NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: How about a nice game of chess?
Setting up the Mk VII medical pod took Milo a week. It was a much more difficult project than he had first imagined. First of all, it had been modified for Kaminski’s project. Milo didn't know what they had done, so the first chore was making sure that nothing about the pod could hurt him. It was unlikely that someone would set a trap, but he would never take that chance. Every circuit had to be checked and tested. He found parts of the medical diagnosis system were missing and fixed the problems with parts from the stolen MK IIIs.
Documentation and software were simple to acquire. It seemed that most of the large corporations were sponsoring this new game and running installations that supplied the pods to users. Breaking into ACME or Alexa Corp was something he had done when he was an 8-year-old. It was literally child's play. He triple-checked the medical diagnostic systems and eventually was satisfied.
What would have taken a normal technician a month, Milo did in a week. His ability to access information from the data net was 20 times faster than a normal person. He had a perfect photographic memory, and he only slept two hours a day. Someone had done a good job designing Milo and his siblings.
But not a perfect job. Increased reflexes, memory, and the ability to multi-task came at the price of being small with an abnormal metabolism. There were vitamins and minerals that his body needed that weren't in the processed food he had access to in the hab. He had to be careful of infections, especially around his implants. Crawling through miles of dirty ductwork every day meant any small cut or scrape could be a problem. And he wasn’t getting the right proteins to support the muscle growth he needed. The Mk VII pod could solve all of that.
He added modifications of his own design to the pod. He installed manual controls to the door and an additional socket that would let him access the pod’s GUI with his tail or a cable from one of his ports. He also welded a hook to the outside of the door and ran that to a powered cable that could pull the door loose in an emergency. With no one else to rely on for any part of his life, Milo took as few chances as he could. Being locked in a defective pod was not something he wanted to experience.
When he had triple-checked everything once again, he nervously entered the pod and laid down. It was comfortable, at least. The cushions inflated to cradle his body. For long-term care, they would move slightly, relieving pressure to prevent bedsores. If this worked out, Milo considered just sleeping in the pod at night.
Normally a technician would insert IV tubes. Milo didn't need them. He had shunts in several places on his arms, legs, and torso for administering drugs. They'd been installed at the same time his sockets had been put in place. This was handy now. He hooked up the nutrient and drug IV tubes easily and brought up the GUI for the pod. There was a slight vibration for a minute, and then a screen came up on the inside lid of the pod.
Initialization of MkVII:8945621A
Welcome back, Mr. Kaminski. Would you like to play a game?
No, Milo did not want to play a game. He went into the registration file, erased all the entered data, and replaced it with just his name.
Re-Initialization of MkVII:8945621A
Greetings, Milo.
You have not used this pod, MkVII:8945621A. To make sure this medical pod will meet your needs, we will have to do a complete scan of your body to determine your medical condition. This will take roughly two hours since this pod is not connected to the data network, and we do not show any current medical records for you.
Begin scanning? You will have to remain in the pod for the entire time of the scan.
Two hours was way too long to lie still. He'd be bored and clawing at the top of the pod after 15 minutes of nothing to do. "Games? You said something about games. I'd like to play a game."
Milo hadn’t played video games before his escape. It had been more fun to play the games he and his siblings created. But on his own, spending years by himself, he tried other things. Older video game consoles were popular in the habitat, and the trade of out-of-date games was a large business. Milo had scavenged broken parts from recyclers and ventured out to trade for old games, especially broken ones he could restore. Along with his computer network, his home had over a dozen different gaming systems and several hundred video game cartridges, disks, and thumb drives.
Certainly, Milo
Games that have been loaded into this device:
Tic Tac Toe
Chess
Global Thermal Nuclear War....just kidding. We only play that with Joshua.
The World of Genesis Engine
That was disappointing. No Pacman, no Squishy Humans, not even Zombie Shooter. He tried the other games. Milo grew bored with Tic Tac Toe in less than a minute. Chess in half an hour. The AI running the chess game was too predictable. He was disappointed in not being able to try Global Thermal Nuclear War; it sounded interesting. That left the last one. He clicked on the final option and immediately felt himself fading away...
...and waking up a split second later. He felt that he was simultaneously lying in the pod and standing in a featureless room with a large screen in front of him.
Welcome to the World of Genesis Engine!
Enter a world of stories and legends. Re-create yourself and be a hero, explorer, or anything you’d like to be. Interact with other players and the denizens of this world.
Follow the easy stories set out like a trail of breadcrumbs, or leave the most traveled path to explore the world or underneath it. What secrets will you uncover?
Warning: The hyper-real Virtual Reality of the game may cause slight disorientation at first. While you are in a game, and your body is resting comfortably in your MKVII pod, your mind and senses are being fed information that duplicates your experience in the real world. We just added orcs and magic.
Milo looked down at his body, and it was all wrong. Or maybe, right? He had two legs. Longer legs than he was used to. He took a step and immediately fell forward. His balance was off, and controlling the new leg was different from moving his prosthetic. And he was wearing odd clothes, tight-fitting grey pants and a shirt along with soft grey boots. He wasn’t used to clothes like these.
He had experienced VR before, but not so real, and not having a body like this. When he’d been jacked into the internet to do work for his captors, he’d experienced websites, databases, and security systems as physical objects and places. He saw his siblings as they flew around the large, shining buildings of the corporations, testing their walls for a way in.
If you are having trouble adjusting to moving in VR, please take some time to walk around before we start the tutorial. The gameplay experience will also be greatly increased by connecting to the data network. Would you like to connect to the data network?
Connecting the machine to the data network was the last thing Milo wanted to do right now. It wasn't even possible; he’d made sure of that. The machine had no physical connection to a communication line. While he knew it also had the ability to tap into the wireless grid in the hab, no signal would get through the walls of Milo's home. He had added many layers of aluminum-iron oxide laced paint to the interior to block all signals. He didn't need someone wondering why they were getting any type of signal from an old water tank.
He spent a few minutes trying to walk around the room, getting his balance. It still felt odd. He was used to compensating for the weight of his tail, and more than once, as he fell, he tried to catch himself with the non-existent limb instead of his hands. Images appeared on the screen: A man in shorts and a tank top, a woman dressed in metal armor, a friendly old man with a long beard leaning on a cane, and an insect in a top hat. They all waved, and the creepy bug tipped his hat.
Please signal when you are ready to begin a tutorial. Do you prefer a screen or a personal trainer?
"Let’s go with the elderly gentleman." The others faded, and the old man stepped forward and out of the screen, which disappeared.
Milo was impressed. That had actually looked real. Too Real. He immediately took two steps back. He hadn't been this close to a person in years. It bothered him a bit.
The old man looked at him and smiled. "Well, young one, ready to see what you can do?"
As soon as Milo said "yes,” there was another of the odd fading away feelings, and he was somewhere else.