The Metaverse: Virtual Life-Real Death

by William Kurth

  “Great, thanks.”

  “After you, Commander,” Wu said, waiting for Argosi to go up the ladder.

  Argosi climbed the ladder and slithered into the pod. Immediately he could feel the exoskeleton’s bladder forming around his legs. Wu opened a small case. In it, Argosi could see the hood of the suit and another small case which he knew were the contact lenses that went with the suit and were the only way Argosi would be able to see anything in the pod as the hood would seal out all light.

  After a few tries, Argosi managed to get the lenses inserted.

  “Don’t worry, sir. Once the hood goes on and melds, they will go active and adjust. After a few moments, you will not even feel them,” Matt assured Argosi as Wu placed the hood over Argosi’s head.

  “Here we go, Commander. Leave your eyes open. Don’t blink. The hood will meld into the lens. Once it has melded it will keep your eyes from closing completely in a blink. It will feel weird at first.

  “How will I blink then?” Argosi wanted to know.

  “You’ll still blink, but your eyelid will only come down a small part of the way which will signal the lens and the suit to moisturize your eyes and darken everything for a millisecond. Wu answered.

  “What about closing my eyes, to sleep or for some other reason?”

  “Just close your eyes like usual, Commander,” Wu said.

  “The system will recognize what you want to do and even though your eyes are really open, it will feel like they are closed, and of course it will be dark until you open them. Unless of course, you are in complete darkness in the sim. You need be cognizant of that, so you don’t think there has been a malfunction.” Matt added.

  Wu lowered the hood over Argosi’s face, pulling the neck portion of the hood down to meet with the neck portion of the body. As soon as they came into contact, both the hood and the body melded together, becoming one seamless suit. Argosi felt the hood shrink-wrapping around him. Even over the top of his lips. Argosi pushed his tongue out but could not feel anything, only air.

  The feeding tube must retract in the upper pod.

  Argosi resisted blinking. Easier than he thought, helped along by the hood suctioning down onto the lenses. Everything went pitch black.

  “Go ahead and raise your arms, sir.” Argosi heard Wu say.

  Argosi felt the arms and upper body portion of the exoskeleton fit over him as the pod came down and he heard it seal shut. When both the top and bottom portions mated the micro-bladder of the exoskeleton wrapped tightly around him. He could feel the pressure of it everywhere and then nowhere as the system pressurized around him creating a neutral feeling of equal pressure that soon he would not even notice.

  Amazing. Argosi whistled.

  “Just a second or two, sir.” Wu activated the suit, which had no direct plug into the pod. It interfaced with and was powered by the pod wirelessly.

  Suddenly Argosi saw a blue background and then saw something moving in his peripheral vision off to his right and quickly came to view in front of him. It was Wu who looked exactly like he did in the real world and sported the same clothing.

  “We need to calibrate the eyes; this will take a little longer the first time but after that, it will be a much quicker process,” Wu said, holding a pen light.

  The process took about five minutes, and Wu was satisfied that the system was working as it should.

  “I’m going to give you the keyboard and other command functions commander. I think you know how to use those. They’re identical to what you used at FLETC.”

  The keyboard and another smaller control pad appeared in a holographic form, both transparent. Argosi could see his hand come up as he reached for the keyboard. He could see the sleeves of what appeared to be a suit coat, glad that Wu or Matt had “dressed” him. Argosi hit the home button, and in an instant, he was standing in a teleporter. The door slid open and in front of him was a vast and elaborate room with multiple consoles, monitors and a variety of equipment. In front of those workstations stood three individuals. Wu, Agent Callum and Charlie Parker.

  Argosi stepped out of the teleporter as Parker walked towards him, his hand outstretched. He went to shake it but only got a partial grip that made Parker chuckle.

  “It takes a little while to get used to the movement and the eye-hand coordination. Welcome to MCT-NP.” Argosi knew it was the official designation for the Metaverse Crime Team New Polis. Argosi squeezed Parker’s hand.

  “I can actually feel the flesh, Charlie!”

  Parker grinned. “I know, sir. Cool, isn’t it?”

  GEI Building, New Polis, Metaverse

  21-year-old Melissa Chambers frowned at the time, 3:40 pm. She had just started working at Global Energy Inc., an international conglomerate that owned solar farms, wind farms, nuclear plants and a network of fossil fuel storage, delivery and shipping platforms. The company employed tens of thousands of employees worldwide. A third or more went to work in the Metaverse as energy traders, technicians, engineers, and a variety of other positions that worked right here in the companies very own building in New Polis’s business district.

  Melissa’s office was on the 84th floor one floor below the office suites of the CEO. She was the receptionist/administrative assistant for Joanne Hendricks, the senior VP of operations for North America and was here on an internship program, hoping to move up in the company. Most of the jobs in the Metaverse that she did now were done by AE’s but GEI also had a need for actual humans that could work in both places as needed.

  Melissa did not do full emersion yet as she could not afford a SecondSkin suit and the company would not provide her one until her 90-day probation period was completed, which wasn’t for another two and half months. In the meantime, Melissa used an I-suit or sometimes came to work in her PJ’s as she used the H-Pod in her parent’s basement. It was an older model, but for what Melissa did in-world it would suffice. Once she completed probation, she would get not only a SecondSkin but also her very own new H-Pod that would be rented by the company for her at a facility not far from her current home. She was excited that she could finally move out as Melissa planned to live 24/7 in-world where she would go to school at night and work full time at Global Energy.

  Melissa sized up the tall, sharply dressed man in the lobby. He looked familiar, but she could not put her finger on where she knew him. She hoped he wasn’t one of the bosses from upstairs whose names she hadn’t learned. She wasn’t too worried as everyone here had been so nice, particularly Joanne, in welcoming her.

  “Hello, how may I help you?” Melissa asked the man.

  Why do you look familiar? She thought.

  “I’m here to see Ms. Hendricks.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t see anything on her calendar. Did you have an appointment?”

  The man smiled, placing one hand in his pocket.

  That gesture, where did I see that? Is he from accounting maybe? Melissa racked her brain.

  “No. Is it Melissa?” The man said, angling his upper body slightly back at the waist as he looked down at her nametag.

  “Yes, sir.”

  The man smiled wider.

  “Melissa, I don’t need an appointment.”

  “Ah yes, sir,” Melissa said, picking up the phone.

  “What’s your name, sir?”

  “Alex Reynolds.”

  Melissa’s voice choked as her whole body shivered.

  “Yes, Melissa?” The voice on the other end said.

  Melissa jumped and screamed into the phone.

  “Joanne, run! Eject! Get out!”

  Alex chuckled. He took the phone from Melissa and placed it back in its cradle before walking by Melissa’s desk.

  “That’s ok; I’ll see myself in.”

  MCT Lab, New Polis, Metaverse

  At Charlie Parker’s suggestion, Argosi took off his suit coat, adjusted his tie, experimented with tucking in his shirt and bent down to untie and tie his shoes. The hardest part for Argosi was not leani
ng too far over or losing his balance. Which would occur if he used more effort to move, adjust or grab at something than necessary. Argosi had been in-world hundreds of times, but those were training scenarios and in an I-suit or everyday clothing. In those circumstances, there was always a barrier that existed between his physical body and the VR sim around him. Now it was like he was actually present and felt everything through his skin. Now he had to adjust to being able to feel and move things without trying too hard.

  “Everyone does the same thing, when they come back in or especially the first time. You tend to overcompensate and use too much force because you are trying to move or pick up something consciously. After a bit, you just do it naturally like you would in the real world. The key is not really to think about it.”

  After a few minutes, Argosi got the hang of it, forgetting that he was in the sim.

  “Come on, let’s give you the tour,” Parker said to Argosi before turning to the others.

  “Wu, you and Callum keep working on the servers that we collected and see what if any electronic trails we might be able to identify.” Wu and Callum nodded acknowledging Parker’s instructions and moved back to a work area in the lab.

  “You can examine the servers from this side?” Argosi asked Parker.

  “Yes, sir. Remember, Wu is in both places at the same time. Over there he works with Matt, over here with Pete. Anything of a real world physical nature that comes into the Lab in Denver we can see, examine, even disassemble from this side.”

  Parker took Argosi through the lab showing him the different areas and workstations. Various screens and touch pads at each one, a seemingly incomprehensible amount of data coming across some large screens at the different stations that represented either a location in the Metaverse or technical data related to the Metaverse as a whole. In the middle was a table with a large flat surface. The exoskeletons from the victims in San Diego were laying on them. Argosi walked over and picked up part of one.

  “You can handle physical evidence placed on what we call the ‘upload table’ back in Denver,” Parker said to Argosi.

  Physically, we are in Denver. Argosi shook at how quickly you could forget where you were. No wonder going in-world was so popular.

  Along the walls of the lab on both sides were some offices, one for each team member including Argosi, a conference room, and a kitchen area.

  “We can see anywhere in the Metaverse from here. The only restrictions are into what is considered private property which is any area not accessible to the public. A person’s home, offices, vehicles, private areas and clubs. Same rules as the real world.”

  “What about international issues?” Argosi asked.

  “A treaty governs the internet, administered by the U.S. now after the disastrous experiment using an international body. Our reach ends at the physical location of servers outside the territories of the U.S. unless a mutual use agreement exists.”

  Argosi nodded his understanding. Parker then took him through a doorway that exited the lab and down a hallway stopping at an elevator.

  “Down at the end of the hall there is the entrance to a parking garage. We have some vehicles available there. On the roof, we have a hanger with a couple of VTAL’s. The lab here is in the basement and where we work for the most part if we are not out in the field. The first floor is all DOJ offices the second and third floor are nice apartments for staff working out of this facility when they are doing full emersion. Your suite has a lovely view of the bay.”

  “Why do we need vehicles and VTAL’s in-world? Don’t we just teleport wherever we need to go?”

  “Realism standards. In New Polis, all the physical limitations of the real world apply here. Just as you can’t materialize somewhere in the real world. Well, not yet. You can’t do that here either, at least not in a public place. One of the latest controversies over the realism settings has been talking dogs.”

  “Talking dogs?” Argosi asked as they both entered the elevator and Charlie pushed the button for ground level.

  “Yup. Apparently, that is all the rage right now. People have these pets in-world modeled after their real world dog, and they can talk. Sort of like a small child. It’s the craziest damn thing. Anyway, of course, people want to take them out with them on walks or to wherever they go. Talking dogs or other talking pets of any kind are not allowed by the realism standards, and that has some people all worked up.”

  “Can we override the realism settings if we need to, say to move at will or in ghost mode?”

  Charlie hummed. “Of course, we can do anything we want. We don’t actually have to do any override. We are free to move where we want and when. There just needs to be justification for it. For example, an emergency or, absent a warrant, exigent circumstances to enter or view a private area or to conduct surveillance.”

  The elevator opened, and they walked through a lobby where there was a person, Argosi assumed an AE, behind a reception desk that they had to pass. The AE greeted them both by name as they walked by him before going outside.

  Argosi was surprised that there was no security but then remembered that the security was unseen as this was all a digital world. No one could enter past the lobby without the proper credentials, interrogated by the building itself, if not the AE behind the desk.

  Argosi felt the warm air of the sun and sensed something else.

  Charlie turned and was grinning at him. “Smell it?”

  Argosi paused for a moment, sniffing at the air then spoke. “I do. It’s the salt in the air from the sea!”

  “This way, Dom.”

  Argosi followed him around the side of the building where there was a dock area with a couple of fast looking boats.

  “Those are ours, in case we need to do water operations.”

  Argosi looked past the dock and out to the bay where some larger vessels were either transiting the channel or at anchor nearby. He then turned around and saw many cars and other vehicles moving on the roadway.

  “It’s a real city. It’s huge. Imagine if you took a half dozen or so of the greatest cities and then merged them all into one, that’s New Polis. Most of the traffic and people you will see are really humans in-world. There are plenty of T-2’s and T-3’s as well. On any given day, just the population of actual humans here in the city is somewhere approaching fifty million people. Nearly half of those are in the Business District alone. Tens of thousands of companies have a presence here.”

  Parker’s phone buzzed, and he answered it.

  “Boss, sorry to bother you.” Callum sounded more grim than usual.

  “If you and the commander could return, it looks like we have another attack.”

  ***

  Argosi and Parker leaned over Callum who sat at a console. Some of the other team members had returned to the lab and hovered nearby along with Wu.

  “Go ahead and move it to the large screen, Pete,” Parker instructed.

  “Roger, moving it there now, sir.”

  The assembled group turned to the far wall that suddenly became a large screen. The view was from above a tall building known as the GEI building. The HQ for Global Energy Inc.

  Slowly the view zoomed from above down to the street. Argosi could see what looked like dozens and dozens of people standing around a car. As the car drew closer, he saw the unmistakable form of a human body lying face down on it.

  “Bring it down to street level,” Parker said.

  Callum moved his finger along the surface of the trackpad. The view came down close to the car. From the clothing and the hair, the body appeared to be that of a female. The view position came even with the car, as if a camera was right next to it.

  Argosi could see the roof partially caved in and the face of the victim smashed through the windshield with the back of the head still outside of the glass, a large portion of which lay shattered and broken open. A torrent of blood ran down it onto the dashboard as well as down the outside of the glass onto the hood. Strands of the victi
m’s brown hair fluttered slightly in the light breeze. People tried to pull the body, for what reason Argosi could only guess, but it would not move.

  “Given Alex’s flair for the dramatic, I’m afraid that we are going to find that this is, was, a real-life person who is most likely dead or dying in their H-Pod somewhere as we speak,” Argosi said to the group.

  “Agent Parker?” It was an agent sitting at a workstation, wearing a headset at the other end of the row from Callum.

  “What is it?”

  “Sir, we are getting a report that the woman, her name is Joanne Hendricks, aged 36 or 37, was thrown through the window of her office on the 84th floor of the GEI building.”

  “Pan up. Find out where she physically is in the real world and start law enforcement and EMS to that location.”

  “Roger, sir.”

  The view scanned up the GEI building to nearly the last floor on the large screen while the image of the body on top of the car remained on the desk display.

  “There it is, sir.” Callum aimed his outreached right arm to the opening with the jagged glass all around the edges.

  “Can we teleport directly there? Into that office?” Argosi asked.

  “Sure. You can do it from your control panel, or I can do it for you from here.”

  “Ok, go ahead. You, me, Agent Parker and Wu. Do we need to go to the teleporter for it?”

  “No, sir, we don’t. All set.”

  “Do it,” Argosi said.

  Callum brought up the control panel, selected himself Argosi, Parker, and Wu. Then he taped on the screen and opened the location for the office with the broken window and then chose “Teleport.”

  In the next instant, the selected agents stood in a room looking out through the broken window.

  “Holy shit! Paul, let me call you back. Someone just showed up.”

  Argosi turned to look in the direction of the voice. Behind him putting a phone back onto the belt around his sizable girth that he carried well on his large frame was a middle-aged man in a business suit.

  “I sure hope y’all are the good guys.” The man said with a Texas twang that sounded like home to Argosi.