New Fleece on Life by David Adams

Author:David Adams [Adams, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-05-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter V

That Floating Ball

Holston’s back twisted as he looked around wildly, then stared at where she had been, his eyes struggling to understand what had happened, begging for the world to make sense again.

It wasn’t real. The ship wasn’t real, the picnic wasn’t real, Liao wasn’t real. This was another trick, another simulation. Another false image and a false reality and a false feeling deep within his chest that hurt and burned, stealing his breath from his lungs.

He staggered to his feet, stumbling across the dry earth, eyes locked on where Liao was sitting. The blanket and picnic basket sat in the twilight, a silent, mocking tease. Even his clothes had gone, completely vanished off his back, leaving him completely bare.

Some things are real, whispered his sanity, they must be.

Just as he was about to scream and shout and curse whatever deities or higher powers existed out there for doing this to him, Liao reappeared, her eyes closed, leaning forward to kiss lips that were no longer there. Holston’s nanoweave clothes floated in the air for a split second, as though Liao were about to kiss an invisible man.

The clothes fell to the ground. Liao leaned further forward and overbalanced, tipping forward with a shocked gasp, opening her eyes. She face-planted into the clothes, jerking her head up, staring around wide-eyed. Holston looked to the east. The Beijing was there again, a dagger in the earth, its thrusters pointing up to the sky.

“How did you get over there?” asked Liao, staring at him with a look of complete shock on her face. “And how are you naked?”

“Where did you go!”

“What?” Liao scrambled back into a sitting position, stammering in confusion. “What do you mean where did I go? Where did you go!”

Holston threw his hands into the air, helplessly gesturing at the stricken vessel. “Just now! Just now, where did you go? I was—I was about to—and then you were gone! The ship was gone! There was just this metal ball thing—”

“What metal ball? What are you talking about?”

“A… a thing! Round, perfectly round, and made of shiny metal, floating about…” he jabbed a finger towards the middle of the silent Beijing. “There!”

Blood trickled down Liao’s face from her nose. She reached up to pinch it off, clambering awkwardly to her feet. Her voice was weird and distorted with her nose closed. “That sounds like the jump drive. If the ship vanished, why would it remain?”

Holston couldn’t deal with any of those questions. He couldn’t understand what had happened around him, but he knew how to handle bloody noses. “Are you okay?”

She waved off his attempts to help. “I’m fine. I went to a mixed boot camp. I’m used to these kind of things.”

“Lemme see.”

Liao pulled away from him. “I’m fine, really. I… I don’t want you to see me bleeding.”

Holston could understand that. He nodded. “No worries, then. It looks like it’s stopping anyway.”

“I hope so. We’ll go inspect the jump drive tomorrow morning, before dawn, but we could use some sleep.

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