The Core: The First Guest

2. Arrival at the Core

All of a sudden I had a slight panic attack. Over the years I had imagined all kinds of results and destinations that I thought I would end up at if I managed to join a person who left. This, however, was not anything that I had expected. I had imagined that I would be taken to a government base deep underground or even onto a UFO with gray aliens standing around. 

Not, let me say again, not to some blue nothing where I didn't even seem to exist. Everything was blue, I couldn't feel anything, seem to move my eyes, or even hear my breathing. I guess my arrival and mental chaos caught the attention of the system because before my eyes there began to appear ripples in the fabric of the blue. I don't know any other way to describe it... it just appeared like someone had grabbed a blue flag and was waving it. 

I learned later that that was what the system did to newly born citizens to test their connection and to build up knowledge before teaching newborns how to interact with the system. My case was slightly different because the system had picked up my first spoken or thought words when I tried to vocally utter them. The ripples quickly stopped and instead several words shimmered into view.

Unknown entity logged.

Query attempted by an entity.

Verbal stress detected.

The mental state of the entity is troubled and deteriorating.

Initiating resolution query:

Signal of new entity joined with an inbound citizen.

New mind detected.

New mind granted Guest citizenship.

Educate and release new citizen.

Log and set the entry for study.

I had no idea what all that I just read meant. Slowly and steadily I felt the pressure increasing in the environment around me as the text simply vanished in front of my eyes. The pressure built up before I heard a female voice say in perfect English "Hello. My name is Tutor."

I waited for the voice to say more but nothing more was forthcoming so I tried to speak again and was surprised when I could hear my voice when I said "Um... Hi Tutor. Where am I?"

"You are currently in the return lobby. I am detecting that you are not used to only mental existence so I will adjust your environment to suit your normal mental state." She said as several things happened in sequence. In the next moment I was standing, I felt a small jolt as my body just came into being and I could feel a hard surface underneath my shoes. I looked down at my hands and body, yup this was me, before looking down at my feet which were standing on nothing in the blue. After a short second, the ground started to take on a texture and the horizon started to form as well. This made me feel a little better and not like I was floating in an infinite space. 

After a short pause, a very average-looking woman in a blue dress appeared as well. She was standing about 12 feet away from me with her hands to her sides and watching me. I couldn't tell much about her besides the fact that everything was so bland. It was odd because the more I studied her the more details seemed to appear to my eyes. Her dress suddenly had more of a texture of cloth to it and her shoes became just regular shoes. I touched my head as I still felt the pressure weighing down on me. "Hey, Tutor... why is there so much pressure here?" I said as I reached up my hand to rub it against my tense temples and forehead.

"I am attempting to teach you but I am encountering resistance." She replied as the pressure on my head and mind seemed to greatly increase. The blue of the room started to darken until all of a sudden all of the pressure let up and the room returned to normal. Text appeared before my eyes as I blinked at them and staggered a little from the instant rebound of nearly being forced to blackout to having everything return perfectly to normal.

Tutor has used excessive training pressure: Admonished

Training is on hold until a proper technique can be developed for this Guest.

Query this guest as to his proper technique for learning.

Credit Guest account 5 cr for trauma suffered.

Guest Cr account balance: 5 cr

"My apologies, Guest. Could you please instruct me on how you are comfortable with learning and absorbing data?" Tutor's sweet and smooth voice said as her facial features didn't change in the slightest. She didn't seem to have any ticks or random movements, she just stood there watching me. Even as I thought this her hair moved and she looked around, moving her head to the side as if she was checking out the area. I was blown away, it seemed that whatever she or it was that I was interacting with.... She was learning and reading my mind as fast as I was thinking the thoughts and making corrections to herself and her environment.

"Well, I like to read and watch videos to learn things. Also where I am from they have schools, classes, and lessons that are taught by people who are experienced in different fields of experience." I said as hard wooden shelves 20 feet tall started to appear around me. The floor changed to become a grand marble floor as if we were in the library of congress and I could hear a man's voice saying something in an official tone off beyond the height of the shelves.

I watched as the shelves were filled with identical books. Thousands, perhaps millions of books appeared on the endless shelves stretching off in the distance before me, all looking the same until I felt an internal cringe at the thought of finding an individual book and then the next moment they all looked like individual books that I would see at a library. All sorts of different shapes and sizes, even rows and collections of similar books, like lists of encyclopedias.

"Tutor... are you reading my mind?" I asked her as I stepped closer to one of the bookshelves. I was a little weirded out by everything that was happening to me and how things just seemed to change when I thought of them being different.

"Partially, I am monitoring your mental image and verbal stream and matching it to our library of your world at present time. This is allowing me to mirror and create what you think you should see or feel or experience." She replied in a casual tone before looking around at the shelves and then back to me. "I am only a Tutor and not a live citizen so my responses will not match exactly what you are wanting at first... but I am learning and will soon succeed." She replied and moved, walking over to one of the books and looking at the cover before turning and materializing a monitor and computer on a standing desk. 

"I believe your mind says that this will best help you search and look for knowledge that you seek and would like to learn." She said as she gestured to the machine. It rapidly went through versions and iterations until it was the most modern and coolest looking computer that I could imagine. The screen flattened out and then disappeared and instead became a floating rectangle in space about my head height. 

When I thought that I wanted the screen bigger it rapidly increased in size until it was the size that I wanted it. The mouse and the rest of the computer even changed, the cord disappeared and the color of the mouse changed to black and more like a game mouse. A super deluxe trackball mouse that I had seen recently for sale. 

The keyboard changed, becoming one that I was familiar with and used to playing hours of games on. It was a little clunky but I had learned to type on it so I was not willing to get rid of it for something new that I would have to relearn the feel of all over again. The desktop practically disappeared as I simply imagined it as being part of the futuristic setup my mind was creating.

"Fascinating." Tutor said as her head tilted to the side while she watched me.

Words appeared in front of my eyes once the computer was completely done being adjusted as I wanted it to be.

Mental adjustment of environment detected.

Tutor commended.

"Negative. Tutor did not initiate this most recent change. Guest created and adjusted the environment alone." Tutor said aloud and the text changed instead to:

Guest commended.

Credit Guest account 15 cr for mental advancement and IO (Interest Observed).

Guest Cr account balance: 20 cr