We have another SF story here.  Robyn manages to imply another large future here very deftly, and to imply a larger story as well.  Put your name on your story, next time, Robyn!

 

INTO THE REM

by

Robyn Edwards

 

 

 

            Fourteen-year-old Indy leaned back in the chair and sighed. Earth history? How boring! Well, wouldn’t be the first time he’d snuck a nap behind VR.

            The history chip fell into place with a snap.

            A-shaped dwellings and copper-colored canyons surrounded him. Smoke rose from an abandoned camp fire. At least Aniyunwiya’s Rem was pretty. He’d give ‘em that.

            Then a voice crackled through the ear piece. “Help me!”

            He flipped the visor from his face. Nothing. He couldn’t have been the only one to hear it.

            “Anything wrong, Indy?” Ms. Greer asked. Every student knew how to respond to that trap.

            His back stiffened. “N-no.”

            “Then get back to your studies!”

            When the visor dropped over his eyes he gasped. No way! This isn’t real. You’re not a hundred feet above the Rem. Your feet are firmly planted in Ms. Greer’s classroom, not atop this canyon.

            “You’ve got to tell them!” The voice said from behind. 

Indy snapped around. A haggard looking man in animal skins stood near. Amazing! No CGP ever looked so real. I’ve got to be dreaming. That’s it! “You’re in my dream,” he said.

            “Maybe you are dreaming,” the man replied. “Maybe it’s me. I honestly don’t know what’s real anymore. All I know is you’re the first—the first to hear me.”

            Feeling something warm against his back, Indy turned. “What in the universe?”

“What? The sun?” Indy held out his arms. The sun?  But I can feel it. How’s that possible?

            The man’s brows dipped. “Haven’t you seen the sun before?”

            He shook his head, eyes fixed on the horizon. “No.” Computers generate light on the stations. “It can’t be real,” he whispered.

            “It’s real all right. The very reason I’m here. My group and I stayed when the others left—to analyze a planet slowly cooking itself. But we found a way to deflect its harm and utilize the energy. They were supposed to return—to repopulate the planet when it was safe, but they left us. You must tell them!”

 

                                                                        *

            “What happened?” Indy asked.

Ms. Greer stood over him, his VR gear in her hand “You tell me. The program ended an hour ago. Have a nice nap did you?”

            “I wasn’t asleep. I met a man in the Rem.”

            “That’s impossible, Indy.”

“No! He took me to the top of Aniyunwiya’s Rem. I saw the sun.”

            “The sun? Now there’s a word I haven’t heard in a while. There’s nothing beyond the Rem, Indy. The computer programmers didn’t have enough information on the geography of ancient Earth to duplicate the planet in VR. You were dreaming.”

Then her forehead wrinkled.  “Where’d you get that?” she asked.

            Indy looked down. A stone hung around his neck.  “I don’t know. The man had it on,” he said.

            “That’s a Native American arrowhead, Indy. But—they said none of Earth’s artifacts survived the blast when their sun went supernova.” She sat speechless and then cupped his hand. “Start from the beginning.”