Interlude-Brandon (The Game is Life)

by Schott, Terry

  Brandon nodded slowly. “You ever meditate, Carl?”

  Carl shook his head. “No time for that. I know you recommended I try it a while ago, but I just never seem to get around to it.”

  Brandon stopped at a doorway. “This is my stop. Listen to me very carefully, Carl. You want to go somewhere nice and quiet and have a good fifteen to twenty minute session of meditation right away. Promise you’ll do that for me.”

  Carl nodded slowly. “Okay, man… I’ll go do it right now.”

  Brandon slapped him on the arm lightly. “You’ll be glad you did. After you’re done you should come see me. I need your help with an upcoming game and I’d like to discuss it with you.”

  Carl walked away and Brandon watched him go with a look of concern.

  Carl was Blurred, and from the looks of it, they’d had him in a bad way for a while. Brandon hoped he could get him to snap out of it.

  ===

  Wesley walked into Thorn’s office, went to the fridge to get himself a drink, and then sat down across from his boss. Thorn was watching Cooper bring Tony out of his thirty year simulation on the monitor.

  “That was messy,” Wesley observed.

  “Indeed,” Thorn said. “Apparently Tony doesn’t like being ejected from the simulations.”

  “I don’t think anyone does, sir,” Wesley said. “It’s not pleasant.”

  Thorn ignored the comment. He didn’t acknowledge the complaint from very many people, and certainly not from Wesley right now. “I want you to be present when we debrief Brandon and his Hand,” Thorn said.

  “Of course. How long a rest will they get before we send them into the public prototype?”

  “We can determine that after we speak with them and see how much this play affected their psyche.”

  Wesley nodded. “How did the other ten groups fare during their thirty-year sessions?”

  “We knew it was an aggressive scenario when we came up with the idea,” Thorn said. “Some of them were damaged during the process, but we won’t know how severely until later on. We have to move forward with as many groups as we can. Thirty years allowed each child’s natural tendencies and nature to manifest, so we know how to place them and where. Some will be very influential characters in the large production we’re about to launch.”

  “I don’t fully understand what it is exactly that you’re launching, sir,” Wesley admitted.

  “That’s okay… neither do I,” Thorn said. “The nature of this new game is that players will shape most of the content as it happens inside. Soon this world will be obsessed with the new virtual reality game I’m going to release. ‘Tygon version 3.0’ will be played by everyone, and the public will line up to pay for the chance to play. Our Sim veterans will be heroes and villains, saints and sinners, leaders in the game for both forces of good and evil. NPC’s could never deliver the types of thrills I want to give to the fans, but our boys and girls from the Centres will do the job nicely.”

  “The General will never allow it,” Wesley said.

  “By the time we get to that point,” Thorn said, “the General will have no say in the matter.”

  Chapter 51

  “The Enemy has developed virtual reality technology,” the General said.

  “I know,” Thorn replied. “They stole it from us.”

  The General stared at Thorn, his jaw clenching and eyes smouldering. “What are you going to do about it, Mr. Thorn?” he asked.

  Thorn smiled, “I can assure you, General, that there is no one on this planet who understands this technology better than I do. Since day one of this project there have been extreme safety measures in place to control my programming.”

  A frown crossed the Generals face; faint, but Thorn saw it. “What kind of safety measures?”

  Thorn waved his hand, “Tracking, reporting, viral self-protective capabilities, self-destructive protocols if need be… sir, I know exactly who took it, how they got it, who they gave it to, and what it’s being used for at this very moment.” Thorn fixed the General with a serious stare and stopped talking.

  The two men quietly stared at each other.

  “Who stole it?” the General asked.

  “I think if I told you the answer to that question I would be dead within a few hours. My death would cause more problems than you can imagine, General, I hope that’s not a surprising revelation to you by now.”

  The General said nothing.

  “What do you want me to do about this, sir?” Thorn asked.

  “You’ve kept too much from me over the years, Samson,” the General said.

  “As have you, Donovan.”

  “Yet our relationship has proven beneficial to both of us,”

  “Indeed,” Thorn agreed.

  “You’ve done an outstanding job with the Sim project.”

  “Thank you. I have been following the first groups of graduates from the Sim. They are performing better than any of their peers in the field. I’ve also noticed some early departures from the Sim program for no apparent reason. During the past six months, over eighty Blurred children have been removed from the facility. I can’t find any record of where they were transferred to.”

  “We’ve had this conversation before, Mr. Thorn. Centre resources belong to me. They are my property, and, once they leave the Game Facility, they are none of your concern.”

  Thorn nodded, “Of course, General.”

  “I understand you’re finally about to launch the civilian version of the Sim.”

  “That’s why I asked you here today,” Thorn said. “I want to offer you a percentage of the profits from civilian revenues.”

  Both men knew such an offer wasn’t required. They also knew it was an appropriate gesture and would ensure the two men stayed intertwined like a pair of poisonous snakes drifting in the ocean. If one let go to bite the other, then both would be destroyed. Fortunes intermingled would allow this thin stalemate to continue, which suited them both.

  “Your offer is unexpected, and extremely generous,” the General nodded.

  “I’m also happy to announce that we’ve finally been able to make a fully functioning VR headset.” Thorn bent and produced a headset from beneath his desk. He slid it across the desk towards the General, who picked it up and inspected it with a grin.

  “If you’re still up for it, you can now go into the Sim without any IV's, tubes or wires.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Thorn, but that won’t be necessary,” he pushed the headset back towards Thorn.

  “You don’t want to enter the Sim?” Thorn asked.

  “Of course I do,” the General said. “When we began this project and it seemed so difficult for you to accomplish, I started a division of my own to work on the challenge.”

  “Oh.” The surprise was visible on Thorn’s face which made the General smile. “That’s great news.”

  “Yes,” the General said. “In just a few days I’ll be able to enter the Sim on my own and see all the marvelous things you’ve created with my very own eyes.”

  Chapter 52

  Brandon and the other members of his hand entered Brandon’s room and began their regular routine of scanning for listening devices and cameras. They each took a specific area and searched thoroughly. Kay completed her search first and stood facing the group with her thumb held up, waiting for the others to finish. When everyone had thumbs raised, Brandon nodded and the group sat down in the middle of the floor.

  “Are we in the Sim, or the Dream?” Brandon asked the group.

  As one they all answered, “The Dream,”

  Brandon closed his eyes and took deep breaths, then he opened his eyes and nodded. “I agree,” he said.

  “Welcome back, everyone,” Easton said. The group nodded somberly; they’d just lived thirty long, challenging years inside a virtual reality that still seemed more real than this one.

  Brandon had thought long and hard about the lives they lived during that time. He felt certain that their time together
had strengthened their relationship, but to be certain, he began this meeting with a question: “Do we all still want to be part of this team?”

  “What kind of question is that?” Tony asked.

  “It’s a question that should be asked every once in a while.” Brandon said. “We come into the world alone, and we leave it alone, but the time we spend in between is all ours. It might seem like our lives don’t belong to us, especially living in the Centres, but they do. We began this when we were young, and we’ve seen more than most will come up against in an entire lifetime.”

  Easton stood and leaned against the door. “Everyone answer the question, please, and don’t feel bad if you’ve decided to leave the group. I don’t think anyone could blame you. Most people don’t stay together for over forty years. We’ve done that. If you want a change, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “I agree,” Brandon said.

  “I stay,” Kay said quickly.

  “Me too,” Tony agreed.

  “I’m not leaving,” Alan said.

  “A hand without a thumb is a sad thing,” Easton smiled. “I’m staying.”

  Brandon nodded his head and a grin spread across his face. “I don’t know what finger I represent, but my life truly began the day we all came together. I stay as well.”

  “So we’ve beaten the Sim and weathered the storm of time,” Easton said. “What’s next?”

  “We play games with civilians,” Brandon said.

  “Civilians?” Tony asked. “So it’s just getting easier, then?”

  “I don’t know,” Kay said. “They might surprise us.”

  “Not for long, they won’t,” Brandon shook his head. “There is no one better at games than us. No one.”

  ===

  Thorn, Cooper, Wesley, and five of the other instructors sat at the large conference table, writing reports on the group of players they’d just debriefed. Thorn finished his report first, as usual, and looked up to wait for the rest.

  When everyone stopped writing and looked up, Thorn nodded and began to speak.

  “Give me the negatives.”

  Everyone remained silent.

  “No one spotted anything negative from Brandon and his Hand?” Still no one answered. Thorn looked at Cooper and raised his eyebrows. Cooper could always find something negative.

  Cooper shook his head. “They did better than I expected anyone would.”

  Thorn nodded his head. “I agree,” he said. “This was the last group to interview. Thank you, everyone, for your participation. Send me your detailed reports before the end of the day tomorrow. Wesley and Cooper, please remain behind.”

  When everyone was gone, Thorn spoke again.

  “Wesley,” Thorn asked. “How many groups will we keep out of Beta testing?”

  Wesley looked at his notes, then back to Thorn. “Only two.”

  Thorn nodded. “That’s not too bad, considering the ordeal we put them through.”

  “When do they go in?” Cooper asked.

  “Tomorrow.”

  “That doesn’t give them much time to relax and wind down,”

  “They’ve been living normal lives for the past thirty years,” Thorn said. “Compared to normal days as players in the Sim, they’ve been on a thirty year vacation. We’ve held the start of Beta off as long as we can, and in three days ten thousand regular Beta testers are going to flood the system. There are already over a hundred thousand NPC’s on Tygon; I want to give our kids some time to go in and scout around a bit.”

  “So they can have a day off and go in the following day?” Wesley asked.

  Thorn sighed and nodded. “Okay, one day’s rest and then they go in. All three of us will go in with them to see how they handle it.”

  “Is it different than the Sim?” Cooper asked.

  “It’s on the same digital platform so it won’t seem any different. The major difference is that it is significantly less violent. The Sim was primarily training games and military style operations, even when the players didn’t realize it. The civilian game reflects a normal life more closely.” He looked at both men. “If that’s all, then you can go.”

  Cooper and Wesley nodded their heads.

  “Tomorrow morning, then, gentlemen,” Thorn said. The two men stood and left the room.

  Thorn stared at his computer monitor. He’d worked long and hard to get to this point. There were so many variables about to be put into play, and still too many wild cards. He shook his head and told himself to stop worrying. His skill and instinct had gotten him this far, playing a serious game that few even realized existed. Starting tomorrow he would play some of his best cards.

  He would see how those cards fell, and move forward from there.

  Chapter 53

  As instructed, the General placed the helmet on his head, flipped the switch, and closed his eyes. He then began to count backwards from ten. When he reached one, he opened his eyes and looked around.

  He was no longer sitting in his office. Instead he stood in an empty, white room. The General spotted a door in one corner and strode over, turning the handle to open it.

  It was locked.

  No matter how hard he tried, the General couldn’t open the door.

  After trying for a few minutes he went back to the centre of the room and sat down. He closed his eyes and initiated the exit sequence like he’d been shown.

  “Back so soon, sir?” the technician asked.

  The General took off the helmet and put it down on his desk. “It didn’t work,” he said with disgust.

  “It didn’t transport you to the Sim?”

  “It took me somewhere,” he said. “A stupid, empty room.”

  “There should have been a door.”

  “Oh, yes, there was a door; a locked door.”

  The technician looked uncomfortable. “That’s not possible. The doors to the entrance rooms are never locked.”

  The General glared.

  “Right. Okay, sir. I’ll get to work on it.”

  “I’m losing my patience,” the General growled.

  “I understand,” the technician hurried out of the office, leaving the General to sit and stare at the headset in frustration.

  It looked like he wouldn’t be touring the Sim today.

  The General lashed out and swiped the computer monitor from his desk. With a casual display of strength, he hurled it against the wall, staring with anger as it exploded from the impact. The General sat back down slowly; the act had given him no satisfaction.

  Chapter 54

  “If everyone can give me your attention, we’ll go through the login procedure for ‘Tygon 3.0’,” Wesley said.

  It’s a pretty looking game,” Brandon said.

  The load screen showed a large blue planet with a single land mass in the centre. Next a screen appeared with an avatar standing comfortably with a minimum amount of clothes on. Wesley had already taken them through the stages of selecting the attributes for their avatar; hair colour, eyes, height… there were an incredible amount of variables. On the main screen stood an exact digital replica of Wesley, dressed only in a pair of blue shorts.

  “Next you spend points on a set of base skills,” Wesley said. “Strength, endurance, appearance and charisma, to name just a few. Let’s go through each attribute now.”

  “Oh, this is boring!” Tony whispered. “Why can’t they just do it for us like they did when we played in the Sim?”

  “Shh,” Easton said. “They aren’t going to do it for us, so pay attention. Keep your eyes open for tweaks and loopholes that might exist. You can bet that regular players will be talking with each other to find any exploit that will give them an advantage.”

  “We’ll get it right, don’t worry,” Brandon whispered. “Plus we’ll get some perks regular players won’t.”

  “Really? Like what?”

  “Like twelve years of full-time experience playing these types of games,” Kay said.

  “Shh,” Alan fl
ashed them a serious look and they all quieted down.

  After they’d learned about the attributes section, Wesley moved on to server selection.

  “Eventually there will be millions of players in Tygon. Each server will only accommodate a select number of players and NPC’s. I expect the capacities will grow as our computing power increases, but for Beta testing everyone will play on the same server. Once the game goes live, we’ll start with forty servers online to accommodate one million players per server.”

  “Is he serious?” Easton asked. “What’s the world population? A billion? Will that many people want to play?”

  Brandon shrugged. “Where would you rather be, playing or struggling through life in the Dream?”

  “Yeah, he’s got a point,” Tony said. “Tygon 3.0 is gonna be popular, I think.”

  “It’s going to be a whole new world,” Brandon smiled, “and we’ll be the kings and queens of the playground.”

  ===

  A day later, Brandon and his Hand went in.

  The first few entries were less than perfect. The group erupted in laughter when Tony’s avatar appeared with bunny ears and a long tiger’s tail. A short time later, Alan suddenly sprouted a scarecrow mask, complete with leaking straw and buttons for eyes. After a round of jokes and jibes, the group had exited the simulation and fine tuned their avatar designs with Wesley’s assistance.

  The Beta testers hadn’t arrived on Tygon yet, but the world was fully populated by non-player characters. Brandon’s team travelled through the main city, riding on the transportation systems, eating in the restaurants, and doing everything they could think of to test the system. Each time they found a glitch or bug they called technicians on their cell phones to report the issues.

  “Let’s split up and get into some trouble,” Alan said.

  “Don’t hurt anyone,” Brandon said.

  “There’s no one to hurt,” Kay grinned innocently.

  “There are NPC’s.”

  “They don’t count. It’s not like we’re hurting anything if we knock a few of them down.”