Virtual Perfection: Technology has drawn everyone into Virtual Reality, but what will happen to humanity if no one can get out? (Veiled Destiny Book 1)

by Jason Bourn

  The three looked at each other for a long while. Finally, Antony looked Calaes directly in the eye, saying “Is there any truth to what the emergency message said? Is it true that Mars was never intended to be an independent settlement?”

  Calaes hesitated and said, “I can’t give you any details in a non-secure area, but I can say that there is a great plan in place and the message that you saw does not account for that plan at all.”

  The expression on Antony’s face showed that he knew that Calaes had not directly answered his question. Calaes now had to worry that this emergency message might even cause trustworthy candidates like his team-leads to question their loyalties.

  Calaes said, “Let me think about the best way to proceed. Please try to find out as much information as you can and we’ll get back together first thing tomorrow morning.”

  With that, the meeting broke up.

  Calaes knew he was in a quandary. If he didn’t say anything, he risked more and more people going into the rebellion fold. However, if he disseminated the information on the real mission, he was fairly confident that the government would find out and that would lead to huge repercussions. He wasn’t sure which was worse at this point. It seemed like neither answer was acceptable.

  CHAPTER 38

  The meeting the next day started right on time. Both Anya and Antony looked like they had not slept much.

  Par for the course, thought Calaes, as he hadn’t slept well either. He had thought about his options, but none of them seemed good. He had laid the options out, each as clearly as possible, in his mind’s eye.

  First, he could do nothing and let more and more people drift away. He knew that in the absence of any information from him, the only information everyone would hear was from the pro-government group. He could only imagine what they were saying – unfortunately there was enough truth to give them adequate ammunition to keep gaining support. A holding pattern was not going to accomplish anything and would most likely just add to the pro-government ranks.

  Second, he could give in to the pro-government demands, close down the settlement and go back to Earth. They could all live out their lives in absolute luxury. Of course, this would spell the end of mankind, so as appealing as this was in the short term, it really wasn’t a long-term option.

  Third, he could tell everyone the real mission, going to another solar system on an interstellar ship. This information would undoubtedly get to the government and give them a reason to shut the settlement down and give them the knowledge to destroy the ship that had been built and most likely doom the rebels as well. They would stop at nothing to keep the ship from launching and stop the group that built it!

  None of these prospects were tenable, he knew. He only prayed that his team-leads had come up with something.

  “Good morning,” Calaes said as cheerfully as possible – much more so than he felt. “So, what great revelations did you have since our last meeting?” Calaes looked hopefully at both of them, but he didn’t see a cheerful expression on either of their faces.

  Anya said, “I haven’t been able to find out any more about the emergency broadcast message originator – although we have ensured that they cannot use the same mechanism again. However, the damage seems to already have been done. Based upon the latest secure message board information, there are now over a hundred unique IDs that appear to be pro-government. And that number is still rising.”

  Antony said, “Unfortunately I don’t have any good news either. There have been several acts of vandalism and the pace of those is increasing, as is the severity. The inlets to the air filters have been targeted, first by putting large objects in front of them, blocking the air flow, then later damaging them by throwing a foreign substance on them – we think it is common glue. It is readily abundant and easy to apply, but to get it off takes hours. There are other examples, but you get the idea. The real issue is that based upon the rate at which people are jumping on the pro-government bandwagon, and their ability to disrupt operations, I recommend we do something fast.”

  This is what Calaes was afraid of. He had to make a hard decision and he didn’t like any of the alternatives. He thanked the two team-leads, said “goodbye” and sent a message to Hope and Randy asking to meet.

  He quickly received a response saying Randy was not well and Hope was at his side. They were sorry, but they couldn’t meet right now.

  Frowning, he sent a secure message to her summarizing the situation and his choices, and asking for her recommendation as well as for any additional options.

  Calaes quickly received a secure response that they didn’t have any other options and that he had to make the decision based upon what he felt was the best way to proceed. She added that the ship would ready in two more days, if that was necessary.

  Frustrated, Calaes knew that there was only one solution that really made sense. Now that he had made his decision, he set about figuring how he would communicate it to everyone. He spent the next several hours preparing a message that he was going to send to everybody. He figured that if they could use the emergency messaging system, then he could too. He recognized the unique power of being the only one, now, who could send messages to everyone. The rebellion had their secure message board, but that only reached those that had already decided to affiliate with the government. His message would go out to this group, as well as those that were anti-government and those on the fence. He would use this to his advantage.

  When he was ready, he sent it out. It was short and to the point – but he hoped it was also powerful enough to move people both literally and figuratively towards the real mission of the settlement.

  My fellow candidates,

  I know that you have all heard the message about how Mars was never intended to be the settlement’s home. That part of the message was accurate. However, what was not said was where the settlement’s home really is.

  I am now telling you that an interstellar spacecraft has been built and is waiting to take all of us to a star system where we can start over. There will be no Earth government there to harass us and try to get us back to Earth. We can grow and expand as we see fit. The people of Earth have decided their destiny, but they cannot decide ours. Our destiny is bigger, and I dare say, far brighter.

  Our society must be rooted in reality, with a strict prohibition on VR. We cannot allow ourselves to become ensnared in this same trap.

  Those of you that want to go back to Earth are free to do so, and I’m sure you will live in splendor. But those that are willing are now given the opportunity to share this common vision of a better mankind. Join with me as we give all of mankind this opportunity.

  Calaes

  Calaes nervously waited. He wasn’t sure what to expect, but he knew that something had to happen.

  He was not wrong. Shortly thereafter, Calaes began receiving messages of support. They came from team-leads as well as from many team members. First, they came in by ones and twos, then they started pouring in by the tens and then by the hundreds. As the avalanche of positive responses came in, he knew that he had made the right decision. Smiling, he saw when his persa showed exactly how many responses he had received. When he saw the number, he was shocked. Every single person had sent in some form of positive support for the new mission.

  Calaes realized that when the initial responses started coming in, there must have been a lot of chatter on the pro-government secure message board. He looked and sure enough the traffic had spiked exponentially. He was fairly confident that after the majority of the candidates had weighed in supporting the new mission, those that were pro-government decided to add their support so they would not be singled out as rebellion members.

  Things were finally looking up and Calaes was ready to relax when his persa informed him that Hope had sent an emergency message asking to meet her in her office immediately. He responded in the affirmative and headed there immediately. He was pretty confident that the timing of this request and his emergency message w
ere related – and based upon recent history, that spelled bad news.

  He met Hope in her office and she quickly scanned the area to ensure they had complete security. “This is probably water under the bridge, but at least we know that this conversation is secure,” she joked.

  Continuing she said, “We have detected signs that the government has been placed on high alert due to actions initiated in the settlement. This is the highest alert that they have ever been at. Your message outlining our ship and our plan has them extremely agitated.

  “Earth has sent an emergency order to lift off all available spacecraft for Mars, especially all of the automated patrol craft. Luckily Earth and Mars are now moving farther and farther apart so it will take more than one year to get here. This gives us plenty of time to make the final preparations and get everyone aboard.”

  She suddenly stopped talking as she received an emergency update from her persa. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “We just found out that all the near-Mars asteroid mining ships have been diverted and are converging on Mars, and there are over fifty of them that are relatively close to Mars right now. They don’t have conventional weapons, but they have lasers and nuclear blasting explosives that are more than a match for either the settlement or the ship.”

  Calaes knew that the settlement was built with no defensive capability – why would it need it? And he knew from the Flight Simulator sim that the ship was built for speed and reliability, not for fighting.

  Calaes asked, “How soon until they arrive?”

  “Unfortunately,” she responded, “the closest one is about two days away, with more arriving all the time. If we can get everyone to Phobos, we can see if we can launch before the first mining ships arrive. I’m not sure that it is possible – all I can say is that it is going to be close.”

  Calaes didn’t waste any time. He said goodbye to Hope and sent a message to Antony asking if the shuttles had been checked out and if they could be prepped for launch. This was Calaes’ biggest worry. Without the shuttles, there would be no way to get to Phobos.

  Antony responded promptly, saying both shuttles were good to go.

  The next consideration was how to use the shuttles. A round trip could be accomplished in about twenty hours, so there were two possibilities. The first was to have each shuttle make a single trip, waiting until everyone was ready. The second to have each shuttle make two trips – the first pair launching immediately with everyone who was ready and the second pair carrying the remaining candidates, as soon as the first round trip was completed.

  Calaes expected the pro-government group to try to stop the shuttles. He hoped that by scheduling two trips to Phobos, they could get off the first trip before they could do anything to harm the shuttles. He was afraid that if the shuttles had to wait to be full, there was much more time and opportunity to cause a problem than if the shuttles launched partially full but much quicker.

  Another consideration was whether to assign people to a specific shuttle or to have people volunteer for shuttle flights. Calaes hoped that most, if not all, pro-government candidates would stay in the settlement, at least a little while, allowing the rest of the candidates to get to Phobos. This meant that by having two launch times, the odds were much greater that the first trip would have no pro-government sympathizers and it increased the odds that at least some would make it.

  It was obvious that two shuttle flights each had by far the best attributes. Relieved that this decision had been made, Calaes prepared another emergency message to be sent to everyone. When he was ready, he sent it out.

  My fellow candidates,

  I have just been informed that Earth’s World Government has raised their alert level to the highest level. They have launched towards Mars all available ships from Earth and the asteroid belt, in a strong show of force. We anticipate the first of these ships will start arriving within two days. We believe they will use force to try to keep our starship from leaving.

  It is our intent to get as many people as we can to the starship via our two shuttles, and launch before they arrive. There will be two trips each between Mars and Phobos, an early trip which will leave ASAP and a final trip which will be your last chance to get to Phobos. If at all possible, please sign up for the first shuttle, which will leave in one hour. The final shuttle trips are planned for twenty-two hours from now.

  Thank you for supporting the mission,

  Calaes

  As soon as the message was sent, Calaes immediately detected a much higher level of activity throughout the settlement. It was as if the entire settlement instantly started humming like a beehive, with people swarming everywhere. Everywhere people were walking fast and talking: some to friends, relatives or colleagues and others just talking to themselves.

  The area that was the busiest, of course, was the shuttle loading area. Literally hundreds of people were converging in this area. Most wore smiles of anticipation, but everywhere the look of apprehension was apparent.

  Almost all of the candidates loading into the shuttles were team members, not team-leads. The team-leads all had too many responsibilities to think about boarding the early shuttles. There hadn’t been time to plan or even to pack, so most candidates had hastily thrown together bags with their most important personal items sticking out.

  Calaes hadn’t considered what he might take. There wasn’t anything that was really precious to him – at least not in his room. His mind drifted to Hope, but he resisted the urge to dwell on their future – there was just too much to be done.

  He made sure that security was tight. He was fairly confident that the rebellion hadn’t had any time to plan anything – at least for the first shuttle flights – but they couldn’t afford to take any chances. The security forces had batons and shields as their primary weapons, reserving their limited number of stun guns for last-resort use. Obviously, no projectile weapons, like guns, could be used due to the risk of causing a containment breach, so they were not even available. The security forces were lined up shield-to-shield, ensuring that nothing could get through.

  Looking at the latest boarding status, there were just over 150 candidates on each of the two shuttles, which was even more than he had hoped for the first trip. The more the better!

  As the deadline approached for take-off, they closed the boarding gates and disconnected the tunnels to the shuttles. Calaes crossed his fingers for luck, even though he didn’t really believe in that sort of thing. It didn’t hurt, he figured.

  The last few minutes before launch seemed to just crawl by. It was amazing how the passage of time was relative. If there was something that you were enjoying, like playing your favorite game, time flew by as quickly as could be. But now, waiting for any number of catastrophic outcomes that could occur if given sufficient time, time seemed to go slower and slower.

  Finally, the time for the shuttle launches came. As the first, then the second shuttle gracefully lifted off, Calaes allowed himself to relax and let out his breath. He had felt that these two flights had a good chance of getting to Phobos safely, but you never knew. He knew the most dangerous part was always the take-off, with so many things that could go wrong, so he felt somewhat reassured that the rest of the flight might be uneventful as well.

  The clock was now ticking for the final flights. Assuming all went according to plan, the shuttles would both be back in about eighteen hours, allowing two hours for the final loading. The challenge would be to get everyone remaining into those shuttles and launch them. There were more than three hundred candidates left on Mars. He still wasn’t sure what the pro-government candidates would do – try to block the shuttles, just refuse to go, or go and later cause trouble on the starship. Since the pro-government message board count boasted over one hundred unique IDs, so there would be just under two hundred anti-government candidates that would board the shuttles. Ideally none of the pro-government candidates would board the two shuttles, but that was not under Calaes’ direct control.

  Althoug
h Calaes didn’t know specifically what the pro-government forces were going to do, one advantage he thought he had was that there were two shuttles and they had to disable both of them to keep the remaining candidates from going to Phobos. So whatever plan they used, they most likely would have to do the same thing on both shuttles. He could use that information against them. Also, he thought that whoever was going to attempt to cause any problems, it would probably be someone new – not someone who was already involved in shuttle launch preparation. If it were someone already involved in shuttle launch preparation, they could have done something to the first shuttle flights – which fortunately hadn’t happened yet.

  He set his persa to monitor all activity on both shuttles when they returned. If anything suspicious was seen, both Calaes and security were to be alerted immediately. He set the parameters to flag any of a variety of situations.

  First, any activity that occurred on either shuttle that involved any workers different from the last shuttle flights. All of the workers for preflight operations should be the same, since none of them had been on the first two shuttle flights. This way anyone would be flagged for observation if they took over the duties, for instance, for a sick worker.

  Second, any activity that was new for this set of launches, no matter the cause. It would be relatively easy for the AI to flag anyone doing anything new. There were well established procedures that the AI could check against and any activity that hadn’t been done in the prior flights would also be flagged for observation.