Over the Darkened Landscape - By Derryl Murphy Page 0,1
had never been one of his strong points, but he felt no anxiety now.
A shock of recognition went through him. My arm. I can see my arm, stretched out, reaching up and to my side. His head was still turning, slowly, as he could gauge the rate by watching how long it took to move the view along his arm.
“Mr. Helbrecht?” a voice spoke in his head. It didn’t sound like Anna, but he thought it best not to take a chance.
“Anna?”
Again, he waited. He could see his hand now, at the end of his arm. It looked funny, with the sail attached to it, like it was caught in the middle of metamorphosing from flesh to gossamer. And just beyond his outstretched fingers he could see where the sail broke into the vacuum; the optical distortion that made the sail look as if it were broken in two at the divide. Like looking into or out of water.
A fish in a bowl, he thought. That’s me. Except that my bowl is going places.
“No, Mr. Helbrecht. This is Michel Giroux. Dr. Schaum is not currently monitoring this frequency. Are you in need of something?”
“I don’t remember you.”
The sail seemed to go on forever, shining from the light behind, a beautiful thing to see. He pretended he could see the little photons crashing up against it, forcing him faster and faster towards . . .
Hmm. I can’t remember where I’m going either.
That could wait. His head had turned enough that he could see the top of his shoulder now. It was covered with green, a sort of algae. That much he could remember.
Ironically, he felt his body take a breath.
“Yes, Mr. Helbrecht, I know you don’t remember me. I am new at this position. Now. Did you have a question for me, Mr. Helbrecht?”
A question? I wanted to ask . . . No! I mean, “I wanted to ask how long have I been out here? And before I forget again, where is it I’m going?”
If he watched closely and for some time, he could see the algae shift positions along his arm and down over his shoulder blade to where he couldn’t see.
The sun felt warm on his cheek.
“How do you feel?”
Simon heard the voice, but he didn’t want to open his eyes. Instead, he grunted.
“I’ll take that to mean lousy, which was expected. Do you know who this is, Simon?”
“Anna,” he grunted. “Why do you always ask me that question?”
She laughed, and the sound of her unforced humor drained a bit of the pain away. “You’ve gone through two years of sessions and restructuring, Simon. You tell me why.”
He finally managed to pry open his eyes, blinking the lids to try to lose the gumminess, but she was nowhere around. Then he remembered his neural input. “Because I’m likely to forget all sorts of things while I’m sailing. So you are doing your best to at least imprint your name into my memory.”
“Very good. Now, is your back itchy?”
He paused for a moment to sort that question out. Then, “Yes, it is. Oh, I wish you hadn’t said anything! Now I want to scratch!”
“Well, please don’t, Simon. The algal implant needs about three days to take hold. And if you can’t control your fingers we may have to strap your arms down.”
Simon kept his arms down, trying not to think about the light tickling sensation of the huge mass of algae growing on his back. He had already spent an inordinate amount of money, over half of his personal fortune, and if any step of the procedure was unsuccessful he would lose his chance and forfeit the money spent. Many others had spent almost as much, only to lose out on the newest vacation of a lifetime because their bodies and psyches could not handle the stress of the transformation.
Aside from some minor mechanical details, the algal implant was the second last stage in the process leading to his trip. It was also one of the single most important. Without it, he would have no air to breathe and no food, as it were, to eat.
“Mr. Helbrecht, I’m not allowed to tell you how long you’ve been gone. Remember? We don’t want you getting hung up on time. You paid good money to take a trip where you didn’t have to worry about what the time was.
“As for your destination, you are proceeding to a predetermined location approximately equal to one-point-five A.U. from the sun.”