Not all alien life is pleasant; most worlds discovered closer to the galactic core are
home to harsh environments and some of the more aggressive and hardy life forms.
On the planet Sath three, orbiting a bright A-type star on the Scutum-Centaurus arm, the
planetary conditions are hot and very dry, and radiation levels are at the extreme edge
tolerable by humans in moderate environmental protection suits.
Still, there are frequent storms of cosmic radiation, commonplace that close to the galactic
core bars, quite devastating to organic life as they can include gamma-ray bursts strong
enough to sterilise everything on the surface of a planet instantly.
Sath three was surveyed for minerals by remote drones.
The corporate involved hadn't bothered with anything other than a cursory check on the
atmosphere spectrum to see if there was any sign of an ecosystem, so when the industrial
starship 'Anant Udaan Shakti' arrived to establish a manufacturing base in orbit and sent down
mining survey teams ahead of their costly planetary processing robots, they were not
expecting to encounter hostile alien life forms, resulting in quite a severe life loss
industrial exploration incident that has become a well-known anecdote.
On recovery of the bodies and survey craft, a sample of the native life form was brought
back to the starship for study, which was another quite spectacular failure in protocols,
resulting in the loss of the ship and over twenty-three thousand people on board; however,
the ship did make it out of the system and later met back up with the fleet, where the
crew were rescued and the ship was simply recycled by a large scale construction facility.
Such a situation was impossible to keep quiet.
The corporation faced crippling legal fallout, government sanctions, public condemnation
and total collapse of internal control, with all assets eventually acquired by other corporates
over the next decade.
Only one form of complex life survives on Sath Three, the organism is called a Scuttlethorn,
it's biology appears to emulate that of a plant, but it has the same mobility and metabolic
speed as an insect.
The long, irregular trunk of the Scuttlethorn is composed of a central cluster of tubes
that extend through it's whole length, these can be used for respiration, digestion and
reproduction as needed, the cell networks that are arranged as layers around these central
tubes have qualities similar to starfish and the sensory and neural organs are located
in the same extended legs which branch out from the trunk in segments that give it an
appearance and motion a lot like a centipede.
It has no head or tail, and each segment of the body can function well enough on it's
own if the organism happens to be cut in half or a section is removed some other way, as
there is no central nervous system, each leg is a brain, the segments blend their neural
systems to cooperate, and different Scuttlethorns can meld their bodies together freely, there
is no tissue rejection among the species, however, there is diversity and the internal
tubes can be modified to become reproductive organs, spawning thousands of offspring if
any Scuttlethorn encounters a sufficiently rich deposit of water.
They are organisms with organelles capable of photosynthesis and well adapted to arid
conditions, able to conserve water like a succulent plant or cactus.
They are named after how they move and are covered in poison-loaded, hollow thorns that
can suck the moisture out of anything they penetrate.
In their native habitat, the Scuttlethorns hunt one another in arid conditions but become
passive and cooperative when conditions are more favourable.
When humans first encountered them, the Scuttlethorns immediately attacked, using the cover of a
dust storm and the velocity of high-speed winds to launch themselves at the humans,
their thorns quickly punching straight through the environmental protection suits and feeding
on the moisture-rich people inside.
The thorns are shockingly dangerous; The venom's toxins can cause extreme pain, paralysis,
delirium, shock, cardiac arrest and even death within minutes.
Each thorn has enough poison to kill 60 adults; the victims also tend to dig under the surface
or wedge themselves into a crevice to stop the pain from severe muscle spasms and cramping
as the paralysis sets in.
Medical treatment is possible where venom is restricted to an extremity, but the victim
usually has so many injection sites that death is swift and gruesome.
Not only did the sample creature brought back to the ship survive the transition out of
its native atmosphere and exposure to lethal amounts of radiation, its metabolic speed
rapidly increased when exposed to the moisture-rich environment the humans favoured.
It's aggressive feeding habits altered to a reproductive behaviour pattern, which was
no less lethal to any of the crew the Skuttlethorns encountered once they broke free of the biology
station's secure laboratory and got into the organic and atmospheric recycling systems
throughout the ship.
The only survivors left had to isolate themselves in exploration shuttled tethered to the inside
of the ship's ore plants as they engaged the star drive.
They did manage to survive the ordeal, proving some risky theories about shielding limits
for star drive systems correct; however, they all suffered significant mental trauma from
the experience, with communications officer Aruni Gupta writing an award-winning biographical
account of the event titled "Ajnaat devtaon ke baag mein atikraman".
Sath three is off limits unless strict protocols are adhered to, and an automated policing
unit is permanently assigned to the region to ensure the Scuttlethorn organisms do not
propagate to other worlds.
Anyone found with Scuttlethorns or any part of one in any system outside of the Sath system
will face quite severe sanctions and, thanks to how well-known the Sath three disaster
became; they will suffer even more severe public scrutiny and vilification across all
social networks either frequented, controlled or interested in human culture.
End of File.