Chapter 7 - part two
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Toshi was a little irritated that Kenji hadn't shown up, but considering the little show his father and Mr. Woon had just put on for the school, it wasn't really surprising that he'd gone into hiding. Toshi decided that when he and Chika were done tonight's investigation, he'd stop in at Kenji's room and try to cheer him up a little.

The two of them seemed to have arrived before everyone, as it turned out, since Jin, Julie, and Miaki weren’t here yet either. Maybe they and Kenji were just delayed with other first-years, and would all come in a few minutes. Whatever the case, Chika decided that she and Toshi should start on their own, and Kenji could join them later if he did come with the others. Their group had decided to explore a specific advanced simulation, to try to find out whether it impinged on the real world or not.

The test had been Toshi’s idea. If they could find a simulation that took place in a location with a security camera, then one of them could do something in the simulation while the other tapped into the camera system to see if it caught the action.

“After all,” Toshi said, “if there had been a security camera in that shed on the Moon, it should have caught the rock fall, right?”

“Yes,” Chika had mused. “But would it have caught images of you and Kenji, even if you weren’t actually physically there? I wonder what it would have seen, in the space that the two of you occupied in the simulation.”

“Maybe we looked like ghosts. Or else there were these weird empty spaces in the middle of all that rock and rubble. That’s what we need to find out, if we can find a security camera in one of the real world simulations.”

Tonight, they had hit on such a simulation surprisingly quickly, though not unexpectedly. Toshi reasoned that something like a laboratory was likely to have watchful cameras everywhere, and sure enough, there were at least two laboratories clearly identified in the simulation list. They picked one randomly, and logged themselves into it.

It was some sort of complex for developing and testing rocket fuels, apparently. They found themselves, initially, in an empty hallway outside a janitor’s closet. (Toshi checked; yep, full of brooms and cleaning equipment.) As they walked down the hall, turning a corner, they came upon a wide window with thick glass and embedded mesh, that stretched for about twenty feet along the wall around the corner. The window looked down into a large area that almost looked like a warehouse, except that it contained several different types of rocket engines, each in its own insulated section.

Wherever this lab was located, it must be after working hours, since there were no tests being conducted. But there were still several people down there, checking gauges, cleaning up after earlier tests, and generally preparing the area for work that would be done there tomorrow.

Chika and Toshi pressed themselves against the wall away from the window, to keep from being seen by anyone below.

“That’s impressive,” Toshi said. “I wonder if they use this to actually simulate tests that the students can get involved in, or if they only get to look.”

“They must be allowed to get their hands on things,” Chika said. “I don’t see the point, otherwise. And look,” she pointed upward.

There it was: a camera along the solid wall at their back, pointed so that it took in the windowed hallway and undoubtedly also some of the activity in the testing area below.

“Good,” Toshi said. “Shall I go into the security system, or do you want to?”

“Stay here,” she said. “I’ll do it.” And her avatar popped out of sight.

Toshi inched a little closer to the window, smirking to himself, “Funny, how I always seem to be the one left in danger in the simulation. At least there’ll be no rock fall. I hope.”

He peered down into the testing area, trying to identify something. He wasn’t sure if this was supposed to simulate a government lab, or if it represented a company somewhere. Probably a government, given the number of engines down there. In fact, yes, now he could identify at least three different company logos on various engines. So this was a government lab, where sub-contracting companies brought engines – spaceship engines, he suddenly realized – for testing and integration into the larger government plans.

He really wished he knew which government. He hadn’t checked many details before they’d gone into the simulation. Chika would know by now, of course, as she used the simulation specs to get her into the security system. For an uneasy moment he thought of Miaki’s forays into a government system, and wondered if he should check on his companion.

But then she messaged him to log out, and when he met her in the school system entry point, he could see that everything was fine.

And she had momentous news. “I could see you, Toshi,” she said. “You didn’t look like a real person, because I could see through you, a little bit. But I saw you there, and I could see what you looked like.”

He paused and tried to digest this. “This is…incredible. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.” He peered at her. “Did you erase me off the record, by the way? I’d hate if someone came looking for me.”

“Of course. Don’t worry. But I don’t know what to make of it,” said Chika. “Why haven’t they told us about this? We’re the students who are supposed to be using the simulations. Shouldn’t we know that in some fantastic way we’re actually functioning in the real world, not the VR world?”

“Unless it’s only revealed to fourth-years,” Toshi mused.

“Are they sworn to secrecy or something? As far as I know, that’s unheard-of too, at ISCE. It’s all supposed to be open. Not secret like this. This really bothers me, Toshi.”

He said suddenly, “We still don’t know if we can really act in the real world. I should have grabbed a broom from that janitor’s closet and brought it to the other hallway. If you could see that on the security system, then we’d know for sure. Maybe we should go back in – “

He stopped with a little gasp, just as Chika said, “Oh no, what’s happening?”

They had both received the message at the same time: an urgent message from Jin, saying only, “Please come! It’s Miaki! Please come! Please come!” It was set on repeat, sending the same frantic call over and over again.

Toshi and Chika stared at each other. Chika tried to message back, to see what was happening, while Toshi tried to zero in on Miaki’s locator.

“She’s not answering!” Chika said. “I can’t get through, or get any answer.” She immediately tried to message Julie instead.

“And I – I can’t find Miaki!” Toshi cried. “I have a sense of Jin’s signal in the VR world, and Kenji’s – but not Miaki!”

He was beginning to log out as Chika began to exclaim, “Wait, don’t log out, let’s find Jin in the – “ He yanked off his goggles and was ripping off the gloves and boots as she logged out herself and continued: “ – the VR world! Toshi, it will just waste time if we try to find them in the real world – “

“I can feel him!” Toshi said. “Don’t you get it? I can’t find him in the VR world, but I can feel his locator out here! Do you – do you know what that means??” His voice rose until the note of panic was unmistakable. “They’re all out here – Miaki and Jin and Kenji – but there’s only Jin and Kenji inside! That means – “

“Toshi, it doesn’t have to mean – “

“It means he could be dead!” Toshi cried. The panic was in full bloom now. His hands and feet were free of the equipment now, and he leaped up and began to run, wildly, all his attention fixed on the locator that would guide him to his cousin – or his cousin’s body.

“Damn,” Chika said, vehemently. She messaged Julie to find them in physical space, and jumped up to follow Toshi.

* * * * *

Toshi skidded into the VR room and flew to Miaki's side, with Chika close behind him. His hands shook as he lifted Miaki’s head and touched his neck, feeling for a pulse. He could have wept in relief when he found it, even if it was racing for some reason.

“Toshi, it’s not what you think,” Chika said. “Look.” She held up the chain that Miaki had tossed aside, his father’s medal and his locator pendant dangling from it. “I don’t know why he would have taken it off, but – “

“He didn’t want to be found.” A new pang of fear stabbed the pit of Toshi’s stomach. “Oh Chika – what is he doing in there??”

He whirled around to another terminal, and as he grabbed the goggles he looked back at his cousin, sitting utterly still at his own terminal, with Jin and Kenji to either side. He was so afraid, and he didn't even know why! But he knew that something terrible had happened to Miaki, and that he had been expecting it without even realizing it.

No, not "happened to." Miaki had deliberately taken off his locator pendant and left it behind. Miaki was – he was doing something terrible. Somehow, he had snapped, as Toshi had hoped and prayed he would not. And Toshi was more afraid than he had ever been in his life.

Just as Julie burst into the room, Toshi resolutely rammed the goggles on and jumped into the VR world, his stomach tightening around its knot of fear. He wasn't going to let – whatever it was – happen, without a good fight.

He didn't bother trying to trace his way through the normal paths of the simulation, which was a very simple sim of hallways and empty rooms. He focussed his locator and immediately found two signals in the distance: one green, for Kenji, and the other blue, for Jin. With a dark gap between them, where there should have been a red signal. Oh Miaki, Miaki, what are you doing??

Toshi tensed himself, and simply leaped the distance. Before he managed to orient himself, he sensed Julie and Chika popping in behind him, and again felt that impulse to weep in relief. It was awful, feeling so alone and helpless.

He saw that they were all in a very large, empty room. Jin's avatar stood in front of him, standing with her hands up, as though pressed against a glass wall. There really was an almost invisible wall there, of energy, holding her back despite all her efforts to pierce it. And on the other side…

On the other side was Miaki. One hand out, having set up the energy wall against Jin. And the other hand – oh no, oh no, Toshi wanted to scream. With the other hand, his cousin controlled an enclosure, like a small circular cage surrounded by glass, composed of the same adamant energy that held Jin back. And inside this enclosure, on his hands and knees, was Kenji, staring up at Miaki in bewilderment and fear.

"Now he'll see," Miaki was saying. "He'll find out now, you just watch!" He hadn't even modified his avatar, yet his eyes almost shone with a wild intensity, and there was a strange, tight glee in his voice that would have made the hair on the back of Toshi's neck stand up in the real world.

"I don't understand," Kenji said. "What do you mean? Miaki, I don't get it! Why are you doing this to me? Why are you so angry with me?"

"With you?" Miaki's voice dripped contempt. "You're nothing. I couldn't care less about you."

"Then – then why are you doing this? Miaki, why?" Kenji got himself to his feet and put his hands up, touching the energy field. Instantly he cried out in pain and recoiled in reflex, leaping back and encountering the field on the other side, making him cry out again. "What have I done?" he moaned, hugging his arms tightly across his chest, not daring to move again. "If I'm nothing, then why are you doing this? Let me go – please, let me go!"

"Not until he comes instead!" Miaki growled.

"Who? Who do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about!"

Miaki's smile was the most frightening thing Toshi had ever seen. He should do something to stop him, but he couldn't. The scene in front of him was so tense, so terrifying, that he couldn't bring himself to move. He sensed Chika behind him, quickly probing the energy barrier, trying to find a way through, but even she was doing it surreptitiously, afraid of what Miaki might do if he realized what she was up to.

"Who do I mean?" Miaki said softly. "Your father. I'm not letting you go until he gives himself up."

Kenji gaped at him. "My – my father?" he stammered. "Do you know him? What's he got to do with – You don't even know him. What do you mean?" The red hair on his avatar stood out starkly above his white face. Even in simple simulations, Toshi thought, the avatars at this school were amazingly detailed and accurate.

"I'm going to send him a message." Miaki smiled again. "'If you want to see your son alive again, you will turn yourself in to police immediately.'"

Chapter 7 - part three
- posted by Phyl @ 3:58 PM