FIREBASE ALPHA: BRIEFING

Breath, Angie told her self for the 15th time, breath. Don't focus in him, focus on the mission. Him was Lance Corporal James Flaigan, everybody just called him Flanni. Originally, Flanni was going to lead her squad of players through the game while she worried about her beloved equipment. Unfortunately for Angie, Flanni quit her team hours before the competition. That was how Angie ended up playing in the game right now.

Breath, don't let him under your skin again. Flanni was more than a former coworker. Focus on the captain. Hey look, she thought, he's onto mission.

Captain Bukowski was gong step by step through a very regulation 5 step operations order. He was into step two, The Mission. Angie knew the short version of the mission- they were going to attack Carmen and take back the case she stole from the TU'COn.

“Step three, execution,” Captain Bukowski continued, “Staff Sergeant Emm will command the northern assault. Sergeant Angie will be his deputy.” Angie nodded. Flanni frowned.

The armchair general wanted a command. She thought. Ssgt Emm was an NPC. She would be the ranking player in the Northern assault. He just wants to be in charge.

“The northern assault team will be copied of Team Bloop, Team Souhhaven, Team Crayons and Team PepMotion.”

Are you kidding me? Angie just barely kept her mouth shut. Flanni didn't suppress his displeasure.

The captain paused. “Lance Corporal Flannigan, do you have a problem?”

Flanni immediately straighten up in his chair. “No sir.”

“Because if you do, you and your team can sit this one out.” The captain’s glare was intense. He may have only been an AI in a game, but his glare was piercing.

Oh please yes, Angie thought, it would serve those backstabbing bastards right. A punishment worse than killing their characters.

“No sir,” Flanni said, “just excited and looking forward to the mission.”

“Good,” the captain said. “Now, each team will send one member to a special detail.” Around the room, hands immediately raised a special detail? Did that mean a special mission or a special detail cleaning latrines so the sensory filters can be tested? The captain ignored everybody’s raised hands. "The Eastern assault team..." He continued speaking as the hands went back down.

COMMAND CENTER: DINNER WITH HENRY

Sam Kline massaged his temples. He was trying to find the positive points. A teacher in elementary school had taught them all these magic points on the temples of their heads. “If you rubbed them,” the third grade teacher had said, “it will give you energy and put you in a good mood.”

It was crap. Kline had learned that right after they learned it. But still it was a habit that helped him focus a little. Maybe it’s not total crap.

Across from him, Jasmine Lens was drinking coffee. Neither of them was in a bad mood. They were in a cautiously good mood. So far there had been no real disasters in the game. Some stupid things, a disqualified team- that was a little weird, but everything was good so far. Jasmine and Kline were just flat out tired.

Jasmine was the project director for this Space Opera scenario. Kline was the Space Opera corporation's lead programmer. Basically, Kline was in charge of everything technical. Other companies would have called him a Chief Technology Officer. Kline thought the title Lead Programmer kept him more grounded.

They were in a private dining area. The food was provided by the Devil’s Inn, but Kline and Jasmine made a point of staying away from the players at this point. They also strongly recommended that nobody on the control room side talked to players either. It was easy to forbid corporate staff from fraternizing, but college kids and interns were harder to control. “Loose lips sink ships and tank scenarios,” the staff was told. “Don’t ruin the game.”

Kline poked at his food. It was good, he’d just waken up and wasn’t quite hungry yet. “After the raid I’m going to crash for a bit.”

“No way, ” Jasmine said, “it’s my turn to get some sleep.”

“Henry can oversee the operation for a few hours.” Kline smiled as he said it.

“Good grief, can you imagine what he would do?”

Henry had boundless enthusiasm, but Kline had always been the one to channel and harness that enthusiasm- keeping Henry grounded was a full time job.

On cue, like a whirlwind, Henry burst into the dining room. Following in his wake was Dorothy Corman, president of the college. Kline looked past them.

Henry looked back at the closing door. “What’d I miss?”

“I just wanted to make sure those reporters weren’t with you.”

“They’re great aren’t they?” Dorothy gushed. “I think they have a future in the news.”

“They get in my way,” Jasmine opined.

Henry smiled, “If it wasn’t for those meddlesome kids…”

The door opened behind them. Kline tensed. In walked a waiter with food and drinks, no reporters. Still, there was silence as the waiter placed the dishes on the table. He had brought enough food for eight people. Quickly, the waiter left.

Henry sat down and started making himself a plate. “We have some interesting news.”

“What?”

Henry looked to Dorothy. She spoke, “The ratings are very strong.” Henry and Dorothy looked very pleased with themselves.

Jasmine asked, “And…?”

“There is a lot of interest in The Costa Brava Scenario,” Henry said. “It’s a good scenario. Impressive graphics, the kid’s equipment is mostly working. I have reason to believe it will improve are numbers across the board- revenue, number of players...”

“Interest in the university, applications & enrollments and nterest in hiring our students,” Dorothy chimed in.

“Don’t forget endowments and all that,” Henry said.

“I never forget those,” Dorothy said.

“Cool,” Kline reached for a burger.

“Very cool, but let me tell you something interesting that popped up from our focus groups,” Henry said.

“Wait,” Kine interrupted, “since when do we have focus groups?” The ketchup bottle oozed ketchup, lots of ketchup onto the burger. Kline was no longer paying attention to condiments. What the hell is he up to?

“Actually we don’t,” Henry nodded towards Dorothy, “The university does.” Henry looked at the uber ketchupy burger.

That doesn’t make things better. Kline put aside the ketchup. One mess at a time. Outloud, Kline asked “and what interesting thing do the focus groups say?”

“There is a huge interest in team Bloop.”

Jasmine wrinkled her face. “Bloop? Angie’s team? They’re ok. Their gear is solid, but there’s nothing special about them.”

Henry beamed at Dorothy, “For the first time in a year, Jasmine is wrong. Hold on, I have to bask in this.” He turned his beaming smile to to Kline and then Jasmine. He took a very satisfied breath and let it out. He told Dorothy, “She’s wrong slightly m ore often than Kline. And he’s never wrong.”

“What,” Kline got his words out very deliberately, “are you talking about?”

Henry laughed. “Ok, ok, ok. First we have a betrayal...”

“So Flanni quit Angie’s team, it happens,” Jasmine said.

“No, the first betrayal was a month or so ago.” He turned to Dorothy, “Is betrayal the right word?”

Dorothy shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh, anyway, the problem started a month ago. Then he backstabbed her and jumped to PepMotion.”

“What happened a month ago?”

“Did you know, I didn’t know, did you know that Mark, her new guy on the team, was married to Gracie-Lynn.”

“Who?” Kline had no idea what he was talking about.

“Gracie-Lynn,” Henry said it with emphasis this time. “I can’t believe you don’t know who Gracie-Lynn is. The famous reality star Gracie-Lynn. Life with Gracie!” Again there was emphasis, like everybody in the planet knows Gracie-Lynn.

“So?”

“Wait,” Jasmine interrupted. “Who is Gracie-Lynn?”

Kline answered. “A reality star. She’s famous for being famous. She’s had a bunch of husbands and several of her daughters join her in hogging the spotlight and living life large.”

“Not all of her daughters,” Dorothy interjected. “One of her daughters avoids the spotlight. That daughter, Sarah is a student here and is playing on one of the teams. And now Mark, Gracie-Lynn’s ex, is playing on a different team.”

Kline and Jasmine looked at Dorothy and Henry.

Henry sensed the other two didn’t get it. “And with a weird romance thing between Gracie-Lynn’s ex and this Miranda, the social media verse is exploding. Everybody wants to know if Miranda is real or a, how did Heather put it, a ‘sugar spun program.’ If he is flirting with a program instead of Gracie-Lynn, the itnerweb is going to explode.”

“And if he is hooking up with a human instead of Gracie-Lynn, the interweb is going to explode,” Henry added.

There was silence as this sank in.

“Ratings and focus groups?”

“With maybe a nudge this could go nuclear…”

There it is, Henry tensed. “You want to mess with the game for ratings?”

“I don’t want to mess with the game.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I want to add...” Henry saw the look on Kline’s face and amended his words. “I want to enhance a small sub-plot. There should be no game effects.”

“So its cool if Miranda dies in 12 hours?”

Henry gave a small bobble of his head. “Not really cool, per se, I’d rather…”

“You cannot mess with game Henry. We will not.” Kline was adamant. “I can’t believe we have to have this argument again.”

Henry turned to Dorothy. “Life’s not interesting if we aren’t having this argument every other month.” Dorothy smiled politely.

“Wait,” Jasmine interrupted. “What happened a month ago?”