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About the Cover

The photograph on the cover is from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft mission, showing Saturn, its rings and the moon Titan.

The photo was taken on May 6, 2012 when Cassini was about half a million miles away from Titan.

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Support space research and exploration!

To my family.

The ones I’m related to and the ones I’m not.

meta 1

are they ready?

they?

hardly.

it’s only been twenty thousand cycles.

but, maybe, individuals might be ready.

pick some likely candidates.

test them.

Chapter 1

Duncan Sheriden stood in front of the glass wall, awed. A planet hung above the viewport, dominating the vista. Looking up at the blue orb threatened to disorient him, replacing up with down; negating every life lesson gravity had taught.

“What’s it made of?”

“The planet? Whatever planets are made of. It doesn’t matter. It’s just computer graphics anyway.”

Duncan turned his head to look at his friend, “No. I meant the glass.” He looked back at the view, “I mean, it’s a huge half dome. It must be a hundred meters across.”

“At least,” said Matt.

“And there are no visible supports, no framing. Just an unbroken semi circle of clear glass.” He looked back at Matt, “Is it silica? Diamond? What?”

Matt laughed, “You want to know, fundamentally, what it really is? It’s computer code. It’s a rule. A rule that says ‘this thing separates nasty space vacuum from life supporting gasses, it’s see through, and probably indestructible’.”

“And anyway,” Matt continued, “you’re twenty seconds into the first location in a functionally limitless virtual universe. The room was designed to impress new players and the first thing you notice is the one thing you can’t see.” Matt laughed again, “You’re hilarious. C’mon, let’s get you setup.”

Matt pulled Duncan away from the view and, turning, they walked toward what looked like an information kiosk. As they approached it, Duncan heard, as though a voice inside his head;

“Welcome to ‘Omegaverse’, Duncan Sheriden. I’m your personal assistant, Clive. You can call me up by name or by selecting the question mark icon in the lower left side of your user interface. Please do so now.”

An icon in the lower left of his field of view began rapidly flashing so he focused on it, then thought ‘select’ and the neural interface in his VR helmet carried out the command.

“Thank you, Duncan. As you move through the Omegaverse, you will undoubtedly have many questions. I will, to the best of my ability, give you the answers!”

Duncan smiled.
“What’s the glass in the dome made of?
”

“A lattice of carbon, similar to diamonds, we believe. The technology is beyond our capabilities. We assume, like most of the technology in the Omegaverse, that it was created by the Old Ones.”

“What are the Old Ones?”

“A race from the distant past. Nothing is known of their history. All we have left of them is their technology.”

“What planet is that? The one we’re orbiting.”

“Kepler 22B.”

“Thanks. How do I go back to talking to other players?”
he asked. Matt looked bored.

“Either click on my icon, which functions as a toggle, or dismiss me verbally. Others around you can’t hear you and I talk. In time, we’ll get to know each other well enough that you won’t have to either call or dismiss me.”

Matt smiled at him, “Are you ready?”

“Am I ready for what? Playing?” Duncan asked, “What about my name, my character, my class, skills, attributes. All that stuff?”

Matt waved his hands dismissively, “None of that stuff applies. This isn’t like some fantasy role playing game where you’re playing an elf or a barbarian. You’re
you
. Duncan Sheriden, twentieth level dork!”

“Some parts are customizable,” he continued, “You can set your nickname, the name that displays to other players. But for the most part, any special abilities or skills you have develop for you as you play, however you play. But everything you need to do, you just ‘do’, your skills are as much tied to your actual abilities as it is anything else. As you practice, you’ll likely gain in proficiency in artificial increments, but that just helps by a matter of a few percent, so it’s only really noticeable statistically. By far, most of the
advancement
you’ll do as a player is tied to your equipment.”

Duncan shook his head, “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Matt smiled, “It will, soon enough.” He turned, “Follow me,” and started walking toward a door opposite the glass dome, behind the kiosk.

Duncan followed through the automatic door, which led into a short hallway with another door at the other end. Once through the door, which closed behind them, a disembodied voice asked

“Destination?”

“Home sweet home,” said Matt, who continued through the alcove. As he reached the end, the next door opened and Matt, Duncan in tow, walked through into what, Duncan thought, looked like a medium sized apartment, sparsely furnished with disjointedly eclectic styles.

Matt waved his arms expansively, “Mi casa es su casa,” after which Duncan received a message, in text, across the top of his field of view:

Access level granted: Permanent Guest. Special restrictions: None.

“Guest?” asked Duncan.

“Yeah, that means that you’re allowed to be here whenever you like. Permanent means that I don’t have to be here. No restrictions means you can access or mess with whatever you like,” laughed Matt, “so don’t fuck up my place.”

“Wow, thanks,” said Duncan, who then heard Clive’s voice:

“I’ve setup your access code for this destination to be “Matt’s Place”, though you can change it to whatever you like. Just ask!”

“Thanks,” subvocalized Duncan, then to Matt, “Do I need a key or something?”

“Nah. You’re allowed in and so is anyone you’re grouped with, but they don’t have any access apart from being here, walking around. They can look, but not touch.”

Duncan began looking around the space, “This place is better decorated than your real apartment.”

“Cleaner, too!” Matt laughed, “Have a seat, I’ll be back in a minute”. He went through a door in the wall opposite the front door.

Instead, Duncan began exploring the room. Next to the front door, hanging on the wall, was an old time, twentieth century, advertisement poster for Coca-Cola. At the bottom right, it was numbered, 27/500. Clive chimed in:

“Advertisers can purchase loot drops, in lots. Depending upon rarity and desirability, these items can command a large sum in auctions.”

“Really,
” asked Duncan,
“for a decoration?”

He focused on the bottom, reading the fine print. Trademark and copyright notices. Then saw ‘found by Matt Vanderveer, March 16 2021’.

“Yes”,
continued Clive,
“but the drops aren’t limited to decorations. Clothing, weapons, anything you can think of, really, has probably been marketed in some manner.”

Matt returned, “Like it? Found that poster during a really hairy fight. Wasn’t sure I was going to be able to survive long enough to get it back here. I could probably sell it for twenty bucks, but I like it.”

“Here,” continued Matt, “I have some equipment you can have.”

A dialog box appeared in Duncan’s upper right field of view. He focused on it and saw a list of items. An M4 assault rifle, a .45 m1911 pistol, some body armor and a few small packages marked “.45 5 magazines” or “5.56 5 magazines”. He looked to the “Accept” icon below the list and chose it.

Clive helpfully began flashing another icon on the left side of his view, marked
Inventory
, so Duncan chose that, opening another, larger sheet. He began reading through the list, which overlaid his field of view. The boxes, icons and words were semi-transparent, so he was able to walk to the middle of the room and sit in one of the chairs near where Matt was sitting.

“Isn’t this kind of low-tech for a space game?” Duncan asked, “I mean, I just assumed this would all be lasers and plasma rifles in the 40 watt range.”

Matt laughed. “Just what you see here, pal. Anyway, we’ll be heading off to clear out an earth-like planet. Probably nothing more than the local equivalent of some tigers and bears. These will be enough, and the ammo is dirt cheap. We’ll get to the cool toys later.”

“This isn’t exactly what I’d want to go up against tigers and bears, either,” said Duncan.

Matt laughed, “Don’t worry. There are four of us.”

Duncan closed the inventory window, paused and looked at Matt.

“This is a lot of information, pretty fast.”

“Yeah, but if you’d been alone, you’d have been led through a series of newbie introductions,” he laughed, “At this point, you’d probably be learning how to call up your inventory, change your clothes, or select how you look. Since you have me,” he bowed, “you get the quicky intro.”

Duncan looked over Matt. The resemblance to his real life visage was remarkable.

“What do I look like?”

“Nothing like the real Duncan. Just some generic schmuck,” laughed Matt, while Clive opened up a box labeled
Personal Info
.

BOOK: Shepherd Moon: Omegaverse: Volume 1

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