The Soul Continuum by Simon West-Bulford Page B

memory of Salomi Deya, but I had to risk bringing you out prematurely, before I die. I could not invoke the neural flush that returns your mind back to who you truly are. Your brain configuration still matches Salomi’s, but your body is Salem Ben’s.
    â€œWhen you woke, I had to bring you to me, and the only way to do that was to contrive your death. You fell, and the Control Core would have detected the need to repair your body. The most efficient way for it to do that was to kill you so that a new body could be generated for you here in the genoplant. Your consciousness, as it stands, was transferred into Salem’s new body. The same is true for me. This body is only a few days old.”
    I stare at her. I think I understand what she says, and the evidence of my body persuades me to trust her, but I am stunned into silence. If it were not for my condition, I am sure that panic and fear would send me into shock.
    â€œI am going to tell you more,” she continues. “Things that you will find hard to understand, but you must accept what I say. So much depends on your complicity. Will you do as I ask?”
    It takes a few moments to find my voice. “That depends on what you ask me to do.”
    A tear rolls down her cheek as she grimaces. “Please!”
    â€œWhat do you want me to do?”
    â€œHere.” She reaches toward me with a trembling hand. There is something in her palm. A small green strip that looks like a data wafer. “It is an algorithmic implant. Peel off the backing, place it anywhere on your skin, and it will secrete a nanocode program into your bloodstream. Once inside, it will protect a small region of your brain where your higher reasoning will be given instructions on how to proceed. You will be given a mission that must remain secret, even to you. A quest for answers.”
    â€œWhy? Answers to what? I don’t understand.”
    The woman squirms inside her nest of cables to wrestle her pain into submission. “Soon you must go back, and when you do, you will forget everything that happened here. The answers you must look for are connected to an individual named Keitus Vieta. He is an aberration, a rogue entity, and his presence in this place—in this universe—is an anomaly.”
    â€œKeitus Vieta? I have seen him. He was the statue where the Absorption Tower should have been.”
    â€œYes, that was my doing. It is why I have connected myself to the Control Core. I had to instill in you the danger he poses. I reconfigured part of your brain while you were living Salomi’s life to prepare you before waking you. A little piece of Salem Ben was in your subconscious. Did you feel like two people were living inside you?”
    â€œI did, yes.” I smile in spite of myself. “I was very frightened, but I can’t remember what that feels like now.”
    â€œBut you remember the importance of that feeling?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThen you know why you must trust me and wear that patch. We have to learn more about him. We must understand him, and I must rely on you to find out the truth.”
    â€œYou said I had to go back. You mean me? Salomi?”
    â€œYes. The life must be completed so that Salem can return. When Salomi dies, and the memory of her life is complete, the neural flush will be triggered so that Salem’s mind can be returned to its former state. He . . . you will retain the memory you experienced inside the WOOM, but this conversation will be gone.”
    I look at the little green patch between my fingers. “And what does this do again?”
    â€œIt will not hurt you. It will just tell you what you need to do when you wake up as Salem.”
    â€œWhat if I don’t want to wake up as Salem?”
    She observes me, shocked, as if this was an unconsidered option. “You must.”
    â€œWhy?”
    Oluvia holds my gaze, but I can see distance in her eyes, as if holding on is becoming