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| Return to An Imperfect World |
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| Prologue |
| Late January, AC 196 A hospital on the L-9 cluster of colonies |
| Donato Coronara watced the procedure with extreme interest. He had much invested in the survival of this patient. If all went as planned, this man would be his key to obtaining the power that he so richly deserved. The next few minutes would play a vital role in the future of the newly formed Earth Sphere Unified Nation. For the better part of the last month, all of the vital functions of the patient's body had been performed by complex machines which Coronara himself had designed. While the machines did their work, various drugs (also developed by Coronara) were administered to the patient. These drugs had the power to greatly increase the body's ability to heal itself. The patient was ultra-sonicly scanned several times each day to track the |
| progress the drugs were making with his battered and broken body. The last scans had indicated that it was time to return, at least in part, some othe patient's vital functions to his own body. Respiratory and circulatory functions would once again be performed by the patient's own body, although for a while there would still be a need for some degree of artificial stimulation. Even with Coronara's miracle drugs, injuries as severe as this man's took quite a while to heal. Coronara had plenty of time. Let the children and old fools who had taken charge of ESUN be lulled into complacency. All good things were worth a wait. When the time was right, he would use the man in the operating room to once again show those fools what war and bloody revolution were all about! He had already proven himself to be quite good at it. Never mind that preceding his supposed death he had spoken much of peace and the protection of his beloved home. Coronara had given him his life back. Because of that, he would do anything Coronara asked of him. Gratitude of such magnitude had that kind of effect on a man. This one would be no different. On the other side of the room, Coronara's daughter, Eliyana, sighed. Althought she had no desire to witness this procedure, her interest in the patient demanded that she be present. "So, Father, will he survive?" she asked. Coronara inspected his lovely daughter as she asked this question. Eliyana was a true beauty. Tall , slender, with pale violet eyes and golden hair framing her delicate features, she had been able to bewitch many a man in her mere twenty-two years. Never though, had she been able to do so to the man in the other room. It was almost as though he could sense the selfishness and cruelty benath her sweet and beautiful exterior. Eliyana took this as a challenge. She always wanted things that seemed to be impossible to obtain. Coronara would do anything to please his only child. He supposed that in a way that she had bewitched him also. "All seems to be going as we expected," he replied. "There doesn't seem to be any type of complication. The last few steps of this procedure rarely pose any problems. He should pull through just fine. But even with all we have done to this point, and will yet do in the future, it may be at least a year until he will be of any use to you, child." Eliyana smiled a slow sweet smile. "For one such as him, I would be willing to wait for an eternity. A year is not so long," she said. "Even two would not be bad, so long as at the end of them I would posess him." Coronara nodded. "You will posess him, my child. Have no doubt. But what of the time when you tire of him? You know that it will come." Eliyana had no fear of expressing her true nature in her father's prescence. Her smile was positively wicked as she spoke. "Then, Father, you may use him in any manner you choose. Set him once again against the one he called his etrernal friend, or even one of those others. It matters not to me! Let them orchestrate beautiful bloody battles once again. Let the earth and the colonies tremble in fear of them. Since you will be able to heal so many of their wounded soldiers, they will be ever so grateful to you. Power will be lavished upon you without your asking. You will apologize for saving such an evil man, and they will forgive you. They will probably love you even more for it, since you in your great kindness offered him a second chance at life! Eventually he and all who oppose him wil be destroyed, but for your great kindness and humanitarianism the fools will grant you even more power. It will be beautiful, Father! You will be able to have anything your heart desires." It never ceased to amaze Coronara how well his daughter understood him. It probably shouldn't, since she was his child. They were a perfect pair. She knew fully well that she would rule at his side. Her hunger for power was just as great as his own. Being still young and beautiful, she was more concerned with the physical pleasures of life than he was. That was to be understood. He had been the same way in his youth. Now, at the age of forty-five, he found more pleasure in manipulatng other people's lives than he ever had in anything else. He believed it to truly be an art. Never did anyone believe himself to be controlled by Coronara. These people always believed they made their own desicions. Coronara was always blameless in any tragedy. He was the kind benefactor of humanity. Coronara enjoyed this deception . The physician who had been performing the actual surgery entered the observation room. He spoke quietly to Coronara and his daughter. "The surgery was a success. All of the patient's vital signs are remaining within normal ranges. His injuries are healing quite rapidly. It may be only a matter of months before he begins to have brief periods of awareness. I never thought we could do this!" Coronara smiled. "You should have more faith in me. I do not fail in my efforts. Of course he will survive." "Perhaps we should inform someone of his condition. He was reported to have died in battle," the young surgeon suggested. "No, not at all," Coronara replied quickly. "It is still much too soon. Although some would be pleased to know that he still lives, there are yet others who would wish him harm. I have no desire to see my efforts destroyed. I alone will decide when the time is right to inform the public of his survival!" The young physician suppressed a shiver. Coronara seemed to have completely forgotten the humanity of the patient. To him the man was no more than an experiment in medical technology. |