MAR

:::Chapter Two:::

The meeting went bad.

Fortunately for me, the UPA still wanted us to support the Gorianzt Mission.

Trailing behind my ever so pissed off bond mate, I couldn't think of anything to say. Saying that I was sorry for tripping on top of the Head Ambassador, didn't seem to cover it. Being clumsy was another trait that I had. Clumsy and spacey.

OAC had plucked me off of the Head Ambassador, and we both apologized profusely to both him and his bond mate for having touched him.

We left in a rush, OAC dragging me by my forearm. He only let me go when we exited Higher Headquarters, nearly throwing my arm away from him. "Clumsy oaf," was all he muttered to me before heading down the stairs and to the forest.

"OAC!" I rushed to keep up with him. "Hold on! Wait for me!"

He stopped suddenly, grabbing me by the lapels of my uniform and pulling me to a halt. "Why did I have to get stuck with a spacey bond mate?" he grumbled, fixing the wrinkles he had created. "You forgot to bring your hat with you after the meeting, and look at you! You don't even know how to properly wear your uniform!" He pulled off my rack of ribbons from the left side of my uniform. "Not only were these on upside down, they were on the wrong side!" Harshly, he clipped them to the right side of my uniform. "Worthless!"

"I'm sorry..."

OAC paused in his anger, looking down at me from his formidable height. He sighed, turning away and walked at a slower pace back towards our quarters. "No, I'm sorry," he put an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side, "I over reacted again, didn't I?"

I put an arm comfortably around his waist, and rested my other hand on his arm that was around my shoulders. "No, I don't think you did this time. I was clumsy, I nearly ruined it for us. It's a good thing you have such a good reputation."
"Not just myself, MC," he corrected me, "you're just as well renowned as I am. People hold you in high respect, I can see it when they look at you." Playfully, he rubbed his large hand over my head, causing me to squirm in protest as my neat hair became a slightly mused birds nest. "Of course, only I know the real you: clumsy, spacey and...clumsy." He chuckled as a I pushed his arm away from my shoulders.

Arrogantly, I turned my nose into the air and sniffed, not deeming his words worthy of a reply. I undid my hair in order to fix it, letting it spill in a liquid gold wave down my back, and promptly tripped over something. I glared up at a laughing OAC through the tangle of loose hair. Looking around at where my feet were, I couldn't see what had tripped me.

I gave up on trying to find it, knowing I had most likely tripped over my own two feet. I scowled up at OAC. "Stop laughing and help me up!" OAC politely stopped laughing and held his hand out to help me up. Ignoring the smirk on his face, I accepted the offered hand. Brushing myself off, I continued walking down the path.

"What has you so tensed up? I've noticed you've been crabbier than usual for the past week," I looked at him inquiringly. "Did something happen that I should know about?"

OAC shrugged his broad shoulders. "If you ever watched the early morning vid programs, maybe you wouldn't have to ask me that. You need to remember that there's more than just conquering planets in life. Not everyone is in our line of work."

I scowled at him. "I'm not that naive, OAC. I've read about civilian life back on Earth." I twirled a lock of my still unbound hair through my fingers. "You're the one that's so interested in the meaningless gossip and the lifestyles of the clueless people back on the home planet. It's not worth waking up so early for."

"Yes, well sometimes that 'meaningless gossip' can effect those far away from Earth as well." OAC stopped put his hand on my arm, stopping me. "Fix your hair, you look sloppy."

I turned my back to him, silently offering him the hair band. With a suffering sigh, OAC took it from my fingers and began to fix my hair.

"You've heard about Mar, haven't you?" he asked as he brushed his fingers through my hair.

I stared out at the thick vegetation surrounding us, it was silent and devoid of any natural life form native to this planet. I thought back to what I knew about Mar and came up blank. I thought about it harder, and couldn't come up with any instance in which I've heard the word used.

"Um, not really," I shifted my head to the side trying to look at OAC over my shoulder. He jerked my head back into a position where he could finish.

"No?" OAC paused a bit in surprise. He finished putting my hair up and turned me around to face him. Soft brown eyes searched mine intently. "How could you not know about it, MC? Are you really that clueless as to what's going on in the galaxies?"

"So I don't watch the news, so what?" I continued walking back towards the barracks.

"'So what?' How can you say that? Mar is a disease!" OAC walked beside me, his usual fast pace was slow so he could talk to me. "You do realize that there hasn't been a human disease since back before the Changeover, don't you?"

"Of course I do. There eventually had to be a disease that'd overcome even our advanced technology, I don't see why you're so worked up over it."

"You're not worked up enough about it, MC. It's not just a disease, it's killed six people in the passed ten years!"

I nearly stumbled, shocked at what he'd just said. Six people? In ten years? The only thing that's ever killed a human before was when both bond mates got tired of living, and went to Sleep.

"Six...?" I looked at OAC worriedly. "Where did it originate from?"

"No one has been able to figure that out." OAC put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me with him until the Barracks were in sight. "It hasn't reached our Region, yet, but we'll still have to pass through one of the Regions that had it on our way to the next Mission."

"What kind of disease is it?" I asked him as we walked up the stairs and into the building. The hallways were devoid of people, most of them still at work.

The barracks had been put together hastily after the planet had been conquered, and no one saw it important enough to make it a more permanent building. The floors were carpeted a deep blue, the walls stark white. As long as the whole building didn't collapse, it served it's purpose. At the end of the hallway we entered when we first stepped into the building was an elevator that we took up to the topmost floor. The whole while, OAC explained the Mar to me.

"It's completely stumped the scientists. Apparently, Mar changes the thought process of humans, making them irrational and violent. Two of the humans that contracted the disease turned on their bond mate." I gasped at that. OAC nodded his head solemnly. "It was sad and hard to believe, but it's the truth. I have yet to find out how the disease actually kills us. It's something the Imperator doesn't want known to the public yet."

The elevator doors quietly slid open, giving a soft ding to let us know we had arrived. I exited the elevator, thinking over what OAC had told me. I let him scan us into our living quarters.

We shared a living space, of course, and it was a decent enough size for the amount of time and effort put into it. There were only two rooms: the bedroom / study area and the sterilization room. The bed took up a large amount of room, OAC being so big and all. A single desk stood underneath the only window of the whole building, overlooking the dense forest outside.

"Well," I finally said, sitting heavily on the bed, "it doesn't change anything, either way, does it? We'll just have to avoid stopping at the Regions Mar has been in."

"We'll only be passing through one," OAC reassured me. "Besides, this disease has been going on for ten years, and you didn't know about it. It's not a widespread disease. We have nothing to worry about."