Claire bit her lip and ran the note she was clutching across her fingers. As a scientist, she dealt in certainties; the plasticity, tensile strength, surface tension of materials could all be quantified. But this... she felt uncertainty, a deep, dark uncertainty. She held the note up again, reading each word carefully.
Dr. Thaler,
As you know, coffee beans are widely available in Hong Kong, but I've been keeping a special specimen for myself.
A car will be waiting for you outside your hotel at 9PM.
The meaning was immediately clear to Claire, and only Claire. It was about James Agrawal, researcher in human computer interaction. "Coffee beans" was a silly inside joke between them; at some point Claire had make a remark about how bad her coffee was, and he responded in deadpan: "You know what's better than most coffee beans? Me." It was dumb, but from then on, whenever he said the word "coffee beans" it never failed to make her laugh.
She had met the car as instructed, a long black sedan, the driver hidden from view. She wasn't laughing now.
She and James were in Hong Kong for a conference on the future possibilities of mimicking physical space in virtual reality. Shortly after their presentation, James had come up to her, his face flushed. He had to leave for a few days, he said, hopefully not more than that. A friend had taken ill in the Chinese mainland, he just needed to check up on them.
That had been four days ago. And now this note. Is he still in Hong Kong? Why?
The car stopped at a dark location. Claire could dimly make out a single warehouse, a dim light over its door. The city was well behind them. The car door beeped and opened.
"Where am I?" she asked tentatively. No response. She clutched the note tighter and stepped out. The car door shut behind her and rumbled off.
Claire was alone. She checked her phone; no reception. She swallowed, and stepped towards the warehouse.
The warehouse doors rumbled opened as she approached. Inside was scattered metal, junk, garbage amassed from decades of electronics, it seemed. But beyond was another light, and what appeared to be an elevator. She heard a ding, and the shiny, polished doors swung open silently and sleekly.
Claire was confused at why such a modern elevator was present in a junked warehouse. She navigated her way through and over the junk and into the elevator. A panel seemed to shine a red light across her body, as though scanning her. It dinged in approval, and the doors closed.
She descended in the elevator what what seemed like an unnaturally long time. And then the doors swung open.
She stepped out into a pristine, clean laboratory environment. She looked around in confusion. This is exactly like my own lab, she thought. Thermogravimetric analysis systems, tensiometers, hydrostatic gauges, all of the equipment she would expect in any physical chemistry lab.
Laminated posters were stamped on the wall. Claire would expect posters in any lab but these made her take a step back. They were computer generated imagery of men and women performing sexual acts upon each other, in myriad positions. The depictions were of varying levels of quality, some being rough wireframes, others being barely lit or textured, others totally life-like, with female bodies straddling male bodies with total visceral accuracy. Claire flushed.
A heavy metal door slid open. A tall woman strode in, dressed in a laboratory coat and a skirt. She smiled graciously at Claire, as if she had been expecting her for some time.
"Dr. Thaler!" she said, in a barely accented voice. "How wonderful it is to meet you." She shook Claire's hand, who confusingly acquiesced. I read your paper in Frontiers in Physical Chemistry, what was it... Electroconductive Sensory Gel as Means For Physical Acclimatization to Virtual Reality Experiences, correct?"
She had it exactly right. "Y...yes." She looked around. "I received a note. Did you send it?"
"Indeed," she said. "My name is Dr. Juzhi Chen. Though the note was not truly from me, your colleague asked me to send it."
Claire blinked. "James? Is he here?"
Juzhi nodded. "I'll take you to him. On the way, I'd like to speak with you a bit."
Claire nodded and followed. Juzhi began to lead her down a long passageway, the end of which seemed to be far away. The adjacent walls were clear, and Claire could see racks of computers behind them, a dull roar of exhaust fans pulling their heat out of the laboratory. Why does a chemistry lab need that much computing power?
"Dr. Thaler," Juzhi said, interrupting her thoughts. "Can you summarize the physical acclimatization problem?"
Claire was practiced at this, and talking about her work put her more at ease. "All virtual reality experiences suffer from weightlessness, the lack of accompanying physical sensation. The mind cannot accept the new reality, and ultimately rejects it."
Juzhi looked behind her, nodding. "And your hypothesis?"
Claire's eyes darted to all the computing equipment and back to Juzhi. "A computer can send signals through sensory gel, to provide the type of real-world physical sensation that the virtual world needs to be convincing."
They finally reached the end of the hallway, and another door opened. It was cool and wet, and had a familiar metallic smell. Juzhi gestured around her. "A material like this?"
Claire's eyes widened. Huge vats surrounded her, twice her height. Inside, a heavy liquid churned and gurgled. Claire knew what it was.
"Sensory gel," she said in amazement. She had never seen such a quantity. She turned to Juzhi. "Why...what is this?"
Juzhi pointed at a small tub of purple-blue sensory gel seated next to a computer monitor. "Dr. Thaler, you are familiar with this setup, right?"
Claire nodded. "Yes, but...where is James?"
Juzhi waved her concerns away. "We will see him shortly. Let me show you something. Put your hand in the sensory gel."
Claire was becoming irritated. She had done this experiment dozens of times before. The computer would send signals to the sensory gel; create the sensation that the subject's fingers are being tapped, or poked, or pulled. She almost rolled her eyes as she sank her hand into the cool, thick gel, which immediately reformed itself around her hand, like a solid.
Juzhi sat at the computer, and tapped a few keypresses, loading up a program. "Good, I know you have done this before. Just relax." She then focused her eyes on Claire's hand.
