Part 4: Those Below Meet Those Above
Chapter 43: Remembering
After watching the videos in the theatre, the Linap returned to the laboratory lounge in good spirits. They were chatting and joking with each other. L7 Linap looked over at L11 Linap, who was drinking from a juice packet. He noticed ‘Mr. Reliable’ had been stitched into his t-shirt.
‘Where did you get this t-shirt?’ L7 Linap asked L11 Linap.
‘I wore it in my pod,’ replied L11 Linap. ‘Yassmay had it washed, cleaned, and repaired. It’s definitely my favourite t-shirt.’
‘Your name is Benny,’ said L7 Linap.
L11 Linap briefly looked stunned, then his face lit up, and he smiled. ‘My name is Benny,’ he replied.
‘Great,’ said L7 Linap enthusiastically. ‘Let’s tell him.’ L7 Linap pointed at Eugene, who was standing by the door eating popcorn.
‘My name is Benny. My name is Benny,’ shouted Benny energetically as he ran up to Eugene.
‘My name is Eugene,’ replied Eugene as he shrugged his shoulders. ‘You don’t hear me boasting about it.’
Vulay overheard the energetic shouting. She ran over to Benny. ‘You remembered your name,’ said Vulay excitedly. ‘That’s amazing. We have to tell Orcilla.’
‘I remembered his name first,’ interrupted L7 Linap. ‘It then triggered his memory.’
‘Great,’ said Vulay. ‘I’ll bring you both to see Orcilla.’
‘I’ve known my own name since I was five,’ commented Eugene as he folded his arms. ‘Look how old this lot are? Barely an achievement.’
‘Not everyone is as smart as you,’ replied Vulay as she winked at Eugene as she exited the lounge with L7 Linap and Benny.
‘She makes a good point,’ said Eugene to himself as he rubbed his chin. ‘We could spend a lifetime talking about my achievements.’
Orcilla was in the laboratory room with Yassmay. Yassmay was pacing up and down with frustration with their lack of progress in developing a serum. Orcilla was much more relaxed.
‘Don’t stress,’ said Orcilla. ‘You can get plenty more blood from X. He’ll regenerate it in seconds.’
‘He’s not the problem,’ said Yassmay. ‘Yassme will not approve. She insists I must obtain his consent. That means waiting for her to build him that device of hers.’
Orcilla sighed.
Vulay entered the laboratory room with L7 Linap and Benny. ‘I’ve got great news,’ said Vulay as she gestured towards Benny. ‘I introduce to you Benny.’
‘They’re remembering!’ said Yassmay in excitement as she ran over and hugged Benny.
‘Thanks to L7,’ said Vulay. ‘He triggered his memory.’
Yassmay then hugged L7 Linap.
‘I think it is just a matter of time before we all get our memories back,’ said L7 Linap.
‘That would be great, but there is no guarantee,’ said Orcilla. ‘Some of you were in better condition when we found you.’
‘We are all grateful for your help,’ said L7 Linap. ‘However, we believe you have not been forthcoming with everything you know about us.’
‘We don’t want to overwhelm you,’ said Orcilla. ‘We have full intention of sharing everything we know about you as well as sharing everything about ourselves as well.’
L7 Linap became invisible.
‘We were definitely going to tell you about this,’ said Yassmay sheepishly.
‘We didn’t want you disappearing on us,’ replied Orcilla as she looked around the room, trying to find him.
‘Maybe you just thought it would be easier to hold us captive while you run your little experiments,’ said L7 Linap angrily as he reappeared behind Yassmay.
‘Oh, it’s nothing like that,’ said Orcilla, sounding deeply concerned. ‘We just did not know what to expect from you. It was more a matter of our own security. We have no intention of holding you prisoner or experimenting on you.’
L7 Linap looked angrily at both Orcilla and Yassmay. Then he burst into laughter. ‘I was just kidding,’ chuckled L7 Linap. ‘You guys are great.’
Orcilla, Yassmay, and Vulay joined in with his laughter. Benny still had a worried look on his face.
‘I’ll be serious now,’ said L7 Linap. ‘We want to know the truth about everything: us, you, and the state of the world. We want private accommodation. This feels more like prison than your actual prison.’
‘These are reasonable requests,’ said Orcilla. ‘Tomorrow morning I’ll organise a presentation where we will reveal everything we know to you. We will update you weekly on any new developments. Our resource manager, Colin, will organise your accommodation. I understand how living in this laboratory is unpleasant.’
‘Agreed,’ said L7 Linap. ‘In return, we will gladly update you on anything we remember about ourselves.’
‘Sounds good,’ said Orcilla. ‘Welcome to our community. We can officially call you residents of Downs.’
L7 Linap returned to the others in the lounge. ‘Hey guys, I got us a great deal,’ said L7 Linap. ‘We’re getting our own homes, and we’re going to receive a full brief on this strange new world we have awoken to.’
‘He was rude,’ said Benny, shaking his head. ‘I felt embarrassed.’
‘Don’t forget we are guests in this region,’ said L2 Linap firmly. ‘We must be respectful to them at all times.’
‘We’re not guests anymore,’ said L7 Linap as he raised his eyebrows. ‘We’re official residents. It’ll soon be time to make our mark on this world.’
L5 Linap walked over to L7 Linap and gave him a high five.
‘I’m beginning to see how we may have been forced underground,’ said L1 Linap as she looked at L9 Linap, who had a worried look on his face.
Meanwhile in Lake, L6 Linap was awake again and in good spirits.
‘Every time I close my eyes, I see the greatness of my life flash before me,’ said L6 Linap proudly as he walked over to Octavius, who was sitting on the ground. ‘You claim to be some great corporate leader, but you look and smell like a lackey.’
Octavius snarled at him.
‘It’s not all my intuition,’ said L6 Linap as he leaned forward towards Octavius. ‘Jennifer’s download revealed so much about you.’
‘Why would you do that?’ shouted Octavius at Jennifer. ‘You know how much I value my privacy.’
‘You value it so much that you’d live as their bitch,’ chuckled L6 Linap.
Octavius leaped to his feet and roared at L6 Linap. L6 Linap fell backwards as the robots rapidly moved between him and Octavius.
‘You have every right to be mad,’ said L6 Linap as he continued to edge backwards along the ground. ‘You’ve been disrespected because you don’t fit in. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You’re the superior one. You just need to act and live like it.’
Octavius chuckled and sat back down.
‘We should take Downs,’ said L6 Linap. ‘We have the muscle.’
‘They’ll be bringing back the final three,’ said Jennifer. ‘An alliance with ten of your brethren could be very useful.’
‘So we’ll wait until they are retrieved,’ said L6 Linap. ‘Then we can bring them down from both the outside and the inside.’
‘Wonderful,’ said Octavius as he got back to his feet. ‘I’m heading back to my houseboat. Call me when you’re ready.’
Three days later, Colin had found five apartments on the same floor of a building. Two Linap would share each apartment. Until the other three Linap arrived, only three apartments would be used. L7 Linap was sharing with L5 Linap. Benny was sharing with L9 Linap. L1 Linap was sharing with L2 Linap and L3 Linap. Colin, Eugene, and Vulay escorted all seven to the floor they were allocated.
L7 Linap slapped his hands together hard and said, ‘I know him.’ He pointed at L5 Linap.
‘You remember him from before you were frozen?’ asked Vulay.
‘I certainly do,’ said L7 Linap. ‘He’s my son, Duffo.’
‘I’m Duffo,’ said L5 Linap as he thumped his chest.
‘That’s a great development,’ said Vulay as she patted L5 Linap on the arm.
Eugene’s eyes darted backwards and forwards between L7 Linap and L5 Linap.
‘I’ve had all the furniture you selected placed in your new homes, friends,’ said Colin as he opened the door to the first apartment. ‘I’ve placed a catalogue on the kitchen counter. It has a few other nice things you can choose to further decorate your new homes.’
‘We need to speak to Orcilla as soon as possible,’ Vulay whispered into Eugene’s ear after the Linap had followed Colin into the apartment.
After the Linap had settled into their apartments, Vulay and Eugene headed over to meet with Orcilla.
Orcilla was in her office with Yassmay. They had been talking about their options about X. Yassmay had agreed to collect more blood from him. Yassmay exited the office as both Vulay and Eugene entered.
‘We have a problem,’ said Vulay. ‘L7 is claiming L5 is his son. We know that’s impossible from the blood tests.’
‘Maybe he has some false memories, or he’s just confused,’ said Orcilla as she frowned.
‘The most obvious reason is that he’s lying,’ said Vulay. ‘He’s trying to infiltrate us. Maybe to make it easier for the other Linap to come and attack us.’
‘That’s not a conclusion I want to jump to right now,’ replied Orcilla. ‘Our interactions with them have been positive. I want them to remain that way.
‘We need to keep a close eye on them,’ said Eugene. ‘They’re both weird and suspicious.’
‘How about we discreetly keep an eye on them?’ suggested Orcilla. ‘There is no need for confrontation.’
‘Keeping an eye on them was easy when we had them staying at the laboratory,’ said Vulay, sounding annoyed. ‘Hence, why they wanted out of here.’
Sapien Loop: End of an Era
Sapien Loop: Frozen in Time is the sequel to the book Sapien Loop: End of an Era. Sapien Loop: End of an Era is available on Amazon, in collection series on my @spectrumecons account, and in individual chapters in my @captainhive account.
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