Chapter 16: Trouble in Paradise

Martin Canmore sat at his office inside a medium-scale tower. The Newer York building served as the Ministry of Technology Head Quarters, and was surprisingly empty.

After his announcement in the Nexus, he surprised most of his employees with an early day off. They all worked hard on the time-dilation feature for Paradise, so he felt some relaxation was warranted.

Still, people had to be on standby in case anything happened. Paradise was a very important program, but tons of other public tech was under his management: the transit service, government pages and, of course, headclip updates. So, the minister kept a skeleton-crew of technicians, programmers, and other building staff in case of emergencies. To show solidarity he himself stayed of course.

It was thankfully boring thus far. Martin still had on his sleek gray suit from earlier. His black hair was cut short in a professional style. With a fit body and his deep-brown skin well kept, it was easy to see how the 32 year old minister earned his charming reputation.

Martin was listening to some music on his headclip and tapping his black shoes idly to the rhythm. The door to his office burst open as one of his technicians invited himself in. The minister saw from the expression on his face this could be serious. He turned his music off.

“Darian, is something the matter?”

“There’s something strange going on with Paradise. You gotta see for yourself.”

Martin walked with the casually dressed tech towards where the programmers usually sat. The minister saw a man and a woman limp in buckled chairs. The light on their headclips--those gray chips just above anyone’s left eye--was lit blue.

“Wait, why are they in Paradise?”

“Well, the day was slow so Kichiro went in to test some stuff out. He never came out, so Janice went in next to try and get him and now-”

“Wait, are you saying they’re stuck?”, said Martin.

“Looks like it.”

“Did you try shaking them out of it?”

“Of course sir, but it didn’t work for either of them!”

Martin turned to Darian with an incredulous look before walking over to Kichiro. He gave the thin programmer a shake on the shoulder. Nothing. He shook harder, but still the man didn’t wake.

“This... shouldn’t be possible. Hold him.”

Darian did as he was told while Martin unclipped Kichiro’s seat buckles. Kichiro’s body slacked in Darian’s grip, but he still didn’t wake. The LED on his headclip stayed the blue color, indicating he was still in the simulated reality.

Martin helped Darian move Kichiro to the floor. The two stared down at him, waiting for him to wake but it never came.

“Mr. Canmore sir, what could this mean?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s not good. This could be a very big bug.”

“Maybe something’s wrong with the time-dilation feature?”

“Unlikely, I oversaw the testing for that myself. Heck, I even volunteered for some of it.”

“But at the scale sir, Paradise has a lot of people in it today.”

“That’s true but... crud. Molly!”

Martin pressed his fingers to his forehead. His lovely wife could be in there. She worked as a designer of virtual items in Paradise: furniture, mostly. She could be in there still. He remembered her saying she’d be in the Nexus during his big speech.

“Sir, did you want to go check on your wife?”

“I’ll try and call her, in the meantime call all the team members I let take a vacation day. We need to see how widespread this is.”

Martin went back to his office, sat down, and used his screen to access his headchip-based personal computer. Her tied to start a holovideo call with Molly. The ringing chime echoed in his ear, each time his blood pumped faster and faster till it ended.

“C’mon...”

She didn’t pick up. For privacy reasons headclips don’t tell if a callee is in Paradise or not, so that could’ve meant anything from her being taking a nap or being stuck with the others--if people were getting stuck, that is.

Darian walked in it was clear from his facial expression that this was an issue.

“Sir, I couldn’t reach most of them, but Ferdy picked up. He said he didn’t log into Paradise but his husband did and he’s not coming out of it either. Should I call the Justice Minister-”

“No. I’ll handle that, right after I send out a global alert. For now, just run around the building and warn everyone else.”

“As you wish sir.”

Martin quickly typed out an alert to the emergency message syndrome and sent it out.

“The Ministry of Technology is investigating a bug with Paradise. For now, all citizens should refrain from logging in. The situation is under control. Please stay tuned for updates.”

He sighed, and prepared to call the Minister of Justice when he received a message. It was from Molly! That shouldn’t be possible. He opened it up. It read,

“Hey Babe, something odd is going on in Paradise. Log on we need to talk.”

‘That doesn’t make sense. Communication from within Paradise was a test feature we never enabled.’

At the same time, that was Molly’s pet name for him. They only used it in private. He wrote back.

“Honey, what’s going on? Are you alright?” he sent a reply. Normally messages from within Paradise don’t send, and none within Paradise are received: instead going into a queue. Yet, he got a reply back.

“Please log in. It’s important. I cannot stress that enough. You want to see me again, right? I need your help with something. I’m in pain. There’s a way out of here I promise, but we need to chat. Don’t leave me alone here!”

Martin’s heart dropped. Something fishy was definitely going on. In the back of his mind, he worried the message system could’ve been hacked. Such a thing would be unheard of. The Paradise code was ironclad. It would have been a historical first. Besides, he couldn’t risk leaving his wife alone when she needed him.

The minister forgot all about calling the Minister of Justice. He swallowed his doubt and buckled himself into his chair.

‘If Darian returns before I’m out, he’ll just assume I’m troubleshooting things.’, thought Martin.

The minister logged into Paradise. He was prepared for something unexpected, but floating in front of a giant-sized navel definitely surprised him. He quickly realized it belonged to a similarly giant and entirely nude woman that stared straight down at him.