The Forerunner: A GameLit Progression Fantasy, page 2
“Good choice”, she said with an approving nod. “So, would you take the red pill or the blue pill?”
“Red pill, of course.”
“Oh yeah?" With a cheeky smile and looking him fully in the eyes, Victoria pulled from her handbag a translucent red pill. He thought for a moment that he saw wisps of… something… flowing into it, but decided it must have been a trick of the light or something.
She deliberately moved her hand to his beer and dropped it in. It sank to the bottom of the glass, surrounded by bubbles, and slowly dissolved.
“Uh, what was that?” he asked, taken aback and not quite believing that he saw what he had just seen.
She smiled, with a challenging look in her steel-grey eyes. Her look said to him, ‘prove it’.
“I usually prefer women to be a little less date-rapey.”
“Rape is usually considered to be a poor topic of jokes, Zed.”
“Okay, how about ‘I prefer women to be a little less non-consensual-organ-harvestey’?”
“I promise that your chastity and your organs will be safe, Zed.”
“Then why do you want me to drink it?”
“Maybe it’s a joke." She paused. “Or maybe I want to help you see beyond the matrix.”
Zed thought about it for a few seconds, and then impulsively said to himself ‘what the hell’, and grabbed the drink. He knew it was stupid. But he figured: 1) It was probably a joke. 2) If it wasn’t, his friends wouldn’t let anything too bad happen to him. 3) Maybe, just maybe, it would be something… more.
Chapter 2
Before he could change his mind he drank the beer. When he put it down he looked at Victoria, nervous that he had made a foolish decision.
‘She doesn’t look contemptuous or malicious, thank goodness. She’s more… relieved? I’m not sure that’s much better.’
“So, are you getting sleepy yet?”, Victoria asked.
“You…!”
“Ha! Just kidding. Sorry, I couldn’t help it.”
“Very funny”, Zed grumbled. “So are you going to tell me about the pill yet?”
“I’m going to tell you some pretty hard-to-believe things, Zed, and the pill is to give you some evidence that what I’m about to tell you is true.”
“Tell me some wacky stuff and get me high as a kite so that I’m suggestible. Makes sense”, Zed said, feeling suspicious and a little angry.
“It’s nothing like that. Look, as a sign of good faith let me give you this." Victoria put down a stack of $20 bills. She fanned them across the dirty bar that had never seen so much money at once in its life. If he had to guess he was probably looking at close to $2,000. “I only want to talk. This money is yours for the keeping no matter what happens.”
Zed held a random bill up to the light and checked the watermark. He was no expert but they looked legit. “Alright, I’m listening.”
“Let’s start with an easy one. I’m not from this world, Zed.”
“That’s the easy one? Holy crap.”
“As they say, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. What evidence would you find convincing? I’ll let you pick so you know that this is not staged.”
“Are you human?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Do you look human?”
“Humanoid, but no, I don’t.”
“Show me your real self,” Zed demanded.
“Very well." Victoria made a gesture and an opaque sphere surrounded them, cutting off sight and sound from the rest of the pub. The sphere was black, but somehow the light inside of it remained unchanged.
Victoria’s form blurred until she reformed as a green, muscular humanoid that was decidedly female and, Zed was a little embarrassed to admit to himself, not altogether unattractive. As long as you could look past the tusks.
“You’re kidding me. You’re an orc?”
“Ogrum. Many of your myths are based on actual visitations by other peoples, including my own. I have visited the Earth myself in the past, but not as an Ogrum.”
Having gotten past the initial shock he took a closer look at her. She wore a thick robe that didn’t hide her powerful frame, from her broad shoulders to her muscular calves. She exuded controlled power in every movement, or, when not moving, in her utter stillness.
She had lots of lean muscle on a frame that, if she were human, would be a very masculine female form. Her full lips curled up in amusement between her tusks as she watched Zed take her in. Her steel-gray eyes were the one thing that didn’t change at all from her Victoria disguise. In them he saw what he saw before—aloofness—but he understood it better now that it was in its true context. It was total belief in her superiority. Zed didn’t know if it was a racial thing or if she just considered her individual self to be utterly superior to everyone around her, but here and now it amounted to the same thing. Everyone around her was beneath her. Knowing that she felt that way riled Zed, but the more rational part of him told him to sit down and shut up, at least for now.
“Orcs… um, I mean Ogrums, don’t have the best reputation.”
Victoria sighed and said, “Unlike the elves, our rivals, we’ve never been very good at PR. Well, is this sufficient or would you like to see something else?”
“Can you create things?”
“Yes.”
“Make a balloon dog made of metal.”
“That’s rather random… which I suppose is the point." She grabbed a metal chair and looked at the space above the uplifted palm of her other hand. A bright flash appeared, and after a few moments it faded, leaving behind a perfect steel balloon dog, complete with the little ends of each tied off ‘balloon’. “Satisfied?”
Zed looked at the chair after she set it back down and saw that part of it was missing.
“Creation ex nihilo is possible, but extremely difficult and energy intensive. E = mc2 and all that. Much easier to do it from existing materials,” Victoria explained, as she handed Zed the dog.
“Okay, let’s say for now that I’m convinced. Why have you told me all this? Why tell anyone? And why me in particular?”
“Good questions. I’m afraid this is where we get to the hard part. I’m telling you because in two years a faction of aliens are going to take over your solar system.”
“They want the Earth for themselves?”
“No, or at least that’s not the primary reason. They want the Sun.”
“The Sun? Why?”
“The more advanced species can collect energy far more efficiently than humans can, but have gotten to the point where the energy of planets is not enough. They have created arrays that collect almost 100% of the energy of stars. That is what they have in mind for the Sun.”
“There are literally billions of stars in the galaxy. Why ours?”
“That’s hard to explain. The short version is that some of the things that make the solar system amenable to life also make it attractive for energy collection, the biggest factor being Jupiter.”
“Jupiter?" Zed felt like he was barely holding it together. “Why is Jupiter important?”
“Part of the reason that the Earth was able to grow life was that it was protected from asteroid strikes by Jupiter’s gravitational pull. It drew the asteroids to itself or flung them away. Just like it protected the Earth, it will protect the energy array, dramatically reducing maintenance costs.”
“Reduced maintenance costs. We’re going to be kicked off the Earth for reduced maintenance costs.”
She looked at Zed with sympathetic eyes. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not just or fair, but it will happen. Unfortunately, that’s not all.”
“Oh good, there’s more,” Zed laughed, with a bit of hysteria.
“The planet that everyone on Earth will be transported to is already populated, and humans will have to compete for land, food, everything. It will not be easy. Humanity’s survival is not guaranteed.”
“Damn”, Zed said, as he tried to process what he was hearing. “So can anything be done to stop it?”
“No, not at my level of power. I’m just here to help humanity survive. Maybe in the future humans will become strong enough to help themselves and prevent this from happening to others.”
“How powerful are you in your society?”
“Power in our society is roughly measured by the amount of energy that you control, in units that you wouldn’t be familiar with. To put it in terms that you would understand, if the total energy that the Sun puts out is 1 sol, then I control about a thousandth of a sol. To be at the level where you would have a chance of preventing the Sun’s takeover would require power roughly on the order of 1 sol.”
“One thousandth of a sol? That’s it?”
Victoria looked annoyed and said, “Before you start looking down on me, you should understand that the entire Earth gets less than a billionth of a sol.”
Zed was no math genius, but even he could get a rough grasp of the vast difference in power between humanity and the aliens that would be kicking them out. “Damn.”
“Damn, indeed.”
“Why don’t they just kill us? Why bother transporting us elsewhere?”
“A couple of reasons. For the non-cynical it’s out of a sense of morality. They realize that what they’re doing is unjust, but they don’t care enough to not do it. They do care enough to find another place for you and give you a chance to grow and even, at least theoretically, become as strong as them. This assuages their guilt.
“For the cynical, it’s just further self-interest. Are you familiar with the law of conservation of energy?”
“Um, that the amount of energy doesn’t change?”
“Simplistic, but good enough for our purposes. Like the law of conservation of energy, there is also the law of conservation of fate. Committing mass genocide would create enormous fate imbalances that would be difficult to balance out. So, to make life easier for themselves, they keep you all alive and just get you out of the way. Whether you die or not after that?" Victoria shrugged.
She continued, “Do you want to hear the really cynical take?”
Zed sighed and said, “Sure, give it to me.”
“If fate balances out and things suck for humanity at their new place, then there is some excess good fate that needs to go somewhere. Guess where it ends up?”, Victoria asked with a dark smile.
“To the assholes who are kicking us out to begin with.”
“Got it in one. To be fair, their fate is so much bigger than yours that it makes almost no difference to them, so I doubt that they are really going out of their way to screw humanity over. It’s just the cherry on top.”
“We are so screwed.”
“The red pill really sucks, doesn’t it? As happy as I am to see that you are grasping the truth of your situation, don’t give up on me now. This was all background for why I’m here. Let’s talk about what I and others are doing here, and why I’m talking to you. Some of us want to send a few humans over early and give them some advantages, so they can carve out a place for humanity. It’s inevitable that much of humanity is going to die. We want to preserve as many as possible, and help humanity get strong enough to survive and thrive." She paused and said, “And maybe, someday, get revenge.”
“I’ll probably regret looking a gift horse in the mouth but… why are you helping us?”
Victoria looked thoughtful. “I could answer that in a lot of ways. Suffice to say that many of us feel it is deeply unjust to so completely screw over innocents in our path to power and, well, I guess we’d like some revenge too." The last was said with a bloodthirsty look that was far more in keeping with his expectations for her appearance.
Zed looked deep into her eyes, trying to see the lie, but all he saw was unflinching openness. ‘Doesn’t mean she isn’t just a really good liar.’
“Good enough, I guess. I take it you want me to be one of the early travelers to the new planet. Why me? Not to be down on myself, but I can’t imagine I’m anywhere near the top 1% of candidates. I could barely walk over here, for Pete’s sake.”
“You’re right, you’re not, except when you factor in the conservation of fate. I want to help humanity, but I’m not willing to cripple myself to do it so I need to minimize the amount of power used. That means finding someone with potential that doesn’t have a lot of impact in the world.”
“Thanks”, he said sarcastically.
“Don’t take it too hard. I didn’t pick you at random from a pub, Ozymandias”, she said with a piercing look. “I know a lot about you. I know that you were a star athlete who had some unfortunate injuries. I know that you aren’t just a meathead—you picked up your parents’ love for literature and have a curious mind. I know your mom died of cancer 5 years ago. I know that you have friends and family who love you, and that you have a drive to succeed in competitions that is, at times, almost self-destructive. I know that you feel like you're at a dead end in life. How am I doing so far?”
“Painfully accurate”, Zed growled. “So again, why me? I’m a washed-up loser.”
“That’s not how I would describe you. I would say that you are tough. You have experienced setbacks and heartaches and you have kept fighting, figuratively and literally. Though you have not been in formal leadership roles, I can tell you have the social acumen and traits that would make you a good one. The main thing that’s been holding you back is a broken body, and I can fix that.”
Feeling slightly mollified, Zed said, “So I’m your bargain basement hero wannabe?”
Victoria chuckled. It was in a deeper pitch than when she was in her human guise. “If you want to put it that way, yes. I need someone with lots of potential but not much fate, because I’m running on an energy budget. So yes, you are my bargain basement hero.”
After thinking about it for a few moments Zed asked, “Can I think about it?”
“Yes, but time is short as it is. Think about it over the next couple of days and give me a call." She texted him a quick “Victoria”.
‘No, that’s not creepy at all that you already have my phone number. Wait—everything that she knows about me and everything that’s gone down tonight and that’s what I focus on?’
Zed did not feel like he was at the top of his mental game at the moment, mostly because his whole world had been turned on its head multiple times in the last hour. While trying to recover he asked, “Shouldn’t you give me some alien tech or something?" Despite what he had seen and the steel balloon dog he was still holding onto, he still had doubts about being conned.
“You’ve watched too many movies. Are phones not sufficient for our communication needs?”
Zed then heard a foreign voice in his innermost being that almost made him crap his pants. ‘Or perhaps you’d like a more intimate form of communication…' He widened his eyes and saw that Victoria was amused by his discomfort. Her mental voice did not have a sound, per se, but rather a feel. Like it included a glimpse into her soul. She was confident, determined, ruthless, and yes, utterly convinced that she was superior to everything and everyone on Earth. Yet, there was kindness as well. If he wasn’t convinced earlier that she hadn’t been lying to him, he was now. It wasn’t that she was incapable of lying or was above it. He just understood now that she wouldn’t bother lying to him, in the same way that he wouldn’t lie to his dog, or a goldfish.
‘Yeah, goldfish is probably the more accurate analogy.’
“So, you can invade my head whenever you want?”
“I could make your head explode with a thought, Zed, let alone talk to you. Look, I know that this is all a bit much at the moment. Think about what I’ve said. Process it. And when you’re ready, contact me. Just try to hurry, because the clock is already ticking.”
She paused, and then continued. “I know that you are feeling powerless and frustrated, along with a lot of other emotions." Seeing the suspicious look in his eyes she said, “Yes, I felt that when I was in your mind. But it was obvious even before that. Heck, you would be crazy if you didn’t feel that way. If you want to get some control over your life, there’s only one way—become stronger. I want to give you the chance to do that. Think about it.”
While Zed chewed on her words, Victoria resumed her human disguise and removed the optical barrier that separated them from the rest of the pub. She then picked up her handbag, got up, and started to head towards the exit. After a couple of steps she paused, turned her head back halfway to Zed and said, “Oh, and I’ve left you a taste of what I can give you while you think about it. The red pill isn’t all bad.”
As Zed got up and walked away he did his usual limp to protect his knee but quickly noticed that it didn’t hurt. All sorts of aches and pains that he had gotten used to were simply gone. ‘This feels incredible!’, he thought to himself.
While walking home he did all sorts of goofy walks that would normally make him collapse in pain. Zed knew that he looked like a jackass but he was so happy about the freedom of movement and renewed youth that he just didn’t care.
When he saw someone taking a video of him with her phone he became more sober and remembered what was behind all this. As surreal and unbelievable as it all seemed, the evidence was staring him in the face that Victoria was, as she claimed, not human. He could doubt his memories, and his lack of pain could be drugs, but at the end of the day he was holding a steel balloon dog. He laughed as he realized that the thing that convinced him the most was the stupid dog.
‘Of course, her being an alien doesn’t mean that she’s telling me the truth. For someone with her power, faking an honest soul-feel would probably be easy. The question is, what does she want?’
**
The next day Zed decided that the best way to test out his repaired body and have a little fun would be to take Brutus to the park and play catch. Brutus loved to catch the frisbee, and was good at getting his “long bombs”, which were a little longer than usual today.
After both of them had warmed up Zed decided to take it up a notch and chase Brutus after he caught the frisbee rather than letting him trot back with it. After catching him Zed playfully tackled the big dog and pulled on the frisbee, whereupon Brutus released it.
