Free Randoms by David Liss

number floating above his head—a reddish 34. In the lower left of my own vision, I saw a number 1 and below that 0000/1000. The numbers were translucent and easy to ignore entirely, but when I made an effort to see them, they came into sharp focus.
    â€œUh, what’s going on?” I asked. “I’m seeing numbers.”
    â€œThat’s your heads-up display,” Dr. Roop said.
    â€œYou’re joking.” I had an HUD now?
    â€œI’m quite serious.”
    â€œOkay,” I said, trying to figure the rest out. “What do the numbers mean, and why do you have one floating over your head? Ms. Price doesn’t.”
    â€œMs. Price is not wired into the Confederation system of personal growth and expansion. You and your fellow delegates are. You asked before how your species’ compatibility with the Confederation would be evaluated. In our culture, we believe that learning, striving, expanding your abilities, curiosity, wisdom—all of these things have merit. From the Formers, our great progenitors, we have inherited a system whereby an individual’s achievements are recognized and so become the basis for further improvements. The nanites in your system have already quantified your attributes in numerous categories, and they are also capable of measuring how well your actions and accomplishments move you toward achieving certain kinds of goals valued across the Confederation. These successes, based on their complexity and difficulty, are represented as a numerical value. There are certain set values, and when they are reached, you are rewarded by having abilities of your choice augmented through nanotechnology.”
    I took a moment to process all of this. “So the zeroes are my experience points,” I said. “The one thousand is how many points I will need to . . . level up?”
    â€œCorrect,” he said.
    â€œAnd when I level up I get . . . skill points I can use?”
    â€œCorrect again,” he said. “We have the technology to increase our abilities in ways that exceed our biological limitations, but in order to prevent this technology from being abused, those augmentations must be earned through accomplishments that benefit all of society.”
    â€œI can’t believe this!” I shouted. “It’s like I’m living in a video game! I am going to level up. And so you’re, like, a level-thirty-four diplomat?”
    â€œThere is no class system, if that is what you are implying, but there are specialization tracks. When we get to the ship, you’ll have time to inspect the skill tree, and you can decide how you want to proceed. It’s an important choice, because all augmentations are final.”
    â€œHow do I gain experience? And what kind of skills are we talking about exactly?”
    â€œThere will be numerous opportunities on the station to advance. You’ll quickly learn how to pursue tasks that accumulate experience points. And that is how your delegation will be rated. At the end of your time with us, if your team has amassed a total of eighty levels, then you will move on to phase-one integration into the Confederation.”
    â€œSo, twenty levels apiece.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter how they’re distributed as long as the total is eighty. Keep in mind, the more you advance, the harder it is to obtain each successive milestone. The first few levels can be achieved in days, or even hours, but the number of required points increases with each level. It can take some beings a decade to move from level thirty to level thirty-one.”
    Whatever fear I felt vanished as I considered the prospect of leveling, of gaining nanotech-augmented skills.
    Then the shuttle began to move, and the fear came back. There was a thrumming noise and a series of vibrations, and then the sense of levitating, and then the feeling that we were going a zillion miles an hour, and that my stomach hadn’t come along