Log entry 7342. Ship time 06:23.09.2321.
We found the wreckage of the ISS Meridian drifting in the periphery of the Helios Nebula. The ship had been missing for seventy-three standard years. Its distress beacon was still active, broadcasting a ghost signal into the void.
I led the salvage team through the airlock. The ship’s interior was preserved in near-perfect condition — the vacuum of space had frozen time itself. Coffee cups still sat on the bridge console. A data slate lay on the captain’s chair, its screen still glowing with the last entry.
“They came from the anomaly. Not human. Not machine. Something between. They didn’t attack — they observed. And then they… merged.”
The crew wasn’t dead. They were part of the ship now. Biological interfaces had grown into the walls, the conduits, the very hull itself. The Meridian had become a living organism, and its crew were its neurons.
Chief Engineer Vex declared it a biohazard. Captain Torres wants to tow it back for study. I say we burn it and never speak of it again.
Some things in the black should stay lost.
— Lt. Commander Zara Vane, ISS Resolute