"I can see that. I liked being a cat, but not having hands isn’t something I’d enjoy long-term."
[[Type Four is another biped. Effen is a low-gravity world like this one, and the Ah Ma Ani like to mix with other species, so there’s quite a few here. The tall ones.]]
Tall was an understatement. Ten feet, at the least, and their proportions very odd to my eye. Their heads were like little nubs on the ends of stalk-like necks, and their arms were longer than their spindly legs. They were covered all over in downy hair in cream and pastel shades, with long fringes on their upper arms making it look like they were wearing capes.
[[Type Five, Shree of Kshesh, are water adapted, and the most insular of the races. If there are any here, they’ll be wearing a different-species modal. They resemble your octopi. Type Six, the Kzah, are bipedal reptiles—they would remind you of geckos—but they don’t like low gravity, and I can’t see any here. Type Seven are quadrupeds, the Embyde. Embydarian is a heavy gravity world, and while they like low gravity worlds very much, they’ll be wearing adapted modals if they’re here.]]
"Is the dragonish sort of…person over by the pink flowers Embyde?"
[[That’s a Type Six-One. Kzah-Darashi, though with a size adaptation.]]
"Wait, have you played science project trying to genemod strong lan Bios or something?"
[[Most of that pre-dates The Synergis. Bios do all manner of extraordinary things to each other, and there are dozens of different variants. Do you want to go through them all?]]
"Uh, no, just the, um, non-variant species."
[[The Embyde were the last of those.]]
"There were only seven sen-sapient species in the whole galaxy? Before they mixed together?"
[[Eight if you count non-Bios. But we’ve found the remnants of many more. Some failed to adapt to their planet’s changes. Others wiped themselves out. Others…well, Bios do all manner of extraordinary things to each other.]]
"It still doesn’t seem like many, over all those billions of stars." I watched the people strolling around, trying to make myself think of them as people, even when they read as animals to me. "Are there some general rules of etiquette for mixing among other species?"
[[Never touch anyone without permission. Eye contact should be either brief or avoided. Try not to be noisy or emit fumes.]]
"Fumes?" I paused, and stopped an instinctive duck of my head toward an armpit. I hadn’t used anything resembling deodorant, but—no, even if Dio wasn’t teasing, this was a simulation, and…
Taking a breath, I decided it was about time I did something about working up a sweat. I sorted through menus, found that there seemed to be some major linked quest lines on Mars, and decided to stick with them.
"Time to not get killed."
27
gauntlet
THE HEART OF MARS
Enter the maze
Solo or Party
Gauntlet
Gateway Series
Length: Twenty minutes (1 of 9)
Core Unit
"What’s a gateway series?"
[[If you complete this series, you can unlock a very prestigious Challenge.]]
"Cool."
Arrows led me back to the pods, and on a long and pleasingly scenic trip to a point about a quarter of the way down the great stretch of the rift valley. The entrance to the Challenge was a giant metal-reinforced tunnel leading into the valley wall, and there were a lot of people—mostly human, but occasionally not—coming to and fro. The majority were disgorged by a tank-like tram thing that rumbled up as I arrived, swallowed more people, and rumbled off into the tunnel with its new batch, followed by a cloud of Renba.
My arrow ignored the tram, and took me to the entrance of a narrower side passage, where a handful of people seemed to be setting off on foot. Joining this line, I was treated to a progression message.
Shield yourself. Unlock the path to the Heart.
"You really didn’t go overboard on flowery quest description, did you Dio?" I thought to my personal overlord.
[[Detailed explanations are like clear shots of the monster in a horror movie.]]
I shrugged, but thought it would be worth filtering more for narrative in the future. This seemed a more game mechanics-based Challenge, but at least the first stage was probably shorter and easier than the rest: a quick tutorial. I hoped.
The players in the line ahead of me seemed to be a team, chatting to each other as their Cycogs and Renba drifted above. They were plainly DS players, since I recognised Mandarin.
"Is there a way for me to learn the main language, uh, the main language Type Threes use in The Synergis, Dio?"
[[Sonaso and Carai are the two primary languages—with considerable variation for species. Both can be learned through Challenge systems on your Snug. I’d recommend Sonaso, as that’s more dominant among in this quadrant.]]
The group ahead of me moved off into the tunnel, and my arrow shifted me a few steps forward, then began circling me slowly, which seemed to be a direction to wait some more.
"Did you tell me which species was the most common?"
[[Type One. You Type Threes are second, and perhaps seem even more common because Type Threes made a good base for variants, and so there are many humanoids of roughly your size and structure.]]
"And are we considered the crude, violent ones, or the resourceful creative ones?"
Dio laughed. [[Yes.]]
Typical Dio response. But before I found my next question my arrow changed, and I remembered this Challenge was about things that could kill me. My Renba no longer felt quite so creepy as I passed through a section of rough-hewn stone narrow enough to touch both walls if I held out my arms. I promptly stopped, and ran a hand over gritty stone, because Mars!, but I didn’t linger too long because there’d been people lining up behind me.
The passage widened, and I thought of ten-foot passages beloved to D&D campaigns, and wondered if this place had been dug specifically for this Challenge, or if it had been repurposed. Had there been mining on Mars? People living here before The Synergis came along?
The passage curved, so length could only be a guess. There was a tiny ridge running down the centre, and odd circular openings regularly spaced along the walls. A double ring of flat metal surrounded each opening, and I was frowning at the nearest when it made an ominous buzzing noise.
I brought the shield up just in time, and a bolt of force zapped out of the opening and slammed into me, sending me staggering back a step.
[[Oh, well done, you remembered what you’re here for.]]
"You get to come along and snark at me on these, huh?" I said—panted. That definitely would have killed me.
[[I can observe, but I can’t assist. There are Challenges where Bio and Cycog are expected to work together, but they’re far more advanced.]]
"I did that without my focus active," I said, remedying that lack as I spoke. "I didn’t even know I could."
[[The focus makes projection management easier, but it’s not a mechanism in itself.]]
There were evenly spaced circles on both sides, as far down the corridor as I could see. After all my skid practice, a simple shield wasn’t difficult to maintain, and I managed to extend it into a kind of doughnut around me, but I was not altogether sure how long I could maintain it. That hit had been hard, too, and the harder the hit, the more my strength would drain.