Helix

Harmony suffers regeneration on a world that should not exist and meets a man who defies impossibility to declare himself her match.

Harmony enjoyed her life as a courier for the Alliance, but it all came to a halt when she was sucked into a storm of light and gas that her computer could not see. Agony is her final thought, but when she wakes again, she finds that her body has been recreated because the original…the less said the better.

Nero has been working as a restorer for three hundred years on a world where the only new members of the population fall from the sky. He sees spirit in Harmony, and when she declares that she only wants him for his body, he is smitten.

They face the stars that brought them together and work in their different ways to bring their community into harmony with a world as trapped as they are.

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Helix

Copyright © 2013 Viola Grace

ISBN: 978-1-77111-695-4

Cover art by Martine Jardin

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Devine Destinies

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Helix

A Terran Times Tale

By

Viola Grace

Harmony Winx eyed the storm approaching and checked the navigation systems. She could see it, but on her systems, there was nothing in front of her.

“Computer, identify incoming anomaly.”

The pleasant computer voice said, “Courier Winx, nothing is visible.”

“There has to be. There is an incoming storm that I can’t get around, I need an alternate course.”

“There is nothing visible on my systems, Courier. I suggest that you make an appointment to see a physician when you arrive at the next station.”

“I probably will, Computer.”

It was no use. With no way to get around it, no way to get under it, the gas cloud whirled and swirled as she approached. Lightning sparked and arced as her courier ship cruised forward. Pink and lavender vapour spirals twisted out and around in a wave thousands of kilometers across.

Harmony held back until it was obvious that there was no possible way of making it through the system and out the other side without touching that cloud.

“What the hell.” She took a deep breath and hit the throttle, flying directly into the cloud that wasn’t there.

She flew in with amazement and wonder racing along every nerve as she was surrounded by the figment of her imagination.

The first lightning strike killed her nav computer and the second turned off all the lights. She assumed there was a third, but all she remembered was fire.

* * * *

“We found her floating dead, sir.” The Catcher was apologetic.

Nero didn’t need his apologies; he just needed to get into the ship to find the biological matter that was showing up on his scanners. “When can I get inside?”

“The final decontamination protocols are nearly complete, Doctor. The Retrievers will have her soon.”

Nero fought the urge to pace. It would not help his patient. The body was already cold. He had to wait out the protocols just like anyone else.

Ninety minutes later, he was at the side of the ship and watching the extraction crew as they removed the body. “The chamber is waiting.”

They nodded and carried the figure of the woman to the restoration chamber. He only needed a little DNA, so he hoped that the blast that killed her had not ruptured the information he needed.

Once she was positioned on the exam bed, he took a long look at her. Her limbs were long and graceful, her features pure and her hair was long and dark. He had the ability to see what she should be through the burn and ash, what she was and what she was going to be once he brought her back in a new body with the memories he could scrounge from the old.

Nero hoisted the scanner and set it on the tracks, looking for viable tissue and the precious DNA that would carry the information he needed.

When the screen lit up, he sighed with relief. He quickly checked the tanks for bodies in process and exhaled when he found one empty.

The storm brought them all manner of people. Some would thrive, some would reject their new bodies and leave the worlds of their own accord the second time around. He had hope for each and every one of them. It was his job, his duty and his calling.

The tissue that he found came from her heart, which was highly unusual. In a normal case, the heart was the first thing to go. Either she had been affected in a peculiar fashion, or she had a very strong heart. Either way, he could hardly wait to meet her.

* * * *

Her first memories were of thrashing around and pounding on a clear wall in a panic. Breathing in fluid was wrong. She knew it was wrong, and she wanted out.

A platform rose up under her and spilled her out onto a flat surface. She coughed the liquid out and sucked in sweet air that burned as it provided her with precisely what she wanted.

“Slow down, miss. You have been through a trauma.”

Gentle hands stroked her face. The voice was kind and excited at the same time. The flat surface she was on swung out and lowered her until the man with the kind voice could roll her onto the next table.

He covered her with a soft cloth and smiled at her. “Hold still please while I check to make sure that you are completely recovered.”

“Where am I? What happened?”

He cleared his throat. “I will answer your questions once I am sure that you have been repaired to my satisfaction.”

She kept herself quiet while the scanner ran a beam over her from head to toe. It gave her time to take a good look at the man studying the readout.

He wasn’t brown, he wasn’t blue, but he was something in between. His skin was a few shades lighter than her own, but the blue tinge made up for it. His hair was the truly striking thing about him; it was deep crimson and was braided and studded with small bits of silver and bronze.

His ears were pointed sharply at the tips, decorated with metal, like his hair, and the rest of his features were lean and elegant. He was very pretty, but she didn’t know who he was any more than she knew who she was.

He sighed and smiled. “You are fine. Your body is wonderful. Now, we need to set your mind in place.”

“What?”

“Sit up, please.” He had a halo in his hands with small tabs set around it.

She sat up but cringed back. “Why?”

“You were damaged in a storm. Your memories were blurred, but I have a download of what were able to recover. The halo has them stored and will restore them to you.”

She blinked suspiciously. “How do I know that you won’t put something else I my mind?”

“I am a medical professional. I will not take advantage of you. On my honour, you will come to no harm by my hand.” He placed his hand on the centre of his chest.

She swallowed and nodded, bowing her head forward to accept the halo.

“There will be a tingle, but as these are your memories, you should be able to absorb the information without pain.”

She inhaled on a shaky breath and watched him as he pressed the keys that would show her who she was.

Learning to ride a bike and laughing at the freedom.

High school prom night and her first time getting drunk.

The thrill of acceptance to the Volunteer program back on Earth.

Three sisters and a going away party, strippers painted in four different shades of the rainbow.

A stern commander with horns teaching her to fly a shuttle.

The images of three dozen worlds and chasing the dawn on every one.

Harmony Nina Winx. Courier of the Alliance and Terran Volunteer.

More information flooded her, but there were large gaps in her memories.

“I am Harmony. Alliance Courier. Who are you?”

He grinned. “You managed more than I thought. I am Nero, physician and restorer.”

“Pleased to meet you. Now, what the hell am I wearing?”

“The metal offers you insulation and a protective field.”

She wrinkled her nose and looked down. “Can’t there be more of it?”

He chuckled. “It is designed to give you complete freedom of movement.”

She looked down at the swirls and twists of metal. Her essentials were covered but that was the most that could be said about the concealment it offered. It was more a bikini than a covering.

She flexed her arms and legs, moving against the slight restraint of the suit. “It feels weird.”

“Are you cold?”

“No. I am fairly comfortable.”

“Good. The suit has the function of reporting to our systems if you have any issues. Would you like to try standing up?”

She wasn’t sure. Her body felt weird, like it didn’t know what would happen next. “Give me a few minutes. I don’t feel quite right.”

Aside from the huge gaps in her memory, her callouses were gone. She looked down, and her scars were gone as well. Harmony rubbed her hands together and felt the infant-like smoothness.

Nero left her alone, and he fussed around a computer terminal on one side of what appeared to be a well-equipped medical bay.

Harmony continued to check for the scars that should be there while she looked around her. There was the clear wall of a tank in front of her. She recognized it even though the last time she had seen it clearly, she had been inside it. The metal plates on either side of her clear pane caught her attention. They were the same size as the tank, and it got her thinking that she might not have been a singular captive of the medical staff.

Carefully, standing on feet that were almost as soft as her hands, she wrapped the sheet around her and took a few shaking steps toward the metal plates. With intuition, she touched a small raised pad on the wall and when the metal slid up, she heard the shout from Nero through the roaring in her head.

In the tank floated a man who wasn’t injured but in early stages of development. He wasn’t being healed; he was being cloned.

She closed the panel again and turned to her restorer. “I think you need to explain.”

Nero’s skin was paler than before when he gestured for her to resume her seat. “You are going to need to sit for this.”

Harmony hopped up onto the table. “For what? I am a clone. Where is the original me?”

Nero winced. “She is dead. Nothing survives coming through the storm, but we can regenerate you to the point at which you died. That is where we find ourselves today.”

“Where is my body?”

“Cold storage. We always keep the original until the restored version is mobile and whole.”

“Show me. I need to see me.” Harmony’s mind was still in shock, so what was one more surprise to add to the fire? She had always been one to get things over with.

“That is unwise. Most newly restored folk cannot deal with being face to face with themselves.”

“I am not most. I am me, and I need to see it. Please.” She added the last when she saw him waver. Sure enough, it tipped him over the edge.

“Come with me. Remove your wrap. If you are carrying it, they will know that you are right out of the tank. That will not get you into the storage facility.”

She winced but set the sheet aside and stood proudly in the strange wire and leaves of metal that covered her. “Fine. May we go now?”

“Please, but stay next to me and laugh at whatever I say. They will be off their guard if you appear to be on a date.”

She sighed and nodded. “Whatever you say. Lead the way.”

He offered her his arm, and she took it gratefully. The suit was protecting the soles of her feet, but her legs were still unsteady. She would take all the help he offered.

Now, where the hell was her body?

Harmony tensed when she saw the first being that wasn’t Nero. The male nodded to them and passed them by without doing more than giving her body a cursory glance.

She had to admit that she was slightly offended. She looked good and she knew it, but wearing as little as she was, she should have elicited more of a response.