Lurranus Stories: Creation

2206

In the tranquility of his almost empty granite basement, John Closer opened his laptop and began searching through the mountain of files before him.

The company Empirius had began in about 2025, with its primary focus on Virtual Reality. It’s first major item had been an interactive VR experience, in which the user wore a set of goggles and beefy, customisable gloves which, when the user pressed a button at the base of their right forefinger and moved their hands about, would move their avatar around in their virtual environment. For example, if they pulled they hands inwards, in the virtual environment, they would “grap” a distance area, and “pull” it towards themselves. The extent of virtual movement depended on the extent of the hand movement, and the displacement scale, a small dial on the back of one’s hand. If they pressed the button again and moved their hands, nothing happened.

It was more a virtual chat room then anything else, allowing people to meet with strangers and chat with them in a range of different environments, all the while maintaining their anonymity as they hid behind their virtual character. There were a variety of different environments one could explore (some for general audiences, some for more specific ones), although there were very few games one could partake in.

The next major step was around 2032,  with a VR system in which the user would wear a harnesses and would be attached to several wires, and would have also wear a full body suit, to replicate all kind of physical experiences. This was more of a game based experience, with shooter games and the like, and the wires, although sometimes problematic, allowed the user to assume various kinds of postures. Despite its expensive price tag, this product experienced hugely successful sales.

However, ignoring regular updates and new models (which added little the original didn’t have), that was one of the companies last significant ventures into the virtual reality market.

By 2050, the companies primary focus had turned to weapons. Generally self automated ones, like driverless tanks, designed to stop conflicts without risking a single life. At one point, they were used in a war with an opponent who had the exact same artillery. As such, mass destruction ensued, but no one died on either side and nothing was ever truly achieved, with people eventually having to resort back to physical action.

This also included anti riot gear, and weapons geared towards mass crowd control. Although highly effective, these weapons generated mass controversy due to their ability to subdue hundreds in only seconds, as people worried what military forces could do with possession of these weapons.

By the time of 2068, as the last of resources began to become depleted and people began rioting as it transpired Governments had been going to various extremes to hide this information, controversy only increased as these products were used the way people feared, and much goodwill towards the company faded as authorises tried to control their people using Empirius’s weapons. In several cases, this caused people to fall in way that caused their deaths, and people took to expressing their outrage, with some publicly burning their old VR equipment as a statement.

At the same time, the company had also began an online campaign to encourage people to remain calm, in the wake of recent events, and not look to violence as their solution. This company was received poorly, with many pointing out the irony in it, and only managed to increase negative feelings towards the company

They began several short lived renewable energy projects in both rural settlements and big cities, in an attempt to generate positive interest, but these were all short lived and were overshadowed by the legacy of the companies previous work. However, they had became more beneficial in recent years, providing energy to a planet that desperately needed it.

But what John found most interesting was the “Lurranus project”. It was a rare venture for the company that didn’t involve weapons, but instead seemed to be a last ditch effort to save humanity. The archived emails suggested the idea for the project had originated in 2096, with emails between former boss Darren Hale and Craig Donnely. The two had worked together before, with Hale funding Donnely’s research that ultimately led to the creation of the Cube and the Slow-Down. Both had been critical successes in ensuring humanities survival and, although Hale didn’t know of the success to come, the projects initial promise had led to Donnely being put on his speed dial. The “Lurranus project” was an attempt to ensure the survival of the species, with Donnely personally leading a venture into the reaches of space, with 4500 colonists, to journey to a world he believed was a suitable new home for humanity.

The ship had apparently set sail in 2119, and its last recorded correspondence was dated in 2130, but was only there to address technical faults. As John looked further, it turned out there had been another message, but it had been corrupted and rendered incomprehensible. Following that, there were no further messages, and the fate of the ship remained unknown.

Following that, Empirius continued its production of weapons, now on a grander scale, as the Population War, between the United Seven Nations (U7U) and the terrorist group Oaktrus, began that same year. It was a hellish time for the vast majority of the population, but company thrived during the war, at the expense of millions, particularly when news came out revealing small groups were doing dealings with the terrorists themselves. However, the irony was that most of the gained profits were lost when Oaktrus took over hundreds of factories, leaving Empirius with a decent but unremarkable amount of money, about three dozen facilities and a vast store of records, the like of which John was currently looking at.

John reclined in his chair and creased his brow, thinking. The company had produced a lot of interesting creations over the years, but the early VR devices interested him the most. Not the technical side of their production but the reason for it: escapism. Something that people of ever generation had always wanted, and something, in the current post war world, people desperately needed.

In fact, in brought him back to a conversation he had at least two decades ago, minutes after the war officially ended, when he had talked with a soldier in another unit. They had both been reflecting on the dire state of the world, when the other soldier had commented on making a computer world. It was an intriguing idea, but one the guy had said in jest. And while he had never seen that man again, and had long ago forgot anything else about him, those words had stayed in his mind for quite some time.

A completely virtual world. It seemed an improbable concept and John had no idea how to determine what someone’s conscience was, and how to transfer someone’s intact conscience into computer data with it still being the person themselves and not just a copy of their brain data.

But in the current, dead-end world, it was something people needed. The world was ripe with hunger, sadness, suffering. So what if people, instead of continuing to endure a tedious, mundane existence, could life a life devoid of pain and full instead of what ever they wanted.

But, thinking back to the technical complications, this was a completely unknown field, with no one having even attempted something like it before, and would require those involved to journey into uncertain waters. Then, of course, they would have to render all sorts of realistic virtual environments, write code to simulate all five senses and make the program grant all the users desires. Still, given the companies history, it seemed a fitting direction in which to go, although with lots of previous negative history and poor brand recognition, John though it would be best to clean the slate and make a new company. A company which regardless, would be the exact same as Empirius and would use their ideas and money, but, as far as anyone else needed to be concerned, it was an entirely new business. He wasn’t sure what he would call it, but he had a few ideas. “Intrexal”, maybe. That was one of his ideas.

Then he also thought again of the computer world.

Computer world. It wasn’t exactly a snappy title, he thought to himself. If he proceeded with that project, it would also need a name.

Suddenly, John heard something going on upstairs. He got up and reached out to turn off the computer. As he did so, his finger stroked the mouse, causing the glossary menu onscreen to roll upwards, so that at the top of the screen John once again saw the Lurranus project. So it did so, he thought again of Donnely’s description. How it was, for reasons known only to Donnely, representative of humanities journey into the unknown. Then, smirking, he walked of to see his family. As he reached the door, he muttered quietly to himself, “Well, it’s a cool name.”