Immersive VR, but with unexpected benefits.
While I've read lots of sci-fi, I've not tried writing any in this environment.
A special thanks to RF-Fast for helping to proofread and ensuring the story is in good shape.
Fidelity Machine
Sometimes, I hate my boss. OK, that's unfair, but still...
He's stupidly wealthy and invests in all sorts of crackpot ideas and businesses. Somehow, he has the knack of picking just enough good ones that everyone else thinks he's a genius. I just think if you throw enough rocks, you'll hit a turtle, eventually.
So here I was visiting Immersive Tech Holding Ltd. A company that started out as a VR gaming company and now sells immersive experiences to the wealthy. It was rumoured that most of the experiences were virtual sex, but that might have just been the naysayers. However, it was enough that my boss sent me to investigate before he tried it himself. But he was enough of a playboy to get away with a visit without it tarnishing his reputation.
He'd already bought shares, and would invest a pile more if it turned out to be any good.
After a medical and a massive legal disclaimer document that needed a dozen signatures, I entered the lab and met the technician who would oversee my session. Seeing the pod in person reminded me of the video snippet one of my colleagues had sent me when she knew I was coming here. It was from the ancient Total Recall movie with Schwarzenegger. She said I was going to get my brain fried and there were some similarities between the device in the movie and what I was looking at.
Clive the tech had me remove any jewellery or piercings. He was kinda cute when he blushed, telling me I needed to remove any intimate piercings. I climbed on to the inclined bed and marvelled as it reconfigured under me. Something cupped the base of my neck and the bottom of my skull. And while it felt odd, it was astonishingly comfortable.
"Wow, where can I get a bed like this?" I asked.
"Custom made and just the bed part is over $2,000,000." Clive replied and checked I was in place and comfortable.
He returned to his monitoring desk about 2m away and sat.
"OK, are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
"You need to remain calm, but if at any point you want out, there are kill switches next to both hands. Simply hit them, and the system will bring you out in moments. Here goes..."
I heard a low humming, and a swarm of thin robotic arms appeared in my peripheral vision around my head. The image of PinHead from the Hellraiser movie popped into my head. But I saw each had a little sensor in the end. They all managed to touch my head at the same time. Then I heard a liquid sound and shivered as a cool liquid was ejected from each.
"Sorry, that's just the conductive gel."
"You might have warned me."
"It's all in the documents you signed."
Now I wish I'd spent longer reading them. I gave up worrying after rejecting further disturbing references to brain aneurysms.
Another arm appeared with standard monitors on it. A female voice came from behind it. She had the calm and reassuring tone that any horror movie fan, like me knew was going to be trouble.
"Ms. Cooper, welcome to Immersive Tech Holding research lab. As this is your first time with us, we need to calibrate your basic brain function for this to give you the most immersive and pleasurable experience. Please follow the instructions on the screens."
The screen flicked through shapes and colours, each of which I had to name. I wondered what would happen if I deliberately messed up. But dismissed that idea as I could fuck up my brain. The objects got more complicated and became places and people. Some of which I did not know, but I suppose the system needed negative responses as well as positive.
15 minutes passed by the clock on the wall before the computer told me to just think about the response and not vocalise it. We repeated everything, but when I checked on the clock only 5 minutes passed. Clive must have known what I was going to say.
"It's the speed of thought. You can think things far faster than your body can react. Think of a 3-year-old catching a thrown ball. High school students struggle with the complex maths of calculus and differential equations needed to predict when and where the ball will be. But a 3-year-old can do it. Enjoy the next bit."
The computer voice I named Hal, just because I could.
"Now close your eyes and imagine yourself in an empty white room."
I'm in a white space. I know I'm standing on the floor, but I cannot see the walls or where they join the floor. I hold up my arm and chuckle as it's a poor pixelated version of my own. However, as I move it around, it follows my instructions as it was mine. Then, as I watch the details double, then double again. It's starting to look realistic.
Bringing it closer to my face, I see the slight hairs on the back of my hand. I brush a fingertip over one and shiver that I can feel that like my own hand. Turning my hands palm up I examine the lines on my palm and notice there is even the faint scar on one, where I cut myself as a girl.
When I flex my fisted, there is even a little pop from the knuckle of my little finger that happens every time.
"That's impressive, Hal."
"Thank you." Comes the disembodied voice.
"Wait, you know I named you Hal?"
"Of course."
"Can you read my mind?"
"Not really. It was inferred from context. I quickly searched for Hal and found the reference to a talking computer from the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Did you know that HAL came from the computer firm IBM with each letter moved back one?"
"I did. So, you do trivia as well as bland locales?"
"It's only bland until we get more data from you. Shall we play a game?"
"What are you now? WOPR from the 1983 Wargames movie?"
"If you wish. Did you know WOPR was a joke, as NORAD used a real computer called BRGR to predict war games?"
"OK that I didn't know. I suspect you'd be a hit at pub quizzes. A game?"
I was standing on a castle wall, over the gates. Down a sloping road stood an army of cartoon style goblins, ogres and orcs. In front of me was a table containing various weapons. Starting with boulders and a slingshot with smaller rocks piled next to it.
"Let me guess, I defend wave after wave of the enemy, and I get more weapons as the levels get harder?"
"Correct, and the length of the wall you have to defend gets longer. Begin?"
"OK."
It was a simple enough game, and I suspect it was designed for kids originally. Basically, I had to snipe at the faster enemy and use the boulders to knock out clumps of them. The only tricky bit was conserving ammo as the boulders rolled slowly and the enemy could split apart if they had enough time.
Wave after wave of enemies were wiped out without a single one reaching the wall. I got crossbows instead of the slingshot, then ballista and trebuchet as Wyverns joined the enemy. It was fun, but I wasn't here for that.
"Pause." I said, and everything froze. "Why are we doing this again?" I asked the air.
"This lets me gauge your problem solving, timing, and coordination. Plus, your reaction to danger."
"Not that it's really dangerous." I laughed and the scene in front of me changed.
A huge dragon joined the army at the base of the hill. OK, that was a little scary, it was so realistic. It breathed in and a huge ball of fire shot from its throat towards me. My heart raced, and I wanted to run away or duck out of sight, but I was rooted to the spot. I could feel the air rushing towards me and the heat growing.
I swallowed hard and swore to myself not to test the computer again if I got out of this. But the fireball disintegrated part way towards me. Fortunately without a blast of foul smell and hot damp air washing over me.
"There, we have the desired adrenaline spike I was looking for." Hal said.
"You wanted to scare me?"
"I needed to gauge what it took to scare you. For example..."
The world seemed to move sideways, and I felt disoriented. Then I was falling. Not from the castle walls but really falling. I wore goggles and a helmet, but when I looked down, I realised I had a parachute on and was falling from very high up. I put out an arm and was instantly flipped over. Again, and again until I remembered to put my arms and legs out behind me. In moments, I was stable again.
