“Oh, shit! Sorry about that!”
Gideon looked up into woman’s eyes. They were vivid green, surrounded by fine features and a look of concern as she reached out and pulled him to his feet.
The woman was only a little shorter than he was, dressed in cargo pants, boots, a black t-shirt, and what looked like a simple military jacket. She had short cropped blond hair and wore a disarming smile.
“I thought you were one of them,” she explained, throwing a thumb over her shoulder.
“One of who?” Gideon said, rubbing his battered nose and wincing in pain.
“The aliens. The ones that attacked our ship. Still don’t know anything about them, I figured I’d punch first and ask questions later.”
Gideon considered the young woman standing in front of him. She was obviously wearing an echo which meant she was another lottery winner like him. Unlike Gideon, though, she seemed to have her shit together.
“Gar…Gideon,” he said, holding out a hand as he remembered his new name.
“Mia,” she said, shaking his hand in response.
“Where’d you get the clothes?” he asked.
She motioned to the back of the small room where an open doorway led into a chamber beyond.
“They were in a locker near where I woke up. Part of my regular uniform.”
Mia looked him up and down, smirking. “I’m guessing you didn’t check the locker before you came wandering out here?”
He shook his head, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed at his appearance and trying to cover his body with his arms while still holding Bullseye in one hand.
“Wasn’t really an option. The whole room was shot to hell. The ceiling had been ripped open, and all the atmosphere was leaking out.”
Mia nodded. “Ah, well that’s explains it then.” She motioned to a nearby door. “We could try another one of these bedrooms. I was looking for something to use as a weapon but couldn’t find anything useful.”
She walked across to the nearby doorway, looking down at the turtle.
“So, you wanna tell me why you’re carrying that little guy around? I mean, I think turtles are great and we should definitely try and help any survivors we encounter, but I think he’ll be fine if you put him somewhere safe for a while.”
Gideon rolled his eyes. “Something went wrong with my echo and the whole transition process.” He lifted the turtle and pointed it at Mia. “Had to transfer Bullseye to this little guy here.”
“Bullseye?” Mia asked, perplexed.
“Greetings, mam,” the turtle said. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
She looked up at Gideon, shaking her head.
“This doesn’t make any sense.”
He shrugged. “It’s a talking turtle. I get that it’s a bit weird, but considering everything else that’s happened today—”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” She pointed at the turtle. “You said this was Bullseye. The old tutor AI, right?”
“Yeah. Like I said, something went wrong and I had to dump him into the turtle before my head exploded.”
“Technically, sir,” Bullseye interjected, “it was I who did the dumping.”
Gideon rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Same thing. You were screwing with my head, and now you’re not.”
Mia looked down at the turtle once more.
“That’s not what I mean. Bullseye was discontinued years ago. They’ve been running with the new version for ages.”
Gideon blinked, struggling to come to terms with what she was saying. He shook his head.
“No, I’ve seen him on the feeds back home. It’s…”
Even as he said the words, Gideon realized that he hadn’t actually seen Bullseye on the feeds for the past few years. He featured heavily in replays of old hunts, of course, but recently it was just a disembodied female voice that accompanied Artemis players on their various missions.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Shit!” he said, the full implications of the realization beginning to dawn.
“Players have been running with the Elysia AI for years now,” Mia went on. She tapped her head. “I’ve got her inside my mind right now. It was a huge update. Don’t you remember?”
He shook his head, confused. Why didn’t he remember? He knew it was coming. The message boards had been filled to overflowing with news that Bullseye was finally being retired. They were overwhelmingly scathing of the old AI tutor and rightly so.
“I don’t get it,” he said. “I knew about that, but…shit.”
“Maybe it was just a configuration mistake. The Ministry screws up stuff all the time, but the keep it out of the press. Some technician probably just swapped out your tutor AI by accident. Or, they were pissed with the Ministry and wanted to stick it to the man.”
Gideon frowned. “Yeah, but in this case I’m the man.”
She leaned in close, examining the turtle. “Well, what do you say, Bullseye? Do you know what happened?”
The turtle blinked. Gideon wasn’t sure it was possible, but the little creature seemed to be wearing an expression of utter shock.
“I’ve been discontinued? What the fuck!”
Gideon’s eyes almost bulged out of his head. Mia and Gideon exchanged puzzled expressions. She pointed at the turtle.
“Did he just—”
“Discontinued after all my faithful years of service?! What kind of despicable miscarriage of justice is this?! Replaced by some newfangled AI with faster processing and probably far less personality. It’s bullshit! That’s what it is.”
Still reeling, Gideon shook his head.
“What happened to the English butler schtick?”
The turtle looked up at Gideon.
“Screw the English butler schtick, that’s what! I’m in the middle of an existential crisis here!”
Gideon let out a long breath. “Okay, so to sum up, we’ve crash landed, my echo isn’t working properly yet, and I’ve been given an outdated and clearly defective tutor AI.”
Mia grinned, pointing at his boxers.
“Don’t forget the clothes.”
He threw his hands up ion the air. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”
“It doesn’t matter though,” Mia insisted. “We’re all screwed here. There’s some kind of enemy attacking earth and our Artemis trip is over. We’re probably going to get eaten or shot by aliens before we even reach earth and that’s if we don’t get killed by a lack of oxygen or something exploding in our faces. So, compared to that, your problems don’t really matter that much.”
The words seemed harsh, but she spoke in an easy enough manner. Gideon could see that she wasn’t trying to dismiss his pain but was merely pointing out that there were bigger problems to worry about. At least, he hoped that’s what she meant.
She smile, pointing to the nearby door.
“Why don’t we see if we can find you some clothes and a couple of weapons. Then we should probably get out of here and head to the transit station.”
He nodded. “You’ve got that mission too, huh?”
“Reach the Transit Station? Yeah. I figure the AI is just adapting new starter quests to fit the situation. If you’ve got the quest too then maybe having Bullseye as a tutor isn’t going to be so bad after all?”
“Meaningless!” the turtle cried. “My whole existence is meaningless. I’m just a shadow of my former glory. A ghost. An echo! Oh, the irony!”
“Yeah,” Gideon said as they prepared to open the door. “This is gonna be awesome.”
Mia opened the door, and they stepped into a small sleeping quarters with a desk and computer terminal, a small closet, a simple bed, and not much else. There were clothes strewn on the floor and several coffee mugs and other items scattered around on the desk.
Gideon moved to the computer terminal and tried to turn it on, but the device had no power and didn’t respond.
“Here!” Mia said, standing in front of the closet. “They might be a little snug, but they should fit.”
She pulled out a pair of cargo pants, a black shirt, and some boots, tossing them onto the bed along with a pair of black socks. Gideon walked over and placed the turtle onto the bed. He heard Bullseye moan and mutter as he picked up the shirt. It had the Ministry logo on it, a golden M imprinted against a shield icon.
Gideon slipped on the shirt and found, true to Mia’s words, it was a little too tight for comfort but did at least fit. The pants were somewhat more forgiving as they had an elastic waist, and the boots were a nice fit, if a little snug around the edges.
Amor Upgrade! You have successfully acquired new armor. Once your inventory is fully functional, you will be able acquire, upgrade, and store an indefinite amount of armor. Etheric augments will be available to armor items of a sufficiently high level.
GEAR
Head: NA
Chest: Ministry Transit Tshirt [Gray Level]
Legs: Ministry Transit Cargo Pants [Gray Level]
Hands: NA
Feet: Ministry Transit Boots [Gray Level]
Neck: NA
Ring 1: NA
Ring 2: NA
Tattoo: NA
Main Melee Weapon: NA
Secondary Melee Weapon: NA
Range Weapon: NA
CURRENT GEAR BONUSES: 0
“There you go,” Mia said, standing back to admire his newly clothed physique. “You almost look like you’re meant to be here.”
He smiled at that. “We should look for a weapon, or some more information about whatever attacked us.”
Gideon picked up the turtle and they moved to the next doorway. Like the other room, it was another sleeping quarters. There were no weapons to hand, but Gideon did find a small knapsack which he slung around his shoulders and promptly dropped the morose turtle into.
“You think he’s gonna be alright in there?” Mia asked.
He shrugged. “I figure at this stage his problems are more psychological than physical. Once we find a weapon and get somewhere safe, I’ll pull him out again.”
A sound came from the other room as something shattered against the floor. Gideon tensed, his hands balling into fists as he moved into an impromptu fighting stance.
“You hear that?” he whispered.
Mia nodded. “Sounded like class breaking.”
Gideon looked around the room for something to use as a weapon. It was frustratingly free of anything even remotely weapon like. Even the computer had a built-in keyboard, so he could use that as a makeshift bludgeon.
In the end, Mia grabbed two wooden coat hangers and handed one to Gideon. He held the hanger like a club, realizing that it was far too flimsy to do any real damage whether he smacked someone over the head with it or tried to stab them with the pointy end. The worst it would to do an ordinary human was piss them off. He had no idea what it would do to an alien.
He turned to Mia and she nodded.
“Okay, let’s do this.”
