Ragnarok

Chapter 16 - Project: Sephirot

After Micah and Mia had spent the rest of Valentine's Day together, alternatively pampering one another and discussing the upcoming mission, they kissed each other goodnight and Mia logged off back to her room. Though they did sometimes visit each other's actual rooms, physical sex without the intent to reproduce was somewhat frowned upon in the colony, so they largely kept it to the virtual realm. It all felt the same, anyway, and the last thing Micah wanted at this point was to accidentally get Mia pregnant.  Especially since the two of them had differing ideas on whether that would be a curse or blessing.

As he mused to himself, Micah brought up Rei's basic OS. The little blue-haired avatar appeared in his vision, invisible to everyone but himself. Fortunately, the asteroid they were floating on wasn't real, either. Nor was the hologram of David Bowie behind him, who had switched back to the artist's own catalogue. Currently, there was a large collection of couples swinging around each other to "Let's Dance."

"Good evening, Master," Rei said primly, wearing a blue-and-gold qi pao dress, with a long skirt slit high to show off her legs. "Did you and Mia enjoy your evening together?"

Her similarly bright blue hair was in a traditional bun, held in place by long, golden pins. This was just the most basic level of interaction with her; the more cartoonish style to her hair and makeup was a visual cue to tell him that her main consciousness was still elsewhere. He saw he had a few e-mails, and decided he needed to catch up on a few things while he was winding down from the date on Stardust Station.

"Quite a bit, thank you," Micah said automatically, even though at this level Rei was supposed to have no more awareness than a 21st century smartphone. He dismissed the illusion of the asteroid, and found himself back in his own room. "Is Valhalla back online yet?"

"The main servers are up, and there was apparently a very large update recently, but none of the new quests have opened up yet," Rei reported to him, the avatar opening up a wall panel and ordering Micah a glass of water. "You appear dehydrated, Master. You could use a shower as well. You seem ... well exercised."

"Indeed I am," Micah said sardonically, accepting the glass of water from the containment field. "Good thing I get to relax in low G with my waifu, huh?"

"As you say, Master," Rei replied. This version of Rei couldn't really pass the Turing Test, but she was good as a news reader, at least. She tried to transition back to that role. "Would you like to hear more about the Valhalla update?"

Micah was scanning the E-mail titles in his HUD while she spoke. There were several from Tony and his other Valhalla buddies, including something from the Overmind servers marked URGENT. Something about a Project: Sephirot.

He decided to check that out once his head was a bit more clear, and waved at Rei to continue. She nodded, her eyes switching from gold to red momentarily before she continued speaking.

An odd glitch, that.

"The most obvious update is that there is now a new zone that connects the nine already-known worlds, a zone that is a single tree that reaches all the way up to orbit and into the other dimensions," Rei recited, waving her hand and pulling up a holographic representation of Midgard, with the gigantic tree sticking up out of it like the stick of a lollipop. The fact that the raspberry-blue ball of candy it was connected to was the Planet Earth itself spoke volumes about how tall that tree really was.

As Micah looked closer, he could see some smaller spheres orbiting the gigantic tree, eight in total. Each of them was color-coded a different shade, with a little name trailing behind them. "What are these?" he asked, pointing with the same hand that was holding his water.

"Eight miniature worlds, or moons, that appeared at the same time," Rei replied, poking the tree with her own finger and causing it to pause. "Each has a portal to one of the other Nine Known Worlds; Asgard, Niflheim, Jotunheim and so on. These can be used as launch points to approach different areas of the Yggdrasil, though we know where the dragon came from, and it's down here, at the roots."

"So Midgard, the big ball of colorful candy, is the ninth, and all nine worlds are spinning at the whim of this giant lollipop stick of a tree."

"Not sure I'm following your metaphor, Master, but I think I agree," Rei replied. "The approach could be made from any of the worlds, assuming we can find the right portal to take us there. The approach from Asgard, as might be expected, seems to be the most fiercely guarded by the enemy's defenses, and Midgard itself would be the obvious way to approach. Except ..."

"Let me guess, the root system has turned the ground underneath this giant tree into a snake's nest. And in a nest that big, you'll probably find one hell of a beastly snake."

"The Midgard Serpent itself," Rei replied. At this point a large, holographic representation of the Serpent appeared over the V.I.s left hand. It was the same black dragon that had annihilated their party a few days before, slithering through its den. Micah couldn't help but glare at the serpent, staring right into the red pinpricks of its eyes as if the hologram could actually see him. "This is a promotional holo, but we can probably assume that the Serpent will be even more fierce within its home lair."

"I'm sure there are other guardians as well," Micah said. "I'm trying to remember the tale of Ragnarok ... wasn't there something about a fire giant, and a big bad wolf named Fenris? Like, 'swallow Earth in a single gulp' big?"

"You are correct," Rei replied. "Though their version of Fenris appears to be a bit more reasonably sized."

A picture of a blue-furred wolf appeared over her right hand, menacing a relatively tiny group of human beings. At least they were actually visible on the same scale. "There are more promotional holos available, but nothing on what abilities they may have."

"We'll skip that for now, then," Micah said, standing up and opening the side panel that led to his bathroom. "I've got some emails to read, anyway. You can go back into standby mode, Rei. Let me know when the rest of you gets back from whatever she's doing."

"As you will, Master." Rei bowed in the Japanese style and disappeared.

Micah went into the bathroom, not bothering with the AR this time, and sat himself on the toilet while he pulled up the memo from the Overminds. He read in silence for a few moments, then froze, and re-read that last sentence a couple of times.

The Overminds had selected him for Project: Sephirot, which he quickly ascertained was the title they were giving the rendezvous mission with Ragnarok. Instead of the hydroponics bay, tomorrow he'd be going over to Robotic Manufacturing, and getting his consciousness copied into a robotic clone of himself. Until the mission started, the clone would remain on standby; once it was on-planet, it would act independently, and at any time Micah could jack into the clone's body and either observe or assume direct control. Further information would be provided at the manufacturing bay.

At first, he was just stunned. Then, a grin spread slowly across his face. Not only had he discovered this rogue world as it was entering their system, now he was going to be on the first team to land on an actual exoplanet. Or his clone was, anyway.

"First Contact, here I come," Micah whispered.