After what seemed like a long time but was less than a second the collective managed to calm things down enough to offer an explanation. “A couple of things very quickly. First relax- this was our doing and second we are still secure, as long as we use the Net we have privacy.” The collective continued. “Junco's suspicion was correct. We have just placed a dome around us and this rig. The dome is made of a virtual substance that is at least a thousand times as hard as diamond. It also has lots of blocking and encryption built into it. Nothing gets in or out unless we want it to. Vireo may be a genius, but this is a product of thousands of minds.”
Vireo, Spandex, and Tanager, Vireo's unholy trinity, were sitting at a table in the corner of the Cassini Division. Vireo was seething. He knew he had been duped. The events that unfolded over the next few minutes did nothing to improve his demeanor. Everything went black. Then, almost instantly what was the inside of the dome appeared to be converted into a huge projection screen. The word 'Welcome' ran around the screen once and disappeared. It was replaced by a massive rendering of Vireo's home and surrounding landscape on Level Minus One. The camera then went up to the house, through the gates, the front door and then all of the rooms. The third room contained the hostages. They were all dead. A quick count revealed that Vireo had not kept his word to keep one alive. This surprised no one. “What did you really expect now?” Vireo's voice came from the table in the corner.
The tour continued. Several other rooms were examined. Some were nondescript and some revealed just how warped Vireo was. No one said a word either internally or externally. The three, Spandex, Tanager and Vireo had got up from their seats and were now standing on the table with their arms around each others shoulders. They were also naked.
The camera entered the room where Vireo's organic body was resting, currently uninhabited, on its sleep bench.
The three parts of Vireo were merging. The process was grotesque but Junco found it impossible to look away. The three first became one amorphous mass which in turn seemed to fight to get limbs and features in the right order. Eventually it was a panting and sweating Vireo that emerged. Eventually some nondescript clothes appeared and covered his body. Junco didn't know whether Vireo or the Mechanik were responsible for the last part, but either way he was grateful.
The camera had not moved. It was still staring down at Vireo's body in Vireo's home. It remained there for several seconds before the cut. After the cut the shot returned to the opening one of the house in its surrounds. Vireo, the virtual one, was back in a chair with his head in his hands. He kept repeating the phrase 'Not the body,' over and over again.
Then the dome screen lit up and the sound of multiple and massive explosions echoed around them. After the smoke cleared there was nothing but a very big crater and a lot of very small rubble surrounded by some flattened trees.
On any other Level this would not have been a big deal but this was Level Minus One where things did not simply vanish. At least not up until now. Junco tapped back into the Net for a second and felt a strange mix of pleasure and pride emanating from the Mechanik.
Vireo looked up from the table where he was sitting. He directed his gaze at Ani and said, “I can rebuild, you know that. Even if you kill this version of me, which I assume is your intent, I can just use one of a hundred digital backups and I'm up and running again.”
At that exact moment the dome screen split into half a dozen sections each containing a specific view. According to the text on the screens one was a comet currently just within the orbit of Neptune, another was an Island in what used to be called the Pacific Ocean, and yet another was on the sun facing side of Mercury. The other three were various locations on Earth's moon. Each view was dominated by a plain cube with some seemingly random numbers etched into the surface. One by one the cubes vanished. “There go your backups.” said Ani.
“Those are the physical ones but there are virtual ones on Levels that you will never find,” responded Vireo.
“One thousand six hundred and fifty four of them?” asked Ani. The fight suddenly left Vireo. He knew he had lost. He looked at Ani. Ani nodded. Almost imperceptibly, he extended his finger and executed a set of movements so fast yet so controlled that no one knew what had happened until they processed the fact that a pile of one inch cubes occupied the space where Vireo had just been.
Destroying all the virtual backups had been the hardest part of the operation. The Mechanik devoted two thirds of the collective to this task alone. Taking care of Vireo's non-virtual body had also been complicated. The safeguards, both physical and online that surrounded it were incredibly complex. The physical backups were perhaps the easiest part of the whole operation.
The Mechanik told their story with none of the detachment that Junco had come to expect from them and this troubled him. It also troubled Ani. The creator of Rubidium Beach almost succeeded in hiding his discomfort. Almost.
BATTLE FOR RUBIDIUM BEACH
He still marveled at the level of detail that had gone into all of Rubidium Beach. The whole Level had a verisimilitude that every other virtual Level he had ever visited lacked. The textures were detailed down to the atomic level, nothing was blurred, and everything felt, tasted, sounded and smelled real. Nothing was missing. There were no flat expanses of color, smells were full. Nothing tasted thin – all the supporting notes were there. Even the faintest aftertaste was present.
Rubidium Beach was every bit as polished the original virtual reality layer Level Zero, now home to the bulk of the human race. The difference being of course, that Level Zero had been built up over a thousand years and had become more real as each generation added to it whereas Rubidium Beach is at its heart, one man's folly that was originally designed to be little more than a temporary building platform for altogether more ambitious projects. In the words of its designer 'It took on a life of its own'
Rubidium Beach – A Brief Early History by Scoter P. Hollep
1. NEON COVE – A STORM
Wind was blowing in at one twenty. Hand sized gobs of metal rain slammed the shack's corrugated steel sides. The bottom of the thin walls were already bowing inward. The temporary sheeting over the service hatch popped its screws and the gray liquid poured in. One thing was certain, no surfboards, kayaks, pollution block, or anything else would go through that opening for a while.
Then came the eye. All was now quiet and would be for the next thirty minutes or so. The intermission. The Terminals were out in force for this one. Around thirty or so crawling up the mirror tile beach carrying each other and the occasional severed limb. Blood was already flowing back into the metal sea. They laughed, clapped each other on the back, and were never coming back down again. The uninjured remained in the sea, ready for round two.
Most of the Terminals had transport waiting, ready to rush them over to Bob's Superior Body Shop Inc., a few miles along the coast, for a quick patch up job and then to get them back here for the second half. One didn't though, She came into the shack via the back door, slid down the metal wall and took her helmet off. Teal was grinning from ear to ear. “You've really got to try it.” She was not high.
Scoter, ex amateur historian and newly minted owner of 'Scote's Boats' smiled at the suggestion. As Teal well knew, he had no intention of ever setting foot on the sea during a hurricane. He had really thrown himself into the lifestyle and had a genuine liking for the people. He kept his true age. Just about everyone else who worked and played around Neon Cove adjusted their ages to around the mid twenties. Most spec'd their virtual selves down to this age, often dropping several decades, but there were a few teens and even preteens in the mix.
The second half of the storm was ramping up and most of the Terminals were already back in the water, faces to the wind. Teal stayed put. There was no urgency anymore, no feeling of missing something. A couple of months ago there were no storms ever on Rubidium Beach. Now they were a daily occurrence.
Junco looked troubled but that was his current default expression. He was workin
g through recent events very differently than the others. There was none of Teal's daily dicing with death or Scoter's dabbling in mysticism.
The rain was now just a solid sheet. The floor of the shack was under about ten inches of it. The front wall was bowing more and looked just about ready to buckle under the force of the sea. The wind and the rain were now so loud that the three had no choice but to go to their implanted comms.
Scoter and Junco were implanted at birth and had spent the majority of their lives in virtual reality—as did almost everyone else. Everyone else, that is, other than Teal's people who had fought an honest to goodness war to avoid becoming a part of the virtual world. If it wasn't for some psychopathic programming code called Vireo, Teal would still be living out her flesh and blood existence on Level Minus One – the meat and vegetable Level.
The men's home was Level Zero, a virtual Level, granted, but one which had been in the making for centuries and was as real in its own way as Level Minus One. They could visit other Levels but these other Levels were never as detailed or just plain real as Rubidium Beach. In many ways their dislocation was every bit as real as Teal's.
“What time are you planning to shut up shop?” asked Teal.
Scoter replied. “As soon as the storm has passed I'm going to call it a day.”
“Any plans for later?”
“I was going to drop into the Jupiter Moon for a drink or two and say hi to Ani. Haven't seen him since he sliced and diced Vireo out on the rig.” he continued. “Bar's probably changed a lot since we were last there – weird time flow and all that.”
“Mind if I tag along?” Asked Junco. This caught the others by surprise as Junco had led an almost completely passive existence since 'V-day.'
“Would love it.” Scoter seemed both happy and relieved. “How about you Teal?”
“Count me in.”
The storm passed, the giant red sun came out and the box shaped transporter pulled up at the back door of the shack. Teal looked out onto the beach and spotted an obviously injured Terminal floating in the now calm metallic sea. She signaled the others to wait in the transporter, ran across the mirrored tiles grabbed the now seemingly lifeless body out of the water and tossed it over her shoulder. Teal then jogged back up the beach and bundled herself and her load into the vehicle. The load looked up, grinned inanely then went back to sleep.
After dropping the Terminal off at the body shop for repairs the three moved on to the Jupiter Moon which was ever so conveniently situated right next door.
2. THE JUPITER MOON – A REUNION
The neon sign was gone, replaced by a swinging wooden one, hand painted with the bar's name in a fancy script over an image of a red sun in the process of being eclipsed by a bluish moon. The decor was fairly familiar though with only subtle differences. The layer of programmed grime still coated the light fixtures and the window but the walls had been repainted and the carpet was definitely new. There were no customers.
Ani spotted the three of them and pointed towards the far end of the room. He said something to the bartender then caught up with the others as they were entering the backroom. Junco was pretty sure that the room was a new addition. “Made it for private functions. What do you think?” said Ani.
“Not bad, not bad at all. Assuming that you were aiming for twenty fifth century Mars outpost.” Scoter responded.”
“Ha, trust the historian. Heard rumors that your current tastes are more thirty first century Rubidium Beach leaky metal surf shack.” Ani was enjoying the reunion.
Scoter saw an opportunity. “Talking of my current chosen situation. How about easing back a bit on those storms? Every so often is great. Gets the adrenaline going but every day? Come on now.”
Ani was nonplussed. “What storms?”
“Seriously?” this time it was Teal who jumped in. “Don't get me wrong, I think they are the best thing that has ever happened to this place, but you have at least know about them.”
Ani's expression now bordered on annoyance. “I honestly have absolutely no idea of what you are on about. Is this some kind of joke?”
Junco pulled himself back into the present. “Ani, you built this whole Level, every last beautifully detailed part of it...”
“Firstly, I built the Level yes but others have added their own bits to it. There is a lot that goes on here that I only find out about after the fact. Take those ugly box transporter things for example. They have absolutely nothing to do with me.”
“And secondly?” said Junco after a pause.
“Oh right, second. If someone is messing with the weather that is pretty serious and I will probably have to get involved.” Ani was no longer smiling. He had already made it clear to the others that he had a very hands off attitude towards his own creation and actively disliked having to play the role of cop.
“You really didn't know? Said Scoter. “That is worrying.”
“Honestly I had no idea at all.” Ani replied. He was regaining his equilibrium. “Please, Tell me what you know.”
Scoter took up the request. “It all started around a week after V-day. The first three hit over the space of a month. In the last 30 days though we've had fifteen or so storms. The last five have occurred over the last five days.”
“Go on.” encouraged Ani
“They have also been getting much stronger as time has gone on. The initial ones had wind speeds topping out at ninety or so but the later ones are coming in at one seventy plus. They are also lasting much longer and producing much more rain.
“The most puzzling thing is that we always seem to be in the center of the path. The eye of the storm always passes directly over us.”
Ani seemed distracted unfocused – then his attention snapped back.
“You've just been on one of your jaunts haven't you?” Said Teal.
“Is that what you call them?” Ani responded trying hard not to smile.
“Yup. Well it is less of a mouthful than 'journey to this and other Levels for the purposes of gathering information and doing a bit of programming' isn't it?”
This time Ani did smile. “Fair enough, but you don't know the half of it.” This piqued all their interests. “And before you ask, I will explain, but at another time.”
Four small glasses and a jug containing a clear liquid, ice cubes and random bits of unidentifiable fruit like stuff materialized in the center of the table. Ani poured and handed them each a glass, holding one back for himself. “Right, this is what I saw. Judging by the damage, these hurricanes have tracks of around two miles in width yet they take hours to pass over. This makes no sense in traditional virtual simulation terms. If the storms were accurate representations, they would have tracks hundreds of miles wide, not two miles. Oh, and the really interesting thing? The storms start to weaken at three miles inland and stop altogether at around four and a half miles. After that nothing but a sunny day.”
“So that leaves a kind of transition zone of around three square miles.” said Junco almost to himself.
Teal looked at Ani and said. “Would it be worth going out there and taking a look – see if we can find any clues?”
Ani replied. “Sure, don't see how it could do any harm. Saying that I can't imagine finding out anything useful, either. After a pause he continued. “I'll be honest, these storms worry me. Not so much because someone is doing something stupid – that happens quite a lot around here but because someone can target so precisely. That is a whole different level of threat. Any idiot can code a virus that will wreck stuff haphazardly but it is a whole lot harder to design something that will only affect a very specific portion and leave everything else completely untouched. Whoever is doing this is no amateur. Think about it for a second, they have carved out a neat corridor within Rubidium Beach that passes through Neon Cove yet leaves all other parts of the scenario untouched.”
3. NEON COVE – SURVEY
Junco summoned a transporter using his internal view screen. It was simply a matter of focu
sing on the little box icon to the left of his mind's eye display for a couple of seconds. One of the vehicles that Junco still thought of as boxes on stilts appeared almost immediately and ferried the group to what was fast becoming known as the 'Transition Zone.'
“This is not right at all,” said Ani. “I should have zoomed in much closer when I scoped the area earlier.”
Teal tried to get him to expand his thoughts some but Ani was very much in his own orbit. “No, no this is not as it should be.”
From where they were standing the visible damage was very slight. Some of the vegetation was slightly bent towards the inland direction, but that was about it. Ani's discomfort was out of proportion to what their eyes were telling them.
“Ani, what's the problem? Everything looks fine,” said Teal.
Scoter and Junco both nodded in agreement. Junco turned to Ani. “Well?”
“Hold on a second, and I'll show you.” Ani activated the encrypted, very private network that he had installed for the group a couple of months previously. The upshot was that they could now see exactly what Ani saw. Ani first looked at a small bare patch of fine earth then he zoomed in to look at a tiny portion of the scene microscopically.
Teal was the first to get it. “Holes. Lots and lots of tiny holes.”
“Exactly.” said Ani.
Teal, sounding more serious than she had for a long time. “Presumably those holes shouldn't be there?”
“Most definitely not.” was Ani's response.
Strictly speaking they were tiny tunnels as opposed to holes. Ani upped the magnification and took the others on a virtual ride through one of the holes. They emerged some inches away from where they had started. The diameter of these tunnels, according to the guide on their displays, was somewhat less than one micron. Well out of the range of normal eyesight.
“Now watch this,” commanded Ani as he moved his gaze upwards and appeared to stare into space.
The Rubidium Beach Series - Episodes 1 Through 4: Cyberpunk/Dystopian Science Fiction Page 8