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

by G. D. Blanton

  Ani responded, “Things are not good as I am sure you are aware and as for what you can do for me the answer is that I don't really know at the moment. But believe me there will be lots for you to do in the coming days.”

  “Sure no problem – just let us know.”

  Noddy was one of the original coders, one of the ones that Ani and the rest of the group had freed from the clutches of the Miasma gang on the Level Violencia. He, along with just under four hundred of his colleagues had been rescued from a living hell with no apparent hope of respite.

  “I do have one question,” said Ani. “What do you know of the Mechanik?”

  Noddy answered. “I know that they were the group that repaired the Level where the coders were being held as slaves. That was after your creation Vireo ran amok, destroying much of the Level and killing two thirds of the population – around two million people, if I recall correctly.”

  Ani winced at the reminder. Vireo. Code designed to make Vireo's life easier evolved into something terrible – something that laid waste to whole Levels and killed millions. If it wasn't for Vireo though, Junco would never have known about Ani and his Rubidium Beach or met Teal and Scoter. A small silver lining in the grand scheme of things but a huge one on the personal level.

  Noddy picked up where he had left off. “I also know that they are the self appointed maintenance engineers for all of the Levels bar this one, of course, and that there internal politics is not always smooth.”

  That last bit of deliberate understatement caused Ani to Smile. “Yes, you could say that. What about now? Do you get any sense of where they are at?”

  “Not really,” Said Noddy, “We used to know one of their less discreet members and he used to tell us some stuff. We were never sure whether he was telling the truth or whether the Mechanik were just kicking up sand in our eyes. Haven't seen him for several years – must be at least four. Apparently the Mechanik take the breaking of internal discipline a bit seriously.”

  “They certainly do that,” Ani agreed. “Any thoughts at all about their more recent past?”

  Noddy thought for a second. “I get the impression that they are not the force that they once were. Rumor has it that some of the Levels are in really bad shape and could go dark at any time. We know of at least eighty that have been abandoned within the last year and of another five hundred plus that maybe have another year in them before having to order residents to leave.”

  “I'd heard similar but didn't concern myself, to be honest. From a purely selfish point of view I'm set. The underlying code for Rubidium Beach has never been more solid due to the efforts of all of us and the only other Level that impacts us is the one that we are built upon, Level Zero, the original VR Level, and that place is absolutely rock solid.”

  A light went on in Noddy's eyes. “Do you think that the Mechanik are responsible for what is happening now?”

  “Yes, or at least a faction or an individual. I recognize the coding as their work,” said Ani.

  Noddy appeared to come to some kind a decision. “Look, the project that we are working on can be shelved. It isn't anything vital so how about if we work on this thing together?”

  Ani was grateful for the offer even though it was fully expected. The coders were responsible for the largest part of Rubidium Beach's revenue stream and their working and organizational status could best be described as quasi civil service with Ani at the head of the administrative hierarchy and Noddy as the number two. A shift in focus from commercial projects to governmental ones would result in a revenue hit but the alternative would be much worse. Apart from the likely damage to Rubidium Beach itself there would be the tourism credits. Tourism was the number two income generator and predicted to overtake work done by the coders within five years.

  “Sounds great,” said Ani. “Thanks Noddy – appreciated.”

  Ani instructed the Yellowlegs clone to give the coders whatever they wanted and put it on his tab – which he only kept for accounting purposes of course. The group then moved back into the garish space of the Martian Outpost back room.

  Some very deep sense of self preservation must have been at play on Scoter's part when they were with the coders. As soon as the group were alone he let out the whoop to end all whoops then announced that he would be chairing the upcoming debate about Jovian hacker subculture from twenty-eight hundred to the present day. Everyone else looked completely and totally nonplussed.

  “Sounds great Scoter – can't wait,” said Junco.

  “Me neither,” said Scoter. It's going to be really exciting. The speakers that we've lined up are the best in the field.”

  Teal struggled to form words between bouts of laughter. “Scoter, what are our names?”

  Scoter looked a bit confused then named everyone around the table without error or hesitation.

  Ani reassured them. “He is going to be fine. In fact he is coming around much quicker than I expected. All of his circuits seem to be intact.” Ani then directed his words to Scoter. “Listen, you have been through a lot. Have you any idea about what happened to you?”

  Scoter seemed to get serious all at once. “I was sitting on the bench across the street with Junco and Teal – then I woke up in the body shop so I assume that I must have sustained some type of injury. The fact that I don't remember being injured would indicate that you instructed the body shop to wipe my memory of the accident.”

  That was a very coherent account and an extremely logical conclusion – extremely logical but completely wrong.

  “That is not quite the whole story though.” Continued the now sensible version of Scoter. “Between being on the bench and waking up in the body shop something really odd happened. It was like I could see the whole of Rubidium Beach, every part of it. This is hard to explain.”

  “Go on,” prompted Teal.

  “Okay, I didn't see things like I see them now but with numbers, code, and atoms. An infinite number of atoms and molecules. Also I felt like I was everywhere all at once. I had no specific place. The weird thing though, was that there was a lot of chaos. Explosions, earthquakes and a lot of stuff just beneath the surface that wasn't yet quite visible. This was in the code, in the numbers but I could read it as clear as day. Actually to be more accurate I couldn't read it as such it just presented what it was meant to represent to me. The whole process was not intellectual in any way, shape or form.”

  Junco noticed that Ani was becoming very interested in this part of the conversation. He hoped that Ani wasn't dreaming up a set of experiments to investigate Scoter's out of virtual body experience. He knew though, that when all was said and done, Ani did whatever was best for Ani's own interests and having a new untapped view into the virtual universe was definitely in Ani's interests.

  Ani spoke. “Scoter, you were atomized. Someone walked up to you, pulled out a blaster and pulled the trigger. I keep backups of your neural imprints and a record of your genome. From these two sources we put you back together again – or to be strictly accurate, had the body shop recreate a new version of you.”

  There was a slight pause then Junco picked up the story. “We were meant to be there, in the body shop, when you came around but we got into a heavy discussion and arrived late. Really sorry about that by the way – must have been very scary.”

  Scoter reassured Junco. 'Not a problem at all – thanks for putting me back together again. Should I be angry with Ani for keeping backups without telling me?”

  Teal fielded that one. “Yes, but that can probably wait for another time. The explosions and earthquakes and stuff really did happen. Oh, and the liquid metal sea has gained a new Island. Another part of the plateau fell off. Fortunately it wasn't a populated part. We know that this round of destruction is something to do with the Mechanik but we don't know if it is an individual, a faction or the whole damn bunch of them.”

  “ I caught that much when we were out there with the coders,” said Scoter.

  Teal smiled. “You seemed more
interested in my chest than with the Mechanik and their current operations. I didn't realize that you were multitasking.”

  Scoter immediately colored up. “I'm really sorry about that. It won't happen again I promise – on my life...”

  “You were hardly yourself – don't give it another thought.”

  “Yup, Scoter's back,” Said Junco, laughing.

  4. BUILDING DEFENSES

  “This I've got to see,” said Ani, as he jumped up from his seat and exited the room into the main part of the Jupiter Moon. The others looked at each other and silently agreed to follow. The coders were still at their tables deep in conversation. The group then exited through the door marked 'Downtown'. Ani pointed up towards the plateau. A transparent globe now encased it. The globe stretched down into the sea at its lowest point and way up into the sky at its highest. The plateau now looked hazy due to the refractive and reflective qualities of the dome. The globe also had a slight coloration of its own. It seemed to give off a blue light that was definitely not coming from the environment. It was stunningly beautiful against the dramatic red of the Rubidium Beach sky.

  “What are they up to now?” asked Teal. “This has to be the work of the Mechanik.”

  Ani replied. “No, far from it. This is the coders building their defenses. Nothing can get in or out of that bubble other than via the Jupiter Moon. Transporters will no longer be able to operate between down here and up there. No waves that are capable of carrying data will be able to pierce that defense – it really is as beautiful as it looks from a functional point of view.”

  “How do you know all this?” Scoter asked him.

  Ani replied. “I have been in a meeting with the coders ever since we left them at the table. They had a feedback up to their teams on the plateau and I piggybacked on that feed. Anyway, this shell that is now protecting the coders was the first order of business, so to speak.”

  “I have a question,” said Teal. “Is the Jupiter Moon inside or outside of the protective shield?”

  “Both is the simple answer. It won't have as much protection as the rest of the plateau but it will have a lot more than the rest of Rubidium Beach.”

  Scoter had been staring at the iridescent globe paying no attention to the conversation that the others were having. “Stunning, absolutely stunning,” was his only comment.

  Junco found himself wondering if the recreation of Scoter had gone as well as everyone seemed to think.

  The group then went back into the Jupiter Moon and then followed Ani straight out again, this time through the exit marked 'Plateau'. If the previous view was spectacular this one was just downright mind-blowing.

  Junco looked out across the park at the wall of energy that was the globe. Of course he and the rest were now viewing it from inside and the view could not have been more different. It was impossible to tell that Rubidium Beach existed under a virtual red sun. The sky was now blue – not sky blue but rather a very bright ultramarine streaked with the lightest pink flecks. Junco had no idea what virtual physics lay behind the stunning view but he had little doubt that Ani would explain it in excruciating detail at some point in the very near future.

  After a few minutes Noddy and the rest of his group of coders joined them. “Well, what do you think?”

  “I like it a lot,” Said Ani. “Can't quite work out the optics, but if it functions half as good as it looks then we are in business.”

  “Don't beat yourself up trying to work out the color scheme. It is not, strictly speaking, byproduct but rather a killing of two birds with one stone. We have always found the red light from your sun very harsh and well, sort of a bit apocalyptic to be honest. One of our number suggested using the sphere to alter the light to make it more comfortable. I know that we should have asked permission – hope you don't mind.”

  “Not at all,” said Ani. “This is your home.”

  Junco suspected that Ani's magnanimity had a lot to do with the fact that he would be heavily dependent on the coders over the coming days. He also suspected that the coders' timing was not coincidental.

  Junco added his thoughts to the discussion. “For what its worth, I think that it is wonderful. It's great to see grass actually look green again as opposed to a sort of muddy brown.”

  Yellowlegs was uncharacteristically quiet but he did break silence to add approval to the new look plateau. “Wonderful, much more like what I grew up with – far less harsh. Ani, how about doing this for the whole of Rubidium Beach?”

  Ani thought for a moment then, without saying a word, went back into the Jupiter Moon.

  “I think you've really pissed him off,” said Scoter.

  Yellowlegs didn't look to worried. “He's a big boy, he'll get over it.” He was used to jousting with Ani. He didn't internalize his feelings the way Junco did.

  “Hope so. Bad things tend to happen when Ani doesn't get over something,” said Junco.

  Ani appeared at the bar entrance. He was grinning from ear to ear. “Follow me.”

  They did, straight into the Moon and straight back out of the Downtown exit.

  The red light had gone! The sky was the same shade of ultramarine and the sun was was an orange-yellow. The color scheme was not the same as Level Minus One, the original so to speak, but it was at least in the same ballpark.

  Ani explained. “I've been meaning to do this for years – just never got around to it. Unfortunately there is no time to enjoy it now – we have a lot of work to do.”

  With that the group returned to the plateau and began to follow Noddy across the park to the University and Technical buildings.

  5. THE ANIOPTIC AND THE HIDDEN CODE

  “One thing about this new arrangement that I definitely don't like.” said Ani.

  'What's that?” asked Noddy.

  “I cannot see what is going on on the rest of Rubidium Beach when I am inside this bubble. That does not sit well.”

  “You do have access to all of your tech in the Jupiter Moon, though,” said Noddy.

  “I know, but I am just not used to being blind anywhere – especially not on a Level that I own.”

  Noddy seemed to accept the mild reprimand in good faith. “I'll see what we can do about that. We could possibly build a virtual tunnel just for your use. That should be almost secure.”

  Ani thought for a moment. “It should be possible – of course I am more than willing to help.”

  “Sounds good,” said Noddy. Then with a lot more enthusiasm, “We have a couple of things to show you that may compensate, at least a little, for the loss.

  Junco looked over the railing then back to Ani. “You have to admit, it is pretty damned impressive.”

  “It is, it is indeed.” Ani looked at the coder. “Noddy, why I did not know about this?”

  “You never come here, that's why. I've tried on a least half a dozen occasions to get you in here but you always made excuses. You also kept telling me to show it to you over the private network and I refused because I wanted you to be blown away by it – not experience it second hand, optimized, and flat.”

  “Fair enough. I must admit that I am blown away.”

  The whole group were in a massive hall, looking down from one of half a dozen walkways suspended above a pit. Contained within this pit was a three-dimensional, real-time representation of Rubidium Beach. As Noddy had demonstrated it was possible to zoom to any resolution. If someone wanted to view the pseudo atoms in any part of its structure that could be done. It was even possible to go below this and into the quantum level though accuracy couldn't be guaranteed at that magnification due to properties that operated at that level. The coders were nonetheless working on this. Noddy explained that they hoped to have a usable quantum viewer add on in the very near future.

  The view in the pit suddenly changed. There were no longer buildings, streets and people but numbers and symbols, moving, streaming, colliding and rearranging. Ani looked just about as happy as anyone had ever looked. He pointed at a part of th
e scene in front of him. “Look, there goes a transporter. It's picking someone up now. There goes another in the opposite direction. Wait, that is new – there has been another modification to the transporters. I can see it in the code even though it is hidden on the visible layer.” What were seemingly random bits of code to the others told a very deep and a very detailed story to Ani.

  “This is all very interesting but does it help us regarding our latest crisis?” asked Junco.

  “Possibly a lot,” said Ani. “I am seeing code here that I couldn't see before. The hidden files are now visible.”

  “I always assumed that you could see every part of the Beach's underlying code,” said Junco.

  “I could see almost all of it but I knew that some snippets were hidden.” Ani went on. “You know that the Beach has always attracted the best programmers due to it being a rock-solid development platform – we've talked about it often enough in the past. Well, programmers take great satisfaction in hiding stuff within their code. The hidden stuff is almost always benign if not downright beneficial so I haven't wasted to much time either looking for it or developing tools specifically to look for it.”

  “Fair enough,” said Junco.

  Ani shook his head. “Not really, sloppy on my part to be honest. Especially with everything we've been through. Anyway this looks like the perfect tool to rectify that.” He then looked to Noddy. “I assume that I can access this anytime that I want?” The question was rhetorical but the coder answered anyway.

  “Of course you can. We even named it after you.” With that Noddy led the group off of the overhanging walkway and onto one of the side balconies. On one of the posts between the safety railings was a plaque that said simply, 'The Anioptic.'

  Junco was busy contemplating just how little Ani needed an ego boost and how it would make him even more insufferable when Ani surprised him – he actually appeared humble. “Umm thanks I am honored. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for the use of this.”