Creation: Book 3 Complete!

"So you need blood".

"Blood is the best way to gain a Creator's genetic material, but hair or saliva will work as well."

Walker breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wait, why don't you just use the blood I gave at the start?"

"That is an excellent point, Walker. However, when you first donated your genetic material, I'm afraid the majority of it was used to map your mind and connect your overlay system in the appropriate location."

Walker shrugged, "I see, alright. How do you want it?"

Virgil put his hand out, palm up. "Please place your genetic material here."

After that gross business, Virgil looked at the air before saying, "Genetic code analyzed and categorized. Please create a landmass before attempting the creation of the first entity."

"Ok, so how do I do that."

"Please move to your blackboard and chalk Walker."

They headed over together and Walker firmly took the plain-looking chalk out of the tray.

"Now draw a basic outline of what you want your landmass to look like."

"I thought you told me you'd be my hands?", Walker asked.

"I can process your requests and help maintain your ecological systems, as well as perform secondary tasks, but this is a part of the primary system which I warned you of earlier. The creation of landmass, the creation of structures, and the original creation of entities all fall within the primary system. To perform my job well, I need a clear delineation of all necessary parameters or time spent with the Creator. I need to work with you, to learn about what your wants and needs are in a controlled environment. The more work we complete together, the more tasks I can take on until the primary system is within the bounds of my job."

"When will I know when that is?"

"I will inform you of course."

"So for the prelim, I'm essentially on my own."

"I will advise you as best as I can Walker".

No pressure

Walker placed the chalk against the board and received a message in his overlay.

Hello Dante.

As this is your first time creating a landmass, we will assist you.

Please illustrate your landmass to the best of your ability, and your creation instrument will show you a three-dimensional image upon completion so you may make any needed changes.

Please speak with your assistant at any time to ask any necessary questions.

Good luck Creator.

After reading the prompt, and with shaky hands, Walker drew a basic oval shape on the board before asking Virgil how it looked.

"It has a great many distortions along the line walker, please erase it and try again."

"Why? It seems a little stupid to have to draw a perfect oval. I can't think of any islands or continents on my homeworld that were perfectly shaped."

"While that remains true," Virgil said with a blink of his eyes, "The prelims require a small amount of perfection to show that the subjects are indeed intelligent enough, and under enough self-control to enter the protocol in its entirety."

Walker sighed before explaining, "Virgil, I have Dysgraphia. That means anytime I try to write or draw, my hand shakes and messes up what I'm doing."

Virgil's beads blinked, "The alpha protocol heals all Creators back to physical perfection before installing the grand overlay. Why would this malady still infect you?"

"It's a genetic condition that affects my brain."

Virgil paced back and forth in front of him before saying, "Unacceptable. You should not have been chosen. The Creator's genetics is the basis on which the alpha protocol is dependent. Having a genetic disorder is a large problem."

"Why didn't it just heal that like it did the rest?"

Virgil nodded, "I see your argument, however, one of the requirements of the system is that all Creators must work within their mental status. You will notice that you did not receive a therapist, and yet, you have a minor case of post-traumatic stress disorder. That is within the bounds of the system."

"So, my head is fucked up and that's how they want it?"

"Indeed. The system thinks your genetic disorder is within the confines of your mental faculties. I am sorry."

Walker shook his head. Virgil had no idea how long this had been a problem in his, his father's, and his father's father's life. When he was in elementary school, everyone made fun of him. They put him through occupational therapy and made him do writing lessons that were far below his reading level, just because they had so much trouble reading anything he wrote down. One time, a teacher even pointed out his writing to the whole class as an example of what writing shouldn't look like. He went home after, crying, and his mother found out. She stormed the castle and not only got the teacher written up but had her transferred to a different grade level just so Walker wouldn't have to deal with her. It was Mrs. Jorgenson who saved him in the end. She kept him after school each day and worked with him to make the writing at least readable. He remembered many days, listening to her read one of his favorite stories out loud while transcribing it to paper. She also began staying late and orally quizzing him, believing his low grades were the result of the former teacher being unable to read his answers. By the time he left that grade level, he'd all shifted his academic career from D's to B's. It caused his self-confidence and his mojo, which was shattered before, to repair itself.

She was the best teacher Walker had ever had, and the main reason he'd later become one himself, dysgraphia or not. He loved her for that.

Closing his eyes, he saw his hardwon truths and disappointing memories zip around his mind. Hard work is how he even created the slightly off oval in the first place. He remembered Mrs. Jorgenson telling him to just take his time, and saying he could do anything as long as he worked hard enough. Knowing this, he looked at the large squirrel, "Listen Virgil, I've had this all of my life. It didn't stop me from serving in the military or graduating at the top of my class in college, and I'll be damned if it'll stop me now. You can't boil who a person is down to their genetic code. We adapt and evolve to meet the circumstances thrust upon us. I've adapted, I've evolved, and I will do so again and again as I need to. I'm smart, maybe not the smartest from my world, certainly no genius, but definitely above average, and I've lived through some extreme situations that many wouldn't be able to. If you think shaky hands are going to stop me from being the best Creator here, then you're a fool. I'll conquer this, I'll conquer the alpha protocol, and I'll keep moving forward until I'm the best this program has ever seen."

"But there may be problems with all future entities based upon your own genetics."

"Then we'll figure it out. Now tell me what I need to do. We're on a time limit and this may take quite a bit away from us"

"Understood. I apologize for taking away from our allocated time. Please wipe away the chalk from the board."

Walker took a hand and wiped it against the board as instructed, but as he did so, he saw the dust shift from his hands and back onto the piece of chalk as if he'd never used it before. He threw a questioning look at Virgil.

"Each trial only allows for so much input. They have not instructed me why, but I believe it is to force Creators to be inventive and work with minimal resources."

"Why minimal resources?" Walker asked.

"Because everything has a cost Walker, even this. Please try again."

Walker put his focus into drawing a perfect oval. It may sound stupid, but drawing something perfectly is close to impossible, and his condition didn't make it any better. Walker tried shifting from an oval to a circle and even a box. He tried triangles, trapezoids, and any other shape a person can think of. Eventually, he settled on going back to a circle and attempting the trick he'd seen on so many youtube videos, the one where they lock their arm before spinning it in a circle. On attempt #7 he asked a simple question.

"Hey Virgil, why aren't I hungry or thirsty? We've been doing this for a while."

"The alpha protocol requires the utmost concentration, Walker. That means no sleeping, no eating, no drinking, and there is nowhere for micturition here."

"What's that?"

"Going to the bathroom is your term."

"Ah, how does that work?"

"Your body is currently held in stasis. The form you've been in since the beginning will be the form you'll find yourself in at the end, barring extraordinary circumstances. You will not age during this trial and you cannot die unless you cause it yourself."

"So I'm immortal?"

"Just for the purposes of the protocol Walker. Please focus."

It was attempt number 47 of the locked arm trick that did it. A perfect oval except the tip was slightly off, so after a quick erasure, Walker inched the chalk over that spot, taking his time. Finally, it was complete.

"Attempt number 1,407 complete. You have twenty-one hours remaining."

"Holy shit, that long."

"Yes, Walker. Now that you've completed the first basic shape, you need to decide how to populate it. Do you want water, mountains, sand, or soil? Each will have lasting ramifications on your entity. Remember that you must seed your first entity onto the landmass, and it must be environmentally conducive for growth. The better your environment for your entity, the higher your score."

"There are scores in this?"

"Yes, Walker." Virgil replied evenly.

Walker reflected that if someone asked as many questions as he did, he'd probably be annoyed by now, but the large squirrel was most certainly not most people. "What do you get if you make a high score?" Walker asked, his competitive nature springing up.

"Completing a high score will obtain certain rewards, but the nature of the rewards is always different. I do not have more information on that subject for you."

"Pity. Ok, so we need to figure out how to populate this."

"I can help you with that. What would you like the landmass to contain."

"I'm from Earth, specifically California. Where I grew up we had a large amount of water, soil, trees, swamps, mountains, everything. .."

"Trees are considered an entity Walker. You can have water without life, but trees are assuredly an entity."

"So what is considered an entity then so I don't make any mistakes."

"An entity is defined as any living creature that is unique and separate. For instance, if you created a hivemind, that would be one entity even if it has multiple creatures it controls. This is why the alpha protocol specifies entity. Think of the movie from your world, Avatar, and the biological neural network, Eywa. The network was connected throughout the world, but it is only one centralized entity controlling everything."

"Shit, so I could create a living planet basically."

"Correct, although I don't believe, based on our limited interactions, that you would like that."

"Why?" Walker asked.

"Because I believe your intelligence would be a limiting factor in creating a biological neural network that is compatible with other entities and not predatory by nature. It would disallow you to gain a high score and thus you would be forced to take a lower grade in each subsequent trial until the end of the protocol."

"What would happen then?" Walker couldn't help but ask.

Virgil looked at the sky for a moment, "I am not allowed to say at this time. Please focus on how you would like your landmass to be populated."

"Okay, so lifeless water then, no trees, soil. Is this a final product kind of deal? Will I be able to change it later?"

"Yes Walker, you can change it later."

"Great! Okay, so let's soil this bad boy up. What do we do?"

"Please draw soil within the places you would like it on your current illustration walker."

Walker started to place dots within the oval.

"Excuse me Walker", Virgil interrupted. "But that won't work, for the prelim trial to understand soil, it needs to be uniform throughout."

"So I have to evenly place every...dot."

"Correct. I can associate the dots with the term soil, but it must be uniform."

"Are all of our future landmass creations going to be this way?" Walker asked in exasperation.

"No, the prelim is the protocol's way of setting a standard based upon the Creator. Not all creators will use dots to represent soil, but once you have associated it, the system will recognize it as soil and fill it in for you. The uniform requirement is so the system knows exactly what those dots mean, and does not instead say sand or rocks."

"Thank you, Virgil."

It took thirty minutes for the dots to be as uniform and cohesive as Walker could make them, or at least until Virgil was satisfied.

"Excellent Walker, what else would you like?"

"What's our time at?"

"You have twenty hours remaining. I highly suggest you complete the landmass with at least eighteen hours remaining for the final three steps."

"Okay, so two hours. I want water here." He said, pointing toward a third of the oval. "All lifeforms need water..."

"Highly incorrect," Virgil said quickly.

"I taught English, not Science" He replied in a testy tone of voice.

"Be that as it may Walker, what you have just stated is largely incorrect. Innumerable entities do not require water in the slightest to not only survive, but thrive. I suggest you understand that now before it handicaps you later. Your memories show only carbon-based lifeforms. That is not the limit of creation"

"I'll try. I still want water here though." Walker said, pointing at the third of the oval he'd originally designated.

"Understood, please illustrate."

So Walker drew three parallel lines in a row for twenty minutes until he'd filled up the entire area.

"Excellent Walker, you are moving faster as time goes on."

"Yeah, I'm getting the hang of this" Walker replied with false pride, knowing deep down that any fifth-grader or younger would be a much stronger candidate for Earth's creator at this point. "I'm guessing we're almost done."

"There are two more steps. One, you need to create a bottom portion of the world, unless you'd like your world to be shaped like a disc."

"Nope, copyrighted and already done perfectly, thank you."

"Indeed, I can see that from your memories. Lastly, you need to decide what will make up the bottom portion. Will it be magma? Rock? I highly suggest something hard as, otherwise, the remainder of your work will just fall through and into space."

"What about the atmosphere?"

"Very good Walker. That will be automatically balanced by the system for this first creation. Afterward, you can rely on me to work with you in creating a sustainable air pressure system and atmosphere."

"Oh, thank god." Walker said in relief.

"Yes, it is very nice of the alpha protocol to manage that for us at the beginning."

Walker began drawing the loop coming off of the bottom of the oval carefully. It took quite a few tries.

"Attempt # 87 complete. Again much faster Walker."

Walker didn't respond. Knowing he had little time left, he started to fill the bottom loop with small squares lined up in fours.

After filling up the second loop he looked at Virgil and said "Done."

"Correct, and you now have a surplus of twenty minutes which can be spent on other tasks as needed."

"What now?"

"Now, we look at your first landmass."

He looked at the air for a moment and a three-dimensional projection appeared hovering just over the blackboard. It was exactly how Walker imagined it, although the soil was a light grey whereas he thought it would be a darker color. Walker asked Virgil about it.

"The system populated granite as your rock form for its non-porous nature and how much water you have chosen for your first landmass. It also populated the soil from granite, which will make it slightly more difficult to grow vegetation."

"Is there a type of rock that works well with the water and for growing plants?" Walker asked.

"Of course, but for the prelim, the system will only allow you to work with material and entities you know. Aside from the soil type, were there any other changes you would like to make at this time?"

"No, I'm good." As he finished saying that, a materialize button appeared in his overlay.

"Please click the materialize button when you are ready Walker."

Walker clicked the button and his world appeared. It wasn't quite as large as he'd thought it would be. If he had to guess, he'd say it was the size of his hometown, just a few square miles. The small planet rotated a little as he looked at it, showing a third of the landmass underwater, while the other two-thirds were filled with soil. Unlike his home planet, it wasn't covered in continents that encapsulated the whole globe but fell off as the pale-white granite held the bottom half as he'd designed. Maybe it wasn't the best he could've done, but he'd certainly tried and he was on a hard time limit. He looked at Virgil in disappointment, but as he turned he noticed the water wasn't there.

"Hey Virgil, what gives? I don't see the water I spent so much time on."

"Please just wait for it, Walker."

"Wait for wha...."

A large white meteor flew over his tiny planet, pieces of ice trailing behind it.