by Mikael Aizen
* * * * *
They were in front of a blank TV screen. Underneath the giant flatscreen against the wall was a hole about the size of a finger. It was the "living room" space of the house they were in. "What do I do?" Taimu asked.
"Put your finger in the hole."
"That's it."
"Yup. We'll match your Realness and use it as a guide for our system as it scans the various realities. With you, we'll probably be able to find quite a few things. The one of equal or greater Realness will be our target."
"And once we find her? We rescue her?" It was interesting how his mind had already begun changing the way it saw things for him to refer to kidnapping a woman from her world as "rescuing."
Janice nodded.
"What if we're followed, like the Koalas followed you when you came after me?"
Janice shrugged. "They may. Or may not. I am not certain. You were the most Real we've ever discovered and so we sent every member we had for your protection. I believe now that that was a mistake. We brought too much attention to you and proper protocols were not made available."
"Protocols?"
"Choice. We want you to have a choice to join us. You didn't."
Taimu searched inside for a response. Now, after seeing the True world, he didn't blame her. He was Superman in the True world. Back home, he was nobody. What other thing did he have waiting for him back there? More TV shows? She was right, he was without friends because no one wanted to be around a person who only had self-deprecation on mind.
"I don't blame you," Taimu said. "Let's get on with it." He let her edge his non-wheeling chair forward until it was right in front of the hole in the wall.
"So...just put my finger in."
"Yes," she said.
He put his finger in.
It felt odd, squishy and slimy. It sucked on his finger and he grit his teeth. "It's gross."
She nodded. "Sorry."
"What is it?"
"An organic machine that reads your Realness, like DNA."
An organic machine? What did that mean?
The screen popped to life a minute later. It was a map that had dots across a grid-like surface. Some dots were brighter than others and a list of figures began to populate on the right side of the screen. "Amazing," Janice said. "There are so many." She seemed pleased. She pointed at the top one. "There she is." She tapped on the screen and a line that Taimu recognized as a map of the dome appeared. It looked liked the same map on the surface of the white dome in the middle. He guessed the circles were portals and from the look of it they would have to cross three to reach their goal.
Janice had both her eyebrows high up in her forehead.
"What?" Taimu asked.
"It's my world. Just about two hundred years earlier." She had a tight look in her expression. "I guess I'm going home."
"That's great, isn't it? You'll know what you're doing."
She shrugged.
"Can I take my finger out yet?"
She lifted her index finger and moved it towards his ribs. "Why? Are you ticklish?"
"Not funny!"
"Yes, you can take your finger out."
He pulled it out and a long line of greenish snot came out with it.