Ten Zero

"I smell bad," I think, and a brief gust of wind carries a scent. "Ko-lee smells too." I turn my head to look at my traveling partner, and her eyes no longer contain the fury and rage that had been our companion for nearly the entire journey. Instead, they were dull; the lids of the eyes less open, the alert glances less frequent. Exhaustion had tagged in, and I could feel it's tendrils pulling at me just as much as they were at Ko-lee. "Yea, go figure that sleeping in a hole in the ground, then hiking for basically 16 hours straight might drum up a little tiredness," I think sarcastically. The hideaways were damp and cold, and they offered minimal cover from the elements. They had food, but it was dry, bland, and often rotten. Had this journey been under better conditions, it still would have been rough. "Plus, Ko-lee's been crying now in her sleep. Not that she says anything in the morning, if she even knows she's doing it. At least some part of her body is addressing the backlogged emotions. It's not conducive to a good nights rest though."

After the moment of tenderness nearly a week prior, Ko-lee had generally been warmer, but it was like changing from a freezer, to the cold of a room temperature granite countertop. Still not warm by any means, but less likely to cause physical damage over time. "Plus, I doubt she's ever going to be a warm bubbly person. I'm not really sure that's part of her MO," I think, watching her march forward with a relentless and unwavering determination. For most of the trip, I had no idea where we were in relation to Cetus, because the MMO looter shooter never bothered to model the hundreds and hundreds of miles of unused forest and plains we had been marching through. "It would be insane people behavior if they had. Like, even in the Plains of Eidolon or Orb Vallis, there's just tons of 'space' that isn't really used. No one wants a game with miles of nothing, that's how you get Starfield. And the mission nodes are all proc gen tilesets. Even if a tile could be located somewhere on the planet, that's like... 2 city blocks of space or something. On the whole earth. I would never find it. Also, it wouldn't even really help me find my way around, because you can't go from mission node to Cetus without first going back to your orbiter. So really, unless we walk straight onto the plains, I don't think I'll ever really know how to get around other than vague cardinal directions. Not that... we have anything to go back to."

"At least we're almost done," I think, my eyes turning back towards the horizon and locking onto the somewhat small tower in the distance. "That's definitely the Unum," I think, trying to discern details on the skyscraper-esque building sat in the water. In the game, the Unum was mostly a backdrop; although during New War, you did have an opportunity to move through it, in a somewhat destroyed state. Now though, I could see it in reality, even if from a distance, and my brain was struggling to fathom the Orokin age structure. "It's just... more than anything I've seen before. The thumper was the biggest, but it was dark, and the whole event was... scattered. The kubrow was very real, but at the end of the day, wasn't much bigger than a wolf. There's tons of weird animals out there, so my brain was happy enough to categorize it under 'weird dog'. But this... a real, genuine, Burj Kalehfia ass building covered in gold and... bone, or whatever. Just sitting off the coast of Cetus. You could never make a scale prop. But there it is, with all the people going back and forth to scrape out it's insides for dinner." My eyes watched the little red and green and yellow dots float lazily about in the sky, moving back and forth from the building to somewhere on the coast, like some sort of symbiotic bug.

We had been tracing along the beach, headed straight towards Cetus. If all went according to plan, we'd be sleeping in a real, genuine bed by some point tonight. But I felt like I had been watching the tower refuse to get any bigger for hours now. "Everything is just so... big. Comparatively, I guess. Like, back of napkin, if we've been walking for two weeks, and we were actively moving for 14 hours a day, conservative, and an average human can walk 3 miles per hour, then that puts us at 42 miles a day. 42 times 10, plus 42 times 4 is... 588 miles? Isn't it like 500ish miles from san fran to LA? So, I mean, that's not short, but also, that is technically a day trip in a car. Like 8-10 hours depending on traffic. If we flew, that would be even less, like an hour and a half. Compared to the whole planet, we've barely gone anywhere BUT BUT. This is the Warframe universe, so we have the whole solar system plus some extras? There's people on Mars, like Baro was, and people on Venus like Fortuna and stuff. In the game, you just click a few times and teleport between planets like whatever. You have a spaceship - no, you have two spaceships! And you just woosh right on over in 5 seconds. It was just a picture of a solar system, really. But now, I actually have to travel those distances. Even with the solar rails, that's..."

I could feel my brain throwing it's hands up in the air after trying to conceptualize the distances between locations. 'Big' is all it managed to begrudgingly come up with. "As big as real solar system, I guess. ...Although, this is the real solar system, isn't it?" I think, my eyes inadvertently glancing up towards the sky. "It's really real. Logically, there's always that small chance that I'm in a coma or a dream or full dive VR or something, but that's always been true for reality. For all intents and purposes, I'm here, now. I can't even remember the last time I thought 'is this real, question mark'. I just... live here, now." My eyes come back down from the heavens and land on Ko-lee, and I open my mouth. "We will be in Cetus by the end of the day? You sure about that?" I give a smirk, but inside, I just feel a warmth of pride, and the words felt smooth coming from my lips. There had been hardly any corrections in the past few days on pronunciation and grammar, and there were very few words that Ko-lee would say that I'd fully miss out on. I knew that I still held an accent, one that made me stick out (as most people learned Origin as a first language), but by and large I'd be able to hold full conversations with people without getting a look of confusion back.

"Not if you don't pick up the pace, we won't," Ko-lee said back, and although her facial expression didn't change, I could pick up on the friendly tone in her voice. "It will likely be night when we get there. But people arrive in Cetus at all times, day and night. The Unum protects the land, and lets people pass or not when they move through her shield depending on their thoughts, so there's no need to have guards around the entire city. Not that it would be possible, it would be way too much manpower." I briefly consider her words, trying to get an idea of the true size of Cetus, before it strikes me. "Wait, the Unum can read minds?" My eyes turn back towards the tower in the distance, it's size a fraction larger than before. "Yup," she says, but there's an apprehension in her eyes. "Ko-lee?" I ask, slightly worried about the intrusive building. "What's wrong?" Ko-lee just sighs, and says, "Welllll. It's been a few years since I've been to Cetus. The last time I was here, I was with Sanza. I wasn't a kid, erp yas, but I was compared to Konzu. I was by no means a Chief. And now, not only do I have to play the part of Chief, but I have to do it for a settlement that no longer exists."

"I need to tell Konzu what happened, and I'm not particularly excited to... talk... about it. It'll be a trial by fire with the worst news possible. And then I'll be done. There's not really a goal beyond that point. It's a door that I don't want to approach, open, or pass through." Ko-lee's face doesn't change through any of this, but I can see the tension in her shoulders as she dances around the uncomfortable subject. "Well, we will talk to the conclave. That's step one. Then, we will need a job, so we're no homeless bum," I say, lost in my mind as I lay out our rough sketch of a plan. "We'll get jobs as skinners." Ko-lee just rolls her eyes, and says, "cool, and then we get gilded lung and die." The profession that involved removing the flesh from the Unum for sale and consumption had a chronic disease that accompanied many of it's long term workers; an issue called gilded lung. When harvesting the flesh from the building, occasionally orokin gold dust would be sprayed into the air, and after years of exposure from breathing this dust in, you'd get a chronic cough and breathing issues. Not fatal on it's own, but unpleasant, and allowed for other diseases to take root more easily.

"No, we are not going to work that long. We just need a roof over our head," I say, shaking my head. "So then, what's the plan?" Ko-lee inquires, her sharp yet tired gaze making it's way over to me. "Well, I do not know yet. But! We can keep making plans. There is no need to worry about not having a plan until we actually run out. And if there is one thing I am good at, it is making plans. I am always in my head," I say confidently, nodding my head as if in agreement with my own words. "That's odd," Ko-lee says, her gaze still locked on me. "You never seem to stop talking." I just gasp in faux shock, before a smile breaks out on my face. "What can I say, it is a new language! It is fun- oh, so, fun is when you do a thing that makes you happy," I say, straightening my back as though I was giving a presentation. "I know what fun is," Ko-lee says, rolling her eyes at my antics. "Oh, my mistake. I only ever see you worrying about things, so I was not really sure if you knew of fun," I say, a grin creeping across my face despite my best efforts to play it straight.

Ko-lee just scoffs. "You worry all the time! I've never seen anyone worry about so many small things!" I shake my head in mock disappointment. "Ko-lee," I say, "I only worry about stuff I can control. In this case, that is all the small stuff. You worry about everything, even things way down the line. You need to take things one step at a time, and only worry about the next step and maybe the one after that. Not the fifty step. You can not see the future, no one can." My eyes land on the Unum, and I quickly correct myself, "Well, you can not, anyways. You do not know where step fifty will be. What if that step is actually a hop over a branch? What is that step takes you through a river, and you need to swim? Who can know? The actions you take now will affect everything that follows. So just focus on the here and now. Be aware that the journey will continue, plan to take step 50, but don't obsess over it. Only worry when you get there."

There is silence between us for a moment, I briefly worry that what was supposed to be a fun and lighthearted faux lecture may have turned into a real one, but before I get the chance to apologize, Ko-lee speaks up. "You talk about steps a lot." I just shrug, and say, "been doing a lot of stepping recently. Some might call me a step expert." Ko-lee just nods her head, a faint smile on her lips. "Fair enough," she says, and once again, a silence falls between us, this time feeling more comfortable and less awkward. I look over at her, and while she still had a look of determination and focus in her eyes, I was pretty confident there was a touch less stress being held in her shoulders. "Alright, not quite a perfect 10 from all judges, but my point still stands, even I hadn't been intending to make it. She worries too much, and she'll worry herself into an early grave if she's not careful. She needs to be less solid brick wall and more flexible timber when a storm hits." I think, just before my eyes catch onto a subtle blue shimmer in the air. I barely have a moment to process what I'm seeing before we walk right past it, and I feel an invasive, ethereal hand explore every inch of my body and mind, scanning me inside and out. There's no emotion to it, and it feels more like a TSA pat down than anything, but it's so thorough that the moment it finishes, I can't help but shiver. At that same moment, I hear what appears to be a faint whisper, but a glance over to Ko-lee shows that her mouth is shut. Whatever the words are, they're gone before I get a chance to understand them.

I turn back to look at the shield, now that I'm looking at it, it's clear what it is. A wall of energy stretching across both into the water, as well as off into the forests in the distance. As my eyes trace the barely subtle curve, the shield blends into the blue background of the sky, before eventually fading from view entirely at range. While the same effect happened to the shield in the game, that shield was solid, to prevent players from passing in and out of the world map. This one was possible to pass through, and like most things, didn't match up one to one with the video game version. "Trippy," I murmur in English, before glancing at Ko-lee, who was stopped just a few steps away. She just shrugs, and says, "That's what it's always like. It's not dangerous as long as you're not." I take a moment more to look at the shield, before making a 180, and continuing the trip with Ko-lee.

Almost immediately, I start seeing signs of life. There are small houses dotted here and there along the coast, sometimes with people on the outside, sometimes on it's own. The houses have a similar design to the ones that were in Sharip, but with less lumber and more Unum materials. There's even a house that has what I'm confident is some sort of ornate bone as part of it's structure, but we move past it before I get a great look. A few of the people dotted about are dressed in some sort of armored outfit, and it takes me a moment to piece together that they might be guards. "Weird, I can't actually remember there being any guards in the game, even if they are referenced," I think, committing their design to memory. At first glance, it genuinely looks like the outfit is 'oops, all belts', but after a moment's more examination, it's clear that the clothes underneath are made from the same leather material as the belts are. And there is still a lot of belts, although few have anything attached to them. The belts wrap around the figure and hang in an almost scalemail type fashion, layering one on top of another to cover huge swaths of skin. Almost all of the guards also have masks with wide brim hats, and I can feel my memory tickling at the sight of them, although I can't pinpoint exactly what. "I mean, there's a bunch of crazy headgear in game. I wouldn't be surprised if this was an actual fashionframe option," I think, as I wave to the man as we pass. Then, my gaze moves past, and I immediately feel confused.

"Wait, what the fuck," I think, as I scan the horizon for the expected city. Other than the few dwellings located near us, there's no noticeable presence of people. The Unum also still sat quite a distance away, leaving my sense of place disoriented. "The shield around Cetus in game is supposed to be right next to the city itself, but-", but my thoughts come to a halt almost immediately. "Wait, I was just doing this. The scale of stuff is bigger here in the real world." I shake my head as though attempting to dislodge the errant thought, and continue walking alongside Ko-lee. As I look around, I realize that the various buildings I had seen weren't just houses; some were businesses and otherwise. There was food being sold, hand carts being pulled away from what may have been storage, and what looked like some sort of school. And on every Unum covered facade there was what appeared to be gold filigree and decoration. "Although, not real gold. Maybe. Probably. Can the Unum grow gold? That's... insane if true."

Then, my eyes fall on a familiar piece of geometry. "The landing pad," I think, as my mind compares and contrasts against the entrance point for the player in the video game. But unlike the video game, there was many, many more than just one. The pads stretched along the beach and up past the shore into the grass (although there was very little of the greenery near the pads themselves). There were even a few ships on the pads; what appeared to be a tall, hard angled Corpus ship, as well as, "The Orbiter," I say, the English words slipping from my mouth. I could feel my heart start to beat, as the idea of an encounter with one of the warframes themselves causing my body to kick into high gear. "This must be what it's like to meet a famous person except the famous person could kill you," I think, as we close distance to the various vehicles. We pass by the various ships, but there's only a single Corpus man in a somewhat bulky suit climbing around the exterior of his ship. "I really need to keep it together. I've literally met famous people before and had less of a reaction than this. You'll see them when you see them. One step at a time."

The sky is dotted with a million sparkling lights, as night covers our head. The walk from the start of the shield to here paradoxically managed to feel longer and shorter than the entire two weeks previous. As we had gotten closer, I couldn't help but take in the various novel information like a kid in a candy shop. Everything was real and present and there was so much to take in, from signage to buildings, to lighting and the path beneath our feet. On more than one occasion, Ko-lee had to pull me by an arm as I had slowed down to an effective standstill while looking (and occasionally) touching various things. The crowds had started to appear as we got closer to the heart of the city as well; people hawking wares along the path selling mostly domestic resources as we made our way into Cetus. As I turned my head to the left, I could see the Unum, now towering nearly directly next to us in the water, with the various hot air ballons that drifted to and from the tower. As I watched, I would see them land at various demarcated places along the beach, sometimes carrying off and sometimes bringing on various goods and people. There was also so much flesh everywhere, but my while my brain was expecting some sort of smell, it instead found a lack of anything noticeable. "Is that cause my nose already adjusted? Or maybe it's magic building flesh. ...instead of regular building flesh. Handwave handwave clarktech I guess," I think, as I watch the few workers still putting in hours even in the twilight.

"We can do a real tour later," Ko-lee says, looking straight ahead as she deftly navigates her way through the crowd. "Cetus is really only half of Cetus right now. According to my dad, the lhtgneiif, if you can call it that, lives with the Unum. On land, it's generally only busy in the day. That's why it's so empty." I just look around bemused. "Empty? I mean, we're not sardines here but we're approaching the cannery. How many people are there supposed to be in the daytime?" I just do my best to follow in the small gap left behind by Ko-lee's movements, apologizing every time I bump shoulders with someone, which happens more than twice. "I mean, it's not Times Square, but there's still people." I do my best to keep an eye on Ko-lee, even as my attention is drawn by people hawking wares, and various spices from food tickle my nose. I also see people, likely Ostron, who give me odd looks now and again, scanning me up and down as I pass by them. I know why they're looking; my outfit is clearly Ostron but my face is clearly not. As well, I stand nearly a foot taller than most, with a height closer to the Corpus than the natives. My skin is unblemished, and my weight is heavier too, although the two weeks of near constant motion, preceded by the couple weeks of training prior had slimmed me down some. And while I did have a bit of a tan, I was a different dark to the Ostron, leaving me sticking out as though I were some sort of Ostron cosplayer. "Although I'm not the only odd one out; there's a few Corpus here and there, and... whoever the other people are."

A few of the people who were clearly not natives were not people I recognized from the games, but I barely had a chance to get a clear look at them before they passed me by. There were some tall people with pointed hats, and some people in some sort of skintight suit, and a few more, but there was truly so much trying to pull my attention that I was starting to get overwhelmed. "I gotta stick with Ko-lee, or I'm gonna actually be lost. I literally have no idea where we're going." "Ko-lee!" I shout, my voice deep and loud, and there's a brief dip in the chatter around me, causing my face to grow warm, before I spot her familiar purple hair, and make my way over. "Sorry, lead on," I say, and she just grins at me, and grabs my hand, pulling me along.

Eventually, we make our way into what appears to be some sort of tavern. It's nearly the platonic ideal of a fantasy tavern; wood furniture, a bar, someone playing some music in the corner, a fireplace roaring to fight off the sea chill. There's a moment of whiplash as I hadn't known what we were walking into, and as I look around, I start to notice Ostron flair dotting the place. The Unum shell covering parts of the wall. The gold filigree. The Ostron signage, with Origin underneath, in a smaller font. "This is where me and my dad came last time," says Ko-lee, as she makes her way to a table. "It's mostly for locals, although sometimes tourists drop in." I sit down, and watch as she steps over to the bar, quickly saying something I can't hear over the music, then holding up two fingers. The bartender just looks over at me, so I give an awkward grin and wave, and then he starts preparing some sort of drink. "Damn, I guess I am just the dumb American tourist," I think, as I lower my hand. "I was loud before, and here I am, about to participate in local culture without understanding a lick of it. U! S! A! U! S! A!"

Ko-lee makes her way back, and hands me a drink, which I take from her with a "thanks". I go to slip slowly, unsure of what I'm about to put in my mouth and wanting to not be caught too off guard. "Definitely alcoholic. It's fermented something, I just don't know what. Sort of dark, or maybe just it's dark in here and I can't see what color it is. And... gold?" As I swirl the mug, the firelight reflecting off the various surfaces in the tavern catch some sort of metallic surface in my drink. "It's mowje," Ko-lee explains, prompted by my curious expression. My mind chews on the unheard syllables, capturing the word and cataloging the word with an ease I hadn't had a month and a half ago. "It's fermented seaweed. The gold flake is from the tower. It's safe to drink. Just not to breathe. You can only really get mowje here. In Cetus, I mean. The seaweed has to be found within the shield, and it doesn't really have a shelf life. Also, some places buy the drink from here and sell it other places, but gold flake isn't a common bar gsirnah, so even then, it's not quite right. They only make it right here." I nod along to her words as she speaks, occasionally taking a sip of the mowje.

It tastes deep, sort of like a stout, but there's a salty aftertaste that rounds it out and makes the drink feel sort of filling. Before long, I've drained the entire drink, and I look down at the empty mug, disappointed. "We can take a bath, and look for Konzu in the morning. Two meals a day, one drink a meal are paid for. It's all going on the Sharip tab," she says, as I frown as the vessel in my hands. At the mention of Sharip though, my gaze shoots up, and I give a look to Ko-lee. She just gives me a shrug, and says two words. "For now." The message is clear; it's not a permanent solution, but it's a step we can worry about down the line. "The student becomes the master I guess. In the meantime I'll step my way right into a bath, and then into bed because holy crap do I smell like shit," I think, and I make my way out of the chair and towards the stairs to the left of the bar. Ko-lee follows, and points out the two rooms we'll end up staying in; mine directly to the right of hers. Then she ducks inside her own room, and I follow suit, my eyes looking around the space. "This is a hotel room," I think, once again feeling off balance from the culture shock. "I knew it wasn't literally a fantasy tavern but I think I sort of forgot for a moment. But this is a straight up Hilton, with a little closet and a separate restroom slash shower."

I strip down, feeling relief at getting to peel off the layer of clothes for the first time in half a month, and step into the shower, feeling the textured material underneath my feet acting as a bit of a grip. As I look about for a knob or lever, I find what appears to be some sort of metal surface that I had assumed was simply decoration. When I place my hand on it though, a light field display appears above the surface, words written out both in Ostron and Origin with instructions on how to operate the shower. I just stand there for a moment, shaking my head at what feels like a third rug pull on my minds attempt to categorize this place. "Future shit," I think, grinning at the clearly Corpus tech. As the (surprisingly solid) water pressure hits my skin, I can feel the layers of grime melt off of me and down into the drain, carrying with it the stress of the trip.

"We fucking did it," I think to myself, and there's a confused moment as a bubble of emotions try to spill out of me all at the same time. Elation at the success, sadness at Sharip and Sanza, frustration at the ordeal both me and Ko-lee had been through, and a number more all rebound around within me, causing my body to begin shaking and crying, even as a laugh escapes my lips. "Weeeeeeeeeeee, are the championsssss, my friendssssss," I sing out, as the emotional knot sorts itself out in my mind and my body. I stay like that, letting the water run over my exhausted muscles for what feels like an hour, before finally scrubbing and finishing up. I step out of the shower, and dry off with the provided towel, a rougher, but altogether more absorbent material than what I'm used to, before making my way over to the bed, and collapse down fully on top of it. The catharsis from the shower had taken the final fumes out of me that I hadn't been aware I was running on, and I barely get a chance to cover myself with the blanket before I'm out like a light.