“Uh Hello?” Cale said, waving his hand in front of the tiny giant.

  He tried making silly faces, asked her a bunch of questions in a row to try and annoy her, he even insulted her boots for being too clean. But after an uncomfortably long amount of time, and there being no reaction from her, Cale was kind of getting annoyed and concerned.

  He studied her face very closely to see if maybe something would hint at her still being in there. However, her eyes didn’t move, her eyebrows didn’t twitch, her nose never crinkled, and he couldn’t even see any breath, though he wasn’t sure if he recalled ever seeing this tiny giant breath in the first place. Even when it was pulling the forge by the chain, he couldn’t recall seeing it breath at all. Would it be weird if she did breath? He thought.

  It was eerily getting into the uncanny valley territory and he wasn’t sure what was going on. He motioned for the orb to refill another mug, happy that at least that thing still listened and moved. He took the mug and held it under her nose, but that didn’t get any movement out of her either.

  Next, he acted like he was going to drink it but every time the liquid got close to the edge of the cup it would shrink back toward the bottom. And if he held it upside down, it would just disappear. Instantly curious, and distracted, he had the orb pour him another mug, only this time he just poured it out without bringing it to his lips. This time the mug let the liquid fall out and it landed on the floor, creating a small puddle.

  Seeing he could still pour the liquid, he had a moment of inspiration, and he poured the liquid right on her shoulder. To his surprise he watched the liquid miss her completely! As soon as it would reach her body, it would disappear like going into a drain. He checked the floor below her and saw that none of it even reached the floor and her clothes were not even the slightest bit damp.

  Ever curious, he had the orb refill the mug yet again and he poured another on her only to see the same result. With nothing else going on, he started seeing how much she could hold. He did wonder if she was hollow and maybe the liquid was pooling inside her boots. However, his question was never answered since after the fifth mug, the orb decided it would no longer provide refills and it took the mug away from him to wash it in a sink that materialized out of the counter.

  Running out of options to try and get her attention, he decided to poke her face with his finger and it reminded his overly bored brain of a song from back on Earth.

  “Pa-pa-pa-pa-poker face!” he belted out as he poked her face like a drum. He had gotten lost in the music after getting no response from her after the 20th poke.

  “Are you done?” he finally heard her say after the fifth version of his lyrics that were not even remotely close to the original. The sound of her voice made him jump a little in surprise and he saw her smirk at him. Annoyed that she had left him without telling him anything, he had to get one last poke in. He reached out with his finger and touched the tip of her nose.

  “Poke, ok, now I am done.”

  “Why are you poking my face?”

  “You stopped moving and didn’t tell me why. I thought you broke or something. I have no idea how to fix you so I was just doing random things to try and get your attention.”

  “Acknowledged. I will update my parameters to notify you before becoming unresponsive.”

  “Oh, you can do that? We.. I will come back to that later. What caused you to stop responding? Did you break or something?”

  “No.” She said matter-of-factly. “I was in a deep processing mode as I went over your results. The results of your diagnostics are far outside of expected parameters and my instructions for dangerous or life-threatening situations is to try and contact emergency services as well as the installation supervisor, which I did not receive a response from either.”

  “While I waited for a response from anyone, I kept going over your diagnostic data and it revealed that your body is being healed far faster than you can physically heal naturally by yourself. Which makes me believe that someone is attempting to keep you alive.”

  Cale felt a giant weight fall off his shoulders that he didn’t even know was there.

  “That is good news. I was thinking maybe the interface did that. Which would be cool but I was worried about being alone.”

  “Understandable.”

  “Can I ask a question before we go any further?” Cale inquired.

  “What would you like to ask? My answers are limited since I don’t have a connection to the greater network.”

  Cale had so many questions, and every statement this entity made just caused more. Like having confirmation that a larger network is supposed to be available. He recalled when he first got his interface and that beam of light that seemed to come from his soul. Maybe there was a network connection in town? But that didn’t help him now… Maggy probably had just enough information to get his interface installed and handle basic problems. So he was sure there was going to be a large number of questions she couldn’t even answer.

  “Alright, where do I start.” He mumbled to himself.

  “Start by asking the question,” she responded, causing Cale to sigh and roll his eyes.

  “M.A.I.G.? Was it? Matter Artificial.. What was it again?”

  “Matter Artificial Intelligence Guide is what I am!” She said beaming with pride.

  “Guide.. I’m just going to call you Maggy ok?”

  “That request is approved. Giving your M.A.I.G. a familiar name is a right the Local Administrator gets to have!”

  “And I am the Local Administrator?”

  “Access rights were inherited from the previously installed interface. You, Xavier Del’Orion are the Local Administrator of this MAIG. What else would you like to know?”

  “How do I change my name?”

  A couple of hours later…

  “Alrighty Maggy, let me confirm exactly what I got myself into.”

  “I await your confirmation.”

  “…Ugh. All day with this…”

  “What would you like to do all day? Do you want to start a new question?”

  “No, no, no. Just confirm if I make any mistakes in the summary of what I have gotten myself into.”

  “Ok. Listening now.”

  “So, I somehow started an installation for a new interface made by a corporation called Helioni, but my old interface was not made by them so some information, like my name, could be transferred, but other things, like my scripts, can be transferred but won’t work since this version of the interface does not know how to understand those scripts. Am I correct so far?”

  “Yes. The statements you have made are generally correct.”

  “Next, the installation phase, which I am currently in, typically requires a team of five or more, and that is why we are currently in a glass lounge orbiting my own soul.” He paused a moment before continuing.

  “During this installation, I am supposed to be partially sedated and in a pod where my bodily functions can be monitored by a team of people in case anything goes wrong. However, I am currently alone without a team and am not sedated in a pod and there is nothing you can do to stop what is currently happening.” He continued.

  “Correct. I cannot stop the installation even though you are not following any protocols. It should be impossible for you to even get this far getting ahold of this installation script and stopping it now would kill you.” She said nonchalantly.

  “As I said before, it is safer to continue, even if you may not survive. You at least have a chance if we don’t convert any of your scripts before waking you up. We can modify your scripts once you are awake, but that could take weeks, even months.” She explained.

  Cale sat back in his chair with his hands behind his head and stared into nothing. “I won’t have my scripts... How long would it take to make my wind script usable if you and I work on it once I wake up?”

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  Maggy closed her eyes like she had before when she started doing a lot of calculations. “Since you have zero training in script creation and I only have modules to complete the base installation of your interface… To modify a script over five generations behind the current version of the interface…”

  Cale grimaced at that part, he recalled how much work it was to modify one of his games to a new gaming console or operating system and it was not easy. He imagined this would be a lot harder, even with Maggy’s help.

  “…Around two weeks for your wind script since it is only five generations behind. If I had access to a logic cluster then we could have it converted in a matter of about a day.”

  Cale sighed when he heard the news. Two weeks was not a long time to wait, but he highly doubted it would be that fast. Even with the help of Maggy, he wasn’t sure how helpful she would be without being able to connect to a network and he was going to have to learn the coding language behind the script and from what he had seen so far, it looked very complicated.

  But that was something he would just have to handle when he could. For now, there were a few other things on his mind, especially about where he was.

  “Thank you for letting me know, Maggy. Your help has been great.”

  “You are welcome, Lord Cale.”

  “Ok, I regret that. Change my first name to… Your Eminence Cale.”

  “Ok, Your Eminence Cale.” She responded, causing him to grimace again.

  “Never mind.” He vacillated, “Just call me Cale for now.”

  He thought maybe having her call him something regal would be cool sounding but so far the different titles he had Maggy call him were making him feel more uncomfortable than cool.

  “Couple of things I don’t get. Why did the diagnostics orb make that drink only to splash it on the window? And what was up with that first mountain scene and more importantly, why were you a giant?”

  “I made the diagnostics orb do that because I saw you making a mess in the room and I thought it might make you more comfortable.” She explained. “As for what that room was, it is the standard entrance room that holds the consciousness of you and your team while my own code is installed on the interface to manage the complex interactions that are needed in order to install the interface without killing you.” Cale did not fail to notice the number of times she mentioned that part and it only slightly concerned him, but he listened as Maggy continued on.

  “The actual scene is in fact a real place and even though my calendar says hundreds of years have passed, it should look almost the same as what you saw moments ago.” She barely paused as she answered his questions one by one. “My gigantism and this room are in fact not standard. After your license was approved, I attempted to load a standard installation simulation, but your soul was too far outside of the expected parameters and it was failing to load. Normally, the installation would have you still in that original room and your soul would be moved around as the interface is installed on different parts of the Trilateral Layer. Your soul is so far out of parameters that it ended up being easier to have the room move around your soul instead of the other way around. What you saw was me giving you a visual of what I was building. My gigantism was necessary to channel enough of your own energy to build this simulated environment that would be able to handle forging the interface to your soul.”

  “So, everything I saw was an artificially drawn representation of what you were doing? That is very cool, and also explains why everything was so weird…”

  He sat forward in his chair and thought about everything he had learned. His consciousness was basically stuck here in this place until he finished the installation and he hoped his parents didn’t decide he wasn’t worth the hassle of keeping alive anymore. Not wanting to tempt fate, he decided he had better get started.

  “Maggy, my last interface didn’t have a ‘Maggy,’ what makes this interface different from the last one I had?”

  “I am glad you asked!” She beamed, “Would you like to see the video I prepared for this exact question?!”

  “Sure. Let me see it.” Cale said with a mild tint of curiosity.

  Maggy sent a big smile his way and walked over to one of the glass walls. She moved her hand in a downward motion and all of the windows went black in an instant while dim lights over the bar turned on, bathing the room in a soft yellow glow. Looking satisfied, she walked over to the bar, ordered another drink, and waved her hand at the blackened windows, which immediately started playing a video.

  The video started out with them soaring like a bird over bright white clouds with the faint sound of wind coming through hidden speakers above them. As they soared over the clouds, an opening is seen and the video swoops down through the white fluff to reveal a ferocious battle happening below. On one side, people like him are lined up in rows like a medieval army, and they were facing a giant four-legged beast with a scaled face. Its body was surrounded in fire red fur and behind it was a tail that looked like a rat tail that the creature was using as a whip. As the video swooped over the battle, a voice with a male accent he had never heard before started to speak.

  “For many generations, the people of our world fell prey to those stronger than us. From single beasts that could wipe out an army.” The narrator paused as the video flashed to a scene of large swaths of red fog that billowed from the beast’s mouth and engulfed them completely. The sound of coughing and bodies falling to the ground could be heard and when the fog dissipated, only the dead remained.

  Somber music started to play quietly in the background as the narrator continued, its smooth, slow melodies imprinting a melancholy mood.

  “To little creatures that terrorize our bodies from within…” The camera dove into the battle and flew into a freshly open wound that had appeared on the side of one of the soldiers that had gotten too close to one of the beasts’ claws.

  “Microscopic entities that invade our very beings and destroy us from the inside out,” the voice continued as the camera followed a small invader and watched it ravage the cells of the being it was infecting. The camera went black as the micro invader turned and faced the viewer.

  “But not all of us fell prey to such beasts,” the narrator said in almost a whisper. “Some of us forged a destiny for ourselves, and with it, uplifted our entire civilization into a new age.”

  The black screen played no video, but the faint sound of a hammer could be heard, and with every strike of the hammer on metal, the sound became louder. Soon a spark was seen on the black screen, and with each hit, the sparks would grow brighter, larger, and more vibrant. Soon the sparks had brightened up the area enough to view the cause of the sparks and to Cale’s surprise it showed a young woman who looked a lot like Maggy.

  She was swinging a hammer and forging herself a blade that was glowing orange as she pounded it into shape. The camera zoomed in on her face as the hammer strikes turned into the sound of pounding boots. As the camera got closer, her face slowly changed and became cleaner, while at the same time a helmet slowly materialized over her eyes.

  The camera angle then changed to see this woman sitting on a large, muzzled wolverine-looking animal. Her body was covered in armor and he could clearly see the sword from the scene before hanging on her side. The camera zoomed out farther and revealed the same red furred creature with the scaly face and the long rat like tail standing in an open field in front of her.

  The red creature rushed forward to crush this new army, only this time, when the creature attacked with its horrid breath, the woman took out her shield and slammed it into the ground, causing a gust of wind to push the poisonous breath away from the army. Enraged, the beast rushed the woman, who stood her ground with confidence. The beast didn’t hesitate to swing at her with its claws once it was close enough, but to its surprise, the woman blocked its attack and retaliated with a swing of her sword. The blow caused a shockwave to form on the ground around her and it pushed the beast back, only this time it was missing a limb. Green blood splattered out of the beast, landing on the camera and covering up the screen.

  Cale winced and scrunched his face at the grossness of it, but he didn’t look away. The green blood wavily fell away like cloth to reveal not the same armored lady fighting a beast, but now it was someone wearing what looked a lot like the robot figurine he saw at his aunt’s daycare. The person was wearing a suit as they worked out in what appeared to be a jungle.

  The narrator chose this time to start doing his job again.

  “Though the times and locations have changed.” It began, as the camera started moving backward, revealing more of the jungle. Cale watched the person in the suit use a chainsaw-like piece attached to his arm to cut through large trees, which caused a green liquid to splatter everywhere. The narrator didn’t stop as the camera continued to move backward, revealing a settlement in a remote destination with a giant, unrecognized planet dominating the sky behind it.

  “We at Helioni pride ourselves in giving you the forge to make the tools you need to succeed, and because of you, we all succeed.”

  The video cut out with the words Helioni in 360 degrees around the room before the lights undimmed and the windows showed the previous view of his soul.

  “What do you think of my video?” Maggy asked him with a lot of anticipation in her voice.

  “Honestly, it looked really cool,” Cale told her. The graphics had been amazing and the planetary reveal at the end really surprised him. “What was that last scene with a mech suit? Do those exist?”

  “Yep! The software running inside of it is all Helioni tech!”

  Cale couldn’t help but notice that his hands were rubbing against each other greedily as he thought about what he had seen. It revealed a lot of information to him and brought up just as many questions. Questions he could get answers to if he could make tools. His mom may have almost killed him, but if this interface is half as good as Maggy claims, then this was the best thing she could have ever done.

  In fact, once he woke up again, nothing was stopping him from using an old tech that survived the ravages of time. As far as he knew, the only people really using the equipment were farmers. If he was able to make it through this, then there was a real chance he could figure out how to see his kids again! Hope swelled inside of him as the idea took root and a new level of motivation could be seen on his face.

  “How do I get started?”

  Leo

  Leo watched his best friend thrash about in his bed while multiple healers held him down. He had been keeping Xavier company when he had gotten hot and noticed that Xavier was starting to sweat a lot and was starting to swing his limbs around. By the time he was able to get a healer’s attention by yelling, Xavier had partially fallen off the bed and Leo was doing his best to keep his friend from falling off and being hurt. It didn’t bother him that he was getting a few bruises from his friend’s erratic movements.

  He clutched his blanket as tears streamed down his face watching his best friend in pain. He gasped as Xavier’s back arched into the air and the skin on his chest split open with multiple tiny cracks. One of the healers took their open palm, dipped it in a purple liquid sitting in a bucket, and slammed it onto Xavier’s chest. The healer grunted heavily as Xavier’s body seemed to rebel and his left hand escaped the strap it had been put in and he slapped the doctor right in the side of the face.

  “Aaggh! How is this kid so strong! Get me a sedative and the largest container of Podimunal Fluid we have!”

  One of the healers who was running around getting supplies noticed Leo watching them through the window in the door and motioned to another healer. Soon Leo was being escorted to his home by one of the bases guards. They didn’t want him seeing his friend in such a state and they had sent him home to be with his mom. That night Leo didn’t sleep a wink. He just snuggled with his mother, holding the shirts he got the both of them as tight as he could as he prayed to the divine for the safety of his friend.