The Astara Helm

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Frank lifted his scalpel and looked up to the glowing words that hung in the air before him. The machine rang its signature tone, waiting for a response.

“I told you SEB, we can’t space her. She wouldn’t survive.”

SEB’s rounded frame stood two feet tall with a couple of non-functional flippers for arms that were designed to make him more appealing to children. He was fashioned from orange aluminum, with a dark glass area for a face that projected digital circles for eyes that could change shape and colour to convey emotion. SEB’s main components rested on wheels that allowed him to follow and turn corners, yet when it came to agility, he operated similarly to a human toddler that would occasionally crash into walls.

The glowing words disintegrated into a mist and a new phrase was projected before the scientist. She is likely to scream once we’re done.

Frank sighed. “Yes SEB, but that’s something we’re prepared for. Besides, it won’t last very long.”

The machine appeared to be satisfied. Much like a child, SEB didn’t always understand what he was saying, or how unnerving it could be.

The woman on the table remained unconscious. She was in her late thirties, pale and malnourished. Several bones had been broken, and a limb had needed to be removed. That was the easy part.

The true challenge would be beyond the reach of his scientific knowledge. He knew how to stitch bodies together, how to tinker with machines, but whether or not the woman wanted to live would be entirely up to her. It was the soul that was the tricky part and so far, Frank couldn’t get it right.

There had been three attempts previous to this reconstruction. The first woman was a young priestess on the planet Astara. Frank had been successful in reviving her for the sake of the community, but she lasted only two hours.

The other two women were found beyond the Cascade asteroid belt, from an industrial world where bodies were as ample a commodity as the minerals being mined there. Each was an immediate failure. Given the kind of life they endured - the brutal servitude for corporations that paid well for the dangerous excavations, but enforced sterilization so as to not complicate or slow production - of course they didn’t want to come back.

Despite ultimately being failures, each case had proven that the technology worked. He could revive and that meant there was a shred of possibility. Now all of this hope was laid out on the table, in the woman with the dark curls and heart-shaped face. This was an immense risk, but he had to take it.

SEB wheeled in closer. Words began to glow in the air again, signaling he wanted to talk, but Frank had to stay focused.

“Just say it SEB, I’m busy.”

“Time to push the button?”

There was no point in waiting any longer. “Yes SEB.”

The woman began to stir. Her eyes started to flicker open and wince at the light.

Frank knew what she was experiencing. First she would see blurry shapes, then her vision would begin to sharpen, allowing her to see the words etched into steel above. She wouldn’t recognize them. She might feel nauseous, floating above her body before fully dropping back in.

Frank would attempt to soothe her, to tell her there had been an accident. Hopefully that would explain the confusion. She would hear him and then something else, a mechanical shifting of gears and then an occasional push of liquid through a valve.

And then, if she was who he thought she was, she would remember her children, their small round faces, pale eyes, dust across their cheeks. Ellis. Kara. She would know their names better than her own.

How the rest came back to her, he wouldn't know. What would she see first in her memory, the sprawling industrial area stretching beyond the horizon? The sun blocked by the ash? Maybe she would just feel the crushing lie of a better world. Betrayal. Shock. Which would come first?

And what about the children? Where are they? This terror might paralize her, or perhaps -

The woman screamed.

Even though he had expected it, it still felt like a punch to the gut. He couldn’t blame her - or any of them. They always screamed when they saw his face.

Frank was hideous. Once human, now overtaken. His eyes were clouded over with an orange film and cables sprung from his head and twisted down to his nose. He looked like a corpse infested with worms. But he could do things now - fight in ways he was unable to before. Now he could protect her.

If she would let him.

And only if she was able forgive him for what he had needed to do.

“She’s alive,” SEB said in his strangely child-like voice. Too bad he didn’t get the cultural reference or the irony of a scientist named Frank bringing people back to life.

It was true, she was back with them. Now, Frank wondered, does she want to stay?