Building 258 smelled like new plastic and recycled air.
Susan Harris stood in the center of the XR Lab's immersion bay while Amara adjusted straps on a haptic vest. Four locomotion platforms in a semicircle, cables across polished concrete, tracking sensors on government-beige walls.
"You'll feel resistance when you walk," Amara said, checking the glove sensors. "The platform reads your gait. Takes some getting used to."
"I've done VR before."
"Not like this. You'll be experiencing what the substrate contains—processed through ARCHIE, rendered in real-time."
Margaret was already suited up on the adjacent platform, studying her gloved hands. David stood on the third, uncharacteristically quiet—the physicist calculating, the husband worrying about Jennifer three hundred meters away.
"Jennifer and Starseed are ready," Amara said, touching her earpiece. "Coherence field establishing. Five minutes."
A door opened. Sarah Nakamura entered—mid-forties, athletic, the easy confidence of someone who'd trained astronauts to trust equipment designed to kill them.
"I'll monitor from the control booth," Sarah said. "If anyone experiences vertigo or disorientation beyond normal adaptation, signal verbally."
"Jennifer asked you to stay?"
Sarah's expression was professionally neutral. "She said I'd want to see this."
The immersion came like waking up inside someone else's memory.
Susan felt the haptic suit activate—temperature gradien…
