For the thousandth time, Sung-min cursed the shipyard that had constructed the Verdant Horizons. Interstellar cargo ships were supposed to be among the most over-engineered and robust spacecraft in all of human spaceflight, but based on what Sung-min had seen so far this trip, the VH was the exception to the rule. Power irregularities and intermittent failures of key systems had been plaguing the ship for nearly a year, and despite nearly constant work by the crew and even by technicians in port, the problems seemed to be multiplying, not decreasing.

The ongoing problems had severely damaged crew morale. Although he had been at ISCorps for more than a decade, Sung-min was relatively new to the VH. He had been transferred over by corporate after half of the prior maintenance workers had demanded transfers off the ship. Sung-min had been thinking about requesting a transfer off of the VH, too, but he wasn't sure it would even help: when he was talking with crew from other ISCorps cargo vessels in port, they were talking about the "VH Curse." To their horror, many of the mysterious problems seen on VH had begun to crop up on the ships to which those crew had transferred. The leadership at ISCorps had become so concerned about the issues on VH that they had sent a crack diagnostic team and a hotshot vice president onto VH a couple days ago. As one of the most senior remaining maintenance workers left on the VH, Sung-min was scheduled to meet with the vice president one-on-one in the morning to give his thoughts on what could be causing the problem.

The problem was, Sung-min had absolutely no idea what the problem was. He had wracked his brain and studied the logs and could not figure out the pattern. For example, when Sung-min checked the logs concerning the power fault he was on his way to repair, he saw that it had been repaired dozens of times by every worker on his team...including Sung-min. Each time the repair was tested and logged as 100% functional--only to fail again a random time later.

As he entered the remote corridor where the problematic power conduit was located, Sung-min realized that he couldn't actually remember the details of his last repair. As he stood silently staring at the corridor, he drew a complete blank, which was unlike him: But although the details were eluding him, he could clearly remember the feeling of deep satisfaction he'd had once the problem had been fixed. Sung-min tried to relax his mind... he knew that if he had been able to solve the problem before, he shouldn't be so stressed and should just calm down and focus and the answer would come to him. Strangely, as his breathing slowed and he relaxed, he could clearly remember this calm, centered feeling. It felt like he was lying in bed under his favorite soft, fuzzy comforter, and he instantly felt completely at ease and unworried.

As Sung-min stared blankly down the corridor, part of his mind processed that a huge, black, spindly-legged creature was slowly lowering itself from the ductwork. Abstractly, he felt like the appearance of the alien creature should worry him, but instead he felt a familiar warm feeling of recognition. As the creature's hypnotic bioluminescence and neural tendrils took hold of his mind and made the necessary repairs to his thoughts, he was allowed to remember how important it was for the maintenance crew members to regularly visit this corridor for their repairs and to receive the precious offspring of the creatures.

Sung-min beamed with satisfaction when the alien wordlessly communicated that the larva that had been implanted in him during an earlier visit was healthy and growing larger every day. Soon he would request a transfer to another ship, where he would help ensure more crew members would experience the wonderful control of the alien masters. Sung-min felt immense pride at being entrusted with such a great honor by his master, but knew that his waking mind could never be trusted to recognize his destiny... at least not until all threats to the aliens had been subdued. As his true thoughts lingered happily on imagining that wonderful day and his minor part in achieving it, they began slowly receding into the shadows of his mind, allowing the sleeping parts of his mind to surface once again.

Sung-min was startled as the data pad he'd been holding clattered onto the floor. What had he been doing? Right, repairing the power fault. As he picked up the pad, he felt deep satisfaction that the problem had been fixed. But as he noted the repair in the maintenance log, it occurred to him that he should make sure to show the problem to the VP from corporate. Once the VP and his team fully understood the nature of the problem the Verdant Horizons had been facing, they could help spread the solution throughout the organization... and maybe even beyond!