The three of them walked into the room marked "Simulator Room" on Sara's map. The small door opened into a massive room with white paneling covering the walls. The huge amount of empty space overwhelmed Jace. There was a white shelf lining the walls covered in what looked like laser pistols and rifles, and there was a line of what looked like fake starships along another wall. Other than that, it was a wide, empty space. As they were gawking at the white walls, the cockpit to the starship slid open and a man jumped out of the ship. He was tall and lanky, with a bristly chin and only semi-kempt hair. He started walking towards them and hollered across the room. "Heya! Don't recognize you kids, you new?"
Once he was a little closer, Sara spoke up, "Yes, we're just exploring a bit." She introduced the three of them. When she came to Jace, the man spoke up. "Now you, I was expecting. Where's Tryst?"
Jace glanced away. "We had a disagreement."
The older man laughed then gestured to Sara and Iris. "Well if you were with these two beautiful women, it would make sense."
Sara huffed at him, "Hey, we're more than just decorations here."
The man raised his hands. "My apologies, Miss Mortonesse, That's not what I meant. I simply was talking about Tryst's sense of status. She has a surprisingly lot of opinions for someone of her background."
Sara glared at him, but let it go when Jace interjected. "So why is this the simulator room?"
The man turned to him and grinned. "Why, I haven't introduced myself yet! My name is Chaz, and this is my baby," he said, gesturing to encompass the whole room. "Welcome to the Simulator Room. This is where you'll get most of your experience in space flight and combat." He pulled out his Panel and made a couple of taps and swipes, and the entire scene around them changed. The floor beneath them shifted, almost knocking Jace to the floor, he reached out to get his balance and found his hand resting on a tree. The room around them had changed into a rainforest, complete with damp air and sounds. Feeling the tree at his side, he could tell that it wasn't quite a real tree, but it was close.
Chaz winked at him. "Cool, huh? Although these maps are a pain to design, they always look amazing thanks to yours truly."
Sara looked around in wonder. "What is this for?" She asked, feeling the bark of the tree beside her.
Chaz started to walk through the artificially generated trees. "Most often, this is used by students for training. This specific map was used yesterday for some combat training of our ground troop students. The experience isn't quite complete without your Simsuit, where you're able to see the computer-generated opponents and feel the combat better." as they walked through the underbrush, Jace was amazed at the attention to detail that there was. Without actually touching it and knowing it was fake, it was different to tell the difference between artificial and real. He began to feel a sense of excitement running through his veins.
They came upon the ships that they had seen earlier and Chaz waved at them. "Come over here, lemme show you these baby's."
The ships looked like the standard starships that Jace and Sara had seen back when they had been found by madame Sheev and Sam, except they weren't quite as detailed, and they were completely white to match the original color of the rest of the room.
The three of them climbed into a separate ship at Chaz's instructions. Jace looked around him. On the main dashboard, there rested a helmet. The rest of the cockpit looked like it was made of salt. There were no buttons, no switches, no dials, nothing.
"Go ahead and put on the helmet," Chaz called to them, "This one doesn't really need a Simsuit, you can do fine with just the helmet."
As Jace slipped on the helmet, the glass visor covering his eyes lit up and several numbers ran across it. It was a screen, he realized.
"Go ahead and ignore what you're seeing now, I'm gonna do a couple of things, then you should see the beauty."
After a couple of seconds, the visor went black. As the visor was the kind that pretty much covered your entire face, Jace was unable to see anything. Then the seat underneath him began to shift and roll, changing with him inside.
Before he could react either positively or negatively, the screen cleared again. The sight that greeted him was completely unexpected. It looked like the actual inside of a ship! In front of him was a joystick and throttle for steering and aiming, and several buttons and switches were lining the dashboard and the walls next to him, some of which he recognized from his time aboard the shuttle. And out the windows was the biggest shock. Out there it looked as if he were parked in a docking bay, facing outside into the emptiness of outer space.
Chaz was saying something, but Jace wasn't listening. He felt an overwhelming urge to go out there into that artificial space, to explore unknown horizons and experience new things. He began to push buttons randomly and flip switches to figure out how to get the ship off the ground. What he ended up with was several loud beeps, a humming, and then a moan, the sound of something breaking, and a plume of smoke. All within the simulation of course.
Then he came out of his daze to the sound of Chaz's laughing. He heard his voice coming through the speaker system on the helmet.
"Quite the eager one aren't you? Glad you weren't in a real ship there or we would have all been in danger. Now if you can have a tad of patience, I can give a few pointers."
Jace pushed down the restlessness he was feeling and sat back to let Chaz teach him what to do.
Chaz took over his visor and used its display to point out several of the controls that were needed to run the basics of the ship. "Now that program I'm gonna run now is mostly autopilot, you'll be able to maneuver and fire the turrets of you so desire, But most of the functions of the ship will be run by the computer, it means a little less freedom, but it allows you to experience the flight."
This time as the view around him shifted, Jace found himself in the emptiness of space rather than in the docking bay, and he was already moving. He immediately grabbed for the joystick beneath his legs and began to twist and turn. As he was in a stationary ship, the lack of g-forces was a little immersion breaking, but he adjusted. That was a benefit of the Simsuit, he assumed.
As he flew through the emptiness of space, he felt ecstatic at the freedom he felt but also felt a sense of longing as well. Sure the flying was fun, but what he wanted was to go see something new, experience other cultures, and take unnecessary risks. That was why he wanted to be in space, not just because he wanted the maneuverability of a spaceship.
He decided to pick a direction and put the ship in full throttle. Though he knew the sim-ship was moving at a breakneck speed, the stars around him did not move whatsoever. He felt like he was flying against a wall.
"You won't be able to get anywhere in this simulation, I haven't included any planets or destinations here. Just space with a backdrop of stars." He heard Chaz over his headset. The older man laughed, "You wouldn't be able to get anywhere like that even in real life though, This ship isn't modified for long-distance travel. This is meant for patrolling and dogfighting. You'll have to go with something equipped for space jumps or faster than light travel to do that."
Jace felt disappointed, it turned out there were limits to this program after all. He flew around for another hour, and partway through Chaz put him, Sara, and Iris in the same program together, and they simulated some dogfights. They were all pretty bad, but Jace was by far the worst. Iris had some basic flight practice, and Sara had screwed around a lot with flight simulators growing up, so she beat them 4 out of 5 times. Despite this, Jace enjoyed himself. It was nice to feel free, even though the thought of not actually going anywhere overhung his mind.
After a bit, an announcement came over their earpieces that it was mealtime, and they reluctantly removed their helmets and clamored out of the ship. They thanked Chaz for the experience.
"Any time," Chaz said, giving them a casual salute in farewell.
Sara invited Jace to join them in eating, but Jace declined. He wanted to get to know his fellow Rogues, and over food was the perfect time to do it. They agreed to meet back up after eating and then went their separate ways.