Tainted

Lard Nar sat lazily at his chair as he played around with his fingers. It was clear that he was a little bored since it had been awhile since his last encounter with the Massive. He figured he would use the opportunity to recruit some new members, but that would require some persuasion or the rescuing of more people from irken prisons. And since their last encounter, that had only proven to get more difficult.

So here he was, sitting in his chair as he pondered on what his next move was going to be. He was just going to give up and return to his quarters, but then a small beeping sound started coming from Spleenk's console. "What is it?"

Spleenk looked at his screen. "We're approaching some kind of planet. It's nothing like I've seen before."

"Ixane, do an analysis. Now that I think about it, we could use some resources and we're far from any Vortian resource tanks. We might need to excavate something from here."

Ixana did as she was told before saying, "It is an uninhabited planet with several gases on the mainland."

"Anything that we can gather?" Lard Nar asked.

"There are some minerals that can be converted into fuel for the ship. There are also some other components that we can use to power certain subsystems."

Lard Nar nodded. "Then we should go down there."

"Wait!" one of the crew members exclaimed. "There is a thin layer of gas that is poisonous to you. You will need protection in order to filter it out."

Lard Nar hopped off of his chair. "Alright, I think I can handle that. Spleenk, let's do this together. Shloonk, you have control of the bridge. Make sure no one does anything stupid."

"Alright!" Shloonk yelled as he flew onto Lard Nar's chair with a silly grin on his face.

Spleenk went with Lard Nar off of the bridge. "Why did you want me to come with you?"

"I'll need help collecting some of the minerals," Lard Nar said. "You're one of the few people on this ship that I can trust enough to protect me in case something happens."

"Really?" Spleenk asked.

Lard Nar cleared his throat. "W-well, of course. We have known each other for a long time, far before the formation of the Resisty. It only makes sense that we have trust in each other."

Spleenk nodded his head. "I trust you, too."

Lard Nar looked around and noticed that there was no one else in the area. He smiled and said, "Thank you, Spleenk. I appreciate your help with the Resisty. It helps makes the boredom… and the failure bearable."

Spleenk didn't know how to respond to that, so he did what he normally did: give a silent smile. Lard Nar always knew what that meant.

The two of them went down the hallways and into the transport room. Lard Nar each grabbed a specific Vortian gas mask. They were definitely advanced with highly-technological filtering systems that made the user both comfortable and safe. Lard Nar actually helped with the designs at one point in the early process. He was proud of it. "Make sure it's secure. Don't want to start off with being poisoned."

Spleenk nodded and turned on the gas mask's personal communication system so that he and Lard Nar could talk. They then went onto the transporter before being teleported onto the planet. The planet was very dull in color. Everything was in a spectrum of browns, grey, and greens. The fog was apparent and doused everything in more green. This frightened Lard Nar a bit. He made sure that he was breathing in normal air rather than the putrid green gas.

"There should be a cave behind you," Ixane's voice said as they arrived on the planet. They could clearly hear Shloonk's voice cracking some joke in the background. Lard Nar nearly asked Ixana to tell Shloonk to be quiet, but he let it go.

Lard Nar grabbed a really sharp pick and handed it to Spleenk before giving himself a slightly smaller one. They then entered the cave.

"Take a right, then a left. There should be some rocks that glow a certain blue color."

Lard Nar and Spleenk did as instructed and eventually found the rocks. They were covered in the planet's dirt, but the glowing blue portions of it was apparent. He hadn't seen much of it before in his life, but it looked perfect for fuel. Lard Nar began to hack at one of the rocks while Spleenk hit another one.

Lard Nar looked at Spleenk as he mined away at the rocks. He did it so delicately that he hardly made much of a dent in it with only a few hits. "You can hit it harder, Spleenk."

Spleenk looked at Lard Nar for a second and nodded, "Oh… oh yes, Nar."

Lard Nar chuckled lightly to himself as he went back to his work. Spleenk was the only one who called him Nar. He was actually the only one who called him by ANY nickname. Lard Nar was actually a bit upset by being the captain of the Resisty, because in doing so, many of his crewmembers looked up to him as a leader, not as a friend. He didn't have a particular problem with that, but it also meant that he didn't develop any close relationships with anyone. He missed the close companionship.

But Spleenk managed to remind him. And Nar was happy about that.

"Am I doing it alright, Nar?"

Lard Nar quickly went out of his own thoughts and looked at Spleenk for a moment. His movements were now much harder and much faster, chipping away at the rock better. "That looks good. Just watch out for your face. Your pick is-"

Lard Nar was interrupted by a distinct shattering sound. Lard Nar had witnessed it happening and it made his heart practically leap out of his chest from agony. Spleenk's pick was now through his visor. All of the poisonous air around him was starting to seep in and Lard Nar could hear Spleenk begin to choke. "SPLEENK! Hold your breath!"

Lard Nar ran to Spleenk's side. It was too foggy to see what condition he was in, but he could definitely tell that Spleenk was beginning to wobble back and forth. Spleenk was in the beginning processes of passing out, and Lard Nar wasn't going to have that. He quickly grabbed Spleenk's hand and began dragging him out to the entrance of the cave. "Come on, Spleenk. You just have to stay up until we get out of this cave."

Spleenk responded, but it was something delusional. Lard Nar thought he said 'okay', but he wasn't sure. There was a lot of stumbling, and the way back seemed a lot longer than when they came in, but they both managed to get out when Spleenk was on his last limb. "Shloonk. Two to beam up to the Medical Bay, and make it quick! Spleenk has been exposed to the poisonous gas."

"Beaming up!" Shloonk said in his normal, yelling voice.

Lard Nar and Spleenk were teleported to the medical bay. Lard Nar quickly got him onto a bed and brought over a Vortian medic who quickly went to Spleenk's side to check on him. They took out the pick and quickly got Spleenk's gas mask off of him.

Lard Nar gasped as he saw Spleenk's condition. He was very red since he was almost devoid of oxygen and pieces of his face was bleeding. Either the pick got him or some of the glass sprayed all over him. He got to witness it all happen, but this was so much worse.

The medic then ripped off the top portion of Spleenk's uniform to find a similar redness throughout his body. Lard Nar quickly went to the doctor's side and asked him, "Is he going to be okay?"

"Captain, please. Now is not the time for questions," he said as he gathered some fluids and syringes. "I need to run diagnostics and find anti-poison medicine for Spleenk before he loses too much oxygen and the poison affects too much of his body."

"Just do it as quickly as possible," Lard Nar said. He pointed to Spleenk and said, "My best fr-… my second-in-command is laying in that bed with a terrible poison in him and I am partially responsible that this happened to him. I need to make CERTAIN that he gets better. Do you understand me?"

The doctor sighed as he stuck a syringe inside of Spleenk's arm and pushed. That alone already caused some of the redness to go away. "Captain Lard Nar, we have some of the finest medical technology in the span of several lightyears, and I know how to use all of it plus 47 other species' medical practices. I don't have a guarantee that I can cure him, but I'm 99.99% sure that I can."

Lard Nar calmed down a bit. "Oh, well… that's reassuring." He rubbed the back of his neck before gently placing a hand on Spleenk's right foot. "Just keep me updated as soon as anything changes."

"Yes, Captain."

Lard Nar took a deep breath as he let go of Spleenk. "Alright, thank you…. Sorry for lashing out at you. I'm sure you know what you're doing."

"Thank you, Captain," the doctor said.

"Just call me Lard Nar," he said as he left the medical bay. His heart was pounding out of his chest. Even though there had been a lot of dangerous missions between the Resisty and the irken empire, this was actually the worst of the casualties. No one had died so far since Lard Nar went along a policy of defensiveness so that no one got hurt too badly.

And now here he was, watching one of his best friends as he got terribly injured. Why did it have to be Spleenk?

Lard Nar wanted to go back to his quarters and simply wait out a message from the medic, but he knew that would only cause him pain. So he went to the bridge and ordered Shloonk off of his chair. He sat down.

"What happened, sir?" Ixane asked.

"Nothing important," Lard Nar said. "I want to be as far away from this planet as possible. Set the coordinates for the nearest Vortian resource hub. We aren't stopping anywhere else until we get there." His voice was very serious.

"Yes, sir," a few of the crewmembers said at the same time as they changed directions.

Lard Nar sighed. This was going to be a long trip. He didn't even have Spleenk to talk to anymore.

"Hey, Lard Nar!" Shloonk exclaimed. "What's up?!"

A very long trip.