Anthrofiction Stories Web Site

By Kitchenshark

Codes: Sci-Fi

Species: Fox Human

Synopsis: The wife of an ex-soldier finds herself in one of his dreams.

Copyright: © 2002 Kitchenshark. All rights reserved.

Alicia woke. Sitting up she sensed that she wasn't herself. Looking around she saw that she was standing on a battlefield.

"Where am I?" She asked the chilly air.

No answer came. Holding up a hand she saw that it's outline was faint and could see right through it.

"What's going on?" Sounding frantic, the fur prickled up on the back of her neck. No one answered, only the cold wind blew across the dreary landscape, blasted and decayed. Alicia could feel the cold but the wind didn't move a bit of her fur or the night clothes she was still dressed in.

Alicia started to walk, not knowing what else to do. An eternity seemed to pass by then in front of her she saw a shimmer, a group of soldiers appeared. Happy to see someone else she ran towards them. The soldiers had immediately dropped to the ground and spread out in a defensive formation. Alicia came up to the one nearest her and shouted to get his attention.

"Hey! Am I glad to see...you..." Alicia stopped, the soldier didn't reply, didn't even move a muscle. A command was given by another soldier and they started to crawl across the ground. Alicia followed them, curious. She bent down to wave her hand in his face. The soldier continued on, unseeing. Shaken, Alicia stopped.

Was she dead? No! Life or death without Sean...was... she didn't want to think about it. Funny, she didn't remember dying. But she must be, there wasn't any other way... Alicia continued to ponder her fate as she followed the slowly crawling soldiers. Her thoughts were interrupted by a hand signal from the leader. Alicia walked up to the leader and studied him. It looked like a human male, recognizing the profile as similar to the ones in pictures of Sean's. Although some of the facial features looked different from what she knew as a human. Alicia tried to get a closer look to see what was different but too much was obscured by his helmet and jacket.

"Gerard, Sean get up here!" The leader called quietly.

Sean! Could it be? Alicia wondered, watching the soldiers. With a start two soldiers rapidly crawled up to the leader.

"Sir!" Said the first one.

That's not Sean. Alicia decided, walking over to the second soldier that had come forward.

"I want you two to go around and attack from the west, we'll drive them north and east into Bravo team."

"Sir!" The first soldier replied. Both of them started off at a fast crawl. Alicia followed the one most likely to be Sean.

After several hundred yards the two soldiers moved into some low scrub and coarse grass that managed to survive in the frigid temperatures. As Alicia followed them into the cover she saw the second soldier turn and scan behind them.

It was Sean! She'd recognize that face anywhere, even though it was mostly covered by battle gear. Alicia eagerly walked after them. Sean hadn't seen her either, strange. A thought came to Alicia, what if she was just dreaming? A flood of relief washed over her, hopefully that was it.

"Gerard here, beginning our attack vector." Alicia couldn't see them very well in the grass but she followed the movement of the grass. They had changed direction and were approaching an encampment from the west. Coming to a small rise Gerard and Sean stopped to reconnoiter the encampment.

"Gerard here, all is normal in the target. We're ready."

Alicia couldn't hear the other side of the conversation but Gerard nodded and brought up his rifle. Gerard reached over to slap Sean's helmet, Sean nodded and retrieved a large weapon from his backpack.

"Ready for bombardment." Sean said neutrally. Sean put the weapon up to his shoulder, a power cord ran to the backpack. A few seconds later a flash of light emanated from south of the encampment, the light plowed into a structure and exploded. Sean and Gerard started firing also, softening up the enemy. Sean's weapon would charge with a low whine and discharge with a thump, Gerard's rifle emitted small pops as energy poured from it. A minute after the attack started there was still no movement in the encampment. Alicia saw that most of the buildings were on fire or destroyed, she didn't see how anything could have survived the onslaught.

"Gerard here....okay, moving out." Gerard tapped Sean's helmet again and they both began running down the rise to the encampment, Alicia could see that the other team was approaching the camp quickly as well. Just as both teams were at the halfway point a rumble echoed through the valley, shaking the cold landscape. Alicia looked for the noise's source. There! A group of small ships were coming through the air towards the teams caught out in the open.

"Sean! Down, not friendly." Gerard hissed, but Sean had already hit the dirt. A ball of light detached from one of the ships and impacted the ground beside Sean. Alicia felt the burning heat of the explosion pass by her but was unharmed. Sean groaned and sat up, shaking bits of earth from him. Looking over to Gerard, Sean stopped. Gerard was dead. The blast had hit full force and crushed him, the human never had a chance.

The race on this planet didn't have that kind of technology, they must be working for the L'sen.

Alicia heard the thought as if her own. She watched Sean as he picked up Gerard's body and carried him towards the rest of the team. The ships had circled back for another pass but a vicious barrage from the main team shredded them, their burning fuselages impacting the earth with dull thuds.

"Sean, sorry about Gerard, this base was just a ruse. We're being extracted!" A female human soldier shouted at Sean. He broke into a run and joined the rest of them. They shimmered and were gone. Alicia didn't know how but she followed them back to their base ship in high orbit. Alicia moved to where she could keep an eye on Sean. From the time he had picked up Gerard Sean's face remained impassive, completely blank, Alicia called it privately Sean's soldier personality. It didn't change but Alicia could see a fire smoldering in his eyes.

"Dang it! What went wrong?" A soldier said with a bowed head.

"Nothings ever perfect." Another added.

"But doesn't make it easier."

"They weren't supposed to have anything like that." Sean put in gruffly. "How do our enemies keep getting advanced technology?"

"There are a few that don't like us..."

"I know that, it's just...to keep losing partners like this!" Sean's voice cracked a little. Alicia saw the look of cold impassive rage soften a bit but was replaced by a hard edge, training taking control again.

This isn't how it's supposed to be...why do they fight us so hard. All we're trying to do is keep our people safe. Alicia heard the frustration in the thought. I'm tired of seeing this. If it wasn't for my oath, I'd probably go ballistic and kill those loser's planet. Hopelessness saturated the last thought from Sean. Alicia sat next to him on the bench in the staging room, getting a closer look she recognized extreme fatigue of the body and mind. She wanted to reach out to him but knew he wouldn't feel it. Sean stayed even after the last of the team had left, with the absence of company he let his ears droop and tail go limp.

"Why?" Sean stared at the floor late into the night.

Alicia saw a point of light formed, like a portal had been opened in space/time. Sean and the room disappeared as Alicia was pulled into the light.

A moment later Alicia felt herself float down. She landed on something and sat up. Drawing in a deep breath she realized she was in a bed. Holding up a hand she saw that it was solid, grasping it with her other hand she verified that it was real this time. But where was she now? Peering into the darkness a realization dawned that she was in her own room, a soft groan came from a shape under the sheets beside her. Pulling back the cover she saw that it was Sean. Overwhelmed with joy at not being dead Alicia was about to hug Sean, but stopped. He was soaked in sweat and appeared to be in some discomfort, his face grimacing everytime he moved a limb.

"Sean." Alicia called softly. Sean's ear turned her way but he didn't wake up. "Sean!" Alicia said again, a little louder. Like a rubber band stretched too far Sean snapped upright.

"Sir! Yes SIR!" Sean shouted. "Right away sir!" He made ready to leap out of bed but felt something holding him back. Turning he saw Alicia holding onto his boxers.

"Sean, you alright?"

Sean's memory rushed back to him. He wasn't on assignment...he grew confused. It had seemed so real... But he was here with Alicia. With a grunt he scooted back onto the bed. "Sorry, I don't know what got into me."

"Don't worry about it." Alicia let go of Sean's shorts. "I had a dream where you were on an assignment and Gerard...died..." Alicia had debated about telling Sean about her dream but wanted to talk with him about it.

Sean stiffened in surprise.

"How did you know about that?" He tensed, awash in regret at the memory.

"Like I said, I had a dream about it."

Sean slumped over and didn't say a word.

"I'm sorry I mentioned it." Alicia was about to lay back down too but Sean turned on his back.

"It's okay. What was in this dream?" Sean asked. Alicia told him as accurately as she could about what she had seen. With each passing moment Sean became more and more astonished. For a moment Alicia saw the soldier appear on Sean's face but changed back to the friendly one she knew so well. But Alicia had no doubt in her mind that the soldier would be there for whenever she or Sean needed him.

"It's amazing that you know everything in such detail." Sean took a breath. "It was exactly as you described it."

"You said 'keep losing partners'..." Alicia probed.

Sean squeezed his eyes shut. "Before I went into deepspace ops, I...saw so many of my team mates killed over the years... I've had to bury too many..." Sean's eyes grew moist.

Alicia bent down and kissed Sean on the muzzle. "Hey, it's going to be okay."

Sean put a hand up to Alicia's face, her soft orange and white fur ticking his fingertips. "Thanks..."

Alicia settled in next to Sean and drifted off to a dreamless slumber. Sean stayed awake, waiting, watching and wondering about this troubling experience. How had she dreamed so exactly about that mission? Still pondering, Sean fell into fitful sleep.