[CHAPTER 10]
"...it looks to me, looking out the hatch, that we are venting something..."
James Lovell
E.A.R.T.H
00110010 00110000 00110111 00110011
The Sea Dragoness was one hell of a beast. A two-stage giant of a rocket originally designed in 1962, it harked back to a time when people foresaw us living in space and travelling the inner solar system. The over-optimism of the Apollo-era was short lived and the design was shelved. For a hundred years there was simply no purpose for the huge lifting capabilities of the Dragoness. The super-heavy launch vehicle was one hundred and sixty metres tall in total, though it was hard to tell from a distance. The Dragoness was everything a big dumb booster needed to be. So big in fact, that the rocket was launched from tranquil blue seas just over the horizon. Better that then leave a crater after each flight from the incredible thrust of the machine.
Harry Eisenhower could hear the ignition from over three miles away.
He barely glimpsed the exhaust gases in the morning sunlight. Already, the rocket was arcing through the sky to meet up with the construction crews a few hundred kilometers above. Similar launches off the coast of Jersey were happening twice a day to supply the growth of the "Shackleton Circuit" orbital ring. The space station would be the first triumph of many for the new independent state of Britannica, or so everyone hoped. It was a matter of speed to ensure the planetary ring wouldn't collapse - both physically and financially.
Harry used the rocket launch as an excuse for a break, gripping onto the railings of the seawall with damp hands. The man was sweating profusely - now reconsidering whether he was committed to keep up the daily exercise regime. Ten years ago Harry would have loved the morning run. Today, all he could do was struggle for breath.
The sounds of waves crashing against the beach did little to calm his nerves.
Grimacing, Harry set off again at a slow pace. The run was anything but refreshing. His feet hit the tarmac underfoot with heavy steps, arms pumping in an attempt to maintain balance. Seriously, how had he lost his fitness this quickly? The sight of his home nearly fifteen minutes later was a like a return ticket from purgatory.
Ending the morning exercise with a cold shower, Harry forced himself into a shirt and tie. For a long time he studied his fraying belt before tugging it round his waist with a sigh. Even the reflection in the mirror looked tired as he shaved. Downing a bottle of orange juice pushed his mental willpower as he pocketed a banana to snack on later. He'd forsaken his love of a large full-english breakfast.
It was a short bus ride into St Helier, the largest town on Jersey. Twenty minutes from leaving his door and Eisenhower was at work. Usually it would take a few minutes shorter, if not for the added security following increasingly populus protests outside the branch headquarters. Bold lettering identifying GOKIA 'Software Development' had already been stained with red paint. Things like that really annoyed Harry. During the sustainability marches of his childhood, wasting good paint would have been a crime.
Passing reception, Harry stuck to his new and improved lifestyle plan by taking the stairs up to his first floor office. He was panting by the time he got behind the familiar confines of his desk. Outside his window the angry hollering from young protesters was nearly too loud to block out. Harry couldn't believe they were still here two weeks later. Did people have nothing better to do but laze around waving banners?
Eisenhower thanked his foresight for opting to run the design and development side of GOKIA. It meant that he didn't have to deal with media facing and all that crap. The GOKIA technology company was fairly small - but it still played in some pretty impressive markets. Normally that wasn't anything to worry about. Well, not until a certain Mr and Mrs Lovell went public with their court case and declared a media war against the company.
In hindsight, pushing for human uploaders wasn't such a great idea. Not in a post-exDEV society.
GOKIA was under tight security to prevent any accidental leaks from inside to further taint their reputation. The company didn't need any more miscalculations to add fuel to the fire. Harry was just glad they had taken it out of his hands three months ago.
Picking up his tablet, Harry Eisenhower flicked through the morning messages before opening the news panel for any changes over the past twelve hours. Only yesterday GOKIA had yet another upset following the crash of the Minecraft sub-environment. It wasn't entirely unexpected given their recent collaboration with Mojang developing upgrades. A patch had been out in a matter of hours and the gaming community was back into their cubic version of virtual reality.
The remaining alerts that popped up were to do with James Lovell himself. Harry had been putting together a complete file on the case to inform other members of GOKIA prior to media confrontations. Thanks to a rather sloppy email leak in their Rotterdam office, the world knew that James had accepted the virtual environment - becoming the first ever uploaded human consciousness. Not only was he responsive but enthusiastically immersing himself in a computer generated world. That had made the headlines for a few weeks. For GOKIA investors it was a dream come true - if it had happened three years prior. And if it hadn't involved a car crash and the death of a promising young teenager.
Tabloids usually missed out that last bit.
The fact that GOKIA had all their major offices within Britannica might not have been a good idea. Already one shareholder had sued for conflict of interest. If the Musk foundation (owners of Neuralink) hadn't stepped in, things would have gone very differently. GOKIA had indirectly supported the expansion of the new space-faring nation into low earth orbit for years. Suddenly that was no longer acceptable.
Sighing heavily, Harry opened his voicemail to find a message flashing brightly. Prodding at the screen with a finger, the chief executive of GOKIA listened to the playback.
It was only when the email subject description flashed onto the screen that his interest spiked.
A small hiss announced the start of the message
'Oh Hi Harry. Corey Here. Guess you're not in at the moment. I know it's been a few months now but I hope that you're weathering this media onslaught...and that this new project with world modelling is going alright. I'm not going to try and make sense of the requests you sent through...but yeah...I found these details and had them emailed over. Expect them in a bit. See you round bud.'
The message cut off and Harry groaned, rubbing at his face. Outside the sky was a brilliant blue and for a moment he could hear a lone blackbird calling outside.
'Right.' He spoke to himself softly, 'Let's get to it.'
Dumping his jacket over the back of his chair and leaving his bag on the floor, Eisenhower pushed open the door and headed downstairs. They were in the process of replacing the world carpet. Somehow the colour scheme had switched from a pale beige to a duckegg blue. Although one of the richest companies in the western world, that money was spent sparingly - if only as an artifact of Eisenhower's own cheapskate nature.
It was only when Harry got downstairs to reception that things improved. Here the room was at least a little more modernized. The large wording of the company GOKIA - JERSEY BRANCH shone in a faded blue lettering printed on Portland limestone. A glass desk in the main reception had only one receptionist who smiled briefly upon seeing the executive. Susan had settled in over the past couple of months, providing a welcome face to an otherwise autonomous system.
'Hi Harry. You're meeting with the clients from Secondmaze isn't until ten. Is there anything I can do?'
He leant against the counter, forcing a poor attempt at a cheerful expression.
'Yeah. Has Yana tapped in this morning?'
'Let me check.' Susan had muted brunette hair that she brushed behind her ears before typing at a keyboard. During the wait, Harry turned to gaze out of the window. Near the revolving doors, four security guards stood to attention in loose black uniforms. Given the ongoing protests, there were also a handful of police ensuring things didn't get out of hand. Nobody had glued themselves to the door yet.
'Oh he we go.' Susan broke the silence. 'Yep, she tapped in at six. Jean's in early as well.'
'Great. Was it just Secondmaze today? I remember something this afternoon?'
Susan tapped away at her screen a few times with a long finger.
'Yep. You've got a HORIZON board meeting through Dreamcatcher from two onwards. There's a note saying it will be in regards to the upcoming court case.'
'Shit.' Harry swore softly. He forgotten all about that. 'Can you remind me of that twenty minutes before or something?'
'Done.' Susan nodded and tapped her screen a few more times. Lifting her eyes to the businessman, she smiled warmly. The expression only acted to highlight the freckles on her pale cheeks. It reminded Harry all too much of his ex-wife. Trying not to think about that particular subject, he thanked the receptionist briefly before heading towards the stairs.
The computer labs were double-doored at the fourth basement level. In part the precaution was there to meet fire safety guidelines, but it was also a method of keeping the air temperature constant. Air conditioning worked to maintain the whole floor at a constant humidity and chilly temperature of only ten degrees centigrade. The supercomputer hard at work needed the near fixed conditions to function. It also kept Yana happy. That was just as important.
Yana's office was at the far end of the hallway. There was no name on the door or anything to announce it belong to her. To be fair, the room was never assigned to the quirky woman - she simply adopted it. For newcomers it made things difficult for a few days.
Harry knocked once before pushing the door open. It took some time for his eyes to adjust to the bright orange LED lighting inside.
The sound of computer fans welcomed him, as well the smell of fresh paint and bepis soda. The room was longer than it was wide, with two rows of computers making up around six monitors in total, not to mention a projector screen displaying code on the far wall. There were no windows in the limewash walls, but there was a single pine door opposite. The words "DO NOT ENTER" were scrawled across it in purple sharpie.
Unlike most computer experts in this day and age that worked in front of a wall of monitors, Yana was a little more unconventional. She sat back in her chair with a adapted SONY Dreamcatcher headset resting against her face. The normally sleek silver goggles had been bulked out with numerous cables, a cooling fan, as well as small patches of duct tape. This added weight meant that Yana had to lean back in her cream office chair, Doc Martens up on the desk in front of her.
Where normal people might use a mouse or a touchscreen, Yana preferred to use the eye-tracking software in the revolutionary headset itself. For people unaware of her strange habits, it might be easy to mistake the computer engineer as either dead or asleep.
Jean was sat on a desk opposite and had the decency to look up from his computer.
The young Frenchman sniffed once upon seeing Harry, but said nothing. That wasn't through rudeness, but more to do with the fact that Jean was mute.
Hi Jean.' Harry greeted him anyway and the man responded with a curt wave.
'Is Yana busy?' The businessman asked, dragging a wheely chair over from the corner. He sat down heavily, the seat sinking a few inches before compensating for the unexpected weight.
Jean tilted his head from side to side as a shown of indecision before shrugging.
Harry waited for a few minutes to see if Yana would respond on her own accord. During that time he occupied himself with the sound of Jean typing, computers humming, and a mini-fridge in the corner rumbling as it turned on. There was one message alert on his softscreen, although the message had been sent to his junk folder. Tapping at his screen a few times, he found Corey's dataset and forwarded it to his personal account.
A few minutes later and Harry decided that he had waited long enough.
'Uh...Yana?' He was tempted to prod the woman, 'Yana?'
There was no response.
'Yana?' Harry tried again, this time louder.
Grumbling at the unresponsive woman still laid back in her chair, he pondered simply pushing her onto the floor. However, this idea was disturbed by Jean who coughed loudly. Turning to look at the skinny man, Harry was surprised to find him grinning. Watching in confusion, the mute picked up a empty soda can. Wiggling it in the air for him to see, Jean rolled his shoulder before throwing the can directly at Yana's stomach.
At near point-blank range the aluminum bottle hit with full force and Yana grunted, ripping off her headset and looking around wildly. Her face went beet red as she lifted one hand to massage her belly. Jean had taken the initiative to dunk behind his monitor. Only a slim hand was visible over the computer with a finger pointed directly at Harry.
'HARRY!'
The businessman groaned,
'You think that was me? Seriously. You do this every time.'
'Jean is too sweet.' Yana pouted, throwing the headset on her desk with a thud. Taking her feet off the table, she spun around to face the man. 'And you're early.'
'I'm ten minutes late!'
'Humph.' The woman folded her arms, 'You're late then. Try being on time for once.'
Getting out of her chair, Yana took a moment to brush the crumbs of her breakfast off her dungarees. Satisfied, she unhooked her headset before tying it around her neck loosely. Without even looking, she caught the bundle of keys that Jean hastily threw in her direction. Yana didn't even check if Harry was following her as she bounced over to the far door. Ignoring the clearly written "DO NOT ENTER", Yana stuck the keys into the lock and kicked the door open.
Harry followed her inside, waiting for the lights to flicker on.
'Everything else came through from SONY end of last week. I finished installing it yesterday. Jean is currently testing the interface.'
Eisenhower studied the equipment before him.
At first it was difficult to discern what was what in mass of cables. Taking a step back, Harry surveyed what appeared to be a motion tracking set-up. This was loosely attached overhanging an Infinadeck treadmill with the safety cage hewn off. A headset hung from a pulley system on the ceiling with what appeared to be numerous receptors attached to the headpiece. Everything seemed prepared for full-blown virtual reality immersion. There was even a haptic feedback suit was hanging over the side of the machine. SONY Dreamcatcher branding was stamped all over the material.
'Its...Impressive.' Harry said tactfully, not wanting to tell the truth about the mess in front of him. 'You think it will work?'
'No.' Yana spoke matter-of-factly. She'd bounded over the other side of the room and was tapping away at a laptop hooked up to the machine. A cooling system whirled to keep the hard drives running efficiently.
'You're having difficulties with the Neuralink?' The business man asked, scratched at the back of his neck. He was afraid to get too close to the machine unless Yana started getting over-protective of her handiwork.
'Sure. We've done a full study of the network that's homing James's via HORIZON. I haven't been able to link in any other human. Why the questions? We talked on this last week?'
Yana's Czech accent was strong as she scolded Harry.
'Yeah I know. You think it would work if we got someone with a similar neural oscillations?'
'If we had James outside, it would work. Someone similar? Maybe.'
'What about his brother?' Harry asked.
Yana stopped. She'd been typing away and the motion had ended so quickly that her hands remained frozen in place. Rolling back her shoulders, the woman ran her hand through her fuzzy ginger hair.
'Perhaps.' The computer programmer turned to her boss with her eyes narrowed. 'So you support this project now?'
'Well you've pulled Mojang in as our fourth biggest funder replacing Nintendo themselves. The other lab is cracking on with our emulation plans and already have most Microsoft content online. The big bosses are looking for our next venture and have their eyes on using the geological extrapolation models you've been creating.'
'That James and Baba have been creating.' Yana replied starkly, 'James is the geologist. About time you talked with him. I'll see about connecting you up.'
'Wait...now!?' Harry was taken aback as Yana stepped closer.
'Yes. You have been avoiding this for too long!'
Yana wasn't particularly tall, but was still imposing in her bright purple boots and denim dungarees. A dark expression clouded her face and a slight twitch developed in her left eye. Harry had been working with half-Czech woman long enough to know the signs. If he wanted to avoid another breakdown like last time, he'd have to do what she said. GOKIA couldn't afford another three weeks of cold contact between the two of them. Harry couldn't either for that matter.
Although they'd been working together for near two decades, their relationship wasn't entirely professional.
'Fine.' Harry sighed, 'Let's get this over and done with.'
Yana frowned, 'We made Horizon to have fun. You take things far too seriously.'
'I know. Less of the preaching. Let's get in there.'
The crazy computer programmer pretty much kicked him back out into her office, locking the door behind her. Pointing over to the other end of the room, Yana found another Dreamcatcher and flung it at the man. Harry caught the headset in his chubby hands, loosening the strap on habit to fit around his balding head. Unlike Yana's, these goggles hadn't been gruesomely adapted.
'I'll put your through. He's in Minecraft at the moment.'
'So much for top secret operations.' Harry muttered to himself, pulling the headset over his eyes. The rubber fitted itself to his face comfortably, though it still felt a little too snug for Harry. With the goggles on, no light from the outside world couldn't penetrate. After a few seconds the screen flashed on and Harry was immersed in the loading screen. The businessman turned his head a few times to adjust to the super-lightweight screen placed before his face. A buffering bar used the eye-tracking software to ensure it stayed within line of sight.
'Here we go!' Yana's voice was muffled slightly by the earphones in the headstrap.
Harry was thankful for the warning.
One moment he was sat in his comfortable office chair, the next moment he was falling out of the sky. The illusion was so complete Harry had to remind himself that this wasn't real - and that he needed to breath. The man was tempted to flail his arms as the ground came hurtling upwards to meet him. Resisting the urge to brace for impact, his computerised sprite hit the dirt with a cloud of blocky pixels. Harry shook his head and the world juddered with the replicated motion.
Looking around after acclimatizing, Eisenhower identified the pixelated world of Minecraft. It was a huge biome-like landscape spanning outwards towards the horizon in all directions. Blockish trees dotted a strangely beautiful landscape of flower-dotted rolling hills.
'NEW USER ENTERING THE GAME. WELCOME HARRY.' A retro-sounding mechanical voice announced his entrance to HORIZON.
'Hi Harrry.' A young male voice greeting me and I turned my head to find the person.
The figure approached with a diamond sword in their hand and a strange makeshift pixelated outfit. It was a little imposing to have the life-size character step right up to him, their head tilting subconsciously as they studied the newcomer.
Yana's voice sounded from both inside the virtual world and a few feet away across the room.
'Hey James. This is Harry Eisenhower. My boss.' The last was said with a feigned spitefulness which wasn't doing a good job of hiding the real thing. 'I'll transfer you over to a more comfortable location for a chat.'
Within an instant they were transported from the blocky landscape of Minecraft into something that resembled reality once more. Harry had to blink a few times in the headset to adapt to the onslaught of visual information. A few seconds later and the form of James materialised as a skinny teenager in ripped jeans and a black hoodie. His young face grinned widely in the simulation as he stuck out a hand. Harry only hesitated for a moment before shaking it firmly. In VR, his feeling of touch was rather subdued. Inspecting his virtual sprite, it didn't take long to find how much slimmer he was in the computer simulation. It was proof that he hadn't been online in a long time
'Nice to meet you Mr Eisenhower. Yana and Baba talk about you a lot.' At the mention of the AI, James turned to find companion only to find the artificial persona had disappeared.
'Wait? Where's Baba.'
'Uh..' For a moment Harry didn't want to tell the truth. 'She's doesn't show up when I'm in the sims.'
'She doesn't…wait? Why not?'
'It's complicated.' Harry admitted. Jame's eyes narrowed but he said nothing, turning to inspect his new reality. Harry did the same, surprised at just how real everything looked and felt. It was a feeling that never grew old. Upon first appearance their location looked very much like an average city street, albeit remarkably clean. Take another look however and the difference became obvious.
Harry groaned.
'Let me guess. Pokémon right?'
'Yeah! It's the best realm. Epic content, great community...and like, actual Pokémon! The worldbuilding is a little poor at times but I guess our work with Mojang will help with that. The topography is a little off at times...'
White fluffy clouds scudded across a bright blue sky overhead, the sun shining merrily on the wide street. Beach trees lines each side of the boulevard, with small independent shops tucked away between residential housing and gyms. A few people wandered the pavement and at this stage it was hard to tell who were actual gamers and who were NPCs.
The most startling thing were the Pokémon themselves. These were only semi-realistic but seemed to come alive in the game environment. A Lucario mooched across the road, window shopping with a hessian satchel. Opposite walked a trainer with a cyndaquil perched on her shoulder. The fire Pokémon eyed me as they passed by. The world was so complete that a flock of Pidgey even flew overhead, calling out across the sounds of traffic and businesses hard at work.
In nearly all respects, HORIZON was a program that made a perfect version of reality.
James saw things a bit differently. For someone actually living inside the games themselves, it was no wonder he was starting to pick up flaws. The computer generated version had become his reality. And he'd mentioned issues in the topography - of all things!
Harry was embarrassed at just how uneasy that thought made him feel.
They walked down the street for a minute, the businessman subtly watching the teenager out of the corner of his eye. Harry wasn't studying the boy as such, it was more of an assessment. In truth, the older man wasn't sure he could trust the image that Babbage was showing him.
Eisenhower heaved out a sigh in the VR headset, not sure if it registered in the computer.
'So. World-building?' he asked softly,
'Yep. Like the actual environment itself.' James reiterated excitedly, turning to the older man. 'The textures are crap in natural environments, especially the natural landscape. Everything Is basically soil on granite with a few hills and that's it. You've got loose sand in places settled at angles over thirty degrees. It's jarring.'
'You're a geologist right?' Harry asked, making an effort to highlight the present tense in the question. That was something he'd encouraged Yana and anybody else dealing with the project to adopt. It was too easy to think of James as being disconnected from the real world. However, given his talents and enthusiasm with proving that he wasn't really dead, the kid was surprisingly helpful.
'Sure am. I did geography and sustainable geoscience for my A-levels'
'You know you're shit then.'
James openly laughed, reddening slightly at the backhanded compliment.
'Yeah I guess I do. I don't want to be a dick about it but you could do with a lot more improvements in that field. You can't just stick granite everywhere!'
'We're getting there.' Harry agreed wistfully, gazing across the cityscape. Even though he was still sat in Yana's office, it felt a world away. The images painted before his eyes made everything appear far too real. Sounds and scents were also being processed through the mask, the latest addition to Dreamcatcher. Scents of diesel, coffee, and fresh bread was somehow homely.
James's adjusted his cap, sticking his hands into his pockets.
'So what's the plan with all this.' The teenager nodded down the street. A couple of block away a Machamp was guiding traffic. Turning his eyes to Harry, James was surprised to find the man watching him intently.
Harry looked away quickly before clearing his throat.
'Well. With HORIZON we hope to get more playable environments up from older game formats. The long term plans is for better immersion. And, well...for you. Uh, make sure you enjoy yourself. The HORIZON platform was built for gaming after all.'
'It's hard to believe what's happened sometimes.' James admitted softly,
'Don't you worry...we all feel the same way.' Harry laughed roughly, going to scratch at his eyes before forgetting the mask was in the way. 'It opens up a lot of questions which we realise people aren't really ready for.'
'Huh. They're not the ones living it.'
The boy eyed an Ampharos walking over the street with their trainer.
'And? What you think?'
James's mouth dropped open. Turning to Harry sharply, it was hard to tell whether the boy was disgusted or elated.
'Well, finally! You know how long I've been waiting for that question? It's like Yana, Mark, and even Baba have been too afraid to ask. Given that I'm effectively dead and stuck inside a simulation, people don't seem to be talking about it much. It's all about whose enjoying virtual reality, not how he's enjoying it.'
Harry laughed again, finding the boy's sincere rant somehow incredibly amusing.
'What!?' James demanded, stopping to cross his arms.
'I'm sorry.' The businessman had to blink the tears out of his eyes, 'Please go ahead.'
'It's not what I expected…' He huffed, rolling his shoulders, 'But then I didn't expect to wake up inside a computer. It's not that different to reality I guess, except virtual reality can be nearly anything imaginable. So that's pretty rad. Though, I still haven't got around to being a Pokémon trainer…'
For a moment James swept his vision across the landscape in front of him.
'To be honest, I try not to think about my situation too logically. It's a bit crazy.' He admitted at last, lowering his tone. 'Hanging out with Baba has been cool….though I guess sometimes it's hard to separate where I stop and all the computer stuff begins. It's like being in a dream.'
'Good analogy.' Harry agreed 'You're basically a living proof of idealism. Beiser would've loved this shit.'
Upon seeing James's blank face, the man felt the need to explain himself.
'The virtual world is immaterial but does that make it any less valid?'
James shrugged, apparently not one for philosophical discussions.
'Yana told me you're the person who started GOKIA with her, and the one pushing for uploading. It was something to do with having robots in space? Is that related to the ESA project?'
'JAXA actually.' Harry explained, using the acronym for the Japanese space program, 'Yeah Yana pretty much built Horizon and designed Baba, though we started GOKIA together back in the day. With the expansion of industry into space, I tried to sell the application of uploaded-humans organising robotic missions to the UN. But nobody trusts machines anymore - even ones under human control. You're the first uploader and unless anything changes, it might stay that way for a while.'
They continued walking, passing a train station which was rapidly filling with passengers. A small flock of Pikipeks were chattering on the tiled roof. Many of the public were young adults, and at least half of them were Pokémon trainers. They were easy to spot due to multi-coloured Pokeballs visible on their belts - not to mention how they tried to avoid catching each other's eyes. Most wore caps of some kind. Maybe it was a Pokémon thing.
'So here we are.' James sighed, 'A world of pure imagination.'
'That's the slogan.' Harry agreed, 'Though in part you have your parents to thank for that. They signed you up for this. A real blessing in disguise.'
'Me and Mark have talked a lot about it.' The boy referred to conversations with the only other technician who worked in Yana's programming group. 'Do you know what's going on? He said something about GOKIA regulations meant they didn't know I was...well...'
'Enjoying life? Yeah. Things are a bit difficult at the moment. Another court case had just opened in fact. I've got a meeting this afternoon on it.'
James nodded sadly,
Harry studied the teenager out of the corner of his eye. The first uploader, James was a normal boy three years ago until a car took him off his bike on a main road. Now he was simply a bundle electrons shooting around a hard drive. Then again, was that really much different to neurons firing inside a brain? Living inside a computer might have been like living in a sandbox version of reality, but that didn't come without downsides.
It was clear that James's connection to the activities of the real world was intangible at best.
'Tell you what. I'll put a file together on everything and send it through. It'll give you some bedtime reading...and you can keep up with what's going on in the world.'
'You can do that?' The boy asked,
'I'm chief executive of GOKIA, I can do anything you want me to kiddo.'
James frowned for a while, clearly thinking over the offer. A long moment later and he spoke up,
'You think you can make me a Pokémon trainer? They've got this cool scheme but to sign up you need...well you need to be 'up top' if you know what I mean. The guidelines are pretty strict.'
'What's the issue?'
'You basically need a subscribed account, which you have to pay for to be on their system. Being a subscriber means I'm allowed to own Pokémon and can buy Pokéballs. To stop multiple accounts spamming the servers, Pokémon link an account to both an IP address and a passport number. Of course, I don't really have the latter anymore.'
The teenager must have noticed Harry's blank expression for he grinned sheepishly before explaining,
'I'm technically dead right?'
Eisenhower let out a sigh, knowing that this wasn't a good time to bring up his parents. The Lovell family were presently preparing for a court case to prove that very issue. Even though the upload was finally successful, both parents were denying the fact. Meanwhile, GOKIA also faced a shareholder suing for conflicted interest. Even the Britannica Government were starting to sniff around the business - anything to throw a few million on top of current taxes.
'I'll see what I can do.'
'Oh and updates would be cool as well.' James remembered, 'Also some first-hand news would be appreciated. Would a digital subscription to The Times would work?'
Harry gave him a thumbs up and James grinned,
'It's not like they can send me a paper copy anymore.' He admitted.
END
EOrRRoR, as some of you may have noticed, is a unusual blend of past and present. I'm trying to keep things as fast paced as I can. That being said, this fiction involves fairly prominent world-building and shout-outs to both oldschool and rising technologies. I've mentioned things involved with current VR technology, as well as the Neuralink Corporation (and others) which may need a few google searches. This isn't necessary for the story, but might make some scenes more enjoyable. It also keeps the story within the realms of 'hard' science fiction, a more personal bonus for myself.
For interest alone, the Sea Dragoness is a modernised version of the conceptualized 'Sea Dragon' designed by Aerojet in 1962. For this story, launches provide material for the construction of an orbital ring in space, which is an extension of the 'space elevator' idea. Some of you make recognise the same concept from BLACKOUT. The storyline is set in 1973 where (following various humanitarian and political strain) the UK has split with the south of Britain (along with some areas of mainland Europe) forming the new country/state of Britannica. Technology hasn't changed much beyond becoming more environmentally friendly. Everyone carries smartphones, though these are now called 'softscreens' along with anything else that is 'touchscreen'.
Much of the story is set on the island of Jersey, which is a member of the channel islands between present-day France and England. Otherwise, any other jargon is explained in the story itself. Enjoy!