Games People Play

Today was a good day. The sun shone generously, painting the world in calm green tones, and even the ice today was somehow different, warmer than always.

There was a lot of good today in general. For example, they didn’t force us to go to the distant mines; they say they found something strange there. And also, I wasn’t punished even once today — lucky.

Yes! And today we were given a double ration! Probably they are punishing an entire neighboring block…

“Wake up! You have to work!” came a shout somewhere right by my ear.

It was Afanasy who had managed to climb onto the two-meter ledge nearby and was now trying to bring me back to reality.

I reached for an inconspicuous scratch on the pickaxe handle and etched a cross on it.

“The program has performed an illegal operation and will be closed,” announced the dreary announcer voice.

It’s always like this with these stupid processors… I felt around in the darkness for my pickaxe and swung it down into the pit in the floor.

There, now everything is fine. A minute later I was peeling the VR suction cups from my temples and rebooting the system.

Afanasy stood nearby and watched me melancholically.

“The ‘Stone’ clearly needs replacing,” he declared.

I tried to joke:

“And the whole mine too.”

“Not funny. And EMP is still not Stu, it really needs replacing.”

“Alright, you convinced me, replace it!”

“Okay, okay, calm down,” he sat in the chair with a displeased expression.

We had long sat like this every day after each outing. Afanasy would always sit silently at first, and then start talking to me. What he said, I don’t remember for some reason, but it seems it was the same every time. Probably it wasn’t very important.

Afanasy got up and went to the cabinet. Opening the doors, he began to search for something.

“Hey, decided to join culture?”

“What do you mean?” he looked at me puzzled.

“Why else would you be rummaging in the bookcase?”

“In the bookcase?” he seemed surprised for some reason.

“And what do you think is in front of you?!”

Is he messing with me?

“Ah, right…” he hesitated. “Just a minute.”

He disappeared behind the door, heading toward the kitchen.

Afanasy got up and went to the cabinet. Opening the doors, he began to search for something.

“Hey, decided to join culture?”

“Yes, Dostoevsky was somewhere here…”

Oh, he’s gone classic.

“Are you sick or something?” I smiled.

“No, I’m fine. Look,” he turned to me with a book in his hands, “now I’ll show you a trick.”

He turned the book cover toward me:

“Read.”

“‘The Idiot.’ So what?”

“Now,” he closed his eyes and tilted his head back. For a moment it seemed to me he had turned to stone. Then he opened his eyes and shook himself.

“Read now.”

I lowered my gaze to the cover. Then I snatched the book from his hands: the title in the middle of the page read “Star Wars.” At the top was the author’s name: “George Lucas.”

“Wow! Where did you get this?”

Imagine it, what a rare find he dug up in my cabinet! And I had already thought I had lost that book forever, and I got it with such difficulty in the Center!

Afanasy silently walked to the chair and sat in it. Shaking his head, he muttered under his breath something like “Everything is useless!”

“What’s wrong?” I looked at him intently. “Afanasy!”

“Listen, don’t you remember anything?”

His voice seemed full of fatigue.

“I remember everything perfectly.”

What’s with him? Some strange mood.

“And ‘The Idiot’?”

“That guy from the Center? I remember.”

“No. ‘The Idiot,’ the novel, author — Dostoevsky,” there was a strange doom in his eyes.

“What Dostoevsky? Listen, are you okay?”

“Yes, everything’s fine, it just seemed so.”

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes; Afanasy opened “Star Wars,” and I started rummaging in the system, catching “Real Life” cats. Then Afanasy got up:

“Well, I have to go. I’ll drop by tomorrow, as usual.”

“Sure, drop by. Bye.”

I walked him to the door and then returned.

All right, tomorrow he will be fine. And now it’s time for me to go there, to the mines. Afanasy knows nothing about them, and they are just an airlock to her little world… Oh, Lord! Help me.

I sat down before the sensors and stuck the suction cups on.

“Mine,” I commanded the system.

A small rainbow flashed for a moment before my eyes, and then the mode set and a barely noticeable inscription “Simulation” lit up. Eh, it loads slowly; I’ll have to add memory. A cave appeared before me, and my native pickaxe, replacing console input, was immediately in my hands. I went exactly to the center of the cave and sent the search command. Everything remained as before. I had to tilt my head high to make out the faint shimmering of the wall opposite. Uncomfortable, but reliable — it’s not so easy to distinguish three hundred hertz from two hundred and fifty.

Carefully disassembling the shimmering piece of wall, I went into a small niche behind it. After assembling the wall back and for reliability touching it up with smoothing, I clicked the switch embedded in the rock. The gamma increased by fifty percent, so now I could see the suction cups hanging on thin wire-threads near the floor. I lay down on the cold floor, putting the pickaxe handle under my head, and attached the suction cups to my temples. Again a calibration rainbow flashed, this time — emulation, but indistinguishable from the first. And then instead of the cave, the walls of a small apartment appeared around me.

I left the room and went into the kitchen. So, the kettle is still not cold, perhaps I hurried today. These little rooms are often used here as waypoints for surfers. Fine, now is not the time for tea. I threw on a light jacket and opened the door to the stairwell. I hope I make the bus…

She is beautiful. I could spend hours just admiring her. It is so good with her, and her world is almost no different from the real one… But — almost. I can return at any moment, I cannot forget that everything around us is a stream of bits, and only our consciousness is real here — she and I. Even our bodies are a stream of impulses… No, I must pull her out, sooner or later — must!

“How was your day?”

“Good. True, there were problems at work, the customers cut the deadlines, now we’ll have to do the program without ‘bells and whistles,’ but that’s a trifle.”

“What, do they change every order there?!” she protested, sweetly drawing her brows together… Yes, it’s still a good emulation, high-quality…

I clenched my fists. I can’t do this! But there is no other way; until she herself remembers, wants to leave, I can’t pull her out!

She held out her hand:

“Darling, pass me the saucer.”

I went to the cabinet and opened the doors. Right, the saucers are, of course, in the farthest corner.

“What, want to try to master Kant?”

“No, why would you think that?”

“Then why are you rummaging in the bookcase?” She raised her eyebrows.

“In the bookcase?”

What is she talking about?

“Well where else?”

Ah, another desynchronization of streams. We’ll have to do it again:

“I’ll be right back.”

I went out the door and took out the pager. The invitation line lit up on the display. Scrolling messages, I found the right one: “System: exit on underlevel.” Pressing the accept button, I again found myself in the niche behind the cave wall. Without removing the suction cups, I pressed my index finger to the metal of the pickaxe and whispered: “entry; time — sixteen twenty-one; place — bookmark one, entryway; execute.”

Again a rainbow, and I was standing in her entryway.

“Hi, darling.”

Hug, kiss, and in response:

“Hi.”

After some time we were in the kitchen.

“How was your day?”

“Good. True, there were problems at work, the customers cut the deadlines, now we’ll have to do the program without ‘bells and whistles,’ but that’s a trifle.”

“They’ve really gotten bold, changing every order!”

Imagine it, the same words cause the same reaction… All right, I’ll try to steer her toward something. I barely want to say something when she interrupts me:

“Darling, pass me the saucer.”

Now I see that the kitchen cabinet is at the opposite end of the kitchen, and where I was searching before are book shelves. I give her the saucer, and then something seems to push me, and I say:

“Do you want me to show you a trick?”

She turns:

“Go ahead.”

I go to the books and start rummaging on the shelves. Yes, I need to take this one — F.M. Dostoevsky, “The Idiot.” I don’t know why this one. Ah, it seems Afanasy mentioned it today.

I take out the book and hand it to her with the cover up:

“Read.”

“‘The Idiot.’”

“And now look,” I close my eyes and tilt my head back.

A control second passes, and then the menu appears in the darkness. With my gaze I find the “Object Parameters” item, find in the list the book I hold in my hands, and call up its properties. In the “Title and content” section, I change Dostoevsky and “The Idiot” to Lucas and “Star Wars.” “Ok.” There, done. I open my eyes.

“Read.”

“‘Star Wars.’ Well, what’s the trick? Of course you like this book, but,” she frowns, “what’s special here?”

So, my new “breaker” still can’t prevent memory change, her memory of the events happening to her in this virtual world. It’s fine, I’m already close to the correct handling of the parameter buffer, I’ll fix it soon. I hope…

I come up to her and hug her. I close my eyes and try to forget that this is virtuality. For her this world once became reality, and now she is not covered in sensors by her system, but stands, hugging me, in her own kitchen.

Oh, Lord, help me…

Summer 2001