Darker Hallucinogen

Year 3109, other side of the universe.

Planet Neduelbo

A young man is crouched down, digging atop a canyon with a small tool. Footsteps crunching behind him can be heard as the wind rages around him. “Gunnar, you do know a storm is coming, right?” A young woman asks him. Gunnar stops digging and sighs, rolling his neck. “I found another one… It’s a good-sized one…” He says, holding what appears to be an ore. The woman takes it, weighing it in her hand. She inspects it further and sighs, looking at the horizon ahead. “You know… Sometimes I really do wish we weren’t born here…” Gunnar rests his forearm on his knee as he kneels. He stays silent for a moment as rain finally begins to pour down. Then he gets up as it soaks him. The woman pulls out a device that forms an umbrella-like shield, hovering over both her and the man. They then begin to leave. As they walk, Gunnar suddenly stops. The woman, not knowing, continues walking on. He looks up to the sky, as raindrops pelt his eyelashes. He looks at the planet he’s come to loathe so much, glowing through a gap in the gray clouds…

Planet Deitolu

Delya takes a commercial shuttle ship to work, during the flight she reads an electronic book. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees that she’s passing the A0 district, and right behind in the sky sits the planet she’s only heard and read about. She’s seen this planet almost pretty much everyday from afar. Read about its history with Deitolu. Yet, it’s still so mysterious to her. She just knows she and everyone else have been taught to stay away from it. That it’s forbidden to associate with anyone or thing from the planet. But this only made her curiosity even more endless. She continues to watch the planet as she passes by…

Friday Night

Delya ends her day with a nice bath. As she gets out and wraps her towel around her, the bathtub automatically drains and cleans itself. She then heads to her room. Looking at her outfit she’s going to wear, she prepares herself for a night out. Minutes later she gets dressed, puts on her makeup and styles her hair. Once she’s finished, she looks herself over in the mirror one last time before heading out. “Delya… You can enjoy yourself tonight… You can.” She glances down, breathes deep, and goes to leave. Club music blares while people chatter. As the night goes on, Delya finds herself sitting and watching the party. A few guys came over to sit and chat, but after a few minutes she realized they were only looking for one-night stands. She watches everyone enjoy themselves. After a while, she sighs and rolls her eyes. “What am I doing?...” Delya uncrosses her legs to get up and leave. She carefully makes her way through the crowd and heads outside. Once she’s outside, she realizes how cold it is and puts her jacket on. Wrapping her arms around herself, she walks to her aerial vehicle…

‘Sweet Sue – Just You’ by Tommy Dorsey plays in the background as two men sit talking. “…You’ve actually been to Deitolu?” Gunnar asks. “Mhm… More than once.” The man replies, cigarette between his lips as he fixes something. “And no one didn’t notice you weren’t Deitoluian?” Gunnar asks. “Nope.” The other man replies. Sitting back on the couch, Gunnar looks at the ceiling and sighs. “Damn… If only I could go there and bring back some things… Annora and I could make a good bit of sesturns. That is, if I came back without getting caught or whatever.” He says. The second man chuckles as he continues fixing on what appears to be a large board. Music on a rare old vintage jukebox continues playing in the background. Gunnar quickly raises his head and looks back at the other man. “But wait… How didn’t anyone recognize that you’re from Neduelbo?” He asks. The man stops working and looks up at him thinking, a slight smile on his lips. He then reaches over and pulls a pen from out of a drawer. “With this…” The other man says throwing the pen to the Gunnar, and he catches it. “What is this?” He asks. The other man smiles. “Nothing if not a pen, Gunnar…” The other man replies sarcastically. “So this pen is what kept you from being caught over there?” Gunnar scoffs. “Yep.” The man answers. “How in the hell did it do that?” Gunnar continues his interrogation. The man puts the board on the floor beside him and stands up. Then walks over to Gunnar. He takes the pen from him and looks at it. “It has injectable capsules that have sustainable DNA of Deitoluians… Once injected, the Deitoluian DNA will easily conceal your own. But the capsules effect only last up to 8 hours. If you try to inject another capsule immediately after 8 hours are up, you could overdose. Gunnar looks at the pen In awe. “So… how long would you have to wait to use another capsule?” Gunnar inquires. The man walks back to put the pen back in the drawer. “At least a good 25 hours… If the person is even one second earlier, they could still overdose. It’s best to wait at most a full 30 hours.” The man says, then picks up the board from the floor and starts to walk into a backroom. “Alright kid, your roamer board should be fixed in about 10 more minutes… I’m gonna finish it in the back.” The man says. Gunnar nods and the man leaves. Once he’s gone, Gunnar looks at the drawer the pen was placed in…