direstraits
Well-Known Member
My team was gathered onboard the Dreadnought Arcturus. CaiY, FuHF, BaoCL and LiXR were present for this particular mission briefing.
Cyberverse was the premier online game of the last five years, and had taken over my online life for the best part of three. It was by far the most addictive thing out there, what with the fantastic graphics and impressive play mechanics. In real-life, I was seated in my underwear in my flat in downtown Boston, but when you’re immersed in Cyberverse your attention is all in the game.
“Guys, the Jade Retrieval mission in the Xorn Complex is finally open to us, and I want it!” LiXR was our newest recruit, but boasted impressive stats. And I wasn’t talking about her physical appearance. She had been playing previously from the Dreadnought Arcadia, and gained all her experience points there. She only recently requested board here in the Arcturus, citing ‘creative differences’ between her and her commanding officer. LiXR was using the human female Engineer-class avatar from the game. Fair-skinned, raven black hair, curvaceous and clad in white skin-tight armour. The game allows personalization options to distinguish one player from the next, and for her personal emblem she chose a non-game-standard image of a heart with a knife pierced through it.
“Not going to be easy, BriXX.” BaoCL, an anthropomorphic lion, was paradoxically my most cautious member.
“I think we should be able to scrape through,” I said. “Plus, it’ll finally open up the Prime Avatar rank for LiXR.” LiXR is the only player closest to the attaining the highest rank in the game, one that opened up endless playability options. More levels, more enemies, more loot.
LiXR turned to me. And by ‘me’ I meant my representation in the game. My avatar. “Please, can we run it tonight?” She seemed desperate.
Everyone seemed to assent to this. “Ok, then,” I said. “See you in 8 hours.”
“Sorry, just sent a quick email.” I hurried into the meeting room, laptop in hand, and scurried to the nearest available seat. Everyone was already there. Alicia turned back to the whiteboard, and went back to her diagrams, adding more boxes and lines. I was feeling incredibly conspicuous.
“So when the users started coming in to work from the Far East,” Alicia was saying, “the load just overwhelmed the database.”
This was the postmortem of the fiasco that took out the corporate network facility of our largest client, Coloco Inc, for most of the morning yesterday. The problem was a major embarrassment to the company I worked for, and our bosses were told in no uncertain terms by the Coloco CEO that it must be fixed. To cut to the heart of the matter, as it were.
Robert Shaw, my company’s Chief Operations, interrupted Alicia’s monologue. “Who from our team was up that night working on the server migration?”
Eyes flicked to me. Of course. Why did anyone think I was here? “I was, Mr Shaw.”
“Any problems encountered during migration?”
“I don't think so. Normally...”
“Don't think, Wilder. Was there a problem, or wasn't there?”
“Uh, no.”
“Wilder, it has come to my attention that your… how to put it… work hygiene, is none too pleasing of late.” I didn't know this would go to him so quickly. “Alicia has already highlighted to me that the quality of your work has been wanting. I had better not find out that the problem yesterday came from your lack of attention to detail.”
“No, sir.” Alicia had been working extra time, I see. It was no secret within the company that she and I were not friends, especially since she found out quite by accident that I earned a little more than she did.
“See to it that the problem is mitigated. Tonight. I don’t want to see a repeat of yesterday.”
“Will you stop fucking around with your laptop and concentrate on the job at hand?”
“The CPU utilization is still at 80%, Shepard. The load is not coming yet. We’ve still some time.” I tried to be nonchalant, but the fact was the database load was going to come at any time.
But I had to join the LiXR team in Cyberverse too. I brought my personal laptop to the server console room, in the hope that I can do two things at once. The laptop was running Cyberverse, and in it, my avatar was standing outside the Xorn complex, being sieged by enemy fire. LiXR, FuHF and BaoCL were inside the complex. “WE’RE ALMOST DONE WITH THE RETRIEVAL! HOLD ON BRIXX!” BaoCL was screaming over the chatlines. They were at the final stages of the Jade recovery process, and right about now LiXR would be hard at work typing in the arcane commands in an attempt to break open the Xorn vaults. My job was to hold back enemy fire until they were done.
“Shut the fucking thing down, man, and keep your eye on the Coloco process monitor! If this thing fucks up it’s going on your head!” Shepard had been working as the admin for 5 years now, which was plenty of time to turn him into a fire-spitting beasts. Server admins always have it hard. “When the load comes you won’t have time to load the override if you continue to dick around with that thing!”
I gave a cursory glance at the Coloco process monitor while I blasted a Xorn Enforcer in the face. “Still nothing, Shepard.” The Xorn swarms were starting to build now, and stealing a glance away meant a hit on any of the folks in the Xorn complex.
“Hey dickhead, I’m seeing an increase in activity. You might want to actually earn your pay now.” Shepard was furiously cycling through monitoring programs on his workstation. No choice now, I had to investigate. I loaded up the monitoring process on the Coloco servers, and sure enough, a steady incline in memory utilization.
“I’m preparing the override code now, Shepard. Let me just…”
“OVERWHELMED!!!!! HEI WHR R U BRIXX? WER DYIN HERE!” I quickly returned to my avatar and commandeered a cannon to sweep the Xorn compound with laser fire.
“Shit, here it is! UPLOAD THE OVERRIDE!” Shepard was repeatedly pressing the F5 key as he attempted to slow the incoming database load. I jumped across to the workstation again and tried to find the program and started keying in the impossibly long command line arguments to set the program parameters.
“You should have done that first instead of playing your stupid game, you dickhead! You won’t upload the override in time!”
I finished the command line and pressed ENTER.
“WE DID IT! WE GOT THE JADE! WHOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!”
In real life, though, it was too late. The override code did not complete in time. I glanced around at the servers just beyond the glass screen of the console room, and felt a little part of me die as the Coloco servers’ indicator lights flickered out and faded.
I was placing my pewter cardholder into a cardboard box when Alicia walked up to the cubicle.
“I just heard the news.”
“Well, you got want you wanted.” I put the last of my things away, and threw a look around the cubicle.
“Look, I didn’t mean for it to end this way. I really did expect you to be able to contain the situation.” She actually looked a little guilty as she said it. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry to see you go.”
“Of course you are.” This would be the first time I hit the self-destruct button over something as huge as an actual employment over my addiction to Cyberverse. I sure hoped LiXR actually appreciates what I had done for her.
“Well, I am sorry. I don’t keep grudges, Bri. Drop by for coffee if you’re in the neighbourhood, ok?”
Alicia hovered for a moment, but realized I wasn’t going to say more. She gave a weak smile, then turned to go. I looked at her retreating profile as she walked away.
Then a thunderbolt struck. I gave a violent jerk, the shock of recognition burned by eyes. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed it before. I stood there frozen for what seemed like minutes, unable to move.
Alicia was carrying her smartphone in her hand. And dangling from it was a pendant. The shape of a heart, with a knife piercing through it.
Cyberverse was the premier online game of the last five years, and had taken over my online life for the best part of three. It was by far the most addictive thing out there, what with the fantastic graphics and impressive play mechanics. In real-life, I was seated in my underwear in my flat in downtown Boston, but when you’re immersed in Cyberverse your attention is all in the game.
“Guys, the Jade Retrieval mission in the Xorn Complex is finally open to us, and I want it!” LiXR was our newest recruit, but boasted impressive stats. And I wasn’t talking about her physical appearance. She had been playing previously from the Dreadnought Arcadia, and gained all her experience points there. She only recently requested board here in the Arcturus, citing ‘creative differences’ between her and her commanding officer. LiXR was using the human female Engineer-class avatar from the game. Fair-skinned, raven black hair, curvaceous and clad in white skin-tight armour. The game allows personalization options to distinguish one player from the next, and for her personal emblem she chose a non-game-standard image of a heart with a knife pierced through it.
“Not going to be easy, BriXX.” BaoCL, an anthropomorphic lion, was paradoxically my most cautious member.
“I think we should be able to scrape through,” I said. “Plus, it’ll finally open up the Prime Avatar rank for LiXR.” LiXR is the only player closest to the attaining the highest rank in the game, one that opened up endless playability options. More levels, more enemies, more loot.
LiXR turned to me. And by ‘me’ I meant my representation in the game. My avatar. “Please, can we run it tonight?” She seemed desperate.
Everyone seemed to assent to this. “Ok, then,” I said. “See you in 8 hours.”
—————
“Sorry, just sent a quick email.” I hurried into the meeting room, laptop in hand, and scurried to the nearest available seat. Everyone was already there. Alicia turned back to the whiteboard, and went back to her diagrams, adding more boxes and lines. I was feeling incredibly conspicuous.
“So when the users started coming in to work from the Far East,” Alicia was saying, “the load just overwhelmed the database.”
This was the postmortem of the fiasco that took out the corporate network facility of our largest client, Coloco Inc, for most of the morning yesterday. The problem was a major embarrassment to the company I worked for, and our bosses were told in no uncertain terms by the Coloco CEO that it must be fixed. To cut to the heart of the matter, as it were.
Robert Shaw, my company’s Chief Operations, interrupted Alicia’s monologue. “Who from our team was up that night working on the server migration?”
Eyes flicked to me. Of course. Why did anyone think I was here? “I was, Mr Shaw.”
“Any problems encountered during migration?”
“I don't think so. Normally...”
“Don't think, Wilder. Was there a problem, or wasn't there?”
“Uh, no.”
“Wilder, it has come to my attention that your… how to put it… work hygiene, is none too pleasing of late.” I didn't know this would go to him so quickly. “Alicia has already highlighted to me that the quality of your work has been wanting. I had better not find out that the problem yesterday came from your lack of attention to detail.”
“No, sir.” Alicia had been working extra time, I see. It was no secret within the company that she and I were not friends, especially since she found out quite by accident that I earned a little more than she did.
“See to it that the problem is mitigated. Tonight. I don’t want to see a repeat of yesterday.”
—————
I don’t know, LiXR. I have a mighty important job to do tonight.
We won’t get another chance for the next three months! Prime Avatar status grants us all access to the Council! C’mon, BriXX, I can’t do it without you.
Couldn’t LinD cover you instead?
We need the ReaperGuns, and you’re the only avatar who can use them!
I don’t know, I could lose my job if this thing fails.
Ok, remember I said I lived in Shanghai? Actually, I lied. I’m actually based in Maine.
No way!
Way. You think it’s easy being a online girl gamer? I get lewd messages from total strangers, and horny kids spend more time hitting on me than the enemies during siege sessions.
LOL! Why don’t you play as a guy, then?
Because I’m a girl, Bri. I take the good and the bad. So sometimes I pretend to be Chinese to stave off the casual chit-chats. The real Chinese don’t like to play here with us gwailos, after all.
LOL!
So since you once told me you were in Boston, maybe we can meet up in Real Life or something?
You drive a hard bargain, LiXR. How do I know you’re not a guy?
You don’t. And I’m not going to send you naked pix to prove anything to you. It’s a risk. Heck it’s a risk for me too, how the hell will I know you’re not an axe murderer?
Point.
So?
Ok.
Ok?
I’ll do it.
REALLY??? Yay!!! I feel like kissing you right now!
But I may be an axe murderer.
I doubt it, you’re so sweet! ;p I’ll see you tonight! Don’t forget!
We won’t get another chance for the next three months! Prime Avatar status grants us all access to the Council! C’mon, BriXX, I can’t do it without you.
Couldn’t LinD cover you instead?
We need the ReaperGuns, and you’re the only avatar who can use them!
I don’t know, I could lose my job if this thing fails.
Ok, remember I said I lived in Shanghai? Actually, I lied. I’m actually based in Maine.
No way!
Way. You think it’s easy being a online girl gamer? I get lewd messages from total strangers, and horny kids spend more time hitting on me than the enemies during siege sessions.
LOL! Why don’t you play as a guy, then?
Because I’m a girl, Bri. I take the good and the bad. So sometimes I pretend to be Chinese to stave off the casual chit-chats. The real Chinese don’t like to play here with us gwailos, after all.
LOL!
So since you once told me you were in Boston, maybe we can meet up in Real Life or something?
You drive a hard bargain, LiXR. How do I know you’re not a guy?
You don’t. And I’m not going to send you naked pix to prove anything to you. It’s a risk. Heck it’s a risk for me too, how the hell will I know you’re not an axe murderer?
Point.
So?
Ok.
Ok?
I’ll do it.
REALLY??? Yay!!! I feel like kissing you right now!
But I may be an axe murderer.
I doubt it, you’re so sweet! ;p I’ll see you tonight! Don’t forget!
—————
“Will you stop fucking around with your laptop and concentrate on the job at hand?”
“The CPU utilization is still at 80%, Shepard. The load is not coming yet. We’ve still some time.” I tried to be nonchalant, but the fact was the database load was going to come at any time.
But I had to join the LiXR team in Cyberverse too. I brought my personal laptop to the server console room, in the hope that I can do two things at once. The laptop was running Cyberverse, and in it, my avatar was standing outside the Xorn complex, being sieged by enemy fire. LiXR, FuHF and BaoCL were inside the complex. “WE’RE ALMOST DONE WITH THE RETRIEVAL! HOLD ON BRIXX!” BaoCL was screaming over the chatlines. They were at the final stages of the Jade recovery process, and right about now LiXR would be hard at work typing in the arcane commands in an attempt to break open the Xorn vaults. My job was to hold back enemy fire until they were done.
“Shut the fucking thing down, man, and keep your eye on the Coloco process monitor! If this thing fucks up it’s going on your head!” Shepard had been working as the admin for 5 years now, which was plenty of time to turn him into a fire-spitting beasts. Server admins always have it hard. “When the load comes you won’t have time to load the override if you continue to dick around with that thing!”
I gave a cursory glance at the Coloco process monitor while I blasted a Xorn Enforcer in the face. “Still nothing, Shepard.” The Xorn swarms were starting to build now, and stealing a glance away meant a hit on any of the folks in the Xorn complex.
“Hey dickhead, I’m seeing an increase in activity. You might want to actually earn your pay now.” Shepard was furiously cycling through monitoring programs on his workstation. No choice now, I had to investigate. I loaded up the monitoring process on the Coloco servers, and sure enough, a steady incline in memory utilization.
“I’m preparing the override code now, Shepard. Let me just…”
“OVERWHELMED!!!!! HEI WHR R U BRIXX? WER DYIN HERE!” I quickly returned to my avatar and commandeered a cannon to sweep the Xorn compound with laser fire.
“Shit, here it is! UPLOAD THE OVERRIDE!” Shepard was repeatedly pressing the F5 key as he attempted to slow the incoming database load. I jumped across to the workstation again and tried to find the program and started keying in the impossibly long command line arguments to set the program parameters.
“You should have done that first instead of playing your stupid game, you dickhead! You won’t upload the override in time!”
I finished the command line and pressed ENTER.
“WE DID IT! WE GOT THE JADE! WHOOOOOOHOOOOO!!!”
In real life, though, it was too late. The override code did not complete in time. I glanced around at the servers just beyond the glass screen of the console room, and felt a little part of me die as the Coloco servers’ indicator lights flickered out and faded.
—————
I was placing my pewter cardholder into a cardboard box when Alicia walked up to the cubicle.
“I just heard the news.”
“Well, you got want you wanted.” I put the last of my things away, and threw a look around the cubicle.
“Look, I didn’t mean for it to end this way. I really did expect you to be able to contain the situation.” She actually looked a little guilty as she said it. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry to see you go.”
“Of course you are.” This would be the first time I hit the self-destruct button over something as huge as an actual employment over my addiction to Cyberverse. I sure hoped LiXR actually appreciates what I had done for her.
“Well, I am sorry. I don’t keep grudges, Bri. Drop by for coffee if you’re in the neighbourhood, ok?”
Alicia hovered for a moment, but realized I wasn’t going to say more. She gave a weak smile, then turned to go. I looked at her retreating profile as she walked away.
Then a thunderbolt struck. I gave a violent jerk, the shock of recognition burned by eyes. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed it before. I stood there frozen for what seemed like minutes, unable to move.
Alicia was carrying her smartphone in her hand. And dangling from it was a pendant. The shape of a heart, with a knife piercing through it.
