Life to Binary

Carter Moores stared intently at the address inscribed upon one of the many sheets of paper in his possession, then at the enormous building in front of him. For a business situated in downtown Fort Worth, it wasn't particularly grand when one compared it to the other company headquarters he had seen. Nonetheless, these people seemed legitimate, despite their outlandish claim.

He read once more the name of the gaming company that he was reporting to: Reality Check.

From what his notes had gathered online, the company had been in operation for the past five years. However, they hadn't developed a single product in that time span. No new consoles, games, or even software. This was odd in itself seeing as that without anything to sell, an industry would have no sales and therefore no profits.

He had been given the letter of approval to test Reality Check's new... something. The message hadn't specified what he would be testing. Only that it would be "the apex of all gaming that we know today." He wasn't one to jump blindly in on a job, but the pay was good and his wallet was thin. He decided that if if everything turned out to be a hoax, this would make a somewhat funny story with the rest of his buddies on X-BOX Live and PlayStation Network.

The cloudy, windy weather didn't bode well for his enthusiasm level, but he finally sighed walked through the large, tinted glass doors. He had to squint his eyes upon entering due to everything inside the building being so blindingly white. It was staring into a light bulb, but only slightly less intense. He blinked a few times before stuffing the papers he had back into his jacket's pocket.

Moores casually walked up to the young male receptionist, who had not noticed him as of yet. "Hey, I have an appointment with one Collin Mathers." Moores said, remembering the name of the sender quite clearly.

The receptionist looked up from his game of computer Solitaire and put on a smile.

"Yes. You're Mister Moores, correct?" He said cheerfully.

"That's me."

"Floor Eight. Just go right in, he's waiting," The receptionist said before returning to his game. Moores could tell from the atmosphere of the room that waiting room never really had very many occupants. He strolled down the rather unassuming, desolate hallway towards the elevator.

At least I know this is for real, Moores thought as he pressed the up arrow button on the elevator. The door opened to reveal a very angry looking employee, suitcase and files clenched firmly in his hands. He glared at Moores for a second, but then departed without a single word exchanged. Moores gave the equivalent of a mental shrug as he boarded the elevator. It wasn't the first time he'd seen livid workers storm out of their jobs. It was actually rather commonplace in his line of work.

He was caught off guard by the elevator music as it rose. It was clearly electronic, similar to that of what one would find at raves, but at a lower volume. Not that he really minded, he personally enjoyed the high tempo and beats. He spent a good thirty seconds in the elevator, and just as it was about to hit a very danceable part, it ended with the ring of the elevator stopping.

The doors slid open to reveal a rather large room that he deduced was the executive office. The waiting room on this floor was highly decorated and much more pleasant to the eye. The laminated wood on the floors and bronze colored walls made Moores almost feel as though he were inside of the trunk of a tree.

He pulled on the large black metal doors, revealing a slightly rotund man at his desk. He looked up from his desk and papers and shot a warm grin at his visitor, his bushy brown mustache moving with the smile. By the looks of the man's neatly gelled brown hair and dark green business suit, he was definitely the company's single executive officer.

"Mr. Moores! I've been having anxiety attacks waiting for you!" Mathers said with a hearty southerner laugh. "I thought I'd gone and scared off another game tester! You folks are extremely nit-picky, if you don't mind me saying."

"Some people have tougher skin than others," Moores replied, firmly shaking Mathers' right hand. Now that they were face to face, Mathers didn't look nearly as fat as he had in the chair. He was much taller too, two inches taller than Moores.

"That's the spirit!" Mathers said giddily. "I'm positive you're gonna have a great experience while here. Follow me and I'll introduce you to the production team."

Carter did as the man said, shadowing Mathers as they went back into the elevator. Before Mathers pressed a button to any single floor, his look hardened and he turned to Moores.

"Son, I want you to understand that his is extremely confidential. I know that you've already signed the damned legal documents and such, but you must promise me, right here as a man, that you won't mention anything that you see on the production level. To anyone. Got it?"

Moores nodded frantically, suddenly very scared of the man beside him.

"Fantastic!" Mathers voice returned to its normal cheerful tone, much to Moores relief. Mathers took a key out his jacket pocket, put it into the slot, and turned his hand. A complete new panel of floors, listing from negative one to negative five, appeared on the console.

"Sir? Why do you have underground levels?" Moores couldn't help but ask.

"You see, son, these here regular floors are mostly storage and sleeping rooms for overworking employees. These floors, however," Mathers pressed the negative second floor, "are the real floors."

The techno music once again started blasting on the elevator's PA system.

"Ha ha! My golly, I love this here young person music!" Mathers laughed. "Would you believe it annoys some people? Uncultured swine, I say."

Once again, just as the song was about to reach its climax, the elevator stopped, bringing an end to the electronic notes.

The doors slid away to reveal a massive room bustling with activity. As far as the eye could see, men in white lab coats moved around in their personal environment. Many were at computer stations, each group of a dozen facing a different large screen projecting some statistic or another. Others rushed to opposite sides of the room, carrying papers and the like.

Mathers unhooked a hand phone from the wall and brought it to his mouth.

"Oscar Anders! Get over here, boy, we have company!" Mathers booming voice resounded throughout the room via the intercom. A slim blonde-haired man stood up from his computer terminal, grabbed a folder full of papers, and rushed to the elevator.

"Mr. Mathers, sir!" Oscar said, readjusting his thin rectangular glasses. "Is this our tester?"

"Indeed it is," Mathers said. "Follow us to the testing room, if you will."

The three boarded the elevator once more, the space becoming much more cramped than before.

"Hey, I don't think you ever told me what exactly I was testing," Carter said, taking advantage of the time they had.

"Didn't I? I'm sure I must have brought it up at some point. Oh well. Anders?" Mathers turned to Anders with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh yes, of course," Anders answered. "You see, Mr. Moores, for five long years this company and its employees have worked tirelessly to create the newest and most cunning of gaming software and devices.

"Is that why I've never heard of your company until today?" Moores asked skeptically.

"Actually, yes. Our company is extremely secretive with its products," Anders said proudly as the elevator stopped at the negative fifth floor and opened its doors. Moores noticed that the music he had been hearing earlier had not been playing. "And with good reason, too! Our technology easily surpasses all that the competition produces."

"And that brings us back to my original question."

"Right, I was getting to that." Anders answered. "Our project includes the two of our main latest advancements: brilliant near-sentient AI programming and Neural Impulse Transfer, or NIT for short. Imagine it! Video game characters that you can actually interact with. Speak to! And with our NIT technology, it'll all feel, smell, and taste real!"

Moores couldn't believe what he was hearing. It sounded far too good to be true, an actual gaming experience where he could move around instead of having use a controller or a motion stick.

"And it's all here, ready for testing." Anders said, sighing dreamily. The group finally stopped at an empty white room. Inside were a half dozen monitors, a desk with three computer screens, and a seemingly out-of-place leather sofa in the middle.

"Mr. Mathers, sir? CFO Dean Cheswell is trying to contact you in your office." Said the somewhat familiar voice of the receptionist Moore had met not ten minutes ago.

"Damn him. Of all times to talk my ear off..." Mathers grumbled. "Very well. Son, I hope to hear what you think of our project when I return, hopefully in the next four hours."

At that, the executive marched himself back over to the elevator, muttering curses all the while.

"Let's not dilly-dally." Oscar said with a smile. "I don't know about you, but I am absolutely ecstatic for this."

He took the key card from his pocket protector and ran it over the scanner on the door's frame. The red light turned to green and the door unlocked. Stepping into the rather cold room, Anders proceeded to turn on all of the electronics within the room, beeping and whirring coming from each one.

"So... Oscar. How long have you been designing games, exactly?" Moores said, trying to make conversation while he waited.

"Around eight years. I worked at BioWare for a short time, as well as Bungie and Microsoft. I only started working on the NIT and such three years ago." Anders answered. "If you wouldn't mind, sit on that couch, please."

Carter did as he was told, finding the black leather couch rather comfortable, even more so than his sofa back home.

"You don't know how lucky you are. I'm not allowed to use this in the fear of producer bias, and each of the seven other testers before you quit before actually testing anything." Anders said cheerfully.

"Wait, why didn't any of the other guys go through with it?"

"Oh." Anders stopped typing in commands onto one of the computer screens. "He didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what?" Moores asked, hoping to get some answers.

"Please, Carter, understand this. We gave unrestricted game writing to the single most competent man we could find. His programming is flawless, much better than I could strive to create." Anders said, trying to soften the coming blow. "But the one single flaw in this game is not the software or hardware. Its the concept of the game itself. A concept that the gamers before you wanted nothing to do with."

"What's the concept?" Moores asked, afraid of what the answer could be.

"My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic." Anderson said, visibly anxious to see Moores reaction as well as embarrassed to say those words..

"...Seriously?" Moores cocked an eyebrow, stifling a laugh. "Is that really it?"

"Yes. You mean you're not..." Anders said with a growing look of relief.

"Dude, I've tested children's games before." Moores smirked. He knew about the brony fandom all to well, and though he didn't particularly want to have anything to do with it or the show, he wasn't going to let it bother him. "Sure, it sucks that it has to be colorful ponies and stuff, but come on. This is thirty grand to test out one of the coolest experiences of gaming. I couldn't care less at this point."

"Yes!" Anders said, fist pumping silently while Moores stared at one of the diagnostic screens. "After so long, my work will finally be used!"

"So what's next, Oscar?" Moores said, now happy with the knowledge of his string of luck.

"The NIT requires these sensors to be placed around your arms and legs." Anders said, picking up a small square item with a hole through it. "After that, it's simply a matter of placing bio monitors across your body so that we can record the process."

"Go for it."

After the surprisingly short process of applying the sensors to his arms and legs, Anders went back to his control area.

"Now, I need you to relax. The NIT is going to test your nervous system and calibrate to it." Anders said. "You should only feel a slight tingling in your arms and legs for a moment."

Anders pressed a button and, true to his word, Moores appendages gave a slight jerk to the almost ticklish shock from the NIT.

"Good! Calibration complete." Anders said happily. "Now for the last part before I put you under, Carter. You need to create your character. The NIT will compensate for the physical difference between you and the equine character."

"I hate this part." Moores grumbled, remebering all the other MMOs and RPGs where he had a seemingly limitless amount of options to choose from, but not enough patience for them all. "Is there a 'randomize' feature, Oscar?"

"There is, but-"

"Just do that."

"But you really should-"

"Oscar. Click the stupid option."

"But you might-"

"Click the darned thing!"

"Fine!" Anders conceded. "I'm powering up the NIT to full power. You should fall asleep instantly after that. We'll be in touch throughout the game, so just listen for my melodious voice."

"Gotcha." Carter said.

"Have a nice trip." Anders said as he pressed ENTER on his keyboard.

Moores eyes went black, leaving him with only the feeling of falling upwards. His vision was then filled with white light, only to break back to dark. He felt a full force slam on his back before he finally blacked out.