A horrible terror gripped the crew. An asteroid field appeared suddenly on the radar. Nothing the systems shouldn’t have been able to detect. If all was normal.

But in the past three months since the crew had left Ganymede, nothing had been normal.

Complaints of static interrupting the comms. A ghost in the system, the RdM called it. The captain joked with the first mate that the extra shares of stimpaks and run should be cut, but those laughs didn’t last long as the static grew more and more frequent.

Soon, siren calls made their way over the PA system. At all hours of the day and night, a haunting vibrato intermeshed with chirps and tweets bore itself into the crews minds.

Thirty five missions and counting, and never before had Arander Semakis failed to deliver. He hadn’t become a captain to lose his crew to asteroids and auditory hallucinations.

“What’s the move, Cap?” Bellies said as he stood on the observation deck next to Arander. His sweat stained tunic matched his greasy voice.

“Tell Malin to activate emergency thrusters. Codzen protocol. Swing starboard and give it everything we’ve got. There’s only one chance to escape this field.”

“Are you sure the ship can hold?”

“It’ll have to,” Arander said before opening the comms, “Everyone strap in.” The first streak of lights blurred past the window. The ship jostled as the thrusters swung it starboard. A small pocket on the radar showed Arander all he needed to know. All he could hope for. A way out.

In that moment, he wondered about alien gods. About what stretched past the cosmos. And if it would accept his crew if they couldn’t fight clear.