《The Federation Of a Thousand Earths》Chapter 13

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“Ok, and here is where you will work for the foreseeable future.”, Consuelo Peregrine, the leader of the Neural Interface adaption for starships, said to Lucas.

It was a big room with multiple boxes in it. He recognized some as the Neural Interface controllers typically used by Battle-Robots and similar games, but some of them he did not recognize. And the fact that a series of those had open, blank cables sticking out of them was not exactly confidence inspiring, to say the least.

“Can I ask you why there are blank metal cables showing out of that box?”, he finally asked, hoping desperately for an reassuring answer.

“Oh, those? They are not under any kind of real power, and cannot be. That is an attempt at a sensor, I think. Assumpcio Gąszcz is a bit crazy, but he promised me that it would be cleaned up today and that he would use the specialized equipment we have for that. Which reminds me, I need to make sure that he does that.”, and she tipped something on her watch, and became very still.

She was using the movements of her head and her eyes to type with her glasses. Which was impressive, especially because she seemed to be able to type quickly. It was a skill that took a lot of training, which Lucas knew from experience. Because he had wanted to impress his family, he had picked up the skill, although he was not keeping it current. A projected keyword above the watch was significantly easier to work with, and most of the time quicker to use. Still, there was always that situation were it came in handy.

She continued: “Ok, now that this is done, where were we? Oh, right I wanted to show you your workplace, as well as explain to you what we are doing here. Ok, so you are one of nine testers of the Neural Interface we currently have. We will train up more, we will gain more, but for now, that is enough, considering we are still in the proof of concept phase. Not for finding out if the things work, we know that, but for figuring out if they are useful for the task at hand. And if yes, what do they excel at, and what should you better not do with them? Now, we have simulators, which are technically still in development, so please tell us about the bugs you will definitely encounter. But, while this here is primarily a facility of the space force, we will also test its usage in tanks and similar machines. For which we will actually get physical devices at some point in the new future. Which you will first test in the simulator, which hopefully is at least decently close to reality. After that is done, and we are certain we have done everything to ensure your safety you will first control it from afar, but still over the neural interface, similar how you controlled the Battle-Robots. But, that is not actually all that useful from an operational standpoint, because of the risk of hacking. So, after we are sure that everything works as intended, you will be strapped into the device while controlling it. Any questions?”

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“For what is the tech actually used besides the Battle-Robots in the real world? Can we get experience from there?”

“Oh, we are getting experience from there. Its main use is actually controlling wheelchairs, funnily enough. That is generally done with the help of a much stripped down version of that technology, so that the user does not need to lie in a capsule. Still, helping disabled people getting around is its main use. In fact, we want to recruit most users of this technology from such disabled persons. Just because they cannot walk, does not mean that they are not valuable members of our society and that they cannot be valuable members of our military. Of course, the disability to walk is just one of the many disabilities existing. Sadly, not everything can be healed, and even if, it tends to be a hellishly dangerous operation, so many choose to live with it instead of risking death.”

“I see that you are quite emotional about the topic. Well, I am certain our work here will also improve the civilian products available for those in need. Now, where do I begin?”

“Follow me.” Ms. Peregrine lead him to one of the less modified looking capsules and motioned him to lie down in it. After Lucas did so, the capsule automatically closed. For a few seconds he was in perfect darkness, then there was a bright light and he was suddenly standing in the void.

Well, not he was standing in a white void, but a generic avatar that had roughly his size and wore the same uniform he did.

Suddenly Ms. Peregrine’s voice came into the void: “Ok, now you will see our current space ship control simulation. Try it out a bit, experiment. Please remember that you will need to give an report afterwards. Anything you say is recorded, and you have access to those, so use that for note taking if you want. Good luck.”

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Suddenly he was in a black, starry void, in space.

But he had lost his body.

He was disorientated.

Nothing worked.

But he could move.

It was sudden, but it felt different.

Sluggish maybe?

But also indescribably fast.

Was he in a space ship?

No, he was the space ship. He could see what the ships sensors saw, he could feel that as well. He could feel the hull, where micrometeorites hit it, he could feel a dull pain. Far to many micrometeorites even, for the void between the stars, what this looked like.

He stated that and heard his voice echoing to everywhere and beyond.

Everything was different. But it worked. He could see that with a bit of training and a few adjustments to the controls and the interface, this might be a very interesting way to fly a space ship.

Ok, admittedly a lot of adjustments to a lot of tiny things, like for example the controls that were far to easy to set off accidentally. But if those bugs were ironed out, he could see that become popular as an extreme sport, at least on Therion.

It was sort of fun and relaxing. But then, everything changed.

He was disorientated.

Everything was to bright, to loud, to everything.

Something touched him.

He reacted in panic.

A voice spoke in calming tones.

He did not understand any of it.

He fell into blessed unconsciousness.

The next day, when he woke up, he was in the medical area of the complex. The doctor began to speak as soon as he realized that Lucas was awake: “Here, a glass of water. This is a problem we are having currently. You cannot be brought out of immersion without issue. Which is really harming development. Stay calm. You will be here for the next twenty four hours, and after that, we will continue. Use that time to write your experiences down. Maybe you find a solution for the problem. Admittedly, we have not tried a lot yet, only four others were in that simulation before you. Recover and think, for now.”

Lucas drank the water. It tasted, felt divine. Now, that was an issue. What to do about it?

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