Page 65 of Obsession

I was Taori. I would not be beaten. I would figure this out if it took me until the moons aligned and the stars ignited.

The sound of soft, quick footsteps made me spin around, startled that someone had reached me without my notice. Reina, the assistant and friend of the Academy Master's wife, stood inthe doorway, wringing her bony, gray hands. Her blue hair stood straight up in its usual gravity-defying swirl, making her taller than even me or the Drexians. And unlike nearly everyone at the academy, the Vexling wore colors—a pink-and-orange floral dress that was so bright I actually flinched.

"I am toiling with all required speed,” I said, assuming she was bringing another message from the Academy Master. "Tell him I'll report as soon as I have made progress."

She giggled, the sound high and breathy. "Oh, I'm not here as a messenger. I'm here to help!"

I straightened, rubbing the back of my sore neck. "Are you familiar with holotechnology?"

Another giggle. “Aren’t you funny? I never think of Taori of being funny. Poetic, yes, but not funny.”

I stared at her, wondering if I should respond to that.

“I don’t know holotechnology,” she continued, “but my friend from the Island does!”

I rested my hands on the low-slung waits of my pants. “The Island?"

"The second tribute bride space station," Reina said, as if this should be obvious.

Ah. I had heard about the Drexian tribute bride program—a fascinating solution to their gender imbalance that involved creating elaborate fantasy environments on space stations to woo human females. It had seemed absurd to me at first, but given that they now had two stations, it must have worked.

Reina held out a communication device, its screen showing two faces: a Drexian male with long dark hair and a human female with a mass of dark curls.

“Meet Nina and Vekron," Reina announced proudly. "They're holographic masters!"

Vekron's chuckle was deep as he glanced at the woman beside him. "I wouldn't say master—"

"I would," Nina cut in, elbowing him, although the Drexian did not seem to mind, since he laughed again. "Reina gave us a brief overview of your situation. We have some ideas, if you're open to help."

The relief that flooded through me was so intense I almost barked a laugh. "At this point, I would be grateful for the assistance, and I will share all glory with you both.”

“We don’t need glory.” Nina flapped a hand at me through the screen. “But we do want to get your people out of the simulation.”

Vekron leaned closer. "First, we need to see your code structure. Can you show us?”

My pulse quickened as I tilted the screen to take in the holochamber console. “I should tell you that I did augment the code, which is why it might have become corrupted after the power surge. The new code was not fully integrated when it was damaged.”

"Oh, interesting," Nina muttered. "Look at this base architecture, Vek. It's similar to the original Island protocols."

“You made changes so the program could adapt as it ran,” he replied. “But that means that the program itself was less able to handle the surge and it might have perceived the power fluctuation as an external threat.”

“So, it adapted to save itself,” I said, as realization dawned. I had made the program more realistic by giving it the power to adapt itself and eliminate external attempts to access it.

"The program wants to evolve," Vekron said. "We just need to guide that evolution in the right direction in order to get your people out.”

Reina hovered nearby, still wringing her hands, but her constant nervous energy was somehow comforting now. She clapped her hands together, making me jump. "Oh, this is so exciting! Should I get snacks? I should get snacks."

Nina laughed. “You get snacks and the rest of us will get to work.”

Reina hurried away in a swirl of clashing florals, and I turned back to the screen, suddenly sure what we needed to do. "We need to let the program become what it wants to be, while steering it to be what we need.”

Nina nodded. “Like surfing a wave. Instead of fighting the corruption, we're going to ride it."

I did not know what that meant, and I think Vekron saw my confusion.

He grinned. “Or like using the energy of a gravitational field for momentum.”

I returned his smile. Now that I understood, I glanced at Volten's pulsing signature on my display, thinking of Britta and Kann somewhere in that virtual world with him. “Ready to surf some holographic code?”

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