by Gentry Race
“So, it’s true,” Chellis said.
Solari was erring but couldn’t control it. Had she been one all along? The dreams? Waking up outside? Chellis said he saw her move fast. She didn't know how to process everything.
Solari looked for the elevator door as a shot rang out. She felt the dark memSpace overcome her emotions. Her body felt light as she looked down to see Chellis had fired a caching double cross into her chest.
Annulus station teetered on a central axis, receiving adjusted amounts of Earthshine producing plasma and beautiful green auroras along the station’s upper walls. For most nPrints living on the immaculate station, it was a blessing to witness the solar phenomenon before the artificial neon lights came on.
It was the perfect time to attend one of the landytes on Annulus as the ionized solar atoms would interact with the them and cause the light show. Three nPrints laid next to each other just afoot the tall landyte towering over a grassy knoll. They looked up at the twinkling lights of Earth’s vast cities, wondering what life was like there.
Kali was mounted by a spry short-haired girl named Vic, pushing down on her chest while she closed her eyes waiting for something. Next to her was Skylar and Avery, brothers who shared an affinity for gothic tech-looking cyber-punks of the twenty-first. Despite being imprints and having access to abundant tech, they all had accessories wired along their bodies, augmenting various limbs that did nothing. It was a fad.
“I think I’m in!” Kali said excitingly.
“Hold your breath!” Vic said, pushing harder.
Skylar looked at his brother with a skeptic look. “This is BS.”
“Yeah, I don’t think you can willfully travel back into the wetwork without caching.”
“Well, we haven’t got any. Plus, you’re just afraid your cousin might find out,” Vic said.
Skylar looked at Avery, knowing their cousin Meson would not approve.
Small electrical sparks began to arc around Kali’s head, confirming the reaction. Kali slowly opened her eyes to see time had come to a standstill. Every moment plodded bit by bit.
“I think I’m buzzing!” Kali said.
A susurration came from the brush nearby. The brothers rose to their feet, watching what could be a guardian on patrol.
“Maybe we should head out,” Avery said.
Vic looked at him incredulously. “Don’t be a wimp.”
Trees and brush rustled around as green dots bobbed up and down.
“What was that?” Kali asked, eyes narrowing as they focused on the foliage ahead.
“Probably a Mod,” Vic said.
“Yeah, my mom said they always come here trying to cut their way in line.”
The trees rustled more, and a creature stepped into neon light. Its skin was obsidian, and hundreds of tiny arms swayed by his side, tiny fingers twitching. The fingertips were black and looked as though they were made of tar.
“Meson?” the creature whispered, the tiny arms trying to cover its mouth.
“What the…?” Vic said, shooting to her feet.
The creature continued its approach, the tiny hands scratching at itself as if trying to hold back. The wounds remained opened.
“What is it?” Kali asked before taking a step back.
Vic stood her ground, nPrinting a katana from her second skin. “Doesn’t matter.”
Vic rushed forward and slashed at the creature, but it was far more coordinated than she’d thought. It caught the blade with the two large arms while the tinier ones reached out with terrifying black fingertips, trying to take hold of her.
She grunted as she tried to keep hold of the sword, but it proved impossible. The creature pulled the katana from her hands, flipped it around, and thrust it into Vic’s stomach, lifting her high into the air. Blood dripped down the blade as the wound tried to reprint itself.
The tiny fingers reached for her again, scratching away Vic’s nPrinted skin like peeling an onion. The creature slammed Vic down on the ground, watching her cry out in excruciating horror as she realized the wound wouldn’t close. She would bleed out soon.
Then, as if acting purely on instinct, the creature pushed four fingers into Vic’s head, causing her eyes to roll back and all movement to cease. Kali and Skyler were frozen in shock upon seeing their friend lay lifelessly on the ground.
A low sound came from the creature’s chest, snapping them out of it. Kali and Skylar turned and ran as fast they could. Avery bravely took a swing at the creature, but it proved to be much faster. The creature lashed out with Vic’s katana, the attack powerful enough to cleave his soft torso in two. His body immediately collapsed into a heap, the halves lying at a sickly angle as his insides spilled onto the ground. Once again, the creature pushed its fingers into its victim’s forehead, finishing it.
Kali fell behind Skylar just as she was pulled back by nape of her neck to the ground. She kicked as hard as she could, but the creature kept coming. Its sinister green eyes stared daggers into hers as it reached out for her repeatedly, slashing and clawing at her. Just as it took another swipe, this one on perfect course to end her for good, she moved just at the right moment and only received a gash to her side.
Skylar realized in the last moment he was alone and stopped. He looked back to see Kali being attacked and everyone else mutilated and dead. Something shiny caught his eye, and he looked over to see the katana laying on the ground—seemingly forgotten by the thing that had wielded it with such brutal force.
Kali saw the faint Earthshine shine over the creature’s head only moments before it was lopped off. She cried out as it landed with a sickening plop in the blood-soaked dirt just before the body followed suit. She looked up to see Skylar standing there, bloody sword in hand and breathing hard. He looked terrified and traumatized, but physically okay.
There were only a few seconds of peace before the creature repaired itself. The creature stood tall and unsheathed an even larger set of razor-sharp claws. Skylar stepped back just as the creature lunged at him, jamming the black tips into his skull and killing him.
Mentally broken, Kali had nothing left but pure instinct. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was on her feet and running away as fast as she could manage.
Dead… They’re all dead. Must… save myself.
She repeated the words in her mind as she ran through the brush and into the woods, leaving three corpses and a monster behind her.
23
Solari had the sensation she was weightless and calm, swishing around in what felt like a vat of warm liquid. She was in her memSpace, dreaming. Not too far away she could see a tiny spec of light drifting in the cerebral current.
The white spec grew larger, turning into an orb until Solari could see its tensile surface. It was a memory. She tilted her head, and the iridescent gleam hinted at just the slightest form of a face. Her mother.
“Mom?”
Her mother’s eyes were kind. Her smile was filled with love and perfect acceptance. Tears ran down Solari’s cheek.
“Solari,” the woman whispered, “you mustn’t worry now. This place is perfect.”
Solari knew what her mother had always told her was now wrong. All she had fought for, trained for, and learned was a lie. “But I don’t want to be perfect. Elise is in danger.”
Her mother’s expression changed, and she lifted her hand and popped the white orb. “Then help her.”
Solari opened her eyes only to find herself restrained to a table in one of the interrogating rooms. The dull gray color on the walls reflected how she felt about herself inside.
A terrifying shriek pierced the air in one of the dark rooms next to her. Solari’s panic increased when the voice was familiar but unknown.
She clenched her fists and closed her eyes in hopes of invoking the erratum that had caused the mess she was in, but nothing happened. She had no control over the erratum like it had over her. She was not in control of her life for the first time.
Another shriek echo
ed, but this time it was much more painful to hear. Solari felt what little confidence she had slip as the stress took her. Without warning, her feet broke up into tiny bits, swarming around the room and under the door. She reformed just outside and had to work hard to ignore the intense nausea she felt after. She walked toward the frightful noise.
“Help me, please!” the muffled voice shouted again.
Green light shone down the dark, narrow corridor, blotted with deep maroon accented molds. In the dim light, Solari could see the scrubbers buzzing along the walls. Her back slid softly against the wall as she tried to hear the voices on the other side.
Was it Elise?
She approached the door to the room she believed held the person screaming for help. She accessed the black panel next to the door, hacking its interface to produce a screen that scanned the room in an AO pass for nPrints and humans.
The walls close to her were now a bright white, while the walls far away were black. Showcasing the depth of the area as it pulsed in slow steady transcription lines, evidence of the nanites bridging her reality in slow form.
Just beyond were more walls, revealing a room with no doors. Two men stood at prep stations, examining strange cutting tools. They didn’t strobe, which meant only one thing.
“Humans?” Solari said to herself.
She scanned over the room, her eyes stopping on a strobing figure strapped to a table tilted at a forty-five-degree level.
“Elise?”
The larger of the two men walked over, whispering something to the others that Solari could not hear. Then she heard something familair. Her sister, Elise, who cried out in excruciating pain.
Solari zoomed in to see the large man tearing into the flesh of her stomach. The man watched curiously as it healed slowly back to normal.
“Please, no more!” Elise pleaded.
He stabbed at her again, and her scream filled the room. Solari was frantic. She wanted to help but had no plan. She couldn’t just rush in. If she did, she could fail, and then both of them would die. She wondered what they were doing to Elise.
Physically, Elise would continue to heal, but the pain would cause severe psychological distress. Solari knew she needed to do something—fast.
The large man pulled out a jagged piece of shrapnel from the dirty bomb used in the explosion. Without hesitation, the man once again ripped open Elise’s stomach and pulled out the white insides, tossing them to the floor in a disgusting plop.
He’d expected to see a cybernetic organism full of metal and wires, but he was visibly surprised to see it was real flesh that had been colored an opaque white from the feed. Despite being nPrinted to be perfect, the entry wound was now different and had black edges where the alloy had shredded it. The wound would not close, and the regenerative reprinting process had halted.
Jantzen entered a large white room that was cylindrical in shape and perforated with holes that acted as a ventilation system. A large holographic projection instructed him to take off his clothes, and he obeyed. The floor was warm to the touch upon his heels as Jantzen stood naked in the middle of the facility.
“State your name,” a monotone voice said from above.
“Jantzen Cruz.”
“We will perform a series of tests, Mr. Cruz.”
His eyes narrowed. “Tests? Can we get on with it?
“Mr. Cruz, we must make sure your body can survive the Naturalization process. Almost four percent of subjects do not make it,” the voice responded.
“Four percent, eh? Not bad.” Jantzen nodded his head as he contemplated the odds. They didn’t scare him.
Door lines traced themselves and opened to his right, leading to another cylindrical room where he saw a cloud of mist circulating inside. Hints of rainbow colors swirled around each molecule. Hesitantly, Jantzen stepped into the room.
“Please breathe, Mr. Cruz, and clear your thoughts,” the monotone voice said to him.
He took a deep breath, and his lungs burned. He exhaled the mist, coughing. “What is this stuff?”
“They are nanites. We are measuring your lung capacity and mapping you from the inside.”
Another door nPrinted, and he was led to a desk with a set of picture holograms as Rorschach tests. The first picture unfolded and looked like a skull to Jantzen.
“Please look at the image and describe what you see.”
“A skull,” Jantzen answered flatly.
The image changed to show a heart bleeding onto itself. This reminded Jantzen of the tattoo his brother had after their mom had passed away. He would never forget that tat.
“A bleeding heart,” Jantzen said.
The image changed again to a mushroom-shaped object, billowy with puffs at the top. Jantzen recognized this. “A mushroom cloud.”
The room went dark, and the projected images disappeared into thin air. Another door nPrinted, showing a way back to the room he’d started in.
“Get dressed,” the voice ordered once he was inside.
Jantzen sighed and shook his head, wondering what the point of all that was. It certainly didn’t seem like it would tell them much. Without questioning the guide, he finished putting his clothes back on and laced up his shoes.
“Thank you for your submission, but we find your perception of reality to be skewed and your consciousness to be flawed. You are denied for Naturalization. Here is a voucher for transport. Please go the Annulus Depot for departure,” the monotone voice said matter-of-factly.
His eyes widened as shock rolled through him. “What? Denied? That can’t be! My genes are fine! My family has been Naturalized before.”
“I am sorry, Mr. Cruz, but we do not consider nepotism as a qualifying factor.”
Anger coursed through him, but he struggled to keep it in check in case he stood a chance of changing their mind. “Then what do you consider?”
“We have amalgamated a list that qualifies personalities. You failed the first step in processing.”
“But it was just stupid pictures,” Jantzen pleaded.
The skull, the bleeding heart, and the mushroom cloud projected in hologram form once again.
“Mr. Cruz, over ninety-five percent of applicants—which is 4,735 people—said they saw a smiling face, a dripping strawberry and a flower, respectively.”
Jantzen couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Like a game show of olden days, his chances were based on ‘what the survey said.’ Jantzen focused on the mushroom cloud picture once more, tilting his head, and for a moment, he thought he saw a fluffy peony flower.
24
Solari covered her mouth, feeling sick to her stomach. She focused on Elise, unable to see her eyes due the way the scan interpreted the printing signal, but she knew she must be in shock.
The other two men hooked up large bags with an opaque substance that ran through a secured a line into her arm. Solari was confused about what it could be, but she shook the thought away. She knew Elise would soon bleed out and reset her consciousness, and the torture would be over soon.
“Blood?” Solari said, realizing they were pumping blood into her to keep her alive.
“Now, tell me what this is,” the large man said.
Solari pressed her ear to the door, trying to seek out every subtle sound.
“It’s what’s gonna stop you,” Elise’s soft voice said.
In a fit of rage, the man slammed the shrapnel into Elise’s face. She cried out in pain as a curious reaction formed. The man inspected the wound to see a crystallization occur inside her head, and Elise’s life ceased to exist.
“Elise!” Solari yelped uncontrollably.
Through the scan, she saw the large man turn his head in her direction like a bird of prey. He’d heard her. The man stepped closer, his figure outlined in bright white humanity opaqueness. Solari trembled, trying not to move or make a sound.
The large man punched through the wall, sending Solari soaring back into the wall behind her. In a moment of panic, she felt light, wei
ghtless, and broke apart into a million pieces before swirling about.
Solari came back together a few feet down the way. She kept moving, trying not to think about what her erratum was capable of. She sprung to her feet, looking for the door where she came in, but it was gone. They must have changed the room, she thought.
She hacked the terminal, bringing up the blueprint she’d last accessed. She rapidly typed keystrokes, manipulating the structure and drawing an outline of a door. She looked up to see a real outline form on the wall and the outside as she hit execute.
As she attempted to bolt as fast as she could, someone grabbed hold of her and yanked back. She tried to move so she could see a face, but she only saw her reflection as she fought against the pain. Twisting with all her strength in his grip, she turned enough to catch sight of a man wearing a half-mask with goggles fitted with eight cameras arranged like a spider’s eyes.
“I see you!” he said, smiling. His human teeth were peppered in soot.
Once again, she kicked and fought with all her might. He squeezed her throat tighter, and the blood pressure in her head built behind her eyes. The capillaries burst, turning the sclera a shiny black.
If I don’t get out of this, she thought between weakening punches and kicks, I’ll reset, and all this will be over.
“Let’s see that trick again,” the man said as he squeezed harder.
Solari’s black eyes rolled back as she broke apart again, chaotically swirling about. The man pulled a gun and fired through the swarm as he watched with curiosity her safely escape out the door. He nPrinted an interface from his strapped-on bistable, studying a map and a blip as it moved away. He smiled as he tracked her
The night was still when Solari solidified and opened her eyes. She was tucked between two building next to some shrubs. She tried to turn her head but moving at all made her feel weak. The broken capillaries in her eyes slowly healed, returning to a pristine white as she searched for landmarks among the distant buildings on Annulus.
