| Dialetheia, Pt. 1 |

“Can something be true and false at the same time?”

Skyler sat adjacent to Arufa on the sidewalk, talking between bites of their sandwich. Passersby shot them looks as they dangled their legs through the translucent road, dipping just slightly into Underside.

Arufa twirled a finger through her locks. She’d already finished her food—eating quickly was a common trait of Undersiders, having to always be on their toes. “Um… I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Well, we’re assuming true and false are antonyms, right? So how could something be one thing and its opposite?”

Skyler took the last couple bites, tossing the synthetic wrapper through the road. It bobbed up and down for a moment before flying away as a car rushed past. That’s way past the speed limit. One thing Underside’s got better is drivers, except it’s ’cause we ain’t got cars.

“Good question. What’s the square root of four?”

She snorted. “Wha– two?”

“And negative two.”

“Oh, I get it. One thing and its opposite.”

“Exactly.”

Stomachs reasonably content, the two got up from the side of the road and began walking. They had no particular plan, other than stay on Overside as long as they could. It was refreshingly bright in the mornings here—the wealthy could pay for atmospheric lighting.

Man, imagine living up here, Arufa thought. It irked her a little how clean everything was. In fact, a litter detection robot had already glided by to pick up after Skyler. She secretly hoped it’d get hit by a car.

“So, restating the question. Can something be both true and false?” Skyler asked.

“…Wouldn’t it have to be conditional?”

“Hmm?”

“Given one thing, it’s true. Given another, it’s false. It would be the condition that determines it, but if you don’t know the condition, it’s both. Like Schrödinger’s Cat.”

“Yeah, dead and alive at the same time. Speaking of, we’re famous.” They pointed ahead, at a set of holograms floating by. As far as Arufa knew, that was how people on the Overside checked the news. She read the article Skyler had pointed out.

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE.

ARUFA and SKYLER

for the murder of four police officers, including the chief.

God rest their souls.

I didn’t kill anyone. Why is that there? Arufa squinted and blinked, hoping it was wrong. Is this because I stole that wallet yesterday?

“Hey, here’s a segue,” they continued. “That hologram could be both true and false. We didn’t kill four police officers, so it’s false. But it doesn’t say when, or how, or anything else. So if it’s from a parallel world or something where we did, it would also be true.”

You’re not helping, Sky. “So are they just okay if someone kills us for pickpocketing?”

“It’s fucked up, for sure. But usually they bank on us turning ourselves in.”

She took a moment to sort herself out. Framing a couple of kids for a murder that hasn’t even happened. They really hate Undersiders, huh? Surely she hadn’t actually murdered anyone—she would remember that.

Wouldn’t I? I know something happened this morning with a cop, but I don’t know what. Is there a chance that…

Her thoughts trailed off as she stared at the hologram. Because where their pictures were displayed, she noticed a familiar tattoo over her chest—a tattoo she had somehow forgotten about.

That symbol… How did I…?!

But before she had time to tell Skyler, a siren ripped the air from down the road. Someone had called the cops on them. “Let’s move!” Skyler shouted, snapping into a running stance.

The two of them beelined away from the incoming entourage, past the restaurant they’d eaten at and straight to the transit station. The doors locked as they approached, the alarms ringing—added to the commotion of the nearby commoners, Arufa thought she would lose her hearing.

“How much AG do you have left?!” Skyler called over the crowd. She’d used a lot of her artificial gravity escaping the police droid the night before—checking the circle over the back of her hand, she found only a measly 30%.

“Enough to get out of here if we’re fast! But–”

“The Sky Train is leaving! Get up there and grab onto the side!” Skyler channeled all their energy into their legs and leaped upwards, switching on their AG and soaring into the air. Arufa followed suit, though more cautious with her use.

Spinning violently, she caught sight of the train departing its station straight upward. Skyler had already caught onto a door handle and was motioning her over—she angled herself properly and shot towards them, clasping their hand and latching onto the train with her belt.

“You good?” Skyler asked.

“That landing came at me wrong,” Arufa spat. “I’m getting tripped up by this–”

“Tell me later! We’ve got bluelighters on our tail!”

Sure enough, following behind the train was a line of android-operated vehicles, blaring their sirens. Clutching her head, Arufa wondered if the sirens were meant to bust civilians’ eardrums.

“We gotta go, but I’m out of ideas! Arufa, you got anything?”

“Uh… dive back between the skyscrapers so we don’t waste AG? Also, do you still have those prongs on you?”

Skyler rummaged through their pockets with one hand. “The tasers? Yeah! You wanna fry some bots?”

“Hell yeah! We jump on three, okay?”

“Heard!”

“One…” She looked down and found a mechanical arm reaching for her leg. In one swift move, she unclipped her belt from the train and switched her AG back on. “Fuck it, now! Go!”

Simultaneously, they pushed off the side door and barreled back down into the city, falling side-by-side. Their welcoming party spun around and stopped for a split second, scanning for the so-called murderers. One vehicle shot a red beam towards two of them, confirming their position.

Jacket fluttering as she plummeted, Arufa checked her AG battery again. “I’m at fifteen!”

“Quick, loading dock on your right!” Skyler shouted. The two kicked the air in tandem and redirected their momentum into the floating dock, tumbling to a halt in its shadow. They ducked down in the dark, preparing for a fight.

And the police brought them one. Motorbikes drifted into the bay, their lights leaving a trail of temporary blindness in Arufa’s eyes. The androids hopped off their crafts, these ones much more competent than the basic robot she’d run from in Underside. She glanced around the room to check what she’d be working with.

All the bots carried energy rifles of some sort, a brand Arufa had never laid eyes on. Off to the side, near the fleeing workers, laid some basic repair tools. A sawzall and a wrench won’t do me much good. But that nail gun will!

“We don’t want to kill you. Just come out with your hands up.” Surprisingly, a human voice emerged, only a bit distorted from the speakers’ static.

Skyler elbowed her and whispered as quietly as they could, “I didn’t know they could route mics through these things.”

“Doesn’t change what we have to do.”

Arufa leaped forward into a PK roll, snatching up the nail gun and aiming it at the android. Before it could even aim its rifle, a glowing nail pierced straight through the electronics in its head and took it down.

While the other droids were distracted, Skyler snuck behind and tased the two furthest back on max voltage. Immediately they crumpled, their limbs spasming as they hit the floor.

“I could take a hundred more of these chumps!” they cried, ecstatic at how easily they’d fallen.

The three remaining robots, spouting orders Arufa couldn’t have cared less about, pivoted and ran back to their crafts. With her nail gun, Arufa gained a running start and leaped after them, spiraling downwards with one of the four-wheeled bikes. She gripped onto one handle and flipped in front of the bot.

“Sorry, bolts-for-brains!” she laughed, firing the gun straight into its core. It lost control of the bike and fell backwards, down into an alley—Arufa pursued it with almost the last of her AG, making sure it had shut off for good.

It landed with a crunch. Arufa slowed her descent and hit the ground running beside it. She came to a jog, then to a stop, and pumped her fist. “Yeah, take that!”

And when she turned around, her eyes went manic. She started shaking involuntarily.

Blood.

It… was leaking blood.

No. He was leaking blood.

These weren’t androids at all.

I… I just killed someone…

Arufa tore her eyes away from her victim and bolted away, her breathing unsteady, her mind cloudy and clotted. Skyler came soaring in behind her, meeting her where she was running.

“We’re headed back to Underside, I guess?”

Arufa said nothing.

“Hey, what’s up? You good?”

Again she stayed silent. When they approached the road, they dove through and used their very last bit of AG to propel themselves up through the floating sectors and into an old, broken parking garage, two-hundred feet above the ground.

When they landed, Arufa collapsed to the ground and started crying. Skyler knelt down beside her and patted her on the back. “C’mon, Rufa. It’s alright. We’re safe now.”

She tilted her head up to face them—she was smiling. Skyler was instantly unsettled. Her crying turned to laughter, her eyes hollow.

“Do I look crazy?” she asked.

“…Arufa…”

“I feel crazy. I feel like nothing makes sense anymore.”

“I saw what you saw back there. Those were… real people.”

“I know. I’m terrified,” she said, grinning wide. She put a hand over her chest, on the glowing tattoo she just barely remembered. “And you know why I'm really losing it?”

“…”

“We just killed four police officers.”