Keep Your Friends Close

by ND Roberts

Gabriel nodded. “What Alexis said.”

  “Don’t look at me,” K’aia responded when Eve’s amused gaze fell on her. “Point me at a threat I can comprehend, and I’m your Yollin. Otherwise, your bright young hopes are there.” She jerked a thumb at the other platforms.

  Trey lifted his hands. “I agree with Alexis. I don’t see how this place has anything to do with the real-life experience you told us about in your briefing.”

  Eve lifted her hands and turned ninety degrees to indicate the black hole at the far edge of the grid. “You are currently in the rejuvenation cycle. There will be a few moments’ wait while the neural nets are integrated. I created this space so your minds could remain conscious during the process.”

  Alexis noticed Trey’s blank look. “She means while our brains are connected to the game system.”

  Trey nodded. “Oh. It’s fun. Way better than being unconscious and waking up in a strange place. Thank you, Eve.”

  Eve inclined her head, and the four platforms rose an inch higher and tipped up at the back, startling all four into their ready stances. “It was a small effort, and the integration is improved by your minds being active. I hope you realize there’s always room for fun.”

  Alexis saw the minute smirk on Eve’s face and knew immediately that something big was coming. She crouched to keep her center of balance low and held her arms out to the sides.

  The grid pulsed with light, then fell away in the center. The lines collapsed inward and stretched, forming a sheer drop that flicked up at the other end.

  The lines glowed brighter as they settled, forming four distinct paths that rippled with synchronized light.

  Gabriel whooped, almost falling off his platform when he worked out what was happening. “No way! It’s a ramp!”

  “Into the black hole?” K’aia couldn’t believe the effort Eve had put into the loading room. “Eve, I forgive you for everything. This is amazing!”

  Alexis pumped her fist without shifting her stance. “Way to go, Eve!”

  Trey’s cry of shock echoed around them. “You want to fire us into that?” He looked at the grins splitting his friends’ faces, then settled into his ready stance. “Okay, if you’re all happy with it.”

  Eve chuckled. “You will be fine, Tu’Reigd.”

  She lifted a hand, and the platforms were released simultaneously.

  “Remember,” Eve called as they hurtled down the breakneck incline, “life is what you make of it.”

  Gabriel’s eyes widened as his platform picked up speed. He angled his body to meet the oncoming rush, a scream of joy escaping as his adrenaline hit heights that usually only came with the threat of impending death. “Last one through pays the forfeit!”

  Alexis narrowed her eyes as Gabriel shot ahead. “Not. Happening.” She increased her mass and leaned into the descent.

  Trey dug in with his feet as the dip panned out. “I’m not getting stuck asking for a long weight again!” His platform wobbled as he shifted to keep it balanced. “It was two hours before the guys in requisitions gave in and told me it was a prank.”

  K’aia laughed as she overtook Alexis, then Gabriel. “No forfeit for me! I’m getting there first!”

  Neck and neck, they crested the kick.

  Their platforms stalled a moment when gravity crashed the party. The momentary disappointment was replaced by cheers when thrusters activated at the rear of each platform.

  “Race!” Alexis yelled. She shot toward the event horizon with Gabriel on her heels, then Trey.

  K’aia took an extra half-second to work out her thrusters. “Dammit! I’m not taking that forfeit!”

  “Too late!” Alexis trilled. “I’m thro—”

  Bright blue light filled their perception as Alexis crossed the threshold.

  Gabriel was next.

  K’aia cursed again when the blue light flashed for a third time, indicating Trey’s progress into the game. “It had better not involve shoveling any kind of shit,” she grumbled as the light swallowed her.

  2

  K’aia

  Barien’s body was heavy, and the sand was difficult to run on. At any moment, the guards would come pouring out of the salt mine, and then K’aia would be…

  Fine.

  K’aia stopped at the sound of Eve’s voice. “I could kick myself.” She didn’t think she could be blamed for not realizing she was in a game scenario. The air tasted of salt, and she felt the weight of Barien’s body pressing on the scar tissue across her shoulders. “Holy hellfire, this is beyond real. I’m living it all over again.”

  She paused to place Barien gently under the tree. It didn’t matter to her that this was a construct. It didn’t feel like one. This human had been her friend.

  “I get to say goodbye again,” she murmured as she covered the tapestry she’d wrapped him in with leafy branches. “Who gets that chance? I wish you could have made it. You would have loved living with the Empress and her family.”

  K’aia got to her four feet and looked around. “So, I’m on Devon. Well, Belv’th at this point in history.”

  Eve declined to reply.

  That wasn’t a problem. K’aia knew her own memory. She’d escaped from the mine near City-on-the-Lakes. “Where are Bethany Anne and Michael?”

  No reply again. They should be here somewhere to kick off the revenge portion of this memory. If they weren’t here already…

  “They’re not coming.”

  The guards would be here any second. She had to keep running.

  K’aia checked herself again. “Do I? Do I have to run? I’m not a slave, helpless to take my own vengeance. I’m a grown-ass Yollin who has trained to be better than any mercenary on this shithole planet.”

  She broke a thick branch off the tree and marched over to where the guards were gathering.

  K’aia lifted her chin and readied the branch to face her demons. “Just watch.”

  Try this, Eve whispered into K’aia’s mind.

  The branch became a worked-metal staff with a red gem on one end that glowed with Etheric energy.

  K'aia grinned at the unexpected gift. “A Baka staff? Well, thanks.”

  Eve’s chuckle echoed as her voice faded. Pass it on to Trey when you meet.

  K’aia plowed into the forty and more guards who were eyeing her like she was a fine cut of steak and they’d been fasting for a month. You’ve got it. It might be a bit dinged up from some of these hard heads.

  The guards were just as dense as K’aia remembered from the real encounter.

  They went down a lot easier this time around, although K’aia wasn’t sure how much of that was her enhancement and training, and how much was the game limiting the abilities of the NPCs. The game-generated characters Eve had built from her memory were exquisitely detailed, as was the scene—from the taste of salt on the air down to the last dumbass comment from the guards.

  K’aia decided it was her awesomeness that was the differing factor. After all her time training with Addix and Tabitha, this was playing out like the dreams she’d had when she first escaped the mines. Therapeutic benefits of the scenario aside, she had to start the game for real.

  She skipped chatting with the mine boss and went straight for his stupid face with the explode-y end of the Baka staff.

  With him out of the way, the remainder of the guards ran.

  K’aia was disappointed the fight had been so quick, but she had other things on her mind. Namely, finding the twins.

  It wasn’t sitting well that they were separated. This was the longest she had let them out of her sight since the stunt they’d pulled with the Izanami.

  Legendary, no doubt. But had they taken their guard? No.

  K’aia wasn’t feeling any happier that they were confined to the gameworld.

  Although, how much trouble could they get into? She supposed she had little to complain about. The worst that could happen here was, they got reset a few times.

  As a guard, it could be much, much harder.
She’d shadowed John one time during her bodyguard training when Addix was away. The stories she’d heard from him about Bethany Anne were enough to put a Yollin into an early grave.

  K’aia shook off her rambling thoughts and sat on a rock to clean the NPC blood off the end of the staff and consider her next move. The logical thing was to make her way to First City, where she could pick up Trey and wait for Alexis and Gabriel to get here.

  It was on the twins to find her if they were elsewhere in the galaxy. They would have access to a spaceship—or they would give themselves access to one, more likely—and they would make their way here to Belv’th.

  The name was weird to her. Alien, her mind supplied with a snicker. “I’m calling this place Devon whether it is or not. Maybe we’ll make it into Devon. Now, where’s that skinny-ass Baka?”

  Trey

  Trey knew he was inside the game to learn grace under pressure, as well as to train and make the most of the enhancements Bethany Anne had gifted him.

  However, Ch’Irzt’s jealousy had marred every day of Trey’s life, and the gameworld was just as they’d been promised. This was realer-than-real, and his cousin was at his most punchable.

  What else was he to do when presented with this gift-wrapped opportunity for catharsis?

  “Screw you!” Trey landed a hard right on Ch’Irzt’s jaw. From the moment he’d gotten into the game, his cousin had been begging for a beating. “I’m done listening to your dumb ass talk crap.”

  Ch’Irzt landed on his backside with a satisfying thud. He glared sullenly at Trey, raising his fists as he got to his feet. “Oh, now you’ve gone and done it,” he threatened. “Just wait. I’m going to beat your scrawny ass all over the palace, and then I’m going to hand you to my father for your real punishment.”

  Trey blocked Ch’Irzt’s attack and knocked him back with a well-placed foot to the abdomen. “I don’t care if Da’Mahin thinks he’s the emperor of the freaking universe. He can’t tell me a thing. Where is my mother?”

  Da’Mahin walked in as his son landed roughly on the floor for a second time. He rounded on Tu’Reigd with an angry growl. “You are banished, and still I keep finding you here. Get out, and be thankful I am merciful on behalf of my sister. I should have you whipped for not knowing your place.”

  Trey lunged at his uncle. “Try it.” He smirked, pleased by Da’Mahin’s minute flinch. “Remember, my place was stolen by you. Your day is coming, Uncle.”

  He stormed past Da’Mahin and out into the streets of First City. The sky was the wrong color; it was too bright. Where was the QBBS Guardian? He couldn’t see it up there.

  “Maybe I made a mistake?” Trey murmured as the aggression drained out of him, leaving behind the realization that he had no idea where to go. Everything that made life good was gone. Was this the next six years of his existence? Trapped on a world where everything was out of place?

  Trey panicked. He crossed the bazaar in a blind rush, only slowing when he found a cattle market where Hexagon Plaza should have been.

  He wandered aimlessly toward the market, his mind refusing to process his surroundings. Neither could he grasp the depth of the difference one person made to his happiness in life.

  Where was Bethany Anne?

  Open your eyes.

  Trey’s eyes shot open at the sound of Eve’s voice inside his mind. He dropped to the ground just before he was knocked down by a cattle trailer speeding into the market.

  Hot air blew into his face as the hovercraft passed over him. Trey rolled to the side of the road and got to his feet.

  He dusted himself off, taking measured breaths to get his heart rate under control. The last thing he needed was an early death and a restart back at the Enclave.

  Mahi’ would know what to do. His Mahi' wasn’t here, though. Trey had decided on arrival that it would be too painful to try to interact with the Mahi' construct in the gameworld.

  He looked up at the sky and howled curses, uncaring of the looks he drew from passersby. “This game sucks, Eve! This planet sucks! Where are Gabriel and Alexis and K’aia? Where is everything?”

  Eve spoke into his mind. In this reality, Bethany Anne chose another planet to visit.

  Trey froze to the spot. This is what would have happened without her?

  Yes, Eve replied. This is still Belv’th. Devon was never founded.

  No Bethany Anne? Trey didn’t comprehend Eve’s words. His mind was on his gratitude that this wasn’t his reality.

  But it was. For the next six years.

  A crushing thought occurred to him as the news sank in. “What else is different? Are Gabriel and Alexis even on this planet?”

  Not at present.

  Trey’s heart sank further. “It’s going to take them a while to get here. Huh. What about K’aia?”

  You can find her if you know where to look.

  Trey didn’t have a clue. “How can I possibly know where she is? She could be anywhere on the planet if she didn’t meet Bethany Anne and Michael.”

  He thought about what K’aia had told him of her quest to join up with Bethany Anne. “But I know K’aia. She would find somewhere she could lie low and earn a living from fighting. What I need is to find a map. This is not the city I know.”

  Ask, and you shall receive, Eve replied.

  Trey grinned at the holo that appeared on his left wrist. Eve might be a PITA with her mysterious answers, but she always came through when she was needed.

  He tapped his holo to activate it. “It’s a start. Can I get the Empress here now?”

  Nice try, Tu’Reigd, Eve chuckled. No cookie. Now, turn around.

  Alexis and Gabriel

  Gabriel nudged Alexis with his mind. It looks like Mom.

  Sounds like her, too, Alexis agreed.

  They continued to listen intently to the conversation in the throne room from the doorway to the right of the dais.

  Alexis wrinkled her nose. But something is off.

  There’s no imitating Mom, Gabriel decided, feeling the same spark missing from the NPC. Eve did a really good job, but it’s not fooling me. It’s like…we can predict what this Mom would do. Nobody knows what Mom would really do.

  Alexis understood what her brother meant, even if he didn’t. You can’t program true randomness, just like you can’t catch a hurricane in a jar. Mom is her own force, so she can’t be predicted.

  There was a break in the monotony of requests for trade agreements, border disputes, and various politicians acting on behalf of independent governments when Michael left Bethany Anne’s side to remove a reptilian alien from the line.

  Bethany Anne watched disinterestedly while Michael and John escorted the ill-intentioned ambassador from the throne room.

  Her joy, Gabriel concluded. That’s what’s missing. Mom always says how much she hated being Empress.

  Not so much the Empressing part, Alexis countered with a wave of her hand that mirrored Bethany Anne’s. Just, well, this.

  Gabriel eyed the never-ending line of people waiting for an audience with Bethany Anne. “This” is a large part of leadership. Do you think you’ll be okay with being responsible for whole worlds?

  Alexis frowned while she gave the question its full consideration. I don’t mind the ones who come here in genuine need of our help, but they’re not the only ones asking for Mom’s time. We wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

  Gabriel made a small sound of agreement. Mom has Dad and our uncles and aunts to protect her, along with ADAM and TOM. We would be alone unless we had friends and family we could rely on the same way.

  Alexis smiled, warmed to the bones by the thought of their friends. We have people we can rely on to have our backs, like K’aia and Trey.

  Gabriel nodded his agreement. Like K’aia and Trey.

  Alexis pressed her lips together. Do you miss Phyrro?

  Gabriel chuckled at the memory of their EI tutor from childhood. Yeah, but I don’t miss his lessons. What made you think of Phyrro?

/>   Alexis shrugged. I don’t know. I was thinking about Mom having ADAM to take care of everything she has to hold in her mind.

  Gabriel was done watching the action in the throne room. We should get moving. If we’re in an alternative universe, then they’re both on whatever Devon was called before Mom took it over.

  Alexis grabbed Gabriel before he could go. Wait, I see Eve.

  You think that’s our Eve? Gabriel asked. Why would she create all these NPCs and play herself?

  Alexis decided that bit of womanly wisdom was best kept to herself. Why not?

  Eve fixed the twins with a smile.

  Gabriel furrowed his brow. No way. How did you know?

  Oh, lucky guess, Alexis returned Eve’s smile with an enthusiastic wave. Let’s see what we can get her to tell us.

  Eve glided purposefully through a door at the opposite end of the room. The twins followed, being careful not to get caught up in the line for the throne.

  They found her waiting for them in the antechamber beyond. She smiled at Alexis and Gabriel, spreading her hands as wide as her grin. “Are you impressed?”

  “Completely,” Alexis enthused. “You rebuilt the whole universe inside a game. I take it we are on the Meredith Reynolds?”

  “Your twist is that the Federation was never formed,” Gabriel mused. “We get it. What does that mean for K’aia and Trey?”

  “What does it mean for Devon?” Alexis expanded, her voice rising with the sheer scale of the changes to everything they’d always taken as a given. “What about the Interdiction? Who is there to prevent the Seven from tearing through and killing everyone?”

  Eve manifested her usual composure, meeting their questions with her serene smile. “It means Devon doesn’t exist, and that the Seven don’t dare come within scanner distance of anywhere the Empress decrees is hers to protect. The game began at the moment in time your parents would have altered Belv’th’s path.”

  Alexis gasped, the extent of the gameworld becoming clear to her. “That’s… Eve, how long did this take to build?”

  Gabriel sighed at his sister’s innate ability to be distracted by every bit of shiny technology that came along. “Stay focused, Alexis. We need to get to Bel…whatever it’s called in this reality. What happens if one of Trey’s uncles kills him before we get there? Do we all reset?”