Putting his hand out above his head, he did a half summersault, half forward handspring and bounced into the corridor. There he rebounded between wall, floor and ceiling slowly bleeding off kinetic energy.
Somewhere around the third bounce, he felt something give in his hands. Two of his frozen fingertips had broken off near the second knuckle. Frowning he watched as they flew off away from where his current trajectory was taking him.
When he finally slowed enough to regain full control, he spun looking around to try and orient himself. Quickly he was able to spot the opening and the dim light that glowed through. In the complete darkness of the hallway, it was like a torch held high. Even though he really knew, it was little more than a half-covered candle flame.
Slide stepping he moved as quickly as he could to the knapsack.
Grabbing it from the ground, he turned and shot back down the hall toward the respawn point. He did not know exactly where it was, but he had a good idea.
As he moved, he felt around the knapsack. Having had time to think he recalled finding a spacesuit. The reason he had not noticed it at first was that it was rolled into a softball-sized roll. Made from an extremely strong thermodynamically inactive fiber the suit would be thinner than the average cotton t-shirt. He briefly wondered once more at how he knew these things but he did not have long to think about such luxuries.
He guessed he was nearing the respawn point. He lowered his feet and used his free hand on the wall to create drag. The movement would have sent him spinning but his body knew what to do. Again with the training that he could not recall ever getting.
Soon he came to a stop. Lowering himself to the floor, he shut off the air tank. Leaving him only a wane handful of minutes of air. But the cold would kill him before that. He began to reach into the knapsack and search again, but he stopped when he realized he could not feel his hand. Somewhere along the path using it as a break had scattered the frozen appendage at the wrist.
“Well fuck…” was the last things he thought before the cold claimed him for a third time.
Chapter 03 – A Hand On Education
As always time passed.
As the machines spun down Nathan was pushed out into the dark hallway once more. Prepared and ready, he used the brief second of light to find his body. It had not quite made it the whole way. But it was close. With aching lungs, he lunged into the darkness.
His bare foot found the frozen corpse first. Quickly bending down he grabbed the knapsack snapping a frozen arm off in the process.
In seconds, his hand had found the thin package he was searching for. Pulling it out. He released the knapsack to float in the hallway.
Using trembling fingers, he tore the outer foil package open to feel the soft nylon like texture of the suit.
It was little more than a skintight bodysuit akin to the full body pajamas all babies were forced in to wearing at some point.
He pulled his legs in and slid the long sleeved shirt on. The smart fibers would seal together when pinched crating an airtight seal. So he pinched the opening close up his front.
Pulling the hood over his head, he reached down to yank the air mask from his corpse. Accidently pulling to hard he yanked the entire head from the body and had to spend seconds dislodging it. Tense moments later the mask made a seal with the suit and he turned the air tank on.
For the first time since waking up in the pod, Nathan stood there warm and able to breathe.
His situation came to him all at once. Like a dump truck compressing on his chest, he felt the weight of where he was and what had just happened to him. He was in space! He had died! Not once but three times. Collapsing he curled into a ball holding his knees. He stayed there floating like that for a few minutes, as he slowly rebuilt his self-control. When the trembling in his hands and feet stopped, he slowly stood. Fear ran up his spine in a moment of panic, when he could not touch the floor. Stretching to his limit, he was able to brush something with the tip of his suit-covered toes. It was enough to start him floating upward. It took him another five minutes to regain control. Get back to the floor and find his knapsack. Picking it up. He slug the drawstring over his shoulder, tightened it where it would not drag and then kicked off toward the cargo bay.
He made his way to the cargo bay and slowly moved his way to his corpse. The two smaller packages that had been delivered he placed into his knapsack as well as picked up the couple of loose items that had fallen out in his various mad searches. The crate he considered for a moment, before just shrugging and leaving.
“It is too big to take in to the habitat. I wonder what is inside though. Whatever it is I have a lot of it…”
A brief hope flared in his chest that it might be food, but his sense of reality squished that. This place was to life like and realistic to make anything that easy.
Looking toward the main air lock Nathan considered heading back to the pod he had arrived at. He knew there was a few things he had not grabbed in it and maybe he could get more information from the computer…
Quickly though, he thought better of it. Not only was the micro meteors a concern, but he was still learning how to navigate in Zero-G. If he tripped or pushed off to hard, there wouldn’t be anything to pull him back to the station.
He supposed he could just cut off his air and kill himself that way, but it was not an appealing idea.
Instead, he leapt toward the habitats entrance.
After cycling through the entry air-lock, he emerged to release a sigh of relief.
“Oh god! Gravity is good!”
Then gravity hit him and nearly made him buckle. The knapsack that had been little more than a clumsy obstacle outside now weighed nearly 250 pounds!
Dropping it with a grunt, he moved over to the counter and began to remove his space suit.
Although it would protect him from the cold of the void and the mask would allow him to breathe they both still left a lot to desire.
Sure, the fibers were soft and flexible enough to be comfortably worn. However, the mask limited his vision by nearly a third. Utterly cutting off a good portion of his peripheral vision. Additionally, it wasn’t designed for a species that sweat like Humans did. So, a thin layer of moisture clung to his body creating a wet, sticky swamp like feel inside.
Lastly, he was worried that he might do something to damage the suit. He could tell that it was not made for extended use. Even with his implanted knowledge telling him that the fibers were stupidly strong. He just could not fully trust this alien information.
Now fully nude he began to rummage through the knapsack. First, he put the clothes he had collected from his first corpse on. Smiling he stretched.
“I’ll never take for granted how good a decent pair of jeans and a tee feels again.”
After his brief stretch, he began removing items from the knapsack to place them on the counter beside the spacesuit.
Half an hour later and a lot of rearranging he had everything arranged and organized.
He only recognized about half the items he was looking at. Some like the MREs any Earth native would have a good chance of guessing. Others like the vial of grey goop, or the six purple metal cylinders were another matter.
A ding sound drew his attention from the sorting process.
When it dinged a second time, he found the source.
On the other side of the room, centered on the top surface of the raised block was a flat computer touch screen terminal. It flashed twice more and a ding rang out.
Nathan reached out and touched the screen.
*** System Message ***
0.1 Attribute points has been randomly assigned to GRT, due to being unassigned for 7 days.
0.1 Attribute points has been randomly assigned to PHY, due to being unassigned for 7 days.
Skill Increase: Survival: Zero G:(I)
DEBT NOTICE *** Your Debt of 3000 QOBOP has been assigned 168.8203 interest. ***
Milestone Achieved!
Critical necessities
met! Safety, Food, Water.
Reward: 25% to next Human Level.
Reward: 1000 QOBOP
*** Warning *** Insufficient battery storage. Reward Delayed.
*** System Message ***
“What the hell does any of that mean?”
With a long slow sigh, he swiped the message away. The screen reverted to a familiar looking one.
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Bio
ME’SO Store
Control Panel
Galaticpedia
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
It was exactly like the options he found in the ship he had arrived in. The only thing missing was the hatch control. He touched the Bio option.
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Bio
Human Level:025
Pilot Level:125%
Engineer Level:140%
Scientist Level:155%
Skill Level:044%
Stats/Skills/Equipment/Property/Milestones
Name: Nathan Tyrone Rogers (Bubba)Race: Homosapian (Human)
Age: 15GU (29 EY)Gender: Male
Height: 2.12GMU (’6.3ft)weight: 3.15GMU (189pds)Style: Mammalian Biped
PHY: 0.54/1.0NER: 0.52/1.0PER: 0.66/1.0
IQ: 0.76/1.0GRT: 0.97/1.0APP: 0.38/1.0
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
“Well shit… I still have no fucking clue what most of that means. Although it does look like I have more jobs now. What kind of crap is that anyway?
Exasperated he tapped the Skills tab.
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Skills
Primary Pilot Skills:
Piloting: Small Craft:(I)
Piloting: Small Atmo Craft:(I)
Gunnery: Energy:(J)
Targeting: Small Craft(J)
Navigation:(J)
Secondary Pilot Skills:
Mathematics:(H)
Electrical Engineering:(I)
Mechanical Engineering:(I)
Piloting: Drone(J)
Programming: Micro: (J)
Survival: Zero G:(I)
Primary Engineer Skills:
Mathematics:(H)
Electrical Engineering:(I)
Mechanical Engineering:(I)
Programming: Micro: (J)
Maintenance: Electrical:(J)
Secondary Engineer Skills:
Biology:(H)
Physics:(I)
Chemistry:(I)
Maintenance: Structural:(J)
Maintenance: Life Support:(j)
First Aid: Homosapian: (I)
Primary Scientist Skills:
Geography: Earth: N. America:(G)
Biology(H)
Chemistry:(I)
Physics:(I)
Local History: Earth: USA: Current(I)
Secondary Scientist Skills:
Local History: Earth: Current(J)
Geography: Earth(J)
Stellergraphy: Sol System:(J)
Psychology(J)
Piloting: Drone:(J)
Empty
Unassigned Skills
Language: Human: Earth: English: (D)
Language: Human: Spanish:(J)
Language: Human: Japanese(J)
Piloting: Driving: Wheeled:(F)
Martial Arts: Earth: Kung Fu(H)
Survival: Temperate:(I)
Weapons: ballistic:(I)
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
“Ugh, they left out masturbating. I would be a freaking master … Baitor!”
He began snickering at his crude humor. The snickers quickly devolved into full-blown laughter that lasted for way too long.
Wiping away tears from his eyes Nathan gasped,”Damn! I needed to laugh! No seriously though, it is way too tense in here. If I had a porn to watch or something…”
He trailed off glancing around wistfully. Shoulders slumping he looked over the skills again.
After a glance he went to select the next tab but noticed an icon next to each class heading. Tapping it a prompt came up allowing him to assign which skills would be counted as his primary skills for that job and which ones would be secondary.
Playing with the controls a little he discovered that every rank of a primary skill boosted that job level by 10 points, each rank in a secondary boosted the level by 5 points. It took 100 points for each level of the job class to a max of 1,000 points and level 10.
Then not all skills could be placed into each area. It actually seemed jobs fell into categories based on which job they primarily were effected by. That limited which ones could be chosen as a primary skill. Secondary skills looked to be a bit more casual. Most skills had two or even three jobs they could be assigned to as a secondary skill.
After playing with the system he frowned to discover that a skill may only be assigned to one job as a secondary skill. Also although the system allowed for him to move and play with various configurations when he went to move on a warning popped up.
*** System Message ***
*** Warning *** A Skill placed into a Primary or secondary Skill slot for a job may not be removed. Confirm your placement before moving on.
*** System Message ***
“Ah fuck! I knew it wouldn’t be that easy!”
Not wanting to rush things and make a mistake he quickly canceled all his changes. Then he selected the next couple tabs looking at each in turn.
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Equipment
Tee ShirtTorsoClothing(J)0.02GU
Denim JeansLegsClothing(J)0.03GU
Cotton Boxer BriefsPelvis(J)0.00GU
Cotton SocksFeetClothing(J)0.01GU
Hiking BootsFeetClothing(I)0.02GU
Property
VerOlx Emergency Portable Habitat(I)[Details]
Milestones
Critical necessity’s[Details]
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
“Okay…. So only the things I’m wearing show as equipment. Property, must be larger assets. I wonder if I can claim the ship I came in on, or better yet this whole station.”
Shrugging Nathan backed out of his Bio and entered the ME’SO store.
The layout was remarkably similar to the massive online store siren.com back Home. The shop listed everything from writing utensils, to food, to weapons, to things as big as whole Space station components.
“Well I do not have money, so this is all pointless…. Except…”
When he closed the shop browser a screen came up.
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Spin to Win!
6 Spins remaining
Spin Now?
YES / NO
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
“Why the hell not?”
He selected the red “yes” button and tapped the scroller to use three more of his free spins.
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
***Congratulations!***
Your three uses of the Shop Giveaway have resulted in the following.
Pack of 20 Wdadf lights
Miniature potted pkihw Tree
Mplo’Qark Inc. I Class skill infuser
***SYSTEM MESSAGE***
Nathan frowned, “Well not exactly helpful. I was hoping for some kind of weapon or armor. Maybe, a ship of some kind… But I got some lights, a tree, and a skill infuser? Hacks I say!”
Swiping the window away he moved to the other menus.
Control Panel was an in-depth set of menus that covered all aspects of the Habitat.
He could pack or unpack it. He could transfer ownership. Better yet he could check the status of the entire thing. He noted that at his current rate of power usage he would run out of power in only 6 more days. Air was on a continuous recycler using some kind of electronic air filtering, so that wasn’t a huge concern.
However, the habitat was using a large amount of energy to create water to fill the holding tank.
Nathan figured the 30% full would be enough for just him, so he shut that down. His power would now last 9 days.
Next, he officially claimed the habitat.
Lastly he could do minor rearranging. The habitat had some customization features. The material it was made from could expand in area to inflate into or deflate back. Using this he created a couple long couches in the main room. As well as removed one of the bunks in the bedrooms. Now he had a private room.
Done playing around he opened the Galaticpedia.
Nathans jaw dropped and he literally began to drool. Here in an easy to browse format was a complete wiki.
It covered things like his stats, levels, and common Benchmarks. It covered things like the shop, property ownership rules, and more importantly money.
It appeared in a universe where resources were nearly endless one thing was still necessary on all levels. Power… Now not control although he assumed most wanted that too. No, the wiki explained that a form of high wave electricity called QOBOP was used by most modern devices and used as trade currency.
After exploring the wiki a bit doing some math and wanting to slam his head to remember formulas he came up with the estimate that one QOBOP was enough power to run the entire state of New York for a week.
“Well holy shit! That is a lot of power! Imagine if I could get a few hundred QOBOP. I could go home and become a millionaire by selling power…
Brushing aside the day dreams he continued to research. He was disappointed to find out that the wiki did not have much in the way of histories, item descriptions, or lists of things like races.
Well it did, but they were all things he already had access to or knew. There was a full history of the last 500 years of the United States. But nothing about any other alien species…
Except that was wrong. There was one listed under items.
Biolifeform
Biolifeforms are genetically neutral artificial life. They are created by a number of companies and races universe wide. Commonly used as cheap loyal and expendable labor Biolifeforms will take a sample of a Host Races DNA and copy aspects like breathable atmosphere, physical form, nutrient consumption, waste management, and to a limited form appearance.
Stellar Survival Quest Page 3
