What Mattered Most

By Quill Holland

At the end of the world, you must choose: survive and succeed or make peace with your failure – which will it be?

A.R.C Project Rebirth: a simple mission to outlive and outlast an inhospitable Earth and repopulate it once it has recovered. Yet, for Chloe, a cyborg member of the project, the operation is anything but simple. Extending well beyond its original completion date and with no signs of recovery, Chloe spends her days living in the past, avoiding her hot, dry, and barren reality, just waiting on the world to change.

When events take a sudden and disastrous turn for the worst, Chloe must compete against herself, her fellow project members, and even time itself, to keep herself and her precious cargo alive; humanity's fate depends on it. Faced with the possibility of not surviving, Chloe must reconcile between her past and present to decide – what mattered most?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quill Holland
• Release date: Oct 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9780473595173

Quill Holland

Quill Holland has previously published two short stories, The Last of Her Kind and What Mattered Most, and a novella, Forgotten Evil. He has now published Awakened Horror, his first novel and the sequel to Forgotten Evil!Growing up, Quill could always be found with his nose in a book or watching the latest science-fiction movie. As a result, he’s developed an imagination that never stops, and naturally, sci-fi and fantasy are largely the domain that Quill’s own work inhabits.Whether it was typing code or writing fiction, Quill has been creating content for years; now, as a recent creative writing graduate from the New Zealand Institute of Business Studies and a member of the New Zealand Society of Authors, Quill has taken the plunge by self-publishing his first works.When he’s not debugging code or creating worlds, Quill likes to dabble in illustration and photography, as well as exploring the natural beauty of New Zealand with his partner.

Book preview

Quill Holland

What Mattered Most

A Sci-Fi Short Story

[Publisher Logo]

Copyright © 2021 Quill Holland.

Quill Holland asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from

the National Library of New Zealand.

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, events, or locales is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN: 978-0-473-59517-3 (Epub)

ISBN: 978-0-473-59518-0 (Kindle)

ISBN: 978-0-473-59519-7 (PDF)

Cover design by Quill Holland

Cover Images from iStock & Unsplash

Editing by CA Proofing

Published by ScorPress Publishing, New Zealand

Content Warning:

This story is intended for mature audiences and contains offensive language.

To my mother, who always encouraged me;

to read, to imagine, and to create.

Look after the land and the land will look after you, destroy the land and it will destroy you.

—Aboriginal Proverb

Chloe … Chloe … Earth to Chloe!

My college professor’s voice pierced my stupor, and I focused on him instead of the summer’s day outside the window.

Sorry, Dan! What did I miss?

The class laughed as Dan feigned annoyance.

I was asking the class what they aspired to be. Everyone’s been sharing, and it is your turn.

Gotcha! Well, I want to be a mother.

A mother, aye? Care to elaborate?

Well, you know, I want to find a nice guy, get a nice house, and start a family … two, maybe three kids.

A few chuckles echoed throughout the class, but I didn’t care – becoming a mother was everything to me.

"Okay, that’s as good a goal as any. Let me ask you a follow-up question: what would you do