Simulation Realities: Beginning of Blue Giant
#1 of Simulation Realities
Simulation Realities: Beginning of Blue Giant
After paying we were escorted to our suite, the sim already loaded. We had decided to go with the fur loadout this time. All of us were interested in that kinda of world anyway so it would be interesting, we had all drawn or commissioned our characters at one point or another but perceptions were always different. The program was designed to put us in a situation where something catastrophic happens and we had to survive.
Daniel our group's registered techi playing as Vashna the two tailed American short hair.
John our groups former military man and now survival expert playing as Lucas the American Red Fox
David our groups average Joe who worked as a janitor and beta tester playing as Roy the Gray Wolf.
Me, or rather us, Billy the one whos body this actually is, the savant hacker who worked in one of the 'respectable software companies' as a programmer playing Riley the white Jaguar.
And Sarah, the other one in this head, who doesn't have a job of course but is brilliant with quantum mechanics, especially considering neither of us have a degree in it playing Rachel the Clouded Leopard.
Connecting up to the machine we loaded into a blank world first where a group of old style computers, they needed real keyboards and everything. Overhead we heard a voice say "This room is used as a midway point between reality and the sim you're going to enter, we use these old appearing setups because it is easier to make the mind accept data via transference through simulated touch than simply uploading it. Please sit down and you will be loaded into the sim of your choice with the information you need for it."
Looking at the others I saw we were still in our human appearances and Andrea was in the appearance she had created for herself the last time we used a sim. Shrugging I walked to the computer that had my name on the side and sat down. It said I was assigned as a Network maintenance officer. "Hey, I'm a Network maintenance officer, what did everyone else get?" I yelled out while feeling certain gaps in my knowledge fill.
Answering Danial said "Computer hardware maintenance officer."
Answering next John said "Physical trainer and regulations officer."
Answering after him Sarah said "Navigation head officer."
Answering last David said "Um, Head technician?"
Laughing I said "Ahh the irony, the nonexistent one is a head officer and the janitor is the Head technician. Reminds me of Red dwarf."
"You all now know your assignments, the important parts of your character's histories shall now be transferred."
Seeing images flashing through my mind I knew that Riley was a girl, she had lost her parents 5 years prior. I knew she had I had been friends with Vashna for years and that Rachel was my adoptive sister. I had met Roy in Officer school the first year, Lucas had transferred in during the third year because he was better than than the teachers for his specialization at his old school. During the last year she had apparently almost gotten herself expelled by hacking the school network to open up the outgoing ports because she was bored during class. At graduation all 5 of us were assigned to the long range mining ship Blue Giant.
***
Going through my rounds I checked all the network sections and saw all the cracks in it I expected, my connection had all outgoing ports open with a direct connection to long range communications, Vashna had a connection onto my line, and Sarah had a connection onto my line with a direct line to long range scanners. Everything else was done up to regulations, I really didn't care if anyone asked for an opening in the network so long as they didn't try to do it themselves.
Removing the tech goggles I hopped out of the dive seat. Passing by Vash I pawed at one of her tails and laughed when she jumped.
Turning while keeping her hands stock still she said "Don't do that when I'm working Riley, you might be a genius at your job but mine isn't so simple."
Laughing still I said "Sorry, I figured you would be done by now, you clocked in at 0830."
Locking the tools in place she removed her hands and said "Someone broke the connection fibers for the food processors."
Frowning I said "But the network is saying that there is no connection problems, I even did all the digital walkways today, I didn't see any problems, I even specifically checked the food considering that it's venison today."
Passing me the view screen to the mini-bot she was using I saw the deck R line 87 fiber line was broken, it looked frayed, almost like a power overload. Handing her view screen back I grabbed the tech goggles and dived back into the connections. Pulling up the VI unit connector I asked Shel 'Why is there no connection error?' while shooting down the line to the corresponding connector. Arriving I saw why.
'There is no error because the area has been cut off.'
'I can see that now.' Looking around I saw that the entire area was gone according to the digital view, which meant that either the entire area had been cut out of the ship or that there had been a major energy surge in the area causing all the circuits to overload, because even when they were powered down I could look at their digital equivalent.
"Hey Vash, the area had to of overloaded, it doesn't exist according to my view." I said while pulling out of the dive.
"Yeah, sorry, this is going to take another couple hours, go have lunch on deck A instead, I checked it earlier and it is on the same schedule as R."
"Thanks, I'll tell the others that R is down and that you're working on it." Waving to her I walked out of the tech area and pulled up my palm holo to alert the others that lunch was on A deck. Catching the lift from T deck to A deck was typically dull but Lucas got on from S deck. Waving to me he signaled the watcher devices. Knowing what he meant I disabled the recording devices on the lift and said "Whats up that needs to be off the record?"
"Hows the monkey?"
"Good, eats a lot of bananas, to the point that I rerouted a couple of the mini-bots so that they drop off banana's in Rachel and my room."
Seeing the door begin to open I saw we were on I deck. Seeing it was Rachel Lucas said "So which one of you does it like better?"
Raising an eyebrow I said "I tried to eat her when she spilled my hot sauce on herself."
Laughing Rachel said "I remember that, Ginny thought it was a game and tried it when I got there later after you left, I just threw a pillow at her."
"That doesn't answer the question."
Leaning against the wall I said "She seems to like me better." Reactivating the recording devices right as the door opened I walked out and saw that Roy was already at the table. Grabbing a spot in line I got my double lunch and joined him.
As I sat down Roy looked at my lunch and said "You eat way too much."
"I'm a jaguar, what do you expect." I said while chowing down.
As the others sat down an announcement from the captain came on. "It would seem that the scanners have detected a non authorized life form on the ship, so everyone please be careful and report any anomalies."
"Brilliant." Rachel said while cutting her steak.
Swallowing I said "Calm down, we shouldn't have any problems, the sensors are designed to scramble when trying to track our room."
Pointing a fork at me Lucas said "You're nuts, you know that."
"Says the fox who is pointing a fork at the jaguar." I responded before biting through his fork and spiting it out.
Sitting down next to me Vash said "I'm surprised you didn't eat the fork, you've eaten the rest of the dinner utensils."
Over the next couple weeks we had no problems until the captain called the 5 of us down to his office. "Do you know why I've called you down here?"
Together we said "No sir."
"No only were you in blatant disregard for the rules when you brought a monkey on board. Not only that, but you took pictures of it with you and stored them on the ship's database. So I'll ask you one time, where is the monkey."
Answering first I said "You're going to dissect it and dispose of it as ship regs say, so what is in it for us or the monkey to hand it over considering that we made sure that the monkey wasn't a carrier of anything dangerous."
Sighing he said "Do you want to forfeit your wages for the rest of the time that monkey is loose?"
Together we said "No sir."
"Are you going to give me the monkey."
"No sir."
Pressing a button a holo screen appeared with Shel on it speaking to the screen he said "Prepare the TS booths."
While being escorted to the TS booths Roy asked "What's a TS booth?"
Answering him Rachel said "It's a manipulation of the quantum mechanic known as time, it freezes time for those inside by reducing the movement of atoms inside to 0, so in effect it cuts you off from time by negating your existance in time, however this is not saying that you stop existing, it is just saying..."
Interrupting her Vash said "It means Time Stop."
Getting in I leaned against the wall and listened as Shel said "Initiating TS booths." To my perception I heard "Deactivating TS booths." immediately afterward.
Seeing no one after opening the door I pulled up my holo and said "Shel, what happened?"
"Due to the replacement for Rachel being wrong about an orbital swing maneuver we approached a solar flare too close and received solar radiation, that disintegrated the crew, unfortunately that path lead to another similar event 1.9 million years later so it is now 4.79 million years later."
"Shel, just say it's 5 million years later." I said while checking everyone else.
Getting out Rachel said "Why are you okay?" while leaning on the doorway.
"Because hangovers don't affect me, that's basically what you're feeling." I answered while patting the puking Vash.
"
Yeah, I had forgotten that, so why wake us now Shel?" Rachel said after recovering.
"Because the radiation has reached a safe background level and if Rachel does not redirect us the ship will soon run into the middle of a white giant star."
Sprinting down to the lift Rachel yelled "You couldn't say that sooner!"
"Shel, please tell me there is nothing wrong with any connections, that includes them not existing according to your scans." I said while walking to the lift.
"None that are necessary to pilot the ship." she replied.
"Good," switching channels I hacked the comm system in the lifts and said "Rachel, I'm going to deck T, Shel said there are no problems but I'm going to dive and watch your back digitally anyway just to make sure." popping open the stairway I started taking the stairs one landing at a time.