No Cure For The Raharu Blues

There are all kinds of drugs these days. Not just stuff to get you high. There are drugs that make you happy, drugs that make you crazy, drugs that make you confident. There are drugs that make you attractive, and drugs that make you ugly, and even drugs that make you like different kinds of people. Stuff that can make you be ten times the person you are.

But there's always a price to pay, always a catch.

My name is Kale, and I'm about to learn the cost of Raharu. A drug that just may save my life, and end the lives of others.

Chapter 1: Ridin High

When I came into the station I just realized it was gonna be one of those days. So I popped a little blue gel capsule in my mouth and swallowed it while no one was looking. Not that it mattered, half the station was probably on something right at the moment. And chances were that I sold it to them. The chief knew, but he put up with it because his officers generally worked better high. After all, you would have to be a little lit just to do the paper work and not vomit from boredom.

The little blue pill took affect just as I hit my office door. A sense of ease swept over me like a cool blanket, as all those higher brain functions that get in the way of the bureaucracy shut down. This is teratrax, AKA: happy Robot. It's a relaxant they took off the market due to its narcotic effects. But this drug doesn't get you very high, and it doesn't make you very euphoric. It just turns you into a happy little automaton, ready for the days labor. These days most of the people who take this stuff are the intellectuals who are forced to work at burger king. Right now I'm taking this stuff because I have to do my report on a burglary that happened last week.

Yesterday we caught up to the guy. His concerned mother was hoping they could help her poor misguided boy, so she told us he was hiding in an old, condemned, apartment building. He was right where she had said, and he had a gun, just like she said. The idiot had fired a silver .357 at me and Jones, my partner. I managed to shoot the guy in the arm, which forced him to drop his gun. I managed a prize shot like that because, before we went in, I dosed myself with a drug called Shalala. That stuff wakes you up, and slows everything down, makes you alert, and precise. It was taken off the market because of the risk of heart attack. But I never take enough to be at risk.

But that wasn't the reason I had a lot of paperwork to do. See, when we first backpedaled out of the apartment, Jones found out why the place was condemned . He stepped on a weak spot and fell through the floor. That would have been bad enough, but then the second floor gave. He stopped at the ground floor. I pale to think what would have happened if that bozo had picked a room higher than the third floor.

I handcuffed the perp and called two ambulances, then went to check on Jones. He was okay, but he'd broken a few ribs and his ankle. They both went to the hospital, leaving me to file a report. Jones was gonna write his when he felt better, but for now I was on my own.

The paperwork was easy with the drug in my system. I didn't even think about anything. I just sat there and plugged away at it like a happy little idiot. But the drug wore off around noon, and everything was starting to seem slow and plodding. Lucky for me the work was done, and I had nothing on the books until the kids trial. Then lieutenant Lee, knocked on my door.

"Hey Kale, I got an assignment just for you", that sounded bad. The lieutenant sat down in my chair, since I had vacated it to open the door. The lieutenant wasn't a native australian, but neither was I. However, the pale mid sized man was from earth. One would not guess it from my build and rich skin color, but I lived the first 23 years of my life on a space colony, before moving to Sydney. "What kind of assignment?" I asked with my usual semi stoned zeal. "Oh trust me, it's right up your alley. What with you being the stations local dealer. And before you ask, yes this is a job for narcotics. But the governor himself, asked me to put this in my top priority box. He asked me to get every asset I had on this case", I was now wondering what was in the file folder the Lieutenant was holding.

He laid the file out on my relatively uncluttered desk. "What the hell is Raharu?" I asked with honest bafflement. I have heard of a lot of drugs, and a fair number of them have odd names. But none have rolled off the tongue the way Raharu does. "I was hoping you might have an idea. But since you don't know, I want you to find out", I'm about to tell him the obvious, that this is a job for narcotics, but he stops me, "Narcotics is already working on it. But the leads and connections they have are limited. You're in with all the good dealers, you've got the connections", the lieutenant is looking at me hopefully, like I'm the answer to his promotion prayers. I'm interested in what this new drug is, but there are problems with what he's asking me."Listen Lee, these guys like me because I don't mix business and pleasure. I can't go asking them to rat out one of their own so I can get a bonus". Lee leans in close,"listen Kale, just tell them it would be in their best interests to get this stuff off the streets".

I leaned back and asked,"why would it be in their best interests? Why should they do-", Lee slid a picture out of the file and into the light. I got a good look at the woman and wondered exactly what the hell could do that to a person. Her hair was strange, different textures, in different spots. There were also tufts of hair growing in places they shouldn't be growing. Her hands were warped, and puffy. Her eyes had glazed over, and the pupils were slits. I didn't want to look at her mangled teeth. It was like a new set was trying to grow out from under the old set. Everything about her was wrong, and before I could ask why, Lee told me. "The doctors are calling it Raharu syndrome. This woman had been taking Raharu for six days before she ODed. That's what happens if you take it for a while, then overdose. Apparently, according to the victims, that's why they have Raharu syndrome. Doctors haven't figured any of it out yet, this only started three days ago, when this woman came in."

I have never seen a drug do this before. "Three days? This has all happened in three days? What the hell is this stuff? What's it supposed to do, aside from turn people into monsters." Lee looked at me, smiling. He was smiling because he had me. He knew that now, I was going to take this seriously."That's what you're going to find out".