Elizabeth Day couldn’t believe how today had turned out. She was actually sitting on Mars eating pizza with people that hadn’t been on Earth for over a year. She also had two of her crew members with her. Paula, a younger woman from Virginia, fresh out of college, and Robert, or Bob to his friends, who was an old hat that had been with WNN for over 20 years.
“Commander Martin,” Elizabeth Day said as she looked at the International Mars Base Commander, “If Portals Inc can do as Adam said it can do, what are your thoughts on the ability to take a break from Mars and relax on Earth for a bit?”
“Well Ms. Day, first I’d like to thank Adam for the Pizza and Beer, I’m sure everyone here really appreciates the change after the limited choices we have here,” Commander Martin said as he raised his Beer to Adam who returned the gesture with his beer. Robert, of course, had set up his camera on a tripod which caught the exchange and the overwhelming agreement that came in from everyone within earshot.
The Commander waited for the commotion to calm down before he continued, “If Portals Inc. can provide a stable connection to Earth we would be fools not to accept the offer. We will have to look at acclimation, logistics, and security for those getting to and from Mars. The only immediate concern I can think of though is cost. There is always a price, what is Portals Inc going to charge us?” Commander Martian asked looking pointedly at Adam.
Adam laughed, “Are you sure you’re not an Accountant Commander?” Adam asked lightheartedly as he held up his hand to forestall any response, “It is a fair question that I am happy to respond to. First, Ms. Day are you still recording?”
“Yes Adam,” she said.
“Very good, this next part people are going to want to listen to, I might even add a stunt of sorts.”
“A stunt,”
“Just let your producers know they need to do their break, you know what never mind,” he said as Everyone that was carrying a smartphone had their phones ping with a notification chime.
Elizabeth reached for her phone and read the notification.
“Tune into WNN News right now for a live update from Elizabeth Day on Mars, that’s right folks, she’s on Mars right now!”
Elizabeth held up her phone and turned the screen to Adam, “Did you do that?” she asked as others around the room displayed the same message.
Adam nodded, “Yeah that was me,” he said
Commander Martin looked at his phone, looked at the time stamp then looked at Adam, “Okay, I have to ask, how did you get my phone to get the same message she did, there’s just over a 9-minute lag to Earth for communication. When we talk right now it’ll be almost 19 minutes before I get an answer to a question.”
Adam pointed toward the new airlock,” Once you run a communication cable through the portals. Connectors and cables are built in. You’ll be able to plug directly into the internet and have immediate communication with Earth. As for how I got your phones to do that trick, let’s just say the same thing that keeps people from resorting to violence can be utilized to send messages to whomever I want to?”
“Wait, are you saying you are responsible for what has happened around the world?” Elizabeth Day asked.
“We’ll get to that. If my data is correct, and it is, you should be receiving a message to go in a second or two,” Adam said.
Just then the earpiece she wore that allowed her to talk to her Producer filled her left ear with the voice of Joseph Stevenson, “Don’t know how you did it Lizzy but our numbers have never been higher. Just follow this Adam guy and let’s see where he leads you.”
Elizabeth plastered a fake smile on her face, He knew how much she hated to be called Lizzy, then nodded at the Camera. Turning to Adam she said, “Everything is ready on our end Adam we’re ready whenever you are.
“Good evening Earth!, “Adam said as he grinned into the Camera. Some of you have seen me before and others haven’t. Right now I’m on Mars with Elizabeth Day promoting my new company Portals Inc which is going to provide, free of charge, access for scientists and explorers that want to visit Mars. The access is instantaneous and will make travel to and from both cheaper and quicker.”
“Before the message went out letting everyone know to tune in, Commander Martian asked you what the cost would be, as everything has a cost. I’m sure those commercial agencies that depended on the contracts to get products from Earth to Mars are wondering how they’re going to turn a profit in the upcoming years with transportation costs being almost non-existent. Which begs the question, how are you supplying the energy that maintains the portals you’re creating?” Elizabeth Day asked.
“I’m so glad you asked that question Elizabeth. First, as everyone may or may not know a major change has shifted reality. That shift is the Interface that everyone now has that keeps issuing its updates. What many of you don’t know is that the Interface is literally proof that magic exists.”
“Are you talking about the free food around the planet and the fact that anyone that tries to initiate an act of violence finds themselves nude?” Elizabeth asked.
“Actually, no, the mechanism that is pulling that off is nanotechnology.”
“What is nanotechnology?” Elizabeth asked.
“Basically, there are machines smaller than you can see in everything, everywhere in the solar system.”
“What?” Commander Martian interrupted. “Do you know how dangerous that is?”
“Actually. I do Commander. but we can talk about that offline in a minute. Besides, where do you think the Pizza and Beer came from?”
The Commander lifted his beer,” The nanites created this beer?”
“Yes,” Adam said as the world watched the liquid in the beer refill from nothing.
“You just told them to refill my beer?” The Commander said amazed and horrified. I don’t think I can drink it now.
“There’s nothing to worry about Commander, the Solar System has had nanites throughout it for a little while now.”
“I think we’re getting a little off-track Adam,” Elizabeth said as she tried to steer him back, “Are you saying that you are responsible for the various leaders of the world being unable to clothe themselves and the pink bunny suits various people in cold climates have been recorded in?” She asked.
Adam laughed, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. To answer your question directly, technically yes. I left an A.I. in charge of nanotechnology as I was busy handling a possible alien invasion. It has a lot of experience handling situations like this. We’ve tried the I’m going to be a dictator and you’ll do what I say approach before, but that didn’t work out so well before, so we went with a more hands-off approach this time. We’re letting people do what they want so long as what they want doesn’t hurt other people,” Adam said.
“How could you have done this before, are you implying that you’re a time traveler and that you’re going through a Ground Hog Day moment?” Elizabeth asked.
“Time Travel? I like how your mind thinks Ms. Day. No, no time travel. As far as I’ve seen I can only slow time down a bit on a personal scale, or speed myself up so fast that everything else seems to slow down, not really sure which it is. Anyway, I was going to save this for later, but I guess this is as good a time as any, I am now the Primary shareholder of Labyrinth LLC,” Adam said.
“You’re serious? And why is your being the CEO of Labyrinth LLC important? It’s a failed company that millions of people died playing?” she said bitterly. She should know, her baby brother had been one of those that never woke up.
“A look of realization crossed Adam’s face as his eyes glazed over for a second then he was back. I’m sorry Ms. Day I hadn’t realized that your brother was one of the souls everyone here thought lost.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked a little frustrated, “Lost Souls, what does that have to do with anything?”
“I will get there, I promise, “Adam said placatingly. “First magic is real. The addition of the Interface to everyone as well as the emergence of Dungeons and their link to the Labyrinth should be proof enough. If not, I will provide proof later with a demonstration of what nifty magic powers look like with the caveat that I am the point zero, zero, zero, a butt ton of more zeros, one percent exception to the way magic normally works. It is very unlikely that anyone else will be able to do everything I can, though they might learn aspects of the abilities I have,” Adam said as he paused to take a drink of his beer.
“So how does magic explain anything?” Elizabeth asked.
“In the simplest way I know how to put it, magic screwed things up for Labyrinth LLC. The business model for the company was sound. Create a game people could download their minds into and live in a virtual reality that had anything they could program into it. They even created a fully sentient A.I. to oversee the game world and had everything ready to go. Then they had this crazy idea to utilize this new technology that looked like something out of Syfy. Someone had figured out how to store energy with almost zero cost and then pull it back out.”
“You’re talking about the quantum battery project that was canceled because the amount of power that could be drawn out almost always ended up being less than what was put in,” Commander Martian said.
“Exactly!” Adam confirmed, “The engineers looked at the data and wondered if the quantum storage location could hold a matrix instead of just energy and if it could if they could connect to it. Their trials worked and The Game was created.”
“Which eventually killed my little brother,” Elizabeth said.
“No, it didn’t, or more precisely I should say that the mind of your brother and everyone else in the game survived.”
Elizabeth lost her composure as she said, “Horseshit!”
“What no one on Earth could have realized was that the reason the Battery project always failed was that the scientists and engineers hadn’t accessed a quantum location or realm that could store power. They had accessed a nascent Universe just as the big bang was happening. The attempts to store energy failed because the energy dispersed. When the Engineers tried to imprint a matrix on the forming Universe it set the rules for that universe and created a holographic Universe run by the rules the A.I. put in place.”
“Wait, are you saying that The Game was actually in another universe?” Commander Martin asked.
“Kind of,” Adam said. “The Game was another Universe. In that Universe, Earth existed, much as was back in 2020 as well as other aspects more related to the game aspect.”
“I remember looking into it, they didn’t want us messing with it when we were prepping for this mission, something about altering brain activity.
“It wouldn’t have altered your brain activity unless you were disconnected like everyone was when the aliens destroyed the original Universe the Game was set up in.
“You just said that they’re not dead?” Elizabeth said.
“And they aren’t” Adam confirmed. “When the Universe was attacked by an Alien Empire known as the Pelza the A.I. put into motion a plan to save as many souls as it could by creating several backup copies of the Game in other Universes. I have been working with the A.I. to recover those Souls.”
“How do you know so much about the A.I. and the Game Universe?” Elizabeth asked.
“Well, you know how Massively Multiplayer Games have Non-Player Characters in them?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth said.
“Well because the game had been set up inside a real Universe the A.I. ran simulations of multiple versions of history based on the real world. This led to the creation of people who had families that lived for generations and existed just like the people out here do. The people plugging into the game thought of them as NPCs when they could remember that they were in a game but that didn’t happen all that often as the A.I. had become very good at bringing people from the outside into the Game. A common tactic would have been… Let’s take you, for example, Ms. Day.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“Okay, although I don’t think there’s any way the A.I. could fool me into believing that the game was real,” she said.
Adam smiled,” The first step would be for you to download your mind into the game. The A.I. would then lock out the memories of your life, give you some false ones and introduce you to The Game. You wouldn’t be able to recognize that you were in the game because you’d have no memory of the real world or anything about being in a game.
“And you?”
“I was born inside the Original Game Universe before it was destroyed by the Pelza Empire.”
“You were born in The Game. You expect everyone to believe that.”
“I don’t care what anyone believes. It’s where I was from. Of course, this brings us to the magic is real part. I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of magic, though I may help, or hire someone to help. So the game was created inside a real universe and that real universe was affected by real magic which corrupted the matrix of the Game. I was inside that corrupted sector of the Game and was directly affected by it. Because of this, I retained certain qualities or abilities when I was drawn into this Universe.”
“You do realize how insane this sounds don’t you,” Elizabeth Day.
Adam nodded, smiled, and stood, “Who here would like to go to another planet in another Solar System? I’ll leave the Portal open so you can come right back. Gravity is Earth standard, or so close it doesn’t matter so those of you acclimated to Mars might find it tiring but I’ll have you back here before you wear yourselves out. Also, the reason that you don’t have to worry about contaminating a biosphere is that like Mars and Earth, my nanites are in everything. Any germs…” Adam trailed off for a moment.
Adam turned to look at the Cameral Bob was holding, “Haven’t any of you wondered why you haven’t been sick for a while or the miraculous recoveries that have happened all over Earth? Not one person has died of Cancer since the nanites covered the planet, plastics in the oceans have disappeared and the landfills have all been converted. They’re still producing natural gas where necessary because I have nanites producing the natural gas or methane. Anyway, Elizabeth, Paula, Robert, and whoever else wants to come, if you’d follow me,” Adam said as a new portal opened onto what looked like an empty city street.
Elizabeth, Paula, and Bob stepped through with Commander Martian and a few others close behind. Bob swept the camera around to take everything in as everyone looked around gawking at the empty streets and buildings. Before anyone could utter a question, Adam floated up above them and moved so that as they looked at him they noticed the Red Star behind him which was much larger than the Sun of Earth. Adam flew down and landed in front of Elizabeth, Robert tracking him with the camera the whole way.
Elizabeth recovered quickly and asked, “Where are we?”
You are currently standing in the Headquarters City for what will be known as the Resurrection Project for everyone that died while connected to the Game. As I said they’re not dead, but they don’t have bodies in this Universe and I’ll need to create new ones for them.
“You can create bodies?” Elizabeth said skeptically.
Adam waved his hand for dramatic effect as a duplicate of himself formed out of nothing beside him. It only took moments.
Then he pointed to his opposite side and another duplicate of him appeared. Both stood there, eyes open and vacant, “The first copy was created with the nanites, the second with magic,” Adam said as he spread his hands and both bodies evaporated, “Nanites just broke down both bodies.
“And we are,” Elizabeth asked leadingly.
“We are on Trappest-1e 39.6 light years from Earth,” Adam said.
“Your portals have that kind of range?”
“Oh yes”, Adam said as he turned to the Commander, “Commander Martian I’d offer for you to stay with us but I think you have a lot of people waiting to talk to you, in fact, I know you do. Once everything is settled people will be allowed to visit, but for now, I’m going to ask for you and those that came with you to head back to Mars. The Portal to Earth has already moved to the new airlock and the new door to it should be done forming. Remember any modifications you’d like done, just let me know. Also, waste and environmental supplies are automatically being recovered or replenished and the structure repaired. You can double-check of course but it’s not going to fail on you
The Commander nodded then stuck out his hand, “Thank you, Adam. I would love to sit down and have a conversation with you when things settle down?”
“Things never settle down around me, but I’ll keep that in mind,” Adam said then turned to Sarah Conner who was looking at one of the buildings, “You take care of yourself as well Sarah.”
“Come with me if you want to live?” She asked rhetorically, “You should have said, “Come with me if you want to be continuously surprised over and over.”
Adam smiled, “At least you haven’t been bored since those four Pelza Commandos attacked.
“They were from that Alien Empire?” Sarah asked.
“Yep,” Adam confirmed.
“Do we need to worry about them?”
“I was going to tell Elizabeth this part in a little bit but since you asked and Robert is recording anyway, there are much more powerful empires and beings than any of you can imagine. One of those empires was very angry with the Pelza Empire. These other aliens utilized their alien nanites to revert the Pelza Empire, which was probably 1,000 years ahead of humanity back to the Steam age and they will remain there for a very long time. The technology they utilized to destroy the Universe of my Birth, or The Game Universe, is a prohibited technology. As for the Emperor, he’ll never bother Earth again, I snapped his neck.
“You killed him?”
“Oh yeah. I have morals, that asshole killed an unconscionable number of sentient lives. He died.
“You can’t just kill people,” Sarah said.
Adam looked right at the Camera Robert was holding and said in a very firm deliberate voice, “Yes, Yes I can.” After pausing for a second he continued in a much more happy tone, “But only those that cross me and mine. Best that people remember that when the restriction on violence is lifted. But you need to get going, my nanites are already telling me that your body is struggling. You all are going to need to acclimate back to Earth slowly. My nanites will keep you alive and I could have them take away the aches and pains but that’s not what they’re for. Just take your time and enjoy your trips home when you get them.”
“You’re a weird one Adam but again, thank you for saving my life.
“No issues. I’d say have a nice trip, but look you’re already there, “ he said as she stepped through the portal.” Adam said as he smiled at her and the portal closed. Adam turned to find Elizabeth Day looking at him.
“Did you really kill the Emperor of an Alien Empire?” Elizabeth Day asked.
“As I told the United Nations, I created enough Antimatter to destroy the Khau’ting empire. They’re the race that was responsible for the destruction of Atlantis and the subjugation and slaughter of the citizens of that Empire. Yeah, they’re dead, not losing sleep over it. Also, I killed the emperor of the Pelza Empire just before his entire empire was put on a time-out, which reminds me, I have an undead asshole I need to go say high too.”
“Do you make sense to anyone you talk to, “Elizabeth asked.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you follow me and find out,” Adam said as he headed toward the glass doors of a building they were standing next to.
Adam led them through the doors to a set of elevators. Now I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Al, that’s the A.I. that is finding all the minds of those whose bodies died. Anyway, Al was able to find your brother but your brother doesn’t want to leave yet.”
“What do you mean he doesn’t want to leave.”
“Inside the game, people can live full lives. It would seem that your brother has a woman that he loves and a couple of children,” Adam said.
“Then where are we going?” Elizabeth asked.
“I have a couple of rooms set up where the family will be able to visit and see how their children or loved ones are doing until they’re ready to come back to the real world. In some cases, they’ll even be able to talk to them, like you will be able to talk to your brother.”
“How do you know he doesn’t want to come back?” Elizabeth asked.
“Because Al asked him. It seems that your brother wanted a version of life that was really close to the real world so he’s on a mirror Earth a little farther in the future. The A.I. pulled his mind into a limbo of sorts and unlocked his memories to ask if he’d like to come home. He said no. Then Al asked if he’d like to talk to you and he said sure. So, we’re heading to a room where you can have a conversation.” Adam said
Elizabeth followed Adam out of the Elevator and into a room that had glass paneling that looked into a small white cube of a room with a single door, “Robert and Paula, the three of us are going to go elsewhere. This is for Elizabeth and her brother.
“What do I do?” Elizabeth asked
“Step into the room. You will not be with your brother but the A.I. will simulate your presence to him and the nanites in the room will render an almost solid image of him as he talks to you. Be warned that he will not look like the brother you know and as far as he’s concerned he’s still in the game. You can explain what’s going on if you want but for your peace of mind, I would focus on verifying it is your little brother. What comes after will be up to him.”
“Elizabeth walked to the door that led into the small room stepped inside and watched as an almost holographic replica of an older gentleman she didn’t recognize looked at her, his eyes widened and he moved to hug her which passed right through her as he said excitedly, “Lizzy!”
***
Adam led Robert and Paula out of the room and back to the elevators. As they walked Adam said, “Robert, just so you know, your camera stopped working when we exited the elevator. It’s not going to start working again until we’re on the roof. You’ll probably get questions about it, it was me.”
“How is that even possible, we’re on another planet?” Robert asked.
“Well, the nanites in your camera are transmitting through quantum entanglement to another set of nanites that are sending the information to your Producer.”
“Where are we going now?” Paula asked.
“I’m going to take you to my spaceship. I don’t have a spaceship yet but I’m going to make one really quick, and then I’m going to get you two on board and we’re going to go fly around this solar system so you can have some footage of a Red Dwarf star. There are a lot of people that are about to become incredibly jealous,” Adam said as the elevator opened and they stepped out onto the roof.
Adam activated Flight and went straight up into orbit where he used Mold Chaos to create a perfect replica of a Lexi scout ship that could carry a crew of 12. While he’d met the Lexi in the SYSTEM Matrix their ship design worked in the real world. He teleported inside and then had Thor create a portal for Robert and Paula to board the ship.
“You just flew up into space, without a spaceship,” Paula said.
“Yeah, I created this ship out of thin, scratch that there’s no air up here. I just created this ship out of nothing but magic too,” Adam said.
“If we’re in space, why does it feel like normal gravity,” Robert asked.
“There’s artificial gravity built into the ship. Now grab a seat and keep that camera handy. The reason I picked this ship is that it was a scout ship used by a race of aggressive aliens I once ran into.”
Adam waited until they were seated and he’d buckled them in before he took the pilot’s seat and activated Technomancy to take control of the ship. He looked back at the Camera Robert was holding as he continued, “This is a scout ship I ran across, the reason I had you strap in is that you can get kind of disoriented when a certain function is activated,” Adam said as the entire ship around them disappeared and they seemed to be floating in space.
“What,” Paula said, a hint of fear in her voice.
“How?” Robert said.
“It takes a little bit to get used to. Some holographic transmitters are providing what the outside of the hull is recording directly into your eyes.
“The Camera is not going to pick that up,” Robert said.
“It is. The nanites that are part of your optical nerve are converting what you see directly into a signal that is being spliced into your camera. Whatever your looking at the people back on Earth watching are seeing.
“How do you know how to do everything that you’re doing?” Paula asked.
“That is a very good question Paula but I think we’ll get back to flying around the solar system,” Adam said as he had the ship do a flyby around the moon, come back toward the planet, and then head toward the star. He made sure to shield the input from the massive light coming off the Star and took the ship as close as he could without stressing it too badly. There were four other planets relatively close to the Red Dwarf that Adam flew them by. As they were approaching the fourth planet, it was the next one in from Trappist-1e, the ship slowed and the stars faded as the cabin reappeared and a portal appeared and Elizabeth stepped through.
“A ship?” Elizabeth asked.
“A ship. Please take a seat and we’ll continue the tour of Trappist-1d,” Adam said as he helped Elizabeth buckle in, the stars reappeared, causing her to gasp.
“Don’t sweat it Elizabeth,” Robert said. “You’ll get used to it in a minute
“I hope so,” Elizabeth said as the ship accelerated toward a planet in the distance.
Adam took the ship on a flyby of the planet, turned it toward Star, and took it as close as he dared.
“Now as we sit here in space, this is the part all of you watching from Earth have been waiting for,” Adam said as he teleported into space in front of the ship with the star behind him. He also had the scout lock onto him and picked a point for the scout to reacquire him after 10 seconds when he disappeared.
“He’s outside the ship right?” Paula asked
“Adam what are you doing, Elizabeth asked.
Adam had his voice come through the speakers as he slowly started floating away from the ship, “Every time I try to help people or help my friends or family there is some joker or group of jokers that don’t believe I’m as powerful as I say I am. This is the part where I tell you about magic. My inherent nature makes me immune to pretty much every environment. As you can see we’re in a vacuum, to really drive this home how outclassed anyone that comes after me is, I’m going to fly into that star behind me. Here’s the thing, If I die, I’ll be right back, but I’m not going to die and I’ve preprogrammed the ship to acquire me exiting from the corona of the star. So, be back in a few seconds,” Adam said as he turned and flew toward the star.
Adam increased his speed and flew down to the surface of the star as he flew around it and then back toward the Scout Ship. Adam of course listened to what was being said.
“How is he doing that?” Paula asked.
“He flew to the surface, I could see it. He flew into the Plasma and it did nothing to him,” Robert said.
“Adam as I understand things you can still hear us correct?”
“Yes,” Adam’s voice said through the speakers.
“How are you doing that?” Elizabeth asked.
“Crash course on magic it is then,” Adam’s voice said with a chuckle. “Magic is an expression of your soul. When you unlock a magic ability what ability you may acquire is influenced by your soul. In my case, one of the abilities I unlocked is called Adaption. It allows me to adapt to any environment. Another ability I picked up is Flight and yet another lets me create items like the ship you’re sitting in.”
“So the nanites are just something you thought up and created with magic?” Elizabeth asked.
“No. I actually created nanotechnology the long drawn out way. It took a couple of years. Nanotechnology led me down the path that eventually brought me here though.
“So why are you showing us this?” Elizabeth asked
The blackness of space receded and the ship was once again around them as Adam teleported into the ship in front of Elizabeth and Robert.
“First, I wanted to show the world what magic and technology are capable of. The ship you are in is not within the technological capabilities of humanity yet, I do understand the technology and I do understand its dangers. As soon as we’re done here the ship will be destroyed but I am definitely willing to work with the people of Earth to begin the next phase of the planet’s expansion and growth. Second, The Russians and Chinese are even now trying to infiltrate my servers and find any information they can about me. What they need to understand is like this,
Adam snapped his fingers, “SNAP!”
“Every single electrical outlet in China and Russia just shut off. The only way the leaders there know what I’ve done is that holographic projections appeared in front of them showing me talking to you. Like this,”
Adam snapped his fingers again, “SNAP!”
“Their power can come back on. I will be dropping by to talk with the United Nations again, I expect that the gathering will be explosive after today’s revelations,” Adam paused for a second as he considered what to say, “Should be fun.”