An elite U.S. Army Ranger thrust 600 years into the future, Fragger Sparks is back in action facing enemies from without and within!
Excerpt
Ten minutes later, Buurk and the doctor entered the sick bay. Andriana Lesto came in with the same expression as she always did, a look of disgust at the fact she was being forced to treat an inferior from the past, a Rerun. Fragger blew a kiss at the slim physician from the bed, causing the ice-hard blue eyes to narrow. Fragger grinned at her response. Aggravating Lord Lesto’s daughter was one of the few pleasures he’d had during his recovery.
But, Iso is right, irritating her is a dangerous game, he admitted, but I hate racists. I ran into enough of them back on Old Earth. Now, the present time has added aristocratic snobbery. It’s a toxic mix, especially for me.
He studied her as she approached, admiring her beauty. In their time together, he’d also come to appreciate her tough competence and love of family. He wished that love extended beyond the Aiforian nobility of which she was part. But, beyond the aristocracy, people were objects to be despised and used as suited her whims.
And that rankles me no end.
“What do you want?” she demanded as she reached his bed and looked down at him.
“You have a terrible bedside manner, doctor. No wonder few of your patients survive your treatment.”
Her reply was acid. “All of my normal patients do just fine, thank you.”
“Well, fortunately, I’m a Rerun,” Fragger said, irked as always by her condescension. “And we’re made of tougher stuff than ‘normal’ humans. I’ll remind you that this piece of re-awakened ‘garbage’ from the past took this ship from your father, drove him into the jungle, and captured you.”
The doctor reddened at his jab and asked again in a frigid tone, “What do you want?”
“What I want is to get outside.”
“I’m not stopping you. Go wherever you want.”
“I need a stim/pain pill. Get me one, doctor.”
She went to the pharmacy and unlocked it, giving the Ranger time to check out her figure.
It was a good sign I have interest again in the female form. It means I’m definitely recovering. And Lord Lesto’s daughter has a fine shape, I have to admit.
Beneath the rough, dark crew fatigues, the breasts and hips still managed to assert their shape despite her thinness. A ram-rod straight bearing helped the effect. It was the aristocratic arrogance on the face that ruined it for Fragger. Andriana Lesto had the expression of a golden-skinned, hard-hearted angel who was pissed off because they were letting riff-raff like him into heaven.
She returned from the pharmacy with two pills and a glass of water and offered them. The Ranger squinted his good eye at the medication, then arched an eyebrow at her.
“I asked for one, not two.”
“They’re a smaller dosage. You’ll need two.”
Fragger turned his head to the medic, “Buurk, check the medication out for me, would you? I’m still not seeing small things well, and I don’t think I trust the lady.”
The doctor stepped back as Buurk took the pills from her hand, and Fragger suppressed a grin at her reaction to the Martian. The medic’s size intimidated everyone, but there was a large and gentle soul inside the man that revealed itself once you got to know him, something Andriana Lesto would never realize with her contempt for beings she considered inferior.
Buurk stood seven feet tall. The genetic adaptation to the thin Martian atmosphere made his chest look nearly as wide. With a splayed nose, eyes set back under ledge-like brows, and a broad mouth, Buurk looked like the genetic engineers had used Abraham Lincoln as a model and not quite gotten things right.
As he watched the medic examine the pills, Fragger was happy to see that the Martian no longer seemed morose. After their landing on Jivaro, Buurk had felt lost and useless in a climate that was unbearable to him. A jungle planet was as alien to the medic as the deserts of Mars would be to the head-hunting Shuar of Jivaro. Depression had set in, and Fragger was afraid the medic would kill himself by simply wasting away in the jungle heat. But, the attacks by the Lesto’s men, Radmuller’s creatures, and the jungle itself had given Buurk back his purpose in treating the wounded and ill. He was useful again, and that was all any man could ask.
Plus, he’s a handy check on Andriana Lesto. He despises her as much as she despises him.
Buurk scowled and spoke in a voice deep as a pipe organ. “They’re not the standard stim/pain pill, colonel. They look like hyper-stimulants. The doctor’s been busy, doing some cooking on the side. Users call it the “white bitch.”
“How appropriate,” Fragger said.
Read more about The Second Misadventure of Fragger Sparks, A Ranger Loses His Way and Steven D. Fisher HERE.
Copyright 2008 Steven D. Fisher. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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