Empires Grip

This is a story about a man named Allen, who at the age of twenty has his mind (like all twenty year olds) has his mind transferred into a virtual world and has his real body burned leaving no was back to the real world. And as Allen turned back in the

 

Empires Grip

 

Friday, February 27, 2009 4:46:34 seconds PM

 

Today is the day, thought Allen, as he walked under escort from two complex officers (one a computer technician to his right and one a medical officer to his left) through a long computer complex corridor leading to the transfer bay where Allen’s mind would forever be transferred into the complexes computer system for storage and a new life.

 

As Allen walked down the corridor with his two escorts, Allen tried to note every bit of detail in what he was seeing and hearing around him, for this (Allen knew) would be the last time he would ever see or hear anything in the real world. For once his mind was transferred into the complexes massive computer system and the computer system of this complex integrating his mind and thoughts with the other computers housed in the other complexes of the world, his discarded body would then be burned and their would be no returning to the real world for him.

 

“Now” said the medical officer standing off to his left and slightly behind Allen, “lets run through the checklist before we get you hooked up to the Access port and transferred into the virtual world.”

 

“Now what is your name and how old are you?” Asked the medical officer as he peered through his reading specs at an electronic clipboard that he was carrying in both hands.

 

“My name is Allen Cornsworth and I’ve just turned twenty today,” said Allen as her turned his head and body to face the medical officer. Allen, as he paused to eye the medical officer, wanted to try to take mental images in his minds eye of everything he saw this day, for this day was Allen’s last in the real world.

 

Today is the day was the words that kept coming back to Allen’s mind as he eyed the figure before him. The medical officer stood five feet eleven inches tall, he had short blond hair and brown eyes and his weight (Allen surmised) was probably between one hundred seventy to one hundred and eighty pounds, the man had a long face and a slightly grown in goatee. The medical officer wore a white long-sleeved shirt and white pants and had black shoes.

 

As Allen continued eyeing the man before him, Allen said low under his breath today is the day, then no sooner as the words had left him, then Allen suddenly felt a sense of apprehension at the thought of his body and mind being hooked up to a machine and then his mind being transferred into a virtual world from which there would be no return. The thought of entering this virtual world made Allen very uneasy to say the least. It was common knowledge (in both his servicing of the computers that housed the minds and in the talk surrounding the massive computers) that no one transferred into the computers could communicate with the world outside.

 

For though it was widely accepted that the world inside the computers’ was supposed to be like the one outside it (for that was the way the virtual world had been created to be) since no one transferred into the computers had a way to communicate their experiences of the virtual world with the outside world no one knew this for certain. Was this virtual world that he was soon to enter indeed like the one outside? Or was the virtual world hollow, where picking up a loaf of bread in the virtual world held no sensation of feeling of touch. Where sight and hearing in this possibly hollow world held no place, and where everyone were nothing more than shades and specters in a world of shadow.

 

This, the not knowing was what worried Allen a lot about what was about to happen to both his body and his mind. After his transference, Allen knew, his body would be destroyed (burned actually).

 

“And you are single and have no children, is that right Mr. Allen?” the medical officer asked as he looked up from his computerized clipboard and through his round-rimed specs eyed the look of fear on Allen’s face.

 

“I know the thought of having your mind transferred from you body, you mind being completely removed from your physical body and into a virtual one must seem most terrifying to you, but all will be ok you’ll see.” Replied an equally concerned medical officer to a terrified Allen.

 

“Thanks, I can honestly say that the thought of transference is terrifying to me. But there is no alternative to my mind being transferred into the complexes computer system, so I guess I shouldn’t worry like I am. And yes I am single and yes I have no children, I thought I would wait till I was transferred into the virtual world to have any.”

 

Allen looked at the man who still stood before him and found himself a little surprised at the concern that this young man had for him. For it looked to Allen that this man before him was not a man but an older teenager of what could be no more than seventeen years of age. It was odd (Allen thought) that this teenager would be needing to tell him that there was nothing to fear, for in three years time on this teenagers twentieth birthday, this teenager too then would be transferred into the virtual world. Then perhaps this was one of the reasons why this teenage boy was now consoling him, for both of them had the same fears of their eventual transference.

 

“Now we just need a blood sample from you to finalize you identity verification.” And with that, the medical officer drew from his right pocket a blood analyses instrument. The blood analyses instrument was no larger than the palm of a person’s hand, and consisted of a thin glass tube connected to a small analysis machine on the glass tubes left side, with an analysis probe connected to the analyses machine and protruding through the glass tubes left side. A small lancing device was attached to the top of the analysis machine to allow the piercing of the skin so as to allow the drawing of the blood the machine needed to analysis.

 

As the medical officer walked up to Allen, the medical officer took hold of Allen’s left hand and placed Allen’s first finger on the lancing device, and as soon as his finger was pressed against the lancing device, there was a snapping sound as the pin of the device shot forward (piercing the skin on the underside of Allen’s first finger) then the pin snapping back into its original place. A moment after the pricking of Allen’s finger a small spot of blood appeared on the padding of his finger and then Allen’s finger was placed over the open end of the thin glass tube.

 

“A couple of drops of blood is all that we need” The medical officer said a he gently squeezed Allen’s finger, causing Allen’s finger to produce three drops of blood which fill into the tube and onto the analysis probe for analyses.

 

The machine hummed and beeped for a few seconds as the instrument analyzed the DNA in Allen’s blood before across a small display screen the words identity confirmed was displayed.

 

“Right, that’s it then, you are who you say you are.” Said the medical officer as he removed the glass tube from the machine and placed the glass tube in a recycling box off to their left against the wall.

 

“Of course I’m who I say I am. Do you then I would volunteer myself to be transferred into the virtual world if it wasn’t my time yet?” Allen asked half jokingly.

 

“No I suppose not.” Said the medical officer.

 

“After all, I’ve gotten quite used to my life in the real world, and to all of my friends, I hate the thought of leaving them.” The solemn tone in Allen’s voice now apparent.

 

“Don’t worry, soon enough you will see all your loved ones in the virtual world. You’ll see, I promise. Now I must tell you of a few things about the virtual world that you must really know before you are transferred into the virtual world. One, the computer systems aren’t designed to tell us in the outside world how many minds are actually in there, but don’t worry about that because you will have all eternity to meet and greet everyone in the virtual world in time. Two, we have no way of telling you of the world in there, or how the virtual world may seem to you at first, for we have no way of analyzing the world within the computers. So we can’t tell you definitively how the world may function or how it may seem at first, but fortunately there is some guidelines in there that function to protect you and these are that there is no deceases, no starvation, no aging, and finally unless you do something really stupid there should be no death. And finally, the third and final thing you need to know before you are transferred into the computer system and the virtual world, and this, incidentally is the most crucial thing you need to know about the virtual world. And that knowledge is if you die for whatever reason in the virtual world, you mind in the virtual world ceases to exist in both the computer systems and the virtual world entirely, and when that happens who truly knows what happens after that.” The medical officer said, as he took in a couple of gulps of air (apparently a little out of breath after all that talking he had just done.

 

After a few more seconds of gulping for air the medical officer ending the little speech by saying “Do you understand everything that I have just told you?”

 

“Yes I do. But I still can’t help but wish that I still truly knew what I was getting myself into, literally!” Allen said as both his mind and heart overcame some of his worries about what was about to happen to him, finding a little comfort in the little knowledge he was given on what he may expect and what may be in store for him in the virtual world.

 

And as Allen turned back in the direction of the transfer bay and the steel door that lead into it, a steel door laying at one end of a steel and concrete corridor, Allen thought that this steel and concrete corridor with steel doors at either end seemed fitting for this situation. For at one end (the end that he had entered) lay a door that when passed through and closed marked the death of his life in the real world, and at the other end lay a door that marked the start of his life in the virtual world, with this hall way serving as a transfer point between the ending of one life and the starting of a new.

 

“Well I guess we should get this all over with, and get me started on my new life.” Allen said as he started back down the corridor and his eventual date with his new life.

 

As Allen walked down the corridor, with his to companions walking behind him and in tow, Allen wondered out loud saying “I wonder what will be the thing that I do first in this virtual world that I’m about to experience.”

 

“Whatever you want to do. The world that the virtual world was based on was based on the world of the very late twenty-first century, when we had started to right the wrongs that we had done to the real world, though the world was made much bigger, MUCH bigger. This virtual world was made big enough to house trillions of minds, possibly more, and with the constant upgrading and enlarging of the computers there is, for now, no real limit to the numbers of minds that this computer network and virtual world can hold.”

 

“By the way” said Allen as the three of them continued down the corridor, “what are you and your companion’s name? I notice he doesn’t talk much, well actually not at all.”

 

“My name” said the medical officer, “is Brad O’Brady and my friend here” the medical officer said as he pointed to his technician friend, “is Albert O’Reilly.”

 

“Hi, Hi you doing!” said the technician as he waved his hand once in the direction of Allen after the technician had apparently found his voice.

 

“Hi” Allen said as he turned his head in the direction of the technician. “Well I guess I’ll be seeing you two in, what, three years.” Allen asked while still looking in the direction of the technician.

 

“Actually” said the technician, “I’ll be transferring in two years and Brad here will be transferring in three.”

 

“Well one thing I guess I can be looking forward too is seeing both of my adopted parents, for they had both transferred over five years ago.” Said Allen as his minds drifted to both his adopted parents, Trevor and Alicia as Allen again turned his face forward in the direction of the transfer bay and the access port beyond. Both his parents had transferred over five years ago into the virtual world after turning twenty a day apart. Well at least they will be a welcoming sight to behold, Allen thought as a smile began to crease his lips.

 

“Well you will have to track them down a bit, but fortunately there is one more thing I forgot to tell you and that pertains to when you enter the virtual world. And that is when you enter the virtual world a, what we call a starting protocol will activate and what will appear to be a hardcover brown book will appear. In this book will appear to be all blank pages, but when you think of a person and visualize them, a description of the persons whereabouts will appear on one of the pages and on the page right beside it will appear an updating tracking map pinpointing that persons exact location to within a few feet. That will at least narrow down the search for the people that you care about.”

 

“Thanks” said Allen, “at least that will narrow the time that I have to search for my loved ones.”

 

As Allen continued to walk down the corridor, he again began to take notice of the corridor that the three of them were walking down. The walls and ceiling was painted gray and running the entire length of corridor at its four corners were (what Allen knew ,as he had served in helping to upkeep the computer complexes) were four power conduits (one to each corner, starting from the door that Allen had entered and ended at the door to the Access port). Along the entire length of the corridors floor was a steel grating, and there for the first time Allen became aware of the footfalls against the steel grating that the three of them were making, and with each of their steps, the resounding footfalls seemed to reverberate down the long dimly lit corridor. The corridor was warm Allen thought (probably dew to the heat emitted outwards from the four massive and long power conduits that spanned the length of the corridor).

 

As the three of them finally came to the end of the corridor and the steel door that was the temporally sealed gate to the access port and the world beyond, Allen finally took a deep breath and let it out slowly saying, “Today is the day.”

 

“By the way”, said Allen as a new thought had just occurred to him, “just where will I be placed into this virtual world anyway?”

 

“You will have a choice of which continent you wish to be placed on. Other than that, there are not many other prerequisites that you can choose from, other than you will enter the virtual world in an empty clearing,” said the technician as he at last had something more to say.

 

“Will I look the same way as I do now?” asked Allen of the technician.

 

“You will look completely as you do now, from everything from your hair colour, down too even any scares that you may have on your body, no exceptions.”

 

“Well that’s a relief, I’ve become quite attached to my appearance, though not in a vanity way. I just wanted to know that from now on inside the virtual world that whenever I look in the mirror that it will be my face looking back at me and not a different one.” Allen said, with a little relief showing in his voice.

 

As both Allen and Brad stood in front of the steel door leading into the transfer bay and ultimately Allen’s date with the access port, Albert moved to stand next to Allen on Allen’s right side and then pressed a button on the right side of the steel door, which then caused the steel door to open.

 

Just then, both Allen and his two companions had to shield their eyes with their hands against the bright light that now streamed into the dimly lit corridor (for the light in the transfer bay being much brighter than the dim light illuminating the corridor

 

With that, the three of them entered the transfer bay and the steel door closed tight behind them. The room was only sparsely filled with equipment. Laying ten feet in front of Allen was the access port’s analyzes bed, the bed was a seven-foot bed that was dotted all over with sensors that every second both scanned and analyzed the person waiting to be transferred, the sensors scanning both the body and mind of the individual being transferred. And at both of the sides of the beds mid marks was attached interface panels that both curved partway towards the center of the bed.

 

Standing five feet behind the bed lay a bank of ten super computers, the bed and computers being linked by what the people that served these computers called a transference conduit. The four power conduits that ran the entire length of the corridor outside this room now emerged out of the wall on either side of the steel door and ran across the walls of the square room along its four corners until the conduits reached the back wall of the room and the running from that wall towards the bank of ten super computers where they then merged with them to power the computers that were the housings for some of the virtual world (all the super computers of all thirty-five computer complexes combining their programming and computing power to create the virtual world that Allen, in a matter of mere moments, would be part of).

 

“If you please,” Albert said as he pointed a right hand and a first finger towards the analyzes bed, “lay down on the bed so we can begin you transference.”

 

Allen then walked over to the bed and sat on the foot of the bed, he then crawled into it and lay flat on his back while resting his head on what he knew was not a pillow but in actuality was a sensor device.

 

“I’m ready when you are, well actually I’m not. I personally would rather not go through this at all, if it was all up to me,” said Allen as his fears started up anew. Allen, putting his hands across his stomach, now waited for what was next to come to past.

 

With Allen now resigned to his fate, both Brad and Albert then walked towards the bed (Brad moving to stand at the head of the bed on the side furthest from the bank of super computers and Albert moving to stand between the bank of computers and the head of the bed as well).

 

As Brad moved then to stand near the super computers, Brad reached towards a small table that lay against the super computers, from there he drew from the tables surface what appeared the wrapping end of a manual blood pressure instrument and then Brad moved to stand at the head of the bed opposite the bank of computers again.

 

“I will have to wrap this medical sensor to your right arm. The sensor will measure your oxygen levels in your blood, your body temperature, and your pulse and heart rate,” said Brad as he took hold of Allen’s right arm and then proceeded to wrap the sensor device around it.

 

With the sensor device now wrapped around Allen’s right arm Allen then looked at the device and thought that any other person view this event and not going though it right away might find it odd that they would be concerned for the vital signs of a body that in a matter of moment would be marked for death and burning when Allen’s mind was transferred into the computer network and the virtual world.

Author's Note

Please I would really like some reviews on this because I would like to improve on my writing. Thank you.

Reviews

[emmajoy]

Hmmm this is a very intriguing post .. unusual theme, way off the branch .. think i'll message my comments about it.

It's quite a unique post, full of great possibilities .. read twice, still a little muddled.

I need to read more of your posts now .. and will.