Interphase (17 page)

"Module?"

"Yes, a module like yours, but one that I built. It's just a different world."

"What? Are you saying you built an entire world?"

"No. It's just a different program in V-Net. It's what I do, Analara. I build modules."

"What is a module? This isn't making any sense!"

"How can you not know what a…" David rubbed his forehead. "Please, Analara, don't play with me like this. You have to know what a module is. You practically live in one."

"I live on a world. The world of Analath. How could you take me to another place? Who possesses that kind of power?" Analara started crying again, wrapping her arms about her body and trying to squeeze farther into the corner. "David, I'm scared."

David watched her, his frustration ebbing as she rocked back and forth.

She isn't playing with me. She really is terrified. What did I do? What the hell is going on? Has she lived in her module for so long that she can't come out of it?

Gently David pulled Analara into his arms and held her. "It's okay, I'm here. I'm sorry that I scared you. It's going to be okay. I'll figure this out, I promise."

She buried her face in his shirt. "What are you, David?"

What am I? The question doesn't make any sense. Even if she'd become forgetful of everything else, she'd know we were the same. Then again, how can she not know what a module is? Analath is a module, a perfectly programmed world…

Programmed…

"Analara, look at me, please." David turned her in his arms so that she could look into his eyes. "I don't know what's happening right now. There is something going on here that I have to figure out. To do so, I need you to be completely honest with me, understand?"

Analara sniffed, and then nodded.

"Okay. Here goes." David took a deep breath. "Do you know what V-Net is?"

Analara shook her head.

"Do you know who VERA is?"

She shook her head again.

"Do you know what Phoenix is?"

David's mouth went dry as she shook her head no.

"All right. Tell me as clearly as possible. What is Analath?" Analara looked at him as though he had lost his mind, but he shook his head. "Please, just tell me."

"Analath is the world. It is the planet. It is home."

A planet. A planet with green sky and towering roanan trees. A planet of pristine wilderness. A planet with strange creatures and wild predators. A planet where sages could control the very elements. A planet where no one had heard of VERA or knew that Phoenix was mankind's new homeworld…

An entirely
different
planet.

"Oh hell…" David didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or simply pass out. "I've been traveling to an alien planet."

Chapter 15

A dreadful silence followed that statement. David felt Analara staring at him, through him, as though she expected him to disappear at any moment. He could hardly blame her. His fingers squeezed her shoulder gently as he tried to grasp hold of the fact that her present form was real and not just a collection of electric currents and pieces of data. He didn't know how it was possible, but—

"It's the only explanation that makes sense," David murmured.

"No," Analara said. "No, it doesn't make sense. None of this makes any sense! David, how is this even possible?"

Her eyes begged him for answers, but all he could do was laugh helplessly. "I don't know. Everything I do know tells me that it shouldn't be possible. But, Analara, consider it for a moment. I've always been more than just a stranger, haven't I? On some level, I am
different
."

Analara chewed her bottom lip and avoided his gaze.

"All this time, I thought it was just another program. A fixed alternate reality connected loosely to the system." David knew he was rambling, but the thoughts continued to flow. The more he pieced it together, the more the details fell into place: little things that had troubled him about the Analath 'module' and its tenuous connection to V-Net. It opened possibilities that he had never even considered before. Virtual space bridging the gap to the real world. It was terrifying, yet exhilarating.

David grinned at Analara guiltily. "I'm sorry. I know I'm not making much sense. It's just that… things don't work the same on my world as they do on Analath. I wish I could show you."

I wish I could share my world with you the way you've shared yours with me.

Looking at Analara in a new light, it dawned on David that nothing had changed about his feelings. Even knowing that she was an 'alien' didn't diminish his love.

Analara sniffed, and a few more tears rolled down her face. She looked so frightened and lost that David scolded himself for getting caught up in his own thoughts. Caressing her tear-stained cheeks, he tilted her head to face his. "Analara, listen to me. I don't know how this happened, or why, but I am glad it did."

David reached into his pocket and withdrew the bracelet that she had made for him, holding it up for her to see. "This wasn't an accident. This is real. My feelings for you are real, and in the end it doesn't matter to me which end of the universe either of us comes from. I promise that I
will
keep you safe here and do everything I can to figure this out."

Analara glanced from the bracelet to his face and wiped her tears away. She nodded, and a smile touched her lips. She snuggled closer, and David wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry that I ran away from your present," she whispered.

"Don't be. Everything's going to be okay. I promise. You protected me when I was lost and alone. Now I get to return the favor."

"I thought I told you I needed no repayment?"

"Well, you get it anyway."

David felt her arms curl around his waist. "Thank you." Analara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I still can't believe this is happening."

Looking down at her wrapped in his arms, David broke into a wide grin, half expecting to wake from a crazed daydream. "You and me both, Analara."

"What you said before, about this not changing how you felt? I feel the same. I…" Her arms tightened around him. "I care about you very much, David."

"Even though your gift was nice, and mine was horrific?"

That earned David a laugh and a light punch to his side. "Stop that. It was a nice thought. I don't know of anyone in the history of my people who's been given a sunset before." They lapsed into a brief silence. "So what happens now?"

"Well, I think we should introduce ourselves properly." David released the hug and smiled at her. "Hi. My name is David Harris, and I'm a human from the planet Phoenix. Pleased to meet you."

***

Analara tried to suppress the shiver of fear that ran down her spine as she stared at the dimming blue horizon. She clung to David's hand for support. "This isn't real?"

"No. It's a computer program. We call it a module."

"And you created all of this?" Still holding onto David, Analara stretched out her other hand and felt a chill, damp breeze glide over her arm. "How can that be? It feels real." At least, real enough to fool her natural senses. The land here was rocky, and the sounds of the great expanse of water battering the far off cliffs drifted on the air. She had heard of the great seas to the north, but had never imagined they could make such noise. The air, while not poisonous, tasted tangy and unfamiliar.

Analara's deeper senses told her a different story. There was nothing truly living in this place, nothing that responded to her silent call. She felt strangely empty.

David reached out and entwined his fingers with hers. "To fully explain how it all works would be extremely difficult. Think about it this way. Have you ever heard a story and imagined yourself inside of it? What it might look or sound like?"

Analara nodded. "Many times."

"A module is very much like that. We've learned how to sculpt stories into places you can enter. It isn't real, just a very convincing story."

Analara pulled her hand back and guided David's arm around her waist. With him standing so close, she felt some of her nervousness ease. "And somehow, we are sharing the same story?" She turned her head to look up at his bemused smile.

"Yes. Happily so, I might add."

Leaning against David, Analara let her head rest on his shoulder and stared out into the endless expanse of sky. Slowly, stars began to peek out of the growing darkness. A story. Not real. Except that it felt that way. It existed as a dream that people could visit whenever they wished. Looking across the valley she realized just how beautiful it really was. She stood under the sky of a world she could never have imagined.

Analara's stomach shivered with giddiness, and she tilted her head so that the tip of her nose brushed against David's neck. "What other stories can you show me?" She could have imagined it, but it seemed that his heart beat a little faster beneath her hand.

"Almost anything you could dream of."

"Will you take me? I want to know more."

"Let go of my hand for a moment." Analara obeyed, and David pushed his sleeve up to reveal a black band around his wrist. He pressed a glowing ornamentation, and a panel of light appeared in mid-air. Looking more closely, she saw writing and various colored boxes. He touched a box on the panel, and the cliffs and sky were swallowed up in darkness. She gave a cry of surprise, but his arm wrapped around her waist. "I've got you. It's all right."

"Where are we?" Analara tested her footing. She stood on a translucent blue floor and could see faint sparkles in the distance beneath her. Brilliant bursts of light sailed past in the air, or flew under her feet, but they illuminated nothing, only provided a contrast to the encompassing darkness.

Taking Analara's hand, David stepped in front of her. She could see his smiling face clearly. "This is where we choose which story we'd like to visit."

"Destination?" Analara jumped at the sudden voice. A man in strange clothes had appeared before them, looking expectantly at David.

"The Orbital Observatory. Autonomous mode," he replied. Even as she watched him, the strange man dissolved into mist and disappeared. She had the sensation of falling while standing still, and it felt like her head was spinning. She shut her eyes and tried to suppress the feeling. When she opened them again, a new world lay beneath her feet.

Their platform hovered above a giant globe, the bright green landscape filling Analara's vision. "David, what is this?"

"Phoenix, my homeworld. This is what it looks like from above, from space." Analara looked at David in confusion, but he did not elaborate. Instead, he turned his head upward. "Program, simulate night view."

The world before them went dark, and several bright lights became visible on the surface. Looking closer, Analara could see that the lights were like glowing bubbles. She pointed to one. "What is that?"

"That is my home, New Terra. The other lights are the rest of the Nine Cities. All humans live in them." He gestured to the bubble nearest to New Terra. "That's New Venus, where my friend Jessica was born." He indicated another light. "That's New Mercury, probably our biggest rivals for the V-Sports Cup."

"Why are all of your cities called New?" Analara asked.

"Each one is named after the planets of our original star system."

"This world isn't your first home?" Analara felt a faint sadness at the thought of being torn from her own home.

A look of wistful regret passed over David's face. "No. Long ago we lived on a world called Earth. My people destroyed it through war and greed. When the survivors escaped to this world, they created VERA to protect against an event like that ever happening again."

Analara's eyes widened. "Vera? That was what you called your Sage. What do you mean she was created?"

"VERA isn't human. She is a computer program." David frowned and appeared to be searching for the right words. "She is made up of thoughts and dreams, like a person, but without a body. My module, this place, all of it exists inside her mind." Analara looked skeptically at David. "Let's just say that she is the most powerful Sage in the world and leave it at that," he said.

Analara laughed and shrugged. She only understood half of what David was saying, but it was enough for her just being here with him. She watched the darkened world slowly turn, and a thought began to nag at her. Night had fallen. Varlath and Rupu would be waiting, worried for her safety. As much as she wanted to stay with David, she knew she had to return home to Ilinar.

David squeezed her hand as though he could sense her thoughts. "It's time for you to go, isn't it?"

Nodding, Analara embraced him. "Thank you for all of this." She filled her heart with his warmth and presence and let go of the last of her fears.

David returned them to the castle, and they walked in silence through the halls, holding each other's hands as Analara pondered everything that had happened. They stepped through a rippling gate into a world of blackness. Her eyes were drawn to a glowing doorway in the middle of the chamber. Within the frame, she could see Analath, her home.

David looked at the portal in confusion. "That's odd. I didn't leave it open behind me." He tapped his wrist and read from the floating panel. "Interesting. It appears to be keeping itself open now."