Gamer 1 - Skotopia: A Gamelit novel for science fiction action fans

by Rodzil LaBraun

  I turned toward the doorway to see my dad standing there, shaking his head. He looked sad for some reason. Had something terrible happened after I was taken to participate in Skotopia? He most certainly didn't look like he was the one that said wow.

  "What is going on here?" a female voice said to shatter the image.

  I stirred awake to find Rhese standing in front of me. I was still sitting on the couch. All three of us had fallen asleep there instead of returning to our quarters to slumber in our more comfortable beds. The rare freedom of unlimited social time had us clinging to each other. Literally.

  Memphis was motionless facing away from me with her head on my lap, both hands together under her chin. Zaya was waking up alongside me. The feeling of contact memory in my shoulder suggested that she had spent the entire night leaning up against me. That must have been the scene when Rhese walked in.

  "Rhese," Zaya croaked out with a throat that was not yet ready for speech. "What time is it?"

  "Early morning," the team captain replied. "Did you three all sleep together out here?"

  "Where have you been?" Zaya asked as she scooted away from me. Perhaps she was embarrassed by being caught together.

  "Home," Rhese answered with a smile. "I was with my family."

  Whoa. That got our attention. When I began stretching and rubbing my eyes Memphis finally decided to wake. Did Rhese just say that she was with her family? The kin that she was forced to leave behind when she turned eighteen?

  The separation would have only been for four years if she graduated from Skotopia. Even less if she could manage to reach level ten. But permanent if she failed. Just like the rest of us, performing poorly in the games would result in being sent to the surface of Athlios to start a new life in a strange environment.

  We had been taught about planet life during childhood. Just enough to discourage us from wanting to live there. Some called it propaganda. As children we were motivated to do well in school so we could be selected for Skotopia. That would be our only hope of living the rest of our lives in the comfort of the Kylos Magnus space station. However, failures were permitted one more visit with their loved ones before being sent away for good.

  This brought up the question, why had Rhese been visiting her family? Did she somehow get booted to the surface despite her epic performance in our last game? If so, why was she standing before me now?

  "You will all get a visit with your family today," she told us with a smile that attempted to alleviate my concern. Otherwise, I would wonder if we had all failed somehow, even though we beat the Black Vipers in the league qualifying game.

  "Really?" Memphis asked.

  "Why?" Zaya asked, suddenly fully alert. "What went wrong?"

  "Nothing," Rhese said as she held her arms out toward her friend. Wiggling her fingers encouraged Zaya to stand to receive a warm embrace. "We won. We made it to the big league. One of the perks is a family visit before we cross over. There are rumors that we could earn more visits as we go. This is good news, Zaya. Not bad. Don't you miss your family?"

  "Of course," our star player answered unconvincingly. I had never heard her talk about her loved ones. She kind of had a rebellious loner vibe, if it weren't for her superb team play in the games.

  "We start the new game in two days," Rhese explained excitedly as she released from Zaya to invite Memphis up for a hug. "I'll get to share some details with you this morning. Others will come in after your visits with your family. Either they are still finalizing a lot of things or they just plan to reveal everything in small doses to keep us from getting flabbergasted. I'm nearly overwhelmed with what I have learned already."

  When Rhese released from Memphis' embrace her eyes went to me. I had remained seated, unassuming.

  "Boone," my captain said with an unfamiliar warmth in her tone. "You did great! My parents replayed the feed for me. They were even more impressed by your play than I was. My dad is a big fan of yours already. He thinks that you are a perfect, um, I don't know. New addition to the team, we'll call it. He was truly clear that I should make you feel welcome."

  I stood up to receive a hug from Rhese. It seemed as genuine as her tone, though briefer than it had been with the girls. My rigidness probably had something to do with that.

  "Why are everyone's skill points at zero?" Zaya asked, pulling everybody's attention away from my awkwardness.

  "We start over in the new league," Rhese answered. "I know that doesn't sound fair. I even told them so. But the new system will be more weapon and armor based than skill point accumulation. Our experience will help us adapt faster than the new players, I'm told. Except for Boone, of course. He's a natural apparently."

  "He is something special," Memphis said with dreamy eyes my way. She slid her fingers into mine to hold my hand as she leaned up against my side. For the briefest moment I thought that I saw jealousy in Rhese's eyes. Then it was gone as quickly as it had come.

  "Tomorrow we get fitted for new hook-ups," she told us.

  "New hook-ups?" Zaya asked. Maybe this slow reveal was a good idea. It appeared that a lot of things would be different from here on out.

  "Yes," Rhese replied with enthusiasm. This was apparently a part that she was excited about. "We'll each have our own hook-up suits that we can put on ourselves. No more walking around in our underwear in front of the Skotopia techs. What is really cool is that these suits will resemble the armor that we'll be wearing in the games. It is supposed to make us more immersed in the experience."

  "That does sound cool," I had to admit. "Will these new suits be kept in our quarters?"

  "Sort of," the captain replied. "Our new home is supposed to be much bigger than this place. We'll each have our own private rooms, but we won't be locked up at any time. We'll be able to come and go as we please. They didn't really cover that much about the new hook-up situation. Maybe there will be a specific room where we plug in."

  "When do we move in?" Memphis asked. I could tell that she was excited about us being able to spend more time together. I certainly was as well.

  "In two days!" Rhese exclaimed. "But you three need to get some breakfast and clean up before your visits. I'm told we'll be locked in one more time so they can retrieve us individually from our quarters. After everyone gets back, we'll have access to this room again until we are taken to get fitted for the new hook-ups. We'll all be able to sleep together on the sofa tonight if we want to."

  "I'm not so sure that I want to do that again," Zaya responded as she cracked her stiff neck.

  "The doors close in two minutes," Rhese said as she pointed at the new countdown on the wall panels beside the entrances to our quarters.

  "I agree with Zaya," Memphis said. That surprised me. I thought she would want more cuddle time, not less. "The beds are more comfortable than the couch. Will we be permitted to go into each other's quarters now?"

  The big eyes Zaya and Rhese gave my girl matched mine. Was she suggesting that she sleep in my bed tonight?

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Two men in security uniforms were waiting for me outside the door to my quarters when it retreated into the wall at my assigned time. They didn't say a word. One simply started walking as the other motioned for me to follow the first guy.

  Their clothes were dark gray instead of the white that the Skotopia techs and assistants wore. I knew from experience that meant they were part of the station’s department of peacekeepers. Not the same people that escorted me here from my induction ceremony. These were the police.

  Both appeared to be in their thirties, male with neatly trimmed matching hairstyles. Bulky shoulders implied that they did more than their share of conditioning exercises. On the left side of their belt was a taser that could immobilize someone on contact. On the right was a stun-gun that could do the same at a range of over twenty meters.

  Two long hallways and a lift ride later I arrived at a small room with a table and four cushioned chairs. A decanter of drinking water sat at the far end
along with four plastic cups. The place resembled a meeting room more so than a place to socialize with my family.

  I took a seat in one of the comfortable swivel chairs and waited for my parents to arrive. One of the guards stood just inside the doorway when the other exited and went the opposite way down the hall from how we came. I was beginning to feel more like a criminal than a celebrated gamer. I found it just as likely that legal representation would join me instead of anyone else.

  I was tempted to ask the guard what was going on. However, his manner made him very unapproachable. I doubted that he would respond at all to my question let alone supply useful information. He looked like he wanted to punch me just for staring at him.

  When the second guard returned, he stepped aside to allow people to enter the room. The first one in was my mother. She was wearing the same dress that she wore to my Skotopia acceptance ceremony. It was the only formal wear that she owned. There weren't a lot of occasions to wear it.

  Tears flowed from her eyes as she ran to me. That was to be expected. She was a mess the day that I left our home. I couldn't keep my own eyes from watering as she hugged me so tight that I couldn't breathe. At eighteen years old I would have thought my body could withstand her restrictive embrace, but my mother had always been more emotional than most.

  When we finally released, I saw my father standing behind her. The expression on his face was hard to read. Happy to see me, yes. Proud? Maybe not as much as I had hoped. Concerned was probably the emotion in the forefront, though I could tell that he was trying desperately not to show it.

  Unlike my mother, he had several suits for formal occasions. That was due to his position in the government. He wasn’t remarkably high up in the hierarchy, but face-to-face meetings were quite common in his line of work.

  He smiled as I reached out to shake his hand. When he took it in his he jerked me forward into another death grip embrace. That was something that I rarely saw my father do. He didn't even hug my mom in public very often.

  Next was Coral, my twelve-year-old sister. She was all smiles with her big blue eyes and long blonde hair. She looked like she might have grown a bit since I last saw her. But that couldn't be. I had only been gone from home for a week. It must be my memory of her growing years clouding my brain. She jumped up and wrapped her legs around me when she hugged me.

  "Coral," my mom chastised her. "I told you to stop doing that. You are twelve now. You need to start acting like a young lady."

  "Yes, mom," my sister replied as she dropped her feet to the floor. Then to me she said, "I missed you more than I thought I would, Boone."

  "Yeah? I missed you, too. Where is Solly?"

  My seven-year-old sister apparently wasn't with them. I knew that she would have missed me terribly already. I was her favorite person in the world. She hadn't gotten to her independent stage yet.

  "Too young," my father replied, glancing toward the table to avoid eye contact.

  "Too young for what?" I asked. How could anyone be too young for a social visit?

  "You have fifty-five minutes remaining in your visit," the guard by the door informed us. His stern voice sounded less informative and more like he was controlling us. The distinct feel of being a prisoner returned.

  My father gestured for us all to take a seat at the table. I quickly asked about how my friends were doing. Did any of them get selected for Skotopia yet? I knew two had their eighteenth birthdays any day now, but they hadn’t received word. What would it be like to face them in battle? Could we call a truce and step off to the side for a short conversation? Of course, that would only be possible if they were sent to an opposing team. That rarely happened. If there wasn’t an opening on the Orange Dragons, they would be sent below. There were only few occasions on record when an eighteen-year-old was held in limbo to wait for an opportunity.

  As much as I missed my friends, I didn’t want them to replace any of the three girls that I played the games with. How awful would it be if Memphis got sent to Athlios? She would be the most likely.

  Since the four of us qualified for the new league, that shouldn’t even be a possibility now. Maybe there would still be an Orange Dragon team in Skotopia. Four rookies would have to form the roster. If both my friends got selected that would be awesome, even though I would never get to see them again. This new program was bringing up all kinds of weird scenarios.

  Both parents then updated me on how their jobs were going in just a couple sentences. They were much more focused on how I was doing. That was to be expected. Neither of them had been very self-absorbed while I was growing up.

  We talked about my performance in the games, which irritated Coral because she wasn't permitted to watch my performances. My parents were indeed proud of me. They even thought I did well in my initial game where I was meant to be a joke.

  My most impressive game was the last one, of course. My father had received so many congratulations at his work that he admitted to blushing. We talked about some of the highlights of the team versus match before getting to the subject of qualifying for the new league.

  My father's expression went dark suddenly. Glancing at the guard he asked quietly, choosing his words carefully. "Are they giving you the option to not move on to this new league?" he asked.

  "No, I don't think so," I answered in confusion. I hadn't even considered the possibility of someone not wanting the opportunity. The way Rhese talked, it was like a huge promotion.

  "You should check on that," my dad said softly.

  "Twenty-eight minutes remaining," the guard said suddenly. My father reacted as though the reminder was an indication that he should drop the subject. The harshness in the man’s tone implied it.

  "Why wouldn't I want to play in the new league?" I asked in a whisper as I leaned forward.

  My father flinched as the guard stepped up to the table. No one said a word as he slowly circled around to the other side to stand by my mother. Reaching for the decanter he poured four cups of water and handed us each one. The gesture looked totally out of place. He was obviously security and not a server. The way my dad shut up I took the interruption as a warning.

  "What do you think of your teammates?" my mother finally asked nervously.

  I was happy for more conversation as well as the chance to talk about the girls that had become my new closest friends. "I like them a lot. I mean, Rhese was kind of rough at first. But I guess team captains are supposed to act like that. Zaya was a bit standoffish until she realized that I could contribute to the team. She's actually quite nice now. And I think we worked well together in the last game."

  "Yes, you did," my father responded, still a bit reserved. "It looked like your team was able to follow a game plan almost exactly as you drew it up."

  "Not exactly," I replied. "But we do mostly think alike it seems. That should help us a lot going forward."

  "What about Memphis?" My mom asked.

  "I like her hair," Coral announced.

  "When did you see her hair?" I asked.

  "In the posters. She's not as famous as you, but I like her yellow spiked hair. I want to do mine like that, but mom won't let me."

  "Her hair isn't really like that," I told my sister. "That's just her avatar. She actually has nice straight brown hair like Polly."

  My father gestured for me not to say anything more on the subject as he glanced at the guard that was nearly hovering over the table. When I looked up, he was staring directly at me with a profoundly serious expression. Almost angry.

  I knew that once we were placed in the Skotopia program, the people in our sector were supposed to see us as our avatars instead of who were really are. Or who we were before, when we lived among them. Apparently saying anything about my girl's real physical appearance was as taboo as talking about the new league. I was certainly getting uncomfortable about the whole situation. But time was running out, and this visit would end soon. I didn't know when I would ever see my family again, so I had to cherish the time
together.

  My mother had spent some of the last couple years trying to groom me into a gentleman. At the time we didn't know if I would get the chance to compete for the opportunity to remain on the station. Most eighteen-year-old citizens were sent directly to Athlios to begin a new life. That meant more than just a new home and a job of hard labor. It also presented a lonely existence if I couldn't secure a female to be my mate. It was important to my mom that I found a good woman to take care of me, and vice versa. I had to tell her about my girlfriend before our time was up.

  "Memphis was friendly right from the start," I told my family. "In fact, we've gotten quite close over the last week."