Waiting to Launch

We went onboard the ship next. It was surprisingly comfortable given the attention to detail necessary from the mechanics. It had a lounge, Command Deck, Crew Quarters, and Engine Room, plus a few other spaces whose purpose I didn’t follow. Chang-Su tried to assign me a bunk but I told him I wanted to wait and see if I was really into this new game. “ It’s still kinda soon, y’know? Back there, I was important. I could heal people. I was a leader Imagine if you got suspended from here for six weeks,” I explained and Chang-Su nodded. We went up to the bridge and I sat down to get ready for take off. “So where are we going?” I asked. Chang-Su blinked and shook his head. “Nowhere today. We’ll have to use the hyperspace system to plot a course through the warp fields, sell all the goods we bought on Tersa VII and then find some new cargo to sell. Plus we still have massive repairs to make throughout the ship,” he explained. I don’t think I hid my disappointment very well nor did Chang-Su seem to notice. “But…what do you DO in this game then?” I asked. “Oh we fly around plenty, but fighting is only a part of it. There’s more to ‘Starfight’ than just fighting. There’s an entire economy you can manage, planets to explore, people to meet…” Chang-Su blathered on as I suddenly realized that I’d made a huge mistake. The people who’d taken the time to learn a fictional language, to master a fictional mechanical device, and made cash in a fictional economy wanted me to join in their fantasy. But it was as big as my own, and I had no desire to have mine replaced.