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

by G. D. Blanton

  “Impressive,” said Scoter.

  Ani responded. “I spent a fair bit of time coding defenses and some attacks back in the White Room.”

  “Anytime you want to use them, don't let us stop you,” said Teal.

  Ani smiled for the first time in a while. “I won't, don't worry. I think you'll approve of the next one.”

  The group approached the castle moat. The watery equivalent of the colatoos topped the local food web. They had no natural enemies and it showed in their habits. Their heads stayed out of the water as the group drew close. Curiosity did not have to be tempered with caution in their small world.

  There was a rustle of leaves in the distance then a transporter appeared in front of the group. Like all transporters it only had two speeds, breakneck and stop. The cubes did not have either acceleration or deceleration phases. Junco still found this disconcerting even after living with them off and on for several months. “Jump in,” said Ani.

  The group did as requested. “Why do we need a transporter? We are where we need to be,” asked Junco.

  “Not strictly true,” responded Ani. We are on the wrong side of the castle wall.”

  “Oh, Okay.”

  “I have a little task that I want to complete before we enter the castle, though.” With that, Ani spoke a few encrypted syllables and the transporter entered the moat. The scene was one of absolute carnage. The animals had no sense of fear. They just watched the scene unfold – right up to their deaths. The transporter cube had risen up on its single leg then the bottom part of the leg had unfolded and reassembled itself to form a spinning disk. The Transporter then hovered over the water and lowered the disk under the water. The cube then moved at its only speed – very fast. It completed around ten laps of the moat. By the time it was finished, the water dwelling colatoos were all dismembered and the moat had a definite red sheen.

  The cube came to rest at its original starting point. “Right.” said Ani “Time for the main course.” The view changed and Junco realized that they were now inside the castle walls and that things were about to get very interesting.

  The group exited the transporter and headed across the courtyard towards Osmium's accommodation. Ani made short work of the six guards who were writhing around on the ground in agony by the time the group reached them. Junco did not even want to think about exactly which part of their biology Ani was messing with.

  “Open the door and you'll live,” Ani lied. His expression was one of pure hatred. “Okay, have it your way.” Before the last word had been uttered, flesh and organs were ripping themselves away from the skeleton of one of the guards. Bones clattered to the ground and skin and entrails slid down the palace wall. There was a stunned silence that lasted for several seconds, then bedlam as everyone started either barking orders or issuing threats. the other guards swing the big doors open. The five then attempted to run but Junco and Skua caught one each while Ani calmly executed the three who were still running. A bit messy but so far so good, thought Junco.

  The guards gave up the location of the coders without a fight and Junco, Teal and Scoter followed one of the guards to the disguised hatch set into the courtyard ground. The guard unlocked the hidden entrance. Teal then broke his neck. She then unclipped a flashlight from her belt and shone it down the steps. The stairway curved around so it was impossible to tell how far down it went. After walking down a hundred or so steps Junco indicated to the others that he wanted to stop. He wanted to check in on the live feed from Ani's part of the operation.

  Junco and the others watched the action unfold on their internal displays. Ani, Skua and Yellowlegs went into the main hall and up the sweeping staircase. By the time they had reached the upper landing Ani had extracted the information that he required from the guard. He then threw the guard over the bannisters to his death. “Right, she sleeps in the third room down – let's make this fast.” They made it very fast. The two guards who were meant to be on duty were drunk and asleep and very easily dispatched. Skua and Yellowlegs looked at Ani, who simply said, “Go do it.” Skua pinned her shoulders and Yellowlegs put an overstuffed pillow to her face. It was soon over. The three of them then exited the palace as quickly as possible. Other members of the Miasma 'royalty' were beginning to surface, woken up by the commotion. When they were a safe distance away Ani set fires in eight different locations within the house, and its contents and its inhabitants went up in flames.

  Junco transmitted a message to Ani asking him to come and back them up and most importantly, to secure the entrance to whatever hell they were descending into. A few seconds later Junco heard footsteps approaching from above them. Skua and Yellowlegs came into view without Ani who had decided to stay up top and guard their escape route. The five of them continued downwards. The air was getting dank and puddles were beginning to occupy the worn hollows in the steps. Junco admired the attention to detail that had gone into the creation of this Level but that didn't mean that he had to like it.

  Junco could see what was happening up on ground level through Ani's eyes. The burning palace was providing a great distraction and luckily the hatch that they had come through was in shadow and not illuminated by the flames. 'At last!” said Junco. They had arrived at the bottom of the stairs and were looking at a double door at the end of a short corridor.

  “Well,” said Teal. “Here we go.”

  The two Violencians lifted the heavy bar from its holders and kicked the doors wide open. The five of them charged at the man who was obviously in charge. The chargehand was easily identified due to the whip that he was holding in one hand and gun in the other. Everyone else in the cavernous space was naked and chained to the floor. Even though he was a mountain of a man, Teal felled him with one sharp chop to the neck. Once he was on the floor, Teal finished the job by crushing his windpipe while the others held him down.

  Junco unhooked the massive set of keys from his belt and started the lengthy job of freeing the coders. It turned out that there were just over four hundred coders in the room. Junco transmitted the details to Ani, who seemed a little bored. No one had even come close to bothering him since he'd taken on guard duty. “So we have four hundred, give or take, to get back to Rubidium Beach?”

  “That is about the strength of it,” replied Junco.

  “How are the coders?” asked Ani.

  Junco replied. “Very docile. Shock is probably the best way to describe their condition. They haven't said a word yet.”

  “Can you get them up here, to the surface?” asked Ani.

  Junco replied, “We are about to find out.” As it turned out the freed coders ascended the stairs with very little prompting. Junco and Teal went to the head of the group while the others walked behind. This was as requested by Ani. He had a plan to get them all out but was a little fuzzy on the details. Junco and Teal hauled themselves through the hatch and onto the courtyard ground. There was a transporter directly in front of them.

  Teal burst out laughing. “You have got to be kidding! Those things hold eight, tops.”

  Ani was looking downright smug. “Prepare to be impressed. Enter the transporter and see what happens.”

  Teal and Junco looked at each other and then did as instructed. As soon as they were through the front panel, they were no longer in a transporter but in the Jupiter Moon. Junco swore and Teal laughed. There was a transporter inside the Jupiter Moon. Before Junco had a chance to dwell, the coders started to arrive via the transporter. Ten minutes later there were four hundred naked and confused people in the Jupiter Moon along with the rest of the rescuing group. The coders were just beginning to talk and ask questions. Ani jumped up on a table and called for quiet.

  The first thing that he did was to assure the new arrivals that they were safe. The second thing that he did was to dress them. Average type Rubidium Beach current fashion seemed to be the order of the day. A hand was raised and a request made. “Is it Okay to ask a question?”

  “Of course it is,” said Ani softly.
“What is your name?”

  “I have no name, but I would like to know if my real body is safe.”

  “You will have a name, and yes your real body is safe.”

  In all the excitement, Junco had been completely oblivious to the fact that if these people were slaves in a virtual world then their real bodies must also be enslaved on Level Minus One.

  Ani addressed the coders. “As you know your bodies were all kept in a single dormitory. You were not able or allowed to drop down freely as the rest of us are. You were hooked up to machines that fed you and took care of other bodily functions. You were guarded twenty four seven by junior members of Miasma, Osmium's gang. You now have the power to drop down into your bodies and take care of yourselves. Go on, give it a go. We'll still be here when you get back.”

  While they were 'gone,' Ani transmitted an explanation over the private Net. He had reprogrammed millions of nanobots to attack the four hundred or so guards responsible for the Level Minus One versions of the coders. The 'bots had entered the guards' lungs and destroyed the cell structure. The whole process took seconds. Then he had some associates and some medical professionals unhook the bodies and move them to their own new apartments in a block that he had commissioned. This had all happened very recently, so there shouldn't be any embarrassing messes to deal with.

  Over the next few minutes all of the coders returned. Ani talked some more and fielded some questions.

  14. A PICNIC IN THE PARK

  The six of them were sitting on the soft grass of the plateau park, the two from Level Zero, the one from Level Minus One, and the two newcomers from Violencia, and of course Ani, recently of the Mechanik but now entirely devoted to his creation, Rubidium Beach. The colatoos were all gone, as was the force field that contained them. The red sun was low in the sky and its light very soft. It made the thousands of windows in the skyscrapers glow.

  “The coders seem to settling in remarkably well,” said Scoter. “Ani, it was good of you to take care of them.'

  “It wasn't easy,” said Ani. “Lots of reprogramming of implants along with a hundred different therapies, but it was definitely worth it.”

  “Makes great use of the plateau, I'll give you that,” Teal added.

  “It does. Plenty of working and living space for all three hundred and seventy coders,” said Ani.

  “So you lost about thirty or so then?” said Teal.

  Ani replied. “Thirty-four to be exact. I am honestly surprised that we managed to save so many after the hell that they must have endured. I was worried that all of their brains would be scrambled beyond repair.”

  Junco did a double check to make sure that he wasn't transmitting his thoughts to the others. Ani had gained three hundred and seventy top-flight coders. These individuals were every bit the equivalent of the Mechanik. All of the coders had come from generations of genetic manipulation designed to produce the best programmers possible. The taught component had been added by years of hypnosis, dream manipulation and old-fashioned brutal discipline. Also, and this was the part that really grated, Ani had a purpose-built, ideal space for the coders to work and play in ready to go. Bit of a coincidence?

  This all leads up to one big question: Did Ani really not know about Violencia's existence? Even if he didn't know about Violencia from the beginning, he certainly worked up a great plan from his own perspective. He came out of this with a large group of tame super programmers who would be intensely loyal to him for life. For some reason the phrase 'Its good to be king' drifted through Junco's mind.

  Teal turned to the two Violencians, Skua and Yellowlegs. “What are your plans?”

  Skua answered, “I cannot go back to Violencia, that is a given. I could try to make a life on Level Zero but I think that may be boring, so I guess that it's Rubidium Beach by default for me – providing of course that Ani lets me stay.”

  “Of course you can stay for as long as you want – it was never an issue,” said Ani.

  “What about you?” Teal asked Yellowlegs.

  “I'm with Skua if that is Okay. Wouldn't mind a job at the Jupiter Moon either. I really do enjoy bar work.”

  Ani agreed immediately.

  “I hear that the plateau now has a name,” said Scoter.

  “It does,” Ani responded. “The coders came up with it.”

  “Okay spill the beans then,” prompted Scoter.

  “'Mountain View'. I'm not a fan but they seemed to want it.”

  Scoter the historian was later heard to say that the name sounded familiar but he couldn't put his finger on why.

  The six of them wandered across the park perimeter and into the Jupiter Moon. Yellowlegs the barman poured the first round.

  ALIEN CODE

  THE TRANSPORTERS

  The transporters were strange devices. They would be around for a few weeks or months then all of them would disappear from sight for similar periods. Often when they came back they were different. A newly rounded corner here, an extra bolt there and sometimes nothing at all. The odd thing was that they all sported exactly the same modification on their return.

  The other thing about the machines was that physics operated differently on the inside and the outside. From the outside the boxes had one speed, fast, and stop. There was no acceleration or deceleration phase. From the inside there was no sensation of movement at all.

  Two bench seats were the only fixtures. These were made of the same metal as the body. There were no dials or readouts of any kind. Summoning the vehicles and stating the required destination were all done by means of implant. That was all the human input that was required. The transporters never got lost and had never been in an accident.

  Rubidium Beach – A Brief Early History by Scoter P. Hollep.

  1. TIME FLIES

  Seven years had passed since Junco and Teal first sat on this same bench staring out across the liquid metal sea at the giant red sun. The slab of land floating above the sea did not exist. Neither did the cone-shaped island just below its left end.

  Both of their virtual bodies looked exactly the same as on that first day. Their real bodies, down on Level Minus One had aged a full seven years, but neither had chosen to update their virtual images. The third person on the bench was the historian, Scoter. He had now written three books that had been downloaded over twenty million times across all

  Levels. The first book covered ancient history which was the period up until humanity took off for virtual realms - or Levels as they are more commonly known. The second was a history of virtual reality which picked up where the first book left off. The third was a history of Rubidium Beach from its inception to the present day. Having the Beach's creator as a friend certainly helped in that endeavor. It also helped that Scoter was very much a part of the evolution of Rubidium Beach.

  Rubidium Beach chronology was not straightforward. Time was a funny thing on this Level. It always moved forward but not consistently. A day on Level Minus One might equal a day, several days or sometimes longer here. The effect was seemingly random and therefore completely unpredictable. Seven years had passed on Level Minus One, what the ancients called 'Earth' while thirty-three years had gone by on Rubidium Beach.

  There had been many changes over that third of a century. Ani, the Beach's creator and owner, had shifted from a strictly enforced immigration policy to a completely open borders approach. When Junco and Teal first arrived Rubidium Beach was a well-kept secret. Those few who somehow found out about the place still had to be screened and approved by Ani. Nowadays things were different. The Beach had become famous and Ani no longer cared much about who lived here and who didn't. He claimed that increased diversity was required to keep the place vital. Teal suspected that he had just got bored of all the administrative work required to keep it exclusive. The truth, as with most things, was probably somewhere between the two.

  Around twenty years ago, Rubidium Beach Time, Junco finally plucked up the courage to let Teal know how he felt about her. Around fifte
en years ago they became partners. Their relationship had its ups and downs but the ups far outweighed the downs and they were both content in their own way.

  2. AN ASSASSINATION

  Scoter was in the process of inviting Junco and Teal out for a dinner to celebrate some publishing landmark or other when the stranger walked past the three of them, smiled, then pulled out a blaster and reduced Scoter to his component atoms. That was when the day started to spin out of control. Atomizing someone was horribly final. There was no way back from that. A lost limb or an old-school bullet through the heart? That could be fixed – it was just a matter of getting the carcass back to the body shop while it was still warm. Half an hour later the victim would be up and around as good as new. A few thousand credits lighter but, other than that, none the worst for wear.

  There was one big difference between the Beach and almost all of the other Levels. Once you were dead here you stayed dead, finished, shuffled off, lights out – for all of eternity. It was what the original population of Rubidium Beach wanted. For some reason they needed consequences.

  Scoter, amiable historian, friend for thirty-three experienced years was gone. The thought rattled around Junco's brain but couldn't find anywhere to attach itself. It had to take root before the emotion could be felt. Junco knew this on an intellectual level. Still nothing.

  Then came the bang then a sliding, rumbling, skidding sound. It was coming from over the liquid metal sea – from above the liquid metal sea in fact – the plateau! Junco looked up in time to see the a second chunk of the plateau slide down into the sea. It was a little smaller than the section that became an island over thirty years ago but it was still big enough to create a smaller island of its own. It was also big enough to create a liquid metal wave that washed over the wall, across the metal promenade and cover Junco's feet. At least the liquid was no longer radioactive poison as it was in Junco's very early days at the Beach.