8 Trials Deep

CHAPTER 17: THE IDEAS OF THE RULING CLASS ARE RULING IDEAS

Gin strolled into the grandly marbled office of the Citizen Tracking Bureau. As he neared the entrance a rushing lady walked right in front of him but he did not bother stepping aside and proceeded straight ahead. The physical body of the woman passed through the avatar’s imagery form.

“Sorry!” the woman yelled back as she rushed on her way. Gin nodded lightly and went on his way. He sashayed past the security personnel performing routine without a pause, after all he was just an avatar in the physical world. Avatar’s could not carry or conceal weapons, could not touch or tamper with anything solid. They were essentially merely moving images embodying a live user.

Following directions from the AI robot he asked, Gin arrived at a section with a bold sign, ‘Name Order Department’. He had just 4 days to put things in order, he didn’t want the Order Enforcers coming after him.

“Purpose?” an AI in the appearance of a neat young asked. There was just a subtle hint of an automated voice in his voice that a good number of the people going to the Bureau would not be able to recognize the AI was not human.

He must be one of the latest model, Gin privately remarked.

“Name shift,” Gin replied.

“Identification please.”

The avatar swiped his MA for a fraction of a second, the AI received Gin’s profile. There was short silence before the neat looking AI said, “One moment please.”

Gin nodded. The AI took a moment before glancing at him and saying, “If you could please follow me.”

The avatar’s expression reflected a question but he still silently followed the AI as he walked towards the director’s office. A man introduced himself as the department director and offered a handshake before pulling back in the last moment embarrassed, he had forgot for a moment that Gin was an avatar. Gin pretended to not have noticed it, not wanting to make things awkward.

“Let me personally assist you,” the director offered. Though he wondered why the director was needed to process a simple name change, Gin assented.

“By the way,” the director turned to him and eased into conversation, “I watched the broadcast of the Trials last time, at home of course. I can’t afford those coliseum tickets, they were outrageously expensive. But watching at home should be just as good, you were extraordinary. I have never seen a more heroic man.” At this, the director turned towards him with a wide smile and continued, “RF-06 was declared the First Trial Victor but I believe it should have been you. Others are also saying so, I mean the way you freed the other contenders. Why, those who had escaped before you just passed by the others coldly! You even made sure that all of them escaped before you left the mothership. Though it was unfortunate that all of you sank in the end, the way you ended it was genius! Pulling your enemy down with you, I don’t know why they gave the first place to the other cadet!” The director had become more and more passionate as he talked and by the end of his speech he was practically standing and throwing his fists around. However, when he saw the avatar and the AI looking at him, he suddenly straightened his tie, cleared his throat and sat back on the chair.

“So you wanted to have a Name Shift, it’s an upgrade surely, yes?” the director beamed.

“No, I would like to change to Commons,” Gin responded.

The director seemed to have been shocked as he stared at him, his hands stopped from encoding. The AI had to remind the director again, who seemed to have suffered a heavy blow, “Director, are feeling well? I sense an acceleration of heart bit.”

“Oh, yes, yes. I’m fine,” said the director as if being jolted awake. Then he turned to the avatar with a grave expression, “Are you sure about this name shift, maybe-“

“Yes, I have about three days before the Name Order Enforcers start coming after me,” Gin replied.

When the director saw the calm manner in which the other regarded the issue he nodded in surrender and asked, “Please state the reason for the shift.”

“I quit the Armed Forces Academy about a month ago. Pertinent certifications are attached to my Shift request as already sent.”

The director pulled out the transmitted documents, processed it through the verifier which reported positive. He read the listed references on the application and said, “I will now make an inquiry on your references. Let me just confirm it, this is Brigadier General Morret and Cadet RF-06, yes?”

“Correct,” Gin said indifferently. An inquiry was sent, though it took far longer tie for Morret to send a confirmation. Gin had to wait for almost half a day. He was sure Morret was doing it on purpose. When they received both confirmations, he was ushered to the director’s office again.

“What is your proposed name?” the director asked.

“If C-13 is vacant, I should like to take it.” Gin hoped it was. Changing initials as well as numerals at the same time would feel somewhat awkward to him.

The director nodded and tried the new name on the system, “It turns out that the original name owner has died 3 years ago. The name at this moment is available. Please say the official oath, our AI will now take record of it.”

Gin nodded, turned to the AI, raised his right hand in the gesture of swearing and oath and proceeded, “I now accept the name shift from my former identity as RF-13 to C-13 for all intents and purposes. From this day forward I, C-13...” The short swearing ceremony ended uneventful as any other mundane legal procedures the director had witnessed. He had officiated now thousands of name shifts throughout his 13 years of service. He has seen people cry, as if their world ended. He had seen people elated, as if their life was just beginning. They were also some violent cases. There always was a measure of emotion that came with a name shift and the director understood. A name shift was the official ceremony that finalized the rise or fall in status of a citizen. This was the only instance that he had seen one abandon his name as indifferently as if he was just changing clothes.

The director was puzzled. The young man was performing a downgrade. And this change in status would have colossal effects on his life. He was now the only commoner in the Trials. The director was not so naïve to think that the centuries-old monarchy would let a commoner into their midst now when they had resolutely kept them out for as long as the Empire was established. Nevertheless, he kept his thoughts to himself. He was certain that the young man had a full understanding of this. To be able to maintain calm with such grim prospects ahead, the director admired him. The procedure ended, the director himself bowed C-13 out of the Citizen Tracking Bureau compound. The director looked on as the avatar’s back was gradually lost in the throng of rushing people.

“His back is as straight and stiff as when he first stepped into the office, unbowed”, the director murmured to himself.

Gin, or now officially C-13 deliberated whether he should go back to his body lying a few miles away in the Royal Residence or leave for the virtual dimension to look for Leta. There was three day buffer before the second stage of the Trials began. As long as they didn’t step out of the Royal Residence bodily, that is leaving their physical body in the gateway pod, the contenders were able to go wherever they wanted in their avatars.

C-13 ditched RF-06 who had been hounding him since the three days started. The other was probably just bored and was looking for a playmate. C-13 was not so free. He grabbed the chance and shifted to Gin have his name updated or rather downgraded. He could read the director’s worries and understood that he would be forcibly eliminated in the Trials due to his status. However, it was of little consequence to him. He was only going to stay until the third anyway. And the more desperate the organizers wanted him out, the easier it would be for him to strike a deal with the royalties. He only wished the Trials would go faster than it did now. His brother’s chances dropped the longer the treatment was delayed.

He sighed and decided to go back to the Royal Residence. He had previously intended to go look for Leta but changed his mind. She was the type to be found when she wanted to be found. He had better chances looking for a needle in a haystack than looking for her. RF-13 was aware of this. In the previous incident, he was only able to find her when she got tired of hiding. However, if she still didn’t appear before the second stage, C-13 would turn every stone in the virtual dimension to force her out.

He knew he was that this time he was the one at fault but he couldn’t apologize to the air and hope the air would convey it to Leta. They weren’t a couple yet and they were already bickering like one.

C-13 was aware that he could be an insensitive moron sometimes. Still, he could swear that when it came to Leta, none of it was intentional. For so long he had been so accustomed at going at things as he pleased that it took him conscious effort to consider how the others would feel. And by the others, he meant the twins, A-343, and ... Leta. Most specially Leta... As for strangers, even if it was the king or the queen, C-13 couldn’t care less what they feel or what they thought of him.

But the way things were going, C-13 had to acknowledge some changes. In the past even if his siblings opposed, if he knew that his decision was the best course he would do it anyway. Following his mother, quitting the development school and just recently, the military academy- all those decisions had hurt his siblings and his father in one way or another. Still he went at them anyway, feelings couldn’t be spared when some other considerations weighed heavier. Yet why was it different with Leta? Why was it always different with Leta? He found himself speculating and hesitating on a course of action for so long that a good number of his neurons probably died in the process. The scale which he used to weigh measures of importance seemed to always precariously tip on her side. For almost all his life, he would choose the twins against anything and everything without missing a beat. But as he weighed it now, if he was made to choose between the two- it scared him. He couldn’t choose.

C-13 gave himself a mental shake and forcibly turned to another avenue of thought. He should probably go back to the Royal Residence. Gin’s figure gradually dissipated in open plaza where he stood.

Not long after C-13’s eyelids fluttered open. Then the space between his dark eyebrows creased as he frowned, there was an incessant knocking on his door. There could only be one person with skin thick enough to keep on knocking when the room occupant obviously did not want to open the door.

He closed his eyes again and decided to mute off the sound. He began counting slowly while flexing his fingers and toes, waiting for his bodily control to settle in. But the volume of the knocking increased, as if keeping pace with his counting. His irritation spiked and he bolted upright wanting to rush at the door – only to fall with a dull thud on the ground. His motor control had not yet settled in.

“Buddy, are you all right?” RF-06’s voice came from the door. “I heard a crashing sound, yell if you need any help!”

A minute passed before C-13 opened the door with murder written on his face. RF-06 pasted on a smile, then it faltered. It looked like his former bunkmate really wanted to skin for real.

“Are you by any chance, in love with me?” C-13 asked with a smile dripping with poison.

The other was gobsmacked, jaw hanging open. It took a full minute before he answered, “It would be an awful tragedy for someone as fine as me to break my noble heart pinning for an ice king like you. And let me tell you, this gorgeous bunkmate of yours already has a beautiful and loving girlfriend.”

Hearing this, C-13 slowly patted RF-06 on the back and said, “Good, now go to her and stop bothering me.” The smile was still pasted on his lips but his tone was as warm as frost.

“But she went to visit my parents,” RF-06 quipped.

“All the more you should go to her!” C-13 bellowed, having finally lost his temper.

“I don’t want to meet my father at the moment, you know how he is,” C-13 said as he walked past him and entered his room. He looked around and said, “Yours is just the same as mine, except my view looks towards the court building.” He sat on a chair and asked, “But mate if I, by some unfortunate instance, did like you, are against same-s*x relationship?”

“I’m not, but I don’t like you. You don’t stand a chance,” C-13 said not missing a beat.

“That hurts my feelings, though the feeling is mutual,” RF-06 said laughing.

C-13 ignored RF-06 commentary and asked, “You have a girlfriend and yet you’re here competing for another’s hand? What did you’re beautiful and loving girlfriend say?”

“That’s why I told you before I wouldn’t mind stepping aside for you. Father made me choose whether to quit the academy or this. We had a fight, well not as much a fight as me begging her for an extension.” RF-06 had a rare serious expression on. “We settled on a compromise. I have to find a way to get myself out of this Trial before the 5th stage, or as she said, I can go and get myself a princess and she’ll find herself a commoner.”

RF-06 laughed, his usual carefree, devil may care attitude gone. “She’s a commoner, mom likes her but father has been opposed from the get go. She’s not going to wait for me for long, so why don’t you shoot me the next time we go the virtual dimension?” RF-06 said it lightly but C-13 knew that he was serious.

His former bunkmate was finding a way to get eliminated without it looking deliberate on his side. “The last thing you’ll find me doing is shooting the Pontus Prime Minister’s son,” C-13 said with a flat tone. “Why didn’t you just let yourself be bitten off by those sentinel dogs last time?”

“I have Cynophobia!” said RF-06, goose bumps breaking out on his arms. “I couldn’t help it, my body just bolted out in a run and before I knew it, I was following you.”

“Why don’t you bribe some staff to sabotage your gear or what not,” C-13 said with an arched brow.

“My father has the entire Royal Affairs Division under his eye. My every movDid you know that I intentionally tampered the automaton I found on my uniform only to have the door of my cell slide open without me touching it?” RF-06 said disparagingly. “He may tolerate me every now and then but when push comes to a shove, I have no doubt he’ll use her to force me. Mate, if even you won’t shoot me, who would?”

“I would!” a perky voice sounded in the room. “I could shoot you, if you want. Or do you prefer exploding in a spectacular blast? Of course, I’ll see to it that you don’t get toasted for real.”