Mindscape: Book 2 of the New Frontiers Series

by Jasper T. Scott

  Alexander swallowed thickly. “I need some time to process all of this.”

  “Of course. Head for the doors at either end of the room. Someone will be waiting there to help orient you for your return to the real world.”

  Alexander nodded and strode quickly out of his tank. His joints cracked as he moved, and his legs trembled. His muscles had atrophied from long disuse, despite whatever hormonal and chemical measures Benevolence must have taken to preserve them.

  Looking up he saw a dozen floors of catwalks and wall to wall life support tanks. This is a dream… he thought stubbornly as he walked to the end of the room.

  Chapter 40

  Just before he reached the sliding doors at the end of the Simulation Room, a pair of women appeared, one to either side of him.

  “Welcome back, Mr. de Leon,” one of them said. Both of them wore white jumpsuits branded with the word Mindsoft. The one on his left draped a fuzzy white robe around his shoulders and set a pair of matching slippers on the ground in front of him. The robe felt warm, as if it were somehow heated, and it wrapped itself around his waist without even needing to be tied. Some type of smart fabric, he realized.

  “Thank you,” he replied belatedly.

  “This way please,” the other woman said, gesturing to the sliding doors.

  The doors opened and Alexander walked through into a kind of foyer. Empty couches and arm chairs sat on stone platforms surrounded by grass, trees, and flowers, with stone pathways winding in between. The room was lush with cultivated vegetation, and the sound of water splashing on rocks drew his attention to a nearby waterfall flowing over a glistening rock wall. A holographic blue sky stretched overhead, and more rock walls cordoned the room, as if he was in some type of miniature canyon. But Alexander knew that this habitat, Majestic City, was actually located far below ground.

  Directly ahead he saw a woman standing behind a desk. Like the previous two he’d seen, this one wore a white jumpsuit with the word Mindsoft glowing over her right breast. Hovering in the air above her head was a bar of holographic text that read Welcome to 103 AB!

  The woman greeted him with a warm smile as he approached.

  “Welcome, Alexander de Leon to the first century AB—Anno Benevolentiae!” She reached under her desk and produced a small bag containing his belongings from over a century ago. She passed the bag to him, and he nodded his thanks as he slung his bag over one shoulder. “Benevolence has prepared a short orientation for you. Please find a seat, and follow the prompts on your ARC lenses to play it.”

  Alexander went back to looking around the garden. A prompt to play Benevolence’s orientation appeared before his eyes, but he minimized it. He spied a few others walking around the garden in matching white robes. “I’ll skip it thanks.”

  “That is ill-advised. There have been many changes over the past century that you should know about.”

  “I’ll bet, but I’d rather see them for myself. Thanks for the robe. Is there some place I can change back into my old clothes?”

  “Your old attire is over a hundred years old. You will find more current garments waiting for you on your way out.”

  “And that way would be…?”

  “The glass doors at the end of the grotto. Someone will be waiting to see you out and help you get your new life started.” The receptionist pointed the way, and Alexander nodded his thanks once more before heading in that direction.

  As he went, he felt a dizzy rush of emotions, chief among them was a feeling of not being real, of being trapped in a virtual world with no way out. His heart pounded and his palms began to sweat. What if Ben was lying about everything? What if all of this was just another virtual world? A holographic bird flitted overhead, chirping merrily, as if to prove the dubious nature of this new reality.

  By the time Alexander reached the glass doors at the far end of the grotto, he was on the verge of a full-blown panic attack. The woman who greeted him behind those doors took one look at him and her cheerful smile turned to a look of concern. “Are you all right, Mr. de Leon? You look very pale.”

  “I’m fine, thank you,” he managed. A lie if ever there was one. He felt like his head was stuffed full of cotton. This isn’t real. I’m not real… Alexander tripped over his own feet and nearly fell, but the woman who’d greeted him caught him in a surprisingly strong, cold grip before he could smash his nose on the floor. He shot her an odd look. She’d caught him as if he weighed no more than a feather, and her hands were like ice. “What are you?”

  “Not what—who. I am not a thing. My name is Susan.”

  “Your hands are freezing, Susan,” he said.

  “The temperature in the habitat is kept deliberately low to help maintain all of the machinery. That is why you were given a heated robe. Are you sure you are all right?”

  Alexander found himself staring, pieces of a strange puzzle coming together inside his head. “You’re not human, are you?”

  “Does it matter?” Susan asked. “You skipped your orientation. That was not wise. There have been many changes over the past century that—”

  “You mean like bots that look human?”

  “Bot is a derogatory term, Mr. de Leon. Android is both more accurate and more polite.”

  “I can see I have a lot of catching up to do,” he said.

  “You do. If you would please go find a seat and play your orientation…”

  Alexander shrugged out of Susan’s cold grip. “I like it better this way,” he insisted. “How about you focus on showing me the exit and getting me set up with some clothes and accommodations. I assume all the basics will be provided?”

  “Of course. You may also choose to update your education and register with a job placement agency when you feel ready to become independent.”

  “I’m going back to school?”

  “Unskilled labor is another option if you do not wish to or cannot afford to purchase the necessary upgrades for the career of your choosing.”

  “Upgrades. You mean implants?”

  “Of course. Today’s job market is very competitive. Cybernetics help bridge the gap between human and android. This is nothing new to you. Even in your time, implants were commonplace to help govern socially acceptable behavior.”

  “Right. I’m guessing there’s a laundry list of them now.”

  “A laundry list?”

  “A long list—this is all very interesting,” he said, nodding. “I just have one question for you, Susan.”

  “Yes? I am listening.”

  “Are you real?”

  Chapter 41

  Are you real? It seemed like an innocent enough question. Apparently Susan didn’t think so. Instead of showing him the exit, she’d called for backup. A pair of female androids in Mindsoft jumpsuits had half-dragged, half-escorted him to meet what he assumed was another ice-gripped android, this one wearing a white lab coat, a clinical smile, and cold gray eyes to match.

  The androids who’d escorted him to the doctor’s office held him fast, as if he might try to make a run for it. Their grip was so tight it was cutting off circulation.

  “You can’t keep me here against my will,” Alexander said.

  The doctor waved them away. “You can let him go now.”

  They released his arms and he glared at each of them in turn as he rubbed his aching biceps. Alexander noted that they didn’t leave the room, but rather took up positions one to either side of the entrance.

  “I am Doctor Aaron Duvan,” the man said, holding out a hand for shaking. Alexander accepted that handshake if for no better reason than to prove his theory that this was another android, but the man’s grip was warm, not cold.

  “You’re a human.”

  “Is that a problem?”

  Alexander frowned, but said nothing.

  “Do you know why you are here?”

  “Because I’m not buying into all of this shit. First I’m waking up a thousand years into the future, married to my XO, Viviana McAdams, t
hen I’m jumping to my death and waking up in the real world only to find that just a hundred years have passed, and I wasn’t really married to Viviana, because she’s dead. Instead, I was re-married to my ex-wife, who only looked like my XO—courtesy of Benevolence’s liescape.”

  “While that’s an accurate summary of recent events—”

  “What would you know about it?” Alexander interrupted.

  “It’s all in your file.”

  “My file? What am I, a research subject?”

  “A patient. You were in the Mindscape for therapy, yes?”

  “So I’m told.” Alexander’s lips twisted into a sarcastic grin. “But I’m cured now, right? Viviana is dead, and I’ve finally accepted it. A hundred years later. Nice work there, Doc. Did it really take that long for me to come to grips with things, or is that just another lie?”

  Doctor Duvan smiled thinly back. “You were previously diagnosed with chronic depression. The Mindscape was the only cure. It worked, despite what you might think at the moment. You’re angry, which is understandable, but you are no longer depressed, and in time you will understand why. Unfortunately, now you seem determined to suffer from something new.”

  “Let me guess, the prescription is to send me back in?”

  “I’m afraid the Mindscape can’t help you this time. You are suffering from acute derealization disorder—DD for short.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You spent so much time living in the Mindscape that reality no longer seems real to you. You are questioning what is real and what is virtual. Unfortunately, this is a dangerous condition, both for you and for those around you.”

  “How so?”

  “You were suffering from the same condition when you chose to wake up from the Mindscape. It is what drove you to jump from your balcony and fall 7,000 feet to your death.”

  “You were watching? What else were you watching, you pervert? Maybe you also saw me and Viviana—I mean Catalina—in the pool?”

  Doctor Duvan shook his head. “I was not watching anything. Only Benevolence is allowed to observe the Mindscape, and the kind of voyeurism you are referring to is illegal. I’m merely going on what Benevolence wrote in your file.”

  Alexander nodded absently, his gaze flicking over the walls, wondering where and how he was going to find the seam in this reality.

  “I’m going to recommend a specialist that you can see when you leave here. Meanwhile, Benevolence has suggested you should not be left alone right now. He’s recommended that you stay with Catalina until your treatment is concluded.”

  “Sure. Why not. I was staying with her in the last Mindscape, wasn’t I? This will just be more of the same.”

  “I’m glad you approve. She’s waiting for you on the surface. I am sorry that your transition has been so difficult.”

  Alexander nodded and turned to leave the doctor’s office. The two women who’d escorted him there followed him out and up the elevator from sub-level seventy-five all the way up to the ground floor of the habitat.

  As promised, Catalina was waiting in the lobby for him. A few other people were there, busy reuniting with their loved ones after their time in the Mindscape.

  “Hello, Alex,” Catalina said, smiling wanly as he approached.

  “How do I know that you’re real?” he asked as he stopped in front of her.

  Her smile faltered and her gaze flicked between the two androids escorting him. “He’s all yours,” one of them said, and then both of them departed, going back the way they’d come.

  Catalina turned her attention to Alexander. “This didn’t go exactly the way I’d hoped. They cured you of one ailment by giving you another.”

  “You can’t answer me, can you?” Alexander said, smiling smugly.

  “I’ll answer you, if you can answer me. Why would Ben keep us in a Mindscape, Alex?”

  “To keep us out of trouble. To keep the real world for him and his androids. He doesn’t need to waste Earth’s resources catering to human needs if we’re all relegated to life support tanks.”

  “Let’s take that logic to its ultimate conclusion. Why not just kill us then? Why keep us in tanks at all? We’re still a waste of resources while we’re in the Mindscape. Maybe even a bigger waste. Do you have any idea how much computational power it takes to simulate convincing artificial worlds? It would be cheaper and easier to keep us alive in the real world.”

  Alexander frowned. “Maybe we’d cause too much trouble in the real world.”

  “You mean go around killing each other and starting wars?” Catalina shook her head. “Benevolence is in charge now. War isn’t even an option. And as for crime, there’s drones and cameras everywhere. There isn’t enough privacy for crime to be an issue.”

  “How do you know that? You just woke up, like me.”

  “Look up.”

  Alexander did, and he noticed small, disc-shaped drones watching him from the ceiling with their bulbous 3D cameras. They looked sleeker than old models he remembered from a century ago, and they had suspicious, barrel-shaped protrusions fore and aft that looked like they might be weapons.

  Alexander nodded slowly. “Big brother is watching us.”

  “More like Big Ben,” Catalina said.

  “So what you’re saying is that it would be inefficient for Ben to keep us all in a virtual world, because it’s easier to control us in the real one.”

  “I wouldn’t put it in such negative terms, but yes.”

  Alexander felt a headache coming on, but on the heels of that was a feeling of…

  Relief. Everything Catalina was saying made a whole lot of sense. “So why did he keep us in the Mindscape for a hundred years?”

  Catalina walked up to him and spent a moment searching his eyes with hers. “Have you ever stopped to think that maybe that’s what it took to help you?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  “Why else would he keep us in there?”

  “Maybe because we would have destabilized things before he could solidify his government. You were a Human League Senator. I was a dissident admiral with the fleet… you do the math.”

  “You’re talking about the correctional Mindscape. We both spent a few months in there, not a hundred years.”

  “You sure about that?” Alexander asked. “I remember waking up and being treated for depression… then consenting to go back into the Mindscape for therapy, but what if that was all a lie? What if we never woke up?”

  “It’s possible, but you’re assuming that Ben was scared of the two of us. I think that’s attributing more importance to us than we deserve.”

  “Not if we were two out of millions of others who received the same treatment.”

  “So why lie about it? It’s no secret that all the dissenters went into a correctional Mindscape for a time.”

  “That’s pretty easy to accept when it’s just a few months. A hundred years on the other hand… that would probably just make us even more rebellious. He might have had to cushion the blow by making us believe for one reason or another that we voluntarily chose to be in the Mindscape for that long.”

  “I can’t answer all of your doubts, Alexander, but I think the proof will become self-evident as we see what life is like in this new world, don’t you? Ben’s either made things better or he’s made them worse.”

  “Yeah…”

  “We should go.”

  “Where?”

  “Well, I was thinking of going house-hunting. Maybe you’d like to join me for that?”

  “All right. Why not. Anything’s better than sticking around here,” he replied, glancing up at the drones clinging to the lobby ceiling.

  Chapter 42

  Dorian Gray smiled as he stroked his daughter’s hair. She lay fast asleep on his chest, taking her afternoon nap on the balcony with her parents. Andy had a busy day yesterday with her birthday party; she was still catching up on her sleep.

  Already four years old, Dorian thought, shaking his head.
How did you get so big so fast?

  Phoenix leaned over to kiss Andy on the forehead. She shot him a conspiratorial smile as she withdrew. “Pity we can’t take a nap ourselves,” she whispered.

  Dorian smiled back. A nap—what a nice euphemism for busy parents. But there was no way to extricate himself from Andy without also waking her. “Oh well,” he sighed. “Nice view today,” he whispered back, trying to distract himself from his wife’s proposition.

  Phoenix turned to look, and he joined her. The ocean looked like wrinkled blue velvet, the sky so clear and blue it might have been made of glass. The air was still, as if the whole world had stopped to appreciate its own beauty.

  “We live a charmed life,” Phoenix said.

  “Yes, we do,” Dorian nodded. They were the lucky ones. Duly employed by Mindsoft, living the good life in an oceanfront condo in Clearwater, Florida. They were virtual commuters, making good money and living anywhere they liked. For them the Mindscape was how they made their living, not where they lived their lives.

  Dorian was about to ask if Phoenix could bring them each a glass of wine when a bright flash of light wiped out the sky. Dorian shut his eyes instantly, but the light stabbed his eyes painfully all the same. Phoenix cried out and Andy woke up, stirring in his lap and moaning about her eyes. Dorian blinked rapidly to clear his vision. But the blinding column of light remained. At first he feared that flash of light had somehow damaged his eyes and this was the result. But that didn’t make any sense.

  “What is that?” Phoenix asked, standing from the bench where they sat and walking up to the railing. A wave of heat hit them and Dorian winced as his skin began to tingle and itch.

  “Ouch!” Andy complained.

  “It’s okay,” Dorian said. He dropped a kiss on his daughter’s head and got up from the bench to stand beside his wife.

  The city’s sirens began wailing. The last time they’d heard those had been when Hurricane Ben came into the gulf and threatened Clearwater.