ADVENTURES OF THE STAR SQUAD (PILOT)

CHAPTER 1

Shin's P.O.V
The M78 Nebula looks like a giant snowball from where I am now. It's soft white light reminds me of the snowballs that my daughter, Lalia, and I used to roll and fight with each other during winter. Often times I feigned a stumble and fell, and would later find myself on the receiving end of a snarky quip from my now deceased wife, Leanne, who was always quick to point out that I shouldn't let our daughter win all the time. I would just laugh and say it was only a one-time deal, that one day Lalia would want to play with her friends instead of us. Better let her have some time with her parents before we lost the chance, I used to say.

Those were the days, before Leanne started having the headaches.

They were so bad she often had to clutch her head with one hand while going about with the chores at home and minding our daughter. Foil strip after foil strip of painkillers found their way into the garbage bin in our room after being emptied of their contents, the smooth white tablets swallowed wet or dry in fluctuating quantities. She assured me it was nothing serious, that maybe having our daughter had just sapped her of some of her strength and it was only showing now. I did agree that Leanne hadn't exactly been at full strength after Lalia's delivery despite having had a long time to recover from the after effects and being relieved of her duties for awhile to let her rest up, but headaches sounded suspicious to me.

Then it came to a point where her temper became erratic and she started lashing out at me, then my parents and then Lalia, who barely understood a word a what had been yelled to her and had come to me crying in fear and confusion. I found Leanne clutching her head again and suggested a visit to the hospital, which she readily agreed to. Cue on an MRI scan and everything, what it revealed was the stuff of nightmares.

A brain eating amoeba.

The blob was huge, no joke. It would've covered my entire hand and my wrist with little effort if I had been holding it at the moment. Unfortunately, that thing had practically eaten away almost all of Leanne's brain and by some miracle, Lalia and I managed to spend one last night with her before she finally breathe her last and gave up the ghost.

That happened several decacycles ago.

I dab a tissue to my cheeks and it turns dark brown as it absorbs all the oily tears running down from my eyes and literally painting most of my face dark brown. The image of Leanne just lying down in bed, her skin so pale she could've been a ghost, has just burned itself into my head and it's as if I can't get rid of that memory no matter how hard I try. It seems like only yesterday we were strolling around Cluster City, taking in the sights with Lalia. We have so many memories of being together my heart hurts to handle her belongings sometimes. My parents, Logan and Lydia, tried to console me, knowing well I was taking this pretty hard. Lalia couldn't exactly comprehend much, but it didn't take another parent to know she was hurting as well. She lost her appetite, then her usual cheery self and finally her energy.

And to make matters worse, my slimeball of a boss fired me for taking leave without reason when I had clearly stated that my wife was unwell and I had to look after her.

I had managed to find a job elsewhere, that is, transporting monsters from their wrecked prison planet to a new one somewhere in the outskirts of the Andromeda Galaxy. I was kind of reluctant to take the job but decided to anyway. Just because I was grieving didn't mean money wasn't a constant worry, and seeing as Lalia was in dire need of therapy now that her depression had gotten worse, yeah well, I had to do what I had to do.

Besides, my new boss was pretty lax about his employees taking leave if it was for a reason, so that was kinda comforting to say the least.

Monsters are definitely not my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a xenophobe, but sometimes too much strange isn't easy to comprehend either, and these monsters are no picnic unless you happen to be a diehard fan of strange critters. These monsters supposedly existed long before our race came into existence, and that their strangeness was because they had adapted to a myriad of environments over the years.