by Tony Corden
Jen answered with a long kiss, and then left so John could prepare for what needed to be done.
6
December 21 2073
REAL WORLD
Leah wasn’t sure exactly when the transition between asleep and awake happened, but the nightmare faded slowly, and instead of starting again, it was replaced with nothingness. Somehow her dream-self could see, whereas her awake-self was blind. She tried to make sense of her surroundings, but all she could feel was a hard floor underneath her covered with what felt like a thin and scratchy carpet. She was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, but they were twisted out of shape and pulled against her wounds. Slowly she sat up, wondering where she was. The last thing she remembered she’d been back at the pod facility, the place that had become home. How had she got here? Wherever here was.
Suddenly she felt a soft hand touch hers. When Leah didn’t respond, her hand was turned over, and someone wrote, ‘LEAH’.
Leah nodded, and the person wrote, ‘ITS MUM’.
Leah turned her mum’s hand over and wrote, ‘WHERE?’.
It took a while, but her mum explained that Leah had thrashed around in her dreams. Kevin’s draught had knocked her out, and in her thrashing around she’d destroyed the bed. John had arrived before Conner could touch her and had tried to calm Leah down. John had a black eye and two suspected cracked ribs. After that, they carefully moved everything from the room and covered the walls with mattresses. Most of Leah’s wounds had reopened slightly, and three of the mattresses had needed replacing through the night. Lin had only been allowed in after Leah had sat up and been quiet for a few minutes.
Once Leah knew what had happened, she slowly backed away from Lin and moved around until she was sitting tightly in a corner with her legs pulled up tightly to her chest and her chin resting on them. Her sightless eyes stared out into the room. Michael and Lin tried to communicate, but Leah just sat without moving, ignoring everything. Finally, after thirty minutes, they got John. He walked over and sat beside her. He tried to pull her hand down to write on, but she was too strong. Finally, he reached over and wrote on her cheek, ‘STOP BEING SELF INDULGENT SELF CENTRED WHINEY BABY’.
When he’d finished writing, he sat there leaning against her until she leant back. Once she’d done that, he eased her out from the corner and let her lean back against his chest. Finally, after about ten minutes, Leah held out a hand. When John put his in hers, she wrote, ‘SORRY’.
John turned her hand up and said, ‘SHE SAID YES’.
Leah’s face tried to smile, and John froze as the added tension in her skin pulled open one of the bandages Kevin had put on her forehead. Slowly Leah stood and held out her hand to help John up. John took her hand, then waited for Lin. After Lin took Leah’s hand and explained who she was, Lin quickly rearranged Leah’s clothes and led her to the nearby kitchen where food was being prepared. After Lin helped Leah sit, Kevin came and redid the bandages as Lin fed Leah some congee. Leah would open her mouth as the spoon touched her lower lip. Leah also took another dose of all the antibiotics, nutrients and energy supplements.
After she’d had enough, Leah asked to use the bathroom and then sat to talk with Michael, Lin and Conner for a bit. After about an hour she asked for John or Lacey. This time it was Lacey who came as John was in the Pod discussing things with Dr Roberts, Olivia and Leon. Leah took Lacey’s hand and wrote, ‘TEACH BRAILLE’.
‘YOU WANT ME TO GET SOMEONE TO TEACH YOU BRAILLE?’
‘Y AND BRAILLE COMPUTER WORK TO DO’
‘OK ILL TRY’
‘STICKS’
‘FIGHTING?’
‘Y’.
‘?’.
‘SPAR.’
‘YOU WANT TO SPAR?’
‘Y’.
‘?’.
‘NEED CONTROL’
‘?’
‘I NEED CONTROL’.
‘OK’.
‘PEN PAPER’.
Lacey got some paper, and Leah found her control was good enough to write. However, they needed to replace the paper after every sentence. She explained she wanted to practice with her sticks. She needed to get some control back. She wanted a rope or some type of texture on the floor to set out a boundary. She needed an open area with a breeze or some form of airflow. After an opportunity to meditate, she wanted to practice before seeing if she could get enough awareness of her surroundings to spar with Johan, Lacey or John. She said she knew she wasn’t going to be good enough, but she knew she could hurt someone else by accident if she wasn’t careful.
Lacey asked Conner to organise the practise area and then went to find out who could help Leah start on braille and how to get a computer that Leah could use braille with. It was possible she could find out in the Switch because it was one of the only areas still using braille. In other areas, people born blind or those who became blind after birth learned to communicate using a Pod. After Lacey left, Lin sat and using her finger, prayed with Leah, then tried to get Leah to open up about how she was feeling. Although Leah knew what her mum was doing, she wasn’t ready to share just yet. Earl’s attack on her, unsuccessful as it was, had dominated her dreams. She could see his amused grin as she broke his neck, over and over again. No matter how often she killed him, he kept returning to try and attack her one more time. She felt more traumatised now than before she was safely home.
Finally, Conner returned and said the mat was ready. Leah checked the time and found it was almost midday. Conner led her down the stairs to a large room which was usually used for large community meetings and had been hurriedly emptied of everything. A four-by-four-metre square had been marked out by removing the carpet squares from the outside of the room and leaving only the centre area covered.
Once Leah was in the centre square, she wrote on his hand that she’d like only one person to stay and guard her, but everyone else needed to leave, please. She then let go of Conner’s hand and carefully walked around the square to get a feel for how large it was. Leah could feel the carpet under her feet and the faint give of the foam underlay. She walked back and forth, trying to judge her position. She could feel the breeze as it moved through the windows and brushed against her skin. She had no idea what direction it was coming from, but she used it as the north of her internal compass.
Everyone had left except Johan, who’d arrived to replaced Conner. He stood in the corner of the room, just watching. When she was ready, Leah slowly increased the rate at which she monitored the stimuli she was getting from her skin. She didn’t speed up all the way but only until she felt she could almost feel the movement of the air as it blew past her and she could sense the small eddies forming behind her arms as they moved. Johan watched as Leah turned and sat almost exactly in the centre of the mat.
Slowly Leah began working through her Tai Chi exercises. She tried to move slowly and took time to match the movements with her breathing and the beat of her heart. Some of the poses she modified to take account of her aches and pains, but as she warmed up and stretched, she gradually tuned out all the distracting sensations. She concentrated on feeling where she was and the placement of each part of her body.
At first, Leah stumbled, and her movements took her from the centre of the square toward the edges. She would stop when her foot hit the clear, smooth cement flooring of the cleared surface. When this happened, she would move back to the centre of the square and start again. When she had run through her whole series of moves without leaving the centre square, she stopped and walked to the edge to find out how far off she was. After several complete sets, Leah was able to stay in the centre of the square as she moved through the sequence. Then, she slowly began to increase her speed.
Johan watched as John eased himself into the room and stood against the wall. John was carrying two sets of fighting sticks and he watched Leah for a few minutes as she flowed from one position to another through the whole sequence before starting again. Seeing her re-start, he suddenly took three steps toward her putting himself betw
een her and the open windows. Johan was stunned when moments later Leah brought her movement to a stop and stood in the ready position, almost facing John. John nodded gently, then tossed one of the sticks toward Leah so it arrived almost vertically in front of her. Leah’s hand darted out and tried to grab the stick but missed. She dropped to her knees and hunted around until she found it. Once she’d picked it up, she stood and once more turned to face John. She motioned her hand for the second stick. This time her movement to grab the stick was much closer. Although her timing and position were out, the end of the stick slammed into her hand, and she caught it.
John stepped back next to Johan as Leah began to work her way through the routine John had taught her years before. She started slowly and fought to get each movement just right while keeping herself aware of what was going on around her. After what seemed like almost ten minutes to Johan, Leah began to speed up. To Leah, she’d worked through the kata slowly for almost an hour. Leah continued to move, and each time she did the sequence she increased the speed just a little. When Leah’s movements had become almost a blur, John stepped forward again and disrupted the air flow. This time Leah assumed the ready position with the sticks set to defend. As John stepped onto the carpeted area, Leah took two steps backwards.
John moved into position for the two-person routine and brought his right-hand stick down toward Leah at an angle. Both her sticks met it and turned it before moving into the second part of the drill. John increased his speed to match Leah’s and brought his stick into the right place for the second movement. Leah thought John was moving slowly so she could be in the right place and she was thankful because it was almost beyond her to sense where she was without overcharging her neural speed too much. She wanted to be able to maintain her hold on the increased speeds for a more extended period. Leah could occasionally sense the movement of John’s sticks but was confident that he would match her pace and help her through the two-person sequence. John, on the other hand, was working hard to keep up the pace. From his perspective, Leah was fitter than anyone had a right to be. It looked like she was dancing through the moves almost effortlessly while he was finding himself hard-pressed to keep up.
Finally, after they’d been through the routine twice, John stepped back out of range, causing Leah to lower her sticks and look around trying to find John. John said, “Johan, you want to spar? My ribs are killing me.”
“Not really, John, I don’t think I could have kept up with that last sequence. I will if Leah promises to slow down.”
“I bet if you asked her she would say she was going slow.”
“Can I ask?”
“No. What happened to her is still out of bounds. You’ve just seen what Lacey saw a month ago. Then, Leah had all her senses, this time she has none except the movement of air on her skin. When she spars, she’ll need to slow it down a long way just to sense the movements. I suspect you will need to disturb the air so I’ll go get some padding to increase the diameter of your sticks as well as getting the protective gear. I’ll just explain what I’m doing.”
“Let me explain while you get the padding.”
Johan stepped forward carefully with his hand out. Leah reached out hers, and after introducing who he was, he explained about the padding. Leah explained that she needed to feel the air so she’d rather not wear padding. When John returned, he brought the safety gear and some padded sticks. After Johan explained what Leah had said, John went to talk with Leah while Johan got ready and warmed up. When Johan was ready, John left and Leah stood and came to the ready position. Johan made the first move and brought the stick across to hit Leah on the left side. Leah felt the movement through the air just before Johan’s stick hit her. Her defence was faster than Johan could track and his stick was blown out of his hand and snapped in two. Leah’s counter would have possibly broken something if he hadn’t been pulled out of position when his stick had been wrenched from his hand.
Johan waited until Leah had moved into a non-sparring position and talked her through what had happened. He then went and called for John to bring some more padded sticks. They sparred for almost an hour before Leah was sensing Johan’s moves with enough time to block them without using excessive force. The last five minutes had been at half speed for Johan.
Feeling hungry and tired, Leah stepped back and held out her sticks to Johan. After he took them, Leah held out her hand and allowed herself to be led from the room. After they’d got a drink, Johan asked how she could fight but not walk. Leah used the pen to explain that in the room she could sense the air movement. With other people around, not knowing exactly what the boundaries were and with doors and windows all over the place, she couldn’t work out everything that was around her well enough to go anywhere with confidence. She was also scared that she might react too strongly if she was startled. She trusted him to deal with anything that might be dangerous.
Lin insisted Leah have a shower. Lin also made her eat and drink before leading Leah into a room where Lacey had arranged a teacher for the blind to give Leah her first lesson in braille. Leah already understood the concept behind braille and had done an assignment on pre-Pod aids for the disabled. At school, one of the children several years younger than Conner was blind, and remembering Grace had given Leah the idea.
Lacey introduced the teacher, but just before Lacey stepped back, Leah pulled her close and wrote on her hand so the teacher couldn’t see. ‘GET GRACE CHIP AND POD FOR CHRISTMAS CHECK WITH PARENTS FIRST A GIFT BEST AVAILABLE’.
After agreeing, Lacey called Mia into the room to watch over Leah and then went to arrange for someone to talk to Grace’s parents. Leah not only understood the concept but she already knew the written alphabet, had an excellent vocabulary, and could touch type. What she needed help with was remembering the braille letters and how to use the materials. Leah’s other advantage was an increased awareness of everything happening at the boundary level of her skin and the outside world.
Mr Hamilton, the teacher, was in his seventies and had been helping blind people in the negative-tax areas for the last twenty years. Leah explained what she knew, and then he used the material to help her learn and memorise the letters. With Leah’s increased tactile perception and her prodigious memory, she soon had the letters memorised. She then used the material he’d brought to teach her how to read words and use punctuation. Leah increased the speed of her neural activity and was soon able to read full sentences. Mr Hamilton had brought a braille keyboard and what was known as a refreshable braille display to help Leah read text that would normally be displayed on a screen. He also provided the material to help those around her to communicate using text to braille conversion software.
Altogether Leah spent two hours with Mr Hamilton before taking a break and taking more medication. After the break, Leah sent messages to her friends, including Thad, Amy, Wisp, Leon, and Peter before Jimmy arrived to talk about Leah’s plans to break into the Brisbane District Hospital. Jimmy sat at a keyboard connected to the refreshable braille display. Looking up at the screen, he could see what Leah typed.
“Hey Jimmy, I heard some of your boys were arrested while looking for me. John will help arrange for lawyers. Do you need anything else?”
“Keep the money, Leah, I’ll have more than enough from that deal we made. Do you want me to deal with Nathan?”
“Not yet. I think he needs to be crushed publicly first. Can I talk freely or are others watching?”
Jimmy looked around before answering. “Lacey is here, but she can leave if you like.”
“No, I trust her, and she already knows more than most. Things are happening that John hasn’t shared, but I think you might need to know. I imagine you already have plans for Nathan and Meredith regardless of what I said and I want them on hold, please.”
“You’re right, I do. No one messes with one of mine, and you still are one of mine. Why should I leave them to you?”
“Meredith isn’t the real Meredith. Eighteen years ago someone
took her place. The real Meredith Kodoman is being kept in a coma somewhere while her mind is kept in a virtual prison locked away from all human contact. Before I deal with Nathan and the imposter, I want to set her free.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Which part?”
“Any of it.”
“I know where she is being held virtually, and I’ve seen her. I want to contact her and talk. Before I do that I need to find out where her body is being held. When I get back into the multiverse there are some avenues to look down for that information, but I need people in place to not only reach her but who can hold and protect the location until she can either walk out on her own or be transferred to a safer place, depending on what she wants.”
“Not hoping for too much, are you?”
“There’s more. Two other people are in a similar boat. One is in Britain, and I’ve contacts who can help there. The other isn’t someone I know. I have his face and a picture, but I haven’t discovered who he is. My contact in the UK knows who he is but is keeping quiet. I’d rather know before I let them do anything with the information. Can you find a high placed agent or ex-agent who was in the field of cyber-security? I can give you a photo. I need the name. This is you, Lacey, John and I only. You or Lacey will need to show the picture with complete security. Lacey can meet in the multiverse, but it has to be in her world.”
“I’ll put feelers out and find someone. Are you thinking three simultaneous raids?”
