-- Intro: Shoot It Up --

February 14, 2026. A field in rural Wisconsin. It's a little past midnight. Keith Rufus drops Itsuki Kaede off by the side of the road with a laptop bag and a couple of suitcases.

"Not the first Valentine's Day I've spent in a moonlit field in the middle of nowhere. Won't be the last." Keith remarks. Suki bows to him, and he drives off.

It's a quiet minute as Suki stands alone at the side of the road. Then, he hears the sound of a jet airliner. He looks up out of curiosity, but sees nothing. It gets louder, being combined with a deep whirring noise. Then, maybe 50 feet above him, some landing lights come on. "What the..." Suki mutters to himself. A spaceship - probably the size of a semi truck and twice as wide as one in the back - lands next to him. The front left window rolls down with all the casualness of going to order food at a drive-through. "Itsuki Kaede?" a wolf-like man with long hair and defined muscles says as he leans out of the window. Suki nods cautiously. "I'm here to take you to Ergon." "Here goes nothing..." Suki mutters to himself in Japanese.

Suki enters the craft via its front passenger door. The craft is so strange to an Earthing, yet so familiar. Inside, it resembles a high-end recreational vehicle. Itsuki buckles into the craft's five-point harness as if he'd done it a hundred times. "My name is Hajiko Mataeko. I work for the Ergonian government as a spaceship driver." He says as the craft hovers upward. "Are you Japanese? That's a very Japanese-sounding name." Suki asks. "Kind of? I'm from the island of Jaekip - it's pretty much identical to your Japan. Our dialect is very similar to Japanese, and Ergonian names are dependent on dialect... heavily-dialected names are usually untranslatable." Hajiko said as he angled the craft up and throttled up. The craft gently sped toward escape velocity. To Hajiko, it felt like the transition from running to walking. To Suki? It felt like he was sitting in a top fuel dragster.

"You can call me Haji, by the way. We'll be out of Earth's orbit in about 10 minutes." Suki looked at him with wide eyes and tried to nod. "We'll be able to hit Hyperdrive when we leave the atmosphere." Haji continues. "Hyperdrive?" Suki asks. "Hyperdrive. This ship is equipped with our new Uberdrive system. With it, we should get to Ergon in 17 days." Haji explains. "How fast is Hyperdrive?" Suki asks. Maybe he shouldn't have. "Hyperdrive I is 100,000 klicks per hour. e-Hyperdrive came out, ehh, about a hundred years ago. It tops out at about 335,000 k's. More R&D time was put into fuel efficiency than speed. We'll only have to stop for fuel 3 times this trip. EWG's got us 3 refuelling ships set up along the way. That's the Ergon World Government, EWG." "And Uberdrive?" Suki asks tentatively. "One million kilometres per hour."

Suki's breath hitched. He was scared and excited. As much as he loved sci-fi and even made his own sci-fi inventions... this was the real deal.

Haji tore a paper pouch open and put a multi-coloured substance in his mouth. "Want some?" Haji asked innocently. The writing on the pouch was in a stereotypical "Eastern" font, but Suki didn't recognise the writing system despite his extensive knowledge of language. "Oh... I don't..." "Oh, I forgot that Earthlings shred up carcinogenic plants and eat and smoke them for fun. No tobacco - it's shichimi chew." Suki cautiously took a pinch of the substance and held it in his palm, scrutinising it. Haji was right - ground pepper, chenpi, yuzu peel, poppy seeds, dried nori, sesame seeds... nothing in the mix Suki didn't recognise. "Just tuck it in your lower lip." Haji encouraged, so Suki did. The flavour hit him like a spark - it was definitely shichimi, albeit missing the fine powdered ingredients like ginger. "I'll tell you more about Ergon when we get into Hyperdrive. We'll be able to walk around the cabin as the Hyperdrive's autopilot takes us to the first fueling stop." Haji explained.

Eventually, the craft left the Earth's atmosphere. "Suki?" Haji said. Suki looked at him. "Hang onto your bucks." Haji cranked the key in the ship's ignition to the START position. He then lifted a polycarbonate case off a big blue button. Haji motioned for Suki to push the button. Suki smiled and slammed it. The engine whirred loudly. "Three... two... one..." Haji counted before the two were thrust back into their seats, the seats themselves slingshotting back before gradually returning to zero as the acceleration evened out with the speed. Suki looked at the speedometer. 275 kps. Suki had gone 275 kilometres per hour before, but never 275 per second.

The ship's heads-up display blinked blue in an indecipherable text. Haji pressed a button took and his seatbelts off. "We're at cruising speed. You can stretch your legs if you need to." He stood up and walked to a bookshelf in the back. Suki unbuckled and followed him. Haji slipped a pamphlet onto the table. The pamphlet read, "ENGLISH to ERGONESE - What you need to know to learn our simple language." "Once you get our writing system memorised, translation will be easy." Haji says as Suki opens the pamphlet and reads over it... multiple times within a minute.

Haji opens his laptop. Suki continues reading the pamphlet over and over. "I should have this memorised by tomorrow." Suki says in a monotone voice. "Well, take your time. I got a lot to tell you about Ergon. Boss man says I should ease you into it. We nearly fried an Earthling when we tried to introduce Ergon to him whole hog." Haji explained. "Come to think, I could probably play you that clip on ErgoView, but nah. Best to gradually introduce it. We got 17 days to fill, anyway. Which reminds me..." Haji walked to the fridge. "Want a beer?" Suki looked at Haji indignantly. "I don't drink." "It's non-alcoholic. And I mean really non-alcoholic. True zeroes." Suki continued staring. Haji took a can of beer and a bottle of soda from the fridge. "Alcohol is considered highly poisonous on Ergon. Same with tobacco. We've copied your tobacco and alcohol cultures but refined them - pun intended - to remove any unwanted side effects." Suki looked at the bottle of soda. "Isn't this just Ramune?" "Hai," Haiji said. "We have also imported many Earth brands to Ergon." Suki looked at the beer can. It was clearly Sapporo Premium - just with Ergonese glyphs on the can.

Suki opened the Ramune. "Oh!" Haji says, opening the beer and running to the control panel. "Watch this." He pushes a button, which causes the windows to project the image of driving on the highway, down a country road. "Whoa..." Suki says. "Day/night cycle so you don't have your circadian rhythm messed up. This environment is procedurally generated and will change biomes every couple of days, so it feels like you're actually travelling somewhere. Something to make space feel less empty." Haji replies. "I'm going to bed. I've been up for 20 hours already. And don't try to look for hidden nuggets of Ergonian info around the ship. It's got biometric locks." Suki rolls his eyes. They both prepare for the night and go to bed. The ship has two single beds at the back. Haji takes the right, Suki takes the left.

-- Chapter 1: For Here, Am I Sitting in a Tin Can --

Haji is up before Suki the next morning. He's prepared a delicious traditional Japanese breakfast. "I made this using food mostly shared between Ergon and Earth, but I have some tsukemono made from tsaki as well, which is this," Haji said, setting the plate down and putting down a bright green pile of fruit. "It tastes like kiwi and grapefruit." Haji says. Suki picks up the tsaki with chopsticks and sniffs at it. The two enjoy the meal and do the dishes.

Later, Suki stopped studying the Ergonese pamphlet for long enough to look at the artificial outdoor environment. "So... is this what Ergon looks like?" Suki asks. "More or less. You probably won't find anywhere on Ergon exactly like this, but it's based on different areas of Ergon. Looks like we're in... Bavayren, or Alosia, or somewhere like that. I'll get you a map!" Haji gets a world map from a bookshelf and lays it out on the table. "This is Earth." Suki responds. Ergon is, in fact, very similar to Earth, but a lot of the islands are closer together, and there are new islands in between the continents. "Wrong," Haji said sternly. "It's Earth, but cooler. Literally. Winters in the poles hit triple digits easily." "I hope you mean Fahrenheit." Suki responds. "Nope. Celsius. We haven't used Fahrenheit in over 1,500 years. We only use the metric system... we're a very global place, you see. All electronics can be used anywhere; you don't need to convert currency, you don't need to know any other languages, just dialects." Haji explained. "Rad." Suki replied, studying the map. "You have a landmass at the North Pole. Is it permafrost?" Suki asked. "No. Well, most of it is, but there's probably 400 square kilometres of solid land there." Haji replied. Suki is already beginning to grasp Ergonese glyphs. "Alosia? Bavayren?" Suki says, pointing to what would be Austria and Germany. Haji nods. "Study the map. Proper nouns are the hardest thing to translate." Suki was in love. He spent the whole day learning Ergonian place names.

The following day, Haji wakes up to find Suki holding the ship's VCR. "Oh." Haji says. "I reverse-engineered your biometric scanner. You really should have its RAM be encrypted." Suki says plainly. "Stupid cheapo VultoMart-brand locks..." Haji says to himself. "Usually, there are cheap but well-made items available to those with a lower income... but biometric scanners are considered luxury items, which don't have the mandated quality control." He explains to Suki. "What kind of port is this?" Suki said, pointing to a diamond-shaped port on the back of the VCR. "Oh. That's the holoport." Haji says, grabbing a small disc with a cable attached to the back. Haji plugs it in. "Let me find a spoiler-free tape." He says. "Ah. Cannonball Run." Haji takes the tape from a shelf. He takes the tape from the sleeve and flicks a switch on the tape. "What does that switch do?" Suki asked. "That switches between the English and Ergonese dub." "Put it on the Ergonese dub." Suki says, Haji looks at him briefly, then grins, and puts the tape in, pressing play. A familiar-looking black sports car appears in living colour, floating above the disc. "Whoa!" Suki says. When he moves, the picture always stays facing him. "That is too cool!" He says. "Hologram projectors are typically used for viewing 3D models, but people use them as regular movie projectors, too. Of course, this is a luxury-model VCR. Not every one has a holoport." Haji explained.

Haji sits down and enjoys the film. "We were hoping you'd share some technology with us... I'm not sure if you were told." He says plainly. Suki stands up and gets something from the bedroom. A Windows 7-era Western Digital external hard drive hits the table. "I've held up my end of the bargain. The coding for the simulator is in there. But I have some special hardware that I run it on. I'll give you the specs, but I have a custom logic board in it that I can't exactly re-create... but if you guys manage to pull it off, big ups."

"I wouldn't be so unsure," Haji says. "We already have similar-ish simulators for one of our racing leagues - the cars are remote-controlled due to the dangerous on-track action. It's basically a VR/simrig set-up with suits that emulate touch. It's way more in-depth than any simrig on Earth... but we could take it further... if your simulator is as advanced as you say." "No promises. Without that chip... I can't guarantee it'll work." Suki says. "That's a chance we'll have to take."

The next day, the two are having lunch. "How much does McDonald's cost on Ergon?" Suki asks. "A Big Mac's like 250 credits... $2.50 USD. We try to maintain the value of the credit to be 100 per USD. This ship was about 5 mil." "You mentioned cheap versions of stuff being available to low-income people?" Suki asked. "That's right. Non-luxury items are mandated to have cheap and reliable versions of them. Padlocks, cars, fridges... which is saying something because stuff on Ergon is already more durable and reliable than it is on Earth." Haji explained.

"Ergon's politics are based in conservatism and libertarianism, but have socialist elements like that." Haji explains. "Did you get paid to say that?" Suki quips. Haji opens his mouth, but pauses without saying anything. "Yeah, I got paid 500 credits to say that. But it's true. If you commit, there's a job for everyone on Ergon. You'd fit right into the tech sector. Rome wasn't coded in a day, and certainly not by one person." Haji stands up and looks at the clock. "We need to refuel tonight at about 20:00. You're more than welcome to watch." "Don't have to tell me twice." Suki says with a smile. A few hours later, Haji deactivates hyperdrive. A tanker-like ship can be seen ahead. Haji pulls up next to it. A man in a spacesuit exits the tanker and guides a nozzle over to the motorhome ship. "Should take 15 minutes to fuel. Then we'll be good to go until day 12." Haji said.

Suki wakes up the next morning. Haji is running diagnostics. "Systems nominal?" Suki asks. "Yep. Everything looks good. Uberdrive is experimental still, you understand. It's in the final testing phases, and this run is basically a test run. The logs have been great. We should be able to get this tech out the door in a few months." Haji replies. "Is space travel common?" Suki asks. "It was in a lull before we started getting positive reports from Zark on Earth. We're hoping to have a whole tourism industry between our planets." Haji says. "Well, you guys get the thumbs up from me. This trip has been a great pleasure so far." Suki replies. The rest of the day was pretty standard, with nothing of note happening.

"Do you like chess?" Haji asks the next day. "Of course. The thinking man's board game." Suki replies. Haji sets up a game of holographic chess. "You can either move it like a touch-screen or by hovering your fingers above the pieces and 'moving' them like that." They begin playing. "Do you ever... feel like you never grow up?" Suki asks suddenly. Haji is taken aback. "Can't say I have. Maybe because I'm 32 and look like I'm 32." "Yeah, that's what I mean. I look and sound the same as I was when I was 15." Suki says. "Well, that's when you're considered to be an adult on Ergon, so it makes sense." Suki wasn't shocked - Japan was somewhat similar. "We might have to have some laws to prevent sex tourism, but hey ho. We believe strongly in consent being the most important thing. So if you're 10 and you wanna have sex with the neighbour, and your parents are cool with it, you can do that on Ergon. But on Earth? People suddenly get so up in arms about it." Haji continued. "Driving licences are 13, by the way, and there are no child labour laws as long as they're paid the same, and their parents consent. There's also a big focus on public events on Ergon... the folks there are real friendly, trust." He added. "Just as long as I don't find a book labelled 'To Serve Man' in this thing, we'll be cool." Suki said, garnering a belly laugh from Haji. "Love that show. A lot of Ergon is similar to those old sci-fi shows." They were talking about The Twilight Zone.

Suki wakes up the next morning and walks out of his room in the nude. "Whup!" Suki utters as his hands meet his genitals to cover his naked shame. "Morning." Haji said casually. "I, uhh, was dreaming I was in my house back on Earth. I forgot I wasn't alone." Suki excused his behaviour. "That's fine, no shame. Nudity's legal on Ergon as long as you're not pissing or fucking."

Haji stands up and drops his pants. Suki recoils. "Don't worry, it's all natural. There--" Haji began. "That's fine - but could you please put it away? I... I have a thing with-- I don't like seeing... girl bits." Suki struggled to say. "My apologies." Haji pulls his pants up and re-buckles his belt before bowing. "I read the room wrong." Haji admits. "No, you didn't... I just thought you had a penis." Suki said, getting dressed. "I'm, like, the only one in my friend group who is gay gay. You know?" He continued. "Yes, I understand. Let me show you something. Assuming you're not grossed out by anatomical drawings." Haji said. "No, of course not. It's just... the real deal I don't much care for."

Haji set a medical textbook on the table and opened it to a page where a man and a woman were displayed on the left page, and a man with female genitalia and a woman with male genitalia on the right. "S...seeba, and... deejer." Suki says, his finger hovering over the text for the male and female figures on the right, respectively. "Refer to any masculine people you encounter with male pronouns and feminine people with female pronouns until you learn the seeba/deejer pronouns. There are a lot of people like you on Ergon, androgyny is pretty common. So, uh, just base it on vibes. They won't flip out like those crazy people on Earth." Haji affirms.

The following day, Haji has set up a PlayStation 2 and is holding a controller. Suki didn't hesitate. "This game is a bit of a bigger dip into the waters of Ergon. Music, car culture, city designs." Haji says as he presses the console's on button. Suki picks up the game's box. "Overspeed 2. Hmm." Suki reads with approval. The game's intro rolls after the developer splashes. The intro starts with Earthly classical music and pre-rendered footage of some very expensive-looking cars that resemble Earthling cars, but not any specific brands or models. Then it hit. The intro switched to in-game footage of the cars racing around with burning nitrous, and crashing in spectacular form with an impressive damage model. The music is what really got Suki, though. A thumping hardcore track with Ergon's signature... unusual time signatures. It sounded like a riddim song being played on classic synths at 160 BPM.

It was all over in 60 seconds. Suki held his fist over his mouth. He looked like he was about to cry. Then the start menu loaded up. A soft, rolling synth line began to play, before going into what sounded like gqom meets early deep house, with real handclaps and drums audibly being played live on the track. "You okay, Suki?" Haji asked, concerned. "We are so back." Suki said, hitting the start button. A highly animated main menu came up. It had a very cyber feel to it. "I'm guessing you like the music - there's also a rock and rap playlist available, or it can just be put on shuffle. Each different playlist changes how the HUD and menus look." Haji mentioned. "No, no... I think I'm good with this." Suki affirmed.

Haji selected multiplayer mode. The "Go Online" function wasn't greyed out. "Wait, this game has online?" Suki asked as Haji selected the track. Suki picked up the box; it had the standard PS2 online icon on the cover. "Like, you could play with other people?" Suki asks. "Of course. This console just came out last year." Haji corrects. "Oh, duh, Ergon is 25 years in the past." Suki reminds himself as they go to the car selection screen. He scrolls through the cars. They all have realistic-looking logos, but nothing that has ever been seen on Earth. "Cool." Suki thought to himself. "Just like Ridge Racer." But then he scrolled past a familiar-looking car with a big, blue bowtie in the corner. "What the--?" Suki says in Japanese, aloud, before scrolling back to the car. He opens the game's box and takes the manual out, thumbing through the pages to find the credits. He reads them, squinting. "CHEVROLET, CAMARO, the bowtie insignia and shield design are copyright Gener-- Gentek Motors?!"

Haji guffawed. "We've been building Earth cars for 75 years now. We'll continue to do it until interplanetary lawyers become a thing." Suki looked through the credits again. All those cars he saw on-screen were licenced. He shook his head in disbelief. If the game is as destructive as the intro implied it was, no Earth company would licence their cars to that. But there it was. 16 different manufacturers with fully licenced cars. Suki put the manual back and readied up. The game loaded. A hard trance song with an erratic, thumping bassline plays as a short cinematic intro rolls.

"Think of this game like Burnout - but instead of chaining boosts, it has a MotorStorm-type boost system." Haji explains. "Thus the name." Suki replies. The game counts down. 3... 2... 1... GO! The gameplay is as described - it's a classic arcade street racer, but using the boost causes the meter to fill up, which results in a warning beep sounding when close to the edge, just like in MotorStorm. Suki grasps the game very quickly - and in fact beats Haji 4:1. He's not even crashing or exploding - which are the game's main draws. He's speechless and almost on the verge of crying again. Where was this game all his life? He would have played it enough to wear a hole through the disk as a kid.

"How are you so good at this game?" Haji asks. "My friends have said I'm like Dale Earnhardt... not that I can see the air, but that I can see... a racing line in front of me. I can see acceleration and braking zones on the track like I was playing a video game." Suki explains. "I'm no good at overtakes, but if the other cars drive on a predictable path, like in a game, I can cut right through and shoot incredible gaps." He continued. "Do you race?" Haji asked. "Autocross. I don't do well in crowds. Cars or otherwise. People are too unpredictable for me. That's why I love machinery. They behave exactly how I expect... unless some previous owner screwed it up. I bought a cheap Aurora R5 that someone had set up with the worst RAID I've ever seen on it. I had to reflash the OS." Suki told.

Haji had a crooked grin sweep over his face. "You're gonna love our drones." Suki's eyes met Haji's for the first time during the entire play session. He paused the game. "Eh?" Suki asked. "Oh yeah, did I forget to tell you this past week? Our drones. They're totally programmable and fully functional robots. They look just like the sentients." Haji explained. "Sentients?" Suki asked. Haji had his full attention. "Sentients. You know... organics... and androids." Haji danced around the answer in a teasing manner. "You mean you have androids and robots?" Suki said, struggling to contain his excitement. Haji nodded. "You know, on top of the cash payment and royalties that we're willing to offer for a licence to your simulator tech... we may just be able to throw a drone in too." Suki's tail wags, and he begins rubbing his head into his shoulder subconsciously. "You can design and build a drone or android however you want. But androids have a bill of rights and full sentience, so I would recommend a drone for you." Haji says. "Can I get one, like, with a big barrelled chest, and a big... you know..." Suki asks meekly. Haji smiles and nods. "Is it, like, a faux pas to model a drone after a person?" Suki asks bluntly. "Yyyeah. Especially if they're still living, which is then a crime." Haji explains. "Just give us a general prompt, and a lot of reference material to any real persons you have in mind so we make them, ah, legally distinct." He continued. "I need to, uhh, take care of something in my room quick." Suki said, putting the controller down and walking to his room. Haji just smiled.

The following day, Haji slides a book toward Suki. He picks it up. "The Preservation Act: How Ergon's most... important... law was formed." Suki reads stiltedly. Haji sits down with a smirk. Suki skims through it - he'd normally read it from the top, but Haji clearly wanted to tell him something with the book. "So... let me get this straight. I could go to a Toyota dealership and purchase an AA?" Suki asked. Haji smiled widely. "Exactly right. Cars of that era aren't terribly popular, so I don't think they'd have one on display, but you'd be able to order one, and they'll have it ready in a month." Suki's hair stood up on end. How wild was that? A car that only had one surviving example on Earth is still being produced today on Ergon. "Thanks to an update in the 1800s, a lot of the buildings are still what they were 200 years ago. Ergon has a very Victorian feel, despite all the new technology around." Haji explained. "So, how are new buildings put up?" Suki asked, trying to locate the update in the book. "If a natural disaster or other accident damages a building, then the residents will vote on whether they want a new structure or a replica of the old one." Haji replied.

"So... what does a place like San Francisco look like? After the 1906 quake?" Suki asked. "City hall was rebuilt as it was, with the same going for some other structures. Quite a few 1906+ buildings are kicking around in the older districts." Haji replied. "Tokyo Tower?" Suki asked. "It's on Ergon; the structures it replaced were not considered as significant as the Tower by the government." Haji replied. "Empire State Building?" "The Waldorf-Astoria hotel sits at the address, but the Empire State Building was built a few blocks away." "Eiffel Tower?" "Exists on Ergon." "Sydney Opera House?" "Tram depot. The venue is at its original King and York Street location." "Madison Square Garden?" "Penn Station. Like with Sydney, it retained its original location." "The Imperial Hotel?" "1922 configuration." This conversation went on for some time. Suki loved The Preservation Act and thought it was absolutely brilliant.

The next day, the duo are finishing lunch. "Has your crew told you about the Briknalla track project?" Haji asks. "No, I know about you building a copy of Briknalla on Earth, but I haven't heard anything outside of Brooklands being built." Suki replied, sopping up some remaining soy sauce with some tamagoyaki. "Well, one of the Florida chapter members said, 'What if we put some video game tracks on New Briknalla?' We thought it was a cool idea, so we began planning where to put all of it. Meanwhile, we began the terraforming on Earth. You'll never guess what we found when strip mining the donor planet." Haji lead. "Gold? Platinum? Jimmy Hoffa?" Suki asked inquisitively. "Groundwater." Haji said. Suki looked puzzled. "For years, we thought the planet - Delta 4 - was a moon, before we discovered that it was actually a dry, barren planet. But when we began to dig into it - literally - we discovered that only the surface was barren. The planet was covered in dry, compacted volcanic ash. About 500 million years ago, every volcano on the planet went off, covered the planet in ash and plunged it into an ice age. Apparently, the planet's oceans were preserved and expanded when the ice melted." Haji said as Suki hung onto every word.

"You're gonna love this. We're expanding the video game track idea. We're gonna develop Delta 4 using video games as a guide. There's a lot of other fictional Earth and Ergon media that we'll feature as well. Name your favourite game." Haji said. "Midnight Club II." Suki replied in an instant. "Eh, okay, second-favourite." Haji said awkwardly. "Need for Speed IV." Suki replied just as quickly - as if he had rehearsed that answer. Haji smiled and snickered. "Have you ever wanted to drive around Landstrasse? Ride the train in Kindiak Park? Build a snowman in Snowy Ridge? Go fishing in Dolphin Cove?" Haji rattled off as Suki's smirk grew. "I'll have to visit sometime." Suki said with a smile. "Good," Haji replied. "It should be completed by 2028." Haji looked at the clock. "We refuel in 10 minutes." It was halfway through the eleventh day when they refuelled. Haji had told Suki most of the big shocks, and the next few days were spent going over small things and cultural differences.