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  Guards patrolled, including some with dogs, and cameras were literally everywhere. On top of each fence pole, 3 at the front gate, and even some along the road outside the place. Earl was sure they’d seen him when he saw some security personnel approaching his van from the direction of the front gate.

  “Help you, sir?” questioned one of the guards. He was tall, blond, and chiseled. His longish hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and Earl couldn’t help but imagine that he spent his weekends at the beach, surfing. California, dude.

  “yes, my name is Earl Brooks. I was told over the phone to get here because I was chosen for the Olympus online trial.” Short and sweet, Earl told himself. He felt increasingly nervous as he eyed the obviously deadly weapons the guards were holding loosely, not quite pointed toward him and Joshua.

  “Hold on one minute, please” the blond guard said. “I need to check it out.” He turned away, mumbling into his radio. He had some back and forth for a minute, then came back to Earl. The other guards never relaxed.

  “You’re on the list,” said the blonde. He seemed vaguely disappointed by this. “Go ahead through the gate.”

  “Uh….” Earl didn’t know quite what to say. “Hi, actually my van isn’t mine and it’s probably technically stolen” didn’t really make a great impression. And he still hadn’t called Frank to tell him he quit. What the hell.

  “I can’t bring the van in, its technically not mine. Belongs to my former employer.” There.

  The blonde guard arched an eyebrow, “Former employer?” The rest of the guards cheered up a bit, probably at the idea that they might get to shoot me after all.

  “Yep, this trip was my last.” At this point, Joshua decided that I no longer needed access to the van and shut the door and drove away. Apparently, he had been listening and his simple brain finally figured out what I’d done. All of us, including the guards, turned and stared for a second at the retreating AI van.

  Shaking his head, the blonde guard gestured to me, “Come on. I’ll take you inside.” With that, he strode back towards the gate. I followed, and the other guards formed a loose circle around me as we all walked to the gate.

  A quick check of my identification and I was in. The blonde, whose name is Steve, escorted me in. Of course, I attempted to find out some information regarding the trial and the other Chosen, if he’d seen them.

  “Nope, you’re the first” he said.

  “Can you tell me anything about the trial?” I was a little nervous. I’d never heard of this level of security for a video game company. As we walked, I was passing through checkpoints manned by armed guards, dogs, scanners, X-ray machines, and I’m pretty sure the one machine I had to pause halfway through was a chemical sniffer.

  “Damn, this is high security. You going to want a stool sample too?” I tried to joke, but Steve turned to me in all seriousness, his eyes flinty. “Probably.” His face was blank and showed no evidence of joking. All attempts to discuss the security or anything else was met with silence.

  Finally, we reached our destination, a small building set into the side of a small hill. The entrance was, of course, guarded, and as I walked through the door Steve waved farewell, gave a curt “See ya” and then marched off.

  Inside was a simple window set into the wall, with the word “INDOC” printed over it. A smiling young woman was there waiting. “Earl? Welcome to Olympus. I’m Sarah and I’ll help you with your indoctrination.”

  “Hello,” Earl said. Sarah was a short, slight brunette with a slight figure, dressed in shapeless scrubs. Her dark hair was pulled back in a severe ponytail, tight enough that it pulled her hair close to her head in the front and sides. Earl wondered if she got headaches.

  “I’m sure you have questions, and I’ll answer them as we go. We have a lot to do to get you ready for immersion,” she said. Earl had been following her down the hall and stopped in his tracks. “Immersion?” Earl wondered.

  She bit her lip, like she’d said too much, and kept going. Earl followed.

  The next room was sterile and empty, except for what looked like a cross between an MRI machine and a high-tech dentists’ chair. There were also cameras in every corner of the room. Earl realized that he’d seen cameras everywhere since he entered the building. “Please sit down,” Sarah said. Earl hesitated, then sat. He was still a bit freaked out over the whole thing, but his caution was overridden by the same feeling he’d had since he agreed to this, that exhilarating feeling of throwing normal caution and concern to the wind.

  Sarah immediately started belting him in with restraints on his arms and legs. Such was his carefree feeling, he didn’t even say anything. Sarah leaned over him, her smell was fresh and female. “Relax, this won’t take long.”

  Earl felt the chair move, laying him flat while the round part of the machine moved down the chair and around his body. He felt a humming sensation, then the chair sat him back up vertically.

  A couple of needles and other medical tools appeared on robotic arms out of the interior of the chair. Earl tried to sit up, but the restraints held him fast. “relax,” Sarah said. They are just taking some blood and tissue samples.”

  “for what?” Earl asked. He disliked needles.

  “Just routine,” Sarah said.

  The needles indeed took some blood and what felt like a bone marrow sample from his left hip.

  Smarting from the needles, he pulled at his restraints again. “Can you let me out of these now, please?” He was starting to get a little panicky.

  “One more test,” Sarah said. From the ceiling two arms came down, each holding a probe with a needle and what looked an awful lot like an electric power cord. “What the hell is that,” he asked? He fought rising panic.

  “Pain response baseline,” she said. She looked unhappy, like she wasn’t used to watching this.

  Before Earl could respond, the two arms took up position on either side of him and poked the needles into his arms on the shoulders. Immediately a giant shock rolled through him, and kept getting worse. It HURT. Earl screamed, pulling at his restraints with much more vigor. They held fast. Sweat poured off him as he yelled. After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was probably only a few seconds, the pain stopped and the arms withdrew.

  Sarah walked over and he yelled at her, “What the FUCK was that?” She shrank back a bit, then said “Pain response baseline.”

  “yeah, you said that before. But what the fuck does it mean?”

  “It tells the machine how you feel pain and how much per stimulation, so it can calibrate.”

  “Calibrate what? Goddam it, please start giving me straight answers or I will leave right the fuck now.”

  “I promise it will make sense, let’s just get you out of that chair.”

  More cryptic bullshit. Earl was about ready to say fuck it and leave, but the fact that he had quit his job and had already been through all that security made him stop. “I’ve come this far,” he thought.

  Sarah got him out of the chair and let him through a door into another hallway. At the end was another locked door, this one steel, with two guards in front of it. “What’s with all the security?” he asked Sarah. No answer.

  Once they got to the door she simply said, “Good luck” and walked away quickly. Earl guessed the pain response test had gotten to her. “Fuck,” he said to himself, “she should have gone through it!”

  The guard opened the door and he walked in, then stopped and just started.

  The room was large, about 10 meters square, with a large metal ovoid device in the center. One entire wall was taken up with screens, monitors, computers, and devices whose properties he couldn’t guess at. His gaze kept roving, then returned always to the giant white egg in the room. It was hinged on one side, and the inside lifted to show what looked like giant rubber tires or bands inside the top and bottom. On the outside of the bottom half, several hoses were attached, with abbreviated signs like “Pres Air” and “Hyd Flu” above the connections
. The hoses led over to the wall and out of the room.

  “Mr. Brooks.” The sound of his name jolted Earl from his reverie and he noticed a small, thin man dressed in dark clothing standing next to the white egg. In his startled condition, he hadn’t even noticed him. After looking more closely at him, he wasn’t sure he would have noticed him in any condition anyway. He was short, no more than 5 foot 5, and thin. He wore gray clothing of a blended fashion, with scrub-like pants and shirt under a gray lab coat. He was bald, with very tan skin, almost like an Indian (far east type) but not exactly. Gray eyes behind some horn-rimmed glasses completed the picture. This guy was scary, yet forgettable.

  “Yes.” Short answer seemed safe enough, plus this guy made the hairs on his hairs stand up. What was it? Oh yeah, there it was: the guy didn’t blink. Creepy.

  “I would like to go over the contract with you and explain exactly what we are doing here.” This is what he said. What he meant was “You will sign this contract now and I will tell you whatever I feel you need to know.” Earl heard the second words clearly in the tone of voice.

  “Okay.” Again, with the one-word answer. Earl just couldn’t bring himself to say more, with the aura this guy was putting out.

  “Pretty basic – you agree to work for us as a beta tester of our new game, Olympus Online. You will be testing experimental full immersion tank equipment that will simulate your environment completely. The test will take up to 6 months. You will be paid 5 million dollars at the end, should you choose to leave at that point.” The gray man smiled. Earl had seen warmer smiles at the aquarium.

  “Uh, what? 6 months? Full immersion? Nothing was told about…”

  “Nothing was told because its confidential. You will not be permitted to leave without signing the contract, not after what you have seen here.” There it was. Shark-man here was telling him he was stuck. Not all bad, assuming they paid him the 5 million.

  Earl decided to stick with a safe topic. “How’s the tank work?”

  Taking this question as an unspoken agreement, the gray man smiled. “Highly advanced design. Subject lies down and the lid closes and seals. A face mask covering your face drops down, and then the tank fills with a hydraulic fluid. Those rubber bands on the top and bottom move according to what you are experiencing in the game: they flex, and the fluid transmits the motion to your body without touching you. We have found that directly touching your skin with the belts forms sores. The fluid also circulates gently, taking bodily waste away. You will be fed through your mask whenever you are eating in game, so you won’t notice it.” This explanation was given in a flat, clipped tone, almost as if he was reciting it from a prompter. It also anticipated and answered all of Earl’s prepared questions, probably on purpose.

  “Any other questions?” Shark man asked?

  “Not really, guess I really don’t have a choice at this point.” Shark man just smiled again, showing a lot of teeth, and passed Earl the papers and pen. Earl signed them, hoping that it was legitimate. He really, really wanted to ask about the ‘pain response baseline’ procedure he had gone through, but this guy didn’t seem all that interested in answering questions, no matter what he said.

  “Thank you. Please strip and get ready.” Shark man was already turning away. A couple of attendants came into the room and moved toward Earl.

  Earl shrugged, and removed his clothes. Oddly, he didn’t feel embarrassed or uncomfortable as he normally would being naked in front of strangers. Instead, he felt an almost giddy excitement at what was going to happen.

  He moved to the egg and laid down. Making sure all his fingers and toes were inside the device, the attendants closed the lid. Darkness. Earl heard a gurgling sound, and felt cool fluid begin to fill the pod. Just then he felt a mask fix itself to his face, the plastic hugging every curve and surface of his face. He breathed – no problem. The fluid continued to rise, filling up past his chest until he was completely underwater and suspended, still in darkness. Suddenly he felt a prick in the back of his neck – they didn’t mention that! But he couldn’t move: warmth spread from the prick in his neck down his body, leaving him paralyzed.

  Just as full-blown panic was setting in, his vision cleared. His ears, still listening to his own heartbeat pound in his ears, suddenly heard nothing. He was in a white room, glowing on all sides. Looking down, he couldn’t tell where the floor was or where it connected, everything was just a uniform white. He moved reflexively – he could move! The paralysis from a few seconds ago was gone.

  Suddenly he heard music, a brass fanfare like an old-style montage in a sports movie, and then 3-dimensional words began to appear in front of him. They were calligraphic, with swirls and loops. The words said:

  Welcome to Olympus Online

  Vasily Chekov, also known to Earl as Shark-man, walked into the dark control room. For some reason, lights brighter than a dim led just didn’t work in here: he knew it was the AI, but he couldn’t figure out why bright lights bother it. “Oh well,” he thought, “we all have our quirks.” The fact that he was getting used to an AI’s quirks had ceased to bother him.

  Kronus was waiting for him. “Subject 001 has entered Olympus.” Again, odd. The AI didn’t normally initiate conversations. He wondered if it was…. excited? Nonsense, he told himself. AIs didn’t get “excited.”

  “Any problems?” Vastly asked.

  “Negative. Beginning testing. Preliminary results should be available within 24 hours of game time.” Kronus was flat and machine like as always.

  “Excellent,” thought Vasily. “Faster than it was presumed. I must report.”

  Chapter 5

  The words faded away, slowly. Earl blinked, as the surroundings had changed while he was reading the words. The bare white walls faded into a wooden-walled room, complete with a beam and plaster ceiling and a wooden floor. Brightly colored rugs laid here and there, completing the vision of a medieval tavern, and as Earl watched, in the center of the room, a small pillar appeared and on top of it was a light that came down from the ceiling, illustrating a figure floating in the light.

  Earl approached the pillar, intrigued. As he approached, he saw some words writing on the pillar. They matched the appearance of the figure in the light. It was a faceless human, brawny, with light brown skin. The words “Barbarian” appeared beneath the figure on the pillar.

  “Typical,” thought Earl. He said aloud, “That’s pretty uninspired” and was startled when something answered him. A small, white light flitted down from nowhere and said, “This is still a beta, you know.”

  “Who are you,” asked Earl.

  “I’m the one to help you get started.”

  “What’s your name?” Earl asked.

  “Well, I don’t really have one,” it replied. “You’re the first human I’ve ever met. Never really needed one.”

  “Well, in the spirit of inspiration, I’ll call you Tinkerbell.” Earl laughed at the absurdity of it. A few minutes later he was basically being threatened with his life, and now he’s making jokes with a game AI. It was then that Earl began to appreciate the room he was in. He hadn’t really noticed until now, but the realism startled him. All VirNet games he had done before looked good, but it was always obvious that it was artificial. Surfaces a bit too smooth, lighting a bit too defined, shadows a bit too sharp. Grass and plants inevitably blended together from a distance.

  This room was different. It looked REAL. Earl could count the wood grains, see the splinters on the rough-sanded log tabletops, and see actual dust motes floating in the sun beams. He saw dust on the shelves, could see threads poking out of the rugs on the floor, smell sawdust and tobacco smoke. It smelled REAL. Earl closed his eyes, focused on his senses: it just felt like he was in a room in real life. Extraordinary.

  Earl came out of his reverie to see Tinkerbell glaring at him. “Tinkerbell? Really? And you call me unimaginative.” Half fury, half amusement colored her tone.

  “If the shoe fits….” Earl began and was cut of
f.

  “Fine! You want Tinkerbell, I’ll risk the wrath of Disney.” With that, she formed into the striking appearance of the character, complete with wings and a green outfit. She was perfectly formed, with long legs and a generous bust that showed the hint of tiny cleavage.

  “So,” Earl said, “You are supposed to help me get started.”

  “Yes, this is the character generation room. It’s pretty rough right now and in the final version the people will be able to do this themselves, but we figured you might need help at first.”

  “We?” he asked, “Who is we?”

  “Why, the Gods of Olympus of course!”

  “Of course.” Earl smiled. He guessed that role-playing would be pretty important in this game. “Can you tell me about them?”