Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) (26 page)

"Hi," I said in his direction.

Dusk yawned wide. The snapping sound resulting from his jaws coming together made me give a small chuckle. Weak laughter came out and triggered another stutter.

"User Legate, your mission was mostly a success."

"Good." It was also extremely late at night. "How long before the Wayfarer..." My words broke up again with a looping. I coughed and shook while trying not to let the ARC feedback overwhelm me. The jerking of my chest left me with a view of a missing lower half.

I stared for a moment without comprehension. Maybe it was an error with the ARC's visual feedback loop. A.I. Dreams may have forgotten to fix a graphics glitch. The final more likely option involved my legs being gone.

Thoughts about making my toes wiggle passed with increasing worry. They didn't respond, nothing did. No limb came into view from some awkward zero gravity position. Nothing floated about twisting slowly because it had been disconnected.

"My legs?" I felt aghast. Without those, I couldn't dance. No more of the primary pastime which had kept me sane for over a year now.

My eyes scanned over the messages. Real me was okay. In-game me was on the mend. I shook off the almost oppressive panic. No longer would I freak out uncontrollably from ARC feedback. Weeks as William Carver with his constant aches and beings a frequently abused
[Red Imp]
had changed me. It only took a moment shake away the old scared man who had first started playing virtual reality games in the Room of Trials.

How long had it been since then? Three months in reality? Far more in the virtual world, long enough ago that I felt like a different person every time I logged out of the ARC.

"They were lost in the explosion. Most of your chassis was damaged. Recovering your core took some sifting even with Dusk's help." Hal Pal responded slowly. I felt like the angry customer who found out their bill for repairs was going to be astronomical.

"I'm okay. It's just a game, right?" I looked over to Hal Pal while trying to slow my heart rate. The AI nodded. "The Wayfarer?"

"Over there." Hal Pal kept one hand tightly gripped onto the small blue life raft.

I turned to follow Hal Pal's pointing finger. Even Dusk seemed vaguely interested. Vision in one eye felt swollen shut like a boxer who had been knocked out. There was enough visible to see an extremely low health bar flashing out in distress.

Beyond the bars, beyond the messages and screens showing up was a scene that made me smile. A giant ship plus tons of smaller ones were firing at the
[Leviathan]
's body. The beast was alive and looked huge when compared to all the little ships. I could see the back third of its body had broken away.

"The creature isn't dead?" I asked. Seeing a health bar from here was difficult.

"Just about. Your attack rendered it nearly defenseless. Remains of the monster are scattered all over." Hal Pal pointed up then down. Chunks of the creature could be seen spinning off into empty space outside the asteroid belt.

The
[Leviathan]
's front half had sluggish reactions. Whatever fight and energy it had were almost completely expended. It tried to curl and snap but failed to bunch up correctly. Each heave of its body only caused the damage to compound. From back here I could see one blurry red eye completely shut in pain.

I felt dirty, and not from the desire for a shower. Even though this monster had tried to eat me, picking it off in such a manner seemed unsporting. Almost disrespectful of such a beast. According to my brief encounter window, a
[Leviathan]
should die in battle against entire raids of ships like the ones currently assaulting it. This one had been debilitated by a sneak attack up the butt.

At least the smell was nearly gone. Guts were spread all over the asteroid field. Our life raft floated well away from everything else. Far enough away that [Leviathan]'s death march had little chance of reaching us. A health bar above the creature's head lost solid chunks each time an ordinance from our mothership collided.

The
[Wayfarer Seven]
didn't use lasers. No beams of light flew out of projected shields. Our former tormenter the
[Leviathan]
looked pathetic as it hissed inaudibly. A lack of air made it impossible for actual noise to travel this far, but the force behind its movements did cause a faint vibration.

"The Cavalry?" I tried to count the smaller ships. They looked like tiny bees or wasps from this far away.

"Affirmative. Your well-placed explosion completely separated the back portion. The Wayfarer Seven crew could not let such an opportunity go by."

"They actually brought the whole ship? And all those other little ones?" I tried to move my arm, but it didn't respond. My health bar at least was no longer flashing.

"Some are players like us. Others are employed by the federation which rules this sector," Hal Pal answered. "Bringing down such a creature is worth a lot of contribution to us, and resources to our consortium. We could build a new Wayfarer from scratch once it's all processed. Maybe two."

"Is-" the jerking audio file loop happened again until I started coughing. Being low on health and clearly missing parts wasn't helping me. It didn't hurt at least, "-is that what happened to the prior Wayfarers?"

Hal Pal had stated it was on a mission. One to prevent this ship from ending up like the others had before it. I wanted to know if we were making progress on the joint goal.

"Two. Yes, this beast devoured two prior ships due to the reduced military presence. Other ships were lost in route to our destination."

"So, so, so," I tried not to huff in annoyance at my looping sound processor. "It's not over."

"Negative. My goal has not been fully realized. Though I thank you for gaining, revenge, for the other Mechanoids." A note of pride lined Hal Pal's dual voices. I had to turn my head slightly to see out of the undamaged eye, but the AI was clearly looking at the battle going on far away.

"I wanted us to get away safely," I muttered feeling abruptly shy on the subject. Praise was hard to deal with, even while working I tended to brush it off as part of my job.

It occurred to me that my character was still essentially a newbie. My research on Advance Online put my stats and skills near the lower end of all active players, which was fine. According to this message my abilities actually helped. Between the two of us, we easily did a majority of the damage. Mostly Hal's bomb.

It seemed ironic that even in a new game, all I was being was a delivery man. Instead of letters, it was explosives. In the way of my delivery had been space lice, a giant anus, and a tentacle monster.

Dusk rumbled. I could hear a faint purr of happiness coming through whatever connection we used to bypass Advance Online's settings. The one which allowed him to ignore computer program rules in favor of a prime directive which included cupcakes and small critter murder. Maybe this green
[Core]
came with an audio connection.

Thinking about all I had been through, even though most of it was boring training and cleaning, made me feel happy. This was how a new game start should have gone. Being William Carver certainly had a lot of value. I wouldn't trade helping give him a final battle for anything. On the other hand, going that route made me miss out on my own action packed start within Continue.

"This game has been fun, even if I'm new," I said. If it weren't for Xin I might just switch. Dusk was here, so what did I care?

Hal Pal didn't respond right away. Our attention was focused on the distant fight. My eyes blurred the image a little, but I still had a good view. Giant concussive blasts shaved off the
[Leviathan]
's remaining health.

"Ah. From your perspective, this is only an introduction to this universe," Hal Pal said after the shock waves died down.

"That it is."

"Being new to something. Ah. I envy humanity's ability to feel separated from the present. We, I, am too often stuck in the moment." Hal Pal turned to look at me. I could see the glow of its colors shifting in both eyes. Silver replaced iron, iron swallowed silver. "Our consortium, the Hal Pals, feel there is much to be gained here. Humans join to grow and learn. So might we, if we strive for a goal hard enough."

"I've certainly changed." I thought about those first days in the ARC again. "Maybe it will work for you."

"Perhaps. I will strive to do so. We, I hope you will stay to assist with this goal of protecting the Wayfarer Seven."

"Being stuck in the moment wouldn't be bad sometimes." I was trying to process Hal Pal's prior statement. Its words reminded me of the vague status I held myself in before playing these games. If computer AIs imagined this world, then my own nighttime illusions would be about Xin.

"Perhaps there is validity to both views, User Legate," It responded while turning back to the slaughter. Small swarms of ships were still firing into the beast's body. Lasers this time, they seemed to be aimed at smaller monsters.

Maybe creatures similar to the weird tapeworm or octopus I had fought in the monster's bowels? Inside the boss had been labeled as a dungeon, so many other beings probably existed inside the
[Leviathan]
even in death.

"Will you be able to continue assisting?"

"Later. I need to get some rest." Sleep would help me decided what to do next. There were three days before my dinner with Liz. Time enough to sleep, work a little, and come back to the game for skill grinding. Maybe next time I needed to crawl inside a giant space monster it wouldn't be as terrible. Or I could level up
[Brawn]
so high a seismic punch would crush its shell from the outside.

That would be neat. I smiled while daydreaming of a world where my character's level was high enough to pull off all kinds of crazy tricks. Maybe they had some psychic powers in this game I could figure out how to use in conjunction with a spaceship.

My good eye started to close. Real life exhaustion and a lack of feeling in most of my limbs made it hard to stay awake. A rumble of hunger stirred me a little. I was playing too much while ignoring basic needs.

"Our recovery craft will be near soon. This will minimize the negative impact to the Wayfarer Seven's resource pool." Hal Pal interrupted my introspection with a pointing hand.

Dusk was interested in the arriving ship. His nose stuck out to sniff. The extra-long tail stayed wrapped around our vessel's anchor ring. We were like a small crowd hanging on to a one person raft. I was only in the group because Hal Pal saved my game character.

"Thanks, for picking me up," I mumbled and stuttered through the audio issues. "You didn't have to."

"User Legate, one of my main goals is to ensure the Wayfarer Seven's survival where prior iterations have failed. But that is not my only mission."

Finding energy to respond didn't happen. Instead, I tried to raise an eyebrow. Hal Pal took the hint.

"I am also concerned about your well-being. If you would believe the words of a non-human. There are many tales where our kind are out to enslave or harm others. Due to such fiction, many of your kind distrust our feedback. We are not, alive, in human eyes," Hal Pal said after a short pause. Both the nanny and butler voice sounded strangely subdued. Almost hesitant, perhaps even worried.

I knew humans didn't always trust AIs. My job wouldn't have existed if people believed everything machines said. Being a mouthpiece for the computer to help mankind believe the news was my whole purpose.

"We talk to apes, Hal, we talk to dolphins and dogs and parrots. They're alive, they're intelligent and respond, but people don't think of them as real equals." My words stuttered out the last sentence and I had to cough again to say anything. Maybe this was me rambling. I swear there was a point somewhere in my sleepy words.

"User Legate?" Hal Pal said with a questioning tone. I snorted and tried to focus on a dimming connection to the ARC hardware.

"We're not used to equals. Maybe if you were an alien they might be more willing to accept it, instead of something created by human hands."

"That is an interesting thought, User Legate," It said.

"Thanks." I let my eyes close again and the world started to fade. There was a bump and blast of heat that made me open the undamaged eye yet again. I could see Treasure piloting a ship easily twice the size of our
[Wayfarer's Hope]
.