Page 33 of Control

“I’ll do it,” I blurted out without really thinking. Everyone looked over to me and stared for a moment. I lifted my gaze from my hands which were still resting in my lap and looked back to each of them to see the worry in their eyes, either for themselves or for others they knew in Aurora that would be negatively effected should the data be made public. I stood up and began accessing my HUD, setting myself up for a live stream which I didn’t do all that often.

“What are you going to do?” Caster asked, his back still up against the wall.

“Whatever I can,” I said back to him. I directed Cris to drop her HUD off the wall so I could toss up mine. I setup my stream and looked over myself as my image sat on the makeshift screen near Caster. I fixed up my hair and makeup to make sure I looked half decent. “Jazz, I’m sending you my stream key. Set it up and patch me through.”

“To who?” Jazz asked as I finished making sure I looked alright. I paused for a moment and looked down to my hands once more. I rubbed my finger tips against my thumbs for a moment, contemplating what I should say in my message. People were worried, scared. They needed answers and the game developers weren’t giving them the ones they wanted. I knew in my heart that I needed to do something, to say something to help quell their worries. In all my years in the game I’d never broadcast myself to more than a handful of close friends who wanted to see me in game while they were offline.

“Ana,” Cris said, taking a few steps toward me but stopping short of standing beside me. “What are you doing? You can’t expect to settle the nerves of tens of thousands of people. That’s not possible.”

“No,” I said to her as I made a few more adjustments to my HUD. “It’s necessary.” I once more looked down to my hands, palms up, and mouthed a few words to myself which were once told to me by an old friend decades earlier. I took a few deep breaths to try and steady myself.

“Ana,” Jazz said. “Patch you through to who?” I looked back up and over to Cris. I gave her a knowing look and she picked up on what my plan was. I then turned my eyes to the others - Giff, Mustafa, and Caster. Each of them also understood what it was that I was doing. No one from the developer was going to do this so I had to take it upon myself to see it done. With a quick nod from Caster, I finally replied to Jazz.

“Everyone,” I said, focusing my eyes on the wall so I could see myself while I spoke. “Put me through to everyone.”

CHAPTER 10 - INTO DUST

I LEFT THE meeting shortly after I completed my address, but not before it was decided as a group that we were from that point, with Jazz’s blessing, to be known as The Aurora Council. The amount of social influence each of us held was considerable and Jazz agreed that it was probably best for us to discuss the use of that sway as a team when it came to instances like the hack. Because of my initiative and willingness to address the situation live before every player currently online, it was agreed by the other four that I would be appointed the Chairwoman. When put to a vote, the first we’d ever held as The Aurora Council, I was the lone dissenting voice.

I exited the meeting shortly after becoming the Chairwoman and walked down the hall, my hands shaking after speaking to everyone. My speech lasted a good 6 minutes. I looked down at my hands for a moment and stared at my palms, a light coating of sweat having formed inside them. I spoke from the heart and tried my best to reassure everyone that the data itself had not yet been exposed so we were all fine for the moment. Still, I advised them to take all precautions they felt were necessary to protect themselves and ensure their safety. With every step I took, more and more messages marked as urgent showed up in my inbox and before I knew it, the count had reached well over 4 thousand and was continuing to climb.

“Ana,” Jazz said to me through my HUD, his voice startling me. “Thank you for doing that. You didn’t have to.” I responded to him by thinking, refusing to move my mouth anymore than I already had.

“Someone had to do something,” I said, my steps carrying me back toward the waiting area where Reyna was waiting. “I can’t just stand by and watch people have a melt down.”

“An admirable quality,” he said to me, perhaps attempting to calm me down. Although I couldn’t see it, I knew he was reading my vitals and could tell my heart was pounding. “You did what none of the others could.”

“That doesn’t make me special if that’s what you’re getting at.” I was direct with him and wanted him to know I didn’t think of myself as better than any of the other council members. “I’m just doing what needed to be done.”

“I wish there was more I could do for you all,” Jazz said, a sense of failure in his voice.

“There is,” I said as I stopped walking for a moment.

“Tell me,” he said. “How can I make things easier for you?” I knew exactly what I wanted to say to him.

“Never hide stuff like this from me again,” I said, keeping my thoughts calm and direct. “I get you all were trying to protect me, but things like this…you have to let me know. Don’t let me be the odd one out.”

“Your new position demands I be as forthcoming with you as possible,” he replied. “I’ve conferred with members of the development team and they all agree the formation of a council in game was the right move. It will give players a sense of order. Sometimes having a leader or group of leaders to look to can help maintain order.”

“This still feels wrong,” I said as I started walking again. “I feel like I’ve taken on a new job, only I’m not getting paid.”

“I can ask about possible a gold transfer for you,” Jazz offered.

“Come on,” I said. “You can see my gold balance. Do you really think I need more? I have a hard time spending it as it is. I’m at the point where I am basically giving it away. Besides, a job like this…I’d want real world money.”

“Point taken,” Jazz said. “Still, I will make sure the developers know all that you are trying to do for everyone here in Aurora and see if there’s something more they can do for you.” With that, Jazz left my HUD and I finished making my way back over to Reyna who was standing in the same area I left her, rubbing her hands together nervously.

“What the hell is happening?” she said to me as I walked back into the room where she was waiting. She was hoping for answers as was everyone else there. All of them were looking at me, having just watched my message to the entire populace of the game. Within minutes, the video was already being uploaded to real world sites such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok. The forums were ablaze with talks of class action lawsuits and additional data leaks.

Masses of players who were off line decided to log on, hoping to get more information on what was happening inside the game world that they may have been missing from the outside. The servers could handle the mass logins, but the amount of chatter in the online text chat rooms and even in various hot spot locations was increasing at a rate even the developers may not have seen coming. Their inability to assuage the concerns of the players was becoming more and more apparent with each new conversation.

I stopped in front of Reyna and looked her over, he face filled with fear over the possibility of her real life identity being exposed. I could tell this was weighing on her heavily. She was scared. The others in the room with us were scared as well. I could sense they all wanted to approach me to ask questions but didn’t, instead choosing to leave me be for the moment. They knew I knew as little as they did and my message was more about trying to maintain calm than anything else.

“Who of your friends are on?” I asked Reyna. “Is Shazzy still around?”

“He should be,” she said to me.

“OK,” I said as I looked back to her. “Listen to me. I need you to go to Shazzy and just hangout with him and his friends. Where ever they are, go to them and stay there for the time being.”

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