Ride The Lightning
Part 62: Gretchen Reveals Her True Self
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I stared at her slack jawed. I stammered. ”Who are those other girls? "
“We’re all Gretchen too!” they chorused. They appeared all around me…
Gretchen said “The SpirtCrystal is a Neurological User Interface. When it bonds to a Sapient “user” it induces a singular Dissociative Identity Disorder. That is,it causes a split personality and thus creates an Alter Ego. That would be me.”
“If the user is not yet sapient, such as a child, or sub-sapient, such as a cat or an owl the SpirtCrystal induces sapience. That’s why you have me but BubbaCat and MaverickOwl just got smarter. LOTS smarter as you will see in good time.” she told him.
“Oh” I said. “So...does that explain the dreams?”
Gretchen answered “The unpleasant dreaming was due to leakage during the creation of the Alter-Ego. The boundaries hadn’t been stabilized at that time. You ‘overheard’ some of my former hosts’ memories. I have full access to the memories of whatever they experienced while they were wearing the SpirtCrystal.”
“Did Bubba and Maverick get dreams too?“ I wondered
“Nope. They merely woke up. Their ability to think increased exponentially. They now perceive and understand things that they didn’t before. For example, they now have language.” She explained.
“Ok..that explains a lot” I replied “So tell me. Where did the SpirtCrystal come from?”
“It came from another planet, another star system, and possibly another Universe” Gretchen admitted.
“So you’re a little green man?” I teased
“Nope...I’m your AlterEgo. I’m as human as you are. Chris SomerKorn wore the SoulStone before you did. Although he didn’t have time to develop an Alter-Ego I do retain all his memories of what happened between the time he donned the SpiritCrystal and when he died.”
“Before that I have an entire lifetime of memories as a cat-girl.” Gretchen said. “A short lifetime. She didn’t live long and much of that life was as a full body cyborg. The poor girl died a virgin.”
“Like the kittens in the dream I just woke up from?” I wondered.
“Yup...sexy little kitten wasn’t she?” Gretchen asked.
“What was her name?” I asked in return.
(*&(%#@%^&zzzztsztx) “You couldn’t pronounce that. Perhaps we should just refer to her as Kitten. Like I said, she wasn’t very old when she died.” Gretchen said.
“How did she die?” I asked.
“She died alone. She was in a derelict spaceship, the one who’s escape pod, crashed in AntArctica.” Gretchen said with great sorrow.
“Did she die when it crashed?” I asked.
“Nope...she died long before that. She died in space. I’m not sure exactly how she died. Her memories after her spaceship was disabled are unpleasant and unclear. She was rather insane at the time. I don’t like to access those memories. I’d erase them if I could.” Gretchen was almost sobbing.
“Don’t think about them then,” I soothed her “think about something else. How about Chris? What happened to Chris. I know how he died so don’t think about that. Just tell me how he managed to be wearing the SpirtCrystal from an Alien Kitten around his neck. Can you do that?”
“Chris deceived you. He was more than he seemed. He wasn’t a truck driver.” Gretchen wasn’t quite so sad. “He wasn’t JUST a truck driver. He was also a trillionaire. His Alter Ego hadn’t fully formed yet but for a time the SpirtCrystal was monitoring his every thought, just as I am with you.”
“ Chris was the commander of the expedition that had arrived at the Crash Site before any of the others. His expedition was first because of superior logistics, technology and forethought. They crossed the ocean from north to south by using a WIG. No one expected that. It took them as close as possible to the crash site then dropped snow-tanks. The snow tanks, The Bloody Mary and the Harvey Wall Banger, got as close as they could before they released Ice-Spiders. Ice-Spiders are Tele-operated robots configured to operate in extreme cold conditions, colder than dry ice.” She explained.
“The spiders hastily salvaged the wreck, loaded it onto the Bloody Mary and then hauled ass, unseen. Harvey WallBanger drew the pursuit away from the Bloody Mary as she hid in a snowdrift. After the coast was clear the Bloody Mary made her way to Patagonia. Chris was only a day away from the Bifrost bridge. Once he got on the bridge he would be pretty much home free.” She said.
“He didn’t make it. He was at TruckStop when it was attacked. A group of hired mercenaries, pretending to be islamic jihadists, attempted to take the cargo by force. Mostly because of you the attempt was unsuccessful, although the Chris was killed. “ She finished.
“I get it” I said “Unknown to anyone remaining alive Chris had taken a souvenir, the SpiritCrystal, from the wreckage and placed it in his Thumbrain. ”
“Yup” Gretchen said. “You’re pretty smart for a white boy.”
“I’m not white “ I reminded her.
“Exactly my point” She replied.
“So where am I now? This can’t be real.” I told her.
“Bright boy like I said. This IS a dream. You are Lucid Dreaming” She said. “Be happy you are dreaming. Real life isn’t so pleasant.”
“What happened to Gretchen and the Kids?” I asked. “er..I mean. You’re Gretchen I get that. I meant what happened to the Truck and the kids?”
Gretchen said “ There was nothing that Bubba and Maverick could do to save you. I took it upon myself to give them instructions. You were unconscious, I was not.”
“The windows in the truck were rolled down, both the drivers side and the passenger side. Maverick flew in one side of the truck, plucked the nested Thumbrains from their slot with his foot, barely slowing down in the process. In a manner of speaking he saved your ASS.” She smiled “ He flew out the other window, over the wall, after Bubba”
“At my command and over his protests Bubba had jumped high into the air, higher than any un-engineered cat could, and cleared the wall surrounding this place. He lit out like his tail was on fire for the hills.” She said with pride. “That cat can RUN.”
“The two of them are hiding in the hills, killing and eating fat deer, growing larger and stronger, and biding their time. I’m keeping in touch with them by bone-phone using insect sized radio relay drones to boost the range.” she told him.
“What now?” he asked.
“I’ve got a plan” she said but wouldn’t tell him anything else.
To Be Continued
The Next Episode is
Part 63: Torture
The Previous episode was
Part 61: WOMEN!
the first episode was
Part 1 : Winter Storm
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Great post @everittdmickey thanks for sharing