Space was empty. Quiet. Cold. The Hail Mary was similar, except it was full of Grace’s messes, constantly buzzing with inner machinery, and stuck at an uncomfortable, lukewarm temperature. They had something in common, however: they were both very lonely. Moppy Ringwald, a mop, was his only company. There was also Mary, but the ship’s automated helper wasn’t much of a conversationalist. Neither was Moppy Ringwald, actually. At least Mary could talk…

Dr. Ryland Grace was oh-so utterly bored. There wasn’t much to do on the ship. He’d run out of vodka, and he got headaches trying to pull details from a life he couldn’t remember.

“Blip A detected,” Mary’s robotic voice announced through the speakers, startling Grace awake.

“What? What’s a Blip A?” he asked the ship as he pushed himself up from the desk and climbed into the captain’s chair.

“Blip A detected,” Mary repeated.

Grace grumbled under his breath as he squinted at one of the many screens in front of him. There was another mass on the radar. What could it be?

He slid out of the chair, scrambling toward the viewport. And there it was. Another ship. And it was getting closer.

“Nope, nope, nope,” Grace muttered, hauling himself back into the captain’s chair. “Mary, let’s go!”

He didn’t get the chance to buckle in before a loud clunk reverberated through the ship. He froze. On the screen, a message flashed — UNIDENTIFIED VESSEL HAS INITIATED DOCKING PROCEDURE.

Crap.

He squeezed his eyes shut, thinking. He couldn’t think. He opened them a second later, slowly turning toward the airlock hatch.

He got out of the chair, slowly, and made his way over. Slowly.