Web of Worlds

by Michael Atamanov

  I hid a wave of involuntary laughter under a fit of coughing.

  “Interrogating and torturing all kinds of apostates is exactly what an inquisitor does, there’s no escaping it. By the way, I met a Torturer from the Dark Faction. I think it was a lady. Is there a special word for a lady Torturer? Torturess? I could introduce our Torturers to her and our newly minted Inquisitor too for, let’s say, an experience swap.”

  “I still don’t know what she’ll have to tell me. I can figure it out on my own. Anyway, I came to tell you that your wayedda Minn-O’s request has been received. The faction just head has to confirm it. And now for the main question: who will be doing that? You or Ivan Lozovsky?”

  That change of topic was somehow all too abrupt. Clearly, discussing his profession and skills hurt him somehow. Okay then, I had both seen this question coming for a long time and knew my answer. So I didn’t delay:

  “Ivan Lozovsky!”

  “So then, Kirill, you’ll be leaving the Human-3 Faction?” he asked, immediately coming to the right conclusion. “And where will you be going? The new Russian factions where the leader has less administrative work?”

  “No, I’m not tempted to lead the Human-23 or Human-25 Factions. Or the German Human-6 Faction even though the game did offer it to me as well. I might take leadership of the Geckho spaceport. Or I’ll take over the La-Fin Faction. That would be a guarantee of peace. But most likely I’ll get together a team of friends and make a separate faction, maybe it won’t even control a node on our planet. But in any case, I can only talk about all this after I finish negotiations with the Dark Faction.”

  The intelligence director set down his empty glass and gestured that he didn’t want any more.

  “Our guys will be really upset... They might even start putting sticks in your spokes. Although personally I believe you have earned the right to take your own path. You’ve done so much for our faction! By the way, I forgot to say that Valentin Ustinov wanted to give you a big thanks from all our scientists for the alien technology. As far as I know, they’ve got weeks’ worth of work left. But once they’re done... It’s a short trip from there to mastering space flight! And not only to Mars, Venus and the Solar System, even to distant stars!!!”

  “I hope that won’t be my last gift to them. As soon as I finish up here on the planet and fix my broken starship, I’m headed back into space. I need to establish contact with more alien races, find allies and business partners, study new technologies. And that’s not some whim, some common curiosity or freakish obsession. It’s vitally necessary for our humanity. After all, no matter how much we fight here in our sandbox, no matter how much we may swap ownership of game nodes on the planet, the Earth overall won’t get any stronger. And when the tong of safety is up, we will be just as defenseless from outside invasion as we are now. And that is the situation I want to turn around.”

  “I believe you can do it. And you can count our faction to help in any possible way,” Alexander Antipov decided to get a more comfortable seat on the sofa and, his interest suddenly piqued, pulled a black lacy bra out from under a sofa pillow. So that’s where it was. Tamara was looking for so long this morning...

  “Woah!” He picked it up and examined the trophy. “So, did I come at a bad time?”

  “No, everything’s fine. My guest has already left to get some sleep.”

  “One last fling before your junior wife comes here under the Dome and chases off all your admirers?” he laughed.

  “Minn-O was aware of this visit,” I surprised the director. “And although Minn-O and Tamara have a fierce mutual hatred, today in the antigrav, my wayedda whispered that Tamara and I were sure to have a romantic encounter, and that I shouldn’t resist fate. And that isn’t because Minn-O has a facile nature, nor to thank the Paladin for resurrecting her. It’s just that her parallel world also has tales about kidnapped beauties and the gallant knights that rescue them. Well, over there its young mages. And the Princess knows perfectly well how all these stories end.”

  Alexander Antipov first whinnied like a mare, but suddenly grew sharply serious and thoughtfully said:

  “I heard Tamara really got beat up in the prison. That’s bad. Our psychologists already said the leader of the Second Legion made their hair stand on end. Now the test results will be...” he gave a pitiful sigh, “people have been taken to forced mental treatment for much less. Tamara has strong suicidal tendencies. And a panicked fear of becoming unwanted and abandoned. That’s why Gerd Tamara rushes into the very heat of every battle, to prove her worth. Our Paladin has walked the blade of a knife so many times, being rescued from captivity only at the last moment. There’s nothing surprising in the fact that she eventually got taken. Good thing you dragged her out. But let me remind you that we still have fourteen players in captivity with the Dark Faction. I suspect that their lives are not too sweet right about now.”

  “I’ll be sure to raise that issue with General Ui-Taka,” I promised the intelligence director. “And by the way, given it came up. I might not understand something, but I’ve wanted to know for a while: what is the point of torturing prisoners? Not in the sense of human rights, just on a purely technical level, game mechanics. After all, if it gets unbearable, the prisoner can just leave the game! So now I know you’re an Inquisitor in the game, explain to me: what’s the trick?”

  “Leng Gnat, vanquisher of pirates and nightmare of the Dark Faction doesn’t know such minor things?!” the newly-minted Inquisitor seemed to think I was mocking or testing him. “You’re not making fun, you really don’t know? Strange. I thought everyone knew. The Inquisitor and Torturer classes have a nasty little skill by the name of Imminence. When activated, their victim’s game interface turns off for a certain amount of time. Their screen no longer shows game elements like health or progress bar. You cannot activate icons, abilities, use your inventory or look at stat windows. But the worst part is, you can’t leave the game! At level one, Imminence only works for a couple seconds, but the duration goes up the more you level it. It also has an extremely long cooldown time, almost six hours. For those six hours, you have to use drugs to keep them in the game. If a person can’t concentrate, they can’t properly exit. Or you simply stun them.”

  Well, well! I really didn’t know that. Apparently ignorance was bliss. If I had known that before tonight, I might not have been man enough to go try and rescue Gerd Tamara from the very lair of the enemy.

  “I’ll be sure to bring up our captive soldiers,” I repeated my earlier promise. “And I’ll also try to figure out the complex interrelations between the various Dark Faction subtypes. I’ll try and find out what happened to Anna, too. It’s very important for...”

  I fell silent midsentence, because the door opened silently and Tamara entered the room. And the miniature girl was wearing black t-shirt that was far too long with the Second Legion’s insignia. This morning I gave my floormate a copy of my room key, saying she could come in whenever she liked so the locked door didn’t stop her. Alexander Antipov showed unusual delicacy and told the girl, who stopped unconfidently in the hallway, that we were done speaking and he was leaving. The deputy faction leader then shot into the hallway like a bullet and Tamara and I were left alone.

  “I just can’t sleep...” she complained, totally unashamed to pull the t-shirt off over her head and demonstrate a complete lack of underwear. “Let’s not sleep together!”

  Chapter Eighteen. Round Two

  IMRAN THE DAGESTANI was stripped to the waist and walking on the sand. His muscular athletic body was glistening with sweat. Time was nearing midday and it was hot as ever on the Antique Beach pier.

  “Ready, Gnat!” Two barrels of corned lamb were unloaded from the Peresvet and set in the shade. The Jarg was brought there as well. Our spiny Analyst had just about dropped dead from the heat, now his Miyelonian Medic was bringing him back to his senses. Three whole boxes of wine and vodka. Coal, tents, folding tables, we brought everything. However... it was
obvious that he was too timid to ask a question. “You’re an experienced player of course but are you sure that’s the best way to prepare for negotiations with the Dark Faction?”

  I had changed my normal black armor suit for shorts and a light vest. With a happy smile I asked my friend:

  “And I suspect you wanted to go to the enemy-held island draped in grenades and weapons like Schwarzenegger in Commando?”

  “Well... basically yeah,” the Dagestani replied, clearly embarrassed.

  “See Imran, there are six hundred experienced troops there. There are only fifteen of us... and we come from four different races. Plus the Journalist who was attached to our group is a noncombat character. And a level-18 Bard won’t be much help in battle either, but Major Filippov at least can use a machine gun and give out bonuses. But regardless we cannot defeat them in a contest of force. So we better not go brandishing guns and grenades, and instead take bottles and skewers.”

  I was twisting things a bit referring to our group’s lack of teeth. Yes, we weren’t taking any obvious weaponry with us to the negotiations. But first of all we had three mages: myself, Valeri-Urla and Minn-O La-Fin. Nothing much in the face of six hundred gun barrels, plus my wife had no experience in the magical arts yet, but still. Second, we had Little Sister with us. The deadly invisible shadow panther, Valeri’s pet, was almost level one hundred. But our main trump card was the Small Relict Guard Drone, a metal object the size and shape of a basketball now levitating above my right shoulder.

  Yes the repair of the ancient drone, which Eduard had brought to me from the pirate store room on Medu-Ro IV in pieces, was finally complete and I managed to establish contact with it easily. The drone could be controlled both mentally and using the captain’s tablet, plus it had a very expansive array of applications: from aerial recon and transporting small cargo to retransmitting and amplifying radio signals and destroying everything alive in a certain area. It wasn’t much to look at and seemed slow at first glance. The flying metal ball didn’t cause any fear in the uninitiated. In fact it was looked on as a mere curiosity. I had heard that a few Dark Faction mages used flying robot assistant drones that looked a lot like mine, so I was hoping they wouldn’t ask any questions about my little helper. Of all my companions going to the negotiations, only Vasha and Basha knew what the Relict drone was truly capable of. But the Geckho brothers had been told the score and promised to keep quiet.

  Uline Tar also knew about the secret, but my business partner was back at the space port today. She wanted to watch over the frigate repair and, as she put it, “make some business connections.” Basically she wasn’t acting one bit like the furry friend I once knew. Before, she was always eager to take part in any joint venture with the crew. But the Trader had spent half a day in her bunk today dying her fur orange, then purple and trying on and endless array of outfits and accoutrements. These “business contacts” must have had a very high value to her.

  As far as I heard, Geckho Diplomat Kosta Dykhsh was also not in his right mind for the second day in a row. He had already slept two nights away from his hut, spending all his time in the spaceport. And he was clearly relieved not to have to play Geckho observer at the natives’ negotiations today. Seemingly, there was a connection between the unusual behavior of these two Geckho. Everyone was whispering about it except the repair bots.

  “They’re flying! There over the sea!” Tini my kitten pointed a clawed paw at a barely visible point on the horizon.

  Eagle Eye skill increased to level seventy-five!

  The point I tossed into Perception this morning, with the bonus, brought it up to twenty-nine, allowing me to see the distant flying machine in detail. The last of the eight free points from the rank-up, after long consideration, went into Constitution. Yes, you heard me right. Not Intelligence, which was most important to a mage, or Perception, which was required for many of my skills. I decided on Constitution. Why such a strange choice? Just because I was sick of constantly taking damage from high g-forces on take-offs and landings. I was the only person in my crew that happened to, which added insult to injury. My Constitution of 17 was still not so high, but better than 16.

  “Yes, that is the Sio-Mi-Dori they sent out for us,” I confirmed for Tini.

  “And as far as I can tell, all the weaponry has been removed,” Minn-O La-Fin also had impeccable Perception and could see such details at a huge distance.

  The Princess was wearing a light short tunic and looked unusual, but it was definitely a style that suited my wife, emphasizing her svelte legs and the feminine beauty of her body.

  “I asked General Ui-Taka to do that,” I explained to my wayedda. “The last time we landed in the Capital node in a Sio-Mi-Dori, they turned on emergency sirens in the real world, issuing a CtA (Call to Arms) to all players. So I asked them to remove all cannons from the aircraft this time so we don’t test the nerves of the Human-3 Faction again.”

  “It looks so little. Are you sure we can all fit?” our faction journalist Lydia Vertyachikh was aware that I didn’t want to take her to the important negotiations and was very worried that there would not be room in the antigrav for her specifically.

  I kept silent so I wouldn’t show my anger and annoyance once again. Yes, Ivan Lozovsky forced me into it. The faction leader was in a rut for a long time after I was promoted to Leng but he caught a second wind when he found out I was not going to replace him. And now, as if compensating for his passivity the last few days, he had been in an unusual flurry of activity planning for the second round of negotiations with the Dark Faction.

  A message from General Ui-Taka proposed the meeting be held in an unofficial setting, as relaxed as possible, maybe even without the suzerains’ diplomat. The Strategist also suggested we bring in more participants. For his part, the General promised to bring high-profile players from the La-Fin Faction who had already declared their loyalty to their new leader Leng Gnat La-Fin. He suggested that I bring my friends and starship crew so everything was as comfortable as could be.

  Ivan Lozovsky insisted that I include Major Filippov and Lydia Vertyachikh among these “friends,” though. First of all so the most experienced military specialist could see the fortifications the Dark Faction built on the island with his own eyes “just in case.” And the Journalist so that Lydia as an independent figure, could make a highly detailed report for the whole faction. And though I wasn’t particularly opposed to bringing the Bard along, I considered the Journalist unjustified. The faction leader could find out everything he needed from Imran, Dmitry Zheltov or Eduard Boyko just fine. Or even from me. I was not planning to hide anything, and especially not to deceive my faction.

  Nevertheless, all the players I suggested were deemed “insufficiently neutral” by Ivan Lozovsky, plus they had been “gone a long time and had a bad understanding of the faction’s day-to-day problems.” I had to let him have that. I had no desire for a conflict with the Diplomat who really had no lost love for me. Especially now when my wife’s fate depended on Ivan Lozovsky’s permission to join the faction. Especially for such a minor reason.

  But I really wanted to take Gerd Tamara to the negotiations. The Dark Faction knew her well and admired her. Plus the Paladin’s presence was a guarantee that no one could mind control me or my friends. That was to say nothing of the fact that Tamara needed a change of scenery and to unwind instead of spending all her time cooped up under the Dome. Yes, it was strange, but after liberating the leader of the Second Legion, she had never once left the high-profile player residence, the inside of which had undergone a deep clean and was declared safe by CBRN experts.

  For the most part, Tamara was locked in her own room, not wanting to see anyone except perhaps her deputy Roman Pavlovich. The huge gloomy veteran brought food to his adopted daughter, sent her messages and wishes for a speedy recovery from her Legion, and told her all the news. Sometimes without warning, Tamara would come to my room and immediately head into the bedroom with no prelude, getting undre
ssed as she went. Her appetite for sex was insatiable, and one day she told me it was only these emotions and physical proximity providing her any fuel right now.

  She just looked totally sunken. The imprisonment and harsh torture reflected extremely poorly on her. I mean, physically Tamara was in perfect health and in the real world her body didn’t suffer, but psychologically something in her had broken... Tamara was always a bit strange, not at all like other girls, but now those quirks had grown much more distinct.

  In order to help her quickly get over those days of cruelty, and to just change her mindset overall, I suggested Tamara fly with my group to the island. I thought that offer would get her interested. But the strict Paladin was categorical.

  “No, Kirill! And don’t even try to convince me, it’s no use! To me, the Dark Faction and anyone who plays for them are enemies, and there can be no exceptions to that! Your wayedda Minn-O also was and remains an enemy no matter what faction she joins. Even you, Kirill, although I feel the warmest feelings for you, will be my enemy if you join the Dark Faction!”

  “Why so categorical?” I had to admit, the Paladin girl was scaring me with her harsh edge and refusal to compromise.

  “Because being so, as you put it, categorical, gives me strength and confidence! There is no such thing as half-truths. This world only has truth and lies. Black and white, no gray. It’s a trick! Everything that is not white is black now. I am only alive because I believe such base truths to be inviolable. The world of magic is hostile to our usual one, that is the same kind of base truth. The end goal of the mages who live in that world is to destroy our world and that goal is what drives our enemy to such clever tricks. For example, sending you a beautiful wife from their world to put a crack in your firmness. Or loudly declaring that they were ready for a ceasefire. But all that is done only so they can destroy our world in the end!”