“Could you tell him more about level 3?” Gonzo asked suspiciously.

  “Sure, because I’m level 2, so there’s some stuff I can see in my own Interface, and some more stuff the Rangers or SA people have mentioned because they know I’m level 2; but I’m not going to mention that stuff, either, because a Systemist might hear me. Or a non-Systemist might hear me, but not know Systemists aren’t supposed to, and get themselves in trouble blurting it out in the wrong company,” Danielle said.

  Ron laughed. “For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t tell. I was never big on the whole Secrets of the System thing, and since I got out here, I’m kind of, um. I don’t know. I’m starting to wonder if the element guides really knew as much about some of this stuff as they led me to believe they did.”

  “You’re not the only one,” Danielle said. “I have it on good authority that new Sent like us tend to take their religions one of two ways, though – falling away, or getting kind of fanatical. Makes it a good idea not to get too blatant about which way you’re going around other people who might be going the other way, at least not until everyone’s a little more settled and feeling less like every single thing is a new struggle for survival.”

  “What’s good authority?” Gonzo prodded.

  “The Sending Authority people – they’ve seen a bunch of Sendings, so they know how the trends go. They have a feel for what’s normal; level X by date Y, high risk of religious violence early on, mana pox the first summer for most camps and the second summer for the rest; all that kind of stuff.”

  “And why are you talking so much to the Sending Authority?” Gonzo pressed suspiciously, leaning towards her to start intently into her face. Was he trying to intimidate her, or just be sure of seeing all her tells?

  Well, she could play that game too. She leaned towards him, and with equal intensity, said “Because I’m a sneaky, sneaky, conspirator, Gonzo. I totally sneaked into Ranger Headquarters while we were inside the Fence last Sunday, talked to Rangers, eavesdropped on Sending Authority people, and even delivered a message from Almighty God Himself, influenced the catalog, taught the Healers things they didn’t know about a common medical Skill, and the only reason you shouldn’t be running for the hills just because I told you this is that I use my super-secret conspiracy abilities for good instead of evil.”

  Gonzo knit his brows, frowning more deeply the longer she spoke, and finally leaned back. “OK, I get it. I pushed too much, and it’s shut-up time.”

  Danielle gave him a dignified nod and leaned back against the counter, trying not to look too relieved. Nathan opened his mouth, and raised a hand, then paused as if he was having second thoughts about saying something. A knock on the door sounded, and he closed both hand and mouth and moved away from the wall. “I’ll get it,” John said.

  “It’s probably the Rangers,” Danielle said, looking past him to the door.

  He nodded. “Probably, but I’m going to use Hostility Sense anyway.”

  “Of course,” Danielle said. “Is there anyone who doesn’t have some Skill for checking behind a closed door, by now? In their room, if not in their own Interface.”

  “Individual, probably, but I’m with you on room-groups,” John said. He paused at the door, presumably activating the Skill. “Looks clear.” He opened the door a crack and look around it. “Ah, hello Rangers. We’ve been expecting you.”

  John stood back and let in Ranger Juliette and, much to Danielle’s surprise, Ranger Hart. He closed the door behind them and gestured to the room proper, saying, “Head on in; the witnesses are all clustering around the counters. Fair warning, my roommate’s a conspiracy nut.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Gonzo said sarcastically.

  “Hello, Rangers,” Nathan said. “I remember Healer Hart from the meeting Wednesday; do you want me to introduce you to people a little?”

  “Thank you, but I believe I’ve met all of Medic Falconer’s party, however briefly,” Ranger Hart said.

  Jordan and Gideon stood up. Akari stayed where she was. Danielle nodded to Ranger Hart, then offered a handshake to his partner. “Ranger Juliette, nice to see you again. Sometime I hope we can meet under less deadly circumstances,” she said.

  Ranger Juliette chuckled darkly and returned the handshake. “Hey, I saw you on Saturday, and nobody died then,” she joked. “Sunday too! I’m pretty sure you even noticed me on Sunday!”

  Danielle laughed. “That’s true – you were guarding crates. Anyway. You probably remember Akari,” she gestured to where her friend sat under the counter, “but I don’t think Jordan and Gideon were with our party the last time we actually talked. That was back at the cougar attack, right?” Danielle pointed to Jordan and Gideon as she said their names.

  “Ah, yes – there were three parties at that mess, but I don’t think these two were with any of them. I recognize healer Jansen, though. Were you in on this one?” she asked Nathan.

  “No, ma’am, our room was just close by when it went down, so they came up here for a safe place to wait on you.” He offered her a handshake of his own, then went to his bed and sat down, folding his legs under him. Gonzo had already done likewise, and all but literally buried his head in a book for good measure.

  “Is it fine if we stick to our beds while you do your thing?” John asked.

  “Certainly. If we need more privacy than that, we’ll relocate or use privacy Skills,” Ranger Hart said.

  John nodded and retreated to his own bed by way of the bookcase, choosing his own book and settling in to read, or at least pretend to read. Danielle was pretty sure Gonzo was just pretending, turning pages periodically, but a bit too fast to be really taking it in.

  “I’d like to take the people involved one at a time, over by the sink where my privacy Skill can work efficiently,” Ranger Juliette said. “Who wants to go first?”

  Gideon and Jordan both suddenly needed to look anywhere but at the Rangers, and Akari didn’t seem inclined to stand. Danielle took a deep, steadying breath. She might as well go first, and give them a moment.

  “Before you volunteer, Miss Falconer, I’d like you to stay and go first for a med check, please,” Ranger Hart said.

  Danielle narrowly resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him. “Of course,” she said. “Will you be asking permission for one Skill and then using two again?”

  “What?” Ranger Hart frowned at her. “The evaluation requires multiple Skills, yes. Come around where you won’t be blocking the others, please.”

  Danielle followed him into the center of the bedroom area. Behind her, Akari said, “I may as well go first.” She grunted softly as she sat forward from her slouched position and got her feet under her. A soft brushing/scraping sound was probably the edge of the counter across her back, but at least she hadn’t hit her head.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Danielle turned to face the entryway and lowered her Mana Deflector while Ranger Juliette led Akari to the sink area and activated a Skill – not Bubble of Silence. This one involved, apparently, a handshake, and affected only the two people shaking hands. It looked awkward, but the feel of the Skill itself was more cozy, like a warm blanket spread over the conversation. The Mana Sense feedback was an odd contrast to how Akari looked, using it.

  “While you’re poking and prying, I wonder if you can answer a question for me?” Danielle asked Ranger Hart.

  “Is it going to be more of your thinly disguised snark?” he asked.

  “Nope. This one is strictly educational,” Danielle said. “I got a Skill that seems like it should be a standard thing, maybe even one of the things you’re using a lot this week. The name it has in my Interface is definitely not the standard name, though, and I’m curious about what other people’s Interfaces call it.”

  “That is interesting, go on,” Ranger Hart said a bit distractedly. He was moving his head slightly, this way and then that way; examining some self-only Skill display, Danielle thought.

  “I already had a tier 2 universally unlocked Skill called Mana Diagnostics,” Danielle began, and he nodded. “I then got a Skill that also has Mana Diagnostics in the name, but it’s for people, and presumably also animals. My interface calls it MedVet Mana Diagnostics, which makes perfect sense, so I’m fine with it for my own use. It’s just that it seems like the kind of Skill I want to be able to identify understandably to other people as well.”

  Ranger Hart chuckled. “Of course – it follows the pattern of what you did with Detect Internal Temperature. That makes so much sense.”

  “So? Is that enough information to identify it as something other people use?” Danielle asked.

  “Oh, sure. Other people usually see it as Medical Mana Diagnostics or Veterinary Mana Diagnostics, but those are known to be interoperable with each other. It can also show up with the first word as Healer’s or Medic’s or Veterinarian’s, or occasionally even less common Class-related names, anything that indicates to the individual receiving it that it goes with their Class or Career that involves caring for living creatures,” Ranger Hart said, tilting his head and leaning just a bit to the side, as if trying to see around something.

  “Are you using it right now?” Danielle asked him.

  “Yes, actually. My version calls itself Healer’s Mana Diagnostics. Like I said though, it’s interoperable with nearly all Skills with that naming format.”

  “OK, inter-what now?” Gideon asked.

  Ranger Hart glanced over his shoulder at Gideon and Jordan, who were both watching the proceedings. “Interoperable. It means the things it refers to can be used together, or sometimes interchangeably, depending on context. Inter- meaning together, -operable meaning able to operate, to function, you see? Able to function together. Interoperable. For computers and data systems, it has to do with being able to talk to each other, using the same protocol, that kind of thing. In Skill identification context, it means the information you get from the Skill will make sense to someone with the other Skill – a lot of Skills are really more Skill groups than individual, tightly-defined things. People get Skills with similar or even identical names but subtle tweaks to them, all the time. If they’re close enough that they’re used the same way, and the results are functionally identical, we call them interoperable.”

  “Huh. So Danielle’s MedVet Thermometer is interoperable with Detect Internal Temperature, then?” Jordan asked, like of a student confirming something he was fairly sure he’d understood correctly.

  Ranger Hart chuckled, though. “I can see why you’d think so, but not really,” he said. “It might have tried to come in with the same name, but the normal color-gradient readout version of Detect Internal Temperature isn’t nearly as accurate as Numeric MedVet Thermometer, nor can it be shared easily and confirmed by others. Medic Falconer’s version is strictly superior in most respects, so only the less common variants that we occasionally see with the white number displays are truly interoperable with hers. Which is why we need the term! Detect Internal Temperature is one of the most common Skill names that shows up in versions that aren’t fully interoperable, and determining which version someone has is a familiar nuisance for medical facilities.”

  He paused to aim a second Skill at her. It felt like the tier 4 Healer’s diagnostic Danielle had seen several times recently. Apparently, he’d started with her System this time instead of starting with the physical checkup. “Hm. According to this, you didn’t even pick up a bruise,” he said. “That’s nice. One more Skill now.” Accordingly, he activated another Skill, and this one was See System Info. Danielle sighed as the file-flipping sensation began, but he ignored her and continued, “Anyway, we’ll have to see if Medic Falconer’s numeric version finally manages to replace the, what did you call it? Lightsight version?”

  “Yeah. I actually like how it shows up as a Thermal Sight temperature-color,” Danielle said. “Maybe not enough to use it when I care about being precise, but I think it’s cool. Aheh, so to speak.”

  “Indeed. Well, your personal version reflects that, and thus carries the best of both groups; so I sincerely hope that between desirability and availability, it eventually takes over as the most-shared version of the Skill. Who knows, maybe when it does, other people will also start to see the MedVet tag on their other Skills that take a similar type of living target. End Skill.” He stepped back a bit and gave her a nod. “In my opinion, it would be a helpful contribution to the System’s ever-developing dialect.”

  He turned to the boys, then, and told Gideon, “Let’s have a look at you, next. Any resistances to declare?”

  “I’m currently resisting the urge to give a seriously snarky answer, but unless you want to count that, then no,” Gideon said.

  “Ooh, metasnark. Please consider me exactly as impressed as that deserves,” Ranger Hart said, and proceeded to become obviously distracted with his Skills.

  “Heh. I’ll have to remember that one,” Gideon said. “So, um Danielle? Do you have any plans for spreading around that strictly superior Skill?”

  “I guess we’ll see whether we get a visit from a Skill Sharer at Fall Fair, and go from there,” Danielle said, giving him a quelling stare.

  “Aw. All right, I guess I’ll save up for it, with a goal of having the mana in hand when that comes around,” he said.

  “What were you hoping for?” Gonzo asked, how else, suspiciously.

  Gideon twitched – a suppressed wince, perhaps. “Crazy Danielle conspiracies for the sake of good, obviously,” he said.

  “Don’t encourage him, please,” Ron said. “It’s easy to laugh it off when you only see him once in a while, but believe me, it gets real old when you hear it day in and day out.”

  “Didn’t the Skill Sharer that made the discount tokens they’re selling have access to Danielle, though?” Nathan asked. “I seem to recall being told that the catalog version was numeric. Not to mention there’s a rumor going around that Danielle was let into the Ranger Headquarters to, and I quote, ‘try to affect the catalog’ during the big line-up at the Dome.”

  Gonzo put down his book to stare at Nathan and Danielle in turn.

  “Ah. Yes, that might be a thing that happened,” Danielle said. “I seem to recall asking someone not to help the rumors along, but apparently it was already too late.”

  “Nathan, are you holding out on me?!” Gonzo asked.

  “You better believe it,” Nathan said. “You pick up one little detail of my private life, and bam, you start trying to tell my friends they can’t come see me when they need a shelter from the Wolves. No way am I telling you anything else.”

  “Hey, that thing made you super sick, you can’t tell me that’s a friendly thing to do!” Gonzo protested.

  “Obviously I can’t, but it wasn’t because I didn’t try,” Nathan said in a voice drier than the surface of the Sahara.

  “What thing is this now?” Ranger Hart asked, allowing himself to be distracted from Gideon for a moment.

  Nathan sighed. “It was a Skill token for Regen Burst, which I used on Sunday night. I then proceeded to use it to try and provide medical services to two floors of this building, because nobody else in the building was willing to even try. By the time you pointed out the risk, on Wednesday, I was already a smidge sicker than I might’ve otherwise been, but I was still the only one doing that duty, so I proceeded to use it more, anyway, knowing full well that it would make things worse. I stopped when I realized my generation was up to three times normal, and sure enough, the next day I started improving. Meanwhile, though, the higher mana-pox generation made up for not using it, and here we are.”

  “That wasn’t terribly wise, young man,” Ranger Hart said.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard from Ranger Michael on the subject,” Nathan said. “I hear a bunch of the guys downstairs, where I couldn’t get to, ended up having to be taken to the clinic though.”

  “I never did get to the other end of floor 1,” Danielle said. “I’m too fried to try and keep going, though, and anyway it’s too late – people really should be sleeping at this point. I should be sleeping, probably, but I’m not going to.”

  Akari came out and joined Danielle standing against the half-wall side of the counter, just in time to hear her say it.

  “We’ll get you home as soon as we’re done with statements,” Ranger Hart said. “You’re done here, young man, go ahead and give your statement next,” he added to Gideon.

  “I appreciate that,” Danielle said, “but I suspect sleep is going to be harder to achieve tonight than just going to my room and laying down."

  is the most common means that it's even more likely to be the version people get when they unlock the Skill through actions or Class lists, instead of tokens. Danielle got the version with the numbers instead because she also had an illusion Skill already in her Instance when she took Field Medic.

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