He finally climbed out of bed and walked over to the closet, next to the bathroom door. He had spent only a few minutes the previous night checking the room out. When he opened the closet door, he was surprised to see his own clothing hanging inside. Some kind of replication device, he guessed. It probably scanned his outfit when he had first entered the room, then manufactured a copy of them while he slept. He thought about the primitive conditions his mother had been forced to live in, and wondered why.
He had a sudden feeling that he was being watched. Thinking it was Jane in his room again, he turned to see a few of the villagers walking towards the lake. “Turn it off,” he said, and the room was plunged into darkness. “Can I get something like simple lights? Not too bright?” The wall panels glowed softly, bathing the room in a soft blue light. “That’s better,” he said, and he grabbed the clean clothing and headed for the shower.
Twenty minutes later, he felt like a new man. Clean hair, clean body, and clean clothes. He smiled, realizing that he could get used to this lifestyle. Then remembering where he was, he asked aloud, “Who is in charge here? Who built all of this?” Again, the room was silent. Apparently, whatever computer system was responding to his requests was not programmed to answer his questions.
As he stepped out the door, he saw his father in the galley on the far side of the room. Sitting at the table in the middle of the room were Jessie and Ash. “Ash!” he yelled without thinking. Ash stood up and ran to Jake.
“Good to see you, Captain,” he said, and he reached out his hand.
Jake shook it. “Is it really you this time?” he said but instinctively knew the answer. His navigator looked older and far more frail than the simulated version he had met earlier. There was substantial scarring on his neck, face, and hands. He looked a bit like a puzzle that hadn’t been put back together quite right.
“I’m kind of a mess, aren’t I?” he said, his face turning red. “I tend to avoid mirrors these days.”
“You’re alive,” Jake said. “I think if you ask your sister, she’ll agree that’s all that matters.”
He nodded. “She’s my sister. She doesn’t care what I look like.”
Jake turned to the sounds of other doors opening and saw the rest of his crew emerging. “Neither will any of them,” he said.
A few hours later, when everyone had talked, and eaten, and talked some more, it was time for Jake to ask his father a few questions. He went to stand next to him in the galley.
“It would be paradise except for the fact that you have absolutely no coffee here,” he said.
“Yeah,” his father sighed as he put dishes in the recycler. “That was a big problem for me when I first arrived. You’d think nearly being eaten alive by a pack of wild dogs and then being rescued by whoever, or whatever, built this place, I’d have been a little more content, but damn, I miss coffee.”
Jake smiled. “So that’s where I get my addiction, huh?”
His father smiled back. “Your mother never much cared for the stuff. Said it wasn’t a necessity, and she didn’t like to depend on things that might disappear one day.” He looked at Jake. “She was a strong woman, Jake. Stronger than I ever was.”
“She still is strong,” Jake said.
He shook his head. “You’re right, of course, but the fact is, I’ll never see her again.”
“What do you mean?”
“You saw those dogs. There’s hundreds of them, maybe thousands. They roam the whole area between here and the village. I used to watch them on the wall screens at night. Nothing gets past them.”
“Ash told us they only attacked us because we made a fire. You said they attached you after making a fire as well. That’s an east thing to avoid.”
His father stared at him. “Do you think I stayed here all these years because I like the conveniences?”
Jake looked around. “Well, it is about a thousand percent better than living in the village.”
His father grabbed him by the arm. “Don’t say that, Jake. I would live on nothing but dirt if it meant being with Cathy again. I would even risk my life if I thought there was the slightest chance of getting past those animals. Once they have your scent, they can track you anywhere.” He let go of Jake’s arm and turned back to the dishes. “I almost died twice trying to get back.”
“I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to imply anything.”
He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry.” He looked back at the other sitting at the table. “At least you have people you know, and they seem like good people.”
“They are,” Jake agreed.
His father turned to face him. “So, it’s like you said. It’s a good life here, right? Certainly better than our old living space back in Capitol City. That place was a dump.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” Jake said. “I have some good memories of that time. Before you two left, anyway.”
“About that...”
“Mom told me,” Jake said.
He sighed and leaned back against the counter. “To be honest, Jake, I’m not so sure that any of it was true.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your mother had a pretty rough childhood. Her family was accused of being Betas, or at least Beta sympathizers, by the people in her town when she was young. Her father was imprisoned, and they had to go into hiding with friends. They got caught up in some sort of secret network, and she ended up spending much of her life hiding from the people she called Alphas. When we met, she said she knew I was a Beta too.”
“Were you? I mean, are you?”
“Who knows? I was in love, so I went along with it, just to make her happy. After we got married, we didn’t talk about it much. We both had decent jobs in Capitol City, and things were pretty good. When you came along, though, things changed.”
“How so?”
“When you were five or six, there was a power outage. We had them every few months back then, but this one lasted several days. The darkness brings out peoples’ worst fears, and someone started a rumor that a Beta had sabotaged the power plant. Your mother began to worry about you, about what the world would be like when you grew up. I think she also got in touch with some of her old friends in the network, because she started talking about the possibility of going into hiding again.”
“So that’s why you left?”
He nodded. “When the Compass Expedition was announced a few years later as a search for life outside the colony, your mother was told that it was actually a search for a new home for Betas. She got us both spots on the westbound ship, and...well, the rest I think you know.”
Jake felt a weight lift from his shoulders. “So, if you’re not a Beta, then maybe I’m not either, right?”
His father shrugged. “Who can honestly say? It’s never mattered to me, and it’s not like they have a test for it.”
Jake looked at Dr. Wood sitting by himself on the far side of the room. “Actually, they do now. Our own doctor actually helped create it.” When his father looked alarmed, he added, “Don’t worry, we don’t have one here, so it doesn’t really matter, right?”
His father nodded. “Like I said, it never mattered to me.”
Everyone spent the rest of the day just talking and relaxing in their new home. After all that they had gone through in the past few months, it felt almost foreign to have so much given to them. Several times throughout the day, he stepped back into his room and tried to summon the image of his mother’s village, but with no luck. He clicked through numerous scenes of valleys similar to theirs, but not that particular valley. Was it a random selection? Had he just been lucky that first time?
When evening came, he joined the others on the plateau outside the door to watch the sun go around the bend. His father said he made it a habit to watch every sunset, because it helped him keep track of time. He was beginning to realize just how much like his father he really was.
After dinner, he felt exhaustion setting in again, so he said good night to everyone and
turned in early. He drifted off listening to the comforting sound of muffled voices outside his door and had the best sleep of his life.
Revelation 06
When Jake woke the next morning, he quickly turned on the room lights and checked the foot of his bed: no Jane this time. Probably for the best, he thought as he climbed out of bed and stretched. He decided it was time to start new routines, so he did a few half-hearted sit-ups and push-ups before giving up. I’ll do better tomorrow, he vowed then headed for the shower. A few minutes later he was daydreaming about what he might do that day, when the lights suddenly went out. He was about to yell for the computer, or whatever controlled the room’s systems, to turn it back on, when the shower door opened and the outline of a female form stepped in.
“AJ!” he tried to say, but she pulled him close and began kissing him passionately. The hot water swirling over them both made him dizzy. Then, just as suddenly, she let go of him and stepped back out of the shower dripping wet. “Where are you going?” he asked.
She looked over her shoulder and said, “I’ll be waiting for you.”
He stood there staring at the darkness, wondering what he should do, then turned off the water and quickly dried off. When he stepped back into his bedroom, the lights came back on, and he saw she was gone. He looked down and followed her wet footprints over to his bed, but there they ended. He felt the sheets, but they were dry. “What kind of game are you playing, AJ?” he whispered.
Shaking his head, he continued to dry off then got dressed. He felt a little apprehensive as he stepped out the door, but fortunately, she wasn’t there and no one else was up yet. He went to the kitchen and started making breakfast.
“You’re up early,” AJ said from behind him. He jumped, knocking a large pot right off the counter. She caught it in midair then laughed. “Sorry, Jake. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“You didn’t scare me,” he sputtered then looked away as more of his crew emerged from their rooms. He quickly turned back to the counter.
“Do you want to join me today?” she asked.
He turned his head halfway towards her and whispered out of the side of his mouth, “They can hear us, you know.”
She looked at him strangely. “I know. I already discussed it with them.”
He turned to her. “Wait. What are you talking about?”
“Exploring the torus wall, of course. Looking for a way in. What are you talking about?”
Why was she playing games? “We should probably talk about...things later,” he said aloud.
She raised an eyebrow then asked, “Things?
More games, he thought. That was okay—he could play them just as well. “Things like where to look for the Wave, you know?”
“Well, that’s exactly why I want to explore the upper wall as soon as possible. Ash says there’s a lot of area to cover, and I figure if we split up, we can cover a lot more of it per day.”
“My father’s been here a long time,” he said, a part of him relieved to be on another subject. “I’m sure you can rule out the places he’s already looked.”
“That’s the odd part,” she said, looking around to make sure no one else could hear. “Ash says your father didn’t do any exploring before he arrived. In fact, he said your father didn’t seem to even know about the passage leading up to the wall until Ash showed him.”
“What passage?
“There’s a small door in the back of this facility’s rec room that leads to a vertical shaft. Maybe an old air shaft, I don’t know. But there’s a ladder inside that takes you up to the rocks above this place. From there it’s a short walk to the wall.” She looked at him. “The door’s pretty obvious, Jake. I can’t imagine he never opened it.”
“But if it’s in the back of the rec room, that means you have to turn off all the simulations to see it, right? Maybe he left a simulation running all the time. There’s plenty of power here, from what my dad says.”
“You’re saying he left a simulation running for fifteen years?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never been all alone for that long, have you? No other people around? Do any of us know what that would be like?”
“You’re right, I guess. He seems to have managed to keep himself sane for longer than I would have lasted,” she admitted. “So anyway, I’ll tell the others that we will start right after breakfast.” She started to turn away then added, “Are you sure there wasn’t something else you wanted to talk to me about?”
You are so good at this, he thought but replied, “No, nothing else.”
“Okay,” she said, looking like she still wasn’t sure about him. “Then after we eat, let’s go exploring.”
Breakfast seemed to go smoothly until Jane suddenly stood up and ran to her room without saying a word.
“Is she okay?” Jake’s father asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jake replied. He stood to go check on her, when her door opened and she came out wearing a different outfit. “Are you all right?” he asked.
She looked confused. “Of course, Jake. Why do you ask?”
“Well, you ran out of here without a word,” AJ said. “I thought maybe you choked on something.”
She sat back down in her chair. “That wouldn’t have been very smart, would it?” she replied as she resumed eating.
“You changed your clothes,” Vee said. “That’s a cute outfit.”
Jane nodded. “Better for hiking, I think.”
“You’ll have to tell me how you talked your room into making it for you. All my closet does is copy exactly what I came in here wearing.”
Jake leaned in to his father. “Jane is very good at communicating with computers. Before we became marooned here, she had bypassed every system on my ship.”
His father seemed annoyed. “Did she now?” He stood up suddenly and nearly yelled at Jane. “You shouldn’t mess with other people’s things, young lady.”
“Dad!” Jake said. “What are you talking about?”
“She knows,” he said as he pushed past Jake and headed to her closed door.
“Dad, where are you going?”
His father flung open the door and then reached in and pulled Jane out by her arm. Jake looked at her, then at the woman sitting two seats down from him, then back at her. “What’s going on?”
Raines smiled. “Looks like our Jane has figured out how to make her very own assistant.”
Vee poked the copy of Jane sitting next to her in the arm. “Are you kidding me? She looks so real.”
The Jane copy poked her back. “I am real, Vee. I’m Jane.” She then looked back at the Jane by the door. “I’m certainly more real than she is.”
“You are not!” the other Jane fired back.
“Do you mind if I try to determine which one is real?” Dr. Wood asked, coming around the table. It was the first time Jake had seen the doctor looking this interested in anything since they arrived in Eden.
“Not at all, Arik,” she replied.
The other Jane pulled herself away from Michael and ran back to the table. “Knowing his first name doesn’t make you real,” she said to the copy at the table. “Everyone here knows you’re a fake.”
“Please,” Dr. Wood interrupted. “Let’s make this a game, shall we? Neither of you talk until I ask you a question. Are we in agreement?” They both nodded silently.
Wood proceeded to ask each version of Jane a series of questions, but they both were able to answer each one just as the real Jane would have. “I give up,” he finally said. “Without proper medical scanners, I can’t tell them apart.”
“It wouldn’t matter,” Jake’s father said. “Rec room assistants are perfect copies. There is no way to tell them apart—at least until their power supplies fail.”
Jake looked at the two women sitting at the table. “This technology is too advanced, Jane,” he said to them both. “You should not have used it without asking me. Whichever one of you is the real Jane needs to end this g
ame now.”
“I guess that would be me,” a voice said from the back of the room. Everyone turned to see a third version of Jane standing at the open door to the recreation room.
The two Janes at the table stood up and walked over to Michael. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks,” one of them whispered to him, just loud enough for Jake to hear. Then they both turned in unison and walked over to the open rec-room door, hand in hand. The third, presumably real, Jane stepped to the side to let them pass. Before they entered, one of the copies turned back and said, “It was nice to meet all of you. I hope I get the chance to do it again sometime.” Then they both dissolved into a swirl of particles that shot through the door opening just before it closed.
The real Jane walked back to her chair, barely suppressing a giggle. “I sure fooled you, didn’t I, Captain?”
He realized that the woman who had joined him in the shower that morning had not been AJ after all. She had been a copy of his first mate, created by Jane.
“I think you fooled all of us,” Raines said as he sat back down to eat. Fortunately, he didn’t know to what Jane was referring.
“Promise me that you won’t do that again,” Jake said.
She poked at the plate of food before her then said, “You’re the captain, Captain.”
“You do all see the danger she just uncovered, don’t you?” Wood asked.
“What danger, Doctor?” Raines asked. “These assistants seem perfectly harmless to me.”
“Don’t you understand?” he yelled as he pounded his fists on the table. “She has just proven that any of us could have been swapped out with a copy at any point in our stay here.” He looked around the table. “Any one of you could be a copy, and the rest of us would have no idea.”
“That hasn’t happened,” Jake’s father said as he sat back down in his chair.
“And we’re supposed to take your word for it?”
“Yes,” Jake said. “Now sit down, and calm down, Doctor.”
“How do I know you’re even real?” he asked Jake. “How do any of us know?”
Novum Chronicles: A Dystopian Undersea Saga Page 31