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Mirror of My Mind
by Z. S. Adani
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The following excerpt from Mirror of My Mind. Another conference at work, which had robbed hours of her time and failed to solve any problems, made Kyra rather cross. But Rice had insisted that she attend. Glad to be home now, she tiptoed to Sean's bed and kissed him. She had promised to take him diving, but Sean had to spend the whole day with Emef. With a sigh, she tucked him in and straightened. And caught sight of a lumpy shape across the room, illuminated by the screen of Sean's teaching robot. "It's you." Emef was sitting in the dark, knees folded up to her chest, head buried in her arms. She looked up, pale face ghostly in the screen's light, blue eyes framed by dark circles. "I spend the night here. Sometimes," she whispered. "You're not allowed to sleep in Sean's room." "I don't sleep." The Fragment stood up and looked at the robot's screen pointedly before she left. Kyra glanced at the display of two figures, childish rendering of women with their heads connected by wavy lines. Odd, Sean never liked drawing. She sat down by the piano and began to play Chopin's Twelve Etudes in G flat minor. Sounds flowed from her long fingers and a sense of wonder filled her. Through the music she played, a connection formed between her mind and that of a long dead genius; she knew Chopin, and savored the wonder he had produced. After two hours of practice, she went to the Fragment repository. Kyra lay down the recliner and pulled the gel cap over her head. Joy of experiencing her Fragment's daily activities filled her, taking care of Sean, building quasi life animals with him, and helping with his lessons. The experience flowed into the fuzzy realm of dreams. A scream ripped through her mind, followed by a formless terror. Terror— —and defiance filled Emef. I won't participate . . . Images of CyMvecs, rows of rester capsules, and strange faces swam before her, punctuated by the rhyme in a screeching voice, Mirror, mirror of my mind, Earth Government stole my life. She was drifting in anguish— Anguish— —Kyra snatched off the interface cap with a violent motion, heaving and gagging. The ceiling of the Fragment repository whirled above her, replaying the images from Emef's dreams. Perspiration drenched her body, and the inside of her head seemed like a battle zone. Arms shaking, she pushed herself up from the variform and staggered a few steps. A wave of vertigo hit her and she grabbed the doorframe. Swaying, she wove her way to the bathroom and stumbled to the autodoc, unsealed it and slumped inside. She vaguely felt the cool biosensors attaching to her temples, wrists, and ankles. It seemed like an eternity, but finally the headache and nausea be-gan to subside and the autodoc released her. Fear replaced the throbbing in her head. Kyra stood in her bathroom and tried to compose herself. A pattern began to form in her mind: her Fragment's dreams, the difficulty of obtaining a permit for a Fragment, the colonization plans, the Alien Research Center, nanotechnology, they were all controlled by EarthGov. Through agencies and security protocols, EarthGov was largely unseen, partly due to assassination attempts on its executives' lives, but Kyra felt its grip tighten. She shivered; there was a place she would have to check out tomorrow. Excerpt from
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© Copyright 2010, Zefram Media LLC |
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