Chapter One

The door slid open, and Tal ran in. His expression was puzzled, and he was panting as if he had run all the way to the laboratory. He came to a sudden stop in front of a large tank filled with a thick green fluid. Suspended in the tank was a human body, the body of his lifelong friend Brenna. Her eyes were closed, and no slow rise and fall of the chest betrayed breathing.

            A slight rustle of papers alerted Tal to the presence of the scientist testing on Brenna. He stood to one side of the tank, consulting a clipboard. Without looking up, as if he was talking to himself, he began to speak.

            “She stopped responding to our tests three days ago. We thought she had built up immunity to the substances we were using, but we were proved wrong when her heart stopped.” He said all this calmly, without emotion, as if he dealt with such things every day of his life.

            Tal was stunned. Brenna had been doing so well, coping so well…

            All he managed to gasp out was “When?” The scientist looked up from his clipboard with a sympathetic smile on his face, and all it took was one word for Tal to break down.

            “Yesterday.”

            Tal emitted a broken sob before collapsing against the glass wall of the tank. His face was pressed against the cool surface, and his breath clouded the glass. No tears fell, instead he turned his face to the scientist.

            “How could you let this happen, Lucas? How could you let her die? When she came into your care… you swore to protect her. How could you?” he yelled, before breaking into another bout of sobbing. Lucas crouched down till his head was level with Tal’s, and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

            “Sometimes,” he began, and his voice was dead, “sometimes you have to let these things happen. For the good of many, you must sacrifice the life of one.”

            Lucas turned and walked out of the room, and Tal stood. He looked through the glass, staring into Brenna’s face, his hand tapping the surface of the tank in a last desperate attempt to wake her up. When that, too, failed, he pressed his forehead against the glass.

            “I’m sorry,” he whispered, then he too left.

 

            Inside the tank, the green liquid stirred slightly as Brenna’s eyes flickered open.