Jorna had been playing Ethereal Space for the last two weeks, mostly killing things by day and drinking in a local bar by night. He had never really played any video games. But now he was 35 years of age and had recently decided to retire his occupations as a linebacker in the NFL. He had found his life to be excruciatingly boring without the thrill of game day, the daily practice, and a general goal to life towards. Even though bored as he may be, Jorna had no need to work another day in his life, where others spend their outstanding salaries on fast cars and expensive houses, he had only bought a very modest penthouse and a luxury car that didn''t cost a fortune and ran on electricity instead of fossil fuels. Not very flashy as his team mates had teased him with on numerous occasions but enough for him as he didn''t see a need to spend all his hard-earned cash on a car that practically burned money to move forward. So, without the need to make money and without the thrills and goals of a professional athlete he had been sitting at home, watching Oprah rehashes all day long, which after 50 years and the death of said main character was still going strong. He had heard of Ethereal Space in one of the advertisements in between, and had set his popcorn aside to call with his agent, letting him know he needed a life support POD and a copy of the game. A day later and some cautionary words from his agent about brains going deep cooked, he was doing one of the most boring things in his entire life. The aptitude test had bored his brains out and except for the obvious high aptitudes in strength, speed and agility, and some less obvious good scores on persistence and spatial awareness he had laughed out loud when he saw the intelligence test and just began pressing buttons. Jorna hadn''t opened a book in 25 years and hadn''t done anything but cheat his way through mandatory courses so he could play football. He had never really thought about the consequences until he had retired and couldn''t understand the manual for his beamer. Having to ask someone else to install it for him was not really a problem as he had money enough. The fact that bothered him was that he didn''t understand most of the words in there and that made him feel stupid and dependable, something he had not felt in all of his life. Clicking his way randomly through the test had given him an aptitude of 1.5 and he wasn''t even sure if that was just plain luck or the minimum.
As he selected his own name and his own face and build, he looked at the mirror image with some curiosity. He was extremely tall, standing a solid two meters and five centimeters into the air, he had been asked why he didn''t play basketball so many times it annoyed him to even look at a basketball by now. His broad shoulders and heavy chest loomed over a littlebelly that used to be a rock-solid six-pack but had suffered after his retirement. His legs were still massive and his face was small, with a permanent half smiling expression, a normal, but slightly round nose and sparkling eyes that seemed to look as if they found something extremely funny, complemented by a sun browned skin full of sun induced freckles. The big flappy ears and his fuzzy, thin hair on his head, combed to the side delivered an image that was in stark contrast with his body. You wanted to hug his head for being cute yet ugly, forcing some, a little too eager, to scream out things like "ahh, look how cute you are!", while his body promised to break you into mush if you took another step in its general direction. It had been ammunition for many an opponent to taunt Jorna and get him off his game that in turn had led to a lot of ''accidental'' injuries in his opponent''s. He had been a ruthless tackler and was paid handsomely for it. Even after the decline of popularity of the sport due to an uprising of E-sports and the fact that the younger audience felt more like playing games then watching sports, he had still been one of the best in the NFL before his slow decline due to age and injuries.
He had picked the normal start as he wasn''t really feeling too confident in his skill set in this new world. Before he even noticed that he had made the final decision of the most boring thing in his life so far, everything went dark. He had been placed on a planet that had both a lot of stone as it had a lot of oxygen. That was it really, the whole planet seemed to be one great mountainous area, with grey clouds and slight breeze touching his face with a not too uncomfortable temperature. Depressingly mundane really. How it even had an atmosphere he didn''t know, as he didn''t really know what was necessary for an atmosphere to form, but the fact that he hadn''t seen a tree since he had arrived two weeks ago but was still breathing fine, made even him suspect he was missing something crucial. The first week had been a challenge, dropped in the middle of nowhere with only a spacesuit. He had walked for kilometers on a kind of sloping terrain without finding so much as a patch of grass before he finally spotted something that looked like a bird. Nesting in a circle of small rocks it looked like it was snoozing, its feathers not tightly pressed against its body as he was used to from birds on earth, but more standing up. It seemed like the white bird was permanently cold, but still had a lot of similarities with a seagull. He grabbed a rock and threw it with some considerable strength, decapitating the bird instantly and rewarding him a small plastic card that gave 20 credits. What he was supposed to do with it he didn''t have a clue but at least it was something else then walking. That was before another bird dove from the sky, observed the dead of his apparent life companion, squealed in rage and flew off. Jorna had felt kind of bad after that, but had not expected it to bring his ten best friends to bring vengeance upon him. Barely surviving the onslaught of beaks and feathers he had won the battle and collected another two hundred and twenty credits. That was how his first week went, walking all day, fighting enraged birds that tried to defend their breeding grounds and then walking some more. When he finally arrived at a small town that seemed to be inhabited by miners, they had first tried to scare him off as he was covered in blood and feathers. He had finally explained what had happened and after they heard his story they begrudgingly let him stay in the local hotel.
Of course, prices where three times higher than the usual rate, and he had to go back every day to hunt enough credits to stay the night, but it had been fun. The rhythm and the thrill of killing, the need to earn credits, and the goal he had, it all made the tedious work of killing the birds barehanded a lot less tedious. He also noticed that the longer he stayed in the hotel, the more people asked him to do small stuff for them, fetch them a ration, kill birds for the local food processor, help safe a couple of miners that got themselves stuck. The tasks were benign and rather uneventful, but he did get enough credits from it that he could safe some. Something else that happened was that the town was starting to warm up to him, the price of the hotel was gradually going down and people started talking about how uneventful the planet really was. Most were here only because of the mining, and none were born on this planet. As he spent his next week playing in the local town, he made it a habit to drink some of the local brew every night in the only bar in town. That was where he was right now, sipping something that looked like beer, and thinking about what had happened the last two weeks. The bartender had been the same ever since he had first arrived in the town, a plump looking female, with pitch black hair and green eyes. She seemed to be angry all the time, and when you ordered a beer, she would slam the glass down on the bar like she tried to break it. Hell, bend on doing the worse job possible if it came to bar tending but he couldn''t care less. If he had to bar tend in a town of around a hundred-people strong, where over half the population were miners, who were definitely not very well mannered, he would have smacked a glass on the bar for good measure to.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
At the moment though something strange was happening, the bar was still empty as the miners had not yet come back above ground, and the bartender seemed to be talking to herself. He leaned in a little closer, trying to listen to what she said, this might be something interesting. He heard the woman''s voice for the first time since arriving and it was quite the shock. While her appearance gave her something of a rough outlook, a little like she wanted to crush your skull between two rocks, her voice was soft and gentle. Even if she would curse you with the worse things possible, it would still sound like the rustling of feathers. He leaned in a little more and listened intently if only to hear that beautiful voice a little better. "… So two parties have landed on the designated planet simultaneously? Any survivors?" She was silent for a while before continuing "That is fortunate, continue with the plan, the chances are low but not low enough that we should abort. I have faith in designated user." she was silent again, and even though he thought he was dreaming he saw a small smile coming from the lips of the stern and ruthless bartender "I know I''m biased, but as long as you do not give me reason to abort, the plan will go forward. Are all systems ready?" silence before she gave a final nod and with a "Affirmative" seemed to phase back into reality.
As the bartender woke up from her trance like state, Jorna forgot he was listening in on her and caught her eye before hastily returning to his beer, whistling a small tune, pretending he was enjoying the scenery. He heard her footsteps come closer, and he took a sip of his beer, hiding his face behind the glass, eyeing the terror on short legs making her way over to him, her green eyes prying into his skull, brows slightly crunched up. He was going to get into trouble... She started talking to him in that sweet voice that was in no way a reflection to the face she was giving him "Hello Traveler, I couldn''t help but notice that you were listening in to a private conversation I was having. I, for one, find this extremely rude, but as you have been my only customer this week who hasn''t tried to touch me indecently, I will let it slide if you could help me with a little something." Jorna sighted with relief, thank god it gives him a quest, even he was afraid she would give him a good pounding. As he breathed out and put the glass between the two of them on the bar she continued, giving him a very small and sincere smile. It was the most ominous thing he had ever seen. "I have a problem you see, in one of the bigger cities of the Federation a man named James Wright has been sending me messages with the most disturbing of news. But sadly, I cannot leave my post here as it will encourage these barbarians that everything is free and I fear I might comeback robbed from everything I have. Would you be a darling and travel to the great City of Utek, find a contact of mine and help this person find and assist James in whatever way necessary? Thank you so much!" Jorna looked at her a little confused. Normally he had to accept the quest, but now it had accepted it for him. Together with the message that he will have to be there within a few weeks, and that the arrival of her contact could be anywhere between a day and five months after. It also stated that he should be prepared for certain surprises and that any other quest can only be received if it did not interfere with this current quest. Holy mothballs, what did he put his head into?
But instead of feeling fucked over his eyes started to get back some of the shine it had lost, killing birds was all nice and fun but what goal was it, really? Survival? This, this was something epic, he could feel it. The way this bartender had been speaking to the unknown entity was in no way comparable to the wool heads that where around in these parts. He didn''t know why she was here, but he definitely knew she wasn''t just a simple bartender. He looked her in the eyes and said "Any ideas what the fastest way to this Unek is?" he gave her a small smile and he could swear he could hear a little sigh of relief coming from her. "If you walk around ten kilometers to the south, there is a space station where you can book a flight. It will take around ten days, but they will have ways for you to improve yourself onboard so that you don''t go bored, and maybe there are some quests there too, or space pirates if you are lucky. I will see what I can do." she winked, walked up to the register and pulled out 200 credits. "This is all I can miss at the moment, I''m sorry, but I do appreciate the way you are handling the situation. The flight will cost 1000 credits. So, I suggest farming the birds outside." she looked at his bloodied space suit. "but I think I don''t need to tell you that" She smiled again before going through a backdoor and into a storage facility, not returning. He sat there for a moment, smiling and drinking his beer, then he got up, a little more spring in his step. He had finally found something thrilling, something to work towards, a goal. He opened the door and started walking to the south.