Broken Pixels (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 4) (9 page)

“Yes, but I would recommend that you not wait. What’s the point of risking continued exposure?”

The Plexiglas wall emitted three tones, and a soft female voice said, “Dr. Canfield, please report to receiving.”

Dr. Canfield stood up and said, “Why don’t the three of you figure out what you want to do, and I’ll be back in a while.” With a quick, purposeful stride, she left the room.

After she left, Ping folded his fingers in front of him on the table and said, “I suppose the prudent thing to do would be to take the doctor’s advice and begin the treatment. We should discuss the logistics of using the Chronicle while encased in plastic tubes.”

Mara stood up and paced. “The doctor said it could be months before we get sick. For all we know, this virus won’t affect us the same way it did the people who were born in this realm.”

“That may be true. On the other hand, it may affect us more quickly or in a different manner. It would be a risk staying longer,” Ping said.

“I understand there’s some risk involved, but it strikes me as acceptable, if we can help make Cam whole again. We owe him that much. We could get downtown and back in several hours even with the disruptions around town. After that we get the treatment and go home.”

“That’s assuming we don’t encounter resistance from the Aphotis. At least we’ll have the element of surprise on our side. She doesn’t know we’re here,” Ping said.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. If she’s paying attention to the Chronicle, she’ll have noticed that the nodes inside it have shifted. Our nodes will have pulled closer to the one that represents this realm. If she wanted, she could use the Chronicle to find us, just like she found the passengers of Flight 559 in our realm,” Mara said.

“That had not occurred to me. So are you saying you could do the same, use the Chronicle to find her?” Ping asked.

“I think so, but finding her isn’t the objective at this point. We’ll follow the tracking signal to the head—whether it’s still in her possession or not. Either way we won’t pick a fight. We just grab the head and bring it here. After that, we’ll figure out what our next steps should be. A tactical retreat to our own realm might be the best thing at that point. We’ll see.”

“You think she’ll just let you have it?” Sam asked.

“
It
won’t have much choice. Besides, I think the head has served its usefulness now that the Aphotis is here in this realm.”

“Okay, let’s go then. I’m all for putting off getting into the test tube for as long as possible,” Sam said.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Dr. Canfield returned to the room, carrying what appeared to be an oversize Frisbee under her arm. She placed it on the floor in front of the Plexiglas wall and walked over to the table, looked at Mara and said, “Cam said he wanted to speak with you. Since his repairs are nearly complete—except for his missing cranium—I told him it would be all right. Keep the conversation short and don’t be surprised if his demeanor seems a little detached. His core is fully functional, but some of his personality routines have degraded after being severed from the engrams in his head. That issue should resolve itself once the cranium is reattached, assuming it’s not irreparably damaged.”

Mara stood and said, “Okay, how do I communicate with him?”

“Just like you are communicating with me,” Dr. Canfield said. Turning around, she spoke toward the wall. “Initiate holographic interface with Cameron Lee.”

A three-dimensional image of Cam projected above the Frisbee on the floor.

“Cam! You look great!” Mara said. “You seem taller than I imagined.”

“I do appear taller when my head is attached to my torso,” the image said, deadpan.

Dr. Canfield walked to the door and said, “I’ve still got business to attend to. I’ll be back in about ten minutes, which is about as long as your visit should be. Understand?”

“Of course,” Mara said.

The doctor left the room, and Mara looked to Cam. “So, how much of what happened do you remember?” she asked.

“The last signal received from my cranium was from your house. I have not received any additional data since you returned my torso to this reality,” he said.

“So you don’t remember anything after your head was taken from my house?”

“That is correct.”

“Dr. Canfield says your head is located here in downtown Portland. We are planning on retrieving it and bringing it here to the repository,” Mara said.

Cam shook his head stiffly. “My understanding is that you have exposed yourselves to the dissoluendo virus. It would be best for you to receive treatment and return to your realm immediately. You have done enough by bringing me home. No need to put yourselves at further risk.”

“We’re just talking about a delay of a couple hours. No big deal, right?”

“You do not understand. The virus is not the only threat you face if you stay. The disruptions in the Sig-net are growing more serious, affecting more people. Soon it will not be safe for anyone to move around the city.”

“If you remember what happened when we were carrying your head around, you know that I’m not completely without the ability to defend myself,” Mara said.

“I recall the encounter with the dragon and the other remarkable things you did.”

“Then let us worry about the risks and the danger.”

He shook his head again. “You are not familiar with this realm. You have no access to the Sig-net, which is like being blind and deaf. Even the simplest of tasks will be impossible for you.”

“We’ll just have to make do somehow. You’d be surprised how resourceful the three of us can be.”

“I would encourage you to reconsider,” Cam said.

“You’re spitting in the wind, man,” Sam said. “Once she sets her mind to something, there’s no changing it.”

Cam’s gaze shifted from Mara to Sam like a man in a daze. After a moment, a look of recognition crossed Cam’s transparent face. “Hello, Sam. Nice to see you again. I wish it were under better circumstances.”

“Hey, Cam. You do sound a little not like yourself. We really must get your head back,” Sam said.

“That is what I am trying to discourage, Sam.”

“Stubbornness is a family trait,” Ping said. Nodding toward Cam, he added, “Hello, my name is Aristotle Ping. I don’t believe we’ve actually met, but I’ve heard a great deal about you.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Mara said. “I totally forgot.”

Cam narrowed his eyes and tilted his head as if figuring something out. “Ping. You are the dragon, or it is you.”

“Not any longer. That particular problem has been addressed,” Mara said. “Anyway, we need to figure out how to get out of here and how to locate your head. You arranged our ride to this repository. Is there a way for you to arrange a way to downtown?”

“Are you sure I can’t talk you out of this?” Cam asked.

“Pretty sure.”

“Then, at the very least, you should let me come with you.”

“Wow, can you actually step off that Frisbee and walk out of here?” Sam asked.

“No, I can only appear as a hologram in locations where there are imagers, and they are still very uncommon. Some people believe that one day we will be able to forgo our synthetic bodies and exist as living holograms, but that technology is still many years in the future. I meant that I could maintain contact through Mara’s phone, talk you through any issues you have and act as a conduit to the Sig-net, if needed.”

Mara slipped her phone from her pocket and said, “I’m not sure how much longer I’ll have a charge.” She frowned at the screen. “That’s weird. It’s fully charged.”

“I thought it might be compatible with our power grid,” Cam said.

“Wireless recharging, that’s cool.” Looking up, she said, “Will the doctor have an issue with you helping us? She seemed keen on making sure we didn’t tire you out too much.”

“Communicating through your phone isn’t taxing at all, and it would be highly inappropriate for her to screen my signals, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Okay, so how do we get out of this subterranean repository place?” Mara asked.

“Actually the safest way to get downtown would be to stay underground. You see, a network of railcars connects the repositories, so that staff and equipment can move back and forth without going aboveground. It’s almost like a city under the city,” Cam said.

“That sounds like a massive infrastructure investment to make,” Ping said. “What’s the rationale of that?”

“There are two reasons for the repository network being underground. One is that the purpose of having a synthetic body is to live a normal human existence. That would not be attainable if we spent our entire lives looking at and being reminded of our biological selves. The second reason is space. We have twice as many bodies to accommodate. If we stored our biological bodies on the surface, we would have no room to live our lives. It just makes sense to manage it this way.”

“All fascinating, but how do we get to these railcars?” Mara asked.

“I’ll signal for a car and show you where to find it.”

“Just like that? Anyone can use these underground railcars when they want?”

“Yes, just like that. All transportation in this realm is automated public transportation. Of course you need to have access to Sig-net to integrate with it, but that’s why I’m coming with you, so to speak.”

“What about Dr. Canfield? What will we tell her?”

“I’ll send her a message that you are running some personal errands and will return in several hours to discuss options for treatment for the virus.”

“And she won’t have an issue with three people running around with a contagious disease?”

“Mara, the virus is everywhere. You are breathing it right now.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Stepping though the two large industrial doors at the end of the hall, Mara was taken aback by the rough-hewn walls of the cavern through which they had entered. She had almost forgotten they were not in an office building aboveground. Holding her phone in front of her, she pointed to the left when Ping and Sam emerged through the door. Following Cam’s texted instructions, she led them past the large freight elevator they had used to descend to the repository and toward a wide rectangular opening tunneled from another rocky wall. Their footfalls echoed as they crossed the paved ground. For some reason, Mara kept thinking the sounds would give them away—as if they were sneaking out of the complex without permission.

She pointed to a small plaque labeled Railcar Platform and under her breath said, “Looks like it’s through here.”

“Why are you whispering? Cam already told you that we were free to go where we want. It’s not like we’re stealing a car or something,” Sam said. He hiked Mara’s book bag onto his shoulder and added, “Why am I still carrying your luggage?”

She ignored the question as they passed into the opening, which sloped downward. It was wide and steep enough to seem more like a ramp than a hall. Its low ceiling was cut stone, but gray tiles lined the walls, and the ground continued to be asphalt. Gravity pulled them forward, making their steps jerky as they attempted to maintain their pace and balance. After one hundred feet, the slope lessened, and the passageway ended.

They found themselves standing on a raised platform next to a track with a single silver rail running down its center. The rail emerged from a circular opening in the rock wall to the left, ran past the platform and disappeared into another tunnel on the right. It seemed to be a small subway station but without advertisements or adornments on the walls other than tube lighting mounted above the passageway through which they had entered.

“The effort it took to hollow this out and build these facilities is almost unimaginable,” Ping said.

“I don’t see what’s so remarkable. It’s just a monorail and a tunnel,” Sam said.

“Yes, however, this is but one of what must be thousands of such facilities all over this world. Remember, everyone alive is stored underground, and facilities like this must dot the globe. It’s remarkable.”

“I suppose survival is a powerful incentive to build,” Mara said.

They felt a soft vibration run through the platform. A second later, a soft hissing wind blew from the tunnel to the left, and a single car, shaped like a giant antihistamine capsule lying on its side, slid up to the platform. Its walls were translucent, and a warm light glowed from within. Two narrow doors at the leading end of the craft parted and disappeared into its walls.

“That looks different than I expected,” Mara said. She approached the side of the vehicle and walked toward the open doors. Instead of entering, she leaned over the edge of the platform and eyed the single rail. The bottom of the capsule hovered over the rail with an almost imperceptible bobbing motion. “Must be magnets of some kind, unless they’ve gotten into a kind of antigravity technology.”

Ping joined her and looked over her shoulder. “I suppose their needs would dictate a unique course of technological development from that in our realm. It could very well be some antigravity technology. Fascinating.”

“It looks like a giant radioactive suppository,” Sam said.

“That may be, but it’s our only way to get where we’re going, so come on in,” Mara said. She stepped through the doors and found four plastic seats mounted to each side of the vehicle. Ping took a seat beside her, and Sam sat across the aisle, facing her. As soon as they were seated, the doors on the capsule closed, and the capsule slid away from the platform and into the tunnel.

Mara could not tell if the tunnel wall was smooth rock or some type of concrete, but, every fifty feet or so, a band of light along its circumference would whip by, each band coming faster than the last as the capsule accelerated. After a couple minutes, the pulsing of the bands steadied into an almost-hypnotic visual rhythm. Once she became accustomed to the environment, Mara looked at her brother, and, for the first time, noticed his T-shirt and rolled her eyes.

Pointing to it, she said, “You had to wear that shirt, didn’t you?”

Sam looked at his chest. “What?” Emblazoned on his chest was an illustration of a blue robot punching a red one, whose head had popped up on an impossibly long neck. It was captioned Rock ’em, Sock ’em Robots! He looked up with a grin. “I didn’t know I would be visiting Robot World when I got dressed this morning. But it is pretty cool, huh?”