“I suspect not,” VISAR answered.
“So, what can you do, VISAR? I want to know what this system is capable of.”
“I can take you anywhere you want to go. Anywhere among thousands of Thurien worlds, natural and artificial, scattered across tens of light—years.”
“How about Thunen itself, then?”
This time there were no preliminary sensory disturbances. Gina found herself at the edge of a terraced water garden near the summit of an enormous tower. The view below was of a cascade of levels and ramparts, falling away and unfolding for what must have been miles to blend with a mind-defying fusion of structures stretching to the fringe of a distant ocean. There were numerous figures around her, all Ganymean, walking and talking, others sitting around and doing nothing. She felt a faint breeze, and she could smell the blossoms by the pools and waterfalls. There were flying machines in the sky.
“Vranix,” VISAR informed her. “One of Thuriens older cities.”
The sudden transition made Gina feel dwarfed by the scale of everything. It took her a few seconds to adjust. “This is the way it actually is, right now?” she said. “These people are really there?”
“They are,” VISAR confirmed. “But since they’re not neurally coupled into the system, you can’t interact with them. You’re simply perceiving what actually is. This is called Actual Mode.”
“What else is there?”
“Interactive Mode. You’re in the same setting, but superposed on your perception of it are visual representations of other users physically in couplers located elsewhere. The images are activated by voluntary signals picked up from the speech and motor centers of their brains, so they act as they would choose to. The converse is just as true, of course; i.e., they see you in the same way. Hence the illusion of actually being there and interacting is total. It’s the usual way of setting up social and business meetings.”
“Switch to that, then,” Gina said.
The scenery stayed the same, but the distribution of figures
changed. Most vanished, and others appeared where none had been before The overall number seemed to be fewer.
“Those other people that I saw a moment ago, they’re still there really?” Gina asked.
“They are. I’ve simply edited them out of the datastream into your visual cortex.”
“So who are these people that I’m seeing now? Where are they?”
“Here, there, in different places. They’re simply people who happen to have chosen this venue at the moment, for whatever their purpose is.”
The flying machines were still there, Gina noticed. She wondered how VISAR decided the boundary between edited foreground and authentic background.
Then a Ganymean couple who had been sitting on a nearby seat got up and approached. “I hope we’re not being presumptuous, but we’ve never seen a Terran this closely before,” the male said.
Gina noticed that several of the other figures were looking across at them discreetly, and trying not to make it too obvious. “No
that’s fine,” Gina replied falteringly.
“Permit us to introduce ourselves. My name is Morgo Yishal. This is my daughter, Jasene. We like to meet here from time to time. Our family lived in Vranix when Jasene was young. This was one of her favorite places.”
“Where are you now—if it’s not a rude question?” Gina asked, still off-balance from the strangeness of it all.
“Oh, I’m teaching on the other side of Thurien now,” the man replied.
“I’m on a vessel that’s orbiting a world nearer to Earth than Thurien,” Jasene said. “Maybe I could show you it sometime. It’s quite an interesting place. And you?”
“Me? Oh, on one of your starships, traveling from Earth to Jevlen.”
“What brings you to Vranix?” Morgo inquired. “Seeing a Terran alone like this is most unusual.”
“Nothing special. I’m just experimenting with the system, really.”
“Of course, I can superpose Actual and Interactive modes,” VISAR’s voice interjected. The figures that had been present initially reappeared, mixing the “real” ones with VISAR’s virtual creations, and in moments Gina had lost track of which were which.
“Er, would you excuse me?” Gina stammered to the two Ganymeans. “I need time to absorb this. I’m still getting used to it.”
“But of course,” the man answered.