by Marcus Sloss
Everything here seemed to be complete—in the sense that I saw very few upgrades or new construction. This was the utopia of our new reality: a well defended city with ample protections; jobs for everything and almost everyone; ample living space; and, entertainment one would never tire of. I looked around in wonder.
I almost wanted to move here instead of building our own utopia. But Earth was … Earth. It was my home; I was tied to her. My heart would always long for my home and I didn’t think knowing that something greater was possible should dictate I give it up. I knew the community could build something like this, but better.
Toth pointed at a building that resembled something more akin to what we would consider a casino. “That advertisement earlier was for a digital euphoria store; that, however, is the deluxe version. They can transport you to virtual worlds where you can do just about anything. There is a fee, of course, both for time spent in virtual reality as well as a tax from us on all transactions, with a fee tacked on for gambling. Nothing too drastic, but we do ensure we get our hands in the pot,” Toth said with an uncaring shrug. “Under the surface, it is much more crowded. In the last one point three million years, we have only been raided above ground a handful of times. It takes quite a large army of powerful monsters willing to die for minimal loot to breach our defenses. Still, it has happened, just not very often.” He pointed. “There is the upper market.”
Toth indicated a flea market of sorts. The tall buildings stopped at a massive square of cleared space where multiple sizes of vendor booths spread out in a massive bazaar with little apparent rhyme or reason that aliens meandered through. Once again, I saw holographic displays instead of actual goods in a majority of the booths. I could not find Longoria in the crowds of thousands, but I did try.
“Your friend will have good luck finding machinery here. We have quite a lot of manufacturing and a large contingent of aliens proficient at such tasks. This is not as good a place to find warriors, but for workers, it is matched only by the grand market. Mainly workers who come out of contract will stick around and start hunting for new work,” Toth said, ending his tour guide spiel as a massive structure came into view. I could see the outer wall for the first time.
My eyes shot to the exterior defenses. We had not passed through the thousand-foot-high wall on the horizon, which meant the vault was hidden outside the city somewhere. The wall boasted towers every ten meters, giving the barrier a spiked look. I noticed random defensive emplacements between the wall and the homes. There was a kill zone at least two miles wide between the wall and the start of the city proper. Roving bands of military units dotted this landscape, apparently with as little rhyme and reason as the bunkers.
“Yes, Eric, one day you may have all of this. Then you will be the one vetting aliens into your metropolis. You will have to tax your visitors and your citizens to maintain order, peace, and a solid defense,” Toth said, catching me studying the defenses.
“I hope we make it to this point. How do you handle unruly citizens?” I asked, not seeing a police force.
“Your Gpad is not on you. If you were to have come directly in, which your citizens can do, by the way, you would have been forced to wear an anklet, bracelet, or choker. If you’re species cannot accommodate such a device, or you refuse to wear our security enhancers, you are sent to a common vault and required to tour the city on a disk. Let me be transparent with you, Eric. We rule with an iron fist so tight that our citizens complain unceasingly. We persist and survive, however, through such strategies. We need no police force, because the police force is normally attached to your body. If, for example, you were in your regular body and attacked a pleasure worker, you would find your body immediately paralyzed and you would be required to pay a fine for your transgression.”
“No prison time?” Willow asked and Toth gave her a confused look. “Dungeon? Jail? Confinement as penance?”
Toth let out a deliberate and slow ah, then snickered and asked, “Why? That would cost us money. There is no reason for such ludicrous expenses. People fear fines more than confinement and a fine unpaid, or that one is unable to pay, leads directly to a contract of servitude. The device we impose on our citizens and visitors can produce a near-instant paralysis for offenders of the law, so there is little actual violence. We even allow weapons to be carried. Mind you, they are kept on an automatic safety lock. But if we get invaded, the locks come off. And yes, there have been murders at that point, but once the crisis is resolved, we remove the offending parties. Everything is tracked. There are a billion tiny recording monitors throughout the city, in addition to the actual personal devices. That right there, the miniscule chance of an attack and then the possibility of you being killed in the heat of the moment, was the reason you’re in the vault.”
“What I’m hearing is that this society will be safe for my people to visit, assuming they come in from the Xgate and enter through the wall,” I said, watching the citizens of Koor peacefully cohabitating.
“There are always risks, Eric, but you are seeing something for yourself that words cannot explain. There are old rivalries living amongst each other everywhere on this planet,” Toth said gesturing below.
“Indeed, I even see a human down there,” I said, knowing how our kind was despised.
“Rare, but yes. Oh look here,” Toth said, gesturing at a large circular building.
To our right stood a colosseum, not too different from what the Roman’s had built in Rome. The biggest difference in this one’s architecture were the landing pads, from which platforms shifted aliens in and out of the arena. It was made out of rockcrete. “That is the upper pit. The smallest of the bunch and the least crowded. Which also means its fees are the lowest. There are events throughout the day; random fights get scheduled as time goes by.”
“Are real bodies allowed to fight, or just synthetics?” Everly asked with a raised brow. She stared intently at the large building.
“Life is fickle and cheap. If we let real people into the pits, they could die with mountains of debt, risking all on the slight chance they could win their way out of debt. Their opponent would most likely be in the same boat. At one time, yes, we allowed death by combat. That tended to only lead to problems on top of problems, so that is no longer the case. There are usually a half dozen bouts before a random royale,” Toth said, knowing we were interested. “Want to watch some fights? Maybe gamble a bit? I don’t need to try to sell you on it. You paid your fee for the vault, honored your word, and are likely to spend money here, so we can just enjoy our time. There is a botanical garden of the universe one floor down, with a very nice walking tour for a minimal fee. Or would you prefer some synthetic death games?”
“Death games,” the three of us answered in unison.
Toth entered some commands into a tablet next to his seat and we landed at a tower perched on the edge of the arena. When we stepped out of the vehicle it was onto a platform. I was starting to see a pattern. There were no stairs anywhere. Every device, path, and architecture was shaped to fit a diverse number of alien body types. I also noticed that there were no species here over twenty feet tall.
“I take it there is a big city?” I asked and Toth tilted his head in confusion. “Let me clarify. A city for larger beings, like Divine-Apes. Koor must have a height limit, if I were to guess why there are no extremely large aliens here.”
“Ah, so you're an anti Xgate zealot, your secret is safe with me,” Toth said and I went to reply when he held up a hand. “I tease, we welcome all sides here. The Divine-apes have declared a holy war, their edict without question, their cause unwavering, and if you are not on their side, you perish. Neutral places like Koor, however, are left alone and remain trading partners with both sides, since we officially harbor all. That is apparently good enough for them. As to your question, there are other cities defined less by their size restrictions; some of them allow much larger species to enter. Other places are confined by the size of their entryways. We find it convenient and sa
fer for our citizens if we maintain common sense limits. Hard to squish the four-foot-tall Clerane when the sixty-foot-tall Flowmora can't fit in the burrow.”
“Yeah, I noticed there were only beings of a certain size here,” Everly said tapping her chin as if it were there.
The arena platform picked up rapidly and we sailed over the arena wall. The view inside the circular stadium showed it should be able to hold around ten thousand or so comfortably. The interior pit was not some grand location where thousands could battle. My perusal of the arena stopped when we were deposited at a ramp which Toth led us down. After we had vacated the platform, it shot back up towards its point of origin.
The interior of the observation booth had a front bench with numerous view screens tucked below a massive pane of some clear material similar to glass. I knocked on the surface to find it was a clear plastic of some sort. The view screens were actually tablets you could walk around with.
I hefted the tiny disc into my holographic hand. Science was magical at times. My fingers tapped a few buttons and sure enough, a new screen populated. My finger slid through the menus until I stumbled upon an option for seating rentals. Umm … yes, please.
I selected some elevated chairs that resembled thrones; they were even padded. I was given a delivery prompt of seven seconds. Huh, did that mean -?
The ceiling above our booth folded back and we stepped back as chairs fit for a human Viking King settled to the ground. Score! I went for the largest seat in the middle. Even Toth snagged a chair I ordered. The cost had been mere fractions of an ounce of zinc, with a five-ounce retainer. We were pulling up almost a ton of zinc a day already, but I had only brought a couple of hundred pounds with us. We might need to bring more zinc.
A long sigh escaped my lips as I sank down into the comfort of my throne. I knew I was not really sitting in this chair, but it still felt marvelous. Almost better than a Taver’s masterfully crafted rocking chair. I adjusted the angle of the seat to look down into the arena.
Toth cleared his throat, saw he had my attention, and said, “Time conversions will be displayed when thought about or viewed on a tablet. There will be three more matchups before a three on three mock battle. This will be followed by another three individual matchups and then a five on five battle royale. There is a two percent tax on all bets, half of which goes to the house, and the other half is shared by the competitors: seventy-five percent to the winner, and twenty-five percent to the loser. In this arena, that is not a lot of money, so we normally have open slots to compete. Lower arenas backfill this one, just to keep the fights going. If you would like to—”
“I signed us up,” Willow said proudly, “for the three-on-three.”
“Oh, neat! This should be fun,” Everly said with a smirk.
I checked the roster and saw that we would face two backfill slots from a different arena in the queue as our opponents, unless someone else here signed up.
“I think you will do splendidly, add a bit of fun to this arena,” Toth said. “Ah, here is the next matchup.”
The two competitors were showcased on a platform that rotated around the arena slowly. There was no announcer or showboating voice to talk up the impending battle, simply a list of statistics and other information on a screen under each combatant’s platform in large lettering.
The first combatant to rotate our way was an insectoid synthetic with a bladed arm that led to a three-fingered hand. Its name was Cicero. Cicero’s colorations were blue with green stripes, and her stats listed her at five foot two and eighty-three point three pounds. There was no score tag or other indication about the operator’s species, skills, or qualifications.
Before the second contestant could arrive in their rotation about the arena, the area inside the arena itself rumbled. The flat sand I had ignored up until this point transformed as a rubble environment rose through the fine particles. This was a replica of a destroyed city that must have been marvelous in its day. While the arena settled, the second contestant’s platform arrived.
The other competitor was a dog humanoid, named … Doggero. I snorted. It appeared to be determined, its sharp eyes scanning the crowd. The beast’s coloration was mostly black with several gray stripes and two beefy arms. Definitely a male, I decided, seeing its prominent package, but then again it was a synthetic, so maybe it had female operator. Those eyes just did not seem like the eyes of a warrior. Doggero weighed more, was taller, and had a longer reach.
“Now that we have the arena environment established and the contestants have been introduced, the next step is weapon selection. They will each pick a first, second and third choice from out of ten options. If they do not agree on a consensus choice, then they again select their top three choices—the initial six offerings are removed—from the remaining options. Once weapons have been selected, there is a brief window for betting that opens. Ah, see they one-two picked laser pistols. Perfect. And now time for the betting. Simply use the tablet to place your bet. The odds change by the nanosecond.”
I checked my tablet, there was a fifteen-second countdown before betting starting and then a four-minute timer until combat started, at which time bets were locked in. The moment betting opened up, I saw the odds see-saw back and forth.
“Can we bet?” Willow asked.
I shrugged. “Do you know who is going to win?” I asked. Willow looked over at my Crixxi queen. Everly nodded and pointed at the insect warrior, Cicero.
“The insectoid will have less of a target silhouette and greater mobility on this terrain. “Hey, what gives?” I asked, seeing an advertisement pop up. “Oh, you’ve gotta be shitting me.” I rolled my eyes. “There are operator stats behind a paywall. A point and a half in favor of the insectoid and climbing. Placing our bet now.”
I chucked a whole pound of zinc on Cicero. This tipped the odds to almost two to one until the underdog betters hopped into the pool.
“You make another bet like that and some bored gamblers from below will come up. That was a year's worth of wages for a guard,” Toth said with a chuckle.
Sure enough, a few heavy bets went to the Doggero’s side, tempting me with the odds. I was confident in my assumption but further bets would be out of place. I would rather test the waters than drown in them.
The time limit until wagers locked in expired and a loud chime dinged in the arena. Again, there was no announcer or loud broadcast. The two contestant’s platforms sank to their prospective sides of the arena and a gong chimed. Four laser pistols, two for each side, rose out of the sand in the center of the arena.
Cicero snatched her pistols from the sand with a burst of speed. Her triple fingers clasped the weapons with a smooth motion. Her legs kicked her into long bounds to get back to cover.
Doggero, however, was not idle. He also charged the middle, but scooped up only one weapon. I frowned when he did not pick up the second pistol. Instead, he hoisted a slab of sheet metal out of the rubble to use as a shield.
“That was dumb,” Willow said and I agreed. I rolled my wrist wanting to hear her reasoning, and she continued. “His fingers are exposed holding that, and it doesn’t cover his whole body.”
“Reduced vision for when—”
Everly was mid-sentence when Cicero leaped off a high point from Doggero’s blind side. Laser fire tore into the fur of the synthetic body. Yellow spurts of blood splashed to the sand.
Doggero was shocked by the rapid change of events; his knees slammed to the ground in a growing pool of yellow.
I saw Cicero’s lips move as she talked quietly to her opponent.
A new chime sounded three times. The match had been called with a surrender.
“That is rare, normally they just kill the body to make a point. You get more followers that way. For a fee, you can follow your favorite operators and they get a cut … further incentivizing death, destruction, and mayhem,” Toth said in a disappointed tone.
I checked our account; we were a half-pound heavier on zinc. While nice,
this was less than what we mined every minute. The reality of how great a treasure lay within the Rockies was only now settling in. We would need to mine fast and store our wealth deep.
The shifting terrain caught my attention once again as the arena was cleared. The rubble returned back below the sands with a shimmy and a rumble. A moment later, two new contestants arrived on their platforms.
“You need to go report to be ready for your match. Your discs will stay here, good luck,” Toth said.
A popup asked me to confirm that we wanted to compete in the three-versus-three battle. I confirmed and felt my mind transition into nothingness.
CHAPTER 20
There was a super-imposed timer obstructing my sight; it faded in size until the display was a number at the top left of my odd vision. I say odd, because I was seeing as if my eyes were closed. There was a black backdrop contrasted by an option menu. The options were a price range. The prices were listed in neilspar, so I adjusted the order to zinc and accepted the prompt of a conversion fee. Whatever.
There were six ranges to pick from. Less than a pound of zinc. Hard pass on the cheapest options. One to three pounds. Four to ten pounds. Ten to twenty. Twenty to fifty, and finally fifty plus. I didn't like losing at anything I competed in. My bank account said I was wealthy, so I obviously selected fifty plus.
Oh wow, I could be a ten-foot tall earth golem; consider me interested. I then saw a note indicating that the outer layer was only a shell which could be pierced easily. Damn, pass. A cat with wings but four legs, too unnatural. A bat with gangly limbs, gross. There had to be something in here worthwhile. Ogre, pass. Minotaur, pass. A snake humanoid that was meh at best. Finally, something that piqued my interest.
An angelic humanoid of sorts that stood nine feet tall, with a blemish-free, lightly tanned skin coloration. The toned body appeared to be without virum enhancements, as if sculpted by natural rigorous training. Golden wings flared behind a torso that boasted two sets of tits. Talk about chesty.
