Ripped Apart: Quantum Twins – Adventures On Two Worlds

by Geoffrey Arnold

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  There were cone-shaped projections on two opposing sides. There was a cover over what they assumed was the front one, presumably to stop the photons escaping. Tullia thought about that. What goes in through the back? Carefully she put it to one side. Something that odd just had to be useful. Didn’t it?

  A faint chiming sounded in the room and everything shimmered.

  ‘Dragon’s Breath!’ Qwelby exclaimed. ‘The third alarm. When the other two deactivated that one must have been in a future timeframe. That future must be now!’

  ¡Share! Tullia’s thought contained no sisterly request.

  Opening his mind and shutting his eyes, Qwelby felt like a rubber band that was stretched and then snapped back.

  The alarm stopped.

  Feeling sick, Qwelby opened his eyes and saw that the room looked normal. ‘Now we’re in trouble,’ he moaned.

  Being told off by his older sister was irritating, but it was part of their relationship. He hated it when they were reprimanded by anyone else as it was always focussed on him. Tullia did what he called her “Little Girly Act,” fluttering her long eyelashes, making her oval eyes go completely round and projecting totally unwarranted innocence. How anyone could think she was cute was beyond him!

  ‘Temporal readjustment. The time frame had not reached its end.’ Tullia rolled her eyes to the sky at his failure to understand what she had done. Then she made her eyes go round, fluttered her eyelashes, and gave him an overdone, sickly sweet smile.

  He wanted to strangle her.

  Putting her hands to her throat and making choking noises, she stuck out an elongated, bright pink tongue and made her eyeballs pop out.

  He couldn’t help it. He laughed.

  Their quarrels seldom lasted long, usually descending into silliness and laughter.

  ‘Oh, Kaigii, remember what happened last time?’ she said, acting the caring big sister, knowing he always fell for that. Boys. So easy to manipulate! She hid the thought behind her Privacy Shield.

  Qwelby smiled, also hiding his thought as he allowed himself to be manipulated. She had made him laugh. And he thoughtsent an acknowledgment that he owed her one for saving them from being discovered. Some time in the future she would collect on that.

  CHAPTER 3

  PICTURES

  They never had time to sink back into the memory as a swishing sound made them realise that the room was disappearing into whatever alternate timeframe it normally existed.

  <¡Gather:Go!>

  Hugging each other they were swept into the corridor. When they looked back, no trace of the door remained. As they eased back from one another and looked down between them, they grinned. Competing was fun, cooperating brought rewards. Trapped between them were all the items they had put on one side together with a fawn coloured canvas satchel. Opening it, they discovered a black box inside in its own pocket, and agreed to examine that later.

  Having put all their objects into the satchel, they stood up and mentascanned. The emergency created by the SuperXzyling was over and House was returning to normal. They did not dare summon Lift as that would tell House they were in the attic. They needed to find a door and override the security system for long enough to get well away from the attic. Then they would relax and House would know they were there. Everyone would assume that they had got into their own suite by subverting that part of the security – successfully responding to the challenge set by their great great uncle.

  The colourscopes stopped moving and they were plunged into the dark. Qwelby got out the Mogarcon and dialled up a torchlight. They returned to the T-junction and found the top of a spiral staircase. Qwelby set off first, shining the narrow beam on the steps.

  *

  ‘Will we ever reach the bottom?’ Tullia asked after a long time.

  ‘We must do,’ answered her twin. ‘Lungunu is always a bit strange. Okay, never as weird as this, but it can’t be so weird that there isn’t a bottom to a staircase. After all,’ he said with eminent logic, ‘it has got a top.’

  ‘Do you think that life on Earth is ever like this?’ Tullia said.

  ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘Don’t know, really. Just been thinking about the flikkers we watch.

  Their minds scanned their memories of how ordinary Tazii had come to know something of Azura and its people. It had started when Tazian scientists picked up occasional electronic transmissions. As the years went by and the Azurii plunged further into the quantum world, increasing numbers of their transmissions were captured and the images deciphered: Television programmes being beamed around Earth by satellite.

  For the Tazii, taking decisions that affected the whole race took a very long time. As was customary, conflicting interests were eventually accommodated. Transmissions were heavily screened for unacceptable levels of violence, first by a few daring Discriminators and rapidly followed by what were to become increasingly complex, self-programming algorithms. When appropriate age-related categories had been allocated they were made available through specially built facilities called Elmits. The quality was poor, so the programmes were called Flikkers.

  The idea behind the Elmits was to give the Tazii a flavour of Azuran life. Hence the rooms where the flikkers were shown were small compared to Tazian rooms; the chairs were totally unresponsive, not transmitting movement, feelings or sensations; there were no moving colourscopes on walls and ceilings, and the pictures themselves were watched on small, flat screens.

  Most adults displayed little more than a passing interest. But, as with the young of all races throughout the multiverse, something new caught on and became a fad: in many different directions, including clothes and hair styles from a wide mix of centuries. A weekly visit to an Elmit with friends to laugh at the backward Azurii and their impossible lives became a must.

  Recently, the most daring youngsters had taken to visiting one of the new LockDown Clubs. Entry was by wearing Azuran clothing that was completely dissimilar to any current Tazian fashion. Heavy energy emitters ensured that once inside no thoughtsharing or sending was possible, and all auras were scrambled so as to be unreadable. Even the strongest youngster was likely to leave within half an ouer, pleading for sanity. The twins had never visited one. The mere thought of not being in mental contact was enough to give them nightmares.

  A whole new range of HoloWrapper Kartoons was created. Even young children screamed with the thrill of being cut into several slices, or flattened by a steamroller followed by the brief experience of life in a two-dimensional world.

  The twins laughed. It was not just young children who enjoyed what to the Tazii was a quantum-like sense of fun in the KiddyKartoons.

  ‘Their lives seem so, well, restricted,’ Qwelby said. ‘Take their sports. They’re all solid. Kicking balls, throwing things, no mental interference, nothing exciting. What a life where imagination doesn’t work. Not even in their space stories.’

  ‘They have some good effects, though. Pretending it does work.’

  ‘But that’s just make-believe.’

  ‘Unkh!!’

  Looking at his feet as he was concentrating on lighting the steps, Qwelby had bumped into a wall. He dropped the Mogarcon and the light went out. He got down onto his knees and started to run his hands over the floor.

  *

  Click. Before he could ask his twin what she was doing, a small circle appeared on the wall. As it grew, it seemed as though the wall was dissolving, a soft light shining through from outside. As the image cleared they realised they were looking down on a sort of desert.

  As their eyes adjusted to the bright light, they were able to make out a large expanse of land. Sandy, red brown and fairly flat with a lot of scrubby bushes and little trees. It seemed to go on forever. They thought it must be a desert because it was so hot and dry, but it wasn’t what they thought of as a real desert with big sand dunes and an oasis.

  A group of figures appeared at the bottom of the picture. They
were making their way steadily across the ground. The twins could see them easily as the trees had very thin branches and no leaves. It was a group of dark brown and almost naked men carrying spears and bows. They paused now and then to check the ground as though they were following the tracks of something.

  As the men moved through the trees and out into a wide area of low bushes, a group of women appeared, obviously following the men. Tullia noticed their hair. All wore it close to their heads and woven into many different patterns, except for one. She was a lot taller and bigger built than the others with a reddish colour to her tan. She had long black hair that fell below her shoulder blades in many thin plaits.

  Tullia thought there was something familiar about her. She stood up to take a closer look. With a shock she saw she had quite a different view of the scene. It could not be a picture she was looking at. It had to be a window she was looking through. She stood there stunned. What is happening today?

  The big woman turned round and looked up. Tullia’s eyes were drawn to the oddity of her wearing what looked like a necklace made of vegetation. The men came running back to kneel in front of the women, shielding them. A slender youth stood up, hefting his spear. To the twins, it seemed as though the people were staring right at them. The big woman frowned, clearly puzzled rather than frightened. Tullia was sure there was something familiar about her. She wanted a better look. With her arm, she wiped away from the window the mist that had formed from their breath.

  An older man gestured. The young man pulled back his arm and threw the spear. The twins ducked and knocked the lantern off the step. Everything went dark as the window disappeared.

  They sat back down feeling a bit silly.

  ‘We never go that dark brown. Even Tazii who live in the WarmBand still retain our reddish hue,’ Qwelby said feeling very puzzled.

  ‘Did you notice that woman with the long plaits?’ Tullia asked. ‘There was something familiar about her.’

  ‘No, I was looking at the men with their spears and bows. They must be tracking an animal.’

  ‘Can we can wind the pictures back?’ Tullia wondered, desperately hoping that they could.

  She picked up the lantern. As she turned the dial she realised that what she thought was the projector with the flap over it, was at the back. A light appeared on the wall. Oh well, simple mistake.

  The light slowly changed into a picture – or a window – thought Tullia. Slowly, whatever it was they were seeing cleared – snow! There was a lot of land, a steep hill sloping down to a more gentle slope and lots of trees. They looked very pretty with their branches all covered in thick snow.

  Together they moved closer to the wall and looked at the scene from opposite angles. They agreed. It wasn’t a picture they were looking at. The different views they had were exactly as if they were looking through a window. Yet they had gone down the stairs so far they had to be underground.

  Whatever the answer, the really big question was: what was the point of the pictures or scenes they were being shown? Just as all Tazii, the twins lived their lives intimately connected with the quantum world, where everything was connected in one way or another. There had to be a reason, however difficult it might be to find the answer.

  The lantern made a soft humming sound and the scene disappeared.

  Tullia turned one of the dials around. Click, click. Nothing happened. Taking a deep breath, she thought: In for a Quark, in for a Twistor, and tried turning the other dial backwards. Kcilc. The Lantern shuddered and a window reappeared. It was fuzzy and bright. All they could see was a greyish white colour. Feeling very unsettled, they sat and waited for a picture, or a scene, to appear.

  When nothing happened they summonsed up their courage and stood up to look through what they had accepted must be a window. The view was still very fuzzy. Strange shapes were dotted along the hillside. One of them was larger than the others. As they watched, it split into three as they saw two shapes move to either side of the third.

  In silent agreement, the twins used their arms to wipe away the condensation on the window, just as two of the figures turned and looked up, right at them it seemed.

  ‘A snowman!!’

  ‘Children??’

  ‘Our sort of age??’

  ‘Pale faces and blonde hair!!’

  They turned to look at one another, each seeing the look of amazement in the other’s eyes.

  ‘Azurii!!’

  Tullia was intrigued by the girl’s hair style. A series of multi-coloured rings around the top of her head. How had she created that effect?

  ‘Kaigii?’ She turned to look at her twin. His face was pressed against the window, his eyes two violet ovals. Concerned, as he was only a boy, younger than her, and she had to look after him, she moved alongside and gently put her arm around him so as not to disturb his deepstate.

  Something was different. She leant her head against his and searched. He was not there! He had left his body and gone travelling. That meant using the seventh dimension. They had done that a few times with full preparation and under close supervision by Lellia in her special Seliya Chamber. And always together.

  CHAPTER 4

  TRAVELLING

  Qwelby was puzzled. A moment ago he had been looking down through a window, now he was only metres away from what had to be Azurii. He tried to move. He was stuck inside something. Inside whatever it was he could just squirm around a little. Then it struck him. He was in the snowman!

  Roaring Xzarze! I’m in my energy body. On Azura! ‘Busana!’ he called, naturally using Tazian as the only language he knew to say “Hallo.” There was no reaction. ‘Buuuusana!’ he yelled. Still no reaction. The youngsters could not hear him.

  ‘Flaming Werebeasts! This is madness. If I go back and tell Kaigii I don’t know what’s happening, she’ll hold that over me for the rest of my life. Xzarze. No!

  ‘Seventh dimension,’ his Intuition said.

  ‘Blazing Novas, of course!’ he exclaimed, and opened his memory to those studies. Relaxing, he composed his body as best as possible, breathed deeply and steadily and settled into his Kore. Then he expanded his energy field out through the snowman, into the ground and far enough to encompass the two youngsters.

  He discovered that it was the first heavy snowfall of the year and the whole village was out for the day celebrating with snowball fights and making snowmen. He was inside one of several snowmen in a row facing a forest at the side of what in a few days time was to become the local ski slope. Midwinter was some time away. That was why there was a fuzziness to everything. He had gone back in time!

  How many times had he dreamed of this, played with Wrenden at being slow, clumsy Azurii, stuck on the ground, confined to travelling in boxes on roads and unable to use image-into-action. Alright, he was stuck in the snowman, but Dragon’s Breath! this was amazing, better than any deepstate he’d ever experienced.

  The boy he’d seen a few moments ago was talking to him. Or that was how it seemed. Wearing a dark blue anorak with the neck of a blue and white sweater showing, Qwelby named him BlueBoy. Unable to hear or be heard he felt frustrated.

  The girl appeared. She was wearing a lilac anorak with a white scarf around her neck. Under a multi-coloured woollen hat her long blonde hair fell over her shoulders. It was not as long and thick as most Tazii, but there was something about her that Qwelby liked. He named her LilacGirl.

  They looked just like Azurii did in flikkers, except seeing them for real they did not look quite so ugly with their horizontal eyes, small noses and mouths. The boy was a lot taller than the girl and both had white skin with bright red cheeks.

  He saw that they were happy, shy, liking each other, not knowing what to say. They must be meeting for the first time. But how weird! How on ’Tazia did they manage without reading each other’s energy fields? Then he realised. Their auras did not spread out past their thick clothing, but he was still able to see them!

  ‘Seventh dimension,’ his Intuition said.
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  Qwelby wanted to meet them. Once again he tried to move, wave, call out. Nothing happened. Then they turned their backs on him, looking up into the sky.

  Qwelby followed their gaze and saw a faint image. It looked like a small, round blurry cloud with two dark objects in the middle. ‘That’s me. Up there!’ he called out, and felt stupid when they did not react.

  Still looking up into the sky, they moved closer to each other. Hesitantly, each reached out a hand, touched, and held. They turned to look at one another, faces pink from more than the cold. Their lips moved.

  ‘You’ve seen us! That’s me and Kaigii, up there, somewhere,’ Qwelby said aloud, desperately hoping that something would change and they would hear him.

  In an instant, the energies changed. Three boys had arrived, all with pale faces, pink cheeks and short, blonde hair. Two were shorter than BlueBoy, the third was about the same height and bigger built. BigBoy was speaking. His arm lashed out straight towards Qwelby. He did not have the room to duck! The fist passed right through him.

  ‘Roaring Xzarze!’ Qwelby exclaimed, for no-one to hear, as an altercation proceed in front of him.

  One of the boys made a grab at the girl’s hat. BlueBoy stepped in the way. There was pushing, then a fight. The biggest boy stood watching with his arms folded as BlueBoy held his own for a few moments against the other two. Then he and one of his attackers went down in a tangle with BlueBoy on top.

  Seeing blood on the face of the attacker, Qwelby was nearly sick. Violence simply did not exist on Vertazia. All Tazii knew how violent the Azurii were. After a lot of persuading, Discriminators had eventually allowed Tazii to see the make-believe violence in Azurii KiddyKartoons. But this, this was real, human to human. He had been stunned to witness that. And now real, human blood!

  The other boy drew back his leg to kick BlueBoy. LilacGirl grabbed the attacker’s arm. He swung around aiming a punch at her face. BigBoy stepped in between, his mouth working, red anger flaring in his aura. Pushing the girl away, he grabbed the boy’s arm, spun him around and kicked him hard. He fell down into the snow. Out of the corner of his eye Qwelby saw LilacGirl fall on top of BlueBoy who had been getting up, bearing him back into the deep snow.