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    Net Zero Starcrossed: Net Zero, #5
    Net Zero Starcrossed: Net Zero, #5
    Net Zero Starcrossed: Net Zero, #5
    Ebook80 pages59 minutesNet Zero

    Net Zero Starcrossed: Net Zero, #5

    By Jay Toney

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    About this ebook

    Nerds being what they are, highly intelligent computer geeks, have not changed the least bit in the last century. The nerds—software engineers, game designers, and coders, working for Nexus Advanced Systems Technology, Inc. (NASTI) make a discovery in the archives—The Lost Treasures of Infocom.

    One game catches their attention more than the others, Starcross. They manage to get it working on an antique DOS computer, and play through it solving its many puzzles after much trial and error. After partying with copious use of weed, Molly, and LSD, they get the idea to recreate Starcross, but as a full immersion VR simulation.

    Join Ariel and Jenna as they board the Starcross, and solve the mysteries aboard it. It is a do, or die simulation in which not only are their lives in jeopardy, so are the lives of the other game testers aboard the Endeavor—lame as they may be.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJay Toney
    Release dateFeb 25, 2025
    ISBN9798230419884
    Net Zero Starcrossed: Net Zero, #5
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    Author

    Jay Toney

    I got hooked on reading early in life, reading nearly everything I could get my hands on including the Encyclopedia Britannica. As well as being an avid reader I enjoyed bicycling, skateboarding, fishing, and building models and puzzles. As far back as I can remember, I loved anything to do with aircraft. I joined the USAF as an aircraft mechanic working on the F-4, T-38, F-117. and the F-16. A knee injury stopped me from working on aircraft. My knee couldn't support me on the odd angles and slick surfaces anylonger. While in the USAF I attended college. My second love was tormenting my English teacher. I found out she had a fear of death, then she was at my mercy. Anything she said not to do I did just to show her I could. Every essay or theme I wrote dealt with the topic of death, from a first person perspective of a person under going an autopsy, being buried alive, and rising from the grave. She was glad when I graduated. Some authors who inspired me are Robert Heinlein, Harry Harrison, Alan Dean Foster, Piers Anthony, and much more.

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      Book preview

      Net Zero Starcrossed - Jay Toney

      Dedications

      Ann Attwood, Editing and Proofreading Services for using her magic on the story.

      Introduction

      Nerds being what they are, highly intelligent computer geeks, have not changed the least bit in the last century. The nerds—software engineers, game designers, and coders, working for Nexus Advanced Systems Technology, Inc. (NASTI) make a discovery in the archives—The Lost Treasures of Infocom.

      One game catches their attention more than the others, Starcross. They manage to get it working on an antique DOS computer, and play through it solving its many puzzles after much trial and error. After partying with copious use of weed, DMT, and LSD, they get the idea to recreate Starcross, but as a full immersion VR simulation.

      Join Ariel and Jenna as they board the Starcross, and solve the mysteries aboard it. It is a do, or die simulation in which not only are their lives in jeopardy, so are the lives of the other game testers aboard the Endeavor—lame as they may be.

      Chapter 1

      Jenna is sitting between Ariel’s legs; leans back luxuriating in the feel of her bestie’s breasts cushioning her back, the softness, and warmth radiating from them. She turns her head to look over her shoulder, and says, This would be a lot more comfortable if we took our clothes off. Fun too!

      Ariel pushes her bestie’s shoulder laughing. We just smashed an hour ago. Your appetite for sex is insatiable!

      And yours isn’t?

      Since coming to the cluster, Ariel thought there’d be plenty of corpo uppers to choose from to smash, but finding a male hookup that isn’t gay has proven to be as difficult to find in the cluster as it is in the city. Atrazine, other endocrine disruptors to a lesser degree, and environmental estrogens have contaminated the food and water supply, and are to blame. Corpo uppers and elites, who can afford to eat pesticide free organic food, and drink purified water are largely unaffected.

      Ariel feels as if, first her, and now Jenna have been cursed to live life without men to smash with. Before smashing with Doc Holiday in the Tombstone simulation, from Ariel urging her, Jenna was content to live life as girl only. Now she wants more. If it wasn’t for the cybersex they’ve been getting in the VR matrix, it would be just the two of them smashing with each other, aside from the occasional female hookup. They are besties with benefits, not lovers, but with all of the time they are spending together, their relationship is changing—becoming something else.

      When they are beta testing simulations, they often run into avatars for other testers, and on occasion—gamer avatars, and they smash with them. Thanks to stim, smashing in VR is better than the real thing, but... Smashing with the AI controlled NPCs is way better, even without a stim boost. The AI has extensive knowledge to draw from, and can adapt technique in an instant to maximize pleasure. With her and Jenna’s relationship growing beyond friendship, will it work with them fulfilling their emotional needs together, and the physical ones in VR? The more Ariel thinks about it, the more she thinks they can make it work. That is, if Jenna wants to take their relationship to the next level. Sometimes she thinks she does, sometimes she isn’t so sure. There are mixed signals, and Jenna hasn’t mentioned partnering as lovers, not since she told her bestie that she needs a man in bed to completely satisfy her.

      In full immersion VR, men can be men again, and are fully functional, whether they are hetero, or gay. The avatars are created using the person’s self-identity. It is disturbing for people who have had cross-sex surgery, as their avatars are of their biological sex. Most transexual people avoid NASTI’s full immersion VR simulations, and stick to retro VR using headsets, haptic suits, and gloves. With these simulations, they are free to create the avatar of their choice, male, female, or another species altogether. Elves, and dwarves are the most common, but some choose to be brutish orcs, shifters, or human-animal hybrids.

      Jenna uses the remote built into the gaming chair arm to scroll down the list of games ready for beta testing on the vid display. New selections are added daily with the rapidly increasing popularity of NASTI’s full immersion VR simulations, and the increased funding from Lidia Gates. Ariel’s and Jenna’s AI constructs can provide direct input making the data instantly available to them, but the more nostalgic means of doing it gives them a sense of accomplishment. It also gives them more time together.

      Take a look at this game! Jenna shouts with glee. The list of games is replaced with a single title, Starcross, centered on a black background with a moving starfield. The simulation description slowly scrolls up from the bottom of the vid screen.

      It is the year 2386. You and your partner command an interplanetary exploration ship enroute to the moons of

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