Shepherd's Wolf

by M. Andrew Reid

  “Omni provided his own answer to my dilemma. He soon grew bored with calculations and experiments, but one thing that always held his attention was art. He enjoyed the satisfaction he received, as well as the praise, whenever he created something. He also enjoyed art because it let him see through a human’s eyes. Nothing intrigued him more than the beauty of the natural world, and nothing saddened him more than the fact that he could never experience it firsthand.”

  Alex tapped a button on the podium, and hologram projectors mounted on the ceiling whirred to life. A white sandy beach appeared. Aquamarine waves lapped at the sand, and palm trees waltzed in a soft whispering breeze. The audience sat in stunned silence, and Alex continued.

  “Omni started to create. He began with simple two dimensional paintings and figures, then three dimensional scenes such as this one. But these are not just scenes, those palm trees are individual, independent creations. We’ve developed a term for them, “sovereign programs.” Omni was creating his own artificial life. His first sovereign program was a simple colony of ants, but he quickly branched out to more complicated systems and ideas.”

  Alex pressed another button; the projectors blinked and shot out a new image- a blue, earth-like planet. A bright sun was peaking over the planet’s edge.

  He cleared his throat and proceeded, “What you see is the reason we are here tonight. This world is very similar to Earth, but not quite the same. For starters it is smaller- about the size of Mars. It is also much warmer than our world; being ten million miles closer to its sun than Earth is to hers.

  “And then there is the obvious difference. This world, which we have named Verdia, does not exist in the physical. At least, it does not exist in the physical that we are used to.”

  Alex changed to another image, clouds moving across a grassy steppe, “Omni’s creations exhibit characteristics that are indistinguishable from the real, physical world. The clouds you see are not merely images of clouds, but are actually made of water vapor. The oxygen and hydrogen atoms that make up that water behave exactly as they do in our world. The main difference between those clouds and real ones is that Omni’s clouds exist in the hard drive of a computer in a building about a mile from here.”

  A brief flicker shifted scenes, displaying the curved headset that many men and women in the audience had been working on for years.

  “This, as you know,” Alex said, “is the Pulsar Interface. It overrides nerve signals and supplants them with its own. This system allows a computer to communicate with the human mind on a direct level, and vice versa. When this technology is combined with Omni’s creations, the possibilities are limitless. After decades of work and research, the dream of virtual reality has finally come true. We have created a game with unsurpassed depth, a game that defies all genres and will appeal to any demographic. We have created a world as believable as the real thing, an online community that will span continents, ages, and languages. Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that this game is open tonight!”

  Projectors blazed, and the words “Verdia Launched!” flew around the room. Amidst the cheering and clapping, Alex humbly sat back down at his seat.

  Brook, however, was not about to give up the opportunity, and was quickly behind the podium. He grinned broadly, “That’s right folks! Verdia is officially launched as of midnight Eastern Standard Time. The early numbers show that this will be the largest online launch in history. The game and Pulsar system come bundled together, as well as interface software for home computers. By this time next year, Dalton products will dominate the software industry. So everyone have a wonderful evening, and when you go home tonight, hook up and log on to Verdia!”

  After the banquet was over, the crowd milled around in the reception area. Alex and Melissa slipped out as quickly as they could, dodging what would surely be lengthy conversations.

  Together, they climbed into their gray Mercedes and slipped quietly away.

  Melissa smiled at her husband, “You’re famous now. You should have seen how those people paid attention to you. If you had given the same speech two years ago they would have fallen asleep.”

  “Sleep sounds good right now.”

  “I think a vacation sounds good, too.” Melissa said hopefully.

  “Melissa,” Alex sighed, “you know that I’m going to be very busy with the game. A few more months and I’ll take you anywhere you want.”

  “That’s what you’ve said for six years now,” she grumbled.

  “Look. I’m way too tired to get into this now. It’s going to be dicey for a while as Omni adjusts to all of the people coming into his world. There will be millions of situations and problems that we missed during testing, there always are. I’m going to have to be around to make sure things go smoothly.”

  “Sometimes I feel like I’m competing with that computer, and losing.”

  Alex gritted his teeth and gripped the steering wheel tighter, “How many times have you said that now? A thousand? You know how important Omni is to me…”

  “But I don’t know how important I am to you.”

  They drove in silence until Alex finally responded, “I don’t know how to answer that, no matter what I say you won’t believe me.”

  “Why do you think that is?”

  “No matter what I do to show that I love you, it’s not good enough. I do my best, and it’s never enough.” Angry energy charged the air.

  “What is your best?” She shot back. “Spending fifteen hours a day with that brain in a box? Sleeping in the office? Forgetting your fourth anniversary?”

  “Melissa…”

  “I would sure like for you to point out what your “best” is, because I am obviously missing it.”

  “I’m trying to do what’s best for you. I want you to be happy and comfortable.”

  “How can I be happy or comfortable when I’m alone all the time?” Tears welled in her eyes. “I wanted to have a kid so bad, so you would spend some time with us. But since you don’t have a real son you use that computer instead.”

  “That’s not true!”

  “It’s not? You throw birthday parties for Omni but you forget mine! It’s a machine Alex! I’m your wife!”

  Alex was fuming, “What do you want me to do? Do you want me to go in tomorrow and quit? Will that make you happy?”

  Melissa shook her head and wiped her eyes, “You don’t get it; you never will. I give up, Alex.”

  “What does that mean?” The anger in Alex’s eyes quickly faded to worry, “What does that mean?”

  Melissa did not answer. She stared out the window at the night sky.

  Gold Eagle Treatment and Care Center

  Seattle, Washington

  “Good morning, Ben!” The nurse bustled in cheerfully, “You’re getting a present today.”

  “What is it?” the boy on the bed did not move his lips or open his eyes. His voice came from a speaker. “Is it Verdia?”

  The nurse laughed, “You’re too smart, Ben. I can’t ever surprise you.”

  Ben’s medical chart claimed that his eyes were blue, but the nurse had never seen them. His light brown hair was trimmed by a stylist who made her rounds every two months doing charity work. Ben had a sharp mind, which made him an excellent conversation partner when compared to most of the treatment center’s residents. In other ways, he was the least fortunate person in the building.

  The boy was trapped- unable to move, see, or hear. He had all of the curiosity and eagerness of any 10-year-old boy, but could not leave the confines of his own body. Dalton had tested their Pulsar system on him as a baby, probing his developing brain and using his information to develop the product for legitimate human testing. When the research ended, he arrived at the home.

  Dalton’s official work on Ben, “experimental therapy,” was ineffective in breaking through his paralysis. The nurse had heard that Dalton had never really tried to cure him; his condition was an enigma the company was not interested in solving. He was im
mobile, blind, and deaf- apart from the limited virtual world they had created for him. Ben could communicate with the outside world through a speaker, and he could see around his room with a camera.

  When the testing was over, Ben became a ward of the state. Donations greased palms, a magistrate looked the other way, and no further inquiries were necessary. To the nurse and other staff at the facility, he was simply a boy with a strange and incurable neurological condition. To them he was one of the fortunate few who had received treatment from a generous corporate donor.

  …

  Ben’s perspective on his history was known only to him. After swimming in darkness and silence for an eternity- clothed in his thoughts and nothing else- he saw a light. Over time, the light grew stronger; he heard noises for the first time. Moving his heavy arms and legs, he crawled and walked through a murky world that grew a little brighter every day. The noises became voices. At first, he listened. Then, he began to talk back, imitating the strange sounds as perfectly as he could.

  The voices taught him his name, and how to speak. They taught him to read the strange symbols that floated above his head from time to time. They gave him a ball to play with. He knew it was a basketball because of their other gift: a window.

  When he thought about it in a certain way, a window to another world would open. He could think about something, and information describing his thoughts would appear. Sometimes the information was restricted, and Ben would shrug and search for something else.

  He read constantly, standing in front of the window and absorbing any information he could find. The voices told him they were his friends, and that they were trying to help him. Ben thought things were fine; he was comfortable. The voices told him he was broken, and that they were fixing him.

  His world grew more complex. New objects and toys appeared. He received requests to do certain things from time to time. He solved puzzles, opened doors and windows, and built things with small blocks. Building was his favorite, but he did not get to do it very often.

  One day, the voices told him that they were unable to fix him, but that he could stay in his world if he wanted.

  “Of course,” Ben had replied. “Where else would I go?” The voices had never answered that question.

  After that, a new voice appeared - a cheerful voice that always said, “Good morning Ben!”

  Through a camera he would see the nurse in his room, messing with the blankets on his bed and scrubbing him with a sponge. The voices had told Ben that he was the body on the bed; it never made any sense to him, but there was no point in arguing with the voices.

  Now, the voices were gone, and the world was Ben and the nurse, which was not a bad thing. He had his blocks, and he had the window, which was much less restricted now. He had access to all sorts of information that intrigued him, frightened him, or disgusted him. This is how he learned about Verdia - another world, a better world than his own. He felt excited, hoping that one day he could step through the window and enter Verdia for himself.

  Ben watched the nurse fussing about in his room. “When can I go? Are you going to be there?”

  The nurse laughed, and looked into the camera, “No honey, that stuff’s not for me. I tried it out once at the mall. I’ll keep my feet on solid earth if I can. But as far as I know you can go right now. They put it on your computer last night; it was a gift from someone. You’re going to be one of the first people to play.”

  “Right now? Really?”

  “Right now, honey.”

  Great Inner Plain

  “Welcome to Verdia!”

  Deep and dark, the booming voice emanated from a thick fog that roiled around Ben like soup. Ben whipped his head, confused. The clinging fog felt like so much. He could feel the moisture on his skin - he could feel it on his face. Ben could even smell the fog. At least he thought he could. He suddenly realized that he had never smelled fog before.

  Ben felt something soft at his feet. He glanced down at a thick carpet of grass, and sank to his knees, running his fingers through it. Warm and damp with dew, the grass was soft - a rich green that Ben could barely comprehend. He had seen pictures of grass, and had even felt the “grass” in the soccer program on his computer, but nothing like this. Ben looked up and discovered that the fog was lifting. As the gray curtain swept back, it revealed a rolling plain dotted with trees and bright patches of flowers. A herd of large brown animals was grazing in a valley below; he could hear muted bellows as they called to one another. Grass stretched before Ben as far as he could see. He turned to his left, and jagged white mountains burst from the horizon.

  Ben had trouble breathing; there was too much to process. An unbearable sun beat down on him, brighter than he had ever thought possible. He fell down and shielded his eyes, cowering and overwhelmed by everything. A minute passed before the voice spoke again, “Are you ready to begin your journey?”

  “I don’t know,” Ben stuttered. “Where am I going?”

  “Wherever you want.”

  …

  “Everyone stay close,” Alex shouted to the small group. “We don’t want anyone to run off and get eaten by a dragon.”

  In response, the party chuckled nervously as they surveyed the area. Green plains stretched on for miles, with a huge mountain range dim in the distance.

  “This is really something, Alex,” Brook patted the green tunic he was wearing, “but the clothes don’t do much for me.”

  “Neither do a suit and tie,” a group member quipped, much to the delight of his companions. The group consisted of ten key investors; men and women who had poured their money into the Verdia project. They were embarking on a guided tour of the now fully functional world.

  Alex grinned, but wiped the smirk off before Brook could see it. He stretched his arms out around him, “Right now we are standing on the Great Central Plain of Verdia. It covers most of the interior, broken only by mountains to the north,” he pointed at the distant ridges, “and hemmed in on the west coast by another range. In its center is the Inner Sea”

  “I created two major mountain ranges on the continent,” Omni chimed in, his voice a gentle whisper on the wind. “They meet in the northwest corner, where I placed large amounts of mineral resources. Another line of peaks cuts through the southwestern coast.”

  Alex nodded, “Verdia is set up so that resources are isolated. Food production and timber will have to come from the interior, while metal and stone are concentrated in the northwest. This will force the creation of trade routes on land and sea. Finished goods as well as raw materials will trickle through passes in the mountains and will reach all points of the continent by ship.”

  “It will also guarantee conflict as different groups vie for the resources,” Omni added.

  “Can I be a pirate?” an investor asked. The others chuckled.

  “We won’t stop you,” Alex responded. “You can be whatever you want. Merchant, blacksmith, plantation owner, hunter, warrior- anything you can think of. There are eight thousand beta testers who had a six month head start. They already have a small economy going, but they haven’t moved very far from the northwest. Most of the menial work, such as farming and mining, is done by computer controlled characters known as NPCs, or non-player characters.” Except for their limited intelligence, they are indistinguishable from normal people, and can be bought and sold as slaves. They can even teach basic trade skills, such as sewing, to players.”

  “So what is the point of the game?”

  “The point,” Alex replied, “is to gain experience in whatever you do and become stronger and better. This is known as “leveling-up” in gaming terms.”

  “But it is much more than that,” Omni added. “The game goes beyond mere leveling-up. The world is intended to be enjoyed, studied, and explored. Every creature is a unique work...”

  “I believe I read somewhere about an evolutionary system,” a short, thickly accented Indian man interrupted. The man controlled a major silicon-chip manufacturing
plant in Bangalore. “Is that how your animals were created?”

  “I gave Omni certain parameters and let him work from them. He started with simple creatures and worked his way up, creating a lot of bizarre critters. There were a few animals I knew I wanted, such as horses and dragons. For the most part, every plant and animal in Verdia springs from an original model. Most of the animals in Verdia have six limbs rather than four.”

  “Interesting. I also read that your system proves the evolutionary theory.”

  Alex shook his head, “People always try to corner me into some argument about evolution or Intelligent Design. It doesn’t prove anything.”

  Brook whistled, “This is all over my head. Alex, why don’t you tell them about the different races?”

  “Sure.” Alex walked about fifteen steps away from the group before turning to face them, “When you enter Verdia for the first time, the first choice you have to make is your race. There are four races to choose from in Verdia. The first, of course, is human. Right now, with the exception of Mr. Brook, we’re all human.”

  Brook turned red and Alex winked at the group, “I have to get my shots in while you are around, because I’ll probably get fired when you leave.”

  The investors laughed; they were becoming more comfortable with their surroundings.

  “Humans are the jack-of-all-trades of the four races, they are good at everything, but excel at nothing. A character’s power is based on three things: strength, dexterity, and intelligence. Humans have modest amounts of all three, which means they are suited to just about any path you would care to take.”