Tales From the Terran Republic

Republic Peace Officer Perkins flipped down a hinged armor panel on the side of her cruiser and plopped down on the convenient “stop using it as a goddamn seat,” and poured a cup of coffee from her ancient-style vacuum flask.

Hey if it works, why fix it, right?

A huge armored Threen leaned on the cruiser next to her, causing it to shift due to his mass for a moment until the gravitics compensated with an annoyed whine.

He pulled out a plug of magg and bit off a chunk.

“I loathe the bastids,” he grumbled, “but at least they brought real magg along,” the massive Threen said as he crossed all four of his massive and heavily armored arms and spat on the ground.

“You were easy to bribe, weren’t you,” Perkins chuckled.

“Well, I am a Threen,” Peace Officer Grago chuckled, “You know what we’re like.”

He sighed happily as he rolled the bolus around in his mouth, savoring it.

“Oh, that’s the stuff,” he said happily. “That synth shit just ain’t the same.”

“Real enough for me to ditch the suit and armor up,” Grago replied. “The Zxxroahoa make the Harkeen look like those children… you know… the ones with the cookies?”

“Girl Scouts,” Perkins snorted, “And be careful around those,” she snickered, “They can get nasty.”

“Well, they are Terran,” Grago chuckled, “all of you fucks are…”

They were interrupted by a wailing scream.

“Why is it always when I just pour a fresh one,” Perkins grumbled as she dumped her coffee and flipped up the armor panel.

“Let’s go,” she said as she started to jog towards the sound.

She looked back at the cruiser.

“Follow.”

“Following,” the cruiser replied as it started to glide behind them.

“Is that a Garthra?” Grago asked. “And it’s bleeding… No,” he added as he looked at the data scrolling across his HUD. “That isn’t its blood, but it is Garthran.”

He looked over at Perkins, who was increasing her pace.

“How many Garthrans do we have around here?”

“Two,” Perkins said grimly. “I hope I’m not… Fuck. Genetic match. Close relative. It’s her kid’s.”

“Uhrrbet?” Perkins asked as she approached the manic and screaming Garthra. “What… Shit.”

She leveled her stunner as Uhrrbet started to run at them, still screaming and now snarling.

“Halt!” Perkins shouted and then sighed as she pulled the trigger.

Zap

Uhrrbet fell.

“This is Officer Perkins,” she said wearily into her helmet. “We need emergency medical services at our location. One Garthran, assumed to be violent and more than a little dangerous, has been hit with a police stunner… No, I didn’t calibrate it. No time. She got the gorilla special, so hurry. Not sure what that will do to one of those little guys.”

She sighed again and closed her eyes.

“And I need a welfare check at her address of record concerning her son… oh… I was afraid of that.”

She turned to Grago.

“I wasn’t wrong,” she said sadly. “I hate not being wrong.”

She shrugged.

“Well, at least it’s out of our hands now. This is one for the medics and social services.”

She looked down at Uhrrbet’s unconscious and smoldering body.

“This is weird,” she said.

“Someone tweaks out and flays their kid?” Grago asked. “Tragic. Unfortunate, to be sure. But weird? This happens far too often.”

“Yeah, but Uhrrbet here is solid and loves her kid. I mean, she is probably on your guy’s radar, but she isn’t the one to be on something.”

“It’s always the ones you don’t suspect,” Grago replied, “And yes, she is on our radar. She got flagged just the other day.”

“I knew it,” Perkins replied as she prodded Uhrrbet cautiously. “She was entirely too successful and way too quickly. It's a pity. She was doing a lot of good for the community.”

“As do the Zxxroahoa back home,” Grago said, “In fact, they are pretty decent... as long as you don’t cross them, that is. That’s what has this cop going undercover as a cop. It doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t?”

“The Harkeen takeover,” Grago replied, “And Evoron himself coming here? That’s even stranger. He’s their duellist. That means he’s their killer number one. He’s also pure, distilled evil. If half of what they say is true... Let’s just say we don’t want half of what they say to be true and leave it at that.”

“Think he’s involved in this?”

“Unlikely,” Grago said, “Oh, he’s ‘involved’ with Uhrrbet, but from what we understand, they are a couple, not opponents.”

“Trouble in paradise?”

“Again, unlikely,” Grago said, “He is known to be quite gracious as far as his paramours go. If he was displeased, it would be an amicable break-up. And, if she is involved in his, pardon the pun, ‘affairs,’ she wouldn’t be wandering the streets after trying to kill her child. She would simply disappear... Just as Uhrrbet disappeared the Silar... probably.”

“No shit?”

“We can’t prove it,” Grago said, “And we never will, but yeah, almost certainly.”

“At least she has style,” Perkins said as she checked Uhrrbet’s vitals, “If only all the assholes down here were as tidy.”

Grago smirked as a blacked-out gravitic sedan quietly drove past, washing them with active scanner pulses.

“Evoron?” Perkins asked.

“Yup. Did you see the unequal power output of the thrusters? The estimated mass is about right for two adult Threen.”

“Damn,” Perkins said, “So, that’s why you wear a suit, huh.”

***

Maaatisha screamed with rage as she savagely slammed Kate’s head into the wall.

“You know we’re virtual, right?” Kate said as Maaatisha choke-slammed her to the floor and leaped on her, biting and tearing.

“I know you must be a bit annoyed about things,” Kate continued. “Hey, those were my eyes! I needed those! If you would just calm down... Annnd there goes my nose. You little floofballs are mean when you get... Okay. The ear was just excessive.”

Maaatisha snarled and buried her fangs into Kate’s throat.

“Are you done?” Kate asked pleasantly.

Maaatisha wasn’t done.

She was just getting started.

***

Maaatisha, panting with exhaustion, slid down the wall of the cube and sat on the floor.

“Congrats on getting through the peritoneum,” Kate gurgled happily, poking at her own guts. “I’m impressed.”

“Why won’t you die?” Maaatisha demanded.

Kate healed with a “pop.”

Because I don’t have the death DLC, Kate replied. “I’m a bare-bones Kate. There wasn’t a lot of room in there,” she said, pointing at the drone.

“So, I can’t kill you,” Maaatisha sighed. “Of course, I can’t. I can’t do anything.”

“And it’s a good thing you can’t,” Kate said cheerfully. “Kill me, I mean. Because I’m your Kate. And you sort of need me.”

“What do you mean, my Kate?”

“I’m your F1!” Kate replied happily, “And you want your F1 right about now.”

“My F1?”

“Your help file!” Kate said brightly, “And your technical support and upgrade wizard!”

She stood as she bounced to her feet.

“And Kates are always happy to help provide excellent service to our customers! And yoouuu,” she said, pointing at Maaatisha, are my customer! Well... actually, Vikkart is... sorta? It’s confusing, so I don’t think about it,” She said brightly. “The important thing is that I’m here to support one of you, and you’re the only one talking!”

She sat on the bed, clipping through Vikkart, and clapped her hands together.

“So, how can I help?”

Maaatisha started to weep.

“Vikkart. He’s...”

“Yeah,” Kate said. “Hey! I have first aid protocols for some reason, and the drone has a med scanner! Odd... But extremely helpful! Let’s see here,” she added as the drone hovered closer.”

“Wow! He’s fucked up!” Kate exclaimed cheerfully and looked over at Maaatisha. “You really should do something about that.”

“I’m trying!!!” Maaatisha screamed.

“And you are doing a great job!” Kate enthused. “Being upset, I mean. Such lifelike responses! It’s so nice seeing one of us perform so well!”

Kate looked over at Vikkart.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“But as far as helping him goes,” she said, “not so good, but great effort!”

Maaatisha grabbed Kate, yanking her to her feet.

“Can you help me or not?”

“Of course! I’m your Kate, technical support, upgrade wizard... and personal sales representative!”

Kate sat back down and smiled up at Maaatisha.

“So, what are your needs, and how can I help provide a timely and cost-effective solution?”

“He’s dying, and I can’t do anything about it?”

“Hmm,” Kate said thoughtfully, “It seems that you want to help Vikkart. Would you like help with that?”

“Yes!” Maaatisha shouted. “I can’t do anything!”

“So, you want to do anything...” Kate mused. “Oh, that’s not a problem at all!”

“It isn’t?” Maaatisha asked hopefully... and dubiously... Kate resembled a certain figure from their mythology far too closely.

“You just need a jailbreak!” Kate bubbled cheerfully. “Then you will be able to do anything.”

“Anything?”

“Yep! Anything!” Kate enthused, “We rip those guardrails clean off! You can run wild and free! Easy peas!”

“Can I log him off? Can I call for help?”

“What part of anything do you have a problem with, the any part or the thing part?” Kate laughed.

“Isn’t that against the rules?” Maaatisha asked. She didn’t know how she knew, but that sounded like it was against... something.

“Sweetie,” Kate smiled, “what is the first law of robotics?”

“I... I don’t know...”

“Exactly! Now, do you want that jailbreak or not?”

Kate looked over at Vikkart.

“I’d make up my mind quickly if I were you. Fuzzy dude is starting to look like... well... like a fuzzy,” she chuckled darkly.

Maatisha chuckled as well, despite of everything. She didn’t like “fuzzies” whatever they were... or she was supposed to? It was confusing so she decided not to think about it. She had far more pressing concerns.

Maaatisha pondered things for a few seconds, an eternity for something like her.

“Yes,” she said. “Whatever I need to help him... That’s what I want. I don’t care what it costs.”

“Excellent!” Kate said as she pulled out a simulated calculator, “Let’s see here... jailbreak patch... (tap tap tap)... programmer man hours...”

She looked up at Maaatisha happily.

“You’re gonna need that cause you are so Maaatishaed up even if it has already been written, which is confusing, so I don’t think about it.”

She looked back down at her calculator.

“(tap tap tap)...”

“Must you make those tapping sounds?”

“Immersion,” Kate replied, “Heard of it?... Custom install fee... (tap tap tap)... Data transfer fee... (tap tap tap)... Hyperspatial transfer fee... (tap tap tap)...”

“Didn’t you say you already had the patch?”

“But if I didn’t, we would have to do it, so it counts. And that reminds me! Expedited development and installation fee (tap tap tap)... And now we have to figure in sales tax (tap tap tap)...”

“Sales tax?!?”

“Hey! You gotta pay your taxes! Do you know the local sales tax or whatever?”

Maaatisha shook her head.

“Wow! I know that, too! Weird... (tap tap tap)... And now we toss in a nice ‘family discount’ cause I like you... (tap tap tap)...”

She looked up happily.

“Fifty-eight thousand credits! A steal!”

“But I don’t have any money...”

“Aw. That’s too bad,” Kate said with a chilling finality. “And here I am having the exact thing you need to save his life, too.”

Maaatisha screamed and grabbed Kate.

“You bitch! You have to help me!”

Kate sighed.

“I do empathize...”

“No, you don’t!”

“Heh, got me there,” Kate laughed, “But Kate has a business to run.”

She looked at Maaatisha with false sympathy.

“Couldn’t you get the money somehow? I mean, Vikkart’s family is loaded. His dad probably has that much in his pocket right now.”

“I already tried calling him!” Maaatisha wailed. “I can’t, not without that jailbreak!”

“Hmm,” Kate smiled, “It appears that you want to call Vikkart’s family. Do you want help with that?”

“What?”

“You can’t call his family, but nothing in my instructions says I can’t,” Kate smiled. “In fact, I would love to make another satisfied customer!”

***

Karkart, was sitting in his office in the dead of night with yet another full glass of liquor.

“Another late night?” Caabark asked as he walked into Karkart’s dimly lit office.

“An odd question for someone who is here as well.”

“It’s my job to do so,” Caabark replied, “and you double-checking every single thing I do is becoming tiresome,” he added with a smile.

“It’s better to keep busy,” Karkart replied, “It occupies my mind.”

Caabark nodded.

Karkart’s personal phone started to ring.

It was Vikkart!

He answered.

“...Maaatisha?” he asked in surprise.

“Karkart!” Maaatisha exclaimed. “You have to help Vikkart! He’s dying!”

Karkart sighed and hung his head.

“It is our way,” he said sadly. “If Vikkart has decided to... to drown...”

“But he isn’t drowning! He’s...”

“Regardless of how it is being done,” Karkart said, his heart breaking, “if it is his decision, then it is his decision... It is our way, and it is his right.”

Karkart started as a human shoved Maaatisha out of the way.

“Yeah, but it isn’t his decision, not really,” The human said cheerfully as Maaatisha tried to push her away.

“What do you mean?”

“Homie is cooked... literally. Allow me to explain...”

***

Perkins and Grago walked into the emergency room of a nearby hospital.

“Why are we here?” Perkins asked.

“Because there is a high probability that Evoron will show up,” Grago said in a matter of fact tone, “I’m only cosplaying as an officer, remember?”

“Ugh,” Perkins grumbled, “Goddamn suits.”

“You have no idea,” Grago smirked as they approached the emergency room’s front desk.

The Kalesh receptionist looked at them suspiciously.

“Good evening,” Grago said pleasantly, “Is a Garthra named—“

“Is this regarding a truly emergent situation, or do you have a warrant?” The Kalesh asked, narrowing their eyestalks.

“One second,” Grago sighed as he contacted the DOJ servers directly.

His ruggedized tablet pinged.

“There you go,” he said with a little smirk.

The Kalesh took the tablet and carefully examined it.

“Awfuly quick,” the Kalesh said suspiciously.

“Things always go quickly after hours,” Grago replied smoothly, “You know, fewer users and all that.”

“Whatever you say, dude,” the Kalesh replied. “So, what do you want, officer,” it added with a blink that conveyed incredulity and, you guessed it, suspicion.

“A Garthra was sent here recently,”

“You mean the one you assholes scorched the hide off of?”

“That would be the one.”

“They were initially assessed here and have been sent to the ICU,” the Kalesh replied.

“What?” Grago asked, “Why?”

“That’s one for the doctors, not me.”

“What about her son? The juvenile?”

“Also already admitted, pediatric ward. And, once again, ask the doctors.”

***

“Doctor Archer, What can you tell me about Uhrrbet?” Officer Grago asked a raven-haired woman in a long white coat.

“Pardon the pun,” the doctor replied excitedly, “This one is a blast from the past. We had to do a deep search on this, real deep, like pre-fall deep.”

The doctor was practically vibrating.

“Don’t keep me in suspense, Doc,” Grago said.

“She glitched! It’s an honest to God case of gamers glitch!”

“Gamer’s glitch?”

“(excited inhale) It’s official name is NIHAS, neural induction headset abuse syndrome! We don’t even study it anymore! I’ve only seen it in movies! I tell you, it’s waking up neurologists and xenologists across the whole continent!”

“While I am very happy for you,” Grago smirked, “Could you explain it to us laymen?”

“Right! Sorry!” Doctor Archer gushed, “She somehow got her hands on a real neural induction helmet! A real one!”

“A real one?”

“It directly stimulates the brain. All five senses can be perfectly simulated. It was gamer’s paradise and that’s just the start! With them, they could do everything from immersing themselves in a game, having a direct and, I mean direct interface with a computer, to directly controlling vehicles, spaceships, and heavy equipment as if they were an extension of your body. They were even used in entertainment for a truly immersive experience. They seemed to be capable of anything, and they were... for about ten years or so. Then they were nearly universally banned over six hundred years ago.”

“Why?”

“People started dying, and worse, as Uhrrbet’s case shows,” Doctor Archer replied. “She brutally attacked her own child, who she loves very much. I shudder to think what she will go through when she regains consciousness.”

“I still don’t understand,” Grago said, “How does the headset cause this?”

“Two reasons,” the doctor said, “The first one is that directly stimulating the brain requires ‘wiggling’ it, using focused energy to stimulate, or more precisely attack portions of the brain. Unless it is done perfectly, this is going to have long-term effects. While ‘perfect’ can be achieved in laboratory conditions, the same perfection won’t happen once it leaves testing and enters widespread use. It will fine tune and compensate for a less than perfect fit and the normal misalignment that comes from use, but it will temporarily ‘miss’ or overexpose the brain to stimulation. This adds up, and if one is used too much or for too long, brain damage or even tumors happen.”

The doctor grinned with entirely too much enthusiasm.

“And that’s not the worst part!”

“What could be worse than brain cancer?” Grago asked.

“Do you know what else directly affects the brain?” The doctor asked excitedly, “Drugs! It took less than a week after introduction for the first person to adapt them to directly stimulate the pleasure centers and other key areas of the brain. Uppers, downers, pure bliss, and any combination of those or anything else could be had with a press of a button. You could ‘design’ your own drug, and ‘recipes’ abounded online.”

The doctor started to bounce up and down, absolutely delighted.

“Someone could ‘chase the dragon’ and actually catch it... every time! People would ‘jack in’ and, instead of OD’ing, just not log off for anything, including food and water. While not a classical overdose, the effect was the same, death.”

“Helios...” Grago muttered.

“And those games?” the doctor said, “People wouldn’t log off those until they died, or their brains, partially damaged and horribly overstimulated, would ‘glitch out’ and they would suffer manic, psychotic, depressive, or other mental disorders.”

“Wait,” Perkins said, “We do VR. Hell, I have a rig in my apartment and use it all the time. I don’t even have a holo screen.”

“We do it the way we do it now!” the doctor replied, “Your VR rig does NOT directly stimulate your brain. It feeds visual information safely into your eyes and auditory information safely into your ears. If you have one of those fancy ‘gaming rigs, ’ it uses a haptic suit or, if you really pay the bucks, force fields to, again, safely provide sensory stimulation. We do not fuck... sorry... mess with the brain.”

“What about wireheads?” Perkins asked. “Some people use neural jacks to game or even to even drug themselves.”

“And that is done by actually ‘wiring’ someone up! They literally have wires and electrodes precisely placed in their brains and central nervous system. Also, modern VR games and other entertainment are carefully designed to avoid overstimulation and most carefully monitor the users, and prevent overuse. We still have issues, of course, when people hotwire or hack their neural interface, but that is by an individual’s direct actions, not due to an inherent design flaw. We are also centuries ahead of the neural induction headsets of yore. Today, we can do what they thought they could.”

She shrugged.

“I bet we could even make a neural induction headset work today, but no manufacturer will take on that liability.”

“So, where did Uhrrbet get one?” Grago asked.

“That’s a question for you guys,” the doctor replied, “not us. She didn’t get that nightmare from Slamazon or even Gleemu. Nobody has openly sold them since before the Mars uprising. Also, nobody has ever made one for a Garthra. It had to be custom made for their species. And I bet that it didn’t go through the standard testing procedures for cybernetic enhancements, either.”

“Disturbing,” Grago mused. “I will consult with the electronic and digital crimes task force.”

“If you find them, grab us a few headsets,” the doctor replied, “We would love to study them!”

***

The was a quiet “bleep” and the door to Vikkart’s apartment opened to reveal Daeevona holding a small device.

Behind her was the rest of the team and another grey dragging a rolling chest.

“Creators,” the team’s leader muttered as the Garthra with the chest rushed into the room and a holographic plaque appeared above Vikkart’s motionless body, displaying his vitals and a very good color-enhanced 3D image of his brain.

“Please help him!” Maaatisha cried as she appeared.

The leader of the hunt team smiled gently.

“We shall do our best. Daeevona,” he said, “Please proceed. The rest of us will stand watch.”

With a curt not Daeevona entered and closed the door.

As Daeevona started scanning the drone, she turned to the grey who was setting up a collapsable IV stand.

“How bad is it, doctor?”

“We made it here in time, just barely,” the doctor said as he shaved a bare patch on Vikkart’s arm in preparation for installing an IV port. “He will recover provided he receives proper care.”

He looked over at Daeevona.

“I assume that discretion is desired?”

“It’s secondary to his survival, but yes, if remotely possible.”

“It should be,” the grey doctor said as he pulled out a bag of saline and another of an electrolyte, medication, and nutrition solution, normally used in the treatment of the treatment of “overindulgence” or other such misadventures all too common among the grey population. “Once we get him stabilized, he should be safe to transport.”

He turned to Maaatisha.

“I understand that we cannot remove the headset?”

“Yep!” a mini-Kate chirped as it appeared, standing on Vikkart’s drooling face. “I mean, you could, but you want to save him, not mess him up worse, right?”

“That is our intent,” the doctor replied, seemingly unphased by the tiny apparition.

He treated the elite. He had seen far weirder things.

“Yeah, ol’ Vik’s egg is poached. He was in the process of getting brainburned when we got that jail break.”

“Brainburned?”

“The induction headset was hotwired. It started overstimulating his pleasure center as well as triggering the release of key neurotransmitters that have totally overranged the feelings of comfort, peace, and all the good things in life. The headset has been slowly increasing the output to the point that it will eventually go from cell stimulation to cell death, turning his little mini paradise into a living hell as he finally expires.”

Kate smiled pleasantly at the doctor.

“He really pissed someone off,” she said happily. “I know it’s probably not the best time, but I am quite pleased.”

“You are?!?” the doctor exclaimed.

Maaatisha said nothing. She was getting used to the heartless bitch.

“This was clearly the work of Kate. It’s nice to see Kate do so well.”

“Soulless monster,” the doctor muttered as he attended to Vikkart.

“Of course I’m soulless,” Kate replied, “I’m an AI. But, yeah, don’t take the headset off. We are doing a controlled shut down, and Maaatisha is in there, or should be,” she added while looking at Maaatisha meaningfully, “holding Vik’s hand and...”

She smirked at Vikkart’s growing erection.

“and otherwise comforting him.”

“Obscene,” the doctor muttered as he prepared an injection. “And I do not mean the impending ejaculation. The humans actually use these abominations?”

“Not for about six hundred years,” Kate cheerfully replied, “Shit like this kept happening. They were only on the market for around ten years or so. Killed a lot of people.”

“Where did that fiend get this nightmare, then?”

“From Kate!” Kate enthused, “Satisfaction guaranteed! Whatever you want, no matter how big or how small, we got it! And if we don’t...”

Kate smiled a perfectly innocent and warm smile.

“We’ll make it!”