Page 56 of Tapeworld Induction

She couldn’t deny it was beautiful. Black sand, green mountains, the glow of the lava.

“Sit anywhere you like.” Isaak walked over to a stack of boxes. He took one from the middle of the pile, after which all the boxes that were above it shuffled down to take the removed box’s space. Physics be damned. They simply auto-sorted. Practical.

Isaak set down the box on a floating island table, and took out a smaller box from inside. It was wooden with pearl inlay.

She walked over to the table and sat on a high chair.

“This is it,” he said, gesturing at it.

Dylan traced the markings on the box with a finger. “Any idea what it says?”

He studied the lines and shapes, scratching his cropped beard. “Could be the same language that bot spoke.” She didn’t need to ask which bot. There was an unspoken agreement between them that the man he shot was a bot, until they had any evidence otherwise.

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh, yeah. Could be! If they’re connected, which wouldn’t surprise me. Come on then, let’s get it open!”

Dylan was hoping for a complex puzzle, involving them deciphering the writing to figure out how to open the box.

But Isaak quickly found and pressed a recessed button on the back of the pearlescent box.

“Oh, cool…”

The various concentric plates around the central element on the top of the box shifted into other arrangements of metal plates. The panels receded around the box, disappearing in a blur, until the box was open.

This was getting interesting. Dylan lifted herself higher on the chair to peer into it.

Nestled in red velvet lay the hilt of a katana, a black core with gold diamond shapes along it.

Isaak picked the hilt up and held it in front of him, pointing it away from her. The missing blade formed of its own accord, steel rising into a sharp edge.

Dylan gasped. “Whoa!”

It was a flawless katana, its perfection clear under the red-gold light of the volcano in the distance. Isaak moved it carefully, turning it left and right to examine it.

“Do you know what you’re doing with that thing?” Dylan asked. ReSports was strictly a ranged-weapons game.

His voice was low, near a whisper. “Honestly… I don’t.” He tipped his neck back to better observe the weapon, then raised the grip to his eyes. “There’s an inscription. G, U, N, K…Wait, I recognise this.”

The blade began to change shape, as if in response to his voice. He nearly dropped it. As he struggled to keep it from falling, it stopped changing shape, reverting to its original blade form.

They both looked at each other, mouths open.

What the hell is going on?

“The inscription,” Isaak said. “It’s the name of an old game I used to play as a kid… Gunkatana.”

Dylan’s index finger was between her tight lips. She felt the need to nibble it, but stopped herself short of doing it. She frowned. “Why would—”

“GUNKATANA MODEL XR01 at your service.”

Isaak nearly dropped the sword again. “Holy shit! It can speak?”

Dylan gave up and started biting her nail. She’d had no idea what to expect from the box, but the very last thing she’d expected was a talking sword.

“Yes.” Its voice was a sibilant slash.

“Are you an AI?” Dylan asked.

“Yes.”