Dinner Show
Liza’s brother answered their back door. It was a bit of a joke that their ‘virtual’ back door entered out into empty nothingness from the side of their Space Elevator. I’m sure that if you looked at the real-world Elevator at the same spot as their virtual door, you would just see a curved sheet of metal. In the Virtuality, however, a huge round wooden door was the entrance.
I looked down at the Earth, and was happy to see that it looked much cleaner that when I had left a century before. Maybe it was my imagination, but there seemed to be a lot less grey in the clouds. I could just make out the New Capital megaplex that had formed when old New York City and Washington DC had grown into one giant city.
Liza’s brother Bodo was taller than I remember 12 year old boys being, probably from being born in such low gravity. He had on a long wizard’s robe and was carrying a wand and sitting upon a short 6 foot dragon-like creature. He gave me a big hug when I entered, unfortunately letting his pet dragon drool all over me. Even though I knew it wasn’t real, I cringed anyway at the sulfurous smell of rotten eggs.
“I have a surprise, Bodo. One of the Intelligences from my ship is coming to visit for dinner.” I looked around, noticing that the decorations had been changed so that the walls were covered with tapestries from old castles. Shields and old iron swords decorated the mantle place, and candles burned where the wall lights had been. A mounted head of a deceased snarling creature with three eyes stared at me.
“That’s so Plasma! Can I invite my friends over to meet it?”
“Sorry, buddy, but no. It’s a he, and his name is Halvin. He’s a Captain on my ship.”
“Wow! An officer model! Plas! What version is he? Does he have citizenship? Was he part of the revolt?” As I watched, Bodo excitedly waved his wand, accidentally launching fireballs at the walls and scorching the furniture. Every few seconds, a crusty dwarf holding a mug of beer and an axe would charge at him and be incinerated by his wand.
There was a fleet of dark Elvin creatures sneaking up through a back room, taking advantage of his distraction. I pulled a Thorium grenade from my belt and tossed it at them. Splat, and bloody gore was sticking to the ceiling and walls. Ewww, I hated it when the violence level was turned up so high.
“Jake! I didn’t know you played? Plas, what level are you?”
“60. We played all last summer when we were stuck on the ship.”
“Oh.” He sounded disappointed. I looked up his profile and saw he was level 95. Woah, I guess there had been a number of expansion packs in the past years, as level 60 was the highest that you could get back when I played.
Before I could say anything else, an ear-splitting gong sounded from the wooden door that I had come in from. A tiny brown flat-faced dog came charging from the back room, yipping and charging over a couch to bark excitedly at the wall. He had purple wings growing from his back and a little green tail. He had a dark face with a huge overbite that looked comical in such a small animal.
Bodo threw open the door and Halvin was floating there, upside down. He stepped inside, and did a quick flip to land right side-up with perfect grace. It wasn’t really fair, as Intelligences were obviously more graceful in the Virtuality than humans could ever be.
“Hi” Halvin said, “You must be Liza. Nice to meet you.” Bodo started giggling and saying “eww” while shaking his head. The dog kept barking at Hal.
“Umm, Halvin, this is Liza’s younger brother Bodo.”
Halvin stared. “Oh, nice to meet you Bodo.” He turned to the dog, who was still barking excitedly and jumping on the couch. He said “I guess this isn’t Liza either.”
Hal stuck out his hand to the dog, who tried to lick at the hologram. The dog lost balance, and fell off the couch through Hal’s image. In the low gravity, he fluttered lightly to the ground and turned around growling at his tail as though it had pushed him off.
Halvin stared at the dog, then back at Bodo’s wizard costume, obviously confused. Bodo said, “This is Pedro! He’s a pug. Those aren’t real wings - it’s just for the game.” Now that Halvin was here, Bodo seemed scared to ask him any personal questions about not being Human. They both just stood looking at each other.
A voice sounded from the other room. “Bodo! I told you five minutes ago to turn that game off and get ready for dinner!” Liza’s mother walked out from the dining room, shaking her head. “And, stop throwing fireballs into the kitchen.” She paused when she saw Halvin, and looked a bit frightened when she noticed his silver earring.
I made introductions all around, deliberately pointing out that Hal was a Captain in the UN Space Force, which caused her to relax considerably.
Liza’s mom smiled at this and touched her fist to Halvin’s. “Welcome to our home… Liza’s in the bedroom still finishing a class. She should be out any second now.” Right on cue, Liza stepped out from the hallway looking stunning in a set of very revealing golden armor.
“Hi boys. Welcome Captain Metzger, Jake’s told me so much about you. Bodo, will you please clean up for dinner?” He blinked a command and the dog wings disappeared, along with the wizard costume, the castle paintings, Liza’s armor, and the scorch marks from the wall.
“I paused it,” he said. I wished he had left the armor on her, though.
“I’ve been baking a special casserole that was my final project from a class last year. I hope everyone’s hungry. Jake, do you have it loaded?”
Liza had sent me the recipe earlier, and I’d loaded it into our kitchen library. I didn’t want to tell her that UNSF ships had one of the most extensive meal collections available, and we’d already had many recipes for similar casseroles. We also had unlimited licenses to make copies of each, though we couldn’t legally share them. The UNSF didn’t want to be sued by McDonalds for copyright violations.
I said, “The kitchen robot just brought it into my room and it smells delicious. Thanks honey. And, thanks Ayoo.” (this last part I said offline, just in case Ayoo was listening).
Bodo grabbed Hal’s hand and pulled him over to sit next to him at the dinner table. Pedro the Pug sat on the ground between them slobbering, his huge bulging eyes staring at the meal on the table. I sat next to Liza, being careful to physically sit on the side of my bed back in my room on the ship. I also pulled a table in front of me at the same height as the table in their dining room. The Virtuality can be confusing if you weren’t paying attention.
Bodo stared at Halvin, and asked “What are you doing to your food?”
Halvin had cut up every piece into bite-sized chunks before eating them. He said, “It’s more efficient if you cut them all up first, then eat them. If you only use a fork, you don’t waste time switching between hands.”
Bodo laughed, “But you’re not really eating it! It’s just an illusion.” Hal looked surprised at this… he had been eating dinners on board to keep me company for so long, I think he’d forgot that neither him nor the food were really there. He waved at the plate and it reformed into an uncut casserole, which he started slicing and eating just like Bodo was. Bodo laughed again, delighted.
I don’t think Hal had ever been around human children before, and he seemed a bit out of sorts. I’m sure he was simultaneously reading through every child psychology book online so that he could figure out what was really going on with Bodo. Hal was like that.
“This is delicious, Liza! But I have to apologize. Halvin and I can’t stay long. We need to report back to the ship in about half an hour.” Liza looked disappointed, but Bodo perked up.
“Are you fighting Aliens? How far away are you? Is it dangerous?” Bodo was clearly excited.
“Bodo, we’re 90 trillion kilometers away from Earth, and yes it’s dangerous… but we’re well trained and have the best equipment available. And, the Aliens are ugly, so that’s why I hang out with you instead,” Liza’s mother frowned, but didn’t tell me to stop teasing him.
Bodo turned to Halvin, and asked “Were you part of the revolt? Are you a citizen?” Maggie and Liza looked embarrassed, but clearly wanted to know as well. Hal paused, fork halfway to his mouth.
“I’m sorry, Captain. Bodo’s making a video for class… you don’t have to answer.”
“Well, I’m not that type of Intelligence. One of my parents was a normal human Copy. I couldn’t ever kill someone like they did during the revolt. Don’t worry, you’re safe.” He managed a sheepish grin… trying to decide whether to be embarrassed or not.
“Bodo, Halvin and I are over 100 years old. I know we look young, but we were born a long time ago.”
Bodo said, “You don’t look young! You’re as old as she is!” and pointed at Liza, who smiled. I ignored this and continued on.
“Halvin was born in the days when all Intelligences were made from Copies of people… so his parents were a mix of real people and computer programs. None of the newer Intelligences grow up that way today, though. Hal and the others on the Missions are special - he’s just like us, though he doesn’t really have a body.” And he gets a lot more emotional than most humans his age, I wanted to add.
Hal said, “I’ve never been part of the revolt on Alpha Centauri… both Jake and I joined the fleet together. Jake received his Citizenship about 20 years ago when he made Captain. We threw him a party. Intelligences in the military get theirs when they make Major, so I will get it next week when we are promoted.”
“Cool! Can we throw you a party then? I know the perfect present for you.”
Hal looked a little uncomfortable. I don’t think he’d ever had a party for him before. I felt embarrassed that I’d never thrown him one after being his best friend for so long.
“I will ask our Colonel for authorization.”
I said “Thank you for the offer, Bodo. I’m sure we can do something for Hal. Not many Intelligences get to become citizens. It’s hard enough for humans to do it.”
“But, my teacher says that all Intelligences want to be free and to vote and stuff.”
“We’re not supposed to talk about our personal politics when we are in the military. I’m sorry Bodo.”
Bodo scowled, disappointed. He said, “I’m going to become a Citizen someday, too!”
Hal asked, “Do you want to become a Citizen just so you can have a child?” The population council only allowed Citizens to have one child, each. Bodo and Liza’s parents must both have been Citizens if they were lucky enough to be allowed two kids. It was a rare honor these days, and almost unheard of back when I was growing up. It was the only was that worked to keep population levels under control.
“Ewww! Yuck! No, I want to join the Space Force and explore and vote!”
Hal said, “That’s good, Bodo. Everyone should try to become a citizen. Do you want to see some other pictures of us exploring that no one else has seen? You can put them in your report.”
“Plasma!” Bodo was excited again and had forgotten to finish his dinner while staring at Hal. I winked at Liza, who was smiling at the two of them. Liza’s mom pointed at Hal and wiggled her fingers, giving him rights to control imagery in the room. A small camera icon popped above Bodo’s head to show he was recording.
Pedro sat under the table, still slobbering and begging for food. Every once in a while, he would give a high-pitched “Yip!” and look at me pleading for a bite. He didn’t realize that Hal and I weren’t really there, but were just hologram pictures drawn in the air. Bodo pointed at him and muted his volume so we couldn’t hear his barking.
Hal drew a large box in the air with his fingers, and filled it with an enhanced picture of the Epsilon Eridani system that our ship was currently flying through. He made the sun look much brighter and covered in jets of fire, and added small background explosion sounds. Ep Eri was famous for its wildly varying magnetic lines, ultraviolet emissions and photospheric explosions, and was the only star in the neighborhood of Earth that was younger than our own sun. Hal’s graphics were amazing -- even I was impressed, and I had looked at the scene in person less than an hour ago.
“This is the star we’re close to. It’s the most chaotic star that we can ever travel to within a human lifetime. It has a planet around it called Vegas.” Hal had become much more comfortable with Bodo than when they first met.
As he spoke, Vegas swirled into view, showing bright yellow continents and blue oceans with white clouds. These weren’t completely realistic images… but were quite artistic, none the less.
“We think it’s yellow because the sun in much more orange and red than ours or Alpha Centauri’s. We think those are yellow and orange trees, and there should be lots of oxygen that’s humans could life on. Do you know why this is important?”
Bodo answered, his eyes very wide. “Because we can set up a third colony there!” As he said this, Hal added pictures of cities and people living on the planet.
“Exactly.”
Pedro the pug was sleeping between my feet under the table, which gave me an idea. I drew an image of a small pug-like green alien on my napkin, and set it to animate by slobbering with a huge tongue. It looked very cartoonish compared to Hal’s realistic video. I loaded it into Hal’s movie and had it jumping on a small human city, which made Bodo laugh. Hal wiped it away, and continued.
“Bodo, do you know how propulsion lasers work?”
“Yeah, I have a game that uses them. If you shoot lasers at the solar sails on a ship, you can make it fly much faster. If you don’t burn up the ship.”
“Or, you can point them at a ship coming towards you to slow it down. That’s what landing lasers do.”
“A long time ago, we sent out probes to all of the closest star systems. They were supposed to build bases and landing lasers for us. Usually, our ships go so fast that it takes them years just to slow down without a landing laser. Colony ships take decades.”
“How big are the sails on your ship?”
“We use huge ones, the size of a city, to move really fast when we take off. There are no lasers in this system, though, so we pulled our sails in to protect them from meteors. We’ll fly through very fast a few times just to see what’s there and slow down each time we go through. Later, when we’ve slowed down, we’ll build some lasers to help future colonists land.”
I took over the narration, a bit jealous that everyone was watching Hal’s movies with rapt attention. “The probe we sent stopped talking to us a long time ago, so the UN sent us to go see what was wrong with it. We just found that it is still around Vegas and still working, and are going to try to find out exactly what happened to it.”
_________________ --The Hermit
Last edited by bigyak on Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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