I NEVER IMAGINED
I never once imagined that I would ever have to see or think about that deadly ocean planet ever again.
After escaping that nightmare world, I got the best lawyer I could to defend me in court. I spent months, trying to survive on that planet all by myself, and Alterra had the gall to make me pay for my troubles? No, I don't think so! I fought vigorously to keep them from getting what they wanted. I had to take part in long, drawn-out court battles that often ended in a stalemate. But, thanks to my excellent lawyer, Alterra lost in the end.
After that, I went to see a therapist about the recurring nightmares I was having. Nightmares about being back on that planet, amongst all the monsters and deadly creatures. And about being weighed down by all the soul-crushing loneliness that came with that experience. It was slow going, but eventually, after about a year of treatment, I finally began to leave all those unsavory memories behind me, I finally began to forget.
Finally, I was able to move on, to get back to the life I left behind when I set off on that ill-fated mission. I got a nice new apartment, a cushy new job- -NOT with Alterra, never making that mistake again- - I reconnected with my friends and family who were all overjoyed to see I was still alive. I met a nice woman whom I started to go out with. And through it all, I hadn't thought about that Waterworld in years.
And then IT found us.
It crashed over our civilization like a tsunami, washing away millions in its wake. Countless lives were affected by this disaster all over human colonized space. Its presence hung over us like dark, ominous storm clouds, just waiting to shower us in the deadly poison they carried within.
It got some of my friends, it wasn't noticeable at first, but as it progressed, their conditions got worse and worse as this dark poison tore them apart from within- -leaving them in indescribable agony.
This curse that fell upon us, it doesn't discriminate in who is infected: young, old, it's infected and killed people of all ages. And it shows no signs of slowing down or stopping.
I never once imagined that I would ever have to see or think about that deadly ocean planet ever again.
And then the Kharaa bacterium found us.
Now, I, along with hundreds of other individuals, are on a desperate mission. A mission to find and retrieve the ONE thing that can stop the Kharaa; the ONE thing that can save humanity from oblivion.
Enzyme 42.
