Sliding Reality: Chapter 3 Part 1 of 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 3:

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Brad opened his eyes, looking up at the screen above his bed, showing the stars. The last day rushed back to him as he rubbed his face, feeling the dull thud from the few drinks he'd nursed the night before. Well the world's not going to wait on me

"Lights on." He sighed, unhooking himself from the sleeping bag that held him to the 'floor'. The familiar playful feeling of weightlessness didn't hold him as he tapped his boots together, clamping down to the floor.

He felt the light stubble on his head, few more days till I need a shave. He flexed his legs, bringing himself to standing, groaning and stretching. "Show exterior."

The silver walls changed to show the hangar beyond. Spartan and utilitarian, the lights of his ship casting shadows and leaving areas of nearly blinding brightness.

"Well looks like that wasn't just a nightmare." Brad muttered to himself and clomped out of his bedroom and headed to the kitchen.

He got some coffee going and pulled out some rations.

"Apple and cinnamon, always hard to fuck that one up." He pulled out a bar, chewing on it as he waited for his coffee, staring through the screen opposite his seat, looking at Sphere World’s hangar interior. Utilitarian, crisp, unpolished untreated and unpainted metal against the finished curved lines of his own ship.

The sound of Stuart walking through the halls was a welcome relief to his thoughts.

Kind of hard to be quiet in mag boots.

The coffee let out a warning click, its light turning green. Brad got up and retrieved two bottles, attaching them to the coffee maker’s nipples, sugar and milk substitute flowed into one, pure black into the other. They filled up as Stuart darkened the kitchen/living area's door.

"Morning," Stuart said.

"Morning," Brad pushed the bottle towards him. "Coffee, black."

“Thanks,” Stuart grunted grabbing it out of the air. He sucked from the bottle, taking a long draw on his way to the table.

Brad sat back down and pulled out the box of ration bars.

Stuart grunted and pulled out one at random.

Brad closed the box leaving it mag clamped to the table. They drank in silence, focusing on the screens behind the other, back on the hangar around them.

"We really put our damn foot in it," Stuart said, taking a slurp of coffee to clear his throat.

"Yeah,” Brad drew out the word, trying to calm the clutter of his own thoughts. “I just can’t wrap my head around it being real.”

Stuart went quiet, drinking from his coffee. Brad went back to staring out the screens.

"Brad, what the fuck are we going to do?"

Brad considered his bottle in front of him, taking a slow drink to gain more time.

"Honestly," He looked at his lifelong friend in the eye. "I have no fucking clue man. But we're here, we're the only humans actually here. We're part of why Sphere World was able to connect to humanity, we need to learn about it and then we can do something about this."

"Us? Brad hissed and leaned closer, lowering his voice. "Brad, listen to yourself, we are game developers we make video games, imaginations of the world or fantastical worlds. We're about to be grandfathers. We're not some damn envoy to the stars." He hit the table, making him rise out from his seat. "I fucking hate space." He grumbled and pulled himself back down into sitting.

"Stuart, like it or not, we are the only ones out here, we might be the only ones that know about Sphere World, we're on the ass end of the human Sphere, it only just got net access. We owe it to our kids to our grandson to find out as much information about Sphere World. This is bigger than us, we can’t mess it up."

"Brad, this is way beyond us, we need to turn this over to someone." Stuart pleaded.

"Who Stuart? Who would we turn it over to?" Brad threw up his own arm, fighting the motion afterwards. Too much time in gravity.

"I don't know Brad, someone! The government!" Stuart threw his free hand open.

"Which one? The Federation? Or the Coalition? One of the Settled systems, or maybe the United Nations of Sol?”

“Any of them!”

Brad felt anger kindle deep in his stomach.

“The United Nations of Sol care only about their reputation and little about anything outside of their system, thinking themselves the rightful rulers of all under their domain, just because they’re old. The Federation are a bunch of militaristic assholes that think everyone is out to get them and have been stuck in a cold war with the Coalition probably because they’re the only people that can stand up to them, while they themselves have the biggest military, they have the most systems and citizens that seem more focused on pulling themselves apart out of individual greed instead of doing better for their people. The Settled system’s greatest defense is that they have allied themselves with one another, and still they are a power too weak to fight anyone, but they’re loud and connected enough to yell out and sound the alarm." Brad sighed and rubbed his face, the heat going out of him, replaced with guilt. "I don't know-no more than you. That's why we need to find out more information." He looked right at Stuart. "This is the first indication we have of another sentient race other than humanity. Stuart, we're standing on history, the kind that we can fuck up easily. The kind of shit that gets you cursed or loved through the history books. I don't like this anymore than you, but we need information."

“What about the corporations? They’re connected to the governments!”

“If we were to give this to the corporations they would tear everything apart, dividing it up according to whatever they could barter, steal or blackmail.” Brad breathed in deep, gods, when did he get so old. “Sphere World can create warships there are millions, now billions of people playing it, increasing the harvested materials, weapons, ammunition every minute. The factions are held in balance by one another, they snipe and attack one another in different ways, but it has been years since there was a fighting war, only because peace is more beneficial to war. The only use of war is to gain loot to increase one’s power.”

Brad sat back and opened his hands to everything around them. “Sphere World is that kind of loot, that would tip the feather-fine balance between factions.” The hairs on the back of his neck raised.

Stuart deflated resting his elbows on the table and eating his ration bar.

Brad drank from his coffee mechanically.

"So what kind of information?" Stuart asked.

"The kind of information that might just stop us from falling into war. We need to find just why the hell Sphere World is here? Who built it? Why did it port itself through our game? What can Sphere World do?" Brad fell silent, avoiding Stuart’s eyes.

"What is the thing I'm not going to like," Stuart asked.

"She was able to control our ship, and she is an AI, I don’t know what she faked or what is real. The sensor readings could have been fake, we know that we’re in a hangar and that’s it.”

"You want to go in there?” Stuart stabbed his ration wrapper at the wall-screen. “I'm supposed to be the stupid one! At least we know this ship, if this is real then that is an entire station controlled by some AI that we have no idea about!"

"An AI that hired Olivia Mao to help win the case against our old shareholders." Brad said.

"Wah, you don't--really?"

"Steve gave us the same information. The newest shareholder of Orion Belt Industries and the one that hired Olivia Mao."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"I'm not really sure what it means," Brad said. “But I know that what I see with my eyes can’t be faked. I want to see inside Sphere World, see the factories inside, check just how large it is.”

Stuart forced out a frustrated sigh. “We don’t even know how AI work, we’ve never been able to build one, and this one was created by aliens who might not even have thoughts that could be remotely similar to ours.”

“This is what we need to figure out.”

“Brad, we don’t even have a connection to the net. What if-,” Brad tilted his head, paling. “What if something was to happen, y’know to us.”

Then no one would know where the hell we were. They’d find our logs throughout inhabited space and then just nothing.