THEY WERE CLOSER THAN they had been, ever before. Holding her he felt like a different man. His arms felt strong, gently wrapped around her bare shoulders. He pulled her head to him. The scent of her hair was just like Honey. It almost choked him, wondering how that could be.

He could tell that it wasn’t her. And yet it really was. He would tell her. It would make her happy that he noticed. But not yet.

First he sank into the moment and enjoyed the afterglow of the hot, wild, thrashing race of tumbling ecstasy they’d just run. She lit up feelings in him that were immense. In those moments he felt ready to do anything.

Whatever lay ahead, for the first time since he arrived he felt ready. Whatever it took, he could do it.

~~

Honey sat on the bed. She was able to get to Hopes’ using connections in the fleshbot. Joel shivered, trying to shake off the cold implications of Honey and her body being separate. Separated. He knew that something similar awaited him the next morning.

At the screen, he tunneled through the infranet to the entrance to Hopes.’ The clownface was accompanied by an athletic looking girl wearing big boots, a heavy belt, a tee-shirt and tight shorts.

The clown said, “We are stardust.”

Wearily, Joel said, “We are golden.”

Honey snickered.

The clown told him, “We don’t need the passphrases now. Your companion is respected and she vouches for you.” the girl nodded and made a small grunt that could have been agreement. The clown grinned as he said, “I couldn’t resist making you do that one, though.”

The clown led and Joel followed him. They passed through a dark tunnel and emerged at the drawbridge over a moat. At the end was the stone arch and raised iron grille of a medieval castle. They crossed the moat toward the huge stone gateway. Crows squawked and dived at them. The clown raised a hand and the crows halted, fixed and frozen in mid air. “We don’t have time for any of that now.”

Joel followed the clown into the castle grounds. Looking around warily, jumping from one crouch to another, the girl followed behind Joel. Inside the castle, the clown swung open a heavy wooden door and led them into a high golden chamber. At the center, a mist of water vapor rose from the surface a huge square bath.

He closed the door behind them. When the door was shut, Honey rose from beneath the water. She walked up a set of steps. She stepped out of the water, in a filmy turquoise muslin wrap.

~~

With the clown and the athletic girl, Joel and Honey sat by the steaming bath in the high room. It felt ceremonial Joel was torn between being impressed at the beautiful chamber and feeling like it was all a bit of hocus-pocus. A voodoo sideshow. Not for the first time, he thought the people here with their global conspiracy theories weren’t so different from the New Dawn believers. Honey said,

“Joel, thank you for coming here. It means a lot to me.” She spoke with urgency. He was uncomfortably aware that their time would be short and pressured. He wished it could just be the two of them.

“I want to talk to you, Honey.” he said, “Not to these… avatars or whatever they are.”

Athlete girl said, “Joel, Honey has made a very big sacrifice.”

“Is that how you see it, Honey? That you’ve ‘made a really big sacrifice’?” he looked hard at her. He worried about how much she bought into what he thought of as the geeks conspiracy bubble. “I don’t think it is. That’s maybe how it’s been described to you. But you didn’t choose to be ‘making a sacrifice.’ You were abducted and now you’re here.”

“That’s true, Joel. But I have paid a price. And I’d like to get something back for it.” Her head cocked to one side, “I want to take the opportunity that it offers. I’m near to the heart of something now, something that I,” she looked at the other two, “That we, our community in Hopes’ have talked about for a long time. Now I may be able to see whether what we believe is true. And if there’s anything we can do to make things better.” She took his hand. “But it doesn’t have to be something for you to have to fix, Joel. I can find a way to deal with it myself.”

“Honey, I…”

“Wait. Please. Joel, you’re going to have incredible access to the Gabriel. An inside track, in fact. You’ll be able to see what he’s doing. I can’t tell you how important this is.”

Athlete girl and the clown both leaned closer, nodding agreement.

Joel held her hand. “It’s important to you, Honey. I can see that it is. But I don’t even understand what your conspiracies are all supposed to mean. I’m not a part of it.”

“No, Joel. Nobody could make the choice for you. And I wouldn’t put any pressure on you to choose. Maybe there’s even a way that you can escape from the Gabriel. If you could, I wouldn’t blame you for taking the chance.” She looked into his face. “But Joel, if you would stay and work with him, we would have the best chance at freeing the world from the grip of the machine intelligences that we ever had."

“You really think he’s that important?”

She nodded. Athlete girl and the clown did, too.

“And what is it, can you tell me in little words, what is it that the machine intelligences do that you want to stop? They were what brought us back after the reset, weren’t they? They run the world for us and keep us alive, don’t they?”

The athletic girl’s voice was strong and clear. “Joel, the machine intelligences caused the reset. They engineered the devastation that led up to it. They’re responsible for the endless states of war that exist. And the outbreaks of ‘terrorism,’ we’re sure of it. It’s nothing more than a way to keep everyone afraid and in their power.”

Joel had heard that stuff before. She went on, “And now, Joel, now they keep us just to produce the juice that they run on.” her eyes darkened, “And they keep exactly the number of us that it takes.”

“Joel, I can see that you’re skeptical,” Honey squeezed his hand, “And that’s you. I understand, I really do. Cassandra can send you flash data that you’ll be able to keep safe. You can read about what we’re telling you. Make up your own mind.” She squeezed again. “Please. Just read a little and think about it.”

“Okay, Honey. Of course I will.” After a moment he said, “I can something I could do. A way that I might be able to help.”

The clown said, “You two have things to talk about, I know.” Joel hated the clown ‘knowing’ anything about Honey. Or about himself.

Cassandra and the clown both waved as their avatars sparkled and dissolved.

Honey leaned toward him. “Will you help?”

“I want to read some before I’m committed. You know I’m really torn now, Honey. I really want to help you, and at the same time, you know that I really believe a lot of this stuff is paranoid, superstitious nonsense.”

She nodded. Quietly he asked her, “How did he get you into the… the body…”

“Into the fleshbot?” her smile was tired, like a rough storm had passed. “You have to admit, there are some fun aspects to it.”

He blinked.

“She’s a lot more athletic than I ever was.”

He wanted to know what had happened to Aisha, too. But he couldn’t see away to ask. Not right now.

“But how did it work?”

“He made me put on a data crown. A really slick one. I thought of you, Joel. You’d have loved that. And he gave me instructions to relax. You know, deep breathing, clearing the mind, all that.” Her face was blank as she recalled. “Then there was a sound, like a white noise, with a rumble underneath it. And then, after a minute or two, he put a picture of a flower into my mind. I’ve tried to remember what he said to put it there, but I can’t. I just… can’t.” her eyes narrowed. “He told me to move into the middle of the flower. As I did, it opened its petals.” She was quiet for a moment with a painful recollection. “After I slipped out I was free floating in the datasphere.”

"He extracted me, Joel. Like a tooth.” Her face clouded. She was quiet for a moment. He reached out to her but she closed her eyes and made a tiny shake of her head. “I never thought before how much it might hurt the tooth.” She paused and swallowed. “I felt both sensations, Joel. The pain like the gum has when a a part of it was ripped away grip and at the same time, the shock of being dragged out of the socket. A part of itt felt liberating and kind of wonderful. Does that make any sense?”

He made a tiny nod. He didn’t want to say anything to break her flow.

She said, “Maybe it was an effect like an anesthetic. I don’t know.” Her eyes searched his, “Joel, it felt like I was really free. A bit like I do now.” her face darkened. “But there’s another part. He has something, Somehow I think it may be in the vibration of that sound. He can call me back at any time. He showed me, Joel.” Her eyes darkened. “It’s like he has me on a leash somehow.”

“Do you know…” he couldn’t finish the sentence. But she did.

“Where my real body is?”

He almost choked, seeing the virtual Honey so completely like the real Honey, and thinking at the same time what might have happened to the real Honey. “I think I know, Joel. But I don’t want to think about it.” She frowned. “I think you know, too. But if you do, please, let’s not talk about it. Not now.”

“Okay.” He blinked and he tried to smile but without much success. He took her hand. That felt good and her face lightened. “If I can do anything to help your group of conspiracy nuts, I have an idea how. I need to get back and do something IRL.”

She smiled and nodded.

“I’m not promising,” he told her. They both knew, he totally was.

~~

Joel followed the cable from the back of the screen and found the processor boards fixed to the underside of the desk. He stayed up most of the rest of the night tinkering with chips he pulled from the board.

Before he set out in the morning, he taped the awkward kludge of components together onto the back of his neck, at the base of his skull.