Chapter 3: On The Plains

“Fred and Bentley, Ave and Dylan!  Two teams.  You guys do some scouting.  A large circle around us.  We need to know what’s nearby, find shelter.  River and Marci, you’re our science officers.  I need your best guesses about what’s going on.  Let’s go people!”

They broke into teams, heading off in opposite directions on the grassy plains.

For some reason, that’s when it hit home.  I mean, yes, we were here on purpose, had a mission.  But at the same time, no one was coming to our rescue.  No one was capable of coming to our rescue.  The part of me that trained for this was elated.  A bigger part, the one seeing the whole picture, was in full panic mode, thoughts racing.

Marci must have been having similar thoughts, as she simply stood beside me, saying nothing.

Takao walked over to us.  “Guys, what’s going on?  We’re missing Jadon and our ship.  Fred and Ave have been bodily altered and don’t seem to mind and you, Marci, too.”

She looked up, pointy ears all too visible, “Uhm, I don’t know.  We all seem healthy, though.  Fred’s heartbeat was strong, rate normal.  I, uh, feel fine.  Better than fine.”

He turned to me.  “Any guesses?”

I didn’t want to say it, but I had to.  “I think it really is nanotech.  Our ship shut off just as we detected them.  It wasn’t an attack, we weren’t hit by a missile.  Therefore, the nanotech is in the atmosphere, and it likely got into the ship on its own.  Not too long after that, we’re being remade.”

“Holy fuck,” said Marci.  “If that’s true . . .”

Takao ignored her, asking me, “Remade?”

“This,” I grabbed my clothes, bag, “is all from nanotech.  All our costumes.  We weren’t wearing these before.  To do that requires mass.  Molecules and mass.  And . . .”  I shook my head, “We didn’t crash because whatever system is running this, for lack of a better word, environment, removed us from the ship.  The ship’s not here because, well, I think the nanotech broke it down into molecules, repurposing it for whatever world it’s creating around us.  Probably our bodies, probably our clothing and tools.”

“That,” said Marci, “makes an uncomfortable amount of sense.  If so, we are in real trouble and there’s no way off this planet.”

“River, what are you basing that on?  Marci, speculate further.”

I said, “I can’t imagine any other process that could alter our bodies so quickly.”

Marci shook her head, “No.  We don’t know that it was quick.  We don’t know how long we were unconscious.  Just that we were on the ship, then woke up here.”

“Granted, ok.  Perhaps a lot of time has passed.  Nothing else could alter us like this, though.  Surgeries would show.  And green pigment isn’t natural for mammals.”

“True.  I think you’re right about that, but in terms of time, we could have been unconscious for as long as it took.”

“And delivered us to a lab or something?  I guess we can’t rule it out.  In that case-”

“-we’d want to check for viruses, DNA alterations.  I need the full medical suite of the ship to make the determination.”

“How would you account for our bodies being so flexible?  If it took a lot of time, our muscles would atrophy, we’d lose flexibility.  Walking would be hard.  Fred and Ave, especially, would need to relearn how to move.”

She paused.  “Granted.  You’re probably right, then.  I can’t see surgical and directed gene therapy producing recoveries this quickly.  The only scenario I can imagine would be memory blocking drugs during physiotherapy.  So, yeah, we’re very likely dealing with ubiquitous, advanced, planet ending nanotech.”

No one spoke anything for a moment.  A breeze rolled over the grass, causing ripples of waves to pass over.  It was so different from being on the ship.  The sky stretched on and on, well past a mountain range so far off as to be unreachable.  For a moment, I felt vulnerable.  Too open, nothing keeping the atmosphere in.

“Dear God,” said Tak.  He took a breath.  “Nevertheless, it’s imperative we somehow warn the Victoria.  And we have to assume Alpha Team is incapable of undertaking this task and that we’re alone in this mission.  The ship is gone.  We need options.  Hypotheses about what happened to Jadon?”

“When I was unconscious, a voice gave me a very limited amount of time to choose a class.  I’m assuming this happened to you, too.”  They both nodded.  “It told me death was imminent if I couldn’t decide.”

“You think Jadon failed to choose in time.”  Tak folded his arms.

My voice dropped.  “Yeah.”

“No way,” said Marci.  “Not a chance.  She was our communications officer!  If anyone could have figured out the selection process it was her.”

“Well, we don’t know for sure she’s dead.  Until we know otherwise, we’ll assume she’s alive and just not here.”

“Listen, the situation is worse.  Much worse.”  Marci stared at her feet a bit, then looked up.  “If this is nanotech, if it is capable of reorganizing our bodies, or even if it’s something more complicated than the nano we can design, it’s not just our bodies.

“Holy shit,” I said, catching on.

Tak folded his arms.  “What could be worse?”

“If it’s in our bodies . . .”

I finished her sentence, “It’s in our brains.”

***

Dylan pointed in the direction they’d come from, “Forest over that way.  We could certainly build temporary shelter there and find water.  We saw a few rabbits, too, so we can catch a few for dinner.”

“Excellent.  Were you able to find a suitable location?”

“We didn’t look all that closely, but,” he looked up at the bright blue sky, “there seems to be plenty of time left in the day.”

Takao raised his voice, “Alright everyone, let’s head to the woods.”  He pulled out a length of woven rope with a catch on one end, “It’s a sling.  I’m a, ok this is strange, the class I chose is ‘gunner,’ but all I got was this sling.  No gun.  If we see any rabbits on the way, I’ll try to hit them.”

I said, “On that note, what did everyone choose for classes?”

***

“Seriously, no one chose healer?”  Bentley looked annoyed.  “If this . . . world we find ourselves in turns out to be like the games I’ve played, we need a healer.”

“It really doesn’t feel like a game,” I said.  A breeze pushed at my coat, not quite chilly, but shaking my jacket collar and changing my temperature all the same.  It was nice, but not at all what I’d gotten used to.

“The voice said it was a game.  And we all look like we’re straight out of an RPG.  Role-playing game.  You know, the kind you play in VR or a holocube.”

“It’s all a little hard to believe, but sure, let’s say we’re in a game.”  Looking over at him, he’d adjusted his robes higher up his torso, so as not to trip over them.  “Not all games require a healer class.  Maybe we all have some access to healing.”

“Do you have any healing abilities?”

I stumbled over something in the grass as we walked.  The forest was still a ways off, but we were getting there.  “Uhm, no.  Not yet?  I don’t know.  The voice said there was no tutorial.”

“That’s probably the most infuriating part of this whole thing!”

“Thing?”

“Experience.”

“So,” Takao listed off on his fingers, one by one, “Dylan’s a fighter, Bent’s a wizard, Fred and Avery are both barbarians, River is an explorer, and Marci’s a sorcerer.”

“Sorceress.”

“Ok, sure.”

Bentley added, “And no healers.”

Fred turned to Avery then, “Why didn’t you choose healer?  You’re always playing them in our games.”

“You make me play them!  I’m security here, and for that I needed to be tough.  You made the same choice!”

“Yeah, I did.  Who wants to heal in an MMO?  I live for the fight!”

Ave scowled at him.  “I’m never playing a healer for you again.”

“It may not be fun fighting in real life,” I said.

Two green faces, with oversized canines bulging out of their mouth, faced me, eyes incredulous.

“No need for arguing,” said Tak, holding up a palm.  “We’re taking stock of everyone’s class.  What about equipment?  Did anyone find anything useful in their gear?  A radio would be nice.”

“Yeah, Tak.  I have a compass.”  I pulled an old metal clamshell compass out of my bag, flipped it open to show him.  “And some coins that appear to be a mix of silver and copper.  A couple small vials of a red liquid.  Some fine rope that’s probably good for setting snares.  But my gun holster is empty.”

He looked at me surprised, “I’m a gunner and I didn’t get a gun holster.  I wonder why yours is empty.  No gun in your bag?”

“I couldn’t find one anywhere.  Or bullets.”  Looking at the compass, I said, “We’re, uh, heading west.”  Then I put it back into the satchel.

“Damn, a gun and ammunition would have been helpful.  Why wouldn’t a gunner get those?”

“You might have to level up,” said Bent.  “Maybe you start as a slinger, move on to, I don’t know, crossbows, and then eventually guns.”

“I see,” said Tak.  “Who the hell would design a grey goo apocalypse that forces everyone into a game?  This is infuriating.”

“Uhm,” Marci said, “I’ve got those vials, too.  And coins.  One of mine is gold, though.  At least, it appears to be gold.  I clearly come from a higher class than you peasants.”

“Ha!” she got a smile from me, and I got one in return.  If we didn’t lighten the mood, we’d probably all sink into panic mode.  Though only Takao and I seemed worried enough about the situation.  Fred and Ave, seemed almost happy about it.

Brushing errant brown hair out of his eyes, Bentley said, “It’s common for MMOs to make the healing potions red and, uhm, mana potions blue.”

“You really think we’re in a role-playing game?”

“Not sure if we’re playing, but it certainly appears that we are in a game world.  The voice said we were, and I’m inclined to believe it,” holding is robe up, he gestured to our green friends, “given the circumstances.”

“We are going to find out who did this,” said Takao.  “And find a way to neutralize the nanotech, turn off this game world.”

“Uhm, I don’t think so.” I said.

He gave me a sharp glance.

“About the designers, or programmers, I mean.  Whoever did this, the nanotech might have incorporated them, too.”

Marci sighed, saying, “This is definitely one answer for the Fermi Paradox.”

“Ok, we have to focus.  Empty speculation is only going to take us so far.  None of us really get what’s going on,” said Takao, “but we are going to look for answers.  After finding shelter, water and food if we can.”

“And after that?”

“After that, we explore.”

“Hey,” I said, cupping my ears to the horizon, “do you hear that?”

A woman’s voice screamed off in the distance.