"Paul, wake up Paul"
He was only nominally conscious but he was conscious, at first he believed he was dreaming about his family but soon, with horror, he realized it was a course of hundreds of voices, the most impressive being that of Tartarus. With a sudden choking sensation of fear he realized he was still alive. How could this be? He had taken an immense amount of morphine; he also shot himself in the head. The last thing he remembers was wondering, in a drugged haze, if the nerves would transmit the sound of plasma to his brain before the plasma ate through his brain.
"Paul, pay attention"
Again the voices! This time they were louder and this time Tartarus was an even larger proportion of what he heard.
"What's going on?" Paul thought and apparently he was now lucid enough that the voices could make him out.
"You're with us now Pual"
Paul initially thought nothing could be more bone chilling than the course he was hearing, but now it was only the voice or Tartarus and this felt like cold death.
"We broke in, just in time to see the plasma discharge go through your skull. We have given you a wonderful gift, a new life to replace the one you so carelessly through away." We injected you and as we speak the `nanites` as Maria called them are repairing you and ..."
With a flash Paul seemed to be on an ancient world, watching a war rage between two people whom he had never seen, as soon as it came the flash ended
"And, as you can see out memories are being incorporated into your own, when we are done you can reciprocate"
Paul wanted to scream but he could only speak meekly:
"I don't want this, living like this is torture to a Terran, we are individuals with privacy, our own lives I'm hearing too many thoughts, I can't tell what memories are mine and what are not mine... Just kill me"
F
FireStormZOP