by LEMPEREUR
He could no longer feel the mouse’s little paws gripping onto his shoulder, either. He turned to look at it, but it had disappeared. He looked all around him and searched in all his pockets, to no avail. Its absence should have been a relief, and yet he felt disoriented and helpless, as if he had just lost a part of himself.
He cleared his throat conspicuously but no one paid any attention. Then he stretched out his arm toward his nearest neighbor. His hand passed straight through him, as if he were nothing more than a hologram. Everything seemed to be back the way it had been. He took one step forward then another, and realizing that he could move through the crowd like a plane flying through a vast cloud bank, he continued on confidently until he reached the stage. At that very moment, the cortege of officials was making its way through the crowd with difficulty, following their body guards. He immediately recognized two members of the Council, accompanied by the two guards he had just been talking to. Among them was the young, impertinent one who had tried his best to unsettle Senec during his questioning before the Council. Charlie watched him climb the steps before the audience of workers, his self assurance verging on arrogance. He had not done anything to him personally, but Charlie could not help detesting him.
25 SACRIFICE
The small group of speakers consisted of four men and one woman, or of four masculine and one feminine N.H.I.’s, to be precise; although the feminine one was rather androgynous. Only her clothes and the curve of her hips hinted at her femininity. Other than that, just like the men, the skin on her head was only slightly hairy and her face was as hard and serious as theirs. She was the first to speak to the perfectly silent and attentive crowd.
“Gentlemen, you and I all know that for many years now you have been working hard on the construction of the Navigator fleet, and we congratulate you for accomplishing such a mammoth task.” She paused for a second, looking grave then went on, “Unfortunately, our reason for assembling you here today is that we are faced with a difficult situation. Despite all our efforts, the work has fallen too far behind schedule. Until now, we had hoped to be able to finish building the Navigators before the fateful day. However, a week ago, our statisticians handed in their latest calculations and I’m afraid they are unambiguous. We have no chance of terminating construction of all the vessels in time. We are now faced with some painful decisions.” A clamor rose from the crowd, who had just realized the Exodus plan was taking a dramatic turn. The speaker raised her voice to make herself heard.
“As you probably understand, we have decided to focus the work on five of the nine vessels.”
On hearing this figure, the crowd erupted in anger, literally drowning out her voice as she tried in vain to speak over all the commotion. The atmosphere was electric. The mob seemed on the verge of stampeding, and a number of them could no longer contain their anger. Charlie decided to get up on the stage. It was pointless, as he was not in any danger, but he found it reassuring and from up there, he would be better placed to observe the scene and hear what the speakers were saying. Eventually, one of the workers also climbed onto the stage, uninvited and began to speak, looking at each of the five councilors in turn.
“We cannot agree to this decision. If necessary, we will work night and day, but we cannot resign ourselves to sacrificing a whole portion of our people. Tell your statisticians to recalculate their predictions, taking those new parameters into account. Train more workers – even women and children if necessary – but we will finish the work on time or no one is leaving, mark my words!” He stepped down from the stage, to thunderous applause.
The young councilor got to his feet, scanning the workers’ faces one after the other.
“We understand your consternation and indignation. If necessary, I am willing to give up my place on board, but what about you? And you?” he said, pointing to them one by one. “Are you willing to sacrifice a whole society because of your refusal to face reality? If we don’t focus our efforts on these five vessels, it will not be five, but only two – or at the most three – vessels that are finished on time.”
The shocked crowd calmed down and listened attentively to the alarming picture he was painting them.
“We would encourage you to think very carefully. In any case, there is no alternative. I’m sorry,” he said, taking on a compassionate air, before returning to his seat.
The crowd remained silent for a long while, stunned by the news that had just hit them with all the force of an irrevocable decision. The female speaker began again, this time being careful to choose a gentle, appeasing tone of voice.
“Gentlemen, from today, we will be restructuring the teams in order to maximize the number of vessels that will be operational before the impact. We share your fear and pain. I have children of my own and if it were enough to put them to work to resolve the issue, I would not hesitate to do so. Unfortunately, that would be pointless. There is no other solution, believe me! Now, I ask that you return to your posts and follow the new orders you will be given.”
She turned around, but before returning to her seat, she looked Charlie up and down. The little white mouse was on her shoulder. It looked at him too, but with tenderness, as if it wanted to draw Charlie into its net again. Apparently, they were the only ones who could see him, and the animal was certainly present for a reason. Without hesitating, Charlie followed her into the midst of the official cortege. The crowd was slow to disperse and the guards advised them to wait a while on the stage before braving the mob again. The young councilor approached the female speaker.
“Emma, I really appreciated the way you managed to win over all those men while sending them back to work. You sure know how to put your feminine touch to good use. We should have more women on the Council, I always say.”
“Quit the flattery, Firsc. I don’t care for your manners. You felt you had to step in just now, as if the poor little woman desperately needed a man to handle the situation. What a great image of me you projected to the crowd! Using fear as a means of persuasion is an utterly masculine tactic, and yes, it might be good to encourage women’s access to the Council.”
“Maybe. But fear brought that army of workers ready for battle to their senses. Their leader was beginning to get a little too cocky for my liking. His name is Pyrias, if my information is correct. I’m going to see about meeting him personally tomorrow. On that subject, it’s a shame Senec was not invited to our little gathering. They tell me he is still under house arrest. That’s a pity. He would have found it very interesting, no doubt.”
“You don’t like him, do you? And yet, he’s a man of conviction. He is not afraid of following through on his commitments.”
“What are you implying, Emma?”
“I’m not implying anything. I just wonder if you would actually be willing to give up your place to one of the workers, as you so piously claimed just now.”
“What about you? Would you give up yours?”
Emma did not answer. The guards invited them to step down from the stage, now that the crowd had sufficiently dispersed. The small group walked down the long corridor and took their places in hover car like the one Charlie had ridden in with Vikern and Jiec. It travelled at a sickening speed, tilting upward until it was almost vertical. A few moments later, they entered an enormous underground gallery, which Charlie recognized immediately. It was hall of domes.
There were hundreds of steel domes, similar in every way to those that housed the pavilions of the Mataiva base. This place was identical except for a few external things; the roads in particular, which must have been added by humans when they fitted out the cave as a military base. The vehicle deposited each of them in front of a different dome. Emma got out last, accompanied by Charlie. Her pavilion was number 524. She opened the huge steel door of the dome easily, and turned to Charlie.
“Come in. There’s no one else here.”
An astonished Charlie entered the dome. The place seemed a lot smaller than he remembered. The cupola-shaped ceiling
was certainly high, but not as high as all that, after all. The interior was comfortably furnished in minimalist style. It was not really an apartment, but more of a bedroom, with a bed and a small work-space where a desk was piled high with different colored tablets like the ones Senec had smuggled out to inform his brother. The contrast to what he had seen in Pavilion 28 was striking. He realized that men were truly Lilliputians compared to these giants, and now that he was in the skin of one of them, everything seemed normally sized to him. He even felt a little cramped, after the enormity of the boarding platform. He was scarcely more comfortable here than he had been in the cell where poor Senec was locked up.
Emma put her portable safe down near the desk and invited Charlie to sit on the only chair in the room. He complied, while she sat opposite him, on the edge of the bed. Despite the androgynous look that her smooth, hairless scalp gave her, she had a certain beauty about her and knew how to carry herself in a way that emphasized her femininity. The mouse was still sitting on her shoulder, but she seemed unaware of it, which greatly intrigued Charlie.
“Should I call you Emma, or Victor?” Charlie asked.
She did not answer.
“I had seen you sitting on the stage for quite a while. At first I thought you were a worker, but nobody else seemed to see you except me.”
“You’re not Victor?”
“You’re Victor! You’re Senec’s brother. Don’t you remember me?”
Charlie was literally paralyzed with fear at her words, but his only option was to continue the conversation, accepting this new identity which she had just revealed to him. He realized that the effects of convergence had just surpassed his wildest imaginings. From now on, he and Victor were one and the same. He was no longer a simple traveler lost in the memories of another being. He had become that other being. He was no longer exploring Victor’s reality. They were both developing it together from the data contained in Victor’s subconscious memories. After a brief pause, he replied weakly, “You’re probably right, Emma, but I’m not really sure where I’m at. I think I’ve partly lost my memory. I’ve even forgotten who I am.”
“What’s happened, Victor? What did you come here to find?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Help me, Emma. I’m lost.”
Emma’s expression suddenly softened. She obviously felt compassion for this powerless man who was entrusting himself to her care. She took his hands and answered him in a soft voice, “Don’t worry, Victor. Everything’s going to work out, I’m sure. Get some rest. I don’t sleep much and I have some files to finish by tomorrow morning. You can stay here until you feel yourself again.”
Charlie lay down on the bed and fell into the deepest of sleeps almost immediately. It was dreamless sleep that would see him through till dawn without interruption.
26 ESCAPE
The next morning, Charlie awoke to an empty room. There was a hand-written message on the desk from Emma, informing him that she had gone to the Council room. She asked him to wait until she came back at midday and invited him to take a look at the contents of a graphic tablet which she had left out on the night stand. Charlie lay down on the bed again and picked up the tablet. As soon as he placed his hand on it a three-dimensional screen appeared. After that, he needed to do nothing more. The images, diagrams and text scrolled by as he read them. It was as if the tablet adapted its speed and contents to his capacity to take in the information. The scroll speed adjusted with meticulous precision according to his reading speed.
Charlie remained captivated for hours, hypnotized by the screeds of information unfolding before him. When the door opened he jumped, surprised to see Emma back so soon, as it seemed to him that she had only just left.
“Hello Victor. I see you found my message. I hope I haven’t been away too long?”
“To be honest, I didn’t even notice the time go by.”
“I brought us something to eat. I was supposed to have lunch with the Councilors, but I found an excuse to get away. I didn’t want to leave you on your own too long. Did you have time to familiarize yourself with the contents of the graphic tablet?”
“Yes, most of it. At least, I think so.”
Emma cleared off a corner of the desk and put down a tray covered with a sort of metal dome.
“Help yourself – you must be starving!”
Charlie approached the desk, but he had no idea how the object, which he supposed was a meal-tray, actually worked. He searched all around its edges for some sort of notch that could open it, but found nothing of the sort.
“Oh, yes – sorry! You haven’t seen this model before. They’re trays our engineers have just finished developing. Soon the whole Navigator fleet will be equipped with them. Look, you just press down lightly on the cover. That starts the food cooking and when it’s done it will open automatically.”
Charlie followed her instructions and a few moments later the cover opened, revealing a steaming tray with a sort of strange-smelling cube on it.
“Try it. It’s a protein cube with added vitamins. I think these ones taste like meat. If you don’t like it, there’s a plate of raw fruit and vegetables on the side.”
Charlie tried all the dishes. The flavor was not so bad after all. He told himself that it was as good as what he had eaten at the canteen with Mario. Anyway, this food and its taste were merely virtual. He wondered for a moment whether Jacques was experiencing any of this too.
“Aren’t you going to eat anything, Emma?”
“No, go ahead. You can have it all. I’m not hungry.”
Charlie finished the whole tray without being able to tell if it was enough to satisfy his appetite. Then he asked Emma what he should do with it.
“Leave it there. I’ll take it back to the central kitchen. Let’s talk about what you just read.”
“Well, I’m not sure I understand all the details, but I gather it’s about a construction project for an underground city in some secret location. However, what I don’t understand is the reason for the secrecy. Senec told me about this type of project, but he said they were run by the Council itself. He talked about underground caverns where a whole section of the population could be placed in hibernation while awaiting rescue, but this project is a little different. It’s about an actual city with all the right conditions for a population to live self-sufficiently for an indefinite period of time, until conditions are suitable for them to return to the surface.”
“Senec didn’t lie to you. These subterranean bases do exist. Actually, the space center is built on one of them. The pavilion where we are now is located more than 1,000 meters underground. Maybe you didn’t notice because the new hover cars that we use are extremely fast. This base has two huge separate residential galleries. For now the pavilions are used to house personnel working on building the vessels, but later, they will be converted into hibernation domes.”
“But, we’re not under the ocean floor?”
“No, of course not! You do have some strange questions. Don’t you remember arriving at the space center?”
Charlie felt quite disoriented by what she had just said. He was positive he was in the cave where he had been taken millions of years later by Giuseppe’s team. He thought back to his geology classes and remembered that the Earth’s surface had been significantly modified over time. Maybe it did not look anything like it had in the past. Or maybe it was simply not the same base after all. He decided to fall back on the excuse of amnesia to save himself again.
“As I said, I’ve forgotten a whole part of my life. My memory is only just starting to come back.”
“How did that happen?”
“I don’t know. I think I must have had a turn shortly after arriving at the space center. When I opened my eyes, I was alone and couldn’t remember anything.”
Emma did not pursue the matter but she seemed intrigued by the idea of a sub-marine base. Victor claimed he had forgotten everything, even his own identity, so why would he be so surprised? What reas
on could he have for thinking that the base was under the ocean?
“Do you really not remember me?”
Charlie hesitated a moment. Her face suddenly reminded him of something. It was a feeling of déjà vu that he could not put his finger on.
“That’s odd!”
“What’s odd?”
“I can’t remember anything at all about you – or about anything else, if it comes to that – and yet, your face is familiar to me. Actually, I’m sure we’ve met somewhere before.”
“Victor, we spent several years of our childhood together! I’m Emma Sleitz, your cousin!”
Charlie felt a strange sensation. Ideas and images rushed through his mind at a sickening speed. It was as if a door had been unlocked. The memories came flooding back; memories that were not his own.
“Emma!” he said, feigning pleasure at recognizing her at last.
He did remember her, but these memories were from Victor’s perspective, not his. Even so, he felt genuine affection for her and really enjoyed talking with her. The flood of memories was accompanied by an intense, incoherent emotional exchange but he was not the only one responsible for his attraction to this young woman. From the beginning he had been at ease with her. She had rescued him and been extremely gentle with him. He had felt safe with her straight away.
