The expedition lands on a planet that is a Havenworld, an incredible paradise. Unfortunately, several of the very, otherwise harmless, plants, act for the ship's crew the way catnip is for most cats. The plant is utterly harmless otherwise. -- Anon Guest
It was a beautiful Havenworld. Nothing living there was even cusp-cogniscent, so it was relatively young[1]. The plantlife was short and squishy and easy to both harvest and consume. And, according to the last transmission, smelled real good.
The rest of the survey team's transmissions were incoherent babble. The video feeds weren't much help. Weird angles, close shots of the local flora, or views of the beautifully shapely clouds.
The overseer ship sent down a probe to see what happened to the survey team. And found them blitzed out of their fluffy little minds.
The local plant life had an interesting capability of exuding seratonin, dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin at varying levels whenever they were touched.
Someone was hugging a tree. Someone was giggling at nothing. Someone was singing and they really shouldn't be doing that. One of them was peacefully asleep. One was rubbing themself against something spongy that looked vaguely like a shrub.
Captain Dreez had previously believed that Humans were invulnerable. This was a Havenworld! How could it defeat the most powerful dreadnaught species known to the Alliance?
Ze had to send drones to drag the survey team into the exploratory lander, and then bring them back to the ship by remote. The good news were that they were "coming down" by then.
"What the flakk?"
"Put us back down there, that was dope!"
"Dope is exactly what concerns me," said Captain Dreez. "You were incapacitated."
"We were in heaven," slurred one of the Humans.
"You may have been headed there, against the benefit and safety of the crew. You weren't doing any self care."
"We might'a gunna," mumbled another Human.
Perhaps they might realise what danger they were in when they completely sobered up.
[1] Havenworlders take a lot longer to get to the 'intelligent life' stage of things.
[Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash]
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