Chapter 4
"Our thoughts compressed
Which makes us best
And makes for stormy weather."
From Pure Morning by Placebo
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'So what do you think?'
'I think that your escaped lunatic theory is starting to seem even more likely. Come on, you can't seriously think that she's from an alternate universe, Reb? That's…'
'Possible. It's still possible, Yuna. You have to admit that she seemed pretty sane when we talked to her.'
'Sane? Reb, she was talking about a non-existent Commonwealth, magical fairy portals that transport people to other worlds and big hairy bogeymen that lay eggs in people's stomachs. I'd say she's just seen too many scary movies. Either that or she's lying. I think she's lying. Her eyes are too close together.'
'Yuna! That's such a load of sh…'
She shot him a glare and he closed his mouth, pressing his lips together and clenching his teeth. Sometimes he felt like hugging her, but there were times like this where he felt throttling her. Reb could tell that she was letting her personal feelings for him cloud her judgement. What was more she was defying him. He was still the captain of this ship, and he'd be damned if anyone was going to talk to him like that.
Then Reb calmed down a little. After all, they weren't just shipmates. They were friends, equals, especially him and Yuna. They had been the first to wake up, the first to find themselves on the Deepwater and remember who they were and what they were supposed to do. He hated himself when he thought like that, like he had a right to order her around, so he bit back an authoritarian retort and stayed silent for a while.
'Well, what do you suggest we do with her?' Yuna said at last.
'We have to get her back to her ship…'
'Asylum,' Yuna muttered darkly.
'…And her crew. They must be looking for her,' Reb went on without even a pause.
'I hate to be a pessimist, but you did notice that she's not even wearing a proper uniform? If she's telling the truth, why hasn't she been issued with one, especially considering the fact that she's supposed to be part of this 'Commonwealth' that she keeps babbling about?'
'Why do you have to be so nasty?' Reb snapped at her suddenly. Yuna was taken aback. She hadn't realised just how spiteful she must have appeared to be.
'I'm sorry,' she apologised humbly. 'I'm just a little shaken up, I guess. But how do we get her back to this ship, the 'Andromeda'. That anomaly… I've never seen anything like it before. Plus, it disappeared. It's gone. How are we going to recreate it if we don't even know what it is?'
Reb was quiet for a moment. The thing was, he'd been working on it for hours, replaying it, going through it in his mind, building models, writing pages of theories and hypotheses and he was still no further ahead than he had been. He was out of his depth. The original would have known what to do, a nasty voice whispered in his head. But you're not the real Reb Anderson. You've been alive for nearly 500 years and you still know practically nothing.You're a baby.Reb realised that Yuna was still talking and tried to listen.
'…And the only thing that struck me was how she seemed to know you, or at least to know someone who looks like you,' Yuna concluded, then looked at him meaningfully. He latched onto her point straight away.
'Are you suggesting that…' he frowned. 'Another clone? One we didn't know about?'
'Exactly!' she exclaimed passionately. 'Come on, Reb, you've come face to face with yourself before, and you remember how that turned out! This could all be a trap!' she caught a sob as it tried to force it's way out of her throat. 'I don't want to have to watch another one of you die!'
Reb glanced at her worriedly, but then shook his head in anger as if her words buzzed around his head like angry bees. 'That was different. That was a second Deepwater. That was a second Reb Anderson. This other guy… he's nothing like me. He doesn't even share my name! He has no authority, and from what she tells us he doesn't seem to take things very seriously. He's not me, he probably doesn't even look that much like me!'
'From what she says. I think she's either lying or insane,' Yuna retorted, regaining her composure and crossing her arms stubbornly. Reb sighed, then raised his head and spoke into the air.
'Gen, are you listening?'
The ship's computer materialised next to them. 'Always.'
'Run a check on our, uh, visitor. Check for brain damage, trauma…'
'Ten steps ahead of you, sir,' Gen interrupted a little smugly. 'There's a little bruising to her left arm but her mind is undamaged.'
'I suppose you were checking her vital signs when she was talking?'
'No elevation in heartbeat or breathing rate to suggest that she wasn't telling the truth. Her pulse increased slightly towards the end but according to her reactions I'd say that was just a result of stress and frustration.'
Reb looked at Yuna pointedly.
'OK, OK, so if she was telling the truth, what do you suggest we do?' she snapped. 'Like I said, we know nothing about that… thing. And even if we did, the ramifications of entering it could be…'
'New? Exciting? Exhilarating? Informative?'
'I was going to say catastrophic,' she sighed, her brow creasing. Reb watched her, then gently pushed a lock of hair away from her face and smoothed out the skin of her forehead affectionately.
'Hey,' he said softly. 'Turn that frown upside down. Look, I promise to take care of you. To take care of all of you. And this Reb keeps his promises.' He sighed and stood up, then turned to Gen. 'Gen, can you locate the co-ordinates of that anomaly we encountered? I have a feeling something that big is going to leave behind some breadcrumbs.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thou hast read, now make good and review, spake the great and wonderful htw.
