COMMAND CENTER- INTERMISSION 1 INTERVIEW

Jessalyn fidgeted with her hair, her foot tapped. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for her. IN the audition process she competed against all of the other girls in the Journalism School here at the university. And Jessalyn won. Now she was one of the two students who conducted all of the interviews for the LiveStream video.

The control room was never empty. There were always people in here monitoring this or doing that, Jessalyn didn’t know. From the prep materials, she knew each team had its own monitoring technician. There were senior techs and supervising techs and network people. The project manager had her staff in here too. When the game was going, this was a busy room. Right now was not one of those full busy times. Many of the techs were sneaking a nap or a snack. Once the game started, in another half hour or so, that would be another story.

Jessalyn made herself take a deep breath. And another. And another. And then it was to late to take another. Kline was walking up to her. He had an easy going manner and a boyish charm. He was only a few years older than her, but he was a million years older in maturity than all of the boys at the university put together.

He gave her a warm smile. She couldn’t help but smile back. Remain in control, she thought, you’re a professional. He’s just an interview. An interview that millions of people will see. That’s ridiculous, its just a live stream of a game. The biggest online VR game in the world. Millions of players and all of them could be watching. Take a deep breath. And another.

Kline was sitting in a chair across from her. Craig, her cameraman, was getting Kline mic’d up. They were chatting about something….something about the game, pay attention, he might give a good angle.

“We’re ready,” Craig said as he glanced at the audio meters on the camera’s viewfinder.

Jessalyn gave Craig the briefest of smiles, thanks buddy. She gave Kline a big smile.

Before she could say anything he leaned forward. “I just wanted to say, you’ve been doing a great job. I can’t believe you’re a student.”

She didn’t know what to say- this was the last thing she expected. “uh, thanks.”

“no, thank you,” he said.

Craig interrupted, “thirty seconds out.”

“If I need any, uh, background information, can I see you, I mean call you?” What the hell are you doing? she yelled at herself inside, don’t be stupid.

“Anytime Jess, I can give you my cell when we’re done.” He leaned back, ready to do the interview.

“Standby,” Craig said. “Three, two, one...”

“Thank you Nadeep, I’m here again with Sam Kline, the lead developer for Space Opera online. Thank you for joining us, Sam.”

“I’m happy to be here with you and our fans.”

“Great, so one question many of our viewers have asked is ‘why is there a pause in the game?’ Well, Sam, why is there a pause?”

“Great question, Jess. We put a programmed time out in the game for a couple of reasons. The biggest reason is, the teams need one. They have just run their equipment through the first big test. They have a couple of hours to check for problems and do some troubleshooting.”

“Do the teams have a lot of troubleshooting to do?”

“I’ve been where the engineers are now, there is always troubleshooting to do. Some things are big, some small, but they all need some attention.”

“That’s great. When the game resumes, do all of the teams get the same scenario?”

“Yes and no, Jess, yes and no. There is the same basic scenario, but there are small differences. We can’t have 18 teams doing the same exact thing, it doesn’t work in the game continuity. So things are a little different for each team.”

“You said 14 teams, but there are still 18 teams in the game. What’s going on?”

“Good question, I should have said 14 different sub scenarios are in progress. 8 teams are aired up in full or in part. Team MyndBendz is split up. Two of their players are with Team Bloop and two players with Team Dirt Knights. Team AI is Great is with Team Gold Rush. The idea and challenges for each sub scenario are similar, but game continuity requires them to be slightly different.”

“Continuity is important, isn’t it?”

“Very important. Even though here the focus is on this competition, the Space Opera game as a whole continues with millions of players and billions of AIs. There is ALOT happening across the Space Opera Galaxy.”

ACROSS THE GALAXY: SYBLA JUMP 1

Sybla breathed a quick sigh of relief. Success was expected, but every jump carried the risk of failure. Her ship, the The Sussex Lorry, wasn't a beat up tramp freighter, but the engines were do for a through maintenance. All it took was some time and more money.

A scan of the instruments, one more check of the astrogation computer, both confirmed she was on track for her next jump in 20 minutes.

It was possible to do back to bavk no down-time jumps, but it was safer to put some time between jumps. It was better for the engines and the computers and the life forms.

Right now, life form maintenance was at the top of Captain Sybla's list. Bathroom and food. Even in this game she needed the bathroom periodically. It was a trade off, she had to go to the bathroom a little more often than normal and got an additional boost to her trading skills. She was a woman irl, an extra bathroom trip in game was nothing noteworthy.

Bathroom needs taken care of, she went to the ship's galley. Her passenger, a Syke teenager named Meri was already there. She had her head buried in her data pad. Watching her eyes and hand movements she must have been playing a game.

"I maded dinner," she said matter of factly without looking up. "My father ssssssent ussssss with Orion Sssssspiced Sssssshrimp.” She shrugged. “It’ssssss good.”

Sybla frowned. Your father is hilarious. Send us the same shrimp I sold him. She pulled over the bowl of shrimp and dished herself some. It is good, she thought as she tasted it. Between bites she asked Meri, “So why Galveston?”

Th girl shrugged. Her attention was on her game. She swayed this way and that as she dodged or shot or whatever she was doing. Sybla could now see it was some sort of space fighter game.

“You really don’t know?”

With some exaggerated aggravation, Meri stabbed a button on her tablet- the game paused. “He ssssssaid I had to go to Galvessssston. Then he took my tablet and loaded the game I wanted…” She pointed at the paused game on the tablet, “and ssssssaid get pack a bag.” Finished talking she stared at Sybla, the meaning was clear- anything else?

Now it was making sense. Whatever ahd to get to Galveston was probably on the data pad. What kind of a parent would send his daughter on a spy mission? Was it a spy mission? Or courier job? Would I send my daughter on a mission? Maybe if she was the only one I trusted. But send her off with a stranger?

“I’sssss going to my cabin,” Meri announced as she stood up. With a dramatic flourish she scooped up her tablet and left. Her dishes remained on the table.

Sybla gave the girls back a quick scowl. A glance at the clock told her he had 8 minutes to eat and get back to the cockpit. She looked at the dishes.

Was I ever that moody? she wondered.