64

Colonel Dan Fulgham climbed
Into the centrifuge and they
Pulled over him black straps

Fastening them like a straight-
Jacket and sealed the chamber
And retreated to the controls
And their voices came distant
Over the intercom and asked
If he could go one more round.
He replied in the affirmative
And the monitor was moving in
And out and the engine began
To hum and the great arm came
Slowly out of its white stasis.

They got him up to 10gn and

He began to grey out and the

Edge of his vision grew black

And his face flowed back from

His bones and his eyelids began

To ripple shut so he had to force

His head back to see and at 13gn

The blood began to flow out of his

Brain and to pool in his abdomen.

He blacked out for ten seconds

And came to as they lifted his

Body from the groaning chassis

And he said nothing but he shook

Them off and walked out of there

And back down the corridors of

The compound and as soon as

He knew anything he felt that

Everything was wrong: he could

Clearly see his own body walking

Ahead of him down the corridor

And his will inhabited the image,

Animus divorced from its corpus.

And he could see it all rushing on

As if into an endless dark tunnel

And his silhouette against the light,

His uniform and the back of his

Helmet and the corridor shaking

And his own hands shaking, white.

The blood was roaring in his ears

And he vomited against the wall

And the body collapsed into it.