Welcome to the All Night Terror Cafe

Sam and I quietly slipped into my Dad’s lab, New Dimensions. Dad had given me strict orders not to bring anyone here, but since it was late at night, I was sure the place would be deserted.

First I put Sam into the imaging tube, which took an imprint of his form to simulate it in the Virtual Reality world. Then, I handed him his Datasuit, the body of which was made of a mesh material with electrodes attached at 75 reflex points.

"You might want to go into the rest room to put this on. Since the sensors have to have direct contact with your skin to be effective, you should take off all of your outer clothes." Just the thought that he would have nothing on but his briefs was getting me excited.

He smiled, seeming to like the idea. "I’m trusting you, Palmer." He went into the bathroom. At the same time, I undressed and quickly slipped into my suit.

After about five minutes, Sam emerged in the black form-fitting Datasuit looking like he was ready to do some fencing. He was pulling on the sleeve. "This is a little tight, isn’t it?"

I could see that he had a great body -- long supple muscles, just like I liked. "No, it’s perfect. It has to be tight to create the different sensations. You’ll see"

We were both giggling.

"You said you’d trust me, right, Sam?"

"I guess."

"Next come the Datagloves." They were also mesh with a network of wire running through them. He held out his hands to me, and I wiggled the gloves on to them. "I know, these are tight, too."

"No, they’re just fine." He grinned. "Palmer, this is just too cool. Thanks for giving me a sneak-preview."

"That’s okay. It’ll be fun." Sam Culpepper was the cutest guy at Longwood High. He was tall with straight black hair pulled into a ponytail, and he had these penetrating eyes that were brown with royal blue highlights. I had been lusting after him since he had first come here about two months ago.

Perhaps I was using an unfair advantage in letting him visit my Dad’s new Virtual Reality Mall before the official opening. But since I didn’t know him very well I needed some reason to ask him out. This was a great reason as far as I was concerned.

I placed the helmet over his head.

"Ready to see the world’s first Virtual Reality mall?" I asked

"You bet."

"Now remember, this is a Beta or test version of the software, so it still has a few bugs in it. Also, we have to go through a security logon procedure that the customers will bypass. It’s a real pain."

"Gotcha."

We connected our Datasuits to a metal framework that would lift us up into the air and let us hang suspended. When I pushed the lever on the right side of my head, the mechanism raised, allowing us to dangle by our Datasuits. This provided for complete range of movement while giving us the feeling of being disassociated from the outside world that was so important in making the Virtual Reality experience a success.

Even though it looked like it would give you a "wedgie" to be hanging like that, it was actually very comfortable.

"Sam! What’s that noise?" I removed my helmet and looked around, petrified that one of Dad’s assistants would find us here. Visitors were strictly prohibited. I would have died if Dad found out I was here with Sam.

Just then I saw Pee Wee, the white lab cat, brushing around the equipment. "Oh, it’s only you." I was so relieved. "Ready to jack in’ as they say in the sci-fi books?" I replaced my helmet. "Feel for the button on the right side of your helmet and press it."

"Wow," Sam said, looking into the view screen of his helmet. "This is a test pattern like I’ve never seen before."

I, Palmer Desoto, hopeless computer nerd, was having a Virtual Reality "date" with Sam Culpepper, one of the coolest guys at school. I could hardly believe it.

The first thing that came into our view was a wall of 3-D multi-colored squares hanging suspended in space. "This is where we have to punch in the secret code. You push the colors I tell you to, okay?"

"I’m ready."

"Touch the purple one."

Sam put out a tentative Virtual Reality arm to touch the glowing square.

"Now the pink one. Green’s next, then back to purple, pink and turquoise. Finally, touch the yellow one."

The virtual cubes glowed brilliantly, tilted and rose upwards. We watched them until they were tiny specks going off into infinity.

An orchestra played the theme song from "2001: A Space Odyssey," and the words "WELCOME TO THE NEW REALITIES MALL," in 20 foot tall neon purple and green 3-D letters, formed a large ring around us. Spotlights circled like we were at a movie premiere. The letters parted to bring us to the next part of our adventure.

What I saw next filled me with a sense of awe, even though I had viewed it many times before. The fact that mankind -- my dad in particular -- was capable of creating such a thing boggled my mind.

There, looking for all the world like a solid building, was the interior of the mall, a huge glittering cylinder which seemed to extend up to infinity. It was ringed with shops of every imaginable kind. Each sported a different type of three dimensional sign that appeared to be a hologram.

"Wow, Palmer, the colors in here are ten times brighter than anything in the outside world. It’s more vivid and real than reality, if that made any sense."

"I know what you mean. It’s like super-reality."

Extending off the main building were 12 giant hallways, like spokes on a space station, each housing a huge department store at the end. Since it was VR and existed only in a computer terminal, Dad had made the mall to mammoth dimensions.

I gazed at Sam. He resembled himself, but looked a little cartoonish, kind of like a Sam made out of plastic. That was good enough for me. He was still a doll.

He curled his VR fingers, then checked out his legs and feet by bending and flexing them. Next he glanced at me. "Palmer, you look like you . How in the world do they do this?"

"I don’t quite understand it, Sam, but my dad spent the last 20 years developing it. When he was with MIT, he built some of the first VR systems that ever existed. He and his partner saw the commercial possibilities and left to form their own company, called New Dimensions."

"Is there a mirror around here? I’d love to see what I look like."

"This place is full of mirrors." I led him to one of the side walls

He examined himself. "Wow! I look like Sam the android. They’ve even got my hair down pat." He rubbed the hair of his pony tail between his fingers.

I looked at myself next to him. I’ll admit I had "cheated" and made my VR image two inches taller and ten pounds lighter than I really am. Not that I’m fat, but I wanted to look like a super model. Gazing in the mirror I noticed that my long brown hair looked great -- not a follicle out of place. And I did have a pretty face, I had to admit that.

"So, show me how to move around and stuff."

"It’s simple, when you hold your arm out straight and point your hand, you go in that direction. If you want to slow down, you spread your fingers, and if you want to stop, you flex your palm upward, like a traffic cop stopping traffic.

"Watch this." I pointed my hand in the air and began zooming up to the top of the mall. I’m sure that when I reached the top, I looked like a flea to Sam, I was so far away. Then I did the same thing coming back down. I must have been falling at 60 miles per hour. When I was within two feet of the floor, I came to a dead stop and hung suspended.

"Killer, Palmer."

"It took me a lot of practice not to totally black out while I was doing it."

"Yeah, all the practice in the world, and I’d still black out."

I looked at Sam’s eyes. Remarkably, the imaging equipment had duplicated his brown eyes with the royal blue highlights. I didn’t want to seem like I was staring. "You want to try it?" I asked him. "They found that in VR worlds, people love to go up."
"I don’t know. I’m kind of afraid of heights."

"We’ll take a spin around the mall then and try it later. Ready to fly?"

"Sure." He took my hand. Sam Culpepper was actually taking my hand. We flew up to some of the shops on the lower levels.

"You know, I helped make this place." I didn’t want to brag, but I also wanted him to know about my talents.

"No kidding?"

"I built some of these signs on my Macintosh at home using the Virtuosity program. Then we imported them into the VR system. See that kite shop?" A kite in the shape of a red and yellow Chinese dragon hovered over the doorway and rippled in an imaginary breeze. "I made that."

"You’re pretty talented, huh?"

"I’m good at art, but I don’t feel I know half of what there is to know about computers. My dad taught me how to make the 3-D pieces."

We visited a perfume shop and sampled the various scents.

Sam waved a purple bottle under his nose. "These things actually smell. How can that be?"

"It’s built into your helmet, just like the music coming from the 60’s shop. You hear the Beatles singing ‘Sergeant Pepper?’ As we get closer, it gets louder. It’s an incredibly intricate system. Everything is done with sensors."

"Palmer, you’re really great, you know it?" He leaned over and kissed me.

It didn’t exactly feel like a kiss, but it resonated through my whole body anyway -- just the thought of it. I could hardly wait to get him back home for a real one.

I pointed to a spot somewhere around the 30th floor. "You see that clothes shop way up there with the blinking magenta sign that says, ‘Impulse’? Let’s go up there."

"Like I said before, I’m trusting you, Palmer."

I took his hand and we slowly rose up, up, up, past all the colorful shops.

"How do you buy something here?"

"You touch it and the object lights up. If you change your mind, you touch it again and the light goes off. When you press the button on the inside wrist of your left glove, you’ve bought it."

As we rose, the glittering multi-colored signs were like electric candy to my eyes
.
"It’s similar to selecting and de selecting on a computer."

"Right. Then when you get back to the real world, they give you a bill."

"That could be dangerous. Like what if I touched a fork lift or something by mistake?"

I laughed. "No prob. They’d take it off your bill when you got back. When your shopping trip is over, they hand you your purchases in a nice package, or they ship it to you. It’s that simple." We continued floating upward.

"You wouldn’t have to worry about shoplifters, I guess."

"Not hardly. The New Realities Mall isn’t all shopping, though, we have lots of games, VR movies, art exhibits, you name it. We’re also planning a health club where you’d get on a bicycle with simulated streets you can travel through. When you pedal hard enough, you fly."

"That would get the ole heart rate up. Sounds pretty neat."

"That’s in the future, though."

"Palmer, I really am afraid of heights. We’re getting pretty high now. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go to the 30th floor."

"Just remember, your body is safely tucked away at the New Dimensions Lab. Nothing can happen to you here."

"But it seems so real."

Sam was starting to hyperventilate, I could tell. Suddenly he pulled away, wrapped himself around a nearby pole and wouldn’t budge.

"Stay calm, Sam. There’s a little button on you right glove. Press that, and you’re back to reality."

"I’m pressing it, Palmer. Nothing’s happening."

"Darn. That must be one of the system bugs." I guess this was why Dad didn’t want me to take any visitors in here.

"Sam, take your hands away from the pole, put them up to your head and remove the helmet that is on your real head back at the lab."

"I can’t. I’ll fall."

"You won’t fall. Close your eyes."

"Palmer, I feel like I’m having a heart attack. Help me."

I pushed the escape button on my right glove. Nothing happened. When I tried to raise my hands up to my own head to remove my helmet, I found that I couldn’t raise my arms. It was as though I was paralyzed. My arms were stuck to my sides.

I tried again to move my arms, but nothing worked. Now I was sure someone at the lab was holding my physical arms. But why would anyone want to do such a thing to me?

Welcome to the All Night Terror Cafe

Virtual Terror
by Sally Bosco
Prologue:

It was the worst freak autumn thunder storm of the year and my brother, Keith, and I were alone in the house. Because I liked to work just from the glow of the my screen, I had all the lights in my room turned off. This allowed me to space out and become completely absorbed in the reality of my computer. In a perverse kind of way, I enjoyed the creepiness of being in the dark on a stormy night like this one. I was creating a wildly ornate fountain with multi-colored water gushing from it which would be the artistic centerpiece of my dad’s new mall. This wasn’t going to be just any mall. This was going to be the world’s first Virtual Reality mall. As a bolt of lightening hit directly outside of my window, I gasped and bumped the back of my chair into my bed. I kept telling myself I had to turn the terminal off so it wouldn’t get sizzled, but I wanted to finish one last seafoam water spout. I guess I was just a girl who liked to live dangerously. During my sessions on the terminal, I lose all track of time and reality. So, at first when I saw the shadow, I thought it was some kind of joke my brother was playing on me. It looked like a skull with spider legs floating in back of my VR fountain. A weird looking thing, it caused low, menacing laughter to echo from the speakers in my Mac. The more I looked at it, the more the thing seemed alien and weird to me. I watched it with a morbid fascination for awhile, but as it drew closer and closer to the surface of my screen, it seemed like it would come straight out to get me. I was about to quit the program and turn my lamp on, when a bolt of lightening crashed directly outside the window and sizzled. It must have hit our big oak tree. What a horrible thought. I loved that tree. The hard drive came to a grinding halt, and the screen faded to black. This meant the power had gone off. Great! Now I couldn’t turn the lights on. As I scrambled for the flashlight next to my bed, I saw the computer out of the corner of my eye. Everything was dark except for the mysterious shadow which was still glowing and moving around on the screen. The demented laughter coming from the speakers was barely audible, but unmistakable. When the sound got louder, I bolted downstairs and out the front door. Since it was pouring and the lightening was flashing all around me, I soon thought better of it and went back into the house. Getting french fried seemed worse than facing the haunted Mac. I stood downstairs in the living room, still close to the front door in case I had to make a quick escape, and pondered the situation. What the heck was that shadow anyway? A few seconds later, the lights came on and I regained my rational view of the world. That’s when I became sure that Keith was behind it all. My 12 year old brother, Keith, was a real computer whiz and a real pain. I wouldn’t put it past him for a minute to do something like inventing that weird shadow. As I climbed the stairs to my room, a clap of thunder cracked directly overhead. I hoped the lightening rod got that one so my Mac wouldn’t turn into a molten lump. I quickly unplugged my computer, then stormed up to Keith’s door and pounded on it. He was at that stage where he constantly kept his door closed and locked. God knows what he did in there. Since he was a real night owl, I knew he wouldn’t be in bed yet. "Keith! Open up." "Wait a minute." I heard him scrambling around, then he came to the door. "Have you been screwing around with my machine again? I nearly lost it when I saw that shadow float in back of my fountain." I remembered the time he went in there and wiped out all my files just to drive me crazy. He eventually restored them for me, but that didn’t reduce the irritation of it all. "Huh? What do you mean?" he asked, trying to sound innocent "Just because you’re a mutant hairball, that doesn’t mean you can play dumb with me. I could have lost all my artwork from your practical joke." He jerked his head back to flip his hair out of his eyes. Keith hated it when I called him a hairball, because he loved the way his sandy blonde hair draped over one eye. He thought it looked cool, but I just thought it looked dumb. Sometimes I thought he used his hair to hide from the world. "Try and make some sense, Palmer, I don’t know what you’re talking about." "I mean that spider thing with the creepy laughter floating around inside of my Mac." "I didn’t float anything in your Mac." He sneered at me. "You must have tofu for brains. Why are you always trying to pin everything on me?" "I’m not trying to pin everything on you. I just know what a geek you are, and I know you would do something like this." "Well, I didn’t. Stop bugging me, okay? "You stop bugging me." "Yeah." He leaned up against his door frame and ran his hand through the curtain of hair that fell over his left eye. I knew that if he had done it, he would be gloating over it right now, and he wasn’t, but I still didn’t believe him. "I’m going to have Mom deal with this one. It’s her job to keep you under control, not mine." Looking disgusted, Keith went back into his lair and slammed the door. Why couldn’t I have been an only child? Brothers weren’t good for anything but tormenting you and ruining your life. Irritated as I was, I soon forgot about the incident, because all I could think of was my date the next night with Sam. He was new to Longwood High, a junior like I was, and a real doll. I could hardly wait.

Chapter One: Sam and I quietly slipped into my Dad’s lab, New Dimensions. Dad had given me strict orders not to bring anyone here, but since it was late at night, I was sure the place would be deserted. First I put Sam into the imaging tube, which took an imprint of his form to simulate it in the Virtual Reality world. Then, I handed him his Datasuit, the body of which was made of a mesh material with electrodes attached at 75 reflex points. "You might want to go into the rest room to put this on. Since the sensors have to have direct contact with your skin to be effective, you should take off all of your outer clothes." Just the thought that he would have nothing on but his briefs was getting me excited. He smiled, seeming to like the idea. "I’m trusting you, Palmer." He went into the bathroom. At the same time, I undressed and quickly slipped into my suit. After about five minutes, Sam emerged in the black form-fitting Datasuit looking like he was ready to do some fencing. He was pulling on the sleeve. "This is a little tight, isn’t it?" I could see that he had a great body -- long supple muscles, just like I liked. "No, it’s perfect. It has to be tight to create the different sensations. You’ll see" We were both giggling. "You said you’d trust me, right, Sam?" "I guess." "Next come the Datagloves." They were also mesh with a network of wire running through them. He held out his hands to me, and I wiggled the gloves on to them. "I know, these are tight, too." "No, they’re just fine." He grinned. "Palmer, this is just too cool. Thanks for giving me a sneak-preview." "That’s okay. It’ll be fun." Sam Culpepper was the cutest guy at Longwood High. He was tall with straight black hair pulled into a ponytail, and he had these penetrating eyes that were brown with royal blue highlights. I had been lusting after him since he had first come here about two months ago. Perhaps I was using an unfair advantage in letting him visit my Dad’s new Virtual Reality Mall before the official opening. But since I didn’t know him very well I needed some reason to ask him out. This was a great reason as far as I was concerned. I placed the helmet over his head. "Ready to see the world’s first Virtual Reality mall?" I asked "You bet." "Now remember, this is a Beta or test version of the software, so it still has a few bugs in it. Also, we have to go through a security logon procedure that the customers will bypass. It’s a real pain." "Gotcha." We connected our Datasuits to a metal framework that would lift us up into the air and let us hang suspended. When I pushed the lever on the right side of my head, the mechanism raised, allowing us to dangle by our Datasuits. This provided for complete range of movement while giving us the feeling of being disassociated from the outside world that was so important in making the Virtual Reality experience a success. Even though it looked like it would give you a "wedgie" to be hanging like that, it was actually very comfortable. "Sam! What’s that noise?" I removed my helmet and looked around, petrified that one of Dad’s assistants would find us here. Visitors were strictly prohibited. I would have died if Dad found out I was here with Sam. Just then I saw Pee Wee, the white lab cat, brushing around the equipment. "Oh, it’s only you." I was so relieved. "Ready to jack in’ as they say in the sci-fi books?" I replaced my helmet. "Feel for the button on the right side of your helmet and press it." "Wow," Sam said, looking into the view screen of his helmet. "This is a test pattern like I’ve never seen before." I, Palmer Desoto, hopeless computer nerd, was having a Virtual Reality "date" with Sam Culpepper, one of the coolest guys at school. I could hardly believe it. The first thing that came into our view was a wall of 3-D multi-colored squares hanging suspended in space. "This is where we have to punch in the secret code. You push the colors I tell you to, okay?" "I’m ready." "Touch the purple one." Sam put out a tentative Virtual Reality arm to touch the glowing square. "Now the pink one. Green’s next, then back to purple, pink and turquoise. Finally, touch the yellow one." The virtual cubes glowed brilliantly, tilted and rose upwards. We watched them until they were tiny specks going off into infinity. An orchestra played the theme song from "2001: A Space Odyssey," and the words "WELCOME TO THE NEW REALITIES MALL," in 20 foot tall neon purple and green 3-D letters, formed a large ring around us. Spotlights circled like we were at a movie premiere. The letters parted to bring us to the next part of our adventure. What I saw next filled me with a sense of awe, even though I had viewed it many times before. The fact that mankind -- my dad in particular -- was capable of creating such a thing boggled my mind. There, looking for all the world like a solid building, was the interior of the mall, a huge glittering cylinder which seemed to extend up to infinity. It was ringed with shops of every imaginable kind. Each sported a different type of three dimensional sign that appeared to be a hologram. "Wow, Palmer, the colors in here are ten times brighter than anything in the outside world. It’s more vivid and real than reality, if that made any sense." "I know what you mean. It’s like super-reality." Extending off the main building were 12 giant hallways, like spokes on a space station, each housing a huge department store at the end. Since it was VR and existed only in a computer terminal, Dad had made the mall to mammoth dimensions. I gazed at Sam. He resembled himself, but looked a little cartoonish, kind of like a Sam made out of plastic. That was good enough for me. He was still a doll. He curled his VR fingers, then checked out his legs and feet by bending and flexing them. Next he glanced at me. "Palmer, you look like you . How in the world do they do this?" "I don’t quite understand it, Sam, but my dad spent the last 20 years developing it. When he was with MIT, he built some of the first VR systems that ever existed. He and his partner saw the commercial possibilities and left to form their own company, called New Dimensions." "Is there a mirror around here? I’d love to see what I look like." "This place is full of mirrors." I led him to one of the side walls He examined himself. "Wow! I look like Sam the android. They’ve even got my hair down pat." He rubbed the hair of his pony tail between his fingers. I looked at myself next to him. I’ll admit I had "cheated" and made my VR image two inches taller and ten pounds lighter than I really am. Not that I’m fat, but I wanted to look like a super model. Gazing in the mirror I noticed that my long brown hair looked great -- not a follicle out of place. And I did have a pretty face, I had to admit that. "So, show me how to move around and stuff." "It’s simple, when you hold your arm out straight and point your hand, you go in that direction. If you want to slow down, you spread your fingers, and if you want to stop, you flex your palm upward, like a traffic cop stopping traffic. "Watch this." I pointed my hand in the air and began zooming up to the top of the mall. I’m sure that when I reached the top, I looked like a flea to Sam, I was so far away. Then I did the same thing coming back down. I must have been falling at 60 miles per hour. When I was within two feet of the floor, I came to a dead stop and hung suspended. "Killer, Palmer." "It took me a lot of practice not to totally black out while I was doing it." "Yeah, all the practice in the world, and I’d still black out." I looked at Sam’s eyes. Remarkably, the imaging equipment had duplicated his brown eyes with the royal blue highlights. I didn’t want to seem like I was staring. "You want to try it?" I asked him. "They found that in VR worlds, people love to go up." "I don’t know. I’m kind of afraid of heights." "We’ll take a spin around the mall then and try it later. Ready to fly?" "Sure." He took my hand. Sam Culpepper was actually taking my hand. We flew up to some of the shops on the lower levels. "You know, I helped make this place." I didn’t want to brag, but I also wanted him to know about my talents. "No kidding?" "I built some of these signs on my Macintosh at home using the Virtuosity program. Then we imported them into the VR system. See that kite shop?" A kite in the shape of a red and yellow Chinese dragon hovered over the doorway and rippled in an imaginary breeze. "I made that." "You’re pretty talented, huh?" "I’m good at art, but I don’t feel I know half of what there is to know about computers. My dad taught me how to make the 3-D pieces." We visited a perfume shop and sampled the various scents. Sam waved a purple bottle under his nose. "These things actually smell. How can that be?" "It’s built into your helmet, just like the music coming from the 60’s shop. You hear the Beatles singing ‘Sergeant Pepper?’ As we get closer, it gets louder. It’s an incredibly intricate system. Everything is done with sensors." "Palmer, you’re really great, you know it?" He leaned over and kissed me. It didn’t exactly feel like a kiss, but it resonated through my whole body anyway -- just the thought of it. I could hardly wait to get him back home for a real one. I pointed to a spot somewhere around the 30th floor. "You see that clothes shop way up there with the blinking magenta sign that says, ‘Impulse’? Let’s go up there." "Like I said before, I’m trusting you, Palmer." I took his hand and we slowly rose up, up, up, past all the colorful shops. "How do you buy something here?" "You touch it and the object lights up. If you change your mind, you touch it again and the light goes off. When you press the button on the inside wrist of your left glove, you’ve bought it." As we rose, the glittering multi-colored signs were like electric candy to my eyes . "It’s similar to selecting and de selecting on a computer." "Right. Then when you get back to the real world, they give you a bill." "That could be dangerous. Like what if I touched a fork lift or something by mistake?" I laughed. "No prob. They’d take it off your bill when you got back. When your shopping trip is over, they hand you your purchases in a nice package, or they ship it to you. It’s that simple." We continued floating upward. "You wouldn’t have to worry about shoplifters, I guess." "Not hardly. The New Realities Mall isn’t all shopping, though, we have lots of games, VR movies, art exhibits, you name it. We’re also planning a health club where you’d get on a bicycle with simulated streets you can travel through. When you pedal hard enough, you fly." "That would get the ole heart rate up. Sounds pretty neat." "That’s in the future, though." "Palmer, I really am afraid of heights. We’re getting pretty high now. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go to the 30th floor." "Just remember, your body is safely tucked away at the New Dimensions Lab. Nothing can happen to you here." "But it seems so real." Sam was starting to hyperventilate, I could tell. Suddenly he pulled away, wrapped himself around a nearby pole and wouldn’t budge. "Stay calm, Sam. There’s a little button on you right glove. Press that, and you’re back to reality." "I’m pressing it, Palmer. Nothing’s happening." "Darn. That must be one of the system bugs." I guess this was why Dad didn’t want me to take any visitors in here. "Sam, take your hands away from the pole, put them up to your head and remove the helmet that is on your real head back at the lab." "I can’t. I’ll fall." "You won’t fall. Close your eyes." "Palmer, I feel like I’m having a heart attack. Help me." I pushed the escape button on my right glove. Nothing happened. When I tried to raise my hands up to my own head to remove my helmet, I found that I couldn’t raise my arms. It was as though I was paralyzed. My arms were stuck to my sides. I tried again to move my arms, but nothing worked. Now I was sure someone at the lab was holding my physical arms. But why would anyone want to do such a thing to me?