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The data slowly crawled across the screen in lime-green text. Data about the other two members of the crew. Oxygen saturation, heart rate, even glucose levels. The captain didn’t even care about those specifics. All he really cared about was whether or not they had a pulse at all. After all, his pay didn’t really depend on whether or not they had hypertension or diabetes. They just needed to return from this job with a pulse. His ship, The DSMC Petrov, also needed to return home in one piece.The tiny letters scrolled across the screen and spelled out the first name on the list, Stone Edwards, the surveyor. He was a grizzled veteran of planetary discovery and survey, nearly eligible for retirement. Most crew nearing retirement start to slack off since the Company won’t bother hassling guys that close to retirement for flagging performance, but Jack did his job with the energy of a rookie. The captain looked over his vitals twice, taking consideration of his age. Everything came up green both times.Next up was the Logistics Specialist, Janine Cartwright. She had been a thorn in the side of the captain, even before getting off-planet. Complaining about rations, complaining about the ships showering facilities. She was relatively green and didn’t realize just how inefficient the company's recommended compliment of supplies for a journey of this length was. On more than one occasion she had gotten snippy with the captain about this or that bit of cargo not being sufficient. He stonewalled her every request.This ship had never seen an unsuccessful voyage under the command of Captain Jack Harris. Ninety-eight safe and successful trips to be exact, and meticulously kept track of by the notches in the armrest of the captain's seat. Her vitals were green though, so dwelling on those disagreements was only a fleeting thought.With that, everyone was flashing green across the analogue screen in front of the captain's chair. All four people on the CCTV camera display wriggled around, shaking off the debilitating effects of stasis. The captain reached under his chair and pulled out a small velvet box from under his seat. It looked almost ceremonial. Gently prying open the lid, a row of narrow, tobacco-stuffed tubes appeared.Flicking a zippo lighter with zeal, the captain lit his cigarette for the thousandth time in this chair. Smoke slowly filled the room from top to bottom. Smoking on-ship was frowned upon, but not prohibited. The Captain had enough courtesy to keep the ash and smoke to his personal quarters and the command deck itself. He took his sweet time filling the ash tray adorned with a green six-leafed plant, long extinct on Earth.The crew of just two were still stretching out and shaking off the nausea and tightness from a long sleep, so he used his first cigarette’s torched end to light yet another. It was a common habit back home. Tobacco smoke was a good countermeasure against certain fungi in odd corners of the galaxy, so it was traditional for the head of household to smoke it regularly.In bygone centuries, smoking was a rare habit, in no small part due to negative consequences like cancer, emphysema and poor dental outcomes. Those negative outcomes were dealt with one after the other in the 24th century. Medical science was mostly concerned with more and more advanced cybernetic enhancement in the year 2523AD. Cancer treatment was as unremarkable as penicillin was at the turn of the 21st century.The Captain wasn’t thinking about cancer, or the future of medical science though. His thoughts were solely occupied by the cigarette between his fingers and the mission at hand. Planet TS-8-22, a planet that initial probe missions flagged as potentially very lucrative. Several technical problems had delayed this mission, so corporate was eager to get the ball rolling. The captain had a reputation to honor. This mission had to be flawless.Orienting the crew came first. The Captain ashed his cigarette mirthfully. He could smoke in this chair forever, but the crew was waiting. A push of a button sucked the smoke from the bridge, and another button opened the door to the central hub of the ship. He was greeted by the familiar sight of green running lights pulsing along the ceiling. There were actually three sets of lights side by side, color coded to let the crew know how safe they were. Green was peachy, yellow meant “act now” and red meant “you’re fucked, head for the escape pods”.The central hub had several doors with long hallways pointed in four directions. To the left of the hallway leading to the bridge was the way to the crew's quarters. Each of the five rooms were equipped with a bed, a desk with a computer, as well as a full bathroom. Last but not least, at the very end of the hall was a full kitchen. Harris made a brief trip to his own room, to make sure it was in good order. Other than his emergency pack of smokes having slid out from its hiding place and fallen from the cubby above his bunk, everything was in order. He replaced the errant item and moved on.Across from the bridge was cryo( which also served as the med bay), and further beyond that was the engineering bay. After the bridge, this was where the captain spent most of his time. He was meticulous about maintaining his ship, replacing parts before they broke down without fail. The same went for the cryo bay. Cryo pods were notoriously temperamental and prone to malfunction if they weren’t regularly serviced. Equally important was maintaining the service ducts that ringed the interior of the ship. Those needed to be clear and accessible in case of an emergency lockdown or a fire onboard. One could make their way around the entirety of the ship if they felt like it. Harris personally found them claustrophobic and did his sweep as quickly as possible.To the right of the bridge was the short hall leading to the logistics bay, basically a giant glorified closet. Innumerable supplies were stored and organized there. The room was divided into three subsections with a divider separating them. The divider had a gap in the middle to allow easy passage, and there was a small gap at the top of each divider. Surveying equipment, spare uniforms, grav boots, space suits, all manner of spare parts for every conceivable part of the ship's interior, a vast stack of filing cabinets containing all sorts of printed-off data, and even a flamethrower.To an outsider, the flamethrower would seem like an odd addition to the supply cache, but it was very common for some planets to be covered in ice. Frozen gear was a very real concern for small surveyor craft.Las but not least were the sections of the ship above and below the main deck. Right in the middle of the ships central hub was a ladder leading up as well as down. Taking the ladder down lead to a cramped hallway with an access door to the small surveyor craft latched onto the underbelly of The Petrov. This was the vessel that actually landed planeside. It was specially outfitted to analyze atmospheric conditions and core samples. It didn’t have a fancy name, just the designation DSMC-SC-731. Harris just called it Paydirt.Scaling the ladder to the top lead to another circular room the same size as the central hub. Here, laid out octogonally, were eight escape pods, something Harris has never had the poor fortune of needing to use. Nonetheless, he did a thorough examination of each pod. Good thing, too, seeing as how the computer system up here was locking him out. Even his security override code had no effect. If shit hit the fan at this exact moment, the ship would effectively have no escape pods. He made a mental note to get to work on fixing that problem as soon as the crew was oriented.Finally, he opened the hatch in the middle of the ceiling to run diagnostics on the decompression chamber. This small chamber was used to exit the ship to perform exterior repairs in zero gravity. Seeing the hatch in working order and that the Zero-G suits were present and in good condition, he clambered down the ladder to the main hub.The Captain made his way across the central hub to inspect the cryo bay. Pushing the light blue button to open the door to the cryo hall, an unwelcome sight met his eyes.Logistics officer Cartwright was in the Captain’s face in an instant, letting him know how he pulled them out of cryo too soon, and too quickly. He was ready for such accusations and recited the corporate handbook word for word. He took no joy in reciting corporate jargon, but it was the fastest way to get her off his back. The corporate handbook reigned supreme when flying in safe territory, but out here, The Captain only used it cynically, and it usually served him well. She made a sound argument, but he simply cited that early cryo pulls were up to the Captains discretion if an emergency called for it.Harris didn’t have to tell her how many ways he could write a convincing report should she complain, it was written all over his face.Sometimes protocols were a hassle for the captain, and others it gave him an immediate out from the bullshit of personal quibbles. Other times like this, he used them to remind green crew members who ran this ship. He didn’t really care one way or another about policy. He just wanted to get the job done and over with. Survey crew captains could retire at the ripe old age of fifty. He only had four years left and was far past the point of feeling the need to cave to individual gripes.“I’ll make note of your advisement in the log, right after I make note of my justification. Anything else you’d like me to add?”She almost looked like she did have more to add, but thought better of it, realizing that the Captain had no intention of taking her seriously. The odds of the two of them ever working together again were slim to none. The surveyor soon came out of cryo himself, mumbling a muted greeting on his way to the bridge.He had seniority over her just like the Captain and didn’t appreciate her causing a fuss. Having worked with him before, Stone trusted the Captain completely. Cartwright decided to join him on the bridge silently, likely telling herself to suck up the dour attitudes of these older, grizzled veterans. Fighting seniority in the company was usually a bad idea. After this mission she would never have to see the likes of Harris or Stone again in all probability.After Harris made a quick sweep through the cryo-bay, everything looked to mostly be in fine order. Bay five seemed to have been glitching out, the display appearing as though it hadn’t just been in use, despite the contrary. That would have to be entered into the log and sorted out after the voyage home. Venturing further into the engineering bay, everything there appeared to be in good order as well.The Captain took his time returning to the bridge. He already wanted another smoke, but it would have to wait until everyone returned to the crews quarters. There was little excuse to hang around in engineering for too long. The sooner he returned to the bridge, the sooner this mission would be over.Languorously returning to the bridge, the captain took his seat. Planet TS-08-22 loomed large through the viewing platform of the bridge. The atmosphere was a muted yellow and brown. The computer ran dozens of diagnostics on the atmosphere well before the Captain returned to the bridge. The surveyor was focused on finding the perfect landing coordinates, while the Cartwright managed the mundane details of fuel consumption before scurrying off to prep the exploratory landing craft.She hadn’t been gone for more than ten seconds before the Captain shot a sidelong glance toward the surveyor. The surveyor grinned and pulled out his own pack of cigarettes. He was born on the same planet as the Captain, so sharing a smoke together reminded them of their shared upbringing, despite the twenty-year age gap between them. He broke the silence after taking a few long drags on his cigarette.“She’s just too green to know that nobody takes this stuff too seriously anymore. The only people excited about new planets are mining conglomerate execs. She’ll be just as jaded as you and I before long.”The Captain lit his own cigarette, pushing the ashtray across the console so that it sat halfway between the two of them.“Probably right. Doesn’t make it any less annoying right now. The company doesn’t give a rat's ass about the details of how we operate. All they want is a bountiful report cataloging core samples of surveyed planet X.”Planet X hovered off in the distance, silently. The wonder of a new planet, untouched by human hands, was a long-deceased novelty to Captain Harris. It wasn’t like he couldn’t recall the twinkle that briefly lived inside his eye long ago, when he was a rookie pilot. He just firmly believed that it was a totally misplaced feeling.“All this planet is…is another chunk of rock that we’ll totally drain of any worth and beauty in a hundred-years' time. You’ve surely heard how things are going back home.”The Surveyor lowered his head to acknowledge Captain Harris, a forlorn look creeping across his face. The planet both of them were born on would probably be unlivable in two generations time. Hell, maybe their not-so distant future family members would end up on TS-08-22, and then some yet-to-be surveyed planet a hundred years further down the line. The conversation was extinguished by embers approaching filters and the computer sounding of an alarm.It was a gentle but persistent sound, accompanied by a green pulse on the many black and white monitors in the control deck. Life signal detected.Life signal detected? There was no way that was possible. This was uncharted territory. There should be no human presence within three light-years of the pair, excluding the other crew member on board. Yet, here was a computer claiming a life form with a pulse within hailing range of the ship. The Captain and Surveyor exchanged sidelong glances before the main computer console began spitting out an endless stream of analogue data regarding this impossible life-signal.“Computer, coordinates on identified life-signal?”There was a brief pause before a long stream of text spewed onto the main monitor. That wasn’t what concerned the two men sitting on the bridge, ashing out cigarettes in a dirty tray. It was the gentle metallic clang of the ship against something else certainly made of metal.“Life-form detected: twenty-two meters.”That was absolutely disconcerting. It was far too strange for the signal to be first picked up at such a close range. Both men leapt to their feet and rushed to the main atrium of the ship. Two cigarette butts found the floor rather than the ash tray sitting atop the bridge console. Both men began donning zero-G gear without a word. Cartwright arrived in the atrium in the middle of them prepping for exit midway. She was confused and bewildered and had far too many questions.“I’ll let you know when we come back. Computer picked up a life-signal at twenty-two meters.”It was all the Captain had to say to her. The confused look on her face was probably because she didn't fully grasp the meaning of their haste. She looked like felt out of the loop, but the faces of the two men conveyed the fact that something beyond her expertise was happening. Honestly, it was beyond theirs too, but they had to move now regardless of that fact. Someone was out there, perilously close to death.Their ship could pick up a life-signal at one thousand meters. The fact that the alarm hadn’t been sounded until it was practically on top of them meant that whatever was out there had a pulse that was barely hanging on. Suddenly, the Captain ran that train of thought back again in his mind.Whatever was out there.After taking just a single second to think about it, there definitely should not be any human beings other than the crew out here. The Surveyor had his back to the Captain, so he continued suiting up while Harris stood stock-still. Harris still hadn’t moved after the Surveyor turned around to say he was ready to go. His face was distorted by the light of the ship’s interior splashing a glare across his visor, but it was certain that he wore a weary and puzzled look.“What’s the matter Captain? Are we going or not?”Far from inpatient or annoyed, The Surveyor sensed the change in the atmosphere, and more importantly, the apprehensive expression of the experienced Captain. Harris mulled over the best course of action, and The Surveyor patiently waited. After a solid minute passed, the Captain finally spoke.“The closest settlement…how far away are we from the nearest settled world?”The Surveyor, with his exhaustive knowledge of star charts and distances between the myriad of Outer Settlements, offered an answer of 3.15 light years. The answer confirmed the Captain’s suspicions. There should be no other humans out here, and that only left one realistic possibility.“Jesus, ya don't think it’s an alien life form, do ya?”The Surveyor wore a smirk as he offered that possibility. A long, long time ago, most humans believed that there just had to be some sort of sentient life other than themselves somewhere in the universe. Even more people were convinced after the first planet settled by humans (bearing the saccharine name “Hope”) was full of all kinds of native flora and Fauna. That, coupled with the soaring optimism born out of conquering the stars reignited a cautious belief in sentient life hiding somewhere in the darkness of space.Centuries have passed since that first foray into deep space. Planet after planet, system after system, humanity spread out across the stars. With each passing discovery, the fear and curiosity of sentient life waned more and more. These days, the idea was reserved for kooks and conspiracy theorists, and even those people were mostly just having some fun with it. There was even a popular game show that challenged contestants' knowledge of settled worlds that was quite popular these days. Most entrants failed to win the grand prize, of course. There were simply too many rocks with people living on them these days for people to remember.“Maybe. Think about it. It would make sense if we were in deep space smack dab between two outer settlements. Picking up people in escape pods between settlements is rare, but not unheard of. Have you ever heard of an escape pod being picked up within spitting range of an unsurveyed world?”The Captain cocked an eyebrow at the Surveyor, who lost his smirk in an instant. He was trying to think up some rationale to account for this oddity. He let out a huff, unable to come up with anything logical. A third voice answered instead.“Doesn’t protocol dictate that we investigate and rescue all life-signal readings? I’ll go out there if you two won’t.”The two men slowly turned to Logistics Officer Cartwright, standing at the opposite end of the corridor. They hadn’t been paying her any mind since sprinting down the corridor to suit up. Clearly, she had overheard the entire conversation, and had come to a conclusion all on her own. The Captain scoffed at her suggestion.“Protocol also dictates we do everything in our power to ensure the safety of the survey, the ship and the crew.Cartwright said nothing, but grabbed her own suit. She looked determined to leave the ship, not breaking eye contact with The Captain until she had to secure her helmet and visor. The Captain said nothing until she was totally prepped for floating out into space.“If you go out there, just know that I’ll be keeping you in the airlock to quarantine until we can determine what exactly is in the escape pod. If it’s something I don’t want on this ship, I’ll purge the airlock.”Captain Harris was dead serious. Edwards knew this and tried to persuade Cartwright to give it up and stay inside. She wasn’t having any of it, climbing the ladder to the airlock without a word. The Captain just sighed and motioned for Edwards to follow him back to the bridge to supervise the escape pod, which could be seen through a port side camera. It was now floating just in camera range, probably a few meters below the port side. The Captain opened a comms tab to relay the location of the escape pod to Cartwright.He watched her on a topside camera while she attached a cable to one of several hooks on the outside of the hatch. It was obvious from her stilted movements that she was scared to death. Being on the outside of a ship, looking out into the vast expanse surrounding you, is completely different from being safe and sound on board. Despite the added weight of the suit, the lack of gravity very quickly causes your feet to gently hover off the hull. Floating just one inch off the hull induces a sensation of being sucked out into the vastness of space.Cartwright freezes up at the feeling. Now she’s a whole foot off the hull.“Pull it together out there. Use your thrusters. Remember your training.”The Captain released his finger from the comms button to grab a cigarette. As much as he found her disagreeable, he prided himself on bringing everyone home. He really didn’t need to deal with the paperwork involved with someone floating away in space. A few seconds later, Cartwright could be seen gently applying her thrusters in the direction of the escape pod. For a brief few seconds, she disappeared from view, spanning the slight distance between topside and port cameras.The rest of the trip across the port cameras was nice and smooth. Cartwright fastened her cable to the escape pod, leaving her tied to the ship by nothing more than her hands grip on the cable. Harris finished typing in his command just as the cable connected with the pod, and ever so slowly reeled it in. Slowly, the pod, along with Cartwright, made their way closer to the airlock.The room turning yellow put a halt to the smooth sailing, and a gentle alarm blared out from the main console. The Captain hurriedly barked out an order to keep an eye on the cameras while his eyes scanned line after line of information pouring down the screen.“Shit”Apparently, that pod wasn’t the only thing coming the Petrov’s way, just the first. They had at most two minutes before some very large pieces of debris from god-knows-what crossed their path. Harris made the snap decision to not tell Cartwright precisely what was coming, instead giving her some practical advice to preserve her life.“Cartwright, I’m gonna need you to grip that cable with both hands, HARD, and wrap both legs around it as tightly as you can, ya hear me?”Her heart rate monitor skipped a few beats and settled at an average of 110 beats per minute, but she did what she was told. The Captain skillfully tapped at the console, and the ship started swinging around in a wide arc, turning the starboard side of the ship toward the incoming debris. Cartwright’s screams filled the command deck as the ship whipped around, the thin cable connecting her to safety vibrating and shaking. Both the pod and Cartwright were whipped away from the ship before closing in on the ship’s hull on the opposite side of the airlock.“Keep the pod between you and the ship as best you can.”She responded with an unintelligible grunt as both Stone and Harris vainly tried to follow her on the exterior cameras. They heard the escape pod slam into the hull before being able to locate it on the cameras. Luckily, Cartwright managed to hang on without getting any of her limbs caught between the hull and the pod. Her heart rate was worse for wear though, sitting at an even 150.Harris realized he had been holding his breath uncomfortably long and let out a relieved sigh. There was no time to relax though; everyone on the ship was still in danger. The debris field was rapidly closing in on the ship, and now that it was in view, the Captain fully appreciated how much shit they were in.It seemed to be rather slow moving (which was a small blessing) but the relative size of the debris was still very disconcerting. He told Stone to strap in while he did the same, switching off autopilot as fast as he could. It would be tricky, but not impossible to avoid the larger bits of debris. The cable connecting the pod to the airlock was shortening all too slowly, and he wouldn’t be able to safely close it with Cartwright inside for a couple more minutes. He called out to her on comms once again to let her know they were moving.“We’re wha-”She didn’t get a chance to finish voicing her incredulity, because all her attention at once went back into holding on for dear life. Harris locked his gaze on the vertical row of port-side cameras, looking for gaps between the larger pieces of debris that were easily triple the Petrov’s size. He tilted the ship slightly towards the starboard side, ensuring any debris hit the port side and underbelly of the ship. As a consequence, the hull vibrated with repeated impacts against that half of the ship's hull. He did his best not to accelerate or decelerate too suddenly, lest the crew and cargo dangling from the airlock be flung about recklessly.After weaving past a particularly large chunk of debris, the view in front of the Petrov opened up into empty space. A few more light rumbles against the hull sounded out, and the running lights remained yellow, but it seemed the threat had passed by.“What the hell was all that mess? The pre-trip briefing didn’t say a damn thing about significant material in orbit!”Stone seemed a bit shook up by the unexpected brush with danger, and the Captain couldn’t blame him. The company was usually pretty thorough when it came to conditions in-orbit. They usually sent a higher-class vessel for rough conditions, ones armed with topside weaponry for targeting and destroying asteroids and other hazardous objects. Captain Harris didn’t say a word, only enhancing the rear cameras and trying to make out what exactly just nearly destroyed his ship. What he saw was far from comforting.“That’s a DSMC vessel. Can’t know her name but…it’s unmistakable.”Stone disengaged his safety harness to hurry over, looking over the Captain’s shoulder at the screenshot he had captured. The DSMC logo on the side of the biggest chunk of debris was obscured by a gnarled hull, but it sure as shit was there. Clear as day.“What the hell does that mean? We should be the first ones out this far. The company never sends two ships to do one job.”Stone was right, the DSMC would never waste shareholder resources so recklessly by doubling up on a single survey. Harris was getting a really nasty vibe from the still image on his monitor, but a shrill voice prevented ruminating any further on the odd sight.“Hey! I’m still alive out here thank you very much! Are you guys going to leave me hanging?”At some point during the evasive maneuvers, the cable that had been reeling Cartwright in had frozen up, so she was still dangling out in the void with about thirty meters between her and the safety of the airlock. Harris silently answered by clicking and clacking a series of keys, rebooting the process of reeling her back in.The unexpected passenger was slowly dragged into the airlock. Harris had a great many questions for them, assuming they were part of the crew of the destroyed DSMC vessel. Not a moment after the airlock was closed, with both Cartwright and the escape pod safely inside, she ripped her helmet off and proceeded to vomit onto the floor of the chamber. This was probably the first time in her life that death nipped at her heels. She had scarcely caught her breath before The Captain’s voice piped into the airlock.“Cartwright, what’s the status of the escape pod?”He couldn’t tell from the somewhat grainy cam footage in the airlock, but she didn’t look all too pleased with him. Instead of answering him verbally, she slammed her fist down on the escape pod release mechanism, a hiss escaping from the frosted-over escape pod. Cartwright appeared to recoil slightly on the cams.“What is it? What’s wrong?”Cartwright didn’t know it from where she stood, but the Captain’s hand was hovering over the airlock eject button, ready to purge at the slightest sign of trouble. He still had a bad feeling about the contents of the pod. Inside the escape pod, there lay what appeared to be a woman.Cartwright’s first thought was wanting to know what sort of diet she was on before being frozen in stasis. It was impossible not to notice just how well endowed she was, her bust threatening to spill out a white top cradling her bosom, tapering down as it reached up to her neck where it connected to a collar around her neck. Her impossibly long, cream-colored hair dangled down into the still-darkened corners of the escape pod, topped off by a trio of decorative balls on each twintail that fell on either side of her mocha colored face.Beyond her striking appearance, there was something else inside the pod that demanded her attention. There was a strange light brown build-up on the interior surfaces of the escape pod. Something Cartwright couldn’t identify. Regardless of her appearance, and the odd material coating the inside of the pod, one thing was sure. This was certainly a human being that lay inside, deep in sleep.