My cavern was too far north for the prime viewing spot in the valley. I felt a connection between this cavern and my home in the future so I wouldn’t be building my castle here. With the help of the mapping software, Zeus and I began the design work for the castle one-quarter of a mile south of my location. Once we knew the final location, we planned out how to get water into this cave. I knew it was temporary, but I need to have drinking and bathing water. I figured it was summer since it was still warm outside, but cave or no cave, it was cold inside the rock.

I had studied many of the geothermal maps of Ouray and knew that I could tap into the aquifer and have water between 100 to 115 degrees. I came to the conclusion that this world wasn’t the same Earth I grew up in but must have been a splintered world. I’d never heard of griffons being real or orcs for that matter. It was close, but not the same. Zeus was fairly positive on his timeline due to his measurements of the stars, but I knew Ouray’s past didn’t have this much precious metal.

By evening, Roknar began excavating and piping the path for me to have a running stream. I programmed Robbie to start clearing away the Faraday cage from off the floor and make room for the pool and stream. It wouldn’t be much, but I looked forward to finally being able to clean up and sit on a toilet. I chuckled when I imagined my little brown presents dropping onto unsuspecting animals 300 feet below the tunnel. It’s the little things in life that bring the most joy.

With a sigh of relief, I exited my virtual space, then apologized to DJ for ignoring him. I’ve always felt that dogs understood their owners and hoped he knew my lack of ear rubbing was due to the urgency of the situation rather than an absence of love. I asked him where his ball was and seconds later I had his dirty tennis ball in my hand.

We played catch for an hour while I relaxed for the first time. I hadn’t addressed the food situation yet, but at least I had a plan for water and housing. The castle would take months to complete even with Roknar carving out the castle to its specifications. I’d need to figure out how to create some modern necessities. I’m pretty sure I could figure out lighting and plumbing, but textiles were beyond my knowledge base. I’d have to worry about those things later. If things went according to plan, I’d have water piped into this room by morning.

After refilling DJ’s food dish and giving him some water, I decided that I needed to figure out how to get food. My biggest problem, besides not knowing how to hunt, was not knowing how to dress the kills, cook or make fire. My cavern had plenty of modern amenities for a room, but a kitchen wasn’t one of them. Honestly, we had robots prepare our food, but even then it wasn’t fresh kill. The second problem was two problems in one. Am I the hunter or the hunted?

“Zeus, designate the animal with a spear as an Orc.”

“Designation accepted.”

If the Orc was smart enough to herd bison into the valley, then it’s smart enough to cause me trouble. If the Orc wasn’t bad enough, I’ve had a griffon buzzing around the valley. He was probably here for the bison as well. However, as much as I’d like to eat bison, I’m one person. A bison could feed me for a year or more. I had no way to preserve the meat, and anything I killed would go to waste.

That left rabbits, fish and other small game as the only real source of food until I solved the waste problem.

“Zeus, I’ve got some issues. One, I have no idea how to hunt. Two, we have no storage. Three, even if I could hunt, I might die walking down on the valley floor. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Researching…”

I threw the ball to DJ again, and he scurried across the floor once more. I didn’t want to hunt. I liked my life before all this happened. I’d scream and yell about how unfair everything is except that it’s my fault I’m here. I couldn’t test the EMP in Virtual or UNC would know what I was doing. At least that’s what Albert was afraid happened. He indicated that he thought UNC was able to monitor everything happening in Virtual. If they weren’t doing that when he was sentenced to death, then they probably were now. Last week. Ug. I hated this!

“Food replication unit."

I started laughing. “Zeus, I’m not sure if you noticed what I have in the cavern, but we have no replication unit.”

“Affirmative.”

“Then why would you even suggest using it to feed me?”

“It can be built in approximately than two months.”

I tried to keep up with the thoughts as my mind scrambled to keep up with how Zeus figured it was possible to; a) build a replication or b) find the parts and c) find the plans to make one in the first place.

“That’s great Zeus, but you don’t have a connection to the Network, and I doubt they deliver 10,000 years in the past. We don’t even know how to make one.”

“Negative. Caden, we have those plans and much more as well.”

“Sorry to doubt you, but when did you raid the patent office.”

“Explorer One.”

I stopped mid-reach for the soaked tennis ball. DJ decided to help out and nuzzled his head into my palm so that I would grasp it and toss it once more. I ignored his promptings still half bent and frozen in place. Explorer One was the space station used by the United World Council Space Administration, and it happened to be my Virtual Workspace. I downloaded everything I could to replicate my future home but did that include plans for… everything? Could I have the latest technical data for the world stored in my playpen?

“Are you saying I have all the technical data for everything on Explorer One?”

“Affirmative.”

“Zeus, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but how and why do I have this information?”

“Because you requested it.”

When the hell did I request the plans to the food replicator or for that matter the space drive? Holy shit! Did I have the technical specs for the space drive?

“Zeus, when did I make this request?”

“Five years ago when you first decided you wanted to speculate asteroids.” A recording of my younger self’s voice played back. “ZEUS, GET ME EVERYTHING YOU CAN ON EXPLORER ONE. I WANT AN EXACT REPLICA OF MY WORKSPACE!”

I opened and closed my mouth a few times while I tried to form my next thoughts. After a few aborted attempts to speak, I finally found the words. “And they gave you the patent designs to everything? Just like that?”

“Negative. It took me three years to comply with your demand.”

My demand? Holy crap! APRILS are compelled to follow through every request or demand. Except where it’s illegal, and somehow my sneaky Zeus found and created me a replica of Explorer One. My prepubescent self-demanded the impossible and Zeus delivered in the most unexpected ways.

“So…let me get this right. I now have plans for a 3D printer which will help me make the parts for a food replicator and eventually I could recreate Explorer One, down to the last bolt?”

“Affirmative.”

“Wait. I still don’t have the parts to make the printer.”

“Affirmative…and false. I’ve analyzed your work and believe you could create all the necessary part with Roknar. Assembly is possible with Robbie’s fine motor skills.”

I hated to ask the next question, but it needed to be asked. “How long until I run out of food?”

“Researching…”

My right arm shot out as DJ became more insistent that I take the ball from his mouth. I complied and threw it as hard as I could. I silently hoped he wouldn’t catch up to the ball for a few minutes but knew how fast dogs could find their ball.

“Caden, if you ration, I estimate you’ll have enough food for forty-five days.”

“And didn’t you say two months on project completion?”

“Seventy-three days, depending on algae growth.”

Algae? I was out of my league. I knew next to nothing about bioengineering. I’d never…

“Zeus, you have job manuals, and instruction books don’t you.”

“Affirmative.”

My mind raced as I continued to explore the implications of what Zeus accomplished. I had at my fingertips, not only the technical specs to every piece of equipment on the most scientifically advanced spacecraft humans ever built, but I also had the combined knowledge required for every single employee who worked on this ship. It would take a lifetime or one very determined young man hundreds of years to learn it all.

I began laughing, then stopped, and ran to my Zero G couch excited like a kid on Christmas morning.

“Virtual!”