Blue Sky Tomorrows by L J Hachmeister

Author:L J Hachmeister [Hachmeister, L J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Source 7 Productions, LLC
Published: 2019-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

***

Cam woke lying flat on his back, attached to the infusion pump, sheets drawn up to his chest. Sitting up, he flung off the sheets before realizing himself back in his medical bay.

Naum, he thought, breathing heavily, don’t drill my—

He touched his sternum with the tips of his fingers, too afraid to apply any real pressure until he sensed nothing more than a mild ache. Lifting up his patient gown, he saw the usual pink, spidery branches of inflammation on his belly, but other marks—neat, three-centimeter lines covered by transparent dermal patches, scored the area around his hip bones and thighs.

He inspected his chest, where a red circle covered by another dermal patch sat in the lower third of his sternum.

What did they do to me?

Cam dropped his gown back down, uncomfortable by the look—the feel—of his own body.

“Knock, knock.” Reppen stood at the doorway, a tray full of food steaming in her hand. “Can I come in?”

Unsure of her intent, he twisted up one of the sheets in his fist and readied for—

—Anything—I’ll do anything—don’t take me away again, I’ll—

“Hey, it’s okay,” she whispered, approaching slowly. She set down the food on the tray table and stood at a distance. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Before he could even think of a response, she walked over to the monitors, but angled her face away so he could see her bring first finger up to her lips and hear her whisper: “Shhh.”

“Huh. There’s some kind of feedback delay. I’d better reboot,” she declared, sounding as if she read the line off a script. He watched as she hit a squiggly-marked button on the primary monitor. It chimed three times, then powered down. “We’ve got three minutes.”

Cam flinched when she tried to touch his shoulder.

“Please—I just want to help you.”

The lilt of her voice, the familial glint in her eye.

Cam didn’t believe her, but something inside him—whatever part of him that survived so far—needed to. Releasing the sheets in his hands, he held his breath until the sting of his sinuses, the prick in the inner corners of his eyes, passed, and he could trust his own voice.

“What is happening to me? Who is Naum? I—” His voice cracked as the thought of Naum, the drill—the terrible dreams of the East Wing, of Rogman and the machine monster, Iggie’s terror—came crashing down all at once. “…I don’t know who my enemy is.”

Reppen’s mouth opened and shut several times until she gave up and plopped down on the work stool near his bed. With a quaver to her words, she tried again. “You’re from Cerka, right?”

He nodded.

“You know who the Sovereign is?”

Cam frowned. “I’m not an idiot.”

“Then you know he’s just another dictator trying to take over the Starways.”

“No, he’s different,” Cam snapped back. “He’s not going to let leeches silently rule over the rest of us for any longer. He’s going to clean up the galaxy, make things fair.”

Reppen sat back in her chair. “Fair? Do you even know what that

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