The Fabric Of Reality (7 page)

Alesia leaped into his lap and threw her arms around his neck. “I think that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She stretched her arms out, grasping at the foggy barrier separating them. “If I could get hold of this, I’d rip it open!”

Gil chuckled humorlessly. “I’d gladly help you. If there were any way for me to slip through, I would, but I suppose I’m destined to say here and meet my fate. You know, it won’t be so bad. The Brotherhood thinks they’re battling thousands of people. Imagine the look on their faces when they finally get through and discover that one man has been holding off their best forces for more than a year.”

She wrapped her arms back around him and squeezed him tightly again. “That’s awful. I don’t even want to consider that you’ll still be there when they get through. Perhaps there is another way for you to escape. Legends speak of people entering the castle and never coming out, but they are not here. One of the village elders told me that at least some of the legends are true. This intersection of Realities that exists here could provide a logical explanation for the disappearances if there were a way to step from one to another without your machine. We should have a look around. Maybe we can spot an open junction between my Reality and yours.”

Gil cradled her in his arms and stroked her hair. “The Doorways of which I spoke were accessible only with mechanical assistance. Even then they were extremely difficult to locate. I seriously doubt anyone could accidentally step through. I searched this castle with our best detection equipment, and this Window is the only connection to your Reality that I found. On the other hand, just because there’s not an open junction from there to here, doesn’t mean there’s not one from your Reality to somewhere else. Even if I cannot escape, perhaps you could.”

She raised her nose to his neck and inhaled, but nothing of his scent penetrated into her Reality. The pressure between their bodies, shallow glimpses through the fog, and conversation were all they could share. She slipped out of his lap and gazed into his eyes. “We should search together. You insinuated that I could be causing the interference in this Window. If that’s the case, is it possible that I could also cause interference in an open junction point that would make it detectable with you device?”

“That’s an exceptionally brilliant idea. I told you our date was the most important thing in the world. Whether we find anything or not, the prospect of spending more time with a beautiful woman is very appealing, even if she is in another Reality.”

Alesia dropped her gaze to the floor. “I am not beautiful, sir, but I am a woman.”

Gil clasped her hand. “Nonsense. I saw you when the fog was clear. You’re extraordinarily beautiful on the outside. I barely know you, Alesia, but I can tell that you’re exceptionally beautiful inside.” He stood and helped her up. “Now hold tightly to my hand, and we’ll see if my Locater will allow us to maintain the connection between our Realities while we search for an open junction.”

Alesia stopped and peered into a large room with a balcony that overlooked the forest. “Gil, I imagined this to be a grand ballroom. What do you think?”

Gil glanced inside. “Yes, I suppose it could be a ballroom. I’m not detecting an open junction here.”

She tugged him into the room with her. “You’re in a ballroom with a lady. The proper thing for a gentleman to do would be to ask her to dance.”

Gil gazed wide-eyed at her. “Oh, no, I—I couldn’t.”

“Come on, Gil. It’ll be fun to dance the night away.”

“Curious. It’s only midday here.”

Alesia rolled her eyes. “And what does that matter?”

He grinned sheepishly. “It doesn’t.”

“You called me beautiful. I thought you found me pleasing.”

“I do, of course I find you pleasing, it’s just—” Gil sighed—”I never learned to dance.”

“Oh, is that all? It’s not difficult. It would be better if we had a band, but I don’t suppose music is absolutely necessary.”

“I can provide music. Let me see if I can do this with one hand.” Gil set his Junction Locater on the floor and took a small device from his belt. Loud screeching and booming accompanied by demonic-sounding vocals exploded from his device and reverberated off the walls.

Alesia winced at the overpowering sound. “Dear God, make it stop!”

Gil’s device fell silent. “Oh, sorry. I suppose you’re not a fan of ancient death metal.”

“You call that
music?
”

Gil shrugged. “It gets my blood pumping.”

“I was thinking of something slower and not so loud.”

He nodded, staring at his device. “Right. How about some classical jazz?”

She peered down at the little machine in his hand, wondering how something so tiny could produce such gut-wrenching noise. “I have no idea what that means, but if it’s less frightening, I’m willing to listen.” Alesia tightened her grip on his hand while he thumbed his device. She breathed a sigh of relief as the soothing sounds flowed over her. “Is that some sort of wind instrument?”

“Yes. It’s called a saxophone.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, soaking up mellow tune. “I believe this will do nicely. Put your other arm around my waist and come close. All you need to do is follow my lead and let the music move your feet, but be careful not to step on mine.”

Gil continued gazing at the screen on his little device. “I suppose a classical orchestral piece would be more appropriate for this ballroom setting. I wasn’t thinking. Let me see what else I can find.”

“Gil, the music is wonderful. Are you frightened to dance with me?”

Gil shrugged nervously. “I don’t want to do it improperly.”

“There’s a high probability that we’ll both be dead in a few days. What does it matter if you dance properly? This opportunity may never present itself again. All that’s important is that we enjoy this moment. Please, Gil, dance with me.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” He gripped her fingers tightly and bowed. “My lady, may I have this dance?”

Alesia curtsied and gave a single nod of her head. “It would be my pleasure, sir.”

He slipped his arm around her waist, pulled her close, and they swayed to the music. The fact that Gil didn’t know how to dance couldn’t have been less important to Alesia. She had dreamed of a moment like this for so long she could hardly believe it was happening. She was in the arms of a tall, handsome man, dancing the hours away. She had been right all along. Someone was waiting for her in the castle. Even if he wasn’t the hero she had hoped would rescue her from her miserable life, he saved her in a way. He showed her kindness and compassion and gave her at least a little taste of what it must feel like to be loved. Held there in his arms, she found contentment within her soul that she never knew she could feel.

Alesia raised her gaze to meet his and felt a tear trickle down her cheek. Gil brushed it away with his thumb.

“What’s wrong?”

She sniveled a little and cleared her throat. “How could you see that?”

“I—I’m not sure I could, it just felt like the right thing to do. Why are you crying?”

“I wish I could feel you for real, touch your skin. My God, Gil. This is so unfair. How could fate be so cruel to bring us together in this hopeless situation where we can’t even get to each other?”

“I’ve asked myself many times what I did wrong to end up in my current situation, but I have no answers. When we first discovered what this place is, everyone was so full of hope for the future. Junctions opened onto countless worlds. Some in the middle of huge cities, some in barren wastelands, others in uninhabited wilderness that was teaming with animal life. We thought we could go anywhere and start fresh. We decided that starting from scratch in the wilderness would be too difficult, but the inhabited worlds didn’t want a huge influx of refugees. It took years of contacting thousands of governments before we finally found an Earth that would take us.”

She rested her head on his chest and listened to his heart beat for a few moments. “I suppose we should quit stalling and continue our search. What should I be looking for? I’ve never seen a doorway between Realities.”

“It won’t manifest itself as a visual phenomenon. Our Window is invisible in its natural state, but if you are the cause of the interference, I should be able to pick it up on my Locater.”

Alesia spotted a room with a narrow entranceway she hadn’t noticed before. “Come on, Gil. Let’s look down here.” She tugged her hand free of his and bolted down the corridor.

“Alesia...” was all she heard.

She spun around, looking for him, but he was gone. “Gil! You can come back. I wanted you to chase me. I wouldn’t have pulled away if I had known I would lose you.” With the sun well below the horizon, the castle was very dark. She remembered that their connection between Realities had been providing light. Alesia felt her way along the walls, backtracking her steps to the corridor outside the dorm rooms, but he wasn’t there. No visible trace of the Window remained, either. She called to him for a while but got no answer. The twinge between her shoulder blades grew into a knot as the darkness amplified the profound emptiness surrounding her.

Chapter Five

A spray of sparks erupted from the Alternate-Reality Junction Locater as Alesia’s hand slipped from Gil’s grasp. The kinetic energy released by the rubber band–like snapback had been too much for the delicate instrument to handle. With any luck the fuse had protected the irreplaceable tuning circuits and the power supply had taken the brunt of the overload.
I should have told her not to let go. How could I have been so stupid?

He made his way toward the control room to disassemble the damaged instrument and see if anything could be salvaged. Violent crackles sliced the air outside the Barrier Sphere, each one ending in a deafening boom that echoed through the castle. The Brotherhood was increasing the intensity of their attacks. Apparently, they could detect the weakened state of the protective system.

If he had never met Alesia, Gil would have been tempted to surrender in order to have the opportunity to thumb his nose at them, but that was out of the question now. She was there, somewhere, in a distant Reality, waiting for him to help her escape her grievous fate. She had been in his arms, close enough to hold, but too far away to reach. He had felt her through the fabric. She was all woman, soft and sensuous, a delight to embrace, wonderful to touch. She had a smile in her voice as bright as day and warmth in her heart that thawed his frozen soul. And now that she was gone, he wished more than anything to have her in his arms again.

All the years Gil spent working on the escape project, he had followed the rules and denied himself the luxury of female companionship. The entire community taking refuge inside the fortress had done the same. Their survival depended on completing the project as quickly as possible, and things like love affairs were deemed as too much of a distraction. Amanda had been there from the start, but they kept their relationship strictly professional, waiting for the day they could be together. Amanda was gone forever. He didn’t expect to get involved with the first woman he had seen in more than a year. All he wanted was to enjoy her company and assist her with her dilemma. With so little time remaining before his impending death, he needed the distraction.

Alesia had all but given up hope of finding a solution to her problem that didn’t end in suicide. She needed someone to offer her encouragement, help her to see her own self-worth, and assist with devising alternatives she hadn’t considered. Even if he couldn’t get her off her world, there had to be something he could do to help her save herself. Despite the madness of her situation, for the brief time they were together, he found her attitude positive, like hope was still alive in her deep down somewhere. Suddenly losing contact with him could have robbed her of that hope. At any rate, he needed to reestablish communications with her quickly before she did anything drastic. Another violent boom reverberated through the castle.

Gil flopped down onto a stool at his workbench and began the process of removing the instrument’s cover. The large display with a graphical representation of the Barrier Sphere sat where he could see it as he worked. A particularly hard hit warped the energy shield severely and allowed a minute amount of charged particles to penetrate. Static electricity danced across the panel of the surviving electrical grid circuit box.
If you burn, it’s all over.
Gil hurried to the control station and tweaked the settings to shore up the weak spot.

Eventually a shot would penetrate, the protective system would go down, and that would be that. During the time he had spent with Alesia, hundreds of Emitters had weakened considerably and begun to lose their ability to maintain focus. Too many of them needed replacing for one man to accomplish the task. All he could do was swap out the weakest to buy a little more time.

Gil hurried out to the Barrier Emitter Housing Facility. The situation looked far worse in person than it did on the computer graphical display. Black and blue smoke from burned-out components poured out of the heat exhaust vents running along the top of the walls. Heavy weapon fire continued to pummel the protective energy shield. It was all over now. Penetration of the Barrier Sphere was imminent. With little more than brute force and dumb luck, the Brotherhood had won. Gil worked as quickly as possible, changing the most critical components and ignoring the rest. With luck he could stall his impending demise long enough to say good-bye to Alesia. After everything he had been through, the universe owed him that. More importantly the universe owed that to Alesia.

He rushed back to his workbench, removed the last of the screws, and popped the cover off his instrument. Every component on every circuit board was charred to a crisp. There was nothing left to repair. The universe had thumbed its nose at him, once again. Alesia was lost to him on the other side of eternity. She could be standing in the same room right beside him or even occupy the exact same spot, no physical distance from him, but he couldn’t get to her.