She had finally told him, she couldn’t hold it off any more, it was the moment of truth, the point at which he either accepted her story and the mission, or completely rejected it out of hand. He stared at her wide-eyed, mouth flapping opening and closing with metronomic regularity, finally he seemed able to speak.
“You can’t be serious, there is no way I can do that!”
“I’m sorry Kay, if there was any other way to do this . . . but there just isn’t.”
“So you want me to give up my body and become a floating QSID like yourself?”
Jemima shrugged.
“You can get a new one afterwards.”
“But . . . but that’s kind of like real death, I’m not so sure I’m into dying.”
“You won’t be dead, you’ll be very much alive, however your body back on Earth is equipped with the very same hardware we are trying to subvert. If you return to the Qblock in your original state you won’t be able to carry Asimov, I’m not sure exactly what will go wrong, because so much could.
Plus of course they control your Nplants, maybe they’d do something drastic once they realised you have switched sides.”
K-Rox thought about his body, lying in his immersion pod back on Earth, in a way he already was dead. His body's brain was being held in a state of organic stasis, however there was no brain activity.
Anyone examining his body without the aid of technology would come to the conclusion that he was indeed deceased. However this felt different, K-Rox had always planned to return to Earth and re-inhabit his old self. He thought about how much time he spent onblock, sometimes staying under for months at a time.
In those moments, he thought to himself, he was already doing what Jemima was asking him to do, with the one caveat that he could return to his body.
Apart from that, she could be lying, but what possible reason could she have for doing so?
No, in truth he knew she wasn't lying, she spoke in exactly the same way as Amorphia, and what she was telling him about Gladstone and the Confusion made sense of many of their talks in the past.
Before answering, K-Rox contemplated whether he was still in love with her, and perhaps was willing to follow this version of Amorphia out of a misplaced sense of loyalty. He already knew this wasn't true, whilst she reminded him so badly of her, it did not feel like Amorphia, it was more like speaking to a close family member, similar, in fact very similar, but not the same.
Jemima tried to gauge his mood as she watched him standing in silence contemplating her macabre offer, which was made almost impossible by the fact that his avatar did not possess a full range of emotion simulation. She had hoped he would simply understand and join the cause, but in reality she knew it was a lot to ask.
“Look, you can still back out, I get if you don’t believe me about Gladstone, Asimov and the Great Confusion, after all my only evidence is circumstantial, the killing of my clone-sister 219-Amorphia.
So if you want to back out now I understand, I’ll kill you here where you stand and the game will reset for you, with every chance that you forget our time together and what I’ve told you.
In time you will probably remember your original mission and set about trying to complete it.”
Jemima unfolded her four legs and stood, her thin tail was loaded with twenty-three pulse grenades. She had drawn up an attack pattern while she had been talking; the twelve sites on his body where she was to deliver the grenades glowed softly in her retina.
She lowered her voice and pitched it just so that it would carry enough of a threat.
“However if you do decide you would like to return to your original mission, then we will be enemies, and I will do everything in my power to stop you. Which of course counts for pretty much every other version of me, anyway, let me know, the choice is yours.”
His stare was unreadable, she waited, tense, so many moments had led up to this point in time.
Still, she waited . . .
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 41-50
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 31-40
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @fr3eze
Original words by Cryptogee