Journey to Year 1,000,000,000 Ch. 08

"Not me, Captain," said another man.

At that moment Jennifer came by with a platter of corn cobs. "Would any of you men like some corn?"

"I'll have what you got there, sister," said one of the men. He pulled Jennifer onto his lap.

"Hey!" said Taylor, springing forward. Lieutenant Babangida was two paces behind him. "Let her go."

The man grabbing Jennifer laughed and fondled her.

Taylor's face grew dark. "I'm going to give you five seconds-"

"What? Isn't she part of the story?" said the man. He grabbed Jennifer by the waist, even as she struggled to free herself. "This is a lively one! I'll bet she's good in bed!"

Jennifer tried to elbow him in the face, but the man grabbed her arm from behind and pinioned her.

Babangida sprang forward, and decked the man in the face. The man who had grabbed Jennifer fell sprawling, eliciting some laughs. But several of the Judicator stood up, and looked ready to jump Babangida.

Suddenly there was the classic ping of a compression pistol firing into the air. Everyone looked up, and saw Captain Taylor, with a smoking compression gun in his hand. Behind him were a half dozen men, similarly armed. "I suggest you all sit back down, slowly." When no one moved, he added, "Right now."

The men slowly started to sit down, but even as they did, they complained about the situation.

"This isn't a good game," said one.

"I don't like this one," said another.

"Who thought it up?" a third demanded to know.

Jennifer got up and ran away from the crew of the Judicator.

"Jennifer, are you all right?" Taylor asked.

"Yes, Michael. Thank you," she said. He winced as she flew straight to Babangida's arms.

"What's going on here?" Captain Andrews asked. "Can we end this, please?"

"End what?" said Taylor.

"This game. We're tired of it, already. We're ready for the next one," said Andrews. "Aren't we, men?"

The men roared their approval.

"What game do you think this is?" said Taylor.

Victor suddenly stepped forward. "Perhaps I can shed some light on this. Captain Andrews, have you ever seen me before?"

"No," said Captain Andrews.

Victor raised his voice. "All you men. Have any of you men ever seen me before?"

There was silence. Then Andrews said, "How can that be?"

"Victor, what is this all about?"

"Everything that is produced here, Michael, and everyone, comes from someone's memories," said Victor.

"If you're not from our memories... are you saying you're real?" said Captain Andrews.

"We are real," said Victor.

"No!" came one of the men. "It's another game, Captain! A new kind of game!"

Doubt flickered in Captain Andrew's eyes. "Another Survey Service crew... here... twenty two million years in the future... how could you possibly be real? No, you're part of a new game."

"It's no game, Captain," said Taylor. "My name is Lieutenant Commander Michael Taylor, and I am Captain of the USS Devonshire."

"The Devonshire, yes... but a Lieutenant Commander? No, this must be a game."

"It's real," said Taylor, looking into his eyes. "After the Judicator failed to report in, Admiral Von Windhoek sent in the Devonshire, under my command."

"You... I remember you now," said Andrews. "You pretended to be a god, on that planet."

"That's right."

Andrews nodded. "Von Windhoek might just have been crazy enough to send you." Doubt flickered in his eyes. "Could you really be real... after all these years?"

"We are real, Captain." said Taylor. "Please. What is this place? What is going on here?"

"You don't know? You really don't know?" said Andrews.

"Please, tell us," said Jennifer.

Andrews licked his lips. "This... none of this is real. When we emerged from the Black Box, we hit a spatial anomaly. It took us to this place. It's a fantasy land. Anything we imagine becomes real."

"Anything?" said Taylor. "If I wished for a fully functioning spaceship-"

"It doesn't work that way," said Andrews. "It doesn't latch onto conscious wishes. It picks our brain and chooses what it wants. We thought this was another game. We've been playing games for so, so long...." his voice trailed off.

"How long, Captain?"

"I don't know... years....." said Andrews, sounding defeated.

"Is there any way out of this place?"

"Not that I know of," said Andrews.

********

"A fantasy world that feeds off our wishes. Or some of them, at any rate," said Victor.

"That still makes no sense to me," said Taylor. "I certainly didn't wish to crash the ship and strand the crew here."

"But we have seen things here that have given us what we wanted," said Victor. "Fully cooked food that grows right out of the ground. Waterfalls that let us see across time and space. Realistic human dolls which resemble other crewmembers."

Suki blushed.

"So why can't we just wish ourselves out of here?"

"The planet seems to pick and choose what wishes it wants to fulfill," said Victor. "Maybe the answer is to reduce its range of choices."

********

The two crews sat in two big circles.

"What should we all think? That we want an end to this?" said Taylor.

"Careful, Michael. We might think ourselves to death," said Victor. "We have to be very specific. We should think... something simple. That we wish to leave this place."

"All right," said Taylor. He raised his voice. "Listen up! I want everyone to think one thought, and one thought only! You want to leave. You want to leave. You want to leave." He could hear his crew, and the crew of the Judicator, start to repeat it. "Keep going! If you have stray thoughts, ignore them. Focus, people, focus!"

"I want to leave. I want to leave. I want to leave," said Suki, her eyes closed.

"I want to leave. I want to leave. I want to leave," said Jennifer as she stared straight ahead.

"I want to leave. I want to leave. I want to leave," said Vincent, his hands clenched.

This continued for a minute, and then two, and then longer....

"It's not working," said Elizabeth.

"Keep going! We're the Survey Service! We don't give up!" Taylor yelled.

"I want to leave. I want to leave. I want to leave," said Bill Carey, gritting his teeth.

"I want to leave. I want to leave. I want to leave," said Karen Levenson, taking rapid breaths.

Taylor said, "I want to-" and suddenly stopped, as a man in a white robe appeared in front of him.

"We hear you," said the man mildly.

"Who are you?" said Taylor suspiciously. The man looked like an Ascended. He had a big forehead and large egg yolk eyes.

"I am Attendant A14. How may I be of assistance?"

"We want to leave."

"Then why don't you?" A14 asked.

"We can't."

The man frowned, and stared at Taylor with his big eyes. "Just a moment." He stared at Taylor, and stared, and stared some more.

Then he smiled. "I see. This may be difficult to explain."

"Try," Taylor suggested.

Attendant A14 said. "I see you arrived from the temporal phenomenon which is currently orbiting the Earth."

"Yes," said Taylor.

"The area in which you emerged in has some spatial irregularities." said A14. He pointed to Captain Andrews. "Your ship," and then he pointed at Taylor, "And then your ship, both entered a virtual layer."

"Virtual layer?"

"Do you mean another dimension?"

"You... could think of it in that way," said A14. "We prefer to call it a virtual layer."

"All the things that have happened to us... has that been your doing?"

"No," said A14. "In this virtual layer, your thoughts turn into reality."

"Our thoughts? I assure you, I didn't think of crashing my ship-"

"Just a moment," said Attendant 14. He stared at Taylor for a long moment. Then he nodded. "You are on a mission of incredible importance to you."

"Yes," said Taylor.

"And you are under tremendous stress to complete it."

"Yes," said Taylor again.

"And part of your mind wishes to avoid this mission."

"What? No!" said Taylor.

"Part of your mind wishes to avoid the responsibility of this mission. Part of your mind wants to avoid stress. Part of your mind wants... relaxation. A hiatus," said A14.

"A... vacation?" said Victor.

"Yes," said A14.

"No," said Taylor, that's not true. "I didn't think those things."

"Perhaps not consciously. But this virtual layer interacts in unusual ways with untrained animal minds. It may be that your unconscious was more in sync with the creation system than your conscious mind."

"So you're saying that everything that has happened here... that we wanted it to happen, on some level?" said Elizabeth. "That it was us, all along?"

"Of course. No intelligence was directing your fate here. It was all self-driven, even if you yourselves were not fully aware of it."

"No," said Elizabeth, looking at Taylor as she struggled with the implications of this. Being captured. The rider! Sex with Taylor-

"What is the purpose of this... place?" Victor asked. "Surely it isn't a coincidence that there is a rift so close to Earth."

"Surely not," said Attendant A14. "From your minds, I understand you are originally from 22 million years in the past, but have recently visited eight million years in your future. Is that correct?"

"Yes," said Victor.

"Then you clearly saw a time when intellectual achievements were prized above all else."

"Yes, the Ascended," said Victor. "And there were also the Lowers-"

"Who became extinct, many millions of years ago," said A14.

"They did?"

"Yes," said A14.

"Oh," said Victor, putting his hand over his mouth in grief.

"But the ones you call the Ascended did not. However, some grew weary pursuing science, for the sake of science. They grew weary of living. And so, when they opened a gateway to this... realm, many decided to stay here."

"Giving up a life of reality to live in a fantasy," said Taylor.

"What you call fantasy, others call reality," said A14. "And what you call reality, others call fantasy. Even your so-called reality is only a fiction to many. It all depends on your perspective."

Taylor paused. "Are the people in this time period responsible for the time tunnel?"

"No," said A14. "For the answer to that, you must go further ahead in time."

Further! They had already come twenty two million years into the future!

"All right. Can you return us to our reality?" said Taylor.

"You never left," said Attendant A14.

"We didn't?"

"Not your bodies, in any event. Only your consciousness."

A chill went down Taylor's spine. "We're still... in the real world?"

"Yes," said A14. "I can restore you, if your bodies still exist." He looked at Captain Andrews of the Judicator. "By your time frame, your people have been here 14.2 years."

"14.2 years?" said Captain Andrews. "Has it really been that long?"

"I'm afraid your bodies have long since ceased to function. You cannot be returned," said A14.

"But.. but what are we then?"

"You are disassociated consciousnesses, living without physical form," said A14.

"And us," said Taylor, his heart beating rapid. "We've... we've been here for months! We... we must be dead too!" He found himself looking at Jennifer, and a tear formed in his eye.

A14 looked at Taylor with his big egg yolk eyes. "Captain Taylor. Your crew has been in this virtual layer for... 2.4 of your standard hours."

"Two hours?" said Taylor. "How can that be? No, I'm sure we've been here for over-"

"2.4 standard hours. Your bodies are quite functional. Do you wish to return to them?"

"Yes," said Taylor. "Please!"

"Wait!" said Andrews. He looked at Taylor. "You're going to continue the mission?"

"Of course."

"Take our ship," said Andrews. "It's the most modern battle cruiser in existence." He turned to A14. "Our ship still exists, doesn't it?"

"Oh, most certainly."

"Then when you return them to their ship, tell them where ours is to be found."

"It will be done," said A14.

"Thank you, Captain," said Taylor. He saluted Andrews, even as everything started to fade. Andrews and his men saluted him back.

He heard voices shouting goodbyes.

"Tell Earth about us! Don't forget us! "

"We will!" Taylor cried.

And then they were gone.

**********

And then they were back on the Devonshire. All of them.

Taylor looked at the bridge crew. Their ripped and worn uniforms were suddenly clean and perfectly pressed. Of course. None of it had been real.

"Suki," he said, realizing this was the first real word he had spoken in a long time. At least 2.4 hours.

"Yes sir?" she said, a little uncertainly.

"See if you can locate the Judicator."

"Aye sir."

Jennifer went over to Taylor. "Michael... it all wasn't real?"

"It depends on your view of reality, Jennifer," said Victor. "Doesn't it, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth frowned and turned away.