Natalie woke up, climbing out of the pod, she sat on her window seat. She was nervous, her brothers and sister, will be up soon. They will be curious about the test results. Natalie wasn't sure how to deal with their curiosity. While she was sitting there, her mother came in, Natalie looked up at her, smiling, as if she had nothing at all to worry about.

"Have you finished registration Natalie?" Mum asked.

"Yes I found my virtual space pretty quickly too Mum." She replied.

"Natalie if you want to talk about it," Mum started. "I'm always here for you."

"Thanks Mum but I'll be alright, it's not as if I have anything to be really worried about." She shrugged her shoulders trying to seem unconcerned. "I will just have to work hard and that's not a bad thing."

Her mother smiled, wrapping her arms around her giving, her a big hug.

"That's my brave girl," she murmured. " yes your right it will be ok, but both your father and I will still be there if you need us okay?"

"Okay" She smiled. "So Birthday! Did I get presents?"

"hmmm there might be one or two." Her mother laughingly teased.

"ohhh gimme! gimme!" She chortled. Jumping up from the seat.

"They are downstairs Honey," said Mum. " Let's go see.

Natalie grabbed her mother's hand dragging her to the stairs, just as they reached the top of them. Chelsea opened her door and called out.

"Hey Birthday Brat, show me your new pod!"

"But Chelsea my presents are downstairs!" Groaned Natalie. "I want to see them!"

"In a minute,Brat, pod first," Chelsea demanded while grinning.

"okay," moaned Natalie as she turn back to her door and opened it. Chelsea looked in at the silver and black pod, she walked over and ran her hands along its sides.

"Very stylish, Brat," said Chelsea. "A better colour scheme then the Matt black and blue of my gens pods."

Their two brothers arrived at the door at the same time, both looking in at Natalie's pod.

"I think I'm actually a little bit jealous." Brian said. "Chelsea is right, it's a much better looking colour then mine or hers."

"Yeah me too." Jake said. "Mine is just dull silver, yours is much nicer."

Natalie laughed, but at the same time they were right, she wondered why each gens pods were a different colour.

"Why do they do that Mum?" Chelsea asked.

"It's done to keep track of the pods AI systems, each new AI has a different colour, that stands in for a number." Mum answered. "Natalie's pod is a 700 series."

"Hey where are you all!" Called Dad. "It's lonely down here by myself."

Everyone laughed and went downstairs, Natalie was feeling a lot better now. Her siblings hadn't asked any difficult questions yet. The afternoon was pleasant, they laughed and joked around. Giving Natalie lots of nice presents all of them to help her in decorating her new virtual room. Chelsea gave her a boost program, that would give her a virtual flower bed, with a fountain for her space.

Brian gave her a cute little bird program, so she would not only have the sounds of birds. But they would flitter and fly around in her forest, making it seem even more real. Jakes program was of fluffy bunnies and bright red squirrels, that would scamper around in the forest too. Sometimes stopping behind a tree and peeking cutely around it at her.

Natalie laughed. " How did you all know I would pick the forest for my first room?"

"We didn't " smiled Chelsea. "But we do know our little sister likes flowers and fluffy animals."

"Yeah, even if you hadn't picked the forest, the programs would look good in any of the starter decorations." Brian said.

Dad's gift had been a new tablet that would connect to Sam, even when she wasn't home, so that she would know if there were any notifications. Mum's gift had been a new wrist comp, Natalie's first. They had spent an hour playing with it and setting it up. The night was finished up, with a lovely meal and cake, after which they sat and watch a colonists movie, until it was time to login for work.

Natalie walked into her room feeling warm and happy, the results and the test themselves seem very far away now. Almost as if they had happened to another person, instead of her.

"Sam open please." She said to the pods AI, then climbed in, entering the virtual space once more. She appeared in the vast room not to far from her 'door' noticing other teens appearing around her. After watching for a few minutes, she opened the door and walked into her own space.

Once inside she took a moment to call up the three programs, setting them active in her forest. Smiling at the general vibe the place gave her now. Natalie walked to the desk, which now held a computer system, sitting down she took command. With Sams, help they repaired a burst pipe, cleaned 400 drains in her area. Changed or did maintenance on half the lighting grids, and pulled a much needed maintenance order up, for the robots under her command.

By morning she couldn't find anything else that needed doing. She had completed all the set tasks, so she shut it down and logged out of her pod. When she raised the lid to the pod, she realised it was still very early. Glancing at the clock, told her it was 6:30am. She couldn't remember if she had ever been up this early before.

She decided to have a nice hot shower, relaxing in the warmth of it until her fingers started to prune. Then she went outside to feed the rabbits and chickens, that naturally led to weeding and watering. By the time her father came out to see to everything, she had almost completed the whole lot.

"Well this was a nice surprise Little Bee" he laughed. "You are up early though"

"Yeah I finished all the tasks they set me, but Dad the area I was given to maintain hasn't been looked after properly. Half the robots are nearly falling apart from lack of care." She complained. "I called up a maintenance order for them, but if it isn't done by tonight, I'm going to be down by at least half my bots!"

"Well if that happens set the better working bots to repair the other half" he replied. "once they are finished, set the ones just repaired to do maintenance on the other half. You will be behind, but at least you will have all your bots working. You can always catch up, but make sure you send in a condition report. So no one can say your not doing your work."

"Okay, Dad, thanks I'll do that tonight." She answered. "Do you think it would be alright if I checked out a few games this morning ? Or should I be doing something else ?"

"Nope I think you have done more then your share for a first timer," he said. "Go and enjoy yourself."

Natalie whooped with excitement and rushed inside, slowing down long enough to get a few left overs. From the night before along with a piece of birthday cake, then went up to her room.

She closed her door and settled down at her computer. Now just what could she find, that would be a nice, first game for her. An hour later, she learned back disappointed, most of the games were shooters, or rpgs with to much hand holding. The only game that looked good to her, wasn't out yet, she did see they were after closed beta testers. Natalie wasn't sure she wanted to play a game that was half done.

After another hour of searching, she signed up for the beta. She didn't think she had any chance, anyway let's face it a half done game was better then nothing. Wouldn't hurt to try. Then she shut the computer down, climbed into her pod, to see if anyone she knew was around.

She had forgotten, that she was the only one of her class to not get advanced schooling classes. There were a few people, but she didn't know them. So she had a timer placed, curling up in her forest for a nap.

Sam woke her half an hour before lunch, so she hurried to logout. Her mother might need help, getting the food prepared. But when she went down everything was done. After lunch she cleaned, up to give her mother a break. Also because she was so, very bored with nothing to do. Natalie had just finished when her wrist comp chimed, signaling she had a message. She put away the last dish then pulled it up.

Congratulations

You have been chosen to play in the closed beta of Freedom where you can chose your own way to advance, want to be a farmer? Then you can want to be a king? You can but it's not easy you have work to get what you want in life ,well it's the same for Freedom. Your beta key has already been sent to your pod AI all you have to do is login and make your avatar good luck adventurer.

Natalie smiled happily, now she had something that would keep her busy after work. She kissed her mother on the cheek, then charged upstairs to check for any information, on the game she was going to play.

Nothing, not a single thing about it, just the short glimpses from the game company itself. She sighed, well looks like she would be playing her first game blind.

Natalie checked the time and frowned, not enough time before work to do more then make sure the game was running. Maybe enough to make her avatar, she wanted to be working early tonight. Sam had already informed her, that the bots still hadn't been fixed.

She showered and climbed into her pod, a few of her friends were around. So she spent a few minutes catching up, enduring their sympathy for her plight. Spoken with all on the surface sincerity, but she could see a touch of malice in their eyes. She excused herself and entered her space.

"Sam have you completed the downloading of Freedom?" She asked.

"Yes Natalie, all completed." Sam reported.

"Good log me in please, Sam I want to at least make my avatar," Natalie said.

Everything went dark, it was the same as when she entered the pod, except she was conscious the whole time. She found herself in another white room, with a mirror, she was standing in front of it, but she couldn't see herself in it yet. Words formed on the mirror.

Greetings Traveller

One moment while a copy is made of your soul signature.

Well that wasn't creepy at all, she thought with a shudder. Suddenly she notice a figure appearing in the mirror, after a few more minutes she could see herself.

Please finalise your avatar or choose more options from the custom panel to the right of the mirror.

Natalie looked and soon found an extra panel that slipped out of the side of the mirror. In it was everything she needed, to make a truly unique avatar for herself. She played with these for quite a while, before she was satisfied with the results. Her image in the mirror was her but only vaguely. For staring back at her was a cute little fluffy dog girl, with just a hint of her real features showing though. She thought hard on a name for her avatar and then smiled and typed in.

Please choose a name for your avatar.

* Crystal

Please confirm if you are satisfied with your selection you cannot change this once you have confirmed.

Confirmed

May your will be strong Traveller

Natalie really wanted to continue, but she had to login for work in ten minutes. There wasn't time for anything else.

"Log me into my space please Sam." She said.

Once she was at her desk, she moved into work command. Starting her condition report. Once that was done, she set half her working bots, to fixing the damaged ones. While she did what she could with the remaining robots, to get her night tasks done.