The Portal
Author: a_delacroix@hotmail.com
Chapter 32
Clark, who had been a step behind Chloe and hadn't noticed anything unusual, fired up one of his megawatt smiles at seeing Lana alive and well.
Chloe was just starting to ask Lex and Lana what was wrong when Clark bumped her in his rush to get over and give the others a hug. As she lurched forward a couple of steps, her hand grasped Lana's leg to regain her balance. Lana suddenly sat bolt upright and the two girls said in unison, "Whoa, what a rush." And then they both fainted.
Clark almost went into speed mode in his rush to catch Chloe. After he had her in his arms, he carefully set her down on the chaise next to Lex and Lana. As he did, he realized that Lana was also out cold and Lex was holding her in his arms, gently stroking her hair, and was whispering over and over. "Laura, please wake up. Laura, everything is going to be okay."
Clark was just about to ask why Lex was calling her Laura when the girls started coming around.
"Chloe, are you okay? What happened?" asked Clark with a hint of fear in his voice as he sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms. With all of her abilities so amply demonstrated this morning, Clark was totally unprepared to have her suddenly faint dead away.
Chloe shook her head for a moment as though to clear it. "Sorry, Clark, I have never experienced anything like that before. Let me talk to Laura for a minute and then we'll try to explain."
Then Chloe turned toward Lana, clasped her hand, and without a word they sat there exchanging 'million mile' stares.
After a few seconds of sitting in utter confusion, Clark turned to Lex who was still delicately holding Lana in his arms, and asked, "Ahh, Lex, what is going on? Why are you and Chloe calling her Laura?"
With a touch of sadness in his voice, Lex answered. "I am not certain exactly what just happened, but back at the stadium when Chloe healed me and brought Lana back, ahh," and for a second Lex's voice broke. "Something went wrong."
Clark felt like someone had slammed a sledgehammer into his guts as he waited for Lex to continue.
"Chloe used her nanobots to heal our injuries. Well, more accurately, she introduced some of her 'bots into our bodies and then had them replicate until our bodies were as saturated as her own. The 'bots are keyed to her genetic code and once she is no longer touching us they are supposed to go dormant. Not disappear, just go dormant.
"Clark, while the healing process was going on, I was directly linked to her nanobot memory system and it was beyond anything you can imagine. Seventeen thousand years worth of memories slamming into me totally at random, and each one feeling perfectly really, like I was Chloe experiencing them for the first time. For the few seconds I experienced it, I almost no longer remembered I was Lex, the experience was so overwhelming.
"Fortunately for me, the experience ended when Chloe broke physical contact and the 'bots in my body switched off. However, when Chloe broke contact with Lana the 'bots didn't turn off."
Clark started to let out a sigh of relief. "It doesn't sound like that big of a problem. I mean, if the 'bots in Lana's body are active, then she must have all of Chloe's instant healing abilities, it sounds like an advantage, not a problem to me."
Lex shook his head. "Clark, you're not getting it, yet. Along with Chloe's physical abilities came all of her memories. It's like suddenly having 17,000 years worth of the best 35 mm movies in your head while your own fifteen to twenty years worth of memories are in comparison a handful of pictures drawn by a five year old child with crayons. Just imagine for a moment if all of your memories of your life, of growing up on the farm, of Martha and Jonathan, of everything were gone and suddenly you had all of my memories instead. You could look in the mirror and intellectually know you are Clark, but in your head you would believe you were Lex."
Clark slowly nodded in understanding. "So, Lana thinks she is Chloe."
"More than 'thinks' she is Chloe; try 'knows' she is Chloe. Oh, with Chloe's need to become a new person every ten or fifteen years to blend in, she can more easily adapt to being in a new body and in new circumstance than anyone else. But as long as the 'bots are active in her body and Chloe's memories are present, she is Chloe in her own mind."
"Why were you calling her Laura?"
"Somehow continuing to call her Lana just didn't feel right and we could hardly call both of them Chloe. So we agreed on Lana's middle name, Laura."
Suddenly, Laura joined into the conversation. "Chloe would no longer be appropriate anyway. Oh, until I awoke in the arena, Chloe and I have exactly the same memories, but since then we have each had our own experiences and memories. Over time we will slowly develop more unique personalities based on different experiences."
Clark looked at Laura. Her slightly different voice helped, but it was still difficult not to think of her as Lana.
"Do you know why you both just passed out?"
"Yeah," answered Chloe. "I, well, neither of us have ever encountered another person with an active nanobot system before. The only other nanobot systems I have met were dormant systems like the one currently in Lex. My 'bot system has a standard set of procedures and protocols for bringing the dormant system back online and beginning to interrogate it for data. All standard procedures fine-tuned over millennia.
"When I touched Lana, the 'bot systems recognized each other as part of the same system, and immediately mirrored all unique data from one of us to the other for added redundancy. Effectively, each of us instantly experienced everything the other had experienced for the past hour since we separated. It momentarily overwhelmed our minds and the 'bot system shut us down until it could recover. Fortunately, the 'bot system has adapted and developed new protocols so in the future, a less disruptive data exchange will occur."
"So you guys are okay now?" asked Lex.
"Yeah, well, as okay as things are likely to be anytime soon," answered Laura. Then, knowing what was foremost in Lex's mind, she turned to Clark. "Clark, I am having a hard time bringing any of Lana's memories back to mind. As Lex said, my memories as Chloe are very vibrant and intense. On the way back over here Lex tried to trigger a memory that only he and Lana, but not Chloe, would share. Unfortunately in this regard, I can access Lex's memories through the 'bot system, so it is hard to say if the common memories I have are coming from Lana or Lex.
"Anyway, since you don't have the issue with 'bots in your body, we were hoping you could suggest some incident that only you and Lana would share, so we can see if I can access her memories. Perhaps if I can figure out how to access one, I can figure out how to access more."
Laura leaned back against Lex to await Clark's response. She found herself hoping this would work. Not just to please Lex, but also for herself. This was Lana's body she was sharing after all, and she didn't want Lana to be gone forever.
Clark paused for only a couple of seconds before responding. The most vivid memory he had of Lana was the first night they had really talked. The same night he had found out about his heritage and had run away from his father in fear and shock. The night he had ended up out in the cemetery.
"My most vivid memory of Lana is one I never shared with anyone and I don't think she did either. Laura, try to remember what Lana's father said the first time she introduced us."
Laura looked at Clark in surprise. She knew Lana's parents were killed during the meteor shower and that Clark arrived during the shower, so there was no way Clark could have met Lana's parents.
To concentrate, Laura closed her eyes and did her best to empty her mind. Forget about Chloe. Forget about Lex. Forget about Rome. Just think about Clark. Clark and Lana.
Suddenly, a strange image popped into her head. Opening her eyes, she looked at Clark. "Clark, I don't know what it means, but all of a sudden I have this mental image of you with wings."
"Wings?" asked Clark. "I don't remember anything about wings. Can you describe it in more detail?"
Laura closed her eyes again to focus on the image. "You are standing, not actually flying or anything. The wings project up behind your back. What it really reminds me of is the movie poster to 'Heaven Can Wait' with Warren Beatty."
"Warren Beatty?"
"Yeah, the movie where he was the star athlete whose guardian angel calls him to heaven before his time and the rest of the movie is spent trying to find him a suitable body to live out his allotted years."
"So they are looking for someone else's body to put his mind into. Why does that suddenly sound so familiar?" asked Lex in a wryly ironic tone.
"Shush," said Laura trying not to let the interruption break her train of thought.
"The wings from the movie poster are angel wings. Classic angel wings. That's what I am seeing. Clark standing there with angel wings."
Clark shook his head. "I have never worn angel wings, so I don't understand the significance. Can you tell where I was standing? Inside or out? Day or night?"
Laura tried to pull back from her image of Clark and see the surroundings. "It is night. Very thick, heavy, low hanging fog is rolling around you."
"Fog?" quietly interjected Clark as he recalled the fog in the cemetery that night.
"You know, fog like in old horror movies set in haunted cemeteries." Suddenly she exclaimed in an excited voice, which suddenly sounded more like the old Lana than the new Laura. "A cemetery! That's where we were. You were standing in front of a statue of an angel. And from where I was standing it looked like you had wings."
Clark realized this was the first time she had said I instead of Lana, perhaps they were making some progress. Continuing in the same quiet voice to keep her moving forward, Clark asked, "Why were you in a cemetery at night?"
Without really thinking about what she was saying, she just automatically responded. "I often visited my parents at night when I needed to think. It was always so much quieter and it felt like they were really there and listening."
"And that night?"
Laura got a far away look in her eyes. "Clark, you looked so lost, like you had no idea where your place was in anything any more. I suddenly had this strong urge to cheer you up and maybe find out what was bothering you."
"So what did you do?" prompted Clark.
"I introduced you to my parents." Then Laura's eyes began to glow as she realized she had remembered the answer to Clark's original question. "My Mom asked if you were upset about a girl. When you said no, my Dad asked if you were upset about a guy. And you got this cute, panicky look on your face like the comment had seriously questioned your masculinity."
Clark smiled. "Well, unless Lana told that story to Lex or Chloe, I think you still have Lana's memories buried somewhere in your little head."
Lex grinned with relief, there was still hope that Lana could be brought back. "I can't speak for Chloe, but I am sure Lana never discussed it with me."
"Clark?" asked Laura.
"Hmm?" responded Clark with raised eyebrows.
"What was bothering you that night? I still can't remember that part."
Clark stared out at the reflecting pool for a moment. "That evening my father told me for the first time I was an alien and then showed me the spaceship. I had always known I was different, but to find out I was an alien was such a shock. By the time you found me the cemetery I was reaching the end of the denial stage and was just beginning to reach the acceptance stage. However with acceptance came the questions of why I was on the Earth. Why had my 'real' parents sent me to Smallville.
"But I couldn't come out and say, 'Well, you see, the reason I am upset is my parents have been lying to me my entire life. And not about some little thing, no, my Dad just told me I am an alien, but everything will be okay, because they still love me.'" Clark shook his head and then let out a long sigh. "So as I always have to do, I gave a nebulous response comparing my long lost biological parents with your long departed parents and then I diverted the conversation back to you."
"Clark," said Chloe as she leaned over to rest her head against his shoulder. "You don't have to always divert the conversation in the future. You have us now. Whenever you feel the need to talk, we are here for you."
As Clark wrapped his arm a little tighter around her in appreciation, he looked over to see Lex and Laura nod their heads in agreement. He wasn't certain how this conversation had suddenly become about him, but he appreciated their support.
"Chloe," began Clark, wanting to return the support. "Back at the stadium you said there was a side effect to your healing people with your abilities and that it led to some of the darkest times in your life. I am guessing from this conversation, it is something different than what happened to Lana. If you want to talk about it, I am here for you just like you are here for me when I need to talk about my issues with my biological family."
Chloe nodded. She knew from the memory download she had received from Laura that Lex had already experienced some of the things she needed to discuss and he could probably extrapolate some of it from there. Lex could learn the rest of it from Laura since she shared all of Chloe's memories, but it was better if the whole story came from her instead of Laura. Before the story was finished, Lex might need to hate someone and if so, it would be better if it was her, so as not to taint Lex's relationship with Laura or Lana or whatever hybrid personality might result in the end.
"I need to start from the beginning so you can understand why I ended up where I did. The story is going to take awhile, so let's order up some lunch before I begin." Chloe merely clapped her hands and one of Rogerus' well trained staff was there in a moment.
After ordering a meal to be brought up to the balcony, Chloe leaned back against Clark and began. "I wasn't always aware of my healing abilities. Actually, I was over seven thousand years old before I made the discovery.
"I was living in a small farming community about forty miles from Atlantis when I made the discovery. I had been happily married for sixteen years and we had four beautiful children." Here she paused a moment and looked into Clark's eyes. A week ago, when the topic of her being married before had come up, it had bothered Clark a lot. Hopefully with an additional week of knowing her secret, he would be more able to accept it, as her daughter Keviuh was an integral part of the story.
Clark smiled. "Having seen you and Laura return from the dead really drives home some of the realities of your life. I think I have adjusted to your having had other families before meeting me."
At hearing this Chloe had to lean over and whisper a quiet thank you in his ear.
"My husband's name was Kefrey. We had two daughters, Keviuh, 15, and Gefiuh, 13. And we had twin eleven year old sons, Kefrey Junior and Arvrey. My name at the time was Sliviuh."
As Lex sat there with Laura in his arms, he abruptly got a mental image of Chloe's family. More than just a picture of their faces, in a second he experienced ten minutes from Chloe's life. Not the horrific events she was about to describe, but a happy time two months earlier at the twins' eleventh birthday celebration. Instantly, the memory of their faces and even a little of their personalities were burned into his mind. He found it amazing how much Keviuh looked like Chloe.
"Wow, Chloe, Keviuh really did look like you, right down to the smile." remarked Lex.
Clark looked at Lex and then back to Chloe with a perplexed expression on his face.
"I think Laura just showed Lex a memory of my family back then. It is part of the side effects I want to explain. If I want, I can hear the thoughts of anyone who I touch who has been infected with my 'bots. Or I can make it a two way conversation like Laura and I were sharing earlier. Or I can share with them any memory stored in the nanobot system."
"Clark, the memories are more real than you would believe. In what couldn't have been over a second, I experienced from Chloe's perspective ten minutes from Kef and Arvrey's eleventh birthday party and suddenly it feels like they are my own kids." Added Lex with a small shake of his head, still trying to come to grips with all of the new things he had experienced in the past couple of hours. It occurred to him that his life would never be the same again, even when they got back to Smallville.
Chloe looked at Laura. "Are you sure it was wise to show Lex that image?"
Laura shrugged, "I don't want there to be any secrets between us. I thought he had the right to know."
"You have to know where the story is going next and I don't want him to be overwhelmed."
Laura looked back at Chloe. "Sorry. I'll try to skip the visual aids for awhile."
"Getting back to the story, shortly after dawn one morning our farm was attacked by raiders from the highlands. I thought we lived far enough from the highlands and near enough to Atlantis to never experience this problem, but I was wrong. A large horde of horsemen cut a swath of destruction five miles wide in a sweeping arc through farmlands to the west of Atlantis. They destroyed everything they couldn't carry away and we happened to get caught in the middle of it."
Chloe paused for a moment to steel herself to tell the next portion. "The raiders were storming the farm before we knew it or had a chance to respond. In a matter of seconds after it started, Kefrey, Gefiuh, and my sons were all dead. Cruelly cut down as I helplessly watched. Soon, only Keviuh and I were still alive and that was only so they could have some fun before killing us, too."
Lex was almost in shock; Laura could feel through their connection. She knew Chloe had been right. She shouldn't have given Lex such vivid memories of them right before telling him they would shortly all be dead. 'I'm sorry, Lex.' She thought. 'I should have just let Chloe tell the story without butting in. I don't know what I was thinking. Things are obviously not as simple as Chloe's mind stuck in Lana's body. There are interactions between the mind and body which are already making my actions different than Chloe expects. I hope you can understand and will forgive me.'
Lex was still trying to come to grips with his feelings. Along with Chloe's memories of the birthday party had come her feelings as a parent who deeply loved and cared for her children. And Lex for the first time really understood what it was like to be a parent, a feeling he never experienced with his father and could only vaguely remember with his mother. It was a feeling of joy different than anything he had known. Different, and in some ways more fulfilling, than the love of a woman.
And then, to suddenly find out within months of those memories, they would all be dead. It shook Lex. He knew intellectually they weren't his children and that they had been dead for thousands of years, but it had felt so real. And it had felt so good. In the past week he had had frequent dreams of spending the rest of his life with Lana, but children had never entered his thoughts. Now he knew children would be an important part.
'It is okay, Laura. Maybe you didn't consciously realize why you gave me that memory, but it was important.' And then Lex let his newfound feelings pour into Laura through their link.
'Oh, my god, Lex' responded Laura. 'I never pictured you as the happy, domestic father type before. But now, I think you will make a great father some day. If, as you say, I didn't consciously understand why I gave you that memory, was it my subconscious, or a subliminal message from Lana?'
Lex gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. 'Or perhaps a combination of you two? Who knows? I guess we will figure it out as we go along.'
This mental exchange between Lex and Laura only took a couple of seconds and they returned their attention to Chloe, as she continued to speak.
"After the raiders had their fun, they did as I expected. They savagely sliced open our bellies and then threw Keviuh's body on top of mine. As I lay there in shock, I watched her slowly die. Then my anger and frustration grew and grew. This was not the first time or even the tenth I had been force to watch loved ones put to death while I could do nothing, but helpless watch, knowing I would be forced to go on alone.
"But this time I could feel her blood seeping into my, as yet, unhealed wounds. My 'bots would heal my wounds; however Keviuh, whose wounds were pressed tightly against my own, was destined to die. I had never been in quite the same situation before, particularly with someone I cared about as much as my daughter and I would do anything to let her survive.
"By this time I had spent thousands of years testing the limits of the 'bots built-in safety protocols and had found a few loopholes to use to my advantage. This time I needed to find a new loophole in seconds. As you have surely guessed, I found a way to force some of the 'bots in my blood to pass into her body and then begin a rapid replication process to heal her wounds. Just like with Lex and Lana, in only a few seconds my 'bots had saturated her entire body and then the repairs to her body proceeded as rapidly as in my own.
"You can't imagine how happy I was when she opened her eyes and said, 'Mommy'." At this point Chloe's eyes were shining with tears.
Clark pulled her into a hug and rocked her for a minute.
Finally, Chloe gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, pulled back a little and wiped at her eyes.
"Sorry, anyway after holding her to me for a few seconds, I remembered the rest of my family lying about us, also dead. If I could save Keviuh, I suddenly hoped I could save the rest. And I tried, and tried, but it was too late. If only the raiders had killed us at the same time as the rest, there might have been a chance. But the others had been dead for over twenty minutes, and as I would eventually discover, five minutes is about the max for my 'bots to bring anyone back."
Lex felt a shudder run through his body. "Five minutes? It must have been longer than that with Laura."
Chloe shook her head. "Lex, I think this is one of those times where it feels like time slows way down. From the time the killing spear hit her until I was able to introduce my 'bots into her body was four minutes and eleven seconds. But if you guys had been just a couple of minutes later. . ."
"We need to thank Cyrus for getting to us when he did," said Clark.
"Cyrus?" asked Chloe with a surprised look on her face. "But he is the one who got us into this whole mess in the first place."
"And I think he regretted it. Thankfully, he tried the best he could to make amends," answered Lex.
"So, Chloe, what happened next with you and your daughter?" asked Clark, curious how this apparently happy occasion of saving her daughter's life would ultimately lead to some of her darkest times.
"The raiders put the house to the torch before they departed. By the time I was forced to give up the futile attempt to save the rest of my family, the house was engulfed in flames. When we made our escape from the fire, we discovered the rest of the outbuildings also ablaze and all of the farmhands we could find were dead.
"We made our way to the farm of our nearest neighbor, but even before we arrived we could see the billowing smoke. By the time we reached the smoldering remains of the house, Keviuh had started to recover from the shock of finding herself unhurt after receiving mortal wounds and from the shock of seeing the rest of the family dead. Now her thoughts were only of Larweto, her fiancé. They were supposed to have been married in another two weeks, and she was becoming frantic to find him.
"Larweto's family owned a farm a little over a mile away. From our neighbor's farm, we made the journey at a dead run. When we got there, we found the same wholesale destruction as everywhere else. We searched and searched, but Larweto's body must have been in one of the buildings that burned. Finally, Keviuh fell to her knees in exhaustion and despair.
"I collapsed to the ground beside her and wrapped her in my arms for the first time since leaving our own family farm. As I sat there hugging her, I realized my 'bots had brought her 'bots back on-line. I guess in the shock of the day's events, I never thought about how the 'bots would still be in her body. Now, not only could I direct the 'bots to physically remove her exhaustion, but I could read her very thoughts. This was something entirely new to me and I spent sometime exploring the limits of my abilities."
"Chloe," interrupted Lex. "I don't quite understand why the physical contact is necessary for the dormant 'bots to be brought back on-line."
"Well, Lex, you need to remember the scale of the 'bots. They are so tiny, on average, fifty 'bots reside in every cell of my body, and now in yours and Laura's, too. Each 'bot consists of only a few tens of thousands of atoms. They are really tiny. Therefore they are extremely low powered and each 'bot can only communicated with the nearest twenty to thirty 'bots. A 'bot can't even directly communicate with another 'bot at the extreme other end of the same cell, let alone a 'bot in my head directly communicating with one in my left big toe. So due to the low power nature of the 'bots, any data that must transferred from head to toe, will pass through billions of 'bots to reach its destiny.
"Now this may sound cumbersome, but in fact the message is sent on millions of parallel paths and with proper error checking routines in place, this is a fast, highly reliable method of sending data. Actually, the military back home is just starting to experiment with a similar highly redundant, low powered networking concept called 'Smart Dust'. Their plan is to saturate the battlefield with trillions of dust-sized sensors and networking devices. Of course, these dust-size devices are a million times larger that my 'bots and have a receiving and sending range best measured in centimeters rather than microns as with my 'bots."
Chloe shook her head. "Sorry, I got sort of sidetracked, but to answer your question, my 'bots have extremely short range and only actual physical contact brings the 'bots in my skin close enough to make contact with 'bots in the skin of the other person.
Laura could almost hear the sigh of relief she felt through her link with Lex. Remembering conversations he had shared with Chloe on the boat trip to Rome, she knew Lex was a very private person and how much effort it had taken for him to truly open up to Lana. Knowing he could regain his privacy by merely avoiding her and Chloe's touch was so important to him, she suddenly wondered if today's events had destroyed any possible future for Lana and Lex.
Trying to respect what she thought were Lex's wishes, Laura started to get up to move to another chair.
"Where are you going?" asked Lex, his tone implying more than simple curiosity.
Laura didn't pause to respond until she had stood up and broken contact with him. With a slight tremor in her voice she responded. "Lex, I'm sorry. I just realized how important your privacy is to you. It is very difficult to not listen into your thoughts when we are touching. You could say it is almost addictive. It is probably for the best if we don't touch for now."
Lex stared up at her. He could sense how much she wanted to be held right now. He could feel in himself the desire for the contact and the clarity of understanding the nanobot link provided. He started to reach to pull her back down, but then hesitated. They had been in almost constant physical contact since leaving the arena, maybe it would be best if he had some time alone to clear his thoughts and try to come to grips with what was happening with his life, as so much had changed in the past twenty four hours: finding out Clark's secret, losing the girls, discovering the girls' lifeless bodies, experiencing the effects of Chloe's 'bots, and having Lana brought back to life, but then finding out it was Chloe's mind in her body. It was simply overwhelming.
Finally, Lex nodded with a somewhat sad expression on his face. "Okay, I understand. Maybe it is best if we each have a little time alone to understand what is happening to us, so we can make the right decisions about where we want things to head in the future."
Laura nodded in return, but her heart ached for a return of the feeling of togetherness brought through the linking of their minds by the nanobots. It allowed a level of intimacy she hadn't permitted herself to experience in a very long time. But it was for the best to make sure Lex understood all of the ramifications before she accidentally or intentionally took things to the next level.
As Laura was about to take the seat next to Lex, a servant arrived carrying a tray with a bottle of wine and four crystal goblets. Laura helped herself to a glass and took a large shallow, enjoying the burning sensation as it went down her throat. Perhaps a little bit of a buzz would help take the edge off of her feelings. Oh, she could use her 'bots to tweak the chemistry of her brain to achieve the same effect, but sometimes the natural ways were the best. Draining her glass with a second big shallow, she set the glass down on a nearby table and took the seat across from Lex.
"Okay, Chloe, I think I am ready for you to continue with the story." She said with a lingering glance back at Lex.
Chloe nodded. She knew from long experience Lex and Laura would benefit from focusing on the story for awhile and letting their subconscious worry about the ramifications of the nanobot-mindlink on their relationship.
"After what must have been an hour sitting just holding each other in the yard in front of Larweto's family's home, I finally forced Keviuh to her feet. Sitting there wasn't doing anyone any good. With nothing but destruction at any of the farms we had visited, I decided we should try Susa, the nearest small town. It was not quite three miles away and I could see the massive, billowing smoke before we even started out, but I was sure there must be survivors among the hundreds of people who lived there.
"We reached the town, or at least the remains of the town, in about an hour. Along the way we didn't see a single living soul and on reaching the outskirts of the town it didn't seem likely there either, as every wooden building had been burned. We walked from street to street calling out for anyone who might hear us, but nothing.
"It wasn't until we were almost too far side of the town and I was starting to think we would have to continue walking towards Atlantis that I heard it, a faint child's cries. With a couple minutes of searching, Keviuh spotted him trapped under a partially collapsed stone wall. It took us several minutes to clear away most of the loose rubble until only the large stone pinning his legs remained.
"The boulder on his legs was huge and even without removing it; I could tell his legs had been crushed. I found a stout timber, which hadn't been burned, and working together Keviuh and I managed to lever the stone free. And that's when I saw the damage to the boy's legs was even worse than I had suspected, the way the stones had fallen had sheared off his right leg just above the ankle. Only the crushing weight of the stones had kept him from bleeding to death and now we had removed the impromptu tourniquet.
"The blood was rapidly pumping out of the stump of his leg and if I didn't do something quickly, in seconds he would be dead. Dead. And I had already seen so much death and destruction. Suddenly, one more death seemed utterly intolerable. Remembering how I had saved Keviuh through the mixing of our blood, I dug my fingernails into the palm of my hand as hard as I could until I felt the blood begin to flow. Quickly, before my injury could start to heal, I pressed my palm against the torn remains of the boy's leg. This time I instantly knew in my head the proper protocols required to force my 'bots to enter his body and begin the colonization process.
"However this time the repairs took significantly longer than with Keviuh, major reconstruction of missing bones is much more time consuming than repairs to soft tissue. Almost two minutes elapsed before the boy was fully restored."
"Wait a second," said Lex suddenly sitting up a little straighter. "You mean you can regrow missing limbs?" This was something he didn't recall from the flashes of memory he had received from Chloe during his own healing process or later from his mindlink with Laura.
Chloe shrugged and gave a small smile before nodding. "As I told Clark back at the arena, I wouldn't have survived seventeen thousand years if I wasn't hellaciously difficult to kill."
Lex leaned back in his chair once again marveling at this unexpected surprise from Chloe. What other abilities did she have that she had yet to reveal? And then it struck him that his body had those same abilities, too. At least if Laura or Chloe was touching him. He wasn't quite ready to sacrifice his mind like Lana had unwittingly done to end up with an active 'bot system, but it would certainly be a useful advantage in his business world to have the computational and memory storage abilities of the girls, as well as the healing abilities.
As Lex continued to muse over the possibilities with an active 'bot system, Chloe continued with her story.
"When he had recovered from the shock of his wounds and his recovery, we found out his name was Donus and he was five years old. We spent some time looking for his parents, but there were no other survivors in the town.
"By this time it was well past noon and I decided we needed to start thinking about getting out of this area of total destruction. Heading towards Atlantis seemed the best bet for, as big as this party of raiders had been, they surely had stopped short of the city itself. So, with a heavy heart at once again having to leave a formerly happy life behind and start all over, I set a path forward. At least this time I wasn't totally alone, I had Keviuh and Donus.
"We walked until nearly nightfall before reaching a settlement outside the swath of destruction. Other survivors had also straggled out and they had setup some makeshift facilities in the town hall. We found an unused corner, hung some spare blankets as walls, and had our own little space for the night.
"I was sitting there thinking about our next move. I had funds stashed away in Atlantis, so it was the obvious first stop. After that, I was still undecided; I just knew I wanted to get away from the immediate area and all of the bad memories of my lost family.
"Mainly, I was sitting there thinking dark thoughts. Suddenly, Donus raced up, grabbed my hand and tugged, telling me to hurry. I jumped up, immediately afraid something had happened to Keviuh. I quickly followed after Donus as he led the way across the central courtyard to the entrance hall.
"In the entry way I found a new group of refugees, including a little girl lying on a stretcher. She had crude bandages wrapped around her middle, but her blood had soaked through. And she was shivering violently.
"Donus pulled at my sleeve and said with a pleading expression in his eyes, 'Please, Sliviuh, will you help her like you helped me?'
"The two adults with her, who were obviously her parents, looked at me with hopeful, expectant expressions, assuming I was the village healer. And it finally sunk home with me that I was a healer, although a different style of healer than anyone had seen before. Perhaps this was my new destiny after the loss of my family, to become a healer.
"I nodded to the parents and then requested the man's knife. He looked concerned for a moment but then handed it over. I knelt down next to the girl and carefully peeled back the bandages around her abdomen. The blood was still oozing from the exposed lacerations. I took the knife, slashed open my palm, and quickly pressed it against the girl's open wound.
"As I had done twice already that day, I forced my 'bots into her body. This time, once the replication process was complete, I spent the seconds while the healing was being accomplished exploring the girl's memories. In those five seconds I learned her name, her parent's names, and that she had lost three sisters and one brother to the raiders.
"At the end of the total ten second process, I removed my healed hand and turned to the parents as their daughter sat up. 'Mayius is fine now. I am sorry about the loss of your other children.'
"Mayius' parents sat there in shock as she jumped to her feet and ran over to hug them.
"And so began the next period of my life as word, stories, and rumors of my healing abilities spread throughout the region."
Chloe paused at this point in her story to get some more wine. While she was up, the others also took the opportunity to rise and stretch.
As he helped himself to fresh plate of fruits, Lex asked, "Chloe, I understand the remainder of your story is important, but if you don't mind a short digression onto another important topic? Did you find out anything about the whereabouts of the Professor last night from Venta?"
Chloe paused with her wine cup halfway to her mouth. Looking at Lex, she shook her head. "Not directly, however it certainly seemed like Venta hadn't heard from the Professor recently or knew he was back from the future."
Lex had to grin briefly at her inadvertent reference to the old Michael J. Fox movie. "If Venta hadn't heard from the Professor, does that mean he hasn't arrived yet or did he have a different destination in mind when he left Tolosa in such a rush?"
Chloe shrugged. "Whether he was headed somewhere else or headed here doesn't matter now. I mean even if he was headed here, but hadn't arrived yet, I doubt he will come here now. Certainly word of the 'Greek Gods looking for a man named Carius who is carrying magical green stones' and Venta's death at the stadium will spread from Rome like wildfire. If word reaches him before he arrives in Rome, I can't believe he will continue to here. I mean with Tiberius dead he has lost his powerbase and now with Venta gone, too. Well . . ."
"If he isn't coming here, then where?" asked Clark.
"The only other logical place for the Professor to head would seem to be General Domicius and the Rhine Army," answered Laura.
"That was my thought, too," agreed Lex. "Has there been any word from the people you sent to watch the passes?"
"Not as of yesterday," said Chloe. "Let's get Rogerus up here to see if he has any more recent information."
After Chloe had a servant send for Rogerus she continued. "I think we need to start planning to move north as soon as possible to intercept the Rhine army and hopefully catch up with the Professor. I have a sudden strong feeling time is of the essence."
"Me, too." said Laura.
Clark and Lex just looked at her.
Under their stare, she finally responded. "Hey, I can have that feeling too; I am not just some clone of Chloe."
"Sorry," responded both Lex and Clark at the same time, almost sounding like clones themselves.
"What is the fastest way north?" asked Lex.
"Horseback," said Chloe and Laura simultaneously which led them to look at each other and start to giggle.
As the girls shared a laugh, Lex got a frown on his face remembering the discomfort of the horseback ride from Tolosa to Narbo and the stiffness and soreness he had 'enjoyed' in his legs, back, and butt for several days afterwards.
Seeing the look on Lex's face, when Laura got her laughter under control she said. "Lex, this will be much less painful than the first day out of Tolosa. You will just need to let Chloe or me touch you for a few seconds occasionally and I can guarantee you no pain or stiffness afterwards."
Lex was surprised he had forgot the nanobots in his system so soon after their recent conversation. It drove home to him how much he had been dreading getting back on that horse.
Clark, too, was not looking forward to getting back into the Roman saddle. But then he decided since everyone was in on his 'secret', there was no need. "Ahh, guys. I am just going to run rather than ride, if it is okay with you."
Chloe nodded. "Sure, Clark, although I think it is best we bring along a spare horse for you. There may be times we will want to enter towns without drawing attention to ourselves."
"Okay," agreed Clark.
"What is the quickest route?" asked Lex.
"It would be fastest to take the coast road up to Pisa, or Pisae as it is known here. From there we can either continue up the coast to Genua or turn inland if we find word the Rhineland Army has used one of the eastern passes through the Alps," answered Laura.
As he heard Laura mention Genua, Lex's mind returned to the night they had spent in Genua on their way down to Rome, the night he had first seen Lana nude. And now to have her body standing here next to him, but it was no longer exactly her. It was still going to take more time for his brain to adjust.
With an almost physical effort Lex pulled his mind away from Genua and Lana, and back to the topic at hand. "What about when we catch up to this army? It doesn't sound like you plan to bring the emperor along or scrounge up some other legions, like we had discussed earlier."
This time it was Clark who spoke up first. "No games this time. Look at the mess it got us into last time. This time I am going ask straight out for them to turn over the General and the Professor, if he is there. And if they don't agree, well, I am just going to bust down the front door and take them."
Remembering the action at the Praetorian Camp on the previous evening, Lex knew no mere Roman Army, no matter how large, was going to stop Clark once he had his mind set. "Okay, Clark. I guess that answers my question."
Chloe still remembered Clark's comments about the effect meteor rocks had on him. If the Professor and his meteor rocks were with the Rhine Army, Clark needed to be ready for such an eventuality. Chloe still had the lead-lined box she had acquired their first day in Tolosa after her conversation with Clark at the baths. Now she just needed to retrieve it from her room and she was ready to go.
"When did you want to leave?" asked Lex, expecting Chloe to respond with an answer of 'in a few days'.
"This afternoon," was her response. When Lex looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. "What's the old saying? 'We came, we saw, we conquered.' We've seen Rome. We've seen chariot races at the Circus Maximus. We didn't quite get to see any gladiators fighting, but being recipients of an execution at the arena was, I think, close enough. We destroyed the Praetorian Camp and the Stadium. Hmm, I believe that pretty much covers all of the highlights of ancient Rome.
"And, okay, so a couple of us were executed this morning. It's not like any of us need any more time to heal. We are all as physically fit now as we will be tomorrow or the next day. So, let's be on our way. I, for one, am ready to move on and leave Rome in the past."
"I agree," said Laura. Turning to Lex, she continued. "Remaining in Rome is not going to make it any easier to get Lana back; we might as well be on our way."
Even though Rome was the last place Lex had seen and talked to Lana, he knew Laura was right. There was nothing magical about Rome that would, in itself, bring her back. Slowly he nodded.
They all turned to Clark, who had the final vote. He merely looked back at them, nodded solemnly, and said, "Let's do it."
Just as the decision had become unanimous, Rogerus arrived.
Chloe turned to him. "Rogerus, has there been any word of the Rhine Army?"
Rogerus shook his head. "No word, yet."
Chloe nodded. "It is now apparent what we were searching for when we came to Rome is not here. If it is to be found, it must be with the Rhine Army. We want to head north immediately." Here Chloe paused for a moment. She really wanted to finish her story for Lex's sake before they left and then they needed to do a little light packing. "Please have four horses ready for us in two hours. Also I want at least fifty of our guards with us until we are well clear of the city."
Rogerus nodded to indicate it would all be taken care of. Coelia had always been a very spontaneous person. He was not at all surprised she would leave Rome as suddenly as she had arrived.
"I will see everything is ready," said Rogerus offering a short, polite bow before departing.
As everyone settled back down for the remainder of Chloe's story, Lex leaned forward and looked at her. "Chloe, you can cut to the chase, if you want. I am a big boy and I can handle whatever it is you are easing up to so carefully."
Seeing the look on her face, Lex pulled his comment back a little. "If it helps you to talk about it, by all means proceed at your own pace."
Chloe hadn't discussed the following events in her story with anyone in a very long time. Was she really dragging things out to be easier on Lex or was it to try and rationalize to herself and the others some of the things she had done? Perhaps in the light of today's events, the things she needed to say weren't really that scarily dark.
"Okay, Lex," she began after finally looking him in the eye. "I will try to speed up the story."
Chloe dropped her eyes again and continued in a low, subdued tone. "However you have to understand this is very hard for me to talk about. Some of the things I did were so morally wrong by the standards I have always believed in. I mean, over the course of a seventeen thousand year life, the majority of which was spent in very barbaric societies by modern standards, I have killed a number of people. And as a ruler on numerous occasions, I have led troops into countless battles. Who knows, the number of people who have died under my command is probably well into the millions. But those people all died of their own free will. Well, it is not easy to get out of an army about to go into battle, but it is possible. Unfortunately, for the people in the events I am about to relate, that wasn't possible."
Chloe let out long, slow sigh before looking back up. "I spent thirty years as an itinerant healer. Eventually, when Donus grew up, he got married and settled in a pleasant little village. Keviuh remained with me and every year or two we tried to visit Donus. As the years went by, our apparent relationships changed until eventually I was taken for the daughter and Keviuh my mother and Donus my favorite uncle."
"Wait a second," interrupted Lex. "You mean they continued to get older? I thought the 'bots would take care of that."
"Sorry, Lex, when I touch someone with my 'bots, I can activate them and make the person be in the best physical condition possible for their age, but the aging doesn't stop. Well, perhaps if I wanted to play Siamese twin and touched someone continuously forever, then the aging would probably stop. But I think Laura may be the first person infected with my 'bots who could possibly live forever like me."
Lex frowned a little at this. It sounded like his 'passive' 'bot system had a lot less advantages than the 'active' ones in Chloe and Laura. Still, if Chloe's guestimate of roughly thirty years until modern science would be able to duplicate her abilities was correct, it meant it wouldn't be too late for him.
Getting back to her story, Chloe continued. "As I said, I spent thirty years as an itinerant healer. During those years I explored what I could do with my 'bots in other people's bodies. Oh, I didn't explore my abilities much with Keviuh, since she was family, but I rationalized my actions with others as just the unspoken price they would have to pay in exchange for my healing services.
"I mastered the basic things we have discussed like being able to read the other's thoughts, hold a two-way conversation, and even create a virtual reality situation where we could interact."
"What do you mean virtual reality?" asked Clark.
"This is something I have already experienced with Laura," responded Lex. "Clark, while Laura and I were touching she made it seem like we were back in my office at the castle. And it felt perfectly real. I could walk around, play pool, drink, anything; and it all felt real."
"What Lex hasn't mentioned," added Laura, "Is while this was going on I was controlling his body in the real world, too. We were walking back from the arena at the time and Lex even stopped to chat with a couple of vendors without knowing it."
"Shit," whispered Lex under his breath. He knew she had been controlling his body, but hadn't realized she could even have him carry on conversations without his knowledge. Was this what Chloe was driving towards with her story?
Laura looked at Lex. "I don't have to touch you to know what you are thinking. And, yes, if I was touching you, we could meet someone, say your father, without you ever knowing and I could have you hold a conversation with him of my choosing without either of you ever suspecting. I mean, your voice would sound just like the normal you. And any information I needed to be convincing, I could pull from your memory. The whole time you could even think you were in the very same room and not even realize it was only a virtual reality copy."
Lex's mind was starting to spin as some of the implications hit home. Could he ever trust to let Chloe or Laura touch him again? Would he even know if he was touching one of them, if they could smoothly transition to a virtual reality where they seemed to be sitting across the room, or not even present?
Lex almost started to hyperventilate. Was he even really here, now? Or was this all some construct in his mind? Finally, he realized he needed to calm himself. Neither Chloe nor Laura had ever shown anything but the best intentions toward him. And even now, they were explaining things to him when they could have just as easily kept this information to themselves. Perhaps, thought Lex, it would have been better if they had kept things to themselves.
"Lex," asked Chloe, "Are you still with us?"
Lex forced himself to become aware of his surroundings. The others were all carefully watching him. "Yeah, I was just thinking about some of the implications of what you and Laura said."
"Good. I am glad you understand enough to be thinking about the implications," said Chloe as she resumed control of the conversation to keep Lex focused on thinking about her rather than Laura. "If I hadn't grown up in a place where virtual reality was possible, I would never have thought of trying it on others who had my 'bots. Up in the twenty first century that level of virtual reality isn't possible yet, but it is close enough people understand the concept whether it is called virtual reality, or 'the holodeck' on Star Trek, or whatever. But back in the time period where I discovered my healing abilities and was exploring what I could do with my 'bots in the recipient's bodies; people had no concept or understanding of virtual reality.
Chloe shook her head. "I experimented a lot in those years, but mostly kept myself under control. Until it happened. After thirty years, Keviuh and my paths once again crossed with the highland raiders and this time Keviuh didn't survive the encounter. After forty-five years happy years together, one of the longest spans in my entire life, something in me snapped when I found her broken and mutilated body.
"Upon finding out the raiders had caused her death, the same way they had wiped out the rest of my family so long ago, a darkness grew inside of me until I vowed I would wipe out the raiders to the last man. To accomplish this goal I knew I would need my own army. I had commanded armies before, but never like this. No, this time I used my 'bots to control the army."
"How could you use your 'bots to control the army?" asked Clark. "I mean you can only touch a few people at one time."
"Subliminal messages. Okay, maybe not so subliminal. What if you thought you were somewhere familiar like shooting hoops on the side of your barn when God walked up and started telling you about your new mission in life. And we're talking God with all the trappings, a voice which made your very bones vibrate, a chorus of a million angels in the background, an internal luminosity only a God could have. Well, a primitive mind, hell even a contemporary one, would be overwhelmed if it seemed real enough. And I could make it seem perfectly real.
"I started with a few leaders of the Atlantian army, but eventually I shared blood with every man in the army and each one of them had his own personal encounter with God or some equivalent."
Lex suddenly flashed back to one of Chloe's memories he had experienced during his healing process, a memory of Chloe working her way down a seemingly endless line of soldiers sharing blood and minds with everyone. A shudder ran through him as he imagined an army of zealots who really believed they had each personally met God and who would make modern-day suicide bombers seem like non-believers.
"Oh, my god," whispered Lex, suddenly looking slightly pale under the bright mid-day sun.
"Yeah," answered Chloe. "The next couple of centuries were not one of my prouder moments. It is one thing to use your gifts to rule benevolently and really try to help people. It is something else entirely when you use mind-control to dominate an entire civilization for your own dark agenda."
Chloe paused to run her right hand through her short blonde hair. "After that whole experience in Atlantis, I promised myself I would never use my gifts in a similar manner again. And for the past ten thousand years I have mostly stuck to my promise. Oh, I have on occasion forced my 'bots into someone who didn't need healing, but because I needed the truth from them. Or I have on very rare occasions forced my 'bots on someone to give them a 'vision' to nudge mankind on a new path during particularly dark or bleak times. But I have tried for the most part to let mankind proceed forward at its own pace without excessive interference."
"Well, Lex, there you have it. Since you are caught in this situation with my 'bots in your body, I wanted you to have the whole story upfront. I have no intention of messing in, or controlling your mind or your life. You're a smart guy and from what you have already experienced with Laura I figured you would eventually extrapolate a lot these capabilities on my part. And I didn't want you ending up afraid I was intentionally hiding this from you because I had some secret agenda."
Lex, for a moment, flashed back to the long ago comment by Clark at the baths in Tolosa about not trying to take advantage of her as she was very capable of watching her back. At the time he hadn't comprehended the full significance of that statement. Eventually, when he discovered she was the wealthiest person through out history, he had only understood the financial risks of tangling with her. But now, the true significance had been driven home: it was within her abilities to completely and totally mess with your head without you even being aware it was happening. She definitely was the one person you never wanted to seriously piss off.
Laura had been watching Lex and trying to read his expression. It would have been so much easier if they still shared the mindlink. But it would have to be Lex's decision if they would ever do that again. Since the situation wasn't under Lex's physical control, she had to leave the mental decision up to him. It was a rule she had forced herself to live with for thousands of years and it seemed to be for the best.
"Lex," began Laura. "The same goes for me. Now that you know the truth, I would never use my abilities on you without your permission."
Lex looked from Chloe to Laura. Life had been so much simpler just yesterday. He had found the girl of his dreams and this whole little trip to Rome had seemed almost like a lark. But in the past twenty-four hours, everything had been turned upside-down. He had finally found out the answers to the questions about Clark which had been almost an obsession for the past year and within hours they had paled to almost insignificance. When your body was infested with 'bots under someone else's control, no matter how benign their intentions were, it put a whole new spin on your perspective.
Lex finally made a gesture that was part nod and part shrug. "I really need some time to think. Where do we go from here?"
Laura stood up. "I hope you can think in the saddle." Then echoing a comment Lana had made on several occasions since this adventure had begun, she continued. "I am really ready to find the Professor and go home."
Lex nodded and rose to his feet. "Yeah, me, too."
--------------------- To be continued.
Author: a_delacroix@hotmail.com
Chapter 32
Clark, who had been a step behind Chloe and hadn't noticed anything unusual, fired up one of his megawatt smiles at seeing Lana alive and well.
Chloe was just starting to ask Lex and Lana what was wrong when Clark bumped her in his rush to get over and give the others a hug. As she lurched forward a couple of steps, her hand grasped Lana's leg to regain her balance. Lana suddenly sat bolt upright and the two girls said in unison, "Whoa, what a rush." And then they both fainted.
Clark almost went into speed mode in his rush to catch Chloe. After he had her in his arms, he carefully set her down on the chaise next to Lex and Lana. As he did, he realized that Lana was also out cold and Lex was holding her in his arms, gently stroking her hair, and was whispering over and over. "Laura, please wake up. Laura, everything is going to be okay."
Clark was just about to ask why Lex was calling her Laura when the girls started coming around.
"Chloe, are you okay? What happened?" asked Clark with a hint of fear in his voice as he sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms. With all of her abilities so amply demonstrated this morning, Clark was totally unprepared to have her suddenly faint dead away.
Chloe shook her head for a moment as though to clear it. "Sorry, Clark, I have never experienced anything like that before. Let me talk to Laura for a minute and then we'll try to explain."
Then Chloe turned toward Lana, clasped her hand, and without a word they sat there exchanging 'million mile' stares.
After a few seconds of sitting in utter confusion, Clark turned to Lex who was still delicately holding Lana in his arms, and asked, "Ahh, Lex, what is going on? Why are you and Chloe calling her Laura?"
With a touch of sadness in his voice, Lex answered. "I am not certain exactly what just happened, but back at the stadium when Chloe healed me and brought Lana back, ahh," and for a second Lex's voice broke. "Something went wrong."
Clark felt like someone had slammed a sledgehammer into his guts as he waited for Lex to continue.
"Chloe used her nanobots to heal our injuries. Well, more accurately, she introduced some of her 'bots into our bodies and then had them replicate until our bodies were as saturated as her own. The 'bots are keyed to her genetic code and once she is no longer touching us they are supposed to go dormant. Not disappear, just go dormant.
"Clark, while the healing process was going on, I was directly linked to her nanobot memory system and it was beyond anything you can imagine. Seventeen thousand years worth of memories slamming into me totally at random, and each one feeling perfectly really, like I was Chloe experiencing them for the first time. For the few seconds I experienced it, I almost no longer remembered I was Lex, the experience was so overwhelming.
"Fortunately for me, the experience ended when Chloe broke physical contact and the 'bots in my body switched off. However, when Chloe broke contact with Lana the 'bots didn't turn off."
Clark started to let out a sigh of relief. "It doesn't sound like that big of a problem. I mean, if the 'bots in Lana's body are active, then she must have all of Chloe's instant healing abilities, it sounds like an advantage, not a problem to me."
Lex shook his head. "Clark, you're not getting it, yet. Along with Chloe's physical abilities came all of her memories. It's like suddenly having 17,000 years worth of the best 35 mm movies in your head while your own fifteen to twenty years worth of memories are in comparison a handful of pictures drawn by a five year old child with crayons. Just imagine for a moment if all of your memories of your life, of growing up on the farm, of Martha and Jonathan, of everything were gone and suddenly you had all of my memories instead. You could look in the mirror and intellectually know you are Clark, but in your head you would believe you were Lex."
Clark slowly nodded in understanding. "So, Lana thinks she is Chloe."
"More than 'thinks' she is Chloe; try 'knows' she is Chloe. Oh, with Chloe's need to become a new person every ten or fifteen years to blend in, she can more easily adapt to being in a new body and in new circumstance than anyone else. But as long as the 'bots are active in her body and Chloe's memories are present, she is Chloe in her own mind."
"Why were you calling her Laura?"
"Somehow continuing to call her Lana just didn't feel right and we could hardly call both of them Chloe. So we agreed on Lana's middle name, Laura."
Suddenly, Laura joined into the conversation. "Chloe would no longer be appropriate anyway. Oh, until I awoke in the arena, Chloe and I have exactly the same memories, but since then we have each had our own experiences and memories. Over time we will slowly develop more unique personalities based on different experiences."
Clark looked at Laura. Her slightly different voice helped, but it was still difficult not to think of her as Lana.
"Do you know why you both just passed out?"
"Yeah," answered Chloe. "I, well, neither of us have ever encountered another person with an active nanobot system before. The only other nanobot systems I have met were dormant systems like the one currently in Lex. My 'bot system has a standard set of procedures and protocols for bringing the dormant system back online and beginning to interrogate it for data. All standard procedures fine-tuned over millennia.
"When I touched Lana, the 'bot systems recognized each other as part of the same system, and immediately mirrored all unique data from one of us to the other for added redundancy. Effectively, each of us instantly experienced everything the other had experienced for the past hour since we separated. It momentarily overwhelmed our minds and the 'bot system shut us down until it could recover. Fortunately, the 'bot system has adapted and developed new protocols so in the future, a less disruptive data exchange will occur."
"So you guys are okay now?" asked Lex.
"Yeah, well, as okay as things are likely to be anytime soon," answered Laura. Then, knowing what was foremost in Lex's mind, she turned to Clark. "Clark, I am having a hard time bringing any of Lana's memories back to mind. As Lex said, my memories as Chloe are very vibrant and intense. On the way back over here Lex tried to trigger a memory that only he and Lana, but not Chloe, would share. Unfortunately in this regard, I can access Lex's memories through the 'bot system, so it is hard to say if the common memories I have are coming from Lana or Lex.
"Anyway, since you don't have the issue with 'bots in your body, we were hoping you could suggest some incident that only you and Lana would share, so we can see if I can access her memories. Perhaps if I can figure out how to access one, I can figure out how to access more."
Laura leaned back against Lex to await Clark's response. She found herself hoping this would work. Not just to please Lex, but also for herself. This was Lana's body she was sharing after all, and she didn't want Lana to be gone forever.
Clark paused for only a couple of seconds before responding. The most vivid memory he had of Lana was the first night they had really talked. The same night he had found out about his heritage and had run away from his father in fear and shock. The night he had ended up out in the cemetery.
"My most vivid memory of Lana is one I never shared with anyone and I don't think she did either. Laura, try to remember what Lana's father said the first time she introduced us."
Laura looked at Clark in surprise. She knew Lana's parents were killed during the meteor shower and that Clark arrived during the shower, so there was no way Clark could have met Lana's parents.
To concentrate, Laura closed her eyes and did her best to empty her mind. Forget about Chloe. Forget about Lex. Forget about Rome. Just think about Clark. Clark and Lana.
Suddenly, a strange image popped into her head. Opening her eyes, she looked at Clark. "Clark, I don't know what it means, but all of a sudden I have this mental image of you with wings."
"Wings?" asked Clark. "I don't remember anything about wings. Can you describe it in more detail?"
Laura closed her eyes again to focus on the image. "You are standing, not actually flying or anything. The wings project up behind your back. What it really reminds me of is the movie poster to 'Heaven Can Wait' with Warren Beatty."
"Warren Beatty?"
"Yeah, the movie where he was the star athlete whose guardian angel calls him to heaven before his time and the rest of the movie is spent trying to find him a suitable body to live out his allotted years."
"So they are looking for someone else's body to put his mind into. Why does that suddenly sound so familiar?" asked Lex in a wryly ironic tone.
"Shush," said Laura trying not to let the interruption break her train of thought.
"The wings from the movie poster are angel wings. Classic angel wings. That's what I am seeing. Clark standing there with angel wings."
Clark shook his head. "I have never worn angel wings, so I don't understand the significance. Can you tell where I was standing? Inside or out? Day or night?"
Laura tried to pull back from her image of Clark and see the surroundings. "It is night. Very thick, heavy, low hanging fog is rolling around you."
"Fog?" quietly interjected Clark as he recalled the fog in the cemetery that night.
"You know, fog like in old horror movies set in haunted cemeteries." Suddenly she exclaimed in an excited voice, which suddenly sounded more like the old Lana than the new Laura. "A cemetery! That's where we were. You were standing in front of a statue of an angel. And from where I was standing it looked like you had wings."
Clark realized this was the first time she had said I instead of Lana, perhaps they were making some progress. Continuing in the same quiet voice to keep her moving forward, Clark asked, "Why were you in a cemetery at night?"
Without really thinking about what she was saying, she just automatically responded. "I often visited my parents at night when I needed to think. It was always so much quieter and it felt like they were really there and listening."
"And that night?"
Laura got a far away look in her eyes. "Clark, you looked so lost, like you had no idea where your place was in anything any more. I suddenly had this strong urge to cheer you up and maybe find out what was bothering you."
"So what did you do?" prompted Clark.
"I introduced you to my parents." Then Laura's eyes began to glow as she realized she had remembered the answer to Clark's original question. "My Mom asked if you were upset about a girl. When you said no, my Dad asked if you were upset about a guy. And you got this cute, panicky look on your face like the comment had seriously questioned your masculinity."
Clark smiled. "Well, unless Lana told that story to Lex or Chloe, I think you still have Lana's memories buried somewhere in your little head."
Lex grinned with relief, there was still hope that Lana could be brought back. "I can't speak for Chloe, but I am sure Lana never discussed it with me."
"Clark?" asked Laura.
"Hmm?" responded Clark with raised eyebrows.
"What was bothering you that night? I still can't remember that part."
Clark stared out at the reflecting pool for a moment. "That evening my father told me for the first time I was an alien and then showed me the spaceship. I had always known I was different, but to find out I was an alien was such a shock. By the time you found me the cemetery I was reaching the end of the denial stage and was just beginning to reach the acceptance stage. However with acceptance came the questions of why I was on the Earth. Why had my 'real' parents sent me to Smallville.
"But I couldn't come out and say, 'Well, you see, the reason I am upset is my parents have been lying to me my entire life. And not about some little thing, no, my Dad just told me I am an alien, but everything will be okay, because they still love me.'" Clark shook his head and then let out a long sigh. "So as I always have to do, I gave a nebulous response comparing my long lost biological parents with your long departed parents and then I diverted the conversation back to you."
"Clark," said Chloe as she leaned over to rest her head against his shoulder. "You don't have to always divert the conversation in the future. You have us now. Whenever you feel the need to talk, we are here for you."
As Clark wrapped his arm a little tighter around her in appreciation, he looked over to see Lex and Laura nod their heads in agreement. He wasn't certain how this conversation had suddenly become about him, but he appreciated their support.
"Chloe," began Clark, wanting to return the support. "Back at the stadium you said there was a side effect to your healing people with your abilities and that it led to some of the darkest times in your life. I am guessing from this conversation, it is something different than what happened to Lana. If you want to talk about it, I am here for you just like you are here for me when I need to talk about my issues with my biological family."
Chloe nodded. She knew from the memory download she had received from Laura that Lex had already experienced some of the things she needed to discuss and he could probably extrapolate some of it from there. Lex could learn the rest of it from Laura since she shared all of Chloe's memories, but it was better if the whole story came from her instead of Laura. Before the story was finished, Lex might need to hate someone and if so, it would be better if it was her, so as not to taint Lex's relationship with Laura or Lana or whatever hybrid personality might result in the end.
"I need to start from the beginning so you can understand why I ended up where I did. The story is going to take awhile, so let's order up some lunch before I begin." Chloe merely clapped her hands and one of Rogerus' well trained staff was there in a moment.
After ordering a meal to be brought up to the balcony, Chloe leaned back against Clark and began. "I wasn't always aware of my healing abilities. Actually, I was over seven thousand years old before I made the discovery.
"I was living in a small farming community about forty miles from Atlantis when I made the discovery. I had been happily married for sixteen years and we had four beautiful children." Here she paused a moment and looked into Clark's eyes. A week ago, when the topic of her being married before had come up, it had bothered Clark a lot. Hopefully with an additional week of knowing her secret, he would be more able to accept it, as her daughter Keviuh was an integral part of the story.
Clark smiled. "Having seen you and Laura return from the dead really drives home some of the realities of your life. I think I have adjusted to your having had other families before meeting me."
At hearing this Chloe had to lean over and whisper a quiet thank you in his ear.
"My husband's name was Kefrey. We had two daughters, Keviuh, 15, and Gefiuh, 13. And we had twin eleven year old sons, Kefrey Junior and Arvrey. My name at the time was Sliviuh."
As Lex sat there with Laura in his arms, he abruptly got a mental image of Chloe's family. More than just a picture of their faces, in a second he experienced ten minutes from Chloe's life. Not the horrific events she was about to describe, but a happy time two months earlier at the twins' eleventh birthday celebration. Instantly, the memory of their faces and even a little of their personalities were burned into his mind. He found it amazing how much Keviuh looked like Chloe.
"Wow, Chloe, Keviuh really did look like you, right down to the smile." remarked Lex.
Clark looked at Lex and then back to Chloe with a perplexed expression on his face.
"I think Laura just showed Lex a memory of my family back then. It is part of the side effects I want to explain. If I want, I can hear the thoughts of anyone who I touch who has been infected with my 'bots. Or I can make it a two way conversation like Laura and I were sharing earlier. Or I can share with them any memory stored in the nanobot system."
"Clark, the memories are more real than you would believe. In what couldn't have been over a second, I experienced from Chloe's perspective ten minutes from Kef and Arvrey's eleventh birthday party and suddenly it feels like they are my own kids." Added Lex with a small shake of his head, still trying to come to grips with all of the new things he had experienced in the past couple of hours. It occurred to him that his life would never be the same again, even when they got back to Smallville.
Chloe looked at Laura. "Are you sure it was wise to show Lex that image?"
Laura shrugged, "I don't want there to be any secrets between us. I thought he had the right to know."
"You have to know where the story is going next and I don't want him to be overwhelmed."
Laura looked back at Chloe. "Sorry. I'll try to skip the visual aids for awhile."
"Getting back to the story, shortly after dawn one morning our farm was attacked by raiders from the highlands. I thought we lived far enough from the highlands and near enough to Atlantis to never experience this problem, but I was wrong. A large horde of horsemen cut a swath of destruction five miles wide in a sweeping arc through farmlands to the west of Atlantis. They destroyed everything they couldn't carry away and we happened to get caught in the middle of it."
Chloe paused for a moment to steel herself to tell the next portion. "The raiders were storming the farm before we knew it or had a chance to respond. In a matter of seconds after it started, Kefrey, Gefiuh, and my sons were all dead. Cruelly cut down as I helplessly watched. Soon, only Keviuh and I were still alive and that was only so they could have some fun before killing us, too."
Lex was almost in shock; Laura could feel through their connection. She knew Chloe had been right. She shouldn't have given Lex such vivid memories of them right before telling him they would shortly all be dead. 'I'm sorry, Lex.' She thought. 'I should have just let Chloe tell the story without butting in. I don't know what I was thinking. Things are obviously not as simple as Chloe's mind stuck in Lana's body. There are interactions between the mind and body which are already making my actions different than Chloe expects. I hope you can understand and will forgive me.'
Lex was still trying to come to grips with his feelings. Along with Chloe's memories of the birthday party had come her feelings as a parent who deeply loved and cared for her children. And Lex for the first time really understood what it was like to be a parent, a feeling he never experienced with his father and could only vaguely remember with his mother. It was a feeling of joy different than anything he had known. Different, and in some ways more fulfilling, than the love of a woman.
And then, to suddenly find out within months of those memories, they would all be dead. It shook Lex. He knew intellectually they weren't his children and that they had been dead for thousands of years, but it had felt so real. And it had felt so good. In the past week he had had frequent dreams of spending the rest of his life with Lana, but children had never entered his thoughts. Now he knew children would be an important part.
'It is okay, Laura. Maybe you didn't consciously realize why you gave me that memory, but it was important.' And then Lex let his newfound feelings pour into Laura through their link.
'Oh, my god, Lex' responded Laura. 'I never pictured you as the happy, domestic father type before. But now, I think you will make a great father some day. If, as you say, I didn't consciously understand why I gave you that memory, was it my subconscious, or a subliminal message from Lana?'
Lex gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. 'Or perhaps a combination of you two? Who knows? I guess we will figure it out as we go along.'
This mental exchange between Lex and Laura only took a couple of seconds and they returned their attention to Chloe, as she continued to speak.
"After the raiders had their fun, they did as I expected. They savagely sliced open our bellies and then threw Keviuh's body on top of mine. As I lay there in shock, I watched her slowly die. Then my anger and frustration grew and grew. This was not the first time or even the tenth I had been force to watch loved ones put to death while I could do nothing, but helpless watch, knowing I would be forced to go on alone.
"But this time I could feel her blood seeping into my, as yet, unhealed wounds. My 'bots would heal my wounds; however Keviuh, whose wounds were pressed tightly against my own, was destined to die. I had never been in quite the same situation before, particularly with someone I cared about as much as my daughter and I would do anything to let her survive.
"By this time I had spent thousands of years testing the limits of the 'bots built-in safety protocols and had found a few loopholes to use to my advantage. This time I needed to find a new loophole in seconds. As you have surely guessed, I found a way to force some of the 'bots in my blood to pass into her body and then begin a rapid replication process to heal her wounds. Just like with Lex and Lana, in only a few seconds my 'bots had saturated her entire body and then the repairs to her body proceeded as rapidly as in my own.
"You can't imagine how happy I was when she opened her eyes and said, 'Mommy'." At this point Chloe's eyes were shining with tears.
Clark pulled her into a hug and rocked her for a minute.
Finally, Chloe gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, pulled back a little and wiped at her eyes.
"Sorry, anyway after holding her to me for a few seconds, I remembered the rest of my family lying about us, also dead. If I could save Keviuh, I suddenly hoped I could save the rest. And I tried, and tried, but it was too late. If only the raiders had killed us at the same time as the rest, there might have been a chance. But the others had been dead for over twenty minutes, and as I would eventually discover, five minutes is about the max for my 'bots to bring anyone back."
Lex felt a shudder run through his body. "Five minutes? It must have been longer than that with Laura."
Chloe shook her head. "Lex, I think this is one of those times where it feels like time slows way down. From the time the killing spear hit her until I was able to introduce my 'bots into her body was four minutes and eleven seconds. But if you guys had been just a couple of minutes later. . ."
"We need to thank Cyrus for getting to us when he did," said Clark.
"Cyrus?" asked Chloe with a surprised look on her face. "But he is the one who got us into this whole mess in the first place."
"And I think he regretted it. Thankfully, he tried the best he could to make amends," answered Lex.
"So, Chloe, what happened next with you and your daughter?" asked Clark, curious how this apparently happy occasion of saving her daughter's life would ultimately lead to some of her darkest times.
"The raiders put the house to the torch before they departed. By the time I was forced to give up the futile attempt to save the rest of my family, the house was engulfed in flames. When we made our escape from the fire, we discovered the rest of the outbuildings also ablaze and all of the farmhands we could find were dead.
"We made our way to the farm of our nearest neighbor, but even before we arrived we could see the billowing smoke. By the time we reached the smoldering remains of the house, Keviuh had started to recover from the shock of finding herself unhurt after receiving mortal wounds and from the shock of seeing the rest of the family dead. Now her thoughts were only of Larweto, her fiancé. They were supposed to have been married in another two weeks, and she was becoming frantic to find him.
"Larweto's family owned a farm a little over a mile away. From our neighbor's farm, we made the journey at a dead run. When we got there, we found the same wholesale destruction as everywhere else. We searched and searched, but Larweto's body must have been in one of the buildings that burned. Finally, Keviuh fell to her knees in exhaustion and despair.
"I collapsed to the ground beside her and wrapped her in my arms for the first time since leaving our own family farm. As I sat there hugging her, I realized my 'bots had brought her 'bots back on-line. I guess in the shock of the day's events, I never thought about how the 'bots would still be in her body. Now, not only could I direct the 'bots to physically remove her exhaustion, but I could read her very thoughts. This was something entirely new to me and I spent sometime exploring the limits of my abilities."
"Chloe," interrupted Lex. "I don't quite understand why the physical contact is necessary for the dormant 'bots to be brought back on-line."
"Well, Lex, you need to remember the scale of the 'bots. They are so tiny, on average, fifty 'bots reside in every cell of my body, and now in yours and Laura's, too. Each 'bot consists of only a few tens of thousands of atoms. They are really tiny. Therefore they are extremely low powered and each 'bot can only communicated with the nearest twenty to thirty 'bots. A 'bot can't even directly communicate with another 'bot at the extreme other end of the same cell, let alone a 'bot in my head directly communicating with one in my left big toe. So due to the low power nature of the 'bots, any data that must transferred from head to toe, will pass through billions of 'bots to reach its destiny.
"Now this may sound cumbersome, but in fact the message is sent on millions of parallel paths and with proper error checking routines in place, this is a fast, highly reliable method of sending data. Actually, the military back home is just starting to experiment with a similar highly redundant, low powered networking concept called 'Smart Dust'. Their plan is to saturate the battlefield with trillions of dust-sized sensors and networking devices. Of course, these dust-size devices are a million times larger that my 'bots and have a receiving and sending range best measured in centimeters rather than microns as with my 'bots."
Chloe shook her head. "Sorry, I got sort of sidetracked, but to answer your question, my 'bots have extremely short range and only actual physical contact brings the 'bots in my skin close enough to make contact with 'bots in the skin of the other person.
Laura could almost hear the sigh of relief she felt through her link with Lex. Remembering conversations he had shared with Chloe on the boat trip to Rome, she knew Lex was a very private person and how much effort it had taken for him to truly open up to Lana. Knowing he could regain his privacy by merely avoiding her and Chloe's touch was so important to him, she suddenly wondered if today's events had destroyed any possible future for Lana and Lex.
Trying to respect what she thought were Lex's wishes, Laura started to get up to move to another chair.
"Where are you going?" asked Lex, his tone implying more than simple curiosity.
Laura didn't pause to respond until she had stood up and broken contact with him. With a slight tremor in her voice she responded. "Lex, I'm sorry. I just realized how important your privacy is to you. It is very difficult to not listen into your thoughts when we are touching. You could say it is almost addictive. It is probably for the best if we don't touch for now."
Lex stared up at her. He could sense how much she wanted to be held right now. He could feel in himself the desire for the contact and the clarity of understanding the nanobot link provided. He started to reach to pull her back down, but then hesitated. They had been in almost constant physical contact since leaving the arena, maybe it would be best if he had some time alone to clear his thoughts and try to come to grips with what was happening with his life, as so much had changed in the past twenty four hours: finding out Clark's secret, losing the girls, discovering the girls' lifeless bodies, experiencing the effects of Chloe's 'bots, and having Lana brought back to life, but then finding out it was Chloe's mind in her body. It was simply overwhelming.
Finally, Lex nodded with a somewhat sad expression on his face. "Okay, I understand. Maybe it is best if we each have a little time alone to understand what is happening to us, so we can make the right decisions about where we want things to head in the future."
Laura nodded in return, but her heart ached for a return of the feeling of togetherness brought through the linking of their minds by the nanobots. It allowed a level of intimacy she hadn't permitted herself to experience in a very long time. But it was for the best to make sure Lex understood all of the ramifications before she accidentally or intentionally took things to the next level.
As Laura was about to take the seat next to Lex, a servant arrived carrying a tray with a bottle of wine and four crystal goblets. Laura helped herself to a glass and took a large shallow, enjoying the burning sensation as it went down her throat. Perhaps a little bit of a buzz would help take the edge off of her feelings. Oh, she could use her 'bots to tweak the chemistry of her brain to achieve the same effect, but sometimes the natural ways were the best. Draining her glass with a second big shallow, she set the glass down on a nearby table and took the seat across from Lex.
"Okay, Chloe, I think I am ready for you to continue with the story." She said with a lingering glance back at Lex.
Chloe nodded. She knew from long experience Lex and Laura would benefit from focusing on the story for awhile and letting their subconscious worry about the ramifications of the nanobot-mindlink on their relationship.
"After what must have been an hour sitting just holding each other in the yard in front of Larweto's family's home, I finally forced Keviuh to her feet. Sitting there wasn't doing anyone any good. With nothing but destruction at any of the farms we had visited, I decided we should try Susa, the nearest small town. It was not quite three miles away and I could see the massive, billowing smoke before we even started out, but I was sure there must be survivors among the hundreds of people who lived there.
"We reached the town, or at least the remains of the town, in about an hour. Along the way we didn't see a single living soul and on reaching the outskirts of the town it didn't seem likely there either, as every wooden building had been burned. We walked from street to street calling out for anyone who might hear us, but nothing.
"It wasn't until we were almost too far side of the town and I was starting to think we would have to continue walking towards Atlantis that I heard it, a faint child's cries. With a couple minutes of searching, Keviuh spotted him trapped under a partially collapsed stone wall. It took us several minutes to clear away most of the loose rubble until only the large stone pinning his legs remained.
"The boulder on his legs was huge and even without removing it; I could tell his legs had been crushed. I found a stout timber, which hadn't been burned, and working together Keviuh and I managed to lever the stone free. And that's when I saw the damage to the boy's legs was even worse than I had suspected, the way the stones had fallen had sheared off his right leg just above the ankle. Only the crushing weight of the stones had kept him from bleeding to death and now we had removed the impromptu tourniquet.
"The blood was rapidly pumping out of the stump of his leg and if I didn't do something quickly, in seconds he would be dead. Dead. And I had already seen so much death and destruction. Suddenly, one more death seemed utterly intolerable. Remembering how I had saved Keviuh through the mixing of our blood, I dug my fingernails into the palm of my hand as hard as I could until I felt the blood begin to flow. Quickly, before my injury could start to heal, I pressed my palm against the torn remains of the boy's leg. This time I instantly knew in my head the proper protocols required to force my 'bots to enter his body and begin the colonization process.
"However this time the repairs took significantly longer than with Keviuh, major reconstruction of missing bones is much more time consuming than repairs to soft tissue. Almost two minutes elapsed before the boy was fully restored."
"Wait a second," said Lex suddenly sitting up a little straighter. "You mean you can regrow missing limbs?" This was something he didn't recall from the flashes of memory he had received from Chloe during his own healing process or later from his mindlink with Laura.
Chloe shrugged and gave a small smile before nodding. "As I told Clark back at the arena, I wouldn't have survived seventeen thousand years if I wasn't hellaciously difficult to kill."
Lex leaned back in his chair once again marveling at this unexpected surprise from Chloe. What other abilities did she have that she had yet to reveal? And then it struck him that his body had those same abilities, too. At least if Laura or Chloe was touching him. He wasn't quite ready to sacrifice his mind like Lana had unwittingly done to end up with an active 'bot system, but it would certainly be a useful advantage in his business world to have the computational and memory storage abilities of the girls, as well as the healing abilities.
As Lex continued to muse over the possibilities with an active 'bot system, Chloe continued with her story.
"When he had recovered from the shock of his wounds and his recovery, we found out his name was Donus and he was five years old. We spent some time looking for his parents, but there were no other survivors in the town.
"By this time it was well past noon and I decided we needed to start thinking about getting out of this area of total destruction. Heading towards Atlantis seemed the best bet for, as big as this party of raiders had been, they surely had stopped short of the city itself. So, with a heavy heart at once again having to leave a formerly happy life behind and start all over, I set a path forward. At least this time I wasn't totally alone, I had Keviuh and Donus.
"We walked until nearly nightfall before reaching a settlement outside the swath of destruction. Other survivors had also straggled out and they had setup some makeshift facilities in the town hall. We found an unused corner, hung some spare blankets as walls, and had our own little space for the night.
"I was sitting there thinking about our next move. I had funds stashed away in Atlantis, so it was the obvious first stop. After that, I was still undecided; I just knew I wanted to get away from the immediate area and all of the bad memories of my lost family.
"Mainly, I was sitting there thinking dark thoughts. Suddenly, Donus raced up, grabbed my hand and tugged, telling me to hurry. I jumped up, immediately afraid something had happened to Keviuh. I quickly followed after Donus as he led the way across the central courtyard to the entrance hall.
"In the entry way I found a new group of refugees, including a little girl lying on a stretcher. She had crude bandages wrapped around her middle, but her blood had soaked through. And she was shivering violently.
"Donus pulled at my sleeve and said with a pleading expression in his eyes, 'Please, Sliviuh, will you help her like you helped me?'
"The two adults with her, who were obviously her parents, looked at me with hopeful, expectant expressions, assuming I was the village healer. And it finally sunk home with me that I was a healer, although a different style of healer than anyone had seen before. Perhaps this was my new destiny after the loss of my family, to become a healer.
"I nodded to the parents and then requested the man's knife. He looked concerned for a moment but then handed it over. I knelt down next to the girl and carefully peeled back the bandages around her abdomen. The blood was still oozing from the exposed lacerations. I took the knife, slashed open my palm, and quickly pressed it against the girl's open wound.
"As I had done twice already that day, I forced my 'bots into her body. This time, once the replication process was complete, I spent the seconds while the healing was being accomplished exploring the girl's memories. In those five seconds I learned her name, her parent's names, and that she had lost three sisters and one brother to the raiders.
"At the end of the total ten second process, I removed my healed hand and turned to the parents as their daughter sat up. 'Mayius is fine now. I am sorry about the loss of your other children.'
"Mayius' parents sat there in shock as she jumped to her feet and ran over to hug them.
"And so began the next period of my life as word, stories, and rumors of my healing abilities spread throughout the region."
Chloe paused at this point in her story to get some more wine. While she was up, the others also took the opportunity to rise and stretch.
As he helped himself to fresh plate of fruits, Lex asked, "Chloe, I understand the remainder of your story is important, but if you don't mind a short digression onto another important topic? Did you find out anything about the whereabouts of the Professor last night from Venta?"
Chloe paused with her wine cup halfway to her mouth. Looking at Lex, she shook her head. "Not directly, however it certainly seemed like Venta hadn't heard from the Professor recently or knew he was back from the future."
Lex had to grin briefly at her inadvertent reference to the old Michael J. Fox movie. "If Venta hadn't heard from the Professor, does that mean he hasn't arrived yet or did he have a different destination in mind when he left Tolosa in such a rush?"
Chloe shrugged. "Whether he was headed somewhere else or headed here doesn't matter now. I mean even if he was headed here, but hadn't arrived yet, I doubt he will come here now. Certainly word of the 'Greek Gods looking for a man named Carius who is carrying magical green stones' and Venta's death at the stadium will spread from Rome like wildfire. If word reaches him before he arrives in Rome, I can't believe he will continue to here. I mean with Tiberius dead he has lost his powerbase and now with Venta gone, too. Well . . ."
"If he isn't coming here, then where?" asked Clark.
"The only other logical place for the Professor to head would seem to be General Domicius and the Rhine Army," answered Laura.
"That was my thought, too," agreed Lex. "Has there been any word from the people you sent to watch the passes?"
"Not as of yesterday," said Chloe. "Let's get Rogerus up here to see if he has any more recent information."
After Chloe had a servant send for Rogerus she continued. "I think we need to start planning to move north as soon as possible to intercept the Rhine army and hopefully catch up with the Professor. I have a sudden strong feeling time is of the essence."
"Me, too." said Laura.
Clark and Lex just looked at her.
Under their stare, she finally responded. "Hey, I can have that feeling too; I am not just some clone of Chloe."
"Sorry," responded both Lex and Clark at the same time, almost sounding like clones themselves.
"What is the fastest way north?" asked Lex.
"Horseback," said Chloe and Laura simultaneously which led them to look at each other and start to giggle.
As the girls shared a laugh, Lex got a frown on his face remembering the discomfort of the horseback ride from Tolosa to Narbo and the stiffness and soreness he had 'enjoyed' in his legs, back, and butt for several days afterwards.
Seeing the look on Lex's face, when Laura got her laughter under control she said. "Lex, this will be much less painful than the first day out of Tolosa. You will just need to let Chloe or me touch you for a few seconds occasionally and I can guarantee you no pain or stiffness afterwards."
Lex was surprised he had forgot the nanobots in his system so soon after their recent conversation. It drove home to him how much he had been dreading getting back on that horse.
Clark, too, was not looking forward to getting back into the Roman saddle. But then he decided since everyone was in on his 'secret', there was no need. "Ahh, guys. I am just going to run rather than ride, if it is okay with you."
Chloe nodded. "Sure, Clark, although I think it is best we bring along a spare horse for you. There may be times we will want to enter towns without drawing attention to ourselves."
"Okay," agreed Clark.
"What is the quickest route?" asked Lex.
"It would be fastest to take the coast road up to Pisa, or Pisae as it is known here. From there we can either continue up the coast to Genua or turn inland if we find word the Rhineland Army has used one of the eastern passes through the Alps," answered Laura.
As he heard Laura mention Genua, Lex's mind returned to the night they had spent in Genua on their way down to Rome, the night he had first seen Lana nude. And now to have her body standing here next to him, but it was no longer exactly her. It was still going to take more time for his brain to adjust.
With an almost physical effort Lex pulled his mind away from Genua and Lana, and back to the topic at hand. "What about when we catch up to this army? It doesn't sound like you plan to bring the emperor along or scrounge up some other legions, like we had discussed earlier."
This time it was Clark who spoke up first. "No games this time. Look at the mess it got us into last time. This time I am going ask straight out for them to turn over the General and the Professor, if he is there. And if they don't agree, well, I am just going to bust down the front door and take them."
Remembering the action at the Praetorian Camp on the previous evening, Lex knew no mere Roman Army, no matter how large, was going to stop Clark once he had his mind set. "Okay, Clark. I guess that answers my question."
Chloe still remembered Clark's comments about the effect meteor rocks had on him. If the Professor and his meteor rocks were with the Rhine Army, Clark needed to be ready for such an eventuality. Chloe still had the lead-lined box she had acquired their first day in Tolosa after her conversation with Clark at the baths. Now she just needed to retrieve it from her room and she was ready to go.
"When did you want to leave?" asked Lex, expecting Chloe to respond with an answer of 'in a few days'.
"This afternoon," was her response. When Lex looked at her in surprise, she shrugged. "What's the old saying? 'We came, we saw, we conquered.' We've seen Rome. We've seen chariot races at the Circus Maximus. We didn't quite get to see any gladiators fighting, but being recipients of an execution at the arena was, I think, close enough. We destroyed the Praetorian Camp and the Stadium. Hmm, I believe that pretty much covers all of the highlights of ancient Rome.
"And, okay, so a couple of us were executed this morning. It's not like any of us need any more time to heal. We are all as physically fit now as we will be tomorrow or the next day. So, let's be on our way. I, for one, am ready to move on and leave Rome in the past."
"I agree," said Laura. Turning to Lex, she continued. "Remaining in Rome is not going to make it any easier to get Lana back; we might as well be on our way."
Even though Rome was the last place Lex had seen and talked to Lana, he knew Laura was right. There was nothing magical about Rome that would, in itself, bring her back. Slowly he nodded.
They all turned to Clark, who had the final vote. He merely looked back at them, nodded solemnly, and said, "Let's do it."
Just as the decision had become unanimous, Rogerus arrived.
Chloe turned to him. "Rogerus, has there been any word of the Rhine Army?"
Rogerus shook his head. "No word, yet."
Chloe nodded. "It is now apparent what we were searching for when we came to Rome is not here. If it is to be found, it must be with the Rhine Army. We want to head north immediately." Here Chloe paused for a moment. She really wanted to finish her story for Lex's sake before they left and then they needed to do a little light packing. "Please have four horses ready for us in two hours. Also I want at least fifty of our guards with us until we are well clear of the city."
Rogerus nodded to indicate it would all be taken care of. Coelia had always been a very spontaneous person. He was not at all surprised she would leave Rome as suddenly as she had arrived.
"I will see everything is ready," said Rogerus offering a short, polite bow before departing.
As everyone settled back down for the remainder of Chloe's story, Lex leaned forward and looked at her. "Chloe, you can cut to the chase, if you want. I am a big boy and I can handle whatever it is you are easing up to so carefully."
Seeing the look on her face, Lex pulled his comment back a little. "If it helps you to talk about it, by all means proceed at your own pace."
Chloe hadn't discussed the following events in her story with anyone in a very long time. Was she really dragging things out to be easier on Lex or was it to try and rationalize to herself and the others some of the things she had done? Perhaps in the light of today's events, the things she needed to say weren't really that scarily dark.
"Okay, Lex," she began after finally looking him in the eye. "I will try to speed up the story."
Chloe dropped her eyes again and continued in a low, subdued tone. "However you have to understand this is very hard for me to talk about. Some of the things I did were so morally wrong by the standards I have always believed in. I mean, over the course of a seventeen thousand year life, the majority of which was spent in very barbaric societies by modern standards, I have killed a number of people. And as a ruler on numerous occasions, I have led troops into countless battles. Who knows, the number of people who have died under my command is probably well into the millions. But those people all died of their own free will. Well, it is not easy to get out of an army about to go into battle, but it is possible. Unfortunately, for the people in the events I am about to relate, that wasn't possible."
Chloe let out long, slow sigh before looking back up. "I spent thirty years as an itinerant healer. Eventually, when Donus grew up, he got married and settled in a pleasant little village. Keviuh remained with me and every year or two we tried to visit Donus. As the years went by, our apparent relationships changed until eventually I was taken for the daughter and Keviuh my mother and Donus my favorite uncle."
"Wait a second," interrupted Lex. "You mean they continued to get older? I thought the 'bots would take care of that."
"Sorry, Lex, when I touch someone with my 'bots, I can activate them and make the person be in the best physical condition possible for their age, but the aging doesn't stop. Well, perhaps if I wanted to play Siamese twin and touched someone continuously forever, then the aging would probably stop. But I think Laura may be the first person infected with my 'bots who could possibly live forever like me."
Lex frowned a little at this. It sounded like his 'passive' 'bot system had a lot less advantages than the 'active' ones in Chloe and Laura. Still, if Chloe's guestimate of roughly thirty years until modern science would be able to duplicate her abilities was correct, it meant it wouldn't be too late for him.
Getting back to her story, Chloe continued. "As I said, I spent thirty years as an itinerant healer. During those years I explored what I could do with my 'bots in other people's bodies. Oh, I didn't explore my abilities much with Keviuh, since she was family, but I rationalized my actions with others as just the unspoken price they would have to pay in exchange for my healing services.
"I mastered the basic things we have discussed like being able to read the other's thoughts, hold a two-way conversation, and even create a virtual reality situation where we could interact."
"What do you mean virtual reality?" asked Clark.
"This is something I have already experienced with Laura," responded Lex. "Clark, while Laura and I were touching she made it seem like we were back in my office at the castle. And it felt perfectly real. I could walk around, play pool, drink, anything; and it all felt real."
"What Lex hasn't mentioned," added Laura, "Is while this was going on I was controlling his body in the real world, too. We were walking back from the arena at the time and Lex even stopped to chat with a couple of vendors without knowing it."
"Shit," whispered Lex under his breath. He knew she had been controlling his body, but hadn't realized she could even have him carry on conversations without his knowledge. Was this what Chloe was driving towards with her story?
Laura looked at Lex. "I don't have to touch you to know what you are thinking. And, yes, if I was touching you, we could meet someone, say your father, without you ever knowing and I could have you hold a conversation with him of my choosing without either of you ever suspecting. I mean, your voice would sound just like the normal you. And any information I needed to be convincing, I could pull from your memory. The whole time you could even think you were in the very same room and not even realize it was only a virtual reality copy."
Lex's mind was starting to spin as some of the implications hit home. Could he ever trust to let Chloe or Laura touch him again? Would he even know if he was touching one of them, if they could smoothly transition to a virtual reality where they seemed to be sitting across the room, or not even present?
Lex almost started to hyperventilate. Was he even really here, now? Or was this all some construct in his mind? Finally, he realized he needed to calm himself. Neither Chloe nor Laura had ever shown anything but the best intentions toward him. And even now, they were explaining things to him when they could have just as easily kept this information to themselves. Perhaps, thought Lex, it would have been better if they had kept things to themselves.
"Lex," asked Chloe, "Are you still with us?"
Lex forced himself to become aware of his surroundings. The others were all carefully watching him. "Yeah, I was just thinking about some of the implications of what you and Laura said."
"Good. I am glad you understand enough to be thinking about the implications," said Chloe as she resumed control of the conversation to keep Lex focused on thinking about her rather than Laura. "If I hadn't grown up in a place where virtual reality was possible, I would never have thought of trying it on others who had my 'bots. Up in the twenty first century that level of virtual reality isn't possible yet, but it is close enough people understand the concept whether it is called virtual reality, or 'the holodeck' on Star Trek, or whatever. But back in the time period where I discovered my healing abilities and was exploring what I could do with my 'bots in the recipient's bodies; people had no concept or understanding of virtual reality.
Chloe shook her head. "I experimented a lot in those years, but mostly kept myself under control. Until it happened. After thirty years, Keviuh and my paths once again crossed with the highland raiders and this time Keviuh didn't survive the encounter. After forty-five years happy years together, one of the longest spans in my entire life, something in me snapped when I found her broken and mutilated body.
"Upon finding out the raiders had caused her death, the same way they had wiped out the rest of my family so long ago, a darkness grew inside of me until I vowed I would wipe out the raiders to the last man. To accomplish this goal I knew I would need my own army. I had commanded armies before, but never like this. No, this time I used my 'bots to control the army."
"How could you use your 'bots to control the army?" asked Clark. "I mean you can only touch a few people at one time."
"Subliminal messages. Okay, maybe not so subliminal. What if you thought you were somewhere familiar like shooting hoops on the side of your barn when God walked up and started telling you about your new mission in life. And we're talking God with all the trappings, a voice which made your very bones vibrate, a chorus of a million angels in the background, an internal luminosity only a God could have. Well, a primitive mind, hell even a contemporary one, would be overwhelmed if it seemed real enough. And I could make it seem perfectly real.
"I started with a few leaders of the Atlantian army, but eventually I shared blood with every man in the army and each one of them had his own personal encounter with God or some equivalent."
Lex suddenly flashed back to one of Chloe's memories he had experienced during his healing process, a memory of Chloe working her way down a seemingly endless line of soldiers sharing blood and minds with everyone. A shudder ran through him as he imagined an army of zealots who really believed they had each personally met God and who would make modern-day suicide bombers seem like non-believers.
"Oh, my god," whispered Lex, suddenly looking slightly pale under the bright mid-day sun.
"Yeah," answered Chloe. "The next couple of centuries were not one of my prouder moments. It is one thing to use your gifts to rule benevolently and really try to help people. It is something else entirely when you use mind-control to dominate an entire civilization for your own dark agenda."
Chloe paused to run her right hand through her short blonde hair. "After that whole experience in Atlantis, I promised myself I would never use my gifts in a similar manner again. And for the past ten thousand years I have mostly stuck to my promise. Oh, I have on occasion forced my 'bots into someone who didn't need healing, but because I needed the truth from them. Or I have on very rare occasions forced my 'bots on someone to give them a 'vision' to nudge mankind on a new path during particularly dark or bleak times. But I have tried for the most part to let mankind proceed forward at its own pace without excessive interference."
"Well, Lex, there you have it. Since you are caught in this situation with my 'bots in your body, I wanted you to have the whole story upfront. I have no intention of messing in, or controlling your mind or your life. You're a smart guy and from what you have already experienced with Laura I figured you would eventually extrapolate a lot these capabilities on my part. And I didn't want you ending up afraid I was intentionally hiding this from you because I had some secret agenda."
Lex, for a moment, flashed back to the long ago comment by Clark at the baths in Tolosa about not trying to take advantage of her as she was very capable of watching her back. At the time he hadn't comprehended the full significance of that statement. Eventually, when he discovered she was the wealthiest person through out history, he had only understood the financial risks of tangling with her. But now, the true significance had been driven home: it was within her abilities to completely and totally mess with your head without you even being aware it was happening. She definitely was the one person you never wanted to seriously piss off.
Laura had been watching Lex and trying to read his expression. It would have been so much easier if they still shared the mindlink. But it would have to be Lex's decision if they would ever do that again. Since the situation wasn't under Lex's physical control, she had to leave the mental decision up to him. It was a rule she had forced herself to live with for thousands of years and it seemed to be for the best.
"Lex," began Laura. "The same goes for me. Now that you know the truth, I would never use my abilities on you without your permission."
Lex looked from Chloe to Laura. Life had been so much simpler just yesterday. He had found the girl of his dreams and this whole little trip to Rome had seemed almost like a lark. But in the past twenty-four hours, everything had been turned upside-down. He had finally found out the answers to the questions about Clark which had been almost an obsession for the past year and within hours they had paled to almost insignificance. When your body was infested with 'bots under someone else's control, no matter how benign their intentions were, it put a whole new spin on your perspective.
Lex finally made a gesture that was part nod and part shrug. "I really need some time to think. Where do we go from here?"
Laura stood up. "I hope you can think in the saddle." Then echoing a comment Lana had made on several occasions since this adventure had begun, she continued. "I am really ready to find the Professor and go home."
Lex nodded and rose to his feet. "Yeah, me, too."
--------------------- To be continued.