new fiction: the malaya

I have a new story out in the November 29 issue of the Philippines Free Press: "Report HC-IK017785A-0097B-006 de Ocampo: Survey of artifacts found in the derelict vessel 'The Malaya'".
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Notes on a fMRIS scan, attributed to Dr. Jocelyn Montemayor (vessel’s physician); extracted from Montemayor’s audio logs

MONTEMAYOR: …suggest subject’s ventral tegmental areas unusually inactive. Begin note: test for quantities of dopamine in brain’s lower regions. May be answer for subject’s intense craving and audial hallucination. End note. Scan suggests subject’s nucleus accumbens, higher and forward than the ventral tegmental, is producing extraordinary amounts of oxytocin. Begin note. Oxytocin is the body’s most powerful bonding element, test others as well. End note. Scan suggests pronounced activity in subject’s caudate nucleus as well. Begin note: What’s going on? The caudate nucleus is associated with maladaptation and obsessive behavior. Are the sounds various subjects reported hearing be linked? Can something heard affect us like this? Can sound be a vector of sorts? This does not look good. End note.