Ted smiled brightly when seeing Yena and Zeke, then turned to me. “Oh, you must be Xander. They’ve both told me a lot about you!”

“They have?” I said, a bit stunned. Here I was, talking with someone who very likely made more in a year than I would make in my lifetime, as if we were equals. My mind boggled a bit as I tried to center myself.

“Of course!” Ted said, shaking my hand firmly. “They said you were the one who introduced them to tabletop gaming, and I can say they’ve both been brilliant at my table. You taught them well!”

“Oh, thanks!” My reply was a bit uncertain, because he chuckled a bit at my expression.

“No, seriously, Yena and Zeke have both brought a lot of positive energy to the table, as well as some unexpected chaos. It’s made for some very interesting sessions!” His grin grew wicked. “Ask Zeke about the halfling princess and the wagon sometime. I guarantee it’s good.” At this, Zeke looked extremely sheepish, and Yena started laughing. “It’s not that good,” he mumbled.

Ted waved us towards the locked door, as he turned around and walked back. “Thank you Mary, I’ll take them from here.”

“But Mr. Snowton, they have to be signed in…” she began.

“I’ll take care of it, Mary. This is at my father’s orders. I’m responsible for them now.” At that, Mary paled and nodded. Alex waved his badge at the door, and it buzzed and let us in. Beyond the door was a long white hallway, with lots of locked steel doors on either side, each one requiring a keycard to access. Ted walked briskly down the corridor glancing back to look at the GNAT’s on our wrists.

“I see the units integrated well. Were there any issues?” He asked as he walked.

“I had a bad headache the first night, but other than that not really” Zeke said.

“I had some muscle cramps and some nausea the first night, but I was fine otherwise.” Yena replied.

“I had some weird phantom pains in my body, and they went on a couple of days.” I then recounted what I felt, and Ted nodded along.

“Those are side effects we had heard before, so nothing new. That’s good.”

“Excuse me, sir…” I began, but Ted waived dismissively.

“My name is Ted, please don’t call me sir; save that for my father.” He winked at us, and continued walking.

“Okay, Ted… About the device name –“ I began, and Ted groaned.

“I know, I know. It’s AWFUL!” he exclaimed. “I don’t know WHY Marketing hasn’t changed it yet. I promise you, we’re working on it. When the time comes for a more public launch, I guarantee the name will be better.”

“While it does roll well off the tongue, it doesn’t envision confidence in the product” I said.

“Exactly! People hear of a GNAT and all they’re going to think is ‘Is this a bug of some kind? GNAT’s are really annoying! Are they trying to sell me a buggy product?”

Yena and Zeke groaned, and I got a shot in both of my arms for that one from both of them. I tried, manfully to not rub at the spots. It lasted about six seconds. OW!

Ted just shook his head, amused at our byplay. "I promise we will have a better name before the project launches to the world." His voice was confident.

“So, Ted, what can you tell us about this test we’ve signed up for? And, why in the NDA does it mention death if you violate it?” Zeke asked.

Ted waved his question away. “Oh, don’t mind that whole ‘death’ part – that was our lawyers having a bit of fun. An NDA can’t literally kill you, of course! And testers do not get any advance knowledge about what the test contains, in order to ensure that we’re not biasing the outcome in any way. Ahh, here we are.”

Ted turned, and in front of us was a bank of three elevators, all polished chrome like the others, with the Snowfall logo etched into each door. He pushed the call button, and the bell bonged as the doors opened and we all piled in. Ted waved his badge at the elevator keypad, and pushed a button marked “B3”. We felt the elevator drop as we went down into the basement area of the building, which struck me as a bit odd. Why not have the testers someplace where it was easier to observe them?

The elevator’s panel showed “B3 – Testing Lab” as the doors slid open. Instead of white walls, now they were all some form of glass, but frosted to be opaque from the outside. I could see motion in each one, but with the frosting I couldn’t make out any specific details. It looked like there were about ten rooms on either side, so these chambers were huge, given the size of the building.

Ted waved us towards the first room on the right, waving his badge, and also leaning closer to the wall, where I could see a retinal scanner as well. Damn, this is some pretty strong security I thought. As he opened the door, he escorted us all inside.

In front of us was a bunch of honest-to-God scientist types, in white lab coats, with some sort of tablet strapped to their wrists, as they were checking and rechecking some displays around the main item in the center of the room. It looked like a huge, circular tank, about twelve feet in diameter, and about the same high. At the top of the tank was a black plug that looked like the rubber stopper of a flask, but it had a bunch of hoses dangling from the bottom of it, which looked like they hung around in the tank once the plug was inserted. Power cords, and clear lines filled with some pink and purple liquids seemed to snake across the floor, terminating in a couple of larger vats stuck to the wall, with a low humming noise emanating from them.

“And here, we have your testing pods.” Ted looked on with pride. “Snowfall Technologies has been developing these for years. My father feels like this is the next big step in technology for humankind, and we’re almost ready to show it off to the world.”

“It’s uh… a little big for most homes though, don’t ya think?” Yena asked.

“Hrm?” Ted said, pulling himself from his reverie. “Oh, no… these units aren’t for home use! No no, we’d set up local centers for people to visit, like Internet cafes before people had common access to computers at home. Anything for a home is still years to a decade off; it’ll take a while before we can miniaturize a system like this that much! Fortunately with the current real estate market, office space is dirt cheap, so setting up large amounts of these would not be too difficult, except for the initial start up costs, of course. Within a year, we hope to have at least 1 of these centers in every major city in America; within five years we hope to have the technology small enough to start introducing home units, expanding our reach exponentially.”

“So how does it work?” I asked. Ted smiled, happy to explain.

“Well, we’ll have you climb into the tank, wearing one of the special sensor suits over there-” he pointed to the opposite side of the room, where a series of what could best be described as ‘cyberpunk unitards’ were on hangars, all in various sizes. The unitards themselves were jet black, with what looked like silver wires and sensors snaking all over it in some sort of geometric pattern. There appeared to be a cutout in 1 arm for where the GNAT would go.

“Once you’re inside, the tank fills with a liquid that does a few things. It provides enough resistance for you to move around, and your avatar will move the same as you do; it also provides oxygen to you, hydration, nutrition, and it will ensure that you stay safe and not move too far around in the tank where someone could hurt themselves.”

“What about the, uh… well… waste?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

“Oh.” Ted looked a bit nonplussed, as if he didn’t expect the question. “There are tubes in place to take it away, to ensure it will not get in the way of prolonged sessions.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Oh. That’s, good I guess.” I guess it was my turn to be awkward at the response.

Yena was the next to ask a question. “So, Ted, how long will we be in these tanks? Do we have time to rest between challenges? You also mentioned avatars – what kind of avatars? Do we get to choose?”

Ted smiled, clearly happy for the change in subject. “We’ve had people in the tanks for multiple days with no ill effects to their health; the longest we’ve had is two weeks, but that was a rare circumstance. The tank does have one other feature, though.” He nodded at one of the technicians, and something began to rise up out of the bottom of the tank, until what was very clearly a bed with a thin gel-like mattress stopped about halfway up the tank. It had a series of loops of fabric near where the legs and arms would go, as a way to hold someone down on the bed so they wouldn’t float way. “It’s not the most comfortable thing in the world, but if you need to sleep there is a way to do so safely. It’s triggered mentally, so you control when it is time to sleep” He made a motion with his hand and the technician pushed another button on their tablet, making the bed retract down.

“As for how long, that depends on how you do with the challenges. There is enough downtime between them to give yourself time to rest and recover, as they can be quite strenuous. There are a total of ten challenges; if you overcome them all, as I noted, you each will win one million dollars. Easy, right?” He grinned at us. “And Yena, the avatars for now are locked as a default setting; in the future you will get more choices on them, but for this test, we’re just focusing on the link between player and avatar, and how well they can function together.”

“And what if the link doesn’t work?” Zeke asked. “What if during the tests something breaks and we can’t complete the challenges. Do we lose out on the chance for the million dollars?”

Ted nodded, clearly expecting this question. “Good question! To answer you, we’ve never had a unit break, but there is a first time for everything. If the unit were to break, depending on how many challenges you have completed, we’d compensate you proportionate to what you’ve done. So, please don’t think that if you made it 6 days and it stops working you’re completely out of luck! In that case, you’d win $2,000 for the first challenge, doubling each time as you go, to $4,000 for the second, $8,000 for the third, etc.”

We all looked at each other and nodded, our competitive juices beginning to flow at the thought. Even a couple of wins would be enough for me to fix Colin and take a load of stress off my mind.

“All right. Let’s do this.” I said, cracking my knuckles. I could see Yena and Zeke beside me, doing the same. We all shared fist bumps.

--

Of course, it wasn’t quite that simple. Before we even began, we had to have a doctor give us a physical to check for any hidden medical conditions that might prevent us from participating. Blood was drawn, EKG’s and EEG’s were administered. Forms were signed, absolving the company of liability, and confirming how the money would be paid out if we won. If this was how they had to proceed with every new customer, I didn’t see the mass appeal that they did, regardless of how cool the tech was. Although I’m sure the million dollars was not going to be the regular prize, but it would drive some hype towards launch if they did it. For a guy whose net worth was approaching a trillion dollars, what was a million bucks?

Finally, all the forms and tests were completed, and we were each assigned a room. We were all on the same side, in adjoining rooms (not that we could see each other anyways). They had a small rolling privacy screen to allow you to get changed, and all your belongings went into one of those mesh bags that prevents any signal from going out, so they’re taking security seriously.

Changing into the suit was a bit weird; I pulled the hood part over the top of my head; once it was in place it felt like it tightened around my whole body until it felt like a second skin, with only the skin around my face being exposed. I took a few moves (behind the screen so as to not look like a dork in front of others) and after a few seconds, it was like it wasn’t even there. Neat.

I came out from behind the curtain, and a technician came to inspect me; their nametag read “Dr. Saunders”. Running some sort of wand all over the suit, I could feel a small electrical charge running up and down my body in time with the wand, like someone was touching my skin with the terminals of a small battery. It felt weird, but I was able to shake it off. With a thumbs up, Dr. Saunders said “Suit and GNAT link is nominal, we’re ready to proceed. Please start filling the tank.” Off to the side, I heard a whoosh as the tank began to fill with viscous, pinkish fluid; slowly at first but within about a minute the tank was about a quarter full. With a nod, Dr. Saunders turned to me and said “Please use the ladder to climb into the tank.” As I turned and walked over towards the tank, I could see a large stepladder mounted on the back of the unit, allowing me to climb up to the top. From the top, the tank looked a lot bigger than it did from outside the room. As I stood there, wondering how to get down into the tank, I saw a clear rope affixed to the top of the tank. Grabbing the rope, I was able to lower myself down into the tank as it continued to fill. The pinkish fluid was comfortably warm, and I floated about the middle of the tank as I looked at my new surroundings. A thought occurred to me, suddenly, and I called out “Um, so how do I breathe?” There was a click and a voice came over the speaker: ‘Above you is a face mask – pull it down and put it over your face. I looked up to see the black plug coming down, and the cords and what-not all coming down within my reach. As I watched, the plug fit into place on top of the tank, with a loud clunk. I pulled the mask towards me, fumbling with the straps until I was able to put it on properly; the mask was decidedly odd; there was a membrane which seemed to go around my nose and mouth like you’d see on a CPAP machine, but there was a separate section that went around my eyes, keeping them free from the fluid. I heard a slight hiss, and what felt like moist air was blown in, to keep my eyes from drying out. That was nice. I felt the seal around the mask tightened at the edges, and a bit of a pop as my ears pressurized.

I tried speaking. “So, if I need to talk, how will you hear me? How will my friends hear me?” My voice echoed strangely to my ears, as I’d imagine how I’d sound in a giant fish bowl. Again the speaker clicked, and I heard “There are sensors inside your suit near your vocal cords; just talk like you normally would, and we’ll be able to understand you. Once you’re in the simulation, we’ll make sure you can hear each other.”

Talk like I normally would? Why would I be talking diff-

At that, the purple fluid began to fill my mask. Panicked, I tried to keep my mouth closed, but eventually I had to breathe, and my breath came out in an explosive gasp. As the fluid started forcing its way down my throat, before my brain went into full blown panic mode, I heard over the speaker, the voice sounding annoyed this time: “The fluid is liquid oxygen; it will feel uncomfortable for a moment, but just let it in. While you are in the tank, just breathe normally; the fluid will cycle, ensuring you never run out of O2”

I could hear a muttering afterwards like “I swear, they forget to tell them something every time. Our entire procedure is written down, but can they follow it? No.”

I was just focusing on the whole not drowning thing. I tried to overcome the choking feeling, fighting my natural instincts which told me that liquid in your lungs is a bad thing. Slowly I was able to calm down, but my brain was still working overtime.

You’d think they’ve had this shit sorted out already. This feels like amateur hour. I tried to keep my unease down, but, I've got a bad feeling about this.

As I got used to the feeling of fluid of my lungs, I tried talking.

“Wow, this feels weird.” To my ears it came out as a gurgle, but apparently the staff could hear me okay.

“Yes, it does feel weird, but you won’t even notice it soon; it’ll feel totally natural.”

I doubted that, but I’ll just have to wait and see.

By this point, the fluid had filled up the rest of the tank, and I was now completely floating in the fluid. I tried moving my arms and legs around; they felt a bit sluggish, like I was swimming around in honey. But as the fluid started to warm up, it started to feel more natural.

“Can I speak to my friends?”

Click.

“Not yet. We’re about to engage the simulation.”

“How are you going to do that?” I asked. I heard the final message come over the radio, before my world changed forever.

“Connect the GNAT to the avatar.”

I watched as a black umbilical cord moved of its own accord to cover the GNAT; there was a clunk as the two mated together. I felt a moment of world-searing pain, like my brain was on fire, before everything went black.