Gillian removed her glasses and rubbed away her sleep dust. The bumping of the train almost made her poke her eye with the arm of her spectacles, and she put aside her mild annoyance with a hum. She returned her spectacles to their place on her nose and yawned.
I really should have gotten more sleep last night, she thought.
She felt a sudden pat on her shoulder, and she turned to the grinning old man beside her. He excitedly chuckled as he pointed at the screen on the wall.
"That's you, isn't it?" rasped the old man.
Indeed, there was Gillian, dressed in a purple pencil skirt and blazer combination. Her recorded expression announced to every single viewer just how far outside her element she was.
Goddammit, that dress was damn uncomfortable, she grumbled internally.
To the old man, she beamed and said, "Yep, that's me."
"Heh heh! Good on ya," said the old man. "You've got a big day today, don't ya?"
"Uh-huh," replied Gillian.
"Oh, way back in my day, it was just hand-held controllers and Mario," said the old man. "Now, it's all virtual reality headsets. My grandson goes on and on about it."
"Oh yeah?" asked Gillian, who was barely listening. "Was he one of the lucky ten-thousand?"
"Only just missed it," said the old man. He shook his head with dismay. "The things these kids get into, ya know? Give 'em ten years, and my boy'll be more worried about making a living."
"Maybe he'll end up working for him," said Gillian, pointing to the Japanese man on the screen, standing beside her. The broadcast effigy grinned excitedly as the subtitle appeared beneath his face: Akihiko Kayaba. His face shimmered under the blast of a thousand camera flashes.
"Ah, yeah," mumbled the old man. "My boy'd love to be like him."
The train ground to a halt at 22nd Station, and Gillian stowed her book into her bag. As she stood, she whispered in the old man's ear, "Tell him to keep studying, and he definitely will be."
Gillian hopped off the train and exited 22nd Station. She glanced across the street to the building to the west, with the Argus, Inc. logo emblazoned upon its outer wall. The crowd outside the building, comprised mostly of news crews, made her hair stand on end. She huffed away her frustration crossed the street a block down from the building. She went up Tubbs Street, around the back of the Argus Building, and hopped in via the service entrance.
One of the early morning janitors noticed her approach and offered her a smile.
"Good morning, Chief," he said.
"Thanks, Glenn," said Gillian, accepting his hand to help her through the backdoor.
A slender man with a jaw only slightly less pronounced than his Afro hair-do greeted her inside. As he matched her power-walk down the hall, he chucked, "You're two minutes early."
Gillian rolled her eyes. "You predict when I get in, Dan? Clearly I've been doing this job too long… and we haven't even started the friggin' job yet."
Dan handed her a tablet. "This is the last-minute update from command."
She snatched the tablet and brought up a wide array of readings and check-offs. She scanned them quickly, humming at the key information and frowning at the parts that bothered her.
"Holloway is behind again?" she murmured.
"Only by an hour," said Dan with a reassuring tone. "He'll catch them up."
"Jesus, Dan! We've got five hours to bring this machine online," exclaimed Gillian. "He said this job'd be done three days ago."
"Apparently, there was a coolant shunt that wasn't installed properly," Dan explained. "They've just got a new one out of storage, and they'll have it up and running."
Gillian shook her head with dismay. "Four years, Dan… Four years I put into this. Five hundred skilled workers and two hundred support crew, all to build the single most complex computing machine ever conceived… for an online game."
Dan placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "Hey! It's not just that, and you know it."
A voice sounded behind them, a thick Japanese accent flavouring its tone. "Of course she knows it."
Gillian turned, her heart skipping beats upon seeing one of her favourite people in the entire world. The lower portion of his face hid behind a greying beard, while the upper portion was furrowed. He straightened out his ironed shirt and freshly cleaned jacket and proclaimed with a stern voice, "As punishment for belittling my dream, Doctor Hearn …" Then, his beard twisted under the force of his grin as he exclaimed, "You must give me a hug! That's not a request, Gillian!"
Gillian's scowl broke and she threw her arms around the man.
"How are you doing, Professor Kayaba?" she said.
"Akihiko! I told you to call me Akihiko," said the man jovially.
"Fine, Akihiko-sensei," replied Gillian with a roll of her eyes.
Dan stepped away from the pair and took his leave. "I'll tell Holloway to get a move on," he said as he turned a corner.
Gillian turned back to Akihiko and asked, "You didn't need to come here so early, Sensei. We're still hours away."
"Pah, that's quite alright," said Akihiko with a wave of his hand. "Like you said, it's a game. But… it's also my dream. My baby. And I would like to be here for its delivery."
Gillian beamed and gripped his hand tightly. "And it won't come a moment too late."
"Only if you get to work, Hearn-kun," replied Akihiko. He locked eyes with her and grinned. Then he pursed his lips, as if stifling himself from verbalising long pent-up thoughts. Gillian leaned in, sensing that there was something he wanted to reveal. All he let out was a sigh, and he said, "Go on. I'll watch from the observation lounge."
Gillian bade her mentor farewell and hurried down the corridor. She couldn't keep the excitement from putting a wide smile on her face. She thought of all the time spent under that man as an undergraduate, then a research student, and then being brought aboard for his magnum opus. Though she still had nightmares about his cortical architecture finals, she still thought fondly of all his encouragement.
It certainly got us through the long haul, developing the NerveGear, she thought. She looked over her shoulder, but he had clearly gone down another corridor. Yet, she still steadfastly assured her mentor, Today, your dream of Castle Ironclad comes true.
The main control room bustled with activity. All the systems specialists and technicians rushed to their stations, climbing over those already seated and trying to complete all their final checks. At the table to the rear, just beside the entrance to the chamber, sat Gillian. She presided over the whole kerfuffle like a watchful judge. Miniscule reports and feeds came through her terminal, and she acknowledged each titbit as it popped up. When she had time, she eyed the countdown blearing on the big screen, of which everyone had a good view. To the left and right were varied status readouts, while the centre portion comprised only a spinning Argus, Inc. logo.
The hubbub started die down as the countdown reached seven minutes. At six minutes, Dan waltzed in with a box.
"Chief Admin," he proclaimed. "I'm afraid you're improperly dressed."
Initially, Gillian didn't notice the box he presented, and glanced down at her crinkled tee-shirt and jeans. Her ignorance earned her a few chuckles before Dan opened the box and revealed a black cap and jacket. Gillian donned the jacket, revealing the bright blue logo on the back: Sword Art Online.
The entire team applauded as she twirled to show off the new apparel. Then she put on the cap, only for Dan to snatch it off and put it back on her head, backwards. With that, the team went wild, and hooted with excitement.
"Okay, okay," droned Gillian shyly, waving them off. "Come on, quiet down. We've got five minutes to launch, and we need to make sure everything's in order."
The team stopped applauding and went straight to their stations. Chatter bubbled across the terminals as information went back and forth. Commands and feedback flooded between the control room and the massive opto-electronic contraption in the basement, into which hundreds of litres of coolant and thousands of watts gushed. Everyone shivered with excitement as checks were completed and readouts showed green.
"All right everyone," Gillian announced. "We're at T-minus two minutes thirty seconds. I want final systems check." She sounded off: "Cryonics."
"Online," said the plump woman near the left-most front.
"Eye-Oh," murmured Gillian.
"Online," said the short man at front-right.
"PSU," said Gillian.
"Online," yelped the bald man staring the power analysis screen.
"Cache?" asked the admin.
"Online," said the four-eyes beside the baldman.
"Northbridge?" asked the admin.
"We're online, Admin," replied the man to her left.
"Southbridge?" asked the admin, stifling a yawn.
"Go, Admin," replied the man to her right.
"So-Co?" asked the admin.
"Super-green, Admin," replied the acne-ridden kid part way down the aisle.
"DASM?" said the admin.
"Ultra-green, Admin," said the redhead beside the acne kid, his tone intended to one up his partner.
"Sec-Com?" asked Gillian.
"Go," belched the blonde by the wall, her eyes steadfastly fixed on her terminal.
"Switchboard, Oslo?" said Gillian.
The Norwegian man on the screen in front of her replied, "Online, Admin."
"Switchboard, Shanghai," asked Gillian.
A Chinese woman replied through her video feed, "We are online, Admin."
Gillian slapped her hands together with excitement. "Good job, everyone. We are Go for launch." The crowd simmered with anticipation. All eyes locked on the big screen. Gillian huffed, and the proclaimed, "Northbridge, commence boot sequence."
"Copy, Admin," replied Northbridge. He punched a few commands into his terminal. "BIOS is online."
"PSU, how's the load?" asked Gillian, rubbing her hands together.
"Inflow's looking good, Admin," said PSU, a thumbs-up over his shoulder.
"Eye-Oh, bring the content databases online, I want them ready when the CMOS sequence finishes," said Gillian. Her display presented a blue confirmation widget, and she grinned. "Southbridge, standby for engine entry point."
"Copy, Admin," replied Southbridge, flicking a few virtual buttons and adjusting her display.
Gillian's console bleeped, and the Shanghai Admin's voice mumbled, "Doctor Hearn, we've rejected a few pings on our inbound."
Dan chuckled beside her, "Kids're knocking on the candy store door, Admin."
Gillian let out a bewildered giggle. She shook her head in amazement as Southbridge announced engine entry point.
"Contact confirmed, Southbridge," she stammered. "DASM, So-Co, keep an eye on those initialiser thunks once they hit the mainframe. Sec-Com, no trolls?"
"None that I can see, Admin," replied Sec-Com, chewing her lips nervously.
"Ready to initiate final start-up sequence on your mark, Admin," said Northbridge.
"Take it away, fellas," replied Gillian with a twinkle in her eye.
Down in the basement, the cryogen pumps whirred as the massive supercomputer roared to life. Light-Emitting Diodes glimmered through out the machine, making for a shadowy landscape resembling a twilit fairy tale cityscape. In the control room, the lights flickered, making the PSU technician nervous.
"Just a drain, Admin," he mumbled. "Auxiliary batteries are compensating."
The lights returned to full brightness, and there was a moment of silence. The technicians all checked their readouts. One by one, the systems technicians reported all green readouts. Gillian clapped her hands together.
"Cardinal Engine is online," she exclaimed. "Start the clock!"
A clock at the top right-hand corner of the big screen began ticking. It elicited a brief round of applause, during which Gillian hopped down the aisle toward Eye-Oh. "Open the candy store," she said.
"With pleasure!" replied Eye-Oh giddily. He hit the widgets on his display. Almost instantly, the player counter below the clock started climbing at a staggering rate. "Player count at seven-hundred and rising fast," said Eye-Oh.
"Northbridge, keep an eye on core load," ordered Gillian.
"We're good so far," replied Northbridge.
"Trolls?" asked Gillian, her eyes gazed at the nail-biting blonde by the wall. She silently shook her head. Gillian looked back at the counter. Over six thousand players had signed in.
"Rendering feeds available, Admin," reported Southbridge.
A sharp wave of excitement clattered up Gillian's spine as she yelled, "Town of Beginnings, on screen."
The centre panel of the main screen lit up with a pixelated rendering of a stylish, medieval city. Its Roman-esque architecture blanketed the landscape, stretching out to a glimmering digital horizon, above which towered landmasses like mushrooms. In the centre of the city erupted what looked like a volcano of blue light. Blue plumes of light signalled the appearance of the hundreds of eager gamers, salivating over the online experience of which they were soon to partake.
The last plume subsided, and the player counter read ten thousand.
"Wow, that was fast," said So-Co.
"All systems, I want load reports," yelled Gillian.
Every technician and analyst gave the thumbs up. Southbridge even went as far to state, "We're well under maximum performance specifications."
"Maybe we could've sold more copies," mumbled Northbridge.
Gillian stifled a laugh. She marched back to her station at the top of the aisle and proclaimed, "Congratulations everyone. Sword Art Online is officially launched."
The team shot up from their seats and cheered. High-fives were exchanged, hands were shaken, and fists bumped. Gillian took a few pats to the back, but was content to silently revel in the success.
Hey, Akihiko-sensei was going to be in the observation deck, she reminded herself.
She looked up to the window above the entrance to the control room. She had expected to see him clapped and grinning back at her. But he wasn't there at all. She frowned with confusion, and took a quick moment to climb up the stairs toward the observation room.
A wave of disappointment damped her spirits when she saw that her mentor wasn't there.
I hope you liked that. Please read part 2, and let me know what you think.
I've used a LOT of computer jargon here, which I hope wasn't confusing. For reference, I'll put some definitions down here:
Cryonics: keeping all the server hardware cool. I imagine a supercomputer running something like Sword Art Online would generate a tonne of waste heat.
Eye-Oh: This is how you'd pronounce I/O, which stands for Input and Output. This represents all the data coming from and going to the NerveGear devices.
PSU: Power Supply Unit - obvious.
Cache: Server memory and storage, including tracking all the player data.
Northbridge: This is a extremely high-speed interconnect between the central processing core and cache.
Southbridge: This is a slightly slower (but still fast) connection between the Northbridge and the I/O shunt.
DASM: Short for Disassembler. This technician would analyse the machine code of the server as it's being executed.
So-Co: Short for "Source Code." This technician works with DASM to match the human-readable source code to the disassembled machine language.
Sec-Com: Short for Secure Communications.