant Race: Human/ Enhanced Human

Profession – Telepath/Soldier Profession – Explorer/Smuggler/Spy

Constitution, CO …..98 CO 90

Agility AG ………....101 AG 103

Self-Discipline SD …80 SD 99

Memory ME ………100 ME 100

Reasoning RE ……..100 RE 100

Strength ST ………..85 ST 76

Quickness QU …….102 QU 99

Presence PR ……….89 PR 98

Intuition IN………...90 IN 95

Empathy EM……….88 EM 89

Name: Storm, Damien Name: Reyes, Dean

Race: Human/Alternate Replicant Race: Human/ Enhanced Human

Profession – Pilot/Smuggler Profession – Engineer/Smuggler

CO 98 CO 90

AG 101 AG 90

SD 80 SD 80

ME 100 ME 101

RE 100 RE 98

ST 85 ST 75

QU 102 QU 90

PR 89 PR 86

IN 90 IN 90

EM 88 EM 87

Name: Mann, Amelia Name: De’gene, Mic

Race: Human/Alternate Replicant Race: Alien/ Booturian

Profession – Doctor/Criminal Profession – Explorer/Soldier

CO 98 CO110

AG 101 AG 95

SD 80 SD 90

ME 100 ME 90

RE 100 RE 105

ST 85 ST 103

QU 102 QU 99

PR 89 PR 105

IN 90 IN 85

EM 88 EM 70

Damien opened his eyes to see Amelia’s pleasant face staring back at him. The escape pod was directly behind them. Ris, Cornelius, Mic, and Reyes were all stepping out of it and milling around, almost in a daze. Damien felt his side. His blaster was still there. He looked at the interface device. Several lights were blinking wildly.

“Ah, look at the character sheet on your wrist. There are skill points, stat points, and profession points. We didn’t allocate them all.” He set his profession point to pilot skill and the stat point to increase his quickness stat bonus. He thought it might be helpful for both his piloting skills and his blaster use.

“What is this place?” Reyes asked after he allocated his points in engineering, planetary science, and blaster. Damien looked up at the facility, actually noticing it for the first time. It resembled a small space port with enormous exterior windows and multiple points of entry. The port couldn’t have been very old, but the plant life of the planet had already begun to overtake the buildings in some places. There were also several open areas around the main building that Damien surmised could be used as landing pads for medium-sized spacecraft. A couple of buildings beyond, in the background, could have been hangers for spacecraft, he couldn’t be certain until they inspected them up close. The entire place appeared to be abandoned now.

“I just had a terrible thought,” Amelia said. “What if the swolves followed them down here?”

“Or what if the swolves followed the people from down here up to the space station?” Ris suggested.

“Great!” Reyes said. “This is fun. I always wanted to be eaten by coniferous, wolf-headed spiders.”

“Go inside to find out for sure,” Mic said. “Maybe find translator that help me talk normal!” He started off for the main building.

“I think the way you speak is charming, big guy!” Reyes said.

“Shut up or will smash you into goo!”

“Ready your weapons,” Ris said.

The door frame of the building was broken from its hinges allowing the party to easily pass through the threshold. As they passed through a foyer-like lobby, Damien noticed a hologram flickering over a holo-base that has been knocked over at some point. Curious, he stepped over to the hologram and set it upright so it could play normally. The hologram began to whir, hum, and reboot. The base emitted a scanning beam.

The hologram was of a nondescript humanoid wearing a grey, futuristic jumpsuit and jacket with the initials JC in the upper left corner of the jacket. There were words playing on the base: Scanning…Scanning…Confirmed! “Welcome to the Jaddus Collective’s automated hospitality service. How may I help you?”

Damien peered behind him at his companions and then back to the hologram, “Are you talking to me?”

“Yes, Damien Storm. I recognize you as one of the founders. How may I help you?”

“What happened here?” Damien asked.

The hologram glanced around at the damaged foyer, “Accessing…Accessing…Confirmed! “The Jaddus Collective has been attacked.”

“Who attacked you?”

Accessing…Accessing…Confirmed! “We don’t know, but we suspect the Alteri Dominion.”

“You’re a helpful one,” Reyes joked. “Who are the Alteri Dominion?”

“Thank you, Dean Reyes.” The hologram bowed slightly. “The Alteri Dominion is the designation of an ancient race whose ancestors originally colonized this planet. They are now suspected of working exclusively for House Davosi, one of the five major families of this region of space. Did you find this information equally helpful, Dean Reyes?”

“No, I wasn’t…oh, never mind.”

Ris stepped up to the hologram, “Was this attack part of the narrative of the game? Were we meant to find you so you could lead us into gameplay?”

“Accessing…Accessing…Confirmed! I do not understand the term, game.”

“Simulation?”

“My only function is to welcome and serve you, the founders, and make your stay pleasant. Your participation is voluntary. Accessing… do not understand the word gameplay. Please elaborate.”

“Voluntary! Something went wrong then.” Cornelius spouted.

“Give us the original parameters of the expansion,” Ris said.

“Accessing…Accessing…Confirmed! “We do not understand the question.”

“Why were we…the founders brought here?” Damien asked.

“The founders were brought here to save the Jaddus Collective. Please assist us.”

“What do you mean?” Reyes asked. “Is the collective in danger?”

“Founders must agree to help us. Something is wrong and we are in danger. Founders know how to save us. Founders were brought here to render aid. Please save the collective.”

“Crap!” Amelia said. “We weren’t asked. We were brought against our will.”

“Accessing…Accessing…Confirmed! “Stand by for emergency message.”

The hologram flickered and was replaced with a portly man dressed identically to the hologram. He was leaning against the hologram base and he was wounded. He was once a real man, “Founders, I am sorry I had to do this to you but I had no choice. I am Denec. I am the developer who oversaw the Jaddus collective expansion project. I am a huge fan of all the David M. Thomas space adventures books. I modeled almost all of the storylines from the books. It was our plan to bring you all here for the expansion launch, but the time travel apparatus we used disrupted the wolf-spiders in their natural habitat and they poured out of the ground by the thousands to attack us. We quickly tricked them and transported them to Satellite 2 to starve and die. I completely forgot that was your starting point. If you are seeing this, you escaped the Satellite and have arrived on the first planet. I am sorry, but I uploaded you immediately. You are in a safe location and will be taken care of without worry. I tried to start you at level 10, but I didn’t have time to level your characters up. The wolf-spiders started the game before it was supposed to run. Now, there is no choice but to play it out. I found out right before I recorded this message that the wolf-spiders were placed here on purpose. You must stop them. Remember, now that the system has been compromised everything you encounter in this game is one hundred percent real! But, I did manage to secure your patterns in a loop so you will not die if you are killed in game. At least, I don’t think you will. There is no choice. You must level up and save the collective. I cannot boot you from the expansion without the danger of causing you permanent brain damage. Which reminds me, you may encounter other players from the collective. I uploaded as many players as I could to help save the collective. I didn’t have time to kick all of them from the instance, but the system should purge them as you go through your adventures. Other players are competition for you. I imagine you would like to level up as quickly as possible and escape this nightmare. Oh, and one other thing, the creators of the wolf-spiders are… No! they have found me! arggghhh.

Amelia turned away from the hologram as swolves ripped Denec apart as if he were made of paper.

“It’s okay Amelia.” Damien reassured her, “That was just a hologram, I think.”

“I don’t buy it,” Cornelius said. “We leveled to level 2 by killing the spider-wolves. If they were placed here, how did we level on them?”

“They were introduced to the game, apparently,” Ris said. “As part of the game, they are subject to the parameters of the program.” His wrist zapped him. “Ouch! This game is shocking me” It zapped him again after he referred to the

“game” Stay in character. The ga… uh… thing is punishing me for not.” He inspected his blaster. “We need to get to work. We won’t last very long at level 2.”

“This was a setup.” Damien said.

“Set up or not, we are playing the game now, son!” Ris said. He got zapped. He shook it off and gazed to Mic. “What do you think Mic?”

The alien flexed his muscles, “Mic can’t die? Mic can’t wait to play!” He slammed his fist into his hand.

“Yes!:” Ris said.

“Wait a minute.” Cornelius said, “Is the something-gone-wrong with the simulation a part of this scenario or did something actually go wrong?”

“What’s the difference?” Amelia asked.

“Well, if this is part of the simulation, we should be able to regenerate if we are killed, I would assume. Despite what the hologram said, if this is truly a something-gone-wrong scenario as in something did indeed go wrong with the system, such as tampering, then if one of us dies in game we may also still die in real life.”

“You mean like in Dreamscape?” Ris asked.

“What’s Dreamscape?” Amelia asked.

“Really, you haven’t seen Dreamscape either?”

“No, Corny, I have not.”

“Have you been living under a rock?”

Amelia crossed her arms defensively.

“Dreamscape is a movie with Dennis Quaid as a guy who was recruited to enter dreams. He can manipulate them but if he is killed in the dream he dies in real life.”

“So, you think we might be vulnerable in here?”

“Yes,” Cornelius said. “Until we find out for sure, we should proceed on the assumption that we may die and try to keep ourselves alive.”

“There are others playing this game, right?” Ris asked. He got zapped and he winced. “I have to stop saying that!” He shook it off. “We watch one of them play, and if they die and come back and then we will know.”

“How do we identify them?” Damien asked.

“We ask around,” Ris said.

“That won’t work.” Damien disagreed, “This is basically Westworld. The people of this place won’t know what we’re talking about.”

“I’ve seen that movie!” Amelia interjected.

Mic pointed his rifle at Cornelius, “We confirm now!”

“No, wait!” Cornelius objected, but Mic already fired.

A few minutes later an escape pod entered the surrounding airspace.

Mic sat on a large rock waiting, “He might shoot me, be ready.”

Cornelius jogged up with a sobering look on his face but his blaster was still holstered, “How did you know it would work?” He said to Mic, “I could have been permanently killed!”

“Mic didn’t know, but tired of Corn being skeptical of everything. Corn believe now!”

“Yes, well, payback is hell, just remember that. Payback is hell!”

“All right, let’s move on. This is the beginning, so I’m sure we are in for a few surprises. I am assuming that the non-player characters will have no idea they are in a simulation and if science fiction has taught me anything it is not to allow a computer to become self-aware. I don’t want to end up playing against Skynet!” Ris said.

“Well said.” Damien smiled.

“Stay together and don’t touch anything unnecessarily,” Amelia said. “At least don’t until I get my medical skills trained more.”

“Hey, what’s this?” Damien began to flip some switches on a console beside a screen with a rotating planet.

Warning: stand by for scan….scanning…