Harvest, page 16
By the time Rouge finished telling Sumi about everything, from goblin queens and City Seeds to forgotten dungeons and a resurrected lich, the timer for her shift had reached zero and sat, defunct, flickering in the corner of her vision. The spider seemed to be fully recovered, as well, and her carapace now looked black except for the deep magenta of her feet, and her sapphire blue fangs. Her voice, too, had recovered its usual confident self-assurance, though she listened to Rouge intently aside from periodically asking insightful questions.
As Rouge finally wound down, Sumi shook herself slightly, and raised herself to stand on all eight feet. ::Well,:: Sumi said dryly, ::It sounds as though things have moved right along without me, though I do rather regret that I won’t be able to eat one of these fruits and discover what gift Gina would have given me.::
Rouge blinked. ::Why can’t you?::
Sumi’s chelicerae clicked in what Rouge knew passed for amusement. ::Fruit is not exactly among my dietary choices, Rouge.::
Rouge shrugged. “Even the glyphis managed to choke one down, and it was,” hilarious, “um, difficult. Surely you can-”
The spider’s voice was dry as she clicked her fangs again. ::The best I could do is try to suck out the juice, but I’m not really that kind of spider.::
Rouge giggled. “Well, you do you, Sumi, but I bet you could do it if you really tried. The only downside is that you can only have one, and that one will be the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten. Almost everybody tries a second one eventually, and then instantly regrets it. Khor just started getting his fur back, and he looks like a former Marine growing out his buzz-cut. Plus,” she sniffed, then wrinkled her nose, “the Tree smells like stinky feet and old cabbage now.”
Sumi produced a short piece of web, smoothly attaching it to the branch on which she perched. ::I will consider your words, Rouge. Now, where is Aspen?::
Aspen’s quiet voice filtered up through the branches from below, and Rouge jumped, only managing to cling to her own seat through the hasty application of twenty-four levels of [Climb].
“Here, Sumi.” His voice sounded a little choked. ::Welcome home.::
Sumi dropped down her strand of web so quickly that Rouge barely had time to blink in surprise. Then the girl yelped and scampered back down the trunk herself, pausing only to make sure she didn’t squish anyone when she released her grip on the last branch. She landed easily beside Codswallop, who had been waiting for her return. He acted as though it had been ages since he saw her, even though he had doubtlessly been happily munching on roots and the fruits of trees (other than the Tree) the whole time.
Gently pushing away the big bird’s insistent head, Rouge watched as Aspen gently stroked Sumi’s oblong abdomen. Now that the spider was in the sunlight, Rouge could see that her carapace was no longer black, but a deep grape-purple that perfectly brought together her rosy ‘socks’ and sapphire fangs. Only the spider’s eight gleaming eyes were still onyx, glittering against their newly colorful backdrop.
Rouge smiled as she watched the two old friends reconnect. She knew they could speak to each other through their soul-bond thing, so they were undoubtedly talking to each other, just not in a way that Rouge could hear. She sighed, but it was all right, really. This reunion was a private moment, and she…
The flashing number 00:00:00 at the corner of her vision finally caught her attention. “Oh curd! I was supposed to be out.” she checked her clock, “almost an hour ago! Dagnabbit! Fiddle! Fu… ndament!”
Aspen looked at her, the creases around his eyes ones of amusement rather than worry, for once. “You’d best go, then. Sumi and I will escort your Zombie home.”
Rouge laughed. “A Native escorting a Traveler. That’s a twist. Okay, thanks, Aspen. Sumi, I’m glad you’re back, and you’re really pretty now. Oh!” She remembered something as her finger hovered in the air in front of the hovering ‘log out’ button, “Can I have your Spider Carapace?”
There was a pause as Sumi’s fangs clicked twice, and she said dryly, ::You already took it, didn’t you?::
Rouge grinned unrepentantly. “Yeah, but I’ll give it back if you need it.”
::No,:: the spider answered. ::I have no further need for it. If it can be useful to you, you are welcome to it.::
Rouge was thinking of the molted shell of a six-foot-high arachnid Aspen had once told her had been shed by Sumi’s mother, a Spider Queen. He had also insisted Rouge stuff the disgusting thing into one of the many, many spatial bags he’d given her. Apparently, these skins could be used for alchemy, and though neither she nor any of her friends were alchemists (that was particularly thankless and expensive Class to take), she’d probably find a use for it someday. Plus, now she had two, and if that wasn’t the start of a collection, she didn’t know what was!
“Awesome!” Rouge practically sang, then pirouetted and turned the spin into a graceful jeté, logging out as her toe touched the ground.
When Zoey opened her eyes in her pod, she was already grinning. Throwing caution to the wind, she allowed herself to use her full speed and agility, stripping out of her helmet and bodysuit with such speed that the fabric stretched alarmingly.
She murmured a brief apology to the innocent objects as she stuffed them into their separate compartments for sanitizing, and then she was pulling on some bright orange shorts and a yellow tank-top with ‘Not Your Girl’ printed across the front in big white letters. It had been a gift from her dad, of course.
After a quick pit stop in the restroom, she ran toward the spare room, where she screeched to a halt in the doorway so abruptly that she had to catch herself on the doorframe.
“Dr. Joe!” she exclaimed happily.
Dr. Joseph Sherman grinned at her, looking more relaxed than she’d seen him in a while. “Hi, Zoey! Nice to see you, too.”
Sara’s head popped up from behind the large, smooth cylinder taking up the vast majority of the space in the room. Dr. Joe’s assistant smiled too, lifting a gloved hand holding some kind of complex tool to wave at Zoey. “Hello, Zoey! It’s good to see you again. Joe complains every day about how much he misses being called ‘Dr. Joe’ instead of ‘Dr. Shaman’.” She grinned a little, and then dropped back down behind the new pod.
Zoey blinked a bit. She’d never heard Sara be so informal and relaxed, especially around Dr. Joe. Maybe that meant the two had finally moved beyond the ‘just colleagues’ phase? Or maybe they’d moved past that a while ago, and were just very professional in the office?
Zoey dismissed those thoughts for another time, and moved into the room. Her dad was sitting on the bed, doing something with his screen, though he looked up and smiled when she entered. The bruise and swelling on his forehead had mostly faded, though hints of purple still shone through his dark skin around the outer corner of his eye and below his eyebrow. He’d stopped favoring his left arm, too, so whatever Brent had done to fix it up seemed to be working.
“What are you guys doing here? I thought they were sending technicians to install this thing?” Rouge carefully poked the pod. It was absolutely smooth, with no visible panels or lights, and covered in a psychedelic pattern that her eyes didn’t really want to focus on. She hoped the inside wasn’t equally disturbing, but she had a feeling it was.
Dr. Joe actually winked before tapping the small badge pinned to his plain white shirt. “We are the technicians. We hired a delivery service to get this big guy here, and now your friendly neighborhood techs are getting it set up for you.”
Sara’s muffled voice came from inside the shell covering the pod. “Dr. Perez decided that since we know this version better than the regular techs, it only made sense for us to install it.”
“Oh! Dr. Perez is back?” Zoey had never met the actual director of the R&D department. The woman had been badly injured before Zoey was hired, and was in traction and then undergone extensive physical therapy during Zoey’s entire internship. Apparently, she’d also had a fractured skull and some swelling of the brain, so she hadn’t even been allowed to work from the hospital until she was completely recovered.
Dr. Joe grinned, and Zoey thought she’d never seen him look quite so pleased. “She is. She’s still working flex-time between home and the office, but she’s officially back in charge. Dr. Veralt can finally focus on his own work, for a change.”
A snorted laugh echoed from within the cylinder, and then Sara said, “Try it now, Joe.”
Obediently, Dr. Joe tapped at the screen he was holding, and then laid his hand on the side of the pod just above the Veritas Corp logo. “Should be running now, Sara.”
A moment passed, and then Sara pulled herself out from behind the cylindrical device. “Looks like we’re good for start-up. We just need logins.”
Dr. Joe nodded, and held out his screen toward Zoey. “Good timing, Zoey. We need you to create a login code. At least eight letters or numbers, plus two or more symbols. Preferably no dates, names, pets, etcetera etcetera. You know the drill.”
Zoey accepted the screen, already thinking hard. After a moment, she tapped in her new code, then repeated it for verification. The device flashed its acceptance, and she handed it back.
Smiling, Dr. Joe tapped at it a few more times, nodding in satisfaction. “I think we’re good, Sara. You can start the system.” He looked back at Zoey. “We already have your prints and retina scans on file, but those will also be needed for login. Of course, the pod is covered by your NDA, so until it’s gone, I’m afraid you won’t be able to have any guests in this room.”
Zoey glanced over at her dad. Usually, whenever his younger brother, Zoey’s Uncle Milo, was in town, he alternated between staying with them or Aunt Danika. Her dad looked up and nodded. “No big deal,” he said. “Milo can stay with Dani for a year. He always feeds Max too many treats anyway, and then leaves us to put the dog on a diet.”
Zoey giggled. It was true. Uncle Milo absolutely couldn’t resist Max’s soulful looks, and the dog always gained a pound or more during his visits.
Still tapping, Dr. Joe continued, clearly reading. “As specified in the contract you already signed, you may not photograph the pod, and should avoid mentioning it on social media or discussing it in public. Your contract extends from today for exactly 364 more days, after which the pod will be returned to Veritas Corp. During this time, the pod remains the sole property of Veritas Corp, and may not be altered in any way. If you experience any problems or have any concerns about your experience, you must contact Dr. Joseph Sherman or his superior directly, instead of calling the Veritas Corp customer service desk.”
He finally looked up and smiled wryly. “Do you understand these instructions? Please be advised that your answer is being recorded.”
Zoey said, “Yes,” as clearly as she could, and the researcher flashed a thumbs-up, then lifted his screen so it could capture an image of his retina.
He sighed in relief, and lowered the screen, rolling it up and stuffing it into his pocket. “Perfect. Now it’s just up to Sara, and once she gets everything online, you’ll be good to go. Are you excited?”
She huffed a laugh. “Um, yeah.”
Dr. Joe chuckled. “Just making sure. Come over here.” He edged to the side, and Zoey crossed over to join him at the other end of the machine. Pointing, Dr. Joe indicated the area above the Veritas logo, which she could now see was actually a screen displaying a seamless view of the same pattern overlaying the entire surface of the pod.
“The pod won’t open without your handprint. It also detects your vitals, so if you have a fever or other sign of illness, it won’t work. Because this is still part of the beta test, they only want feedback from healthy individuals, so nobody’s stuffy nose or body aches skew the results.” He rolled his eyes a little, and Zoey smiled. “Who’s ‘they’?” she asked. “I mean, I thought ‘they’ was you.”
Dr. Joe shook his head. “Dr. Veralt and I had… different ideas for which direction a few of the final options should take. This pod is kind of the,” he raised his hand, his first and second fingers split into a V shape, then pointed at the bottom of the V. “Fork in the road, as it were. It’s completely stable, and so is its programming. It only gets security and individual app updates, and neither of us gets to try out our latest theories on you any more.”
Zoey wiped a mock-relieved hand across her brow, then tried to lean forward and look inside the pod. It had a window, but it was covered in a slightly translucent version of the dizzying pattern, so she couldn’t really see anything. “Does it have the blue goo?”
Nodding, Dr. Joe touched the upper right corner of the screen with his forefinger. It flickered, displaying a keypad and his name. He glanced at Zoey, smiled teasingly, and covered the screen with his left hand before typing something in. When he lifted his hand, she could see a series of what looked like diagnostic information. He tapped a blue line that extended almost all the way across the screen. Beneath it, the display said, ‘100%’.
“The ‘blue goo’, as you say, is the only reason we should need to come back out. It can be cleaned and reused to some extent, but once a month or so, when the levels are too low, or if it gets contaminated in any way, the pod will notify us and stop functioning until the system is cleaned and the medium replaced. You should have plenty of warning before it runs low, but contamination is a real concern. Make sure everything that goes in there is as clean as you can get it, and your hair is entirely underneath the cap.”
Zoey nodded, eyes wide. “What happens if it gets contaminated?”
Sara spoke up from where she was working at the end of the pod next to the wall. “Nothing, really. Like Joe said, it’ll notify us, and lock you out, but it wouldn’t hurt you. Worst case, it would make the contact medium stop working optimally.”
Dr. Joe nodded in agreement. “We had one guy, back in the early days, who dropped a whole sandwich in and was too embarrassed to tell us. We had some very strange biofeedback reports, and it took a while to get the whole thing cleared – soggy bread is next to impossible to clean out of the filters – but he was fine. Then there was the whole thing with the, ah, bowel evacuation triggered by our attempts to include bathrooms in a fully immersive simulation.” He shuddered, and Zoey wrinkled her nose in sympathy.
Sara stood, her slim form unfolding from the small space in which she’d somehow managed to cram herself like one of those ‘just add water’ capsules for children. Shaking her head, she peeled off her gloves. “I’m glad that was before I joined the project.” She smiled at Zoey. “These fancy scientists had to clean it all up themselves, of course, since it was all top-secret at the time. No janitors or even us lowly research techs to do the dirty work.”
Dr. Joe ran his hand through his brown hair, leaving it standing up like a brush. A boyish grin spread over his face. “It was almost worth it to see Veralt scooping,” he glanced at Zoey, “ah, detritus.”
Zoey and Sara both giggled, exchanging a grin. Yeah, it was nice to see these two outside of their work roles. Sara, especially, was much more relaxed and personable. Zoey had always liked her, but the woman was a little stiff and formal when she was on the job. For the first time, Zoey realized that Dr. Joe was only four or five years older than Bridget, and Sara was a few years younger than him. Somehow, they’d always seemed older.
Sara took a step to the side, revealing slim-fitting dark-colored jeans that went well with her loose red blouse. The blouse was pretty, with brightly-colored embroidery and a few tasteful beads and sequins around the hem. The casual clothing and bright color brought out Sara’s glossy black hair and deep brown eyes, fringed with long black lashes. She was even wearing a touch more makeup than usual, with soft gold and copper on her eyelids and her brows subtly more defined.
Dr. Joe glanced over at his assistant as she came to stand beside him, and if Zoey wasn’t mistaken, she thought he, too, was noticing how pretty Sara was today. He lightly touched Sara on the arm as he said, “Good job,” and then he dropped it as if he’d been burned when he realized what he’d done.
Sara blushed a deep red, then smiled brilliantly at Dr. Joe. “Thank you.”
Zoey hated to disturb the moment, but she did it anyway. “So,” she said, drawing out the word until both pairs of eyes turned to her. “When can I start playing?”
They exchanged amused glances, and Dr. Joe touched the pod’s screen again, clearing the diagnostic interface. Once it had returned to its default state, both of the researchers stepped back. Her dad, seeming to sense that something more interesting was about to happen, closed his screen and looked up expectantly.
Zoey stepped forward and looked at the screen. In the center was a small oval patch, so she pressed her thumb to it. The screen shifted and her name appeared across the top, along with the words, ‘Please enter your password’. Zoey flashed a look at Dr. Joe, wrinkled her nose at him, then covered the screen with one hand while she typed. She also had to lean in for a retinal scan, and she was still blinking against the brief red flash when the whole top of the machine opened with a hiss.
The platform inside was already raised and ready to receive her. It, too, was covered in the disorienting pattern, but fortunately the window above, which was the part she’d be looking at most often, looked clear from the inside.
Sara handed Zoey a sealed plastic package. The bodysuit inside was, of course, also patterned. On the bed, Zoey’s dad moved, and for the first time, Zoey saw that there were two large boxes half-hidden behind his body.
Dr. Joe stepped forward and picked up the slightly smaller one. With a teasing smile, he handed it to Zoey. “Since you’re in the program again, I thought you might appreciate having this. You can use it as part of your testing, just like we used to.”
Curious, Zoey tore the flaps apart, and broke out into a huge grin when she saw what it contained. A few months before, Dr. Joe had had a copy of her Mambele constructed. It was as close to the real thing as they could get, complete with the same weight balance, metal blades, and leather-wrapped hilt. It wasn’t as sharp, of course, but it could stick into the targets that Dr. Joe and Sara set up so that she could compare how the real weapon felt in comparison to the in-game version.
