Teal again. “So the Collective would let thousands or even millions die but would freak out over some suspect programming? That philosophy is a little too close to Vireo's for my taste.”
“That is about the strength of it,” agreed Ani. “but I don't think I've ever been witness to them 'freaking out' as you put it.”
“This is a discussion for another day,” Tanager said without emotion. “Right now we need a plan.”
Scoter and his new temporary appendage appeared in the doorway and lurched towards an empty leather bench seat. He lay down and spent a few seconds getting comfortable. The others looked on with some amusement. Within seconds the historian was snoring gently.
“He is going to be OK?” asked Teal, who was the only one of them that hadn't witnessed the lifesaving virtual tech in operation before now.
“He'll be fine, a little woozy for a day or so but nothing permanent,” said Junco while hoping that he had followed the instructions for attaching the gauntlet correctly.
“We're moving!” Said Scoter looking very worried.
Junco couldn't help smiling. “It's the painkillers and sedatives – you've probably got enough in you to knock out a medium sized Level.”
“No – he's right.” said Tanager. “I can feel it too, its like we are on water.”
Teal agreed. “Very slow and very gentle but we are definitely moving.”
Ani looked sheepish. “Junco, they are correct.”
15. BACK ON RUBIDIUM BEACH
“Where are we now then?” Asked Junco, but he already had a pretty good idea. The motion, which was now also registering in his brain felt exactly like being on a gentle body of water – only slower.
Ani confirmed his suspicions. “We are back on my Level and yes, you are on a boat.” He led them out of through the front door of Junco's apartment. Now, instead of apartments and roads, the group were confronted with a liquid metal ocean. The rigs could be seen in the far distance.
“Is that where we are headed?” asked Teal, pointing in the direction of the structures.
“Yes.”
Junco and Teal made their way to what was presumably the back of the boat. They stood lost in their own thoughts until Tanager emerged with Scoter. He looked a lot more surefooted than he had previously. “Hey you OK?” asked Teal.
“Much better, thanks. Feel almost human already. Funny thing is, the memory of the whole incident is becoming very distant. Like a dream,” Scoter continued. “Must be the drugs that this thing is filling me up with.” He looked down at where his original hand used to be.
“That's good – I think.” said Junco. He continued on a different tack. “You don't seem to be fazed by this place at all.
“Why should I be? I've been here loads of times before. Great little bar around there I think. Called the Jupiter Moon, if I recall” Scoter was pointing towards the shoreline. “Place changes a lot though - its like time runs faster here but maybe that is part of the charm.”
It quickly became obvious to Junco that Scoter had really been here and not just witnessed the heavily compressed version that he and Teal had shared back at the 'Retro Rustbelt' scenario.
“When you showed me what you've been up to I thought that this might have been the place. Hard to tell, though, with the flattening that happens when viewing someone else's time-stream and the fact that this place never stays the same two visits running.”
“So you already knew Ani then?” This time Teal asked the question.
“No, never met him before in my life.”
“But this is his Level – he designed and built it.”
Scoter thought for a moment. “Why should I know him? I just come here to wind down – not to make new friends. I find that the strangeness calms me for some reason.” He thought for a little while longer. The day's events were obviously taking their toll. “He does seem like an interesting guy.” And then Scoter fell asleep. Some virtual circuitry, either in his implant, his glove, or more likely a combination of the two decided that his stimulation quotient had been met.
Tanager had only seen Rubidium Beach through Junco's and Teal's implanted technology and appeared less blasé than the others. She was watching the deep red light slide across the metallic surface of the liquid below as if she was expecting to see something more. The alien shore was still clearly visible, and as far as Junco could tell, no major changes, at least big visible ones, had occurred since his last visit.
In the brief time that the others had known Tanager she had given away very little about herself and this needed to change, thought Junco. She was obviously in possession of a skill or talent that could prove useful in the fight against Vireo. Granted, she was originally chosen by Vireo as he thought that she would be effective against the Mechanik. Junco suspected that her ability would prove useful anyway. With this in mind he went to find Ani as he needed a lot of information that Tanager possessed.
Using mind to mind communication carried an element of risk as it opened up the entire brain to hacking, but it was much more efficient than verbal. It was a thousand times faster. A lifetime of experience could be transmitted in a matter of minutes if required. Junco needed Ani to secure the frequencies that carried the human to human communications. Ani hooked all of them up as requested in around twenty seconds. Ani and time clearly had a very unusual relationship.
Ani gave them the lowdown. “This should give us around twenty minutes before there is any risk of a hack. I will get warnings if there is any activity around the network. There will be the usual random pokes and prods but, believe me, if a serious attempt is made we will know.”
“Is that twenty minutes Level Zero, Rubidium Beach or Internal clock time?” asked Junco. “As we have found out, they are not the same thing.”
“Rubidium Beach” replied the host.
Tanager saw it first and alerted the others internally. Junco recognized it as one of the big objects, several of which had almost run Teal and Himself over on their first visit to Ani's world. This one was a fair way off but was gaining on them fast. The object was zipping along with its single leg dipping far enough under the surface to create a slow, sloppy wake. At first they thought that the thing was going to crash right through the boat and Junco found himself wondering whether he would sink or swim in this strange sea. The question proved to be moot, at least for the time being, as the object seem to go from full speed to a dead stop within the space of a couple of inches. Then nothing. The box on a stilt just stayed within touching distance of the group.
Junco felt a Pavlovian chill run through his veins. If nothing else, over the past few hours he had learned that unexpected things tended to lead to very gruesome things. After several minutes of anxious waiting Junco asked Ani verbally if the secure connection was still in place. Ani responded that it was and would be completely invisible to anyone, even Vireo, until it was used for the first time – then the clock would start ticking. They agreed to keep communications verbal for the time being and to save the encrypted line for an emergency just in case Ani wasn't able to establish a new connection on the fly.
“Ani, what is this thing?” Teal asked
“To be honest I have no idea. At one time there were lots of them. One day none then the next day lots. I almost did something about them as they were causing real problems for the residents.”
“Oh, I assumed they were your creations.” Teal again.
Ani smiled. “Nope, nothing to do with me. I assumed that they were a resident's project. I was on the verge of finding out who the owner was and having a quiet word. I don't like interfering, but sometimes I have to do something and this was shaping up to be one of those times.”
“What exactly were they doing?” Junco asked.
“Being extremely disruptive to say the least. Apart from running into people at speed they were plowing up gardens...'
“Gardens?” queried Junco.
“Yes, people here have gardens. Why not?”
Junco expla
ined. “Never really associated gardening with all of this metal and other man-made stuff. I don't think that I've ever seen anything natural here.”
“It's a Level, a scenario, therefore all virtual. There cannot be anything natural here be definition.”
Junco was now getting a little agitated. “You know what I mean – no simulation of vegetation or any other life apart from human.”
Ani apologized then went on to say. “You have only seen a small part of this Level. There are whole communities here, each one held together by common beliefs or simply common ways of being. Those who like to live in houses and garden are one of our biggest groups...”
It was Teal's turn to be agitated. “Great discussion – for another time. I think that we have more pressing things to deal with right now.”
As if to emphasize this last point a second and third object came at the boat, one from each side. The approach was the same, very fast then stopping without slowing down first. Junco's sense of dread was increasing by the second. The crawling sensation that he was now feeling was not helped by the fact that the larger of the two moons was now beginning to eclipse the giant red star. Judging by the shape and position of the bite out of the star the eclipse was going to be a total one. The group turned to Ani hoping that he knew more about current events than they did. But Ani's expression told them he was in the dark, every bit as much as the rest of them.
By the time that the eclipse was total, twenty-three more of the box objects had appeared around the boat. The eclipse slowly unwound itself and as the light increased the group could see that the boxes had been busy. Somehow they had silently connected with each other. Each was joined to its immediate neighbors by a length of flexible metallic square tubing with a cross section the same as the sides of the boxes – around one and a half times Junco's height on each side. This limited the group's view to a metal wall two feet from the boats sides and some sky. The metallic sea, shoreline and strange rigs were now invisible to them.
“The box things – they are moving,” said Junco, as the boxes seemingly circled them.
Scoter corrected him. “I don't think so. We are moving the boxes are not going anywhere.”
This did not in anyway reassure Junco. “That doesn't help.”
The motion was speeding up and all of the group had instinctively found a portion of handrail to grab. It was now obvious that the boat was spinning along with the liquid metal within the enclosure formed by the boxes. Junco was pretty sure that this was a localized effect purely for their benefit.
Ani opened up the encrypted line and the others immediately joined him. “Right, we have twenty minutes, maybe thirty minutes tops before Vireo can tap into this conversation so listen up. I am working on stopping this latest special effects distraction. I am on home turf here so I am not completely powerless.” Even as he was completing the thought the terrible spinning slowed then stopped. Seconds after the spinning ceased the boxes detached themselves from their neighbors and with a bit of origami-like magic folded the extension tubing back into themselves.
Then the front panel of one of the boxes slid open. Tanager stood up, grinned waved at the others and said “Bye.” in a really cheery tone. She then stepped over the bench seating and jumped the two feet into the open box. The front panel then closed. Tanager was no longer hooked up to their private network.
“What just happened?” Junco asked internally.
“I think that we've been had.” Teal responded.
“I am sure we've been had.” was Ani's contribution.
“So, you think she was a plant, a spy working for Vireo.”
Then came the sound of a horribly familiar voice – through the air not on the encrypted line. “Can you blame me? I need to know what is going on and to be honest I am not impressed with what I've seen.”
Junco jumped in. “So you've been spying on us.”
“Give the boy a prize.”
“So all this was to recover your asset?” Ani asked.
“Yup, that is pretty much it.”
While this conversation was going on Ani was throwing his thoughts out to the others on their private line. So far it appeared that Vireo hadn't worked out that they had a private network running. Ani then indicated that he was going to keep vireo chatting for a while longer if he could while he worked on some background stuff. He did not specify to the others exactly what this background stuff entailed. The group agreed that they had to assume that Vireo now knew everything that they knew up to this point.
“I thought we were going out to the rigs,” said Junco, while turning to look at the line of installations that were now receding into the background.
Ani answered. “We were but that can wait now. There is something that I want to show you but we need to come up with a plan and fast. I know where I want to do that.”
“Where's that?” asked Teal.
“The Cassini Division,” Ani replied.
That got the group's attention. “But that bar was destroyed along with Vireo's Trojan horse,” stated Junco.
“True that,” Ani responded. “I managed to salvage some of the subroutines and add some from other projects. There is more, and I'll go into that once we are in the bar. Keep all communication general until we are in there. Talk about the weather or something.”
“Nice eclipse,” Scoter chipped in. “Very very big and very very red.”
“Exactly,” said Ani.
“The sea is looking very red and shiny,” said Teal
“Nice boat by the way,” Scoter who was obviously feeling much better.
Junco joined in. “Wonder if it comes in green.”
“Or we could just remain silent,” said Ani with a half smile.
For the next few minutes Ani stared at the wake the boat was creating, watching what looked like ball bearings being created and then breaking down in slow motion. Junco felt sure that he was marshaling his thoughts and steeling himself for what was to come.
As they closed in on the shore Junco could see the slow motion waves breaking onto a narrow beach. Not that what he was seeing could be classed as a beach – it just occupied the space that a beach normally would. He was looking at a strip of mirrored tiles each approximately six feet square and the whole surface sloping at around thirty degrees. The waves were washing up on this shore then receding like mercury from glass. In between some of the tiles there were things that looked like over-simplified plants drawn by young kids then cut out of cellophane. Bright simple green leaves and petals of various primary hues. They seemed to be their own light source, their colors overpowering the red sun's tint.
Junco stepped off the boat and onto the jetty which appeared to be made out of the same material as the beach. The surface was not at all slippery much to his surprise. The others followed him and they made their way towards the shore. Before they even reached land proper it was obvious that something was wrong.
16. THE JUPITER MOON
Ani spoke. “Oh crap, this is not good.” People were pouring out of the Jupiter Moon. Not just one or two but hundreds of people emptying out into the street the majority of them running away from the bar as fast as they could. It was a full five minutes before the last of the bodies had exited the bar and Junco estimated that they numbered in the thousands. By his estimation the Jupiter Moon's capacity probably ran to around two hundred all standing shoulder to shoulder. After the last of the crowd had fled along the backstreets that led inland Ani motioned to the others to follow him to the bar. Junco's feeling of dread had never been stronger.
Tanager was still alive but only barely. Long lengths of heavy chain connected her legs to the floor and her arms to the ceiling. She was stretched out in the shape of a St Andrews cross. There was a lot of blood and many wounds but none that appeared to be fatal. Spandex appeared from behind the bar. He was carrying a large knife and a whip. He waved and smiled at the newly arrived group before lashing Tanager diagonally across her side. Red slowly soaked through the newly r
ipped material of her shirt. Then the retro biker's head fell off. It didn't take Junco long to work out that Ani had done his pointy finger thing, the one that removes people's heads. Ani went on to use his talent, if it could be called that, to separate Tanager from the chains. Tanager was about to say something when Ani very tenderly put his finger to her lips to indicate that she should remain quiet for the moment.
The report from Bob's Superior Body Shop Inc. made for grim reading. Multiple fractures mostly to fingers and toes, multiple lacerations just about everywhere, several chipped and lost teeth and three extracted fingernails. Now she was as good as new, at least physically. The group had decided not to go for the trauma wipe which would have erased memory of the incident at a molecular level. This decision was not taken out of malice for what she had done for Vireo. It was a pragmatic one – she may have gained information during her ordeal that could prove useful in their fight against Vireo. Besides they could always return to the body shop and have those memories removed later. Might not be quite as clean but as long as they could get back within a couple of weeks the psychological damage should be minimal.
17. TANAGER
“Nice work Ani, the new window really adds something.” said Teal. She seemed the least shaken up by recent events.
Ani was leaning on the bar counter looking more relaxed than he had in a while. “Right, everything is set. We can talk about anything now, either verbally or online.”
“Very similar to before – other than the new window that is.” noted Junco while surveying the new Cassini Division.
Ani put Junco straight. “The surface stuff is very similar granted but the underlying stuff, the rest of the iceberg so to speak, is radically different.” He continued. “To be honest I haven't even really begun to think about the texture mapping of this subroutine yet, beyond the window addition that is.”
“How do you mean?” Junco was genuinely interested.
The Rubidium Beach Series - Episodes 1 Through 4: Cyberpunk/Dystopian Science Fiction Page 6