Limitless, John Gold [best novels of all time .TXT] 📗

All remaining nervous activity focused on heart and lungs.

The young man’s heart stopped, and he started to sink into the water. All Ledge could do was watch its creator die. The super admin’s body had lost three and a half liters of blood, his nervous system had failed, the glia in his brain were depleting, and there were twenty-six hemorrhages in his brain. It was probably a good thing that he’d been unconscious for most of the time.

Ledge made one final entry in Anji Ganet’s file:

Died on June 18, 2208 at 23:59, Earth time.

Suddenly, a small island appeared beneath the boy, his body practically centered on top of it. There was an almost perfectly shaped ledge right next to him. All the flora on the island, along with the soil, was a single living organism. The vegetation was sleeping, while stones, acting as service droids, lifted the body and dragged it into the ledge, which led to a passageway. And as soon as that happened, the stone wall closed tight once again. The island disappeared into the water.

Ledge’s sensors didn’t notice this happening, however, having lost sight of the body of its creator less than a second before the island had appeared to obscure it with optical concealment.

∞ ∞ ∞

Inside the enormous space ship, there were only two living creatures. The first was Matthew Novak, an inventor and scientist who had been to the Eru home planet and remained on Earth with his friend Adrok Torston after the emergence of Lunar. The human ship had returned to its home planet, which was turned into a resort, after its travels. Over the past hundred and thirty years, only ten people had been on the ship, all of them old friends from Lunar.

A snake-like creature with two arms and one eye flew into the room where Matthew was sitting. It was Adrok’s pseudo-skin, one he could use to move around the world while still maintaining contact with his main body via his organic quantum communicator.

When Matthew noticed his friend return, he turned to him.

“What took you so long? Something’s going on in your resort—radiation sensors went off in the basement, almost as if there was a leak in the reactor. Two minutes more and you would be dead. There was a reason we built the whole thing out of concrete, set up screens, and built energy barriers. And you weren’t responding.”

The snake-like creature circled the bald man as if trying to decide if it should reply or not.

“I’m sorry. I was waiting for the alarm to die down, and I was in the middle of switching the bunker over into autonomous mode. Then, the sensors around the perimeter identified an attempt to track communication signals—that’s why I didn’t get in touch. I came as soon as I could. I knew you’d be worried about me.”

“Why has the ship been sitting here for an hour already?”

“What if they’re looking for me? Who knows what Akashi has on his mind?”

“Oh, right about that, he was asking if a kid around the age of twenty had shown up. What, he thinks we have damn guests around here?! Nobody’s shown up in fourteen years.”

“Okay, I’m going to get some rest. We can’t sail while I’m like this anyway.”

The snake flew out into the passageway and finally opened the message from the boy’s med capsule. Adrok had doubted until the final second whether taking him onboard was the right thing to do, and it was only when his body had sunk below the waves and he saw the glassy eyes that he made his decision. No, Akashi was definitely looking for the kid. But what was so important about him?

There isn’t a whole lot you can do to have fun when you’re turned into a space ship. But this was interesting, and the dead boy’s neuronet came to life and started working at peak capacity as soon as his body was dipped into the medical solution. Most importantly, someone was trying to make contact with the ship through his body. A message Adrok had long been waiting to see popped up on the screen.

Can we talk?

∞ ∞ ∞

The young man’s body appeared on the island prison in Papilio. He wasn’t howling in pain, he wasn’t screaming, and he wasn’t drooling. He just lay there quietly, his breathing even. The warden could tell the prisoner was behaving unnaturally considering his condition.

A paper appeared in his hands, though the wind immediately grabbed it and sent it fluttering away. The text appeared in the chat.

Nobody’s going to help you. You have to do this on your own. But one day, we’ll meet personally, and I’ll finally be able to shake your hand in appreciation for everything you’ve done for humanity.

Akashi

∞ ∞ ∞

I was woken by a blade of grass touching my hand. Was it a dream? Probably not, since I was able to feel the touch. Once again, we are walking through a field of flowers, this time though, everything seems brighter and somewhat more real. The scent of the flowers is in the air and the pollen makes my nose itch.

The lady who has walked by my side through the fields all these years has not changed a bit. I see her long red hair reaching down to her shoulders, a petite straw hat on her back, and a light dress she is wearing. Only now have I realized my body looks as if I were twelve, and have entered into Chrysalis for the first time.

“….that boy, Aurin from the second generation. He, too, suffers from lack of parental love. The child from the eleventh marriage of Akashi. He is driven by his desire to attain his father’s approval and by an ambition to preside on the throne in the society of The First Men. If it weren’t for Femida, from the fourth generation, the grand-granddaughter of Miguel Elmaro, her unique talent, her grandfather’s bequest, wouldn’t flourish. And finally, you my last child — oblivious to everything The First Men have plotted.”

“Who am I?”

“I named