The NeurOcean Line

2. Testing

It started in darkness, with only vague impressions to the eyes, of the creatures that moved towards you to test the graphics and their effects. Touching them would induce a mild electric shock to the finger-tips through the material. Just one of many responses. Virtual sea creatures would become illuminated in a quick revelation of detail. The hues were far better than real. More real than real. These online days, nothing was less than this. But back then it was still breathtaking. Small earphones transcribed the highest sound quality. And the suit itself responded to the appearance of the water around one's avatar. You could feel a form of heaviness from being very far down under the sea, and tightness in its contraction around the belly.

He remembered the shark. It was a creature he himself and spent many months on, with colleagues from the Firecube Academy, specialists in animated VR elements.

"Don't get too close!" he had spoken to Blake's avatar, drifting nearby. He saw his friend's arms, outstretched too like a drowning man.

"Ok, I won't!" Blake's watery voice replied, older and gruffer, but it chuckled. There was edginess there too, so in reply he laughed in a louder, mock imitation.

They were coming up together. The process was like forming dance moves underwater, but you also had to keep trying to ease your body upwards like a fish. In this way your mind became accustomed to the interface. He remembered how fluid it all was though. How easy it became with every session that went by, floating upwards through the visual stimulation, but finally with a keen control. Working with the team, development had taken brain activity through the mask and effectively amplified it to become tuned-in to the motion. It was thought control. Focus. Towards the surface, the mind would be firmly within the system. This was the design.

But it was not at all perfect yet. Every now and then a quirk in the sync or a sudden lag or fragmentation would produce a flicker, endangering the senses. There were many different peripherals and interfaces emerging from development across the world and each system was different. They had been testing now for months, but every time there was still something so new about it, so real and physically more intense. Every time was different, following new sets of – sometimes minute - adjustments. This first time – and this last time - they had reached the surface without delay.

Knowing nothing about the island.

He saw it in his mind still, a landmark in his life. Far off, with sunlight illuminating strange leaves on the distant trees and shimmering. He had been up first, waiting for Blake and Rosa to emerge. He couldn't really think about anything else. For in that moment though, he had made it. Had willed it. The blue of the bright sky was brilliant; exhilarating. They hadn't accessed it before through this new configuration. The water around his neck was simulated by the suit, and tiny fluctuations in the mask gave him the breeze across the water, enveloping his face. His arms were still outstretched behind him beneath the surface, and when he moved them forwards, the sensation on his arms was slower with the lag of the water. The waves were perfect. Beautiful. Rosa had helped simulate them through a new algorithm that involved fractal equations: infinite variety from a simple rule. And here they were, manifest, gradually undulating all around him, as though the ocean were indeed huge. For a moment he just reveled in the results of their combined work.

When the other two surfaced, their virtual faces responded to expressions they were making within their masks. (This was because their avatar program was aimed at simulating themselves exactly as they were in the real world, but with all the benefits of the system). So Rosa was alluring as ever, because she really was. And always so quiet; always keeping some part of you separate and professional. How I admired you... and more...

And here they were happy; elated. They had achieved full progression, a complete test, after so much time spent on development. So much focussing. The others would come next but for now, this time was theirs. Special. They had brought themselves up through the power of their minds – on many levels - and the system was tuned so incredibly well. It was responsive and in sync to their presence.

"Avast ye olde sea dogs!" Blake had said, or something like it. "One small swim for a man... one giant high for mankind. Wooohooo !"

They had all laughed. Rosa's small avatar face broke wide. He saw the fangs she had lengthened only slightly for herself, a throwback to her goth-girl days. She was looking towards him, but of course all avatar eyes – back then – were fixed. It was only the expressions that could change. Her head turned upwards at the sky and then it returned towards him and she laughed again as he smiled.

"I'm actually wary of that shark, Ben... so real."

He laughed again. The sound was bright out of the water, a careful noise adjustment for wide spaces. He had said to Blake, "No way you get to be Armstrong!" Which was true.

For then they were quiet, and he knew the mood would change, and their expressions. They had seen the island too...