The Core: The First Guest

12. Reality meet George my Alfred. Kevin meet reality.

The next little while was a blur for me. I was filled with such elation and was literally bouncing all over the place. I ended up finding a nice and respectable gentleman named George from Texas to hire as my assistant in my VR place. On a whim, since I was filthy rich now, I decided to create the most amazing and luxurious space yacht that I could imagine as my new place to live in VR. Since I didn't like the practical looks of NASA's real space station I ended up imagining an actual yacht... up in space. Yes... it was a little mad but that was the best I could think up at the time.

George had his own level to live and do research on in the yacht as well as Tutor had her own room. They didn't need them or use them until I kindly asked them to stop simply standing around and at least pretend to have somewhat of a life. If I needed anything I could just speak aloud and they would hear me regardless. This led to Tutor going off to redecorate her room and for George to spend an hour figuring things out and sorting through how he wanted everything to be set up in his lair.

George was such a nice addition to my VR space. It was nice to just have someone new. The system had copied his experiences, mannerisms, and humor exactly. All it took was letting the simulation have the freedom to let my AI express themselves around me. This made everything seem so much more real. The info and stuff that Hxerdinand the 9th had given Tutor transferred over perfectly and it turned him into a perfect Alfred.

I was leaning against the front starboard railing on the deck of the yacht just watching the earth revolve beneath me when I finally calmed down enough to ask all the questions that I had saved up.

I asked George to join me on the deck and he appeared from the leading doorway as if he knew that I would need him ahead of time. It was pretty cool, to say the least. It made me wonder if this feeling was what rich people normally felt, having experienced people on call all the time.

That made me frown for a second. I didn't want to start looking down on people or losing who I was... but I also knew that this was my VR space and I couldn't have my AI running around and ignoring me when I needed something. They were created to help me succeed. I put those thoughts away to think about later, now was time to get some answers to as many questions as I could. "Hi George, shall we go down to your floor and do some research?" I asked him as I smiled at the tailored suit he was wearing. Unlike a snooty butler, George had on a kind and grandfatherly smile that spoke of a guy that loved to learn things and tinker until he understood all that he wanted.

"Indeed Master Kevin. Let us go do research." George responded with a laugh.

I couldn't help but smile as we headed across the deck together and through the open-concept deck floor and down some wooden steps to the lower level that was his to work on. George had totally changed this floor and made it into his command center. Yes, it all came from my mind, what I thought a cool setup would look like for a secret space yacht to have, mixed in with George and Hxerdinand the 9th's practicality added in. What it all turned out to be was a sleek metal alien spaceship-looking environment with the entire starboard side just one massive glass window looking out over the planet. The view was stunning. Two command chairs rose from the floor and we both took a seat as George got to work. First I wanted to know what giving someone full access meant and what could have happened.

George looked through my logs and found the moment when I had willed Elaya full access.

"This is interesting." He said as he displayed video and text files in the air in front of us. "There is a section of time missing right before these individuals arrive. Elaya removed those moments just like she said that she would. That was the first set of actions that she did. After that she looked through, well, everything. She looked up your history, how you came to be a Guest of the Core, where your VR is attached to the Core, your interactions with Tutor, Xa the 3rd, Hxerdinand the 9th..." George mused as he kept going through the records.