The ship drifted in the void, a rusting hulk against the burning nebula.

Inside, the crew huddled in the dim emergency lighting, faces gaunt, eyes haunted. Waiting—for rescue, death, or anything to break the suffocating uncertainty.

Captain Xander stood on the bridge, staring out at the stars. He once dreamed of conquering the stars. Now they mocked him, unreachable.

The comms lit up. "Xander." Lena, in engineering, voice strained. "The reactor’s failing…"

"I know." He thumbed the comm. "What's our time?"

A pause. "Hours. Maybe less. Hard to say with these patched-up systems."

"Understood. Keep me updated."

The bridge door hissed open. Vance, his XO, stood in the doorway, pale. "Sir. There's...something out there."

Xander frowned and turned. "Debris? An asteroid?"

"No. Something else. On sensors, at the edge of range. Moving towards us."

"Show me," said Xander.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

They huddled around the sensor display. A faint blip flickered, barely distinguishable from the background noise. Growing.

"What the hell..." Xander zoomed in. A shape resolved. Angular. Massive. A ship, but like none he'd ever seen. Dull black, absorbing most of the light. "Where did it come from?"

"Unknown. But it's coming straight for us."

The shape grew, its details sharpening. Slabs of metal, brutal geometry. Weapon turrets studded the hull—stark, intimidating.

"Battle stations." Xander's words came out in a tense, clipped tone. He punched the comm. "Lena, I need everything you can give me."

"Captain, we can't! The reactor—"

"No choice. Yell out if she’s going critical, but we have to move."

With labored effort, the ship turned to face the threat. The black behemoth loomed, blotting out the stars. Xander's mouth was dry. "Hail them."

"No response."

Xander stood ready at the weapons controls.

Vance gripped the sensorscope, knuckles white. "700 meters. 600. It's—"

Blinding light. Searing. Xander threw up a hand, eyes watering. Proximity alarms howled.

"Report!"

"Some kind of energy surge! Scanning..." Vance hunched over the scope. He froze. He looked up in disbelief.

"It's gone."

"What?"

"The ship. It just...vanished."

Xander blinked, then stared. The void stared back, mocking and empty. No trace of the black behemoth remained.

The comm buzzed. Lena, breathless, said, "Captain! The reactor...I don’t get it, but it’s stabilizing. System functions are coming back online."

Xander sat back in his chair. Vance looked at him, eyes wide.

"What...what was that thing? What did it want?"

Xander shook his head. "I don’t know. Maybe it saved us."

He looked back out at the nebula, the cold uncaring stars, and shivered. The universe, he realized, was stranger than they’d imagined. And maybe, they weren’t as alone as they’d thought.