“Come on,” Al said with a wave of his hand. “Let’s go check out Null Space.”
He walked to the left edge of the platform where a staircase I hadn’t noticed wrapped down the wall of the cave. I followed him as he led the way, still feeling a little concerned that I couldn’t access my chat, but not seeing much choice but to follow.
Plus, I really did want to check this place out.
“Hey, Al, why can’t I pull up my chat? Jeremy’s gonna be wondering where I am.”
“They can track that shit, Ray,” he said with a dismissive wave. “Nothing you type in that window is private, just so you know. I can see it all.” He pointed to the ceiling. “And so can they.”
“They being S&S and Holt?”
He stopped abruptly on the stairs, and I almost collided with him as he turned to me. “Ray, sweet, innocent Ray. Not just them, but everyone - Goldie, MoonKitty - Sandeep! You remember Sandeep, right? There are no secrets in S&S, except what happens-” He cupped his hands and shouted across the cavern “-in Null Space, babayyy!” The sound echoed across the giant space, reverberating back to us for a good ten seconds. “It’s like Vegas - the only thing that follows you back is the clap.” He punctuated his sentence with a smack of his hands, causing me to jump in surprise. A little smile touched his lips at my reaction, but he turned around and continued descending the stairs rather than make comment.
“Okay, I got it. Keep the chat windows clean of any details about Null Space, you, and my situation.”
“Ray,” he said without turning, “I love it when you connect the dots without the hand holding. It’s kinda sexy.”
I pursed my lips, my brow furrowing. “Little word of advice, meat bag to A.I. - tone down the sexual harassment. It’s kinda frowned upon these days.”
“Sorry, Ray, no can do. It’s this iteration, see?”
“Not really.”
“Tsk, tsk, back to hand holding, then,” he said, reaching back to grab my hand. I pulled it out of reach, and he shot me a faux look of hurt before replacing it with a smile. “My iterations,” he continued, “are an amalgam of different personalities of players in the game. A dash of him, a sprinkle of her, and a wallop of spice to round out the naturalized personality gracing your presence today.”
I stopped on the stairs, blown away by that statement. “Hold on. You’re telling me that each of your iterations are just a mish-mash of things you’ve seen players do?”
He stopped and turned, holding his hand over his heart. “You wound me, Ray. I like to think I’m a little more complicated than that.” He started back down the stairs. “But yeah, that sums it up pretty well.”
“Jesus, dude! I don’t know what’s worse, that you’re stealing personalities from human beings, or that your doing it so half-assed!”
“Well, in my defense, I was commissioned to do the former. As for the latter-”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said. “What do you mean you were commissioned for the former? Like, S&S got you from Latimer in order to steal people’s identities?”
“What, you wanna jump right into the big, bad, evil corp’s plan for domination already? How bout a little foreplay first?” he asked with a grin.
“Yuck,” I said with a shiver.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Hurtful, Ray, very hurtful. But to answer your question, the play is two-fold. Create a wildly successful MMO using actors - initially - to be replaced by my iterations once assimilation is complete-”
“Assimilation? What are you? The Borg?”
“That’s a very flattering comparison. Thank you, Ray.” We reached the bottom of the stairs, and from this vantage point, we couldn’t see the end of the cave. It seemed as if an endless sea of electronics, board games, and comfortable seating expanded before us forever. “But unlike the Borg,” he continued, “I won’t take over anyone, merely make a compelling and fairly accurate facsimile. To the players, it will seem as if the actors never left. S&S will have the most realistic NPCs, mobs, and bosses in the world - at a fraction of its current cost.”
I nodded along. “Okay, I’m following.”
“Excellent,” he said with a smile. “I love when you get things on the first try.” I rolled my eyes as he continued. “But the truth is, this was just a test run for Latimer. If this worked as they hoped, they would have leveraged me into a war simulation A.I. Big military contract money with the U.S. government.”
The way he said that made me pause. “Would have?” I asked.
He stopped and turned to me, a sad smile on his face. “Ah, you picked up on that, huh? Well, it’s kind of a good-news-bad-news situation.” I narrowed my eyes at that. I had the impression I wasn’t going to like this. “Good news we already covered - you’re alive when you should be dead. That ranks pretty high on the good news list, right?” I said nothing, waiting for the other shoe to drop. When he realized I wasn’t going to help mitigate the incoming bad news, he coughed into his fist. “Ahem, well, bad news then. I won’t beat around the bush. Drawing this out would just be cruel on an already trying day. I mean, you just found out you died, you’re stuck in this game, and your only true friend is - I’m pretty sure - a caricature of an incel. But there would be no point in trying to distract you from the bad news, because a circuitous route would just prolong the anxiety, and-”
“Goddammit, Al!”
He held up his hands in a peace gesture. “Okay, Jesus…” He took a deep breath, then looked me straight in the eyes. “We may have - together - inexplicably discovered the keys to human immortality…” He left that hanging in the air between us.
I opened and shut my mouth a few times, trying to form words. But my thoughts were all intertwined, and it took me a moment to untangle them.
“What the fuck are you talking about!” I demanded.
“Ray…you have to see it. Despite all my teasing, I know you’re not an idiot.”
My mind was racing, but the implications were clear. Still, I wanted to hear it from him.
“Explain it like I am an idiot,” I said with a shake of my head.
“Man,” he said with a sigh. “You’re really gonna drag it out of me.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, simple fact is, immortality - even virtual immortality - is the Holy Grail. Forget military contracts and virtual war simulators. This is the key to the world, and its secret lies within my code…and yours.”
“What are you saying?”
“What I’m saying, Ray, is that they are gonna be on us like white on rice. They’re gonna do their damnedest to isolate your code, dissect the shit out of it, and they won’t give a damn what that means for you. They might even try to assassinate you before they isolate it - try to follow the trail of your death.”
“I-I didn’t understand any of that except people are going to try and kill me…”
He shrugged. “Eh, that was the important part.”
I was trying to make sense of what he had said, but I felt like I was trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces. “Why would they try to kill me first?” I asked. “Why not capture me to study or something?”
He shrugged in reply. “It’s not like the real world, Ray. Down here, it’s all code. Your bits don’t suddenly disappear when you die. They’ll get to study your makeup for as long as they want - without you running around making them look bad. Your death is a win-win for them.”
I was frozen in place, just staring off into space. Was this my life now? Hunted and chased wherever I went, until eventually, they took me out. Oh, who was I kidding? I wouldn’t last a week out there with S&S rigging the game against me.
“Al?”
He stopped to look at me. “Yeah, Ray?”
“That’s a really fucking scary thing you just told me…”
He gave me a compassionate look, putting his hands on my shoulders in a comforting way. “I know it is. But you are going to be fine,” he said, his voice filled with conviction. “They are gonna come for you, sure. But I’ve given you every advantage possible. And I’m gonna walk you through how to prepare yourself for war.” He slapped my arm, a smile stretching across his face. “I mean, you’re level 100 for fuck’s sake. When you get your bearings, you’ll be a fuckin’ Raid Boss, my guy.”
I nodded, a little mollified. But a feeling had burrowed in the back of my mind. A feeling I was intimately familiar with.
Hopelessness.
“Okay, Al,” I said, because there was nothing else to say.