“The rings of Saturn are known for their peace and quiet. It is a place where nothing of interest happens, and everyone goes about their lives in harmony. Interest level: Low.”

They scoffed under their breath. “Interest level: Low.”

An ear twitched as they looked out the window of the spaceship. “You poor Saturnians. The balance and peace of your planet will soon be torn apart.”

They were silent for a moment before saying to themself again, “The Bearer should have emerged by now. I must hurry.”

They looked around the room they stood in and murmured, “Goodbye, View-Monster. You have served me well.”

They jumped out of the hatch and hovered to the ground.

Ralivil opened up his hyberpod and clambered out. Just another usual morning for this green Mook. He gave his cave a quick gloss over to check if anything had been stolen or damaged during the night. He doubted it, since nothing exciting ever happened to the B Ring, but it never hurt to check. He then stretched his arms out as he yawned.

Ralivil was kind of odd for a Mook – he didn’t have any PSI. Other Mooks had teased him about it for years, but he never found a problem with not having PSI himself. He didn’t feel inadequate in any way – in fact, he felt good about having no PSI. No doctor his parents took him to could figure out why he didn’t have any PSI, but did Ralivil care? No. It felt freeing, not conforming to society’s standards of what a Mook should be like.

Which was exactly why he started worrying when he noticed his body felt… off. It felt tenser. Tenser in a way he couldn’t put into words. He shook about his tentacles in a fruitless attempt to shake off the weird feeling. It lingered.

‘Ralivil.’

Ralivil’s eyes widened. “Who said that?!”

‘On your back.’

Ralivil twisted his eyestalks to look on his back, like the strange voice from nowhere said. And right there, just under his right tentacle, was an even stranger tattoo. It was of another Mook, inked in blue, holding an apple inked in yellow. It was drawn in a strangely archaic way, like the pictures you would find on the walls of ruins.

Ralivil stared wide-eyed at the tattoo for a few long moments before muttering, “How the hell did that get there…?”

He managed to pry his eyes away from it and move his shoulder a little. He slid up to the entrance of his cave and looked around nervously. No one was around.

‘Good. Hopefully I can get to the Doc without anyone seeing me, or this weird tattoo of mine-‘

Ralivil noticed that his left tentacle felt suspiciously cold. He looked down to see that his right tentacle, which had been wrapped around the left, had coated the latter in a thin layer of ice.

‘Oh dear stars.’

He knew what this was. This was PK Freeze. On his tentacle. He wasn’t sure what level, he hoped that it was Alpha, but he didn’t really care in the moment. He had PSI now. He had PSI now. This wasn’t normal. Not at all. First the tattoo, then the PSI – whatever the connection was, he had to get to Doctor Saturn – stat.

Ralivil darted out of his cave and ran into Satralia. The Mr. Saturn who ran the store nearby his cave peeked out the door to see what had gotten the Mook into such a rush. Ralivil didn’t notice, and thank goodness he didn’t.

Satralia was… eerily empty. There wasn’t a Mr. Saturn in sight. There was usually at least one up by now – Ralivil had slept in, even. The fact that not even the mayor was up concerned him. He hoped the Doctor was still around. If his memory served, he never really went out much anyway. He probably lived in the hospital, now that he thought about it.

Ralivil ran up to the hospital door and knocked thrice on it. There was no reply. No sound. Usually Doctor Saturn would open the door with telepathy, if he hopped up to it from in his trash can or not. But there was no sound from inside. Not the single clang of a trash can hitting the floor.

From behind him, someone told him, “Hey, dude, if you’re lookin’ for the Doc, you’re outta luck.”

Ralivil looked over his shoulder to see a hot pink UFO hovering not to far away. Ralivil quickly turned around and pressed his back to the door.

“Uh… hey,” he awkwardly greeted.

“Yo,” the pink UFO replied. “As I was sayin’ ‘bout the Doc, he went down to Sataene to see if he could do anything about the Sicko epidemic happenin’ down there. If you were wonderin’.”

Ralivil stood silent and slack jawed for a moment, before closing his mouth and nodding. He then glanced to the side before asking, “…What’s the Sicko epidemic.”

“You don’t know-“ The pink UFO groaned, then explained, “Look, anyone who’s anyone should know about the Sicko epidemic. It hit Sataene not that long ago. It’s been turnin’ the Mr. Saturn’s a real nasty green, and super agro to boot. No one’s really sure where it came from – some think it was from the fungus that was infestin’ Old Sataene, but everyone knows two things: there ain’t a cure for it right now, and that pathetic mayor down there sure ain’t doin’ anything to help.”

The pink UFO pointed to a nearby house with a thumb on a metal hand that extended from under it. “The other Mr. Saturns round here are scared of gettin’ the disease themselves, so they’ve locked themselves into their houses. It was the Colonel’s idea.”

“I… see,” Ralivil replied. “So, uh… I’m Ralivil. What’s your name?”

“Name’s Boson! Nice to meetcha, dog!” the pink UFO, Boson, said. “You musta had a crazy night last night, huh? I mean, that tat is straight wild.”

Ralivil felt his face heat up. “You- Uh- You saw it?”

“It was kinda hard to miss. How many drinks did ya have to get the crazy idea to get the thing?”

“I- …I dunno. I’m sure I didn’t go outside of my cave last night, and I don’t have any alcohol there, either, so…”

“A friend coulda brought it over. You got any friends?”

“No…”

Boson flew up to Ralivil’s face and told him, “Then I’m gonna be your friend! There’s no stoppin’ me!”

Ralivil stared at Boson for a couple of moments before managing to get out, “…Okay…”

“I don’t usually make friends with Mooks, but you seem cool,” Boson told him.

‘And that’s supposed to make me feel better how?’ Ralivil thought.

“Now! Let’s get rollin’!” Boson shouted, pointing a finger in the air.

“Uh… Where are we going…?” Ralivil asked.

Boson looked back down at Ralivil and murmured, “Well you did wanna go see the Doc, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well that’s where we’re goin’!”

Ralivil nodded with understanding.

Boson flew ahead and called out to Ralivil, “C’mon!”

Ralivil tentatively followed, needing to jog to catch up to Boson.