[Analysis complete.]

[System in standby mode.]

[Proceed with tutorial?]

[Y/N?]

Each of them looked at the other and shrugged they all tapped their screens.

[Abrasax System tutorial]

[Limited access web network detected. Two nodes detected.]

[Connect with nodes?]

[Y/N?]

More shrugs and more taps.

“Hey I can see…” They all started to say at once before realizing they were all saying the same thing.

[Node connection.]

[Node connection.]

“Abrasax…? What the hell is that?” Renée wondered.

“I think it was one of the old gods.” Farrah answered.

“That’s an odd piece of trivia…the more you know!” Renee mused.

“Either one of my history electives, or one of our RPG games, or maybe that nerd I dated who was into ancient aliens?” she speculated with a shrug.

“Okay, I can see something that shows me we’re connected. I hope no one else can see it like Thompson said." Daniel said a bit apprehensively.

“Well, she said only to use it in emergencies, or if we were sure no one else was around.” Renée said.

“Let’s just remember to shut it down later.” Daniel cautioned.

“Well, let’s see how space-age this thing is.” Renée said.

“System.” She said, as if she were talking to a fourth person in the room.

[Abrasax system tutorial]

René tapped the hovering icon. Branches spread out from the icon like spokes from a wheel. Each spoke led to a new icon with different labels. Some of the icons were greyed out, while others had different colours.

[System]

[Physical]

[Mental]

[Offensive]

[Defense]

[Communication]

[Health]

[System upgrades]

As René hovered her fingers over each of the new icons she could see additional spokes branching out from each of them in turn. The display seemed to shift so that the icon she was selecting was always in the centre. Daniel and Farrah each turned to their displays and started exploring.

“Should we be taking notes?” Farrah asked.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” Daniel said. “Until we have a better grasp of things, I don’t think having any records would be a good idea. At least not for now.”

Renée nodded as she was scrolling through her selections. She tapped on the [Health] Button.

The health button expanded to show additional spokes leading to more icons.

[Baseline]

[Vitals]

[Assess]

[Target]

[Enhancements]

[Augmentations]

[History]

She tapped the [Baseline] icon and additional icons appeared.

[Assessment]

[Assess and replace]

[Import]

[Integrate]

She tapped the [Assessment] icon. A new icon popped up.

[Analyzing]

She looked over at Daniel and Farrah, but they seemed to have the same look of engrossed confusion that she assumed was on her face.

It was odd, watching them track things that she couldn’t see and tap the air like an invisible tablet.

"Anything interesting?" She asked.

"I'm freaking out a little bit over here, if I'm reading some of these things right." Farrah said. "Offensive and defensive capabilities? What do these mean?"

"Well, let's find out." Daniel said enthusiastically, rubbing his hands together.

“Do we have to keep waving our hands around like this?” Renne asked. “I can’t imagine the people this was designed for being willing or able to walk around looking like they were swatting bugs all the time. There must be an alternative.”

“Good point.” Farrah said. “System.”

[Abrasax]

“Can the system accept inputs without us tapping the AR icons?”

[Abrasax system accepts physical, voice, and ocular input cues.]

“Ocular?” What’s that”

[Focusing on the desired option selects it.]

Renée’s display started flashing. The [Assessment] icon was flashing green. She stared at it.

[Assessment complete]

“Whoa, it works.” she said.

Two additional options appeared below it.

[Full assessment]

[Deviation summary]

Renee swallowed and tapped [deviation summary]. A larger screen appeared full of text.

Quickly scanning the text she realized it was a summary of her medical history. At least the things that the doctors had told her were wrong with her. Her endometriosis, her allergy to penicillin, her broken arm from elementary school, and even her appendix being removed.

She sat back, overwhelmed with the idea that she now possessed nanotechnology that was more effective at assessing her health than all the doctors she’d ever met. It had taken her over five years for them to discover her endometriosis, but these nanobots had discovered it in seconds.

They spent the next several hours tapping and swiping through various icons exploring the system as best they could. They agreed not to select anything that appeared to take an action but only to search for information.