October 5, 2030 0700 hrs.

“Breeep, Breeep, Breeep” SMACK WOOOOSH BANG.

 “Honey, that was the 3rd alarm clock this month, now you get to get up and get the kids ready.” Says the muffled voice of the woman lying next to me, who is currently trying to snuggle deeper into her blankets and pillows.

What can I say, I am more certainly NOT a morning person, and alarm clocks were invented as a form of inhuman torture device, whose sole purpose is to ruin my perfectly good dreams.   As I lay there looking up at the ceiling, pondering on the moral values of the alarm clock and their makers for a moment, I can just relax, maybe close my eyes for five more minutes, the kids are surely up and getti… I sense a disturbance… Looking over I see a hand raised ready to smack me. How does she do that!! “Don’t worry I’m getting up, just getting fully adjusted to being awake”

“Mmmhpmmhpm  sssssshhhhrrre” which I translate to a very sarcastic “ I’m sure you are”…

Conscious of not grumbling, or groaning, or anything that could be perceived or sensed as dissatisfaction. Cause she will hear, and know… the force is strong in this one, always has been. My friends called me crazy, only took one little week trip on the same cruise ship for them to see… the… I’ve paused to long, mindful to not jostle the bed too much, slowly I reach down feeling for the pants, that inevitably are now on the floor due to the infernal time keeper fiasco.

Struggling to get my pants up and on… Did I mention I was paralyzed from below the waist? No? Well now you know. Get over it. I did 3 years ago, besides it’s not so bad now-a-days, the government in its infinite “wisdom”, finally did something right for a change.

Starting in 2027, they instituted the “No Veterans left behind Act” Which basically guaranteed continued medical and dental coverage for all service members, if they were not kicked out in disgrace. Which meant for me, a brand-new top of the line, paid in full, Exo-Soft Mark V. A soft exo-suit designed specifically for individuals with problems moving their lower extremities. Unfortunately, they still cost about as much as a high-end BM-Lex Sports car, needless to say “Out of my price range” is putting it mildly.

So, it was with great satisfaction, and a silent thank you to tax payers everywhere, That I strapped, hooked, and tightened the marvel of modern technology and stood. God that feels weird, never get used to that the feeling of standing but not standing. Feeling a slight twinge from the electrode connections in my lower back, I am ready to face the day on my “million dollar legs” as my wife likes to say.

Now to see about the kids and if I’m lucky a bucket of water! Walking out and down the hall to the left I go to my eldest room. Arthur Jr., yep I am that conceded that I wanted a son named after myself, long live the glorious Pendergrass name. I suppose I should mention that my name is Arthur Wilfred Pendergrass. 

“Darn, strike one” I say as I hear Arthur Jr. up and moving about the room. Quietly I turn around and make my way to the opposite end of the hall. Beatrice, my second child, a lovely girl of 14. If anyone believed that I have some bottom land off the coast to sell them as well. “Aww, strike two” I let out a sigh. Last chance, be asleep Megan. I turn to the last door across the hall from Beatrice’s room, I hear nothing, no pitter patter of feet, no tossing of clothes, nothing!

Smiling to myself I quietly make my way back to my room, grabbing the large cup beside my bed I take it to the bathroom and fill it up with cold water. “Excellent… yes MUHA…” I cut off abruptly. Must not wake the giant. As quiet as a stalking cat I make my way back towards Megan’s room. With the upmost skill, I turn the knob, slowly as to not betray my presence to the sleeping victim target child inside. Almost there… Almost there… YES Victory, now to open the door, and take my revenge… The door opens silently, the room is dark, I smile as I see the lumps on the bed. Cautiously I move over to, preparing the delivery of the liquid payload.

There are very few times in my life that I have been truly surprised. Upon seeing one of my youngest’ larger than life dolls in her place in bed is one of those times. For the briefest of moments my mind shut down at the un comprehensive dilemma before me, it caused me to miss hearing the soft “snick” behind me. I also missed the flash of a silver bucket in the light coming from the window. What I didn’t miss was the ice-cold death that was now dripping down the back of my head and back. “EEEYYYIIIIIIEEE” I bellowed in what, I will to my dying breath swear, was manly shout and not high pitched as little girl.

I could hear laughter coming from behind me, and what sounded like a full-on laugh riot out in the hallway. Then breathlessly Megan manages to squeak out between breaths “St.. Strike.. Th.. Th.. Three” and a chorus of “You’re out” rang from the mouths of three little daemons pranksters.

After Drying up, the rest of the morning went by the book normal, kids get dressed, eat breakfast, and rush out to the bus, because somehow, they are always running late for it. Now was my favorite time of the morning! Getting ready for work. Otherwise known as getting ready to play video games and stream for 8 hrs.

That’s right, I have the dream. When the advent of FIVR (Full Immersion Virtual Reality), the smart gamers and streamers switched right away. The others, the disbelievers, the doubters, they are scrambling to get media contracts now. VR shows featuring popular worlds and characters are the new Norm now for television series. Why go around the world to film a show when you can create the entire environment in VR and it look exactly like you wanted it in the real world.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

That said, there are some things that are strictly physical still, grade school being the major one. Only colleges, and trade craft schools can offer virtual courses. It was almost global accepted with the advent of FIVR, that we teach our children how to interact outside of the pods, the last thing the world needed was a generation so addicted to VR that they forget to “propagate the species”. Until you turned 25, or already had 3 children your allowed time connected into VR, excluding for work, was 4 hours.

Me being married and having 3 kids, not to mention my age, did not have such restrictions. However, I do have a family so I tend to limit my time to work and the time my children spend logged in, unless of course they are over at a friends’. Those are the marathon nights.

“Better start getting ready” Turning the power onto my Cocoon, I walk over the dive locker. That’s right a dive locker, picture small gym locker room, without the smell of B.O everywhere. Getting to my cabinet, I take a seat on the bench and get my legs off, it’s a hassle stripping down without legs, but I’ve gotten used to it over the years. It helps that I can leave parts of exo-suit connected to give me some movement, and slowly pull the one-piece suit, similar in looks to a divers suit, just with electrode connections and body sensors everywhere, not that you can easily see them, all that stuff is embedded now-a-days with soft circuits, up and then zip up the front. Fully strapped and zipped I am ready for the day.

Walking back to my cocoon I glance at the VR sync’d clock and RSS feed on the wall screen. “Ohh, man that’s today?” That is the newest game to hit the market and if the hype and promises are even half right, the game will topple all the other sci-fi games out. Axis Mundi, boasting an Open Galaxy Seamless, instance less, sandbox, the end-all-be-all of sci-fi games everywhere. If everything the Devs are promising at launch is true, calling it a sci-fi gamers’ Holy grail is not doing it justice.

And why do you think I am bummed out? Well to be the best, it comes with the price of the best. I could afford the game, no problem. For myself. For maybe one month. Then the charges would show up, on the account. Have you ever bought anything that you know would get you in trouble once the “Other Half” saw the cost of said purchase? Well multiply that by 10, or 20, and that is how dead I would have been had I spent that on myself. 1000 credits for the game and 150 credits a month for streamer access. Just to put this in perspective, you can pay your electric bill for 75-100 credits a month, and that’s a 7000 sq foot 3 story (2 and a finished basement) house.

“Better go with fantasy for a while, no one who watches sci-fi will be watching anything but Axis.” Cursing my lot in life, I lay back into my cocoon and initiate the dive… My eyes close….

… And open to an exact replica of my living room. However, what is not normal is the glowing blue screen that greets me.

You have one Urgent message from :

Vanessa Pendergrass

Open? Yes / No

Mentally selecting Yes.  Cause it will let her know if I selected no, I swear it would even if it says it doesn’t. Another lovely blue box pops up.

Arthur

Happy early birthday!

Hope you like it!

Love,

Your Wife

Receive Items from User? Yes / No

Selecting Yes, a series of boxes appear on the table in front of the couch I am sitting on, all wrapped nice and neat, Blue paper and a single scarlet ribbon. “What can I say, she always had the flare for the dramatic”, I say to myself while pondering the gift-wrapped boxes.

Now first let me say that the color scheme has a very significant meaning to me, you see I am a retired United States Marine, not to be confused with the new United Globe Marines. Even though we have all the same training and the United States Marine Corps, is the “Founding Father” of the current Generation of Marines, there is a clearly defined difference. When the UGM was created, the USMC decided upon it merger into the larger force, to deny, unless earned the rights to certain uniforms. One of those being the blood stripe on all NCO and Staff NCO blue standard issue Dress Trousers.

So, looking at the packages I’m thinking she must have found one of the old-school FPS games that they ported to the FIVR system. I smile she is always finding was to surprise me. Reverently I open the first package, they have little golden tags with numbers on them, gently pulling on the scarlet ribbon the wrapping falls away to reveal in all its glory.

Welcome to Axis Mundi!

Time till Launch 1:30:59

I always thought that surprising me was hard, my situational awareness from my service is not easy to trick, now it happened twice, in the same day. I’m standing here looking at the Holy Grail of sci-fi games, my mouth opening and closing like a landed fish. Finally, I shake myself out of the “does not compute” loop I had seemed to have been in, and sit down on the couch, still staring at the count-down clock.

“Bee Boo Boop You’ve got Mail!”  

Looking down I see in my HUD the blinking icon for a message, “Wonder who this is from?” mentally selecting the icon, while glancing at the glory of glories to ensure its still there.

Thank you for purchasing Axis Mundi

Your Streaming subscription is ready!

You can log in to create your character now.

You will be ported into the galaxy at your chosen starting point

 when the launch timer is up.

Due to certain terms and conditions the character creation is not streamable content

Your stream will start on logging into the galaxy

LOGIN / CLOSE

“Ohh, she is so getting thanked tonight!” Pressing Login, my vision fades to white….