Veuce was the youngest of her siblings by a large margin. They were already ancient before she'd taken her first steps, wise in the ways of the world and its secrets in a way Veuce despaired of ever being. She felt a kinship with Ammas’ newest children: Humanity. They were young and bumbling like her. Unable to grasp the essence of the world in the way their older siblings did as though they were breathing. Thus, Veuce found her purpose and became the frame through which humanity would understand and interact with the world. Thusly, the frail race of humanity gained power and knowledge.

*****

There was something about knowing you were in a simulation that just made some things disappointing. When Aiden decided to go to space, he, like any other earthbound, looked forward to looking down on the blue jewel that was earth. Granted, it wasn’t very blue and jewel-like anymore—a few too many brown patches and steel megatropolises made that difficult—but damn it if the first-ever taken photo from space didn’t leave an impression.

In an age where the re-terraforming project on Mars was nearing completion and asteroid prospectors kept getting in the headlines for finding the next big gold mine (though only one of those was literal), every kid dreamed of going to space. Most didn’t, but Aiden now had. So, he wanted to look down on Earth with his own two eyes. Imagine his dismay when he found out that not only would he not get a chance to do so, he would spend his whole trip up the Orbital Cable and through the ISS already in his pod as some kind of glorified cargo. Never mind that neither of those had actual windows and their viewing screens were of poorer quality than his pod's virtual viewing platform. Aiden wanted the romance of it all.

Standing in what felt like reality, looking down on the mottled blue globe with flowing white moats of clouds that was the modern-day earth, Aiden was sulking. Where was his body now? On the cable? Being shuttled through the ISS? Was he already on the CS Abeona? It didn’t make any difference to him now living in this virtual world, but Aiden couldn’t help but wonder.

He could see he wasn’t the only one. The virtual viewing platform was only one instance of many and the one he was in accommodated somewhere around a hundred other people. The debriefing said there’d be some kind of lift-off party at 20:00 GMT and until then the passengers were free to mingle, enjoy some free virtual hors d'oeuvres, and watch the view. Aiden had only partaken in the latter two options, but others? They were mingling up a storm.

There were little groups spread out through the viewing platform clustered around tables or standing near the edge to get a better look. There were fewer of the latter considering the lack of any safety barrier; it was entirely unnecessary, but, well, it all felt so real. Which was the subject of almost every conversation Aiden overheard and inevitably, they would all circle back to: “I wonder how my body’s doing”, “I hope nothing happens to it”, “Hey, do you think we’ve reached space yet?”. Aiden didn’t want to participate—he’d finally freed himself from all that drama—but his thoughts kept on asking those same useless questions.

Aiden hailed down a drone carrying hors d'oeuvres and grabbed a few. Heck if he knew what any of the colourful, dainty confections were supposed to be, but they sure tasted good. A little sweet and a little tart and a lot of other stuff he did not have the culinary aptitude to describe. His sister would be so disappointed if she knew. Luckily, Aiden didn’t linger long on that poisonous train of thought as an announcement helpfully intruded in on it.

“Ladies, Gentlemen, and others welcome aboard the CS Abeona! This is your captain speaking, though I’ll admit the Abeona deserves the honours just as well if not more so.”

The captain appeared floating just a few feet out and above the viewing platform as he addressed the passengers, the reflected light of the earth illuminating him. He was an impressive sight in his tailored flight suit and well-groomed features. Aiden wondered if he was hired based on his appearance, the ship really could run all on its own.

“All passengers have boarded and all systems have been cleared for launch. We are now accelerating away from Earth as you can see if you just look past me.”

The Captain gestured to the massive earth below and Aiden saw what he hadn’t noticed before; it was slowly getting smaller.

“The feed you are seeing is taken with the ship's own cameras, so you are seeing a real-time view of our departure from Earth, and soon, our Solar System. We will steadily accelerate as we approach the Oort cloud but as we remain in occupied space, we will maintain a slower pace. There will be an announcement as we pass the orbit of Pluto but as we will not be making any near approaches there will be no live feed for any of the planets, though do note that your stateroom libraries contain virtual viewing platforms all passengers are free to visit at their leisure, including views for all our home systems major bodies.

“After we have reached the edge of our solar system, we will fully accelerate to our warp point and we will truly be on our way to our new home. If you wish to have any communications, it will have to be before this point as none will be possible thereafter. To be clear, it will take a minimum of ten years to reach this point and you will be notified multiple times, well in advance of this cut-off. The full flight plan is available to all of you within your stateroom library. Now!” The captain said with a clap and a wide smile. “Your full virtual suites are open to you. If you wish to ask questions, there will be a question and answer session in one hour for which you can submit your questions to now. Those of you uninterested are now free to leave this instance at your leisure.”

The captain wasn’t lying. Aiden summoned his passenger menu with thought and saw his previously greyed out stateroom option was now available to him. He didn’t hesitate. Aiden selected the new option and blinked out of existence, the slowly retreating earth forgotten behind him.

*****

The stateroom was what you would expect of a five-star executive hotel suite equipped with a full kitchen, a lounge with a roaring fire already lit in the dark granite and marble fireplace, and a separate bedroom with a canopied bed. This was not to mention the study, the library and swimming pool that was also supposed to be somewhere in all of this. Aiden ignored the virtual luxury in favour of his menu and the new options available to him. There were the viewing platforms the captain mentioned, various community rooms, public pools, restaurants and all other manners of recreational locations that could be virtually reproduced and made available to him. Again, Aiden ignored all of this.

Nothing could compare to the first option.

Program (Game): Vos Kingdoms

Just a few pale letters in a simple blue box. Aiden could have wiped a tear away at the sheer beauty of it all. He didn’t, but he couldn’t have selected the option fast enough

Enter Vos Kingdoms?

“Yes.” He said it with a massive grin, not noticing that he was speaking at all.