Jade Star (Tanager Book 1) by Sanderson Cedar

Author:Sanderson, Cedar [Sanderson, Cedar]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Stonycroft Publishing
Published: 2016-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8: A New Beginning

Coming back to life wasn’t nearly as nice without Blackearspetting me. For one thing, I was still hurting, and wet, and breathing was something I had to think about, rather than let happen on its own. For another thing, I wasn’t sure I’d been successful and really wasn’t sure I could make myself pull that stunt again.

I lay there in the autodoc, concentrating on breathing. In, and then out. After a hundred breaths, give or take, I realized I could do it without the internal commands. I decided I’d try sitting up. That took a little longer, because I had to stop and rest some more, and make sure breathing was still a thing. Reassured, I gave it another go. This time, I made sure to undog the lid and give it a bit of a push. The system was completely dead, but my adrenaline kicked in and I lifted it out of my way. I’d felt horribly trapped for a moment in the dead autodoc.

I’m not going to bore you with the details of getting out of the machine. My chest felt like I’d been kicked with steel-toed boots, sat on, and then maybe kicked some more. I guessed it was from the restarting my heart. On vids, when you saw them do that, the body twitched and jerked all over the place. It was a little weird to picture myself doing that. Or maybe it hadn’t happened. Vids are for drama, not for reality.

I made it out, and on my feet, standing there swaying, one arm still hooked over the lid for support. The gel had receded, mostly. I was dripping wet and naked. But alone. I didn’t feel like I was being watched. Did that mean I wasn’t?

I still didn’t know, and it was going to drive me crazy. Crazier. I figured I was already well around the bend, anyway. Too much quiet, too little information, loose ends I couldn’t answer. Not ever. Can the human mind take living with no answers? I wasn’t sure about that. We make up stories for ourselves, to get the endings we so badly need. Beliefs, faith, and an assurance that it all means something.

I staggered away from the machine and toward the bridge. If the air felt stale, motionless, right then, I didn’t notice. I couldn’t have told – I was moving enough nothing felt still. It wasn’t until I collapsed into the captain’s chair that I realized something was wrong.

The control boards were dead. The autodoc is independent of the ship, which is why I’d trusted it to bring me back. I’d gambled on that, being insufficient power to attract my stowaway while it was panicked. But while I’d been successfully restarted, the ship had not. The first thing I did, was go get a suit. I’d programmed the system to reboot, and do an air flush and recycle when it did. I was supposed to have been safely dead in the autodoc while that was going on.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.