Spheria

  Ga∙zo entered. He walked up to the edge of the Rift where the ground stopped, and the immense chasm began. Only the zigzags formed by the girders provided support, and there was much more empty space. He stepped onto a beam. It seemed stable. He brought two other legs there and reached out to the next beam. Then with two and three working together, he began to move across.

  He looked up along the hollow passage, and it was empty. The Workers were either too far to see, or on the other side. More puzzling, Le∙ma and Sa∙ma were missing. Did they fall? He doubted it. Then he suspected the answer. He stood on one of the side beams and popped his eye sensors through a gap in the ceiling. There they were, moving along the top surface of the bridge, faster than the others. They were buoyed by the knowledge that if they fell, they had another layer to grab onto.

  Ga∙zo climbed onto the top as well. He proceeded slowly at first because the gaps were at a different angle than before and he had to relearn where to place his legs. But having five helped, and he soon found a rhythm that he used to get some momentum. Indeed, he was moving quite a bit faster than the two Workers he was chasing. They looked back, saw him approaching, and attempted to speed up. But that just made Le∙ma lose her footing, and Sa∙ma had to help her back up. Their pursuer was closing in on them.

  “Keep going!” shouted Sa∙ma.

  Le∙ma glanced back to see Sa∙ma turning to face Ga∙zo.

  “No!” she said.

  Without looking at her, he repeated, “Go! I’ll handle Ga∙zo.”

  She hated to leave her master but knew the artifact must not fall into Ga∙zo’s possession. She sped up as best she could.

  Ga∙zo arrived and stopped before Sa∙ma. “Let me pass!” he said.

  “Never, Ga∙zo. Your false god has corrupted you and your kind. Return to him and figure out how to survive without Workers.”

  “You speak blasphemy! For that, you won’t be forgiven, even by the gods!” He struck Sa∙ma with a leg, but Sa∙ma parried with one of his own. Ga∙zo swung at him from the other direction with another leg, and again, Sa∙ma blocked it. With Sa∙ma teetering on just two legs, Ga∙zo leaned forward and threw him off the bridge.

  Sa∙ma flew a good distance, then stopped abruptly. Ga∙zo was yanked to the side and barely managed to grab a girder. Sa∙ma had managed, just as he was getting thrown, to grab the loose end of Ga∙zo’s whip. He fell, swinging beneath the bridge, and came up on the other side. Ga∙zo and Sa∙ma both hung from the top of the bridge by two legs, facing each other.

  Ga∙zo didn’t hesitate. He kicked through the bridge at Sa∙ma’s core, but Sa∙ma released a leg and swayed to one side. Ga∙zo slid over and kicked again at where Sa∙ma was, but he did it in the other direction. Ga∙zo noticed Le∙ma making progress to the other side of the bridge. The artifact. He glared at Sa∙ma hanging there, disregarded him, and began moving quickly along the top of the bridge. He had the advantage now, and would reach Le∙ma before she made it to the end.

  She looked back to check on them and saw Ga∙zo gaining on her. But even worse, a line of Soldiers began entering the bridge. The Zalisks must’ve given up attacking when she lost the focus to control them any longer.

  She turned and tripped, nearly falling through the bridge. She recovered and sped forward. But it wasn't fast enough. Ga∙zo was within striking distance and raised his whip to snag her. As he flung his leg toward her, it stopped in mid-air. He yanked again and again it stopped. Turning, he saw that Sa∙ma had reached him, and had attached the loose end of his whip to one of the girders.

  “Enough with you!” fumed Ga∙zo, and he swung into the bridge, coming up underneath Sa∙ma, kicking him into the air. Sa∙ma tumbled and fell through a gap on top of the bridge. He extended his legs just in time to stop from falling past the bottom level. Before he could react, Ga∙zo dropped down on top of him, hitting him dead center with all of his weight. Sa∙ma’s legs folded, and he slid through the gap. He plunged down into the black void of the Rift below.

  Le∙ma screamed, “Noooooo!”

  Ga∙zo saw her standing inside the bridge, but on the other side of the Rift. It wasn't too far away, and he began closing the distance, skipping every other girder now. She grabbed the end of the bridge and started pushing. “Help me,” she called. Other Workers joined her, pushing sideways. The bridge began to shift, the end moving toward the edge of the Rift.

  “Push!” the Workers shouted in unison, and the end lost contact with solid ground. They heaved it into the chasm with Ga∙zo and the Soldiers still inside it. Le∙ma gripped it a little too long and lost her footing, falling to the edge of the Rift, hanging by two legs. Two Workers grabbed her to prevent her from slipping, and began pulling her up. But she seemed heavier than she should have. They peered over; Ga∙zo was hanging from her other two dangling legs. He reached up, ripped off the artifact, and attached it to his own core. The world spun, and she would’ve fallen had the Workers not been holding her legs. Ga∙zo paused for only a second, then began climbing up over her.

  As he reached the rim, the two Workers holding her backed away. He stood on her two legs, locking her in place.

  “Push him!” she screamed at them.

  They hesitated, not wanting to risk her by shoving him so close by. Ga∙zo, reacting to their delay, reached down and lifted her up, holding her in front of him.

  “Back off, all of you!” he said, “or I toss her into the Rift.”

  The crowd of Workers cleared a space around them. Ga∙zo crept sideways along the Rift, dragging Le∙ma with him. A forest of dense foliage began mere steps away. He was about to escape into it, possessing the artifact.

  Le∙ma understood the implications. Although he would be the only Soldier on this side, he would hold the artifact. This would put their new freedom at risk. It would jeopardize all they had fought for. Would they be able to establish a new homogeneous Colony with his interference?

  With her last bit of strength, she pushed the ground away, and both she and Ga∙zo tumbled backward into the Rift.

  Chapter 49 - Projection

  “We talk a lot about hope, helping, and teamwork. Our whole message is that we are more powerful together.” - Victoria Osteen

  Dana entered the Experience Room looking disheveled. The rest of the team, minus Min and Max, was already seated around the table, ready to begin. The panoramic screens each showed the simple spinning logo for the Spheria Project.

  Graham stood near a beverage cart that had been brought in for the meeting. “Tough night?” he asked.

  “You could say that,” Dana replied. “Last minute preparations, etc. The typical stuff. We all were working extra hard.”

  “Glad to hear that. I love the dedication. Here, have some coffee.”

  Graham poured Dana a cup from the dispenser. “How do you take it?”

  “Cream and one sugar, please.” This was odd, a billionaire serving her coffee.

  “Sure thing.” Graham began dumping the requested additives into her cup. “Where’s Max?” he asked as he stirred.

  “I’m not sure,” replied Dana. “I got a strange message from him this morning saying that he had some things to take care of. He told me to start without him.”

  Graham frowned. “That’s unexpected. I hope he's okay. The future of this project depends on him.” He handed the cup to Dana.

  “Yeah, I hope so too,” she said, taking the cup. She sipped the coffee and then cleared her throat. “But I’m sure we could keep it going without him. The team has its act together. It’s a great crew.”

  “Even still. Sometimes a great team goes nowhere without a visionary leader. Look at Apple. Brilliant engineers couldn’t save them. It took one guy to lead them from the brink of irrelevance. That’s rare to find. Just look at me.” He smiled a sheepish grin, having just compared himself to Steve Jobs.

  Dana nodded.

  Graham took a seat at the table with the other staff. As he did this, Dana walked over to the wall pa
nel and plugged in her flash drive. Three of the screens in the room showed her first slide: “Quarterly Report.” This was a convenient arrangement so that anyone sitting at the round table could see the materials.

  A computer voice announced from the speakers: “Incoming event.” Frankie hit a button on the remote.

  “What was that?” Graham asked.

  “Oh,” said Frankie, “the computer is always monitoring Spheria. If something is happening that it detects would be of interest to observe, it’ll automatically play it on the screens here. That way we don’t miss anything. But it gets recorded anyway so we can check it out later.”

  “Good to know,” said Graham. “I'd like to check out the recordings after this meeting.”

  “We can definitely give you access,” said Dana. “But even if you just watch the most interesting ones, you’ll be watching for days. You're free to have at it if you wish.”

  “I’m in no rush,” he said, countering Dana’s attempt to discourage him. He watched for a reaction.

  Dana smoothed her blouse with her hands. Graham noticed her fingers were dirty, and this left a dark smudge on her shirt. Before he could comment, she began.

  “This has been a record quarter for the Spheria Project. The team has made some valuable and insightful observations. Plus, Max and I have found several new sources of funding.”

  “I like to hear that,” commented Graham.

  Dana nodded to Frankie.

  Frankie clicked the remote and the slide changed to “Agenda.” It listed the following items:

  1) Quarterly Goals (Max Moreau)

  2) Cultural Progress (Jean Evens)

  3) Flora and Fauna (Abina Andam)

  4) Subterranean Passages (Frankie Pompeo)

  5) Financial Analysis (Dana Carter)

  Dana continued. “These are the five topics we will cover in this meeting. I will talk more about the funding at the end. Max was supposed to discuss the first item. But since he’s not here yet, Jean, can you go first? We’ll circle back when he arrives.”

  “Uh, sure,” Jean said. As Dana sat, Jean rose and walked over to one of the screens showing the slides. “Flip to slide 8, please.”

  Frankie fumbled with the remote, skipping past a bunch of charts. He stopped when the screen showed “Cultural Progress.”

  “So, for this quarter, our primary focus has been on the power shift of the Colony. The godhead, specifically.”

  “The what?” asked Graham.

  “The godhead. It means ‘the essence of being a god,’ and that’s what this Polyan is.”

  The slide changed to show a close-up image of Fa∙ro. He stood on the dais in the center of the Colony, striking a statuesque pose.

  “So this is Fa∙ro,” continued Jean, “the first seven-legged Polyan. At the end of the last quarter, just after our report to you, something unusual happened. The Polyans created him of their own volition. Whenever we materialize in their world, we always appear with seven legs. That’s because the most the Polyans could ever build was six, and we wanted to appear more powerful in some way. In hindsight, that may have been a mistake. They based their entire social class, as well as their mythology, on the number of legs. But I digress. Other than this, their social structure formed naturally into a well-run insect-like…”

  The computer voice once again announced: “Incoming event.”

  “Again!” blurted Frankie. He clicked the remote to suppress its playback.

  “Hmm.” Jean frowned. “Should we check it out?”

  “No,” said Dana. “Not until after this presentation.”

  “Okay, then,” Jean continued. “I was just saying how the Polyan social structure resembled that of an insect colony.”

  “Until now,” added Ravi.

  The slide changed to show the eight Leaders in a circle in their chamber atop the tallest building.

  Jean continued. “This was the Council. The members ran the Colony using a simple but equitable system of rule. They voted on actions, and the majority prevailed. At some point, they decided too many tie votes were happening. For an unknown reason, rather than making another six-legged member like themselves, they made one with seven.”

  “Interesting. But how could we not know why?” asked Graham. “Isn’t that the point of this project, to learn these things?”

  “Yes, it is,” answered Jean. “We’re still reviewing the logs and recordings to find out why. We will figure it out, but I suspect they wanted to see if they could do it, to see if they could touch divinity.”

  “Makes sense.”

  “So, anyway, the Leaders found a way to make a seven-legged Polyan. They did something we never expected. They used an additional contributor during the breeding ritual. This provided the excess energy required to jump-start seven legs. But that’s not the most significant thing that happened. In a relatively short period of time, this occurred.”

  A video of the eight Leaders, being slaughtered one by one by Fa∙ro, played in its entirety.

  “What the hell just happened?” asked Graham.

  “Exactly what you think,” said Ravi. “Fa∙ro eliminated the Council and took ultimate control of the colony. He elevated himself to godhead and instantly changed their society into a dictatorship. He won over the Soldiers and used them to his advantage. With their larger numbers, he was unstoppable. The remainder of the Colony had no choice but to accept his rule.”

  “Well, this isn’t unlike coups we’ve seen involving humans, right?” asked Graham. “Take Cuba for example.”

  “It’s exactly the same, which is what makes this so interesting,” said Jean. “History repeats, even inside our little virtual world. It shows the realism that un-deterministic destiny can lead to and that societies go through inevitable stages of formation. It validates a few of our theories about human nature.”

  “Impressive,” said Graham. But he wanted to gauge the weight of this discovery by the reaction of the project’s creator. “Where the hell is Max?” He pulled out his phone and checked it for texts. “Dana, do you have a message from him?”

  She took out her phone and pretended to look through her emails and text messages. “None, sorry.”

  “This isn't like him. There’s nothing he cares about more than this project.”

  “Yeah, he’s never been late for a quarterly meeting,” said Frankie.

  “I hate to proceed further without him,” said Graham. “But I guess we should. Jean, is there more?”

  “I could go on and on, but that’s all I have in the report. If there is time at the end, I'd like to discuss what they’re building.”

  “I'm intrigued,” said Graham.

  “Next up,” announced Dana, “is Abina, who’ll cover flora and fauna.”

  Abina took the remote from Frankie and stood. With her thick accent she began. “So the world is full of various plant-like and animal-like creatures now. It is starting to become a vibrant place. Even so, we created six new species this quarter, which averages two a month, a record for us.”

  She clicked the remote, and the slide changed to a graph showing the number of new species created every month. It was a sharp upward trajectory, starting slowly and then taking off like a hockey stick.

  “I think we are in our groove modeling and coding these now. I mean, we are performing as a team.”

  She clicked the remote again, and the slide changed to a topographical map of Spheria. It was broken up into triangles, some connected to others, each showing a piece of landscape. “This is a modified Dymaxion map. It shows the entire inside surface of Spheria, preserving, for the most part, the relative sizes of each land area.”

  She clicked the remote again and regions of color overlaid the triangles. “These areas show where we have placed the new species. The center is the location of the Colony.”

  “Wait,” said Graham. “Can you go back a slide?”

  “Sure.” She clicked the remote, and it returned to just the topological view.

>   Graham stood and walked over to study it up close. He pulled a pen from his pocket that had a laser pointer on the end. He attempted to shine it on a couple of triangles, but the red dot wouldn’t show up against the brightness of the screen. He frowned, looked around, then walked over to the rack behind the door and took one of the pool cues. Returning to the screen, he used the stick to point at the edge of a triangle that wasn't connected. “What should be here?” he asked.

  Abina said, “Look carefully. There is a faint blue arrow that connects that side to the side of another triangle.”

  Graham squinted. “Oh. I see it.” He traced the line with the tip of the pool cue, actually making it darker from the chalk. It was apparent that the topology at the two edges matched. “I get it now. It’s as if it’s unfolded into triangles. Go on.”

  The slide advanced to the colored regions again. “To not make things too unstable, we have placed several of the new creatures a safe distance from the Colony. The yellow areas show where. They are far enough so that the Polyans will have to venture further before they encounter the new species. We have also placed several on the other side of the Rift, where the red areas are. The current set of Polyans will never encounter those. This will allow us to compare their evolution under the influence of intelligent beings to those without such influence.”

  “So you put some of the same types of creatures on each side?” asked Graham. “And you'll see how they mature with and without encounters with the Polyans?” He touched the referenced regions with the stick as he spoke.

  “Exactly. So you could say this is the first time we’re adding an observation of the ‘culture of non-sentient life forms’ as I like to call it. I’ll give an update of my findings next quarter.”