Another nod. “Then may I recommend that we take a sample of your blood and use it to transfuse the antibodies into the wounded men?”

“Yes, of course. Good thinking.”

So while the troopers began to assemble our transceiver and the dawn slowly lightened the leafy canopy high above us, I lay down on a cot in Lieutenant Frede’s medical tent and let her draw blood from my arm.

“Thank you, sir,” she said, holding up the syringe filled with bright red blood.

I sat up and rolled down my sleeve. “If you need more, let me know.”

“This should be sufficient, sir.”

I got to my feet. The tent’s bubble shape was barely tall enough for me to stand without stooping in its center. Four cots with sleeping wounded in them filled most of the floor space; the lieutenant’s examination table and other medical equipment were arranged along the outer edge.

Frede stood up also and gave me a critical examination with her sky blue eyes. “You’re not one of us, are you?”

“One of who?”

“The regular officer corps. You’re from a different gene stock. You’re bigger, darker hair and eyes, even your skin coloration is more olive than ours. Are you a volunteer officer?”

I made a rueful smile. “No, Frede, I’m not a volunteer.”

She broke into a sly grin. “Then somebody at headquarters must be worrying about our sex lives.”

“What?”

“According to the duty roster, you and I are paired for the duration of this mission. It’ll be my first time with someone outside of our own clone group.”

I must have stared at her like an idiot. Nothing in my briefings or my memories told me about sexual duties.

Her grin faded. “Just what I thought,” she said somberly. “You’re not a regular army officer at all, are you?”

I sat back down on the cot. “I’ve been selected to lead this mission by—” What could I say? A god? One of the Creators? An incredibly advanced descendant of the human race who regards us mere mortals as tools for his use, slaves for his whims? “—by the upper echelons,” I finished lamely.