Page 13 of The Space Traveller's Lover
THE REPLICA
Thank you, dear Zula. And however hard to believe,
thank you for showing me who I am.
Rothwen is resting by the scattered boulders on the seashore, taking stock of his endeavour. Today, whatever the perils and unknowns, he wouldn’t have it any other way; of that, he is sure. But what the future may bring—of that, he is not so sure.
He sends his last thought-message to Zula-Or, the Rom-Ghenshars’ High Counsellor: I was tired of the desolate wanderings. I needed something to shake up my demons, something to keep me from fighting against myself.
You always have what you want, Rothwen, and this is no different , Zula-Or replies from her ethereal gem-studded garden.
Rothwen looks at Shaillah’s angelic face as she soundly sleeps, her head lying snuggly against his bare chest.
No, my dear Zula … this is different , he counters.
Shaillah rolls open her drowsy eyes as she stirs within Rothwen’s arms. Her mind is blank and her vision blurred, but the swooshing sound of the ocean and the warmth from his body soon take her out of her slumber.
“What time is it?” she mumbles, stretching her arms and legs.
“Time?” Rothwen wryly smiles. “The time is now.”
“Now? ”
“Yes. Now. Free yourself from any time constraints, Shaillah, for it’s an illusion.
There is artificial local time , and there are entangled space-time frames .
” Rothwen briefly pauses and smiles at Shaillah’s puzzled face.
“The frames that we twist and bring together so we can change space and time … at our will. That’s how we can travel instantly across our beautiful universe. ”
“How do you twist them and bring them together?”
“In many ways—virtual tunnelling, vacuum energy, supergravity. It all depends on how fast and far we want to go.”
“Interesting. When can I see it?” Shaillah ponders as she finds her balance while standing up, feeling sluggish from her long sleep.
“Sooner than you think,” he assures her.
Shaillah checks herself and then her surroundings, scanning the immense horizon.
The two suns shine low in the sky, painting the wispy clouds in swathes of orange and cherry hues.
She reminds herself of where she was before falling asleep, gasping for air in an endless kiss, melting inside Rothwen’s arms. She turns around to look down at him, smiling childishly.
“You are still here.” She chuckles, her voice wobbling in a mixture of awe and joy as she throws herself over his shoulders and hugs him tightly, as if making sure he won’t disappear again like in her dreams.
“Yes, I’m still here. We made it—together!” Rothwen exclaims as he stands up in front of her, holding her hands and admiring her svelte figure. “You look amazing—after all you’ve been through. I must say, you’re definitely made for this world.”
Shaillah’s face beams with sheer self-confidence.
“Now, let me put this on—your utility belt.” Rothwen draws a glistening band from within his thick belt and wraps it around her waist. He firmly clasps the buckle at the front, its central jewel flashing as it clicks and locks up.
“This is your primary control,” Rothwen explains, rubbing on the trapezium-shaped buckle. “It depends on which edge you touch. But you can also use your mind commands—when you’re ready.”
Shaillah swings her waist around, inspecting the beautifully decorated belt. A golden mesh runs along its strap forming rhomboid patterns, each section framing a central iridescent gem, flashing in step as she turns .
“The most important three functions are here,” Rothwen continues.
“The buckle’s gem deploys your biomagnetic shield; the right and left edges are your flying controls; the top and bottom edges tune your electrostatic field.
And it all responds to your unique fingerprint or your unique brainwave transmission frequency. ”
She frowns, looking inquisitively at Rothwen, who continues enthusiastically explaining.
“And some useful features of your shield—you can make it match any background, you can fine-tune its strength, you can change … Well, the possibilities are endless.”
“I can’t wait to try all this,” she exclaims, admiring her belt’s colourful gems and radiant central buckle.
“You won’t have to wait long,” he says, fastening up his tight vest and turning around onto the hill behind them.
They climb up the rocky path hand in hand, and as the whole striking scenery comes into full view, Shaillah feels as though this eerie fascinating landscape is opening its invisible doors to her.
There lies her new world, mysterious and uncertain, but she is determined to conquer it, whatever it takes.
From the hilltop, she marvels at the sprawling ocean under the vast domed sky, its winding shores broken up by the scattered rolling hills and jagged rock pools. The entire scenery looks wild and unpredictable, but its most prominent feature makes it look singularly perfect and wondrous.
A massive crystalline rock stands over two stories high in the middle of the ocean, under a flat-topped hexagonal platform.
All around the rugged sides, thick golden pillars rise and crisscross each other in a diamond lattice, towering over the platform while reflecting the sunrays in all the rainbow colours.
“It’s the command base, our temporary quarters,” Rothwen explains.
“Temporary?”
“Yes, we’re just passing. We never spend much time here. The robots build and maintain the site for when we need it.”
“Passing? The undersea tunnels, the towers, the dome, the base?” she ponders .
“Shaillah, press and hold the sides of your buckle to activate your antigravity field,” he tells her, grabbing her hand and jumping with her into the air.
As Shaillah presses on her buckle sides, Rothwen lets her go free. To her astonishment, she is now floating by his side, hovering over the mesmerising ocean.
She breathes in the aromatic, marine scent of the alien atmosphere at every turn.
The vaulted sky seems to be stretching farther away as they keep flying.
The unusual but strangely familiar views play inside her mind like déjà vu.
I must have seen this before, the glistening coastal hills, the magnificent twin suns, and this multicoloured ocean.
She concentrates hard as she tries to recollect her memories.
For some reason, I feel as though I’ve been here before .
She feels as light as the fluffiest feather, free to move in any way she pleases.
She touches each edge of her buckle, playing with her gliding controls.
She rolls; she dives and swoops; she giggles with pure joy, relishing in her unbounded freedom.
From time to time, she glances at Rothwen, who, with a reassuring gaze, encourages her increasingly bolder moves.
Rothwen gets close to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and guiding her towards the distinctive multi-pillared structure. As they get close to the platform’s golden guard rails, he glides over the top and stands her softly on the polished floor.
Looking around, she feels dwarfed by the vastness of the glistening hexagonal platform and the six pairs of rising pillars at each of its sides.
Rising high off the floor, she sees that each set of pillars converges into gaping archways, each framing a dark beckoning entrance.
She looks up, following the golden tapering edges, until her eyes are stuck on the hexagonal skylight at the very top of the dome’s zenith.
She reckons this must be the centre of the enormous compound, the point of no return for her, and this thought unsettles her.
She looks back at Rothwen, her concerned expression asking a thousand questions, but she only manages to say timidly, “Is this the end of our journey?”
“It’s only the beginning, Shaillah, the very beginning,” Rothwen states as he starts walking towards one of the high archways directly in front of him. “There’s so much for you to see and learn. ”
Rothwen grabs her hand and makes her walk towards the foggy entrance. Once inside, a greyish glow softly lights up the space around her, but she cannot see any walls or borders. It’s as if she is standing on an eerie floating cloud.
“You will learn how to navigate these corridors. It doesn’t matter which one you enter, they all interconnect and lead to any of our chambers. Think about your destination and the space-tunnel will take you,” he explains.
She was sure they weren’t moving, but soon she finds herself standing in the middle of a purple-lit room.
She sees Rothwen walking towards what she thinks is the back wall.
But as she follows him and stands beside him, she jolts backwards as the tips of her boots bend over the edge of the floor.
She loses any sense of space or direction while looking into the infinite dark void in front of her; even the purple glow suddenly stops at the sharp boundary.
Before she can even organise her thoughts, a whirl of fine particles starts to fill the impenetrable blackness, shining through a fast-thickening fog, all flashing in a constant rhythm.
She struggles to recognise the emerging shapes within the flickering haze.
But suddenly, the crisp three-dimensional sight of towering, jagged structures comes into sharp focus.
The intricate height-defying constructions rise and intersect over long chains of rocky islands, sometimes forming bridges, sometimes forming tall needle-like towers, scattering across a swirling crimson ocean.
“Do you like our world?” Rothwen asks.
But Shaillah can hardly speak. She is so spellbound by the meandering, elaborate buildings that she doesn’t notice Rothwen pushing her forwards until the whole setting completely encircles them.
“We are now inside the quasi-reality chamber. You may feel a bit dizzy, but it will soon pass.”