Smoke curled through the hallway, clinging to the walls like ghostly fingers as Donovan and Sarah ran. The acrid scent of burning lab equipment stung their noses, and sparks rained from the shattered ceiling panels. Donovan ran ahead, his boots clanging against the metal floor, while Sarah tried to keep up.
"Where are we going?" Sarah shouted, her voice trembling, cutting through the hiss of the escaping smoke.
"The dock," Donovan said, eyes scanning the walls ahead. "We can try to reach the escape pods from outside."
"That sounds… dangerous," Sarah said, not hesitating to catch a breath. "Can’t we just use the inside of the ship?"
Donovan’s jaw tightened. "Not unless we want to cross paths with that thing."
They reached the dock, each movement frantic. Donovan yanked open a closet and grabbed a spacesuit, tossing it to Sarah, who quickly slipped into it. The metal of her suit clanged against the floor as she struggled into the limbs.
"Is this even safe?" she asked, her voice muffled by the helmet.
"Risky," Donovan said, "but we don’t have a choice. If we stay inside, it will find us."
The door hissed and slid open. A sudden rush of air snatched loose objects from the room, spinning them into the void of space. The gravity vanished entirely, and Donovan and Sarah began to float, tumbling slightly as they clutched the handlebars.
"Come on," Donovan said, pointing through the opening. "There—it’s right there!"
"How do we get there? There’s nothing to grab onto!" Sarah’s voice cracked with fear.
"Grab my hand!" Donovan extended his gloved hand, and she latched on tightly. Donovan fired his pistol into the opposite direction of the escape pods. Each shot pushed them forward, the recoil propelling them slowly through the void. Another shot, and they floated faster.
A low, guttural growl rolled across the empty space, vibrating through the metal of the ship.
"It’s nearby," Sarah whispered, frozen in terror.
"We’re almost there," Donovan replied, firing again to keep their momentum. But a new sound cut through the chaos—a loud, twisting warping of metal, as if the ship itself was groaning in agony.
"Donovan, look!" Sarah shouted, pointing at the side of the ship. The hull bent and stretched like putty, and a massive tentacle tore through, glistening black with slime. Two more followed, writhing and flexing as the opening widened.
Donovan fired one last shot. Click. Empty. His pistol was spent.
From the gaping hole emerged what appeared to be the monsters mouth. Thousands of jagged teeth lined a circular maw, drooling black saliva that drifted in the zero-gravity void. Tentacles lashed outward like dark, writhing snakes, searching, probing, stretching toward them.
"Go!" Donovan screamed, shoving Sarah toward the escape pods. But before she could reach them, a thick, purple tentacle shot from the creature’s mouth and snaked around Donovan’s ankle.
He swung his knife blindly, slicing partially through the corded limb, but another purple tentacle wrapped around his arm, pinning him. Another followed. He kicked with his only free foot, thrashing in desperation. The tentacles pulled him closer, the teeth snapping shut around his legs with a wet, sickening crunch. Pain shot through his body as the monster began to swallow him inch by inch.
Sarah watched in frozen horror, helmet fogging with her rapid breath. Donovan screamed, his voice echoing across the void, as the teeth tore upward from his legs to his waist. His arms flailed uselessly, caught in the tentacles, until his head finally disappeared into the monstrous mouth.
The creature retracted slowly into the ship, the enormous shadow folding back into the broken hull. Sarah’s heart pounded in her chest as she searched the escape pod. She spotted the hatch and began forcing it open, sweat and tears pooling in the gaps of her helmet.
The ship shook violently. Sarah’s gloved hands slipped as she tried to hold on. She grabbed a dangling wire and pulled herself back, but the tremors intensified, wrenching her grip from her fingers. She spun into the void, drifting farther and farther from the burning wreck.
Her gaze clung to the wreckage as it shrank behind her. Amidst the smoke and debris, she saw a massive form—a silhouette several stories tall, moving subtly through the haze, away from the ship. A deep, rumbling roar rolled across the emptiness.
Sarah floated, helpless, paralyzed by awe and terror. The infinite void stretched around her, silent except for the low growl of the creature behind her. One thought, icy and unrelenting, consumed her mind:
They never stood a chance.
