“I was on a job, robbing this space station that was working with dimensional energies. The job went mostly as planned, I was in the hatch ready to spacewalk, but my helmet wasn’t on. I was still putting my gloves on when the hatch depressurized, and I was forced out with the rush of air. I was dying out in the cold when the station went nova, next thing I knew I was naked in a pitch-black room and not dead.” Seras finished explaining around the campfire.


    Someone raised a hand.


    “Yes, uh, Flint.” She said to the malnourished looking man with the slightly pointed ears. Her unexpected confrontation with Dustin had ended with her offering an explanation to the rest of the group.


    “So, you’re a criminal?” He asked bluntly.


    “Technically no.” Seras answered. “My world is in the late stages of societal breakdown, what little law enforcement there is wouldn’t bother with someone like me.”


    He frowned “So you’re not a criminal because none of your worlds guards wanted to arrest you for your crimes?”


    “Basically. Cops are cowardly bastards, little more than a gang with pretty uniforms and corporate backing. They mostly bully and rob the poor. So long as you don’t kill one of their own then they don’t really care what you do.”


    He exchanged a look with Dustin.


    Dustin cleared his throat. “The sad part is, I can see some truth to your words. But this ‘Merc work’, it wasn’t all robbery, right?”


    Seras frowned, “That’s hard to answer. For the most part Mercs are disposable tools of corporate espionage. Half my work was infiltrating secure locations to lift valuable data, that’s what the Volta job should have been. But sometimes its other stuff. Sometimes punks will try to kidnap and ransom VIP’s so I have to go in and rescue them. Other times its terrorist schemes that need to be handled on the DL. Sometimes it’s actual criminals, cannibals, illegal chop shops cutting people up, or just good old fashioned serial killers. Whatever pays the bills.”


    Petra raised a hand, “I’m still stuck on the station part, you said it like I should know what that is.”


    Seras blinked; she had thought that one was self-evident “Its big station hanging around in orbit.”


    “So, like a floating palace, like the one over Calcit?”


    “If its anything more than a twinkling dot on the horizon then we’re not talking about the same thing. I don’t know how well my translation ability works, but space stations are some 400 hundred kilometers in the air. In fact, they’re so high up they’re outside of the planet’s atmosphere, so no air.”


    There were shocked gazes around the fire, Seras saw there were more questions on their tongues and mentally settled in for a long night.


    Dustin cleared his throat. “I’ve heard of this, though he called them something else. His word was space citadels. He said that his people had sky ships so advanced that they could leave the world behind. Is that how you do it?”


    “Yup, took a rocket up. It was a long flight.”


    Dustin frowned “That word didn’t translate. What’s a rocket?”


    Seras frowned; how do you explain rocket science to people without electricity? “You guys don’t have guns, so I assume you use bows and arrows?” Dustin nodded. “Okay, so imagine an arrow, a big one as tall as a tower, that’s what flies us up.”


    The young man with the same smoldering skin as Dustin looked in awe. “Do your people build huge bows to launch them?” Dallas asked. He was a younger man with pitch black skin and burning embers for eyes like Dustin.


    Seras frowned “No, it flies under its own power.”


    “How?”


    “Explosions.”


    “You make explosions big enough to fly to space.”


    “Well actually yes, but that’s not how rockets work, its like one endless explosion pushing it upwards. Actually, if I had a projector, I could play you a video of space launches.”


    Dustin held his hand up to forestall more questions “We’re getting off track.”


    “Right, where were we?” Seras asked.


    “You just explained how you got here, but where were you, and how did you survive the bees?”


    Seras really didn’t want to talk about the Bees. “Well, when I woke up, I was naked in a pitch-black room.”


    “Were you bald?” Dustin interrupted.


    “What?”


    “Were you bald?”


    Seras frowned “No, I had all my hair. Why do you ask?”


    “Because the process is supposed to leave you bald as well as naked.”


    “Maybe I’m different.”


    He shook his head, his gold beaded hair braids waved about as he did so. “No, it happens to everyone. You’re not even supposed to have eyebrows. I know a Leonid Outworlder, he said that he was completely hairless, and Leonid’s are fifty percent hair.”


    “Hey” Petra protested.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Seras frowned. She had her hair from the beginning, did that make her transmigration special, or was it something else. She pulled up her ID and looked at the racial trait section.


    Biomechanical physiology.


    Maybe... “What about tattoos?” Seras asked probingly.


    Dustin rubbed his chin, “no, those stay with you. But only sometimes. And also, some scars.”


    “Why only some but not others?”


    “From what I hear the transmigration involves shunting a person into the astral. Sometimes it’s a summoning gone wrong, other times it’s a dimensional accident like yours. But the astral is a place of pure magic and no physical substance. So when you were forced out of your world your body ceased to exist.”


    “Then how am I still alive?”


    “Its got something to do with the soul. It can’t be destroyed like that. so instead of dying your soul traverses the astral until it gets pulled into another world. And since you can’t live as just a soul a new body is made from nearby magic. But just the organic parts, not hair or clothes.”


    But Seras’ body was mostly inorganic, so how did that work?


    “You said only some scars and Tats, why. What’s the difference?” Seras asked.


    This time it was the skinny looking Flint you spoke up “With magic healing almost any wound can be healed. Burned and melted flesh can be made right, diseased organs repaired, whole limbs regrown. But there are some wounds that go deeper.” He said. His voice was much like his namesake, flinty.


    He pulled at his shirt the showoff a nasty looking stab wound. “When bandits came out of the desert to attack my family’s ranch I stood with my Pa to hold them off until the adventures could arrive. We held them off, but I took an arrow to the gut. It pierced my liver, and I would have been dead if a servant of Healer hadn’t been with the adventures that day. She fixed my liver, cured my blood loss, and saved my life. But no amount of magic could heal the scar, because it wasn’t a scar on my flesh, but on my soul.”


    Seras considered the man. He looked so thin and weak, but now that Seras looked past that she saw a deep set determination. She could respect that. “How old were you?”


    He scowled “Twelve.”


    Dustin looked concerned, but kept whatever he was thinking to himself. “Some wounds are so bad they mark your soul, and become apart of you. As for the tattoos I find that generally only those with a deep meaning to their owners survive the process.”


    Seras looked to Biomechanical Physiology. “That tracks then, my hair’s not organic, but it’s a deep part of myself.” She looked to the men (and Petra) around her. They were an honest hard-working sort, and oddly enough Seras trusted them. “In the spirit of honesty, I wanna show you something, but you gotta promise not to freak out on me.”


    Dustin frowned, wrinkling his brow. “We promise.” He said slowly.


    “Are you sure you won''t freak?”


    He chuckled, “I’m sure. I’ve been around and I’ve met plenty of strange adventurers. I’ve even met a man with tentacles for arms.”


    Seras blinked, “Really.”


    He nodded “Some sort of essence power.”


    More questions for later. “Alright, can’t be weirder than that.” Seras said hopefully as she pulled up her sleeve to show off her arm. With a metal command she ordered the smart skin along her arm to split open, and with another command she opened up her arm compartment. Glowing blue lines along her body lit up, and she let her eyes unfucos until they lost their normal human look and became more camera like.


    Everyone around the campfire looked shocked, and the burning glow in Dustin’s eyes brightened.


    “By the gods.” One whispered.


    “She’s an automaton.” Another whispered.


    “One with a personal aura, I don’t think so. She’s got a real soul not just a magic matrix.”


    Petra grinned “Coool.” She said appreciatively.


    Everyone gave her concerned looks.


    “What, look at it. its like that guy with an enchanted arm from a suite of armor.”


    Dustin’s gaze was piercing “What are you?” he asked with horror.


    Seras couldn’t help herself “A Biomechanical cyborg, the pinnacle of engineering and technology.” She said with a manic grin, she even put a little distortion in her voice to sound a little more machine like.


    Everyone fell silent.


    The sounds of the night took over, bugs chirped, and the desert wind rustled the low bushes.


    Dustin cleared his throat. “I think we’re going to need some context. I find that with outworlders context goes a long way to explaining their weirdness.”


    Seras closed her arm. “My world is one that is far more advanced than this one. But its also dying, or maybe its already dead and we’re just too stubborn to die. I haven’t quite figured it out yet. To survive we needed to overcome the limitations of flesh, so we turned to something more resilient.”


    “Metal” Dustin said slowly. “You’re a machine.” There was an accusation in his tone.


    “Cyborg to be more precise. For clarity’s sake about 90% of me is mechanical, with just my brain, digestive, and reproductive organs remaining. Everything else is nonorganic, which includes my hair.”


    With a mental command her hair rose up and twisted itself into a mohawk then turned hot pink, before letting it return to her preferred color and style. “One of my Outworlder things involves my special physiology. I guess I was so intune with my chrome that it couldn’t make a body for me that wasn’t what I was used to.”


    They all stared with horror.


    “By the Gods” Flint cursed. “Why would anyone do this to themselves?”


    Seras turned her patented glare on him “Because there’s not really a choice. Its survival of the fittest, and evolution wasn’t working fast enough.”


    Flint looked like he wanted to say more, but Dustin cut him off. “While that is a pretty hefty revelation, we promised not to judge you.”


    Seras snorted “You can judge me all you’d like, I just didn’t want you to freak out. I’m already stressed enough trying to figure out how I’ll live in a society that reacts like you do.”


    “That’s fair.” Dustin said. “Back to where we left off you said you woke up in a dark room, where was it?”


    Despite their leader saying they were moving on Seras saw plenty of people didn’t want to move past the living machine women in their midst.


    “It was some sort of underground city. The place was massive. I was in the center on some sort of pyramid. I had to slowly work my way out of there until I came to a fissure in the wall.”


    “Was that where you found the bees?” Dustin asked.


    “No, that was after. I spent like half a day walking through some caves before I got to the bees.”


    “All while completely naked, or did you have some clothes and then lost them?” Petra asked.


    Seras scowled. “Naked, and also not the point. But yeah, after the caves I found the bee chamber and decided that the middle of the night was a perfect time for a swim.”


    Dustin glanced to Flint, “Sounds like an astral space connected to the labyrinth, damn lucky that space was connected at the time.”


    Flint nodded “Yeah, weren’t there any monsters, other than the bees?” he asked towards Seras.


    “Yeah, a pack of Cavern Lurkers, a Tunnel Charger, and an Earth Golem.”


    The shock and horror returned to their faces. Seras considered turning it into a drinking game.


    “A pack of iron rank monsters, a bronze rank, and a silver.” Flint said, biting off each word. “How are you even alive?”


    Seras frowned “The Lurkers weren’t hard to kill. Their heads caved in with one punch. The Charger was harder, but I had scavenged a knife, and it wasn’t exactly the brightest light bulb.”


    “Whats a light bulb?” Petra asked.


    One of the men whose name Seras had yet to learn elbowed Petra in the side. “The name says it all, its like a Mana lamp.” He scolded.


    “Then why not say that.” Petra complained.


    Seras frowned “Because we don’t have those. Do you guys use magic for lighting?”


    “Of course” the man said “What else would we use. Torches and glow-shroomes?”


    “If you don’t have mana lamps then how do you light things?” Petra asked.


    “With light bulbs” Seras said slowly.


    “Okay, but how do those work without magic?”


    “Electricity.” Seras said with exasperation.


    “Whats that?”


    She pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s the same stuff lightning is made out of. Unless you have magic lightning. Non-magic lighting.”


    “You bottle lightning?” Petra asked, her voice getting louder with each question.


    “We’re off track again.” Dustin stated. And everyone held their questions back. With a sigh he looked to Seras. “I take it yours is a world without magic then?”


    “Yes.”


    “Then that essence of yours, you picked it up in the astral space. Which one was it? A place like that would be the perfect environment for something sketchy like death or corruption.”


    Seras pursed her lips “I actually had it from before. It was the thing I was supposed to steal.”


    Flint coughed, “I thought you said it was a world without magic, how’s that possible.”


    “I don’t know, I don’t know how essences are made in the first place. Volta station was working in extra-dimensional energies, I think they somehow synthesized it.”


    And drink.


    Their eyes were wider than when she had opened her arm. Before Seras had been showing them something new and never before seen on this world. But this, it was like Seras just told them that everything they thought they knew was wrong. Like she had told them that down was up.


    “Wh-what essence” Dustin asked.


    “It said technology, but that wasn’t on the essence list.”


    “How do you have the essence list, you were naked when we found you? You had absolutely no way to hide that from us.” Flint asked sharply. His patience running thin after so many world-shattering revelations.


    “First off, I have a pocket space” Seras said smugly while summoning the portal like it still didn’t creep her out.


    The group stared at the hole into reality.


    “That’s not unheard of for Outworlders” Dustin said calmly, still trying to act like he had a handle on things.


    “And second, one of my racial traits gives me access to public records and divine repositories.”


    Dustin’s confident expression shattered. “Di, divine repositories.”


    “Well, not without permission. The ability mimics the net of my old world, so looking up things like essences is easy. Is it not supposed to be?”


    “What’s the net?” Petra asked.


    “The information superhighway. A grand repository of all mankind’s knowledge and a place where you can speak to anyone anywhere. A true marvel of science and engineering.” Seras said smugly.


    “What, what would anyone do with all that knowledge.” The man next to Petra asked.


    “Mostly porn, last I heard a good 60% of the net was porn related.”


    Dustin shook his head. “Alright, I’m calling it here. We keep getting sidetracked. Let’s go to bed and try this again in the morning.”


    There was a chorus of groans. And Seras knew plenty of people would be tossing and turning with questions. As the others got up and walked away she saw too many sidelong looks. Disgust, horror, fear, they all looked at her as if she were a freak. She didn’t know these people, but it hurt all the same.


    Seras glanced into the desert and considered her odds.


    “I think I’m gonna stay up a bit later.” Seras announced as she stood up.


    “Oh?” Dustin asked.


    “Yeah, I want to do a little more star gazing, we can’t see ours anymore and I never really appreciated how pretty they are.” Seras lied as she turned her back on the camp.