The World of Whitonia

Renee Carter, a college student taking a game-development course, has borrowed the portable Imagination Station from its inventor, John Avery Whittaker, for a virtual world-building project. When she gives Whit a tour, he is amazed. She has built a lush jungle world with a green sky, golden light, purple water, and air that smells of vanilla and caramel, and she has named it Whitonia in his honor. Even more impressive, she has populated it with people: the Whittonians, gentle beings with emerald skin, orange hair, three nostrils, tails, and two sets of arms. She introduces Whit to two of them, Andras and Kyria, whose voices she modeled on recordings of Connie and Eugene.

But Renee has a problem. The Whittonians are friendly, yet they cannot do anything on their own. When she asks Andras to build a home and Kyria to plant a garden, they simply ask for exact specifications. Renee wants them to make their own decisions, to grow, and to be creative. Whit explains that to be creative, the Whittonians must be able to learn, and to learn they need the freedom to make choices. At the hidden computer link, tucked in a cleft among the aqua-pink boulders, he adjusts their programming. The change works at once. Andras and Kyria begin asking why, planning a house and garden of their own, and Kyria even weaves a flower wreath for Renee's hair. Renee warns them that what is inside the boulders is dangerous and could hurt them badly, so they must stay away, and they happily gather other stones instead.

Renee's course supervisor, the brilliant visiting professor Dr. Astan Lebernis, then reviews the project. He gives her top marks and marvels at the Imagination Station, but he finds the Whittonians dull. In his view a virtual world needs conflict to be exciting, and he presses Renee to skip their slow development. He also hints repeatedly that Whit should partner with him, or sell him the technology outright. Renee stands firm. She has grown to care about her creations, even when the professor scoffs, "They are just zeros and ones, you know, Renee." She admits the Whittonians once found the hidden comp link, and that she is glad they left it alone, since no one knows how they would react to the information inside.

After Renee leaves, Lebernis slips into the unlocked Imagination Station. He finds Andras and Kyria and cleverly talks them around: Renee wants them to make their own choices, he says, and she never said they could not show someone else where the comp link is. Despite their worries, Kyria reveals the hiding place. Lebernis breaks through the security and floods the Whittonians with knowledge, declaring, "My virtual friends, welcome to a brave new world!"

When Renee returns, Whitonia has changed. The air is different, and the house and garden lie in ruins, torn down by the Whittonians themselves. Andras and Kyria angrily accuse Renee of hiding the truth about what they are. Lebernis, delighted, has created many more Whittonians, and he turns the crowd against her. Chanting and closing in with raised fists, they frighten Renee into fleeing her own world.

Back at Whit's End, Renee and Whit weigh their options. Whit has already cut off the portable station's internet access so Lebernis cannot steal the Imagination Station's secrets, but the professor is expert enough to break through eventually. Whit suggests pulling the plug, a total shutdown that would erase everything, but Renee refuses to punish the Whittonians for being tricked. She wants to reboot them from the inside and restore them to the way they were. Since the Whittonians no longer trust her, Whit offers an invention he has been tinkering with: a virtual disguise that makes her look like a Whittonian, complete with a hidden comm link so he can monitor her from outside.

Inside, Renee finds Whitonia dusty, foul-smelling, and wrecked, and she finds Lebernis tied up. His creations turned on him when he refused to hand over the comp link, then split into two warring sides, the Andrassians and the Kyrians, who have been fighting ever since. Lebernis has locked the comp link with biometric security, so only he can use it; any other human who tries will get a dangerous shock. Renee frees him in exchange for his help, but at the comp link he goes back on his word, demanding the Imagination Station technology as his price. When angry Whittonians appear, he runs.

Renee makes one last appeal to Andras and Kyria, reminding them of the flower wreath and of how happy they once were, and finally revealing that she is Renee, made like one of them to show she means no harm. Andras longs to go back, but Kyria calls it a trick and summons the others to stop them. Out of time, Renee makes her choice: she triggers the biometric security on herself with a feedback loop to short it out, telling Whit to finish the reboot if she cannot. The shock knocks her out cold.

Renee wakes outside the Imagination Station with Whit beside her. He has rebooted the program, and the Whittonians are back to their innocent beginnings. Lebernis helped carry her out, then left, though not before offering one last time to buy the technology. Whit gently scolds Renee for her foolish risk, but he understands it: the awesome responsibility of creation, and a creator's love so deep that no sacrifice to save the creation is too great. Renee admits that sounds familiar, and confesses, "If I did believe in God, I think I'd understand him a little better now." Whit calls that a good answer, and together they go to look in on her creations once more.