Security log.

“We have been travelling from planet to planet, rock to rock inside the Eros system for the past week. Nothing important to report. An argument broke out between two crew members and I had them cool off in their quarters. Things are quiet on Veneration, Javelin, and Frontier. Major Enlisys, head of Operations logging off.”

It was a very quiet week, she liked it when nothing popped up. She could spend her time training or hanging out with Nilni or Gelln.

A routine had formed on the ship by now. Wake up, get ready, check what happened while sleeping… and so on. The Veneration mostly sat waiting while the Frontier did its surveys.

They would need to make a trip back within a few weeks. The data storage was getting quite full by now. And there were a few back on Hybras who wanted to exploit the new systems as soon as possible. Some had even started mining. A warning, or their arrival into the system usually scared them off.

Elinsys simply sat back and enjoyed the slow day. Until, that is, she received a call.

“Major Elinsys speaking, how may I help you?” She knew the response by heart by now.

“Major, you must come over to the Frontier, we have made a discovery. I need someone to guard it.” It was Doctor Kolani, as usual. Everytime they found something she calls extra security from Veneration. Even if their security is more than enough.

“I will be arriving shortly with a small team.” She hung up and pressed the intercom button. Then she pulled a small box from one of her drawers. It was filled with names.

“Hello, dear crew. Frontier has requested extra security, today's lucky winners are...” She pulled out a few names. The box was stuffed with extra slips for those who broke a rule. Also Nilni and Gelln. They made the trips actually fun, otherwise she wished she was cleaning the floors, instead.

“Gelln and Nilni, who could have guessed. And also Lijung and Trynell. Please make your way to the hangar with all of your equipment ready. Thank you.”

Elinsys got up and left to get dressed. What will it be this time?

Their transport set down in the Frontier’s hangar. The ride was smooth, except for the gravity transitioning.

*

“Major Elinsys, thank you so much for coming over. This is of great importance. Please keep your suits on.”

Doctor Kolani was wearing a hazmat suit. “Follow me, quickly.”

They made their way towards the quarantine section of the ship. All new items were stored there until they could be processed.

They entered the quarantine airlock and went through. The room looked fine, nothing was broken or out of place.

Except a medium sized rock, laid out on a table.

“Why are we here, doctor? Is the rock dangerous?” Elinsys asked.

“Well, we found a brand new chemical inside of it. I thought it was worth sharing.”

Lijung sighed. Elinsys wanted to do so, too.

“Well, how long will it take you to open it? I do have a job to do back on the Veneration, doctor.”

A young scientist placed a chisel onto the rock and hit it with a hammer.

The rock split into two, revealing golden crystals on the inside of it. Every part of it was covered in them. Some turned into dust just from the hit.

“They appear to be very fragile.” Gelln commented. He always gave some comments on the new findings. He and Nilni always seemed to care about what the doctor showed them. Gelln because he actually cared. Nilni, well she had the hots for one of the scientists. Well, a few of them.

“It appears to be stable. We will put it under a microscope and see what it looks like. Run a few tests.”

“Finally Major, finally! A discovery! Even if it is a small one.” The doctor was ecstatic, as always. Despite her age.

“Yes that is fine and all. Now, we need to go. Please excuse us, doctor.”

“Yes, yes. Duty calls. We will send over our findings within a few hours, and a bigger report on the weekly meeting.“

The weekly meeting. Mostly an excuse to break out the fine food for the captains and officers. But Elinsys did like the Turox steak.

Nilni approached Elinsys. “Major, may I…can I...” She always did this, every time.

“You may go and see the hydroponics lab. You have five minutes.”

“Thank you, Elinsys. See you in five.” And she was off. Running down the hall. Elinsys wondered if it was more about plants or maybe the scientist who grew them.

“Do you think Doctor Kolani will let me have a sample of the crystals, Major?” Gelln asked her.

“If you ask nicely sure, why do you want them?”

“They are quite pretty… and it is our first discovery.” He was less formal than usual.

“Well, I am sure I will get a piece. If she won’t give you one, you can have mine.”

“Thank you, Major.” He backed off and returned to his position.

When they reached their transport Nilni was there, sweating and panting. “I am here, Major. Right on time.”

“Yes you are. Let’s go back before they make another discovery and call us back.” Elinsys and the others boarded the shuttle and left the Frontier.

*

Elinsys was standing in a room, a crew member's quarters. It had beds for two crewmembers and was nicely decorated. It was clearly too nice for the Veneration. Must be the Frontier, they had nicer quarters.

The light was turned off, but even then the room wasn’t dark. It had an unusual gold glow to it, at least near the floors. Now there were emergency lights on the floors to show where to walk, but they were gray. Not gold, and these lights hurt her eyes.

And there was that banging sound. It almost blocked the sound of screams coming down the hall. Screams!?

Elinsys rushed out of the bedroom into the hall, and listened for them. They were coming from the quarantine room. She rushed towards it, but stopped before she even made it to the corner of the hallway.

Something big was coming her way, as the screams came closer. She looked behind her, and saw pitch darkness.

A clawed arm with four talons slowly made its way against the wall, gouging the paint of the walls. It produced a sound which hurt her ears. She tried to cover them, but nothing worked.

The beast spoke in many voices at the same time. “Why?” said a male voice. “Where are you?” Said a female one. “Get off me.” Said another. “Hello, are you there?” Said the female one again. “Can you hear the songs?” Asked the male one again. “The laughter?” It said.

Behind her was pitch darkness, the emergency lights not showing. Elinsys backed away slowly into the bedroom and shut the door behind her. Pushing against it and locking it.

The beast pounded the door and screamed with each blow against it. “ELI! COME ON ELI!” Said the female one again. Was it mocking her?

Elinsys was knocked to the ground after the next hit. The door had a hole in it now. The claw reached in to grab her. “Do not fear. We wish to talk.”

She kicked it and crawled away. She was trapped and could not run.

“She is going away.” Said one of the many voices. “And so must we.”

Light hit her eye and she screamed.

*

“Elinsys! Calm down! Everything is fine.” Melora was shouting.

“Where... what?” Elinsys looked around. She was in her office. On the floor, her tea spilled and her tea mug shattered into a hundred pieces.

“You were raving on about some monster. Are you alright now?” Melora looked Elinsys all over.

“I… what happened? I was on the Frontier, we left and I made myself tea. Then I...”

“Started screaming. All of you did, we had to tie down the others, but you locked yourself in here.”

Elinsys looked at the door to her office. It had a hole where its lock once was. Someone cut it off. “Others?”

“All of your team, Gelln, Nilni, Lijung and Trynell. All started screaming one after another. We contacted the Frontier...” Melora helped Elinsys sit back down in her chair. “They have the same problem, but worse.”

“How worse? In what way?” Elinsys was a bit disoriented.

“Doctor Kolani locked herself and a few other scientists in the quarantine room, others who were in it started shouting. Only Javelin reported no incidents.”

“It must be the crystals that they found, but we were wearing hazmat gear? We didn’t even breathe the air from that room.”

“I do not know what it is. But a few people who were just nearby the room started screaming. Good news is that most stopped by now. Only Kolani and about half dozen others remain… sick.”

“What is the plan now?” Elinsys looked over to her terminal, at least that worked still.

“We quarantined the Frontier and Javelin. We will send a team with better hazmat gear to secure the crystals and clean up anything they left behind. Meanwhile, a second team of researchers will try to stop it from spreading.”

“Where do I come in?” Elinsys wanted to get up, but her legs failed her.

“You stay right here until we get you a stretcher, then you go to the medical bay. Let's see if we can extract anything from you.”

*

After she was taken to the medical bay, she was placed on a bed next to Nilni. The doctor drew some blood from her.

“Nilni, how are you feeling?” Elinsys asked her.

“Never better, I had such a nice trip.” She was relaxed.

“Trip? Where did you go?” Elinsys’ vision was still a bit blurry.

“It's an expression, a human one from what I hear.” She extended her arms out. “Why do we have the pinky? It is useless.” She giggled.

“She is high, all five of you showed a different reaction to the drug. Yours was the worst. Others here were like Nilni or just tired. Nobody was screaming bloody murder at Melora, except for you.”

“Do you know what it is?”

“A hallucinogen of some kind. Our bodies seem to react even if it just touches us. High temperatures seem to kill it. We did that to you.”

“How long was I out for?”

“A few hours. Right now the girls on the Frontier are cooking Doctor Kolani alive, she should give up soon.”

“Is that really the best option? She is quite old.”

“The others were already incapitated and our hazmat teams pulled them out to safety. Then the doctor tried to hit one of them with a hammer. So we left her in there.”

“It seems we jumped on it quickly.” Elinsys was glad it didn’t spread.

“Yes, Melora did fine good work. Ordered all the ships to stop and lock down. It happened the moment you started to run away. Well, first she locked down our ship, but word quickly spread to the others.”

“So it should be handled soon?”

“Yes, Major. We expect to have the doctor in the medical bay in less than two hours. The crystals will be stored in the airlock within three. From there we will decide whether to flush them into the local star, or keep them.”

She gave Elinsys a glass of water and some pills. “Sleeping pills, Melora said you will need them. Also, there will be an emergency meeting tomorrow, as soon as the doctor is safe and sound.”

*

Elinsys walked into the meeting room, feeling tired. Melora and the other department heads were there. Henera was there, but on a screen rather than in person. All the ships were still under quarantine.

“Morning Major Elinsys, I hope you slept well.” Henera greeted her.

“I am better, Captain. It will take a few days to regain all of my strength.”

“Good to hear, we will need your help with security for the crystals.”

“I hoped we were going to shoot them into the local star, not keep them.”

“I do agree with you, but scientists have found them to be too dangerous. They said we need a cure against them and to be able to warn all of their effects.”

“We have learned that they spread through the air and by touch. Filters should block most of it, but it has a tendency to stick to things. Especially if it was under large pressure for a long time. If it is kept in a warm room under normal pressure its dust will only react upon ingestion or touch. What you experienced was centuries of gas and dust pressed together exploding.” A younger doctor explained over the screen.

“Doctor Kolani is recovering, we have found no dangerous effects from prolonged exposure. It could serve as medicine in the right conditions.”

“Or a very strong drug, in wrong hands.” Henera added.

“Yes, this is why we require tighter security for the crystals. Do not worry Major, we put them into a double sealed box. With heating so it destroys any crystal dust.”

“I will provide security. What is the plan? Where will we put it?”

“We will return to Hybras and leave it there. A more secure transport will than take it to a research facility and from there we will see...” Melora explained.

“I do not like it, I wish we destroyed all but a few samples. But I will assign a rotating shift of guard to it. Half an hour per day at most? Will that keep them safe, doctor?” Elinsys asked. She wasn’t going to put her crew in danger.

“Yes, it will do. They should be safe.” The doctor got up to leave, but Elinsys’ hand stopped her.

“Understand me, doctor.” Elinsys got closer and looked her in the eyes.

“If a single guard or person gets sick on this ship.” She leaned in closer.

“I will jettison the whole box into the star. Consequences be damned.”

Elisnys backed off a bit, just a tiny bit.

“Yes, Major. I understand.” The doctor swallowed.