Chapter 6: Reality Check

Date: Approx 2203

Time: -

Area: Tunnels of the Real

Irvine stood before Janus, studying his face and making note of how he was taking all of this. He grinned, for there were two things about this that amused him. One, how Janus was just standing there and listening to this like it was nothing. Two, the fact that Janus was only scratching the surface. He had yet to learn of the world they lived in and why they lived like pirates. He still did not know what the Matrix was, but Irvine knew this. He knew he would have many questions, and being human, some answers he would understand and accept, and some answers would confuse and possibly frustrate him.

"Janus, you asked me what the Matrix was. Are you ready to know?"

Janus looked back at him in the eye. This was all a roller coaster, and he figured it was only going to get better. Or worse. He knew he was going to find out what it was one way or another, so he answered Irvine by nodding his head.

"Good. Come this way." Irvine led him over to the chairs, and then walked over to the chair that was to the right of Janus'. He looked back at Janus.

"Sit, and lay back," he told him, before doing the same in his own chair. Janus sat down and laid back as he was told, and positioned himself so that he was comfortable. To him, it felt like a dentist's operating chair. He turned his head and looked to his left where Irvine was sitting. He watched as Marley walked over and pulled off of the pillar a needle with a handle the size of a man's fist. The needle itself was at least 5 inches long. Marley took this needle and inserted it into the hole in back of Irvine's head, to Janus' wide eyed state of surprise.

Blade had walked over to his chair and pulled the needle behind Janus' chair off of the cylinder, and Janus quickly turned his head toward Blade with a look on his face that said "What are you going to do with that thing!?"

Blade smiled and shook his head, placing his left hand on Janus' forehead whilst holding the needle plug with his right. As he brought his hand around the chair's head rest and set the tip of the needle down upon the entrance of the canal on the back of his head, Blade gave Janus a reassuring look, and Janus looked worried.

"Relax. It's like nails on a chalk board."

Janus arched a brow, and with that, Blade inserted the needle into Janus' head and it made a ZZzzt noise. Janus tightly closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, because the metal of the needle rubbing up against the metal of the canal shaft inside his head cause friction that made that ZZzzt noise to everyone else, but to him, it sounded like someone scratching a plate with a fork, or as Blade put it, nails on a chalk board. Blade looked over at the touch tone screen above Janus' chair that showed his vitals and pushed at the screen where it said "LOAD". Janus' face suddenly calmed as if he was sleeping.

The next thing Janus knew, the nuisance of the screeching noise had gone away as if someone has snapped their fingers. He opened his eyes and was caught off guard by what he saw. He no longer was looking up at the ceiling of the Nemesis' main deck. Now he stared at a blank whiteness. He saw nothing. Nothing but white, everywhere he looked, in every direction. To him, it felt like when you fall asleep and don't even realize it, and when you wake up, hours have passed, but the last thing you remember was what you were looking at before your eyes closed, as if you had merely blinked.

Where am I?

"Welcome."

He heard a voice. It was Irvine's, and it sounded as clear as a bell, since there was nothing like background noise to interfere. It was the only thing Janus heard. He turned around and saw him, but wasn't dressed in the combat pants and the raggy shirt and the boots. He was dressed in the same outfit Janus saw him in when he met him at Club Duality. But that seemed like so long ago. Now he was confused, again.

"Where are we?"

"This would be the Construct. It's what we use to load equipment. We come here before going into the Matrix."

"Load equipment?"

"Yes, this is our loading program. Be it clothes, weapons, vehicles, training programs, whatever we need, we get it from here."

"Program? This is a computer program?"

"Indeed it is."

"But how...?" Janus was trying to figure this out faster than he could process.

"It's fairly simple once you think about it. It's no different than the Matrix where you came from. Take a look at yourself. You have different clothes on. Your hair's grown back, and the plugs on your body are no longer present."

Janus examined himself as Irvine listed the changes. He was wearing the same black pants, shirt, boots and leather blazer he wore before he was unplugged. He ran his hand through his hair and it was long, and felt the back of his head. No plug. It was as though he was back to his old self again.

"How did this happen?"

"It's your Residual Self Image. Your mind's projection of yourself. The reason you're in regular clothes and your hair is back and your plugs are gone is because this is how your mind sees itself, or how you're most used to looking."

Janus looked at himself over and it made more sense. But he still didn't get the whole computer program aspect. "If this is how I'm used to looking, how did it get into a computer program?"

"Not how 'it' got into a computer program, but how your entire mind was put into a program. The plug that is put into your head is like a bridge. Your mind is taken from your brain, translated into data, and is fed into the ship's online mainframe. Then it's inserted into the Construct program. The data re-translates and conforms so that it's compatible with the program and then you get your RSI. It works the same with training programs and the Matrix."

"So I'm not really here right now, and none of this is real?"

"Precisely. Now your getting the hang of it. Real is only what our minds tells us is real, and we get what it tells us is real through our five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, which are merely electrical impulses. Our bodies are back on the Nemesis in the chairs with wires plugged into the back of our heads connected to our cerebral cortex. Our minds are here. Our apparent bodies are merely avatars of our mind, like when you play an online computer game. It's not really you in the game, it's the character you're playing as that's in the game and you're controlling it. It's the same concept here only from an intense first person perspective where what you experience here and what registers through your five senses not only affects you here, but also affects you back on the ship. In other words, while it's false here, your mind makes it real on the ship."

"So if I'm shot in the Matrix, I'll have a bullet wound in the real world with the hole and everything?"

"No. You would have the bullet wound here or in the Matrix, but in the real world, your mind would tell your body that you were shot. Consequently, the nerves in your body in the same place you were shot would respond as if you actually were shot, and you would feel pain and bleed."

Janus tilted his head with a slight frown. He was beginning to understand. "So, if my arm was cut off in the Matrix, I wouldn't be able to use it here?"

"Yes, right. Your nerves in your arm wouldn't respond and it would be rendered useless."

"If you die in the Matrix, you die here?"

"Exactly. The body cannot live without the mind. If the mind is killed, it tells the body it was killed, which results in you being dead."

"Can the mind live without the body?"

This caught Irvine by surprise. He frowned thinking it over. "Honestly, I don't know. It isn't something I'd experiment with though."

Janus nodded. "Why though? All of this..the Construct, the Matrix, what's it all for?"

A sly grin crept upon Irvine's face. Janus was eager to learn.

"Pay attention," Irvine said to Janus. Suddenly, the world around them changed. The infinite whiteness of the construct was replaced by a city street where they stood in the middle of the road. There was the black pavement, the sidewalks lining the road, the six-floor apartment buildings, trees, people walking around, and over all this, a magnificent blue sky dolloped with clouds here and there. Janus had a double take, as the city around them had come out of nowhere. He approached a car slowly and put his hands on the top of the hood and ran his hands over to smooth surface. It felt real, it looked real. He could feel the cold of the steel begin to chill up his hands. He was amazed. It's not real...?

Irvine looked at Janus and chuckled. "Amazing, isn't it?"

Janus looked over at him and slowly nodded, before surveying the area around him again. One could say he was dumbfounded, but at the same time, it wasn't new to him. He looked back to Irvine and raised his eyebrows like "What now?" Irvine inhaled. Janus payed close attention as Irvine spoke.

"Look here Janus. Do you see this? This is the world as you know it, the way it was in the beginning of the 21st century. It now exists only as a virtual simulation that we call the Matrix. You've been living inside of a neural, interactive dream world your whole life. This is the world as it is today."

He snapped, and the buildings transformed from tall, strong supported structures to crumbled, charred towers of what remained. The sky was black with little light passing through the clouds. Lightning cracked the sky and thunder struck like a whip right after. Rubble and rock and metal and debris was the ground, in tremendous colossal heaps all around. Janus was shocked. No longer was he surrounded by the tranquility of the city. He was now in the world of post apocalyptic destruction he got a short glimpse of when he awoke in his pod. Quickly, he turned to see where Irvine was and he saw him still standing across from him as calm as a breeze.

"Where the hell are we?"

"This is the real world. Right now, we are on the surface, somewhere we seldom visit."

"What happened?"

"There was a war. Centuries ago, our technological prowess had reached its peak and we created Artificial Intelligence. As it developed, it eventually gave birth to a race of thousands of machines of all types, like androids, industry machines, construction robots, home convenience. For any task you could think of, there was a machine to do it."

"So then what?"

"Humans treated machines as though they were an inferior race. When one of these machines took a human life in self defense, it launched a genocide against the machine race, humans took up arms against them. It was a worldwide massacre. Eventually the machines built their own city where they could manufacture and develop themselves and thrive in piece without being threatened. It's not too far from where we're located, but no one dares to go there. No ship ever made it within 100 miles of the city without being destroyed. All except one, but that's another story."

"Then how did this happen?"

"From our understanding, the war began after numerous attempts to establish peace fell through.."

"The war?"

"Yes. We don't know who struck first. However, it was us who blackened the sky and blocked out the sun, with efforts to eliminate the machines' solar energy source. Apparently it didn't work out. Unfortunately, the machines had a greater understanding of our anatomy and our weaknesses, and in the end the machines slaughtered us. After a surrender, it was here that the Matrix began."

"Then why are humans in those red pods with all the tubes attached to them?"

"Do you remember how I said that the machines used the sun as their main energy source?"

"Yeah."

"Well, after we blocked out the sun, the machines had to find another source for power. Instead of wiping us out, they decided they would put us to good use. A human body generates more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTUs of body heat. Harnessing this power with a certain method of fusion, the machines could manufacture it. With this discovery, they found all of the power they would need, in those that created them."

Janus was blank. "..What are you saying?"

"I have no reason to lie to you, Janus. Look."

The scenery changed, and they were now on some sort of mountain top, overlooking what looked like a field of red dots with large octopus-like machines picking at these red dots with their long tentacles.

"What is that?"

"Those are the fields. Those red dots you see are humans. We're a crop now, Janus. No longer born, but rather, grown. We are, as an energy source, easily renewable and completely recyclable, the dead liquefied and fed to the living. All they needed to control this new battery was something to occupy our minds."

Janus looked at Irvine wide-eyed, but didn't say a word, as he came to a horrifying conclusion of what he was being told.

"You wanted to know what the Matrix was? This is it. Control. The Matrix is a computer-generated neuro-synaptic simulation, where the machines put your mind, while your body is used to power them."

Janus took this in, and his forehead wrinkled. He felt surprised. Mad, angry even. Confused. Shocked. Caught up in a state of awe. The fabric of his reality had been unraveled and tied into a noose, and now it was choking him. He experienced trouble breathing.

"I don't believe you. No, I don't believe this. It can't be, this is fake."

"It's never easy to accept, but it's true. While it is hard to believe, you know you're an advocate of the fact that the truth can sometimes hurt."

Janus could only look at Irvine as though he was disgusted, leaving Irvine to wonder whether it was at him or what he had just told the new redpill. "We're finished for now. You need some time to rest and think this over." The world around them turned back into the vast whiteness of the Construct. "Take us out of here, Glitch."

----

Upon waking in his chair, Irvine got up and walked over to Janus, who was merely laying there staring up at the bulkhead. Marley unhooked the attachments on the chair so that he could get up, but he didn't move. Irvine stepped over and gently helped Janus up out of the chair.

"Are you alright?"

"Nausea.. and a migraine.."

Irvine nodded Glitch over to help him with Janus.

"It's normal. Come on, let's get you to your bed."

When they reached Janus' quarters, Glitch and Irvine helped him to his bed. Irvine nodded to Glitch. "Keep working on the ship's computer repairs."

"Gotcha," Glitch said with a nod, and left to get back to work.

"Janus," Irvine said as he turned to him. "Take as long as you need."

He nodded, and laid down to sleep as Irvine went off. That was all he needed right now. Time, and as much of it as he could get.

----

The Vehemens buzzed through the underground tunnels of the real, with blue wide rays of light coming out from several points on the ship. The hover pads left their blue trails behind that faded away only about fifteen feet behind the location of each pad. The ship was medium in size and had sixteen hover pads in total. Twelve of them were bunched in threes on four points on the ship. Several antennae and turret barrels stuck out from the ship. It stopped at one point where a large opening broke into the side of the tunnel, turned 90-degrees to the left, and entered the tunnel.

The tunnel was made almost entirely of rock and sediment except for the few pipe fragments jutting out from the rock. This area was uncharted territory that no one had actually traveled in, and therefore was unknown. The reason for the wide blue rays coming out from the ship was that the crew was mapping the unknown territory and writing it down to memory.

A bald caucasian man sat at the controls steering the ship. His controls were two joysticks and a keyboard in between. There were several other monitors and keypads in the cockpit as well. The man was built, with a red tone to his skin. He wore a white tank top, brown combat pants, and had black knuckle gloves on.

On his left sat a man dressed with black combat pants, and a dark blue shirt. He also had long hair and a goatee, and a scar under his right eye. Both men watched closely as the ship hovered onward.

"Iratus," the man on the left began, "set the ship down there in that cave," he said. Iratus nodded and worked the controls. The ship spun 270-degrees and backed up into the small cave in the wall of the tunnel. It set down with a rumble and then was finally still.

"Capitan, are we finished mapping for now?" Iratus asked.

"Yes, that'll be fine, I'll let you know when it's time to leave. Have Zero patch the cooling systems to the hard-drives and shut down whatever power we don't need, we don't want to waste any and it's a pain in the ass to recharge as it is. Run a maintenance check and see to it that whatever needs to be worked on is repaired."

"Yes sir." Iratus said, and he left the cockpit. The Captain stared out the window out at the dim blue rocky tunnel they had just came from. The radio crackled and a voice came over the speaker with some static. "Com com, this is the Nosferatu calling in requesting a report of your current status." The man in the chair grabbed the receiver and pushed down on the button. "Check, we hear you. This is Ravage, we've taken a break from tunnel recon for repairs. Who is this?"

"Copy that Vehemens, this is Sideways, the Nosferatu's Operator, Captain Blood felt like checking everyone else's status."

"Oh, that's nice," Ravage said as if to retort. But he meant his sarcasm in jest. "While we're on the topic, how's everything over by you?"

"Everything's straight, we're just mapping and looking out for sentinels, our status is fine." The radio crackled again with more static and another voice came over the radio.

"Speaking of sentinels, we wiped out a few of them not long ago," the voice said. It was a female.

"Who's that?" Ravage asked

"This is Sigma, first mate on the Rebellion."

"Is Django there?" Sideways asked.

"This is Django," he replied over the radio. He had a deep voice but he sounded like he was in a good mood.

"Django how did you turn out?"

"We were fine, our auxiliary power kicked in right after our EMP set off, and the Vendetta came in to make sure we were alright."

"Any sign of more sentinels?" Ravage asked.

"Nope, nothing anymore. They were doing some recon on their own but we zapped em before they even knew we were here."

"What about Zion craft?"

"No sign of them, you know they don't like to go into uncharted territory, they don't want to get lost, that's what happened to the Logos."

"I remember. What about the Nemesis?"

"They're pretty good and keeping their distance, there's been no sign of them at all, they're probably miles from here."

"Yeah, probably. Well I'm signing out for some R&R."

"Alright, talk to you later Ravage." Ravage stood up and hung the receiver back up on the console and left the cockpit to go to his quarters. He recited the objective of all this mapping, quietly to himself. "The closer we can get to the machine city via untraveled routes, the better chance we have to EMP-blast it without the machines having a clue."

----

Several hours later, Irvine went to check on Janus and found him sitting in his bed staring into space.

"You doing any better?"

Janus nodded his head. "I'll be fine. You mentioned a war before."

Irvine nodded. "What of it?"

"Is it still happening?"

"No, it isn't. There was one factor that changed it all."

"What was it?

"Inside of the Matrix, there's a consultant that we call The Oracle. She's been with us since the beginning of the war. She's a guide, and a large help to us. She told us that once upon a time, when the Matrix was first created, there was a man inside that could control the Matrix's reality by will alone. He was called The One. Apparently, it was this man who freed the first of Zion's people and showed them the true nature of the world."

"What happened to him?"

"When he died, The Oracle came up with this prophecy that said the return of The One meant the end of the war was near. Not long afterwards, we found the guy. His name was Neo. Under the tutelage of Morpheus, one of the more praised and respected ship captains of Zion, Neo reached his full potential. There were those who thought the prophecy was bullshit, and refused to believe that one man could stop an entire race of machines. When the time came, Zion was about to be attacked by huge machine army."

Janus merely watched and listened.

"It didn't happen, for some reason," Irvine said. Janus noted that he sounded distant, almost disappointed as he said it.

"Neo traveled to the Machine City with his partner Trinity. We don't know how he did it, but the machines ceased their attack; they were already inside of Zion and destroying it by then. The war was then declared over. We never saw Neo or Trinity again. A truce was made between Zion and the machines, and we existed together in peace. Those that wanted to be free from the Matrix were allowed to do so with no restraint. That was five years ago."

Janus nodded as though to say "Go on."

"Despite the fact that there was peace between humans and machines, there were some people that couldn't accept it. A whole bunch of different opinions from different groups. Some wanted to uphold the peace, some wanted to destroy it, some even wanted to go back to the Matrix. In particular, one group argued that we were still vulnerable, and that the machines could come and destroy Zion at any time. With Neo gone, it was widely held that there would be no way to stop it. The counter-argument was that as long as Zion did nothing to instigate, the machines would have no reason to attack. Well... that was easier said."

"..."

"Well, let me break this down. Three years after Neo made the truce, one particular group of people came with an undeniable point- the machines were still in control and they could attack if they wanted to and there would be nothing Zion could do about it. They said that since the Matrix still existed, and as long as humans were still being used as a power source, the machines still were in control. They didn't trust the truce, and they threatened leave Zion. But the High Council didn't take them seriously. So, said group got pissed that no one was listening to them, so they went off to prove their point. There were six captains, six ships, six crews. My crew and I were a part of the group. We felt that instead of being sitting ducks, we'd rather be prepared and at least be ready to warn Zion if the machines were going to attack."

"So that's how we fall into this?"

"No, there's more. After we left, the captains grouped up and decided on what to do. There were the six of us alone on our own, and we were trying to find something we only had a hunch about. So we set out to look for some kind of proof behind our suspicions. What we found... well for once it didn't feel good to be right."

"What did you find?" Janus asked.

"With six hovercraft scoping out the tunnels and the desert, we had a lot of area covered. That's how we stumbled across them. An entire army of sentinels poised to attack Zion, waiting on standby for the order should the truce ever fail, or as we figured, whenever the Machines saw fit.. We screwed that up big time."

"What happened?"

"We leaped before we looked. On an impulse decision, we set up an attack formation and struck at the sentinels. Our attack plan worked out, we managed to take out a majority of them since we took them by surprise, and we scattered before the rest could take us down. That was what did it though. We didn't think it through, we thought we were protecting Zion. The consequences of our actions were worse than we figured."

Janus raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"The moment we left port, Zion considered us rogues and refused to be involved in our expedition or give us any assistance. The machines, unknown that this split went down, saw this as an offense and a declaration of War. They sent a larger attack squad to Zion and when it arrived, Zion wasn't expecting it. Lock, the commanding officer of Zion's military, was quick to come up with a strategy and built up a large enough defense force to hold off the machine army from getting into Zion. We came to help out after we realized what we did wrong, and it was like a slap in the face to the Council, and added insult to injury because it also counted as an I-told-you-so. So then Zion began mobilizing and increased its military size to almost double the size it was during the first war. They insulated the dock, the living quarters, the temple, all of the main conduits, and all of the tunnels leading to the entrance gates, and surrounded Zion with EMP charges, in and out."

"An electro-magnetic-pulse. Automatically shuts down circuitry. SWAT uses weapons like that."

"Correct. Lock figured that if the machines were going to try to get into Zion again from any entrance point, they would be ready, and if they somehow got past the first few lines of defense, they would have the military ready for them. When the machines found out, they decided that since we were mobilizing for another war, then another war it would be."

"And we're neutral? How does that work out?"

"Zion wouldn't accept us back home. The Council ruled that everything was our fault, and our actions ended the truce and put on stake once again the lives of every person in Zion. We were outcast, and on our own without a home. Since we took matters into our own hands once before, we figured we could do it again, so we started calling ourselves the Resistance, as redpills were known before Neo ended the last war. The other five captains agreed that we should do what we could to destroy the machines and take down the Matrix. At this point, they weren't opposed to fighting or even killing Zion forces inside the Matrix. In fact, they were all for it. They figured that if Zion was going to try to stop us from completing our mission, then they were the traitors."

"What about you?"

"I thought it was crazy to even think of pulling it off. Finding a way to destroy the Matrix was one thing, but the six of us ships couldn't take on the entire race of machines alone. We would be destroyed in no time, and it had been done before to those that tried. Second, there was nothing I would get out of attacking Zion. Just because my crew and I were thrown out didn't mean I hated them or thought they deserved to die, and I wasn't willing to kill the very same people I was trying to protect. So I took my ship and my crew and left the group, and now we're neutral to both sides. We're like rogue rogues, and we have to look out for ourselves."

"How's this accomplished?"

"We don't attack anyone, we only defend ourselves, from the machines, Zion, and the Resistance fleet. We're only pirates because we do whatever it takes to survive. We're fringe in all this."

"What about the Matrix?"

"Everything I told you so far applies to the Real World only. Inside the Matrix it's a mess. The three factions are still fighting against each other in there as well, but when you throw Exiles into the mix it gets more hectic."

"What about the people that want to be free?"

"Stopping humans from escaping the Matrix was the first course of action within the Matrix that the machines took. It was right back to the old policies again. When that happened we had to start worrying about Agents again."

"Agents?"

"Do you remember the three men that came after you at work? Williams, Davis, and Miller?"

Janus frowned. He didn't think Irvine had any idea about them. Was he watching that? "Yeah..."

"Those are Agents. They're sentient programs designed to eliminate any soldier from the real world that plugs into the Matrix. They also go after exiles."

"What can they do?"

"They're stronger and faster than any of us. Their strength and speed is like no other. They punch through walls made of marble. You could fire off an entire magazine at them and never hit them once. You could square off against one of them, but you wouldn't last long, since they're not human. Neo could beat an Agent. He could take shit-loads of them down. But for any one of us 'regulars,' when you see an Agent, you run like you've never ran before unless you have no choice but to fight to maybe buy yourself some time. Regardless, you have a better chance of being killed than you do defeating one of them."

"Why did they put that thing inside of me?"

"They were trying to use you to catch me. They have a bad habit of underestimating us though. There's a few ways to get rid of them, they're not invincible."

"But you just said.."

"They can die like any man, since they're programmed to operate in the Matrix, and they have to blend in the people still plugged into the Matrix, and therefore, they're bound to the rules of the system. Those rules, however, we can bend."

"How?"

"Not now. We'll deal with that when the time comes, and now isn't the time."

"Then what do we do now?"

"Well, now we get out of here. Time to eat."

Irvine walked away, and Janus followed. Glitch came and caught up but not before he came up to Janus and gave him a play-punch in the shoulder.

"Well, you coming?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, I just didn't know where the galley was," Janus answered.

"Oh, well come on, I'll show you. By the way, I'm Glitch, I'll be your Operator."

Janus looked him over and nodded his head. "Nice to meet you."

"C'mon, this way," Glitch beckoned, and walked through a door out into a hallway. Janus promptly followed. When they had all reached the galley, Janus noted that it looked more like an old restaurant kitchen with a large table in it surround by stools than an actual galley. When they sat, Janus found himself sitting across from Anubis.

Janus looked at him in a skeptical manner, but Anubis rested his head on his hands and stared off into space, not even acknowledging him. Janus could tell he was going to have to put some effort into getting to talk with this guy, but he didn't care to worry about it now. He was hungry. He looked over and saw Kira, Marley, Blade, and Glitch bringing the food over. When his plate was put down before him, Janus eyed the food and it looked like white meat chicken breast to him. Glitch sat down across from him, next to Anubis.

"Have a bite," he told him.

Judging by the sound of his voice, Janus figured it couldn't be anything at all too bad. He caught a piece on his fork and put it into his mouth and began chewing, and waited a few seconds for the flavor to set in. Remarkably, it tasted like chicken. He looked up at Glitch and held up his fork.

"What is this?"

Glitch grinned. "It's synthetic," he answered before taking another bite.

"Then what is it made out of?" Janus inquired.

"You don't wanna know. Just eat it, enjoy it," Kira said to him. She was sitting to Janus' left. Irvine spoke out.

"Guys, today we're fortunate to have another person join us after being freed from the Matrix, and we should give thanks for finding and saving him. We'll take our minds off of the war and our enemies today, to take a break and celebrate."

Irvine looked over at Janus, smiled, and nodded to him. "Happy Birthday, Janus."

This caught Janus off guard. Irvine's welcoming statement was followed by a few other Happy Birthday's from some of the other crew members, and it felt nice. Snapping out of his stupor of surprise, he shook his head and nodded. "Thanks," he told them, and went back to eating his food. It seemed as though only hours passed, but he was already settled in like he had lived this life for days.

"Listen, get a good rest, you're gonna need it for tomorrow," Blade said.

"Why, what happens tomorrow?"

"Combat training."

----