First line of Defence: Chapter 8 (Patreon)

Chapter 8

All Rich People Own a Planet.

I didn’t know what to expect when the Cycle ended. The countless bottles of bourbon hadn’t given me clarity, so in a drunken stupor I’d asked Tee to put me to sleep for the rest of the Cycle. Tee despite his many good qualities wasn’t someone I could take my problems to. He didn’t understand why I was so upset and couldn’t relate well enough to help me. So, I was just as lost when I woke up in my parent’s living room to see my brother Peter running for the bathroom.

He stopped as he reached the door.

A bunch of notifications appeared before me.

The kind and generous Morgan Bartholomew Winchester has purchased a rejuvenation therapy package for you. When you turn 50 years old, you will receive a rejuvenation treatment free of charge.

The kind and generous Morgan Bartholomew Winchester has purchased a complete medical correction therapy package for you. A medical treatment drone will be dispatched to your location to administer this therapy package before the 3rdCycle of the Game.

The kind and generous Morgan Bartholomew Winchester has purchased a recurring rejuvenation and medical pet package for your pets. A medical treatment drone will be dispatched to your location to administer this pet package before the 3rdCycle of the Game.

An image of me appeared when I finished reading the notification. Someone had touched it up, so it was the best photo I’d ever taken. It stayed until I dismissed it.

Dad leapt out of his recliner and pulled me to my feet so he could hug me. “You’re a good son. I wish your mother had lived to see this. I’m so proud of you for being so generous.”

“Ouch, we’re like right here,” Peter said, fighting a smile.

“I know right,” Simon replied. “I mean, it’s okay that Dad has a favourite, but does he have to rub it in our faces. Thanks for the rejuvenation treatment, little bro.”

Dad turned to Simon. “He bought you one too?”

“And me,” Peter said. “I think he has abandonment issues. I have an appointment for a full medical treatment to remove diseases.”

“That can finally get rid of that thing on your face,” Simon said.

“There’s nothing on my face.”

“So, you’re just ugly then?”

Peter ignored Simon and walked over and crushed me in a bear hug, picked me up, to give me an overly dramatic kiss on the cheek with full sound effects. “You, okay? You’re not even fighting back. It’s making this weird. Don’t make this weird. I’m still uncomfortable with what Tee put on my computer.”

He put me down, shaking his head.

I tried to be a bit less awkward. “Ah, I have something to tell you guys, and I think you should sit down.”

Peter started moving from foot to foot. “Is this going to take long?”

“It might.”

“Bathroom first then.”

After everyone had done what we needed, we got comfortable. I explained to them what had happened on my 2ndCycle. When I got through explaining everything I had asked for, they were all just as shocked as me. It made me feel better about being so dazed for the past few days.

“Hold up, let me get this straight,” Peter said, getting over his shock first. “You own Mars. And they’re going to build you a country-sized tropical paradise.”

“I think so.”

“Okay, I’m officially going to mooch off you for the rest of eternity.”

“I’m more impressed that he got them to make Pluto bigger so it could be classified as a planet again,” Simon said. “Also, I’m going to be mooching too. And from now on, I’m going to be telling chicks my family vacation home is Mars.”

Dad got up and walked around and lightly slapped my brothers in the back of the head. “Your brother just stopped anyone from dying for decades, cured all disease, and fixed the environment, and you two aren’t even going to congratulate or thank him?”

“We don’t want him to get a big head,” Peter said.

Simon nodded. “Yeah, he might think he’s better than us. As an older brother, that’s unacceptable. There is a pecking order around here. I’m second and he’s third. He’s not allowed to forget it.”

Buster woofed.

“That’s right, see even Buster agrees.”

Buster leaped onto Simon’s lap and started licking his face. We all stared at him in shock. Buster hadn’t jumped in two years. His arthritis was too bad. Actually, he seemed to have more energy than usual. Buster went from person to person to lick their faces, climbing over anything that was in his way.

“What’s up with Buster?” Dad asked.

My eyes widened. “I might have asked that all pets would live as long as their owners and have no health problems.”

My brothers looked at Buster, then back at me.

Peter nodded. “Okay, that one I respect. You just moved up in the pecking order. You have Simon’s spot now. You’re officially number two. Congratulations.”

“You can’t give away my spot,” Simon complained.

“I just did,” Peter replied.

My brothers started arguing.

Dad nodded to the kitchen, and I followed him out. He went to the fridge and started pulling out the cold cuts and salad he’d put away. He pointed toward the cupboard for me to get the plates and bread. “Are you alright? You don’t seem like yourself.”

“I own Mars. I’m not sure how I should feel about that.”

Dad shrugged and we started making sandwiches. “Does it change anything? By that, I mean is there anything you want to do that is different with your life because you own Mars?”

I thought about that for a moment because I hadn’t really considered it. “Not really.”

“Then don’t worry about it. Think of it like you inherited a mansion from a distant relative in Transylvania. It’s nice you own a mansion, but you’re never going to use it.”

I nodded. “That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose.”

“It’s the right way of looking at it, but there’s something else bothering you more than owning Mars.”

There was and I wasn’t surprised Dad could tell. “I was finally having fun as a station master, Dad. You should have seen it. I was running all over the station, fighting aliens, and building up the defences. I was taunting my opponent to act irrationally and leveling insanely fast. It was crazy and I loved every second of it.”

“And now you’re close to where you started and with a massive increase to the amount of experience you need to level.”

Unlike some parents, Dad always listened when I talked about video games, so he understood a lot for someone who didn’t play them.

“Exactly. I put in all that work and now it’s gone.”

Dad patted my back reassuringly. “Son, you’re used to your games lasting a few hours. This game they have us playing isn’t a game that lasts hours or days, but one that lasts centuries. By the sounds of it, you just cut off some of that time and trouble. You might be in a position you don’t like now, but that will change.” He held out his hand. “Pass the tomato. Peter won’t eat his sandwich if it doesn’t have tomato.”

I passed him the least ripe tomato.

Dad raised an eyebrow.

I chuckled and passed him a better one.

“Thank you. Anyway, because a season of the Game lasts centuries, it isn’t actually something you should think of as a game. This has no end, no win scenario. It’s a career, something you keep building upon until you’re sitting comfortably. You just lost a few days of a career and that’s okay. The reason you’re upset is that you’re thinking of this like a game. And if this was a game, you’d have every right to be upset at that loss of time, but it's not. It’s a reflection of life and struggle where those that are bigger and stronger than you succeed and take everything you have. So, stop looking at this the wrong way, and you’ll stop being bothered by it.”

That didn’t make me feel any better. “You used to be good at this.”

Dad gave a dry chuckle. “I used to understand the world we lived in. Now my son owns Mars, and I’m running around city ruins shooting robot spiders. We’re all trying to adjust to our new existence.”

Someone started violently banging on the front door. “Where is that bastard?” Tee shouted. “I’m going to kill him! Also, may I come in?”

“Which one of us are you going to kill, Tee?” Simon shouted back.

“Morgan.”

“You can come in then. The doors unlocked. He’s in the kitchen.”

Tee stormed through the house into the kitchen. He looked ready for a fight. His new body looked as much like Owen Wilson as his digital avatar. He even wore the red Hawaiian shirt and tan shorts from before.

Dad stepped in front of Tee, brandishing a knife. “If you intend to harm my son, you will have to go through me.”

“I’m just going to punch him,” Tee said, eyeing the knife with concern. “He deserves it after what he did to me.”

“Not under my roof,” Dad growled. “What did my son do to you exactly?”

“He bought me a body.”

“I don’t see the problem.”

“He gave me a micropenis and this.” Tee lifted his shirt, showing the tattoo of an arrow pointing down with the words let’s have a little fun.

My Dad put down his knife, holding his breath to fight away laughter. My brothers had come in to watch the show, hoping to see me get my butt kicked. Unlike Dad, they weren’t fighting to not laugh. Simon immediately collapsed to all fours, laughing so hard it looked like it hurt. Peter was holding their sides and crying.

“You’re right,” Peter wheezed, through tears. “He deserves it.”

Dad seemed to think so, too, because he grabbed me by the ear and dragged me to the backyard. “Owner of Mars or not, Morgan Bartholomew Winchester, you’re getting hit for that. No matter how funny it is, that was wrong, and you should be ashamed you did that to a friend. Tee, you can punch my son once. So, make it count.”

Tee grinned as he followed us out. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

Half an hour later, I was holding a bag of ice to my eye to help with the swelling. It hurt like hell, giving that dull constant throb that meant a big black eye was coming. I missed the pain-free sensation of the game. The only consolation was Tee was experiencing pain for the first time, and he wasn’t a fan. He had a bag of ice on his hand and was whining about it.

He hadn’t even broken the skin.

Pansy.

After he’d hit me, he said I had to pay for the body alteration and the tattoo removal. I agreed. It was fair since I’d done it to him. We were back to being good and Tee was as talkative as ever.

Tee hadn’t been pissed off about the tattoo and micropenis. He thought it was as funny as everyone else. He’d was pissed off because I hadn’t told him.

In his mind, we were supposed to be BFFs, and BFFs didn’t hide things from each other. Yes, I’d made the demand flippantly, but because I did, I should have told him. If I’d done it intentionally, it would have been a perfectly acceptable prank.

He was right. I should have told him. But I’d been too dazed to even think about it until he turned up in his body. It had completely slipped my mind.

“I like this whole eating thing,” Tee said, trying to chew normally. It was really awkward to watch. Every motion was mechanical, and his lips moved too much. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Dad raised his eyebrow. “You haven’t eaten before?”

“Never had a body. Station AIs don’t have access to one, so the whole human experience thing is new to me.”

“I’ll get some ice cream for you then.”

“Thank you.” Tee turned to me. “I got the final data for the station when the Cycle ended. You’ve got 90,000,000 credits, 900,000 resource points, and enough experience to start at level 13. You’re 1,000 short of reaching level 14.”

I frowned at the update. “I thought I started at level 1.”

“Technically, you did. The experience is from the achievements. They gave it to you again.”

I blinked. “I’m not level 1.”

“I said that.”

I smiled as excitement started to fill me. “I thought they had made it, so my dungeon was going to lose to the first person that came through.”

“Is that why you’ve been sulking?”

My heartrate sped up. “This means I have a chance. I can make this work. We need to talk to the others.”

***

The Librarian, Daniel, Alex, Tee, and the government liaison Harriet stared at me through my phone as I finished explaining what I’d done. Tee was sitting on the other end of the couch using his new phone. He’d borrowed my credit card to go buy it because he didn’t want to be sitting shoulder to shoulder for every call we made from now on. Without his little orb, he didn’t have direct access to the internet the same way he used to.

He’d also bought a laptop and a whole bunch of other stuff with my credit card. When I’d rightfully complained, he’d shown me a website where I could trade a single Token for $153 in cash and said that he was only taking his share of the loot. Then he’d said he wasn’t giving the credit card back and that I needed to increase the limit for him. I’d decided to just ignore him since I had bigger problems.

“I need a new plan,” I told them. “My early defence has to focus around the D2s, because I’ve got 1000 class points to spend on them, so we have to find the best upgrade path now that I have credits to spend.”

Harriet swallowed, looking pale.

She’d been looking like that since I’d confirmed I was the person responsible for everyone’s rejuvenation and health. The moderator had done what I asked. Everyone on Earth had seen a picture of the person responsible for their rejuvenation and medical treatment. I was now the most recognizable person on the planet. Dad’s neighbours had all come over to thank me and take selfies before I drove home.

“Under the circumstances, I felt it was necessary to include my manager in this conversation,” Harriet said. “Your achievements are too far outside the norm for me to take responsibility. He called his manager, who then called the Sectary of Defence. You have every intelligence-gathering asset in the United States currently reprioritizing to assist you, Sir. We’re contacting other agencies around the world for additional help. Your station has been given the highest priority. What exactly would you like us to do?”

“Tee has the blueprints that can be purchased until the station reaches level 9. There are multiple ways you can upgrade a D2. I want three different paths for the D2s a point defence version, a mid-weight version, and a light-heavy version.”

“I’m not sure what a light-heavy version is, Sir.”

“A light heavy version is just a version where the D2s focus on hitting as hard as they possibly can as far as they can, sacrificing other capabilities for this function.”

“Yes, Sir. We will have those options available as soon as possible.”

“Make sure you tell your teams to listen to Tee for knowledge on upgrades but ignore him when it comes to strategy.”

Tee snorted.

“That is a known issue with station AIs, Sir.”

Alex had been scowling while she waited her turn to speak. “Do you have any idea how many upgrade options Tee emailed us for the D2s? This will take days to go through properly.”

How anyone could look that good scowling, I had no clue. “I realize that.”

Getting my station up to level 9 while fighting the Wargarg gave us access to every piece of technology our faction could purchase until that stage. We knew every component of every missile, battery, light, medium, and heavy railgun we had at our disposal.

This was a huge job.

I wasn’t just asking them to design me an D2 for a level 2 station. I was asking them to design one that could eventually be level 9.

Which reminded me of something important.

“I also need a way of making credits.”

The Librarian cleared his throat. “I might be able to help with that. I was reading the information Tee sent me on the factions through your transit rings and had an idea for how you can entice the Kilocksin faction to your dungeon, specifically, their young people. They seem to enjoy unarmed combat without technological enhancement. Only this form of combat is considered true combat to them. If an enemy offers them a chance to fight in this way, they will abandon technology. They also seem to like status symbols. If you offered them an unarmed combat challenge for your dungeon with leader boards in each room, then you will find them coming back over and over as they attempt to defend and gain these titles.”

“Send me the information and I’ll look into it. Now that you’ve all heard about me, what problems can I help you with?”

Help had to go both ways, after all.

A few hours later, everyone disconnected, knowing we all had a lot of work ahead of us. The only one who remained was Harriet.

“I’ve been told to tell you the President would like to give you an award. There are also talks of you receiving your own national holiday. And my grandmother says thank you.”

“Tell your grandmother she’s welcome. And cancel my training with the military. I don’t need it anymore.”

Knowledge of how to use a particle pistol and fight had been coming in ever since I spoke to the moderator. I had no idea how good I was, but I knew I could hit what I wanted to now.

“Yes, Sir. Do you need anything else?”

“Need is a strong word. There is one thing I want, but it’s not really a need.”

“You have more resources than you can imagine at your disposal, Sir. So long as you don’t want an ex-girlfriend kidnapped, we are willing to assist you. We lost most of the CIA in the culling and most of those that survived aren’t willing to test the Peacekeepers.”

“Can you contact the artist who designed Deep Space Nine to help me design what my station will look like?”

Tee shook his head. “Nerd.”

***

Every disease humanity had ever suffered from was now gone. They were gone because I thought the moderator was antagonising me, so I flippantly and sarcastically made demands that I thought were insane. That was a difficult truth for me to get my head around, so I was trying not to think about it too much. I was throwing myself into my work as a distraction.

Tee wanted to give a presentation on the warship classification system and decided to see how far he could push the government. He requested they fly Daniel, The Library, and Alex to Portland in private jets, so he could give his presentation in person. It turned out, Harriet wasn’t kidding when she said that I had the governments backings. They immediately agreed.

They even hired out a hotel and surrounded it with security, to keep my overeager fans at bay. I now had the most recognised face on the planet. Almost everyone wanted to thank me personally for what I had done, and some weren’t taking no for an answer. I didn’t know how I was going to deal with this, beyond actively ignoring it.

The conference room, the five of us were using, could seat several hundred people. There was a camera recording Tee’s presentation, so the government could share it with other station masters, but the tech people were out of the room.

Tee paced across the stage in front of his power point presentation. The Hawaiian shirt and tan shorts had been replaced with a white sequin suit and turquoise blue shirt that looked like it belong in a disco movie.

I noticed every movement he made. The way he placed his weight on his feet. I was constantly aware of everyone and everything around me. Where the entrances and exits were. The rate of everyone’s breath. If I had to fight my way out, I knew where I would go and why.

Instead of making me anxious, my awareness of all those around me let me relax. I felt safer, more comfortable than I’d ever felt before. I was completely aware that I wasn’t in danger and that no one here could harm me.

Tee pivoted on the stage and began walking the other way. “The first point I want to make is that you’ll need to leave behind your preconceived notions of warships if you want to quickly understand what you’re facing in a given attack.”

Daniel, was sitting next to me when he, leaned back from the table and scowled. “Why can’t I study the enemy’s warships individually?”

“It’s not efficient in the short term,” Tee said. “And as the attack on Morgan’s station has pointed out, we can’t wait to let you learn this later. That’s why, you’re all getting a crash course in how your station’s scanners classify enemy warships.”

Tee was really concerned. He hadn’t expected a 2nd Cycle attack. None of the AI’s had.

Tee straightened his cuff. “Now, the classification the Game offers you when your station scans an enemy warship has value beyond how its related to your Earth warship classification system.”

“In what way?” Alex asked.

She was at the other end of the table, but I could tell where she was in the room simply by the scent of her perfume. I could do the same with The Librarian’s cologne.

“Anything classified as a corvette, is small in size, with short range weapons, and high manoeuvrability. The classification heavy means it has high defensive capabilities, while retaining these other properties. The classification light means it has ever more manoeuvrability. Stealth, means it’s capable of fooling your scanners, but you’ll rarely see this sort of classification pop up, because stealth capabilities are difficult for your sensors to confirm.”

The Librarian made a note in his book. “You’re suggesting that the classifications our station give enemy vessels aren’t accurate.”

“Unless you have a clear technological advantage over your opponent, your scanners can and will be fooled. They aren’t accurate but they also aren’t so inaccurate that you should ignore them. They’re very good at what they do, so the moment they notice a vessel exhibiting a behaviour outside its classification, it will update their classification.”

Tee had explained why this presentation was so important last night. If we got caught out, we could incorrectly prioritize targets like I had while we were dealing with the Wargarg.

“Does the size of the vessel play a role in the classification system?” Alex asked.

“A minor role,” Tee replied. “Warships grow larger as the Game progresses, so what can be classified as a battleship now might be smaller than a corvette in a hundred years. Also, the physical size of a species can change the size of their vessels. The largest species in the Collective is crab like in shape with a body that is over two miles wide. They’re bigger than any of the vessels that attacked Morgan’s station.”

“Wow,” I said, honestly surprised there was a species that big.

The Librarian frowned as he made another note. “If size doesn’t play a role, why use our naming conventions?”

“Simplicity,” Tee said. “In time, you will make your own classifications and terms, but for now the Peacekeepers have given you something you can relate to.”

“Will the classifications expand?”

Tee paused. “Potentially, but we won’t know until it happens. For now, the only classifications are, fighter, bomber, gunship, corvette, frigate, cruiser, destroyer, carrier, battleship, dreadnaught, and super dreadnaught.” Tee pressed a button on his remote and the image behind him changed to a vessel that seem similar to the last one. “The gunship classification is similar to the corvettes, except its weapons loadout is designed for engaging your fighters and bombers instead of your station. It is also slightly more manoeuvrable to help with this. Because these are so similar to corvettes, its easy to disguise a corvette as one. All the enemy has to do, is sacrifice their more powerful external weapons and equip them with missiles that can damage your station.”

That was interesting tactic. I wrote myself a note on my phone to think about it later. I had credits to buy upgrades and replacing my fighters and bombers was something I intended to do.

Alex scoffed. “If we’ve let them get that close to our station then we’ve already failed.”

I’d thought the same thing before the Wargarg attacked me. “Corvettes and gunships have an advantage over bigger and smaller vessels that shouldn’t be ignored. The smaller size gives them the ability to cloak more effectively and carry one frigate class weapon. They might reach your station without you ever knowing they’re there.”

The Librarian turned to me. “They’re scouting vessels, for infiltrating enemy sectors?”

I nodded. “We need to remember that the enemy fleet doesn’t exist to destroy our station. It has multiple purposes. We’re just one piece of a very large puzzle.”

“That’s only true for now,” Tee said. "Later on, factions will build station breaking fleets.” The slid behind him changed. “Now, Anything classified as a frigate is small in size, with multiple short to mid-range weapons, and moderate defence and manoeuvrability. These warships are the strongest starting warships most factions receive, and most factions try to distance themselves from these as quickly as they can. I’m not sure why.”

“They’re logistically ineffective,” The Librarian replied. “Corvettes and gunships are significantly faster and cheaper to build and operate, so you can scale quickly with them. The addition of mid-range weapons doesn’t provide a large enough tactical advantage to offset the cost, making cruisers and destroyers a better military investment.”

We all gave him the same surprised look.

He shrugged. “Harriet connected me to the military to answer some questions I had. Commercial shipyards are capable of building corvettes, but you need industrial shipyards to produce a frigate, cruiser, or destroyer, and the time and resource cost makes frigates a poor investment.”

“Unless you have some sort of technological advantage in that area,” Alex pointed out. “Like the ability to build frigates cheaply in commercial shipyards.”

The Librarian nodded. “Humanity is not at the stage where they can investigate that yet.”

Tee cleared his throat. “As I was saying, frigates are a short-lived problem. Cruisers and destroyers are quickly going to replace them. Both are medium sized warships, with mid-range weaponry. Cruisers focus on speed and manoeuvrability, and destroyers focus on armour, shields, and point defence. Your station’s weaponry will decide which of these two should be targeted first.”

“How short lived?” Daniel asked.

“It depends on the factions, but most will have access to numerous unfinished warships when they start a new season of the Game. If they can get these fleets finished quickly, then they tend ignore their frigates. The number of frigates start decreasing around the 25th Cycle.”

“So only the first few attacks then.”

Daniel was talking to himself, rather than Tee. Making notes of what he needed to be ready for. The first Cycle, he’d treated this too casually. I was glad he was taking this seriously now.

Tee went back to his presentation. “Battleships are medium sized warships, with extensive mid-range and moderate long-range weaponry. They have better defence and speed than cruisers and destroyers, with much larger reactors. These are almost always captained by individuals with special classes, so their capabilities can vary quite a lot.”

The image behind Tee changed.

“Carriers are large warships, with mid-range weaponry, and extremely extensive point defence systems. They have strong armour and shields, with a fleet of fighters and bombers onboard. They aren’t that helpful when it comes to attacking a stations, so you should rarely have to deal with them.”

“Do carriers also get phased out, later?” I asked.

Tee paused. “Yes. When warships become big enough, they start carrying a small fleet of fighters and bombers.”

Daniel suddenly sat up straight and picked up his mom’s table. He went through a couple of websites and the held up the tablet. “I was wondering why you look so familiar, Tee.” He tapped the screen and the Owen Wilson gif started playing on repeat. “Wow. Wow. Wow.”

I laughed.

***

The last few days had been a whirlwind of change. Everyone wanted to talk to me, so I barely had any time to myself to think. I’d received a phone call from every leader on the planet. Each wanted to thank me personally to reassure their people that they had thanked me on their behalf. Only half of them had been political thanks.

The other half had broken down over the phone as they told me how I’d saved their ailing mother or father, how I cured the debilitating medical condition their son, daughter, mother, father, wife, husband, friend, nephew, or niece had. It was sobering to listen to. There was so much suffering in the world. And I’d removed a lot of it while being flippant and sarcastic.

Only my family and Tee knew the truth. That I’d made these demands out of ignorance that I didn’t get what I could have from the opportunity. That last part terrified me.

It terrified me because it meant the Game wasn’t just a game with a few prizes. It was a chance, a chance for humanity to exist without aging or disease. And we weren’t taking advantage of it the way we should.

Dad listened as I laid out my fears and worries, vomiting up three days of anxiety and stress. I’d come over early, before we went into the Game, because I needed someone to talk to, and he had always been there for my big problems.

We were sitting in the backyard and drinking beer when Dad reached into the cooler beside him and pulled out another. He popped the top on the edge of the wooden armrest, something mom never would have allowed, and handed it to me, and then got another for himself.

It was weird talking to him now that he’d had his rejuvenation treatment. He looked younger than me and almost exactly like Simon, except for all the grey hair. I had no memories of him this young, only family photos. It was going to take some getting used to.

“It seems to me that humanity is destined to fail our first time around,” Dad said. “You can’t change that. At best, you can postpone it.”

“That postponing could make a huge difference, though. All our information says that the first 100 Cycles are the most profitable. You get more resources and more Tokens than at any point other than the end of the season. The quests come more frequently, so if we survive that long, we will have gained as much as we would have in thousands of Cycles late-game. That could solve so many problems.”

Dad took a swig and then shook his head. “When a house is on fire, there is a point where you don’t try to put out the fire anymore. You just make sure that everyone gets out safely.”

I frowned at him. “That has nothing to do with what I’m talking about.”

He smiled back. “Are you sure? Because you’re acting like you’re responsible for all that’s wrong with the world, and that has nothing to do with you either. You gained a once-in-a-lifetime reward, a reward that has completely changed the world, but a reward that could have changed the world to a much greater extent. It seems to me you’re looking around at all the world’s problems and are beating yourself up because you realize you could have fixed them if you only knew more. But you didn’t know more. So be happy with what you managed to gain and ignore the rest. And if you can’t do that, take steps so that you don’t make the same mistake twice.”

I took a swig, trying to process everything he’d said. “What do you mean?”

“Learn about the moderators and their process. If you ever end up in front of one of them again, take them to the cleaners.”

“But that won’t fix things now.”

“Those aren’t your problems, Son. You aren’t responsible for the actions of others. You’re only responsible for your own actions. So, the only responsibility you have to the human race, as far as I’m concerned, is learning what a moderator can and can’t give you. I realize that the likeliness is low, but I bet of anyone on Earth you have the highest chance of doing this a second time.”

I frowned. “Why would you say that?”

“The time leading up to your first hole-in-one in golf is longer than the time leading up to your second. Those who have done something successfully once are more likely to do it successfully twice. So, prepare for the next time and forgive yourself for not gaining what you could this time, because I promise you that you’re the only person on Earth who is beating you up over what you did.”

“But that’s only because they don’t know the truth.”

Dad shook his head and sighed. “This isn’t about them, is it? This is about you. You thought you were playing a game. You accepted that there were consequences if you lost your station, but you thought you understood those consequences. Now, because of all this, you realize the true consequences of failure and that you have far more responsibility than you ever wanted.”

The nausea rolling through my stomach intensified. The rewards for playing the Game were far greater than I ever imagined, far greater than they told us. If I failed to do my job, people would lose that opportunity because of me. They would lose the opportunity to walk again, survive cancer, live longer, and a thousand other miracles.

Dad seemed to sense my feelings.

He reached out and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “No man is an island, Morgan. Yes, you have more responsibility than most, but you’re one of 183 station masters. Each of those people shares the same responsibility that you do. And each of them is supposed to receive support from their faction that they aren’t receiving. You aren’t supposed to be alone in this.”

“So, I should blame others for my failures?”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

I took a sip of beer to buy time. “I know. I’m just stressed. This is too much pressure, too much responsibility. If I fail, millions of people are going to lose out because of me.”

Dad laughed. “Is that what you’re afraid of?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’re being an idiot.”

“How am I being an idiot?”

“Humanity is going to lose. You’ve convinced me of that.”

“So?”

“So, you’re being an idiot thinking you’re going to be the cause of this loss, but you can only be partially responsible for the loss of your sector, and all you need to do to not be responsible for that happening is to outlast the other three station masters. If one of them fails first, then you’re responsible for losing nothing. And considering how big of an advantage you currently have over them, that’s almost guaranteed.”

I stared at him stunned.

Was it honestly that simple? I thought through what he said and the way I felt. I didn’t want to cause people to lose their chance. That terrified me. But if Alex, Daniel, or The Librarian lost their station first, then it wasn’t going to be my fault.

It would be their fault.

And I was almost certain that that was exactly what was going to happen. I had too much of a lead.

The nausea lessened and I started to grin. “Okay, I was being an idiot.”