THE HEARTBEAT

T-minus 2 hours until the doors open. T-minus 4 hours until the Space Opera VR Systems Challenge began. T-minus 1.00067 seconds until Angie’s heart would even try to begin beating again. At just this second, Angie wasn’t sure what she wanted her heart to resume functioning.

46 hours ago, the Dev Center closed. The Dev Center was the massive new Engineering School building where the challenge would be held. Angie, her entire team, and all of the other competitors were kicked out of the building. All of their network connections were cut. For 48 hours there was a “programmed time out.” No competitors were allowed in. Period. Left your wallet inside? Call your mom or your dad. Left your medicine inside? Call your doctor. Left your phone inside? You’re screwed.

Officially it was to give the contestants a chance to get some sleep and relax before the Space Opera VR Systems Challenge began. Many of the contestants thought this “programmed time out” was part of the challenge- a chance to increase the stress on the contestants.

The people running the challenge were serious, during the timeout there was no access to hardware or software in the Dev center or remotely through the network. It was a total blackout. All the contestants could do was stress out. All of the contestants hated the timeout.

Angie was one of the haters. She hated the timeout with a passion. Under normal circumstances, it would have given her a panic attack. This, right here, right now, this was not a normal situation. How could anybody who had poured thousands of hours of themselves into the VR project not have a panic attack? she thought.

Angie couldn’t begin to count how many hours of her life she had sacrificed getting ready for the ”Space Opera VR Systems Challenge” over the past 3 years. Especially this year. She had all but lived at the Dev Center. The Devil Center the students called it.

This is supposed to be my year. My year to win. Or at least finish in the top 10. She was the last of team Bloop’s legacy members. This year she was president and chief designer for Team Bloop, her team. She would lead them to glory at the Space Opera VR Systems Challenge. Her designs built upon the previous teams work and improved it. She thought, she believed, she knew the VR hardware was amazing, that victory was hers.

Her entire grad school career, three years, two lost summers, countless weekends and thousands of hours working and suffering through bro culture, brought her to this moment in the competition, in life.

T-minus 2 hours until the doors open. T-minus 4 hours until the event began. T-minus 1.00067 seconds until Angie’s heart would even try to begin beating again

A long second later. her heart decided to start beating. She blinked her eyes. Neither the email or Flannigan had gone away. This had to be a joke. “Flanni?”

Flannigan, and the other three people that made up Rogue Team, were her players. They would play the game using the VR equipment that her team developed. Those four players would show off what the equipment would do. But, they needed to survive in the game long enough to show off the amazing VR gaming client system equipment. Flannigan was the squad leader.

Three seconds ago Flannigan had initiated a vid call. Angie answered with her laptop. She kept her phone clear for Game System Alerts and Messages like the one that popped up a heartbeat after she accepted the call.

Angie gaped like a fish out of water as she reread the email.

She heard Flanni speak as her eyes read the message again and again. “Yeah, sorry Ang. I guess you got the message.” Flanni probably had meant to tell her before the system sent the notification. “But, yeah, it has nothing to do with you being a chick or anything. We, the whole squad, just got a great offer from PepMotion!” Flanni was excited. “They’re even gonna pay us.”

“But, but…” Angie had no words.

“Sorry. Hey anyway, I hope things work out for you. Rogue 6 out.” Flanni signed off with his call sign and the video call dropped.

LUNCH WITH DAD

Mark was smiling. Sarah noticed. She was smiling too. “I’m glad you could make it up here, Dad.” Their smiles got deeper when she said “dad.” It was a small joke between them. Well, half a joke.

The world of the diner continued around them. Customers ordered and ate and talked. A waitress unobtrusively picked up the small tray with the credit card sitting atop the bill. She left the last of the dishes.

“I didn’t want to head out to the islands without seeing you first.”

“I can’t believe you’re really going.”

“ I’ll be back in a month or so.” He shrugged. “I’ve got money now and plenty of time so it’s my chance to just get away for a while.”

Sarah tilted her head slightly. “And time far away from Mom?”

“Far, far away from your mother. And her, uh, friend.” He rubbed his hands on his pants, like that would rub that woman away. If he was lucky it would rub her friend away too. He tried not to dwell on them. Any thought of his wife, his ex-wife actually, gave him a migrane. “I don’t want to talk about her.”

Sarah smiled sweetly at him. He knew that smile. “What do you want?” He braced himself. I wonder how much this is going to cost me? What didn’t her mom buy her? She regularly bought anything and everything Sarah wanted. For the millionth time he cursed her rich boy friend and the stupid undeserved fame she found. At least he got a good chunk of money to stay quiet and get lost.

“I want to see you smile again.”

“Oh?” He knew she was playing him. Since they met, she knew how to wrap him around her little finger.

“And I know just what would put that smile back on your face?”

He leaned back in his chair. “A month away in the islands?”

“Before you go to the islands, I know you want to give your baby daughter a ride to the Devil Center.”

They both laughed.

“Devil center? That game of yours isn’t a satanic cult turning you into a devil worshiper or something, right?”

She laughed. She knew he was kidding. She hoped he was kidding.

In his mind, pieces fell into place. “For your big competition?” he continued.

“Yeah.”

“I have a week to get to the airport, so I can probably manage a drive across campus.” And this isn’t gong to cost me anything after all.

“We have to stop and grab some stuff from the dorm first.”