08-30-2018, 02:44 AM
Yesterday’s test of the GP45 had gone very well for the young racer. She’d put in times exactly in line with what the engineers requested and for the final five laps they’d told her to open it up a little. She ended up four tenths of a second off race pace. There’d been more in the tank too, so to speak, but Nika was not about to destroy a multi-million dollar machine unless a podium was on the line. Her job was simply to find the optimal set up; find the speed. She was very good at her job. The tyres felt good, suspension was dialed in for Alex’s weight, not hers, and they’d managed to put in three different base settings for the electronics package. A good day.
While her full-time ride in MotoGT was on a completely different bike; the commercially-available Ducati Panigale Hayden Speciale 1100 tuned for racing versus the one off purpose-built racing machines of MotoGP, she had been serving as Alex Castori’s test rider for three years now. On his MotoGP bikes. MotoGT was an insane mix of track and street courses whereas MotoGP ran strictly on the premier race tracks of the world. That’s why there was training though and no one trained harder than Nika. Maybe that’s why she’d won every series she’d ever contested and why she was set to defend her second MotoGT title this coming season. No one had ever won it twice, let alone three times which was the way her own fans thought saw it. A rival fan’s incursion onto the race course had ended that year’s title run though. Such was racing life.
After the Ducati test she’d relaxed in her condo until the Atherim had called. That had turned into a late night. A restless night.
Nika’d allowed herself more time in the morning to reset her mental game. Her alarm went off at 7, scant hours after she’d poured herself into bed following last night’s emotional rollercoaster. All that work only to find a murdered murderess and a mystery that really wasn’t hers to solve. Not her area of expertise. The Atherim had people for that, she was certain, but she was not it.
The assassin slept clothed but didn’t have a specific memory of dressing for bed; light pajama pants and a matching button up shirt because Nika didn’t use sheets. Or blankets. Nothing on top of her, she couldn’t stand it. Your past never truly went away.
Bare feet negotiated the stairs of her lofted bed. She preferred a morning shower and lingered longer than necessary. Her palms splayed on the tile and braced her body as the hot water ran downward. Cleansing. She told herself the water took the bad dreams away...washed her clean for a new start because dwelling on the past distracted from the now.
It was a work in progress.
Nika toweled off post-shower and then took her morning coffee and breakfast wearing nothing but a pair of micromodal trunks as she reviewed her schedule.
While she’d inherited her top floor condo from her parents; the level below had been her own acquisition. Half that floor served as a garage for her toys and the other half, well, that was accessible only through her flat. Via secure stairwell. Cleverly hidden. Because Nika watched too many spy movies from before she was born.
Virtual Reality had taken off in the ‘20s. For a time, an unstoppable momentum of funding and developmental resources flooded the industry. Significant advances were made in medicine; interest in education saw a revival as well. Users could visit any place, any time...literally do or experience anything at all that could be imagined and programmed. It was utterly amazing in every sense of the word. Systems became so refined, so perfect, that VR was indistinguishable from reality (with the proper accessories)...and those were the civilian models. The gaming and entertainment industries exploded. Movies and games were remastered and truly participatory. You could go for your morning run across the surface of the moon, lip sync onstage to sold out mega concerts, play Madden 365 as a sparkling vampire or be the shark in JAWS. Limitless...
The problems started small; malnutrition, dehydration, truancy from work or school but snowballed at an alarming rate. What quickly became a worldwide public health crisis reached its pinnacle at a tragic mass suicide event involving over 63,000 people in an online role-playing cult called ‘AugWorld.’
Change, for once, came swiftly. Despite the money involved, the VR industry enacted fast and real solutions. Prompts and permanent warning popups were required in-game or in-movie; by default a pink and red ribbon but later customizable per user preference. Animated VPets were particularly popular. Resolutions were dialed down, time limits and cool-off breaks were hardwired in. Interest waned a little, then a lot more as generations frequently don’t pursue the same hobbies. Still, all movies have the VR Mode (now called WorldMode) along with 4D, Birds-Eye, Standard and Widescreen formats. Cinematography is truly an art form now, especially for easter eggers.
Nika’s model was, naturally, lacking all default safeties. She’d liberated it from the American military machine -through backwater channels- as one of her hobbies seemed to be acquiring military tech and weapons for personal use.
As it was markedly less expensive to train troops via VR/WM/AR, that industry still was booming. The well-off countries had been training this way since all the way back in the 1980s, although it was crap then. Her model, while not the latest and greatest (even she couldn’t have gotten away with stealing that broken or not), was more than adequate for her needs.
Training. Relentless, purposeful training. It was one of the secrets behind her mastery of both creed and Higher purpose.
While her full-time ride in MotoGT was on a completely different bike; the commercially-available Ducati Panigale Hayden Speciale 1100 tuned for racing versus the one off purpose-built racing machines of MotoGP, she had been serving as Alex Castori’s test rider for three years now. On his MotoGP bikes. MotoGT was an insane mix of track and street courses whereas MotoGP ran strictly on the premier race tracks of the world. That’s why there was training though and no one trained harder than Nika. Maybe that’s why she’d won every series she’d ever contested and why she was set to defend her second MotoGT title this coming season. No one had ever won it twice, let alone three times which was the way her own fans thought saw it. A rival fan’s incursion onto the race course had ended that year’s title run though. Such was racing life.
After the Ducati test she’d relaxed in her condo until the Atherim had called. That had turned into a late night. A restless night.
Nika’d allowed herself more time in the morning to reset her mental game. Her alarm went off at 7, scant hours after she’d poured herself into bed following last night’s emotional rollercoaster. All that work only to find a murdered murderess and a mystery that really wasn’t hers to solve. Not her area of expertise. The Atherim had people for that, she was certain, but she was not it.
The assassin slept clothed but didn’t have a specific memory of dressing for bed; light pajama pants and a matching button up shirt because Nika didn’t use sheets. Or blankets. Nothing on top of her, she couldn’t stand it. Your past never truly went away.
Bare feet negotiated the stairs of her lofted bed. She preferred a morning shower and lingered longer than necessary. Her palms splayed on the tile and braced her body as the hot water ran downward. Cleansing. She told herself the water took the bad dreams away...washed her clean for a new start because dwelling on the past distracted from the now.
It was a work in progress.
Nika toweled off post-shower and then took her morning coffee and breakfast wearing nothing but a pair of micromodal trunks as she reviewed her schedule.
While she’d inherited her top floor condo from her parents; the level below had been her own acquisition. Half that floor served as a garage for her toys and the other half, well, that was accessible only through her flat. Via secure stairwell. Cleverly hidden. Because Nika watched too many spy movies from before she was born.
Virtual Reality had taken off in the ‘20s. For a time, an unstoppable momentum of funding and developmental resources flooded the industry. Significant advances were made in medicine; interest in education saw a revival as well. Users could visit any place, any time...literally do or experience anything at all that could be imagined and programmed. It was utterly amazing in every sense of the word. Systems became so refined, so perfect, that VR was indistinguishable from reality (with the proper accessories)...and those were the civilian models. The gaming and entertainment industries exploded. Movies and games were remastered and truly participatory. You could go for your morning run across the surface of the moon, lip sync onstage to sold out mega concerts, play Madden 365 as a sparkling vampire or be the shark in JAWS. Limitless...
The problems started small; malnutrition, dehydration, truancy from work or school but snowballed at an alarming rate. What quickly became a worldwide public health crisis reached its pinnacle at a tragic mass suicide event involving over 63,000 people in an online role-playing cult called ‘AugWorld.’
Change, for once, came swiftly. Despite the money involved, the VR industry enacted fast and real solutions. Prompts and permanent warning popups were required in-game or in-movie; by default a pink and red ribbon but later customizable per user preference. Animated VPets were particularly popular. Resolutions were dialed down, time limits and cool-off breaks were hardwired in. Interest waned a little, then a lot more as generations frequently don’t pursue the same hobbies. Still, all movies have the VR Mode (now called WorldMode) along with 4D, Birds-Eye, Standard and Widescreen formats. Cinematography is truly an art form now, especially for easter eggers.
Nika’s model was, naturally, lacking all default safeties. She’d liberated it from the American military machine -through backwater channels- as one of her hobbies seemed to be acquiring military tech and weapons for personal use.
As it was markedly less expensive to train troops via VR/WM/AR, that industry still was booming. The well-off countries had been training this way since all the way back in the 1980s, although it was crap then. Her model, while not the latest and greatest (even she couldn’t have gotten away with stealing that broken or not), was more than adequate for her needs.
Training. Relentless, purposeful training. It was one of the secrets behind her mastery of both creed and Higher purpose.