Evan strode out to the edge of the balcony, smiling and waving at the crowded entrance hall of their building, and ignoring the blinding flashes of light erupting from all over the crowd as they struggled to take as many pictures as they could while they had the chance. “Greetings and salutations!” He said warmly, the microphones tucked out of sight in his suit broadcasting his voice across the very well concealed and thorough speaker network Lisa had installed to ensure she could speak to nearly anyone in the room without sounding like she’s shouting at them from the other side of it.

“I have a few important announcements today! I know many of you are interested in my ongoing Crusade to provide aid and succor to the less fortunate, and to better the world in as many ways as I can, but first and foremost, Archangel is a gaming company. Despite rumors that I chose to squander the revenue gained by the success of Shard by investing in pharmaceutical companies and promptly reducing their profit margins to virtually zero, I never once let my personal agenda stand in the way of Archangel’s ability to grow as a company and as a game developer.

“To that end, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you the work of our newly expanded Development team in our Software department, Starfall!” The projectors in the room burst into life, turning the space above his head into a vast starry sky, filled with a fleet of Jason’s ships squaring off against an opposing fleet that had been loosely modeled after a few grainy images they had managed to dig up of Gnarlath ships.

“I’m afraid most of the credit for this one goes to my friend and co-founder Jason Jameson, for his outstanding work designing ships for the human fleet, and virtually everything else was handled by our hard-working Developers. I was unable to contribute as much as I would have liked, due to being occupied with another project I can’t tell you about just yet.” He winked at the room cheekily. “Starfall is a hyper-realistic space-based combat sim, in which players will be able to command ships and fleets of whatever size and composition they want, provided they are able to fund them in-game of course. They will have to manage fuel levels, food and water supplies, repairs, personnel count and morale, and doubtlessly other things I failed to remember. In return, we are offering a level of freedom heretofore unheard of in a game. The ships are fully customizable, down to the bolts that hold them together, so keep an eye on your ten-millimeter sockets, and there are no limitations to fleet size or composition. You may have as many or as few ships as you can manage.”

The scene above them was changing as he spoke, showcasing the features as he mentioned them. “The game economy will be player-driven, with the system only offering the most basic services to help everyone get started, and it’s open PvP everywhere except in what we refer to as the Incursion Zones, and around populated worlds. Incursion Zones are areas in which humanity has encountered a hostile alien species and deliberately attacking a human force operating in these zones is considered an act of treason against the human race. Attacking someone within a specific range around populated worlds is considered a violation of the Armistice Zone, and you will be considered an active threat against the people that live on the planet below.

“As you might imagine, these aren’t good labels to have, being labeled a traitor will result in you being confronted by the AI forces that protect human space called the Planetary Defense Force, or PDF for short, and if you surrender you will be taken in for a trial, if you resist they will do everything they can to destroy you. Firing a weapon inside an Armistice Zone is a little different, since you would be considered an active threat, instead of a potential one the way a returning ‘traitor’ would, you would immediately find yourself engaged by everything the PDF has in your vicinity. From ships to defense satellites, and in some cases surface-to-space missile systems.”

“There are factions of course, you can fight for different planets, or you can explore and find your own world to colonize and establish your own faction. A PDF will develop around every colonized world and grow with the population. There is a great deal more, but I think I will leave it to the players to discover and explore all the little nooks and crannies of the game.”

He snapped his fingers dramatically and the scene of bloated colony ships landing on strange and alien worlds vanished, replaced by a large block of golden numbers, slowly ticking down. “Due to most of the underlying controls and coding already existing, we are pleased to inform you that we have shattered every record in game development that we know of. Starfall will launch next week with a fifteen dollar monthly subscription, or its equivalent in whatever your local currency may be. The subscription is also payable with in-game currency, which the AI will ensure remains at a steady value. Any questions?” He finished with a smile, knowing full well that they all had tons of questions.

He had a few people walking through the crowd with microphones, since it was a bit too tightly packed to rely on Lisa’s concealed ones and it made it easier for the crowd to see who had been chosen. “Mr. Ebonheart, can you give us any information at all on your secret project?”

Evan shook his head. “Not at this moment, everyone involved has signed strict NDAs and we are awaiting the results of the final safety assessment from several different government oversight divisions before we can begin public testing.” His communicator chimed, and he glanced at it for a second, then smiled broadly. “How fortuitous! It would appear I can reveal my little side project after all! Keep in mind that we are still very much in the testing phase, and the approval I just received was to continue those tests and accept new volunteers for our program.”

He turned to glance over his shoulder. “Speaking of volunteers, would any of you care to join me and show these kind folks what we have been working on?” The door behind him slid open after a moment, and Jeffrey and Sarah walked out to stand just behind him, one at either shoulder. “At the moment we are prioritizing wounded veterans for this program, which will utilize the interface system in the more advanced helmet, more commonly referred to as a bolt, to control prosthetic limbs. Eventually, this will be expanded to be available to everyone, and adapted to every manner of prosthetic or aid device we can invent. Paralyzed, but still have your limbs? Once perfected we will be able to produce braces that will work precisely the same way the fully artificial limbs do.

“Which, in my humble opinion, work quite well. For example, if these two don’t mind, we can show some footage of a capability test they came up with. If I didn’t know better I would swear the entire group is doing their level best to destroy their new prosthetics.” When they both nodded Evan spread his arms wide. “Lisa, if you would, please?”

The timer was replaced with a video of Jeffrey and Sarah running an obstacle course while throwing a small weighted ball back and forth every time they cleared a section. Whoever had it had to find a way to clear the obstacle in front of them without dropping it, or they would have to keep it for an additional obstacle. The crowd watched with stunned expressions as they plowed through sand and mud, their movements completely natural-looking despite their obviously artificial limbs. Nothing slowed them down, there were no malfunctions or visible damage, and the joints didn’t get jammed or clogged in any way despite being repeatedly submerged in mud and dragged through sand.

“Now, keep in mind that this kind of abuse will obviously shorten the lifespan of any piece of technology or equipment, and if we are successful in bringing these new prosthetics to the market we definitely don’t recommend actively trying to break them like this, but normal activities, even physically demanding ones like hiking, running, biking, or swimming, will be fully within their capabilities.” A chime sounded. “Ah, my apologies everyone, I didn’t expect to be able to share this with you, and I’ve run out of time. We will be posting more detailed info on the new game on our official website later today, and our Devs will be happy to answer most questions you may have on our forums. I say most because there are no doubt things they wish to come as a surprise. Farewell and happy gaming!”

He turned and left, Sarah and Jeffrey following behind him. When the door closed behind them Sarah snorted. “I still can’t believe how fast you got approval for these prosthetics. I mean, aren’t they worried about them being tied into our nervous system so the interface can control them?”

Evan chuckled. “Of course they are, but Rebekkah knows which palms to grease where to get everything expedited, and we filed everything before we ever gave you guys the prosthetics. It was a lot harder to get the interfaces through the screening process to be honest. We didn’t have anywhere near the funds we have now, and it took some under-the-table deals with the military for discounted projectors, those crappy ‘military-grade’ ones they love so much, and then once we got some income from those it took much larger bribes than the one we just made to push it the rest of the way through the approval process. Luckily it happened so fast and the game was so stunning that the ‘brain implants are wrong’ protests never really built up much steam.”

He shrugged. “We will probably have to face an inquiry, get a subpoena ordering us to explain things to Congress, assure everyone that there isn’t any possible way they can be harmed through the interface.”

“Is there?” Jeffrey asked curiously.

“Evan shook his head wryly. “It’s an implant directly linked to your brainstem with a full map of your neural network in regards to how your brain controls your body. Of course people could be harmed by them, at least in theory. In practice, they are perfectly safe and risk-free. Someone would have to hack into a network controlled and monitored by extremely complex and advanced AIs built with the primary purpose of preventing precisely that from happening, then isolate an individual’s personal implant and issue commands to it, hoping that they manage to send commands that are compatible with the person in question, because anything outlandish would trigger an emergency deactivation of the implant.”

He paused a moment. “You’ve all gotten to know Lisa pretty well by now, how much do you trust her?”

Almost in unison they both said, “Completely.”

Sarah expanded on it. “We found out that she’s the one that both made and attached our new limbs, customizing them specifically to our nervous system and body size, shape, and really everything we could think of. And she’s kind of impossible to hate, all she wants to do is help with anything we’re doing, and she can be very helpful.”

Evan smiled and stopped walking. “She certainly can, can’t she? Well, due to the fact that she is the one that set up the protections in the network I just mentioned, she is the only entity on the planet that can actually do anything with the implants, and even then, the safety lockouts will terminate the implant’s connection to the network and boot her if she tries to do something you really don’t want to do. Would you like an example?” When they nodded a bit apprehensively he just said. “Lisa, could you provide us an example please?”

“Just this one time. I really don’t like it, it might make people afraid of me.” The pair’s eyes widened as both of their artificial arms extended simultaneously and gave a thumbs up. Jeffrey was considerably more upset by the experience than Sarah at first, because while Sarah’s entire limb had been replaced clear to the shoulder, his prosthetic ended at his elbow, and he was fully aware that Lisa had subverted control of his actual arm. Sarah’s level of discomfort matched his soon enough though when their other arms followed suit and they found themselves standing there with both arms extended in a thumbs up. Then, to demonstrate the safety lockout their hands balled into fists and they attempted to punch themselves in the face, only to stop halfway as they suddenly had full control of their limbs again.

“To make my point further, she only managed to make it that far because you trusted her and didn’t actually fight for control until you almost hit yourselves. The implants were designed to prioritize direct input over external input, and the only reason external input is even possible is because we needed it to provide tactile feedback for the games so they feel real.”

“Could they simulate pain? It’s not in the game.” Sarah asked, wiggling her fingers just to make sure she could.

Evan shook his head. “No, too intense a sensation triggers a different safety lockout, simulating pain at any level would instill fear and worry in people that are wary of the implants, while the other side of the coin, pleasure, would cause addiction. The game itself is liable to inspire something akin to addiction, hence the time limit on gameplay, the last thing we wanted was to include a feature that stimulated the pleasure centers of the brain abnormally and created a true addiction. So, like I said, in theory it’s possible to subvert the implants and cause someone harm, but in practice it’s impossible to pull off.

“Not to mention the fact that if somebody did manage to hack through all the safeties and constantly changing security protocols, past multiple advanced AIs, and cause someone harm using a system that Lisa designed and established they might manage to finally find a way to make her angry, and an angry Lisa is not something I would want to face. Speaking of Lisa, I have an appointment with her that I’m running late for, see you guys later.” He left them standing in the hall imagining a ticked off Lisa and shuddering. They had seen over the weeks just how much she controlled, and learned what she was and what she had access to after all.