Lazar (2 page)

“Look, here’s how creative and original it can be…”

The architectural plans of a house popped up on the screen. Hal
pulled down some menus and clicked here and there. The plans were suddenly
superimposed by a three-dimensional image of the building, rotating slowly
through 360 degrees. Another couple of clicks and the image zoomed in through
one of the walls to display an internal view of the top room.

“See,” Hal turned to make sure Jan was looking at the screen,
“that’s the room you’ll be staying in this week. Dad designed the loft
conversion. I think you’ll find that’s ‘really useful’.”

Jan walked over to the computer and stood in silence as the
screen took her on a conceptual tour of her accommodation.

“It’s called computer-aided design,” Hal explained, “CAD for
short.”

“Very impressive,” said Jan, with only the faintest hint of
sarcasm, “but what have
you
done
that’s creative and original?”

Once again Hal let a series of instructions, stabbed into the
keyboard, answer his cousin’s question. The house disappeared and a castle took
its place.

“It’s the ‘Fortress of the Dragon Laird’ from a computer game
I’m working on. I based the design exactly on the descriptions of the castle in
The Raptor King
trilogy. I wanted to
see if the author had been consistent.”

Much to her amazement – and annoyance – Jan
realised that she was beginning to be impressed by the capabilities of her
cousin’s computer. Hal realised it too.

“You see?” he said triumphantly, turning to look at Jan for
the first time – his eyes were brown, she noticed. “You can’t get more
creative than that. It’s turned something totally imaginary into something
real.”

“That’s not real,” Jan countered, “it only looks real. It
doesn’t really exist – you can’t
live
in it like your father’s loft conversion.”

“You reckon? Well, look at this…”

“I’m looking.”

“Wait a minute, while I get out of this and into another
program.”

Jan waited. And waited. Whatever the other program was it was
taking ages to load on to the computer. In the end she lost interest and
wandered back toward the window.

The sun was at its highest point and the sky was a flawless
blue. A gentle breeze shimmered through the leaf-rich line of trees along the
roadside as they slumbered in the smothering heat. Three seagulls skimmed
coastward overhead.

This was reality, she thought. Here was where things really
lived and breathed and touched and smelled and tasted.

Jan scanned the flat horizon but the ruined tower was nowhere
to be seen, presumably obscured by the line of trees or the slight rise in the land
toward the coast. But, if she screwed her eyes up slightly and applied her
imagination, vague shapes and shadows could just about be made out in the field
next to the sky. Ancient earthworks, she conjectured.

“Here you are, look at this.” Hal’s voice brought her back to
the here and now. “You’ll need to put this on to see it properly. It’s called a
head-mounted display – HMD for short.”

He was holding what looked like an elongated, slimline
version of a motor-cycling visor fitted with the arms of a very stylish pair of
sunglasses. Several wires dangled from the back of it, one connected to the
front of Hal’s computer and the others to a pair of in-ear speakers.

“Must I?” The image on the computer screen was of a wooded
landscape with a lake and distant mountains. Jan noticed that as Hal handed her
the headset the perspective changed.

“You’ll have to wear it to get the full effect,” he repeated.
“Come on, take my seat.”

Jan sat down, placed the speakers in her ears and then
gingerly put the headset on. Immediately she found herself standing in the
wooded landscape. It completely filled her field of vision. She turned her head
to the left, and saw the trees on the left. She looked down. There was the
ground.

“How do I move forward?” she asked before she had time to
disguise her fascination.

“Use the mouse.”

She fumbled about on the desktop, trying hard to find
something in one world while her eyes were looking into another. When at last
she found it she moved herself about in all directions, wandering in wonderment
through the woods and down toward the lake.

“Brilliant, eh?” enthused Hal from somewhere outside her
realm of experience. “It’s called virtual reality. It’s as close to being real
as makes no difference.”

Jan snatched the helmet off her head and looked straight at
her cousin.

“There’s a whole world of difference, Hal. You can’t touch it
or smell the pine wood or feel the breeze.”

“You will be able to soon. They’ve already developed a ‘power
glove’ that lets you reach out and handle things in the virtual world.”

Jan let out a burst of laughter.

“What on earth for?” she demanded, standing up. “Why create a
virtual world when we’ve got a real one all around us? Look outside your
bedroom window, Hal. That’s reality. Real sky, real earth, real trees…”

“Real ghostly cities rising from the sea,” Hal added, with
just a hint of sarcasm. “The virtual forest on my computer’s a lot more real
than your legendary lost city – at least you can see it and walk about in
it.”

Hal stopped abruptly. He could see an idea dawning on his
cousin’s face. She stared at him inquisitively then turned away and frowned
into the middle distance for a moment then turned back, her eyes wide open.

“Could you join those two programs together?” she asked
expectantly.

“How do you mean?”

“Could you create something on your Dad’s CAD stuff then walk
around it using this headgear?” She glanced down at the head-mounted display
then back up at her cousin.

“Probably – I’ve never tried. Why?”

“We could recreate old Wickwich.”

Hal sat back in his chair and looked straight in Jan’s
direction. But his eyes were not focussed on his cousin. They were already looking
toward the technical challenges ahead.

“Yeah,” he said, eventually, “that would be cool.”

He returned to his keyboard and smiled at the screen. “Now
that
would
make this legend of yours
real.”

Jan smiled as well – to herself.

“Well, Jan, I must say I’m impressed, completing the task I
set you within an hour,” Aunt Jill smiled as she sliced two rounds of
sandwiches in half.

“It was Hal’s idea. He wants to go out and measure things.”

“He hasn’t been down to the beach since we moved here,” Jan’s
aunt continued, not listening to her niece. “His father and I thought that
would be one of the attractions of moving to Wickwich, being so close to the
sea.”

“We’re not going to the beach, exactly. We’re going to the
cliff top. Hal wants to get the dimensions of the ruined tower so he can feed
them into his computer. He’s gone to ask Uncle Bill – sorry – Bill if
he can borrow some of his surveying equipment.”

Aunt Jill was still not listening.

“I’ve made some sandwiches and prepared some drinks. Now, if
you run upstairs and fetch your swimming costume from your suitcase, I’ll find
a towel…”

At that moment Hal entered the kitchen, loaded down with a
theodolite, a measuring rod, a tripod and an aluminium case.

“What on earth…?” exclaimed Aunt Jill.

Jan and Hal stepped out into the sunshine and then back into
the shade as they strode along the wooded lane until they reached a crossroads.
Hal stopped for a moment as if to get his bearings. In fact he was getting his
breath back. The equipment, that he had been carrying over his shoulder but was
now leaning on, was extremely heavy and the weather very hot.

“Now, let me see. This way, I think,” he said, re-shouldering
his load and setting off across the road. The corner opposite was surrounded by
an old stone wall behind which stood a clump of trees that blotted out the sky.
Hal took the lane directly ahead, signposted ‘To the seafront’.

“Yes, here we are,” he called out almost immediately.

Beyond the trees stood an unimpressive church of flint and
sandstone. Hal looked up at its narrow tower as he passed beneath the lychgate
and entered the graveyard.

“It doesn’t look much like a ruin to me,” he said as he
searched for somewhere to lay down his load. “In fact it doesn’t look very old
at all.”

“That’s because it isn’t,” Jan explained as she caught him
up. “This isn’t the tower I meant. The one I’m talking about is standing on its
own right by the sea. You must have seen it – it’s on the horizon as you
come into the village.”

“Oh, that,” said Hal. “You mean you want me to carry this lot
all the way up there?”

“It’s
you
that
wants its dimensions to put in your computer,” retorted Jan. “I’m quite happy
just to tune in to the spirit of the place; to soak up the atmosphere. It’s
you
that wants to measure it.”

“OK, OK,” conceded Hal, as he hoisted the rod and tripod back
on to his shoulder, picked up the case and marched out through the lychgate. He
stopped and turned as he adjusted his load to make it less uncomfortable. His
cousin hadn’t moved.

“Come on,” he shouted, “this stuff’s really heavy.”

Jan’s response was to walk away from him, further into the graveyard.
She pointed at something beyond the east end of the church.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“You tell me, I can’t see from here.”

“It’s a ruin of some sort. A chapel, by the look of it.”

Jan disappeared round the corner. Hal groaned, then followed
her. By the time he caught up she was standing in front of a plaque and reading
the inscription aloud.

“‘The Chapel to the Leper Hospital of St James. Built in the
12th century it stood outside of the walls of medieval Wickwich. All that
remains is the chancel and the sanctuary…’”

Hal stepped back while Jan continued reading. Actually, all
that remained of the ancient chapel was a roofless shell. The pitted sandstone
walls formed a horseshoe about ten metres long with a crumbling archway at its
open end.

“‘During the excavation of the foundations of the present
church a large number of burials were found’,” Jan continued.

Next to the plaque was a low, round-headed doorway. Hal
stooped down and went under its sandstone arch, calling to his cousin as he
passed.

“Come on – let’s take a look inside.”

Once inside, Hal turned and with an involuntary sigh, leant
the equipment up against the wall and placed the case upon ground. Having
relieved himself of his burden Hal stood up straight and looked about him,
letting out an exclamation of approval as he did so.

“Yeah! This place is perfect – just lines and circles. It’ll
be a piece of cake putting it on the computer.”

“Is that all that you can see – lines and circle?” Jan
said incredulously as she joined Hal in the chancel.

“That’s all there is to see,” responded Hal, as he walked
away from her toward the open end.