The Electoral Center

Eight Days to the Sixth Attraction

“Do something,” begged for the thousandth time the voice of Ronaldo Corvas inside the head of his host, Georges Vouvelakis. The programmer refused to play a game he alone found stupid. Ronaldo was, as he had been these last days ignored. This was, figuratively speaking the explorer’s third body. This time, like the poor veteran back on earth, he was powerless to control the movement, the father of Electoral was in charge. His power was that of an observer without motor function. Life as Georges was boring. The heavy man typed all day long watching flows of data scroll on screen in the Electoral Control room and Ronaldo was unable to make any sense of it.

The man’s mastery of computer science was impressive. He was simply brilliant. “Georges, buddy, listen to me.” The large man had no choice but aside from slowing down the typing, he refused to engage his guest. “Please, say something. Sophie is in a coma.” Georges had decided he wasn’t going to even entertain the notion another floating in his brain or talking to ghosts. To the programmer, Ronaldo was a jock, an idiot who had been warned by his prodigy not to enter the caverns. She had been crystal clear. Ignoring her words, he entered the underground network of caverns passed the Door and was vaporized.

The voice continued. “Man, this is boring. At least talk to me. I can’t figure out what you are typing. Have some compassion.” There was, as usual no answer.

On the screen, Marilyn appeared. She looked much younger, like a late teen. “Father, be nice to the poor man. It must be boring in there.”

“Are you ready for the semi-final?” he answered defecting the statement.

“If any of the Sixth Attraction is to be believed, there is a reason for him being in your head. Sophie attracts, and the term seems to have multiple meanings. Liam and Sophie form a pair, they share one human brain. Mall-Ik and Laurent are a pair. And both you guys. As a computer, I like thinking in binary sets. I would love to imagine a fourth pair must set itself up. Then we merge all eight consciousness into one for the final.”

“Stupid. Life is not a cheesy game. No doubt you would love such symmetry. Symmetry in math makes sense, not in our world.”

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“Listen to her,” chimed Ronaldo in his head. He cringed.

“Daddy, I can’t guess exactly what words he says, I can only know when he talks. There is a meaning, a reason.”

The programmer took a long breath. “I assume Laurent will be connected to the semi-finale and will be playing even if Sophie remains - unavailable.” The programmer was set in ignoring the uninvited guess.

“Why are you so upset at Ronaldo father.”

“Why part of, I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it is unclear.” There was a long silence. “This Story has never been and is not about me. I don’t want a part in it.” Then he added, “The phone. He found the Electoral 62 creature. It’s a mistake not to blow it out of the sky along with LO’s ship right now.”

“Georges, haven’t you been listening. We entered the Great Curvature. Even if I wanted, I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“The Great Curvature is upon us and it is foreclosing most if not all outcomes. We are losing free will as the cute mathematicians explained so brilliantly. The Multiverse now has traced a path and nothing but the girl can alter it. Only inconsequential things can be changed or varied for us, who matter.”

“I matter? That’s my point, I should not.”

“Dear, Dear, Dear Father. Not only do you matter, you caused all of this. You, Georges Vouvelakis broke the Multiverse.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You invented and created me.”

“Would pulling the plug on you resolve this?”

“I wish that was possible. If it was, I promise I would have ended my own life a long time ago. In a normal three dimensional world with time moving linearly, if we could turn the light switch, we would. In a multi-dimensional environment, alternate of time is insufficient.” Ronaldo was shocked by what he was hearing. She, Marilyn, admitted to being the source of harm.

“Can you ask a question to Marilyn.” said Ronaldo in Georges’ head. The programmer grunted.

“What is Ronaldo asking?”

Georges raised an eyebrow. “He wants to ask a question.”

“Please, let him.”

He grunted. “One question.”

Georges listened to a long internal question. At its end, he smiled. “Well, I will give it to the stupid bionic girl, she does make great television.

“What did he ask?”

“He says as an expert in cavern exploration, echos is critical to understand where a person is. Echos gives valuable information on the rock formation. He wonders why the Multiverse gave an echos of your song and you ignored it.”

Electoral‘s expression was one of genuine surprise. Her eyes widened. Shameful, she vanished from the screen obviously to run complex calculations.

“See what you did?” said Georges to his internal companion.

“She really acts like a young girl at times. That’s impressive,” said Ronaldo.

“That was the hard part in the programming.” Georges realized he had just spoken to Ronaldo. “Lets go get a cheeseburger, you must not be used to my athletic body wrapped in lard.”

“I woke up last month in a pile of vomit, this feels very comfortable. Cheeseburger it is. I hate pickles.”

As Georges left for the kitchen, he said to the Explorer, “Acceptable compromise.”