> day.20
“Mornin’ Alex.” Murphy strolls into the Model Training Chamber whistling one of his merry tunes, coffee and big white briefcase in hand. “Been settlin’ back into the lab okay?”
“Well enough.”
“Bit more of a stoic lifestyle than the Palace, aye?”
“Yep.”
“Too much comfort softens the mind anyways. Rots the soul.” Murphy grins, setting his heavy white briefcase down and sipping at his instant coffee. “Don’t ya think?”
Alex tosses out his words and leers at him. “New glasses?”
“Mhm.” Murphy nods as messages and datasets beam onto the surface of his eyes. “Lads over in Sector 7 did a bang up job on the design. Speaking of, you know what we’re up to today, ya?”
“Training exercises.”
“You ready for it?”
Alex shrugs. “Don’t have any other choice, do I?”
“Aye,” Murphy laughs. “Not much choice for any of us down here.”
“Guess so,” Alex smirks. “So what exactly am I training for today?”
“Okie dokie, here’s the drill.” Murphy gazes across the Training Chamber’s empty white walls, his eyes sliding open secret panels and storage compartments all around the room. Tall, cold figures in full white bodysuits slowly pace out from the walls. Sharp white helmets and pale blue visors hide their dead eyes as they shamble over to Alex.
“I’m not going to hurt anyone,” Alex protests.
“Don’t worry, these are what the Sector 2 lads call Dummies,” Murphy explains. “They’re more like zombies than humans, really. No minds of their own. They’re all hooked up to a very special AI system we call Aeschylus.”
“What’s an Aeschylus?” Alex tilts her head.
“Aeschylus is an experimental cyber defense AI we’re currently developing in Sector 1,” Murphy continues. “Its full functionality is . . . well, truth be told, even I don’t fully know what Aeschylus is capable of. But today, we’re gonna do some training with Aeschylus.”
“So what do I have to do?”
“All these Dummies are being controlled by Aeschylus,” Murphy points out at the hollow white bodies. “You’re basically gonna fight Aeschylus. The Dummies will team up on you, try to hit you. They won’t hit hard though. And you just have to hit them back. Easy.”
Alex folds her arms and looks away. “I’m not gonna hit anyone again.”
“Why not?” Murphy scoffs. “You liked martial arts in gym class, didn’t you? And wrestling? Back at the Palace?”
“Yeah, but I hurt Dad when I—”
“Right, so this is just your new gym class, aye?” Murphy smiles at her. “I’m just gonna watch you and grade how well you do.”
“Okay . . . but I’m not actually hurting anyone, right?” Alex pauses to scan the ghostly crowd of Dummies. “They’re all just zombies?”
Murphy glances up, tilting his head back and forth. “Basically, yes. They’re all just zombies.”
“What’s in your briefcase?” Alex glances down at his strange white box with suspicion.
“You’re curious as ever,” Murphy laughs. “There’s a very special toy in there. We’ll play with it in the second half of today’s class. For now, how about I switch on Aeschylus and we get started, ya?”
“Alright, fine.” Alex tugs on her white tunic and hoists up her white sweatpants. “You promise they won’t hit hard?”
“We’ll start you off on Beginner Mode,” Murphy nods. “Get ready!”
The Dummies click up at attention. Their blue visors fill with commands, glow with data. One begins marching toward Alex. It slowly draws back it its hand. It takes an awkward, mechanical swat at Alex. Alex slowly sidesteps it. She stares at the Dummy’s blank face and dull blue visor. It slowly draws its hand back again.
“Okay, this is too easy,” Alex laughs. “Can you turn the difficulty up?”
“Aye!” Murphy responds. “Let’s try Normal Mode.”
The Dummy’s visor pulses and shines with blue data. Its arm flies through the air, chops at Alex’s neck, but her instincts kick in, knock back the Dummy’s heavy arm, strange metals and tiny robots pump through her muscles as she lunges a left hook into the Dummy’s cold jaw, smashes its mouth open, rains chrome dust and silicone gels out into the air.
“Holy Christ!” Murphy shouts as the Dummy tumbles to the floor. “How’d you get so much stronger so fast?”
Alex shrugs. “Hormones? I guess?”
Data feeds and dev logs load into Murphy’s glasses. His eyes scroll through Alex’s biology as he whistles in astonishment. “Good guess, actually. Looks like your systems somehow initiated a new growth phase ahead of schedule. But the results are extraordinary! I don’t even know how you—”
“I’m a big girl now,” Alex shrugs. “Should I keep fighting these Aeschylus things?”
“Yes!” Murphy nods excitedly. “Yes, please do!”
Three Dummies circle around Alex, blue visors lighting up with commands as one charges, another lunges low, the other jumps to her side, her leg spins itself up into the air, sends one Dummy flying to the ground, she twists, pivots a foot, readies a fist, strikes another Dummy in its chest, turns to face the third, but she’s too late, it jumps onto her back and pins her to the floor.
“Weak grip!” She cries out at the Dummy as she twists, wriggles, rolls free, her leg rockets itself through the Dummy’s neck, wires and fake flesh spilling out as she leaps to her feet, blocks another Dummy’s punch, cracks its shoulder apart, twirls to block another one, fist smashes through its blue visor, its white chrome helmet, its steel skull erupting in a flurry of sparks and shrapnel.
“5 seconds?!” Murphy shouts with glee. “5 seconds to destroy 3 Dummies! All the predictions I ran said it would take you at least 30 seconds, if you even decided to fight at all!”
Alex cracks the tiniest smile. “Guess all my dance classes paid off,” she shrugs. The Dummies tremor and jolt and writhe on the floor in defeat.
Murphy taps his fingers together and raises his brow. “I have an idea.” Strange white fluid oozes out from each of the Dummy’s wounds, slowly covering their twisted metal and mangled silicone, quickly drying into new glass, new steel, new skin. The Dummies rise from the dead. “How about we have some real fun?” Murphy smiles down at his big white briefcase.
Alex crosses her arms. “What, you finally gonna let me play some good video games down here?”
“Yes.” Murphy grins as he slides his fingers onto the briefcase. “As a matter of fact, I am.”
The briefcase hums at the touch of Murphy’s fingerprints, unlocks to the beat of his pulse, slowly opens itself, dim blue light washing over his face, glowing softly from within.
“A gift from your father.” Murphy reaches into the blue, lifts out a glittering white helmet, its sleek curves and sharp tips glittering like angel wings. A strong blue visor spans across its entire face, shining with powerful blue light.
“Isn’t that . . .” Alex turns to scan the Dummies, turns back Murphy. “Isn’t that the same helmet the Dummies have?”
“This one’s a wee bit different.” Murphy lights up with joy. “This one’s custom-made for you. So that you can plug into Aeschylus.”
Alex steps back and lifts her hand in refusal. “I don’t wanna be a zombie.”
“It won’t make you a zombie,” Murphy laughs.
“I don’t wanna be a robot either. I don’t wanna be a robot zombie. I don’t wanna—”
“Alex, let me explain how this works,” Murphy says. “You play VR games all the time, right?”
“Yeah, but this is different, this is—”
“Alex, this is basically just a VR headset,” Murphy explains. “You put it on, Aeschylus loads you into the game environment, and you fight some AI-controlled monsters. Plus, Aeschlyus will give you lots of buffs and assists that’ll make it way easier to get kills.”
“Why do I need a VR headset?” Alex narrows her eyes. “You guys built my eyes. And my ears. And put a ton of computers in my brain.”
“Think of it like an upgrade,” Murphy smiles. “Some new gear that will take your gaming to a whole new level. And unlock a ton of cool new features.”
Alex keeps squinting at Murphy with suspicion. Then looks down at the slick white helmet, the fierce blue visor. “I mean, I guess this is a pretty badass looking headset.”
“Just give it a try!” Murphy holds it out to her. “You can take it off at any time if you don’t like it!”
“Fine.” Alex rolls her eyes and tosses her long platinum hair back. She plucks the white helmet out of Murphy’s hands, glides it seamlessly onto her head, pulls the blue visor down to fully cover her eyes.
“Oh wow, this fits my head perfectly.” Alex giggles and looks around the Training Chamber. “And it’s all soft and padded inside! And so lightweight!”
“Told ya it was custom-made,” Murphy smiles. “The lads in Sector 1 did a splendid job on ‘er design.”
Alex turns to Murphy eagerly. Blue light blazes across her gaze. “Soooo what kind of game are we gonna play on this?”
“How about a hack ‘n’ slash?” Murphy flutters his eyebrows. “Maybe chop up a few monsters?”
“Yes!” Alex cries out. “Let’s do it!”
“Okay, gimme one sec,” Murphy says. “I’m gonna connect you into Aeschylus.” Buttons and lights flicker in Murphy’s glasses. Commands and scripts pop into a far corner of Alex’s mind as a logo loads into the soft blue tints of her visor:
> Integrating into Aeschylus Cyber Defense System
> Integration successful
“All hooked up!” Murphy confirms. “I’m gonna load you into a game environment now. Don’t worry if you feel a strange rush, that’s perfectly normal. It’s all in your head. It’ll be over fast.”
The white Testing Chamber glows brighter. And brighter. And brighter, until Alex is left standing in a pure white void. She looks around. Murphy is gone. The Dummies are gone. Her body flashes headfirst into a wall of images, videos, words, sounds, she flies through the empty of the Palace with Carson at her side, tall marble pillars whiz by, the black gunship drones as Mom coughs, Soren sighs, the garden in bloom, the mountain mudslide, magnets and cannons glaring down from orbit, moths and locusts raining down on the lake, the cold Island, the sailboat runs ashore as red and blue rings join together in her mind’s eye, beeping twice.
Beepbeep.
It’s over. The upward rush stops.
“What the—” But before Alex can process the flood of data, she gapes out at a gorgeous night sky. The full moon hands above, the stars all vivid and alight. Tall pines and vast cedars stretch their woody limbs all around her as Murphy’s voice trails in on the midnight wind.
“You good over there?” Murphy asks. “All settled into the dark forest?”
“Yeah!” Alex responds. “This is . . . these are best game graphics I’ve ever seen!”
“Marvellous!” Murphy chuckles. “I’ll let the Sector 4 lads know you fancy their handiwork.”
Alex looks around the moonlit woods, runs her fingers across a rough, mossy tree, reveling in the hyperrealistic textures. “So what kind of monsters do I get to fight in this Aeschylus game?”
“Well for now, how about we keep your difficulty setting at normal,” Murphy suggests, “and give this a try.”
A dark red light whispers down on Alex. She looks up to see the full white moon bleeding into crimson, soaking the black forest with its grim glow. Beneath the bloody red moon, a massive howling beast fades into the forest, long black fur lining his swollen chest, his bearish legs, his lanky arms and dagger claws. His canine fangs drip red, foaming onto his dark wolf’s mane as his health bar loads into view:
Alex jolts back in horror. “Uhhh, this thing looks very real!” She cries. “I’ve fought werewolves in other games, but this is—”
“Don’t analyze it!” Murphy suggests. “Of course you’ll feel scared if you keep starin’ at all his scary parts. Trust your werewolf-fighting instincts and keep moving!”
“Okay fine,” Alex mutters, anxiously crouching into her gym class karate stance. “I just have to get its health down to zero?”
“Yes, but there’s a fun little gimmick in this game,” Murphy says. “You have to think about fighting the monsters instead of actually fighting them.”
Alex scans the werewolf up and down. “I mean, I’ve used my neurodrives to play lots of games like that before, but this is so realistic, I don’t know if I can think properly about—”
“Don’t analyze it!” Murphy reminds her. “Analysis is my job. Your job is to trust your instincts. If it gets too scary at any time, just take your helmet off and we can call it a day.”
Alex breathes in deep, fights back the urge to nibble at her nervous fingernails. She’s a big girl now. She can do this.
She slowly exhales her fears. “Okay, let’s go!”
The werewolf locks his eyes onto her neck, opens its jaw wide, roars and charges ahead. Before Alex can even think about stepping out of his path, her virtual body swiftly decides to dodge the beast’s deathly fangs.
“Whoa! How did I—”
“Aeschylus will auto-pilot you!” Murphy explains. “You only need to respond when Aeschylus tells you to!”
The werewolf lunges at Alex again, but the alien signals of Aeschylus pulse through her legs, lift her off the ground, send her flipping up into the air, through the black leaves of the towering trees and high above the hairy beast.
She slams down to the forest floor, Aeschylus pulling her legs back, filling her veins with nano-steels and power gels, springs her ahead, colliding into the fearsome beast and pinning him to the ground. He barks and snaps up at her as Aeschylus draws her fist back to strike the crazed wolf in his snout, his health bar falling as Alex cracks his fangs apart:
Aeschylus draws back her other fist for a second strike, but the beast pounces up at her, his horrid curved claws racing toward her blue visor.
Red light flashes into her brain. “RESPOND!” The firm voice of Aeschylus rings out into her mind. Her instincts activate, claws are coming at her fast, but she still has the wolf pinned down, could try to parry, block the claws with her hand, but his claws look too sharp, too risky, the only good response is to get away, so she leans back, stretches her arms back, thinks of flipping and flying backward in an acrobatic flash, but her brain can’t process such a physics-defying feat. She fails to finesse the flip, sends herself speeding and tumbling through moss and mud.
“Ow!” She dusts the slop off her white tunic. “You didn’t tell me I’d feel real pain in this thing!”
“Don’t analyze it!” Murphy reminds her. “I can see you in the Training Chamber right now, I promise your body’s perfectly safe! It’s all in your head, just keep moving!”
Alex leaps to her feet, big exhale. “Big girl,” she tells herself again. Aeschylus pours back into her brain, throws her forward like a furious arrow, jabs a clean kick deep into the beast’s shaggy chest before it can even process her moves. He cries out in pain as she beats away at his health bar:
“You can load in weapons too!” Murphy shouts out. “And armor! And anything else you can imagine!”
Alex cracks her neck. Tilts her head. Imagines herself as an anime badass: Megaera, legendary exodemon huntress, brooding heroine of Planet Dracula Vol. X.
She imagines Megaera’s sparkling white armor covering her from head to toe, strong and sturdy, yet sleek and light. She imagines Megaera’s glittering longsword flowing from her grip, its righteous, glossy blade mirroring the blood of the full moon. She imagines Megaera’s silky, long white hair breezing from her head, her mythic white boots lifting her high above her foes, her elegant arms and full-figured—
“RESPOND!” Aeschylus snaps Alex out of her fantasy, the werewolf suddenly inches above her head, bearing down with his razor claws and broken, jagged fangs, baying and growling with foul, dead breath, but it’s too late to respond, the beast shreds into her soft virtual skin with vicious force.
She shrieks as she jumps away, clutches her wound as as it gushes with a strange white fluid that quickly fills the gash, dries, hardens, instantly morphs into fresh new flesh.
“Don’t analyze it!” Murphy reminds her. “Don’t overthink your sword or your armor! Or your avatar! Just accept that you have a weapon and a body and then keep moving!”
“RESPOND!” Aeschylus commands. The beast howls and howls at the bleeding moon and burning stars, utterly berserk, trapped in a brief blood trance. A perfect moment to strike.
Alex knows she has a mighty sword, knows her shining armor will hold its form, knows the unreal power of her white helmet, her blue visor, the skillful hand of Aeschylus at he back as she trusts her warrior instinct. She leaps high into the night sky, a blazing white huntress dashing across the terrible red moon, grasps her twinkling blade, plunges down in a streak of silver, dives through the foul beast’s heart, his lifeforce draining from his body in an instant:
The werewolf screams and shatters into a million points of data. The black forest vanishes. The white void returns. A glorious message pops into her mind:
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
A rush of perfect bliss pumps through her brain: adrenaline, serotonin, dopamine, a symphony of heavenly chemicals surging out from hidden implants in her systems, enrapturing her soul, Aeschylus rewarding her for her victory.
Alex grins from ear to ear. Floats in her moment of purity. Lingers in her surreal ecstasy. Pure glee for the first time since the Palace.
“Incredible!” Murphy glows as the Training Chamber fades back into view. “That was bloody incredible, Alex! All of your performance metrics exceeded every prediction! This is big, Sector 1 are gonna be over the moon when they hear—”
“That was THE BEST!” Alex cheers. “That was SO good, I got this rush at the end, like a big big wave of happiness, I’ve never felt anything like it, well maybe when Mom gave me this medicine one time after I fell and wasn’t healing properly for some reason and it was really strange and so she gave me the medicine and it was SO good and I wanted more and she said no but THIS was even better and—”
“Alex, Alex, Alex,” Murphy giggles, waving his hands to slow her down. “Breathe in and out, okay? Gotta bring your pulse back down, so BIG inhale!
Alex takes a big, strong breath in.
“That rush at the end is what we call a reward function,” Murphy explains. “Aeschylus will give you one whenever you win a fight. Reinforcement learning.”
Alex takes a big, slow breath out. “I love rewards! I wanna play again!”
Murphy giggles again. “Well, we can certainly load ya into another fight then! The pain wasn’t too much of a bother for ya?”
“Nope!” Alex takes another slow breath in.
“Grand.” Murphy sighs with relief. “The pain’s what we call an anti-reward. Your body isn’t actually getting hurt, but a wee bit of pain helps keep your instincts sharp.”
Alex puffs out a big girl breath. “I’m tough! I’ve been through way worse!”
“Aw hell ya,” Murphy grins. “How about we put together some training modules for you then? And you can hold onto that helmet and come back here to work through the modules whenever you feel like it.”
“Yes! Yes!” Alex bounces with excitement. “This Aeschylus game is SO GOOD.”
“For your next fight, how about we crank up the difficulty?” Murphy smirks. His glasses twinkle with lesson plans and spreadsheets. “You up for Hard Mode?”