Chapter 9 - Jane

The lid of the capsule closed with a satisfying hiss like the doors on Star Trek.

I floated alone and calm on a sea of forgetfulness until memories, ideas, and stories began to swim through my consciousness. A masculine voice informed me that the initial diagnostics had been completed. I had the highly unpleasant experience of learning the nuances of pain mapping. Had I known in advance what that entailed, I’m not sure I would have been so quick to jump into this brave new world. I pushed that unpleasantness to the side in my eagerness to make my character. I selected soft core. I wasn’t the masochist my brother was. I’d rather keep my character for the duration, thank you. I couldn’t wait to explore how they’d handled the new races. Who picks human anyway? I mean, really. Boring.

It turns out that I do. I pick human, because I don’t have any other choice. My frustration grew at the class selection screen. I mentally punched the accept button swearing at the developers.

All of that faded as the world coalesced around me. I was in a beautiful clearing or meadow surrounded by lush and vibrant green. Flowers and herbs, distinct trees, bright minerals and fauna. Generally new characters in games like this begin in a starting city. Since I started here, I had an inkling that this was another bonus provided by the developers. I’d have to explore to find out more about this place.

I wasn’t given the time.

System messages scrolled in the chat window before my eyes. I had to back up and start reading from the beginning. A number of achievements, titles, and skills were acquired for being the first person on this new land. One in particular caught my eye.

Holy Redemption: activate this ability to sacrifice your life to save another. Other, unknown affects may occur. This ability supersedes all other restrictions. Warning! This ability can only be used once. Choose wisely.

My smile grew as I read more and more. I was giddy to try out all the freebies. I was about to open up my character menu when a vision in white stepped through a portal in front of me. She made the lines of her unadorned white dress, at once casual, and fit for a throne room.

“Hello, Alaria. I am Celandra, one of the intellect imitators for this world.”

I have to admit. My mouth fell open a little bit. I had heard rumors about I.I. but never expected to meet one. At least not so soon. I wanted to try to clarify and compare what I had heard with what she might say.

“Intellect Imitator? What’s that?”

“I am essentially a sophisticated computational mind that helps to run and operate this world. All of us imitators serve as a backbone for the processing of this world. We pay particular interest to player and non-player interaction within the world to help ensure that things run as smoothly as we can manage.”

My breath caught. “So you’re an artificial intellect?” I hadn’t thought that developing an actual AI was possible. But here she stood.

She smiled. “No. Our current level of sophistication does not constitute a truly artificial mind. It is for this reason we clarify our identities as Intellect Imitators. Our algorithms for handling player question and response as well as actions and reactions are incredibly complex, but not truly autonomous. Even this interaction that we are having now is a unique event. In this small window, my programming has allowed me to possess a greater self awareness than in the future. In this world I am a goddess. A character on the stage, and for this brief time, I am allowed to break character so to speak. We do not think for ourselves, we merely respond according to a vast array of data acquired through long observation, testing, and analysis.”

“But, we’re having a conversation right now. You’re answering my questions and interacting with me.”

“All of your questions so far have fit within the expected parameters and the responses have been generated that match seamlessly within our dialogue.” She smiled again. “Yes, even this is a scripted response. Most interactions with people are a series of scripted question and answers that are fairly easy to predict. I am here to tell you about this world and help you onto a path that will most benefit you.” She told me of the options of choosing a nice starter kit along with either a tutorial or stepping right into the game world, or choosing an advanced tutorial that would be challenging and allow me to grow and keep any rewards I’d find along the way. After she mentioned game balance and finding the line between profit from players willing to pay extra for bonuses and those who simply want to play the game without having to lay down money to do so. Once I heard that I immediately understood the significance.

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“The advanced tutorial. Definitely.” I stated confidently.

“Wonderful. Follow me and I will take you to the starting location for the tutorial.”

She stepped through the shimmering portal and I followed her quickly, not wanting the opportunity to pass. The first thing I was was Jackson falling back through a similar portal and landing fully prone on his back in a puddle. I covered my mouth with my hand to keep from laughing at him.

“I guess you didn’t get as nice of an introduction into this world as I did.” I said with a smile.

Jackson sat up, swinging his hair out of his face. He blew a few wisps that had still fallen over his eyes.

“Yeah. Something like that.”

His normally dark brown hair was lightened and his nose was similar in dimension to his real world face, but otherwise he was unrecognizable. We had agreed early on that we might make enemies in this game. We had a doctorate course over our lifetimes in preparing for any and every eventuality. It was natural to carry that over into the game world and we started with ensuring that we could stay anonymous as much as it was possible to do so.

I introduced Celandra. Jackson geeked just like I expected him to and we had to rehash the conversation about the differenced between Artificial Intelligence and Intellect Imitators.

It was then that I noticed the enormous sprawling compound behind Jackson. He was still sitting in a puddle on what I quickly realized was a well cared for lawn. The central fortress rose high into the air. The entire complex was a study in spartan functionality. Everything served the ultimate purpose of training and warfare. There was no stereotypical moat, however there was a perimeter of deeply grounding stakes funneling traffic to the gates through a meandering course. Once close to the citadel walls, the ground fell away into a deep depression. Stakes lined this area as well. Along the wall were gated doors that I quickly realized were sluice gates. I take it back, they could turn this into a moat after all. It was obvious that a waist deep level of water would be ideal for slowing down enemies and forcing them to navigate the stakes and place them on an even lower terrain if an invading army unwisely chose that course of action.

Celandra turned to us as I helped Jackson up out of the muddy water. “The first class at the Academy will be made up of one-thousand persons. Invitations will go to the first thousand Sojourners to enter this world. It is estimated that more than a few will choose the advanced starting equipment instead of attendance into the Academy. As First Player, you have the capability of selecting group members to join you at the Academy. They will enter a queue and will be allowed entry in the event that there is available room for them. The number of people you may select is based on your Tier in the Refer-a-Friend Program. You are currently at Tier 10 which is the highest currently available. You may select up to ten players to enter into the queue for the Academy.”

A prompt appeared in front of my vision asking for a list of names. I quickly added Gerald, Daniels, and the two doubles into the field. With a shrug I added mom and dad’s normal user names into the field as well. I couldn’t really think of anyone else to add to the list that I’d want next to me in this place. I smiled and added ‘Calen’ to the list. It was pronounced the same as her real name “Kaylin” but was an elvish name from Lord of the Rings meaning ‘Green One’. She’d snapped it up as soon as I’d mentioned that fact to her.

“So.” I glanced over at the space above Jackson’s head, confirming his character name. “Walker gets ten selections as well?” I asked, beginning to get excited.

Celandra paused for a long moment. That was unusual. The rumored processing speed of the I.I. was legendary, and there weren’t even players logged into the system yet. I shouldn’t have been able to see any noticeable delay in our conversation. Odd.

“I am afraid not. This is a special privilege given to first ten players and then working down the list. Walker is not on the list, though he does have the same ranking in the Refer-a-Friend system as you do.”

“But we entered at the same time. There’s no one else logged in. He should at least be number two on the list.” I was starting to get mad. I quickly entered ‘Walker’ into the list and pressed accept, just in case this glitch extended any further into the tutorial.

“Walker is not on the list.” Celandra repeated again after another long pause.

“It must be some kind of glitch.” Jackson said over my shoulder.

“It’s not fair! You deserve the same thing I got!”

“Its okay, Jane. Or I guess I should call you Alaria now. Wow, that’s going to be weird. I’m going to have to start using that name in my mind while we’re in here. Its probably a good idea to just start using it all the time. We can’t afford to slip up. We don’t know what we’re getting into in this world, but we do know that the authorities are out looking for us.” His face softened. “Cheer up, I didn’t want any freebies anyway. I’d have just thrown it back into their faces. I’m going to be the best and I’m going to do it without some developer turning on the elevator.” He smiled reassuringly. “I prefer the stairs.”

I sighed, nodding. Jackson—no, Walker, he was right. I needed to get used to using his new name. Walker was always playing games on the hardest difficulty setting. He always thought that you should play games like you live life; there should always be consequences, and nothing worthwhile was ever easy. I understood, but I didn’t at the same time. When I came home from a tough day, sometimes I just wanted to log in and be a super hero for a little while and kick everyone’s butt.

“Fine, I’ll drop it.” I turned back to Celandra. “Okay, so what happens next?”

 Celandra spoke as she opened two new portals in front of us. A gust of wind pushed us, stumbling through it and into a courtyard arena. At the same time hundreds of other portals were opening up, disgorging new players. Celandra stood on the other side of the portal, her clothing had shifted to an armored and contoured chest plate along with an elegantly stylized helmet and nose guard. Her eyes had become a pale gray and filled with a deep knowing. She held a long handled spear in her left hand and a rounded shield in her right. “What happens next is, you Sojouner’s will fight to the death.”

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