Reading a story from Cubey Terra a few days ago inspired me to write a short story based on the FIRST_GRID. Original artwork by yours truly 
Grabbing the first coffee tab of the day, Zexxa pulled up her datascreen to scan her mail. A reminder for her monthly rejuv made her curse under her breath. No spare credits for that again this month. At this rate, she will look like the oldbie she really is. Scanning through the usual mail garbage, one screaming header caught her eye.
‘FIRST_GRID vacation implant, relive your youth!’
“How did this get through the spam net?
Haven’t seen a spam mail in years.”
Curious to see how the sender circumvented the complex security algorhythms of the global spam net, she clicked it open.
‘Experience the FIRST_GRID via the Lifecycle Module Implant.
Free limited trial option available.’
Options:
- Lifecycle Module Implant Pro 50,000 $CR
- Lifecycle Module Implant Basic 5,000 $CR
- Lifecycle Module Implant Demo 0 $CR (special available only October 31st)
Below the demo option, a 3D object emitted pulsing hover text ‘WEAR ME FOR FREE TRIAL’.
Crunching on another coffee tab, Zexxa scrolled down her calendar, and saw lots of blank space. Not much going on in her life, with credit balance in the red.
“Hell, why not,” she muttered under her breath.
“Nothing doing here anyway.”
Right clicking on the demo, she chose WEAR, wondering if the implant was subcutaneous. A sudden coolness touched her skin, and her datascreen went dim, and then black.
————–’lifecycle_demo_log_day1′————–
“Skipping, skipping and doing handstands.”
Zexxa’s subconscious put ancient words into the speech node of her brain module.
Raising her left hand, she touched her chest, finding a cool, heavy crystal of some sort on a chain around her neck. Trying to tugg it off, she encountered resistance.
“WTF?” The crystal seemed to be partially imbedded in her chest. Looking down, she could see that it glowed a bright, shiny yellow.
“Hey, wanna play with us?” A boy’s voice interrupted her struggle to remove the thing.
Looking around, her brain module went fuzzy, while trying to recover ancient terms to tell her what her eye attachments were telling her.
“Playground, grass, trees, flowers, sand, butterflies .. ”
Zaxxa’s subconscious flooded her with words that she only scanned about in ancient history ebooks.
The boy tugged at the hand, pulling her toward the structures. Skipping along with him, she saw others like her, children. Her last thought before surrendering
to the joy of the playground was “I am a child again!”.
————–’lifecycle_demo_log_day2′————–
A phone jangled somewhere close to her ear. Still groggy with sleep, she groped for the ancient iPhone, thumbing it on.
“Babes, you up yet?”
“We are going surfing today, remember? Get your stuff together, and meet us at Bishara.”
Full of energy, Zexxa bounced out of bed and into the old_style fresher. Looking in the mirror in confusion, instead of seeing yesterday’s 6-year old child’s body, she
saw the shape of a teen. Raising her hands to the crystal around her neck, she saw that it sparkled a bright pink. It seemed to be embedded a bit deeper into her chest.
Hearing the ping of a TP offer, she poked her inventory for a surfboard and bikini, deciding to think about the mystery of her memory gap later.
“Awesome! Epics are rolling in!” She pushed off from the shore, paddling hard to catch up with the others. The day flew by in the heat of a summer day. It seemed so short.
————–’lifecycle_demo_log_day3′————–
Admiring the length of her leg and the mega-high heel of her strappy shoe, Zexxa pranced in front of the full length mirror.
“Gotta go clubbing again tonight, that so rocked”, she thought as she poked through her Lingerie folder for something super sexy to wear.
“Maybe something violet, to go with the colour of the crystal .. “. As she voiced the thought alound, she felt the crystal vibrating with life and energy, beating louder than her heart.
“I must take it easy on the mood enhancers tonight, I seem to be missing chunks of time,” she thought to herself.
It seemed only a few days ago, that she was a child playing at a playground. And wasn’t it just yesterday her teenage boyfriend won the surf comp at Bishara?
“I must be going crazy,” she said outloud, “your life doesn’t just flash before your very eyes”. Turning toward the mirror again, she admired her sex kitten outfit,
thinking about all the guys that would be drooling over her at the club.
Getting into her brand new Lindman Industries Aircar, she decided to take the long way to the club. Arriving in Zindra, her name in flashing lights above the club entrance reminded her that
she was the main strip act for the first time tonight. She pulled her emote HUD out of her inv and put it on, activating her pole dance sequence as she sexy-walked inside the dark club.
Embraced by flood lights, her name on the lips of everyone present, she danced the night, and her life away.
————–’lifecycle_demo_log_day4′————–
Lying in bed, feeling tired and depressed, Zexxa kept trying to remember what it was that she was to do today.
Sitting on the side of the bed, she realized she still had on her clothes from last night. She could not remember getting home at all.
Slipping her feet into her Sabo_birks, she poked the coffee maker for a hit of java. Looking in the mirror, she saw huge bags under
her eyes, her skin all flaky and spotted. Getting on the scale, she groaned out loud.
“This is totally not what I had in mind when I demo’d this FIRST_GRID vacation,” she thought as she tried to remove the crystal implant.
The implant was embedded deeply in her chest, and was a muted dark green colour. There did not seem to be a way to remove it.
Zexxa yanked repeatedly on the gold chain, trying to break it, getting weaker and weaker.
“If I could only rez my heads-up datascreen, and get back home before this goes any further,” was her last thought as she slid to the floor of her skybox in a faint.
————–’lifecycle_demo_log_day5′————–
The rays of the afternoon sun glinted on the glass of water that held Zexxa’s false teeth. Strands of brittle gray hair covered the pillow, and fanned
across one withered, sunken cheek. Faded blue eyes fluttered open as Zexxa struggled to raise herself in bed, groping for her hand mirror.
With a shaking hand, she held it up and gasped in fear when she saw herself.The face of a very old woman looked back at her, and the crystal was all black!
Scrabbling feebly at the chain, she tried to jerk it off, but the necklace was deeply embedded in her flesh. Weeping and moaning, she struggled in wain trying to remove the implant, wishing
that she could bring the demo to an end.
With her last living breath, she screamed “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! This can’t be all there is?
————–’lifecycle_demo_log_day6′————–
As Zexxa’s body lay in her coffin, the greyed out crystal emitted hover text:
TO EXPERIENCE YOUR FIRST_GRID Vacation Implant and relive your life, choose one the following upgrade options before the object times out.
Choice #4 must be selected and paid before end of Lifecycle day 5.
1. Lifecycle Module Implant Pro 50,000 $CR
2. Lifecycle Module Implant Basic 5,000 $CR
3. Lifecycle Module Implant Demo NO LONGER AVAILABLE
4. Rejuvenate via new Alt 1,000,000 US Dollars
————–’lifecycle_demo_log_day7′————–
On day 7, the goddess Linda, the earth mother of the FIRST_GRID rested. Besides, it was outside business hours anyway.
