Patchwork Universe

Alice Wong · Average Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Ex Machina

On her foldaway bed, in her tiny living module, her smooth black hair spread out over the plastifibre pillow, Alice was dreaming of space.

The big sky above a desert. Waves crashing against rocky cliffs. Countryside that rolled away and away, with a homely house's lit windows in the distance. And purer than any of these, the place that held nothing but blue sky -

A beep from the food dispenser jolted her awake. She breathed in the faint burnt smell of the City - nothing burnt in particular, just an artificial burntness that stuck in the back of your throat - and heard its dull thumping and clanging seep through the walls. Keeping her eyes shut, she rolled on to her front, burying her face in the pillow. It had all been a dream, everything that had happened since she first found the Mists. It must have been, and now she was back here in reality. She decided not to open her eyes ever again, or as long as she could stand it, and grasped in her head for the last rags of the dream.

Then the martial wake-up motivational music of the City, broadcast every morning at seven (to enhance the experience, you could tune your entertainment unit to channel 2503 and watch authentic dawns recorded in a former age), blared from the speaker and a lifetime of habit forced Alice bolt-upright in bed. She rubbed her eyes. No mist. She was right. It was all over. All the space was gone - had only ever been in her head. And all the people she'd met, both friends and enemies, had she imagined them too?

The music ended, replaced by a recording of raindrops. The food dispenser beeped again, reminding her that her breakfast - a blue NutriSlice(tm) - had come down the chute. Feeling utterly wretched, she took a bite out of it - cardboardy, crumbly goodness - and remembered the steaming pot of stew she'd had at Jones's. She wondered if she could have her imagination removed. All it did was hurt.

A message popped up on the infostation. Three new lessons had been made available on Citynet for her course, Preparatory to Information Storage and Sorting II. "It's a job for life, the infoservices," the bland, smiling face of the CityU Admissions Officer had said on her infowall as he signed her up.

A job for fricking life. Alice burst into tears, jumped off the bed and slammed it up into its niche in the wall with unnecessary violence. She pulled open the screen that closed off her study alcove.

And saw, not her desk, but a wall of mist.

Alice rubbed at her wet face with her sleeve and stared, half-afraid to believe.

Alice Wong · Average Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Ex Machina

Alice gazed at the wall of mist for some time, filled with gratitude that it was there. Whatever dangers lay out there - and she remembered plenty of danger - it was better than sitting in her room, doing infostorage homework and knowing that nothing would ever change.

She smiled, took a deep breath, and stepped through.

(Alice is in for a dunking in the Pacific in the thread "Where are the plankton farms?" in HMS Justice...)

Alice Wong · Average Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Ex Machina

(Returning from HMS Justice)

After scrambling back through the mist, she lay on the floor in a pool of salt water and gasped for breath.

Clearly, while she'd been asleep, everything had been changed around. But how? And why? She had her suspicions, but she wasn't going to find out by lying here listening to this stupid fake birdsong.

One thing she remembered from her explorations, though, was that if her wall of mist was back, there would be other walls.

She stood under the airflow shower to dry off, staring at the door to the outside. What she was planning was considered slightly unsavoury in the City, almost taboo, but there was no other way. She'd have to take a walk across the City, on foot.