Think Yourself to Death

Johnny Mayhem is a legend who literally walks into other people’s skin, swapping bodies as casually as changing clothes. In this tale he steps onto the sweltering streets of Ophiuchus IX wearing the dignified form of an elderly Sirian gentleman, a stark contrast to the native loin‑cloth garb that surrounds him. The heat drives him into the only air‑conditioned building for a brief respite, where he soon meets Kovandaswamy, the Galactic Observer tasked with monitoring the planet’s isolation.

Kovandaswamy explains that Ophiuchus IX is one of the “Forgotten Worlds,” colonies cut off from the rest of the galaxy for centuries. The Galactic League has sent Mayhem to investigate a disturbing pattern: almost every outsider who ventures among the Ophiuchans ends up taking their own life. The locals’ mystic traditions—mass meditations, trance‑bound holy men, a shared World Spirit—appear to be at the heart of the mystery, and Mayhem must navigate cultural bafflement and his own dwindling lifespan to uncover what lies beneath.