Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

The blind man reached out and grabbed the glove and put it on, frowning when he discovered how loose it fit.

"The gloves will shrink to fit when the system initializes," said Phineas, when he saw the man's frown.

"And here's the right glove."

After the man put on the right glove, Phineas said, "To power on the AVR Explorer in blind mode, press the power button five times, with less than two seconds between each press, then hold the button down for a count of three before releasing."

The blind man followed Phineas' instructions, then cocked his head as the headset began speaking to him.

After a few minutes, the blind man lifted his hands and began pointing his palms around the exhibit.

"Oh, wow," he exclaimed. Then started walking, navigating around people as if he could see them. Soon the blind man was practically running, dodging between people.

He left the Horizon VR exhibit and dashed through three of the nearby exhibits before returning to the Horizon VR exhibit, where he stopped and held out his hands towards one of the posters. Then he turned and walked over to stand in front of Phineas.

"I can see. With my hands! With my hands!" exclaimed the blind man.

"I'll be honest," said Phineas, "we couldn't find any blind people willing to sign our NDA, so we had to develop this mode using blindfolded sighted people. We figured if it worked for someone who was not used to walking around blind, it should probably work for someone with more experience."

"Honestly," said the blind man, "I was expecting this to be a shitshow. But this is amazing. You're selling these things, right? I can buy one now?"

"Sure. Do you want the version with just the cables and clip-on power pack, or do you want the version with the shirt?"

Before the blind man could answer, another man stormed up to them and said, "How dare you make a mockery of the blind. Putting on a charade like this. For shame!"

The blind man turned to the angry man, lifted his headset so his milky white eyes were visible and asked, "Are you blind?"

The angry man, seeing the blind man's eyes, jerked back, like he'd been slapped and stammered, "N-N-No, sir. I'm not. I apologize for my rudeness. I thought you were putting on an act for the company."

"If you're not blind, then what gives you the right to be outraged?" demanded the blind man.

"My daughter is blind," was the subdued reply.

"Then buy her an AVR Explorer. This thing is amazing. I'm completely blind, can't even see light or shadow. But this thing allows me to see with my hands. I can detect writing on signs and even have it read the text to me. It's very intuitive."

"Do you work for Horizon?" asked the no-longer angry father.

"No," said the blind man. "I work for Primal."

Then the blind man turned to Phineas and asked, "You wouldn't by any chance have any software developer openings, would you?"

"Wait. Are you Aaron Casavant?" asked Phineas.

"Yep, that's me," replied the blind man.

"Well, in that case, do you want to talk now, or set up a time later?" asked Phineas.

He'd heard of Aaron Casavant and knew the man was a skilled coder. Not just 'for a blind man'. Period. Any team would be happy to have the man working for them. He honestly didn't understand why Aaron was still working for Larry Fowler.

Phineas beckoned to one of his exhibit staff, then said to the father, "She can help you if you have any more questions or wish to buy an AVR Explorer."

The man turned and walked toward the approaching staff member, and Phineas turned and led Aaron to one of the small rooms that wasn't presently occupied.

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Larry was waiting for his men to return with the good news. He had sent Aaron over to Horizon's exhibit so the man could make a bit of a scene.

He knew that most people really didn't care if blind folks complained about the lack of accessibility in VR headsets, so there wouldn't be too much, if any, real outrage, but he was a petty man and just wanted to put a fly in Phineas' ointment.

He had sent several men along with Aaron so they could film the incident he was sure Aaron would cause. He would have his PR people work their magic and try to stir up a little social media trouble for Horizon.

He noticed someone walking towards the Primal exhibit. When he turned, he saw that it was Aaron, wearing a headset he didn't recognize, and walking confidently without his cane.

Before he could properly process what he was seeing, Aaron stopped in front of him, and said, "I quit!"

"What?" said Larry dumbly.

"I quit. You've been promising for years that you'd help me realize my dream for blind mobility, but you just kept putting me off. Well, guess what? Horizon did it."

Aaron pointed at his headset, then at his gloved hands.

"These were created by Horizon, and they let me see with my hands. They are what I dreamed of. So, I quit. Effective immediately. I also sent an e-mail, just to make sure you know it's official."

Then, before Larry could say anything, Aaron turned and marched away.

Larry watched Aaron disappear into the flow of people walking between exhibits, stunned.

A few moments later, his other men returned, looking nervous.

"Um, sir," said one of the men, "it didn't go like we expected."

"No shit, it didn't go like we expected," growled Larry. "Show me the video."

After watching the video, Larry felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. Besides the stunning footage of a blind man weaving through the crowd like a running back dodging linebackers, Larry also noted the size of the crowd and the excitement on all of their faces.

He was so screwed. He needed to talk to his backers about alternative strategies because otherwise Horizon would crush Primal.