Marcus, now done with his shift, reopened the book and read. The first few entries were fairly basic until he got to day ten.

DAY 10—

Of our surviving crew there are 4 Andorians; today all four of them passed out and later died. It seems that the atmosphere of this planet, though it came up on scans as safe, was deadly to our Andorians. At least that’s the best our doctor could figure out with our very limited technology. Each asphyxiated as if they were never able to breathe the atmosphere at all. A terribly painful death. We burned the bodies as carefully as we could.

Day 25

At this point we have lost all of our non-human crewmates. Just like the Andorians, they each asphyxiated suddenly. Nothing we could do saved them. We even tried one of the few remaining hazmat suits, and it did nothing to help. I have buried their blood samples in a chest about 100 clicks from the ship with a small homing beacon. Head southwest from the ship. You will find it with a scanner or tricorder.

Marcus knew there was a risk; no matter how human he looked , he was not. However, the Mercedes scanners were far more advanced than the Smaugs, so he did a targeted scan and was able to locate the homing beacon. He put a shuttle off the ship with a level ten isolation field to beam up the case and samples.

A dozen vials in the case sadly all looked to be fully deteriorated beyond use… then Marcus saw something strange. He rescanned the samples and confirmed. In each vial was a trace of chlorophyll. A small vine in each of the 12 vials.

Almost fully relieved at his findings. It was not the air that had killed them. It was the Flora. As he rechecked the logbook, it made sense.

Andorians were known to like vegetables and likely to have eaten the most. Both as a service to the others and, of course, themselves.

Marcus recalled an Andorian friend in the academy who made excellent cabbage stew.

The rest were less likely to have eaten as much at first. As meat got scarce or after the Andorians passed. There was more to be had; more was eaten by others.

Through simulations, the computer showed the seeds grew in the body, snaking up into the lungs. Growing in the oxygen rich spaces strangling them from the inside. By the time the doctor checked, he wouldn’t have seen the cause with the limits of the technology of the time and likely what little they had anyway.

Later, with the science officers help, they figured out the main reason that the human crewmates were not affected was a slight difference in stomach acids that destroyed the seeds rather than allowing them into the digestive tract to implant and grow.

Marcus took a look at the book again looking at it with a small grimace. Wondering what other discoveries or horrors he would find. In the meantime he put a warning in the planets entry in the database to warn any visitors to not eat the Flora.

After the excitement of the day Marcus decided it was good to take a break and headed to the lounge.  The book sat on his nightstand quietly waiting to reveal the rest of its secrets.

—End—

Doctor Marcus Anvers

Chief Medical Officer

USS Merced

“The Merced is a ship on the rise.”