Did You Pass 4

Mike did his special knock and they waited a short while before Mystic opened the door.
Mystic raised one of his eyebrows giving them a quizzical look before he said
“You two look bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning.”

It would have been easy to miss the faint edge in Mystic’s voice and misconstrue his question for a compliment.
Neither of them did but they didn’t respond and so Mystic said
“You are soon back Princess…”

“I’ll explain later.” she replied “I want a word with Leo first.”

“Very well. He was in the garden…”

“How did you know it was the Princess, Mystic?”

“How do you know I’m Mystic?” he said in a typical cryptic response.

“I need to have a word with the Buddhi.”

A searching look and then “He was also in the garden.”

I sensed Mystic was troubled about something. I wondered if he was concerned that there could be problems with the Princess’s parents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mike found the Buddhi in the garden just as he was about ready to go back inside.

“I'm afraid there are a few problems...
The Princess couldn’t leave the University because of a problem with her E&M scan… she couldn't get one.
She took an available Uni surrogate to R2 (Reality Reorientation) but they said that they couldn’t give her clearance to leave the University without a valid E&M.”

“Of course, I enabled scanning password protection didn’t I.
So she hasn’t been able to contact her parents?”

“The University set up a Conference link with the Sengi Palace and everything was sorted out for the moment but I think the Princess will need to go home fairly soon or there will be a Royal protest.”

“It shouldn’t be hard to sort out I’ll just remove the password protection just long enough for them to get an E&M scan from Fliss and that should solve the problem.” said the Buddhi.
He looked at me waiting for a nod or some sign of agreement then he said
“Ah, there is more to it then…?”

“Well, as you know I went to Fliss’s flat to keep an eye on her and, well, we got a bit carried away…”

“No need to worry about that Mike. The E&M file for the Princess will not record what Fliss did when the Princess was absent.”

“Errr, well. It’s a bit complicated…”

“Let’s sit on the garden bench Mike and you can tell me all about it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I explained to the Buddhi that Fliss and I had been listening to music and it had somehow become amorous.
Things seemed to be going well and we had a real sense of oneness and I had though it might be interesting to see what it would be like to be her as well as me.
Concentrating on trying to become Fliss had started to drain the passion but with one last, almighty effort, I had succeeded in becoming Fliss.
The problem was I had stopped being Mike!

It turned out that the Princess had returned from Uni and tried to project into Fliss but, probably because I was trying to do the same thing, she could not.
As soon as I succeeded in becoming Fliss the Princess had somehow become Mike.

The Buddhi had laughed and explained that it had been so difficult because it was almost impossible to be two people at the same time.
So, as I was pushing into Fliss she was ‘overflowing’ into me.
When I suddenly became Fliss then the Princess managed to become Fliss but Fliss was Mike.

The Buddhi had stared at me very intently for a while after he had given me his explanation and then he said “Very, interesting Mike!
It started out quite uncomfortably for you but in the end all three of you had a very special time.”

It wasn’t until he said that that I realised that Fliss had been part of the mix too.
Somewhere in the middle of it all I’m not sure that any one of us was sure who they were and perhaps for a while we were all one and the same.

I tried to remember at which part of the proceedings I had become myself again. Everything seemed so blurred...
'I wouldn’t mind a E&M scan of it all myself'!
I thought.

The Buddhi pointed out that it was only Fliss’s memories that were in danger of being scanned as she was the only Host (officially) and since for most of the time I was Fliss it wouldn’t appear on the Princess’s E&M anyway.
However, he said that so long as Fliss came to see him before the Princess tried another scan he was confident he could remove anything that might be troublesome.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Princess and Leo had gone out through the garden fence and were walking slowly down the path toward the woods that led on to the old cemetery.

"I didn’t expect to see you back so soon Princess.”

“Do you still love me Jared?”

“I thought we were never going to use our real names in the Sim?”

“Nobody can hear us.” said the Princess defensively.

“I can hear you, and so can my Host.”

“Well, you call me Princess…”

“People think that just a pet name…”

“Do you still love me or not?”

“Of course I still love you, I will always love you.”

The Princess looked unhappy and said “I’ve made love.”

“What! What’s it like?”

“Don’t you want to know who with?”

“Well, with Mike obviously. Was it wonderful?”

“You, you don’t mind?”

“Well, I mind a bit, I’d like to have been first…
But I’m happy to wait and I knew you were not.
I could see the strain, the unhappiness...”

“Oh, I love you so much Jared!” said the Princess, bursting into tears.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mike was wondering what to say to Leo.
He was hoping to have a quick word with the Princess before he talked with Leo - to get some idea of how Leo was taking the news about the night before.

It was a funny thing that sudden impulse to try and be both himself and Fliss.
In retrospect it didn’t really seem like something he would choose to do…
Still, it couldn’t have been an influence from anyone else - the Buddhi had seen to that.
Perhaps I’m feeling a bit guilty about it and trying to find someone else to blame...
Lucky, then, that the Princess returned and took me as a Host… but if she could do it… ah, but that was because she was linked to Fliss…

Surely no-one could have foreseen that things would turn out the way they did… expecting that the Princess would be back at the Palace… me into Fliss, someone else into me... but why, who could possibly gain from it?
No, it was far too unlikely… who would know that the Princess would be away? Come on Mike, face it. You ARE just looking for someone else to blame.

Mike still felt something was wrong, he was missing something… there was something about Mystic this morning… what was it? He hadn’t quite seemed himself, he somehow reminded Mike of… a Mxrykzi! That was it! A Vulcan!

No! It couldn’t be that because Mystic would never allow himself to be a Host for a Mxrykzi and anyway the Buddhi had fixed it so that neither Mystic nor Mike could be used as Hosts…
But then the Princess had used Mike as a Host…
Could the Buddhi be in on it too?
God, I’m getting so paranoid. It comes from thinking too much.
I’ll go look for the Princess.