Lucy stopped pirouetting. “How long in the field? Daddy, how long are you going to be away?”
I forced myself to meet her eyes. “About a month, sweetiepie. Maybe a bit longer.”
“A month?!?”
I felt wretched. We had not yet discussed the kidnapping episode, let alone Cecilia Parsec’s revelations about her mother. We had to talk about it. Really talk about it. And now here I was going away again, for a whole month—if not longer, counting our planned side trip.
“We aren’t leaving right away,” I said. “Figure another week to get all our ducks in a row.” I reached for Lucy. She shied away. “Come on, we’ll pick up ice cream on our way home.”
That got her into the truck. “You can drop me off on the Strip,” Dolph said. He hadn’t brought his bike today.
“Nuh uh,” I said. “Before we go for ice cream, we got one thing to take care of.”
“What?” said Lucy, squashed between me and Dolph.
I met Dolph’s eyes over her head. I saw the telltale lustre of fear in his gaze, mirroring my own. Fear of the thing we’d been dancing around all day.
“It’s been a week,” I said. “Time to go and pick up those test results from Dr. Zeb’s.”
*
I took Lucy into the hospital with me. I only did it because I didn’t want to leave her alone in the truck. As it turned out, it was a good decision.
The parking lot across the street from the hospital was full, the drive was parked up, and there was a line at the hematology desk in the cloister. When Dolph and I reached the desk, the pretty young nurse remembered us. “You beat the rush,” she said. “Everyone’s getting tested now. The lab’s so backlogged, wait times are up to two weeks. But here are your results.”
She handed each of us a thin piece of paper folded into three, with the edge glued down.
“What’s that?” said the watchful Lucy, at my elbow.
“Ah, it’s just a test I had to get done.”
Dolph stepped aside from the mob at the hematology desk. Standing in the seating area in front of the windows, he tore his report open.
He read it.
He looked at me with a grin so high-wattage, it could’ve powered the whole hospital. “I’m OK.”
“What do you mean?” Lucy said. She was getting frustrated with this ill-explained errand. “Why wouldn’t you be OK?”
“Bad shit happens in the Cluster,” said Dolph. “But it didn’t happen to me this time, and that means your daddy’s OK, too.”
I remembered the fairy dust blowing around that intersection in the refugee camp.
The glitter landing on Dolph’s hair, and on my watch cap.
The taste of the gritty dust blowing on the wind.
Dolph was OK. But he had been wearing a bandanna over his mouth and nose. I had not.
I ripped open my report.
I read it.
And read it again.
“Mike,” said a familiar deep voice. I glanced around and saw Dr. Zeb. “I seem to recall banning you and Dolph from this hospital.”
“Sorry, Dr. Z,” I said. “We’re gone. Just had to pick up some test results.”
“All’s well, I hope?” Dr. Zeb reached into the pocket of his white coat and brought out a candy for Lucy. She whispered thanks. She was not looking at the doctor. She was staring up at my face as if her life depended on my next words.
Which, in a sense, it did.
“Fine and dandy,” I said with a smile. I crumpled the report and jammed it into my pocket. “Let’s get out of here, sweetie. Time to go get that ice cream.”
In the truck, Lucy babbled happily, buoyed up by the palpable ebullience emanating from Dolph. I played along, aware that Dolph’s relief was fading as he eyed me doubtfully. I was holding it together well enough to fool Lucy, but not to fool him. The lights of Shiftertown glistened on the still-wet streets. Every time I moved, I felt the crisp paper of the report crinkling in my pocket.
I could, and would, read it a hundred times more in the following days, but that wouldn’t change what it said.
POSITIVE.
I was infected with interstellar variant kuru.
THE STORY CONTINUES IN DIRTY JOB,
BOOK 2 OF A CAULDRON OF STARS.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I’m deeply grateful for multiple brainstorming sessions with Walter Blaire, whose books I heartily recommend to all sci-fi readers! This book also benefited from the expertise and suggestions of Bill Patterson; Dr. Martin “X-Ray Eyes” Miller; Christopher Andersen; Jerry Larson; AJM; and Ben Aupperlee. Any remaining mistakes are my own.
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An exuberant storyteller with a demented imagination, Felix R. Savage specializes in creating worlds so exciting, you’ll never want to leave.
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A CAULDRON OF STARS
Space Opera Adventure
Far in the future, in the distant Messier 4 cluster, humanity coexists with the legalistic Ekschelatan Empire, a host of lesser alien species ... and an age-old mystery that could shatter the balance of power. The long, uneasy peace is about to boil over into war.
A foiled terrorist incident on a backwater planet lights the fuse ... and drags freighter captain Mike Starrunner and his crew into an intrigue spanning thousands of light years, with all the wealth and power of the Cluster at stake.
Lethal Cargo
Dirty Job
… and more to come!
EARTH’S LAST GAMBIT
A Quartet of Present-Day Science Fiction Technothrillers
Ripped from the headlines: an alien spaceship is orbiting Europa. Relying only on existing technology, a handful of elite astronauts must confront the threat to Earth’s future, on their own, millions of miles from home.
Can the chosen few overcome technological limitations and their own weaknesses and flaws? Will Earth’s Last Gambit win survival for the human race?
The Signal And The Boys (prequel story, subscriber exclusive)
Freefall
Lifeboat
Shiplord
Killshot
EXTINCTION PROTOCOL
Hard Science Fiction With a Chilling Twist
Humanity has reached out into the stars - and found a ruthless enemy.
It took us two hundred years to establish fifteen colonies on the closest habitable planets to Earth. It took the Ghosts only 20 years to destroy them. Navy pilot Colm Mackenzie is no stranger to the Ghosts. He has witnessed first-hand the mayhem and tragedy they leave in their wake. No one knows where they came from, or how they travel, or what they want. They know only one thing for sure:
Ghosts leave no survivors.
Save From Wrath (short story, subscriber exclusive)
The Chemical Mage
The Nuclear Druid
THE SOL SYSTEM RENEGADES SERIES
Near-Future Hard Science Fiction
In the year 2288, humanity stands at a crossroads between space colonization and extinction. Packed with excitement, heartbreak, and unforgettable characters, the Sol System Renegades series tells a sweeping tale of struggle and deliverance.
Keep Off The Grass (short origin story)
Crapkiller (prequel novella, subscriber exclusive)
1. The Galapagos Incident
2. The Vesta Conspiracy
3. The Mercury Rebellion
A Very Merry Zero-Gravity Christmas (short story)
4. The Luna Deception
5. The Phobos Maneuver
6. The Mars Shock
7. The Callisto Gambit
VOID DRAGON HUNTERS
&nb
sp; Military Sci-Fi with Space Dragons
In 2160, a Void Dragon ate the sun.
In 2322, eight-year-old Jay Scattergood found a Void Dragon egg in his garden.
Humanity survived the death of the sun, but now we're under attack by the Offense. These intelligent, aggressive aliens will do whatever it takes to destroy humanity and take Earth for themselves.
Our last hope against the alien aggressors is Jay Scattergood ... and his baby Void Dragon, Tancred.
Guardians of Jupiter
Protectors of Earth
Soldiers of Callisto
Exiles of the Belt
Knights of Saturn
THE RELUCTANT ADVENTURES OF FLETCHER CONNOLLY ON THE INTERSTELLAR RAILROAD
Near-Future Non-Hard Science Fiction
An Irishman in space. Untold hoards of alien technological relics waiting to be discovered. What could possibly go wrong?
Rubbish With Names (prequel story, subscriber exclusive)
Skint Idjit
Intergalactic Bogtrotter
Banjaxed Ceili
Supermassive Blackguard
Lethal Cargo Page 36