Spacebound Chronicles

Chapter 16: Katana

Scott had pictured the day of his promotion to the creative team taking many shapes. All included a commemoration. Sometimes with friends, most times private, just him going out to eat something good or do something fun.

When that day finally came, the only thing he wanted to do after work was sleep.

And sleep he did. From 8PM to 8AM. And it felt good.

From there, things only looked up!

The following day, it was him who cracked a joke at Tyler from finances in the elevator, and him who gave Tony good morning when they crossed paths. Work flowed with the promise of more interesting work to come, and when he got home he dived right back into the notebook. His snail herding adventure with Jude became an ad for high-speed internet plans and their heartfelt moment under the blue tree overlooking the Fiery Man’s Canyon was perfect for a life insurance campaign. Whether or not those ideas would be bought he could not tell, but it felt good to flesh them out.

When the well ran dry three days later, he logged in again in search of more inspiration.

Joey, however, had other plans.

“Logan! Where have you been?” Snorri appeared into the airlock as soon as he logged back in.

“Life has been… weird,” he answered.

Right behind Snorri came Gash Hunter.

“Finally!” Gash said bouncing happily. “I can’t wait to start teaching you how to teleport!”

The mention of teleportation made Logan Spacebound realize they were no longer orbiting the Maze. The airlock was open and there was breathable air outside, but all he saw was a long empty corridor. The corridor had windows, but only a starry background could be seen through those.

“Where are we?” he asked.

“Megafleet!” Gash answered.

Logan turned to Snorri in a silent question. That name did not help situate him. Snorri explained:

“Megafleet is a gathering of all the Solar League’s main starships. Warships, lab-ships, med-ships, mining ships. Most come and go; some stay forever attached to each other forming the core of it.”

“It’s like a big city made of spaceships!” Gash summarized. “In space!”

“There is a portion of it that is just like a city, but most areas are off-limits for visitors,” Snorri explained. “Sensitive military and scientific targets. Now come, we have business to attend to.”

“Business?” Logan asked as he followed his friends out of the Amphibian.

“See, if you want to teleport, you need three things,” Gash spoke, then started counting on his chubby fingers. “The right skills, which I can teach, and a bunch of crystals.”

Logan frowned. “Those are two things.”

“Not really,” Gash moved on, “because you need crystals to throw and teleport to them, but you also need a crystal inside you!”

Logan wondered if that was some kind of mystical metaphor, but he did not believe that.

“Inside me?”

“Yes! That’s where we are going. We need someone with at least level 180 in Dark Matter Crafts and level 200 in Medical Crafts. Lucky for us…”

“Snorri knows a guy,” Logan completed the sentence just as the door opened to a jaw dropping scene.

That area of Megafleet made Winner City pale in comparison. Ten stories of shops spread as far as eye could see. There was a slight curvature to the design of that station, as if they stood inside a titanic bicycle tire. The inner radius of said tier comported standard shops of all kinds, while the outer side, where they stood, was littered by eventual food and souvenir stands and your usual gift shop. The outer radius’ main features, however, were the airlocks, where traders docked their spaceships and opened them for business: some were pilots for hire to players too unfortunate to own their private vessel, others turned their ships into bars or entertainment venues, but most were just traders running yard sales of goods they picked up out in the galaxy.

Their destination was one such ship. There was a short queue of players in its airlock, at least shorter than most, but Snorri still strolled right past the waiting customers.

They walked into a bright personal ship, which meant Logan was about to run into his third Top 500 player this week. Fourth, if Gash met the criteria. He could not really tell if he did. Perhaps his age in real life posed an issue.

“I told you to wait—Oh, Snorri!” a blue alien with a long mouth and even longer fingers opened a smile at the sight of Snorri. She wore a lab jacket and tiny glasses hooked to a massive volume of hair that rained down to her exaggerated waistline. Logan wondered how those glasses stood over the inexistent nose. He had never seen that species before, be it as player or NPC. Achievement? Limited edition? Event?

“Logan, meet Doctor Belle Sloth,” Snorri said. “To the best of my knowledge one of the only three players in the world who can perform your operation.”

“Yes, yes, technically,” she spoke as quickly as she gesticulated. “But the only one who can do it well. Don’t let that charlatan on Dock E-27 tell you otherwise. And you must be Logan Spacebound, my little lab rat,” she zoomed into Logan’s personal space faster than he could plan a handshake, her huge blue eyes about to pop over the glasses and onto his lap.

“Uh… Nice to meet you?” he stepped back to a more humanly comfortable distance.

“Diamonds! Did you bring my shinies?” she asked leaving Logan and zapping to Snorri. He pulled four dark shards from his pocket, and she grabbed them intently. “Oo-woo-hoo-hoo! Yes! Great cuts, you’re getting better, Gian!”

“This is actually Hunter’s handiwork,” Snorri nodded to the hairy human.

“I see… My dear child, my very first experiment!” Doctor Sloth ran a long finger over that grizzly beard. “I am almost proud! Now onto business! Undress, Spacebound!”

Logan unbuckled his belt.

“No! Your shirt, you p*****t! There is a kid looking!” Belle Sloth motioned to Gash Hunter. “What kind of psycho starts undressing by their bottoms! Geez!”

As soon as he had removed his shirt, the doctor led him to an operation room ampler than the regular spaceship infirmary, suggesting this was a designed medical ship. Before he could lay down, however, another door on the far side opened and seven other beings of the most distinct species filed into the room, and at least another two-dozen appeared as holograms.

Logan looked over his shoulders and turned as the strangers surrounded him. He would have been worried had he not seen Snorri and Gash maintain absolute composure.

“Before we proceed to the operation,” Snorri said, “we would like to welcome you, Logan Spacebound, into our ranks!”

Logan felt the world dissolving under his feet. The mess back in the Maze had raised him past level 50, making him eligible to joining a guild. Snorri, Joey, had wasted no time in putting things in motion.

“By my endorsement and friendship,” Snorri continued, “by Gash Hunter’s testimony of Logan Spacebound’s valor, courage and resourcefulness, and by the trust of our honorable Councilors, we bestow upon Spacebound the honor to join our guild. In order to make us stronger, and to find strength in our unity. Logan Spacebound, do you accept to be made one of us?”

“I do!” Logan Spacebound answered, voice faltering, lips twisted into a smile from ear to ear.

“Then kneel,” a deeper voice came from behind him, a short red alien with a protuberant jaw and fiery eyes stepping forward. He unsheathed a long silver blade and angled it to the kneeled shirtless cyborg, moving it from one bare shoulder to the other as if knighting him. “Logan Spacebound, on this day you pledge yourself as a defender of the Solar League and dutiful member of this guild. On this day I, Meron Trius, welcome you into the Katanas! Rise!”

He rose, but the smile was gone. The heart that ran fast in excitement now raced with recognition and gloom understanding. Meron Trius. Katana. To Logan Spacebound, those words meant nothing.

But to Scott Williams those words brought everything full circle. Meron Trius. Katana. He had heard those names before. Not as Logan Spacebound, but as Snorri Gian. He had heard those names and he knew he should not have. Names overheard on a secret meeting no one knew he had ever watched.

People were clapping now.

He looked over his shoulder to find Snorri clapping too, Joey’s smile plastered on his face. Did he know? Did he know the leader of his guild was a Chimera, whatever that meant? Did Joey know the Katanas was being led by a secret organization of Top 500 players intent on destroying the Solar League?

Could him and Trius be conspiring to bring them down from within?

If not, then the more important question was… Did Trius know? Did he know Snorri was the eavesdropper that night? If so, what was he going to do about it?

And whether or not he did something about Snorri, what were the Chimeras’ plans for Katana and Trius?

What were their plans for Gash and Doctor Belle?

For Snorri?

For Logan himself?

One by one, his new clanmates gathered around to greet him with hugs and handshakes, but his mind was far from any of that.

He could only look at Meron Trius

And he could tell that Meron Trius never stopped looking at him.