Warped

The sun was cold.

Katrina was watching the sun set peacefully, but just as it disappeared over the horizon, it slowly come up again. Cold. It was black, giving off no light, no warmth, as bleak and dull as the surface of Mars.

Katrina blinked hard until dark spots appeared in front of her eyes, but the view didn't change. She shivered and stared. The sun rose again gradually, then sunk below the opposite horizon. Without light, she could look at it directly, with no more harm done than if it had been the moon. Without light, it could be mistaken for the moon. It could be the moon.

But even as she thought it, the moon rose to take its place. The stars twinkled once, then they and the moon were gone again, and the black sun dominated the empty grey sky.

The cycle spun faster, and Katrina's head spin with it. Stars circled their great lady, the moon, in a mesmerising dance, then gave way to the sun, the majestic lord who firmly refused to join them. Then he too was gone, and the moon appeared again. The sun rose again, then disappeared, and the dance continued. Again and again it circled, and Katrina watched until she grew dizzy.

Suddenly it stopped. A strong vibration almost knocked Katrina off her feet, and when she regained her balance, everything was still.

The moon hung delicately in the sky, as if a single movement from the stars around it would send it falling down to the earth below. On the edge of the horizon, barely visible, lay the sun. Everything was black.

*****

"Daylight malfunction on Earth-3!"

"Light visibility malfunction on Earth-3!"

"Thermal malfunction on Earth-3!"

Cecilia leant over Rosemary's shoulder to look at the monitor. The screen showed the simulation sun and moon racing each other across the sky. Cecilia strode off to inspect another monitor, but Rosemary called her back.

"Celia, what do I do with it?"

She thought about it for a moment before answering. "Shut it down."

"What?"

I should never have let my little sister have this job. "Shut down the daylight cycle."

Rosemary opened her mouth to protest, then thought better of it. This Cecilia was one she would never have recognised as the quiet, shy Celia at home. Her so sweet, so quiet voice was loud and commanding, and her grey-blue eyes flashed.

She moved on to the next monitor. "What's the problem here, Lia?"

Ophelia tapped the screen to display a 3D image of Earth-3. "The simulation sun has stopped giving light. The whole of Earth-3 has gone dark," she said.

Cecilia struggled to stay calm. This was her first malfunction, and she had no idea how to deal with it. She counted to ten silently before giving her orders.

"Try to get it running again. If the sun won't respond, maybe the moon will."

The third monitor beeped violently for attention, but she ignored it and walked to the door.

"But what do I do?" Asked the worker at the third monitor.

"Give the simulator some heat! Oh, and Paris?" She added, pausing at the door.

"Yes?"

"Don't pull the Trigger Switch." And she was gone.

*****

Finally, Katrina thought. It's warming up. After what had seemed like hours of shivering, blanket around her and tent overhead, she could finally get up and get something done. What a night for solo camping. She stepped out of her tent to get firewood for cooking -

Katrina turned around. The tent stood a few metres away. She put a hand to her head. She didn't feel feverish. She wasn't hallucinating. What had happened?

Cautiously she back away, her eyes still on the tent. Then -

She was sure she had only taken five steps. How was she already so far away?

Firewood. Fetch the firewood, she told herself. Ignore the fact that you're teleporting and just fetch the firewood.

She took a step towards the forest. Then another. She let out a sigh, relieved. She'd only imagined it after all. One more step towards the forest -

There were trees already behind her.

*****

"Helena, I don't know what to do!" Cecilia said. "Earth-3 is malfunctioning, everyone is looking to me for help and I don't know what to do. You've been through malfunctions before; You we're a manager of the SC once. Please help."

Helena frowned. "I don't know what's happening either. I'm sorry Celia, but the malfunctions in my time weren't this bad. An aeroplane that froze in the air, Northern Lights in America, rain on only one person ." She blushed. "I was at the weather controls when the rain happened."

A beep summoned Celia back to the Simulation Control room. Robin stood at the door, waiting for her.

"Report?" She said. Robin was shaking.

"Earth-3 malfunctions are worsening. Simulation inhabitants are beginning to panic. Malfunctions especially worth noting are warping, time loss..." He continued, but Cecilia had stopped listening at the word 'warping'.

What do I do? She thought. She was almost frantic, but she managed to keep it out of her voice as she answered. "Tell me more."

Robin tapped the sensor on his wrist. Images began to appear, morphing as he spoke.

"When the warping began, it was small. People warped a few feet, a few metres at most. After two simulation hours, they were warping up to ten metres. Two more hours and they were warping miles. Now simulation inhabitants are warping across whole countries. Death counts are rising as people warp into oceans, or underground."

Suddenly his professional air dropped, and he looked at Cecilia with the pleading eyes of a small boy asking his mother for help, believing that she could do anything. "What do I do?"

Cecilia felt lost. Everyone was asking her what to do, when she was asking the same question herself. They all expected her to get them through the disaster somehow. They all trusted her blindly, and she was scared.

She pulled herself together.

"Get back to your stations everyone," she said loudly. "We're due for an Inspection in ten minutes, and I expect everything to be looking fixed, even if, especially if if it isn't. The malfunctions should be properly fixed by the time the Inspectors leave, so don't panic."

There was no Inspection due for another week, but Cecilia thought it would be better if they thought they had to prepare for it.

She continued. "I want everyone to cover up their malfunction as best they can; The Inspectors should see everything in working order. Ophelia, are the lights working yet?"

"Still not working. Sorry." Ophelia tensed up as if expecting punishment.

"Don't be sorry. This is your first malfunction." She relaxed. "Rose?"

Rosemary was clicking frantically on her own screen. She pushed herself away from the desk. "I don't know what's happening, Celia. I can't get anything to work. The cycle's stuck on Lunar and it's been twenty-six simulation hours." She looked pleadingly at her older sister.

"It's alright," Cecilia reassured her. "It sorts out Liam's problem at least. Set the time display to a naturally Lunar time."

A warmth spread over the company. They were united by a sense of conspiracy - No. Cecilia pushed that word away. They felt more like a team now, in the midst of chaos, than they ever had. Everyone felt comforted, convinced that they would pull through.

A green light alerted her to visitors at the Door. "That's the Inspection now." Who really is it? She wondered.

"Paris, is the thermal problem sorted?" Paris nodded. "Good. Well done. And Robin -" She hesitated. "Think of something to cover the warps."

*****

Katrina sat at the top of the hill, surveying the land below. With the teleporting getting worse, it was almost too risky to stand.

I wonder where my family is now, she thought. The last few hours had been chaos, and by now, with everyone teleporting unpredictably, company for any length of time was too much to ask for. It was a lonely world.

Katrina froze. Was that someone one the other hill? She stood up to see better and unconsciously took a step forward -

*****

Cecilia walked out of the control room muttering to herself, her eyes on the floor. How is my team going to react when they find the visitors aren't here for the Inspection? She thought. Suddenly something caught her eye, and she looked up.

A woman stood before her. A woman with her pale skin, her straight black hair, her grey-blue eyes. A woman clothed in a thin layer of mist that was now drifting gently away from her. A woman who looked exactly like Cecilia herself.

The two mirror images stared at each other for a moment. One of them flickered, then disappeared like the flame of a candle being blown out, leaving only a trail of mist behind.

Cecilia blinked twice. She must've imagined it.

The green light was getting stronger, so she hurried on to the Door. She pressed the combination and the Door opened, revealing a single person in official-looking clothes.

"Excuse me," the visitor said. "I've come for the Inspection."

"Come this way," said Cecilia. What do I do? I wasn't ready for this. She lead the visitor to the Simulation Control room. At least that's one problem dealt with, I suppose.

“May I inform my team of your arrival?” She asked when they were at the SC room door. The Inspector nodded, and she entered without him.

Everyone's eyes were on Cecilia as she closed the door behind her. “The Inspector is here, team,” she said. She gestured for Robin to come to her, asking if the warps were covered. He answered in the affirmative, and she opened the door for the Inspector to come in.

The room was as quiet as a schoolroom when the teacher enters. Rosemary suppressed a nervous giggle. The Inspector stood in the doorway for a minute, scanning the room and its inhabitants, before moving to Paris' monitor. He studied it closely, asking Paris questions, before moving on to Ophelia.

Cecilia held her breath when he came to Space Control, Robin's desk, but he merely glanced at the 3D images displayed and moved on.

As the Inspector reviewed the rest of them, Cecilia panicked inwardly. Despite what she had told her team, she still didn't know how to fix the glitches. Would they be shut down? Although naturally uninquisitive, she couldn't help the few frantic questions she asked herself. What would happen to the people inside the simulations? Her thoughts trailed back to the woman she had seen, her double. What would happen to her?

Cecilia realised that the Inspection was complete, and she left the room to assist the Inspector in finding the Door; It was a little unpredictable, prone to disappearing and appearing again in random places.

But as they turned the first corner, the Inspector quietly requested a private room, saying he wanted to talk to her confidentially.

A minute later they had found a comfortable room and were settled inside.

The Inspector cleared his throat. “I have something to tell you,” he began. “The glitches, or malfunctions, in your software were caused by me, or rather by the organization which I represent. The purpose was to see how you and your workers react in a crisis. Any after-effects of these glitches have already been straightened out, although I must say your team managed them efficiently; There weren't many to fix. Your ability to cope with disaster has been tested, and I congratulate you on your performance.”

Cecilia stared openly at him. “So – so you made the daylight cycle stop working?”

“Yes.”

“And the light?”

“Yes.”

“Heat?”

“Yes.”

“Warping?” What if he says 'no'? Cecilia didn't want to think about it.

“Yes.” Thank goodness.

“And the woman?” she added.

“What woman?”

“The one who appeared surrounded in mist. The one that looks like me.”

He hesitated for a reasonably long time, but Cecilia didn't seem to notice. She was reliving her encounter with the strange woman. “Yes, of course. Her too,” he said ungrammatically.

After the Inspector had left, Cecilia let out a sigh. Maybe she could finally get some rest.