Ryan eyed the breathing tube before him. “You are going to at least wait till I’m out before sticking that down my throat right doc?” 

The doctor chuckled. It was the same joke as always. He didn’t even bother to respond. Instead he checked oxygen levels, heart rate, blood pressure and electrocardiogram. He went over to the emergency medical cabinet and checked all the meds, making sure everything was stocked, reading labels and carefully facing them outward. 

The steel door slid open with a hiss and Ryan watched as his brother entered the small lab. Thomas was shorter and stockier then him, but they had the same high cheeks, dark hair, and wide mouth. He smiled at him. “No last minute reports! You ready?”

“Give me one second to just read over everything again.” Ryan said, tapping the manila folder against his thigh. He scanned the report. It seemed basic. But it never was. Things changed, plans were rewritten. He could only try and stick with the original plan as much as possible. 

Planet Bezants was the destination. The local inhabitants had broken contract and were using biological warfare to down the human population. Ryan’s job was to infiltrate their local lab and take out the inhabitants doing the dirty work. It seemed simple. He didn’t know why the contract between the two races had been broken, hell, he didn’t even care. Just so long as the money cleared. 

He read over basic information about the planet. Extremely heavy atmosphere and dry. Rust colored, thus, the name Bezants. It looked golden from space. The only water was at the  polar caps where the humans lived. The inhabitants, some long scientific name which he couldn’t pronounce, were more affectionately called Sudsers. They preferred to live underground, away from the double suns, and were more active during their monsoon season of sulphuric rain. They also had a body shell armor that couldn’t be pierced with bullets.

His job consisted of flooding their underground lab with water, killing them once and for all. It was the only way to kill them really. You couldn’t shoot them, you couldn’t starve them out, mainly due to the fact that the bastards could literally eat rocks and survive. They wouldn’t be happy about eating rocks, but they could. And there was literally no way to immobilize them except water.

“Right.” He said, slapping the folder into his brothers hand. “Let’s do this.”

The doctor injected the white liquid carefully into the catheter, a frown on his face. He hated using such a primitive medicine, but it was the only thing he could make without using any controlled substances. Propofol, it was called thousands of years ago. Indeed, a lot of his equipment was primitive. But it kept the man alive before him weeks at a time and so did it’s job. Ryan’s body had to be kept in a sleep-like state so that he would not accidentally be called back before the job was done. 

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Ryan and his brother were Astro-Projectionists. A rare skill that only a few had out of the current population of over five hundred trillion. Genetic testing was standard at birth to test for everything from physical traits to what sort of emotions the child would be prone too. But when an Astro traveler was found, that child was marked for life. 

They possessed a unique skill, the only of its kind. The ability to travel to other planets and solar systems using only their spirit, or soul. They were taken young from their parents, around the age of ten, and would spend their lives using that skill wether they wanted to or not, so rare was the gift. 

Going to another planet the good old fashioned way took years and years. Even with the latest technology and fastest ships. Sending an inter-spacial message took months. When you went to another planet, you were put into hyper-sleep, and there you stayed until maybe a decade, or even longer before you were awakened again. Going to another planet was done as a life change. Not a tourist attraction. 

Unless you could Astro Project. Ryan had visited hundreds of worlds, seen thousands and thousands of strange creatures, and could be back within a week. Well, back into his body. It was his spirit, or soul, that traveled. There were drawbacks. He couldn’t stay gone indefinitely. His body would starve without him there to move it, command it to eat, and keep the muscles active. 

Visiting another world also required a body. There was a fair amount of cultural sensitivity about the topic. The basics were he had to have a body to walk and talk. Another Astro-Projectionists body. Just a plain old dead body would not do. Bodies could be kept in perfect condition after the soul left with the latest technology. When an Astro-Projectionist died, their bodies were basically rebuilt, curing whatever killed them, reversing aging, or stitching together whatever shredded them. 

You learned quick not to let another body bother you. The job of an Astro-Projectionist was simple. They were messengers. Every planet had at least one or two. The more richer ones had hundreds. Having scores of Astro-Projectionists, one of the most expensive things in the universe, was a sign of wealth. If you were lucky and had an Astro-Projectionist born on your planet, you could decide wether you wanted to sell it, or keep it for yourself. 

Most were sold, children had no true talent since they weren’t yet trained. They often learned the basics of Astro travel on the way to their new world. By the time they reached their new home world, they were trained adults. Where they would spend the rest of their lives being used mercilessly as messengers.   

Thomas looked down at his sleeping brothers face. Ryan would be asleep for a week if the job went well. If it didn’t go well, he would be given another four days before the got the ‘kick’. A voltage of electricity straight to the heart. The spirit was connected to the body, no matter the distance, and if the body was in trouble, then the spirit came home, very quickly.

Upon seeing his brother fully asleep, Thomas went up from the basement and began sweeping the perimeter of the house they shared. What they were doing was illegal. They were not acting as messengers. They were acting as mercenaries. If they were ever found out they would be killed and their bodies used for future messengers to inhabit. But it was for a purpose. They weren't just trying to buy back their lives, but their very souls.