By David C. Daoust
The world shifted. All the virtual world collapsed into a much tighter, much more compressed state. Any number of reasons could explain why. The most likely was that this instance of the game was simply no longer needed. The surrounding rocky wasteland all seemed to flatten, and reorganize in a way that did not take up quite as much space. Considering Margo had, moments before, been hoping the rather enormous ‘shovel-horn’ may regain enough of its senses to wander away, she was glad when the massive beast suddenly shuffled back into its parent-object, freeing her from where she lay pinned beneath its rump.
A new presence was suddenly apparent… Margo recognized it at once.
“What are you two doing here?” Ferguson asked, clearly shocked to find company within, what should be, a closed server.
“’Being a pancake,” the bunny answered morosely.
They were all much closer together and extremely aware of each other’s presence. Everything, in fact, was right there next to them; compact, yet splayed for them to witness.
“We were looking for Harper,” Margo said, eyes wide in wonder as she took in the length and breadth of the entire program, then and there.
“Harper has finished her task here,” Ferguson informed. “She has disconnected from the server.”
Margo, with a glance, was able to confirm that Harper’s skill level was, indeed, high enough to finally join with the splicer drone at the helm. That however, did not hold her attention. There was way too much information to take in, all of it flowing through as she made sense of it all.
“What is this?” Margo asked, having come across an unusual instance, still open, within the game world.
Without waiting for an answer, she stepped forward, into said instance. The game-world stretched back out around her in all its over-dramatic complexities. She found herself blinded to much of what was so apparent moments before. She found it a bit more comfortable. A bit easier for her to be herself. The small girl found a sprawling base, a mine at its center, with structures built around it. Dredges were coming out of the mine, dropping off resources at the surrounding structures, then heading back to mine more.
Moments later a gob of liquid erupted from the air and formed into the Ratchet-doppelganger-form Ferguson preferred.
“This is exactly what it looks like,” he finally answered her, before protesting her actions with, “this is a private server… and NOT a candy store.”
Mid protest they were joined by a flat disc rolling in on its side. It was the bunny pancake; rolled more like a coin than a pancake really. As it lost momentum, it began to lean to one side, forcing it into tighter and tighter circles, finally it dropped and began to wobble in place until it lost all momentum and lay flat, completely still. It mumbled something incomprehensible; the virtual physics of the instance placed a few more obstacles on its ability to talk than when they were compressed code… suddenly the coin bowed and malformed until the whole thing snapped back to a bunny form!
“I did it!” the bunny cheered, as Margo found he was wont to do, more and more often.
The runaway bot congratulated him as she stepped forward, finally able to re-collect him. She held the victorious bunny in her arms as she studied the surrounding instance. It was not like anything she had seen in the game previously. She had now seen enough of the code to know it was a fully constructed base… Ferguson must have spent hours on it, unlocking abilities, building structures. Margo found the whole thing suspicious. She was not really one to hold back, so flat out said just that, “I find this whole thing suspicious.”
Ferguson grimaced.
“Why would you need this?” Margo asked as the surrounding structures seemed to be hard at work, completing whatever tasks they were capable of. Mostly upgrades, in-game upgrades. Yet, Margo knew more and more was translating to something else in the real world. Eyes narrowed as she stated, “Highly suspect.”
“Hmmph,” Ferguson sidestepped the accusation and asked, “How did you get in here?”
“Sun Particles,” Margo said simply as she stalked off to explore more, “I mean, I think so.”
“I don’t see why you’d have a problem with this,” Ferguson argued, “Unlocking the drones potential could prove advantageous down the line.”
“Down the what?” the bunny interjected.
“The girls have unlocked both mining and engineering,” Ferguson continued, “It has proven beneficial thus far with the drone waves…”
“Yeah, but,” Margo got a good look at the program. She got more than that, she got a feel for it. “That’s you… that’s you controlling the waves of battle drones that have been attacking us again and again.”
“It sped the process,” Ferguson conceded, “It was not hard to take control of a few of the dormant, those lost to their users before they were all shutdown. Those that went unfound by the ‘dragons’ arrival. All to build a competing base. Grace and Dicey have a base much like this one built around their own mine. This,” he gestured to their surroundings, “actually mirrors my own built elsewhere on the moon.”
“But… No one knows it is you?” Margo asked.
“No,” Ferguson answered with a shrug.
“And… you’re attacking us,” Margo argued.
“Actually, it was Dicey that attacked me, originally,” Ferguson explained evenly, “No one’s in any danger– I’ve turned it into a game. Honestly, I even stopped the waves when it got to be her bedtime… then she attacked me again this morning. We’ve –all– almost mastered the available skill sets… in just a few short hours.”
Margo tumbled the facts around in her brain.
“Well, okay,” Margo said after a few moments of contemplating, “But I want to play, too!”
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