“Wave your hands up and down.” Hezekiah said doing just that himself. He knew if he timed it just right his hands would cross the timezone barrier before his arms did. In effect making it look like his hand had slowed down in time while his arm continued moving up and down.
Peter looked at him in confusion until he noticed what was happening with Hezekiah’s hand. “I didn’t expect that.”
Hezekiah’s hand slowed dramatically while his arm continued going up and down. Rather than looking like his hand was cut off it looked like it’d been stretched out. Like part of it had been turned to rubber and was been pulled along by his waving arm. But in reality it only looked that way because part of his hand was in a bubble of slower space.
It was an odd sensation to watch your arm move while your own hand stretched out. No matter how many times Hezekiah went through that gate, he still giddied like a child when he did that little trick. The strange optical illusion ended as soon as his eyes crossed over some invisible threshold.
Once they crossed that invisible line their view out the front of the spacecraft changed too. They were now in orbit around the moon. They found themselves drifting out in space. Hezekiah could feel the weightlessness. He could feel himself bobbing between his seatbelt and the chair. “That’s the moon base. As you know we moved it from Mars because of the time delay – it was becoming impossible to get anyone who wanted to work on such an isolated planet.”
Looking around the spaceship Peter asked. “I don’t notice any difference in my personal time. Have we switched over?”
“Have a look at your watch.”
Peter looked at his wrist. “It’s ticking along like normal.”
“Oh that’s right your watch is old school.” He said holding out his arm. “Look at mine.”
The watch on Hezekiah’s arms was ticking rapidly. Much faster than you would have expected. “Each of those are a second back on Earth.” Hezekiah pointed to the back of the spacecraft. Where there used to be an empty wall two spacesuits with umbilical cords were connected to the wall. “Want to go for a spacewalk?”
Peter shook his head.
Hezekiah looked disappointed. “Not even a little bit?”
“Let’s do that when we’re out of this simulation.”
“Teleport it is then.” Hezekiah replied hovering his hand over one of the buttons. “Our ship can dock itself, we can go inside now.” He pressed the button of the console in front of them.
The two of them appeared in the lobby of an office. People were walking around in lab coats. Ten meters in front of both of them was a desk but no receptionist. People were scanning their badges then walking through the security gates. They’d then scan their badge again and an elevator door would open. There was a lot of hustle and bustle.
Hezekiah began walking towards the front desk. “Come with me we need to get an access card made for you.”
“Why do we travel in that helicopter spaceship thing? Can’t we just teleport everywhere ourselves?”
“Not really. Usually to teleport between servers or layers you need to go through a gate. That transport vehicle we’re moving in is super expensive. It allows us a lot more freedom than most people would get. It costs a lot to travel around as much as we just did. The moon is an expensive server to be on.”
Hezekiah entered Peters name into a screen on the front desk. “Now scan your arm.”
Peter did as instructed, then moments later a key card was produced onto the reception counter.
Hezekiah picked it up and walked towards the gate. He scanned the card and handed it to Peter. “Keep this, it’ll get you access to anywhere in here.” He scanned his own card and walked through to the other side. Hezekiah stepped forward and scanned his card on a screen in front of the elevator.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
As the two of them waited for the lift door to open up someone came running over. It looked like a young woman, she was tiny, attractive, and maybe nineteen. But avatars were so easy to change these days that it was never good to assume someone was the age they looked like. Hezekiah moved his huge frame in front of the woman and raised his hand. It wasn’t like anyone could get hurt in the metaverse, well not permanently. Although he had heard of some hackers successfully ejecting malicious code through contact. The victim had to be restored from a previous backup. They lost months of living.
The woman almost smacked into Hezekiah’s hand as she didn’t see him step out in front of her.
With his hand two inches from her face he said to her. “That’s close enough ma’am, how can we help?”
The woman ducked down, moving her head below Hezekiah’s arm. Ignoring the big man she replied “Dr. Atreus, you’re back.”
Peter reached out and moved Hezekiah’s hand out of the way, “That’s why I like you Kiah. You’re an engineer that could probably be my bodyguard.” Peter addressed the woman, “It’s good to be out and about.”
“I just wanted to say sir, you’ve been an idol of mine. You’re the reason I’m here. And it’s just disgusting what they did to you. Wasted so many years in there.”
The door to the lift opened. And Hezekiah’s name appeared at the top of the lift. So he walked towards the lift nodding towards the new acquittance. “Okay that’s us, nice to meet you Ms.”
“Ms, Greenaway.”
Hezekiah didn’t think he asked for her name. But okay now he knew that piece of trivia. “Okay Ms Greenaway, we must be off now.” Hezekiah said, then mentally abolished himself for talking so weirdly. ‘Must be off’ was the worst way to say that.
“Actually, I’m coming with you both.”
Hezekiah looked at Peter who shrugged.
“Dr Ariana Barns asked me to collect you both.”
Ariana Barns was the head of the research laboratory. She knew Hezekiah and Peter from before he went to prison. Hezekiah knew Peter liked her for her unending focus on improving and testing things but Hezekiah just found she took things a little too far by experimenting on herself.
“Unity Greenaway?” Peter said, “I was expecting…”
“Hush.” She said taking the few steps around Hezekiah and grabbing Peters arm. “We might be old now. But it doesn’t mean we have to look it.” Then she added in a conspiratorial whisper, “I like em young and dumb, but those guys want their woman young too.”
She pointed toward the elevator and the three of them entered together. Walking inside she pressed a different button on the panel then held the door open with her arm. “Before you see Dr Barns there’s something I need to tell you.”
Hezekiah looked towards Peter in confusion.
“Come on then, tell us.” Peter said.
“She’s developed a different personality.”
“How does someone develop a different personality?” Hezekiah asked.
“I know she’ll be different from when I first went to prison. But I’ve spoken to her recently, she didn’t seem different.” Peter added.
“This is a recent development,” Unity said. “We’re still understanding what it all means. Does the name Roger Sperry mean anything to you?”
Hezekiah knew that name, he’d seen docos about him before. “Is that the guy who won a Nobel prize in 1970 for cutting peoples brains down the middle?”
Unity nodded. “Exactly, that’s how far back in the research we had to go to find something analogous he to what we’re seeing here.”
“So what are you saying Unity.” Peter said. “Has she had her brain split in two?”
“Close. In nineteen-seventy, when Sperry was doing his very archaic research. They found that when someone’s brain was cut in half. Each side of their brain had a different personality. Subsequent research using less crude methods in the two-thousands found that different sides of someone’s brain could have completely different personalities.”
“Oh, I think I’ve heard of that, is that when people have half their brain put to sleep using anaesthesia?”
“Kiah, how do you know so much about that?” Peter asked.
Hezekiah shrugged. “I watch a lot of docos.”
“Anyways,” Unity interrupted them. “So when these people have half their brain put to sleep, sometimes their left brain might be a massive extrovert. Even though the person themselves is an introvert. The strange thing to think about is, which personality is the real them?”
“Yeah,” Hezekiah said. “I’ve heard that some people who had their left and brain sides of the brain cut in half fight amongst themselves over the body. One doco I watched had someone’s left arm try and strangle themselves, while they had to defend themselves using their other arm.”
Peter raised an eyebrow. “Was that a documentary or a horror movie?”
Unity took her hand away from the door. “I don’t think I’m explaining it quite right. She’s doesn’t have a split personality. She’s just completely different. I guess you’ll have to see for yourself.”
The door closed and the three of them started to ascend.
Moments later and the door opened. And standing at the door was Dr Ariana Barns. She had an aura about her. She radiated power. She wasn’t overly tall, but she had a swagger and presence like no other person Hezekiah knew – next to obviously Peter. Her lightly tanned skin and total boss attitude reminded him a lot of the artist Beyonce. Her arms were crossed behind her back and unlike other times when Hezekiah had seen her, she felt different. She felt dangerous. Maybe dangerous was too strong a work, but he did feel threatened.