Earth one week into Omnia Alph Test…

James Renfew took a break from looking at the reports. The first week’s activities by the alpha test group for the Earth Omnia Project were logged for his review, almost a whole month at the four to one time compression used in Omnia. There were a thousand players in the alpha test group, and even though they’d been picked from the most elite of Earth’s online role players, it felt like 90% of the group’s activities were not worth the time he spent reading about them.

He knew better than to expect anything dramatic in such a short period, but this project was vital to him, and since it was so important he’d let his expectations grow.

James looked out of his window, the view over the Waterfront Park, and the Willamette River from his office was amazingly beautiful today.

James sighed; he loved Earth, there was something about the sky, the birds, and everything that felt more like home to him than any other planet he had ever been on. Most human planets seemed to share a similar biota.

James knew that sometime in the past, beyond any known history, many of the worlds in this part of the galaxy had extinction events, and they’d all been seeded with biota similar to that of Earth. In the Imperium today, such a massive killing of so many unique life forms on so many worlds would be a crime and a tragedy, but who knows what purpose drove those long-dead peoples to such an extreme action.

The net outcome of the event were hundreds of worlds, spread out through the vastness of space compatible with human life, or that could be changed to become human habitats.

But Earth was unique for James, not because it was special, but because he was from Earth himself.

The Imperial Department of Cultural Development didn’t send people with families to monitor worlds protected under the Imperial Cultural Protection Act. They felt that putting children on a world like Earth, and asking them to keep the world’s biggest secret, was too much of a risk.

The Department was responsible for allowing and encouraging the social, economic, and technological growth of planets like Earth, but history had demonstrated that revealing the existence of galactic civilization too early to a world unprepared could lead to disaster.

People needed to believe in their own importance in the universe. If someone just gave a culture all the benefits of an advanced society, without allowing them to feel that they earned it themselves… History had shown that such kindness was the worst sort of cruelty. It somehow destroys a culture's sense of self-worth, and that can be frighteningly devastating when it’s done on a planetary level. The Imperium had a few cases in its history where such worlds exported their troubles to other planets, and it took the local galactic society hundreds of years to finally resolve the many social issues that resulted.

So, their solution was to send single men and women, who closely matched the local genetic type. In other words, they sent Humans to Human worlds, Dwarves to Dwarven worlds, and Elves to Elven worlds. However, single men and women, still fall in love and have families of their own in time.

This is how James Renfew, who was both a citizen of Earth and the Imperium of Sentient Planets, came to be born. His father was assigned to a long-term observation mission on Earth, and he met James mother here. Over the course of time, James was born. James mother learned the truth about the Imperium, while on her surprisingly distant honeymoon.

James had only learned the full truth at the age of fifteen. It was on his birthday that his father finally considered James trustworthy enough to be able to maintain the secret while keeping his friends ignorant. It was something that he managed, but it had a personal cost. James found it difficult to build stable relationships when he had so much to hide.

James had always stood out in his primary and secondary school classes. He was smarter, more athletic, and more charismatic than the rest of his classmates and learning was easy for him.

James didn’t understand until he was fifteen that the reason for this difference was the genetic treatments he received while still a baby.

When James learned why he was so different, why he stood out so much, he didn’t feel superior… He felt sad. All his friends, his schoolmates, and the whole world’s population were less than they could be. He felt that this was wrong, so fundamentally wrong that it had to change. Yet he also learned the history, the reasons why the rules existed, and eventually came to agree. But at that point in his life, he found in himself something new… a cause to fight for. He would find a way to change the status quo, not just for his friends or his schoolmates in the Melbourne school he attended, but also for the whole world.

James father looked for a way to introduce his son to Galactic society, while he was still on Earth. After a bit of research and thought, he decided to introduce his son to the Omnia Virtual Worlds game. Intelecom Industries Omnia Virtual Worlds game was closer than any other to representing the reality of the Imperium.

The main differences between the game and the true Imperium were that the game allowed players greater access to weapons, and a lot more in the way of conflicts, and of course the clone revival system. Weapons ranged from personal arms all the way up to ship killer missiles. Of course, Omnia created much more conflict and opportunity for adventure then the real known galaxy offered.

Over the progression of the game’s first 17 years of Omnia history, player’s actions had changed some of the virtualized planets. Those planets no longer were a perfect match to their Imperium counterparts, but the society was still the same.

Omnia was immensely popular with many of the young folk in the Imperium, who saw it as being more fun than real life.

James’s Father saw it as a great learning platform for his son. While James loved the game, he didn’t forget his new cause. When James eventually left Earth to get an Imperial level university education, he had a plan. James would get a job at the same Department of Cultural Development that his dad worked for, and he would in time propose his plan. James plan would harness a game like Omnia to elevate the people of Earth, to bring them into a mindset and level of technology that would accelerate the time for Earth and planets like it to be invited into the Imperium, as a full member of a much larger society.

And in time he did make his proposal.

As a result, he now sat at this desk looking at some very boring reports. His job was now the monitoring of Intelecom’s implementation of his plan for Earth for the Imperial Department of Cultural Development.

Intelecom had agreed to release a sandbox version of the Omnia Virtual Worlds game here on Earth. This version was the same as the one played by the citizens of the Imperium, but separate until Earth humans could be brought up to speed with galactic society. Then the Earth Omnia would be merged into the one played by Imperium citizens.

The only parts of the game shared between Earth’s Omnia Online and the Imperium’s Omnia Virtual Worlds would be the economy and planetary developments. The artificial intelligences (A.I.s) that managed Omnia would ensure that the history of the parallel games continued to match.

One benefit of a shared economy was that people on Earth could earn real Imperial credits. The Omnia and Imperial credits traded at 10 to 1, so ten game credits were worth one real Imperial credit. This was market driven, but the A.I.s knew what it took to manage the virtual markets to maintain the balance.

In theory, once the game was in full release on Earth; in about six months, people could trade Earth currency for Omnia credits, then Omnia credits for the real thing. This would not happen since they wouldn’t yet know that there was a real Imperium yet. In time, though, it could turn out to be Earth’s first step in earning off planet wealth.

Still looking out the windows on the world he loved James got back to work; “Matilda can you please sort through these reports, and just give me the ones you think need my attention…?”