Ryan Somma - The Spiraling Web

"What?" Zai's head whipped around on him. "It's not that at all, I..." she trailed off.

"Are you ready?" Devin prompted after a moment.

"Yeah," Zai shook whatever was haunting her from her head and started stripping down.

Devin blushed and averted his eyes. He stripped down to his boxers, baring his scrawny frame and thankful for Zai's lack of sight. Dropping his drawers, he was even more thankful as the cold, damp air made things less than flattering.

They climbed up the scaffolds behind their SDCs and opened the portals. Devin was nervous and excited simultaneously. He had always dreamt of web surfing in one of these, the most vivid experience money could buy. At the same time, he was about to seal himself in a dark chamber and face things online that would try and kill him, if he did not kill them first.

He paused with his feet dangling in the perfluorocarbon fluid, "Wait."

Zai turned to him, halfway into her SDC, "What's up?"

"We can't do this," Devin said. "It's genocide."

They tried to kill you Devin," Zai urged. "They have killed others, and they will kill more."

Devin remembered LD-50's comments about Flatline building an army, and clenched his fist, "I know, far more."

"Then why is this a problem?"

"Because of the Library of Alexandria, that's why," Devin slammed his fist into the SDC.

"The what?" Zai asked, confused.

"An ancient library," Devin explained angrily, "filled with all the world's knowledge, and all of it lost when the library was destroyed. If we destroy the AI hive, we are committing an atrocity on that same scale. We can't just wipe out this data. It's too profound, too important. What if it never happens again?"

"Alice has rescued some of the AI's," Zai said. "If she's successful with that one," she gestured to Alice's body, "then she might integrate them into society. They can rebuild."

"Are you acknowledging the sanctity of their existence?" Devin asked.

"No," Zai replied. "I'm telling you what you need to hear."

"Dammit!" Devin cursed and plunged into the pink, syrupy fluid.

He slammed the portal shut above him and the chamber filled the rest of the way, completely immersing him. He fought his burning lungs for as long as he could, but finally took a deep breath of the stuff. It was weird, but satisfied the need. The SDC read his heartbeat stabilizing and began the login sequence. Lights played across his eyes, synching with his retinas, and his skin tingled as electronic pulses sought to feed him touch sensations.

As he phased into the virtual world, Zai's voice came into his helmet, "Devin, I'm sorry. That was a stupid thing to say."

Devin stood in the middle of a bright white room. Taking a moment to gather himself, he ran a quick inventory. He was wearing an IWA avatar, a black jumpsuit with black goggles, completely anonymous. In his utility belt he found sector editors, the anti-virus program, and a host of other nasty tools. The five-layer drive formatter he found among them was particularly intriguing; with it he could irrecoverably destroy a flash drive. It was an envious arsenal.

Zai phased in beside him. She wore the same avatar with breasts, and a featureless mask with no goggles. Devin found the last an interesting detail. She turned to him expectantly.

Devin wasted no time; he punched in the address for DataStreams Incorporated and hit the 'Go' button, "Let's get this over with."

Zai realized he was transferring to another location and quickly followed suit, "Hold on, I'm-"

He was gone, materializing moments later on a mountaintop overlooking a vast, futuristic city tucked into a valley below. It pulsed with activity. Streams of light like water ran through it. The sky was filled with brightly lit futuristic flying devices. Floating in the air before the scene was the corporate logo, "DataStreams", glowing translucent against the stars. It was a beautiful introduction to the Corporation's Virtual Domain.

"The illusion of normalcy," Zai muttered from behind him.

Devin brought up a navigation window and tried logging into the domain, each time he was met with the error, "The site you have requested is unavailable."

Devin turned to Zai, "You said there was a back door."

"Yeah," she said. Hesitantly she keyed in the address and hit the transmit key. She vanished as the connection established.

Devin received the address and transmitted himself to the same location. He stood at the base of an enormous trellis, covered with vines and flowers. Butterflies danced in the air and rainbows arched across a cloud-free blue sky. The foliage was sculpted into a logo reading "Pixel Productions".

"More normalcy," Zai muttered. "Façade. Façade." She approached the trellis with her access key.

Devin noticed it was a RAZZ card, operating on a constantly changing key code. "I don't expect this to work," he said.

To his surprise, the vines parted to reveal an entrance. Zai stepped through and waited for Devin to follow. Inside, Devin was impressed with the presentation. This lobby served as the main menu for the company's virtual presence. It was very elegant, decorated with expensive works of digital art and original patterns for the carpets. Multiple doors lined the four walls, each one leading to a different section of the site.

Devin recognized several of the labels, "Your parents were in Web Development?"

Zai was still hearing about the room through her headset, so her response sounded distracted, "Yes. They got into it for the love of Virtual Architecture, but as the business grew they had to move into management. You know, requirements gathering, project planning, deployment, they were in charge of it all. Toward the end, their primary focus was churning out and copyrighting as many designs as possible. That's where the real money was."

"That's a lot of responsibility," Devin noted.

"It was," Zai said, "They didn't have time for much else."

"I'm sorry," Devin said.

Zai was silent for several moments as her SDC continued reading the details of the room to her. "There," she said suddenly, "Battle bots, there's a new department labeled 'Battle bots'. There was no such department or client before."

"Do you have administrative privileges?" Devin asked.

"Yes," Zai replied, and started sending commands to the building. She listened for confirmations, but nothing happened. The building groaned then, as if its supports were collapsing.

"It's a trap," Devin cursed. "We have to get out."

"How can you-" Zai stopped talking as her SDC informed her of other changes in the room.

Eyes opened along the walls, columns, and floor to look at them. Devin checked the way they had come, but the entrance was no longer there. An inky blackness spread in trails all around, connecting to other places, oozing black until the entire room was staring eyes and rippling darkness. Veins and wires sprouted from the surfaces to create a wriggling nonsense. AI's completely comprised the room.

"Zai," Devin said cautiously, afraid to make any sudden movements. "I want you to log out now and tell Dana what we found."

Zai shook her head, "I'm staying."

"Zai!" Devin shouted, brandishing a sector editor, for whatever good it would do. "Get out of here now!"

"Forget it," she held a sector editor as well. "If neither of us return, they'll figure it out."

Devin attempted a log out, just in case, but there was no such luck. "Zai, if you log out of here, I can piggyback," he lied.

Zai considered him. Tendrils descended around her from the ceiling. Finally, she toggled her log out sequence. Nothing.

"Can you find the emergency release?" Devin asked fearfully.

Zai reached out and clawed the air before her. "Can't seem to find it," she said in frustration.