by Alex Mulder
“I know,” said Tess. “Hey… why don’t you go and let mom and dad that I’ll be home for dinner tonight? I think I could use some comfort food.”
“It’s the middle of the night right now back on Earth,” said Ben. “The days aren’t close to synced up like they used to be.”
“Then tomorrow.” She met her brother’s eye, and he took the hint.
“Alright,” he said, starting off toward the gate. “Just… don’t worry too much, okay?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” said Tess.
She spent the next few hours distracting herself with the gardens. The oasis was thriving, its water level having risen over the past few days, swallowing a few feet of the courtyard in each direction. Tess wondered if Luke had something to do with that.
Overall, the biggest change for her had come as a result of the world settling down, rather than Yvvaros regaining her connection with Earth. She had no intention of moving back to her former home planet to live permanently. Most of what she yearned for in life was right in front of her.
The sun slowly began to set over the western horizon. A few players came back to Dunidan’s Rest, but most, Ben included, spent most of their nights back on Earth. Tess wandered up to one of the untouched walls and leaned against the parapet.
An unassuming figure was jogging across the sand toward the compound. The angle of the sun’s glare made it a bit hard to make out detail, but something about the easy going, confident posture gave away who it was.
“Hey,” called Tess.
“Hey.” Luke sword stepped his way up the wall next to her. Tess had literally seen him fly through the air before, but he still insisted on using his old makeshift transportation technique when he could.
She let him pull her into a tight hug, feeling his strong chest and muscles. Luke was wearing a simple set of midrange clothing, having given up his armor after things had settled down.
“I wasn’t sure I’d get a chance to see you today,” said Tess.
“Sorry.” He pulled back and grinned at her. “I’ve been busy.”
“Aren’t you always?”
Luke laughed. He pulled himself up over the edge of the parapet and let his legs dangle down toward the ground.
“The governments are still getting used to the new arrangement,” he said. “I don’t think they like the idea of having their control usurped out from underneath them.”
“Would you?” asked Tess, raising an eyebrow.
Luke shook his head.
“I don’t plan on taking over, though,” he said. “The countries can do what they want. I’ve set the bind point for anyone who dies on Earth to be in Kantor, so it’s not like they can cause even a fraction of the pain and suffering they were once able to.”
“I think it’s less about what you actually do and more about what you could do,” said Tess.
“I know. But so far, I haven’t done anything other than reassure them that yes, they can still govern.” Luke chuckled. “Did you know that a few countries haven’t even told their populace about the transcendence yet? They’re trying to hand wave away the fact that there’s a new planet, hell, an entire new night sky.”
Tess laughed. He was still Luke, still the same boy that she’d fallen in love with. The power hadn’t changed him.
“Anyway,” he continued. “I spent most of today meeting with scientists, and trying to work out the rough edges of the simulation.”
“That sounds like fun,” said Tess.
“It was a bit dry.” Luke shrugged. “They were split between the ones that wanted to better understand the nature of the new reality, and the ones that wanted to get back to the old one. I spent at least an hour explaining to one particularly obtuse fellow that no, I wasn’t the AI who computerized Earth, and no, I wasn’t going to rebuild the physical planet.”
Tess didn’t say anything. The sun was just low enough over the horizon now that the first of the stars, along with the surprisingly brilliant blue dot that was Earth, became visible.
“I’ve… wondered about that,” she said, giving in to a question that had been nagging her. “You’ve been insistent from the beginning that we shouldn’t try to tamper anymore with the physical, original Earth. But why? Couldn’t you use the nanomachines to rebuild?”
Luke was looking up at the night sky, too. Tess couldn’t see the expression on his face clearly, but his body language was pensive and thoughtful.
“I could,” he said. “If I wanted to I could put everything right back where it was.”
Tess waited silently.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” she finally said, playfully flicking his ear.
“I discovered something when I first took control of the Universal Truth’s data mine,” said Luke. “She’d drawn up several very interesting conclusions about the nature of the universe.”
“That sounds like something she would do,” said Tess.
“One of them related to the probability of humanity’s survival on a grand scale.” Luke turned to look at her and wrinkled his brow. “You sure you want to hear about this? It’s not exactly romantic sunset talk.”
Tess growled and swatted his shoulder. She hated it when he patronized her.
“Okay, well the main conclusion that the AI’s calculations came to was that the only way for humanity to survive the next few thousand years was for us to be, well, digitized.”
“Why?” asked Tess. “I mean, I’m not against it myself, but it seems a bit like Truth could have been serving her own interests on that one.”
Luke shook his head slowly.
“Either we are alone in the universe,” he said. “In which case, we need to be extremely careful about how quickly and far we expand as humans to keep from becoming segmented, and resentful toward each other, or…”
“Or?” Tess frowned.
“Or, the more pressing conclusion, from Truth’s data,” said Luke. “That we aren’t alone, and the reason why we haven’t detected any other intelligent life is that our galaxy has a bit of a zoning policy.”
“What?” Tess giggled. “That’s silly!”
Luke’s face was serious.
“The AI didn’t seem to think so,” he said. “You can almost think of it as an interstellar home owner’s association. The species that attempt to garishly expand their yards and build second houses on their neighbor’s property get evicted, pretty fast.”
“Isn’t the point of life to reproduce, and to expand outward?” asked Tess. “It doesn’t sound like either of your options take that into account.”
“There is a certain equilibrium that needs to be maintained while that’s happening,” said Luke. “We’ve reached the point where it isn’t about Earth anymore, where it’s time for us to test the waters at a level a bit higher. And the Universal Truth decided this was the safest way for us to do it.”
Tess didn’t say anything. It was frustrating getting into deep conversations with Luke these days. He always had something to match whatever she said, a better rationale or comeback.
“Are you still connected to it, right now?” asked Tess.
Luke slowly shook his head.
“No,” he said. “I keep the connection turned off, most of the time. It’s just a dormant knowledge and control database with the Universal Truth’s persona cut out.”
“Luke…” Tess wanted to say what she’d been thinking about for the past few days, but the words felt heavy on her lips. “Have you ever thought about… giving up the power? Turning it into, I don’t know, maybe some type of governed process, that doesn’t leave you with all the responsibility.”
Luke shrugged. It was a gesture unbecoming of who he was now, of what he could do.
“In a way, it already is,” he said. “Every time I use it to change something, I sense how it would affect everyone on the planet. It’s why I haven’t done much, or anything really, with the power since reconstructing Earth.”
Tess stared at him for a moment, and th
en smiled.
“You used to hate responsibility,” she said. “Now you literally have two worlds to look out for and you take it in stride.”
Luke grinned at her.
“I do my best.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist. The two of them stared out at the last flickers of sunlight as the night approached.
END
AFTERWARD
For me, this series was a deeply personal one. I grew up playing video games, exploring worlds of realized imagination. Granted, most of them were pixelated, but it still left a major impact on the young, developing me.
Video games have grown up since then, and it’s a wonder to look at what they are today, and think about where they might be heading.
Thanks for reading.
Alex Mulder