Ep.#12 - A Price Too High (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  “Wow, it’s like you’re standing next to me,” Nathan replied.

  “What?” Jessica asked.

  “Not you, Orana.”

  “What?”

  “She’s talking to me through this VR thing,” Nathan explained. “Yes, Orana?”

  “If I might make a suggestion?”

  “Please.”

  “It is customary for one to lay supine, either on a bed or in a recliner, while using the virtual reality immersion system, especially if one is new to the experience. It helps to avoid loss of balance due to disassociation issues between the virtual and the real worlds.”

  “How do I move around the demo program?” he wondered.

  “The system will sense you are in the proper position and intercept your motion impulses. You will think you are moving your arms and legs, but, in reality, you will not be.”

  “Interesting,” Nathan replied. “Then how do I use the remote?”

  “Think or say the word ‘remote’, and the impulses to move your hand holding the remote will no longer be intercepted, allowing you to move the remote in front of your face again. Once you replace your hand to your side, the impulses to that hand will once again be intercepted. If you wish to leave the immersion, simply use the remote or say ‘exit immersion’, and all will return to normal.”

  “Thank you, Orana.”

  “You are most welcome, Captain. Enjoy your program.”

  “Can I sleep now?” Jessica wondered.

  “Just stay awake for a few more minutes while I try this thing out a bit more,” Nathan pleaded.

  “Five minutes, but no more,” Jessica replied, rising from her bed. “I’m going to the head.”

  Nathan lay down on his bed, his hands at his sides. “This is pretty sweet,” he said to himself as he began walking around the virtual garden. He could smell the flowers around him. He could feel the warm, afternoon breeze on his face. He could even feel the unevenness of the dirt path under his feet as he walked. As long as one could ignore the telltale signs that it was a simulation, one could easily become lost in this world.

  Luckily, the markers were everywhere, and it wasn’t just the data indicators in the upper corners of his field of vision. Everything was extremely clean. The plants were trimmed and balanced. The edges of the dirt pathways were smooth, blending perfectly into the ground cover along them. The rhythm of the breeze was consistent and predictable. In short, everything was too perfect. In the real world, nothing was perfect.

  “Remote,” Nathan said, raising his right hand. Just as Orana had said, his hand appeared in front of him, holding the remote. He pressed the command button.

  “State command,” a voice prompted.

  “Increase immersion level to one hundred percent,” he instructed.

  “Immersion level to one hundred percent,” the voice confirmed.

  Nathan placed his hand back at his side, and his field of vision increased, filling in his periphery, as well. At the same time, the data displays in the upper corners disappeared. Yet the overall perfection, which made it seem real, yet unreal, were still there.

  His finger still on the remote’s command button, Nathan pressed it again.

  “State command,” the voice repeated.

  “Can you add people?” Nathan asked.

  “Specify type and number.”

  “I don’t know, maybe ten, scattered throughout the garden. Like it was a public garden, or something.”

  “Specify type.”

  “Typical citizens of SilTek,” Nathan instructed. “Men, women, and children.”

  “Adjusting program,” the voice confirmed.

  Nathan continued walking, spotting a man and a woman to his right. He took a side path in order to intercept them, nodding as he passed. “Good afternoon.”

  “Good afternoon,” the man replied.

  “Lovely garden, isn’t it?” the woman added.

  “Indeed,” Nathan replied, continuing on.

  “Who are you talking to?” Jessica asked.

  “Some people in the garden program,” Nathan explained.

  “There’s people in there?”

  “Yeah, I had to ask for them, though.”

  “How real are they?”

  “Pretty real, but, again, you can tell they’re not real,” he told her. “You should try this.”

  “Maybe tomorrow,” Jessica replied. “I’m going to sleep. You should turn that thing off.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Nathan agreed. “Exit immersion,” he said. The garden disappeared, and his view of the interior of their quarantine suite returned. Nathan pulled the wire-thin headset off, turning to look at Jessica who was lying back down on her bed. “That was pretty interesting.”

  “You can tell me all about it,” Jessica said, “in the morning.”

  “Good night, Jess.”

  “Good night.”

  Nathan took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he closed his eyes to attempt to sleep.

  * * *

  “Oh, my God!” Neli exclaimed as Specialist Brill and Corporal Vasya helped Marcus into Doctor Symyri’s medical facility.

  “It looks worse than it is,” Marcus insisted as they helped him to the exam bed.

  “It couldn’t possibly be as bad as it looks,” Neli insisted. “What the hell did you do, pick a fight with everyone in the Jungle?”

  “It could have been worse,” Marcus insisted.

  “Not by much,” Doctor Symyri declared as he studied his medical scanner after passing it over Marcus’s body. “You have a flail segment, your right arm is fractured, your skull is fractured…”

  “Someone actually managed to crack that hard head of yours?” Corporal Vasya joked.

  “Took ‘em more than an hour,” Marcus bragged.

  “Are you stupid, or something?” Neli scolded. “You could’ve been killed, you old fool!”

  “I did what had to be done.”

  “You had to get your ass beat?” Neli questioned.

  “If that’s what it took to close the deal, then, yes,” Marcus insisted.

  Neli shook her head, looking to Lieutenant Rezhik. “You should have sent someone with him.”

  “He insisted on going alone,” Lieutenant Rezhik replied.

  “And you listened?”

  “In retrospect, it may have been a mistake.”

  “It wasn’t a mistake,” Marcus insisted. “Neli, I knew I was gonna get my ass kicked when I entered the place. I also knew that the lieutenant would rescue me.”

  “Then why the hell did you do it?”

  “Because it had to be done,” Marcus insisted.

  “You’re not making any sense.”

  “You don’t understand how the Jungle works,” Marcus told her. “My beatdown, rescue, and then his beatdown, established our rep. Now, nobody will fuck with us.”

  “Getting your ass beat and killing a bunch of them establishes your rep?”

  “For the record, we didn’t kill anyone,” the lieutenant corrected.

  “I thought you said it was a ‘kill mission’?” Neli said.

  “If necessary,” Lieutenant Rezhik said, “which it was not.”

  “I thought you said you beat someone down?” Neli asked Marcus.

  Marcus grinned from ear to ear. “I did.”

  “He stopped short of killing their leader.”

  “You think I look bad,” Marcus grinned, revealing his recently knocked out teeth.

  “Then, I take it I can expect another patient?” Doctor Symyri asked as he pushed Marcus back on the bed.

  “I doubt he can afford you,” Lieutenant Rezhik stated, almost laughing.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  After a good night’s sleep, Jessica opened her eyes, pushed off her covers,
and stretched. She turned to look at Nathan who was lying on his bed, hands at his sides, with the wire-thin virtual reality gear on his head. “Oh, my God, have you been wearing that thing all night?”

  “Good morning to you too,” Nathan replied, unmoving. “And, no, I put it on about twenty minutes ago.”

  “I think you might be developing an addiction,” Jessica said as swung her feet off the bed and sat up.

  “It’s not realistic enough for that,” Nathan insisted.

  “Please tell me you’re not watching porn.”

  Nathan reached up and removed the headgear, glaring at her. “Seriously?”

  “Just checking.”

  “It’s actually a very good tool to learn about this planet,” Nathan informed her, putting the headgear back on. “I’m taking a historical tour right now, learning about how this world was settled, how it was almost wiped out, and how it eventually became a corporate-owned, and managed, society. It’s actually quite fascinating. You should give it a try. You are an intelligence officer, after all.”

  “And intelligence officers know better than to get their information from propaganda vids,” Jessica commented.

  “You have to start somewhere.”

  “Can I pee first?” Jessica asked as she disappeared into the bathroom.

  Nathan, ignoring her, was already back on his VR tour. “This particular program is clearly aimed at newcomers like us,” he said, assuming she could hear him. “It’s a pretty condensed version of SilTek’s five-hundred-year history, and not anywhere near as immersive as the garden simulation I was in last night. It’s more like watching a documentary.”

  “You’re such a history geek,” Jessica mocked from the open bathroom.

  “Yeah, I can’t help myself,” he admitted.

  Jessica returned from the bathroom, headed over to the nightstand by her bed, and pulled out her own VR headgear and its remote. “So, how do I use this?”

  “Just put it on your head and use the remote,” Nathan explained as he picked up his own remote. “It’s pretty intuitive.”

  Jessica placed the wire-thin device on her head, then picked up her remote and pressed the power button. Immediately, the center area of her field of vision became obscured by an opaque gray cloud with a menu prompting her to select a language. After choosing English, she asked, “What program should I select?”

  “Choose ‘Join Session’, and then select my name.”

  “Damn,” she exclaimed as she followed his instructions. “It looks like everyone around us is using this thing. What happens if I choose the wrong one?”

  “I don’t know,” Nathan admitted. “I’m guessing the system will ask the source user’s permission before sharing their session with someone else.”

  Jessica selected Nathan from the list of active sessions.

  “Yup, it’s asking my permission for you to join.”

  A moment later, Jessica found herself standing in the middle of a serene shopping area, surrounding a beautifully manicured park. The setting was full of shoppers. She looked up, taking in the brilliant topaz sky, and then looked to her left, spotting Nathan.

  “Hi,” Nathan greeted, waving at her.

  “Wow, your avatar really looks like you,” Jessica exclaimed.

  “So does yours,” Nathan replied.

  “Except your hair is never that neat,” she added. “How does it make such good avatars?”

  “I’m guessing it uses the data from our medical scans to recreate our bodies.”

  “I’m not crazy about the outfit it selected for me,” Jessica complained, noticing her avatar’s clothing, “but, other than that, it’s pretty impressive,” she said, looking around further. “How do you move around?”

  “Just lie back on your bed, and place your hands at your sides, then just think about moving,” Nathan instructed.

  Jessica lay back on her bed, hands at her sides, and began walking around in the simulation. “This is weird.”

  “Yeah, it takes some getting used to,” Nathan admitted.

  “How does it work?”

  “When you’re supine, hands at your sides, the system takes over and intercepts your brain’s impulses to move your body, sending them to the simulation instead.”

  “Then how do I get out of the simulation?” Jessica wondered.

  “Just say ‘exit immersion’,” Nathan explained. “You can also hold down any button on the remote and then raise your hand, holding the remote up to your face to see it, and press any button.”

  “Exit immersion,” Jessica commanded. The immersion faded away, and Jessica pulled the headgear off.

  “What are you doing?” Nathan wondered, pulling off his own headgear. “You barely started.”

  “I haven’t even had breakfast,” Jessica complained.

  * * *

  “I have no idea what that was, but it tasted pretty good,” Nathan said, picking up his empty tray and placing it in the waste processor.

  “I want to say omelet or frittata, but it wasn’t really either,” Jessica commented as she took her last bite. “Any idea what those little red things were? I could swear they tasted different every time I ate one.”

  The door opened, and Orana entered their quarantine suite carrying two bags. “Good morning,” she greeted. “I trust you both slept well?”

  “Yes, quite well,” Nathan replied.

  “What’s in the bags?” Jessica wondered.

  “The clothing you arrived in,” Orana answered, handing one of the bags to Jessica. “They have been cleaned and sterilized, as have all of the belongings you brought with you for your stay on SilTek. I thought you might like to change before your departure.”

  “Then, we’re cleared from quarantine?” Nathan asked.

  “That is correct, Captain,” Orana replied, handing the other bag to Nathan. “SilTek has sent a transport to take you to headquarters. It seems our leader wishes to welcome you, herself.”

  “When can we go?” Nathan wondered.

  “As soon as you are ready,” Orana explained. “The transport is already here.”

  “Then, we didn’t bring any little germs with us?” Jessica quipped.

  “Nothing out of the ordinary, no,” Orana assured her. “You are both very healthy specimens; especially you, Captain Scott. You both would have been cleared much sooner, had it not been for the nanites in the lieutenant commander’s system. Those required closer examination.”

  “They are nothing more than medical nanites,” Nathan explained. “They cannot replicate, and once outside of the host, they instantly become inert.”

  “So we eventually determined,” Orana replied. “I apologize for the delay. I hope you were not too inconvenienced.”

  “Not at all,” Nathan replied. “I needed a good night’s sleep. Being in quarantine gave me the perfect excuse.”

  “I am happy to hear that,” Orana told him. “Once you are ready, I will escort you to your transport.”

  Ten minutes later, Nathan and Jessica followed Orana out onto the rooftop transportation platform where a large, black vehicle waiting for them on the pad.

  “Is that for us?” Nathan asked Orana.

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “It was an honor to serve you both,” she added with a respectful nod.

  Nathan moved toward the awaiting vehicle, and its doors opened. He paused a moment, then turned back to Orana. “Where’s the pilot?”

  “Transports on SilTek are automated,” Orana explained. “It is perfectly safe, I assure you.”

  “Of course,” Nathan replied, continuing toward the waiting vehicle.

  “Good day to you both,” Orana waved, before turning and heading back inside.

  “Ladies first,” Nathan said, gesturing for Jessica to enter the vehicle.

  Jessica climbed inside and too
k a seat in the back. “Nice. Comfy, but not ostentatious.”

  Nathan climbed in next, and the doors automatically closed.

  “Welcome aboard,” a voice announced. “Our destination is SilTek headquarters in the Asburton district. Our flight time will be twenty-seven minutes and forty-two seconds. Please sit back and enjoy the flight.”

  The vehicle began to hum as it slowly lifted off the rooftop deck. Inching forward as it rose, the vehicle rotated ninety degrees to the right, and then accelerated away from the arrival facility, climbing more rapidly.

  Within seconds, their transport had reached its cruising altitude, only a hundred meters or so above the flowing terrain. Other transport vehicles cluttered the sky, traveling in different directions and altitudes. Large and small, in a variety of shapes, colors, and styles, multiple transports ascended and descended, entering and exiting the traffic patterns in an orderly fashion. There were dozens of them nearby and probably hundreds, if not thousands, more in the distance.

  “There aren’t any roads,” Jessica observed, looking at the surface below.

  “Probably would’ve been difficult,” Nathan commented. “This place is all rolling hills, forests, and rivers.”

  “Still, how do they haul stuff around? Surely they must have service roads.”

  “They eliminated the need for surface roads a few hundred years ago,” Nathan explained. “Everything is flown. This has allowed them to spread their population out over most of the planet. Most people live in small districts, where they can walk to most places. All of this reduces the overall impact on their environment.”

  “But they still have actual cities, right?”

  “Like I said, they call them districts, not cities. Some are larger than others. For example, the Asburton district, where SilTek’s headquarters is located, is one of the largest districts on the planet, large enough to require public transit systems.”

  “Why do they need public transit when they have flying cars?” Jessica wondered.

  “The larger districts have more restrictions on aerial traffic. They only allow arrivals and departures to and from certain points within them. Kind of like airports. Some of the larger buildings also have transit platforms on their rooftops, much like the one atop the arrival facility we just left. They have massive underground garages.”