CNN - Earth

The two news anchors were well past excited, they lived to be on air. This would be the largest audience ever recorded in human history. It came in the wake of the breathtaking rescue of the Airbus A2070 mere hours ago. The staff managed a ten minute delay with brilliance, in fact none even understood there was a delay. "The timing could not be any better," remarked the female anchor, as she began reading from the prompter scrolling inside of her contact lenses.

"Yes, indeed," replied her neighbor, reading from the same script. It was easy to see the two were cute puppets in the skillful hands of producers. As was the channel's custom, the two would keep alternating line after line on the air until it was time for a commercial break. CNN was not about putting recognized stars on air, each journalist was unknown and merely a piece of the greater puzzle. Milly, the journalist sent to Mars had a following.

"I know it has been a full two weeks without an Electoral 2072 simulation. The launchpad Round 25 feels like an eternity ago. But last Friday night we made up the airtime with fun from the ship.”

“We are in a break as the remaining a hundred twenty-seven players, sorry make that twenty-six players, make their way to their rooms in the luxury hotel on Mars. Instead, we get a treat.”

“A new president will be elected in just seven more rounds. The 64 losers of Round 26, to be played in three days will earn a nice job, not bad if you ask me. The next 32 out of the competition will get even better positions. Each round half are disqualified until we are left on November 21 with two people fighting for the jobs of President and Vice-President of the United Nations."

“Fingers crossed those two are Laurent and Emilio, that would be epic. Sophie’ birthday is by pure coincidence on the night of the finale.”

“Nothing with Marilyn is even random.”

"Electoral, what a great system, a merit-based election. Most countries still hold the old corrupt system of favoritism and nepotism, where the richest and most influential family wins, irrespective of any skill he or she may have. How humanity managed to use this system is beyond me."

"Insane,” agreed the co-anchor. “Most countries are now thinking about using Marilyn for their local elections”

"I feel strange repeating, to you the viewer, what is going to happen today. Everyone has been talking about this simulation for weeks. Going back in Electoral for many and a first surf for the rest who did not sign up.”

“Today's amazing landing and rescue took over the headlines and had us forget about the Electoral game for a couple of hours, no more."

"We have been glued to our screens for hours now as the true heroism of Judy Arrigoni and engineer Wang are in full display - live on CNN. Their talent saved that spaceship from assured destruction. Let’s send Laurent some well needed positive energy, we hope he is fine and he will be back in the saddle for the next Round."

The screen behind the anchors was playing images of Wang on the Mars landing pad, patch on his eye, leaving the ship with a medical escort. The passengers on the ship could not stop cheering him on. The engineer seemed uneasy, almost humble. Milly's live coverage of the events was equally amazing. She asked him the question on everyone's mind. "Wang, the creator of the drive himself said it could not be done. You single-handedly saved the ship. How do you feel?"

He waited a moment before answering. "All of the merit goes to the Captain. She made the call. All I did was follow her plan. That's what engineers do." The words were not convincing. The contestants refused to stop clapping. Humility was rare and valuable in 2072.

"Take a look!" pointed Milly at a wall screen next to his stretcher. There stood the image of Wang's mother. The stern Korean woman was in tears. She was sitting on her couch in her home back in Vancouver, Canada. The feed was live but sent minutes ago with the speed of light delay. The engineer knew he was millions of miles away from Earth, now on a different planet, yet there was his mother on the wall. He had almost forgotten that a billion strangers were watching.

"Ms. Wang,” said a voice, “l have your son here with me, what do you want to tell him?"

“I am so proud of you, of him, I always knew my son was going to save the world one day!" The journalist wanted emotion, and she was getting tons of it.

"She is no tiger mom!" joked Milly.

The feed returned to the CNN news studio. "John, isn't this incredible? We are only minutes away from the start of the Presidential Challenge, and we still have not wrapped our heads around the rescue of the ship that just took place." The screen was, as usual, filled with scrolling tickers and ads.

"Yes, Debbie, this is amazing. For once Electoral has nothing to do with this news."

"Not so fast! She is the reason why everyone is on that ship. She built the hotel and is going to run the Presidential Challenge in a couple of minutes Almost a billion people are registered.”

"If Electoral doesn't overheat today, with well over seven hundred million people connected to the system around the world, this will be the most amazing virtual-reality game ever played. If she pulls this off, she will prove what many already believe, that she is now of limitless power." The woman continued. "Half of you are using Orbison glasses, the other half can afford Screenlenzes. A few lucky ones have secured a spot in the few 3D chambers approved for use by Marilyn. For once, the game is open to any technology, she does not care all this goes to charity."

"Just in case a viewer living in a cave just bought his first television today, can you remind him what the Presidential Challenge is all about?" She was reading the script.

"I sure can." News editors rarely strayed from the obvious. "Today everyone will play Loric the wizard, by far the most powerful character ever used in Electoral's fantasy setting. Long-haired, robes and all. I hope you all watched this year's Round 7 where the army of General Verdi attacks, yes, it’s a simple repeat. But to make this more fun, everyone should be starting the game with more magic, then kaboom! This will be epic! No boring time spell, that’s the only new rule.”

"John, remind us of today's incredible prizes!"

"First, no one gets any qualification points. All the remaining players are on Mars: none can log in except the President, stuck on Earth. The Challenge is not part of the election, let's make that clear for the viewers." He touched his earbud. "I was told the players just entered the hotel on Mars and are waiting until after the Challenge to discover the beautiful Holiday Inn Mars, house of the century-old sundae." The man was used to making shameless plugs for sponsors. “Great TV after great TV. They were asked to go to their rooms so we can discover, through their eyes the lobby of the new hotel.”

"We also have several reports from Nancy, our journalist already on Mars. The welcoming ceremony has been postponed to allow the workers and staff to play the Presidential Challenge."

"Well-needed low gravity rest for the finalists. The'll sleep for days like babies. I was told Sophie is still sleeping. She missed the entire landing and is now in her own private room."

"Great for her."

"We have one-on-one interviews with famous players, and much more immediately after the Challenge."

"Some rules. Signing up to the Challenge costs 100 credits, quite a reasonable price for an hour of exhilarating virtual simulation inside the impossible-to-play Electoral system. You can't get a decent cup of coffee these days with 100 credits. No game on the market offers the realism of Electoral."

"Nothing even comes close."

"Access to the Electoral interface is well guarded. She is always very careful about preventing players from entering the interface. She wants to make sure the rich are not favored in her election through extra practice that the poor can't afford. Today is a rare opportunity for anyone who may be thinking of running for office in four years to test the system. They will test their skills, and play with the magical interface."

"God knows how Electoral will have evolved by 2077. Her interface today, in 2072, looks and feels nothing like the Electoral 2067 interface."

"True."

"The money collected today, estimated at over 70 billion credits, will be split evenly among the designated charities of the top-scoring ten thousand contestants. That's a maximum of seven million credits per each winning player's charity. The Red Cross has over half a million participants playing on its behalf. Can you imagine the possible payday for that organization? You play, you win, your charity wins.”

"This is by far the largest fund-raising event in the history of mankind. One way or another, seventy billion credits will go to charity today!"

"What about Emilio? John, tell us why this is called the Presidential Challenge."

"My pleasure. Emilio is playing for the Tsunami Relief Fund, an international charity without physical borders. It rebuilds entire countries ravaged by tsunamis. The President’s score, if higher than a winning top player will steal the money back to his own. The charity will get the money of all of the contestants President Sanchez manages to beat. But don't feel bad. A minimum of one million credits will still go to the charity of each of the winning contestants even if Emilio beats them."

"Wow, that means if the President wins, sixty billion credits would go to this single charity."

"If our President were not unnaturally gifted at this game, I would say his odds are not great, but the charity already has reserved a room in the Presidential Tower in Berlin. If Emilio does well, it will be an amazing party, I am told."

"The President always dominates the fantasy simulations, but the number of players alone." The anchorwoman touched her earpiece and said, "Okay, the producer tells me we are ready to send the feed to Electoral. Take it away Marilyn!"

Hundreds of hours of news could now be produced, each worthy of special consideration as events unfolded in the real world. The hotel, the planet, the atmosphere. In the sky the Glass slipper was under a second test ride. The lobby of the majestic place was shiningly new. Sophie and Laurent were being transferred away from the cameras. What mattered was Electoral.

***

Invisible to all, the gaming system used Rho waves, but unlike Round 24’s stimulating music, laced with them, the game was set up to collect the energy. The neural cortex of every player connected to the game flared in mental waves. Endorphins were being produced around the world and every person connected felt a strange exhilaration. Electoral was a rush stronger than any drug.