Piper in the Woods

A military physician probes reports from an asteroid garrison where a number of soldiers claim to have become plants, focusing on a young corporal who insists he must spend his days rooted outdoors in sunlight and refuses patrol duties. The doctor interviews guards and witnesses, observes the corporal's sunbound routine, and confronts institutional anxiety about morale and operational collapse if such passivity spreads. The narrative juxtaposes clinical investigation and bureaucratic concern with the corporal's tranquil conviction, examining themes of identity, the human–vegetal boundary, personal choice versus communal responsibility, and how atypical modes of being unsettle social order.