“Congratulations, you are a colonist! We know what your first thought is - it is...”
“Fuck! My head hurts! Wow, why does it hurt so badly? My hand is so hot... it is burning! Fuck, why is it burning? I can't feel my legs. They are cold as ice. Why am I vocalizing all this? What the bloody hell is going on?!”
“..nosaurs, megalosaurus and other anthropomorphic carnivorous dinosaurs descendants along with several humanoid rac...”
“Wood, petroleum, dust, piss, dead squirrel. Why do I sense all these tastes? Would it be much better if it were mere smells? Logic enables. Systems are functioning. Little ambiguities in the muscle memory module. The check starts now... Fuuuuck! AAAA! What a fuuuck?!
“..plicated world topology and geography allowed such different creatures to coexist. Not peacefully th...”
“Stop. Please stop. I can’t take it anymore. Whoever.. whatever you are, stop, I am begging you. Please! I am so happy now! I am the happiest man alive! I would be so happy if I had legs and could jump now. Emotions enable. Little ambiguities in SOUL(single omnipresent uniform life) unit integration. The check starts now..”
“.. are the last hope of the human race. Information is your majo..”
“Fuuuuuck!!!”
***
“..and gods help you. To repeat the information message command “Repeat the information message” to your PT. Alliance Ventures Ltd wishes you good luck, colonist.. Riggs”
The room was an almost precise copy of my bedroom. If I were a bit less perceptive, some inaccuracies would have slipped my attention, though. For example, there was neither a Sponge Bob cup on my table last night nor a giant planet in my window ever.
Yeah, I can afford windows… Could afford. Back there. On Earth... Colonist...
I listened to the information message several more times. Long story short - I am dead.
The end.
***
No, seriously - find something else to read because my story has ended. The story of Jeremiah Riggs has ended.
***
Fiiiine. Ok. If you are that lazy to find some other thing, I can give you a story. I will not use fancy words. I will present the hero of the book in a better light than he deserves. I will lie and deceive. It will not be a story of a human named Jeremiah Riggs, though - he is dead, remember. It will be a story of Himera Er Jiggs - a bunch of qubits entangled with some photons from elsewhere. Yeah. An explanation could be better, but this bullshit is what they try to sell me in their manual. So, where did I stop?
***
Yeah - I was telling you about me being dead. Alliance Ventures Ltd - the giant conglomerate of all the major corporations in the world, or as I should say now - back on Earth, started a colossal colonization mission. Not onto Mars, though, no - after what happened last time - not many would want to repeat the experience. They made their eduction, learned their lesson. This time the goal was even more remarkable - Kepler - 84911- exoplanet four times bigger than Earth, orbiting basically a copy of our sun - a bit bigger, a bit brighter. The average temperature of the surface - 16 degrees celsius. The year lasts 453 days, climate - mostly warm tropical and subtropical. The day lasts 28 hours. Two dependent moons - one orbits the other, that orbits the planet. 80 percent of the surface is water. And guess what - it has intelligent life.
Yeah, my first thought was the same - bullshit. How could the scientists know all that from 126 light-years away? New telescope based on trapped quantum-entangled photons from the star this planet orbits, they say. It helped observe the planet's life for over a hundred years - they know all the languages, the biology of all the species, the geology of all the surface and under it, all the inhabitants of the oceans and sky, they say. Every. Fucking. Detail. They say.
One hundred million people are colonists on this ship, they say.
The nearest five to ten years will be a virtual reality game, they say.
Critical thinking is not responding from the amount of crap it experienced - a reboot is needed.
***
I stood there, in the middle of the virtual copy of my room, completely dazed and confused. Extracted from everything I own and know and placed into some vivid nightmare, I was not angry, though. Why bother if you are dead if your body has turned to a stem cell soup and corn fertilizer. In the best-case scenario, I had a hundred more years of active life in my previous existence. Here - ninety-six lives(why not a hundred) in a next-gen VR game and cloudy perspectives as a colonist on an already habitat planet.
Not with the body but with the mind - this stupid motto of our mission pretty clearly described humankind's current position on colonization. If we cannot spread physically, we will spread mentally. As for me - it is stupid and somewhat dangerous. Dangerous for other intelligent civilizations - the human way of thinking is like a virus. Destructive, irreverent, and hypocritical in its core, it tends to occupy, use, and leave spoiled anything it encounters. It looks like this planet is the next vessel to bear such a burden. I’d felt sorry for them if I weren't such an average human.
But hey - it is just my subjective opinion. Who am I to take my views seriously? Just some semi-legal digital archeologist, Greendale community college graduate, 25 years old lad with a crooked smile, and a couple of qbit coins offshore. Yeah, and actual windows in a rented apartment.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I looked into the current version of my window - a blue and green planet with patchy borders of land and ice caps on its poles. Something looked weird about its atmosphere, though. It had several distinct layers. The separation of layers was clearly visible but not very clear. As far as I remember, the Earth’s atmosphere was not like that. Some kind of space debris or what? I googled basic information about the planet on the local web and didn’t find any notes regarding this phenomenon. There were a perihelion and an aphelion of the planet, hemispheres climate, potentially dangerous asteroids and comets(surprisingly, there were quite a lot of them) but not a word regarding atmosphere anomaly. It was a peculiar fact for later investigation. I made a mark in my memory and moved further down the manual.
The feelings I felt before gaining consciousness were specifically exaggerated to sync my mind and my virtual body. It was like I was giving birth to myself. I waited till creeps left my skin and continued.
Chat. Chat? Chat! As you have understood, there was a chat feature on the info panel. I prayed only for one thing - an auth capability - all in vain. A pre-logged-in account without the possibility of logging out. Unsurprisingly, the contacts list was clean. The absence of relatives and recent legal personality change cleared it from almost all of my accounts. Lazy bastards - they could have done a better job tracking my connections. By DNA or web certificate, it is quite easy... Well - bummer, a pretty practical skillset from my latest occupation is entirely irrelevant now.
I walked from one corner of my room to the other and noticed one thing - there were no doors to the hall. The window turned out to be a holographic screen. I was in the solid box that looked like my room. I tried to take some books, but I could not even pick them up from a shelf, though. The only three interactable things were a bed, a chair, and a computer - the holy trinity of modern youth. Why’d they even bothered with this blank copy of my room? Maybe shrinks think it helps us to cope with the situation better. Well, maybe it does, or perhaps the fact that they control our, put in the Soulstone rig, mind, ultimately. Either way, I decided not to postpone the inevitable and opened the character creation app interface. Atmosphere secret will wait - there were no other ways to investigate it but to participate in this farce.
Not so fast, it replied. Firstly read the giant unskippable terms and conditions and answer several(dozens) questions about what you’ve just read.
“Who controls the colonization mission, ship, and a game phase?” - “Specially built AI.”
“Will there be a communication link between the colonization mission and homeworld?” - “No; within the game phase bounds; after the landing.”(There were no further explanation whatsoever)
“What will happen after the ship lands on Alliance Ventures Zero(planet name)” - “Special colony of nanobots will recreate my body and copy my mind into it.”
“What body will you be in?” - “It will be the body of one of the races of the planet, but it will be based on my DNA. The body will be chosen before the game phase by me, from the allowed ones, and cannot be changed afterward.”
“How can you improve your body to ensure your colonization mission success” - “Gain experience, spend it on body attributes, skills, and traits, learn and explore during the game phase.”
“Why is there a game phase before actually landing on Alliance Ventures Zero(planet name)?” - “To prepare us physically and psychologically for what is waiting there for us.”
...
“Will you have any tools and gear with you after the landing?” - “Only tied tools and gear owned by me at the end of the game phase.”
“How can you tie tools and gear to your character?” - “I will have to use one life to do that.”
“How many tied items can you have?” - “Ten items. If the items are a pair as boots are - they count as one item.”
“What will happen when you try to tie the eleventh item” - “One of the previous items, of my choice, will untie.”
“Will tied tools and gear preserve their limitations and unique abilities?” - “Limitations will no longer be applied. Abilities will stay.”
“Will you preserve tools and gear after death?” - “Only tied ones and basic coverings.”
...
“What skills and abilities will your body have after the landing?” - “The skills and abilities I will learn and obtain during the game phase.”
“How can you learn new skills and abilities” - “ Book teaches and any other ways within the game phase bounds.”
“Can your skills and abilities be what is called supernatural” - “Any skill within the game phase bounds”(whatever the fuck that means)
“Will you be able to teach someone one of your skills or abilities” - “Any skill within the game phase bounds”(I just repeat what I have read - don’t judge me)
…
“Will there be intelligent inhabitants” - “Yes - around two and a half billion.”
“Will intelligent inhabitants communicate with you” - “They are completely the same as colonists in terms of intellectual capacity, physical and emotional actions, and reactions within the game. They are complete copies of actual inhabitants of the potential Alliance Ventures Zero.”
“Will there be unintelligent inhabitants” - “Yes, there will be plenty of creatures of all kinds, both hostile and friendly.”
“Will intelligent and unintelligent inhabitants respawn” - “Only within the game phase bounds.”
…
“What level of technological advancement will be on the Alliance Ventures Zero” - “Early middle ages.”
…
It sure looks like a lot of information. The preliminary information regarding the actual life on the actual planet rather than this thin set of game rules was absent, though. It is like there are no definite plans for that. Interesting.
Regarding the game phase, though, everything was clear: colonists - players, inhabitants - NPCs and mobs, tools and gear - loot. Something about those loot mechanics seemed pretty perspective, but I couldn’t connect the dots yet. Interestingly, there was no information whatsoever regarding the available races, classes, skills, talents, and other more specific character info - only general statements. I wondered whether this information was absent only for me or for everybody, and what advantage does this information give?..
Everything was vague regarding the actual colonization - no information regarding natural planet conditions, real political situation, and other valuable stats of that brand new world. It looked like we should consider all the information regarding the game phase to be applicable during the actual colonization - so yeah, the giant pile of bullshit.
I am not a very reflective kind of guy, so I’ve decided not to bother yet with all these strange information gaps. Either way, I should solve problems one by one.
After this, almost two hours long, reading, and quiz afterward, the app offered me to agree with all the terms and conditions and finally proceed.
At that moment, some of the peculiarities of my current position became clear.
“Jeremiah Riggs considering your criminal background, you have limited information availability and character creation options. IMPORTANT - it is not a punishment or penalty of any sort - available options were chosen to suit your personality and lifestyle and are intended to benefit from your natural preconditions in the game phase. Thank you for understanding.”
Great... The thought not to continue this farce never appeared once during that time, though. Later, analyzing the situation, I concluded that the system was not controlling but rather guiding me through that first act. Staying there in my room till the end of times was never an option.
***