The starlight fleet, p.1
The Starlight Fleet, page 1
part #7 of Rogue Merchant Series
The Starlight Fleet
by Roman Prokofiev
Rogue Merchant
Book #7
Magic Dome Books
Rogue Merchant
Book #7: The Starlight Fleet
Copyright © Roman Prokofiev 2021
Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2021
English translation copyright © Sofia Shcherbakova 2021
Published by Magic Dome Books, 2021
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-80-7619-344-4
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the shop and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.
New and upcoming releases from
Magic Dome Books!
If you like our books and want to keep reading, download our FREE Publisher's Catalog, a must-read for any LitRPG fan which lists some of the finest works in the genre:
Tales of Wonder and Adventure: The Best of LitRPG, Fantasy and Sci-Fi (Publisher's Catalog)
Table of Contents:
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Interlude: The First Maiden
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Interlude: Agasyan
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Interlude: The Admins
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Interlude: The Escape
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue One
Epilogue Two
About Roman Prokofiev
Prologue
I WOKE UP in a pleasant silky-smooth twilight. A familiar sharp floral scent tickled my nostrils. Were those lilacs? I raised my head, heavy as lead, and looked around, trying to figure out my surroundings. Then, with a breath of relief, I lowered it back on the hard pillow.
Green lights kept blinking in the panels mounted on both sides of a hospital bed. The sensors immediately detected my awakening and turned on soft lightning.
The spacious, light blue room really resembled a hospital ward. It was pretty advanced, too, going by the low-key but stylish design and immaculate cleanness. The door blended into the walls, and a small bouquet of lilacs stood on a little table between two plastic chairs with arched legs. A virtual monitor was installed on the other side of the bed, and a translucent partition wall betrayed a bathroom.
The dimming effect slowly subsided. The giant window occupying the right wall revealed a green garden park designed in the popular Mesozoic style: horsetails, giant tree ferns, ground pines... People leisurely walked the gray gravel pathways. Above the green crowns of the trees, I saw the full splendor of the skyscrapers, overpasses, and freeways of New Tokyo.
I was in the real world, not inside Sphere, and most importantly, I was still alive — even healthy. With an effort, I moved my body, feeling the apathy of my muscles, unaccustomed to physical activity after several weeks of downtime. Even sitting down seemed like a challenge...
Clean clothes were lying on top of a rolling tray table next to my bed. I reached out and fished out a towel, studying the golden emblem embroidered on the white fabric: a sword piercing several intersecting circles. It was the logo of the Sphere of Worlds Corporation.
I heard the sharp sound of a buzzer, and a few seconds later, the door flew open. A woman wearing the light blue uniform of a medic softly but firmly thwarted my attempts to stand up. A familiar face loomed behind her in the doorframe: Isao, Sphere’s security officer who had promised to get me out of the Magister’s clutches and take me to New Tokyo. He gave me a curt smile and gestured, “OK.” So, if it wasn’t a dream, the men who had pulled me out of the capsule worked for the corporation rather than the Magister!
It was a miraculous rescue; in my final moments in Sphere, I had expected the worst. Saying that I felt relieved would be an understatement. Of course, Mr. Leo’s people wouldn’t have killed me, especially since Weldy had gotten another Key, but they would have done their best to make my existence as unpleasant as possible. They had all the tools for that.
“You can’t stand up yet!” the doctor said, her voice strict. She touched the side panel of my bed, making it display an augmented reality window, and quickly scrolled through rows of numbers — evidently, the readings of my current condition provided by the multi-functional hardware. Then she gestured for Isao to come in.
“It’s all right, Oleg,” he said when we were finally alone. “You’re safe.”
“Where are we?”
“In a New Tokyo suburb. It’s a hospital inside our campus.”
“How much time has passed?”
“Not much, a bit more than two days. You were out. Our doctors cleansed your body — there were traces of various drugs. I’m sorry that the orders to pull you out came so late.”
“Did you... get them?”
For a second, Isao looked away, his stare hard.
“Unfortunately, this isn’t something we should discuss,” he replied a second later. “How are you feeling, Oleg?”
“I’m ravenously hungry,” I told him, my tongue barely moving. “And it’s like my body doesn’t obey me.”
“Don’t be afraid. You’re just weak after staying in a deep immersion capsule. It’s temporary,” Isao replied, relieving my worries. “Your muscle activity will return, although you’ll have to spend some time training. Go to the gym, walk... What matters is that you’re alive, mostly healthy, and safe.”
“I need a communicator. I want to talk to my wife.”
Isao paused and finally said, “I’m really sorry, but right now, it’s not possible. Trust me, your wife is fine, and you’ll meet her soon enough. But for now, we have to keep your location secret for your own good.”
“Am I a prisoner?” I said with a chuckle. My brain had finally switched on, starting to analyze the events. They had pulled me out and taken me to New Tokyo, but could it be it was just a pretty I hiding yet another dark basement? What did Sphere’s security want from me other than the exclusive information promised in the file I had sent before my abduction?
“You’re our guest, Oleg!” Isao said emphatically.
“You promised me a meeting with Agasyan.”
“I never make promises I can’t fulfill. However, my bosses, who are very close to...” He paused, pointing at the ceiling. “...Really want to hear your story.”
“This is not an option.”
“Believe me, I really want to help you, Oleg,” Isao said, his voice firm. “This is the only option. Indeed, for you, it’s the only chance to survive in this game. However, the decision is up to you. I do know you a little bit... Do you want my advice?”
“Is it free?” I asked, chuckling.
“Of course.”
“Go ahead, then.”
“Don’t try to play. Be as open as you can.”
Chapter One
THE MEETING WAS HELD behind closed doors and included only four employees in addition to Agasyan himself: the inner circle who knew the story of the Keys and the Seven Brothers.
Yuri, the head of security, a balding middle-aged man, big and tough.
Lana Kaminskaya, a stylish blond and the acting head of Sphere’s development team.
Sarik, Agasyan’s right hand and long-time assistant. Some called him his future successor. Sarik was Armenian and a relative of Sphere’s owner.
The elderly man with an intelligent face was Robert Hoffner. He was in charge of Golden Hamster and oversaw the project’s finances.
“All right, so you’re all up to speed on the report,” Agasyan said. “Yuri, you’ve done a good job. Thank you.”
The head of security replied with a demure nod. Out of an old habit, he was closely studying the faces of everyone present. Some of them had learned the contents of the report code-named “Seven Brothers” some time ago, while others had just read it, but nobody seemed surprised.
“I don’t think I have to warn you that the report is secret, and we’re the only ones who know it. This information must not leave this room before we decide what to do. Does anyone wish to speak?”
“This is incredible. I can’t believe it. Is this even technically possible — transferring consciousness into the game and creating a complete digital copy?” Hoffner finally broke the silence. “Balabanov was quite eccentric, of course, but not to this extent.”
“Theoretically, it’s possible, although it’s illegal in most countries. You do know that some experiments on live humans resulted in their deaths, right?” Sarik replied. “This is a huge risk, as long as Balabanov and his team didn’t invent a safe method of deep brain scanning.”
“Leave it alone. It’s all just details!” Agasyan said , wincing. “Let’s work with the facts: digital copies of our former developers are somewhere inside Sphere, and they’re playing some kind of game against us!”
Sarik raised his hand again. After Agasyan nodded, giving him the go-ahead to speak, he said,
“Let’s be logical. Going by the report, the goal of the Seven Brothers is to control the procedural generation. This is Sphere’s foundation stone. When put together, the Seven Keys can create or destroy worlds. Essentially, they are the principal artifacts of our Sphere of Worlds. They grant power over the entire in-game multiverse. The question is, what do the copies want to achieve by assembling the Keys?”
“There are several groups of them, three or four, it’s not quite clear yet,” Yuri said. “The first one — Romanova, Rubtsov, and Svechkin — has two Keys. Their professed goal is the complete destruction of Sphere; global annihilation. Rationale: danger to thousands of players due to the unpredictable behavior of the generator. To put it bluntly, they think that Sphere’s main AI must be destroyed by any means possible.”
“That I can believe!” Agasyan chuckled. “She was always a bit kooky! I’m sure many remember the scandals caused by that lady. If I’m not mistaken, she categorically demanded that we cut the generator off from all power sources, pour cement into the hardware rooms, and all but fence the area off with barbed wire.”
“Yes, it happened at the Taerland meeting,” Sarik agreed. “When refused, she defiantly stepped down from her position.”
“May I continue?” Yuri asked. “The second group is Balabanov himself, also known as the Magister. He has one Key. His goal looks insane: he wants to return to the real world from Sphere by transferring his “digital consciousness” into a real body.”
“Project Apollo. It’s closed,” Sarik remarked. “Zero successes, neither with androids nor organic bodies. It’s impossible.”
“Yes, which is why I have some thoughts on this subject. But we’ll talk about it later!” Yuri said, narrowing his eyes. “As for the Magister, we know that he has a support group in real life. We’re working on them and have some findings, but it’s too early to talk about results. Next, we have the third player: Kerimov, who chose an avatar of one of the most powerful NPCs in Sphere — the Demon King. Right now, he has one Key and controls one-third of all in-game realms. He’s extremely cautious: even his Key wasn’t taken by him but by an NPC under his control. His goal is to maintain the status quo and his own survival. Overall, knowing Kerimov’s personality, it seems convincing. Adam Georgievich has another Key, but his location and goals are unknown.”
“Romanova’s team has two, while Balabanov, Kerimov, and Adam have one,” Hoffner said. “This is five. What about the other two?”
“Two were taken by players. A man called Oleg Rashidov or “Cat” found the first one more than six months ago. He’s been up to all sorts of things over this time — this is right up your alley, Robert,” Yuri said, stifling a laugh. “Remember the Black Friday at the Bazaar? That was his doing. It’s an interesting story with Rashidov. The Magister kept watch on him, even went as far as to kidnap him. We got him out. He’s with us right now, not far from here, actually — you can talk to him if you want. He’s a real character.”
“Here? So we have one of the Keys? Good...” Hoffner muttered. “Who’s the second player?”
“Paul Meyer, also known as Santa. His story is even weirder. Lana can tell you more; she investigated that situation.”
“Yes, the incident with Meyer happened after my promotion,” Kaminskaya, who had been silent thus far, spoke up. “He was a member of the Zero project, a deep immersion program for disabled people. He died in his capsule after the neural interface malfunction. However, his avatar somehow stayed in the game and took the Key. Currently, he’s traveling Sphere like a ghost. The working theory is that the procedural generator created his virtual copy using a method unknown to us.”
“Overall, the situation is clear. Is there a way for us to take their Keys?”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Lana. A bit embarrassed, she exchanged looks with Sarik and said firmly, “There are options, of course... But the Keys are bound to their owners, and the only way to take them is by destroying their masters. It’s incredibly hard and may lead to dangerous and irreversible consequences. The Taerland incident might look like nothing compared to that.”
“Using force is out of the question!” Sarik agreed. “Alas, I concur with Lana. We simply don’t have the right tools. Under outside pressure, Yamato triggered the generation of a hostile army. If we continue, we will only make things worse.”
“Then we should use diplomacy!” Hoffner said, coughing. “Have you tried contacting them?”
“We have. Almost all digital clones are inside the so-called “anomalous zones.” Getting inside is a real challenge. It feels like they did it to secure themselves from us. We can’t force them to do anything, and our attempts to establish contact failed.”
“So far, I think that our best option for negotiations is Kerimov-Baal,” Sarik slowly said. “If Yuri is right, his goals are the same as ours — maintain the status quo and calm Sphere down.”
“The problem is that we have nothing to offer anyone,” Lana said.
“What do you mean, nothing? We have a Key — Rashidov’s. Use it!”
“That’s the thing. If you give me Rashidov, I can try to initiate a conversation through him, relay our message at the very least. But you took him...”
Kaminskaya gave a strange pleading look to Agasyan and then Yuri.
“We discussed taking the Key away from him,” the latter man said. “If I understand correctly, it’s the easiest way — one month of inactivity should be enough for a player.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have a month. And do you know the exact place where the Key will appear? I’m not so sure that we can get to it ahead of the others. But if you want to give Rashidov’s Key to Romanova, the Magister, or someone else, then go ahead, let’s unbind it...”
“I have doubts about Rashidov,” the head of security said. “First, the way he found the Key seems awfully convenient. I’ll remind you of the circumstances: he registered an account, created a character, and almost immediately “accidentally” found one of the main artifacts of Sphere. Can you believe that? Rashidov is an obvious plant.”
“I respect your opinion, but it reeks of professional paranoia,” Lana argued. “The circumstances of that encounter do seem strange, but who could be using him? And why?”
“I don’t know, but I will find out,” Yuri snapped. “Actually, this entire story has too many annoying coincidences, starting with the mysterious deaths of Balabanov’s team — don’t forget that their bodies were never found — and ending with a new player randomly finding a Key.”
“All right, Yuri. What are you suggesting?” Agasyan calmly asked.
“I don’t believe in mysticism and an in-game conspiracy. It’s the establishment that’s working against us, and there’s a way to force them to act and make a mistake. We have the hardware, admins, technical staff, the procedural AI — right here below us in the basement. If the source of the interference is in Sphere, we must turn it off regardless of all losses and scandals or blackmail them with the possibility of doing that. Then we’ll look at their reaction.”
