Read Craig Kreident #1: Virtual Destruction for Free Online Page A

gray walls of the sheer valley.   The scene took Lesserec’s breath away, as had the original sight of Yosemite Valley as seen from the top of Half Dome.
    Inside the chamber, the children responded with a collective gasp.   No one spoke, as if afraid they might break the spell, until a small voice—which he realized belonged to José Aragon himself—said, “It’s beautiful! ”
    The words unleashed an excited chatter.   The children pointed to tiny cars and buses parked around small buildings far below.   Lesserec felt uneasy and out of control, as if he might topple over the cliff if he leaned too far.
    The image moved forward with a change in perspective from the sensors, edging toward the dropoff.   Several children cried out in alarm.   Lesserec stepped into the center of the chamber, walking right through rough-edged boulders that glittered in the sunlight.   “It’s all right.   Remember, we’re still in the lab.   This is just pretend.”
    Just as the words left his mouth, the room seemed to drop as they went down the steep cliff, gliding along the images from the deployed sensors.   Lesserec felt a small hand reach out and brush against his arm twice before clutching his shirt.   Lesserec patted the hand in reassurance.
    He looked down to see a young boy, about ten or twelve, with the obvious “stranded marionette” look of cerebral palsy.   Lesserec flinched, but did not pull his arm away.   The boy was not trying to speak, but the delight shone on his face.   With waving hands, he tried to touch the image.
    “With virtual reality we can take you places you would never get to visit.”   The room stopped its decent down the cliff face and hovered next to two brightly clad rock climbers who were intently—and insanely, Lesserec thought—groping their way up the impossible cliff face.
    Lesserec turned to the small boy still grasping his sleeve.   “And you can feel it, too.”
    Reaching down, he nudged the child’s wheelchair closer to the cliff wall, closely shadowed by a stooped, worried-looking man, the boy’s father probably.   The boy’s scarecrowish arm smacked against the hologram that had been solidified with three-dimensionally patterned microspheres suspended in electrostatic fields.
    The palsied boy’s expression changed, though Lesserec could not read subtleties in his uncontrolled facial muscles.   Lesserec took hold of the small hand and brushed it back and forth against the illusory rock.
    Other children moved forward to parts of the images, making sounds of amazement as they touched the mountain.   José Aragon wandered the circumference of the chamber, prodding and stroking, a fascinated grin on his face.
    “Just don’t press too hard,” Lesserec warned.
    The simulation paused a moment, before dropping toward the ground in a gut-wrenching fall.   Several of the children cried out, but the plunge slowed until they reached the rocky, forested ground below.   Hikers and people in cars started moving toward them, all wearing puzzled expressions.
    Lesserec popped open the chamber door, disengaging the simulation and letting a wedge of fluorescent light spill into the room.   Yosemite vanished like a snapped rubber band, and the tour group found themselves sitting in a featureless VR chamber.   The children and their escorts sat stunned and breathless for a moment, looking around in disbelief.
    “That’s all for today.   Be careful on your way out,” Lesserec said, pointing toward the door.   “Please keep away from the walls—we don’t want you to harm the sensors.”
    Aragon bustled over to him.   He seemed genuinely moved.   “Gary, thank you for allowing us to experience this magnificent demonstration!   I will speak with Hal about opening this up as part of a general Lab tour.”   He nodded at the excited children on their way out of the chamber.   “This is just the type of thing we need to improve our image with the community.”
    Lesserec