Crystal Shards Online Omnibus 1

by Rick Scott

  As we approach the hall, I can hear Val Helena’s big goddess laugh booming through the door. When Rembrandt swings it open, I see Val Helena and Maxis seated together at one of the tables at the back. Val is still laughing and slapping my brother’s forearm as he cracks a grin.

  When they see us, Maxis stiffens a little, losing his smile, while Val Helena stifles her laugh to a chuckle. “Oh, you’re back,” she says with a feint of surprise. “Nice to see you guys are all in one piece. And quite a few levels higher, huh, Gilly?”

  “Ah . . . yeah!” Gilly says, sharing a quick glance with me, no doubt recalling both our near-death experiences. “Was easy-peasy, just like you said.”

  “And she got some great new gear, too,” I add.

  “That she can wear at Level 80, mind you,” Gilly adds with a grin.

  We join them at the table, and Val Helena stands to serve us some cold water from a silver pitcher. “Sounds good. We spotted a new hunting ground for you two while we were out in the forest.”

  “Oh yeah?” I say.

  “To the west,” Maxis says. He eases back just a tad as Val Helena reaches across him to pour a glass for Rembrandt. “If you follow the river, there’s a big meadow with Level 60 buffalo roaming around. Would be perfect for you, Gilly. Especially if you duo.”

  “Duo?” I say. “You mean you actually trust us to go out there alone?”

  He huffs out a laugh. “Your mentor here convinced me it would probably be okay, now that the goblins have been eliminated. Plus, it’ll be faster leveling for Gilly.”

  I can’t disagree with that. “We also have some news for you, too, Val. But you might want to sit down for it.”

  Val Helena halts mid-pour and arches a brow at me. “What’s up?”

  I wait for her to sit, but when she doesn’t and only continues to stare, I just tell her: “Aiko is here.”

  Her face drops into a stunned daze, and she nearly drops the pitcher of water as well. “What?”

  “On the way to the mines, we stopped by a trader near here,” Rembrandts says. “Fella named Blacktop. He’s from the Shards, too. He said she dropped by his place last night and traded in her katanas, among other things.”

  Val Helena falls back in her chair, her eyes staring into space, perplexed. I probably know more than anyone else as to why. I pat her hand softly. “Hey, if you need some time to go digest this . . .”

  She snaps her head to me, as if surprised to find me sitting there. “Um, yeah . . . maybe.”

  The giantess gets up to leave. Maxis gets up with her. “Hey, you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m . . . fine,” she says and presses on a smile. “I just need a minute.”

  An uncomfortable silence descends as she leaves the table and wanders out of the Common Hall. Then I notice everyone’s staring at me.

  “What?” I say.

  Gilly lets out a sigh. “Geez, you really are slow. Go make sure she’s okay, Reece.”

  “Huh?”

  “She obviously needs to talk about it,” Gilly says. “But she can’t with all of us here. So go. You know her the best.”

  “Yeah, go, mate.”

  “And don’t make it worse,” Maxis warns me.

  “Okay, okay!” I say as they chase me away from the table.

  I gingerly creep toward the door and ease it open. I find Val Helena outside, but she’s not on the roof this time. She’s sitting on the floor, leaning against the cabin instead. Her knees are pulled up to her chest the same way, though. She stares at the ground, and I can see that her face is wet with tears. I approach her slowly, then stop before I get too close.

  “Sorry about dropping a bomb on you like that,” I say. “Maybe I should have done it in private.”

  She shakes her head, and then looks up at me. “I totally didn’t expect this, Reece.”

  I take that as a cue to join her and slide down next to Val Helena, leaning against the cabin wall. “Why do you think she came?”

  “I honestly have no idea. I hope she’s not here to try to stop me again.”

  I hadn’t considered that.

  “Or maybe I’ve been wrong about her,” she says, looking to the ground. “Maybe I’ve been wrong about a lot of things.”

  I let a pause linger between us for a moment.

  “Why wasn’t she with us when we transported to the surface?”

  Val Helena shrugs. “She did exit the decision room before us. Maybe she transferred first. I didn’t really have a chance to see how many discs were there when we arrived.”

  “Discs?”

  “When we materialize, there’s a base that gets printed first. We were each standing on one.”

  I think back, and I do recall seeing an empty disc next to Gilly. “I think you’re right. She must have gotten here before us. I remember seeing her disc. And with her stealth, she probably got past the dogs a lot easier than we did.”

  “I really don’t know what to think,” Val Helena says. “It’d be totally unlike her to come back here.”

  “Will this change anything?” I ask. “About what we need to do?”

  “That depends on her. Did the guy say where she was headed?”

  I shake my head. “Just that she left early this morning.”

  Val Helena considers it a moment more. “I just can’t tell with her anymore. I don’t know whether she’s friend or foe.”

  “You really think she might try to attack us out here?”

  “I’d hope not, but . . .” She turns to me. “Let’s just hope not.”

  Another pause falls between us, and I have the urge to tell Val Helena about what I saw in the mines. Now isn’t the right time, though. She’s already overloaded with this. I wouldn’t want to drop even more on her. She’d be in the same conundrum as me, then, torn between putting her need to save her friend over the goal of saving Citadel. Maybe it’s best if I keep it to myself for now. At least until we get through with saving Becky. Hiding a secret like this is a hard thing to do, but I’m doing it for the right reason.

  Aren’t I?

  I wrap my arm around Val Helena’s thick torso and give her a squeeze. “Hey, this changes nothing, Val. We’re still going to save Becky. Maybe Aiko’s come to help us.”

  She chuckles as she hugs me about the shoulders, pulling me close. “You think so?”

  “Look, tomorrow, Gilly and I are going to head out there and level like never before. We’ll be underway in no time. And maybe Aiko will be waiting for us when we get there.”

  Val Helena smiles as she looks down at me. “I hope you’re right, Reece.” She looks away again, lost in thought. “I really hope you’re right.”

  Chapter 12: The Board

  The board meeting had gone on for far too long.

  Bruce Peters stared at his colleagues one by one, seated around the conference room table, starting with Dennis. The software engineer addressed the other three members of the board, who were all listening intently to his presentation about when he predicted the nano reserves would eventually run dry, and what would take place when they did.

  “The nano-processors will be the first systems to go down. They’ll be limited to water and simple foods only. Once they fail, auxiliary systems will begin to shut down, including waste handling, recycling, and the like. Then air purification. And once that happens, that will be it. My estimations stand at around four months from now.”

  “This is unacceptable!” Martha Kirkwood said, flustered. “Why were things allowed to get like this?”

  The plump, middle-aged woman in charge of the education system gave her usual useless contribution to the conversation: laying blame. It irked Bruce to no end.

  “No one has allowed anything,” Bruce said, leveling his eyes at her. “We’ve been struggling like this since before my predecessor. It is what it is.”

  Bob Shultz, who managed the economy, shook his head dismissively. “I told you a year ago that this plan was unsustainable.”

  “You knew?” Martha s
aid.

  Bob—a man in his fifties with a bald head and a thin, wiry frame—simply rolled his eyes at Martha. “I’m only sorry the rest of you have to find out now.”

  “The rest?” said Dr. Evelyn Munroe, a young black woman in her thirties with short, stylish hair, who was head of the medical center. “More like just the two of us. I hope it wasn’t because we’re women.”

  Bruce felt like telling her to “grow up.” But enough arguments had been had here tonight. “It simply did not affect your areas before. Now it does. That’s all.”

  Evelyn sat back in her chair, crossing her arms with a scowl on her face. She wasn’t buying it for a second. But Bruce couldn’t waste the energy to care at the moment.

  “We can’t do another hard limit drop,” Bob said. “We’re already experiencing people popping over the threshold, and we’re having to make individual increases just to keep it all under wraps. People are going to start asking questions.”

  “We need to announce this,” Martha said. “This is a crisis. Citizens have a right to know. If everyone pulls together—”

  “They won’t,” Dennis said. “They’ll turn on each other in a feeding frenzy like we’ve never seen. It’ll be chaos. Anarchy.”

  “So, what’s your plan then?” Evelyn said. “How long is this supposed to go on before things get back to normal?”

  Dennis laughed caustically. “Unfortunately, this is normal. We’ve been in a nano deficit for years now.”

  “Then just change the credit to nano ratios in the Shards,” Evelyn said. “People are obviously making too much money in there. Bleed it off so they don’t have as much to spend.”

  “Already done that,” Bob said. He poured himself another glass of ice water before continuing. “Go any further and we’ll have to upset the debt record. Then you’ll have anarchy the same way. People have generations’ worth of wealth banked in the system. We can’t go changing it on a whim.”

  “Well, that won’t matter, will it? If we all die,” Martha said. “Just do what has to be done!”

  “The real problem is the generation,” Bob said, and then he darted a glace to Dennis. “Unfortunately, the lead programmer says the drops from the game worlds can’t be adjusted. That’s the real problem. Too many credits are flowing in too easily from there.”

  Dennis sighed, and then pointed abstractly toward the wall of the conference room. “If we want the system to stay in sync with what’s out there, then we can’t adjust it. It’s hard enough interfacing with the AIs’ architecture. If we begin messing with the code, it could be rejected, and then we’d have no hope at all.”

  That caused silence to fill the room.

  “And how is that ‘hope’ coming along at the moment . . .” Bob said, turning to look directly at Bruce. “Mr. Chairman?”

  Bruce released a sigh, and his stomach soured a little. “The latest team of scouts has only just landed. We can’t expect to have results so quickly.”

  “And when’s the last time a scout team actually worked, Bruce?” Bob challenged him. “Ten years? Twenty?”

  Bruce ignored the question. “The team we sent last month gathered more than enough for us to get out of this crisis. They just couldn’t find a node to transfer it back. They’ll get it this time.”

  “Oh, is that because your daughter’s on the team now?” Bob said.

  Rage burst within Bruce’s chest. He felt like strangling the man, but he restrained his anger with a piercing glare. “My daughter being there was some kind of accident. And you’d do well to remember that. Do not make mention of her again.”

  The revelation, at least, caused some shocked and even sympathetic stares from Evelyn and Martha. They hadn’t known. Half the time, Bruce wished he didn’t either. Damn that Mike, if he had been the one to do this to him. And damn him if he couldn’t come through with the nano-shards this time.

  “No disrespect, but what if they don’t find a node?” Bob said. “What then? What are our options?”

  “Conservation, initially,” Dennis said. “Or contingency, perhaps. We’ll need to develop some kind of hierarchy for survival. Perhaps a lottery would be fair.”

  Bruce’s innards steamed yet again. “I said I would not allow this society to resort to such measures.”

  “I agree with that,” Evelyn said. “We need better solutions before we resort to anything even close to that.”

  “I’m surprised by your stance, Evelyn,” Dennis said. “As a doctor, I would have thought you of all people would understand the need to amputate a leg infected with gangrene.”

  Evelyn huffed out a scoff. “This is nothing like that.”

  Dennis raised a brow. “Isn’t it?”

  “This is crazy talk,” Martha said. “Our ancestors survived sustainably for decades. What’s changed? There must be some way to fix this.”

  “There is,” Dennis said, and all eyes turn toward him. “We can reinitiate the manual salvage program. We could open the seal and send real people to look for what we need.”

  Disquiet erupted around the table.

  “We’re not doing that,” Bruce said. “It’s suicide, and you know it. Breaking the seal will not only contaminate the upper levels, it’ll reveal our location to the AI. With the chance of a Builder nearby, that’d be like throwing blood in the water.”

  “Did you say a Builder?” Martha said.

  Aw, hell . . . He wasn’t supposed to mention that. Too late now. “Yes, another complication. We think a Builder may be close to us.”

  Another panic beset the room as everyone spoke over one another.

  “Take it easy!” Bruce shouted. “We just have vibrations. Nothing confirmed.”

  “Plus, the team we sent is apt to deal with it,” Dennis said. “Our best scout is out there. He knows that if he can’t find a node, he needs to come back here, physically. If there is a Builder nearby, he’ll find it and deal with it.”

  Bruce wished he could say the same with such conviction. And maybe he could have if Gilly were not with them. Just the thought of her being up there, facing horrors unknown, had his stomach swimming with doubt and fear.

  “And who is this great scout?” Evelyn asked. “Is he really capable of doing this?”

  “He’s the son of Mark Roberts,” Bruce said. “The last man who was able to access a node and send us back resources. He was the most skilled operator I’ve ever worked with. And his son is just like him.”

  “Sons,” Dennis said.

  Bruce shot Dennis a glance. It was a painful reminder of why Gilly was there. “Yes . . . sons. Both his sons are on the team.”

  “By design, of course,” Dennis jumped in quickly. “The situation demanded that we pull out all the stops. So we’ve sent the best team we have. If we do not wish to resort to culling the population or opening the seal, then I’m afraid that those two boys are the only real hope this city has.”

  Dennis leered at Bruce as he said it, so that it sounded almost like a threat.

  And by the way the others around the table shared doubtful looks . . . perhaps it was.

  “Solid plan, Bruce,” Dennis said with another grin. “Let’s hope it works.”

  Chapter 13: Greater Good

  I’m in a grassy field under a bright blue sky. Gilly and I have taken a break from killing buffalo and are enjoying the view of the puffy white clouds as they sail by. We’re laid on our backs in the grass. She’s talking about something, but I’m not really listening.

  I lean over and interrupt her with a kiss. She returns it with passion. The next thing I know, she’s rolling on top of me and my heart is pounding so hard I think I’m going to pass out.

  “You sure we should be doing this?” I ask. “Can we even? In these bodies?”

  Gilly just shrugs with a sexy smile. “We can do everything else. So, why not?”

  As she leans in to kiss me again, the earth moves, but literally this time. The ground’s shaking beneath us.

  Thoom!

  I
turn my head in the direction of the noise and see a giant figure made of shadow crashing through the forest and entering the field. The nightmare thing is here! The sky turns to lead as Gilly suddenly disappears. The giant unhinges its jaw within its skull-like face and reveals its roaring throat of heat and fire. I press my hands to my ears as I prepare for it to release its dreaded wail.

  “Reece!” it screams. “Reece!”

  “Stay away from me!” I yell back.

  “Reece!”

  “No!!!!”

  “Yo!”

  I awake to my brother yelling in my face. “Wake up, man!”

  I stumble away from him in a stupor, my heart and head pounding. I try to regain my senses as the horrible dream melts away. What the heck was that?

  My brother shakes his head at me. “Should have never let you two drink that ale last night.”

  “Huh?”

  Memories of the night before slowly replace my semi-erotic, and then fully horrific, dream. Wilbur had brought us some roasted chickens and a small keg of ale to celebrate our victory in the mines. Val Helena had convinced my brother that it would be okay for Gilly and I to have a bit, since our bodies technically weren’t real.

  I honestly can’t recall too much after that.

  My brother sighs at me again. “I knew I shouldn’t have listened to her. Come on. You need to go level. We got a timeline to keep. Plus, I want to talk to you.”

  Uh oh. “Um, okay. Just give me a minute.”

  I try not to wake Gilly as I unroll myself from the blankets. I also try not to let my eyes linger on her sleeping form as the first half of my dream comes to mind. Must be the alcohol.

  I see that Val Helena and Rembrandt have left the Common Hall already, but I don’t recall them mentioning what they were getting up to do today. My brother takes a seat at one of the tables, and I join him. He pushes a bowl filled with fresh berries toward me and pours me a glass of water.

  Mike’s being way too nice. Now I’m really scared.

  “Uh, thanks,” I say, and sample some of the berries. “What’s up?”