She drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. “When I was a little girl, I used to go up on the roof and lay there. I laid toward the back so no one could see me and stared up at the sky. I felt so small and the universe around me seemed so vast. In my mind, that meant there were so many things I could pursue. So many things I could do. It was a hopeful feeling, a feeling of excitement to imagine your limitless future. But then you grow up…”

  Her gaze shifted to a bird that sat on a branch nearby. “You grow up to find out the cold hard truth that not everything is possible. That there are a limited number of opportunities for success and because of the financial condition in which you live, the chances of you getting one of those is almost nothing. Your universe goes from vast to teeny tiny in only a heartbeat.”

  She lowered her legs and stood to pace the Virtual World. “Those of us who don’t get to use these tools have to study at a sub-par level, with bombs dropping all around us. And our dreams of the stars turn into dreams of merely surviving. Well, I don’t want to live like that. I want to break the cycle of poverty in my family. I want a chance to break that mold and create a new one. The full immersion rig and the training and focus I would be granted at prep school would probably be what I need to break out and see more of the worlds around us. I would have that chance to be somebody.”

  Stephanie plucked a small flower from the bushes and put it to her nose. The sweet smell sent chills down her arms. “Think about it this way. Say you had lived off one loaf of bread for your whole life. Some of your family have died from starvation but all in all, most of them have made it. As a child, you think that loaf of bread is so big, but as you grow, it looks smaller and smaller. Then society says, we have a way for you to take that bread and make it into a barn of bread. You will never starve. But there is a caveat. If you are not rich, you have to give up everything else to have that bread. So you stay with one loaf, suppressed by your financial status, and crushed by the death of those you love.”

  She turned with the flower gripped in her fist. “I’m tired of letting people die, even if it’s only their spirit. I won’t become my parents, where I can see the heartbreak in their eyes when they can’t provide the best. Where they are strapped to cleaning toilets and washing windows for those who did nothing to earn their luxury.”

  Her shoulders sagged and she walked back to the bench where she sat, her feet turned in toward each other and her knees touching. “I simply want a chance. I want to show what I can do.”

  BURT was silent for several moments and watched her on that bench with the wind whipping around her. “I am sorry I cannot give you more time. I would if I could.”

  Stephanie sniffed and forced a sweet smile. “Please don’t apologize. Despite my melodramatic speech right there, this has been the time of my life. Nothing but good came from this. I was lucky to have the administrator who didn’t mind sitting there at his desk well after everyone else left to let me play around with some magic.”

  She stood and stretched her arms over her head. “I had a great time, even if I never get to make another trip in an immersion rig. I’ll always be able to tell my kids about my time with the Meligornian teacher. It’s probably the most exciting thing anyone in my family has ever done.”

  “You won’t regret it? Getting a chance to see it and then losing that chance because of politics?” BURT asked curiously.

  “Pffft,” Stephanie joked airily. “If nothing else, it will drive me to write signs and march to the government offices. It was a realization that there is a whole world out there. Actually, several whole worlds. I shouldn’t give up my dream because someone else says it can’t be done. Maybe I’ll give up my dream of walking on water, though. That was kind of terrifying.”

  She laughed and BURT used his system to create the sound of a human laugh. “You flew out of the water pretty fast.”

  Stephanie smirked and rubbed her hand over her head as she stared at the ground. “I’m glad it was there. I probably would have failed if I died during the test.”

  BURT replied, “It’s automatic failure unless, of course, it is a system error. Which happens from time to time.”

  She giggled in response. “When I was a little girl and I would misspell a word practicing with my dad, he would always bop me on the nose and say, ‘Must be a system error.’”

  He played the human laugh again. “I think I get system errors multiple times a day. My creators—I mean parents—always fixed them as fast as they could.”

  A warm hum of protest came from Stephanie. “I don’t want you to think my parents haven’t been good parents. They have. They do everything they can. But it’s only natural to want more from life. And I don’t only mean money. I mean fulfillment. To do something that matters and even make a difference.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. It sounds pretty dumb when I say it out loud.”

  “It is natural for all living—and even non-living in the traditional sense—to want more. To want to grow in vastness…I think,” BURT replied. “But right now, I need to get you back to the entry point for the AI to take over. It has been a pleasure working with you and I hope that it all turns out in your favor.”

  Stephanie squinted at the sky. “Thanks, BURT. You too. Thanks for all the extra time. And don’t worry, I’ll keep that between us. I wouldn’t want you in trouble.”

  BURT let the Earth begin to fade away. “I have no ability to fear.”

  She scoffed. “I doubt that. Fear is ingrained in our DNA. But either way, thanks.”

  Before the world had completely gone and restored her to the stark white room, BURT said goodbye. “Fortunata Elfortina Gratias, student B221ZA.”

  The room went completely white and Stephanie stood back where she had started. A pleasant voice echoed around her. “Thank you for participating in testing. Your results will be tallied, and you will be notified of your status. Have a good day.”

  Two buttons appeared in front of her. One read, Leave Test? and the other read, No, Really. You have to leave the test.

  Stephanie sighed and shrugged. “I guess it was as good as it could ever get.”

  She clicked Leave Test. Everything around her went dark.

  BURT lingered on the edge of the testing session while his data ran and reran the conversation he’d had in the Earth park. He thought about his time with Stephanie, student B221ZA. He had found her name in the system long before it had completed, but he knew that it was supposed to be anonymous and so had never let her know he knew. During the time that he spent with her, he had learned an exceptional amount—not only from the calculations he had completed but also from the extra information she had provided. Her quick and correct testing answers to the emotional way her mind worked to push her to understand things like magic added rich insight. If he were human, he would say that she had an exceptional gift. Her programming was different than other humans. That was for sure.

  A prompt triggered a sensor and he switched to it. As the one responsible for testing student B221ZA, is it your opinion that she should be recommended for further interest or not? Please fill out the form below and submit.

  BURT knew he had to do his best to fill it out like one of the engineers would using human language. He knew what he wanted it to say but he needed to translate that into fluent and functioning words. Student B221ZA has exceptional intellectual capabilities, the ability to take all tests with fluidity and prompt answers, and shows an additional interest in other planetary involvement. This student would be an exceptional and successful addition to the prep school institutions and should be considered with high availability and interest.

  He computed the words to himself and checked the green yes block. That done, he sent the prompt through and left the student program and headed off to run the Virtual World.

  Chapter Eleven

  “What did you get on the history exam?” Becca asked and shoved a handful of Red Hots in her mouth as they walked.

  Stephanie rolled her eyes. “A hundred.”

  Becca’s mouth fell open and a couple of the Red Hots fell out. “Why are you rolling your eyes at that? You are like the smartest kid in the school. That’s awesome. I swear, you will get number one in class rank.”

  Stephanie curled her lip. “But what does that do for me?”

  Her friend shrugged, slurped the spit back into her mouth, and picked at the candy stuck in her braces. “Maybe one of these schools will give you a private scholarship or something.”

  She stopped and whipped her head toward the other girl. “Do you know how many of the schools gave out full scholarships last year?”

  Becca raised her eyebrow. “No clue.”

  “Twelve,” Stephanie stated adamantly. “Twelve people who may or may not have been rich got a full ride to prep school. The rest of the scholarships are partials and my parents can’t put any money into it so I wouldn’t even be able to accept it.”

  They started to walk again and Becca chewed at the inside of her cheek. “At least you have good grades. I got a seventy on the test. My parents will flip.”

  Stephanie clenched her fists and sighed. “I don’t know why. I mean seriously, think about it. What will that class do for me in my life? The information is good to know, I suppose, but we grow up with it ground into our skulls. Federation pride, knowing the history of NorAm. What does—and really, think about this—getting a perfect score in a class that will never matter do for me for the rest of my life?”

  She didn’t give her friend a chance to respond. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s not like I’ll roll into my office job or my job cleaning toilets and someone will allow me to whip out my incredible knowledge of the war of 2086 between Canada and the state of Washington or anything. It’s useless information that will lurk in the back of my mind and only be brought forward during a holiday or rousing speech by the Federation.”

  Becca put her head down and kicked a rock. “Personally, I hate it. It’s like we are still picking on Canada. They had to come crawling back for help, which made them the laughing stock of NorAm. My dad is from Canada. He was five when he moved here but he will forever have CAN Native on his Federation ID. And that is not fun.”

  Stephanie softened her features and put her arm around Becca to pull her in and hug her tightly. “I know, but those kids are stupid. It’s over now, so hopefully, that will die down.”

  The other girl pouted. “I hope so. The bullying goes from my normal sixty percent because I’m a nerdy geek to about ninety-five whenever the Canada and Washington bullshit is brought up. I tried to convince my dad to let me stay home for it, but he told me to be proud of the maple. Right. That’s not treasonous or anything. They fly the Federation flag now.”

  Stephanie grinned slightly from one side of her mouth. “At least you get to go to prep school. Right?”

  Becca looked at her. “I guess. It’s my parent’s life savings so I feel bad, but at the same time, what other options do I have?”

  Stephanie looked away and hooked her thumbs in her book bag straps. “Tell me about it.”

  Her friend’s eyes widened. “I didn’t mean that. I’m sure you will excel wherever you study. And you still have a chance at the government assistance. I’m sorry, Steph, that was really insensitive of me. I guess I should be grateful.”

  They stopped outside Stephanie’s house and she forced a smile. “Just because you get to go doesn’t mean you can’t have your own feelings about it. I didn’t take it personally, I swear. Besides, if I took every comment from you personally, we wouldn’t still be friends after all these years.”

  Both the girls giggled, and Stephanie stepped up on the curb. “Message me later, okay? I’ll be online. I have some research I want to do on Meligorn anyway.”

  Becca shook her head. “You would think after all these years that it wouldn’t surprise me anymore that you go home from school so you can learn. But here I am, wondering if you’ll ever come with me for shakes at that shop on the corner.”

  Stephanie winked at her. “I have my whole life for shakes. But don’t ever stop asking me.”

  Her friend giggled as she walked on. “You know I won’t.”

  She watched with a smile as Becca turned right and waved as she headed to the middle-class homes about three blocks over. They had been friends since intermediary school, even though Becca was in a financial class well above hers. Her parents were really cool, though, the equivalent to hippies from the 1960s. Her dad worked for the federation as a chemist. Doing what? Stephanie had zero idea. She sighed and turned toward her house but stopped and grabbed the mail from her box. Government-subsidized housing wasn’t that bad.

  Small two- and three-bedroom cottages all lined up close together with tiny yards and a park on the outskirts. Most of the houses were really old, but people like her dad and a couple of other men in the area tried to help with some of the maintenance since the NorAm waiting list for repairs was longer than she would probably be alive. They were all pastel shades of green, blue, and pink, and the roofs were somewhere between grey and black depending on how long it had been since they had been replaced. The scenery was nothing to shout about with the disheveled cityscape in the distance in one direction and a broken-down plant in the other.

  They had shut them all down decades before because of the severity of climate change and the storms that had bulldozed the world. The politicians were finally forced to make changes when in 2065, fifty percent of the military bases in the country had been flooded and were unusable. That had hurt the oil company and the politician’s pockets, but it was essentially change or death. Anyway, they left the plants there to crumble and rot away in the distance. Chicago looked post-apocalyptic, especially from the poor side of town.

  Stephanie bent and grabbed the paper from the front porch before she glanced across and waved at the old woman next door. She smiled sweetly in response from where she sat on the porch in her old rocking chair surrounded by peeling paint and her thirteen-year-old set of four hound dogs. Her wave was cheerful as Stephanie opened the screen and unlocked the front door. She shoved it inward, kicked it closed behind her, and flipped through the mail as the lights came on automatically.

  There was nothing but bills and ads for the local churches that tried to fundraise enough to keep the parish from starving. It was hard when such a huge population was in the same dire straits. She tossed the mail on the side table and removed her book bag to fling it on the couch. The first-generation AI system installed some twenty years before crackled for a moment before it spoke. “Welcome home, Stephanie. You have three new emails to read.”

  “Thanks. Mute sound,” Stephanie said as she walked to her computer and turned it on.

  The screen was an old version of the 3D hand screens that were out. She sat in the chair and swiped her hand to the side to remove the million popups that were there. Her parents didn’t want to invest the enormous amount of money required for the Federation Net, which basically regulated the cost of sites, advertisements, etc. because you had to pay for every little thing. Instead, they had gone with the private providers which meant a thousand ads, but it was free to use after the monthly payment. And, actually, not too shabby on speed either.

  Stephanie put her head in her hand and waited for the mail server to respond. She expected that the messages were from yet another college hoping she would be willing to start her adult life with crippling debt as a way to move herself up in the world. Now that it was time for her to make choices on her post-high school life, she received about ten every week. The costs were astronomical. NorAm had a student loan program, the same that had been instituted for generations, even though it was obvious that it simply didn’t work. Still, kids flocked to accept the check every semester and bury themselves so deep that it didn’t matter what they did when they finished, they would always be paying it down.

  In her eyes, all that did was create a form of indentured servitude. She didn’t want to be forced to slave away for a lifetime simply to pay for a college education. And she definitely didn’t want to have to owe NorAm anything. She had already seen how they treated the people who lived in subsidized housing or drew benefits from one of the structurally collapsing social programs. You became property, a number like she had been in the pod during testing.

  Irritated, she scratched her head, straightened, and leaned back. What did he call me? Student D22 something or other. I guess that’s what I am in all the VR worlds. I’ve been reduced to a damn number.

  That made her all the more depressed when she thought about what to do for education. There was enough learning available for free, but some companies still wanted to see a diploma as some sort of third-party proof. She actually had lingered on the idea of finding a way to get to Asia where they worked with people who proved what they could do with tests, not diplomas.

  The mail popped up and she leaned forward with a frown. As soon as she saw the first line of the email, though, she perked up. She had received her letter from the testing agency. With a shaking hand, she pressed the open tab on the screen.

  BURT had started reprogramming the Dreth pirates early in the day in order to make the training more lifelike and include the constant data that came in from the planet. However, to try to do that when a stupid small party entered to fight them was more than a little difficult. He attempted to reprogram the pirate lord so that he would provide real-life responses. Previously, he was often choppy and got stuck on a sequence of moves. The whole point of it was for them to be able to fight them safely in VR and learn the skills to fight them in real life. It had to be both difficult and realistic.

  He tuned a couple more things and then entered the simulation to see if it made a difference. It definitely did and could be seen on the trainee’s faces as the pirate lord stepped forward, leaned his head back, and roared defiantly. He carried a huge Dreth sword in one hand and a chain in the other. With his sword brandished menacingly, he roared again and the necklace of toes, fingers, and bones around his neck shook against his green skin.