An excerpt from my story Corrupting Paradise , in which the Paradise team has to enter the mind of a mentally unsound client in order to keep his virtual world from collapsing.
The first things Tri noticed were the books. This was for the sole reason that there were a lot of them. The endless rows of bookshelves filled the entirety of the massive cathedral-style stone building they inhabited. Triyankast had to squint to see past a few hundred yards because the lighting was so dim. He’d never understood the people who wanted this type of world.
Tri was always the first one to materialize. They’d never been able to figure out why it worked that way, though Elim had made a few comments along the lines that since Tri’s mind was never really wholly on one thing anyway, jumping consciousnesses was a piece of cake. Maybe he was right. In any case, the young man had a moment to look around before the others appeared.
It was raining outside. Not just light, sprinkling rain. This was a downpour of heavy, cold drops that exploded against the windowpanes that made up the top half of the gray stone walls and stretched from floor to ceiling in the curves of massive bay windows farther back. If not for the giant fires that burned eternally in the massive stone hearths every five or six yards along the walls, this place would have been damp and gloomy.
Tri would take a hot beach with plenty of pretty, shallow people on it any day.
With a quiet pop, Becken appeared on his left. A moment later, Jenny materialized on his right with a soft shh that sounded like wind blowing through leaves.
Ano’s voice came from behind him. “Shall we?”
Ano always appeared last; they’d never been able to figure that out either. Tri was relatively sure she could beat even him to get here first if she tried, but she always materialized after everyone else. She was the only one of them that never made a sound as she blinked into someone’s head. Ano moved silently from mind to mind, treading on the quiet feet of someone who had learned to move without leaving any trace of her existence. Tri had seen enough of that on the streets where she had found him to recognize that his boss had learned early on how to make herself disappear.
Becken cast a jaded eye around the shelves. “Not where I’d want to spend forever.”
Jenny shuddered in agreement, her fair skin glowing golden in the firelight. “Does it ever get sunny?”
Ano shook her head. “Never. He was very explicit in his directions that rain be the only sound he hear besides the flipping of dusty tomes.”
“What kind of literature did you stock him with?” Tri did a full turn, taking in the seemingly endless shelves. “At least half the history section.”
“All of it, actually,” she replied easily. “Everything we had in the library.” That earned her a few incredulous looks. She shrugged, nonplussed by their attention. “He paid a lot of money.” She tapped her earpiece into place and the others mimicked her.
Elim’s voice crackled over the channel, barely audible. Tri traded a worried look with Becken at the distortion. The building structure had to be severely strained to interfere with the team’s signal.
“Structure–ting—wor–” the Operator garbled.
It took a moment for Ano to figure out what he meant. “The building structure is collapsing.”
“What–aid!” Elim said indignantly.
“You’re breaking up, Op,” Tri informed him. “We can barely hear you.”
“—ed to—repr—str-re–”
Not even Ano caught that one. Her forehead creased in concentration. “Say again, Elim?”
Only static greeted her request.
The four looked at each other uneasily. There had never been a program so badly damaged that it completely disrupted their line of communication with the outside world. Tri caught Jenny’s hand in his and gave it an encouraging squeeze. There was nothing for it now but to get the place fixed so they could leave.
Ano seemed to come to the same conclusion. “Spread out, teams of two. Jenny, Tri, I want you to find Mr. Zebbanaca. If this really is a programming issue, we may have to remove him and I’d like you there to explain it. Becken and I will do some maintenance. Check-ins every half hour, please. We’ll keep trying to reach Elim.” She paused a moment to make sure everyone was clear. “Right. Move out.”
They did.
