Martyn Vaughan - The Cave of Shadows

She sat on the edge of the couch and buried her face in her hands, her hair forming an impenetrable tent around her profile.

‘The darkness. Trapped. Horrible. Horrible.’

He sat by her, an arm around her, not daring to speak, to ask questions.

After an achingly long time she raised her head and, sweeping her hair back, looked at him.

‘Yes, Jon. I know you’ve been waiting for answers. And I have them.’

A voice behind Jon suddenly said: ‘That’s good. Because we’d like some answers as well.’

Jon spun around. There were five figures standing in the doorway: three males and two females. And one of the females was Shana. He heard an intake of breath from the Shana at his side. He stood up.

‘And you are?’

The first man approached. He was of a category that Jon was not familiar with.

‘I’m Jorl38.’

The others followed.

‘I’m Jarm40.’

‘I’m Shev16’

‘I’m Jarz51’

‘I’m Shana36.’

Jon felt his companion rise from the couch behind him and stand at his side. In utter amazement they stared at the newcomers. Two of the males and one of the females were of types that they had only seen from a distance in the Hill simulation. But the last man looked exactly like their nemesis from that period.

And the woman was – Shana.

Jon could not help looking from the one to the other. His fears were realised – he could not tell them apart. All the newcomers were dressed exactly as he and Shana were.

He felt a crazy compulsion to put them side by side and examine them closely but that was out of the question. At least it was until “his” Shana did exactly that.

She crossed to the newcomer and looked her up and down.

‘You look a bit like me,’ she said quietly.

Shana36 gave an arch smile and said in an identical voice. ‘I look exactly like you.’

To his gathering horror, Jon realised that was absolutely true. There were none of the subtle differences which had distinguished him and Jon11. It struck him that if he were to leave the room and come back in he would not be able to tell them apart.

He decided to take control of the situation. ‘You’ve eaten I take it?’ he said wondering why his first question had been such a banal one.

Jorl38 sat himself down on a couch with an assured air.

‘We have. We’ve also been told to report to this room to be – what’s the word – “educated.” ‘

Jon stared at them. He knew he had been in rapport with five individuals in the Stasis Room and that the last one had looked like Shana. Were these the same individuals or was this a trick?

‘Good,’ he said, ‘the Protectorate need soldiers who know one end of a gun from the other.’

Instantly the newcomers stiffened; Jarz51 looked at Shev16 and then they all turned and glared aggressively at him.

Jon waved a hand. ‘It’s fine; just a quick test. Relax. And Shana36…’

‘Yes Jon?’

He tried to smile but was not at all sure what shape his lips were making and finally said, in a strangely strangulated voice, ‘I wonder if you wouldn’t mind staying on that side of the room.’

The lady in question looked at him with an expression that could only be described as amused tolerance .

‘What’s the matter, Jon – afraid you might kiss the wrong girl?’

Jon found himself unable to reply but was saved by Jorl38 who, looking at Shana12, said, ‘This little lady was about to tell us something.’

She looked at Jon who nodded, ‘Don’t worry. Just tell us.’ He glanced at the newcomers. ‘You haven’t been in the Educator yet so no doubt all of what she’s going to say will be a great shock to you. So make sure you’re all seated.’

He did not know then that it would be a great shock to him also.

Shana12 stared at them and said in crisp tones: ‘Do you know what you are?’

‘No, tell us.’

‘You are bioengineered structures created in the image of homo sapiens but made of less perishable materials and with a nervous system that is much better organised. You are made in the image of humanity but you are not of that genus; you are – what shall we call it? – transhuman .’

‘Sounds good,’ Jarm40 said, with a sidelong glance at Shev16.

‘We have all been embedded in a simulation whilst actually residing in stasis pods for a long period of time.’

‘Well, we guessed that.’

‘Do you have any idea how long?’

‘No.’

‘Five hundred years.’

The room burst into a tumult of voices, with everyone speaking at once, repeating the same astounding phrase over and over again.

Shana12 waved them to be quiet.

‘And do you know where you are?’

‘Obviously not.’

Shana12 looked at Jon and for a moment he seemed to be falling deeply into bottomless pools of blue-grey mystery.

‘You are passengers on the interstellar ramjet Fatal Scimitar .’

In an environment that was nothing other than improbability piled high on improbability the information supplied by Shana did not seem to be too incredible. The other six accepted the truth of their situation after only a short delay. The newcomers then went into the Educator and met Maroun, received their upgrades and saw the sad fate of the Degenerates spread out before them. Once again the females received only a truncated version of the syllabus. On their return, Jon decided that now he had reinforcements he would make another attempt at freeing the sleepers in the Stasis Room.

But first he wanted more information. Although he accepted his Shana’s revelations he wanted to know more: what was the purpose of this extraordinary journey that they had discovered that they were experiencing?

The new Shana and Shev agreed to go back into the dark world of the Educator in order to do just that. His Shana refused to contemplate it and he accepted her decision.

They donned the headsets and at once their eyes closed and their faces went blank.

Time passed. The others stared helplessly at each other and Jarz took to walking back and forth like a caged animal.

Jon had tried talking to him and was relieved to find that he was nothing like his equivalent on the Hill. But now the man was too wound up for conversation and waved at Jon to be quite when he attempted to talk. Jarm and Jorl too were plunged into quiet melancholy; Jarm spent most of the time studying his hands while Jorl, having lost some of his confident air, sat in silent immobility. Jon found himself in a peculiar state of confusion as he was in the same room as two identical Shanas, one awake and staring at him with wide-open, worried eyes; the other deeply asleep on her couch. How long before I lose track of who’s who ? he wondered.

Eventually, after what seemed an eternity, the two women’s eyes fluttered and, after a few moments of confusion, the ashen-faced women looked around, removed their headsets and sat up in a slow, jerking fashion.

The room burst into activity immediately as the men crowded around the two women. Jon commanded them to be quiet and said: ‘Let them rest for a while. It’s not easy to do what they’ve done. You should know that.’

Eventually Shev, a small woman with raven black hair, said: ‘I think we’ve found out all you wanted us to, Jon.’

‘And that is?’

Shev looked at the faces of her audience, one by one and began her speech: ‘What Shana12 said is true. Five hundred years ago the Protectorate launched this craft, the Fatal Scimitar on a journey to a nearby star.’

‘And why would they do that?’ demanded Jon.

Shev looked confused. ‘I don’t understand their mentality but it seems they believed that the planetary system of that star held an intelligent lifeform with its own civilisation.’