As a rare survivor of a devastating illness, Lara has fought to live only to end up in a coma on a strange world. Trapped in stasis, she is used as an Oracle by those seeking views of the future.
When a man comes to her and asks her name, she is smitten and for the first time in decades, she begins to hope that someone somewhere wants her as she is. He proves his dedication and soon he will win the Heart of the Oracle.
The incessant beep of life support was both a comfort and a torment for Lara. She had been slowly dying for five years and she was done with listening to that sound. Today was the day that they would put her in cold sleep and from then on, she would hear nothing.
Doctor Hegish smiled at her. “How are you doing today, Lara?”
He was not an Edinar and that meant that the virus that was taking her life by inches would not affect him.
She inclined her head. Her voice had been the first thing to go. They had wired her to a communicator, but she was not comfortable with it. She thought it made her voice sound funny.
“We have your stasis gear ready. Today, we will put in the implants. Tomorrow, you will be on your way to the Coalition research facility where they can work to find a cure for this virus.”
Lara sighed. She worked the communicator, wincing at the voice. “Are there any other infected survivors?”
He shook his head. “Your natural immunity has helped to keep you alive, but nothing that we tried for the others could even slow the virus down. It is contained to this ward now. You are the last patient. Once you are gone, they will close down the ward for an acid cleaning.”
Lara rolled her eyes. She didn’t need to know that. Her family was dead, her friends were dead, everyone she had known in her life had passed on while she was lying here with that damned beeping.
She used her com, “Good luck with the surgery then. This is the last time we shall speak.”
He patted her hand and then went to scrub his skin clean.
Lara lay back and waited. She would wake up in a research facility and everything would be fine. Everyone she knew was dead, but everything would be fine. She had seen it, for her own future, everything would be fine…eventually.
