Did You Pass 3

The Buddhi was talking to Mystic and Leo.
“We have to assume the worst, that both you and Mike, as Sim natives,
that is, as Earth inhabitants, are in great danger, M.
It is also possible that Leo and the Princess are too.
I think that it is also very likely that as soon as he is no longer useful, Leo’s exHost will disappear, like several of the other hosts have recently.
No bodies have been found so they may not be dead, but I think, again, we must assume the worst, that whoever is behind these disappearances would not hesitate to kill.”

“I’m sure that my Host would already be dead had I not had special training as a Binary Royal.
Those people who came after me were obviously well trained assassins and were extremely good shots; I only escaped by the skin of my teeth.”

“I’m fairly sure that they thought it was just your Host, Leo.
As you know Earth time is usually many, many, times faster than time outside the Sim and I think it had been assumed that you were long gone.
I don’t think they realised that Sim time slows drastically as the Sim prepares to update before looping back for another iteration.
Yet, I wonder why they changed their minds later and captured him instead of killing him.” said the Buddhi.

“I think I might know the answer to that. When I escaped the would be assassins I exited from the nearest Portal and then I set my host’s status to ‘Not Available’ - it’s a system function which is used to make sure that your Host is kept available for you and it also restricts tracking and stops remote telemetry. I figured that if they couldn’t find him then they would forget about him; realising I had left... I wasn‘t thinking straight and I thought they were trying to kill me to mindknap me somehow.
It didn‘t occur to me that it might be my Host that they were really after."

“What sort of guns did they use Leo?” asked M.

“Some sort of lasers I think. Certainly they were beam weapons not the sort of projectile guns commonly found on Earth.”

“It could be they were using stun guns, Leo. It might well be that it was you they were after and they wanted to capture you in your Host. Were the beams red?”

“Yes, they were red and I suppose they could have been stun guns. I was too busy dodging the beams to consider what type of guns they might be… but I knew they weren’t commonly available on Earth and assumed that my Host’s life, and possibly my own, depended on escaping without being shot.”

“You know the Sim system a lot better than I do Leo. How were you concerned that the death of your Host might harm you?” asked the Buddhi.

“So far as I know, no User has ever been in a Host when it dies. As you know there is a rigorous safety system which is activated to protect the Host when the User is present. The Host’s remote telemetry is constantly being monitored by the System and should the Host be in any danger or develop any physical abnormalities then a warning is issued by the system to the User. If the danger increases and the System computes that it could cause a system failure in the Host the User is alerted and an automatic LogOff is activated… I didn’t receive any warnings!”

“What, in your opinion, would happen if a Host ‘died’ while inhabited by a User?” asked M.

“The Sim OS is fantastically complex and amazingly, in fact, brilliantly designed and implemented.
As you probably know each local inhabitant of the Sim is ‘Saved’ on termination and so the Host would be ‘Saved’ as usual. However although Users are given a higher priority they are not actually present in the Sim in a way that the Host is. It seems likely that they would be ‘Saved’ too - but it is impossible to know what it is that would be Saved. Certainly, it seems likely that the ‘Soul’ would simply return to the User as if the connection has been cut - but what would remain ’Saved’ in the Sim is anyone’s guess.”

“Ah, I’m beginning to catch your drift. You think that, in effect, dying in the Sim might create a ‘Soul clone.’

“Exactly M!”

“What worries me more than anything else is that whoever is behind this seems to know more about the System than we do. They found Leo’s Host despite him being ‘invisible’, they have managed to find a way to smuggle alien weaponry into the Sim, it seems that they might have found a way to disable some of the emergency protocols and it is quite possible that they know what happens if a User ‘dies’ while in the Sim.” said the Buddhi.
“I think, almost certainly, that there must be members of the University faculty involved, and at least one of them must be very high up, close to the top of the hierarchy!”

“It is very frustrating trying to get a true picture of what is going on when we have to constantly bear in mind that Fliss and Leo both have hosts that will be scanned when they LogOff and so will essentially reveal everything we say.

I think, under the circumstance, we should over-ride the Host consciousness and set it to standby so that Fliss and Leo’s Hosts will sleep and they will be in sole possession of the Host’s senses. It would also help if the Host’s had their full memories returned.”
Then turning to the Buddhi M asked “Can you make everyone into SuperUsers and give Fliss and Leo their full memories back?”

The Buddhi shimmered and disappeared for a few moments before shimmering back into sight.
“Okay, I have reset the two Hosts to only allow a memory scan on receiving the correct password.
As for restoring memories, actually Leo had a complete memory restore as soon as he completed his exams - which was long before anyone else and some eighteen Earth months before the deadline.
Since then he and I have been working on Future Sims searching for a possible solution to the looping problem and trying to discover more about the functions of the Sim.

When Leo did his LogOff , after being shot at, he took the opportunity to set the Princess’ memory to ‘trickle' so she would regain her memories gradually - which is probably why she wasn’t too surprised when a, seeming, stranger called her Princess. The ‘Trickle’ setting simply allow the User to recall memories pertinent to their current train of thought and is far less traumatic than the ‘waking from a deep dream’ that the ‘flood’ setting gives.

What I’ve done just now is to set you and Mike as SuperUsers just in case. Even though you have both had Buddhi training it might not be enough under the circumstances and so now you should get the added protection of the User status. I’m not completely sure how this will work in practice as you are now both, both User and Host. I can‘t make Fliss and Leo‘s Hosts into Users because then Fliss and Leo couldn‘t use them.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fliss and Mike entered the room hand in hand...
The others noticed but didn’t show it.

“We’ve figured out a way to find out who the unauthorised users are.
Everyone who logs off generates an E&M file which is supplied by their host.
We just need to gain access to these files and check the names of the Users against the Official User list.” said Fliss beaming.

“The Ethics and Morality file is only generated for students and staff of the University, Fliss. We suspect that the unauthorised Users have a completely separate means of access. Still, there’s no harm in checking if you can think of a way to get permission to search though the files.” replied Leo.

“Actually, I think the Princess might be onto something.” said the Buddhi
“As you know, Leo, most of the functions and protocols that the University use are simple modifications of the ones already present on the Sim System.
It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a standard System log of all User activities involving Hosts. It may not include Host scans but it should include all Users.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leo mentioned to the Princess that he had managed to secure a place for her to stay on in the Sim with permission from the Palace.
But she should still talk with her parents to explain how important it was to her to stay on. At the same time she could stretch her own legs for a change and maybe have a family meal.

The Princess reluctantly agreed and the Buddhi opened a Portal so that she could LogOff and break the connection with the Sim long enough to leave the Royal Projection wing and go upstairs to speak with her parents.

They all wished her good luck and she went into the Portal and left.
A few minutes later Fliss came out of the Portal.

Fliss had now reverted to herself, the original Fliss's personality, who as luck would have it, was an old friend of Mikes and so it was agreed that Mike would look after her until the Princess returned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the Princess was away I was taking care of Fliss -
or, maybe she was taking care of me…

We were sat on the floor in her flat, arms around each other, listening to classical music on her stereo system.

It felt like we were the whole world as the music washed over us pushing us together and soon it was no longer two people sat on the floor but a common experience of something beyond sound that that circled and swooped, reverberating through us.

Fliss opened a tin with her right hand, her left arm still around me.
She took out a home rolled cigarette and started to smoke - the smell of tobacco and Obloffski filled the room.
She began to chuckle as she pulled off her T-shirt and reached for my mouth...

As we kissed I gently stroked her neck and chin with my left hand while she stoked my left ear.
I felt myself starting to gently slide downward toward the growing warmth that quickly leads to the fiery pit of passion…

I wanted to resist, to stretch the moments, to find a slowly decaying orbit that would always be on the cusp of the unbearable until the gravity became irresistible and we fell into each other.

I had a sudden inspiration. I was a User now, maybe I could enter Fliss in more ways that one and be both sides of the equation.

It was hard to concentrate and I’d no idea how Users entered Hosts.

Fliss was beginning to notice that I was losing the tune and for the first time I realised that this could end badly.
I made an extra special, super duper, giving it everything I’d got last ditch attempt and…

“You bastard!” Mike said.

“What?”

“You dirty stinking bastard!”

The penny dropped.

“Now, Now, your Highness, that’s no way for a Princess to talk.”

“You sneaky rat!” Mike said.

“Look let’s swap bodies and talk about this like adults.”

“Not a chance you rat... Oh, not very big is it? I thought it would be a lot bigger than this…”

“What? No. No! Now you leave that alone, Princess!”

“Oooh, its growing…”

“Have you no shame?…”

“I always wondered what it must be like to have a…”

“Okay, okay. You win. I surrender. Name your terms.”

She squeezed my breasts. “Nice and perky pair you have there, Mike.”

“Please Princess, PLEASE. Neither of these bodies are yours…”

“Yes, but I’ve got yours” she teased "and I'm going to explore it!"