by Tobias Wade
“… everything I wanted?” Hallum echoed dully.
The woman giggled as though he’d just told her a naughty joke. Hallum would have felt embarrassed for anyone else making a sound like that, but somehow she managed to pull it off.
“From the Energy Lab,” the woman prompted. “Gamber Halzey told me you wanted some things delivered for one of his employees.”
“And she sent you for that?” Hallum asked quizzically. It was hard to imagine the woman in the fiery red dress ever needing to perform manual labor. All she would have to do was smile for a dozen men to fight one another for the privilege of doing it for her. Sending someone like that to deliver a box made as much sense as sending a luxury pod with a dozen cupholders to pick up the daily trash.
“I volunteered, actually,” the woman said. “You see my husband is being held at this facility, and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help… speed things up a little.”
The woman took her time setting down the box at Hallum’s feet. Even someone as old as Nullenbur and as fat as Malberry could have stood up again faster than she did. Then again, the scenic route often takes the longest time.
“And what is the name of your husband?” Hallum asked, deliberately turning away to thumb through a file which contained none of the relevant information.
“Elden Thrush. My name is Amore, and I would desperately love to see him again.”
“Really? Him? Are you sure you haven’t misremembered having a husband?” Hallum asked, momentarily startled. “Never mind, none of my business. I’m sorry, but he’s currently being held in solitary confinement after a bit of misbehaving. If you’d like to leave your information, I’ll have you contacted when he becomes available.”
“My little Elden misbehave? Impossible. He always does exactly as he’s told,” Amore said through pouted lips. “You don’t have to be coy with me, I know about the virus. Gamber Halzey has told me how much Elden needs my help.”
The Senator narrowed his eyes. “I’ve heard that money talks, but I wasn’t warned of the gossip.”
How had the old harpy found out? Hadn’t Malberry mentioned Gamber being at his fundraiser though? Hallum should have known better than to tell the oversight panel anything. Loyalty wasn’t Malberry’s strong suit either, considering he’d once removed his own mother from life support on the eve of an election. He’d hoped that her death would make him appear more sympathetic. Ironically, his opponent managed to leak the truth to the press, which helped Malberry even more because people from Pria were practical enough to prefer a ruthless candidate anyway. It wasn’t personal; it was just the way things were.
“What else did Malberry tell you?”
Amore shrugged her bare shoulders with an innocence that defied the rest of her suggestive movements. “Mrs. Halzey makes it her business to know everything she needs to know. I won’t need a security clearance to see my husband, will I?”
“Would you like one? I have the authority to hand them out like candy. Of course, like candy, they tend to be poor for one’s long term health.”
“I’m ready to be logged in. You can get my hair and things to still look the same inside the simulation, can’t you?”
“Indeed…?” Hallum had hoped to keep Gamber’s greedy hands off his program, but this could be a rare opportunity. He would have complete power over anyone in his world, and he might be able to use that to discover what Gamber was really after. “I was wondering who would be lucky enough for the privilege of importing the antivirus. The fact that Elden will recognize and trust you might make it easier for you to protect the remaining prisoners.”
“What do you mean ‘remaining prisoners’? What happened to the others?” Amore asked, taking a hesitant step back.
“I don’t know what Gamber told you, but this endeavor is not without risk. You don’t need to worry too much though, as your avatar would be specially equipped with the power to protect you and your husband. All power comes with responsibility, however, and you will only be permitted to enter my world if you can follow your instructions. It is imperative that you do not reveal to the others that you are receiving communication from us, or that you so much as hint that they are within a simulation in any way.”
“That doesn’t seem fair to them. Why can’t I warn Elden that the dangers aren’t real?”
“The dangers are quite real, Amore. To him, to you, to the rest of us doing our best to keep you safe. We are concerned about keeping the knowledge of the simulation away from the virus, which might alter its behavior if it became fully aware of its situation.”
Amore blinked slowly, the edge of her smile flickering uncertainly. “Gamber never warned me about your sense of humor, Senator. Why are you talking about this virus as if it was a living thing?”
“Just a convenient vernacular, my dear. It is settled, then? You will deliver the antivirus personally into the system? If it’s a matter of your husband’s sentence, then I think you’ll find the duration as flexible as you are.”
“I do want to help Elden, but I don’t want to lie to him for you,” Amore replied tentatively.
It appeared that her second thoughts were trying to convince her first thoughts not to bother listening to her third thoughts, which were doubtlessly filled with doom and gloom. That might seem difficult to read into someone’s facial expression, but Hallum had considerable experience with inspiring doom and knew the signs when he saw it.
“Don’t think of it as lying. Think of it as telling him what he needs to know in order to safely return home.”
“I’ve played that game before, rationalizing a lie for his own good. It didn’t end well.”
“Then how is this game for you: If you tell anyone the truth about the simulation, then we will have to prove you are lying by stripping you of your powers and preventing you from logging off. But if you do as I tell you and help me deactivate the virus, then I will remove you and your husband and you will both be free to go.”
A shiver ran across Amore’s slender shoulders.
“Do you really want to see what happens to someone when the virus catches up with them?” Hallum pressed impatiently. “Your husband has no time to lose. There’s no reason to hesitate, if you really love him that is.”
There it was again. Those shifting shapes, black on something darker then black. Something so deep and empty and alien that it was impossible to believe these thoughts belonged to the same mind that called itself Elden.
“Why is he taking so long?” his deep thoughts seemed to say. “He’s not going to be any good to anybody if he doesn’t wakeup soon.”
The poison had put Elden into such a deep sleep that he couldn’t feel his body being bumped and dragged through the jungle. If he’d been awake, then he would have been terrified by the swooping Draiths which severed the lower branches with bladed wings. If he’d been awake, he would have screamed and swooned to see the villager being torn apart by hundreds of tiny legs not too far behind. His glassy eyes only perceived the shifting light though, and everything that was Elden was submerged beneath the black waters of unconscious drive.
“If you really trusted your gut as much as you pretended, then you’d know none of this was real.”
Before he’d ever left the Outlands, Elden’s father had told him that you can remove a person from their land, but you can never remove the land from the person. That people carry their history with them, and if Elden took the time to quiet his thoughts, then he could hear his father’s thoughts below the noise. And if he quieted those, then he could hear his grandfather, which could be quieted to hear his great-grand father. Layer by layer he could make them all lay still, all the way back to the animal, those primal instincts all but forgotten across the eons. And farther still, until he could hear the common song each of his living cells were singing in unison.
People decide who they want to be on the surface, Elden’s father had said, but they will never stray from the deep path which leads all the way back to t
he first life forms to have ever stirred from the dust of stars. Maybe it was the poison, or simply the nature of this strange dream, but everything that made Elden seem like Elden had gotten out of the way to make room for…
“You really are selfish, you know. Is this really all you’re good for? Have all your ancestors lived and struggled so that one day you might be a burden to others? Will you be the first weak link in their legacy? Or will you listen to us and do what you know is right?”
If Elden could just lie still enough, and dream deeply enough, then perhaps instead of a man dreaming about the Universe he would catch a glimpse of what it was like for the Universe to dream about a man. And maybe he would have reached that point if time hadn’t sprung a leak and things hadn’t begun to move again. The poison was neutralizing now though, and foggy images once more began to filter through.
The villagers must have carried him all the way back to the Quasi Crystal. Here they made their final stand with useless blow darts and fragile shafts of wood. Blurred figures ineptly thrust their primitive tools at the endless columns of Draiths bleeding from the sky. One by one the villagers broke and ran, abandoning their Crystal God to flee into the densest parts of the jungle. Elden must be almost awake now, or else he wouldn’t have felt the march of tiny needles across his skin. Or seen those yellow eyes boring into him, studying him with an almost human curiosity.
Elden watched the Draith watching him. Gradually his gut let him in on the secret that he was still alive. His heart hinted that if he wanted to keep it that way, he had better do something drastic. Then there was his bladder, who didn’t care whether he was dead or not because he had to clean house either way. Nobody knows what the brain thought, but it couldn’t have been that important or it would have tried shouting instead.
The Draith opened its mouth to reveal a long spiral of jagged teeth descending all the way down its throat. The wet, gurgling sound emerging could have been the last thing Elden heard, if an explosion like a volcanic eruption hadn’t bombarded the scene. The creature squealed pitifully and scampered for safety as a blizzard of crystal shards shredded the air. Elden flung himself face-first into the dirt and covered his head with his hands as he weathered the storm.
Brilliant bubbly light bathed the ground in incandescent colors. Elden peaked through his fingers just in time to see one of the beams lance through a teaming mass of Draiths. Their hard black carapaces dissolved instantly, detonating with the popping of a billion Rice Krispies poured into champagne. A glimpse was already too much; the light burned Elden’s eyes and forced him to look away from where the crystal had been. More searing beams were radiating out in all directions now, evaporating vast swaths of the Draiths before the remainder fled in a synchronized burst of wings.
Elden continued to cower until it became apparent that the light washing over him was harmless. Just to be safe, he valiantly cowered a little longer to allow anyone else who stood up first be the preferred target. It occurred to him that his dream might have been telling him to be braver though, which prompted him to rise to his knees. He regretted it immediately, and he was overpowered by a nauseating wave which proved the poison wasn’t finished with him yet. It was almost as bad as the first restaurant he’d tried on Pria, where the various ingredients of a cake were independently injected directly into his tongue, haunting him with their overwhelming flavor for well over a week.
The brilliant light was beginning to dim now, and squinting was just sufficient to make out the miraculous vision of a living dream.
“I’m still asleep.” Elden gasped in disbelief, which was so shocking that he immediately disbelieved that as well, bringing him back round to believing again. With a red flush of cascading light, Amore stepped from the heart of the broken crystal. She staggered slightly as her high heel caught on a root from the jungle floor. She swore and ripped them off, hurling the shoes against the nearest tree powerfully enough for the long heels to embed deep within the massive trunk.
“Amore, it’s me! It’s your Elden!” Elden cried with all the excitement and terror of a rabbit who had been looking forward to his surprise party, but had only just realized it was being thrown by a pack of wolves.
“Elden? What are you doing there on the ground? Why weren’t you fighting them? Oh dear, you’re so helpless without me.” The red dress soared around her body like a victorious battle flag as she stalked her way toward Elden. Nearby, Sali was peeling herself off the ground unsteadily, shaking her head from side to side as though a screw was loose. Ramnus and Harris might be around too, but Elden couldn’t tear his eyes off the beatific vision which oversaturated his senses.
“I suppose you’re enjoying this—seeing how much I suffer being away from you,” Elden said, rubbing his bleary eyes at the impossible sight. “What’s the name for the poison in my blood? I’d like another dose, please, before you go away.”
“Another dose and you’ll be the one going. I’m really here, Elden. Feel the pressure on your hand and the warmth of my skin. I’m not letting you get away that easily.”
Elden gratefully melted into Amore’s outstretched arms. Everything was coming into focus again, so how was it possible that his wife wasn’t vanishing with the other phantoms of his fevered sleep?
“I made a wish, you know. Or maybe it was a prayer, I forget—but I asked the crystal to see you again, and here you are. You are only a dream, aren’t you? Am I going to let go only to find your eyes have turned yellow, and you’ve grown claws from your fingers?”
“I don’t know about claws. I think my nails have kept their polish pretty well, considering it’s been twelve years since I’ve had them done.” Amore released him and pushed him back to arms length. “When I found out you were sentenced to the Galactic Express, I wouldn’t leave the Masks alone until they promised to send me as well. Oh Elden, I know I was being emotional, but I just couldn’t stand to be away from you.”
“But the monsters! What was that light coming from your hands? How did you destroy them like that?”
“All I know is that when I was falling asleep, I prayed to save you, and there was a voice that promised me the power to do it.”
“That’s proof then. The Quasi Crystal really did answer our prayers,” Elden said with awe.
“Amore, is it?” Sali asked suspiciously. “How did you get down from the Galactic Express then?”
Sali knelt amidst the shattered crystal to inspect the shards, never fully taking her eyes off the glamorous stranger.
“I wasn’t on the Galactic Express,” Amore said. She didn’t take her eyes off her husband, and her gaze was roaming all over as though she was looking for something. “I only just woke up inside the crystal. None of that matters though. All I really know is how happy I am to see my little Elden again.”
Amore pulled away from Elden and gave a little twirl, her auburn hair flowing around in a silken wave, flashing a smile that could have disarmed a battalion. Next to her, he really did feel like ‘little Elden’. Amore was several inches taller than him even without her heels. How she was here was a curiosity, but it paled beside the great mystery of how someone like her could ever love someone like him in the first place. This was the woman he had lived for, the woman he killed for, the woman who gave reason to madness and turned a reasonable man quite insane. Deep down Elden felt again that this couldn’t possibly be real, but then why should he listen to a poor fool like himself against the evidence of his senses?
“No one else was satisfied with that answer, right?” Sali asked, glowering as she scattered a handful of the useless crystal shards. “Even if the Quasi Crystal was shipped here from Pria, then it must have been sent a long time before we arrived. So how could Amore have gotten inside of it, if she was still on Pria when Elden departed?”
“Well I’m here, so maybe math isn’t your strong suit,” Amore said defensively. She wore the forced credulity of a thief insisting that he had come into the store with that particular television, still in the box.
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br /> “You’d better not tell me it was magic, or a miracle, because I’ve had quite enough of those and am not in the mood for another.”
“Well I’m here, so it must be a miracle,” Amore returned hotly, turning on Sali. “How else can you explain the power I used to chase away the Draiths?”
“How did you know they were called Draiths?” Sali pressed. She pushed off the ground and approached Amore, scattering the broken crystals as she went.
“Elden asked how I destroyed—”
“He didn’t call them Draiths. You did. Where’d you get that name?”
“Then the Crystal must have told me. Can you believe how ungrateful that woman is?” Amore huffed, turning back to Elden with a heavy lip. “Here I am, an answer to your prayers, saving your lives in the nick of time, and this is the type of thanks I get?”
“Leave her alone, Sali. She’s only trying to help us,” Elden mumbled uncertainly. He was only used to one woman glaring at him at a time, and two was quite overwhelming.
“She knows something that she’s not telling,” Sali snapped, jutting an accusatory finger at Amore.
“That’s enough,” Harris Johnson interrupted. He strode into the clearing with one of the Habanon pelts imperiously draped around his shoulders over his jumpsuit. “I won’t have my crew bickering like this. We could spend all day blaming each other for leaving some behind, or letting some be sacrificed, or telling the villagers about our secret plans…”
“But you’re the one who did all those things,” Ramnus protested meekly from the ground. Ramnus was rocking back and forth like a turtle on its back as he struggled against his personal gravitational field.
Harris Johnson waved his hand as though wiping the words from a whiteboard. “The bottom line is that we’re all on the same team here, all trying to get back to the same place. So let’s worry less about whose fault it is, and more about saying hello to this spectacular woman who saved the village.”
