Rain fell. Corporal Frips tightened an already tightened grip on his GUN and shuffled forward through the muddy weeds to get a better view of his target. His eyes were white saucers of quiet ferocity, scanning the jungle like a predator. He was the predator. Nobody would take him by surprise this time. Predators were always aware.

The compound was sealed but he was not concerned about that. He couldn’t afford to be concerned because that would mean he’d already failed. Frips didn’t fail. Not anymore. He was past failure. The specters of his explosive catastrophes haunted him and he’d developed a healthy self-diagnosis of frustrated insomnia to ward off the dreams that sent him into psychotic breakdowns. Enough about that. Frips was here to complete his mission so let’s complete the mission, Frips. Let’s do this. Do it hard. Bring it on home, they’re counting on you. Aurora counted on you once. She needed you. No don’t think about her.

He crept forward, sliding through the warm mud that clung to his battle fatigues like old lovers. The compound was still, silent, a silver monolith in the soaked jungle. The moisture in the air: vibrating. What did that mean? Another field. He found himself staring at the body of Aurora, another memory overlay. His flashbacks were getting worse. He couldn’t stop them once they started but maybe he could redirect their force into something useful. He needed all the help he could get out here and maybe the flaring intensity of these flashbacks could

NO. The hysterical word flamed through his head as he sensed himself falling back into the memory. Why did his mind collapse in moments of focus? Something to do with the drugs. Fuck those fucking things and the animals who’d forced them into his blood. Another problem to deal with when he got back to the Command. Though they wouldn’t listen. He’d been through it before. They always sent him out with a new ID, a new name. His name had changed so many times he couldn’t even remember his last one, let alone his first. His real one.

BACK TO THE MISSION, FRIPS, he screamed to himself in a desperate effort to get his brain back. It worked. The compound returned, Aurora’s body disappeared, the vibrations stilled.

A flickering in front of him brought his crawl up short. The fields were down after all. The telltale hum was absent. Wait. Where was Carmedi? Wasn’t she his partner? They’d dropped in together, she was here with him moments ago but he was alone. Shifting his body with steeled care he glanced behind him. There, Carmedi was sprawled out, 10 meters back, unmoving. A pool of black red syrup was swallowing her head, which was pressed down into the muck. The air vibrated again. More drugs. More visions.

“That sounds beautiful, my dear,” Aurora’s dark words folded out of the shower. Merll loved her voice. He knew it was because she’d smoked too many kalooers but the low sultry huskiness that now characterized her entire personality was worth the tradeoff in his opinion. It matched her auburn mane and sharpened diamond eyes. Aurora was an uncontained force.

“I’ll make the reservations then,” Merll muttered from the other room, touching the illuminated socket and keying in the coordinates.

“Halion?” Aurora inquired.

“Yeah I have it.”

Frips blinked. A sentinel was RIGHT THERE. Neon green eyes in the green air. Where had it come from? He hadn’t moved. Where was Carmedi? She had accompanied him on this drop right? Right? Where was Carmedi? Not here. No matter. She was

Music infiltrated the scene: scratchy, analog violins that decorated his world with the drapery of another life. Where was that coming from? Some skyward source. Maybe embedded in the trees, a sound system in the forest, a living distorted symphony. The sentinel flinched and bounded away, its six-legged form skittering, clicking down the concrete slabs that surrounded the compound. Rain fell.

The compound was still there. Frips had to get moving. He checked his GUN. Still shining. He slid forward, slimy weeds leaving wet impressions on his face. All part of the game. Wait till Jix hears about this, he thought in a fever. Jix was inside, or so the reports claimed. He’d made the reports himself after his last surveillance run so he had no reason to doubt them. But he couldn’t always trust what he

“Have you heard from the others?” Aurora asked gently? Her eyes were twin questions. Everything seemed odd? They were alone here? It was only Merll and Aurora in the dining hall? This cavernous cavern was meant to seat 300 comfortably. Vacant.

“They can’t make it,” Merll answered, keeping his tone level, breathing regularly to ward off the anxiety. He knew where everyone was, why they couldn’t come. But he’d come by that information dearly and he wasn’t even supposed to have it.

Aurora looked down and shook her head. “Huh.” The necklace he’d given her glittered in the candlelight and it occurred to Merll that he loved her. A warm pounding stain spread from the center of his chest and down to his gut. What a casual boring time for that revelation. Why now?

IMAGINATION!!!! The word flashed through Frips’s consciousness and he found himself standing at the outer doors of the compound, in front of a command console with the prompt  blinking on the screen. How had he crossed the field? Where was Carmedi? Hadn’t she accompanied him on this drop? Must be a solo mission. He could do those. More music from the jungle, a cacophony of broken violins. Frips’s nerves had been burned away in the drug experiments so all he could register was a dim confusion. He keyed in the appropriate input and the compound’s doors slid open. Frips went in.

“What the FUCK are you doing here, Adamsen?” shrieked an immediate voice. Angry, frustrated, authority. A woman emerged from a lit corridor off to Frips’s right. She was in a slim maroon dress and decorated with silver badges and gold medals. Frips’s mind was scrambling to integrate its conflicting contents.

“Uh… w— "

“What happened to Aurora?” This woman was incensed. Her body language was all wrong.

“…Aurora?” Frips echoed uncomprehending. A clattering clash of crazy crashes erupted from behind him. Frips turned. A Squad had materialized, rifles were trained, red beams shining. Aurora’s body was dumped beyond them, a contorted human mess. Her crystal necklace lay in shards around her shattered form, some half-hearted payment for the river Styx. Another memory overlay, at the worst time. The Squad moved in closer, tense as a cornered panther! Aurora’s body was still there, had not disappeared like it usually did when the memory overlays faded.

“Sorry it didn’t work out, Adamsen. ” A command issued forth then from the woman’s mouth, a brief command in a language he should have recognized. From the woman in maroon. There was a significance to that, thought Frips dimly as a shower of bullets crashed into him. He dropped to the hard shiny floor.

“I talked to Carmedi today,” Aurora remarked. They exited the Auto-Vac-Mobi-Train and into Illumina’s sparkling humming night life. They had each taken a dose of halion and the air was alive with fireflies and curiosity. It was a perfect night life drug, stretched time out to everlasting glory. Merll kept a firm but affectionate arm around Aurora’s waist as they floated down metallic sidewalks, dodging other residents in their own reveries and marveling at the city’s glinting architecture. The hovering metropolis of Illumina was thousands of feet above the surface. The horizon glowed.

“Carmedi, huh?” replied Merll a minute later as Aurora’s voice caught up to him. “How’s she doing?”

Aurora's delayed answer came bubbling up: "Oh she's fine." Her contented voice was dripping with halion. “But she's worried, you know."

"Yeah," Merll answered without even hearing her. He could not keep this conversation in his head. Everything was so present. Strong halion! He wondered where his life was going and how Aurora would fit into it. They were a good match. They’d met, they’d courted, they’d broken apart, now they were back together. Merll shook his head in wonder and serenity.