Earth, 2565 A.D.
Volition University, New Idaho, U.S.A.
Alessia held the black envelope with trembling hands, admiring the gold and blue wax seal. It was rare enough to receive material mail, but the opportunity for an internship at the prestigious Archos Institute was once in a lifetime.
"Just open it." Kai, her best friend, ripped into his own envelope. "See, I got in. No sweat."
"Of course, you would get in," Alessia sighed, "you have the top grades in five subjects." But she followed his advice and flicked open the flap, squinting down at the letter. "I think....I think this says I've been accepted." She waved the letter beneath his nose. "I'm not seeing things, right?"
"If you are, I see it too." Kai's eyes widened. "But we are in different sections - I'm on the beta test for the first virtual resort on Fennoth, and you pulled the alpha testing for magery. I'm actually a bit jealous - magic is way cooler than testing out pillows in an ice hotel."
"Let me see yours then." Alessia looked over Kai's letter, "it's true...I guess we won't be seeing each other much once we arrive, then."
"There will be an orientation, and I'm sure we can meet up on the weekends." Kai tousled her hair. "We just have to pick the same off day."
"This Saturday," Alessia tapped the skin of her wrist and a 3D overlay shone, "11:30 AM, lunch with Kai." The image blinked and went out, the calendar item set. "We'll have to figure out where to meet once we get there - whatever passes for a cafe is fine."
"To an unforgettable summer at Archos, then." Kai grinned. "I'll see you at orientation."
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Archos Institute, Seattle, U.S.A.
The Archos Institute Seattle branch wasn't particularly far away from New Idaho, but it did surprise Alessia at just how crowded the double jet was. It was easy to forget sometimes that Archos wasn't just a think-tank and experimental facility, but was also the hub for travel across the mirror universe and the various active shards. Once she got her bearings and split off from the tourists heading to the main portal bay, the throngs of people thinned to a more manageable trickle.
The Institute itself was imposing, a jagged black skyscraper dwarfing various buildings and sundry domed habitats that easily took up half of south Seattle. Inside was no more welcoming - lines of security guards stopped her at three checkpoints, and the few workers that glanced her way promptly ignored her to return to their tasks.
"I'm one of the new interns." Alessia announced herself at a long reception desk. The woman operating the desk took a moment to answer, then gave an overly wide smile.
"Welcome to Archos Facility, Seattle branch. How may I assist?" She paused, "Ah, one of the new interns! We have been waiting for you - you must be Alessia Bracht from Volition University in New Idaho." Another pause. "Condolences on the recent flooding. Archos has donated 3.4 million dollars to the relief efforts and land recovery in New Idaho since 2050."
"That's very kind." Alessia shifted awkwardly on the balls of her feet. "Am I supposed to check in somewhere or go somewhere?....Melinda?" She checked the name when the woman didn't immediately respond. She was probably an aibot, then, an artificial humanoid ran by generative a.i., usually for guest interaction purposes or simple manufacturing and service tasks.
"You check in here." The receptionist held out her wrist, and Alessia tapped her own wrist to it. "It will only take a moment to process. There." She reached into the desk to pull out a thin rectangle. "Your pad, or 'personal assistant device' for long - that's just a bit of humor there - will give you your assigned dorm, schedule, work assignments, map, and any other information you will need while working here. Orientation is in the Argonaut Annex at 3pm. We wish you a productive internship, and remember, at Archos, the future is what you build!"
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After checking out her dorm room - small, but serviceable, with some decent tech for coffee and virtual gaming - Alessia headed for the Argonaut Annex. While she'd hated college orientation, orientation at Archos was another matter. The secrecy surrounding the Institute was legendary. She'd watched every interview and behind the scenes snippet she could find, but still knew little more than their role at the frontier of humanity to settle new worlds and create new powers. That, and almost every major virtual rpg game in the last five decades had been designed and developed by Archos. One of her pipe dreams was to someday afford a personal pod, as rental arcades were only good for short dives.
"Psst, here." Kai called her over. There were only a dozen or so interns milling around, so he wasn't hard to spot.
"Did you have to wear your 'Where's Baldo' shirt?" Alessia unsuccessfully smothered a laugh as she sat next to him and pulled up the Orientation agenda on her pad.
"It's my last chance to let loose before jumpsuit hell."
"True." Alessia wrinkled her nose, "The intern uniforms are terrible. They have a few hanging in the closet of my dorm - bright orange is not flattering on anyone."
A woman in a smart black suit tapped the central podium, and a low sound wave pulsed through the room. "Now that I have your attention, we can begin." She tapped her wrist and three rectangles of imagery shimmered into life around her in a triangle, so the whole room could see. But the part Alessia found impressive was that no one had walked into the thin, clear display sheets before they'd been turned on. I-Panes were worse than windows for birds.
"My name is Reena Duvall, and I am your site supervisor here at the Archos Seattle branch," the woman continued, "I would like to welcome all of you to Archos for your three-month internship. As you are aware, our facility deals with sensitive experimentation and application for the advancement of humankind, so our core operations remain closed to the public. But Archos also wants to invest in future generations, which is why you select twenty have been chosen this year to partake and work on testing for some of our upcoming releases." Reena tapped the podium and the rotating logo of Archos appeared, a geometric icon symbolizing the universe.
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"Archos Institute was founded in 2249 A.D. by the late Dr. Benjamin Friedrich and Dr. Talia Alter, as they saw great potential in the recent discovery of the Mirror Universe, also known as Yphilios. At the time, settling or interacting with the Mirror Universe was impractical - it is as vast and unknown as our own, being to our knowledge like a backwards copy, and with no way to target the location of entrance.
"You might think our institute and its branch facilities, like this one, took its name from the Ancient Greek "archos" for "ruler" or "leader." And in part, it did. But the name was actually taken from the Arch Operating System - the code that Dr. Alter created and that generations of scientists at Archos have expanded upon - that allows us to separate, analyze, interact, and now even control "shards" of the mirror universe. Imagine the YPhilios universe as a giant mirror, and the Arch operating system as both a hammer to shatter it, a glove to pick shards up, an engraving tool to write on them, and even a hand to reach into a shard and manipulate what is there. Archos has come a long way in the centuries since it was founded, and I can eagerly say that you interns are going to experience and see things never before imagined by the people of Earth."
Alessia leaned forward and clapped alongside the others as Reena paused. Briefly, the supervisor made eye contact with her, nodding before moving her gaze onwards on to Kai and a few select others around the room. The screen changed to an image of five planets, each with its own overlaid data. "You may be familiar with, may even have virtually or physically travelled to, one of our flagship shard worlds such as New Yurich or Aanbree," Reena continued. "Our fifth public world, Fennoth, is currently in beta. A few of you will be assigned to aid in testing to ensure travel is smooth and that the stories and environment of the planet work properly."
"Others of you will be working on a very special project in the tropics of Aanbree, setting a scene and storyline in a bounded region to turn a targeted portion into a working fantasy game that can be played Earth-wide on our virtual system, Iconia."
"Still others -" Reena looked towards Alessia once more, "will aid in bug-testing and refining our newest coding language, Magery, to go into operation on many of our current and future worlds. Ice, Healing, Destruction, Illusion, Manipulation - magic for the masses! Unfortunately, you won't be able to use it on Earth, but you can try it out in the virtual chambers, and those of you who pass our rigorous expectations may even be allowed travel to a shard world to test it in person."
Alessia tried to sit still and act professional as Reena continued summarizing the different internship sections. Kai was right - testing magery sounded immensely more interesting than any of the other tasks that Reena was describing. It wasn't that she was unfamiliar with the existing forms of 'magic' Archos had implemented - but none of them would be easy to use even if she did save up to travel to a shard. Syllabery was harder to master than picking up a new language to speak, she wasn't talented enough to make artistry work, and she certainly wasn't rich enough to virtually travel and take on a new body as a nymph or other creature to use affinity. But if what she'd gathered on magery was right, it was more akin to the magic of many fantasy games, with spells and the like that many could learn.
"....It's over." Kai whispered in her ear.
"Oh!" Alessia started, she hadn't realized the orientation had already concluded. Reena had already left, and most of the interns were clustered around each other in small groups - introducing themselves or meeting with others of the same assignment, perhaps.
"I should find my team, too." Kai shrugged apologetically. "But I'll see you Saturday at 11:30. Let's crush this thing."
"Yah," Alessia grinned. "I'll do my best - we'll show them what we can do." She stood up and bit her lip as Kai headed off to find his group. It was harder to say it aloud, but she wasn't as sure about working with a new team and away from Kai - he was her reliable buffer for the weird and crazy social world. "But there will be lots to do," she muttered, bracing herself to go find her teammates. "So I can just focus on that, it's going to be amazing."
"Over here -" A pink-haired girl waved. "Everyone's teamed up, so you must be Alessia, right?"
"Yes," Alessia held out her hand for a shake, but the girl tapped wrists together instead - a casual and friendly gesture that automatically swapped their contact information.
"I can't believe we get to be some of the first mages!" She squeed, "oh, I'm going too fast. I'm Barbara, and this is Farash and Enz."
"Nice to meet you." Alessia nodded her head.
"I've been looking over the data in our pad." Farash showed the group the screen. "It looks like they will have us each focus on one particular area of magery, possibly even specific spells, so our testing stays focused. Do you mind if I take Illusion?"
"Then I want Destruction!" Enz mimed his hands raining down fire on his enemies.
"Ok then," Barbara laughed. "Healing for me, then. I always play healer in a party."
Alessia looked over the list again as three pairs of eyes stared at her expectantly. She probably would have chosen healer, if Barb hadn't claimed it. Ice and Manipulation were the only two left. "Manipulation, I guess?" Though Ice powers would have sounded amazing back when she was five and wanted to be an Ice princess, Alessia wasn't so sure about its flexibility. It also sounded a bit more boring.
"Alright then," Barb clapped. "Should we all get some food then head back to the dorms? We'll have a busy first day tomorrow, and I want to memorize my spell list."
"Me too." Farash agreed, "Everyone in the party has to come prepared if we want to slay any dragons."
"All right," Alessia followed. Though it was far more likely that they'd be doing quality testing and finding bugs, maybe casting the same spell hundreds of times if at all, then getting to do any "real" magic-like adventure, there was still a boundless excitement with that inward thought: "I'm going to be a mage!"