Chapter 4

Ulmer

IV-What did I do to deserve him?

Even after Alex retrieved us from the room of training videos, my thoughts were consumed with how the emergency brake worked.

It would have to have the same propulsor beam technology as the rest of the engines. Only, in the case of the emergency brake, it would only need to work for a short period of time, long enough to shortly hold it in place and then lower the Skybus to the ground, or allow it to stay it in one place while the passengers escaped.

But there was none of that there.

I walked us to the windows to clear our head. Down below, we could barely see the gently lapping waves of the sea thousands of meters below. We were above the Lesser Atlantic Ocean, and wouldn’t stop to take on or drop of passengers until we got near the Californias. So it’d be a few hours at least.

The view is nice, isn’t it? It’s just water, Elian. It’s nice. Being over other continents. I’ve never been to America before. We kind of passed over it yesterday. And Pacifica and Asia and Africa too. And Atlantica too! Well, I assumed you’d been there.

Elian did his weird head laugh thing again. Never left, Ulmer. I’ve never left! I leaned against the glass. Well, you sure have left now, haven’t you?

Lunch and dinner were once again nice, healthy salads. I didn’t know how Elian couldn’t like salad. Didn’t he feel his body feeling good when he ate salad? The dinner salad had beets, a vegetable which I strongly enjoy. And Elian hates.

It wasn’t until the next, after lunch, that we got the text.

L: Meet me where we met last time. Be sure to be in disguise and be ready to move fast.

We hadn’t left the disguise. Despite Elian’s somewhat baffling comfort with this body and it’s foreign functions, I did not feel comfortable in it at all. Having to go to the bathroom was an absolute nightmare. The mere idea of showering was terrifying. It didn’t feel like I was doing those things. It felt like I was watching someone else do them, and she was a young girl, and also Elian was there. So we’d stayed in the disguise for now. If we started to smell, I supposed we would purchase a swimsuit, Elian would put it on, and then we could take a shower like that. That would work, right?

No, it would still be incredibly awkward and probably not actually clean us, but it was the most that I was willing to do.

Shaking those thoughts out of our head for the moment, I realized that Elian was already taking us out of the door.

“So, Jojo, did you enjoy the videos you watched yesterday?”

“They were very informative.” I told Mr. L.

He smiled. “But they didn’t tell you about the thing you really wanted to know about, did they?”

What is the correct answer here? I have no idea. I’m just going to say no. Wait, Ulmer, d- “No. Not really.”

The smile grew wider. Glistening, perfect teeth shone in this man’s trim mouth. So it had been the right answer. “Well, Jojo, you know I can’t just tell you what you want to know. The sons of Atlas have seen to that.”

The guy who holds up the world? I’m pretty sure it’s just some stupid code name for someone or ones Josephine would know. Yeah, I realized that, but- Mr. L was still talking. “But instead I’ll show you what you’ve been asking about. Follow me.”

We walked down the corridors of the Skybus, which slowly grew smaller as we went farther and farther away from where the regular people were. They were like the twisting tunnels of insects, bored deep into the holes of some rotting fruit. Or they were perfectly normal maintenance tunnels in a vehicle that had to conserve space.

Suddenly, Mr. L stopped. “I can go no further. Josephine, you must go without me. The code is 2233.”

We nodded to him as we went further. Elian shuddered, rubbing our arms against our body. I don’t have a good feeling about this. Elian, don’t worry. Based on what I remember, this either the massive water tank or the emergency brake.

Elian typed 2233 into the panel, and slowly the door slid open, revealing the room where the emergency brake was kept.

Powerful, thumming equipment, a console with multiple buttons, and a manual were sitting there. Looking at the equipment, none of it looked like propulsor beam generators at all, or any sort of engine that would create a hovering effect. Not even the basic stuff you’d find in any car was here. Instead, the room beyond the console was full of strange black folded columns, jointed ones that could hypothetically fold out into larger ones. Pylons, I guessed.

Ulmer, what is all of this? Elian, I have no idea. Can you be quiet for a moment? I just thought you’d know! Well, surprisingly, I don’t know everything. Maybe try reading the instruction manual. That will tell us nothing.

I looked at the screen. There were three options- Type-A Brake, Type-B Brake, and Brake Disable. Not knowing what the options meant (besides Brake Disable, which would presumably disable the break) I touched neither. Also, I did not actually want to trigger the emergency brake. That would probably not end well.

I walked towards the pylons. Ulmer. I have a bad feeling about this. Elian. Please. I touched one. It was cold, metal. Touching it gave me no insight. At the bottom of the room, spaced all over were large, circular holes. After examining them for a moment, each column could probably fit through one if they were going straight down.

None of this had to do with the emergency brake. Maybe this wasn’t the emergency brake room at all. Maybe it was a secret other rooms where pylons were pointlessly stored. Maybe they use the pylons to attack! Maybe they go out the holes and to the ground and squash the people there! And all Skybuses are secretly- Elian, that’s a terrible idea. Just shut up.

Ignoring Elian’s terrible ideas for the moment, I went back to the console. Flipping the book open, it described the Type A and Type B “Incidents”. Type A incidents were those where the Skybus could be salvaged or put back under the control of International Sky Transportation Administration Personnel, while Type B incidents were it was unlikely they would be able to. Turning the page, I saw a picture labeled A and a diagram of a Skybus… growing legs? Was it walking?

Yes, the Skybus was being held up by giant metal legs, which originally came from once spot but slowly spread to the rest of the Skybus, supporting it as it slowly sank down. Heights in meters were listed. The Skybus in one image was only 100 meters from the ground, which quite honestly seemed a bit dangerous. Extremely dangerous, to be precise.

I told you the pylons came out of the holes. Those aren’t even- I looked at them. ...they were. Those were completly different reasons. This was all extremely concerning. The Skybus would land by mechanical means? Didn’t that have the potential to… squash people? Which wasn’t the point of an emergency landing? The point was saving people?

So basically the Skybus lands on giant stilts. Okay. That seems safe. Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Elian. I just.. I guess this is important? This guy really wanted to show Josephine that the Skybus lands on giant stilts.  Giant stilts. That’s what they are.

The next image, labeled B, displayed the fusion reactor in the center of the Skybus. Some sorts of vents were depicted being opened, and then the next page depicted…

The next page was either blank or torn out of the book. Okay. Great. Frankly this book was useless. I put it back down. I was going to look around in the back again.

I looked around the back again. This is boring, Ulmer. We should go. Yes, but would Josephine do? Well, we aren’t Josephine, so I don’t know. He paused, as if he was taking in a long, deep breath. I don’t know if we should keep impersonating Josephine anymore. I just… It’s stressful not knowing what to say. What to do.  If our actions are wrong. Right. In character. Out of character. Maybe there’s someone who would know- No.

There was another pause, a longer pause. How come you always get to pick, Ulmer? Because. I wasn’t really up for arguing with Elian at this moment. I tapped on one of the floor circles. Yes, they were large enough for them to go through. That was most likely what the book was depicting. It was a useless manual. Why didn’t have words explaining the pictures? Even some words would be, you know, helpful. Why weren’t they explained like the incidents?

Because isn’t an answer, Ulmer. I’m trying to think right now, Ulmer. And I’d like to know why you get to do whatever you want with this body. I gritted our teeth. Well, Elian, I think it’s because I’m the more sensible and experienced and generally useful one here. I turned around. This was useful, very important knowledge, but not really what I was expecting. And why couldn’t Mr. L talk to us about this? Or just take pictures of the book and send them to us.

Yes, but it’s our body? Elian! Doing something! Thinking about something! And I’m trying to have a conversation about the control of the body. A serious conversation. And I’m trying to figure out what the hell this room is! It’s the emergency brake room.  ELIAN. DO you ever think before you think!? OF COURSE I KNOW THAT! But there’s something important here, and we’re… we’re missing it!! I turned around, went back behind the console.

Then I heard the beeping. Sounds like a clock. Elian twisted his head around to see the beeping thing, and once he did, he tapped it. Huh. It is a clock. A counting down clock.

No.

No, it couldn’t be….

Elian. You absolute idiot. That’s a bomb.

Elian yelped and jumped nearly a foot back, and that was when the Sky Transportation Administration police broke in the door, Mr. L with them. “There she is! Get that girl!”

I jumped out of the way but was tackled by one of the sky police. I nearly screamed as we were knocked to the ground. The other officer grabbed us from behind, while the other ran to the bomb. Yelling into a radio, she said, “We’ve got a bomb here! Send the bomb squad to the emergency break! A minute and fourty five seconds are remaining!”

As we were dragged out the room, Elian twisted our head towards Mr. L. “WHY!? Why did you do this!? HELP US!”

He smiled, a soft, horrible, toothed smile. “You may be a child of your father, Josephine. But I am a child of Atlas.”

They left us in a holding cell. There we were, handcuffed, locked up, and it was all Elian’s fault. If he hadn’t touched that bomb, our fingerprints wouldn’t have been on it. If Elian hadn’t distracted me, I would have noticed it sooner and we would have ran. If I had just been there, by myself…!

Ulmer?

I let out a mental sigh. Yes, Elian?

I think Josephine is mixed up in some sort of spy stuff. Oh, really? You think that might be a possibility?  You think that’s it? Yes. Now, I know it may seem a bit out there, but- Oh, yes, tell me about this dazzling new hypothesis! When did you conceive of it?! When Mr. L told us he would get us hidden information so long as we stayed in disguise? Was it when we watched the classified videos? Was it the fact that he sometimes spoke in baffling metaphor? Oh! Or maybe it was when he betrayed us to the sons of atlas or whoever!?

There was a long silence from Elian.

Well, you don’t have to rub it in.

The silence continued, because I wasn’t particularly interested in replying to Elian.

Well, what do we do now? Tell them the truth?

Yes, because that will make the situation so much better. They’ll now think we’re a crazy person with multiple personality disorder! They haven’t called it that for years, Ulmer, and people with it aren’t crazy, they- Oh, yes, Elian, please explain it to me. I’m really excited about being considerate to people with multiple personality disorder while we’re waiting to be sent to jail for the rest of our life. I think you should be considerate to people all the time. That’s a general life tip I try to live by. Well, you’ve been pretty shitty at it so far. Excuse me? Ever since we met, you’ve been nothing but-

Two Sky Police entered the room. “So, Beth, you want to transport the girl, or should I?” Beth was the woman who had called the bomb squad early. The ship hadn’t exploded, so I supposed they had deactivate the bomb.

“I dunno.” said Beth. “You should do it.”

“But I tackled her earlier.” whined the man.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” sighed Beth. She then turned to us. “Alright, young lady, you’ll be coming with us. I hope you’re ready to rot in jail for a long, long time.”

Chapter 3

Elian

Chapter 3- Waiting

Ulmer looked into the bag where the “disguise” was. It consisted of a bad quality red wig and an outfit that looked slightly too big for us. It didn’t seem like it would work at all. But we had to have something to eat. It’d been hours since we’d shown up in this body and I could already feel its stomach rumbling. We had to go get something to eat!

Ulmer put the wig on badly. It was clear that he’d never put a wig on before. Okay, Ulmer, you have to bunch up all your hair together first. Is there a wig cap in there? If not, we could maybe use a shower cap. Elian, the wig cap is attached to the wig. What do you call this? That is the inside of the wig, not a wig cap. If we don’t get a wig cap, all the hair will fall out. And we should put the clothes on before the wig or we’ll have to put the wig on again or it’ll look sloppy. Elian, I really don’t think it’s as important as all that. I sighed a little mentally. I’m just trying to help.

Ulmer pulled our long black hair back in a big clump and attempted to put the wig on again. A few clumps of hair fell free from it, the black obviously unmatching, and then Ulmer began to put on the clothes over what we were currently wearing.

Ulmer. What are you doing now? I’m… putting the clothes on? Over our regular clothes? Just take them off and put these clothes on! That’s the point! Now we definitely look weird.  

There was a moment of hesitation from Ulmer. I’m… not ready for that. Elian, she’s… Ulmer let his words end there. I kind of wanted to roll my eyes. Ulmer, she’s us. And we’ve got to do it sometime. What are we going to do, just never shower or go to the bathroom? We’ll smell horrible. I know! I know! I know we have to do it at some point, but not right now. It’s just that I’m basically an adult, and she’s a child, and it’s just really uncomfortable!

I kind of understood where Ulmer was hypothetically coming from, but this person was us, at least for now. It was our own body, and we had to learn to get comfortable with it or it would make everything really difficult. Once we ate food and drank we’d have to go to the bathroom eventually, and it would be best if we took a shower at some point. And getting dressed was just basic.

Maybe you can dress us and I’ll close our eyes. This was a good compromise on Ulmer’s part, and I nodded. Okay, let’s do that then.

Wearing the new clothes, hair mostly hidden under the wig, we ventured out into the main hall of the Skybus. According to the signs, we were now hovering over the american wastes and it was late evening. I guess you could even call it night. There were at least a dozen different food options. Ulmer immedietly begun walking us towards one.

Wait. Where are we going? Oh. Fresh Time. Do you not like Fresh Time? I’ve never been there. What do they have there? Well, they have a wide variety of salads and- I’d rather not. What? Elian, don’t we want this body to be healthy? Do you want to return it to this girl on the road to major health issues in her future? I don’t think that eating one meal from somewhere with tastier food is going to irrevocably ruin it. Well, I’d like to establish a precedent that we will feed this body healthy food. And I’d like to establish that I’m kind of a picky eater. Not the biggest fan of a lot of healthy foods. Like, for example, lettuce.

What’s wrong with lettuce? It’s the culinary equivalent of cardboard.

Ulmer rolled his eyes and attempted to keep walking to Fresh Time as I attempted to stop him. As he attempted to step forward, I tried to pull him back. We stood there still for a moment, until Ulmer suddenly took a step forward, and another. Despite my best efforts, Ulmer walked forward to the Salad Zone. Can we at least get a tasty salad? All salads are tasty, Elian.

The Kale and Protein salad was not, in fact, tasty. I would almost call it gross. Sure, there was no lettuce in it. But if lettuce was the culinary equivalent of cardboard, kale was the culinary equivalent of styrofoam. And I wasn’t sure what the fake protein slices were supposed to taste like. They tasted stale, that was for sure.

We sat there, in the Fresh Time, eating terrible salad, watching the people walk by. Ulmer’s eyes were fixated on the people leaving the transportation pods and walking towards the luggage claim. Finally, I decided to ask him why he was staring at them.

Why are you staring at the luggage claim?  I’m just thinking about my stuff. Do you think we could just walk in there really quick and get it? I’d rather not lose my things. I don’t know. Don’t they check that you’re the person whose luggage it is? They’re supposed to, but never do. Don’t you have things you don’t want lost, Elian?

I thought about it for the briefest of moments before shaking my head. Naw. There’s my tablet, but there’s nothing important on there that I can’t just access on my Milly account. I have one set of clothes, but they wouldn’t fit me here. Um. A toothbrush. Toothpaste? My phone vanished with my clothes.  Well, unlike you, I have important things in my bag. And I don’t trust the cloud for everything. Did you pop out of the last century? Excuse me?

I paused. This head voice conversation couldn’t really communicate tone of voice or anything. Um, it was a joke, Ulmer. You probably shouldn’t trust the cloud for everything, I’m just lazy. Ulmer didn’t reply, just stayed silent. I flipped the salad lid closed and stood up. Let’s go get your stuff!

Getting it all was very easy. We basically walked in and walked back out. Ulmer kept his bag in a corner of the room, confusing me as to why he had wanted it at all, and I went to read the book I’d bought from the bookstore about dreams. Ulmer watched television while I read the book. The body was okay at multitasking. It was difficult, but not impossible, and I mostly read the book during Ulmer’s commercial breaks. The show was something political, modern, super boring. Ulmer laughed at things about it that weren’t funny. I barely got even a chapter through my book.

According to this guy, Dr. Greyson, the subconcious knew a lot of things that you didn’t about the world and was a lot smarter than you at predicting things that were going to happen. But the subconcious only showed you these things in ways it perfectly understood but you couldn’t. I didn’t know if I believed all this.

At 9, Ulmer went to go brush our teeth, and even though it was way too early, went to sleep.

I can’t believe you don’t drink coffee. Why not? I just can’t believe it. You seem like the sort of person who drinks it constantly. Well, I don’t. And it was the truth. I wasn’t allowed to. I had done many things in my life I wasn’t supposed to, but this specific thing involved having money and I didn’t. I’ve wanted to try it, though… but doesn’t it taste gross the first time you drink it?

Ulmer paused as he looked at the options. We’ll order something cold, maybe with chocolate. Can we also get a muffin? No. Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.

Breakfast was fine. After that, we returned to the room. It was nearly ten by the time we got the first text.

L: Meet me in the atrium by the Fresh Time.

By the time we arrived in the atrium, the man we’d met the past day was standing there next to a young man with spiked silver hair. “I’m just saying, Mr. Lis-” he was saying, before the man, apparently “Mr Lis” or something held up a hand to stop him.

“Oh, look who it is! Jojo, you’re here at last. Alex, this is Josephine. My niece.” He winked at Alex and Alex rolled his eyes. We looked nothing like Mr. Lis whatever so I guess he wasn’t fooled. Mr. Lis reached out and uncomfortably rubbed our head. I hated the sensation but Ulmer smiled at him. “Anyway, my niece is interested in being a Skybus employee one day, and so why don’t you show her the employee training videos?”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “The employee training videos? Uh, you do know that the general public sho-”

Mr. Lis’s hand patted down firmly and uncomfortably on our shoulder. “She’s not the general public. She’s my niece.” He turned to us, face twisted in a… well, it was kind of a friendly glare. “Isn’t that right, Jojo?”

Ulmer nodded our head. “That’s right, uncle. I’m so excited to watch the videos.”

Alex sighed. “Okay, well then, follow me, and don’t touch anything. The only thing you can touch is the chairs. And only the one you’re sitting on. That’s it.”

If Josephine found these training videos interesting I had to feel really bad for her. I don’t know why she would want to see the interior electrical and plumbing systems of the Skybus, but even I sometimes liked to watch engineering or building shows and I found this super boring. Ulmer. Are you paying attention?  Are you? Not really. I wish we could just leave. Well, we’ve got to appease our uncle. Ulmer, I don’t think Mr. Lis is our real uncle. I had air quotes around uncle. Well , air quotes don’t actually transfer through the medium of thought.

The video was now going on and on about the micro fusion reactor inside of the Skybuses and how they provided limitless clean energy, and I just kind of wanted to fall asleep. Elian? Are you… bored? Trying to make the body fall asleep? Yeah. You never answered my question about whether or not you were paying attention. I guess the part about the reactor is kind of interesting. I studied a bit of electrics at school, that was the sort of job I was planning to get on the Skybus.

Well, since Ulmer was watching his show (the inner workings of a fusion reactor show, I guess) I had to pay attention. There were very few people who worked on the fusion reactor, but everyone had to be trained in how to evacuate the Skybus in order of the reactor malfunctioning. This had never happened in the twenty years of successful Skybus operations.

Just like Skybuses catching on fire…

Or Skybuses flooding…

Or having to deploy the emergency brake.

They were now on emergency procedures and they were all pointless. I closed our eyes for a moment, and by the time we opened them again, the video had turned to a skit of a armed gunman attempting to take over a Skybus.

I sighed and stared at the ceiling. In the skit one of the the skybus employees was running to deploy the emergency brake so that the Skybus wouldn’t be hijacked.

Ulmer hummed thoughtfully as the video showed the operation of the emergency brake. Well, I have no idea how that works. Well, Ulmer, that makes two of us.

Chapter 2

Ulmer

II-What the hell is going on?

Matter transportation is not supposed to hurt.

That’s what they always tell you, anyways. It doesn’t seem accurate, doesn’t feel right. Your body is shunted through hundreds of feet of space in an instant. One moment, you’re here. The next, you’re there. And yet the process is supposed to be completely painless, the worst side effect that people are supposed to experience a mild headache or nausea. I’d been transported dozens of times onto dozens of skybuses before, and I had never even felt a little sick.

This time was different. My body was completely wracked with pain. I was in the void of transportation, completely insensate, until the pain begun. It consumed everything, every inch of what could be my body exploding in extreme pain. I couldn’t even think of or describe what sort of pain it was. It was pain without descriptor, unimaginable. I couldn’t even dream of  it ending. It seemed like everything people were afraid matter transportation could be.

And then suddenly I was there, up on the skybus, but instead of standing straight up as I was before I stumbled, then fell to the ground completely, face smacking against the floor. My head rung out, my jaw hurt, my knees protested. Surprisingly, Elian didn’t rush to come help me up. It was pretty rude of him, though many of the things he’d done so far had been pretty rude. I tried to lift my head off of the ground but it felt heavy, weighted down by pain. Everything was sore, too, even though I hadn’t been sore when I had been transported.

I wanted to find someone and complain about this, but I also wanted to get a job here and that wouldn’t make a good first impression. So instead, I just had to get up and-

Get up and-

After a long minute of struggling, I finally got up. I didn’t understand why it was so difficult. Why everything in my body seemed to want us to stay down on the ground. It was like trying to get up underneath a blanket of lead.

Elian is nowhere to be seen. I suppose he abandoned me. But why? There’s a strong sense of abandonment, and yet some part of me feels like it was to be expected. That, too, is foreign. Would it be rude? Yes. Did it fit the things I’d seen of the teen so far? No.

Funny, the pod up here was much larger than the pod down there. As I walked towards the door, I felt like something was off. Walking was different, and harder, but I didn’t know why. I realized I should probably see a doctor as soon as possible, and stretched my hand towards the door of the pod to open it.

Then I nearly shrieked in horror.

My hand was pale, bleached, white. My fingers were small and thin, the hand itself child-sized. What the hell was going on? My body stepped forward even though I’m not trying to. I attempted to hold it back, tried to stop what’s going on, and with great effort I could stop it, though I could feel it still trying to move forward. Once I felt my body moving no more, I reached up to my head, feeling long, straight hair here. My other hand moved across my face as I still did my best to stop the body from moving.

I felt a strong mixture of fear and confusion throughout my body, but those emotions didn’t feel totally mine. Like someone else was feeling them. Yes! Someone else! Whoever’s body this was, they had to still be here! But then how was I there? Was I somehow piggybacking on their brain? Two minds in one head?  The body tried to move again and now I let it move. It ran out of the pods, then frantically looked around the room, running through the exit and onto the main hall of the Skybus.

Three stories tall, the main hall had a large atrium, with various shops, movie theatres, and restaurants surrounding it, as well as the entrance to the main hotel. There were lots of chairs and signs showing where the Skybus currently was and its future destination. The body looked around frantically, eyes scanning the atrium until it saw a bathroom. Running towards it, it stopped, paralyzed, as we stood before a mirror perched above the drinking fountains.

This body was young. And female! We were a girl, a child. No, not precisely a child, a preteen was more accurate. She was pale, with long black hair, completely prepubescent. And yet I thought it strange that the emotion in her deep grey eyes was panic and fear. Why did she find this body horrifying? Wasn’t it her own?

No…. no! Those thoughts rung through my head involuntarily. No! How can this… how can this be?

I tried to stay rational. It clearly had to be some sort of matter transportation error, right? I had never heard of matter transportation failing this badly before, but…

Well, it was the only explanation!

 You think this is a matter transportation error? A glitch? A bug in the system? These thoughts weren’t my own. But I didn’t think they were hers? They’re MY thoughts. You mean that you’re not her either, not the person whose body we’re in? I shook our head, and in the mirror the other person saw it. You can…. you can hear my thoughts. I tried to think at the other person. Well, we can’t hear all of each other’s thoughts. I only started hearing yours just now. And have you been hearing mine this whole time?

No. So I guess we can control it, somehow? Or maybe we could?  Maybe.  So you’re not her, I’m not her… If you’re the person whose body this is, and you can hear us, please reply?

The head was silent. After a moment, the other voice said, Did you hear all the things I thought about her not replying? No. So we can control it partially. A deep mental sigh of relief. So they aren’t completely in here… Well, that’s good news. Um, well then, I guess we should go… I don’t really know what you’re supposed to do when you get randomly transported into someone else’s body, but I’m sure there’s someone you can go to for help. Maybe the Sky Transportation Administration people? Maybe they can just beam us back down and we can be seperated again?

I shook our head. No, that sounds like a bad idea. They’re going to think we’re crazy. I really don’t want to be locked up somewhere with someone else in my head. Look, I…. This was a bad idea, but it was the only thing I could think of. There was this person I met, right before this happened, his name was Elian, he seemed… if we found him, he might-

There was laughter. I didn’t really feel like we were exactly speaking these words to one another. It was kind of like how your thoughts are when you’re not thinking about thinking- not precisely words at all. But I could hear him laughing. Well, that’s going to be pretty difficult. I don’t know how I can help at a- Oh my gosh. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it was you before. Ulmer?
No. No no no no no no no. This whole experience was already the worst. Already hell. Already a nightmare where I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do. But the other person was Elian? It explained so much. It was the obvious answer and I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. And it was terrible! No! I had enough dealing with Elian for like an hour. I was ready to rip my hair out dealing with him for that short period of time. Now he was in my head for who knows how long? I was practically ready to just jump off this skybus.

But I had to play it cool. Oh, Elian. Wow. I...  did not expect that. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it was you sooner. Ha ha, yeah, that’s what I just said. Me neither! I mean, it wasn’t like you would just abandon me in the transporting pod or anything. Also, wow, thanks for not informing me that Matter Transportation really hurts! I would have liked to know that in advance! It doesn’t usually. That time was an exception, because of that…. thing that happened. Yeah, I guessed that, that was a joke. I guess humor doesn’t really translate between minds.

I really didn’t believe Elian that his comment was a joke originally, but nodded. Alright. Um, Elian, let’s just sit down, get our bearings. Maybe in a moment we should go to luggage claim and get our stuff. Does this body have anything in the pockets of the clothing? What pockets? We were wearing a top, a jacket, and a mid-length skirt, and upon inspection none of the pockets were large enough to fit anything. As I checked, Elian moved us to a comfortable bench and sat us down. He looked around the atrium with great excitement, taking in all the sights. I didn’t know the Skybus would be like this. I imagined it would be a lot smaller.

Well, they’re huge. Employee training videos can’t convey everything, I guess. So since I’m not available to help you- there was a slight giggle in his thoughts as he mentioned it again- do you maybe want to go ask someone about this all?   N-no. I- I don’t know what to do. We could go back home to my parents. I’m sure I could say something to them that would make them believe me about who I was. But that would be admitting defeat. Maybe we could go to Elian’s parents? The people who randomly let their young teenage son go for a summer job on a Skybus?  I don’t know, if they were like Elian, I could see them as pretty lax folks. Elian, this is… well, this is unbelievable.

I guess it is. I don’t know how this could have happened at all with matter transportation. This girl, is she like a combination of us or something? If that were so, I think she’d be less.. you know… White?  Elian himself was white, but even he wasn’t as pale as this girl. And small! And female. Maybr she’s someone from a different pod? But how would that work? Maybe the signals crossed? I don’t know. It’’s a very bizarre bug in the system. And how are we even doing this thing? How are we even both thinking at the same time with one brain? I really don’t know! This brings up a lot of bizarre physical and philosophical and psychological questions, but the most important question of all i-

“Josephine!” There was a man walking towards us. A balding, red haired man. “Josephine!” Yes, he was referring to us. He sat next to us on the bench, and slid a folder over to us. “Hey Jojo, I thought you said you were going to arrive later. If I hadn’t picked you up on my sensors… why didn’t you come and see me like you said you would?”

Elian and I were paralyzed. We both had no idea what was going on, what this man was talking about, or anything at all. Finally, I said, “Well, I was just catching my breath for a moment. Getting a drink of water.”

The man rolled his eyes. “Jojo, you know that you shouldn’t be doing that. Not out in the open, at least. Come on, I’ll take you to my office, I can brief you there.”

There was nothing we could do but follow this man into his office. We should tell him we’re not really Josephine. Jojo. No. I cannot see that ending any way but badly. His office was accessible through a small door by the elevator, going into the employees only area of the Skybus. Once we arrived there, he closed the door shut. “So, how did the transfer go?”

“It went great!” said Elian. “It went just spectacular!”

The man smiled widely. “That’s great to hear!” I wasn’t pleased with Elian’s response, but I was pleased that he agreed we should go along with all this. “And here I was, all warning you about it, and everything went just fine.”

“Yup.” Elian replied. “Everything right now is perfectly fine!”

“Anyway, you’ll need to lay low for now, but I’ll get you all the information you asked for. Just stay in your hotel room, and if you need anything, go out in your disguise.” He slid over a cell phone to us. “You can use this to pay and I’ll contact you over it. You really can’t stay in here for much longer, I’ll take you to the hotel room as soon as it’s clear.”

Well, I was even more confused about what the hell was going on now.  This girl, this Josephine, was clearly wrapped up in something large, and something dangerous. Ulmer… did you get any of that?

No. Not at all. But I think it’s best for right now to just do what this man says.  Alright… I just hope it doesn’t get us into any worse trouble. Yes, me neither, Elian.  I took the cell phone into my hand, noticing it was a cheap model, the basic sort of phone you get if you don’t want anything fancy for nearly free. It didn’t have a password, it was simply slide to unlock, and we unlocked it, revealing a main screen of almost nothing. As we examined it, the man suddenly got a message on his own phone, and stood up.

“Well, Josephine, you need to go to your room right now. The disguise will be there. Good luck.”

“Okay. Thanks a lot!” said Elian.

We left the room, and I attempted to remember what way it was back to the atrium. After a few wrong directions and turns, we finally got there. All Skybuses were identical, so once in the atrium it was easy to get to the hotel room. My family rarely stayed in Skybuses’ hotels, but we’d done so once or twice so it was easy enough to find the room. Once we were inside, Elian flopped onto the bed.

I can’t believe this is happening. Nothing about our life makes any sense right now.

It’s not that strange. I’m sure if we really we Josephine that would have been a normal interaction with a normal person. Things only look strange looking in from the outside.

I’m sorry, from any angle that interaction seems mega-sketch. I hope we can at least find out something before whatever’s happening with this guy is supposed to happen.

Yeah. That’s be nice.

Elian let out a deep sigh and rolled across the bed. Well, this is my first time being in a hotel room by myself but I’m not alone! Ha. After a moment, Elian paused. Ulmer, once again, I’m really glad you’re here. I would have totally screwed up that conversation with that guy and they’d probably be carting me off to some mental hospital somewhere if you hadn’t been there. I’m really glad we’re in this together.

I was not. I would rather be completely alone in this. Elian’s presence was not needed. In fact, I’d call it actively detrimental. I really didn’t like having him here. It was making a bad situation worse. But I didn’t tell Elian that. Instead, I just smiled, and said, You’re welcome. Hopefully things will make more sense tomorrow.