They’d met each other only a year ago when they moved into the same student flat. Jim, a plain chubby dark haired computer expert worshiped at the alter of science. He saw only the mechanics of objects, seeing what they were rather than what they could be. After what he called his wilderness period while still at school, where he took up pursuits like fortune telling and music, he altered his life to the pursuit of knowledge. Dedicated to his studies, he only found a little time to socialise when he wasn’t trying to become a national computer gaming champion.
Linda was nearly the opposite, a very attractive, blond artist. Popular and sociable, she seemed to him to be everything he wasn’t, but out of the difference, a friendship grew. They saw the world from two different angles and each other’s contrasting ideas always provided a talking point. Jim, being very shy and not exactly a ladies man, had developed a crush on Linda, but in his logical manner he decided his friendship wasn’t worth risking in pursuing that.
It happened that Linda, who loathed computers with a passion had been given tickets to the new ‘future of entertainment’, something called the Total Reality game. In essence it was the first attempt to create a virtual world in cyberspace. Much hyped in the press for the past month after its shock unveiling by the Microsys company, the aim was to totally immerse the gamer in a new reality. You paid for a certain amount of time, and you were physically plugged into a terminal. Though use of advanced virtual reality equipment, the senses were almost life like. A special probe was placed over your spinal column, which intercepted and neutralised all messages to the rest of the body, feeding them into the computer, which fed back sample nerve messages. The result was the sense of being inside a new world. Those who could afford to could stay for days at a time, their bodies being sustained through tubes for nutritional paste to enter and for excretions to leave.
The tickets were for 3 hours, which would cost normally over £100. Microsys promised the costs would go down rapidly and was relying on these samples to attract interest and generate the market they needed. Linda wasn’t thrilled at the prospect, but Jim talked her round into giving it a go.
They arrived at the Manchester terminal, and gave in the tickets. To attendant, a slick haired twenty something with a fake tan directed them to their mutual changing rooms. They both arrived in the games rooms wearing what looked like a large nappy and a plain white T-shirt. Both of them were clutching their TR headsets. Looking around they saw a large collection of seating, about half-occupied. Twenty or so players where sitting motionless in the large leather seats. Connected to the consoles in front of them by a number of tubes and wires, they seemed lifeless. They were lead over to two neighbouring seats. The attendant handed them the tubes to plug in, and dealt with the spinal pad himself. They both put the helmets on at the same time, and holding hands they were emersed into the computer.
Jim looked around and found he was in a small room with and iron grill floor. The walls were bright coloured plastics, sloping in at the ceiling and floor to give a sort of octagonal effect to the space, like one of those sci-fi space ships. His mind wandered, trying to work out where he was. Behind him he heard movement, turning round he saw Linda, and she actually looked like Linda, right height, face, curves everything. There must have been cameras in the changing rooms that watched them as they stripped off and made a 3D model of them just like the one standing in front of him now in a black and orange jump suit.
Much of the advertising went on about all the different games available when the system was running fully, but since it was only one week in, there was only one, set in space. You could do whatever you wanted, from being a smuggler, to a fighter-pilot, a waitress to a prostitute, the alternatives were endless. Some of the characters were computer generated, others real, you couldn’t tell, and couldn’t ask.
A screen light up and a face appeared on it. It was a face that one couldn’t forget in a hurry. Thin and boned, the eyes world weary looked out from a head who’s leathery skin sagged with the toll of many years of worry and torment. His hair, in the stage between blond and grey hung down in wiry strands reaching past his neck.
"Welcome," his voice crocked, "to my home, the New Republic. A place where all your dreams can come true. There are no frontiers to your imagination. But beware citizens, no frontiers does not mean no laws, we have one. You reap what you sow."
With the last word echoing unnaturally around the chamber, the face faded from the screen laughing.
"Now what?" Linda wasn’t impressed by her new surroundings.
There were 2 doors, both identical, at opposite ends of the chamber. Jim started to walk towards the one to his left, behind Linda, as they approached it rose rapidly to the ceiling to let them though. As it closed again, they could just make out the voice of the face laughing behind them. In front lay a long dark empty corridor, on the right hand side was a computer console, hoping to find out where they were, Jim advanced on it readily and within seconds brought up a map.
Freedom City read the title, it seemed that they where on the outskirts so hoping to find some action they resolved to head to the centre. The only option was to carry on down the corridor, so that’s where the walked, staying close. Linda walked on, beginning to forget she was in a computer, her imagination was running riot playing tricks on her. At least she still had Jim to keep her company, she was getting nervous and didn’t know what to expect when they finally came to the end. Jim on the other hand was still fully aware of where he was. He’d started playing with computers fifteen years ago at the age of five and had never been amazed by anything he saw them do. He was impressed, but most of his mind was pondering whether to put his arm round Linda, who he could see was nervous; he wanted to reassure her, and partly it was to comfort himself.
Just then the wall beside them opened, standing there was a scuffy man in his early thirties, long hair in a pony tail and a half chewed fag poking out his mouth.
"New arrivals? If you want I’ll take you into the centre and show you round" He grinned a black toothed grin. Aside from this battered looks, he seemed friendly enough, so they agreed.
He took them round a corner and they were confronted by a shear drop. Down below there were buildings hovering, with pod like vehicles flying between them, in fact they were all around as far as the eye could see, against a starry black background. Moored next to the edge was a small purple pod vehicle. It only measured six foot long, and was almost spherical aside from two projections with must have been the engines. The man introduced himself as Hum, saying he’d lived there all his life and met all the new arrivals from that space-port. He sat in the single front seat, there being two seats in the back for Jim and Linda. As soon as the door closed, the force of gravity hit the pod as it dropped like a stone for 10 seconds, then readjusted itself and started flying horizontally.
"I think the engine overheated a bit," Hum laughed at the sight of the 2 petrified students in the back, "life’s hard in Freedom City these days. If you can make it here, you’re one of the lucky ones the rest of us just exist around the edges. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll both make it. I’m told that many of the other cities are thriving, perhaps you could head there." He waved his hand around pointing into the sky.
The pod careered along what seemed like the roof of a building, it must have been a couple of miles long. It was almost featureless, just rows of dark black windows set against dirty brown walls
"Since the new governor moved in, the rich who support him have got richer, the rest poorer. The centre at least is a nice place now, he’s cleaned it up, but I can’t tell you where the bums and criminals went. There’s only one prison here, body has ever come out to tell me what its like."
The building dropped away to reveal a vast sea of stationary pods, in the distance more large buildings, this time glowing bright colours.
"This is what this side of the city is about," Hum muttered mysteriously, "sex."
"We’ve just come out of the industrial area, every one of these pods has a couple in. Many people can’t afford to leave here. They say that if they get back to your would they’ll be broke, their paying directly but credit card, and need to get rich clients to pay the bill once they’re back. Of course they’ll never get enough. I’ve ferried many men and women from where you’ve come in to find a whore and then back when there lunch is over"
The pod weaved in and out, heading resolutely towards the glowing city centre. Jim, although stirred by the thought of the sex around him still felt disgusted as his morals kicked in. Linda was already having trouble coping with the whole scene. She knew that she was having trouble telling what was real and what wasn’t, and even though she knew that even Jim wasn’t there, she was panicking quietly to herself, trying to remember how to quit. She grabbed out for what she could trust, Jim, who held her hand as they headed on though the sky.
Finally they pulled up to a bar and the door opened on the pod. Hum wished them goodbye and goodluck as they went into the bar. Just as he left, he thrust a piece of paper into Jim’s hand. "When you need to find me try this. Do not look at it before."
Linda had already reached the bar and was ordering drinks as Jim entered. All manner of people were here, from businessmen to pilots, all talking. They sat at a table near the window where they just stared out the window for a few minutes. Jim normally relied on Linda to start the conversations, but she seemed strangely vacant. In the noisy room, the uncomfortable silence on their table was all to noticeable. Eventually sipping down the blue liquid in her glass, Linda suggested the move on and find something to do. This awoke Jim’s scientific curiosity, and he finished off the purple cocktail in his hand as he rose to leave.
By the door a short skinny woman approached Jim, "first time here, you want to try out loving Freedom style?"
Luckily Linda dragged him away. The drink was working on her already, breaking down all the barriers between reality and perception. She knew she needed to keep hold of Jim, needing an anchor into what she knew. She was working hard trying to remember how to quit, but she couldn’t, and for some reason she thought better of asking Jim.
"I think we need some new clothes." Linda had found another familiar environment, a clothes store. Rummaging though the racks, Jim pulled out another jump suit, this time more like the pilots from the bar, blue with sliver edging. Linda giggled, saying he looked like something from a comic book. She was less than happy with the choice available to her, never at home with showing her body, the range of short skirts and tight tops dismayed her, but she found some just long enough to bare. They took the items to the till, where as soon as they stepped towards the assistant, the clothes vanished from their hands and onto their bodies.
"You can change back whenever you want," grinned the unashamedly artificial woman, "have a nice life!"
One of the bonuses that came with the free time was unlimited spending money, although traders were not allowed to sell huge ships to trail visitors, most items could be bought to set yourself up.
"Do you reckon you could fly one?" Linda pointed out a pod salesman and pulled Jim towards the rather greasy looking man.
The salesman sleazed his way across the range of pods and assorted ships with the well drilled ease only a perfectly programmed salesman could offer. Jim couldn’t blame him, how want to pay £40 an hour just to sale imagery cars to imaginary people. Drawn to a large craft at the back, Jim pointed it to Linda. It resembled a smaller scale space shuttle, long and sleek with turned up flaps at the ends of the wings.
"I flew one of the in Elite 2,"Jim was beginning to feel at home, "I think I’ll give that a try."
"Sir would like the retro look would he," the sales sprit began to sound slightly more patronising, "perhaps something smaller as this is your first time?"
"I’ll take this one if you would be so kind," Jim looked aggressively at the man. He’d never like car salesmen anyway, "just show me the controls."
Once on board and fastened in, Jim touched the start button on the board, and the craft began to vibrate gently, he pulled the moorings off and felt his stomach reach his mouth as the ship plummeted downwards. Turning into the drive, he increased the thrust and got level again. He called up a navigation map on the console, this time it appeared as a hologram in 3D, showing the city as a giant sphere of buildings orbiting a central core. Reasoning that this core must produce the artificial gravity, he at least knew that down would get him somewhere, if not anywhere good, the gravity there would be too strong to steer against.
They spent an hour just touring round. Linda relaxed in the seat, she was enjoying this new place, but more and more of her memories were fading.
Jim was in his element, fight sims and space shoot-em ups were his thing, he was having the time of his life pulling stunts and buzzing buildings. They were speeding down a building that looked like a block of flats, suddenly, Linda called for him to stop. Linda stepped out onto the pavement and walked up to a door. By the time Jim reached the hatch to the craft, the door had opened and Linda was confronted by a six foot tall man with short dark hair and wearing a pinstripe suit. As soon as they saw each other, they embraced into the most passionate kiss Jim has ever seen.
Jim woke up. He was back in the terminal building, in the leather seat. The same attendant was looking over him. Jim looked for Linda, but she wasn’t there, her hand was no longer in his.
"You had as going there," laughed the man looking down on him, "You’ve been out over an hour, won’t snap out of it. I’ve sent your girlfriend home already."
Jim wandered groggily into the changing room, and while putting on his clothes, he looked around to signs of where the hidden cameras were. He never wore a watch, so had no way until he got home to check how long he was out. It turned out he’d had his almost 4 hours and no more, he’d left home five and a half hours before. What’s more, Linda was nowhere to be seen. Hoping she was just late, he carried on waiting though the night, no sign. In the morning, their flatmates grew concerned, so phoned the police. The video supplied by Microsys showed Jim and Linda leaving together just when they were supposed to. There was no sign of her still in the shop.
Where had she gone, and how had she disappeared? Jim began to feel it was his fault, he’d dragged her into this. If she stayed missing for more than another day, he’d be arrested as the last person to see her alive. He had only one too at his disposal, the Internet.
He spent 2 hours trying to find the site he was looking for, false links, hidden pages and other Hacker security blocked his way. Eventually he found the chat room for the Unix Avengers, a group of hackers opposed to anything Microsys, they must be able to help. They told him she wasn’t the only one who’d disappeared in the system. Women aged between 14 and 30 had vanished from centres across the world. Nobody was quite sure how, but rumours suggested feeding hallucinogens with the food, controlling their thoughts and stopping them from leaving the game. Once emersed, they’ll be removed from the seat, and taken away before anybody is any the wiser. The security video could easily be concocted using the computer models of the two of them.
They assured him that she must still be somewhere in the game, but finding her would be near impossible. She believed that she was part of the game and perhaps by now would not even recognise Jim.
"The test program has been running fine for almost a year, its only in the past week when women have disappeared, people who’ve been in the game say that’s when the new governor took over." He was now in Internet Phone contact with one of the Avengers. "You could go back in and find her, we’ll help as far as we can. We can send you technical details of the system, and can make sure that the system doesn’t charge you for time, but apart from that, we can’t go any further. We haven’t been able to plant anybody inside long enough without them being removed. I hope you can find out what is going on."
An email arrived almost instantly containing piles of data concerning the game: maps, characters, programming and system architecture. None of which gave him a clue of where to look for her. On the way home, he went to the bank to give in the details that he had been given to stop Microsys charging him for his time. He felt a bit guilty about what was really fraud, but the ends justified the means.
At home, Jim was worried, he knew that tomorrow would be his last chance to find her before the police took him away, all his technical skills were useless, be couldn’t work out where she could be. His faith in reason finally was broken. Walking over to his cupboard, he reached up to the top shelf, and rummaged round in the blackness, finding a black record bag. Opening it up, he took out a small blue cardboard box, containing the Tarot cards he was once a master of.
He’d never really believed in them even when he had practised them, just putting it down to co-incidence, but his time they were his only choice. He found his only picture of her, and propped it up against the wall on his bed. He concentrated totally on it as he started to shuffle the cards, starting slowly and unfamiliar with the bulky Tarot, his hands grew quicker as his old technique returned. He laid out 5 cards infront of the picture then tried to remember what they meant.
The spread stuck home immediately, the 3 centre cards were from the Major Arcana, which signify major happenings. Normally only one should appear in 5 cards, in the centre was the High Priestess card, which could only represent Linda, on either side were the upturned Emperor and the World, they were surrounded by 2 reversed knights, one of swords and one of wands. He could only think of one suitable explanation, the Governor of Freedom City was holding he near the central building which was defended heavily and would require more than brute force to reach her. He pulled out another two cards, Judgement and the 4 of cups, to win her over he needed to convince her it was all a game.
Jim tried to go to sleep early and have a good night, but every time he closed his eyes he could see the game. He arose early, but still tired and raided the kitchen, trying to stock up on energy. Walking into the terminal building again he was relieved to see a different man at reception. He handed over his credit card to the tanned and slicked back attendant, who directed him towards the changing rooms. Again Jim was plugged in, and this time found himself back in the space craft, but now far away from the centre of the city, near the giant perspex sphere which kept the atmosphere inside. Rummaging through the jump suit he found the slip of paper the Hum had given to him. Not knowing where to start looking for equipment, he headed towards Hum’s directions. The craft skimmed along the surface of a deserted building, coming to the edge, Hum’s pod was waiting for him.
"Sorry I couldn’t warn you Jim," Hum’s voice echoed around the cabin’ "but we weren’t certain that you could be trusted. Open up and I’ll tell you what I know."
Hum landed his pod on Jim’s craft’s wing and got inside. He looked around in amusement.
"Where did you find a Lion? I thought they’d all be in museums now. These were once the thing to be seen in, solid as a rock, fast too, if not very convenient, too large and expensive to run. I’d never run one, no auto-pilot."
"What’s happened to Linda?" Jim cut right to the point.
"I’ll have to start from the beginning. Very few of us programs are self, knowing who we are and who you are and that there is an outside world. Most just interact with everybody equally, like I used to do before I was hacked. When the first girls went missing, somebody hacked a small number of programs from the outside before she was caught, I was the first, they thought it would be good to have the taxi driver that meets people on their side so I can judge the new gamers. We haven’t heard of any new converts since the first day, so we doubt our number will grow.
"Anyway, we belive that once the program was up and running, the New Governor moved in and imposed an almost martial law onto the central city. He is backed by his own private army of converts and reals. Nobody knows who he really is, if he’s a buggy program or a real, but the word Microsys has been mentioned. We think the missing women have been down to him, but we can’t find them. Us converts are poor, it was too risky and difficult to turn somebody noticeable, we are just background figures here, we can’t afford to take on the Govenor. We don’t know where he is either, there are many compounds around that he could use."
"I have my own idea of where Linda is," Jim tried to sound important, "in the centre of the city."
"Could well be, but the gravity is to strong for our pods, its also guarded by some crack fighter pilots, we can’t afford weapons."
"Do you know where to get some? Hopefully I’ve some credit left, I’m though on a hacked bank account, so as long as I don’t make any huge purchases, I won’t be noticed"
"We could try a shop outside of the city. Once outside of here of the dome, pirates are everywhere, the shop is not on a protected lane, so our pops are to vulnerable to get there. Perhaps you could make it, I bet a Lion can still outrun just about anything they’ve got. You would have to take them on unarmed though on the way there, if they ambush you, you’ve had it. There must be another way."
"I used to be an expert in a ship exactly like this," Jim smiled, "let them try, I should be able to show them."
"If you think this is a game, you’re wrong. If they blow us up, I’ll die. Unlike you, I can’t regenerate, you’ll have no contact, even if you can come back again. If you do, I can assure you that they will not let you in on a free trail or hacked account. You’d have to start from scratch again, she’ll be dead by then, or at least lost to you forever."
"I’ll do it eventually."
"Look at it this way, the game addicts more and more fit men of fighting age, sudden disappearance of smart, attractive women of child bearing age. We believe that eventually your world will be taken over by Mircosys, the game addicts, a disillusioned generation will side with the Governor, adding troops to an army of brainwashed children of the kidnapped girls and specially selected Mircosys men. Not only does the spine plant stop the rest of your body from moving, all senses are stopped. Natural processes are continued. She could be fertilised and have a baby without knowing it. After two or three, she’d be so unhealthy, they’d throw her back into your world to die, or leave her broke and stuck here."
"I can do it, she’s coming back with me tonight, somehow. Where is the shop?"
Hum suggested that he better stay, navigating is hard outside the dome, especially when trying to avoid pirates. Following the program’s direction’s they skirted around the edge of the dome to a giant perspex chamber. They entered what must be an airlock as the second door open were whisked into the vast emptiness of cyberspace. The Lion wobbled onto course as Jim tried to adjust to flying without gravity there.
"Just nail it for a few seconds, pirates will pick up the heat if you for go any longer. Let it glide, we’ll there in twenty minutes"
The journey passed in silence, Jim looking over maps of the central city, Hum wandering around the passenger and cargo section and looking over the electrical systems trying to work out how the ship would cope if it came to a fight. As the ETA countdown neared 2 minutes, a klaxon began to wail in the cabin. It died off as Jim looked at the radar, he could see 2 small ships tracking them, looking to attack just before the shop.
"If those two get lucky, we’ve had it." Hum was fast becoming less and less confidant of the plan.
"Just contact the shop and tell them we’re coming in quickly," came the reply from the pilots chair, "and hold tight."
Hum just found a seat and buckled up when the Lion lurched rapidly forwards. In the distance the blob that was the arms trading post grew larger. As two beams of green light shot across his path, Jim angled the ship up and cut the power, letting it spin around to face the other direction before igniting all the engines. Though the front screen they saw the 2 pirate ships turn to face them, waiting till the ship was in their sights. They waited that fraction too long, as the Lion bounced backwards into the safety of the landing bay, stopping with a jolt. The pirates knew better to attack an arms store and retreated away.
"Not so bad," Hum muttered as he collected himself in the seat.
Jim, still in a going all out to find Linda was almost out the door already. Hum got to his feet, was pleasantly surprised to find both ankles intact, and trotted after Jim.
"You know they’ll be waiting there for you, those guns were military. You know how pissed off those pilots would be when their latest hardware is shown up by an unarmed antique with a rookie pilot?" Hum was now rather regretting getting involved. "They’re onto you, onto us."
The military weren’t in Jim’s plans, not yet. He hurried on following the signs to the shop floor. At the entrance were an extensive selection of side arms. For goes on arcade machines, Jim knew he wasn’t much of a shot, so looked around to find something that didn’t require much accuracy. A stubby rod of metal caught his eye.
"Light Sabres," Jim laughed as he put it into the basket, "cool!"
Hum had picked up enough small arms to fight a war. "Remember this is a game, your not expected to carry them all, you just change when you run out of ammo," Hum called out throwing some armoured vests into the basket.
Jim let Hum make all the choices for weaponry, just contented to look at the manuals and fiddle on a computer terminal. Half and hour later they were back on the ship, waiting to take off from the vast hanger beneath the complex.
"Can I just make a run for it?" Jim glanced over at Hum, now sitting beside him trying to figure out the weapon controls. "You said this ship was fast, If I keep accelerating, surly I can just shoot past them?"
"I doubt it, those are high tech military craft, they’ll out perform us, out manoeuvre us, and match us gun for gun. They also know how to fire their guns. Even if we get past, they’ll get two more to block the city entrance. They won’t call for support until they’re beaten, but they will if we overtake them"
"I’ll see if I can skim round them, perhaps if we don’t take them on head to head, we might have a chance"
Before Hum could answer, Jim rocketed the Lion out of the hanger and into space. The on-board navigation showed him them way back, but he steered slightly off course hoping to avoid the fighters. Pinned back in their seats by the unceasing acceleration, the two men both stared at the radar, their hearts sunk as 2 specs appeared, closing in on the Lion.
"What are those blobs at the top?" Jim asked as a multicoloured cluster of blobs passed onto the top right of the screen.
"Large and small ships together, must be pirates."
Jim laughed and headed the ship straight into the middle of the bunch, with the two pursuers right behind. Hum didn’t even comment, his program had run, behind him, two angry pilots in deadly machinery, ahead at least 10 bloodthirsty pirates. Trapped in an ageing spacecraft with a man mad with guilt over the lose of a girl we thought he loved. He reached over to the gun control as the faint outlines of the largest pirate ships formed out of the black. Jim reached his hand across, to stop him, whispering to just wait and see. The stationary ships were parted just enough for Jim to fly the Lion between them without altering course. The ship turned round to decelerate in order to get back on course, giving them a view of the carnage following them. The combined armoury of the pirates made short work of the two tiny fighters leaving the Lion to wander back to Freedom City unchallenged.
"I noticed them as we were going the other way, I thought they might like some military technology." Jim aid as the craft entered the dome.
Hum just looked at him, then got back to fiddling with various buttons a panel. They began to head towards the central complex, passing silently though zones of buildings. Pods shot past at every angle, the Lion, without auto-pilot made no attempt to avoid the smaller craft that skimmed past only meters away, relying on the crash-avoidance of the other vehicles. Gradually, the sound of the retro rockets grew louder, keeping the decent at a slow and steady rate. Passing though the ring of building that constitutes the main part of Central City, the main complex loomed ahead.
Four pods closed in on the Lion, beams of energy pulsing past it. Hum got to grips with the guns, and finally the Lion roared, a beam of blue light traced its way across the sky ripping two of the defence craft in half, and leaving a long scar on the building ahead. Within another couple of shots, the remaining two had gone. More pods arrived on the scene, but none could afflict serious damage before meeting their end.
Hum was getting excited, but his mood changed rapidly when a thick red beam of energy blasted strait past them.
"Gun emplacements," Hum screamed, "one shot and we’ve had it!"
"They’ll not hit us."
Jim seemed quite certain about this, he didn’t even try to avoid the deadly streams of light that passed inches from the Lion as it cruised gently on to the centre. The gravity was becoming so strong that the Lion was struggling to keep a steady pace, and the seat-belts were only just holding them in. They changed course towards a docking pylon sticking out from the complex. Mounted near the point was another automatic gun emplacement, spiting shards of light at the, all missing the craft, but only slightly. Hum fired back, knocking it out.
"Do you mind telling me why they weren’t hitting us?" Hum turned angrily towards Jim.
"I reprogrammed them while I as waiting for you to buy the stuff at the shop. I made sure the targeting computers were off by 5 meters, I was a sort of hacker in real life you know. I was told that I needed brains and brawn to get through this. Hopefully, that last shot registered as a hit, and they won’t be expecting us."
The ship docked and they entered the building, which didn’t seem to have the overpowering gravity of the outside. A shuttle car ran from the pylon into the main part of the complex, they sat down to enjoy the ride.
"You know that most of the guards are reals and can’t be reprogrammed?" Hum enquired. "Do you have any idea where you have to go now we’re here?"
"I know where the cells are, but my guess is that she’s not there, give me a minute."
Jim closed his eyes and bent over, concentrating. He was muttering under his breath, random words, letters and numbers. The gibberish came quicker and quicker until he was almost droning in a trance.
"She’s with the New Governor, in the main chamber." Jim spouted at as he sat up.
Jim explained that since the computer receives instructions straight from his mind, there must be some was of accessing the whole range functions of the game if he concentrated hard enough and knew where to look. The developers left loopholes in the code to allow them to test out the game easier, one of them was the ability to locate people.
"Its just like entering a cheat code, I can’t find everything, but that’s a start."
They left the car and entered a long curved corridor, shinny white. There were no sounds to here except for a distance hum. Quickly they turned towards the main chamber, Jim having studied the map lead the way, staying close to the inside wall. In his right hand was a small pistol, in his left, the light sabre. Hum followed close behind holding a large assault weapon. Inching around along the wall, Jim came to an abrupt halt. He could see a group of five armed guards waiting for them. The posse were all dressed in black from head to toe, each carrying a hefty weapon.
Simulated adrenaline having kicking in, Jim rolled across the corridor, sparks flying from his pistol and took out two guards, as the others reeled around they were confronted with the full force of the shock waves emanating from Hum’s gun, knocking them senseless into the walls. The duo picked up the pace and jogged along the passageway which had now straightened out. Jim ran straight across a t-junction before noticing a pair of guards stationed just down the intercepting passage. Signalling for Hum to stop, he spread himself flat against the wall, lit the sabre and waited for the sound of the guards running footsteps to come closer. As they stepped through the doorway, the blade swung down passing through one while tearing a large hole in the waist of the other who collapsed next to his partner.
Jim had never been a great fan of computer violence in terms of people shooting, and was rather relived when it turned out that the computer characters don’t bleed noticeably. It didn’t seem like the programmers had made much effort with the intelligence of the guards as they another 10 were dispatched without difficulty as the pair charged through the maze of white passages. Finally they rested at the doorway to the ante-room. It was a stone lined forty foot round chamber with a granite mural on the floor. At the far end, a massive pair of stone doors standing twelve foot high marked the entrance to the main chamber. Standing against it were another six black guards intent on not letting anybody pass. Standing around the centre of the room were three huge figures, wearing yellow armoured suits and holding very beefy guns.
"The Lowther Militia," Hum whispered, "we believe them to be reals, hand chosen from crack games players. The armour’s too powerful for any of my guns to do any damage if they’re that far away from each other. We can’t give them a shot at us, they’ll kill both of us without blinking."
Jim again crouched down, his head in his hands. Suddenly a scream came out from the centre of the room as a wet naked woman appeared obviously halfway through a shower. The guards turned on her shooting. The Militia men crowed round the body for just long enough for Hum to fire at them, sending them flying against the back wall. The blast also knocked out 2 other the other guards, while Jim took out the others in a volley of sparks.
"I also managed to find the transportation of sprites commands." Jim turned to Hum as he signalled to walk across the room, "I just picked up the first person I could find alphabetically."
"There must be another way in," Hum said as they reached the door, "they’ll be waiting for us behind here."
Jim nodded and some plastic explosives appeared in his hand in place of the pistol. He wedged it into the crack and stuck a detonator in it, before dragging Hum off at a run. He’d set the explosives to go off once the door opened. He knew from the program that there was a hidden entrance to the balcony above the central chamber and they were soon crawling up the narrow dark passage way. Upon reaching the top he found only one guard on duty who he quickly and silently dispatched with his sabre.
Looking down on the room Jim quickly sized up the situation. The chamber itself styled like a the main hall of a medieval castle, a large wooden table along the centre with a giant throne at one end. Along the walls were banners and pendants. Underneath the balcony where Jim and Hum were watching from were a bank of computer operatives, dealing with the Governor’s personal orders directly. On the opposite side stood a separate table on which a collection of women were seated. Among these, laughing loud was Linda.
Now that Jim could see her, he tried to use the programmer’s codes to contact her, but she didn’t respond. In vain he kept muttering for her to just remember. For a moment, she seemed to stop laughing and look up, then get back to her dinner.
The Governor sat on the throne respondent in white looking over the table were a troop of his guards and some officers were eating. In total there must have been about twenty five guards in the room, spread around.
"I delayed the sensor footage reaching the computers down there. In a minute, they’ll be an alert, get ready to take out the remaining guards then the computer bank. I’ll take the governor." Jim barked as he slowly rose and stood behind a curtain ready to leap over the balcony.
Suddenly the room was in the grip of a klaxon horn, every body except the laughing women stopped. One of the operators yelled some instructions to the guards, and twenty of the approached the doorway. They formed a semi-circle around it, weapons trained on the door. The huge stone blocks gradually opened, there was a brief moment when Hum and Jim stood, hoping the explosives would work before the first twenty metres of the room were engulfed in flame. The pair saw their chance, Hum grabbed a curtain and slid down, Jim shot away some of the stone balcony and the top of the chandelier. As it fell, he leapt from the balcony onto the wood ring of the lighting, firing below him as he went.
Leaping off Jim ran across the table and jumped towards the throne, he scampered up the stairs before the shocked Governor could react had his sabre to his throat.
"Everybody stop and drop your weapons, I can take his head off with a single movement!"
Hum collected up the dropped weapons, each disappearing as he touched them. He cycled through his new collection, picked a gun, aimed it at computer benches and fired. Three beams of blue light shot out onto the side of the nearest computer, and gradually they focused into a point, as they did so, the desk blew up, staring a chain reaction along the row. Hum ran up to the throne, standing the other side to Jim and changed back to his original weapon and aimed it at the room.
"Okay now," Jim turned to the Governor, "how do we free the girls?"
"I couldn’t tell you."
"We’ll see." Jim hoped his voice sounded stern enough as he raised the sabre and stuck the blade of light into the thigh of his prisoner. "I know that you can feel his, and since wherever you are, its not doing any real damage, I can keep going, perhaps twist it a little. Now how do I free them?"
"I won’t tell you, my boss will kill me."
"Like you’re killing them. How about if I move the blade?" A red tinge was appearing on the bright white trouser of the once proud leader who creased over in pain as the blue light moved slowly up his thigh. He let out a hideous scream as the edge of the beam came into contact briefly with his crotch. Every man left in the room winced except Jim who now had only one thing on this mind.
"Stop, I’ll tell you!"
Jim withdrew the blade and listened to the whimpering leader, and followed his instructions, with a pistol still trained on him. The girls were not fully conscious, they were in a trance and now only responding to Jim. They all ran to the door, the governor being held by the women, Hum bringing up the rear firing his cannon. Jim lead the way back to the ship with Hum making sure they weren’t followed.
Once again Jim forgot to look as he passed the t-junction near the ship, and again missed the two guards running down the corridor. Hum this time was there to deal with them, raising his gun and firing, the shockwaves blew the guards back down the thin passageway, but at such close range, the waves bounced back up the corridor throwing Hum into the wall and smashing his head against a panel corner.
Jim stopped and ran to him, Hum looked up and mumbled, "it was worth it.".
Jim had never had to deal with the loss of a friend, and even though Hum was only a part of a computer program that had almost killed him and Linda, he started to cry. This brought back the old Jim, they angry young man he once was, and he began running to the ship. They reached the docking pylon without more trouble and once inside the car, Jim had a chance to pause and gather his emotions.
"Linda, do you remember me?"
In her mind, she could see the familiar face of Jim, but she could not remember why she knew the face. Her mind cleared, he was he friend, but from where, not from the chamber, and that was where she’d always lived, or wasn’t it.
Then she was awake, she was in a room with a headset on, she was holding somebody’s hand. Somebody took the headset off, Jim was there beside her, holding her hand. Jim was strangely silent as they were lead away to the changing rooms. Meeting up outside Linda was puzzled.
"The date on my watch is wrong, its one forward."
"I’ll explain it all on the way home," Jim spoke to her reassuredly, "but there is something I’ve wanted to do for the past day, if you’d let me."
She nodded, and he kissed her. I’d love to say that they’d remained the same happily ever after, but they didn’t. Both of them dropped out of university shortly after getting married only a few months from his episode. Jim is now a successful painter, while Linda, she programs computer games for a living.

 

Back To Index	Back To Top	Up One
Extracts	Tunnel People	Total Reality

Total Reality

by Jon Martin