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Hazzy and Bryll left to find sustenance and came back with trays of leftover party food and a hot jug of freshly brewed jova. The small gathering of sleepy friends ate and drank quietly then Gelda settled into her chair and clicked the flashing Play diamond. A pensive orchestration played softly in the background and all eyes went to the black rock on the lounge table when a spectrum of colours lit up the grey squares on the white piece of its powerstation, chasing each other around it. The rock kept its shape but turned transparent. Leaning in to get a good look, the small group of friends murmured in approval.
Soothing and wistful music replaced the pensive orchestration. The beat picked up, and the track became dramatic and upbeat. With the aid of Help explaining, the overlay appeared with three lines of type: Construction, Adaptation, Unity. The latter two lines turned grey then disappeared. They were replaced by three lines in smaller type: Design Universe, Planet Cultivation, Intelligent Life. Again, the latter two lines disappeared. Design Universe grew to dominate the overlay with Yes, Stop beneath. Gelda was about to press Yes when under it in bold and flashing red letters appeared an alert: DO NOT SELECT STOP. IF ACCIDENTALLY STOPPED, DO NOT DISCONNECT. Under that was further information: Selecting Stop will permanently halt all progress in the biosphere and cause irreparable damage to its lifeforms. This process cannot be stopped or reversed once it has started.
‘I guess I shouldn’t press Stop then?’ Gelda joked solemnly.
With a vigorous shake of her head, Shellany said, ‘The Stop option was a command error.’ She looked up quickly then added, ‘At least that’s what I heard. Whenever you see a Stop option, do not press it. Stopping a game is the worst thing you could do to an emerging biosphere.’
‘What happens when it’s stopped?’ Hazzy asked the question on all lips.
‘The game ends prematurely and the biosphere can be severed.’
‘Severed?! Ugh, sounds awful. Don’t do that!’ Hazzy cried out. ‘What does severing do?’
‘No one in their right mind would ever do it,’ Shellany replied. ‘Severing is when some fool stops a game then disconnects the preservation chamber from the powerstation. Without a power source, the biosphere can’t evolve so it just exists forevermore in whatever state it’s at in that moment, and everything inside it dies.’
‘What’s die?’ asked Hazzy.
‘Cosmo Dome inhabitants generally don’t live endless lives like we do. They expire after getting badly hurt or after one lifetime.’
‘Only one life?’ Hazzy pondered.
‘They don’t rebirth?’ Gelda wondered, mindful of her own recent dilemma.
‘They have really basic healing abilities so can’t recover after grave harm,’ Shellany explained. ‘It’s called being mortal.’
‘Where do they go when they die?’
‘They turn to dust,’ Shellany replied.
There were several murmurs of dismay as those present were unable to fathom the concept of mortality.
‘I’m having the same issue with my microworlds,’ said Barlo. ‘They rarely survive past a century.’
Bryll shook his head. ‘Gone like pickings left too long in a bowl. Imagine!’
‘Sounds awful!’ said Odgio.
‘Imagine only having one life!’ said Hazzy.
‘Barely around for a glimpse of time!’ Gelda remarked. ‘You would want to make it the best it can be.’
When the murmurs of shock and dismay faded, Gelda very carefully selected Yes.
Help spoke instructions supported by additional information on a static overlay just below Gelda’s eye level. The first level of Construction was Design Universe. Gelda was to play a subquest called Matter Splatter. It was played in remote mode which Help described as a semi-immersive experience. When Attach Blaster appeared on the overlay, Gelda inserted the remaining power connector into the powerstation to remotely connect it. Blaster Enabled appeared on the overlay with Initial Splatter: Point and Shoot underneath. A crosshair appeared out front of the blaster with two gauges below. Each had hollow squares arranged in a semi-circle and an arrow pointing bottom left. One gauge indicated time, the other space.
‘Press the trigger, Ma Varda,’ encouraged Bryll when Gelda did nothing.
Shellany confirmed with a nod. ‘Press it all the way down and point it in the middle of the display. You can’t go wrong. Just have fun!’
The blue energy current from the chamber to the blaster’s base moved with Gelda as she swung it left and right, getting a feel for it. Steadily, she pressed the trigger until out whooshed a blast of piercing white particles. It was so unexpected that she flinched then laughed, as did the others, but kept the blaster steady and her finger locked in place on the engaged trigger. With rhythmic music keeping the pace, the particles blasted out. They seemed to go on forever before spreading outwards in every direction at varying speeds, casting imagery objects into the air around the small gathering who oohed and aahed until there was no other response left but awed silence.
The particles multiplied and clustered, changing colour, size, shape, and consistency, while the time and space gauges turned from empty to full. Though she made little sense of the moving colours and textures, something told Gelda she was looking at a complex and fascinating living entity. The music turned dreamy as multi-coloured spiralling clouds and twinkling lights emerged against a dark background. Gases and matter swirled and flickered spreading deep into the dark space.
Just as Gelda’s finger started to ache and her attention drifted from shooting to discovering what had happened, the particles eased then stopped. The music settled into an ambient hum with mellow beats. She stopped shooting and put the blaster down. The space gauge showed full capacity in solid blue squares while the time gauge still had a few empty slots.
‘What did I just do?’ Gelda marvelled at the vivid display.
‘You populated your Universe.’ Shellany’s grin was wide and steady.
The empty squares of the time gauge hadn’t yet filled when another query appeared. Organise Universe? Yes, No.
‘This is the fun bit,’ said Shellany. ‘You get to arrange everything.’
‘It’s art!’ Hazzy murmured.
‘Interactive art,’ Bryll added.
Pressing Yes showed an animated hand that clicked and dragged, pinched and zoomed.
‘I get to move things around?’ she said just as Help confirmed it. ‘What fun!’ She stood and clicked on a colourful swirl. Galaxy 156FR-03 appeared on a popup message. To uplifting music, she moved it away from a thick cluster of objects then zoomed in to find more objects with codenames. Clicking and dragging, pinching and zooming, she arranged planets and stars, dust and dark matter, moons, comets, and gas, tapping her foot to the beat.
‘Put something there!’ Hazzy pointed at a blank spot.
‘That one looks like a car. Oh, and there’s a house!’
Bryll laughed. ‘That cluster looks like Finkle!’ The arrangement of stars certainly did resemble Gelda’s housemate.
With plenty of input from friends, Gelda shuffled and rearranged cosmic objects until her Universe was visually pleasing with a good balance of colours, shapes, and space except for one galaxy. It was in a small group of galaxies towards the edge of a modest supercluster. When she hovered a finger over it, the codename 342MW-11 appeared. Sometime about it bothered her. It just looked out of place, wrong somehow. Even the music seemed to grow a little melancholic as she considered the galaxy. Her concerns grew when it refused to move when she clicked on it. Gelda couldn’t put anything near it either, so it remained separated. ‘Why is there always something in resistance?’ she grumbled.
‘Nothing’s ever perfect,’ said Odgio. ‘But just look at what you made!’
He was right. Instead of worrying about it, she focussed on the rest of her newborn Universe biosphere.
‘It’s so beautiful!’ exclaimed Hazzy.
‘It’s way more epic than my Thalverse!’ exclaimed Bryll.
‘Is that the cosmo?’ Fansy woke and held her almost-empty elixir decanter up to gesture towards it.
‘It’s a Universe,’ Bryll explained.
Gelda sat back in her seat to admire the full effect. Seeing it displayed so magnificently mystified her. She wondered if the display was an honest representation of the Universe biosphere inside the chamber. ‘Is it a simulated environment?’ she asked Shellany.
‘It’s a true transmission,’ Shellany replied. ‘It’s also where the main gameplay occurs. What happens here happens for real inside the Universe.’
‘Congratulations, Gelda,’ said Help as the time gauge showed full capacity in solid yellow squares. ‘You have achieved Designer status.’ A badge with the word, Designer, appeared then the query, Explore the Universe biosphere? Yes, No.
‘I did it!’ Gelda high-fived the others.
Help told her to pick up the steering wheel, then Gelda got to explore her newly designed Universe. With uplifting music enhancing a sense of wonder, mouths fell open and tongues quieted as Gelda navigated her way through the vast darkness of space to an assortment of planets, asteroids, natural satellites, meteoroids, and comets that came gradually into focus. Some grew so large they filled the room or bigger, while others turned from specks to small enough to cup a hand around. The ever-moving display went on and on, deeper into space as though it never ended.
Bryll suggested going to a billowy thing with gases lifting from it that turned out to be a star. Hazzy wanted to see a planet with an ice surface and a molten rocky core. Odgio wanted to see a smoky planet with a thick swirling ring around it. Close up, the dark space beyond it disappeared and was dominated by countless small orbiting particles of dust and ice.
‘Unfathomable! How can all those worlds fit inside something the size of a hand ball?’ Hazzy marvelled.
‘We all think the infinite void beyond Oridian is just there to contain more of our worlds, but what if it comes to an end and there’s something else beyond it?’ said Odgio.
‘Maybe we’re someone else’s biosphere,’ added Bryll.
Hazzy shook her head in wonder. ‘Worlds within worlds within worlds.’
Gelda checked the time on the wall clock. ‘That took an hour!’ With a yawn and a stretch, she stood. ‘That’s definitely it for me. I’m off to bed.’
‘No!’ Shellany cried out.
Gelda wondered why she sounded so desperate, but before she could question the odd response, Barlo appeared at the door. ‘Sorry, Grandma! I got caught up in conversations.’ His eyes instantly went to her new Universe biosphere that shrouded the room in cosmic wonder. ‘Is this your game? Wow!’ Oblivious to anything but the Universe, he wandered further into the lounge room in a random path while inspecting the various cosmic objects, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘It’s so sophisticated!’
Gelda gave a knowing smile. Raquin had obviously mentioned the game to him in a less than favourable light. ‘I’ve only just finished designing it. Next, I’m required to cultivate the planets – that’s what its worlds are called – then develop intelligent life.’
Barlo still shook his head in wonder. ‘That’s exactly what I do with my microworlds. I can’t believe something so old is this complex! He sat on the edge of her seat and smiled at Shellany. ‘Tawawa! I’m Barlo!’
‘Tawawa, Barlo!’ Shellany told him her name.
‘Will you keep playing?’ he asked his grandma.
‘I’m not sure, darling. It’s late.’ To quell his protests, Gelda showed him the demo mode.
It only made him gush even more. ‘Play some more so I can see it in action,’ he pleaded.
His interest prompted Gelda to ask, ‘I actually bought it for your rebirthday but didn’t think you’d like it. Do you want it?’
Barlo shook his head. ‘I love it but, no. You play. It’s the perfect hobby for you!’
‘She has to, now,’ said Shellany. ‘It’s founded on her DNA.’
‘See? It’s a sign!’
Overjoyed to have her grandson interested, Gelda considered playing on. It was good to feel needed again, especially when it involved sharing an interest with him. While the others pleaded with her to carry on, she listened with a bemused smile then admitted she had already decided to do so.
Shellany seemed overly relieved. ‘Seeding the planets will only take an hour or two,’ she said.
‘Seeding them? How curious!’
Shellany nodded. ‘You’ll see. It’s pretty cool.’
With lights low, house quiet, and a third cup of steaming jova in front of her, Gelda squeezed her tired eyes a few times and rolled her shoulders then returned her attention to the game. The instructions Help gave on the overlays were enough so she muted the audio, which made it easier to concentrate, and she enjoyed the music much more without the voice layer. After many decanters and a long night, her friends contentedly sipped jova and watched in silence.
The second construction level, Planet Cultivation, was a subquest called Seeding & Feeding. Determining Habitable Planets and an hourglass appeared on the overlay. A visual list of planets was arranged in galaxies and coloured grey. On a second overlay, hundreds of tiny spacecrafts appeared in rows with the title Seeding Drones.
Soft beats remained in the background as Demo flashed overtop of the display and the view zoomed in on a dull and lifeless planet. A spherical grid with dots on hundreds of intersecting points surrounded the planet, then one by one, the drones flew down and settled on the points. They flashed green then shot fuzzy balls. Only moments later blues, oranges, yellows, and greens spread across the planet. The drones flashed white then liquid from spouts poured down drenching the planet. The planet transformed some more, then thin pulsing rings appeared around it and the demo ended.
‘If I’m to do that for every planet in every galaxy in the entire biosphere it will take days not hours! There must be squillions!’ Though Gelda spoke softly, it was with an edge of panic. Sleep seemed a reasonable option.
‘It’s a cumulative process,’ was all Shellany said.
Gelda didn’t quite know what she meant but was too tired to question it and instead picked up the steering wheel. When she pressed Play, a planet shot to the foreground of the display. Like in the demo, a grid surrounded it. Gelda positioned the drones on its points then Phase One: Drop Microbes appeared. To an upbeat track, when the drones flashed green, she pressed the button on the wheel and the fuzzy microbe balls pelted from the circle of drones towards the planet within. A coin meter appeared in the top corner of the display accompanied by clinking sounds. She wondered what if was for but kept shooting.
The level was more fun than the demo had suggested, especially when she realised she could zoom in on a drone. The fuzzy balls its torpedo shot were yellow and green with specks of brown and red in them. They sped towards the planet quivering with life and exploded onto the surface. She couldn’t zoom in past the drone but could see that the bland surface soon speckled with colour as the microbe balls splattered far and wide, blending with other splatters, spreading across the planet.
‘That’s pretty cool,’ said Odgio.
Gelda looked up to find that, other than Shellany, he was the only one still awake. Even Barlo snoozed. She gave him a tired smile of appreciation. Odgio had always been supportive of her, which made her wonder why their marriage had failed until she reminded herself that no marriage lasted forever. Friendships, on the other hand, did. Gratitude warmed her heart and encouraged her onwards.
Phase Two: Drop Environmental Conditioner appeared next on the overlay. When she pressed Shoot! clear liquid spurted from a spout on each drone.
‘Water?’ she enquired.
When Shellany didn’t answer Gelda turned to find her on her aide again. She had been checking it more than watching Gelda’s progress.
Shellany looked up. ‘What? Oh, yes. It’s water but with life-conditioning chemicals in it.’ She went back to her aide.
Her attention back in the quest, Gelda watched the conditioned water quickly and efficiently saturate the planet. Satisfied with the outcome, she read instructions for Phase Three: Apply Time Stabiliser to discover that it didn’t require any gameplay, only enabling. Thin pulsing rings appeared and continued to pulse as the next planet required her attention.
‘Tawawa!’ came a whisper from the dark space behind the lounge setting.
Gelda turned to find Raquin smiling at her. ‘Tawawa, love.’
Raquin’s eyes wandered around the Universe. ‘What is this?’ she exclaimed softly.
Her voice roused Barlo from sleep. ‘I thought you’d left without me,’ said Barlo.
Raquin laughed. ‘I fell asleep on a deck chair. Are you ready to go?’
Barlo shook his head the pointed it towards the sofa. ‘Sit down, Ma. You’ve got to see this.’
Raquin groaned. ‘I need sleep and evidently so do you. We leave in less than a day and there’s so much to do!’
‘What’s left? You’ve already packed.’
‘Mostly, but you haven’t.’
‘It’ll take me a few hours at the most. Sit!’
Raquin surrendered. She squished onto the end of the sofa, returned Gelda’s tired smile, then her and Shellany made acquaintances. When she asked what was going on, Barlo caught her up. ‘Sounds intriguing. Don’t let me stop you, Ma.’
As if on cue, the full coin meter burst. Gelda was about to ask Shellany what it represented when twice as many drones appeared on the overlay as the first time and two planets shot to the foreground of the display. ‘Oh, I get it,’ she addressed Shellany without taking her attention from the quest. ‘I seed one planet, then two, and so on.’
Shellany didn’t even look up from her aide but simply nodded. ‘Until your entire Universe is cultivated.’
Gelda paused the game. ‘Is there a problem?’
‘What?’
‘You’ve been on your aide for the past hour or so. Is there something else that needs your attention more than this? You can leave, if you need to.’
‘No, no, it’s okay. It’s all fine.’
It doesn’t seem fine, thought Gelda, but it was none of her business, or so she assumed, and hoped so. She ran through the phases on the two planets, then four appeared, and so on. The planets kept multiplying until all habitable planets in the first galaxy were cultivated. ‘Aha! This speeds things up!’ she said. When next a close up of a galaxy appeared on the display with its habitable planets flashing green, Gelda didn’t miss a beat. She just carried on cultivating planet after planet, galaxy after galaxy.
‘You’re good at this,’ Raquin observed.
‘There’s nothing to it. It’s just running through a process, then repeating it.’
Barlo shook his head. ‘Being thorough is underrated.’
‘As is perseverance,’ said Gelda. Without it she would be much worse off in her own life under the current circumstances. To feel lively again was a grand ambition.
Time crept past midnight. With sleeping friends and enthusiastic family around her, Gelda found renewed energy in wanting to see her Universe made. Galaxy after galaxy thrived under her touch. While repetitive, she found it soothing watching her Universe come to life. With almost the entire Universe cultivated, the final galaxy emerged from the depths of dark space. Planet after planet consented to cultivation until the last.
The drones surrounded it easily enough. The microbes dropped without a hitch, as did the pouring of the Environmental Conditioner and the Time Stabiliser. The whimsical music that had played throughout the level subdued.
With Gelda grumbled and mumbled, Shellany looked up from her aide. ‘What’s the problem?’
‘This last galaxy is taking ages to cultivate.’
‘It’s the drones,’ said Barlo. ‘Look. The power bar is at zero.’
Shellany shook her head. ‘It’s not the drones. Something is causing a lag.’
Just as she said it, the drones stopped firing and cultivation stalled at 93%.
‘How far did it fall?’ asked Shellany
‘When the cat knocked it over? Just the kitchen bench but it rolled away and hit the wall.’
‘It’s odd that the mailcage didn’t protect it.’
‘Not really. It was old and fell apart.’
‘That would do it.’
Gelda checked what galaxy it was and groaned. ‘I suspected as much. It’s Galaxy 342MW-11, the same one that refused to move or let me put anything near it in Level One.’ She sank back in her armchair and sighed.
Shellany nodded thoughtfully. ‘Hm. And the planet?’
Gelda clicked on the planet for its details.
‘Codename PEACH,’ everyone who was awake said at once.
Suggestions were presented, analysed, and dismissed. Gelda suppressed a desire to call it a night and not be tempted otherwise, but she couldn’t sleep until the issue was resolved.
‘What about a minigame?’ said Bryll, suddenly awake and contributing.
‘Yes. That could work.’ Shellany got Gelda to go to the Bonuses & Extras menu. ‘Scroll down. You want something simple to earn maximum coins with little effort. Yes, there! Tile matching.’
‘She’s great at those,’ said a half-awake Hazzy.
Gelda clicked on the minigame and very efficiently matched tiles of the same colour to clear them from the board. It took playing it three times to earn enough coins for another set of drones. To suspenseful music, everyone sat up in anticipation as she ran through the three planet cultivation phases. It was a tense wait for the Time Stabiliser. The thin rings seemed to pulse forever but then finally Planet Cultivation Complete appeared. The suspenseful music ascended into uplifting. One by one, habitable planets were swathed in a swirling blast of light, texture, and colour.
‘All your habitable planets are cultivated!’
‘Congratulations, Gelda,’ said Help as confetti and coins burst from a big bright orange container labelled Bounty Box.
It was indeed a relief to finish the level and earn her Cultivator badge.
‘Novice Constructor!’ Hazzy exclaimed so loudly she almost woke Fansy.
Exploring the cultivated planets revived everyone’s attention. The first planet Gelda chose to explore had a gaseous atmosphere. The planet was abuzz with electromagnetic activity. On the surface, mists rose through mammoth jagged rock mountains while water from up high dug narrow crevices to the base.
‘The Universe model is so much more complex than Thalverse,’ Bryll remarked.
‘All that life with so much potential,’ Hazzy mused.
‘And inside something so small,’ said Odgio.
Gelda took off to the far reaches of her Universe.
‘Where are you going now with such determination?’ Barlo wanted to know.
‘That annoying planet that took all my time.’ While there were many intriguing planets to choose from, Gelda was most interested in seeing PEACH in Galaxy 342MW-11.
‘Isn’t it odd how it’s always the problems that take our attention,’ Hazzy mused.
‘Tell me about it,’ replied Gelda. Through the galaxy she cruised, to the solar system with the glitching planet.
As she drew nearer, Bryll said, ‘It’s just a lump of rock.’
‘That massive orange ball beyond it is more interesting,’ Raquin remarked.
Shellany looked up from her aide. ‘That’s a star.’
As Gelda passed through its atmosphere, the stats displayed relatively high levels of oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide, and other gases to support life. Below lay patches of blue, green, and tan. Cruising above the surface showed a verdant oasis teeming with colourful foliage and a vast array of creatures.
‘Wow, that’s an impressive world!’
Gelda had expected it to be less impressive but was blown away by its beauty.
‘All that extra cultivating certainly paid off,’ Barlo remarked.
For now, thought Gelda. Something told her it wasn’t the last time PEACH would be a cause for concern.