Ripped Apart: Quantum Twins – Adventures On Two Worlds

by Geoffrey Arnold

  She struggled to rein it back and let the others catch up, reached out with her mind and coaxed the other threads to twine around hers, plaiting all four together. Relaxing her control, she watched as the rope spiralled around then plunged into the centre of the Stroems.

  CHAPTER 33

  DEATH DEFIED

  VERTAZIA

  Brilliantly coloured energy Xyled along each of the threads, the counterpart to their own colours. With a shock like diving from the highest springboard into a swimming pool, Tamina felt herself pulled headfirst along her thread, and knew the same was happening to the others. Despite promising not to, they had gone out of their bodies. For the first time in their lives each was in their InForming Matrix. They knew the theory, but it was still confusing to find that it seemed to be no different to normal life.

  Tamina felt the fear flickering out from the others, calmed her own, absorbed theirs, felt it churning in her stomach. Please, stay there. Don’t let it get into my thoughts, she asked the Multiverse, as they plunged into a swirling torrent of colours.

  She felt like a rocket shooting into space. Clutching onto her legs, Pelnak and Shimara were the big boosters. With his arms wrapped around her waist, she felt as though Wrenden was riding her as if they were in a HoloWrapper Kiddy Kartoon.

  A thick, grey mist appeared in front of them. Buried deep within were tiny flecks of red and green. As they headed into the mist, Tamina extended her arms and dropped her head between them, carving through the mist like a diver piercing the water.

  Small specks appeared in the distance. As they rapidly grew larger they could be seen to be birds. As birds were used on Vertazia to carry private messages, they all felt joy at such a welcome sight of a message from Qwelby.

  Their hopes were shattered as a ghostly face half appeared, wreathed in the mist. Lines of energy could be seen flowing from its mouth and eyes as if it was controlling the birds like animated puppets. The birds dived down and landed on Wrenden’s back. Gripping with their claws and flapping their wings, they tried to pull him away. Others landed on Shimara and Pelnak striking with their beaks, seeking to loosen their hold on brother and sister.

  ‘Grip my legs,’ Wrenden thought to Pelnmara. Even as he remembered that his mind could not reach out past the helmet, he felt the not-twins move so that each had one arm wrapped tightly around one of his calves holding each tightly against his sister’s legs. Out-of-Body. Thoughts work!

  Releasing his grip on his sister, Wrenden rose to his knees and battered at the birds attacking the not-twins. In turn, they used their free arms to strike at the birds on his back. One after the other the birds were pulled free and thrown into the mist, squawking with anger. But there was no respite.

  Their claws remained, ran down Wrenden’s back and tried to burrow beneath the not-twins arms. Wrenden was bending this way and that, ripping them away as fast as he could. Cries of pain resounding through all four helmets as each claw was torn away from the youngsters’ increasingly blood-streaked arms and legs.

  Wrenden was struggling with two that were almost hidden out of sight under Shimara’s arm. Twisting around to his left and feeling Pelnak’s grip on his right leg slacken, he got both hands onto the birds and heaved with all his might, wincing at Shimara’s scream as he pulled them away. His mind stored away the impression that tiny points of green and red light clustered around her bleeding arm.

  Finally, they were through the flock. Wrenden heard sighs of relief mingling with his own as he dropped down to lie along his sister’s back, shaking with fatigue and anxiety. It seemed to him as though tiny waves of green and red colour ran along his back and legs, easing the pain from the many cuts.

  Their rest was short-lived. With thrumming wings, yellow spotted, brown beasts dived on them. Again Wrenden rose up, flailing his arms at the new attackers. Shooting long tongues at his arms, they looked like grotesque caricatures of flying chameleons.

  As the friends sped through the attacking flock, the fine, saw-toothed surfaces of the tongues slashed his arms. His lovely coffee colour was slowly turning red from the blood that was flowing from the myriad tiny cuts. A beast landed on his left wrist and wrapped its tongue around his forearm. He swung that arm at another approaching chameleon. The two beasts smashed together and pain seared through him as the tongue was wrenched from its grip. He ducked as another attacker sped towards his face. It cannoned off his shoulder and spun off into the distance.

  He felt the not-twins tightening their grips. He knew that if he was torn from his perch he was lost. And if their grip on brother and sister was broken, none of them would ever return to Vertazia. What had started out as an exciting adventure had become a very real fight for their lives.

  Turning to his right as he heard Pelnak’s cry of pain, he saw him tear a beast away from where it had just landed on his left arm, its claws tearing at his flesh, blood spraying into the grey mist. Blood with green streaks? His mind asked.

  Hearing the sound of more thrumming, Wrenden turned to the front and saw a cluster of beasts diving from his left. He punched one in the face, sending it crashing into two more behind it. Then that group was gone, whisked past by the speed of the friends’ headlong dive down through the mist.

  A last remaining group swooped in from his right. He ducked to his left as they flew past, their claws missing him by centimetres. The grin was wiped from his face as tongues whipped out and two wrapped around his forearm, digging into his flesh.

  As the beasts fell behind, he was jerked to his right and felt the not-twins straining to keep hold of him. He watched in disbelief as the chameleons folded their wings and wound their tongues in, pulling themselves ever closer, claws on their front legs preparing to grip him. He could not bear the thought of any more pain. His whole body was on fire from all the torn flesh and cuts.

  In spite of himself, he screamed loudly as they sunk their claws into his forearm. He was almost fainting with the pain. Desperate to tear them from his arm, yet more frightened of falling from his sister’s body, he bent forward and sought to grip his sister with his left hand.

  Tamina felt herself flooded with his fear and the panic rising within Pelnak and Shimara.

  ‘Hold on tight!’ Tamina thoughtsent. ‘Pelnmara, focus on getting us through. I’ll help Eeky.’

  She twisted her supple, dancer’s body around and back and felt her brother’s hand grasp her left shoulder. Yes, she could just reach. Gritting her teeth, with her hand held open she slashed her right arm at the nearest chameleon and felt her nails rip across its body. Black blood sprayed out and fell, sizzling onto her brother’s arm. Again she slashed, a nail broke; she felt the biting pain as black blood splashed onto her own arm.

  Again and again Tamina slashed, feeling more nails break. It was not working, the beasts’ skins were too thick and the cuts too shallow.

  Her last blow had made the chameleon nearest to her struggle to maintain its hold. It flapped its wings and was plucked away by the wind tunnel effect of the four friend’s passage through the mist. It had not left its claws behind. Instead, it reached out with them and gripped its companion. The shock of the collision tore that beast from its perch on Wrenden’s arm.

  Time seemed to stand still.

  The tongues of both beasts were still wrapped around Wrenden’s arm. As they reached their full extent a massive jerk was felt by all four friends. His terrified scream resounded through all their helmets as his left hand slipped from his sister’s shoulder and his left leg was pulled out of Shimara’s grip. He was about to plunge into the mist. Death faced him.

  He was an annoying little squirt of a brother, forever playing her up. But he was HER brother. Tamina raised her arm up high above her head and with a viciousness she didn’t know she possessed, swung it as fast as possible toward the tongues, felt her hand judder as she struck, cried out with the shock and pain as more nails broke, gasped with surprise as the severed tongues fell away and she heard Wrenden’s screams of pain above her own as
the spurting black blood sprayed them both.

  Waves of green and red light run along his arm. The energy signature was clear. It was Qwelby reaching out to him, to them all, sending his healing love. Mentally, Wrenden tried to follow back the lines of energy and was met by soft, swirling white, making him think of snow. He was sucked in as if being taken to meet his elderest. The whiteness disappeared, leaving him with no clues as to where Qwelby might be.

  As he tried to penetrate it, his mind started to freeze. Reluctantly, he pulled his awareness back to where he was and crashed down onto his sister’s back and wrapped his left arm around her waist. He rested his badly bleeding arm on her back, watching the soft red and green energy soothing it.

  ‘Qwelby. Where are you?’ he thoughtsent. His vision was filled with the same swirling white wall.

  Tamina eased her aching joints and let her feeling of success flow through to the others. She half smiled to herself. When they were much younger, her irrepressible brother had named them the “Fearless Four.” At that age Tullia and Qwelby were inseparable, and always referred to as “The Twins.” She and the not-twins had accepted the name. It gave them their own group identity as a way of finding the energy to balance that of the twins. Perhaps we should resurrect the name. We certainly are earning it!

  At last the mist cleared and they found themselves plunging through a spiral made of millions of bright points of light. Stars! A whole galaxy swept past them and the harsh cold of inter-stellar space bit into them.

  Tamina was drained. Her strength gone. She was the oldest of the four and Tullia’s elderest. They were her responsibility. As the cold reached deep inside her and she felt the last vestiges of her energy draining away, she knew they would not succeed. Despair reached out for her. Here, between dimensions, there was no protective helmet. Its insidious message was overwhelming her, paralysing her hopes. She thought of all the times she had spent with Tullia, and with Qwelby. Their strength was their twinness. She needed that. ‘Help me!’ she thoughtcried.

  That was wrong. Tears sprang into her eyes. It’s me that must help them!

  ‘I’m here, Sis,’ a quiet voice came into her head.

  ‘And us,’ Pelnmara added.

  Mmh. She felt too weak even to speak. Soft waves of green and red light wrapped around the black Despair. Hope broke through.

  A point of light appeared straight ahead. It grew in size, became a soft, beige colour radiating blessed warmth. She shot forward.

  Something hard struck her stomach. Her attention was pulled back to the gallery. Together with the not-twins whose hands she was holding, she had pitched forward into the barrier. Fear gave her the energy to scream: ‘Stand firm!’

  Bracing her feet against the railings she tried to lean backwards, felt herself being pulled over them. Panic took her. If their bodies were to follow them into the XzylStroem, then all was truly lost. Not only their lives. The twins would never return home.

  She was in two places at once. Although her attention was back on the gallery, she knew her Self was still hovering over that beige patch. Here on the balcony wearing helmets, her mind could not reach the others. She was trying to pull Shimara and Pelnak towards her. If her brother sought balance by pulling them towards him, then she would topple over the balcony.

  It wasn’t a question of letting go their hands to save herself, she knew she would snap out of her body and would be sucked into that beige patch.

  Death awaited her.

  Fighting with her last scrap of energy, her stomach pressed hard against the top railing, she felt her brother’s energy flowing into her, not much, not enough.

  ‘If anyone can do it, you can, Sis.’

  She lifted one leg up and put her knee against the top railing, steadied herself and saw Shimara and Pelnak copy her.

  Safe!

  Later, she was to confide to Lellia that it was her brother’s faith in her that had given her the last drop of strength she needed to pull back and steady them all.

  Peace!

  All effort ceased as a tiny patch of lilac illumined the beige.

  Tullia!

  With all thought of the gallery left far behind, they descended as if lowered by Gravity Repulsors until they were hovering above a now large and strong sphere of purple.

  Tullia was alive and well!

  Little beads of pink and green energy flowed from them down towards the sphere. Purple petals opened and waved to them. A soft sigh rose up and a gentle smile appeared, hovering over the petals.

  In the centre of the petals a series of images unfolded. Sun shining on a red desert. Dark-skinned men and women, morphing between being almost naked with some carrying spears and bows, and being fully clothed as if in the winter. Brightly coloured, rocky mountains under a hot sun. A round, thatched building that was set on a wide open, completely flat, grey-white expanse with a beautiful, large, tan-coloured cat loping along. In spite of the setting, the energy that came from the large hut clearly indicated it to be a cute little corner shop.

  The scene quivered, blurred, cleared.

  It was night-time. Brightly attired people were sitting around a large fire with nearly naked, dark-skinned men dancing. There was chanting and clapping. The flames reached high up as if they were the arms of many exotic dancers and bathed the friends in a warm embrace. Tamina almost groaned with envy at the sublime movement of bodies without joints, flames that truly were Salamanders, her own special symbol.

  She was pulled down by the arms of the flame-people and invited to dance. She became one of them, a flame-wrapped Salamander. High above them, the moon cast its light across the whole scene. Swirling around in the midst of the fire it seemed to Tamina as though the flaming arms of the Salamanders reached up above her, pulled the moon down and enfolded its silver beauty. Tears fell from her eyes as an unbelievably magical moment flowed through her, making her at one with the fire and the moon.

  ‘Sis, Sis, please…’

  Flaming Xzarze, Eeky. Not now!

  The vision clouded over and disappeared, leaving only blackness. A terrible sense of loss filled her.

  ‘Ouch!’ Something hard was pressing against her side. She opened her eyes. It was like looking through a waterfall. Her clothes felt uncomfortable. No it was her body, it wasn’t fitting her like it usually did. Perplexed, she looked around. The scenery wavered, she felt herself shaking all over, then her vision cleared and she felt normal. She was on the interaction gallery, pressed hard against one of the struts. Inside her helmet, her brother’s voice was urging her to wake up, get onto her hands and knees, and crawl back to the viewing gallery.

  She passed out and came awake to the sounds of subdued whimpering in her ears and felt herself being undressed by… Cook? Looking up she saw she was in cosy room alongside the Cavern and that the other three were being helped by her First, Second and Third assistants, who, naturally, were called FAC, SAC and TAC.

  ‘Simple m’dear,’ Cook explained, as she helped Tamina lie face down on one of the sofas that had morphed into relax couches, alongside her brother from whom the whimpering sounds were coming.

  ‘We prepare food with plenty of loving for your insides and,’ Cook picked up a large bottle from the armrest that had become a side table, ‘swathes of Tenderest Loving Care, my own mixture, for your outsides.’

  Tamina felt easing balm spread over her right arm and hand as Cook ‘tut-tutted’ at the burns. And heard continued ‘tutting’ as more TLC was applied all over her Form.

  ‘Soon have those long legs dancing again,’ Cook said as she stoppered the bottle and moved away to check on what SAC and TAC were doing with Shimara and Pelnak on the other sofa-now-couch.

  Tamina rolled her head around to look at her brother. FAC was spreading TLC over his back whilst Lellia seemed to be wrapping an energy field around one of his arms. Drifting on the edge of sleep, she could only look and wonder what Lellia really was doing.

  ‘You saved me, Sis,’ her brother said, his eyes half
closing.

  Tamina looked at her right hand, where TLC had been smeared over her broken nails and torn fingertips. She put her left hand alongside. A beautiful dancer painted on each nail in red and flame orange with highlights of white and turquoise. ‘Look,’ she said to no-one in particular, her voice cracking.

  ‘Greater love hath no woman,’ Lellia murmered.

  ‘Tullia did these for me, just before…’ Tamina said with a sob.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Lellia said. ‘We’ll get them back. Both of them.’ She bit her lip as she slammed her Privacy Seal shut over all her conflicting emotions, stopping them from colouring her energy field, and returned to healing Wrenden’s many wounds.

  CHAPTER 34

  THWARTED

  VERTAZIA

  Ceegren was frustrated and angry, emotions to which he was entirely unaccustomed. He had just been defeated by what was to him a group of young children. Although possessing the abundant, dynamic and penetrating energy of their second era, it had never occurred to him that four inexperienced children could successfully oppose the solid power manipulated by himself, Dryddnaa and two much older Venerables, Gentian and Midnight.

  The children were so inexperienced in the seventh dimension that they had not been able to use the energy of that dimension freely, but each had clung to their InForming Matrix: the energy model for their normal, physical body. Totally vulnerable, yet they had been able to call on the elusive energy of the sixth dimension.

  They had not created that by themselves. Of that he was sure. Had that been done by the Arch Discoverer and his wife? Or. And Ceegren paled at the possibility. If it owed its existence to the accursed twins, that meant all six were part of a discrete energy entity. He had to know. In the meantime he would prepare for the worst scenario: that all six… he paused his thoughts… youngsters… had created a discrete sixth dimensional energy matrix available at will.