The Elias Anomaly

Twenty Four

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"Neon? Really?" Dulcie said as she looked around the dark walls of the training simulator. The shape of the training arena picked out in a weird lime green grid. "I didn't realise that the retro look was still in."

"We're a government department with a restricted budget," Simon's voice said in Dulcie's ear. "We take what we can get."

"Okay, so how does this work exactly?" Dulcie asked.

"I designed this interface so you can interact with the system," Simon said. A black column extruded from the grid-lined floor in front of Dulcie. A pair of sunglasses appeared on top of the column."

"You like early noughties movies, don't you?" Dulcie asked. She picked up the swish of clear plastic glued to a fragile looking arc of black plastic. Before Simon could snap back at her she put the glasses on. As the glasses hit the bridge of Dulcie's nose a number of light patches blinked on. Filling the periphery of Dulcie's vision with numbers and graded meters.

"Augmented reality interface." Dulcie said. "Very old-school."

"The system is internal to your avatar," Simon said. "The plex providers switched to artificial construct interfaces. Only because it helped people achieve immersion. This is a cheap set up. I think it also helps remind you that you are using systems that are not part of the plex you are in.

"Other users of plexes you travel through shouldn't be able to see the interface. It's a device that hooks into your own avatar. It allows control of settings that are usually not exposed or manipulated."

"Okay," Dulcie said. "So what's the point?"

"My initial version of this software tried to automate defences. Essentially there was no interface for the operator. Unfortunately once Bloch's routines broke open the code shell it fell apart. The attack derived it's own algorithms to control the defences. After that they fell rapidly. If you are able to control the defences you can employ countermeasures. You will be able to respond to attacks in real time yourself."

"What kind of attacks?" Dulcie asked. "I mean, the plexes are shot through with safety protocols. They are designed to prevent injury to any code linked to a living user. These routines are integral to the way the plexes work. I don't see how anyone could circumvent them."

"He doesn't," Simon replied. "He's tries to pick apart the relationship between your construct and your actual body. It's only after that is achieved that he will start trying to destroy you."

"So what am I fighting against? His attempts to cut me off from my body or his attempts to destroy me?" Dulcie asked. She didn't like the idea of her conscious mind being cut off from her actual body. She supposed that this kind of thing came with her current territory.

"Any of it, all of it, stop him doing as much as possible," Simon said. "So the first system you're going to get feedback from is your connection to your body. The view change axis is available to the top left of your interface. To change view type just lift your hand into the orb and twist."

Dulcie could see the orb, floating off to her left at about an inch over the top of her head. She lifted her hand and twisted. A chain link icon appeared hovering a few inches in front of her nose. Embossed onto the chain was the figure '100%'.

"That icon you can see," Simon explained. "Is your link to the outside world. When Bloch's routines identify you then it'll start to degrade like this."