Pain. His world was pain. Every cell was pain.
Eric gritted his teeth, a bellow of fury and rage escaping from the drum that was his chest as his spine became a hard arch off the bed. The rings whirled around him as the auto-bed ripped his genetic structure apart and rewrote it the same way it had when he’d been injured. He was glad he’d been out of it. It was like tiny little acid knives stripping his flesh and muscles from his bones. Piranhas of agony swam in his veins and attacked everything they saw. It was… there were no words. Nothing but the pain, the blue rings that swirled above him and the scream that rose from his very soul.
“T-minus five, Eric. We need you up top,” a voice announced from somewhere outside the room.
It was familiar, and he should have recognized it. Should ha
