A Soldier in Love by A. Petrov Read Free Book Online Page A

other planets suitable for human life. Their final ruling deemed
Redex as unsuitable for mankind.”

 
    “Unsuitable? Why? IS
please provide report,” Michelle commanded.

 
    “Despite an effort to
garden planet life for sustenance molcos hund destroyed it. Standard Redex
vegetation is unsuitable for human digestion. Three members of the original
mission died from complications.”

 
    Damn.

 
    “Earth Army deemed the
hide of the molcos hund too tough for bullets or knives to pierce. Several
bullets must be fired to kill. Molcos hund destroyed equipment, food, and
supplies. Exploration Team 700 did not return to Earth. There were no known
survivors.”

 
    ***

 
    Over the next several
weeks it seemed that running had become a standard part of life.

 
    Through the few weeks
that had passed they had slowly became acclimatized to the sweltering heat. The
cooling packs helped some which was good because they were able to do drills
without getting heat exhaustion.

 
    The heat felt different
on Redex. Maybe it was because the green sun didn’t cause sunburn. Instead of
hitting your skin like on Earth, it felt like the heat just went straight into
your body and didn’t want to ever leave. Long after the drills were over, even
in the cool concrete building, one could still feel the heat radiating deep
inside. At night, when the sun set and it became cool, Michelle still felt the
heat. It gnawed at her, it drove her crazy. Well, it drove everyone crazy.

 
    I’ll get used to it, I have to, Michelle told herself over and over. She thought if she
repeated it enough she would eventually get used to it. She guessed you could
get used to anything if you had to .

 
    Michelle continued
running in the desert sand with the others. She always started slow, the others
would pass her, they would get hot and slow down and that’s when she would
speed up.

 
    Michelle thought the
running drills were idiotic.

 
      We
shouldn’t be running from the enemy we should be learning how to defeat them. What
does he mean we don’t know the enemy? The IS told me about the inhabitants of
Redex. We have to learn how to fight these damn things off…

 
    Anxiety gripped her
body as she realized that The Commander was probably adamant that they run
because that is most likely what they would be doing when they confronted the
enemy.

 
    No one really knew what
was going on. No one knew if the Cabaka would come to Redex too.

 
    What frightened
Michelle the most was that no one knew if something else was coming or if
something else was already here.

 
    Not knowing is always
the worst kind of torture.

Chapter Eight

 
    “Michelle?” Kate called
out quietly in the dark.

 
    Michelle turned to her
now best friend and bunkmate. “Yeah?”

 
    They had been through a
lot together in the past few weeks. Michelle was thankful that Kate had
accepted her. Now, Michelle wasn’t sure how she got as far as she did without a
friend, without anyone to talk to. Although, she had kept the IS and the
information she attained from it a secret from Kate. She didn’t know why but
her gut had told her to keep it a secret as best she could.

 
    “I was just seeing if
you were awake?” Kate said in a hushed tone.

 
    “I couldn’t sleep. I’m
hungry,” Michelle replied staring at the ceiling in the dark room. She lightly
traced her fingertips over the top of her ribcage.

 
    “Yeah, me too. It feels like they don’t give us enough food for
all the drills we do,” Kate said softly.

 
    “I’m sure it’s plenty.
I mean my hair keeps growing, well, everyone’s hair
grows so quickly here. I bet it’s all the vitamins and minerals,” Michelle
replied trying to be optimistic.

 
    “Maybe… I guess you are
right about that,” Kate replied.

 
    Michelle relaxed
against her thin mattress and looked over to Kate in the darkness. She couldn’t
really make out anything beyond her figure. She gently massaged