Chapter 7: Forms of Energy

-Ashe, 4D

It was said that the founders of Fourth Delrina had eliminated all suffering and violence. They almost succeeded at eliminating violence. While there was a lot of violence in the Eternal Sphere, it kept any sort of violence from happening in the 4D world. And they had done pretty good with eliminating suffering as well. There were no diseases and you had to really unlucky to get hurt in an accident. Or even on purpose. With no violence, people felt safe and happy. Death was like some fairy tale and the medical network helped immensely if you got sad.

But some forms of suffering did exist. Like being made to get up before your body felt ready.

"Leave me be," Ashe grumbled as he pulled his pillow over his ears

"You said you had things to do in the Eternal Sphere today," his butler reminded him.

"It can wait, he's traveling."

"No, he's in Mars studying."

"Well I can rest a bit longer… gah, okay." This arguing with the robot had roused him enough that it was going to be hard to get back to sleep. He felt light-headed and achy. Although not quite as bad as being hungover in the Eternal Sphere, it was bad as far as 4D suffering got. "Get me some medicine first, then I'll shower. I'll be out for breakfast soon."

"As you want." The butler gave him a cloudy white drink, not thick enough to be milk but not clear enough to be pure water. Ashe drank that, then went to the bathroom.

"Think I overdid it at that last party," he grumbled. He'd made friends with the bunny girl from Jubilee Square; her name was Bonita. Bonita really liked the party scene and had invited Ashe to several more since. Last night's event had been rather wild, enough to make him feel uncomfortable at the start. After a while, he had sort of gotten into it. It had just went on too late before he realized it and now he didn't have much sleep.

He still felt bad when he was done showering, although it did help clear up his head. Then the medicine finished kicking in. The aches went away, although he didn't feel quite as energetic as usual.

After a breakfast of poached eggs and toast, he checked on a craft site that gave out hobby models. He had been on this hobby for quite some time now, building models of sailing ships, star ships, air ships, and other vehicles if they caught his fancy. The way the site worked started simple, but could get complicated. One started with some basic models which cost nothing. When complete, the crafter sent a scan of it to the company, who judged it and assigned it points based on a variety of factors. The crafter would then be able to use those points to buy a newer model.

But when one got good enough, just having the points wasn't enough to get a new model. There were special offer models available if one logged onto the site at the right times. And in order to get a good reputation in the model crafting hobby, one had to acquire one of the rare models that were worth a lot of points if completed well. Ashe was looking for a good rare to crack the million point barrier. He currently had 860,375 points.

On checking the site at that time, there were six special offers: a triple-mast galleon, a set of six starfighters, a Roak king's ship, an exotic Tetragenes sports car, a rare horse-drawn trade wagon, and a rare Pangalactic scientific research starship.

Ashe quickly selected on the Pangalactic starship. It had been a highly anticipated model that had been announced a while ago, but hadn't yet shown. Although there wasn't any information on point-earning potential, being one of the first set to complete a model was known to be worth more than usual. It cost him half a million points, but he usually got the cost back and then some. In order to get it doubled, he'd have to craft this one with great care.

Happy with that find, he went up to his game room to log into the Eternal Sphere. The model wouldn't arrive for a while, so he could catch up on what Ashton was doing. And even better, he now had a quest that would net him a lot of prestige if things went well. Most players would be confident, but Ashe knew that with his challenge play, he couldn't let himself get too comfortable.


-Ashton, Mars library

There were a number of references to demons in this library. There were a number of other references to dragons too. When he cross-checked for demon dragons, around a dozen books came up. He knew quite a bit more now. But did he know the important stuff in defeating one?

"Are you finding what you want?" an older voice said.

He looked up to see one of the elders of Mars looking over the shelves next to him. "I think," he said.

"Are you looking for new crests? Your basic ones there are grass and…"

"Lightning," he said, showing the back of his right hand. "Thanks, but no… have you heard of the demon dragon in Salva Drift? I'm looking to defeat that monster."

"I have heard about that. They would welcome someone who could." His eyes drifted to the shelves as he thought. "Travelers say that it is of the elements of Fire and Ice. It has two heads, but uses one element for one head. As it is a demon, it would hold some of the powers of the demon world. Take some protection blessed against demons with you, and to fire and ice if you can afford it besides the holy charms. With your elements, the fire head would be the tougher of the two to take down. But such beasts are known to revive their other heads if you leave one alert for too long."

"So I should try to take out the fire head first," Ashton thought aloud. His other two elements who help take down the ice head faster.

"That would be wise. Good luck, young man."

Feeling more confident, he left the library. At the door, he nearly ran into an odd character in a blue hooded jacket. "Pardon me," he said, then went out to leave the village. He wondered why the guy had been dressed like that. It made him look like one of the gang of bandits that hung around Herlie. Although it could have been one of them, Ashton doubted it. They usually steered clear of the 'haunted' woods near Mars.

He then began the walk to his next goal, Cross Castle. Technically, it would have been a shorter walk to cut across the farms and wild countryside to Salva. Realistically, he knew that the farming lords could be a hassle to a lone traveler and the countryside was truly wild, with many monster nests. The road which led to the castle town, then to Salva was the faster route.

A couple of hours into the trip, he looked off the roads and spotted something in the open fields. "Blackberry bushes?" he said softly to himself. "I wonder if they have any ripe fruits." He left the road and went to go check them out.

Blackberries were highly valued by travelers like himself. They were good for a quick energy boost and they made one feel better after an exhausting battle. According to Bowman, blackberries had natural and potent healing properties, if you knew how to prepare them right. Finding fresh blackberries would be a large boon, especially considering that he was getting into. They would spoil or get squashed by the time he reached Salva, though.

On the other hand, he could harvest what he could reasonably take, then go into castle market and trade them for preserved berries, which would last a great deal longer than fresh. He could also make a small profit doing this when the picking would only take a few minutes. Ashton figured it was a good idea.

When he got close enough to inspect, he saw that the bushes were in various stages. Some had flowers, others had nubs, some had unripe fruit, but a fair amount had ripe and ready berries. Ashton pulled out a small bag from his traveler's pack and set about to picking some. One always had to watch out for bugs while doing this, but he found enough clean ones that he felt safe in eating a few himself.

He filled up his bag, so put it away. He then noticed a young man with blue hair coming into the field as well. Giving a friendly wave, Ashton called out, "Hey, there's plenty of berries around if you need them. Didn't I see you in Lasguss?"

"Yes, what of it?" he asked.

Still too cold, Ashton thought. "Nothing really, just good to see that you made it through safely. So, ah… careful of the snakes around here. I saw a venomous slint under the bushes over there."

The swordsman shrugged and began checking over the bushes. Ashton figured it was better to move on at that point.


-C.J., 4D

On flipping through various message boards, C.J. found a topic that bothered her. Titled 'Are they forcing life restarts?', the TC had noted that the doctors were pushing starting his life over more often as he got older. 'Before, it was just extreme circumstances that got that option to be mentioned, and even then it was discouraged,' he had written. 'Lately though, it seems like any report of trouble of any sort will get this brought up for me. One time the doctor was quite pushy about it. They make me think that I'm doing a foolish thing to continue living this life when we know that we're immortal. Heck, it's said that some lifetime workers have never restarted and no one brings up the issue with them. But I'm just an ordinary citizen and it looks like they want me to give up.'

It looked like other older citizens were also getting this restart option dumped on them every time. And that included Sphere restrictions. 'When they start doing that, you really have to fight to prove that you want to live,' someone had added. 'They don't say it directly, but the message is that you should complete all business here in 4D and there in the Eternal Sphere, then forget everything and enter a virtual death. And I don't have proof of this, but I swear that any time I get a restriction, my luck goes way up and my games almost complete themselves, or get to a point where it forces a genre shift. Especially with the marriage shifts. It seems like I get marriage proposals or confessions of true love right after I get a restriction placed, within days, sometimes just hours.'

That was how it was with Chris and Celine, C. J. realized. Shortly after Dr. Hall had put a restriction on her account, Chris had opened up to her. And he had managed to grow enough backbone in order to tell Rozelia straight out that he wasn't going to marry her. When she had first encountered him, he had been close to panicking because a restaurant owner was ranting at him about not paying for a cup of tea. He was the Prince, so she could assume that he'd never had to deal with that kind of obligation directly before. Was it entirely her interference, or was it tampering on behalf of the medical community who wanted her to start over?

From reading through, there were many stories like this. One poster seemed to have a valid theory. 'I think they really do want us to restart our lives after we've lived for a certain amount of time. Don't you remember being on the waiting list for a child? Everyone would love to have a baby to care for, but the government is insistent that we cannot outgrow 4D. Since our population can't grow, how do you get new children? You have to force the older members to die so you can reform them into infants! But then when those infants grow up, they will want children, but they will force their children of a previous lifetime to die in order to have those new children. We're kind of terrible when you think of it that way.

'Or, it could just be the government's way of controlling us, so that no one lives long enough to realize it.'

That was depressing to think about. But the whole point was to keep herself from being depressed, so that they didn't force a restart on her. C.J. made a post validating things like the sudden luck and declarations of love upon receiving a Sphere restriction. 'I don't feel ready to do this. Anyone know how to convince the doctors to stop being so pushy? I got one called on me just because I was getting bored between hobbies!'

After marking the topic so she could be notified of new posts, she logged back into the Eternal Sphere. It really did seem like the game was trying to make her wrap things up with Celine. Just to be sure, she checked on her other profile

Planet-Tetragenes (home), Expel (destination)

Character- Opera Vectra

Style- adventure

Quest status- Searching for Ernest

Play as Opera?

It had been a while. Might as well check on her, C.J. thought.


-Opera, approaching Expel

Space was vast… vastly boring, especially if one was traveling alone. But things were about to get exciting again, she thought. A new planet lay head of her, a blue-green jewel speck in the blackness of space.

Opera looked over the data file for this planet. It was laughable how scant the Federation's information on this planet was. Obviously, they were going to be careful with an underdeveloped planet with a sentient species. But some people weren't so careful. That included her boyfriend, Ernest.

The silly man… he had been her archeology professor when she was a graduate student. However, the university could never really control him. He would hear of some intriguing ruin on some outlying world and zip off to go see for himself. But he was tenured and too popular with the students when he was actually on campus. Most of the time, he kept in good contact and would be back in a week or two. This time, he had been gone three months. So what was the university staff to do?

Obviously, send an equally nutty professor to run out and fetch him.

As the daughter and heir of a massively successful business family, she had the money and means to go planet hopping on her own. As a professor of history and sociology of tribal cultures, she had plenty of experience with developing planets. Usually they weren't this advanced; she noted that although Expel didn't have a wide network, they did have local electrical power and water systems. She could probably get away with most of her things. Most. She picked up her pulse rifle and started modifying it. On worlds without guns, she could manage to pass it off as a strange club.

Yes, the UP3 laws were silly at times. However, there were just some things that one shouldn't do on a low technology planet. A gun could get one mistaken for a goddess which, while nice, was terribly detrimental to the young society and dangerous if the locals learned that the power was all in the 'club'.

There was something more worrisome, though. Opera could look out the viewing screen and see a massive pale green energy body hanging around this star system. Shaped like a swirl around an orb of light, it was a Class 9 energy body, which by all rights should be several parsecs away from here. That's where it had last been recorded, but here it was. It did absolutely nothing.

That really was what was most bizarre, maybe worrisome, about it. A galactic body of that force should usurp the sun's lead and make the system revolve around it. Or worse, fall into it the native star, leading to its spectacular demise. The energy body could get away from that kind of explosion with barely a ripple of disturbance in its flow. So what was it doing nothing here for?

Well, it wasn't like there was some intelligence behind its positioning. Opera finished up her gun modification. In a pinch, it could be used to fire some shots, but they wouldn't be near as powerful as the gun was unmodified. She did a quick brushing of her long hair and considered changing her clothes. She looked classy and sexy on her planet, but what about this one? When she landed, she should make some quick observations of locals to find something suitable. She could get the computer to make her a few outfits that wouldn't look too alien.

"Emergency landing preparations started," the computer abruptly announced.

Opera froze. "Landing? We aren't that close yet."

The console flickered, but all the numbers looked good. In fact, they looked just like they had the last time she had checked. "The energy field of the Class 9 body has caused a fatal chain of glitches. Remain seated and fasten safety harness as the life capsule is contained."

After grabbing her bag of travel supplies and her gun, she strapped herself into the pilot's chair. A circle of metal came up around the chair and encased her. These emergency capsules always made her feel claustrophobic. She soon felt it separate from the main ship; a window became unblocked so she could see around her. The ship itself didn't even have a trail of smoke or fire, just a glowing mass because the atmospheric protectors couldn't turn on in time. Falling like a dead hunk of metal, it crashed into a desert that lay past some mountains.

On the other hand, the escape capsule managed to remain functional. Using backwards thrust jets, it slowed its descent. This got it far separated from the main ship. She could see that it was heading for a thick forest that stood near a small village. Off in the distance, there was a grand white castle.

She quickly made the decision to get away from the small village quickly. It was out of the way, so fewer people would be passing through. Although Ernest would certainly be at some abandoned ruins, he had to go into a town to get supplies, and a bigger town meant it was more likely she'd encountered someone who'd seen him. She could also get locations of such ruins at a bigger town.

Then again… when she looked around, it seemed that she was falling deep within this thick forest. It could take her some time to get out.

"Just great, Ernest," Opera said quietly. "I come looking for my sweetheart and I wind up crashing out too."

A/N: Yeah, I'm bringing in Opera early. Getting her and Ernest at their usual time requires a lot of backtracking. With as much rambling as this story does naturally, I wanted to avoid backtracking too much.