Between Two Worlds

Kat opens the door to the grocery store, and I hear a faint tinkling sound coming from somewhere in the back. She steps inside and I quickly follow. This is the grocery store used by the singles, no 3D food printers here, only crops and meats. A quick glance around the store, tells me that we are the only ones here. Empty, just as Kat predicted. We walk in between aisles two and three, past aisles of fresh fruits and vegetables. I’ve got to remember to come back and buy myself some more purple potatoes. As we approach the back wall, I see a row of computers. Each computer is as wide as I can stretch my arms and its height is equal in length. These computers are used for the ordering of special food items not usually carried in the store.

“Say you are from Nonas Plantae, and your favorite food is Bestola. But there isn’t a lot of your kind, so we don’t stock the ingredients for Bestola. Use this computer here and place an order for the Bestola ingredients.” Harmony had said during our introduction to shopping, during one of our classes.

“What was that?” Kat asks as she starts tapping on the screen.

“Sorry, guess I was thinking out loud,” I say. After a moment of silence, I add, “What is Bestola?”

“Bestola? Eh.” She says, tapping on the screen some more. “Not my favorite dish. It isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten, but I have had way better. Basically, it’s fried insects with various seasonings.”

“Gross. I am definitely not interested in that. Where I come from, insects are pests, not food.” I watch as she closes out the food ordering screen and opens a different one. “Kat?”

“What?” she asks not even looking away from the screen. I can hear the annoyance in her voice.

“How can you access the records from here?”

“The Dini are very trusting people. Not in other people, but in their own selves. They feel as if their computer software is impenetrable, so they have no problems networking their computers together. Also, they are lazy.” She says as an afterthought.

“And is it?” I ask.

“Is it what? Impenetrable? Maybe to the average person, but to me, it’s a cakewalk. That’s the reason I was chosen for this job. I may be a Copaie but there was a temporary alliance formed with the Talfarian people, so I attended their specialty classes. I know things the average Copaie could never dream of knowing. I’m in, now be quiet for a moment while I look for what I need.”

I glance around the store, wondering exactly what it is that Kat is looking for. And what did she mean, that’s why she was hired for the job? What job?

“Here we go,” Kat says, double tapping on a red folder marked Inbound from Earth. A bunch of folders pop up, each with a different date, ten total, for ten years. She clicks on the current year, and two names pop up. Carina and Rayanna. Once she clicks on my name, a bunch of paperwork pops up. I see her eyes scanning the documents, her lips move silently as she reads.

“Well?” I ask, impatiently folding my arms across my chest. What exactly is in that folder?

“So, basically,” she says, scrolling down the screen. “This section tells of the experiments the Ghemin did on you. A lot of medical jargon, most of which, even I don’t understand. But the point is they were trying to make your body where it would be able to self-heal or heal faster. There’s another note, here,” she says pointing, “where they were also trying to increase your intelligence. Of course, they failed miserably on both accounts.”

“Hey!” I say, offended.

“Well...” she says shrugging. “It is what it is. That cut experiment we did earlier, should have healed already if that part of the experiment worked. And your intelligence, well, I don’t have to tell you. You are nowhere near Copaie level. Apparently, you were not a good candidate for the experiments. The failure must be your fault.”

That last comment was rude, and I’m seriously considering finding out what The Cleansing is, and just leaving Kat on her own when she speaks up.

“Ah-ha!” she exclaims. “That explains it. It’s not your fault the experiments failed, apparently, there was a big lightning storm that started right about the time they got started on you. Lightning struck the metal building and did what lightning does, it traveled through the monitors hooked up to you and blew them out. They were afraid they lost you, and when one of the doctors touched you to find a pulse, the lightning traveled out of you and into him, killing him instantly. Once they found out you were still alive, they just sewed you closed and called you a failure. According to these notes... that wasn’t the first time it happened. The last time it happened was... let me see.... ten years ago.”

“Who was the other person?” Maybe the other person is traveling between two worlds as well. If I could talk to them... maybe I wouldn’t feel so crazy.

“I don’t know, it doesn’t say.”

“Oh,” I say, feeling disappointed.

“But this explains everything. Like the Copaie warrior of legend, you were struck by lightning and are now able to travel between two different realities.”

“So, you think both worlds are real?”

“As real as I am right now. At least that’s what the Copaie warrior swore up and down.” She says, tapping on the screen.

“Did she ever learn to control it?” I ask.

“Control what?”

“Did she ever learn to control when she shifted realities?”

“I don’t know. I never met the warrior for myself. And I never really asked any questions about the story. I always thought it was just a silly bedtime story. Something the older Copaie tell the young ones in order to help them to sleep at night. But I can tell you one thing.”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“I suggest you don’t ever tell anyone about the shifting thing.”

“Why, not? I told you.”

“Yes, and it sounds completely crazy. I believe you, but I heard about this guy, in the program last year, who went insane. Don’t really know the details but they sent him through The Cleansing.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“Oh, but it can be. I suppose there’s no harm in telling you a few things. There are rumors circulating amongst the galaxies that The Cleansing is the Dini’s way of killing off people that don’t conform to their demands.”

“What are you looking for now?” I watch as she clicks another folder, date, and name.

“Trying to see if I can catch sight of any more Ghemin experiments similar to your own.” She says. “If I find another name...”

“I could talk to them and maybe not feel so insane.”

“Exactly.”