Spaceland

Read Spaceland for Free Online

Book: Read Spaceland for Free Online
Authors: Rudy Rucker
I have every confidence that you are the one for our Great Work. That clever machine of yours; it’s what attracted me.”
    â€œThe 3Set? I didn’t build it. Spazz. Grotty did. He’s the one you should be talking with.”
    â€œBut you’re the project manager. The dog that wags the tail. The spoon that stirs the coffee. The brains behind the brawn. The engineer in the locomotive. The quarterback.”
    I recognized the empty, parroted phrases; they were expressions I’d used in a self-evaluation I’d been working on for Ken Wong. Sheer horse manure. Momo must have read the copy in my briefcase. It was ironic to have my words come back at me this way.
    â€œSpazz is the guy you want,” I repeated. “I don’t even know what
the fourth dimension is. And I don’t want to know, either. I think we’re done here.” I turned to walk away.
    A sharp pain down inside my stomach brought me up short.
    â€œStop it,” I said. Momo was standing right behind me, one arm pointing at me, with the end tapering off to nothing as it had before when she’d put her finger into my mouth.
    â€œI will augment you now,” she said.
    â€œI don’t want to get augmented! Whatever the hell that means. If you augment me I’ll die.”
    â€œFear not. As far as Spaceland goes, you’ll be the same as before—but stronger and able to see through walls. The augmenting occurs outside of Spaceland. I’ll stimulate your body to a four dimensional burst of growth. Your pineal gland will send an eye-tipped stalk vout into the All, while your muscles and skin will grow to cover your vinner and vouter sides. My family passed down the secrets for initiating the process. I’ve studied well, and I’m confident of our success. You’ll be a complete four-dimensional being, albeit of very modest hyperthickness along your vinn/vout axis. Ready to help with the Great Work.”
    â€œVinn and vout?” I challenged blindly. “Those aren’t words.”
    â€œIf you were a two-dimensional gingerbread man and your planet a flat disk upon whose rim you walked, you’d know of only two dimensions. You’d have an up and down, and you’d have a left and right,” said Momo calmly. “You wouldn’t be aware that your body had a front side and a back side. There would be a whole other direction beyond your imagining. The third dimension. The fourth dimension is like that for you, Joe Cube of Spaceland. You know about up and down, left and right, front and back. But there’s another direction of your body that you can’t imagine. The fourth dimension. Your vinn and vout. As I said, I’m going to give you skin to cover your vinner and vouter sides.”
    I wanted to run away, but I could feel Momo’s hand like a rock
nside my stomach. I had the feeling that if I took another step she’d tear a hole in me.
    â€œShow me vout,” I said. If nothing else, this might get her hand out from inside me.
    The pain in my stomach went away. Momo held out her arm with a wobbly hand pointing at me. And then she moved her shoulder and her arm disappeared, first the hand, then the forearm, and then the rest of it. “This is vout,” she said. “Now I’ll point vinn.” Her arm grew back: biceps, elbow, wrist and fingers, and then it disappeared again, much as it had before. I shivered. I never had managed to get my jacket, and I was getting cold.
    â€œAll you did was make your arm invisible,” I said. “Two times.” I could hear the whizz of the cars on the highway. The wind had risen a little and was tossing around the trees. I shivered again. I wanted to think this was a bad dream. But there were too many details for a dream. How long was it going to continue?
    â€œHow do you imagine that I carried you through the wall of your dwelling?” asked Momo.
    â€œYou dematerialized the wall. Used a

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