Wake up on the Ring

year 2195

Grayson woke up slowly, his eyes adjusting to the gradually brightening walls of his quarters. He enjoyed the sensation of the soft mattress conforming to his every move as he stretched, the delicate 1000-thread count sheets gliding smoothly over his skin.

With a simple gesture, he gently firmed the responsive gel mattress to a supportive density. Then he sat up, keen eyes scrutinizing his surroundings. This daily ritual of observing minute details kept his senses sharp.

He smiled as he noted one of the decorative vines on the wall had grown several centimeters overnight. His mother's prank - she delighted in subtly shifting little things day-to-day to test his situational awareness. But not too obviously, that would be cheating.

"Good morning Room," Grayson spoke into the air.

"Good morning Sir," the familiar voice responded directly through the bone conduction implant in Grayson's jaw. "And happy birthday, might I add!"

"Thank you!" Grayson replied. "I don't suppose there are any special surprises planned today?"

"I'm afraid I cannot divulge such details," Room said. "But your parents assure me it will be a day to remember. Shall I display your schedule?"

"Please do," said Grayson. As the agenda appeared in his vision, he soaked in the view of Earth from his family's quarters on the outer Ring far above the atmosphere. Gazing at that beautiful fragile orb never got old.

After a refreshing ultrasonic shower, Grayson dressed in a smart jumpsuit with embedded micro-LEDS emitting a subtle glow. Looking sharp seemed appropriate for his 18th birthday.

He glanced at the time glowing softly on the inside of his wrist just below the skin. Another biotechnological marvel - interfaces and displays implanted seamlessly within the body. His parents' generation was still adapting to these drastic changes, but for Grayson they were simply part of life.

Making his way to the kitchen, Grayson caught a whiff of waffles fabricating in the food printer. But he paused, scrutinizing an abstract painting in the hallway. Something about the pattern of shapes seemed altered. He stepped closer and realized - his father had subtly shifted the hue of one element. Another playful test!

Grayson grinned and continued on. Tests like these had trained him from childhood to be exceptionally detail-oriented, with high situational awareness. "It will help you more than you know," his mother always insisted. He had to admit, it was fun to decipher the world's little puzzles.

Getting his clothes on, Grayson excitedly walked about the hab, carefully observing for anything out of place. A practice he had developed due to his genius parents training him from a young age to be aware of more than the average person at all times.

"It will help you more than you could ever know." His mother would say, whenever he questioned her about why she and Dad were always behaving like such pranksters.

They would train his spatial acuity, memory, observational skills and situational awareness by randomly and without warning changing something subtle around the hab. If he found the discrepancy without too many false positives, there was always a worthwhile reward for his success. Mom and Dad were super consistent about rewarding success.

"Failures will punish you just fine on their own." Dad would say, with a look of great wisdom in his eyes. "Success is often overlooked, though. And that won't teach you to grow like we know you can."

They probably knew what they were talking about, Grayson figured. After all, they were such brilliant researchers, they got a free Hab slot on the highly coveted Ring for the sake of their contributions to mankind.

The Ring, of course, referred to the orbital ring around Earth. It is still very much under construction and will be for millennia to come. This is Man's first real megaproject. It took the very near destruction of the ecosystem and the species to motivate humanity to forgo economic concerns and really put their all into expanding off planet.

Shuttle launches, no matter how frequent, just could never hope to keep up even with the birthrate of humanity. There was just no way to get everyone out there except by having a superhighway to the stars.

Grayson's family were among the first million to live on the Ring. His parents designed the AI system that helped keep such a massive project on track. A feat which no human or even organization could hope to do. Humans just can't see goals on scales like thousands or millions of years. Our motivations change over mere decades. Even our cultures and languages change drastically over centuries.

For there to be any hope of achieving the big picture, Grayson's parents knew they needed to develop what was essentially a mind that could hold a solitary goal for eons if need be.

Room is a tiny fraction of the computational power of that AI. It, like its goal, was named Ring. Everyone knows Ring. She is the modern equivalent of what the old timers called Siri, or Alexa, or Google. Except she is probably billions or trillions of times more powerful. She is the internet and humanity's guide. She has no control over physical systems. She only pushes us to do for ourselves.

Ring, of course, never talks to anyone. To be that close would make humans anthropomorphize her and then distrust her. Maybe she didn't even have the ability to think down to that level. Grayson didn't know. His parents might not even have known.

Anyway, Grayson continued to ponder his history lessons while scanning his surroundings for what minor change might be there. Eventually his peripheral vision snagged on a shift in the pattern in the floor tiles. The veins in the faux marble didn't line up quite like they should have in that one area.

He walked over to the tile and examined it. Sometimes the obvious changes like this would be a red herring and he would lose points by acting on them. Obvious to his trained mind was a shift of a few millimeters of the vein. Someone would have had to take up the tile, recreate the print file for it, and slightly shift the whole thing by that two or three mils before reprinting a new tile, and putting it back in place. This was well within the parameters of something his parents would do.

Grayson crouched down and closely examined the grout of the tile, looking for any subtle hint that this was one of the red herrings. Sometimes Mom would take pity on him and put a little clue within the lesson. Something to let him know, if he was careful, that this would be a demerit if he assumed too much of his own cleverness and announced he had found something.

Grayson didn't see anything this time. He was a bit suspicious still. After all, she didn't always give him clues. He should continue to look around for anything else and keep a running list in his head of the things he finds. It was really important to him today. He knew it would be just like them to only give him his special present if he passed their challenge.

Try as he might, Grayson didn't notice a single other thing out of place or changed within the hab. Resigning himself to the inevitable he went back to the room with the shifted tile and made the declaration required by the rules. "This is the challenge of the day." Pointing at the tile in question.

An approving chuckle resounded in his ears as Room activated the celebratory success response. Holographic confetti and a little dancing emoji appeared in the air over the tile Grayson had pointed at. Naturally, his optic implants had displayed the AR vision onto his retinas, but it was a very realistic vision.

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His parents were seated at the kitchen table, watching a projected video feed. They smiled up at Grayson, his father's eyes crinkling with smile lines.

"Happy birthday son! You're a man grown now," his dad enthused...

After a leisurely breakfast, it was time for gifts. Grayson's father presented him with a sleek new portcomp - a powerful folding computer interfacing directly with the user's neural implants.

"This model is linked to our family's core systems," his father explained. "You'll be able to access and control everything just like your mother and I do."

Grayson unfolded the device, thinner than paper. When he placed his palm on the interface pad, he felt a tingle as the biometrics synced with his body. Sure enough, a menu appeared granting him access to their household network and profiles.

"Thank you! This is incredibly generous," Grayson said. He knew such advanced comps were heavily restricted. This symbolized his transition into adulthood within their prestigious field.

His mother's gift was an elegant steel case engraved with vines. Inside, cushioned gently, was a slender silver band ringed with intricate characters.

Noting Grayson's puzzled look, she smiled. "It's an ancestral heirloom from the Ngans, the first space settlers. It has been passed down for generations as a symbol of coming of age."

She took it gently from the case and placed it onto Grayson's right middle finger. It warmed and adjusted fluidly to fit perfectly. He felt both connection and responsibility wearing this legacy of explorers past.

There was one gift left - the small crystalline cube from both parents. They watched eagerly as Grayson activated it with his interface implants. A dazzling holographic light show burst forth, eliciting delighted laughter.

But as he watched, entranced, Grayson felt a slight discomfort spreading from his arm - a creeping ache. Suddenly his muscles seemed to lock in place, paralyzing him. The room swam before his eyes.

As he lost consciousness, his father's voice echoed distantly. "You have a great destiny ahead my son..."

Then all went black.