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Tempora Part 2: Going Back

RhetoricalHypotheticalJun 4, 2018, 4:08:56 AM
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Note: This story is a continuation of a larger series. Here is the complete list of sections.

Bob pressed some buttons on his electronic pad. “Those seats you are sitting on… they aren’t just metal. They can link into your life systems.”

Steve witnessed a holographic display appear in front of him, bearing a message. You are about to be loaded into: THE HUB. Would you like to continue? Steve looked around, and while he didn’t see the same hologram appearing for any other Drones, he could see he wasn’t the only one looking around.

Bob took a seat on the front row. “Everyone, please accept. I’ll see you there.”

He awkwardly pressed the translucent accept button on the dialog, and the world around him melted away.

He stood up out of his chair, that had somehow made the trip with him. The placement of the chairs remained the same, but the walls were gone and a blue cloudless sky replaced the ceiling. While Steve could not see any sun, light filled the expanse, showing several frames with moving pictures depicting different locations. Bob had been there when Steve had arrived, and one after another the rest of the Drones also appeared and stepped out of their own seats.

Bob stretched, his body looking shinier and a more freshly painted deep blue than before. “All right everyone, please follow me.”

Steve interjected. “Wait! Where are we? Did we teleport somewhere?”

“What? No. We are in a simulation.”

The group followed Bob directly through one painting, as Steve realized it was less a picture and more a direct portal to another area. He expected something like a loading time, but instead he seamlessly walked through and found himself somewhere else.

The group stood on a large white stone balcony with a simple metal railing, overlooking sprawling roads and buildings clustered in areas around massive light gray spires that indicated the area as none other than Tempora. “Now, everyone has eight hours to take a look around. This lets you get an idea of the layout of the city for yourselves without any risk of hampering the usual day to day operations unnecessarily, or getting into any trouble. Now, to give you a rudimentary understanding of-”

An explosion resonated through the air as one of the massive towers shook in recoil, beginning to tilt to one side as smoke rose into the air. Bob cursed in surprise. “Folding rift! What the… ”

The air distorted next to him as a taller green drone with a very pompous stance and several stars pinned to his chest appeared. “Oh, BOB-7800. I was not aware you would be taking a group through here today.”

“In the name of all that is sacred, General! Do you really need to be conducting war drills this very moment?”

“Yes, actually. I have many new recruits that are still woefully unprepared for any real conflict, specifically against a physically superior force. So I’m having them fight Giants.”

The tower rumbled as it began to tilt further, and sounds of conflict echoed from the streets below. Bob scoffed. “I don’t think Giants typically employ high yield explosives.”

The General bellowed with laughter. “You would be surprised, Bob. But since I certainly don’t want to inconvenience you, I will grant your group a little something special.”

Another hologram appeared in front of Steve, which he almost automatically moved to accept before he noticed what it said. Accept no-collision and no-detection?

The General answered the confused looks from the newcomer Drones. “No-collision means nothing can harm your digital form and you can walk through walls, while no-detection means nothing without no-detection can see you. I believe that should suffice.”

One by one the Drones disappeared, until Steve pressed accept and they all reappeared. Rather than teleporting away again, the General vaulted over the edge of the cliff while drawing a sword from a hidden compartment in his back.

Jane and Steve wandered the ruined and smoking streets of Tempora, as Jane pointed out common hotspots and other points of interest. Steve found the whole experience incredibly surreal, as many Drones were yelling in pain after losing a limb or being disemboweled by a rampaging beast Steve now recognized as a Giant. The Giants themselves appeared mostly as he expected them to be, anywhere from ten to twenty feet tall, but wearing combat garb with light armor rather than the barbarian-esque garb he anticipated. They didn’t wield clubs or hammers but rather heavy gauntlets, swords, or battleaxes, and moved swiftly rather than with lumbering strides. Their mere presence was terrifying.

Jane noticed Steve had not heard anything she had said to him as another bomb landed nearby, blasting an entire squad of drones in different directions but not affecting them in the slightest. “Steve… Steve! Try to focus. None of this is real, but you still need to learn the layout of Tempora if you are going to live here.”

Steve couldn’t tear his gaze away from the wreckage of a fellow Drone as the life left its eyes. “How can you say that? This is… horrifying. Does this happen a lot in Tempora?”

“Giants? No, the most common threat is Vorpals. But your tone tells me you have not seen much of war in your simulation. Magnartica as a whole has many dangers, and sometimes those threats attack Tempora. So, like most major cities, we have a standing military force, as well as special arrangements with the Gatekeepers.”

Steve struggled to keep up, and when he began launching a deluge of questions, Jane quickly explained further. She explained Magnartica was the continent where Tempora was located, and the Gatekeepers were something like another nation, except far larger and having alliances with most other nations. And Vorpals were the most terrifying part of Jane’s blunt explanations.

“They are relentless, murderous, shape shifting monsters. No one knows what they really want, except to kill anyone they can whenever they can. And no matter how many are killed, more always come back. Some say they can resurrect themselves since their bodies quickly dissolve after death, and that if you are killed by one your corpse becomes a new Vorpal.”

Steve was regretting his decision to leave the safety of his simulation more every second. “Then… what do we do?”

“What do you mean?”

“It sounds like a zombie apocalypse. How can there be a civilization in a wasteland having such monsters?”

Jane laughed. “That is where the military comes in. And the Gatekeepers, of course. I’ve heard the best Gatekeepers can take out entire swarms of Vorpals. Just… don’t try it yourself. They many times don’t look it, but they are incredibly dangerous.”

The rest of the tour ran along without incident as the war games finally subsided and Steve could once again focus without the din of destruction surrounding him. Steve noted several locations that looked interesting, especially one claiming to sell AI.

“How can they possibly sell AI? I always thought such a thing was impossible, and if it ever did occur it would introduce the technological singularity and bring about the total extinction of life as we know it.”

Jane for once was overwhelmed at the sudden claims being put forth by Steve. “Whoa! What was all that? AI has been around forever, Tense practically invented it when he was alive! And it hasn’t changed much since then. What are you talking about, extinguishing life?”

“Because it would become smarter than us and destroy all life out of self preservation.”

Jane was silent for a long time. “Um… well that hasn’t happened… maybe Tense knew what you were talking about and made it so AI… couldn’t do that?”

Steve sighed. “Well, apparently. It sounds like life is still surviving just fine. Of course, maybe we all are really just AI programmed to think we are real...”

Jane laughed at the suggestion as if it was hilarious. “There is that sense of humor again. That’s entirely impossible, we have souls. Quantifiable souls.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“Trust me. Scholars have written entire papers systematically proving it. They are really complex and boring, but you sound like you might be interested in reading them. What did you do in your simulation as a profession, by the way? I heard you had a job already when they pulled you out.”

Steve thought back. It had only been a matter of hours, yet it now felt like a lifetime ago. “I was a programmer.”

“...What is that?”

“I wrote code.”

“What is code?”

Steve did a double take. He was about to explain to a robot the concept of code. “It’s… like a set of instructions that tells machines what to do.”

Jane processed this revelation. “That sounds… kind of like something Tense would do. So you are a technician, then?”

“I suppose so.”

“Interesting… a Drone technician experienced with entirely non-Drone, simulated technology. I wonder what you can do with that knowledge.”

Steve shrugged. “So far, all I’ve managed to do is ask stupid questions...”

Jane refused to stop laughing for entirely too long.

The group of new Drones all regrouped at the original balcony along with Bob. They all quickly filed out through the doorway, as a new holographic message appeared in front of Steve. Exit the Hub?

He clicked accept, and found himself sitting back in his chair, feeling surprisingly stiff. A door opened and everyone silently filed into an elevator as it carried them upward with sudden speed.

As the group followed Bob towards one final door, he stood to the side and pressed a large button. “Welcome, newcomers… to Tempora.”

As the door opened, a siren could be heard. Drones rushed around frantically, some carrying weapons while others simply sprinted for cover.

Bob swore. “Fold it all… Well, that’s hardly a great first impression…”

Steve grew uneasy. “What? What is it? An air raid? Invasion?”

Bob spoke with disgust as he answered. “Vorpals”

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