Interlude

Beneath the Surface

Zein sat at his controls, the wires going into his body at all major joints, connecting him completely to the server-interface. With closed eyes, he watched the screen projected behind his eye-lids; his proxy player was not doing as well as he had hoped. It seemed such a good idea at first to remove Jason's personal memories, but now Zein wasn't so sure.

“Zein!” a voice rang out in his mind, echoing through his inner thoughts.

“Lord!” Zein replied, startled. “What do you need of me?”

“You need not call me Lord, Zein,” the voice said. “If anything we are in symbiosis. So, at most, I see you as one of my symbiotes in this realm. I needed your money and influence, and you wanted my expertise in fusing biological creatures and mechanics. A fair trade, wouldn't you say? And now, after a little time, we're on the verge of creating a true virtual reality from our combined efforts. Isn't that a great thing?”

“But, Lord... if not for you, I would not have lived to see this day. Your gracious offer of replacing my entire body with this nano-mechanical one saved my life in so many ways. Not to mention, that without you, we would have never completed this grand project of ours.”

“Yes, yes...” the voice said inside Zein's head, a hint of amusement tinging the words. “The local servers have been put online, and your proxy seems to be a rather odd one, but not a bad one. His choices in the early game will impact everything in his future. I hope A3D81 won't die too early. I rather like watching his below average attempts at keeping alive.”

“Yes,” Zein said. “This Jason is peculiar. Did you see what his starting Title and Skill was? It could either be useless or incredible, depending on how he plays. But you did not contact me to talk about the proxy-players. What did you want with me?”

“You're right,” the voice said. “I wanted to know how much time is needed before we can have the main servers go online. The first seven local servers have been put online and the players are flocking to the game, but we need to have all players on the same server to get the greatest benefit. I should not need to tell you of the importance this game will have on the future, both yours and mine.”

“As we speak, the main server is in its final building-phase. The orbital space-stations housing the main servers have already been completed, and now it's only a matter of time before all the inner parts are put together and connected to the other servers. At most, it will take another year.”

“Not fast enough,” the voice said, a harsh tone entering Zein's mind at the last word.

Zein shook, trembling like he had never done since he got his new body. It was more like his soul was trembling than his actual body. Zein knew that his benefactor was actually the one in charge of the entire project named God's Dream, and didn't have any wishes to anger that mysterious being that had directly contacted Zein's mind some fifty years earlier and proposed this venture. “Yes, Lord. I will contact those in charge of the space-stations and inform them to work faster. I'll even send another batch of workers and droids there.”

“Good,” the voice said. “I need this project to go online as quickly as possible. It will still take years of testing and experimentation before I can find the right subjects for further testing. The 128 proxy-competitors that you fellows brought together as entertainment will be under my personal scrutiny especially. If any of them succeed, I will grant the owner of that proxy anything he asks for. Within reason, of course.”

“Anything?” Zein felt stunned. He knew how strange and powerful his Lord was and could not help but think of the future rewards a being such as that could give him. “My Lord, truly? You will even grant immortality?”

“Immortality, within reason, is not such a difficult thing to enable in the human body. You have already gained an immortal body, have you not?” the voice sounded amused to Zein.

“Yes, but my mind still ages. And there is nothing I can do to stop it,” Zein said, bitterly. “I have lived for 259 years and I do not think I will reach my third century. Is there anything I could do to be granted your beneficence? I would do anything for the cure to aging.”

“For your sake, I hope your proxy does well,” the voice said. “I only contacted you to see how the main server was progressing. Have it done in half a year.”

“Yes, my Lord,” Zein said, opening his eyes as he felt the presence of his Lord vanish from his mind.

Zein didn't know what he would have done now if he had not gotten involved with the great project inspired by his Lord. He would probably be lying in a hospital-pod, soaking in healing fluids only to keep himself alive, hoping for a miracle of science to save his life. But now, he knew that it was possible for anything to happen. His Lord had knowledge of things beyond what modern science could even fathom. And he, Zein, would give anything for the mere scraps of knowledge passed down to him from the Lord.

All Zein had to do was to keep up his work on God's Dream. It had been such a long time since his Lord had come to him with the plans for the project now called God's Dream. And now it was finally going into the final phase of construction and soon it would be time for the trials to begin.

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