by Paul Anlee
Greg had only intended for Vacationland to be stimulating entertainment for the Cybrids, not for it to be used to placate them or to lull them into accepting an unfair and unequal status.
“Is that the Cybrid Problem you were talking about, their envy of humans?” he ventured.
“It’s not much of an actual problem yet, only one God has permitted me to foresee. Fortunately for us all, your Vacationland provides a lovely way to forestall any such issues before they become a serious issue. Thank you.”
“I’m glad to be of service.” Greg put his hands on his knees and leaned slightly forward, as if to stand. Darak would likely conclude the interview was over with Alum’s gratitude expressed; Greg wasn’t so sure.
“There’s more,” Alum waved him back into his chair. “First, though, I have a small test for you.”
“Oh?” Greg asked, as he settled back into the seat.
That’s when he felt the tingle of lattice induction plates in the base of his skull. People with normal dendy lattices interfaced with the plates through communication clusters that formed in that region of their brain.
Ever since ingesting the DNND lattice enhancement virus, Greg had no need for induction plates. He was certain Alum didn’t either. Their own fully functional interfaces overlaid their cerebral cortices just underneath their skulls. Greg might know that about Alum, but Alum could not have known it about Greg, at least not as the Darak alias.
The induction plates commanded Greg’s lattice to open for communication. What? They shouldn’t be able to do that; they’re only allowed to request a channel. Someone must’ve altered the request function into a more aggressive form.
He would’ve defended himself from the command, but he knew Darak could not be expected to have that ability. He had little choice. He sequestered the vast majority of his capabilities behind an impenetrable firewall that he hoped would be undetectable from outside, and opened a portion of his lattice to the command channel.
As fast as the channel opened, Alum came rushing in behind it. He pushed a scanning virus into the exposed part of Greg’s lattice. The virus ran through Greg’s brain, laying bare his concepta, reporting on his persona.
Greg’s deepest thoughts, memories and beliefs were exposed for Alum to review, or so the Leader would think. In the millisecond interval the induction plate command had given him, Greg reconfigured his lattice so that the only exposed thoughts were those that belonged to his Darak persona. It wouldn’t withstand too much probing but he hoped it would be enough to appease Alum’s understandable curiosity about Darak.
Greg shook his head. A normal person, such as one he wanted to portray Darak as being, would have felt a second or two of confusion, nothing more. He made his body, and the part of his mind open to Alum, behave as he thought the invaded Darak would.
“What kind of test?” he asked. The person Alum thought he was probing would not have sensed the lattice intrusion.
Alum rubbed his chin. “Hmm, perhaps there’s no need for that today.” He seemed satisfied with the result of his search.
Greg/Darak feigned a light confusion. “Oh. Okay.”
Alum pressed a button on the phone on his desk. “Charlene? Would you please bring coffee in for Mr. Legsu and me?”
He regarded Darak, a question implicit in his gaze.
“Oh. Cream and sugar, please,” Greg/Darak replied.
“Cream and sugar, please, Charlene. And maybe a bit of brandy. I suspect Mr. Legsu here may want to celebrate a little.”
Greg had no idea what was happening. Celebrate?
“Thank you, Alum. That’s very kind. What are we celebrating?”
Alum grinned broadly. “Your new career, Mr. Legsu. I want you in charge of producing all future Cybrid simulations.”
13
“It’s time we talked.” Shard Trillian turned the key with a great rattling, and pushed open the heavy door. Rusty hinges complained loudly but complied, sending ear-splitting squeals echoing off the stone walls.
Mary sat tall, pulled her shoulders back, and prepared to face the Shard. “I am not going to give you anything. You know that, right?”
Trillian smiled; her proclamation did not faze him in the least. “I would expect nothing less than brave defiance from Darya’s closest friend and confidante.”
Mary considered charging full force against her jailer in the hope of gaining some small advantage.
Trillian’s cold, piercing eyes and the crackling electric whip in his hand gave her pause.
Maybe I won’t risk it just yet. She pressed her back into the hard edge of the wall.
Trillian’s smile broadened. “That’s better.”
He waved a hand and a table appeared, set with steaming coffee and an assortment of fine pastries. A pair of soft, comfortable chairs rested on either side. The whip was gone from his hand.
Mary stood and took one of the chairs, poised somewhere between reluctance and gratitude.
She eyed Trillian as he walked into her cell and sat, leaving the gate wide open behind him. The message was clear: I have nothing to fear from you, and any attempt to flee would be pointless.
Mary selected a chocolate éclair for her plate. She poured herself a cup of coffee from the carafe and offered one to Trillian. He nodded politely.
“How may I help you, Shard Trillian?” she asked as she filled his cup. “I’m sure you aren’t keeping me here just for your amusement.”
Trillian chuckled. “You have nothing to worry about, providing you answer a few simple questions.” He glanced around the cell distastefully. “Why don’t we find somewhere more comfortable to enjoy our chat?”
He waved a hand and they were in Cloud 49 overlooking the Vacationland beach. The sun was shining and gentle waves lapped against the vacant shore. All was serene, as if there had never been a chase, torrential rains, and crashing thunder. Except for the two of them, the tropical oasis was empty. No one swam in the glistening waters; no one played on the golden sands.
Mary took a cautious bite from her éclair; it was delicious. She chewed the piece and swallowed, then washed it down with a sip of coffee. Everything was as tasty as Cloud 49 had ever served.
“Well done,” she commended Trillian. “Though I wouldn’t expect anything but the best, given your formidable talents.”
She surprised herself with her casual tone. Here she was, having coffee and cakes with a Shard. An actual Shard! Shards talked with God, not only in prayer but in conversation. Moreover, this Shard had chased her through multiple inworlds, captured her, and imprisoned her.
Even now, behind his disarming smile, she could sense his determination to wring her dry of any information she had about Darya and the rebellion. And yet, she was acting like they were old friends or multi-dimensional chess adversaries, nothing more. She hoped her acting was good enough to convince Trillian his cheesy scare tactics were having little impact, and therefore unnecessary.
Beneath the façade, she was worried—terrified—about what he was building toward, but she was determined not to let her sacrifice go to waste. She would make Darya proud of her right up to the last.
Trillian smiled and inclined his head at her compliment. “Thank you. It is always nice to have one’s efforts recognized.”
“Even if it made a mess of the local inworlds.”
“Yes, well, I do regret the unfortunate but necessary actions in Alternus. Your man, Gerhardt, responded to our chat much more aggressively than I had anticipated. And then the rest of you fleeing…well, you must realize it left me no choice but to act.”
Mary leaned forward, a pained look in her eyes. “But to trap so many innocent people—”
“How innocent could they be after being exposed to Darya’s concepta virus?”
Mary slumped back in her chair, wincing, and ashamed.
Trillian laughed. “Oh, yes. I know about that. A subtle piece of work; hard to detect, even harder to avoid. Once I knew who the author was, I simply had to meet he
r. Concepta viruses are not only illegal, they should be unthinkable amongst the Cybrids.”
“But not for Alum, or yourself?” Mary’s bitter retort astonished her. She knew she ought to apologize and beg her Lord’s forgiveness. Instead, she inhaled somewhat raggedly, let her breath out slowly, and took a sip of coffee. When she looked up again, she returned Trillian’s shocked stare with a determined glare.
Trillians eyes narrowed. “Our Lord’s policies are not to be questioned by the likes of you,” he said, with a dark and dangerous edge to his voice that hinted at dire consequences for any transgressors.
Then, as if a switch had been thrown, he smiled and returned the conversation to a lighter and friendlier tack. “In any case, what’s past is past. Let us focus on the future.”
“And what does my future include? Torture? Mind wipe?”
“Oh, no; nothing so harsh as that, my dear. You are far too interesting to delete. As for the other, let’s see how far conversation carries us first before we discuss such things.”
Mary sighed. “Okay. Why don’t you begin with your questions?”
“Very well,” Trillian said and took a small piece of vanilla cake from a tray. He popped the entire piece into his mouth and chewed appreciatively as he gazed into the distance. He swallowed, wiped the crumbs from his lips, and brushed his hands lightly together over the plate.
“Tell me, was the entire purpose of Alternus simply to be a vehicle for delivering the concepta virus?”
“Clearly we could have found better ways to do that. Vacationland gets many more visitors every day than Alternus ever did.”
“True,” Trillian agreed. “But inserting the virus here would have required hacking the original code. That would have set off alarms throughout the Realm. There are advantages to having the insight of the original designer.”
Mary smiled slyly. “Granted, but you’re not the only one with formidable talents, you know.”
“If not the virus, then what? From the records I have accessed, which are extensive I assure you, Alternus was an extremely realistic simulation—“
“Of Earth?”
“Ah, so you have been told something of our roots.”
“Beyond the standard teachings about Origin? Yes, Darya told us plenty about ancient Earth and its challenges before Alum. She claimed that Alternus was an accurate representation of humanity’s original planet with a few minor changes.”
“What kinds of changes?”
“She said the original Earth went through a technological boom shortly before it was destroyed, which led to the development of the basic Cybrid technology as well as to something she called the Darian Leigh Reality Assertion Field, or RAF.”
Trillian’s eyes narrowed when she mentioned Darian Leigh. “It is not permitted to know that name nor anything of his heretical teachings.”
“Don’t worry. Even Darya has no idea what it was all about, just that it changed everything back then.”
Mary wished she wasn’t telling the truth about that. If Alum hadn’t so thoroughly suppressed Darian Leigh’s theory, perhaps the universe would look different now. But the ideas had been lost to antiquity and oppression. Perhaps Alum, in his ancient omniscience, knew the theory but no one else had any inkling. Or so she’d believed. It would seem that Trillian had at least been aware of its existence.
Trillian searched her face for any tells of attempted untruths.
“Why would Darya select those particular changes?”
“I don’t know for sure. She said the technology led to hyper-fast development of science, and those changes eventually resulted in something that destroyed the planet. Humans and Cybrids barely escaped. She wanted to see what would have happened without that technological burst.”
“So, that’s all it was, a complex inworld to test possible alternative histories?”
“Darya considered it interesting.” For a moment, Mary thought she might have fooled the Shard.
Then a sly smile formed on his face. “I suspect you are not being completely honest with me Mary.”
Two hissing cobras suddenly materialized on the table directly in front of her. She jumped back in her chair, hands clasped tightly to its padded arms.
The snakes slithered forward a little and raised their heads, preparing to strike. Mary raised her arms in front of her face. The cobras sprang.
Trillian raised a single finger and the snakes disappeared mid-leap, before they could sink their eager fangs into Mary’s flesh. Her scream choked off before it got any strength behind it. She lowered her arms, but her breathing remained fast and ragged.
“Now, let us be honest with one another, shall we?” Trillian said.
He leaned forward and clasped his hands together on the table. His face was no longer friendly and contained no hint of patience.
“No harm will come to you, if you answer my questions honestly and completely. But I have no desire to spar with you forever, trying to guess what exactly I need to ask to get the information I desire.”
He relaxed back into his seat and sampled another pastry. He sipped his coffee, returned the cup to its saucer, and met Mary’s eyes with a piercing stare.
“Let’s try again. What was Darya’s true intentions with regards to Alternus?”
Her eyes darted about as she contemplated throwing herself out of her chair and off the edge of the cloud. With any luck, she might land on the sand, break her virtual neck, and be free of her jailer. Then she remembered Trillian’s power in this hacked version of Vacationland and realized he could return her to this table before her fall terminated far below.
With a resigned sigh, she answered, “It was a training ground. It has been aeons since we Cybrids needed to make decisions for ourselves. None of us have any experience in leadership. Darya hoped that by learning how to lead in the challenging Alternus environment, we would gain the skills to run our own lives.” She glared defiantly at Trillian, “Without Alum.”
“Why would you do that? What purpose could you possibly hope to—?” Trillian realized the implication of Mary’s confession.
“A rebellion? Here? At the very center of the Milky Way, the Origin and Home galaxy?” Even Trillian was impressed by the courage of a Cybrid that could conceive of such a thing.
Mary took no joy in his astonishment. “Darya always said, ‘The gods are blindest in their own backyards.’ She explained the true purpose of the Deplosion Array, and how Alum’s Divine Plan will lead to the destruction of the universe. So what would be the point of a rebellion in any other part of the Realm? It had to be here.”
Trillian blanched at Mary’s words. He knew that Alum intended to destroy the entire universe by causing its collapse and re-Creation. But Alum had always assured him he would resume his trusted position at Alum’s side in the Heaven He’d build in the New Creation.
Had some other Shard informed Darya, a mere Cybrid, of Alum’s true purpose in building the machinery that would initiate the Deplosion? No, that was impossible. She must have guessed or somehow divined His true Plan.
“Where is Darya now?” he asked.
Mary shrugged. “I have no idea. Last I talked to her, she was hoping to get to her trueself and escape your perverted inworlds.”
“Along with Timothy.”
Another shrug. “One can only presume.”
“What is his role in all this? Why does she protect him?”
“I have no idea. I just met the man; I think he amuses her.”
“Amuses?” Trillian leered a little.
“Not in that way! Although, I have to admit, I did wonder the same when I first met him. No, I think it’s more to do with you being the one responsible for his full instantiation. I’m sure she’d find that whole angle intriguing.”
“Hmm. He is somewhat of an anomaly. How did they escape Vacationland?”
“I don’t know the details, but Darya found a way to bypass the normal connection routes you blocked. But….”
She laughed. �
��Oh! I get it! They’ve also escaped from the recharging station, haven’t they? They got away, and you have no idea where they are!” Mary slapped her thigh in glee.
Trillian was not amused. “They may have evaded our search for the moment, but I assure you they will be found.” His eyes narrowed. “You can help me with that. Darya strikes me as someone who plans her moves thoroughly and well in advance. Surely, you’re familiar with some of her retreats?”
Mary stopped smiling. “I don’t know anything about that.”
Trillian reached across the table and touched her arm.
“I believe you do,” he said.
Mary heard an odd buzzing sound and her world went fuzzy. Everything was wrapped in clouds, the table, the beach, the forest, everything except his face and penetrating eyes.
“Tell me where she is hiding,” he commanded.
Mary felt the near-physical compulsion to confess. So far, she’d said nothing of consequence, nothing he couldn’t have guessed for himself. Her vision narrowed until her world was filled with the image of Trillian’s eyes boring into her, demanding she tell him everything. She almost succumbed, almost blurted out the location of Secondus.
Something snapped inside her, and Trillian jolted back in his chair as if she’d struck him with the back of her hand.
Concepta attack repelled—the words floated in her visual field in stark red letters.
The confused look on Trillian’s face—or maybe it was her own sense of relief—made her burst out laughing.
Darya’s upgrades! She’d forgotten that when Darya had installed the new quark-spin logic in her semiconductor brain, she’d also replaced her security software.
While she couldn’t access the quark-spin lattice within her trueself on the other side of Trillian’s blocks, the enhanced security software was a part of her BIOS. Wherever her consciousness went, the security routines went as well. In this case, allowing her to connect with the identical quark-spin technology of the Alternus inworld hardware.
It was Mary’s turn to smile broadly. “I did warn you,” she said to at the dazed Shard, “You’re not the only one with formidable talents.”
