Shalia's Diary Book 6 by Tracy St. John

last shore leave. Run tests on everyone who went down on Darotkin to make sure no one else has been affected.”
     
    “Do it. Send word to the destroyers that their crews must also be tested.”
     
    The first officer pointed out, “Bio sensors picked up nothing when everyone returned to the ship from shore leave. But you say this is a biological entity.”
     
    Tep shrugged. “Maybe it was dormant until it found the right host. Full stasis can fool bio sensors. Maybe this thing was in a kind of stasis.” He shook his head. “It’s completely alien to our medical library. Who knows how it got through? All I can do is guess at this point, and my best guess is it got here from Darotkin.”
     
    Betra whispered to me, “Thank the Mother of All you and Oses didn’t go on shore leave.”
     
    “But you did,” I whispered back. “So did Katrina, the captain ... most of the people on this ship and all three of the destroyers.”
     
    Holy shit. If more people are infected, we are screwed. But for now, fear for Candy remains uppermost on my mind. All I can do now is hope Tep finds an answer fast.
     
    He has promised me and Katrina that he will not stop looking for answers until Candy is cured ... but there is a look in Tep’s eyes that tells me he’s as scared for her as I am, that he is afraid this is beyond him.
     
     
    May 19, early
     
    Very little rest last night. The nightmares were awful. I dreamed about the armored creatures again and that I was one of them. Now I know why the exoskeleton on Candy’s arm and chest looked so familiar ... it’s the same armor from my dream.
     
    Which begs the question: how did I dream this armor before I ever saw it on Candy? Is the organism that infected her telepathic? I think that might be the case, because during the dream, I could hear orders in an alien language in my head.
     
    That brings up so many worries I can’t even see straight. Like, did Candy have dreams before the organism took her over? Is this the first sign of infection? But I didn’t go down to the planet where they think she picked this up. Is it airborne then? Does it start off microscopic in size, attach itself to a host, and then grow quickly?
     
    If it is telepathic, why didn’t Candy sense Betra and Oses coming to get her before they were there? Or is the telepathy only between those of the same species? Was Candy able to read my thoughts, or do I have to be infected too? That would make me feel a little better if that is the case ... Candy didn’t seem to read my mind, so maybe that means I’m not infected.
     
    I’ve got a checkup scheduled with Tep this afternoon. I’m going to insist he tests me for this thing even though I didn’t go on shore leave. Sure, I’m probably jumping at shadows, but at least my mind will be settled on this one thing.
     
    I wouldn’t be so panicked except for that damned nightmare. I was still hunting Barinem. In the dream this time, I caught some. I killed them. I felt a savage delight as I sent bodies flying, as blood flowed, as the screams of the dying filled my head. Feeling triumph as I killed others, the pure cold thrill of it all, was the absolute worst part of the dream. How could I be joyful in wreaking such devastation? I felt as if it was what I’d been made for, this monstrous destruction of my weaker enemies, young and old alike.
     
    No mercy. No conscience. Just the need to kill and kill and keep killing until nothing was left. I would have made a lake of the Barinem’s blood and called it wonderful. I have never known anything like this need to murder. It felt exhilarating during the dream. When I woke up, I ran to my bathroom and puked.
     
    I don’t want to be one of those monsters. It was the most inhuman feeling I’ve ever had, completely alien to me.
     
    When Betra stopped by, I didn’t mention the nightmare. He’s got enough to fret about. We worried over Candy, who is showing no change for the better. Tep is knocking himself out