Kevin tugged on his side of the hole and I pulled on mine. We'd only managed to get it to the size of my fist.
“Have you played this game before?” Kevin asked as he struggled with his side.
I held mine steady. “A few times.”
He struggled to gain a foothold and his feet flailed. He'd gotten as far as he could, which was something like a millimeter, and stopped.
“Hold for ten seconds!” I yelled as I struggled to keep hold of the fist-sized hole.
We waited as we both squirmed doing our best to tighten our grips. A click sounded and we let go, falling over.
Kevin huffed. “This.” He drew in a breath of air. “is supposed to be fun?”
I smiled. “Working for what you want is always worth it.” I was tired but since I was only holding the hole steady I didn't need to exert as much force as he did.
He rolled on his side propping his head up with his arm. “Is it always this difficult?”
“My friend Darryl and I can open it in just a minute or two,” I responded.
Kevin let his arm fall and his head sag. “It's been like ten minutes!”
“Darryl and I know each other better,” I said as I sat up. “And I don't know much about you.”
He flopped onto his back staring at the ceiling.
I followed his lead and lay next to him.
As he turned to face me I pushed his head back at the ceiling.
“Watch,” I said as I thrust a closed fist into the air.
Go for it, Raccoon said.
I watched Kevin as he stared at my fist. Right as his mouth opened to say something I spread my fingers out as if my hand exploded.
At the same time, the roof of the sphere disappeared in a shower of pixelated bits revealing the towering structure above us with hundreds of other people's homes in view.
Then with my other hand, I brushed it all away leaving only a starry sky.
Kevin's mouth had opened further.
“Do you like the stars?” I asked.
It took a while for him to answer. “We go out hiking a lot and…” He gestured at the sky. “I don't think we're ever going to go on a family trip again.” His voice shook as he spoke the last part.
“You mean in Wyoming?” I asked.
He nodded and closed his eyes. Tears crept out of the corners of his eyelids but he wiped them away before they could fully form.
“Why did you come here?” I said. “To Ambition, I mean.”
His hand fell to his chest. “My mom has— I mean, she had cancer and the medicine we had back there couldn't fix it. She had to get nanobots to fix it.”
“You didn't have to come all the way to Massachusetts for that,” I said.
Kevin turned to face me. “Yeah we did, it was the only place with an open spot.”
“You could have gone to any city to get nanobots,” I said.
He shook his head. “They have some pretty harsh rules about nanobots where I'm from..”
“Wait, the only way to get a space in a smart city so fast is an emergency,” I said.
“Yeah,” Kevin said.
Shit, I thought. “That means you're only here for a short time. You have to leave soon don't you?”
He nodded. “Mom said they don't want us to go until we have somewhere else set up first.”
That was good. Processes were slow in smart cities. He could be here for up to a year before they found somewhere for them. They would ensure the stability of their living situation and make sure Kevin was fast-tracked through choosing school.
The good news is that they would probably be able to move to another smart city and they were all connected via maglev trains.
“Are they really that strict in Wyoming?” I asked.
He returned to his back, breaking eye contact with me.
Every ounce of my being told me to say something, to nudge him in some way but I waited.
After what seemed an impossibly long time he finally spoke, “They were wrong about you.”
I opened my mouth to speak but he cut me off.
“Not you specifically, but the people here, in smart cities. They said you were stingy and wouldn't share, just like the Abandoners,” he said. “They said that you lived like pigs but if your room is an example of how people live here. You're better at minimalism than anyone in our sect.”
He hadn't seen my digital screenshots and posters scattered on my walls. I was far from a minimalist.
“Everything they told me was a lie. Do you know what that's like?” he said as our eyes met again.
I shook my head. “We try to be as truthful as possible here.”
Raccoon took the liberty of turning on privacy mode for us.
“What about the—” He glanced around the room. “Thing I took to Jakson?”
He had a point. “He's the best tech guy I know. If it's genuine we could give it to my mom so she can quicken her pace and make smart cities faster.”
“You really think it's pre-abandoner tech?” he asked.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Architects, we call them Architects,” I corrected. “If you call them that, people will get mad at you.”
Kevin sat up. “But they abandoned us. Why would we call them Architects?”
“They cleaned up the fallout from the nuclear war and made our homes. Helped us with nuclear fusion and practically rebuilt our society from the ground up. They even made the nanobot—”
“No, we created the nanobots, we have several scientific journals detailing their creation at home,” he corrected me.
Was that true? Who the heck had all this old information? “Who is this “they” you keep talking about?”
For a moment, there was passion in his eyes but then his expression changed. His eyebrows sank and he looked away. “They are my—” He pinched his fingers activating his interface then released them. “—were my sect. They call themselves Essentialists.”
Raccoon, can you—
On it, he said.
“Why don't they like the Architects?” I asked.
Kevin rubbed his eyes and yawned. “It’s not that they don’t appreciate what AI has done for us. It’s that they didn’t leave us the tools to continue the work they started. That and the tech they left for us is unnecessary.”
“Do you really believe that? With what the nanobots have done for your mom?” I asked.
He squeezed a hand into a fist and released it. “No, but I used to.”
Essentialism is a philosophy that pushes the belief that people have innate characteristics. For example; treating people with respect is a good thing and that slavery is wrong, Raccoon said.
I squinted. Those sound okay.
They take it to another level with other characteristics. Like race, they think it determines how someone speaks instead of the community they were born into, he explained.
That sounded borderline racist. Do you think Kevin is like this?
He hasn’t expressed any attitudes similar to the more troublesome aspects of the Essentialist philosophies since he’s been here in Ambition. They currently have him attending school in AR. If his mother confessed the same thing he has to you, the school could have done that as a precautionary measure, Raccoon said.
Can we try something? I asked.
Raccoon suddenly appeared in front of me. You want to attempt to share these insights with him directly? Like you do in the game?
I nodded.
I’ve been examining why that works in the game and not in the real world. We can do some experimentation but you both will need to make contact with me while we do tests, he responded.
That was fine with me. “Kevin?”
He sighed and turned to me. “Yeah?”
“Can I try to share some memories with you? Like I did in the game?” I asked.
His eyes perked up. “Sure!”
A, what I assumed was a visible image of Raccoon, darted into the room and combined with the one in front of me. Since Kevin and I were friends he probably showed up for Kevin.
Kevin smiled at Raccoon and waved.
We weren’t touching but that didn't stop Raccoon from continuing to circumvent system restrictions.
“Raccoon wants to try some tests and we need to touch him for it to work,” I explained.
“Okay,” he said.
As he reached out Ferret jumped from his stomach and yelled, “Stop!”
Kevin paused.
“Hi Ferret,” I said.
She ignored me and turned to face Raccoon. “You’re not allowed to do these things!”
The Zix don’t seem to care if I’m doing it. Why do you? he asked while glancing around the room.
“Why don’t—”
Ferret disappeared mid-sentence.
“She’s been so weird lately,” Kevin said. “Your mom was right about her calming down but she’s been more…” He shrugged. “I dunno, it’s like she lost her personality. Are they all like that?”
I nodded. “Yeah, they are usually pretty dry.”
Raccoon turned to me. “I’m standing right here.”
“Sorry,” I said.
Kevin ran his fingers through Raccoon’s fur. “You seem different too, more relaxed.”
The yellow privacy light dropped and was replaced with an orange one. Was Kevin streaming?
“I don’t think it’s just Azerail’s implant allowing her to share her emotions and memories,” Raccoon stated. “There’s something in Dark Offerings code that’s also contributing to it.” He swiped his hand around and a tiny dot followed it.
Raccoon was streaming, not Kevin. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. I’d never heard of a Zix streaming before.
“What’s happening?” Kevin asked as his eyes slowly scanned the room.
I shrugged.
“I spent a lot of time with Azerail in one of Dark Offerings servers and I think I’ve zeroed in on the right combination. The good news is that I think everyone’s implants can be modified with this code so they can share in the same way she can. There would also have to be physical changes to everyone’s implants. Nothing drastic like Azerail’s but slight modifications with none of the side effects.” He paused. “I’ve uploaded my research to both the secure and unsecured Had-E-Verses. I also added it to the InfoBases.”
The orange light shut off.
“Sorry, I had to get that out,” Raccoon explained.
I swallowed. “Are you allowed to do that?”
“Sure, why not?” he replied.
Kevin blinked. “Wait, the orange light means he was streaming right?”
“Yeah,” I said.
Raccoon looked at Kevin.
“You’re sentient, Raccoon is sentient!” Kevin exclaimed while pointing at him.
I leaned in close and gestured for Kevin to come closer.
He did.
“They all are,” I whispered.
His mouth dropped.
“I think that’s one of the big secrets the Penurious are keeping from everyone,” I said.
“Pen what?” Kevin asked.
He would have found out about them eventually. “There’s a portion of the population that was still alive when the Architects were. They know how to use and create old tech. They are called the Penurious and refuse to help with smart cities.”
“What the hell?” he said.
“They made an oath to the Architects,” I explained.
Kevin shook his head. “The leads in my group didn't even mention them.”
“My mom's one.” The Perurious weren't exactly a secret but they weren't talked about very often either. “I think we’ve talked about them before.”
He shrugged. “I don't remember. Every day it's been surprise after surprise and shock after shock. It's hard to keep track.”
“Some days it's like that, you suddenly put two things together and everything makes sense only for it to happen all over again a month later,” I said. “You're just late to the party and get it all at once.”
The hole on the ground began to flash, making a dinging sound three times before collapsing and disappearing.
“I guess we lost?” Kevin asked.
I shrugged. “I don't think so. The whole point is to learn about the other person you're working with.”
My opinion about Kevin had mostly stayed the same but I still had questions I wanted to ask him.
We both sat there for a moment giving each other awkward glances.
“Each of you put your hand on my fur,” Raccoon stated.
I hesitated but touched Raccoon. “If this works we can share our experiences.”
“I saw the VRV of you using your power. It was really weird but kinda cool. Why did my Zix say not to do this though?” he asked.
Raccoon leaned against me. “Ferret started her training a few days ago and doesn't like when I go outside the lines. You can jump into the Brain Trust app. If you look at what I've proposed you should be able to retain the information about it. Just don't veer off and start learning about something else.”
“I can’t resist expanding past my initial idea and never end up learning anything,” I said. “You get credit for any new ideas you come up with while in there though.”
Kevin shrugged. “One-on-one feels like it's more controllable.” He put a hand on Raccoon.
Technically, Raccoon was already touching me but as a gesture of solidarity, I touched him too.
I hoped this would work because I wanted to know a lot more about the Essentialists.
***