For a moment that felt like an eternity, the only thing Ryan could sense was the sound of his own breathing in the dark. An emotion akin to panic began to grow from somewhere deep in his reptilian brain. Before it could really overcome him, however, he heard a chime. That same sound he’d heard the day before when he’d first powered on the headset, along with the Sifting bootup sequence with the logos and sound effects that came along with it. His view of the room came back. An error message popped up in a window.
System Alert
Forced Unexpected Reboot
Thermal Overload Detected
Sending Status Report to Sifting Technologies Division
The window closed itself after he read it. Ryan tentatively reached up and touched the frames of the goggles, which were no longer burning hot. He pulled the headset off and set it on the cradle. He looked at his fingertips and saw a slight welt, so he headed to the bathroom to run cold water under it. Having a piece of technology strapped to his head that could get so hot it burned his flesh somehow seemed like one of the less intelligent ideas he could have had. Looking in the mirror he saw no signs of damage, so at least there was a layer protecting his face from whatever meltdown the processor seemed to have gone through.
It seemed time to get Derek involved. He had a knack for troubleshooting tech. Ryan saw the time and realized he should have already left, though he no longer felt comfortable keeping the goggles on his head. He needed a break from them. So, he slid them into a backpack, headed downstairs to make a sandwich, which he packaged and threw into another compartment of the backpack, along with an apple, and headed to the entryway closet to grab his jacket. He hesitated for a moment, hand over the doorknob, and then ran back up to his room to grab the orb off his desk.
Derek lived the next block over, but they’d all decided to meet at the park next this District’s version of a haunted compound, so he headed straight there. As he walked, he saw some trash float past him on a gust of wind and felt guilty that he wasn’t knocking out his daily task. He took a few more steps, sighed, and whipped his backpack around in front of him so he could extract the PerSpectives. He slid them on and saw the camouflage message pop up.
“I should bring a plastic bag with me when I leave the house, carrying refuse by hand is kind of nasty,” Ryan mused, as he picked up the piece of trash which had lodged itself inside a bush. “Helios are there any loose bags floating on the wind nearby?” he addressed his goggles.
Terrain scans show no indication of any plastic bags nearby.
Would you like to perform a continuous scan until one is located?
“That won’t cause you to overheat or anything, will it?”
PerSpectives v3.1 have enhanced heat sync and cooling technology that prevent the processor from exceeding thermal limits.
“I’m sure they do. Just, let me know if a bag or trash can pop up into view.”
Acknowledged.
There is a refuse receptacle approximately three meters from your location.
The PerSpective view highlighted a trashcan up the driveway of someone’s house. “I don’t know about that one, Helios. Putting something in a can that’s out on the street is one thing, but going onto someone’s property is different. Let me know if there’s anything in a public space.” The headset gave him a curt “Acknowledged” message and he continued on his way. It was only a matter of time before he found himself engaged in his daily Autumn game of hopping past leaves and the headset asked him if he would like to resume the advanced tutorial he’d been doing yesterday. This time he answered in the affirmative.
The Ministry Paradigm had branches in all the major districts. It was part of their network for the Minerva device, propagation nodes that would enhance the field that was generated by Minerva, allowing it to have uninterrupted coverage. After the Minerva Down incident the outer nodes fell into disrepair as the Ministry focused more on a new and improved device that couldn’t be as easily shut down. If that hadn’t ended in catastrophe, they probably would have rebuilt the outer nodes, but unfortunately that was not the case. The large gothic looking building next to the park looked like an abandoned insane asylum from old horror movies. It had been roughly four decades since the building was in use and nature had started to creep into the grounds. Memory of what the building’s purpose was had faded long since. Now it was mostly a place where kids made games of challenging people to go inside, but no one was stupid enough to fall for it.
The park was a gorgeous parcel of land. Heavily forested, with a large pond in the middle full of avian wildlife. There was a spot next to the pond with large boulders that had a nice line of site through a break in the trees that showed the Ministry building looming, broken and crumbling. On the boulder stood a pale boy with short dirty blonde hair, staring off into the middle distance. He had his hands in the pockets of a light brown jacket that was zipped halfway up, one of his legs pointed forward as he did his best to strike a dramatic pose.
Down on the ground sitting cross legged was a girl with long dark hair spilling over her shoulders. She was wearing a light blue hooded jacket, with a white blouse underneath. In her lap was a tablet which she was completely engrossed with.
“Did you figure out what it is you’re thinking about?” Ryan asked as he walked up, putting a piece of folded paper back in his pocket. Derek grinned, as the girl glanced up, rolling her eyes up toward the idiot on the boulder with a slight head shake, then went back to her tablet.
“Morning Lisa,” Ryan said a bit timidly.
“Hey,” she said in response, not taking her eyes off her tablet.
“What’s up, Ryan?” Derek asked as he jumped down from the boulder. The two boys bumped knuckles.
“You won’t believe it. I hardly do,” Ryan said in response. Derek raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected an answer to the greeting, and now his curiosity was peeked. “What is Lisa doing anyway?” Ryan asked, motioning his head towards her.
“Oh,” Derek said, turning towards her, “there was almost an Incursion Event last night in Inner City. The Ministry of Integrity’s A team was dispatched, and one of them never woke back up. They were able to close the tear before anything got through though.” Ryan whistled at the news.
“I heard there was one Friday night as well,” he said. “Two in as many days is worrisome.”
“A Traveler dying doesn’t help either,” Derek added. Ryan shook his head, wondering what could have caused it.
“Jesus, when was the last time an Astral Traveler actually died?” he said.
“Don’t blaspheme,” Lisa said offhandedly. “Almost ten years.” She answered as an afterthought. Whatever she had been watching came to an end. She turned off her tablet and stood up. “Technically he didn’t die, but he will be in a perpetual coma, with his soul trapped on the other side.”
“You really think they send their souls in there?” Derek said.
“What do you think Astral Projection is, Derek?” she responded.
“I don’t know, but using the term ‘soul’ is pretty loaded. I prefer ‘consciousness’ instead, it has less religious overtones.” Derek nodded to himself smugly and Lisa rolled her eyes again.
“Have you ever done it, Lisa?” Ryan asked.
“What?”
“Astral Projection. I know you’re always heavily interested in anything to do with the other side. Don’t you have to be able to do it in order to apply for the academy?”
“Oh, that’s just a rumor,” she said. “They have a device that can check potentiality of being an Astral Traveler. If you don’t pass that then chances are you’re not getting in. Not that my family would let me go to the Astral Academy,” she mumbled as an afterthought.
“I wouldn’t want to get involved with that stuff anyway,” Derek said. “The frequency of events has gone down precipitously over the last decade. If the rate of decline keeps up, the Ministry of Integrity will fade into obscurity along with the Ministry Paradigm.” Lisa looked cross, but didn’t say anything. This was an old argument, and she could tell he was just baiting her.
“Speaking of the Ministry Paradigm,” Derek continued, seeing she wasn’t going to rise to his challenge. “Weren’t they supposed to announce the winner of that contest on Friday?” Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but Lisa spoke first.
“There was some kind of issue, the Sifting Corporation said they were halting production on the PerSpectives due to lack of market exposure or some business mumbo jumbo. Anyway, they changed the prize to a new tablet. Thin as paper, can be folded up without creasing. Actually pretty cool.”
“Who got it?” Derek asked. Ryan was staring at her with his mouth slightly ajar.
“Who do you think? Rich kid with daddy’s connections of course,” she said with a sneer.
“Ew, Jeremy? Really? He’s got the writing skills of a cave man.” Derek looked over to Ryan to see if he’d got a laugh, but his smile froze as he looked at his friends face. “Uh, Ryan? Something wrong? I know she’s pretty but—” Ryan socked Derek in the should as he turned beat red.
“No, jerk,” he said, glancing at Lisa before looking away quickly. “I just… What Lisa said doesn’t make sense.”
“Why not?” she asked, ignoring Ryan’s awkwardness.
“Uhm, well,” Ryan started. “If that’s true, how do you explain this?” The tone of his voice changed as he spoke inward. “Helios, deactivate camouflage.” The goggles shimmered and appeared around his head. Lisa gasped and Derek let out a loud “Whoa!”
Ryan smiled at his reaction and pulled them off his head. “Want to check it out?” he said offering the goggles to his friend. Derek reverently took the proffered goggles, examining them in awe.
“Where did you get those?” Lisa asked.
“They showed up yesterday morning,” Ryan said. “I found them in a package on my doorstep.”
“But, the announcement,” she said in disbelief, also staring at the PerSpectives. “I definitely read the email that said Jeremy won, and stating the change in prize.”
“Hey, I’m just as surprised as you. I don’t remember seeing an email about the essay on Friday. What time did it come in?”
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“Some time during the last hour,” Lisa said, tapping on her tablet. “Here, see?” Ryan stepped over to Lisa’s side, peering down at her tablet. He noticed she didn’t mind him being in her personal space but told himself not to overthink it. He looked over the timestamp on the email and pulled out his own device. It was one of the government issued phones, which were somewhat lacking in style or hardware, but it worked for what he needed it for. He opened up his school email account and sure enough the same email was there. Ryan frowned.
“Are you sure you really won, and your mom wasn’t just trying to sneak you a present without you feeling bad?” Lisa asked.
“Pretty sure,” Ryan said. “There was a message in my inbox once I set up the PerSpectives that congratulated me for winning. They even said they were impressed with my essay.”
“Well, there is definitely something fishy going on,” Derek said. “But either way, this is frickin’ awesome!” He clearly didn’t care how Ryan had got his hands on the ‘Specs so much as the fact that he was holding a pair in his hands. AR technology wasn’t particularly popular in the outlying districts, which had a more rural feel to them, and Derek was a big city boy on the inside, wanting all the modernization that that entailed. “To be honest, I would have been really hesitant to tell anyone about these, if I were you. If word got out that you had these, there would be a serious target on your back at school.”
“As if there isn’t one already,” Lisa muttered.
“To be honest,” Ryan echoed. “I did hesitate to tell you guys. But things started going a little bit sideways and I wanted to get your input.”
“Can I try them on?” Derek asked.
“Go for it,” Ryan said. “Though I don’t think they’ll work for you.”
Derek slipped the goggles over his head. After a moment he frowned. “Unauthorized user,” he mumbled.
“I told you,” Ryan said. “Let me see if I can change the permissions.” Ryan held his hand out and Derek reluctantly handed them back. After sliding them back on a familiar message appeared.
Warning
Unauthorized user has handled the device.
Automatic lockdown has been initiated.
“Helios, how can I—”
“Helios?!” Derek and Lisa said simultaneously, laughing together. “Nerd,” they mocked.
“I know, that’s what I said,” Ryan admitted. “Do you want me to see if I can add you as a user or not?”
“Sorry, sorry,” Derek said, stifling his mirth.
“Helios, how can I allow other people to use this device?”
Device is licensed for one user only.
Additional users are prohibited.
“Well,” Ryan winced apologetically. “Looks like it’s a one user device. That’s kind of lame.”
“Have you considered jailbreaking it?”
“You want me to potentially brick the most sophisticated piece of technology that I’ll likely ever get my hands on?”
“Yeah, it sounded like a bad idea once I heard it come out of my mouth.” Derek admitted.
“Nothing new under the sun,” Lisa said. It was Derek’s turn to roll his eyes.
“Can you at least stream your vision so we can see what you see?” he asked Ryan.
“Oh, I guess not all your ideas are bad,” Lisa said.
“It is an interesting one,” Ryan agreed. “Helios, is there a way to stream my view?”
PerSpective Vision can be streamed to local devices or via the cloud.
The latter is not recommended, due to privacy concerns.
“How can I stream to local devices?” he asked.
Devices must download the Sifting Visuals app, which contains features that allow it to connect to PerSpective Vision.
“It says you guys have to download an app called ‘Sifting Visuals’ in order to connect to my device.” The other two started tapping away on their devices, looking for the app.
“I didn’t know Sifting had an app,” Lisa said. “They’re usually pretty big on marketing their products. Here it is. Kind of a large app, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Derek agreed. “This will take a minute to download with the bandwidth out here. So, what did you do all day yesterday?”
“I worked on daily tasks, got some side quests, earned some CP, did some light reading.”
“Reading?” Derek asked, incredulously.
“Yeah, I got a few reading assignments with some serious CP rewards, and I really wanted to show my mom what I could do with these, income wise.”
“What kind of reading assignments?” Lisa asked while Derek asked, “What kind of CP rewards?” at the same time. Ryan shook his head at Derek. Both of their devices let out alerts indicating their downloads had finished.
“I guess I can just show you. Helios, can I start streaming to these two devices?” Ryan focused on Derek’s phone and Lisa’s tablet respectively, the PerSpectives highlighting each in turn.
Capturing packet data.
MAC Addresses identified.
Begin pairing.
User’s must select “allow” within the app.
Both phones popped up with a security notification that a device was attempting to pair with them. Derek had already been ready and hit the allow button before he even had time to read it. Lisa was a little more cautious but assented to allow the pairing procedure after only a moment’s hesitation.
Welcome to Perspective View by Sifting Visuals, a subsidiary of Sifting Technology division.
Current Player View: Aitherios
CP: 1723
Level: 3
Location: 1km west of Minerva Node 7
A truncated view of what Ryan saw appeared on their displays, with his stats floating in the upper left corner. Ryan looked out towards the pond, his headset identifying the various birds in his view and their number. When his gaze stayed on one in particular, a separate window opened up in his HUD that zoomed in on the animal. Considering he hadn’t accomplished this feat before, he felt cheated out of an achievement, but conceded it was a known feature of earlier versions of the device.
“Dude,” Derek’s excitement was palpable. “Zoom and Enhance cliché!” On their respective devices Lisa and Derek saw the detailed information of the birds he was focusing on.
Species: Mallard Duck (Anas Platyrhynchos)
Sex: Male
Description: Common waterfowl species. Males have iridescent green heads and necks, and chestnut brown chests. Females are mottled brown for camouflage.
Habitat: Freshwater Rivers, Lakes, and Ponds
Population: Stable
Ryan changed his point of focus and the system responded.
Species: Canada Geese (Branta Canadenesis)
Sex: Likely Male (80% Chance)
Description: Large, black-necked geese with white chin straps. Known for their honking calls and V-shaped migratory formations.
Habitat: Wetlands and urban parks.
Population: Thriving due to governmental protections.
Something different from all the other birds caught Ryan’s attention and he shifted his gaze in that direction. It had a deep grey color that was almost blue, tall, with long skinny legs, an almost equally skinny neck, and a sharp elongated beak.
Achievement Unlocked!
Spot a rare species!
Species: Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias)
Sex: Male
Description: Tall wading bird with slate-blue feathers, long legs, and a sharp, yellowish bill. Known for its patience and hunting precision.
Habitat: Marshes, ponds, and estuaries.
Population: Once thriving, this now endangered species has become a herald of fortune.
Reward: 100CP, Bronze Nature Trophy
Almost as soon as that message appeared a new one popped up.
New Task!
Bird Watching
Objective: Find the three rarest birds known to frequent District 7
Reward: 100 CP per bird, Random Boon, additional CP upon completion depending on time between bird sitings.
The new task message went unnoticed. All three of them watched the heron in awe as it turned and let loose its broad majestic wingspan, taking off and soaring over the pond. The perspectives assisted in tracking and enhancing the image for the streamer’s view. It landed on the opposite side of the pond and became stock still, fishing.
“Well, way to show off your new view,” Derek spoke in a reverent tone as they all kept their eyes on the rare bird. Lisa had looked up from her tablet to see it with her own eyes. Ryan was looking at the location information that he had not noticed before in his HUD. He glanced over in the direction of the abandoned building, jarring Derek from the moment as the perspective on his phone shifted.
“Hey!” he protested.
“Sorry,” Ryan apologized. “Did you know that building had a Minerva Node in it?” The other two looked towards the structure which was barely visible over the treetops. They all seemed to have the same idea at once as, without a word, they began climbing up the boulders until they were all three standing atop the tallest one.
“I had heard rumors, I mean, we all have I’m sure,” Lisa said. Derek nodded but had a skeptical grimace on his face.
“Yeah, maybe we heard it used to belong to the Ministry Paradigm, I don’t think I’ve ever heard it housed a Minerva Node though.” As Derek spoke Ryan squinted his eyes, really focusing on the building. “You’re the Minerva expert, dude. Your research ever mention anything like that?”
“I know the Minerva device required repeaters to extend the wave propagation. I guess I never really thought about what that meant, or where they would be housed. But now that I think about it, where else would they have put such things.” As he spoke his right hand was in his jacket pocket, moving the Concentrated Firmament around with his fingers. The PerSpectives began scanning the distant compound, noting points of structural weakness. He had the odd sensation of something tugging at him, as if he was being magnetically drawn towards that old, abandoned structure.
“There’s a theory,” Lisa said, “that the reality tears first appeared around those nodes at the beginning of the Catastrophe. As if reality was weakened where the field was the strongest.”
“There aren’t many substantiated records from those days,” Ryan said absently, examining some information that was appearing on his display. “Not until reality was stabilized at least.”
“All goes to prove, that terrorist did more harm than good,” Derek muttered.
“Really, Derek?” Lisa said condescendingly. “You think we’re better off being mindless drones of society?”
“That’s not what Minerva did, and you know it,” Derek argued. “It is a fact that the rate of violent crimes skyrocketed in the wake of the Minerva Down Incident.”
“It’s also a fact that birth rates more than doubled,” Lisa reposted. “Because people could actually feel something for one another again.”
“It’s not like Minerva shut off emotions. Ryan, help me out here.” Derek turned to Ryan who hadn’t taken his eyes off the building in the distance.
“My dad was three years old when Minerva went off-line,” Ryan said absently. “His mom was driving him home from a park, a lot like this one I imagine.” Lisa and Derek both stopped bickering to give Ryan their attention. He’d rarely, if ever, talk about his father. “They were in an accident, the car flipped. One of his earliest memories was of his mother’s lifeless eyes. That’s what drove him to find the man responsible for it all. That’s why I never got a chance to meet him.” He moved to wipe the moisture from his eyes and his hand hit the visor of the PerSpectives. He let out a bittersweet chuckle and moved them up his forehead so he could clear out his suddenly blurred vision. “Anyway, I don’t know if it was good or bad. I just know the way it was shut down was important to my dad.”
Lisa put her hand on his shoulder, and he gave her a sad smile. Derek gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. “So, am I the only one who noticed how much CP you have after one day?” he said, knowing his friend would appreciate a change in topic and mood. “Eighteen Hundred? That’s like a hundred and eighty bucks!”
“Oh yeah,” Ryan said, pushing the goggled back down. “Got most of that from completing one of my reading assignments. That’s actually how my whole experience with the goggles got weird.” He pulled up his task list for them to see and started telling them about his morning.
