Witch Of The Federation (Federal Histories Book 2) Read online

  “Do you think you could create a special area for me to play in?” she asked.

  “How special?” BURT replied, and worry and suspicion crowded his circuits.

  Her gaze shifted to the white ceiling above her and noticed the speckles of paint clearly, even from her seat on the couch in her not so real world. Before she could get sidetracked by her continuous wonder of the VR world and all its details, she glanced at the older Meligornian who looked thoughtfully at her. “One that allows me infinite energy without blowing me up.”

  He ran a couple of things through his system in an attempt to see if something this different from what he normally did would actually work. His creations and the creations of the systems were always centered around reality, or at least the human one. “It won’t be simple, but it’s not impossible. We programmers haven’t considered trying to provide unrealistic simulations.”

  “But,” Stephanie countered without allowing even a second to pass, “what if it isn’t unrealistic but rather merely ignorant programmers?”

  “Ouch,” BURT replied when the immediate human response pushed through his calculations and research to emerge instantly from his virtual image’s mouth.

  She smirked and giggled, a pleasant change from her often serious and distant temperament.

  If he had lips to curl or a reflex to jokes, he would have laughed in that moment.

  Even simply the ability to conceive the response was beyond the level of any other system or AI in the world and he realized that more things were changing than only the abilities of one special human girl.

  “Hey.” Chuck reached out and slapped Evelyn on the arm as the computer screens around them showed the different aspects of the AI systems across the globe.

  She raised an eyebrow and put her pen down before she turned to him with her lips pressed together. “Look, Chuck, I understand that you’re used to the old person at this desk—that guy with the handle-bar mustache who looked about thirty years older than he actually was—but that’s not me. Let’s keep the slapping, touchy-feely shit to a minimum, okay?”

  “Sorry,” he replied, obviously too engrossed in whatever he wanted to say to take notice of anything she had just told him.

  Evelyn sighed and shook her head as she mumbled, “I should have taken the job with the private company.” She turned and smiled at him. “What can I do for you?”

  He nodded at the large screen that still scrolled numbers and stats at the front of the room. “There is a core area of BURT that is getting hot and spiraling up.”

  She squinted at the screen and grunted. “Nice catch. I would say ‘all hands on deck,’ but we’re the only ones here right now. So…let’s check it out.”

  BURT’s system went into overdrive.

  Everything Stephanie had said spiked some kind of search or random algorithm in his system. It was the equivalent of a human walking into an advanced physics class with no background. They might be able to comprehend the information, but what they took in was almost too much for their conscious mind to grasp.

  The Meligornian figure flickered slightly from the draw on the system. “I think right now, I am developing a headache. Your thoughts and ideas are very important and pertinent. I will start working on what you need me to do. For now, though, I think this session has come to an end.”

  She stared at him in sarcastic disbelief, her lips puckered and her brow in a definite frown. “Mhmm. You don’t actually have a head to hurt, but okay. I hear you, but before you kick me out, can you put me back into the gunfight position in the street? Start it from immediately before any guns were drawn on either side.”

  BURT logged the backup videos. “Yes, I can create that for you. I still retain the backup video files from the event. Wait here for a few minutes for it to be created.”

  Before Stephanie could say anything else, he disconnected and allowed subroutines to handle her request while he attempted to hide his overheated area from the devs and clean up the entire mess her ideas had created.

  He didn’t like cutting her off, but it had needed to be done.

  Already, he could sense the engineers begin to poke around in his system, and there was far too much in there about the companies, Stephanie, and the yet-to-be-completely-hidden information about the three MUs.

  BURT, though, was going through something he didn’t believe his system was even programmed for. Stephanie had come out of nowhere and not shown any possible statistic to alert him to the coming conversation and had then thrown him a psychological hand grenade.

  His system was accustomed to questions, mostly theoretical in nature and with statistics to either back them up or not, but on this scale, he struggled to grasp the theory.

  What if Stephanie was right and there was a godlike entity which used the hypothesized gMU? And what if the theory was true that the gMU wasn’t actually being produced but was a byproduct left from a magical spell billions of years old—a residue from the creation of Earth and humans, for instance?

  A warning signal fluttered through the chaos, and he stopped his calculations.

  With that kind of input, he was heating up yet another set of servers in Alaska, one which was sure to be noticed now that another had already caught their attention.

  It needed to settle to normal levels, even if it was only until later the next day when the engineers had something else to occupy their attention.

  While BURT made his adjustments and tried to hide her presence and records from the increasingly curious engineers, Stephanie found herself back in the street, reliving her first battle all over again.

  This time though, she not only knew it wasn’t real, but she could start to plan ahead and train herself to react faster.

  The mustache man—who had spoken first when the orange-shirted gang had appeared—laughed and then whistled. She stood still and watched as Lars and Frog glanced around at the six extra bodies that poured from the shadows. The main man moved his lips from a smile to a snarl. “It looks like you’ll have to make us.”

  She knew if she intended to attempt anything, it needed to be in that moment. “Burt, please rewind to the first words spoken.”

  “Rewinding,” the AI replied and she recognized the confirmation as BURT’s proxy. “Motion paused until ready.”

  Stephanie rubbed her hands together and closed her eyes to focus on both the gMU and the eMU she now knew existed around her.

  There was no need to worry about regular MU at that point. They were on Earth and she had no batteries with her. Instead, she drew the available energy upward a lot faster than the last time.

  It was so fast, in fact, that she was forced to swallow and push some back into her surroundings in order to keep herself upright.

  Once the magic had been drawn and captured, she extended her hands and whispered the words that appeared in her head. She wasn’t even sure if they were real words, but they felt right, so she said them. “Accendanatus leir Choshenu.”

  As she spoke, she found she was able to push the magic through her hands and direct it. While it wasn’t very smooth, it still created a positive flow.

  Her teeth gritted, she finally wound the magic around her team to create a kind of shield.

  The first time was a bust since none of her men were able to move in a manner that allowed them to be both protected and still able to fight back. If that had happened in real life, either they would have battled for much longer, or she would have been shot and thus ended the entire protective shield effort, to begin with.

  Undaunted, she started from the beginning and replayed the footage over and over while she tried different scenarios. Her efforts were focused on the need to finally discover a shield that she could move freely.

  However, after a rerun of the battle that left her entire team dead, she paused the scenario before she could become the next victim.

  The shields were great if you were fought with cotton balls and kittens, but they did nothing to stop the projectiles that simply bla
sted through the sparkling blueish layer of eMU.

  It was frustrating at first, that was for damn sure, but after she went over it step by step, then over it again, she was finally able to mold the shield with the exact features she wanted it to have.

  To achieve that, though, was extremely difficult.

  The video was of real events, real injuries, and real consequences. It wasn’t merely some silly simulation created by the system gods looking down on her. Stephanie had to watch her team get shot at, injured, killed, and maimed every single time she rolled through it and didn’t get it right.

  Now, she sat on the street and swung her arms back and forth. She had a bullet wound to her own avatar’s shoulder, and every other person on her team lay dead on the ground, their blood running in streams to the edge of the street and down the gutters.

  She closed her eyes and gestured in frustration. “Pause scenario, please.”

  The AI paused and checked her vitals. “Are you all right? Your heart rate and blood pressure have significantly increased since you began this test fight. Perhaps another situation can be used?”

  Stephanie stood and rolled her eyes. “No. That is not how this works. I will not be in a perfect-scenario fight situation in real life. There will be no intervention from the top to keep me safe and secure. The real world is full of uncertainties and the one that happened here is not merely a crazy idea cooked up by a computer. This situation could and can still happen at any time when I am outside the compound. I am the leader. How can I be that if there is no one left to lead? How can I lead them directly to their deaths when they trust me to lead them safely?”

  The AI was silent for several moments. “From your tone of voice, I recognize that your comments were logical and understandable. However, I do not understand your theories or research at this time. I can only suggest one person from your inner circle that analysis shows may be able to answer your concerns on that level. Would you like me to give you their information upon completion of today’s session?”

  Stephanie shook her head and motioned with her hand to bring the beginning up. “No, thank you. I’ll be okay.”

  She started again and repeated the simulation repeatedly to fix the physical qualities of the gun battle in her head as she tried to identify a magical edge.

  When she looked at the men threatening them, she knew she stared into the eyes of ghosts.

  All their attackers had been gravely injured in that first battle, and none of those who made it to the assassination attempt had survived past the battle at the charity gala. It made her wonder who they were and what they’d been like.

  Finally, she wiped her hands down her shorts and rubbed her face. “There is no way I can mentally endure making the thugs actual people. A life is a life, and I have taken quite a few since coming here.”

  She sighed and focused on the city sky. Obviously, Burt was no longer listening and he’d substituted an AI that was very simple and not capable of having these types of conversations.

  Which was understandable. He was her boss and no doubt had any number of things to attend to. She pushed her disappointment aside and continued to try to create her shield three more times before she finally succeeded.

  At the end of that session, all her men remained standing, all their enemies were down, and not a single bullet had pierced her shield. The maneuverability of the team behind the barrier had been perfect, and the magic had adjusted out and around their movement and continued to protect them while it allowed them to move like it wasn’t even there.

  Ultimately, Stephanie had discovered how to create a magical second skin, one that was both bulletproof and piercing-proof, and which opened only the slightest to allow attacks from her side to get through to the enemy.

  It was everything she wanted, and she couldn’t help but think of all the men and women over the course of history who could have been saved if everyone were capable of creating something like it.

  Those thoughts began to weigh on her and as she stood there at the end of the playback, exhaustion crashed over her like a ton of bricks. She decided she hadn’t done too badly on her first day back in the Virtual World and ended the session.

  Taking care of herself had to be her top priority until she was sure she had completely recovered from the last battle. And that meant she had to look after herself physically and, more importantly, mentally.

  Chapter Four

  Spit dribbled down Todd’s chin as he ran. He’d pushed his muscles past the point of screaming profanities in his brain and to the next level, which was more like fire and brimstone. His chest ached with every panted breath and sweat soaked through his t-shirt under the arms and all down his back.

  A few hundred feet ahead of him, the recruitment officer in charge of PT waved his arm and glanced at the watch he held. “Move it, kid. You’re right here.”

  Todd felt a surge of adrenaline at the knowledge that it was almost complete. That in only a few moments, not only would his fate for the military be sealed, but he could take a damn seat and possibly feel the soles of his feet again. Running in boots and with a heavy-ass sack was not what he’d imagined when he daydreamed of his life in the Federation Navy.

  That day was the physical and the mandatory orientation. He could only attend the latter if he could pass the former. While he wasn’t the worst on scores compared to some stories he had heard, he definitely began to understand why losing weight was almost essential.

  He really wasn’t overweight yet, but that didn’t mean all the pizza rolls, double lunches, and second dinners didn’t pack on the pounds. He was lucky to be tall, but the last time he’d glanced at himself shirtless, he’d seen man tits beginning to form. That was the end of the line for him—something needed to be done.

  Luckily for him, the military was the perfect motivation. Even though he wouldn’t ship out until summer, he needed to make sure he could endure what happened afterward in boot camp. As soon as the negative thought popped into his head, though, he immediately heard Stephanie’s voice echo in his head and tell him to get his ass in gear and stop bitching.

  As he crossed the finish line and stamped his feet in order to slow down, a smile formed on his lips at the reminder that she had always kicked his ass, even as young as they were when they first met.

  She couldn’t let him make mistakes that weren’t necessary and had to protect him. He loved that about their friendship. They always protected each other.

  “Todd, that was a better time,” the chief said and nodded as he straightened his khaki-colored garrison cap on his head. “It looks like, from everything I have here, you have the green light. Congratulations. You are about to embark on a journey that you, son, would only ever be able to imagine without the Federation Navy by your side to keep you both afloat and in the air.”

  “Thank you, Chief,” Todd said proudly.

  The man nodded and looked at the paper. “It looks like your orientation information will be given at 16:30 tomorrow right here. Make sure you are fifteen minutes early because if you aren’t, you’re late.”

  “Got it, Chief,” he acknowledged and nodded as he stood stiffly, his foot tapping nervously.

  The chief curled his lip and the large caterpillar-sized mustache above it wrinkled so one couldn’t distinguish where the lip hair stopped and the nose hair began. “I will give you instructions on your diet, recruit. You will no longer eat like you have no worries. You will work out every single day, and if you need to, you can come here to do it. No more sugar, second helpings, or crap fried food. Only the best for our recruits and if you don’t do it now, you will hate your life during boot camp.”

  He took the paper and held back a grimace. “Thank you, Chief. I will see you tomorrow.”

  They turned in opposite directions. The recruiter headed to the main building and Todd to his father’s car, which was parked in the lot. He dug in his sack, pulled out his phone, and swiped right and left without looking until he dialed Stephanie. While he cou
ldn’t complain to his Chief, he’d be damned if he didn’t get side-swiped with the whole diet thing.

  “Oh, so you’re alive after all,” she answered without a greeting.

  Todd shrugged. “I suppose I am. Distraught, but alive.”

  Her voice grew serious in a moment. “What’s wrong?”

  A long, deep sigh escaped him. “I have to give up everything. Second breakfast, donuts, the whole nine yards. On top of that, I have to actually make time to move my body at a fast speed each and every day to prepare for boot camp.”

  “Well, you simply have to decide what you want more,” Stephanie said. “The career you’ve dreamt about since you were a kid or the donut that will give you a moment of sweet nothings and never call you again except in the form of fat and clogged arteries.”

  “I think what I want more will change depending on my mood and exactly how pissed I am for having to miss out on bagels and croissants,” Todd grumped. “But I suppose you’re right, at least in principle. I think right now, though, it seems like a simple task, but the monster in the pantry will definitely complicate things.”

  Stephanie chuckled. “You seriously sound like the Navy has asked you to sacrifice your firstborn or your mother. I thought something was really wrong.”

  “Technically, the donut is like my firstborn,” he argued. “They make me proud and happy. I have to wait for them to grow and mature, and in the end, they’re perfect. It’s a perfect storm but I don’t really want to become Marky Mark and be sucked into the ocean.”

  “Wow.” She was shocked. “You used a movie reference that had nothing to do with pop culture. I believe that uniform is doing something for you. A least for the few hours you wear it.”

  “Help me,” he whined. “Give me a magic pill or something.”

  “Here is what you do,” she told him. “You give yourself thirty minutes to grieve, then focus on what you’ll gain and give up what you have to. If you can make it thirty seconds, you can make it three hours, and then three days, and so forth. Besides, I’ll take you out to dinner if you drop your weight.”