Dreams in Monochrome - A New Elysium Story [ongoing - hiatus]

The Revolution

Year 2508, Eos, Phaeton's Fall

"Over the past ten months, we have worked hard to bring to you... a revolution."

The velvety female voice resounded through the streets. Public and private transport vessels had stopped in their tracks, on the ground or in mid-air. The people of Eos had interrupted whatever they had been doing, and stood frozen in place, their faces lifted up and their gazes transfixed on the screens. All over Alba, the screens had turned black. Even the usually erratically flickering lights on the buildings now basked the streets in a consistent, muted glow. Thousands of breaths were held in anticipation.

For once, time in the timeless city truly seemed to stand still.

"We have dedicated our lives to making this change - for you. Reshaping what is possible... redefining your existences... reconfiguring your values... forever. Because we believe that the people deserve better. Because we know that you have been waiting for this. Not just for the past ten months, but all... your... lives..."

The screens began to glow, and the audience gasped.

"This is the future you have been waiting for. Join us, on our quest for a better tomorrow. What are you waiting for? It is all within your grasp."

At the center of each of the hundreds of screens, the light condensed and a woman appeared. She was dressed in a white pantsuit, with her hair tied into a tight, grey bun on top of her head. Her face looked too young for the rest of her body.

"We here at Xovo are proud and excited to introduce to you our newest product line. The long-awaited revolution for the hardware market. Faster, stronger, better: The new XO-3000 series!"

The crowd erupted in incoherent yelling and cheering at the woman's words.

"My name is Miranda Bell, founder and CEO of Xovo, and I have the great pleasure to showcase this fantastic product to you today," the grey-haired woman said with a shark-like smile. "I will not reveal much in advance, but I can already tell you, you will be amazed, you will be stunned, you will be awed by the display of what our newest interface hardware can do. Designed to last longer, perform better, and integrate up to six times more fluidly with the neuronal periphery, this is the revolution you have been waiting for. I know what you're thinking – what am I waiting for? Allow me to show you what our new product is capable of."

The image of the woman disappeared, and the screens turned dark.

The crowd fell silent in breathless anticipation, and in the quiet, a quiet sound began to chime through the streets. The first few notes sounded distorted and glitched, more like static noise than actual music. It became a faint and distant melody that gradually grew louder and was soon joined by electronically distorted vocals.

And then, the screens came to life again. Only what they displayed was not the kind of interfacing the CEO of Xovo had probably referred to.

To the cheerful House tunes of an old but still popular twenty-first century track, the screens displayed high-definition footage of a variety people being harder, better, faster and stronger – but definitely not at accessing cyberspace through interface augments. There was augment hardware involved, but it was the kind built for entertainment of a more carnal nature.

The audience gasped in shock. Some covered the eyes of their children. Some winced at the images, some averted their gazes and blushed. Others continued to stare at the screens, perhaps in utter disbelief, perhaps in sheer fascination with the extent of flexibility and acrobatic talent displayed by some of the protagonists of the video.