Chapter 15

Loxius fired another blast from his phase pistol into the ground, sending chunks of dirt into the air. The amphibious rodent creatures ran in all directions.

He no longer knew what was real. His finely honed mind, conditioned as it was to resist mental trickery, had completely surrendered to the madness of the forest. Around every tree he saw another illusion - military or political officials congratulating him, scantily-clad Romulan maidens seducing him, tables stacked with delicacies from home such as viinerine, osol twists, and glasses of warm kali-fal to tempt his aching stomach.

He would also occasionally see some form of ferocious animal, and fear would grip him, sending him running. He felt foolish afterwards whenever he gave in to this primitive response. He was an officer in the Imperial Fleet; he instilled terror, he did not succumb to it.

When he observed these sights, he did not question their realism at all, it was only after they vanished that the absurdity of it all came crashing down on him.

He had to keep his mind sharp, to question everything. Was this being done intentionally to him? Had the Humans discovered his true identity? Was his assignment here all just a ruse to test him? Was he even on Berengaria? Or in a forest? All he could remember now was trees, trees, trees, in every direction.

And those damn creatures everywhere, as well as the bothersome insects they feasted on. Loxius had started shooting them out of frustration, but he hadn't seen any strange sights since he had begun chasing them off. Could they be to blame?

The slightest possibility that they were was enough for Loxius to continue indulging in the satisfying act of shooting at the hideous little things.

Soon though, he heard voices in the trees. He stopped firing and looked around. He didn't see anything, but the voices were closer, and speaking English.

The Starfleet hevam were coming for him, he realised. With him weakened by their insidious mind games, they likely thought him easy prey, but he would not make it so simple for them.

He saw several of them emerge from the trees, armed and wearing some sort of masks. One of them spotted him.

"Look!" the Human shouted.

Loxius would not let them take him alive. He raised his phase pistol and shouted, "Llai, hevam ryak'na!" In his delirium, he had reverted to Rihannsu, his native language.

Before he could fire though, one of the Humans shot him and he dropped to the ground.

Staring up at the trees as they loomed over him, mockingly, Loxius felt his body numbing while his vision dimmed. He prepared himself for the cold embrace of death. He would return to the Elements content in the knowledge that he had revealed nothing to his enemies, but regretted that he'd never again see home.

He heard two of the Humans talking as they moved over to him.

"Why'd you stun him?" one asked.

"He was gonna shoot us," said the other. "The doctor did say they might be a little crazy."

"What was that he was shouting?"

"I dunno, probably something in Vulcan. C'mon, let's get him outta here and find the others."

Everything went black.

"You sure this is going to work?" Thorpe asked as he tied the thin rope around his belt, lashing himself to McQueen.

"This will keep us all from wandering off," said McQueen. All thirteen of them had lashed themselves together in a line using the rope that the MACOs carried as standard equipment. Thorpe was in the lead, while Kostopoulos was at the other end of the chain.

"And we'll have to help each other to stay focused," McQueen added. "The stimulants we took from the med-kits should help us concentrate for a while, but we'll probably still see hallucinations."

"Hear that, everyone?" Thorpe called out to the others. "We can get through this if we just stick together. Keep your buddy facing forward. It might help to call out what you see too. These weepers can be pretty convincing, until you think about it out loud."

With that, Thorpe faced the direction which everyone had agreed that the search party had come from. "Let's move out!" He began slowly walking, taking it easy so that nobody tripped over anybody else. The majority of their impromptu conga were MACOs, accustomed to marching in unison, but the Starfleet officers may take some time to adjust.

It wasn't long before he saw a tempting sight. It was a certain triple-breasted diner owner from the base, whom Thorpe had playfully been pursuing for weeks now, enticing him to follow her off their path.

McQueen noticed that he had slowed. "Sir? What do you see?"

As per his own instructions, Thorpe described the sight of a seductive woman, although he left out details such as her identity and unique description. Just as he predicted, talking about it forced a concentration that caused the believability of the illusion to vanish, closely followed by the illusion itself.

They continued on like this for some time, frequently seeing things that would attempt to draw them off-course. Some saw attractive men, women, or a mix of both offering physical pleasures; some saw an array of tantalising foods; some saw more complex propositions such as wealth, power, or material possessions. One MACO private was even very candid in describing an odd combination of several young ladies bathing in gelatin while referring to him as the President of Earth; most likely not realising how much he was revealing about himself in the process.

Kostopoulos was the only one in the line who did not mention seeing anything.

One sight made Thorpe stop in his tracks though. Ahead of him, a huge Terran tarantula blocked the path. He had seen such creatures in pictures as a boy, where he had erroneously imagined them to be gigantic. The one before him now did not disappoint - it was as big as a hovercar and hissing angrily while its mandibles and hairy legs twitched.

The stimulants must have been wearing off, as Thorpe felt himself growing terrified, and the gasps behind him meant that the others were probably experiencing similar horrors.

"Whatever you're all seeing, it's not there!" Kostopoulos shouted from the rear. "It just means we're nearly out! Close your eyes and keep walking!"

Thorpe took her advice, clamping his eyes shut. He could still hear the grotesque hissing of the tarantula, but he pushed himself forward nonetheless, dragging the others with him.

He kept his eyes closed for a while, until he felt a cool breeze on his face. Opening them again, he found that the trees were parting to show the open sky and endless countryside.

Grinning, he half-turned. "Guys, we're almost out."

A few cheers went down the chain as everyone opened their eyes as well. Thorpe continued onward, a bit quicker now.

"Once we're clear," he was saying, "we'll contact the base and form a plan to find the oth-"

He cut himself short when emerging from the forest to find three shuttlepods and multiple personnel from the starbase, including those from the original survey team, gathered together on the verdant plain.

Lieutenant Sylor approached him, looking a little off from his usual Vulcan rigidity. His already gaunt face was almost hollowed-out, his bowl-cut hair was ever so slightly out of place, and his normally pristine grey Defence Force uniform was rumpled and dirty.

"Captain," said Sylor. "It is… agreeable to see you all."

"What…?" Thorpe started to ask, then he just looked at Sylor, confused.

"Evidently, we were all under the influence of an airborne hallucinogen secreted by the plantlife," said Sylor.

"That's what we figured," said McQueen, sounding slightly disappointed that someone else had beaten her to the revelation. "Like freshly-cut grass."

Sylor raised an eyebrow. "Quite." He turned back to Thorpe. "Commodore North sent another search party for us, equipped with oxygen masks to prevent them from succumbing to the effects of this hallucinogen. They had almost recovered all of us. Your group were the only ones remaining missing, but you have now saved the second search party the effort of locating you."

"Glad to be of service," said Thorpe, chuckling.

Some medics came over to check them out, and Thorpe insisted the others go before him. He started gathering up the rope, untying everyone, when he got to the end.

"I noticed you didn't mention seeing anything in the forest, Colonel," he said to Kostopoulos.

A small smirk crept up her face. "I already believe in something I can't see but is there, so I guess I couldn't be tempted by something I could see that wasn't there."

Thorpe returned her smirk. "Well, you can thank your something-you-can't-see from me. I'm just grateful we all got out safe."

"Not bad for your first excursion mission though," said Kostopoulos.

Thorpe sighed. "I suppose it could have been worse."

"When compared to some of mine; definitely."

"That's an unfair comparison, Colonel. After all, you know what they say: The grass is always greener on the other side."

Kostopoulos gave him a weary look.