Simulation Day
Dan was up before the alarm buzz sounded. He was already through the D-con when the annoying beeping started. His blue eyes shone with excitement as he hurriedly packed the filters into his school clothes. “Danny?” he heard his parental guardian’s voice from outside his room. “Are you up yet?” she called, “You don’t want to miss simulation day!” Danny yelled, “I’m up!” as he finished buckling the straps on the rebreathing harness, “Ready for pressurizing in two minutes!”
In two minutes the filtered and decontaminated air would be pumped out, replaced by air from the outside so his parental guardian could unseal his door. Positioning the goggles and mask, he checked his watch. The digital readout promised low rad levels today, so D-con at school wouldn’t take much time. Dan checked his seals once more before tapping his com-pad, “Ready!” A moment later, the low hum from the filtering units changed to a high pitched whine and he heard to loud hiss as his door un-sealed. “It’s going to be a good day” he thought cheerfully.
Dan waved goodbye as his Parental guardian smiled and said, “Have a great day!” His parent was female today, judging by the way the rebreather sat, slightly lower on the chest than yesterday. ‘She’ was saying something else but Dan was no longer paying any attention as he flicked on his ear set and the soothing sounds of Micha Thompson sang the soy-oat crunchy bar song. He loved this one! He began to sing -along as he started his walk to school in the ever reddening light of another typical Monday in Nuvo-Porto.
The music had kicked off in his ear set and the traditional Simulation Day Historo-fact blurb came flooding in the soothing mellow voice of Tanniquia Shaw had begun to read from the Historo-text.
Sincerest Happy Monday to all on this momentous 48th Simulation Day! For many of us, today is a day to experience what life was like back then, before shift. I’ve done this twenty times now, and it feels like my first, every single time!
What it must have been like for our Grand-Parentals before the shift? The Historo-texts say that you could breathe the air without filters. That sunlight was a blessing and that birds would fly and sing! Thanks, to our brilliant Dr. Klein, we can experience just what it was like through the miracle of AR technology! We go now, live to the Smithsonite Science Center where Dr. Klein is about to give his annual address…
Dan switched off the ear set. He’d heard all about Klein and blah blah blah. He had reached the school and waited in line for his turn in the D-con shower. From the looks of things, everybody had decided to come to school today. Suddenly, his ear set crackled, and the familiar voice of Mr. Richardson came through.
Good morning students, it is a pleasure to see that everyone came today! I am as excited as you are to get started, and since we are all waiting for D-con, I thought we’d start our histo-class early.
He cleared his throat and continued,
Who can tell me what the shift was and how it started?
Dan knew this one! “Hell, everyone knows this one” he thought.
Sarah Munsh clicked into the neural feed, “That’s easy” she said in her typical condescending tone. “In the year 2025 due to a build-up of green-house gasses and crude attempts at terraforming, the climate shifted to a point that the very air became toxic to most indigenous lifeforms.”
“Puke” Dan thought, He could almost see the smug look on her face.
Mr. Richardson chimed back in,” Very good Sarah. Now, how did people respond to the early warning signs?”
The feed went silent. Again, Mr. Richardson asked, “Class? Who can tell me how the early nations responded?”
Dan clicked in, “Well, I don’t think they did anything. “
“Why not, Dan?” Mr. Richardson asked.
Dan hesitated a moment, gathering his thoughts, “I think they were too worried about other things, like wars and religion and stuff like that. I saw a show on the Historo-vid that said people back then didn’t even have gender slides.”
Mr. Richardson nodded to himself, “Very good Dan! Very good. It is true that all those other things held people’s attention so much, that the warning sign were ignored. So yes, collectively they did nothing.”
Sarah clicked in to ask, “Mr. Richardson, is it true what Dan said about not having gender slides?”
“Yes, Sarah. I mean, can you imagine it? What it must have been like to be stuck in one form like that? Mr. Richardson shuddered, “Give me the creeps just thinking about it!”
“The show said people thought that gender was such a big difference, that they couldn’t get along at all. I doubt it was true though.” Dan said.
Sarah clicked in, “Well Dan, my parental guardian said that back then, they had two guardians called parents and that they were stuck in one gender. I just don’t get how people lived like that?”
They all heard an audible sigh of frustration through their feeds, “All right class, enough of that!” Mr. Richardson cleared his throat, “Who can tell me what happened during the shift?”
Dan clicked in, “First the ice caps began to melt. Then the sky began to darken with massive weather changes. The storms changed the seasons so much that crops began to fail.”
Mr. Richardson cut Dan off, “That’s good Dan. Tell me class, what happened when the food supply started to run out?”
Dan noticed the line began to move again. He could see the large D-con doors open and close now. “Won’t be much longer” he thought. Dan was so excited that he didn’t hear the question, as Mr. Richardson’s voice clicked in his ear
“Dan? Who ended the famine wars?” He said impatiently.
Dan snapped back to full attention mode, “That was Dr. Klein, of course!” Dan continued, “He introduced the people to Soy-crunch and brought them new medicine along with the Smithsonite rebreathers we all wear now. He was also able to create AR Tech!”
“Nice save Dan!” Mr. Richardson snorted, “Yes, after the devastation from the famine wars, Dr. Klein and his institute offered us all a way to survive, but he gave us something more. Today is Simulation Day, on this day we get to experience what life was like for those before the shift.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “Remember class, that during Simulation you will see and feel things that will be strange, but not harmful. Remember to stick with your partner at all times and DO NOT BRING ANYTHING BACK!” That last part was said in his sternest voice. “Class, what would happen if you bring anything back with you?”
Eliot Newsom finally decided to join the conversation, “By bringing back any items, we risk collapsing the Alternate Reality stability which will crash the system and possibly crash the neural interface grid. W-we would have no more Simulation Day… Ever?”
Mr. Richardson sounded pensive, “No one really knows. The Sci-Geeks say that bringing even so much as a stick through will shatter the link between us. I’m not sure what they mean, but why test the theory?”
The big doors slid open forcefully, and Dan and his classmates stepped into the D-con chamber. A moment later, the doors closed and a loud clanking sounded as they locked into place. Red lights flashed and steam began to rise from the floor as the chamber did its work. Several long moments later, they all hear Mr. Richardson’s voice click in, “Here we go class, it is time. Everyone remove your rebreathers and place them in a neat pile on floor. In a moment, the transference will begin.”
Dan was nervous. He looked around for Sarah, his partner for today and nervously gripped her hand tightly. A small part of him was thankful, she had not gender-slid today. He felt shamed for thinking it, but for whatever reason, that’s what he felt. He waited nervously for Sarah to say something snotty, but thankfully she didn’t.
They had all removed their neural ear-sets and the sounds were distorted (Or were they un-distorted?) he could never tell. The sound ramped up in intensity and Dan felt his heart thumping and then noticed Sarah’s hand gripping his even tighter. The floor had begun to vibrate and a low hum filled his ears.
Slowly, the ceiling had begun to shift and a warm yellow light radiated from the center of the room. The light grew in intensity until Dan had to shut his eyes. He closed them as tight as possible while gripping Sarah’s hand.
“Ow! You can let go now!” Sarah said.
Dan opened his eyes as he let go, “Sorry” he said clumsily. He wanted to say more, but the sound, all sound stopped in his throat. He felt warmth on his face as the sunlight touched him. “Real sunlight!’ he thought. His heart beat faster as the warmth washed over him and looked around.
Blue sky the color of which he had never seen spotted here and there with large fluffy clouds instead of oppressive haze. Everywhere was color so vibrant he blinked to make sure it didn’t go away. An overwhelming joy overcame him and he turned to Sarah, noticing for the first time her green eyes as they looked back at him. Her hair glistened gold in the light of the sun and fell upon her shoulders in cascades of light.
“Do you believe it?” he exclaimed
Sarah felt it too. She must have, for her hands joined with his again, only this time was different. They walked together in the tall vibrant green grass as a warm breeze wafted through carrying an aroma of something familiar yet unknowable. They stopped to remove their heavy boots and felt the slight dampness of grass between their toes. Sarah laughed giddily and began to run into the breeze.
Her laugh sounding like tiny bells in Dan’s ears and he took off after her. They ran to a little blue stream and stopped under a large shaded oak tree to sit and stare at their reflections in the cool water.
“How could anyone give this up?” he thought.
Sarah looked at him and smiled, “This is amazing!” she grinned again at him.
Dan looked at her differently than ever before. “What was this, feeling?” he thought. Dan didn’t know. All he knew was that he never wanted it to end.
He suddenly was overwhelmed with a profound sadness and his face became wet from tears.
“What is it Dan? What’s wrong?” Sarah looked intently at him.
“How could they do nothing?” he asked.
“They just let all this go.” His sorrow began to turn towards anger.
Sarah gripped his hand tightly. Her green eyes sparkled and she said, “I don’t know. I wish I did, but” her voice wavered as she began to cry as well.
“It’s just so beautiful.” She said.
Dan reached his hand to her face and gently wiped a tear away. Her skin was soft and warm, and her eyes brightened at his touch. He was feeling very strange towards Sarah and he did not know why, only that he didn’t want it to go away.
A loud klaxon rang out over the field, shattering the peacefulness completely. Sarah’s eyes hardened back to their normal scowl, as she let go of Dan’s hand. Their shared moment was gone, just as quickly as the warm summer breeze. The light had dulled and the vibrant green grass faded away into the cold gray steel of the Simulation platform walls. Dan was angry.
“Why?” he yelled.
“Why even show us this?” his fists clenched in rage as he screamed.
Dan felt a hand on his shoulder and sun towards it.
Mr. Richardson’s sad eyes looked down on him, “To show us what was lost, Dan.”
Dan sobbed, “What for?”
The others had gathered around them both on the platform. They too, wanted to know why.
Mr. Richardson looked at each of their faces in turn before answering. All eyes were on him as they waited intently.
“To give us a vision to work for. To repair the damage, so we might once again feel happiness.”
Dan looked up. That’s what it was he felt before, happiness. He longed for it. He could still taste the breeze on his tongue and see Sarah’s golden hair sparkle in his mind.
“Something to work for” he thought, “Something wonderful.”
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