+It’s okay Mairi, you can keep your eyes closed. The scan works on synaptic discourse. The warmth of your skin conducts the signal and should give you a slight tingle, perfectly harmless+, intoned Dr. X aligning the red laser over the center of her eye.
Mairi gritted her teeth; her eyes closed tight, her chest fully exposed. Telepathic communication gave her the same weird sensation as giving bone marrow, neither pleasant nor painful but rather an odd sense of naked violation. The feeling was neither tickle nor itch as much as an indescribable viscous feeling of vacuum--as if the very essence of her soul was being sucked out against her will. Her hands pulled in vain against the rough scratchy rope as if they could wipe away the sensation like a pregnant bead of sweat on precipice of her brow.
+Relax Mairi. There is nowhere to go and nothing to do.+
_______
“John, incoming message. I think you should take this one.”
Flicking his eyes to the right, the private message appeared on the inside of his dark blue visor:
Dear Johnny,
I love you. Do your job. Do it right. Hurry back.
Love,
Cait.
John flicked his eyes down and left and the message faded away.
“Good news John?”
“Yeah, good news,” said John, pursing his lips into a tight smile causing his crow's feet to take on shadow and light in exaggerated folds like heavy cloth.
_______
“Trev, what’s the update? asked Yul.
“No change I’m afraid. I will say this, a lesser Hynerian would not have survived the punishment Rog has absorbed. How much longer is a matter between Rog and Janus.”
“And the arm?”
“We’ll wait as long as we can, but if . . .”
Yul looked down. Trev looked away.
_______
“Taren, our visitors didn’t materialize out of thin air. Launch a patrol. I want the survivors alive since our Tearacs won’t give us that pleasure with our two guests. Consider it a little insurance in case our dear doctor runs into resistance,” said the voice.
_______
Von looked at Kyra out of the corner of his weary eyes as if to say I’ll give you what I’ve got but don’t expect a miracle. Kyra caught the look and smiled without smiling. Standing between Von and the rising murmur she closed her eyes and lifted her arms, palms out. From light came darkness and from darkness came light and a warm sensation lifted his spirit.
Commentary: Axon Terminal
Categories: Story, Kyra, Von, The Voice, Trev, Yul, Mairi, Dr. X, John Discovery, Caitlin
11 comments:
I almost commented before reading, I was that excited to see a new chapter.
Now I'm commenting before listening. :-D
Didn't realize just how MUCH I had missed the story! That was fan*tastic - loved that, the snippet of each, terribly exciting.
More after the audio. :-)
The cliffhangar to beat all cliffhangars. I truly do love what you have done here, once again it seems like the perfect chapter, that if you had started up again in any other way that this, it wouldn't have been quite as dramatic or quite as thrilling.
Each part in turn is what makes this chapter so very, very good.
Really like that fractal too (looks familiar).
Rushing around here, overslept, and have a few things to do just now, but I need to talk more :-D, so I'll be back a little later - to comment on each part in turn (just warning you ahead of time;) and the commentary.
Dream sweet, x
To be more biologically accurate, that fractal would be a cell body. A nerve axon consists of the cell body, where the nucleus resides--which I think the red dot signifies, the axon which is covered at intervals by the myelin sheath, and then the axon terminals with bulb-like extensions at the ends that transmit neurotransmitters.
Opps, the biology student in me just had to comment, but the fractal really caught my eyes.
Saffy, you make me smile. :-)
The fractal refers to the device that Dr. X places over Mairi's eye rather than a representation of a cell body or axon terminal. I was going to call this chapter Synaptic Discourse but thought that Axon Terminal fit the chapter as a whole better. I do cover stuff like this in the audio, so if you are ever in doubt, please give a listen.
As always, thanks for stopping by and commenting. :-)
Sunshine, your enthusiasm is contagious, so says The Gang. :-D
I'll look for you before you leave, but if I miss you, have a safe journey and hurry to your next internet cafe. :-D
As always, thanks for the very, very kind and glowing comments. I'm always amazed at how much you are into this story. :-)
I felt that warm sensation too, I was waiting for it :-) No, I'm not being naughty... *snortle*
*MORE HUGS* for you and Jack ;-)
Oh Karen, how do I respond to that. :-D
Let me know if you are still feeling warm. I think I have something that might help. Or is that Jack? I'm not sure. :-D
Amazingly wonderful. I am so glad that the story is back and this was an episode worth waiting for. I love how you have given us snippets of what is happening to all of the characters. What a way to build to a climax!
Thanks Jenni. So much is going on I was afraid that no one but me would remember where the story was. :-)
Be careful of the post above this one. All is not as it may appear.
It doesn't take much to warm me up ;-) Thanks for being concerned, *snicker* Jack just might have his hands full...
He does. Quite often in fact. :-D
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