"Mushroom Blue"
requested by FBF
by feldman
They came here for sabotage. Instead he's doodling instructions for destruction on any surface that comes to hand. The equations have a gravity well, and his orbit is deteriorating.
Concepts unravel out of him in ribbons. Ink blooms on his skin like a stain that keeps coming back. No matter how hard he scrubs, skin pink and raw in patches underneath the leather, no matter how scrupulous he is about keeping his mouth shut and his gloves on.
On the last night aboard, he comes back from a sauna break to find the datapads and styli in the lab have all been replaced by pads and scroll paper and twice as many ink pens.
If he had time, Scorpius wouldn't even have to milk him for the tech, simply put out enough buckets to catch the equations falling off of him like rain.
The next afternoon, he fries a co-worker in the Aurora Chair for knowing a fraction of what he's got scrawled on the back of his hand. More than one thing prevents him from asking Co-Kura to return the favor--but more than one thing tempts him. There's fear on both sides.
He never really decides to evacuate the ship. He lingers, compelled by the simplicity of giving the universe a clean slate.