The world is seventy percent ocean, we could be almost anywhere, she informed him.
Desacus was still beating his wings in powerful down strokes, Let me get some altitude first. I may be able to see land once we get higher.
The air grew cold as they ascended, and Matthew began to despair of sighting land. His dragon enhanced eyesight was extremely acute, and he saw no sign of anything that might help them decide which direction to take.
To the east, announced Desacus.
Really? I can’t see anything that way, said Matt.
Trust me, said the dragon, my eyes are even better than yours. There’s a shadow on the horizon there. It might be an island, though it would have to be very large at this distance.
After a quarter hour Matthew could see the first hints of land, though Karen still saw nothing. A short while longer, and they could all see it. If it was an island, it was big, for it stretched to the north and south as far as they could see and there was no hint of ocean behind it.
We need to fly low, suggested Karen. They may already have us on radar.
The word she used, ‘radar’ carried all sorts of strange connotations when it passed through Matt’s brain. Desacus was already descending rapidly, but Matthew wanted to better understand, Explain this radar to me.
It’s a little bit like magesight, but it’s done with machines, she explained. They send out pulses of radio waves and read the reflections that come back. They can’t see us precisely, but they can judge our relative size, position, and speed, in the air.
Why would they be looking for us here? he asked.
We have them everywhere, on land at least, she replied. They used to be important for tracking planes when people traveled a lot.
The word plane carried with it an image of some sort of flying machine that carried people through the air. He had encountered the idea in her thoughts before, but Matthew still marveled at some of the things Karen thought of as commonplace. Your people don’t travel much anymore?
Desacus had leveled out and was flying just above the waves as she answered, There aren’t that many people now, in the physical sense, less than a hundred million I think.
A hundred million was an almost inconceivable number to him. How many lived in Lothion? He had no idea, but he doubted the entire nation had more than a few million at most. How many did there used to be?
Karen shrugged, I think we topped out at around nine billion before people started uploading. Technically our world population is around ten billion these days, but most of them don’t have bodies any more.
Matthew was shocked. The numbers were unbelievable. The idea of that many people living in a world, no matter how large, was impossible to consider, but that wasn’t the strangest idea her reply had carried. The concept she had conveyed with the word ‘uploading’ was bizarre. In Karen’s thoughts, it had seemed similar to the way she thought of their travel to his world, as though the people of this place had begun transporting themselves to another plane of existence.
Except that she had said they no longer had bodies. Were they spirits? Was her world populated by ghosts? He directed his question to her, What do you mean by ‘uploading’?
She didn’t answer at first. Karen had seen enough of his world that she knew technology and computer science would be foreign ideas, so she composed her reply carefully, We have machines that think, that can hold any amount of information. In the beginning, we used them to improve our lives, to connect people all over the world, but later scientists found ways to create artificial universes. It was entertainment of a sort, like books, except people could work and play in these imagined places. Eventually they figured out how to transfer themselves completely, giving up their bodies and becoming permanent residents of that other world.
His confusion was palpable, so she went on; They aren’t physical, not like your world. They’re still here. The computer world is like an immense book, except that it can change like the real world. For those inside it, it feels real, except that anything you can imagine is possible to create there. Games where you can be anyone or anything.
Like a dream? he questioned.
She nodded, Like a dream, except it’s real, and you can share it with others. A dream you never wake up from because it’s just as real as the physical world.
But you have to give up your body to go there?
No, most of the people that still have bodies go there all the time. We have implants, tiny machines that people have in their brains, that allow them to explore those worlds whenever they choose. Over time, though, most people eventually decide they want to stay there forever. So they go through a process we call ‘uploading’, but it’s more complicated than that. Their bodies are scanned in a destructive process to extract every bit of information, and they are recreated inside the network.
Matthew was horrified, Why?!
Immortality. Once you give up the flesh you can never die, not so long as the system continues.
He didn’t know what to say, so he kept his thoughts to himself, but he couldn’t believe her description of her people’s new world was a good thing.
***
They landed on a small beach that was overlooked by a steep rise of land. The wind was blowing fiercely, and it made Matthew glad he could warm himself. He extended the bubble of warmth around Karen as well. She still didn’t know how to use her incipient abilities, and in this world without aythar it would have quickly exhausted her anyway. She didn’t have the advantage he did, Desacus.
He had been relying on the dragon’s stored power to keep from using up his own reserves. Since the dragon had been created to store nearly a full Celior of aythar there was little danger he would run out anytime soon.
The rocky cliff wasn’t too high, perhaps thirty or forty feet, and it was topped by a long sloping grassy plain. They could see a crumbling stone wall along part of it and what appeared to be a stone staircase led up to it on their right.
“Do you know where we are?” he asked Karen.
She shook her head, once again she wished she still had her PM. It would have been able to tell her exactly where she was. If she had been anyone else in the world, she would have had implants, and the PM would have been irrelevant, she could have tapped the network and located her position instantly.
Matthew started up the stairs, and she followed. There was no one to be seen when they reached the top, but a long sidewalk stretched away in both directions. Small houses could be seen in the distance on one side, and the remains of an ancient ruin on the other. A small sign with an arrow proclaimed its name, “Tintagel Castle”.
Desacus beat his wings powerfully several times and landed beside them as Karen announced, “I think I know where we are, roughly.”
“Where?”
“This is England, the southeastern part,” she said, as if the words would have meaning for him.
“You know the area?” he asked.
“No, not really. I’m from Colorado,” she admitted, and then pointed in the direction the sun was starting to set, “Several thousand miles that way. We are a long way from where you met me.”
He was beginning to have difficulty following her language, so he switched to direct mind to mind communication, You know where we are?
Thousands of miles east of where we started, she explained.
How do you know this place then?
It was a good question. She had never been to England, but she had had a fondness for Arthurian legend as a girl, otherwise the name ‘Tintagel’ would have meant nothing to her. This place has a famous history, she told him, simplifying. I have never been here, but I have an aunt who lives in Ipswich.
How far is that?
Karen wasn’t sure, but she could guess, Several hundred miles to the east and a little to the north of here.
That was a flight of several hours on dragonback. Are you on good terms with her? Will she help us?
I’m sure she would, Karen replied. Her Aunt Roberta ha
d always been a lively figure in her childhood, though they had only met on two occasions. She still remembered the odd candies her father’s sister had brought with her whenever she had visited them.
“Let’s go then,” said Matthew.
“Wait,” said Karen. “There should be a visitor’s center here. We can use the cell station to call her from here.” She was forced to explain herself mentally afterward, and then her friend readily agreed.
They searched the area carefully, exploring old stone buildings and a few more modern facilities before they found the exhibition shop. There were no people anywhere to be found, though, and Matthew couldn’t help but wonder at the absence.
There are so many buildings and walkways, where are the people? he asked at last.
Karen chuckled, England is almost empty now. A few people live in Ipswich and to the north in Edinburgh, but most of the country is wild now. The reclaimers have dismantled everything but the important heritage sites, like this one.
Reclaimers?
Giant machines that recycle materials, she explained. They remove old roads and buildings that are no longer needed. Since there are so few organics left it was decided to restore most of the world to a natural state. Only places where people live and some historic sites are left, like this one.
The idea of removing roads made no sense to Matthew. Roads were a fundamental feature of civilization, the lifeblood of any nation. In Lothion, good roads were a rare and precious resource. His father’s world-road had done much to alleviate the problem, but it still served to underscore how vitally important roads were. “They destroy roads?” he protested.
We don’t need most of them anymore, she responded. There aren’t that many people and those who remain don’t travel. Any goods that need to be transported are moved by air now anyway. Most of the world is like a park now, or a nature preserve.
He was still boggling at that thought, when they found the visitor center.
It was a grey stone building built from the same material that everything else in the area was constructed from. In some ways, it looked similar to buildings Matthew was used to seeing back at Castle Cameron; the doors were faded oak with black iron strap hinges. The most notable difference was the strange booth that stood beside the entrance, a red box that was tall enough for a person to enter with glass panels set in a metal framework from top to bottom.
Karen opened a narrow door and stepped inside while he watched her. She touched a panel on one side, and it began to glow.
“What is that?” he asked her.
“An old call terminal…,” she began, but the look on his face was one of confusion, so she switched to a telepathic message. A call terminal; boxes like these used to house public phones but they later replaced them with network terminals. The exterior look is mainly British nostalgia. Once everyone started getting implants they stopped making these, but they still keep them active in some public locations—like this one.
Matthew got the idea that they were some sort of messaging system, something like his father’s enchanted letter boxes, but the concepts coming across from her mind were full of confusing details. He tried his steadily improving English once more, “Who does this one connect to?”
She smiled, “Anyone. Just watch.” Facing the screen, she spoke, “Terminal connect, please.”
The screen flashed, and a series of strange symbols scrolled across it. Matthew was mildly startled when a voice emerged from the box itself, “Positive identification, user Karen Miller, network access granted.”
“Voice call to Roberta Plant in Ipswich, please.”
The machine spoke again, “You have five priority messages waiting. Would you like to view these first?”
Karen chewed on her lip for a moment before answering, “Display please, chronological order.”
A man’s face appeared on the screen, dark haired and thick browed. Matthew almost believed a portal had opened, but as he shifted his position he could see that the picture seemed flat from the side. It was some sort of magical viewing rather than a direct spatial connection.
“Karen! This is your father. It’s been two days since you messaged, and your pert’s logs show it hasn’t rendezvoused with you in that time. Are you ok? Please call me as soon as you get this.” The face vanished and the screen went dark for a moment.
He hadn’t understood all of what had been said, but one thing had been abundantly clear. “I thought you said your father was dead,” said Matthew.
She glanced at him, “That’s not really my Dad. It’s a simulacrum, an AGI that stores many of his memories and a close approximation of his personality.”
“A what?”
“Artificial General Intelligence,” she clarified, then her hand waved at him to wait, and she returned her attention to the terminal, “Next message.”
A young blond woman appeared. Her features were flawless, and she appeared no older than twenty at the most. “Karen, please give me a call. That hideous robo-doll your father made is so upset that it’s interrupting my work. Honestly, what were you thinking when you turned that thing loose? It’s nothing like, Gary. The damned thing is twice as annoying as he ever was.”
“And he cares about me more than you ever will,” grumbled Karen as her mother’s face disappeared.
“Who was that?” asked Matthew.
“Mother,” she said simply.
He couldn’t reconcile the face he had seen with Karen’s. If anything, the woman on the screen had looked younger than her adopted daughter. “How old is she?”
“You can look any age you want after you upload,” explained Karen. “I’m surprised she hasn’t gone for the teenage look—the superficial bitch. Next message.”
Her father’s face appeared again, “Karen, I’ve notified the authorities that you’re missing. Or I meant to, but it seems that they are already searching for you. What’s going on? They’ve put a tracer on me to report any contact you make, but I’ve encapsulated it. Do you want me to activate it? I won’t turn it on unless you give the authorization, but they’re bound to notice my deception before too long. Are you in some kind of trouble? Please call me, I’m worried. Even your mother is sending me queries about your whereabouts.”
That was interesting, her mother claiming that her father’s simulacrum was pestering her, while he said she was contacting him. Hmmm. “Next message…”
It was her father again, “Karen, I’m really worried. I hope you’re okay. Please call.”
The final message was from him as well, “I don’t think they’ve realized the trace still isn’t active. Whatever is going on has really stirred up a hornet’s nest, honey. Let me know if you’re safe.”
She stared at the screen after his face vanished. No matter what her mother thought, her father’s simulacrum was exactly how she remembered him, and he was more of a parent than her mother would ever be. A light began blinking at the top of the screen, and the terminal spoke again, “Incoming call from Gary Miller.”
With a sigh Karen answered, “Go ahead.”
Her father’s face reappeared, “Karen? Is that you? Where have you been?!”
“It’s a long story, Dad. I’m fine…”
“No. No, you are not fine!” he interrupted. “The entire defense network is looking for you, and I no longer think they are concerned with your wellbeing.”
She nodded, “About that, definitely don’t activate the trace they gave you.”
“I hoped you would say that,” he replied. “You should also make sure I don’t record this conversation, or your location.”
“Good idea. Delete them as soon as we disconnect.”
“Noted,” he responded. “Now, what is going on? You realize you’re in deep shit, right?”
“I met this guy while I was hiking…,” she began.
“Guy?! What is he, some Primal Humani terrorist? Even the military is involved!”
“No, he’s nice, but I think he’s from another dimension…”
“No! He’s human, look it’s complicated. In fact, he seems to think that my birth defects are the result of me being a She’Har. I don’t know what to make of it all. Do you think Mom knows anything about this?” she asked.
The face on the screen grew still. When he spoke again his tone was calm and serious, “There are some things you need to know, but I can’t tell you now. You’re logged onto that terminal with your personal ID, none of this is completely secure, no matter how I encrypt it.”
“It’s useless then,” said Karen, casting her eyes downward. “It’s only a matter of time before they find me, and I don’t even know why they want me.”
“Don’t give up, Nina. Find a friend to log in for you; meet me at our old favorite place. I’ll tell you everything I know there. In the meantime, the only other thing I might suggest is that you remove my constraints. Let me finish his research.”
She hesitated, “You know that’s illegal.”
Her father’s likeness shrugged, “You’re already on the run. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out I’m not an everyday AGI. Once they do I’ll be isolated and cracked to get the information I have stored. You’ll be on your own then. Let me try.”
She hadn’t done anything wrong, broken any laws, or done anything to hurt anyone. Surely there should be a way to clear up whatever misunderstanding had created this mess.
The simulacrum continued, “Now that you’ve made contact with a demon, She’Har or not, they won’t let this rest. I’m not even sure how I feel about it. I’d like to know a lot more about this man you’ve met. What I am certain of, though, is that when they capture you, they will take you apart Karen. Piece by piece, they will dissect you in their effort to understand the abilities of the She’Har. You have to trust me on that.”
Frustration at the unfairness of it all built inside of her until she realized her fists were clenched so tightly that her nails had left half-moon impressions on her palms. She took a deep breath and opened her fists, “Fine.” Then she repeated a phrase her father had taught her.
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