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Chapter One
HARPER
Treoid 5, dwarf planet
I couldn’t escape his image. Sometimes when I closed my eyes or dreamed, I saw his red ones staring back at me. His skin was charcoal gray. His hair, a mass of red fire. Whenever he looked at me, I felt as though my whole body would burst into flame.
"You ready to roll, Sergeant Jordan?"
I opened my eyes. Major Zucu, my superior officer and fellow medic, looked to me for an answer.
"I didn’t catch you sleeping on the job, did I?"
"No, just getting my bearings." I got up from my seat on the ship and secured my oxygen mask over my face.
Major Zucu’s bottom tusks reached past his upper lip as he hid a smile while I fumbled with the straps. My human lungs could not adapt as fast as those of his Quarek species in this galaxy. "You didn’t answer my first question. Are you ready for the mission?"
"We’ll see, won’t we?" My voice came out muffled from behind my mask. I made a failed attempt to ignore the lingering images of the flame-haired male. Who was he? What was he? This was the third time this month I’d experienced the hallucination. I lost count of the dreams I had of him in total since they started last year. There was no time to think about it now. The mission needed to be completed.
As the doors to the Mission Flyer opened, yellow haze seeped into the ship’s deployment hatch. Nausea formed in my stomach. It could’ve been from Treoid 5’s atmosphere or my nerves. This was my first field mission since I left Earth to join the Wanderstar Fleet in the Arcturus galaxy.
Major Zucu inspected a cylindrical canister containing two prefilled syringes of blue serum. "You just have to administer a tiny little shot to your new patient. It’s like any other day in the life of a medic." When he closed the lid of the canister, a green light circled the top, indicating it was sealed. He held it out for me to take. "No sweat."
I fitted the small canister to the utility belt at my waist. "Permission to speak freely."
"Granted."
"I’m about to infiltrate an enemy camp and administer an experimental drug to a prisoner. It’s not exactly like taking someone's blood pressure."
He processed the mouthful of anxious words I tossed his way. "Just trying to lighten the mood."
I appreciated his humor. It took the edge off knowing I was in the middle of fighting an intergalactic war. "Any updates on the patient or his condition?"
"Negative. King Varus was last seen on drone surveillance ten days ago before his captors moved their camp. We don’t know if he had sufficient blood intake to stave off the feral change."
"Great. I was hoping not to meet a bloodthirsty Javorian."
"You’re too much of an optimist, Sarge. I blame it on your youth."
Infantry soldiers, armed with lasers that could stun or kill, depending on the setting, filed past us to deploy from the ship first. They’d be our first and last line of defense from whatever dangers were on this little dwarf planet.
I moved towards the deployment hatch. "It would’ve been nice to see an image of this Varus guy before I give him a jab."
"Just look for a big Javorian with wings. You can’t miss him."
I stopped. "Did you say wings?"
"No more time for chit chat. Let’s go." Major Zucu patted the service weapon on his hip. "We’re in enemy territory. Gotta move."
The field exercises on Earth and even those near Wanderstar Headquarters on planet Xaxos didn’t prepare me for this. Even so, I was determined to fulfill my role in the mission. I worked hard to develop this serum.
The alien race of Javorians were at a disadvantage in the fight against enemy Quareks because they needed to consume blood every thirty days, or they’d lose their sanity. Going feral, is how they referred to it. Once it happened to them and enough time passed, there was often no coming back from it.
Until now.
Months of research brought me and Major Zucu to the theory that the effects of feral change could be reversed. The serum we developed was comprised of natural enzymes found in the moth heart flower, a plant on Xaxos that had healing effects.
I followed Major Zucu and the infantry soldiers out of the ship. The muddy marsh land squelched beneath my boots. Other soldiers were already struggling to lift their feet from the muck. If the enemy didn’t get us, the noxious air and mud would.
