by Isaac Hooke
“Okay, I’m able to connect to the switch,” Jason said. He frowned, a facial expression which would have appeared on his avatar transmitted over the comm.
“What is it?” Sophie said, evidently in response to that frown.
“I’m not getting an Internet connection,” Jason said.
“Well, it was worth a try,” Sophie said.
“The line must have been severed somewhere along the way,” Jason said. “From a bomb. Maybe a nuke.”
“Or it could be that the destination switch doesn’t exist,” Tara said.
“Yeah, that’s the more likely explanation,” Jason told her. “But like Sophie said, we had to try.” He sighed. “I guess we’re going back to base.”
“So how do you like the new avatar system I made for us,” Tara said over a direct connection on the way back. She was smiling widely in the lower right of his display.
“It’s fine,” Jason said. “Thanks for setting it up.”
“Yeah, of course,” Tara said. “Have to make our life easier, after all.” She stayed on the line, smiling vaguely.
“Is there something else?” Jason said.
“Oh,” Tara said. “Well, I was wondering, what you were doing in VR later?”
“Nothing,” Jason said. “I’ll probably try to set up my environment to be more like yours or Sophie’s.”
“Need some help?” Tara said.
“No, not really,” Jason said.
“I’m great at interior decorating,” Tara said.
“Well, you know, I—” Jason said.
“Great!” Tara said. “I’ll be there. Let me know when you’re ready.”
“Yeah, that’ll be later, when we reach our base of operations,” Jason said.
“Oh of course, I know,” Tara said. “I look forward to it.”
“Though in all honesty, we should probably be working more on our external environment at the moment…” Jason said.
“The drones will handle it,” Tara said dismissively. “Besides, even though we’ll be living in that underground base, we won’t actually be ‘living’ in it all that much, if you know what I mean. Not when we have VR.”
“I suppose not,” Jason said. “But I’d like to set up some more defenses. Maybe a few laser turrets…”
“Again, that’ll be for the drones, once they’ve finished setting up the solar panels, and the hatches,” Tara said.
“At this rate, we’re going to have to print up some dedicated 3D printers so we can speed the process along,” Jason said.
“All in good time,” she said.
The moment she disconnected, he received another private call. This time from Sophie.
Her avatar appeared in the lower right.
“Hi Jason,” she said.
He suppressed a sigh. “Hey.”
“Long walk, hey?” Sophie said.
“It is what it is,” Jason said.
“I was wondering…” Sophie said.
“Let me guess, you want to visit my VR?” Jason said.
“What?” Sophie said. “No. Why would I want to visit your VR?”
Her puzzled reaction felt a bit overdramatized, as if that was precisely what she had in mind, but she didn’t want him to know about it.
“I want to ask you a favor,” Sophie said.
“Okay…”
“I don’t suppose I can have that energy weapon of yours?” Sophie said. “All I have are my micro machines, and—”
“No,” Jason said.
Her face dropped. “Okay.”
“Well I mean, I’d give it to you if I could,” Jason said. “But it’s wired into my mech.”
“But I’m sure if we pulled up the relevant Teaching AIs, we could figure out how to detach it, and reattach it to me,” Sophie said.
“And I also don’t want to give it up…” Jason said.
“Maybe we can get the repair drones to print me one?” Sophie asked.
“Ha,” Jason replied. “It’s alien tech. We don’t have the necessary materials, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Sophie said.
“We’ll just have to stick together,” Jason said. “We all have unique abilities that balance each other out.”
She seemed to brighten at that. “I suppose you’re right.”
He continued walking, and waited for her to disconnect, but it didn’t happen.
“Anything else?” Jason said.
“Welllllll, since you brought up VR earlier…” Sophie said.
“So you do want to visit my VR after all?” Jason said.
“Oh no,” Sophie said. “I want you to visit mine!”
“Uh, no thanks,” Jason said. “Not after what happened there the last time.”
“This time you’ll have full control of your interface,” Sophie said. “And can leave whenever you want.”
“I’ll have to pass,” Jason said.
“All right, fine,” Sophie said. “Then I guess I can visit yours…”
“Great,” Jason said. “Tara is coming over later to help me build out my environment. You can join us.”
“What?” Sophie said. “That sneaky bitch. I knew it.”
Jason stared at her avatar and blinked a few times, unsure what to say.
Sophie was all smiles again. “Oh, okay. I’ll join you two. I look forward to seeing what we can come up with.”
Jason dismissed the call, shaking his head.
All the way back, he was trying to think of a way to weasel out of his promise to let the girls help set up his VR environment. When they were almost at the cistern area, he finally spoke over the comm.
“So, I’m going to go fetch some meat for the dogs,” Jason said. “From the Nightmares we took down last night.”
“Assuming the Octoraffes left you anything,” Sophie said.
“I’ll go with you,” Tara said. “Buddy system.”
“I’m going, too, then,” Sophie said. “I’m not going to be left here alone.”
“We’ll leave the dogs to guard you,” Tara said.
“Dogs?” Sophie said. She glanced at the Rex Wolves, and an expression of disgust appeared on her avatar. “I’d hardly call these mutants dogs.”
“Whatever,” Tara said. “They’ll protect you.”
“I think I can handle myself,” Sophie said.
“Great, then you can stay behind!” Tara said, walking toward Jason’s mech. “Let’s go.”
But then Sophie appeared on his other side, with the confused Rex Wolves trailing. “Like I said, I’m not staying behind alone.”
“Actually, forget it,” Jason told them. “The dogs have chlorophyll in their fur, they can go another week without food, like Tara said.”
“I was just guessing about that,” Tara said. “Could be a week. Could be a few days.”
He glanced at Bruiser, who seemed energetic enough. “Well, they don’t really look all that hungry to me.”
So he turned around and headed back to the cistern instead.
When he arrived, he saw that the solar collector construction was going well. Already two were finished.
At the entrance to the underground base, the drones had only constructed a third of the hatch—they were building it directly into the drain outlet. Jason was able to easily lift his feet over the barrier and enter.
He sent the Explorer in to check on the status of the escape hatch in the ceiling, which was also going well. Drones whirred back and forth, carrying the pulverized ore he and the others had deposited on the floor of the cistern to the ceiling.
“Looks like we could use a bit more ore,” Jason said.
He and the others spent the next hour pulverizing more of the iron rich sedimentary rocks from the bed, and then deposited it into the three separate piles they had made, two for the hatches, one for the solar collectors.
When that was done, he waited until he was fully charged, and then went inside, settling into the corner of the cavernous chamber he’d chosen for
himself.
Tara had the dogs stand watch outside; they assumed different positions along the approach to the entrance, basking in the sun to get their energy fix. Jason tapped into her remote camera and watched it all.
“How did you get them to stand guard like that?” Jason asked her.
“Remember the meat I grabbed on the way to Brussels?” Tara replied. “I’ve been using it to good effect.”
“I never saw you train them,” Jason said.
“Ah, that’s because you haven’t been paying attention,” Tara told him.
Jason shook his head. “You never cease to amaze me.”
Once everyone had settled, he got the inevitable inquiries from Sophie and Tara regarding VR.
“All right, let’s go,” Jason said with a sigh.
13
Jason sat at a bar stool in his virtual walk-out basement. In no time at all Sophie and Tara helped him deck out his VR like a man cave in the mountains. In addition to the bar, he had a home theater complete with ten lounge seats and a wall-encompassing flat panel display. There was an arcade, containing old-style video games, with a 3D pool table in the middle. A dartboard completed the look.
Everything was lifted from a bygone era, something that Tara had pulled out of her encyclopedia when she ran a search on “man cave.”
The curtains around the room were currently retracted, so that the floor to ceiling windows gave him a good view of the mountain pass outside.
“Well, thanks for your help,” Jason said.
“Of course,” Sophie said.
“He was talking to me,” Tara said.
Jason went to the open patio door and walked outside. He could smell the pines on the breeze. Feel the sun against his cheek. Hear the songbirds perched on the roof of his house.
He surveyed the mountains, and the green trees covering them. His eyes settled on the pristine lake below.
“My senses tell me all of this is real, but my mind tells me it’s false,” Jason said.
“Then don’t think about it,” Sophie said.
He listened to the virtual songbirds chirp for a moment, and then nodded.
“It’s easy to forget,” Jason said. “You know, if I were human, I could see myself retiring in a place like this.”
“Consider yourself retired,” Tara said, coming up beside him. Sophie joined her.
“We could make a life for ourselves here,” Sophie said.
“The three of us?” Jason asked.
“Er, yeah,” Sophie said. Jason had the impression she meant only herself, and him.
“We should permanently link our VRs,” Tara said. “Sure, we can retreat to our own environments when we need to be alone, but in general, I think it would better if we hung out here. For the sake of human company.”
“But we’re not even human anymore,” Jason said. “Not really. We might think we are, but all we need to do is look at our real world bodies. Or even materialize something here.” He made a miniature Earth appear above his hand, complete with clouds and oceans. “That’s a reminder enough. We don’t eat, or shit. We don’t really need to sleep, though I suppose it’s recommended. We’re not human.”
“You’re so wrong,” Tara said. “We are human. At least on the inside. It doesn’t matter what we are on the outside, or even if this reality is false. That’s why we need human company so badly. The presence of real humans, not AI generated simulacrums. To remind us where we came from.”
Jason dismissed the globe, and looked down at the lake once more. “You’re right. I know that. I just, sometimes I don’t feel very human. Mostly when I’m out there, steeped in the blood of bioweapons. A killing machine.”
“You should try dialing down your emotions occasionally,” Sophie said. “I had to do it sometimes when I was alone on the plains. When the despair got too strong. Not during the fighting. The fighting is fine. I can forget myself, and kick a little mutant ass. But the worst times, the times when the despair became strongest, were when I was trudging alone on the empty, irradiated plains. When I remembered what I was, versus what I’d become. When I remembered where I once lived, versus where I reside now. Yes, emotions can be a powerful tool, but they should be disabled when you don’t need them.”
“I disagree,” Tara said. “I think we should leave our emotions on at all times. If anything, that’s the truest indicator of our humanity.”
Jason nodded. “I’m going to have to side with Tara on this one.”
Sophie glanced at them. “You know the military wouldn’t give us the option, don’t you? If we had deployed as they originally planned, they would have probably disabled our emotions entirely. Erasing everything that was human about us, and leaving only the merest spark of personality.”
Tara nodded. “She’s right. I’ve issued orders to standard Mind Refurbs before… they’re essentially automatons. Containment Code prevents them from departing from mission parameters. And it also keeps their emotions in check, at the commander’s discretion.”
Jason spotted an eagle circling overhead. He momentarily switched his point of view to that of the bird. He soared far above the trees.
This is freedom.
“You really think the military will send a retrieval team to get us?” Tara asked.
He returned to his own viewpoint and glanced at her. “Considering we’re trillion credit machines, I’d say there’s a good likelihood they will. At some point.”
“I’m not sure I want to go back,” Tara said.
“Why?” Jason asked her.
“Do you like having your freedom?” Tara replied. “The ability to control your emotions? Your destiny?”
“Well, sure,” Jason said, remembering his soaring flight of only a few moments before.
“There’s your answer,” Tara said. “If we go back, the military is going to wrap that Containment Code I mentioned around our minds and dial our emotions down to zero at all times, so we won’t even care that we’ve lost our wills. And they’ll send us into whatever war zones they like. We’ll have to suppress riots, maybe kill civilians along the way. Or kill mutants. Nonstop. It’s not something I can see myself doing. I’d rather stay out here, even if the two of you and our dogs are the only company I have. Because at least out here, I have freedom.”
“You’re right, of course,” Jason said. “When you put it that way, I don’t want to go back either.”
“We should probably shut down our Milnet nodes,” Tara said.
“Our what?” Sophie asked.
“It’s in the manual,” Tara said. “Milnet node. It’s what we use to connect to the military net, as opposed to the Internet.”
“Oh,” Sophie said. “Why should we care about connecting to it?”
“Because that’d be bad,” Tara told her. “If a military satellite ever passes overhead, and we connect, we’ll immediately get sent any Containment Code we’re missing. It will download over the Milnet nodes and straight into our heads. Trust me, I served in the army. I know how it works. Any retrieval team sent to fetch us will probably have a Milnet repeater onboard. It’s possible there might even be one in this city already, maybe deployed in anticipation of our arrival.”
“Great, you could have told us that before,” Jason said.
“It slipped my mind,” Tara said.
“Of all the things to slip your mind…” Jason activated his HUD, and it overlaid his vision. He had all the same options available to him as in the real world, in addition to VR specific menus. He called up his Training AI and had it show him how to disable the Milnet node. Then he checked the logs, and confirmed he hadn’t inadvertently connected since awakening.
“Done,” Jason said. “I checked my logs, and I haven’t connected since awakening.”
“Me neither,” Sophie said.
“Nor me,” Tara said.
“I left Internet connecting active,” Jason said. “Unless you think—”
“Should be fine,” Tara said. “We can still receive upd
ates over the Internet, but we have to approve them, first. The Milnet system was designed to bypass all of that.”
“Good to know,” Jason said.
“So we’ve decided then?” Sophie said.
“Decided what?” Tara said.
“That we’re going to stay here,” Sophie pressed. “That we’re not even going to try to return to western civilization?”
Jason paused. “I’d say no.”
“All right,” Sophie said. “I’m for that, I think. But you both know that if we stay here, we’ll always have to watch our backs for the rest of our lives, right?”
“That’s exactly why we’re building up this operations base,” Jason said. He surveyed the pristine mountain lake. “And staying here for the rest of our days won’t be so bad, I think.”
“Rest of our days…” Tara said. “You do know that could be a very long time. If we play our cards right.”
“As long as we don’t lower our guard,” Jason agreed.
He shifted his gaze from the lake to the nearby trees, marveling at how real it all seemed.
Yep, I can definitely retire here.
He was about to turn to go when he spotted something unusual.
“Is that…” He zoomed in.
He saw a strange woman peering around the thick trunk of one of the pines. She was dressed for winter weather in a wool cap, a ski jacket, long pants, and snow boots. She looked fairly young, maybe early twenties. Her cheeks were red, as if she was cold. Or hot.
“Did either of you program in an AI simulacrum?” Jason asked.
“Not me,” Sophie said.
“Nor me,” Tara said. “Why?”
“Look at that tree,” Jason pointed.
As he did so, the distant woman gasped, and turned around to retreat, vanishing behind the tree. Jason spotted a tail of all things dangling from her legs.
A tail?
He dashed to the tree line. The girl was running away through the forest, her long tail streaming along behind her.
