First Mate Bouchard maneuvered herself into position to better see ihe dark tunnel above while simultaneously calling for the attention of Mission Specialist Suwannarat. The narrow shaft made it difficult to position her eyes to see ihout blog the tight beam of her fshlight. Dense, bck shadows of her own body danced across the tunnel wall as she tried to get a clear view.

  Suddenly, a glint of something white caught her eye farther in. At first, her mind couldn’t make sense of what she was looking at, but as she adjusted to the perspective, the horrific spectacle in front of her began to make sense.

  From seveers ihe dark depths of the access shaft, hanging upside down, the frosted-over eyeballs of Navigator Karl Sawhared back at her with an acg look. The glow from her fshlight glinted off his teeth, protruding from his skull in a macabre grin of death.

  Stuffed tightly ihe tunnel beside the severed head were his arms, legs, and torso, his iines danglilessly from his severed waist like a grotesque version of a child’s balloon animal drifting in the wind. The entire gruesome se was covered in crystallized, freeze-dried blood.

  What she couldn’t find was his spacesuit.

  Bouchard's head began to spin as her ears filled with the buzzing sound of an impending fainting spell. As she started salivating, she felt as if her tongue was swelling in her mouth. The darkness in the shaft seemed to close in on her vision, f a tunnel of its own in her mind.

  From below, unseen arms grabbed at her feet, dragging her into the bck pit. She tried to scream, but the only sound she could hear over the rushing hum of blood in her ears was the drumbeat of her rag heart, eg ihe fines of her helmet. She attempted to kick her unseen assaint, but her legs refused to respond to her ands.

  Thirty seds ter, she blinked, staring into the lumen tor top of Suwannarat’s helmet. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the terror that had overtaken her.

  “Are you there, Laura?” the mission specialist asked. “For a sed, I thought we’d lost you.”

  “I’m fine,” Bouchard muttered, embarrassed now, knowing she had been on the verge of going down the same path as the captain had before.

  “What did you see?”

  “Sawhney,” she replied with a sigh. “He’s been… cut into pieces. I ’t describe it. It’s like something butchered him just for the fun of it. And his spacesuit is missing. Whatever did that to him was smart enough to figure out how to undress him. Why would they even do that?”

  Mission Specialist Suwannarat grabbed the edges of the topside access shaft and slowly—relutly—maneuvered himself into position to e. The se that met him was just as Bouchard had described. Well, worse, actually, Suwannarat thought. He could uand why the first mate had avoided describing the details.

  He quickly backed out, returning down to the horizontal tunnel where the first mate was waiting, not wanting to leave her alone for lohan necessary.

  “He’s pretty well wedged in there, I think. He’s not floating around. Someone—or something—stuffed him in there on purpose,” Suwannarat said. “Getting him out isn’t going to be easy.”

  “Or safe,” Bouchard added. “No, we’re not retrieving the body. Not now, at least. It’s not safe. The assumption we’ve beeing uhat everythihought we saw or felt was just a maion of our imaginations—was clearly wrong. We’re not alone here, and I’m not going to risk any more of the crew just t his body back. Let’s mark the location ahe Sunguard deal with it ter.”

  Suwannarat nodded inside his helmet. “We’re abandoning the expedition, then?” he said, relief evident in his voice.

  “I see no other choice,” First Mate Bouchard replied. “There’s nothing here of value—we know that now. The data that was once here has been gone for millions of years, the maes we’ve found are just high-tech fossils, and whoever built this ship didn’t seem ied in colleg preetals or other materials of value. There’s nothing here for us to recover. Let’s cut our losses and go home.”

  The remaining crew stared at her in silehrough their helmet visors. What was there to say? Bouchard had expiheir macabre find and her decision to leave the body of Navigator Sawhney behind.

  “We will return to Peretti's Legad report everything we’ve found to the Terran Federation,” she told the waiting crew. “I’m sorry it came to this, but I see no other choice.”

  None of her team members voiced any opposition to her decision. Still, she g Captain Balmar, hoping to get his support, but once again, he just stared back at her in total silence. She shrugged. The time for pretending the captain was in charge had passed. There was no longer any reason to try to protect his dignity by feigning defereo him. Now, the crew looked to her for leadership.

  “I want to try to tact the Legacy as soon as possible,” she tinued. “If we return to the puter room, robably get a radio signal out through the hull breach there. That way, Torque rey our findings to the Federation half a day earlier instead of having to wait for us to e onboard first. Knowing we’re not alone here on the derelict, I think we all agree time is of the essence. While going back to the puter chamber first will cost us an additional hour, it will let the Sunguard get here much quicker. Best case sario, they even evacuate us directly through the hull breach there, sparing us the journey back through the wreck to reach the Legacy.”

  The st part sealed the deal for the crew. Not having to navigate the dark maze toward the stern of the ship again—especially with the knowledge their unseen assaints could be lying in wait in the shadows along the way—made them eager to return to the puter room, despite the o pass through the jun where they had found Sawhney’s broken body to get there.

  Trudging back through the dark access tuurned out to be both better and worse than she had expected. Knowing she had to go bato the shadows and float past the pce where the navigator’s remains were wedged into the ceiling almost made her body refuse to obey. But with the eeam in tow, it wasn’t so bad ohey got going.

  As she emerged from the narrow shaft into the puter chamber for the third time that day, her heart leaped with joy. Seeing the starry sky beyond the tear in the hull felt like a lifelio her. Out there, among the pinpoints of light littering the bess like diamonds on a velvet fabric, was all she had ever called home. The stars were a tangible e to civilization, to rescue, and to safety.

  Not wanting to waste any time, she directed her maneuvering thrusters to move her through the breach, into space outside the derelict. Line of sight was o unicate with Peretti's Legacy. The equipment inside her suit was not remotely strong enough to tact the Terran Federation directly, and even if it had been, sending a radio signal to the Sunguard base on Aurora, 39 AU sunward, would take more than five hours. The only possible way to get in touch with the outside world was through the Legacy, which could rey the message immediately through its hyperspace portal.

  But where was her ship? First Mate Bouchard turned around, not finding it in the expected position in the sky. A kilometer aeretti's Legacy would be little more than the size of her thumb on an outstretched arm, but it should still be easy enough to spot against the background of space.

  She had almost turned a half circle when she suddenly saw it, moving across the sky from behind the rim of the derelict. It looked much rger than she had expected. What was Torque thinking, taking the ship this deep ihe debris field surrounding the wreck?

  Then she realized the Legacy was tumbling in a way that made it clear the intelligent puter was not in trol of its motions. The port side of the ship was venting atmosphere, causing it to spin untrolbly. If the ship was this deep within the debris field now, the initial damage to it must have happened while her team was out of radio tact with it during their hazardous trek through the maze of corridors ihe wreck. ces were, the Legacy had been lost for hours, and they just didn’t know until now. She was haunted by the thought of Kol suffog to death, pletely cut off from her friends and colleagues, alone in a ship that had turned into a metal coffin.

  In a moment that seared itself into her retinas, one of the rger pieces that had broken off from the derelict suddenly smmed into the bridge of Peretti's Legacy, tearing it apart in a silent shower of brokeal. The following explosion hurled pieces of her ship across the void. And with the certainty only mathematics could provide, on’s first w guarahe remains of it would forever be beyond their reach, as the ship disappeared into the interpary night.

  Not knowing what was happening or why, she still uood the implication: Without the Legacy, it was no longer possible to tact the outside world. With a sinking feeling, Bouchard realized they would never have the means to leave the derelict. Eventually, when their spare oxygen isters ran out, the wreck would bee their grave.

  “What was that?” Mission Specialist Suwannarat’s strong voice broke through her thoughts. “What happened?”

  “The Legacy…” she whispered into her microphoorque, and Kol. They’re gone.”

  Only stunned sile her in response.

  Finally, Suwannarat posed himself. “What do you mean, gone?” he asked, despite knowing all too well what she had meant.

  “It drifted too far ihe debris field,” Bouchard tried to expin, not quite knowing herself what had really happened. “I don’t know why. There was a collision, and it’s… it’s just gohey’re both gone.”

  Wheurhrough the hull breato the puter room, she could see on the faces of her crew that she wasn’t the only one who had realized the implication of what had transpired. Fear, b on panic, was evident among the women and men of her team.

  “What’s the pn, ma’am?” Pv-tor-fel-mak asked, his voice quivering as he spoke the words, as if afraid to hear her response.

  She stayed silent for a few seds, posing herself before answering.

  “We’re not giving up,” she said. “We’ve only explored half the ship yet. Maybe there’s something we find closer to the bow we use to help us escape. We saw the bridge in that dire from the outside, before we ehe wreck. Perhaps we find some kind of unications equipment there, or maybe ser arrays we jury-rig to tact the Sunguard directly with.”

  It was all a lie, of course. Aware of the age of the dereliow, she knew all too well any useful teology onboard had turo dust millions of years ago.

  “It’s a good pn, ma’am, bless your head,” the ground sample specialist responded. “It’s a big ship. I’m sure we’ll find what we need eventually.”

  Looking into the eyes of the small Ker man, First Mate Bouchard knew he was merely sharing in her lie for the be of the rest of the crew. She nodded almost imperceptibly, silently thanking Pv-tor-fel-mak for his support. Even though all hope was now lost, there was no need for the crew to destroy themselves in a rage of panic. For now, keeping the rest of the team in the dark about the bleakness of their situation was the right way to go.

  Yes, everything onboard the ship had turo dust millions of years ago, she thought. A, something was out there now, killing her crew.

  MvonStz