Spaced Out

No One Tells Me What I Can Do--Especially You

 "You're not serious." Reesa pushed up from the projection table. "Hostilespace for the duration of the vector?"

Six turns later and Vortrand was his usual grouchy self again. He'd summoned everyone to the navigation chamber. The crew plus one item of human cargo, assembled around the projection table. A voxic map wavered in front of them with their current vector and destination delineated in yellow.

"The border of hostilespace," Vortrand said. "Riklim is in a contested zone in the Outani belt. According to the intel packet agent Barawa forwarded to my sigID, the planetoid is situated just along the inside edge of Utori claimedspace."

Reesa made a face at the mention of agent Barawa. Folding her arms, she shook her head.

This meeting was the first time Lily had been with Vortrand since their bizarre encounter in the kitchen. He'd avoided her for nearly a space week and she wished she could have done the same with his sister. While the lieutenant-technician had granted Lily a stay of execution she'd been frosty since the Myskuul debacle, collecting Lily's phozone level readings without comment and with barely a glance.

Lily hid out in her quarters or hung around doctor Puu mostly. She and the doctor shared meals together in the dining room while he tutored her in written dense and catani using language tutorials on her Archivist as instruction aids. He also hooked her into USIT.

USIT stood for the Universal System of Intelligence. Through USIT Lily had her own signature, or sigID, through which she sent and received messages and browsed public feeds and made her own posts. Under doctor Puu's instruction she sent her first message to ZaZee. A cheerful melody alerted Lily of the Pashmi woman's prompt response.

Sy's account information is on file at Shanti Plava. He requested I inform you that should you have any need of new pieces you have only to contact me. We have your body form and can courier the fabricated items either to your manta or the nearest dock point.

P.S. Sy mentioned you've never played Prestige. Ask him to teach you and we can play in the public arena!

Doctor Puu had chuckled as he'd read over Lily's shoulder. He'd had his hand fully repaired and he'd also installed Lily's new TR-buds. No one sounded like they spoke over an old radio anymore. During his spare time, he taught her the social strategy game invented by the Tainted Pashmi.

Prestige began as a card game. Doctor Puu owned a massive deck with which he demonstrated their first bout.

Players started with an avatar card with first tier clothes, equipment and skills. Avatars came in five different species: Pashmi, Arkin, Verakian, Cafitid, and Titian. In her first bout Lily started with a barge city Titian. The avatar card dealt to her displayed an animated Titian woman. Selections at the bottom of the card listed the avatar's starting skills and options for her initial occupation. Lily selected "Artist" and the bout began.

The object of Prestige was to finish the bout with the most wealth, status and privilege. After career selection, hands were dealt. Event, progression, or item cards were played on either avatars. By the end of the first bout—she got a permanent death card played on her—Lily went through three careers and ended up a D-list pop star with a condo on Glass Station and a wardrobe of high point items.