After the explosions, immediately, the next simulation began. Time returned as If the first simulation had never happened. To viewers and the players, the entire scenario reset. Thanks to Marilyn’s montage, viewers saw the identical scene which had played at the start of the first player’s simulation. A second player was up at bat.
Player Ranked #31
The song "Hotel California" by The Eagles played once more. The piano notes bounced in the small rounded spaceship. The Io Observer was an hour away from mercury. A new player was in charge of controlling the Jester. Marilyn's editing was fantastic. She edited the redundant portions to perfection. Christian grabbed the handle in the hole of the wall, and the machine stung him. "I am high as a kite right now. I haven't slept for more than three days, and they are helping to keep me awake with drugs." The Jester completed his work and clipped the two pieces of the casing for the one-hundredth rocket around the last ball. Ten magazines containing ten rockets apiece floated amongst the other drifting detritus. The viewers were back in time when the capsule was still a mess.
A voice said from a distance: "Mr. Maltais, we have begun pre-approach stages. You must launch the static probe in five minutes at most." This time Christian was being played by a different finalist. The player knew what to do. Christian floated past the rockets to his captive and pinched both of his cheeks.
"No kissing on the first date," said Nick sarcastically.
"Love the music, great choices."
"It's old and stale, just like you. Easy to find too, it was indexed under 'Ridiculous Mullet Collection.'" This time, Marilyn strategically jumped over some scenes to speed time up. Christian, played by the second player grabbed the static round probe. As ordered, as the countdown hit zero, he locked the door, and the ball was ejected on a thruster forward in the direction of mercury. This time he avoided the coffee. The static probe launched ahead and passed the opening of all layers of the heat shield.
"We expect the first arc to hit about three thousand meters from the surface. Time is short; you must begin the deceleration. Please make your way to the landing module." Christian passed Nick and blew a kiss his way. He opened the door to the landing module. He dressed in the suit, but having watched the first player electrocute himself to death for want of gloves, kept the helmet and gloves close.
"Ready?" asked Mission Command.
"Wait," said the Jester as he slipped on both gloves and locked his helmet onto the suit. The man knew that without them he would die. He was nervous.
"Engage the blinking red switch once the acceleration begins. Don't hesitate; you will have one or two seconds before your brain passes out."
"The sign says not to engage that switch."
"Wait until you feel the separation kick. You have seconds before passing out. You need to start the static generators or the arcs will destroy the lander."
There was a kick equal to being shot out of a catapult.
"Engage the generator now," said the voice with a second of delay. The tone was forceful. Christian was pinned to his seat by the massive g-forces and unable to raise his hand. "You will die if you do not hit the switch now." His vision blurred. He raised his hand, touched the button. He was unable to talk. Back at the Electoral Center on Mars, nervous glances alternated between the scene unfolding in the game and the motionless form of the player in the Rho chamber. The static generator kicked in. It started whizzing. Every button began to blink. A generator was creating electrons at an insane rate and pouring onto the metal frame of the landing pod. The entire electrical and computer system was rebooting endlessly. Christian's eyes were barely open. He saw small electrical arches bounce around the cabin. This time his hands were covered, and the suit was insulated. He closed his eyes. The Jester's vision narrowed, darkened, and he blacked out.
The moment at which the first simulation ended came and went. Electoral's existence and purpose couldn't be easily quantified, but in this task, she excelled: she helped mankind become a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts.
The static energy was deadly. The computer software, designed for a much less extreme landing on Io, fought desperately for coherence in the midst of the lethal storm of electrons inside the cabin. In the digital chaos, the lander's computers began sending intermittent, garbled signals to different portions of the ship. One such order was sent to a window; it unsealed. The world watched in horror as the round glass and metal rim ejected out into the nothingness of our solar system. Vacuum immediately filled the ship as the air rushed out the window.
To wake Christian up, Mission Command forced every light and every speaker in the cabin into alarm mode. Nothing seemed to work. The probe, in the distance, drew closer to the planet. Finally, the lights woke the Jester. The man in the suit opened his eyes. Christian saw from his seat the other four windows freeze in the vacuum. He did not know where to start the heater. In his terror at his impending death, for the simulation felt real in all ways, he neglected to check the most obvious place. He was sitting on it. The suit lost power, and the screen went dark.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Mission Failed
Lives Remaining: 30
Electoral knew she had to continue on with her broadcast. Without a single second of pause she began the next simulation.
Player Ranked #30
The same scene played a third time. Marilyn quickly sped through the common portions to reach to the critical portions where the Jester's decisions would either bear fruit or disaster. Playing these simulations sequentially, at human speed, helped many people understand how her power worked. Christian returned to the lander. This time he powered the heating system of his suit and snapped on the gloves and the helmet before he began the deceleration or the static generator.
This time, unlike the last simulation, the window did not eject. Instead, the image shifted to a view from space. The lander silently disintegrated in a brief flash of light. To the audience, Marilyn spoke, "Static electricity may interfere with multiple systems at this rate of charge. The generator has a 2% chance of creating an arc of static that reaches the fuel of the thrusters. If that happens, the fuel will ignite. I hope this doesn't occur again either in the remaining simulations or the actual mission, but if there's an internal short of that variety, this will happen. Disappointing on a number of levels, no?" she joked half-heartedly.
The image shifted to a view from space. The lander exploded in silence.
Mission Failed
Lives Remaining: 29
Player Ranked #29
Marilyn had made her point with the first three simulations: the mercury mission was more than dangerous. The next player assembled the launcher, kissed Nick from a distance and put on the full suit, including the gloves and the helmet. Once in the locked lander, the fourth player of the round powered-on everything he could. He was ready for the worst. His forehead was forming pearls of sweat. The cold air helped avoid fog in the rounded helmet visor.
He pushed away from the Lab and pushed the red static generator switch. This time, the capsule did not explode.
Marilyn, to aid the coming simulations, felt she needed to show to the viewers and the players a view of the decoupling and landing dynamics. On the screens, she illustrated the sun, mercury, and the path of the Io Observer. There were now three bodies, one a fraction of a pixel ahead of the Lab; that was the static probe. In tow was the Lab. Both were on a crash destination with the gray God of War. The pieces and their orbits were then illustrated using red lines. The speed of the first two was such that the two bodies left a streak of light as they carved the distant ionosphere of the sun and cut the plasma-heated wind.
Behind the Lab, the lander was slowly distancing itself. Its trajectory was curved to allow the speck of light to escape direct impact and become fixed in low orbit. The line showed the lander pass about a hundred feet from the surface. At that speed, even in a quasi-absent atmosphere, there would be fire and turbulence. As shown, the lander would pass mercury and return minutes later as it began to orbit closer and closer to the surface.
The viewers returned to the inside of the lander. The Jester slowly regained consciousness under an avalanche of sound and noise in the capsule. "Please wake up!!" The sounds finally worked. The lander was approaching the planet, and the generator was still on. Christian hit the switch and one by one the systems returned.
Marilyn showed how the static probe, with the Lab in its shadow, drew closer until in the blink of an eye it was hit by a kilometer-long arc erupting from mercury. There was so much stored energy on the rock; the strike was deep blue. It was a highway of highly energetic electrons. As it rose from the ground, it split into a hundred legs joined like the roots of a tree. The bolt vaporized the probe in one-seventh of a second. It then jumped on the tip of the Lab, converting it to free-floating atoms. Marilyn did not show Nick's death. There was no point, and decency did not oblige it. Numbers were being sent to the lander.
The computers in the lander received the information. "The value is too high," said Mission Command. They didn't like the value returned by the static probe. "Your ship is at 3,052 Terravolts. We need to be closer to 6,000, not three. There is no time." Robert, who played Christian was no beginner at desperate situations. Every Round in the game was an avalanche of life or death events until the player missed one. He was better than two billion players at this.
"Can't you correct the trajectory? Can't we intercept mercury further down the orbit, that will give us time." Before he even finished speaking, a visible white rocket lit up near the tip at an angle to the side.
"Correcting. Sir, wait nine seconds for the correction then light the static generator again. At six thousand, shut it down and contact us. Good luck." Christian looked at his suit; it remained operable and closed. He counted. The stars moved position as the Jester powered the generator. This was too much; the player felt dizzy. The Rho chambers were spectacular. He felt like he was on board the lander. He was in microgravity, pushed by a first thruster, electrocuted by static energy.
He knew the feeling. He needed to do something. He looked at his glove, the metal on the glove locking mechanism was covered by a layer of coating -- a paint or a surface finish. He needed energy to come in. The ship was building potential energy, and he was partly insulated. Like flint is sparked, Christian hit both metal rings on his wrists. He needed to damage the coating. After five tries, he saw an angle on the ring. He extended his arm and let it touch the base of his seat between his legs. There were sparks; electricity was pouring in and burning his wrist. His neck was twitching. He did not know if he could pull it way. But the flow of energy was greater than what was being produced by the generators, and a minute later, the shocks stopped.
He puked in the suit as he pulled the hand up. The dial reached six thousand; it turned off. The systems returned slowly.
Finally, the voice spoke, "Landing in nine, eight," the countdown took the Jester by surprise. They were still fast, very fast. Thrusters lit up. They were breaking the capsule down. Christian could not see the ground, but he knew he was way too fast.
They crashed.
Mission Failed
Lives Remaining: 28
The next four players tried to alter the angles of entry, but each crashed on the surface of Mercury. There was no time to decelerate. Marilyn quickly showed the failed attempts.
Mission Failed
Lives Remaining 25