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| Tsv-05-100 Tem-Space Variant 5: Alternatives Chapter 1: Knight to king's Base 4.5 Chapter 2: What Reality is this? Chapter 3: The Hisorian Way Chapter 4: Fresh Air and Exercise Chapter 5: Stranger in a Strange Land Chapter 6: Point Man Put to the Test Chapter 7: The VR and the Videodrome Chapter 8: The Tem-Space Variant Returns Chapter 9: The Amazing R-Wing Chapter 10: The Lunaside Vacation Chapter 11: The Lunaside Hiso-Courts |
Tem-Space
Variant 5:
Alternatives
15. The Maze of Illusions Madkro stepped across the threshold into the edge of the maze, as his eyes accepted an anarchy of geometric designs which, despite its uniqueness of pattern and colors was registered as just another of the many dangerous visions he had received many times before. Even as he was ready to use his gun upon the nanosecond’s notice, what struck him was entirely unexpected and shocked him into suspension as he slowly crossed the threshold and stepped inside. The lights went from bright sunlight to moonlight, with an accent on blue and a few fine silver lines. Then, as he stood there and looked both ways, the scene took form and began to register on his senses. Deja vu or actual memory? He looked about and thought the scene was very familiar. It was no longer a riot of unknown shapes, it had a definite pattern and he recognized it. It was the complex where he worked, as a kid, just about 10 blocks from the home of his guardians, and it was night. He was confounded by it all for about a minute before he snapped out of it and stepped quickly to the side, away from the entrance, which he suddenly realized, was smack in the middle of the road, at the top of the brief hill leading into the complex. He ran for the cover of the nearest hedgerow and received a slight shock from it as his arm brushed it, as he went into the shade nearest the wall of the structure. Beside the wall, in the shadows, he spied out at the scene, looked back at the entrance, and the ‘doorway’ was not there. Nothing was there, it was the middle of the road and all beyond it was the dark of what appeared to be the late evening or early hours of morning before sunrise. He suddenly understood, or thought he did. The maze was some kind of holographic theater, like the holodek that was featured on the 80s Enterprise, in the sci-fi program that was a part of his earlier reality but didn’t appear anywhere to his knowledge in the new reality he had entered. Was it a holodek? Yes, it seemed like the only logical explanation. But then, what was the point to it? How and why would they dig up an old scene from his memories like this? Furthermore, how the heck did they get a memory from another reality if they didn’t possess the records, or did the old complex actually exist, exactly parallel, in the new reality? That was a long-shot, but no matter how small, it was still a possibility. So, they knew where he grew up and they decided to use it in a maze of illusions. But why; what was the point? In a Hiso-court, the point was to go from point A to point B and C, without being tagged, and neutralize so many tagnets along the way, to avoid detection. The Con-Reps wanted Madkro to work for them, in some of the most difficult Hiso-courses on Earth, and this was the ultimate test. Just as anticipated, almost, but holographic technical effects were a first, something he had not anticipated. As he speculated the next move, he heard something. He listened closely; it came and went, with some irregularity. He listened for about a minute and realized it sounded like a girl or a child whimpering. He looked all about and could see nothing, but his ears detected the direction of the sound. It was coming from the court-yard just ahead, around the corner, reflecting off of the stone wall across the parking lot to the right. He carefully stepped along the wall, between the hedgerow, still in the shadows, passed by two sets of doorways, which he stole across quickly, and stopped at the corner. From there, he could hear the whimpering more clearly, but it was still very hushed and low, as if whoever was crying was doing their best to hold it back, but couldn’t keep it in. He looked around the corner and surveyed the large, dimly lit courtyard. He still could see nothing, nobody, but the sound seemed to be coming from the opposite corner, which was beyond the depth and shadows, on the other side of a small fenced-in playground. He started to forget where he was, snapped himself out of it again, and wondered how to proceed. The whimpering came and went, now not as persistent as it had been, but still occurring nonetheless. There were many approaches to the corner, but the obvious one, along the wall, was probably the safest. The hedgerows gave him cover in the shadows, but if he was detected, he would be a sitting duck in between the doorways. He could run across the courtyard, though it would be slightly slower than if he were on Earth, due to the lower gravity. There would be plenty of cover in the middle of it, near the fenced in playground, which had a row of hedges on the side nearest the parking lot. He thought about it, and decided to try the less obvious path, placing his intuition with the nature of the Hiso-court, which worked to reward the challenge by favoring intelligent innovation, rather than simple pattern. He could almost see his old self following the wall as he made the move, and ran as quickly as possible for the center of the courtyard. 20 seconds later, he dove into the shadows at the edge of the fence, in the deep cover of the hedgerow, and rested with his back against the fence, looking up over the parking lot at the dark night sky, between the hedges. It looked so real; he was tending to believe it. Just like it was when he was a punk kid. He caught his breathe and moved on all fours along the fence, between it and the hedgerow, for about 15 meters, and reached the corner. At this point, the whimpering was louder by a few decibels, he was obviously much closer. He knelt there and spied with his visual scanner into the dimly lit dark corner, seeing nothing unusual, just more of the complex pattern of 3 levels and many windows above a dark, shadowy courtyard at night. He checked the infrared and there was something that registered as a life-form under a tree, one of the only large trees in the courtyard, about 30 meters away. He rechecked normal and spotted a figure on the ground, under the tree, but it was too dark to make out details. Between whimpers, some words were squeezed out with apparent agony. “Ohhhh, Ren, where are you?” the voice said, and whimpered again. “Huh?” he heard the words echo inside his head and realized the sound of the voice was very similar to Lisa’s voice. “Oh, no, they’ve been deceiving me, again!” Madkro suddenly suspected. “They must have gone behind my back and snatched her, just like Exo and Xik!” |
Chapter
12: On Space, Time, and Parallel Alternate Realities Chapter 13: Longray's Plan Chapter 14: The Lunar Mines Chaper 15: The Maze of Illusions Chapter 16: Main Power Tagnet |
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