The Children of Zegandaria - Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov (world best books to read txt) 📗

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE: EQUIUS MON

- "My son has gone down a very crooked and wrong path," he shrugged sadly. "But there is hope for you."

- "Why do you do it?," the young man puzzled. Equius Mon fell silent.

- "Because I want to save someone at least," he said rather thoughtfully.

- That was fifteen years ago. Every day that scene was before his eyes. The old well-mannered gentleman with a VER 2380 suit insignia that said he paid great attention to his personal safety.

- His very arrival, however, spoke of something else - why this talented and wealthy man was offering him everything - there had to be a catch somewhere. Gad ‘Di Enn believed in such selflessness - it was almost unnatural.

It didn't escape the sly smile he tried to hide as much as possible.

- "Look, my boy, I'm asking a very big favour of you," Equius told him quite bluntly. "I need you to chip all the children so I can benefit from the transplanted memories."

- "What exactly do you mean?," the medic asked him.

- You're being asked to do something too simple. Don't change anything in the current mind encodings - just try to do a deeper implantation.

- "Deeper?," - Gad ‘Di Enn  was amazed, as she knew full well what the other man meant.

- "But that would be medically dangerous," he tried to object.

- "Can't you bring their memories back to a previous level?," asked Equius.

- "It's not as simple as that," Gad ‘Di Enn pawed the ground.

- "Then do it, or at least try," Equius addressed him somewhat commandingly. "I'm sure you have the qualities for it. What's more, I'm even sure you've secretly wanted it for far too long."

The medic continued with his internal struggle. He was aware that he could not simply refuse - it would be downright sacrilege - but he was also acutely aware that certain things were about to happen that were unlikely to be to his advantage.

- "Have you heard of levels of consciousness?," he asked distantly.

- "Well, you, my boy, could tell me this or that," Equius addressed him kindly, "and I don't mind listening to you."

- "Well, you see, a lot of people think that these experiments are done in a completely controlled way, but that's not the case at all," Gad ‘Di Enn voiced his concerns.

- "E? And what's really going on?," the old man turned to him with a somewhat ingratiating smile.

- "Your offer seems very tempting to me," the medic murmured.

- "Well, what's so on his mind?," wondered Equius.

It had become very, very quiet around them. Even the chirp of a bird could be heard - but unfortunately there hadn't been any for a long time. The melancholy could be felt even in the air.

- "Actually, why did you become a doctor?," interjected Equius.

- "You know, knowing that you are responsible for so many people is a huge burden," Gad ‘Di Enn said sadly. "After the introduction of the chipped consciousness, everything went in a completely different direction. It had to make many and varied changes, but in the end everything fell into place."

- "I seem to have come to the wrong place," Equius tried to stand up, but Gad ‘Di Enn  stopped him.

- "Not exactly where you should have come," the medic supported him. "Everything will work out the way you want it to."

The conversation took place in this very same clinic, the successor to the former St Joseph's, where too many patients were given a second chance at life. Retransplantation was helping them forget and push off the bottom. The Doctor had prevented many suicide attempts, whole families splitting up and so on and so forth.

He was finally, starting to live their life, which was very taxing on him.

He was about to crack his skull open - it weighed so heavily on him sometimes, but he found it in himself to carry on. He did it step by step, like a caterpillar hiding under a leaf, unwilling to see the reality of the vast outside world and living in his own illusion.

The old man seemed to be very satisfied with the answer given, but he was in no hurry to go yet - he wanted to look around a bit.

The clinic with its futuristic walls and impressive decorations was like a magnet for many. He was deeply convinced that he could still save his son before his lethal end. He wished and hoped. But there was nothing else he could do - only beg for help!

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR: THE GABRIEL

Everyone had forgotten about Gabriel, the girl who had deeply experienced the loss of her beloved Dislan. When they left the cave, she was overwhelmed.

She wanted to use the communications equipment, but she couldn't. Sadness came over her for a moment. She imagined how Dislane had died all alone. Then she recovered quickly and wondered how she could get out of this cursed place. The altar lay somewhere not far from her.

The strange symbols looked inviting - so many dark lords gathered together - each hiding a secret.

But she had no idea how to summon them. Time passed - the situation grew worse and worse. Her oxygen was beginning to running low and it was becoming very difficult to cope at all. Her eyes crossed. She was perishing - she couldn't even lift her legs - they seemed to weigh a ton.

She scanned the suit's system - it didn't look encouraging

- There was no backup power or anything else, but she could read in her gaze a determination to survive - she wanted to make it through at least one more day, even on the supposedly.

The sadness was eating at her and she moaned softly. Suddenly she decided to do something too crazy.

What if she triggered a controlled explosion, or at least a micro explosion? Maybe some of all that debris would scatter and that would bode well for her further survival. She began to quickly formulate a plan on how she could accomplish that in the shortest amount of time. No part of the suit could be blown up because it was monolithic, not modular - and now she sadly acknowledged that fact. Secondly, she couldn't be sure how long it would take to run out of oxygen - it could be a few minutes, it could be hours - there was no telling.

But the most unpleasant fact lay in her psyche - it was seriously shaken due to the lack of information about all those demons and demonic creatures.

Time continued to pass, but nothing happened. She stood up and tried to stop the oxygen leak by soldering a small hole in the suit. Somewhere far ahead she realized there was an easier way.

She went to the altar and started whispering some of the secret words without even being sure what exactly was going on - it was damn weird. Suddenly she felt the demonic presence behind her. She turned around - there was no one there.

She didn't know exactly which of all the demons she had summoned. She didn't want to guess either, though she realized it was extremely dangerous to do so out of the blue. It all only lasted a moment - then she was lost. The feeling of demonic possession left her and she felt herself weakening again.

It was all too likely that this was how it had seemed to her - just some contrived supernatural quirk, or maybe not? She even tapped at her suit to make sure she wasn't mistaken.

She was going to die just like him. Maybe that was the most logical and good ending too, and maybe not?

He felt his chest - there was no trace of the hole in the composite. He looked at his hands -no holes.  He had to deal with his problems somehow.

The loneliness in the space cave was downright murderous-there was only one way out.

Her forehead broke out in a cold sweat and she decided that no matter what, this was her only path to salvation.

Then she saw a small gap. Through it, beautiful purple-blue-white reflections could be seen, illuminating the dark space. But she had no time to contemplate these beauties. It turned out that there was something left in the cave after all, such as a small piece of thick zeretian rope and various other things.

He looked around and examined it carefully - it was too short, but it was still something.

He tied it around his waist as carefully as he could and tried to pull himself up through an artificially created spool of a thick permoplax helmet the round pulley of a cyclotron synthesizer. Actually, it wasn't even a real spool, but rather a sort of insulation on the rope that was supposed to support it. It cost her an incredible effort to move inch by inch - her tight and athletic body was drenched in sweat. It was driving her crazy. She'd almost made it to the small crevice and wriggled free.

Suddenly, she felt a force pulling her down - hard and inexorable. Maybe one of the demons was pulling at her legs. She'd failed just before the finish - a downright shame.

Sweat further impeded her movements, so she switched on a special valve to absorb it and bring it out of the suit in the form of microscopic water droplets. It helped somewhat, but she still hung like a worm on a fishing line - it was downright embarrassing.

She didn't want to look down either, but the light of her helmet reflected the creature - no it wasn't a vision this time, it was Nergal himself!

- "I am Nergal - the star deity! How dare you disturb my peace at all?," he roared, his powerful maw full of thick, sharp teeth.

Gabriel would have snapped. He turned around and again there was nothing there. When he made one last attempt he realized that he would be slipping out of the hole in question very soon - it wasn't that hard.

He finally, got out and saw the beauty of space - it was divine!

She had straddled her mighty crotch, trying to be like a conqueror - now she was all alone on the asteroid!