Hopefully nothing bad. She really did like him.
She was ready in five minutes and decided to go ahead down. Ash had always preferred to be early than late. Besides, she wasn’t quite sure where the basement bar was, other than the obvious basement part.
She ran her hand along the gleaming brass of the stair’s rail as she went downstairs. Luckily, she had been given an apartment on a lower floor, so there weren’t as many flights to navigate. Elevators just weren’t her style. Technology, in general, wasn’t her style, actually. Which was probably why she spent so much time in Gaia’s Rebirth, even if it was just a computer game. It felt like being transported to a time when nature ruled. Not like the nature-deficient world of today.
History had been Ash’s favorite subject in school, and she had read every nature book she could get her hands on. Studied them and drooled over them to be more truthful. Her steps fairly bounced at the thought of actually being in the long-lost environment she had so fallen in love with.
When she reached the lobby, the stairs she was on ended, but she was only at ground level. Ash made her way over to the night receptionist and asked how to get to the basement bar.
The girl smiled at her and pointed outside. “The only way to the basement is outside,” she said. “This building spans half the block, but if you turn left as you go through the doors, you should see the sign shortly. You really can’t miss it,” she laughed.
After thanking her for her help, Ash walked out into the fading sunlight. If you could call it that. She wondered briefly what it must have been like so many centuries ago, to be able to look up and actually see the sun, moon, and stars. Now, you could tell where the sun and moon were on what passed for a clear night, but truly seeing them was out of the question. The pollution from untold years of human tinkering had filled the atmosphere to the breaking point.
Luckily, with the depletion of the fossil fuels, the pollution generated by people was mostly staying at ground level now. Otherwise, it would be a matter of years before even solar power would be obliterated. Man just never learned how to take care of what they had.
The girl at the desk had been right, Ash smiled. There was no way to miss the sign. It was huge and painted in a psychedelic array of colors, with the main one being a bright neon purple. Shaking her head, she walked down the few steps and into the bar’s main entrance.
No sooner had she walked in then she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she saw Dean Malone. Damn, but he was hot. Just a few years older than her, you could tell that life had definitely been kinder to him than to her. For one thing, his only expression seemed to be one of joy. To top it off, he was tall, dark, and wonderfully handsome. Wasn’t that the triple trifecta in looks?
“Hey kid,” he said. “Guess you’re here for the big meeting too, huh?”
Ash just went with a nod.
“Have any idea what this is all about?” He asked, his brows drawing together.
She shook her head. Being around gorgeous people made her retreat within herself. Something she was going to have to get over when in the game. Might as well try to start now.
“Only that there has been a change in the party,” she forced herself to answer. “I guess Nika Nolan is taking Evan’s place.”
“The super-hot owner chick is coming with us?”
Trust him to focus on Nika’s looks. Not something he would do with her for sure. Ash looked away. Super-hot would never be words used to describe herself.
Before she could work up the ability for another sentence, they heard a voice calling to them. Nika stood at a small table on the far wall, gesturing for them to come join them. She noticed that Blake Nolan was already seated at the table.
Great. Two gorgeous men and one super-hot chick at the same table. She would be lucky to be able to utter a single word.
“I hope we didn’t interrupt any major plans you two had for the evening,” Blake said, rising as they neared the table.
“No way,” Dean said, answering for both of them. “As long as you don’t tell us the test is off, we are super cool. Ain’t that right, Sweetie?” He threw his arm around Ash’s shoulder and drew her in to his side. It felt nice and horribly awkward all at the same time.
She gave a quick nod and practically dove into the chair that Blake was holding out for her. Once everyone was seated, Nika gave them each a quick glance.
“Before we get started, what will everyone have to drink?”
The Nolans already had drinks in front of them, and Nika’s fingers hovered over the table’s order pad waiting for their decision.
“I’ll take a Rum and Coke,” Dean said.
Ash ducked her head and mumbled. “Make mine a plain soda, please.”
Dean leaned out away from her and gave her a disbelieving look. “Come on, please don’t tell me you are one of the prudish gals who think drinking is a sin? ‘Cause that would be a real downer. I plan on hitting all the in-game taverns.”
“Nothing like that,” she paused. How does one tell people who have no concept of being poor that she had never tasted alcoholic beverages because they were too expensive? She didn’t want to make herself more of an odd one out than she already was. But when she saw the strange look Nika was giving her, she decided to come clean.
Ash shrugged. “Money is really tight for me. Alcohol wasn’t a necessity.” There, she had done it. And in less than a dozen words. It was worth it to see Nika’s face clear.
“Well, that isn’t something you’ll have to worry about for a while, and definitely not tonight.” Nika paused. “But if you aren’t used to drinking, you’ll probably want to start really light. You can have the plain soda if you want, but if you like, I can order you what I’m having.” She lifted her glass and the blue liquid swirled inside like a mini tornado. “It’s mostly fruit juices with just a small touch of the good stuff. Not enough to even taste, really.”
After thinking for a minute, Ash nodded. “I’ll have what you have then.” After all, when would she get another chance to taste what everyone was always raving about?
“Good.” Ash watched as her fingers flew over the small pad and within a few minutes, their drinks were delivered.
“So Ash here tells me you’re joining our little party. I hope Evan’s okay.”
“He’s fine,” Blake said. “But he had a family emergency come up that he needs to deal with. We are hoping that you’ll find Nika here a suitable alternative.”
“If I had known earlier, I would have spent a bit more time with the two of you so you could get to know me a little before stepping into a commitment like this. As it is, tonight is basically it.”
“Don’t worry though,” Blake said. “You’ll love her. She’s pretty special, and a total whiz at the game. No one knows Gaia’s Rebirth as well as this lady.” He reached out and grasped Nika’s hand as he spoke.
Nika didn’t look too sure. “Well, since you called me a whiz, I do have a small confession to make. To even out the party, we really wanted to have a Mage, a Ranger, and a Barbarian class.” She smiled at Ash over the table. “Since you two have taken the first two classes, it leaves the Barbarian class to me. I hate to admit it, but I’ve never spent much time playing the Warrior type classes.”
Blake patted her hand. “You’ll do fine.”
Ash wondered if she was hinting at changing places with her. “I would offer to trade places in the party, but I’m afraid I’ve never played anything but a Mage.” She didn’t go on to tell them that her gaming time was severely limited and so she used it to her maximum enjoyment. And what could she say? She loved magic.
“Oh no, I wasn’t suggesting that at all,” Nika said. “I just wanted you both to know that while I know the game world forward, backward, and sideways—I’ll still be learning when it comes to playing a fighter class. Plus, to be totally honest, my strongest suit is knowing the world itself. That’s the part of the game I really helped to create.”
Dean shrugged. “If it’s time for confessions, I
’ll lay mine out too. I hope you don’t kick me off the team, but I might have exaggerated how long I’d played the game.”
Blake gave him a stern look. “By how much?”
Amazingly enough, Dean’s face started turning red. “Quite a bit actually. I got access to the game right before my kid brother came to stay with me for a couple of months. He pretty much took my account and ran with it.”
Nika looked dismayed. “Did you play the game at all?”
One of the requirements of entering the lottery was at least forty hours of online game time. They wanted people who could basically enter the game and make instant headway.
Ash knew that there were bound to be differences in the virtual game. After all, the online game was played with a player’s mitt, this version would be with their whole body and mind. Even if it was just a game, according to the brochure, once inside they wouldn’t be able to tell it.
Seeing that look on Nika’s face had Ash very worried. She wasn’t the murderous type, but she swore if Dean had messed this up for her, she’d kill him. At the very least, she’d make him pay dearly.
He ducked his head, not meeting Nika’s eyes. “Yeah, some. And when I logged in, I was always a Ranger, so I do know how that class works.”
Blake and Nika shared a look and finally, Nika shrugged. “Well, I guess there isn’t anything to be done about it now. But I’ll admit to being disappointed in you. We put those requirements in there for a reason, you know.”
“I know, and I’m sorry,” Dean said. “But I really, really wanted this. And the chances of me actually winning were outlandish. Who knew, right?”
Nika turned to Ash. “Since we all seem to be sharing confessions tonight, do you have anything you’d like to share? Please tell me you did play the game.”
Ash nodded. “Every hour on my account was me too.” Like she could afford to pay for another player. Besides, she just couldn’t trust someone else not to do something stupid with her character and lose her the opportunity to score a major item. She had been selling the really cool items on the black market. She definitely wasn’t getting rich, but at least the game was paying for itself.
“Well, that’s something anyway.” They were all silent as they started their drinks.
Finally, as an afterthought, Blake raised his glass. “To a successful beta test.”
“Here, here,” Dean said, and they all clinked glasses and drank.
THE NEXT MORNING TOOK forever to come, or at least it seemed so to Ash. She hadn’t been able to fall asleep for her excitement, and once she had finally dozed it had been a fitful rest at best. Her dreams were filled with everything that could possibly go wrong. From waking up late and missing the game entry, which she was pretty sure they wouldn’t let happen, to having someone steal her gamesuit in the middle of the night.
But finally the sun did make its way over the far horizon and what passed for sunlight shined through the shaded windows. It was summer now, so the glass pretty much stayed at its darkest to keep the coolness inside and the heat out.
She got up and dressed in the long gown that they had provided. They weren’t to eat anything this morning as some initial testers had suffered vertigo upon game entry and the staff didn’t want to start things off with a mess to clean up. She couldn’t blame them.
Tai Chi was her exercise of choice and she calmed herself and passed the time before she was to report at her station by doing her full routine. She had read that if the mind believed the body was making a motion, the muscles did too. Ash hoped that was true. If so, then she wouldn’t lose her limberness while confined to the game lounge. After all, even in-game she could still do her movements. And there would be a lot of walking. Miles upon miles of it to get where they needed to go to face Gaia.
From her daily practice, she knew her routine took a full half hour, so when she was done, she barely glanced at the clock to know that she still had another hour to kill.
What the hell? She might as well go down now. Maybe they could even get her set up early though she knew they would wait until everyone was ready before opening the portal.
They had taken a tour of the game lounge area when they first arrived. The area was set up with six stations though only three of them were to be used for this test. Each station consisted of an adjustable bed. They would be hooked up to fluid and nutrition intake and they were assured that their normal bodily functions would be attended to. Ash was actually glad that they didn’t go into details regarding that part.
Some things she just didn’t want to think about.
The magical science of the system rested with the gamesuits. They resembled thin, white jumpsuits with hoods. Under the suits, they would be baby-born naked. That part bothered her as the suits were awfully thin. But she had been assured that the women would be tended by a female nurse and Dean would have his own male attendant.
She walked up the stairs to the game level. It was one level below the penthouse and encompassed the entire floor. In other words, it was freaking huge. Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, Nika Nolan was already there, and already in her gamesuit.
Ash had to look away quickly as she realized she had been right about just how revealing they were. And now she knew for a fact that Dean was right. Nika Nolan was a very hot chick.
And walking straight for her.
“Thanks for getting here early,” she said. “Are you ready to get started?”
Still trying to avert her eyes from the vision of Nika’s gamesuit and the body it revealed beneath, she nodded.
“Great.” She lead Ash over to the first station, then motioned for a woman dressed in white to come join them. “This is Tina, she’ll be the day nurse for our beta test.”
The ceiling was so high in the game lounge that Ash hadn’t even noticed the separating walls between the stations until they started rolling down. Once they were in place she started feeling a lot better. At least she wouldn’t have to undress in front of everyone and she could enter the game with at least the thought that her body wasn’t on display for all comers.
Her gamesuit was laid out on the bed ready for her. But that was for later.
“I do hope you remember that we have to prep you first? In order to give the connectors in the hood a better grip on the areas they need, we will need to shave off a few tiny sections of your hair.”
“Yeah, I read that in the info pack you sent me. It’s fine.” She reached up and lifted her shoulder length hair so that it fell back in a thick wave. “I’ve got plenty.”
“Tina is really good at making sure the areas can easily be covered by your remaining hair until they grow back in. Still, you’d be surprised how many people balk at that one step in the process.”
Ash gave a shrug. Hell, she’d shave her whole head for this and it would be worth it.
Tina took her into a small room off the side of the lounge and got her ready for the gamesuit. Once she was prepped, she was instructed to take a quick shower and use the soap on the shelf liberally all over, except her hair which she had been instructed to wash the night before. Then Tina left the room to give her some privacy.
Stepping into the shower and drawing the curtain behind her, she lathered up quickly, rinsed, and then repeated the process to be certain that she had hit every part of her body well with the medicated soap. When she stepped out, she found a large towel waiting for her and her gamesuit draped over the small chair. Luckily there was a plain white robe next to it.
Smiling, she realized that Nika must have seen her aversion to the revealing material of the suit. She dried herself quickly and then struggled to get into it. It was every bit as tight as it was revealing.
Which made sense as there were thin but incredibly strong fibers running through it. Those fibers, and the gamesuit’s direct connection to their brains was what would make the virtual world real, and different from all the others she had heard about.
Now she understood why they had required her to send them accurate mea
surements. The suit, once she managed to get it on, fit her like a glove. A long, tight, and very uncomfortable glove.
Glancing at the door from where she stood, she was almost afraid to walk to it. What if she busted a seam or something? These suits couldn’t be cheap. Then she ran her hand over the material and realized there were no seams. Amazing.
She put the short robe on, thankful that it fell well below her hips, and went into the outer room again. Dean was just arriving.
Ash went to her station where a smiling Tina was waiting for her. She heard Dean give a squawk and realized that he must not have read the info pack about the whole shaving parts of your hair off thing. A smile spread over her face that she didn’t even try to hide. With his much shorter hair, it would be harder to hide post-game too.
In a matter of minutes, she was set up and ready to go. Tina covered her with a light sheet and they raised the curtains. Dean was just being led into the side room for prepping.
Glancing over at the station next to her she saw Nika already laid out, hooked up, and ready to go too. Of course, her new husband Blake was by her side.
What must it be like to have someone beside you at a time like this? Someone that cared. Someone that would miss you while you were gone?
Ash took a deep breath and pushed the self-pity from her mind. If everything went well and she managed to impress the boss with how well she handled herself in game, maybe she could find a nice NPC to settle down with. She felt her face get hot as she remembered the brochure had stated that even in-game sex was available and, like all game aspects, would seem incredibly real.
Of course, that would be something to explore if and when she got the job. Definitely not during the test.
With one last squeeze of Nika’s hand, he left to join the small group at the control panel and the woman turned to her with a giant smile.
“How incredible is this?” Nika asked.
Ash felt her face split into a grin just as large. “Absolutely amazing. I can’t believe I actually get to do this. I really want to thank you all again for the opportunity.”
Forest (Gaia's Rebirth Book 1) Page 2