| Generated by Pollo AI text-to-video AI software |
Time was weird in Romana’s simulation. Ramses and Leona worked the problem
for the better part of three days before they were able to get Mateo and
Boyd out of there. And they did get Boyd out of there too. They
didn’t have a physical body for him to inhabit, since they didn’t know his
wishes, but they moved his IDCode to a new server, and isolated him from
Romana’s original system. They then ran a bunch of diagnostics on him, and
medical tests on Mateo, to determine whether there were any lingering risks
associated with them having been trapped in there.
Romana was devastated, but otherwise all right. Beyond her artificial
implants, she wasn’t presenting any other signs or symptoms. She appeared to
be physically and neurologically healthy. Still, Ramses extracted the
implants, and flushed her of any dangerous foreign bodies. It was a
relatively simple procedure, because it was one of the first things
immersive VR researchers came up with, under the concern that something like
this could happen. The only reason they didn’t do that earlier was because
of her visitors. She was not saying much, save for apologizing profusely. It
wasn’t her fault.
Mateo was pissed. Someone did this to her. It could not have simply happened
incidentally. Glitches did happen, of course, but there was too much intent
from the monsters. They were far too organized and driven. Of course, Mateo
still didn’t know what they would have done if they had caught up to the
humans, because they didn’t give them the chance, but they certainly weren’t
trying to say hello, and they weren’t random. When he found whoever was
responsible, they were gonna wish they had targeted someone else.
“That may not be what happened,” Leona said. “It may not have been an
attack.”
“You didn’t see them,” Mateo argued. “They were absolutely relentless. Boyd
and I literally had to keep running. Thank God I was able to shut off some
of my bio-responses, or I would have grown too tired to make it.” He shook
his head.
“The blobs,” Leona began. “Why did they chase after you at all? If they were
a part of the system, why not simply materialize right in front of you. You
didn’t actually run anywhere. You were only ones and zeros, as were the
blobs themselves.”
“Exactly,” Mateo reasoned. “They weren’t a part of it. That’s how I
know someone put them in there. It couldn’t have been your average file
corruption, or whatever.”
“I have another hypothesis,” Ramses jumped in. “I think it could have been
natural and unintentional. I think they were a part of her, but not the
simulation.”
“What, like her antibodies, or her stress hormones?” Mateo questioned.
“Something like that,” Ramses went on. “Do you remember when Romana was
abducted by the original Boyd? He placed her in a dark particle stasis
field.”
“Yeah, it changed her,” Mateo said. “It made her just like him. That’s over
now.”
“Perhaps not,” Ramses suggested. “I’m still detecting periodic neutrino
collisions inside of her body, and in yours. It would be nothing to be
worried about, it means your bodies can handle it. But it looks like her
mind is being negatively impacted.”
“Well, she’s been dark particle-free for weeks, and nothing. What’s
changed?”
Ramses frowned at Mateo sadly, but didn’t say anything. He looked nervous.
“Me,” Mateo surmised. “I visited her simulation. I have lingering dark
particle-ness too.” He had to sit down. “I did this to her.”
“It’s not your fault either. It’s just nature,” Leona said comfortingly. “It
could also be this star system. Different stars, different solar flux.”
“Fix this,” Mateo demanded. “Do whatever you have to do, even if it hurts.”
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