"Umi. Seal the holodeck’s entrance." "Affirmative, Admiral Rodriguez." José Rodriguez, the last living Terran, stands in the middle of the vast, empty expanse of the holodeck. Its silver walls and floor, immaculately smooth and polished, gleam under the bright ceiling lights. The huge double-doors close behind him and vanish, hidden by the holographic interface. "Admiral,"…
Six months worth of video data streams into José Rodriguez’s cortical implant. These videos, recorded by José himself, rapidly play out in his mind at a fifty-to-one time dilation ratio. Countless conversations and moments all occur inside his head, back to back, expanding his consciousness and filling in memory blanks the Admiral never knew he…
Admiral José Rodriguez, the last living Terran, slowly opens his eyes. As he does, a single question comes to his mind. "Where am I?" The blurry-eyed Terran quickly awakens from his forced sleep, only to find himself back in a confusing reality. His body, strapped to a hospital bed, lays inert and unmoving. To the…
Megla, Soren, and several Kessu stand next to a hospital bed, one with suppressive straps attached to some twenty different positions on its frame. These straps link to restraints which wrap around Admiral Rodriguez’s limbs and body, firmly holding him in place atop the bed’s thin mattress. The Terran lays motionless, his chest rising and…
José Rodriguez, the last living Terran, continuously scrubs copious amounts of cloning fluid off his body. After finishing, he stands in the shower and stares at the wall blankly for five long, excruciating minutes. Without the holo-doctor there to distract him, José begins to ruminate on her words and the events he’s experienced. I died…
On an unknown world, atop a mountain plateau, beneath the darkness of the night sky… A man and woman hug one another as the gentle breeze caresses their bodies. The man towers more than three feet taller than his lover, but he makes up for the height difference by lifting her into his arms. "I’m…
Above Tarus II, inside the Bloodbearer. Soren takes a seat in the Slipstream’s control chair. The medium-size, bullet-shaped vessel takes off and exits the Bloodbearer’s shuttle bay. Soren zips toward the planet below while traveling at several hundred miles an hour. "Hello, UTC member, Soren Mudrose," Synthmind 4131 says. The masculine AI greets Soren politely….
"Hey, Skippy. Are we gonna be okay?" Two Kessu boys stand and wait nervously while Lele and Megla dole out the gadgets and goodies Soren left them. The pile of fifteen items quickly depletes as Lele hands a square cube to her grandmother and other items to the remaining Kessu males. The first Kessu boy,…
Lele and Megla gather up the other Kessu and slowly begin walking toward the cave’s exit. Since they don’t know help is on the way, the only thought on their minds is to press the advantage and try to escape as quickly as possible. Behind Megla, the younger Kessu work together to carry Ruuki’s badly…
Salt and Pepper zip through the underground catacombs toward the source of the ‘bomb’ detonation they detected moments before. The two Shades move at unbelievable speeds, crossing five miles of total darkness in the blink of an eye. They stop a few hundred feet away from a tremendous pile of collapsed rubble and pause to…
