by R. A. Nargi
“Did we make it?” I asked Ana-Zhi.
“Of course we made it. What do I look like?”
“So we’re safe?”
“If you call nearly being ripped in half by a cthulian safe, then yeah.”
“I meant safe from the Mayir.”
She slammed the heel of her hand against a relay box, trying to get something to work. “Damn it!”
“The Mayir?” I asked again.
“What? Yeah. There’s six hundred meters of stone between us and the surface. Unless they’re running geo scans with deep EMR, there’s no way they’d know we’re down here.”
“Good.” I sighed as I eased myself into the co-pilot’s seat. “Then we can talk about reviving my father.”
“Yeah, that’s not a good idea until we figure out why the power’s so sketchy. You don’t want to be halfway through a karokinesia procedure and everything goes dark.”
“Surely the MedBed has a battery back-up?”
“For simple procedures. But karokinesia takes a little more AI than the built-in unit. That’s why you run it off of the ship’s brain.”
“Have you ever done that before?”
“What, wake someone up?”
“Yeah.”
“Only once. When I was crewing for Donal Sarkelan.”
“Sarkelan? I thought he died.”
“Yeah, this was a long time ago. I was way younger than you. We were in the Old Cariq mines on Rygond for six months. One of our guys contracted taricula syndrome and we had to put him under until the supply drone came back.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know. Three, four months?”
“Then you revived him?”
“Once we were all inoculated.”
“And you used the facilities on a ship?”
“We had an expedition base in the caves. Full infirmary with medics. Not just a MedBed. People tend to get kind of chewed up when mining for cloud diamonds.”
That was for sure.
“So it wasn’t really the same situation as we have here?”
Ana-Zhi shook her head. “No. Didn’t matter, though. The guy didn’t make it.”
“Great.”
“Yeah, it’s not quite as simple as you’d think. You should access the KB. Learn more about it for yourself.”
She was right. I had a decent theoretical knowledge of the karokinesia process, but obviously no hands-on experience. I did know it was something that couldn’t be interrupted. The Sean bot had told me that the right way to resuscitate someone from long-term stasis was in a controlled environment with medical staff monitoring. Unfortunately that was looking like less and less of a possibility. Especially now.
We were trapped. Here in a remote galaxy. Three billion light years from civilization. With no way to get home.
The adventure continues…
Discover what happens to Jannigan, Chiraine, and Ana-Zhi next in The Well of Forever.
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Quantum Dark is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2021 by Randall Nargi. All rights reserved.
Published by Bogwood Press, a division of Bogwood, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Nargi, R.A., Quantum Dark / R.A. Nargi. pages cm.
Also by R.A. Nargi
THE STAR RIM EMPIRE
Quantum Dark
The Well of Forever
The Crimson Peril
THE OMNIWORLD ADVENTURES
The Iron Veil
The Eight of Nights
THE BANDER ADVENTURES
The Brawling Adventures of Bander
The Legendary Adventures of Bander
Learn more at randynargi.com