Page 113 of Stars
“What the fuck are you talking about? Of course it’s her!”
“Not anymore.”
OutsideUnity’swindow, Earth slowly tipped over in her tumble. Beyond, the sun’s corona haloed the planet, sending a streak of perfect light reaching for infinity, as if the sun were trying to wrap around the Earth, reach them, hold on to them.
A moment later, ISS disappeared from the sun’s reach as Earth occluded the light, eclipsing the sun in totality.
Pure darkness—the black of infinity, of space stretching out beyond Jupiter and Saturn and Pluto, and of the end of things—poured into the station, flooding through windows that were slowly frosting over. Space, they said, was empty, but in that moment Sasha knew they were wrong. This darkness had weight. He could feel it push on the station. He heard the main strut creak, groan. With the oxygen generators and the power plant now offline due to the dying power cells, every twist and shudder of the ISS reverberated, a hundred times louder in the black.
He turned, his wide eyes searching for Mark. His breath puffed in front of his face, a cloud stained ruby in the emergency lights.
Beyond Mark, the quivering droplets clinging to the bulkheads shimmered, catchingUnity’ssanguine glow.
The shivering droplets, the blood writhing in weightlessness. The broken station spiraling out of control.
The blood aurora over Earth.
Michaela snarled again, and in the black module, her eyes caught and seized the emergency lighting. Sasha stared, transfixed by the emptiness inside her that seemed to reach out and seize him, squeeze his heart and lungs until he couldn’t breathe. There was a blackness in Michaela’s eyes that was colder than the darkness pushing on the ISS, something emptier than space, than all those light-years of nothing. If he fell into Michaela’s eyes, he’d be devoured. Whatever had taken her would take him, too.
“Where the fuck is Sarah?” Mark whispered. His voice trembled. Sasha blinked and forced himself to look away from Michaela. “Where did all this blood come from?”
Shuffling down the stack made them turn. Mark shone his flashlight towardHarmony. “Hello?” he shouted. “Sarah? Joey?” He licked his lips. “Phillipa?”
Sasha pushed forward, holding onto the airlock collar as he peered intoDestiny—
There was a snarl next to his ear, and a hand grabbed his neck and pulled, dragging him intoDestiny.
“Sasha!” Mark roared. He dove forward and tried to grab Sasha. His fingertips brushed Sasha’s waist.
Tumbling, Sasha tucked and rolled, instinctively going with the momentum. He kicked as he moved, his boot making contact with something soft and warm. The snarling turned to a yelp, the sound of a kicked animal. He kicked again, fumbling for his flashlight and trying to aim it into the darkness.
A shadow slithered away, disappearing up intoFreedom’shatch.
“Blyad!” Sasha pointed his flashlight like it was a weapon, straight up into the hatch.Freedom’sdarkness opened above him, a portal to nothing, swallowing his light, swallowing all sound, all sign of the thing that had attacked him.
Mark slammed into his side, rolling and aiming his flashlight into every corner ofDestiny, clearing each one like he was back in the military. He breathed hard: steady, hard puffs pushed through his lips. Combat breathing to steady the heart. To steady the hands.
Sasha’s hands felt empty, the insignificant heft of the flashlight not enough against whatever they were facing. What could he do with a flashlight other than huddle behind its beam?
“Fuck!” Mark hissed. He pushed off the bulkhead and flew to the end of the lab. “Sarah!”
Sasha pulled his gaze away fromFreedom’shatch. He followed Mark, keeping his flashlight trained behind them and covering their rear. As he floated toward Sarah, he saw the blood smeared on the bulkheads, coating the displays, and then he saw her.
Sarah leaned into Mark’s hold, her teeth clenched together as she pressed her hand over her abdomen. Darkness stained her T-shirt, a puddle of black growing against her palm. A spreading stain of blood grew from a pulsing tear on the side of her neck. Bits of flesh danced in zero g, swimming around her pale, star-white face.
“Michaela,” Sarah gasped. She pressed her face into Mark’s shoulder, smothering her scream in his chest as he ripped his shirt off and pressed it over her ravaged throat.
“Michaela did this?” Mark asked.
Sarah nodded. “She woke up just after you both left.” She gulped down two huge breaths, as if talking exhausted her. Sasha panned his light around the module again. If this was all her blood, Sarah was lucky to still be breathing at all. “I tried to talk to her. Ask if she was okay.” Another deep, shaking breath. “She never answered. She was just staring. I was shutting down power when I heard something fromHarmony.”
“What did you hear?” Mark spun them both, putting their backs to the bulkhead as he peered throughDestiny’sglowing red airlock toHarmony.
A handheld drill spun in the middle of the module, betweenColumbusand the Japanese lab. Drops of blood beaded on the bit, slowly releasing in lazy arcs. Spatter crisscrossed the white hull where Mark swept his flashlight.
“I thought I heard an airlock opening,” Sarah whispered. “I was checking, and then… Michaela attacked me. She bit me.”
“Is that what happened here?” Mark held pressure on her neck, but his shirt was slowly turning dark.
