Memories of the chess sim slammed Junco in the gut. This was too close to be a coincidence. His dread was finding new levels to peak at. He was back among the chess pieces and Teal was looking into the abyss without fear – without anything much at all.
Scoter and Teal walked along the edge of the chasm, away from Junco and Ani, and obviously deep in conversation. They were no longer laughing. Junco's brain was screaming.
Teal then called out to Junco and Ani. “Don't worry about me.”
Junco thought that he had heard correctly but wanted to make sure. “What? Say that again.”
“I said, “don't worry about me.” Even at this distance he could see her smile.
By the time Junco had processed this Teal had already stepped off the edge and into the abyss.
“No!” Junco yelled.” Even though unfolding events were totally inevitable. He just knew that.
Ani was suddenly sprinting towards Scoter. Scoter had stood up and was eying the chasm very intently but with a calmness that was completely out of place. Ani continued his run and tackled Scoter knocking him off his feet and away from the chasm. The historian shook his head, stood up and hugged his attacker. Scoter was obviously reluctant to let go of his savior. Junco walked over to join the others.
“What do we do now?” Asked Junco.
Ani answered. “We turn around and we go back the way we came.”
“What about Teal?” Junco again.
“Nothing we can do for her.” Said Ani
Junco wasn't happy. 'Is she dead?”
“Maybe, maybe not – I don't honestly know.”
After letting that thought hang for a while Scoter spoke. “Regardless of what we do about Teal this thing has us surrounded so to speak. We cannot get back without crossing it.”
“I have a hunch that won't be a problem. Lets just keep walking and see what happens.” Ani seemed pretty sure of his ground. He turned and started walking. The other two followed.
Sure enough the part of the chasm that was now in front of them disappeared. As they walked further the wind started up again, slowly at first but increasing steadily as they went. Some clouds reappeared and the perfect mirrored floor became a patchwork of different things again.
The return journey was much harder than the outward leg. This was in part due to the fact that they were now walking into the wind. The main reason though, was the loss or at least possible loss of Teal. No one said anything, even about the five crow-like birds that circled overhead for the entire time. The birds never made to attack, they just kept their distance and observed.
12. THE JUPITER MOON – A POST MORTEM
They eventually reached transporter and returned to the Jupiter Moon. The painted sign looked much older than it did a few hours previously. The varnish was now cracking and the paint fading. The chain supporting it was now rusty. Of all the things on Rubidium Beach Junco found the freaky variable time flow the most disconcerting. Knowing that it was Ani's White Room that was causing the time leakage was not in any way reassuring. Ani was meant to solve problems and know stuff not create problems and not know stuff.
The Moon was quiet. Muzak was droning and the only two customers looked like they would rather be anywhere else. The girl behind the bar looked terminally bored. Ani informed Junco and Scoter that he didn't recognize her but didn't seem to bothered by the fact. The three of them picked up their drinks and headed for the table furthest away from the serving area.
“Hell What a day,” said Scoter, providing a summary that none disagreed with.
Junco suddenly rounded on Scoter. “Why the hell didn't you stop her!”
“I had no idea that she was going to do that – please believe me.”
Ani intervened. “Junco, this is not his fault. If anything you should be blaming me.”
“How so?” Junco asked.
Ani gathered his thoughts before speaking. “I warned you that this trip was dangerous but there were some details that I left out. I was ninety-nine percent certain that Teal had been compromised. That your food sim menu had been hacked and that the hacker messed with your implant to nudge you into selecting the chess scenario. As soon as I saw the chasm on Rubidium Beach I knew that I wasn't wrong. Teal was hacked and prepped during the explosion. Whatever or whoever we are fighting got to her and programmed her to jump. I suspect that it wouldn't have made any difference if she jumped off the chess board or into the abyss on this Level. In fact I am pretty sure that what we just witnessed was the backup plan in operation.”
This did not placate Junco. “This sucks. You still should have warned us.”
“Fair enough. But this isn't helping any.” Ani then turned to Scoter. “What were the two of you talking about out there by the abyss?”
“Teal was talking weird, about how life didn't seem real anymore and how she didn't really care what happened to anything. She said that we were important to her but that wasn't enough.”
Junco's stomach was knotting up. “So she was telling you what she was planning and you did nothing?”
“It wasn't like that. The conversation was really abstract. To be honest I just thought that she was venting – sounding stuff out to see if it made any sense. I didn't realize what was wrong until I got this massive urge to follow her. If it wasn't for Ani I would have thrown myself into the chasm. Now I know that Teal was not herself. Something else was going on.”
The edge came off Junco's temper and he apologized for scapegoating Scoter and for his annoyance with Ani.
Ani spoke next. “There really is no one to blame, at least not in the present company.”
“Thinking about it, Teal was going through a living life in the moment phase.” said Junco.
Ani replied. “Yes, but there is a huge difference between taking a few risks with the Terminals out in Neon Cove and hurling oneself into an abyss with completely unknown physical laws and where the consequences are completely unknown. Someone made her do this and my money is on the Mechanik.”
13. JUPITER MOON – THINGS LOOK UP
It was then that Junco's internal, implant-driven display started to light up. Teal was back online! She was back in their private loop and communicating. “Hey all, I'm Okay. Sorry about the drama.”
Junco was delighted to hear her virtual voice. “Where are you? What happened? Why...”
“Slow down, give the poor girl a chance.” Ani was smiling from ear to ear. He was obviously hugely relieved as indeed they all were. “How are you doing?”
“I'm fine, really, but there is a lot of stuff that you need to know – we really need to talk.”
“Aren't we doing that now?” said Scoter also looking very relieved.
“Not like this, we need to all be in the same virtual space. I don't want anything to get lost or be misunderstood.” replied Teal.
“Makes sense to me,” Ani continued. “Where are you now?”
“I'm back on Level Minus One, at my apartment.”
“Back down on the meat and veg Level?” Junco wasn't quite sure why he transmitted the derogatory slang term for Level Minus One at that moment. “Oops really sorry – please put it down to my excitement.”
Teal was laughing. “Ha – no worries. It's great to hear your virtual voice, Junco.”
Five hours later Teal was sitting in the Jupiter Moon with the others with a very large glass of something very potent in front of her. She had already drained two similar drinks. Teal had activated the Rubidium Beach icon on her own display immediately after telling Junco that it was great to hear him. “Five hours! This time warping stuff is a bitch.” she slurred.
Teal promised to tell them what had happened but stated categorically that she wanted to get very drunk first. The others joined Teal's celebration, each downing multiple drinks either the same or similar to Teal's choice. There were no prissy pieces of fruit in these libations. After two hours and a quick dose of SoberUp, Teal was ready to tell her story.
14. THE GOOD MECHANIK – ITS
COMPLICATED
“While we were walking from the transporter and towards the abyss something inside me let go. I knew that I was about to do something strange but I had no idea what. The closer we got to the chasm the more it felt as if I were in a dream. I knew with absolute certainty that no harm was going to come to me. I also knew that I couldn't say anything to any of you. In retrospect if I had, you would not have let me within a hundred yards of the chasm. I knew that I had to embrace whatever was ahead regardless of anything else.”
“Is the chess scenario connected to this?” asked Junco.
Teal Replied. “Very much so. I regretted not jumping into the abyss as soon as we were back on Level Zero. Junco, if you weren't so obviously distressed I would have persuaded you to allow us to return so that I could jump.”
“So Ani was right,” said Scoter.
Teal replied. “Yes he was. The chess scenario and the abyss here on Rubidium Beach were very much connected.”
“And the Mechanik are behind it all?” asked Ani
Well that's complicated,” replied Teal. “Part of the Mechanik needed to get word to us.”
“Seems like an extremely complicated way to achieve something very simple,” said Junco.
Teal smiled. “That is true, but don't read too much into it. Don't forget the Mechanik live a very abstract existence though that could be changing. Concepts such as easy or hard ways of doing things have little meaning. Also don't forget that what is easy and hard on Level Minus One is not the same as what is easy and hard in virtual reality. Digging a hole on Level Minus one involves machinery and effort. If you want a much bigger hole that requires much more time and effort. In virtual getting a bigger whole is as simple as deleting a number in a section of code and replacing it with a higher one.”
“Enough with the preamble already,” said Scoter, without rancor. “Time for the meat. What actually happened?”
Teal obliged. “After jumping into the abyss I came to in a room. I was seated at the end of a very long table. There were hundreds of others if not thousands seated at the table. The table stretched off towards the horizon. I could not see the other end of it or all the people sitting at it. The width of the room was normal, say around twenty feet but the length seemed to be infinite. The person nearest to me on the left side of the table was welcoming and apologized for inconveniencing me. He asked me if I had any questions before they told me what was going on. I said that I had many questions but that I was struggling to prioritize them. He laughed and that surprised me for some reason. Anyway, I said that I'd have loads of questions after I'd heard what they had to say. He said 'fair enough.' The verbal exchanges were all surprisingly ordinary – for some reason I expected something different.”
Junco, Ani and Scoter were now completely absorbed in what Teal was saying and none of them interrupted. She continued. “This time it was the person on the right and closest to me who spoke. He started off by saying that those seated at the table were the Mechanik, or at least a part of the collective. I did interrupt at this point to say that I thought the Mechanik lived on a purely abstract Level. No rooms, furniture – no bodies even. The person to my immediate left told me that things had changed a bit since our last meeting.”
Junco was about to interrupt but Ani raised his hand and Teal continued. “Apparently there has been a big split in the Mechanik and the split is not a tidy one. In fact the two sides are now at war. One side wants to get involved in human affairs. They think that we have made a mess of things and that they would be good for us. The fight against Vireo went a long way towards convincing them that they would be a force for good. In reality it just gave them a taste for meddling and domination. They also want to remain in the abstract, avoiding taking human form and avoiding living a human scale life.
The good Mechanic think that the rogues want to conquer Rubidium Beach. The group that I was in the room with had a theory as to why that was. They know that a lot of top class software developers live and work on the beach and, not to put too fine a point on it, they see the Beach as a threat to themselves – as the one place that an attack on them could be launched from.”
“I take it that you were in front of the other faction.” said Ani.
Teal replied. “Correct. The side that had summoned me, for want of a better word, opposed just about all of those things. They wanted to carry on as before, repairing the Levels and not screwing around with human affairs. They also made an interesting decision regarding the whole abstract thing. They decided to go back to living in virtual human bodies and in human type virtual spaces. They see the Mechanik's decision to live in the abstract as being the root of the problem.
“How so?” Interjected Ani
“Living in the abstract, without even the illusion of physical things especially a body unique to the person, put a huge distance between the Mechanik and the rest of humanity. The jump was bigger than any evolutionary jump. Due to this, many in the Mechanik started to see people as other, as somehow inferior.”
Teal thought for a moment, as if she was debating whether to relay her next thought or not. Then she appeared to reach a decision. ”As you know I am a soldier and part of my training was in how to motivate others to fight. One thing that is essential is the portraying of an enemy as 'other'. As soon as a human being sees another human as 'other' they can usually be persuaded to kill without a second thought. The ease with which this can be achieved is actually pretty depressing.”
This was history in the making and Scoter was in his element. “So, the good guys think that the bad guys will meddle with little to no regard for the feelings or the rights of the individuals affected. The good guys are aware that this is an easy trap to fall into so they want to reconnect with their own humanity.”
“Is that about the sum of it?” Ani asked Teal.
“Yes, that is pretty much spot on.” Teal appeared grateful for the help.
Ani then asked Teal if the good Mechanik had shed any light on why he was kept in the dark about the split and the activity on Rubidium Beach..
Teal thought for a while before responding. “You are the one member of the Mechanik collective who has major outside interests and many in the collective questioned your commitment to the maintenance of other layers – to anything outside of Rubidium Beach in fact. This was only the case initially, though. As soon as it became apparent that the rogue Mechanik intended to make Rubidium Beach the central battleground the decision was made to tell you. This should have happened sooner but the rogue Mechanik managed to block the good Mechanik at every turn. This conversation is the first successful attempt to put you in the loop but it is not the first attempt.”
Junco interrupted. “Before we go any further can we come up with better names than 'good Mechanik' and 'rogue Mechanik'?”
Teal laughed. “That is the names that they used – not my choice.”
“Okay, how about we just say Mechanik for the good guys and keep rogue Mechanik for the bad guys.” said Ani.” he continued. “Another option is to refer to the good side as 'materialists' and the bad as the 'abstractionists'.”
Scoter looked unhappy. “Too confusing, historically there is already a group called the 'Abstractionists' who are completely unconnected to these lunatics.” He thought before adding. “Besides, our conversations will end up sounding like studenty art history debates.” No one really knew what he meant, but they decided to let it slide.
Junco summarized. “So, the good guys are the materialists but we will just call them the Mechanik and the bad guys are the abstractionists and we will call them the rogue Mechanik.”
“Something like that.” said Ani. “Anyway, back to the subject. Teal, did they say anything about the attacks on Rubidium beach? I'm presuming that the storms and the microscopic tunnels are their work.”
“Correct. Though that situation is interesting. The rogue Mechanic designed the storms to be full sized and catastrophic. The fact that they only plow up the same narrow channel
day in day out is the work of the good Mechanik. The storm system itself is a subroutine that is now timed to automatically start up once a day or so. Originally it was much less frequent but the rogues managed to get past the good Mechanik and flip the relevant bit of code. The rogues are making the tunnels or to be strictly accurate the tears bigger but only at a relatively slow rate. Ditto the wind speeds within the storm.”
Ani decided to press on a different front. “When you jumped into the abyss – did the Mechanik say anything about those events?”
“Yes, quite a lot in fact,” Teal replied. “That whole area was a battlefield. The changes in terrain, the wind, everything was the outcome of the war. Remember the crows?”
Scoter winced at the memory. “Oh yes, I remember.”
“Well, those were an agent of the rogue Mechanik. Their attack on you was a win for the rogue Mechanik so to speak. The fact that they stayed high and didn't bother you on the return leg of your journey was a victory for the Mechanik, the good guys.” Teal continued. “The rogue Mechanik got wind of the Mechanik's plan to have me jump in the abyss while you were approaching the scene in the transporter. Then they just threw whatever they could into the mix to stop me reaching the abyss. The good Mechanik had managed to do some blocking and firewalling of their own though so only a small amount of what the rogue mechanic tried succeeded.”
“What would have happened without the firewalling?” Asked Junco.
“Easy one – we wouldn't be having this conversation,” said Teal.
“Oh.” said Junco.
Teal continued. “ Another example, the dust and the wind, was obviously the work of the rogue Mechanik but the good Mechanik did manage to counter in a couple of ways. They turned the wind around a hundred and eighty degrees so it was at our backs when we were approaching the chasm. The other thing they did was plant the suggestion to virtual up some goggles in Ani's brain and created enough of a break in the rogue Mechanik's firewall to let them through. There were a lot of small wins and losses during that battle.”
The Rubidium Beach Series - Episodes 1 Through 4: Cyberpunk/Dystopian Science Fiction Page 11