Those Once Forgotten by N. C. Scrimgeour

Author:N. C. Scrimgeour [Scrimgeour, N. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Adult
Amazon: B09WLV1X1S
Goodreads: 60705755
Publisher: Alcruix Press
Published: 2022-04-26T07:00:00+00:00

KOJAN

Dusk fell over Rellion, and Kojan prepared himself to bloody his hands. This was what Ojara had done to him. This was what she had driven him to.

Did you really think I’d allow such programming to be put in my own son without a means of reversing it?

Even if it was a lie, he was too desperate to do anything other than believe it. The aching at the back of his head was constant. Earlier that morning, he’d coughed up blood. The quickening was breaking down his organs, devouring the parts of him that were still human. If he waited much longer, there would be little left of him to save.

There was no sound from Eleion’s room as he slipped out of the penthouse suite. Every step he took was as quick and quiet as he could make it. Eleion needed Alvera. Her people needed her. She was their chance at a future outside of Kaath. A chance at choosing their own place in the galaxy instead of being confined to the inside of a breather mask. And here he was, willing to destroy that chance, all for a chance at saving himself.

It wouldn’t have made any difference, he told himself. She’s already gone. We don’t know how to wake her. Even if they did find a way to bring her out of her coma, there were no guarantees she’d be the same. No guarantees she’d be able to build the cybernetics the iskaath were so desperate for.

If only telling himself that made it easier to believe.

The rain thundered down as he hurried across the rooftop to hail a skycar. It ran down the back of his neck and soaked the collar of his shirt, giving him a chill. It pattered off the cab’s windows, obscuring the bright lights of the city in a gloomy haze. It turned his skin numb and drowned out all the thoughts in his head. By the time the skycar pulled up outside the medical facility, he felt like a ghost.

Alvera’s ward was sectioned off from the rest of the building behind a guarded security checkpoint. Governor Cobus had assured them that only a few trusted medical staff and associates had access. The less people that knew about her, the better.

The quiet should have been a good thing, but Kojan couldn’t help the shiver of trepidation that ran through him as the security guard scanned his credentials and waved him through the rain-splattered glass doors. Maybe he wanted to get caught. Maybe he wanted someone to stop him from what he was about to do.

The life support monitor attached to the lone medical pod bleeped faintly through the quiet. Alvera lay still and stiff, her skin pale and tinged with grey. Maybe shutting down the machinery keeping her alive would be a mercy. Maybe this was a way of letting her rest after everything she’d been through.

Or maybe those were lies he was telling himself to ease the nausea churning in his stomach.

He pressed a hand to the glass barrier around the pod and felt the warmth coming from inside.

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