Ravens of Eternity

161 Time Off, Pt The sandy white beach seemed to stretch for miles up and down the coast. On one side of that beach was a crystal clear and sparkling blue ocean. On the other was a sandy stretch of land that turned into a rolling grassland.

High above them was a bright blue sky filled with clumps of fluffy white clouds. To call it picturesque was an understatement.

Eva and Miko stood on the beach and looked in separate directions, enjoying the sights. They were joined by Pelli and one of his friends from Bellum Aeterna.

And although the four of them stood on a beautiful beach, none wore swimsuits. In fact, they were dressed in their regular street clothes. Eva wore her typical black long coat while Miko wore her light blue and grey ensemble. Pelli wore earthy dark browns with some brass accents. His friend, like Miko, wore clothes that were more youthful and filled with color.

Eva walked over to Pelli and leaned on him lightly.

“Thanks for bringing Pio,” she said. “I think he and Miko could get along.”

“I hope so,” he replied. “I mean, their ages are pretty close, right? So they should have some stuff in common.”

“Um. Technically they’re about the same age, yeah.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

.....

A number of gulls cried as they circled overhead. They all glanced up at them, and watched as the birds adjusted their circle as the air currents changed. As the wind shifted, so too did their formation. As a group, they swayed back and forth to maintain their position high above.

One of the birds split off from the group to face the wind, but instead of flying off, it simply rode the current and floated in place. It was as though it was surfing the sky itself. Its head looked around, as though it was trying to orient itself.

After a moment of tranquility, it banked off to the right and dipped down towards the beach. It glided serenely to a nearby dock, where dozens of other gulls seemingly enjoyed land-based bliss. Feeding and fornicating and defecating, no doubt.

Eva wondered if they did all those things in the air, too.

“Isn’t it incredible?” she asked. “The technologies it took to make all this is just crazy astounding.”

She bent her knees and dug her fingers into the warm sand. She picked up a handful of it, but allowed the grains to slip between her fingers easily. As she did so the brine of the ocean water drifted into her nose as the wind pushed lightly against her.

“It all feels so real, you know?” she continued. “The sights, sounds, smells. Hell, even the wind feels spot-on. Like, it changes. And those birds! They’re like completely real birds.”

“This simulation is almost exactly like in that old television show,” said Miko. “I remember one episode where the ship’s crew fought against a devious and brilliant literary character. Twice.”

“Ah, I never watched it... Weren’t they holograms though? You can’t touch projections – they’re just light.”

Miko shook her head, then walked over to a nearby palm tree and put her hand on its bark. She felt its ridges on her fingers. As she did so, the tree itself swayed lightly in the wind.

“In the show, the holograms were somehow interactive,” she said. “You could touch them, and they could affect you in return. Here, the technology is similar. The world is projected on the walls around us, while the tangible reality inside the room is augmented by nanites.”

“What, like, nanites are making the sand? The tree?” asked Eva. “The wind?”

“Exactly. They may even enter your body and affect your neural pathways to affect your perception. We may not even be touching anything at all, and it is all in our minds. Our senses, triggered and directed from an external source.”

“This is way too much for me,” said Pio. “Can’t we just enjoy the beach like other tourists?”

“Speaking of tourists,” interjected Pelli, “this beach is kinda quiet and boring. It ain’t a beach unless there’s kids making castles and a whole lot of pale people getting sunburnt.”

“You can add a few,” Miko said. “Simply command it to add what you want. I only loaded us into a base template.”

Pelli rubbed his chin as he thought about what he wanted. What he expected at a typical beach. Then again, he didn’t want to mar the whole thing with too much stuff, too many tourists. That would completely ruin the scenery.

Just like in real life.

“Okay, um, Computer,” he said. “Command: add, uh, tourists. Half a dozen, just randomly doing stuff.”

There was a chime all around them, to denote that the command was received. Another rang out a few moments later, to say that it was approved.

Within seconds, a number of people materialized out of thin air, as though they were stitched together out of some invisible ether, atom by atom.

They were all around the beach, doing their own thing. One was swimming, another tanning. Two were walking along the beach, while two others were walking a dog.

Pelli was completely astonished at the sight. He marveled at how each of the nanite-printed tourists were brought to life. And once they were all completed, they began to animate and move.

The dog barked and ran at some of the seagulls on the dock, who flew away squawking with anger in response. The pup’s two owners simply watched and laughed at its antics.

The two that were walking down the beach were having a merry conversation about their lives, whatever that actually looked like. They even laughed at whatever humor there was to be had. But it wasn’t just what they said – it was in the tones of their voice, the gestures in their hands.

The way they smiled, and walked, and interacted with everything around them.

It felt all too real.

Pelli walked up to them with a scrutinizing gaze, which the two were understandably freaked out by. Their faces were filled with surprise and incredulity as Pelli simply got closer and closer to them.

And when he poked one of them, it yelped and jumped back.

“Quit bugging me!” she cried, then scurried away quickly.

Pelli heard her utter ‘can you believe that creep?’ to her companion. He could hardly believe it. They were just like real people. The cloth of her shirt felt real, the skin and the fat and the muscle and the bone...

“This is all well and good,” said Eva, “but I’ve honestly seen enough ocean for a good long while. Let’s switch it up a bit, huh? DRS Controller. Command: set location, date, time. Zermatt, Switzerland, Earth, Sol System. Circa 1600, early morning.”

The two tones rang out, moments after each other, and the room began to shift around them. The beautiful white beach, crystalline ocean, and pristine sky faded away. The sand flitted off, along with all the tourists, seagulls, trees, everything.

Even the heat of the sun faded away.

They were left in a bright white room with seemingly no end. It didn’t last long however, as the scene of a beautiful green valley faded into view all around them. The lush green valley was surrounded by snowy white mountains all around.

Before, the room was warm, but the temperature dropped significantly. More than that, the air thinned and their ears popped as the room simulated the change in atmospheric pressure and elevation.

A lazy brook babbled near their feet. Its waters were so clear that they could all see the rocky soil underneath it. Pelli bent down to it, cupped water in his hand, and drank it.

It was cold, crisp, mountain spring water. He could even taste the different minerals in it.

“Holy fucking shit,” he muttered.

Eva followed the brook with her eyes, and it seemed to trickle down to a small settlement near the bottom of the valley. Although it would eventually become a vast resort town, in the first few centuries of its life, it was a simple farming village.

There were a few buildings down at the bottom, and a number of tilled farmlands right along the mountains behind them. It was a spectacular sight, especially when set against the backdrop of the Alps.

The wind was fresh, the grass was green, the waters were clear, and everything was almost completely unmarred by humanity.

Similar to the beach, picturesque could hardly describe it.

“This might be a room inside a building inside a city,” said Eva, “but this feels so incredibly freeing.”

“I think that after spending four months in prison, anyone would feel free. No matter where they are, anyway,” said Pelli.

“I mean, I’ve been in nature before. I’m sure you did too. This feels... like it’s more than that. As though it’s more natural than that. Is that weird to think that?”

“Maybe they made it feel more natural to make up for wrecking it.”

The four took the time and looked around them yet again, completely awestruck by what they were experiencing. They all felt the power of the land around them, even though they knew it wasn’t even real.

The reality of simulation technology hit them hard at that moment. Once it passed from their systems, Eva broke the silence first.

“We honestly weren’t all that restricted,” she said. “Sure, we were prisoners, but Miko and I were able to go around town. Nowhere too far like another planet, or even another city. Of course.”

“Nn,” added Miko. “We ate so many great foods, shopped for all kinds of things and clothes and gadgets. Saw so many fights.”

“Man, you two sound like you just came back from a vacation,” said Pelli. “And here you are having another one so soon.”

A cold wind whipped around them as they talked, which made them pull their coats closer to their bodies.

Eva inhaled deeply and took in the fresh, cold wind. Exhilaration swept through her system as the pristine air mixed in with her blood.

“You’re right,” she said. “We’ve done enough sightseeing, and it’s time to go do something interesting. DRS Controller. Command: pause program, show exit.”

The world around them froze: birds up in the sky, smoke in the chimneys, water in the brook – all stopped as though it was all a painting.

They all walked towards an opening that materialized over a dozen meters away, and stepped through to the hallways outside. There, they were presented with a number of doors, with each one leading to another sim room.

But instead of heading into another room, they went out to the grand foyer where a number of attendants helped guests build out their experiences.

Up on the far wall opposite the entrance was the company’s name – DynamicReality Simulations. Underneath it was its slogan, which was a rather simple ‘Realize Your True Vision’.

The four of them walked through the exit, and out into the city beyond.

There, the familiar sight of Times Square filled their eyes. Except the buildings were three or four times taller than they were in their old lives. They stretched so far up that they practically blotted out the sun at any hour outside of noon.

Traffic that consisted of hovercars and hoppers literally filled the sky above every street, on multiple levels. From below, it all seemed like a barely contained chaos.

Worse, it was raining.

“Where to next?” asked Miko.

“Hmm, I dunno. Is there something like DRS, but, you know, more fun?” asked Pelli.

“Ooh, yeah!” chimed in Pio. “How about we get into some awesome hologames? Those have to exist, right?”