Unison (The Spheral) (23 page)

I got up and slapped one of the overhead handles. “I won’t be there to receive them.”

“I never go back on my word.”

“How self-righteous of you,
Master Tyrus
. Should I bow and thank you for imparting your wisdom on my lost soul?”

Tyrus shot up and rammed me against the door. “The time has come to wake up and leave this asylum. If you’re serious about penance, you’ll help.”

“I’m in no condition to help anyone.” I laughed. “I’m out of my slocking mind, and I have no desire to reenter.”

“You’re going to help. Even if I have to drag your slocking ass out of this tunnel myself. Talking to ghosts will only destroy you.”

Tyrus threw me to the ground and stared at his holologue. “Your first transport is in two weeks. If you don’t show up, you’ll be responsible for the three Unitians who will be sent to reintegration.” He positioned his holologue in front of my face. “These are the logistics of the meet. I suggest you download them to your—”

“You slocking purple—” I got on to my knees. “You no longer have authority over me.”

Tyrus pulled me up by my shirt. “Stop with the self-condemnation and act like the man you used to be.”

“I was never a man. Unity doesn’t breed men.”

“Then transform yourself into one because we need you.”

“I’m staying here.” I crossed my arms. “You’re going to have to find someone else to help ease your conscience.”

“How about your conscience? Does it let you sleep at night?”

“I abandoned mine long ago. Must explain why I sleep like a baby.”

Tyrus punched the side of my jaw. “I don’t believe you. I’ll beat you all day until I do.”

“No need.” I slumped down on the bench. My head ached. Everything ached because I knew I had no other way out. “I’ll be there.”

Tyrus bowed his head. “Thank you, Damon. You made the right decision.” He grabbed his head and flopped onto the bench. “I hope New Athenia’s doctors are as skilled as Unity’s.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

I helped Tyrus to his trainlet and met the other passengers who turned out to be Lidian and Holly. After a brief reunion with them, I headed back to my room and packed.

When the first light from outside shown in the tunnel, Shisa ran ahead. I kept her in the dark for so long, I thought she’d never want to see me again. I later caught up with her near a small brook and was surprised she waited for me. Shisa was more than my companion, she had become my strongest ally.

When I returned to the cabin, I had an amusing scare when I saw my reflection in the mirror. I could’ve passed for Sephroy. My hair was a long and tangled mess, and I appeared grossly underweight. After sufficient rest and a daily dose of high-protein meals, I regained my strength and weight in time to lead my first passengers across the old tunnel. I traveled with them all the way to New Athenia where I spent hours downloading Ancient books, music, and movies at the Alexandrian Repository. After watching the New Athenian Orchestra perform, I was tempted to audition. In the end, my commitment to Tyrus won out, and I returned to the cabin. I got lost in my daily routine of chores, nature walks, sketching, and playing my violin. Life was peaceful until Shisa’s barks led me down the path where Flora lay unconscious. When she became lucid—and after I got over the shock of remembering my previous two incarnations, I knocked her out. I didn’t want a duplicate performance of our deaths.

PC 1309-119-24F

I
examined Flora’s Unity Forces Badge. The date at the bottom read: PC 1309-119-24F. Something about the date seemed important, but I had more immediate concerns. In my last incarnation, Flora was followed by someone who wanted her dead. I examined the three public holoscreens that displayed live feeds of the upper and middle ridge. All were quiet, except for a deer running towards the cover of the woods.

Flora grunted, and I picked up a plazer from the desk.

“Where am I?” she asked.

I sprasng up from my chair and waved the plazer Flora just noticed was missing from her holster.

“Damon 1300-333-1M, you’ll submit to the Corporate Hierarchy of Unity and refrain from speech until a confessor is present. All words and actions will be used against you in the court of ideals.”

“How do you plan on taking me in without this?” I spun the plazer around in my hand. “Learned this trick from you.”

“How did I get here?” she asked.

“That question is what’s keeping me from shooting you.”

Flora crinkled her forehead and swiftly reverted back to her well-rehearsed act of a Unity Guard, who’s in complete control of her emotions. She played the part well, but I wasn’t fooled.

“Your ignorance is the only thing that’s keeping you alive,” I said.

“Threatening me will only make things worse for you. You can’t escape what you did.”

“What
I
did? You were injured, and my dog led me to you. When I came back with my med kit, you thanked me by killing her and shooting me.”

“I never met you before.” Flora said.

“Which is why I have the advantage now. I can change events before they occur.” I looked up at the picture of me and Wade. “But the one thing I most want to change, I can’t because my memory returned four years too late.”

Flora’s dumbfounded expression unleashed my biggest fear.
Am I in reintegration?
I couldn’t immediately commit to an answer and that terrified me. In the midst of my momentary lapse of awareness, Flora vaulted off the couch and ran towards the door. I caught up with her and pinned her against the wall. I studied every inch of her face, her eyes, her high cheekbones, her raven hair: Flora was exactly as I remembered her.
This is really happening; I’m reliving my life
.

Flora sat tied to the chair while I played my violin. The rocking of my body as my bow glided across the strings calmed me, and I needed calming. I played a slow melody that brought me back to my conversations with Old Woman and Wade during the twelve weeks I spent in the trainlets.

“Ghost Tears.” I placed my bow on the table and put my violin in its case. “I wrote it when I believed I could talk to them.”

“Sounds beautiful.” It almost appeared that Flora was trying to hold back tears.

“I’m sure you’ve been told I was once a well-respected psychological engineer. Unity Forces’ mind-pacification tricks won’t work with me.”

“Why did you leave?”

I picked up Old Woman’s holologue. “My friend and I ended up here and met Old Woman. She told us her name, but I didn’t think it was worth remembering.” I turned to a passage and read aloud.

“Away from Unity I have no one to please but myself. I initially resisted indulging in the pleasures I found in this cabin and beyond the old tunnel. I always regarded myself in relation to Unitians, and I believed succumbing to my own interests and desires was blasphemous. However, once I distanced myself from the Sacred Oath and listened to my own voice, the truth of who I am emerged from within me and took over. Torrin was right. I’m more than a Unitian, a scientist and a woman. When the realization first struck me, I unraveled my braids and ran outside in the rain without my clothes on. I cried, laughed, and sensed so much, I didn’t think I’d be able to contain myself from this immense outpouring of joy and happiness.”

“What do you think?” I asked.

“Sounds like the ranting of someone in the late stages of the scourge.” Flora glanced at a small replica of the Parthenon displayed on one of the shelves.

“That’s the Parthenon. It overlooks New Athenia—a city far more impressive than Unity and not only because of its architecture; the Alexandrian Repository houses the history of the Ancients. Athenian Scientists and scholars continue to learn about them as Outsiders still bring items they’ve salvaged from the ruins of past civilizations.”

“Why do they do that?”

“To keep their histories alive.” I looked up a passage about New Athenia in the holologue and handed it to her, but Flora refused to take it.

“I also thought Old Woman suffered from the scourge but not my friend.” I pointed to the picture of me and Wade. “He believed Old Woman’s tales of peoples who spoke with different words. I didn’t—until I went and saw for myself. Almost everything on the shelves came from my travels to New Athenia.” I picked up the Ganesha. “Except for this piece.” I held it in front of Flora. “It was the only thing that survived after Unity Forces showed up and destroyed everything. I replaced as much as I could after—” I glanced up at the picture of Old Woman and Torrin.

“What happened to her?” Flora looked at the picture.

“Unity Forces executed her.” I returned Ganesha to the shelf. “And your fate will be the same unless we figure out who wants you dead.”

Flora struggled to free herself again. “Your confusion will only get worse if you don’t return to Unity. Only reintegration can return your clarity of mind.”

“Reintegration is used to control Unitians.”

“You can’t think clearly when you’re in the late stage of the scourge.”

“And who’s going to cure me of this disease? You?” I walked over to Flora and knelt in front of her. “Why don’t you travel with me beyond the old tunnel and confirm if what you believe about the Outsiders is true?”

“Return to Unity with me before it’s too late to save yourself.”

“Unity is the disease. Leaving is the only cure.”

“When you’re separated from Unity, you can’t recognize the calm because you’re lost in chaos.”

“You’re a robot repeating the words of those who programmed you,” I said, trying to keep my frustration from surfacing.

“Without Unity you’ll remain alone.”

“Can you speak for yourself and explain what any of that means?”

“You’re sick, and reintegration is the only cure.”

I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself. “This is going nowhere.” I untied her. “Go.” I returned to my desk. “What you’ve evolved into is too painful to observe.” Flora’s reflection in the window revealed she hadn’t moved away from the chair. “You’ve turned into everything you fought against.”

“I’m not here to fight. I’m here to help.” Flora got up and walked towards me.

I slammed my hand on my desk. “Get out of my cabin!” I turned around and pointed my finger at her. “I don’t know you.”

Flora extended her hand towards me. “I’m not going to leave you alone because you
want
to return with me. You
want
to be in a safe place with people who care about you.”

Unity Guards are trained in the art of hypnosis, and Flora was attempting it on me. Even though I was aware of what she was doing, her calm and quiet voice soothed me and made me again question whether I was being reintegrated. “I also want you to be in a safe place. That’s why I won’t leave with you. I won’t be responsible for your death.”

“I can’t leave,” Flora said. “Not without you.”

The cuckoo clock on the wall chimed, and Flora glanced at it.

“Charming, isn’t it?” I said after the tenth chime.

“If you say so,” Flora said, trying to hold back a smile.

“You could get one for yourself if you come with me to New Athenia.”

“The only place we’re going is back to Unity.”

I crossed my arms. “If you love it there so much, why did you interrupt my induction to question me about Harmony?”

“I wasn’t even near Unity Hall on that day.”

“You told me it was you.”

“I never told you anything. We only just met.”

“Are you a Striker?”

“I’m loyal to the Sacred Oath. I’d never join up with those terrorists.”

I shook my head. “You look like Flora, but you sound nothing like her.”

“Where did we meet?”

“You’re not asking because you want to know.”

“I’m trying to help you see that what you’re saying is impossible.”

“Twice at the bottom of the ridge and once at Kai’s emergence party. In my first incarnation we were together, and you hated everything Unity stood for. You tried to get me to see the truth, but I refused to listen. Now everything seems to be in reverse, and you’re the one not listening.” I laughed. “Maybe you shot me to get even for the rose I gave you.”