Immersion (Level 1)
Level-1 Immersion - Mouse, Keyboard and Screen
"Wake up Alder."
As the disembodied female voice filled Alder's apartment, his eyes slowly cracked open. It was dark in his apartment. The window shades were all closed. Blankets nailed to the walls served as a second line of defense against the outside world. It was always dark in Alder's apartment. The only illumination was the unnatural glow of terminals scattered throughout the room. He looked over at the clock and read the time. It was seven in the evening; he had over an hour before he was supposed to meet Elisa for dinner.
"Snooze thirty minutes" he said back to his non-existent companion.
"I'm sorry Alder, you instructed that no snooze was permitted. I will use maximal incentive to wake you. Shall I begin charging the electrodes?"
Alder chuckled under his breath. He had slowly been increasing the rouse-incentive of his home system over the past few months. Flashing lights had not worked on him. Blaring sounds had not worked on him. In the past month, Alder had just added the ability for his home system to shock him. He had tested the shock once, and decided it would be quite effective. It worked so well, the system had yet to need it.
"I'm awake! I'm up," Alder said as he slowly rose from his chair. His joints cracked and popped from the movements and he stumbled as his heart worked to get blood flowing up to his head. His connection cable ejected from the back of his head. Alder walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. There was a groan in the pipes and the water came out brown for a few seconds reminding him how long it had been since he had used it.
When he finished with the shower he walked to his closet. He had meant to wash clothes earlier in the day but had been distracted by work. The only clean items of apparel were the old tattered clothes he wore around the house all the time. Alder sighed and started looking around the floor for clothes that could pass off as clean.
Alder put on some simple black pants, a plain green shirt and a jacket over the top. He grabbed his wallet, keys and networker and went out the door of his apartment into the hallway. It only took him twenty minutes from the time the alarm had gone off to be standing at the bus stop outside of his apartment. That was important, because the bus he needed to catch pulled up at twenty past seven. Alder left the front door of the complex to see the bus waiting and jumped through the open door. The payment center onboard beeped to acknowledge it had recognized the networker and charged him appropriately.
Alder had forty minutes until the bus would arrive at the restaurant. He'd normally take the opportunity to jack-in and do work but tonight was a different. He was going to meet a woman he had been infatuated with for over a decade. Alder spent the entire trip rehearsing the various flows he expected tonight's conversation to go in. He was never comfortable thinking on his feet in social situations and preferred to have every angle pre-planned in his mind.
But tonight, Alder was having trouble figuring out a roadmap for the conversation. Elisa had just joined his company, but he did not want to talk business with her. Yet there was nothing more in his life than business. Which meant he would have to talk about her life. It was a hard conversation to figure out. Thoughts fumbled around in his mind for the full bus ride, and when his stop was announced he realized that he had made no progress.
He left the bus and looked into the entrance to the restaurant. Alder's heart rate was going up and he could feel his face flush a little. It had been years since he last saw Elisa, but he had no difficulty recognizing her sitting in the waiting area. She was gorgeous as always. Alder noticed she was dressed nicely. He noticed that everyone in the restaurant was dressed nicely. He was just in his regular trash clothes.
Alder started to plan his escape. He would take the bus home. He would call Elisa in five minutes and apologize with some excuse. He could easily fabricate a work issue. There were emergencies all the time. They were going to start working together anyway, so he figured there would be another chance to see her soon. As Alder started to back up, his plan was foiled. Elisa looked up and made eye contact with him. A large smile came over her face. Alder's heart sunk but then melted. He knew there was no longer a chance to flee and so he entered the restaurant.
"Hey friend! It's been too long." Elisa stood up and approached Alder.
Alder never knew how to respond to introductions. Should he shake her hand? Should he hug her? Should he kiss her cheek? His mind tried to crank through what he knew of social etiquette. It happened quickly. Alder knew very little of social etiquette. He extended his hand.
Elisa smiled at his gesture. "We can shake hands tomorrow when we're co-workers." She gave Alder a strong embrace. "Tonight we're friends." Alder recognized her actions as an embodiment of why he cared so much for her. Though he could easily feel like an idiot for his ineptitude, she somehow made him feel blissful instead. Alder made the note in his mind, "Hug Elisa is social situations."
Alder had yet to say anything. On the bus ride over he had not worked out what his first words should be. He thought they should be some kind of compliment. Elisa looked beautiful. Yet, he did not want to pass off some mindless compliment. His mind ran through a list of compliments for her dress, her hair, her face, and even her feet. Nothing seemed to sound right.
"Sorry that I'm dressed like crap. I didn't know it was a nice place." Alder's heart sank just a little. He always felt like he made an ass of himself around people. Normally he did not care, but it crushed him when he was around people who had opinions that mattered to him. He was thankful there were so few people he cared about.
"Don't worry about it. Aren't techies supposed to dress casual all the time? It's like a status symbol of not needing to dress to impress. We less confident folks in the world are the ones who need to get all dressed up to be judged by our appearance."
"Yeah. I guess."
"Come on now. Don't sound so down. Lets grab some food to celebrate my new job as your co-worker."
They were lead to their table by one of the waiters. He went over the specials and left them with their menus.
"How's working going for you these days?" Elisa asked.
"It's been better. We have someone causing problems in the system. He's hacking zombies and causing some serious, even deadly, consequences sometimes. He's been a pain to track."
"You know I have absolutely no clue what you just said? I guess I'll have a better grasp on it after I finish my training."
"I'm still amazed you took this job. I mean, you're scared of immersion to the wired aren't you? It hits up all your claustrophobic instincts. It's always been mice and terminals for you. You've got the wetware, but have you even done the level-2 stuff before? You strap on all that virtual reality gear and things get different. I can see you freaking out and crying. The same way you did as a child when we locked you in the closet." Alder's insides reeled. He felt like an idiot for bringing up memories of when he had been cruel to her.
"I didn't really want this job in particular. What I wanted was to do original research. Am I scared of it? Sure. But to be the first in the field is amazing opportunity. I have no one's shadow to walk in. I did apply to a lot of places around the world after I graduated. This was the only one that offered me a position. Absolutely everything else fell threw. It was like getting a sign from above. I didn't really want to take it, you know? But a chance to be the first psychiatrist to study the affects of level-3 wired immersion on people is hard to pass up. I'm going to get published right and left and it will be all original research. How do you say no to that? Especially when there were no other options. Honestly, I'm scared to death about going in to level-3. I got bullied into getting the wetware for my doctorate program, but I've never even used it. The idea of having some chunk of computer in the back of my skull sending impulses to my brain gives me the chills. What the heck happens when that thing crashes?"
"They don't crash. I've had one for over two years now. I've upgraded a couple times and I'm doing okay. Heck, I probably spend twenty hours a day plugged into the wired. It's perfectly safe. I think we'll even be safely up to level-4 in the near future. Well, that's all company confidential stuff you'll learn later. No more business talk. Tonight we're friends, right?"
The waiter came by and took their orders. Elisa ordered wine. Alder couldn't. Alcohol had detrimental effects on active cranial wetware. In a bout of depression, Alder had drunk himself stupid once after getting his implant. He lived with a piercing headache for a month before he got the unit replaced with the cost coming from his pay.
"So, how is the love life going for you? Is there a wonderful man in your life?"
Elisa sighed heavily. "I was so busy with my degree program I didn't make time for any kind of social life. I'm really just a work-a-holic at heart. What about you?"
"Spending my life in a wired world with less than a few hundred people isn't that conducive to finding someone either. Plus, things have been really tough at work lately."
Alder's networker buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the message it displayed. "It looks like there's a bit an emergency. Hell, there's a huge emergency. I have to go wired for a few minutes. Do whatever, I'm sorry."
Without waiting for Elisa to respond, Alder stretched the cable out from the networker and plugged it into the back of his head. His eyes glazed over and then dilated. Elisa waited expectantly to see him fall flat on his face. Alder didn't. Elisa waved her hand back and forth in front of him and was surprised to see his eyes were following the movements.
The salads arrived. Alder slowly picked up his fork and began to eat. His movements were slow and calculated. Elisa was shocked by what was going on. Level-3 wired immersion is supposed to leave the body in a comatose-like state. Only autonomous nervous systems should be working. She pulled a notepad out of her purse and started jotting down notes about the movements.
After a few minutes, the jack popped out of Alder's head. Consciousness returned to his eyes. He sighed heavily. "You haven't touched your salad."
Elisa's face was full of excitement. She reached over and took Alder's hand. "How the hell are you eating while you're jacked-in at level-3? That's impossible!"
"You're going to quickly learn that private industry, with the proper financial backing, can easily be a little ahead of the educational sector. Anyway, no more work talk tonight. Deal?"
"Deal."
The meal went through quickly. Without work talk, they mostly reminisced about stories from their childhood together. Alder had been the standard punk boy playing video games in his room. Elisa had been the bookworm studying too hard. They had become friends because both their parents forced them to do things outside together. Most of their time together was spent playing at the park with Alder playing portable video games and Elisa reading a book.
After dinner they stepped out front as Alder's bus pulled up. He turned toward Elisa and asked where she was living.
Elisa pointed down the street. "I'm only about fifteen minutes walking up that way."
"Great. Good luck at work tomorrow." Alder jumped onto the bus. The payment center onboard beeped to acknowledge it had recognized the networker and charged him appropriately. He sat down on a seat and watched Elisa start walking as the bus drove off. He decided he should have hugged her goodbye. Then he decided he should have walked her home. Then he punched the side of the bus in frustration and cursed under his breath. He was home forty minutes later.