Captain Vir lay on his back staring up at the dimly-lit infirmary ceiling. Despite the padding on the medical restraints, his wrists and ankles ached and throbbed. He had fought the restraints for hours, yanking and pulling against them as he tried to talk Krill down. The little alien was having none of it. He was convinced the captain was going to get himself killed, and he was convinced he was the only one sane enough to see it.

'They are using you' he had said, 'if they can get into your mind who says they can't change it. You are far too trusting and that will make you easily duped.'

Vir had argued that it was his job to do these sort of things. Yeah, he was a little bit stupid, and the things he did were a little bit stupid, but someone had to do it so the rest of the galaxy didn't have to. Krill wasn't convinced and kept him locked down. Captain Vir tried anything he could to force the little surgeon to let him go. He talked about his orders, his intuitions, he gave orders, and eventually he devolved into name calling out of desperation. What Krill was doing was selfish, he was only trying to keep Vir safe for himself, and it wasn't his decision to make.

But no matter the argument, it hadn't worked.

He had long since fought himself into exhaustion, and telepathy induced seizures had taken away the rest of what he had left. They were still trying to communicate with him. Sure the thing had been creepy, but he hadn't had enough time to really tell what it wanted. It seemed interested in communicating with him, so who was to say what its real intentions were. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed that they wouldn't be likely to try and kill him. They had had plenty of chance to go ahead and do that when he was floating alone in space, and wounded. They could have just let him suffocate, or bleed out, or cartwheel into the vastness of space without any help, but they didn't.

That's what Krill didn't understand... intuition. It didn't make sense.

He tried his best to communicate with the creatures, tried his best to reach out to them with his mind, but he was quickly learning that, while the human brain HAD the ability to communicate telepathically, it definitely wasn't meant to. The harder he tried, the more his brain responded with spastic electrical signals. After a series of tree seizures in the course of ten minutes, he had gone right ahead and quit trying. It hadn't been so bad when he was in contact with the creature, talking with it skin to skin and face to face, somehow that had made it easier on him. It was only when they were far away or when they tried to speak to him all at once that he couldn't handle it.

If he could just get more time, get a little closer.

Then again, that wasn't seeming likely to happen. He pulled against the restraints halfheartedly. Designed by humans to restrain humans, there was no way he was getting out and Krill knew it, unless he could break one of his own hands and slip out, which did not seem likely either.

Out in the hallway, he could hear voices moving towards the infirmary. He recognized the sound of Krill, Sunny, and his lieutenant, in charge of the ship when he wasn't.

"It wouldn't be wise to un-restrain him." Krill was saying, "Whatever these creatures are they seem to have induced some sort of psychotic episode."

"Can you be sure about that?" Sunny wondered hesitantly, "The captain hasn't led us wrong so far."

"Not to bring up old wounds or anything, Sunny, but you were supposed to be a spy. If you had done your job a little bit better, the Captain would be dead and so would the rest of the crew." There was a long silence before Krill continued, "Besides, if they can get into his head, than there is no saying they can't change things around in there. They could be manipulating him for all we know."

The group stopped just inside the door. Sunny lowered her voice, though it wasn't enough to keep him from hearing, "I don't know Krill, it seems wrong to lock him up like that. He's the captain.... He's the acting chief of my tribe. You can't just lock him up."

"The hell I can't." Krill answered, "Ill lock anyone here up if it means keeping them alive. That includes you, and that damn sure includes the Captain."

The group of them went quiet again, and Captain Vir heard them moving down the infirmary. The curtain around his bed was pushed back, throwing light across his face. He turned his head away squinting as the group came to stand next to where he lay. Krill, as studious as ever, leaned over him examining his eyes with a small light. The captain shook his head against the bright, "Knock it off, Krill."

The little surgeon ignored him conducting a quick neurological examination on him as he did, "how are you feeling Captain?"

"Honestly, a little pissed off if you must know. Un-cuff me and that's an order." He demanded

Over him, Sunny and the Lieutenant glanced at each other and then at Krill.

He could see their doubt and seized on it with all his desperation, "Come on guys, its ME I'm lucid. They aren't controlling my mind. It's my job to figure out who they are and what they want and to establish communication. You all called me crazy when I let Sunny on the ship, and it worked out. So just give me the benefit of the doubt."

Krill glowered at the others as well, "Do I need to mention the time that he turned off the gravity and let an unknown entity aboard the ship against regulation, and without speaking with the supporting crewmembers?" He motioned towards the wounds on the captain's arms, "And was injured in the process, and now he wants to go back out."

The glancing grew in intensity, and Vir could see he had lost the argument. He wilted back against the bedframe with a sigh shrugging his shoulders against his cuffs. The lieutenant rested an apologetic hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry captain, but Krill has a point. No one else can hear what you can, and you did put the entire ship in jeopardy with what you did." He quickly backpedaled against Vir's protests, "I know you didn't mean to hurt us, or put us in danger, but there may be something influencing you that you don't know about."

He sighed in frustration, "Can you at least-" He raised his hands as far as he could and shook the cuffs for emphasis glancing at them with an expectant expression. Sunny seemed ready to oblige him, but krill shook his head.

"No, Captain, you're not an idiot, and I'm not an idiot. You have survived too long for me to think you aren't smart enough to escape or dupe your way out."

"Ok fine then, but you are either going to have to cath me or let me go so I can pee. I've been holding it for hours and unless you do something I will have no choice but to just let it go, and then you will HAVE to move me for my health. So, which shall it be?" Krill paused just then thinking hard upon the situation, the captain had a point, and he had no doubt that the man would make his point in the most aggressively and disgustingly human way possible. He could see it in his steely green eye.

"If you are really worried about it, send some of the marines with me, they can kick my ass up and down this ship without batting an eye. I was trained in the air force remember, so I'm not as tough as the marines." Krill wasn't totally sure he believed him, but he did know the marines. They were big guys, some of them with at least thirty pounds of muscle on the captain, and the Captain wasn't small. He estimated him at around 195 to 205 pounds.

"Fine." He said

***

The marines brought him back without issue. The group of them were laughing and joking as they normally would right up until they watched the man be strapped back into his place.

"What is this all about, Captain?" one of the men asked glancing over at krill with confusion.

He shrugged, "Krill thinks that I've gone insane." The protest lasted for a couple of long minutes as the marines bombarded Krill with questions. He gave them the same explanation as he had given the others. The marines may have been jarheads, but everyone on the ship knew Krill's reputation for logic. The captain could see that the marines were wary now. Glancing at him with unsure expressions.

Damn.

He sighed and rested his head back against the bed closing his eyes as Krill gave the marines their mission. Bathroom escort duty, how fun for them. This lasted for a good day or two. He would get up with them cause no trouble and then go back to where he was. Eventually the marines were just sending two people, and then one with him. It's not like it was that far away, just in the other room, he should be fine.

***

"Think you can handle him?"

"Yeah, no problem, go get something to eat." The big marine said, the big marine the sergeant and the most experienced among them. Krill didn't even bother to look at the group of marines as they walked through the door leaving only their superior behind to unlock the cuffs and help Vir to his feet rubbing his wrists where they had gone numb. The two of them walked back to the bathroom, and the marine stood by with his eyes respectfully averted.

How long was this annoyance going to last.

Vir finished and turned back. The marine moved forward just as the captain staggered forward clutching his head. In shock, the marine ran forward to help grasping the captain by the shoulder worried he was going into another seizure. The man grabbed him by the shoulder for support bent double in agony.

And then, suddenly, one hand as gripping his arm, and the other the back of his neck. A knee was driven fast and sharp into his abdomen effectively cutting off a cry for help. The man moved behind him gripping him by the shirt and whipping it over his head. The marine was gagged and cuffed in under two seconds leaning against the bathroom stall flat on his ass. The Captain Knelt in front of him single green eye wide in sympathy. He patted the marine's shoulder a grimace on his face, "I'm sorry marine I..... I owe you a raise when this is all over. It really isn't personal, but I need to do my job.

***

He made it past the infirmary without error and without Krill noticing. His senses weren't as keen as a human's and his intuition even less so. By the time the alarms started going off, he was already wearing one of the suits, and was beginning to don a helmet. He engaged the compressed oxygen, and then checked the systems. His suit pressurized, and he engaged the airlock. Underneath him, the starcycle revved, a sound that was cut out as all of the oxygen fled from the room, and the doors opened into the starlit blue haze of the cobalt nebulae. He engaged the engine and drifted into space even as the door closed behind him.

"Where are you," He muttered softly as he moved forward, "I'm here to talk, no interruptions this time." His voice was odd and distorted inside the suit. As he followed what he remembered of his old path back into the dust making sure to keep track of his position as he moved. It was eerie inside the dust cloud, with no notion of up or down, and no way to tell if he was truly going in the right direction, just his estimate. He was beginning to wonder if he really knew where he was going, and then, the dust cloud lightened and broke. He cut into a massive circular clearing with nothing but the blue nebulae on either side and the spiraling trails of white dust.

They had been waiting.

A massive body shifted in space ahead of him. The immense head and stirring black eyes lifted to look down upon him. He reversed the engine, and used just enough backward momentum to cancel out his earlier movement. The bike halted in midair, and floated there while he engaged the gaspack and slowly floated upwards from the boke. All around him the strange alien creatures rose to follow him, their glittering ribbons flaring out behind them in the blue light. Their angelic side was more apparent in the light of the cluster, where he couldn't hear them, and their skin glowed with the light of celestial heavens. He felt his heart begin to quicken.

"I'm here to talk, like you wanted." He thought forcing his intentions outwards and towards the massive white form flanked on all sides by a legion of its angelic children.

"You are the first... we knew you would come." Came the voice inside his head echoing with the sound of a thousand voices speaking at once an entire crowd, "The first one to visit us in our plane, and the first one to speak to us with our own language. The first to visit with us, the starborn"

"But, you speak English."

"We speak the language of your memories. Your communication is our communication. We know what is in your head, and your heart, and your past. We see everything. We speak the language of the soul, and yours is the only species that may speak with us despite your weak minds."

Ok that was kind of odd, "Well uh, cool, but you know it isn't exactly polite to go poking around in someone's memories, and just like stealing form them. Some things are meant to be private." All around him, the group shifted, they moved back from him, their ribbons flaring outwards like a dog raising its hackles.

He raised his hands in apology, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I just, we don't speak with our minds where I'm from."

"We have seen where you are from, we have seen what your people do, what they keep form each other. What you keep from your friends." The massive creature unfolded itself stretching far below and far above with its glowing body as it took a step forward. It didn't need to step, it could have just floated, but the movement made its point it towered over Captain Vir now, its large black eyes staring down at him "You hide yourselves behind lies.... A concept hitherto unknown to us until now. A great evil. A great evil that should and must be purged."

Captain Vir allowed a little bit of the gas to push him back as he was easy on the controls, "Look, I didn't mean to offend you. I can't speak with my mind like you do, so it's not really an option for everyone to know everything about us. Besides if my way of communicating offended you so much, than why would you bring me out here to talk?" his hand rested lightly on the gaspack controls ready to flee if that was an option.

"Your mind is very hard to read, human. It is tangled and warped by your lies. We are here to seek the truth. The closer you are, the better for us. Truth is always to outlive lies."

The captain couldn't help the unease that was creeping up his back. He wasn't so sure about this. "What do you mean by that?

And before he knew it that massive creature was towering over him, and it was filling his head. It swelled inside his mind like water flooding an empty room. He gasped in surprise and pain as the creature took hold of his thoughts, his memories. Horribly, and suddenly his inner voice was silenced. There was no dialogue, there was nothing but the flashing of the side of his own mind. He couldn't name anything, he couldn't identify anything, he couldn't comprehend what was around him. He wasn't him.... He was.... Nothing. He had no identity, no conscience, nothing. He floated in a horrible blackness untouched by emotion or identity, unable to comprehend the terror of infinity of not existing.

Inside his head there was complete silence as the creature rifled through him like a filing cabinet tossing things about like a robber ransacking a home for valuables. His most precious memories were thrown to the floor, tossed into a jumble. His painful memories were sifted through with great care, private thoughts were brought back up examined and discarded, and he could do nothing. With no control over the mechanism of his thoughts he could not run, he could not move, and he could not thing. He was simply a husk floating in the blackness of space.

IT didn't take the creature long to finish ravaging his mind, and one it was done, it drew back. The captain's inner voice struggled to stand, to think clawing its way from the horrible blackness the terrible awful blackness of not existing, not feeling. He gasped racked with abject terror as he fled back from the black. His body trembled his mind remained fogged. The tears that broke unbidden to his eyes collected there unable to roll or move without gravity.

"A terrible sin. You are nothing but lies you humans. Nothing can be greater than this abomination." He could feel the thing still inside his head, could feel its abject horror, hear its thought process slowly churning forward. The creature did not know what it was to have secrets, to have a place to itself. Honesty, truth was not an option, and now here was a creature that kept its mind to itself. So alien, so different, the creature rebelled against the idea. Not even the sin of murder could have been worse, it could not let its people be exposed to such horror.

In his groggy and barely comprehensible state, Vr tried to remember the controls to the gaspack, but found his memories rearranged, gone, he couldn't find them, couldn't remember what to do. "You poor creature unable to understand your sin, unable to truly communicate..... I can help you with that. Just a few spots in your head, in your human brain destroyed, and I can give you true freedom of thought. It will help you block out the world, touch, sensation muted, and hearing gone you will better be able to hear the thoughts of your soul, at least before you die.

He desperately searched inside his own head for the memories, for the thoughts bringing others unbidden to his mind, his first flight, bullies at school, the christening of his ship, his father teaching him to ride a bike, his locker combination at the academy, listening to music with Sunny, teaching krill to play chess. He wasn't sure when he realized the meaning of this situation, but he felt the horror, the worry, the shame. It rushed over him in a flood of pain.

He was going to die, mindless, and memoryless in the blackness of space.