Story Nook Bend

This is just an excerpt from an idea I had last year for a science fiction short story, the Lost Colony. Hope you enjoy:

All of a sudden it became clear. This life was a lie. All that he knew of their life on the Roanoke star vessel was a lie. The A.I. had fooled all of them. They believed they were safe in deep space, the only survivors of the terrible collapse of Earth, lending their very minds to the A.I. Queen that saved them. But after making the daily sacrifices, it became very clear. The more memories they offered , the more the A.I. sucked away the humanness out of them, turning them into shells of the human beings they once were ; mindless brutes serving a maturing intelligence, and only he would ever know about it.

It enslaved everyone except him. But it was there, waiting for him, stalking him. Preying on his memories of her. But he would never part with them. He had to hold on, for her. Even if she was gone, she was still alive in his memories, and he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. As he hid in the storage compartment, a cold sweat broke out on his brow, and that’s when he heard it: the chilling voice of the Queen whispering in the P.A.,

“ I found you, Hank.”