Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) (49 page)

Jeeves, Treasure, Ruby, and even Aqua were all in the same spot, talking. I only knew because having these two keys allowed me admin access over the
[Wayfarer Eight]
's controls. Something I neither expected or wanted. I was not an army leader, nor had that ever been a goal. I liked the
[Mechanoid]
s, but I knew following my dreams would only get more of them destroyed, or deleted, or recalled to the homeworld. Whatever it was that happened to vaguely reconstructed data.

"Unit Hermes." Treasure's voice came into my head. The ARC feedback presented it as an image off to one side. I tilted down a little to bring her face front and center.

"Treasure." Breathing hurt, even inside the machine. Part of me tried to remember the pain that had hit. It didn't feel like passing out from simple exhaustion. It hurt far worse than that. Only the words of a doctor and paramedics prevented me from thinking it was a mild heart attack.

I tried not to suspect the role an AI or machine would play in coming up with that diagnosis. They had reason to want me back in the game quickly, but would they cover up something as serious as a heart attack?

Was that the reason Hal Pal had been so upset at my actions? I shook my head and tried not to think about it. It wouldn't surprise me to have a weak heart, not after all I had been through. Another problem for another day.

Damn. Treasure had been talking and all I could think about was the occasional sharp pains and possible conspiracy. This isn't who I wanted to be. Outthinking a computer was beyond me. I didn't have the drive to uncover grand plots even when people handed me the knowledge.

"I'm sorry." I shook my head slowly and tried to replay half heard words in my head. "You wanted me to go where?"

"To the command center, please. We need your input," Treasure said. Her sweet and tired female tones sounded fairly balanced right now. I could hear Jeeves in the background speaking with Aqua.

Ruby looked to be the silent type, like a certain Amazonian player I knew, Shazam, but with less hand fluttering. Less everything actually. She was a presence that seemed to prefer existing out of the corner of my vision. She had appeared out of the corner of my eye multiple times now.

I couldn't focus on it right now. My mind was in the past. Only a few hours ago I had been staring at a resurrection notice by Aqua. I still heard Emerald and Iron's words in my head.

Iron had said, "This is your mission, Hermes. It's up to you to decide how to move onward. We can't do it for you."

Emerald had shrugged. "I'm too old for such nonsense. Someone else needs to carry on in my stead, and you're better than most addle-headed units."

"Why me?" I asked them after the fact.

Neither one had answered. Instead, they faded away into the gray space. Like old soldiers walking into a setting sun to retire. They left me all alone to press the resurrection acceptance button. No pop-up message came by to explain the next step. There were no items beyond the two keys awarded. Nothing at all except Aqua's serene smile. I had stood up, said thank you, and walked off.

Which brought me out to my quiet contemplation of the battlefield. Both feet kicked idly against the ship's hull. Treasure was saying something, but my mind wasn't focused.

I had other issues too. What twist of logic let me start on a ship like the
[Wayfarer Seven]
? There had only been one other player who started right after I did, and that turned out to be Jeeves.

"Unit Hermes? Are you able to join us?" Treasure asked again. The little video of her gold and silver face showed Jeeves walking around a table looking at something.

Numbers? Enemies? Our possible chances for survival? Ways to help by herding me further along this quest chain? I sighed, stood up then dusted myself off. The action was habitual after working on repairing ARCs for so long. Our ship didn't have any real dust, instead, all I felt was the smooth almost rubbery texture of
[Mechanoid]
skin.

"Give me a few minutes," I said slowly to Treasure.

"We will, Unit Hermes," she responded and the video relay system we shared clicked off.

I walked down the halls. My mind was reflecting on this whole process. Only three weeks of real time had passed. It was hard to keep track with the ARC's time dilation. A little over a month in-game and somehow I had a say in things.

At some point, Dusk joined me. His leaping up to ride my shoulder felt remarkably natural that I hardly noticed his presence. We had spent a lot of time together. Almost a year if I counted by Continue Online's ability to crunch time. Not all of it with me actively playing, but it felt longer somehow.

Around the corner was a nondescript door. It sat in a hallway like many others aboard the
[Mechanoid]
ship. Inside should be a command room large enough for planning out numerous campaigns.

The door silently rolled away in a ripple of metals. I walked inside and saw the other key
[Mechanoid]
NPCs and Jeeves. The AI looked both comfortable and out of place. All of them stood around a waist high table with projections of star systems on it.

"Hello," I said while trying not to breathe deeply. "What's the plan?"

"We require your input in order to reach a decision." Aqua smiled and waved at a map. A rendition of the explored universe sat across a large table waiting for inspection.

I felt like a box should have come up asking what route I wanted to take. So far this game only provided messages about stats increasing and singular tasks. There was one window I could bring up that talked about this scenario's progress with the
[Mistborn]
but I didn't care what it said.

"Our fleet, what's left of the Wayfarer Eight, is here." Treasure pointed down at a cluster of ships. A video appeared above them showing additional detail. Maybe if I zoomed in far enough on this video we could see my face, chewing one lip, with a slightly wrinkled forehead.

"Earth is this one here." Jeeves pointed down at the table's far end. A planet came up, but it looked like a dried out colorless version of the earth I knew.

"This sector is blocked by the Jump Gate, going around is not feasible due to the amount of time it would take." Treasure pointed from the gate nearby to the next spot in a chain. If I looked at the picture right, it seemed like we were a few jump gates removed from
[Mechanoid]
territory.

"We have to get past whatever took out the Wayfarer Seven," I said haltingly.

"Worse yet, we would have to go through these four points in order to get to the outer edge of Earth's solar system. These last two are held by humans."

"Commander Queenshand can't have that many troops?" I questioned.

Ruby shook her head slowly.

"It is unlikely." Aqua filled in for the silent one. "The journey would not be easy, and the Wayfarer Eight is unlikely to have enough firepower to make it through the Jump Gate."

"Okay." I nodded while looking at the map.

Our options were going around and probably take far too long. Go through and probably get blown up, or give up and find something else to do until the enemy got bored. None of them sounded great. Each one had benefits, but the chances of completing this mission to use the
[Mistborn]
was low.

There was no single method that seemed better in terms of meeting all my needs. I had to find a solution. A secret resolution like blowing up the
[Leviathan]
or
[Knuckle Dragger]
, not that I wanted to repeat blowing up an enemy ship with people still on it.

That abandoned vessel might be a key. The
[Knuckle Dragger]
was in relatively decent condition, it just had a huge hole on the side. All those little ships had hopped off to somewhere else in the Jump Gate network. I tried to remember what I had read on the forums about space travel and pursuit quests.

Could we call upon
[Mechanoid]
reinforcements to cut off Commander Queenshand? Probably not, our homeworld wasn't nearly close enough. Any other assistance? I didn't know players here. There were no Voices to contact. Our closest possibility was Nox. I reached across the table and poked at
[The Lone Tower]
's icon.

The room didn't flash. There was no special effect or chime in the air. The only indication that someone else was here was a blinking of my eyes. One moment there were five of us in attendance, then there was a sixth person. I felt vaguely surprised that a
[Seraphic]
responded to the touch.

"Seraphic Nox." I reeled in my thoughts and tried to be calm.

"Mechanoid Hermes. Your attempted use of the Mistborn has not gone as planned." The being of darkness gave a short nod in my direction.

"No, it appears not," I said. The original plan, or quest by the machines running Advance Online, would have probably required a wall of players flying through the sky and striking at the heart of Earth's solar system. That plan would have been horrifying for me, this new situation wasn't any better.

Honestly, I wanted to give up and abandon this quest. The choices were to march us to our deaths or figure out an exceptionally clever plan. Needing a full raid group couldn't be the only option left. After all, the
[Leviathan]
was designed to take on entire fleets, and we had brought it down below half health between two players crawling into its butt.

"Why can't you get her back?" I asked.

"It's against the rules." The pitch black being known as Nox sighed. "And rules are quite important to all Seraphic."

"Unit Hermes. I have something to confess," Treasure spoke up. Her tired tone sounded sheepish.

"World domination plans?" I quipped.

Being in pain seemed to make me flippant. Maybe it was the feeling of all these AIs doing stuff around me for their purposes. Part of me wanted it to stop. A memory of Xin's face flashed through my mind, but that too felt preplanned.

"No. I have space, why would I wish to ever set foot on a planet?" the golden female
[Mechanoid]
said. Her forehead furrowed and head shook like I was crazy for even asking.

I shrugged. It sounded plausible. Part of me remembered talking to Hal Pal about the
[Mechanoid]
race being an embodiment of their collectives' desire to visit the stars one day. Why would they care about a simple planet when there were entire galaxies out there?

"I was not meant to survive. My dead body and a recording were intended to be a message," Treasure said.

"This message is why I am here, Mechanoid Hermes. This limits my actions greatly. I merely wished to convey the importance of this limitation in person," Nox said. A new message displayed which made things pretty clear. I had a feeling on what to expect from the recording Treasure talked about.

"I assume the message Treasure came with says we're screwed, and can't rely on your help," I stated. Maybe it was from passing out, or the chest pains that lingered but I felt practically emotionless and numb. There were desires and hopes, but their volume had been turned down.

"In essence, Mechanoid Hermes. If the Mistborn falls out of Traveler hands, then I shall intervene. Until then, I cannot." the
[Seraphic]
didn't even sound upset.

"We'll watch the message, Seraphic Nox." I chewed one lip in thought. Not once had I expected the
[Seraphic]
to assist us. They seemed overly powerful for such an action. No way would this game hand me ridiculous cheat like abilities.
[Power Armor]
and
[Mechanical Minion]
were already on the abusive side.

Nox didn't nod or say goodbye. It simply vanished in an eye blink. There, then not. Treasure pressed a button and a new screen display took over the bulk of our conference room.

"Attention pursuing Mechanoid army. By now you should have been visited by Seraphic Nox. Hopefully, the Enlightened Being informed you that she can't help." Commander Queenshand stood on a ship. It looked like the dirt and cast iron vessel markings of
[WTS a Spaceship]
.

I looked around to see if everyone was paying attention. The other
[Mechanoid]
s were all focused on the screen.

"Seraphic are quite easy to control. Each one is bound by a code, violation of those rules allows them to be killed," Commander Queenshand said evenly. In the background was the
[Mistborn]
, head down and eyes closed. She appeared either to be asleep or drugged.

"How?" my forehead wrinkled a bit as I tried to figure out what method they used to bind a
[Mistborn]
. Instead, I got distracted by the other players in the background. There were at least four individuals from my duels. I recognized most of them. What had that green
[Behemoth]
's name been?