Chapter 6

They sat together on the edge of the bed. Outside, rain tapped lightly on the windowpane.

They had been discussing the second dose of Amrita. Most of the last two weeks had been spent with Charles and Vivian, learning more about the history, the Elysian-Dacian rivalry, the Dacian tactics and the counter-measures, the need for secrecy, the Code. But their conversation kept coming back to the next step they were about to take —its irreversible nature — and the step that followed.

“Three more days,” Julia said. “I’m feeling very nervous all of a sudden.”

“I know. It’s the point of no return.”

“Do you really think you can do it?”

“You mean Stage Two?”

Julia nodded.

Mark thought for a moment and then said: “I’ll have to. I don’t want to do it. But I think I can. How are you feeling about it?”

“Well ... we both have to. That’s the only reason I think I can. Unless we absolutely had to, I don’t think I could. It’s kind of like eating one of your dead crew members when you’re starving on the lifeboat.”

Mark laughed. “Yeah, that describes it well.”

“The real question in my mind is whether we should take the step that makes the next one no longer a choice.”

Mark nodded. “Right, it’s the critical one.”

“There’s no turning back after it,” Julia said.

Mark nodded again.

The conversation went on in this vein for a while, with Julia circling around the topic she obviously wanted to address. Finally, she came out with it:

“Mark, I’m really wondering whether we should go through with this.”

“You mean the next step.”

“I mean any of it.”

“What?” said Mark. “I thought we’d already agreed we would.”

“Well, I ... just. It’s scary. It’s ... I don’t know. I keep thinking ‘how well do we really know these people?’ Could it be some sort of ... scam or something? We don’t have any independent proof of anything they’ve told us. And they want us to have sex with our parents. I mean, we’re taking this all on faith! We’re doing things we never ever dreamed of doing — just based on what two people we barely know are telling us!”

Mark took her hand, fingers intertwining with hers.

“Julia, we’ve seen, with our own eyes, how they can do all of the things they told us they can do — the sex things, the physical strength and speed, the amazingly fast reading and complete comprehension, all of that. Everything they told us about, we’ve seen. They are what they said they are.”

“True, but we’re taking everything else on faith, about the process and the Code and the Dacians and all that. And we’re assuming we’ll be just like them, but what if we’re not?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we’re assuming the process always works perfectly. What if it doesn’t?”

“I’m not following you,” Mark said.

“I mean what if it doesn’t work and we change into something else, or get sick. Or die.”

“From what they’ve told us, it always works. And it always has the same result.”

“We’re taking that on faith, too.”

“I know,” Mark said, his thumb tracing a circle on her palm. “It’s true, there’s a lot we don’t have independent verification of. But that’s kind of the nature of this. They told us why: they can’t have things written down, a record of the history and the method and names and dates. That all makes sense. And the proof is in the pudding: we know they’re different. And, again, we’ve seen it; we’ve felt it: orgasms just from one light touch. Cervical penetration. The intellect. The physical strength. Vivian’s much stronger than me, for example. All of that.”

“But what if all that’s true,” said Julia, “but the other stuff isn’t? They’ve already erased our memory once. Why can’t they do it again? I mean, what if they’re some sort of perverted cult that lures people into having sex with their parents, and they just made all the other stuff up to lure people in?”

Mark laughed.

“I don’t think they’d go to all these lengths for that. And anyway — how? How could they give themselves these superhuman traits? And why? They won’t even be there! Honey, Charles and Julia aren’t scammers. They’re serious people. And they objectively have powers ... abilities that we previously thought weren’t possible. I get that you have concerns — I do, too. But I think this is entirely genuine. I think what they’ve told us is true, hard as it was to believe it at first.”

“Well shouldn’t we ask them for more proof?”

“What kind of proof?”

“I don’t know, other Elysians?” She shook her head. “I don’t know; just something that’s independent that makes this more ... solid.”

“Babe, if this is a big conspiracy to do something else, they’d just have other people tell us whatever they wanted us to hear. I know it’s challenging, but it makes sense to me, what they’ve told us about keeping everything secret, and no writings and so forth. It adds up. I think we have to trust them.”

“Why?”

“Why do we have to trust them?”

“Yes.”

“Because that’s just the nature of this. It’s the way it is. It’s how anyone becomes an Elysian. There isn’t a big, independent database of verifying information. You have to go on the basis of what they’re telling you. And, of course, on the objective evidence that they are different from humans.”

“I guess what I’m saying, Mark, is that that could all be true. I mean, it is true. We’ve seen it all. But that doesn’t mean everything else is true. We don’t have any proof that we’ll actually become like them.”

“But why would they do it, babe? Why would they reveal themselves and tell us things that weren’t true? What would be the point?”

“I don’t know. But...”

Julia hesitated.

“What?” asked Mark.

“Independent of all that ... why even do it at all? Our lives are fine. We’re happy. We’re safe. Things are great. Why would we take such a huge step into the unknown that could change all that?”

“Well, honey, I think what we’d be doing is making it all better. The intellectual stuff, the physical stuff and, frankly, the sex stuff. I think that’s just going to make everything ten times better!”

“What about the Dacians?”

“What about them?”

“Well, suddenly we become a target.”

“Oh, babe, they’ve told us that’s rare. They’ve told us they’ve never been targeted. I think that was information — I mean, just about the whole Dacian thing — that they felt they had to give us in the interest of full disclosure. It doesn’t strike me that there’s a lot of risk.”

Julia was silent for a long time.

“What are you thinking, babe?”

“That there are just too many unknowns. They’re saying we’ll have to have sex with our parents: you have to have sex with your mother, and I have to have sex with my father, and that we’ll die after we take the second dose of Amrita if we don’t. And even if we do, we’ll die if we don’t do the last thing. It’s just ... unknown and scary. We don’t know for sure what will happen if we do all this. Something could go wrong. We could turn into something ... freakish. And why do this, take this big leap into the unknown if we’re already happy?”

“Honey...”

“I don’t want to do it, Mark.”

“What?!” Mark said, his eyes widening.

“I really don’t, Mark.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I don’t want to do it. You can do it, but I’m not going to.”

“It doesn’t work that way. We can’t — one of us can’t do it and the other not!”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t think they allow that. And besides, this is for both of us, for both of our lives. It doesn’t make sense for just one of us to do it. That would unbalance our relationship.”

“Well, both of us doing it will change our relationship. Mark, I’m happy with the way things are. I love you. We’re together, we’re happy. I ... I just don’t want to do it. But I don’t want to stop you. Why don’t you ask them if it’s possible for just one of us to do it?”

Mark was silent, shaking his head.

“I can’t believe this,” he said.

“Just ask them. Please.”

Mark stood up. “Okay, I will. But I really want you to think long and hard about this regardless of the answer. Don’t just react to what are perfectly legitimate concerns. It’s a process that...”