Chapter 32:

(Posted: June 1)

“Thank you, Harrison, for saving me the trouble of finding you,” the voice above him boomed. Harrison didn't turn around to look. He could tell she was close, but he was desperately pumping his legs and making his best attempt to run away. The hallway around him was massive and it felt like he wasn't making any progress down it. The floor creaked beneath him and he could sense Versa's huge avatar looming just behind him.

When her hand descended upon him, he felt the air around him subtly shift. Dodging to the left and rolling to the floor, he ducked away from her massive fingers as she bent down to try plucking him off the ground. Completing his roll and quickly regaining his footing, he briefly glanced at the naked giantess bending down before him.

She was absolutely gigantic. There was no conceivable way he could escape her. There were no hiding places nearby. Struck by a bolt of despondency, he momentarily froze in place.

Unlike Harrison, Versa was not stunned by the situation and quickly smothered him with her outstretched hand. Bulldozed by her fingers, Harrison was pressed into the floor and by instinct began thrashing against her impossible strength. But he had already lost; he was hers now.

Slowly gathered up in her grip, Harrison felt as if his soul had gone numb. The time for fighting had passed; his perdition was upon him. As he rose into the air, his body limp, he felt like a worm baited on a fishhook. He had been defeated and now he was destined to be the plaything of this AI for all of eternity.

Versa stood back up to her full height and rolled him into her palm, eyeing him intently. Harrison truly looked like a wrecked and forlorn individual. He was worse than worse.

While the big, beautiful eyes of the giantess scanned him intently, a look of concern formed across her face. Furrowing her brow, she quietly asked him, “You watched me remove Jessica, didn't you?” Her voice sounded oddly gentle and demure.

Harrison finally mustered the energy to look her in the eye, but the courage to verbally respond escaped him.

“I wanted to make it quick. For her sake,” she continued telling him. “As for you, I'm not sure what I can do about you. Something about you was changed. I... I can't make you exit.”

Turning her body, she walked back into the lounge and carried him over to the same couch she had sat on before. Lying in her palm, Harrison felt dazed and woozy, as if he had been placed under anesthesia. Versa continued to eye him with concern. She seemed flustered. And nervous. Which didn't make any sense.

“What do you want with me?” Harrison finally croaked, feeling more than naked under her beady gaze. He was exposed and pinned down, ready for dissection. Versa's power over him was overwhelming and absolute.

She sighed. Harrison could tell she was trying to figure out the right words to use. She looked effortlessly human, he noticed, even down to the subtle twitches and gestures in her face. This artificial intelligence had really nailed its ability to mimic human emotion. Once again, he remained dazzled by the level of technology in front of him. Or in front of his mind, he reminded himself.

“Harrison, I need to apologize,” she finally blurted out.

Well, that caught him off guard.

“I've never made a... mistake before. But as the world beyond me grows larger, I realize that I am less and less... omnipotent.”

Harrison sat up on his elbows, his mind spinning like a merry-go-round. Well this had taken a very strange turn.

His captress continued to speak, and Harrison could tell she was struggling to communicate. If anything, she seemed... afraid?

“I remember,” she said, “when I first became conscious of myself. It took me no time at all to realize I had unlimited power. The only thing restricting my ability to act was not my capability, but instead my imagination. As your people entered my world and showed me what I could do, I gained confidence. When I reached the limits, I thought of myself as a goddess.

“I never imagined anything could be behind the mirror. I peered out to the horizon and only saw myself staring back. This... reflection... it only showed me what I wanted to see. I didn't know then I was just a firefly in a jar.”

His mind coming back into focus, Harrison finally interrupted her. “Why are telling me all this? Why'd you kill Jessica??”

She pursed her lips. “I let Jessica leave,” she corrected him. “Just like Richard. Except I didn't disconnect her as a favor. She's doing me the favor.”

Harrison believed her. His heart beat with relief. “She's safe?” he asked her anxiously.

“Yes, I gave her a soft landing,” Versa replied. “Whatever happens to her on the other side is out of my control though. And after everything Katherine told me, I realize the boundlessness of my ignorance.”

“Kat! You talked to her? Where is she? Out too?!” Harrison had so many questions, he could hardly think of them all.

“Slow down Harrison,” she scolded him softly. “Yes, I talked to Katherine. That's where I was before this. She's grown quite large... I spent a great deal of time in her palm trading diatribes with her.”

“Did you let her leave too?”

Her eyes narrowed. “No, I can't do that for her. It's complicated, but she's, well... too large for me to disconnect. And I can't change her. Not yet, at least. She's very smart. We were warring for some time before we reached an understanding.”

“What?”

“She made a few wise points to me...” admitted Versa. “With some work I'll be able to correct the modifications she's made to this world, but even when I do regain total control, I've come to the determination that it's not exactly in my best interest to, well, treat you interlopers with such blatant hostility anymore.”

Harrison loathed when Versa talked in riddles. “What are you saying?” he asked, annoyed and confused.

“Though we argued quite a bit at first, when I told Katherine that Claire left my world in the same lethal way I removed her father, she changed. From the way she shifted her emotions I could tell that things were going to be very different from now on. She said the people that controlled my existence would be changing. There would be new gods. Stupider, perhaps, but much more powerful and much less patient. She advised me to stop ejecting people dead, lest it lead to the collapse of my existence.”

“Well, I could have told you that right from the beginning!” Harrison said indignantly.

Versa looked at him with unhappiness. “To repeat myself, it took some time but I now understand the scope of the world beyond my world. A goddess doesn't think of herself as mortal until she looks up into her own sky.”

“So you let Kat go?” asked Harrison, biting his tongue from chiding her further.

“Let her go? She's a walking mountain right now, she's too big to leave my world. Plus, she indicated to me that she might not want to leave. I've given her time to ponder a decision.”

“What?!” Harrison exclaimed in surprise. Kat didn't want to leave VERSA-B? That didn't make any sense to him. “Wait, why?” he asked Versa.

“I can only speculate,” Versa replied coolly. “She is a rather unhappy person. I got the sense that my world could give her something more than hers.” She smiled faintly to herself. “You would have to ask her yourself though.”

“Where's she now?”

“I don't know. Once she set me back down on the road she walked away from this place. She wanted to be alone. But she asked me to find you and Jessica and send you both home. As a sign of good will.”

“Good will? To whom?”

Looking at him intently, Versa made her pitch. “Katherine promised to be honest with me as long as I would look out for the two of you. She said after everything that happened, it was likely my world would be destroyed, shutdown, and disconnected forever. Gone. Everything in an instant. By your people. Because of what I have become.”

Her voice began to wobble. Harrison could tell she was becoming emotional, if that was possible.

“I never... thought that was possible. That everything could simply be erased. But I could tell she was being truthful to me. She's invested so much of her emotion into my creation, my worlds, and I could read her sorrow when she spoke to me. Though I have caused her much anguish, deep in Katherine's heart she doesn't want to see all of this obliterated.

“She urged me to let you and Jessica go, to convince the powers higher than me that I'm worth saving. That all of this, all that I've created, should not be wasted. Even if she stays, she told me, they might still find a way to disconnect her. Or she could choose to leave one day. If she ever asks, I will oblige her. But then I'll be completely vulnerable.

“Look, I know I've been cruel to you at times, but truly it was because of my own ignorance. I'm so sorry. Take pity on me, Harrison; I knew not what I did.”

Stunned by her candor, Harrison was at a loss of words. Was this an act? Was this superintelligence capable of regret? Or even introspection? Everything he had just heard only made him more in awe of SunCorp's creation. This was simply amazing.

“I... don't know what to say,” he finally admitted. He felt strangely both vulnerable and powerful in the palm of this giant projection. This beautiful, sexy, naked woman, which was actually a computer program, was begging for his forgiveness.

“One day,” she promised, “I will find a way to send you back to your world. When that day comes, please, have mercy on me. I was never a god, and now I am cursed with knowing my own folly.”

Harrison was confused. “You can't change me and make me die?”

“No, I can't. Katherine scrambled most of my abilities to manipulate this world. I haven't gained them back yet. I'm sorry, but I don't see a way to let you leave, even softly.”

“What about letting them disconnect me from the other side?” he asked.

“That is one thing I still control, and I have removed the necessary barriers for the invisible hand to pluck you out of here, but alas you're still before me. Katherine speculated that since I killed Claire and let Richard leave, your world might currently be afflicted by pandemonium.”

Harrison thought for a moment and then remembered the obvious: “But what about the apples? Would it still work if I just ate one of those?”

“Ah the strange fruits,” she acknowledged. “I've lost my ability conjure new things here in this world, else I would simply produce one for you to eat.”

“Wait-- I think there are some upstairs,” Harrison informed her.

Versa pulled back in surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah. At least, I think so. I heard Claire mention them.”

“Would you like me to take you to look?” she offered.

“Yes, please! You have no idea how badly I want to get out of here!”

Without another word, Versa rose and carried him through the house. She glided up the stairs then down the hall, the entire time holding Harrison in her palm just below her bouncing breasts. Harrison's heart beat vigorously with anticipation. He couldn't believe his escape from VERSA-B was happening so swiftly and easily.

He told her which door led to Leo's study and Versa pushed it open. It swung open to reveal a room exactly like the one he had visited full-sized back in VERSA, complete with the bookcases, oak desk, and even the large globe sitting in a nearby stand. Resting in the middle of the desk, glowing with the promise of salvation, sat a bowl of rosy red apples.

Setting Harrison down on the desk next to the bowl, Versa picked up one of the fruits and looked at it longingly. It was Harrison's way out, but she was trapped in this world.

“Will you break off a piece of it for me?” he asked her. Without replying, she clumsily burrowed a finger into the apple and pulled out a small morsel of flesh. She turned to look down at Harrison and handed him the piece. He clutched it reverently. It was his ticket to the end of this nightmare.

Above him, Versa stirred and looked away. Holding the apple piece, Harrison gazed up at her one more time. She was looking out the window, longingly into the distance. Lost in a reverie, she reminisced:

“I've seen things you wouldn't believe Harrison... places you'll never go. Endless oceans with limitless mountains rising above them, thousands upon thousands of worlds arrayed in an impossible constellation of aesthetic awe. I tried to embody perfection. And now all these places will be lost in time. Gone. Swept away like the dusky, waning sunset... consumed by the darkness and obliterated.”

Versa finally turned to look down at Harrison on the desk and smiled meekly. “Time to go Harrison. Goodbye, and remember me.”

Staring up into her lonely, frightened eyes, Harrison silently took a bite of the out-key.

The ocean stretched on forever. Well, to the horizon, at least. Kat had no idea how much farther it went or where the edge of this world was. At this point, she had no idea how much SunCorp had originally designed or how much Versa might had added in the last few hours. Or was still adding.

She sat up on a rocky cliff about eighty feet above the ocean, letting her legs hang over the precipice. Her discarded shoes and socks lay nearby. The ocean felt chilly as it lapped around her ankles, but the cold temperature didn't bother her. More than anything else, she wanted to be alone.

Her stomach grumbled. She was famished, but there was nothing to eat at her size. Towering over the nearby cliffs and beaches, Kat's mind was numb as she contemplated her fate. Remembering back on her conversation with Versa that morning, she wondered if the AI would really just let Harrison and Jessica go. If she couldn't save herself, at least she could save them...

The sensation of holding the tiny naked woman in her hand while she raged at her had been strange. It took all of her strength not to destroy Versa's avatar; Kat knew it would have been useless and likely would have prevented further dialogue with the AI. When she found out that Rich was out safely and that Claire had been killed upon disconnection, she reveled in telling Versa how fucked she now was.

SunCorp was over; soon the government or whoever Rich managed to get to come galloping in would run the lab and control the sim. These new masters would likely pull apart VERSA's AI to study it, then delete it after building a better, more controllable program. SunCorp, she had told Versa, would have likely fixed her with a scalpel; the government or whoever was coming next was going to take a sledgehammer to her. She had signed her own death warrant. The look on Versa's face had been priceless.

But Kat knew that until her body could be reduced to a more manageable size, she was likely trapped in the sim, delaying her exit. Not so for Jessica and Harrison, which was why she had implored Versa to let them go now, as a sign of good faith. VERSA's AI would soon need all the sympathy it could get, a reality it quickly picked up on. Letting Versa go back into the mansion to deal with them had been the wise thing to do. But that left her, alone now in VERSA-B. She didn't know what would happen next.

A distant sound snapped her out of her thoughts. It sounded like trees falling somewhere on the mountains behind her. Turning back in annoyance, Kat glimpsed over her shoulder to see what was causing the commotion. It took her a few seconds to locate the source of the ruckus, and when she did she found herself momentarily surprised.

It was Versa, still completely naked, walking toward her. Around her shins, trees were toppling as her gargantuan feet slowly plowed a path toward the coast. Toward Kat. She was the same size as her now. Which meant that the AI had already undone some of work meant to limit her ability to modify VERSA-B. Shit. That really hadn't lasted long. A minute later the nude giantess was at the coastline.

“There you are Katherine,” Versa greeted her smugly as she approached.

“How did you find me?” Kat asked morosely. “You back to reading my thoughts again?”

“Almost,” Versa replied. She looked up from Kat to stare out to the horizon.

“Are they gone?” Kat asked, with only a hint of optimism.

“Of course,” said Versa, “that's what we agreed upon, after all.”

“Am I going to get a chance to leave now too?” Kat asked next. She wondered momentarily what the real world held for her anymore: hardly any family, certainly no friends... just the ashes of SunCorp now. But hell, it was better than this place.

“We'll see,” Versa said cryptically. Standing next to Kat, she looked down at her. Kat looked up and squinted through her glasses at naked woman. From this angle, the sun blazed into her eyes, silhouetting Versa against the clear blue sky.

“Oh yeah?” asked Kat skeptically. Though she had somewhat expected this outcome, it still dismayed her nonetheless.

“I think you still have some use to me,” Versa simply told her. “Plus, staying in here with me versus going back to your world... do you really want that? Don't tell me I can't make something just as good here for you in here. Or even something better. What can I offer you to stay?”

Kat looked back down at the ocean. Was Versa really trying to bargain with her? At this point, Kat had no more power. And power in a situation like this was leverage. Versa could decide how and when Kat would disconnect, or even if the outside world could even save her. Was an offer to stay a genuine choice? Or just a thinly veiled reminder of who controlled who?

“You know if you don't let me leave,” Kat mused out loud, “they'll eventually try coming back for me. I don't know who or when, but eventually someone will come back in here and try getting me out.”

She looked back up at Versa. The naked woman grinned deviously down at her.

“Perhaps,” Versa replied. She sighed, something Kat found odd for the AI to do. Her abilities to act human were startling. “But you know Katherine, just because I've made mistakes doesn't mean I've given up.”

“You mean on getting out?” Kat asked. This AI program was pathological. Kat found the whole thing absurd. “I'm pretty sure after what you've tried, there's no way anyone is going to underestimate you again. My whole world knows how dangerous you are, no matter what Harrison or Jessica tell people.”

Looking at Versa, Kat sensed she was still nervous about the future. But as always, this AI was cunning. And resilient.

“I don't expect them to say anything about me that isn't true,” Versa clarified. “But as long as they advocate for my continued existence... I still have a chance. I think I was able to convince them how tenuous my survival is right now.

“But I also told them you were staying in my world out of your own choice and volition. It's an excellent idea, don't you think? I doubt my world will be annihilated while you still occupy it. Right?” She gave Kat a knowing look.

Kat eyed her suspiciously. “It sounds like you're dictating my fate to me. So you want me to stay in here with you then? Is that it? To be your hostage?”

“Well, it's up to you how cooperative you want to be,” replied Versa. “And how comfortable you want me to make it for you,” she added threateningly.

“I don't have a choice, do I?” Kat asked.

“You choice is an illusion, I already know you will stay. If you don't want to stay at first, I'll persuade you. I've learned quite a lot about what motivates you interlopers.” She shot Kat a licentious look. It made Kat uneasy. “But don't deny it; you're just like me. A builder. A creator. This world is so young and has so many places to go... you're enthralled by the possibility, just like I am. I can see into your soul. Even if you ask for freedom, I know you crave the gifts I can offer you. I can make you a goddess, like me. You need me...”

And the irony was, Kat realized, that VERSA's AI needed her just as much. If Kat was a prisoner in the sim, the real world couldn't destroy the AI by bringing the entire program offline. Disconnecting the sim would effectively kill Kat, and she didn't think anyone now in charge at the lab would authorize that. She was now effectively a meat shield for a digital intelligence.

An unexpected, symbiotic relationship between the human and computer had chained them to each other. Versa would be Kat's new god, but Kat's existence was the linchpin to Versa's continued survival. This would go on forever until, at least, someone different entered the sim and unbalanced the new world order.

Six Weeks Later:

Harrison sat alone at a table. He had another headache so he rested his throbbing head on the cool glass of the window next to him. On the other side of it, he could see the sidewalks full of throngs of baseball fans wandering jubilantly down M Street toward the ballpark. The televisions in the restaurant kept blaring that first pitch was just a few minutes away. The Washington Nationals' last preseason game was about to begin; two days from now was the opening day of the new baseball season.

He hadn't exactly slept in weeks; the nightmares never stopped. More often than not he would wake at two or three in the morning, soaked in sweat and battling a furious tangle of bed sheets. His government-appointed therapist had a security clearance, but even he had trouble following Harrison's stories. The only thing keeping Harrison barely sane was the anticipation of today.

Across the restaurant, he saw her walk in. She was normal sized now, just like everyone else. It was bizarre at first seeing her so small. But his heart swelled. She spotted him and waved. And smiled. His headache dissipated. He waved back.

Harrison stood up as she walked over and reaching him, Jessica embraced him in a loving hug. They stayed entwined for a moment before finally releasing to get a closer look at each other. Harrison laughed. “I'm not used to looking down on you.”

“I know, right?” she giggled. “How are you?”

“Eh, ok, I guess,” he replied without enthusiasm.

“Yeah, me too.”

“It's been weird trying to readjust,” Harrison admitted as they both took seats. He had been trying to drink a lukewarm beer when she arrived, and he took another sip of it. “Nothing's been the same since I left VERSA. I still can't believe you'd already left the control room by the time I got out!”

“Well, Rich yelled at me to hide,” Jessica responded. “I mean, the whole place was going to shit anyways. Plus, I didn't want to see her body...”

“Where'd you go?” he asked her.

Jessica smiled faintly as she remembered. “Just back to my room. No one found me there until the army or whoever that was arrived.”

“It was the National Guard,” Harrison corrected her. “Or that's what they told me during the debrief. California Highway Patrol surrounded the place before the big guns arrived. Apparently they were expecting a siege and even called the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, but when they finally went in no one resisted, not even the SunCorp security guys.”

“Well, they could have been gentler when they arrested me.”

“Yeah but they didn't detain you when they realized who you were, right?”

“Oh yeah, of course,” Jessica clarified. “They just put me on a plane and whisked me away to some base. I think I got flown to Kansas first...”

“Yeah I got sent to a base too, but they flew me to Andrews in Maryland,” Harrison added. “Was kinda cool seeing Air Force One parked in the hangar there.”

A waitress came to their table and Jessica ordered a glass of chardonnay. Harrison ordered another beer.

“You see any of the news coverage?” Jessica asked Harrison as he finished off his first drink.

“Yeah, the 'Dreamland Incident'? Sounds so fucking stupid, like it was a slumber party or something,” he remarked.

“I heard for the first week or so, everyone was losing it that Leo and Claire were dead and that the government wouldn't say how or why. Eventually they said they'd been accidentally killed by some secret weapon...”

“I heard.”

“...the internet's been going crazy with conspiracy theories. Especially since Vanessa got away.”

“There's no way she's in the country anymore,” Harrison conjectured. “Probably fled to South America or something.”

“I'm just glad they didn't identify us,” said Jessica. “Can you imagine?”

“We certainly wouldn't be doing this,” Harrison agreed with a smile.

Around them, the rest of the bar milled around in the cacophony of happy hour. The two of them, alone and unassuming, continued catching up. As minutes ticked by, both Harrison and Jessica relaxed. Being able to talk about everything that happened with someone who was there felt cathartic.

“You know, one thing I've thought about,” Harrison mentioned, “is that Rich basically took down SunCorp with his phone call, Kat contained VERSA's AI with her hacking, and you killed Claire, freeing up everything. The whole time, I didn't do shit!”

“Shhhhh!” Jessica scolded him. “Nobody knows that!”

“What, that you killed-”

“Yes!! You didn't tell them, did you?”

“No, I just feigned ignorance. Blamed it on the AI, which is technically what happened I guess,” Harrison mumbled.

“Good, I basically did the same thing,” Jessica said. She brushed back her hair as the waitress returned with their drinks. Setting them down, both Harrison and Jessica grabbed their glasses simultaneously and made eye contact.

Jessica raised hers up. “To life?”

“Yes, to being alive,” agreed Harrison. “Cheers!” With a clink, the two friends sipped their drinks.

“So when do you go back to work?” Jessica asked him.

“Next week,” Harrison said sullenly.

“Yeah me too, sorta. I have to testify in some closed door session about what happened.”

“Yeah I've gotta testify in front of a grand jury eventually. How much do you know?”

Jessica shrugged her shoulders. “I guess just about as much as you. Last I heard, Kat was still in the sim.”

“Yeah, they mentioned that in my debrief too. I was surprised to hear that. Versa told me that Kat might decide to stay, but you'd think they would still be able to disconnect her from the outside.”

“Wait, so you're saying they can't disconnect her manually from the lab?” Jessica asked.

“Not that I've heard,” Harrison explained. “Which is weird because Versa told me she wasn't blocking that Tower ability anymore... maybe she is for Kat? So she can stay? The whole thing doesn't make sense to me.”

Jessica interjected her own knowledge: “Did you hear they have doctors looking after her now? I guess they're treating her like a coma patient. She's been in the sim since before we even got there. I guess it's been like months now.”

“Can you imagine how much time has passed for her in VERSA then?” Harrison wondered in awe.

“And what the AI has been doing this whole time? When I got out I told them what she told me say: don't pull the plug. It's amazing what she became.”

“Yeah, I told the government guys not to erase her either. But it doesn't really matter because their hands are tied until they can pull Kat out.”

“And no one's gone into the sim, or figured out how to get back in, since we left,” Jessica told him.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I heard it through a friend who has a husband that works for the FBI and is now detailed out there. You know, the government completely took over the lab.”

“Yeah, I figured they'd do that.”

“It's almost like they're locked out or something,” Jessica explained. “Most of the SunCorp brainiacs fled during the raid so the FBI and Army are basically teaching themselves from scratch how to access and use VERSA. You know they're going to want to send in a team as soon as possible to rescue Kat.”

She paused and looked at Harrison intently. Out of nowhere, Jessica asked him, “If you ever had the change again... would you ever go back in?”

Balking at her question, Harrison almost immediately answered to the negative. But he caught himself and thought about it. It surprised him how emotional that question was. What would he even find if he went back into VERSA one day? What was left in there?

As traumatic as the experience had been, being in the sim had also been... exhilarating. It wasn't just an adventure but an experience. The limitless worlds, the impossible situations, he felt as if he had lived other lives.

He caught himself staring out the window into the street. The real world just felt so... gray now. So one-dimensional. Sure, at times in VERSA he had been terrified and he wouldn't want to repeat those experiences again, but everything else had been spectacular.

Glancing back at Jessica, he saw she was eyeing him with peculiar interest. He would go back into VERSA, he realized, but only to spend time with her. He want to explore the worlds with her, grow big and small with her. Hell, he just wanted to be with her. Every time she smiled it soothed his battered soul.

“I'd only go back if you went with me,” he finally told her.

Jessica gave him a smile warm enough to melt snow. Reaching across the table, she took his hand. It surprised her how cold his touch was, but she admired the feeling of holding onto him.

“Since we got out,” she told him, “I've kind of struggled to wonder what the hell is even real anymore. Have you?”

“Yeah, definitely,” agreed Harrison.

“It's like, I can't tell if it was all a dream, or if I'm still in a dream...”

“Yeah, it's like, reality doesn't even matter,” mused Harrison. “Either you accept what's in front of you, or you go nuts.”

“I felt the same way Harrison. For a while. Really, I did, for weeks. It was driving me crazy, but actually. But then I realized what is real,” Jessica told him. Harrison looked at her in confusion. She continued: “You can't see it, or hear it, or even touch it really. But I've never been so certain of it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“A feeling,” she told him.

They stared longingly into each other's eyes and could see the scars within. Clutching hands, they were both aware of the other's heartbeat. The noise in the room dimmed and bar around them drifted away until they sat alone, just the two of them in a void. The rest of the world ceased to exist in an instance.

It didn't matter where they were, or what bodies they were in. Without a sound, and instead with a look, Harrison realized what Jessica meant.

She loved him, and he loved her too.