Stranded on a Storm Moon

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Stranded on a Storm Moon Page 15

by Adam Carter


  “I’d forgotten about that,” Hawthorn said.

  “Thanks for caring,” Arowana said snidely to him.

  “Iris,” he said, “why did you think she’d tortured you? Why’d you think she’d cut off your finger?”

  Arowana closed her eyes. She still remembered that it had happened, yet she still could not quite remember it happening. There was a distinction there: the difference between watching it happening to someone else and experiencing it herself.

  “I don’t know,” she said, opening her eyes at last. “I have no idea.”

  “You thought it was going to happen,” Hart said, “so you imagined that it did.”

  “So I’m going mad?”

  “No. It’s the database.”

  “Which means?”

  “Think about it. That database isn’t knowledge gained through experience. It’s available at the flick of an eyelid. You can discover and understand things you can’t possibly have knowledge of otherwise. That makes it difficult for you to differentiate between reality and fiction. The database is bleeding into your brain, Iris. I’ll bet you’re not sure any more which are your memories and which are from the database.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Arowana said.

  “Is it?” Hawthorn asked. “You’ve told me before that you access the database without meaning to. Why is it such a stretch to believe what she’s saying?”

  “Because I don’t want to,” Arowana said, thumping the table with a fist. “Because if I accept what she’s saying, it means I’m becoming what Securitarn wanted me to be. I’m losing what I am and I’m becoming their tool.”

  “I don’t think you’re losing you,” Hart said. “I think you’re merging.”

  “I don’t care what you think. You may like to keep going on about how much of a genius you are, but you don’t get to tell me what I am.”

  “Iris,” Hawthorn said, “what if it’s worse? Your brain’s not designed to accept all that raw information so, potentially, it could be unsure what’s real and what’s not. But that wouldn’t explain why you’re experiencing things that don’t happen.”

  “And what could possibly be worse than being turned into Securitarn’s weapon?”

  “I think you’re degrading.”

  Arowana did not answer, for she had not expected him to say that. It was something she had, in the back of her mind, herself considered; but saying it aloud made it real.

  “I’m not degrading,” she said softly as she rose from the table. “I’m still me.”

  “Iris,” Hawthorn called, but she did not answer. She walked from the mess hall and went back to her room. She would not lose who she was. She would not let Securitarn win. She was Iris Arowana and she would remain Iris Arowana.

  Reaching her room, she sank onto the comforting bed she had not seen for so long and drew out her notepad and pencil. When setting up the markers, she had been working through all the data she had taken from Securitarn. Due to everything that had happened since, she had fallen behind in her work. If she wanted to stay sane, she needed to finish her studies.

  For the next few hours, Arowana worked in silence. If there was an answer to be found, she would find it. If she couldn’t, she would likely just imagine that she had; and that was the most frightening thought of all.

  Also available by the same author in e-book and paperback:

  Dinosaur World books:

  Excavating a Dinosaur World

  Dinosaur Fall-Girl

  Dinosaur Plague Doctor

  Ike Scarman & the Dinosaur Slavers of Ceres

  Dinosaur Prison World

  The Dinosaur That Wasn’t

  Awfully Wedded Strife

  Tales of a Dinosaur Prison World

  Deities of a Dinosaur World

  Return to the Dinosaur Prison World

  Nikolina Finch & the Dinosaur Utopia

  Of Stags, Hens & Dinosaurs

  Dinosaur World Gladiator

  The Wounding Tooth

  Dinosaur World Massacre

  Dino-Racers

  Dinosaur World Unscripted

  Christmas on a Dinosaur World

  Utara the Savage

  Sheriff Grizzly:

  Book 1: Sheriff Grizzly

  Book 2: The Horse Thief Honey

  Book 3: The Coyote Colt Kid

  Book 4: Joins the Circus

  Book 5: The Haunting of Athelstan Swift

  Book 6: The Santa Claws Showdown

  Book 7: The Kangaroo Claim Jumpers of Crumbling Gulch

  Book 8: Gets a Reality Check

  Book 9: Bets Against the Card Shark

  Book 10: The Hairy Walrus of Truespire Peak

  Book 11: The End

  Book 12: In the Afterlife

  Knights of Torbalia gamebooks:

  The Return of the Stolen Jewel

  Into the Massacre

  March of the Demon Trees

  The Thief of Tarley Manor

  The Class War

  The Haunting of Past Wraiths

  The Hunt for the Adulterous Bard

  A Peacock in the Den of Foxes

  Attack of the Demon Trees

  The Slave Scandal of Torbalia

  Miscellaneous gamebooks:

  Lost Treasures of a Dinosaur World (300 paragraphs)

  The Underworld Horror (300 paragraphs)

  Sheriff Grizzly: The Good, the Bad & the Grizzly

  Sheriff Grizzly: The Wild West Dungeon Adventure

  The Christmas Adventure of Sam and Klutz

  Operation WetFish: Vengeful Justice

  Operation WetFish: A Wealth of Sin

  Jupiter’s Glory: Oppression of the Press

  Dinosaur World: The Forest of Fiends

  The Temple of Death: The Villain’s Gamebook

  Hero Cast trilogy:

  Book 1: The Villainous Heroes

  Book 2: The Heroic Villains

  Book 3: The Forge of Heroes

  Jupiter’s Glory:

  Book 1: The Dinosaur World

  Book 2: The Pirates and the Priests

  Book 3: The Obsidian Slavers

  Book 4: Just Passing Through

  Book 5: The Virus of Gangrene’s Scurvy

  Book 7: Eyes on the Prize

  Detective books:

  Detective’s Ex

  One-Way Ticket to Murder

  Who Slew Santa?

  The Curse of the Genie’s Detective

  The Woman Who Cried Diamonds

  The Murder of Snowman Joe

  The Murder of Loyalty

  The Prostitute Butcher

  The Santa Worshippers

  Betty Stalks a Biker Cop

  Dinosaur Frontier:

  Book 1: The Lightning Angel

  Book 2: Lightning Strikes Twice

  Book 3: The Law of Ceres

  Book 4: The Silk Caves of Ceres

  Operation WetFish, Vampire Detective:

  Book 1: The Power of Life and Death

  Book 2: Chasing Innocence

  Book 3: The Hunt for Charles Baronaire

  Book 4: Christmas on the Kerb

  Book 5: A Necessary Evil

  Book 6: No Comment

  Book 7: Fear and Ecstasy

  Book 8: Call of the Siren

  Book 9: Happy Families

  Book 10: A Step in the Right Direction

  Book 11: What Money Can’t Buy

  Book 12: ‘Tis the Season

  Book 13: The Power Trip

  Book 14: Trust and Betrayal

  Book 15: A Gathering of Minds

  Book 16: The Pain of Life

  Book 17: The Happy Place

  Book 18: The Terrible Truth of Barry Stockwell

  Book 19: The Apex Predator

  Book 20: End of an Era

  Book 21: He Who Kills the Killers’ Killers

  Book 22: Bad Day at the Office

  Book 23: Death of the Dream

  Book 24: Out for Blood

  Book 25: Reckoning

  Bo
ok 26: Pillow Talk

  Book 27: For the Greater Good

  Miscellaneous:

  Holding the Nuts

  One Week to Love: Speed Dating of the Gods

  The Trojan Ant

  Gauntlet of Daedalus

  The Faerie Contract

  Token Love

  Sleigh Ride Slaughter to Saturn

  Have Imagination, Will Travel

  A Mermaid’s Odyssey

  The Captain’s Bombshell

  Visit: https://www.facebook.com/OperationWetFish for news, illustrations, previews and short stories.

 

 

 


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