text: “Hey, you! Are you a survivor?!” Yuri shouted. A person was staring at him. No response was heard. “Answer me or I WILL shoot.” “What the hell are you shouting at?” Blake asked. “There’s a guy by the pile of bodies over there. Don’t you see him?” Yuri responded. Blake seemed confused. He scouted the area looking for the person Yuri was referring to. He was nowhere to be found. “The scene of dead bodies might be messing with your head, or your brain chip might have gotten corrupted,” he suggested. Yuri stopped for a moment. “Well, If you can’t see it, you might be right... I’ll get it checked once we get off this damn rock,” he said. The person was completely still and staring at Yuri. It was as if he was a robot that was shut down while looking forward. He tried to move from place to place, waving his hands around. The person was following Yuri with his eyes. “He’s following my movement, Blake! This isn’t a damn glitch!” Yuri exclaimed. He was beginning to panic a little. “Calm down. He can’t be real, because I can’t see him, nor does the infrared sensor. And the ship is not detecting any human life besides us. Those poor bastards are all dead,” Blake responded. “And how are you not worried? I heard brain chip corruptions can be dangerous. What if it shuts off suddenly and I’m left unable to hear and see?!” Yuri said while still eyeing the person. “Just wait till we reach the space station and don’t jinx it. I told you that chips are not reliable. Now forget that and help me move these bodies to the ship,” Blake said. Brain chips are most commonly used by people to enhance their senses or to replace a part of the brain that was damaged, such as the case with Yuri, whose occipital lobe had suffered damage due to a hit to the back of the head. And Blake, while being a scientist and valuing science over all, didn’t give in to the temptation, holding the belief it might malfunction at any time. Yuri hesitantly agreed to move the thought aside and pretend the person wasn’t there, even if it was a hard task by itself. They transported the required number of bodies into the ship and flew off, leaving the now dead settlements behind. Those two men were scientists sent to the planet of Nox to gather dead bodies in order to study them and figure out the reason they died. The planet was newly settled on, so not a lot of settlements were established. But then suddenly they all started dying a few weeks before the scientists arrived. A distress signal was picked up by the nearby space station, whose contents indicated that they died because of some disease. When groups were sent to investigate, human life had already perished. Heavily blemished Corpses were littering the ground. Nobody could tell what kind of horrible stench was plaguing the air as removing the protective suits would be a death wish. Now you might ask. Why are scientists the ones collecting the bodies? Aren’t they just supposed to receive them through some other paid group? Well, that’s because they were already passing by the planet, so they didn’t want to wait for the bodies to be delivered. While the ship crew only consisted of two members, they doubled as mechanics and experienced shooters, they knew what to do with a gun and skillfully so. Only one of them knew how to command a ship though. Unfortunately, they weren’t technicians, or the chip would have been checked by now. Once they put the corpses in the freezer, they made sure to decontaminate every exposed piece of equipment. They wouldn’t want to face the same fate as those back on the planet. Blake set the route and handed the control over to the auto-pilot. He rotated the chair to face Yuri who was sitting beside the reinforced window, looking at the person. He followed him into the ship. Or maybe he was a ‘she’? Or perhaps an ‘it’? It was hard for him to decide. “You know, I heard stories that people hallucinate a person a few hours before their death,” Blake said. “Hey! I thought you told me to not jinx it?!” Yuri responded, annoyed at the fact Blake would say such a thing when it was obvious he was not feeling at ease. “I’m just messing with you, man,” Blake said. “So, how does it look exactly?” “I don’t even know if it’s a man or a woman. It’s so undernourished I mistook its arms for sticks with claws attached to the ends of them. Its face barely looks like a human’s from how underfed it is. And it’s wearing tattered clothes, for some reason,” Yuri described it. “And...” “And?” Blake asked. “Why did you stop?” Yuri took some time to respond. He seemed baffled. Or maybe he was distressed. His body movement and speech changed a bit. “It said ‘Soon. Join. Us. You’,” Yuri responded. “This is starting to get creepy Blake.” He was distraught. Although he saw multiple death-enveloped scenes and things most people might deem disturbing, this was something else. He hadn’t felt this scared before. “Ha? What does it mean?” Blake asked. “And how am I supposed to know?” Yuri responded. He was frustrated. “I haven’t even heard of a corrupted brain chip that did this.” A few hours have passed. Yuri spent this time trying to distract his mind, still sitting in front of the window. Some instants had him thinking about what the person meant. The other scientist was busy trying to contact a technician on the space station. He complained that they would have started investigating the corpses if not for the fact Yuri can’t work all the while that “hallucination” is still present. Blake suggested that he throws something at the person so that Yuri can be assured it’s only a glitch. And just so he did. He threw a pillow at it. It suddenly disappeared and materialized nearby to where it was just before the impact was made. This caused Yuri to become more distressed, opposed to what Blake was hoping would happen. It was as if it had a mind of its own. It knew something was about to hit it. An idea came to his mind. What if he throws something at it while closing his eyes? Maybe that will change something. Before doing so, the ship interrupted them. “Captain, energy reserves are close to running out. The vessel will have to stop and replenish power,” it said. “The solar panels are malfunctioning, they are not opening. They will have to be checked captain, or the ship will be stuck in space.” Both the scientists looked irritated, especially Blake. He was cursing, sometimes stumbling on his words from how much he started spewing them from his mouth. He complained again that this wouldn’t have happened if Yuri agreed to exchange the vessel for another one. He got irritated even more when Yuri didn’t respond, rather looking at him for some seconds with a blank face and returning to staring at the spot in front of the window whom Blake saw as blank space. A few moments of silence followed which were broken when Blake told the other to go fix the solar panels himself, as he didn’t do anything in the past few hours, and suggested that this could be an opportunity to distract himself. What a misfortunate thing to happen. They could have reached the station. It was only an hour away and they didn’t want to call in maintenance from over there when they could fix the problem themselves. Or maybe it was because they didn’t wanna pay. Nonetheless, Yuri agreed and stood up, heading towards the suit locker. He was thankful that it was not near the person. He didn’t once try to get near it, in fear of damaging the chip if he did. Again, the ship interrupted them. “Warning! Warning! An object is approaching directly at high speeds from the right flank of the ship!” “What now?!” Blake shouted. What an unfortunate series of events he thought. “What is this object you're referencing?” He quickly said before it approached farther. The other scientist stayed silent and listened to what the ship had to say. “It appears to be a rock, Captain.” The ship said. “While being relatively small, moving at such a high speed will make this a catastrophic impact.” “What the hell are you waiting for? Shoot the damn thing,” Blake said, agitated. The defense system managed to shoot the rock, turning it into small, miniature pieces. Most of them passed by the ship. But, the rest hit the flank of the ship. Their impact’s violent vibrations caused the window to shatter, in turn causing pressure to escape the ship. Objects were being sucked out. Blake managed to cling to the command chair, his arms barely holding on. Yuri was not as fortunate. He wasn’t near anything he could grab as he was heading towards the locker. He was pulled towards the window. He imagined he was a goner, that he was gonna freeze in space. He couldn’t even die a peaceful death, he thought. But before that could happen, the automatic window shutter was closed. Yuri violently hit the back of his cranium against the window shutter as he was being sucked out. He hit the floor after but was somehow still conscious. He was bleeding profusely. It was as if the back of his head was destined to be damaged. Blake rushed to him, trying to see the injuries that had been done. He was no doctor. They were scientists, mechanics and he knew how to pilot a ship. But a doctor? He was not. Blood was already soaking Blake’s shoes. He didn’t even know if Yuri could survive to live another day. He was in critical condition, breathing rapidly, heart beating fast. He didn’t even know if he could save him. The ship’s automatic med-bay could have saved him if not for the defense system which consumed the remaining power. He quickly brought a gauze and ice pack and applied it to the location of the trauma, hoping it would slow down the bleeding and eventually cause clotting. But what would that achieve when death is already at Yuri’s doorstep? “Captain, an unknown vessel is approaching. It doesn’t look like a...” The energy reserves ran out before it could continue. A chill ran down Blake’s spine. For a moment he was even close to forgetting about the current condition of Yuri. He couldn’t ask what kind of ship was approaching, nor could he see outside as the shutter replaced the window. Maybe it was a confederate vessel? Or rather a pirate ship? He was left with figuring that out once they board the ship if they are even going to do that. Maybe they are just passing by. Yuri on the other hand was barely clinging to life. The trauma was too severe. The person that he was seeing was still standing where it was before. Completely still and with an expressionless face. Then, it started slowly approaching Yuri, its undernourished face and body becoming more and more detailed. He couldn’t freak out. He was in such a critical state he couldn’t react. “Now. Join. Us. You,” it said, in the most monotonous way possible, in a voice so hoarse. Blake turned around, still pressing the cloth against Yuri’s head. He froze for a moment while staring at the wall. He looked at the airlock, checking if anybody had boarded yet. There were no signs of entry though. He was seeing a girl, skin burned so much it didn’t look survivable. Or maybe she was a ‘he’? He couldn’t tell. She was standing by the wall. Where did she come from though? Did she hide in the ship when they landed on that planet without him knowing? Or maybe she hid when they were docked in a space station. But no, security would have seen her. He turned on the infrared sensor in his helmet, but she didn’t appear. She only did when he looked at her without it. “Hey, Yuri,” Blake spoke. But it was as if he was speaking to an unanswering wall. Yuri had other problems on his plate. “Why am I seeing a little girl? I don’t even have a brain chip.