Sam happily took in the sights of Boise as he flew in on a skycab. The City of Trees had changed considerably over the past century. Once a small state capital of a quarter million people, it had rapidly expanded to a metropolis of nearly six million. The tradeoff was mostly a lot of the trees disappearing.
From the sky he could see the layers of construction from where people had moved in. The old district, which housed much of historical Boise, Nampa and Meridian, were now part of the same metropolis. The new quarter, where refugees had moved from the coasts en masse after the nuclear war in the 2040’s and where the skyscrapers towered like titans in the sky. Finally, the endless sprawling slums of the refugees from the rest of the world surrounded the city as though it were a castle under siege. Sam still considered himself fortunate to not live down there. Juan’s tent city was one of the best areas.
The fairgrounds themselves had also been expanded. Now south of the city, they included a massive and rebuilt Simplot stadium along with rides, amusements, and food. Every inch of the fair was packed with people, desperate to drown out their fear with amusement.
Loki was inside of his carrier disguised as a normal cat. He could free himself from it in moments if need be, but he was sulking. He still couldn’t talk out loud, but he would let out an unhappy mrowling noise regularly.
Sam ignored him. King had insisted the cat come with him, so come he did, happy or not.
“You know Loki, lugging you around makes me feel like one of those rich people with ‘emotional support animals’.”
“I hate you! This is the worst! This is the wooooorst!”
“You’re a terrible emotional support animal.”
“The sooner this is over, the better! You better watch your face while you sleep tonight!”
“You know this wasn’t my idea, right? Take it up with King.”
“Yeah but he’s scary. You can be pounced on and you will be!”
The cab soon landed and he was met by both Juan and King as he touched down, both of whom were chatting near the landing pad.
“Heeey, my boy!” King greeted him. “I’ve got something big going on today, so you are going to have to enjoy most of the fair without me. I do have some good news though!”
He tapped his head, and suddenly the four of them stood in the endless white void from the simulations. Yet at the same time he was aware of his physical body. He could see through his eyes, hear the world outside, and even move. Everything was slow motion, though.
“What just happened?” Juan said.
“The pods only needed to be there the first time. Your aug has adjusted and this will now be available forever! All of you are now free!” King said, happily. “What’s more, you now have a method of communication in your head that not even the machine emperor can break! Just keep in mind that there’s limited bandwidth and it only works about fifty feet or so. Past that this will stop working.”
“Freeeeeedom!” Loki howled as he bounded across the void.
“So what, are we going to spend a few months just standing here at the fair?” Sam asked.
“Absolutely not.” King said. “In fact, I’d recommend no more than a single real world minute spent inside of here right now. As the conversion process continues in your nervous system, the time will increase.”
“How do we even activate this on purpose?” Juan said.
“It will automatically activate if there’s any danger to you. Otherwise you can activate it by thinking about it.”
“Just thinking? Seriously?” Sam asked.
“Yep! Well, thinking with a purpose.”
Suddenly the void disappeared and the world was no longer moving in slow motion.
“I used to get really carsick man,” Juan said. “Double the senses should have made me hurl.”
“Just one more benefit!” King said, his lips not moving.
“Wait, we can talk like psychics?” Sam said in his head.
“Or people with a neural link.” Juan said.
“I hate it in here. Let me run free again! This carrier sucks!” Loki whined with his mind.
“Alright!” King said, his lips moving again. “It’s time! Go out, have fun. Just meet me at the stage in an hour or two.”
They nodded and left, walking through the rides. Before he disappeared, King pointed to one of them.
“Hey, make sure you get a ride on this one! I can’t believe it’s still around, I think it’s older than me!”
He pointed to what looked like a giant spinning top labeled “GRAVITRON” in faded letters.
“Yeah, I think I’ll pass.” Sam said.
“That thing looks like more rust than ride.”
“I bet they won’t even let me get on it,” Loki whined.
“Bah, you kids have no respect for the classics,” King laughed, and walked to the stadium next door.
Sam and Juan wandered around the fairgrounds, with one of them occasionally holding Loki’s carrier so the other could hop on a ride. At one point a security guard came up and asked them about it, but once Sam showed him the card he’d been given by King the man immediately backed off.
They tried a variety of foods, and Sam decided that Tiger’s Blood was his favorite flavor of snow cone. Juan bought them both chorizos on a hot dog bun and they wandered as they ate. Loki would take small snacks from them, but he wouldn’t eat the sausages.
“I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve ever been here.” Sam said.
“Yeah well you kept trying to get perfect grades with no augs,” Juan replied. “I’m not surprised you didn’t have a life.”
“Human spices smell bad,” Loki whined. He didn’t hesitate to snatch the bacon from the top of a baked potato the second it was in range, however.
Eventually they managed to make their way to the 4H barns, and took turns looking at and taking pictures with the cattle. Despite everything Idaho still had vast farmland, and animals were a big part of the ranching industry.
“I’m better than all of you!” Loki shouted at the only two people that could listen. “Can any of you losers drive a car? Huh? I can! I can drive a car! I’d like to see you sheeple do that!”
“They aren’t intelligent, Loki. They're literally sheep. You’re the only ones that got that aug.”
“Exactly! losers!”
They walked through, seeing sheep, pigs, and taking a picture with a genetically engineered bright magenta cow that was a similar size to a small dog but much fatter. It had a blue #1 place ribbon on its cage.
As they stopped kneeling down and got up, however, Sam froze.
“No, it couldn’t be!” Sam said, pulse pounding.
“What?” Juan asked.
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On the other end of the barn Sam had caught the briefest glimpse of Ian walking past the doors.
“Trouble,” Sam said. “I saw Ian.”
“What?” Juan asked, horrified. “He’s in jail! The trial hasn’t even started yet, how could he be out?”
“I don’t know, I’m one hundred percent sure I saw him though!” Sam said. “I think I can send a copy of what I saw in the sim.”
“Holy shit, that’s him!”
“Let me out!” Loki said. “I don’t wanna die in here!”
“Sure thing buddy,” Sam replied. “If he comes anywhere near us again, hit the latch and you’re out. You’ve got thumbs, remember?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Hey, maybe we should just wait in the stadium,” Juan said. “They’ve got security in there and your grandfather said that’s where he’ll be.”
Sam checked the time in his white room for a moment. “Yeah, we’re pretty close to time anyway.”
As they went into the stadium they noticed it wasn’t set up for a sporting event. Instead there was a large stage on the field, with the rest dedicated to various show items.
“Hey, look at this!” Juan said. Pointing to one of the displays. “A car! An actual gas guzzling car!”
“Can I steal it?” Loki asked.
“What? No! Absolutely not!” Sam said.
The car was a classic Cadillac convertible, bright candy apple red and polished to a mirror shine. While there was a place to show off different vehicles outside the stadium, this one had won an award for “best classic car”.
“You almost never see something that’s not electric anymore. The cost of gas alone would bankrupt you.”
“Hmmph!” Loki said. “I want it anyway!”
“Hey, they’ve got a lot of awards here! Someone put together a covered wagon!” Juan shouted. “It’s like the Oregon trail!”
“Well, that one you can steal.” Sam laughed.
“I’m not a horse!” The cat shouted in his head.
The displays included plants, animals and even tractors along with the car and wagon. A potato the size of a wheelbarrow that vaguely looked like a fat little man was on a display table.
They laughed and wandered around, eventually taking their seats in the stands. The tickets his grandfather had gotten them put them in a front row booth. To their surprise, nothing was removed from the stadium. Instead as the stands filled, people in dark suits with dark sunglasses started to fall in around the entrances and exits.
“Hey, watch the men in black out there.” Juan pointed one out.
“Looks like we’ve got some bigwigs coming in.”
“I’m bored.” Loki whined again.
—
Ian wandered the fairgrounds, but he wasn’t having fun. There was plenty of time for that after his prison sentence in the next sim. He’d already had decades to enjoy this sort of thing. It was also eerie how well the emperor had predicted this exact fair. He even overheard people having the same conversations. It made him wonder if he was really back in reality, but the Emperor said he was, so he believed it. Instead, he was silently coordinating with the others.
There were two kinds he’d noticed. Servants like him, and puppets. The puppets were just like the people in the sim - the Machine Emperor used their bodies, but it was the only person inside. Currently he was looking at the hollowed out body of a former skinhead.
A voice rang out in his head. “Federal agents are here. They know we’re coming. You’ve trained for this, so get ready. Remember, the old man is the only target that really matters. Don’t kill civilians. I’ll make you pay for it.”
Ian knew he couldn’t afford to hesitate. “My life for the Empire.” He replied, his brain implants sending his thoughts back.
Around him he could hear many, many others saying the same thing. He did his best to suppress the thought so he wouldn’t be punished for it, but deep down he had only one hope in his fight.
He hoped he would die.
—
They waited for a few minutes before the stadium filled and the preshow setup began. To Sam’s mild chagrin, they played country music for several minutes before anything happened. The music had more in common with rap now than the old country music he’d heard, but supposedly that sounded more like pop music than the true country music that originally existed, whatever the hell that was. The stadium soon went dark, and an unseen announcer’s voice rang out.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m happy to announce to you one of tonight’s special guests, the governor of Idaho, Liz Wallace!”
The lady looked like a a well paid focus group's idea of a stereotypical Idaho woman, with half-bleached hair cut to a short style past generations might have called a “Karen” cut. Her suit looked like a performative imitation of someone that had never seen a cowboy fused with a business suit.
“Everyone, we have an amazing announcement for y'all tonight!” Her voice was crisp and clear, and she was obviously comfortable with public speech.
“Idaho has been languishing in recent years. I know it and so do you. Many of our peers have been leaping ahead of us for one simple reason: They have star colonies! It’s well known that the star colonies are the leading drivers in innovation, economic growth and change. I am excited to tell you that all of that changes today! Idaho will have its own Star Colony soon!”
The cheers that went up in the stadium were deafening. As he chose to slow time and take a good look at the audience, however, he saw many disappointed faces. Not everyone could make it into space even if they wanted to.
“Today building space colonies is a major driver of economic growth, and space colony construction jobs are the fastest growing sector every single year!”
“Not to mention survival,” Juan said in the void.
“We decided in cooperation with the federal government to begin construction on our own star station. What we didn’t expect is to get the single largest station in human history!”
At that there were shocked gasps. It was well known just how large many of the colonies actually were. Size was the biggest limiting factor to population, after all.
“If it’s the biggest it should have at least a hundred thousand citizen slots!” Juan exclaimed.
“Goddamn.” Sam exclaimed. “Bigger than the Lost Star? The Californians are gonna flip.”
“Everything about this colony was made in absolute secrecy from the start. Though you didn’t know it, by voting for me you helped to ensure your own future!”
There was a round of cheers and clapping by her supporters.
“I am also happy to announce that every stage of the work was done with Idaho Businesses, and Idaho natives. On that topic I want to give the floor to the man behind the project. A man who has been involved in business here for most of the past century! Let us have a round of applause for the founder of Blue Sky Cybernetics, King Wharton!”
Sam’s grandfather walked out onto the stage and waved at the audience to thunderous applause.
“Hello Idaho!” He boomed, and his voice was carried over the loudspeaker. “It’s finally time for the secrecy to end! Several decades ago I proposed a secret project to the federal government. A small planetoid was flung out of the Kuiper Belt and into the inner solar system by natural forces caused by the approach of Barnard's Star. Now we’ve already snagged every asteroid, comet or space rock flying near Earth that we could, but never anything of this size!”
Behind King a gigantic screen came to life. It showed a grainy black and white picture of a gray dot.
“This little space rock had no name, but if you took Idaho and wrapped it around a ball, this planetoid would be slightly larger! At over three hundred miles in diameter this is as large as one of Neptune’s moons called Larissa - and mother nature delivered it right to our door.”
The image changed to one much closer up, showing innumerable craters and a slightly irregular surface. To Sam’s amusement it looked a lot like a giant potato.
“This is what I started with, a giant nameless rock in space that would have flown straight out of the solar system. Now we knew that if the Machine Emperor found out about it back then he would have tried to sabotage us!”
Boos sounded across the stadium.
“That’s right! So I went out alone, and using methods that are still classified, I was able to turn this plain rock into an incredible colony! As we speak it is waiting to receive its first colonists!”
“That’s incredible,” Juan said. “How did they even move something that size?”
“If they hollow it out there might be millions of slots open!” Sam exclaimed.
“There’s no way they could do anything that fast,” Sam replied.
“Not even with your grandpa’s augments?” Juan asked.
“He thinks fast, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have jackhammer arms or anything.”
King’s speech continued.
“Look out on this field! You see Idaho history here! Cars, crops, cattle and more! The natural beauty of this place is one of its greatest features!”
As King spoke, Sam spotted movement in the audience. Normally he would have ignored it as people would stand up and run off to the restroom or other things. Something about the movement on the other side of the stadium struck him as unnatural though.
His eyesight wasn’t good enough to make out all the details, but he could see a group of people stand up and raise their hands at the same time. All pointing at his grandfather.
That was when he noticed one of those people was Ian. Even from a distance he could never mistake him for anyone else.
He didn’t think about what to do next. He activated his time dilation and entered the white void, and screamed.
“Grandpa, something is wrong! Look out!”
As one the group opened their hands and small darts began to fire from their fingers and mouths. Sam soon realized that there were people like that on his side of the stadium too.
The men in black also seemed to notice, but moved in slow motion compared to the people in the audience.
Sam felt horror as darts flew at his grandfather from all directions.