Chapter 13
In typical military fashion, we fell into a single line behind Leonard as we followed him to the first floor of the dorm. Instead of exiting and taking us to another building, he instead stopped at a door in the middle of the first floor, and unlocked it holding it open. “Please, come inside.”
As we filed into the room, there was a palpable feeling of excitement. There had been a lot of speculation about what was behind all the “locked” rooms within the dorms. Some of us figured maybe they were sleeping quarters for some of the MTI’s, maybe equipment closets, or who knew what else. It was now obvious to me these must have been server rooms and rig rooms, larger versions of the personal rigs we would be assigned whenever we graduated from here.
It hadn’t dawned on me at the time, but with how many folks entered the military every year they needed a cheap, efficient way to train everyone in a controlled environment. The room we walked into was lined, in a circle, by ten separate rig stations.
Knowledge is power my friends, and knowing what these were, and the purpose of what all the components were being engrained in us from tireless hours of study these past six weeks, it was no longer a thing of horror to me. What child me saw as a horrifying octopus of wires and tubes attached to my father, I now know what everything controlled, and what purpose they held.
There were assistants next to each station, all wearing what looked like hazmat suits. This seemed to me to be a bit much for personal protection, but I guess when you do this as a job, you’ve probably been sprayed by some terrible bodily fluids from time to time. The assistants pointed to us one at a time, assigning us to our stations, and as we took our places next to the domed treadmills, Leonard took position in the middle of the room and cleared his throat to speak again.
“Welcome Trainees! This has been a long time coming, everything you have done these past almost six weeks has led to this moment. You are about to hook into Babylon for the very first time, and I could not be more excited!
Now, while I know you have read about everything that is about to happen, in addition to the wonderful doctors and nurses covering the basics, we will go over everything as it happens. For the next week, you will have an assistant assigned to you to help with any issues you may run into. However, your last week here at Basic Training, you will be on your own. That is YOUR time to show us what you have learned.”
Leonard nodded, and the assistants walked up to each trainee they were assigned. Mine walked around the domed treadmill, and held out his hand. He was probably 5’ 7”, judging from how his head barely reached my chest. His black skin had a creamy complexion, and while all I could see is his face, he had very pleasant features - a thin, rounded nose, his hair closely cropped to his scalp, and a thin goatee around his mouth.
I took his hand, and he had a firm grip. “Hey there, my names Diondre. Its great to meet you Trainee…?”
I smiled at him, “ They call me Trainee Stupid Ass Name the Third, but you can call me James.”
Diondres laugh was the type that would make everyone else who heard it follow suit, heartfelt and deep. When he looked back up into my face, I could see tears in the corners of his eyes. “Thats a first! Great joke James, we will get along just fine. Please step up onto the treadmill, and we can get started.”
I nodded at Diondre, and took the step up onto the domed treadmill. It wasn’t a treadmill in a traditional sense; it was actually made of a type of electro-conductive glass. After climbing onto it, you needed to change out your shoes for special “socks” that had haptic feedback sensors, and anti-friction properties which meant as you stepped up onto the “edges” of the dome, your feet would slide down back toward the middle, continuing until you stopped. This allowed you to use your natural walk stride and travel within the virtual world without actually physically moving anywhere.
I swapped into the special socks, getting the feel for them. They felt kind of weird; they were split onto each individual toe, taking the shape of your natural foot. They were super soft, and it didn’t take but a few minutes to get used to them. The reason why they had haptic pads on them was still a mystery to me, why would our feet need to feel things?
The next step was changing into the webbed suit. I took off my fatigues, getting down into my underwear. This is probably the most awkward part because we weren’t all males in here, and seeing the couple girls with us stip down into their underwear… I had to purposely make sure I didn’t focus on them. Six weeks is a long time for someone in their mid 20’s, and if you’ve ever been there… you know even a stiff breeze makes things move.
As I stripped down, Diondre handed up the webbed suit. Made of electro-conductive neuroplastics, with feedback sensors built directly into them, these were made so that you could feel the virtual world like it was our own. Around the pelvic area, there were far less sensors, from what our literature said “it interfered with natural bodily functions” in the real world. The “diaper” as it was called colloquially, was where the waste removal tubes were attached.
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“Ok, don’t be a modest man, take off the skivvies and get into the suit.” I heard Diondre say from the side as I looked at the suit.
“Er…” I looked around, spying everyone else basically nude and getting dressed, again making sure I wasn’t eyeballing the wrong… forms. Being a guy is hard, you know?
I stripped down quickly, and squeezed into the suit. The webbing, a fine mesh covering every inch from the top of my neck to the special socks on my feet, felt… oddly comfortable. Like a skin tight blanket hugging every inch of you.
As I finished slipping in, Diondre showed me how to hook the socks to the small connectors at my ankles, and then where the web suit connected to the Main Computer Interface - which he called the MCI. The MCI was what ran the suit and treadmill, and was our interface to the servers of Babylon. It was more of less the core of the system, and if it didn’t work, none of the rest of it did either.
Next was hooking in my biological monitors and tubes. First came the wrist tubes; the left one was the IV vitamin port, and the right one was my “water influx” port. These ran down the outside of the suit, hooked into little loops, with the end connectors attaching to the ports in my body. This part was a bit uncomfortable, as it felt limiting and like I would tear them out with any movement.
“Don’t worry,” Diondre was advising me. “Those ports they put into your body really hook these things in. It takes a LOT of force to take them out on accident, and remember to twist and pull them out when you need to take them out; they don’t just “plug in”, you know? It can cause a lot of damage.”
I felt a bit bad at that statement, thinking back to my childhood. But I shook it away quickly.
“For today, we won’t be hooking you to your food port. And your other ports are currently not for use; those are for future upgrades.”
I paused at that, “Upgrades?”
Diondre nodded, looking a bit confused. “They didn’t tell you about those ports? Thats odd… I know they recently updated the curriculum, I’ll have to make sure to report that up. Yeah. Any future augments, upgrades, and implants you get, they may require port access. This could be for things such as coolant fluid, a hard line output port to the MCI, or other things. Theres a huge variety of upgrades some of the veterans get, all with different purposes within Babylon.”
“But why… would someone modify their body for this?” I asked incredulously.
Diondre snickered, looking me up and down. “You already have. And you would be surprised how hardcore some people are for this stuff. Plus, its not like those upgrades don’t provide some perks in the real world.”
I thought on that a second. I guess that made sense, but it didn’t ease the ball in my stomach at that information.
Finally, Diondre handed me the “helmet” of the rig. Helmet might be a strong word for it. It was a web of neural sensors, arranged to go all over the cranium, from the top of the neck, wrapping over the ears and ending around the sideburn area. On the front was a pair of glasses, which provided 180 degree view within the world of Babylon. It was all pitch black, which stood in contrast to the web suit and socks which were white. But I wasn’t about to judge the cosmetic look of the get up; it all looked super silly from the outside.
As I got ready to insert my head into the helmet, Diondre raised his hand to pause me.
“As soon as you are hooked in, you will be in Babylon. Fair warning; it is jarring at first. I will be able to communicate with you through the built in voice chat channels, and I will be able to see what you are seeing through this.”
He raised a set of glasses much like what was on the helmet.
“But I cannot feel what you feel, and I will not be able to interact with anything. I can, and will, provide advice and guidance. I’m here to orient you. So close your eyes before logging in, take a deep breath, and once you open your eyes you will instantly log in. Oh, and lastly, the first hour is just between you and Theodore. This is something that the system insists on… it personally likes to introduce itself and get to know everyone who joins.”
Diondre shrugged, “Any last questions before you go?”
I thought for a second, “I know I’m not gonna be eating, but what about the bathroom? I know these tubes are hooked to me, are you gonna… uh… hear me like squeezing a shit out?”
Diondre smiled again, “Don’t you worry. Its a strange thing, the body just… “does” it when your not paying attention. Its almost like your mind is disconnected from that part of yourself. And if theres an accident, like I messed up the hook ups, or the suit your in is too big or small… well, thats what these hazmat suits are for. Oh, also, if… WHEN, you die in the game, you will shit and piss yourself. I don’t understand it, your body acts just like it died in real life. Its super fucking weird but…”
I looked shocked at him, “For real? Well, I guess I better not ever die, shitting myself doesn’t sound fun.”
Diondre laughed again, “Good luck with that. But it is vacuum operated.”
He pointed to the individual bio monitors units hooked to the MCI. “Just know you need to clean it out yourself after this week.”
I laughed, “Point taken. Well, I guess I’m ready.”
He nodded, “Ok. Remember, close your eyes, breath deep, then open your eyes. Trust me.”
As I slid the helmet on, keeping my eyes closed as I adjusted the straps to fit me, I took several deep breaths. When I felt like I was steady and ready, I opened my eyes.