Astrodust

Hurry it up, Convict, damn if this goes any slower ill have evolved and regrown my leg by the time you finish."


The outer hull cameras flashed with movement as "Conn." Flipped the captain the bird and went back to his work, the true meaning of the gesture was rather dampened by the fact that Conn only had four fingers. Thousands of white tendrils billowed into space behind his thin white frame. Large black eyes glittered in the light of the nearby gas-giant as he worked. Krill shifted nervously as he watched the creature work, floating eerily over one of the outer panels of the ship, a tool belt strapped about his thin waist, he looked oddly out of place with the tools gripped in his thin fingers.


Conn, as was his moniker, was a Starborn, a member of a sentient telepathic race of space creatures capable of surviving in the vast blackness of space. They had come across them not so many months ago, and during those few days of contact captain Vir had been, in order, saved by them, induced into aggressive tonic colonic seizures, burned by the cold, driven into a near crazed state, and then almost killed brutally by way of functional brain wiping.


He was not particularly fond of the Starborn to say the least. Turns out Conn, or "Convict." As the captain so fondly called him, was not far off from the actual idea. When the captain had come into his life, he was only a day away from execution on accusations of, "Attempting to maintain secret thoughts." Not only was it a delinquent, but it may as well have been a convict, and, according to the Catpain, Conn was an absolute ass. So far, he was the only person Conn had been able to contact telepathically, and he seemed to glee in annoying the captain to no end. Krill was under the impression he only kept Conn around because he had agreed to help with dangerous exterior repairs for the ship.


"Shove it up your ass, Convict." The captain grumbled turning towards the controls to the ship. On the screen, the glowing white creature bared its teeth in a sick approximation of a grin shoving the tool back into the belt loop and slamming the panel shut in the silence.


"What did he say?" Krill wondered.


"Nothing useful." The Captain muttered before leaning back in his seat, "You know that gasline that broke before we ran into the Starborn, yeah, anyway, in all the confusion, we forgot to fix it, and it may take a couple of days if he wants to do it correctly. He will want to go through my 'memory bank' for the instructions, and he suggests that we don't travel during that time. Seems that the warp destabilized the mainline enough that he'd be worried about doing another one because, as he says, our stupid little air-heads would explode.... Little bitch." He added as an afterthought.


"What are we going to do till then captain, the admiral won't like it if you're late to your own ranking ceremony."


"Yeah, I know, which is why I'm not particularly happy about it, but I'll call it in and we can check out one of those moons we scanned in on when we warped in. It looks like there might be a breathable atmosphere, and that means...."


"Life?"


"Bingo.... Get the HELL out of my head, Convict!"


Krill stepped back a little in surprise. It was really disconcerting when the Captain did that. He didn't tend to talk to Conn inside his head, and voiced his thoughts aloud out of habit. It lead for some very interesting outbursts in the middle of a quiet morning.


Vir motioned to Sunny, "Grab a team of your Drev and the marines, get a landing party ready, and set up my gear. I'll be down as soon as I requisition the parts for repair, and tell this asshole how to fix the ship. Krill." He turned away from Sunny and glanced over at Krill, "I want you with us this time. It seems like every time we end up planet side someone has to stick their squishy bits into something painful... me.... Mostly me."


Sunny nodded, "Yes sir." Stepping off the deck and clattering down the hallway. Krill sighed but followed after trying to decide just exactly which medical pack he should be taking. It didn't take him long to decide he should take the extra-large size. He would have to find one of the marines to carry it for him seeing as it weighed more than Krill overall.


***


Captain Vir had strapped himself into the pilot's seat flipping switches and turning dials like he had been born in the cockpit. The rest of the crew sat back joking and laughing quietly. After the first few months of unease around each other, the marines had become good friends with the Drev soldiers. It didn't really surprise Sunny, she knew the marines, and if anyone had a Drev mindset, it was those men. Krill sat with them, his diminutive frame dwarfed by huge, muscle bound marines, and the 7-10 foot tall Drev. Sunny stared straight ahead at the wall unwilling to acknowledge the figure that sat next to her.


Moss, once upon a time she had liked him, and fancied him a good match as a future partner, but now, she could muster up nothing more than mild contempt for the Drev that had spurned her advances. She was one of the clan's greatest warriors now, and she would not go sniveling back, no matter how many times he insinuated he would be interested. Perhaps she would find a better match, perhaps she already had.


Too bad, she thought, maybe if you had bothered to consider me BEFORE I became the greatest warrior the clan has known, than I wouldn't be so inclined to reject you. She felt the engines below her rev, and Captain Vir maneuvered the ship into the airlock. Ahead of them, space opened above.


The captain jerked in his seat with a yelp. The crew turned to look, finding that Conn had snuck up against the side window and was making faces at the captain. Vir slammed his fist against the glass where the Starborn's face was, "F*** off." The Starborn gave a cheery wave at them as he floated into the airlock to retrieve the tools he would need for the repair, and then they were off, coasting through space.


The captain was the best pilot that Krill had ever known, and their entry into atmo was remarkably smooth. He easily maneuvered them through different layers controlling the ship as it tried to shake. Looking out the window, the sky above was blue; that was a good sign. They rocked into the landing sight not minutes later, and the captain powered down the ship running a quick atmospheric scan, "Oxygen content is a bit higher than normal, but it's definitely breathable." He said as he unstrapped form his seat. The marines and the Drev racked their helmets in response before moving back to preparing their weapons. Marines secured magazines into their rifles, while the Drev prepared a more eclectic variety of weapons.


The captain grabbed a rifle off the rack, and loaded it falling into a bent knee isosceles stance at the back of the group rifle down and ready finger hovering over the safety. The rest of the crew stacked up on the door while Krill watched, "Go." The captain ordered flicking the safety off his weapon, as someone shoved open the door and the group of them flooded outwards weapons held at the ready fanning out into a wide half-circle. The captain fell in behind the marines taking a deep breath of air and scanning across the horizon.


"Report."


"No signs of life sir, well, no animals anyway, tons of plants though." One of the marines said nudging a nearby plant with his boot. It was an odd looking thing, a collection of roughly tubular stocks branching out of a single point. Each of the tubes had a channel running through the middle most closely resembling some sort of underwater sponge. As the marine's foot came in contact with the plant, one of the stocks contracted lightly making a light puffing noise. The Marine took a step back.


"Careful, marine, we don't know anything about this place, so it's best to keep our hands and feet to ourselves." The captain said coming forward to examine the plant, "Alright everyone, this is a simple recon mission. We walk around, maybe we take some samples with us back to the ship. If we see any wildlife, do not, I repeat, do not approach it. Do not touch any of the planets with bare hands until we have samples, and definitely do not put anything in your mouth...."


"Speaking from experience, CF?" One of the marines responded cheekily. The captain flipped him the bird, and the motioned them to move out. Krill remained at the center of the group where he would be most protected. Off to his right, one of the men carried the medical bag. As he floated, he clung to one of the Drev soldiers so that he wouldn't slow them down or be left behind.


They adventured on the surface of the planet for some time, finding an eclectic array of plants getting bigger and bigger and taller and taller as they went further in. Those large sponges reached the height of a man's chest by the time they decided to turn around. The captain lamented that they couldn't stay here after dark as it seemed there was evidence of bioluminescent proteins in the plantlife.


They were almost to the ship when one of the marines let off an explosive curse. The group turned to look at him to find him shaking his foot and hopping up and down. The plant next to his foot was smoking.


"The hell, marine." The captain demanded,


"Sorry sir," He stammered, "I scuffed my boot on the ground, steel toe you know, and there were sparks everywhere."


"Shit, get this under control till we burn down the entire planet, the higher oxygen content will make the fire worse than it should be." At his order the group quickly surrounded the, now smoking, plant trying to create a barrier so it wouldn't be able to move. It was a good sized sponge thing, and by the time they were done, the entire plant was up in flames billowing smoke left and right.


The group of them stood back to watch it burn glowering at the marine who had started the fire in the first place. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry, Captain." They all shook their heads at him. The captain reached up and wiped at his forehead with a hand. A light sheen of sweat glittered at his hairline, "Damn, it's hot." He remarked absently. One of the marines took a deep breath and nodded, he was sweating too.


"Worked up a bit of a sweat there." Another commented hand over his chest, "I didn't think we were working that hard."


The man glanced down at his watch in confusion, "Hm, that's weird." One of the other marines looked over his shoulder, "120 bpm, dude, you're out of shape."


The captain glanced down at his watch, "Shit, me too." He commented, "Anyway, we wait to make sre this burns out, and then we head back towards the ship." The marines nodded, and the group of fanned out sitting on rocks or standing in the light of the sun.


The captain stood next to Sunny and Krill rifle resting lightly in its tac-sling. A trail of sweat trickled down the side of his face. "Hot.' He muttered again.


"No it isn't. " Sunny said, the surface of the planet was at 65 degrees by her reckoning, as far as she was aware that was within comfortable temperature for a human. The human turned to look at her mouth open in protest, but as his eyes fell on her face her jerked back in sudden startlement nearly tripping over himself and back onto the burning sponge. Sunny caught him by the arm. The captain rubbed his eyes, "Thanks sunny, I thought I saw....." He looked up eyes going wide, he jerked away from sunny violently backing away with his hands up. His pupils had contracted.


"Captain, are you ok?" Sunny asked.


One of the marines screamed.


Everyone turned to find the human hopping around batting at his uniform screaming, "Get them off, get them off GET THEM OFF!" There was nothing there.


Off to the side one of the marines was resting on a rock staring upwards into the empty air tilting his head back and forth as if he was following some unknown object back and forth across the sky. Another stood next to him her hands outwards staring at them with wide eyes, "When did my hands get so.... Massive?" She wondered idly.


Sunny turned to Krill, all of the Drev did, "What the hell."


Captain Vir had backed away a few steps, tripped over a rock and landed flat on his back. He was staring up at the sky an expression of memorized wonder on his face. Krill jabbed a hand at the Drev soldiers, "Get them onto the ship, NOW. Something is effecting them, and if it's effecting all of them, than it has to be in the air." The Drev soldiers did as told each scooping one of the humans up in their many arms. It was a rather odd image, Drev soldiers cradling fully-armed marines like you'd carry a child.


Sunny approached and hoisted the captain into her arms. The man lolled listlessly against her arm. His skin was tinted a warm pink about the cheeks. They hurried onto the ship just then. Some of the marines struggled, others commented on things that weren't there. The one who had commented on the size of her hands earlier gave a wide-eyed look at the ship, "its breathing." She commented, "The ship is breathing."


The door slammed shut behind them. One of the Drev soldiers slipped into the captain's chair. He wasn't a particularly skilled pilot, but he could make it out of there.


By now Krill had begun looking over the captain. The man was warm to the touch, and indicated an abnormally high body temperature on Krill's equipment. His heart hammered away at an unreasonable pace as he lolled in his seat. He found similar things on the other marines, not to mention clear evidence of visual and auditory hallucinations going right along with changes in perception.


The Drev looked on uneasily at the humans as they shifted and squirmed seeing things that weren't there and responding to conversations they weren't having. Captain Vir lay on his side now, "I can't move, head, too big." The marine who had been screaming about getting them off earlier, was now crying. They were crawling under his skin now, he saw them.


One of the marines had to be restrained. He wanted to step outside to, get some fresh air.


Krill used the coms to call up to the ship, demanding that the medical staff be waiting for them when they got there.


By the time thirty minutes had passed, all of the humans were completely overrun by unknown images and stimuli. The female marine was smiling and rocking, while one of the other marines had to be restrained from digging at his skin. Captain Vir lay with his cheek on the floor absently stroking the cold metal with one hand. He repeated the action over and over again as if he was stroking a cat or a dog, or something particularly fluffy. They approached the ship, and Conn idly floated over to meet them, likely to annoy the captain for a fifth time that day, as he grew closer, the starborn stopped in id space and slowly began backpedaling. His head tilted back a little and he stared upwards at the sky, mouth open hands out to either side. Whatever was affecting the human had clearly made it through the mental link and into Conn's head.


They floated past and pulled into the docking bay where the medical team was waiting just beyond the airlock. Krill barely had the patience to wait as the compartment was filled with air. The medical team rushed inwards and to the door as it opened. The humans were carried out squirming and babbling. One of the marines had to be strapped down.


"Get them on a saline drip." Krill ordered, "They're losing water fast from the high body temperature, get some blood samples. Don't touch them if you don't have to, we think they caught it from the air, but we can't be sure."


The female Marine was still smiling staring up at the ceiling like she was staring at a choir of angels. A tear dripped down the side of her face.


They were wheeled away into the interior of the ship as the crew stared on in confusion. Captain Vir was rolling from side to side against the orders of the medical staff looking up at their faces with wide eyes, "Aliens," he whispered.


They were all pulled into the medical bay and transferred to the beds. Space suits, and uniform jackets were pulled off as they were started on saline drips. A few of the marines were relatively calm, but others not so much. Symptoms of paranoia grew and grew and grew until one marine was convinced they planned on stealing his liver.


"What the hell is happening here!" Krill demanded, but none of the medical staff seemed to have an answer. They had been working a while, the captain had curled into a tight ball and refused to uncurl. The symptoms of whatever it was didn't seem likely to abate any time soon.


As they were working, one of the young airmen walked into the infirmary. He was holding a bleeding hand at elevation, but as soon as he saw what was going on he paused, "Shit, sorry, I can come back later." Krill growled but shook his head and came over to examine the young man. he sat down for Krill and craned his neck at the captain in the next bed. The man was staring at the edge of the bed with a look of fear in his eyes, "Damn, who gave these guys the bad acid?" the airman wondered


Krill stopped bandaging his hand long enough to look up, "What did you say...."


The man shrugged, "oh sorry, nothing."


"No, do you know what's going on."


The boy blushed, "I well no, but I know what it LOOKS like."


"And what is that." Krill demanded impatiently


"Well it looks like all of them are tripping acid." He paused when Krill stared at him blankly, "Like drugs, you know hallucinogens Lucy in the sky with diamonds, golden dragon, Looney Tunes, Tab, Purple Heart, stardust. Come on magic mushrooms, Molly, angel dust."


Krill shook his head, "What are the words coming out of your mouth."


The kid shrugged, "I mean what I said, it looks like they are on acid, you know hallucinations, changes in perception, synesthesia, high temp, and increased heartrate. These guys have got to being some weird shit right about now.... Don't tell me they didn't know what they were doing?"


Krill remained silent.


"Well shit, better put on some calming music and hope it doesn't get bad. You don't let someone on a trip when they don't know about it cause...."


Just to the side captain Vir began to scream eyes wide staring at the edge of the bed, he pulled back scrambling away like something was crawling at him over the edge of the bed, the crew had to grab him and hold him as he tried to fight them off convinced of something only he could see.


"Because it could turn into a bad trip really fast."


The captain was shaking spouting nonsense as they strapped him down. While some of the other marines seemed content to lay there and stare at the ceiling, while others, like the captain fought against something only they could see.


Krill turned to the young man, "How do we get rid of it."


The kid shrugged, "Far as I know, you can't just have to wait it of might take six maybe eight hours, but that's assuming they smoked something conventional and THIS does not look conventional. These guys are tripping hard. No funny perception problems, no special colors. He looks like he's seeing Satan."


Krill was not pleased, and the kid turned out to be right. The humans were like that for the next six hours convinced of the things they were seeing fighting against the medical team when they could. Captain Vir seemed suspended in a bubble of absolute horror head moving around breathing hard like THINGS were crawling over the ceiling tormenting him. The Drev soldiers seemed absolutely fine, and Krill didn't have problems either.


When the humans finally started to come down the young man had convinced them to play some music. Groaning and shaking their heads, the marines started to look around in confusion. Sunny sat next to captain Vir patting his arm as he slowly began to recognize her. The visual disturbances slowly faded until he was lucid enough to look down at his restraints, "This shit again?"


They untied him, and he leaned back looking exhausted, his stomach growled, "That must be what hell feels like..... what happened?"


Sunny frowned, "That kid said to tell you.... Tripping acid, said you would know what that means."


"F***, really but, how. I've never.... Wait. That plant, the one that caught fire." He glowered over at the marine, "Sanchez! You went and f****ng got us all high."


"Sorry, Captain." The man groaned


Captain Vir sighed breathing deeply, "And people do that shit for fun? No thanks, not on your life, no thanks."


He paused head cocked to the side, "Couldn't tell if you were a hallucination or not." He muttered into thin air, "Well SORRY, didn't mean to accidentally get high and disturb you. You know what, maybe I will. Next time you piss me off, I'm going to get high, then maybe you won't root around in my head so much."


Krill wasn't totally sure if the Captain was still coming down or just talking to Conn. Either way, he vetoed any and all trips back to the planet, at least by humans. It was too easy to mess with the neurotransmitters in a humans head. From what he learned from later research, hallucinogens supposedly acted as a serotonin agonist, and serotonin had a lot to do with perception. The increase serotonin was suspected to cause hallucinations and perceptual disturbances. Some humans were said to do this for fun.


Captain Vir didn't seem amused, and had to have a long conversation with the crewman who knew about it.


At least Conn seemed less inclined to annoy the man.... even if just a little.


Street name: Astrodust


Classification: hallucinogen


Cite of action: Serotonin 5-HT re-uptake transporter


Taken: Smoked, trans-dermal application 

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