The majority of the station's population is sleeping, unaware of a presence in their midst that is probing, scanning, collecting data upon data about them and storing them away for the moment that it knows will come. Not now, not anytime soon, but it will come. It's always the same...

Out of the blue, he sees her through a tunnel, impossibly far away even though her face was hovering right above him just a moment ago. Her eyebrows are drawn together, and she moves her lips in what seems to be a question directed at him – the words sounding somewhat like “Are you okay?”, stretched in an impossible slow-motion – and he wants to scream “No, I’m not okay! How could I be okay? – except there is still this tube in his throat. But even if i

Darwin paces a little more. Stares at the plasma screen, her back to us, before she turns around, her blue eyes mustering the executive. "What if I told you that I've discovered nanobots that are as far ahead of our nanobots as current computer technology is ahead of the abacus?" Rosselli stands at a speed sufficient to send his chair spinning back across the room. A startled "WHAT!" is all he can shout

There’s the image of the beings, tall, proud, forming the planets they encountered after their will. Forming the creatures on them after their will. They were, in fact, gods. But their greed for creation eventually became their doom. The fresco tells it all, and what the images there don’t convey is being filled in by Her. She’s with him now, wants him to see. To understand. The Gods created Her race. They were meant to rid the spacefarers of their enemies. After that, they were meant to self-

‘Please, I don’t wanna do this!’ But I obey and grab what’s left of the mouthpiece to pull it out of the killer’s trachea. The colorless eyes find me, and for a micro-second, I freeze. It’s not just the eerie experience of being in the human beast’s focus – but the odd impression of having two beings staring at me out of the same eyes! It stuns me for a microsecond – for too long.

The holes in his cover get bigger. They eat into the rest of his willpower like acid, dissolve it, help the other part to get stronger, to develop. The taste of his own blood fuels its fury, makes it ravenous until it turns on the other one to sink its teeth and claws into the fighting rest of human identity. This is the enemy, right here with them. Holding them captive. Torturing them. Killing them. It has to be exorcised from this body once and for all.

"I'm here about the girl, Dr. deJoria." She twitches, her body tense. I suspect she has been fearing for this for ages. "Rebecca? Are you going to take her away from me? You can't! She -" "It's worse, Doctor. Much worse." I don't know how to bring this to her in a gentle way. And maybe the gentle way would be wrong here. Maybe throwing her headfirst into the ice-cold water will be the most efficient way for getting the results I need. "Darwin wants her for her project."

"Without warning, he smacks his fist against the wall… denting it! And busting all his knuckles! I don’t flinch, even if I’m getting an impression of the white-hot bolt of pain he just caused himself before I can block his mind. What’s even more disturbing is that I’m unable to detect that pain in his expression as he turns towards me, his hand dripping blood. ‘Watch!’ An ominous hiss rises from the floor, makes me hold my breath as I watch the holes spread on the floor. "