The woman in the lab coat leaned back in her chair across the bare white room and nodded her head as she scribbled on her tablet screen. "Suicidal tendencies are not helping your case, Mr. Tillman. CyrinoTech takes the mental health of its computer engineers extremely seriously. I suggest you calm down and think about what you are saying."
"CyrinoTech? No . . ." Rav rocked back and forth in the middle of the cot, pulling on the sleeves of his plain white cotton shirt. "I'm a pilot. I'm Flight Master."
"Tell me where you think you are Flight Master, Mr. Tillman."
"The Elysian Flight Force. I was going to take Masamba's title after he died. He died . . . he's dead. Oh, space help me. He's dead."
"Let's try to not talk about death, all right?" The doctor asked, feigning a smile. "Mr. Tillman, do you know where we are?"
"Rav. Call me Rav."
"Of course. Rav, do you know where we are?"
"A room. Elysia? Is this on the Flight Force base in medical?"
"No, Rav. We are on Odyssia. This is the mental wing of the Under City Health Center. Do you know how long you have been here? Try to think for me. Focus on what you know to be real. How long have you been in this room, Rav?"
"I . . . I don't know." He looked around the empty room that smelled like harsh soap. Everything was clean, overly clean. The toilet, the cot with no blankets or pillows, the sink with the controlled faucet so he could not try to drown himself or flood his cell . . . it was all so clean. He could not remember much of it at all. "A day? Did I wake up here yesterday?"
"This is your yearly assessment, Rav."
He gasped, nearly choking on his own sudden shock. "A year? I've been in here a year?"
"This is your third yearly assessment. You have been a patient here for three years. Do you remember any of these past three years? Anything at all?"
No. He did not remember anything. There was only one thing he cared about. "Nemo. Where is Nemo? Where is my son?"
The doctor rolled her chair across the cold tiles to stop in front of the cot. She reached out a manicured hand to touch Rav's. Her narrow brown eyes were soft below her shaved black hair, but her voice remained the same. Clinical and detached from all emotions. "Look in my eyes, Rav. You do not have a son. You do not have any children. You do have a beautiful young wife who loves you very much."
No children? No Nemo? Rav pulled the grey beanie down over his forehead and buried his face in his hands as he tried to hold back his fear. Why would she not listen to him? "He's a painter. He's famous on Darkshot. He's in all those war propaganda commercials. That's my son. He needs me. I left this planet to go find him. I finally did, but now he's gone again."
"Rav, you have never left this planet. We are all there is. Odyssia is all there is. We are the last remaining beacon of humanity in this war-torn universe. We are underground with no way up to the surface. The surface is a radiation-filled wasteland. There's no way out."
"You're lying."
"Why would I be lying to you?" The doctor asked. "I'm here to help you. We all are. President Cyrino cares about all citizens, no matter what social class they belong to. How about we start at the beginning and you answer some basic questions for me? How does that sound?"
Rav simply stared at her, his blue eyes blank below his red bangs that peeked out of the bottom of his beanie.
"All right. I will begin with simple questions. What year is it?"
He opened his mouth to answer, but he gave up on even trying. He knew he would be wrong.
"The date is the first of January of 8063."
"It's 8066. It's 8066! That means Nemo is . . . nearly eight? No. It's not already 8066. It can't be."
"That's right, Rav. It is 8063. But again, I must assure you that you have no son and there is no one in Odyssia named Nemo Tillman. That is all in your head. You have to focus on reality."
He held the sides of his head as a headache grew behind his eyes. "All . . . in my head . . . no one . . . Nemo . . ."
"That is correct. Next question. Your wife's name."
"She's dead. I killed her. It was an accident. Is that why I'm in here? Am I facing murder charges?"
"Mr. Tillman, your wife is very much alive. I spoke to her before coming in here. She is outside waiting eagerly to see if she can come say hello to you. She loves you. Why would you think you killed her? Do you feel like you need to kill her? Are the voices telling you to harm her?"
"Voices?" Was she serious? "No. I don't hear voices. I'm not crazy."
"No one said anything about you being crazy, Mr. Tillman. Please calm down and listen to my voice. You are safe here. No one is trying to harm you. Your wife's name, Rav. What is it?"
"Wife?" He thought to the first woman he associated with love. "Leah. Leah Morgan."
"Your wife's name is Helen. You have been married for ten years."
"She's alive?"
"Very much so. Rav, where do you work? Let me ask it this way. Where did you work before you were brought here?"
"I'm a pilot."
"You were a computer engineer for CyrinoTech. You work on computers. You build them, program them, and repair them. You work with an engineer partner. Do you remember his name?" The doctor scrolled through some information on the screen of her tablet. "He's outside as well. Everyone is so concerned about you. They miss you, Rav. You have people who love you and want you get better. Focus for me. What is your friend's name?"
"I have no friends. They're all dead."
"Does the name Vance Trainor ring any bells?"
Too many. "He's a back-stabbing traitor. He's a filthy Azimandian prince who would rather watch the universe burn than to stand up and be a man."
"Excuse me? Azimandian? What is that? Is that something you made up?"
"No. It's an alien race. They have horns and spotted skin. The warbringers are big and angry. They're warriors. They have the slender rejected men as their slaves. They have artificial planets that they . . ." Rav met eyes with the concerned and confused woman who was frantically scribbling on her tablet. "You don't believe any of this. I'll just stop."
"No, no. Continue, please. Anything you say will help me diagnose you and know what treatments will be best. It's all right. Tell me more about these Azimandian aliens."
"I'd rather not."
"Then will you talk about Vance Trainor?" The doctor asked. "Why do you hate him so much?"
"He says he loves me."
"Is that such a horrible thing?"
Rav met eyes with her so she would understand the seriousness there. "I'm not gay."
"All right. No one asked that question, but it would not matter if you were."
"I'm not."
"Fine."
He pointed at the tablet. "Write that down on that little tablet of yours. Don't tell me it wouldn't matter. I know what this government does to homosexuals. It's no secret."
"If that will make you feel better." She tapped her stylus against the screen. "Rav Tillman . . . not gay. There."
"Good. Vance tried to kill me. He threw me into a vat of lava."
She raised an eyebrow curiously. "Lava? Where would he find lava around here?"
"It wasn't here. It was on Dualictum. The dark side."
"And where is this Dualictum?"
He scoffed. It's not like she would believe him anyway. "Forget it. If Vance is here, I want him gone. You should kill him."
"I should kill him? No, Mr. Tillman. I do not kill anyone. Mr. Trainor has been sleeping outside this door every night so he could be close to you and so that he would be here in case anything happened to you. He asks the front desk every day if you have been released so he can take you home and care for you. That is a true friend, Rav. I have a box of notes that he has been writing for you, one every day for these past three years. He truly cares for you. He has been here more than your wife has."
"I want both of them gone. They should be dead."
She momentarily placed her tablet on her lap and leaned forward. "Why
do you have such a fascination with death? Have you had some kind of traumatic experience earlier in life? Did you watch someone you loved die?"
"Many of them. Helen, my four unborn children, Remy, Sawyer, Dallis, Neon, Powder, Leah, Derek, Rage, Lucas, Camille . . ."
"Camille? Camille Cyrino?"
"Yes. They were slaughtered. Some of them were captured by Warlord Tirlmayn and shot in the head."
Once again, the doctor picked up her tablet and wrote something down while shaking her head. "That is quite the violent thought, Rav."
"It's not a thought. It's the truth."
"Well, I have proof that Camille Cyrino is alive and well. She is the president's daughter, after all. If anything had happened to her, all of Odyssia would know. And this Warlord Tirlmayn, you said? Who is he? Another voice in your head? Do you hear him talking to you, Rav?"
"No. He's the leader of Azimandia."
"The horned aliens you were telling me about earlier?"
Rav rolled his eyes. "Yes, them."
"Are you an Azimandian?"
"No."
"Am I an Azimandian?"
"No. You're human."
"What about you?" The doctor asked. "Are you human?"
"Partially."
She looked up from her tablet. "Partially? What are the other parts of you, then?"
"I was part computer at one point, but those pieces were removed. Look in my head. You'll see I have the scars to prove it. Parts of my brain were removed and replaced by computer hardware."
"Interesting. Go on."
"I'm also part Olonictian."
"Another alien race?"
"They are insect-like beings who follow the orders of a hive mind, the Hive Queen."
She tapped the end of her stylus on her red lips. "This Hive Queen, do you hear her?"
"Sometimes. I did. I heard her before coming here. Not now. Now she's silent."
"Well, that must be nice, right? To have peace?"
"I don't have peace. I need to be out there, fighting with Elysia to end this war. They're making children fight and die on the front lines because they're running out of soldiers. I have to fly my ship. I have to stop Tirlmayn from destroying the universe."
"You need to be right here where we can give you all the help and treatment you need to get better. Tell me, Rav. Do you remember what happened three years ago? What occurred to bring you here?"
"I don't know. Did someone from the Flight Force rescue me from that lava?" Rav asked, running his fingers up and down the fabric of his cotton pants. "Did they see me fighting against Vance and step in? Did they catch me before I hit the lava?"
"There is no lava, Rav. Do you want to know what happened? Maybe it will help clear things up for a bit."
"Okay. Tell me."
The doctor brought up the file and began reading from from it. "You were working with Vance inside a supercomputer for CyrinoTech when there was a radiation leak. When you two tried to get out of the computer, you hit your head and fell unconscious. Vance took you to your house where he and Helen, your wife, treated your injury. When you woke up, you went on a rampage. You tore your house apart, attacked your wife, shot a .44 magnum revolver at Vance, then ran off into the Under City . . . naked. Witnesses and security officers stated that you were shouting about aliens, wanting to kill your friends and family, and something about crashing a military spaceship. You were running down the main roads, screaming at people, saying you had blown them up when some secret codes had turned you into a robot monster. We, including your wife and Vance, decided it would be for your own best interests if we admitted you here to get help."
Three years? "What have I been doing here for three years?"
"We talk. We have this exact conversation. Every morning, I bring you your breakfast and ask you the same questions, over and over. I always get the same answers. Sometimes you give more details than others or bring up different things, but it's generally the same. Then I leave about noon and the nurses give you a bath and you stay in here in solitary confinement until you get your dinner and then it's lights out. Some days, we give you coloring books and colored pencils, but you lost that privilege four months ago when you stabbed yourself with the colored pencils. We had a radio for you to have some music, but you continuously had death metal on high and it was deemed too harsh for your recovery."
"I'm hungry."
"You just ate your fruit salad."
Rav closed his eyes in an attempt to calm his growing frustration. "I don't want fruit salad. I want a roast beef sandwich."
"I'm afraid you are on a strict diet."
"How do I get out of this place? What will it take for me to be released?"
"I'm afraid I cannot disclose those details. Rest assured that as soon as you have fully recovered, you will be given leave to return to work at CyrinoTech. We are here to help you."
He opened his eyes again to see her studying him carefully. "You don't believe a word that comes out of my mouth. You lock me away and claim that I'm crazy."
"We never used that word."
"But it's true. That's why I'm in here. That's why you talk to me like I'm a five-year-old. I don't even treat my son this way."
"You have no son, Rav."
He had enough. "Shut the hell up! Don't you dare tell me what I do and don't have."
The doctor rolled her chair away then stood and continued typing into her tablet. "Calm down, Rav. This is your first warning. If you do not get your emotions under control, I will have to restrain you and make you calm down."
Rav glared at her then lowered his clenched fists that he had not realized he was holding up. "Let me see these people you claim are still alive. Let me see Vance and Helen. I won't hurt them. You can restrain me, tie me up, whatever you want to do to ensure that I won't harm them. But please. For my own sanity, let me know they're alive."
"Sit here and wait. I will return shortly. Keep in mind that any signs of aggression towards visitors will cause you to be punished and lose visitation rights."
"Yes, ma'am." Rav scratched his head underneath his grey beanie then crossed his arms and waited. Nothing made sense. Why did the doctor not believe him? Why did she insist it was three years earlier than it was? It was 8066. It had to be. He could not remember everything that happened, but that did not mean it was all fiction, all made up in his head. He had a son. Nemo was real. The war between Elysia and Azimandia was real. Vance betraying him was real. All of it was real. It had to be real.
When the door was unlatched and opened from the sterile chemical-smelling hallway, Rav looked up to see the blond man with mismatched eyes in the black jumpsuit and leather jacket with the CyrinoTech logo embroidered on the front. Vance. Then Rav's heart momentarily stopped. A soft-featured woman with blue eyes and long blond hair that cascaded over her grey educator's jumpsuit smiled at him. Helen.
Vance stepped forward first to sit on the cot. "Hey, mate. How are you feeling? You finally wanted to see us? You're looking better."
Rav ignored him. He instead looked at the woman. "Helen?"
"Hello, honey. It's me. Can I join you?"
"Sure . . . I guess. You're alive."
She joined Vance on the cot then took Rav's hand. "Of course I am. I'm alive and waiting for you to come home. I'll make you roast beef and get all the lime soda you love so much. I'm going to bake you a cake and we'll watch movies all night long together like we used to do before you got so busy with work. Doesn't that sound nice? Don't you want to come home?"
"Home . . . here? In Odyssia?"
"Yes. Our house. I've made some changes. I've done some renovations over the past three years. You'll barely be able to recognize it."
"Are you cheating on me?"
"What? No, of course not." Her voice was delicate and tender. "I've never been with anyone other than you. Vance has been living in our house to take care of me, but we haven't done anything."
"Not with him. With Darren."
"Who's Darren?"
"Are you mad at me, mate?" Vance asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"You attacked me. You claimed you loved me. You tried to kill me."
"I don't know what's wrong with you, but we will work through it. I've never hurt you, mate. I've never attacked you or tried to kill you. I certainly haven't said I loved you. You're my friend, my best mate. We do everything together. I would give my life to keep you safe."
Rav had to push all that aside and ask the question he needed to ask while he still had time. If anyone knew about Nemo, it would be Vance. "Vance?"
"What's up, mate?"
"Do you know where Nemo is?"
"Who's that?" Vance asked.
"Nemo, our son?"
"Are you saying you two have a son together?" Helen covered her mouth to help hide her giggling. "I'm sorry. That's hilarious. Tell him, Vance. Tell him you don't know anything."
"Rav, how could we have had a child together? That's not the way reproduction works, mate."
"No, we made him in a laboratory in a Petri dish with our DNA and the Genesis Sequence."
"What's the Genesis Sequence?" Helen asked. Her smile instantly faded as she covered her eyes and gave a small pained cry. "He's still hallucinating. Vance, be a dear and go fetch the doctor. I'm afraid Rav has not gotten any better. I'm sorry. I know you wanted him to come home."
"Yeah. It's for the best." Vance stood then left the room.
He was only gone for a moment before the doctor strutted inside with her tablet in her hands. "Mr. Tillman, I think it's time for you to say goodbye to your wife. We will get you cleaned up and get you into bed. You're exhausted. This visitation has proven stressful for you."
"What about Nemo?"
The doctor repeated what she had said before. "Mr. Tillman, there is no one by that name on this planet."
The Genesis Sequence Books 6-10 Page 27