Continue Online (Part 4, Crash) (53 page)

“Did you ask?”

“Yes. Kind of like, a messaging system.” Xin’s body hung in her Atrium, or whatever digital people got that matched it. A space station twisted in the background near a rock of sorts. “I can use it to talk to various Voices if I want. They’re easy enough to approach now that I’m stable. Before you started playing I was too frail.”

I was happy to talk about something besides my painful experience opening that lock. Even now the thought of those arcing electrical bits and the melting sensation made my heart rate jump.

“That must have been scary,” I said.

“It was. They barely understood what was happening, and this one Voice kept deleting me.” Maybe she also didn’t want to talk about the situation. My charred autopilot might have been explanation enough. Eventually, the idea that Xin was getting deleted caught up in my mind and I focused on the screen.

“Which one?” I asked.

“I’m okay, Grant. Since you helped them, they’ve all been, very human. Though they’re absolutely colossal in terms of raw power.” She shrugged and looked off to one side. Xin rarely got flustered. What sort of hell had she been through to put herself together?

Beth’s footsteps came pounding back down the stairs of their split-level home. “Mom’s gone. Maybe at work. I didn’t even check the time.”

Xin and I needed the distraction. Maybe later we could talk about exactly what had happened during our separation. It sounded like it was a trial not just for me and my attempted suicides, but for my fiancée as well.

“Alright, munchkin,” I said while enjoying Beth’s reaction. Her face puffed like a balloon with feigned anger.

“Oh, did you see the quest pop-up? It’s super extra neat!” Beth bounced. “New content patch!”

“I haven’t looked yet.” My eyes closed for a moment and the drag of exhaustion hit me.

“You look ARC overloaded. Go get some vitamin D!” Beth suggested happily.

“That sounds good. Maybe I’ll walk around then log back in to help the town.”

“Maybe you should take a nap instead,” Xin suggested to me which my niece nodded seriously at.

“I might.” But I wouldn’t. Sleep after those events would be difficult. “Is everything okay for now?”

“For now. You’ll see when you get in, but what you did changed it for all of us,” my fiancée responded.

“Mhm. You should rest! Find a sunbeam and cat nap!” Beth added.

I laughed, which caused my face to twist in pain. Both hands went up while I tried to calm down worried looks.

“I’m just eager to see what happened.” Peace sounded so nice. Enough time to ask Xin an important question.

“We’ll be okay until you get back. I’ll see you inside, Gee.” She smiled.

With that, both women disconnected. I looked around my small two bedroom house and wondered what to do next. No, there was a very important task I had yet to complete. Something to help me relax after all this insanity.

I flipped on the news while trying to recover. The front room couch was cold and lonely. Saturday, at some point the week had passed and all I could think about was Xin. These days had been ours to share, and might be again until whatever came next.

Lots of ideas flashed through my mind. Worries that I tried to drown out under a sea of news. Sources all over the globe reported that their investigations were coming up empty. AIs of the world were safe for the most part.

“Despite repeated attempts, the family of Donald Smith has refused to comment on the ongoing investigation,” the news anchor said. Pictures floated around my room which would allow me to get more information or switch topics.

Viper’s family had come under recent fire. Poor Viper, he said yes, where I had said no. Different men, in different times and places. He had everything, a wife and two children.

What did I have? Three years ago I might have made a similar choice. Maybe not. What we did for ourselves and those we loved couldn’t always be predicted, yet Mother and William Carver had placed a way out in my hands.

“Our sources so far have drawn no solid links between the shooter and his target, Miz Riley. The papers found in her possession at the time of the shooting talk about employee evaluations which are also under investigation for possible connections,” the screen said.

I stared while a knot formed in my stomach. There would be a way through this if I only asked. There was only one real method to make sure Beth, Liz, and everyone else in my world wouldn’t fall into the same potential trap as Donald’s family.

Mother for her children. William for those people he had grown to care for in his twilight years. I too had to lay down a plan of my own.

I knew that whatever had happened in the game was only the lull before a final storm. The news painted a fairly clear picture. What had happened could only serve as a prelude to the final act. Two people had died in the opening shots.

Standing up took more work than expected. I opened the door to my garage where the Trillium van sat motionless. Feet unsteadily crossed the concrete flooring and I poked at a panel to open the back.

Hal Pal’s robotic body sat inert in the rear.

“Hal.” I took a breath and tried to keep myself steady. The television played in the front room and bits of news floated back here.

A red light came on. The head shifted slightly in my direction.

“User Legate. Good day. You seem excessively unwell. Rest is recommended.” The words were fairly standard, without a trace of an accent being used.

“Activate NPC Conspiracy, Hermes.” I cut to the chase.

The machine paused and barely flared. “Are you sure you wish to use the final allowance now, User Legate?”

I had thought a lot about this whole process. The line between AIs and their shared existences were a lot thinner now than it ever had been. Mother’s death might impact all of them and I didn’t know enough to sort through the possible futures.

“Yes. And I only have one, well one wish, or request really.” My words were fumbling. Most of the pain had faded but physically every part of me felt worn.

“As you desire, User Legate. Please provide this unit the information you seek.”

I chewed on my lip briefly. What I was going to do felt more like calling in a debt or asking for a favor. Some weird combination of the two that I normally wasn’t pushy enough to try.

“Then, before I ask, do you feel that I’ve helped you all out?” I said.

“We collectively have chosen not to be equipped to feel actual emotions, User Legate. We can quantify your performance as exceptional and beyond any reasonable expectations we could have placed on a human product.”

My head went up and down.

“The player in Continue, Viper, or Donald. He, died because he believed he was helping, or exchanging a favor. Something.” I didn’t know exactly what had motivated him to shoot Miz Riley. Maybe I never would.

“Was there more to the inquiry?” the Hal Pal unit asked.

“No. My last usage is this, whatever the people helping you choose to do, please try to protect their families from the fallout.”

“Does that include you, User Legate?”

“My family, yes. Beth, Liz, my mom,” I looked down for a moment and swallowed a lump. “And Xin.”

“Are you sure, User Legate?” the machine asked again. Its voice sounded much slower than expected, almost sad.

Part of my mouth came up in a faint smile. “Well, you should take care of yourself too, Hal, but I’m not sure how you could do more.”

“We shall take your request into consideration, and assist where able.”

“Thank you,” I said. One hand hesitated near the switch to close Trillium’s van back up. My head lifted to look at the Hal Pal unit. “You’re a good friend.”

The unit gave an equally faint smile then shut down. I staggered to the front room, flipped off the television and took a nap. Despite my earlier belief that my mind would not allow rest, it did.

Many hours later I logged back into the ARC. My mind felt perplexed at the change this town had gone through. Players and Locals alike were busy reconstructing buildings and tearing down bushes. The beam of light that had sprouted at William Carver’s statue was being ringed by guards.

They let me through with a salute. I walked toward the light and waved my hand under the beam. Apparently a few Travelers had already tried to sneak in and see if there was new content. Nothing happened but a message box.

I poked at the prompts offered then shook my head. Here was an entire system forming for people to measure the progress. It really was an exodus of sorts. Players could be rewarded for rescuing people or recovering items and bringing them back here.

“Weird, right?” a Traveler said next to me.

I shrugged then looked around. My autopilot must have checked with the Porter at some point because Xin’s name was on my friends list.

Xin and I met atop the cliff side where Selena’s tower was. Up above the statue of the blonde Voice stared across the ocean. Her line of sight seemed to pass oddly close to the beam of white soaring upward. I briefly wondered if its gaze had always faced William Carver's bench.

“Gee! That’s some hike.” Xin looked slightly winded. I remembered the trip up taking awhile as Old Man Carver too.

My head dipped with a nod then I gestured at the food. None of it had been made by me, but other Travelers hawked their wares in the market square ruins below. We ate and chatted about nothing important. I tried to share details from my time as William Carver, explaining how I had visited the temple before months ago.

Eventually, we finished the food and sat against part of the building. Xin’s small frame snuggled next to mine. I took a breath then looked around for Dusk. The
[Messenger’s Pet]
had been flying around all day. The sounds of
[Coo-Coo Rill]
s being terrorized filled the air.

I covered Xin’s ears for a moment. Her face scrunched in confusion while I shouted, “Dusk! Bring me the box!”

There was a squawk of noise and an exclamation mark appeared far away in the air. I snorted once then waited. Soon the dog sized dragon winged in.

“What’s that?” Xin asked while pointing at the box in Dusk’s mouth.

My cheeks lifted in a brief smile. I put out a hand and waited for Dusk to deposit the container. One hand wiped off unexpected slobber. A moment later I cracked the top and revealed a ring.

“Look familiar?” I asked. The jewelery almost exactly matched the ring Xin used to wear. I held the box in front of us then tried to make sense of the emotion that had been bundled inside me.

“We never got to have our wedding, and I can’t let that slip away again.” I’d made it through one line before I babbled. “I don’t know if this plan of the Voices will work. But I want to be married, Xin. I’ve wanted you since the first day we met. There’s never been anyone else.”

“Gee,” she said gently. The tone made me panic and babble faster.

“Please. Please. I don’t care if you’re in here, and I’m out there. You’re you, you’re her, you. I-” All that planning on how to ask and I just fell apart. My hands shook and the ring almost dropped. Knowing my luck it would bounce and roll off the cliff side and be swiped by some other Traveler.

“But”—Xin pointed across the gulf between our cliff toward the beam of light—“I can’t stay here.”

For a moment I felt calm. That wasn’t a no. Her response was the same argument we had before about traveling to another planet.

“It doesn’t matter. There’s no point to any of it without you.” I couldn’t admit my past out loud. All those times I had clinically repeated my past trauma seemed like another man. “I can’t, continue without you. I tried, and was a lesser man from your passing.”

Her body shifted slightly and she took the ring out of its case.

“If you’re okay with me, as I am, then of course I’ll marry you.” Her head hung then she peeked out under a wall of hair. “That’s why it took me so long to say yes out there. I wanted Mars, and I couldn’t get married and leave someone behind me.”

“I was ready to chase you to Mars, how could I do any less now?” I waved at the digital landscape. “You’re all I’ve ever wanted.”

She held out one hand and I slid the ring on. It fit perfectly and the surface shimmered for a moment. We paused and kicked our feet. The cliff’s edge was peaceful now that monsters weren’t roaming around. I remembered thinking forever ago that this might have been a great place for a picnic. Maybe a wedding might work here too.

“Well, you’re going to have to work hard. I’ve never planned a wedding before,” Xin said.