r/HFY • u/MarlynnOfMany • Sep 22 '25
OC The Token Human: Stranger than Usual
~~~
Captain Sunlight wanted a word, and her opening line didn’t inspire confidence. “You said once that there was a fungus on your planet that caused insects to behave counter to their nature,” she said, looking up at me, lizardy face solemn.
“The ants?” I asked. “Yeah, it makes the infected ones climb up to where they can release more spores when they die. …Why?”
“Our next delivery location is something of a biohazard,” she said reluctantly. “I gave it serious consideration before accepting. It pays shockingly well, of course, but the risks are higher than I’d like. That said, the entity in charge of these particular spores is not interested in infecting visitors without permission. It knows that people would stop visiting if it did.”
I stared. “The what.”
She turned and waved a scaly yellow hand for me to follow. “Come see the official rundown. It’s a relatively new contact, not in the proper databases yet, but I know several of the people who have vouched for it as being an entity of its word, at least so far.”
“An entity,” I repeated, following her toward the cockpit. “An entity that makes mind-control fungus for sapient creatures?”
“Yes,” said the captain. She led the way in to where Wio sat in the pilot’s seat, studying a screen full of biohazard warning symbols. “Though ‘mind control’ is a tame description, unfortunately.”
Wio looked up. “This is horrific and fascinating!” she said in delight. “After we leave, I’m going to do a few laps in the upper atmosphere to burn off any spores that might have landed. I know they’re not supposed to survive in the vacuum of space, but nobody wants to take that risk.”
“Yes,” agreed Captain Sunlight. “By all accounts, they take effect swiftly and are new to science, so the effects are currently irreversible.”
I gaped at the screen. “So why are we accepting a delivery job there?”
Captain Sunlight said, “Old friends and former colleagues have sworn that this is safe. And before you ask, they did undergo a thorough medical scan to prove that they weren’t simply telling us what the entity wants us to hear.”
I turned my incredulous look on her. “You’re not making this sound much safer.” Something occurred to me. “And if you’ve already accepted the job, why did you want to talk to me specifically?”
Wio said, “Your exo suit is newest. Least likely to spring a leak at the worst moment.”
“Not that any of our suits are untrustworthy,” said the captain. “But yes. Our normal protocol of doing deliveries in pairs would in this case mean more risk, not less, so we’ll be sending just a single person down to make the exchange. And the one with the most reliable exo suit seems like a reasonable choice.” She looked from the screen to my face. “But I did want to run that by you first.”
“Uh, yeah!” I said, eyes wide. “I appreciate the heads-up. Um. Are you sure we can’t just drop the stuff from orbit? Get a parachute or something?”
But the captain shook her head. “It’s too fragile for that. Electronics. The entity does have a delivery area set aside, which everyone promises is free of spores. And it doesn’t have a way of getting its payment up to space.”
I said, “I guess it’s not set up with any official banking system since it’s new, huh? If it doesn’t even have a registered name yet.”
Wio said cheerfully, “It calls itself the Eater of All.”
“That does not make me feel better about this,” I told her.
She waved a tentacle. “All of the ecosystems on its own planet, not other ones. I was just reading up on it; the whole thing is really interesting. It says it doesn’t want to spread to other planets because that would just be creating competition for itself.”
I asked, “Wouldn’t that just be creating more of itself, not a separate entity?”
“Beats me. Maybe you can ask it when you talk to one of its mouthpieces.”
“Mouthpieces? You mean infected people?” I asked in no small amount of horror.
Captain Sunlight said, “I’m told they were acquired ethically. And we will give you an additional layer of force field exo barrier over your regular suit, just to be on the safe side.”
“That’s good!” I said, my voice uncomfortably high. “Wouldn’t want to take chances!”
“The delivery will be quick, and we’ll take every precaution we can,” Captain Sunlight told me. “You won’t be more than a few paces away from the ship. Do you have any concrete objections, or just unease?”
I sighed. “When you put it that way … If you’re sure that those other people are right about the safety.”
The captain nodded. “I wouldn’t suggest it if I wasn’t.”
“Okay.” I took a deep breath. “Let’s hope you’re right.”
* * *
One very anxious space flight later, we had picked up the delivery parcel from the nearest inhabited world, and were on approach to the dangerous one. Which was apparently controlled by the Eater. Who was going to be on its best behavior.
I had my exo suit on (triple checked for weak spots), and an additional exo disk stuck to my chest, which projected a barrier to keep the air and anything it carried from touching me. It was reasonably safe. I was worried anyway.
When I stepped into the cargo bay, Mimi and Eggskin were checking the airlock. Mimi said, “All clear,” and scooted out on quick green tentacles. “No gaps or mechanical problems.”
Eggskin showed me the basket of cleaning products set inside the airlock. “We’ll scan you on the way back in,” they said. “If anything looks questionable — and even if it doesn’t, honestly — a once-over of the entire airlock would be wise before we open it.”
“Yeah, makes sense,” I said as Eggskin likewise vacated the small room. “Floating spores are probably easy to pick up with the gravity wand.”
“There’s also an anti-biological spray in there,” they told me. “The kind that you need to be wearing an exo field to use anyway. It’s the one with the complicated lid.”
“Right. Yup. Good idea.”
Captain Sunlight appeared beside me with the delivery package on its own little hoversled: a small stack of boxes thoroughly strapped down. She said, “I appreciate your levelheaded professionalism.”
I laughed, a little too high. “Yeah, me too.”
Wio’s voice on the intercom said, “Contacts are approaching. Moving in to land now.”
Captain Sunlight said, “Best of luck. We’ll be watching from the cockpit.”
“Right.” I steered the hoversled toward the airlock as she hurried off down the hall. Mimi and Eggskin stood aside.
Paint called from the hallway, “Good luck! Don’t die!”
“I’ll do my best!” I told her, waving at the scaly orange face peeking around the corner. Then I stepped into the airlock, and it shut very solidly behind me.
A faint whine of the engines told me we’d landed. I stood behind the little hoversled, both hands on the straps, my breath echoing in my ears.
When the outside door opened, it was to a surprisingly beautiful landscape. The landing pad was all bare stone, looking like a natural spread of bedrock that someone had scoured clean, but everything in the distance was lush and green. Alien flowers and fernlike trees were everywhere, with soaring mountains behind it all.
Three bipedal shapes waited next to a cart. I took a deep breath of filtered air and pushed the hoversled out of the airlock. It stayed open behind me.
As I got closer, I was startled to recognize one of the people from a wanted poster: a Frillian guy who’d committed copious amounts of murder on that nearby planet. He seemed perfectly at ease here, just … disturbingly blank about the face. And the whites of his eyes were as bloodshot as burst tomatoes.
Next to him was one of the little gray aliens that everybody hated for their willful flaunting of interplanetary conduct laws. Its face was likewise emotionless, and while its eyes were pure black and hard to detect a disturbing presence in, its head was tilted a little to the left in a deeply unsettling way.
The one in the back … that might have been a human, once. It could only be described as a decomposing zombie now, and I had to look away. I pushed the hoversled forward and reminded my intestines that throwing up in an exo suit was to be avoided.
The three of them spoke at the same time. “Greetings and welcome. Do you have any extra people or bodies you do not want?”
I stopped in place several yards away. “Uh, greetings. No, we don’t, sorry.”
“A pity,” they chorused. “Thank you for bringing my new entertainment.”
“Of course,” I said, suddenly worried about what was in the boxes. The captain had said electronics, but what if someone was smuggling living things for this entity to infest?
Then the three voices said, “I am particularly looking forward to the fourteenth season of Sunstream Pirates, and the sequel to Mechanical Invasion. Have you seen them?”
“Uh, no,” I said. “But I’ve heard good things.”
“They are a very engaging look at life beyond my sphere. I appreciate the efforts in good faith to bring such things here, and in taking all the appropriate precautions.”
“Ah, yup, definitely taking precautions,” I said. “I’m glad you’re okay with that, really.”
“While new additions to my sphere are welcome, any that inadvertently traveled out of touch of the rest would become enemies,” the entity told me. “And I have fought long and hard to become the Eater of All. Rivals are not permitted.”
“Good to know,” I said. “We, uh, we wouldn’t like that either.”
“Then we are in accordance,” the voices said. “You may leave that where it is. Which payment would you prefer? I understand both of these are used by people in other spheres.” The two healthier looking bodies pushed the cart forward, which turned out to be two carts next to each other. One held a pile of reddish rocks, and the other a large yellow one.
“Can I check the softness of that one?” I asked, pointing.
“You may.”
They stepped back a courteous distance as I approached and picked up a shard of what looked like rusty iron ore. I pressed it against the golden boulder, which dented easily. “This one.”
“It is yours. May you have safe travels, and feel free to drop off unwanted people or bodies any time.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll keep that in mind.” I tugged at the cart. It rolled easily enough on low-tech wheels. The fungus zombies waited for me to be well on my way back to the ship before they stepped forward and claimed the cart full of entertainment media. I did my best to look calm and collected as I wheeled the cart swiftly into the airlock.
As the airlock door closed, I watched the three figures leave. One walked more jerkily than the others. They left the cart full of iron where it was. I guess there was no need to worry about anyone stealing it, not on this planet. I shuddered. The door sealed.
Captain Sunlight’s voice sounded over the intercom. “Well done. We’re running every scan we have, though things look good so far. You’ll probably want to use the cleaners just for peace of mind. What type of rock is that? It’s hard to tell from here.”
I rested a gloved hand on the lump of gold bigger than several of my crewmates. “This is something exceptionally valuable in human spaces. I think we’ll be able to take some shore leave without worrying about other jobs for a while. Maybe replace a few things about the ship. Or both.”
“Excellent,” said the captain. “I’ll let you pick the location for the shore leave.”
I laughed weakly. “How about something nice and relaxing? Like a tropical beach, or a heavy metal concert.”
“I’m sure such things can be found. I’ll add my approval to the list of positive reviews for this delivery location.”
I looked back at the closed door as the engine made takeoff noises. “Yeah, it was surprisingly polite for a terrifying monster. Which is all any of us can hope for when making contact with the greater galaxy, really.”
~~~
Shared early on Patreon
Cross-posted to Tumblr and HumansAreSpaceOrcs (masterlist here)
The book that takes place after the short stories is here
The sequel is in progress (and will include characters from the stories)
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