GLITCH

Chapter 5

CHAPTER V

Valow floated in the empty whiteness of Phase One Stasis.  As he had always been a larger man, he enjoyed the lack of gravity.  He hollered and listened for his echo.  It came back, his voice bouncing off of the air.

“Hey!” he yelled again and waited.

“One point five hours over.  Phase One Stasis,” a voice echoed back, “is concluding in 5...”

“What?”

“4.”

“No, stop!  I refuse to leave!”

“3.”

“I demand you cease this countdown,”

“2.”

Now!”

“1.”

“No!”

“Zero.”

Static filled Valow’s vision.  He screamed as the sound of screeching tires deafened him and he was thrown back into reality.  The static receded and the screeching stopped and he opened his eyes.  He was in complete darkness.  And it smelled terrible.  The stench of sweat and breath stewed in the hot pod.  As he looked around for a button to let him out to get another pill, his eyelids became heavy.  His arm dropped from where it was probing the pod and fell to Valow’s side.  His eyelids fell closed and he drifted into sleep.  Minutes after he fell asleep, a voice sounded over the intercom.

“Warning,” it said, “Utopia Sim Failing.”

Seconds later.  “Unknown Sim Activating.”

***

The Stasis Manager for Hub 5, exhaustedly pulled into the Hub parking lot and drove to his parking spot behind the building.  He put his car in park and released the steering wheel, leaning back in his seat and running his hand through his hair.  Not looking forward to the work day ahead of him, he took his keys out of the ignition, got out of his car and nearly walked into the wall in front of his car.  Right as he was about to hit it, he turned on his heel and walked to the door in the front of the building.  He reached into his pocket and procured a small box that pulsed red five times and then turned green, allowing him entrance.

As he stepped into the Stasis Hub, the lights—usually automatic—just flickered.  He sighed, walking to the console in the wall, dragging his feet all the way.  When he made it to the power override button, he pressed it.

There was a snapping sound and a small buzz of electricity as the power fixed itself.  Yawning for the hundredth time that morning, he closed the metal cover over the button and walked towards the doors of the building.  He reached the doors of the hub and pulled out his key.  It unlocked the doors and he propped them open.  It was almost time to open.  After he had finished with his routine, he walked toward the elevator, disregarding the usual startup sequences of the pods.  He glanced to them, just to check their status.  All of the touch screens above the pods were showing their startup except for one.  Valow’s pod.

The screens all around his said, “Resuming Stasis Monitoring.”

Valow’s read: “Power Restored.  Unknown Sim Installing: 28%.”

‘Unknown Sim?  I don’t remember there being an “Unknown” installation,’ he thought as he redirected himself to the mysterious pod.

The manager walked to the far right wall and pressed a small white button.  A dial tone was heard over the loudspeaker.  It rang four times before someone picked up.

“Stasis Control; who is this and what’s your situation?”

“This is Stasis Manager 5: Jerry Underlow.  What were the names of the Sims installed on the computers at the Stasis Hubs?”

“There was,” the person on the other side said, “the Utopia, Neutral, and Phase One and Two Sim installed.”

“So there is no ‘Unknown’ Sim?”

There was a crash from the other side of the call as the person fell.  They recovered and came back.  “I’m sending some of my best scientists to come see what is happening.”  There was typing for a couple of seconds.  “I’ve traced your call to Hub 5.  Is that your location?”

Jerry nodded and, realizing they couldn’t see him, said into the phone, “Yeah, that’s where I am.”

“Okay.  Stay where you are.  My team will be there to help as soon as they can.  Is there anything else I need to know?” the operator asked.

“No, th—wait.  I think the subject is moving.  The pod is vibrating.”

“That’s not good.  Whoever is in there is gone or is going to be gone soon.  My team is almost there.  Hang tight,” the operator finished, and hung up.

Jerry glanced at the screen above Valow’s pod.  Unknown Sim Installation: 27%.

He looked back at the parking lot anxiously and saw a car speeding toward the building.  Its nose dipped as the driver slammed on the brakes.  Six men, lab coats flapping behind them, ran to the building, disregarding the broken door entirely and focusing on the horror unfolding on the screen.

Unknown Sim Installation: 29%.

“It’s changed!  It’s different now!  The first time I saw it, it was 28 percent.  That’s when I first turned the power on—“

One of the scientists looked, wide-eyed, at Jerry.  “You…what?  Please don’t tell me you said what I think you just said.”

“I turned the power on?”

The scientist looked at him, then back at the pod.  The number had changed again.

Unknown Sim Installation: 34%.

“No…no…no, no!  What have you done?” the scientist yelled.

“I was just doing my job; making sure the power comes on correctly is just part of what I have to do—I had to fix it!”

“And now you’ve killed a man!”

“I didn’t know he was in here!  I didn’t just waltz in here and say ‘Hey, I think I’ll kill someone today with a power button.’”

“Power button,” the scientist thought aloud.

“Yes, that’s what I said.  I turned on the power and—“

“The POWER!  That’s it!”

“What?  What’s ‘it’?”

“Turn the power off.  Now.”

“But won’t he die?”

“No, just trust me and push the button one more time.”

Jerry rushed to the console and pushed the red button.  There wasn’t the usual decrescendo of humming and click as the power turned off.  He pressed a few more times, testing to see if there was something visibly wrong with the switch itself or the panel beneath it.  Nothing turned up, but the lights flickered and went out.  He turned back to the scientists in the room.  They were all staring in fear and awe at the screen, the only source of light in the dark room.

One of the other scientists a few feet from Jerry said under his breath, “The Sim is generating its own power.”

The man in the pod was now shaking it violently.  The pounding and vibrations reverberated off of the walls as the number on the screen skyrocketed past 90%.  The screen froze at 100% and the pod stopped vibrating.  The white screen showing 100% in red text disappeared and was replaced by a bright blue screen.

System Overload: Memory Banks Full.  Switching to Unknown Sim Database.  Transfer?  (Y / N)

A scientist close to the screen yelped and pressed the N.

The text changed again.  Unknown Sim Override.  Transfer Pending.

“He’s gone.  There’s nothing we can do about it,”

The whirr of automobile engines sounded outside, signaling that people were coming back.  The scientists had no choice but to surrender and let the Unknown Sim take Valow.  They never knew that he was gone the second he entered the pod with nothing to lose and a flash drive full of something that would cost his life.  The moment the pills left the dispenser, he was lost to life and reality.