The Rubidium Beach Series - Episodes 1 Through 4: Cyberpunk/Dystopian Science Fiction

by G. D. Blanton

  Junco whispered, “Ani, does your little trick still work?” While he was saying this Junco drew a finger across his neck after making sure that the group in the corner had a blocked view.

  “Yes, but I hope that it doesn't come to that.” Ani then sauntered over to the corner where the men were sitting. He then spoke to them for a minute then walked back to the bar.

  “How are things?” asked Teal.

  “Okay I think.” Said Ani. “One thing really bothered me though.”

  Teal responded, “And that was?”

  “They all had a pin on their coats,” said Ani.

  “Noticed that,” said Junco. “Assumed they were all part of a club or something.”

  “That would be some interesting club. They all had the same wording, 'The Future is Fear'. Same as was on the sign outside.”

  Then the glass smashed, and blood started to pour out of the man's neck. The others in his group rushed out of the door marked 'Plateau' before the victim had completed his descent to the floor.

  Ani held the 'Downtown' door open as Junco and Teal grabbed the man and rushed him through. They took the now unconscious body to Bob's Superior Body Shop Inc, situated right next door. Luckily the body shop had been completely rebuilt since the Mechanik war.

  The two of them sent the body through the scanner where a preliminary diagnosis was made – not that a complex diagnosis was required. Then they heaved the body onto one of the tables and the healer descended and performed its magic. The healer then rose taking up its resting position embedded in the ceiling. The man sat up, looked around and made a bolt for the door. His acceleration, however, was no match for Teal's reflexes though. Before he was even close to the exit she had sent him sprawling across the white tile floor. She then sat on him while Junco wandered over. Teal then gave the man a very graphic description of what would happen if he tried any more 'idiotic' stunts. They then frogmarched the newly patched up man back into the Jupiter Moon and sat him on a stool by the bar. The floor in the corner had already had all traces of blood and glass removed and it was as if the group of men had never set foot in the bar.

  Ani pointed at the single column support of the curved chrome table nearest them. The support split and the tabletop fell off onto the floor with a clatter. Ani's eyes then glazed over and the table repaired reassembled itself to the point where it was impossible to tell where the original break had occurred. Ani then pointed at the man who promptly threw both hands into the air in the universal sign of surrender.

  “What's your name?” asked Ani

  The stranger had a question of his own. “Why is it so important to you? There was a brawl in your bar – It happens.”

  Ani pressed. “The brawl doesn't bother me one bit – though I do have half a mind to stick you with the bill for patching your carotid artery and other bits. No, it is that pin on your coat. It says the same thing as my sign did earlier and I do not like coincidences.”

  “Fair enough. My name is Skua Semp.”

  Judging by the way Ani's eyes glazed he was running his own background check to make sure that the man was telling the truth. His eyes cleared. “Well that seems to stack up. Your image matches your name. Looks like this is your first time on Rubidium Beach. I have no record of you passing through here at any time in the past.”

  “That is correct, I have spent most of my life on a Level adjacent to this one. It's called Violencia.”

  Ani was jolted back into the moment. “That place doesn't exist – it's a myth.”

  “It does exist, well at least virtually, the same as this place,” Skua continued, “Why what have you heard?”

  “Nothing good to be honest, gangs, law of the jungle, anarchy. Do you want me to go on?” said Ani.

  Skua shrugged. “Nope, won't be necessary. Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on the place – other than the fact it really does exist.”

  Ani looked worried. “You have me at a disadvantage. You knew about Rubidium Beach which is a very well-kept secret while I didn't even know that your Level existed.” This was obviously a new situation for Ani, and one that he was not enjoying one little bit.

  Teal stepped into the growing silence. “How about you tell us what just happened, or, better still, tell us what led up to what just happened. “

  3. SKUA SEMP

  It turned out that Violencia was about four hundred years old. It had been set up as a small vacation resort by a group of well heeled bankers who wanted to escape the pressures of work and sometimes their spouses. Word spread and business boomed. Hotels were established and facilities were built. Apparently the null gravity ski slopes were the best anywhere. Every type of leisure activity was catered to. There was no law. If someone wanted to do something it was automatically legal.

  Of course this all generated lots of credits and this in turn generated lots of banks. Violencia soon became the number one tax haven anywhere on the Levels. The criminals were not far behind. The rumors of easy money and no penalties for wrongdoing attracted them like flies to shit.

  Violencia ceased to be an exclusive holiday destination. It became the place where people came to satisfy desires that could not be satisfied anywhere else. It was also a place where everything had a price. Rumor has it that about a dozen members of Level Zero's corporate government knew about it – half of them wanted to shut the place down for good and the other half were among Violencia's best customers.

  “What about you and the goons that you came in with? How do you all fit into this story?” asked Ani.

  “We are brothers and we are also a part of the most powerful gang operating in Violencia. The gang is called Mayhem. Our family have been a part of Mayhem for centuries. Anyway, I have wanted out of the gang – wanted to go back to Level Zero, or just about anywhere else, and lead a normal life. I told my wife this. What I didn't know was that my wife was sleeping with my youngest brother and she told him everything. Of course this meant that I had to be killed, code of honor and all that bullshit. He told the rest of my brothers and the rest as they say, is history. '

  Ani thought for a moment then said simply. “Why here, why on Rubidium Beach?”

  “That is easy,” replied Skua. “Here they could have killed me then disappeared back to Violencia and claim that I'd had an accident. It would be really hard for the authorities to track a crime back to here – even if they wanted to.”

  “That leads to the question that is really bugging me,” said Ani. “How did you find out about Rubidium Beach?”

  Skua looked around the room and seemed to reach a decision. “Look, I've said too much already – can I just go now?” His little finger then fell off his hand and dropped to the floor. There was no blood.

  “Enough dicking around. I want answers,” said Ani “Oh, and in case you are thinking that your finger will return as good as new when you leave this Level – it won't. At least not without another visit to the body shop next door. Injuries sustained here are persistent all the way down to Level Minus One.” The fact that these characters had found their way onto Rubidium Beach so easily had obviously rattled Ani. The fact that he had never heard of their Level probably rattled him even more. One thing was obvious – Ani was not messing around.

  Skua did not even change expression when his finger was removed. Not as much as a flicker of pain. Teal looked impressed and Junco did not like the fact that Teal looked impressed.

  Ani continued the interrogation. “So, how did you find out about Rubidium Beach?”

  Skua started to talk. “About a year ago this lunatic turned up on Violencia. He just strolled into our club as if he owned the place. Bear in mind that this is the Mayhem's club and no one comes in who isn't a member – at least not without an invite. Calm as you like he just strolls up to the bar and orders a drink.”

  “Doesn't sound like such a big deal,” said Scoter.

  Skua continued. “It's about as big as a deal can be. This particular club is always guarded by at least thirty men,
tooled up to the eyeballs and absolutely loyal to Mayhem. Our internal feeds all showed that everything was okay and that our goons were all in position exactly where they should have been – yet this unknown guy was standing at the bar as comfortable as you like.

  Some of our guys decided to check this out. They didn't say anything to the stranger as they didn't want to spook him – not yet at any rate. What they found was horrible, even by Violencia's standards. In a room off to the side of the foyer was a pile of body parts. Arms, legs and torsos, all separated and all stacked in piles. Arms were on one side of the room, legs on another and torsos in the middle. The bodies were naked. In a second smaller room were the heads lined up on two shelves. The heads were all grinning and next to each was drink – some kind of cocktail apparently with a tiny hologram of the intruder's face visible in the liquid itself.

  Well, as soon as the message was transmitted back to the bar half a dozen members attempted to rush the stranger but as soon as they were withing six feet of him their bodies just sort of turned to slime, by all accounts. One minute they were people and the next they were a sticky puddle on an expensive carpet.”

  “So what happened after that?” asked Junco.

  Skua paused for a moment then continued, as if he wanted to make sure that the details were exact. “Everyone left the club – and by left I mean ran out as fast as they could, leaving friends and floozies to fend for themselves. Funny how honor is often easier in the abstract than it is in reality. Only one person remained, an old geezer who had fought more turf wars than just about any of us. Unfortunately all the killing along with several very bad torture sessions had left his brain more than a little scrambled. He was way past even knowing what fear was. This old boy just calmly walked up to the psycho and started chatting to him. Of course by now word had got out and just about everyone was tuned into this guys internal Net.

  “Have you got this on visual?” asked Ani.

  Skua responded, “Sure but are our Nets compatible?”

  Ani did his spacing out thing. “They are now,” he said.

  The four of them all accessed Skua's memory. Of course Skua only experienced the conversation second hand but the fidelity of the recording was pretty good.

  As soon as the visual came through to the group there was a combined gasp. There was no mistaking who the killer was. It was Vireo, the same Vireo that had almost destroyed Rubidium Beach (along with many other Levels) a few months back. Ani was the only one who didn't look surprised. “I had my suspicions, I must admit. Remember the reports coming in of the damage that he was doing to other Levels?”

  “But that happened a few months ago – what we are hearing now happened a year ago,” said Junco.

  “Time – we know that it flows differently here on Rubidium Beach. I suspect that the flow on Violencia is messed up as well. This could really compound the problem. In other words trying to match up histories between these two Levels may be all but impossible,” said Ani.

  “Anyway, I want to get back to the movie,” Said Scoter using yet another archaic reference that only he understood. The others let it slide. The group tuned back into Skua's memories:

  Vireo: What is your name old man?

  Brewer: My name is Brewer.

  Vireo: you know what I've just done?

  Brewer: Murdered some people who probably needed murdering anyway and acted smug.

  Vireo: I think that is dangerous talk.

  Brewer: You think I really care what you think?

  Vireo: You obviously don't care much about dying horribly.

  Brewer: Beats rotting away in that padded chair over there.

  Vireo: I'm not going to kill you.

  Brewer: Your choice. (pause) Where are you from?

  Vireo: Place called Rubidium Beach.

  Brewer: Never heard of it.

  Vireo: Not surprised – the idiot creator likes to keep it that way...

  “Well I guess that answers the question of how you knew about Rubidium Beach,” said Ani.

  It was as if a light went on in Skua's eyes. “Wait! - you are the 'idiot creator' aren't you?”

  “Yes, I am the idiot creator,” replied Ani. “But Rubidium Beach isn't a mark of my idiocy – Vireo is.”

  Skua thought for a moment. “Are you saying that you are responsible for creating Vireo?”

  “Yes, he is basically code that went bad,” admitted Ani

  Teal only just managed to stop Skua from wrapping his hands around Ani's throat. Skua was livid. “So you are the bastard that unleashed that hell on us!”

  “Wait, I got the impression that you had no love for the gang, for Mayhem?” Junco said.

  “That is true, but I had a lot of love for friends and relatives who were scattered through the regions that Vireo tore up while he was here.” Skua spat out the words.

  Ani was as sombre as any of the others had seen him. “How many live on Violencia?”

  Skua had calmed down somewhat and said flatly, “Three million or so before Vireo came. Just under one million now. Two million deaths in less than two hours. ”

  Junco had heard about thousands of deaths caused by Vireo on the known Levels but he had no idea of how much destruction he had caused on the hidden Levels. Looking around, Junco could see that the enormity of the situation was hitting all of them.

  “I am so sorry,” said Ani. He carried on repeating the same apology over and over again for the next few minutes. His head was in his hands and rocking from side to side the whole time. Finding out that his creation was responsible for yet another genocide was to much to bear.

  After he had composed himself, Ani explained how they were fairly sure that Vireo was dead. A non-virtual body that Vireo had made for his own use was destroyed along with his virtual presence and a multitude of backups that were stored in some pretty hard to reach places such as the moon and even some asteroids. Of course there was no absolute guarantee; Vireo may have outwitted both the group and their allies, the Mechanik, and stashed an unfound copy somewhere, but that was unlikely. This seemed to placate Skua.

  Teal added her condolences then asked, “That pin of yours – what is the significance?”

  “It is the Mayem motto. We are meant to wear it at all times.”

  “So 'The future is fear' is your gang slogan?” said Teal.

  “What? No. 'The future is here' is the motto. Some rebranding expert decided that the gang needed to be perceived as sunnier, more optimistic.” Skua then turned up his lapel to get a closer look at the pin. He was obviously surprised to see that the badge did not say what he thought it said. “I have no idea what happened there.”

  Ani said, “Weird, same as my sign. I coded it to say 'here' and it now shows 'Fear'. Exactly the same as your pins, so I believe you. Guess it could be a bug in the Level code. Back in a second.”

  By now the others new that this was Ani's cue to disappear to a deeper virtual space called the 'White Room' – a place where time slowed to one thousandth of the usual Rubidium Beach speed. Ani used this virtual space to do the ongoing coding required to maintain the Beach. He would often blank for a few seconds mid conversation. These few seconds translated to hours of programming time.

  Ani returned to the here and now and leaned over to get a close look at Skua's pin. Sure enough it had reverted back to its correct form, 'The Future is Here.' He then went out of the door marked Plateau, then returned and announced that the sign was back to normal. He still looked worried.

  “What's the matter? That must have been a pretty easy fix for you,” said Junco

  Ani replied, “Sure, the fix was a piece of cake but I couldn't see how the original mistake was made. I fixed it but couldn't find a bug.”

  “Ah well, surely that is no more than a curiosity,” said Scoter. “We all make mistakes.”

  “Spoken like a true non-coder,” said Ani. “If I can't find the source of the error I have no idea of where it is likely to crop up again and in what form. The result can be triv
ial, like a simple misspelling on a sign, or catastrophic, like the disappearance of an entire Level.”

  “So no pressure then,” quipped Teal.

  This seemed to bring Ani around a bit. “Look, it's very unlikely to be as bad as I just suggested and I will have another look at the problem soon – don't lose any sleep.”

  “Skua, this is just a thought. Do you and your brothers have anything to do with each each other back on Level Minus One at all?” asked Ani.

  “Some, not much. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, if they know where your apartment is they may decide to check, to make sure that you are dead,” Ani followed up.

  “Crap, crap, crap, and crap I didn't even think of that,” said Skua.

  “Not a big problem – drop down now and check on your body.”

  Skua did as Ani suggested. “Everything is as it should be.”

  “Of course if they did kill the real you, so to speak, this version of you would just disappear, so we know that you are alive,” said Ani.

  “True, but my body is exactly where I left it and as I left it – no one has tampered with it.”

  “All good so far,” said Ani. “I think we need to drop down and move you to where your brothers won't be able to find you, though. Once the body is out of your apartment your brothers will just assume that the automated refuse collectors have done their work.

  Junco pitched in. “We could store him at my place if you like.”

  “Thanks, Junco, but your address is public – Skua's body would be to easy to track there. We'll use my place – I'm ex-directory. Here is my address but please tell no one. I have too many enemies. Let's all meet there, say eight hours, Level Minus One, my house.”

  Junco noticed that Ani said house and not apartment. He also noted that the address was in code.

  Ani read Junco's mind. “Don't worry the transporters will be able to decode it.”

  Ani thought for a moment. “Skua, you'd better come straight over. No point in taking unnecessary risks. You can freshen up and grab a few hours sleep before the others get here.”