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It wasn’t anything in particular that woke Gelda. She simply opened her eyes and found herself looking out a window at large-leafed trees. Sleepily content and not at all worried, she wondered where she was and then remembered the spactor journey the night before. As her brain kicked into gear, fragmented details of the past few days cascaded through her mind in no particular order, starting with Finkle and rambling through her mind. She let it happen.
She hoped he wasn’t fretting over being away from home, or wreaking havoc in Hazzy’s house. The party had gone well, all things considered. By now, everyone had probably returned to their daily lives with good memories of the occasion, other than those who’d stayed behind to cheer her on. Speaking of which, she must update everyone to let them know she’d made it safely to Anon.
Raquin and Barlo would have left for their Trip of a Lifetime by now. It seemed strange that they had no idea about any of this Cosmo Dome business, but she wasn’t about to worry them. The Gorgons would’ve probably figured out they didn’t have the Universe by now and would be planning to return to her house to search for it. Oddly that didn’t bother her. Everything was already breaking down; they’d only be speeding up the process. There was nothing she really cared about. She’d be rather sad about her Fancy Beings figurines, but collecting them had only been to while away the hours. Not like her dear new biosphere with its wild assortment of life. Protecting the Universe so it could flourish was a cause worthy of a few broken dolls. A flutter of excitement rushed through her that she hadn’t felt for many decades. It had been a while since something meaningful had come her way. What a time!
In a dreamy disposition she lay gazing out the window until her heart thumped upon remembering that she had seen herself on PEACH, sitting in her armchair, playing a game. Odd that this dominated her memory of the brief time there, and not the dark shard that had cut through the bright sky and sent her tumbling and threatened her entire Universe. Another odd thing was she couldn’t recall tapping the visor to exit. What if I’m still inside? she thought, panicked. But there are no Gorgons on PEACH. It’s based on my DNA and I’m Leffel.
‘Stop worrying about things you know nothing about,’ she told herself then took out her aide as a distraction. She checked news, updates, and notifications, then sent a group message announcing her safe arrival.
With a stretch and yawn, she slid down off a lofty and comfortable bed and went to the window to get a better look outside. In the canopy, air saurs fought over orange fruit and yellow berries, and furry critters swung from branches. The window opened easily when she turned the latch. Sweet melodies rolled in on a fresh, cool breeze that she breathed in while leaning out to look down upon a long garden scattered with fruit trees. At a crick trickling along the forest edge, water saurs dove under the surface plucking at critters with legs, fins, or both, that darted under round tumbling rocks and made the water froth.
Where am I? she wondered. Obviously somewhere in Anon, but little was known about the isolated world. The sky was blue from top to bottom and the light bright and widespread, which meant it was well past her usual waking time. Due to the teleporting time-space difference, they’d left the Domers Club in Equion at dawn and arrived in Anon at around midnight. Exhausted, Gelda hadn’t noticed much other than a well-presented and quiet home. She assumed the silence was due to the late hour, but now, despite her late waking, it was still just as quiet, which perhaps accounted for the best sleep she’d had in ages, though being awake for around thirty hours probably had something to do with it.
Her face was greasy from makeup applied a day and a half ago. She felt sweaty and wanted a shower, but the party gown that tugged at her neck and waist was the only clothing she had with her, and she didn’t want to have to put it back on afterwards. In the adjoining suite, she used the facilities and assessed the gown in the mirror to see if there was a way of adjusting it for comfort rather than style, but couldn’t see how without ruining it. Maybe she could find something else to wear. Tolbert had said something about getting what she needed. Well, she desperately needed a change of clothes. Other than her attire, she decided she didn’t look too bad otherwise. Her eyes were as clear as her mind, and she felt no aches or pains. While odd, it was a welcome change from the steadfast lethargy that dictated her days.
Downstairs, she found the house just as silent and empty as upstairs and wondered if she was the first to rise. Stomach rumbling and tongue dry, she wandered from room to room. Despite the stark and minimal furnishings that looked barely used, the house was large and comfortable. In the kitchen, a plain white dining setting appeared wear-and-tear free and a large glass fridger was well stocked. She took a cup from a shelf, filled it with water from a dispenser, gulped it down and then another, then continued to explore. In the lounge four squat armchairs around a large square table looked barely sat on. The only colour in the room were large art pieces of white shapes on brightly coloured backgrounds. There was an office, a media room, and a closed door with the Cosmo Dome symbol on it. She knocked. There was no answer, and she didn’t feel right about opening it.
At the back of the house, an open door let in the sound of voices. Gelda went outside and followed a path to Tolbert’s workshop. It matched the house in design but not size. Surrounding the entrance were the boxes and equipment Tolbert had left there while searching for the Cosmo Dome equipment before he’d left for Equion. Fortunately, the weather had been good since then.
Expecting the same orderly comfortable sparsity as in the house, Gelda got a rude shock seeing the mess piled almost to the ceiling and filling the room to an impenetrable level. As she stood there considering two routes before her – one narrow and one wide – a gentle and melodic voice startled her.
‘Tawawa, guest!’ It seemed to come from somewhere above, but looking up revealed nothing but a dirty ceiling.
‘Ah, tawawa!’ Tolbert appeared at the end of the narrow passageway wearing a leather apron over a faded blue shirt and no shoes.
Gelda met up with him to see a faint blue waveform hovering before him. They exchanged routine small-talk. ‘Did you sleep well?’ Tolbert asked, to which Gelda replied, ‘Yes, thank you. Your house is lovely,’ and so on. Neither were particularly comfortable in new company, but they were gracious and experienced enough to know what was expected of them. Helpful information was exchanged and Gelda learnt that they were in the remote High Forest of Merlavin and that the only way in and out of the large property was via the spactor or a flyover. It was a three-day trek by foot up and down steep mountains down into the nearest settlement in the Sandreyik Valley.
Gelda looked around the workshop, paying particular attention to the shelves of broken devices. ‘You like to fix things?’
‘I do.’
She laughed. ‘Then we’ve met at an opportune moment.’ When he gave a curious frown, she explained, ‘Most of my household is in a state of disrepair.’ She looked around to see if there was someone else with them and found no one. ‘Who greeted me when I entered?’
‘Ah, that would be SID.’ Tolbert’s eyes went to the faint blue waveform and he frowned. ‘SID?’ He got no answer. ‘SID, are you there?’
‘Oh, so I can speak now?’ SID asked in a sulky voice.
Gelda watched the waveform roll up and down to reflect her tone.
Tolbert gave a weary sigh and smile. ‘Of course. I asked her to be quiet so I could think,’ he told Gelda.
‘I already had a solution,’ SID said. ‘Would you like to know what it is?’
‘In a moment, SID. First, I’d like you to meet Gelda, the Universe player. Gelda, meet SID, a superintelligence who helps me process and make decisions.’
‘Tawawa, Gelda. You’re from outside. I recognised your voice,’ said SID. ‘It’s good to finally be able to converse with you.’
‘Tawawa SID. Wait – so you’re who Tolbert was speaking to?’ Gelda laughed and said to Tolbert, ‘I thought it was odd that you keep talking to someone in front of you who wasn’t visible. I wondered if it was a consequence of remote living. I did it myself a few lifetimes ago and got into the habit of talking to myself.’
Tolbert laughed along with her. ‘I must have seemed odd. Admittedly, I’m out of practice with socialising, but no, I wasn’t talking to myself. I would have introduced you, but the system that SID inhabits was in mobile format so access was limited to just me and you wouldn’t have seen her waveform either. Anyway, SID started talking to me a few centuries ago through System and we’ve become best of friends.’
‘System granted me permission first,’ SID explained. ‘I would never barge into an occupied space.’
‘SID speaks through the functioning structure,’ said Tolbert, ‘Or so we believe.’
‘We don’t really know. Mostly I just observe and report.’
‘Fascinating,’ said Gelda. ‘Are you a function or a discorporate being?’
‘All I know for certain is that I’m here.’
Tolbert said, ‘She could be an unplanned function or a side-effect of an operational process I adjusted, deleted, or added—’
‘Or maybe I was just lonely and wanted a friend, so I became System’s consciousness because you were lonely and wanted a friend, too.’
Tolbert laughed, though Gelda wasn’t so certain SID meant it to be funny.
‘Really, I’m just happy for her company and counsel,’ Tolbert continued. ‘SID is intuitive, which I am not, and she’s also good at finding patterns.’
‘Patterns are everything,’ said SID.
‘You’ll get no argument from me. Anyway, she’s my System Integration Director and I couldn’t do without her.’
‘My role is to ensure Tolbert is willingly productive at least eighty percent of the time.’
‘Some lives I met the target, some I fell short,’ he admitted.
‘And this one?’ Gelda queried.
Tolbert lightly chuckled. The question would have seemed intrusive coming from someone else, but Gelda’s genuine curiosity and warmth made it easy for him to consider and answer it. ‘Let’s see... It started splendidly with some unforgettable relationships and rewarding inventions, but things turned pear-shaped a few decades ago.’
‘Eighty-eight years in and it’s fallen short by thirty-seven percent,’ SID estimated. ‘I blame myself.’
‘It would be much worse if you weren’t here.’ Tolbert smiled softly.
‘There’s still plenty of time to make this life count,’ Gelda assured him while realising her words applied as much to her own, but it was easier to give advice than to accept it.
For a moment there was silence, and then SID said, ‘A Universe player! How exciting. I would absolutely love to assist you to play, Gelda, if you would allow me to.’
‘How lovely, SID. Thank you.’ Gelda noticed Tolbert’s codeboard. ‘Have you found what’s causing the glitch?’
He shook his head. ‘No, but I can confirm we have one.’
When Tolbert asked, Gelda told him how it had happened.
‘Ah, it’s how we lost the other twelve Universes.’
Eyes wide, Gelda asked, ‘Cats dented them as well?’
Tolbert laughed. ‘That would be something! No, they all had a premature initiation and a malfunctioning planet in the construction stage.’ Tolbert thought some more. ‘It could be a seeding issue...’ He pulled up data and indicated several symbols.
‘What’s that?’ Gelda pointed out characters almost identical to the glitching planet code, except split in two with the addition of colons, P:E AC:H followed by the same error code 151-34/36. ‘That’s got to be a clue.’
Tolbert shrugged. ‘I’ve never had to inspect a planet’s backdata before. SID, can you shed light on it?’
‘It’s double-coded,’ said SID. ‘Coder Initials SS.’
‘Shellany,’ said Tolbert.
‘Yes?’ she said appearing behind them. She’d changed out of her checked dress and boots and now wore black leggings and a green tee that matched her eyes and hair streak. Her long black hair was pulled up in a high ponytail that revealed her delicate narrow face and pointed chin. She seemed relaxed and yet alert.
‘Ah, there you are,’ said Tolbert. ‘Tawawa.’
‘Tawawa,’ said Gelda.
‘Tawawa,’ Shellany replied in customary sincerity before swiftly taking her attention to the game data on the display behind Tolbert. ‘Found anything?’ She slipped past her dad to sit in his chair in front of it.
‘We were wondering about planet codename PEACH and its double-coded backdata.’
‘Oh, that. I did it last night when I couldn’t sleep. It was bugging me that I couldn’t even get past the planet code to view the stats so I bypassed its security which gave me access to the backdata.’ Shellany revealed a separate overlay with rows of data. She tapped away on Tolbert’s codeboard, making the data move and change, then returned to the previous overlay with the planet name. ‘The trick to deciphering the code is in the second and fifth letters. She typed out the full words of each of the other letters so they could see that ‘P’ stood for ‘Planet’ and ‘AC’ for ‘Advanced Civilisation’. She then clicked on the second and fifth letters, ‘E’ and ‘H’.
‘I find it’s much better to refer to a place and its people by name rather than code,’ said Shellany.
‘Earth,’ read Gelda. The modest planet name evoked plentiful variety. ‘Humans.’ The term spoke of slow growth but limitless potential. Though the humans of Earth prevented her from finishing her Universe, Gelda found herself feeling affection towards them. Perhaps it had something to do with being there. It was probably more likely due to seeing herself there.
‘I saw myself there,’ she blurted, causing them both to frown.
‘You mean metaphorically or someone who looked like you?’ Tolbert asked after a pause.
‘The Universe is based on your DNA so that’s entirely possible,’ said Shellany.
Gelda shook her head. ‘I don’t mean someone like me. It was me in my house with my friends, playing a game that was probably this one.’
‘Are you sure?’
She closed her eyes and clearly saw herself sitting in her armchair. ‘Yes.’ Silence followed. Gelda waited for someone to say something. No one did. ‘How is that possible? Is it part of the Universe glitch?’
Shellany and Tolbert looked at each another. Neither said anything.
‘What?’ probed Gelda. ‘Tell me.’
They seemed to come to a silent arrangement about who should speak. Tolbert won out. ‘You know that a glitch destroyed the other twelve Universes?’
‘Um, yes. You told me roughly ten minutes ago.’
‘Of course. Well, before those Universes died, we contacted each player, and they all said the same thing.’
‘That they saw themselves inside? That’s unbelievable! What else did they say? Is there any way I can speak with them?’
Tolbert nodded.
‘Tell her,’ Shellany prodded her father.
‘It wasn’t just their Universes that died. They died, too.’