2401, the young city of “Rakisphere” was built within a half-subterranean
globe that was only visible as a dome on the surface.
Everyone who lived in Rakisphere was an employee of Cyber Tree Inc. and
entrance into the city was only permitted to employees. The majority of
the employees were members of the Cybernaut Worker’s Union (CWU) and over
three quarters of the people who lived in Rakisphere were employed in
some sort of cybernautics job.
Cybernautics was long used in many industries at the time, especially ones
where heavy machinery was required. The days of manually controlling heavy
machinery on site were long gone.
Cybernautics is the use of virtual reality in any task to reach a goal.
Two networks independent of each other were created; one network housed the
software for corporations and their intellectual and electronic properties
created and used for economical solutions and industry while the second
network housed the software and intellectual and electronic properties used
for personal entertainment such as virtual gaming, film and music, video
phones and a plethora of other uses not fit for co-existence within the
industrial network.
With two independent networks the risks of rogue hackers interrupting the
corporate systems was greatly reduced. In fact, this was a main reason for
the creation of Rakisphere. The growing concerns in the CWU for privacy
protection and guaranteeing their intellectual and electronic rights
in the shadow of increasingly crafty cyber-pirates eventually led to the need
to separate the bulk of Cybernautics employees into a detached system for the
duration of their time working.
Rakisphere was highly secured. Workers would often live there for several
months at a time without days off then take a month or two of leave at a
time. Cybernautics was an industry of choice as the pay was extraordinary and
the room for career advancement was very wide and very flexible. Cybernautics
rivaled health care in growth and innovation.
A young man named Tresdin had graduated Cybernautics University with honors.
He applied for work at Cyber Tree Inc. then soon was employed in a
construction division of a subsidiary of the corporation. He learned how to
control several heavy machines used for building condos or building
apartment buildings. He joined the CWU and rented a house in the city of
Rakisphere.
One day at work he logged into his virtual reality machine then uploaded the
software required for the day’s job. When all systems were a go the mainframe
paused, disallowing him to proceed with his work. The virtual scene melted
away and he appeared inside of a massive virtual ark with a great many others
who experienced the same error.
Everyone else on the ark were wearing the same CTI uniforms, much to
Tresdin’s relief as he could ascertain that the error was an internal systems
issue and that meant that the problem should be solved fairly soon. He asked
around at the other CTI employees whether they knew much about this sort of
thing. Some couldn’t reply as they were unaware of him within their own
virtual realities.
Finally one girl with the name of Oletta replied to him when he asked
her what was going on. She informed him that this was only the second time
she experienced this error in the whole 33 years she was employed at CTI.
In the center area of the mainly empty virtual ark an elaborate mess of
free-floating blocky shapes materialized. The shapes reformed themselves
while the virtual object continuously rotated. The shapes appeared to
follow a mathematical pattern but the overall look of the visual glitch
had a counter-intuitive randomness to it that only a calculated error
could realize.
Tresdin asked Oletta what the blocky image was. She said that she didn’t
know and she cautioned him to avoid going near it as with the previous
error that she told him about the same glitch appeared on that ark as well
and an employee got too close to it and he vanished inside the ark. When the
error was repaired the CTI management found him in his work area hours
following the issue with his work software running and he was suited up and
attached to the virtual reality machine. He was brought to the medical
division where it was declared that he was brain dead. To this day he
continues to live in the CTI med quarters while scientists research his
issues in the belief they can bring him back.
Tresdin and Oletta remained where they stood silently for another several
minutes before they were booted out of the ark glitch. Tresdin logged out
of his virtual reality machine and took a break before calling the tech
support division to inform them of the systems error. They sent him on leave
until the issue was repaired and a full systems double-check was performed
to rid the software of any other errors.
Tresdin was nervous about the issue but with the assurance of Oletta’s
experience with this certain sort of virtual glitch he wouldn’t need to
worry so much about it happening often. He hadn’t worked with CTI for very
long and he wasn’t informed of this system’s error. CTI had seemed to really
be thorough in their rigorous training process so he wondered how they could
leave a serious thing like system errors out of the new recruits program.
He went to his house and went to bed early, confident that the tech support
specialists would take care of the systems glitches. It was a total mystery
though why it was an ark that appeared with the error and the riddle of the
mathematical shape wad that free-floated in the center area kept his
imagination active well into the blurred nebulous of dreamland as it engulfed
him.
MORE SHORTS IN MY BLOG:
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/entry.php?14954-Shorts
GOTHIC FIRES IN THE DUNGEON OF SID KURBEROS
http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?82239-Gothic-Fires-in-the-Dungeon-of-Sid-Kurberos
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