Chapter 1 Blue strobe lights winked inside the dark ship. Dak’s eyes popped open when the proximity alarm rang. His clunking footsteps thudded across the metal floor plate. The operational screen was flashing yellow for imminent impact. Dak smacked the red, bulbous emergency shutdown–to-impact button and held onto the overhead handle. The reverse thrusters burned aloud; shaking the hull violently as his feet went from under him. The heavy burn slowed the ship to a creep and his boots fell back to the floor. After he steadied himself, Dak opened the cockpit shield plate to see what they were about to smash into. This past week he had already checked their course a thousand times since he was on duty. Although their ship was on a newer space lane, the sensors hadn’t caught any large space debris on the long-range radar. So, anything on their path was most likely a gas cluster or something relatively small. As the cockpit visor finished opening, Dak could see the ship was slowly creeping into a small gas cluster. Knew it! It was a grey gas cloud with a blue sheen. Dak kept thinking he saw an outline of something in the swirling cloud. The reverse thrusters sputtered out before his ears rang from the dead silence. The strobes were still flashing and something large was coming into view. He exhaled loudly after realizing he had been holding his breath. Dak sat in the navigation seat and grabbed a joystick. A long docking arm extended out in front of the ship to prod ahead as the cockpit fell under a great shadow. Dak heard the low frequency hum of his drone finally arriving to meet him. “Bout time you showed up. I was beginning to think you finally went offline.” Dak said. “Cool it kid. This old drone has a few more charges left in his belly. So what’s up?” Replied Pop-pop. “Well as you can see, old man, we are about to kiss something big in what should be a clear space lane.” “I can see better than you boy. For one, the outline of that shadow tells me it is a large cargo ship. And two, this gas cloud is most likely from the guts of that vessel.” “A ship? There’s no distress beacon. No lights, no active sensors, and no instruments. It’s as if it’s a…” “A ghost-ship.” Interrupted Pop-pop in his low old-man AI voice. They both sat in silence. Pop-pop’s hum was thrumming in Dak’s left ear. The cloud cleared up as the probing arm searched for something to grab on to. Dak flipped the headlight beams on high and the hull of the cargo vessel became visible. The outside plating looked old and out of place. “That’s a big freaking hole.” Dak said, pointing to it with his eyebrows. “That’s strange. It looks like the metal is beginning to rust. Wait, is that flora growing out of the hole?” Pop-pop asked inquisitively. “Scanning now.” “I know nothing of space plants in my library. I would think it would all be frozen white if it were the case.” “C’mon! Let’s go wake Cap.” Dak and his little drone went to the aft part of the ship. He ran his finger across the glass of each Cap's sleeper tube so as to make a smudging sound. Captain Cross’ eyes slowly opened and he smiled. “Boy, did I have some vivid dreams.” Cap said to Dak from inside the tube. Dak’s face looked concerned and different. Impatience was wrinkled on the kid’s forehead. It wasn’t a totally bad sign to the captain, but it was concerning. The sleeper tube seal broke and the pressure was released. “What is it?” Asked the Captain. “I had to stop the ship. We almost had a collision with a ghost ship.” Dak replied. “A ghost ship? No way a ghost ship is already out here. We are in a newly paved lane. It’s definitely not old enough for that to happen.” “Well, you are in for a treat dear Cap.” Pop-pop chuckled. Cap’s mouth dropped open as he looked out the cockpit porthole. His eyes slowly drew in the details of the cargo vessel. Dak was impatiently waiting for the captain to say something. Pop-pop hummed around them in circles. He too was growing impatient. The Captain’s eyebrows pressed inward as his mouth closed. “This can’t be right.” Cross whispered. His fingers simultaneously tapped at two screens in front of him. Dak watched the screens as Cross went through route logs, ship entries, and course corrections. He kept reading logs over and over to make sure he didn’t miss anything. After a couple of minutes, he made his way through the ship's history back to when they launched from the ship port. “I don’t get it. No anomalies. No deviations. No interference. There’s nothing here to even try and troubleshoot.” Said the captain. “I think I know what you are wondering. I looked it up too.” Pop-pop said. “That cargo vessel had just arrived at port when we were getting ready to leave. There’s no way it resupplied, beat us out here, and had catastrophic damage in this amount of time. “And look at the rust on the hull. Not to mention there are freaking vines growing out of the ship.” Dak stammered in excitement. Cross zoomed the front-starboard camera in. Held his finger on a leaf of the vine and selected the scan option. The familiar flashing icon of the computer's search went on for too long. There were no results. Cap tapped his finger on the console as he thought. “Okay, I want to make this quick. Wake up the crew except for Mel. We suit up, look for survivors, and mount a beacon on the hull. If nobody is alive, then we makeway to our destination. We have a tight schedule for this trip. We vid-log everything possible with speed.” Ordered the captain. Captain Cross, Buzz, Lefty, Pop-pop and Dak walked across the probe arm into the gaping hole. The large vessel gave a long, slow metallic groan. “Creepy as hell.” Said Buzz. “Nobody touches anything non-essential to finding survivors. Got that? Lefty goes for you double. Zero souvenirs. Pop-pop, keep your curiosity to a minimum. No wandering off.” Cross commanded. “Aww shucks. I bet there’s some sweet gear someone left behind. Aye aye Cap.” Lefty replied. “As you command my liege.” Said Pop-pop. As the group entered the black insides, a few loose shipping containers floated in the massive hold. Everything looked old and oxidized. Random pieces of equipment were strewn about the open area, floating without purpose. Buzz started, “Man I’d love to get a sample of that vi…” “No! We are here for one reason only. Let’s get in and out. Looks like we got only two options. Two of us…” Cap started but was interrupted by a scream. Buzz pushed the frozen corpse of a long dead crewman away from him. He had turned to look around and the terrified face was in front of his own. Everyone but Captain Cross chuckled at Buzz. “As I was saying. We got two paths. Me and Buzz will search the stern, and Dak and Lefty search the aft. Keep comms open at all times.” Cap said and then turned to look at everyone. “Don’t forget to grab the tags off any deceased you find.” Dak rolled his eyes and boosted up to the door with Lefty. Of course Pop-pop was there hovering around the shoulders of Dak. The two grabbed the manual override on the bay door and slowly opened it before it stuck wide enough for one man to go through. Lefty smirked at Dak. “Age before beauty. After you.” Lefty said to Dak. “Sarcastic, but at least you have some type of manners. Although misconstrued they may be.” Pop-pop commented. The three of them floated down the main corridor. Spot checking each room with their lamps. Both men were jumpy at every shadow while Pop-pop hummed carefree and inquisitive. Food trays, utensils, clothing, tools, canisters, food bags, and liquids all floated peacefully in the condemned ship. “Here we go boy. Sleep tube city.” Lefty said. “Ok, let's clear it and get out. The vines are creeping me out. I swear I saw one move. I’d rather see a body.” Said Dak. “You know why that is, don't you? Because, the bodies belong here. Those vines don’t.” Lefty gave Dak a dark grin before moving on to the sleep tubes. They checked each and every tube. One-by-one they went and then a piercing high-pitched crackle sputtered over their comms. “Dak, Lefty, you boys good?” Cap asked. “Yessir! I dunno what that was.” Dak replied. “Cap, we got nuthin but empty tubes with the stupid vines running in and out of them. No survivors, and zero bodies.” Lefty said. “Alright, same here with the vines. I think we are done here. Let's wrap it up and meet back in the cargo hold.” “Pop-pop? Hey Pop-pop. Where’d he go? Pop-pop!” Dak exclaimed. Dak turned his grav-ties on and started running in the dark. He went around turns and looked in corners. His heart began to race. His heartbeat was throbbing in his skull as his breathing quickened. He kept spinning in circles looking for Pop-pop and trying to figure out where he was. The lack of light made shadows dance around him. He heard a low vibration through his ear-piece. Something was watching him. Now all he could hear was his heart throbbing in his ears. His breathing began to stutter. That sense of fight or flight was kicking in. A search for Pop-pop now became a dangerous game of hide-and-seek in the dark. A shadow moved in his peripheral vision. “Dak! What the hell is going on?” Demanding Cross. “He just took off looking for Pop-pop. I’ll find him.” Lefty said. A cabinet door flew open in a dark corner of the room. Dak put up his hands to fight the unknown. “Sorry, sorry. I’m right here boy. Just an old man’s curiosity getting the best of him..” Pop-pop said excitedly. “Cap said no wandering off you old fool.” Dak replied. “Hey, what’s that?” Dak’s light illuminated a dead drone floating near Pop-pop. “That looks like your model Pop-pop.” “It is. Just like me. Almost feels as if I lost a brother. Oh well. Looks like a charge won’t save him anyway.” Pop-pop stated. Cross turned the beacon switch on and slapped it onto the hull of the cargo vessel. “Alright boys, good job. Well, mostly anyway. We might have to throw Pop-pop into the brig for a day for disobeying orders.” Cap said with a smirk. “Hold up! Don’t move Buzz.” “What is it, Cap?” Buzz replied. Cap grabbed his pack and pulled him in close. A green shimmering leaf was stuck to the top of Buzz’s pack. “It’s one of those leaves. Lemme remove it.” Cap instructed. “Get it off. Get it off. Get it off me!” Buzz yelled as Cap removed it. “Man, now I’m feeling itchy all over my skin.” Back aboard their ship, the crew decontaminated and showered. Cap sat in the cockpit ready to leave the curious ship that almost cost them their lives. He raised two fingers in a partial salute. “So long Delphine. May you all rest in peace.” He released the probe claw and set the ship onto a corrective path. His right hand throttled the engines. Dak was forced away from the table as the ship’s thrust went into full blast. Buzz and Lefty looked at Dak with pity. “Don’t worry you will gain weight. Look at me, I was as skinny as you before I got married. Then I got fat and happy.” Buzz said to Dak reassuringly. Captain Cross was making his way to join the crew for dinner. He stopped to look at Mel in her tube and checked her vitals. He tapped on the glass and then sat next to Dak. Pop-pop was sitting on a shelf and hooked up to a charging cable. His main blue eye was blinking slowly as if he were breathing. “You know she is gonna be pissed sour when she finds out what she missed. Eh, Cap?” Lefty said with a wink. “Well, she is just going to have to deal with it then, isn’t she? I know boys, I almost feel bad, but I don’t at the same time. She is too superstitious for stuff like that. Plus, I didn’t want her wandering off collecting samples like your robo-grampa over there.” Cap said. The cabin lights dimmed and flashed twice. “Incoming message, marked urgent.” Said the ship’s voice. “To, Captain Cross, captain of the freighter Ambrosia, Designation 117. Thank you for the immediate action of your crew. You went out of your way with good intentions. Unfortunately, I have to inform you that the cargo vessel information you sent is not quite accurate. That specified vessel left the Port of Imbrium not but two hours before we received your message. All crew and cargo have been verified and accounted for. I don’t know what exactly you found but we have sent out a rescue ship to that beacon’s location. Feel free to come visit my office upon your return for debriefing. All for now, and again, good work out there in the lanes. With regards, Harbor Master Leaf, Commanding. End of message.” The crew looked at each other dumbfounded before Buzz ripped open another chili-mac meal and squeezed it into his bowl. “So, what does that mean exactly?” Asked Dak. “It means they are suspicious and want to question me. Hell, they will want to question us and copy all of our logs. I’ll just be happy if they don’t impound my ship.” Said Cap. “Shoot, that’s a prime example of good deeds getting punished. No surprise there. Those Moonies always are lookin for a chance to do somethin big to get promoted off that rock.” Lefty added. “Never trust a Moony, they say.” Said Buzz. “What? Who are they, Buzz?” Asked Lefty. “Well, you know. Them. Us. Earthers.” Buzz responded. “You know Buzz, ever since I met you a few years back, I can’t tell when you are just talking to hear yourself or if you are just a bit off.” Lefty said to Buzz. “Well, if you asked my wife, which I better never see you near my house, then she would tell you I am more than a bit off.” Buzz said while chewing his chili-mac. Cap was looking around the ship. “Is it just me or does everything have a weird sheen covering it?” Dak rubbed his fingers across the table then looked at them. There was nothing that he could see being different. He shrugged his shoulders at Cross. “Good news is we only have a couple E-days to the mining facility. You can all go back in the tube if you’d like, I’m going to go ahead and take the rest of this shift.” Cap said. “There’s no way I can sleep right now. Between that one frozen body in the fake Delphine ghost ship, and the creepy noises going through our comms…” Lefty got interrupted. “At least you didn’t have space leaves stuck to you.” Buzz said with too much excitement. Dak slowly bit into a cracker and chewed it too much. His mouth was dry from the cracker. The salt enriched the flavor. The flash of the deep darkness in the ship bothered him even as a memory. He still swore to himself there was something else in that vessel. He couldn’t see it, but it was watching him. “What if the ship itself was somehow alive?” Asked Dak. “Pfft okay, here we go again. Little boy dark with his tiny crawly robots always clinging to his body. Dak, if I had a credit for every time you got scared; I’d be the richest man in Ireland.” Replied Lefty. Buzz rolled his eyes and laughed. “Don’t you go laughing at anyone, you big green ogrin. You screamed like a four year old girl when you saw that body.” Lefty antagonized. “Grey skinned!” Said Buzz. “Grey!? Are you havin a laugh mate? If you are grey then my skin is purple.” Lefty said. Up on the shelf a whirring noise followed by hard drive clicks were heard. Pop-pop disconnected his cable and hummed over to Dak. He looked at Dak sheepishly. His main eye glanced at everyone. “P-pardon me gentlemen. I have been monitoring all the data. I went over all the videos. I have been thinking. After our delivery, we should return to Earth. Let those Moonies wait. We report it to Earth and let the Harbor Masters fight it out.” Stated Pop-pop. “Yeah, but you know that crusty old Moonie Harbor Master will sanction us from taking on any more jobs from all lunar spaceports.” Said Buzz. Cap started, “Maybe, but after this haul we can afford it. Not a bad…” The ship's power blacked out without an alarm sounding. The crew began to float as emergency lighting flickered on. “Get Mel!” Cap ordered.