My Human

Chapter 26

I sat on the edge of my bed as the stars shot by the window as we jetted through space.   I laid back, holding my head like it could stop the flurry of thoughts swirling out of control.  It couldn't. 

"You know firsthand what X147 is capable of," Neron had explained to me.  "When we decided to come to Naraq, it was more than just safely placing the Ceres beings we had rescued.  It was to interrogate one of Raeland's contacts to find out where we could find him."

Apparently Neron had been taking care of that while I had been asleep for a few days. He said the planet we needed to go to was one called Bela. That's where we would find Raeland.

So that was where we were headed.  He said if we found Raeland, we could find some answers about what happened to Earth. 

It made my stomach turn with anxiety.  Was I even ready to know?  That image of a Phoenix popped in my mind and I feared a connection.  The man who was haunting my subconscious, was he connected to Phoenix Rize? That was assuming that it was his arm I saw... or could it have been someone else? A phoenix was a popular symbol, so it was possible that neither had anything to do with the other, but still I wondered. 

There were other outer beings on Earth, Xan had told me.  So it was completely possible that I may have somehow stumbled into contact with a being from Phoeniz Rize.  I cringed, remembering the vision of an examination room.  If it was real, what had happened?

I groaned and buried my face in the pillow of the bed.  Trish had sent me in here to rest, but somehow with my racing thoughts, that was impossible.

I stared at the blur of stars outside the window. The streaking lights almost seemed entrancing, drifting my mind into a distant place.

"Aeris..." a quiet voice called me, barely more than a whisper. My body felt heavy, like I was being lulled to sleep.

"Aeris..." the voice called again, stronger now and I recognized it.

"No," I whispered, blinking my eyes and finding myself sitting at my desk with an image of a BioTeque arm on the screen.

"You see," I said, pointing to the image of a brain next to the arm and pointed at the M1 section of the frontal lobe. "The BioTeque chip is placed here and relays signals to the Nanoteque pulses that travel through the veins in the arm. It would work as if it were your original arm."

I spun around in my hover chair to the blurred face. I focused harder, desperate to make it out, but it only seemed to blur more.

His body was bandaged in neoprene medical wraps for quick wound care and the stub of his arm was covered by a preservation tube; to keep the nerves ready for limb replacement.

"So this limb is both mechanical and organic?" He asked.

I nodded proudly. "That's what BioTeque is, living cells enhanced by advanced technology and electrical pulses to be a perfect match with your body like the original limb." InTeque Enterprises was one of the only producers of such advanced appendage replacement and it was an honor to be able to provide that.

The man stood up, and approached me. I felt my heart skip a beat as he stroked my cheek, sending a chill down my spine.

"You'd do that for me, Aeris?" He whispered in a gentle voice.