A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO TIME TRAVEL
A NaNoWriMo Challenge (Chapter 29)
29 —STEVE
I looked up as the SID unhooked me from the probes; I was looking over its head at Sandy coming out of the small room she’d been set up in. She looked as confused as I felt, and was about to say something, but I shook my head, looking at the SID. I didn’t want us saying anything in front of it, just in case; I wanted to be certain it wasn’t just me. She closed her mouth and came over to me, reaching out for my hand. She kissed it and laughed.
“You okay?” she asked, and I nodded.
“So, was there another glitch?” I asked in a soft whisper, my eyes on the SID. “Or was it just me?”
She looked at me and nodded.
“Glitch? Why would you say that?” the SID asked, hanging the probes up on a hook on the wall across from us. I wondered that it could hear us. “Nothing registered as a glitch.”
“No?” I said. “Nothing? But that Time Guide showed up again.”
“I saw him, too,” Sandy said. “Funny how he always says he’s your brother, isn’t it? But I remembered him from the last time I saw him. The time I said he killed Whit.”
“The Time Guide? Why would he enter your game?” the SID asked. “And why would he kill someone? Time Guides don’t kill characters. They can’t.”
“What do you mean they can’t?” I asked.
“We never know when he’s going to show up, for one thing,” it said, opening the doors to both of the rooms we’d been in. “Or in which Timeline, for that matter.”
“Which one? What do you mean? How many timelines are there?” Sandy asked. She was searching her pack, looking for her ID pouch—looking frantic for a moment.
“Timelines?” the SID said, considering the question. “Three or four, just in this link alone, I think.”
“Maybe it fell out when you were inside?” I suggested.
“What have you mislaid?” the SID asked.
“My ID profile seems to be missing.”
She gave me the pack and walked back into the room. She turned the lights on. I could hear her moving the equipment before she came out a moment later, holding the pouch up like a treasured icon. I suppose it was, considering all of her information is locked away on the tiny chip card inside. While most of us have easy access to everything with a simple retinal ID scan, and a nano check, some people had parents who refused to conform for whatever reasons they may have had. I guess a good word to describe them would be Anti-establishment. Sandy’s parents were avid supporters.
“There wasn’t anyone else around when we were inside, was there?” I asked.
“No. Just me,” the SID said. “Dwayne goes home long before you get here.”
“Dwayne? Who’s Dwayne?” I asked, looking at Sandy.
“Dwayne? He’s usually here in the morning. No wait. He’s always here in the morning, sorry, because he opens up.”
“Is he a Time Guide?” Sandy asked.
“Dwayne?” the SID said with what was almost a laugh. “No. He fixes the machines whenever something goes wrong; he does the installations, too.”
“He fixes them?” I said. “Why? Do they break down a lot?”
“Nah,” it said, so typical for a SID trying to emulate the crowd it most affixes to, I thought. He was trying to look busy though, wiping things down, and for a moment I thought maybe it was trying to avoid our questions. It left the room.
I looked over at Sandy, and she moved closer, dropping her voice.
“This Dwayne person, do you think he’s a SID?”
“Not everyone knows how to fix these things,” the SID said, coming back into the room. “They don’t hire SIDs to work on the equipment. Dwayne’s a sentient being.”
“You can hear us from the other room?” she asked.
“My enhanced auditory assemblage allows me to hear up to one hundred meters away.”
“Why would you need that?” I asked.
“It was one of the features Dwayne felt needed to be enhanced.”
“Dwayne did it? Why? If you can hear a whisper up to a hundred meters, how can the clients had a private discussion?”
“It’s all discretionary.”
“Discretionary? Does that mean someone’s listening in?”
“Dwayne had to take special classes. I guess it helps that he has his own system.”
“He has his own system?” I asked.
“So tell me,” Sandy asked, “you said a couple of times about doing this from your home? You can do that? Well, obviously you can, but what I mean is how exactly do they do that?”
“Oh, some of our clients go all out. But you still have to hire someone who knows how to work the cryo-chamber. You can rent the small, portable, models here as well—”
“Portable?” I said.
“Sure. Again, you still need a place to do it. We don’t recommend you do it alone. So if you rent one of the portables, you still need someone who can synch it up with your home’s natural AI the first time. You need to have someone around who knows what they’re doing.”
“A SID, like yourself?”
“It’s not as good as it is doing it here, of course, but you get to lay down in the comfort of your own home.”
“With a SID?” I asked again.
“That’s gotta count for something, right? I mean, it only feels like you’re gone for a long time. In real time, it’s still just an hour. That’s the beauty of the game, though. If you buy the system, you can go on it for an hour a night—every night—and live an entirely different life. If you rent it, you can only rent it for two days at a time.”
“And the SID is part of the package, then?”
“I didn’t know people actually bought theses things?” Sandy said, more to herself.
“We sell at least two a week,” the SID replied.
“And Dwayne sets them up?” I said, trying a new tack in my line of questioning.
“It’s probably a good idea if he oversees the installation. But sometimes, people do it themselves. It depends on which system they buy. Dwayne usually takes care of that stuff.”
“And so he sets up the cryo-chamber and synchs it with the AI that first time?” I said.
“That’s what we recommend.”
“But, you say the system can still be hacked into?” Sandy said.
“Any system can be hacked into if you know what you’re doing,” the SID replied.
“Have the AP talked to you, yet?” Sandy asked.
“Why would the AP want to talk to me?” he said.
If a machine could look nervous, then the SID was trying everything it could not to; it didn’t break out into a sweat like a human would have, but the graphics in its cone shaped glass head were buzzing. It rocked back and forth two or three times before settling itself down.
“No reason. I was just wondering,” Sandy said. “They were looking for some intel from us the other day, and I told them we were here. I thought they may have come by and talked to you.”
“They didn’t talk to me, and Dwayne never said anything.”
“Well, he’s the one they’d wanna talk to, isn’t he?” I said.
We took a shuttle-bot home. I suppose we were both lost in our own thoughts and trying to sort out what we’d just been through, because the flight was quiet. I sat watching the sun go down with a vivid palette of colours, and found myself staring out of the window, looking out at the city spread out below us. From my earliest youth I’ve always enjoyed watching the sun as it sets. I especially like the way the lights reflect off the buildings. But tonight, I was staring into the void, trying to sort things out in my head and decide if we should jump back into the game, or wait until the killer was arrested.
At least the avatar for Jaleen hadn’t died yet—and I knew that was something we both agreed on. But a part of me wondered how long before she died, too? That was followed with me asking myself if it was even her body they’d found? How was I going to find that out? And how come Jen wasn’t with him that last time?
“Did you see Jen?” I asked, suddenly looking up. “I mean tonight? At any time?”
She shook her head. “No. It was just Jimmy. He showed up alone. Do you suppose that means something?”
“I don’t know. Are you remembering anything from the other time line?”
“Like what?”
“Anything,” I said, shrugging.
“Nope. Well, nothing that I want to talk about.”
“Neither here nor there,” I said. “What I mean is, we should still be able to remember the first timeline, because we didn’t die in it. The glitch tossed us into the other timeline. So, if we didn’t die, we should remember, right?”
“Okay, but we’re don’t, do we? What are you trying to say?”
“I think the Time Guide’s erasing evidence. Jimmy. That’s why he has to come here and erase the character’s Avatars. His wiping the game clear by wiping the first timeline out of our collective memories.”
“What do you mean, he’s erasing memories?”
“He came back to personally take us through to this new timeline, remember? That’s when he killed Whit. Even if we didn’t see it, or think we did, we now know he killed Whit, because Whit died in the new timeline. That’s when he got us out of their heads. You said the girl died. How?”
“She was beaten to death. They beat her every night.”
“And you remember it?”
“All of it,” she said.
I was quiet for a moment, and then looked up at her.
“We gotta call AP. Jen and Jared need to know.”
“Do you think they’ll talk to us?”
“Why wouldn’t they?”
I nodded, agreeing, and then called out to the AI.
“Alison?”
“Hello, Stephen?” she responded.
“Check the records, do a facial recognition on the two APs that were here the other day, and send them a message. It doesn’t matter which of them you contact.”
“There’s only one AP available.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It appears the man known as Jared is no longer with the AP.”
“You mean he quit?” Sandy asked.
“He was killed while on duty.”
“What! When?” I asked.
“Two nights ago.”
“How?” Sandy asked.
“Details are not forthcoming, but apparently, he was in his home.”
“Get hold of Jen from the AP. I don’t know anything else about her. Use the recognition program. Tell her we have new information she needs to hear.”
“We do?” Sandy said.
Jen arrived two hours later. She looked exhausted. There were dark rings under her eyes and her skin was pale; she looked like she hadn’t slept in days, and I thought she probably hasn’t slept much since the night her partner was killed. I met her down by the chute as the door to the tube slid open at the same time.
“We just heard what happened,” I said, by way of greeting.
“Is that why you called me, to offer me your condolences?”
“Of course not,” I told her.
We reached the salon and Sandy came in, immediately hugging her. Jen seemed to melt into Sandy’s arms for a brief moment, and then straightened herself up. She stepped back, looking embarrassed, and then sat down in a nearby chair. She was hugging herself, perched on the edge of the chair, her left foot tapping a restless stutter. She stopped suddenly, looking up and tried to smile as she sat back in the chair, drying her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Sandy said. “We both are. Stephen just doesn’t know how to say it, yet. He’s still a work in progress.”
“Aren’t they all?” Jen smiled.
“Do they know what happened?” I asked.
“By they, you mean me, right? No, I don’t know what happened,” she said with a slow shake of her head.
“I’m only asking because we went into our game and met up with the Time Guide again.”
“And what’s the significance of that?” she asked.
“It wasn’t the fact that you weren’t with him,” Sandy said. “But the fact that he didn’t mention you. In fact, when we asked where you were, he just brushed the whole thing off. He said he’d lost you, and left it at that.”
“He didn’t lose me. I left the game,” she said. “How can I go back in there and think I’m helping you? With what happened to Jared, I mean?”
“How was he killed?”
“He drowned. Can you believe that? At home.”
“Drowned?” Sandy said. “How? In his thermadose? How can he drown in that? It doesn’t even use water.”
“He was outside, up on the roof. Someone hit him from behind and he fell. It would’ve been alright except that it was raining. He never got up again. He was laying in a puddle.”
“Why was he on the roof?”
“Records show someone wanted to talk to him. But that’s all they say. AI doesn’t acknowledge any incoming messages.”
“There was someone else that was attacked the other day?” I said. “It was a woman?”
Jen nodded.
“A pregnant woman,” Sandy added.
“It’s been all over the Holo,” Jen said. “Another victim they’re calling her—except she isn’t dead yet.
“Is she pregnant? They never said if she was pregnant, did they?”
Jen shook her head once. “No. They didn’t.”
“So they didn’t say anything because they want to keep her safe?” I said.
“I never said that, either.”
“Then why?” Sandy asked.
“She’s in a coma. They all go into a coma before they die. Remember? Some are in it for a day, or maybe two days; some for a week.”
“All of them?” I said.
She nodded. “Some of them shouldn’t even be in a coma. The wounds aren’t that extensive. And today, in this day and age? People don’t die like that. People’re given bots when they’re born. 25 megs. No disease, and certainly no violent deaths. Drownings, but no knife wounds, or laser bolts; and blunt force trauma to the head? The bots’ll repair it. So why go into a coma?”
“She’s gonna be in a coma for a long time. She’s in our timeline…but you already know that, don’t you?”
She nodded again.
“So if we keep her alive in the game, she’ll be alive out here,” I said.
“She hasn’t died in the game, yet?” Jen asked.
“Why do you say that?” Sandy asked.
“I think I know the answer,” I said.
“What?”
“The SID was telling us a story about some guy who had a heart attack playing the game. But that wasn’t it, was it?” I said.
She looked at me, tilting her head just enough to tell me she was listening. I looked at Sandy and then looked outside, the sun long set and the lights bright. The sky bots looked like line drawings on a dark page; they're lights like holes in the paper.
“We had a preamble going into our game,” I said, and Sandy was nodding even before I looked at her.
“I remember.”
“But did you?” I asked Jen. “You said the other day that you made it through the game without getting killed. You’re a Time Guide. That’s why you were put on the case. Problem is, it was Jared who was the lead investigator, wasn’t it?”
“Why do you think that?”
“He was close to figuring out who it was, wasn’t he?” Sandy asked.
“He had a list,” she said.
“Did he show it to you?” I said. “He didn’t, did he?”
“Again, why do you think that?”
“Because he’s dead, and you’re not. The only thing missing is his list. Am I right?”
“We can’t find it, no.”
“It’s been more than three thousand years since the real Cataclysm,” I said after a moment, purposely changing the subject. “Can you ever imagine what that must’ve been like? The world has come a long way since then—maybe too far? Like the SID said, that’s the big draw when it comes to VR. People want to know what it was like back then. They want realism. So much so, that you can die in the game and experience that as well.
“Is that why you played it?”
“Because you get a total of five lives when you play the Elite system, don’t you? Five lives in a market that seldom offers players more than one. With the others, if you die, you don’t start over again until you pay. With Elite, if you don’t die, they promote you. That must be worth a fortune to someone like you.”
“And what is someone like me?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. But there is something about you, isn’t there? You’re not normal.”
“Steven? What are you going on about?” Sandy asked, and then turned to Jen. “Does that mean you’re not working on the case anymore? Is that what he’s hinting at?”
“No. I just need a little me time. I have to sort this shit out.”
Sandy began shaking her head. “No. Look, I’m sorry your friend’s dead—I truly am. He seemed like such a nice guy, too. It looked like you guys had fun. But this isn’t going to go away, me time, or not. He’s coming to get us next. And when I say us, I mean you, too.”
“Good. I hope he tries,” Jen said, looking up sharply.
“Why?” Sandy said.
“Why? Because I’ll be waiting for him; that’s why I say let him try.”
“This guy’s no simpleton. He knows how to hack into a system and piggy back himself around. That’s what he’s been doing with us. He knows who we are in the real world, doesn’t he, but we don’t know him, do we?” she said.
“And then he killed Jared. And he tried to kill Jaleen—Whit’s wife? But she’s pregnant in the new timeline; she wasn’t in the first one. She was beaten to death in that first timeline—or I thought she was. That’s why he showed up when he did. He has to kill the game version of her character’s avatar for whatever sick reason he has. And then he’ll kill us and move onto his next gamers. And what is Jaleen to Whit outside of the game? Were they married?”
“No. They were having an affair. Of that we can be certain.”
“That world’s not built on certainties,” Sandy said.
“It isn’t?” Jen said. “We think she got pregnant in the game.”
“That’s impossible!” I said.
“The only thing we can be certain of is that he’s not going to kill us in the VR world before he does it out here first,” Sandy said.
“And that’s why I say, let him come,” Jen replied.
“I don’t think you understand the seriousness of what she’s saying,” I said.
“No? And why’s that?”
“Well, he’s going to kill us—all of us. How can he do that and hope to get away with it? You can’t get away with murder these days. There are too many variables. You have scenarios run by AI looking at every possible angle. If you can think of it, they’ll match you. Isn’t that right? Isn’t that what all the adverts say?”
“But we’re talking about a guy who can hack into the world’s most sophisticated gaming system. What makes you think he can’t hack into the AP and change things? When are you going back into the game?” she asked.
“I was thinking tonight,” I said. “That’s why we wanted to talk to you.”
“I’m not going back in,” she said.
“Won’t he suspect something?”
“He already knows I’m with the AP. He’s obviously got intel on everyone he uses to get into the game. Why wouldn’t he know about us? Why do you think he chose you?”
“Do we fit into a specific profile?” I asked.
“It’s probably more simple than that. How many credits are you worth?” She looked around the room. “What is this, the fortieth floor?”
“Forty-four.”
“Did you inherit your credits?”
I nodded.
“I’d suggest you stay out of the game for a while. At least until we get him.”
“We still have nine sessions left,” Sandy said. “And we bought a system for here.”
“And it’ll still be there waiting for you after we nail this bastard.”