Negative Energy

The In-Verse

On second glance, Ina wasn't actually in her underwear. She had simply rolled up the stretchy fabric of her unitard, which was in fact two pieces, leaving her limbs and midriff exposed.

She walked over to him and took hold of his shirt by the edges. "You'll want to ditch this. Raise your arms." When he did so, she pulled the shirt over his head and flung it unceremoniously down the hall.

Matt quelled himself just in time. In his stretch shorts, there would have been no hiding an erection. He glanced down at his body self-consciously, expecting to see the pale, sunken chest and bulging paunch of a middle-aged man. Instead, his torso had a varnished ripple fit to grace the cover of a fitness magazine. Now weren't they just a couple of hot bods? He felt an urge to giggle.

Ina tilted her head at him. "Something funny?"

"You touched a ticklish spot," he improvised. "Where did the furniture go?"

"It got reabsorbed back into the floor." Then, a second later, "Oh, that's right, you were around before polymat. I keep forgetting how ancient you are. You're practically an archeological relic. Think of polymat as programmable Play-Doh, but without the pee smell and greasy texture. It's pretty amazing stuff. You can make almost any ordinary object out of it. Anyway, ready for the main event?"

She guided him to the center of the room, where she turned to face the front wall. With a motion of her hand, the space before them filled with floating holographic tiles. When Matt focused on one, it pulled forward. When he looked away, it receded back into its original place.

"Show us adventures," Ina instructed. The tiles blurred and were replaced by a new set. "For a couple." Another blur and refresh. "Platonic couple," she amended with a slight catch in her voice. The next set of tiles featured considerably less bare flesh. "Any of these catch your eye?"

There was a skydiving scene, the Earth wheeling far below. Mountain hiking beneath a scenic Buddhist temple, white water rafting, sailing, safari, alpine skiing, spelunking, space walking, and countless others. Matt's gaze darted anxiously from tile to tile. They reminded him of the photos on Miriam's Facebook page—excursion packages for high-flying executives and entrepreneurial up-and-comers.

"I found the perfect one!" Ina beamed. "When I said full dive, I bet you didn't think I meant it literally."

Matt's heart leaped into his throat as an underwater scene enlarged to fill the entire view. Scuba diving! He could already feel the pressure of the water closing in. "No, I—"

Ina gently squeezed his hand. "Relax. You're going to love this, I promise. It will be like nothing you've ever felt before."

Matt quelled his fear, nodded.

The tile expanded, enveloping the room in a bottomless blue sky. Gulls swooped and screeched like daredevils. The floor was now a beach. It wasn't merely a visual trick but felt like real sand, sifting loosely between his toes. Waves rolled in with a sizzle and slid back with a hiss. Ina took a step forward, pulling him along by the hand. When they had gone a few steps, Matt froze, afraid of walking into a wall he couldn't see.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "The floor compensates for our motions, kind of like a treadmill. Just don't try running or make any sudden leaps. You need a bigger space for that. Come on, let's check out the water."

The wet sand at the surf's edge felt squishy and cool in contrast to the hot, dry sand further back. It was hard to believe that the same polymat material could create so many different textures.

"Whoa, Jesus!" Matt gasped as the first slap of cold water struck his bare feet. That was amazing!

Ina laughed at his side. "This really is your first time, isn't it? Genuine surprise like that is hard to fake. I never got to experience the In-Verse in that way, like beholding a miracle. The early versions were pretty lousy, body massages and creepy stuff like spiders crawling over your skin. By the time it got really good, I had come to take it for granted."

"It feels so real."

"Here's a peek behind the curtain." With a sweep of her hand, the beach scene turned partially transparent, revealing the familiar outline of the room behind it.

Matt was relieved to see that they were indeed still in the room's center. Projecting from the walls were tiny filaments as fine as spider silk. A line of filaments skittered up his calves as the waves rolled in, then receded as they rolled back.

"Polymat micro-fibers stimulate your touch receptors while lasers project the image onto your retinas," Ina said. "But the real illusionist here is the mind itself. The brain weaves the multi-sensory input into a scene consistent with its expectations of reality. Everyone experiences the In-Verse in a slightly different way, like a lucid dream."

"Wow," was all Matt could say. His eyes were telling him one thing—that his legs were enmeshed in a fine webbing—but his sense of touch was convinced it was something else—the lapping of wavelets on his calves.

Ina swept the room away with a gesture, restoring the perfect illusion of a beach. "Doing that for too long will give you a monster headache. Besides, it spoils the fun."

The water was up to Matt's groin now. He gasped at the momentary chill. Then it was tickling over his stomach. He felt a twinge of apprehension at the thought of all those filaments invading his mouth and nose, but the water stopped just short of his chest. Beside him, Ina pointed her arms and plunged into the onrushing face of a wave, the smooth backs of her legs disappearing beneath the shimmering surface.

Taking a deep breath, Matt steeled his determination and leaned into the next swell. Water rippled over his body like a silky sheet, and his head went under. When the swirl of sand cleared, he could see Ina paddling some distance ahead.

Come on, slowpoke, she pathed. Last one to the reef is a rotten egghead.

Matt extended his arms and began to swim. How was this even possible? The micro-filaments must be supporting his entire body weight, simulating resistance and buoyancy. To accommodate the act of breathing, a pocket of air formed around his mouth, fed by incoming streams of bubbles. Quite the illusion indeed.

The one thing the simulation lacked was the very thing Matt feared: the smothering weight of water. This swimming felt as effortless as gliding through air, and Ina's voice in his thoughts dispelled the sense of isolation that came from partial deafness.

They swam to a coral reef, a petrified garden inhabited by fish so boldly colorful they might have been painted in a kindergarten art class. A pair of stingrays rippled past. An octopus poked out of its grotto, taking on the bumpy texture of the surrounding coral. A shark cast its predatory shadow. Matt's flinch of fright was more like sensory spice than real panic. They took turns pointing out each new spectacle.

Matt had no idea how much time had passed when they finally came walking back out of the sea. After the coral reef, they had embarked on a treasure hunt for a sunken Spanish galleon, uncovering a chest of Aztec gold. The sea faded out, and they were surrounded by four walls once more. Matt was suddenly aware of their physical proximity. Without the simulated seascape, it was just their bodies, barely concealed by their form-fitting clothes and glistening from exertion. Ina's chest heaved to the rhythm of slow, deep breathing. When he gazed into her wide, dusky eyes, a bold thought occurred to him—what would it be like to make love to her? It was almost too much to imagine. He hadn't had actual sex in years—decades, he corrected himself.

He reached up to take the fabric of her form-fitting top by its lower edge, which was rolled up to just below her breasts. He pictured himself pulling it over her head and flinging it away, just as she had done for him. But he checked himself at the last moment, letting his hands fall limply to his sides. What crazy impulse had come over him? This was just his first day in the new world, and he barely knew her. "Thanks for... that," he swallowed. "You weren't kidding. It really was like nothing I've ever experienced."

Ina gave him a measured look as if weighing a decision, then rolled her top down to cover her navel. "I'm glad you liked it," she said, going to work on her legs and arms.

He accompanied her to the door where he stood facing her, fumbling for something to say.

Ina leaned in and gave him a lingering kiss on the cheek. "Take care of my precious Jemma. She means a lot to me." And with that, she turned and left.