The pain was not only visceral but moral, metaphorical, and yes all too physical. Climbing out of my first successful VR chamber the guilt from killing all the small furry animals during the simulation. It was a test from some lame old SciFi novel where the hero, yes I was playing the hero, was attacked by these cute chipmunk creatures from another planet. Old Chesnie had warned me about the suspected somatic effect and there all over my legs were welts from where the nasty cute creatures had tried to bite my legs off.

I’d compare notes later but I decided to shower and get over to the anti-vr-restriction rally, I now knew it was possible and I could stand before the crowd and let them know they could escape the drudgery of day to day living on this asteroid, if only for a few minutes.

Just as I closed the vapor lock on the shower module my hand was on the noisy ultrasound cleanser when the door to my lab knocked open, two of the biggest thugs I’d ever seen entered with huge hammers. Not smart thugs, they