Jason woke up completely disoriented and his head spinning. Disoriented, Jason began to prop himself up on his elbows and he attempted to determine what had just happened. Jason realized that he was laying on one of the benches in the room and the pain in his eye had disappeared. As he looked around the room, he realized that Tempo was sitting on the bench as well, an amused look in his eyes.

“Don’t worry about the pain,” Tempo chuckled, “It’ll go away after a few minutes if it hasn’t already. It’s an unfortunate side effect of the UI installation that we provide for each of the contestants.”

“UI installation?” Jason asked incredulously. “What the hell does that mean? And why did my eye feel like someone stabbed a knife into it?”

Tempo sighed and pointed to Jason’s left. “Look over there. Don’t move your head; just move your eyes.”

Jason did as he was told and noted that the top of his vision on his left had a red bar along the top of it. As he focused on the red bar, text appeared underneath the bar reading “100/100 HP.”

“I have a health bar now? What’s next, I find out there’s such a thing as ‘magic’ and I’ll be granted a rudimentary spell and gain a magic bar?” Jason shook his head at the ridiculousness of the situation. “There’s no way that that’s going to happen.” As Jason looked at Tempo, he saw a series of lines of information appear:

Name: Tempo

Power Level: 5

Abilities: Unknown

“What the hell!” Jason exclaimed. “I can see your name and ‘power level,’ whatever that means. And for whatever reason I can’t see what your abilities are.”

Tempo nodded. “Yep. I have an ability that hides what I can do from the UI and unless you get a power like clairvoyance or something that can see hidden things, you won’t be able to see what I can do.

“It sounds like you’ve found some of the aspects that the UI can do for you. It allows you to keep track of your health, stamina (when you get your first ability) and also see information about various individuals and items through the various trials. There’s other advantages with the UI as it will help you keep track of the ammo count of your equipped weapon and will also help you with monitoring your ally’s health.

“The UI also acts as a one way transmitter for the video feed that you saw with the other contestants. None of your actual UI will show up during the broadcast as you have seen with the other contestants, but the technology allows for us to see and record what you are seeing from a first person perspective and allows us to keep track of your vitals.

“More updates to your UI will be available later as you progress further in the competition as needed and sometimes some of your powers will unlock new sections of the UI as well. It’s a program that was created by one of the genius minds at the LGC. Even Eggburton doesn’t know how it works, as it seems to grow and adapt to the user’s needs. Each person who uses the UI finds that it becomes further tailored to their needs after several rounds.

“Oddly enough, the UI doesn’t seem to be able to be manipulated, despite numerous attempts to change it by contestants and employees of the LGC. Nearest that we can tell, the program that runs the UI is installed in the wetware of the brain and the user’s subconscious alters the UI as it is used. It starts off basic, but will grow in power as the user’s power grows.”

Jason took in everything that Tempo had just told him and mulled it over in his mind. If the UI technology that Tempo had told him about was true, there was unlimited application for the UI technology. A thought came to Jason and he looked up at Tempo.

“This technology is revolutionary; something so simple that attaches to the brain and adjusts to the user's needs and subconscious. I feel like something like this would be revolutionary in the world. Why hasn’t it been used more thoroughly?”

Tempo stared at Jason for a second and he could see that Tempo was formulating a response. Finally after almost a minute and the silence had become uncomfortable, Tempo replied simply: “We have used it more thoroughly. It didn’t work.”

After the statement, Tempo left the dressing room and shut the door behind him leaving Jason with his own thoughts. As he laced up his boots, Jason wondered what could have gone wrong with the technology and whether or not installing technology was even legal, despite all of the paperwork that he had signed. Jason did not recall seeing anything about mind-altering technology.

As Jason exited the dressing room, he found that both Misty and Tom were in the main area waiting for him. Jason sheepishly approached his teammates and asked if they too had blacked out when putting in the UI.

Tom nodded stating that he had been out for several minutes and woke up on the rubberized floor of the dressing room. He had been disoriented at first but he had become accustomed to the UI and reported that he had a simple overlay of health, person information for those around him and what he called a “Hit Count,” but Tom did not provide any more information beyond that.

Misty’s UI was similar to Jason’s, only having the basic health bar and person information available at this time. She reported that she hadn’t blacked out, but had been dizzy and had to sit for a minute or so while the UI made its changes in her brain.

“It was really weird.” Misty reported. “I felt the program making changes in my brain and it seemed to latch onto my synesthesia. I don’t really know what changes it made, but now when people are talking to me, I can see what color they are on the UI. It’s very strange.”

“I wonder if putting in mind-altering technology is even legal,” Jason mused. “It seems to me that something like that would be outlawed in most locations. I know that the Convention of War declared any sentient AI barred from participating in skirmishes during the last war, but it seems to me that this might be a step beyond.”

Tom grunted. “You might be right Jason, but I have a feeling that we’re a bit out of our depth here. We have a company that can jump from reality to reality at a whim it seems and we’ve basically signed our lives away to them. It seems to me that they are following their own ‘moral relativism’ here.”

“‘Moral relativism?’” Misty looked at Tom quizzically. What do you mean?

“Well to put it simply,” Tom replied, “moral relativism is a theory that there is no absolute correct moral choice. Rather, it comes down to the society and individual to determine the correct moral responses.

“Right now, it seems that the good ol’ LGC has decided that it is their moral right and duty to outfit us with these UI’s, despite our shortcomings on the matter, to ensure that we have the highest chance of survival. Although in this case, I think it’s probably more of a case of ‘portal relativism.’ They have a portal and they get to choose the moral high ground that they sit on.”

The trio began making their way towards the portal and chatting about the merits of moral relativism versus absolute relativism before stopping short five meters before the portal. Now that Jason was up close to the quantum teleporter, he could see that the circuit-like pattern on the portal was actually a series of cooling tubes that looked like they were designed to keep the metal from overheating. They glowed a bright blue and pulsed slowly with the strange light. The black obsidian pedestal that the portal sat on had strange glyphs that were carved into it and glowed very softly so that they were only visible up close.

The portal itself gave off a menacing feel and to Jason, it felt as if reality itself was trying to get rid of the portal. The obsidian pedestal gave a feeling of absolute reality, as if it was unable to be moved because it existed here forever. Jason couldn’t tell if that was just his imagination or if there was actually something more about the portal than what he could see.

As Jason continued to investigate the portal, Kingston walked up to Jason and his comrades. “Are you ready for your first trial?” she asked imperiously.

Jason and his teammates nodded.

“Good. I do have to warn you that the destination for this trial is unknown. We unfortunately encountered a slight error in programming and the reality has been chosen at random for us. Due to this error, I have been informed that there will be three sets of power stones to retrieve, if you wish.

“The first will be a third of the way through the trial, the second, two thirds and the final set will be at the end of the trial. Please keep in mind that you can choose to only get one set of the stones and return to the portal without any consequences. I cannot speak to the difficulty of the trial, but I know that in previous trials during past games, the trials often got harder as each set was obtained.

“Know your limitations and do not push yourself beyond what you can do. That is the only advice that I will give you.” With a curt nod, Kingston spun on her heels and walked back fifteen paces. She turned to look at the portal once she was far enough away and gestured to Eggburton, who was at the controls for the portal.

“Begin.”

With a quick series of button presses, rapid typing, and several levers pulled, the portal sprang to life. A deep hum thrummed through the air that Jason had not heard when he was standing further away from the portal and it seemed to pass through him and vibrate him to his core.

As Jason had seen before, a tiny pinprick of light started at the middle of the portal as the humming began to become a throbbing. The coolant pipes began to pulse faster and faster as the portal continued to power up. Soon the pipes glowed a constant, bright blue and the pinprick of light had begun to grow. It started slowly, barely growing to the size of a pea, but as he watched, it grew to the size of a fist, then a head, then the size of a person, and finally the portal grew to envelop the size of the quantum teleporter.

As Jason looked at the portal, he found that it had turned a pitch black. There was no idyllic field of flowers that had shown up during the initial activation of the portal before the fated first team went in. Nor was there a jungle or cityscape or anything else that he had seen over the last few days (weeks?) of watching the portal open to let teams into another reality.

It was black. Black as the void of space. Jason felt as if he was looking into the void where every star had been winked out and nothing remained. Jason turned to look at Kingston, who nodded in a silent indication that it was ready to be entered. With a sigh, Jason looked at Misty and Tom, hoping that they had a better outlook than he did.

Tom looked stone faced, as if he was attempting to hide any and all emotion. Jason thought that he was doing a pretty good job as he couldn’t tell what Tom was thinking at all. To Jason’s surprise, as he focused on Tom, in addition to the normal UI overlay, he saw some additional information:

Name: Tom

Alias: Doctor Destiny

Powers: None

Heart Rate: 120 BPM

Current Mood: Nervous/Angry

Must be the UI learning and adapting to my needs, Jason thought to himself. Interesting that it also shows Tom’s Alias and heart rate now. The “current mood” will be handy later as Tom is as tough to read as a closed book.

Jason looked at Misty who seemed to oscillate between nervous laughter and genuine excitement. Her UI overlay read:

Name: Misty Steppes

Alias: Misty Steppes

Powers: Synesthesia - Misty has the ability to determine the aura of individuals around her, often interpreting that aura as colors or taste. Her aura reading is never wrong, although she still has trouble interpreting it at times.

Heart Rate: 150 BPM

Current Mood: Elated/Terrified

Her synesthesia is rated as a power? Man, that must be something that has yet to be fully investigated. And what does that mean by “aura reading?” I do remember that she had talked about my aura being good or something when we first met, but I just took that as some mumbo jumbo. I guess that she can actually read someone’s intentions via their words.

Jason reached out to either side of him and placed a hand on Tom and Misty’s shoulders. With a nod to each of them in encouragement, Jason mounted the steps to the portal and took a deep nervous breath. With a last look at Kingston, he stepped into the portal.

Had Jason lingered on Kingston longer, he would have noted that her current mood would have registered on the UI as “deceitful” and her heart rate would have been sitting at a steady 34 BPM. But he had been too focused on what was in front of him and his nerves were getting the better of him. Before he could change his mind, Jason stepped through the event horizon of the open portal and felt reality shift around him.

As Jason passed through what seemed to be infinite darkness, he began to find that his vision was clearing. The portal had opened onto a wide promontory with a cobblestone road flanked by two low grassy hills on either side. At the edge of the promontory was a long rope bridge that stretched off into the distance and Jason saw that the end of the bridge was hidden by clouds.

He looked around the portal and found that the rest of the promontory was covered in an unnaturally thick cloud. He attempted to pierce the cloud with his vision, but found that the cloud was opaque and hid whatever was behind it. The white, puffy clouds refused to give up their secrets that they were hiding and Jason’s investigation was cut short by Misty and Tom appearing through the portal.

As Jason looked back at his teammates, he saw that the portal back to the base camp offered a clear line of sight to the camp, unlike the portal to the location that they currently were. Jason could clearly see Kingston making her way to Eggburton and watched as the screen with their POV and vitals came to life. He even saw his view come up on the screen as he watched the portal.

Not understanding why there was no way to see this reality from the other side, Jason turned back towards the bridge that extended off into the clouds. As he did so, large words appeared in his vision:

THE ISLES OF DESTINY

Welcome to the first series of trials Jason, Misty and Tom.

The words didn’t phase Jason too much as he was used to having the names of places come up while playing video games and this must have been the UI adapting to his subconscious and the many, many years of playing video games. It was what came after the welcome that began to worry him. The text read:

We have been waiting.