“No. For a while, nothing was happening. I somehow made it to a safe location where I met up with some guys from security. They thought I was a Corporation worker who’d gone nuts with the shock. They kept mentioning some guy called Gorman — they thought he must have blocked the logout. But I knew already that they wouldn’t get out of this alive. This green mist, it could come from anywhere. It seeped out of cracks in the ground or crept out into the streets from buildings’ cellars. Then it would come straight for us. Its touch scalds you. It fills your head with other people’s thoughts. Nothing helps against it, not even the security’s unique gear.”
“Did they all die?”
Kimberly’s eyes darkened. “They had to fight. The Reapers descended on us from their portals. At first, the security’s weapons worked fine but then they began to glitch and break down. It took the security guys ages to die. You wouldn’t want to see it.”
“Wait a sec,” Jurgen interrupted her. “Does that mean the Reapers didn’t touch you?”
Kimberly paused, then nodded. “They didn’t seem to notice me at all. It was as if they thought I was one of them. Naturally, I took full advantage of the fact. I smoked three of them who were in my way and disappeared into the wastelands.”
“Not good,” Jurgen concluded once she’d finished speaking. “If I remember rightly, Ernst Gorman was the leader of a special squad trained to combat any glitchy mobs. His men had sufficient gear and training to smoke any NPC on the spot, regardless of its level. Their weapons just couldn’t break down!”
“I’m telling you the truth! I saw it with my own eyes!”
“I do believe you! So you think that the problem was caused by the model of the space station?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know who this hybrid is?”
“No idea. I wasn’t interested. Once I escaped from Argus, I kept a low profile. I wasn’t trying to pry into anything. I just tried to enjoy whatever life I could make for myself.”
“The hybrid is a synthetic identity,” I explained. “He was created with the neurograms taken from dead players.”
She gasped. “Why?”
“The military together with the Corporation wanted to establish their presence on one of the space stations in the Darg system and recreate it in all its ancient glory. The gamers apparently weren’t up to the task.”
“Why do you say that? We did our best to restore Argus. Okay, so it took us some time, but-”
“But you were restoring it by introducing human technologies,” Jurgen gently corrected her. “And here the idea was to reconstruct the original technosphere of the Founders. You need a number of specific skills to do that: Mnemotechnics, Alien Technologies and in this particular case also Exobiology. All of which have to be leveled up to at least 100. Know many people who can do that?”
“No one,” she agreed. “I only knew a few players who’d leveled up Mnemotechnics and Alien Technologies to 7 or 8.”
Charon listened attentively. “Levels and abilities!” he growled. “They don’t exist, do they? You made them all up. Just like you made up all these non-existent worlds.”
Jurgen shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. Zander and Liori have analyzed the known interface types and arrived at the conclusion that they were all based on a single development model built originally by the Founders. It’s the same for all civilizations. I’m surprised you’re asking these things. Didn’t you receive new levels or level up your abilities?”
“I received experience, yes. Because I was learning! I risked my life training!”
“No one’s doubting that. For us it looked like a highly realistic game. For you, Charon, it must have been a battle for survival. And for the Dargians it must have been a religious experience. All of it still boiled down to one thing: we were there to study the Founders’ technologies and to follow their development branches created by some ancient civilization eons ago. Every new discovery brought us new levels, skills and abilities allowing us to move on.”
“Let’s go back to this hybrid,” Kimberly interrupted him. “Apparently, the testing of the space station went terribly wrong. I just can’t see what he’s got to do with it.”
“Good question. I’m pretty sure that the Earth’s military space forces have all the answers,” Jurgen replied. “First they swallowed up the Corporation and then they began using these testing locations for their own experiments. It was they who built the hybrid.”
“What is the point in combining neurograms that belong to different humans?” Charon asked. “Even I can see that it can only result in more problems.”
“The risk is huge,” Jurgen agreed, “ but it must have been worth it. Personally, I can’t see how it can be possible to extract skills from neurograms, sum up their levels and place them under the control of a cybernetic system. In this case, the only possible solution would be to create a hybrid identity matrix. Some sort of collective mind, if you wish.”
Charon sniffed. “A collective mind which would immediately lose the plot!”
“Not necessarily,” I said. “I think I know how the military got around it.”
Jurgen gave me a long look. “How? Tell us.”
“They created a dominant identity. It was a guy called Ingmud — a shop vendor who’d died during the battle for Argus. When I later met him again on Oasis, he was bent on restoring the station back to all its ancient glory. Incidentally, he had all the skills necessary for the job.”
“That’s interesting,” Jurgen paused, thinking, then nodded to his own thoughts. “This definitely should never have worked, even if only as a temporary measure. They must have multiplied the vendor’s own neurograms and integrated them into all the other identity matrices.”
“Which worked until Zander returned to Oasis after his Darg mission and began applying pressure to the hybrid, provoking him with his questions,” Arbido added sarcastically.
“Don’t blame me! Kim, when did the disaster happen?”
“I can’t tell you. Time is relative here. But still,” Kimberly tried to bring the conversation back on track, “how can events in the Darg system explain the arrival of the Reapers?”
“The hybrid must have created them,” Arbido offered.
Foggs kept casting wary glances around. “The Corporation couldn’t have been that stupid. Didn’t they realize it could all backfire? A mind comprised of a hundred personalities? It would have gone nuts the moment it was activated!”
“This is an entirely new domain,” Jurgen’s voice was dull. “Something as simple as a craving for revenge could have fused the hybrid’s neurograms. The green mist Kim was talking about could have come into being as the result of some desperate — and possibly unconscious — mnemonic attack. With fatal consequences. The hybrid absorbed the minds of the Corporate workers who, let me tell you, were some of the most prominent experts in just about every relevant field of human knowledge.”
“Yeah right,” Arbido cringed, skeptical. “And by absorbing them, he immediately grew smarter, is that it?”
“Exactly. By absorbing the workers’ neurograms, he received all the knowledge necessary plus the access to servers and the ability to consolidate them in order to develop and install the fatal upgrade.”
“But why would he want to wreak revenge on other players? You have any idea what happened in other worlds?” Foggs seemed to be unable to face reality. He couldn’t accept the fact that our civilization had fallen.
“The hybrid wasn’t trying to wreak revenge on anyone. He was trying to protect himself. He was simply playing for time. He knew that the experimenters were about to destroy him seeing as the entire experiment had proven to be too dangerous and unfruitful. By merging gaming worlds and introducing this unexpected NPC upgrade which caused the deaths of in-mode-bound players, the hybrid presented the Corporation and the military space forces with a much more serious problem which took all of their available resources and gave the hybrid some time to consider his next step
.”
“Jurgen, you can’t know any of this!” Kimberly shook her head. “What makes you so sure?”
“I simply follow the facts. The only way the security weapons could have failed was if they’d been blocked with special classified codes!” Jurgen snapped. “Their gear was supposed to grant protection from all known mobs — but it turned out to be useless! The defense programs failed to destroy the station model! Should I go on? How did the Reapers know all this? The answer’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? They used the Corporate workers’ neurograms!”
“Talking about the station model,” Charon said. “I don’t think we’ve even seen it.”
“It disappeared shortly before the Reapers’ first attack,” Kim said.
“Wait a sec,” Jurgen sounded surprised. “Didn’t they arrive here straight away?”
“Not really. It all started soon after the testing grounds had stabilized again. It might have taken a couple of days... I’m not sure.”
“That’s interesting. It took them a couple of days...” Jurgen repeated, pensive. “But that changes everything! By then, the hybrid was out of danger! He'd already transferred his identity to the Darg system and was about to begin restoring Oasis. What was the point in him creating the Reapers, let alone providing them with neurochipped weapons?”
“Please,” Arbido raised his hands. “I’m completely lost. What do you think happened here?”
Jurgen frowned. “It’s true what they say that the sleep of reason produces monsters.”
“Which is-?”
“I’m afraid the situation is even worse than we thought. Kim, you say you ran away trying to escape the data destruction. Did you see anybody?”
“Of course I did. Lots of workers used personal defense programs. They look like transparent domes. I also saw some top-level NPCs which must have escaped from some database or other. The green mist I told you about eroded the domes and dissolved the NPCs. As I ran, I saw three respawn points. You can’t imagine the mess. They all seemed to resurrect there, both workers and mobs. I just can’t describe it.”
“The green mist,” Jurgen walked to the edge and peered into the abyss, “if I understand correctly, it’s produced by the location’s neurocomputers, right?”
No one answered.
“In emergency mode, the testing grounds should be able to support all types of identity matrices,” Jurgen seemed to be speaking to himself as we listened, unwilling to interrupt him. “The upgrade created by the hybrid affected the experimental NPCs whose data was stored on the servers. As the disaster struck, they found both freedom and plenty of fragmented identities to feed upon. It must have been them who became the Reapers.”
“You mean it was the excess of available neurograms that triggered their advent?”
Jurgen nodded. “Exactly.”
“You want to say that they built the neurochipped weapons themselves?” Arbido cowered.
Jurgen didn’t answer. He crouched by the edge. “All the knowledge we used to harvest at the Founders stations accumulated here. And then all this data got mixed up and became available to the mobs who were now capable of independent thought! They craved everything new and yet unknown. And now that the hybrid had removed all restrictions, they have none! Can’t you see what’s just happened?” he said, about to freak out. “Earth is gone! Our civilization is no more! The gaming worlds have all merged together — but the servers will keep working, generating this kind of warped virtual reality for hundreds of years as long as their reactors keep producing power.”
* * *
By then, the fine dusting of frost framing the entrance into the cave had melted completely.
Foggs ran his hand across the rough damp wall. “There’re no Reapers around,” he stepped into the dark. “It’s warm enough. Charon, mind giving it a quick check? I can’t see fuck all in front of me. Kim, you know where this tunnel is going?”
“It ends in a location I used for hiding. There’s also another exit from this cave which opens up onto a road in the mountains.”
“Any service lines there?” Jurgen asked.
“Loads.”
“In that case, let’s move it.”
Kimberly activated her ancient 3D Optos and put on the tinted goggles. She glanced around herself, checking the device’s work, then motioned for Charon to stop. “I’m going in first. You’d better put out your torches.”
“Zander?” Charon cast a quizzical glance at me.
“Yeah, you’d better go with her. You might need to cover her if necessary. We’ll follow. Arbido,” I turned to him, “try to keep up.”
By then, Kimberly had disappeared into the darkness.
I had a hunch that her neuromatrix too might be the result of some experiment. The military had kept tabs on everything that had happened here, that’s for sure. I knew nothing about them but I knew what outer space was like. This was a hostile environment. The military space forces were staffed with experts, knowledgeable and well-trained. Somehow I didn’t think they’d have overlooked something as “innocent” as one of the test subjects’ sporadic identity recovery. Most likely, they had made it happen.
I wasn’t going to tell her about it. She’d only get upset. She’d been eking out a new life for herself. She defied fate. Kimberly was a very strong person.
The cave wasn’t that big. Soon we scrambled out of it.
The wide gray strip of cellular concrete looped downward, forming the smooth spiral of a mountain road.
Foggs stopped and raised a warning hand. “I just don’t get it,” he muttered, dumbfounded.
The opening vista took my breath away. It looked as if by descending we’d just crossed the mountain ridge and walked out into a gloomy sunrise.
“Zander, look,” Arbido pointed at the horizon replete with a tiered urbanscape. “This looks like the megalopolis of Europe,” his voice was muffled.
“Oh please!” Foggs said in disbelief. “What would a city do here?”
“He’s right,” Jurgen peered into the misty twilight. “This looks like a model of the real world. We seem to be in the Alps. It’s one of the mountain ranges back on Earth, in case you didn’t know. I remember because these mountains hindered urban development. There was a lot of fuss about them until one day the Corporation bought them out. They cropped a few of the more famous summits and built their technoparks on top. Kim? The location where you used to hide, where is it?”
“It’s a bit further on,” she replied. “Once we turn the corner, you’ll see it.”
Charon alone didn’t speak. He didn’t even look around himself, just kept blinking and shaking his head.
“Are you okay?”
“The mind expander,” Charon wheezed. “It came on, but only for a few seconds. Then it disconnected again.”
Jurgen heard us. “Impossible,” he snapped.
Charon shook his head again.
“Could it be your eyesight playing up?” Arbido asked, sympathetic.
“Nowr.”
“Can you walk?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t slow you down,” Charon strode ahead, unwilling to discuss it further.
I too tried to concentrate on my own sensations. Still, I couldn’t detect any obvious signs of my implants working.
“Keep to the road,” Kimberly warned. “The roadsides are full of deformations and unstable areas. You won’t like it if you get caught in one of them.”
We turned a bend and faced a totally new panorama. Just as Jurgen had said, the artificial plateaus were densely built-up and interconnected via a complex road network.
I stopped and took a peek down. My heart dropped.
The dull light of daybreak was seeping onto a small mountain location.
The familiar lake was framed by a thin strip of golden sandy beach. No signs of ice or snow anywhere. I could just make out some overturned deck chairs lying around. Further to my right lay a park, its branches enveloped in the crimson of autumn leaves.
The buil
dings looked long abandoned.
Kimberly stopped next to me, gasping in excitement. Jurgen, Arbido and Foggs stared at the familiar scene, dumbfounded.
“We’ve been here already, haven’t we?” Charon looked confused.
“I don’t think so.”
“But this place looks identical!” Charon insisted.
“The lake isn’t frozen,” Jurgen’s voice was hoarse. “But we kept descending! How come the recreation zone is now below us?”
He paused. “What if this city isn’t a location setting?” he suddenly suggested. “What if this is the frontier between virtual reality and the real world?”
“Are you freakin’ nuts?” Foggs said.
“No, I’m not. If you use the Founders’ technology, that could make it possible. Remember Darg! Didn’t your identity matrix interact with the planet’s real world?”
“I just try not to dwell on it,” Foggs snapped. “Questions like that aren’t healthy.”
“But you do realize, don’t you, that the Founders’ stations are material objects?” Jurgen asked.
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not sure. Is it so necessary to discuss it right now?”
Arbido smirked. “See no evil hear no evil?”
“Piss off,” Foggs said.
I understood him really well. All we’d wanted to do was play a game in a new exciting virtual world. Instead, we’d got ourselves caught between the millstones of an alien civilization. None of us had been prepared for this turn of events. So what were we supposed to do now? Ignore the inexplicable? Or just try and find a few answers?
Chapter Seven
The cyber space of planet Earth
“All right, all right, let’s go and take a look!” Foggs took a few steps and stopped, staring at his hands in terror. Without making a sound, he collapsed to the ground.
Charon darted toward him.
“Charon, no!” I shouted.
“He needs our help!”
“Let me do it!”
The location was quiet and deserted. None of us understood anything.
Black Sun (Phantom Server: Book #3) Page 14
