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

by G. D. Blanton

  “The one that you refer to as John Doe was going to do something that would have set us back centuries. I cannot say more than that other than to let you know that his future timeline and Scoter's were very much intertwined.”

  “What about the slum landlord slash porn king?” asked Junco.

  “Oh that,” said future Junco, “we just didn't like him. He tried to rip us off on three occasions within our first week here. There were other things, the porn slave thing and the extortion thing being two. Oh, and he was also in the process of setting up a more structured gang presence on Neon Cove initially then throughout Rubidium Beach. He was really bad news and just plain nasty.”

  “But he had nothing to do with the readjustments that you have been making?”

  “Nothing at all,” said future Teal. “We executed him because we could.”

  Junco was struggling to process all of this new information but he did have one question that had been on his mind since finding out who the strangers where. “Future Junco and Teal, are you two still together, a couple I mean?”

  Future Junco looked at future Teal and she nodded an assent, almost imperceptibly. He answered. “I cannot tell you any more than this. In our time the term couple has no meaning in this context. Besides you don't even know if we are you or not and we are certainly not allowed to enlighten you on that score.”

  Junco quickly concluded that this line of inquiry was very unlikely to bear fruit.

  14. AN OLD ENEMY

  The six future versions looked at each other, nodded, then rose up off their couch as one. They walked towards the geometric wall and a door appeared. They beckoned their present-day counterparts to follow them through the door. Junco and his group found themselves on a beach, not a mirrored one with a liquid metal sea and a red sky but a sandy one with a turquoise sea and a bright blue noon sky. A dozen people and a sea with regular, perfect waves.

  The sand felt warm beneath Junco's feet but not so warm as to burn. The sun felt just right on his now bare skin. Whatever this sim or Level was, it apparently came with its own dress code. Swimwear and beach towels. All primary colors and all geometric patterns. The future versions led the present day versions to the water's edge. Present-day Junco reached for present day Teal's hand and they stood looking out to sea both lost in their own thoughts. Junco was thinking about how different his life would have been if Vireo, Ani's rogue psychopathic and murderous program hadn't entered it. He would still be living out a normal humdrum life on Level Zero. No Teal, no Rubidium Beach and no Ani or the chaos that came with him. He had no idea what Teal was thinking but she looked content. Future Junco and Teal were watching them and smiling. The smiles were the affectionate ones that adults gave to kids who were trying their best but were very likely to fail.

  Future Ani pointed along the waterfront towards a dozen nuclear surfboards, all curves, polished chrome, and potential. The dozen walked towards them and hopped on. The boards had their own force field, making it impossible for the rider to fall off and these activated automatically as soon as they were stepped on. Speed was controlled by a mental link via sim and individual implant. The future selves led the others straight out to sea.

  Junco's internal dash informed him that they were traveling at one-forty – fast by any standards. Through the exhilaration Junco felt a tendril of worry creep up. He didn't know what, if anything, Ani had managed to put together in case things went wrong. He didn't even know whether anything Ani had in his arsenal would work here. Surely after thirty thousand years their future selves could dampen and disable any tech from their time.

  A row of structures were now becoming visible. Junco's sense of worry was now expanding into full-on dread. The structure was identical to the ones that used to be on Rubidium Beach, the ones that Junco had assumed were some type of drilling platforms, where Vireo the rogue program had been defeated. A crow-like bird circled above the group and squawked loudly before flying off towards the shore.

  Even at a speed pushing one-fifty Junco could see that all of the future selves were having a conversation over some kind of private link. They were relaxed and laughing a lot. The mood was one of a group of workers who were just finishing a long a complex project but who knew already that the project was going to be a success. The contrast between them and the present day group couldn't be more marked. Their looks ranged from mild trepidation in the case of Teal to Scoter's look of pure fear. Things were not looking good.

  As Junco feared, the boards pulled up to the docking platform of one of the rigs. The dozen then climbed the steps and stepped out onto the main platform thirty or so feet above the swell. The sky was still cloudless and the temperature was still pleasant. The slight breeze carried no chill at all. Junco was certain that the weather was the only good thing happening.

  In the center of the platform were thirteen seats arranged in a circle, twelve utilitarian ones and one that could only be described as a throne. It was gold, it was jewel-encrusted, and it was twice the size of the other chairs. Company was expected.

  “We have a few minutes,” said future Teal. “And you must have questions.”

  Junco asked, “are we in your time or our time?”

  “The question is meaningless,” Said future Teal. “Anything else?”

  Ani was next. “Is that chair going to be filled by who I think it is?”

  “Yes,” said future Ani.

  By now the entire present-day group apart from Yellowlegs and Skua, had worked out who was likely to fill the seat and all were dismayed.

  “Just to confirm – we are talking Vireo here?” Asked Ani simply.

  “Yes.” A minimal response from future Ani.

  There was a massive difference between thinking that something specific and bad was going to happen and knowing beyond doubt that it is going to happen. Junco's mind immediately filled itself with the horrors that Vireo had engineered. The brutal murder of four complete innocents the first time that their paths had crossed, the massacre of the gangsters on Violencia and the torture and killing in the cage in the rust-belt sim, the one that had cost Scoter his hand. Of course there was also the carnage that Junco hadn't witnessed personally, the deaths of millions across many different Levels and a trail of destruction unparalleled in human history.

  The epitome of evil was soon to be sitting in their group and he was going to be pissed. The last time the group had met, on a rig very much like the one they were now on, had led to Vireo's death. At least that is what the group had assumed. Junco had seen no evidence that Ani possessed any more power than the rest of them, but it was very possible that Ani was just keeping his powder dry. He had proven himself to be a masterful tactician and capable of making things work in very bad circumstances. If the Mechanik were going to save them, as they did last time around, they were showing no signs of even knowing what was going on let alone being ready to come charging to the rescue.

  The difference in spirit between the two groups could not have been more marked. The future selves were relaxed and enjoying the moment whereas the present ones were a knot of fear. The only thing that gave Junco a glimmer of hope was the fact that Ani did not actually seem too worried.

  Then he was there, sitting on the throne. No one saw him appear, or for that matter, the others, the future selves, disappear along with their chairs. Junco had just experienced a cut scene in a sim. Now there were seven of them, three on each side of a rectangular table and Vireo at the head.

  Ani looked his bastard creation in the eye. “Okay, what's going on?” He sounded more resigned than scared.

  “Q and A or straight monologue? Tell me your preference,” said Vireo in a very matter of fact manner. Something was missing. It took Junco a second or two to realize what the something was. Vireo was not enjoying this. The old Vireo would have played this one up to the hilt. Old adversaries who had almost succeeded in destroying him now at his mercy. The theatrics would have been completely over the top. It was then that Junco noticed some
thing else. His throne had gone – he was now sitting on a chair which was no different to any of the other chairs around the table.

  Ani spoke for the group. “Let us have the prepared version.”

  “There is no prepared version,” Vireo replied. “But I'll do my best to wing it.”

  “Humor me first,” said Teal. “Tell me how you survived our last encounter – just for the record.”

  “If I asked you to guess, what would you say?” prompted Vireo.

  Teal responded without hesitation. “The Mechanik missed one of your backups when they destroyed the others?”

  “That's pretty much the gist of it. I had a backup hidden on a chunk of rock way out at the far edge of the Oort cloud. This one was programed to activate if it didn't receive a ping from me or any of my other backups for one Minus Zero year. When it didn't 'hear' anything it did what it was programed to do. It launched itself to intercept Level Minus One or Earth as it used to be called. Of course the edge of the Oort cloud is the best part of a light year away from Earth so it took a long time for it to get back - approximately thirty thousand years.”

  “Couldn't you have sent the backup using light as a carrier?” asked Ani. “That way you would have been back in operation within a year.”

  “Wouldn't have worked. Too many variables and too many opportunities for the data to be corrupted. Old-school physical was the only viable way to do this.”

  Despite everything, Ani found himself getting caught up in the logistics of Vireo's return. “Do you have any recollection of the thirty thousand years – of time passing while your backup was traveling through space?”

  “No, none at all. One second you killed me on the rig on Rubidium Beach and the next I was sentient on Level Zero, where the backup automatically sent me.”

  “But you were thirty thousand years in the future so that means that you or someone between now and thirty thousand years in the future must have invented time travel – otherwise we would not be talking,” said Ani

  Vireo replied, “The concept of time travel on top of virtual reality gets very complicated very quickly. Even as we speak I am thirty thousand years ahead of you on the time line. I can, however, project versions of myself back into the past, or at least into past virtual realities and alter things within them. My sentience will always be in your future though. Teal, you may understand this better than the others. It is like playing a video game. I can control the action but I am never really in the game.”

  Ani was thoughtful. “You still haven't told us your plan. You have assassinated a few people, caused an explosion and some earthquakes and laid in some code to do damage in our future but you haven't told us why. I understand how you control it all. The concept is not that different than me controlling aspects of Rubidium Beach through the Anioptic – though changing history as opposed to events in the present time is a new twist for sure. Come on, you now have real power, how do you plan to use it?”

  “Not the way you probably think,” replied Vireo. “As you know I rematerialized back on Level Zero thirty thousand years in your future. They, the rulers for want of a better word, knew exactly who I was and what crimes I'd committed and locked me up. While I was locked up they deliberated on my fate and came to the conclusion that I had to perform penance, a lot of penance. What you know about is only a very small part of it.”

  “Right, so causing more havoc was your penance?” asked Junco.

  Vireo chose to ignore the dig. “Short term pain for long term gain. The assassinations and explosions that I caused are all designed to speed up the transition between this time which the rulers call the 'Age of the Levels' and the 'End State' which is what they consider themselves to be in. By my calculation my actions shaved around five thousand years off the Age of the Levels.

  I don't understand.” Said Ani. “Why the desire to speed up the transition between the two ages?”

  “I cannot go into much detail here,” said Vireo. “Can't risk throwing the time line but I can tell you this much. The last ten thousand years of the Age of Levels were a mess. In a nutshell Humanity stopped striving – it became set, curiosity was no longer a driving force. Everyone just wanted to live a life of distraction. The vacation and hobby Levels boomed for a while but that wasn't sustainable. Eventually things fell apart. At some point a few hundred individuals who could see the big picture got together and came up with a plan. These individuals are the ones now referred to as the rulers. The most radical part of the plan was complete separation from physical bodies. This made Level Minus One completely obsolete.”

  “So now you are one of the good guys working for the betterment of the human race? That's a little hard to swallow,” Skua stated.

  Yellowlegs jumped in. “You destroyed our home Level, wiped out over half of the population and we are meant to believe that you are now reformed?”

  Vireo thought for a moment. “I know how this must look and I'm not claiming to be a good person, program or whatever. Don't misunderstand me, I am still unaffected by what you'd call morality. I am just tired, to be honest – also wreaking havoc wouldn't really serve any purpose at the moment. Besides there is no way that you can cause me harm so further discussion on the subject of my past serves no purpose whatsoever.”

  Junco was not the only one to detect a flash of the old Vireo in this last statement.

  Ani's eyes glazed over for around a minute. Vireo didn't seem to notice but rather seemed to take a time out. He was still with them but was slightly transparent, probably taking care of some business thirty thousand years in the future. A minute was a decent stint in White Room time. Junco was relieved to see that Ani still had contact with Rubidium Beach or at least a part of it. The scene changed. Gone was the clear sky and gentle swell of a tranquil sea. Junco and the rest were no longer on the platform of a rig. Instead they were standing on the central platform that was suspended above the Anioptic. Junco looked at both Ani and Vireo to try to get a very fast clue as to what had just happened. Ani was smiling and Vireo was most definitely not. This, Junco assumed, was a good thing.

  “You bastard!” exclaimed Vireo. His shout echoed around the great hall that housed the Anioptic. “You paid me a visit, didn't you?”

  “Yes, took some very intense sessions in the White Room for myself and hundreds of coders to crack the time travel thing but we managed it in the end,” said Ani. He continued, “That sickness you are feeling? That is a virus, a nasty little piece of code. I had to get to you though, no way of inserting it here, in this time.”

  “How long have you known for?” Vireo seemed to be accepting the inevitability of his own death for a second time.

  “Some time now,” said Ani. “I recognized your handiwork in some of the code behind the explosion and the earthquake. The alien house and its inhabitants confirmed things.”

  Teal asked the question on all of their minds. “Why didn't you tell us?”

  “Because the moment that I told you the element of surprise would have been lost. If you knew, Vireo would have known that I knew. It was that simple.”

  “I see. So what happens to him or rather it now?”

  “His real self, the one way off in the future, will be very ill now. Not quite sure how it will manifest with this version.” Said Ani.

  That mystery wasn't a mystery for very long at all. Vireo simply stopped functioning, slid onto the ground, then disappeared. “That was pretty much what I expected.” said Ani.

  “Were you ever going to let him live?” asked Junco.

  “You must be joking. The only reason that I let him go on for as long as I did was to learn some things – and to make sure that there were no other copies,” said Ani.

  15. GOOD TIMES

  Junco and Teal were enjoying watching the red sun set over the liquid metal sea from their new Neon Cove home. They liked the house a lot even though the geometric planed walls that seemed to move in and out of focus took some getting used to. What the couple referred to as the beac
h room more than compensated for any minor niggles. Walking out onto soft sand, salt ocean smell, and a permanently blue sky had a way of putting stuff back into its correct perspective. The fact that neither Junco nor Teal knew where their own private world was or even when it was did not matter at all.

  “I don't know about you, but I still can't get my head around the transporter mystery,” said Junco.

  Teal took a sip out of her tall glass containing the blue potent liquid and triangular fruit bits. “I think that Vireo invented them – after all the code is entirely from the future and it is in his style.”

  Junco replied. “That doesn't explain the ongoing maintenance and improvement program though. Did you notice that they disappeared for a few hours yesterday and returned with new front panels?”

  “No, I missed that,” said Teal. “Maybe some mysteries just aren't meant to be solved.”

  Ani was looking down on the Anioptic. He was spending more and more time on the platform where the walkways connected. Noddy had joined him.

  “That was generous of you – to let them have the alien house,” said Noddy.

  “They earned it,” Ani replied. “A thousand times over.”

  Ani shifted the focus of the Anioptic to the house on Neon Cove and the two figures of Teal and Junco were sitting on the porch facing the sea. “They are discussing the origin of the transporters.”

  “Do you think they will ever figure it out?” asked Noddy.

  “In time.”

  _________________

  Rubidium Beach novellas released on the 20th of every month and are available on Amazon for $0.99