Into the Black

I found myself in a field of white. After a moment, it resolved itself into a kind of waiting room. There was a desk, and chairs, and all of that, barely recognizable from the background since they were the same white color, distinguished only by the shadows they cast. Light came from above, but there was no visible source. And I was the only person here.

“Hello?” I called out, looking around as I did so. This was apparently some kind of shared space, for virtual meetings. Though the ones I’d seen before had all been better appointed. It was like this space hadn’t actually been fully designed yet, or they were intentionally going for a disturbing whitespace effect, like when movies try to depict meeting God or going to heaven, or that kind of deal.

“Sorry! Sorry! We didn’t expect you to finish so soon!” A female voice came from behind me. I turned, and saw a woman dressed in a ‘professional’ type outfit, white blouse and black skirt. Not bad, especially with her red hair. I took a look at myself, and saw that I was still in my game avatar, but dressed in my default black shirt and pants, rather than the ship suit I’d been wearing moments before.

As the woman crossed to sit behind the desk, she said, “As I said, you completed the Beta mission faster than any of our projections. You have the fastest time so far, even with using the Engineer character, which the programmers said was probably the weakest character. You even beat the programmers’ times, so they’re suitably impressed.”

I ran a hand through my hair, “Well, I’ve done a bunch of games in the last few years, and before I had my accident I was an engineer in the Navy, so ship drills are something I’m familiar with. Adding space to the mix doesn’t change that much, really.”

The woman blinked, and said, “Accident?” She looked down, and read what was on the floating blue screen in front of her. “Oh, oh my! You’re THAT Stuart Grosse? The one that was on the news last year?”

I sighed. “If you mean I’m the idiot that stepped in front of a truck to push some kid out of the way like I was in some kind of Japanese light novel, and wound up getting a medical discharge from the Navy because of it, then yeah, I’m the same one.” There’d been a big hoorah around the whole thing when it happened, but the Navy couldn’t exactly justify keeping me on active duty when lost the use of my legs. Hard to get around an engine room that way.

I’d been a Chief Petty Officer on a destroyer, working hard to become a Chief Engineer, and suddenly I was out of the service at age 33. To say I was having an identity crisis would be an admiral-level understatement. But that summer, there was an announcement that changed everything. The first truly VR system, the EVA Pod, was announced by NERV, the gaming company behind several hit games.

The Pod, as everyone quickly called it, used technology I couldn’t begin to comprehend, not being a neuroscientist, to directly interface with the user’s mind. You laid down in the pod, lights out, and then you’re literally IN a virtual world. All five senses (and any extra ones you might get), full range of motion, the works. And you weren’t worried about bumping into things like with older VR helmets, since the pod intercepted motion commands while it was active, basically only allowing involuntary actions to occur (like your heart beating).

Like I said, I understood absolutely jack crap about the science of it all. However, the chance to actually get up and move again? That, I got loud and clear. And when NERV said they were putting out a VRMMORPG for their new Pod, I knew I had to get in on that.

Fast forward six months, and I’d been selected as one of the beta testers for the new game. NERV hooked me up with a trip to their corporate headquarters. There were like a hundred beta testers, all going into the pods on-site, since they weren’t available to the public yet. They were slick, mean things. Each Pod stood four feet tall, and was a glossy black. The lid lifted off on hydraulics, revealing a space inside.

Anyways, back to this interview. “So, Miss…?” I trailed off, allowing her to introduce herself.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! My name is Morgan Elliott, and I’m a customer service representative for NERV. We set up this virtual space to conduct exit interviews with each of the testers, so we could get your thoughts on the scenario, and if there were any problems you discovered.”

We spent another half hour talking about the scenario, and I made what suggestions I could, telling them what worked right, and what was problematic. After that, the conversation turned to other things, which is how I found that I’d caused a bit of a stir with the developers prior to getting in the Pod. As the only gimp disabled handi-capable (stupid PC crap) person in the testing group, they were interested to see if my problems carried over into the virtual world. I admitted that there had been some sluggishness at first, but that the tutorial room where we got used to moving in our avatars was helpful in adjusting to having legs that worked.

“I would suggest making the tutorial mandatory for all new characters. I set my avatar’s parameters to be roughly the same as my own, before the accident. But if you’re taller, shorter, heavier, lighter, different gender, different race, or have some kind of disability from a young age, I’m thinking you’ll have a lot of trouble in the game world if you don’t adjust first. Even the difference between a human and an elf in fantasy games could take getting used to, since your reflexes aren’t the same.”

“Wow, that’s exactly what some of the design team said!”

“Well, it is a common thing in those ‘LitRPG’ books that got so popular a couple years back. And then you also had that scene in Avatar where the guy had to spend time relearning how to walk in his blue body.”

“Ah, I see. So you figured the examples there would carry over to the Pods?”

“Didn’t see why it wouldn’t. This thing interprets brain signals, right? Then what do you think would happen if your brain is telling you one thing, but your body is a foot taller than you normally are, with longer limbs to go with it. Kindof like when you go out to sea, and have to spend time getting your ‘sea legs’, because the ground doesn’t stay still like you’re thinking it should. Or like going to rehab when fitted with a prosthetic limb.”

“You’ve put some thought into this, I see.”

“Well, since you announced these things, I did some reading up, since with my injury, this is the only way I’d be able to walk again. Docs can do a lot, but fixing spinal injuries is still a no.”

Another screen popped up in front of Morgan, and she said, “Hmm. It seems the developers are very interested to see more of you in action. Would you be willing to go into the scenario again, and try out the other archetypes? They said that if you can get times similar to your last one, they may be able to create an additional bonus for you, come release time.”

“Load me up! I’ll go through the other five archetypes, as well.”

(Several hours later)

For the second time, I found myself in the whitespace. I’d spent the last few hours running through the other archetypes in the Cumberland scenario. Marine, Pilot, Commander, Medic, Psyker, and Engineer were the archetypes they gave us. Each had their own style, and made it so each run was different from the last. Even started in different parts of the ship, so I couldn’t just retrace my old route, I had to solve new problems to escape the ship.

This time, I wasn’t alone, as Morgan was sitting there waiting for me. The redhead smiled at me, giving me an uncomfortable feeling in my virtual shorts. The accident had put a serious damper on my social life. Shaking away those thoughts, I smiled back, and sat down at the desk. “So, how’d I do?”

“Excellent, as you well know! The designers are very impressed with how you’ve put their archetypes to the test. Even with the Psyker, which has no real-world equivalents, you were able to pick up the basics pretty quickly.”

I shrugged. “That was the most difficult class to learn on the fly, yeah. But by that time I was really familiar with the way the skills and other controls worked, so I could focus on these new abilities.”

She was about to respond, when a screen popped up in front of her. “Ah, and that’s from the hardware people. They just got clearance from the VA, and are wondering if you would be interested in a medical trial, to coincide with the release of the game? Some of the tech we’ve been working on may have applications to injuries like yours, but it is still early tech. You would be the first human trial. If you agreed.”

“What kind of trial?”

“Well, the EVA-00 Pod that you’re using now for the test is the testing unit that the production model we’ll be selling to the public is based on. As you’re aware, while there is some life support capability, the system is not designed for play times longer than a few hours at a time. There’s no method for food and water consumption, regardless of what you might do in game, and no means of waste reclamation, which would make a stay longer than a few hours in a single stretch to be… messy.” We both chuckled at that image.

“The EVA-01 Pod will have some support features included, such as internet access, and the ability to route calls through the pod, so you don’t need to worry about missing calls while in the game. I’ve also been told that there is a video editing suite available in the support features, for those who wish to post videos of their adventures. Most of these features will run through a customizable ‘Home’ space, like what we’re in now.”

“The EVA-02 Pod, which you’d be testing, is designed for long-term use. Nutrition and waste management systems are included in this model, and there are systems in place to prevent muscle atrophy. The nutrient packs have to be changed weekly, which would require you to log out at that time. There are some proprietary medical technologies involved, as well, which the scientists have been begging to test.”

“And what compensation would I be getting for this? If I’m spending all my time inside the pod, that will make things like paying rent problematic, you know? Plus, the whole guinea pig thing.”

Morgan smiled. “In addition to the EVA-02 Pod, which you would get for free, in place of the free EVA-01 Pod all the other beta testers will be receiving, the company is prepared to offer you a substantial compensation package. This is separate from the bonuses you’ll be getting as part of the beta tester package, you understand.” I nodded, and she continued.

“First, the nutrition packs and system maintenance on your Pod, as well as your game subscription, will be free of charge for the first real-world year.” My confusion must have showed, because she said, “The production version of the game will have a 4-to-1 time compression ratio. This will allow people in busy jobs to still have some extended time in-game.” So I’d have four years of gameplay essentially free. Not bad.

“Second, we’ll offer an advanced tester bonus of $3000 a month for the first year, with an option to renegotiate later. This is dependent on your agreement to use streams of your adventures as promotional material for the company on the company’s streaming site. You would also get a royalty of 10% of funds generated through the stream.”

Three thousand a month wasn’t exactly ‘independently wealthy’, but it was better than what a petty officer in the navy got. And if I was staying in my pod most of the time, then my bills were going to go down dramatically. Still, the streaming bit made me pause. “I agree with that, in theory, but I’d like the ability to edit the streams, for privacy, and to prevent griefers or PKers from knowing my location and activities in real-time.”

Morgan nodded, and said, “That sounds reasonable. I’ll have the contracts written up and sent to your home so you have time to look them over. I’ll arrange for your pod to be sent out early, so that we have time to test and make sure all the enhanced systems function normally. Does that sound good?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Morgan smiled, and extended her hand. “Then that will make you an official NERV employee once the contracts are signed. Welcome aboard, Stuart.”