Mind Worms

A human envoy travels outward to establish formal contact with Venus, while political ceremonies on Earth attempt to steady public nerves. Shipboard personnel begin to suffer bizarre mental breakdowns attributed to insidious telepathic entities that exploit fear and inferiority, sometimes with fatal results. The narrative alternates between procedural reassurance from distant leaders and the envoy's mounting private terror, examining how psychological vulnerability and cultural anxieties can undermine first contact and make humans susceptible to alien influence.