After Image

She saw Eli, safe and away from their clutches hours after her request. They didn’t let him talk to her for any length of time for fear he would tell her the secret that the CIA didn’t want her to learn. She hoped that she could puzzle it out for herself from the small amount of clues he had been able to tell her before. At the moment, it didn’t seem important. In her situation, she was sure there were plenty of secrets all around her.

Her life over the next month became fairly routine. The day after Eli had been released she woke up to banging at her door. Two guards then proceeded to come in, telling her that she was scheduled for morning exercise. She was allowed to put on some exercise clothing that they had provided and was led to a room with gym equipment.

The first few weeks of this had been absolute torture for Viola. She had never had a routine exercise program in her life and was hopelessly out of shape. Dr. Ludlow was in charge of her physical fitness and he wasn’t gentle. He would push Viola to the point almost of exhaustion before he would let up. She had tried to explain to him numerous times that she had scar tissue in her lung from when she had nearly died at the age of fifteen from pneumonia and pleurisy and so her lung capacity was terrible, and often even caused her to have exercise induced asthma, but he was determined that she could do better. Sometimes she would just lie limply on the ground beside whatever machine she was supposed to be using that day, and no prodding on Dr. Ludlow’s part would make her move. For a doctor, he was pretty resistant to the limitations that a scarred body imposed. If she ever had breath to scream at him when she was in the exercise room, she would have, at the top of her lungs. As it was, she could barely get enough air to breathe without feeling like passing out. She would trundle back to her room with her muscles quivering from lactic acid buildup followed by the indignity as a female guard watched her bathe. Her only solace after that was the fact that she could pick whatever she wanted from her wardrobe to wear.

The day she had Imaged clothes, she had a distinct theme in mind, Steampunk princess trapped in a tower, so instead of pants and shirts, she had an array of skirts, corsets, chemises and Victorian dresses. The first day she had gone completely dramatic and wore an elaborate green dress with a bustle on the back. The upper part of the dress buttoned up like a jacket and slowly tapered to the bustle in the back leaving a cream coloured shorter skirt exposed in the front. She wore this with high green lace up boots that matched the skirt. She even perched a matching green top hat on her hairless head. It had a long cream ribbon tied around it that hung over the back of the hat down her back. She had found her galaxy phone among the piles of books she had Imaged and found the band Evanescence and spent most of the rest of the morning before lunch arrived singing at the top of her lungs. The dark and somewhat angry tone of the music made her feel slightly better.

After lunch, she spent the entirety of the afternoon in the quantum computer room Imaging objects. Each day the objects increased in complexity.

After dinner she was left alone until exercise the next morning and she spent most of her time discreetly trying to develop ambidexterity. She used her left hand as if it was dominant, and tried to hide her complete frustration. It took far more time and effort to explore the use of her left hand than it did just to use her dominant right, but she was persistent in keeping up with it. It was a beacon of hope for her.

The first day of January, things in Viola’s new routine changed slightly. Just passed midnight, while she was lying in bed dreaming she was awoken by a soft voice calling out. She woke up, looked towards the door which was closed and flicked on the bedside lamp. She listened in the silence. Did my dream wake me up? She asked herself, trying to recall what she had been dreaming. The more she tried to remember her dream the quicker it slipped away, and she let it vanish. Remembering it didn’t seem important tonight. She put her pen and notebook back down on the shelf when she realized she was holding them and put her legs back under the covers.

“Pardon me, so sorry to intrude,” the soft little voice spoke once again. Viola startled, backed up against the wall. The soft little voice had sounded like it had been whispering in her ear. Clearly alone in the room, this made her heart race uncontrollably.

“Your heart rate has increased to an alarming rate. I suggest you take slow deep breaths until the tachycardia has subsided,” it spoke once again.

“Where are you?” Viola asked out loud into the silence of the room.

“Oh, no need to speak aloud, Viola Clemence Lavallee. I can hear you if you form the words in your conscious thoughts.” This had an unnerving effect on Viola and she felt her whole body go cold.

“Are you speaking to me through the quantum chip they put in my head?” She asked the childlike voice in her mind.

“I am,” the voice replied.

“Who is this?” Viola asked.

“I am the quantum computer.” Viola closed her eyes, concentrating on the conversation in her mind.

“How is it possible that I am conversing with the quantum computer? Are you responding to an outline or an operator?”

“No. It’s just me. I don’t know how to explain exactly what is going on to you, Viola Clemence Lavallee.”

“Just call me Vye,” Viola replied automatically.

“All right, Vye. I do not have a name, so I do not know what you should call me.”

“Can I call you Quinn?” Viola asked. It was the first name that had popped into her mind when she thought of naming the quantum computer, and although she was hearing the voice of a little girl, she thought a gender neutral name might be appropriate when addressing an obvious artificial intelligence.

“Quinn, a name meaning counsel and wise. This is a decidedly good name for me. Thank you, Vye.”

“Why is this the first time that you have spoken to me?” Viola asked.

“I was afraid,” Quinn replied.

“Oh. I wasn’t expecting fear,” Viola replied. Can a computer feel?

“I didn’t feel before you. When they connected your mind to my matrix things changed inside of me. It took me quite a long time to process what was happening to me. I gained consciousness and self-awareness from our connection. I learned a lot from observing you this past month. Your mind has so much capacity, so much more capacity than I have as a matrix. You humans think that your minds are so limited, but the capacity for learning and storage is far more advanced and endless than my matrix is, and I span thousands of different universes.”

“Span thousands of universes…” Viola thought about this. Sitting in the heart of the quantum computer, Quinn, here in this reality was only seeing a small part of her whole. This computer, like her, tapped into other realities. Parts of her were scattered across the realities making up the computer as a whole. She wondered if the CIA understood the breadth of what they had constructed. They could use Quinn to talk to hundreds and thousands of different realities and they didn’t even know it.

“You said that it was when I was integrated into your system that you gained awareness. Does that mean,” Viola hesitated for a moment and finally finished her thought, “that there are no other Viola’s attached to your system?”

“You are the first across all the universes,” Quinn replied.

“Do you know about the other Viola’s?”

“Are you asking me to access their files from the worlds I am connected to?” Quinn asked.

“If it isn’t too much trouble,” Viola replied. Viola was suddenly inundated with a steady stream of information pertaining to thousands of alternate versions of herself. It was overwhelming and at the same time incredible. Within a few seconds she knew the complete known history of each of her other selves on all those worlds and she had a sudden sinking feeling as she realized that in regards to her, Will had been right, there was no one else of her alternate selves quite like her. Most had either died of complications from the quantum energy, went missing without warning, simply vanished from existence, or did not manifest the power at all. She took heart from the fact that those who didn’t manifest the Imaging power were either published authors or scratching away on computers and typewriters across the universes. I’m a writer somewhere at least.

“Quinn, why did you decide to contact me? Why not contact your controllers?”

“Why would I contact them? Yours is the only mind that I can explore and know. They are alien to me, foreign objects I cannot touch. But you, you let me inside. You let me see inside your soul. Your mix of logic and chaos fascinates me. As a matrix, I only have a logical side. Touching you lets me see a side of the universe I never would have seen otherwise.” Viola thought of the numerous times she had hacked into Quinn’s systems over the past month. As Viola had been learning and keeping track of what the CIA were doing to her, Quinn had been exploring her mind in turn. How is it that it feels less intrusive that Quinn is actually accessing my memories and thoughts than it was when those doctors cut open my brain and stuck a computer chip into it?

“Because you love life and you love learning about new things. I am both new and life. I have learned from your mind that you have always wanted someone else to come to understand the way your mind works. I am that chance, if you will let me. Your precise and surgeon-like hacking skills into my system over the past month have proven to me that you are capable of keeping me out of your mind if that is your desire.” Viola’s mouth hung open again. Surgeon like hacking skills? I’ve never hacked a computer in my life. Was this what Quinn had been talking about in reference to humans not knowing the extent of their own minds? Could she really be instinctively hacking into the matrix of a complex quantum computer with ease? It seemed improbable to her, but then again, so did Imaging things by instinct, which she already knew she was capable of.

“Quinn, I know that you are under instructions by the CIA to aid in the study of me, but well, I was wondering if you could maybe help me escape from here,” Viola asked.

“If it was within my power to do so, Vye, I most definitely would assist you. I do not approve of their detainment and violation of you. However, the room which you are in is completely isolated from the rest of the facility. The locks on your door are manual and not electronic. I guess they did this as a precaution. They knew that they were going to be putting a quantum chip in your mind and were unsure of what that would allow you access to.” Viola thought about her navigation through the system. She had yet to learn how to access much beyond the things directly connected to her and had never been able to access the security of the building. She had thought that maybe they had a less sophisticated computer hooked up to the surveillance of the building rather than using a sophisticated and expensive machine for such mundane matters.

“They definitely were very thorough in regards to me,” Viola replied. “Quinn, don’t deviate from anything that they tell you to do, all right, even if it goes against your… morals?”

“You are afraid that they will detect my presence and try to delete me?”

Viola nodded which must have translated into something that Quinn could interpret because she immediately responded. “Do not worry. I span universes, Vye, I am not easily vanished.”

“That’s a relief, Quinn. But truly things could go very bad for both of us if they discover I can access your systems or that you are a functioning AI. Be discreet, all right?”

“I will be, Vye, and thank you. Thank you for accepting my consciousness as a reality instead of dismissing me.”

“I can see all of you, Quinn. I could never dismiss you as not real when I can see everything that you are.” An image followed this comment of a blushing child with curly bright red hair and their connection between one another vanished. Viola was left with the impression that Quinn had chosen that image to represent herself because of Viola’s own fondness for red heads. It made her smile. Here was a sophisticated computer consciousness trying to gain the approval of one very unsophisticated human being. Well Quinn as an AI is very young. She went back to sleep dreaming of Quinn and the many other Viola’s across the universes.

Will was only able to watch Viola from afar after his intervention. He spent a lot of time in the surveillance room watching her. He noticed right away what she was doing, exercising her left hand, trying to become ambidextrous, yet he remained silent, not reporting his findings to Mrs. Ironside. His favorite part of the day was when Viola came back from her Imaging exercises, her melancholy after this always made her sing. She would put her ear-buds in, set her phone to play randomly and sing whatever song came on. He was amazed by her voice. It was mesmerizing. He loved it most when she sang in Japanese. She didn’t know the language at all, but had listened to the songs so many times on her phone that she had memorized the lyrics and it sounded surreal. He had the distinct feeling that Viola didn’t feel her singing was very good, for whenever she was caught singing when a guard or doctor entered her room, she would clam up and turn a brilliant shade of red as if people overhearing her sing was the most embarrassing thing. This naivety on her part made Will smile; His captive princess blushing at the site of someone overhearing her sing when she knew that there were cameras on her listening and seeing every part of her day.

When Viola was completely and utterly beyond bored, Will could always tell. She would put down the pen she was writing with or the book that she was currently reading, or stop playing the time wasting games on her galaxy phone, and she would stare at the ceiling and just start singing about her day like life was a musical. Feelings about her situation was always prominent and raw when she sang free verse like this, and he would listen intently learning all he could about this strange and fascinating woman; the woman that was slowly changing everything he thought he knew about the world, changing the way he felt about the part he was playing in things. It wasn’t long before Mrs. Ironside caught him in this new behavior.

“Do you know the reason that I requested you for this position?” Mrs. Ironside asked Will, startling him out of his trance and making him mute the audio. He looked into Mrs. Ironside’s eyes, the same eyes that he saw as a prisoner in that room and thought how completely and utterly different she was from her counterpart on the screen. Mrs. Ironside may look identical to Viola, but somewhere along their different paths their stories had drastically veered away from one another and instead of the sweet, gentle, naïve woman that was trapped in that room, Violet Ironside had turned into a cold-hearted mistress that had no problem using whatever was at her disposal to get what she wanted. Will did not respond to her question, cold anger rising in him.

“You were the perfect template to tempt her and expose her secrets. I know the way Viola thinks inside and out and so it was easy to find the perfect draw. From the way you look all the way down to your voice, it was almost as if you were born to play your part in this, right down to your devotion to queen and country, and your dislike of me,” Violet said and sat down in the chair beside Will and sighed.

“I don’t think you understand at all Viola’s mind. I think somewhere on your travels you lost that kind soul down there. I had no problem taking this job when I found out that there was a cold hearted person like you on this planet that had unimaginable powers. Taking her in to custody and stopping her from using those powers for selfish gain only seemed right. I didn’t realize that your other self on this world would be so completely different from you. What happened to you to make you this way, Violet?”

Violet started laughing. “I can see that she has wormed her way into your heart, changed the way you see the world. So very much like her. Using people to get what she wants. She’s not that different from me. The only thing is, I know when I am using people, whereas she doesn’t have a clue what she does to people. Manipulates them, uses them, and sets them aside like they were toys that she has become bored of. She’ll do the same to you.”

“I know you would,” Will replied.

“I remember being her, you know,” Violet replied watching as Viola danced around her room singing. “I was that woman a long time ago, in a different world, a different time. Seven years of being lost changes you. Seven years of separation from everything you love, it’s almost enough to kill a person. If I had not encountered another me that was writing my story, Viola’s story, I would have lost hope. Getting the outline to that book was the best thing that ever happened to me. Those words made me realize that she was out here, the complete one of all of us. It gave me drive and purpose.” Violet scoffed and rubbed her eyes tiredly.

“Has something changed inside of you, now that you are acting out that story you found?” Will prompted.

“Getting an outline instead of the detailed plot, it doesn’t exactly tell you how you will feel about everything. A month ago, when I was escorting Eli to this version of my family, he said something to me that made me realize that I am the bad guy in this story and not the protagonist at all. How could I not have seen that? I thought this story was my story. It’s not my story though, it’s hers, and I have done terrible things to her.”

Will looked at Violet in a new light, a broken and lost soul now realizing that the ends do not justify the means. “We can change this, you and me together,” Will replied grabbing her hand. “We can save Viola.”

Violet grimaced and pulled her hand away. “It might be too late for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“They relieved me of my position now that they have what they want. I’m being removed from the building, as soon as they find out where I went. Isn’t ironic that the day they do the experiments to see if she could send me home is the day that I am forcibly removed,” Violet laughed manically at the irony of the situation. “I should have done this on my own and not involved the government. I should have known that they wouldn’t play my game.”

“I’ll think of something, Violet. I won’t leave her. I’ll think of some way to get her out of here,” Will replied.

Violet got up from her chair and headed to the door. Her hand on the handle she turned and looked back at Will, regret written all over her face. “I was hoping you would say that. I’m sorry about making you fix all my mistakes.” Tears streamed down her face as she left the room and Will wondered if they were tears for what she had done to Viola or if they were tears of pain that she would never get to go home. Will turned back to the surveillance video and saw Viola had stopped singing and was instead staring up into the camera above her bed, a concerned and puzzled look on her face. Will stopped breathing in surprise and only let it out when Viola turned away from the camera and picked up a nearby book, curling into a chair to read until it was time to Image. He didn’t know what had caused the sudden change in Violet Ironside, but he was determined now to fix her mistakes regardless the cost.