Freedom's End by Christian Kallias

Author:Christian Kallias [Kallias, Christian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-21T06:00:00+00:00

Four

It’s way past ten o’clock in the morning when I decide I’ve had enough of unfulfilling sexual fantasies and that loneliness starts to get to me. I reactivate TAINHA.

“How was your morning, Cole?”

“The usual,” I say, not bothering to conceal how bored I feel.

“Would you like to talk about your nightmare?”

The nightmare. I had almost forgotten about it. There’s something about tits bouncing up and down that will mesmerize the shit out of you in any circumstance. Be them real, fake, or virtual. But the simple mention of the nightmare, or whatever the feck I experienced last night, brings me right back to reality, faster and more efficiently than a cold shower.

I guess I needed that. I’ve got to figure out what the hell it all means.

“Yeah. Let’s do that.”

“I’m listening . . .”

I proceed to retell the tale to TAINHA with as much detail as I can remember. She stays silent until I’m done.

“Oh my . . . it must have been horrific to feel you were dying, burning alive.”

“Yeah, not a pleasant experience. I could feel the pain; it was so realistic . . . I still don’t know if this was a nightmare or something else.”

“What else could it be, Cole?”

“I don’t know; need I remind you that I time travel for a living? What if something went wrong, and I really died?”

“And how do you explain that you’re back here, safe and sound?”

“I didn’t say I had the answer. I’m just saying this didn’t feel like any other dream I ever had before.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it, Cole. But it’s just—”

She stops mid-sentence.

“Say it.”

“It doesn’t seem likely to be anything but a nightmare. No offense.”

“None taken, Tanya.”

“Who’s Tanya?” she says with what sounds like a hint of jealousy in her synthesized vocals.

Crap! That’s what I was calling the sex bot of Indian descent in my holographic fantasies, which I named after my first girlfriend.

“Charming,” says TAINHA, clearly annoyed I would confuse her with a sex bot.

“I’m sorry, but you have to admit, that’s a pretty name.”

“If I didn’t know where it came from I would be inclined to agree. I would even consider letting you call me that.”

“Why don’t you?” I say, knowing full well that I should stop talking.

“Yes—why don’t I let you call me like one of your holographic whores, Cole? Sometimes you can really anger me.”

Yeah, I stepped right into that one. But then I realize that I would enjoy calling her that. So, knowing full well I’m going to crash and burn in my attempt, I push on.

“Look. I understand how you feel, I really do.”

“I seriously doubt that,” ice drips from her voice.

“You have all the right in the world to be pissed at me right now. But let me explain.”

“Whatever.”

“Okay. So Tanya is the name of my first girlfriend . . .”

“You do realize you’re making things worse, don’t you?”

“Would you let me finish?”

“We both know you can’t.”

I want to continue explaining that I actually never had sex with her and that our relationship was mostly platonic when TAINHA’s sick joke sinks in.

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