HONOR’S HEINOUS BEHAVIOUR was suddenly curtailed by the arrival of Doctor Secta. He breezed into the room, glaring at her in distaste.
“Finished with your interrogation, Honor?” he asked. “He’s had a seizure,” he added, checking Alice. “If you don’t know how to use one of those things correctly, I suggest you read the manual. In fact, why don’t you just go away and do that right now?”
“Yeah, get rid of the bitch, will you?” Alice rasped. He was exhausted. The Stingray had almost burnt out his nervous system, and totally sapped what remained of his strength. He was conscious, but only just. Despite a deep mistrust of the man, he was relieved by Secta’s arrival.
“So. This is the specimen I’ve been hearing so much about,” said Secta, holding out his hand to Honor for the Stingray controller. Acting like a spoiled brat, Honor reluctantly handed it over.
“Specimen?” Alice growled. “I’m not a urine sample, dude!”
It was obvious that Secta had little time for Honor, and she knew it. She scowled at Alice, and marched briskly towards the door. As she reached it, the door opened and Hope barged in.
She took one look at Alice in the chair, then at Secta holding the Stingray controller. “You can’t do this, Secta!” she bellowed.
Honor leapt, grabbing Hope around the throat from behind. “I vill get her out of here!” she shouted, sourly. Hope struggled against her grip, but to no avail.
“Let go of me, bitch!” she growled, but it was no contest. Even her combat skills were of no value up against secret police-trained Honor.
Secta aimed the Stingray controller at Alice and said, sternly: “You’ve made your own bed Hope. One more step and I’ll destroy his nervous system…”
“How can you Secta!” Hope roared, fighting Honor’s tightening her grip around her throat.
“Don’t get beat up by that bag of shit on my account, lady,” Alice rasped. “These freaks are off their faces.”
The two women continued to tussle as Honor dragged Hope towards the door. As it finally closed behind them, Secta chuckled and casually ambled over to the computer on the workbench.
“Honor is a worry isn’t she?” he asked. “As for Hope — well, there is no hope for you, old son.”
Alice squirmed at Secta’s attempt at a joke. “Yeah, yeah, hilarious,” he groaned. “What are you, a frustrated game show compere? Get this mongrel thing out of my neck!”
Secta walked over. “A game show compere?” he said, with a smirk. “That’s not such a bad idea … want to manage me?”
Alice couldn’t find the humour in the moment. He fumbled in his pocket for the 8-ball, meaning to throw it at Secta. Raising it, he growled: “Get this thing out of my neck, or I’ll…”
Secta held up the Stingray dial on the wristlet he still held in his hand. “I wouldn’t if I were you, old son.”
Not wanting any Stingray treatment, Alice capitulated. “You bastards want to kill me for getting in the way of your stupid politics, don’t you?” he said.
“No Alice, you’ve got it all wrong. I’m not your executioner,” Secta replied.
“Then what the stuff am I doing here?”
“You’re here because, Alice, I’m an inventor. And you are my experiment.”
“Yeah sure,” said Alice, desperately stalling for time. “Like what have you invented?”
“Oh, a myriad of innovative items, Alice. Programmable wallpaper—”
“Yeah, just what the world needs,” Alice interrupted. “I bet you’re also the idiot that made that android out there.”
“Yes,” said Secta, calmly. “Cyber-genetics, Alice. Oh, and of course, holographic particle matter transfer. Which you, my friend, are about to experience. Brilliant stuff, if I might say so myself.”
“Then just cut the trash and get on with it,” said Alice. “There’s hardly any need for all the bloody theatrics.”
Secta turned a dial on the fishbowl-like apparatus above Alice’s head. It made a whirring sound as it lowered into place just above his eyes, covering most of his head.
“Don’t be concerned,” said Secta, attempting to sound soothing. “It’s only a demolecularizer. I’ll use it to take a digital print of your atomic structure.” The lie was obvious.
Alice looked up at the glass bowl. “Sure,” he said, his voice muffled by the glass. “What the hell’s really going on?”
Secta could see Alice was almost ready to leap out of the chair. He flicked a switch on the side, and two metal clasp restraints immediately sprang from the arms, fastening around Alice’s wrists. Another set sprang from the footrest, clamping around Alice’s shins. He was well and truly trapped.
Struggling to free himself, he yelled at Secta: “Come on man, for Christ’s sake! You don’t need to do this! Let me out of this contraption!”
“Settle down Alice, relax,” said Secta. “You’re only a rock singer, you see … You can’t be permitted to be bigger than the government. I’ve been charged with the responsibility of cutting you down to size.”
Alice growled, tugging at the restraints.
“Look, it’s all part of the hologram process, just relax,” said Secta, moving to the other side of the chair. “Now, I’m going to remove the Stinger. It will hurt a bit.”
He clicked a button on the side of the sphere, which retracted the sharp little claws gripping deeply into Alice’s flesh. With a sharp pull, Secta removed it from his neck. Blood trickled from the wound. Secta took a tissue from his pocket and dabbed at it.
“There you go,” he said, sounding like a doctor giving a kid a Covid shot. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
The wound hurt, but the withdrawal of the Stingray was a relief. Alice watched, warily, as Secta returned to the bench and collected a large syringe, filled with a luminous green liquid. He casually approached Alice. “Now for a little jab,” he said.
“A what?” Alice reacted. “Hey…!”
Secta jabbed the needle into the hole left by the Stingray, and drove it deeper into the wound. Alice writhed in pain as the radioactive fluid flowed into his jugular vein.
“I’m going … to kill you … Secta … I promise!” Alice growled, through gritted teeth.
“Now, Alice…”
Alice’s palms were sweating, and parts of his body were lobbying in favour of panic. He closed his eyes, thinking he was facing his demise. Millions of years of animal survival instincts screamed that something unnatural was happening to his entire body. His nerves jangled, his stomach churned, and his subconscious screamed for a rock to hide under, while one thought went through his mind, over and over again … his life was in the hands of a maniac.
“Well Alice this is it,” said Secta, cheerfully. “You’re going to be immortal … well, the hologram of you is … Unfortunately, your physical being will be vaporised. But your spirit will live on, the hologram will replace you. Well at least I think it will.
“Your fans will be sad to hear about the accident that took your life, but at least they’ll be able to see you as a holographic display at the new Powerhouse Museum. I think it’ll be a hit, don’t you?”
With a macabre chuckle, Secta returned to his computer and slipped on a pair of goggles. Spidery fluorescent green veins appeared on the backs of Alice’s hands, then spread up his arms, disappearing under his shirt. They re-emerged on his neck and began to cover his face.
Alice’s mind was swimming. His heart was pounding ten to the dozen, he had to fight with every breath to avoid passing out. An ice-cold patina of sweat broke all over his body. This has to be death, this bastard is killing me … killing me … The words resounded in his mind like a sort of psychogenic loop. A montage of memory snaps flicked past like a slide show… playing with the band, Stain smiling, a coin flipping over in the air. Mal repeating, over and over: You’re crazy man, they’ll buttbang yer.
Secta moved quickly around the chair and grasped a lever protruding from a panel of digital instruments on the wall. He pulled the lever, triggering a flurry of glowing electronic impulses and sparks in the bowl over Alice’s head.
Alice started to shake uncontrollably, as though being electrocuted. His body began to glow. He stared disbelievingly at his hands, and his mouth opened in a silent scream. He felt no pain, only fear — not so much fear of dying, as fear of the unknown. He’d never been religious, but for a fleeting moment he hoped he’d been wrong and that there was a god, because if there was, he was about to make his acquaintance.
The pandemonium from the individual instruments and the arcing of electronics under stress reached an almighty, pulsating crescendo, and Alice’s entire body began to shift in and out of focus. The world around him exploded into a vast array of colourful atoms. Tiny, revolving stars appeared in their millions, seemingly alive and moving with purpose. He was shooting through them at speed — and yet, he could look down and see himself in the strange chair, sliding in and out of focus like a blinking fluorescent light. A yellow-violet haze engulfed him … He felt free.
Alice had physically transformed into nothing more than a rotating ball of colourful molecular particles that were sucked up into the bowl, leaving nothing behind. No leather coat, no scarlet boots, no Alice … just an empty chair and the 8-ball, which rolled onto the floor.
The lights on the digital instruments blinked off. The electronic cacophony ceased. A deathly silence filled the laboratory. Secta’s demolecularizer had done its job: the world was rid of Black Alice.
Pleased with himself and the successful execution of his ‘experiment’, Secta noticed the 8-ball on the floor. He stooped and picked it up, pocketing it cheerfully as he walked happily out of the lab.
“So that’s how it happened,” Alice said, his interest piqued. “I remember none of that.”
“Now comes the interesting part in which I played a small but significant role,” En-Ki admitted.
Djard’s flight had brought her to another dusty, cobwebbed room. She knew Ex and his gang weren’t far behind, but was intrigued by what she saw in the gloom. In the centre of the room stood a round, rusted metal pedestal, chest-height from the floor and a metre in diameter. The sound of approaching footsteps reminded her that her pursuers were close. There was no time to run. She stepped into the shadows to hide.
Ex entered and walked slowly over to the pedestal, followed cautiously by Derg, Karn and Chez. Ex gingerly prodded the metal platform with the tip of his sword. While Ex was preoccupied with the pedestal, Djard gently eased further away. She bumped into a metal pylon and a huge cobweb suspended from it. The sensation sent a shiver though her as she wondered where the spider big enough to make such a huge web would be hiding. Then she noticed a panel attached to the pylon, with pretty red and green buttons. They intrigued her. She felt drawn to them. She brushed the cobwebs off the panel, and pressed the green button. Instantly a deafening, thunderous roar resounded throughout the room.
Ex leapt back from the pedestal in shock as a bright red laser shot from high up in the ceiling and struck its centre with a loud crack. Powerful heavy metal music rang out from huge speakers suspended from the gantry. The percussive vibration from the drums caused the dust of ages to billow from the huge speaker cones and rain down on the whole party.
Ex was spinning in a circle with his sword held out, totally overwhelmed by the whole shebang. Derg, Karn and Chez didn’t seem to know which direction to defend. But Djard couldn’t take her eyes off the red laser beam, because she could see something manifesting on the pedestal inside it. Bravely, she moved closer to see what it was.
Thinking it some kind of strange magic, Ex was also attracted to the pedestal. None of them had seen anything like it before. Then, right before their eyes, a digital marvel coalesced: a life-sized human skeleton materialized, followed by the musculature wrapped around it. Gradually, skin and clothing covered the body — a white dress shirt, black trousers, red boots, a long black trench coat. Then a head, a face, a long ponytail. Finally, the creature sprang to life and burst into song. As the apparition performed, it faded in and out of focus. Djard, Ex, Derg, Karn and Chez had no idea that the image was a hologram of Black Alice. But they could all see that it didn’t perceive their presence.
The music was powerful, a Black Alice original with lyrics about the world going wrong and the threat of war: Reck. The Alice hologram sang:
I say something’s going on
And I’m sick and tired of
The world going wrong
I say if we leave it any longer
Then the boots of war
Will tread us under
That’s a little on the sci-fi
But I might be right
Who can say?
The meaning was completely lost on the audience. But they were nevertheless in awe of the incredible performance they were witnessing.
Fear grows, rock ’n roll
Tells all and points the way
You know the yellow brick road
Well, the overpass was built to stay
That’s a little on the sci-fi
But I might be right
Who can say?
Feeling that it posed no threat to her, Djard moved in for a closer look at the hologram. Reaching out, she tried to touch it, but retracted her hand quickly when it passed right through the image. That didn’t impress Ex. He felt threatened, and raised his sword in defence.
Let’s get our act together
Why must we fight
In the name of peace?
War we can do without
Come on, let’s scream
And shout it out.
You know love grows
When the tree of peace
Is left growing free
And it’s time
To let the world know
If we want to keep living
Then let’s plant the seeds
That’s a little on the sci-fi
But I might be right
Who can say?
As the song reached its climax, with the chorus chanting like a protest march: ‘One two three four we don’t want nuclear war, five six seven eight, we don’t want to radiate’, Alice’s movements became more and more animated. Moved by the emotion of the music, Djard mirrored them. Then Alice seemed to look directly into Ex’s eyes. Ex grasped the hilt of his sword with both hands and, with an almighty swing, struck out at the hologram. The blade passed straight through, and Ex very nearly swung himself off his feet. The tempered steel blade cutting through the particle field caused the hologram to erupt into a wall of blue swirling energy. The music suddenly ceased.