First Sorcerer Read online

  Dedicated to Keri, who took care of

  everything, put up with the late nights and

  just endures me in general.

  The pile shifted again, and as the pieces began to shiver into place, Jeff realized that the chunks weren’t wood, at all but heaps of scorched, rotting bone. As the bundle clacked and rattled, slowly unfolding, a grinning skull lifted from the center of it and turned to face the room. The last few bones shifted into place, and the figure rose to its bony feet and lifted its arms to the sky.

  The skeleton before Jeff was enormous, easily standing 30 feet high and much wider than Jeff was tall. Its bones were thick and seemed seamlessly joined, despite Jeff having seen them piece themselves together from scraps just moments ago. Each of the skeleton’s hands was as big as Jeff’s fist, and its movements were smooth and swift, not jerky and uncoordinated like undead in many other games. The giant skull turned to face him, and a sickly, yellow light filled its eye sockets. At the same moment, a purple-black flame erupted in the center of its ribcage, the flames spreading up over its arms and down to its hands…

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  “The Singularity!” the perfectly coiffed man onstage declared dramatically to his audience, lowering the lights and framing himself in a spotlight of blue-white light with a gesture. “Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are here to discuss the Singularity: the ultimate melding of humanity and machines to make a single organism!”

  The man stepped from the center of the stage as a battery of holographic projectors fired to life. A translucent, 3-dimensional image appeared center stage depicting a nude, androgynous human form next to a cybernetic humanoid. The two images merged into one as the speaker continued.

  “We are all acutely aware of the crises facing our world today: worldwide food rationing, critically insufficient housing, and global epidemics caused by massive overpopulation. The best minds of our generation have worked tirelessly to find solutions, but the Singularity is the answer to all of them!”

  The image onstage shifted from a cybernetic human, complete with glowing eyes and sliver circuitry tracing lightly across its skin, to a vision of a street scene filled with similar beings. The man stepped slightly in front of the image to regain the audience’s attention and spoke.

  “Imagine humans subsisting on but a tenth of today’s food requirements!” he exclaimed, pointing to an image of humans sitting at a table with a tiny bowl in front of each of them. “One where a self-contained web of nano-structures dealt with diseases before symptoms could begin to manifest!”

  The hologram changed once more, this time displaying a sleek, black capsule with a cybernetic human lying inside it. “Imagine,” the man declaimed, stepping aside once more to allow the image to sink in, “a virtual world that anyone can enter for days or weeks at a time! A world that feels, looks, sounds, and even tastes perfectly real; one that allows them to travel to places they would never see, meet people from across the world, and do anything they desire without danger to themselves! Experience the Pyramids; dive to the bottom of the ocean; travel to Mars without leaving your room!”

  Now the image onstage shifted to show a larger, bulkier capsule, one without the sleek lines and smoked glass, bristling with hoses and tubes.

  “This, dear shareholders, is the first step of the final journey to that epic moment: the Akzam Mark-I full-immersion capsule,” the man spoke after a moment, allowing the crowd to murmur appreciatively. “It is the first of its kind: a fully immersive capsule designed to directly interface with the human brain. The Mark-I provides you with a complete sensory experience: sight, sound, taste, smell, touch; all of these and more can be simulated with near-perfection! The capsule uses nanotechnology to provide the occupant with sustenance, stimulate muscular activity to stave off atrophy, and even eliminates and recycles waste products to minimize the need for external nutrients and water.”

  The speaker paused for a long moment, allowing the crowd to mutter amongst themselves. He could almost sense the undertone of hopeful skepticism, and he seized the moment to reassure them.

  “Of course, the capsule wasn’t created without major difficulties. We all know from recent attempts that mapping the brain is incredibly difficult and was considered impossible by many experts in the field. Each mind is so unique, so plastic, that the idea of creating one, specific template that can map to every human brain is simply unrealistic. However, we hit upon a breakthrough: quantum mapping of an individual brain to create a unique template that is stored securely on a quantum server! In short, we’ve developed a technique that allows us to start with a broad profile and refine it into a near-perfect mapping of any individual’s brain!”

  The hologram shifted as he spoke, displaying an attractive woman with dark hair and Asian features lying with her head inside a device that looked like a miniature MRI machine. “Using a form of magnetic stimulation and imaging,” the man continued, walking in front of the image once more, “we have successfully mapped over a thousand such templates already!” The crowd muttered in amazement and shifted uncomfortably as he spoke.

  “These are protected by the most advanced, quantum cryptography available,” the speaker assured them. “We have made every possible effort to meet and exceed federal and global privacy standards.”

  “More importantly, though,” he continued as the image shifted back to the original melding of man and machine, “with such an accurate mapping process, we have taken the most critical step toward achieving the Singularity! Once we have refined the process sufficiently, it will a relatively simple matter to use existing nanotechnology to digitize vast portions of the brain and nervous system; to replace inefficient biological organs with biomechanical ones that are superior in function and longevity; to use electrochemical power generation to vastly reduce the need for chemical digestion. In other words, to create a new version of humanity: one designed to thrive in our current world!”

  The speaker paused again to a scattering of applause; most of the crowd, however, appeared too stunned to react. The man gestured once more, and the lights in the room rose as the hologram vanished. “I will stop now for questions before continuing with the full presentation,” he smiled. “I’m certain you have a few!”

  An older gentleman in the first row reached out and touched a button on the arm of his seat, and a single holographic projector overhead caused him to glow slightly blue, indicating that he wished to speak. The man onstage could see several others pushing their buttons, as well, and they were lit by varying shades of light indicating the order in which they would be addressed.

  “You mentioned ‘refining’,” the older man spoke hesitantly. “This entire concept, honestly, makes me incredibly anxious. It seems like a huge risk: messing with the human mind! So, what do you mean by ‘refining’?”

  “Glad you asked,” the speaker onstage grinned, as if he expected the question. He had, of course: his words had been chosen very deliberately to provoke this exact question. “We know that our mappings so far are incredibly accurate,” he went on, “but so far, they’re not accurate enough for our purposes. To this point, we’ve mostly done the mappings in ideal conditions, where the subject is comfortable, relaxed, and relatively stress-free.

  “However,” he continued, “we all know that life is rarely ideal! Our next step is to stress-test the process: to map th
e brain under extreme conditions.”

  “Extreme conditions?” the older gentleman pressed. “Can you elaborate? What sorts of conditions, and how would you create them?”

  “We want to test the process under any and every circumstance we can imagine,” the speaker onstage chuckled. “And as for how…we’re going to use a game! Let me introduce you to…Singularity Online!”

  Chapter 1

  “Aaand…done!” Jeff slid back from his virtual workstation with a sigh of relief, feeling a jolt of excitement race through him as he finished. It was Friday: he was done not just for the weekend, but hopefully, for a fair bit longer than that. He placed his finger and eye on their respective biometric scanners to lock down the station for the next week before leaning back and running his fingers through his red-orange hair. He rose to his feet and stretched; he didn’t know who designed so-called ergonomic chairs, but they had never done anything to prevent his back from being stiff and sore at the end of every workday. He couldn’t even blame it on age: at 26, he was decades away from looking enviously at the rich and their age-reversing nano-treatments.

  Really, he only had himself to blame. Corporate policy at Neo-dyne dictated that employees sit for no more than 45 minutes before taking a mandatory 15-minute exercise break. Jeff understood the reason for the policy, but he had decided years ago that it didn’t apply to him. The powers-that-be disagreed, of course, and they attempted to enforce their will by implementing cutouts that would suspend an employee’s work session after 45 minutes of usage.

  As one of the more talented programmers in his department, though, Jeff was tapped to code that particular upgrade, and somehow, it never seemed to function correctly at his workstation. Not that this was apparent in the security logs: those showed Jeff diligently taking his 15 minute breaks, with zero activity logged into his virtual station during that period.

  “No point in hacking the system if you’re not gonna do it right,” Jeff muttered with a grim smile as he closed the cabinet doors to his station and locked them with another biometric key. Neo-dyne took security incredibly seriously, and Jeff didn’t blame them. Some of the projects he was working on were classified by both his company and the federal government, and there were rumors of projects that were “black” and about which even the board of directors and shareholders were unaware.

  One of his more classified projects was the source of his current excitement. The Beta test for Singularity Online was slated to begin this weekend, and while he honestly couldn’t say he contributed a huge amount to the program’s development, he was excited that he had been selected as one of the lucky testers. Singularity was a massive project, with multiple departments working in isolation on individual elements to keep too much information from leaking out…but gossip, as the saying went, was the only thing faster than light. The rumor mill had been buzzing throughout the supposedly secret Alpha testing, and thanks to rumor, Jeff knew quite a bit more about Singularity’s development than he probably should have.

  Jeff walked down the hall from his cubicle to the source of most of those rumors. “Hey, Phil,” he called out, tapping on the door briefly before opening it into Phil’s office. As a junior executive, Phil rated an actual office instead of a cubicle; as a very junior executive, Phil only rated an interior office down on the same floor as the grunts. “Are you done, yet?” Jeff continued, halting as he saw Phil sitting at his desk, one hand upraised.

  “Yeah, it’s all set,” Phil was speaking into his headset. The holographic glasses attached to it allowed the wearer to see whoever they were conversing with in three-dimensional detail, and the tiny cameras embedded in the device mapped the users face and expressions in excellent detail, so the person on the other end could see Phil just as clearly…if they were lucky enough to be equipped with such cutting-edge technology instead of a simple video screen.

  “I’ve got everything locked down here for the time being,” Phil continued in a rough baritone, leaning back and tossing his long, brown ponytail over the back of his low chair with the ease of long practice. “Selverson has all the briefings for the next month; Chang is dealing with the client-side issues. She can do that as well or better than I could, anyway. I can’t think of anything else that needs doing.” Phil winked briefly at Jeff, motioning for the programmer to enter the office and close the door.

  “Thank you, sir,” Phil finished up his call. “I’ll let you know how things are going when I come back up for air in a week!” Phil’s blue eyes twinkled as he spoke; he was obviously as excited as Jeff was that this week was finally coming to an end. “Talk to you then!”

  Phil slid the holographic glasses carefully off his head – they were worth a significant chunk of his yearly salary – and returned them to a biometric safe built into his desk. With the gadget securely stored, he slipped his own round, thin-framed glasses on and grinned at Jeff. “Excited?” he asked simply.

  “Beyond excited,” Jeff replied, his voice slightly higher-pitched than average, making him sound like a teenager…and causing him to be mistaken for a female on numerous voice-only calls. “By this time tomorrow…”

  “Easy, there, Jeff,” Phil cautioned him, rising from his desk. Where Jeff was pale-skinned and slight, if decently muscled, Phil was broad and weathered. He carefully maintained a van Dyke goatee and mustache, but by this time of day, his face was stubbled with 5 o’clock shadow. His shoulders and waist were both wider than normal, and his hands were large and calloused. His eyes, though, always reminded Jeff of a kid about to pull some prank: wide, clear, and full of mischief.

  “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves,” Phil continued, placing his hand gently on Jeff’s shoulder. “We’ve been lucky enough to be selected as preliminary candidates for the online game. I told you, from what I’m hearing, a solid 40% of those selected won’t end up fitting the profile the company’s looking for. That’s a pretty good chance that at least one of us won’t make it into the game, buddy.”

  Jeff refused to subscribe to Phil’s more pragmatic outlook. “Yeah, but there’s a decent chance we’ll both get in,” he pointed out with barely contained enthusiasm. “We could party together like we used to back at Trenex. It’d be just like old times!”

  Phil laughed at Jeff’s phrasing. “With anyone else, Jeff, ‘partying together’ would include beer, music, and maybe some women of questionable morals,” he pointed out. “You know, rather than joining up in an online game and killing things.”

  “And leveling,” Jeff reminded him as Phil guided him toward the office door, locking it behind them as they left. “I can’t wait to see if the game allows us to transfer real-life skills and knowledge…”

  “Yes, which is why you insisted we both start taking those weapons classes a few months ago,” Phil chuckled. “And why we’ve gone camping in the preserve every weekend, and practiced tracking everything from squirrels to dogs. You’d better hope those skills transfer, buddy, or you owe me a butt-load of liquor for dragging me through all that!”

  “Hey, you liked kendo class,” Jeff protested as they stepped into the elevator, joining a handful of his coworkers. Each of them greeted Phil warmly and gave a brief smile to Jeff in the process. Jeff didn’t mind; he wasn’t the type to go out of his way to make friends, like Phil was. Everybody liked Phil: he was funny, rarely got upset, and treated everyone like an equal, despite his position in the company. Jeff was just kind of there, a situation he had deliberately cultivated.

  “Yeah, it was fun banging bamboo swords into people,” Phil admitted. “If nothing else, it’s a fantastic stress reliever. Seriously, guys, I highly recommend hitting people for fun and sport as a way to deal with tension. I mean, it probably doesn’t help the other guy’s stress much, but…”

  Everyone laughed as the elevator smoothly slid to a stop and the occupants filed out. Jeff marveled once more at how easily Phil connected to people. It was a skill he would likely never master, mostly due to lack of interest.

  “We
ll, last night of freedom,” Phil sighed, slipping his arms into a long, dark brown trench coat as they walked through the lobby. “How should we celebrate? We could hit a club, get wasted, pick up some ladies…”

  “Har, har,” Jeff grumbled good-naturedly. They stepped out one last biometrically sealed door into the crisp, autumn air, and Jeff inhaled deeply. “Dude, I’m never going with you to a club. Not gonna happen.”

  “I know, I know,” Phil sighed, slinging an arm over Jeff’s shoulder. “Not your scene. Let me buy us one, last dinner, though, just in case.”

  “I suppose,” Jeff caved. “But…in case of what?”

  “I’ve sat through all the meetings, Jeff,” Phil explained, suddenly serious as they hailed an autocab. Phil gave the computer the name of some nearby restaurant Jeff didn’t know. “The reports from the Alpha testing were – stunning, honestly. As in, ‘too good to be true’ stunning. What are the odds that the mapping process really replicates every sense perfectly? My guess is that some of the sensations like taste and smell are really just ‘close enough’.”

  “Not necessarily,” Jeff replied thoughtfully, rubbing his head absently. “I’ve seen a lot of the initial algorithms, Phil, and they were incredibly detailed and highly recursive.”

  “But, they were written by people,” Phil pointed out. “As the old saying goes, ‘If the brain was simple enough for us to understand, we would be too simple to understand it’. I mean, you’re a decent programmer, but…”

  Jeff looked at Phil for a moment, troubled. Phil was right: the initial algorithms and routines written by the programming team, while the most complex and innovative coding he had ever seen, were far too simple and granular to truly replicate human sensation. However, those routines, along with most of the base code for Singularity, hadn’t been able to be modified or upgraded by the programming team for almost a year. The code had been given to the quantum AI’s to maintain, and the AI’s had coopted it. No one really knew what it looked like anymore or how, exactly it functioned. All the human programmers had been able to do was create monitoring subroutines to constantly check on the evolution of the world inside those computers and make sure that the Alpha Testers who went inside were healthy and safe.