MetaGame

by Sam Landstrom

  The clone daughters continued giving their lessons over those few days, particularly to Lily, who was still unashamedly favored by the girls despite the ridicule of their father. They did learn to better tolerate D_Light, however, as more often than not he now accompanied them on their little field trips.

  When D_Light could not be with Lily, such as when the nobles insisted on game strategizing, he thought about her. He had Smorgeous replay memories of the fair-skinned girl, particularly the first time he had seen her under the poplar tree. He even dreamt of her at night-every night, in fact, since they had entered the inner sanctum. This baffled D_Light who, recent nightmares aside, had only dreamt of sailing for as long as he could remember. Smorgeous insisted these new dreams did not exist, so D_Light struggled to remember them on his own and then stored the reconstructed feelings and visions as best he could.

  These dreams were intimate, but not exactly sexual. Despite sleeping next to Lily every night, he never attempted any sexual advances, neither in real life nor in his dreams. This was not due to any lack of desire on D_Light’s part. Lily was incredible! And she was very affectionate. Indeed, she enjoyed stroking his body, his arms, his cheeks, his hands; sometimes she even kissed him gently. The two enjoyed being together, talking and sleeping with their bodies pressed together.

  Left to her own devices, D_Light doubted Lily would ever initiate sex with him or anyone else. According to camper specifications, her kind was not designed for consensual sex, and therefore no sex drive was required.

  Nevertheless, someday, somehow, D_Light wanted to seduce her (assuming that was even possible), not only because he wanted her, but because the loss of her virginity would render her useless for her terrible purpose. After all, she was a single-use product. For now, however, he desired to make no demands on her aside from her company. Eventually, he thought. He then pictured the two of them on his sailboat, anchored in a private cove somewhere, the waves rocking them gently as they lay together in the cozy comfort of the V-berth. They would be safe, relaxed, and happy. Something would stir in her, something primal her designers had overlooked. It would be beautiful, perfect.

  Each night, as the artificial sun began to set, the teammates would reunite at the great dining table. Dr. Monsa would eat with them and assemble a retinue of his “lambs” to join them. If it seemed too quiet at the table, the doctor would toss seemingly arbitrary questions to his guests as a sort of family game time.

  On this particular eve the table was much too quiet for the doctor’s taste. “What do you think of war?” he shouted out to the entire table, startling D_Light enough to make him lose control of his fork, which ended up on Lyra’s lap. “Evil incarnate or a natural human activity?” he boomed. Dr. Monsa sucked back a trickle of wine that had dribbled out of his malformed lower lip and looked to his audience for a response.

  The priest was eager to offer the first answer. “As suggested by divine law, war is undesirable for society but cannot be completely suppressed and is therefore allowed under controlled conditions.”

  “Yes, Daddy, the OverSoul sells war permits. Apparently, it is condoned.” Curious_Scourge spoke out of one cheek, as her other one was stuffed with a roasted pulp grub.

  “Yes, but does that make it right?” the doctor asked.

  Curious_Scourge swallowed. “If two families want to go to war, who is to stop them?”

  “To grow as sentient beings, we are bestowed free agency,” the priest quoted.

  “Free agency?” Love_Monkey scoffed. “When families meet on the battlefield, I sincerely doubt everyone in attendance wants to be there.”

  “You choose your family, and you can leave anytime,” Curious_Scourge retorted.

  “Who gets to choose? Not products like us, Sister!” Love_Monkey pointed at herself. “In any case, it’s a sordid business. I’m glad our house doesn’t involve itself in that sort of thing.”

  “Au contraire, I often purchase war permits to negotiate with other houses,” the doctor said casually, “but my rivals always back down, and so we never actually meet on the field.”

  “I don’t blame them,” Djoser interjected with a chuckle.

  “One pack of those cullers of yours would terrify a small army.”

  “The cullers?” Dr. Monsa raised his jagged eyebrows.

  “Oh, those are just to keep contaminant species out of my garden. I wouldn’t use them for war. I have far better armaments…or worse, from my enemy’s point of view.”

  “Daddy used to make weapons,” Curious_Scourge proudly informed the dinner guests.

  “Yes, very profitable, actually,” the doctor confirmed.

  “The ban on modern weapons was not as restrictive with bioproducts. Naturally, you couldn’t make microbiological agents such as viruses, but larger products were allowed.” The doctor nodded toward Amanda, who was wolfishly devouring her dinner. “Of course, these weapons got out of hand as they always do. As an example, it was not long before dragons inhabited more than just fairy tales.”

  “Minus the fire breathing, although I think that was under development,” BoBo joked.

  “This spurred the Authority to place additional restrictions. Still, I have a few ‘old friends’ tucked away in this house,” the doctor declared with a smile. “You see, they were grandfathered in. I’m just not allowed to grow any more babies.”

  While dinner had proven to be particularly delicious and the conversation interesting as usual, D_Light remained quiet throughout the meal. Dr. Monsa, finishing off his third helping of everything, drew a deep breath and asked to be excused from the table. The remaining dinner companions nodded, and the doctor began his rapid limp down the path. D_Light sat quietly for a few moments, stood as though leaving, hesitated, and then proceeded to follow the doctor.

  “Doctor, sir, may I walk with you a moment?” Dr. Monsa regarded D_Light distantly and nodded.

  “It’s about Lily. I…er…Okay, you are perhaps the most knowledgeable wetgineer on the planet, so I thought I would ask you-”

  “No, I’m afraid I cannot make her human,” the doctor answered before D_Light could spit out the question. “I have already considered the problem from all angles. I have looked at her specs again and again. To get her over 96.3 % DNA parity with humans, I would have to do massive gene therapy. It would kill her.”

  “But-”

  “I know she looks and behaves human, but her reproductive system, her metabolism, even her nervous system are significantly different. If I recoded her at the cellular level, her physiology would-” Dr. Monsa paused and rested a gnarled hand on D_Light’s shoulder. “It is right and good that you care about her. A gentle soul like yours would.”

  D_Light had never been called a “gentle soul,” nor was he sure it was a compliment. The doctor leaned in and scrunched his face into an even uglier ball of flesh. D_Light resisted the urge to recoil. “If I could do anything to help her, I would,” whispered the unsightly doctor. “Believe me, I have more interest in her welfare than you realize.”

  She was shaking again, moaning in her sleep. D_Light turned over on his side to kiss her ear and whispered, “Lily, it’s only a dream. Wake up.” But as he slid over to comfort her, he realized she was gone. He watched her leave through eyes silted from sleep. She resembled a ghost, drifting away as the microlenses of her skinsuit reflected the light from the simulated moon.

  One of the clone girls stood ahead of Lily like a sentinel. The face of the young girl was a mask. D_Light rose up onto his feet. “Lily?” The question slid out into the gloom. In response, Lily’s shoulders tensed and she turned back to him with an expression that startled D_Light into full wakefulness. She looked terrified-terrified as though she was regarding a menacing stranger rather than the man with whom she had fully shared her life over the past several days.

  “Lily, where-” D_Light’s question collapsed in on itself as the shutters of his mind slammed shut and his body slumped to a heap on the ground.

  Master, y
our chemi delivery system has been compromised. Smorgeous’s words were hazy and distant in D_Light’s head. You were given an unauthorized dose of the commonly named MyLullaby™ chemi. I have taken the liberty of counteracting its effects; however, you have been unconscious for 15.31 minutes.

  I…I was overdosed? D_Light’s thoughts were like viscous syrup.

  Yes, master. The dose administered was not within lethal range; however, it was incapacitating.

  D_Light opened his eyes. He was flat on his back and completely disoriented. He could not place where he was, although it was not where he last remembered. He had no idea how he got there, either. He blinked his eyes hard and with greater frequency as though doing so might bring clarity to the situation. He then spotted Djoser and Lyra nearby. The nobles seemed to be inspecting mechanical devices of some kind. Weapons? he wondered.

  The hunted hunt themselves. Djoser reviewed the quest again in his mind as he checked the trigger action on the crossbow left for him. He enjoyed the symmetry of the quest, although he admonished himself for not having anticipated it. Had he done so, he could have prepared.

  It was simple. Hunt down and kill Lily. There were only two rules: The quest would last up to seventy-two hours. If they did not kill Lily by then, the quest was lost. The hunters and their familiars were to assemble at the dining table and remain there for two hours to give Lily a head start.

  The proctor reminded them that their archives would be reviewed upon game completion and that rule transgressions could result in disqualification.

  Djoser smiled to himself. Not only was the quest consistent with the theme of the MetaGame thus far, it was spiritually satisfying. Lily had been created for this purpose-for this sport-and although he had not realized it before, it was unsettling for him to watch her defy her fate. The OverSoul would not be contradicted.

  Although he had not prayed explicitly for this quest, he offered a silent word of thanks to the OverSoul. She knows us better than we can know ourselves, he thought. Djoser then shifted his attention to the glassy-eyed D_Light laid out upon the grass below and dropped an unloaded crossbow on his chest. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you’ve got less than two hours to pull yourself together, man.”

  The quest party was assembled at the great dining table. D_Light finally saw the pending quest update and opened it. How horrible! Was I drugged to protect her escape? As though I would hurt her otherwise? Could I do that?

  Praying he was having a nightmare, he closed his eyes again. Perhaps if he slipped back into that syrupy unconsciousness he would awake with Lily asleep at his side. He would tell her that she was safe, that he would protect her. His fantasy, however, was quickly broken as the numbing voice of the proctor pressed into his consciousness the caution that Lily had been given a vial of culler repellant, whereas they themselves had none of their own.

  “That will make it interesting,” Djoser said. “We all got our last dose yesterday around noon, right?” he asked no one in particular.

  “Yes, so from what PeePee tells me, the repellant will have worked its way out of our system sometime on day three.” Lyra’s voice was near.

  “An added incentive for finding her sooner rather than later,” Djoser commented dryly.

  Djoser and Lyra spent most of the two hours of Lily’s head start time discussing how they would find her. They decided that the familiars could use their sniffer software to follow her; however, she would be expecting that. D_Light sat quietly, only half listening.

  “Certainly she will go to the nearest water to knock us off her trail. Remember the lake?” Lyra asked.

  “Yeah, the first thing she did when she joined up with us was lead us to the water,” Djoser said.

  D_Light had now passed through the phases of shock and denial and into one of anger. “And she’ll know we know that,” he spoke to the sky above, his voice brimming with resentment. “And she’ll know we know that she knows that.”

  “Don’t be an ass, D_Light.” Lyra’s voice was irritated.

  “Get over it and focus on the task at hand,” she added sharply.

  “Yes, Mother,” D_Light replied distantly, keeping his gaze fixed on the bogus clouds above.

  Djoser slammed his fist on the table. “Damned right,” he shouted.

  D_Light, startled by the verbal assault, regarded Djoser. The nobleman’s eyes were burning with rage, and his lips curled and quivered like an animal readying itself for an attack. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten who Lyra and I are and who you are not. Perhaps we were in error to think we could dispense with the formalities during this game without you coming to think that you’re actually an equal.”

  Reflexively, D_Light stood and presented himself humbly to his father. “My sincerest apologies, Father. I beg that you pardon my transgression.” He made a deep bow.

  Djoser spat at D_Light’s feet and waved at him dismissively. “Good, so we have an understanding. Now get out of my face until I ask for your input.”

  “Understood, Father.”

  D_Light removed himself from the table and sat down on the ground next to a variegated reddish plant with feathery green plumes. He knew he was sulking. He knew he was being weak and pathetic, and he hated himself for it. He looked over to Lyra and Djoser, who were passionately strategizing a plan for finding and executing Lily. They too had spent days with the fair Star Sister and had gotten to know her well, but they weren’t skulking about feeling sorry for themselves or for Lily. It was just part of the Game, plain and simple, and they acted accordingly. There must be a flaw in my DNA…or my conditioning, he thought.

  Logically speaking, D_Light had every reason to be enthusiastic about the final quest of this MetaGame. Over the last few days he had tried to stay off the Cloud since he was still a fugitive and the Divine Authority may have tracking software that uses Cloud signatures to locate persons of interest; nevertheless, he had poked around enough to know that this MetaGame was hot. Thanks to the drama and chaos he had caused in NeverWorld by insulting Queen Pheobah, and thanks also to the very public violence in the lounge when that seeker tried to “apprehend” them, their game had picked up a lot of attention. Now players all over the world were placing their bets on this MetaGame. If D_Light’s team won, he would get a piece of that action in addition to his regular take. It would be an unfathomable fortune-a fortune that would accelerate him on the path of immortality. And all they had to do was hunt down and kill a product. Legally, nothing more than destroying an expensive piece of furniture.

  Despite this realization and some mood-enhancing chemis, D_Light could barely muster the resolve to follow his teammates into the garden by the time Lily’s head start expired.

  Lily ran swiftly but took care to not let the outstretched branches and leaves touch her. Like others of her kind-and even humans-she shed millions of cells a day, and although her skinsuit would hold onto most of this exfoliation, the suit shed a scent of its own-everything did. I will pass through like a breeze, she thought.

  Perhaps I never escaped the reserve. Perhaps the Great Stag is real after all and has made the whole world a hell for my kind.

  She suppressed these panic-inducing thoughts and shut down all the functions of her MIC, save her internal clock. There was only one thing to focus on now, and that was to stay alive for seventy-two hours. If she did that, she would live, at least for now. Lily had survived the running game back home. This would be no different. She tightened her grip on the small blue bottle and quickened her pace.

  Djoser cursed to himself as he gazed into the rent-a-boy holding pen. It was sealed and empty. He and Amanda had left the others to go muster a search party for Lily. He figured he could trade sex with Amanda to the rent-a-boys in exchange for their cooperation, but the rent-a-boys were gone. So too were the concubines and the analysts. Even more conspicuous, there were no gardeners anywhere to be found. This was particularly troubling to Djoser, who had hoped to find an unlucky drone and jack the repellant worn around its nec
k. But there would be no search party and no repellant.

  He decided it was likely that Dr. Monsa and his minions were all nearby, either in a hideout in the inner sanctum itself or somewhere else within his massive house. I guess I’ll just have to import some labor, he thought.

  Djoser proceeded to attempt to create a search game invitation on the Cloud, complete with a generous bounty attached. However, much to his surprise and dismay, an error message popped up saying that his connection was blocked by network quarantine. Djoser cursed again. If a network quarantine was in place, then certainly the inner sanctum was physically locked down as well. Fortunately, his teammates were inside the quarantine, so he could at least still reach them. He opened a blink to give his status.

  PeePee found her trail, Lyra sent to the others. As Lyra pursued her familiar through the garden, followed by a sullen D_Light, she kept her crossbow trained out in front of her and ruminated on the shocking news Djoser had sent them.

  Surely this interruption in labor comes at great cost, Lyra thought. It seemed like a sinful waste of resources to quarantine the inner sanctum in response to their trivial game. Unless there was some other reason…an experiment?

  Lyra knew MetaGame etiquette as well as any noble. As their host, the doctor was divinely bound to not directly interfere with their MetaGame; rather, at most, he could merely accommodate a fair contest. He has set the stage, Lyra mused. While not explicitly hindering the party from finding the camper, he had evened the odds of the quest in a subtle, yet effective way.

  With contact to the outside world, players like Lyra had access to a great deal of resources. For the right price-and certainly the price would be justified in this game-they could rent help, perhaps a powerful analyst or AI to aid in strategy. Or better yet, a hunter specialized for this activity. After all, the rules did not expressly forbid such tactics. But now, cut off from the outside world…it’s just her and us.