by Beth Goobie
They did that with Their minds, Nellie thought, dazed. Just thought those buckets into being.
A movement caught her eye, and she turned to see Nell and her double raise their hands and press them together. Immediately Eld threw back His head as if to snap off another fireball, but as He did a soundless scream went off inside Nellie, a surge of panic that rose up her spine and exploded out of the top of her skull. Zooming toward Eld, the energy ball struck Him directly in the forehead. Without a sound, He slumped back onto His throne, and the remaining Gods whirled toward Him, surrounding Him with Their collective thought field.
In the meantime, Nell and her double were still standing with their hands pressed together. Abruptly, from all angles, Nellie saw girls begin to step out of her twin’s body. The first thirty or so looked exactly like her, with shorn heads and gray bodysuits, but then Nellie lost count as a furred girl stepped out, and one with wings, followed by a girl with a bird’s head. After that, figures began emerging too quickly to be seen clearly. Some twisted like smoke, others glinted like glass. From each girl’s body came the call of a different note, the vibratory rate of another level, the many frequencies together drowning out the single note of the Gods and filling the air with a wild juxtaposition of sound. As girl after girl spewed out of Nell’s body, a tremor reverberated through the floor, then another, and another. Across the room the Gods let out a collective wail, and Eld attempted to sit upright, then slumped back down again.
Instantly the girl in the gold dress thought herself across the room, so that she was once again standing directly in front of Nellie. “C’mon,” she said aloud. “We’re halfway there. Now it’s your turn.”
My turn? Bewildered, Nellie gaped at her. For what?
Taking her hand, Nell’s double thought them both across the open area at the center of the room, and Nellie found herself standing in front of her twin, locked in her raw gray gaze.
“C’mon, Nell,” said the girl in the gold dress. “She can’t do it on her own yet. She needs your help.”
Nell blinked, her eyes sliding off Nellie’s face. “You show her,” she said tersely.
“It’s got to be you,” said her double. “You’re the only one with the exact same vibes.”
“She’s a killer,” snapped Nell. “Her doubles’ll be killers too.”
“They’re possibilities,” shouted the girl in the gold dress, stomping her foot. “So is she.”
For one impossibly long moment, Nell stood staring stubbornly away. Then, with a groan, she grabbed Nellie’s hands and pressed their palms together.
A pulse entered Nellie’s hands, a delicate vibration unlike anything she’d ever felt. Shooting up her arms and into her chest, it flickered there, then retreated, flickered up her arms again and retreated. The Goddess, she thought, as the pulse shot through her again, and abruptly there came an inner shifting, and a vast loosening, and finally a great roaring opening as countless filing cabinets toppled and spilled their files. Next came a stretching sensation on the left side of her body, as if something was rapidly swelling, and then an odd popping sensation as a girl in a gray bodysuit burst free.
“Shoot yourselves!” the girl screamed, raising a fist at the Gods. “Be your own fucking stars!”
Before Nellie could respond, the stretching sensation had begun on her right side and a second girl, also dressed in a gray bodysuit, stepped free of her body and spat at the Gods. Then absolute mayhem broke loose, and Nellie felt herself stretched and pulled in every direction as girl after girl, each dressed in a gray bodysuit, poured out of her. With each one came the reverberation of a new note, ululating through her body and out into the Receiving Chamber. The rush and range of vibrations was so overwhelming, Nellie kept expecting to burst open at the seams and see her soul fly up to the ceiling, never to return.
Hands squeezed her own and Nell said gruffly, “That won’t happen. It feels like the end, but it isn’t. Don’t tighten. Just ride it out.”
Nellie nodded, gulping back tears, then cried out in astonishment as a girl, glimmering like a rainbow, stepped free of her body, followed by another with great butterfly wings. Then, without warning, girls of fire and wind, crystal and formless light began to appear. A huge tremor rocked the Receiving Chamber, tilting Nellie’s brain sharply to the right, the scene around her dissolved into a vast blue-white field, and she saw.
“The stars!” she yelled. “They’re coming free. This place is cracking up.”
With a great roar the far wall crumbled, and bright bits of light erupted in every direction. A second later the floor before the domed doorway split open, tilting the thirty-foot statue of the Goddess into the gap. As if in echo, another crack ran across the floor under the throne, and Eld let out a shout as He tumbled through the opening.
All across the room, the remaining Gods were simply vanishing. They’re thinking themselves somewhere else, thought Nellie. But where can They go? Isn’t Their whole heaven fixed on one note?
Suddenly a single star broke free of the ceiling and zoomed downward, circling the panicked crowd. Angling to the right, it paused in front of Fen who was standing with a dazed expression, staring at the surrounding frenzy. For one brilliant second the star hovered outside his body as if asking permission to return, then entered his chest. An odd look crossed Fen’s face, as if he was tasting something long forgotten, but familiar and sweet.
“He’s got his soul back,” shouted Nell. Dropping Nellie’s hands, she thought herself across the room, grabbed Fen by the arm and thought them both back to her original position. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she said. “Or we’ll end up in the ooly-goolies.”
“But where do we go?” asked Nellie. “It’s cracking up everywhere.”
Nell’s double grabbed both their hands. “Call them in,” she said, “and we’ll go.”
But the great crowd of doubles was already flowing toward the twins, passing into their bodies and returning to the various levels from which it had come. With a great rush of light and sound they were gone, leaving Nellie standing at the center of a mad shambles of whizzing stars and rapidly disappearing Gods.
Grinning fiercely, Nell’s double said, “Okay, we’re outta this place.”
“Wait,” said Nellie. “What about those kids?”
Twenty feet from them, on one of the islands of remaining floor, huddled four of Fen’s youngest charges. With a terse nod, the girl in the gold dress focused on them, and suddenly the children were standing next to Nellie, looking up at her fearfully.
“Grab hands,” the girl in the gold dress told them. “And hold on.”
A small hand slid into Nellie’s, and she grasped it tightly. “Now,” said the girl in the gold dress. “Just think of the first room you saw in this place, and imagine yourselves there.”
Closing her eyes, Nellie visualized the room with the red star on the floor, and when she opened them again she was standing directly in front of the set of metal brackets through which she’d originally entered this level.
“Quick,” said Nell’s double. “Through the gate.” Without hesitating, she stepped between the brackets, pulling Nell after her. Fen went next, and then the four children, tumbling over each other in their eagerness to leave heaven. In the last moment before she followed the others through the brackets, Nellie turned and looked back. The room with the red star mosaic was now bedlam, its walls creaking ominously as stars whirled everywhere. As she watched, the floor-to-ceiling statue of the blank-faced, red-gowned Goddess toppled under a surge of stars and vanished into nothingness.
Quickly Nellie stepped between the brackets. For a moment she was suspended in a blur of heat and light. Then this faded and she found herself standing between two cubicles in a white-walled laboratory, looking directly into Furnan’s startled gaze. At his feet lay the moaning bodies of Fen, Nell, her double and the four children.
The secret button he has in his clothes, thought Nellie. He used it to send a shock wave at them.
/> Furnan’s hand darted toward his lab coat pocket and without thinking, Nellie threw back her head and snapped it forward. Immediately a ball of brilliant energy surged out of the top of her head, zooming toward Furnan and hitting him in the chest. Without a sound he slumped to the floor.
“Nell,” cried Nellie, dropping to her knees beside her twin. “Are you all right?”
Nell just lay there, staring at her bug-eyed. “How do you do that?” she whispered.
“I dunno,” Nellie shrugged. “It just happens. Anyway, we have to get moving before someone sees us on the monitoring screen.” Turning to the others, she began prodding them onto their feet. Then she ran to the door and peered into the hall. It was empty, but for how long?
“C’mon,” she said, holding out a hand, and one of the children, a small girl, ran toward her. Quickly the others crowded in behind them and together they slipped into the hall. Nervously Nellie glanced left and right. Which way? Did it matter? They didn’t have a chance, a single Goddess-forsaken chance of getting out of Detta alive. In heaven you might be able to escape by thinking yourself someplace else, but they were back in the real world now, where everything was slow vibes and scanners and security alarms. Still, anything was better than remaining in a laboratory with a monitoring screen on the wall.
Carefully she started down the hall. Somewhere nearby a door opened and she froze, but the ensuing footsteps headed in the opposite direction. Taking a deep breath, Nellie started forward again. Her hand was so slippery with sweat, she could hardly hold onto the little girl’s. Just ahead was a T-intersection, and when she peered around the corner she saw checkpoints in both directions with a set of double doors beyond each one. Nellie’s knees wobbled and she leaned against the wall for support. Scanners. There was just no way to beat them, not with the central computer in Administration tracking everyone’s whereabouts. And even if the scanner allowed her to pass, the others wouldn’t be listed as approved in the database and would set off its alarm. Nell’s double probably didn’t even have an ID chip.
Shoulders slumping, Nellie turned back toward the hall they’d just traveled. As she did, a nearby door opened and two men in Detta uniform emerged. Catching sight of the children, they gave a startled yell and broke into a run.
“Grab hands,” shouted the girl in the gold dress. “And whatever happens, don’t let go.”
Quickly the eight children grabbed hands. As the two men drew close, Nell’s double sent a surge of vibrations through the line and Nellie felt herself engulfed in a buzzing sensation. Immediately the hallway dissolved and she tensed, expecting to find herself in heaven, but instead of the familiar blue-white landscape she found herself standing in a thick grayish blur, the rest of the children strung out in a line behind her.
Then she was hit with a tidal wave of screaming. The sound came at her, so dense with individual wails, moans and whimpers that she bent double, nauseated, and clutched at her gut. Beside her she felt the small girl sink to her knees. Desperately Nellie tried to haul her to her feet, but as she did a gust of wind blew through her, almost knocking her off her feet.
The men, she heard Nell think at her double. They’ve gone past without seeing us. We should be okay for a bit.
Hey, Nellie thought quickly at her twin. What’s with all the screaming? We’re not in heaven, are we?
Out of sync, Nell thought back at her. But it’s still K Block. Those screams belong to people who were here once.
Experiments, Nellie realized with another surge of nausea. They were standing in an energy field composed of the agony of K Block’s victims — smack dab in the middle of it.
Let’s get out of here, she thought frantically at Nell. Into another level.
They’re fixed, remember? Nell thought back. They’ll all be the same as this one. The only thing we can do now is listen. Listen, and the air will tell you what to do.
Listen to the air! Nellie gaped at her twin in disbelief.
From the other end of the line, the girl in the gold dress broke in impatiently. This is your world, Nellie, she snapped. Nell and I are trying to hear what it’s saying, but you’re the one who knows it best. Just listen and see what it tells you.
Nellie closed her mouth and tried to get a grip. Okay, she thought. We’ll have a little listen to the air. Can’t be any weirder than anything else that’s happened.
Closing her eyes, she listened. Wails and moans poured over her, washing her with wave after wave of nausea. Fighting the urge to double over and vomit, Nellie concentrated fiercely on her ears. C’mon, air, she thought. I’m listening. Whatever you have to tell me, I’m all ears.
No, said Nell’s double inside her head. Don’t shove yourself at them. Ask them in.
Ask the— Nellie began to repeat, then stopped as she felt a flickering start up along the edge of her skin. Next came a softening and a melting, almost as if her body was merging with the air. Abruptly a hundred small pockets seemed to open in her skin, and the surrounding moans and screams shot into her body like an electric current. What she felt then was utterly familiar — the fear she’d experienced every day since she’d come to live in Detta, but magnified a thousandfold. As she stood in the energy field that overlapped K Block, Nellie took in the fear of every experimental victim who’d been brought to the place. Their fear became her fear, and as they merged, a kind of talking began between them, quicker and infinitely truer than words.
I am like you, Nellie found herself thinking. An experiment. Everything that I am was made by pain and shock. Nothing is me, except my fear. My fear is mine. But I want to be more than fear. I want to know there is more than fear and pain in this world. Can you help me find a way out?
No words came back to her but she felt a place begin to hollow itself out before her, a kind of tunnel that sent itself into the blur as if the air was reshaping itself for her benefit.
Go on, Nell said urgently. They understood you. They’re showing you a way out.
Hesitantly Nellie stepped into the tunnel. As she did, the screaming stopped and a new sense of space and direction took over, turning her to the left. Wherever the tunnel was leading, she realized excitedly, it wasn’t obeying Detta’s endless walls and corridors. Gripping the hand of the small girl beside her, she broke into an eager trot. Beyond the tunnel, she could sense white-walled corridors, ringing alarms and a multitude of scurrying lab-coated men.
They’re never going to find us, Nellie thought gleefully. Not with K Block’s energy field on our side.
Without warning, the tunnel began to fade. With it went the sense of countless presences upholding and moving her along. No, thought Nellie, wanting to hold onto them. I need you. I NEED you.
But they were gone. Bewildered, Nellie stood, gripping the hand of the small girl and staring as tall gloomy walls took shape around her. Stars blinked on and off in the darkness and an image of the Red Planet glowed overhead. To her left she could see a three-way fork and her mind went automatically into scanning mode, playing itself out over the surrounding area and picking out blind curves and small chambers, trapdoors in the floor and ceiling.
A nearby door opened quietly. Nellie stiffened, her heart thundering as she heard another door open, and another.
Drones.
They were in the maze.
Twenty-One
FROM DOWN THE corridor came the sound of running feet, and the maze walls lit up with whirling spaceships and laser-gun toting aliens. As Nell and the others stepped back in alarm, gaping at the holograph of intergalactic warfare that was taking form before them, Nellie pivoted to face the oncoming footsteps, her mind already in over-drive and scanning for any weapons the maze runners might be carrying. Seconds later, when two figures veered around a blind curve twenty feet away, she’d gained a general sense of them — a girl and a boy, both Black Core cadets, and carrying the usual stun guns and knives.
Then Nellie caught sight of the girl’s face and froze, riveted with shock. Tana. A second wave of shock hit h
er as she saw Phillip on her roommate’s heels. Team run, she thought quickly. And they had obviously just started — neither was wounded, and they still looked fresh.
As she caught sight of Nellie, Tana skidded to a halt and went into a crouch, her gun raised. Behind her, Phillip echoed the gesture.
“No,” cried Nellie. “Don’t shoot. It’s me, Nellie.”
“Nellie,” hissed Tana. “Who the hell is Nellie? I’ve never seen you before.”
“But I’m your roommate.” Nellie’s voice skyrocketed in dismay, but she realized protests were probably useless. As far as the two cadets before her were concerned, Nellie Joanne Kinnan had never existed. The Mind Cleanser had been used on them, or an MK file, and they no longer remembered her at all.
“My roommate’s name is Mynn,” snapped Tana. “You’re nothing but a fucking drone.”
“Phillip,” said Nellie, locking eyes with him. “The Lierin virus. Do you remember?”
A startled look crossed Phillip’s face, as if he was on the verge of remembering, and then it was gone. “No,” he said gruffly.
Behind him a door in the wall began to open. “Watch out,” shouted Nellie, pointing to a drone that was just emerging.
Phillip whirled, but Tana had already taken it down, as well as two others that were on its heels. “Okay, your turn,” she said, turning back to Nellie. “Then it’s all your little buddy drones.”
“Wait,” Phillip said hoarsely. “She helped us.”
“Yeah,” sneered Tana. “Good disguise. Especially the little kids.”
“They haven’t got any weapons,” protested Phillip. “Maybe they’re real.”
“Well, they shouldn’t be,” said Tana, training her gun on Nellie. “Why would real kids be running the maze without weapons?”
Her trigger finger tightened and Nellie flinched, waiting for the shot. But when it sounded, she found herself still standing and staring openmouthed as her former roommate collapsed to the floor.
