Cold War Rune: A Virtual Reality novel (Rune Universe Book 2)

by Hugo Huesca

  The other members of the group and I nodded, some with more unease than others.

  “Very well,” said Panarin. He turned to look at Beard. “Gabrijel Ivanic is a comrade of mine, a brilliant mind who built his career in the Motherland Energy Initiative. He’s been as involved in the Russian side of the Race as I have.”

  “Gabrijel, please,” Panarin said as he stepped back.

  Beard was left standing in front of the curious crowd. He lacked his usual bubbly, energetic personality. He seemed very small, even for his Dwarven-like character build.

  “Shortly after the Rune Event,” he began after a moment, “humanity received four messages that have been confirmed as extraterrestrial in origin.”

  I nodded to myself. Everyone knew about the unintelligible messages, the ones that no country on Earth had been able to decipher. After sending those, the cosmos had been silent.

  “It was thought the messages were—well, messages, sent either coded or in an unknown language. Anthropologists, code-breakers, and the best forensic linguists were employed by every country to decipher the messages. They made no progress at all.

  “I believe… well, my peers and I believe that sending a message to another planet—an entirely alien culture—presents terrible difficulties if the objective is to be understood. Language may not work the same to the minds of the listeners. Culture may be an insurmountable barrier. Biology may be different—” Beard stumbled for words, which was very unlike him.

  “—I mean, they may be trying to sing to a species without ears,” he said after a pause. “Who have no concept of sound.”

  He nodded to himself, pleased at his metaphor. Next to Panarin, Derry looked tense. His eyes were fixated on a point in the wall behind us, lost in thought.

  “For all we know, the alien civilizations that contacted us have also contacted others in the past. A simple statistical deduction, if you will… Uh, so they must have encountered the difficulties I’ve mentioned, right? Why send a message impossible to decode when other alternatives may be present? They surely must’ve thought about this, if they’re intelligent… Well, intelligent as we understand intelligence. In itself, a giant assumption to make…”

  He trailed off and looked hopefully at his audience. I realized Beard was waiting for a response. Everyone, including me, stared at him blankly. Like kids being interrogated by a teacher.

  Beard gave Panarin a nervous smile, then kept going:

  “How do you communicate to someone that doesn’t speak your language?”

  You could gesture at him, I thought. An alien lifeform would not share our signs, or our extremities, though. Even on Earth, a hand signal meant something different in the States than in China.

  Even then, people from different countries managed to understand each other all the time, almost as much as they didn’t. If signs didn’t do the trick, they could point and yell. If that didn’t help, they could find someone who spoke both languages…

  “You need to have common ground,” I spoke up. “You could get a translator.”

  Beard smiled and sighed with relief. I realized my friend wasn’t afraid of speaking in public, he was afraid of having no one understanding him.

  For all I knew about him, Beard was some sort of engineering genius. Little to do with alien civilizations and their mysterious languages, right?

  “Yes, that’s a great example. A translator immersed in both cultures may be able to breach differences that would be otherwise unsurmountable. At points, said translator might need to hide information, or add to it, if the differences are big enough.”

  A woman a few feet away from me was the first to speak. “Sounds a bit reaching to me, Gabrijel. A translator might work between two human cultures, but where the hell are we going to get one between us and Cthulhu? And you said there may be biological differences, so we can’t simply—even if we could—send a baby over there and let him be raised by aliens.”

  The attention of the room shifted to Beard, like the audience watching a tennis match. This time, Beard wasn’t nervous, though, he was smiling like the woman had done him a favor by pointing out his mistake.

  “Thanks, Mai. Those are great points and I mentioned the same thing the first time I discussed it.”

  Mai smiled proudly at that.

  “It’s not an impossible obstacle,” Beard went on. “Think about it. Work with what we have to arrive at where we want to be. What tools do we share with our mysterious alien pen-pals?”

  This time, several people spoke at the same time, myself included. “Rune.”

  The Signal was present everywhere in the universe. It changed in real time in an instant, without being limited by the speed of light’s constant.

  Whoever sent the messages to Earth had done so using the Signal. That was the only known information about them.

  “They know we are intelligent life and they know we have access to the Signal,” said Beard, pleased with the participation of his public. He looked calmer now than a few minutes ago. “The next step is to re-frame the messages. We’re not their intended target. The Signal is. Why? They can work with it. If they can send intergalactic messages (through real galaxies, mind you) they at least understand said Signal better than we do.”

  “It’s a package of instructions,” said Mai. “Is it… software? For Rune? Not the game, but the framework behind it…”

  I caught a glimpse of Derry’s face then, before he was able to hide the anger in his eyes. I knew well enough what he was thinking (after all, I had nightmares about the guy). The messages could either be a way to communicate, or a weapon to destroy us.

  It wasn’t too hard to imagine. An interstellar civilization probably had weapons we couldn’t even fathom.

  I had the firm belief that he was wrong. There was a point in your life that you had to trust someone. The alternative was supposing that everyone was out to get you, and if that was true, it wouldn’t matter if you had never trusted them—you were doomed anyway.

  Mankind was in that stage of life. The stage of having to take a stand.

  “Yes, Mai, that’s what most of the scientists ‘in the know’ believe. We began to suspect this shortly after the Rune Event.”

  A hologram of four data packages appeared in front of Beard. He caught the first one and held it close to his eyes, like he was examining the true message.

  “Once we began treating the messages as… plug-in software for the Signal, we began to make progress. The first message, almost fully decoded now, consists of detailed schematics to create a machine. A Device, if you have a flair for the dramatic, which I do.

  “The second one appears to be entirely comprised of software for its operation within the Signal. The third and fourth ones are currently out of our reach, but don’t seem to be related to the first two. I think they may be a safeguard.

  “It’s through working on the instructions within the first two messages that we might achieve communication between alien species. The way it will work is only speculation, but I believe it will be related to the ideas we’ve discussed here. Sadly, there’s now a race between all First-World countries to be the first to implement the tech and make contact. Whoever does so first will become powerful beyond belief without even lifting a finger. Why? Because history is made by those who arrive first. That’s why.”

  Beard gave a heavy sigh and stepped back to his spot near my side while looking at the floor. The room was silent as everyone processed this. Beard caught me looking at him and muttered: “Makes sense now, doesn’t it?”

  So, this is why you stopped playing. He had been busy building. Panarin had referred to him as one of the best engineers in Russia. The instructions in the first message still needed to be brought to the real world by someone.

  One of the guys next to Mai was the first to speak. “This is absolutely insane! We should believe this just like that? That machine could do anything!”

  The other guy was the next to speak, before Panarin or Beard coul
d respond to the first. “I was recruited to stop Dervaux’s plans, not to involve myself in international sabotage. I don’t want to go on trial for treason…”

  Beard opened his mouth to speak, but Derry silenced the room with a wave of his hand. It wasn’t because he was oh-so-badass; he really silenced the room. Perks of owning the facility we were in.

  After everyone calmed down a bit, he said:

  “Ivanic’s account is true. While he’s obviously speaking from his own country’s perspective, I can assure you that the States are in a similar position. If the Device will work as advertised or not is irrelevant, Joseph. It’s going to get built anyway. Under controlled conditions, of course, but it will get done.”

  “It’s like a geopolitical win-condition,” muttered Beard so only I could hear him.

  “This brings us to the reason we’re reunited here,” said Derry. The image of Keles, Dervaux, and Irene floated to the front, while the messages floated alongside it. “A new contender has entered the race. Our Intelligence organizations have either been unable to foresee this, or have been compromised.”

  Panarin took a step towards Derry. “A First-World country’s government is not the only entity with the resources to pursue the creation of this technology.”

  I cursed under my breath. He was talking about corporate.

  People still talked about the Corporate wars with awe and fear. A war that wasn’t fought with bullets, but with information, money, and power. And a lot of assassinations.

  The members had been disbanded in the end. But not after plunging the States into a terrible depression. One whose effects my family—and almost everyone I knew— had suffered first hand.

  “Charli Dervaux and her coalition have made considerable progress on the second message. They may have completed their work on it. They’re now leveraging it with every nation of Earth. Quietly. If anyone makes a move towards her, the information gets released to someone else.”

  The image of Charli Dervaux grew larger on the hologram. She didn’t look like an evil overlord. But she was holding the greatest auction the world had ever seen.

  “This face,” continued Panarin, “is the centerpiece of the second Cold War.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Argus Station

  “No offense, sir, but this sounds a bit above our pay-grade,” Mai told Derry. Her cheeks were red. “You—you need an army, but you have just a bunch of nerds—and a seventeen-year-old.”

  “I’m eighteen,” I corrected without much energy. I agreed with her. It was overwhelming.

  “Sorry,” she told me.

  It was hard to believe. Earth was building an interstellar translator (or a highly advanced bomb, if you asked Derry), and it was being done without the slightest suspicion of the public. What about leaks? Something like this couldn’t be kept a secret, could it?

  “You’re going to get us all killed!” one of the guys told Derry. “If we piss Dervaux off, she’ll pin our own countries against us!”

  “You better cross your fingers she doesn’t see your face, then,” said Derry without even blinking. “This little chat has been recorded, by the way. Act even a little bit funny and she’ll get a heavily edited video with you as a main feature, Anders.”

  “You wouldn’t dare—!”

  But Anders shut himself up after saying that. Of course Derry would dare.

  “We can’t use an army. Our governments are playing ball with Dervaux,” said Panarin.

  “But we could use some nerds. After all, you haven’t been selected for your martial prowess, but your in-game capabilities,” said Derry.

  “What are you talking about—” Anders went on.

  “You said the messages worked in Rune, didn’t you?” I asked Beard. My friend nodded once, so I turned to Anders. “Dervaux keeps all her information here, where it can’t be hacked by a couple spy agencies with a million dollars to spare. An army won’t move against her, since no one wants to threaten another war. What Derry wants us to do is steal her message. Remove her from play. Let the big boys sort this mess out peacefully.”

  It was the only conceivable situation where a bunch of nerds would be better than a team of operatives.

  The way skills worked in Rune, you could be the best shot in the entire real world and it would mean dick if you didn’t train the Shooting skill here. Of course, you could have a thousand points in Shooting and still miss if you were a lousy shot in real life.

  Governments around the world (Crestienne’s guys excluded) were just now getting used to a videogame having so much influence. Training their skills was going to take time.

  For a brief period, for what must have been the first time in history, gamers had the advantage over trained soldiers. Unless said soldier was himself a gamer, of course.

  “The kid’s got the gist of it,” said Panarin.

  “It would be very helpful if you aided us in finding her base first,” said Derry. “We’ve no idea where Dervaux is hiding and it seems the dimensions of this… game… are quite large.”

  The room fell silent again. It was clear now what was expected of us. Find Dervaux. Take the message. Blow shit up. If we got caught or our names were leaked, we were probably dead.

  “Fuck,” said Anders.

  I knew how he felt. On the other hand, I couldn’t get more threated with death, could I? Keles’ cult was already searching for me.

  And they have Irene…

  Derry and I looked at each other. The man knew I wasn’t going to walk away from this. There was too much at risk.

  The others were harder to read. “So, any questions?” asked Derry. “I assume I count on your full support.”

  “It’s not like I have any choice,” said Anders’ friend, Joseph. He was looking at Panarin with a grim expression. “This asshole has a gun pointed at me in the real world.”

  Holy sh—

  I instinctively opened a window to the real world. Derry was sitting on his side of the table, still focused on the game. His hands were resting casually on the table. Unarmed.

  Panarin’s smile was cold. “Merely a precaution. We can’t go around making mistakes now, can we?”

  Beard didn’t even react—which was unusual for my friend. “I’m in. I can’t let that woman hurt little Irene, after all. And I live in this world, so Dervaux doesn’t get to break it.”

  It would’ve been a great time to quote something about his axe, but he merely sighed and looked away.

  Anders nodded quietly. “You know my terms, Panarin. I’m in.”

  The man barely acknowledged Anders’ pledge. His attention seemed to be elsewhere.

  “Is everyone here being blackmailed?” asked Mai in dismay.

  “Not me,” I told her. “I’m only being held hostage.”

  She whispered something nasty under her breath. The woman looked like she could have a nervous breakdown at any time. Instead, she looked at Derry and nodded.

  “Good,” the former agent said. “That’s solved. Now, we get to start working in earnest. This is your world. You know it better than most, definitely better than Vitaly and I. So, where would you begin to search for Charli Dervaux? Remember, we’re running against time. She won’t keep the auction going for long, otherwise she’ll risk someone deciphering the message on their own.”

  Someone yawned. Perhaps it was me. According to Derry, I’d been asleep for half a day. But I sure didn’t feel rested. In the real world, my pulse was uneven and my body trembled slightly, like I had been awake for two days.

  Sleep gas, my ass…

  “We could hack an associate of hers, or just plain trace him to real life,” proposed Mai.

  “We need to find them first,” said Derry. “There aren’t many CEO playing Rune. Anyone lower on the totem pole is going to be harder to interrogate, since they have very little information explained to them.”

  “What are we looking for in the first place?” I asked Beard. “Crestienne keeps her intel in a facility of the PD
F. You think Dervaux is doing something similar?”

  “Yeah,” said Beard. “I think so, Cole. It’s safer than just carrying it around where some random kid with high-enough gear may steal it. I don’t know how she’s getting people to play ball, though…”

  Crestienne only had enough manpower because her Alliance, the Paladin Defense Force, was an army operation masquerading as a normal guild. In reality, it was a mixture of both paid personnel and normal recruits.

  Where the hell were people like Keles and Dervaux getting their minions from? It’s not like they could simply buy them, right?

  Right?

  “We should pay a visit to Earth,” I told Beard. “And talk to our friends in the Terran Federation.”

  “What are you thinking?” asked Beard. “The NPC aren’t going to know much.”

  “Well, perhaps someone is hiring them,” I explained. “Someone who doesn’t have enough members in their crew to build an entire station by themselves.”

  Beard’s eyebrows raised as he thought this over. “Sub-contracting NPC? It’d probably work. That’s how most ships are built anyway.”

  As we pondered this, Derry walked over to us. “Is there anything I should know?”

  “I’m going to Earth and investigate some NPC companies,” I explained. “We’re thinking Dervaux may be paying them to be her own player-base.”

  “She may be rich in real life, but I doubt she has enough—” Derry paused for half a second and I realized he had no idea what the currency of Rune was. “—money here to pay herself.”

  “There’s actually a hefty market for Rune items,” said Beard. “It should be easy for someone to just buy an Epic-tier item and then sell it for databytes. Repeat that a couple thousand times and you’re translating real money into game money.”

  Derry looked at me for confirmation and I nodded. Third-party markets for multiplayer games weren’t something new, so he really should know this already. It was like the man hadn’t stepped away from his gun range in four decades.

  “If you think that’s a good lead, then we’ll follow it,” said Derry.