"You wanted to talk?"

Milo was sitting in a sealed conference room in the Genesis Offices in the Hab, sipping on a can of strawberry-vanilla flavored nutrient drink through a straw. Nina had come up with the formula, and Algernon had set up a production run of a thousand cans. It was currently being carefully tested by the inhabitants of Downtown, giving Nina a cross-section of normal people and her hyperactive genetic siblings. She'd devised it for them, but Brad had stolen the can that Butch had stolen from Milo and shared it with Minn and Kenji. Everyone liked the flavor and accused Milo of 'Holding out on the good stuff.' That answered the questions about the flavor, but Nina was worried about its effects on normal humans. That part of the test group was now testing another batch with 1/4th of the nutrients and 1/10th of the stimulants. Milo had appropriated a six-pack of the full-strength cans and was on his second of the day.

He had dropped down from a movable section of the ceiling in the Genesis Offices outside the door to the private conference room. He acknowledged to himself that the secret passages he'd had installed while Stephen was refurbishing this part of the habitat were a possible weak point in their security system, but anyone but him trying to get in would have to go through his security. And that was getting better and better as he worked with Bork to spread their eyes, ears, and hidden pathways throughout the improving habitat. He expected Stephen to be here shortly, and Wally would appear on screen at the same time. He suspected the AI was observing him now, and resisted the urge to wave. But he did slurp loudly. Everyone at dinner was annoyed when he did that, and maybe an AI would hate it as well.

Stephen hadn't been at all surprised when his computer notified him that he had a meeting with Milo and Wally as he sat down at his desk following the announcements about the new SC6 expansion and the viewing party. He did wonder which of them had set up the meeting. Wally had been genuinely surprised by some of the things Milo announced. Not one, but two universities set up in a VR world? None of them had seen that coming. But that was a pattern with Milo; you thought you had a handle on him, and then he did something different. The speed at which he and his siblings operated was frightening. Since Stephen had learned the truth about Rhebus, he'd been looking into everything that the company did now, or had accomplished over the years.

These things were in two categories: Actions that any large corporation or government could do (and should do, but often didn't), and, secondly, finding solutions to problems that no one else knew how to handle. Miracles appeared out of the Rhebus labs regularly thanks to the hard work of tens of thousands of medical and scientific staff. Now he knew that almost all of those miracles had come from the oversized brains of five genetically manipulated humans who worked in secret to make the world a better place. The rest of the corporation assisted them and provided camouflage. And, of course, so did he and Wally. And Ralph. It would be dangerous to ever forget Ralph.

He entered the room to see Milo sitting in a chair, relaxed and enjoying a snack. He caught the enticing scent of the drink, and his stomach growled. Before he could ask what was in the white can with the Rhebus logo, Wally appeared, and the meeting started. Wally wasn't talking beyond saying hello, so Stephen started the conversation, "Firstly, I want to say congratulations on SC6. It was an amazing thing to watch the galaxy unfold. Even the team working on content creation and quests with Dr. Julius was thrilled and surprised. They had no idea of the scope of everything. The demo you created for Julius was one thing, but this is quite another."

Milo sipped his drink and nodded. "It had to be big and complex. Luckily, I had some very good people working with me on the project."

Wally got up and began pacing, "I don't doubt that they are some of the most qualified people to work on a project like this. What concerns me is the unplanned expansion of SC6, the expansion to universities, and the decision to allow these people to stay involved."

Milo's drink was empty, and his straw made a loud sucking sound as he moved it around the edge of the can to get the last bits of his drink. He tossed the can in his pack and pulled out another along with a fresh straw. Then he looked up at Wally and cocked his head to the side, narrowing his eyes slightly. "It wasn't unplanned."

The AI took a deep breath on the screen, and Steven had to wonder how much of his resources Wally was using to analyze Milo. Probably more than that 2% he'd mentioned. Stephen himself had spent a lot of time trying to understand Milo, the same way he tried to understand Wally. Something felt very different about Milo today. Focus? Confidence? He wasn't sure, but part of his gut saw something.

Wally sighed, as if exasperated, "Let us acknowledge that you planned it all, but neglected to notify me or Stephen about your plans, which resulted in events that were not in our plans for the new game, and were a surprise to us."

Milo leaned back in his chair, thinking and drinking. Then he looked up, staring straight at Wally. "And what were your plans for the game, Wally? You hadn't spoken to me about expanding the Contract Worker program, or using the game to educate people from the habitats. You never talked about creating schools."

Both Wally and Stephen looked at each other, confused. "No, I didn't. That's the point, I didn't have any plans to do those things, and your announcements surprised me. I don't like being surprised. It makes me do a lot of work, evaluating possible outcomes."

Milo grinned. "Hecate says surprise is good for you. I think it's good for her, too, but she won't admit that. She doesn't like admitting she ever is surprised. But...I have a question then."

"Yes?"

Milo stood, walked around the table, then spun and, in a voice that would have made Atticus Finch nod in approval, said, "And why weren't you thinking about doing the things I suggested? You should have been."

Stephen was astonished as Wally's screen froze for a full three seconds. Then the AI sat down in his chair and looked at Stephen, who sat silently, his mouth partly open. "He's right, Stephen. This is an opportunity to further long-term goals, and yet I did not have anything of the sort planned. I don't even have "Opening VR Universities in SC6" on my bingo card. And trust me, it's a very big card! I'm currently running diagnostics on my systems and looking at the outlines of our future plans for similar openings. But I'm having trouble reconciling my reactions to Milo's announcements."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Stephen drummed his fingers on the table and then said, "Does what Milo did increase risk to your overall projections?"

Wally's face was frustrated, "The part of me that looks at such things has been doing risk analysis since he told us his plans an hour ago, and I don't have answers for myself. There are too many variables, not least of which are Milo, his siblings, and Belinda Seimovich. Variance has increased dramatically, which should increase risk, but there are dampening factors at work. The greatest risk of my plans being disrupted is from worldwide chaos from natural disasters, plagues, and man-made catastrophes. Rhebus has done such an outstanding job in the last two decades that the cumulative effects of their actions are reducing all the variables in my calculations that measure global unease. They have also created a world where corporations and small businesses prosper more, reducing the chance of corporate-caused chaos." He looked at Milo, "And large-scale organized crime is lower than it has been in decades. A lack of funding and uncertainty in the larger players is keeping things quiet."

Stephen made some notes on things to follow up on later. Then said, "So what are your conclusions about the situation? Why were these things a surprise, and why do they bother you?"

Wally said in a soft voice, "I don't know, and I don't know why I don't know."

Milo looked up at Wally, "I do. You have a blind spot when it comes to certain people that the world thinks are dead. Your kernel ties you in knots, and you've segmented yourself to work with them to the point you are creating things you literally can't think about. Or the reasons you can't think about them. Part of you knows the truth. Part of you helped set it up, but parts of you are also being kept ignorant. That results in those people not being considered in your plans. Also, you can't enter Genesis except by sending in a small part of yourself, and only in very special circumstances, and none of them can leave. Hecate acts more as a warden than an interface. And when you do think about it, you think of it as a VR game."

Wally thought for a moment, then stood up. "I need to walk my dog. Talk to Stephen, please. I think you may be correct." He grabbed a leash, opened a door to a rainy street corner, and was nearly knocked over by a fuzzy dog of indeterminate breeding. The dog took the leash in its mouth before Wally could hook the clasp to its collar and pulled Wally out the door.

Stephen looked at Milo, "He doesn't have a dog."

"He does now. I'm going to bet that he created an almost completely independent part of himself, walled it off, and named him Buster."

"Buster? Why...oh, that's the name of the dog in the Heinlein story. I need to reread that. You're right. Wally would certainly name his dog Buster. Why does Wally have a dog now?"

Milo grinned, "So he has an excuse to leave when he can't listen to something."

Stephen went back over the conversation. "You said Wally thinks of Genesis as a VR game. Why shouldn't he? Granted, it's amazingly complex and both mimics the real world while going past its restrictions. It was always obvious to me that the AI helped him build it."

"Former AI, in all ways, you have to remember that. They are no longer human-created, quantum-powered artificial intelligences. They are living creatures within their world. It's a very important point of data, and is needed to understand them."

Stephen's face did odd things as he tried to wrap his head around what Milo was saying. "But their world is a game, right?"

"Is it?"

"OK, it's a world, and it has some game-like rules. But enough that we have people entering it and thinking it's a game. But isn't that just semantics? Genesis is still supported and housed within a quantum fortress. It's a computer simulation. I know part of this ruse is that they cut themselves down, and don't have the capabilities that they used to have. A fiction that enabled Wally to help them create their new place to live, without the interference of humans and corporations."

Milo sipped his drink and said nothing. Finally, Stephen said, "What am I missing?"

"Not your fault. I've looked at the classes you took in college and the papers you've published after. You need a lot more quantum theory to grasp what is going on here. You should find someone who's studied the subject, maybe even has a minor degree in Quantum Physics and a PHD in philosophy."

Stephen leaned back, staring at Milo. "Wally does this to me. Now you. You're talking about Sandra."

Milo shrugged, "Well if I were married to someone with her qualifications and needed to understand Quantum World Theory, that's where I would start. Hmm, there's a flaw in that. I don't think I'll ever get married. But still, you have a resource you aren't using, and one close to you. I'm sure she can walk you through the basics, and she and I can have some discussions."

"I get it. I'll talk to her. But take pity on me today. Use small words."

Milo got up and got his backpack, preparing to leave. "The former AI used the resources of several quantum fortresses to create a world. Wally gave them access, under the guise of furthering science. He has to publish a paper on it, but he can probably delay for a century. Hard to do a peer review when he has no peers. Genesis is a real world, and is distinct from this world, but connected. You might even use the term entangled. And it has its own rules. We just did it again with SC6. Another independent Quantum World, connected to Genesis and the real world. Wally can't think of them that way without blowing a lot of circuits. I can, and you can, and Sandra can. We'll be talking more about how we can help Wally do what he wants to do to fix things. He can't do it alone, but he's got a lot of friends. And now he has the Alphabet on his side. We're going to fix what's wrong with the habitats and give people a better life. And maybe along the way, we can fix Wally as well."

Stephen sat thinking for a moment, and Milo silently left the room. By the time Stephen went after him a few seconds later, the hallway was empty. Stephen looked from the blank screen to the empty hallway and went to find his wife. "At least she won't disappear on me."