Dimensional Observer

Michael Retsina

Description

Michael Morrow was working on his laptop when he found that he had downloaded the program Dimensional Observer. What does he find out about it?

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse UK
• Date de parution: 17 décembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781728382166
• Langue: English

Extrait

DIMENSIONAL OBSERVER
 
 
 
 
 
 
MICHAEL RETSINA
 
 
 
 

 
AuthorHouse™ UK
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Bloomington, IN 47403  USA
www.authorhouse.co.uk
Phone: UK TFN: 0800 0148641 (Toll Free inside the UK)
UK Local: (02) 0369 56322 ([phone] from outside the UK)
 
 
 
 
 
© 2019 Michael Retsina. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse  10/24/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-7283-8217-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-7283-8216-6 (e)
 
 
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
Chapter 1       Discovering the Game Functions
Chapter 2       Contacting Himself
Chapter 3       Office Christmas Dinner
Chapter 4       Office Christmas Disco
Chapter 5       Surfing DO
Chapter 6       Mystery of the Inverse Universe
Chapter 7       Observing Susan
Chapter 8       Christmas Eve
Chapter 9       Christmas Day
Chapter 10     Boxing Day
Chapter 11     Between Christmas and the New Year
Chapter 12     The £10 Note
Chapter 13     DO Expired
Chapter 14     Saint Valentine’s Day
Chapter 15     Sophie’s Story
Chapter 16     A Game of Pitch and Putt
Chapter 17     April Fool’s Day
Chapter 18     Paul’s Birthday Party at the Pub
Chapter 19     Paul’s Birthday Party at the Nightclub
Chapter 20     Flushing Her Out
Chapter 21     Susan’s Story: The First Day
Chapter 22     Susan’s First Week at Maureen’s
Chapter 23     A Meal at Susan’s
Chapter 24     Susan and the DO Program
1

DISCOVERING THE GAME FUNCTIONS

M ichael Morrow logged onto his laptop at work to process the monthly salaries. He was slim at five foot seven, and almost thirty years old. He had dark-brown hair, and his eyes were hazel-blue-green. He wore glasses, and was dressed in a plain, long-sleeved blue shirt with a maroon patterned tie, and dark-grey trousers with black shoes. After submitting the salaries to HM Revenue and Customs, he did some internet shopping to buy company office supplies. And while he was doing that, a pop-up suddenly appeared on his laptop screen, offering him a further free download—software called Dimensional Observer. He thought, How had I downloaded this? It must be some kind of a glitch! He was naturally sceptical because of the many other pop-ups he had encountered, such as sponsored ads and programs that redirected him to somewhere he didn’t want to be when he was in the middle of doing something else. So he closed the tab, not really thinking too much about it. He just wanted to finish his shopping. After that, he switched off the broadband and logged off the internet to do more routine daily bookkeeping work.
Just then, he heard Melanie Ward ask Sarah Morrison a few questions in the room next door to his. She was having a problem with her computer, and Sarah, who was quite knowledgeable and had the deeper voice, helped her out. He knew them only by sight since they worked in different departments. Melanie, who was quite slim and about his height, had dark-brown hair, turquoise-hazel eyes, and wore a bit of make-up. She had only just started work yesterday. Sarah, who had been there only for a week, was about five foot five, slim, and quite busty, with ginger hair and brown eyes. For his taste, though, she wore too much dark-blue eyeshadow and red lipstick. When he saw them, they were both dressed in the standard women’s work uniform; being a plain, long-sleeve white blouse with dark-blue trousers and black shoes.
Later that day, he thought back to that game pop-up, especially to the word dimension in its title. He’d thought a lot about the possibilities of alternative universes alongside our own, and that made him wonder what sort of game it might be. Would it be another virtual reality game based on the film The Matrix or something similar? He thought of other films he’d seen, such as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. That one was about a laterally-inverted world or mirror-image version of our world. Then Michael remembered an episode of Star Trek in which time moved at a different rate. He thought that all these conditions were hypothetically possible in a different kind of universe.
That evening at his flat, he logged on to his laptop with the broadband turned off for security reasons. He saw the Dimensional Observer—DO—icon on his main screen, and he wondered how it had suddenly got there. It was delta shaped—a triangle. There was a white circle in the middle filled with the three primary colours—blue at the top, red on the bottom left, and green on the bottom right. The words, Dimensional Observer were written underneath the circle. This made him feel sceptical again. Why is it there? Is it some sort of computer adware or spyware security threat? He then decided, Oh, it can’t be. It’s just a new game release. They’re constantly offering new and up-and-coming computer games. I’m not online now, so I’ll open it and see how good it looks. When he did, all it said was, “This is a safe program available for download on your computer. Please at least try it out.” Right out loud, he said, “Not on your nelly! What is this other than an unknown program? It could be a Trojan or something.” So he closed the tab, put aside his computer, and did some reading.
After a while, though, he just couldn’t stop thinking about this game. Michael decided to sleep on it at least.
The following evening, Michael logged on and downloaded the game from the internet, which took just over five minutes. He noticed a list of options but couldn’t understand how they could relate to a game. They were: Random, Origin, Inverse, and Time Speed. He decided to select Random to see what sort of game it would be. After a couple of minutes of loading time, a picture of what appeared to be a scene in the middle of outer space came on the screen. A list of certain facts was on the left side of the picture, which stated that the direction he was looking in was 121 degrees, and the temperature was very cold at -271 degrees Celsius, just two degrees over absolute zero. He thought, This is a very funny game. There are no directions on how to play it. What am I supposed to do next? What keys am I supposed to use, when a load of spaceships suddenly turn up that I have to destroy? How can I progress to the next level?
He watched and waited for well over five minutes, wondering whether it was one of those games in which the start was purposely delayed so the player would be caught off guard and defeated. Stars were the only things on the screen; it looked just like a night sky except the stars were a lot brighter. It was as if he was actually seeing them in space without any background sound or light. No, this can’t be real. I can’t possibly be seeing an actual scene in the middle of outer space. No, it has to be a very realistic virtual reality of some kind, especially since the temperature looks reasonable because there is no sign of a sun anywhere.
Michael touched the pad on his computer to see what would happen. Nothing. He moved his computer slightly in a clockwise direction, and the picture moved likewise. More stars to the right of the screen suddenly came into view, and the ones on the left disappeared off the screen. He looked at the angle, which now read 129 degrees. Now this is getting really interesting . He was able to realistically alter the angle for just a game. He then thought about the direction his computer was facing and worked out that he was facing roughly north-west, so that meant the webcam was facing about south-east, making the 129 degrees just about correct for where it was filming. What is all this? It seems to have a realistic built-in compass and could even be giving an accurate temperature reading.
He slowly continued to move the picture to the right and saw constellations he’d never seen before. He moved it around until he went through a complete revolution. Michael wondered what was above and below him, so he tilted his computer slightly away from him, and the picture moved upwards. He moved his computer so his webcam could appear to show the sky above and then below, which it seemed to do. There was no sign of any sun, planets, moons, or anything else floating around, except for distant stars. What sort of game is this? It can’t really be an alternative dimension or universe, unless I’m dreaming. This has to be nothing more than just a well-designed, realistic, and elaborate con.
Michael selected another random dimension, and after it downloaded in a couple of minutes, a similar picture appeared on his screen. He looked all around the scene again. He noticed that the constellations were different this time, but still stars he’d never seen before. Again, there was no sound, which was at least consistent with space as a vacuum. He thought, Well, I’m getting nowhere with this. I wonder whether this download and everything could adversely affect my computer. Perhaps that’s why this game, assuming it is one, is not working properly . So he closed the program and checked to see if any of his files or documents had been compromised. There was no sign of anythin