Start the Game (Galactogon: Book #1) (10 page)

“Roger that! Thank you, Gartil. If everything works out for us, I’ll buy you a drink! And I’ll make sure to recommend you to the general. He likes decisive and confident individuals! And I can see that you are quite the individual!”

“Thank you, sir! Please forgive me but there is another problem!”

“Another problem?” I tensed up. Was my story about to fall apart at the seams?

“The warehouse only has enough Raq to fill half of your ship’s holds. I have a solution, though—we can load your holds with two prototypes. According to my data, our scientists have been using the adjacent hangar to develop some kind of new engine. They’ve paused their work at the moment. The mass and dimensions of the prototypes are perfect for filling the frigate’s holds to maximum capacity!”

“Load them up!” I said, realizing that I had been holding my breath and finally releasing it. “I can see I wasn’t wrong about you, Gartil!”

“I’m doing my best, sir! I’ve relayed your orders to the deck personnel. The cargo will be delivered to you in five minutes. Best of luck with your tests. May I help you with anything else?”

“You can make sure that the orbital stations don’t zap us by accident. Over and out!”

Having disconnected, I leaned back in my chair, which seemed to utterly ignore my immense weight, and closed my eyes wearily. To my great surprise, my hands were shaking so bad that I felt like I had just spent a week drinking, while my pulse was going as fast as a machine gun. If everything worked out now, the Qualian Empire would be off limits to me forever. Personally, I would never forget something like this, much less forgive it…

“Loading has commenced…sir,” said Lestran, admiration seeping into his tone.

“Make sure they don’t slip us anything we don’t want,” I asked my partner without opening my eyes. “Meanwhile, I’ll read about how to manage the frigate’s shields…”

“We’re taking off,” Lestran announced about seven minutes later. Our ship trembled slightly, leaving the flight deck. “Engaging stabilizers,” added my partner, putting an end to the tremors. If I understood it correctly, these stabilizers had to be turned on either before or simultaneously with lift-off. I didn’t tell this to my pilot though, as he was just then trying to guide us through the hangar door. Control comes with experience and anyway, Lestran was an engineer, not a pilot. I’d get a hang of flying once I got a chance to read about it some more. Then you would see me zooming all around
Galactogon
hither and thither. Let him do the flying for now…

“We’re leaving the atmosphere. I’m plotting our jump,” my partner went on describing his actions. On my screen, however, an alert popped up, notifying me that we were being targeted by an orbital station. “Hyperdrive initializing, thirty seconds until we jump…”

“Frigate
Dratistan
, this is General Trank! Return to base immediately or I shall order your destruction.”

The voice was so menacing that I got chills all along my body. It looked like poor Gartil was already in trouble …

“Twenty seconds,” Lestran whispered, letting me take control of the situation.

“This is the captain of
The Space Cucumber
! I am officially announcing the rechristening of this spaceship as well as the ship’s transfer to my command. I am also expressing my categorical opposition to the practice of feeding Training Sector recruits organic food in the mess hall! Pursuant to the Emperor’s directive, recruits must be fed not only organic food but also some sort of vegetable, preferably corn. Considering that this imperial edict has been grossly violated by the facility’s administration, I will be forced to apprise the Emperor of noncompliance on the part of the facility’s Executive.”

“Whose noncompliance? What are you even talking about? Identify yourself immediately, or I will order your termination!”

“Five seconds.” Lestran’s face expressed the smile of a man who believed in the impossible.

“My name is Surgeon…Pirate Surgeon!”

“Fire on my…” began the general. I never heard the end of his sentence, for the stars became lines, leaving hundreds of parsecs between us and the Training Sector.

Your Rapport with the Qualian Empire has decreased. Current Rapport: -100,000.

You have earned the “Qualian Pariah” Achievement. You have reached the limit for negative Rapport with this Empire. From now on, all enemies of the Qualian Empire will be neutrally disposed towards you—and all close allies of the Empire will try to destroy you.

The shadow guilds of
Galactogon
wish to meet with you. The rendezvous point is Planet Qirlats in Confederation space. Your contact person is Hilvar.

“The shadow guilds are curious about me!” squeaked Lestran, who it seems also received some kind of notification.

“Where are we going, ya great curiosity?” I asked my excited partner.

“Haven’t the slightest idea! I picked the first coordinates I saw and sent the ship there. We’re coming out of hyperspace in a minute—then, we’ll see where we are.”

“I received a notification that some people want to have a chat with us. But I’m not about to head off to a meeting with strangers unprepared. It’s eight in the evening at the moment. We’ll pop out of hyperspace, find the closest planet, land on it and take a break. We can reconvene tomorrow at nine, you down?”

“No need to ask, sir! I’ll be here on deck waiting for you at 8 a.m.!” replied my partner, unconsciously switching to a deferential tone.

“In that case, I’ll need your help. I will leave my armor onboard. It needs to be repaired. You’re an engineer, aren’t you? You can use this as a chance to gain some experience with your robots…Will you do it?”

“Sir, you are insulting me. You’ll barely get a chance to blink your eyes, before everything will be brought to a better state than it ever was! Here we go, leaving hyperspace now…”

The star-lines contracted back to points, the hum of the hyperdrive fell quiet, and
The Space Cucumber
froze in infinity…

“Surgeon, are you okay, sir?” Lestran became worried after a few minutes. I had never yet been in deep space and so far from planets, stars, people…My mind understood very well that I was only in a game and that everything around me was merely the play of my imagination and modern technology, yet my heart still trembled in reverence. Before my eyes lay the blackness of infinity, a testament to the fact that a person is no more than dust mote in an enormous universe—it was an unforgettable sensation…

“Are there any planets in the vicinity?” I asked my partner, trying to speak in my normal voice. I didn’t wish to show Lestran the awe
Galactogon
just made me experience—a few hours would go by and I would become acclimated to these surroundings. Until that time, I preferred to maintain my composure.

“Scanning now…There are two star systems within ten minutes’ flight from us. One is planet-less, while the other has a gas giant and several small asteroids. Judging by the description, the Altan Alliance battled the Voldan Alliance here. Human players were involved in that battle, so all the planets have been stripped of resources entirely. We are in a dead sector…”

“An excellent place to lie low for a bit. No better, in fact. Head for the system with the asteroids. By the way, can anyone find us?”

“Unlikely. The Qualians, even if they give chase, only know our vector. They have no idea how long we were in hyperspace. I know this is just a game, but even in a game there must be some logic. Look—what do you think of that planet?” Lestran pointed at a humongous boulder that we were slowly approaching.

“It’ll do. Work your piloting magic and set us down. We’ll meet tomorrow as agreed—at nine…”

The cocoon’s cover slid aside, after which the built-in seat lifted my poor body practically vertically, easing my egress. A convenient thing, these modern game cocoons. Only a few years ago, the player would have to get out of this coffin on his own. It looked like a dead man had suddenly gotten a craving for someone’s blood. Despite the life support system, one week in the cocoon had a significant impact on coordination, so the first five-ten minutes, the player resembled a zombie more than a human. Considering that he had to clamber out of a giant box, we used to call capsules just that—coffins…

“Welcome back, Master,” Stan instantly chirped. “I have gathered the data about
Galactogon
you requested and transferred it to your PDA. The information about piracy in the game has also been collected and…”

“Stan, fill me a bath and make dinner,” I said, interrupting the smart home’s report, “and put together a report about recent events in the Training Sector that I just fled from. I need to know the reactions of the Qualians and the other players…In general, get me everything you can find about that. Also, I need a frigate emulator—that’s top priority.”

“Alex, what’s up! Where’d you go? Want to go somewhere and chill for a bit? It’d be nice to catch up, find out what you’re up to, what waters you’re swimming in…Anyway, come on out of your man cave and give me a call…”

“Stan, when did this message arrive?” I asked the smart home. The bath hit me so hard that I almost fell asleep in it and decided to go through my voicemail to keep awake. I had spent the last four days in
Galactogon
and could easily have missed some visitor knocking on my door. Starting with the phone calls, I instantly came across Alonso’s message…

“Two days ago,” reported the program. “Per your preferences, all incoming calls are being redirected to voicemail. The only exceptions are emergency services and law enforcement; however, no such parties have called during the given reporting period.”

If our society continues to develop at the same pace as today, there will come a day when machines will fully replace us in all vital activities. Already, a lowly piece of software designed to monitor my comfort inside my house has begun to make excuses for itself, pushing all the blame on my shoulders. When the day comes when it also starts bringing home girls behind my back, we’ll be able to confidently say that humanity is done for.

“Place this caller on the whitelist and call him back for me. Let’s do it over video too.”

“As you wish—Alonso is on the…”

“Alexis, you have lost your damn mind!” roared Alonso, shielding the screen with his body. “No big deal—I’m here eating dinner with my lovely wife and suddenly there you are shaking your bits and pieces in our face! You could at least cover yourself a little, you damn nudist!”

“At least it’s clear now why he hasn’t found himself a girlfriend yet,” added Alonso’s wife, setting my teeth on edge. Despite the fact that this woman was the love of my best friend’s life, I just couldn’t ever maintain friendly relations with her. For some unknown-to-me reason, over the five years of knowing each other, Lucille had never been able to stomach me and made sure to point this out every chance she got. Like now, for example. “Hey! I have a few girlfriends with flexible standards. I can introduce you…”

“I’ll call you back!” Alonso blurted and ended the call. Despite all my gaming knowhow, all I could think of was to cover my lower stomach with my hands and mentally curse out Stan for only putting salt in the bath and not some soap for foam. And yet, why the heck would I think it’s a good idea to call Alonso from the bath? What an overgrown ninny I am.

“Really, you are a piece of work!” Alonso called me back about twenty minutes later and instantly went on the offensive. “Why would you give Lucy such nice ammo for the future? Anyway, where’ve you been?”

“I found some work related to
Galactogon
. So I had to spend some time in there. I called you as soon as I got the chance. And in general, stop yelling at me! I accept your offer by the way and would be happy to go hang out with you somewhere. How about tomorrow?”

“I can’t tomorrow,” Alonso said dejectedly. “I started playing
Galactogon
too and I need to get through that damn Training Sector as quickly as possible. How much more do you have?”

“Ten game days,” I suppressed my desire to tell him about my recent triumph and merely offered him my remaining time after solitary. Until the moment when I would meet Alonso in
Galactogon
and we would both agree to a partnership, our friendship would have to remain outside of the game.

“Huh! I’ve been playing for a month already and managed only ten days. What are you, living there?”

“Well, that’s why I haven’t be around for so long. By the way, why’d you suddenly decide to get into
Galactogon
? What happened to looking for work?”

“That’s exactly what it is—I’m working there. You know that Lucy has been buzzing around
Galactogon
for three years already. She got an account as soon as she went on maternity leave. Now my little bunny is the family breadwinner and I’m just a mooch. So she offered me to join her guild.”

“She has her own guild?” I asked surprised. I knew that Lucille played, but her being a guild leader was news to me.

“Yup. A guild with two space cruisers, four frigates, a dozen fighters and three harvesters. I kept wondering where all the money was going. Turns out she’s been pumping it into the game on the sly. Not all of it of course, but a pretty nice chunk all the same. You want me to talk to her? Maybe she’ll take you on as well? She may think of you whatever she likes, but she can’t argue against your gaming experience.”