Ghosts Of Time - Chapter One

Tumbling to the ground, Anya rolls onto her back and stares at the shuddering ceiling. The neon strip-light above flickers then sparks as it breaks loose at one end, dangling dangerously above her. Briefly flinching, Anya draws her arms and knees up to defend herself, sure her titanium bones will be able to protect her from any falling debris - so long as she protects her fleshy stomach. Why didn't they make bones to protect your abdomen? She's lost count of the amount of times some sharp instrument has pierced her gut.

A sudden hissing sound distracts her as she glances down the metal lined corridor to see the General stagger out of the lift shaft into the still-shaking corridor. He leans heavily on one arm propped against the wall. A portly man in a light blue military uniform, with plenty of honours emblazoned across his left breast pocket. In one lithe move, Anya flips her feet down to the ground, using the momentum to pull the rest of her body upright, and immediately salutes her superior officer.

"Enough of that," grunts the General, "I have a mission for you cyber-soldier."

Any snaps her saluting arm back to her side in fast military style. She nods in acknowledgment of his orders.

"The damned aliens have found us. You need to get the time machine and stop them." the General briefed her. "Go back in time, find where they have been before. They know our every move before we do. You might need a hacker." He paused, then added as an afterthought, "Don't use anybody alive. They might be a doppelganger alien. Only trust the dead, snatch them before they die, but cover it up. No one must suspect."

"Yes, Sir!" Anya answered obediently, as another shudder almost knocked them off their feet.

"And cyber-soldier?"

"Yes, Sir?" Anya replied.

"You're on your own. You screw this up, the whole damn world is doomed." the General warned. And as Anya eyes seemed to search his, he added, "Don't screw up!"

"I won't." Anya answered quietly.

For all her cybernetic enhancements, Anya was still human. A genetically grown and enhanced human, but she still had a living human brain alongside that cybernetic implant in her skull, she still knew fear, and pain, and hope. And she wasn't about to give up.

"Now go!" commanded the General.

Anya nodded, then turned and hurried away.

Watching Anya turn and hurry away, the General sighed, pulled out a small firearm, and pointed it to his own skull. "Godspeed you cyber-soldier, and don't let us down. We're all counting on you." he said grimly, then pulled the trigger. A short electronic sound, his body tensed, then collapsed like a heavy sack of potatoes and thudded to the ground, never to move again.