The Secret War - 1st novel in the Shadow Series

Chapter 28 .

Vai

I came in with a left hook to the punching bag followed by a right uppercut. When not punching, my hands were up to protect my face from imaginary opponents. Thrissko's imaginary fist came across my cheek. I stopped and pulled off my gloves. I gingerly touched the spot on my cheek that had been split open. I felt the pain all over again. I brought my hand away from my cheek and looked at my fingers. Of course there wasn't any blood. It was only an imagined pain.

I had time to shower before class started. The water poured over me. I reached up and touched my eye. I had never thought my eyeball would not be where it belonged before my fight with Thrissko.

I searched for zek on my okulus while the water dripped off me. There was no recent mention of zek. The last reference to it I could find was 75 years ago and it only mentioned that it had all been destroyed. The other mentions of it were few.

When I had been a boy, it had been mentioned everywhere. The drug that crazed the K'thaktra into a killing frenzy. But those news reports were gone now. No trace. The Gathering must have done it, but why? To protect the K'thaktra when they joined the Gathering? It hadn't been all destroyed though. I had seen it. I had been infected by it.

I stepped out of the shower, dried off quickly and dressed.

"Sir, are you all right?" Warpaint called from beyond the bathroom door. "You are taking longer than usual."

"I'm fine, Warpaint."

I entered into my okulus search engine: screaming, pain with unknown cause where the person had been normal before and relatively normal after.

That got a few hits, but not as many as I had hoped. There were accounts on Earth, Mars, Europa, Bundu VI and more. But they were vague and no mentions of pink smoke. Some of the accounts seemed like they had been edited so maybe there had originally been mention of pink smoke.

"Sir," Warpaint called out, "School is starting."

I stepped out of the bathroom and went to my bed while reshaping my okulus.

"This is a ship wide announcement," a female voice came on over the ship's intercom. "Officer Hansi, please report to the security office immediately."

Hansi. He was the officer who took my statement. I waited, but nothing else was said. Maybe because I had just been thinking about zek, but I remembered the pink I thought I saw in Hansi's eyes while I was giving my statement.

I put the okulus over my eyes and entered the ansible. I went into the school program. Class should have started, but Teacher Miller hadn't arrived yet.

I went to my desk, but I paused when I saw Reef - a Starwatcher with chestnut colored fur - at the desk Spencer usually sat. Spencer now sat with his friends from the Remembrance.

Owen had contacted me when he got back on the ship the day before to tell me what had happened on the planet. Apparently, Spencer didn't want to sit by us after Minmin humiliated him.

I nodded at Reef and sat at my desk.

"Do you think Teacher Miller got fired and that is why she isn't here yet?" Minmin asked.

"That would be fine with me," Shel said.

"I don't know," I said. "I kind of feel bad for her."

"That's only because you weren't there yesterday. She was too wrapped up in flirting to pay attention to Spencer attacking me. She probably still thinks Minmin started it," Owen said. He raised his voice and mimicked Teacher Miller, "Oh, Mr. K'thaktra, I love this planet and these ruins and you. Who cares if you have the strength to rip me in half and claws and barbs on the back of your hands that could cut me."