Turina

It was a Friday night. Turina and Veen enjoyed a good meal together, and then they watched a nice movie in their home theater. Although they were invited to attend a party downstairs on the negative 11th floor, they had declined the offer quietly. They had only wanted to spend quality time with each other. By 11 pm they’d finished the movie and gone to the bedroom.

When Turina finished dressing for bed, Veen said, “Lumin 1.7 B”. The bedroom light became soft blue, and the air became fragrant. The four walls and domed ceiling became velvet black, and stars began to shine there. Then, Veen and Turina had their moments of joy and pleasure.

When Veen fell asleep, Turina got up and tiptoed to her study to get some work done. There was one knot to be untangled in order to solve the great Unification problem. She busied herself with calculations for a few hours. But her calculations were abruptly halted as a stream of events occurred.

Veen had only pretended to be asleep. He heard someone walking towards the front door. It was Turina.

He leaped out of bed and ran toward her. He caught her by the arm and almost shouted, “Where are you going?”

“Someone has just knocked at the door. I’m going to open it.” Turina told him with a soft voice, a voice mixed with fear and curiosity.

Veen shouted, “I’ve told you many times that no one has knocked at that door. It’s just your imagination, only an illusion. There is nothing outside.”

Turina whispered, “I heard it, I swear. Veen, please let me open the door.”

Veen pulled Turina back to their bedroom, and forced her to lie down. He gave her an injection of Hp19, a newly developed, highly potent sedative.

She was sobbing. She said, “Veen, why do you always stop me? What is the mystery behind it? One day… one day…. I will …. I will open the door… will escape ….. ”. Her words melted away as she fell asleep.

Veen walked to the drawing room. He pressed the tip of his finger to the middle of his forehead and said, "Hello Central Data Station 9, this is Veen, R22. Do you receive me?”

A tiny tetrahedron of bright blue light appeared before him, a sign that communication with CDS9 had been established.

Veen said, “Subject 17 heard a knock again. She was going to open the door. I pulled her back and gave her an injection of Hp19."

CDS9 replied, “Excellent. Now, you must return to the station. An updated version, Veen R23 will be sent to Subject 17 to replace you.”

Veen pressed the corner of his right eye with his index finger. A bright green tunnel appeared before him, a direct path linked to the station. He stepped inside. The tunnel swallowed him and he vanished from the apartment. He reached the station almost instantly.

Veen knew all his memory cubes would be collected and preserved, and then his body would be dismantled. The usefulness of R22 was over. His successor would take care of the future. R23 would become the new consort of Turina, or Subject 17, according to CDS9.

Robots should not feel emotions, but Veen was experiencing a strange sorrow. Perhaps it was contamination from the human, Turina, who’d always taken Veen to be a nice, kind, caring, loving human.

Veen also felt another strange emotion which he didn’t recognize. It was a mixture of anger and pity, because he could never let Turina know that there were only 100 living humans on the planet, and all of them were subjects for a great experiment conducted by Central Data Stations. All the other human-like beings were humanoid robots.

2.

Turina awoke after a long sleep. As she opened her eyes, she saw Veen’s smiling face. He’d been lying there watching over her, waiting for her to wake up.

Veen greeted her, “Good morning, Turina. I’ve already made your breakfast. Please come to the table as soon as you’re ready.”

Turina yawned and said “Thank you, Veen. I’ll be there in a minute. ” Then she left her bed, and walked to the washroom.

While in the shower, she sang softly. That was the only time of the day she allowed herself to be lost in her sweet childhood memories.

She had lived with her parents and two siblings. Her siblings were twins, a boy and a girl, and they were three years younger than Turina. Their names were Juran and Adira. Turina spent the best days of her life with them. But that happy and memorable time only lasted nine years.

She was admitted to a residential school when she was nine. One autumn afternoon, when all the trees around their home were covered with fall colors, and the colder and shorter days were coming, she had to say her sorrowful goodbye.

Leaving her parents, brother, and sister behind, she had gone to a city far away from home. The school authority arranged for the transportation. A big, white vehicle was waiting for her. She still could recall that afternoon, she was waving her hand from the window of the big car as her parents and little brother and sister were all waving from their front door. Afternoon Sun was shining upon them. Wind was blowing the red, orange, yellow, and brown leaves that had fallen, forming a whirlwind under the shaded trees.

That was the last time she saw them. She could never go home to visit them. None of them could come to see her at school. Now, two decades after her departure from her family, Turina sometimes doubted the reality of her childhood memories. Did they really happen? Were those people real? Her mother and father, her brother and sister, their sweet home on a hillside surrounded by towering giant trees---were those real or just figments of her imagination?

At her residential school, she had to live with other students under the supervision of teachers. During every vacation, teachers would take groups of students on educational excursions. They visited many famous places together. But none of the students were allowed to visit their families.

One time, Turina asked her teacher if she could go to see her family just for a few days. Her teacher smiled sympathetically and said, “No, my dear, that is not possible. I am really sorry. In seven years, you’ll graduate from this school, and we’ll recommend you be admitted to college. You'll be in college four years before you graduate and are eligible for work. Only then, when you are working and living in your own apartment, will you be free to visit your family. But, I think, everything will be very different by then.”

So, Turina adjusted to her life at school with the other students just like her who were not allowed to see their families. Turina was a little surprised to see that her best friend, Miara, had almost no memory of her childhood. She had been in the school’s residence hall since she was five years old.

One day Turina asked her, “Miara, don’t you remember anything about your childhood days? Anything, however small it was, can you remember?”

Miara said, “Nothing. I guess I was too young to remember anything. All my memories are associated with this school, these residence halls, these teachers, these friends, only these. This is my world. I don’t remember my parents or any brother or sister. I asked my teacher, and she said that my parents died long ago and I was their only child. I wanted to see their photos, but there was none. ” There was a subtle touch of sorrow in her voice which prevented Turina from ever mentioning Miara’s family again.

After graduating from college, Turina searched for and found the address of her parents. She began working as a Research Associate at The Center for Mathematical Research. She was single and independent with a career and a nice apartment. It was the time before she met Veen.

After locating her childhood address, she went there to visit her family. But, she found nothing resembling the house and surroundings which she remembered. She was prepared to accept that changes had occurred during the long period of her absence, but she expected at least some fragments of her past memories to still exist there.

But nothing resembling the memories of her childhood home remained. She saw only large multistoried buildings, gardens, parks, lakes and roads --- all well-ordered, geometrically perfect structures.

She found no trace of her parents, brother or sister. They had never lived at the address listed in the database. What had happened to them?

All that remained of Turina’s parents and siblings was her misty memory. She recalled the handsome young man who was her father, and the beautiful young woman who was her mother, and the sweet little boy named Juran, and the sweet little girl named Adira, her brother and sister. All of them had lived happily in a little house surrounded by a huge garden full of towering oaks, maples, pines, magnolias, and myriad other trees. Still, they are living there safely, inside the memory of Turina, she thought. They’ll never grow old or die as long as Turina can recall them.

Returning from her unsuccessful journey to find her childhood home, Turina concentrated on her work at The Center for Mathematical Research. She first met Veen at a math conference about six months after her return from that trip.

Turina immediately fell for Veen. It was such a strange and strong attraction that she feared she was losing control of her mind. She quickly recovered her senses, and they began living together. Their lives were running smoothly until Turina began to hear strange knocks at their apartment’s front door.

3.

At the breakfast table, Veen was very cheerful, more cheerful than usual. He was smiling, even singing a song while putting the butter on his toast.

As soon as Turina was seated, Veen gently pushed a full breakfast plate and a cup of coffee towards her. He had prepared toast, a bowl of grits, thin slices of banana mixed with red and green grapes, and a spoonful of strawberry jelly. Perfect.

She thanked Veen and began to eat. Usually she didn’t think much about the taste of food, but today she was really enjoying her breakfast. She felt a strange sensation, the feeling that something new was going to happen today.

After breakfast, Turina collected her office bag, kissed Veen goodbye, and entered the elevator to reach her office on the positive 31st floor. The Center for Mathematical Research had several offices in her building.

Veen was ready to go to his office located in another building. Transportation required the use of a hyper tunnel, just as his earlier version, R22, had used to reach the Central Data Station.

Before leaving, Veen checked the apartment alarm system. Then he tapped a switch and the hyper tunnel appeared. He stepped inside and disappeared.

At her office worktable, Turina began her workday. She continued with the calculations she was working on the previous night. She felt that there was one last knot to untangle to reach great Unification.

But the knot was far more difficult than she thought. As she was going through the steps of her work, new knots were popping up along the way.

After two hours of continuous work, Turina needed a break. She closed her notebook and went to coffee room. She brought a cup of coffee and a cookie back to her office.

Reclining in her chair, she was drinking her coffee slowly. Her mind was still hovering over the labyrinth of that difficult mathematical problem.

Suddenly her communication device came to life with a reddish brown signal. She was so preoccupied that at first she didn’t notice it. After repeating several times, the device was able to get her attention. As soon as she saw the color of the signal, she realized someone was trying to contact her immediately. She pressed the button to project the 3D image of the caller.

It was a big surprise! A 3D image of Miara appeared before her. Miara, her friend and classmate during her school years was there. The last time she saw her was when they graduated from high school. That was ten years ago.

She was really pleased to see Miara. Miara was joyful, too. After exchanging greetings, Miara went straight to the purpose for the contact. She said, “Turina, I need to meet you in person. I am in your city now. What will be a good time to meet you? I can come to your office if you agree.”

Turina said, “Sure. You can come now if you want. I’m taking a short break from my work now.”

Miara agreed and turned off the communication device. Her 3D image vanished. Turina breathed a sigh of relief. It was a soothing sensation to see someone from the past, someone who really exists, someone who is more than a memory which could be either real or imaginary.

Miara arrived after a few minutes. Turina was truly joyful when Miara gave her a warm hug. So, Miara, her childhood friend, really existed and still exists. It was as if she found one fragment of her life which she thought was lost forever.

Miara said, “Let’s go somewhere else. We have so many things to talk about. How many years has it been, Turina?”

Turina replied softly, “Ten years.”

Miara laughed and said, “Ten years! Can you imagine? As if it was yesterday only. But now we have so many stories to tell each other.”

Turina said, “Let’s go to the roof garden. It’s very nice there, you’ll like it.”

The rooftop garden was on the roof, and it looked like an open garden. But it was covered by a transparent dome. To inexperienced eyes, the garden was open to the sky.

The two of them walked slowly through the flowering trees. When they reached a blooming lilac bush, Miara turned on a device implanted in her earring. It created an illusional cavity which cloaked the two of them. Surveillance cameras and audio recorders would detect a fake image of them along with a sweet song sung by one of them. Miara was a technologist, an expert in her field for engineering various devices and recorders.

Then they sat down under the lilac bush. The branches were full of fragrant, dark purple flowers which emitted a pleasant aroma. Miara smiled and said, “I wanted to speak with you in private. Since there is no place where we can have privacy, I had to make my own privacy device. But it is temporary. At most we have about an hour or so, but that is enough. Turina, I came to tell you that we are all prisoners. This world we live in is actually artificial, it is a mechanical trap created for us. The real world is out there, and we cannot access it. But I think there are some doors through which we can escape from this labyrinth.”

Miara smiled a melancholy smile. Then she continued, “Five years ago, I began engineering a machine to locate those doors. But I was prevented from working on my device. All my support staff and resources were taken away. I was advised not to proceed with that project. Officially, I began working on another project while I continued my door location project in secret. I’ve had to work very slowly because of heavily restricted resources. Right now, my machine is only half finished. I realized I need help from a mathematician. Now, that was a real problem. I couldn’t confide to anyone about my secret work.”

Turina was listening with her full concentration. When Miara stopped, and was silent for couple of minutes, Turina couldn’t feign patience. She asked, “Then? What happened then? Did they catch you?”

Miara said, “No. A few weeks ago, I had a dream. I saw you in that dream.”

Turina was taken aback. All she could say was, “A dream? You saw me in your dream?”

Miara said, “Yes. I saw you near a high wall. Your eyes were covered with a blindfold. Your hands were tied behind you. You were walking as if in a trance. At some point of my dream you began to scream, ‘there must be a door, must be a door.’ I woke up with a chill. Then I started to search for you. Database provided information about you, your current work, location, etc. Then I planned to come and visit you. All had to be shrouded carefully. So, I had to get an invitation to attend a conference in your city, and then I had to find a break between the sessions so I could come here to see you.” She smiled when she finished.

Turina’s eyes were filled with tears of joy. She said, “I can’t say how pleased I am. Seeing you is like getting back a part of my life which I thought was lost forever. Miara, after graduation, I got a job and a flat of my own. I thought I’d gotten my freedom, so I went to find my childhood home. But do you know what I found there?” She paused.

Miara asked, “What did you find?”

Turina sighed. Then said, “Nothing. I found nothing. There was no trace of that house and the surroundings. There was no trace of my parents or my siblings. Later, when I came back empty handed, I made an appointment with my psychiatrist. He said that they never existed, that all were in my implanted memory. It broke my heart. I am still living with that pain. But today, Miara, when I saw you, got your warm hug, looked in your eyes, some of that pain went away. At least you are real, you are not an implanted memory.” She stopped and smiled.

Miara again hugged her. Then said, “Of course I’m real. As real as you. But listen Turina, we have some serious work to do. I have my machine with me, but it is not functional yet. I need your help to solve some mathematical barriers to determine the key code to awake the machine. I have written the problems here on a paper.” She paused and removed a folded paper from her pocket.

She handed it to Turina and said, “When you go back to your office, will you please work on these problems? Be careful, do not use anything connected to the network, use only pencil and paper and a small hand-held calculator. Get information from the printed books if you need to. Never use anything which is linked to the network.”

Turina slipped the paper into her pocket and said, “Let’s go to my office.”

Miara said, “I’ll need to return to the conference in half an hour. I’ll be giving a talk in the afternoon session. It should conclude about 3:30 pm. I’ll come back to your office around 4 pm. But don’t wait for me. In the next few hours, you can make significant progress. We don’t have much time. We need the solution as soon as possible; otherwise we’ll be caught. Do you understand? If, by any chance, I am not able to come back later, promise me you’ll continue working on this.”

Turina was silent. She nodded. She understood. Miara turned off the device in her earring, and the illusion smoothly dissolved. They walked to Turina’s office, side by side, talking about their school days and singing lightly.

Inside Turina’s office, both sat down and continued their talk for a little while. Then Miara got up to leave. Before leaving, she handed Turina a small wooden box as a gift.

There was one small ring taped on the gift box. Miara checked again to make sure that the secret device hidden in the ring, was working. The box was serving as a cover for her machine. Surveillance cameras couldn’t detect it since it was inside an electromagnetic cavity. The machine was small, a little diamond shaped crystal, which fit perfectly inside the box.

Miara used a personal sign language (which Turina also knew from her school days) to inform her about the machine. Then she said goodbye and left for the conference.

It was the last time Turina saw her.

4.

Turina did not wait a minute to start her work. As soon as Miara left, she began to work on the problems written on the paper Miara had given her.

At some point, her fingers began trembling in excitement because her own math quest was so similar! Some of those difficult obstacles she’d been facing in her own calculations were now giving way. Those knots were untangling. She was thrilled.

A nice tune from her old fashioned wall clock announced that it was 4 pm. Turina took and break from her work and waited for Miara.

But Miara didn’t come. Turina waited till 5 pm. while continuing her work. Then she decided to search the network.

After a little searching, she read about the tragedy. After finishing her presentation, Miara had collapsed. She was immediately taken to a clinic where she was declared dead. It was a sudden heart attack.

Turina didn’t believe what the news network was saying. She suspected that somehow Miara was detected by the surveillance network, and they smoothly and efficiently had eliminated her. From that moment, Turina expected a sudden attack on herself too. But she didn’t care. Strangely, she became fearless.

Those mathematical calculations totally filled her mind. They even wiped out the feeling of loss of her friend.

She continued to solve problem after problem until she found the final solution. It was a long sequence of numbers. According to Miara, uttering those numbers to the machine would open up a door to reality.

With the number sequence written on a piece of paper and secure in her pocket, Turina stood up. The wall clock began to chime its tune. It was 7 pm.

She walked to the window. Moving the curtain aside a little, she looked out and saw numerous high rise buildings in the foreground and a vibrant red horizon. Sunset had occurred only a few minutes earlier. She sighed. All that she saw might only be simulations, holograms or some other type of illusion.

At that moment, Veen came to her mind. By now he might be at home, preparing their dinner, she thought. Usually she returned home from work around 7:30 pm; he returned earlier, about 6 or 6:30 pm.

She turned on the link to contact Veen. Yes, Veen was already home. Veen’s 3D image appeared in front of Turina. He smiled and said, “Turina, are you still at your office? Will you come home late tonight? I’ve already prepared our dinner.”

Turina smiled and said softly, “I’ll be late tonight. I’m so sorry. Please don’t wait for me. Eat your dinner and put my food in a hot box. I’ll be home at around 9:30 pm or 10 pm. I’ll see you then. Take care, bye.” She turned off the link, and Veen’s image dissolved into thin air.

Turina felt a strange sorrow in her heart. Tears welled up to fill her eyes and began to roll down her cheeks. She knew she’d never see Veen again.

5.

Turning off the switch hidden in the ring, Turina opened the gift box. Then, slowly and deliberately she began to read the number sequence. Numerous lights of different colors began to shine and dance inside the crystal. Miara’s machine was waking up.

As soon as Turina finished saying the number sequence, a door appeared near the corner of the room. The door was opening by itself.

Holding the gift box in her right hand, Turina walked to the door. She paused for just one second at the door and then walked through it. From the world of illusions, she walked right into reality.

Outside, she walked a few steps, stopped, and took a deep breath. Then she looked around. She was surrounded by a barren land, sandy, and silent. It was dusk. Thin, liquid darkness was spreading over her from horizon to horizon.

Slowly Turina looked up. Above her head, there was wonderful night sky slowly being filled with numerous stars. Among those stars was the glorious Milky Way, like a thin white veil floating among the stars.

Turning her head from sky to the land, she saw a hill far away near the horizon. She began to walk towards that hill. She felt a nice breeze coming from the other horizon. Then she saw a flock of birds flying towards the hill. She kept walking.

On the other side of the door, the surveillance network informed the Central Data Station about the disappearance of Subject 17. Security network required a few seconds to awaken. Then the rescue operation began. Five security robots were sent to capture and return Subject 17.

When they detected that she was walking towards the hill, they began to run after her. Suddenly, there was a strange and unusual flash of light from the sky. The flash stopped them all. Slowly, one by one, the robots fell down and went to sleep.

Turina also saw that light descending toward the ground. But it didn’t stop her. As she watched, she began to see it clearly. It was a shining sphere.

The shining sphere stopped right before her, hovering only a few inches above the ground. Then, like gigantic petals of a huge flower, its eleven doors opened up. Turina entered through the door closest to her.

All the doors closed simultaneously, slowly. Then the shining sphere sped off. After a few seconds, it reached the cold darkness of deep space. Then it disappeared from our three dimensional space as it jumped into a higher dimensional reality.

Turina’s great journey through reality began.

*****