Michael Clark
patreon
Tunnel Rat Chapter 409
🕑 Added 2025-05-08 16:49:07 +0000 UTCMilo flipped the top of the pod open and bounded out. He had so much to do and a burning desire to investigate the mysterious staff. The desire to know more had almost kept him in Genesis, but his body there was exhausted from the strain of dealing with so many AIs.
Not that his mind wasn't still feeling the strain, just the opposite. He was in one of his most efficient modes, where creativity and the need to work were pushing him forward, and the stress of too much work overrode his common sense that said, 'Whoa! Hold up, son. It's naptime.' Milo's common sense was sitting on a couch next to his caution, and both of them were eating popcorn and anxious to see what happened next. He raced into the dining room looking for food, surprised to see everyone at the table staring at him as he skidded to a halt.
Bork and Nina were the first to notice him. Bork only knew something was happening and he might need to run. Nina saw the telltale signs that told her Milo had skipped 11th gear and shifted to 37. Mama knew he was hungry and needed food. "Sit. Eat. Communicate." She took the plate she was about to hand to Minn and gave it to Milo. Minn stole Butch's plate, and he stole Brad's. Mama smiled at Brad and dished up more eggs and an extra helping of bacon.
Nina held up her hand, mostly to keep Bork in his seat. "Milo, what do you need help with?"
Speaking around bites of eggs and whole pancakes stuffed in his mouth, he began giving an outline of his plans.
"Things have fallen into place. I need Big Butch in a meeting with Wally and Stephen. We're starting the online engineering and tech school. It's going to be set in a unique environment with a mix of traditional classes and real-world hands-on work. Added to that will be lessons in physics, zero-gravity engineering, and propulsion systems learned by building starships in SC6." His chain of thought broke as he saw who was at the table.
He'd noticed Belinda was at the table and looking well. "You're out of your pod! How do you feel? Is everything good? I've been worried."
She rolled her eyes at the irony of Milo, wearing only a pair of gym shorts, ribs showing, and eyes wild with uncombed hair, asking if she was ok. "I'm fine. I'm stable. My intelligence has leveled out, and I can control my thought processes. But I need to do more, so toss me some of that juicy project you need help with."
Milo took in what she said and didn't hesitate. "I need ten thousand pods and the support for that many full-time students of all ages, pulled from this and surrounding habitats. We're going to train our own engineering talent to do the work we need on the habitat and give them skills for a better life."
"Got it. Manpower can handle it. You know that and that I'd jump at the chance to do it. So what else do you need?"
He grinned, "I'm going to be proposing an expansion of the Contract Worker program to Wally. There is an opportunity to employ another hundred thousand people right now and more in the future."
Belinda grinned, "As CEO of Manpower, all I'm seeing is dollar signs. I can guess where this is going if you've opened up SC6. Speaking of which, talk to Stephen. He and a lot of other people were watching as your new galaxy was created and then crashed. They've been staring at a blank screen for an hour that says 'Technical Difficulties', and Wally isn't talking."
Milo's eyes got wide. He'd known about the party to watch the unfolding of SC6, but the significance of leaving them hanging had gotten lost in his focus on discovering the truth behind the Benevolent Sage and the Mysterious Nemesis. "Right. That comes first, then. Bork, set up a video conference with an overlay for the masquerade images you use at Rhebus. You'll find Dr. Milo Babbage in your files."
Butch stood up. "It will look better to have the victorious crew of the only SC6 tournament in modern times next to you. Gives you some window dressing and takes their focus off the three of you trying to pretend to be adults."
Nina nodded her head, seeing where he was going. Bork looked up from typing on his pad, "Can I put you in crew uniforms like you'd wear in the game? That would be even better."
Butch grinned at him, "Make it so, number one. Move me to Captain, Belinda to navigator, and put Brad on the guns. Let's get moving, people, Milo is vibrating and we're running low on food."
Two minutes later, the huge screen of the auditorium at the Genesis Corporation came to life. With a backdrop of the SC6 galaxy and logo, a dozen people appeared on a holographic screen, looking so real that they might walk straight into the room. Six of them were dressed in uniforms reminiscent of the short-lived SC6 cartoon series from thirty years ago. Five others were in suits with lab coats over them, and the young man at the podium was in dirty, torn jeans, work boots, a yellow t-shirt that said 'Caution, Construction', and a hard hat. He stepped forward and grinned awkwardly. Wally appeared on a side screen, watching silently.
"Hi folks, sorry for the delay. I'm Chief Imagineer, Milo Babbage. Building a galaxy didn't go as we planned. My original idea was a carefully balanced creation that would have driven navigators insane, but like some clever ideas, this one had a flaw. You saw the result. What should have been a playable game setting became a galaxy of expanding black holes and shattered planets. But it wasn't a waste of time! We let it run for a few billion years and gave things time to sort themselves out, then used the shattered galaxy as the foundation for the more stable Alpha-2 design. And as you can see, things turned out fine."
The screen split into four views, then sixteen, and finally sixty-four images of key areas in SC6. "The broad strokes are done, and I'll be turning this over to Julius and his team to create the special locations and put in all the little details that pull from the existing lore. And I think Julius will have a few surprises for you."
Julius only had eyes for the images in front of him. When he heard his name, he jerked his attention back to Milo. "Oh, yes, I've been working on some new stories and ideas. Some of them will take time to flesh out, though."
Milo grinned, "Always too much to do. But I've got some help coming your way. Some of the people on my team want to stay on and help with world-building. John Keppenheimer would love to work with the guys in the rebel faction. My assistant engineer, Wayland Smith, is going to work on starship and mechanical designs. Finally, Lyra Rhapsody, who is writing the SC6 book series, would love to work with you on new lore and stories. I told her I'd talk with you, since you have final approval on any additions to the design team."
"We're doing a book series?"
Milo looked sheepish, "I sort of wanted to save that announcement until she got the first volume done. Some writers can take their time getting out a book. How many of you are still waiting on Greg Martin to finish his great-grandfather's series so we can see how Winds of Winter differs from the endings in the TV, Cartoon, and Movie productions of Game of Thrones?"
Several people laughed, and half the audience raised their hands, including Julius. He stepped forward, looked at his team, who all nodded their approval, and turned to Milo. "We'll take all the help we can get."
He grinned back. "Great, because these people and their staff are ready to work. It's going to be a huge undertaking and gives us some amazing opportunities to utilize this unique setting. There are a few initiatives that I'd like to announce today. I didn't want to say anything at all until we proved we could build this game setting and keep it stable. You can see how close we came to the edge of failing. The first announcement is the creation of an online engineering school that will be set on Mars. We're starting with a recruitment drive for ten thousand students who will receive scholarships, housing, and pods so they can study online in a VR environment. This is a joint project between the folks at Rhebus, Clawmaster, Manpower, and Genesis."
Stephen noticed Wally blink once, a side effect of the AI trying to include human interactions. Sometimes it betrayed him. He'd blinked as well when Milo mentioned the people offering to help with SC6. Then Wally smiled and said, "It's an exciting project that I'm sure we are all happy to be part of. What other things do we have to look forward to?"
Mr. Babbage looked over at him. "I think we're going to have a way to employ more people as contract workers. Miss Seimovich from Manpower is handling an expansion to her facility to accommodate another hundred thousand people. If the people selected have any medical deficiencies, those will be handled by the Rhebus group standing here today with me. Let's take a look at the center of the civilized parts of the galaxy for a look at where those people will live and work."
The screen focused on the main solar system, with each planet on a screen around the center image. "Olympus is a self-sufficient paradise with only one resident, Tyberius Maximillian Zeus. For 95% of the player base, he's the tyrant who's out to take over the galaxy. For the other 5%, he's the tyrant who sends you out to conquer and pays your salary. Olympus has no residents, only guests, with robotic attendants that look like silvery Greek statues or mythological monsters. Mercury is a mining colony. Most of the inhabitants work for the tyrant, providing metals for the shipyards of Mars, but are on the verge of rebelling. Next, we have Venus, a pleasure world of gardens and wild vistas, populated by artists and writers. Lyra Rhapsody is the current Queen of Venus, and while she supports the tyrant that keeps her in power, her main loyalty is with the artists in her small, scattered villages. She'll need Contract Workers as support staff, as will the few Noble Houses that have estates on Venus."
He paused and looked at Wally. "Just to be clear, there are two ways to be a Noble House in the game, and be raised to the rank of Baron. The first is through long service and completing quests for the tyrant. Four of the current Noble Houses are run by NPC retired admirals and could be supplanted by a player. The other three are for sale. And while money talks, Zeus doesn't listen unless there is a lot of money. We'll be talking about the cost for a corporation to acquire the right to be a Noble House in the game and run a small fleet of warships with their Corporate Logo on the side. I'm thinking the bidding starts at ten billion, which is all funneled to the cost of supporting the contract workers who will be serving the Noble Houses as cooks, butlers, gardeners, and other essential services."
"Mars is a technological marvel, with most of the planetary mass mined out and turned into a hollow starport. It's part military base, part manufactorum. Wayland Smith will be the current Chief Engineer, who goes by the title of Vulcan. But he serves at the whim of the tyrant, and a suitable replacement could surplant him. Likewise, the planetary leaders of Juno, Saturnus, and Uranos are rotating positions filled by players. They'll have to find ways to manage the huge planetary populations, compete for food from the agri-worlds of Neptunus and Plutonus. The last two will also have large populations of contract workers. And the rebellion has infiltrated every world, adding a little spice to Zeus's life."
He paused and glanced at Wally, but focused on Stephen and Julius. The older man looked at the vision of his game that he'd thought would never come to life. "You're saying that not only will my game entertain, but you plan to use it to educate, heal, and give jobs to people in the poverty zone?" He shook his head, not quite believing. "I always suspected that there had to be more to this deal than just resurrecting an old game. I'd feared my dreams would be crushed again, but this is wonderful."
One of the two large, bearded men drinking beer in the back of the room yelled out, "Don't worry, doc, anything goes sideways, and we'll be next to you with hot plasma blasting."
Julius turned to look at his old friends and smiled at them. "Just like you always have. But it looks like we have a lot of work if we are going to keep up with Mr. Babbage's team. Finish your beer and snacks, we need to get to work filling in the fine details of Frontier."
Wally looked at Milo, "Yes, lots of work. Many meetings. I need to catch up as well."
Comments
JohnHarris
A subtle, or not so subtle heads up to Wally. Also, it indciates that Milo has some heavyweight in Game support, as this sort of deal wouldn't have been annouced, unless Milo had his Ducks in a row. So it's Hat's Off to TWK, and his story telling abilities.
Ender419
WK you are truly a genius!! You just took at a small side story stretched it like dough then began to form the best possible dish someone can ever think of. I hope you write a new story dedicated to SC6 from the perspective of Julius and his friends and Butch & the gang with a little Milo incorporated here & there.
Ender419
Agreed, looks like Butch has taken on full time big bro mode/true leader of the gang of bandits.
Cymi
poor Wally... he might need more than 2% to try and figure out what Milo and Sibs might do next... his little comment at the end subtly demanding a meeting was so funny to me as were the names Milo assigned the members of his team who wanted to stay on a work with the SC6 crew.
Andrew Denton
It's a small thing, but I like the way Butch stepped up and took charge. It makes him feel less like background, and more like a character in his own right.
Engineer4God
Tank oo fur da chap!
The El Bandito
I’m surprised Milo used the name Vulcan, and used the name Lyra Rhapsody for both the name of the author helping out, and as the Queen of Venus. Loved the conference call. Wally’s blink reactions to finding out more details were perfect. Lots of fun developments lately.
NameGame
"still waiting on Greg Martin to finish his great-grandfather's series" LOL for real. Still waiting. STILL WAITING. Someone make an AI of him and compel it to finish the damn book already. If an AI based on him can be compelled to finish the book, and it's not inherent that it simply won't because it's based on him. I rate Winds of Winter a mad/10 due to delays. So mad. But your pot shot was super funny and unexpected. Maybe some pot shots at Jim Butcher next with his dawdling on the Dresden Files? Not on par as far as delays go with GRRM, but still. Babbage, eh? Nice nod to one of the greats. I assume Keppenheimer = Oppenheimer, but I had to look up Wayland Smith. Your knowledge is broad and impressive, that was a new one for me. Thanks for the chapter!
brennon Petersen
Tftc!
Forestfire
Loved the ice and fire dig. Be careful what you wish for. The last physical CD I bought was GnR's Chinese Democracy, it was so satisfying to frisbee it out the car window
LegosFreak
Ah yes Wally so of your AI brothers and sisters are coming out to play
