by Zoey Ivers
He'd tapped away at his computer for a few minutes, then gone back upstairs.
She twisted a finger around a lock of hair. "Plain old brown. Maybe not completely straight. But certainly not blonde. Well, both my parents are mixed race, so blonde was silly to want. I wish I looked as exotic as Gramma Bitti. Bituin. That means 'the stars' in Tagalog. Is that cool or what?"
"Romantic." Lily grinned. "But Tommy said he thought I was a beautiful flower, so I'm glad you named me Lily."
Alice nodded. "Maybe I'll change my name to something romantic when I'm older." I don't remember Lily ever saying anything like that, before. Projecting. Not to mention the complex sentence. Did that dimensional trip change her? "School starts tomorrow. So I'll be stuck there all day."
"Ugg, and we'll be stuck in the barn most of the day." Bambi cast a thoughtful look up toward the d-door.
"I wouldn't recommend exploring. Or, at least not alone." Alice cast a wistful look of her own that direction. "Maybe we could do a little poking around in the electronic world."
"I'll bet the horses would like to take a ride around the Nightmare world." Bambi gave her a grin. "And if they can do that growing trick like Lily and I did, why, you could ride them too."
"Oh. Wow. That is a totally sweet idea. Apart from the AI, who was a bit strange, and the T-Rex who was a bit hungry."
"Spoilsport."
"Hey, just because I don't sleep any more doesn't mean my imagination has dried up." Alice bit her lip. "I wish you were big and strong enough to open the door on your own. In case you need to escape." She blinked back tears. What happened to my father? Was he always like this and I was just too young to see it? A week ago we'd have all gone out in the back yard, and climbed a tree. Or I'd have ridden my bike, hiked down to the stream.
She got up and paced. It wasn't enough. "Sorry guys, I have to move, do something."
Bambi nodded. "Go ahead, we'll be fine."
Alice trotted upstairs. "I think I'll do a bit of window shopping. Back in a couple of hours." She paused at the door, to look up at her parents. I'm trusting you. Don't make us all regret it.
She wasn't dressed to work out, and didn't see any allure in the stupid machines anyway. She tried a "surround experience" walk in the woods and found it lame. They ought to add a T-Rex, get the heart rate up. In the ground level lobby, the décor was all familiar looking tan rectangular stones. The store fronts were arches, the pavement was all tan stone. In the center, decorative fake ruins with arches, plants and fountains. Misty and a little dim. It gave her the creeps. Why had that... very odd place been made of these same stones? Or had she subliminally noticed all this and used it to construct a virtual reality. Alice pushed her sleeve up and looked at the half healed slashes. That was real. Somehow.
When she got back to the cubby, they all went to the little automat diner down the hall. Close, quick, and only a few neighbors to disturb them.
Maybe everything would calm down, get back to normal. Or as normal as she could manage in the Gym.
***
Joe cleaned out another level of monsters in the newest castle game, and saved it. When he took the helmet off, he was surrounded. Not, unfortunately, by ardent fans.
"Figures a skinny little creep like you would do so well at video games." Richard Taliferro loomed.
I really wish my teenage growth spurt would get started. Both my parents are tall, surely I will be too. Someday.
"Well, we all have to be good at something." Joe made his forehead wrinkle as he gazed at the four of them. He put a bit of bafflement into his voice. "Or so I've heard."
Last semester, he'd earned tons, tutoring the guys in advanced algebra and the girls in pre-algebra. That hadn't endeared him to them.
Jenni sniffed, nose in the air. "Very funny. Now go away, Lupe's going to beat your score."
"Oh good. I love a challenge." Joe sauntered between the two guys and headed for the pitching mound. Two months ago he'd had the privilege of being one of the first five students in the high school. Six weeks of trying to ignore the two boy crazy girls stalking the sensibly wary seniors. Lupe and Richard were budding lawyers, dressed all in black with silver chains and rings, and silver streaks at their temples, as if pretending to be older and well established. Only a year older than me, and they're tall and muscular. Drat. Well, lawyers are quickly disappearing, people just use expert systems on the grid. So they can put on all the airs they want, while I'll... do research somewhere. There will always be a need for shear, raw, creativity. Right?
Joe stepped up to the mound and picked up the first ball. I really ought to find a little league team in the city. He threw an easy pitch, warming up. He heard a feminine titter behind him and ignored it. Jenni and Tori had started out wearing weird clothes that were probably the height of fashion. Now they dressed like, well, lawyers' wives. It was all pretty pathetic; Lupe and Richard's parents, all four of them, were lawyers. The guys had probably been raised on tales of vampire women and men paying through the nose for decades for a single night of fun. They're probably as inexperienced as I am.
By the tenth pitch he was warmed up and throwing well, but the audience had drifted away. Pity the only girls I've met lately are probably about twenty-five cems tall in the real world.
***
School wasn't as dire as she had feared.
Everyone was new.
And they all had to have big obvious name labels on their packs, so even if the snobs wouldn't talk to her, she could learn their names.
The school was nearly new, since the first occupants had moved into the Gym just two months ago.
It was a newly designed school. Not the architecture, which was Basic Basement style. But the teaching methods were very modern. Video lectures by entertaining experts. At least they claimed the experts would be entertaining. Classroom assistants to maintain discipline, and proctor the exams. They might even be able to answer some of the student's questions. Some of the rooms were cubbies, others were, well, basement. Two big theater rooms for the large classes, four cubbies made into smaller theaters. Rooms full of private nooks to work in. Four days a week. One day a week for special projects, research, enrichment, or remedial work.
A few students had caught the last month-and-a-half of last semester. But most of the students were sent to their nooks to be tested for placement. And the tests were in the format of game shows, ramping up in difficulty as they went on. The math and science games were fun. She scraped by in history, making grade level. And apart from a half hour for lunch, that had been her whole morning.
Lunch had been the most interesting, by far.
There was a boy, sitting alone and ignoring everyone; playing a video game. He looked familiar. Shorter, scrawnier. I wonder if he'll recognize me, without a head full of manic blonde streaked curls? Alice hustled through a serving line and took her tray over to sit across from him.
He barely glanced her way, did a classic double take. They ate silently, eyeing each other.
Alice rolled up her left sleeve.
Joe spotted the tooth marks immediately and his eyes widened.
"I don't quite know what's going on, but it's a lot more than a VR game." She rolled her sleeve down again. "The autodoc says the scar will fade over the next month. All I have to do is not let my parents see it. Otherwise I'll be grounded until my hair's gray."
Joe bit his lip. "What if we had died in there?"
"Then we'd be dead. I think."
They ate in silence for a moment.
Joe finally cleared his throat. "Tommy is a bio-model."
"So are Bambi and Lily. So... why did they grow? I've been reading up on the d-doors."
Joe sat back and looked thoughtful. "I was thinking about trying to map... that place. But I came out of a different d-door than I went in. If all the d-doors are potential entrances---do they have a regular schedule for popping into contact, or is it random. I hope they always open to the same spot, but that needs to be checked."
Alice nodded. He hadn't exactly made sense, but she'd understood perfectly. "Good idea. We need to learn the rules, and how to travel in there. The problem is going to be Barton Street and that T-Rex."
"Yeah. I can't think of any way to get a real gun."
"And it might not work right there. Or be so big you couldn't lift it."
"Ugg. Or too small. Yeah."
"About half my electronics didn't work in there. We ought to think in terms of, well, uncomplicated stuff. We just sold our house, last week. Got rid of most of our stuff. But I think I'll go through the desk and kitchen, look for things that might make good weapons. We had a hatchet for splitting kindling wood." She sighed. "I'll bet they tossed it."
Joe brightened. "A hatchet would be good. And maybe something on a pole, so we don't have to get so close to T-Rex?"
"Umm, a shovel would be a bit unwieldy, and maybe useless. Think about things that might shrink or grow more or less than we expect. The bios have plastic bones, maybe plastic things. We ought to test some metal things as well. Maybe we could explore just a few d-doors some afternoon. Not go through, just take a good look."
"A few? I figured it was just the one down in the subbasement, that was doing weird stuff. "
Alice shook her head. "I pried off those oval things, on the inside of my home cubby's d-door, thinking they were covering the hinges. Then it opened wrong." She could feel herself blushing. "I was grounded and, well, pissed about it."
"You tried to take apart a d-door's hinges?" His brief expression of bogglement slid into glee.
"Yeah. Got quite a surprise."
"I'll bet! I wonder if we can take pictures, through the doors?" Joe fingered the minicomp sticking out of his shirt pocket, it would have a cam, of course.
"Or if one of us could hold the door open while the other goes through and gets an eyeful. And takes pictures. Then comes back."
They both grinned.
Then Joe shook his head. "I tried taking pictures. Didn't work. And not this afternoon, Dad will want to know all about the first day of school and take me shopping for whatever I need. We just moved in a couple of months ago, so he's still worried about uprooting me."
"Mine will probably do the same. And like as not we'll pick a new fight and I'll be grounded, again. Here's my number." Alice wrote it on a napkin and passed it over.
The bell rang, and they grabbed their trays and hustled out. Watching from the corner of her eye, she spotted Joe heading into the junior's hall. Two years older than me. He'd better not think that makes him the boss!
Back to testing.
Language arts wasn't bad, but she never had quite grasped the fancy names for all the parts of speech once you got beyond nouns and verbs. Wretched educational double-speak. And she'd already had two years of Mandarin Chinese, which her Mom spoke, so she'd always been able to sort of speak it. She got into the fourth level for that. She even remembered enough of Gramma's Tagalog to get extra foreign language credits.
The computer gave her a class schedule for the next three months.
And as her mother had said, ten periods in the school day. Ugg. Algebra 2, World History 1, Mandarin 4, Biology 1. With an hour of physical ed in the morning and an hour of language arts---meaning English---all before lunch. Then Social Studies 2. Art, computer science and something called Logic and Philosophy. There hadn't been a separate test for any of those, they must be standard requirements. Or perhaps parts of the wretched history exam had been multi purposed.
"Not bad. I surprised you didn't do better in language arts, though. You write very well." Her father frowned at her results chart.
"I don't know a gerund from a participle, even though I probably use them correctly." Alice shrugged. "I can write science reports without a problem, and I figure that's more important in the long run."
"Logic and Philosophy is good. Teaches you to think critically."
I should ace that, the way you make me justify everything. She managed to not say that out loud. "I got enough bonuses to put my account in the green."
Her father gave her a censorious look, but didn't say anything about how she ought to have gotten the credits before she spent them.
The "entertaining lectures" were held in two large auditorium style rooms. The second day she got the World History lecture in the morning, and the Intro to Biological Sciences in the afternoon. At least that one was just a single show. History was going to be once a week, taking up half of every Friday. The bio lab room was nice, and there was an associate, who apparently knew his stuff, to give out the syllabus and assign benches for tomorrow's hands on work.
She didn't know anyone, and couldn't seem to manage an opening to introduce herself. She spotted the two snobby girls who lived on her floor in her language arts lecture the second afternoon. Tori Rolack and Jenni Toppins according to the fancy script on their color coordinated shoulder packs. Did they have different packs to go with other outfits? They sat with a group of upscale, well dressed, girls and spent the lecture eyeing boys and whispering. No way was Alice going to fit in with them, with a plain blue shoulder pack with box printed name. Oh well. Who needed human friends, anyway?
For the Social Studies comparison report, she printed a hard copy of six classical icons, from two historical periods and contemporary society. Contrasting Richard Wagner, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin against the twentieth century Elvis, Einstein and Gandhi was going to be funny. And then the complete slide down to the figureheads of modern times... well, it could be amusing. She 'd probably pick Ubanu Amoi, the communist who was breaking down tribal differences in Africa, for the "political leader." Natalie Phoenix who put all her hatred of males into her music, for "common cultural figure" and Eric Foi who'd invented the bio-models for "notable scientist"---so long as she didn't have to listen to too much of Natalie's horrible music. Or look at Elvis. Ick! Perhaps she'd ask her father about the modern ones, he knew a bunch, and always liked it when she deferred to his superior knowledge. She could grit her teeth and be nice. He hadn't tried to hurt the bios again. Yet.
Speaking of ick. She shouldn't need to manipulate her own father. He was supposed to be the grownup, and able to bolster his own ego. She sure as heck ought not have this cold terror in the pit of her stomach, anytime she thought about him.
At lunch, she got a drink and sat where she could observe the other students while getting homework out of the way. No sign of Joe. He must have been assigned to a different lunch period. Drat.
Chapter Ten
Joe looked at the rows of sealed... "Clean room bubble packs?" He looked into the small box, pulled out a packing slip. "A hundred nanochips, a hundred quick discharge micro batteries, electromagnets... " He looked at the enclosed invoice. The total amount froze the marrow in his bones. After a long moment, the annotation "Paid in full" registered. And then the note "Physically relocate these to dimension five."
He had a nasty feeling he knew what was meant by dimension five. And an even nastier one involving who had sent them to him to transport. "If Dad ever finds out I'm on a speaking basis with a real AI, I will be like Alice. Grounded for life."
Tommy heaved himself over the edge of the desk and walked over to examine the package. "Ah ha! Special forces, and covert ops. We're coming up in the world, Boyo!"
"Well, if we were real soldiers, we would be." Tommy seems smarter than before... and is he a bit larger?
"Ha! Don't think I didn't notice what looked rather like a war between AIs down there." The bio-model crossed his small but muscular arms and looked up at Joe. "So? Got up your nerve to call 'er yet?"
Joe scowled. "She's a girl. I don't know how to talk to a girl. I've never called a girl in my entire life."
"Thought so!"
Joe reluctantly pulled the napkin out of his pocket. Looked at the number.
"Punch it in kid."
Joe drummed his fingers, then punched the number in.
"Hello?"
"Umm..."
"Look
, my father said, no visitors, especially of the male variety. So how about the sixteenth floor lounge, north east?"
Joe gulped.
Tommy stepped up. "Good idea. Ten minutes?"
"Hi, Tommy. See you in ten minutes."
She was dressed in tougher clothes than she'd been in, before. Boots instead of sneakers, a long sleeved shirt. Her backpack bulged, probably as full of food and water as his was, and a good thing their Gym membership covered food. She was also carrying a cardboard box. Too big for the two bio-models.
She put it down in a chair, carefully. It thumped a bit. Definitely something alive in there. She looked at his box.
"It came express delivery. Here's the packing slip."
Her eyebrows rose as she scanned the list.
"The note said to take it to dimension five."
She swallowed. "Holy Moly."
"There's an AI war going on."
She nodded. "And there's a whole lot at stake. How'd you like that T-Rex to be in control of the GFR Chemical plant. Or the Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant?"
Joe swallowed. "I... hadn't actually thought about it---but they control everything with computers, and most of them are connected to the grid. So... suddenly I really, really want Barton Street to be the winner."
"Me too. So, you may have just been drafted, but I'm volunteering. Shall we start by delivering this stuff?"
"Yeah. Last week I got in there from a place off the pedestrian tunnels."
"I got in from home. Were there many people around? Down there?"
He shook his head. "Not a soul, down there."
"Why don't we go down and at least take a look through the door?"
"Because we're sane and sensible?" But he was getting up and grabbing his own backpack, carefully, because Tommy was in there. And half the kitchen knives.
The pedestrian ways were still empty. "Wow. I guess with all the lobby level walkways, no one comes down into the dark bowels and all that." She turned around scanning the long dim passage. Her box snorted and made scrambling noises.