Jinkinar, Kalinda
THE JOURNEY FROM MAHAKOR TO JlNKINAR HAD BEEN A VERY long time in coming, but it had finally come, the nervous government’s hand forced by the forthcoming international conference, at which the Powers That Were wanted everybody who wasn’t with Chalidang to be present, possibly on the theory that if you weren’t with them, you might be convinced to be against them.
They traveled with Inspector Shissik, but free and as companion, not as a prisoner. They still didn’t have official status, but then, nobody in authority in Kalinda had the slightest idea what you did with two different people sharing one body. They had gone so far as to consult with the ambassadors of three races that knew something about it, but all of them thought it was a matter of symbiosis or twinning.
Kalindans moved from point to point using what were basically trains, except these were open cars, with the passenger belted in, and they traveled very fast along electromagnetic lines of force. It was exciting just seeing the world after being cooped up for so long, and fascinating to see the landscape as they passed, even if by means they had never used so readily in the artificial environment of the city. Virtually no light penetrated this far, and what life there was with some self-illumination was too weak to reveal anything but the creatures themselves. Still, it was as clear as day to them, seeing by sound and by reading magnetism, radiation, and changes in heat. It wasn’t colorful, but it was as detailed and precise as any vision they had ever experienced.
As with all high-tech civilizations, the place wasn’t what it used to be. The marks of Kalinda were all over, not just in small structures, the remnants of old commercial enterprises like mines and farms, and old physical roadways now disintegrating, but also in the surprising lack of abundant larger life-forms other than their own kind. Oh, there were some, scurrying across the bottom, swimming by here and there, and clustered in dense sea growths, but nothing they would have expected from an underwater paradise.
“You see the same story everywhere,” Shissik commented, not sounding upset. “Screw up the environment, change things, plow up all the plants in an area, dig out all the minerals from another that were also used as part of a local food chain’s diet, and you eventually wind up with a lot of desolation. It is the price of progress.”
They wondered about that, even as they knew a lot of the Realm had done exactly the same thing both under and above the waves. Still, Ari asked, “So all the high-tech hexes are as desolate? No exceptions?”
“Oh, there are exceptions, sure,” the Inspector answered uncomfortably. “Too late to restore here, though. You’d have to create something new. They’re always talking about it, since a lot of other hexes have compatible life-forms comparable to what was lost here, but then they cost it out in time and labor and it never gets anywhere. I think they all hope that one day we’ll crack the secret and be able to turn water and rock and sand into fields of sea grass, and recreate the now extinct crion and solander that used to be food staples here. But I doubt it. The Big Computer ain’t gonna allow anybody here to do that. It would make things impossible to manage. Some things, I think, are reserved for the gods.”
There was no way to answer that, given what they now knew and understood about the place. They’d been walled off from the world too long, while being too preoccupied with dealing with their own problem of separate personalities within the same body.
Instead of eventually merging into one combined new personality, Ari and Ming had grown more distinct, and each was more comfortable when in control. Since taking the left half of the body one way didn’t work if the right half was trying to go the other way, some compromise had been worked out. The fact was, everyone usually operated on automatic, a right/left consensus. For them, during any pause by one, the other assumed control if they wanted to do something or had something to say. Relax, and the other would reassert control. In a few cases, particularly arguments, it could get bizarrely comical, but for the most part it seemed to work.
After a lot of initial struggles for privacy, both had grown so used to the situation that they had relaxed their control and opposition when nothing was happening—which, during all this time, was a long part of their days. It had been facilitated by psychotherapy drugs administered in the hope that it would result in a third combined personality that was stable. It hadn’t done that, but it had opened Ari’s mind, his experiences, memories, personality, and outlook to Ming’s, all the way back to childhood, and it had opened her to him. In both cases it was a shock and a revelation. First to fall had been the “grass is greener” outlook by the sexes, as he discovered what it was like to be raised female and she discovered that it wasn’t easy to be raised male, either—just different. She found it a shock to see herself as a sexy and supercompetent intellectual woman she’d never met but would have liked to be, and he was disappointed to discover that she’d thought he was a pretty good one-night stand but no big deal.
Their cultural backgrounds could not be more different, but their resultant likes, dislikes, and general adult outlooks were surprisingly close. Still, the one basic factor that continued to create friction was his shaky moral compass and her strong sense of right and wrong. Where she saw most things as absolutes, he saw only compromises.
But they were becoming lovers now, in an odd sort of way, simply because each could fully comprehend the other’s views and their different take on things. The sincerity of his guilt and remorse at what had happened was beyond doubt and made things much easier.
There were, however, gaps in both their memories. Not big things, but a ton of little things, things they should know, should remember about their growing up and past careers. For example, she could not visualize her mother. She could think of a hundred things they’d done together and recall how she felt, but there was no face, no voice there. He had the knowledge of his long studies to get his accreditation as a business analyst and consultant, but he had no memory of where he’d studied to get that, nor with whom. It was weird. He could catch glimpses of places, but he didn’t have anything to hang them on.
In the end they decided that eighty to ninety percent of each of them was in that one brain. But where was the rest of them? Had it been edited? Replaced? Damaged in the process? Or was it in somebody else’s head?
They needed to know, and the authorities in Kalinda needed to know, just where these strange people would fit into the coming troubles, and deal with them early on. And thus it was that they were free, and on their way to the capital city of Kalinda, to meet the one they both only thought of as the Other.
“There is Jinkinar!” Shissik announced, pointing, and out of the gloom in front of them was a startling vision, all color and heat and straight lines. It was a vast fairyland of a city with spires reaching high into the darkness above, and it throbbed with life. It made Mahakor look like a tiny provincial suburb; this was one hell of a metropolis.
The “train” came in high over much of the city, yet still below some of the tallest buildings, and then descended near the city center, toward what had to be the capital building, from its grandiose and excessive design and waste of space. A long platform about three stories above street level jutted out from a building and provided a landing zone. Riders could exit either way and directly into the water to their right, but if you had a lot of luggage or wanted to form a group, the platform was handy.
Living in a deep, dark environment where the sun never shined had created a round-the-clock urban culture. Cities never closed; shifts changed, usually staggered to keep people from literally clogging things up, but they were always around. It made for high productivity, and a great deal was manufactured in Kalinda both for domestic use and, most particularly, for export to other high-tech hexes and even lower-level technologies whose limitations prevented them from producing certain goods themselves. Once, in ancient history, only rich people could afford pins because each had to be made or machined by hand; an automated high-tech pin-making plant could make billions per day, and even nontech societies could use pins.
There were countless such products that an industrial society could make and trade, and if a nontech hex could not make the factories run, well, it had some resources, be they agricultural products, raw minerals, art of all sorts, that were of use to high-tech hexes that had fouled their own agricultural land and mined every last mineral from their soil. Although they were omnivores, there was simply no way that Kalinda could feed itself, not now. But trawlers could bring in vast quantities of fish and shellfish, well-packed and stored sea grains and undersea plant delicacies, and lower them down into the deeps. Meanwhile, other ships, with orders from a hundred different hexes, would dock and load large containers of manufactured products at the island docks above.
It was now taken for granted that most Kalindans did not see the irony of trawlers carrying fish to the sea.
It also made them incredibly vulnerable, both Ari and Ming realized.
“If anybody got control of surface shipping, you’d be starved into submission in a matter of weeks,” Ari commented.
“Oh, we have vast reserves in great freezers and in specially sealed containers,” Shissik responded, “and no one is ever truly isolated here because of the Zone Gate, but you are right. Eventually, if someone could drive all the shipping away, they would own us. Once the reserves were depleted, you could not bring enough in through Zone per day to feed all of these people, and if our topside power plants were also blown, well, yes, I see what you mean.” He clearly didn’t like the idea, but it reminded him why Kalinda wanted them at the conference.
“We will check in at the Interior Ministry and get our papers and permits in order, then you will find lodging over there in the government employees’ hostel.”
“What about you? Where will you stay?”
Shissik seemed surprised. “In my own flat, I hope. I live here.”
The permits and papers took some time to complete, and they went into the ministry restaurant to get dinner. Little was actually cooked in Kalinda, but chefs combined various plant and animal products into a huge variety of meals that tasted unique, most pressed together tightly so they formed a kind of eat-all sandwich, or served in bowls in very thick paste. Nothing much floated away if you ate politely. These were almost always accompanied by a hard-pressed, pillow-shaped cake of sea oats bound in some kind of fatty stock that gave it a soylike flavor.
Once settled in, Shissik accompanied them to their room on a middle floor with an entryway facing the capitol building and the park in front with the huge illuminated oval with a diamond design inside which was the symbol, the “flag,” of Kalinda.
“Our appointments and true work will not start until two shifts from now, about 1800 hours,” Shissik told them. “I plan to go home, check all my messages and my mail, then get some sleep. I realize that you haven’t been on your own much, and this city is not a good place to start. All of the elements, bad as well as good, in any major city anywhere are present here, and you do not know the boundaries us natives take for granted. You were long ago implanted with a broadcast locator chip, so we’ll know where you are. Please stay within a few blocks of the capitol building there, and refrain from roaming the street level areas or below, where the most dangerous element hangs out. I shall be here to pick you up by 1700. Any questions?”
They both tried to talk at once, which usually meant they twitched a lot until one of them gave way. This time it was Ming who won out. “Yes—how can we see or do much of anything without any cash or credit line? We have nothing for even minor incidentals.”
Shissik wasn’t fooled. “Without those things, it won’t be very tempting to roam too far and go into places you shouldn’t. Your credit is good at the hostel restaurant and you have this room. That should be sufficient for the basics. Good day.”
And with that he swam out and away.
Now what? Ming asked.
Can’t do much without money, and you’re Madame Morality so there s not much chance of finding any. Not much we can do but wander around the grounds over there and mope.
Ming thought a moment. I’m also known to be resourceful. What have we got in the luggage?
He went over to the lone backpack and undid the latches.
You should know. You and I packed it. Not much. They don’t exactly give diamond rings to wards of the state.
We’ve got the watch on our arm, she pointed out. Good, solid military issue. And, what the hell, there’s the backpack itself. Won’t net us much, but it might give us a little admission money.
He did not follow her for a moment, then saw what she meant. Of course! Any city this big just has to have pawnshops! Why didn’t I think of that?
Because you’re a rich nephew of a really rich scumbag monster and you have spent time auditing pawnshops but never been in a position to need one. You’ve read my past out of my mind. You should know I didn’t start out undercover on the organized mob task force!
The fact was, he hadn’t paid much attention to the details of those early assignments, just that she’d done them. It occurred to him that he ought to take another look sometime and see what he’d missed. Okay, okay. For this little bit, I’m gonna yield to experience. Go ahead and take control and get us out of here.
Sure hope they have public clocks, though. Without the watch, we’re never going to know what time it is . . .
They went down to the hostel lounge on the second floor, where low-level bureaucrats were floating around, reading the papers or magazines or involved in low-level conversations. One particularly scruffy type who was leaning on the rail and watching the city pass by seemed a likely source.
“A securities broker?” he said in answer to Ming’s question. “Yes, bottom level, two blocks down. Follow the red number two line north. A bit tight on the expenses, eh?”
“A bit,” Ming admitted. “Thank you.”
She swam out and saw the red routing line below with the symbol for 2 and hung a left, descending down to the first level.
For a race with a strong sense of magnetic force, all directions were given in compass points, even though there were effectively no true magnetic poles. Somehow, you just knew which way was which.
We’ve already disobeyed our keeper by coming down here, Ari noted playfully. Do you think Big Mother’s board is going off and they’re sending out the cops for us now?
I doubt it. If they’re typical, then they have hundreds, maybe thousands, of stakeouts on computer monitoring systems, and going down to the street and two blocks away isn’t likely to cause any alarms. Trust me.
I have to, he responded. It’s not like I can strike out on my own. Besides, you never lie to me.
The “securities broker” was little more than a stall on a back alley. They couldn’t read the signs, and the symbols here were so different they weren’t obvious, but this kind of shop had a universal look and feel to it. The proprietor was a small, slight woman who seemed more well-worn and threadbare than the fellow back at the hostel, and also very pregnant. From the several kids swimming around in and through the stock in the back, it was clearly the other thing she did well.
“These watches aren’t nothin’ to write home about. Hell to move, too,” the pawnbroker commented. “I mean, they’re regular government issue. Best I can do is ten. The backpack, though, is in great condition. Swear it was brand new. That I can take for, oh, six. Total of sixteen credits.”
“Are you trying to steal us blind?” Ming fumed. “Sixteen for both of these!”
The pawnbroker looked around. “Us? You a cop or some-thin’? Licensing Bureau, like that? I ain’t in no trouble.”
“No, but I’m sorry I’m not,” Ming replied, correcting herself. It was too complicated to try to explain, and she didn’t want to start a conversation, only get some cash. “That is robbing someone in need.”
“Yeah? Well, I got needs, too, y’know. You don’t come back, I got to sell them things for a profit. Sixteen, take it or leave it.”
She took it, of course, even though it was hardly enough to matter. It was sixteen credits more than they had before.
As they were leaving the broker commented, “Too bad you’re goin’ fem, doll. You got somethin’ to sell on the street here stayin’ as you are.”
She was startled. “I am?” But she left without waiting for the response.
Think it’s true?
Ari didn’t know. I think she was just reacting to you, that’s all. Still, you keep being the driver and it’ll happen.
Why shouldn’t it? Might be interesting anyway. Doesn’t carry the baggage here it might back home, not when anybody can switch.
But I don’t want to change! At least not now! I’ve never been a guy before!
Well, whatever happens, happens. I’d rather stay a guy, too, for the record. There are fewer men than women here ’cause the population’s a hair low, I guess. Of course, maybe not. She sure seemed to be doing her part for getting everything back in balance.
Yeah, she did, didn’t she? Well, I hope we don’t have to market ourselves anytime soon.
Um, yeah, he responded, uncomfortable at the idea. So what do you want to blow this lavish fortune on?
Who knows what it will or won’t buy? Not much, but let’s see!
As it turned out, it bought a couple of feel-good patches, the Kalindan equivalent of social drinking, which induced a mild but manageable high for a time, and admission to a couple of low-life theaters that gave them both a bit of an education in underwater sex and titillation. There were things you could do here that would require a million credits plus to simulate back in the Realm, not counting the zero gravity chamber or flight to attain it.
That was what this boiled down to, though. A life where gravity was something you counted on for water density but not something that restricted you. A kind of zero gravity floating lifestyle.
By the time they got back to the hostel and collapsed, they were flat broke again and dead tired as well. Someone, however, a complete stranger, was waiting for them when they arrived.
“Who the hell are you?” Ari demanded.
“My name isn’t important,” the stranger, a female with expensive jewelry responded. “I just need to pass along a few things to you.”
“You know who I am?”
She nodded. “I know who both of you are. I hope you didn’t have too much fun in the dives. There’s a rampant parasite that’s transmitted sexually and which reproduces by making you reproduce, whether you want to or not. Hard to detect, harder to kill off.”
“We didn’t. Not with the money we had.”
She chuckled. “Well, you’re also fortunate you didn’t get seduced by one of them. That happens, too. Seductions and rapes. Ugly business.” She sighed. “Well, enough of that. Tomorrow you’ll be going into Government Center and they’ll fill you full of confident lies and invite you along on their big meeting in Zone next week. They’ll keep you on a tight leash like with the money, only this time you’ll not have a translator, so you’ll be able to speak to everybody and be understood, but you’ll understand nothing not directed at you. You’ll hear the speeches and listen to the proposals and realize that these idiots don’t know the first thing about wars, revolutions, and mass violence. The geography of the hexes has always prevented anything really major. Oh, a hex here and there went to war, but even then it was usually quick and dirty. Most of them, including this one, are ripe for easy plunder. They won’t even have to fire a shot to take and hold Kalinda, at least not within the boundaries. It’s already begun, and the fools don’t even realize it. You might, if you had things to compare, but even though it’s staring them in the face, they won’t see it until it is too late.”
“I see. And where do you come in?”
“I represent—pragmatists. Families of means who know that the only way to protect the nation is not to fight. There are far more of us than anyone knows, in all positions of power.”
“And when the magic moment comes and we are invaded, you make sure that they aren’t opposed?”
“Essentially, yes.”
“So why are you telling us this? And why are you here at all?”
“Because you are going to that conference and I am not. Some of us will be there, but not a decisive number. You come from the same place in the universe as those now waging war. You are from a more violent race and can cope with a violent universe. You understand what is coming. These fools do not. All we are asking is that you think of reality when various proposals are bandied about, and that you also think of your own long-term futures.”
“Yes? Meaning what?”
“Ari, your uncle was one not unlike the Empress. Even more impressive, since she had been born to wealth and power, and your uncle came up from a very low level. You functioned well in your uncle’s empire, you could function well here. You have skills that are unique here, and you do not have to learn how to deal with different races and cultures. Ming, you would have more of a problem with this, I know, but consider what they did to you back where you came from. Consider how fragile your existence was when it hit true power, and how death is not necessarily an option in such cases. All we are saying is that there is a place for you in the coming order. Just do not cause us additional pain and expense reaching the inevitable goal. That’s all you have to do. Just observe.”
“Maybe not,” Ari responded. “Maybe it is hopeless. Still, you’re as naive as those politicians and military leaders you say are deluding each other and themselves. Josich destroyed whole planets. Billions of people. Total, complete genocide. And he did it without any second thoughts at all. If Kalinda isn’t a good slave labor state, and it really isn’t— too educated, too spoiled by technology, and requiring massive imports of food—then it’s a liability. Josich simply erases liabilities and goes on. He’ll erase us, and you, too.”
“The alternative is also certain genocide. You will see. Just think about it. That’s all.”
And with that, and before they could do anything else, she flipped her tail and shot out of the doorway. They followed, looking around, but she was already lost in the city.
Wow! What do you think that was really all about? Ming asked him.
I’m not sure. It may have been the real thing, or it may have been a warning. In either case, somebody’s a little scared of us. I wonder why?
They’re not too scared, she responded. They didn’t just plant a bomb in here and blow us to even more pieces than we’re already in.
Yeah, he agreed. On the other hand, that’s an option they can exercise pretty much anytime they think they really need it, isn ‘t it?
Inspector Shissik arrived at his appointed time to find them fast asleep. He woke them, and Ming, who always was a light sleeper, sat up with a start and then relaxed when she saw him. This sort of thing happened sometimes. One would still be asleep, the other awake. It was the only private existence they had left.
Shissik held up two objects. The backpack he tossed over to one side; the watch he held out to her. “You may well need these.”
She didn’t feel the least bit embarrassed, putting on the watch and checking it. “How much did she soak you for them?”
“She tried to gouge, but I got them back for probably the pittance you were paid. Twenty-five credits total.”
She gave a sour laugh. “Why that little crook!” Then she remembered what he had to know first of all. “We had a visitor last night . . .”
As precisely as she could, she recounted the conversation and gave as good a description as she could manage.
“Well, the jewelry sounds upper class but not to the point where hundreds of wealthy women don’t have similar,” he noted when she’d finished. “The physical description could fit half the population. Still, it doesn’t surprise me. It only surprises me that they would be this bold right here, in this very room, across from the seat of government. I would have expected them to accost you on the street or in one of those clubs. Much easier to control.”
“C’mon, Inspector! I’m—I was a cop, too. I know you have people in those clubs spotting for the tourists. Otherwise any government courier in from out of town would be fresh meat. This is the perfect place, particularly if you know it isn’t bugged or you know where the bugs are and how to defeat them, which I assume is the case here.”
“Well, it’s not attended, but there were no flags on the recording, at least none that anybody reported to me,” he admitted.
“See? Blank out the record, get in before we do, get out quickly, and that’s that. The point is, was she correct? Is this place really indefensible?”
“I would hate to think so,” he told her honestly. “However, events so far have shown a remarkable lack of ability to defend against things in other hexes. We shall see, I suppose.”
“What do you think she meant by saying we’d be taken without a shot being fired, and we’d see it now if we weren’t so new to normal society?”
“I don’t know the answer to that, either. Perhaps it is just empty threats, but . . .”
“Well, let’s think of it while we have breakfast. Ari, it seems, is still nicely asleep inside, and I have a liking for pabas entrails, and if I eat them when he’s awake, I suffer . . .” He shrugged, and they went out and floated down to the restaurant level. She got her favorite dish, he got some seasoned sea grain cakes, and they started to eat as Ari began to stir. She wolfed down the dish before he got clear of who, what, and where, but not quite fast enough.
Ugh! Yuk! You aren ‘t putting those things into my stomach, are you?
It’s my stomach, too, and I can feed it what I want. If you don’t like it, next time you wake up early. Aloud she said, “Ari’s here.”
Too late to stop it and too full to top it off with something he liked and she detested, he settled for coming to the fore. “So, Inspector, you have a group of traitors at high levels. Are you going to root them out?”
“We know some of them,” he told them. “The rest—well, it’s a secret organization but they’re almost all amateurs. I found it interesting that she said that most of the delegation wasn’t their people. It’s an interesting revelation. There’s only a dozen going—the rest will be commuting back and forth from here via the Gate. Not a lot of room in Zone when thousands will be there representing all the races, since only the border areas of Zone are really useful. We’ll be looking closely at any of them. A couple are undergoing personal changes, so it’s hard to tell the physical from the treason sometimes.”
“Really?” This was interesting. “What sort of changes?”
“Well, the two members of the Cabinet who were both male and still young enough to bear kids are undergoing changes to the feminine. That’s not usually the case unless there’s already been a big loss of life, or it’s so stressful that the fear can be cut with a knife. That level’s not here, but it’s going on. A couple of the older guys, including the Premier, who are by far too old for that sort of change, have been seeing medical counselors lately, and all for the same reason. Impotence.”
That got both their attentions, and they were suddenly of one mind.
“Inspector—am I turning—’fem,’ as the broker called it? Physically?”
“I can see some of the signs, but it’s hard to tell with Ming in there, too. I suspect nobody mistook her for a man when she was herself. Still, I could point to areas and say that, yes, it might be the early stages. I’ve had that myself, though; I’ve got early signs now. I’ve had it before. Sometimes it reverses, sometimes it happens. You never know.”
“Inspector, do a very quick research project,” they told him. “Call your office, ask them for current statistics on male-female changes, how many people have reported these changes, how many were female to male as well as male to female, how many older men are being treated for impotence or loss of desire, that sort of thing. I’m sure it can be done without breaking the bank or taking people forever to compile. You have basic computers. I think you may have a bigger problem than it seems.”
Shissik wasn’t sure if they were crazy or not, but they seemed so single-minded that he phoned in the assignment to the Data Section and was told they could probably have raw data in a couple of hours. He told them to go ahead and call him back with the data.
Now they floated out and across the broad plaza to Government Center, a series of not terribly high buildings that were totally artificial but had been built to resemble a grandiose coral reef. There were no living coral reefs in Kalinda; the water temperature was too cold and the shallows too few.
It was, however, not solid, but a series of buildings all blended together, giving a melted appearance; inside, it was quite busy although not terribly crowded.
They were escorted to a large office with real, huge fancy doors—a sign of status—and when the doors opened, they were almost sucked into a vast and opulent office. A huge shield with the oval and diamond was mounted on the back wall, and in front was a massive desk with very little on it, the mark of a Very Important Politician.
He was markedly older than most Kalindans they’d met, save a few seen in the alleys and clubs the previous evening, but he was immaculate right down to his professional smile. “Come in, come in! I am Ju Kwentza, Minister of the Interior. Inspector—please. Over there. I want to speak to this remarkable citizen—er, citizens, I suppose.”
And talk he did, although he did a little listening. Both of them wondered if he had impotence and loss of desire. Probably, but he was the one person in government who would never show up on a statistical table. The Ministry of the Interior, after all, ran the national police, both public and secret, and much of the internal security apparatus as well.
Finally he finished, they said a few more pleasantries, and he pushed a buzzer that brought in a young woman with a bunch of passes hung around her neck.
“Mellik, here, will give you passes. Then I think you should meet with the other from your region. We are most curious to see what effect it will have on her. So far not even drug therapy has been able to bring out very much. She’s rather passive, and not faking, I can assure you of that. We hope that perhaps getting you two, or three, or whatever, together might bring out something locked away.”
Ari put on the pass, as did Shissik, and they followed Mellik down a series of tubular corridors, through a number of security checkpoints—the guards, at least, seemed very military, and their weapons looked formidable—to a room with a lot of amenities but no particular view. A young female was inside, wearing an elaborate headset, and she seemed off in a world of her own.
“What is that she is using?” Ari asked Mellik.
“It is called an indoc, short for ‘indoctrinator,’ although that’s not what it’s being used for. She has been almost desperate to learn how to read Kalindan—you can see some children’s schoolbooks over there. This device can inject a great deal of rote memory material directly into the mind’s memory sectors and tie it in with the developing skill. It is generally used on those with grave reading problems or those who have been in situations where they never learned. It’s a miracle worker. But it has never, to my knowledge, been tried on someone not born and raised here.”
Originally developed for the Interior Ministry, I’d bet, for different purposes, Ming noted to Ari.
“Should we disturb her now, in mid-trance?” Ming asked Mellik, concerned about scrambling things up. A similar but much more sophisticated device, and in fact a whole family of devices, was common in the Realm and wouldn’t do harm unless you designed it to do so, but you never knew about such gadgets.
“It wouldn’t do much except truncate the lesson,” Mellik assured her. “But we’ll wait. The light is flashing on the control panel there in front of her. It’s almost done. Come.”
The program ended just as they entered, but for a moment the Other just floated there, eyes closed.
The moment Ari and Ming came close, they could feel the attraction, a sense of connection, a tie.
The Other could feel it, too, it seemed, because suddenly her eyes opened and she looked at the newcomer in front of her and gasped. “I know you,” she said, sounding somewhat confused. “Not like this, though. Like—Like …”
“Do you have any memories of us together?” Ming asked her, taking over again, this time with Ari’s agreement. “Do you remember any scenes? Any thoughts? Any names?”
The Other shook off the interrogation. It was too much too fast. “Remember—sisters,” she said. “Not sisters. Sisters who were one but not sisters. It’s—confused.”
Great! Ari said sarcastically. Looks like we got the Alpha or Beta model. No wonder she can’t remember much. Without the computer she’s nothing!
The Other gave a gasp and looked strangely at the newcomer. “There is—-someone else? How can there be you and not you? I—I do not understand.”
She heard me! Or at least sensed me! Ari exclaimed to Ming. Are you sure you want to go any further with this?
The Other looked totally confused, then reached out and grabbed their hand and held it, hard, in a firm handshake.
They both felt a connection, then an extreme shock, as if a bolt of electricity had hit them. A whole series of strange, bizarre images passed between them, back and forth, and they felt as if in a churning whirlpool, and were both too dizzy and too powerless to get out.
As soon as it happened, both observers saw the two stiffen and then seem to lapse into unconsciousness. Immediately, Mellik and Shissik rushed to them, attempting unsuccessfully to loosen the death grip and pry the two apart. Then each took one and they pulled, trying to pry them apart, but failing.
“Get a doctor down here to knock ’em out, and get some of the biggest guards you can!” Shissik snapped to Mellik. “We’ve got to break this up!”
But drugs appeared to do nothing, and it was still beyond their strength to separate them. One particularly beefy guard suggested chopping the hands off, but this was rejected as being too late to do much good.
It went on for almost three hours, but at the end the grips of each loosened on their own and both bodies floated in place, unconscious. Perhaps because of the drugs, but more likely due to shock, they didn’t wake up for a while. When they did, it was together.
For Ari and Ming, finding each other still in the same head came as a bizarre relief. They would have preferred separates, but not in the state they were in now, and not with somebody else also lurking.
What the hell was that? I feel positively drained! Ming exclaimed.
I’m not sure. For a time, I thought I was in her body, then back here, but then I got too dizzy and passed out.
They heard shouting, then Shissik rushed into the room, stopped and looked at them, even as a medic arrived to examine them.
“Who are you?” the Inspector asked.
“Ari—and Ming. Same as before. At least, I think we are. You’ll have to be the judge of that. How would we know?”
“Hmm . . . Recount my conversation with Ming about your visitor. As much detail as you can, including what breakfast was like.”
Ari did so, suitably outraged at the breakfast choice, as always.