Chapter 15 – Answers

A moment after she’d said that, Simona scratched at her cheek and dipped her eyes before adding, “Sorry…”

Marlise took a breath for herself as Marisa glared ahead and finally asked, “What the hell do you mean?!”

Continuing to another control on the wall, Simona turned a dial and a steady hum filled the air above them. She glanced back towards Marisa and informed her, “I mean literal death. Physical death. But I’ll leave the details till we find the others. I don’t like explaining more than once.”

Nicolas coughed a few times, still massaging his throat as he said, trying to hold onto calm, “That’s not possible. And what was all that about memories that creepy guy was saying?”

Simona took the lead down the corridor, which was to say she moved along and they had to follow. She looked for a moment like she wasn’t going to answer Nicolas’s question, but she sighed to herself and turned a valve wheel slowly as she replied, “It’s true. The memories you all have are pieces of my memory. You’re pieces of me spread around.”

A pressure door at the end of the hall opened and a faint voice cried out “Help!” Marlise immediately recognized it as Marley’s voice. She bounded ahead of Simona to leap through the doorway. On the other side, she found a medium-sized room with a projector attached to the ceiling along with a crude screen made of a white sheet. Seven folding chairs were set around the room. Beside the nearest chair sat Marley in her original, female form with her legs folded up under her. Oswald, still wrapped up, twisted and squirmed on the ground.

Simona stepped through the threshold and said a quick, “Excellent…” before going over to check the projector. Marley wept and wrapped her arms around Marlise as she whispered, “I thought I…I’d…never see you…never.”

Marlise whispered softly and told her, “It’s okay now. I’m here.” Marisa stood and stared a moment with a deep frown, staring at Marley before Simona came over with something she’d retrieved from the wall. She ignored a glare from her as she waved it around and noted, “You have a memory blockage. I’m removing it now.”

Before Marisa could protest, Simona poked her, eliciting an “Ouch!” and a snarl before her eyes widened and she looked over at Marley with fresh awareness. Darting, she put her arms around both of them and told her friends, “I remember you…I remember it all. Even Isaac…” She blushed to herself but held them close

Oswald received a quick scan which put him into a relaxed state. Nicolas dropped into one of the chairs with his hands cupping his face. Noticing this, Marlise wished she could touch his shoulder and give him some reassurance like he’d given her. But she didn’t want to let go of Marley, not yet.

Drifting around the room, Simona cleared her throat and announced, “I can provide the illusion of food and drinks, if that’s a comfort. The promised explanation will be in a few minutes.” Peering around Marley, Marisa stated, “I don’t know if I want to listen to your claims…”

Simona gave the briefest shrug as she said, “Then leave and stand outside the door with your fingers in your ears until we’re done.” Swallowing, Marlise didn’t look forward to explaining to Marley what fragments of information they’d been given. Marisa lowered her head and looked away. Marley expressed quiet confusion.

After a lull, Simona started tapping a display screen on the wall. Almost to herself, she said, “It amuses me you picked the name Marlise from Seth. I named you Seth for various reasons and with a plenitude of meanings. However…Marlise, derived from the name Miriam, tells me much about how you see yourself. Nice choice. Not to say all my choices were as deep. For instance, I simply like the singer, Bob Marley.”

Marley blinked at Simona and immediately looked to Marlise, who took a breath and rested a hand on Marley’s shoulder. Cracking her knuckles, Simona finally finished and announced, “Ready to go. Last chance to leave…”

Leaning against Marlise’s ear, Marley whispered, “What’s going on?” Looking into a face before her which she’d grown accustomed to in the mirror, Marlise replied, “Answers…I hope.”

As everyone who could move found a chair (Oswald was tilted up and towards the screen with muffled grunts), Simona found a corner out of the way as an image projected on the screen. The image was sharp, clear, and held a timestamp on the edge. Marlise read it as “2043”. The exact date continued off the end of the projection.

The projection showed a woman in an ivory outfit leaning over a table and framed by a blank, gray wall. As Marlise watched her, she could pick out interesting details, such as how her hair poofed up a bit in front like her Seth hair. She had Marley’s eyes and a touch of her lips. The shape of her body suggested an older version of Marisa. Her hair was as long as ‘Jessica’s and its coloring felt like a little dab from each of them. Marlise noted this to herself but just pressed a finger to her mouth and didn’t say anything.

Before the projected figure could speak, Simona pressed a nearby keypad and the image jumped, twice in a row. They murmured and Marlise coughed to protest but Simona rebuffed them, glancing away, “They’re my personal logs. I can show what I wish of them. Here.”

The image stopped jumping. It was the same woman, but her eyes looked ringed with gray tiredness, like she hadn’t slept in a while. The timestamped year hadn’t changed.

After clearing her throat, the woman folded her hands on the desk in front of her and began, “Simona Hatch recording on the date…whatever...like it matters at all. Tests are progressing. I’ve uploaded a new version of the Sim program. It is particularly curious and still not lacking in vanity. Balancing will continue. I expect to patch again in a few days. It’s also about time for a new set of inhabitants as the current set has been depleted.”

The Simona on screen reached across the table and off the screen for a paper and remarked, “Any six should be fine. No connection shown between any recorded biographical details and the durability of their so-called atavistic energy. It seems random. Nothing more to record.”

Several of them wanted to ask the Simona against the wall for further explanation but she kept her head down and the next video started. The figure jerked to a new position at the same table. She cupped her chin.

“Simona again. I’ve been thinking. Probably not a good thing. But I feel especially moral today. The new set have progressed and are…incubating, if that’s the appropriate term…I do wish there was another way. I keep trying to insert myself more permanently into the system but, without atavistic energy, there are serious flaws. It’s like trying to run something without a storage system. The soul as a human hard drive with a shell casing…and I’m writing myself onto that hard drive again and again…” At this last bit, Simona watched them as a group. The videos stopped for the moment.

Marlise got to her feet. Little fragments started to congeal inside her thoughts. Taking a guess, she said to Simona, “So, Sim was right. We sold our souls and you’re the one who bought them.”

Staring across the room, Simona remarked, “Atavistic energy or the soul, neither is an accurate name. But the ghost in the flesh is an important component of the ghost in the machine. Legally, you can’t sell it…but there are ways of acquiring them.”

Taking a few steps towards Simona, Marlise clenched her mouth as the others tightened up with a mixture of horror and anger on their faces. With a deep breath, Marlise said, “And so you acquired our souls after we’d died to save yourself from the same fate.”

Her face barely moving as she spoke, Simona answered, “Basically.”

Panting, Marisa threw her chair across the room and stood beside Marlise. Marley flinched. Her eyes wide, Marisa growled, “You bitch! How many are there? How many have there been?”

Leaning her head, Simona noted, “I don’t have as many as would be ideal and it’s been just over two dozen. Each last around a year before they need to be replaced. Avery is almost finished. I’ll need one of you very soon. Nothing personal.”

Rushing forward, Marisa picked up the fallen chair and hurled it at Simona. It bounced off an invisible field surrounding her and crumpled to the ground. Brushing her hands, Simona said, “Feel free to release your aggression, if that’s what you need. Meanwhile, if you don’t mind, there is at least one more relevant video I’d like to play.”

Marisa curled her face to spew words at Simona, but Marlise put a hand on her shoulder. Nicolas cradled his head and Marley looked with concern at Marisa. Her eyes twitching slightly, Marisa threw another chair, which clanged as harmlessly as the first. Panting to herself, Simona gave a few looks before she asked, “...Finished?”

Though she seemed ready to fling another chair, she didn’t. Instead, Marisa took a breath, gazed over at Marley’s concerned eyes, and turned away from Simona, who took that as permission to proceed.

The next video clip started with some technical details about glitches in different systems and the success of patches. The recorded Simona also noted “concerns” about potentially “rampant” behavior from Sim. She finished on what she introduced as an “interesting note”.

“…I actually had a dream inside the system. Nothing flashy or dramatic. It was about a puzzle box. I’ve had the dream before but not while inside. I still didn’t solve the puzzle, but it got me thinking. My brother, Steven, bought me my first puzzle box when I was four. I wanted to smash it to pieces at the time. I still have it…”

She picked up a little wooden box from out of frame and held it up to the camera. It triggered a faint memory for Marlise as Simona continued.

“…I like to keep it as a reminder. It’s like life. Inscrutable just to look at it…but rich with detail. Easily frustrating. But then you relax, you think about it more and more. You know if you can just find the right sequence then you’ll figure it all out….”

She manipulated the box, touching the sides.

“Maybe only one solution, maybe several. You never know. But you keep trying. My puzzle box...has a time limit…and I don’t want to give up trying to solve it. I can’t. I’d rather be sealed inside an endless puzzle than give up without an ultimate answer.” She turned the box around a few more times before setting it down in front of her as the video ended.

Marlise took a breath and translated, “You may have burned through two dozen borrowed souls before us but there aren’t many ahead of you.”

Simona bowed her head and rested a hand against a wall as she answered again, “Basically…”

Gritting her teeth, Marisa spat, “Good!”

From behind her invisible box of safety, Simona remarked, “Really? Once it ends for me, the rest of this world will follow. Sim’s rampage will consume everything. Imagine if he gets as creative with his sadism as I know he can get….you’ll wish for a return to death but he’ll make sure you'll never get it.”

Marley cleared her throat and suppressed a whimper as she asked with as much strength as she could manage without sounding terrified, “So, what do we do then?”

Simona spread out her hands and announced, “I do have a plan. A plan to strike back against Sim and regain control of the higher systems. Help me and I promise I will do everything in my power to make sure most of you can remain in the system as long as possible…”

Marisa noted skeptically, “Most of us?”

With darkened, unwavering eyes, Simona replied, “Yes. As I said, Avery is nearly finished and won’t last more than a day longer. I will need one of you…not to mince words…as a parasite needs a host. Your personality will be overwritten, you will no longer exist. One sacrifice for the safety of the rest…”

Each of them leaned back and took a long breath. It didn’t take more than a moment for a single hand to be raised and the words to be said…

“I volunteer…”

*End Part 3*