Virtual Perfection: Technology has drawn everyone into Virtual Reality, but what will happen to humanity if no one can get out? (Veiled Destiny Book 1)

by Jason Bourn

  Third, any difference in weight for any activity prior to boarding. Monitoring weight was very important for the shuttle system’s AI, so it could optimize the flight characteristics. Therefore, everything was automatically weighed getting on or off the shuttle though a series of sensors in the tunnels from the boarding gate. In addition, the entire shuttle’s weight was constantly being ascertained as it sat on the launch site.

  He also requested his persa attempt to determine if anything else was out of the ordinary for the next shuttle preflight operations. Having artificial intelligence at your beck and call was something that Calaes thought of as second nature – he had no idea how anyone could live without it. He didn’t even think about it – AI was something that was a major part of his life. He just took its benefits for granted. There was no way he could imagine having to manually scan through all the data and have to make all the decisions of whether something was “out of the ordinary” himself.

  After putting this plan into action, Calaes didn’t have time to think about these details any more. He was getting inundated with requests from his team-leads. Everyone wanted to know what equipment and supplies should be brought with them and what should be left on Mars. There was a limited amount of room for additional equipment aboard the shuttles since they had been reconfigured to optimize the number of people they could transport.

  Each shuttle could accommodate up to four hundred people. Unfortunately, if they did not have a full personnel contingent, the shuttles could not be easily reconfigured to accept additional equipment. So, whatever they wanted to take would have to fit in the small compartments allocated to baggage.

  Calaes had sent a message to Hope asking what equipment and supplies were needed on the starship. She was evidently very busy since her persa came back with a not-too-helpful “everything that is really needed has been provided.”

  Time seemed to be marching in a time warp, at times moving slowly, like when he received multiple back-to-back complaints and requests that he could do nothing about, and at times leaping ahead at break-neck speed, like when he realized that the shuttles had not only landed on Phobos, but had lifted off to come back to Mars.

  Everything seemed to be running as smoothly as could be expected when the shuttles finally both landed back on Mars. The tunnels were connected to the shuttles and the boarding gates opened when the first indications of trouble were received.

  Calaes was in a meeting with several of the team-leads, working out the logistics of getting the remaining candidates into the shuttles. Calaes’ persa alerted him to two new workers trying to get on each of the two shuttles. Security was alerted and stopped them from getting on. They departed without incident, but security was put on even higher alert and every available security team member rushed to the shuttles. Each security team member had a baton and shield as their main armament. The stun guns were held by the higher-ranking security members, still waiting in reserve.

  Shortly after the new workers left, they returned. However, this time they came with a large number of candidates, also armed with batons and shields, attempting to storm the boarding gate of each shuttle. Evidently since their attempt at stealth had not succeeded, they were going to try to use brute force to storm the gates and take over the shuttles. Obviously, the rebellion had chosen this as their focal point of opposition. The security detail immediately requested reinforcements, but there were no more available – all security personnel were already at the shuttles.

  The security team was overwhelmed with the number of armed opposition forces. The security team-lead, Charles Mason, sent a message to Calaes, “We cannot hold both shuttles with the forces that we have on hand. There is nothing more I can do unless there any more trained personnel available.”

  Calaes replied, “What if you use the stun guns, will that do it?”

  Charles replied, “That would help, but not enough. They are sending at least forty armed candidates at each shuttle. We have less than half that number of guards at each shuttle. Not only can’t we hold them off, but we are in real danger of losing both of the shuttles.”

  Sounding as if he were under considerable strain, Charles responded, “If we consolidate both forces on one shuttle, I am sure we can hold that shuttle. But that would mean giving up on the other shuttle.”

  With no other choice, Calaes had to make a split-second decision, “OK, consolidate the forces to one shuttle. Everyone can fit in one shuttle anyway.”

  As he was sending the message, suddenly a large group of armed rebellion forces appeared at the doorway. He sent a quick message to Charles, “We have armed candidates here at the team-lead meeting. They have batons and shields, there is no way we can fight them. Can you spare any reinforcements?”

  Charles responded, “Not if you want to secure the last shuttle. You’re on your own, sorry. I have my hands full here.”

  Calaes couldn’t believe it. After all their preparations, to be so close, only to have it end like this. Calaes and the team-leads present were quickly searched and anything that could be used as a weapon was removed. They were forced to march single file with their hands raised. The rebellion quickly swept through the rest of the settlement. With no security forces there to provide resistance they quickly herded everyone, including Calaes, Hope and her father, into a large office area with only one exit. Calaes looked about in shock. It had happened so quickly that they hadn’t had time to assimilate what had just happened.

  At the boarding gates, meanwhile, the rebellion forces gleefully took control of the ceded shuttle and consolidated their attack on the remaining boarding gate. They knew that they didn’t have to win any battles. As long as they could hold off the shuttles from being loaded and taking off, they knew that reinforcements in the form of asteroid mining ships and Earth-based ships were on the way and would arrive shortly. Therefore, a stalemate meant victory for them.

  With the extra security forces from the abandoned shuttle, there was a standoff at the last shuttle. The rebellion forces could not take the second shuttle, but the security forces couldn’t push the rebellion forces back either.

  This was exactly what the rebellion was hoping for. Their two-pronged attack had been almost entirely successful. They had the remaining candidates under control, had control of one of the shuttles and had effectively blocked access to the second shuttle.

  CHAPTER 39

  Calaes didn’t know what to do. He considered getting everyone to rush the rebellion forces, but the opposition had superior armament. A bull rush would do nothing but get people hurt or killed and had almost no chance of succeeding.

  The rebellion forces were so confident that they let the candidates walk around freely – as long as they stayed well away from the exit.

  Calaes had to do something to change the status quo. He knew that if they could somehow break out of this room, they might be able to go and attack the rebellion forces at the boarding gate from their back side, causing them to have to defend on two fronts. The only problem, of course, was that while they had the people, they didn’t have any weapons.

  He gathered into a small group all those candidates that he knew he could trust – mostly the team-leads – as well as Hope and her father, trying not to look too conspicuous. He laid out the big picture of what he wanted to do, but he also said that none of this would happen if they couldn’t find weapons.

  “I need an inventory of anything that could be used as weapons,” Calaes said.

  Everyone started looking, but all they had was office equipment, none of which appeared to be useful. They found lots of tables, chairs, data entry devices and the ubiquitous sticky note pads. With everything electronic, their persas were all anyone had needed.

  Hope was talking quietly with her father when Calaes walked up to her. “Can either of you two think of anything we have missed?”

  Hope responded, “No, this is all there is in here. We have some personal effects and there are a couple of technicians with some rudimentary tools �
�� a few screwdrivers and pliers and such. But nothing that could be used as a weapon, not even any hammers.”

  Calaes looked at Randy, but he didn’t say anything, looking a mere ghost of his former self. Hope said, “My father is not doing well. He is on a high dosage of pain medicines. It has really clouded his mind, so I don’t think we’ll get much help from him. I’m really concerned about him.”

  Calaes felt sorry for her and for her father, but couldn’t afford to consider the implications of this at the moment. He took Hope to the side and commented, “I’m really sorry about your father, but right now it is critical that we get some weapons. It is going to be hard to fight a battle with tables and chairs.” He tried a joke, “Maybe we could throw chairs at them and have two or three people use the tables as shields.”

  Hope gave him a funny look, then smiled mischievously. “I think that you might be on to something,” she said. “How about we separate the chair backs and use them as shields. They even come with a hand-hold where the back drops into the base. They are made of hard plastic so they are very light and can take a beating without breaking.”

  Calaes thought this was ingenious. Taking that concept a step further, he said, “And we can take the legs off the tables and use them as clubs. They are also lightweight, easy to hold and since they are strong enough to hold a lot of weight, I’m sure that they would also make a good impact on the side of someone’s head.”

  The more he thought about it, the more he liked it. It just might work. “You know,” he said smiling, “I think that we make a pretty good team.”

  She smiled back at him, nodding her head in ascent.

  They needed some cover so the rebellion guards would not be able to see the furniture disassembly. Hope and her father discussed it and they volunteered to use her father’s health as a cover. Hope and a small group of candidates carried her father to the doorway. Hope banged on the door. They knew that they shouldn’t open it, but being young men and with Hope looking so pretty, they decided to open the door very cautiously. Hope said to the guards, “My father needs medical attention. His leg is hurt and he is in great pain.” Their small group stayed right in front of the exit door, blocking the view inside.

  Calaes directed the group to quickly, but quietly, disassemble the tables and chairs that were hidden from the distracted guards. They were able to quickly disassemble about twenty-five of the chairs, so that meant they now had twenty-five shields. At the same time, they disassembled ten tables, so that provided forty clubs.

  Calaes overheard the guards still arguing with Hope. Calaes told everyone to get ready. Finally, the guards agreed to take Hope’s father to the infirmary, but no one else could come with him, not even Hope. They had two of the guards assist him away.

  When they were gone for about two minutes, Calaes judged that this was the best situation that they could expect. The guards were not expecting any resistance and two of their members had left. It wasn’t likely to get any better than this. It was now or never.

  Hope and the small group were still right near the doorway, watching through the small glass window for any last views of her father and blocking the view of the office area. Calaes ordered all the armed candidates to the front of the room, near the exit. He told all the remaining candidates to follow closely behind their makeshift force. They had one chance of using force with the element of surprise. Now was that time!

  Calaes had Hope bang on the door again. Having just talked with her, they cautiously opened it and asked what else she wanted. Calaes and the other armed candidates swiftly flowed past Hope through the doorway.

  Startled, the guards were slow in getting their batons and shields in place. Calaes and the candidates, using improvised weapons and shields, quickly routed the guards.

  Using the guards’ stretch suits, they tied them up both hands and feet. They were ordered to lie face down while they were tied to each of the table tops – they weren’t going anywhere soon.

  The group was now in even better shape, since they had the guards’ batons and shields. Calaes led his small force quietly through the halls, with the rest of the candidates following close behind. As they approached the boarding gate where the majority of the rebellion forces were, Calaes could see the battle had taken on an almost surreal quality. It looked for all the world like an old medieval sword fight. Baton-to-baton as well as baton-to-shield blows rang out like a giant wind chime gone mad under gale force winds. Occasionally a rebellion or security force casualty would fall and the fight would flow one direction or the other, but for the most part the fight was a standoff as if it were being waged in the trenches.

  The entire character of the battle changed when Calaes’ force started their attack from the opposite side. Instead of only focusing on the shuttle security forces alone, now the rebellion forces had to split their attention. The rebellion forces had a momentary uncertainty when individual fighters had to decide which direction to turn their attention to. When the security commander saw their attention falter, he immediately called for the use of the stun guns. The security forces quickly made a wedge in the fighting lines with swift use of the stun guns. They were able to meet up with Calaes’ group, effectively breaking the rebellion forces in two.

  The security forces quickly lined up shield-to-shield forming a barrier against the rebellion forces, opening up a path for the remaining candidates to scramble through. This quick-forming defensive posture provided just enough time to allow the candidates to get to the shuttle. The rebellion members saw what was happening and tried to surge forward to cut off the candidates, but they were too late. The defensive line held long enough for Calaes and the rest of the candidate fighting force to get through to the shuttle.

  As the last of the candidates rushed through to the boarding gate and into the shuttle, the security forces slowly formed a defensive posture and backed down the tunnel. Finally, the last security forces entered the shuttle and they overrode the tunnel interface to the shuttle, closing it manually. A loud blaring automated voice rang out, counting down from thirty, every five seconds warning of the imminent tunnel breach.

  With less than fifteen seconds left, the remaining rebellion forces turned and ran back through the tunnel to the safety of the settlement. They looked out the observation ports as the tunnel disconnected and the shuttle prepared to launch. Calaes consulted his persa and found that they had successfully boarded 222 candidates. This meant that slightly more than one hundred candidates had chosen to stay behind!

  In the chaos of everyone attempting to get into suspended animation chambers, he saw Hope looking worried ahead of him. He caught up to her and asked about her father, even though he already knew the answer. She looked devastated as she said that he had not been able to come on board. He had known this was going to happen when they had come up with the plan, but knowing it ahead of time didn’t make it any easier for her. Calaes was heartbroken for her, but there wasn’t anything he could do except to console her and hold her hand.

  Calaes and Hope went into adjacent suspended animation chambers. Before he lay down Calaes squeezed her hand and said, “I’m so sorry about your father. Everything would have been fine without the rebellion battle. As it was, he did a very brave thing to help everyone else escape.”

  Hope tried to smile, but didn’t really succeed. “Yes, he had resigned himself to the fact that he wasn’t going to be able to make it. He was quite a man and quite a father. I’m going to really, really miss him.” Tears started freely flowing down her cheeks. She fiercely gripped his hand, then lay down.

  The shuttle launch count was down to less than thirty seconds when Calaes lay down and felt the restraints secure him in place. It felt odd to lie down without going to deep sleep. This journey was much too short for that. As it was though, lying down was by far the safest way to travel. The shuttle could accelerate much faster this way than if people were seated or standing.

  Thinking about how close a call it had been, Calaes could final
ly relax. He then started chuckling to himself. In a perverse way Calaes was happy that the rebellion had staged their attack, for two reasons. He thought that if they were so intent on stopping the shuttle on the ground, there was less chance that they had succeeded in doing something that would stop the shuttle after it had launched. In addition, their desperate actions showed there was less of a chance they had secreted pro-government sympathizers aboard this or the previous shuttles.

  The system voice rang out “Launch in five, four, three, two, one.”

  Calaes expected to be shoved deeply into his chamber’s harness. This launch, however, was not nearly so bad as what he had been through previously. He recalled that since Mars’ gravity was less than forty percent of Earth’s, it also meant that the lift off forces only needed to be forty percent of Earth’s as well. He also realized that on most previous flights, both real and virtual, he had been in suspended animation – so this was one of the few launches that he had actually experienced.

  He consulted his persa, which showed him on the chamber’s display the trajectory of both the shuttle and Phobos. They had to go against the rotation of Mars in order to catch the speeding moon. Calaes saw the moon’s path and the shuttle’s path moving closer and closer. They would intersect perfectly in about three hours.

  As they approached Phobos, Calaes tapped into the shuttle’s sensors so he could finally see the starship. He knew the ship was basically a 1.6 km wide sphere with a large scoop in the front. He still wondered how such a large ship could be concealed on Phobos. He knew generally that the site was the Stickney crater. He also knew Phobos was very dark – far less than ten percent of the light it received reflected off of it – about half as reflective as compared to Earth’s moon. The problem was, as he looked at the huge Stickney crater, he still couldn’t see the ship – even though he knew that it must be there.