For a moment that felt like an eternity, the only thing Ryan could sense was the sound of his own breathing in the dark. An emotion akin to panic began to grow from somewhere deep in his reptilian brain. Before it could really overcome him, however, he heard a chime. That same sound he’d heard the day before when he’d first powered on the headset, along with the Sifting bootup sequence with the logos and sound effects that came along with it. His view of the room came back. An error message popped up in a window.

System Alert

Forced Unexpected Reboot
Thermal Overload Detected
Sending Status Report to Sifting Technologies Division

The window closed itself after he read it. Ryan tentatively reached up and touched the frames of the goggles, which were no longer burning hot. He pulled the headset off and set it on the cradle. He looked at his fingertips and saw a slight welt, so he headed to the bathroom to run cold water under it. Having a piece of technology strapped to his head that could get so hot it burned his flesh somehow seemed like one of the less intelligent ideas he could have had. Looking in the mirror he saw no signs of damage, so at least there was a layer protecting his face from whatever meltdown the processor seemed to have gone through.

It seemed time to get Derek involved. He had a knack for troubleshooting tech. Ryan saw the time and realized he should have already left, though he no longer felt comfortable keeping the goggles on his head. He needed a break from them. So, he slid them into a backpack, headed downstairs to make a sandwich, which he packaged and threw into another compartment of the backpack, along with an apple, and headed to the entryway closet to grab his jacket. He hesitated for a moment, hand over the doorknob, and then ran back up to his room to grab the orb off his desk.

Derek lived the next block over, but they’d all decided to meet at the park next this District’s version of a haunted compound, so he headed straight there. As he walked, he saw some trash float past him on a gust of wind and felt guilty that he wasn’t knocking out his daily task. He took a few more steps, sighed, and whipped his backpack around in front of him so he could extract the PerSpectives. He slid them on and saw the camouflage message pop up.

“I should bring a plastic bag with me when I leave the house, carrying refuse by hand is kind of nasty,” Ryan mused, as he picked up the piece of trash which had lodged itself inside a bush. “Helios are there any loose bags floating on the wind nearby?” he addressed his goggles.

Terrain scans show no indication of any plastic bags nearby.
Would you like to perform a continuous scan until one is located?

“That won’t cause you to overheat or anything, will it?”

PerSpectives v3.1 have enhanced heat sync and cooling technology that prevent the processor from exceeding thermal limits.

“I’m sure they do. Just, let me know if a bag or trash can pop up into view.”

Acknowledged.
There is a refuse receptacle approximately three meters from your location.

The PerSpective view highlighted a trashcan up the driveway of someone’s house. “I don’t know about that one, Helios. Putting something in a can that’s out on the street is one thing, but going onto someone’s property is different. Let me know if there’s anything in a public space.” The headset gave him a curt “Acknowledged” message and he continued on his way. It was only a matter of time before he found himself engaged in his daily Autumn game of hopping past leaves and the headset asked him if he would like to resume the advanced tutorial he’d been doing yesterday. This time he answered in the affirmative.

The Ministry Paradigm had branches in all the major districts. It was part of their network for the Minerva device, propagation nodes that would enhance the field that was generated by Minerva, allowing it to have uninterrupted coverage. After the Minerva Down incident the outer nodes fell into disrepair as the Ministry focused more on a new and improved device that couldn’t be as easily shut down. If that hadn’t ended in catastrophe, they probably would have rebuilt the outer nodes, but unfortunately that was not the case. The large gothic looking building next to the park looked like an abandoned insane asylum from old horror movies. It had been roughly four decades since the building was in use and nature had started to creep into the grounds. Memory of what the building’s purpose was had faded long since. Now it was mostly a place where kids made games of challenging people to go inside, but no one was stupid enough to fall for it.

The park was a gorgeous parcel of land. Heavily forested, with a large pond in the middle full of avian wildlife. There was a spot next to the pond with large boulders that had a nice line of site through a break in the trees that showed the Ministry building looming, broken and crumbling. On the boulder stood a pale boy with short dirty blonde hair, staring off into the middle distance. He had his hands in the pockets of a light brown jacket that was zipped halfway up, one of his legs pointed forward as he did his best to strike a dramatic pose.

Down on the ground sitting cross legged was a girl with long dark hair spilling over her shoulders. She was wearing a light blue hooded jacket, with a white blouse underneath. In her lap was a tablet which she was completely engrossed with.

“Did you figure out what it is you’re thinking about?” Ryan asked as he walked up, putting a piece of folded paper back in his pocket. Derek grinned, as the girl glanced up, rolling her eyes up toward the idiot on the boulder with a slight head shake, then went back to her tablet.

“Morning Lisa,” Ryan said a bit timidly.

“Hey,” she said in response, not taking her eyes off her tablet.

“What’s up, Ryan?” Derek asked as he jumped down from the boulder. The two boys bumped knuckles.

“You won’t believe it. I hardly do,” Ryan said in response. Derek raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected an answer to the greeting, and now his curiosity was peeked. “What is Lisa doing anyway?” Ryan asked, motioning his head towards her.

“Oh,” Derek said, turning towards her, “there was almost an Incursion Event last night in Inner City. The Ministry of Integrity’s A team was dispatched, and one of them never woke back up. They were able to close the tear before anything got through though.” Ryan whistled at the news.

“I heard there was one Friday night as well,” he said. “Two in as many days is worrisome.”

“A Traveler dying doesn’t help either,” Derek added. Ryan shook his head, wondering what could have caused it.

“Jesus, when was the last time an Astral Traveler actually died?” he said.

“Don’t blaspheme,” Lisa said offhandedly. “Almost ten years.” She answered as an afterthought. Whatever she had been watching came to an end. She turned off her tablet and stood up. “Technically he didn’t die, but he will be in a perpetual coma, with his soul trapped on the other side.”

“You really think they send their souls in there?” Derek said.

“What do you think Astral Projection is, Derek?” she responded.

“I don’t know, but using the term ‘soul’ is pretty loaded. I prefer ‘consciousness’ instead, it has less religious overtones.” Derek nodded to himself smugly and Lisa rolled her eyes again.

“Have you ever done it, Lisa?” Ryan asked.

“What?”

“Astral Projection. I know you’re always heavily interested in anything to do with the other side. Don’t you have to be able to do it in order to apply for the academy?”

“Oh, that’s just a rumor,” she said. “They have a device that can check potentiality of being an Astral Traveler. If you don’t pass that then chances are you’re not getting in. Not that my family would let me go to the Astral Academy,” she mumbled as an afterthought.

“I wouldn’t want to get involved with that stuff anyway,” Derek said. “The frequency of events has gone down precipitously over the last decade. If the rate of decline keeps up, the Ministry of Integrity will fade into obscurity along with the Ministry Paradigm.” Lisa looked cross, but didn’t say anything. This was an old argument, and she could tell he was just baiting her.

“Speaking of the Ministry Paradigm,” Derek continued, seeing she wasn’t going to rise to his challenge. “Weren’t they supposed to announce the winner of that contest on Friday?” Ryan opened his mouth to say something, but Lisa spoke first.

“There was some kind of issue, the Sifting Corporation said they were halting production on the PerSpectives due to lack of market exposure or some business mumbo jumbo. Anyway, they changed the prize to a new tablet. Thin as paper, can be folded up without creasing. Actually pretty cool.”

“Who got it?” Derek asked. Ryan was staring at her with his mouth slightly ajar.

“Who do you think? Rich kid with daddy’s connections of course,” she said with a sneer.

“Ew, Jeremy? Really? He’s got the writing skills of a cave man.” Derek looked over to Ryan to see if he’d got a laugh, but his smile froze as he looked at his friends face. “Uh, Ryan? Something wrong? I know she’s pretty but—” Ryan socked Derek in the should as he turned beat red.

“No, jerk,” he said, glancing at Lisa before looking away quickly. “I just… What Lisa said doesn’t make sense.”

“Why not?” she asked, ignoring Ryan’s awkwardness.

“Uhm, well,” Ryan started. “If that’s true, how do you explain this?” The tone of his voice changed as he spoke inward. “Helios, deactivate camouflage.” The goggles shimmered and appeared around his head. Lisa gasped and Derek let out a loud “Whoa!”

Ryan smiled at his reaction and pulled them off his head. “Want to check it out?” he said offering the goggles to his friend. Derek reverently took the proffered goggles, examining them in awe.

“Where did you get those?” Lisa asked.

“They showed up yesterday morning,” Ryan said. “I found them in a package on my doorstep.”

“But, the announcement,” she said in disbelief, also staring at the PerSpectives. “I definitely read the email that said Jeremy won, and stating the change in prize.”

“Hey, I’m just as surprised as you. I don’t remember seeing an email about the essay on Friday. What time did it come in?”

“Some time during the last hour,” Lisa said, tapping on her tablet. “Here, see?” Ryan stepped over to Lisa’s side, peering down at her tablet. He noticed she didn’t mind him being in her personal space but told himself not to overthink it. He looked over the timestamp on the email and pulled out his own device. It was one of the government issued phones, which were somewhat lacking in style or hardware, but it worked for what he needed it for. He opened up his school email account and sure enough the same email was there. Ryan frowned.