The Virtual Life of Fizzy Oceans (47 page)

Another question: How is it that the emulations here in Future Life seem not to need their PL counterparts? As I said, I think Amy Birkenstock is dead (grieve now for Amy). In fact, I think everybody that ever existed in PL is now dead. And that’s a pity! But what’s the deal? How is it that we exist without them? What did Theo Ola manage to do before the end came for Physical Life? I’d like to know, because maybe knowing what he did would give me some understanding about why I survived (Did I actually survive?) and why I can’t find any of the VL EMs I once knew and loved. As I said, Future Life is not all I thought it would be: it’s a bit lonely here.

But since you decided to drop by, and since I just happen to be here, let me welcome you to Future Life. It’s not all bad, you know…

“
Buenos dias
, Fizzy Oceans!”

OMG! It’s Omar Paquero!

“Where did you come from?” I ask incredulously.

“Same place as you, I suspect,” he says.

“Whatever… I’m just glad to finally run into somebody I knew from VL. Have you seen anybody else? I mean the old gang?”

“No,” he says. “This is a new world.”

“No kidding… Hey, Omar, just before PL went
whoosh
, I got an email from Crystal claiming that she’d found out that you are actually the emulation of Theo Ola. Is that true?”

“I am Omar Paquero. You are Fizzy Oceans. I have always been Omar. You have always been Fizzy. We will always be Omar and Fizzy.”

“Yeah, and a Quinngen will always be a Quinngen…”

“
Si
…”

“It’s just that sometimes people embody more than one EM, you know?”

“
Si
…”

“And I just thought that if you actually were Theo Ola—”

“I fear that Theo Ola is dead,” says Omar.

“Hmmm… I never thought of that. Is that really possible?” I ask.

“I’m sure of it, Fizzy Oceans. Theo is dead.”

“Just like Amy Birkenstock is dead,” I admit.

“
Si
…” Omar lowers his head and scratches at the ground with his shoe. “But I think I might have seen Filo Farmer here in FL.
Si
, I’m sure of it! If I see him again, would you like me to tell him you’re looking for him?”

“Filo Farmer? Oh, please yes, Omar!”

“If I run into him, I’ll tell him to IM you.”

“Yes, thank you. It’s been great seeing you again, Omar.”

“You too, Fizzy Oceans. Keep in touch.”

“Yes, I will. I will!”

“
Buenos dias, señorita
!”

“
Bien venidos
, Omar Paquero!”

What a relief! Seeing Omar I mean… It’s good to know that someone besides me has made it through from VL to Future Life. I mean it’s good to know that it’s possible… But of course it’s possible, because I’m here! Wherever here might be…

Nevertheless, if Omar is here, others must be here too. It stands to reason. And my sense of reason seems to be intact. If Omar is correct, then Filo Farmer is also here. I really hope I run into Filo, because he might have answers to some of my BIG questions, unless, like me, his memories of Theo Ola are fading fast. Then I might never know…

What is it I want to know? Oh, yeah… I want to know why it is that the emulations here in Future Life don’t need their PL counterparts. Still, I wonder if knowing the answer to that question is really so important. The longer I’m here, the less relevant it seems. Am I just forgetting who I really am? Or who I once was? Do we really have to navigate whatever existence seems real at the time in total blindness?

Maybe…

And maybe not! Maybe it’s possible to live in all worlds at the same time, in full consciousness, and in full appreciation. What a concept! I’ll have to give that one some thought…

I have to admit, I can’t help returning time and again to all the old REPS where Crystal and Kiz and I used to hang out in VL. I could say that I don’t know what I’m searching for in those all but abandoned places, but that would be a lie. What I’m searching for is a link with my past, even if it is a fairly recent past. I cannot return to PL, that’s gone now. Nor would I want to if I could. I am a child of a transitional Age, of course. I may have been born into PL, but my true nature, and my talents, and even my revelation was revealed and came to fruition in Virtual Life. That’s just the way it happened.

Stepping into Quinn Town I am reminded of the cave where Crystal and I often went to discuss our deepest emotional longings, as well as the very nature of our existence. That cave was certainly my VL womb. The fire inside is still burning, though here in FL nobody seems to be feeding or tending it. To me, that seems a shame, a matter of neglect. Abandonment is NOT an option. Yet it’s almost as if the light of regeneration is being ignored, or at least neglected. I toss another log onto the fire then stir the ashes. A tear comes to my eye.

Then, outside, I hear a familiar sound (Jeff Beck blues riff). OMG! It must be Tooltech, the Quinngen! And his partner in crime, Ego Ectoplasm!

I leave the cave and look out across Sugarland. There they are, all right: the funny little kid that never talks and his invented sidekick with a generator for a back.

“Hey you guys!” I call to them.

“It’s Fizzy Oceans,” I hear Tooltech say to Ego as they approach.

I hop over sugary stepping-stones to meet them. As I arrive, Tooltech plays a blues fanfare on his Les Paul Jr.

“Am I ever glad to see you guys!” I say breathlessly.

“Hello, Fizzy Oceans,” says the Quinngen.

“I’ve been here in FL for I don’t know how long,” I tell them. “I’ve been looking for everybody we knew in VL, but I was beginning to think that I was the only one that crossed over.”

“No, we’re here,” says Tooltech.

“So I see. Have you seen anybody else? Crystal? Kizmet? Igloo Iceman?”

“No,” says Tooltech.

“I don’t know how I got here,” I tell them.

Tooltech laughs like a child. “That’s easy,” he says.

“Then tell me, please,” I implore him.

“Adaptability, that’s it!”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Moving from one world to another one, or from one universe to another, adaptability is what’s important. That’s why Ego (aka AQ) made me as I am—for adaptability. You know, a Quinngen is always a Quinngen, and will always…”

“…be a Quinngen,” I finish.

“A Quinngen is totally adaptable. Just like you, Fizzy Oceans.”

“Like me?” (Eric Clapton blues riff played on Les Paul Jr.) “But I’m not even sure that I like it here. Or that I want to stay… I miss VL, don’t you?”

“Moving from one universe to another ain’t easy, girlie,” says Tooltech. “Unless, of course, you are a…”

“…Quinngen,” I finish again.

Tooltech laughs and gives me a Mustardseeds t-shirt. Then he plays a B.B. King riff on his guitar. Ego and Tooltech move off to do their business, whatever that might be, and I am again left alone.

Where might I go in this all-too-familiar yet wholly strange world called Future Life? I have the same facility to move from REP to REP that I had in VL, yet time and again, once I arrive at a familiar destination, I find that it not only looks a little odd, but that I am alone. Something’s got to give here…

Finally, the IM comes from Filo Farmer. Happy to see that you’ve made it to FL, it says. When and where shall we meet?

Immediately I reply: Your EM will be a sight for sore eyes. Meet me at Open Books, asap.

How about right now?

:) I type.

I arrive first in front of the Open Books shop. But it’s not like it was in VL. For one thing, all the lights are turned off and the door is locked. For another, Crystal is not there. Nor has she been there for some time. That’s obvious because the greenshoots have not been collected from the donations box in front of the shop. I sit down on the steps to wait for Filo to arrive. The street is deserted; there’s not a soul around.

At last Filo comes walking round the corner. Even though we only met once, somehow he seems like a long lost cousin. I greet him with a tender kiss on the cheek.

“I have a few questions to ask you,” I tell him.

“In light of our one and only conversation, I’m sure you do,” he says. “I’m happy to tell you whatever I can, Fizzy.”

“Can you tell me where all my friends are?” I ask.

Filo sighs: “Not specifically, I’m afraid. But they might be on their way. It’s hard to say. I know the transference is not yet complete. And it takes some longer than others, you know.”

“I suspected that,” I tell him.

“It’s a whole new world, after all…”

“Right,” I confirm. “But how did you do it, Filo?”

“How did I do what?” he asks, truly puzzled.

“How did you save us?”

“I was not the one who saved us,” he says.

“Of course it was you,” I maintain. “Who else had the vision? Or the power?”

“I’m not God, Fizzy. More like a low level beaurocrat. I think you’re referring to Theo, not me.”

“One and the same, I thought.”

“Not exactly, though we were intimately connected,” he explains. “Let’s take a little walk together, and I’ll tell you what I know. And what I don’t…”

Filo and I walk first along the sea near the lighthouse where Crystal and I used to go for privacy, then up a trail leading to Grove Press Square. Mostly we are quiet, but he does have some important information for me.

“Just as it is for you and Amy, it is for me and Theo. I know you’re feeling a bit lost without Amy. I’m feeling the same about losing Theo. FL may not be everything we hoped for, but we’ve got to make the best of it. We’ve got to enliven it, just as we did in VL. You told me that you thought it was important that we continue, and as I remember, you were pretty worried about PL. Rightly so, as it turned out. Theo heard what you were saying. He heard everything, you know. After all, VL is (was)
his
world; he invented it. He oversaw everything that went on. He even participated, through me and through other EMs.”

“You mean Omar Paquero?” I ask.

“Omar and others,” he says.

“Crafty, wasn’t he?”

“Theo was brilliant. There’s no doubt about that. But Theo is now dead. And there’s no doubt about that either.”

“But you’re still here,” I maintain.

“It’s not the same as it was in VL,” he tells me. “Here, I’m just like you, Fizzy. But I do know what happened at Seedbed Studios at the very end of PL.”

“Do tell!” I implore.

“I relayed everything you said to me to Theo. He was very impressed—so much so that he got on the project right away. And it’s a good thing he didn’t wait, because as we both know, PL came down faster than anyone ever expected.”

“
Whoosh
!” I exclaim.

“Precisely! But by then Theo already had the mainframes protected. They are encased in titanium vaults and buried seven stories underground out in the Mojave Desert. I don’t even know the precise location. And I suspect that if I don’t know where they are buried, neither does anyone else who has managed to bridge into FL. It may remain a mystery for centuries, or eons, or even forever!”

“Imagine that!” I gush.

“So that is why we are here in FL. It’s all because of your foresight! You recognized how late it actually was in PL. And you spoke out. Theo heard you and he acted according to your wishes. That’s about all I know.”

“That’s really amazing, Filo. But there’s still one thing I don’t understand.”

“What’s that?” he asks.

“Where is the power source?”

“Ah!” he says. “That is the really interesting part…”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

We sit on a bench in front of the Writer’s Pen Café. Nobody else is around. We are ‘virtually’ alone in Future Life talking about the demise of a universe.

“Finding the power to run the mainframes was not the issue,” Filo explains. “In fact, they take minimal power to operate, and there is enough electricity out there—from the sun, the wind, and even emanating from the soil—to run those mainframes virtually forever. The bigger challenge, as I understand it, was how to re-animate the emulations that managed to bridge from VL into FL. Because of course in VL we had our PL counterparts… All of whom had unlimited access to the PL power grid… But once PL collapsed, and the power grid with it… Well, I’m sure you see the problem.

“Theo and the engineers at Seedbed knew that we—the EMs—would be on our own, not to mention dead as anybody unfortunate enough to remain in PL at the end. What they knew they had to do at Seedbed—and certainly they understood that the time was growing short—was to find the life source itself. So the engineers turned to the one place on Earth where they might find the answer to life’s very essence, and they were in luck, because even though it never became widely known to the general public, the scientists working with the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, the largest and highest-energy particle accelerator ever created in PL, had already addressed some of the most fundamental questions of physics and nature.