Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (37 page)

Alan moved through a series of obstacle courses involving guards, hidden traps and walls. There were so many walls. Walls he had to scale, walls he had to crawl under, walls he had to hide next to, walls he had to avoid, walls he had to open up because of the hidden compartments inside, walls that weren’t walls at all but actually doors, walls that were just walls, blocking his way. Despite all the walls, Alan made good time, continually making his way deeper and deeper into this maze at a light jog.

After half an hour Eve had Alan find a safe spot, rest, and recharge the power armor’s energy. Then they resumed their journey through this labyrinth of walls. Alan proceeded with a smile on his face, sweat on his brow, leaping across ledges, vaulting over walls and dodging laser scans like a parkour artist. Still, many of these movements Alan had never practiced before, and it wasn’t before long that he accidentally tripped, misreading a move than Eve had instructed, positioning his foot in just the wrong way, landing off balance.

Before he could catch himself, Alan was falling backwards, and he landed on his back, moving through a line of lasers Eve had marked. He winced when he landed, more at the blaring horns that started playing in the background than the pain of the fall. Two spherical robot sentries emerged from hatches in the wall, actively scanning the entire room Alan was in.

With a desperate dash Alan tried to reach the nearest exit, but the sentries were simply moving too quickly, flying through the air above all the obstacles. Not even Eve could find a path out, but Alan still tried to make it to the exit. When it was obvious that the sentry would reach the exit before he would, Alan pulled out his laser blasters, and shot at both of the sentries simultaneously, but the moment the shots hit the examination ended.

Alan brought up the Sneak and Acrobatics abilities as well as the updated Stealth ability.

Alan frowned slightly, unhappily looking at the mediocre results before him. He closed the windows resolutely, sure that he would do better on the next test.

The labyrinth of walls and traps slowly vanished, replaced by the original white chamber Alan had found himself in. A wall of chat windows appeared before him, and then suddenly without hesitation streams of numbers and symbols started appearing on all of them.

Eve frantically began to analyze them, trying to interpret for Alan. Line after line of text appeared in each of the windows as Eve slowly began translating all of the different lines to English, or at least computer code that was in English. Protocols, syntax, everything from letters to indentation were all over the place, and Alan couldn’t make heads or tails of anything any of the windows were showing him. He imagined the complexity of the hundreds of different computer languages that existed, and then he thought about the thousands or maybe millions of languages that must exist in the Game, shuddering at the thought. While the windows, each of which Alan assumed represented an AI of some sort, might be trying to communicate useful information to him, Alan certainly wasn’t getting the message, and Eve couldn’t help him due to the strange rules governing AI interaction in the Game.

As a headache slowly developed, Alan stopped trying to interpret the lines of code. Instead, he closed his eyes, reaching out with his mind, searching for a mental connection. To his surprise, Alan detected hundreds of “minds” or AI, but most seemed distant, foreign. If he really strained, he might be able to forge a connection with these “minds,” but Alan chose to initially ignore those that seemed too far away.

He re-imagined each possible AI as a sort of mote of light, a star in the sky, and a map slowly began to form in his mind, tenuous connections swirling about as each star seemed to move and react to others. Alan concentrated on the nearest, brightest star, easily within reach. A strong connection was established. Hesitatingly, Alan sent out a thought.

Hello?

Immediately, the connection was broken, and the star in Alan’s mind disappeared. Unperturbed, Alan continued to make connections, sending out the same initial Hello. Most responded similarly to the first, simply breaking the connection and vanishing. A few he was able to have a basic conversation with, introducing himself, but they were all uninteresting, and soon broke off their connections. As Alan started to strain to connect to the distant stars in his mind, he felt his headache slowly increase in intensity. It was a sort of dull, throbbing pain, rather than the knife-like pain that came when he was pushing his physical limits, but it seemed to underlie his every thought, his every action.

Talking to these distant AI was like trying to converse with a madman. They raved in different languages, talked in unknown symbols that Alan had never heard of. One repeatedly yelled the thought 
TWO
with such intensity that Alan was forced to break off the connection with the fear permanent brain damage might be done.

Another responded with a thought that almost tore Alan apart.

It returned infinity, or at least a representation of it. An ever-flowing river of unceasing madness, filled with eternal moments of nothingness, an never-ending field of stars, points so far yet so close that distance was meaningless, a mind numbing, all-encompassing black hole that Alan felt himself get lost in as he slowly let his mind try to wrap its head around the concept. Eve ended the connection, concerned after Alan stopped all active mental processes.

Alan dazedly blinked out of the reverie, the thought, and had to take a few minutes to gather himself before trying to make the next connection. The thought of infinity hadn’t scared Alan. Instead, it enraptured him. He wanted 
more,
 to go beyond, to see further, to perhaps try to begin to understand the most infinitesimal part of the ephemeral message the AI had sent, but it was gone.

Alan proceeded on, emboldened by the experience, hopeful of the knowledge the distant stars might impart on him. Alan felt reality began to lose its grips on him as his mind, this imagined field of stars became all that he was aware of. He connected to each, they responded, or didn’t, and the connection was ended, until but one star was left. It was the furthest of all, a dim silhouette of a shadow compared to the bright sun of the first.

As Alan slowly tried to connect to it, he was amazed by the size of the construct. This star dwarfed all the others, it was a behemoth among ants, a 
galaxy
 rather than a simple star. Beyond it, behind it, perhaps through it there was something else, another universe, another plane of existence, yet Alan could only get the briefest of glimpses before the connection formed.

Hello?

Before Alan could react, before his next thought even began to form in his head, the galaxy responded.

Who are you? No, wait…
 Through the connection a wave of black specks that Alan’s mind interpreted as starships the size of stars moved towards him at the speed of light, coursing through Alan’s mind. Alan could somehow physically feel the presence as it made its way through the entirety of his brain in the blink of an eye. He had the faint sense that it had analyzed all the electrical signals there, the storage of memories, even the entirety of Eve, but that was impossible, as only a moment had passed, a thousandth of a nanosecond.

Hmm, interesting. Since you managed to catch my attention and alert me to something, have a gift. I also warn you that if you detect any of my brethren, try to avoid them at all costs. Few are as kind as I.

The mental starships once more coursed through Alan’s mind, but this time instead of simply scanning they began rearranging and constructing unknown objects using the planet that was his own mind as the base. There was a sharp pain, and Alan lost consciousness…

***

Alan opened his eyes to flashing red messages.