Read Nova for Free Online Page A

erratically out of sync with my pounding heart.
    Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong.
    Fire rages across my arms, the pain so great only my clenched teeth are keeping me from screaming. I tear at my sleeves.
    Water!
    I roll off my bed, stumbling blindly toward the hygiene units, my only thought to find relief for the searing heat under my skin. My feet hit half a dozen cots on my way, tripping me up and nearly spilling me onto more than one sleeper. A chorus of annoyed murmurings mark my passage, but I ignore them, concentrating only on my destination. I reach the first unit and wrench open the door.
    *00:03:22*
    I fumble for the taps, but my hands don’t seem to want to work anymore. Little growls issue from my mouth, rising in pitch and volume with each passing second. Even in my agony I can’t help remembering—
I must not be heard.
    In desperation, I turn my face and sink my teeth into my shoulder, letting the cloth of my jumpsuit muffle the sounds. If it hurts, I do not notice.
    A gray fluid, filthy and heavy, begins pooling over my right cornea like a spilled slick of oil—
white, where is my promised white?
—and I feel my legs give out, dumping me to the floor in a tangle of useless limbs. And that’s when I finally realize the truth.
    I’m a
dud.
    The last thing I know before everything falls silent is a voice, singsong and high, echoing in my mind.
    “Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye.”
    Then everything goes black.

4 *My name is Lia Johansen, and sky roisters seven larynx beta nine 0001001110000 01110001 0111111100111001*
    *Error: Sequence Code 248903489*
    *Re-sequencing initiated*
    *My name is Lia Johansen, and I was umbrella avalanching mirrored park lambda eighteen 01110000001011111 10001 1100 11000000111*
    *Error: Sequence Code 248903489*
    *Re-sequencing initiated*
    *My name is Lia Johansen, and I steady steady making over upon above camp 00000001 11101100 11000000101010*
    *Error: Sequence Code 248903489*
    *Re-sequencing initiated*
    *My name is Lia ssfft gibbets size quark 00000000110011 111111110001 010001000 11*
    *Error: Sequence Code 248903489*
    *Re-sequencing initiated*
    *My name is &*###*&^^^^^ 000111011111 1101 11100000001 1000000100000 00001111*
    *Error: Sequence Code 248903489*
    *Re-sequencing initiated*
    *Error: failure to re-sequence*
    *Re-sequencing initiated*
    *Error: failure to re-sequence*
    *Initiating Emergency Shut-down*
    *Shut-down initiated*
    *Shutting down . . .*
    *Shutting down . . .*
    *Shutting down . . .
    *****

5 MY EYES ARE ALREADY OPEN when I wake.
    One moment I am gone and the next I am here, staring out at a matte gray fog. Not white, not black; just flat, opaque gray. My pupils instinctively try to adjust, but I can see nothing beyond the veil.
    It does not matter.
    The backs of my eyeballs begin to sting, and I reflexively blink. Fluid gushes down my cheeks, and with its exodus my sight returns in a shock of sensation.
    I am sprawled on the floor of the hygiene unit, my shoulder cramped uncomfortably against the toilet, my left leg asleep where it twists awkwardly beneath my right. My body aches and my head pounds, and pain, true pain, radiates from my forearms. I muster up the energy to turn one arm over. It looks normal. So does the other when I examine it. I feel faintly surprised at the observation. The pain was so bad—is still so bad—I expected to find twin burns on both forearms. Something, at least, to mark the agony.
    My sacs did not release like they were supposed to, the activated chemicals burning my arms when they found no outlet into my bloodstream. No wonder the pain was so great, with such a defect in my manufacture.
    Defective. That is what I am. Flawed. Imperfect. Broken, like a piece of garbage tossed carelessly on the floor until someone gets around to throwing it away. I look in my head for my clock, not even sure if I will find it.
    *00:02:33*
    I watch the time, counting the seconds silently in my