I hate Disclaimers. Okay, I own nothing.
Chapter One
My full name is Azure Level, Four Spar, Extension 1, Down-Messenger, Twenty-two. My chosen name is Zemfar. I like the sound of the word, which is all the reason you need for a chosen name.
My "game" name is Crayak. Like Zemfar, it doesn't mean anything in particular. I just thought it sounded breezy.
The Pangabans were an interesting race. They lived beneath an eternally grey, clouded sky. They had never seen their own sun clearly, had no notion of stars and other planets.
Which is why I chose the Gunja Wave.
The Gunja Wave were a primitive, aggressive species, only dimly self-aware. But their DNA held promise for evolution.
"I'll take the Gunja Wave, if you choose to accept." I memmed my friend Azure Level, Seven Spar, Extension Two, Down-Messenger, Forty-one. His chosen name is Toomin. His "game"name is Ellimist.
"Gladly." he memmed back. "You overestimate the power of sheer aggression."
"Shall we immerse?"
"On the other side."
I opened the shunt and entered the game.
I floated bodilessly above the Gunja Wave world. Ellimist would obviously part the clouds of the Pangaban moon. I calculated the odds of evolution following the parting. Predator eels inhabited the Pangaban moon. The Pangabans would have to evolve into small, fast creatures to avoid being wiped out by the eels.
I decided my move. I increased the rate of reproduction in the Gunja Wave. There would be a limited food supply due to the population increase pressures. The Gunja Wave would be able to see the Pangabans quite clearly, if my prediction about Ellimist parting the Pangaban moon's clouds was correct.
"Shall we accelerate?" I memmed to Ellimist.
"Fire it up." He memmed back.
A hurricane! A hurricane of wind and water and earth and time itself. A swirling madness of change. It was the ultimate moment in the game. We had made our changes and now watched time reel forward.
Sure enough, the food supply of the Gunja Wave decreased. Aggressiveness increased. Squabbles broke out.
No!
The Gunja Wave were turning cannibalistic! Half the population was eaten! But then, they saw the Pangabans. They took an interest in building spacecraft to reach the moon, to eat the Pangabans.
A million years after I had increased the population, the Gunja Wave achieved space flight. They landed on the Pangaban moon in astoundingly primitive spacecraft. Within the first hundred years of their arrival, the Pangabans were extinct.
I memmed laughter to Ellimist. He sighed.
"What was your move?" he asked.
I explained.
"See you on the perches for free flight?"
"I'm there."
I shut down the game and opened my eyes to the real world around me.