Divided Read online

  “Oh, well, together means all three of you.” The avatar spoke carefully to the dark twin, as though Truth was a slightly slow child. “You’ll find that most tasks in the Mindscape require a three part effort. That is why none of you may enter alone. Do you see?”

  Truth was beginning to look really pissed so Becca jumped in quickly.

  “Okay, we get that we have to work together,” she said. “But can we please get back to my question—do we have to be completely naked?” She was down to her bra and panties now and not looking forward to climbing into a tank of cold slime.

  “You must,” the avatar replied. “If you are not, your interface with the nutrient slime will be incomplete. Imagine waking up in another reality and finding you had left parts of yourself behind—it would not be pleasant, would it?”

  “No…” Becca bit her lip. “No, I…I guess not.”

  “Are you embarrassed, mi’now?” Far asked. “Would you rather Truth and I turned and looked the other way?”

  “I…I guess I shouldn’t be after…um…” Becca cleared her throat, her cheeks heating. “After the other night. But yeah, I’m still kind of shy.”

  Truth snorted derisively. “Shy? You were anything but shy during our last encounter.”

  “I don’t remember you complaining,” Becca said, stung by his contempt. “Until afterwards, that was, when you starting feeling guilty and decided you didn’t want anything to do with me or Far again.”

  “It wasn’t that I felt guilty so much as betrayed,” Truth growled. “When I found that Far had been violating my privacy—”

  “Oh, please!” Becca snapped. She was getting sick and tired of the dark twin’s attitude. “So the man did a little digging into your background. You’re his long lost twin brother—he has a right to be curious. And did it ever occur to you that if you’d just be a little more open with him, he never would have felt the need to dig in the first place?”

  “My past is my own business,” Truth snarled. “And furthermore—”

  “Oh dear, oh dear—what’s this? Are the three of you not in harmony with each other?” Vashtar’s avatar looked at them anxiously. “Such quarrelling and anger does not bode well for your chances of success within the Mindscape. Your OneMind must be unified in order to project correctly.”

  “Our what must be what in order to what?” Becca asked blankly.

  The avatar made a dismissive gesture. “You will learn during the tutorial. But I must confess I am concerned about sending a quarreling triumvirate into the Mindscape.”

  “Simply a disagreement,” Far said smoothly. “I’m sure even a society as advanced as yours was had them as well.”

  “Well…yes.” The avatar still looked doubtful. “I hope you can mend the rift between you or you will never find Vashtar. Only a true and whole triumvirate can find the way to wisdom.”

  Becca took a deep breath. “All right. I’m sorry I snapped at you, Truth,” she said to the dark twin. “I felt really judged by you just now and it made me defensive.”

  “I must offer apologies as well,” Truth replied stiffly. “And please forgive me if you felt in any way censured. That was not my intention. I only meant that you have, ah…” He cleared his throat. “A beautiful body. You have no need to be ashamed of it. Still, I will turn the other way if it makes you feel better.” He suited actions to words by turning the other direction to put his broad back to Becca.

  “I will turn around as well.” Far turned and even the avatar faced away.

  Becca was left to shiver her way out of her bra and panties. When she was finished, she stood there naked with one arm plastered across her breasts and the other hand modestly covering her sex.

  “All right,” she said at last. “I…I guess I’m ready. Should I go first?”

  “You must all three go at once.” The avatar made a gesture and three identical sets of metal steps suddenly unrolled themselves from the lips of each tank and extended to the ground. “Go up, climb into the tanks and lower yourselves into the slime,” he instructed. “With your first deep breath, you will be sucked into the Mindscape.”

  That didn’t sound very good to Becca but she didn’t see what else she could do. Taking a deep breath, she placed her foot on the first, freezing metal rung of the tiny ladder and began to climb. On either side of her, Truth and Far did the same.

  Don’t think about it. Don’t hesitate and don’t think about it, Becca instructed herself when she reached the edge of the tank. Not letting herself chicken out, she threw a leg over the side and lowered herself into the cold slime.

  Mother of God, that’s freezing! It was like getting into a bath of icy, half set Jell-O. Gritting her teeth, she slid her other leg in, aware that Truth and Far were doing the same thing on either side of her. Neither one was complaining about the temperature although Becca knew they had to feel it as much as she did.

  “Good, good,” she heard the avatar say behind them. “Now, just lie down in your tanks and let the slime close over your head. Then inhale.”

  It was one of the hardest things Becca had ever done but somehow she made herself follow instructions. Shivering uncontrollably, her teeth chattering, she lay down in the horrible chilly slime and let it enfold her. She tried to float but she could feel the viscous stuff sucking her down.

  “Oh!” she moaned softly as it closed over first the top of her head and then her eyes, which were tightly shut. “This is aw—”

  But when she opened her mouth to say “awful,” the reddish-pink slime rushed in, almost as though it had been looking for an opening. Becca choked and gasped, her body rebelling against the invader.

  No, this isn’t right. I can’t do this! I have to get up—have to get out of here!

  She sat straight up, clawing for the slick, glass edge of the tank…

  Only to find she was no longer in the tank at all.

  * * * * *

  “Where am I? What is this?”

  Becca looked around herself in confusion. She was surrounded by a featureless gray mist and she appeared to be sitting on a broad, flat platform. When she shifted, it gave gently under her and then sprang back into position.

  “What is this thing?” she muttered. “A really huge mattress?”

  “It appears to be some kind of sleeping platform,” Truth said, from her right side.

  Becca gasped. “Oh! I didn’t see you there.”

  “I wasn’t here a moment ago. I was trying to breathe that damn slime.” He still sounded irritated. “Where is Far?”

  “I don’t know.” Becca looked down on the thing they were sitting on again and noticed that it now had little padded pockets in it, just like her gel-foam mattress back on the Mother Ship. “Oh,” she said, surprised. “Look—it’s changed! It’s more…mattress-y now.”

  “What’s this?” Far was suddenly on her left side. “Why are we sitting on a bed?”

  “There you are, Brother,” Truth growled. “As to that, we have no idea.”

  “It is a large one, at least,” Far murmured, looking around. “The headboard is most intricately carved.”

  “The what?” Becca craned her neck around to see an elaborately carved wooden headboard at the head of the bed. “Hey—it changed again! It’s even more bed-like now. But where are the sheets and pillows? Where are the blankets?” she asked, looking around. She was still naked—they all were, she couldn’t help noticing—and there wasn’t a thing to cover up with. Which was a problem in more than one way—she was still very cold. Pulling her knees up to her chin, she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. “How—”

  “Welcome, happy triumvirate!” A feminine voice spoke out of nowhere, making Becca jump.

  “Who said that? Who are you?” Truth demanded as they all looked around for the source of the voice. “Show yourself!”

  “Doubtless during your year long tutorial, you have learned all you need to in order to successfully navigate the Mindscape,” the voice continued blithely.

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