Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) (20 page)

"No, User Legate. I must stay, present, for as long as possible," It responded with the male tone overpowering the quieter female one.

"You don't need to stay for me, Jeeves." I shook my head and floated closer to the hole in our ship. Whatever material made up the front window seemed fairly solid.

"We, they, did not send one of ourselves into this world simply to assist you, User Legate," Hal Pal said. The harness locking it in stayed securely around its chest.

I blinked a few times, or at least my vision did. The existence of my own eyelids remained unknown. Hal Pal had every right to be worried and choose to stay in here instead of running away. I wish my own existence had been programmed with such certainty. It would have made my start to Continue Online a lot smoother.

"Why then?" I asked while looking out. The gas giant floated off in the distance. A wall of rocks flew about wildly, no doubt from our earlier passing. One, in particular, spun rapidly but traveled slow.

"We said it before. Our problems define us, User Legate. Do you overcome your limitations by performing repetitive tasks within your comfort zone, or by facing new challenges?"

I stared at Hal Pal for a long while. The
[Mechanoid]
version of my work companion looked back without blinking. Memories of my first experience with Continue Online flashed through.

Months ago I had been trying that first route which amounted to using a routine to keep myself from falling apart. Receiving the game, running into Dusk, performing all those challenges, however stressful, all of it served to break me away from my old self and move forward again. I honestly felt like a better person than I had been, even if Xin wasn't a factor. Getting out of my own head by having goals to strive for helped. Seeing the positive reaction upon completing tasks meant something.

"I get it," I said and nodded. "If you ever feel it's too much, I will understand if you need to log out."

"Thank you, User Legate." The golden color on Hal Pal's body gained back a portion of formerly lost luster.

"Okay." We had to get back to the task at hand. further discussion of this topic could wait until we made it to the
[Wayfarer Seven]
. "We need a plan."

"The ship will not be ready in time to return to the
[Wayfarer Seven]
." Hal Pal brought up a few menu screens. Its face stayed passive despite the status report.

"Okay." The layover was twelve hours. We burned a little under two flying around out here and running from the
[Leviathan]
. Repairs would take longer than ten. "We need something else."

"I find myself at a loss for handling unforeseen situations."

"Yeah. Being trapped in space on a giant monster wasn't in my plans either." I looked outside again. We weren't really moving from the information available. Maybe
[Leviathan]
had defaulted to a dormant state, like when we first ran across it.

"It is illogical," Hal Pal said. The female nanny voice almost tittered with laughter but managed to keep straight.

"Can we scavenge parts?" If this creature ate ships we might find something.

"It is unlikely any substance remains outside the Leviathan."

Not neat. Terrible. I took a breath and tried to calm down. The music grew annoying and I demanded the ARC switch it to something calmer. Classical, something with woodwinds. It helped me let go of some stress. We were only minutes out of the chase and anything could go wrong in an instant.

"Okay. How about inside it?" I shook my head and started whittling down the options. Risking my life for parts to help Hal Pal and Dusk get away would be acceptable. Dangerous, finding a way inside would take time.

We were on the tail end so there had to be a way inside somehow. Voices, I was calmly thinking of crawling up through the monster's butthole to find ship parts. Part of me mourned at being desensitized to video game monster guts. Oh well.

"Unknown. There is not enough information available. Few survive an encounter with one of these," the AI said.

"It eats ships. It has to be heavy with metals or plastics. I'd bet on metal. Asteroids have metal right?" I was throwing out ideas now. It felt like the right track, but part of my responses also felt like desperation. Hope glimmered faintly in the distance.

Maybe this could work. We could somehow use various alloys, space magic, maybe lingering water particles that consolidated on rocks. I vaguely remembered combining both items in high school. Okay, maybe there had been topics of interest back then. I still stood firm that learning about curing leather by using urine should have been in science somewhere.

"Affirmative. Your statement does seem likely. I will scan," Hal Pal said. We could make it through. Everyone was on board, Dusk would end up chewing on some small creature, Hal Pal could do the scientific stuff. I would whack things. Our party could survive.

A noise came out of Hal Pal as it worked with the interface. I could see a small bar up above indicating an action being completed. Interesting, I had never taken note of other people's skills showing progress status. Maybe it was a
[Mechanoid]
thing. Continue Online certainly didn't perform that way.

While Hal scanned, I poked my head outside. We were basically floating, not just the
[Leviathan]
, but our small party of three only stayed in place because the ship had a ceiling. There were a number of options available and all of them sounded dangerous.

How did that math problem go? If the
[Wayfarer's Hope]
leaves this belt moving four hundred miles per hour, and the
[Leviathan]
chases us at four hundred and fifty miles an hour, then how long before we're all turned into fish chow? Luckily my accounting degree wasn't required for a calculation.

"It had giant teeth right?" I asked while trying to follow up a half-formed idea. It was that or calculate exactly how big this asteroid belt was.

"I took note of numerous giant fangs, yes," Hal said.

"Rows right?" I shook my head. Hal was distracted but still answering. "More than one?

"Yes." Hal Pal paused its air poking to look at me. Its head tilted to one side and lifted a cheek in question. "Are you suggesting that maybe it grinds food down?"

"Likely. Then maybe some digestive method to break down the metal further," I spoke while pushing out past Hal Pal and grabbing onto the hole's edge. My feet touched the
[Leviathan]
's skin. "It had an eyeball, but this skin, it's like metal. Is it more likely that it somehow absorbs the metal portions?"

"That does not bode well for us." It came to the same conclusion I did. There would be no crawling inside or finding some secret dungeon involving the giant space eel's innards. Not for creatures like us.

"No." I agreed.

We were
[Mechanoid]
s. Metal absorption would likely screw us over as much as any acid. At least my feet didn't seem to be risking anything out here on the outer shell. Maybe we could send Dusk off to gnaw on the creature's brain stem.

Actually, the more I thought of that idea, the better it sounded. Dusk ignored regular rules in Continue, he would probably be kind of broken in a game where he didn't even belong. I filed the idea away for later.

"Can we blow it up?" I tried another route.

"I did not prepare any form of explosives," Hal Pal answered.

"How about the Wayfarer's Hope? Can we cannibalize a portion of it?" I checked another possibility. We only had so many items. If Continue Online taught me one thing, it was video games always had a way. Generally always. Maybe. I hoped.

"Possibly." Hal Pal stared off into literal space while thinking. "Yes. There is enough material inside to isolate alkaline, combine it with moisture from the surface-"

"I'm not good with chemicals, Jeeves." Both my hands went up to stave off further explanation. Hal Pal probably couldn't see them from the cockpit. "Just tell me if we can use it to do enough damage."

"Yes. It will assist if we can use multiple charges to do enough damage. Once the threat has been removed the Wayfarer can send a craft to recover us."

"Alright. Another problem solved by violence."

"Ah. This game was designed with heavy human input, such a solution is expected."

"You think we could ask nicely not to be eaten?" I tried not to sound sarcastic. Part of me genuinely wondered if there were other options. Would
[Domestic Tamer]
allow us to get out somehow? Me, taming an enormous
[Leviathan]
and riding around, becoming a space pirate.

"Do you think this will work? Will we be able to cripple or kill it with only us?" I asked while trying to figure out how hard walking along this surface would be. Without gravity, I was basically tethered to nothing.

Wait, no, I had a solution. All those mindless hours cleaning the
[Wayfarer Seven]
's hull provided me the perfect skill. Giant spikes to use like mountain climbing anchors would have been neat too.

"It is unlikely that our current method has been tried. The chances are minimal that other humans have survived long enough to land upon the creature," Hal Pal said. The AI floated to the hole and peeked outside. Not anything risky, but certainly wary about being un-anchored.

I thought about the massive maw which had chased us through this region of space. Most people probably didn't have a small acid spitting
[Messenger's Pet]
to blind the creature either. Nor would they be foolish like I had been.

"Let's do it. How do we convert this?" I pointed to the ship.

"Fortunately, I have chosen to take up a construction core. It will assist in re-configuring the matrix holding our ship together." Hal responded.

That made me pause. Hal Pal's skill set was suspiciously convenient. Its ability to fight had clearly been lacking. Maybe the AI chose a crafting subset in order to feel more comfortable in the game. Perhaps he felt putting together objects was familiar like our job repairing ARC devices.

I had to trust the AI. It was that or let go, pushing off toward the
[Wayfarer Seven]
and hoping an emergency beacon would work. Worst case scenario we could try that. We had no decent means of acceleration to make it back in time. Nor long range communication. That would be a gamble.

"Turn the ship into a bomb, drag it to the right location, and set it off. Afterward, we enjoy fireworks and flag down our mothership. Sounds simple enough," I said it but didn't believe it. "Where do we place it?"

"Deep in the creature's rectum would likely be a good location," the other
[Mechanoid]
responded.

I laughed at Hal Pal. The moment of levity brought on by a machine AI from the past, posing as a machine AI from the distant future caught me off guard completely. How often would anyone else hear an AI suggest shoving explosives up a creature's ass with such a dry tone? I bet the club was pretty exclusive.

"Alright. Dusk, can you guide us to the best place for detonation?" I looked at my
[Messenger's Pet]
who was sniffing about the hole in
[Wayfarer's Hope]
. He pushed off the ship's hull with hind legs and whipped his tail into the
[Leviathan]
's shell.

Dusk looked up at me then along the great length of our giant ride. Nostrils flared and his head tilted in contemplation. A shrug rippled through. My small companion looked up with one eye squinting and gave a hesitant nod.

"What is it, boy, danger?" I tried to remember our communication methods from Continue Online. Reading his moods was way easier with smiley faces and thought bubbles.

Dusk nodded.

"Of course. Giant space monster that eats ships for a living. It probably has giant space lice." I hated bugs. All insects of any type drove me batty. Spiders were the worst, though. My skin itched and crawled without any assistance from the ARC's feedback.

Dusk nodded and coughed a globe of acid into the air.

"Ah. User Legate. I have recognized a hurdle."

"What?" I asked. My bladder was urgently demanding attention. Only by focusing on creating a plan had I been able to stave off the stinging pain.

"Without gravity, I will be unable to assist. I have no way to deliver a converted vehicle that far." Hal Pal peered over the edge. The AI wore a look of mild panic that had to be close to my own.

"Can we do a rope? Or a metal chain link? If we get something similar I can drag us," I said. Training for cleaning gave me some stats. Nothing superhuman or game breaking, but enough
[Brawn]
and
[Endurance]
for dragging a ship in through zero gravity. Maybe, hopefully.

"Are you sure, User Legate?"

"I've got practice, and if this is our only way, so be it." I nodded.

"Alright. This unit will attempt to channel the ship's self-repair into compositional restructuring. I see an option for a volatile mixture upon exposure to enough energy." Hal Pal ducked back inside the ship and pressed something that beeped. Not in the atmosphere, I heard the noise in my head.