She vaguely saw the arch-vaulted ceiling as high as a cathedral, the roman pillars, the cloister arches all around the outskirts, but their beauty was nothing in comparison to the flares and waves of energy at the atrium's center. They were more awesome and strange than the light flares on the winter equinox. It wasn't just their changing colors and pulsing patterns that mesmerized her. It was the music--a deep ocean of electric sound that resembled the most exquisite, profoundly moving music beyond her imagination. She gaped, fixed to the spot.
Will moved closer, an arm raised, fingers stretched towards it.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" A voice boomed. Ferdinando. She spun around, but couldn't see him. And then there he was, a figure floating in the air just meters from the energy porthole. He descended, and she realized he was in some kind of anti-gravity pressure tube.
"Will James Van de Berg," Ferdinando said. Again his voice thundered as though projected upwards and across a reverberating ceiling. "Here at last."
A frisson ran down Day's spine. She didn't trust Ferdinando. And no one had answered her question about why the Veda wanted Will so much. Will seemed unaware of what was going on. The energy flux transfixed the whole of his attention.
"Allow me to introduce The Lady," Ferdinando said.
Day swallowed. Now she was closer to Will and closer to the energy, she could feel it vibrating in her blood and bones. The desire to be inside it, to meld oneself to it was palpable. Will watched the energy streams. His lips began moving, as though repeating a poem or story he'd learned.
Ferdinando stepped out of the suspension tube that had lifted him to the ground, and circled around the back of Will, satisfied by Will's spellbound state. He walked towards Day and stood so their shoulders were touching. She leaned away.
He murmured in her ear. "What do you think he sees?"
Her shoulders stiffened. What could Will see? There were only blazes of colored light.
"What do you think he hears?" Ferdinando continued.
He was implying Will could perceive the doorway differently to them. "Why would he hear or see anything we don't?"
"He has the code. His father planted it deep in the hippocampus region of his brain when he was a baby. His entire way of seeing and thinking has grown inside the code like a membrane wrapping around his memories."
So the Veda wanted Will for a code. But what did the code do? And if they extracted it, would that mean Will no longer existed? Like when they extracted Day's personality, Day would vanish, soaked up and absorbed into Dayna.
"Come," Ferdinando said. "It's time for you to retrieve your memories."
"No. I don't want them."
Ferdinando unglued his gaze from Will and moved his curious, sparkling eyes to Day. "I'll make you a deal. You retrieve your memories, and then you can decide whether to take off the leech. It will disintegrate, anyway."
Wasn't it supposed to have dissolved already? Maybe it had been damaged by the Junas implant. Maybe it wouldn't disintegrate.
"We are all eager to get Dayna back."
"All except me. Besides, you didn't seem to mind when I almost died in the space carrier or at the police station."
"You've trained intensively for two years. I was confident you could do this or I wouldn't have let you sign up for it."
"I didn't sign up for it. Dayna did."
"You believe you are Day. You're not. It's a mask. A personality I created."
"Dayna's just a personality too. Conditioned by her experiences and your training."
"That's what she chose."
"She also chose to become me."
The far doors flashed open, and Amber entered.
Day stepped closer to Will. She had to get him away from The Lady. "Will ," she hissed, "wake up!"
"It's too late," Amber said.
Day spun on her sister. "Too late for what?"
"As soon as he saw the energy flux, the code activated. When it's finished, poof." Amber gestured a miniature explosion with her hands. "No more Will. The code will take over his whole mind and we'll have the key to closing the porthole for good."
Day moved to stand between Will and the Lady. She took his hands in hers and squeezed. "Look at me. Will, please, look at me." He stared to the side of her, eyes glued to the electrical ribbons of information. "Will." She cupped his cheeks in her palms, leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. "Will, come back to me." No sign he knew she was even there. As though his mind was inside an alternative reality.
Anger blew-up inside her. She could sense Fredinando and Amber pressing in on her, wanting to conclude their business. She was furious with them; furious with herself for bringing Will here. Without any warning, she sprung on her feet and kicked high. The heel of her shoe smacked Ferdinando in the side of his face. He cried out and staggered off balance.
Amber swept in and pulled a one-two punch to Day's ribs and cheek. Winded Day hunched over, spluttering for breath. Fire flared in her cheek and up to her temple.
"You really aren't making this easy," Amber muttered. Ferdinando pulled a hanker-chief from his pocket. He dabbed the blood at the top of his head and stood up slowly. Amber sidled towards him and massaged his shoulder, but he flipped her off.
Panting, doubled over, Day watched Ferdinando's leather shoes approach. He circled a hand around the side of her head and stroked down her hair.
"You," he said, shaking his head, "were my most dedicated student. I have great faith you will come back to us, Dayna."
His eyes hooked into hers, and then something hard pressed between her bruised ribs. Electricity zigzagged through her spine, through her nervous system, and up into her brain. She fell to the ground.
***
The last two years flashed before her eyes, as though she was dying and witnessing a rerun of her life. She gripped the handles of the seat they'd strapped her into. It felt like they were ripping up the synapses in her brain and laying new pathways. Perhaps that's what was happening as the machine oozed memories back into her cerebral cortex.
She lost all sense of where she was. Her mind time-travelled. One minute she was locked down in the operative chair, the next she on a space shuttle with Amber headed for Mars for the first time. They showed her The Lady. They showed her details of her parents' accident caused by the Mars energy flux experiments—the magnetic track over the ravine damaged by an earth-quake.
They introduced her to the Veda's mission: to close the inter-dimensional doorway. She pledged herself to their goal, and trained in the academy—combat-fighting, handling arms, wiring explosives. She was on beach, running from a firing helicopter. She was alone in the wilderness assigned to capture an enemy, without getting caught.
Like the story of the frog boiled so slowly it didn't know when the heat would kill it, they groomed her to become The Bait. Her age and profile matched an ex-girlfriend of Will Van de Berg's.
She had done it to protect those living in the southern sphere. She'd done it to prevent other children from the horror and pain of being left alone in the world. The five years following her parents' death had been lonely and agonizing until Amber showed up, shrouded in mystery and offering adventure and heroism. They gave her a family again and place she belonged.
A wet cloth moved across Day's burning brow. Her head felt crushed and pummeled. Her eyes watered so much she couldn't see properly.
"It's over," a voice said. Her heart squeezed up her throat as though it was trying to choke her.
"Mom?"
"No sweetie, it's me. It's Amber."
An avalanche of disappointment swept Day downhill. Illogical, she knew. They could give her back her memories, not her mother. But she was muddled, and Amber had sounded so like their Mom it hurt. She stopped trying to open her eyes, lay her pounding head back against the seat and let the tears spill out.
Amber rubbed Day's arm. "You'll feel disorientated for a couple of hours, but it'll wear off."
"Did I succeed? Did you get the code?"
"It's still in progress," Amber said. Then she added. "Good to have you back, Sis." Amber nodded at the doctor who moved forwards to unstrap Day from the machine.
"They're going to move you to the recovery room. Lie down for a bit. Take it easy. And I'll come and see you later."
"Wait, Amber."
"Yes?"
"How soon can I get the leach taken off?"
Amber smiled. "Give it a few hours."
"Is Ferdinando angry?"
"You've got to be kidding. You did what he's been trying to accomplish for twenty years. You're a hero around here."
Day smiled, playing it for all she was worth. One last act of lying and subterfuge. It was what she was good at, right?
"Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot," Amber said, coming closer.
The droid doctor retreated and fiddled with some machinery in the corner of the room.
"Ferdinando said Will sees and hears things inside the energy flux, that we can't. What does he see?"
Amber's eyes narrowed a little. "We don't know yet."
"Well, if you were to guess?"
"My guess would be he's seeing the fifth dimension."
Day's arms tingled, and the hairs on her neck stood up.
"The fifth dimension..."
Amber nodded. "Multiple universes across past, present and future."
Day swallowed, attempting to camouflage the storm of emotion breaking over her.
This wasn't as simple as all her indoctrination into the Veda had trained her to believe. Suffering on planet earth wasn't a recent phenomenon that had come about with the catastrophic climate changes. Humankind had been suffering at the hands of other humans and the elements since the beginning of humanity.
But what if there was a way of ending it? A way of expanding consciousness so that humans could grow beyond survival of the fittest and egocentric greed?
"Ferdinando said Will's mind, and all his experiences grew inside a program, a code that relates to the fifth dimension." Day tried to maintain a light tone to her voice. "What if he understands things that we can't?"
"Like what?"
"That consciousness and reality aren't what we think. What if the external and internal are deeply connected? What if our minds are projecting reality based on our emotions, our expectations, our unconsciousness?"
Amber leaned over Day and pressed her forefinger into the bruise on her cheek which she herself had made.
"Is the pain real?" she asked. Their eyes locked together. "Was the pain of losing our parents real? Don't fall for that 'this is all an illusion crap.' Tell that to a kid who's starving to death. What we're doing here, saving lives—that's real!"
Hello, hope all is well with you... thanks for reading, voting, commenting and being here. Do things make sense, or is it moving too fast? All feedback will really help me when I start revising, so please don't be shy if you have any thoughts about what might need clarifying. And as always, I hope you enjoyed it. C.