Proud Infinity (VayneLine)

by E. A. Szabelski

  Her light blue eyes had this otherworldly knowledge to them. “Do not fear. I will protect you. I have to and I always will, Trego. But you must learn. You are the only chance.”

  She held me tight, pulling me back into her. I looked over at the well of blackness coming for us. I turned back to Proud and lay my head on her body. It felt comforting.

  In the next few moments I was unraveled, amid the short time of pain and confusion I felt that Proud might have escaped the fate. The pain was gone, there was nothing. Then I ceased to exist. Or maybe I ceased before nothing else did as well.

  ***

  Something had awoken me enough out of a deep sleep that my eyes opened, but I felt like I might as well just sleep in. Not like I had a job to go to or anything. I rolled over a bit, letting the lethargy slowly fall off of me as I opened one eye and saw a spot of sunlight on my pillow, the bright white played on the blue color. Color…

  My eyes shot open. I pressed myself up and looked around the room, everything was in color. Why should it not be? Had it not been that way my whole life?

  I noticed my breathing was fast, my heartbeat accelerated. A nightmare. Uhh…what was it about though? I lay back down, trying to not let my conscious mind take over, trying to let the subconscious remind me of what it was. A dream within a dream? A girl. Yeah there was definitely a girl in there. Something about it ending sexually? Yeah, some really hot girl that came into my room feeling me up to try to get with me, been a while since one of those dreams. Hmm, that seemed kind of right, but no, that was not the point of it; there was something profound in it floating at the edge of my consciousness.

  Proud.

  “Proud?” I said the word that came to my subconscious. Proud of what though? The images coalesced a bit more. Yeah, I think I got shot, or attacked. Something about my pride because I was running from an attack?

  I looked around my room, and everything was normal. The white walls, the blue pillow, just as it had been every time before now. Whatever that nightmare was shook me a bit. I put a hand on my heart and was surprised how fast it was still beating. I had a drop of sweat rolling down my nose.

  That girl in the dream was the cause, I think, or maybe I was protecting her or something. I think we could talk telepathically, but then again I don’t ever remember ‘speaking’ in dreams to begin with. A fence. Yeah, some guy who was in the military, we talked about something.

  I sat up. Whatever. I had a dream of me being attacked, and ended up with some dominatrix girl. Like it mattered. I gave up on dreams a while ago. I used to think they had meaning, but I don’t know if they were even metaphoric anymore. I bent down to put a sock on, and my vision felt like it zoomed in on a spot while I fell backwards out of my body.

  Just the simple act of looking at that sock unlocked a lot more of that dream. Definitely a dream within a dream. I remember that for sure. I slapped myself. Yeah there was pain, so at the very least this was real.

  But I remembered being shot in one of them, and it ‘hurt’…well I think so. Hmm, I turned a screen on and the text was visible; didn’t that supposedly prove you are awake if you could actually read? I was definitely in reality now. That could not be denied.

  Anyway, yeah, shot in one of them, I think I died or something. I woke up and was convinced I had psychic powers. I didn’t get shot, but then I think that girl trapped me, or did something, I remember I was going to die again and she was interested feeling my body, creating some apocalypse sex scene as the world ended. I laughed. Ha, that’s kind of hot now that I think about it. Maybe I needed to go find a girl if I was having weird sex dreams like that.

  Hmm, green hair. Kind of odd, I did not think that color was naturally engineered except in unique circumstances, but I had not kept up on the latest trends so I could be wrong. What was her name? Something weird. It kind of fit, but it kind of did not.

  ‘Whatever, just drop it.’ I thought to myself.

  I shook my head and got up and left.

  At the very least, I felt like that by constantly being out and walking around I would have a good pulse on the community and know when an opportunity might arise I could get in on. Really though I should probably just get out of here; this planet was toast as this was the only city and ReCorp wasn’t doing shit. I had been hoping to ride out the ReCorp unemployment for a while now but it wasn’t heading anywhere.

  Hmm, seems like I had recently talked to someone about getting out of here, but that there never seemed to be out-bound ships. Yeah, that’s why I never left. Never had an opportunity. I was just making excuses though. If there is a will, there will be a way.

  I guess I will use today and see if there really is no way out of here. That might be kind of interesting, though if either answer came down I might feel bad. Obviously if there is no escape off the planet that caused some major problems, but I doubted it; I was sure there was a ship out-bound somewhere on the planet. More than likely there was an occasional ship a city over, and then I would just have to battle myself and decide to actually get the hell out of here.

  Might as well start at the spaceport, though for a while now it seemed like only a one-way port. I walked for a while, enjoying the morning and trying to remember where exactly it was between the tall buildings. I caught a glimpse of a trail coming down out of the sky and it confirmed where I was before a few more turns brought me to the port.

  Though now it was a shell of its old glory. Most ports tended to be open terranariums, Dimaglass windows enclosing the complex with plants, aliens, shops, just about everything going on. The Dimaglass of the main complex was still there – it wouldn’t be going anywhere unless you specifically had the equipment to dispose of it – but it was much smaller than it used to be. Even the port itself had only one serviced landing pad that was actually kept clean, the rest in the process of being reclaimed by some of the more vicious ground plants.

  Well this was kind of weird. Clearly they had decommissioned a majority of the spaceport, but why? ReCorp had not been here too long, unless this was part of some bigger thing at play here. I recalled someone mentioning that ReCorp was propped up by an empire. I sure hope I wasn’t trapped. This was the perfect plot to experiment on an entire planet and when they all die it gets chalked up as an ‘accident’ or a Burn attack.

  Inside there were only two people walking through a door for employees, and a single attendant. She was female, and attractive, but a bit too attentive to my presence because she never looked away at all. Probably an android. The only biologic creatures I thought operated kiosks like this were the fox-race Aelisha because they enjoyed all the contact, otherwise they left the monotonous job to androids or robots.

  Actually, Aelisha tended to flirt with anyone with about every line they uttered. It was kind of funny, but also kind of annoying. I never knew if they were serious, like when after commenting on one’s skillful hands of punching my information in she responded, ‘You should see what else I can do with my hands.’

  “Hey,” I said walking up to the black-haired Solarian. Had things become so bad that this woman was reduced to attending an empty port? At least she still had a job. She’d think I was just unemployed trash if she knew the truth. How ironic given where I once was.

  “Hello.” She gave me a big grin of perfect teeth. It was tough to tell if she was an android. Her appearance bordered on perfect, but a lot of people were engineered to our interpretation of Terran perfection. The AGEd system absolutely blew away formed constructs of what was possible as far as appearance, intelligence, physicality. “I don’t get many visitors here anymore,” she continued with a frown.

  “I figured, so I have to know… Is this spaceport active anymore? I mean, I know ships are coming in, but can you get out of here? Can I get out of here?” I emphasized the final question.

  “Unfortunately,” just with the first word my heart sank, “this spaceport has been decommissioned as a fully active port. This stems from the fact this planet was demoted on the Solarian re
search colony status.”

  I shook my head. “Tell me about it.”

  “So while this does not have a ship off, down at Lest Rigo there is a small port with a ship that leaves about once every six or seven cycles. Want me to come with you?”

  I was a bit surprised by her request, the way she put emphasis on 'come' rather than 'with' caught me off guard. Damn it, was that a double entendre like the Aelisha always are unloading? “Uh, sure if you want to.”

  “Haha, I’m just kidding. My job is here; I just ask everyone to see what they say!”

  I frowned a bit. Dang, she was hot too; just teasing me. I fell for that kind of stuff way too easy. Might as well be a tricky fox girl. “Well, hey, thanks for the info. And I have a quick question, are you an android by chance?”

  “Yes, I am. What gave it away, out of curiosity?”

  I was smiling that I finally had an edge on her. “A bit too-perfect of looks.”

  “Aww…should I take that in the wrong way?”

  “I don’t know, do you like taking things in…the wrong way?” I smirked at her, wondering if she would play along.

  “I much prefer taking things in, the right way.” Her smile widened. “Is there anything else here I can give you a hand with?” Whoa she was flirting right back.

  “I’m pretty capable of doing it myself--”

  “Me too!” She interrupted. Maybe I was reading into this, but she sure seemed like she was escalating the innuendo.

  “But I am not one to turn down a helping hand.”

  “Well my hands are extremely well taken care of.” She offered her hand to me and I grabbed it, feeling how soft they were. Our little banter and especially touching her hand turned me on pretty hard; it had been a while since I had explosive chemistry like that. I’ll have to swing back here sometime and see if I can’t get with this girl. Damn, I really wanted to take her out for some fun, if this weird mental thing wasn’t happening I’d be all over her.

  I stepped back away from her lest my main mission get derailed. “Anyway that reminds me of a random question I just remembered. Is it true that androids either often have, or have to have, a secret phrase that can shut them down, or override their commands? Sorry if that’s offensive or anything.”

  She shook her head ‘no’. “Hardly. I enjoy talking about our position in the universe. You know there is not that much difference between an ‘android’, which may be completely made or restored from someone that died, and that of an engineered Solarian, implanted with nanites and so on. In a way we are both made, just to different extents.” I nodded to her point seeing as it was pretty true. Anyone who hated androids didn’t really think about the subtle difference, her flesh and wit was real enough I was turned on by it. “Anyway, yes, we do often have an override command.”

  “Interesting.” It was rumored that most androids had varying levels of combat capabilities installed in them ‘in case of emergencies’. I had a very strong curiosity to reach over and touch her. Could I feel difference? Supposedly most androids could take bullets, but no one could tell the difference just by looking at one.

  “You sure are curious.” She put a hand on her slightly kipped out hip. I tried to not look at how perfect her legs were, or how it seemed her hips were mathematically proportioned just correctly. Ha, mathematically proportioned…that is definitely something I would notice. Her long black hair was just so clean and straight. As hot as she was, her intellect stimulated me the most.

  “Yeah I used to be a scientist…” I might have continued flirting with her but then I heard a sound I was certain I had heard before, and it was unloading from the ship that had landed. It was a supply vehicle with loose gravplates. “I got to go,” I told her before I ran outside. There was no way this was happening!

  I sprinted over to a fence separating where most people could come and where a road was that the supply vehicle was on as memories of my dream came flooding back. There was not a single doubt about it, it was a…the ReCorp noisy vehicle I had seen later in town in my dreams. I watched in a shocked silence until it and its noise were out of view.

  I ran as fast as I could back to the port, the door sliding barely out of my way in time. I was breathing hard, holding the frame of the door as I looked up at the flirty attendant, hoping I would not fall off, either off the door or perhaps off reality.

  What I thought was ‘now’ seemed just another frame of a picture, the dreams were just as bold and vivid as what I was seeing in front of me. Was this girl the girl of my dream? I stared hard at her, perhaps crazily, while her questioning face looked back. It was not. The angles of her face and body were a bit different, no Strive, and her hair was black. This girl was directly flirtatious, the other was more coquettish.

  What was that name in my dream? Was it her activation code? Scenes flashed through my mind like some final moment before death.

  “Prove…uh pride…proof?” I said to the woman, a grasp on my sanity was slipping. She blinked once and I ran out of the door before I thought I might lose it completely. Running felt real, and I was ready to hang on to this fragile sense of reality as long as I, and my body, could. My entire morning’s walk was reversed by my hard, panicked run. That fence, where was the fence?

  I took a few turns, heading towards the ReCorp pit, and came to the fence, but the guy was gone. “Different…huuuu…time…” I said, breathing hard. I lifted my face to the sky, sucking some air down while I tried to figure out what was happening. There was no doubt what I was living now was real, and I felt a strange certainty that if I didn’t do something key, I actually would die here. The dreams were warning me. Holy shit.

  Where was that bar? I think over this way. I headed through some alleys I was trying to navigate backwards through based entirely on some dreams. Coming to it, I was not sure what I expected, and I paused only a moment before pushing the door open.

  I think there was supposed to be a man who was my first fight over on the right, and my assassin further down…but the bar was empty. The bartender was there, but in a different position than I remember in the dreams, and no one else was here at this time. No one else was in the large bar, except for the green-haired girl with her bright pink bow in the corner.

  ‘Proud.’ Her name came to me in my mind.

  I walked decisively over to her, throwing my credcard onto the bar telling him I’d take a few rounds but to leave me alone. I was under no delusion that something big was happening, and my little credcard was far more useful saving my annoyance from this guy than anything else. I sat down, and her happy face did not at all match my hurried-anguish.

  “Proud,” I said definitively. She did not respond. My focus started dropping, did I mess something up?

  “Proud?” I asked this time. She sat there blinking at me.

  Get the name wrong? I started to doubt myself. Why would this girl’s name be something random from a dream? Was I really crazy? Damn, maybe I must be a victim of thought implant experimentations…But…everything was too perfect to just be a crazy delusion of mine!

  “Proud!” I yelled, trying to convince her as much as myself that I was not crazy.

  The girl’s confused, silent face said otherwise. My mouth opened in a shocked frown, how did I get something like this wrong?

  Suddenly she started laughing, putting one hand out onto my arm as she bent forward, unable to control her laughs. “Sor…sorry!” She lifted her face, one eye was squinted closed, the other half-open with tears coming out of both. “I was just kidding! That reaction is usually priceless!”

  I was confused. “So, I can take it we do know each other, right?” I asked.

  She was still coming down off her laughs, nodding rapidly. “If you know my name, then we evidently do, Trego.” She pulled her hand off me in a slightly sensual way, the fingers lingering behind ever so slowly.

  “Yeah, well a lot of weird things have been happening, and right now I could believe just about anything. We know each other’s name, but t
hat could be for any reason. Hell, for all I know I will be waking up any moment in a hospital with the rest of the world nuked outside my window.” Damn, was that a scary thought.

  Her response had nothing to do with what I had said. “You do enjoy this color of hair, do you not?”

  What? I sat back a bit in my chair. Something was kind of weird here. I felt this aura of having to hurry to get something done, and it involved this girl, but somehow she knew I actually did like this hair color? And why would she even ask? Especially with me worrying that what I was experiencing was not reality, but maybe some delirium from a coma or worse.

  “I do, but it’s odd you would ask that. But about us knowing each other…”

  “Is it indeed your favorite?” she asked, pressuring me, as she held a strand of hair in front of her.

  “Uhh, well I guess it’s pretty good. It’s actually my favorite color, I’m surprised it looks so good as a hair color.”

  “And this?” She sat back in her chair, pulling her hands up to her breasts and cupping them, holding them for a moment for me to evidently savor before lowering her hands down her thin stomach and following through to her hips and legs.

  My eyes narrowed a bit in suspicion, but I was also highly confused. “…Yeah I guess. I mean ‘favorite’ is a weird word, but you are probably the most attractive girl I’ve seen. Why though? I mean I’m as confused as hell right now as to what is going on. This screams ‘trap’ louder than just about anything I’ve been in. What is going on here?”

  She had a soft smile that seemed to inspire a warm hope that everything was going to be okay. I felt a little more relaxed just seeing how calm she was. “It has just been such a long time since we had made it this far, and I wanted to make sure. It has been so, so long, and wanted to ensure I had not forgotten details like this. You see such base things as this prove to be a very important interactive facet to the success of what must be done. Simple, but important.” She nodded decisively.

  I was sitting there, trying to piece together vague stories that might explain what exactly was going on with me, most involving drugs, torture, hospitalization, some experiment, or wondering if she would change into a different girl when she eventually said, “I know what you are wondering, and the answer is yes.”