by Terry Schott
“Because the Game is who we are as a society,” Trew said.
“Yes, but players don’t realize that when they enter the Game.”
“The memory block is something that can be deleted from avatar programming.”
“It can?” someone asked.
“Of course. Since the Game was created, it has served a very specific function.”
“Yes, everyone knows that,” Michelle said. “To give our children multiple lifetimes of experience in the short space of a few years, enabling them to become wiser and more productive citizens upon graduation.”
“No.” Danni and Trew said in unison.
Faces around the table were puzzled. “What do you mean, ‘no’” one of the executives asked. “That’s exactly what the world has been told.”
Trew shook his head and Danni nodded. They were the only two in the room who knew the Game had been created for the sole purpose of producing one or more individuals capable of saving an entire planet from extinction. The Game had been created to produce Trew and Danni.
“It doesn’t matter what the Game was meant for. Times change, and we are going to change it.”
“How do we do that?” Lilith asked.
“Tygon has become a Game society,” Trew said. “We have kept it as simple as possible, but no one can deny that for the past forty years, the Game has been the centre of our collective consciousness and the foundation of our civilization.”
Heads nodded.
“Forty years is an incredible amount of time for one thing to hold everyone’s attention. It has managed to do so because the Game, while simple, is extremely diverse in the type of entertainment it produces.”
“Then why change anything?” Nadine asked.
“Because it is destroying our children,” Danielle said, “which will eventually lead to the destruction of our society and possibly race.”
No one spoke up to disagree.
“The Game produces dull, empty slaves,” Trew said. “Caste society is the poorest group of our population, and also the largest. Kids who fail out of the Game are sent to camps to do all of the filthy labour that no one else will. They live in the gutters, scrambling for enough food to stay alive each day. We used to make robots to do our horrible jobs, but that changed once we realized that it was cheaper to use failed children. We felt bad for doing so until we gave them a name: Caste. They are not as durable or efficient as robots, but when one falls another takes his or her place. We have witnessed deplorable moments inside the Game which involved mass slavery and extermination of millions of people. Fans shake their heads but can’t wait to tune in and follow the drama. While they have been watching it happen in a virtual world, a far worse holocaust has been occurring in our own reality, yet those unaffected turn off their viewers and go to sleep, safe and secure in their roles and oblivious to the suffering of others. Even those who lose their children to the atrocity quickly forget them. It’s not right.”
Danielle stood and adjusted the purple robes of her office as Prophet. “We must be the ones responsible for ending this. We must save our world or no one else will.”
Trew walked to the board and picked up a blue marker, circling two of the numbered suggestions. “Let’s explore these two scenarios. I think that, with minor modification to the existing software and networks, we can implement them quickly.”
“That means there will be two separate Games?” Lilith asked.
“Yes.”
“How will we do that?” Michelle wondered.
Avalanche cleared his throat. Everyone looked at the head Game Master. “We can slightly shift the frequency within the Game. This will cause both realities to exist simultaneously on the same grid work, but in entirely different vibrational spaces.”
“Different dimensions?” Danni asked.
“Exactly.”
“That has always been a theory for ghosts and the otherworld inside the Game,” Trew said.
“That is because people intuitively know it will work,” Avalanche said, “even if they are uncertain of the actual technical ways to achieve it.”
“I like it,” Trew said.
“Who will play?” Lilith asked. “You won’t allow children to play, and the elderly are refusing. Who will enter these new Games?”
Danni nodded at the first circled choice. “If that is the theme for the new Game, I think I can motivate the elderly to play.”
“Atta girl, Prophet,” Trew said.
“As for the other Game, I think we can find volunteers by the thousands.”
“Caste?” Nadine guessed.
“Yes.” Trew said. “We will offer the downtrodden of our world one more chance for salvation.”
“It seemed to work for the last Caste member who was given an opportunity to play the Game once more.” Everyone in the room looked at Danni. She blushed and nodded.
“Okay.” Trew clapped his hands. “Let’s get to work.”
22
Thorn glanced at Melissa from his monitor, then looked back. She had spent enough time with him to know that he was not pleased.
“When did he touch the Artifact?”
“Two hours ago.”
Thorn pursed his lips. “Thank you, Melissa. I appreciate the update.”
I didn’t expect him to be angry about this. “That’s what you wanted him to do, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“Do you know where he went?”
The corner of Thorn’s mouth ticked upwards and he began to type. “Not exactly.”
“But you have an idea?”
“A general idea, yes.”
“Okay then.” She opened the door to leave.
“Have you flown yet?”
Her muscles tensed. Dammit, I hope he’s not watching me. She looked over her shoulder and saw him grinning at her.
“How many others know?”
She closed the door and returned to her seat. “I haven’t flown.”
“Your body language tells me different.”
She shook her head and started to speak, but stopped.
“I won’t tell anyone.”
“How can I trust you?”
“I haven’t told anyone yet, which is a good indicator.”
“I’ve only floated.”
“Does it feel the same as when you were inside?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He stood and walked to a large metal locker in one corner of the office. He took a key from his pocket, opened the main door, then unlocked a smaller compartment. Inside was a smaller box, which he opened.
“I need you to keep this on you at all times.” He handed her a tiny gold pin. It was a tiny computer chip, square with a flat top and six small pins extending from the bottom. It was extremely small, a dozen of them would fit comfortably on top of her pinkie fingernail.
“This will be easy to lose.”
“Don’t.”
“What is it?”
“Things are not better since the Return, Melissa. I know you feel it. Everyone feels it, although the majority can’t put their finger on the problem. You do feel it, don’t you?”
Melissa wanted to nod, but she did not.
Thorn sighed. “I know you do. I also know that you once belonged to the General.”
“I am of his Hand.” She said the words, but they no longer filled her with pride as they once had.
Thorn chuckled. “The words sound empty coming from your lips.”
She opened her mouth to disagree, but Thorn held up his hand. “It’s okay, I doubt anyone else can hear what I do. I’ve spent a very long time learning to hear the music that we all play as we interact with each other. Your disharmony is faint, invisible to all but a maestro of the music.”
Music that we all play? What is he talking about?
“The point I’m trying to make is that I know you don’t belong to the General anymore. I know where your loyalties are.”
I doubt it. “Where?”
“With
Trew.”
Melissa shook her head. “Trew’s an NPC. Why would I follow a program?”
“We all know he’s more than that. Much more. Deny it if you want, but if you are loyal to Trew, then we are both on the same side.”
“Wait a minute.” She had learned the history of the three realities from Thirteen. “You created the Sim and Tygon. Brandon entered Tygon and created Earth. Somehow, Earth and the Sim were merged.” She paused. “Is that correct? I swear I get dizzy trying to keep it all straight in my head.”
Thorn smirked. “Imagine if there were another dozen realities to keep straight.”
“Are there?”
He shrugged. “You have described the trio correctly.”
“Then Trew is a product of one of the programs you created. How can you be loyal to that? He’s not real.”
Thorn laughed, a genuine and hearty sound. “When you look at anything close enough, it becomes empty space. Solid matter is nothing more than a few particles separated by unfathomable distances from each other. The more an individual learns, the more they understand that nothing is real.”
“Sure, but that doesn’t help, does it? Breaking things down to their smallest units.”
“It doesn’t. Which is why we can ponder these grand questions in our spare time while living in the reality that exists despite all logic. And that returns us to the beginning of our conversation. Real or not, I support Trew. As do you.”
He’s good, winding words around in circles until I get confused. “Fine, I’m with Trew.”
“Then I need you to support me while you are here.”
“While I’m here?” The statement puzzled her. “Where am I going?”
“We are all going. We can’t stay here. This reality is broken.”
“What?” She had not been expecting to hear this from the man who was working diligently to restore the world to its former state.
“The pin must be implanted.”
“Huh? You’re jumping all over the place. Slow down.”
He reached out to touch her hand. “Do you remember the phrase ‘time is running out’?”
Sudden calm washed over her. An almost dizzy feeling of warmth and peace enveloped her in a meditative glow. “Yes. Danni said it often. The Timeless adopted the phrase when she was gone for all those years.”
Thorn nodded. “We thought returning things to normal would solve the problem, but it hasn’t. It has given us more time, reset the countdown so to speak, but we are still in crisis. Once again, time is running out.”
“Damn.”
“Yes.”
“What can I do?”
“Your part.” Thorn pointed at the chip in her hand. “Choose your side and do what you can to help. You have chosen Trew and Danielle?”
She nodded.
“As have I. We do what we can from this reality, as long as we can. Or you ignore me and tell the General.”
She considered his words.
“And Trew loses.”
Tears began to form in Melissa’s eyes at the thought. She shook her head. “No. I don’t know why, but my gut says he can’t lose.”
“As does mine.”
“How do I implant it?”
Thorn smiled. “Press it against your skin.”
Melissa shrugged and pushed the chip against the back of her hand. There was a slight stinging. The chip glowed and seemed to come alive, burrowing beneath her skin and disappearing. She felt a gentle rush of golden warmth travel up her arm and into her chest before it faded.
“That’s it?” she asked.
“For now.”
“What else do you need me to do?”
Thorn placed his hand on her shoulder. “Nothing at the moment, but we will speak again soon.”
Melissa nodded and left.
23
Trew waited as the elderly man lay unconscious on the metal table, electrodes attached to his head and chest. Trew’s phone vibrated and he looked at the screen with a frown. Gone for a bit—Cooper. Trew shook his head. I expected some resistance to a meeting with Lohkam, but I didn’t think he would run.
The monitor beside the sleeping senior beeped twice. Trew put his phone away and moved to stand beside the bed.
The man opened his eyes and blinked a few times to regain his focus. When he saw Trew, he grinned. “Wow.”
Trew returned the smile, his eyes mirroring the elderly man’s. “You enjoyed that did you, Senator?”
The senator sat up, wires dangling in front of him until a technician stepped forward to sweep them behind his back. As the technician began to remove the electrodes, the senator leaned forward with an excited expression on his face. “I had no idea how real the Game could be.”
“There is no way to describe it without experiencing it for one’s self. Keep in mind that you weren’t even fully immersed. The electrodes simulate seventy-five percent of the experience. The only way to truly enter the Game reality is through direct synaptic interfacing.”
“Incredible.”
Trew said nothing, allowing the man to process what he had just experienced. The senator donned his shirt and the two men moved to a small living room area equipped with plush furniture. The senator picked a chair and Trew sat across from him. An attendant brought each of them a drink and then left the room. Trew sipped his refreshment. The senator’s first sentence will tell me if he’s with me or not.
“I think you can deliver what you promise.”
Trew smiled. Got him. “But you still have reservations.”
The senator chuckled. “Only a few. The most important is the same concern any powerful man would have when faced with losing it all.”
“You fear the future.”
“I have enjoyed a level of comfort during my life in office and I would like to bring those advantages with me into the next reality.”
“I understand.”
“I knew that you would.”
“Please, Senator, tell me about the arrangements you have secured for the natural way of things.”
The older man looked puzzled. “I don’t understand.”
“When you die. What assurances and guarantees have you been given for your journey when that occurs?”
“Perhaps I should schedule a meeting with the Prophet to see how she can assist me in that matter.”
“I’ll save you the time. Our newly rediscovered deity is not inclined to make deals or bargain with us. We will die and go wherever the path leads. I’m sure it will be a glorious adventure, but you will get no special treatment in the afterlife when it claims you. I, however, am offering you another experience before that time arrives.”
“Many do not share your optimism, Trew. Religion was absent from Tygon for a long time. Most elderly constituents believe that nothing waits for them when they die. Most feel that they will simply cease to exist.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Perhaps, but not if I can convince them otherwise.”
Ah, politicians are so delightfully predictable. It won’t take much to lock him in, now. “What other concerns do you have, Senator?”
“Only a few.” The senator held up three fingers. “Entering the simulation as a baby is not something many are interested in. Secondly, forgetting this reality is a sore point. To lose that is to sacrifice who we are. In my opinion, that has been the cruelest stipulation forced onto the children who have played your Game. If we have to go in with empty minds, not many seniors will be interested, Trew.”
“I understand.”
“And finally, Earth is too much like our own reality. If we are going to live another lifetime, most want to experience something different. At our age, to live another sixty or seventy years doing the same thing we have always done is not appealing.”
“Interesting.” Trew adopted a thoughtful pose and nodded. “Anything else?”
“There are a few other minor points, perhaps.” The senator spread his hands. “But if you can address these three, then I w
ould be able to get the majority of senior citizens to line up for this new adventure.”
“I would like to ask you a couple of questions.”
“Fire away.”
“How important is time to you?”
The senator frowned. “What do you mean?”
“As a representative of the average senior citizen, would you prefer to live sixty years, or forty?”
“Sixty.”
“If that included the first twenty years of life, from birth to the age of twenty?”
“I see what you’re asking. In order to skip the boring early life, I would forgo childhood and live only forty adult years.”
“Excellent.” “I think we could start you all off in avatars that are, shall we say, eighteen years old?”
“Perfect.” The senator smiled.
“The memory issue, bringing all of your memories forward into your new reality, is a bit of a challenge.”
The senator frowned. “It’s a deal breaker, Trew.”
“I doubt it.”
“I assure you—”
Trew held up a hand. “Before you assure me of anything, consider how many life memories and recollections you have totally forgotten, sir.”
The senator thought about that for a moment. “That’s a good point.”
“The problem with transferring your memories to the next reality is that they are fragmented and incomplete. Our brains fill gaps, quickly dealing with the omissions in order to protect the psyche and help a person continue functioning as well as possible.”
“Yes, I can see what you are saying.”
“If we were to send that forward, the new avatar and consciousness would not have a proper framework to use for filling in the gaps, especially if the new world is different from this one, as you are requesting.”
“Then I’m afraid we will have a tough time selling this to the people, Trew.”
He said ‘we’. He’s still invested. “I think I can provide an acceptable alternative, Senator. We are able to conduct a series of tests which will capture a person’s essence, his or her core makeup. I believe what individuals want is to go into a new reality knowing who they are. We can accomplish this without adding the fragmented memories. Does that make sense?”
