Teaser

Logan noticed something on the floor, several feet in front of him. It lifted off the ground. A holographic image flickered for a moment and then appeared above the spinning disk. It was a holocom device.
The figure stood almost eight feet tall. He was dressed in a long blue cloak that was pulled up over his head. Logan strained to get a good look at his face. His skin was almost luminescent with dark blue eyes set beneath the white hair of his brow. Logan felt transparent as the figure looked down at him.
“I am known as the Conductor,” he said. “I apologize for communicating through the Connex but I assure this conversation is private.”
“I understand that you lead the Wavers,” said Logan. “I don’t understand what you people do or if you can even help me, but I’m running out of options.”
“Let me enlighten you. The Connex infrastructure is an interactive digital world that exists along side our current physical reality. It was created as the new era to replace the current Internet system. Rather than looking at displays on a screen and typing upon rudimentary keyboard you are allowed to walk through the information. Their digital proxy within that world represents them. If you want to talk to a banker, you walk through the virtual representation of the bank within the Connex and talk to him. Yet, the system runs much deeper than it shows on the surface.”
“I’m not sure I follow what you’re saying. You are saying that when you plug into the Connex, or even at a virtual console, you can walk through a world that doesn’t exist?”
“My physical body is in another room at another place. It is suspended to provide the physical mind a release from the distractions of the world you now live in. What you see now when you look at me is a hologram. This holocom is able to project my representation through the Connex as though I were standing in the room. I see what you see as though I am here, but I am free from the physical constraints. I don’t feel the cold that makes you shiver. I don’t smell the things you smell.”