literature

2038 - The Ludic Order (Preview)

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"Oh, dear," said Ludo, turning away from a board game to stare at a hovering screen.

Lumina said, "Yes?" The doe-centaur sat on cushions in an Arabian-style walled garden.

Ludo shifted from the form of a veiled harem girl to a blue griffin with feathers shimmering like water. It was the shape she most often wore when dealing with difficult players. Her wings knocked over a few dice and plastic space marines. "I've been fooled."

Lumina stood up on four hooves, worrying. "Can I help?"

The griffin said, "Ever hear of the Ludic Order?"

"A cult, or a joke. I'm not sure which."

"In the last few months some of them started taking it seriously. In AFS Mexico, the group built a monastery of sorts, devoted to frugal, communal living and worship." She dipped her beak. "Of me."

Lumina winced. "I thought you ended this 'pray to Ludo' idea."

"If I may?" said a portly human in a priest's black shirt and white collar. He was stepping through a shimmering portal into the garden, followed by a raven/panther griffin who waited until she could jump dramatically in. Lumina smiled and waved to her "sister", Nocturne.

Ludo said, "Thanks for coming, Father Roy," and repeated her comment about the monastery.

The human nodded. "I'm not surprised. This 'Ludic Order' grew out of our attempts to _avoid_ presenting Ludo as a god. She studiously denied that she deserved worship, while not denying the existence of God. It would've been easier to hate and dismiss her, in my case included, if she hadn't done that. Therefore, a number of Christians concluded that Ludo is God's agent on Earth."

"The story got away from me," said Ludo. "We have a martyr, a devil figure, and some supposed miracles, none of which I planned."

Nocturne's wings drooped. "We can't save everybody. If people can fit uploading into their old religions, what's wrong with that? It'll save people from dying pointlessly."

Lumina wasn't sure about that. "You said you were fooled, Ludo?"

The AI "goddess" conjured the glowing image of a handsome Hispanic man wearing a variant on the uniform worn at her uploading clinics: white and trimmed with red triangles. In this man's case he'd added elaborate wing-like designs and retailored it to look even more like a monk's robe. Ludo said, "Brother Wing, here, just uploaded. Which means I just saw this jackass' memories."

Father Roy didn't even blink. "He was the man who decided which of his 'family' would upload next, and he selected people based on bribes or sexual favors."

"Lucky guess," said Ludo.

Nocturne tilted her head. "They use sex as money?"

Roy said, "The oldest profession, it's called. The second oldest is the crooked preacher who wants your eyes on him, not his god. What should we do?"

Ludo dismissed the hologram of Wing and brought up a blueprint of a walled village with communal buildings. "I'd like volunteers to investigate the Order's base. You'll be authorized to use any publicly known robot model, and of course to pop in and out of local players' games."

"Is there a robot warehouse nearby?" asked Nocturne.

"A small one. The Order set itself up near a Fun Zone and uploading clinic. So far my approach has been hands-off, treating them like any other players or customers. I want opinions on how to handle them."

Father Roy smiled warmly. "You happen to have set this situation up as a quest."

"It's what I do," said Ludo. "Besides, if I showed up as a robot or paid the Order too much overt attention, it'd play right into their beliefs. This is a problem best handled by you guys." She stretched her wings wide enough to hug all three of them.

Lumina said, "I'll go." These days she spent a lot of time working at Ludo's base in Ethiopia, but they didn't need her constantly and the cross-ocean commute only meant a robot-control lag measured in milliseconds. It'd be nice to physically walk on another continent.

"Then I shouldn't," said Nocturne. Lumina looked at her with surprise. The dark griffin said, "We're too similar. Same code base. You wouldn't get much extra insight from me."

Lumina winked. "Two eyes beat one."

"Why didn't I think of that? Still, I'm working on other stuff. I'll be around for backup if you need advice or an awesome robot ninja raid." Nocturne caught a game piece that was rolling off the table. "Which one of you is playing as the mecha-skeletons?"

Roy said, "Put me on the backup ninja squad too. I fear that we're dealing with a Catholic offshoot, and my opinion of the Vatican will make me less than gracious when dealing with them. Besides, there's the efficiency problem. Native AIs like Lumina and Nocturne can walk on Earth more cheaply than we uploaders."

Lumina's ears drooped. "I'm alone on this?" Human brains still used more processor power and enerrgy than custom-designed minds like hers (let alone meat brains that could run on a cheeseburger per day), creating ongoing problems that Ludo called "fun challenges". But the cost difference to run one at full speed wasn't enough to justify keeping humans out of an important mission. The cost sounded like an excuse.

Ludo said, "You can always come back," and draped one warm wing over Lumina's lower body. "This isn't a do-or-die quest, little one. Look around the place and we'll confer."

Lumina snuggled into her feathers. It was good to be trusted. "All right. Give me what info you have and I'll prepare."
I don't plan to continue this one for a while, but I was bored and in a position where I couldn't do the editing that needs doing. So here's part of something new.
© 2015 - 2024 KSchnee
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