by Ian Williams
He was the first of them to step closer and peer inside the large Orb, right through to the centre. There was something there. Like a solid core within a gas giant planet, the surrounding matter swirled around this central ball of dark material. It mixed together to form layers that appeared as bands of slightly different shades of the blue and white glow.
Such a beautiful sight. Graham felt himself wanting to dive right into the centre of it and swim through the light. All that stopped him was a call from Susan, around the other side.
“It’s cold,” she said.
To confirm it himself, Graham laid his left hand gently on the surface. It was indeed cold, and with a dampness to it like a giant ball of ice.
“Hey, don’t get near to it, we don’t know what it is.” Gregson remained a few metres away with her weapon ready to fire at a moment’s notice.
“Well, Graham, what is it then?” Susan asked.
“You got me. I came here to find a Conduit. I’ve no idea what this thing is, or if it can help me enter the Sentient world somehow.”
Susan joined him around his side of the Orb and studied him with a solid gaze. “What’s the Sentient world?”
Gregson then asked, “OK, you need to tell me exactly what is going on here. Who the hell are you here to speak to?”
The best answer came to Graham from the older sounding voice in his head. “Just show them,” it said.
“How do I do that?” Graham replied aloud. He was done with hiding it now, even if the look from Phoenix to ‘stop’ talking to himself made him doubt it at first.
The younger voice interrupted again. “We’ve thought it through now, G, and we’re pretty sure this thing is a replacement for the Conduits. We guess Isaac made some changes after Phoenix and Luke used one. It would explain why we were led here.”
“Yes, so go ahead and put your hand on the object please, the one with the diamond on it that is. We should be able to hack into it,” the other voice told him.
Graham did as he was instructed and reached his hand out to the sphere again. This time he used his right hand. As it approached the swirling light of the shell the diamond flickered rapidly.
“No, Graham, wait,” Phoenix quickly called to him.
“What are you doing?” Gregson added.
The instant Graham’s skin made contact with the cold surface his body straightened out and his eyes widened. Inside his head he heard a frantic panic erupt between the two personalities. They argued as they worked hard to contain the sudden influx of images and sensations.
His thoughts became a disembodied mess, most of which did not appear to be his own in that moment. Something extra was invading and trying to overpower what had been there before. Others’ minds flooded in, each only there for long enough for him to pick out a few of the locations he saw. It continued to build for a second or two, confusing his mind and body into believing they were no longer connected, until a pop sound inside his head brought it all to an abrupt end.
He stood still, without any idea how to snap himself back to the world, and stared ahead. Nothing he did could release him from his sudden rigidity. He was stuck. While whatever process was taking place went on, he was unable to do a thing except watch as the others tried to pull him away.
Gregson’s suggestion, after failing to do a thing, was one step too far, though. She raised her rifle and offered to remove the hand now stuck to the sphere. The idea of such an action made Graham react as far as he could, with a rapid swiping of his eyes from left to right.
“I have to do it,” she said. “We have to separate him from it.”
Phoenix was the only one to notice Graham’s eyes moving about. “No, wait. Look.”
“Just hang in there for a few more seconds, G. We’ve nearly got it,” the older, unattached voice told him. To his relief they were on top of the chaos now swirling around his head. “OK, here we go.”
The sphere changed colour in response and took on a darker shade of blue a moment later. Its contents also sped up and passed around the central core like a whirlpool had formed inside. But most noticeably for the worried faces there, was a change in Graham’s posture. His body had loosened. Yet still his hand would not move off of the Orb. He breathed as fast as his lungs could cope with to catch up.
“Easy, I’ve got you,” Rhys said, taking Graham by the arm before the floor could claim him.
For Graham the one thing he cared to realise at that point was the sudden quiet inside his head. Neither of the two voices he had become familiar with were there anymore. Had something gone wrong?
“He’s gonna need a minute or two.”
Graham sighed with relief when the younger voice returned, this time with an image to go with it. This voice came with a much younger version of his own face, one barely into its teens judging by the smoothness of the skin and soft, fluffy hair.
“We’ll be able to go on soon,” the other voice said. The face of this personality Graham had already seen. It was older than the first, and still with a neatness to him that the original did not currently possess.
“Erm, who are they?” Susan asked.
“Christ, Graham. You weren’t kidding when you said you had something wrong with you.” Phoenix stood a safe distance from the new arrivals.
Excitement spread throughout Graham’s body when he realised his burden was no longer his alone to bear. The others could now see the two copies of himself he had been stuck with. Yet the weakness that had beset his body kept him from talking. That responsibility fell to his clones.
“Nice to meet you,” the younger Graham said. “I’ll get on with contacting Luke.”
The older was more interested in getting the uncomfortable explanation out of the way first. “We’re both a part of Graham’s consciousness. So don’t worry, we’re not here to cause any trouble. To answer your question, Susan, the Sentient world exists within a virtual space where beings that formed from the MARCs, which once plagued the relay network, now live. They are peaceful entities. We were once trapped in their world and only escaped because of their help. Unfortunately, we believe our mind was damaged in some way when we got out. We exist as a symptom of this possible damage.”
“Holy crap, this is amazing.” Susan beamed as she spoke. She moved her gaze from one version of Graham to the next, never sure which to settle her video recorder on. “So you brought us here to do what, enter their virtual world?”
“It’s not something we take lightly. If there was any other way of fixing this problem, we’d gladly take it. That being said, entering the other world again is not exactly what we’re doing here anyway. Think of this like a long distance call. Using this device, we’re hoping to contact the Sentients.”
Susan looked the younger Graham over with a curious glance, and got one in return. “Wait a minute. If you’re not one of these Sentients, then how are we seeing you?”
“We’re holographic representations. In fact, we're both still inside Graham’s head. This spherical object can produce holographic images. For some reason there is an entire section of the device dedicated to it.”
The younger Graham stepped forward to join the other and whispered in his ear. Neither of them paid any attention to the physical Graham standing still in Rhys’ arms.
“We’ve found them,” the older version said. “Go ahead and activate the rest of the holo-overlay,” he told the other version, before speaking to the rest of the group again. “This room is about to get a whole lot more interesting.”
Once the sphere had been activated it again changed its colour. This time it turned entirely black. But all around, seeping across every wall and surface, came an eerie mist that slowly covered it all. It stopped by the feet of each of those within its range and then found its way around. Eventually the library had vanished and in its place was only darkness.
“What is this?” Gregson said, again with her rifle picking out any possible targets.
“The layer of gas surrounding you allows for
holographic images to be projected upon it. It’s nothing to worry about,” the older Graham reassured her.
For a while nothing happened, leaving the group waiting nervously in a black void. Then came a form through the mist. The shape was humanoid, but without detail. And it was not alone either. More came from the nothingness surrounding the group and wandered into view. Row after row stopped at the perimeter of the room, each appearing to be staring directly at the humans in the middle.
Gregson by now had aimed at all of them in turn, until giving up altogether and lowering her weapon to the ground. The rest of the group looked around them to the surrounding crowd of glowing beings.
“We come in peace,” the younger Graham said with a smirk that the original Graham found himself copying. Doing any more than this was still too difficult for the real Graham to manage.
One of the glowing forms stepped forward, coming from behind the front row. The closer this being came to them the more his features appeared on his body. First to form were the eyes, human ones. Next were the facial features. They settled into place to create a face at least two of them already knew.
“Stephen, is that really you?” Phoenix said. She bounded over to him and reached out to pull him close. But instead of touching solid matter she stepped right through the middle of him.
“Hey, easy, hologram, remember?” Stephen replied. He straightened out his white shirt a moment later – he had given up on the lab coat he wore the last time Graham had seen him inside the Sentient world. There were now two distinctly different versions of Stephen, but this one had the answers Graham needed. “Please allow me to introduce myself, and the others, to the new visitors. My name is Stephen and this–”
“Take it easy, buddy.” Gregson interrupted with a wave of her rifle in Stephen’s direction. “Just keep your distance for now, OK?”
“Of course. Well, this is Luke, and over there is Kindness. You’ll have to excuse Kindness’ chosen image, he hasn’t quite got the hang of taking human form.”
The two others walked into the centre of the room to join Stephen. Luke was, as usual, dressed in only the finest looking clothing with an emphasis on designer fashion. He had not lost his impressively chiselled looks either. For a Sentient he had always shown a keen desire to fit in with human kind and understood them well.
Kindness, on the other hand, stood much taller than any natural human and had only chosen one colour and texture to dress himself in – what loosely resembled corduroy. It was still a pleasant surprise for Graham to see, who had a very clear memory of Kindness’ instant dislike of the first human he had ever seen. There appeared to have been a positive change in the Sentients’ perception of humanity; they now clearly shared Luke’s fondness for them.
Despite his unusual tallness, Kindness took to his knee with ease. He lowered himself down beside the slumped Graham in Rhys’ arms and studied the weakened form of his friend. “We have been waiting a long time to see you again, my friend.” He slowly leant away in what looked to be disappointment. “What has happened to you, Graham Denehey? You were a formidable fighter when last we spoke. This is not you.”
Stephen then approached to take a look for himself. “Kindness is right, you look terrible, Graham. What’s wrong?”
“I think I see the problem.” Luke stood next to the two copies of Graham standing nearby. He passed his eyes over each in turn. “Care to tell us your stories?”
The older Graham took point on this one, while the younger stared back at Luke as he investigated them. “That’s why we’ve come here today. We’ve been experiencing… problems, since leaving your world. At first there were simply blackouts, but after a while our mind started to fracture. Now there are two extra versions of our mind, and there’s no telling how many more might appear.”
“You say this started as soon as you left the Sentient world? Why has it taken so long for you to reach us then?” Stephen said.
“Because we’ve been trapped in a coma for three months. We were hoping you could tell us if something went wrong during our escape of your world. Is what happened to you happening to me too?”
“I don’t think it is the same thing, no.” Stephen investigated the two extra Grahams, walking around them as he spoke.
“Well, can you help us still?”
“It’s impossible over such a distance, I’m afraid. The only way we could help is if you were here, with us, inside the Sentient world. Unfortunately, Isaac destroyed all of the Conduits after Luke re-entered our world through one. I may be able to do the same with this sphere object, but it will take time to find out for sure. Your body would have to stay there while your mind entered.”
“Well that’s out of the question,” Gregson affirmed. “We can’t guarantee holding this area for that long. Hell, we could be surrounded already and we’d never know.”
“Wait, are you in danger?”
“Are you kidding me?” Gregson snapped straight back with. “Have you any idea what’s actually going on here? This place is a fucking war-zone. There’s a force-field keeping the rest of the military outside the city still. Getting in has been a complete nightmare. My team, including Graham, were almost killed just trying to get inside.”
“So the war now ravages both our worlds.” Kindness remained knelt down by the real Graham as he spoke. “Isaac’s forces have grown greatly in such a short time. He has yet to breach our protective walls. Now he has turned his aggression against you instead.”
“It seems things are much worse than we feared,” Luke said. “Without any contact with your world we’ve been in the dark all this time. But if Isaac is already in control of your city, then it may be too late to stop him. He may be too strong.”
“Hey, we’re going off topic here,” the younger Graham said. “I’m still waiting for an answer. What could have caused my mind to split like this?”
“Yes, about that.” Stephen shared a knowing glance with Luke and then Kindness, who had now decided to sit upon the ground. “We may know something. But you have to understand, we had no idea it could end up causing this to happen.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” the older Graham said.
Luke continued the confession. “When we agreed to return you to your world, Graham, we weren’t sure we would ever see you again. If we didn’t do what we did to you, then we would never know about the war in your world.”
“Hang on, are you saying you did this to Graham, and on purpose?” Phoenix said.
“Let me just explain. All we did was include some small changes to Graham’s consciousness. He would feel compelled to seek us out again, to guarantee we would not be forgotten. You have to see things from our side to understand; once Graham left us we had no link to your world. We could not leave it to chance that we would be thought of when dealing with Isaac.”
“After everything we did for you … Couldn’t you have just trusted us?” The older Graham was furious. “Can you undo it?”
Another worrying glance was shared between the three Sentients. Luke eventually replied, “The problem we have is that this is not what we planned. All we placed inside your mind was a subtle little piece of Sentient coding that should have planted the suggestion of finding us again. That is all. But it appears the suggestion grew within your mind to such a degree that it took a form of its own. I suspect you both exist as a by-product of this seemingly random event.”
“OK, so what about this thing on my hand, was that you too?”
Luke nodded. “We gave you the tools needed to find us again. That included giving you the diamond device and the necessary knowledge to use it. Have you not noticed an increase in your cognitive abilities?”
“We have. I’ve been sharing what I can with the real Graham without really understanding how. What exactly are we then?”
“Without meaning to offend, you are both a form of corruption to Graham’s consciousness; not quite human and not quite Sentient.”
The older Graham appeared to defl
ate in response.
“So I am proven wrong.” Kindness raised himself up into a standing position. He towered over everyone else in the room by a metre or so. “Graham Denehey is no longer one strong fighter, but three. He is indeed a formidable being.”
Gregson felt compelled to speak up again. “Let me get this straight, Graham. All of the lying and scheming, and this is why you had to be inside the city, because you’re hearing voices? And you,” she said, turning her attention to Luke, “whatever the fuck you are. Are you telling us that you messed Graham’s mind up, leaving it in three pieces, and all because you needed him back? What kind of screwed up bullshit is this? There’s a war going on, and we need to be helping win it, not standing around here talking to holograms.”
“Allow me to ask you something.” Stephen approached her, visibly angered, and stopped just in front of the lowered barrel of her weapon. “How are you planning to fight back?”
“Do you seriously expect me to tell you that?” she replied.
“Fair enough. Well, let’s say you manage to remove this shield, and you push Isaac back as far as you can, then what? Will you destroy him altogether?”
“You’re damn right we will.”
“Interesting. So if I were to tell you that Isaac could simply retreat back into the Sentient world and wait to try again, what then? All you will achieve is to temporarily postpone the war. No, to truly defeat Isaac he must be destroyed in both worlds simultaneously.”
“This is why we had to do this to Graham,” Luke then said. “Your plan would force Isaac into our world, and we just aren’t strong enough to fight him alone. We’ve already lost so many of our best fighters trying to gain access to Isaac’s tower. You’d doom our entire race to death. We had to do something. So we made Graham our representative in your world.”
Kindness was next to speak. “We must fight together. Humans and Sentients; one team, one war. This pleases me. So, humans, will you fight with us?”