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games?" Dan asked.
    "Like the baseball sim," Chan replied, opening a door. "Two people can play against one another."
    "They've been doing that for years in video arcades."
    "Chan almost scowled. "Yeah, and they call that simpleminded junk virtual reality. It's as crude as cave paintings. Have you ever tried one?"
    Dan nodded. The kid was right. Those so-called VR systems he had seen at arcades were little more than video games, primitive and boring.
    The door Chan opened led into another control booth. Smaller. Simpler. The VR chamber beyond the one-way glass was also smaller than the one Jace was using.
    "I've been doing the travel sims," Chan explained he slipped into the only chair in the narrow booth and powered up the console. "Want to try one?"
    Dan wanted to see Jace. But he replied, "Why not?"
    Chan smiled boyishly. "There's a helmet and gloves over on the shelf. You know how to hook yourself up, don't you?"
    "Sure."
    In a few minutes Dan was sitting in the chair placed in the middle of the otherwise empty VR chamber. The gloves felt stiff as he flexed his fingers; the helmet slightly unbalanced, as if it wanted to slide forward on his head. He saw his own reflection in the one-way glass, looking tight-lipped and slightly suspicious. He loosened his tie some more and waited.
    "You can slide the visor down now." He heard Chan's voice in the helmet earphones. "This sim is called Space Race."
    "Okay." Dan pulled the dark visor over his eyes. "I'm ready."
    All at once he was sitting at the controls of a futuristic spacecraft. Beyond its windows he saw a field of stars and several other spacecraft hovering in the dark emptiness.
    "Seven . . . six . . . five . . ." intoned a voice. Dan saw the displays on the console in front of him light up like a Christmas tree. Shit , he thought. Another goddamned cockpit simulation.
    "Two . . . one . . . BLAST OFF!"
    The lurch of acceleration caught him unaware and slammed him back into the cushions of his chair. All the other spacecraft sprouted dazzling flame from their rocket nozzles and streaked out of his view.
    "Malfunction! Malfunction!" his ship's computer blared. "Main thrusters have misfired. We are on a collision course for Space Station Alpha."
    Dan saw the space station rushing toward him, its spindle shape revolving slowly like the hands of a clock as his ship gyrated wildly. He felt the jerks and shudders of his ship in the pit of his stomach.
    "Manual override!" the computer voice urged. "Manual override!"
    Dan grabbed the two control sticks as the space station loomed bigger and bigger. He knew this was a game, a simulation. Yet his hands were sweaty and his stomach was hollow, queasy.
    The station hurtled toward him, close enough to see ribbing on its solar panels and a pair of space-suited astronauts flailing their arms at him. His earphones sizzled with radio voices screaming warnings. He yanked both control sticks all the way back and the station flashed past below him, leaving nothing but serene stars in his view.
    "You have avoided a collision," said the computer voice, calmer now, "but your maneuver has taken you far off-course."
    My maneuver? Dan argued silently.
    "At present velocity, you will leave the Earth-Moon system entirely and drift into interplanetary space."
    Dan scanned the controls. Not a hint as to what to do.
    "Your only chance of survival is to alter course and attempt a landing at lunar base Copernicus."
    "How do I do that?" he asked.
    The main display screen in the center of his control console showed a graph with a red curving line on it. A sweptwing symbol indicated the position of his spacecraft.
    "I get it," Dan muttered. "I've got to keep the ship the indicated trajectory. Looks simple enough."
    It was not. More malfunctions dogged his attempts to follow the trajectory. A meteor shower strafed the ship, puncturing several compartments and knocking it further off course. A pirate spacecraft began chasing Dan, firing laser beams at him,