194 Frog Season, Pt Back at the settlement, deep inside the clinic, past the foyer, and beyond the welcome desk. Past the general prognosis station, and past the patient recovery rooms. Upstairs, inside of the special care unit, a young man slept on a medical pad. A rebreather was attached to his mouth and nostrils, and it ensured that his chest rose and fell with regularity.

Even as he slept with a face scrunched up in pain.

His clammy and pale skin was accentuated by dark and highly visible veins just underneath. Anyone who looked closely could see his blood pumping weakly inside them.

He looked like a corpse on the brink of being alive.

Around him were a handful of other beds, all filled with children roughly his age. All just as poisoned as he was. Each of them seemed to be in pain, and all wore rebreathers.

All looked to be on the verge of death.

In the room next to the poisoned kids, Amal and the local doctor each sat at their end of a long table covered with terminals and analytical devices and frog tissue. Each of them had portions of the swamptoad’s swollen, purplish poison glands in covered trays next to each of them.

The doctor cut a sliver out of the chunk she had on hand, placed it into a flat, clear container, then slid it into a slot on her terminal. She tapped on its screen and initiated a full analysis of its biological functions.

Across the table, Amal used her MedGun and drew out all the remaining poison from the rest of her chunk of poison gland. Her nanites gathered them up and deposited it all straight into an attached vial. It filled up quickly, thanks to the sheer amount of poison the gland secreted.

.....

She quickly sealed up the vial and added it to the dozen others on her table. One of which was quickly snapped up by the doctor.

The doctor slid the vial into another slot on her terminal, then had it perform a multivariate analysis going forward. It only took a few more minutes for it to complete, at which point both of them reviewed the results.

They pored over the readings and all their data, and disseminated the toxin’s effects bit by bit. As they did so, they began to design their antidote and its countermeasures. Together, they worked on building the necessary protein chains, and pieced the antidote further and further.

Once they had enough to synthesize their first batch, they quickly tested it against the toxins directly. Amal frowned when the toxin analysis revealed a low efficacy, but took solace in the fact that it was effective at all.

She and the doctor then further refined their antidote, and tested each new major revision. It took hours, but once they were both happy with its overall effectiveness, and after testing it in triplicate, they loaded up a MedGun and went over to their patients.

Amal held the boy’s hand while the doctor injected him with their antidote. Both of them held their breath in anticipation.

They watched as his body loosened up and relaxed. The pain etched on his face faded slightly, but still hinted at it. His veins lightened to some degree, but were still highly visible.

The doctor wiped her brow as she watched her patient improve with each passing moment. Happiness filled her, despite the fact that recovery was slower than expected.

Amal reached out to shake her hand, but was hugged hard in return.

~

Although things were rather dour and serious inside the clinic, everything was completely different just outside. There, in the center square right in front of town hall, half the settlement was in joyous celebration.

Throngs of people were all over the place, drinks in their hands, and enjoyed the largest barbecue they had ever participated in.

In the very middle of it all was a long makeshift firepit made out of stone. Hanging above it, along glowing embers and tongues of flame were two long spits, each one with a huge swamptoad leg skewered through it.

They roasted nicely above the fire, the skin sizzled lightly as it browned.

Just off to the side next to the firepit, Eva and Miko talked to a small crowd of colonists, and recounted their epic fight to them. Eva made movements with her arms to illustrate how fast and powerful the toad was, while Miko used her drones to supplement the story with sound effects.

Both were having the time of their lives.

And to those who didn’t believe either one of them, they were told to watch their OmniCast, and that it was all the proof they needed.

While many celebrated the demise of their local terror, others simply sat and stared at the fire. They nursed their drinks as they came to terms with those they lost to the toad. Though they were glad it was finally dead, their losses still bit at them, and no amount of revenge softened their hearts.

Max and Claire both sat on the steps of town hall itself, and watched as all the merriment occured before their eyes. Their drinks were in their hands, which they took healthy swigs of every so often.

“Maybe I oughta stay here,” said Max. “Be a toad farmer. It’d be nice and quiet.”

Claire snickered.

“As long as you’re not going for toad hunter,” she said. “I don’t think you could handle that kind of life at all. I definitely couldn’t.”

“Well, definitely not if they’re all that size,” he replied. “But anything smaller than me... I could take those. I think.”

“Sure sure. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Claire chuckled as she took a swig of her drink. Max followed suit almost immediately after.

The drink itself was a simple local-made fermented grain drink. It was pretty much this settlement’s specialty. They called it Swampwater, and was derived from one of the many grasses that grew on the fen.

The brewers even used the exact same water that the plants grew on, which made it doubly true to its name.

The drink itself was bitter and earthy, with strong grassy notes to bind it all together. It wasn’t unpleasant, but wasn’t the most amazing drink ever.

But when living in a wetland...

“And also,” said Max, “can you believe those three? They up and went after the thing, even after they saw how big the damned thing was. Anyone else would’ve just run away. I’ve seen hardass soldiers on the front line, big badasses with bad attitudes – they would’ve either gotten chomped or ran screaming.”

“I did say they were refugees, right?” said Claire.

“Yeah, but come on! If every revision was that good, we’d all know about it.”

“I sorta knew. I mean, I saw the kind of bounties they brought in. Big tough outlaws reduced to barely-conscious lumps of meat. But you’re right. That toad was on a whole other level. Almost like they fought a mecha barehanded. Crazy.”

“What gets me is that they fought it for some kid out in nowhere. They could’ve just ran, come back, said it was impossible. But instead, they went for it anyway. Which I take is why you’re flying with them in the first place, right? You wanna be part of the crazy.”

“Hell yeah! Wouldn’t you? You know what I used to do? Sat around and booked suspects cycle after cycle. Or helped people fill out form after form. Or slept in my apartment, talked to my Home Intelligence until I fell asleep. My life was stagnant and boring and... yuck. But out here...”

Claire grinned widely as she took a satisfied swig from her drink.

“Out here,” he finished for her, “giant goddamned toads, hyper aggressive soldiers, and overpowered demigods in every corner. Hooray!”

“Oh yeah? And where do you think you’re placed in that list? she said with a laugh. “I feel like I’m the only normal one here.”

“I’m neither a toad or a soldier, thank you very much,” said Max. “I’m definitely normal like you.”

“You’re definitely a normal soldier. Even if you don’t want to be one. Even if you’re trying to run from being one.”

He frowned, then slugged down a great deal of his drink.

“Mhm, aren’t you so damned sure,” he said.

“Well,” Claire replied, “it’s kinda obvious don’t you think? I mean, we’re far enough away from where you were stationed. Literally systems away. You could’ve hopped off at any time to settle down and find some new way of living. And yet here you are, hanging on, feet cold.”

“Yeah? So? Maybe I just haven’t found the right planet to settle down on yet.”

“Or, more likely, you’ve still got business to deal with. Or at least, you feel like you’ve still got things you gotta do. Like you can’t just leave yet. Am I right?”

He pursed his lips in annoyance, then took another healthy swig. Claire watched him carefully, then took a drink of her own, but much more conservatively.

“What are you,” he said,” some kinda detective or something?”

“Something,” she replied.

He sighed, then polished off the rest of his drink. He allowed its intoxicants to take hold of him before he continued. He needed the courage to let it out.

“You know, I love the Hegemony,” he began. “It’s beautiful. It’s chaotic. It’s filled with life and wonder and opportunity. And it works. The system actually works. That is, unless we get some bad seeds in the leadership... In the military’s leadership.”

historical

“Like your dad?” asked Claire. “And his dad before him?”

Max nodded solemnly.

“Can’t stand ’em,” he said quietly. “Can’t stand their vaunted legacy. They’re warlike and petty and constantly arguing over control. Constantly clawing for more space, more resources, more everything. They’re losing what it means to be part of the Hegemony in the first place.”

“Yeah, I hear you,” said Claire. “Federation’s the same way a lot of the time. Well, its leaders anyway. I thought things were okay, that they were out for the regular people. But then Freya and Raijin told me that they... we got into a limited-war agreement with the Drogar.”

Claire snorted, shook her head in disgust, and polished off most of her own drink as well.

“Can you imagine that?” she continued. “Governments approving war with each other, like it was some sort of business deal. Like the lives of the people who fight in it are just... currency. The lives of all these people – yours and mine included. We all exist to be traded or bartered. Or lost in a bad investment.”

“Hmph. Sounds like the Federation as normal to me,” said Max. “Thing is though, the Hegemony’s supposed to be way above all that. Hell, we split off from you all a millennia ago for that exact reason!”

“And yet they’re still doing the same thing. So the Hegemony’s clearly not better.”

“But it could be. Should be. I’ll admit it: the Federation could be better too.”

Max tipped his cup back, but nothing came out. It was already empty. He sighed as he put it down on the steps beside him.

“So do something about it,” said Claire. “Fight for the Hegemony you want. Isn’t that the ‘final business’ that’s been bugging you?”

“You got me dead to rights,” he replied. “But what the hell is one person gonna do? Besides die anonymously in a battle located in the fringes of society? Besides join the hundreds of millions of corpses already out here?”

“Better than nothing happening because no-one’s doing a thing about it.”

“What, like you? Are you changing the Federation?”

“The Federation? I’m doing something about the galaxy,” she told him. “One settlement at a time.

Claire got up and extended a hand over to him.

“Come on,” she continued. “My cup’s almost empty, too. It’s time for a refill. And let’s get us a piece of that toad leg while we’re at it.”

He grabbed her hand, she pulled him up, and the two of them rejoined the festivities.