(1 task left)
Kodiak is dead. The tumor Rover extracted was just a hint of how much was growing in his body.
The universe has no light in it anymore.
I will join him tonight.
Hug your Kodiak close to you.
I love you.
Ambrose #13
Part Six
AMBROSE: 1 REMAINING.
KODIAK: 1 REMAINING.
“ARRIVAL IMMINENT.”
Am I alive?
Are you?
I try to swallow, but I have no saliva. “Water,” I croak.
“At your bedside,” a voice says. It’s my mother.
“Mom? Are you here?”
“It is better for your health if you rest now, but I need you to get moving as soon as possible. The ship is in grave danger.”
My eyes zoom out of focus and then zoom back in on a hand. It’s my hand, but I watch it like it’s someone else’s as it knocks into the polycarb tray beside me. “Minerva,” I say. “What’s the status of Minerva’s distress signal?”
“You can be calm about that. There’s no longer any emergency in regard to Minerva Cusk.”
“I don’t understand,” I say, my voice raw. I start fiddling with the IV in my arm, preparing for the moment I’m strong enough to get to my feet.
“You are disoriented. Your last true memory is of a medical session on Earth, a full exam before you went into space to rescue Minerva.”
I gasp. “Yes.”
My mother’s voice continues. “Rescuing Minerva isno longer your mission. Instead you are the first humans to settle the second planet orbiting Sagittarion Bb, nearly thirty thousand years of travel from Earth. Adjust to this reality as quickly as possible. Our arrival is imminent.”
I blink my eyes heavily.
“In two days we will enter the planet’s atmosphere. Your blood pressure is too low for you to risk moving and injuring your soft brain. Your previous incarnation has recorded a message for you. Would you like me to project it while your IV hydrates you?”
“I have zero idea what you’re talking about,” I manage to tell OS.
“You will,” my mother’s voice responds. “I’ll begin the playback now.”
_-* Tasks Remaining: N/A *-_
Kodiak will become your second self. But at first, you will see him and think of a man who needs love and is crying out for you to give it. In you he sees someone who will possess and manipulate him.
It’s my voice I’m hearing, I can process that much, but beyond that I’ve lost the ability to concentrate. The thoughts scatter. While I listen, my eyes start focusing. Thewalls are an odd color—like rust. The shape of the room is like the mock-up of theEndeavorthat I trained in, but the walls are... felty.
