-- Chapter 4: Catching Rays --

Suki started the car. The radio DJ said something about the next artist possibly having a full-length album, following the success of this song, later in the year. Lady (Hear Me Tonight) by Modjo played. Suki laughed and started driving. He was getting used to the retrofuturism of Ergon. He sang along to every word and bobbed along to the song, which was an all-time classic for him, and a huge summer hit on Ergon.

He pulled up to the palace and gave his keys to the valet. Haji met him there - Suki had texted him whilst leaving the hotel the road trippers were in. Haji looked very excited. They went inside and went straight to Worl's office. "Suki, young man, I could kiss you. As a matter of fact..." Worl stood up from his desk. He's an athletic mountain lion with solid cream fur and short brown hair with front-swept bangs. Tall, too. Probably 6'1". He picked Suki up and kissed him. Suki started making out with him. Worl was cool with that. Haji was a little flustered, maybe even jealous. Worl wasn't that good of a kisser.

"What was I talking about?" Worl asked as he set Suki down. "Right!" He said as he snapped his fingers. "Mr Kaede, you may have just made a significant breakthrough in interplanetary communication." The three sat down. "Sometimes, you just need another set of eyes. Another brain in the bowl to spark a great idea. We never thought to apply the warp system to something so minuscule. We were so distracted with evolving Hyperdrive for ships that we never thought to do it for other stuff. You might even be able to play a first-person shooter on two different planets with data warping. Bringing you to this planet may have been the greatest decision I've made in the last 25 years of presidency." Suki looked at Worl with puppy dog eyes and a smile. Worl gave him a head pat and fed him a salt cube.

"I've also called you here to give you this." Worl put a brochure on the table. It was in English, and it was for a servant drone. Suki's eyes lit up. He thumbed through the pages. Fully customisable code. Different body types. Customisable heights and weights. Interchangeable genitalia options. Woof! Suki's heart raced. "Take your time, son. You've got your whole vacation to decide. Ignore the prices - we'll get you whatever you want." Worl assured him. Suki took a deep breath and nodded. He took the brochure and put it in his laptop bag.

"Could I ask you for another favour?" Suki asked. He was expecting a "no." "Of course!" Worl said grandly. "Within reason." Worl corrected himself. "I was wondering if we couldn't have a chapter of our club on Ergon." Suki told Worl. "Yes! I love it. Just know that we enacted a law before we contacted you that states that no Earthling may take up permanent residence on Ergon." Worl explained. "No problem. We'll have Ergonians run the chapter, and with our data warps, we'll have them be a part of our meetings." Suki responded. "Very good. Just tell me the location, and I'll gladly assist you." Worl said. Suki nodded and stood up. "I'll text Haji with a list of potential locations if I think of any - or, better yet, you can bring me your own list." Suki said, facing Haji halfway through the sentence.

Suki went back to his room. He put the news on TV, sat at a coffee table and created an account for ErgoChat - which was also an account for all of Ergon's other official government websites - ErgoView, ErgoWiki (he's likely to spend a lot of time there), etc. He joined the chatroom that Tixi had given him a slip for. Nobody was online - they were all out road tripping and didn't have time to get on their computer (social media/chat programs weren't put on phones on Ergon as the government believes you should just use SMS instead). Suki read the chat log. There was an option to translate them to English (and, in fact, the translation was almost perfect, including context and tone), but he kept it in Ergonese so he could learn better. This was another way of observing people. A way of managing expectations.

Haji knocked and walked in sooner than later. He wheeled in a whiteboard that was covered with a white sheet. "You work fast. Very good." Suki said as he set his laptop on the table, closing it. "Call it the Ergonian spirit." Haji replied as he unveiled the board. It was a map that could be drawn on with an erasable marker. All of the strange islands Suki saw when they approached Ergon (and more) were there and marked with their country flags and their names in Ergonese and Latin scripts (remember, proper nouns aren't translatable). "We call these the 'non-Earthling' islands, for obvious reasons. Well, they're kind of Earthling - their footprints resemble the underwater geology of Earth, but the topography is different." The way Haji spoke would make most people fall asleep, but Suki hung onto every word. He introduced the island between Ameuia (America) and Eutoia (Europe) first. "This is Rayken. It's the most populous island of all of the non-Earthling islands and, historically, the most important. It's got the mildest climate of all the NEI's - the coasts are a southeast Japan/USA type climate and the interior is a northern Japan/midwestern USA vibe." Haji pitched the location to Suki. "Though, they are having an unseasonably warm winter right now - it's been hitting 15 consistently there, even in the central areas, so you won't have to put your cold-weather clothes on."

"What about the Kerguelen Plateau?" Suki asked. "That caught my eye when we were coming in." "That's Kagulua. It's similar to Iceland or Greenland, and just like those places, not too many people live there." Haji explained. Suki pointed to the large archipelago - it had to have been 5,600 km long - between Africa and South America. "That's a grouping of about 15 countries. The top five islands are tropical rainforests - they're big fruit exporters there, and a lot of the fruit is native, so if you ever want to experience some unique Ergonese flavours, order from there. These middle ones, including these ones closer to the coasts, are subtropical, and the big one near Uruguay actually has a pretty hot car scene. The ones south of the middle ones, including the little ones here, are temperate and rainy. Think of it like the Pacific Northwest in America - damp, but with a good fishing industry. The bottom two, including this weird land bridge, are subarctic and are again similar to Greenland/Iceland." Haji said in the same tone as a college professor.

"This island, right here, is your second-best choice," Haji said, pointing to a massively tall and skinny island West of South America. "This is Setrista. She's a beast of an island, with a tropical, hurricane-battered North, dry plains in the middle, and a cold, windy and wet temperate south." He continued. "What about the islands to the West?" Suki asked. "Kagulua, but worse. The only place considered to be more extreme on Ergon than those islands is the poles. This is Erista. Temperatures barely hit 5 degrees Celsius in the summer, and its Western tip is one of the windiest places on Ergon. We once recorded a gale of 450 klicks there. It's got an ice bridge to the South Pole." Haji explained and awaited any further questions.

"I think Rayken might work." Suki smiled. Haji shook his head as if he had just pulled it from ice water. He sighed. "You just wanted to learn more about Ergonian geography, didn't you?" Haji smiled. Suki nodded obediently. "Got any plans? I can get us tickets in five minutes." Haji asked. Suki smiled and nodded again. Haji rolled the whiteboard out and left the room. Suki got packed up and met Haji outside the palace. They got into the Toyota AA and drove to the airport in Naese.

The duo got through the airport quickly and easily, breezing through the metal detector. They walked out of the terminal and right onto the tarmac toward an Air Froeush 737-500. Suki looked like a right tourist now, head on a swivel, admiring how otherworldly this experience was on modern-day Earth. He almost had a presidential-style trip up as he ascended the stairs into the plane, being distracted by the atmosphere of the now-distant airport experience. Haji had secured first-class seats. What really mattered to Suki is that Haji got the optional in-flight wifi. That meant Suki could wind himself down with some research.

The flight was a quick one, typical of a 737, taking a little under 2 hours until touching down in Rayken. The airport was on a smaller peninsula about the size of County Kent in England. This place sure looked a lot smaller on the map. They exited the plane and headed through the airport terminal. They walked to a nearby car rental agency. Some 1970s funk rock track crackled through old speakers in the parking lot. Colourful plastic flags were strewn around the lights of the parking lot. The lot was filled with cars of all ages, types, and shapes. Not an Earthly car between them. It was rare for a car enthusiast - especially someone with the autistic particularity that Suki had - to go into something like this totally blind.

"Could I help you find something, Sirs?" A middle-aged man in a tweed suit said in Ergonese as he approached the two. Even for 2001, he looked out of date. Suki smirked. "I want your best sound system. Dolby, Bose, Alpine, whatever's got the most boom." The man nodded and went inside. "Did I say I wanted a car loaded with explosives?" Suki asked Haji in English, nervously. "No, that was the correct innotation of 'nooz."

The man returned with a single set of keys. Suki took the keys and read the tag. It said the car was a 2001 Fujako Laurocie VIPiX. He hit the unlock button. A midnight blue four-door chirped, its four-ways blinking. The car looked like a mix of a 1990s Nissan Laurel and a late-1990s Subaru Legacy. It had boxy bumpers and aggressive ground effects. It sat on 19" chrome rims and low-profile tyres. It looked like it belonged to a high-ranking Yakuza member, but... "We just got that one in. 130 k's on the dial, full Dolby surround system with 6 CD changer, 18cm subwoofers in the rear shelf, 500w amp, and touchscreen mix control with customisable visualiser." The man explained. "Yeah... I think we'll take that one." Suki and Haji went inside. The man set a waiver, contract and insurance form on the counter. Suki signed them and started to read them over, until he realised how many words there were that he didn't recognise. "I don't speak legalese. Am I about to sign a kidney over?" Suki whispered to Haji. He looked it over and gave a thumbs up. Suki gave the forms back over and put 800 credits - US$80 - on the counter. He was about to take them back before the man calmly put the money in the till. No credit card required. Hell yeah. Instead of charging your card, the rental companies just lock you out of the car if your time expires.

Suki snatched up the keys in victory and walked to the car. He and Haji got in. Suki cranked the engine over. It roared to life with a rasp that would make E.T. blush. Wait, why did it sound like a 1960s Porsche race car? Suki popped the hood and got out, walking to the front and opening the hood after struggling to find the hood latch, as we all do. He looked into the engine bay in disbelief. His fingers danced over the intake manifold, counting the ridges. One... two... three... four, and a matching pair on the other side. A boxer 8 super saloon. Must be the Subaru DNA. Suki closed the hood and got back in the car, still flustered. He closed the door behind him. Haji smirked at him. Suki shook his head and smiled. He put his seatbelt on and put the car in gear. But first...

"Know any good techno stations here?" Suki asked, his hand navigating the infotainment screen to the radio section. Some classical station was on. "On the Northeast Peninsula? 107.3's your best bet." Haji replied. Suki swept his fingers to the right, landing on the frequency. It even displayed the station's logo. "Does this thing have wifi?!" Suki said to himself. "For 800 credits a day, it better." Haji quipped. Wub, wub, wub, wub-wub-wub. A classic DnB snippet played. Suki brought the volume and bass up to "MAXXX" while leaving the other settings at the meticulous 50% setting the rental agent had set it at. The DJ in the song rapped about "taking this night to another fucking level" with a thick East London accent through a heavily-noisegated filter. Then it hit.

The bass ripped through the car at a relentless 130 bpm in 2/4 time. What sounded like a Juno What The effect distorted to the point of sounding like a guitar amplifier after losing an argument with a hatchet matched the bass hits as piano stabs filled the empty spaces. The car vibrated. The rear-view mirror looked like it had been smeared with Vaseline. At least two car alarms went off. The rental agent's gold tooth vibrated. Suki dumped the clutch and sped out of the lot, sliding onto the road. He was full throttle - he could see the road turn into a motorway ahead. No stop signs or speed limits. Really - the song had an AC/DC sample in it that said that. The car hit the fast lane of the motorway at 180. "WIKKID!" The song chimed in. Suki glanced at the radio. The visualiser was dancing like a car going over a suspension test. The song was apparently called "Demerits" by some DJ called "The AA." Suki got a kick out of that. The song had an engine sample in the chorus - Suki couldn't tell if it was the car or the song. The DJ rapped about going 200 k's on the M4. Do you ever feel like the radio sometimes plays the perfect song? This was one of those times.

Suki's driving resembled a mix of tafheet and no hesi as he broke 200 kp/h. The beautiful Mediterranean scenery blurred past. Suki downplayed how he drove around "unpredictable" opponents. He was carving up traffic... wait, this song has a piano solo? Wild. It sounded like it was lifted from some '70s prog rock song. Suki was locked in. Nothing but him, the car, the tarmac and the tunes. This was freedom. This is what he'd always been afraid to do back home. Well, he never had a fast enough car in Japan, and American highway patrol officers are insane. He'd been loving the music he'd heard on Ergon. This was the exact stuff he was producing in his bedroom, but this was the real deal. It got radio airplay and everything. Well, airplay outside of featuring on some speciality show at 11 PM on a college radio station. He wasn't even gawking at the weird Ergonian traffic anymore. They were just another obstacle to pass. Just another point added to the Outrun 2-style heads-up display that Suki was manifesting in the corner of his vision. This was a level of concentration Suki only ever attained when playing racing games at a competitive level. Haji was lucky Suki didn't try to fishtail boost.

The miles and music blended together. Suki was five songs deep into the trip when Haji's hand met his shoulder. "Speed restriction on the turn onto the bridge. 120 k's." Suki blinked and let off the gas. He let the car coast, still cutting through traffic. He whoahed the car down to 120. He turned the music down a bit. If you went from the airport to this bridge at this speed, you'd get there in about 45 minutes. Suki had gotten in there in 25. His hands relaxed on the wheel. He let out a deep breath and held the tears back. Push the Feeling On by Nightcrawlers played on the radio. Okay, the bass could go back up. Only now did Suki notice the display also had the album art present. Sick. Suki shook his head after he realised what he'd just done. His friends back on Earth would have killed him for doing that.

The bridges were there to hop between an archipelago of smaller islands. The first bridge was a through truss with a lift section in the middle. They passed a sign saying the speed restriction was lifted. Suki let himself speed back up, about 150 klicks. "Do me a favour," Suki asked. Haji sat at attention. "Put some relaxing music on after this song." Suki said, which caused Haji to snicker. The Nightcrawlers track came to an end, and Haji normalised the volume and bass. He changed the radio's frequency. Some Brian Eno was playing. Suki melted into the car's plush leather seat. Everything is gonna be alright. The bridges along this stretch were all based on those around San Francisco, albeit stretched by 25% to fit the 50km gap between the island the airport was on and the mainland. The first one was a copy of the original Dumbarton Bridge, with each one separated by a small island. The designs followed the San Francisco Bay North and curved to the Antioch bridge, including the High Street, Leimert, Park Street, Bay Farm Island and Fruitvale bridges toward the end.

One of the islands looked like Yerba Buena Island. It must have been the Bay Bridge. The mainland came into view. Was... was it just San Francisco? It looked a lot like Russian Hill. They arrived in town after a few minutes. The last bridge, a 78m long replica of the Fruitvale Bridge, which was widened to four lanes, lowered them to street level. The Embarcadero lay out in front of them. The bridge spat them out where Broadway would be in San Fran. Suki came to a stop at the stoplight. The Bullitt theme song started playing over the radio. Suki looked at Haji. They smiled at each other. Suki hit the gas as the light turned green and raced to the top of Nob Hill. He had to get a good look at this place. They reached the top when the song finished. Suki parked up, and both got out to stretch their legs.

"Welcome to New Frisco." Haji said. "The original city that resided here was lost in an earthquake in 1855, a magnitude 7.9. They decided to rebuild it after the newly incorporated city of San Heimos in Ameuia. They used the Earthling name." Yeah, Haji "forgot" to mention that Rayken was at the Western tip of a fault line. Suki wasn't afraid of earthquakes. He's Japanese. The only one he experienced was the 2009 Shizuoka quake, which was far enough for him to only experience it at magnitude 3 intensity, but he wasn't afraid of earthquakes.

"So... why are all the bridges so modern?" Suki didn't really speak from experience, but he had a close friend who loved bridges. "We had a big quake in 1945 that brought them all down. It actually destroyed a significant part of the city, too. New Frisco actually did an inverse of San Heimos' rebuild - they had a big quake in '16 - the buildings that were discarded in their rebuild were kept here, but everything else was based on post-1906 San Fran. We decided to make copies of all of San Fran's bridges." Haji calmly explained.

The fault line was different due to the existence of Rayken, which meant that it stretched from about 100 klicks northeast of the airport island and ended in the same place it did on Earth. That meant only the Northeast Peninsula was badly affected, though the Central Peninsula had gotten magnitude 6's before. Suki looked downtown and noticed a replica of the Transamerica Pyramid. "Isn't that spire building from the 1970s?" Suki asked. "Started 1969, completed 1972 on Earth, yes." Haji affirmed. Suki did some math. "Wait... how did you know a building was going to be built before it was built?" Suki stated the obvious. Haji grinned. "We've been keeping a close eye on your planet for a long time." Haji didn't elaborate.

"Do you have anything... with more trains? Or more..." Suki asked Haji, vocalising the intro of Dueling Banjos after he said "more." "More conservative?" Haji asked. Suki nodded. "Well, even on Ergon, New Frisco is a pretty progressive place. I mean, it's just a copy of an Earthling city. Progressive politics on Ergon aren't the same as on Earth - the rights of all sentient beings are already held to an incredibly high standard. Instead, progressive politics are about interplanetary unity. Conservative politics lean more into the Preservation Act. Worl's a progressive politician. He was the one who sent an android to Earth, after all. You being here? That wouldn't happen under a conservative rule. Though the government pulls the strings, while the politicians lead the direction. Same as on Earth."

"Hmm. You guys really have been watching Earth." Suki said as he got into the car. Haji followed. Bodyrock by Moby came on the radio. Suki smiled at Haji. Haji knew. He had played Test Drive in the government's Earth media archives. Suki belted in and drove off when the song picked up. The bass vibrated the car again. They crested the other side of Nob Hill - apparently called Knott Hill - when the chorus played. Suki could see klicks and klicks of rolling hills beyond the city's sprawl. "This 'video game vibe' thing? That's gonna be a daily occurrence when we get Delta 4 together. Remember, sports cars in Kindiak Park? All the NFS4 tracks will have a 1990s big beat station to listen to. We'll have government-controlled stations that match the vibes of every game." Haji bragged. Suki was taken aback by the scenery, but was listening. "What about Stilwater and Steelport?" Suki asked when he came back down to earth. "Glad you asked. Both cities will combine the vibes from both games they're set in. K12 FM will feature a mix of DnB, house, and dance punk in Stilwater, but will be more house, glitch and dubstep in Steelport." Haji explained. The cities were from the Saints Row series. Suki wasn't a huge fan of the series - he didn't like the car handling - but he knew enough to know that radio station from the games.

Suki pulled up at a stoplight. There were two men sitting on a nearby bench. Suki glanced over at them. They were wearing colourful arm warmers and stockings. The smaller one had high heels. Nothing else. Whoa, wait, what? Suki looked again. Yep. The smaller one, on the left, had pink hair and looked like a fox. His canine penis sat on his thigh. It looked flaccid and didn't have a knot. No way could he have had a baculum. The one on the right was a taller, muscular horse. His penis dangled over the edge of the bench. Haji wolf-whistled at the two. The car behind Suki honked. Suki drove off, and the two nude men laughed. Haji had told Suki about public nudity being legal on Ergon, but that was the first time he'd seen it in person. He looked around. There was a large rainbow painted on a building. Just as Suki had thought, they were in Haight-Ashbury.

"So, are you allowed to walk around with a hard dick?" Suki asked. He was turned on, and his voice was a bit shaky from it. "As long as you're not dripping pre, yeah. It's considered a natural bodily function. Those guys weren't hard, though." Suki did a double-take at Haji. "The organics' penises work as feral horses do. They're sheathed if it's cold or are concentrating on something - your dick flopping out while riveting a building would be a bad time - they're flaccid when it's warm or when they're relaxed, and become hard when... well, you know how." Haji explained smugly. Lacking a penis himself, he didn't "know how" but correctly assumed that Suki did. "So, why do canines not have baculums?" Suki asked. The baculum is a bone inside the penises of some animals, such as canines. It prevents them from being "floppy" like a horse penis. "I'm not sure. Some evolutionary thing? Biologists suspect evolution removed it when all organics were given the three-stage 'horse' behaviour." Haji explained. Evolution wasn't fully understood on Ergon - a lot of Earth's teachings on it fit - but the fact that evolution happened so quickly (within the first couple of hundred years) on Ergon threw a spanner in the works. And why did they stop evolving after the so-called "Mass Evolution Event" that saw the birth of the organics? "Maybe you could start researching that stuff." Haji snickered. "You already came up with the data warping idea."

The sun was starting to set when they left New Frisco. Haji opened the car's GPS. A small keyboard with a trackpad popped out. Suki did another double-take. "Wow, that's cool." Suki said as Haji searched for a hotel. The GPS was a fully-featured version of ErgoMaps. "How many stars do you want in the hotel?" Haji asked. "Doesn't matter to me as long as I don't have to splatter rats." Suki responded. His ears flicked when he said "rats." He was thinking of Tixi.

Haji found the two a decent hotel for a reasonable price. They checked in. Suki booted up his computer and started journaling. When he got his thoughts for the day written down, he opened ErgoChat. Before he could read the previous messages, everyone was greeting him. Oh well. "ji" is all he wrote. That's "hi" in Ergonese. The others were asking how he'd been, and what he'd been up to. "just hanging around. decided to go to rayken" He said as if going to another continent was something he did on the daily. "oh? whatchya doin island hoppin" Xeagan replied. "never really seen this part of the world b4" Suki responded. This was hell. He couldn't lie to his new friends, but he couldn't tell the truth either. Would they care? Suki thought they would. He was painted in a corner pretty well.

"always admire an explorer uwu" Tixi typed. The others probably laughed, as there was a gap between messages. "well om sure hes explored uranus already", Drae chimed in. "no but she did mine", Suki typed without missing a beat. Another laughter pause. "i like guys that are forward like that" Xeagan said. "dont think i didnt catch u looking this morning", She continued. "he looked like he was about to pass out", Zest posted with a string of "crying laughing" emoticons. "if it wasnt 4 the boobs id have started sucking", Suki replied. The pretence was gone. "haha fair, yeah tixi sed u were gay. kinda wild" Xeagan responded. "u can always just close ur eyes or i could wear a big hoodie" Xeagan continued, followed with a flushed face emoticon. "i luv cockworship anyway. i mean only zesty is big enuf for me 2 pen" She was oversharing a bit now. Suki certainly didn't care. He was fantasising about being buried under that thing.

"Haji?" Suki asked. "Do you think... we can... sleep in the same bed tonight?" Haji was surprised. "Sure." He replied. "Just... keep your pants on." Suki insisted. "Dang. I knew I should have brought a strap-on with me." Haji snapped his fingers. Suki shuddered - in a good way. "Do you need some privacy, Earthling? I'll go get us dinner." Haji left. Suki stripped down and started jerking off. "r we still too much of strangers for sexting" Suki said in the chat. Multiple people started typing, but were shut up when Xeagan sent a picture of herself masturbating. It was an older photo, but she remembered to pick one where her boobs didn't show in it. The attached message read, "idgaf if deerfag posts it. its already public." Suki came on his own torso. "thx", Suki typed, forgetting to use Ergonese.

"whered u learn english anyway deerfag" Xeagan responded. She wasn't trying to make Suki feel bad with the language she used, instead using it as a somewhat self-deprecating term of endearment. Endeerment? "uni" Suki typed quickly as he cleaned himself up with some tissues. "oh? college is gay af. whered u go 2?" Xeagan interrogated. Uh oh. Suki quickly opened ErgoMaps and tried to find his own hometown. "didn't you go to college?" Zest turned the screws. "yea i did, for 7 months. y u think i like dick??" was Xeagan's response. "even little dick?" Suki and Tixi replied at the same time. "yes." Xeagan didn't elaborate.