John Moralee - Future Imperfect - A Collection of Science Fiction Stories

“Veya, it’s good to see you,” my mentor said. “You seem a little distracted. If you aren’t feeling well, we can postpone your lesson for another week.”

“No, I’m fine,” I said. “I’m ready.”

Gileanor looked sceptical. “Are you sure?”

“There is a personal matter bothering me, but I won’t affect my performance. I am focussed.”

“Very well,” she said. “Put on your skullcap.”

I did so and laid down on the couch, which was more comfortable than it looked. Remembering my training, I closed my eyes and slipped into a dreamlike state. I sensed Gileanor standing behind me, a comforting presence, as I interfaced with the Key Stone, linking my mind into the vast machine running the gateway generators.

I was no longer aware of my body in the chamber.

Instead, I was in a dreamy place where the laws of physics were mutable. Like a god, I was seeing multiple locations on other worlds in remote galaxies. My mind had interfaced with the minds of a thousand navigators from alien civilisations. They were linked to other machines, maintaining a pseudo-telepathic union, expanding our collective consciousness. I was just a small cog in a great wheel keeping the hyperspace network functioning, but I felt like I had infinite power and wisdom. My mind was making subtle adjustments to space-time while thousands of living beings travelled world to world, blissfully unaware of our work. One lapse in concentration would put their lives at risk. It was a huge responsibility, but my training had prepared me well. Being part of the network felt as natural as breathing.

Gileanor’s soft voice guided me, giving instructions I followed precisely. As a test, I opened a brief gateway to a desert planet, where I could taste the hot sand in the air. Then I opened another into deep space close to a colony ship.

“That’s good,” she said. “Now close it and open another one to a pulsar in the Andromeda Galaxy.”

“Which one?”

“You choose.”

I practised for hours, opening and closing small gateways. At the end of the session, Gileanor allowed me to experiment by choosing a few empty worlds. I found it easy to connect to them and create slightly larger, stable gateways. It would take years to make really large ones, like the official gateways, but Gileanor sounded pleased.

“That’s excellent,” she said. “We’re done for today.”

I sighed. I could have spent all day doing it. Idly, I wondered if I could use the network to look for my sister. Would I find her on another world, alive and happy? Would it be possible to search for her, using the interface? As an experiment, I tried to picture my sister. That thought made Marila appear in my mind as real as the last time I had seen her. I saw her smiling, her sun-reddened face basked in golden sunshine. She looked so full of joy that I ached to see her again. Distantly, like the real world was the dream, I felt tears running down my cheeks. My sister. I wanted my sister!

“Veya!” Gileanor shouted. “Concentrate on closing your gateway!”

“What?” I mumbled, realising I had been distracted. There was a feedback fluctuation in the hyperspace near Terminus. Eddies in the energy fields rippled and expanded. I reduced the energy input and stabilised the field strength, but my efforts were inadequate. I was creating more ripples. I didn’t want to panic, but I was losing control. “I can’t do it!”

I felt myself jerked back into the chamber as Gileanor disconnected my skullcap, ripping it off my head, breaking my connection to the Key Stone. My head throbbed. I felt sick. I was back in the chamber, disorientated by the sudden transition. Gileanor pulled me off the couch and took my place on it. Though her expression remained neutral, I could feel her scowling on the inside.

“Veya, you need to leave.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “What happened? Did I do something wrong?”

“You are not ready,” she said. “I doubt you ever will be. You must leave the guild now. A sentinel will escort you from the building.”

A sentinel was already in the room, striding towards me.

“You must come with me,” it said.

As I was forced to leave, my mentor closed her eyes and interfaced with the Key Stone, while the other guild members twitched on their couches like they were having a terrible nightmare.

“I’m sorry,” I said, but nobody heard.

The sentinel led me to the main exit. I collected my suncoat, then I was escorted outside and down the steps into the sunny street. The sunlight stung almost as much the tears drying on my face.

I hurried home the quickest way, over the hanging bridges and up the cliff in a cable car. My home was among the suburbs on the western side of the canyon, shaded by spindly solar trees the colour of vintage wine. I called out when I entered, but my parents were not there. I was glad. I didn’t want them to see me in my current state – hot and sweaty and red-eyed from crying.

Detecting my presence, Ava, the house’s AI, welcomed me home. “Veya, you have one new text-only message from the Nova Guild Chancellor’s Office. Shall I read it to you?”

“Yes.”

“ We are sorry to inform you that, due to a failure of your duties as a guild member, your apprenticeship with Guild Mistress Gileanor Marko has been temporarily suspended. Furthermore, your guild membership has also been revoked, pending the result of an internal inquiry into this serious matter. The guild will inform you within 90 days, in writing, if your membership will resume, or if it will be permanently revoked. During the inquiry, you must not contact any guild members or attempt to enter the Guild, as this will result in immediate and permanent dismissal. ’”

“They’re throwing me out?”

“I’m sorry,” Ava said. “Shall I draw you a relaxing bath?”

“No,” I said. “I need ice cream. Lots of ice cream.”

I stormed into the kitchen, wishing I had bought a Kranix plung so I could forget about my day. Ava’s servitor prepared me a rich and creamy strawberry ice cream served in a large ceramic bowl. I ate it quickly until it gave me brain-freeze, then I ate it slowly. Afterwards, I slumped on my bed, staring at the ceiling, angry with myself. I’d let my feelings for my sister distract me at a crucial moment during my training. There was no chance of the Guild reinstating me, not after such a breach of the rules. If only my cousin had not dragged me into the market, making me think about her, I would have not messed up everything.

Paulo should not have bought the memory disk. Then I would not have been thinking about losing my sister.

I took out the disk and stomped over to the recycler, considering trashing it. But I didn’t. What if the disk contained something useful? I went back to my bed and strapped an interface band onto my head, which was a less intrusive neural connector than the skullcap. While a skullcap could read my thoughts, the band could only send them into my brain, replaying whatever memories were recorded. When I was lying comfortably, I activated the device.

Immediately, I plunged into a stranger’s mind, experiencing everything they had done as if it were happening now.

Blue sky and waterfalls. The scent of spices. Soft air on my silver-white skin. I’m spinning high above a huge, sprawling city, beating my wings to rise higher until I’m at the top of lush, green valley. I stop beating my wings and spread my arms to feel the suns on my almost-weightless body.

Gravity slows me down and I begin to fall. Looking down, I see my brothers and sisters dancing in the air in perfectly-coordinated, symmetrical patterns. I join them in a circle. We spin in a thermal, then spiral down, dancing. My wings beat once, twice, then I hurtle down and down towards a crowd of humans far below. The wind rushes. My heart quickens. The ground looms. Plunging down and down, faster and faster, I feel truly alive, knowing I’m only a few heartbeats away from death.