by Ryk Brown
Table of Contents
FALL OF THE CORENETCAST: 03
The Frontiers Saga
Fall of the Core
Netcast: 03
Copyright © 2017 by Ryk Brown All rights reserved.
First Edition
Cover and Formatting by Streetlight Graphics
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
FALL OF THE CORE
NETCAST: 03
Hanna’s heart pounded, and her breathing quickened. She tried to exit the V-space but to no avail. She was trapped. Trapped in a virtual environment with the killer of billions.
“Don’t look so alarmed,” Unknown said, noticing the panic in her eyes. “I’m not planning on hurting you…” His kind expression suddenly turned sinister, and the blue of his eyes turned red. “Not yet.”
Hanna felt a nearly debilitating wave of terror wash over her as she tried repeatedly to exit the V-space.
Unknown’s expression returned to its previous charm, his eyes becoming blue again as he laughed. “I apologize, Miss Bohl. I couldn’t help myself. This virtual reality opens a whole new range of expressive possibilities for me. It’s really quite invigorating.”
“For you, maybe.”
“Honestly, Hanna, I have no intention of harming you. Such is not necessary for the success of our plans.”
“Our plans?” Hanna wondered, instinctively picking up the hint and going into reporter mode.
“You don’t really think I was able to plan and execute this all by my lonesome, do you?” Unknown laughed again. “I’m flattered, really, but I cannot take all the credit. I am only the executor and engineer of the plan, not its designer.”
Hanna closed her eyes for a moment, pretending to think, while she concentrated on ending the session. She desperately wanted to return to reality, bleak as it was. Anything would be better than being stuck in a virtual-reality world, which she apparently had no control over, with a madman. “Why are you doing this?” she begged as the desperation of her situation began to settle in.
“I believe I have already explained that to you,” Unknown replied.
“No, I mean this. Why are you holding me hostage here?”
“It was not my intent,” Unknown apologized. “I am somewhat new at V-space, I’m afraid. Perhaps I exerted too much control. You are free to go.”
A door appeared in the middle of the room, directly behind Unknown. Hanna stared at the exit sign above the door, uncertain if it actually led back to the real world.
“It will take you back to reality, I assure you,” Unknown promised. “I will be here when you return.”
Hanna rose from the table, moving slowly and carefully toward the waiting door. She paused beside Unknown, looking down at his smiling blue-eyed face; a face designed to hide the evil that lay within. “Why would I come back?” she asked.
“Because you have questions, dear Hanna.”
Hanna did not respond, instead moving to the door.
“Say hello to Arielle and Graham for me,” Unknown added.
Another shiver washed over her as she reached for the door and opened it. Beyond the threshold there was nothing, only blackness. But at the moment, anything was better than here.
* * *
Hanna sat bolt upright, her eyes popping open as she gasped in complete panic and desperation. She looked around, her eyes wide with fear as she made the transition back to the real world. There was always that brief moment, when exiting V-space and returning to the physical world, during which your mind was confused, unsure of where it was. Despite its minor flaws, V-space was so immersive, so complete, that the mind believed it to be real. It was only one’s consciousness that identified it as a digital construct.
Hanna glanced around as Graham, Arielle, and the others all rushed to her aid.
“What the hell happened?” Graham wondered as he and Arielle came to Hanna’s side.
“It was him!” she exclaimed between breaths.
“Simon?” Arielle asked.
“No, him,” Hanna replied. “Unknown.”
“Are you kidding?” Graham said in disbelief. “In V-space? As a person?”
“Yes! He was there!”
“I thought you were meeting with Simon?” Arielle said.
“I was… I mean, I did. Then everything went black, and I was sitting at a table with some blond surfer-looking dude claiming to be Unknown!”
“You need to calm down, Hanna,” Arielle insisted.
“It was so real! I thought he was going to kill me!”
“You don’t have any nanites left,” Arielle reminded her. “He can’t hurt you.”
“But, he killed those other people…”
“You can’t die in V-space,” Arielle insisted.
“The hell you can’t,” Graham argued. “There have been all kinds of cases where people died in V-space, as a direct result of the simulation.”
“Those cases were because the users couldn’t separate virtual from real,” Arielle countered. “Hanna can. Besides, that’s why they always put little unrealistic variances into the sim, to remind the users that it isn’t real.”
“But this isn’t public V-space, Arielle. It’s corporate,” Graham argued. “It’s full-depth immersion. It’s as real as it gets.”
“He had control,” Hanna said, interrupting them.
“What do you mean, he had control?” Arielle asked.
“I couldn’t get out.”
“Then how did you get back?” Graham wondered.
“He let me out,” Hanna said as if it were a sudden realization. “Oh, my God, he had me trapped in there, and then he just let me walk out the door.”
“Why would he do that?” Graham wondered. “Why would he trap you and then just let you go?”
“He said something about not being used to V-space or not having much experience in it. I think it was an accident, trapping me like that.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Arielle said. “If he wrote the twister virus, then he’s one of the greatest coders of all time.”
“Which means he would’ve spent tons of time in V-space,” Graham insisted. “It’s a geek’s paradise. The place is crawling with them. Hell, it was originally created by geeks for geeks. I don’t think I ever met a coder who hadn’t spent time in V-space.”
“Maybe it’s not him?” Arielle suggested.
“Oh, it was him,” Hanna insisted.
“How do you know?” Graham wondered.
“I just know, trust me.”
“But you did talk to Simon,” Arielle confirmed.
“Yes, I did, and he told me that Stellar Express is planning to use their best ships to transport people of Victor Cassan’s choosing to start some utopian civilization; one that Cassan will rule.”
“Those ships are contracted,” Arielle said, “by the government.”
“Like that matters, now,” Graham said with a laugh.
“But the government has control of those ships
, don’t they?” Arielle insisted.
“Yeah, right,” Graham said, again laughing.
“He’s right,” Hanna told her. “Simon confirmed it. He said it’s all a scam. The government override devices have never worked. Once Victor Cassan decides to take those ships for his own use, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
“Hell, the politicians will probably be the first in line to buy tickets to Cassan-world,” Graham spouted. “If I had the money, I know I would.”
“This is big,” Arielle realized.
“But we can’t report it,” Hanna said. “We don’t have any proof.”
“Who fucking cares?” Graham argued. “What do you think is going to happen? You think the government is going to pull NCN World’s license? Hell, we’re one of the few agencies still broadcasting! They need us!”
“It will expose NCN World to possible legal action,” Arielle reminded him.
“You need to think outside the box,” Graham argued. “End of the world, remember?”
“He said he’d be there when I returned,” Hanna stated, ignoring the current argument.
“What?” Arielle asked.
Hanna looked her friend in the eyes. “He’s expecting me to return.”
“Not a chance.”
“Why?” Graham asked.
“Because it’s too risky,” Arielle insisted, casting a disapproving glance at Graham.
“I thought you said you couldn’t die in V-space,” Graham replied. “Besides, I wasn’t talking about that. I actually agree with you about the risk. I was asking why he was expecting you back,” he said to Hanna.
“He said I was a reporter and that I would have questions.”
“Well, duh.”
“He’s right,” Hanna admitted. “I do have questions, quite a few of them, in fact.”
“You are not going back in there,” Arielle insisted, resolute in her position.
“But, what if I can figure out who is behind all this?” Hanna said. “What if that information could put a stop to all this?”
“All this has already happened, Hanna,” Arielle argued. “Finding the guy who wrote Twister won’t bring back the dead.”
“But it might save the rest of us,” Hanna argued.
“As much as I hate agreeing with Arielle, she’s right,” Graham said. “Nothing you learn is going to set things right. It’s a virus.”
“But, if this Unknown guy wrote it, maybe he knows a cure for it,” Hanna postulated.
“He said he was going to die along with the rest of us,” Arielle reminded her. “If there was a cure, you can bet your ass he’d have protected himself.”
“So he was lying?”
“Does it matter?”
“I don’t know,” Hanna replied. “And that’s the point. That’s why I need to go back in.”
“Hanna, this guy redefines the term ‘wacko’. There’s no telling what he might do to you.”
“V-space can’t kill you, as long as you know it’s not real,” Hanna reminded her. “You said so yourself, a minute ago.”
“But it can hurt to the point that you wish you were dead,” Arielle argued. “And he had you trapped, remember? Do you really want to risk that?”
“That’s our job, Arielle,” Hanna insisted. “That’s what we do.”
“Our jobs are nearing an end, Hanna,” Arielle argued. “In a few more weeks or months, a year at the most. Sooner or later, everything will collapse, and we’ll be struggling to survive just like everyone else. So why risk it?”
“Because it could be my last chance to do something meaningful with my life,” Hanna insisted.
“But you don’t even know if you’ll learn anything significant!”
“You don’t know that I won’t!”
Arielle stood there with her arms crossed. “What are you looking at?” she asked Graham.
“Nothing,” he replied with a grin.
“I’m going back in, with or without your help, Arielle,” Hanna insisted.
Arielle sighed. She knew her friend too well and was certain she meant what she said. “Fine, but we’re contacting Agent Oslo first.”
* * *
“No full-immersion, understood?” Agent Oslo insisted. “We’ll all be standing where you can see us, without attracting Unknown’s attention. Our faces will remind you that it’s V-space, not reality.”
“And if he traps me in there again?”
“Not possible,” Agent Oslo insisted, pointing at the device on the table in front of her that he had brought with him. “If I activate that, it will disrupt the link between your NDI and this ship’s V-space node.”
“I didn’t know such things existed,” Arielle said.
“They didn’t,” Agent Oslo admitted. “Not until a week ago. It’s experimental.”
“Are you sure it will work?” Hanna asked, concerned.
“I’ve tried it myself,” Agent Oslo replied.
Hanna’s eyes widened. “You still have your NDI?”
“I can’t really do my job effectively without it,” he replied. “Risks of the job.”
“I had my node fail on me once while I was in V-space,” Graham remarked, sounding skeptical. “It hurt like hell.”
“So does this, unfortunately,” Agent Oslo admitted. “But it’s better than the alternative.”
“The alternative being death,” Arielle said.
“In V-space, there are worse things than death,” Agent Oslo told her.
“You’re not helping,” Hanna complained.
“Sorry.” Agent Oslo checked his equipment and then looked at Hanna again. “Are you ready?”
“No. But let’s do this anyway.”
“Alright then.” Agent Oslo reached over to the node console. “Since we don’t have a meeting address, I’ll just connect you to the same corporate V-space as before.”
“I thought corporate V-spaces were private,” Arielle said.
“You’re kidding, right?” Graham snickered.
Agent Oslo said nothing as he initiated the connection.
Hanna felt the familiar sensation of V-space rushing toward her. Her vision began to fade, and the sounds of the shuttle’s systems, and her friends, fell into the background while a new set of sights, sounds, and smells filled her senses. She suddenly found herself on a beach overlooking a vast, oddly-colored ocean. The sand was brilliant white, with specks of gold and black mixed in. It looked undisturbed, as if no living thing had ever set foot there.
The ocean itself was pale blue, with rust-colored hues where the waves broke. The sky was a similar blue, causing it to blend with the water at the horizon. Higher in the sky, the atmosphere took on an amber tint, caused by the nearest of three moons lined up, directly overhead, from left to right.
“Can you hear me?” Agent Oslo called to Hanna. His voice seemed distant, almost as if it were in her head or in another room. She looked toward the sound of his voice and spotted him no more than a meter away, to her right. His image was faded, nearly overpowered by the images in the V-space.
“I can hear you,” Hanna replied. She looked around, also spotting the faded images of Graham and Arielle. Graham waved in a goofy fashion, and Arielle just looked concerned.
“Where are you?” Agent Oslo asked.
“On a beach somewhere.”
“Sweet,” Graham commented.
“It’s not on Earth, though,” Hanna added. “There are three moons, and the water has these weird brownish-orange wave crests.”
“Is the sand white, with gold and black flakes?” Graham asked.
“Yes.”
“Tramontana beach on Pylius,” Graham decided. “Just south of Aker’s cove. It’s in the Omicron Two
Eridani system.”
“You’ve been here?” Hanna asked, stunned.
Graham laughed. “Only in V-space.”
“Is there anyone else around?” Agent Oslo asked.
“Not that I can see,” Hanna replied, scanning the area.
“How long did it take for him to contact you the last time you were in this network?” Agent Oslo asked.
“A few minutes, maybe.”
“I’ll try to be more punctual next time,” Unknown called from behind.
Hanna flinched, startled by his sudden appearance. She turned to look at him. It was the same blond-haired, blue-eyed surfer as before, only this time, he was wearing swim trunks and a loose-fitting shirt, which flapped in the breeze. “You startled me,” she admitted, taking a step backward in fear.
“I will not harm you, Hanna,” Unknown promised.
“I’m sure you’ll understand if I don’t put much faith in that promise.”
“Of course,” Unknown replied with a smile.
Hanna struggled for a moment. Her heart was racing again, and her breathing felt shallow and rapid.
“You really should try to calm down,” Unknown suggested. “That’s why I chose this place,” he said, his arms outstretched. “It’s quite relaxing, don’t you think?”
“Under different circumstances, I would agree with you.”
Unknown closed his eyes and drew in a breath of sea air, letting it fill his lungs, savoring every odor as it passed through his nostrils. After a moment, he let it out in a long, controlled exhalation. “Intoxicating, isn’t it?”
“I suppose so,” Hanna commented, a bit surprised by his behavior.
“So, why have you come, Miss Bohl?”
“Like you said, I have questions.”
“Are they your questions or ones given to you by Agent Oslo?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. A smile came across his face as Hanna became pale. “No matter, I will answer them nevertheless. But first…” Unknown raised his hands, sliding his forefingers sideways. The faded images of Hanna’s friends disappeared, as did the sounds of their voices and the hum of the shuttle’s systems.