The V Cwejes (short story)

 was the twentieth short story in Down the Middle.

Plot
In a virtual café within the Vicinity, Chris Cwej tells his life story to the data ghost of Kwol.

As a child, Chris uses holo-noculars on his family's balcony in Spaceport Five Overcity, and watches an adjutant officer arrest a criminal in a jetpack. On another occasion, Chris sees a decaying corpse floating in an Undertown canal.

As an adult, Chris lies on a slab of the mental silicate lagh inside Duskeriall Palace. A Superior family watch from above as the Surgeon performs an experimental procedure to transform Chris into an immaterial being of information. A long needle, modified from reproductive machinery, rises from the Surgeon's pocket, pricks Chris's thumb, and begins to unravel his body. Once his consciousness is transferred to the slab, it will be divided into minuscule pieces and placed in microchips on the necks of millions of Cwejen, while a remaining piece is smelted into a glassy anchoring cube, the Vicinity. Memories overlapping, Chris sees his child self among the Superiors, watching his dissolution through holo-noculars.

Earlier, Chris walks along a beach on Orniticon, an obscure system near the end of the universe, where three suns and seven planets are linked by a lattice of waterways. An exodus is gathering in anticipation of the addition of a new, eighth planet. In a seaside village, Chris meets a handsome dark-haired stranger at a drinks bar, and strikes up a conversation, telling him about the Superiors. The stranger explains that he is waiting for his mentor, a time-travelling adventurer. Using a nearby telepavision screen, he shows Chris memories of a squat, dark-haired man in a blue-and-gold kimono, with a spaceship called the Vicinity II. Chris recognises the man as the dangerous Superior agent, Christopher Cwej, but the stranger laughs and says that his mentor is called the Adjudicator; the stranger himself is Christopher Cwej.

In Duskeriall, Chris looks down to see that his flesh is half unravelled. He perceives his past selves: the Second Kwedge, dark-haired and middle-aged; the Third Cwej, blond and handsome, who fled to Orniticon when summoned to this very procedure; and the First Shvey, the stranger who resembles his original self but is dark-haired and leading a different life.

The Second Kwedge sits meditating in an outhouse. He reflects on how he lured his past self away from the Defector, and so made him into Shvey, eliminating the Defector's influence in order to improve all Cwejen's loyalty and performance as Superior agents. After being disturbed by a servitor robot, Kwedge sees several robots transforming into Cwejen. He realises that his attempt at hyperpoint saturation, the process by which he is rewriting his companion's history, is malfunctioning. He rushes to the drinks bar.

Chris, Kwedge and Shvey argue over which of them is Cwej-One, and which are time-clones. It becomes apparent that all three are Cwej-One. A vast number of Cwejen arrive on Orniticon, representing every possible past or future incarnation of Cwej. The landscape seems to shift. Perceiving the southern mountains and northern plateau as shoulders and an ear, Shvey realises the beach is a colossal neck, and that the Cwejen stand on a vast slice of lagh.

Shvey apologises to Shvey for manipulating his history and concealing the fact that he is his future self. Chris suggests they collaborate to restore the Adjudicator timeline to the Defector one, but Shvey refuses. Suddenly the horde of Cwejen speak as one, announcing that they will do neither, but remain without a definitive timeline, enabling them to transcend the Superiors' paradigm and maximise their ability to help those in need. Shvey takes Shvey back to the Defector in the Vicinity II, and Chris accepts his summons to Duskeriall Palace. Later, he awakes in a new microchipped body. His memories are hazy, but he touches his neck and for a moment imagines it feels like a desert of sand.

In the café, Chris concludes his story. He and Kwol agree that the adventures they have these days are not the same as the ones they had before.

Chris hears a woman Cwej's voice, telling him to wake up.

Characters
to be completed
 * Chris Cwej
 * Kwol
 * The Surgeon
 * Christina Cwej

Story notes
to be added

Continuity
to be added