“So what is this place exactly?”

“The lobby.” Exxes plainly replied. It feels like she is trying to mess with me.

“I was informed of this, but I didn’t expect a break room. For instance, why is it so thoroughly furnished, why is there a fridge and fresh fruit, and are we actually here or not?”

“Someone’s gots lots o’ questions. I’ll let the lead designer answer that.” She nodded behind me, indicating someone else I should be asking these questions to.

Turning around I realized she was indicating that someone was on the weird circular platform I arrived on. The room was a little trippy if nondescript. It was, in fact, trippy because it was too nondescript. The room...I think you can call it that, felt like a white open expanse of nothing. You couldn’t tell where there were walls or ceiling. The floor was easy enough because we were standing on it and there were furnishings on it, even a rug, but past a certain point, it became impossible to tell. “Uh, Erin? They said you designed this place. Aren’t you a little young to have designed this?”

“Yes. Yes, I am. I was 14 when I started working here, I just had a knack for systems. Chronologically I’m 18, but I’ve been alive in compression for almost an additional 10 years. Some people call me a prodigy, but I feel like a total klutz about everything else. Feels more like an idiot savant. I can swiss cheese a system or build one from scratch, but I still have problems tying my shoes. Math is easy, relationships are... problematic.”

“I see. So you, at 14, were helping write some of the most complex quantum state coding of any generation, but have trouble tying your shoes. It’s a good thing no one really ties shoes anymore.”

“But I do! I have a super cute collection of vintage style tennis shoes, and I have to have my head maid tie them for me. It’s super inconvenient.”

“A maid tying your shoes is inconvenient? A head maid!!! Why do you have any maids?”

“I’m really rich? I’m barely at home? My parents are in poor health?”

“Oh, that makes more sense.”

“I basically wrote most of the interface code we use today. Like this room for instance. Well, I use the term ‘room’ loosely. It’s more like limbo. I found out this place as a quirk of a quantum entanglement. So We use quantum state coding and a trick of Peragomancy to link to the deadweights. Since quantum states are determined based on when ‘read’, using Peragomancy we can read it at a transition point between states and effectively stop time in here. I mean not really, but 8x compression is REALLY slow. Like REALLY, REALLY slow. We found that when we tried to do anything higher than 8x nothing really was stable until 16x, but that seems to be something to do with a geometric progression.”

“Are there people using 16x?”

“No, not really using it, but being subjected to it, yes. Apparently, Jacks use it frequently in their training programs, although they are somewhat genetically engineered for it. There are ‘bogs’, as we refer to them, in the SpEc Zones which are also in a kind of 16x compression. We have had mixed success with engaging them. They have amazing utility, but the risks are pretty high as well. At 16x we have still had some damage done to pilots, even using the deadweights. They are often referred to as no respawn zones.”

“Ugh, are most pilots gamers or something? I mean sure I grew up with this, but couldn’t we just go with danger zones?”

“Well piloting, as you will see, will feel kinda like those reincarnated in another world kind of things. Very LitRPG.”

“Ugh, this is all starting to feel a little too self-aware.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nevermind…”

“Well, since this is a limbo space, this is a construct I kind of weaseled in here. It helps keep the mental fatigue down, and it acts like a rest stop. There are rooms that will be for sleeping. The console on the ‘coffee table’ will allow us some control over the space. The fridge is actually a neat little trick where it loops in a fridge from normal time to provide real food that we can prepare and eat in here. You can actually order takeout, but you have to order it like a day or so in advance. The order goes out instantaneously, but the wait for it... is obviously a bit much.”

“30 minutes or less places don’t seem like they would be too bad. That’s just an order in the morning.”

“But is that really what you want to eat every day? Bad pizza?”

“No? I mean I could, but I see your point.”

Exxes kind of turned her nose up at the conversation. “Honestly would you really want to wait all day/look forward to crappy pizza?” She hooked a thumb at Jester. “Plus, this guy is a really good cook. Almost chef level really.”

Erin seemed like she was eager to get us back on track and going. Honestly, she seemed the most gung-ho about this. “Well, we are just using a looped backup, so we don’t have to wait on deadweight deployment. We can start the tutorial and training right away. Let me call up the arena. I figure we can start at 5:1 just to get things started.”

Jester chose to pipe up at this point. “We are looped, I would like to start at 2:1. He already has combat experience, we can speed this up.”

I caught Exxes rubbing her hands together. “Yeah, time to settle the score. I mean it wasn’t insubordination, but let’s ‘work’ this out.”

I had a feeling this was going to get physical pretty quick, “Sounds good. I don’t have a rig yet, is this native Aether utilization? I don’t have any experience with that.”

“We can start with the emitters like normal.” Noting my confusion she continued. “Let me explain their function.” She walked to a receptacle on the wall and grabbed what looked roughly like a tonfa with an extra handle on the long end. “This is an emitter module. We often use these for image training. It works as a kind of ‘all in one’ focus. Since it has a lot of functions, it isn’t particularly optimized or efficient, but it should give you a chance to start learning your native Aether handling, and will handicap the ringers here a bit.”

“It can work as all of the modules? I get that it isn’t efficient, but does no one use anything like it?”

Jester jumped in at this point. “Paladin actually uses it to train their rookies out in the field, but their shape is more like a traditional combat rifle. It provides some room to include some optimizing functions, but the idea is the same. It keeps investment cost low and rapid manufacture is much easier.”

“Are there any focuses that can be wielded rather than mounted?”

“I have one that I wield, but it is specialized, I have better visualization when wielding it, but it is highly specialized, it is a little less efficient because it isn’t wired into my rig, but I find the stabilization I get from wielding it to be of greater value.”

“So you mentioned earlier that the lobby is in 8x, have we been in 8x compression this whole time? Isn’t there some potential for concern?”

“Yes, this lobby was set to 8x, we won’t know until the first rest period whether or not you are adapting to it. If you can’t sleep or have other bad reactions we have to boot you out and try it at 4x” Erin was quick to respond.

“Can I take two emitters or will that not work?”

“You can take two, but it may be hard to use them both at the same time. I have seen a couple people manage two emitters at the same time, but it seems to be somewhat taxing.” Jester helpfully added in..

“Would it be alright if I went in first? I would like to get a feel for this, before going right into an inevitable sparring session.”

“Yeah, yeah, you can get a couple of minutes pretty boy.” Exxes seemed downright frustrated by not being able to get out there and ‘duke it out’ right away.

I grabbed two emitters from the receptacle and then stopped after a moment's realization. “Uh, how do I get to the practice arena?”

Erin had walked over to one of the couches and was at the console. “Just step onto the transition plate, the display above it will let you know where the destination of the plate is set. There are also a few foot plates on the transition plate for presets.”

Noting the location was now set to ‘Arena’, and noting the foot plates. I took my leave. “Well. See ya soon.” I felt like I was again pushed through an ice cold membrane, but this time as if I was being launched up as if by jet propulsion. This was over much faster than the first one. Just a brief moment this time around. I felt a small moment of weightlessness as my momentum appeared to stop. My feet settled on what was clearly solid ground. I took a moment to look around. This was one part arena and another part battleground simulator, with walls for cover, trenches, small simple buildings, and what appeared to be a sniper’s nest built into a wall. I moved to the more simple arena space. I tried to activate one of the emitters as a Kriegsmesser type blade. It wasn’t quite a Kriegsmesser, but it was a nice looking blade designed for thrusting. Not much meat to it, long and slender, more like an Estoc or Side Sword. I was more interested in thrusting attacks, so that works, but I had to hope that this slashed well if it came to it. I tried to refine my mental image, but I didn’t really see any change. It seemed to be a problem with the lack of refinement in the tool. I holstered both emitters to the clips on my belt and attempted to craft a blade of my own; using native Aether manipulation with my free hand. I don’t know if it was just an ‘unused muscle’ kind of thing, but even with doing my best to really picture a Kriegsmesser, all I managed was a short little dagger thing. It looked to be a lot sharper and more well-formed, but it was clear I was not overcompensating, with such a tiny sword. I used the emitter again and was rewarded with the exact same shape it gave me before. I could definitely see how this would be limiting.