text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  That is, until you take another step and something crunches under your boot. And your next step, and the next.
  
  "Do you hear that?" you ask, but when you turn around Commander Andrade is not there. You can make out her silhouette about 100 meters back.
  
  "This water is exactly what we needed!" she shouts. "It feels so good. Starman, I don't know how you could pass right by this pool without wanting to jump right in!"
  
  You have no idea what she's talking about. This is a desert; there is no pool of water.
  
  But now as you examine the space between where you stand and Andrade stopped, you can see in the moonlight that the ground seems alive. Hundreds--no, thousands--of small black creatures the size of your thumb are on the move, heading in the commander's direction.
  
  "Ohh-hoh-hoh-ohh, this feels so good!" she shouts again, as if she were swimming. You run back toward her, stomping on the creatures with every step. The commander is kneeling on the ground, her arms and hands acting as though she were splashing water over her body, even though the spot where she stopped is as dry and barren as anyplace else.
  
  You can see that the creatures are starting to latch onto her exposed skin, with more on the way.
  
  > If you carry Andrade up to a nearby rock and try to brush the bugs away, turn to page 124.
  Not fully understanding what is happening, but realizing there is no time to spare, you pick the commander up and carry her in your arms. Running all the way back to the crash site is not going to happen, but you can make out some nearby rocks at the foot of a long ridgeline. Maybe--just maybe--you can escape the creatures there, out of the desert gravel.
  
  "See, didn't I tell you the water is divine?" Commander Andrade says. You hoist her onto a flat-topped rock over a meter off the ground, then jump up yourself.
  
  The creatures look like a cross between a beetle and a crab, with a large set of pincers where you'd expect the mouth to be. The biggest is about the size of your thumb, and there are about a dozen that you can see with a firm grip on the commander's skin, including her face, neck, and arms. You try flicking them away, but their grip is too strong.
  
  You rifle through the commander's rucksack for something that might be useful in scraping them off, and you find the handlight. At least with a light you will be able to see what you're doing. But when you turn it on, something strange happens: the creatures react as if in pain, and they retreat into the shadows.
  
  They're repulsed by light! So you use the handlight like a tool, driving the beetle-crabs off the commander's body, where you squash them on the rock with your boot.
  
  > Page 104
  You do, in fact, appear to be safe on top of this rock; even without the handlight the beetle-crabs are clearly unable to climb up to your position. They have you surrounded though, leaving you nowhere to go.
  
  The commander becomes quiet after you have rid her of the creatures, but she is clearly not well. For the remaining few hours of darkness she acts like someone sleeping through a nightmare, agitated by the disturbing imagery in her mind. You are exhausted yourself by the ordeal, but her restlessness prevents you from sleeping very much at all. You take her rucksack, and especially the plasgun, for safe keeping.
  
  By dawn her situation becomes worse. You awake to find her sitting on the edge of the rock, her back to you.
  
  "Where is the water?" she growls.
  
  "Those little creatures were injecting you with--" you start to explain, but she is consumed with an unexplicable rage.
  
  "I. WAS. HAPPY!" she shouts. "But now the pool is gone--ALL GONE!"
  
  "It was never there!" you protest, but there is no reasoning with her. She lunges toward you and knocks you off the rock. You get up before she can strike again. Andrade seems murderous, as if the toxins in her body have moved into a deadly new phase. She picks up a loose chunk of rock, and seems ready to lunge at you once again.
  
  > If you stun Commander Andrade with the plasgun, turn to page 76.
  There is only time to react on impulse. You reach for the plasgun and switch it to one of the lower settings, and then fire it at the commander when she is not much more than a meter away. She collapses to the ground, and when you see that she is merely stunned--knocked out but still breathing--you finally allow yourself a deep breath.
  
  This is far and away the most desperate moment of your life. A few hours ago you miraculously survived a harrowing crash, but now you're alone in a strange desert with a commanding officer who, due to an alien influence, just tried to kill you.
  
  In the morning light, the beetle-crabs have all scurried away; there is no sign of them anywhere. Staying here is not an option--you know that much--but where can you go? What can you do? You spot a nook in the rock ridge nearby, so while you're thinking you pick Andrade up over your shoulders and set her down in what you're sure will be a shady alcove. Carrying her any farther than this is out of the question. But really, what are your options?
  
  > Page 113
  The idea of leaving Commander Andrade here alone is indefensible. At the moment she seems finally at peace, sitting with her back to the rock wall deep with the shady alcove. Within a few minutes, maybe longer, she will wake up from the effects of the stun blast, and either she will be back to her old self, or she will still be under the effect of the alien neurotoxins. Either way, the only good option you see before you is to wait with her and see what happens.
  
  In the meantime you are starving and thirsty, so you reach into your rucksack and devour one of the NutriRations and guzzle the contents of one of the water bottles. You could easily gorge yourself on the remaining supplies, but you know these have to last for both of you. So before you succumb to temptation, you place Andrade's rucksack beside her--with everything except the plasgun.
  
  Two hours go by, during which time the Girian sun rises over the distant mountains and climbs high into the dust-filled sky. You watch from a safe distance as the commander begins to stir once more, hoping that the stun blast has helped to clear her mind--but keeping the plasgun handy in case it hasn't. When her eyes flicker open, she seems disoriented at first, seeing only the rock that partially surrounds her. Then her eyes fix on you, and you recognize that the rage has hardly abated.
  
  > Page 85
  Once again she charges at you, and in your moment of hesitation she pins you to the ground and grabs the plasgun. When she stands up--the plasgun now pointed at you while she blocks the entrance to the rock alcove--you realize that you're only remaining option is to attempt to reason with a madwoman.
  
  You sit up, but you don't dare try and stand, as that might only provoke her. It's better to appear submissive. "Commander Andrade, it's me!" you plead. "We need to reach the colony site and try to send out a distress signal!"
  
  She does not respond, but merely glowers at you over the plasgun.
  
  "Commander, please, this isn't really you!"
  
  But she remains unimpressed. The alcove briefly flashes as she fires the gun, and you slump backward, your chest blackened by the plasma beam.