Chapter 2 - Down the Rabbit Hole
The first thing I noticed was that the walls in here were not the same bland off-white as the walls out in the hallway, the same sort of nondescript beige you see in every office ever. These were a darker grey with a hint of blue, the tone and color emphasized by recessed lighting along the edges of the ceiling. It gave the room an almost hypnotic feel, like it was naptime. But in less time than it took for that to actually register, I saw something far, far more interesting.
In the center of the room was a huge black metal contraption, gleaming despite the low light. It was an enormous gyroscope, easily large enough to hold a person inside. And immediately, I knew that whatever this ride was supposed to be, it was going to be awesome.
I walked toward it slowly – curiosity, excitement, and nervousness all mingling in my gut, in a kind of high-octane emotional soup. There was a treadmill at the base, and crossbars that bent around an open area in the middle, shiny black carabiners dangling at regular intervals. The entire contraption was threaded with what must have been thousands of tiny wires, and when I looked closer, I could see that by each clip dangled a pair of leads.
The door opened behind me, and I turned, almost instinctively placing my hands behind my back. A man and a woman walked in, both dressed in a sort of professional-casual gear with just the faintest edge to it, hip but nonthreatening. When it comes to Disney, nothing is left to chance, I realized.
The man approached me briskly, holding out his hand. I shook it. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said. "I'm Dave; we spoke on the phone?" I nodded and introduced myself to him and shook the woman's hand as well. "This is Kiara, one of the other Imagineers on the project. She'll be getting you geared up."
We exchanged hellos, and Kiara walked over to another corner of the room, opening a door I hadn't noticed. I was curious about what she was doing, but Dave had asked me if I liked Star Wars, and so we nerded out about that for a little while. He then explained that since Disney was 'partnered with' LucasArts, they were working on a number of properties, and this was one of them. "It's a re-imagining of an online Star Wars computer game created by Bioware," he explained.
"The Old Republic," I responded with a nod.
"Exactly," Dave said, and I found myself wondering just how much he knew about my interest in the game and my activity in the fandom. He went on to explain that through the use of the gyroscope and an interactive response suit, the player would be fully inserted into the world of the game.
Kiara had returned with what appeared to be a duvet tucked under one arm and a mass of straps and silver rings in the other. She and Dave helped me get latched into the strappy-thing, which was a harness – the carabiners on the gyroscope would latch onto the silver rings and help control my movements. Next I pulled on a thin white pair of gloves. I could just barely feel the wires running through the material; Kiara said they would respond both to my movement and the game world, and provide sensory feedback.
The quilted jumpsuit (including booties!) acted in much the same way. There were button-holes where we pulled the various rings through. Finally, we smoothed my hair back and I pulled a thin white hood over my head. It was the same material as the gloves, and had a single opening on the front for my eyes. At first I felt a bit stifled, having something over my nose and mouth, but I soon realized I had no difficulty breathing or talking, and I began to relax.
Kiara helped me walk over to the gyroscope and step up onto the treadmill. I kept my hands on the frame for balance while she clipped the carabiners onto the metal rings that protruded from my jumpsuit. She stepped away, and began operating a few controls at the side of the gyroscope. I could feel the harness straps being pulled tight, but I still had complete freedom of movement, as they'd said.
Dave had me practice a few basic gestures and moves – walking, running, jumping, reaching, turning, all in various ways and combinations. The gear might have made it difficult, but the sensors picked up on my body's responses and the gyroscope augmented each motion. The treadmill had some flex to it as well, and in a few minutes, I could even do a full cartwheel. Interestingly enough, the cage moved with me, so that the treadmill was always below my feet, but my gloves stiffened and pushed in a way that made it feel like my hands were actually pushing off the ground as my feet flew overhead. Kiara explained that once I put on the goggles and the helmet (safety first, of course) it would complete the illusion, and I would quickly become used to interacting with what I sensed and saw through the machine.
By now I couldn't help grinning broadly. I told them I was ready, and Dave brought over the goggles and the helmet and helped me secure them – my fingers in the gloves made the last few latches a bit challenging. He asked again if I was ready, and I nodded. A moment later, the room around me slowly darkened, until I couldn't see anything at all. I knew, however, that it was actually the goggles, and that he and Kiara were watching me closely.
"Welcome to your fantasy immersion experience," said a new voice. It was female-ish and impersonal but still somehow familiar. GladOS? HAL? Almost – no, it was Victoria, from my old text-to-speech program! "To assist you in transitioning between scenes, your audio, visual, and motor response unit will reduce tension and provide signals that will encourage your mind to relax. Beginning transition now." The voice went silent, and the pull at my harness seemed to loosen a bit. It felt like I was floating. I tilted my toes down and thought I could still feel the treadmill below my feet, but the booties made it hard to tell.
"Please count back from one hundred," said Victoria.
I waited for awhile, but nothing happened. Finally I let out a sigh. All right, all right. Was I supposed to say it out loud? I felt kind of silly, but I figured it couldn't hurt. "One hundred. Ninety-nine. Ninety-eight. Ninety-seven. Ninety-six." I continued counting, feeling myself relax into the comfort of the pattern.
It was still a bit disorienting when I blinked, and found myself lying down. There was a pillow under my head, and blankets wrapped around me, but I wasn't in my room. I knew I'd been having an incredibly vivid dream, but in my groggy, sleep-addled state I couldn't quite get it to cohere.
I looked around, trying to make sense of things. White blankets. White sheets. White lights… crap, this is going to cost a bundle. No… no, wait, I didn't remember going to the hospital.
When I went to pull the blankets back and saw my hands, I had a moment of panic before memories suddenly rushed back and I let out a sigh of relief. Victoria had actually taken me through a brief simulation, followed by the process of selecting a character. I'd chosen a smuggler, naturally, and even gone with a Mirialan, like Vacy. Only by this point I'd written enough about her that it felt kind of weird to pretend to be her, like she was her own person or something. So I'd chosen the name Aurielle. Maybe it was a little fancier than made sense for a smuggler, but it was pretty and feminine, and I kind of liked it. Also it was the first thing that had popped into my mind, and I really didn't want to waste any of my time agonizing over character creation. I mean, I could be living in TOR!
In fairness, the developers had greatly increased the complexity of the appearance generator, and it was actually kind of tempting to stay there and muck around with it a bit, but I was anxious to get started. I chose a deep green skin tone and tattoos around the eyebrows, pale blue eyes – icy, perhaps; maybe I'd make Aurielle a bit of a badass – and a body type that mimicked mine. Well, mostly. Bigger boobs, smaller waist, because, hell, why not?!
The more I remembered, the more my heart raced. After character creation, everything had gone dark again, followed by the iconic title screen and music and scrolling text. I was briefly glad I'd used the bathroom back at the resort, before Jamie had picked me up, because I swear I would have wet myself, I was that excited. I had told Dave that I'd played the MMO, and so he'd told me he was loading the original smuggler storyline.
That was part of why I was confused. This wasn't the opening I was expecting – wasn't I supposed to land on Ord Mantell first? Dave had said they'd worked on different storylines and updated the character AIs, but I was expecting to be either on my ship or in Viidu's warehouse. What was going on?
Footsteps approached outside the doorway. I turned to look just as someone entered, and I froze as I recognized who it was.
"Hello, there," said Rogun the Butcher.
[AN: And so it comes full circle! I hope you enjoyed the frame story, and that it wasn't too tech-y or ridiculous. I'll go ahead and admit right now that the only research I did was checking the spelling of 'carabiner' - Google says I've got it right, but Firefox is underlining it here on the Edit Document window so I'm not sure. :P
If you notice anything that needs to be fixed, PLEASE let me know. As always, reviews welcomed and encouraged!]