Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

It was the last day of CES, and the crowd of people swarming the Horizon exhibit had grown immensely. There were now two lines of people: a small one for people still hoping to test the AVR Explorer before buying, and a long monstrosity of a line for those hoping to buy an AVR headset.

After the first time Phineas had requested a resupply from the factory, he'd had to request a resupply many more times. It had gotten to the point where the private jet they'd hired was flying back and forth between CES and Stetle almost non-stop.

Before CES, Phineas and his team had believed ten thousand headsets would be more than enough to meet the demands of CES attendees. But they had already blown past that point and were nearing thirty thousand headsets sold.

They had three shifts working day and night at Jensen Manufacturing and at the assembly facility and had already installed five of the new bulk fabrication machines. And if the pre-order waitlist on their website was any indication, they would need to install ten more just to keep up with demand.

Phineas surveyed the organized madhouse that was his exhibit and tried not to grin like an idiot. The success of the AVR Explorer was so far beyond his dreams that his dreams had died of happiness and their ghosts were collaborating to form a new, better dream.

He was watching yet another person walk away happy to have procured a headset when he spotted a group of three men approach him. Something about the way the men walked suggested they were not part of the usual CES crowd.

All three men had close-cropped haircuts and moved with purpose. The man in front was middle-aged, possibly older, but walked like he was still a young man. The two following him were younger and had their heads on swivels, scanning the crowds continuously.

"Are you Phineas Dermot, CEO of Horizon VR?" asked the older man.

"Yes, that's me," replied Phineas.

"Excellent. I'm Cutis Creed, a representative of the Federation military procurement office. We are interested in contracting your company to produce a ruggedized version of your AVR Explorer," said the older man.

"Ah, my apologies, Mr. Creed, but Horizon is not interested in entering into any government contracts at this time. However, we do plan to make a version that will be suitable for use in more demanding environments. So if you are willing to provide your requirements to us, we can look at them and see if they fit within our overall plan."

"I see," said Mr. Creed, frowning. "So you can afford to lose out on the sale of one hundred thousand units?"

"Mr. Creed," said Phineas, trying not to look smug. "We've already sold thirty thousand units and have pre-orders for over a million units. So yes, we can afford to lose one overly demanding, tight-fisted government customer. When our ruggedized model comes out, you're free to place an order."

Mr. Creed's frown turned to a puzzled scowl. He turned to gaze at the line of people waiting to buy an AVR Explorer, then turned back to Phineas.

"You've sold thirty thousand units already?" he asked.

"Yep. Three thousand the first day, five thousand the second day, fifteen thousand the third day and nine thousand so far today."

Mr. Creed's eyes widened slightly. "I see. And you're willing to consider our requirements when designing your ruggedized model?"

"Yes, I'm sure there's lots of overlap between what the military needs and what an oil rig crewman or crab fisherman needs in terms of durability."

"Yes, I'm sure there is," said Mr. Creed. "Alright, we'll do that. Can some of our people participate in your beta testing program?"

"If they are willing to sign the NDA, then I don't see why not," said Phineas.

"I don't think that will be a problem," said Mr. Creed. "It's not an ideal outcome, but I think we can live with it."

Then he paused before saying, "We do have one more matter to ask about. We have some people who need to perform a security audit of the AVR Explorer, but they have found the device surprisingly difficult to examine."

"Ah, yes, I understand," said Phineas. "If you have people willing to sign our NDA, then we will allow them to perform their analysis on-site. We'll also be willing to share the details of our hardware design with those same people."

Mr. Creed smiled. "That's wonderful to hear, Mr. Dermot. Wonderful."

As Mr. Creed and his escort walked away, another group of three people approached.

At the front of the group was an attractive woman in a business suit holding a microphone, and behind her was a man holding a camera along with a woman holding a tablet.

"Mr. Dermot," said the woman holding the microphone, "can we have a moment of your time?"

"Yes, Lauren, I have some time," said Phineas.

Jack had warned him that the woman was coming. She was Lauren Thresher, a reporter for Technology Today, a sister show to Business Today. Both were owned by the same media conglomerate, Today Media.

"Your exhibit here at CES has drawn a lot of attention," said Lauren. "More than any other exhibit present this year. And, according to a few insiders, quite possibly more attention than any exhibit in the history of CES. How do you feel about that?"

"Surprised and pleased," said Phineas. "And I just want to say that the CES organization has done a wonderful job of adjusting t and handling the unexpected level of attention our exhibit has garnered."

"Did you have any inkling that your AVR Explorer would draw this much attention? These aren't just average consumers either. These are all industry insiders. And yet they're lined up at your exhibit like rabid gamers eagerly awaiting the release of a next-gen console."

"No, this level of interest is beyond our expectations. We hoped to garner some interest and brought ten thousand units with us, just to make sure we wouldn't run out. But we didn't expect to actually sell all ten thousand."

"There's only a few hours left until the event closes, yet you are still selling units, and I see the line is just as long as it was earlier today. Will you have enough? Are you close to selling all ten thousand?"

"Or we blew past the first ten thousand on the third day and are approaching the third ten thousand right now," said Phineas, pleased to share such good news.

"Thirty thousand? Do you mean online, or here at CES?"

"Here, thirty thousand units sold to directly to CES attendees. It's been a madhouse."

"Wow, that is a lot of units to sell in only four days!" exclaimed Lauren. "What about online? I'm told that your website initially offered sales of the unit online but has since transitioned to a waitlist. Can you share how long that waitlist is and how long it will take you to fulfill all those orders?"

"We are still ramping up production but anticipate being able to satisfy all one million waitlist orders in one to two months."

"I'm sorry, did you say one million?" asked Lauren, looking genuinely stunned.

"Yes! One million."

"That is truly surprising. Do you have any sense for what kind of people are eagerly awaiting an AVR Explorer?"

"According to my people, a large fraction of the people on the waitlist are software developers eager to take advantage of the AVR Explorer's workspace feature."

"What about the World of Wonder that Radius partnered with you to develop? Do you see that drawing many people to your product?"

"Possibly. We didn't reveal Worlds of Wonder until the first day of CES and yet we have already received inquiries from several dozen schools."

"Several dozen? In less than four days? Yes, I guess that is an inordinate amount of interest for such a short period of time. Do you know if Radius or any other company is going to offer additional services that leverage the AVR Explorer?"

"I cannot speak for Radius; you'll have to talk to them about any additional plans they might have. As for other companies, all I can say is that a number of game shops have contacted us asking about how they can integrate the tactile gloves into their game interface."

"Are there any compatibility issues between your AVR Explorer and existing games that support VR headsets?"

"No, none that we are aware of. One of the features that we haven't advertised is upscaling. If it's enabled, the AVR Explorer will use a special AI model to upscale the input to the AVR Explorer's much higher native resolution. We think most enthusiasts will be pleased with the feature, but purists might not like it."

"Is that why it's an optional feature?" asked Lauren.

"Yes, we just didn't have the time to test it thoroughly, so it's still marked as experimental. We can say that it works great with movies and other video content."

"Well, now I'll have to give it a try and see how it performs on some of my favorite games and movies. Thank you for your time, Mr. Dermot. Do you have any last words you wish to share with my audience?"

Turning to face the camera, Phineas said, "We are pleased to bring the AVR Explorer to the world and hope you get as much enjoyment out of using one as we did designing it. We have already doubled production and will have doubled production again by the end of next week. Fear not, if you order one, you will receive one."