By David C. Daoust
Colin just ended his visit with his lifelong friend Khalia and her little daughter. The adorable little girl was getting bigger and bigger. She looked so much like her mother when she was that age that Colin could not believe it. It was good to see them, he’d been waiting for a chance to catch up- being separated from his ship was really getting in the way of the more virtual aspects of his life.
Flying a ship through the solar system took quite a bit of time, even if he was the fastest ship in the system- well, fastest non-automated ship, that is. Usually, he had so much downtime, waiting to get to his next destination, that he spent much of it in the virtual worlds known as the Hub, where he endlessly gamed with friends.
Needless to say, with his ship out of commission, he hasn’t had much time for games, nor visiting with friends and family. Khalia and her daughter had a life of their own though, so it was a fairly brief visit. Colin let the Farwall go black as he relaxed on his couch.
He wanted to play some games, the problem was- he usually played with his mind directly connected. This made him much more competitive than people that played with Sprites. Colin was his own sprite. When he entered a game- when he entered the Hub- he entered fully. More like a Bot visiting their home world, than a human playing a game.
Playing like a normal human was kind of sluggish, especially trying to use one of those silly controls. He could do it, just not like he could when he was jacked in. And jacking in, meant a room full of nurses lowering him into nutrients- obviously the gaming part was just a benefit of the tech, the actual job that they did- got them all well paid.
Plus, he really should head back to Twin Crown.
Ultimately, he did not have time for games, anymore than he had time for catching up with friends. His ship was still sitting on that stupid moon, waiting for that stupid coil. Colin chuckled at his negative attitude. He felt like a child trying to finish a science fair project, which he had zero interest in.
“Stupid fair”, Colin muttered under his breath as he snatched up a controller and started messing with the Farwall. He noticed his inbox was still bloated. He’d forgotten about that, so much was going on. Now though, his mind had chosen rebellion from responsibility, at least for the moment, so he clicked the file open.
He’d expected a lot of spam, (every now and then marketers found new ways to get past the blocks) instead Colin found message after message from guildies, old and new, asking him a lot of nonsense that didn’t make any sense.
The first was in all caps and read, “HOW’D YOU DO THAT!”
Colin didn’t know what he might of done, decided to hold off on any reply, til he got a grip on what was going down. As he sorted through the mail he found more and more mention of something he did in-game. He thought they must be mistaken- he hasn’t had a chance to play in weeks, and getting hacked wasn’t something that could happen to Colin. No one else could possibly access his Sprite, Not like they could with a normal player’s avatar. They could not access his sprite, anymore than they could access his brain!
He came to some messages mentioning an old rival finally defeating him. He laughed out loud at this. His face flushed a bit as he got more and more confirmation that everyone thought this was true. Finally he came to a vid, obnoxiously titled ‘play of the game’, sent to him by the very same old rival, that, according to the entire community, finally got a piece of him.
It was a bit of a stream from a game called ‘Arachnoid’- apparently the latest offering to the system full of gamers. Colin had never heard of it, but again, he’d been out of the Hub for weeks now.
The vid depicted as this creepy spider creature crawled over the ceiling of a darkened cavern.
As the spider made its way through, a pool of light suddenly erupted from the floor. The camera panned down to show another spider monster as it pinned a man to the floor with its monstrous spider leg.
He could hear players talking; one told the other, ‘he wasn’t going to believe this.’ He recognized both the player’s voices; ‘Penn’ was on the ground and ‘Colbert’ was positioning himself above.
The light itself welled up from the wound. The light allowed Colin to get a clear look at the monstrous spider below. The creature was an artistic rendering of organic flesh, melded with cybernetic limbs. Then he got a look at the small Sprite sitting within the lower spider’s head. It was a tiny little representation of Penn’s Sprite, sitting within the spider’s head like a pilot in a cockpit.
Beneath the creature, he got a good look at the man pinned to the ground.
Colin found he was looking at himself!
The Sprite had a huge grin on his face as it pinned, what appeared to the players, as this gigantic version of Colin. Known to them as Rowdy1342, which was Colin’s in-game handle; ‘Rowdy’ for short.
He could hear the two players talking. They were laughing; trying to figure out how ‘Rowdy’ could be part of the game. Not only that, but without an Arachnoid to pilot! And so huge!
His rival didn’t care- he suddenly announced, ‘watch this!’ before he dropped from the ceiling above, and drove the sharp spike, that was a twisted cybernetic spider leg, straight through Colin’s head.
They both laughed in amazement as Rowdy’s form suddenly erupted in a flash- and vanished. The two players chatted excitedly as the vid faded to a black screen and the title ‘Arachnoid’ appeared dramatically for a moment…
The vid threatened to start again at the beginning. Colin sat back, and let it replay.
The whole scene was familiar, though depicted through someone else’s eyes. It was a recording of him in that cavern on Twin Crown, but where he saw battle drones, the players saw these creepy Arachnoid mechas that they piloted as their Sprites.
Suddenly, the replay was interrupted, one of his friends, Chance420, was calling him.
Colin accepted- his friend appeared, clearly invigorated, he was gripping the controller in his hands as most of his attention was focused on the screen in front of him.
“You’re finally online!” Chance practically cheered, before he sternly rushed, “We need you, bud. Get in Arachnoid. I just stole this behemoth monstrosity from enemy territory– we’re going to bring the whole game down!”
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