Game Alive: A Science Fiction Adventure Novel Read online

  He felt his face heating again, and realized he was looking across the classroom to where she leaned forward over her touchscreen kiosk, busily figuring the volume of a sphere. Jake looked away quickly.

  Lunch turned out to be a completely unappetizing, watery version of beef stroganoff. Jake picked at his disinterestedly, sitting beside Des and across from Kari. He kept feeling her eyes on him, but whenever he looked up she appeared engrossed in her own less-than-appealing lunch.

  “So we’re on for lacrosse this weekend, yeah?” Des urged them both with rising excitement. He turned to Jake, jabbing him in the ribs with an elbow. “Since you’re going to be finished with that new module anyway, right?”

  Jake groaned, as much from his friend’s insistence on playing an otherwise forgotten sport as for the minor pain where Des had elbowed him. “I’m terrible at lacrosse,” he protested. “Besides, I wanted to spend Saturday testing out the new module to make sure there’s no bugs.”

  “Oh, come on,” Kari piped in. “He always drags me along, why can’t you come and show a little support?”

  Jake looked across the table at her, trying to fight down the heat that kept spreading up his neck and across his cheeks whenever Kari spoke to him lately. An idea struck him.

  “Why don’t you guys both log in to my program?” he suggested, looking back and forth between them. “Just to take a look at Everheart. I put so much work into it. Why can’t you just take a look? Please? I really, really want to know what you think.”

  Though he had been speaking to both of them, Jake looked Kari directly in the eye as he said that last part.

  For their part, Kari and Des exchanged an uncertain glance.

  “Fine,” sighed Jake. “After you come check out Everheart, I’ll play the stupid sports game.”

  “For the rest of the day?” wheedled Des, his eyes lighting up. “We come and see Everheart Saturday morning, and you’ll play lacrosse with us for the rest of the day. Deal?”

  “Deal,” Jake reluctantly agreed. Then he perked up, grinning. “That is, unless you guys decide you want to stay in Xaloria.”

  “Sure,” Des agreed, smirking. “Unless that.”

  Chapter 2

  When Jake got home that afternoon, Gerald was already planted on the sofa.

  “Hey,” Jake muttered, hurrying past the den to get to his own room.

  “Hey, buddy,” Gerald answered, craning around on the sofa to fix Jake with his eyes. “How was school?”

  Jake turned his face away so his mother’s boyfriend wouldn’t see him rolling his eyes. He was never going to be Gerald’s “buddy.” He didn’t feel like chatting with anyone right now, but he made an effort to be polite. “Fine,” he said.

  “Learn anything good? Anything interesting happen?” Gerald would not let up.

  “No,” said Jake, starting to feel impatient. He didn’t understand why Gerald kept trying to act like his father. “Just normal stuff.”

  “Got any big dates planned?” Gerald asked with a wink.

  “No.” Jake couldn’t stop himself cringing at that. “No, it’s just another regular day.”

  Gerald nodded slowly and sighed, apparently giving up on the friendly banter. “Okay, then. Got any homework?”

  “A bit. I’ll get to it later.”

  “Do it now so you don’t have to worry about it later.”

  Jake glanced down the hall, to the VR room. “I have to check the compiler for errors,” he said.

  “Compiler?” Gerald made a face, the one grown-ups made when they had no idea what you were talking about. Then his eyes lit up. “Oh, right. That knights-and-dragons game, or whatever it is?”

  “Yeah. I just have to make sure it didn’t crash,” Jake told the man, still fighting to keep his annoyance from showing. “If it ran okay, I’ll do my homework before anything else. Okay?”

  “You know, if you spent half as much time studying as you did fooling around in that VR room, it would show in your grades. Don’t you want to get into a decent college?”

  “I’m going to college for VR development,” Jake retorted, his irritation getting the better of him. “Then somebody will pay me a lot of money to fool around in the VR room.” More than you, he added silently, though he was smart enough not to say it out loud.

  “Don’t get short with me,” snapped Gerald, as if he had heard Jake’s hidden thought. “I’m trying to look out for you, kid. Just trying to help out.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Jake shot back. “Thanks for the help. But in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not your kid.” Before Gerald could reply, Jake stomped away down the hall. He ignored the shouting from the sofa and stepped into the VR room, shutting out the sound when he closed the door.

  Leaning back against the door, Jake squeezed his eyes shut. He wasn’t sure why his knees were wobbling. His face started getting hot, and not in the same way it did sometimes when Kari was around.

  Jake knew his mom would be after him to “discuss his behavior toward Gerald,” but right now he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, Gerald was just the latest in his mother’s long string of unsuccessful romances; one more, exactly like the others. Her “discussion” would be one he’d heard before: Gerald was a good man and Jake needed a “father figure.” Jake should treat Gerald as if he were a parent. She’d ignore the fact that the man had only moved into the house six weeks ago. She also wouldn’t mention how Gerald spent most of his time sinking into that sofa, watching sports. Maybe, Jake thought, Gerald should try being a father figure for Des.

  “Some father figure,” he muttered angrily to himself. Then he tried to shake it off. He figured Gerald would be out the door like all the others before too much longer. All he had to do was bite his tongue until mom decided she didn’t like Gerald so much after all. Then wait for the next one.

  Swallowing his frustration, Jake straightened up and walked to the center of the empty room. He could be alone in here, for a while. More and more, the VR room was home to him. Des said he was a genius with the VR, but then Des usually made a nasty face at the same time. But Jake knew his friend was right. Nobody coded VR like Jake.

  “Resume Xaloria,” he instructed. With a soft click, the VR projectors sprang to life. The blank walls faded away and the compiler screen appeared hovering in front of Jake. “Compilation 100%; Errors: 0” was displayed in bright green in the center of the screen.

  “Outstanding,” Jake said to himself. Satisfied, he left the VR room and went down the hall to his bedroom. Flopping down at his home kiosk, he slipped his Visi-Classroom over his eyes and got to work on his assignments. If he did what he’d promised Gerald, his mom would be less likely to include punishment in her “discussion.” Jake hurried through the school work, keeping his answers short and skipping steps where he could in the math problems. As long as he got the right answer; any passing grade was good enough.

  Once he’d done enough to keep his head above water in his classes, he tossed the Visi-Classroom aside and ran back to the VR room.

  “Run Xaloria,” he commanded. “Launch Everheart module.”

  Chapter 3

  The empty room vanished.

  In its place, Jake found himself near one edge of a small village square. Even though he’d been programming VR for almost three years, every time he ran the simulator he felt a thrill as the images appeared to overlay the more boring reality. It still amazed him that particle projectors and beams of light could render what seemed like an entire world. As his neural implant synced with the VR room, he felt the warm sun heat up the weighty chainmail armor that now covered his body and could smell the sweet blooms of fruit trees from a nearby orchard.

  Jake knew it was a trick of the senses, of course. He wasn’t a silly child. It was just an illusion to make his brain believe what eyes, ears, and even skin reported – but it all seemed so real. The projected surface beneath his feet felt exactly like the cobblestone street it appeared to be, and he knew that if he ran as long and far as he c
ould he would never reach the far wall – beneath him, the projected surface rolled like a treadmill. The projections around him would change appropriately, but he wouldn’t really be going anywhere.

  Beneath his feet, grass grew between the stones, little waving green blades for which, somewhere deep within the sim program, a minutely detailed calculation ran that determined just how many micro-inches longer the blade should be at that moment compared to an hour ago. And if Jake snapped off that blade and stuck it in his mouth, the particles would taste of green freshness before dissolving, dissipating back into nothing. Every detail, every molecule worked together, creating a flawless simulation of Jake’s perfect world.

  Shaking off his awe – he really should be used to it by now – Jake immersed himself in Xaloria. Up ahead, two matronly women gossiped, sitting on benches around the low stone well. A few small children played in the dirt at the women’s feet. Jake walked past them, hurrying toward the unfinished inn with its hovering “blue bars.”

  Those blue bars, a tool in the compiling software to indicate incomplete objects, appeared around anything that still needed work. Normally, the AI would identify problem objects and the NPCs would behave as if something strange was going on in the world. Jake knew professional designers never disabled the fault recognition in the AI setting, preferring to let the AI alert them when things went amiss. But then, professionals were willing to wait until they finished an entire module before anyone played with it.

  Jake just wasn’t that patient. He had changed the setting after launching Everheart and finding every villager standing in a worried crowd around the half-finished inn, worrying over the “divine blue walls,” half convinced they had stumbled across a portal to the nether-realms. Now that he’d disabled that function, the villagers ignored the whole area as if it were still just an empty lot.

  One of the two women at the well noticed Jake as he passed. Raising one hand, she hailed him.

  “Good morrow, Sir Xend,” she called. “Lovely to see you returned to our village.”

  Jake returned her greeting with a warm smile, his earlier irritation with Gerald already fading into memory. “It’s good to be back, Goodwife Elsa,” he said, and he meant it.

  “I do hope you’ll join us for the dancing later,” said Elsa cheerfully. “I’ve heard a few of the young ladies whispering, hoping there might be another fine young man to spin them round.” She shot her companion a conspiratorial look which the other woman returned with a barely stifled giggle.

  “Uh, maybe,” said Jake, his face reddening. In the back of his mind, he could think of one young lady in particular he would like to spin around the village square in the moonlight, while the village band played its tunes. He shook that thought away, face growing even hotter. Quickly, he tried to recover. “I have so much to do this afternoon, but maybe if I finish my tasks soon enough…Maybe.”

  Elsa and her friend nodded with knowing smiles, the one still tittering laughter. “We’ll not keep you then, Sir Knight,” said Elsa with a wink.

  “Thanks.” Jake continued on toward the inn, cheeks still burning. Sometimes the AI was a little too realistic. He wondered whether he should adjust the Romance Initiation level as he entered the unfinished building.

  The empty stone great room was just as he’d left it. He was pleased to see the fireplace had rendered just as he’d hoped it would. Soot dusted the stones without making the hearth seem dirty. Worn and well-used, but not dirty, just as it should be. Jake loved the little details; things that made this world seem truly alive. A dusting of black soot around the edges of the stone fireplace made it look natural, as though it had seen use and been cleaned regularly. He thought it looked exactly right.

  “Launch Development Tools,” he told the empty room. A digital tool kit shimmered into existence in the air before him, awaiting his next command. It looked like a hovering screen covered in icons, each one representing a number of choices available for adding to his VR world.

  “Display object categories.” The icons blurred and changed, action items replaced by symbols of plants, buildings, furniture, decorations, and a variety of other things Jake rarely used.

  “Filter for furnishings,” he told it. The icons changed again, displaying thumbnail versions of potential furniture. Above the icons, a counter displayed 1 – 25 of 2,486,730.

  “Filter for tables.” New icons appeared and the counter changed: 1 – 25 of 7,812. “Filter dining tables” provided new icons and counter updated again. “Filter wooden tables. Filter oak. Filter round tables. Filter medieval styles.” By now, the counter read 1 – 25 of 42. Satisfied with that selection, Jake scrolled through the options until he found one he liked.

  “Render samples. Fix to floor plane.” Before him, a round and rough-edged oaken table appeared in the center of the room. Jake inspected it, then shook his head. Not quite perfect. “Next sample.” The table disappeared, replaced at once by another with a hole in the center where a pole could pass through for an umbrella.

  “No,” Jake muttered to himself. “Next sample.”

  Another table appeared, then another and another as he flipped through the choices. Finally, he settled on a worn and stained table with beveled edges. He pointed his index finger toward the corner of the room. “Select sample. Set location.” The table vanished from in front of him and appeared in the corner he had indicated. He pointed to another spot in the room. “Copy sample. Set location.”

  Another table appeared. Jake placed several more tables and then added chairs to each one. Next came a long, heavy bar and stools followed by three stout oak kegs behind it; one for ale, one for wine, and one for cider. Once the main furnishings were in place, Jake finished it off with a selection of typical inn items – mugs and plates, brooms, buckets, and a few stuffed animal heads on the wall. He hesitated for a moment, but decided not to include a dragon head above the fireplace.

  Satisfied at last, Jake took a seat at one of the tables. “Launch Populater,” he said. The tool screen changed again, displaying rows of faces. “Insert random NPC: Innkeeper.” A fat man in a greasy apron appeared behind the bar, frozen in time. “Insert random NPC: Innkeeper’s Wife.” A thin woman with a mean scowl popped into existence beside her husband, and Jake made a face.

  “Rebuild Innkeeper’s Wife,” he said. The sour-faced woman morphed into a plump figure with a cheerful smile. She looked like the kind of woman who kept fresh-baked pies and snacks for the children. Jake nodded, satisfied. “Insert random NPC: Innkeeper’s Daughter.” A friendly, dark-eyed girl appeared at one end of the bar, stooped slightly over with a cleaning rag pressed to the bar top.

  Jake was just about to activate the NPC’s AI when a repetitive pounding, seeming to emanate from nowhere, startled him.

  “Jake! Come on out of there right now. I need to discuss something with you.” Jake groaned as his mother’s voice filled the nearly completed common room like the commands of an unseen god.

  “Just a minute,” he said, careful not to sound whining. “I’ll be right out!”

  “Don’t you make me override this door,” threatened his mother from outside.

  “I’m coming!” he shouted. Dismissing the development screen, Jake quickly saved his work and started the compiler before his mother could burst in and shut the program down prematurely. Then he walked to the door and took a deep breath, squaring his shoulders before stepping out of Xaloria and back into mundane Leiner Hills. His angry mother was waiting.

  Chapter 4

  “Okay, I’m in.” Kari’s exasperated voice bounced around the empty VR room. Faint and ghostly at first, her image built itself in the air before Jake and Des until she appeared as solid as they. “I don’t know why it was so hard to connect in to your feed today. I usually get right in.”

  “Maybe your dad installed a security update,” Jake suggested. He knew Kari’s family had a much newer VR suite than the one he was using. His mother couldn’t afford to upgrade, and if there was a new layer of
firewall on Kari’s set-up that might cause it to have trouble interfacing with his room.

  “No, he didn’t,” said Kari. “Besides, I didn’t have any trouble getting into Des’s feed earlier.”

  “Yeah, she jumped right in,” Des agreed.

  “Anyway, we’re all here now,” said Jake quickly. Des was also using a better VR room than Jake, although his was not as top-of-the-line as Kari’s. Jake didn’t think that was the problem, but he wasn’t eager to compare systems with his friends. The set-up in his VR room was good enough. After all, he’d used it to create an entire world. “You guys ready to see Xaloria?”

  “Sure.” Des sounded bored already.

  “Boot it up,” Kari added impatiently. At least she seemed interested in the game.

  “Resume Xaloria,” Jake ordered.

  The virtual world appeared instantaneously, placing the three of them at the spawn point he’d set near the well in Everheart. Jake’s everyday clothes vanished, replaced by his customary garb in the game: a sturdy chainmail shirt and leggings, leather boots and gloves. A round, bowl-shaped steel helmet covered his head and a heavy sword hung at his side.

  Kari and Des had materialized beside him in their normal clothes. They were each being projected from their own VR rooms at home, via system link. While they could have all played together at Jake’s house, logging in separately allowed them to move around the world more freely. They would not all have to stay within certain range of one another. Plus, nobody would have to leave early to go home.