Chapter 1
Yea, we're not as famous as that other one off Bajor, and the worm hole. Ours is only one that studies the biology of the various goldilocks planet in this remote part of the universe. You thought the delta quadrant was in the boondocks? The beta quadrant may be after alpha, but there's not a lot going on. But the planets have interesting plants. And now that nobody eats meat in the Federation, plant based food is really popular. People go nuts for the goldie lox fake salmon. Turns out obscure planets are popular for new versions of plants with various taste profiles not found in the usual beans and greens meals.
So we're on a new planet collecting samples. We cook them up because of the oxalates, that remove the problem of the nutrient stealing aspect to raw plants. Of course various amounts of raw plans are OK, that's not a reason to not eat raw plants. Everything in proportion. Can you imagine they actually thought oxalates was a reason not to eat raw plants in the 21st century? Ignorance.
Then something bit me, and everything went vivid. They know about insects that inject hallucinogens into mammals in the universe, but when you're not expecting it, it makes things fun for no reason for a little while. And I said down in the grass, and let the bugs bite me more, and then you're too high and wow, it doesn't wear off quickly.
I beamed back up to the ship and watched The Secret of Kells, my favorite hallucination movie. It's an ancient kids movie about the Book of Kells. They think The Book of Kells might have had a few hallucinating monks working on it.
After I slept it off, I was back into rotation on the ground, collecting samples, looking for something interesting for the scientist, and for the food scientists. There were medical applications too, like in the ancient Amazonian rainforest. It's a shame that was lost by over population. Now earth has a tidy billion population. People have to be incentivized to reproduce now that contraception is so easy and available. Not so many accidents and impulsivity. A billion is around the sweet spot for earth, but the applications to emigrate from other planets who are new to space travel also supplements the population. Earth isn't so human any more, there are quite a few other species who didn't mellow out, like A Mote In God's Eye. There are species that will literally die if they don't reproduce, and so their population explodes and collapses, and the cycles of that are quite horrible and violent. We don't allow any Motey species to emigrate, but they can visit on temporary visas for cultural exchange.
Back down on the planet I found a bee like species that had a honey that tastes like pineapples and carrots. I got lost in a large plant that was a maze.
They weren't impressed back on the ship. The spice explorers didn't find spice and they were leaving and there was a big party where the spice was flowing. I hooked up with a Bolian, I've got a weakness for blue women with ridges down the middle of their skulls that go all the way down. I was pretty exhausted and slightly sick from both the drugs and woman. I took a day off to recover. My boss looked at me askance. But I had a hallucination experience to process and I wondered whether I wanted to continue with the Bolian after how I felt after our fun. She was certainly a spirited lover, but I wondered if what they said was true about feeling sick afterwards. It also could have been the spice.
I was bailed out as the Bolian found another Bolian who joined the search teams, and politely broke up with me. I pretended to be heartbroken at the bar afterwards, hoping someone would try to cheer me up, but that never works. Except this one time. A Vulcan sat down next to me, and proceeded to march me through some logical arguments about some of the commander's decisions, trying to make me understand her perspective about some scientific matters, she was a geologist who was overseeing some of the mining projects on the planet. Sounded like the commander would sometimes not prioritize mining over other projects at time, and seemed to be trying to be fair and just not always give her what she wanted. I adore women who think they're always right and are logical, and was completely bewitched by her. She didn't even really think my devotion was of note, but she wanted to meet again, it seems she had a fair amount of grievances to download, and my non-judgemental attitude and my joining her made her want to confide in me, and we spent a few evenings together. Over the next month and years she seemed to really appreciate my listening and attention and while I wasn't a yes man, I was not confrontational when I could see she was just a bit oblivious, following her reasons of course, but there were obviously larger pictures that the commander was responsible to. Mining was something that was important and she was clearly used to getting her way often, but occasionally he would block her when a biologist would point out ecological dangers and wouldn't always give her all the resources because they had to be shared. I didn't feel like I had to enlighten her to the larger perspective, and sometimes I would give her gentle nudges, or articulate the commander's possible line of thinking, which she didn't get defensive about.
When she was called to another planet system, and left DS 10, she kept calling me, and we had a video relationships for years and years. She eventually asked me to marry her and wanted a human wedding, not a Vulcan one. Whether she was hedging her bets, and leaving open a later Vulcan marriage, or maybe she thought she was being really generous to me, I couldn't figure out. When the marriage ended a few years later, I didn't know what happened and I lost track of her.
Chapter 2
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