Unknown dimension. Unknown coordinates. The Hub.

A light beam dropped down from the sky. As the blinding light cleared, a blonde girl emerged into the open. Her blonde hair was scattered on her back, but it was more casual than messy. Her body was covered by a white skin tight ghost suit. Her eyes were covered by a pair of tactical goggles. Her hands were empty and she carried no weapon, but there was no doubt that messing with her was a bad idea. A watch was attached to her right wrist.

As soon as she emerged, the girl looked around in vigilance. She didn’t relax as she found herself standing in an empty room. There wasn’t a single object within the room. The wall, the floor, and even the ceiling was completely white.

“Welcome, Voyager Jean.” A familiar voice ranged across the room. Jean frowned as she realized the voice belonged to herself. Of course, it wasn’t her speaking. “Congratulations on your victory. May it be the first step to your endless voyage.”

“Identify yourself.” Jean was alerted but not scared.

“I am your personal AI. I have no name, but you can name me whatever you desire. It is my duty to help you adapt to this life and prepare for future missions. In general, I am made to serve you.” Jean’s image, with the exact hairstyle and clothing of the current Jean, was projected into the room by the AI.

Jean gave a second, slightly uncomfortable look at the projection before looking around. “Where am I?”

“Your room.”

“As far as rooms go this is rather disappointing.” Jean commented with a grain of salt, but if someone looked really carefully into her eyes they would find that she was calmer than ever.

“You can adjust the structures of this room however you wish.”

“How?”

“You can change this room through me. Describe the room you want to me, and I will create it.”

Jean rose her eyebrows almost challengingly. “I want a palace.”

The next second the room transformed. One minute it was a dull white room. The next second Jean found herself standing in a literal palace. It was empty, but the luxurious design and the silly amount of empty space told Jean she was indeed in a palace.

Jean’s eyes slightly shined, and her power swept out and scanned the room. The result was not exactly satisfying. The room wasn’t a hallucination. In fact, it was actually much bigger than it was before. Whoever this AI was, it had a lot of power. If one servant AI could do this, then how powerful would be the one behind everything? She would need a lot more power to complete her mission. In fact, she needed more than just power.

But now was not the time for this. Jean turned back to the AI.

“Why are you using my voice and image?” She said as if she had a grudge.

“I don’t have one of my own. Of course, you can give me one.”

“Fine. I’ll name you Butler. You can keep my image and my voice, though. You’re welcome.” She promised.

“Order accepted.” Butler obeyed.

“So, where am I?” Jean sat down on a sofa and groaned as she sank in. This type of luxury wasn’t exactly present in the Starcraft universe, not that she enjoyed it.

“You are in The Hub, a city for voyagers like you to rest, relax, and prepare for future missions.”

“You kept on calling me voyager, why?”

“Because you take voyages through dimensions.”

“Ok.” Jean sighed at the unhelpful answer and stood up from the sofa. “Show me around this place. You said it’s a city and there are other people like me, so this place must be larger than just this room.” She looked around. “By the way can you leave this room?”

“I can be inserted into your watch.”

“No you can’t.” Jean denied arrogantly before glancing down and tapping on her watch. She had never seen a function in her watch that allowed her to carry AIs around, and since she had spent countless hours going through everything about the watch, the presence of this function was unlikely. “Oh wait.” She suddenly realized there were some changes she didn’t notice before because she was a bit too attracted by a certain AI.

Voyager profile:

Name: Jean Turner

Current Dimension: Unknown

Current location: The Hub.

User kill confirmed. Delivering reward into storage space now.

Reward:

1000 red crystals.

User completed first mission, upgrading user watch into standard model now. Delivering standard voyager gadget into storage space now.

The watch was immediately taken over by a bright white light that even Jean couldn’t see through. The next second the white light disappeared, revealing a brand new tool. The former grey surface was turned into a shiny black color.

“What is this?” Jean pointed at the refreshed tool.

“The watch you had in your first universe was the recruit model. It was designed for two purposes only: Act as a storage space and inform the recruits on their mission. If the recruit survived their first mission and became a voyager, they would be worthy of a standard modeled watch. If they died, giving them an upgraded watch would be a waste.”

Jean nodded and continued to examine her new watch like a teenage girl who just got her first phone.

The standard version was completely different and much more helpful comparing to the recruit model. The standard model watch not only kept the original two applications but was also able to do many other things to aid the user in their mission. For instance, Jean tapped her watch, and the Butler’s presence was uploaded to her watch. The AI soon appeared on a hologram from the watch.

“There are changes made to your profile.” She reminded as she went through Jean’s watch.

“Show me.”

Voyager profile:

Name: Jean Turner

Current Dimension: Unknown

Current location: The Hub.

Mission completed: 1(Starcraft)

Follower: (0/2)

“Explain to me about the follower tab.” Jean understood the purposes of all the other tabs, but not the follower one. She had a guess, but she needed a confirmation.

“As the reward to a voyager who has completed one mission, you can now bring two living beings from any dimension you travel to. This number will double with every mission completed.”

Jean nodded. If she had this function from the very beginning then she could’ve brought Nova and maybe Kerrigan with her. That would mean two more combatants. Unfortunately there was no if. “Understood. Open the storage space and show me the reward.” She remembered something about red crystals as a reward.

As Jean soon found out, red crystals were, as their name suggested, crystals that were red. Jean toyed with the crystal in her hand for a few seconds before suddenly realizing her xel’naga celestial power grew. It was just a tiny bit, but it was enough to surprise her. Xel’naga power was pretty much confined, and was really tough to be enhanced. Glancing down, she realized the crystal was a bit smaller. The outer part was turned white and fragile. She ran her fingernails across the white part, and it simply melted away into dust. Jean realized what happened. She had just absorbed the energy out of the red crystal.

“Butler?” She said with a surprised look.

“Crystals contain a form of unidentified energy that can be absorbed by every single power structure ever existed. Due to this characteristic, they are also used as currencies in the Hub. Crystal colors include red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, and violet with red containing the least energy and violet containing the most. Each color holds ten times the power of those of the lower color.”

“Impressive.” Jean was really impressed. This was another thing that showed her how weak and insignificant she was. When the lowest power source of the Hub could make her stronger, she knew she should lay low for a while. “And the voyager gadgets?”

A stack of objects fell out of Jean’s watch and onto the ground in front of her. Jean knelt down on the carpetand picked up a pair of goggles. She looked at the Butler, waiting for an answer.

“Voyager tactical goggles.” The Butler explained as Jean put it over her eyes. “Contains night vision mode and heat vision mode. Can be used as telescope and microscope. Can be used as a recorder and a camera. Automatically identifies enemy targets. It is connected to my software so I can aid you in combat.”

Jean kept the goggles on while picking up a female body suit. Ignoring the Butler, she stripped down her ghost uniform and put the new suit on. It was a completely black uniform that covered most of her skin. The uniform itself took care of her upper and lower body. A pair of tactical black gloves covered her hands. A pair of shoes, black as well, were on her feet. A black cloak dangled behind her back. She stretched and realized the uniform fit her body perfectly.

“Voyager battle suit. Contains camouflage that can adapt with the surrounding and minimize the presence of the voyager. Can provide protection against most attacks, energy or physical. Moderate protection against high temperature. Moderate protection against low temperature. Moderate protection against corrosive materials. Maximizes the battle ability of the wearer.”

Now completely in black, Jean picked up a short stick. She was starting to wonder whether or not there was something in the gadgets that wasn’t pure black. There wasn’t.

“Be careful.” The Butler warned. “This is a voyager blade. Mentally connected to its user, this weapon can form any shape its user wants it to be. It is powered by crystals, and its power depends on its power source. The stronger the power source is, the stronger and more durable the weapon is.”

Jean took out a red crystal and sticked it into a slot in the handle of the blade. She reached out to the sword and imagined a sword, and the next second a red blade appeared in her hand. She scanned the weapon, and realized it was around the power of the psi blade of a zealot. It couldn’t even scratch her skin, but for a standard weapon powered by the lowest level of power source and given to a new recruit it was pretty impressive.

Nodding and turning off the weapon, Jean attached a holster on her belt specifically designed for this weapon. “And this?” She picked up a gun looking weapon and examined it.

“Voyager rifle. Powered by crystals. Effectiveness directly related to power source. Stopping power and firing frequency can be altered via mental connection.” The description slightly confused Jean, but she found out what the Butler meant as soon as she tried it. With her mind, she was able to change the mode of the rifle. One minute it was a sniper rifle that could fire a shot with impressive power but required quite some time to recharge, and the next second it was a machine gun, able to fire frequent shots that were slightly less effective. This time Jean threw the gun into her watch. It was just too big to be put onto her suit.

Looking over again to make sure there weren’t anything else, Jean walked to the entrance to her room. She stopped for a brief second before opening it and walking out.

Outside, a whole new world awaited her.