Chapter 7 - "First Steps"

Chapter 7 – "First steps"

   Once more, I'm sitting on the soft padding of the futuristic chair, or rather lying on it, to be precise. Its the same Chair as always. Its calibrated for me, so we rarely change places.

To my right lies “Ellison Hodges”, who is drumming with her Fingertips on the armrest. Elly is our expert when it comes to sports. She is active in athletics, and has already participated in numerous Contests. Despite several successful results, she claims to not being satisfied with her own performance. Its her Dream to participate with the best of the best, in the Olympic games. I realized pretty soon, that patience is not one of her strong sites. On the first day she stood right behind me at the registration table and nagged on me, because i couldn't find my ID-Card. Now, that i get used to her tamper, we menage to get along. Her serious expression and the strikt look my be a bit scarry at first, but under the hard shell, she is a chearful person, with a healthy sense for sarcasm.

To my left lies Alina. Her discontent look often wanders to Elly's drumming fingers. She is obviously annoyed by it, but does not dare to say anything. The both of them are not on good terms and are often nagging on each other.

Next to her is Gerald, dreamily looking at the ceiling. His fingers are also drumming, but on his leg and -compared to Elly- noiseless. Almost as if he is playing an instrument.

On the far left lies “Debora Weston”. She Introduced herself as “Debby”, but most people tend to call her “Sunshine”. As an 18 years old, she is the youngest participant in the Virtual-Vacation Program. Debby has quite the lively character and is alway telling us about the Power of Positive Thinking. She seems to always be cheerful and in a god mood, but i get the feeling that she is just lying to her self most of the time. It' like she is repressing some kind of trauma or negative experiance with that, but i could be wrong on this. Her short, petite figure and the colorful clothing stile perfectly frames her childish personality and makes it her primary characteristic.

Apart from the „Diving Helmet“, we are already connected to the system and our live signs are displayed at big monitors on the wall, but we are sitting here for over 15 minutes already without anything to do. The technicians and scientists are still going through the last calibrations and checking everything one last time. The professor already apologized two times for the delay and asked us for a little more patience.

I'm tense, but I try not to show it. On one hand, I'm drawn in by the anticipation of everyone else. On the other side, I'm still aware that we are entering totally new territory and that who-knows-what-all can go wrong. A connection with that technology, on such a high level was never done before. Alinas Words come to my mind: [We are Pioneers!“) Somehow, the Words are not having the same motivative effect as before.

[Relax, Nic'. Its just a test ...] It would be nice, if the big screen wouldn't have a clock on it.

Another fife minutes go by, until the professor take out a relieved sigh.

Professor: "Well, i would say, we are ready to go. Again, sorry that it took so long."

Debby: "Its OK, professor."

Professor: "So, like i said before, we are about to do a short test-dive we will get you out again after a view seconds. This is just to see, how well U.T.O.P.I.A. Menages the Information-transfer between the complex VR, and your complex brains."

Some of his assistants tend to connect us to the twisted helmets. While they do, the professor keeps explaining:

Professor: "We also established a safety-switch. If you move your hand like this inside of the simulation ..."

He raises his hand wit stretched out index- and middle-finger and slides it down, like he is pushing all buttons on an elevator.

Professor: " ... Then a special menu will open for you. For the moment you will find there just the instructions for the current test and – more importantly – the emergency switch. If you ever have the feeling, that something goes totally wrong inside the VR, you can catapult yourself out of the simulation with that. Dont use it recklessly, because you will be violently ripped out of the virtual enviroment. This could lead to unpleasant results, like shock, or trauma."

As he speak, my eyes wander to the big monitors on the wall where the other testers, who are currantly not present here, can be seen in real-time in other rooms. They can hear everything that happens on our side, but we can hear them only if they have a specific question to ask. In the Beginning, the professor said, that “this way it is enshured that everyone gets the same information”, but i guess, he just didn't want to repeat himself every time, which i totally understand.

Professor: "Like on all tests before, we will not have any direct influence on the Simulation and can not interact with you, although concluding from your brainwaves we will get a hint on what you are experiencing. If the parameters reach critical numbers, we will get you ot imediatly."

Ellyson: "So, everything is the same as always. Can we finally start now?"

Professor: "Yes, of course. It will begin in a moment."

Alina seems like she wanted to respond to that, but she got interrupted by an assistant, who asks if her helmet is sitting right.

We are ready. Once more, i get the feeling, that we are standing in front of a great event. Even, if in the end its just a test run like any other.

Professor: "Here we go ..."

Once again, there is a tingling sensation in my neck, that comes from the electrodes that are placed there, followed by a light dizziness. A view moments later, i can feel neither the Chair beneath me, nor the Electrodes, or the rest of the equipment, that i am connected to. Touch, hearing, sight … My senses are fading one after another. It gets dark.

   The feeling to fall, the oppressive uneasiness, the timelessnes … im familiar with all of that.

After a view endless moments, i become aware that i have a humanoid body, [Hands … feet … good, i can move.] I'm not falling anymore, just slowly sinking, while my mind steadily becomes clearer. There is a smooth surface forming beneath me and I'm slowly sliding down on it. I stay there, lying on my back for a moment and take a look at the gray mass above me, that i came from. While i do that, a thought occurs in my mind: [The Limbus …] not the one from the game, but the genuine, real Limbus. A boundless, jiggling sea of nothingness, without natural laws, without rules, without form. We can get a short glimpse on it, every time we dive in- and out … Its overwhelming and frightening at the same time.

A warm feeling reaches out to me, followed by a fresh breeze and the smell of leafs and flowers. Above me, there are shiny dots appearing one after another, and get covert by treetops in the next instant. Grass straws are tickling my hands and face, as i move to stand up. My surrounding gets filled with noises of insects and the rustling of leafs. The simulation finished loading ... I arrived.

A sense of relieve overcomes me. After all, the first connection succeeded, everything seems to work properly.

I'm standing at the edge of a forest, in front of me is a small lake. The night sky, which is streaked with strange red and yellow colors, is reflecting in the water. Even though, there is no moon shining, its surprisingly bright. Despite that its clearly night time, i still can see the other side of the Lake. For a first walk in the new world, this scenery is more overwhelming then i expected.

???: "Wow! ..."

Suddenly there is a surprised voice somewhere nearby. As i look where it came from, i notice an unknown women a view steps away. Her long, black hair is braided in an unusual old fashioned way and she wears cloths, that you usually see only in history programs. She is standing there, looking at the colorful sky, that reminds me a little of the pictures of space-nebula's, that you often see in astrology broadcasts.

Since we haven't made our own Characters for the game yet, we seem to have gotten randomized Avatars. She is obviously someone from our group, but i have no idea who.

Nicolas: "Impressing, isn't it?"

She hastily looks over to me.

???: "Ha? ... oh, ahm ... yea. Everything seems so ... real."

The posture, gesture, the shy glance ... I instantly know, who she is. In the Lab we are in different rooms, but here she is, standing right in front of me. [This “IS” a little strange]. Is she recognizing me too?

Nicolas: "Yea, it feels much more realistic, then the VR's I've seen bevore. There are even waves on the Water."

My voice here sounds different from my own, much deeper then it used to be. Its wired to speak in the voice of a stranger. I hope, i can adjust it later on character creation. My body seems to be a bit higher to.

I can slightly hear other voices nearby, but i don't understand what they are talking about. Suddenly, a muscular looking guy runs out of the woods to the water. While waving, he calls out to the other side:

???: "Heeeeey! ... "

I take a look in the direction, he is waving to. After a view moments i see someone waving back at the other side of the lake. [How did he ...] He couldn't have seen them in the dark, over that distance, with the naked Eye, could he?!

Nicolas: "Hey, How did you noticed them?"

He is looking back at me.

???: "Easy, you can see other players on your map."

He seems to be experienced in that, so i guess its Collin ot Sammy. I walk over to him. Nina hesitates for a moment, but then follows after me.

Nicolas: "Map, huh? Hmm, how do i open the menu?"

???: "That's simple. Remember the gesture, the professor showed us? Its the same gesture, tough its not vertical but horizontal!"

The way he talks, his slightly stooped posture ... [It must be Collin].

He shows me the gesture and i imitate it.

A transparent, bluish glimmering screen appears in from of me, Witch shows a picture of my Avatar, a Mini-map, and other Details like my characters name, active buffs, or my Health points. On the upper side there is a menu bar for other specified categories. On the Mini-map, i see a green dot in the middle that symbolizes my position in the world. Its surrounded by blue dots, witch must be other players. The mini-map covers just a small area, though. Its reach is not enough to show the other site of the lake.

To my left i see how Nina inspects her menu too, Collin is also tipping something in the air, but i can' see their menu-screens. That means, my screen can not be seen by others too, thats good to know. Just now i notice a register card in the menu bar, with the tempting name: {Map}. I tip on it and a new window opens. The big window in the middle of the screen is almost entirely black, apart from a small area – the same that can be seen on the mini-map. The rest of the Map needs to be explored first. But there are blue Player-dots shown in the dark area too. They are placed almost in a circle, so obviously around the Lake. When i tip on one of them, their name appears ...

   {Player 18}, {Player 3}, {Player 9} ...

... We simply got generic numbers for our names. Makes sense, since we haven't created our Avatars yet, so we don't have individual names either. I'm {Player 7}.

Maneuvering inside the menus is mostly done through gestures, in some cases with voice-commands. Most gestures involve stretching out the middle- and index finger. By that, the system indicates if you want to make a command in the Menu, or just want to point on something.

Suddenly, the area around us brightens up and everything begins to fade. The details of the Game-world disappear one after another. I take a last look at the surrounding, witch can be seen much clearer now, but gets more barren and monotonous by the second. I tried to say [See ya], but my voice is already gone. Instead i wink to them, as long as i have a physical body. Both of them are winking back, until they disappear. The world fades away, as fast as it was created.

Swallowed by the Limbus ...