We Contain Multitudes — Part Four
By Geoff Holder
The consensus among the scientists of both the Orbiter and at Control was that this unknown radiation had probably altered the genome of the microbiota protists and, somehow, plant DNA had evolved.
What were the consequences? No one knew.
Do more tests, said Control.
So we did more tests. The eight-week limit on the quarantine period was pushed back. And again. And again.
It was the medical doctors who came up with the goods. The crew were putting on weight. Their legs, arms and shoulders were getting bigger. Nothing dramatic, just a small increase, but an increase nevertheless, day by day. Also their eyebrows and head and body hair were regrowing at a faster rate than expected. The speculation was all this was somehow linked to the change in gut flora, however the mechanism remained elusive. Around this time I began visiting Douglas Banda on a daily basis. I’d decided I needed a primary subject for my study, and he would be it. His physical qualities had of course nothing to do with my choice.
So I was the one who first noticed the behavioural changes. The Captain started to become more introspective, drifting off into a state similar to daydreaming, or even a mild trance. Initially, I considered this a natural response to the boredom of imposed sedentarism.
But.
The other crew were doing the same. They lived in individual sealed cabins, a precaution set in place from the very beginning to prevent any potential cross-contamination. Although we could set up video links between them if requested, they had no direct means to see or communicate with each other.
Yet they were all falling into their stasis state at the same time.
I wrote a report, putting forward several hypotheses to explain the phenomenon. One of those hypotheses suggested the crew were communing with each other, at a distance, without using conventional means.
Nonsense, said my colleagues, flim-flam, charlatanry. Control agreed.
So I set up brain scans. When the Captain went into his trance, Broca’s area, a part of the left hemisphere associated with speech, lit up. As it did with all the other crew members, at the same time.
Holy crap, said my colleagues. Control agreed.
The quarantine period was pushed back again. Do more tests, they said.
Then came the day when a physiologist ran screaming from one of the cabins, and we discovered Engineer Zappone Lorde had green suckers on the ends of his fingers.
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Geoff Holder is the author of more than 30 non-fiction books on the strange and the supernatural, including Zombies From History, Poltergeist Over Scotland and Scottish Bodysnatchers. His fantasy, sci-fi, horror and mystery fiction has appeared in over a dozen anthologies and magazines. He is also a produced genre screenwriter, a judge for the British Fantasy Awards, and a frequent public speaker on, perhaps not surprisingly, the strange and the supernatural.
Copyright © 2026 Geoff Dupuy-Holder