Bloodhype (1973) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster. The book is eleventh chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series, though it was written second; the main characters only appear in the last third of the book. In the series, it falls after Orphan Star, where Flinx meets the aliens who build him his ship, the Teacher. The novel takes its title from a deadly and addictive drug, for which there is no known antidote, and which causes instant addiction followed by a long, slow, painful death unless the user continues to take increasingly greater doses. Plot The Vom is an intergalactic intelligence described as a large black blob resembling a gigantic amoeba, impervious to almost all energy and physical attack. Following years of battle with the Tar-Aiym it has sheltered on a planet where it has gone dormant for 500,000 years, waiting for an opportunity to escape the Tar-Aiym Guardian orbiting in space above it. Carmot MMYM, a commander in the AAnn Empire, discovers the Vom and brings it to the planet Repler for study at an AAnn base that had been conceded to the reptilians as part of a negotiated settlement of ownership of the planet; the AAnn base is sovereign territory, allowing them to conceal the nature of their work. Lieutenants Kitten “Kitty” Kai-sung, a female human, and Porsupah-al, a male Tolian, have been sent by the Intelligence Arm of the United Church to Repler to investigate the newly re-established trade in the drug bloodhype (also known as "jaster", "silly salt", "brain-up", and "phinto") as the most deadly and addictive drug in and outside the Humanx Commonwealth. Once on Repler they make contact with the drug trader Dominick Rose, who had used an unwitting Captain Malcolm "Mal" Hammurabi and his ship, the Umbra, as unwilling transporters of bloodhype. Mal discovers the drug accidentally, and determines that Rose caused it to be included with the shipment that Mal brought to Repler; angry, Mal secures the drug on board his ship and goes to confront Rose, proposing to exchange his silence (and the destruction of the drug) for Rose avoiding arrest and mind-wipe by ceasing all production and distribution. Meanwhile, Kitten's and Porsupah's covers are blown, and they are captured by Rose. Mal's arrival interrupts Rose's plans to torture Kitten to death by vivisection, and Mal is forced to trade the drug for the release