“I don’t believe it could have been avoided. Not when we were so close to the finish line.” Tarnek tried to assure him. But the old man wasn’t convinced.
“Don’t be so sure,” he said with an empty chuckle of his own. “What’s coming next is going to tear apart the very foundations of our society in so many ways. Both surface dweller and sky dancer alike.”
“I’m sure you had your reasons, Calis. But let’s not fret or dwell on our past mistakes. Or the paths we each took–believing it was the right one.”
“At the time.” Calis confirmed. “At the time.” He gazed at the garbled transmission file for a second and then nodded.
“In the meantime, I have to make amends with Maye. It was my idea to bring her and her family into this mess. It’s going to be me who brings them out of it.”
“By doing what?”
“Making sure that their adopted daughter comes home. One way or another.”
***
Level 3453.
Municipal Annex 303.
Henderson Building.
Rayna Hastings looked at the flimsy map she carried with her on the way over and tried to make heads or tails of the numerical headings which were imprinted into the material itself.
“It…says…I’m here, but…where is here–exactly?” The woman mumbled to herself; standing in front of a replica of the old Peace Fountain from the recently concluded Three Hundred Year War–roughly six years ago. And from her vantage point, the piece looked positively brand-new.
Rayna stared some more at the map–then held it up: Orienting it with the current layout of the Henderson building complex.
The numerical headings matched up perfectly. So why can‘t I do this…? The woman seethed inwardly. I’ve been here numerous times over the past six months!
“Try reversing the map.” Someone out of the blue politely suggested. “You’re actually looking at the rear–rather than the front of the building.”
The other woman jumped for a second and almost turned on her speaker–only to be confronted with a surprise: It was one of her doctor’s day secretaries.
“Kylie!” She squealed in happiness–reaching out to hug the woman in turn.
“H-how did you even know?”
“I sometimes get lost too, Rayna. These place never makes it easy to get around. That’s why I wear one of these clip locators on my belt.” She said, pointing to the left side of her hip.
Rayna studied the thumb-drive shaped device which blinked green at random intervals.
“Where can I get one of those?” she asked–envious all of a sudden. “Where?”
“Sorry,” the secretary said with heartfelt sympathy. “You’d have to work here first. It’s a company thing.”
“Oh.”
“But I can lead you in the right direction however.” Kylie volunteered graciously. “I was just coming off my break when you showed up.”
Rayna folded up her flimsy and stuffed it into the back pocket of her travel pack.
“Sure. Lead the way.” She demurred easily–allowing her doctor’s day secretary to take point. Kylie led them both down a different path than the one that either one would normally take and it led through an open skylight lobby which was alive with the chatter of people in their cubicle desks, information kiosks and the like–terminal view screens lit up and scattered everywhere.
“And down this flight of stairs to one of the waiting service elevators…” Kylie casually pointed out–taking them both to a pair of closed doors where she calmly palmed one of the call buttons and the light indicators above their heads started counting down.
Forty seconds later, the right service elevator dinged patiently–the doors opening up silently–and the first woman stepped inside with Rayna following close behind.
“And here we are,” she triumphantly announced after pushing the appropriate buttons on the display panel. “Top Floor. East Wing. Suite–”
“–206-J.” The other woman filled in automatically–feeling the elevator rise. “Thanks. For everything. I would have spent all day trying to figure out this proverbial mouse trap.”
“And my boss would be calling on your personal comm as to why you’re running late?” Kylie giggled knowingly.
“Yeah.”
“Arlene means well, but she can be a stickler for the rules. Especially those of her clients who don’t typically keep a routine schedule about them.”
Rayna Hastings blushed. “Sorry.” She apologized up front.
“Don’t be. You’re not the first client to be doing this to her. There are others.”
“How many?”
“Can’t say. Patient confidentiality rules and all that.”
The other woman nodded sheepishly. “Yeah. Right. Sorry.”
“Not a problem. Not a problem at all.” The day secretary said as the elevator slowed to a stop at the top floor and dinged.
“And here we go. Have a good session, Rayna.” Kylie said with a passing wink of her own–before getting off and heading down the softly lit hallway. Everything about the top floor had a relaxed atmospheric setting which is how this part of the doctorate wing designed it to be–with their patients in mind.
Mood lighting. Soft music playing, everything set at a cool 70 degrees–with a convenient few water fountains spaced apart–along with the usual bathrooms on the top level.
Everything to make one woman’s pensive mood a bit more easier to manage. But everything about these experiences struck her as odd and rubbed her the wrong way.
Rayna felt like this wasn’t what she was destined to be in life: A good little soldier simply following orders. In her mind, the woman felt like she was destined to be something more than a crystal figurine on an extravagant chess board.
No. Not a figurine!
A willing pawn.
A pawn to a greater path to power which beguiled the imagination beyond human limits of understanding…
So do I get there? Rayna thought with mounting anxiety. How do I achieve what’s been missing deep down in my heart?
These questions would remain with her for the remainder of her journey until she found Suite 206-J.
Doctor Arlene Khan.
Cerebral Sciences and Behavioral Medicine.
KNOCK BEFORE ENTERING.
But then Rayna noticed a small placard attached on a hook and hanging by a small string in front of her. It read: “Have stepped out for a moment. If you are one of my patients, please see the reception desk across the hall on Floor 35 to sign in.”
She sighed heavily.
“Fine. Off I go. No big deal. I’ll just be late for my weekend appointment–again.” She muttered–turning around on one heel and heading back where she came. It didn’t take her more than a couple of minutes at best before the service elevator doors slid shut in front of her–cutting off the view of the still empty hall–and she selected the 35th floor where it was just about seven more seconds of interminable waiting.
The doors opened and to her surprise…?
Doctor Arlene Khan.
Both women stared at each other for a second before Rayna said: “I was about to go to the receptionist desk to sign in!”
Arlene smiled a bit and then said: “You still can–if you want. Or you can follow me to my office. Your choice of course.”
Rayna sighed miserably. “Oh man…that means more walking for me again. My feet are killing me!” She complained ardently.
“Did you have a safe trip up here?” The other woman pleasantly asked–tactfully cutting into her current conversation like a seasoned pro.
“Nothing to report, I’m sorry to say. The day was more beautiful than I could imagine. Of course, it was even better running into my hunk of a neighbor again–this morning–before I left. I hadn‘t seen him in quite awhile.”
“Yes, you mentioned Mr. Hennessey a few times in past discussions with me.” Arlene said quietly–while waiting for the doors to open after she had pressed the right button on the lit di
splay panel.
“How do you feel about him? Has anything changed in the past month since you mentioned his name?”
The doors opened silently before Rayna could even answer her psychiatrist.
“Other than me wanting to jump his bones like every other single girl around in my unit complex?” She lightly joked in turn–following her down the hall after exiting.
“It doesn’t sound so bad–from what I’ve been hearing so far. It appears you’re getting used to the new ‘you’–apart from the person that you really want to be in real life.”
Rayna blushed something fierce.
“Yeah…about that…?”
“Are you still having walking daydreams about that? Or is it just another list of questions you’d like to ask me?”
“It’s not just…daydreams. I think what’s been happening to me is real. Or at least, it used to be real. I can’t be sure yet.”
“Well, from what I know of your service record, it remains absolutely accredited with a small number of service commendations, three medals of valor, and a litany of promotions. You climbed the ranks in an area of expertise that would normally doom other Guardsmen in your position.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice. The end of the war affected so many of us in the end. Some even retired rather than face reassignment to lesser jobs or positions that few were accustomed to originally.”
“So you went from being a soldier in the 29th Infantry Division to a captain of your division’s administrative complex. I wouldn’t call that a demotion in the classical sense. Many of the war’s casualties in the end were people like you who had nothing more to go on. I wouldn’t see that as a bad thing in the long term.” Arlene argued lightly.
“I would rather be in infantry than an administrative law officer.” Rayna complained bitterly.
“Or on the front lines like the days of old–protecting the complex from both internal and external threats?”
“Yes.”
Dr. Khan considered her next choice of words as the elevator came to a complete stop and allowed the two of them to disembark–again.
“It seems like we keep going around in circles on this front. And I don’t mean in a professional mindset either. Stemming from your daydreams, your reoccurring nightmares, and everything else that’s been asked of you in the months since the war officially came to end…?”
Rayna waited a grand total of six seconds before she answered her doctor’s line of questioning.
“–would it better if I retired from the service, Doctor Khan?” She put forthright as a solution and not so much as a challenge.
“Well, under normal circumstances, that would be a better option–but I understand that in doing so, you would lose access to certain perks or benefits that come with the job–am I right?”
Rayna nodded guiltily. “Yes. I would. And finding work as a veteran would be challenging–if not difficult.”
“Because your skills and talents in the infantry would be at a crossroads in whatever field of work you so choose as a viable alternative.”
“Yes.”
Arlene nodded mostly to herself as she stopped in front of her office door and unlocked it.
“May I ask you another pertinent question to our ongoing discussion, Captain?”
“Go ahead. I’m open.”
“Do you find killing the enemy to be more enjoyable from a certain vantage point than going through the motions of saving a human life?”
Rayna shrugged as she waited on her psychiatrist. “I don’t think enjoy would be the word I’d use, Doctor. Killing only comes as the last resort in the first line of defense. Not as something every one of us in the service takes for granted.”
“Oh, I know all about your conditioning and neural programming routines which helps you in your cause beli. I’m simply curious if you find the acts of murder and lustful suppression tactics as something you personally enjoyed in the field of battle? The theater of war?”
Rayna didn’t know how to answer those two questions. Not at first.
“I don’t know if I want to really answer those, Doctor.” She admitted with some straightforward difficulty.
“Why not? It would help me understand you better as a person and as a fellow officer. I won’t submit anything in my final report which would paint you as an unfeeling monster of great magnitude. But in the six months that you’ve been seeing me, you’ve come off as someone who needs to find some measure of closure through investigation and questioning. And I have no problems with that approach.”
“I just…don’t know what to do, Doctor. I am so lost and confused. More so since the war ended.”
“And the dreams? The reoccurring nightmares? Where do you suppose they came from?”
“Post traumatic stress from my recent tours of duty?” Rayna threw out as she quietly took her seat across from Doctor Khan’s semi-cluttered work station and screen terminal.
“I would normally agree with you on that sentiment. There have been numerous instances of that since the Three Hundred Year War ended. Very few people came through this conflict unscathed. Either those on the surface or up here in the space complex.”
“But–?”
“I get the sense from our recent discussions that something more is afoot with you. And I’d like to address that if I could–before I clear you for duty.”
Rayna wore a decidedly troubled look on her face.
“What if it’s something else? Something that was never meant to come out?”
Doctor Khan laughed lightly. “I assure you, Captain Hastings…I have seen things in my profession that would make most people turn to the old days of religion as an occupation. I assure you that nothing you have would make me question my own decisions or sense of loyalty to the service.”
The other woman remained unconvinced. “I’m not so sure.”
Arlene nodded patiently in turn–before grabbing a small lit clipboard along with a laser-inscribed stylus pen.
Then set those down on her chair table tray next to her, got up and reached for a small box at the top shelf of her work station.
Cradling it in her small hands, the woman opened it and pulled out a Waverley Device that Rayna instantly recognized from her past sessions.
“I don’t need that.” She announced with a critical air. “Anything but that.”
“You don’t even know what it will be used for.” The other woman said, setting the device on its small reconstructed pedestal. The blank face remained blank for the time being. The pattern of dueling lights at the top did not.
Rayna was hellishly uncomfortable.
“I’m not so sure this was a good idea.” She moaned softly.
“Relax. You’ll be fine. This is actually something to help you, help me.”
“But it’s a form of hypnosis…!”
Arlene regarded the device on her tray table for a moment. “You’re right. It is. But this particular Waverley Device is for calming the mind as well as the body. It will not let me do anything else but that.”
“You won’t try and make me do some unscrupulous things. Or acts of any kind?”
Arlene smiled a little. “I am sworn to do no harm, Captain. That’s been my Hippocratic Oath since I can remember. Believe me, you’ll have nothing to fear from either me or this device. Trust me. Everything’s going to be all right.”
~35~
Rayna nodded reluctantly at last.
“Okay,” she said with a small sigh. “Let it rip.”
Doctor Khan activated the device for a second, before changing its automatic settings.
“All right. I’ve set the Waverly device to a twenty minute–standard–hypnosis session. During this time, you may feel a bit anxious, but it is perfectly normal. Do not be frightened. Please do not worry. You are perfectly safe here.” The woman rattled off in sequence in a calm and professional tone of voice.
The other woman nodded and closed her eyes for a second–willing the images and dreams that she
had been having for awhile to come to light. But all she had at her disposal were simple fragments and nothing more.
“Please think of home.” Came the doctor’s distant voice. “Remember where you are and who are, Captain. Focus on that moment as we both take a trip down memory lane. The very last thing you were thinking from yesterday. The last dream you had from the other night. The very two things which ties your experiences together.”
Rayna nodded slowly, settling down in her chair and believing every word the good doctor was telling her. It didn’t take her long for things to start clicking. And as she remembered, so did the experiences intensify just a little more with each passing moment.
She was at home again. Going through her routine. But the outside world was now full of mist–gray and white. The woman found herself reading a small mailer that she had gotten from the mail box earlier. Then she put it down.
“Tell me what you see, Captain.” Doctor Khan’s voice nibbled at the edge of her peripheral consciousness.
Inside this reality, Rayna was compelled to answer. “A mailer.” She said. “I’m finished reading a mailer.”
“Where are you?”
“At my desk. At my desk.”
“Remember anything of your dream from the other night?”
“Just bits and pieces, really.” She stated softly.
“Let’s discuss that, shall we? Tell me what you remember.”
“It was centered here in this room. I remember getting a call. Then a voice. Some distant voice. I can’t recall what it sounded like. But it was haunting. Lovely. Distant. It was in control of me. As I sat in this chair. Telling me to see what I was…told to see.”
“And what were seeing, Rayna? What was the image in your mind’s eye at that very moment?”
A flash of a memory greeted her. But only for a split second.
The woman groaned in mild frustration.
“I can’t really recall. It’s coming into fast for me to get a fix on it.”
“So this image…where was it at?”
“On the screen in front of me. I remember looking at it.”
“Show me.”
Rayna left her seat and went down to the communications panel and tried to mess with the system–even though in this reality, nothing worked as advertised.
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