Bridge Quest

by Pdmac

  Bridge

  Quest

  A GameLit Adventure Series

  (BRIDGE QUEST Book 1)

  pdmac

  Bridge Quest is a work of fiction. Though actual locations may be mentioned, they are used in a fictitious manner and the events and occurrences were created/invented in the mind and imagination of the author, except for the inclusion of actual historical fact. Similarities of characters or names used within for any person – past, present, or future – are coincidental except where actual historical characters are purposely interwoven. The actions, thoughts, and dialogue of the historical characters featured in this story are fictional and not meant to reflect actual personalities and behavior.

  Copyright © 2019 by pdmac

  All rights reserved

  Printed in the United States of America

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express permission of the author or publisher.

  Published by Trimble Hollow Press, Acworth, Georgia

  ISBN: 978-1-946495-15-0

  eISBN: 978-1-946495-14-3

  Cover design by Trimble Hollow Concepts

  Cover art by James Esquivel

  for Terri Lynn

  my Soulmate and Best Friend

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 1

  Karl sat on the end of the examination table, his knees dangling over the side, wondering why hospital dressing gowns were always open in the back. Any time he had to go use the bathroom, he was sure he was mooning everyone.

  The door to the room opened and Dr. Bryant came in. He was a trim older man with wavy salt and pepper hair, and the bedside manner of a mortician.

  “Well,” he said, sliding out a wheeled stool and easing down before flipping the computer screen around so that Karl could see the internal image of his stomach area. “Let’s approach this from a bad news good news perspective. First, the bad news. You have stage four intestinal cancer.” He pointed to a thin shaded area close to a small spot on the image.

  Karl’s heart went to his throat.

  Dr. Bryant saw the look and held up a hand. “Remember. I said there was good news.”

  “What’s the good news?” Karl asked, his voice raw, staring at the MRI image.

  “The good news is that while we don’t have a cure for it yet, we do anticipate finding a cure in the future.”

  Karl’s face hardened. “How the hell is that good news?”

  “Let me finish,” he soothed. “While medicine is developing a cure, there is a new science called immersion technology that will allow you to live a somewhat normal productive life without the angst or pain of a terminal illness.”

  “Immersion technology,” Karl repeated.

  “Yes. It’s a new development in the field of medicine and technology. I could try to explain it to you, but there’s someone more qualified who can provide an explanation and answer your questions. His name is Doctor Josef Heinrich of Immersion Technology Labs. Listen to him fully before you write him off as some sort of quack. You’re not the first person to undergo what they offer.”

  “What is it they offer?”

  Dr. Bryant smiled. “I’ll let him explain it. Once you’re finished with him, we can talk about what’s best for your future. Stay right here. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  He was out the door before Karl had a chance to reply. Two minutes later, Bryant returned, followed by a young man who Karl swore was still in high school. The man carried an expensive Bottega leather attaché case.

  “This is Dr. Heinrich of ITL,” Bryant said by way of introduction. Heinrich was a baby-faced gentleman with long soft brown hair held back in a ponytail.

  “I’m twenty-five,” Heinrich said with a grin, his voice smooth and melodious.

  “Pardon?” Karl frowned.

  “I said I’m twenty-five. I can see by the look on your face that you’re about to ask me if my mother knows where I am. I get that a lot. But don’t let appearances fool you. I completed a Ph.D. in micro cellular electronic interface before I was twenty-two.”

  “That’s nice,” Karl replied for lack of anything intelligent to say.

  Heinrich chuckled then continued. “Dr. Bryant has briefed me of your situation and I believe we can work through this unfortunate situation in such a way that will more than make up for the… um, unusual approach. However, before we get started, you need to understand that everything I’m about to tell you is classified in accordance with the Industrial Classifications Act. Once you agree to the terms of the non-disclosure agreement, you are legally bound to protect and secure any and all information relating to this discussion and any further discussions, actions, information, disclosures and knowledge of the ITL mission within the constraints of this project.”

  “What project?” Karl frowned.

  Ignoring him, Heinrich opened the attaché case and pulled out a sheath of papers. “Do you agree to keep this conversation and all subsequent conversations and information secret?”

  Karl’s frown deepened, for Heinrich reminded him of the last time he received a security clearance when he was in the Army. He had been selected for a special project and was awarded an equivalent clearance far above Top Secret. The man who briefed him on the responsibilities of the clearance had been a humorless man with a cold handshake.

  Though Heinrich appeared nothing like the man, why did this seem so familiar? Realizing that Heinrich was waiting for his response, he shrugged. What the hell do I have to lose? I’ll be dead soon enough.

  “Yeah, sure,” Karl answered. “I agree.”

  “Excellent.” Heinrich smiled and relaxed, handing a few papers to Karl. “This isn’t quite like when you were in the Army,” he assured him. “The NDA is really quite simple. You agree to never mention what I am about to tell you, unless authorized by a duly designated ITL official. Take your time and read through your responsibilities.” He leaned back and turned to Bryant. “Might there be some coffee available?”

  “Of course,” Bryant answered with a fawning smile, jumping up. “It’s one of those module machines. Any particular flavor?”

  “Just good old regular black coffee, thanks.”

  Karl finished reading the NDA before Bryant returned with a ceramic mug of steaming coffee. “Seems pretty straight forward.”

  “We like to keep things simple and in terms anyone can understand.” He handed him a pen. “Just put your initials at the bottom of each page and sign and date it at the end.”

  Doing as instructed, Karl handed the papers back, watching Heinrich nonchalantly slide them into the folder and the folder back into the attaché case. Then it occurred to him. “How did you know I was in the Army?”

  “We always research our prospective clients. Some are more suited to our services than others. We’ve found that an initial environmental adjustment always occurs. Some are better able to handle the shock of an artificial world.” Taking a sip of coffee, Heinrich smiled in satisfaction. “Good coffee.” Holding the cup in his hand, he narrowed his focus on Karl.

  “So, let’s begin with a general approach. Aside from the muscle and tissue of the human body, we are comprised of electronic impulses, a sort of unique wired system that’s self-sustaining. Without the electronics in the human body, all the muscles and tissues would be useless. As long as the electronic circuit is functioning, the body works fine. If anything affects or interr
upts the circuit, obvious problems occur. Do you follow me so far?”

  “Yes,” Karl said, wondering what electronics had to do with his cancer.

  “Good. You see, essentially, as long as the electronic circuit is whole and functioning properly, it doesn’t really matter what the externals are doing. You could lose an arm, for example, and the circuit adapts to the shortened system, but still functions as a complete system. So what happens if or when the system shuts down? You die. That’s the reason old people die. Just like your house or car, things wear out. You have to replace various parts in order to maintain the system. If you replaced the worn parts sooner, old folks would live longer. But I digress.”

  Karl shifted a confused glance at Dr. Bryant who held up a hand telling him to wait.

  “My point here,” Heinrich said, “is that electrons don’t really wear out. What happens when diseases occur is that they inhibit the body’s electronics. If we can remove the disease from the system, or,” he paused, “the system from the disease, we can focus our efforts on the disease. You follow me?”

  “Not really,” Karl objected. “I have, what sounds like, terminal cancer, which means I’m going to die very soon. Dr. Bryant here said that there was a new thing called immersion technology that would allow me to live a ‘somewhat normal productive life,’ whatever that means. Then you come in here talking electrons and circuits and systems and I haven’t a clue to the connection. Does that answer your question?”

  “Perhaps I can help,” Bryant soothed. “What immersion technology does is take your life’s soul or energy, your electronics, and places them into another system so that in the meantime, medicine can work on finding a cure to the disease.”

  “Very good, doctor,” Heinrich chimed in. “The key difference is that you’ll be very much alive, just in a different system.”

  Karl shot a half-lidded stare at Heinrich then back to Bryant. “I’m just a slow-witted country boy. How about we cut to the chase and explain what happens.”

  Bryant chuckled. “Hardly,” he said, looking at Heinrich then back to Karl. “Heinrich already knows that you’re a professor in Nordic studies at the university. And if I remember correctly, also a martial arts expert.” He purposely held back that they knew of Karl’s covert military past. After all, no sense blurting something in public that Karl had assumed few knew about.

  “Which has little to do with why I’m here,” Karl pointed out. “So let’s get back to the simple explanation.”

  “As you wish,” Heinrich smiled. “What we propose is to remove your body’s electronics and place them into a separate self-contained system where you will function as a normal everyday human being, but within the context of a unique world.” Noting his explanation seemed to have made little progress, he said, “Are you a gamer?”

  “A what?”

  “A gamer, like in role playing games, an RPG kind of guy.”

  “No. Never saw the sense to them. Besides, I don’t have the time to veg in front of a computer and play games.”

  “Pity. Besides missing out on a world of incredible imaginations, it would make it easier to explain. Let me put it like this. What we are going to do, with your consent, is to place you inside a role playing game.”

  Karl’s eyes fluttered as he processed the statement. “You’re serious. You’re going to somehow place me inside some computer game?”

  “Exactly.”

  Karl turned to stare at Bryant who seemed quite complacent about the absurd idea then redirected his attention back to Heinrich. “Let me see if I understand. You’re going to somehow take my whatever you want to call it and place it in a computer.”

  “That’s correct. The idea is not as farfetched as you think. Remember, we’re all simply a higher form of cyborg, to use an analogy.”

  “What happens to my body?”

  “Your body is cryogenically frozen so that the tissues do not decompose and the disease is momentarily stunted in place.”

  “Then when you find a cure, my uh, electronics are placed back into my body and I’m back to normal and the disease cured.”

  “Exactly,” Heinrich grinned. “You do understand.”

  Karl frowned in pensive thought as he sorted out the whole concept. “You said I would continue to live a somewhat normal productive life. How and where?”

  “Immersion Technologies has developed an RPG game we call Bridge Quest –”

  “Bridge quest,” Karl repeated, raising an eyebrow.

  “It’s not as silly as it sounds. The gaming world has some of the finest computer minds in the world, not to mention some of the best story development. Besides, from our perspective, why reinvent the wheel? We recruited some of the best gaming brains and put together an incredible world, specifically designed for individuals in your situation.”

  “How… how does it work? I mean, am I aware of my surroundings?”

  “Not only are you aware of your world, you live it and experience it like you do right now. You feel pain, heartache, love and so many other emotions. You won’t know the difference between now and your new world, except for one significant difference.”

  “Oh?” Karl said, suddenly alert.

  “The world we’ve created is different than what you are used to. The world we created is one of heroes and villains and challenges, excitement and love and adventure all within a fantasy world so much better than what passes for modern existence. Once you experience it, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been a gamer your whole life.”

  “Enough with the advertisement,” Karl said, smiling with only his lips. “How is it possible?”

  “Remember what I said about electronics?”

  Karl held up a hand to stop him. “OK. I get it. We’re all a bunch of electronic circuits running around. How is it possible to get my existence into a computer?”

  “It’s rather complex, but it has to do with converting your body’s electronic configuration into recognizable and useable components then inputting them through an interface into a database. You’d be surprised at the amount of data the human brain stores and the way the brain retrieves information. Needless to say, the storage requirement for one individual is rather significant. Thank God for nanotechnology.”

  “How many have done this before me?”

  “Ah,” Heinrich smiled, “a wise question. If you decide to participate, you would be number thirty six.”

  “Thirty six,” he repeated, surprised. “How many have returned to their original bodies?”

  “None yet,” Heinrich admitted. “The cures are still progressing. We won’t bring them back until we are one hundred percent sure they will be cured when they return.”

  “How come I’ve never heard of you?” he asked, surprised at the number.

  “Remember what I said about security? We’re off the grid for now. At the moment, we’ve no results to report yet. We’re waiting until we have at least 100 subjects before we report, though we may lower that depending on returnees’ success.”

  “So this is all just experimental. You’re not really sure it will work.”

  Heinrich leveled his gaze at him. “Nothing in this world is for sure, just like you getting cancer. I don’t mean to be harsh, but everyone wants a fool-proof guarantee. Life isn’t like that. What I am offering though, is a chance to live far longer than you could expect under the present circumstances. The choice is yours. If you say ‘no,’ I simply go down the list to the next suitable individual. I lose nothing. You, on the other hand…”

  Karl’s frown turned into a glare then softened. “Point taken. So tell me, how does this all work? I mean, if I say ‘yes,’ what happens next?”

  “After you sign all the requisite forms, you will be taken to the ITL transfer center where a technician will explain the world’s fundamentals and rules. After that, it’s just a matter of placing you into the game, which is the fastest part of the whole affair.”

  Karl turned to Bryant. “You’re sure of the diagnosis?�
��

  Bryant grimaced as though affronted. “Of course I’m sure. I didn’t arrive at this conclusion willy nilly.”

  “How long do I have?”

  Bryant hesitated. “Three months, maybe six at the most.”

  Karl’s shoulders slumped and he swore the pain in his stomach swelled. He knew Bryant was right, for all the treatment he was undergoing, his pain was only getting worse.

  “OK,” he sighed. “I’ll do it.”

  “A wise choice,” Heinrich said, “I brought the paperwork with me, so we can get that out of the way here. Why don’t you get dressed and we’ll finish up in the doctors’ conference room. One of our gaming technicians is waiting there for us.”

  “Pretty sure of ourselves, were we?” Karl smiled.

  “Yes,” Heinrich replied with a smug grin.

  Karl walked into the conference room where Heinrich and another young man sat at the far end of an oval table. Heinrich leaned back in the chair and waved Karl to a seat to his right.

  “This is Hans,” he said, introducing a young man who appeared to be the same age as Heinrich. Hans had a cherub face with short thick blond hair done up in stiff spikes.

  Karl nodded his greeting. Heinrich and Hans… Is the German connection coincidence?

  “Let’s get the paperwork done so Hans can explain how the game works.” Heinrich pulled out a thick folder crammed with legal documents.

  “Damn,” Karl uttered. “This is like taking out a mortgage.”

  “It’s pretty close,” Hans replied with an affable grin.

  Almost forty-five minutes later, his hand tired from signing papers ranging from the various forms of his legal name to the promise not to inform, tell, relate, or communicate in any way unless specifically authorized and yada yada, the last page was signed.

  “Now,” Heinrich announced as he neatly tapped and stacked the pages on the table, “Hans will explain the game. Feel free to ask as many questions as you want. We want you to be comfortable knowing what to expect.”