Mobius

by Vincent Vale

  I implemented the full thrust of my anti-gravity belt and we rocketed up through the ocean depths. Just as we rose above the water’s surface, the sluice gate released its tubular force field from the ocean waters, sending a tremendous gust of wind upward as the ocean collapsed in on the remaining void.

  I idled my anti-gravity belt, and we floated on a breeze in midair. We overlooked a turbulent ocean in all directions. I looked up and became enchanted by the sapphire-blue light spilling across the sky from horizon to horizon. I marveled at this sentient entity that shrouded Earth.

  “Has it truly existed with humankind for so long, undiscovered?”

  “Release me, you lunatic,” screamed Allienora. “What are you looking at? Why do you stare at the sky like a madman? Do you hear me? Release me!”

  “If I release you now, you’ll drown. A storm brews in the east and will be here soon. We must fly.”

  Allienora glanced eastward and roared angrily.

  “Such spirit, Prime Minister.” I smiled. “I like it.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “You have to trust me.”

  “Impossible!”

  “Only an hour ago, you said you had faith in me.”

  “Things change. You’re fucking crazy!”

  “You’re too beautiful for such language, Allienora.”

  I was about to move in the direction of the coordinates given to me by Sensimion’s colleague when a small transport ship caught my eye. It descended in a freefall, like a fishing lure dropped from the heavens. In an instant, it came to rest exactly beside us. A window opened and a haggard head appeared. The pilot’s lustrous hyper-blue eyes instantly identified him.

  “Open the door,” I called.

  The pilot didn’t comply. He lingered in silence and inspected Allienora, who hung tightly around me.

  “Drop the woman in the ocean and I’ll open the door.”

  “Are you totally heartless? She’s an innocent bystander. Let us in, goddamnit!”

  The pilot grunted and then opened the door. We entered the small transport and fell onto a plush velvet bench.

  “They’ll be here soon,” said the pilot. “We must move fast, so our destination isn’t revealed.” He engaged the transport ship toward North America.

  Allienora pulled wind-tangled ringlets of golden hair from her face. “You maniacs won’t get far. You realize I’m the Prime Minister of Earth? An army will be here in moments.”

  The pilot lifted his hand in a careless manner. “I’m a clever man, Prime Minister. I’ve planned for the worst.”

  I felt hardly reassured. “Exactly what are these Obelisks, where are we headed, and what’s the plan?”

  “Save your questions until we’re off this planet. We’re still uncertain as to the scope of the Fume’s powers and perceptions.”

  “Are you aware the Fume is a single entity, which controls every manifestation?”

  “We are,” said the pilot. “When the Brahman Station was being sabotaged, we were monitoring the interaction between Sensimion and one of the Fume’s human minions, who implied this fact when he called the Fume his ‘master.’”

  “You’re both crazy,” said Allienora. “You’re talking nonsense.”

  “Listen carefully,” I explained. “There’s a powerful presence on Earth. It has secretly existed with humankind for millennia. It commands powers beyond mere mortals, including omnipresence, possible mind control, the ability to turn a man to ash with a gesture—and, as you’ve witnessed, it’s immune to the effects of explosives. It manipulates humankind as if it were a machine to be tweaked and adjusted. To what end? We don’t know. But it’s possible the Obelisks are a move toward the Fume’s final plan.”

  Allienora held up a flat palm. “Gods and monsters? You’re insane.”

  The transport ship traversed the American continent and headed out into the Pacific Ocean on a course for Asia.

  “We have company,” announced the pilot.

  I peered through a porthole and discovered a ship flying alongside us.

  “They’ve come for me,” said Allienora triumphantly. “You’d be smart to surrender.” She tapped the smart-glass of the porthole, magnifying the nearby ship. “It’s impossible! I thought I was confused!”

  “What?” I asked.

  Allienora displayed less hostility. “After you gruesomely murdered the defense minister’s men, I thought I saw them stand up from death, as if resurrected.” She gestured through the porthole. “I thought I was hallucinating, but it must have been real. One of the minions sits, quite healthy, within that ship.”

  I spotted another ship barreling down from the sky. “It looks like his buddy’s joining him.”

  “Hold on!” said the pilot, taking evasive maneuvers. “It’s hopeless. Their ships are faster. It’s time for a more extreme plan.”

  “Well,” I said. “What’s your plan?”

  “There are anti-gravity belts and personal cloaks at your feet.”

  “You want us to abandon ship?” I said. “These cloaking devices are just visual camouflage. They’ll find us immediately.”

  “They won’t think we’ve left the ship—we’ll leave bodies behind.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “There’s a compartment under your seat.”

  Allienora and I stood up and lifted the cushion. Surprisingly, we found two men inside. At first glance, they appeared dead, until I noticed the slight rise and fall of their chests.

  I inspected the faces of the two sleeping men. “You’ve indeed prepared for the worst by cloning the two of us.”

  Allienora’s eyes flared at the pilot. “How can you expect me to trust you when you perpetrate such crimes? Cloning is a capital offence.”

  The pilot waved a hand in disregard. “Truly, this is no time to nitpick, Prime Minister. Or have you yet to realize our lives hang from a thread.”

  “Your plan’s flawed,” I said. “There are only two clones.”

  “You should have dropped Allienora into the ocean.”

  Allienora leaned forward. “You’re not going to leave me behind, are you?”

  “It’s the obvious choice,” said the pilot. “Besides, don’t you wish to be free from us?”

  Allienora shook her head wildly. “I don’t know! I don’t understand what’s going on!”

  The pilot sighed. “You and Theron will go. I’ll deal with the Fume’s human minions. They won’t think to differentiate the life signs within this ship. Now, get ready to fly. The coast of China isn’t far off.”

  While Allienora and I prepared our cloaks and anti-gravity belts, the pilot pushed the small transport ship to its limits in an effort to reach landmass.

  “You must go now,” said the pilot. “More ships approach. Stand behind the bench above the emergency-hatch and prepare to eject.”

  I grabbed Allienora’s hand and activated our cloaks. “We must fly together so our cloaking fields are merged. I don’t want to lose you in the unforgiving lands of China.”

  The pilot glanced back to me and Allienora. “Do you remember the exact coordinates, Theron?”

  “I do. What will we find there?”

  The pilot didn’t answer. He looked to the sky with his glowing synthetic eyes wide. “Despite all its ominous overtones, the dimension and exotic energy filling the sky is quite beautiful. Isn’t it?” With that said, he triggered the emergency hatch, sending us into freefall.

  I activated our anti-gravity belts and we floated just off the coast of China. We watched from a distance as four ships surrounded the small transport. Moments later, the transport ignited into a fireball, apparently caused by an internal explosion.

  “My God!” screamed Allienora.

  I held her tightly. “The pilot knew they’d eventually force the vessel down and discover our absence. This act of sacrifice will allow us enough time to escape.”

  “Why is your life more important than his, Theron?”

  I loo
ked with conviction in the direction of our destination. “Hopefully such a question will be answered at our final destination within the Khingan MegaCity.”

  OUT OF PHASE

  We flew for hours into the northeastern regions of China. Allienora had passed out from exhaustion. I held her in my arms. Her head rested on my shoulder. It was comforting. I hadn’t felt such real intimacy in years. My addiction to SLIP code had turned me into something sad. Finding intimacy in hyper-realistic fantasies just wasn’t like the real thing.

  We are all just halves, until we become whole. I stole a kiss from her sleeping lips. I want to live again.

  She woke up after a while. Her lips trembled. She might have been in shock.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  Her large eyes glistened. “I don’t understand what’s going on, Theron.”

  “You must trust me, Allienora. We must move forward. The Obelisks are coming.”

  “What are they?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What of the defense minister’s men?” she asked.

  “They haven’t discovered us yet.” I scanned the hilly landscape. “Perhaps the pilot’s daring plan was successful.”

  “Successful, though costly,” she replied. “How much farther?”

  “I don’t know, but the day’s ending.” I looked at the sun sitting on the Khingan Mountain range.

  Allienora cringed. “What’s that smell?”

  We became drenched in a putrid gas cloud. Below, we discovered the source of the sickening stench. The land below was split open, revealing a ten-kilometer chasm into the heart of an ancient dumpsite, exposing the decaying remnants of five hundred years of human waste. I pointed out giant robotic machines. They worked to process the toxic garbage. I flew us higher to avoid the smell.

  The sun set and the barren lands below were painted in gray tones. Halfway through the night, as the crest of the mountainous horizon rolled toward us, a magnificent light pierced the dark landscape. The Khingan MegaCity had revealed itself.

  In the dawn’s light, we marveled at the MegaCity. It had an air of power over the surrounding mountains, like a bejeweled king among peasants. The MegaCity’s diamond-fiber superstructure was the foundation for an ever-growing and changing habitat for the two hundred million inhabitants.

  I considered the size and complexity of the MegaCity as we neared its perimeter. I halted our flight in midair.

  “Why have we stopped?” asked Allienora.

  “I need to access my neural implant to find the coordinates in the MegaCity.” I closed my eyes and gazed inward. My neural implant showed me the best route to our destination.

  Allienora started shaking me. “Look, Theron! Something’s happening. Thousands of ships are leaving the MegaCity.”

  I focused on the outside world and, looking slack-jawed to the sky, found the cause of the mass departure. “The Obelisks have arrived!”

  Before us, one of the one hundred and twelve Obelisks descended into the atmosphere. It was the width of the MegaCity and four times the height.

  “It’s enormous,” uttered Allienora.

  “Have I gone crazy, or does it lack substance?”

  The Obelisk itself seemed a thing of illusion. It was translucent like a phantom, causing me to question whether it was real.

  “It’s as if it’s out of phase with reality,” said Allienora. “I can see right through it.”

  “We should find safety within the MegaCity.” I interlinked with my anti-gravity belt and we continued towards the MegaCity at best speed.

  I guided us into the lower regions of the MegaCity, hoping to buffer us from the Obelisk’s descent. We became lost in a labyrinth of old construction long since forsaken and left for the poor and homeless.

  I landed us on a wide street lined with buildings in various stages of disrepair. Above and beyond, the newer and more magnificent architecture of the MegaCity could be seen. It was a beautiful creation, a larger-than-life artwork composed of the soft sheen of metal and the cool glow of electric light.

  “Our view of the Obelisk is blocked,” said Allienora.

  “Don’t disengage your cloak,” I instructed. “This is a dangerous place and chaos is upon us.”

  Preparing for the Obelisk’s impact, we remained in the open, hoping to be safe from falling debris. When many minutes passed and neither winds nor quakes brought us to our knees, I decided we must continue. I again interlinked with my neural implant.

  “We must be quick,” I said. “Our destination is much higher, at the peak of the MegaCity.”

  “Watch out!” screamed Allienora.

  Before we could again make flight, a transport sphere struck us from behind. We crashed to the ground—our arms and legs wrenched by the force. Our cloaks disengaged from the impact, revealing our limp bodies.

  The transport sphere stopped and someone got out.

  I couldn’t move. I looked to Allienora and discovered the driver of the vehicle on her. He was an ugly little fuck, with drooping jowls and pale pink skin. His arms were lined with synergistic implants. She’d be no match for his enhanced strength. I tried to get up, but couldn’t. I watched as the man ran his finger along Allienora’s neck.

  “My caress pleases you, doesn’t it?”

  Allienora squirmed beneath him. “Get your hands off me, you pig!”

  The man pulled himself even closer, presenting her with two beady eyes and a perverted smile. “I thought I might have a taste.”

  Allienora continued to struggle for freedom. The man dragged his tongue, like a wet slug, across the base of her neck. “Mm... vanilla,” he lusted.

  Allienora kicked him in the balls.

  Instead of pain, he showed satisfaction. “Mm... again you please me. You’re like an angel of ecstasy. You’re what I dream of when I sleep, and when I pleasure myself.”

  “Get off her!” I screamed, forcing myself to stand. I moved to intervene, but Allienora’s molester jammed a prod-like device against my arm, injecting something beneath my skin. I became paralyzed. He did the same to Allienora. I couldn’t move, but I was wide awake.

  Neeble, as he introduced himself, inspected us. “My brother will reward me for capturing such fine specimens. Especially ones with so many precious technologies—anti-gravity belts, cloaking devices, and a plasma gun.”

  Neeble came face to face with me. His breath smelled like meat and shit. “Pretty eyes. Too bad they be stuck in that hideous head. My brother might help you remove that hideous head, then you just be pretty eyes.”

  I watched as he retrieved two long silver fibers from his vehicle and tied them to our waists like leashes. “The impact of my transport sphere must’ve damaged your anti-gravity belts. Don’t worry, my brother teaches me about such devices. He’s a wise man. His head is overstuffed with many brains.” He tinkered with our anti-gravity belts for a moment. “You see, I already fixed them.”

  Allienora and I floated upward. We hung at the ends of the silver fibers like two queer balloons. Neeble left his vehicle behind and pulled us by hand down the street.

  Neeble took us through dark alleys, condemned buildings, and at last we arrived in the basement of a huge spiral tower. There, Neeble loaded us into a hidden anti-gravity lift, which catapulted us into the upper regions of the MegaCity.

  The lift door opened and I saw a warehouse of old junk—neural interfaces, a wall of half-assembled AI-droids, stasis chambers, medical paraphernalia, synergistic implants, and illegal genetic alterers.

  “Brother!” called Neeble. “I bring choice specimens from the lower slums!” After no response, Neeble pulled us through the warehouse and into a large workroom, where a man, in front of a panoramic window, was talking excitedly to himself.

  I understood the man’s excitement, when I saw the wondrous and surreal view. The window looked out beyond the MegaCity, upon the looming Obelisk that had landed only miles away. Its translucence was just as we had observed during its descent. The morn
ing sun, although blocked by the Obelisk, could still be seen as a great, distorted entity through the strange substance. It acted like a prism, filtering the sun’s light into a spectrum of rich colors.

  Neeble’s brother examined the Obelisk with a large ocular headset.

  “Did you witness its majestic descent, Neeble? With such disturbing silence, it floated down to Earth, like a feather falling in still air.” His headset extended two bulbous lenses forward. “It is. But it is not. It can be seen. But it cannot be touched. Even now, a flock of oblivious birds flies through the Obelisk as if it presented all the risk of a cloud in the sky.”

  Neeble’s brother danced about on two thin legs. “Neeble, aren’t you stunned by this amazing event, or are you an oblivious bird?”

  “I didn’t notice,” said Neeble. “I was catching these fine specimens from the lower slums. Our paths, quite literally, collided.”

  “You’ve done well, Neeble. Set them on the examination tables.”

  Neeble guided us to two metal tables. He cradled Allienora like an infant as he laid her down, disengaged her anti-gravity belt, and then extracted the electrode inducing her paralysis. “It’s all right my angel. I’ll take care of you. Yes, my gentle caress is for you, my love.”

  “Quit fucking around, Neeble!” commanded his brother.

  Neeble crashed my floating body to the other metal table like a sack of rocks, and then removed my paralysis electrode.

  “Done, brother! They’re secure.” Neeble gave Allienora a longing glance and moved to his brother’s side.

  I wriggled my fingers and toes, trying to regain motor function. I prepared myself.

  Strike hard. Strike fast. One... two... three.

  I tried to leap to my feet, but was bound to the table by a gravity restraint.

  I grunted angrily. “Why have you brought us here!”

  “First, let me introduce myself,” said Neeble’s brother. “I’m Vega, a scientist and scholar. I’m a man propelled through life by great aspirations. You’ve been brought here to be the subjects of experiments that’ll change the very nature of human existence. You see, I’m on a quest to attain superiority of mind and body, and, ultimately, immortality of person. To achieve this goal, I utilize many promising technologies in both genetics and the use of AI-droids as sustained vessels for the mind.”