User blog:Will Duskgazer/Archived Interaction: An Infectious Tale.

It all started with a rash.

I was one of 7 lonely crew members in the Sekhayan ship Divinity, en route towards Sekhay Shixa from a small laboratory in the Balplasm system. Me, my brother, and the rest of the Hectoculan crew had been hired to freight a new genetically-engineered crop towards the capital for testing by the head scientists of the base.

I thought nothing of it until I saw what the crop would be carried in. I was expecting at least a tonne of the stuff located in an inexpensive crate. What I saw being carried in by two Saurettes was a large and clearly reinforced lead cube, with a hatch locked behind a single lock. We were told that we were supposed to deliver the cube along with the passcode of the lock no questions asked for a not-too-modest fortune. I’m usually against this kind of secrecy, but at the time greed blinded me and probably blinded my brother.

Two weeks into the job, that same greed drove my brother to open the crate. Maybe he thought he could grab some of the stuff and sell it on a shady port. But whatever happened, I found him lying on the ground unconscious in the cargo deck of my freighter. The hatch was open, and inside I didn’t find any crop at all, just a bunch of dirt.

I asked my brother what in the stars had happened, but instead of a straight answer he gave be a high tale of a monster hiding coming out of the lead crate. At the time, I didn’t believe him, and told him to stop frolicking around and close the hatch. He meekly obeyed.

A day later he came to me complaining about a rash in his hand. I simply told him to man up and get some medicine. Another day and not only him, but one of our Hectoculan crew came to me complaining of the same rash in one of her tentacles, both having tried some mild antibiotics with no result. Worried if a malaise had started to spread, I put them both under quarantine.

As the days passed, two more of my crew came to me worried, their skins reddened from the same rashes, and one of them was wheezing. Again I sent them to quarantine, hoping that whatever it was, a couple of antibiotics wouldn’t solve. But I did not rest soundly during these days, and my mind kept going to that lead crate and the strange monster my brother had reportedly seen. It wasn’t long until I noticed a rash on my leg, my fur coming out in clumps in said area. Isolating myself in my own room, I told the remaining crew to do the same and come out if it was strictly necessary.

I was trying to sleep when I heard by brother scream through the ship. Despite my self-imposed restrictions, I ran towards the wing of the ship I had quarantined him in. When I opened the door I saw my own brother, his silky fur on the ground, his skin red and bloated and blood coming out of his nose and horns. He was constantly wheezing, saying he saw the monster again in his room.

As I tried to help him by applying medicine to his pained skin, at first I thought whatever disease he had clearly took a toll on his sanity. But I had to reconsider when he showed me a scabbed, circle-shaped wound on his belly.

It was only when I was going to check on the rest of my crew when I saw it. Chittering about, the strange being looked to me with a single slitted eye on a blue head shaped like an icosahedron. It stood on a thin green trunk supported by short, spindly legs; both looking like they had been carved out of bone. Three membranous wings spouted from its back, with two slits in the trunk suggesting he had a pair hidden inside. A vicious looking stinger slowly pulsed under the base of the trunk, leaking a colorless liquid.

The being regarded me, my own body overcome by some kind of primal terror and adversion that was not mine. It observed me with… curiosity? Amusement? Or like a predator observes its prey? Fortunately for me, one of my crew members let a scream of pain, clearly affected by the same disease as my brother. The monster turned its eye towards the sound twisting its head, flapped its wings, and left. Sensation returned to my limbs, and I sprinted to my room, locking me in.

After a bit of research in the Divinity’s database, I have now learnt that the being was a Vintullan, and that the disease affecting my crew and family probably had hitched a ride on the monster. The lead cube was not a crate, it was a cage to house the being, and a piece of soil from Vintull, probably housing enough viruses to wipe out a planet. As I’m approaching Sekhay Shixa, I am sending this to anyone who will listen and program an autopilot to drive my ship into the sun. I’m afraid that if I ever try to land on a planet I will scour it clean through infection. I’m not sure how the rest of my crewmates are, but I’m certain they will understand my decision.

I can sometimes hear it flying or skittering outside. I wonder when it will come for me.