The creature came aboard during the night cycle.
No one saw it enter. One moment the Magellan's Hope was alone in the void; the next, something was moving through its corridors, silent and deadly.
Varga was the first to die.
He was in engineering, running his nightly diagnostic, when the lights flickered and died. He cursed, reaching for his emergency torch, and never heard the thing that dropped from the ceiling behind him.
They found him hours later—or what was left of him. The creature had... done something to him. His chest was open, ribs splayed outward, and something was missing from inside. The walls were painted with blood.
Chen stared at the body for a long moment, then turned and vomited onto the deck plates.
"Secure the ship," Saito ordered, his face pale but controlled. "Seal all bulkheads. I want everyone in the mess—it's the most defensible space. Move."
They moved.
The mess became their fortress—a single room with one entrance, one air vent, and seven people who were rapidly becoming five. Amira had gone silent, her eyes wide and staring. Webb kept his hand on his sidearm. Chen sat in the corner, shaking.
"It's hunting us," she said. "Like animals."
"We don't know that," Webb started.
"Yes we do. You saw what it did to Varga. That wasn't random. It's intelligent. It's learning."
The vent cover clattered to the floor.
They spun as one, weapons raised—but nothing emerged from the darkness within. Just the open mouth of the ventilation shaft, leading into the ship's guts.
"It's in the walls," Chen whispered. "It's everywhere."
Saito moved to the vent, shining his light inside. The beam illuminated a short section of shaft, then disappeared into darkness. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed.
"We need to get to the escape pods," he said. "It's our only chance."
"The pods are on the other side of the ship," Webb pointed out. "We'd have to cross half the vessel to reach them."
"Then we'd better start moving."