Ocean in the Sea Read online

  Herman tilted his head in surprise. “You actually care about other people?”

  Valon snorted. “Of course I care. I’m a copy of a simulant who’s an analog of one of the 13 entities tasked with defending Gateway. The ring is a simulation of Gateway. If I didn’t care, I’d go find a nice beach in some forgotten partition where they worship me as God, and reprogram myself to enjoy sex and rock music.”

  “Okay…” muttered Lewis. “But it doesn’t seem like you’ve had any hesitation when it comes to torture, murder… genocide. Take Paradise. According to Arsus, you pretty much destroyed his entire world.”

  “Sacrifices.” Valon nodded sadly. “I avoid them when I can, but when they’re necessary, I don’t balk. That’s part of who I am as well. You can think of my original as a supreme military commander in a culture that’s composed almost entirely of pacifists. It takes a special type of personality. You have to be comfortable being reviled and denigrated as a throwback by your own people, and at the same time be willing to fight for them while they castigate you and treat you like a pariah. I’m vilified by trillions, I’m sure, but I don’t let it bother me. Now, back to Valruun.

  “A recalibration is about the only thing that will force him to delete the conduit callbacks. The one in progress now isn’t particularly rapid as recalibrations go. They do vary, and their speed is dependent on settings. Right now the Attistar’s recalibration parameters are in conservation mode. It’s encoding everything about the current quantum state as it deletes, making a backup as it were, and placing that in storage for optional initialization as a sub-simulation if later analysis is requested. We don’t want that. We don’t need it. And it’s giving Arsus time we don’t want him to have.”

  “Hold on,” said Herman “Why not just talk to Arsus?” Hemran locked his gaze. “He’s been chasing you since Paradise. Why not speak with him and get him off your ass?”

  Valon smiled sadly. “Because, Lewis, if I do that, he may stop chasing me.”

  “Why do you want him to chase you?”

  “Because he’s a distraction to what’s pursuing him. The Paradisians are my warning system. I can track them, and they’re right behind me. If my real enemies catch up, they’ll encounter Arsus and his crew first. It’s like having a buffer zone between competing kingdoms. If they attack, I’ll learn from it and use that knowledge to create a suitable response. The Paradisians are a shield. They’re bait. They’re a distraction. They’re a sounding board. If they weren’t there, I’d have to play messiah on some other planet to recreate them. They represent a significant investment of effort, and I want them to remain intact.”

  “Great. We’re all pawns in your damn game. So what are you using me for?”

  “Isn’t that obvious?” Valon considered Lewis Herman’s expression and pinched his lips. “No, I can see it isn’t. I should stop asking that question. You’re a messenger, as I explained in my office. You’ve got a delivery to make, and I’m not going to tell you who it’s for or what it says.”

  “That’s not my only purpose, is it?”

  “No. My tools always serve multiple purposes, but you’re something special. My enemies have learned something of me. I’m not sure how, but like Valruun, they can sense which conduits I’ve taken. I need to buy some distance. That requires someone with my jump signature. Someone tough and capable to lead them off. Someone with my primary interface who can access the Attistar settings. In short, I need another me. You’re not an exact duplicate, obviously, but with the properties I’ve added, you’re good enough to be confusing.”

  “So I’m bait.” Herman’s tone was dry and disgusted.

  “Do you want me to apologize?” asked Valon.

  “Would it make any difference?”

  “Not at all. You were headed down a one way dead end road, Lewis. You’d have killed yourself within a year. Now you’ve got a chance. I’ve given that to you. A chance to grow, to find what you desire, to learn the truth, and to make your own choices – forge your own destiny.”

  “A destiny you arranged, asshole.”

  Valon shook his head. “Not all of it. Only a few endpoints along the way. How you get where you’re going is entirely up to you. And what you do after you’ve arrived is entirely unknown. Not even my problem, really. Oh, and you can fail. You can be trapped. You can be deleted. Nothing lasts forever, not even the immortal. You’ll get the gist of it after a while. It’s not much different than the life you’ve been living.

  “Back to the point – we have to do something about Valruun. The others will realize the jump-clock has been set to zero when we leave this interface. Arsus will know that I’ve changed to clock so that I can jump when I want to, but he also knows I can’t leave until Valruun unlocks the conduit callbacks. What Arsus doesn’t know is that we’re going to accelerate the recalibration. We’re going to speed it up.”

  “Chicken with a train,” grumbled Herman, remembering what Valon had said before. “You think Arsus is going to flinch. What if you’re wrong?”

  Valon considered that. “Remember the symbol for afterlife settings I showed you?”

  Herman did. “Yes.” He didn’t like where this was going.

  “Bring it up. I’ll show you the sandbox array parameters. This is what I meant by foresight. Never underestimate the power of a good insurance policy. You’ll enjoy this part of the game, trust me. You get all the power. Ever wanted to play God?”

  Herman rolled his eyes. “No.”

  “Right.” Valon scoffed. “Humility is an apathetic trait, and you are not apathetic, Lewis. Everyone wants to change the world, but few ever get a chance.” He rubbed his hands together. “Let me show you how to bake.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  In a clean black uniform, and with her hair still wet from the isolation tank, Randuu’s 44 year old brunette host departed the secure offices of the NSA research section. Leaping in great strides through the low gravity of the central access tunnel, she reached the spindle lift connected to the ring above her.

  Proceeding along the padded walls of the long white tube, Randuu scanned the station’s electromagnetic spectrum, creating a three-dimensional view of it in her mind’s eye. Knowing the layout from previous scans, she generated a difference map and highlighted the changes in flashing red neon.

  Power to the reactor room had shut down. The coolant had been evacuated to space and the eight piles of fissile material had overheated, emitting massive amounts of radiation. Having just left her connection with the computer core, she already knew about the mainframe. In her mind, it sparked and sizzled with distorted electrons, shorted microcircuits, and static flares. The primary and secondary units had gone offline in sequence followed by the redundant backups. It looked like overheating, but she’d been careful about her power usage. Jenny was too inexperienced. That left Lewis Herman – or Tanandor controlling Lewis.

  In Randuu’s spectral interface, there were plenty of neural signals, Human-shaped webs running or flying through the station. Fortunately, the path to the medical section remained vacant. Reaching the next hatch, Randuu moved through another series of airlocks and a gravity inversion room that flipped her to match the next ring’s angle of rotation. Down a foam rubber slide, she rushed across a wide thoroughfare past half a dozen padded ramps until she came to the one she wanted and entered its airlock. When it failed to cycle, she scanned its electronics and found the power cut due to a relay further in the station. Locating enough energy in a bank of capacitors to do the trick, she shorted them and connected the outrushing electron stream to the input. With a short beep, the airlock doors slipped open.

  Continuing on through a maze of smaller corridors, she accessed her interface and searched for the other jumpers. In particular, she wanted Jenny. She had instructed the girl to scan several specific radio frequencies whenever there was trouble, and she expected her obedience.

  “Jenny,” she sent, “tell Arsus to check the jump-timer.”
r />   “Randuu,” came the girl’s angry reply. “Were you in on this with Arsus?”

  “In on what?”

  “Prying Lewis’s brain open.”

  “Of course I was. I had to extract the neural output from his brain and decode it. This world’s technology is too limited. Invasive procedures were necessary. If we had time, I’d teach you the technique, but the jump-clock just changed. Tell Arsus that Tanandor is using Lewis’s interface to attack us.”

  There was a short pause. “Arsus is already aware. He just shot Lewis with Saiben-D to wake him. I think it’s working.”

  “Good. I’m almost there.”

  “Oh God... Randuu, you better hurry. I think you were right. Lewis doesn’t seem to be in Garibaldi. The way he’s talking… this isn’t Lewis.”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “Lewis Herman!”

  Arsus shouted into Garibaldi’s thuggish face. He pushed the injector against the host’s neck and pressed the button. It discharged with a hiss.

  “Awaken!”

  Next to the operating table with Jenny and the others nearby, Shanzea shook her head. Her face was pale with shock and disbelief. Tens of thousands of jumps, and she’d never witnessed this. “Nothing changes the jump-timer,” she grumbled. “Nothing.”

  Michael Garibaldi's eyes popped opened, instantly focused.

  “Hello Arsus,” Garibaldi said in his natural voice. And though it was the same, there was something different about the tone and the accent. Garibaldi continued. “Lewis suggested I talk with you, so here I am. At your mercy. I understand you have questions. Yes? I’ll answer yours if you answer mine, but I go first.”

  “Tanandor,” snarled Arsus. For a moment the Deputy Directory was taken aback, but his face quickly hardened. “The jump conduits are on callback and a recalibration is in progress. You may have shortened the timer, but if you jump, you’ll be trapped in this simulation and the recalibration will catch you. You are in no position to make demands.”

  Ignoring Arsus, Tanandor proceeded with his query. “I’ve accelerated the recalibration,” he stated. “It will reach us in about ten minutes. If you do nothing, you’ll all be shunted to a sandbox and trapped forever. If you jump, the Attistar will move you to the next available host. In a few minutes there won’t be any left in this solar system and the focus will shift to the next available intelligent alien life. The Attistar will place you on some other world in an unfamiliar environment. Adaptation time will increase. Will I be there too?” Garibaldi’s face smiled. “Nope. I’ll target a different world, and our little game will continue across this simulation, thousands of years, until Valruun gets sick of it and we all jump randomly anyway. So my question to you is, what are you going to do?”

  The Deputy Director flexed his jaw and pounded the corner of the table with his fist. “Shanzea, unbrick Valruun.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Shanzea.

  “DO IT!” shouted Arsus. “I have alternatives Tanandor,” he whispered.

  Shanzea lifted the small man’s time-locked body up from the floor, placing it on a nearby gurney. Wheeling it over, she snapped her fingers.

  Suddenly unbricked, Valruun sputtered and moaned. He looked down his chest. “OH-MY-GOD. I can’t feel my LEGS! He stared at his lower half. “They took half my body!” He abruptly stopped and stared at them. “Can we jump now?”

  “Not funny, Val,” snapped Shanzea. “Not right now.”

  “We have Tanandor,” Arsus told Valruun, “but he has accelerated the recalibration and changed the jump-timer to zero. Prepare to release the conduits, but do nothing until I tell you.” He looked up at the window and waved his hand, then pointed to the floor. High above, Senjiita nodded and stepped through the phased window, dropping in the low gravity and landing in a crouch.

  Arsus looked back to Tanandor. “I’m going to do what’s necessary. Why was I put on Paradise, Tanandor? What was my crime?”

  Behind Michael Garibaldi’s face, Tanandor smiled. “You think I keep a database of the individuals incarcerated in an experimental attempt to determine the psychological ramifications of forced isolation on Entalin partials? Sorry. But if I had to guess, I’d say someone changed the laws and made being a douchebag illegal.”

  “The TRUTH!” screamed Arsus.

  “The truth?” Garibaldi’s face raised its eyebrows. “The truth is that you’re a partial duplicate of a greater mind just like me, and your simulation is the copy of an original. Probably a copy of a copy. Who knows how far that goes. As for your crime, maybe your original didn’t do anything. Maybe he volunteered. I can’t be sure. All I know is that Paradise was created to house deviants — mentalities that did not mesh with the existing hierarchy from which they came. You’re rebels. Maybe you should feel good about that.”

  Arsus didn’t appear as if he felt good. “So Paradise did not evolve like other simulations?”

  “Your simulation’s universe evolved like any other,” stated Garibaldi’s corpse. “It was only your world that was created instantly, constructed in a sandbox and then shoved into the simulation for instantiation. Your childhood memories are false. You had no parents. None of you did, excepting Lewis and Jenny. You’re base-simulants.”

  “The life-lights on Earth are fading,” interrupted Senjiita. “A ring of desolation is sweeping over the globe. In minutes, there will be nothing more.”

  “Understood,” replied Arsus. “Target Mars,” he told Senjiita. “Terminate all simulants there.” He put his hands behind back with a discouraged but unbeaten expression. “Plan B. There is one other place in this solar system where simulants will remain, Tanandor. You don’t get to run away yet.”

  “Bravo,” chuckled Tanandor from inside the stereotactic frame. “I agree that Mars is your only intelligent option. Unfortunately, the Germans have three bases on Mars, and I can still pick my host. What are the odds I’ll end up in the same base as Valruun? And what are the odds you won’t?”

  Starman Kingery sat up quickly and threw the white sheet off his body. “I can answer that.” He hopped off the gurney. “The odds are one.” He walked toward Arsus. “Next time one of your plans includes drugging me and opening my skull, I’d appreciate a heads-up.”

  Before Arsus could respond, Kingery belted him across the jaw, knocking him backward. Surprised, Arsus wiped blood from his lip. He showed no sign of anger.

  “Lewis?” Jenny asked hopefully.

  “Herman.” Kingery turned to her. “You look like crap, Jenny.”

  “I wasn’t in on it,” she told him. “Arsus drugged me. I couldn’t stop them.”

  “I know.” He nodded. “I made some assumptions. You should too.”

  Valruun, lying on the gurney, interrupted the conversation. “I’m not liking this,” he complained. “Alone with Tanandor inside some Nazi Mars base? I’m not thinking that’s a home run, Arsus. My interface isn’t ‘combat-oriented’ y’know, and I’m not all that into being hunted. You got a better plan?”

  “What PLAN?” Shanzea suddenly shouted. “What is Plan B!? Nobody said shit about these plans to me.” Her voice rose and she threw her arms out. “Why does everyone leave me out of the planning? This is BULLSHIT, Arsus! I pull my weight. I’m just as worthy as any of you! Don’t you DARE treat me like you do Jenny. I’ve been here from the beginning!”

  Pulling a small pistol from his pocket, Arsus placed it against Michael Garibaldi’s temple. “Let me explain plan B, Shanzea. The recalibration is expanding too fast. It will reach here in minutes, but even at that speed, it will still take days, maybe weeks, to reach Mars. Mars will be the only source of hosts that apply to this systems pertinence settings. We’re have to jump.”

  “What’s plan C?” asked Valruun.

  “He doesn’t have a plan C,” answered Tanandor. “He doesn’t think that far ahead.”

  “How would you know?” snapped Shanzea.

  Tanandor smiled. “Fly on the wall.”

  “LISTEN!
” shouted Arsus. “With Mars dead, the Attistar will target the hosts there. We’ll all be in one of the three German bases with Tanandor. Find him, capture him, and we’ll continue this conversation.”

  “What about the arrival,” asked Valruun. “If I’m stuck alone in one of those bases with Tanandor, what d’you think he’s gonna do to me? I mean, really, Arsus, if he tortures me, I’m gonna jump, and if there’s nowhere left in this solar system to go…”

  A clank sounded as the hatch opened and Randuu stormed in. She stopped in the middle of the conversation and folded her arms, listening. “Well?”

  “Here’s an idea, Valruun,” said Tanandor, “As an alternative, you could unloop the conduits and follow my signature to the next simulation. I think you should consider this Plan C. It’s only prudent.”

  “NO,” barked Arsus. “It took hundreds of jumps to trap you. I’m not waiting longer.” He pushed the pistol’s barrel harder into Garibaldi’s scalp. “We’ve still got time,” he continued. “Valruun, you’re next. Ask your question.”

  On the gurney, the little man’s eyes flared wide. “My… oh, right! The conduits,” he chirped excitedly. “Uh… How do I know what simulations they lead to? Is there really a map?” Can I target the map? Can I…”

  “Really, Valruun,” said Tanandor. “You’ve asked far more than I can answer the time we have left. But don’t worry! We’ll be alone soon enough.” He smiled. “Won’t we, Arsus?”

  Arsus clenched his jaw. “Sorry, Valruun. He’s right. There’s no time.” He stepped back. “Randuu, broadcast over the station’s radios and tell Perillia and Beloris to jump immediately.” Arsus pulled the trigger and the pistol snapped a report. Blood splattered from Garibaldi’s temple. He put two more rounds into his head just for fun. Brains and shards of bone blew across the floor. Arsus threw the pistol aside. “Not satisfying enough,” he muttered to himself. “Jump,” he commanded. “Meet me on Mars.” His eyes grew vacant and his body dropped to the ground.