Virtual Prophet (24 page)

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

Three days ago, one of the greatest players of all time made her exit from Earth.

In a very quiet affair presided over by select friends and lifelong companions, the avatar of Danielle Radfield was disconnected from life support and allowed to pass away peacefully.

All over Earth, people gathered to mourn the passing of their beloved leader and newly anointed Prophet.

Across Tygon, reactions to the event were met with a mixture of sadness at the passing of a truly diverse and remarkable character, but also celebration as Alexandra Montoyas exited her play in triumph.

Just a year ago, Alexandra, who now calls herself Danielle, failed completely out of the Game and was consigned to government schooling. A year after suffering from such horrible luck, the Game computer awarded her a free play. No one thought the young player would be able to do much with her free entrance into the Game, most believed she would do her best to gather whatever safe credits she could in hopes of earning her way back into some small amount of prosperity until she turned eighteen and graduated.

Danielle has managed to do considerably more than eke out a few points to earn another play; this young lady has turned the Game on its head and finished her free play as one the highest scoring player in the entire thirty year history of the Game!

Much of Danielle’s wealth remains undetermined, as most of the credits she stands to earn rest on the outcome of the current scenario going on across Earth. If the Chosen are able to complete their goal and teach the NPCs of the planet to ‘wake up,’ then Danielle will be almost as wealthy as her boyfriend Trew Radfield, successor to Brandon Strayne and heir to his fortune and empire.

As fans wonder why it is so important to teach NPCs how to ‘wake up’ and we all guess at what will happen to them and where they will go if they are able to learn the process, Danielle and Trew spend some well-earned private time together for the next few days...

Danni and Trew lay in bed and watched Lisa’s update on the viewer. She grabbed the remote, turned the viewer off, and nuzzled her face into Trew’s neck.

Trew smiled and put his arm around Danni, drawing her closer and kissing the top of her head.

“It was a nice ceremony,” Danni said. “Small and positive.”

“It was,” Trew agreed. They’d watched the ceremony through Brandon’s feed. It was a happy celebration of the life that Danni had, and the accomplishments she’d achieved. Most of the attendees were Timeless, so they knew that she wasn’t gone forever, just moved on to Tygon.

After they had watched the ceremony in the command centre, Trew made certain everyone knew their roles and then left Cooper in charge, announcing that he would be indisposed for the next day and only to disturb him if something unexpected occurred. Then he had grabbed Danielle gently by the hand and led her to his penthouse suite.

  “This is wonderful,” Danni said. “I can’t believe we get to do this for an entire week!”

Trew laughed softly and shook his head. “I wish that were true, Danni. There’s much to do, even outside of the Game.”

Danni nodded and caressed Trew’s face. “I see stress lines on your face,” she said. “Too much for a young man, if you ask me.”

Trew chuckled and touched her hand. “Most of them were caused by worrying over you.”

Danni laughed and slapped him playfully on the shoulder. “There was never anything to worry about, silly. I had things well in hand all the time. Well, most of the time.”

“Of course you did.” Trew got out of bed and walked to the kitchenette where he poured two cups of fresh coffee. Danni sat up and accepted a mug as he got back into bed with her.

“The Game won’t end, then?” she asked.

“There’s still a chance it will,” he said. “If NPCs don’t wake up, then the place they come from won’t be able to provide power to the Game, and Tygon simply can’t generate enough energy to keep it going.”

Trew hadn’t told Danni the entire truth. He’d told her that NPCs were beings from another reality, and they’d been sharing the Game as a common living area. He had told her that Melissa was from another reality, and that the players there had become trapped in the Game — their real bodies were in danger of dying, which would wipe out their entire population. Trew had further explained that the ultimate goal of the Game was to help NPCs wake up and return to their own reality.

He had not told her the truth about Tygon; that this ‘reality’ of theirs wasn’t real at all. He might tell her eventually, but now wasn’t the time. He still wasn’t sure he was dealing with the truth very well and he didn’t see the point in causing confusion or pain to anyone else. “Everything looks good,” he said, “but you never know for sure until the final card has been played. Luck can change everything in an instant.”

“Do you think Brandon and Cooper are right?” she asked. “Is the difficult part done? There seems to be a sense of relief and calmness now, like we’re all just watching pieces of the puzzle fall neatly into place instead of praying for a miracle.”

“I agree. The hard part was doing the impossible. Now that waking up from the Game has been accomplished once, it can be done any time. We just need to get enough people focused on it, and Brandon will take care of that.”

“So we wait until the Chosen are old enough to lead, then they do their thing, and then billions of NPCs wake up and leave the Game to return to their own reality.”

“That’s right,”

“Then what?”

Trew smiled and kissed her on the forehead. He appeared calm and relaxed, but inside he was worried about the answer to her question. He’d asked himself the same thing and wondered what Thorn and Brandon would do once their people had been saved and Tygon had served its purpose. Would they shut it down? Tygon was just a computer simulation populated by programs. In his mind Trew could shut the Game down with no thought to the consequences... at least he could have, before learning that his own world was as unreal as the Game was.

Trew embraced his girl and closed his eyes, trying to forget the number one question occupying his mind as time ran out.

Once the Dreamers were saved... would Tygon and the Game be shut down forever?

CHAPTER SIXTY

“Good evening, Sylvia.”

“Hello, you two lovebirds.” Trew and Danni could hear the playful, girlish tone in Sylvia’s greeting, which made them both smile. “How are you enjoying your alone time together?”

“Loving it!” Danni said as she held Trew’s arm and pulled him tighter towards her.

“I’m a little confused about why you’re both entering this office in the middle of the night. Of course, you must want to talk with me, but I can’t begin to imagine about what.”

“There are questions we would like cleared up,” Danni said.

“I’ll do my best to answer whatever you ask,” Sylvia said. “Fire away.”

“You told me the Game would end when Danni died,” Trew said.

“That’s correct.”

“We hoped that her waking up from the simulation would be a loophole, a way to bring her out without ending the Game.”

“It appears that you were right,” Sylvia confirmed.

“We also guessed that the Game would not end when her avatar stopped functioning,” Trew said.

“That one was easy,” Sylvia said. “The Game ending had nothing to do with her avatar; it depended solely on the fate of her spark, essence, or whatever you want to call it. The only way a player’s spark can return to the body on Tygon is if the avatar dies on Earth. You found a way around that which cancelled the effect that was laid out for ending the Game. When Brandon allowed Danni’s avatar to die, he knew for a certainty that nothing bad would happen.”

“So there’s no way to turn the Game off?” Danni asked.

“There are ways,” Sylvia assured them, “but it requires unanimous action by the Game Masters and a list of other actions that must all be done in proper sequence. The complete sequence is known to only one person living on Tygon, and the individual components are known to each person who is to be involved.”

Danni looked at Trew. “Are you the one who knows the entire sequence?” she asked.

Trew nodded.

“What else can I answer for you?” Sylvia asked.

“When the NPCs wake up in their own reality, what happens to the Game? There will be a huge void of characters.”

“I’ve got that covered,” Sylvia said. “I will replace the consciousness of each empty NPC with an exact replica of the intelligence that currently inhabits it. Once the real sparks leave the avatars and return to their own reality, I will make certain the new digital personalities kick in so that we can continue to have them present in the Game for our players to interact with.”

“Sounds elaborate and complicated,” Danni said.

“I’m fairly powerful on Earth,” Sylvia’s voice contained the hint of a smile. “I think I’ll be able to pull it off.”

“So let me get this straight,” Danni shook her head. “NPCs are players in the Game from another reality. We are going to teach them how to wake up so that they return to their bodies and avoid dying on their home planet. At the exact instant their spark leaves their Earth avatars, you will implant digital replicas into the avatars so that they continue to function exactly as they did before they left their avatars?”

“That’s right,” Sylvia said. “If a Tygon player has two parents that are NPCs, when those avatars wake up and their sparks leave Earth, I will implant new personalities back into the avatars so that the Tygon player has the same parents, so far as they know. That way the Tygon player continues to play the exact Game they were playing, and the original NPC spark returns to their home reality to avoid death.”

“Why is saving these NPCs so important?” Danni asked.

“You’ll have to wait for the answer to that question,” Sylvia said. “It is very important, though.”

“How did they get into our Game, or did we get put into theirs?”

“I see where your mind is going, but none of these questions will help you at the moment. I think the two of you should spend a little more time together and forget about the world... all of them. Then in a day or two, come out of your bedroom and make plans to help with the final stages of the Awakening event.”

Danni sighed and looked at Trew. He nodded in agreement, and so did she. “Okay, I guess it won’t hurt to relax for a couple of days and help in whatever ways we can.”

“Off you go, then,” Sylvia chuckled. “Unless you have nothing better to do than sit and talk to a disembodied voice coming out of speakers in an office.”

Danni grinned at Trew. “We have better things to do. Thanks Sylvia, we’ll see you in a day or two.”

“Have fun, you two.”

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

Azrael - one week after Danni’s avatar has died.

Stonehenge.

This spot has always been important to me; to u
s.
The six of us had fun creating so many of the mysteries of the world, leaving behind curious structures and stories so that players might choose to devote their plays, or even more than one play, to the pursuit of finding the answers to questions we raised. I think it’s one of the traits that makes us who we are as intelligent creatures; the desire to know more, to learn and figure out puzzles. To discover the rules of the games and then master them. It’s been important to me, that’s for certain.

I stand in the middle of the structure and look at my watch. It’s almost time for them to arrive.

Five bright white doorways appear simultaneously, all equidistant from each other. I smile as each of my Hand members arrive. Gabriel, Shane, Raphael, Angelica, and Carl. My team in the Dream included me as part of the five, because our goal was to become the Hand of the General. Once inside this game, I realized that I would need my own complete group of five, and Carl was the proper choice to fill that spot.

We spend the next hour catching up. I won’t bore you with it; if you’re watching me, then you’ll see it all anyway.

===

“Can we finally get down to business?” Carl asks. His look conveys impatience and disgust for the past hour that we’ve spent hugging and crying and making small talk, but we all know that he enjoyed it too.

“All business and no play makes you a dull boy, Carl,” Angelica says teasingly. Carl looks at her and the smallest trace of a grin forms on his face. One of the first things I had to do when I got in here was go unblock Angelica. In her mind she thought she was a new Timeless recruit; part of a plan that thankfully never needed to continue. I feel bad about putting a mind block on her and having her forget exactly who she was for a few years, but if things had gone differently it could have been a crucial backup plan. Long story short, I removed the block and she remembers the entire history of her life. That’s an interesting story; I wonder if someday it will be available for Firsting...

Once Carl knew that she’d been restored, their ‘animosity’ towards each other faded. Angelica did some nasty stuff to him inside the Game when she was a player, and he definitely wanted revenge for that. Who knows, he still might try, although he’s a professional and knows it was all part of a bigger plan.

Carl’s smile resembles that of a hungry tiger. “Play? Does that mean I get to go hunting?”

“Likely before we’re through, the answer to that question will be yes,” I say. “Let’s sit down and discuss what we have to accomplish here over the next fifteen years.”

We assemble at an old stone table rising from the ground in the middle of the ancient structure; another little treasure we hid under the ground that no one ever seemed to be able to find. A wine glass filled with pale blue liquid sits at each seat, and I raise my glass.

I propose a toast. “Impossible, my ass!” I say, using a long ago remark one of us made about the chances of saving our world from extinction.

The others laugh and raise their glasses as well, repeating my toast and drinking deeply.

“Gabriel,” I say. “Tell us what needs to be done.”

Gabriel nods and pulls out an ancient worn leather notebook from the breast pocket of his suit. “We will be responsible for controlling the Timeless on each continent. All will answer to us; the program has initiated properly in that regard.”

I nod my head and look at the eyes of each person sitting here. Gold, crimson, and platinum flecks all swirl in each of our eyes now. The colour will match whichever Timeless we are in front of for the remainder of the Game, allowing us to be seen as brothers and sisters to ensure their cooperation. Infernals will lean towards the nasty side of things and Eternals the nicer, but we will guide them both towards our common goal. Speaking of which... “Everyone knows the main goal for the next fifteen years, right?” I ask.

Shane nods. “Restore technology and society, while fostering support and encouragement for the Chosen.”

“I’ve already held a few of the little buggers,” Carl says. “It’s gonna be impossible for anyone not to love them. They resonate powerfully. It’ll be a cakewalk getting them nurtured and trained to fulfill their roles.”

“Good,” I say. I reach beneath my chair and place a black case onto the table. I open it up and remove six sleek cell phones and hand them out. “These phones will work anywhere in the Game. We can keep in constant touch with each other between face to face meetings. I would like to meet back here once a month to start. If we feel that’s too much, then we can change the frequency. Any questions?”

“Seems pretty straightforward from this point on,” Angelica says.

“At least until the big moment,” Gabriel smiles.

I nod in agreement. “There will be challenges, but nothing we can’t handle,” I say. “When the billions are sitting on mats and meditating so that they can all wake up... well, I’m still a bit nervous about that.”

“Not exactly blockbuster movie material is it?” Shane asks. “Civilization’s entire fate rests on its ability to sit quietly and... meditat
e
..
.?
”

The group chuckles at what such a scene would look like on a movie screen. “I know it’s not glamorous, but the fate of the Dream does rest on it. If anyone else had a better idea, you should have shared it with me decades ago.”

“Hey,” Carl shrugs. “If the fate of humanity rested on us being able to solve a serious crossword puzzle, then we would all roll up our sleeves and sharpen our pencils to get it done correctly. Let someone else worry about big action scenes and explosions. We’re saving a race from extinction, here.”

“I agree,” I say.

“What happens after that?” Angelica asks.

I look at her and raise my eyebrows for further clarification.

“With this Game.” She sweeps her arm to indicate this reality. “Do we keep it? Or flip the switch and turn it off?”

I shake my head. “We can worry about that later,” I take a sip of wine, hoping no one sees that I’m trying to hide something important. “Let’s keep our eyes on the main goal, and discuss what happens after that... after that.”

Everyone nods, and I can tell from their reactions that they didn’t catch anything suspicious in my response.

“It’s really good to see you all again,” I say. I look around and it’s obvious that I’m not the only one overcome with emotion. Everyone at the table nods in agreement; we are the only family any of us has ever had, after all.