Lovers' Hologram Museum
I woke up to the light of sunbeams coming from a window, and the smell of warm palm tree leaves. I could almost hear birds chirping somewhere and the lazy swaying buzz of life, beyond a distance. At first, I couldn't see much of anything... just light. Then, there was a contour of a white window pane.
“Hello there”, I heard a voice.
Someone checked my temperature. It was a nurse. I could feel electrodes on my temples, my chest and my ankles.
“You're going to be fine! Excellent”, she spoke again and her accent had something unusual in it.
I could hardly lift my head to look around. I felt a bit drowsy and heavy. I could hardly move.
“Take it easy”, she warned me. “It's been a long time. Your limbs need to recover and your body to adjust to the air and gravity again.”
I couldn't understand why I needed to adjust to air and gravity. Had I been in space?
My vision cleared up in a few minutes and I could see the window much better. It was an unusual round window. Outside, multiple devices were flying around. They looked like people in space suits, wearing backpacks with propellers and rocket lights. They zoomed in and out of sight, like tiny rainbows in the sky, drawing invisible paths in the sunlight. Soon, I noticed they were sprinkling water from high above, on an endless valley that looked like an orchard of orange trees in bloom.
I wondered if I could be dreaming. I wondered if I was still in the snow, frozen. I tried to sit up.
The nurse immediately placed the pillow under my head, prompting it against the wall. The pillow was weird: it took the shape of my neck and wrapped around it like a sponge.
“What is this? Where am I?”
“You're in a hospital in Alaska. We thought it would be fitting to bring you back to where we found you. The public wanted to see you wake up in the museum, but we decided it was better for your safety to defrost you in a medical facility.”
It didn't make any sense to me. “What museum? What public?” The nurse smiled.
“You're a worldwide event. You and your girlfriend... The Lovers Underwater. It's your Museum, that's where you stayed before you were brought here, to us. Your girlfriend is in the room next to yours. She's still asleep, but has been defrosted too, successfully I might add, and she's fine. You'll see her soon! Aren't you happy? Wow, I'm so glad to be talking to the underwater lovers! It's so romantic...”
“Why underwater? We were under snow!”
“Yes and no... your helicopter was swallowed by the ocean and encased in ice. It froze under the water. That was how your bodies were preserved. The water saved you from weather damage. At that time, they didn't know how to light the spark in cryogenic subjects. We do now, obviously... You're the first ones to come to life after having been completely frozen. Alaska was covered by water then, but things have changed nowadays.”
I looked at the window.
“It can't be true... this isn't Alaska. Where am I, really? Is this another planet? Or some kind of heaven? ”
The nurse sat in a white chair that seemed to float like a crib around the room. At that point, I was sure I was dreaming and I was still frozen in the helicopter, hallucinating.
“I understand your confusion”, she kept on smiling. “However, it will become clear to you if you simply ask the right questions. The first one you should ask is not where, but when. You have woken up exactly one hundred and five years, two months and ten days from the moment you froze in the snow storm. This is the Earth that has evolved while you were asleep. It's not another planet, it's just a new improved one, with a perfect environment and system that sustains life in any form. The people who found you and your girlfriend frozen in the snow didn't know how to revive you back then, so they decided to keep you frozen until the precise technology was invented and it was safe to bring you to life in good condition. You had to wait an entire century to wake up again... slightly more than a hundred years. I'm glad I was part of that historic moment, the first frozen human subjects to defrost and set alive again! This happened one week ago. The process of defrosting took a few days. It needed to be done slowly and carefully. For this purpose, you've been transferred from the museum to the hospital. Actually, we hardly call them hospitals anymore. They're just health clinics. People don't get sick nowadays like they used to in the past. Anyway, this clinic is much better for you than the museum.”
“What museum?”
“I told you, the museum of Lovers Underwater, of course. You were kept in a frozen environment, a museum for the public to visit. It was dedicated to you. They didn't believe you'd wake up again, but hoped anyway... It's such a nice story to tell: the founder of the fresh forests and the pilot who flew her from one station to another, embracing forever under the frozen water... the world just couldn't let you go that easily. You were on display, frozen inside the helicopter for years... decade after decade... We wanted to keep you around... because your story was about hope, life, endless possibilities and most importantly, believing in love. And we need that, more than anything. We need to believe in love.”
If that dream was true or just a vision, I knew it had started to make sense.
Either my subconscious was playing tricks on me, or I had really opened my eyes into a world of the future.
I looked around attentively. Everything seemed different in some way. Only nature outside was familiar. The rest was completely new: the room, the technology, the endless possibilities, as the nurse had said... the speech manners, people's appearance, the objects and the colors in the sky... even sunlight glowed differently somehow.
It had to be true: I was alive, in a new time and a new world. I felt like a new person too.
I wondered if Seloren would share my enthusiasm. “We can have that vacation now... after one hundred years”, I thought amused.
I didn't care if it was a dream or the new reality: I wanted to see her again.,
The nurse took a remote control from the glass table and the room suddenly filled with trees and colorful birds, flying around, brightening the room. An orange sparrow sat on the edge of my bed, a green parrot landed on the floating chair and a multitude of hummingbirds kept circling the lamp, while sunlight glimmered on the leaves and branches that spread across the room.
I almost sat up when a pigeon flew over my head. The nurse smiled.
“Don't worry, it's just a relaxing program for patients. Everything's a hologram. This is the tropical setting. You can choose something else, if you prefer. Here.”
She handed me the remote control. It was a small sphere with a yellow and blue dot, blinking alternatively, like tiny eyes. My finger touched the yellow one and the birds vanished along with the leaves. Instead, fields of swaying wheat and rye covered the floor. Butterflies and bees swarmed happily in the air. Kites flew up to the ceiling, swinging lazily above my head in pastel colors.
I touched the blue button and the fields were replaced by turquoise waves, rising up the walls, turning into deep dark blue on the floor, as if it opened down to the ocean. Dolphins, whales and goldfish moved swiftly across the room, floating by. I watched the underwater view before my eyes, amazed at how easily it appeared and disappeared when I changed the setting.
The nurse smiled:
“I'll let you play with it. I'll see you later to bring you some tea. You have to start drinking something and the first fluid will be some warm, calming herbal tea.”
She left and I sat up, adjusting my head on the melting pillow that changed its shape to make me comfortable. Browsing through the hologram settings, I came across a city street. Traffic lights and cars filled the room. And then, I saw a black Jeep rushing by. The image startled me: the car was exactly like the one that had been following me during the months prior to the freezing event. The Jeep advanced towards me and crossed the room, its wheels leaving no traces as it disappeared into the wall. I clicked on the setting and started it again. There was no mistake: its dark windshield, metal front like teeth made of steel bars, thick tires and four silver headlights – it was the same.
It dawned in my mind that something was wrong. The Jeep setting should not have been there, among the holograms. I looked out the window: what if the orange orchard was an illusion too? Something didn't add up. I had to find Seloren.
I got out of the bed. I felt dizzy and I paused for a while, leaning on the glass table. It moved sideways, sliding on the floor. I took my hands off it. I had to rely on my own feet only.
The hospital hall was silent and empty. I had an unexplained certainty that I was being watched from somewhere. I stepped on the cold floor with bare feet. There was light under the translucent glass I walked on. I checked a few doors. Rooms were uninhabited: empty beds, dim light, windowless walls. I found her at the end of the corridor.
She was asleep. In the middle of the room I saw the lake that we had visited near the cabin in the woods, on our “honeymoon” trip. The shore looked the same. The mountains melted into the walls, cliffs stretching to the sky exactly as they were in reality.
I sat next to the bed, watching her sleep. She seemed so peaceful and content, I almost didn't want to wake her up. I touched her face gently. She opened her eyes and looked at me.
“Hi...” I said.
I didn't know if we were together again after one hundred years, or it was just a beautiful hologram.
“How did you get here?” she asked, half asleep. “I walked through the door.”
She smiled.
“Of course you did... I feel I'm having a hangover” she yawned. “What did we drink?”
“Maybe water... or more likely, snow. If we believe them, we didn't drink anything for a hundred years. That would explain this sudden thirst.”
She wanted to sit up, but couldn't and let her head rest on the molding pillow.
She looked around the room, confused.
I was similarly uncertain of where we were.
“Listen, Seloren. I must ask you: do you remember me?” She glanced at me sideways.
“What kind of question is this? I remember you, Ky.”
“That's good. It's a relief, actually. What about this view? Do you remember it?”
She stared at the hologram in the room.
“I think I know this place from somewhere... isn't it the cabin where we spent a weekend?”
“Yes! Exactly. The mountains and the lake... did you arrange the room to look this way?”
“I was asleep. I didn't arrange anything.”
I searched for the remote control. It was on the glass table.
I picked it up and started to change the settings. Suddenly, the walls became transparent and I could see a crowd of people beyond the room: unknown faces, eyes staring at us.
“Is this a hologram too?”
“I don't know. Are they real?”
I remembered what the nurse had said – if she was really a nurse.
“The Lovers Underwater Museum... We're there right now. We've been there this whole time!”
Seloren didn't seem to know what I was talking about. And then, some people in white robes came into the room.
“You have to go back”, they said and sprayed something in my face. I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I felt my head go numb.
“Wake up, Ky! Wake up!” I heard Seloren's voice in my ear.
I tried, but my body didn't move. “Wake up!”
I could feel her elbow nudging my shoulder. I started to open my eyes. My wrists hurt and soon I understood why: I was tied up.
We were in the Taxi together.
“Wake up, Ky! We have to get out of here! We're getting intoxicated.”
I couldn't believe we were back inside the Taxi we had escaped from a long time ago.
I broke the window with my feet again. I didn't know if I had the pocket knife in my jacket.
“Seloren, listen... this happened before. We got out and then went to the mountains and then to the artificial islands in the desert...”
“I don't understand what you're saying. You're having hallucinations. Try to keep your mind clear: how do we get out of this?”
There was an engine sound outside the garage. I looked through the broken window. The garage door lifted and there it was: the Jeep that had been following me. It stood there silently, on the driveway, waiting. I wondered who was inside.
And then, there was another question in my mind: had anything been real between me and Seloren? Had anything been a true experience, from what we had lived together? Had we gone through a program, from one hologram setting to another? At what point did it start a virtual tour of illusions, if everything was a display of our life, a set up environment inside a museum for others to watch? Did she even love me? Was Seloren real, after all? Had she been a projection of the museum, an invention, a dream, an ideal from my mind?
I wasn't sure I could distinguish the moment when reality had turned into a series of incredible events and what part of my experience with her had been just a swirling dream. In what way had she been mine? How could I know if her heart felt something for me or it had been just a movie where she continued to play a role, set up in a holographic arrangement?
Suddenly, I was more concerned about Seloren's authenticity, instead of the Jeep that was lurking in the background.
I turned and looked at her. She stared at me, not able to comprehend what was going on in my head.
“Kiss me”, I said. “What?”
We were tied up, hands behind our backs. The Jeep was still waiting by the garage door.
“Kiss me,damn it!”
“Are you out of your mind? Is this the right moment for it, Ky?”
“Just kiss me, so I'll know you're real!”
“Can't you wait until we get out of here?”
“No! Do it now, and hurry up!”
“Okay, as you wish. Great place to make out, I have to say... ”
She leaned closer, moving on the backseat of the car until her face was touching mine. I could feel her nose brushing my skin. Her head tilted sideways. I did the opposite thing and then her lips met mine. We were in an uncomfortable position, but just the right one, in an unexpected way. Her mouth felt real, determined yet soft. She insisted to wake me up from my doubts. I kissed her and couldn't deny it was the way I knew it would feel.
We closed our eyes and when we opened them again, we were inside the helicopter that had been covered by snow. It was cold. I was freezing. She was wrapped in my jacket and we were embracing in the increasing frost of low temperatures.
“How did we get in here?” I asked her. “This was a hundred years ago!”
“It was twenty minutes ago, and I hope it won't continue like this for too long, cause I'm about to go numb.”
“Don't go numb, you need to stay warm. We both do.”
“And how are we supposed to accomplish that?”
I looked around.
I didn't understand why I kept waking up in different moments of our time together, but the silence of the helicopter, totally caught in snow, seemed clear and implacably real.
“Are you gonna ask me to kiss you again?” she said.
I stared at her.
“So you remember? You were in that Taxi with me, just a while ago, weren't you!”
“What Taxi? Look around, we're in the snow in the middle of the frozen ocean.”
“Don't lie to me! You said we just kissed.”
“Yes, because we did.”
“And where did we do that?”
“Here. Right here, Ky. What's going on with you? Are you having visions from the cold?”
“I think I'm having visions from the future.”
“I hope it's a future where you and I get to a warmer place...”
“I'm sure we will, but I don't know when exactly or what that place is.”
I closed my eyes for a second.
I opened them and looked around again: I was in the hospital, covered by white sheets. The nurse took the remote from my hand.
“You'd better rest now”, she said.
“What is this place? How long have I been in this hologram?”
She changed the setting and immediately dunes of sand spread on the floor. Ocean waves swept in from the door, moving back and forth under the glass table. I recognized the azure water.
It was dizzying and almost disheartening to jump from one reality to another only to see it disappear again. I felt deprived of something important, something essential that I had believed in.
“So was any of it real? How did I get in here again?”
“Everything was real”, the nurse replied calmly. “And you've always been here.”
“Since when, exactly?”
“Since forever.”
“That's not an answer. And what about Seloren? She can't be a hologram too! I met her when we were teenagers! I knew her long ago... long before this museum anyway.”
“I'm afraid perception is a relative thing.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You can't be sure of what you know, or what you see. You don't even know where you are.”
“So where am I?”
“Wherever you want to be.”
“You're not making any sense. I want to get out of here.”
“Out is not an option. Inside, you can be anywhere you choose. Do you want the remote control?”
I wanted to find a way out of there. It was clear to me I was confined to that room, while Seloren was away somewhere else and the truth was concealed from us. I wanted to be free. I knew the remote was just a toy to keep me occupied, although, on a certain level, I wondered if it could actually be more than that. I also knew I couldn't rely on what I was being told. I was also sleepy.
I closed my eyes unwillingly, and another vision from the past appeared: I was on the balcony of the main building in the desert eco-station. Seloren was behind me. I could feel her arms around me and her head resting on my shoulder, while the irrigation pipes kept sprinkling water in the night, somewhere below us. I struggled to wake up: I knew, no matter where I went in the past, that I would still return to that hologram museum, or whatever it was.
The nurse had left while I had been half asleep.
I got out of bed. I could have retraced my steps to Seloren's room, but I knew I had to find a way out first, and then look for her.
I tiptoed into the corridor. There was an elevator door at the end of the hall. The elevator was a glass chamber with illuminated screens on its walls. Numbers and words ran on the glass, bright yellow and blue, green and red. I randomly touched one of the screens and the chamber moved up, closing its doors. From one floor to another, I could see the metal skeleton of the building, steel bars and an electric structure that seemed a mess of complicated wires and platforms that went in many directions. The elevator stopped at the top floor. The glass chamber was out of the building, on a terrace. I knew it wasn't a hologram because as soon as the doors opened I could see the gray sky and the blizzard rushed in, freezing cold. The temperature was real. I stepped outside.
I was on top of the building, a concrete square with a wide circle for helicopter landing drawn on it. The most unexpected thing was that I didn't see anywhere the orange trees orchard, the sunny skies, the rainbows or the people in flying spacesuits. There was only water around, to the horizon and back: everywhere I turned, I could see only agitated waves and gray clouds. I was on a platform, in the middle of the ocean.
I returned inside the elevator. There was nothing for me to do on top of that platform. There was no helicopter and no way of getting off it. The cold atmosphere made it difficult to stay outside in just a hospital robe.
I made the elevator go down. I didn't know how to stop it and what floor I could find Seloren, so I ended up in the basement. The elevator took me to the bottom level. It was a big parking place, a garage that gathered many types of vehicles: boats, cars, small planes and ski jets. I walked around, wondering if I could use any of them to get out of that platform on the ocean.
By the outside entrance I saw the Jeep that had followed me in the past. It looked brand new, with its metal bars like grinning teeth. It was shiny and silent, but one door stood slightly open. I looked inside: nothing unusual, just an ordinary car. Something about it though, seemed odd, for some unexplained reason. I noticed the hood of the Jeep was warm. Someone had been driving it recently. Where? I wondered, since we were in the middle of the ocean. I could hear the waves smashing against the steel pillars of the platform, below my feet. And an echo sound, as if coming from a tunnel.
I noticed a file on the driver's seat. I opened it and the first page had a few content titles with different years: Following Ky report. Report of Ky and Seloren meeting. Keeping Ky away from Seloren. Journey to the surface. Prevent Ky from providing help. Find the USB, keep Seloren away from the conference. Nuclear underground shutdown. Alaska icebergs melting. How to prevent it: inevitable outcome. Helicopter transmission jam: the snow storm. Keep Ky and Seloren in hologram museum. Keep them frozen asleep. I suddenly understood why there had been people on a mission to separate us: to maintain the power of the underground nuclear experiments, which her scientific analysis of the radiation had provided a reason for shutting them down. Somehow, I had always known it. And it didn't matter anymore: it was already a thing of the past. Or was it really? I wondered about the tunnel under the ocean. Where did it go?
“You shouldn't be down here”, someone said and I saw one of the people in white robes.
I knew I had to return upstairs to my room. I stepped away from the Jeep, leaving the files where I had found them. Why the vehicle was still warm, it bothered me. It had to have traveled under the ocean... to do what? What was down there anyway?
“Let's go. I don't want to put you back to sleep. You need to have your tea, it's waiting for you.”
I walked inside the elevator and was taken back to my room, where they had brought a tray with a mug of herbal tea and some dry fruit.
I sat on the bed, sipping tea and munching pieces of dry apricots and pineapples, while the nurse changed the scenery to a bright meadow.
“Would you like some palm trees too?” she asked me.
“Yes, palm trees would be very nice. Thank you.”
“We're here to make you happy”, she smiled and clicked the remote.
Palm trees appeared in the corners of the room, one right by the bed, swaying its branches in the sun. I wanted to ask her why we were in the middle of the ocean, but she had already lied about it, so I didn't think she would tell me the truth. So I didn't ask. The window was obviously a virtual scenery too.
I had no idea what year it was and how far into the future I had been brought back to life. From the technology inside the building, it looked a lot more advanced than anything I had known before, so I figured something from what I'd been told had to be true: I was in the future, more or less... yet what future? Was the whole planet covered by water? Was that building isolated, were there more of them? Was a nuclear base under the ocean? Were people living only among holograms, with remote controls in empty rooms? Was there always a storm outside, a gray sky, a blizzard blowing snow flakes and high waves on the water surface? Were there only dry fruit left?
Many questions ran through my mind.
“Your blood pressure is rising”, the nurse said, looking at a monitor above my head, something I couldn't see behind me.
It must have been some device inside the wall.
“No need to become anxious. Your girlfriend is just in the other room, sleeping. And you'll be fine, both of you.”
I focused on the tea, trying to calm down. She smiled.
“There. That's better. I'll let you rest. You have the remote here on the table.” And she left.