War Hero
Three days pass before I decide to get saved.
They bump me to the head of the list, of course, and six hours later, I’ve got a military escort from the colony tram to the facility. Shane is my tech today. He resembles a young Abe Lincoln cut out of pale alabaster, elongated limbs in the classic indigenously Martian look, and a frilly beard hugging his jaw.
He sits in the neighboring control room, hunched over his buglike monitor-spread, and gets to work stimulating my brain. His machine-prompted queries crackle over the intercom. Part friendly handball, part firing squad. My brain on TV, lighting up different branches like a blinking Solstice Tree. My head encased in the neuroreader that’s about the same as wearing a cooking colander for a hat.
I flip through a magazine, watching the firework images of the Phobos victory unfold across the smartpaper.
“What are your favorite movies?” Shane asks. “How long did you serve the Resistance?” “How many times have you been offworld?”
Yet every so often comes an indelicate prod. “Do you look in the toilet before flushing?” “Have you ever fantasized sexually about a relative?”
“What’s it like to kill a dog?”
I look up from the magazine, anger flashing in my thoughts like a red siren.
The pace of the questions has been winding down, and I thought we were just talking to pass the time. So I try to catch his eyes through the glass. “Excuse me?”
The Martian beanpole doesn’t return my stare. He hunches in his chair, hugging himself with his freakishly long arms like a Cycladic statue. In another few generations, humans on Earth and Mars will have diverged into different damned species.
“Want me to repeat the question?”
All business, this kid.
Turn the page…open your eyes…and look into the future
They unleash the power of dreams and unlock the secrets of the universe.
They bend time, twist perception, and put a new spin on the laws of physics.
They show us who we are, what we may become, and how far we can go.
They are the Writers of the Future. Experience their vision.
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Genre - Science Fiction/Fantasy
Rating – PG13
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Connect with Juliet Wills on Facebook
Website http://www.galaxypress.com/
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