the one that would have been written that day.”
Taz stared at him, trying to understand what he was
saying. Her head was pounding, the corners of the room
starting to swim, her heart beating far faster than it should.
Please. Please get to the point. Please leave me alone with
my misery. Please just let me die.
“Lieutenant,” Dr. Space-Claw said, a farce of a smile on
his smug face. “Commander Up may have died on that
battlefield, but he is not dead.”
Not – dead?
“Not today, and with any luck, not for a long time. It has
taken several days of intense surgery, but my team has been
able to successfully reconstruct the Commander’s missing
limbs and interface his organic tissues with specially
designed -” Space-Claw chuckled and shook his head. “But
you don’t need to hear all the details. Not yet. Suffice it to
say that Commander Up is alive – and I believe that he is
going to be just fine.”
Up – is – alive?
A sharp pain shot through her chest, and Taz heard her
own raw voice cry out in pain as the constant beeping rose
in pitch and alarms began to sound. She gasped for breath
that wouldn’t come as uniformed medical personnel rushed
into the room, shouting instructions, rolling over
equipment...
Everything went a hazy, dull, comforting grey.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
“The Admiral himself came to see her, did you hear?
Gave her stimulants – Dr T was raging mad.”
“Yeah, and it made her flatline, I wonder what he came
to talk to her about.”