Mobius (12 page)

I held her tightly. “The pilot knew they’d eventually force the vessel down and discover our absence. This act of sacrifice will allow us enough time to escape.”

“Why is your life more important than his, Theron?”

I looked with conviction in the direction of our destination. “Hopefully such a question will be answered at our final destination within the Khingan MegaCity.”

OUT OF PHASE

We flew for hours
into the northeastern regions of China. Allienora had passed out from exhaustion. I held her in my arms. Her head rested on my shoulder. It was comforting. I hadn’t felt such real intimacy in years. My addiction to SLIP code had turned me into something sad. Finding intimacy in hyper-realistic fantasies just wasn’t like the real thing.

We are all just halves, until we become whole.
I stole a kiss from her sleeping lips.
I want to live again.

She woke up after a while. Her lips trembled. She might have been in shock.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

Her large eyes glistened. “I don’t understand what’s going on, Theron.”

“You must trust me, Allienora. We must move forward. The Obelisks are coming.”

“What are they?”

“I don’t know.”

“What of the defense minister’s men?” she asked.

“They haven’t discovered us yet.” I scanned the hilly landscape. “Perhaps the pilot’s daring plan was successful.”

“Successful, though costly,” she replied. “How much farther?”

“I don’t know, but the day’s ending.” I looked at the sun sitting on the Khingan Mountain range.

Allienora cringed. “What’s that smell?”

We became drenched in a putrid gas cloud. Below, we discovered the source of the sickening stench. The land below was split open, revealing a ten-kilometer chasm into the heart of an ancient dumpsite, exposing the decaying remnants of five hundred years of human waste. I pointed out giant robotic machines. They worked to process the toxic garbage. I flew us higher to avoid the smell.

The sun set and the barren lands below were painted in gray tones. Halfway through the night, as the crest of the mountainous horizon rolled toward us, a magnificent light pierced the dark landscape. The Khingan MegaCity had revealed itself.

In the dawn’s light, we marveled at the MegaCity. It had an air of power over the surrounding mountains, like a bejeweled king among peasants. The MegaCity’s diamond-fiber superstructure was the foundation for an ever-growing and changing habitat for the two hundred million inhabitants.

I considered the size and complexity of the MegaCity as we neared its perimeter. I halted our flight in midair.

“Why have we stopped?” asked Allienora.

“I need to access my neural implant to find the coordinates in the MegaCity.” I closed my eyes and gazed inward. My neural implant showed me the best route to our destination.

Allienora started shaking me. “Look, Theron! Something’s happening. Thousands of ships are leaving the MegaCity.”

I focused on the outside world and, looking slack-jawed to the sky, found the cause of the mass departure. “The Obelisks have arrived!”

Before us, one of the one hundred and twelve Obelisks descended into the atmosphere. It was the width of the MegaCity and four times the height.

“It’s enormous,” uttered Allienora.

“Have I gone crazy, or does it lack substance?”

The Obelisk itself seemed a thing of illusion. It was translucent like a phantom, causing me to question whether it was real.

“It’s as if it’s out of phase with reality,” said Allienora. “I can see right through it.”

“We should find safety within the MegaCity.” I interlinked with my anti-gravity belt and we continued towards the MegaCity at best speed.

I guided us into the lower regions of the MegaCity, hoping to buffer us from the Obelisk’s descent. We became lost in a labyrinth of old construction long since forsaken and left for the poor and homeless.

I landed us on a wide street lined with buildings in various stages of disrepair. Above and beyond, the newer and more magnificent architecture of the MegaCity could be seen. It was a beautiful creation, a larger-than-life artwork composed of the soft sheen of metal and the cool glow of electric light.

“Our view of the Obelisk is blocked,” said Allienora.

“Don’t disengage your cloak,” I instructed. “This is a dangerous place and chaos is upon us.”

Preparing for the Obelisk’s impact, we remained in the open, hoping to be safe from falling debris. When many minutes passed and neither winds nor quakes brought us to our knees, I decided we must continue. I again interlinked with my neural implant.

“We must be quick,” I said. “Our destination is much higher, at the peak of the MegaCity.”

“Watch out!” screamed Allienora.

Before we could again make flight, a transport sphere struck us from behind. We crashed to the ground—our arms and legs wrenched by the force. Our cloaks disengaged from the impact, revealing our limp bodies.

The transport sphere stopped and someone got out.

I couldn’t move. I looked to Allienora and discovered the driver of the vehicle on her. He was an ugly little fuck, with drooping jowls and pale pink skin. His arms were lined with synergistic implants. She’d be no match for his enhanced strength. I tried to get up, but couldn’t. I watched as the man ran his finger along Allienora’s neck.

“My caress pleases you, doesn’t it?”

Allienora squirmed beneath him. “Get your hands off me, you pig!”

The man pulled himself even closer, presenting her with two beady eyes and a perverted smile. “I thought I might have a taste.”

Allienora continued to struggle for freedom. The man dragged his tongue, like a wet slug, across the base of her neck. “Mm... vanilla,” he lusted.

Allienora kicked him in the balls.

Instead of pain, he showed satisfaction. “Mm... again you please me. You’re like an angel of ecstasy. You’re what I dream of when I sleep, and when I pleasure myself.”

“Get off her!” I screamed, forcing myself to stand. I moved to intervene, but Allienora’s molester jammed a prod-like device against my arm, injecting something beneath my skin. I became paralyzed. He did the same to Allienora. I couldn’t move, but I was wide awake.

Neeble, as he introduced himself, inspected us. “My brother will reward me for capturing such fine specimens. Especially ones with so many precious technologies—anti-gravity belts, cloaking devices, and a plasma gun.”

Neeble came face to face with me. His breath smelled like meat and shit. “Pretty eyes. Too bad they be stuck in that hideous head. My brother might help you remove that hideous head, then you just be pretty eyes.”

I watched as he retrieved two long silver fibers from his vehicle and tied them to our waists like leashes. “The impact of my transport sphere must’ve damaged your anti-gravity belts. Don’t worry, my brother teaches me about such devices. He’s a wise man. His head is overstuffed with many brains.” He tinkered with our anti-gravity belts for a moment. “You see, I already fixed them.”

Allienora and I floated upward. We hung at the ends of the silver fibers like two queer balloons. Neeble left his vehicle behind and pulled us by hand down the street.

Neeble took us through dark alleys, condemned buildings, and at last we arrived in the basement of a huge spiral tower. There, Neeble loaded us into a hidden anti-gravity lift, which catapulted us into the upper regions of the MegaCity.

The lift door opened and I saw a warehouse of old junk—neural interfaces, a wall of half-assembled AI-droids, stasis chambers, medical paraphernalia, synergistic implants, and illegal genetic alterers.

“Brother!” called Neeble. “I bring choice specimens from the lower slums!” After no response, Neeble pulled us through the warehouse and into a large workroom, where a man, in front of a panoramic window, was talking excitedly to himself.

I understood the man’s excitement, when I saw the wondrous and surreal view. The window looked out beyond the MegaCity, upon the looming Obelisk that had landed only miles away. Its translucence was just as we had observed during its descent. The morning sun, although blocked by the Obelisk, could still be seen as a great, distorted entity through the strange substance. It acted like a prism, filtering the sun’s light into a spectrum of rich colors.

Neeble’s brother examined the Obelisk with a large ocular headset.

“Did you witness its majestic descent, Neeble? With such disturbing silence, it floated down to Earth, like a feather falling in still air.” His headset extended two bulbous lenses forward. “It is. But it is not. It can be seen. But it cannot be touched. Even now, a flock of oblivious birds flies through the Obelisk as if it presented all the risk of a cloud in the sky.”

Neeble’s brother danced about on two thin legs. “Neeble, aren’t you stunned by this amazing event, or are you an oblivious bird?”

“I didn’t notice,” said Neeble. “I was catching these fine specimens from the lower slums. Our paths, quite literally, collided.”

“You’ve done well, Neeble. Set them on the examination tables.”

Neeble guided us to two metal tables. He cradled Allienora like an infant as he laid her down, disengaged her anti-gravity belt, and then extracted the electrode inducing her paralysis. “It’s all right my angel. I’ll take care of you. Yes, my gentle caress is for you, my love.”

“Quit fucking around, Neeble!” commanded his brother.

Neeble crashed my floating body to the other metal table like a sack of rocks, and then removed my paralysis electrode.

“Done, brother! They’re secure.” Neeble gave Allienora a longing glance and moved to his brother’s side.

I wriggled my fingers and toes, trying to regain motor function. I prepared myself.

Strike hard. Strike fast. One... two... three.

I tried to leap to my feet, but was bound to the table by a gravity restraint.

I grunted angrily. “Why have you brought us here!”

“First, let me introduce myself,” said Neeble’s brother. “I’m Vega, a scientist and scholar. I’m a man propelled through life by great aspirations. You’ve been brought here to be the subjects of experiments that’ll change the very nature of human existence. You see, I’m on a quest to attain superiority of mind and body, and, ultimately, immortality of person. To achieve this goal, I utilize many promising technologies in both genetics and the use of AI-droids as sustained vessels for the mind.”

“You can’t be serious,” I said.

“Don’t worry—when I’ve achieved immortality, your deaths will be meaningful.”

I fought against the gravity restraint. “That’s a hackneyed manifesto, fitting for inner-city garbage like you. Do you think you’re an innovator of such ideas? Much more brilliant minds have tried and failed. Additionally, your shitty lab is sub-standard for such science.”