by J. Benjamin
“Perhaps there’s a magic button hiding in the grate that we need to push,” Leon said. Kiara was barely paying attention to him. Matt was scaling the rails.
“Maybe there is a trigger under the railing. Something none of us would be expected to find easily,” Matt said.
As Matt and Leon spoke, they appeared not to pay attention to the lightning and thunder that sporadically appeared in the sky beyond. Kiara noticed it. She looked carefully at the lightning each time it struck. The curvature of the bolts and the way they bent felt very unnatural, almost as if it was intentional. Never mind that a floating metal platform is the last place one would want to be standing in a lightning-filled sky.
“Guys,” Kiara said.
“Yes?” Matt and Leon both replied simultaneously.
“Notice the lightning?”
“Yeah,” Leon replied. “What about it, Lacroix?”
“Have you noticed that the temperature where we’re standing feels rather average at the moment?” Kiara asked.
“I notice it,” Matt said. After a few moments, his eyebrows jumped. “And when lightning strikes, it heats up the environment around it, but that’s not happening here.”
“Because it’s not lightning,” Kiara said.
“Well, of course, it’s not lightning,” Leon said. “Nothing is real. It’s a giant sim. You know that. Srivastava probably didn’t include temperature settings when he built this world.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Matt said. “I just had my hands all over those railings, and they felt pretty cold to me. Colder than the air. Srivastava definitely got the details down. I imagine if he put us on the surface of the sun, we’d feel our skin melt off.”
“I hope that isn’t part of the program!” Leon replied.
“Leon,” Kiara said. “Take a look.” She pointed her finger at the sky next to his head to help guide him more carefully.
“Wait for it,” Kiara said. Another bolt of lightning raced through the sky. “There! See what just happened? The lightning is bending in a v-shape. That doesn’t naturally happen.”
“Yes!” Leon said. “I see it now!”
“Good,” Kiara replied. Without any explanation, she ran and jumped off the platform.
“Lacroix!” Leon shouted as he and Matt ran to the edge to look down.
“Hi guys,” Kiara said as she looked up. She was standing in the sky, two feet below them and next to the platform. Except it wasn’t a sky at all. It was a floor all along. It was a floor animated in such a way to give viewers the illusion that they were looking into an open sky. Kiara jumped in place.
“It’s a floor,” Kiara said. She ran farther and then knocked her hand against what was clearly a wall. “This entire thing we are in is a ruse. This isn’t a sky. We are standing in a room with animated walls and floors. See? It’s a cube! It’s all bullshit!”
“Well I’ll be,” Leon muttered, as he and Matt climbed over the railing and onto the floor beneath the platform where Kiara stood.
“Great work, Kiara,” Matt said. “Now, we just need to find a way out.”
“There has to be an exit around here,” Kiara said. “Let’s feel along the walls.” They each made their way around the four corners of the animated cube. They continuously tapped their fists against the walls in hopes of revealing a crack or loose end, which would present them an escape, as well as a completion of the first stage.
“Hold on a second,” Kiara asked as she stopped tapping. “What’s the point of this exercise again?”
“To find a way out,” Leon said.
“Yes, but I’m talking beyond that,” Kiara said. “What is this challenge forcing us to do right now?”
“To see something that isn’t apparent or obvious or doesn’t make sense,” Matt said.
“Yes,” Kiara replied. “The walls are too obvious. Perhaps we need to look somewhere that was under us the whole time.” At the same moment, all three gammanauts turned back to the platform. They walked to it. From the outside, it appeared to be floating. However, upon closer examination, they saw that it was in-fact being held up by a foot-wide cylinder. The cylinder could have been easily missed since it was clear.
“Graphene glass,” Kiara said. “Gotta love it. Able to hold a massive metal platform several times its own weight. Yet elegant as an oversized wine bottle. Which I am probably going to need after we’re done with this whole thing.”
“I wager the answer to our puzzle lies in that tube,” Leon said.
“Or on the outside,” Matt said. “One of us ought to get closer and examine it.”
“I got it,” Kiara volunteered. “I’m the smallest one in this group. I can sneak under the platform and check it out.”
“Okie dokie,” Leon said.
“Go for it,” Matt said.
Kiara got on her hands and knees to crawl under the metal platform. The animated lighting beneath sporadically illuminated the area under the dark shadow of the platform.
“No wonder we couldn’t see this. It’s dark as hell under here,” Kiara said. She approached the graphene stem holding the larger platform above. Kiara hoped to find a hatch, a button, or a trigger of sorts that would stand out. There was nothing but the graphene glass and the floor beneath.
“I don’t see anything. Are we sure this is the trigger?”
“Keep looking,” Matt said. “There has to be something.
“I’m looking and… whoa!” Kiara touched the glass, and it instantly glowed bright green. The room started to shake. Kiara scrambled to get out from under the platform. Within seconds, the sky and lightning stopped, and the entire room turned pitch black. Several moments passed. Then, the walls shined a bright green just like the graphene tube.
“Is that it?” Kiara asked.
“I think you woke the stage up,” Matt said.
“Hey, check it out!” Leon said as he pointed to the ceiling. It was dissolving into a white void that slowly crept its way around them.
“I guess it’s off to the next challenge,” Matt said.
Without warning, the floor vanished, and they all fell into the white light.
13
Kiara heard a peaceful, ambient rush as her body pressed against a coarse surface. She opened her eyes and saw that she was stretched out on a beach. The waves crashed not far from where she lay. Matt and Leon were there too.
“A coastline. That’s original,” Kiara said as she hopped up.
“Any chance it’s just another cube?” Leon asked as he pulled himself off the ground.
“Ha! Doubtful,” Kiara replied. “That would be way too easy.”
“This will be harder to escape than a planetarium room with fancy lighting,” Matt said. “You can feel the depth of detail on this stage, the sea breeze, the warmth of the sun, the smell of the ocean. The more details and greater complexity make it that much more difficult for us to get out.”
“What do you suggest we do, Captain?” Leon said.
“Give me a minute,” Matt replied as he looked at the ground in deep thought. “I got it! I think we are in an infinite loop.”
“An infinite loop?” Kiara asked.
“Yes,” Matt replied. “We may very well be in a simulation where the beach just keeps going and going endlessly in both directions. If we walk in one direction, the program will delete the excess beach behind us to free up bandwidth. But it will expand the beach before us as we keep walking. However, if we split up and walk in opposite directions…”
“The program will have no choice but to keep expanding until it runs out of bandwidth and crashes,” Leon replied.
“I see you know your computer sciences, Leon,” Matt said.
“You don’t have to be a genius to know what happens when you load a system with too much information,” Leon replied.
“And what if the dream net simulation has a load balancer?” Kiara asked. “This is GSF we’re dealing with. They have the most advanced computer systems on Earth, and probably
off Earth. You really think they wouldn’t distribute the increased data to external servers?” She turned to Matt. “Double major in exobiology and computer sciences.”
“Impressive, but do you have a different suggestion,” Matt asked.
“No,” Kiara said flatly. “Give me five minutes to think of one.”
“Well, then I suggest this. We give ten minutes to Matt’s idea. We start walking in opposite directions. See if that changes anything. If not, we come back here,” Leon said.
“That works for me,” Kiara replied.
“Deal,” Matt said.
“Good. The ocean is ahead, the land is behind. I’ll take beach left, and you take beach right. If you see anything out of the ordinary, investigate, but then come back to start,” Leon said. With his left hand, he carved the word START into the sand in big, bold letters. “Good luck!” Leon proceeded away from them.
“Okay, well, I guess that’s our cue to start walking,” Matt said as he and Kiara headed down the self-designated beach right.
“I’m curious,” Kiara said as they continued walking. “How does GSF train us for what happens if we get to make direct contact with the unknowns?”
“You know, Srivastava has ideas, and we go through the simulations,” Matt replied. “But if you want to know the truth, it’s a crapshoot. This is the first contact. All GSF can do is prepare us to not drop dead from the shock of such a potential event occurring. It’s kind of like a stress test. Can we hold up under extreme pressure?”
“Sounds a bit Spartan, don’t you think?”
“I promise you, GSF is not turning us into sacrificial lambs for the slaughter. They have plenty of contingencies in place in case our brain activity or heart monitors go off the rails,” Matt explained.
“Hope you’re right. I do want to live to enjoy those half-million credits,” Kiara said.
“That makes two of us.”
Kiara and Matt continued down the beach. Nothing out of the ordinary stood out to them. Ten minutes had elapsed. Matt turned to Kiara.
“Okay, you were right,” Matt said.
“Yeah, I know,” Kiara replied.
“Shall we go back?” Matt asked. However, as he spoke, he noticed Kiara’s attention was diverted away from him. “Kiara?”
“Look!” she said as she grabbed Matt and turned him around. Further up the beach, the silhouette of a tall figure appeared in the distance. Matt raised his eyes. Kiara and Matt immediately picked up the pace and ran toward it.
“Please tell me I am not imagining that,” Kiara said.
“You are not imagining that,” Matt replied.
Thirty seconds passed, and the figure moved closer and closer. As the individual came into full view, the truth became quickly evident.
“Leon!” Kiara said.
“Nice to see you guys, too,” Leon replied. They all looked down and saw that they were back at where Leon marked START in the sand.
“Well, I guess this squashes the theory of us being in an infinite loop,” Matt said.
“We’re on a mini-globe,” Kiara said. “We just circumnavigated east to west. Which means the solution lies either north or south.”
“So, in other words, the ocean and the greater desert leading to it,” Leon said. They took a moment to ponder their next step.
“Oceans are nothing for me. I can handle the freezing Pacific current on Ocean Beach. I’m happy to take to the waves,” Kiara said.
“Thank you!” Leon said. “I hate oceans. That’s why I spend half my time in New Mexico. Peaceful desert man here.”
Kiara and Matt chortled a bit at Leon.
“Mind if I tag along again?” Matt asked Kiara.
“Sure, if you can keep up.”
“I swam laps at the Earth Forces Academy.”
“Competitive swimmer at Stanford,” Kiara said and then ran toward the ocean and dove headfirst. Matt turned to Leon.
“Good luck. If nothing happens in fifteen minutes, head back here.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Leon affirmed. He proceeded to the desert. Matt chased after Kiara into the water.
Kiara felt the chill of the water on her skin, though it was nowhere as cold as the familiar Alaskan current that she was used to in Northern California. They swam further into the water until they were neck-deep. Kiara was amazed to see that even in the virtual environment, her jumpsuit reacted to the water temperature, by acting as an impromptu wetsuit.
“Impressive,” she said while admiring her jumpsuit and its reactions to the environment.
“The jumpsuits are constants. They were designed to follow us through the entire sequence,” Matt said.
“Good to know they didn’t just throw us in here stark naked,” Kiara replied. They continued swimming. They swam for nearly ten minutes. As they broke further away from land, they could feel the ocean ripples growing stronger. Their faces slammed into waves more than once. Even for a pair of trained swimmers, they had to slow down and take a break.
“How far do you think we are?” Kiara asked.
“I’m not sure.” Matt turned to face the shore, but to his amazement, it was gone.
“This must be one small globe if we’re already at the point where we can’t see the coast,” Kiara said.
Watch out… A monotonous voice whispered into their ears.
“What? Matt, did you just say something?”
“No, but I heard it too. Said to watch ou—” Before Matt could finish his sentence, he vanished.
“Matt?” Kiara asked. She turned to see where he went but to no avail. “Where the hell did you go!” Kiara felt a slimy, stinging sensation on her right foot as she was dragged underwater.
* * *
Five minutes of walking and Leon stumbled his way into a desert as dry and barren as the Mojave. The air was so thick with heat that he could see haze everywhere he looked. Leon felt the perspiration flowing from his temples and down his face.
“Jesus Christ, it’s hot. Kinda wish I chose the ocean now.” He didn’t have to turn to see that it was desert in all directions. He felt exhaustion as beads of sweat nearly trickled into his eyes.
Leon saw something out of the ordinary. At first, he assumed it was a mirage. Given how quickly the intense desert heat had taken him by surprise, a mirage hadn’t seemed farfetched. As Leon kept walking, it became clear that he wasn’t looking at an illusion at all. He squinted to get a better look at the towering black figures in the sand. A raging inferno blazed behind them.
“Okay. Now I know I am not hallucinating.” Leon ran toward the strange and unexpected sights in his heat-blurred view. There were actually twenty in total.
“I’ll be damned!” Leon approached the crowd of seven-foot-tall bird creatures surrounding a giant, burning, wooden squid. They stood upright and were completely covered in dark feathers. Each bird had a pair of enormous wings draped over purple robes that covered their strange, human-like bodies. However, instead of having the heads of humans, the bird-people had heads that resembled a raven.
One of the birds roared. It was the bird at the front of the pack. Suddenly, the other nineteen birds all squawked in unison.
“You must be the leader. Huh?” Leon asked. The only evidence of leadership was that bird holding a large wooden staff in one of its talons. The presumed leader squawked once more and swung the stick at Leon’s head.
“Whoa!” Leon dove to the ground to dodge the near-hit. “Not cool, bird brain!”
It roared again and then swung the staff over its head to hit Leon on the ground. Leon made a quick barrel roll in the sand, and the bird missed again.
* * *
Kiara kicked furiously at the massive tentacle that was dragging her further underwater. Its grip was tight, and with no time to think, she looked at the large slimy purple appendage on her right foot, reached for it, opened her mouth, and bit it. The taste of saltwater and live calamari lasted a second before the cephalopod arm immediately unlatched her foot and retreated.
The behemoth mantle of an ungodly giant squid towered over the ocean. Its massive tentacles jutted from the water and into the air. One of the two longer limbs swung mightily above its head while dangling her fellow gammanaut by the leg.
“Matt!” Kiara called out.
“Kiara! The hover-runner! Behind you,” Matt shouted back.
“What?” Kiara asked. She then turned and saw the most unexpected sight. A personal water-craft bobbed on the waves just ten feet away.
“Grab the hover-runner! Whoa…” The squid violently threw Matt into the water and set its sights on Kiara. She immediately swam directly to the PWC and jumped onboard, successfully managing to prop herself upright and hold onto the steering grips.
The waves shook the craft violently, nearly knocking Kiara off. In the water, two giant ripples made their way toward her. It was the squid’s main tentacles. Kiara found the ignition key, and turned it clockwise. The shaking stopped. The hovercraft came to life, and Kiara quickly was levitating a foot above the water. The timing couldn’t have been better, as the squid’s main tentacles emerged out of the water and lunged at Kiara.
“Time to become Ika Yaki, motherfucker!” With the push of her right hand, the craft shot forward, barely missing the wrath of the tentacles. Kiara looked away from the squid and sped toward her teammate, who swam quickly in her direction. Kiara pulled up to Matt.
“You alright?” Kiara asked.
“Swell, why you ask?” Matt replied as he gripped onto the hovercraft and pulled himself onboard.
“Hold on to me and don’t let go,” Kiara commanded. “This thing moves quickly.” Matt flung his arms around Kiara and held on as she turned her attention to the oversized cephalopod. Her hand on the accelerator, Kiara floored it. She avoided the main tentacles while also trying to determine a way to best the leviathan.
“I have an idea,” Matt said.
“I’m listening.”
“Look at its side eyes!”