by Rick Scott
Bob Shultz, the lead economist, a bald-headed man in his fifties with a thin wiry frame, sat next to Dennis. Bob was normally in his corner, but Bruce had lost much of his support during the last couple of board meetings. The exercise to extract more life-giving nano from the surface had failed just too many times. Over 150 excursions and not a single new nanobot to be had.
The scarcity of their most basic resource had sent Citadel’s economy into such turmoil that only the use of the Crystal Shards themselves was keeping them afloat. People stuck in a game world used up far less resources than the living and breathing variety.
Bruce had barely settled in to start the meeting when Dennis jumped ahead of him.
“Shall I begin with an update on the current status, Bruce?” Dennis asked.
Another subtle way to steer the meeting in the direction he wanted. Bruce kept his ire in check, however, and gave Dennis a nod. “Go ahead.”
Dennis pushed his shock of red hair back and released an overly dramatic sigh before he began. “We have terrible news. The latest excursion team has fallen into distress.”
No one reacted for a moment, perhaps too stunned to speak.
Finally, Dr. Munroe lowered her sculpted brows. “And what does that mean, exactly?”
“It means it’s time to start talking contingency plans,” Dennis said.
“Now hold on a minute,” Bruce cut in. “That wasn’t her question. We can talk contingency, but please explain the situation first. What is the real status of the team?”
His question was somewhat rhetorical, but Bruce wanted the answer to that one as much as everyone else. While in the observation lounge with Gina Roberts, Dennis had kept the explanations purposefully vague, and Bruce appreciated that, but now he needed to know for sure.
“Explain what it means, Dennis. What do the vitals dropping mean for the team members? And what about my daughter’s situation?”
Bruce regretted adding the last question the moment he said it. He didn’t want to make this look personal. No better way to lose his credibility as Chairman than by doing that, but it was too late now.
“What are you talking about, Bruce?” Martha said. “What’s happened to your daughter?”
Crap. She would have to go and focus on it, wouldn’t she? But it was good-natured and Bruce could see the genuine concern in her eyes. “She’s lost brainwave function. I’m hoping it doesn’t mean what I think it does…” He stifled a grimace. “But I want to know more about the other members. Their brainwaves are strong but their physical vitals are failing.”
“Describe the vitals for me,” Munroe said. “You mean heart rate and respiration? Are they dropping below the stasis thresholds?”
“Yes,” Dennis said. “That’s exactly what we’re seeing.”
“Explain what it means,” Bruce said.
Bruce watched Dennis’ eyes for any hint of subterfuge, but there didn’t seem to be any as he answered.
“Yes, there are several dozen cases where, for some reason, a user’s vitals steadily decline despite healthy brain function. Until, eventually, they expire.”
Bruce’s heart froze. Was this the same phenomenon happening again?
“How long?” Munroe asked.
Dennis shrugged. “It varies. Could be days, months. Even years.”
Years… Dennis just confirmed it. He was referring to Mark Roberts. Knowledge of his condition was not public knowledge, even to the present board members. But it did explain why Dennis had written off the team so quickly.
Mark Roberts had been in a dormant and unresponsive state for years. Low vitals. No contact. No return. And if the other team members were afflicted by the same symptoms, then perhaps they were just as good as dead as he was.
A tightness caught in Bruce’s chest.
Dear Lord…was it all for naught?
“Put simply,” Dennis said. “The team can no longer be relied upon for a solution. We need to discuss other options.”
“Like what?” Bob asked, running both hands over his scalp. “Without that nano the entire system will collapse.”
“Which is why drastic measures should now be taken,” Dennis said. “We need to talk about breaking the seal and sending a physical team.”
What?
“No…” Bruce shook his head. “We’re not doing that. We talked about the risks already. The contamination alone would kill a quarter of the population.”
“We can deal with that later.”
“No we can’t!” Munroe said. “We’d be overwhelmed at the medical centers and that would simply cause the system to crash faster.”
“And who’s to say a physical team will have any more luck than those we’ve sent already?” Bob said. “It’s just another gamble.”
“They’ll be looking right outside our doorstep,” Dennis said. “The nano we need could be closer than we think.”
“I doubt that,” Bruce said. “There’s a reason they stopped doing manual salvaging over a century ago. Chances are we exhausted everything within close range of us. That’s not worth endangering the rest of the population in my book.”
“Why don’t we just beam in another team?” Bob said.
“You’re forgetting the frequency risk,” Dennis said. “We just sent two transmissions nearly back-to-back. Any more and we’ll be painting ourselves with a bullseye for the AIs.”
Bruce hadn’t revealed that sonar report yet. He prayed that the tech, Carl, hadn’t either. Or that Dennis hadn’t gone snooping on his own and gotten the information. Those multiple signals of movement were close—less than 500 miles away. That was even more reason to not open the seal. Dennis didn’t know, but doing that would probably draw those things much quicker than another transmission.
But in truth, that was the only real option.
“We need to beam another team,” Bruce said. “It’s as simple as that. We need to send them to find out what happened to the first excursion.”
“I agree,” Martha said. “We don’t really have a choice do we?”
“We’ve been sending teams for over a decade,” Dennis said, folding his arms. “The last excursion was the last for a reason. We no longer have the luxury to keep repeating the mistakes of the past. If we want different results, we need to do something different.”
“Exposing the population to radiation is not the answer!” Bruce bellowed. “We need to send another team! The safe way.”
“For what?” Dennis raised his voice to match. “So you can have a chance to save your daughter? This problem is bigger than you, Bruce!”
Bruce’s mouth opened but nothing came out, his heart stopping.
He went there. The son of a gun actually went there! Bruce’s hands curled into fists as anger rose up in his chest. But it was an impotent anger. Dennis had said exactly the right words to trap him. Any retort now would only reinforce his accusation. And hell, maybe he was even right. But it sickened him to no end.
“Cheap shot, Dennis,” Bob said, coming to Bruce’s aid. “Really cheap…”
Bruce gave Bob a subtle nod of thanks, but then felt like taking it back when Bob said, “But he isn’t wrong, Bruce. We don’t need emotions clouding our judgment here.”
And just like that he felt his power slip, his control over the situation fading.
“So what do you propose we do?” Dr. Munroe asked, looking about the table. “Things aren’t going to get better by doing nothing.”
“I already gave you the other scenario,” Dennis said. “We cull the population. Starting with the HUB.”
Bruce let out a sigh as the room erupted into chaos. Voices rose, but nothing meaningful was actually being said. Bruce barely heard it as he withdrew within himself. None of this was useful. None of it was going to save Gilly. Or Citadel. Only sending another team to the surface would have even a shot. Hell, he was willing to go himself right now. But that Dennis was doing his damnedest to block it.
“All right, fine!” Dennis suddenly shouted, slamming
both fists on the table. “You’ve made your decisions. None of you want to open the seal or resort to culling. So there’s only one option left.”
The table quieted as all eyes focused on the software engineer.
“There is a doomsday protocol I’ve been working on,” he said. “Right now Citadel is sitting on less than 4 months of resources. But we can easily extend that to about 4 years.”
“What?” Bob said. “How?”
“We put everyone in stasis.”
The room went silent for a second time.
And then Bruce saw it, the subtle smirk he’d expected to see on Dennis’ face earlier when he mentioned the team failing. A tell that Dennis was somehow getting his way. And here it was. That blasted smirk was there. Was this what Dennis was truly after all along? Was all that talk about breaking the seal and culling the population just thrown out to make this option more palatable?
“How will that work?” Bob said. “We can’t possibly stretch the nano that far.”
“We can,” Dennis said. “Just ask Bruce. With the entire population in the Crystal Shards, there would be no need for heating and cooling or air scrubbing. And just a fraction of the water and nutrient production would be required. Tell them, Bruce, about how much of the nano usage is devoted to the purification and cooling systems?”
The guy really had this planned, didn’t he? Bruce frowned. “Over 60%.”
Dennis gave an ‘I told you so’ grin. “So now you see. It’s more than possible.”
“Well…” Martha said. “It’d be an adjustment, but four years sounds a lot better than four months.”
“Yeah and then what?” Bob huffed. “We meet back here virtually and have this same conversation all over again? How is this doing anything different?”
“It’s not,” Bruce snorted. “It’s just a delay.”
“Well I prefer the delay,” Martha said.
“This works in your favor too, you know, Bruce?” Dennis said with a smirk.
Bruce perked up at that. “What?”
“The surface transmissions give out a general location, but if the entire population was silent, no air movers, no vibration, no heat or cold. Then there’s the chance we could remain completely invisible even if the AIs detect our general area.”
“What are you saying?” Bruce asked.
“I’m saying that if the entire population was in the Crystal Shards, then we could perhaps transmit more frequently. Send more teams. Perhaps even as many as you want.”
What the hell…?
The grin came again and Bruce could feel the puppet strings being pulled. Of course Bruce would want nothing more than to send another team as quickly as possible. And Dennis was setting things up to make certain that it would happen even quicker—if he got what he wanted.
But why?
Was he only trying to back seat drive? Or was there some other reason for him doing this? Dennis was the system’s administrator. With everyone inside the Shards, his power would be unlimited.
“We’ll need some time to consider the full implications of this,” Bruce said. “How long would it take you to produce a full report on this proposal?”
“Give me eight hours.”
Bruce was hoping for longer than that, but Dennis was obviously chomping at the bit. But Bruce could delay it for a bit more. By the looks around the table, no way could he go against the mood in the room, but he could give them time to pause. “Fine. We’ll reconvene another emergency session after the report is submitted. After that, we’ll make a decision. I want to ensure we all have time to reflect on the full implications before we debate.”
The members of the board nodded around the table.
“The session is over,” Bruce announced. He then looked to Dennis with a frown. “I look forward to your report.”
Chapter 7: Angel Farm
I duck under the dual scimitars of the fifth or sixth Labyrinth Warden we’ve fought and land a series of rapid-fire blows to the angel’s slender thighs. The monster screeches in protest, but my brother slams her with a charged uppercut to the chin that removes the last of her HP.
Maxis uses Dragon Fist!
Labyrinth Warden takes 1467 damage!
Labyrinth Warden is defeated!
You gain 0 experience points.
“You take this one, Reece,” Aiko says, sheathing her blades. “Think we should all be about even then.”
We’ve been doing a round robin for who gets to loot the corpse for the last forty minutes. We decided it would be better if we each had a decent amount of keys in case we ever got separated again.
I bend down and absorb the angel’s corpse.
You find a Warden’s Key.
You find a Warden’s Key.
“Sweet,” I say. “Got a double Warden’s Key drop that time.”
“Too bad we don’t have a high-level thief with us,” Aiko says. “A Treasure Find passive would have us getting double and triple drops every kill.”
I never looked past Thief being much more than a means to an end for unlocking Ninja. One day I would have to sit down and check all the cross-class abilities I could have access to if I leveled them. If I could ever level them, that was.
“I didn’t even know Thief had an ability like that.”
“Trust me,” Aiko says. “If I could change jobs I would have switched to my Thief ages ago for this.”
“You have Thief leveled?” Maxis says.
“Was my main before the expansion for Ninja dropped.”
“Dang,” Maxis says. “You guys were playing way back then?”
“Hey!” Val Helena nudges Maxis with a playful grin. “You trying to call us old ladies or something?”
That gives us all a laugh and for a moment I nearly forget where we are and what’s at stake. But just for a moment. I check my key collection to see how many we’ve netted thus far.
You have a Labyrinth Key [11]
You have a Warden’s Key [4]
Not bad. The others should have around the same. I then check on Gilly’s timer.
35:42
Nearly half the time is gone already. We need to get moving
“Think we have enough keys now?” I ask, looking around at my companions.
“Depends on him,” Maxis says, shrugging his shoulder towards Rembrandt, who is still gazing out over the edge using his sniper rifle as a telescope. My brother then calls out to him.
“Rem, how’s it looking, man? We need another pull or what?”
Rembrandt doesn’t answer him.
“Yo, Rem. You heard what I said?”
Rembrandt lowers his rifle and backs away from the edge.
“Bloody hell…” he says, more to himself than anyone else. Then he turns about and starts running towards us.
“Run!” he shouts. “Use a key! Jump to the next tile!”
Oh crap…
“What’s happening?” Val Helena says, alarmed.
“Who cares?” Aiko says, breaking a Warden’s Key in her palm. “I’ve never seem Rembrandt act like that before and it’s scaring the hell out of me!”
I can’t disagree with her.
We take off running in the same direction as Rembrandt. Aiko adjusts the pattern and then illuminates a red line to a platform below and to the right of us. We jump off the edge and I feel a gust of wind at my back right before I zip away to the next tile.
An ear-shattering crash fills the air with the sound of breaking glass. I land on the new platform with a roll and then spring to my feet.
I glance over my shoulder and my mind goes numb with what I see.
Bursting upwards through the platform we were just upon is an angel the size of a cruise liner. The platform shatters into tiny pieces that cascade over the creature’s luminescent white skin. It’s the most enormous thing I’ve ever seen. Its face and head are much like its smaller kin, as is the top half of its body, with wings that wrap around it like some celestial gown. The bottom half, however, resembles tha
t of a dolphin or a whale, complete with a giant fluke nearly the size of a platform itself.
I focus on the massive angel being to see what it is.
Great Labyrinth Spirit
Level: ???
N/A
Affinity: N/A
I figured there wouldn’t be any information, but at least I have its name now. As I stare at the three-hundred-foot tall mermaid floating above us, I inanely wonder how many freaking hit points it must have. The Labyrinth Spirit parts its crystal blue lips and releases a piercing whistle that forces me to cover my ears and fall to my knees.
Great Labyrinth Spirit uses Siren’s Song!
The whale-like whistle is terribly high-pitched and loud enough to scramble my brains.
You have lost 1 Veteran Point.
What? I check my experience points and see them depleting much more rapidly than before, the speed of the pulses increasing.
“We need to get away from this thing,” I yell through the party chat so that my friends will hear me above the creature’s whistle. “It’s draining our levels!”
I summon a Labyrinth Key and point in a direction opposite the Labyrinth Spirit.
We run as a group and I keep half an eye on the giant mermaid as it floats lazily in the air above us as if underwater. It twists its body in a slow roll and redirects itself towards the crystal island that the angels were upon. The fragments from the shattered platform gravitate towards the creature’s body and glow faintly before being absorbed right into its skin.
Its massive clawed hand then glows, and within it a large crystal begins to form.
I don’t want to wait around to see what it’s going to do with that!
I use the Labyrinth Key just as we reach the edge of the platform and I activate another red line that will take us one tile over.
Are you sure you wish to unlock stream color Red? [Y/N]
