The Children of New Earth (27 page)

He then stopped at Aaron.

This world, though virtual, is persistent. Even if something cannot be seen, the data is there. Our friend here can see that data even if the instance parameters say that your standard vision shouldn’t be able to.

The Director’s droid continued to move around the platform.

Isaac cannot die. In the virtual world, death is simulated by ending all bodily functions at the cellular level. A signal of sorts tells all cells to stop multiplying, causing the body to die and decay. After some time, when no one is around to see it, the body itself is deleted. The Neogen Program, for you at least, simply turned off this switch, allowing for perpetual cellular replication and augmented healing.

He continued.

Micah transcends the limitations of communication. Everything you all perceive is the result of controlled stimulus to your mind. Micah’s mind is one with her brother’s, and so they have the ability to perceive the same experiences.

As passengers, you both would actually be the same person.

His tone during that last statement struck me as somewhat odd.

Raphael is a physical, or rather virtual, embodiment of the core functions in the Neogen Program. He can enable or disable the permissions at will. As such, he can also revert anything in his vicinity into its original, basic programming. If something were to happen that deviated from standard laws of reality, he can change it back.

He then arrived at my bridge.

To be honest, I don’t know the full extent of your powers. You control time. You manipulate the speed of various reactions in the simulation, the very essence of cause and effect at the lowest level. But your body remains independent of this change, existing as an atomic object in the programming sense.

And finally we come to Cora. She has a particular knack for the digital thought process, able to read and hijack it at will. This particular affinity for the human mind gives her immense intellect and advanced higher reasoning capabilities. It’s no surprise these abilities would go to the daughter of the famous Eltech family. I do wonder why she didn’t tell you her parents were instrumental in creating this simulation, as well as the security protocol you are all a part of.

All eyes were on her now.

“Cora,” Aaron began. “Did you…did you know about all this?”

“No, of course not! I mean, I knew it was a simulation but the Demons and our powers…I swear, I had no idea about that.”

Well…I can see I’ve made things a bit difficult.

The droid returned to the central console and pushed a few buttons.

But sadly we’ve run out of time to waste. There’s a Demon army outside just waiting to destroy this place. And now that you know the truth, I’m assuming you’ll want to do the same. To ensure humanity’s continued happiness, both threats must be neutralized.

The Director continued to prepare something on the screen for a little while longer. Suddenly, the lights in the room turned red.

This serum will enter your bloodstream, a virtual representation of a memory program zeroing out all the bits that make up your being. From there, you will be rebuilt with the same body and the same permissions. But your minds will no longer be your own. My core will take you as vessels to fulfill my primary goals, goals that will come to benefit your kind in the end. This is for your own good.

He turned back to the console. But before his mechanical finger met the screen, he was knocked back by some unseen force. Confused, he tried once again but with the same result. Enraged, he looked at each one of us to see who was responsible. Eventually, all eyes were on Rachel. She was standing upright, handheld forward, palm facing the droid. She had stepped out of her invisible prison.

Impossible. The shield…

Then with a wave of her hand, Rachel flung the droid off the platform into the abyss below. She then approached the console and released our restraints. I got up and stretched my limbs, then proceeding to gather my gear.

“How did you do that?!” Isaac looked over the edge into the darkness.

The answer came from Cora. “Something the Director said about Raphael’s power.”

“She telepathically told me to use it, telling Rachel to step out of the prison after I did.”

“I figured a shield that stops telekinesis can’t abide by the ‘standard laws of reality’, and I was right. It disappeared the second he activated his ability, and Rachel was free to help us once he restored her power,” she said proudly.

“Don’t think we’ve forgotten what he said,” Aaron spoke coldly. “You knew this whole time. The world is just one big virtual simulation, like the ones we train in. Only this one is run by a power-hungry psycho robot.”

I warned you against using that word.

The Director’s voice resonated throughout the chamber.

Do you think I can be so easily destroyed? I once controlled your reality. I was your GOD. But apparently my efforts to better your lives was taken as an act of villainy. Go on and try to stop me. I’ve dealt with Neogens before, and this building is a fortress. You will not -

His voice was cut off by a metallic crunch followed by a high-pitched tone. We turned to Rachel and saw her fist raised high in the air. On the ceiling, broken speakers and shattered cameras leaked sparks and wailed with static.

“Ugh, robots.”

“Mark, wake up!” I got up from my chair and ran over to him. He’d been disabled by whatever knocked us unconscious, and hadn’t powered back up since. Unfortunately, I’d left the Sparker back at Sanctuary. Meanwhile, Micah felt the need to summarize the situation.

"So, the Director is A.I. determined to keep us trapped in this simulation. Our real bodies are on a spaceship. And there's an army of monsters outside. Anything else?"

“Cora knew the whole time,” Aaron was clearly not going to let this go.

“Will you get over it?!” she retorted angrily.

“Why wouldn’t you tell us?” he demanded.

Cora took a deep breath. “The people that helped the Director close the portals…they were my parents.”

“But, why…?”

“When I turned 13 and started exhibiting my powers, my parents acted as if they’d been waiting for this their whole lives, like they expected it. They eventually told me about the simulation, what the Demons really were, and why they wanted to stop the war. They didn’t want this world, this empire they’d built over six long centuries, to go to waste once the journey was over.”

“Did you agree with them?”

“I was too young to have an opinion at the time. But I had to trust my parents, believe that they were doing the right thing. They never told me the Director was AI, only that the Neogens would help humanity to rebuild. I do remember that at every chance they got, they’d remind me I was their daughter no matter what. To this day I took that as a sign of love, but can’t help wonder if it meant something else. And that’s where my knowledge ends. I now know as much as you do.”

“What about your older sister, Elysia right?” Isaac asked.

“Killed by a Demon shortly after the war started.”

“Oh…I’m sorry…she’s technically still alive though, right?” he stammered.

“I suppose. But this is why I tried so hard to find my parents after our Sanctuaries were attacked. I hoped that maybe they’d have a solution. Telling you this was a simulation wouldn’t have changed anything, and once I got older, I was too ashamed that my virtual parents had actually prevented humanity from being freed from this digital prison.”

We all stood quiet for a moment.

“It’s OK,” Lynn assured her. “We know everything now, and our goals are clear.”

“The Director is evil and he has to be stopped,” Cora agreed. “Are you with me?”

“Of course, we were always with you,” Rachel said, flexing her powers by ripping the restraint chairs from their platforms and throwing them over the edge. “Just needed a moment to complain about our current state of affairs before we got down to business.”

After trying nearly every start-up routine, I finally got Mark to power on using the acute force ignition coupled with a power cycle. Basically, I hit him really hard then switched on the core.

“ - get you out of this! Trust me!” he zoomed frantically around the chamber before realizing where he was. “Oh, you’re alive. Did I miss something?”

“Welcome back, Mark,” Isaac said.

We caught him up to speed with Micah’s tacit explanation, and proceeded to come up with a plan. He reacted in mild shock and indifferent acceptance. I suppose none of this really affected him as much as it affected us.

“The Director said his virtual AI core is somewhere inside this building,” Cora noted. “Let’s find it and disable it. This whole world is one big program, surely we can find a way to delete the virus and free people from the simulation.”

“What if he was lying?” Jared argued.

“He’s not, trust me,” Cora said.

“Either way, I can’t die,” Isaac said with a small degree of concern. “If I can’t die, how will I get out of the simulation?!” his breathing got heavier.

“Hey, hey!” Raphael tried to calm him down. “When the time comes, I’ll use my power to let you die.”

“You…you’d do that?”

“Of course!”

“Thanks, man. Sorry guys, I just got worried there for a second.”

“No worries. And besides, it’s safer to take him down from here,” I said. “This spaceship, we have no way of navigating it, nor would we have our powers in the real world.”

“I’m detecting large amounts of data transfer coming from the highest levels of the building,” Mark said.

“Seems like the obvious place,” Jared said. “Where are we now?”

“Level B5, five floors below ground level.”

“Better find a way up then.”

Chapter 18

Leaving through the exit doors, we found ourselves running through long hallways lined with large pipes and doors. We passed maintenance closets, locked rooms, and stairs that led further down. But no way up.

“Hang on,” Isaac stopped. “If the Director controls reality within this building, isn’t it possible that he deleted any route that would get us to the higher levels?”

“He has limited control, but yes that is possible,” Cora responded.

“Then…what if there is no way out?”

“Found an elevator!” Rachel called out from around the next corner.

Isaac sighed with relief, and we headed towards her. It was very spacious, probably meant for transporting heavy objects throughout the building. I wondered why there was a need for something like that; at one time, the Director could just rewrite the code to make an object appear anywhere he wanted.

We piled into the elevator, all dozen or so of us. I realized I’d never actually been in one of these before, only heard about how they were used to traverse skyscrapers in the days before the war. I had only ever been in two or three story buildings, so it came as a real shock when I saw that there were 163 floors.

“Wait, there’s no way it’s that easy, friends,” Aaron warned.

“Worst-case, he’ll make the elevator fall and Rachel can catch us,” Lynn said calmly.

I was skeptic, but we made it to the 20th floor without incident. Maybe the Director couldn’t see us from here, maybe his reach was more limited than he let on. I watched nervously as the floor numbers got higher and higher.

30. 40. 50. Faint music began to play from the speakers above as we picked up speed.

80. 90. 100. My ears began to feel a strange pressure building up inside them as we rapidly advanced upward.

120. 130. 140. We began to slow down as we reached our final stop.

150. 160. 162. And here is where my hopes of an easy climb were shattered.

You were right. There is no way on Earth it would be that easy.

There were no speakers or cameras this time. It was as if he was talking directly from the air around us, his voice wrapping around our minds. Suddenly, the cabin groaned and shuddered. I heard the sound of cables snapping overhead, and the lights flickered as we lost suspension. Rachel quickly extended her hands to either side of her and held the elevator telekinetically. Jared rushed to help her hold us up as we backed away from his flapping wings. After a minute, they gradually released their hold of the elevator.

“Wait, it’s not…it’s not falling anymore,” Jared said warily.

“You guys could stand to lose a few pounds,” Rachel said, rubbing her temples.

We pried the doors open, and I stuck my head out to take a look around. But there was nothing to see. Complete darkness in every direction. We were in an elevator floating in a sea of nothingness.

I can alter data. But I can also take it away.

“C-Cora?” Isaac asked warily. “Any way out of this?”

There’s nothing here. Besides us in this metal box, there’s absolutely nothing.”

“Worst case, she says. Rachel will catch us, she says,” Rachel repeated with a sigh.

“No! There has to be a way out!” Jared cried as he flew out of the cabin, straight into the darkness.

“Wait!” we called after him.

But only a few seconds passed before we heard a thud on the other side of the elevator. Then, Jared appeared in the doorway. He was breathing heavily, probably due to the dwindling oxygen supply.

“W-what…how?”

“We’re stuck in a null loop. There’s no physical way to get out of this,” Aaron said, looking around nervously.

It’s not the most elegant solution…actually, in a way, it is.

His voice was was incredibly loud, yet very dull and distant. Our panic lasted some time before we were able to start thinking of possible solutions. It took another several minutes for my thought process to become desperate enough for me to have a very strange thought. I sat down and shut my eyes. I imagined that familiar small fire ignited over a bundle of wood, as I always did when using my power. The flames danced along the night sky, embers escaping to fly free among the stars. I pictured the flames frozen in place. Within the same second, the glow became constant and steady, and the embers remained trapped in mid-air. I focused on this image for some time. Then, I tried something I'd never thought to do before. I imagined the fire receding back into the wood. Moving, but against its natural, entropic flow. It was working within the vision, and I prayed the results would manifest in reality. Or at least, virtual reality. I saw the flame get sucked back into the ground, my consciousness transfixed on this movement. Suddenly, my concentration was interrupted by Cora’s familiar words.