1 Hospice

*****Author's Note****

Although Disconnected is an Exodus story, I wrote it as a stand-alone project. You can read this without ever opening TAP or Guns and Gore.

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Stage four terminal cancer in 2130 is the same as it was at any time in history. Unless you have the money or a miracle handy, the end is near. Darwen Kennon stared at his Aunt. She had taken him in when his parents had died. It should be noted that this act of overwhelming generosity consisted of selling her own home and moving into the Kennon's six-bedroom Victorian home in lower Manhattan.

Darwen had enjoyed hang gliding and was a decent guitar player, but the same car accident that claimed his parents also took his right hand. The cancer was found while he was recovering in the hospital. Muri Tyler was his mom's older sister; she waited until the doctor left before sitting down.

"Darwen..." She glanced at the door to make sure no one was close by. "I think it might be time for you to stop fighting this."

The rail-thin, twenty-year-old who had spent five years battling cancer, stared at his aunt in disbelief. "Stop fighting? Aren't there more treatments we can try?"

Muri sighed heavily, "I'd have to sell some of the stocks your parents left me to pay for more treatments."

"The stocks my parents left me, you mean!" Darwen's face was expressionless; he was too tired to frown. Instead, he rubbed the stump of his right hand over his bald head.

"Technically, you signed them over to me when you signed the Power of Attorney." The middle-aged woman lay a thin hand on his shoulder. "We are family. I'm going to need that money to live on after you are gone."

A dull throbbing pain filled his ears; this is my life, he thought. "Push the table over here before you leave; I want to use the Heads up Display (HUD)."

Muri nodded, "relax and let it happen, Darwen. You are going to a better place." She pushed the wheeled table over to the bed.

"What if it's worse?" Darwen watched her leave and then activated the Hud. "Looks like Exodus is in the news again."

WNN Report

Today former U.S. President Mitch Yonder became the 77th person to undergo the consciousness transfer technique. The procedure was developed by HYLO corporation while using Live Test subjects as guinea pigs. After HYLO shut down, Orion Media took over the technology, streamlining the process while setting stringent guidelines. As a result, the procedure is mostly for the wealthy; the common person has almost no chance to take part.

"Bastards... I don't want to die. I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" He shoved the table away from him, sending it crashing into the wall.

A few minutes later, a nurse came in, "you are being moved, Darwen."

Darwen lay back on his pillow, "sounds good; I'm tired of this room." They moved him every few weeks. "Back to the third floor?"

"Not this time, fourth floor." The nurse helped him get into the wheelchair that she had brought in. She wheeled him into the hallway and paused next to the elevator. "Be right back, Darwen; I forgot your paperwork." She walked down the hall toward the nurse's station.

The elevator dinged and opened a moment later. An older man wearing a brown suit and carrying an old briefcase held the door. "Going down, young man?"

Darwen shook his head, "the fourth floor, actually."

The older man stared at him for a moment and then stepped out of the elevator. "That's the hospice floor."

Darwen felt a chill run down his back... no more treatments.

The older man looked down the hall toward the nurse's station and then abruptly moved behind Darwen and started wheeling him down a side hall.

"Hey... What are you doing?" Darwen reached down to try and grab the wheel with his hand; he was frail nowadays, the wheelchair barely slowed.

The older man pushed him into an empty room and closed the door behind them. He stepped away from Darwen. "Don't be alarmed; I have an offer to make you."

Darwen stared at the old man, "go ahead, but if it is something crazy, I still have enough left to kick your old ass."

The older man laughed as he sat on the bed. "Have you heard of Gaia?"

Darwen nodded, "yes, a lame name for an even lamer game."

He thought back to what he remembered; it had been five years ago. Gaia had been a virtual world. A massive undertaking that cost billions of dollars. It was to be the next big VRMMO, like Guns & Gore or even TAP. The world was breathtakingly beautiful, the attention to detail while world-building was showcased in every preview video made public. Tens of millions of people joined the first day with high hopes.

Unfortunately, it was over inside of a month. The inhabitants of the world were all hybrid-animals, part man and part beast. That wouldn't be bad in itself, but they looked like stuffed children's toys. The game was the brainchild of Michael Bentz, a genius developer and noted collector of stuffed animals. It was so bad that Exodus disconnected it from their platform, relegating it to virtual wasteland forever. The gaming world had laughed long and hard over Gaia. Five years later, it was still a punchline in many jokes.

"Michael Bentz was my grandson; he killed himself eighteen months after it was released." The older man's eyes were shiny; Darwen could tell that this man had loved his grandson.

"I'm sorry, sir, I meant no disrespect." Darwen knew that no one would feel this way when he died.

"The world is still developing and evolving. I've put aside a vast amount of capital to ensure that it never shuts down." The old man looked at Darwen shrewdly, "you don't want to die."

"No... I don't want to die."

"Then listen to my offer. This is a one-time deal. I will have your consciousness transferred to Gaia." The older man stopped after the sentence, glancing at the young man for his reaction.

"Are there any users playing?" As Darwen understood it, it was no longer a playable game.

The older man shook his head. "No, only the LAIs that were developed as NPCs."

Darwen knew the term; TAP used something similar. It stood for Low Artificial Intelligence. It meant that each LAI had a similar capacity for intelligence as a normal person. Some would be smart, some funny, others mean or nice. It had revolutionized the Virtual World and caused the LAI virtual rights movement. The world had recognized the rights of LAIs.

"I accept." Darwen didn't hesitate; he was heading to hospice. That was code for, keep you medicated until you die. A world full of teddy bears might have sucked ass, but it was a step up from the deep, dark abyss.

********

The older man's name was Karl Bentz, and he was ridiculously wealthy. He paid off Darwen's Aunt, who happily never came to see him again. A few days later, a private ambulance picked Darwen up and drove him to a facility in upstate New York.

"Keep in mind; my grandson made sweeping changes in an attempt to improve the visuals. He also removed much of the gameplay element so that the world would evolve properly."

Darwen was lying comfortably on a hospital bed; all sorts of unidentified electrodes were hooked up to him. "What does that mean?"

"For starters, the time has been accelerated. Since everything in a Virtual World is math-based, speeding up or slowing down progress is easily done. Michael mentioned that he adjusted it to ten thousand scales."

"Meaning that in the last five years of real-time, 50 thousand years of evolution has occurred in Gaia?"

Karl nodded at him. "Yes, my Techie will slow it down to real-time divided by four."

"So standard Exodus time, a day in Gaia would equal six hours in the real world." Darwen had always wanted to play TAP; his parents had promised him an account when he was a bit older. Unfortunately, that day had never come.

"Also, the streaming element still works; there is a dedicated server that will stream the videos. But let's not kid ourselves; no one cares about Gaia." The older man looked at his team of doctors; they were all giving him the thumbs up.

"I'll figure it out as I go. Any chance of others joining me?" Darwen wasn't about to back down; in the three weeks, since the offer had been made, his health had been steadily deteriorating.

"No, the Virtual Storage is locked away underground in the middle of two thousand acres of forest land that I donated to the Federal government. It's run entirely on geothermal power and completely self-sufficient. I've made sure that no one will ever disturb you."

"Okay, Sir..." Darwen closed his eyes and steeled his nerves. "Ready."

"Best of luck to you, young man. We will start the transfer after you finish the Character generation screen." Mike signaled his team to get ready.

**********

System Processing...

Welcome to the Character Generation screen.

Your real body has been scanned; this is the preferred model. However,

you are authorized to make certain changes.

Character Name: Darwen Kennon...Keep this name?

"Do I need a last name? Let's go with my nickname, from when I used to have friends. Kenzo."

The character is now designated as Kenzo.

Weight: 106 lbs..... Body Fat 2 percent... Keep these values?

"Hell no, that's post-chemo weight. Let's go with 175 lbs and 7 percent body fat."

Anomaly discovered, your right hand is missing. Do you wish to replace it?

"Yes, a hand would be nice, thank you."

All Changes are within acceptable parameters.

Height 5'11" Hair Color... N/A Hair Length: Bald Eyes: Green..... Keep these values?

"No way, 6ft tall, it sucked being just a bit under. Hair Color is black, start with closely shaved." According to Karl, his hair would actually grow.

Would you please choose three skills, two abilities, and a Profession?

Skills: Throwing

Abilities: Silver tongue

Profession: Engineer

"Throwing, Silver tongue and Engineer? Is this bullshit? Where the hell are the rest of my choices? The hell am I going to do as an engineer?"

All choices have been completed. Please Stand By.

"Hey, I haven't made any choices yet!"

*********

Roxanne O'Brien was monitoring the Character Generation Screen; she was Karl's Techie. She frowned slightly at the character screen; the developer removed many of the game elements. Nevertheless, she gave Karl the thumbs up. "He's all done, Mr. Bentz."

"Thanks, Roxy," he looked at his team. "Do it."

LAUNCHING IN 3....2....1...