The officer on watch for the bridge of The Excalibur yawned. He was part of the skeleton crew assigned to it, though they were less a crew and more guards. The Avalon government refused to use the ship and also wouldn’t scrap it. Apparently, there had been issues on its maiden voyage, but the specifics were extremely classified. All plans related to it had been scrapped, and now it just sat in orbit of The Avalon, waiting for someone to care. Which meant he was stuck here guarding a very advanced top of the line ship that lay dead. It was better than fighting on the front lines, but that didn’t make the task any less tedious.

In his boredom, the man almost failed to notice the blinking light on the console in front of him. He turned to look and see what it was, but when he did, he found that it was in some language he didn’t understand. He jostled the console to see if it would fix the issue and shrugged when it didn’t work. It probably wasn’t important, after all, the ship had all sorts of strange quirks. The young man left the console to its own devices as he went to patrol the empty passages. On the screen he left behind blinked the words, ‘Incipit excitare.’

The Avalon

Gus knew that his physical body was floating in a tank somewhere in the Avalon, hooked up to complex life support systems. But his mind was free of that prison and was currently residing in one of a few communal virtual spaces for the Brains aboard The Avalon.

He was currently walking along a cobbled path in a park displaying a bizarre arrangement of plants from over a dozen systems. Plants that would normally never be able to coexist in the same environment were growing alongside each other in the fantastical garden. The wide branches of trees from various ecosystems provided a bounty of shade from the light of the sun. Streams of light just barely made their way through, gently dappling the path in front of him.

It was hardly the environment Gus had been expecting, but he supposed there was some sense to it. They might be entombed inside of machinery, but they were still human, and it had long been proven that people needed to go outside on the regular if they wanted to keep their sanity. And as it turned out, the brain had a hard time telling the difference between modern simulations and reality. Just one of the reasons why virtual spaces were typically very heavily regulated.

The path, it turned out, led to a small stucco building. The bright red shingles contrasted sharply with the gentle cream-colored paint of the walls. There was a certain rustic charm to it that appealed to Gus. He’d seen pictures of individual homes before but had never experienced it. The dome he had grown up in had only ever had apartments, and he was given to understand that was the state of things in the other domes of his homeworld.

He quickly closed the gap between himself and the building, finding himself at the large wooden double doors. They even had old-fashioned wrought iron reinforcements that lent them an almost medieval feeling. Not sure of what else to do, Gus grabbed one of the stylized and very heavy knockers that were on each door and knocked. The heavy clangs of metal rang out, and he let go and waited.

He did not have to wait long as the door swung open, revealing a hall painted in the same cream color as the outside. Gus stepped in, and the door gently swung shut behind him. The hallway was well lit in spite of the lack of an apparent light source, which seemed strange at first until he remembered where he was. Gus had to remind himself that this was a virtual environment and that it wasn’t that unusual to not have actual lights. If anything, the more rustic environment was the unusual thing.

Gus decided to think on the themes and peculiarities of the environment later and carried on down the hallway, not sure where he was going. The house apparently did know where he was supposed to go, and arrows in a gentle blue directed him through the maze of hallways.

It was a few minutes of walking before he was led to an open courtyard. An ornate marble fountain dominated the center of the space, and a variety of birds were either perched on or actively bathing in it. Flowers decorated the edges of the courtyard framing the mossy interior while vines climbed the surrounding walls.

Sitting on a marble bench across the courtyard was a young boy, no older than five or six if Gus was to guess. The boy was immersed in a book of some sort but looked up as he approached. “Welcome, Gustav, or should I call you Gus? I’m glad to see you’re adapting quite well to your new life so far.” the boy greeted Gus with cheer as he set down the book patting the spot on the bench beside him.

Gus was confused for a moment as to why the person he was meeting was so young-looking. Then he remembered his first conversation with Vivien about Brain candidates. The optimal candidates were typically very young. It was possible the boy before him had been inducted at the age he currently appeared as, and so preferred an avatar of that age.

He turned his thoughts from the appearance of the boy before him toward the purpose of his visit as he sat at the bench. “I was told I was to be apprenticed to someone called Theta and that this is where I would meet him. Is that you?” Gus asked.

The boy nodded, “Yes it is.” Suddenly he looked down and chuckled. “My apologies, I prefer this avatar when I’m by myself and forgot to change over. Let me switch over to a more aged version of myself. I find it makes conversations with Brains who converted later in life easier.” As he spoke, Theta’s avatar faded out, and a new, older-looking version of him faded in.

Theta, as it turned out, was reasonably striking in his older form, though he was clothed in a simple T-shirt and denim jeans of all things. His jawline was firm, and his eyes had a sharpness to them that contrasted his welcoming smile. Clearly, it was a somewhat idealized version of Theta’s older self, but Gus could hardly fault him for that. He might have done the same in the other Brain’s position, as it was he was comfortable with how he had looked before his transition and would likely keep it that way.

Theta stretched a little, “That’s better wouldn’t you say? Now that you’re here it would probably be best if we continued our conversation inside. My study is just this way.”

Gus voiced his agreement and followed Theta back inside the building. They didn’t go far before entering a study with a distinctly old-fashioned look to it. It had the same cream-colored walls as the rest of the house though it was difficult to tell given that they were almost entirely covered by overflowing bookcases. A large desk covered in holographic displays of the station’s goings-on filled the center of the room.

Theta sat down in the large leather chair behind the desk and swiped away the displays littering the surface. He indicated for Gus to sit, though no seats were apparent on the guest side of the desk. At first, Gus was puzzled and then realized he was expected to materialize a chair of his own choosing. When he thought about it, it made a lot of sense that you should choose the seating you were most comfortable with. He wasn’t sure what to select, so for now, he pulled up a firm wooden chair from the extensive catalogue and sat on it.

Once Gus had sat down, Theta began to speak, “First of all congratulations on surviving, it will be a week or two before we’re sure that you will remain mentally stable, but I have high confidence in you. Part of assessing your long term stability will be to start training you immediately. Normally I would assign you to one of the many Brains aboard this vessel to train under, but in your case I will be personally handling your training.”

Theta paused after that declaration before beginning again, “There are some things about your transition that differ from the standard and for now I will be keeping those to myself. However, I will be informing you once you’ve passed the initial stages of your training. In the meantime I would ask that you do not make contact with any other Brains. You will have plenty of opportunity to do so after your initial training, however, for the next two weeks of real time you will be shadowing me and performing assignments at my discretion. Do you understand?”

Gus nodded slowly as he thought about the situation, “I’m guessing that you don’t want others to know that I’ve had some form of non-standard transition then? And if I talk to any other Brains that they’ll find out somehow?”

Theta nodded, “I’m glad you’re quick on the uptake. In time I will teach you how to mask your irregularities, but for now I would ask that you build a firewall that refuses all Brain connection requests other than mine. I would do it myself, but I cannot due to said irregularities. I have a significant amount of leeway on these sorts of things so while some might be suspicious they won’t have any ability to act on those suspicions.”

Gus nodded and delved into the software interfaces for his mind. Vivien had shown him how to do it with his implant, and he was surprised to see how much more complex everything was now that he had the full Brain link attached. He found his firewall and modified it as Theta had specified before pulling his consciousness out and back into virtual. He sent a sample of what he’d done to Theta to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.

“Good job,” Theta said approvingly as he examined Gus’s work. “I’m glad to see Vivien has taught you well. I had a conversation with her before we left and she had high praise for you. Despite a relatively low compatibility score you’ve proven to be a remarkable find. It just goes to show that we still have a number of things to improve. Now, let’s begin.”