Hey guys,
I am completely new to this, so it would be great if some of you could read and review my story. Of course I hope you all enjoy it.
I also have to admit that I am no native English speaker, let alone writer, so any corrections on grammar, vocabulary, idioms etc. are most welcome! I am trying to learn, so don't spare me any criticism. Thanks to all of you!
Enjoy!
2. Unfreezing
"Warm it further up, warm it up!" The old scientist waved furiously with his arms. "But cautiously, do it degree for degree!" Another drop of liquid carbonite ran over the now cockling onyx surface, rolled above a foreshadowed shoulder edge and splashed through the grid on which the block had been locked into position. More and more iron chain links came into sight, they showed up one after the other, bending and clanking when the next bit of the, now loose, chain glided onto the grid.
The block had already shrunk for about twenty centimetres (ca. eight inches) and the human figure in its mid glowed in regular intervals like a fluttering little breath. Her heart beat again, it had been beating for four or five minutes now, irregular and too fast, but it was beating. She was alive again.
"Call for Lord Vader!" The scientist's breath picked up the pace.
"I am here already." The dark presence of the Sith lord cooled the atmosphere in the room dramatically. "Is she ready?"
"Yes, Lord Vader. We finished with the pre-thawing and will now have to work faster. Her heart started to beat again." The doctor rubbed his hands in excitement. "This is a grand day for science, my Lord. Never before has anyone been frozen for such a long period. Twenty years, almost to the day! I am very curious, how she acquitted herself."
He stepped forward to the control desk, an almost demonical smile flitting over his face, taking the place of a younger doctor. "Now this – is going to hurt, my dear." He turned the temperature button, but other than the man before him he did not turn it in minimal, careful movements. With a single, determined action three hundred degrees of unbroken heat flashed down onto the carbonite block.
Glowing red, the material started to stretch, decolour to white and flake off in small bits and pieces.
The block now equalled a broken vase, under the surface of which a rose shimmer became visible.
Faster and faster the material fell off the human form. One could now see hands, held crosswise by the chain over the woman's breast. A torso, thighs. For a glimpse one could recognize a face – then the wispy female figure collapsed without a sound on the floor, with just the chain ringing.
The heat stopped all by itself and the scenario, glowing prior to this, suddenly seemed grey and damp.
The figure on the floor whimpered cramping, before relaxing to a feverish tremble.
A wave of the doctor's hand sent all other men out apart from two who stepped closer to lift the unconscious carefully onto a stretcher and take off her chain. Bare of emotion, Darth Vader's eyepieces looked over the human mass. Her almost beautiful, fragile face was very pale, twitching spasmodically, the eyes closed. Her hands were still crossed above her breast, her hair seemed wet and scruffy, almost grey.
She did not seem to observe any of her surroundings, but rather dream very vividly.
"She can't hear us." The doctor smiled coldly. "She is reliving her life for the second time just now, but in constantly changing order. Weak minds have been known to break in this part of the process."
Vader did not move his glance from the woman, who could not have been any more than a young girl twenty years past by the still juvenile looks of her unaged, yet somehow worn out face. She still looked not more than sixteen or seventeen years, but the seriousness of her expressions made her look mature nevertheless.
"She was never weak," he told the doctor sternly. "She is going to find herself again. Get her to a cell on board of my starcruiser. "
The doctor opened his mouth to object, but was shut up immediately when Darth Vader added mechanically: "I will take her with me when I visit our new battlestation. I waited twenty years for this, I've got time."
The scientist beckoned to two soldiers to come in, who helped him willingly to carry the still unconscious girl out of her prison of the last twenty years.