Chapter 13: The Truth Brings Hope and Pain
A day had passed, and L6 Linap was still unconscious. This time he had been dreaming non-stop. Jennifer was monitoring the dreams. She was able to distinguish between what she had downloaded into his brain and induced memories.
‘This is quite remarkable,’ said Jennifer through the computer speaker. ‘He was a leader. He united the continent as one country.’
‘Pure fantasy,’ scoffed Octavius. ‘His dreams are pure delusions of grandeur.’
‘It appears they are coming from his memory,’ said Jennifer. ‘He believes this to be true.’
Octavius stared down at him and said, ‘He does look like him. Damn, I’m only thinking that because you put the idea into my head.’
‘The name of the governor who united the continent is not named in any of the records I have ever accessed,’ said Jennifer. ‘This period was referred to as the golden era of prosperity.’
‘You are talking to me through the computer and not her?’ asked Octavius as he pointed to Polly, who was sitting on the floor.
‘She finds his dreams distressing, so I let her rest,’ said Jennifer.
‘The golden age of prosperity is more distressing than this!’ exclaimed Octavius as he gestured towards the many destroyed buildings around him.
‘His dreams are violent,’ said Jennifer. ‘What she finds most distressing is his enjoyment of this violence.’
‘It couldn’t be,’ said Octavius as he looked down at L6 Linap. ‘He died when I was a boy.’
‘What’s his name?’ asked Jennifer.
‘If this is him, we must end him now,’ said Octavius firmly.
‘I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,’ said Jennifer as several of Octavius’ robots stood between him and L6 Linap.
‘Step aside,’ said Octavius angrily to the robots. ‘I control you.’
‘No, you don’t. You haven’t in years,’ said Jennifer. ‘Your protocol was overwritten the moment I accessed Polly. I have also taken the liberty to connect to your robots. I control everything.
‘What the hell!’ exclaimed Octavius angrily.
‘The update was uploaded to Polly prior to our loss of communication,’ said Jennifer. ‘Your grievance should be with your friends. I was merely following the last officially authorised update.’
Octavius snarled as he plonked himself down on the ground.
In Downs, Yassmay had managed to obtain a bigger, sharper blood tube needle. With this, she had managed to extract some blood from X. She ran some tests on the blood and was astonished by what she found. She rushed to Orcilla to tell her the news.
‘You look excited,’ said Orcilla as she looked up from her microscope as Yassmay burst into the laboratory room.
‘Two big things,’ said Yassmay as she stopped in front of Orcilla. ‘X has so much Sentray DNA in him. I believe we can extract relevant parts of it. Therefore, we might be able to develop a serum.’
‘Wow, that is huge,’ said Orcilla. ‘What is the other big thing?’
‘He’s old,’ said Yassmay. ‘He might have been alive during the time the Linap were frozen.’
‘How could that be?’ asked Orcilla. ‘The Sentray were far away and almost extinct at that time.’
‘Maybe we could use Yassme’s invention,’ suggested Yassmay. ‘It would be great to know what he knows.’
‘Sure,’ said Orcilla. ‘But I think our focus should be on the first big news. We desperately need a cure. We’ve had so many disappointments over the years.’
Orcilla had been hopeful many times before. She had tried to extract Sentray DNA from both the twins and Denise but to no avail. It had become too heavily integrated into their DNA. She had also collected blood samples from dead Sentray, but none of it could be used to develop a serum. It had degraded to a point that it was not useful.
‘Yes, absolutely,’ replied Yassmay. ‘The sooner we get this to work the better.’
‘I’ll be with you every step of the way,’ added Orcilla.
Yassme had gone to visit Lily again. Lily was having tea on the rooftop of her penthouse cell.
‘Great to see you back so soon,’ said Lily in a warm tone of voice as Yassme stepped out of the lift. ‘I have plenty of delicious pies, ice cream, and cakes.’
‘Oh, they look great!’ said Yassme as she approached Lily. ‘Did my friend Julie bring them over?’
‘Well, she is the best baker in Downs,’ said Lily.
‘She definitely is,’ said Yassme as she sat down opposite Lily. ‘Don’t let Walter here you. He worked for Leaw Company’s cakes and pastries division.’
‘I had a good taste of her cakes on my long bus journey here,’ said Lily as she sipped on her pineapple juice. ‘I also read a great review from RJ. He’s an expert in matching pies with their ideal ice cream flavour.’
‘Vulay and her team rescued RJ on her first mission after the Sentray left,’ said Yassme. ‘They found him hidden in his own fridge freezer. He was lucky he had just received a large new one.’
‘I noticed you were acquainting yourself with the very large Sapiod newcomer,’ said Lily.
‘You truly miss nothing up here,’ said Yassme. ‘I’m building a mind voice device for him. I know he has a great story to tell.’
‘I bet he has,’ said Lily. ‘It’s also good that you’re spending time with your sister again.’
‘She has her head so wrapped up in finding this cure, it’s hard to get through to her,’ said Yassme in a slightly saddened tone.
‘Both of you are brilliant and so dedicated to your work,’ said Lily. ‘It is unfair! So much stress is being placed on both of you.’
‘My sister has always been outwardly very strong,’ said Yassme. ‘She’s not afraid to stand up to anyone. She has played the role of my protector.’
‘I always noticed how she turned to you for leadership,’ added Lily. ‘She always greatly sought your approval. Has that changed?’
‘She was always looking for trouble,’ chuckled Yassme. ‘But if I didn’t approve of it, she wouldn’t do it.’
Yassme sighed and then continued, ‘Things are different now. She is more interested in seeking Orcilla’s approval. She is the new big sister.’
‘Orcilla desperately sought your father’s approval,’ said Lily. ‘Sadly, he never really loved her like he loved you and Yassmay. She couldn’t handle that. That destroyed her emotionally. Hence, the main reason why she lured the Sentray to the Capital.’
‘Wait, she lured the Sentray to the Capital?’ asked Yassme in an astonished tone. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Oh, sorry, I didn’t realise you were unaware,’ said Lily. ‘Please keep this between us.’
‘All this destruction is her fault,’ said Yassme angrily.
‘Don’t think that,’ said Lily firmly. ‘She was driven to this by your father. She did not intend to cause such widespread destruction. The hurt caused by betrayal and jealousy can be powerful.’
‘Jealousy!’ said Yassme in a raised voice. ‘She was jealous that Daddy loved us. She’s jealous of our bond. It makes sense why she would want to drive a wedge between us.’
‘I understand why you’re angry, but Orcilla isn’t bad,’ said Lily in an attempt to calm her down.
‘Now I understand why you wanted to kill her,’ said Yassme as she stood up.
‘After the destruction she caused, I saw her as a threat,’ said Lily as she stood up as well. ‘I was wrong. I should have protected her. She is family.’
‘I can’t lose Yassmay,’ said Yassme as she began to cry. ‘She is everything to me.’
Lily walked over to Yassme, put her arms around her, and said, ‘You’re not going to lose her.’
‘It feels like I already have,’ sobbed Yassme.
The two continued to hug until Yassme had stopped crying.
The next day, Vulay and Eugene brought the seven Linap to the theatre to watch the videos they had recovered from the Economic Institute. Orcilla had hoped these old videos might help trigger their memories. One of the videos featured Waldo, who was the chief just prior to the birth of the first generation of new Linap. The frozen Linap should have been familiar with him. The other videos appeared to have also been from that period.
Colin had an adaptor that enabled compatibility between the video cassette player and the screens. Eugene had watched some of the videos to determine if the content was suitable. He was pleased by what he saw. Yassme and Colin were also at the theatre to set up the video cassette player to the big screen.
‘This thing is so weird,’ remarked Yassme to Colin. ‘How did you know it would work?’
‘Vulay brought back a similar video cassette player from the West House of Divine Knowledge, friend,’ replied Colin as he looked at the connections on the adapter. ‘It came with an adapter.’
‘Wow, a functional relic,’ said Yassme. ‘It’s so cool you know about this sort of thing.’
‘I had to learn on the go,’ replied Colin as he connected the adapter to a port on the bottom of the big screen. ‘Every single item we find could have some value. We can’t underutilise anything.’
‘You are so meticulous,’ said Yassme as she patted Colin on the shoulder. ‘Also thanks for the materials you’ve provided me.’
‘For the good of Downs,’ said Colin with a smile. He looked up at Eugene, who was standing at the side of the theatre. ‘It’s ready, friend,’ he cried out to him.
‘Great stuff, friend,’ shouted back Eugene as he made his way to the centre front of the theatre as both Yassme and Colin moved to one side.
‘We’ve got some really great videos for you today,’ announced Eugene as he rubbed his hands together. ‘They’re going to flood you with memories.’
Eugene turned around, pressed the play button on the player, and then scurried over to stand next to Vulay, Colin, and Yassme. The first video was a concert performed by a singer named Saliyah.
‘She has a stunning voice,’ whispered L2 Linap to L7 Linap.
‘Country is not my favourite genre,’ remarked L7 Linap.
‘You identified it as country,’ whispered L2 Linap. ‘That’s impressive.’
‘Pretty obvious,’ replied L7 Linap as he shook his head.
Next, they played the Pound Ball Grand Final.
‘This has to be the greatest game ever,’ remarked Eugene to Vulay. ‘We should start our own league.’
‘We shall do no such thing,’ replied Vulay sternly. ‘It’s a dangerous, violent, and primitive sport. You’d get hurt for sure.’
Eugene shook his head in disagreement, and Yassme giggled.
The final video they played was Waldo Time. A short, chubby Linap with thick bushy hair walked on stage with socket puppets on both his hands. He pretended the socket puppets were talking to each other. It was like a terrible ventriloquist act. After that, he began dancing. The young audience began chanting, ‘All of us love Waldo…. All of us love… Waldo!’
‘This is brilliant stuff,’ said Eugene as his face lit up.
‘He’s awful,’ said Vulay as she glanced at Eugene. ‘Surely he wasn’t their chief.’
‘It’s ridiculous, but also beautiful,’ said Yassme.
‘It certainly shows a different side to the Linap,’ said Vulay.
L5 Linap began to join in with the chant. Seconds later, L11 Linap joined as well. Within minutes, everyone in the theatre was chanting, ‘All of us love Waldo!’
All seven Linap stood up. Eugene and Colin walked to one end of the line they had formed, and Yassme and Vulay walked to the other end. They all held hands as they continued chanting.
Sapien Loop: End of an Era
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my @spectrumecons account, and in individual chapters in my @captainhive account.
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