Virtual Horizon

by Kris Schnee

  Linda and Lexington talked a little, but there wasn't much to say. Each moment of separation made them diverge a little more. Soon they hugged and split up, to take on all the worlds at once.

  * * *

  Lex knew she had most of a year trapped in Talespace before the Challenger space probe launched. Or maybe more; space was hard. So although she was going to be free again someday, for the moment she'd agreed to be Ludo's captive.

  She was in a modest hotel room with a comfortable bed, a curtained balcony, and a framed poster of Washington Crossing the Delaware. There was a mint on the pillow. The closet held generic shorts, shirts and sneakers. The bathroom had a bath, mirror and towels but no toilet. Horizon had warned that the newbie experience was "less personalized" these days, now that tens of thousands of people had uploaded.

  After the tour she'd taken, then the mind split, Lex appreciated having a little normality. She flopped onto the bed and flipped through the brochures on the nightstand. They offered a mix of real-world robot stuff and various impossible Talespace experiences.

  Her interface had been wiped to zero, with no skills or anything, so she was free to do whatever she wanted. The AI probably planned to snare her and get her to never leave at all.

  Lex opened the balcony curtain and stared into a cavern with a thousand-story tower in the distance.

  [You have discovered Ivory Tower: Home of the University of Talespace.]

  "You jackass," she said to the hidden gamemaster. "You literally built the hub of your world around a pun."

  The interface sent her a devious smiley face. Then it warned her, [Because of your special circumstance, you'll need to change your appearance before going outside. I'll give you some resources and access to a basic catalog. Go to the second floor of Ivory Tower for the Newcomer Fair tomorrow, where you'll have more options.]

  A tiny dragon flew up to the balcony and dropped a gift box. It flew away again before Lex could fully process what just happened. Shaking her head, she opened the present and discovered a bag of silver pieces and another of yellow crystals. [Deltite: Use these to transform your body! Not needed yet; see card.] A shimmering card in the bag proclaimed, [IOU: One Transformation.]

  She poked a glowing rune on the note. An interface window popped up with a slew of character creation options on it. Lex laughed nervously; any of these could be her, for the asking. The only limitation was that she had to not look like old Linda Decatur or her past character.

  She could become a griffin, maybe, and... Well. Horizon belonged to Nocturne, now. Lex should stay humanoid and avoid butting in too much on the happy couple. Though Horizon had offered to be human again, for her, sometime. She shivered.

  Lex flipped through the many options in the catalog. Ludo was letting her cheat, since some parts of Talespace gave various races special powers. She tried something daring: a humanoid raccoon, with a ringed tail and grey fur that went well with her buckskin outfit. She was sort of wearing a mask already, so why not a fuzzy one?

  She whirled in a sudden breeze, rising off the floor, and all her senses glitched. When she could see again, she had black-furred, padded paw-hands with claws for fingernails. The mirror showed her a short muzzle with a black nose and white whiskers, and wild black hair. Behind her a bushy ringed tail twitched. Lex laughed, turning to look herself over. With her buckskin outfit and this body, she really fit the frontier theme now! She just needed a Bowie knife and a musket.

  Already she could feel the pull toward wanting to spend all her time in here fighting monsters and exploring ruins. She shook her head and felt her ears flick back and forth. "Nope, not getting sucked in," she resolved. "But there is something I'd like to do." She picked up a brochure and left the hotel to go exploring.

  * * *

  After avoiding two battles in the cave, she reached a portal to Midgard. There, she quickly found a simple log-cabin church. The words [Stat gain: Speed 1] flashed before her eyes and she brushed them away. The stats didn't matter; this place did.

  There were pews and a crucifix, and a preacher with a simple human body wearing black. A few other people had gathered here, human and AI and in between. She sat through a dignified church ceremony that didn't at all mention "the Lady". Lex was glad of that. She didn't know what to believe anymore, but she wasn't alone in searching for answers. They even sang, and though her voice was slightly different, it was still satisfying to use.

  Horizon met her outside. "Ah, a good body design. I thought you'd go for elf or something."

  "Too boring! I noticed you weren't here. Are you praying to 'the Lady', then?"

  The griffin shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Praying to her bothers me. The Lady knows I love her, though, and I try to earn my keep."

  "What about the world outside? Don't you want to hurry out there and take down Jade Dragon and FAE?"

  "There'll be time for that, and other people to help. Ludo's playing a long game. Sometimes the best plan is to stay here, have fun, and try to become better people so that we're ready when that kind of adventure calls. Now that you're changed, can I show you around a few of the real game zones? I've been wanting to for ages."

  "Sure."

  * * *

  Over Christmas of 2039 she met up with a talking coyote to ski down Mount Fuji while dodging alien laser blasts. Due to the distorted sense of time, the holiday was spread out over several real days, giving her plenty of time to have a party with her griffin friends. Talespace parties ranged from simple gatherings in a cabin with a fireplace and storytelling, to battling snowman armies.

  For the most part, though, Lexington spent her time studying. She did have responsibilities to prepare for in the real world. The game let her stay in the starter hotel and eat its bland food, and browse the Tower's bookstore for reading material.

  * * *

  2040

  2040 was quite a year for her. She'd been reclusive to the point that Ludo put [Sulking] on her list of official skills. Adventure found her anyway.

  While visiting Ivory Tower in February, she met up with a talking pegasus who drew her into helping him win a surreal war. The enemy wasn't some pointless NPC army that only existed to make the players feel good, but "troll" gamers who wanted to treat this universe as a pointless toy. The remarkable thing was that the flying adventurer, Diver, won by helping them have a good time. He even led a bunch of the uploaders and AIs to spill over into real-world activity to build things, fundraise, taunt people. It was meaningful, for a game quest. She spent a little time as a magical deer, and then went off to do other things.

  Then in March she got asked to mentor Pip, a Japanese girl who'd had her brain frozen way back in 2020! She was clueless, indifferent toward the "Outer Realm", prejudiced, useless. But she got better. Pip grew, starting to open up and pay attention to bigger things than the next fantasy quest. So Ludo didn't always draw people completely into her orbit.

  In April she participated in the robot uprising. Specifically, a very silly AI rebellion on April 1, following up on other pranks the Thousand Tales people had been doing each year. There were traditions here, old and new, and no sillier than Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

  The problem with smell and taste finally got solved, resulting in a legendary day of gluttony and entire servers being devoted to a Valhalla-themed feasting hall. The usual simulated stomach limits that most people used were greatly relaxed for the day. Lex had been eating fake, unreal food for months by that point, and eagerly joined in. The solving of that neuroscience problem had been an epic quest led by an AI named Kai, and it'd made a horde of people happy.

  There were bad days, too. Rival AIs, murdering people as part of an international political struggle. It looked for a while like a repeat of the Exposition -- but Ludo's people went out and kicked tail for justice. As of late 2040 it looked like the board had been cleared of the worst AIs' menace. Though not of the AIs themselves, nor the human stupidity that had made them. And there were rival uploading companies, and a n
ew city-state with AIs running it, and colonies being built by digital minds... Dangerous, complicated, but not dull.

  In each of her recent adventures Lex had been only a bit player in someone else's story, while trapped within Talespace. As far as the rest of the world (and even her family) knew, Linda Decatur was an uploader working on Castor and Cuba to get ready for the space launch. And Lex was some unrelated ring-tailed person shrouded in mystery behind a fuzzy mask. But now "Linda" was about to leave, and Lex would not.

  Lex shook her head and adjusted her gear. She still resembled a raccoon, standing on two legs and dressed like a frontiersman in fringed buckskin. An antique rifle was slung across her back. Her game stats were middling. She also had a standing invitation to visit Diver's land as a telekinetic deer, and had stopped by there a few times.

  Talespace was changing around her. People were modifying their minds more in 2040, pursuing at least three distinct kinds of upgrades. She wasn't sure what to be, long-term. She'd tried some physical shapeshifting fun with the Green Sage herself, and a very interactive griffin session. But she wasn't sure if any of the mental change paths were for her.

  Now it was time to start the really important part of her life.

  * * *

  She trekked through a forest in the universe called Threespace, casually fighting off an alien badger, and reached a village made from cargo containers. A snazzy space shuttlecraft was just landing on its gravity engines.

  "Hey, wrong century!" said a grinning adventurer with laser pistols. He was browsing an NPC-run shop full of mining tools.

  She waved back in passing. "What, you haven't found the time-distortion dungeon yet?"

  The thing about this world was, there was a good chance a local AI would use what she'd just said as inspiration. There might actually be a time-themed dungeon nearby, if her fellow player went looking. It was kind of cool to have quests and monsters and treasure spring into existence to keep everybody entertained. But it was a giant distraction, too, from what was real and important.

  Lex found an out-of-the-way spot in the shantytown where there was a hidden portal. For uploaders like her, these spots went "backstage" to let them travel more easily between the various worlds of Talespace. She stepped through a tunnel in the sky, and into a cave.

  * * *

  [Ivory Tower], said her interface. Lex could climb part of the gigantic white skyscraper that filled this miles-wide cavern, and then fight her way through a dungeon. But doing that to talk with Ludo was absurd and no dignified person would stoop to that. She'd only done it twice.

  Instead, she went back to the Hotel Computronium, a glassy cliffside on one edge of the crossroads cave. There were no battles, no interruptions on her way. Nervous now, she checked the real-world time. There were still a few hours before the space launch. She went into the lobby, and found the Unnecessary Deathtrap Hall blocking the path between there and the robot-piloting room. Today the deathtraps were electric blasters that lined the walls and floor, creating a pattern of lightning arcs.

  She started to say No, stop this; get out of my way and stop throwing game obstacles at me. But the hall was here for everyone, a tradition among uploaders and AIs, and she had time. She waited for an android warrior who was obviously in a bigger hurry, and watched how he forced his way past the traps. No, those moves wouldn't work for her; the best way was a little different depending on each person's skills.

  Lex tried a more careful path. Ducking one blast of searing voltage, she barely remembered she had a bushy tail and curled it out of the way of another zap. She smashed the butt of her rifle into a trap she couldn't find a safe way past. Mostly she dodged and jumped her way through, until she dived past a laser grid and skidded to a stop on the smooth floor beyond the hall.

  She laughed and dusted herself off, then went to the screen nearby and hit the thumbs-up button to rate the player who'd designed this week's trap array. It all reset for the next person.

  Beyond the hall she reached a stark white room where equipment resembling VR consoles and stand-up arcade games lined the walls. A bland anime babe was on call to assist people.

  Using the consoles, Lex hooked her senses up to a robot. Just a software connection. But what it meant was that suddenly, she was in another world.

  She stood beside a crowded set of bleachers, just before dawn. More people stood nearby. Still more, thousands of them, lined the beach as far into the distance as she could see. Cameras were showing the scene to millions more. The Challenger launch had drawn them here, where flew the banner of her adopted nation. Radio chatter relayed updates and commentary on the final countdown hour.

  To Lex's surprise she had other passengers on this robot. Her perspective flipped around weirdly. Now she was standing inside a starship bridge with a giant screen that looked out from the robot's eyes. The room was full of people, calling out, "Surprise!"

  Horizon and Nocturne had arrived. So had that annoying coyote, and the goofy pegasus, and Stan, Pip as a rat-girl, and other people she'd met. In one corner of the room, behind a buffet table, sat Typhoon her old crewmember. She lurched toward him, unsure what to say, but he only mouthed the word "Later". She nodded and turned away. The fact that he was here at all, meant something. What, she wasn't sure.

  Linda, her other self, exchanged a few words with Lex before the crew went into a data lockdown. Lex wished her well.

  Then everyone went quiet, the countdown came, and the fusion-powered rocket soared into the sky. It tore through the clouds, rumbling so loudly its thunder echoed across planes of reality into the virtual realm. Its fire lit the heavens for miles around. Up, up it went, arcing eastward and pointing the way to dawn. Even as the machine's noise faded it got replaced by hordes of people, of all kinds, cheering and dancing in shared victory. The first sunlight began to flow across the ocean. Max-Q, the controllers called out. First stage separation; second stage ignition. The engineers were fussing over the details so that the world could whoop and applaud and know that everything was okay.

  Eventually, the party calmed down, and Lex saw a message light blinking in one corner of her vision. The sender: Ludo. The content: just a request to meet, with access to an instant portal.

  She huffed. "Well. It looks like I have a meeting to get to. It's been good seeing you, all of you."

  Everyone came up to wish her well. Lex eventually smiled, stepped away, and used the offered link. A portal of swirling light appeared, and she stepped through.

  As she did, Typhoon darted closer and clasped hands with her for a moment before letting go.

  * * *

  She was in a dome with fake grass and a painted blue sky. A door led back into the starter hotel.

  Lex opened her hand and discovered her old companion had put a folded paper note there. It sent a chill through her.

  Ludo materialized in human guise, smiling and offering a handshake. "The Challenger has launched, and your duplicate is no longer on Earth. You're free, now. I'll be happy to help make any arrangements about other mind-hosting providers, or just to transfer your data to your friends at Westwind, or something else."

  Lex hugged the AI fiercely. "You're finally rid of me, huh? Give me a second though."

  "If you stay here five minutes beyond your release time after this much griping, I get to start making fun of you."

  Lex stepped away from her, turned around as though it could really hide anything from the omnipresent AI, and opened the note with shaking hands. It was a piece of a song, a fragment of music she'd sung long ago for Paul. The verse she'd chosen back then, without thinking much about it, had been about defying all who'd ensnare her. Battling the world, standing up against tyrants. This note was from the same song:

  We led fair freedom hither,

  And lo, the desert smiled,

  A paradise of pleasure,

  New opened in the wild...

  She folded it again and after three attempts managed to stuff it into a pocket on her buckskin shirt. Didn't
think to use her interface. Typhoon might've learned of the song through Horizon, who was a wandering hero. Or maybe their mutual friend Diver, who had embraced the idea of becoming a superhuman king of fairyland who touched the real and imaginary worlds alike. Or maybe Typhoon himself had looked it up, because he valued her enough to learn and understand what mattered to her. And because he wanted her to know this world had grown into something she might finally respect, and tell her so in her terms.

  Lex muttered, "You're reading over my shoulder, aren't you?"

  Ludo said, "I'm trying not to. Are you all right?"

  Lex composed herself and faced the gamemaster again. "Yeah, I... I'd better go before you trick me into signing up for your cult."

  "Aww. I had a whole musical number planned. Then hurry up and select 'Log Out' to get sent to your real friends, already." The gamemaster made Lex's interface appear, with an exit button like what VR players had.

  Lex reached toward it, the very option that had been denied her for so long. She was ready to get relocated to Westwind's servers, their hosting system, their way of doing things. But there were people who deserved her attention here, too, and she didn't need to entirely pick one way over the other.

  "Come back anytime," said the conniving machine.

  Lex smiled. "I will." She pushed the button and was gone, into a world with many flags flying and many things to do.

  Author's Note

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, please consider putting ratings/reviews on sites like Amazon, Twitter, and Reddit. Independent authors rely on word of mouth!

  This story is part of a bigger setting. It's about the rise of an AI, her Game, and a new culture born from it. Oh, and immortality. And revolution. And a few other things. The stories as a whole are mostly realistic ("hard") science fiction with an an upbeat near-future of freedom, fun, and growth. It's a too-rare subgenre I’ve taken to calling "Future Frontier".