Commander Vir woke groggy and disoriented unsure of where he was for a moment and of what had woken him.

"Commander." He rolled onto his side scrabbling for the com guided only by the dim luminescence of a single pinprick of glowing green light, "Yeah" Yawn, "I'm up, I'm up what is it."

"We have a slight problem, Sir."

***

He was out of the room in under five minutes having hurriedly strapped on his prosthetic before throwing on a shirt to then stumble down the hall in nothing but boxers, and the stained T.

He came into the cafeteria disheveled and sleep addled to match the rest of the crew who milled about in bleary confusion. Most of them were only half dressed, like himself, so he fit right in as he shuffled up to the first lieutenant yawning and scratching idly at his 5 o'clock shadow. "This better be good lieutenant."

She was rather out of place in the herd of milling crew-members fully dressed and put together as she was, "Sir, all the silverware has gone missing,"

Captain Vir raised an eyebrow before adjusting his shirt, "You woke me up.... For missing silverware?"

The lieutenant was cut off not a moment later as a group of engineers ran in skidding to a halt a few feet away, "No sir not just silverware.... I mean everything, certain kinds of food, weapons, all the way down to paperclips." A group of marines made their way over, "Razors, sir. Razors, loose change, F***ing reams of paper."

"The hell." He muttered, turning in a wide circle.

"Who the hell would want to take all that?" Someone wondered from the crowd.

"Better question is where the hell did they put it?" Another person hollered turning only to open another empty drawer behind the serving line.

Vir narrowed his eyes and scanned a wide circle at all the faces in the crowd. Sunny and the other Drev had arrived from their quarters within the very bowels of the ship managing to look more put together than their human counterparts. He doubted any of them had to do with this turning his eyes slowly over the ships interior. His sweep took him across one of the wide observation windows, and a chilling pale white face, and skeletal figure staring in from the darkness.

He pushed through the crowd and made his way up to the glass making heavy eye contact with the black soulless depths of Conn's whiteless eyes, "You see something, Convict." He said out loud.

The creature grinned at hi through the glass ribbons of blue white flaring out behind him against the inky blackness, "Perhaps I did, what's it to you."

"I swear Conn, I will turn on gravity to the outer hull if you don't give me a straight answer, see how you like it when your neck snaps in half."

The creature just grinned again voice ringing inside the Commander's head, "Two guesses who did it. He's short, he's stressed, and he's psychotic"

"Shit."

***

"MOVE BACK ALL OF YOU. Don't come any closer!"

Commander Vir held up his hands playacting as he slowly inched forward, "Krill, put down the silverware and let's talk."

The small surgeon snarled brandishing a butter knife at the man as he backed further into the hold, "No Commander, YOU need to STAY BACK." He spun in a wide circle jabbing the butter knife at all the watching humans, "Don't come any closer, I know how to use this."

One of the marines frowned, "I feel like that violates a do no harm policy there doc."

The butter-knife flashed as Krill turned to face him, "If it means keeping you all safe, I will carve you limb from limb."

Commander Vir scratched his chin, "That seems kind of counterintuitive, Krill..... why..... hold on, are those condoms..... why the hell did you steal all of those."

"Why, WHY did I still them, as if you didn't know."

"Because you want us all get pregnant?" One of the female crewmen wondered.

The commander waited for a few seconds then, "Um, no, not really."

The little Surgeon growled and stalked in a wide circle eyeing anyone who came close, "Humans, I've seen videos where you fill them full of water and drop them on your heads, or snort them through your noses and out through your mouth IT'S A CHOKING HAZZARD, ITS RIDICULOUS...... you could suffocate."

Commander Vir frowned, "Ok.... So this...." He motioned to the mountain of items behind Krill's head, "This is about keeping us safe?"

"OF COURSE IT IS!" The rant that followed was barely intelligible, and over the sound of the noise he heard the rest of the crew whispering. Some of them sounded worried, others were chuckling quietly to themselves.

"Ok I mean like, I get why he stole all the silverware, but.... Why the paperclips."

"Yeah man I kind of need those...."

"I am not even gonna ask why he has that cucumber." Whispered one of the medical officers.

"Krill, I understand this is.... Wait, the F**K krill, is that my dog." Krill turned in a wide circle brandishing the butter knife at Waffles who had managed to wriggle her way from a pile of soap and trot over, "SIT DOWN." He demanded, and with a seemingly confused expression she sat tilting her head one way and then the other like dogs are known to do.

Commander Vir took a step forward, but Krill pointed the butter knife back at him accompanied by a spoon in one of his other appendages, "What did I say!"

"Krill, I need the dog. You know that."

"Yeah, I know it seems like that, and you think that, but don't you see, she's a predator. She has pointy teeth and big claws, and she could rip your throat open in seconds." Off to the side the dog had turned from the conversation to licking herself. She stopped in mid lick as silence overcame the hall and rolled onto her back staring up at them with her legs sticking into the air.

There was more giggling from around the room.

"NO, NO YOU ALL DON'T GET IT. Day in and day out I have to worry about you humans, doing something stupid or having spontaneous organ failure, or sticking things in your mouths. I am SICK of it." He jabbed a butter knife at one of the marines that had gone to protest, "Don't even give me that. The last time I saw YOU was because your PAPERCUT got infected, and YOU, Commander there is no one dumber, more irresponsible. First it is a screwdriver to the brain, and then its telepathy induced seizures and then hallucinogens and then a broken toe, and then you ate too much cake." He spun in a tight circle, "And I don't need to remind you how many people have come to me in private for RANDOME THINGS in their rectum." The room shuffled, "That's right, you know who you are."

Off to the sides one of the marines had turned to another, "Well, sounds kind of bad when he puts it that way."

Commander Vir turned to one of his lieutenants, "Will you excuse us for a moment." Before wandering off and putting their heads together some distance away, "Ok.... It was funny at first, but I'm starting to get a bit worried. IS this sort of thing.... Normal... for their species."

"I don't know.... I wouldn't think so. I mean I get it, the poor guy has been stressed for like over a year now, can't be healthy.... Maybe we should call someone."

***

Psychological expert Rigg and accompany trauma surgeon Vell of the Vrul boarded the human ship after a three day journey aboard an alliance vessel. Neither of them had ever been off-world before, but both of them had been briefed on the situation, and both agreed that intervention required immediate action. Video feed had been provided with copies of the reports Dr. Krill had been sending to the scientific community for over a year now. The story they received showed a stable individual's slow descent into stress induced madness. An originally logical and collected Vrul could be seen slowly humanizing showing increasing signs of logical fallacy, and uncontrolled emotional outbursts.

*Humanizing – A term used by the Galactic Assembly and all scholarly sources that describes the inevitable appropriation of human characteristics by other species. The less human the species the more extreme the humanizing process.

The connection between the two ships locked open, and the two Vrul gently floated their way into the receiving bay of the human ship. It was immediately obvious that the human environment was no place for a Vrul. Their cataloging, and engineering systems were based on flawed logical constructions. Their pattern recognition made up for some of that, but otherwise there were plenty of things that could and should be changed to increase productivity. The humans themselves were.... Intimidating.... To say the least with large wide forward-facing eyes, sharp teeth, clawed fingertips and lithe predatory movement. The human that greeted them..... well they knew about this one. He was missing an eye and a leg, and the galactic assembly still trusted him to command a fleet of ships on their behalf, another clear logical mistake by their non-Vrul counterparts. Both Rigg and Vell flipped on their translation systems.

The human nodded to them lifting his chin to expose his neck, a primitive show of respect giving them access to his vulnerable anatomy, "Welcome to the U.S.S Harbinger..... I have to say we weren't expecting the assembly to send someone." The Vrul representatives breezed past him and onto the ship.

"To the contrary commander, the destabilization of one of our own is highest priority to us." The human walked over and cut them off. The two of them backed away a bit as they watched the muscles through his legs back and arms tense. The chin lowered to cover his neck.

"Look, you aren't planning on.... Firing him or something because it's not that big a deal. It's probably stress related, happens to humans all the time. We would just like to know how we can make things easier for him." He was very protective, as if guarding a larvae. They had heard about the human habit of pack bonding but had never personally seen it, and they would have been quite fascinated if the human weren't so disconcerting. They watched warily as the human's hands churned in expressive circles. The muscles of his face contracted and released in rapid succession. The eyes twitched in rapid micro-movements. They shifted back uncomfortably, the human talked a lot with his body, emotional and expressive just like they would expect to see in an unstable individual. Agitation of movement was one of the greatest signs of psychological disturbance in a Vrul.

"I would like to see the patient." Rigg said, "Please have one of your crew members show Vell to the infirmary." The human nodded again, chin still lowered, but motioned them in a direction. Vell couldn't help but notice the strange way the human walked,, not completely human. This examination was proven true a moment later when they ran into another alien, a small Drev female of about seven feet in height.

In all the universe, the Drev were classified as the species most closely resembling humans. It made sense they did hail from the same sector of the galaxy after all.

"He's just in here," Commander Vir explained, "Good luck."

***

The room Regg walked into was an odd amalgamation of human and Vrul influence. Objects were cataloged categorized and placed into their proper places in the most efficient organization system possible. Everything was parked neatly in rows. But there were far too many objects. Human food stuffs all the way down to small shiny silver implements of unknown origin or use. A Vrul had definitely cataloged and sorted everything here.

The Vrul himself, his first inclination was the distant muttering that could be heard just over the boxes. It was fast unusually garbled. It was a rather chilling noise. Dr. Regg turned a corner around a stack of boxes floating slowly down the aisle when a shape scuttled past the other end of the row. It was so fast and indistinct that he couldn't have made it out, but it made him stop in his tracks out of fear.

The scuttling noise stopped, then reversed, he tried to back pedal as a figure came into view. It was a Vrul, but its form was really the only thing Vrul about it. The way it moved was just.... Well.... Horrifying. The legs moved with perfect coordination. The arms articulated with its ramblings. It didn't bother to use the hydrogen sack on its back preferring to scuttle this way in that in sort bursts of movement between long slow, and churning prowls. The head snapped up in a single moment allowing light to glitter over the wide orange prisms of eye. The head tilted unnaturally to the side.

The creature was never still.

"Dr. Regg....." It scuttled closer, and he nearly ran himself back into a box, "It's been a while. The Commander didn't tell me you were coming."

Regg took a deep sigh looking Krill up and down with a critical gaze. He seemed physically healthy enough, but sweet starlight, the way he moved was just wrong. "Your commander was not informed of our Visit until a few hours previous. The assembly sent us, as well as some of your superiors. They are very worried Dr. Very worried about your mental stability."

A surprising sound broke from Krill making Dr Rigg jump involuntarily. It sounded like a stream of escaping air from a hydrogen sack, but not made by that, "Not this again. I told the assembly they could stick it where the sun don't shine. If they knew what I had to deal with here...." He trailed off.

"Krill," Dr. Rigg said gently, "Let me speak logically. Your actions reduce the usefulness of your reports, your current behavior has driven you from your true job of taking care of these humans, and I have had to bring along a replacement. You are cracked, and far more than you are willing to admit. The fact that you cannot see it is a horrible oversight of your logic and proof that not all is well with you."

Krill's reaction was obvious to read in his body language, unusual for a Vrul, he slumped towards the ground, "Perhaps you are right, but you don't understand. You do not have all the information." It was clear he was trying to speak more precisely, "The humans, I.... I cannot leave them, and what I am doing now is for their own safety. People seem to think that the humans are unbreakable immortal even, but it simply isn't true. The humans can die, and when they do it is very painful and often very violent. I have to protect them, from themselves, from their own stupidity. They just don't understand how dangerous their lives are, their bodies are. They don't understand anything different coming from a death world.

***

Vell wanted to run and hide, to crawl back onto the alliance ship and pretend this had never happened. Desperately, he tried to maintain his logical composure, as he was faced by ever greater challenge in the medical bay. He had a support team of humans, but their involvement was minimal unqualified for the types of procedures that he was. They worked well as a team but their communication to him was subpar at best. Sure they talked to him, but not about the job at hand.

And the patients..... By the rings of Nebulon.... He had never seen anything like it. He couldn't have known what was life threatening or what was not. The common cold was incurable but ok, however the exact same symptoms might arguably for something more dangerous like meningitis which symptoms could be different for everyone. Each of the issues was like this, they could have a rash or it could be a symptom of cancer in some roundabout way. Not only that but the humans did the dumbest things, got injuries in the weirdest of ways. Their ship was an absolute death trap, it was completely insane, and all of his human counterparts seemed to think none of it was a big deal, until it suddenly was, and then everyone was rushing around. Why was getting stabbed by a rusty nail so much worse than getting stabbed by a piece of machinery? One of them was bleeding much worse than the other one.

He was going to go insane if this went on much longer

***

Commander Vir sat with Krill, the two doctors and a representative of the GA watching close by. He looked down at the table fingers tapping nervously on the tabletop before looking up, "Krill, I..... it's important that I give you the option to resign and return to your home planet. If this ship, this enviornment is not good for your mental health, than I cannot ask you to stay here for another minute."

Dr. Rigg nodded agreeably with that idea, the humans could be logical after all.

"No."

He turned to look at Krill in confusion and annoyance. What was this? Hadn't they talked him down just a few minutes ago, determined that the most logical course of action was the best one. "Krill-"

"No, I am not leaving." He glowered between Dr Riggs and the commander, "How could you think that I would just up and leave." He turned to Dr. Riggs voice biting with a surprising amount of sarcasm, "Let's look at this logically. I am too humanized to go back home and wouldn't wat to go even if that was not the case, I is my job to keep this ship safe. If I were to leave you would all get yourselves killed in a matter of minutes. I am an integral part of this ship. Yes I have been stressed since the moment I stepped aboard this ship, but that does not mean I haven't also found my place here."

Dr. Riggs held up a hand, "You may not be able to take care of them any longer in your condition." He turned to look over at Vell, "What are your thoughts on this subject." The other Vrul sat motionless for the longest moment stiff as a plank and staring off into the distance,

"I can't begin to fathom how Dr. krill has managed to stay so calm." He squeaked. Everyone at the table turned to look at him in confused surprise. Commander Vir broke into a wide grin presenting a set of sharp teeth to the entire room. Two of the Vrul fell back a bit the other barely seemed to notice, "However..... I do have a suggestion about a couple changes that could be made."

***

"THIS IS HORRIBLE, YOU KNOW WHAT COULD HAPPEN, ARE YOU TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED. It could be an hyp-."

"Wow, slow your Roll there Dr. House." A hand dropped onto his shoulder, as Dr. Katie rolled up beside him. She was tall with lightly browned skin, dark hair, and large glasses. She had been dispatched from earth's largest Trauma center as a veteran of almost 8 years of trauma medicine and surgery. Together they represented the position of chief medical officer.

She leaned down and examined the wound, "We will get this cleaned out for you, and don't even worry, if you keep it clean you won't have to worry about infection." She turned in her chair to look at Krill raising a sharp eyebrow, "That type of infection is VERY rare, Krill. I have never seen it in my combined 16 years of attending and residency. There is one thing they always teach us in medical school. If you hear hooves think horses and not zebras."

Krill stared at her in confusion.

"What I mean to say is don't immediately jump to the most exotic conclusion. Statistically you spend your time worrying about things that are a one in a million chance. If I did that, I would be stressed all the time too. Next time you go reading our medical journals try looking up disease and accident statistics first. Humans don't have spontaneous organ failure as often as you think."

He took a deep breath and a moment to calm down. She was right of course, and an amazing help for Krill, she knew the statistics. Hs information had been questionable achieved through quick study session of humans in between medical emergencies. He hadn't been practicing on humans as long as she had, and she was good, she was smart, and aggressively educated. The other humans had been fine to let him think all these horrible things without actually correcting them. They treated him as a human socially, but professionally he had been on his own, but now with a medical officer equal to his own abilities things were starting to look up.

And how would the humans say, she had "Mad surgery skills."

He doubted his reports were going to get any less aggressive, the human body and culture still annoyed him to no end, but at least now he had someone to help him handle it. Someone logical, laid back, and calm under stress.

Things were going to get a lot better