Millitetwinellius - Millie for short, although she’d really been trying to get her friends to call her “Millions” - tore her way through the corridors of the generation ship. Her semi-translucent gel-like body shimmered with the faint blue of excitement, and every time she grabbed at a wall railing with one of her pseudopods and launched herself forward with more speed, her form rippled and stretched.
Ariam weren’t known for their speed. They were much more used to graceful and deliberate movements. It was common to see Ariam on the ship glide smoothly from place to place, almost like serene jellyfish. But today, Millie didn’t want to waste any time on elegance.
The steady hum of the ship faded into the background as she raced through the ship’s corridor, her excitement growing as she sped past workstations and weaved her way around the occasional startled crew member. She squeezed herself through tight groups, flung out a cheerful greeting mid-sprint, and kept racing forward.
Millie had always been fast. At least that’s what her mother told her. She jokingly used to call her a little “streak of motion,” back when she was younger. But she felt so slow today. Despite sprinting at a full tilt, she couldn’t help but think that she was stuck in a dream. No matter how much she pushed to go faster, she felt like she was moving in slow motion. It was as if the universe itself was dragging its feet just to mess with her.
She finally skidded to a halt in front of a plain-looking office door, the words stenciled on the door reading: External Communications Officer.
Millie gave herself a moment to try and pull herself together. She took a few deep breaths and willed the bright blue of excitement that tinged her gel-like skin to fade into something that was close to neutral. The last thing she wanted to do was walk into the office looking like a panicked blob of excitement.
When she finally got herself into a halfway presentable state, she tapped the small security pad by the door with a pseudopod, letting the owner of the office know she was there.
The door opened with a soft hiss and Millie stepped inside, ready to shout out a greeting. She pulled up short in surprise, staring at the three figures in the office who had all turned to greet her. One was expected, but the other two definitely were not.
Millie blinked when she saw the two younger Ariam seated in the office. She knew them both from her classes. Hessentithy and Kwilcalli. She’d worked with Hessen on projects together, and was on friendly terms with Kwil. They were close enough that they exchanged memes and shared homework answers, but they weren’t entirely full friends.
Both of them were practically bouncing in place. Millie noticed their pseudopods twitching with uncontrollable energy. Kwil in particular looks like she was about to vibrate herself out of her seat with all the energy she was trying to suppress.
The third figure in the office, and the only one who was seated calmly and not looking overwhelmed with excitement, was Millie’s mother.
Assentethri glanced up at the sound of the door opening and shot Millie a knowing smile. Her expression was halfway to amused even before Millie had opened her mouth in greeting.
“Millie?” Assen said, her voice light and teasing. “What brings my precocious young daughter down to my office today? Did you hear about my backlog of paperwork? Have you come down to offer your help?”
Millie shifted from side to side, barely able to hold still. She knew that her mother was teasing her, but she didn’t care. “The new DLC,” she blurted out. “It’s out!”
Assen’s coloring shifted to a soft yellow of mock confusion and she tapped thoughtfully at her lips with one of her pseudopods.
“DLC…DLC…” she repeated, as if searching her memory. “Now what could that stand for again…?”
Millie couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy at how effortless her mother was able to control her emotional coloring. Her skin was always the perfect color of whatever emotion she wanted to display. It was currently radiating the yellow of confusion, as if she really didn’t understand what Millie was so excited about.
Millie’s own skin, on the other hand, was practically glowing blue. All that work that she’d done outside the office to try and give herself a more neutral appearance had all been for nothing. Her excitement showed plain on her skin like a beacon, broadcasting her emotions to the entire room.
Assen tilted her head and Millie caught the slight mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
“Hmmm,” she mused, pretending to look around her desk. “You know…I might have heard something about that.”
Her tone was all playful innocence as she stood from her desk and shuffled a few papers about. There were stacks of documents and old datacrystals and coded printouts scattered about her desk, and Assen shifted them from one spot to another with a sort of exaggerated care.
Millie didn’t believe for a moment that her mother didn’t know where the DLC shards were. Assen was one of the most meticulous Ariam aboard the generation ship. She knew every inch of her office and knew where everything was. She was just having fun dragging the whole charade out to tease Millie and the other two Ariam who were twitching in anticipation.
Finally, Assen “remembered” something and pulled open a desk drawer where she retrieved three shards that she then tossed onto the desk. Millie’s breath caught in her throat.
The shards were beautiful. Each one was etched with intricate swirls that Millie could make out from halfway across the room. Soft pulses of light glowed from the shards, almost like little heartbeats. Millie recognized the design of the shards instantly.
This is it, she thought. It’s the newest EPOCH expansion!
Hessen and Kwil practically erupted out of their seats. Kwil let out an involuntary squeak when she snatched one of the shards up and carefully plugged it into the codex attached to one of her pseudopods. Hessen, the more composed of the two, followed a beat later. Even he couldn’t hide the blue of excitement that colored his skin.
Millie took a few tentative steps forward, as if she couldn’t believe her luck. She stared at the DLC shard and it was all she could do not to jump across the room and snatch it up.
She’d been waiting for the new EPOCH release ever since the very first teaser for the expansion had dropped.
For most Ariam, EPOCH was the pastime that they all obsessed over. It was a sprawling civilization sim that was packed with lore and strategy and intricate systems that could swallow entire weeks. It was the game of choice in the Ariam Republics. But to Millie? It was so much more.
A grin stretched across Hessentithy’s face as he stared at the DLC on his codex. Kwil was flipping through menus and muttering to herself in disbelief as she read through the new information.
“This is wild,” Kwil breathed. “It’s saying that they’ve added entirely new branches to the tech tree. Like…full-on new paths.”
Millie took a step forward, her pseudopods twitching in anticipation. She didn’t look to her mother who was still parked behind her desk, but she knew that she was watching. And smiling. She knew her mother would be smiling at her with the kind of smile that said: go on, kid.
She finally approached the desk and snatched up her own shard before slotting it into her codex with a rush of excitement. For one single heartbeat, the rest of the room slipped away into the background. A flood of information streamed into her codex and Millie started scanning through everything.
It was an entirely new civilization in her grasp, all placed in that shard waiting for her. She wanted nothing more than to race back to her room, pull up her starting board, and dive into all the little intricacies of the new race.
Kwil and Hessen were already halfway out the door to the office by the time Millie looked up. She barely paid them any attention as she was lost in codex.
“There’s going to be a game tomorrow,” Kwil said, turning to face Millie before leaving the office. The words rushed out of her mouth. “You in?”
Millie nodded quickly. Kwil grinned and then vanished into the corridor. Millie tore her eyes from her codex, eager to follow Kwil, but she was pulled up short when she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She spun in place to see her mother with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
Trouble.
“Not so fast, girl,” Assen said as she stretched out a pseudopod and pointed to something across the office.
Millie followed the gesture and spotted what she was pointing at. It was a cart. An old rickety thing that was piled high with folders and storage containers. She knew the cart. She knew it a little too well.
“Since you clearly had the free time to sprint your way down to my office, I assume all your schoolwork is finished for the day.” Assen flashed that smile at Millie. “That means you can afford to spare some time to help me out with my deliveries.”
Millie opened her mouth to object, a plea already forming on her tongue, then she sighed and just nodded. She knew there was no winning this one.
Assentethri wasn’t just her mother. She was also the ship’s Chief External Communications Officer. Every transmission from the homeworld flowed through her office, and she was in charge of maintaining all the hard copies of all the information the generation ship received. Most of the data sent to the ship lived safely on the digital systems, but sometimes protocol required physical backups.
And who was stuck running all those physical backups throughout the ship? More often than not, it was Millie.
It wasn’t the worst job on the ship. Any other time Millie would have jumped at the chance to wander the generation ship and visit all the different divisions. But with a brand-new DLC synced to her codex, just waiting to be played with, the job now felt like cruel and unusual punishment.
“Come on, Mom,” Millie said, trying to keep her tone playful and upbeat. “You know I’d love to help, but…” she trailed off with a hopeful shrug as her eyes flicked towards the shard that pulsed gently in her codex.
“You’ve got the time. Now get to it.”
Millie let a dramatic sigh escape her but she didn’t argue. She knew better.
Stepping up to the cart, she began sorting through all the contents and made sure everything was packed away into neat little stacks. There were printed briefings, data packets, and a few handwritten notes. She’d always found the handwriting on those strangely beautiful.
Still, her skin itched with impatience. She kept stealing glances at her codex and the DLC that was just sitting there…waiting.
After everything was organized to her liking, Millie stepped behind the cart and pushed it to the office door, only to be held up once more by her mother’s voice.
“Wait one second,” Assen called out. “There’s still one more package that needs to be delivered.”
Millie stifled a sigh and turned back around, bracing herself for her mother to toss another stack of papers her way. Instead, she watched as her mother stepped behind her desk and pulled open a drawer. In the drawer was a small parcel that was wrapped in coarse, old brown paper that was tied shut with a piece of twine. The whole thing looked like it came from one of those old antique shops back home.
Assen placed the package carefully in the cart and then smiled at Millie. Not understanding what was happening, she looked down at the parcel, the burgundy of curiosity pushing her to figure out what it was. She froze when she spotted her name written neatly on the label.
Millie’s eyes went wide at that. She never received packages. She shot a look at her mother who was wearing a smug smile. Millie reached out and took a corner of the package, slowly unwrapping it. Beneath the coarse brown paper was a polished blue box with intricate gold lettering stenciled on the surface. Her breath caught in her throat as she read the inscription.
EPOCH - 38TH DLC: HUMANITY
She stared down at the box, unable to pry her eyes away from it. Her pseudopods trembled as she turned it over in her hands. It wasn’t the same DLC shard that everyone else on the ship would be playing with. No. It was special. It was better. It came in a custom package with an embossed logo that told her that it was collector’s edition quality.
Millie’s eyes flicked from the box up to her mother who was looking down at her with a quiet satisfaction.
“I figured you’d appreciate the gift,” she said, her voice softening. “You’ve been talking about this DLC since before we left home.”
Millie couldn’t speak. Her eyes just darted from her mother to the package and back again. Finally, she placed the box carefully in her cart and rushed over to her mother, wrapping her up in a tight hug.
Assentethri chuckled warmly, clearly enjoying her daughter’s happiness. “Yes, I know, I know. You’re welcome. But you still have a full cart of deliveries to make. And don’t even think about finishing your deliveries and then going straight to playing. Homework first. Game later.”
Millie pulled back from the hug, her face glowing a brighter blue than ever. “Got it. Totally. Yes. I’m responsible.”
“Mhmm,” Assen snorted, clearly unconvinced but smiling nonetheless.
Millie carefully rearranged the cart, making sure her EPOCH box was placed where everyone would be able to see it. She patted it with a gentle touch, wanting it to be safe. And visible. Then she wheeled her cart out of the office, her steps noticeably lighter and her mood significantly brighter than a few minutes before.
Sure, she needed to make a bunch of deliveries all throughout the shit before she was allowed to play with her new game. But now? She had a treasure along for the ride, and something to look forward to when she finished.
The 38th expansion for EPOCH had been eagerly awaited by fans for years.. It was the expansion that promised to introduce a mysterious, never-before-seen species that would change the game forever.
Millie couldn’t wait to find out what was inside. But first…a few deliveries.