Spheria (17 page)

Graham nudged his chin toward the rack and asked, “What’s up with the pool sticks?”

“Oh,” Max said, suppressing a grin. “I thought we needed a little something to let the team burn off some steam. So we can take off the top of this table and underneath is a pool table.” Max was expecting to get scolded for inappropriate usage of funds.

Instead, Graham blurted out, “I love billiards! But this is round?”

“Yeah. We’re not the conforming types. You can play real pool anywhere. This is a custom table made by a company called JM Billiard. It’s not like any game of pool you’ve ever played. It’s like starting from scratch, which makes it a whole new experience. Anyway, I probably shouldn’t have said that in case I wanted to hustle you.”

“Hustling a billionaire isn’t such a bad idea. Definitely work a game into your tour at some point.”

“Sure. I can do that.” Max grinned like a child having just gotten away with sneaking a cookie. But Graham seemed to buy the whole morale-boosting argument. You don’t get to be one of the top companies with unhappy employees.

Turning to the screens, Max continued. “This controller lets us select what is shown on these monitors. See, I can use the directional sticks to maneuver and rotate the camera.”

“There is a camera?” asked Graham.

“Not an actual camera, a virtual one. So inside the world of Spheria, we have virtual constructs that simulate what a camera would do in the real world. It’s really just a coordinate. But from that point, it gathers an image in every direction and displays them on these screens. So we can look all around us.”

“I see.”

“It’s like one of those fancy 360-degree cameras that Google uses for street views. But in this case, it’s all fake.”

“I get it.”

“Okay. So this thumb stick,” Max lifted the controller and indicated his left thumb by wiggling it in the air. “This lets me move us north, east, south, or west.” Max moved it in each direction and their view moved the same way. “And this stick,” Max indicated his right thumb, “will rotate the camera, letting us look left or right. It’ll also tilt the camera, but it’s disabled right now because that motion tends to make a lot of people sick. So instead we’ve got it configured to change the elevation of the camera. Also, the triggers will let me scale the view in or out.”

“Very cool, may I try it?”

“Of course!” Max chuckled. “You paid for it.”

Graham nodded at Max as he took the controller. He spent some time moving the view about. He observed how the camera always stayed level even when it approached a mountain. The view would rise automatically so it didn’t penetrate the blue rock. Then Graham could use the stick to lower them on the other side. He zoomed out, which caused a little bit of distortion as the curvature of the world became visible. He pressed the stick fully forward which made the world around the room spin wildly. The dark stripe of the Rift repeatedly flashed by, showing that they traversed the entire world over and over. Graham released the stick and zoomed in on the Rift. He attempted to lower them into it. Several meters down, the camera stopped descending.

“Yeah,” Max answered the unasked question. “We’re still working on building what’s down there so you can’t go any lower just yet.”

“She’ll be right,” countered Graham. Max wasn’t quite sure what he meant.

“Try this,” said Max. “Hit the menu button. That’ll open a list of preset viewpoints.”

Graham did so, and a box appeared in the middle of each monitor with a list of destination names.

“Pick the one near the top that says ‘exclamation Polyan Colony Center.’”

The second item on the list was “!Polyan Colony Center.” Graham asked, “Why the exclamation mark?”

“Oh, we haven’t gotten around to programming labels yet, so that’s just a hack to sort the most frequent destinations to the top.”

Graham nodded in understanding, having used this technique himself in his younger days. He selected the item and hit the enter button. The view rotated and flew down to ground level landing in the midst of structures resembling huts.

“So this is the center of the civilization that was built by the Polyans,” said Max. “For a long time, they used to wander from place to place, harvesting and exhausting buried crystals. But since they learned to hunt, they settled down in this place and have built quite a community. We call it the ‘Colony’ because, um, they’re like insects. Each individual dwelling structure is a ‘hive.’”

Since the camera was no longer moving, Graham jumped up and began walking around the room. He stopped to look at each monitor. There was a flurry of activity between the hives as the Polyans went about their business. Each had a violet central body, surrounded by pointy orange legs. Graham immediately noticed their resemblance to insects and was pleased. Some had three legs, some had four, and a couple had five. Their legs were evenly distributed around their bodies, so they didn’t seem to have a front or back. The only thing that gave them any sort of variation were small indigo protrusions on top of their bodies.

The five-legged Polyans were stationary and appeared to be watching what the others were doing. “Why are those guys standing there?” asked Graham.

“Those are the Soldiers; basically guards. They make sure everyone is doing their jobs. They also hunt to get food crystals from other creatures. So their responsibility isn't without significant risk. Polyans have different roles depending on their number of legs. As a whole, everyone is essential to keep the Colony functioning as a unified community.”

“How do they get designated as guards?”

“Well, it turns out there is a direct correlation between the number of legs and deadliness or fighting ability. So the rankings just kind of worked themselves out. Also, it takes greater energy and more coordination to produce Polyans with more limbs. So the more they have, the fewer of them there are.”

“I wonder if this classification by body structure has any resemblance to actual creatures here on Earth?”

“Not that we have found. But it’s something we’re looking into. We’re trying to relate these behaviors to the real world as a means to help explain natural phenomena.”

“What’s that?” Graham pointed to a large structure rising above the other hives, sloped on three sides like an ancient flat pyramid with steps on each side. On the top stood a perimeter of columns supporting horizontal rocks, like a triangular Stonehenge.
 

“That’s the Council Chamber. The Polyans with six legs have taken on the role of the government. They meet on the top of that structure and discuss what to do as a collective, when to hunt, or when to relocate. There are only eight of them, so that adds to their prestige.”

“So they’ve self-organized this way?”

“Yes, they have.”

“This is fascinating. What a fantastic opportunity this experiment is. The results so far have surpassed my expectations. I mean, I was optimistic that with your technology we’d do something brand new. But I didn’t know you'd pull it off so well.”

“Hey!” Max frowned at Graham. “I only do things first-rate.”

“I see that. Keep up the good work.”

Graham turned silent for a bit. He continued to walk around the room, studying the behaviors of the Polyans. Max let him take it all in. He took the opportunity to check the email on his phone, since he’d not had a chance to do so since arriving. As Graham watched, one four-legged Polyan walked up to them and stopped. It stood there as if it was studying them. Slowly it began to circle them, all the while looking directly at them.

“Hey,” commented Graham. Max looked up. “Can this one see us?”

“No, they can’t see us.” Max followed Graham’s gaze and watched the strange movement of Sa∙ma circling their position. “What the hell?” he asked himself out loud. “Take us to the ‘Knoll View’ preset. It’s near the top of the list.”

Graham brought up the menu and picked “!Colony Knoll View.” Immediately their viewpoint changed to an area close to, but outside, the mass of buildings. They must’ve been perched on a hill, judging by the name of the location. That and the fact that the view seemed to be overlooking the Colony. From this perspective, all the hives could be seen. There was definitely some kind of organizational logic to the layout of the Colony. Graham loved this. He sat on a stool across from Max and just stared at the hives.

“So what do they do at night?” he asked.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” said Max. “We don’t use this often so it’s easy to overlook. It’s just become a pool bumper to me.” He stood and went over to the door, and on a switch panel he pressed some buttons. The recessed ceiling lights went off and a dome projector rose from the center of the table. It lit up the sky, which also showed the other side of the world above them, projected onto the ceiling.

“Stone the crows!” exclaimed Graham.

“If you say so. We built this because we thought it’d be necessary to see a complete domed view of the environment. In reality, it’s not very useful because seeing what’s above isn't important, at least not until the Polyans develop flight.” Max grinned at his own joke. Seeing that Graham either didn’t find it funny or thought he was serious, Max ended with, “Damn impressive, though.”

“That’s an understatement.” Graham leaned back against the table, rolling his head from side to side, taking in the vast expanse of the entire world. Since they were inside a sphere, the entire landscape was visible aside from the patch of ground this room was perched on. Had the floor been able to replicate the actual ground, it would be as seamless as if they were there. Directly above them, obscuring part of the other side, was a bright spot glowing green.

“That’s The Source?” Graham asked.

“Yes, it is. The Source of light, life, gravity, everything.”

“Gravity?”

“Yes. Making the world inside a sphere allowed us to get creative with some laws of physics. It works like the opposite of our universe. The ground we’re on isn't creating the gravity, not pulling us down, like the Earth does. Instead, The Source creates a ‘push force,’ which increases the closer you get to it. At ground level where we are, it's exerting one unit of push. As you approach the Source, the push gets exponentially stronger, becoming infinity at the center. So nothing would ever be able to contact it directly. Not that we expect anything to actually fly, but the higher something goes, the harder it gets to go higher until it becomes impossible. The Polyans think The Source is the dwelling place of the gods, so the fact that it's unreachable might someday reinforce that mystique.”

“Interesting. Why is it green?”

“Look over there at the Rift.” Max pointed to the left side of the room. From the Rift, very slowly, a shimmering violet bubble was emerging. “Those bubbles rise out of the Rift and, since they’re not affected by gravity, will eventually contact The Source. When they do, it’ll change to match that color. This is analogous to seasons. The color of The Source governs the behavior of the creatures inhabiting Spheria. The current color, green, is a growth color, so the vegetation is able to grow new branches. When The Source turns violet, the breeding color, any creatures capable of reproduction will begin to procreate. We control what color rises and when. Recently a large group of three-legged Drones foraging for buried crystals was killed, so we want to replenish them. The slow rising of the bubble gives everyone a small warning for what’s going to happen; hence, they can prepare.”

“Different. Alien in fact. But smart.”

“Yes. We didn’t want to just re-create Earth or the rules of our universe. We wanted something foreign, yet understandable. This lets us correlate developmental differences, if any, with actual differences in the environment.”

“So what other colors are there?” asked Graham.

“Some of the others are rarer and cause the environment to change. Blue causes the mountains to rise and spread. Everywhere there is an open blue polyhedron face, a blue tetrahedron will sprout. Red has a similar effect on the rivers, causing them to widen. We don’t deploy blue and red often because the world would just become mountains and rivers. Also, to the inhabitants, these are equivalent to natural disasters, so we get to see how they react. And since the Polyans see it coming, in the form of a rising bubble, we get to see how they prepare for the calamity.”

“This just keeps getting better and better.”

“Yeah, there is a bunch of stuff. I could go on and on but it’d take days to cover everything.”

“Good, because I’ll be here for a few weeks. I want to see everything. I couldn’t…”

Just then, a thudding sound filled the room and the viewpoint actually shuttered.

“What was that?” asked Graham.

Max looked around in confusion. “I’m not sure. That’s never happened before. Maybe some kind of glitch.”

Bam. Shake, shake, shake.

Max caught some motion out of the corner of his eye and spun around toward the Colony. Standing just before them was Sa∙ma. And he was hitting the virtual camera with one of his legs.

“Not only can he see us,” commented Graham, “but he can touch us also!”

“This isn't possible,” said Max, shaking his head. “The camera is invisible. There’s nothing to see, let alone touch.”

Bam, bam, bam. The camera spun and slid down the hill. Sa∙ma followed.

“Can we talk to him?” asked Graham.

“We could, but it’s highly discouraged. Dana is anal about us not interfering inside their world.”

“Well Dana reports to me, doesn’t she? How can we talk to him?”

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Yes. Let’s find out how this is possible since you say it’s not.”

“I agree this is puzzling, but it must be some kind of software glitch. We can troubleshoot it offline.”

“No, I want to do this. Patch me in.”

“Alright, fine. To do so, we need to manifest as a seven-legged Polyan, which will appear to this one as a god.”

“Great. I can fulfill my delusions of godhood. Do it.”

“Give me the controller,” said Max. Graham handed it to him. Max brought up the menu and navigated a series of panels, bringing up a list of odd names. “Which god do you want to be?”