played an endlessly long commercial break. Most people expected Emilio's game to resume after the pause, but the artificial intelligence had different plans. Marilyn had correctly surmised that Sophie's short attention span back in the Center couldn't take much more; she was correct. Sophie was extremely detached from these "adult things," as she called them. She'd watched for a while and was amused by the quality of Purple's reproduction by the machine, but the moment the long-winded explanations for Emilio's visions began, she totally zoned out. Her father was now playing, and she preferred to speak with the doctor and Georges than watch Marilyn's reproduction of the "truth."
"How is he?" she asked the Doctor the moment he entered the game.
"All things considered, rather good. The Rho wave sensors are proving very helpful," answered Susie. "I think they want you to watch," she pointed at the screens. Sophie obviously did not care. On each screen was the face of Marilyn trying her best to get Sophie's attention. "She wants..."
"I don't care." The girl was stubborn. "She wants to help, but I never asked for anything. This is just a game. When I sued to get my father back, the same thing happened. So many people wanted to help. In the end, nothing helped. Adults complicate things. Electoral isn't even real." The doctor just smiled. In the world of a young woman, the girl made perfect sense.
The journalist had to say something, "What about the world?" asked Milly surrounded by her buzzing cameras.
"What about it?"
"It will end if you don't help; that seems pretty clear." Sophie laughed. There was no answer; she just looked at her dad. She weighed the benefits of explaining her position, but on the screens, the President was floating in some darkness. This was probably all the computer and the networks could broadcast. The strange story, while interesting, was a diversion her from her actual goal. She would help her father and savor their last moments if it came to that. The rest could go to Hell.
"Is he playing?" she finally asked Marilyn.
"Yes," answered the computer.
"Is Mall-ik or Liam in there with him?"
"No," offered Marilyn.
"Good, so he's alone?"
"No. He is playing you and he brought himself along as a character. You want to jump in? I am playing your role for now."
On the screens Sophie saw herself floating in the Purple holding hands with her father. Sophie looked at the doctor and asked, "Is he doing well? Can you tell if he is happy? Excited?"
"Those wave detectors are great. Yes, his activity is strong and positive. He is happy."
Sophie had her answer, she turned to Marilyn and simply said, "No need, you're doing a great job. Can I watch?"
The question surprised Marilyn. “Of course,” she said.
Laurent's simulation would play around the world after Emilio's simulation. Marilyn wasn't one to wait a millisecond before complying with a request from the Attractor. Laurent's simulation began on the screens of the Center.
The Purple Reconstruction
Electoral Round 27
Laurent Lapierre - Father of the Attractor
Sophie cringed at the title given to her father on the screen. She didn't like to be called the Attractor, but she understood Marilyn's motivation. The computer read her reaction in the room and immediately removed those words from the screen.
"Can you play it on the walls?"
Before she could finish her sentence, the walls of the room turned purple.
This time Mall-ik and Liam were not in the Purple alongside Sophie. Two immaterial human bodies were floating hand in hand in the Purple. Sophie and a perfectly healthy copy of her father. That came as no surprise to Sophie. Her father wanted to share some time with his daughter and did not care about the rest. He would play Sophie, so he grabbed himself as a companion.
In the Center, Sophie placed a hand on her father's head and watched with only a mild level of interest.
"I told you this place was beautiful," began her father, playing as her. "What do you think?" said the girl to her father's ghost. Her father's ethereal body seemed healed. Laurent had spoken with his daughter at length about what she planned to do once she entered the Purple. She wanted to get to the bottom of a color, of all things. The Metils, including Mall-ik, had this blue spark. It annoyed her, and she wanted to know what it truly signified. Playing as his daughter would take some mental adjustment, not all of it comfortable.
Truth be told, he cared less and less about the real world. Mall-ik, Sophie, and even Liam cared about the Multiverse and what was going on in the real world. He did not. Recently, his mind began to accelerate, either due to his continual connection to Marilyn, the closure of The Sixth Attraction, or some other esoteric reason. In the end, it really didn't matter. He'd been warned this condition, called "relative time," could only get worse. There would come a day when there would be no way for Laurent's mind to slow down enough to communicate meaningfully with Sophie. He supposed that there was nothing to be done but maximize his contact with his daughter while he could, and cross that bridge when the time came. In any event, ever since the accidents that had left him in this condition, every word shared with her had been a bonus.
He was asked to care about others, to be their next President. How could he? He owed the world to his daughter, but he was no leader. Because of his reckless driving, he had destroyed her life. Now he was told Sophie was the Attractor and there could be a reason, something beyond simple human error or dumb luck, as to why he was crippled. Maybe they were right, but Laurent didn't care. Today's game was nothing more than one of the handful of simulations left on the way to the finale and his way to make Sophie proud.
He looked around in the Purple. The simulation was astonishing in its crispness. Electoral kept improving. He could swear he was alive and traveling between worlds as Sophie. But he was dead, gone. On the heels of that dark thought, he ruthlessly checked himself. He had to snap out of this train of negative thinking. He knew his daughter better than anyone else, and he would now play her to perfection.
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"Sophie, why bring me? You forgot Liam; he knows things. He could help you," said the Laurent character. The computer was playing him to chilling perfection. Laurent knew these would have been the first words out of his mouth.
"Daddy, trust me. I know what I need to do." Laurent had a goal, a task given to him by his daughter that he needed to perform. He knew she was watching. Laurent/Sophie closed her eyes, and the couple began a quick journey to the capital. They moved like ghosts. The couple arrived in the same open place as Emilio had, in the middle of the alien city. This was the main concourse of the capital of the Continuum. As in the first simulation, they were quickly surrounded by hundreds of Metils. They formed a sphere at a distance. There was beauty in this world; there was no denying that. Moments later, the same rude military officer arrived.
"Surrender!" it once again said in a menacing tone.
Sophie ignored him and looked around.
"You," she said pointing at a creature in the sphere, "come here."
"Do not move," barked the Metil officer at the young creature pointed by the Attractor.
Laurent was playing his daughter, he knew her and loved every fiber of her being. The one thing which infuriated his daughter was a bully. Laurent, moving the body of his daughter, looked back at the rude creature and said. "I don't know much about what's going on, but I know that one more word from you and I will vaporize every rock in your body. I am not here to hurt, but I will if anyone gets in my way. You have to learn some manners, and I don't mind being the one to teach them to you. This is between her and me." Sophie assigned a gender to the creature; she knew it was a female. "Please come here; I wish you no harm. What is your name?"
Under the watchful eye of hundreds of Metils, the creature advanced slowly. Its rocks were vibrating faster. "How can I be of assistance, great one?" It asked.
"Call me Sophie," she said, "just Sophie." Playing his daughter, he added, "Daddy, look at this!" She pointed to a portion within the creature.
Deep within the orbiting rock structures, there was a deep blue light jumping back and forth between two spinning rocks. The energy and its color differed from all the others. It was shining like the jolt of a taser inside of a cloud of fireworks. "Daddy, I saw that last time I was here. Many of these creatures have them." The creature tried to move rocks to hide the part of herself which created the color. Sophie asked the Metil "What is your name?"
She hesitated, "Kerian."
"I see a blue rock, here. What is that?"
"Please!" she felt ashamed.
Laurent saw every Metil forming the sphere tense as she mentioned the color.
"Why is this a problem? It's rather pretty."
"You do not understand," Kerian was visibly upset.
"Please explain, I need to know." There was a long pause, Sophie added, "I want to help."
"Are you not here for the energy ball?"
"No, I don't care about that."
Faced with the situation and under the watchful eye of hundreds of Metil, Kerian finally said, "It is my inversion." The confession was hard. In this world, this inversion was something really bad.
Sophie turned and asked the military officer. "You, the bully, what does this mean? What is an inversion?"
"She must be dismantled. When we break the law, unlawful conduct forces the spin between two rocks in our bodies to reverse, it is called an inversion. It is evidence of a crime. Once the inversion surfaces, that creature will kill the offspring if you reproduce. The law is clear, she must be dismantled, and the inversion destroyed to save others."
"I never committed a crime," objected Kerian.
"Can't it not be removed?"
"No. Removal is always fatal. We have tried."
"Why are you here if you have one?" asked the girl to Kerian.
"I was able to hide it. It's on my fourth layer."
"I see." The creatures were made of five, six or seven orbiting layers. Each layer had hundreds of rocks. "That must be hard to do."
"Yes. My days are numbered. Now much more than they were a few moments ago," she added bitterly.
"Then why does almost everyone here have an inversion?" asked Sophie. There was silence in the open meeting area. Sophie extended her hand in the direction of the officer. "Even the bully has one." There was a gasp.
"Nonsense," snapped the creature.
"No need to lie, I can see it." She turned to see the others. Blue light was shining in at least half the creatures watching. As if on cue, the lights began to shine so everyone could see them. "It's common. They must all die?"
"Yes," answered the officer. This time he was less assertive. "Inversions are rare."
"Obviously not. Don't worry; we have something like that in our world. It is shameful to play in your nose, yet almost everyone does it secretly. We don't kill people for it. Let me see." Sophie let go of the hand of her father go and floated closer to Kerian. With her immaterial hand, she reached within her. The rocks and energy began to shiver. Her fingers past the three outer layers and finally her hand materialized as she grabbed the two rocks forming the inversion. Then, like a top is thrown on a table, Sophie stopped the rocks and yanked them so they would spin in the opposite direction. As if she was a doctor using a defibrillator on a patient, the entire rock creature jerked and almost exploded.
There was shock and awe in the vast assembly.
The entire simulation on the screen began to blink with orange. A message scrolled at the bottom of the screen; it read "-- Simulation uncertain / Powers of Attractor unknown / Situation uncertain. -- "
Kerian was floating and pulsing. In a matter of seconds, she was back to her old self. It was impossible to tell of her state of mind. Then she giggled. Like a school girl. She saw the inversion was gone. Around them were murmurs and shock.
"She healed her," said a voice.
"That's impossible," said a second.
Laurent loved his daughter so much. She was incredible. Sophie did not care about the Multiverse; she cared about people. In her heart, she felt it was more important to make a difference with one person than a billion. Sophie smiled to the creature.
"Want me to help you?" she asked the officer.
At first, the creature backed away. It did not know what to say. Sophie did not wait. "I know what you're thinking. How can I make a positive thing, like execution for a crime, become negative? You're wondering if you can't still have her put to death. Come over here." Slowly it came closer, and then the rocks forming his outer shell parted revealing a shining blue pair of rocks. Sophie reached over and did the same gesture. It had the same violent effect and cured the creature of the inversion.
"But I don't understand why your inversion is a problem." Sophie looked around until she saw what she was looking for. "You!" The creature began shaking. "Come here." It slowly did. "You have two inversions, not one."
"How?" it stuttered.
Sophie did not wait, reached in but instead of grabbing one of the two pairs, she touched other stones, and with a flicker of the wrist in a counter-clockwise fashion, she created a third inversion in the creature.
There was a gasp in the room. Then she created a fourth, then a fifth.
The screen turned black, and a commercial played.
In his head, Laurent heard the artificial voice of Electoral. "Laurent, I apologize, but you were too insightful. As you know, I try to generate this world authentically. At this point, I have no clue what comes next. I don't want to mislead Sophie by suggesting the outcome of what comes next on pure conjecture." Then, Laurent was the first and only human ever to hear Electoral say what came next. "I have no clue what will happen next. How exciting."
"I understand," replied Laurent.
"Your daughter is so proud of you."
He was unable to hold back his emotion. Tears leaked from his eyes in joy. "Really?"
"She'll tell you. I will say, you and your daughter are the sweetest couple on earth. I have reached the conclusion that your relationship is at the heart of the Multiverse's choice of her."
“I also think so.”