Lasher: A Virtual Reality Sci-Fi Short Story
A life long sci-fi fan, I wrote this story about 20 years ago, long before the Google Glasses or Virtual Reality headsets hit the market. I ran across it the other day and thought I would share.
She lashed. That deep and slow movement of her eyelid sent her implant searching for the next frequency. Quickly, her favorite sitcom popped up in a small square projected in her left field of vision and her aural nodes kicked in. Another tic of her facial muscles brought it into full center view, leaving her periphery open. She settled back on the bus transport seat, contented.
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When DIIE (Digital Internal Imaging Entertainment) first came on the market, many were suspicious of its electronic net placed throughout the lobes of the brain, eyes and general skull area.
With the obvious benefits of your own personal, private and imminently portable entertainment system, the populace's suspicions were soon overcome. The marketing teams came up with properly punny slogans ("To DIIE For" and "You'll Think You've DIIEd and Gone to Heaven") and soon the world was full of those whose blinks brought the world to their soul's doorstep.
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She lashed into Inclusive view, her own virtual reality scheme programmed with her own personal fantasies, and ticed her aural nodes up to full.
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Beneath me is the neck of a golden dragon. The sun glints off her smooth bright hide and the wind rushes around me as she dives down. I laugh, but the wind grabs my mirth and throws it behind me, but it doesn't matter. How can anything matter when I'm up here with just the sound of the wind pounding in my ears and giant pinions beating effortlessly? I throw my hands up to see if perhaps I too can catch a breeze and fly, but I lose my grip on my mount just as she hits an air pocket, and I find myself falling, until I am caught up again, this time in the cockpit of a SpaceJet.
In shock, I stare at my hands that seem to know just what to do, wonderful in their competency. My mind not realizing the power I control, I bank and even such a gentle turn creates tremendous G-forces at Mach 5, and I am pressed back into my seat. Space is so close I think I could catch a handful of stars if I stretched out my hand. The rift between the atmosphere of earth and the airlessness of space gleams purple before me, and I nearly give in to the urge to rise just a little higher and see if I could slip out of this place and explore new horizons. The noise of the engines seems almost harmonious in its odd array of mechanical sounds, and I allow it to lull me into complacency until I notice that the sound has become strangely human, and it is no longer a harness that holds me close.
A voice so lovely, hauntingly plaintive that I begin to quietly weep threads its way through my mind. I resist the song that gently pries into the hidden corners of my mind enough to realize that I am in the arms of a man in rich dress clothes, and the sound of lapping waves is echoing around me. Soon I cease to fight that beautiful voice and am content to let it bind me for an eternity. I gaze at cold tapered fingers until I cannot stop myself from wanting to see the magnificence of his voice. I tilt my head up, but then make a soft cry of bafflement.
Why does a mask hide his face from me? I reach to pull it away, but he stops me, and I begin to struggle in my confused frustration. I shut my eyes in hopes that when next I open them they will show me what I want to see. I beg him to tell me his name though I cannot see his face, and I hear the hesitation in his voice. "For now, you may call me the Phantom." and I gasp in realization of who this man is. Then abruptly the sounds of a battle reach my ears and I am on the rolling deck of a pirate galleon ship.
The stately caravel next to us is slowly sinking, and a lazy swirl of smoke drifts up from her burning sails. Here on the galleon my crew of pirates, or shall I say, privateers, are leisurely fighting the three swordsmen that have escaped the doomed ship. It isn't really much of a battle, and when they are disarmed I give them the chance to join my crew - they are good fighters, and I abhor wasting good fighters. Two of them agree, but the third is a stubborn sort. He pulls a dagger from his sleeve and stabs viciously at me. I stand in shock as the blood runs down my side, and then all the faces before me swirl into a loud cacophony of bells tolling my death.
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She lashed back to SmallView to check on the transport's progression. She stared idly out the window, noticed the vacant stares of engrossed lashers ticing their way thought the frequencies in the transport and on the silent, dream-filled streets. Many of the shops along the route offered extensions into the torso, arms, legs and even the new olfactory unit. She stole a quickly glance at the transport driver. They were required by law to turn off the DIIE before reporting to work, but it was so difficult to tell.
An ugly little man waving through her small screen view caught her attention. She quickly lashed to full RealView and he was gone. She shrugged to herself, deciding that a weird frequency had been overlapping hers. Might be time to head out to one of the DIIE shops for a checkup. A thought struck her and she lashed to her bank account figures. Might even be enough for an upgrade this time.
But she'd promised her new boyfriend to visit his parent's at their beach house today, and this one was worth a little sacrifice. He was already leagues above the others, who had ranged from boring DIIEheads who spent hardly anytime in RealView, to the one who had been into S&M frequencies. She hadn't figured that one out until he'd invited her to join in a joint Inclusive. She shuddered with the memories, and then tuned into the music vid frequency for the rest of the ride.
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The beach house was definitely upper middle class. She let herself in after her knocking gained no response, and wandered through the knick-knack filled rooms. The family was seated quietly in the living room; all of them seemingly in Inclusive mode.
Cody sensed her presence and lashed to SmallView. He smiled that devastating smile she'd first noticed about him. "Hi. We're just finishing up at the evening church service." She asked why he would be wasting his time with that, with all the frequencies and programs available. He held out his hand in response. "Join us and find out."
She took Cody's hand tentatively, and...
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The man who just bumped into me slurs a hasty apology, all the while keeping his eyes on the spectacle before us. My heart nearly stops in anguish as I see the ghastly sight before me. A man on a roughly hewn cross is before me, barely decently covered in a tattered purple cloth. The thorns, one never thinks of thorns causing more than a prick on a finger, the thorns are rammed so hard on His head that the blood runs in rivulets into His eyes. I glance at His wrists and feet, but have to turn away from the bloody mess I see there.
Swaying slightly to keep my balance in this jeering crowd of people cursing and spitting on the prisoner, I feel like I have been here forever. Soon I notice that He is nearing the end of His strength, begging His father to forgive the crowd. I listen in amazement to His faint words. He raises His head for a moment and stares right at me, right through me, until I know my heart is laid bare before Him.
The man next to me sobs as he tries to rush forward to the suffering man, but the thick crush of humanity blocks his path and he screams in agony as the sky and earth seem to crumble, and I plunge to the ground with my eyes shut.
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Gagging, she lashed into a movie while the others still sat quietly. She had seen the movie before, so she had time to wonder what type of family she had gotten herself involved with. What kind of people got off on such a ghastly Inclusive, where killing an innocent man was the main entertainment?
The ugly little man was back again in her periphery, motioning frantically. She really had to get her implant checked - this time she almost felt like she had met him before, but couldn't quite focus on his features. Ignoring him, she wondered how people could get so caught up in one belief system when all religions were pretty much the same as far as she was concerned - and she'd always been a good person, following the laws, even volunteering once in awhile, so she figured she was covered as the whole afterlife thing went.
After church, Cody and his parents talked her into a RealView walk along the stormy beach. She was discomfited with so much RealTime, beginning to think more and more that Cody, between his weird religious programs and RealView inclinations, wasn't such a catch after all. She absently answered all of the expected questions about her work, her family and her hobbies.
Keeping her DIIE on in SmallView, she began to get used to the Ugly Little Man pacing her in her periphery as Cody's family oohed and ahhed at the wild sunset breaking over the sea and the dark clouds. She heard them talking about the "service," something about how important it was that the man died, that he had allowed himself to die to save someone, but she just shuddered at the thought.
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When they returned, Cody walked her to the guest room and left her with a tender kiss on the forehead. She stood in the hall for a moment with her door half open, decidedly irked that he hadn't joined her for one of the few entertainments she still found fulfilling only in RealTime.
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She woke late in the morning to a quiet house. A cursory search revealed that she was along. Outside, there was only silence, and the other houses were still as well. The Ugly Little Man was back, doing his best to shout at her although her aurals weren't picking him up. She frowned at him. Whatever he was trying to say, he was very excited about it.
A strong breeze drew her attention back to RealView. The sky seemed to be swirling with the wind. With a sound that shook the ground beneath her, a crack reverberated though the air and sent her to her knees as the warping sky was pulled open to reveal sounds, sights and smells no DIIE could ever hope to recreate.
She wept as the visage of the Ugly Little Man grew and blocked her view of the gorgeous Inclusive before her. She managed to see a Man step out of the cracked sky and grin widely around at the mass of humanity that had filled the sand, sea and world around her. She wondered if she knew Him - He looked vaguely familiar. She saw Cody and his parents rush forward and the joy on their faces as He caught them up in a bright hug of homecoming. As He looked over the crowd, others stepped forward as he beckoned with urgent welcome to them. She lashed to clear the still shouting Ugly Man from her View.
She shifted through he crowd, wanting the Man to look at her, to wrap Him in His arms, to smile that wondrous grin for her. She feared that the Ugly Man would block Him from seeing her.
But the Man saw her anyways. She smiled and began to move forward through the crowd…and His eyes moved on without a flicker of that joyous recognition. The breath seemed to leave her body. She wanted to go with Him, see that incredible Inclusive, but mostly just to be with Him. She lashed, trying to find the right frequency.
The Ugly Man continued to grow, filling all her frequencies. She looked at him in shock. Her aurals were finally able to pick him up. "Welcome home," he said, his voice a gross mockery of joy. His body pulsed and bloated, and split open with stinking pus, splattering on her face and into her mouth. She gazed frantically at the Man one last time, at Cody and his family, and all the others dancing to music she couldn't hear behind Him.
She lashed desperately into RealView, and…
…Hell coursed through my every vein and node, ate away at my synapses and my soul, tore open my spirit…
…and she DIIEd.
