BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Twelve

Time Punch: A process that utilizes the time displacement factor of Temporal Entanglement Processing* to access experiential archives at the time they were created to either block, alter, or add to event memory at inception when most effective. The process is rarely used except therapeutically to block or adjust corrupting memory threads at their root. The method also allows an individual to be preconditioned , or "rigged" to think or act in a desired way at a determined moment. There is no way to trace either when to alteration was done or where in a subject's personal history the change was implanted making the process highly restricted.

* T.E.P. utilizes time displacement to reduce subsystem reasoning and reaction time beyond zero allowing for precognitive anticipatory processing needed to transfer input from a corporal projection or body location, to ministry and back while keeping physical response in sync with the cognitive process.

Lepton was nervous. There had been delays and unexpected events that threatened to expose the operation. His team had misjudged the location the chrysalex would project the entanglement entry. It took the allele and immolant considerably longer than anticipated to find the phase beacon and follow it to the location, which in turn delayed the beginning of the conveyance process. Then the allele was reluctant and nearly failed to engage the immolant. 

Sita's conditioning hadn't been as effective as designed either. She began questioning the logic of not pursuing after loss of contact. When she counter conditioned he was forced to direct a time punch to rig and guarantee she wouldn't reach the site in time to save the allele. He couldn't have that, the Order wanted things to be neat. The Billet tender was one of his journeymen, and so it was a relatively simple matter to access her temporal archives, but it was done quick and clumsy. There was no time to develop a cognitive reroute. He had to insert a simple neuro-block. Sita would notice. 

There were also problems with his own Dig operations. He'd been thorough in designing search patterns that avoided site of the chrysalex, but the laws of chaos led to an inept field team drifting off their assigned search lines and stumbling on its hiding place. He delayed the entanglement sectioning for as long as possible. When he exhausted all security and contamination protocols, he insisted on unnecessary safeguards anyway, ran test probes, system diagnostics, and calibration resets that ground the process to a crawl. He felt he was back in control of the operation. 

Still, Lepton was nervous. He knew Sita had gone rogue using dead reckoning to get to the allele, but that wasn't what worried him. He figured she wouldn't get there before they closed the phase link that maintained the entanglement entry. The site would be destroyed and no one would be able to pick up the pieces. What frightened him was the entanglement sectioning he was watching through the windows on the Rumbolian's bridge. 

The chrysalex conveyance process was not complete. He ordered its evacuation from the site but even that would take time. If the rogue phase pocket they'd created to house the chrysalex was still intact when the sectioning reached its location entanglement would resolve the multiple phases causing a matter displacement event of massive proportions. Once sectioning was initiated there was no way to abort the process.    Since the sectioning process used the ship's phase settings, he couldn't be sure the Rombolian and its crew were safe from the event shock-wave.

Lepton kept a calm demeanor as he watched the coordinates of the sectioning net and the chrysalex become dangerously close. Inside he screamed over and over at his team to evac and shutdown. The last thing Lepton heard was that they'd opened a bendway, whether or not they got through it he would never know. 

At the Moment the rogue phase shut down it gave off a slight aberrational flutter in the form a very weak expansion of the phase bubble. The flutter traveled just far enough to kiss the sectioning net and was just strong enough to cause a microscopic skin of unaccounted for dust to be resolved. The displacement event instantly pulverized the dig site area within the sectioning net and well beyond the space taken up by the Rombolian. The sectioning net did prove sensitive to the shockwave and telegraphed the impact directly to the ship's main phase projection system shutting it down. The entire ship resolved including its billet and all of the monads onboard. 

The resulting displacement event dwarfed the first, liquefying bed ice for miles around causing the surface operation structures and those inhabiting them to sink into the swallowing ocean that bottomed out like a bowl and then heaved up to refreeze in a massive parabolic mountain of ice. Only a fraction of the surface crew's monads were ever found and those that were were hopelessly insane. The Rhombolian, its crew, and its crew's ancestry were disintegrated on a molecular level.    

***

Sita opened her eyes. She was outside. A blue white haze filled the sky that was so evenly bright it obliterated her view of the entire sky. It was impossible to locate Ganymede or Jupiter, let alone a star system. Her eyes hurt, forcing her to squint and shield them from the glare. Snatched glances revealed a blazing disk in the sky. The light it gave off actually hurt her eyes. The displacement event must be the cause, she thought. Unable to adjust to the glare, she was forced to look down at the floor. 

She was not standing on the ship's bulkhead at all but open ground, and she was barefoot. Underfoot was a bed of fibrous green hairs that covered the ground wherever she looked. Unlike the flat, sharp hewn craggy ground she was used to, this surface spread out in a static undulation of gentle slopes and gradual rises. The smooth flow of the scene was only broken randomly where an opaque form of bed ice broke the surface in gray weathered protrusions of various size and shape. It was all too foreign. Her knees buckled and she fell trying to right herself with flailing arms. The ground was relatively soft and the green hairs where crushed under the palms of her hands marking them with small stinging streaks of green mixed with a smear of the dry brown paste-like material in which they were imbedded.  

Sita sat up where she fell looking around in bewilderment. She instinctively looked for something familiar to identify with to anchor to and get bearings. There was nothing. It was only then she realized she was not only barefoot but naked. She leaned back on her elbows and stretched her legs straight out on the ground in front of her. How was this possible, she thought. Her Base Template Persona should have included her uniform. 

She cried out loud, "Where am I?"

Suddenly she remembered, Allele's psychosis had made this place. With the realization Sita felt an urgency to find Allele that neared panic. Panic as much for herself as for Allele. Panic from being exposed on this scorched land with it's strange textures. Panic feeling her feet begin to sink into the soft ground as she tried to stand, fearing it would swallow her. Had it swallowed Allele? Should she allow it to swallow her in order to find Allele? She got to her feet without sinking further than a slight impression made with her heals. 

Sita stood with her eyes closed. This world of Allele's distracted her more than she should allow.  She must hold onto her own reality if she was to do Allele any good. With a few minutes of meditation she cleared her mind and slowly opened eyes. Either they began to adjust to the light or she managed to lower the illusion's hold on her, she wasn't sure which, but she could see more of the immediate vicinity. Allele could not be far. Taking a step forward she found the soft ground still somewhat disorienting and nearly fell. She was standing halfway down a shallow depression the far end of which rose in a wide crest. 

At the top of the crest a structure protruded to a height of about fifty feet from it's base. It was a great green mass of bulbous eruptions, the surface of which seemed to undulate. It balanced above the ground on a single pylon who's girth was greater than Sita could reach around with her arms. 

The structure did not appear animated nor seem capable of movement beyond the surface texture. Being on high ground Sita decided to walk across to it for a better vantage point from which to search. As she approached the structure she recognized the material the skin of the green orbs were made of as the same as that of the ground hairs, only here they formed flat platelets each hung on a stiff shaft. As she came underneath it she saw that at a height of about ten feet the pylon began to split and fork in odd directions each fork splitting again and again fractal-wise into a random network of ever diminishing shafts. all of them bearing countless smaller protrusions of varying sizes and lengths from their sides. Despite their chaotic nature, collectively they described the huge imperfect sphere off which hung a multitude of the small green platelets that coated the entire upper mass giving it a more solid appearance than it actually had. An occasional breeze, stronger than any Sita experienced on Europa, made the plates dance around where they hung, brushing against each other to create a low roar.  

Standing in the shade of the structure her vision improved. Inspecting one of the green platelets more closely confirmed it was made of the same material as the green hairs, but also that it was organic. She'd been walking barefoot on organic material. It had smeared on her skin which now crawled at the thought. Sita, like many people, had a near phobic revulsion for organic material. It was slimy and dirty and she was completely surrounded by the stuff. Allele owed her. Just as she thought it couldn't get worse, the structure above shuttered in the breeze and gave off a scattering of dry fibrous chips that spiraled through the air, many came toward her touching her body. One landed on her raised face making her swat it away frantically, pursing her lips, closing her eyes, and turning away to avoid the near impossible likelihood of some getting in her mouth. 

When the barrage ended she collected herself and opened one eye looking at the terrain beyond the structure. Though the hill continued to rise it cut off suddenly. Curious Sita headed in that direction. She was walking quickly and nearly fell over the edge of a precipice she hadn't realized was there. The wall of the cliff face was composed mostly of the brown paste in differing shades with huge sections of the opaque ice exposed as well. Though the formations amazed her, it was what lay at the bottom that made her gasp in shock. 

A vast expanse of what could only be liquid water spread to the horizon which was a flat line in the far distance. Flatter than she was accustomed to seeing on Europa. The water seethed in repetition, crashing against the cliffs at their base. She followed the line of crashing water to where the cliffs bent back around out of sight to her right. 

Looking up she noticed a flat outcropping of the gray opaque ice and a figure sitting on it, legs crossed, hands on knees. Though the out crop and the figure were not very far off she had difficulty making out who the person was in the blinding light. She figured it must be Allele, but cupping her hands around her eyes, enabled her to make the figure out in better detail. What she saw confounded her.

Sita ran toward the figure shouting, "Jon? Jon! How are you here?"

Jon said nothing, but as Sita came into proximity he turned his expressionless face toward her. As they made eye contact Jon's visage dissolved into a different face. By the time Sita reached her only companion in the alien landscape, she found she was standing over Allele after all, but she did not seem to recognize her.   

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Eleven

Shortly after Sita lost contact with Allele the diagnostic report on her scanners came back clean. She immediately ran a sweep of the ice in front of her to the farthest limit of the system. There was nothing out there but the blue melt, it's halo, and the surrounding bed ice. Both pods were nowhere to be seen.

"Jon, Damn it! Allele!" she shouted into the coms at the ice in front of her. Allele had said stay put and Sita would stay as she was conditioned to, but she would also send a distress call to the Rhombolian.

Lepton stood on the ship's bridge looking down into the central core it surrounded. Two hours before one of the search teams uncovered the completely intact control station of an ice mine. The Rhombolian was performing a sectioning for entangled co-location of the find for study near their base camp. The procedure kept the ship locked to its position until the sectioning was complete. He was pleased to see that everything was on schedule when the distress call arrived.

 He answered the call personally. Sita told him what happened and asked permission to launch a search for the missing pods. With a controlled and slightly distracted tone Lepton answered, "I don't want to override Allele's orders out of hand without surveying the situation myself. Besides, if they've run into trouble I don't want to be responsible for sending you into the same danger. Unfortunately, we're caught in the middle of processing our first significant find and will be held up for several hours."

Sita, shocked and infuriated, barked back, "Allele and Jon are out there cut off from the ships billet, possibly from each other with only Zeebs to depend on. If you can't depart your location for two hours at best don't you think we should risk my going in pursuit?"

After a long silence Lepton came back on, "No, Sita, stay where you are. I'm dispatching two long range tenders. The ships will establish a safe base for a search. They're slow, but under the circumstances it's the best we can do."

"When can I expect to see you?" She asked.

"I won't be with the search team," he answered, then added, "I'm needed more here."

Livid, Sita pushed back in her chair, disconnected her comms, and screamed. She knew Lepton was Allele's lover. His response was without emotion. She was amazed he hadn't given her leave to pursue her teammates. Why wasn't he heading the search personally? His presence was not needed for entanglement sectioning.

She stared into the maw of the melt. The rescue craft would not arrive for at least two hours. She decided not to wait for the team but follow the trace of their paths now. She would leave a string of marker beacons for the search team to follow and deal with the consequences later. She pulled the base craft back another fifty yards and swung it around to circumvent the melt entirely. If there was something that pulled them in from the melt she might avoid it by approaching where she had projected their probable location to be from another angle.

She visualized her path and target for the craft's trajectory system but became confused. Try as she might she could not focus her thoughts on the data the system needed to proceed. It felt as if she were being spun around whenever she tried to place thoughts of her destination into her mind's command partition. Someone or something had rigged her against her destination, but that would have to have been done at least before they left the Base Camp, and that would mean a time punch back to... When? It could have been done decades ago. No, security would only be lax enough for that after the expedition set off for the rift. But, that was a problem for another day, right now she needed to figure out a way to pursue her teammates.

She thought. She tried placing parallel coordinates but every coordinate even remotely in the vicinity of her target resulted in the same mental confusion. She would have to use the ship's direct maneuvering capabilities with its limited line of sight trajectory system. By focusing on a distant object in the ice she drew the craft along a straight line to that object. When she reached the visual target she looked for another in the direction she wanted to take the craft. This took time. Without a specific target direct maneuvering only allowed for slow close range nudging to carefully position the craft as needed. Targeting increased the range to her perceptible range of vision. As long as she could clearly make out an object she could bring the craft alongside of it.

After only a few such maneuvers Sita found she was able to skip her attention from her target object to another while the craft had yet to reach the point to which it was headed. In this way she kept the craft moving continually and in time even sped up her progress. It required continual attention and great focus, and she wasn't sure how she would finally get the ship to reach her real target without thinking about it. Though she followed a wavering and round about route, she kept reasonably parallel with the track Jon and Allele had followed. At times she was only a few yards from the green funnel her scanners were blind to.

She kept this method up for some time until she began to tire and came to rest beside a gas bubble that lay in bed ice three shafts away from where she'd begun. What she didn't know was that the bubble lay within the invisible green cone she was actually following. For the first time the craft remained within the cone long enough to take readings.            

Suddenly both Jon and Allele's pod's were detected. Sita double checked her instruments.  her scanners must have been compromised indicating that Allele and Jon may have encountered something she still could not detect. She would have to proceed with caution. She nudged her craft laterally and panicked when unbeknownst to her it left the rogue phase cone and lost the pod's signals. Moving back into the cone they returned and by nudging the craft side to side and up and down she determined the area she could depend on for receiving their signals.

The pods were within ten feet of each other and appeared to be in orbital rotation around a common point. The pods registered as fully functional but unmanned. There were no signature beacons from either of their Zeebs. She had to get to them and quick. If the Zeebs were shut down, both Jon and Allele's monads were dormant and Sita had no idea what amount of damage that would mean. She decided to try the long range trajectory system again, this time directing the craft to follow the pod signals rather than their coordinates. It worked and the craft began moving toward the distant objects at it's maximum propulsion.

That wasn't fast enough for for Sita. Refocusing the craft's phase envelope forward leaving more open space in front to move more freely she was able to push her speed well beyond the craft's ordinary capacity.

When she arrived at the site she found the pod's orbital rotation was violent and arbitrary as if they were attached to the back of an invisible sphere that spun and bucked to shake them off. The pod systems were on and functional. The bendway hatches were activated but did not have enough range to reach the surface if they had made an emergency escape. Fearing the worst she began to search the surrounding bed ice for their zeebs. There would have been icequakes from matter displacement had they materialized in the ice itself and there hadn't been any. Sita brought her craft around to face the two empty pods at a total loss for what to do.

She decided to try widening her search. Perhaps they had left their pods before they became trapped in their strange rotation and were hold up in an open fissure pocket somewhere nearby.  As she backed away from the pods to begin Allele's identity signature suddenly appeared in Jon's Pod. Stopping she hailed Allele. No response. Getting a sense of the center of rotation for the two pods, Sita allowed her mind to relax and fall in rhythm with their orbit. When she felt attuned to their movement she fed the information to the trajectory system to bring her craft into the same rotation alongside the pod to get a visual through the window. Allele was not at the pod's controls. The pods barely had room for one person. The only way Allele could be in the pod and not visible would be if she were lying in the floor curled behind the seat by the bendway hatch. She decided to make the phase envelopes of the crafts kiss causing minimal engorgement to enable running a scan on the pod's interior to see if it was safe to open the bendway between them.

Sita eased her craft alongside the pod. The ships bounced away from each other as their envelopes engorged but with a second forceful push the engorgement was maintained. The pod's medical emergency alert was trying to send a distress but hadn't been readable. It warned of Extreme Pareidolic Trauma. She wasted no time locking the bendway hatches between the two craft and moved to climb through.

Allele lay curled on the floor of the pod, eyes wide open but unresponsive, Sita got halfway into the pod to grab hold of her meaning to drag her into the base craft. It was only once inside that she saw another shocking sight. The pod's physical hatch was thrown open, something that Sita had not seen from the outside. Beyond to opening was a wide cavity that emanated a green light also filling the interior of the pod. The light had not been visible from outside either. She also felt something very strange. The lower half of Sita's badly was still in the observation craft and while she could feel the ship's movement in rotation with the pod's, her upper body that was in the pod itself felt perfectly stationary. Looking into the cavity outside the pod she could see where the other pod's physical hatch was also open accessing the cavity as well. Then she saw something that shocked her to immobility. Jon's zeeb lay on the floor of the cavity, his monad missing.

A great crack suddenly cut through the cavity and Sita knew she had to get Allele out of the pod before the cavity collapsed. Every muscle of Allele's body was in a spasm that made her feel rock hard And impossible to move through the bendway. After several tries Sita succeeded despite motion sickness from having the top half of her body stationery in the pod while her lower half rotated wildly with the base craft.

With Allele safely on board she closed the hatch and attached her to the the ship's surrogate array and prepared to make an emergency linkage between herself and Allele. She'd been trained for this but had never been in an actual trauma incident before. She opened the linkage, closed her eyes, and allowed herself to sink into the craft's billet and Allele's delusion. Just then the cavity collapsed and the green rogue phase blinked out leaving Jon's Zeebs and the two pods in phase with the bed ice. The resulting ice quake opened a fissure clear to the surface. The observation craft was still out of phase and so remained untouched. Inside Sita and Allele psyche's were in a world of their own.

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Ten

Sita spoke into the ship's comms, "Allele, now I can appreciate what one of the phasetechs  meant when he described the allure of archeology."

"What's that?" Allele and Jon, asked from their pods, now docked and in tow by Sita's converted observation craft.

"The peace and contemplation of finding yourself... nowhere, sifting through nothing to find nothing, where nothing ever was, and never will be," Sita answered.

"Does sound like us," Jon agreed, "but It's only been three months."

Allele chided,"Lepton isn't doing much better. At least we don't have to excavate those mangled ruins, wondering if we missed something, sifting through piles of junk just to find that they're just piles of junk. We get to skip around through the ice like we're vacationing in the Druppa Expanse."

"The worst of our fears is of killing a firmasquid," Jon piped in.

"Correction," Sita whined, "You get to do the skipping, I get to watch, and watch, and watch."

"And, you do it so well," said Jon.

Sita answered back,"Yes I do, don't I? You could learn from me, Jon. My job is to deploy the two of you and watch, which I do. Yours is to find something! Not doing so good there are you?"

"Now, now, you two," Allele interjected, "We may not have found anything yet, but if anything is out here we will. We're ahead of schedule for finding nothing, and that means we'll be able to cover a much wider area than we'd planned."

But, Allele was also frustrated. She'd counted on having some form of trophy within the first six weeks. Lepton had warned her it would take time, that she was being unrealistic. Even Levin's crew, better equipped as it was, hadn't uncovered any significant artifacts. Nothing shed new light on the reason behind the collapse or the ambitious mining operation that led to it.

Allele's team had scoured over a hundred acres without result. On this day they would be searching a region where the empty shafts produced by the ancient mining operation had survived mostly intact. Most collapsed in on themselves but several hundred located near the outer perimeter of the rift filled with water that quick froze to hold them intact, forming a field of blue ice palisades separated by gray green honeycombs of natural ancient ice.

The clear blue ice created solid canyons thousands of feet deep the bottoms of which became glass smooth lenses in the ceiling of the vast subterranean ocean trapped beneath. Most of the shafts and canyons were pointless to search save for a few locations where the wall formations indicated a possible footprint for structures like towers mining outposts that may have fallen into the shafts to become preserved in the rapid freeze of the flood water.

Sita lowered the craft a few hundred feet into one shaft until level with a promising "Melt". Melts were huge welt-like formations in the natural ice wall, mottled as if by extreme heat. How they formed in the core of an ice flow was one of the mysteries the team hoped to answer. Though not directly related to Allele's area of study, the team examined any they came across in coordination with Lepton's operation.

The one Sita was examining was a round shallow cavity about seventy or eighty yards in diameter that appeared to have been burned into the Shaft wall by a single sustained blast of heat creating a long smooth frozen tongue of ice that seemed to drain to the bottom of the shaft, the whole formation embedded in the later flood of blue ice.

"This is it," Sita told the others as she slowed her decent to rest at the eye of the melt. "I'm not getting any readings of abnormal deposits of any kind." she added with dismay.

"Another day off to a dreary start," Jon piped in.

"Well, somebody must have been here, don't lose hope before we even start," Allele said.

"Allele, we've seen this kind of..." Jon hesitated to say what he was thinking which was that they'd examined countless formations like this without ever finding anything.

"Yes Jon?" Allele interrupted.

"Nothing. Yes, maybe today. Sita, I'm ready to be jettisoned." Jon said.

"Me too," added Allele. "Let's just get to work and not think about glory. Don't lose sight of..."

Sita cut her off, "Yeah right," and released the two pods pushing them off with a jolt that rocked their passengers. Allele felt anger at Sita's insubordination but chose to make light of it. They were all stressed and disappointed.

"I suppose I deserved that," Allele said.

"It's a lovely speech, Allele it really is," Jon said.

"I never tire of it," added Sita.

"Okay enough, I get it!" scolded Allele. "The sooner we start..."

"...the sooner we finish." Both Jon and Sita chimed in.

"Is it that bad?" asked Allele.

"We love you," Sita answered.

"Thank you Sita. Okay then. Jon, our usual pattern." Allele instructed.

Sita locked position of the base craft at the center of the melt opening, and suspended about twenty yards away from the wall of the shaft. Despite being in solid ice, it's blue transparency made it appear she was hovering over a shear drop of thousands of feet to the sea below. Jon ascended to the uppermost edge of the melt while Allele descended to the corresponding lower edge. When all were in position Sita started the Archiving protocol that would record the entire operation as seen from all three craft. Allele and Jon inched their way forward and slowly entered the ice wall scanning for any objects or simple debris bearing a synthesized signature that might be suspended in the melt halo, the mottled skin of the melt that is usually about thirty feet thick.

The phase envelopes of the pods created a spectral shift that gave the blue ice a more purple hue where the envelopes passed through. Inside the pod cabins the pink light of the envelope filled atmosphere itself giving off light that did not emanate from any source. Sitting at their scanner screens, Allele and Jon could see out into the ice as if submerged in a stationary ocean. Bubbles and various bits of rock and other natural debris were scattered everywhere, all suspended in a field that appeared as if caught in an instant of time.

Allele and Jon maneuvered their craft in a clock-wise direction following the melt halo, all the time scanning for anything that might be of interest. When they returned to their original position of rotation they would have both scanned the section of the melt halo through which they'd passed. When the first and widest rotation was complete they   closed the gap between them by fifty feet as they moved in along the conical halo to began the pattern again. During the third such track Jon noticed a green shift in the blue ice along the inner surface of the halo.

"Are you seeing that?" he asked Allele.

"Yes, interesting. Let's finish this track and take a look." Allele replied, but Jon had already broken formation.

"Jon, you're out of alignment," Sita warned.

"Jon, return to formation please. I don't want to have to redo the track," Allele growled. "Jon. Jon!"

"You have to see this!" he finally answered.

He had penetrated into the bed ice surrounding the melt halo. To the right and behind him the halo wall loomed, a massive rippled crystal bubble. Before him a funnel of the green ice jutted from the halo at a sharp enough angle to cut across the the well wall into the next palisade of blue ice and beyond. The green ice had the same clear smooth characteristics of the blue of the palisades except it glowed the way a phase envelope did pink. Jon knew that an object existing in a rogue phase would not give off light, only a phase envelope could be the cause. The funnel was in a unique phase that was being projected artificially.

"Jon come back!" Allele was shouting now.

"It's alright. Come out the back of the halo. You have got to see this," He answered excited.

"See what?" Sita asked. "There's nothing out there Jon."

"Sita? Never mind. Allele please follow me," Jon pleaded. He'd already brought his pod alongside the funnel shaft and begun to follow it away from the melt.

"JON, COME BACK!" Allele commanded, but he was not replying. Reluctantly she turned her pod and headed out of the halo in the direction Jon had gone. The Funnel loomed out before her.

Shocked she called back to Sita, "Sita are getting this?"

"Getting what?" she asked impatiently. "There's nothing back there but bed ice. Just plain old boring bed ice. All I get is Jon skipping away toward the wall of the next shaft."

"Okay, stay where you are Sita. I'll go after him," Allele said.

"Shouldn't we both?" Sita asked.

"No. If you aren't getting this rogue shaft something is wrong with your scanning equipment. I don't want you to risk an accident. I'll get him back," Allele reassured her and began to follow Jon along the funnel shaft.

"Jon, what are you doing?" Allele asked. "Jon, just answer me."

"Allele the light must be coming from the far end of the shaft. It's getting brighter the further I go," he answered after a moment.

"Jon, wait for me and we'll check it out together."

"There's no danger. I'll meet you there when you catch up," he said.

In the distance Allele could see Jon's pod racing alongside the rogue funnel wall. Suddenly it took a sharp turn and disappeared into the funnel wall.

She screamed into the commas, "Jon Don't!" Receiving no answer, she turned her attention to Sita, "Sita, you don't see any of this at all?"

"Nothing, Allele."

"You're at the center of the melt it should be right in front of you," Allele said.

Sita called to Jon, "Jon you've passed the limits of my scanners. Please stop and wait for Allele." No reply, she called to Allele, "Either something is interfering with his comms or he's turned them off."

"Okay Sita, I'm going to have to follow him. Stay where you are unless I say otherwise." Allele began to follow the shaft away from the melt as Jon had, but maneuvered her pod into it immediately in hope of regaining sight of Jon's pod.

Sita called, "Allele, I'm going to run diagnostics on my scanners to see what's wrong," but Allele's pod had blinked out of sight, even the ship's scanners lost her.  "Allele I've lost you. Allele? If I can fix the scanners should I follow you?" There was no reply.

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Nine

Allele's vision coalesced before her other senses and motor functions woke to find herself standing someplace off to the side of the main base camp's central pivot. Her body was numbed in a cotton electric fuzz that felt bloated. After a moment her face and head felt as if they were being wiped by a wet sponge that smoothed away the electric fuzz allowing feeling and movement in her face and neck. Looking down at herself she caught the last instant of her legs and feet coming into corporeal focus. Privacy was at a premium at base camp. Everyone would coalesce in plain view. After a few times it would seem as natural as stepping through a bendway. At her feet the surface ice had been ground to a fine granular consistency creating a perfect disc of ice dust about seven feet in radius. The powdery carpet was cut two inches deep into the surface ice.

The central pivot was an open expanse off of which four arterial roads radiated, each straddled by camp structures. There were already several other discs cut into the ice near Allele's. The entire pivot would be honeycombed them by the time the expeditionary contingent was completely transferred. Afterwards, the Base Camp Billet would replace the pivot's surface with the tile-work with which it had already carpeted the rest of the camp.

The camp was established on one of the few flat shelves at the Hadrian Rift's edge that were big enough in area to accommodate it's scope. Though elevated a thousand feet above the rifts floor, the shelf lay only a fraction of the way up the side of the surrounding ridge. Alelle looked north along the north/south arterial, at the end of which was the Phase Craft port where the Rhumbulian's donut shaped hull rose high above the rooftops of the camp buildings that lined the road, blocking any clear view beyond. Despite this the ship and the camp were dwarfed by the looming peaks that trailed off into the distance making up the surrounding range.

The top surface of the ship was flat to allow for aerial landings while away from port. Fore and Aft had twin pointed verticle protrusions that housed Master Bridges. One was a typical navigation control center. Sita had steered the ship from that Bridge. The second Bridge was the core brain center for the ship's extensive research capabilities. From the Research bridge, pinpoint maneuvering controls enabled the  Rhumbulian to position itself so as to surround a dig site as large as five hundred feet in diameter within the central opening of the ship's donut shape. The inner walls of the interior opening housed a vast array of scanning and other assessment apparatus to determine pretty much anything they would want to know within the time it took the ship to straddle and encompass a site of interest. Since the ship's massive phase bubble included the entire central opening, it could also be used as a launching facility for smaller craft when not being used for research.

Sita walked up beside Allele. She was also agape looking at the huge ship, "She's a work of art isn't she?"

"I don't know about that, but she'll do," said Allele.

"You haven't been at her controls," Sita replied.

"Well, I'm glad that one of my team knows how to handle her. It may be useful someday," Allele said with pride for Sita.

"Someday I might just steal her," quipped Sita.

"Someday I might help you," Allele shot back with a wide smile.

Sita studied Allele's face noting the smooth sensual line of her lips and how even the smattering of fine wrinkles that circled the folds at the ends of her mouth had a certain distracting grace. She pulled her attention away back toward the port, "Well, I need to make sure my maintenance requests have been done. If you'll excuse me, I'd better get over there."

Allele watched Sita walk quickly up the road to toward the port. The Sun peaked from the northern edge of Jupiter to the west, casting it's warm silken light across the rift. Sita cast long shadows as she stepped in and out of the sunlight that crossed her path between buildings.

Allele turned her attention to the east. The Sun enflamed the tips of the mountain range that formed the rift's edge high above. To the west at Jupiter and the light that played off the fractured ice formations of the ice mining fields that lay at the foot of the mountain range. Allele walked to the western end of the east/west arterial to better see the vastness of the rift. The road terminated near the edge of the shelf. She continued to edge wanting to look down at the broken terrain below. When she got there she discovered she was not alone.

Off to her right on a bolder of blue ice in a small outcrop of frozen rubble sat a young man barely old enough for majority privileges. He stared out across the fractured sea of ice, his attention so lost in the beauty of the scene that he didn't notice Allele walk over and lean on his perch.

"Beautiful isn't it, Jon?" she asked.

"Yes it is amazing," he answered only slightly startled by her presence.

"The largest Neo-scarification on the planet," Allele whispered with awe.

"Countless billions of years of only virgin scarification on the surface of Europa, and then this, the oldest, largest, and most mysterious edifice of humanity" he added.

None of the team anticipated Jon actually being so young. He'd acquired special persona protocols that were not entirely legal. With them he was able to raise personas of higher maturity than socially correct for his actual age. He'd done this in order to enhance his credibility within professional circles. He was a prodigy where anthropological pathology was concerned but he'd been treated dismissively by older colleagues. A new face and change of institution resolved his problem until the opportunity to explore the rift.

Jon decided that he had already amply proven himself to his new colleagues for them to accept him and the rift project was too big to pass up. Sitting there at the rim of an expanse of smooth layered ice that stretched halfway to the horizon, he knew the teasing he suffered from the team well worth the view.

The collapse was a smooth welt on the older rough expanse of the greater rift. When the massive field of ice mines collapsed, water flooded the entire grid quickly freezing over in a perfectly smooth plate of blue ice. Over the centuries that followed the newly formed cracks were determined by the ancient triangular grid of wells below the surface. More water bled and froze across the surface creating a pattern of varying stratified ice steppes that sunlight passes through refracting spectral splits of color depending on the depth and angle of the flows. The denser walls of the sunken wells are illuminated and made visible beneath the surface creating a ghostly honeycomb buried beyond reach, beckoning the curious to pull answers to ancient questions from their depths.  

Mesmerized by the sun's changing light, Allele and Jon watched the strange animated world spread out before them. They might have stayed there the entire day had Lepton not arrived.

"Powerful isn't it?" he said breaking the spell.

Only Allele answered,"Mysterious."

"And it's going to remain that way if you two sit gawking at it forever," Lepton chided.

"True enough," Allele said.

"I've got equipment to prepare," Jon admitted.

"There's a lot of work for all of us if we hope to get out there by tomorrow," Lepton said.

"Tomorrow?" Jon asked, surprised.

"Yes," answered Allele. "Sita is already onboard the Rhumbulian making preparations. I want to get all our primary target sites finished before the month is out and that means we need to start tomorrow or fall behind."

"And I have no idea how long it will take to hammer down into the central core," added Lepton.

"Wait. Primary target sites? I thought we were starting a methodical survey of A-grid," Jon said confused.

"We need to show some results quickly, Jon. If we don't the project could get scrapped. I've therefore decided to gamble on several promising sites before starting the main sweep," Allele explained.

The three walked back to the camp at a brisk pace, discussing the priorities of the day, what needed doing, and in what order.

***

Sita finished putting the observation craft through a series of tests by mid-morning. She'd converted it for use as a launching base. Though extensive, and compromises were needed, she was confident the ship would work. She didn't like using one Bendway hatch to service both Laborpods, it would slow down personnel  retrieval and the hatch had a very short range. The twin hatch long range unit with which the craft was normally equipped was too bulky. They would need the space for keeping their equipment. Usually the craft only ferried a few observers to a site and therefore did not need very much cabin space. The hatch she had installed used a small round opening just large enough for a person to slip through. Its short range meant Sita would have to bring the ship directly alongside whatever craft they wanted to board or accept passengers from.

The other major problem was the craft's phase envelope. Not being designed for towing external equipment it's envelope would not be strong enough to blanket the Laborpods during transport. The pods would need to keep their envelopes operational at all times while docked. Luckily they only needed to be docked for long distance travel that was beyond the pods' practical speed capacity. The problem was overlapped envelope engorgement. If phase envelopes overlapped for more than a few moments the overlapping, or engorged, portions of the envelopes would begin to ring in sympathy. The subsequent vibrations would undermine any solid material within the engorged regions. In the case of the phase crafts, their hulls would begin to disintegrate on a microscopic level in rather short order.

Sita managed to rig an interface between the envelope projectors so that the pods enhanced the main craft's envelope when docked rather than remaining independent.  The pods needed to be jettisoned or docked at the same time. The pods' mass in relation to the main craft were great enough that docking one alone would weigh down one side of the craft causing it to list. Controlling the joined craft under those conditions was nearly impossible. The repelling nature of their envelope engorgement also meant she needed to dock or jettison both synchronously to keep the main craft stabilized.

Sita was somewhat amazed and proud of having worked the system out herself. In the time she'd been training she became fascinated with phase craft engineering and voraciously studied everything she could find about their design and maintenance. She could easily pass the certification tests for most of the smaller craft and was considerably knowledgable on the workings of the Rhumbulian as well.

Artifact storage space was a high priority. No space could be wasted. Housing three people used a lot of space and to keep it down Sita pulled the additional seats from the main craft. Allele and Jon would have to ride in their laborpods except when they needed access to the main craft. This meant they would spend their entire time on Zeebs. Despite this Sita kept the main craft's MIB system as an extra precaution.

While Sita modified the craft for staging and transport purposes Jon was busy with enhancements on the laborpods for the team's research needs. Though intended for close work, the pods ability for delicate manipulation was sorely lacking. They were designed for heavy geologic work involving the cutting and removal of rock and metallic materials. Jon had the main tonsures removed from the front of the pod. In their place the precision instruments used for archeological work were installed. The original tonsures were relocated to the belly of the pods leaving them available should there be a need for them.

Since they would not have the blanket surveying capabilities of the Rhumbulian to locate points of interest, Jon needed to jury rig a surveying system using the three available craft. He introduced an aberrational generator on all three craft's envelope projectors creating a field that would detect any foreign object and utilize the three craft to triangulate its location. More significantly, He introduced a sub-system found on no other research craft. With it the field could also detect objects that existed in outlying phases anywhere in a frequency range far beyond the Bi-modality of the enveloping systems that only projected a single standard enveloping phase.  With his enhanced surveying system they could probably uncover any rogue object buried or hidden in any documented or undocumented phase reality that passed through its field.  Likewise he enhanced the entanglement projectors that enable cross phase interaction to accommodate the wider range of phases. Otherwise they might find something in a unique phase but would be powerless to retrieve or otherwise interact with it.

These enhancements gave Allele's team a far greater spectrum to examine than the Rhumbulian had but covered a minute area compared to the larger craft's scope. Jon didn't share his enhancements with the rest of the team. Though he had no recollection of his last encounter with the man he met at the restaurant, he had been instructed not to share them and thought nothing of keeping them secret. If something were uncovered, only the laborpods would see it and Allele would think the discovery within realm of the ordinary. Sita, on the observation craft would be blind to it completely. The importance of these new capabilities were not to come into play for several months.

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Eight

Surrogate array system acclimation protocols are divided into three stages: assessment, correlative, and synthesis. The last is divided into three subsections, Team, Individual, and Paired. At no point during the protocols does the subject actually undergo severance. In the final analysis the subject must negotiate their own inner adjustment to arraylessness. These protocols have been developed as, and found to be the most effective means to aid in that adjustment.

Assessment Protocols, do not involve active participation on the part of the subject, requiring only societal permissions and psychological cooperation with the SASAP system as it reads and assimilates pertinent information such as Base Template Persona, Temperament and Experiential Imprint data. The profiles thus created are used by the system to adapt later stage exercises, translate and package the resulting equation for use by the Surrogate Array System to accommodate the subject's specific needs when calibrating Billets and Zip-Braces.

The Correlative Stage is a series of simple group problem solving scenarios that have no final resolution. The subjects of each group work in cooperation to reach consensus for a given problem. The exercises are expanded on and redirected according to the need of the group dynamic. The system observes the individual subjects as they relate to specific criteria. Once the criteria forays the group subjects is fulfilled the exercise is stopped. Subjects are reorganized into secondary groups determined by the first group's results. The process is repeated with a second similar exercise and then the subjects are peat the entire process a third and final time.

The final Synthesis protocol exercises use artificial disconnect dampeners from the array. Despite not being actual severance the affect on the individual can engender insecurities and paranoia. For this reason the first sub-section focuses on the group dynamic. Subjects are once again organized into groups for team building exercises meant to engender sense of community. The second sub-section, referred by many as the No Mind Protocol, involves  repetitive physical activity designed to help the individual focus on something outside the self that is specific, demanding, and does not require interaction with another individual. The final sub-section is a series of one on one trust exercises designed to strengthen empathy rhythms outside the array. 

~ from The Official Ministry Severance Training Manual

Salinetech  was more than satisfied that the class was progressing extremely well for a group its size and nature. In fact, he expected the class to be ready for actual severance a earlier than usual. Much of the reason for the quick turn around was that Artificial severance had had no affect on Allele. She seemed to flourish under the test conditions. Driven as she'd been organizing the expedition, her mental acuity became even sharper during exercises. She seemed totally at ease. It was as if she had her own personal array and any group to which she was attached appeared to benefit form the connection.

The SASAP system picked up on it immediately and ran a self diagnostic figuring there to be a problem with its sensors, when it found none it accepted Allele's data as received.  Salinetech didn't realize something was amiss until he noticed that the SASAP always responded to groups that included Allele by running a self diagnostic. No one was more surprised at the news than Allele herself. She had suffered great anxiety prior to beginning the program. When she initially felt no negative affect she thought it must take time to manifest, she would grow uncomfortable gradually, but Salinetech dismissed the idea and had Allele's entire developing profiles undergo extensive analysis. He believed Allele was what they called a floater, needing little if any adjustment for differing group dynamics, and the instructor suspected actual severance would be no different. Salinetech had never seen a floater as unaffected, but neither had he worked before with an Allele.

***

Lepton was accustomed to Allele's middle of the night epiphanies. Though he enjoyed the occasional rewards he received for his patience, most nights he would try to  only listen enough to give scattered grumbles of agreement and otherwise try to slip back to sleep unnoticed. On this night he was as awake as Allele. In the morning they would meet with the entire project contingent at Ministry to sign off on having their monads removed from the array to be transferred to the already established Base Camp Billet at the rift. He lay in a twilight sleep, a deeper sleep his anticipation of the coming day wouldn't allow. All hope for sleep of any kind was lost when Allele leaned over and whispered, "I'm changing our search pattern. I've worked it all out and will show you the details when we are billeted at Base Camp. Now go to sleep."

Sitting up, now wide awake, Lepton nudged Allele who had taken on the appearance of sleep after delivering her bomb, and said, "Wait! What? Change the search pattern how? It took us a solid week to develop that and you're changing it based on a mid night  inspiration?"

She raised herself on one elbow and answered, "Of course not, this has been playing in my mind for several days now. It's not a major change anyway. You'll be doing the same thing as in the plan we worked out."

"...and submitted for approval, which we got, and which Ministry is expecting us to follow," Lepton growled.

"It's not a big change Lep. We've been assuming that the richest location for artifacts will be at the center of the collapse where there appears to have been some sort of major facility," Allele said

"Not a bad plan that." chided Lepton.

"I know, I know. I know it was I who wanted to see if we couldn't get a few quick results that way to shore up the viability of the expedition, but..."

"And this is bad now?"

"No not at all and I still want the main thrust of the search to do just as we planned. You and your team and the excavation crews will continue as planned."

"What will you and your team do?"

"I want to equip my team as a self sufficient satellite operation to cover the outer portions of the search area where we've mapped some possible sites of small outlying facilities."

"Why can't they wait?"

"Because the collapse was a  catastrophic event and though the central facility may be rich in artifacts, much of what you find may be destroyed. They'll look great in the museums but may not tell us much. If I can find an outpost that was far enough away from the focus point of the collapse, it may still be partially functional, and that would be a find worth its weight."

"Do you really think you're going to find a working outpost, Allele? That's crazy."

"Maybe but maybe we'll find something of value. Look, I'm just taking my team, you'll survive without three Anthropologists on your tail."

"Well that's true," he agreed fending off Allele's attempt to jab him with her finger.

"I'll just need one of the observation craft converted to a makeshift base of operations. We'll pull the windows and install two launch bays for Laborpods, enhance the ship's communications to reach the farther off Rhumbulian, and load it with supplies. We'll take turns in the pods and see what we come up with."

"Okay," Lepton sighed. "You're the boss. Can we get some sleep now?"

"I don't think so," she answered reaching her free arm around his neck. She smelled Scotch.

Lepton rolled away from her for a moment to reach for the light. He was relieved. He'd been waiting for weeks for Allele to come to that conclusion. Seeding her as prescribed for months, his faith in the project protocols had been waining, but his patience was rewarded with this late development. He shut the light, reached behind the base of the lamp, and pressed the button in the center of a small green stone holding it down until he felt it vibrate confirming the communique had been sent.


***


Bored and anxious, Allele sat on a lounge chair in the transference waiting room, a small cubical-like room that provided privacy for the dissolution of her persona projection when her monad was removed from its mount in the Samsaric Array. This was the first time her monad would actually be removed from the array, and though monads were nearly indestructible she feared a clumsy technician might drop hers causing permanent damage.

Her attention drifted to the texture of the walls. She allowed herself to see objects within the random pattern, faces demonic and angelic, inhuman creatures she knew nothing of, some with wings or tails that stood on four legs. The images confused her, but before she could form coherent memories of them her monad was pulled and she fell into a dream-like state.


***


Raymond Fellwell rarely had anything unique to do. Maintaining level nine of Ministry's monad repository in the Samsaric Array was generally pretty boring work. He walked the aisle confirming each monad was functioning properly by tapping it with a pen-like instrument that invariably lit with a positive signal. He concluded long ago that the exercise was merely to give him something to do. His actual purpose was simply to have someone present should anything ever go wrong. Each monad was mounted into the back of a narrow chair-like structure called a pew which faced into a wide circular chasm lined with ring upon ring of identical chairs each housing someone's monad. Why the repository was set up like this he, and not much of anyone else, had no idea. He would quip to his friends that it was to ensure that if everyone on Europa ever wanted to take the tour at the same time, they'd have someplace to sit and gape at all the rest.

But, today he actually had something to do. Today he slowly drove a lumbering Oneiric Shuttle along the corridor behind the long line of pews stopping at designated stalls in order to transfer the pew's monad to the shuttle. To do this there was a cord attached to the shuttle called an umbilical that fit on the extended section of the monad that projected from its setting in the pew. Once Raymond Fellwell attached the umbilical, the Monad automatically released from the pew, allowing him to remove it and insert it into a similar receptacle on the shuttle, as he was about to do once again. Holding the monad cupped in both hands like something fragile he carried it over to the shuttle, he actually could have thrown it down the chasm and not damaged it, but he thought of them as one might a religious relic and gave them their befitting respect. He slid Alelle's monad into it's temporary receptacle on the side of the shuttle.

Salinetech's prediction was correct for the most part. Though the shuttle's umbilical was keeping her in a twilight state, Allele felt as if immovable braces that had long inhibited her were suddenly blasted away freeing her to drift, weightless, but with a self empowerment like she'd never felt, and her sensory and reasoning faculties also seemed greatly enhanced.

When Raymond Fellwell inserted her monad into the shuttle itself and dislodged the umbilical Allele found herself on a platform next to a long narrow metallic cabin with three sets of sliding doors. She stood in front of the set midway along the cabin's length. A a bell rang, the doors slid open, and she stepped inside. The interior of the structure was brightly lit making her shield her eyes. When she could see again she found bench-like seats lining the walls beneath Windows that on one side looked back out on the platform. Those on the side opposite faced a flat tiled wall. Several people were already sitting here and there on the benches. None spoke and all sat alone. She recognized most of the cabin's occupants as members of the the various teams involved in the expedition. She made eye contact with a few of them but none responded to her smile or other gesture of recognition. She could sense their Emotional/Conscious state but was unable to communicate with anyone directly.

The bell rang again and the doors behind her slid closed. She looked down at the bench beside the doors and saw that Sita was there looking up at her with the same blank expression Allele found on everyone else. She went to sit beside her when the cabin jolted in one direction. Unprepared for the sudden movement Allele lost her footing but instinctively reached for a lateral metal bar that hung at eye level running the length of the cabin above the benches. Grabbing it in time to avoid falling, she swung herself onto the bench to sit next to Sita like she'd done the move a thousand times. Sita quietly turned away, paying no further attention to her.

After the cabin's jolt it picked up speed the platform and tiled wall slipping away to the left they were suddenly replaced by a the dark walls of what seemed a tunnel, after only a moment it began a slowing glide coming to a standstill with a small jolt beside another platform, deeper than the one she had disembarked from and on the opposite side of the cabin. Once again the bell rang and the doors on that side of the cabin slid open allowing another member of the expedition to step inside. This time the doors didn't slide closed immediately but waited as several more people entered the cabin one at a time. Allele reasoned they all must have been located close by in the repository but as there was only one umbilical only appeared individually. One entered the doors opposite hers, others entered at others, possibly dependent on where in the shuttle their monads were placed.. Once again the bell rang, the doors closed and the cabin started with a jolt almost lifting the still standing newcomers off their feet. This process repeated until the entire contingent bound for the rift were in the cabin. With the last member's arrival the cabin seemed to pick up speed and settle into an even gait, rocking gently side to side as the shuttle moved the passengers out of the city and toward the rift.

No one spoke during the entire journey, and after what seemed like a couple of hours the cabin began to slow, gliding again to a jolting stop. The doors opened but nobody stood to leave. Allele was puzzled by her own disinterest in disembarking, perfectly comfortable to wait beside Sita indefinitely. After a few minutes one of the engineering crew who was sitting across from Allele casually stood, walked out onto the platform, and promptly disappeared.

At regular intervals of about half a minute the passengers disembarked from the cabin one at a time as their monads were removed from the Oneiric Shuttle and inserted into the Base Camp Billet. Without making a clear decision to do so, Allele casually stood and strolled out the doors. The platform looked the same as when she'd first appeared on it. She began to feel a bit dizzy and the platform disintegrated before her eyes.

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Seven

"The primary Multiple Isolation Billet (MIB) must be capable of housing (co-MIBing) up to Fifty Monads for projection from four mobile onsite towers. The unit will serve the five acre base camp community and research facility. Twenty five secondary MIB's will be needed for dig sites. The primary MIB will include an Environment Facilitator to fabricate research facilities and living quarters reactive to individual needs, and will maintain a collective network to include the secondary MIB's when possible to provide as consistent a surrogate array environment as possible at any one time. Subsurface dig sites in the lower depths of the Hydro-Layer, beyond the range of surface units will depend upon the synthesized surrogate arrays in onboard MIBs and individual Zip-brace (Zeeb) units."

~  from Case Document 23: Material Request; Hadrian Rift Expedition.  

Jon was the first to enter the briefing room. He sat down at a conference table large enough for the entire team plus trainers. The team would begin the long process of simulated training. The variables for the contingent's co-MIBing were worked out and While waiting for the others, Jon distracted himself by reviewing the dossiers of the team members with whom he would likely co-MIBe. People trickled in and by the time Allele arrived most of Lepton's crew and Sita were already present. 

Being project lead, she'd delayed her arrival purposely wanting to make an entrance. She also wanted her decision to confine herself in her Base Template Persona noticed, to set an example and encourage others to begin the adjustment early. She chose to draw attention by even donning the uniform that would be the standard provided by the expeditionary MIBs. It was a Jovan dirty orange tight to the skin, smooth to the touch but could be comfort set to any desired tactile preference. Hers had deep blue detailing. Blue indicated she was on the anthropological team, but the dark high chroma of the color signified project lead. Being a utility uniform it as yet had no work related features. Pockets, tool loops, extra support, would occur reactively to her work habits. Where she reached for a pocket or tool one would be there, repetition would make the location permanent to decrease waiting time for its fabrication. Orthopedic support would develop in areas needed. By midway into the expedition no two uniforms would look the same save for color and insignias. 

It was Allele's near opalescent complexion framed by long silken black hair, that most attracted attention. Skin so fair the pink blush of her cheeks seemed to float on a milky  illuminated field. Hair a deep black that appeared to swallow whatever light fell upon it, only releasing a faint blue from its highlights. Flecks of the same blue swam in her damask steel eyes that refracted the cool end of the spectrum, jewel like, from within an indigo halo. They were set beneath deep angular brows and high sharp cheekbones giving them raptor like intensity. Her nose had a high but unpronounced arch that slid smoothly down to a bulbless tip that yet finished softly straddled by small lightly flared nostrils. Her lips were slender with a clean sculpted edge that pressed together somewhat sternly but whose line betrayed a wry humor at rest. Her self aware smile that curled at one corner separated the line of her nose from the clean slope of her chin and jaw.  She was tall and toned, meaning she was genuinely active, since base templates only fabricated according to actual physical development algorithms. For all of her desire to out the ugly truth, in her actual state, she was the most striking individual in the room.  She positioned herself a couple of chairs away from Jon who, engrossed in his reading, didn't notice her arrival until she sat.

"Allele!" He said in shock.

"Shut up Jon," she shot back.

"It's just that you're..."

"Shut up Jon, I can still scratch you from the team," she added, leveling a sardonic look at him. 

Lepton came in and sat down between them, "Jon don't be an ass," he said, captioning Allele's glare.

"You didn't even hear what I said!" said Jon defensively.

"He has excellent powers of deduction." Allele answered with a curl on her lip.

"I didn't even get a chance to say anything," Jon whined.

"And yet we know," both Allele and Lepton together.

Sita sat bemused, quietly listening from a seat diagonally across the table. She noticed that Lepton showed no reaction to Allele's appearance, and watched as they nodded greetings to the various members of the team. Her attention centered on Allele who was speaking with the instructor, back turned to Lepton. She had leaned forward resting on her elbows, hands neatly clasped. She seemed to only half pay attention to whatever the instructor was saying, looking back toward Lepton from time to time, and swaying slightly on her elbows. She seemed to enjoy her own physical spectacle, and though it may have been her imagination, Sita thought Allele's body language showed Allele to actually only be paying attention to Lepton.  

As Allele's shifted Once more to look back at Lepton, Sita caught her eye. Sita shot a look at Lepton and back to Allele who immediately looked away, beginning to blush. 

Just then the Instructor addressed everyone, "Good morning, my name as Garyl Salinetech, I will be directing your severance acclimation training for the next few weeks.  

"You were each supplied personal training schedules earlier today. For those of you not familiar with severance training, you will be weened off of dependence on the array in stages. First you will all participate in the main base camp billet simulation and then individually step down through surrogate populations as your personal profile requires. You will go through your personal series twice in simulation and then at least once in actual severance." He turned to looked at Jon before continuing, "If any member of a team you are involved with needs more trials in a particular regimen, all those in that regimen will continue to run through it until everyone has adjusted, am I clear?" No one responded. "Questions?" Still no response.

Then Sita spoke up, "How close to actual severance are the simulations?" 

"The first round isn't similar at all, it will seem identical to the clearance protocols you've already experienced.  The second round will feel like you've actually been cut off. We very effectively tamp down the sensitivity mesh. On a gut emotional level you will feel very much alone. I won't lie to you, it Can be disturbing." Salinetech  answered.

"I've been alone before." Sita commented, a little incredulous. A few of Lepton's crew who'd been through training before snickered.

Salinetech looked around the room to quiet the mumbling before continuing, "This isn't the same as simply being alone, it isn't the same as being away from your friends or family. Many of you live alone and probably think this won't be anything strange.  Severance fatigue is a different thing entirely. That is not to say that this is more painful or depressing. It affects you in more subtle but deep seated ways. You won't feel it at first. You may never feel it consciously at all, some don't. 

"Array deprivation is usually sensed intuitively. The lack of any empathic foundation leaves a hole that is filled ante-cognitively with fragmented phantom sequences in an attempt to heal the wound so to speak. These phantom sequences are disjointed having no actual structure in are inconsistent, even chaotic with fragmented logic streams initiated by nothing and draw no conclusions. The impact quickly becomes noticeable. In a short time, usually two or three hours, you begin to feel like someone is watching you. When someone is left completely Array deprived for as little as forty-eight hours they will begin to enter a form of Pareidolic Dementia called Empathic Inanition. You begin to hear voices, even see people who you seem familiar. 

"That won't happen here because you all have each other to to establish a substitute array amplified through mutual connection, to provide for your needs as your needs dictate. We will resolve compatibility issues, demonstrate some less damaging but still unwanted effects of life in a billet with different combinations of personalities. As I like to say, how to get along without getting lost."

Allele iinterrupted with a question, "Is functioning normally while severed from the array reached more as a skill or a predisposition?"

"I'd have to say predisposition, but with this caveat, we make a big deal about it because the consequences of something going wrong for you can get nasty, but the vast majority of people who have been through training have had little difficulty. We introduce you to it slowly, you'll grow into it differently than anyone else, and you'll learn the skills needed to handle those little difficulties you may have along the way.

"Look, this is basic stuff. We've been doing this for countless centuries, yet everyone is afraid of it. You've all heard horror stories, but the reality just isn't that glamorous. The program you are about to go through will cover everything you need to know to establish yourself while severed, manage your peculiarities in dealing with it, and catch the warning signs for the unlikely possibility that you may have long term incompatibility issues.

"I'll tell you what your biggest trauma is going to be in this whole thing, and Allele here, your leader has already tackled it and is no doubt well on her way to adjusting to it if she hasn't already. Everyone know what that is?"  The instructor again searched the faces in the room.

"Adjusting to the sole use of your Base Template Persona," Sita answered for the room.

"Exactly," continued the instructor, "the sole use of your base template persona. It's trickier than you might think. We're all used to making changes as we see fit. You'd be surprised how even a little thing like the color of your hair or the shape of your teeth can weigh on you. To say nothing of feeling exposed in front of people you know. I recommend you get started doing it right away. You can take it a step at a time over the coming weeks, many folks like that, or do it quick and get it over with, you know what works best for you, but what I don't recommend is waiting it out till the last minute. I definitely do not recommend leaving it for the MIB system to do for you. The first time you'll be skinned by a billet is at the first actual base camp exercise. That's your deadline. I don't know everyone here. I take it that you Allele are completely reverted to your BTP?"

"Yes," Allele answered.

"That's good. You aren't holding anything out on us? Teeth? Teeth are a big thing. Hair line?"

"No, this is me," she answered.

"Good. Anyone else? Even a partial?" the instructor directed at the group. 

One hand rose to the surprise of those who knew her. Sita rarely used a changing cloak and only for things like costume parties and when obliged by social etiquette. 

Jon was the first of the team to react, "You must be kidding. Really? All this time I thought you just hit on something you liked and were compulsive about it."

"No, Jon, this is just me." Sita answered a little annoyed.

"A Rudimentarian. You managed to keep it secret. I am impressed," Allele offered. "I confess I thought something like what Jon said only not as crassly. You've a stronger will than all of us."

"Not so strong, and no I'm not Rudimentarian. I know a few though. Life is just a lot simpler this way." Sita said. 

"Why didn't you ever say anything if you're not Rudimentarian?" asked Jon.

Sita smiled, "It's never come up, and I don't dwell on it, it's just what I prefer. Besides, I do make minor changes here and there on occasion."

The instructor interjected, "That should help you getting through this program, but it's not everything. Now, If there are no questions we're finished here. Tour the school if you like. Get familiar with how we do things. We begin tomorrow morning."

BOOK ONE: ALLELE; Chapter Six

"Phase-craft: Any of a variety of mobile devices used for transport of personnel and materials that are propelled using Grav-drives and equipped with Multi Frequency Phase Aberration. Grav-drives use gravity reversal and enhancement to propel and steer the vehicle. Multi frequency Phase Aberration creates a bubble that disjoints the molecular phase of the surrounding ice and other obstructions. The ship's bulkhead desynchronizes whatever comes within six inches of of its surface to an alternate molecular frequency that allows the ship to pass through whatever obstacles it encounters making deep ice navigation possible.

In order for grav-drives to work the surrounding environment is desynchronized rather than the ship itself since a primary gravitational body (Europa itself), is needed to interact with, to push off or pull toward. If the ship were desynchronized it would drift through or away from the planet's orbit into space having no resistance against which to propel."

~ Outer System Ship's Registry

Besides the psychological adjustment and training needed to endure severance, Allele's team would learn how to operate and maintain environmental equipment and how to pilot the different Phase-craft they would be using. To access subsurface sites they would require the use of several types of Phase-craft ranging from single occupant laborpods, to the Rhumbulian, an old phase yacht of the schooner class named for it's unique hull, The ship was converted to an on site research station and launch. There were also several dual occupant Observer craft used mostly for study and on-site experimentation.

Except for the laborpods each craft was equipped with its own Portable MIB. The schooner could handle twenty monads for a crew of twelve and eight passengers. The Observer Craft handled three allowing for a possible passenger. Laborpods required the use of a zip brace or zeeb, a personal brace that houses the user's monad, a very limited surrogate MIB, and an interpreter capable of a single persona thread for the user's basic somentity. Change of appearance was not an option. Zeebs did not project, but used a small unraveler that unfurled the somentity to surround the brace which remained attached. They consisted of a metallic spine that ran beneath the surface emerging only at the lower back. The monad itself was buried deep in the abdomen so as not to interfere with movement.  Zeeb use was the most severed a person could get.

Unlike ordinary transports, furniture, clothing, and most things used in everyday life, the phase-craft, MIBs, Zeebs, and many other pieces of equipment they would use on the expedition were made with vestigial matter that did not need Ministry's projection blanket to maintain physical integrity.
Severance wasn't required to operate any of their fleet of craft as long as they remained within Ministry's projection blanket. The team was able to begin learning to maneuver the craft while still in the early stages of severance training. Allele and her team became proficient quickly. In particular, Sita gained a sense for the various craft and the feel of grav-drive that made any craft she handled, even the lumbering Rhumbulian, seem to be an extension of her own somentity.

Ministry's Lexi-empathic system endowed them with the basic knowledge needed to operate the crafts, but gaining the body sense and feel for how they moved and responded to commands was something they each had to develop on their own. By the time Sita finished her training the instructors granted a Prime Operator accreditation which usually wasn't awarded until at least two hundred hours were booked of solo drive time.

Jon could handle a laborpod expertly but showed little interest in the other craft. He was focused on the laborpod purely as an exploratory tool. He had little interest in support utilities and so developed little expertise in their use. Allele was adept with both laborpod and the other support craft, though most comfortable with the observer craft. She handled laborpods with skill, but felt claustrophobic in them. Neither Allele nor Jon were invited to helm the Rhumbulian.

***

Allele steered the observatory craft she had been practicing in out of the bed ice and into the hanger coils that would stabilize it until she shut down and organics were hosed from the hull. She miscalculated the movement of a good sized firmasquid that was feeding off the roof ice in a large air pocket about twelve fathoms below. Just as she boosted her ascent it slithered into her path. Since organic matter can't withstand the trauma of molecular frequency shift the beast was completely liquified clogging Allele's observatory sensors forcing her to bring the craft into the hanger on instrumentation alone. Killing an organic was considered bad form though bringing the craft in on instruments alone was a respectable feat for a novice. Upset by the death of the animal Allele would avoid lower depth training where organics were abundant until she was more adept.

As soon as the hanger coils set the ship on its stabilizers Allele opened the Bendhatch and stepped carefully across the smooth blue wake ice that Phase Aberration leaves behind. As she entered the main receiving lounge at the other end of the facility she spotted Henry Skeintender waiting at a table by the window wall that looked out across the busy terminal with the city sky line in the distance. He watched the city traffic coursing through networks of roads and bridges that stretched from the low plains to the towering central rings of the metropolis. A paper lay on the table beside him. He turned from the vista to look up at Allele only as she walked up to the table.

Henry was the team's Clearance Administrator. He usually met Allele with apologetic eyes and breathless impatience as his assignment on the project had extended more than twice as long as anticipated. All because of one man that Allele refused to replace. Their conversations rarely varied beginning with Henry sharing Jon's most recent test results and pointing out again how they were unchanged from the previous. Allele would then repeat her defense of Jon. He would then counter that if Jon had even shown results a good week before it could be months before he reached an acceptable level.

Allele spoke before he could break into his usual rant, "Well, well, if it isn't Hal! To what do I owe this reception?"

Henry paused and gave her a wry smirk, "Like you don't know, and don't call me Hal."

"I don't know," she came back, "don't tell me our boy showed some movement."

"Okay we'll play your way. Yes, our boy showed improvement. I don't know what you did and truthfully I don't really care anymore. I'll give him clearance and be done with it I have too many other things to get on with around here."

Allele had tried to break in as Henry spoke but couldn't. When he stopped she asked, "You're clearing Jon? What happened? What do you mean, 'What I did?' I did nothing. What's happened, Hal?"
Henry looked insulted, thinking Allele was treating him like an Outlaborer, "He did 1.36 today. Almost as high as your results. I ran the test three times. Three times 1.36, 1.36, 1.36," he repeated rapidly like he was throwing it in her face. "Near flat lined at .04 and then over a weekend to 1.36. I've never seen anything remotely like it."

"That's fantastic! I can't believe it," Allele clamored.

"Neither can I," Henry shot back, seething with anger, "which is why I'm attaching a long list of reservations to his file. Something happens to that boy out there, I'm not taking the fall. Do you understand? I don't know how you did it, but there's nothing I can do to veto a score that high repeated three times. Congratulations, you have your team, and I'm out of here."

"Hal! Henry! I didn't do anything," but Henry was already walking away and only wrenched his shoulder in response, as if to throw her words off his back.

Allele fell back into the chair he'd been sitting in and watched him walk away across the lounge and disappear into the main exit Bendway.  When he was gone she turned to the report lying on the table.
The results were as Henry said. She wondered how Jon could make such a turn around in a matter of days. In a single wave of emotion she felt pride for Jon and loathing for Henry. How could he think that? How could he accuse her of fixing the protocols? She knew that somehow she'd acquired an enemy in the organization and she hadn't heard the last of him. She thought for a while about what she could do to fix this new "Henry" problem, and regretted ever calling him Hal, at least to his face.

Her thoughts drifted in a blur of recent events. Henry's anger swelled into the poor firmasquid sputtering into globules as her ship's phase bubble pressed up through it into the ice, and finally the look on Jon's face when he told her he understood if she had to replace him. How his eyes filled with controlled fear that she might take him up on it. Now she wouldn't have to. With that, her eyes sparked back to life and the corner of her mouth curled in a slight smile.

***

"I have my team," she said out loud.

 Lepton woke opening his eyes in short spasms. His rejuvenation protocol had finished no more than ten minutes before. He didn't usually wake for a full thirty minutes after but the bed rocked and he felt fingers run through his hair. His vision finally cleared and he found that he was looking at Allele's throat through wisps of her hair. She was lying under the covers beside him holding his face to her neck. She lifted her knee wrapping her leg around him pulling his groin up against hers. She spread her fingers around the back of his head shifting it to press his mouth over her wind pipe.

"Bite me, Lep. Hard please," she growled into his ear as she shifted to bite the lobe.

He obliged rolling over her to pin her to the bed by her neck with his mouth. She wrapped her other leg around him but they weren't aligned the way she'd have liked. He sank his fingers deep into the waves of her thick blue black hair. It was her actual base template color. She only allowed Lepton to see it and only at times like this, but her secret appearance would soon be made public.

Gripping her mane he gently pulled her head back, better exposing her long throat to slide his teeth along its full length. Feeling her groan through his lips always aroused him, but he pulled away for a moment to speak, "To what do I owe...?"

"This is the last time you will be the only person who sees me like this," she cut in.

Lepton looked bewildered but kept silent. Allele wriggled out from under him and sat up on bended knees throwing her hair back over her shoulder, the thick black tresses reaching halfway down her back. She had an honestly athletic body that her base template settings evolved into due to her extensive physical activity. She walked everywhere, was even known to walk home if she had the entire afternoon free. She also did a fair amount of climbing having scaled several of the higher and more treacherous peaks of nearby rifts.

Long walks alone, and climbing gave Allele the private time she needed everyday. Working with people, even casual socializing with friends was draining. She needed solitude as much as nightly regeneration. If she had her way she would be alone with her thoughts and her sorrows for the best part of the day. It was something Magdalena hadn't been able to adjust to. Lepton did and he, as Magdalena had been, was the only person she allowed to see her actual persona.

Allele took a deep breath and threw her shoulders back. She held her chin up and a bit to the side striking a serious expression that showed off the sharp bridge of her otherwise graceful nose and the strong upper lip that supported it. Her mouth was slightly open with her signature smile that curled in one corner of her full, but not bulbous lips rimmed by a sharp sculpted edge. She looked down at Lepton with smiling deep brown eyes, their corners slightly raised, nestled under strong cocked eyebrows.  

She saw his gaze fix on her muscular stomach, "Take a good look, Mr. Limp-ton, pretty soon it will belong to everybody," she said leaning forward on one arm, grabbing hold of him with the other."

"What are you talking about?" he asked jolted from his stupor by her clutching hand. "Who's everybody? What's going on?"

Allele didn't answer but crawled up his body with a giant grin and gleaming eyes that seemed to be trying to tell him something he should already know. She pulled his lower lip into her mouth and sucked on it for an instant pulling it with her teeth before letting go.

"The whole world, and there's nothing I even want to do about it, you'll just have to live with sharing," she said and held him by the ears to kiss him sliding her tongue deep into his mouth. She then pulled back, "Sorry pal, you'll have to adjust." She concentrated on his eyes, waiting for the lights to go on, her smile slowly widening the longer it took. Finally she gave him a hint, "Well, if not the whole world, our expeditionary crew anyway."

"Jon passed! It's a go!" Lepton burst, Sitting up and nearly throwing Allele off the bed. "MIBs only store our base templates so," He paused, "nobody is going to be able to keep their mind on their work when you're around."

"Precisely Mr. Limp-ton, I'm impressed, but I think you speak only for yourself on distractions," She said as she slid back to him. "still, your powers of deduction are amazing, and frankly very arousing. You're so smart, are you a scientist?" she asked positioning herself on her back to lie on him head to foot, propping herself up on her elbows.

He opened his legs to straddle her, "Yes, in fact I am." He answered as she held her foot to his face for him to bite. He obliged.

"Ouch, you horrible man." She scolded, lowering herself off her elbows to reach down and stroke his knees. "To become a scientist you must have a good memory, no?" she continued.

"Yes," he played along.

"I thought so. Therefore Mr. Limp-ton, Mr. Techley, Mr. Outlabe, you must remember a little bet we had over our dear Jon's passing clearance. As I recall you thought he wouldn't"

"True."

"The bet was for the whole day was it not?"

"The entire day, actually."

"Yes, that's right, you are the brainy one."

"Come to collect?"

"I don't like to waste time."

"I knew that about you."

"So smart you are. Then you also know that I like to make an early start of it in the morning," she said lifting her legs to rest on Lepton's shoulder.

"Yes, I've observed a great deal of supporting evidence to that affect," he answered running his hands down her thighs.

Allele lifted one leg and slowly rested it on his other shoulder. Hooking her feet around his neck, she began to pull him toward her, "Now Leppy, let's test your powers of deduction. Where do you suppose I want you to start?"

Book One: Allele; Chapter Five

Allele: (uh'-leel); 1. Allele Zone Disorder (AZD); One of several aberrational code configurations marked by an speckled patterning of dead pocket zones throughout the chrysalis portion of a Monad. Unlike healthy zones, allele dead zones coexist in addition to pocket zones, but do not except active code for processing. Unpredictably, allele dead zones will activate suddenly and remain functional for the remainder of the individual life cycle. This frequently occurs later in life but is not the rule. This activation is marked by a pronounced change in personality which often includes the shedding of previous psychic disorders. There is no causal evidence with which to predict when or how a monad acquires allele zone disorder. A given monad may function normally for generations before and after suffering AZD.  

2. The name given to an individual suffering with AZD. 

Harry Horst sat back in his chair, arms raised and folded back in a relaxed position with hands clasped behind his head. Despite his casual air, he was staggered by Ministry's response to Allele's material request. Not only was it all approved but the answer came only moments after he'd submitted the proposal.

He looked up from the reply and said, "I'd been given to believe that Ministry was only allowing an initial exploratory mission, yet they're giving you enough equipment to establish a major archeological research facility on site! I don't get it. I'm delighted for you, but I don't get it."

"Everything?" Lepton blurted, looking at Allele who had her elbows squarely planted on the arms of her chair, fingers interlocked thumbs kissing. She had been focused on the wide lapel of Harry's suit. She wondered why he dressed that way, like an idiot she thought, but that wasn't fair. She had a great respect for Harry and thought him a wizard at bypassing bureaucratic obstacles. That was it, he dressed like a bureaucrat. She could forgive that, he was one after all.

Despite her lack of focus she'd heard his comment on Ministry's confirmation. The news was simply no surprise to her. Developing the materials request had been a major undertaking, While the initial proposal had been an outline of the purpose, results, and possible benefits of their research, the materials request required working out the hard pragmatic details of how they would go about accomplishing those results and the supplies and equipment they would therefore need.

For all the fear and insecurity she'd felt when given the lead of the expedition, Allele floated effortlessly through the planning stages as if they didn't matter. All that mattered was getting there. They would have what they needed to do what was to be done. Her blithe air in these matters had a powerful influence on the team. It didn't inspire, nor was it contagious, but it was quieting. Whenever she weighed in on a question, all involved accepted that it would be resolved as she said, their concerns sated, their confidence shored up. They would go about their work assuming everything would be taken care of. Then another crisis would arise for them to panic over.

In the first few weeks of planning her apprehensions melted away. Eventually she only skimmed the reports delivered to her, and didn't attend very many work meetings. She would simply ask for a brief synopsis of a report of the goings on of meetings afterward. While others poured over statistical projections, she pondered the models of the riff to closely examine a particular knoll or crevasse. She would change angle a few times in deep focus on a spot until a soft smile blossomed at the corner of her mouth, and she turned away to something else. Despite her laxity, whenever approached on a subject she demonstrated full understanding, made decisive and insightful decisions, and gave effective, comprehensive directions.

In short, she directed the project with surety, but a loose and easy baton. It was a talent that surprised everyone, herself most of all. Allele had always been most confident working alone, for long hours, on obscure and arcane matters. Leader, organizer, standard bearer, had never been her forte.

Allele sat triumphant before Harry and Lepton, pondering the former's lapel. After a moment the soft smile that befuddled most colleagues curled the corner of her mouth as her eyes shifted across to meet Lepton's to chastise him for ever doubting her. With that smile Lepton understood the depth of Allele's will. For a moment he felt a certainty that what they were doing was unstoppable and a celebration of this small milestone of little importance.

"What now?" he asked.

"The next thing." She answered.

***

The process for adjusting to Samsaric  Disassociation (SD), severance from the array, was long and arduous.  Actual severance would not happen until each team member was cleared by a battery of tests and simulations. Most of the initial regimens were conducted on subconscious levels that were designed to predetermine deep rooted incompatibilities in coping with the degenerative affects of SD. The team had much to accomplish before actual severances for even momentary lengths of time would be attempted.


Even Lepton who was already certified and experienced in SD was required to undergo the full regimen as he hadn't maintained his sanction. Only a few members of his team were exempt being active volunteer Rangers. They already trained regularly in SD, and were proficient in the operation and maintenance of equipment.

The first stage of the protocol was psychological verification and clearance, Clearance Protocol Tracks (CPTs). Verification was a mere formality that enabled the system to confirm the identity and track the progress of each subject throughout the training process.

In Allele's case, the system uncovered an unusually large contiguous segment of AZD dead space in her monad. AZD itself wasn't a problem, but this was a very large area comprising nearly a third of the entire chrysalis. What's more, unlike usual AZD areas, it was filled with useless code that Ministry couldn't cipher.  She wasn't rejected but merely tagged to undergo a few special clearance tracks to ensure she had the storage capacity needed to actively participate in the surrogate SD routines in the MIBs.

Like most Alleles, Allele the was accustomed to the teasing she received because of her peculiar chrysalis configuration. When the team heard she was an extreme case old jokes were dusted off and given new life at her expense. In truth, being accused of limited capacity all her life had driven Allele on to succeed. No matter how much she proved otherwise, how many accomplishments she made, or awards garnered, nothing sated her inner doubts. This was a major part of the core of her darker nature.

In the end the CPTs proved to be a mere formality for Allele anyway. The commission found nothing to suggest she suffered psychological damage nor a lack of capacity to participate. It was rare that an individual used more than a fifth of the chrysalis in their monads anyway and Allele still had ample room. All but one member of her team cleared these hurdles without event.  


"I don't understand it," Jon whined, getting himself out of the simulation chair. Allele put her hand gently on his shoulder and coaxed him back down.

"It's okay, everyone adjusts in their own time," she assured him.

"I understand if you decide to replace me, I don't want to hold up the project. Maybe I can handle the home office work." He lay back staring furtively at the ceiling of the lab. It was two months since they'd begun training and he was still failing the CPTs. He feared that the next stage, Graduated severance therapy, would take forever. The worst part was he didn't even get to have the sensation of severance. The simulator didn't produce a sensory experience.

Conscious discomforts and adjustment was the least of the problems with severance. The simulator wasn't concerned with short term disconnection from the Samsaric Array, but with long term cognitive dissonance. It presented Jon with questions, images, sounds, smells, and fabrications of typical events, then read the litany of affects they had on his psyche.

The simulator didn't simply read his mind. As it tapped areas of his psyche it could detect frequency disturbances consistent with known problems in other subjects. It shared what it culled with Jon to help him find and understand the difficulties he experienced and, hopefully, expel them.  

"Relax," said Allele, though she knew it was useless. Something was blocking Jon and he was going to have to find it and deal with it on his own. She tried to get him to seek the help of Severance Therapists but Jon refused. She looked into making it mandatory but the therapists said it would be counterproductive. He had to get there on his own.

They recommended she find a substitute, but Allele refused. Jon was one of the few and the best cultural pathologists on Europa. It was Jon who got Allele interested in the project to begin with. It was Jon who found and organized the evidence suggesting that ruins at the center of the rift may have been a prior Ministry with an intact library.  She would not give up on him, not yet.

***

After the day's sessions Jon usually went to a restaurant in an outer circle of the city that catered to maintenance outlaborers. He frequented it to avoid contact with friends or colleagues. He didn't understand how it was possible, lone wolf that he was for the simulator to keep coming back with the same result, fear of abandonment. If anything he resented Ministry and it's intrusion on the individual psyche.

The restaurant went by the simple name "Olfacteria" and offered a limited menu of modest fare. Jon liked to sit at the counter where the owner busied herself with other customers. There was a faint odor of mildew, though he would not identify it as such, there being no mildew on Europa. He sat hunched over a ceramic Olfact cup staring at the remains of the dark liquid it held. He didn't notice the aging outlaborer, or OL, sit at the stool next to his and place a small flat green stone on the counter between them.

Without looking at Jon the OL spoke, "Odd isn't it, how one childhood accident can change your life?"

Jon didn't immediately catch that the OL was talking to him, "Pardon me?" he finally replied, woken from his thoughts.

"Childhood accidents. They change you."

"Yes, yes I guess they can. Did something happen to you?" Jon asked with a polite impatience.

"Me? No, no, normal childhood. Apprenticed to a pump station, made my grades like everyone else in town. What about you? Anything ever happen to you?" The OL asked, casually patting Jon on the shoulder.

Jon was about to say that his was the same, which he'd always thought, but then the phrase 'my grand experiment' came to mind. He wasn't sure what it meant but a memory was beginning to resurface.

"There was one thing," he said after a moment. "I was very young. I remember thinking myself brave."

"Didn't we all back then?" replied the OL.

"Yes, but some of us did stupid things," said Jon.

"Like dive into the Firth," the OL said, finishing the thought Jon couldn't complete himself.

"Like dive into the Firth." Jon repeated, the memory blooming full and powerful as if it happened moments before. "What an idiot I was. I'd been warned not to, but had to see what it would be like."

"That must've been terrible," said the OL, turning around on his stool to look out the windows behind them.

"It was more than terrible," Jon continued trance-like, reliving the horror, "when I hit the surface the cross current was so strong it ripped my arm clean off. The pain was horrific."

"How'd you keep control?"

"I didn't. I was in a total panic. Didn't know what to do. The water swept me under dragging me along the bottom of the outer bank. I think I must've been pulled a third of the way around the city before I had a coherent thought. My clothes were pulled off. Whenever I hit the embankment flesh was torn and then the water would scour the wound stripping any loose skin away. Breathing water that ripped apart my insides." Jon spoke as if in a trance, reliving the horror somewhere deep in memory.

"How long were you down there?" asked the OL, as if delivering the next in a series of prepared questions.

"It was believed to be five hours. As I said I was young and panicked. I never thought to signal for disassembly."

"Is that so?" the OL prodded.

"No. No not really. There was something else."

"What?"

"I was ashamed. I didn't want to be discovered. Didn't want the humiliation of having done such a stupid thing. I feared my parents would never forgive me. I didn't know what to do. I wanted Ministry to leave me down there. Just forget me and let me wash away into silt." Jon stared wide eyed at the wall in front of him as he made his confession.

 The two men faced opposite directions, not looking at each other. The OL kept his attention out the windows. Io was skipping across the sky only slightly above the peeks of the curving Scimitar Ridge that blocked the horizon. His gaze followed the tiny moon along its course. After a few moments silence to allow the memory to firmly reestablish itself in Jon's mind, he spoke, "Five hours. That takes fortitude I'll give you that. Holding on, hiding from Ministry until finally knocked unconscious by an outcrop of ice you'd missed the first fourteen full rotations along the Firth's course."

"I didn't hide from Ministry! Ministry knew, it had to know. It left me there, let me tumble and choke. The pain was searing, I lost my mind that day. Ministry stole it from me. I was in rehab for eight months before I could even remember my name. You can't trust it, it will just leave you there to rot." Jon was visibly trembling by the time he finished his rant.

The OL turned on his stool toward Jon, "And, now you rebel against Ministry by pretending to resent what you call its intrusions as a defense against your fear that it will abandon you again."

Jon looked down at the counter. Tried to make sense of the random pattern imprinted on its surface, spoke to the chaos in front of him,"It left me there."

"It isn't allowed to make decisions for you, it leaves control of your actions to you, even when young and foolish. All you had to do was tell it what you wanted," the OL explained. "It didn't abandon you. It obeyed you. This is common knowledge." he finished with a sigh.

"How can I overcome this?" asked Jon.

"You just did," answered the OL, patting him again and adding, "Remember, there's no reason not to explore whatever you come across. You'll be safe. You'll be fine." The old man's eyes were sad but Jon wasn't looking at them. It wouldn't matter if he had. The OL picked up the stone and put it back in his pocket. In a few minutes Jon would forget the conversation.