Chapter 6; Rob’s
Prototype VI Headset Still Has a Problem
Rob Howard and partner Marsh Perry originally started their
company Virtual-Scope in answer to a fast-growing public demand for virtual
reality systems. From the onset there was plenty of competition with developing
units even more advanced than what other companies were already marketing.
Fortunately, Rob’s excellent managing skills with sales and production combined
with Marsh’s inventive genius with researching and developing computer gadgetry
to make their business a highly profitable success from the very start.
So much so, that by now both men wanted to expand their
facility to twice its size. They had not so far, because it meant shutting down
a very good money-making operation for too long. Additionally, the rapidly
evolving market with producing increasingly advanced VI accessories had Virtual
- Scope hard pressed just to keep up. As a result Rob and Marsh along with all
their employees had been putting in a lot of extra hours for as long as any of
them could remember.
In
the middle of saying something to partner Marsh, Rob heard his desk’s intercom
phone buzzing him. Nearing the end of another long day and pretty worn out, he
pressed the answer button and growled, “Yeah Kathy, now what!?” Seconds later
he grinned as if seeing his beloved Green Bay Packers score the winning
touchdown. “They’re ready? Great, so bring one up OK? No, better make that two.
My two cyber-monsters will fight over it if I bring home just one of ‘em.”
Seated
before his desktop PC, Rob’s partner Marsh Perry was taking this in. Smiling,
he nodded, “Very good!” Fairly reserved compared to Rob, a smile from Marsh
could mean he was anywhere from mildly amused to wildly jubilant.
Clicking
off and turning to Marsh, Rob threw off the many months of frustration with a
rebel yell - “Yee-ah - hoo! Well good buddy, you heard the gist of it and she’s
on her way up! Kathy says your upgraded sensors are the slickest thing since
sliced bread!”
Peering
up owlishly back at Rob through his wide frame reading glasses, Marsh nodded
again, “So I gathered. Of course we’ll still have to do more…”
All
grins, Rob cut him off. “More testing? Sure we do but not today! No, we’ll
close shop and get out of here early for once! In fact, this Saturday I can
even take Connie and the kids to Green Bay for the first Packer’s game I’ve
been to this year!”
“Don’t
they play on Sunday?”
“Sure,
but when Connie and I have done this before, we head over there on Saturday and
get a place to stay. Then Ben and I tag along with her and Bessie while they
shop and so forth. On Sunday we get over to Lambeau Field early for a tailgate
party.” Just saying it was getting him even more excited. “My god, man, I’ve
got season’s tickets I hardly ever use! I’ve got extra ones, by the way, so you
and Louise could come too, you know.”
Marsh shook his head. “I can’t, Rob. I’ve got to come
in over the weekend and work on the response time. You see, I think we can
speed it up even more.” The consummate perfectionist, he was never entirely
satisfied with their product.
“Marsh, it reacts to the user faster than any others
on the market. I’m telling you, it’s a world beater! Besides, your Louise told
me she’s ready move your bed over here. We won’t turn these over to production
anyway until Kathy’s added her finishing touches. Meantime, my two will test
them out better than we can!”
Before Marsh could answer, Kathy Chen rushed into the office
still in her lab coat. Beaming proudly, she handed over the two new units to
Rob. “Here they are, bosses! Our trials show that visual clarity, response
time, and sensory capabilities are fantastic! Along with the additional apps
our clients will love ‘em!”
Upon
hiring on shortly after the company’s start-up, Kathy’s reputation was already
established as the best cybernetics-electronics technician there was in the
Madison area. Having believed it ever since, Rob fed her a wide grin. “We’ve
got to give you another raise! You say you’ll still be awhile fine-tuning
them?”
Smiling back, she nodded, “I accept the raise. And
yes, sorry to say, I will. But not for long. By a process of elimination we
have only two kinds to fool with. Our light-weight VI sunglasses still need
more miniaturizing but these headbands are ready to go.” Hurrying on, she
explained, “The eyeglasses have the apps coded within the lenses and these
headband visors do too. Naturally, you summon them up from both types by voice
command, so long as you…” She exaggeratedly mouthed the words. “…e-nun-ci-ate…clearly.”
Marsh frowned, “Katherine, that’s all well and good, I
suppose. But unfortunately, my neural sensors still cannot pick up mental
commands very well. Eventually I’ll have them greatly improved, but for now the
users must simply do the best they can.”
She answered, “Using mental commands with both types still
needs work and the same with beefing up the power source. But Marsh, a user
wearing this headband can do it if they really, really concentrate!” Kathy
looked over at Rob. “You said your Bessie can do it, can’t she? With our older
helmet model?”
He
nodded, “That’s true, but she says vocals are easier, so I don’t know where
she’s at with thought commands. Anyhow, you say that Bess willll be able to do
that a lot better with these headbands?”
“Knowing
her she will. And especially since you guys have enough band width to handle
the power load. Oh, and she’ll find another advantage over the glasses.”
“Like
what?”
Kathy
laughed, “Well, you know how your daughter is! Long as she’s not falling out of
a tree or something, they won’t slip around or fall off. These headbands are
bulkier of course with the neural sensors and the power pack stitched into the
liner. And yes, adding in the visor, these are clunky compared to the glasses.
But our new type of visor never fogs up. And besides, I like these headbands
better myself.”
“Why
is that, Katherine?” Marsh asked.
Quite
athletic in her own right, she said, “Because they stay on while you’re
jogging, or bicycling, or even doing summersaults. Even with flex bands the
sunglasses still slide around or fall off.”
Rob said, “When I showed our earlier prototypes of
both kinds to one of our client reps, he said the same thing. He goes jogging
every day by the way.”
Kathy said, “The only thing left with the headbands is
to spruce up the cosmetics with different types of fabrics and their colors.
They’re wire-less too, of course, except when re-charging. Speaking of which…” She pulled two coils from
her pockets and set them on his desk. “…they’ll still need these. Anyway, Rob,
your kids will have a real eye opener with these upgraded sensors.”
“Those two will definitely give these babies a good
workout.”
Marsh added, “Rob, would you mind asking your daughter
to take some notes I can look at? I’d be interested in anything she might jot
down.” He was quick to add, “Nothing against Ben doing it too, of course.”
Rob had to laugh. “Marsh, as a world-class gamer Ben’s no
dummy when it comes to VI headsets. But even if he did take notes, which I
doubt, you wouldn’t be able to read his scribbles. One thing he’s not is a
writer.”
Kathy asked, “Does Bessie do much gaming? My Lulu’s not
much into it.”
“No, but she’s a lot better than Ben overall with VI’s.
I’m telling you, she’s always had an ability you would not believe with using
them. You’ve both seen her do this at our place.”
Kathy nodded, “You and Connie do have a very special girl
there.”
Marsh agreed, “She does have a rather uncanny ability
to integrate her-self into the computer while wearing our units.” The other two
smiled at Marsh’s precise way of stating practically anything.
Rob said, “She’s been showing us that ever since I
started bringing them home five years ago. Even back then in whatever grade it
was, she claimed they took her to places where she had been…” He held the tips
of his forefinger and thumb barely shy of touching. “…this close to actually
being there.”
Thinking
about what else she did, he added dryly, “There’s also her whatever you call
it, her magic staff thing.”
Marsh frowned. “Her what?” Childless and unfamiliar with
the types of games kids played pretending to be witches and wizards, he neither
knew nor cared about any of that.
Rob guffawed, “Haw-haw! Yeah, Bess keeps her so-called
wizard’s staff right there with her when hooked up to a VI head piece. She
claims that old stick helps her to focus better on whatever people, places, and
things that show up in the programmed environment.”
Marsh skeptically arched an eyebrow. “Oh come on, Rob. I
know your daughter pretty well. I don’t think she really believes in all that
sorcery nonsense, not for a minute. Does she?”
“Nah, even she laughs it off as kid-stuff. And yeah,
all of her friends rag her about keeping that thing handy when using our PC.
But frankly guys, our Bess couldn’t care less. She stays pat with it because of
the fantastic results she gets. It’s probably just another of those go-figure
things you get with all of these kids.”
In
the same frame of mind as Marsh for once, Kathy had no patience with it either.
Sticking to business, she said, “Whatever, but soon as your two and my Lulu try
these, they’ll flip over them the same as we did downstairs. A bit earlier
today, when my testers returned from their VI trip to Paris they were
practically speaking French! No kidding, they swore up and down they came that
close to actually feeling the handrail atop the Eiffel Tower!”
Something else just now occurred to her. Abruptly dead
serious, Kathy went on, “But there’s one problem I need to mention and it’s
really important.”
“Like
what?” Rob asked.
“This VI trip to France resulted with one of
my testers having a problem that users need to be warned about. In any case,
I’m sure we’ll be able fix it. But in the meantime, Rob, before we market them
for the general public, you’ll need to red-letter what I’m talking about in our
instruction manual.”
Perry gave her a worried look. “Katherine, can you be more
specific?”
“We have to caution buyers not to simply yank off these headbands
the minute they leave their VI environments. The same applies to just flipping
up the visor when they’re done.”
Rob frowned, “Months and months of working on this
thing and we’ve still got problems! What happened?”
She said, “One of our technicians, Susan, did exactly that
after returning from her Paris trip. We know now that she should’ve left her
visor down while taking the time to reorient to her surroundings. But no, she
just flipped it up and then, oh my!”
“Oh
my what!?” Rob asked.
Kathy
shook her head. “Well, the poor girl went totally bonkers!”
“Jeez, is she okay?” he asked.
“She is now but for a few minutes Susan just sat there
babbling whatever it was, old nursery rhymes she learned as a kid. Afterward
Susan told us she truly thought she’d lost her mind.”
Marsh was already typing this down on his PC. Looking up,
he gave Kathy an apologetic look. “Sorry, I should have said something to you.
During my own preliminary testing I made the same mistake and wound up highly
disoriented. I hadn’t realized how deeply my new unit entwines users with their
virtual reality environments.”
She waved dismissively, “They’ll be perfectly okay as long
as they leave the visor down and first look around to get their bearings. But
we need to be doubly sure to include cautionary remarks with the packaging. And
bosses, these have to be worded so people can understand them. Of course, it’s
the same with any of the units we’ve sold so far. So long as the users follow
the instructions, they’re fine!”
Holding up one of the headsets, Rob asked, “What about your
kid? You bringing one home for her?”
She shook her head. “No not yet. Along with these two
units, we do have a few other units that are ready. But for the moment I’d like
to keep those here. During the coming week some of our special clients might
want to try them out, so Lulu will have to wait. Besides, Rob, that girl of
mine…” She raised her hand like a salute. “…is up to here as it is with
designing her own hardware or whatever.”
Rob said, “Yeah and so is mine.” Shaking his head, he
laughed, “That whole bunch is something else, aren’t they? But like Connie
says, better that than running around town like some kids do and causing
trouble.”
“Same with my Lulu and amen!” Kathy rejoined.
Before long Rob was carrying the two headsets through
the lobby and bound for home. Seated at her desk, their receptionist hailed
him. “Rob, Carmen Ricci just called from the Center! She wants to know if our
new headsets are ready yet!”
He slapped the side of his head. “Sorry Marilyn, I meant to
tell her before I left. Get back to Carmen and tell her we’ll deliver a couple
tomorrow first thing. They’ve been after us about these new ones all month!”
“I will! Is Marsh staying awhile?”
“He might camp out up there all night for all I know!”
Remembering Kathy’s warning about yanking them off, he told Marilyn about that
also. “And whatever you do, make absolutely sure their people understand this,
OK?”
She was already keying her phone. “I’m on it!”
Moments later Rob was riding the beltway circling
Madison and headed for home in outlying Covington. Normally leaving his office
at a later time, he was unused to the heavy rush hour traffic. But having to
slowly wind through it gave him a chance for once to calmly reflect on the current
doings with the business.
Speaking
of which, Rob could not recall the last time he’d had any time away from it.
Nothing was more satisfying to a business owner than offering a product, and a
high-quality one at that, and then having buyers beating down the doors to get
it. But after so many months of going at it 24/7? For two cents he would chuck
it all, even the Packers game, and fly the whole family down to the Gulf coast
for a couple of relaxing, sunny days on the beach. The headsets would not be ready
to market for at least another month, maybe longer. Parent-teacher conferences
would leave his kids free for a long weekend. And if Connie took vacation time
to skip her own conferences at the middle school? He shook his head – Nah, she’d never do that.
Also, in the event they did sell any headsets
ahead of time to preferred clients, like the UW Center and other research
facilities, he now had to re-word the instruction manual to include Kathy’s
warning before passing it on to the printer. There was also the chance she
would finish the headset’s cosmetics sooner than expected, in which case he’d
have to jump-start them into production. No, any vacations had to wait for
December’s holiday season. If even then, for god’s-sake. But they could at
least all go to Green Bay on Saturday, spend the night, and catch Sunday’s game
with the hated Minnesota Vikings. What would tell the tale with this was how
well his two teenagers did tonight with these new headsets. Hopefully the only
surprises would be good ones.
Chapter 7; Bessie at
Home Re-doing Her New Staff
After parting with Lulu at her place, the other two
headed for their own. As Nina went on and on about her favorite topics; the
boys she liked, her modeling and acting, and the latest fashions she wanted to
try, Bessie only half listened. Though not wanting to bother herself with it,
she could not stop thinking about the head injury her girlfriends brought up.
Living next door to one another, she and Nina were soon stopped in front of
their homes. Agreeing to catch up with each other later, they split up and each
went inside.
Bessie knew that Mom had an after school get-together
with her teacher friends, nor would Dad be home from work for quite some time.
And neither would Ben, he and his buddies chasing around doing who knew what.
Everyone was somewhere else and she liked that. During these quiet alone-times
her busy mind could then relax and wander off wherever it pleased. Which,
lately, was usually literally many millions of miles away.
But
today? Her mind refused to stop churning over what she wished it would not -
last April’s brain scan! Momentarily shaking it off, she carried the branch
into her bedroom and laid it down on the bedspread. Eyeing it from end to end,
her long-formed habit of talking to her-self took hold. In the stillness of
the house she told it quietly, “You’ll do
just fine once you’re wearing my trinkets.”
As
for the little episode with it back at the beach? Her doses of this were much
stronger while wearing a VI unit and the staff with her gadgetry attached was
also right there. Especially since last April. But as for the feeling itself?
There was still no way she could explain it to her-self let alone anyone else.
At this point Bessie could merely describe it as a fleeting but briefly solid
feeling of…oneness with everything; the room around her, the
suddenly much closer physical presence of anyone nearby, the blue sky outside,
the birds up in the trees and even the leaves. And, most puzzlingly, with other
things much, much farther off.
No,
trying to explain this to anyone would just draw funny looks, not to also
mention the snotty remarks about her nutsy sorceress staff. Bessie smiled to
her-self – Which is exactly what I’d do
if any of them and not me, were still playing around with one.
For
the umpteenth time today, the other thing sprang to mind, the printout she
brought home from the hospital last April. Quickly looking up the human brain
afterward, she found a website with diagrammed cross-sections that helped her
to more fully understand what the doctor said about her ITC .
Bessie recalled her one thought while pinning up the print-out on the bulletin
board - I was born with this!
This
was not the first time she thought it possible, that she might actually be a
mutation of some sort. Wedged in among the others on her crowded book shelves
was Bessie’s well-thumbed copy of Darwin’s “Origin of Species”. Indeed, genetic
mutations had regularly occurred ever since the earliest and simplest DNA
strands appeared billions of years ago. So,
was there any reason that she couldn’t be one?
Mom
had mentioned any number of times that Bessie’s great-great grandmother
Lorraine was a young laboratory assistant for none other than Madame Marie
Curie during her research with radio-active elements in Paris. Plus, Mom’s own
grandmother, Michelle, worked at Los Alamos, New Mexico while they built the
atomic bomb. In fact, the line of daughters associated with radioactivity was
kept intact by Connie Howard’s own mom, Annette. Currently a chemistry
professor at UCLA – Berkeley, she too worked mostly with radioactive rare
earths found in materials for nuclear reactors. Bessie smiled at that thought, how
the girls in her family were drawn toward whatever was as “hot” as it gets!
And
as such, mightn’t it even be likely that her own mysterious sense of “oneness”
and her anomalously large ITC could both be the result of random radioactive
particles striking either or all of these women during their working lives? Of
course they could.
But
as to how her staff might fit into this, she still hadn’t a clue. Restlessly
wanting something to do, she saw that with no bark left on this new one, the
surface was polished enough to need no sanding. All it missed were the trinkets
she’d left on the broken top half of the old staff. Quickly taking it from the
closet, Bessie undid her various doo-dads and re-tied them to the new one.
Top-most
beneath the staff’s gnarled head was the prettiest, a deep purple amethyst
crystal encased in a small brass holder. This was one of Mom’s presents on
Bessie’s tenth birthday. Though caught up with all of the witches and wizards
rigmarole back then like her friends, she, at the same time, wanted to be
different from them. So, she skipped all of the usual buzzwords with this sort
of thing by christening the crystal her “sorceress stone”.
During
that time she also thought it perfectly fitting to add another so called magic
charm, a narrow wristlet of brilliantly-colored beads and tiny silver charms
given to her by great grandma Michelle. Still alive and doing well, she kept in
touch with the rest of the family. In so doing, Granny Michelle liked to
good-naturedly spook Bessie with tales of the “strange goings-on” around her at
Los Alamos while creating the A-bomb. While no believer in magic, or so Granny
claimed, some of the local Native Americans up there attached their own brand
of mysticism to the mysterious and highly secret project. Accordingly, one of
them she knew quite well ceremoniously presented her the wristlet. This, he said,
would protect from the strange and possibly evil things going on around her.
Last
was a shiny little globe of gold-colored filigree. The instant she spotted it
at a rummage sale Mom had taken her to, Bessie yanked from her pocket a month’s
worth of allowance and grabbed it. An antique shop was nearby. To hers and
Mom’s surprise the old owner while appraising it exclaimed to his own surprise,
“You know, ladies? This really is gold-plated!” Seemingly only half kidding, he
laughingly added, “And here’s the other thing. You see, throughout my many
years I’ve come across only a few gold filigrees designed like yours. But when
the owners brought them in to me, each and every one of them claimed these were
said to have…ha-ha…magic powers!”
Holding
the staff at arm’s length, she smiled wryly
at her treasures – Well, magic is as magic does I guess! As for
the efficacy of this, she had long since stopped thinking of it as anything
other than just plain silly. Yet oddly enough, so long as she had it right next
to her while wearing a VI unit, she felt more in control and far more aware of
the simulated virtual environment. But as for why she did, Bessie had no idea,
not yet anyway. If it wasn’t magic, then what was it? Did the staff merely help
her to concentrate better with her headset? It probably did but she was partly
convinced that it had more to do with what she and Alex often talked about
during their Physics labs.
As
the school’s very best with science studies and also, she thought, a bit of a
smart aleck about it, he ribbed her at times about the staff. Able to hold her
own with him in most of the science and math courses, she normally laughed him
off. More, she was better than him or anyone else with getting amazing results
with a virtual immersion unit. Neither family members, nor any of her friends,
including Lucy and Ravi, were even close to matching her with this.
In
any case, this semester she and Alex thoroughly enjoyed their enthusiastic
debates and even their arguments about all the whys and wherefores about topics
that only physicists and astronomers could love. Ones such as “quantum
entanglement of every particle in the universe” were definitely not for
everyone. And so it went whether in class together or over a pizza at Julio’s,
their animated discussions consisting of little else.
Bessie’s
only problem with this, up till now anyway, was how could one talk to a guy
like Alex about the other stuff? Her overly large ITC or something as
far-fetched as a sorceress staff? She let out a sigh – Not hardly. Knowing him, he’d laugh his head off. Meantime, she’d go on-line to find out whatever
she could about wizards and sorcery and the whole bit. Nor would it hurt to
re-read Harry Potter while she was at it. The more Bessie thought about it, the
more convinced she was that all these pieces of the puzzle must fit together
somehow.
Satisfied
with her new staff, she took it to the computer room and leaned it against the
wall beside the console. Reaching up, she felt the back of her head - And
if I am a mutation? Then great, I’ll be good at it! And who knows? Her
ITC’s strange but much welcomed ability to remember things and cross spatial
distances might even help to beat her snotty brother for a change at his stupid
war games.
