The Dev Center

It had taken Mike and Heather two trips to get all of Angie‘s stuff down to the car. It took longer to carry the stuff than it took to drive to the Dev Center.

The Dev Center parking lot was packed. After a few passes through the lot, they finally found a spot. Left by himself, Mark was carrying two of Angie’s bags. One was a bright pink gym bag, the other was a big heavy black case.

“Documentation,” that was the answer Mark got when he questioned what was in all of the bags.

He walked with the crowd to the building. It was a big building. The Andle Klien Delphin Development Center. It was named after the founders of Space Opera. Most people just called it the Dev Center for short. Many of the programmers and engineers called it the Devil Center. Inside were computer labs, work shops, material places and maker spaces. Classes were over for the semester and every viable space was converted into a staging area. This was a facilities and IT nightmare. Each team needed its own space to setup and operate from.

Probably the person who knew the most about what kind of gear each team had prepared was Doug Kaperns, the Building Manager. Kaperns also probably cared the least about what the gear did or the details of it. Many teams wasted their breath and his time by telling Kaperns the details. All Kaperns cared about was how much space did they need and how much electricity wold be used. Network connections were easy. Everybody got the same ultra high speed line. It didn’t matter how much bandwidth you wanted, everybody got the same.

Team space was a different matter. Classrooms and workshops were converted to team space for the 21 competition teams to setup their widgets and gizmos. Teams that had competed for many years could get a basement room. If you got a basement room you generally got to keep it year round- a huge team buff. Team Bloop was a legacy team and as long as the team existed, they could keep room B23. Right now they just had to get there. They couldn't do that until the doors officially opened.

Filling the large plaza in front of the building way was a huge crowd of people. Some where just there for the spectacle and some for the Space Opera festival that would take place on the pavillion. Most people were waiting to get into the Dev center. Kaperns and two security guards manned the front doors. A side door to the building was letting VIPs and judges and university officials and other bigwigs in. All of the competitors and spectators had to go through the main doors- the ones that Kaperns was guarding.

The door behind him opened and somebody came out. Based on the maintenance uniform, everybody guessed he was a MaintTech. He stopped by Kaprens and said something. Kaperns nodded and the guy went back to the door he came from. The MiantTech held the door open. Several people came out and stood by Kaperns.

From a back pocket, Kaperns produced a hand mic. “Good afternoon,” his deep voice boomed across the crowd. A camera man made sure he got a great shot for anybody watching the liveStream. “On behalf of university facilities and tech services, I declare the building ready for the competition.”

He handed the microphone over to a distinguished looking lady. Dr. Dorthy Coman, the college president. “Are you ready?” she asked quietly. There was a shout from the crowd. Louder this time she asked again “Are you ready?” The crowd yelled even louder. Finally she yelled, “Are you ready?”

The crowd roared in response. The president knew that a short speech was the best speech right now. “THUS IT BEGINS!!!!” As she yelled the familiar words, projections bloomed.

The projections were black, a deep black. A deep baritone voice narrated. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth; and the earth was without form and empty, and darkness on the face of the deep.”

There was an explosion. A single point of light exploded into a million billion stars, galaxies, planets and nebulae. The video did a flyby of a planet and then another planet. Buildings rose and fell. Space ships launched. The video followed a ship as it flew out of the solar system.

The ship grew, morphed, from a simple scout ship to a trader to a war cruiser. It entered other solar systems.

“One galaxy was known by its inhabitants as the Western River Galaxy. For eons, Civilizations rose and fell. Wars were fought. Technologies discovered and lost. New frontiers were explored.”

“But, in one part of the Western River Galaxy, war threatened. A race of humanoids, the TU’COn, attacked another group of humanoids, The Federation Alliance.” A TU’COn warrior stood there with his laser rifle aimed. It was a bulky, scaly humanoid beast with big eyes. It stood over 6 feet. Most of its bulk looked like muscle. Its scales had a hint of red to them. Its eyes were dark. This one wore a battle vest with knives and laser batteries strapped on. It’s laser blasts were red as it fired.

“One of the many planets in dispute was RX6. This planet was originally settled by Federation Alliance member TerraRica.” A beautiful blue and white marble of a planet filled the projections. Slowly the view zoomed down to the planet, to a peaceful village.

“Then a schism came to RX6. Some of the ‘Sixers’ chafed under the taxes and duties that TerraRica imposed to recoup the colonization costs. A rebellion began. An appeal to the Federation Alliance brought a regiment of Star Marines to RX6.” Fighting flared in the village. Neighbor fired on neighbor. Attack Landers swooped in. Rockets fired from under the wings. Emblazoned on the sides were the numbers 261 with the silhouette of a sparrow. The attack landers touched down and huge doors fell open on the sides of the small ships. Humans wearing the green uniform of the Star Marines bundled out.

“The schism grew to outright rebellion.”

A Star Marine tank advanced. Marines flanked it. They were advancing on rebels hiding behind a stone wall. The rebels were putting up a fight, but the outcome wasn’t in doubt as soon as the tank fired its main gun.

“In the midst of this rebellion, the TU’COn came.” From the right flank, TU’COns charged. Three of them fired a rocket launcher. The rocket blazed a trail to its target. The rocket hit and the Star Marine tank exploded. In the brightness of the explosion, the view point changed. The planet was rotating on the projection.

“Since then, the Federation Alliance and the TU’COn have warred back and forth. Planet RX6 has changed hands multiple times. A few short weeks ago, the Federation took back RX6, but the planet is not pacified. Groups of rebels and TU’COns attack the Federation regularly.

A starship cruised through space near planet RX6. The name Antonio Lopez was stenciled on its side. “In an attempt to take the war to the TU’COn, The Federation is now sending Star Marines into TU’COn territory. Currently the Star Marine Corsair Transport Antonio Lopez is passing RX6. Now is the time for Star Marines to take their place in history. ”

The screens go to black. Then words appear as the narrator intones them

“It is time for the Space Opera VR Systems Challenge to start.”

The projections go black again. HUGE words appeared as the baritone voice thundered out “THUS IT BEGINS!”

At those words, the projections disappeared. The maintenance men opened all of the doors to the center. Competitors streamed forward.

THE DOORS OPEN

Mark didn’t surge with everybody else. There wasn’t much point. The doors were a choke point and no amount of pushing was going to get him through quickly. Instead, he moved slowly and watched the throng of people.

There were all sorts of people. Men, women, teens and middle aged people like him. He could peg many of them as engineering students or programmers or other kinds of geeks. Maybe that was most of the crowd. He noticed something missing and filed it away for later.

Mark was slowly walking by himself. He had said goodbye to Sara at the car. She could be anywhere. Angie had disappeared into the crowd now as well. That was fine. Mark knew he had to bring the big black case and the pink backpack down two levels to B23.

Eventually, the crowd thinned some. From looking around, maybe there was going to be some kind of festival as the competition happened. Lots and lots of people geeking out over the Space Opera VR Systems Challenge. If it wasn’t for the big signs, he never would have remembered the name. Maybe I’ll get a hat or a shirt. A souvenir for the beach. It’ll piss Renee off that I was here and she wasn’t.

One shirt for sale had a picture of planet RX6 on the front and on the back the words “Level up with the Space Opera VR Systems Challenge.” Mark passed it by. Maybe there’ll be some other souvenir.