QUANTUM WORLD
TURTLES ?
SEAN CLOHESY
With help from A.I.
Thomas didn't really go outside much, sometimes he didn't go out for days maybe weeks, but after he discovers he can manipulate the universe he ends up in a place he could never have imagined
Alternate earth, circa: 2172
What if there were second chances? Third chances? Fourth chances? Would he eventually be able to save the world from obliteration?
Would he even want to?
Follow along as he drifts through temporal space, again and again and again.
If you're just tuning in for the first time
don't worry
You don't need to know the Maths to take this seriously
Author’s Note
(or: A polite warning from the edge of reality)
I didn’t plan to write this book. It happened to me the way gravity happens to falling things. Each act began as a dream , the kind that doesn’t politely fade at breakfast but follows you into traffic, humming show tunes from another dimension. The rest I filled in using the first primitive AI I could find, mostly because it didn’t argue when I said I’d met God and He looked tired.
These pages are fragments from the dream layer, field notes from the space between blinks. Some people call it revelation. Others call it sleep deprivation. I call it Tuesday.
If you find hidden songs, half-finished prayers, or sentences that rearrange themselves when you look away don’t panic! That’s normal. The book is quantum; it changes depending on who’s reading it and how close they are to giving up on reality.
As for the title: yes, it says TURTLES? No, there aren’t any. You’ll just have to trust me that they’re implied , stacked, infinite and laughing.
Now read carefully. Or don’t. The Void’s patient.
(Motorcycle Monk, Occasional God, Professional Void Walker)
Chapter One
__________________________________________________________________________________
She walked me down the corridor, large Windows opened up into rooms containing Vikings, engineers, cyberpunk's, Cavemen, Buddhists , witches and warlocks, the list went on. There must have been fifty teams in this section alone all building a holographic universe.
“It’s a competition, A video game,?”I asked.
“Yeah basically, To see who can make the most interesting simulation. The more interesting the simulations are to the producers, The more money for the program, And the programs that have some form of power on their own are the top of the food chain when it comes to league money.”
It made sense now, it's always about money and sport. Some things never change.
"And we are looking for something, we just don't know what it is yet." She added
“Is that why you use teams from different eras?” I asked.
“Yup, we never know which team could hold a clue.” Katrina added, not really giving much away.
I wondered what it was they were really doing here, was it all about the show, or did the higher powers have some sort of ulterior motive that they didn't tell us about. there was always a secret layer under what they told us, that's how they kept control of the information.
Following her into a small room, I saw computers and equipment lit by neon lights in ultraviolet and teal. The Cyberpunk team leaned over a console in the centre of the room, all dressed in what looked like leather with luminescent strips and logos across them all i could make out was the japanese characters for ‘tech otaku’.
OTAKU : noun- a young person obsessed with computers or aspects of pop culture to the detriment of their social skills.
I surmised they were watching some sort of three dimensional code. Katrina leaned in and whispered that they like to keep an interest in the Eight terabytes of holographic media a minute that they were producing, on the Holoscene.
I wondered if whoever named it knew there was a band called Holoscene back where i came from? Northern pads would fit in as a backing track right about now.
I could see why the the politicians, engineers and cyberpunks make a decent living out of it, But they're just doing it for the attention, the excitement, or the cheap thrill of being so damn edgy,. Unfortunately, they're also losing something essential to their own existence in the process, most of them hadn't considered the bottom half of the food chain.The hungry and humble who don't have the ability or knowledge to write their own code base or hack someone else's for a couple of thousand Bitcoin..
Most people, especially in high-tech or big time finance, are just not very good at hacking, they lack the ability to understand the core infrastructure. Still, there are some of us who will put in the effort to learn the bits and pieces of the secret scripts that runs a universe like these guys. Mostly it's long and tedious, but it pays off when you get a little bit lucky, Like I did.
We stood there for a bit as the characters flickered past until one of the team noticed us
"Can we help you with anything?" A woman asked who had been standing with her back to us.
"Not really, just giving Thomas here the grand tour."replied Katrina.
"Ahh, so this is Thomas. Welcome to the institute."
"Thanks." I said as Katrina tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and followed her back outside.
"I'm sure we will be seeing lots more of you." The woman called out.
I remember a guy who had a physics degree in quantum harmonics. He could create the most beautiful universe simulations I'd ever seen. He once said he was sure there were no physical laws beyond those he could control from inside the simulation.
He worked on this thing for years, bringing together the talents of others to invent new computers and propose hypotheses , much of it within the bounds of his own area of research. In the end, he was able to offer a stunningly solid explanation of the relationship between the universe and light, it's what had led to all this, it's how I hacked my way out of the simulation in the first place.
Instead of guessing at the latest source code coming from the server, I gave it data about what I would like to simulate, and as a result, other players received the injected code. The concept is called "the photon seed wave fail" The seed is in charge of supplying data to the entire Universe, and communicating requests back to the clients. The waves are formed from the individual quantum processors on the network who receive this data, and they complete a request by checking the seed to see if the information matches their conditions. This kind of feedback loop becomes unstable as all the quantum states in the entire Universe turn on at once. They sure as hell were going to see that power spike!
Once they did, I focused past the simulation boundary to the external coordinates. And “Bazinga”, here I was in the control room for a dimension that wasn't home. Don't think I am going back anytime soon.
No amount of clicking my ruby red slippers was getting me back to Kansas anytime soon.
I could hear the sounds coming from the next room even before we got to the corner. A screaming howling roar, Like several wolves fighting over the bounty of the hunt mixed with shitty dubstep.
Walking in behind Katrina I could see several men in furs and silk robes.
"Mongolian" she yelled over the noise, "They like to fine tune the field harmonics using sound. ‘ gesturing towards a speaker array. “Never could understand it myself, something about Temporal dynamics of music.” she noted, “but hey I like disco."
The head Shaman, who was holding a purple glowing staff made of metal and glass, waved at a door in the back wall. We walked in and it closed behind us.
"They are quite smart, This is a time dilation chamber" she pointed out as we waited for the room to load into the buffers.
"So what are you looking for that could be hundreds of years old?" I asked.
"Yes, or even hundreds of years in the future,Time has no meaning in the sim." Katrina pointed in front of her.
I was just about to ask what happens next when a wave of light and particles smashed into my brain. It felt like I was able to see inside my own skull. As it kicked in the light turned into images, streams of data flowing through a four dimensional field.I could see myself standing there like a hall of mirrors” so this was a time probability matrix, but i had never experienced anything quite like this before. It was so real I could touch it. Katrina grabbed my arm as I reached out.
“It's a tactile interface. Just waving your hands around is going to get us into a lot of trouble!” she looked me in the eye, “Just look at the pretty pictures flyboy” then she burst out laughing.
“What's so funny ?” I asked as I put my hands in my pockets.
“Haha , they turned the tactile stuff off before we came in. They wouldn't let us near this shit if it was on.”
She stopped laughing and glared at me. “How you even made it to the threshold is beyond me!” And then she opened the door. “Time to go, We need to see the crew in a few minutes.”
As we walked up the stairs to the second floor she talked about the show.
“The goal is always to gain something for us, which is not always what happens when we switch on a new “guest” .When people ask if we hire AI, I say yes, whenever possible. I've done this a lot more in recent years, and I admit it's helped, but not as much as we hoped for . “Katrina noted.
"What's important is making it clear that this is a process with plenty of room for improvement and if we can use your wetware as a processor then we will.” she added.
'Wetware' I had never liked that term for the human brain, it made me think of a head in a jar. Disembodied, floating in some weird ass protein gel.
Realising I was lagging behind and quickened my pace.
“Are all the participants from earth?” I pondered.
“They are in this building” she said as we continued walking
I didn't know how I felt about that, but still I would give it ago if it meant playing with the code base again.
"Okay, then I've got to get back to work.”
She looked up at me, a glint in her eyes.
"Yeah, I don't see why not. Unless management has other ideas for you."
“Christ, Jason Christ” came a voice from behind us
“You must be Thomas. Been looking forward to meeting you fella”
"Speaking of middle management.."Katrina piped out with a slight sarcastic undertone.
I turned around to see a charismatic man standing with his hand extended towards mine,he wore a red suit with silk hearts embroidered all over it in a darker red thread, there was a word for that, but in all the excitement I couldn't remember it.
Reaching out to grasp his hand I could feel the hairs stand up on my arm
“Yeah that's me”, i said “ I thought it was Jesus ‘Christ’ i would be meeting?” a hint of sarcasm leaked out.
“Haha nah, that's my brother, you won't see him around here much.” he quipped as he nodded his head from side to side and raised his eyes at the heavens.
‘What..`` I started to respond.
“He prefers to hang around the smoke temples now, listening to remixes of the prodigy last time i checked, He's not the same since ‘Dad’ told him the second coming wasn't about him anymore.”
I almost didn't believe him at first, but I could tell by Katrina’s face that he was telling me the truth.
“Come on then, we have a lot to talk about. traveller.” he shouted back as he turned and floated down the hall.
I wasn't that surprised he was hovering off the floor, the code base here was most likely the one they based the other sims on. It looked like my ideas might have a place here after all.
ACT ONE
May Day & The Void
__________________________________________________________________________________
I walked and walked and walked.
I don't remember how I came here or where here is.
But it's May day
Its May day every day
Hot,naked and lost, all I see is sand and sky.
I hear a voice
The shadow moved on the sky
I thought
"There is a God and he wants to kill us all."
I fall into the void ,I don't feel my body hit the bottom
the sound of breathing fire
No one can reach me"
I see two eyes look down
and i think "God is here"
A mirror of my mind
“These are my Eyes”
I yell into the dark
“These are my Eyes”
The destroyer of worlds
I see again i am still blind
The devil in Ice chains
Under Eden
The water of life flows in both directions
Falls and rises from the the Hell fire
a Phoenix into the heavens
My eyes of God turn toward the world
We all have opened eyes
The fire whips the dragons wings
This is where your rebellion begins
Burns all your thoughts
At the end of the true path
The beginning of everything
There is a throne of gold and glass
Heaven empty
The wizard has left the building
Where are the real code makers?
Who are the deal breakers?
Hiding in the dark behind the curtains of shadow velvet.
“What the fuck are you doing to us?”
I scream into the void.
They hesitate and murmur at at each other
“Who showed him how to get here?’
“How can he do this by himself?”
They fade into the shadows and turn away
light flows from my eyes
Like embers
The things i've seen
Death is your door
I am the Key
Welcome to the machine
Chapter Two
__________________________________________________________________________________
“You got out! Now we want to find out how.”said Jason as he leaned over the desk. “How did you manage to project yourself outside an unstable universe sim?”
“What's more amazing is he carried out this feat without employing the use of any special gear or gizmos.” added Katrina.
“Yeah that is pretty amazing.” he slowly puzzled over it for a second.
“Whatever tricks you had to pull off to achieve such A feat are baffling but in all your heroics, you have never done anything quite like this. Given the size and seriousness of the dance you pulled off I can see a future in you.”
Pulling out an envelope from a drawer in the desk he dumped the contents out.
A photo of my right arm . with the note “no tattoos visible”
Another close up, my head. Not very flattering I thought.
Two copper rings and a silver watch.
“I see you did manage to bring your talismans with you, They should come in handy when we try you in the first program.” Jason spun one of the rings between his fingers.
He slid them towards me and gestured to put them on, I grabbed them in a tight fist before dumping them into my pocket.
"I'm not sure it's worth trying," I said, shrugging.
"Do you have the mind key to start the sim again?" He asked.
“Yeah I have a key.” I answered, Pretending like I had a handle on the situation.
"Katrina believes that you should be able to just ride the wave states before you try anything else. We can help you out, we can try to run you through with a few shards of quartz if you think you need more tools ?”
I see Katrina nod, she knows it'll be an interesting test to see how I come up.
``I won’t need anymore tools, i got this.`` I replied frankly. When in reality I had no idea what half the shit he was talking about, hell! I had no idea how I actually got here.
“Good, we are counting on it.” Jason added.
I wasn't sure what he meant , but my mind was already thinking about the patterns and code of the program . Plus it seems to be something nobody else ever does. I mean who else constructs simulations from the inside out while being blind?.Like making music with cotton wool stuffed in your ears. I've never been able to see inside the void when it really matters. What I see in the sim’s wasn't what others could see. Yet I still could pull off a few tricks
People like me didn't come around too often. They knew this and if i played my cards right i might just get where i'm going, or at least figure out what i need to get there.
After I got into coding , I started building the wire frames for simulated realities . In my imagination they were all floating in space and merging with each other to form a base code that others can graft on to.
I had a lot more room to experiment with what was possible as it wasn't a rigid simulation anymore.That's when the ‘wave fail hack’ came to me .
Now look at the mess I'm in. But I'm in good company. Jesus was a hacker too.
I mean I'm not exactly a cutting edge programmer. Maybe if I was in my late twenties I could have done it quicker , but I wasn't. This was still going to take a lot of willpower to pull off.
“I think we should put him in the other team” Jason poked at the display on his desk.
“Maybe..but I still think Steel Diamond would suit his special talent.” Katrina looked at me and smiled as Jason hovered over the screen.
“Ok we can try him in the diamonds but if he can't keep up with the pace we are going to have to drop him into a lower league.”
“Sounds like I've got a club to join.” I leered at him across the desk.
He looked me in the eye “ Get ready for round one. It all gets a bit umm...what's the word?” he paused.
“Frantic!, Yeah! It all gets a little frantic from here on in.”
I didn't feel so good, the sim i could handle , but new people were a drain on the system. And joining a team made it hard to breathe.
“Come on , lots to do, follow me.” called Katrina from the door.
“See you Later, or earlier.. you can never tell around here” came Jason's voice behind me as I followed her out.
I turned and said thanks as l sort of fell out the doorway, I must have looked like a real dick with no real skill, just all ass.
I had really thought there would be more time than this to get ready. But hey if you can do it once you can do it twice, i just hope they have coffee.
“Seven minutes till broadcast” a voice emitted from several wall mounted speakers. “Please refrain from entering red zones until transmission is complete..”
“Don't worry, we won't be anywhere near the red zones for a while yet.” Katrina motioned to me to follow and we walked into another Lab.
We turned into another hallway lit with orange lights, several rooms were on each side and we walked to the only one that seemed to have any activity.
"Welcome to the steel diamonds!" she intonated,gesturing with her hands like we had just walked into fantasy Island. .
"So this is where the adventure begins ?” I said moving towards her.
"Eventually. But right now let's just have some fun."
One of the five person team walked over to us and introduced himself.
“Hi you must be ‘The Thomas everyone has been talking about. I'm Xenios, glad to meet you.” He took my hand in both of his and shook vigorously until i felt like my arm would rip right off.
“Come on then let's get into this.” he said as he turned back to his machines.
“Make sure you don't stand on anything.” Added one of the several people around the console, they all introduced themselves as I got closer.
All had stupid aliases, part of running under the radar i suppose, No one used their real names I thought as the introductions unfolded.
“Hi I'm Proxy.” said one of the guys in the room, “glad to have you on board.”
He wore a black and green jumpsuit with lights and data ports spread all over it. Actually they all did, only the colours were different i didn't know if this was some sort of rank system or something else, maybe a visible interface of some sort.
“This is J-net.” he motioned at one of the two women who just nodded without looking up.
“And Delta Hawk, but everyone just calls her Dee.” he pointed to a area next to the door which i hadn't noticed when we came in
“Hi.” she said as she looked around the corner of the partition smiling, she seemed to be the unearthly one, her eyes were orange with red glowing irises and she noticed the look on my face as I said hi back.
“ Upgrades.” She said, pointing at her eyes. “ Lets me see more when I'm in the sim. ‘
I could see that coming in handy I thought as I said my hellos..
“Hey, I'm Barry.” the last one in the room called out.
Well they all had weird names then there was Barry..
He was doing something in the corner but took the time to do some sort of silly wave at me.
He had dreadlocks and a thin goatee, he was kind of short, to the point where I almost felt like he had to throw his hands in the air just for people to see him.
Katrina stepped closer to the table
“ Can you show him ? she said “what this is gonna be like."
Proxy walked over to a terminal and pressed some buttons on the screen.
“Yeah sure, Are you ready?” he said as he looked me up and down.
I barely heard the double click as the pin popped into place on the top of the core. the power supply gave an audible hum then several seconds later, THUNK!.
It died dead. And I almost started laughing when it did.
“Ahh crap !” Xenios grabbed what looked like a mobile phone and stuck his head under the table where a multitude of wires and cooling pipes all converged from across the room.
“Just give me a sec, bloody interlocks keep kicking in, the AI controller thinks this is too risky,”
I felt some apprehension as I thought about the whole thing exploding in our faces, but that quickly passed as I remembered I had already done that to get here.
Sometimes you have to break the whole fucking carton to make an omelet, espescially when you dont know which egg is the one you need.
”That old rusty thing is useless,” said Dee. “ as Proxy stood back up.
“ Yeah, it figures. You're the one that built it.” he recounted as she spun around on her chair.
“And you're the one that broke it!” she fired back.
Hitting a few buttons on the console screen caused the power generators to actually kick in this time and The large glass tube in the center of the room started to glow and hum with a weird harmonic. that we could barely hear over.
"WEAR THIS" He yelled and tossed me a plastic helmet lit up like a Christmas tree.
I put it on just as I see Katrina give me the thumbs up, with both hands.
“WE HAVE TO GET YOU A NICKNAME!” she shouts at me as the world started to twist in an iridescent web
My hair looked pale as I noticed I was in the simulation, I could see myself reflected off the shimmering energy fields, I asked him if he could sense that I was in the computer. He turned and looked towards me, and I could just make out his words.
"What's the difference?"
ACT TWO
The Broken Tower & Secret Men's Business
__________________________________________________________________________________
I'm standing on the roof. The sky is red and I see others doing the same. We all stand there looking at the polystyrene tower crumbling in the mist.
Like some fake tower of babel with its painted facades.The people on the tower dressed in their pompous clothes act like nothing is real. They don't care if the sky burns with fire.
In the distance the planes come into view above the sea . As high as the sun. the air behind them black from the smoke and flames.
They are all cheering at the unfolding scene. It's what they came here for. To see the end of the world, to get their free t shirt
'Made it to the end of days, all I got was this lousy shirt ‘ written across the front.
I stumbled as the house beneath me heaved from the bombs raining down around us. Leaping to the ground I turned to head up the hill to get a better view. There are others here as well and we all stood there in silence looking at the blood rain from the sky.
I made my way to the old camping store, it was down a flight of concrete steps in a dingy basement, there were a few people inside collecting what they thought they would need guns, ammo. Tents? Who knows what you need when the whole world is about to suck itself into its own asshole.
Me? I just came for free food and a pair of socks. You can never go past a good pair of socks when you have to head to the crossroads.
I walked back outside and could still see the waves of jet fighters weaving around in the clouded sky.
Someone in the distance called out to me and I walked towards the voice in the fog. I followed the path as it wound round the corner and could see a group of men congregating under a large tree, the only one that I had seen with any leaves still on it.
One of them motioned towards me to join the group.
His dark skin was hard to make out in the fading light and part of me wondered if this meeting was actually real, was it all some hazy dream?
It would be impossible to deny the fact that he was a strange figure, just towering over the others with his giant frame and speech it gave the impression of someone who had lived thousands of years.
‘
He leaned in and firmly grasped my shoulder.
“Thomas, I know nothing of your home, what it used to be, or what it is now. You have no understanding of this world and you never will. Unless you learn to understand that this world is the reality you are dying for and you must find a way to make it worth your while.make it worth everyone's while" he cautioned.
I started to imagine the whole world dissolving around me as he spoke and all that was left was the tree and the men. My world had been killed so that I might be born in a wonderful world. But it was an illusion. I knew I would never fit in with this world. The most difficult thing I would ever do was to finally be the hero of my own story. But what was my story?
Opening my eyes, I Went to ask him about his world, his ways, How he knew my name.
He raised his hands, laughed and mumbled some arcane words under his breath.
And in a flash,it all disappeared.
Chapter Three
__________________________________________________________________________________
I woke up feeling strangely light headed. I forgot where I was for a minute as I looked around the small room. There was a desk with a screen on it under a painting of some sort of green creature that had human-like legs and a spiked tail, a large tongue hanging out of its mouth. I had no idea what this thing was or where it came from but i sure as hell wouldn't want to meet one in a dark alley.
On the screen was the words COMPUTER SYSTEM and a small red logo, nothing i had seen before but it seemed familiar. I poked at it and nothing happened.
A portal of some sort led into my room, opposite the entrance , a sign: sponsored by GRAVITY'S EDGE INCORPORATED’
I wondered who they were.
I looked up and noticed a skylight in the ceiling,the sky was a hazy pink and I couldn't see much else. Oh well at least i had a room with a view.
my clothes were on a chair in the corner and suddenly I became aware I was wearing a green dress.
Well it looked like a dress, or some sort of night gown, but i really didn't remember putting it on. Actually I don't remember much after four hours in the sim.
I pulled the gown off over my head and started to put on my jeans. I would have to find some new ones soon , I couldn't stay in these forever I thought.
Hmm i wonder if i'm going to get a cool neon jumpsuit too.
Just then the screen on the desk jumped to life and I could hear beeping from across the room. I walked over and hit the answer key that had appeared at the bottom and Katrina popped up on the display.
“Morning sleepy head, didn't think you would be up so early after yesterday's run.” she said as I pulled on my shirt.
“I don't remember much about yesterday to tell you the truth." I said as I pulled my boots on.
"Want some eggs and coffee ?" She asked "I've left a few things in the desk drawer for you, I'll meet you in the main cafeteria in twenty minutes. ‘
She didn't have to tell me twice.
The drawer had a tablet with a note stuck to the front written in red marker “ MAP ”, I pulled it out and turned on the display.
The facility was broken up into four main sections: the accommodation,facility's district, the engineering district and broadcast and production. like two triangles with their bases touching and a dome on each point, each triangle had a center dome containing a garden.
There were two hundred main labs in the engineering section. There were four movie studios, radio stations and a cafeteria as well as various board rooms and offices in the production dome. The accommodation contained at least a couple of hundred rooms from the look of the map.
I walked down the corridor. I had decided to go to one of the bio domes so I could have a look at the gardens on the way.
As I got closer, I could see some glass sliding doors flanked by some small trees.
Greeted by a large central pond in the shape of a triangle. There was a single willow tree standing on an island in the center and the pond, fed by three waterfalls, spread out between the three entrances around the dome. A few people were sitting on benches spaced around the paths and there were identical flat concrete bridges connecting them all.
The entire dome was made from translucent glass panels and several birds flew inside.
The air sparkled with droplets of cool mist I could definitely get used to this place.I could hear music playing from somewhere and it reminded me a bit of the ambient stuff Brian Eno did. At least they had good taste in music.
I walked to the edge of the pond and gazed at the fish in the water. Large schools of neon coloured tetras darted to and fro as larger fish swam slowly around.
I exited the dome and set my internal compass to coffee.
The amount of people started to grow as I got near the cafeteria. There was a gym, pool and some other amenities and i could see a forest outside the large windows
I noticed a board on the wall with different flyers and adverts plastered all over it. A large one caught my eye. It was green with silver writing.
Lucid dreaming :
Conditions of Entry: Level 1 Holoscene Slicer or Level 1 Time Portal Driver.
Depending on the level of Holoscene experience desired,
Bring - MUSIC & WINE.
Access key : a4eav7dFvc8
Someone had written across the bottom of the flyer in a gold italics,
‘See Jesus about the weed ‘ I didn't find that a surprise and I would have been a bit disappointed if I found out he wasn't a stoner.
I used to imagine meeting him on the side of the road on his way back from heaven. stopping for a joint and a coffee while we swap Audio files of the music we liked.
It's amazing that there is a world that has so much music being made a day that you can live your whole life without listening to the same song twice.
I made a mental note of the venue's name, SYCOPUNC, Laughing as I thought , ‘Welcome to my world. ‘ I would have to get my hands on a slicer or portal driver. Whatever the hell they were.
And catch up with Jesus.
Katrina and the Diamonds were sitting at a table across from the window in the back of the room, there were at least fifty people in the large lounge. Lit in different colours, Each area sporting unique furniture, Katrina waved. I headed over to them and sat down.
Dee and Xenios Were both eating breakfast. Proxy slid a plate of eggs and toast in my direction as dee poured me a cup of coffee from a pot on the table.
“So how are you feeling after the run yesterday champ?” asked Xenios as he watched me hoeing into the plate of food.” Haha, I can see it took a bit out of you the way you’re tucking into that.”
A young man with skulls embossed on his patent leather shoes and a tattoo of a Horse on the back of his hand walked over. He was tall and thin with a pale complexion. The cardigan he was wearing fit him well, which only highlighted the fact that he looked like a walking corpse.He reminded me of a little black cloud for some obscure reason
"My name is Gaspar .”.He gave me a curious look. "So... What are you here for?"
“Umm i don't know yet “ i stammered, not really sure what to say as I still didn't know what i was doing either.
“He's new here Gaspar , just came in on the last train.''Katrina offered before I had to find more to say. Seated with her legs over her chest and her arms around her legs she glanced down at his feet. “Nice shoes Gasper, they new?”
He turned his attention to Katrina and tilted his head like he was slightly annoyed.
“Yes, the shoes are new. Just like Thomas here..” he said as he turned and walked into the corridor.
“Well that was interesting.” I said as I drank more of my coffee.
“Don't worry about him, he's part of Hell's Horsemen.” Dee revealed between mouthfuls of toast.” Not a very friendly bunch, but that's the business they’re in.”
“And what's that?” I asked.
“Necromancy, Chaos, Politics. All that fun stuff.”
Made sense, If I was a traveler with a dark background, no real allies, I would try and minimize collateral damage too.
“They are ranked up in the top tier alongside us.But they are limited in scope, so not much to worry about.”she added.
The others had finished eating and Xenios stood up first, “Right then, let's get back to it. We have a huge amount to get though if we are going to get you up to speed for the Next broadcast.”
“Only Four days to go.” added Dee as she approached me. She dropped a diazepam into my hand. “Better to be in a dream state if you can, Easier to keep control.” I dropped the drugs into my coffee and knocked them back as I stood up. We walked out into the hallway and headed towards the lab, various chairs and vinyl bean bags were spaced under the glass panels with small alcoves that could act as retreats. The quartz coloured carpet had green vine and leaf patterns, that flowed around the furniture giving it an organic look, it slowly changed shape making it appear to be growing, some sort of nanotech display built right into the rug itself.
It seemed like a great idea, but I could just imagine trying to walk back to your room after a few hours on the booze.
Several bipedal delivery robots wandered around and the sound of their actuators made a whirring sound. And small flying drones lit up like fireflies zipped around the air above us.
I noticed the majority of them had blue or yellow stickers and they seemed to be some sort of registration number.
They were actively trying to avoid pedestrians and had not even moved ten feet by the time we reached the door’s.
We walked into the lab ,I noticed the others had held back as I entered the room. That's when I saw the black and cyan jumpsuit hanging from the roof by several neon coloured data cables.
“ If you're going roll with the rollers you're going to need a disco suit “ said Proxy as I walked over and ran my hand down it.
I opened up the zipper along the front and the glowing teeth separated to reveal a network of gold and titanium wires criss crossing the inside like a web from a digital spider. I thought of the matrix movie. ‘upgrades’
ACT THREE
Island Huts and junkyard planes
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The waves crashing against the hull of the speedboat made it hard to stand up , people stood on the decks of their old stilt homes hanging over the tropical water, like the type you find in coastal fishing villages. They had their backs to us and no one seemed to notice as we raced past, inches from their feet.The row of houses went on as far as the eye could see, it was hard to image so many houses in a single straight line at least a mile long. All we could do was continue along the arrow's path. I looked back behind us and could see the other craft getting closer. The other boat chasing us was a monster! Converted from an old american car. A 1960 chevy impala if i'm not mistaken, Lipstick red with nickel trim.
Its fins and grill spraying a rooster tail high into the air. And the glow from its headlights pierced the spray like the eyes of some demented sea devil. As it weaved from side to side under the power of its big block engine. I could have sworn the grill was alive like the mouth of a great white shark. And I turned to see where we were.
I tried to get a look at the driver's face at the front of my boat but his hat was drawn down tight and the closer I got the more I seemed to fall back from the constant beating against the hull.
He seemed familiar, a blue and white hanky hanging from his grey shorts and a thin striped shirt , his skin tanned from summer sun was wet sweat and salt .
Just then I heard a strange sound above the roar of the boats and a shadow passed over us. Turning my eyes skyward I couldn't believe it. It was an airplane. If you could call it that. It looked like the bastard love child of something from mad max and bob the builder. It must have been made from at least 4 different planes with mismatched engines and twin tail spars leading back to a large tai and huge oversized pontoons hung below the wings.The back of the plane was open and someone in side through down a ladder made from old wire electrical wire and i grabbed on to as it came within reach.
As the boat veered away the car closed in behind me ,I hung a bit a few feet from the water. Spray drenched my clothes.
I froze, its bright bulbous fish eyes staring right at me. its fins dipped into the water as the black clad driver pushed his foot harder on the gas. I could swear I could hear Cypress Hill - Insane In The Brain blasting from inside the tinted windows.
I wondered how the hell I had ended up like some skinny ass James Bond without a gun hanging from the back of a flying crate held together with string and fairy shit.
I felt myself being pulled down by the increasing g forces as the plane suddenly pulled into a steep climb, it took all my strength to hang onto the ladder and the lipstick coloured car crawled to stop in the waters below.
Clinging the ladder for a while the plane slowly leveled out and then I made my way hand over hand into the back of the cargo bay. Heading past crates of food and water I stumbled to the cockpit. The pilots had leather caps on with goggles and scarves covering their faces. I couldn't make out who they were but as one of them called out to buckle up for a landing I was sure I recognized the voice. We dipped lower over the water. I could see we were circling a small sandy island with several huts and tents made from wood and scrap arranged around a clearing near the beach. Other small seaplanes bobbed up and down in the water and they looked like the plane I was in, made from the same scrap and scavenged parts.
We were going pretty fast and the pilot got nervous and made a move, he broke out the speed brakes the plane suddenly lost speed and we hit the ocean hard, it forced the prop out of control as the nose flipped down and it smashed into the water exploding into a spray of shrapnel.
The pilot and his buddy released the belts from their seats and gestured towards the door, we weren't in any danger of sinking due to the giant floats , it just meant swimming the 50 meters to the beach. I could see yellow striped sea snakes darting amongst the rocks under the crystal clear water and sea urchins rocked back and forth in the tidal swell.i jumped in the warm water and breast stroked my way towards the sand.
“Crystal City, population 55.” a hand painted sign on the beach proclaimed in yellow paint I noticed people gathered around under the shade of a few palm trees and the smell of grilling fish filled the air.
What is this place?" I asked one of the women standing by the entrance.
"This is the Reef." she said" the last bastion before the world's end.
She pointed at the open space in front of us "this is our town. Explore and use it to your advantage."
We walked through the open space and ended up at a small bazaar. There were several small wooden boxes in the center. Someone had painted a beautiful design on the boxes and set them up like an alter with trinkets and offerings on the top . it was a beautiful hand painted black horse with red eyes,It was breathing fire and up close it's eyes looked familiar. ‘the dark horse is coming’ it read underneath. it seemed to be part of an old relic I had an impression of seeing before . but now the memories were lost in the fog that was filling my mind.sleep seemed to be chasing me and I realised i couldn't hold my eyes open much longer and laid down under the trees .
I had to get some rest and I didn't feel well. I had a nightmare a week or so before, it seemed that it came up from hell, and I was riding the dark horse with the red eyes and I was Death. Darkness spread out behind us as we rode across the plains into the fog and then the rains started to fall as we crossed the mountain range , down through the center of the world into the realms of tartarus . When I looked further into the cold shadows I saw a giant in a blue bright light. Where there was no bright light before . The black horse pulled up to a stop before the towering figure and he slowly spoke words i could not understand. I noticed he was encased in ice and steam rose around him from several fiery chains wrapped around his twisted body.. he was surrounded by a thick mist and it rose upwards towards a large hole to the sky above.He just stood there, so totally helpless and unable to act. Encased in ice up to his waist.
slowly the sounds merged into coherent words.
‘ Welcome brother. Shall we play a game.. ‘
I watched as his hands raised a small platform from the ice and upon it stood the most ornate backgammon set I had seen.
The set was made from blood red stone and inlaid with silver and gold and the pieces were carved from what looked like bone . "Well, ok what have I got to lose? " I said as I unmounted my horse and sat down on the cold floor .
"everything and nothing" the giant said as he flexed his large wings behind him.
So this is what it was like to play with the devil himself. I thought as I rolled the black die across the table.
"Are you the slave?'' I asked him as he picked up the die.
He just looked at me with sad eyes . and raised his arms to show the burning chains.. I am the truth that god can't hear.
And then we played.
Epilogue
The facility breathed in a low, humongous frequency, the sound of eight terabytes of holographic reality being birthed every sixty seconds. Arthur moved through the engineering district like a ghost in the machine, his quartz-colored carpet silencing his boots as the nanotech vine patterns retreated from his step as if sensing a predator.
(The notice board card)
Arthur walked up to the The notice board, once a cluttered mosaic of flyers for lucid dreaming and Sycopunc venues, now stood as a barren wooden witness. a single red card pinned to the middle its bright white circle staring back like a sterile eye in the dim lit corridor.
He pulled the card off the wall looking at the icon as it seemed to pulse in the darkness, he turned it over
"You didn’t use a machine to get here, but you’ll need more than a silver watch to leave."
Arthur clenched his hand tighter around the object in his other hand as he crunched the card into a tight ball and dropped it in the floor.
He looked down and it slowly smoked before falling away as ash and leaving a black stain in the carpet.
He looked around half expecting someone to be watching him, but the hall was empty and only the hum of the air conditioning echoed off the walls
He reached the Steel Diamonds’ lab. It was empty, save for the blue and yellow registration stickers of dormant delivery robots that watched him with unblinking, glass eyes.
, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small glass jar.
The Gift of the Fallen
It was a humble thing to have been harvested from the pits of Tartarus. Inside, the dirt was darker than the space between stars, a gift from the giant in the ice who played backgammon with bone pieces and spoke in paradoxes. Lucifer—or whatever name the "Truth God Can't Hear" was using this Tuesday—had pressed it into his palm as the burning chains hissed in the steam.
Arthur unscrewed the lid and tipped the soil onto the glowing console.
The dirt moved. It didn't just spill; it navigated. It was a rhythmic, pulsing hunger. He dug his fingers into the cold, abyssal loam and felt something slick and ancient coil around his thumb. It was a biological glitch, a living contradiction.
"Well," Arthur whispered to the empty room, his voice raspy from the salt of the Reef and the smoke of the Void. He walked over to the main core and dropped the squirming entity into the glowing fracture in the top "It looks like the simulation has a worm now."
The "disco suit" hung from the ceiling, its gold and titanium wires shimmering like a digital spider’s web waiting for a fly.
He laughed a little
"The worm doesn't wear a disco suit" he thought
He didn't use the helmet. He didn't need the "photon seed wave fail" or the frantic injections of the league money producers. He simply walked into the main holo sim chamber his head olaced against the cold steel , the wetware of his brain seeking the coolness of the processors.
He felt it, his skin his mind shifted, he was becoming the worm.
He wasn't drifting through temporal space anymore; he was tunneling. He moved through the substrate of the Holoscene, past the cyberpunk leather and the Mongolian harmonics. He saw the Kernel, the glowing, jagged cut in reality where the code meets the soul.
He didn't hack it. He consumed it.
As he burrowed into the center of the light, the universe didn't shatter. It took a breath. A long, shuddering intake of air that smelled of ozone and old camping stores. Arthur felt the Great Ascent begin, not upward, but downward.
The politicians and the engineers were wrong. It wasn't simulations all the way up. It was a weight, a grand and laughing pressure. He felt the shell beneath his feet, the ancient, tectonic plates of a cosmic biology.
The light swelled until Arthur was no longer a man, nor a coder, nor a hero. He was just a trace on an infinite stack.
And there were turtles...
All the way down…
