Shaman's Call 2- Prologue (Patreon)

Prologue- Damage Control

Tom was lost in thought. He had been gaming a great deal lately. In fact, it had almost taken over his life. At least that was what his wife, Karen said. Wife was sorta generous. When she had learned she couldn’t have children, something had broken in her. Now, they were two people who lived in the same apartment.

It was a small apartment but not nearly so tiny as most of the population. Tom was fortunate enough to have a job and not just as a glorified button pusher to meet a legislative quota for human involvement in an industry. At least, he didn’t like to think of himself like that. He worked for Quantum Games. At least that was the subsidiary that he worked for. The actual structure of multi-national corporations was a complicated mess.

He was proud of the products they made. Humanity’s role in the world had changed but at least Quantum Games gave people a way to enjoy their lives. Tom’s job was in marketing. It was important to keep up favorable impressions about their products, especially their new flagship, Legends of Selmia.

Oh, the AI’s did most of the work. They designed campaigns to promote the game. Crunched the numbers for what would be the most productive ways to connect with prospective users. Still, there was something missing from the AI. The human element they called it, but Tom liked to think of it as the ‘gotcha factor.’

Not that Tom was a salesman. Far from it. He didn’t even like people that much, but he knew people. He could read them in heartbeat and not with any of that psycho babble stuff. No, Tom was a numbers guy. People lied, but numbers never did and all human behavior and preference could be boiled down to numbers. It was just that it sometimes too a person to put it into perspective.

Thus, he worked in what was deemed a high-stress position now and was afforded free access to Legends of Selmia as a perk. Sometimes after a grueling four hour day he would just need to plug into his pod and unwind. Lately, it had been even more fun than before. Sure, he had to create a new avatar when closed beta ended and the open beta started, but he didn’t mind too much. In fact, the game had taken on a great deal of life lately.

Now, he was on his way to the office. Public transportation was such a pain. Part of modern life was that there was little reason to be around people. Few people went out and most either worked from home or didn’t work at all. That was life in a most human society with AI’s running everything. But those same AI’s insisted that private vehicles were destructive to the world and thus public transportation was the only way to get anywhere. Fortunately, the system was much more comprehensive than hinted at in old holo-movies.

Still, people smelled funny and made weird sounds. Real life was no where near as sanitary as life in Legends of Selmia. That was really saying something given his recent experiences. Thus, on the few occasions he was called into the office to work, he tried to zone out and ignore his fellow passengers. He would contemplate the upcoming meeting. AI had determined that sometimes human productivity and input was maximized when they worked in face to face collaborative efforts.

It was only the raised tone of voice that drew his attention. He looked over and saw a man standing up waving his hands demonstratively. He was very worked up about whatever he was saying. “I swear. I saw it with my own eyes.”

A woman sitting in the tube across from him scoffed. “You are just watching too many conspiracy casts.”

A young man a few feet away snorted at her words.

The standing man continued, “No. It was real. It had these long black wings mottled gray skin with these weird black symbols on it.”

“Sure,” the young man replied. “Got your hands on too many stims, didn’t you?”

A mousy looking woman several seats down said, “No, I think I saw something about it on the news holos.”

Tom tuned the rest of the discussion out. There had been a number of bizarre events reported lately. First had been a rash of disappearances. That was the simplest of the stories to explain but the one that affected him most personally. All the disappearances were tied to Legends of Selmia so it had been a marketing nightmare. Quantum games eventually got the story quashed but that didn’t stop the weirdness.

Reports of holes in the air, black clouds of, well, something and tales of winged monsters. It was all enough to drive the over-wrought imagination of a populace with an unlimited way to spend their time but little sense of purpose. Hopefully, this unscheduled meeting was unrelated, but Tom knew his luck wasn’t that good. He just wished that real life had a stat screen like Legends of Selmia.

Once he exited the tube it was only a quick elevator ride up to the 113th floor. He’d never been this high up in the Quantum games headquarters. That alone was enough to make him nervous. When he reached the reception desk a robot looked at him. “Welcome, Mr. Meese. You are the last to arrive for today’s meeting. The other attendees are already waiting outside of conference room 4.”

“Okay, do I need any new authorizations for my badge?”

“Your employee badge has already been updated so that you could get off the elevator on this floor.” Then the robot extended an arm to direct Tom.

He followed a short hall until he reached a waiting area outside of a double door. There were half a dozen rather plush chairs. Two of the were occupied. The young woman drew his attention first. Tom knew her type. She was wearing professional attire but couldn’t have been older than twenty-five. Reasonably pretty she dressed to minimize that and tried to project an air of experience. She was likely some type of genius with double PhD’s before she was twenty but lacking interpersonal skills.

Across from her was a handsome young man. Tom guessed he was in his mid to late twenties. The man didn’t even notice Tom’s arrival as he was so busy trying to chat the woman up. A side effect of the modern world was a lack of opportunity to interact with members of the other sex, or even people at all, at least in a face to face manner. That didn’t mean that human biology had changed though. Attraction was still a thing.

The woman was engaged in conversation but much more aware of her surroundings. Tom saw the moment her eyes narrowed as she noticed him. She waited for the young man to finish speaking before saying, “Robert, it looks like we aren’t alone any longer.”

Robert was started but then looked over at Tom before quickly standing and extending his hand. Shaking was a bit outdated, but like all things, old customs or styles of dress would cycle around from time to time. Tom took an immediate liking to this guy. He just struck you as the straightforward type and his grip was firm.

“Hello, I’m Robert DuPont.”

“Glad to meet you, Robert, I’m Tom Meese. Wait. Dupont? As in the DuPont’s?”

The man blushed slightly before nodding. “Yeah, that’s my family. I’m still just Robert.”

“I told you that everyone was gonna react like that. It isn’t often that we normal people get to meet the heir to one of the richest families in the world,” the woman said. There was something about her speech pattern that seemed familiar.

“One of the heirs,” Robert corrected.

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just like to know all the variables. Still trying to figure out why I was called here today.”

“It’s cool. I have friend who says things like that. As to why we are here. I have no idea. My family owns some shares of Quantum Games but we aren’t a major shareholder or anything.”

Tom looked at the guest badges both of them were wearing. Robert DuPont and Tara Williams. “You can tell from my badge that I’m a Quantum employee. But I don’t work in operations. I’m just a number cruncher in marketing.”

At that moment, the doors to conference room 4 opened. Out stepped an attorney. Well two of them, one human and one robot. It was pretty obvious which of them was colder. “There is no reason to be humble. Mr. Meese is a VP of Marketing. He is a bit of a genius at using numbers to extrapolate human response.”

Tara scoffed at that. The robot lawyer looked from his human counterpart and then at Tara. “I fail to comprehend what was funny about that statement.”

“You would. It’s simple. Human’s can’t be boiled down to numbers,” Tara replied.

“And Ms. Williams here has a PhD in psychology,” the human attorney began before Tara cut him off.

“Ahem… double PhD’s in psychology and sociology.”

“Yes, yes, double PhD’s. Although you aren’t here for your academic pedigree. Now, if you will join us at the table, I fear that we have a long day ahead of us.”

“Wait if she isn’t here as a psychologist then why is she…” Tom’s voice trailed off. The numbers always made sense if you looked at them the right way. He turned towards Tara. “Tainia?”

Her eyes grew wide. “How’d you know… Wait. Robert. I should have seen it. Elgar?”

The only one smiling at that point was Robert. “Wait. We got the crew together outside of the game. How cool is that?”