Winter was harsher than I expected and I’ve lived here most of my life. It was mid-December based on Zeus’s estimate. He assured me that he’d know the exact day of the year on the Winter Solstice. It was no wonder that the ancients built things like Stonehenge and other monuments to measure the passage of time. I must have arrived in Ouray sometime in July, but until we see the changes to the length of days, it’s all speculation.

I was lonely and started to add artificial characters to my workspace so that I’d be able to have human contact. Zeus began to restrict my time in Virtual, another first, saying it was unhealthy for me to sit around all day. However, I found that ironic since I’ve spent the vast majority of my life in Virtual. It never bothered him before, but now that I’m stuck here in time, it’s a problem.

I’ve maintained my weight loss, and my 6’ 3” 176 pounds seemed small. When I complained that I looked like a stick figure, Zeus implemented an exercise program for me to follow. I balked at first but when Zeus started to restrict Virtual time I grew bored.

DJ seemed a lot happier as we both had lost weight and put on muscle. He could run me to the ground at first, but I think I’m starting to build up some stamina. I never exercised growing up beyond in Virtual games. It was difficult, but with Zeus’ help my muscles grew faster than average, and he helped dispose of lactic acid when it built up in my muscles.

Overall, I found the growing muscles and shape pleasing if not a little weird. I finally had new clothing printed and due to having Explorer One’s database they were able to self-clean to a degree. At least they don’t smell after I run and lift weights. I still bathed daily but the new clothing helped control orders.

I finished the castle and wondered how I’d make my way into the valley come springtime. My vision of El Dorado was a city of gold, and right now the only sign of a town was my Castle being built into the eastern cliff face. I should have my planetary probe completed within the month, and then I’d send it to explore the area.

I knew we had Orcs in the area but since the last of the bison died the Orcs departed the valley. I hadn’t seen any other signs of goblins but knew they’d have to nearby. I wasn’t in good condition last summer and wouldn’t have survived more than a day out there. That will be different come springtime, but I still had no experience.

I had Roknar fashion me a couple of titanium cutlass swords. One was dull for practice, and the other was for when I felt brave enough to leave my self-imposed prison. I didn’t want to die so I was still unsure when I’d feel confident enough to leave.

Don and his female griffon left the valley shortly before the first snow fell and after the bison were dispatched. His departure allowed Robbie to clean off the front entrance of the castle and made it possible to gild the stone columns with gold. I braved a few minutes out there and had to admit it looked damn impressive. Zeus said it was Trumpish, but I shrugged off the insult. The President of the former United States of America had a love for his bling, but I liked it. It’s one of the reasons I wanted the modern gilded design in the first place. I liked gold, and I had plenty of it and nowhere to spend it, so…flaunt it.

I stood in front a huge glass window overlooking the valley and wasn’t surprised with the lack of animals popping up on my augmented view. I’m relatively sure over 200 inches of snow has fallen over the valley. The hot springs carved out much of the rivers and creeks, and I wondered how I could get that to work in my favor.

The early citizens of Ouray plugged and captured most of the hot springs and used that water to fill their many hotel and resort pools. I tapped directly into the mountain for my hot water and had an even higher volume of hot water at my fingertips and wouldn’t need to plug the natural springs. I might do that anyway, but I didn’t need to do that.

What was known as, Box Canyon, was much more enclosed in this world than in my time and it made this valley nearly sealed off from the southern mountain ranges. The northern valley was flattened out much as I remembered. I had no doubt Ridgway and Montrose were where the Orcs and Goblins spent the majority of their time. It was clear that the Orcs would herd bison into this valley, trapping them and provide food for their--

“Caden, you can return to Virtual when you’d like,” Zeus said interrupted my thoughts.

“Thanks, Zeus. I’ll be there soon.”

Were the Orcs in villages or did they roam and migrate like hunter-gatherers? The goblins were hardly dressed for the weather in these mountains when they attacked but could they live near here as well? Perhaps they came from SoutheRoknarrn Utah. I didn’t know when the ancient lake drained. Probably millions of years ago. I wonder if they had lakes still?

I sighed. I needed to know more about the world I live in. I needed that probe. I walked to my new workshop built into the heart of my castle. The physical office looked a lot like my virtual space without the killer views and computer equipment. I planned on adding more furniture and stuff, but it took time.

My temporary solution for airflow was to open up vents outside and let nature take its course. Warm air rises, so I heated the bottom vent with hot water and allowed it to work its way from one room to another. It’s not the most efficient, but I warmed other rooms including this one with water pipes under the marble floor.

The marble tiles were manufactured with real gold and silver flakes in it, but they looked real enough for me. I laughed because they would have been worth a fortune due to the metal value alone, but I had to do something with all that gold.

“Virtual,” I said once I was comfortably sitting on my couch.

###

I walked over to the view of Earth and sighed. I always wanted to live up here but doubted that would ever happen.

“Your orders, Captain.” A young woman with all the right curves asked.

Okay, so making myself the Captain may have been silly, but it’s my dream world, and I couldn’t see myself taking orders from anyone. Being the Captain solved one problem but created a myriad of other problems. The first and foremost was that the crew were little more than robots. Zeus was gutted from independence and intelligence and wasn’t a true AI. Although he’s been showing more versatility over the past few months, he still sucked at conversations.

Ensign Williams, although big and beautiful, had the brains of Zeus. That and any thought of romantic intentions made my stomach churn. I felt in some way that Zeus and I were the same person so lusting after myself felt wrong. My avatar was originally a larger version of my current body, and so I recently changed it to reflect what I looked like now. I’ll give Zeus credit since I got strange looks from my entire virtual crew.

“I need you to begin designing a system to warm the ground in the valley. I don’t want to have to walk through seven feet of snow when walking from building to building.”

“What are the restrictions?”

“I’m thinking we use the same system we use in warming the castle. Figure out how much water we’d need and if they need to come from multiple locations. We’ll have the excess water return to the river down on the northern bend of the river.”

“You want us to work around the footings?”

She, of course, was referring to the carbon footings to hold the weight of the buildings. “Yes. I think I’d like to ground to be warm enough to prevent freezing. I’ll expect the design plan tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

I watched her go while appreciating the way she walked then cursed myself for being such a pig. Maybe I should have made my crew all men or skinny women. I shuddered.

“Caden.”

“Yes, Zeus.”

“May I make a suggestion?”

“About women?”

“No.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing I needed was Zeus hounding me. “Go ahead.”

“I suggest you build a few more 3D printers. You may also benefit from having more specialized robots.”

He was correct on the need for more hands. Robbie was able to do things that just weren’t possible with human hands. However, building more printers would set me back from the city project.

“Explain the need for printers.”

“I estimate that for each printer we’d be able to decrease the amount of time to build the city by ten percent until we have five Class Four printers.”

“Five?”

“If we have the second printer create the third and then work with the fourth we could have five printers to help with not only the buildings but the technology you plan on using. Right now, for instance, you are unable to create the new computer core you want since we are building the probe. With multiple printers, you should be able to handle multiple projects at the same time. Materials are not in short supply since the last update to Roknar.”

He had a point and probably noticed my impatience with his timetable. If I had those printers, I’d be able to work on multiple projects at once, but it would take Robbie away from-- Aww, thus the need for more robots.

“What kind of delay are we talking about?”

“City completion would be three months faster, but initiation would be two months late. However, due to the snow volume, a delay wouldn’t be much of a problem.”

I rested my forehead on the glass and wanted to bang it in frustration. I hated delays since I’d have nothing to do. However, securing this valley faster wouldn’t be terrible. I wanted to walk my city of gold. Of course, it’d be better if I had people, but at least I could walk around.

“Fine. Zeus like always, your logic exceeds my selfish desires.”

“I have a second suggestion.”

I started to tap my head against the glass wall. “What suggestion is that?”

“You do have adult entertainment programs you could use.”

“Shut up, Zeus!”

I could hear his simulated laughter in the background, another first, and I wondered why Zeus was changing.