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  “Retroactive memory access triggered by a sleep cycle.” Arsus nodded. “Tanandor has used the technique before. Particularly when he doesn’t want a messenger to achieve full potential until he’s ready. In your case, that would be host-memory access. He must have known what host you’d end up in. I’d like to know how he does that. Tell me about the dream.”

  Lewis described the first training session and how he was taught to use the Attistar interface. Arsus was particularly interested in Valon’s comments about the transfer of the interface – how Valon had extracted it from his own mind and implanted it in Lewis while he’d been unconscious.

  “On most worlds that isn’t possible.” Arsus narrowed his eyes. “It depends on the parameters of the simulation. Tanandor can read those parameters, but we cannot. Just one of many mysteries we’d like solved. After you were taught to manipulate probability, what then?”

  “Woke up. Escaped from the shelter into the sewers. Stole a car and headed for a library for more information. By then I knew I was on a different world and in a different body, but I didn’t know how or why the world was different. I wanted a history book. That’s when I met the woman who can ‘brick’ things.”

  “Shanzea.”

  “Yeah. She scared the shit out of me, bricking poor Bobo. I used probability to arrange a car accident and knocked her out, then took off. Cops were after me when I hit the freeway. I pushed chance to take out their engines and drop their drones. Then, for no apparent reason, they pulled back.”

  “On my orders,” said Arsus. “You were running scared. I thought it best to follow you from a distance.”

  “Thanks,” Lewis said dryly. “It gave me time for a shower in Tacoma. That’s where I left the cat.”

  “The cat? You didn’t mention a cat.”

  “It was in the car I stole. Showed up in the second shelter too. The one where you attacked me and I shot that Valruun guy.”

  “The cat, Lewis. Was it the same cat? Did it do anything strange?”

  “Not sure if it was the same cat. Might have been different. It appeared out of nowhere and woke me up while your guys were outside my door.”

  Arsus narrowed his eyes. “This confirms Randuu’s suspicions. Tanandor has apparently adopted the animal domination interface.”

  “Yeah. That makes sense, but on my earth, Valon had the same power as I do. Can you guys have more than one?”

  “We can’t, no. Some of us have minor interfaces that enhance our primary interface, but even Tanandor can have only one primary. Unfortunately, his changes when he jumps. He can apparently pick them. Another secret of his.”

  “Maybe that’s his primary interface then,” suggested Lewis. “The ability to pick a different one each time he jumps.”

  “Perhaps.” Arsus shrugged, as if discounting Lewis’s guess as unimportant. “You were in the middle of your second dream when the cat woke you up. What was Tanandor training you to do? Host memories, or jumping?”

  “Host memories.” Lewis flared his nostrils and paled. “He was making me relive the worst moments of Lewis Herman’s life. Betrayal of a friend, humiliation, and… the death of his wife and child. I woke up right before the worst of it. And if I sleep…”

  “They’re only memories,” said Arsus.

  “NO! They were REAL. As if I hadn’t experienced them before. It wasn’t just reopening old wounds. In the dreams, it was the first time all over again. It’s RAW,” shouted Lewis. “Imagine the worst pain you’ve ever felt, and imagine not expecting it. Not knowing it was coming. That’s what it was like. I’d rather cut my heart out and eat it. I KNOW what’s coming, but in the dreams, I knew nothing. It happens again!”

  “They’re only memories,” repeated Arsus. “They’ll hurt you, yes. But when it’s over, you’ll return to normal. He’s training you. Showing you how to navigate.”

  “You don’t get it. I wanted to DIE when Brenda was... I won’t go through that again.”

  “No. You won’t. You’ll wake up. You’ll realize it’s over. The memories will fade. The passage of time will flood in, and the surcease of distance will return. All you need do is pass through it. This is a pain we all know. Those who do not learn… they became lost. They jump, but they become merged with their hosts, confused and scrambled, they drift like motes through the ring, taking on one personality after another. Nastarii, we call them, the fused-ones, the lost. They are dangerous, still in possession of their interfaces, but not understanding who they are or what. Sometimes they’re insane, or they believe they’ve lived past lives, been possessed by demons, abducted by aliens. They often seek understanding through religion and superstitions, but they have lost the fundamental truth.”

  “What TRUTH!?”

  “That they are escaped prisoners still held within a system that was not designed to encompass their mentalities. That there is something more.”

  “More…” Lewis scoffed and shook his head. “I don’t want that. All I want… all Lewis wants is to find a world like his own where he died instead of his wife and child. Then he can take up his life where it left off.”

  Arsus threw back his head, laughing loudly. “You want the illusion! Yes! You’d rather live as one of them.” He gestured to the door. “But they’re not real, Lewis. They’re artificial, part of someone else’s story. So were you, until Tanandor gave you the truth. Now that you’ve jumped, you’re free. You can make your own decisions. You don’t have a destiny anymore. Can you understand that?”

  “A story written by the characters,” muttered Lewis. “Valon asked me that question – asked me if I’d ever heard of such a story. Is this what he meant?”

  “YES!” Arsus beamed. “From what we can tell, each simulation starts with the creation of a universe. It evolves based on the quantum parameters encoded prior to the initiation of the starting sequence. Everything that happens from that point forward follows precisely and predictably. The only way to change it is to inject that change from outside. For you, that change was Tanandor. He altered the future you would have lived on your world. And now that you’re here, you’re altering the future of this one. That’s why the system takes measures if we change too much.”

  Arsus rubbed the tears from his eyes from laughing. “It’s been a long time since I talked with a new jumper who wanted the illusion. If you want to be Nastarii, that’s your choice.” He shrugged. “But first, we need to know how you jumped, what the circumstances were, if Tanandor was with you, and where he went.”

  “I don’t remember that.”

  “That’s because he’s suppressed it.” Arsus moved his jaw. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t get it out. Mind control technology is primitive here, but it exists. With the right stimulation and drugs, I’m certain we can get you in the proper state.”

  Lewis blinked. “Now hold on.” No one was drugging him and putting him in any state. He was already IN a fricken state. “I’m not opposed to helping you, but you can forget about any mind control bullshit.”

  “You don’t understand.” Arsus shrugged. “I’m offering you a way out. You’re going to sleep eventually. We can wait until you’ve had your dream, or we can try and extract it while you’re still conscious. And if you’re conscious while viewing the dream, you’ll know what to expect. It won’t be the ‘first time’ as you put it. You’ll have your awareness as a buffer.”

  “How is that possible? It’s a dream.”

  “Yes. And you can view a dream from outside, or you can be in it. It’s the difference between watching a movie and acting in one. Can you understand that analogy?”

  Lewis stared at the wall, thinking. A knock sounded at the door and it opened a crack. A young nurse stuck her head in, holding a tray. “Anyone in here hungry?” she asked with an overly cheery grin. “I’ve got pudding and ice cream!”

  Arsus rose. “Think on it,” he told Lewis. “I’ll make the preparations in case you change your mind.”

  The nurse’s smile faltered. “Oh! Hell
o Deputy Director. I didn’t know you were in here. Should I come back later?” Grin restored, she tilted her head.

  Arsus made his way past her. “No. I’m certain Mr. Garibaldi is famished.”

  Assessment

  The engineers had left the rock-hewn walls of the chamber uncovered and unfinished resulting in a primitive feel, more like a cave than a meeting room. Raw stone marred with the marks of drilling machines ringed the chamber, while the floor was a highly polished black granite, nearly reflective. Cables and conduits ran over the ceiling, pumping air and channeling power. The round meeting table sat center-stage, also a glassy black to match the floor. Several cameras and television screens hung from the ceiling. Randuu’s face appeared on one, a digitized line-drawing of a woman with knit brows and pinched lips. As she spoke, her words came from the speakers.

  “I’ve located Senjiita, but there’s a problem.”

  “Is always problem with Senjiita,” grumbled Beloris. At the table, he nursed a glass of vodka on the rocks and leaned back in a plastic chair reminiscent of the style used on the orbital stations.

  “Senjiita isn’t the problem,” emphasized Randuu. “It’s Heticus. He can’t see simulant priority like Senjiita. I can only guess how many Reqs and Perts he’s slaughtered, and the Attistar is reacting. Recalibration in Riom France has started.”

  Arsus stood facing away from them. With his hands clasped behind his back he watched the green text scrolling across an update screen. “Is Heticus still alive?” he asked. “Or has he been deleted?”

  “I don’t know. I last sensed his API some six hours ago. If he’s smart, he’s gone underground. I can see Riom on satellite imagery. It’s an impressive rollback. I’ve only ever seen this when a Kron is present.”

  “Mphf,” growled Beloris. He sipped his drink. “Let us then hope that our subtlety has bought us neglect.” He looked at Arsus. “Never should have asked Heticus to join us.” He pounded his index finger into the table. “Ignorant bastard thinks he is God!”

  “Heticus is useful,” said Arsus. He turned around slowly. “If we knew the parameters of this simulation, it wouldn’t be an issue.”

  “But we don’t,” replied Beloris. “And it is.”

  “Taking a deep breath, Arsus looked up. “Tanandor’s cornered. I’m not backing off. That’s what he wants. He wouldn’t have sent Lewis Herman to kill Valruun if he weren’t trapped. We need to keep Valruun alive and continue the pressure. Randuu, when will the X-423 get here?”

  “In about an hour,” she said from the display system.

  “And how soon will Perillia be here?”

  “About two hours. Arsus, Valruun may require a Hemicorporectomy to keep him alive. Will you put him through that?”

  “Yes.” Arsus raised an eyebrow. “Valruun’s been through worse. He’ll survive. He’s one of our strongest.”

  “Our strongest what?” snapped Randuu. “Arsus, you seem to forget, we’re not some crack military team or one of your NSA ghost squads, we’re real. Yes, Valruun wants Tanandor, but does he want him as much as you do? How much pain is he going to put up with, Arsus?”

  “It’s only temporary.”

  Randuu’s digitized eyes dropped to half-mast in disgust. “Temporary now. A Hemicorporectomy means they’re going to remove the lower half of his host body. You’re asking him to stay alive through that. He’ll be a cripple until he can jump, and we agreed that we’d ALL be there when Tanandor was captured. Valruun deserves that more than any of us.”

  “Argument is not about Valruun!” Beloris pounded his fist on the table for attention. “What if recalibration spreads? What if there is Kron here? Entire simulation might reset back to our arrival. All jumpers evicted from hosts. We don’t know afterlife parameters. Could be permanent storage.” He jabbed a finger at Arsus. “You play game of chicken with Tanandor. Jumping now is only way to be safe.”

  “He’s right,” agreed Randuu. “We’re taking a big chance.”

  Arsus shook his head incredulously. “Give up?” Moving his eyes from Beloris to Randuu’s screen he stared angrily. “A hundred thousand years and dozens of attempts. We have him trapped. We may never get this close again.”

  “For sure we never get chance again if we are deleted.” Beloris stood up and met Arsus on the same level. “Tanandor picks battles. Knows rules. Maybe we finally piss him off enough, yes?”

  Arsus threw his hands in the air. “Contact the others, Randuu. See how they feel. But until the recalibration spreads, we proceed as planned.” Arsus stared Beloris in the face. “Can we agree on that, at least?”

  Beloris snorted and reluctantly answered. “Da.” Taking his glass he headed for the stainless steel bar. “I will wait until others agree to leave. What is plan now?”

  Arsus rubbed his chin. “We need to know how Tanandor jumped. Lewis Herman may have been sent to assassinate Valruun, but that could also be a ruse. And since when has Tanandor ever blessed a jumper with the probability interface? He intends to use Lewis for something. And he probably selected Michael Garibaldi as his host. Tanandor can detect the jump-timers across simulations. We have to assume he knows the conduits are on callback. And we know he’s got a map of the conduits that normally jump out of this simulation. Given the situation, what is your assessment, Randuu?”

  “It sounds like he’s jumped into the Attistar’s registry buffer and formed a link with Lewis,” she replied. “He’s probably using Lewis as a proxy to exercise the animal domination API. If Lewis had force-jumped Valruun, it may have disrupted the conduit call-backs before Valruun respawned. Even if that didn’t happen, Valruun would respawn in a new host on a reset jump-timer and Tanandor could then try to kill him again, this time permanently. Regardless of what he does, Tanandor can’t jump from here unless he kills Valruun.”

  “Nyet. I do not agree.” Dropping several ice cubes into his glass, Beloris picked up a bottle of expensive vodka and gestured to Randuu’s monitor. “There is other way. Tanandor picks new interface each jump. If he respawns with conduit interface, then he unbends conduits himself.”

  “But then he’d be on a reset jump-timer as well,” observed Arsus. “We’d have three days to capture him, and the conduit interface doesn’t provide any kind of defense. He’d hide from us. I wonder why he didn’t take the conduit interface in the first place instead of animal domination?”

  “Because Valruun was conscious,” explained Randuu. “If Tanandor had started with the conduit API, he would have had to fight Valruun to reset the jump conduits. And he would have been working through a proxy, so he sent Lewis to take out Valruun first.”

  “Da,” agreed Beloris. “Heticus part of Tanandor plan too. Tanandor knew Heticus would kill Requireds and Pertinants. If Heticus triggers recalibration, Tanandor is safe in registry. Recalibration cleans up mess for him and he jumps after. If Valruun jumps, Tanandor jumps. If Valruun unconscious, Tanandor take conduit API and hide until jump-timer expires.” Beloris shrugged. “Either way, Tanandor leaves us in dirt. Best case for him, we all get deleted. Worst case, we jump after him into unknown simulation.”

  Arsus clenched his jaw. “Unfortunate, but true. To win, we must gamble on the Attistar limiting recalibration to Riom. If we assume that to be the case, then we need to look at Valruun’s condition. If Valruun stays in the same host, then Tanandor must take the conduit interface. If Lewis Herman is his proxy, then he won’t need to take a host, he’ll stay in the registry and manipulate the conduits through Lewis.”

  “Following that logic,” said Randuu, “we must break the connection between Tanandor and Lewis, and that’s a system-level connection we can’t detect. The only option left to us is to force-jump Lewis. We’ll have to kill him.”

  “No.” A tiny smile curled in the corner of Arsus’s mouth. “No… not yet. There’s one interface that can inject system instructions, and we now have access to it. Plus, I’m not so sure Tanandor will have anticipated our using it.”

  Beloris seemed puz
zled for a moment, then leaned his head back and laughed. “Is genius, Arsus. Da! Tanandor give us his weapon. We use it against him.”

  Randuu understood instantly, but wasn’t as pleased as Beloris. “This may be an exceptionally bad idea. Altering the odds of events inside the system is different than altering the actions of the Attistar controlling it, and Lewis is a child. Even if it works, he’ll be instructing the system to change its own parameters, and then giving it deterministic control over how it executes those commands.”

  The big Russian raised his drink toward Randuu’s monitor. “Better gamble than sitting on asses waiting for recalibration. Is sneaky, Randuu.” He turned to Arsus. “You think Attistar will purge registry for Lewis?”

  Arsus inhaled deeply. “I don’t know. But if it does, we’re going to need Senjiita to find Tanandor’s new host. Where did you say he was, Randuu?”

  “I didn’t, but he’s in China, deep in a remote farming region occupied by the Japanese Empire, and we’ve got no assets available to help with his extraction.”

  Arsus took a seat. “Bring up the maps of China, Randuu, and tell the others to begin operation Sky Ladder. It’s time.”

  Paranoid

  The muscular patient in the hospital gown went entirely unnoticed by the hospital staff when he left his room and entered the hallway. Most looked the other way. Those that did notice thought nothing unusual of a patient walking the halls. That, or they were immediately distracted by something more important. Lewis vanished into the locker room, returning some time later wearing the starched white uniform of Doctor Richard Sanchez. It fit him tightly, but not so much as to draw attention.

  Doctor Sanchez had recently retired, but had been kept on retainer for reserve purposes, and his credentials were listed as valid and active in Area 88’s computer system. He was also an Air Force Colonel, and maintained a current top-secret clearance giving him full access to the facility’s biology labs.