Chapter I

Officer Neop senses the stench of extinction as she stands on the translucent sands of Lem. Silence drowns her breath. This is hallowed ground. She grips her doryblaster at her waist and scans the pink crystal terrain. “Captain. Prepared to proceed. What’s the operative?” 

Captain Longsuffering hesitates in the port, motions for the crew to disembark the ship, then cooly steps from the transport. The crew file into formation, their gaian and promethean heels ringing over the crystal. Though Longsuffering hesitates in the port door, suddenly dark. “Here it is. Isla Lem. This derelict no-man’s-land. I can still see it. I see the blood in the crystal like it’s still there now.”

A promethean Crew member murmurs to her left, “I think it’s the writing on the wall he can see, am I right? Crazy.” Another whisper from the back, “Maybe we’ll knock this one out in time for games.” 

Neop quivers. If Longsuffering is nervous, then you know it’s bad. She knows the stories of Longsuffering’s failed mission all those years ago. Little over a year ago, en route to the war in Troi, his ship malfunctioned and made an unexpected touchdown on Lem. Little did they know, Lem was occupied. But not by Lemmites, by anguis. It all happened so fast there was no time to call for landing clearance from the Interplanetary Syndicate. When they made their emergency descent, they met only desolation and violence.

A whole host of peaceful Lemmites, a gaian race, once thrived on Lem. The planet was a prosperous crystal mining hub. That was before the anguis infestation. Anguis show no recognizable form of communication or cooperative society. They organize only out of necessity. They slither in, strangle the terrain, then leap to another planet to repeat the process. As an invasive species, they desolate the host planet. It’s nearly impossible to see them coming, and pointless to resist.   

Longsuffering continues: “We have little time before she finds us.” He turns with artificial, robotic control and a stiffness that one might even mistake for promethean. “Officer, find the double pronged cave. Let’s see if we can trace her from there.” Officer Neop tightens to attention. “We are in middle territory now. We have one operative: Find PHL3. Recover her doryblaster.”