Cryptomnesia
3rd Place Winner in the Spring 2017 Science Meets Fiction Contest, co-sponsored by SciCom : the College of Science & Engineering science communication initiative and eleven40seven : TCU Journal of the Arts. White-hot pain sears through my temples and I bolt upright, gasping. Metal wires pull me back and icy fluid splashes against my ears. I clasp my hands on either side of my head and find brain-probing crystals jammed into my skull. Steel cords cage my forehead and tether me down against a cold glass surface. I claw at the crystals and yank on the wires protruding from them, but the pain only intensifies. I scream, my hands convulse. I let go and my arms splash back into the freezing blue liquid that surrounds me. Hyperventilating, I look down at my body. Another steel cord wraps around my waist. Fluid laps up over my knees and soaks into my clean white body suit, staining it dark blue. “Tell us when you saw Earth.” A voice speaks fr