by Beth Goobie
Straightening, he moved a short ways off, and Nellie cautiously opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a security alarm beeping faintly overhead. Then she glanced at her body and saw the straps holding her in place. She seemed to be lying on a stretcher in a small examining room. Close by stood a plump man with spectacles, studying a computer screen. Abruptly he let out a hiss and whirled toward her. “Awake, are you?” he snapped. “And exactly how long have you been spying on me?”
Eyes squeezed shut, Nellie lay motionless as he approached and began jerking at her straps. “Maybe you can fool me, but don’t ever think you can fool the machines, missy,” he said grimly, yanking her to her feet. Letting her body go limp, Nellie slumped against him, but the man grabbed her shoulders and gave her a sharp shake.
“I would suggest you learn this now, and you learn it quick,” he hissed as her eyes flew open. “Your life ain’t worth a Goddess’s hangnail in this place. The only thing that’ll keep you alive is obedience — unswerving, kiss-ass, shit-scared obedience, got it?”
Numbly, Nellie nodded.
“Good,” he said, releasing her. “And remember, it’s also your job to keep your twin in line. Now take your shit-scared ass into that room, and we’ll get to work.”
He pointed to the door. Scuttling toward it, Nellie opened it and found herself once again in the white room with cupboards and medical equipment. Across from her sat her twin, strapped to a chair, her head slumped forward. The director of K Block and Col. Jolsen were nowhere to be seen. Carefully, as if hooked up to a full system of electrodes, Nellie crossed the room and squatted beside her twin. The shorn-headed girl didn’t acknowledge her presence, continuing to sit with her head down and her eyes closed.
“There’s something you need to know,” Nellie said in a low voice without looking at her. “I need you to know it, so listen good. You could kill me. You could get me dead real fast in this place. It’s my job to keep you in line and if you don’t behave, they’ll take it out on me. Because you’re the important one, not me. All along I thought it was me, but it isn’t — it’s you.”
No sound came from her twin, but Nellie could feel her listening. “I’m just a hook,” she continued, “to catch the fish and keep it caught. You’re the fish and if you don’t stay caught, if you don’t cooperate with staying caught, I’m dead. And I don’t want to be dead. Maybe this isn’t much of a life to you, maybe you think living in the Outbacks with all your fancy levels is a thousand percent better, but it’s all I’ve got. So just keep that hook in your mouth, bite on it real hard, and smile. Be a good little prisoner and learn to like it the way I have. You get used to it after a while. It’s all just shit, y’know. You can wash it off your face.”
Her twin gave a soft grunt. “You’re wrong about me being the important one,” she said without opening her eyes. “If they shut off those extra two implants in your brain, you could do everything I do. That’s the only difference between you and me, and they know it. It’s not me they want, it’s you and me together.”
“Well, they’ve got us together,” Nellie said grimly. “And the reason they’ve got us is because you were stupid enough to come back here.”
Her twin opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment footsteps entered the room and Nellie surged to her feet, snapping her hand into a salute.
“No no,” said the plump man with spectacles. “No need to salute for me — I haven’t got rank. Now, we’re going to have to do something about your names. I can’t call both of you Nellie. How about each of you tells me your favorite nickname?”
Nellie’s upper lip curled slightly at the suggestion. “Nellie,” she said coolly.
“Nellie,” her twin said simultaneously, her voice overlapping Nellie’s.
A wry grin crossed the man’s face. “One of you is going to have to give,” he said. “Or I could call you both by your second names. Let’s see.” He flipped through two files he was carrying. “That’d be Joan and Joanne.”
Resentment reared through Nellie. Already she was being listed second. “I’m Nellie,” she said harshly. “You can call her Joan or whatever you want, but I’m Nellie.”
The man’s eyes flicked toward her twin, but she remained slumped in the chair with her eyes shut. “Okay,” shrugged the man. “We’ll make it Nellie and Joan.”
“No,” the shorn-headed girl said quickly, opening her eyes. “Nellie and Nell. Just shorten it.”
“Gotcha,” the man said easily. “Nellie and Nell. And you can call me Mr. Furnan. Now Nellie, if you’ll release your twin from that chair, we’ll get going. But first I want to remind you that the monitoring screen is always on, and I’m wired with security devices. If there’s any trouble, all I have to do is push a button hidden in my clothing, and this room will fill with a shock wave that will flatten you both. It will also set off every alarm in K Block. Got it?”
Wide-eyed, Nellie nodded, then bent and released the straps that bound her twin. Nell straightened slowly and began to massage the stiffness out of her arms. Wordless, the two girls stared at each other.
“All right,” said Furnan beckoning from across the room. “I want both of you over here.”
Nell rose to her feet, and together the twins walked toward his cheerful grin. “Okay, Nellie,” said Furnan, pointing to a set of metal brackets that stood close by. “I want you to stand between these. And Nell,” he said, pointing to a second set that stood five feet to the left of the first. “You’re going to step in here.”
Hesitantly Nellie stepped between the closest set of brackets. The height of an average male adult, they rose a foot and a half above her head. Peering out, she watched her twin enter the other set. Nothing happened. Glancing at her, Nell shrugged. Nellie shrugged back.
“Today you’ll be learning to ride the light,” said Furnan, sitting down at a nearby control panel. Incredulous, Nellie stared at him. In the past hour, the world seemed to have turned upside down. First she’d discovered Col. Jolsen was an infidel, faking devotion to the divine holy Mother. And now here was this private, a low-level without rank, offering to teach one of the Goddess’s deepest mysteries.
Nellie’s eyes slitted. Or was this just some of the blather he’d been ordered to give her?
“That’s right, cadet. You heard me.” Noting her expression, Furnan gave Nellie a reassuring nod. “I said ‘riding the light’ — one of the greatest mysteries, and the hope of all who serve Ivana. You’re about to learn how to enter the heavens and become a star without having to die.”
In spite of her misgivings, Nellie felt a surge of elation. How many times had she prayed for this moment, how often had she chanted “Ride the light” with other cadets in group prayers? Surely she’d misunderstood Col. Jolsen in the other room. It was understandable: she’d just been blasted out of her mind by the stun gun they’d used on Nell.
“That’s right,” said Furnan, giving her another nod. “You have indeed been blessed by the Great Mother of us all. Now before I start, you need to know that I will be adjusting your bodies’ vibrations as we go along, but it will be gradual so you won’t notice much. One word of warning — if either of you tries to step out of your brackets without my permission, a shock barrier will automatically come up around you. You won’t see it, but believe me, you’ll feel it.” Leaning forward, he flicked a switch on his control panel. “Here we go.”
Instantly the brackets began to emit a thick, almost soundless hum, and a tingling sensation spread through Nellie’s skin. Gradually the tingling permeated her body, sinking into her belly and bones. Slitting her eyes, she shifted tentatively. There didn’t seem to be anything to fear; at least she felt no pain. In fact the sensation was slightly pleasurable, as if her entire body was singing, low and deep, to itself.
Peering through the brackets, she was startled to see that the room had gone slightly blurry and was jerking rapidly, like a film in a movie projector that wasn’t working properly. A glance to her right showed her twin’s body
also blurred and jerky but lit up, as if radiating a faint light. Quickly Nellie looked at her own arm and saw that it was glowing too. Confused, she glanced back at the room. Had the brackets somehow connected her with the landscape of energy she saw when she was really tuned? But no — Furnan wasn’t lit up, nor were any of the physical objects in the room. Only she and Nell were radiating light, and that light was only there for brief intervals, coming and going. Whatever this was, it was entirely new.
Glancing up from his control panel, Furnan caught her watching him and grinned. Nellie grinned back. He wasn’t bad, really — just some blurry, kiss-ass guy doing his job. It must be a drag having to watch two kids ride vibes while he was stuck in his usual boring pulse rate, wondering if the Goddess was ever going to bless him. Closing her eyes, Nellie let the brackets’ vibrations hum and sing through her body. When she focused, she could feel her heart filling with radiance, then her stomach and intestines. The singing sound in her bones seemed to be getting higher and higher, and—
We’ve gone about three levels now, Nell said in her head.
Nellie’s eyes flew open, but her twin had turned slightly and her face couldn’t be seen. Listen, dork, the voice came again. If you keep looking surprised like that, you’ ll give the whole thing away.
Quickly Nellie closed her eyes and pulled her expression into neutral. Isn’t this awesome? she thought excitedly. I thought it was going to be some kind of torture, but it’s a real rush.
I do this all the time, Nell replied disdainfully. I don’t need a machine, either. Furnan’s just moving us through the levels, one by one. Can’t you see them?
See what? asked Nellie, bewildered. Opening her eyes, she glanced carefully around the room, but other than the rapidly jerking blur, everything was exactly as it had been when she first stepped between the brackets.
Damn implants, muttered Nell. What a bugger Furnan is, taking you through the levels but not letting you see them. I wonder what he’s after?
What, demanded Nellie angrily, are levels?
Other places, said her twin, unperturbed. In the Interior they’re fixed, like I told you, so they all look exactly the same, but the other levels still vibrate faster than ours. We live in the slowest one. There — he’s jumping us to another level. Can you feel it?
Glancing at her arm, Nellie saw that it had brightened again, but when she looked out through the brackets, her surroundings were the same ongoing blur. What in the Goddess’s name, she thought irritably, could a brighter arm have to do with other levels of reality?
The enemy, she reminded herself grimly. Remember, she was shaped by one of the Empire’s worst traitors.
I am not the enemy! Nell said indignantly. I came here to rescue you, remember? And the reason your arm gets brighter is because Furnan’s speeding up your vibes so he can move you to the next level. When you reach that level and adjust, the light disappears.
They’re not moving us to other levels, Nellie scoffed. They’re just coordinating and aligning our vibes. I heard Furnan and Col. Jolsen talking about it in the other room.
Coordinating and aligning our vibes? echoed her twin. I wonder why they’ d move us into other levels to do that?
A surge of frustration hit Nellie and she snapped, Prove it. If there really are levels, then show them to me. Grimly she waited, but no reply came from Nell. Glancing toward the other set of brackets, Nellie saw her twin lift her arms and hug herself. At the same moment she felt a lurch in her own gut and realized Furnan had just increased the vibratory rate. The brackets’ constant hum was beginning to make her nauseous. Darting Furnan a look, she saw him watching her with that same blurry smile on his face. Uneasily she smiled back.
Okay, came a reluctant voice in her head. I’ll lift the interference pattern in your brain so you can see the levels. But be careful. They know about other levels in this place, and I think they’re working together with their doubles. That means Furnan’s doubles know about us too.
What d’you mean, Furnan’s doubles? asked Nellie, but instead of receiving a reply, she felt a pressure lift abruptly from her brain. Immediately the blurry jerkiness vanished and the room came into focus. A quick glance showed that neither Nell’s or her own body were glowing. Everything else in the room remained unchanged — Furnan still sat at his control panel giving his odd little smile, and Nell stood turned slightly away, her face hidden.
Can you see it? asked her twin.
See what? snapped Nellie. It’s the same place we started out in.
I told you, the levels are FIXED here, Nell snapped back. That means everything looks exactly the same. The only way you can tell we’ve moved to another level is because of the buzz. The vibes are faster here than in our home level. Can’t you feel it?
That’s just the vibes coming out of the brackets, Nellie retorted.
All right, said her twin grimly. I will prove it to you. These brackets are a gate to the next level. Because the levels are fixed, the same brackets show up in all of them. That means there’s an open gate going a long way up. Furnan’s been moving us one level at a time, but I should be able to jump us a couple of levels at once since the gates between them are already open. Then you’ ll really feel a buzz. But I can only keep us there for a second or two and then bring us back down, or Furnan’ ll catch on.
What d’you mean, an open ga–, Nellie started to ask, but an abrupt lurch sent her thoughts scattering. Immediately her vibratory rate surged, and for a second she felt her body swimming with heat and light. Then her vibratory rate leveled out, and the swimming sensation dissipated. With a grunt she opened her eyes.
Everything was exactly the same. Nell still stood between her set of brackets, turned slightly away, and Furnan continued to sit at his control panel, grinning like a fool. There was certainly quite a buzz, but nowhere could Nellie see anything that gave the slightest indication she’d passed into another level of reality. Her twin was either lying or an idiot, that was all there was to it.
Snorting softly, Nellie lifted her left hand to scratch an itch in her nose, then gasped as she saw her entire left arm rise out of a second arm that remained hanging at her side. Riveted, she stood with her hand glued to her nose, staring down at her extra left arm. Her eyes slid to her right arm and she lifted it slowly, her jaw dropping further as she saw it separate from a second arm that remained in position, hanging at her side.
The extra arms belonged to her double, they had to. Dumbfounded, Nellie gaped at them. So Nell was telling the truth. Other levels of reality did exist, and she was actually standing in one. Taking care to remain inside the brackets, she took a cautious step forward. Then she turned and faced the girl standing inches from her.
Eyes closed, her double’s face was etched in nausea, but otherwise she and Nellie were identical. Swiftly Nellie scanned the other girl, searching for the slightest difference, but she was an exact mirror image, down to a tiny scar on the back of her right hand that Nellie had gotten falling off a skateboard before she’d entered the Black Core program. Halfway between curiosity and awe, Nellie reached out to touch her double’s cheek. Instantly the other girl’s eyes opened, the nausea in her face changed to terror, and she screamed. A shout came from across the room as Furnan’s double looked up, then leapt to his feet.
Shit, thought Nellie, and lunged to get free of the brackets.
No! shrieked a voice inside her head and a sudden lurch hit Nellie, causing her thoughts to scatter into smithereens. Once again heat and light filled her, and she experienced a mad rushing sensation. Abruptly this halted, the laboratory came back into focus, and she found herself positioned halfway through a lunge, still attempting to get free of the brackets. Propelled forward by her own momentum, she triggered the shock barrier, which shot up around her set of brackets and slammed her to the floor. Breathless, all thought knocked out of her, Nellie lay drooling onto white linoleum. A pair of black shoes appeared in front of her face, and someone leaned down and heaved her onto her back.
“What the hell are you doing here?” demanded a male voice. “And didn’t I warn you not to step out of the brackets?”
Slowly Nellie’s mind came back to her and she sat up, assisted by none-too-gentle hands. Furnan, she thought, staring dull-eyed at the man crouched before her. His name’s Furnan, and he’s running an experiment on me and Nell.
That’s right, moron, came her twin’s voice, loud and furious inside her head. They’re running an experiment with the levels and I let you see what they were really doing, and you broke our cover. That mixed me up, so I pulled us all the way down to our home level instead of the fifth where we should’ve been. Stupid, stupid, STUPID!
Nellie shook her head, trying to dislodge her twin’s raging voice. This mind link, or whatever it was, was worse than skull implants. At least with implants, you could ignore them.
“Get up,” said Furnan, pulling her upright. A brief darkness oozed through Nellie’s head, and she swayed on her feet.
“Now tell me how you got here,” Furnan demanded, jutting his face into hers. “I didn’t call you back with the machine.”
Nellie blinked. “Call me back?” she asked weakly. “From where?”
Furnan’s eyes narrowed and then he said, “Okay, why did you step out of the brackets?”
Helpless, Nellie stared at him. “That hum,” she faltered. “It made me dizzy.”
Again Furnan’s eyes narrowed and he studied her silently. “Maybe,” he muttered finally. “I suppose it’s possible the shock barrier screwed things up and pulled you back.” Turning to the other set of brackets, he said, “Nell, you can come out now.”
Cautiously Nell emerged from her set of brackets.
“So, how was it?” Furnan asked, eyeing her closely.
Nell shrugged. “Okay, I guess. A real buzz.”
Furnan smiled grimly. “And you, Nellie?”
