In space, no one can hear you die.

There is something there in the shadows. I peer into the darkness, but see nothing.

There is no smell, no sound, nothing but the hairs on the back of my neck standing at attention to tell me I'm not alone.

Silence echoes down the corridor, the sunlamps offering nothing but the naked emptiness of the hollow metal plating. The stars whirl beyond the thick glass in their timeless dance, deep in the endless void of the space beyond.

I turn, tensing. I'm supposed to be alone here in the hydroponics lab, but I know I'm not.

Maybe I'm losing my mind. A dose of agoraphobia to go with the unseen, silent killer that wiped out half the station already. A death toll that was blamed on a previously unknown viral phage, but I know better. I've seen the effects it has on the infected. The way it turns the body inside out, twisting it into something that cannot be recognized as having once been human.

It's more than a mere virus. It can think for itself, pushes the bodies of those already dead along in some sort of hive mind.

I run to the door, lock it as quickly as possible... just in time to hear the skittering. I can feel my heart trying to hammer its way out of my chest.

I have to find a cure. I will find the cure if it kills me. And it probably will.