Cyber

by Terry Schott

  “Achievable?”

  She laughed. “No. But maybe soon. The author —”

  “Shawn.”

  “Yeah. Shawn.” She paused and squinted. “You know the guy?”

  “No, why do you ask?”

  “I don’t know. You seemed comfortable with saying his name. As if you knew him.”

  “I do feel I know him. His writing style is easy and relaxed. It’s as if he was sitting in the same room and telling me the story over a drink.” He shrugged. “That sounds weird.”

  “Not at all. Now that you mention it, I felt the same way. Anyways. I was going to say that Shawn made the entire story seem very real. Not a fantastic event, more like, ‘Hey, this is happening already somewhere and I’m writing it down as I see it happen.”

  Ivan looked at her over the rim of his coffee cup as he took a sip. “His theory on the virtual reality is bang on the money, that’s for sure.”

  Loredana watched Ivan while she ate her bagel. He smiled and picked up half of his western sandwich.

  “You’ve made a new type of virtual reality.”

  He paused mid-chew before looking down at his plate. When his mouth was empty, he looked at her. A grin appeared on his face, causing his eyes to brighten. “Yeah, I have.”

  “Can I see it?”

  His grin disappeared. He reached for his coffee cup and took a sip while his eyes remained fixed on hers. He lowered the cup and nodded. “Tonight. After work. Don’t tell anyone.”

  Loredana grinned. “Trust me.”

  “I do.” His expression was serious.

  #4

  Loredana climbed the three flights of stairs, walked down the hall, and stopped in front of apartment four. She knocked. A moment later, the door opened to reveal Ivan’s smiling face. “Hey.”

  “Hiya.”

  “Come on in.” He stepped to one side. “Excuse the mess.”

  She looked around the apartment. “It’s cleaner than your work room at the computer store.” To the left was a small living room with a couch and big-screen TV. Beyond that was a kitchen area which looked clean from this distance. Loredana followed Ivan down the hallway, glancing at a closed door on her right.

  Ivan noticed her look and smiled. “I hid most of the mess in the bedroom. Any trouble finding the place?”

  “Your directions were perfect.”

  “Good.” He stopped and pointed to a large desk where the dining area should be. Three large monitors sat side by side on a raised shelf on the desktop. Ivan pulled a second chair from the corner of the room and wheeled it beside the one in front of the desk. “I’d offer to give you the tour“—he sat—“but you’ve already kind of gotten it.”

  Loredana sat beside him. “My place isn’t any bigger.”

  “Really?” He frowned. “That’s odd.”

  “Why?”

  He shook his head. “Never mind.” He pulled out a slide drawer holding a keyboard and began typing. A second later, lines of blue code appeared on the screen, rolling up from the bottom of one and spreading to the other two like a wave. He looked at her and grinned. “This is it. My pet project.”

  Loredana leaned forward to examine the code on the left monitor. “Nice opening script.”

  “Thanks.” Ivan smiled, then frowned as he looked from the screen to her. “You can read this?”

  She nodded as she continued reading.

  “That’s awesome. I hoped you could, but couldn’t be sure.”

  “I work in a computer store, Ivan.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” She reached out and pointed to a section on the screen. “I recognize the code up until this point. Standard opening and operation instructions. This is where you began to create?”

  “That’s right.”

  Loredana nodded and continued reading, moving from the first monitor to the second. Ivan sat quietly. When she reached the final line, she nodded and he hit a button to bring up the next section of code.

  Minutes passed before either of them spoke. “Well.” Loredana sighed and rubbed her eyes as she leaned back in her chair. “From what I could understand, it looks . . .” She paused.

  “Exciting?”

  “Mmm.” She frowned. “I was gonna say more along the lines of absolutely boring.”

  “Oh.”

  “I don’t mean that to be rude.”

  Ivan stood and walked toward the kitchen. “No. That’s okay. Don’t worry about it. You’re right, I guess it’s garbage. It was just a—”

  “Hey now.” She followed him and stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, leaning against the frame and folding her arms. “No one said it was garbage.”

  He opened the fridge and reached for two bottles of pop. “You kind of did.”

  “It’s just not what I was expecting.”

  “In what way?” He opened a drawer and removed a bottle opener, then levered the caps off the bottles. One fell to the floor and bounced with a clang, rolling to rest against Loredana’s foot.

  She bent down and picked it up. “Red pop bottle caps, huh? Making a pair of gloves for yourself?”

  He frowned for a moment, then one side of his mouth twitched upwards. “From the Game is Life books?”

  She nodded.

  “Already have a pair made. I’m saving these to make you some.”

  She smiled and handed it back to him. “Thanks. Listen, it’s good, Ivan. Maybe I read some of the programming incorrectly, but it looked like all you have mapped out is a simple field.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Oh.” She tipped her bottle back to take a sip.

  “It’s virtual reality, Lori. Real virtual reality, like Shawn talks about in the books.” He closed the fridge door and returned to the computer desk, waiting for her to join him before continuing to speak. “Everything on the market right now is fake VR, even though they all claim that it’s genuine.”

  “That’s right. The stuff on the market now is nothing more than a headset and earpiece. The experience only covers three of the five senses.”

  “Six.”

  “What?” She raised one eyebrow.

  “Never mind.” Ivan went back to the computer, reached for the keyboard, and brought up the homepage of a leading virtual reality company on the web. “What I’ve programmed is all the senses. Sure, it’s only a field, but it’s a real field, inside a virtual dimension.”

  Loredana chewed her lip as she considered his words.

  Ivan sighed. “I’ll show you.” He opened the bottom right drawer and pulled out a small, black rectangular strip. “With this.”

  “What is it?”

  “I call it ‘Magic Tape’.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “The technical term for it is Proximity Transmission Tape.”

  “Your instincts were right on that.” She grinned. “Magic Tape sounds better. What does it do?”

  “I place it on your neck, near the base of your skull, and it emits signals which override nerve transmissions travelling through the spinal column.”

  “All of them?”

  “Of course not. The autonomic functions still get through. Your heart, lungs, and every other organ continue to work like normal. Only the higher functions are hijacked.”

  Loredana snapped her fingers. “Hijack tape! You could call it that.” Ivan scowled and she shrugged. “Okay, fine.”

  “Like I was saying. The higher functions will be overwritten, allowing me to tap into all of your senses. Then I project a new impression in place of this reality, and you will experience it as if you are there.”

  “Have you tried it?”

  Ivan smiled and nodded. “It’s totally safe. The tape can only transmit for ten minutes. After that, the material integrity degrades enough that signal is lost and the player returns to this reality.”

  “Player.” Loredana smiled. “I like that.”

  “Yeah, I thought you might.” He held up the tape and
tapped it with his forefinger. “Wanna go in?”

  She thought about it for a second, then nodded. “Yes, please.”

  #5

  Loredana looked at the piece of Magic Tape in Ivan’s hand. Her stomach tightened. “How does it work?”

  “Easy. I’ll place the tape on your neck and then you lie back on the couch and close your eyes, just like you’re going to take a nap.” He spread his hands and smiled. “A few minutes later, you’ll find yourself standing in a field.” One eyebrow arched and he sniffed. “A plain, boring field.”

  She laughed and reached up to touch his arm. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. That’s all there is to the process. Like I said, the conductivity of the tape wears out in ten minutes, so you won’t be in for very long.”

  Loredana took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then nodded as she exhaled. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  Ivan came to her side. He removed a thin strip of plastic covering the adhesive, then lifted her hair and attached the tape to her neck. “Hold still. There, it’s in place.”

  She reached behind her neck and brushed the tape with her fingers. “I don’t feel any different.”

  “Good. Now lay back and close your eyes.”

  Loredana turned and put her feet on the couch. Then she closed her eyes and leaned back, resting her head against the armrest. She waited a few seconds. “I don’t think it’s working.”

  A faint breeze tugged her hair and birds began chirping nearby. “Do your neighbours have birds next door? Just how thin are these wal—” She opened her eyes and forgot what she was saying.

  Fluffy white clouds drifted through the blue sky above her. She looked left. A large oak tree stood nearby, with birds chirping as they flitted through the branches. She smelled grass and fresh dirt, and the sun shone on her face.

  “Oh wow.” She sat up, placing one hand under her and feeling the soft, pliant ground beneath her body. She stood and looked around. She bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt, rubbing it between her hands as she watched it drift back to the ground. “This is incredible.”

  The sound of a cow mooing made her turn. Three beige cows stood in the paddock beyond. Smiling, she tilted her face skyward and closed her eyes for a moment before they popped open and she frowned. “I’ve only got ten minutes. I better see as much as I can.”

  Ivan sat in the chair beside the couch, watching Loredana’s still form with a grin on his face. His watch made a beeping noise and he turned the timer off with a tap. A second later, Loredana’s eyes fluttered, then opened.

  Ivan said nothing while she looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds. She looked at him and smiled.

  “What did you think?” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

  She sat up and pulled the tape from her neck, dangling it in front of her eyes. “It was breathtaking.”

  “A plain field?” He frowned and shook his head. “It couldn’t have been that big of a deal.”

  Loredana looked away from the tape and met his eyes. “I owe you an apology. That was the most incredible experience I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

  “Truly?”

  “Oh my god, yes.” Her eyes widened. “It was so . . . so . . . real! The smells, sounds.” She shook her head. “Everything I touched was so vividly present. Even the tastes. I could taste flavours in the air. I even —” She looked down at the ground and blushed.

  “Did you taste the dirt?”

  “I did.”

  Ivan laughed. “Me too. More than once.”

  Loredana laughed too. Then her face became serious. “You’ve created something magical.”

  “You think so?”

  “Please tell me you have legally registered this code and the Magic Tape. You have to protect yourself in this. If this takes off”—she shook her head—“when this takes off, you want to make sure you get the credit for creating such miraculous technology.”

  Ivan stroked his chin. “You think it will take off?”

  “Are you serious? Of course it will, man. This will change everything. I can’t believe this is for real, but it is.” She stopped talking and squinted at him. “Why would you trust me with this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You shouldn’t tell anyone about this, Ivan. This is the kind of thing people are killed over.” She ran a hand through her hair, blowing away a stray lock when it drifted back into her eyes. “How many people have you told about this? If you’d tell me, then you must have told a bunch of other—”

  “No one.”

  “What?”

  Ivan shook his head. “I haven’t told another soul. Just you.”

  “Oh.” Loredana looked around the room. “Well, that’s good. But why tell me? We work together, but we barely know each other, Ivan.”

  “I know who you really are, Lori.” He shook his head. “I knew that the best person to share it with would be Loredana Cyber.”

  “But—” Loredana shook her head. “You’re mistaken. I’m not Loredana Cyber.”

  “Please. Aside from the different colour hair and the cute new pixie-style haircut, you don’t look all that different from pictures of you on the net.”

  Loredana stared, her eyes wide like a deer caught in the headlights on the side of the road.

  “Relax.” He raised his hands in a calming gesture. “Your secret is as safe with me as I know mine is with you.”

  “What do you want from me, Ivan?”

  “Your help.” He nodded toward the tape in her hand. “Like you said, the potential for this technology is incredible. Who better to help me make the most of it than the girl who should be running the biggest entertainment company in the world.”

  “I don’t have access to Cyber Inc. None of their resources will help you.”

  “Good. We don’t need them.”

  Her gaze turned to the computer monitors, and a smile appeared on her face. “You want me to help you take this product public without Cyber Inc.”

  “That’s right. After what they did to you, I think you should make your own company to compete with them.”

  Loredana laughed. “That could never happen. The second I appeared, they would focus every resource at their disposal to put me out of business. Plus it takes a lot of capital and investment to build parks to compete with what they currently have in play.” She paused and her grin widened.

  Ivan chuckled.“There we go. I think you just saw it.”

  “Oh wow.” She sat back down on the couch. “We could use your technology to compete without having to build anything.”

  “That’s right.” Ivan smiled. “As fifty-fifty partners, with my tech and your business knowledge, we could give Cyber Inc. some serious competition.”

  “We would need more than empty fields to compete with them.”

  Ivan blinked. “I’m sure we can come up with something once we put our heads together.”

  #6

  Shawn Whitehurst sat in the corner booth of the coffee shop and watched the cursor on his laptop blink. He took a sip from his coffee cup, then set it back down in front of him, his eyes still fixed on the cursor.

  “Writer’s block?”

  Shawn looked up and smiled at the waitress. “I don’t get writer’s block.”

  “I thought all writer’s get it.”

  “I think it’s a myth.”

  “What ya doing then?” She reached over and grabbed the small empty plate from his table, crumbs of toast and an empty plastic jam container sliding along its surface .

  “Visualizing.”

  “Oh.”

  Shawn smiled and looked back at the screen. “Not an exciting answer?”

  She laughed. “Writer’s block does sound more dramatic. Get ya some more coffee?”

  He looked down at his cup and shook his head. “I’m okay for now, thanks.”

  “Okay.” She began to walk away. “Good luck on the visualizing.”

  Shawn looked at the
blinking cursor and repeated his mantra, the tiny ritual that went through his mind before beginning a new story. He had only been writing for three years, a tiny amount of time by expert standards. Already, he was seeing more success than most authors saw after a decade. His first series, The Game is Life, was gaining new readers every day. Shawn was convinced that his mantra had something to do with his growing success as an author.

  I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but people are going to find this story. They will like what they read, and tell their friends about it. Those friends will do the same thing, and soon everyone will be talking about this story.

  He repeated it in his mind three times. Saying something three times seemed magical throughout history, and who was Shawn to argue with history.

  The third time speaking the words in his mind, an additional sentence appeared.

  I don’t know the person responsible, but this will be picked up and made into a movie, and then an amusement park attraction.

  Shawn laughed and shook his head. “Where did that come from?” He considered the thought for a moment, then shrugged. Sounds good. I think I’ll make it part of the regular ritual.

  He took one more drink of coffee and pushed the cup to one side. Then he placed his hands on the keyboard.

  In his mind’s eye, the story appeared, paused in the exact spot he had left it.

  He smiled and began to write.

  ***

  Loredana bounded up the stairs and strode down the hallway. She stopped in front of Ivan’s door and rapped it three times.

  “It’s open.”

  She opened the door and removed her jacket. “Hey, where you at?”

  “Hiding,” Ivan drawled from the dining area. “In this large expanse you may never find me, but try.”

  Loredana laughed and walked past him into the kitchen “Want some coffee?”

  “Please. I made a fresh pot not long ago.” He held his cup in the air. “I’d love a refill.”