I scrambled back to the bridge, the whole ship still humming softly. I took a number of detours along the way, but still couldn’t evade the passengers. I smiled weakly and waved, hoping they wouldn’t notice the sheen of sweat that now covered my face.

Once on the bridge I keyed the door lock behind me. The pilot was frantic already. “Kaine. What. The flarn is this thing?” Arni had a visual of them already it looked like. I peered over at his screen.

The thing was still a few hundred thousand kilometers away, but it was big. It looked to me like an enormous, cosmic starfish, filled with fractal designs. “Give me a close up.” I pointed through the mist screen.

“Wait, right there. Is that thing moving?”

It was iridescent, and seemed to reflect all light that hit it. It was changing shape, and it made my stomach hurt to look too long. The patterns in it were intense.

“Kaine, we’re moving straight towards it. All of our dampeners are having no effect whatsoever.”

“It’s ok. I have an idea.”