Slowly the blackness behind my eyelids evolved, the landscape of the opening menu for Galactica slowly taking shape around me. Stars filled my vision, the vibrancy of the galaxy swirling around me the closest I had ever been to actually seeing the night sky. I liked to imagine this is how it really looked.

Amongst the glittering backdrop of the Milky Way swirled the red loading icon. It pulsed softly as it waited to make a bio-connection to my account.

Finally, there was a soft blip as it vanished. The word “connected” flashed before my eyes before the backdrop vanished. The sensation of moving air brushed past my face, even though I sat still in my chair back home in my room with Meryl sleeping only a few feet from me.

However, I was already lost to the real world now that the landscape of the game was taking shape around me.

It opened to my last save point, the planet of Kelshala unfurling in a bright green wave. It made me squint my eyes. Its lush greens were so alien to me, it was hard to imagine Earth had ever looked this way. I was so used to the garbage littered streets of New Atlantis set with a backdrop of dreary grey. If Kelshala was real, there was no way I could destroy it. It was beautiful.

But it wasn’t real. It was just a graphic in a game, and right now my mission was to steal it from another team.

“You're late, LoreLei,” said the deep voice of my teammate. He used my username. Even though some people liked to use versions of their real names, I preferred not too. Even though Mari wasn’t exactly Marilyn, it might as well have been for how conspicuous it was.

No one in Galactica needed to know who I was in real life, nor did they care.

I groaned and spun around to see the avatar of KenYedd. He took the form of a gunner, large weapons clipped to either side of his hips. He wore a long dark cloak with his hood up while he leaned against one of the green trees. His arms were crossed across his chest. One booted leg was crossed over the other, giving him the illusion of patience when I knew he was anything but.

Underneath his cloak, the orange lights of a metallic mask could be seen. That was how I always knew who he was. Even if his avatar changed, he always hid his face one way or another. I never really got it, since, with an avatar, we could become anyone we wanted.

“Oh, hey Kenny,” I said sweetly, using my favorite nickname for him. It was particularly pleasing for it never failed to annoy him. When I talked in Galactica, my lips back in my room didn’t move to even whisper. When connected through the neural database, I could communicate and navigate the world with nothing but my mind. Like I was dreaming, only with more control.

Ken, of course, did not answer me. He continued to brood silently while I oriented myself. Out of our team of twenty or so users, we had been selected for this mission for our character traits. KenYedd was a gunner, meaning he was good for long-range attacks and quick assassinations. I was a rogue, my tendency for completely shifting my avatars making me the best choice to blend in an infiltrate other team’s colonies.

The point of Galactica was to take over the universe by capturing planets, the top scoring teams moving on to the next level every round. Capturing a planet often mean stealing it from another team, though if we were lucky we would stumble upon a new, untouched planet. However, since our team was far past level one, when the galaxy was new, winning meant finding where the planet's beacon was hidden. The team that possessed the beacon, possessed the planet.

“We were supposed to be at the rendezvous point twenty minutes ago.”

I held up my hands, which were green-hued, my avatar currently altered so that I could blend in with the planet's landscape while I had been spying on the Defender team left behind. In Galactica, there were users like KenYedd and me, who were involved with capturing planets. We were called the Destroyers. Then there were Defenders, a group of 2-4 users that were tasked with making sure a planet didn’t get taken by another team.

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry. Real life can be a real buzz kill sometimes. But I’m here now so let's get going. You remember the plan?”

KenYedd stepped out from under the tree, his dark figure cutting a contrasting shadow against the bright backdrop of the planet.

“Obviously.”

I grinned, and I knew the elfish face of my avatar looked feral at the prospect of the upcoming fight.

“Then let's go. Cherry and Nano are waiting for us,” I said, brushing past him, excitement coiling in my stomach. These few hours where I could immerse myself in the far off worlds of Galactica are what I had come to live for every day.