Dale sat on her bed looking at the glowing lights of her husband’s keyboard not ten feet away; the only light in an otherwise empty room. The house had been cold when she came home and dark. The normal smells of cooking food and cheap Earl Grey were stale. Marcus had never come home, had never messaged her, or left a message with Lucy.
“Lucy, again what happened?”
The assistant sprang to life from her bedside table, the diamond avatar bobbing slightly in a virtual wind. “Yes, Mistress,” Lucy said before explaining to the woman all that had transpired with Marcus since there last meeting. “After he redirected the Auto’s destination he put me in Do Not Disturb.”
Dale nodded slightly and a shiver went through her. Had he finally left? Their marriage had never been an easy one. They’d separated more than once, but Marcus always seemed to fight to get them back together. In the last few years though ... Dale sighed and dug further under the blankets.
“Lucy do I still have partner access to all of Marcus’s accounts?”
“One moment, Mistress,” the Assistant spoke, her voice coming softer as she detected Dale’s mood. “The Master has over fifty accounts.”
Dale let out a soft laugh. Her husband had gone through an overly privacy-focused phase in his thirties and set-up dozens of dummy accounts that all eventually filtered into an encrypted German-based subscription e-mail. In the long years since many of those dummies had fractured off or where forgotten about but it still left a lot of parse through for the AI. “Limit it to known active accounts.”
Lucy’s avatar pulsed brightly for a moment. “Understood Mistress. Would you like the results sent to your Display?
Dale assented and a moment later several screens entered her view each representing an active mail account. Sitting up slightly Dale read over them.
[email protected]
- Sexy Lingerie: 75% off Sale on holo-enhanced Demis
- K-Seller: Black Market Coffee $75 dollars a pound!
- CircleSoft: Limited Fantasy XX Online subscription termination notice
[email protected]
- Hunter Bank: Important Notice about your ...
- FES Student Loan payment Confirmation
- Keystone Lending: Important Information About your Student Loan Payment
- Start-up Backer: Your Payment to Palisades and Pseudo-Dragons 10 Edition ...
[email protected]
- Welcome to Pilgrimage Entertainment LLC
- New Employment Opportunities from Teal.com
- Testing / Employment Opportunity with Pilgrimage Entertainment LLC
- About your Resume
Dale smiled a little as the lingerie e-mail popped-up. It had taken her years to convince Marcus that the sexy, single-purpose undergarments weren’t something she’d be offended by. Since then she’d find the occasional gift-wrapped box with a two-piece baby doll or a teddy. Thinking about it made her blush slightly, they may have their problems but it was nice to know that her husband still found her attractive even though she was getting old. Maybe later she’d check the ‘secret’ spot that Marcus allows hid gifts in.
Moving on the rest was mostly junk, the news that the Limited Fantasy sub was only just ending grated on her. Marcus had told her he’d canceled that game nearly two years ago. Taking a breathe she moved on, it’d be a talk for later but right now she needed to figure out what happened to her hapless husband. Finally, she settled on his business account. She’d seen Marcus on this daily, looking to see if anyone had gotten back to him, hoping that a job was there just waiting. Marcus had never been able to keep a job, either through his own sabotage or because their lives demanded he not work. Still, she knew it was something that drove her husband’s already fragile ego further into resentment.
“Lucy, what is Pilgrimage Entertainment?” Dale asked, the name sounded familiar but she couldn’t quite place it.
“Pilgrimage Entertainment LLC is a Fortune 50 company founded in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2022 and is considered the world leader in VR and AR software and development.” Lucy relayed the information and added several bullet points on Dale’s Display mainly relating to profit margins, stock price, and a few articles on the CEO and DARPA hearings.
Dale nodded and selected the e-mail. Marcus had probably spoken of them, maybe even applied to them at one point. Dale shrugged and read over the e-mail, feeling her face harden with every line.
“Game development?” She said quietly. “He said he gave that imbecile’s dream up.”
“Apparently not, Mistress,” Lucy interjected.
Dale read over the mail a few more times wanting to assure she had everything right and down. “Lucy spousal override of Do Not Deserve feature.”
“I am sorry I cannot comply Mistress.”
Dale pushed herself out of the bed and stalked to her dresser. “What the hell do you mean, ‘you can’t comply’?”
“I am sorry, Mistress but the Master has turned off his Key.”
Dale cursed and continued to get dressed.
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Marcus stepped out of the Auto as the sun was beginning to set. He had always thought of the local branch of Pilgrimage to be rather close to his home, however, he forgot to take into account the traffic that plagued the city. Automation had served the world well and in most places, the majority of the traffic issues that had plagued the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries had been eliminated. His city, unfortunately, had been maintained by hippies for the better part of fifty years and as such the highways and streets were a madman’s delusion of narrow passes, strange diversions, and pointless - if not artistically designed - overpasses, underpasses and the like. As such traffic was still a major issue, especially considering the number of people who still drove their own vehicles in the area.
Watching the Auto pull away Marcus stretched, enjoying the sound of his back and hip popping into more desirable positions as he loosened his muscles. Turning he looked at the Pilgrimage building and felt somewhat underwhelmed. Before him stood a four-story building of concrete and glass, a fixture fountain before the front door. Marcus hadn’t known what to expect, but it sure as hell wasn’t the stereotypical business park monstrosity that stood before him. After a moment though he gave the building and its lack of identity a shrug and headed up the short flight of stairs to the entrance.
The front of the building was a large open area, the sunset was filtered in through the tinted windows that rose the first three floors. A woman sat at a highly polished oak and black marble reception desk, pointedly ignoring the older man as he looked the place up and down. Unlike the exterior, the lobby of Pilgrimage was full of life. Living trees strive for the sky on either side of the bank of doors that lead to the outside, the wall behind the receptionist was alive with light and cascading water. Marcus couldn’t help but be amazed at the place and its show of natural and artificial highlights working in tandem.
“Can I help you?” The receptionist asked finally.
“What,” Marcus said jumping slightly to face the younger woman. “Oh yes” Marcus walked toward her, his hand extended and a large fake smile plastered on his craggy, bearded face. “I’m Marcus Klein I called early about the job.”
The receptionist ignored the older man’s hand, instead of her eyes unfocused as she linked to her display and her fingers began moving in the open air as she swiped through screens and entered paraphrases.
“Ah, yes ... Project ǽther applicant.” The woman refocused on Marcus. “Have you submitted all the required paperwork?”
Marcus nodded and brought his own display to the forefront expecting to transfer read-only copies of the files to the younger woman.
“Good,” the woman said and motioned to a small sitting area nearby. “Have a seat, Mister Klein, someone will be with you shortly.
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An hour later Marcus was half asleep in an overstuffed chair in Pilgrimage’s artistically lit lobby, an old fantasy anime playing muted on his display. The Receptionist had left nearly thirty minutes prior and the doors were locked so no one else could come into the building. Marcus was used to this, busy development cycles, and the ever-increasing demand for software that could be seamlessly integrated into life meant that anything not job-related - like interviewing a prospective new employee - typically took place after hours. As such, Marcus made himself as comfortable as possible and took the receptionist up on her offer of tea. In another corner of his display, Marcus skimmed over some of the sample code that he brought to the interview. True the samples weren’t in any of the newer, trendier, and - of course - proprietary languages, but they were what he had, and hopefully, it would be enough.
The click-clack of heels of tiles echoed from deeper in the building moving toward Marcus. He quickly closed the video and sat up straighter. Yes, the security feeds would show he was slumming, but what really mattered was how he presented himself to the flesh-and-blood being that would be interviewing him. As the approaching sound grew louder Marcus turned off his Key, ran a slightly gnarled hand through his long, steel-colored beard, and stood.
A short woman appeared in the western hall’s corner and moved toward the lobby somewhat distracted by her tablet. Marcus took the distraction as a chance to take the measure of his potential interviewer. She was young, maybe in her late twenties, and pleasantly curvy. Her hair was a mess of tangles and angles that fought against the haphazard bun the woman used as a pencil holder. Honestly, Marcus thought, she looked more like a harried doctorate student than the Amelia Stein who led ǽther Project. Assuming - of course - that was who this woman was.
Stolen story; please report.
The woman was nearly on top of Marcus when she finally tore her gaze from the tablet and noticed him. “Oh!” She half yelped. “I’m sorry, I was looking over the last sprint reports ... Sorry, who are you?”
Marcus couldn’t help but smile. Despite her flustered demeanor, the woman’s voice held the cadence of a person used to command. Not comfortably but still accustomed. The smile on his face, Marcus offered his hand and spoke. “Marcus Klein, I spoke with Ms. Stein through e-mail earlier today ...” He let the end drift off.
The woman gave him a small nod than with some juggling of her tablet took his hand and shook it rather firmly. “Yes, that was me by the way.” She let go of Marcus and motioned for him to follow. “I’m Doctor Amelia Stein, thank you for coming so late.”
Marcus gave the short woman a nod and moved to follow her back down the west hall.
Past the lobby, the building had the clinical white tile and glass feel of a hospital. The long hallway turned, seamless doors arrayed on either side lacking labeling of any kind. Marcus was curious and questions were mounting on his tongue. Doctor Stein though appeared oblivious to either the surroundings or to Marcus’s saucer-sized eyes as the two continued to walk.
“Your profile on Teal didn’t mention your age,” Doctor Stein finally spoke, her eyes glued again to her tablet. Marcus assumed she was looking at his resume and credentials. “Your certs are all up to date and would be perfect in normal circumstances.”
“Normal circumstances?” Marcus asked his voice coming out a bit harsh as he tried to hide the worry already worming its way into his mind. “I can assure you I’m a fast learner,” he let out a little laugh. “You can say this old dog can still learn new tricks.”
Doctor Stein glanced back at him. “Wit, I suppose wasn’t one of those tricks, huh?”
Marcus shrugged the smile fading but still there. Okay harried doctorate student she was not... “Gonzo’s got nothing on me.”
Stein gave him a quizzical look before turning her gaze back to her tablet. “I see your medical records have already come in, which is good.” She flipped through the screens. Marcus attempted to look over her shoulder but the protective layer on the screen prevented him from gleaning anything save that, yep, the screen was indeed on. “A minor heart mummer on the RV not optimal but I suppose that makes you perfect in a way ... history of ER visits for traumatic injury ...” The woman stopped mid-sentence and turned to look at him.
“How the hell does one get hit by a bridge?” She half yelled, looking at Marcus in complete disbelief.
Marcus could feel a blush as he remembered being in the way of a turnstile bridge outside of Portland in his twenties during some stupid stunt or another. “Long story short, pay attention to your surroundings.”
Stein shook her head, gave him a final appraising look then kept walking, keeping any remaining commentary to herself.
The silence didn’t last as long as the two quickly found themselves in front of a single elevator. Doctor Stein placed her hand on the wall next to the elevator and after a ‘ting’ sound the doors opened.
Turning the Project Lead spoke to him again. “If you don’t mind, We’ll need to ask for your display and Key until you leave the premise.” She paused then hurriedly added. “Sorry, it’s part of the security procedures.”
Marcus gave the small engineer a shrug and handed over his Key, then pulled a small pill-shaped box from his pocket. “Excuse me,” he said than bending slightly he removed a small piece of hard plastic from first his left than his right. After blinking a few times he placed the pieces of the display in the box and handed those over as well.
Doctor Stein took the Key and display and pocketed them. “Haven’t seen that in a while.” She said as the two stepped into the elevator. “Second-generation direct uplink?” She asked Marcus.
Marcus shook his head, moving to the glass-covered rear of the elevator. “First, a lot slower than the second and up and rez is only 4k but it gets the job done.”
Stein nodded following his gaze to the concrete blocks starting to move past them. “How’d you manage to keep them after the forced recall?”
Marcus shrugged. He didn’t want to blow the chance at a new job - especially one that wasn’t work-from-home - but he didn’t think ‘they fell off the back of a truck’ would be an appropriate answer to give the project lead of whatever secretive project Pilgrimage was working on. Thankfully Stein didn’t push the issue and the two rode the elevator in silence as it went deeper and deeper into the lower levels - and maybe beyond - of the Pilgrimage building.
For a time the only light was the few runners at the floor of the elevator and the glow of the tablet screen that Stein was abusing with abandon. Every so often a strip of light would zip by from the rear glass wall, designating another floor had been passed. Marcus could feel himself begin to edge, goosebumps rose up on his arms as small hairs began to prickle in the nearly chill air of the elevator. Nervous energy shot through him sparring him to action, any action, and a large grin split his face. Whatever was about to come he’d meet it and enjoy it is what this nervous energy told him.
“Will I need a rocket launcher for whatever’s down here?” He asked only partially wondering if Stein - who appeared half his age - would understand.
A genuine laugh bubbled up from the doctor and she turned a little to take Marcus in. “Sorry Mr. Klein, we are a tech company, not an evil pharmaceuticals firm.” Marcus was about to quibble about minor details when light exploded into the elevator from the rear glass wall. Marcus fought from throwing his arm up and after a moment was greeted by the core of Project ǽther
A large terraced room dropping almost two-hundred yards from where the elevator was and another fifty up welcomed the old programmer. Open work-spaces occupied many of the terraces, while others held meeting tables mounted screens, and in one case a pool table. Bridges, walkways, and small lifts connected the various areas together. Looking at the space as a whole, it felt to Marcus as if he was inside a softly glowing egg on the cusp of collapse. In the room’s center extending from floor to ceiling was a large cylindrical device. To Marcus, it looked like a massive data or cloud core.
“Welcome to Project ǽther, Mr. Klien.” Doctor Stein said as she stepped next to him. “The world’s first Lucid Intuitive Deep Virtual Reality, LICDViR.”
The elevator began to slow as it neared its terminus. Marcus was nearly pressed to the glass, taking in as much as he could. The project team was massive, over a hundred people as far as Marcus could tell, and workstations for far more than that. It was quite possible, that he was only seeing a third of the staff for the project. For the first time, Marcus noticed the stacks large pill-shaped containers that lined the walls of the first three pseudo-floors of what Marcus was already referring to as the Egg. A few of the project members milled around the containers looking at something on their tablets or looking off into the middle distance with there displays. He adds his questions about these containers to his ever-growing list of questions. Finally, he spoke.
“Lucid Intuitive Deep Virtual Reality?” He asked turning to look at Doctor Stein. “I know what all those words mean when not together.”
Stein gave him a nod. “Understandable really, Pilgrimage developed the system from the ground up.” She paused then continued. “Lucid is typically associated with dreams, specifically those dreams in which the dreamer is an active participant.” She paused and looked at Marcus assuring he understood; the old man nodded. “I won’t go into too many details but that is beyond your NTK but essentially the System puts you into a dream-like state during the login process ... that will be the light show you’ll be seeing soon.”
Taking a step away from the older man, Stein pushed on. “I want you to close your eyes, Mr. Stein,” the project lead said her voice taking on the tone and cadence of an instructor. “I’m going to say a few words, tell me in detail what you see after I clap my hands once.” She waited for a nod from Marcus then began. “Bear,” Doctor Stein said quietly. “Forest. Dawn.”
Marcus relaxed his breathing, letting go of his current worries and problems, and just focused on what Stein was saying. First, a large brown bear crossed his mind circling through the nothing of the void. Slowly a forest, like those that surrounded his hometown in West Virginia, began to paint itself into reality like a Bob Ross painting made manifest. Trees swayed in a quiet spring breeze, the grass rustled beneath his feet, and the bear moved through the space large and in charge. Finally, into this darkness a shred of purple light broke through the narrow spaces of the ancient trees that surrounded him and slowly brought the colors of the oncoming day to life.
CLAP
Marcus opened his eyes to see Stein looking at him sternly, her hands mere inches from his nose. “I said ‘after I clap my hands once’ Mr. Stein.”
“Sorry,” Marcus muttered. He took a breath and followed the rest of Dr. Stein’s directions. When he finished, he gave the woman a questioning look. “So, what does an imagination exercise have to do with the project?”
Stein smiled like a prophet who had finally been asked The Question. “Everything,” the woman said pitching her voice a little. “With three simple worlds you created a shard of a world in your mind, that is Lucid.”
After poking on her tablet for a moment she held the device out to Marcus. “This is what Project ǽther looks like from the outside.”
Marcus took the tablet and looked at it in confusion. On the small screen was a world of wire-frames, grids, and blocky shapes. This was not the bleeding edge of graphics he was expecting. “Are you going for an 80s retro-vibe?”
Stein smiled and took back the tablet. “No, Mr. Stein, this is the frame, it enables us to assure that everything has a certain amount of standardization. The rest though is provided by the user, their memories, their perception. When you log into Project ǽther you are put into a near dream state. The system then feeds you information like ‘you are in a desert’ or ‘you smell cooking chicken’ from there your own mind takes over and supplies the smells, the sensations, the look, the sound ... all of it.”
Marcus was curious but he could also see problems. “People with wildly different experiences will see things differently.” He said, “A player in China will see ‘forest’ different than a player in Canada.”
Stein nodded. “True, but I’m also simplifying my explanation. Yes, the forests will look different but the frame will help stabilize it so that our Chinese player isn’t hiding behind a tree that our Canadian player doesn’t think exists.”
She tapped her screen a little more than handed it back to Marcus. A large dog-faced creature in rusted, pitted armor stared back at him, it’s hair was mangy, the weapons on its waist were crudely crafted. Oddly the staff on its back looked like a piece of art more than a weapon wielded by such a base creature as this.
“For things like monsters, or special NPCs we have hard-coded the system. Certain things may change depending on the player - like clothing and language - but the rest is immutable.”
The elevator rocked to a stop and the doors opened to a cacophony of sound and voice. Dr. Stein stepped out and nodded for Marcus to join her. “Come on, Mr. Klein, let’s get you suited.”
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Twenty minutes later Marcus stood next to one of the pill-shaped containers wearing nothing but a tight pair of boxers with a tube coming out the front. Stein was looking over his documents, assuring that HR wouldn’t have an issue with anything. “Seriously stop being so angry it’s better than peeing on yourself.” The doctor said as she attached the last of the forms to an e-mail.
“You could have warned me I’d be getting a catheter!” The old man snarled, trying to shrug off a young man trying to attach electrodes to him. “If this is the pre-game process, I doubt you’re going to make much money.
Dr. Stein put down the tablet, and walked over to him, double-checking the placement of the electrodes. Marcus sucked in his belly a little, embarrassed by the pot-belly that he carried in his later years. “No the home experience will just be the headset, this is only for the QA and beta testers.” With a nod, she gave him a pat on the arm and indicated the coffin-like interior of the container. “This is a wholly new technology, Mr. Stein, as such the pre-release testing needs to be exacting ... plus it lets us monitor you for any issues or abnormalities while under the effects of the LIDViR system.”
Marcus nodded and started to step into the container. That made sense, he supposed ... still, this thing looked really small.
The tech placed a headset on him and tightened the straps. A moment later Marcus was being guided downward as the ambient light from the headset’s edges was replaced by darkness. Dr. Stein’s voice came over a speaker embedded in the container. “Relax, Marcus just let the system do its job.” There was a pause, then she continued. “See you in-game.”
A moment later Marcus’s eyes were assaulted with a strobe effect emulating every color in human memory. He wanted to flinch away from the painful attack but listened to Dr. Stein and let the system do its job. A moment passed and the colors faded away leaving him in utter darkness. He was about to call out that the thing was broken when words danced in his vision.
Welcome to ǽther