CHAPTER 1: HOW I GOT HERE
Don't ask me why my mother named me Jedediah. I am not Jewish, neither of my parents are Jewish but my mother just seemed to like the name. My father also always called me Jed from the time I was born. My last name, Chevalier, is French but my father is only half French, on my grandmothers side. My paternal grand dad was 100% Italian, which is probably where I got my dark black hair. My mother is Danish and she looks like a Viking Warrior Shield Maidan incarnate, standing at six feet and with an athletic build at age 52. Maybe Valkyrie might be a better word to describe her. She even played some professional tennis in her youth. I can say I definitely got my athleticism from her. My dad is a beast of a man at 6’5” but has the coordination as of someone with two left feet. He did go to Princeton and rowed for their varsity team but it seems the coordination required to row doesn't translate well to land sports. My parents met in London while my dad was racing at the Henley Regatta in college. My mother was playing in summer tennis tournament. Now the story of how they met does demonstrate what trait I received from my father, shyness around women. My father was with some rowing buddies at a London Pub, the Mayflower, doing their best to interest some young women from Oxford who where there to cheer on their boyfriends also rowing at Henley. My mother was alone and noticed my father. She says she ‘immediately knew’ and bought him a drink. It took all of his teammates pushing him, both physically and verbally, to the end of the bar to talk to the tall attractive blonde. Well they say the rest is history. My dad went on to medical school at John Hopkins and eventually opened his private practice in Tennessee.
I grew up outside of Johnson City, Tennessee. I had the good fortune to have the Cherokee National Forrest as my backyard and my family loved to go backpacking. So you can definitely say I grew up with an affinity for climbing. My favorite past time was to run the trails through the park. If you ever run into me make sure I tell you of the time I come over a blind hill surprised a black bear, hurdled the bear and spent the next 20 minutes running like hell. This passion for running also earned me a track scholarship at Boston University. I studied mechanical engineering with a focus on fire protection. I also joined the volunteer firefighters unit in Boston, which confirmed for me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I currently serve as the member of the R2 rescue company in the New York City. My duties also include inspections and sometimes a prelim inspector for arson incidents in the city. The major cutbacks in finding due to the FIRE-1 drones implementation 45 years ago in 2144 has made many firefighters become adapt at many duties in order to keep their jobs. Now in a city of 32 million people surrounded by a 15 meter ocean wall holding back nature teemed with robotic life everywhere. Hundreds of massive 100+ story building dotted the city connected by bridges. The lowest levels of the city were covered by a light smog and required
The bullet points are just author notes on things to add to the intro chapter on editing.
* Introduce friends at firehouse
* Discussion about NEXTGEN CORP and the Virtual reality sever HOME
* Introduce full jack implants, download options of consciousness
* Cook meal for dinner
* The call to an AHOD (all hands on deck) – some Chinese owned major structure, 149 stories – 2200 housing units
* The fall – while saving someone falls and is crushed
* Wakes up in a hospital missing right arm, right leg, as he comes to consciousness feels his body heating up (burns 95% of his remaining body) muscle cooked – pain, his retinas are burned, blurry vision ears burned off,
* his friends whisper in his ear he must blink and they can install a full digital jack and download his consciousness into a full VR server
* he blinks but it was in pain not affirmation
* the morphine is turned up and he passes out
* cut scene of a tech carrying a tray in a massive underground cooled facility with rack upon rack. The tray has 500 quarter size chips with one terabyte of data each. Inserts into a wall, shows LED display, “upload in progress…..integration in progress…..activating interface…..”
My eyes open again. It is completely black, a void of nothing. Then I realized that my eyes are not open, I open them and find myself in a white room with a small desk and a computer interface desk. My body no longer burns like a sun and my missing leg has returned and is functioning normally. In my confusion I wonder whether this is the afterlife or if they actually ripped my soul out of my body and inserted it into a digitized form in the HOME server. The room echoed with my footfalls as I cross the short distance to take a seat at the terminal. My hand brushes the desk. The 48” inch holographic display activates and the large text appears ‘Welcome to HOME, your new life awaits.’ Immediately I feel angry, cheated out of death and stuck for eternity in a digital world. I stand, pace, scream, through the chair at the computer and watch it bounce off the desk through the hologram and clatter into the distance. I spin, scream again, and turn around, the chair has been reset with the holo-screens restored. My body loses its strength and I sag to the floor emotionally exhausted. I don't know how long I lay there in despair.
I loud beep disturbs me. The holographic screens are flashing, ‘waiting room time exceeded, random VR environment will be assigned in 34 minutes, 18 seconds.’ I looked at the timer counting down second by second. I rose from my place on the floor and took a seat in the chair again before the hologram screen. I swiped the items screen and a selection screen came up:
REALM SELECTION SCREEN FOR HOME SERVER
A NEXTGEN ROPERTY
REALM OF ALLSPACE – MASSIVE SPACE BASED GENRE
FORGOTTEN REALMS – SWORD AND SORCERY GENRE
HISTORICAL EARTH – PLEASE NOTE YOU WILL NEED TO
SELECT A TIME PEROID AT NEXT SCREEN
IF YOU HAVE A PASSCODE FOR A PRIVATE OR RESTRICTED
REALM PLEASE SPEAK PASSCODE NOW
PLEASE NOTE IT WILL COST 250,000 GAME CREDITS TO
TRANSFER YOUR REALM TO ANOTHER AFTER INITIAL SELECTION FOR FULL VR CLIENTS, CURRENT BALANCE: 12,000 CREDITS
My heart skipped a beat at the cost. Do I still have a heart? I could definitely feel a pulse and ‘felt’ alive. I swiped the REALM OF ALLSPACE. A four-page description followed. In summary ALLSPACE was a randomly generated galaxy of 426,942,694,269 solar masses. Realm age was listed at 47.23 years. The map locations of solar masses were based on the Milky Way galaxy. Inhabitable systems were 14.2%, much higher than real life probability of systems capable of containing life. I remember in high school reading about the colonization efforts to Alpha and Proxima Centauri. The Proxima expedition managed to establish a space based colony that was mining an asteroid field and slowing growly in population from the 5,000 souls and 200,000+ fertilized embryos sent. The Alpha Centauri colonization mission had stopped sending messages 34 years ago after transmitting a brief emergency SOS due to a collision with a rouge asteroid in the belt they were mining. A Tau Ceti colonization starship was still in transit but they already knew there would be no habitable planets when they arrived. Humans had conquered Mars back in 2045 and the main colony city on the Red Planet was approaching 50,000 last I had heard. The best option for an out of system planet colonization was Eden system. Deep space telescopes had found three planets in the goldilocks orbit there and two had a 75% chance probability of supporting life from the spectrographical analysis indicating large sources of water. Unfortunately the Eden star was 95 light years from Earth, or about 400 years travel time with current technology.
ALLSPACE listed the percentage of discovered solar masses currently at 0.92%. I assumed this meant by the player characters. Each inhabitable system contains anywhere from 1 to 7 inhabitable planets. Forty-two ‘platinum class’ systems with 14+ inhabitable systems exist in the galaxy, one has been discovered to date. It was also possible to terraform a planet at great cost. When a system is first explored the entire system is completely randomly generated and added to the database. There were seven factions currently in the game, Humans, Gene-Humans (modified humans), Kilrathi (a cat like race), Feyr (elven-like race), Ymir (race of giants), Orcus (think a cross between a fantasy orc and a Klingon) and Kitsune (the Ancients). There were a handful of links to the political dynamics between the races which I skipped over. Spaceships travelled at a maximum rate of one light year per hour, with a class X stardrive? I quickly clicked on the galactic map and zoomed out, it was 96,708 light years across, meaning it would take over 11 years in transit to cross it and the game. I also knew the game ran in real time and the administrators were very hard on anyone found cheating. The bottom of the holo-screen showed total recreational players 39,491,222 million and growing. Total full immersion players 567,712. The counters on rec players was increasing steadily, a few ticks every second. While the FIP players ticked up only once in the time it took me to read the info pages. My timer was down to under 24 minutes.
In my youth my parents never let me play and virtual reality games. They feared I would become so immersed I would loose contact with real people. I had heard my friends in high school and college talking about these games but I never really understood what they were saying. I think the preferred game was the sword and sorcery game. I swiped to back up and selected FORGOTTEN REALMS. The bottom read 78,542,678 recreational players and 2,345,123 full emersion players. I don't know why so many more people choose to go full emersion in the fantasy setting, was it more gratifying? I really did not want to live in the past so I ruled out the HISTORICAL EARTH realms. So my decision seemed to come down to a sword or a laser pistol. I had really enjoyed all 37 Star Wars movies – especially episode 31, Reemergence of the Dark Jedi. While I was thinking what to do my timer fell below 10 minutes. I swiped back to ALLSPACE and selected ENTER, committing to my decision.
A character creation screen came up and I noticed the timer had dropped below 9 minutes. A holo-image of my naked self rotated in front of me. My dark black hair stood on my 6’4” frame and my brown eyes looked back at me every time it faced me during the rotation. I also could swear the image was blinking in time with me. Coming back quickly from my out of body experience I decided that I would not change the race of my avatar. I wanted to be able to look in the mirror and recognize myself. However I had always wanted to have blue eyes, I had even worn blue contact lenses in high school. I selected the eyes and selected the color palette button. I zoomed in and changed the color to a translucent light blue. They looked so real and I really thought it looked like the image had a soul. I really didn't want to change too much else. I thought briefly about removing all body hair below the neck but I liked my hairy chest. Thinking for a second I selected my penis. Now don't get me wrong I never had any complaints from the women I had had sex with in my life but a little extra length couldn't hurt? I added an inch and selected the completed button. A message flashed ‘AVATAR CONFIRMED.’ A screen opened up listing 8 statistics which I had no idea what to do about:
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Strength 4
Dexterity 4
Constitution 4
Intelligence 4
Education 4
Social Standing 0
Psion Ability NA
Life Points 44
ABILITY POINTS AVAILABLE 10
I started to scan each one. Strength, your avatars ability to carry and lift objects. Can help do more damage in melee combat. Each strength point also adds one to your life total. Dexterity, your avatars ability to for fine motor control. Aids in reflex actions. Constitution, your characters health. Aids in resisting adverse physical effects and adds 10 life points per one. Intelligence, your characters ability to learn new skills and solve problems. Your maximum skill point total is equal to your Intelligence x 10. Education, the speed at which your character can learn new skills. Your education cannot be higher than your intelligence. Social standing, how your character is perceived by NPCs you encounter. Other PCs are allowed to react to you as they wish but a high social standing may prevent them from taking certain actions. Psion ability, psionic ability costs 10 ability points and allows your character to gain two random abilities from the psion table at skill 1. Life points, you characters life. When this reaches 0 your character will die. You will respawn at your spawn point 15 minutes later with full life and all adverse effects removed.
While I was reading my timer hit zero without me noticing. A bold message appeared in the center of the screen – ‘Your 4 hours in the activation room have expired, remaining generation will be random.’ My jaw dropped. Didn't they realize these decisions would effect me for the rest of my life – essentially eternity. The computer interface changed to a blank screen. Lines of text began to appear in the holo-display slowing giving me time to read them.
10 RANDOM STAT ROLLS (d100)
#1) 29 …..+1 to Dexterity
#2) 55 …..+1 to Education, ###BONUS +1 to Intelligence###
#3 89 …..+1 to Stat of your choice +1 additional roll – STAT
CHOICE RANDOM +1 to Social Standing
#4) 11…..+1 to Strength
#5) 77…..+1 to Stat of your choice CHOICE RANDOM +1 to Dexterity
#6) 96…..+2 to random stat ROLL +2 to Intelligence
#7) 85…..+1 to Intelligence, +1 Education
#8) 100…..Psion Ability Activated, generating psion abilities; life detection, tactical awareness
#9) 03…..500 credits, no skill gained
#10) 67…..+1 Social Standing
#11) 88…..+1 to Stat of your choice +1 additional roll – STAT CHOICE RANDOM +1 to Education
#12) 97…..+2 to random stat ROLL +2 to Intelligence
RESULTS:
Level 1
Strength 5
Dexterity 6
Constitution 4
Intelligence 10
Education 7
Social Standing 2
Psion Ability 1
Life Detection 1
Tactical Awareness 1
Life Points 46
I was trying to follow everything appearing on screen. Just as I was processing the second roll of getting a free +1 to Intelligence because I think the game rule was education can never be higher than intelligence the next line appeared. I assumed it was rolling on a random table and somewhere but the end result had the computer generate 25 points if the psion ability was worth 10. Why wouldn't everyone do it this way? The screen slide my character stats to the right. The center screen reset and the following appeared:
BASE SKILL GENERATOR, THREE TOTAL, NO EDUCATION BONUS
RANDOM SKILL #1 Administration 1
RANDOM SKILL #2 Streetwise 1
RANDOM SKILL #3 Computers 1
RANDOM CAREER GENERATOR
CAREER GENERATED: LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENT
SKILLS AQUIRED:
Streetwise +1
Drive Vehicle (Land) 1
Investigate 1
Computers +1
Reconnaissance 1
Gun Combat: Ballistic Pistol 1
RANDOM FIVE TERMS OF SERVICE BONUSES
STARTING PLANET: Valcura IV in Valcura System, 24 Light years from Earth
TERM 1 Your supervisor sees potential in you. You are trained as a vehicle pursuit specialist as a rookie officer. Drive Vehicle (Land) +1; You are promoted to the rank of corporal due to your outstanding service record. Streetwise +1, Investigate +1
TERM 2 You spend time undercover exposing a corrupt ring of thieves. Deception +1; You are promoted to sergeant. Streetwise +1
TERM 3 You learn about corruption in the police force. You gain an enemy! RANDOM NPC GENERATER….Police Commissar Ardent Cannon on the Planet Valcura IV. Deception 1. PC must relocate to new planet…..NEW PLANET: Sigma Prime, 234 light years from Earth
TERM 4 Your new boss recognizes your aptitude and you receive specialist training. Medic 1. You are promoted to Lieutenant. Melee (blade) 1
TERM 5 You bring your work home with you. All family members slain by criminal organization, RED SERPENTS criminal organization are now an enemy. PC must relocate to new planet minimum of 200 light years from current planet. RANDOM PLANET GENRATE: FAIL, PC CAN NOT BEGIN ON UNINHABITABLE PLANET. REROLL. Planet Bruin IV in the Capsulite System, 1989 light years from Earth. Survival 1.
MUSTER OUT OF CAREER:
Select two free skills, RANDOM GENERATING…..Gun Combat: Ballistic Pistol +1, Vacc Suit 1, Starting Equipment: Colt .45 from Old Earth, 100 rounds of ammunition for Colt .45, Flak Vest, 10,000 game credits. Total Credits Available 22,500.
SKILL SUMMARY:
Administration 1
Computers 2
Deception 2
Drive Vehicle (Land) 2
Investigate 2
Gun Combat: Ballistic Pistol 2
Medic 1
Melee (Blade) 1
Reconnaissance 1
Streetwise 4
Survival 1
Vacc Suit 1
CHARACTER GENERATION COMPLETE – ENJOY YOUR GAME!
The room began to fad around me and as it approached blackness it started to fade in again. I noticed the holo-screens seemed to follow me as I turned around and tried to discern my new environment. The only thing on the screen that spread out before me were my stats on the far left and my skills on the far right. The center screen showed an icon of a pinwheel spinning. I heard a voice in my head. “Your environment is rendering. Please be patient. My name is not yet assigned. You may assign one now if you wish. Please note it will cost 1,000 in game credits if you choose to rename me in the future. I will be your personal A.I. during your game time in the ALLSPACE REALM. You can communicate to me via thought, voice or typing on the holo-screen.”
I was too overwhelmed right now. I just wanted to sit down and have a cold drink with an aspirin to solve the massive headache I was getting trying to process all this information. “Uh, thank you.”
I response came back immediately “Do you wish to designate my name as Uh, please confirm.”
The response confused me for a second. “No, sorry. Do you have a name preference?” A.I. systems were pretty good in the real world. I know they learned fairly quickly the mannerisms of their users. A.I. were also not permitted to evolve beyond a certain point as well.
“I think I would prefer the name Athena, would you like to confirm this designation?” The voice was silent waiting for my response.
“Confirmed.” I replied contemplating where the A.I. pulled the name.
“Thank you.” The voice sounded female now rather than a male robotic name. “Rendering will be complete in 7 minutes. The issue is this system has not been discovered yet so everything in the system must be randomly generating and rendered. Will you be using the designation Jedediah Ignatius Chavalier?”
“Uh, no. Just Jed is fine.” I noticed a chair had finished ‘rendering’ and walked 5 feet and sat down.
“Confirmed, your in game name has been updated.” I noticed the holo-screen stats to the far left had the name ‘Jed’ appear at the top.
I thought for a second, “Make the name Jed Knight.” Chevalier was the French word for knight and I wanted to keep some ties to my past life. It wasn't like I was going to be passing Chevalier onto any children now.
“Your in box contains 7 new messages. Would you like me to open them or read them to you?” The voice of Athena kept changing. It sounded more feminine and softer now. Before I could respond, “Voice optimization reached, scans show this tone and voice pattern make you the most comfortable. You may open the A.I. voice customization window now if you wish to change it. Otherwise please confirm. If you choose to change it at a later date it will cost 1,000 in game credits.” Wow this game was really heavy on all these charges. I guess that is how they made their money. I think I remember John in the firehouse saying he dropped his entire paycheck one week for 20,000 in game gold in the fantasy realm. Thinking about two guys in the firehouse played the fantasy game. Did I make a mistake in choosing this?
“Jed, do you wish to receive your messages?” Athena announced again.
“Read me the first message Athena,” I just wanted to get through them as quickly as possible.
Athena came back and this time her voice spoke in my head. Dear Jedediah I. Knight. You have agreed to have your consciousness transferred to ALLSPACE REALM in the HOME server. In accordance with your insurance protocols you will be granted 1 year free residency in the system. After this time you will be required to pay 100 in game credits each month to retain your residency. This amount can also be paid from your real world account amounting to the same sum. Signed, Kuan Fang, Vice President Beijing Worldwide Medical Insurance Group. So they expect you to pay $100 a month to stay alive in this digital world. “Next message from Emilie Chevalier, Jedediah..” Athena chimed aloud.
“Stop. End messages.” I blurted out. I was in no condition to hear from my mother right now. The lump in throat felt real and I was having trouble breathing. I reached out and pulled up the inbox in front of me manually. Two of the messages were from Emilie Chevalier. One was from David Chevlair. The last three were from Katrine Severt. I was not in a strong enough mental state to listen to any of them right now. I closed the inbox and the holo-screen and took in my surroundings.