Darklight: Precipice

Part 29: Blackout

She was busy reading her book regarding the ancient Skry bloodlines and the various specialist abilities that had been recorded, so she didn’t notice his body twitch within the stasis chamber. There were no beeps on the various computers, no resonance or lights from the Skry healing centre that regulated the flow of specific arcane field signatures around the room. The room was pale blue with grey tiles, a white ceiling and a single fluorescent tube lighting the place. There was a small window that looked out over Utopia City. He had been moved here after it was decided that his brain functions showed little improvement. It was a care centre for those patients in a comatose state with little chance of recovery. His brain had been re-built by the nanomachines, but the all-important electrical pulses that should be activating his higher brain functions just weren’t there.

Lady Kisa often came to sit with him. To start with she had read to him from her books about the Skry’s ancient history, about how the Arcane Abilities had come about and how they were intrinsically linked to their cultural and biological evolution She’d lived for a very long time and seen many, many miracles of both Arcane and technological origin. She hadn’t given up hope like Natasha and Draz. She knew that his strength could pull through. There was much more to Soran than met the eye, she knew that. All the stories, all that he had done…

She looked up at the light as it flickered, annoyed at the disruption to her reading. It was getting on and the late afternoon sun provided too little light for her to read by. It was autumn and the orange glow of the sun on the horizon was a beautiful sight. As she stood to look out at the cityscape the lights went out completely… over the entire city, even the redundancies were shut down. The room was in pitch darkness now as the sun had just set beyond the horizon.

“Shit” she muttered to herself, turning back to the room. She hoped Soran was ok. She held out her hand, palm upwards and created a ball of light .

Then she stumbled back in fright, stifling a scream of shock.

He was there, floating above a pile of dust that she assumed was the remains of the Stasis Chamber. His head was back, face contorted as if he was screaming in pain and his eyes were squeezed shut. The hospital gown hung limply off him, framing his emaciated body.

“Soran…?” She asked.

At the sound of his name those eyes flew open, glowing a blinding blue of the energy that he was absorbing from the entire Utopian Energy Grid. The white-blue glow now began shining out of his mouth as a croaked scream began, growing in size and strength.

Then as quickly as it had began, Soran’s eyes and mouth slammed closed again and he fell to the floor on top of the pile of dust and the lights of Utopia City sprang back to life. Lady Kisa was at his side in a second.

“Soran!” She cried, falling to the floor and pulling Soran onto her lap like a mother holding a young child as it played.

“Soran! Soran can you hear me?” He was breathing on his own and he felt warm to the touch, hot even.

“Nnnn… Tash…” He mumbled.

“Soran!” She shook him slightly as Dr Hammond burst into the room with a syringe and an inhibitor device, complete with the spray-gun like applicator containing what Rosaline assumed was Serum.

“Hold his head to one side” Dr Hammond instructed, pushing the large-bore needle of The Inhibitor into Soran’s neck and fastening the strap around his neck. Next she lined up the applicator with the Inhibitor she had just fitted and injected the Serum directly into Soran’s bloodstream. Rosaline remained calmly holding Soran.

Finally Dr Hammond used the syringe on a vein in Soran’s arm, waking him suddenly with a sudden gasp. The adrenaline hit him hard as he grabbed onto Rosaline’s arm and looked around, alarmed.

“Soran! Soran, you’re safe. You’re okay” She said, holding him down as he struggled in a panic state.

“Do you know where you are, Soran?” Dr Hammond asked, pulling his wild gaze towards her own eyes.

“I, uh….” He said, his voice shaking.

“Soran? It’s Dr Hammond. Do you recognise me?” His eyes finally settled on hers, his pupils dilating and constricting, trying to focus on her.

“Yeah…” He replied, his voice steadying. He was panting and Rosaline released her grip on him.

“You’re safe, Soran” she told him, her voice soothing.

“What happened?” He asked.