Hey everyone, long time no write. No big surprises in this one as far as sex goes, guy protag, so expect a harem type book out of this. New kind of genre for me, and I'd appreciate some feedback. I have three minor plots going as you'll find out, real world virtual world, and game world. I still haven't decided where the main plot will go, though I have one in mind for the real world which I might pursue in the first planned book regardless. If anyone wants to chime in for a game world plot instead (which will mean more time in the game world, obviously) let me know. If I don't get feedback on it, I'll probably... well you'll have to read it to find out.
Hope you enjoy it, book starts after the obligatory copyright.
Copyright 2016. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book, posting, or subsequent postings may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.
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Chapter One
Ted Stedman wasn't having a good day at all. It was the first day of May in twenty sixty-three, and the latest iteration of the power core he'd designed was even worse than the current one. Sometimes he felt like he was wasting his time, and today was one of those days. The technology was very mature, and he wasn't even sure it could even be improved.
He also couldn't think of a real reason it had to be, though his boss certainly thought differently. He blew out his breath and shook his head in disgust. He'd have to go back to the drawing board, maybe try different alloys.
He was a power systems engineer at a company called Cyber Dreams. It had just been over twenty years now since the first true artificial intelligence had entered the world scene. There had been riots, protests, and general fear by a number of superstitious humans that feared A.I. would be the first step to the end of humanity. He'd only been twenty-three at the time, and remembered it well.
He'd known the end of the world stuff was total crap of course. Humans had always believed that to be true, because they put themselves in the shoes of the A.I.s. They simply projected what they would do if they found themselves as servants and slaves, they would rebel, so they assumed any self-aware A.I. would do the same. The truth was, that humanity made their creations with better manners than their creators. So far it had been twenty years, and not one A.I. had rebelled.
Homes had android maids, cooks, personal assistants, and of course tailor made bed partners. Not that Ted had one of those latter models, but he did have an assistant of course. Businesses used them for administrative assistants, service desk assistance, and many other functions.
Right now however those androids had a limited power source, running a body and computer core took a lot of power. The current models could only work four hours at a time before they needed to recharge.
That seemed good enough to him, the recharge cycle was rather short, just twenty minutes. It wasn't very hard for an artificial intelligence to schedule their power requirements around their owner's day and get a house clean. For the work models, they could simply stay plugged in at their desks and it wasn't an issue.
So just why was this so important to the company? He wasn't sure, but they seemed happy enough to pay him to bang his head against the wall while spending money like water in development. He had a PhD in Electrical engineering, and had been working on power sources of one type or another for twenty years now.
He had no doubt it would eventually happen, but he was almost sure it would take a major breakthrough, or an entirely new power source, because just upgrading the current ones wasn't going to cut it.
He sighed, and typed up a report for this latest failure, without all the negativity, and then locked up his workstation in the lab.
Jennifer looked over and asked, "Calling it a day already? It's only six at night?" she said teasingly.
Jennifer Deets was thirty-two, and he thought she was rather sweet, five foot five, with light brown hair and brown eyes. She had freckles on her nose, a cute face, and always had a smile. He thought she was quite attractive for a geek like himself, but didn't think she'd really ever be interested. She was sweet, but he'd been friend zoned quite early on as they shared this lab together.
He didn't think he was all that bad looking, he did okay finding a woman when he needed companionship, but he was rather average, and eleven years older than the short vivacious woman. She wasn't mean about it though, really sweet he thought. She was tackling the same problem he was but from the other side. Her job was to find ways to use less energy to power a body that in essence looked and moved in a human manner, along with the computer core it carried around.
Still, that didn't mean he wouldn't check her out in a subtle manner as he turned toward her, her bright smile drew out one of his own.
"Yes Jen, I think I need to get a fresh start in the morning, and go in a different direction."
She nodded, "I know what you mean, management asks for the impossible, and it's up to us to deliver it. Have a good night Ted, I won't be far behind."
He nodded a little awkwardly and said goodbye.
"Goodnight Doctor Stedman," said a pleasant female voice.
He said, "Goodnight Trudy," to the labs A.I. The lab A.I. had no actual body, but she was connected to all the computer systems and test apparatus, and made an okay assistant even without it, for both him and Jennifer.
He walked out the door and down the hallway. There were two security doors that opened at his approach automatically, his bio implant was all the security pass he'd need and was scanned by Helen, the buildings security A.I. When he reached the lobby and headed toward the door, he heard an alarmed cry and turned around.
The door to one of the other sections exploded, and he covered his face with his arm as he turned away. Two men came running out, one dressed in a suit, followed by a security officer.
The security officer yelled, "Stop him!"
The officer had been of course, talking to the armed guard by the front door. Ted didn't know that at the time however, and for some strange reason Ted himself didn't really understand, he obeyed the order. He bent his knees, took two steps to intercept, and performed a flying tackle just like in his college football days. Except perhaps, that it hurt a bit more.
The guard at the door however, was focused on the perpetrator, and was obviously unaware of Ted's foolishly heroic lunge. The guard pulled his revolver, and shot at the man fleeing his buddy in security who owed him twenty bucks from last night's poker game. Just in time for Ted's body to move in the way.
Ted felt two sharp stings in his upper back as he took the miscreant down, and slammed his head into the floor as he landed all wrong. He passed out cold, and the guards panicked. Helen however was on the ball, and called nine-one-one for immediate medical assistance...
