Virtually Perfect

Yip's father works for the movie industry and his specialty is computer generated content. The latest program creates virtual actors or vactors and since his father often works at home, he has a supercomputer in his home that can be used to create vactors. Yip's grandfather was "retired" out of the movie industry due to the advances in graphics after decades of work. He is an expert in special effects before the computer age and he is a practical joker. One day Yip comes home to find his grandfather lying on the floor with a knife in his back and blood everywhere. It turns out that it is all just a practical joke. When Yip and his grandfather stage a movie scene fight out in the yard it is so real that the neighbor lady calls 911 and it is necessary to do some fast and furious explaining. Yip and his sister Paige use their father's computer to create a vactor that is a young, handsome boy with an enormous amount of knowledge. However, due to space limitations, they must leave out ethical knowledge. To Yip's surprise, the vactor comes alive and leaves the computer and becomes Victor. Paige is immediately smitten by Victor and they start going places together. Yip comes to the realization that Victor is dangerous and he must find a way to delete him. This proves difficult as Victor has developed security restrictions that prevent access to his file. This is a great science fiction story for the modern child, it has some aspects of the "holodeck malfunction" episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" but it is presented at the proper level of the early teen child. This is especially true for children into computers and computer games.