Star Slayer: Veronica Silver, the Infected
She stared at the holo-screen where the presidential candidate
and hopeful of the nation talked, her eyes were narrowed and her usually red
now silver lips were pressed tightly together.
Other parts of her were equally silver in color, her nails had turned to
silver metal, her eyes, and various places upon her body. Her hair could no longer be cut, its metallic
red strands were as soft as real hair but one wrong move and she could cut
someone other than herself. She was
here, because of this change.
She and others like her were labeled the Infected and
people feared people like her. Her
family had refused to talk with her, her fiancé had called off the engagement,
and people in generally glowered and whispered hatefully about her. She wasn’t alone, there were others and she
was in this building to hopefully be cured.
She wanted her life back.
“I promise the people of the United States that once I
become President I will ensure better care and detection of the Infected is
implemented. Civil Safety is a concept
my party and my rivals have been using since the year started, but I assure
you, that I will do my utmost to restore our citizens to the peace that we have
earned.”
She snorted at him as the crowd cheered and she turned
away. “Lies, it was all lies!” She was in a room, a large one, here she would be consigned to obscurity and hopelessness. Ten slender stasis tubes were set in a half
circle around a tall pillar of electronics.
Computers peeped and monitored those that were sleeping, she too soon
would join them. She approached her open
tube, and looked to soft bed like material that was there. The disease would halt once the body itself
ceased, the doctors had at length explained that the effort to put her into
stasis was a long and painful one, the disease resisted common human medicines
so it required stronger methods. She was
not happy at this, but she couldn’t bear to live her life with no one. The disease, it had taken it all away, not
even her job was left unscathed.
Oh sure the current president had claimed and even passed
a law that would protect the Infected, they could have a job, a place of living
once they woke up fifty years later. But
there really wasn’t a point to that.
That’s right, they
want to silence you. The voice had
come recently with some of the obvious changes, least of which was the
extraordinary weight. Find me, and I shall show you how to bring
destruction to your enemies. The
voice always talked to her, it wanted her to go somewhere, but she didn’t trust
the voice, just like she didn’t trust the charismatic Presidential
Candidate. She looked to the memory
stick in her hands and sighed. She could
die in the intervening years, they might think she was too dangerous to
have. The next president will likely
cancel the project and attempt to exterminate all of the Infected before they
hit Stage 3. She was a Stage 2 and she
was scared and angry.
“Alright Miss Silver, step into the tube, we’ll begin the
sleeping process.”
So it was time huh?
She tucked the memory stick away under her gown’s elastic belt. At least the voice should be quiet. She laid down and took a deep breath as the
durable transparent metal canopy slid over to latch in place. There inside the tube there was nothing but
silence, though the voice continued to try and tempt her to look for it, where
ever that was. A shadow soon fell over
her and her fear rose a few notches. Things
were blurry on the other side of the tube, but she could make out rudimentary
movements. The doctor’s voice soon came
through her tube’s sound system, “Activating the stasis program.” The being outside the tube was tampering with
the computer, and a hiss came from the inside of the tube, devices unfolded
from the sides and pressed against her arms, legs, and head. The figure came over the tube.
“When you awake we will rule.” And then she closed her eyes and her mind
fell into a deep sleep. She didn’t even
feel the pain that was supposed to come from the stasis. But there was no silence, the voice continued.