章 104: More Clues
Gray received a message from Caleb saying that he was back and found some interesting information.
Everyone on the team met up in the mess hall except for Jono who had taken the day off, although Gray assumed he was just playing other games in the virtual world.
Caleb saw how beat up some of them were and had to ask "What happened to you four?"
Looking at each other, Paul, Gray, Geoff, and even Yurika had bruises on their upper bodies.
"The six of us went to a close combat seminar of sorts that Major Valen hosted, although it felt like it was more of an excuse for him to get violent with us." Gray said plainly while sitting down gingerly to avoid hurting the bruise on his butt.
"So if it was a seminar, why the bruising, did he use the 4 of you as examples?"
"No, that was from the battle royale at the end, although it turned into a lump of chaos, fists, and feet."
"Did you guys win?"
Gray, Paul, Yurika, and Geoff turned to look at Xyra who meekly held her fingers up in a V and whispered "I won."
"In a battle royale, I would have assumed it would either have been you or Yurika that would've won." Caleb said analytically.
"Huh? Why would you think Xyra would've won?" Yurika said.
"You gained nothing from defeating an opponent in that battle royale, and I imagine she just played invisible until the end so she was at full strength while the other person was probably tired. Still, who was able to get Yurika out, Major Valen?"
"I was disqualified they said for striking since we weren't allowed to strike anyone, but I didn't strike anyone!"
"You struck a blow so hard against every male there that if you weren't disqualified you'd have won by fear alone!" Gray complained.
"You're all just a bunch of babies! If I had balls I wouldn't submit as soon as someone grabbed them!"
Caleb instinctively covered his groin and said, "Yes, that would be a death blow to most men, it was a good decision to disqualify her."
"So what interesting information did you get?" Gray asked Caleb.
"I thought it would be quite difficult since I believed Alterra Corporation was founded in the virtual world, but it ends up that it is merely a subsidiary of a larger corporation based here in the real world."
"That doesn't surprise me really though, it's virtual so Alterra Corporation is essentially worthless, right?"
"In terms of physical assets, yes, but in terms of intellectual property they are still quite valuable. What is really interesting was who was put in charge and what happened to their parent company."
"I smell a lore dump..." Geoff complained
"I know, sorry, I'll keep it as short as possible..." Caleb said, then cleared his throat causing everyone else to get comfortable as this might take awhile.
"In 2049, Terra Research and Development started working with the Alliance military to develop control systems for being able to remotely control machinery. The idea was they wanted the operator to be able to use the machinery as if it was his own hand and naturally the military saw the application in this for warfare which we can all see the result of today."
Gray felt something warm lean against his arm and saw that Yurika had already dozed off and was leaning against him. "That makes sense, but nothing suspicious."
"I know, I'm getting to it! Remember that video we watched of the initial tests?"
"Yeah, when Dr. Sara Watts was already an AI. When was that taken?"
"About 40 years ago, here is Edward Teach from that video..." Caleb pulled out a tablet and showed everyone a screenshot of the video where Edward Teach was visible.
"What about it?" Gray asked.
"Here is a video from the last company picnic of Terra Research and Development back in 2079, roughly one year before this video." Caleb swiped on his tablet and a video played of what looked to be a traditional company picnic.
The various employees waved to the camera as it moved around the picnic and then it moved to two people deep in conversation with a bunch of tablets filled with data, equations, and notes. What sounded like it came from operator of the camera, a female voice said "Sara! Eddie! Enough already! You need to relax every now and then!"
The woman looked up and at the camera and gave it a dazzling smile, Gray and the others recognized her as Doctor Sara Watts.
"I know Margo, we're just so excited! It's so close!" Sara said excitedly.
The woman behind the camera, Margo then said "I understand that, but you need to let me keep Eddie to myself sometimes! He married me, not his work."
The man looked up from the pile of tablets and said "Sorry my love, you're right, we need to relax sometimes. Sara, we can continue this tomorrow."
Gray and the others recognized him as Edward Teach from the video they saw earlier.
Sara looked dejected and said "Fine, I'm not in the mood anymore anyways."
"Silly girl, you're young and beautiful, take your time and find your significant other just like I did and you can find more purpose in life than just research, now, take this camera so I can take my husband!"
The camera was handed to Dr. Sara Watts and then turned to reveal Margo, she was a surprisingly tall woman as she was the same height as Edward Teach. Her shoulder length chestnut hair was loose and hanging free while her big brown eyes were easy to get lost in. She could best be described as playful and seductive the way she pulled Edward towards her after he stood up.
"Sara, go film everyone else sweetie, I know a few men that would love for you to pay attention to them." Margo winked at Sara in the video.
"F**k you Margo!" Sara suddenly said. Margo seemed to enjoy her reaction as she was laughing.
Edward was laughing as well and said "Now now, don't tease Sara, her brilliance is beyond most of us, but you know how she is about relationships."
"Yes yes dear, I know, but I was thinking she might just need to be dumped into the swimming pool instead of wasting time trying to wade into it!"
"I am sorry for my outburst, I just hate being pushed in to things." Sara said apologetically.
"It's fine Sara, but we're here for you if you need advice."
The camera seemed to move up when Sara stood up, then Sara was heard muttering "How do you zoom this thing?" which was followed by a string of expletives as the camera suddenly looked at the ground. The ground became closer extremely fast followed by a loud thunk sound, a bunch more expletives, then the video ending.
"Thoughts?" Caleb asked everyone.
"Dr. Sara Watts just got waaaay hotter, never knew she had a mouth like that." Geoff said... Paul and Gray nodded in agreement, but Gray suddenly felt a fist collide with the side of his head as Yurika punched him in her sleep.
"How did she..." Gray said to himself, then thought it best not to question it.
"Aside from that you idiots." Caleb said getting annoyed.
"Edward Teach looked to be in his 50s and Margo quite a bit younger, maybe late 20s or early 30s? We've never heard of her though in Alterra Corporation." Stacia commented.
"Yes, we are assuming she worked for them, but that might not be the case, still, the Edward Teach from Terra Research and Development was indeed married I discovered."
"Ok, so what about the current Edward Teach?" Gray asked. "Isn't his real name Stephen Seegall?"
"Stephen Seegall, I couldn't find anything recent about him, just that he now goes by Edward Teach. I found records of his education from his teens to prove he has a doctorate, but what is strange is I can't find any records of him going to high school or even elementary school. The only thing I can find of him is a class picture from kindergarten."
Caleb pulled up the picture and showed it to everyone and circled one of the faces in it.
"That should be him, but I couldn't find anything about the other students or even the school as it is like it disappeared. I only found this picture from a parent's blog that was still in an old web archive. The blog itself only mentioned a Stephen once... here..."
Caleb scrolled down and highlighted a small section that read "Our boy tried to talk to Erika again, but as usual Stephen wouldn't allow it. I feel sorry for Erika as Stephen is obsessed with her. They're just kids, Ryan already forgot about it anyways!"
"Any idea which one is Erika?" Gray asked.
"Not a clue, the only reason I could find Stephen was due to similar facial features, even then it's not 100% accurate."
Gray looked at the picture of Stephen and followed the direction that his eyes were looking. Three girls were in Stephen's line of sight, one of them stood out from the other two, her posture was bossy and her face looked familiar, albeit younger.
"Caleb! When was this picture taken?!?"
"No idea, but judging from the logos on the kid's shirts, I'd say 15 to 25 years ago from the virtual world."
Gray stared at the little girl with bright clothes and long blonde hair that was tied up in pig tails.
Gray said with a serious expression "I think this is Erika... and I think we've all met her..."
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LordSputnik
LordSputnik I think we can guess who Erika is...
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