Immersion by Karel Schrijver

Author:Karel Schrijver [Schrijver, Karel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19: Command

Evelyn looked down at Adam embodied here as Duke Christian. What had just happened? Some guy had walked up and committed suicide, as far as she could tell. How had that killed Christian? And what did this older man, kneeling next to Christian, mean that they had lost Adam?

Suddenly, it dawned on her that he had called him Adam. Not His Grace, or Christian, but Adam. He had used his proper name in the real world, not one he had used here. The man was still looking at her: “Who are you? How do you know this is Adam?”

He stood up. “I am Kazu, Evelyn. I know his guise because I made most of it. And I know yours. I have been here with you. I recognized you the moment we walked into this square.”

Evelyn’s suspicion evaporated as she recognized his distinctive prosody. Then she remembered his limp. “Kazu. Of course. How did you get here?” She did not wait for the answer. “No, forget that: what happened to Adam? Is he okay? Is it just his guise or is this for real?”

Kazu hesitated.

“Come on, Kazu, give me your best guess? Better yet, I am going to have a look for myself.”

She was not going to rely on Kazu’s speculations because there were too many questions in her mind about the role that he was playing in all this, including the mystery of his being here in an outfit that, by all appearances, belonged in the Caribbean Experience, along with a dozen or so others who also did not belong in the Golden Age. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes, attempting to activate the exit protocol. Nothing happened. She did it again. And again.

“Evelyn,” said Kazu, “I am afraid I disabled the exit option. You cannot leave! Adam will have to rely on the automated monitoring system in California. If there is anything wrong with his vitals, it will sound an alarm and alert a medical team back at GAIA. We can’t do anything from here until we can exit again.”

“You did what? We cannot exit? Why would you do that? This makes no sense!”

She was furious at Kazu for locking her into the Experience. She did not know what she would do to Metin for handing her this broken mess along with several irresponsible, careless computer scientists who had made all this into a petri-dish experiment about supposed consciousness. And on top of that, a war was about to commence without an option to exit.

Her thinking was interrupted by one of the Duke’s officers. “Your Grace, please step back for your safety!”

She looked up from the two bodies lying in the square to see two groups of rather military-looking men and women pointing weapons at each other. The Duke’s death had caused tensions to flare to the point of conflict: neither party knew what was going on, both parties felt threatened.

She needed to pause this experience, she thought. But Kazu had just told her that she could not exit back to the real world, so she also would not be able to pause this world.

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