It was the year 3015. Through new technological advancements in the field of quantum physics, humanity had discovered cutting-edge innovations in ways of traveling through space. Earth had undergone dramatic changes. The climate was at such a state that had not been seen on the planet since the age of the dinosaurs. The only difference being the dramatically depleted resources of fresh water, arable land and various mineral resources necessary for the advancement of human civilization's ever improving technologies. Greed and necessity both propelled Earth's top scientists to come up with ways to gather resources from other planets in the universe and establish colonies on various ones that were deemed suitable to habitation by human civilization. No fully suitable to life planet to that date had yet to be known or discovered to have any sentient beings… until the discovery of one particular planet. The most recent find was a planet of lush jungles and dense swampland. Beyond the tangle of vines and muddy waters lay vast oceans of only mildly salty water, which covered the planet. On this world, a type of creature discovered was suspected to be at least semi-sentient. The creature had been observed to be efficient in the use of tools through manipulation of several limbs resembling those of an octopus. The number of limbs appeared to vary from creature to creature. It inhabited both land and sea, but breathed air like an Earth creature. It appeared to be omnivorous and consumed both meat and vegetable matter. It had even been seen ingesting various types of sediment. They appeared to have some sort of language involving motion of multiple limbs and a guttural sound emitted from what look like gills along the side of its body. The entirety of the creature resembled something from out of ancient mythology of various ancient human cultures. For this reason, one scientist jokingly dubbed the creature a Cthulhu. The name stuck.

Two years into the discovery of the planet of the Cthulhu, human scientists have helped to establish a small colony consisting of almost entirely military personnel, scientists and their families. About a year after that, soldiers exploring the jungles to the north of the encampment were able to capture one of these Cthulhu alive and take it into the lab. There the scientists were not only able to discover many things about the Cthulhu, but inadvertently discovered something about the human species as well. Some humans are capable of telepathy. Or at least, some humans are able of communicating telepathically with these creatures. For some reason however, this phenomenon exhibited only among women. A few female scientists working for the lab that was holding the creature, claimed to be able to "hear" thoughts and sense emotions emitting from the captured Cthulhu. Not all the female scientists however, were able to communicate and of those who could not all were able to communicate at the same level. The wife of the head scientist in charge of the lab had the ability to sense only strong emotions coming from the Cthulhu. One of the female technicians however, was discovered having an entire conversation with the creature during a routine check-up.

Dr. Grayson, a world renowned biologist, was placed in charge of the lab. Due to the shortage in capable personnel from the small colony, Dr. Richard Grayson had assigned the vice-head position to his wife Chelsea. Although also a biologist, Chelsea Grayson had nowhere near the patience of her husband in the care and management of live animal subjects. When Marsha, the female technician, unwittingly revealed her ability to communicate with the specimen, she was given an immediate upgrade in status from a mere technician to scientist and co-head of the lab under direct supervision of Dr. Grayson. Having just graduated with her PhD, normally it would have taken her at least a year to increase her standing and gain a position as prestigious as co-head. However, Dr. Grayson, after watching the interaction between Marsha and the Cthulhu, felt it would be best for her to have a say in the treatment and handling of the subject since out of all of the scientists working on the project, it appeared that she knew best how to increase the longevity of the subject. The fact of the matter was, at the time, she alone truly cared about the safety and wellbeing of the Cthulhu. No other scientists in the colony had the capability of understanding just how much emotion, intelligence and sentience this creature was capable of. They weren't able to communicate with the Cthulhu the way Marsha was.

The elevation in standing however, did not sit well with Dr. Grayson's wife. Her jealousy over Marsha's ability to communicate with the Cthulhu had already poisoned her mind against Marsha. On top of that, when Marsha was a mere technician, she had had a heated argument with Chelsea over the details concerning management of the Cthulhu's living conditions. Marsha, even prior to the discovery of the Cthulhu's ability to communicate, had been advocating for treating the Cthulhu as though it were a human prisoner and provided similar accommodations except tailored to fit this particular creature's needs. Chelsea felt that the creature did not warrant such treatment and believed that it would save time, money and effort to manage the living conditions similar to the way of a zoo or a safari park, or her understanding of how such a place was run in any case. Chelsea believed that since the creature lived in the jungles and swamps, it was more similar to something like an octopus. Without concrete, scientific proof for her of the Cthulhu's sentience, she did not feel that it was fiscally sound to commit to what she felt was unnecessary expenditure of resources. This creature didn't even remotely resemble a human in appearance or behavior. Although elaborate genetic testing was able to establish that this creature had a remarkable 98% similarity to the human genome, the physical make-up among other factors made it hard for someone like Chelsea to accept that this species may well be sentient to the level of a human being. Despite being able to feel the rage, sadness, frustration and other emotions coming from the Cthulhu, Chelsea had a hard time empathizing with this creature's plight of being captured and experimented upon on a daily basis. For her this was merely a job. This was her ticket to being a more successful and well-established scientist in the field of biology. The reason why she married Grayson, aside from his looks and intelligence, was because she felt that he out of all people should be able to help raise her standing among the scientific community on Earth. She was already displeased with his decision to move to this god-forsaken planet, away from the hustle and bustle of human civilization, expensive dinner parties and other amenities. Now here he was promoting some other woman to the position of head-scientist over her head! This decision had not been shared with her before being made, and afterwards she had a violent argument with Grayson over his decision. She accused Grayson of cheating on her with "that slutty blonde", and caring more about his precious experiment/project than her.

Richard Grayson repeatedly emphasized to her the importance of having a good grasp on the physical and emotional health of the Cthulhu. He stressed that the reason he raised Marsha's status was because he wanted her to have easy access to the subject to help him in understanding the creature's thoughts, emotions and behavior.

"She's able to speak to it! Do you not understand the significance of this miracle!? Since the beginning of mankind's recognition of our own existence, we have wondered if there was other intelligent life in the universe besides our own. Now here we are! Whatever I have to do, I will do. Whoever I have to promote I will promote. If it will help us understand more… to confirm that we have indeed found intelligent life besides our own… anything and everything. There will be no limit to what I am willing to do. Do you understand me? …and don't you dare get in my way."

After sobbing miserably into the pillow on their shared bed, Chelsea vowed to destroy the creature that was ruining her career, her marriage and her life.

So far in the process of experimenting on the subject, there have been various safeguards in place to keep the experimenters away from the grasp of the experimented. These creatures have been known to grab and attempt to eat humans in the past. Thus, it was established for safety reasons that no direct contact was to be made with the Cthulhu. Food was delivered via a receptacle. Communication, or whatever consisted thereof was done through a thick glass panel with a device installed in the glass that allowed for the passing of sound. The only brief time an experimenter had the potential for direct contact with the Cthulhu was during the weekly routine cleanings. During these times, the Cthulhu would be given a dose of sedative. Cleaning would be accomplished during the time when the creature was too sedated to move.

Marsha had been handling the cleaning duties as a technician. As head scientist, she didn't need to do this chore, but due to already established procedure and the fact that nobody else wanted to take the risk of being "eaten" by the creature, it was still her responsibility. The person administering the sedative was usually Dr. Grayson himself.

The night prior to the scheduled cleaning, Chelsea Grayson invited her husband out for a night in "town", for the opening of a new restaurant in their little encampment that was quickly becoming a true town. She slipped something into his drink that made him incredibly drowsy. Believing himself to be drunk, Richard Grayson allowed his wife to drive him home. Once home, she handed him a glass of water (containing another sedative) which he drank thirstily. The next morning he would not wake up. After checking to make sure that he was still breathing, Chelsea went into the lab. She switched the normal sedative to be used on the Cthulhu to a much weaker one.

That evening when it was time for the weekly cleaning to be done, Marsha opened the door to the chamber where the Cthulhu was being held. The Cthulhu, being an intelligent being, felt the difference in the sedative given this time but did not move when Marsha entered the room. Seeing that he, for this Cthulhu was indeed a male, appeared completely still and unresponsive, Marsha proceeded to clean the room. While humming a popular pop tune to herself and completing the chore, she did not notice the Cthulhu moving silently up behind her.

In one quick motion, using his tentacles, he grabbed her by the throat and waist. Soon Marsha began to hear the quiet whisper in her head of the Cthulhu's "voice".

"Get… me out… of here… or… I will… kill… kill you… …now."

"You wouldn't really kill me… would you?" asked Marsha.

"Yes… don't… want to… but… can't… stay here… I am… dying… won't live… long… die… leave… must…"

"What? Why!? Is it the water… or the food? If you'd just tell me…"

At this the tentacles around her throat became tighter to the point where she could barely take a breath.

"Not… food… water… need… need… tstrsulu… will die… must… must leave… die, you… you… die… kill… die…"

The tentacles around her waist started to become tighter as well. Spines began to emerge from some of the tentacles, piercing her white lab coat and digging into her flesh. The light coat began to slowly tear apart. Meanwhile, the tentacles around her throat lessened a bit to the point where she could speak.

No one else was in the lab, the rest of the staff having gone for the night. Knowing that screaming would be useless, Marsha quickly decided that she had no choice.

"Alright! I'll get you out of here! Please! Just let me go! If you kill me, they won't let you live. I'll help you get out of here. Just… I need to use my hands…"

"I have… I… no… hands… not bind… you… let go… no… you… go…"

"I promise I won't leave. I'll get you out of here… Oh god…"

At this time, her lab coat had been completely shredded. Her shirt was also beginning to shred, hanging onto her body by mere threads. A few seconds later, the tattered pieces of her shirt drift to the floor. Standing practically naked from the waist up, Marsha began to panic. The spines on the tentacles were starting to pierce her flesh. Blood weld up from the puncture wounds.

"Door… where… now… door… leave…"

The tentacles around her waist loosened slightly, but only to the point where Marsha was able to take a few tentative steps towards the exit of the chamber. The Cthulhu slowly followed, still keeping a firm and punishing grip on her throat. The Cthulhu's motions resembled a slow slither/glide across the chamber floor. Steadily, Marsha led her way towards the door. When she reached the key-log entry panel, she quickly pressed the security code. The door hissed as it slid open.

She could feel the excitement and tentative hope pouring out from the Cthulhu. It made her feel a sense of shame for she felt a sense of at least partially responsible for what the Cthulhu had been made to endure… the forced captivity and the endless rounds of experimentation that had sometimes caused him needless pain and suffering. The worse was the time they cut off one of the Cthulhu's tentacles to see if it could regrow after being severed. Fortunately, it did. However the blinding pain and agony he emitted for days on end was so intense that at one point she had to leave the room to throw up.

None of what they were doing was right. The other scientists didn't understand the level of intelligence and emotion these beings were capable of. They didn't hear his garbled cries of grief over the loss of home and family. They didn't hear the haunting songs he sang while he was by himself in the chamber with no one else around.

She did not feel guilty for letting the Cthulhu go. In fact she felt guiltier she didn't do something like this sooner of her own volition earlier. Her avid curiosity, and admittedly her greed and pride got in the way of her conscience. For that reason, she felt that, whatever this creature chose ultimately to do, be it her death or otherwise, it would be justifiable. She just hoped that he might let her live… for she desperately wanted to know more… there was so much left to be discovered.

Once the Cthulhu's body exited the chamber, the tentacles around her waist loosened even more. However, she was not let go entirely. She headed towards the heavy double doors that lead outside of the building. At this time she heard a noise outside. It was the noise of a car driving up! The sound of the car alarm beeping and a door being shut drifted into the lab room.

The Cthulhu tightened his tentacles suddenly causing Marsha to emit a strangled cry of pain, for the spines in the tentacles were still digging into her and piercing her body. The double doors slowly opened. The person who entered did not even blink her eyes. For it had been Chelsea's intention for something like this to happen. She was only disappointed that the creature had not killed the stupid bitch… yet.

Raising the semi-automatic weapon towards Marsha and the creature, she had a split second of indecision over which one she should shoot first. This instant cost her, for in that time frame, two of the Cthulhu's tentacles snapped out at the weapon. One tentacle pierced her wrist completely, causing a torrent of blood to erupt from her veins. The other wound around her other wrist in a crushing grip. Chelsea released a blood curdling scream of pain. The gun dropped to the floor with a clang. Another set of tentacles reached for the gun.

Despite her pain, Chelsea attempted to kick the gun out of reach. However, she underestimated the ability of the Cthulhu's tentacles to stretch beyond their appearance's length. He grasped the handle of the gun. Although not knowing how to operate the weapon due to unfamiliarity, the Cthulhu nevertheless kept a hold on the weapon as he let go of Chelsea's hands and shifted rapidly towards the double doors.

Holding her wrist in attempt to stop the flow of blood, Chelsea watched helplessly as the creature made his way out the door. The only part that made her happy watching that "thing" leave was watching it leave with Marsha in tow, entangled within a pile of tentacles bristling with spines. Chelsea hoped fervently that the creature ate the dumb blonde. It would only serve her right. The woman didn't know her place. It would be too much irony for her death to come at the "hands" of the very creature she had sought so fervently to protect and cosset.

Chelsea knew her husband would be upset. He would organize a massive manhunt out in the jungles for the sake of his little slut and his pet tentacle monster. But he won't find her. The creature, being native to this alien landscape, would find it easy to evade capture again. Maybe this would finally convince her husband to return to Earth and end their extended stay on this waste of a planet. Lord she'd find ways enough to try to convince him… if he didn't kill her first.