by Vic Connor
“You actually felt that way.”
Jeny ducked her chin into her shoulder. “You like who you like, I suppose.”
Faced away from him, the low light cast her sharp, statuesque profile in heart-wrenching detail. Her skin was almost black in the dark, eyes soft, and long hair an inky void falling in delicate strands across her flushed cheek.
“Yeah, I suppose you do,” he agreed.
Jeny laughed at that for some reason Niko couldn’t discern, looking up at the sky. She hadn’t looked right at him in a very long time, it seemed. “It’s so dumb because I did what I was supposed to do, yeah? I forced myself to get over it. It took, augh, forever, but at last this year, I thought, finally, all right, it’s okay. I’m okay. I can be his friend, it donnae have to be complicated anymore. And then this load o’ mince happens, and I’m worried to death, but I don’t… I don’t feel that way about him anymore, even though he’s in danger, maybe even dead. I feel like a right traitor.”
Niko opened his mouth to ask her a very urgent, selfish question, then stopped himself. “We’ll find him,” he made himself say. “Then, when he’s better, you can be as petty as you want.”
Jeny laughed, long and full-throated before sobering. “I feel so helpless waiting like this, Niko. There’s not a thing I hate more.”
This time, she didn’t say his name with her usual deliberateness. It was smooth and shy, a whisper too earnest to be said with confidence, like a word you weren’t quite sure was the right one. She looked up at him at last, and she seemed suddenly closer, her shoulder in the hollow of his clavicle. Niko touched her knee with his and left it there, letting her see him examine her face in the torchlight. A moment passed, and then another, and just when his panicked mind thought, Should I kiss her? she turned her flushed face away.
“Water’s awful hot,” she said with a sigh.
Niko, flustered all over, reached for her. “Here, I’ll take your coat—”
“No!” It was emphatic, loud in the dark, and suddenly Jeny was huddled again, the way she always stalked around the campus. She covered the over-reaction with another muttered, “No,” as if to prove she could say the word normally. “I’m fine, it’s all right. I think I just had my feet in too—” Jeny stopped, staring out at the pool. Niko followed her fixed gaze. There it was—a gentle, glowing orb of pale yellow light.
“Is that…a glowfly?” Jeny asked.
“No,” Niko said. “It’s a memory.” He was taking his own coat off now.
“Whae are you doing?” Jeny slid away from him, looking incredulous.
“Going to get it,” Niko said, tossing his coat aside, then dropping into the water.
“Niko! Ya can’t walk back all wet, you’ll freeze yer baws right off!”
Niko ignored her, walking along the bottom, the algae squishing between his toes and threatening to make him slip. It got hotter as he went further in, and deeper, until he was up to his shoulders in steaming water.
“Niko!” Jeny hissed from the shore, just as Niko closed his hand around the memory.
Niko awoke laying on his back on a paper-covered table. The ceiling was a mess of exposed pipes and long, blue lights. There were no windows. On the opposite end of the room, a Vat laid with its lid open. From this distance, Niko could barely make out the SOMOV 000003 inscription on the inside of the lid.
This was the basement of his old house. He looked down at his own pre-teen body. But his parents had left him when he was six…hadn’t they? When was it he’d started running from the group homes…thirteen? Fourteen?
His mother Anna sat a few feet away, typing rapidly into a console that looked suspiciously like the ones used with the Vats in the Territoria office. The screen filled as her fingers furiously tapped the keyboard, white text on a black screen; a garbled collection of smashed together words and mixed-up punctuation. Code, Niko realized with a start, memories catching up with him like a sonic boom. Her text is computer code.
His head felt compressed, and reaching up, he touched electrode pads stuck to his temples. Turning his head, he spied his father hunched over the basement’s metal table, glass clinking. His father stood up, flicking the needle of a syringe. Niko knew, somehow, that it was for him. He started shifting on the table, an inch from running away. For the first time in a long while, he wanted to cry.
Anna put her hand on his arm, cool and gentle. “I know, sweetie, I know. But we’re both here. We’re doing this to protect you.”
Niko looked at her, as if to ask what they were protecting him from. His current self already knew, but he still felt that old, raw confusion. Anna’s screen dinged.
She turned toward it, taking a deep breath. “All right, Yuri. The download from the hippocampus is complete. Let me just transfer it to our backups.” Anna’s fingers flew over the keyboard again, then a few progress bars crawled across the screen. Yuri approached with the syringe.
“I don’t… I don’t want to.” Niko gulped, feeling tears and shame well up inside him.
“Niko, I need you to be brave now,” Yuri said. He sounded as upset as Niko felt.
Anna petted Niko’s hair—which was as long as he had made it in the game. “We’ve done all the testing we could, but…”
Yuri swabbed the crook of Niko’s elbow. “But we are out of time. We’re not going to leave you for Clark to erase.” He looked up at Niko, eyes softening. “You’re doing very well, Nikolai.”
“What’s this?” Niko asked.
“This is nanobot serum,” Yuri said, “Your mother and I have custom-designed it for you.”
“Nano…serum?”
“You know how you like playing in the Vat, right? Well, after seven daily injections this serum will enable the main computer to create something that’s not only biologically but behaviorally identical to you.”
Niko remembered his father’s speech now; he remembered understanding absolutely nothing back then. But now, an idea flashed through his mind. “It will clone me across Vats?”
His parents exchanged a glance, both raising an eyebrow in an almost comically similar gesture. “Well, yes, Nikolai,” his father said. “That’s exactly what it’ll do—eventually, after all seven injections take. The non-Newtonian liquid in the Vats has all the ingredients. But only if the serum works on you, you understand?”
Anna placed a hand on his shoulder. “You should always wear the silver cross we gave you. It contains the full backup of your mind and bio data. But even if you ever lose it—don’t worry. I’ve programmed the mainframe so any Vat would clone one for you if you ever have to log in without it. You’ll always have an updated copy of yourself on you.”
“After this week, you’ll pretty much become immortal.” Yuri pinched Niko’s nose shut, playfully, and it made him miss the moment the syringe went into his arm. Now, he watched the plunger press the liquid into him, like the loading bars on the console.
Niko got dizzy. Yuri’s arm went around his shoulder. Niko knew his parents were right beside him, yet they felt far away when Yuri said, “Let’s get him to the Vat.” He lost consciousness as they lifted his body off the table, his head boiling with an intense, unbearable heat.
It wasn’t until Jeny was dragging him back to the shore that Niko realized he was back in the game again.
QUEST COMPLETE: COLLECT MEMORY_4
800 EXPERIENCE GAINED
PASSIVE EFFECT: 800*1.5 = 1200 XP
9400/10125 XP
“Ya absolute eejit, Niko.” She choked, laying him down on the shore, then picked up a quilt off the ground that she must have grabbed while he was inside the memory. “Absolute bloody eejit.” She wrapped the blanket around his wet shoulders, then helped him back to the dorms, holding him while he shivered.
28
View from the Moon
Up on the peak, the air was thin and sharply cold, cutting through Niko’s weary body like razor wire. The memory of nearly turning into an ice sculpture on the soaking-wet walk back from the grotto made
him shiver. He wouldn’t have made it without Jeny.
The terrain was rough to train on, with rocky ground and a slight incline. Niko got tired much faster up this high, but Tim said this was the point. Harder training made it easier to fight down on the Hunting Grounds. Niko could see the grounds from up here, the Territoria “O” partially hidden by a forested outcropping.
“All right, that was good,” Tim said, clapping his hands. “Now, let’s try a different team building exercise. Erica and…Jeny? Are you with us?”
Standing a few feet away, Jeny had that far-off look—the UI look—and it took a moment for her to snap out of it. “Huh? Oh, yeah, no, I’m on it.”
“Watching the broadcast?” Tim asked, only a little chiding.
“No!” Jeny said, so forcefully that it was obvious she had been.
“Oh my gawd, Jeny,” Erica said. “It’s just the pre-show, get a grip.”
“You’re only saying that because yer team didn’t make it to the semifinals, ya bawbag.”
“All right, children. That’s enough,” Tim said. “Jeny, if you give me your full attention, I’ll try to wrap the practice up early, okay?”
Managing to look a little sheepish, Jeny nodded.
“Good.” Tim sighed. “I want us to break off into smaller units, early game monster hunting. There are some low-level monsters out here, but nothing that should give you guys any trouble. Jeny, Erica, you two are going out together—” Tim put his hand up, ready for complaints. “—and don’t tell me you don’t want to, that’s exactly why I’m pairing you two up. If you’re going to get through the Hunt, you need to learn to work together.”
Erica and Jeny moped, glaring daggers at one another, but not openly protesting either.
Tim nodded. “Good. Niko, Jacob, you two cover the forest’s west side. We’ll go twenty minutes. Starting the timer…now.” Tim pointed his finger, and Jeny and Erica stomped off to the east, arguing with one another.
Niko opened his team interface and checked the stats of his new teammate:
JACOB OWENS, LEVEL 12 PALADIN MYTHIC CLASS
Passive: When you are not attacked for 10 seconds, generate 40 armor.
ABILITIES:
• Holy Shield — Summon a shield of light. Blocks damage and slams into any enemy directly in front of the caster, stunning them for .05 seconds.
• Divine Word — Heal 1 target for 40 damage.
• Leap — Leap 10 meters in any direction.
• Ultimate: Consecrated Ground — Slow all enemies in a 15-meter radius around you for 10 seconds.
Niko and Jacob hiked around a thin, exposed trail that serpentined up the western side of the mountain. They walked single-file, Jacob in the lead. He was wearing his white hoodie as opposed to his full suit of armor, the suggestion of white, fabric pauldrons sewn into its shoulders.
“Sending those two off on their own is going to go great, I’m sure,” Jacob grumbled as they rounded another hairpin turn, dipping into a copse of trees. “Tim picked a tough group to launch his coaching career—” Jacob stopped so abruptly that Niko nearly ran into him.
“What?”
Jacob nodded up ahead. Niko moved around him. A large rodent creature crawled along the sun-dappled forest floor with furry, clawed wings. The wings had an ornate pattern on their back, with big, red spots that glowed when the sun hit them. It snuffled the ground like a pig rooting, crawling steadily away from them.
“This monster,” Jacob whispered. “I feel like I’ve seen it before, but I don’t remember ever training against it. Maybe it’s a rarespawn? They drop permanent items, like that one.” Jacob nodded at Niko’s cross and necklace. “You want to open the fight?”
Niko nodded and took a step closer, then winced as his footfall snapped a twig. The sound was cavernous, echoing weirdly off every tree around the path. The creature turned its head around to face them. Niko glimpsed a hideous, eyeless face before the monster got on its hind legs, its back again to them. On the ground it had seemed small, but standing the creature was almost five feet high. It opened its wings wide, which shuddered like a rattlesnake, making the red dots look even more like eyes in a big, ugly, hypnotizing face. The forest began to spin.
“Uagh!” Jacob stumbled back onto his haunches, his voice far away. “Remember…now…Phaeton creature.” Jacob’s eyes were wide and getting wider, glinting with the red color in the monster’s wings. “Too…strong… How did it…get here?”
Niko dropped to his hands and knees. Around him, the branches started to prod out from their trunks like great spikes. The sound of the creature’s wings shaking layered over itself until it became a loud, synthetic, monotone whine. His health bar was draining. He couldn’t look away, transfixed by the pair of shaking, red dots. With the last sliver of his faculties, Niko shoved against Jacob, knocking him face down in the dirt.
In the foggy periphery of Niko’s vision, Jacob pushed up and shook his head to fling away the mud and snow from his hair. When he lifted his head back up toward the creature, Niko yelled.
“Don’t…look!” he managed. “Run!”
“What about you—” Jacob began.
“Just…go! Get…help!”
The scuffle of Jacob standing and leaving was distant, a hollow echo that shattered behind him. Niko’s health fled down until it met the beginning of his bar, and his consciousness flickered out.
When Niko opened his eyes again, he was swathed in the blue light of the Vat. He groaned, huffing in the plastic scent of the mask, and pounded on the lid. It didn’t budge. The water wasn’t draining. The name on the lid read SOMOV 000001. This time, when the lights went out, white text printed over the dark background.
Local Area Connection established.
Connecting to secured server…
Connection established. Checking security credentials…
Credentials confirmed.
Connection successful! Booting MOONWALK.
The popup puffed away and disappeared.
The first thing he noticed was that the pervasive plastic smell was gone. The second was that he wasn’t in the Vat anymore. His knees were pulled up all the way to his chest in a way they couldn’t possibly be if he were still stuck in that water-filled coffin.
He opened his eyes. No blue liquid. Definitely not where he was a moment ago.
Except, had it only been a moment?
“Ten, nine, eight,” a metallic voice said in Russian in his earphones.
Wait, earphones?
Niko raised his hands to his head and found out he was wearing a helmet—slim, sturdy, and without an all-around view. He had thick red gloves on his hands; in fact, he was clad in a dark red spacesuit.
“What?” Niko whispered. As he spoke, he realized there was a mouthpiece next to his chin.
“Seven, six, five, four,” the robotic voice went on. Definitely not Oxana’s or Clark’s voice.
Niko felt the seat swerve underneath him and begin to vibrate gently.
“Where am I?” he asked.
There was no answer.
He tried to stand but it was impossible: He lay tightly strapped into the horizontal, body-hugging seat.
“What’s going on?” This was insane. None of it made any sense; this place had nothing in common with the Territoria offices back on Earth, or the fantasy setting of Ravenscroft. Where was he? He looked around and saw two banks of controls covered in flashing lights and switches, several small, round windows through which he viewed bulky metal constructions towering over them.
Was it some sort of cockpit?
On his left, someone also wearing a spacesuit—white—lay crouched in an identical chair, using the same compact position he was in.
“Three, two, one.”
“Hey—” Niko began.
All thought was obliterated by a deafening roar.
“Zero. Liftoff.”
An unseen force slammed Niko into his seat as he found himself shaken by violent vibrations. The metal structur
es outside fell off and disappeared. The vibrations grew even stronger, as if he were sitting on top of a tuning fork. He fixed his eyes on the windows, trying to focus enough to make something out. He saw hints of blue sky—Earth? Cygnus?—growing darker, the suggestion of a broad landscape that looked flat but was quickly revealing itself to be a sphere…
Rocket, y’know. I’m in a rocket. And it’s going straight up, and getting faster every second…
He screamed.
The pressure of the rocket’s acceleration grew even worse, as though he were being trampled by elephants.
He could feel his seat pressing into his spine. Something exploded outside, and he saw two small scorching rocket segments pulling off on either side, shooting away into the distance. The vibrations lessened, but the acceleration continued, the force of gravity increasing every second…
It’s like being buried at the bottom of the ocean, Niko thought, and they keep dragging you deeper… Except he wasn’t going down, but up.
The horizon turned dark blue, then almost black.
He tried to raise his hand to cross himself, but the pressure was too strong for him to lift it even slightly.
He now had to fight for every breath. The weight of his own body was crushing him into the seat, and Niko wheezed violently, panting, on the verge of passing out. He couldn’t fathom being launched into real space in a real rocket, so he had to be inside the game. But who was making things this realistic? And why?
A ferocious jolt shook the vessel, something heavy detached outside, and the engines shut down.
The sudden silence deafened him. Even more shocking was the immediate disappearance of the elephant that had been sitting on him. He almost felt as if he were floating. And then he realized that if he weren’t strapped in, he would be. He couldn’t feel the seat beneath him anymore; instead, his body was pushing upward against the crisscrossed straps across his torso.
