Meanwhile…

  A hidden safehouse

  New Thrimp

  A world as yet unnamed

  ‘I can do a bit with each at the same time,’ said Billy Winters.

  He and John Quillim were discussing the intricacies of Billy’s unique form as a way to pass the time and, perhaps more importantly, to fight back the nervous silence that had settled over the others in the room as they waited to learn the fate of their comrades on board the ship.

  ‘I can make them both walk in a straight line at the same time, or one sit and eat a sandwich while the other one picks his nose, that level of thing,’ he continued. John Quillim nodded, leaning forwards with his great yellow-grey beard resting on his chin, his eyes narrowed with scientific curiosity. ‘Soon as one needs to do anything complicated though, like writing or talking or playing football or anything, I have to put the other one down and concentrate. Else they both get all clumsy and useless, and I get a migraine.’

  ‘This is like a left hand is make a washing-up same time a right hand is make a piano,’ replied John.

  ‘Kind of. More like trying to do the washing up with one pair of arms and play the piano with another pair of arms,’ said Billy.

  ‘What? How is? Arms only have a two! Not many four!’

  ‘Exactly. The human brain’s not meant for controlling four arms and four legs and four eyes, see. ‘Specially not in two different places.’ Billy tapped his temple. ‘Migraine.’

  ‘I see. This is very difficult. Too much leg, and too much arm.’

  ‘It’s alright. As long as I can put one down safely to concentrate on the other one.’

  ‘And…’ John made a separating gesture with his hands, holding them far apart. ‘One body have a go the long way away the other body, is a same? No have a… a can’t hear you?’

  Billy, who was getting more and more used to John’s idiosyncratic deployment of linguistic resources, only had to think for a brief moment before replying.

  ‘Not so far as I can tell. I’ve had them as far apart as they can get, Righty all the way up by the mountains and Lefty right down by the sea at the tip. No problems at all.’

  ‘So this you I am talk to you now is… a Lefty?’

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  ‘Yep. You can tell.’ Billy gestured at his own torso. ‘Skinnier.’

  John frowned. Or, at least, his brow furrowed; it was impossible to tell what his mouth was doing behind the mass of fading, off-yellow beard. ‘What? Why is not Righty is not same is Lefty? Is a same person!’

  ‘The two bodies started off the same, but they’ve done different things along the way. Got the same memories, but different scars. Righty does all the physical stuff. Lefty’s the thinker.’

  ‘Lefty is a clever?’

  ‘I dunno about cleverer. It’s definitely easier to think with him though.’

  John waved his hands. ‘You say is not have a sense, I think! A same person not can have a different—one minute.’ His eyes drifted upwards as he searched for a word. ‘Disposition. Temperament. Personality.’

  ‘No, not different personalities. The personality is the me part that controls them. They’re just… bodies, but they have different muscles and different brains. Like, you know how your right hand is naturally better at writing?’

  ‘Left my hand is do a writing,’ John said factually.

  ‘Alright, so your left hand is better at writing. So you use that one for writing all the time. So it gets even better at writing.’

  ‘Indeed.’

  ‘It’s like that. I can think with Righty and do physical things with Lefty, it just feels wrong and doesn’t work very well. So I use Righty for physical stuff. So he gets better at it. So it continues. They end up specialised.’

  ‘I see! ‘ John clapped. ‘So, Righty is you go this ship because, maybe have a fight?’

  ‘Right! And Lefty is staying here safe and warm so that I can concentrate on thinking without having to worry about all the action on the ship, if it comes to it.’

  ‘And… sorry I say a scary, my beg my pardon…Righty is die, also Lefty is die?’

  Billy raised an eyebrow. ‘I don’t know. I’ve never tested it.’

  ‘Ha!’ said John, laughing heartily. ‘Never have die—one minute—’ His eyes scanned upwards again. ‘Experiment! Verification! Diss-’

  Suddenly Billy’s expression changed. He raised a hand sharply, cutting the other man off.

  Around the room, eight other figures suddenly looked up and leaned forward. Billy’s eyes crossed and his head lolled to the side.

  Ken’s voice cut through the silence. ‘Billy?’ He stepped forwards, placing his hands on Billy’s shoulders, gently leaning him back in the armchair. ‘Billy? Are you okay? Is Righty okay?’

  There was no sound in the room other than the breathing of a large number of nervous people crammed into a tight space.

  Billy simply lay in the chair, his face blank.

  ‘Is he… has something happened?’ said someone.

  ‘This is what happens,’ said Ken, his voice level. ‘He’s focusing on Righty. Something must be going on. He’ll come back to Lefty and tell us when he can. All we can do is wait.’

  They waited.

  Candles guttered and cast long shadows across the yellow-painted walls of the little room. The assembled renegades looked at one another questioningly.

  They looked at Billy.

  They waited.

  Just as someone was beginning to mutter something about something going wrong, Billy’s eyes snapped back into focus. People alrady leaning forward leaned forward further. A maniacal grin spread across the little man’s round face.

  ‘They’ve woken Righty up,’ he said. ‘I was just talking to Igor. They’re awake!’

  ‘Good gods,’ someone whispered.

  ‘Are they safe?’ asked Ken.

  Billy nodded. ‘A guard came down, then went back up. Then Saskia cut herself loose and started freeing the others. Most of them are awake and untied now, and it sounds like the Polity have started partying upstairs.’

  ‘Ha!’ hooted John Quillim, and clapped his huge hands once, loudly.

  Another voice, high-pitched with incredulity, echoed it. ‘Ha!’.

  ‘We’ve done it! We’ve bloody well done it!’

  The little room erupted.