by S. J. Ryan
"Where did we leave off?"
Ivan provided an arrow and Matt placed his palm a centimeter from the interior wall, then slowly moved in a search pattern.
"Anything?" Matt asked.
"DNA matches for native vegetation and animal life, also fragments that match your own genome with previously cataloged alterations."
"Keep looking."
Eventually Matt got bored, and came up for fresh air. Carrot was standing in the meadow, gathering parachute fabric.
"How did you find me?"
She pointed at her nose. "You didn't mention this other vehicle."
"One of the three OSVs was missing when I came aboard the station. Since mine was programmed to land here, I figured the other one was around here somewhere too.”
"Is that the one used by your brother?"
“I wish you'd all stop calling him that.”
“Matt, if you think about it, he is closer than a brother, even a twin.”
“We stopped having anything in common hundreds of years ago.”
“What were you doing in the vehicle just now?”
“Scanning for DNA traces. On the remote chance it was someone else who came here. But no, it's him, and the degradation curve agrees with an arrival a century ago.”
"And you haven't found any messages?"
"Nope. Sometimes archival clones don't want to deal with their templates.”
She finished folding the parachute and set it on the grass. Somehow her dress had managed to stay clean. She faced to the northwest.
"When you take the airship, will you be hunting for him?"
“You are good at guessing.”
“It's obvious. Sooner or later, we shall have to deal with the Pandoras, and your . . . clone . . . may be the one person who knows how.”
“Well, it's not a personal quest.”
"Do you know where he is?"
"If he's still alive . . . I might know . . . maybe . . . but not exactly."
"Matt, that seems a long way of saying you don't know."
"Well, to explain, we'll have to link."
She assented. He jumped off the sphere, slogged through the water, held out his hand. She bowed and he touched her head.
They stood in dark limbo, looking upon a satellite view that encompassed the better part of a hemisphere.
"I do not recognize either Britan or Rome," she said.
"This view is of the other side of the world. Pretty much the same as this side. Lots of islands with volcanoes and vegetation and animals. Even some villages. Nothing unusual, right? Now let's watch this clip from a few days ago."
The image shimmered to a closer view of the sea. A schooner was tacking westward. It passed beneath a cloud. A long moment transpired, and it didn't emerge.
"Did it sink?"
"No, it crossed from our side of the world to the other, and it got pixelated. And it's not that one ship, it happens all the time. And ships appear from nothing, coming from the other side."
"An illusion, then. But how?"
"Basically, the satellite camera telemetry is routed through Herman's computer system for image enhancement. Someone altered the image processing software to superimpose fake images."
"It seems very elaborate."
"Actually, every neural implant like Ivan has real-time augmented-reality software to allow the host to block things he doesn't want to see and add things he does. Someone must have uploaded that software to the station computer system. It would require hardware resets, though, which means whoever did it was aboard the station. That points to my clone again."
"But why would he wish to disguise half the planet?"
"We're going to use the airship to find out."
"You have half a planet to search, and it will take time even by air." She folded her arms and made a firm nod. "For the safety of your expedition, I must come with you."
"No."
He withdrew his hand, and they were back in the meadow by the pond. The resolution in Carrot's expression was more intense in reality, and her arms really were folded.
"You know I can fight better than all of you combined!"
"That's why you're needed here."
"You are not making sense!"
"Follow me."
He led her into the woods, and in the shade approached a small mound, into which a door-sized hole had been dug. He walked down the steps, and she hesitatingly followed. In the dimness, Ivan adjusted Matt's vision and cat-genes adjusted Carrot's. The air was cool, the floor was damp, the walls covered with moss. Against the far end rose an altar-like platform.
Carrot gasped. "It's like the Pandora room on the Isle of Sisters!"
"Ivan scanned DNA traces that could only have come from seeder probe spores. This is where her mentors kept the Pandora of Britan."
"Where is she now?"
"Best guess, still somewhere in Britan." He put his arms on her shoulders and gazed directly into her eyes. "Carrot, that's why you need to be here – to fight the Romans and Sisters so that they won't get to the Box that was here. And while you're doing that, I need to go to the other side of the world and look for him."
She backed out of his reach and stared at the altar. She stood motionless for a long time. Then she sighed deeply.
"You say it so casually."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"'I need to go to the other side of the world.' Yes, for you, that distance is nothing!" She trembled and clenched her fists. "Sometimes, Matt . . . it's truly hard not to despise you!"
She rushed out of the chamber. He followed her to the meadow. She was weeping, and glared at his approach. Then her eyes registered surprise.
"You're crying too?" she said. "I thought Ivan controlled your feelings."
"How would you know what – never mind." He took her hands and drew a long breath. "Ivan doesn't control my thoughts or my emotions, and what I'm thinking and feeling right now is that I'm going to miss you a lot."
She said very quietly, "I will miss you too."
They closed eyes and touched foreheads. Ivan waited for a request to link, but they simply stood and leaned against each other.
Matt said softly, "Carrot, you're my best friend. I don't think I even knew how deep a friendship could be until I met you. But I have to go and you have to stay, because that's the only way we can be together for good."
She laughed amid her tears. "You always find the stupidest way of making sense."
Matt wiped his tears and took her hands again. They attempted eye contact but somehow couldn't synchronize. Then they simply leaned shoulder to shoulder, breathing against the other's neck.
"Carrot," he whispered. "Arcadia."
"Matt," she whispered. "Mattimeo."
"Princess of North Umbrick."
"Wizard from Earth."
He stroked her brown hair and proclaimed, "Queen of Catapults!"
"Ha, you heard of that!" She hugged him tight, and smiled into his eyes. "I'll have to conceive a title for you. How about, 'Healer of Hangovers?'"
Matt wrestled against a smile. Before he replied, though, Ivan interjected:
"Matt, you wanted to know. The airship engines have started."
They heard the hum of the engines echo against the forest and faced northwest. The airship grandly ascended over the trees and hovered beneath billowing clouds like a calf among its herd. With silvery sides gleaming, it rotated and approached. A face with a long white beard poked out of a gondola window, and Archimedes deliberately pointed at Matt, then at a nearby hill. A rope ladder unwound and dangled from the rear of the gondola.
"They need me on board," Matt said. "You want to come?"
"I – I should return to the field."
"See you this evening, then."
They parted, but their fingers were still intertwined. Matt extricated his hand. She wasn't squeezing, but it was hard to let go.
He looked back as he started off, and said, "We aren't leaving for days yet. This is just a test fli
ght. It's just going to be this afternoon, for a little while."
"Yes," Carrot said. "For a little while."
For a moment they silently faced one another, and then Matt turned and walked away.
With props sculling, the airship was carried by the breeze and drifted over the hilltop, the bottom of the swaying ladder raking the grass. Matt ran to catch up. He realized he wasn't going to make it.
"Ivan, hypermode!"
“Matt, it will take three minutes for – “
"Oh, forget it!”
He sprinted with all his will and heart and grabbed the ladder as the airship reached the downward slope. Then, beneath his feet, the world slipped away.