Chapter 36
Undisclosed Company Location, Earth
The breakthrough came on a Friday morning because of course it would. That way everyone would get to work the weekend. Fun! Still, most of the people involved were excited to get their first looks at Eden. Using the new breakthrough approach teams of engineers worked through the night to create a basic translation engine with the assistance of Alice, Eden's prime A.I.
The engine wouldn't be like watching live TV, there wouldn't be a 'view port' in to Eden. Neither would there be open instant communications between Earth and Eden. What it would do was allow Alice to move a huge cache of video she had been preserving of Jay's time in Eden so far over to Earth. It would also allow additional downloads of any future recordings Alice might make of Jay's daily life.
Shortly after the engine was completed they began to receive data from Eden which was shunted to a company data farm that had been left intentionally empty in anticipation of such an event. Another team was tasked with using the video to prepare for a new show they'd be airing on one of the streaming sites. The show wouldn't air for quite some time but the powers that be wanted a promo video as soon as possible for no other reason than their own curiosity.
That wasn't entirely fair. The powers that be had sunk enormous funds in to the Eden Project and the promo video was the first step in recouping some of that money. First Eden, then the first successful permanent human resident, then the promo, then the show, then the.. well you get the idea. There was a plan and the promo video would bring that plan one step closer to completion.
As the servers slowly began to fill with data the editing team began to take a look at what they had. Right away they realized they had something special. The small group of men and women worked on their computers tagging videos, organizing clips in to scenes, making notes of potential plot lines. By the time the weekend was over they had a working idea for a promo video along with enough material for the first few episodes easily.
Monday morning came and the team was excited to show what they had put together. Their final promotional video product was sent on to management and the engineers and video department all finally gathered around a video monitor in one of the roomier conference rooms and turned out the lights.
The room quieted as the tv monitor came to life. A husky woman's voice spoke but the screen remained dark. “Have you ever looked at your life and asked yourself, is this it?” There was a pause and a number of people watching actually nodded in agreement in the darkened room.
“Work,” the voice said and the screen flashed as a scene of a muscled man, a blacksmith, hammering a sword, molten particles flying everywhere with each strike before the screen went black again.
“Eat,” the voice said and a new scene flashed to life showing a view of one of the many lunches Jay had eaten during his stay on Eden before transitioning to another, then another, each looking delicious.
“Sleep,” the voice said and showed a scene of Jay laying down in the grass under the stars, M'redith's head propped on his chest while lightly snoring. The scene didn't immediately disappear but instead showed the two laying there peacefully before the video faded to black.
“But what ever happened to ADVENTURE?” asked the voice and the screen came to life again, showing a beautiful landscape with rolling green hills and flowery meadows.
“Take a journey with us to a place full of beauty,” the screen continued to show lovely landscaped views but then briefly and abruptly cut to a shot of Jay when he first entered the church with his crazy hair and beard, his clothing blazing white, his book glowing teal as music began to gradually build. The video cut back to beautiful rolling hills.
“a place of wonder,” the voice said in a whimsical tone as the video abruptly cut to a view of Dag fighting for his life against the stone golem from the Traveler's dungeon, each blow that landed looking brutally painful.
“a place of magic.” the voice finished with emphasis as it showed Jay's group in the Rat's Redoubt dungeon just as the lights went out and P'trick screamed.
“Come back to a place we had all thought was lost to us forever,” insisted the alluring woman's voice as the rolling hills reappeared gradually giving way to a beautiful shining lake with sandy shores before it was abruptly replaced by another scene. Jay's group was shown in the Rat's Redoubt dungeon running for their lives, huge rats climbed over the corpses of other rats to reach them, it was clear the group had lost their lantern somehow.
It was also clear that they were not going to make it.
“Come back to EDEN.” the voice finished with relish as it showed Jay opening his book and it flaring to life in a blue brilliance bathing the entire viewable room in violently bright dappled light. It was incredible and the viewer could see the rat monsters hit almost physically by a shock wave as the light passed over them, forcing them to flee from it.
The image cut to a quick video of Jay's group fighting the final boss before the music reached a crescendo just before an attack landed on the monster and the music abruptly settled as the screen went black.
The words “Come back to Eden” were all that showed on the screen for a moment before being joined by a smaller line of text, “Scenes shown are of actual game play.”
The lights came back on and one of the engineers spoke up first. “I want to play that.” The entire room broke out in to conversation. Eden was going to be big.
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The Adventurer's Guild, K'tharkle, Eden
Friday
Jay awoke on his own and found that it wasn't quite light out yet and was still before dawn. Too early. Jay couldn't get back to sleep though so he got out of bed, grabbed his clothes and soap, and went for an early morning bath. There was almost no one else up at that hour and Jay enjoyed having the place almost to himself.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He returned to his room to drop off his clothes and saw M'redith standing outside his door knocking. Jay came up behind her, “Hey there.” he said.
She jumped, startled, “I didn't hear you! You scared me.” she said accusingly as she slapped him lightly on the chest.
Jay raised an eyebrow. M'redith blushed lightly, “Sorry,” she said and brushed off his chest with one hand.
Jay dropped off his things and walked M'redith to breakfast.
“Any idea what you're going to do today?” she asked him as she held the dining hall door open for him.
Jay thanked her as he passed and shook his head, “No idea. I mean, I'm going to do the extra-credit, I just have no idea what I'll be doing.”
Aiden waved to them from a table as they got in line. Jay finally waved back just to get him to stop waving. “Excited isn't he?” Jay said with a smile.
Breakfast was fruit danish, each glazed with milky white sugar and served with crispy hash browns lightly salted, and small bowls of cubed watermelon. Jay got raspberry danish and M'redith snatched up the last apple danish.
They sat down next to each other across from Aiden and started eating right away. People tended to eat more during trap week out of stress alone and the group of three friends were no different.
Aiden sighed, “I need your help.”
Jay nodded, “You do.”
M'redith laughed, “Seriously, what's wrong Aiden?”
“I'm not going to finish my device on time today,” he began. Jay and M'redith tried to convince him otherwise but he was adamant, “I know what I can do and I'm telling you I'm going to have to stay late. That's just the way it is. Normally I wouldn't even care. It's just..”
Jay nodded while prompting him, “It's just...”
Aiden sighed, “I'm supposed to go on a date with Aisha after dinner. She's picking me up at the main entrance. Only I won't BE there since I'll be too busy trying to keep all my fingers attached in traps class. I just wasn't thinking.”
Jay looked disappointed, “I'm sorry buddy but I don't know if I'll even be around. Warren has some mystery task for me and I have a feeling it won't be a quick there and back again kind of situation.”
M'redith shrugged, “I'll do it. If you don't make it I'll let her know at the gate for you, ok? Now will you just settle down? You should be focusing more on the traps and less on the woman.”
Aiden laughed, “Have you SEEN Aisha? Its hard not to focus on her.”
Jay grinned, “I know the feeling. Still, she'll understand I'm sure.”
M'redith looked up at Jay and smiled like she had just won a bet.
They finished up breakfast and spent some time just sitting and going over their trap notes for a while and Jay did his best to help out however he could. Afterwards the group brought up their trays together and went off to their rooms to get their weapons.
They met up outside of the weapon training hall and hung outside around a tree for shade as the sun was already warming them up. Warren came out of the building and looked around before spotting Jay and walking over to him and his friends.
“Good morning students.” he said while looking only at Jay. They all bid him good morning. “So Jay, have you come to a decision?”
“I'll take the extra-credit. I'm guessing I can use the practice anyhow.” Jay answered.
Warren grinned, “Excellent. Just wait out here and someone will come for you shortly. I'd bring all your gear. Just in case. Go and grab what you need and be back here in ten minutes.”
Jay paused, “What about weapons training class?”
“You'll be excused for today. Everything has been taken care of. The rest of you had better get to class.” he said while finally looking at M'redith and Aiden.
The group said goodbye to each other and entered the building while leaving Jay alone under the tree. Jay ran back to his room, grabbed everything he could think of and put it in his bag, in a pocket, or hung it from his belt. Running back to the tree he found he'd arrived just in time as a man he recognized waved to him.
“Hello Jay!” the man said with exuberance.
“Oh gods. Not again. Hello Walter. Please tell me this time is going to be different.” Jay begged him with a grin.
Walter laughed, “Although last time did not go exactly as planned you did come out of it rather well rewarded didn't you?”
“Oh sure, it was a small fortune. It was the almost dying part last time that bothered me a bit. Just a bit.” Jay said while still grinning.
“Well then you'll be thrilled to know that this time you will have a healer.” Walter said while sounding pleased with himself.
“Great. What could possibly go wrong then?” Jay jokingly asked as Walter walked them towards the main entrance.
Walter paused a moment to actually think about it before saying seriously, “Plenty.”
Jay laughed at that before he saw the look on Walter's face which was also serious.
“Oh.” Jay said worriedly.
A simple cart awaited Jay at the main entrance and Walter briefly spoke with and paid the driver before helping Jay up in to the cart. “Just remember. Head up. Eyes and ears open. You'll do fine.”
Jay didn't even bother asking where he was going. Walter wouldn't tell him anyway. Settling in to the cart he waved to Walter as the cart exited The Guild grounds and turned in to the city proper.
“Well here we go again.” Jay said to himself.