The panels of monitors glowed around Sarah telling her that all the shuttle systems were functioning fine. She was only a day away from the station and feeling on edge after a couple of weeks spent alone. She had picked up the supply canister without any problems and had enjoyed the time to think only for herself for a change away from the responsibility and quiet strain that patterned their lives out here. She had been able to simply sit each day and watch the stars, the only thing she had ever wanted to do. Of course command would not be happy that she had come out alone, as regulations demanded at least two pilots, but they would be unlikely to find out. At the end of the solar system they had an unprecedented amount of autonomy from the rest of the human race. A buzz sounded and the automatic connect she had initiated a couple of minutes before activated. She looked into the screen above her catching her own reflection as it flickered into life. She was getting on towards forty but had kept youthful with a plain kind of pretty face under a bob of brown hair. Mikhail's face replaced her own with a fluorescent flare and animated blockily into a rare grin as her image took shape on his display. His face was unshaven, his dark hair in a typically short cut.

"Hey, Captain. Glad to see you." He began, his Russian burr heavy over the delayed radio link, "You on your way back?"

"Yes. Approaching at t minus twenty hours now. Be ready for me."

"Of course. Some interesting things been happening here while you were gone. David's gone mad again, serious this time. Need you to make a decision on it."

"Great." At the thought of David her heart sank. She had long resented him being on the mission and wanted to somehow wish him away for months. The prospect of having to deal with him again seemed to confirm the sourness that was growing over her as she grew closer to her responsiblities.

"Anything else for me?"

"Yes." Mikhail's face involuntarily gained a secretive air and Sarah noticed how tired he looked, "But it can wait until you get back." He gave her a look suggesting that she should not try to force the issue.

"Come on, don't play bullshit games" she retorted, surprising herself with a sudden anger.

"I'm not!" He pleaded, his voice rising a pitch and his expression indicating his honesty. "It's just something you need to see back here. It's a surprise. You'll like it."

Sarah sat back, puzzled and apologetic.

 "OK. Sorry. See you tomorrow then. Out."

The transmission cut and she was left with a greying screen and a sudden awareness of the blackness outside of the cockpit where she sat. She thought about the conversation, her first in over a week. Not much had been said but things had happened while she had been away. Things that she should have been there to deal with or prevent.

She clicked a couple of buttons and turned on the voice recognition. "Telescope down." She ordered. There was no response except for a faint whirring of machinery below her as the scout's telescope equipment was lowered from its bay. "Focus, Omega Station. 10 times." The screen above her came back into life displaying a faint, irregularly shaped green star. "Increase zoom" Slowly the star began to grow, the blurred edges taking on the harder shapes of a man-made object. "Stop." It hung there illuminated by only its own lighting too far out from the sun whose warmth she had grown up in. It span slowly, drifting through space powered by the gentle corrective push of an ion engine to keep them a part of the solar system. They hung on the edge of home, further than anyone before them, amid a wealth of science and studies. Now, a year after arriving reconsidered in the two weeks alone with just the vastness of the void around her she was feeling ambiguous about the station.

Life had been one of quiet calm inside the bubble displayed on the screen occasionally punctuated by David's outbursts and a subsequent period of struggle for all of them. Ostensibly he was there to keep the rest of them sane but, while everyone else had their jobs to do and got on with them, David was left with making up his own as he went along. Slowly it was David that became the problem. Her requests to have him taken back were repeatedly refused by Jupiter Moon leading her to the opinion that he was not mad but was in fact conducting some kind of experiment of his own, possibly sanctioned by Command, to see how they dealt with him.

She sighed, ordered the telescope back in and powered down ready for sleep. She checked that the auto guidance system was configured correctly and unclipped herself from the pilot seat to clamber her way back to her bed.

The next day her scout docked in the brilliant white bay of the station. She sat in a space suit for the first time since she had left and waited until the red light on the door in front of her turned green to indicated that the seals has been made and she was safe to move through.

The hatch opened with a melodramatic hiss Sarah hardly even noticed and a couple of bugs, their nickname for the maintenaince robots that were omniprescent on the staion in all shapes and forms, immediately rushed in. These were the size of shoe boxes with legs sticking out at each side for easier movement in the low and zero g environments that they operated in. She knew without looking that smaller ones she could hardly even see had begun checking circuitry and mechanics while the containers held to the side of her scout by electro-magnetic clamps were already being removed by their bigger brothers, as was the protective green gel that protected her ship from the minor impacts of space travel. These shields would then be processed by others so that anything caught in them could be analysed. Afterwards the gel packs were reformed and reused.

Mikhail stood there offering her a salute. She grinned back. Having been recruited from the civilian service she was not attached to such military displays. She tolerated it in this old school Russian, her second, in the good humour that permeated her relationship with the older man. He still had not had a shave.

He spoke first "Let's get to ops. You'll want to see this" then he turned and pushed himself down, feet first, the padded corridor to the rim of the station where a weak gravity held them. Having weight again felt a little weird to her, as it always did, but she calmly followed his back the short distance to the small room designated for their operations. The office did not appear to have changed since she had left and generally reflected the work they had to do, a couple of consoles and a clutter of other junk accumulated over the months.

Sarah sat down with a slight hunch to her shoulders from over compensating for the forgotten familiar pull downwards and grinned at him.

"So what's this great mystery then?"

Mikhail sat down at his desk, passcoded his console and after a few clicks turned his monitor to face her.

"A few days ago some of the astronomers spotted this." On the screen was a black screen with a red dot. In the corners were figures and stamps that told when the picture was taken and its position from them at the time. "It now looks like this." He flicked another button. The red dot was larger.

"So what is it?"

"Big, and heading this way. Apart from that we don't really know. It isn't going to hit us, just fly by at about 50 AU. Definitely not a comet, too big for that or asteroid. The astro's have concluded it is a rogue planet."

"What do you think?"

"I think we wait and see. I haven't sent a transmission back solar about it yet. Thought I'd leave that for you." He smiled grimly, "By the time we get a reply this thing'll be on it's way out again anyway."

"Well, I guess this has got them all buzzing." No doubt there had been plenty of arguments throughout the station. This was the first real thing to have happened since they arrived, she realised. Perhaps the resulting tense atmosphere she could sense behind Mikhail's attitude and obvious lack of sleep had somehow affected David. She suddenly felt very guilty about having been away.

"Oh yes." Mikhail paused thoughtfully."Some very interesting debates. You need to speak to the astros for the full picture. They can explain the details."

Sarah almost laughed at Mikhail's earnestness as he saying this. He had a capacity for cynicism as big as her own, a rarity on board that naturally brought them together, but sometimes he surprised her with a naivety that missed the bitterness that could sour relationships between people. The mystery cleared her mind returned to the other matter.

"What about David?"

"Ah, our psychiatrist friend. He's being held in medical. The doctor looks after him. I'm afraid he's pretty much gone. Threw himself out of an airlock without a suit. Claimed that the bugs were alive and that he knew they'd rescue him."

Sarah felt everything stop. She had expected it to be one of his stupid pranks gone wrong. Depression maybe. Not a suicide attempt. Mikhail's voice continued.

"Of course, they're programmed to. Had him back on board without too much damage." He looked at her, his eyes gained a ruthless clarity, "He has to go this time."

"I agree. There's no way he can stay here. Is he at all lucid? I need to have a talk with him first."

"The doctor says that he can be remarkably able, considering."

"I'll check in on him on my way to the astro lab."

Mikhail nodded. She got up, feeling a mixture of shock and curious pleasure to be back on the station. Mikhails voice sounded out behind her, "Captain," she turned back to look at him, "It's damn good to have you back."

Sarah walked down the corridor slowly starting to enjoy the feel of having a "down" again and trying to ignore the slight disorientation of the curve upwards she was following. At the doorway to the medical centre she drew a breath and walked in. There was a small office, tidy and clean as you would expect a doctor's to be, with a large glass panel overlooking the 3 beds that formed the entirety of the stations medical provision. Until now these beds had been unused except as temporary stations for fitness tests but Sarah's first view of the room immediately told her that David had been firmly strapped into the nearest one, apparently asleep and hooked up to a plethora of monitoring devices keeping track of his heart, blood, breathing, brain activity, bowel movements, and a host of other automated nursing functions.

Elkan, a tall and sedate Dutchman served as their medical doctor on board as well as helping out the Japanese in their biodome. He was dark skinned with giant deep brown eyes set in a lightly pock-marked face as a reminder of an adolescence he seemed to have bypassed. She did not know him well but he seemed to be one of those people born old. He was sat facing the window watching David's sleep with a sad, resigned air. The two men had been friends. He glanced around and welcomed her but a smile did not even begin to register.

"Hi," she said, "I need to talk to him."

"Feel free. He's just pretending to be asleep because he knows I'm here. He doesn't want to talk to me."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't believe him."

"What, that he is crazy?"

Elkan gave out a short, bitter laugh. "No, he's definitely crazy. I meant about his ideas. He believes the AI is alive, conscious. He began bugging everyone about it with that earnestness that he has. I think it was some way for him to define life out here, something he latched on to."

Sarah looked over at the prone body beyond the divide. "He seemed fne before I left. Well. within his own normal anyway."

"I doubt he really believed it himself at first, really it was just a thought experiment. But it quickly grew out of control. He was a lot sicker than any of us suspected. Eventually he devised an experiment. He was running around the station in a definite mania, we managed to catch and sedate him. Then, during second watch, I was woken up by the alarm. I didn't even know what it was at first. By the time anyone had worked out what was going on the bugs had dragged him back on board and he just sat there screaming 'I told you. I told you.' Poor bastard."

"I'm sorry", Sarah offered, "I know you two were close. What about physical condition?"

"We've patched him up but he still has some bruising from the decompression and where we had to restrain him. Nothing serious"

Sarah leant over and placed her hand on Elkan's shoulder. With a shock she realised this was her first human contact in over three weeks. She pulled her arm back in what she hoped was not too brisk a movement and looked through the window again. "I guess I'd better go in" She stepped up to the door and opened it. A faint waft of warmth came towards her carrying the smell of medical sterilization and she stepped through letting the door swing shut behind her. She grabbed one of the plastic chairs and lifted it trying to drag it as quietly as possible to the edge of the bed. David was reasonably handsome, in a bland American blonde way, messed slightly by the bruising from decompression. Sarah suspected that it was now compulsory for US citizens to have plastic surgery from birth. As she sat down continuing to inspect his face his eyes snapped open.

"Hello, captain" He spoke quietly, without emotion, a toneless recognition of the world around him. "You heard about me then?"

"Yes, I heard. You endangered the crew, you almost killed yourself." Despite herself she found it difficult to keep the bitterness out of her voice. This man was a part of the crew. He had no right to be like this. "You've been playing a stupid, dangerous game and I don't want you on this station anymore. I'm requesting that you be returned solar and this time they can't refuse."

Hisface illuminated with an inner spark, the first hint of either life or emotion since she walked in, "But they are alive. I know."

"Stop it. You threw yourself out of an airlock and the bugs rescued you. That's what they're programmed to do."

"No, not in the way you think. They are programmed to change and learn, they have become more than they were. Is there anything in their programming that says they can predict the actions of a madman?" He squirmed under the restraints trying to twist himself to a more comfortable view of Sarah. Under the intense gaze she could not find any words to respond. She merely shook her head. "They aren't computers, a computer can just add one and one, but it can't understand colour, or action. A computer computes, it doesn't know. There were two bugs waiting for me. They knew what I was doing. Check the logs, see for yourself."

"Coincidence. They're designed to be autonomous, the AI is supposed to adapt and expand. It doesn't make them or it alive. That kind of thinking has been proven to be wrong. No scientist in the system holds the belief that life can be created this way. Something has to be biological to be alive, it has to exist of itself and be able to grow."

"You don't see it. We made them for survival in a place we shouldn't even be. We've reached the end of our line. These are beings evolved beyond us. This is evolution."

Sarah studied the belief in his face, the pure undiluted reality of his insanity. She felt betrayed. "This is a science station, we're here for research. You're here because you were supposed to help us, to keep us well."

Sarah stood up. She realised how tense she had become, how frightening it was to be in the presence of someone no longer in control. She had to leave. David had always stood out and away from the crew in his role of monitor rather than participant. She considered how she had thought he might have been faking it. Perhaps that was how it had started but Elkan was right and his games had taken him over. She walked out, muttered a goodbye to Elkan and went into the corridor. She stopped, put her hand against the wall and felt it's solidity reassure her. With a deep breath she moved on, heading towards the second of the surprises that had awaited her return. "How the hell am I supposed to write this lot up?"

There were twenty-four of them on board the station and over half were astronomers from three different countries. Sarah was the only English person aboard and felt distanced from the others because of the lack of common culture reinforced by reason of her being captain. There were fewer boundaries for exploration and discovery than ever and she had wanted to be on them for as long as she could remember. For her this posting was the best she could ever hope for, to be something larger than any individual could be anymore. The days of solo expeditions under a single government were long gone. Here they were the first step on the journey to another solar system.

She shunted herself through a connecting tunnel to the science module landing gracefully feet first with a hand outstretched against a nearby wall. This part of the station was the largest as research was the main function and it was divided into three main areas that reflected the different concerns of the scientists on board. The first was dedicated to the engineers, who generally helped the bugs to maintain themselves and fix various systems if they went wrong and the bugs could not deal with them. Mostly they amused themselves with a variety of experiments and their main interest, unsurprisingly, was the conservation of energy. Out here there was little free energy to be had and everything was nuclear powered, so the engineers worked on ways to maximise output or even work out alternatives. The middle section were the astronomers, able for the first time to record for themselves the movements and activity of their home system from the outside as well as examining the Oort cloud and a view of the stars unhindered by sunlight. Here too worked Simon, the geologist, in a corner by himself. He looked through the samples sifted from the gel shielding and brought to him by the bugs

Finally was food production. Three Japanese agronomists wrestled with the problems of working a small farm thousands of kilometres from the sun. This had been called the truest test of self-sufficiency in deep space ever performed. Often they worked with the engineers, as they too were concerned with problems of energy, as well as maintaining diversity and attempting to create a bio-system both complex and simple enough to survive. So far, even after twelve months, they were still reliant on the supplies that Sarah had just returned from collecting.

The station was proving itself as a viable technology. Many aspects, such as the gel pack shielding protecting the station's own shell as well as its shuttles, were over fifty years old but others, such as the multi-function bugs operating under a single AI, were very new and especially designed for the mission.

She pressed open the door into the lab were the astronomers worked and walked into a large room filled with banks of computer displays, coloured lights and indicators. It was kind of like entering a library with everyone doing their best to keep quiet in almost reverential tones. She shuffled herself over to Mike, an American with a large gut, scraggly red beard and short hair. He looked up at her, registering surprise across his face, before muttering a hello.

"I suppose you've come to see our new discovery?" He was barely able to disguise being upset at the interruption of his vigil over what the seemingly random spurt of figures on his screen were telling him.

"Yes." Sarah replied. "I need to make a report on it. Mikhail showed me a couple of blurry pictures but recommended I come here for the real story." She looked about. Around half of the station's astronomers were generally on duty on one of the station's two shifts. "Is Liz here?"

"No, she's on Second this cycle. This way please." A few of the other men and women had looked up at her now and smiled hellos. They were all generally more pleasant than Mike and she regretted approaching him first. He led her to the other side of the room where a wall high, heavy density vue screen was projecting an image of the object. It was dark, the red colouring more obvious but the reason for it still missing, and more obviously round.

"You probably know that we think it's a planet, a rogue." The sarcasm lay heavy in his voice, never a very attractive trait in an american she thought. A couple of the others, Jack, Alexei and Sandra had gotten up from their seats to join them. It was Alexei who spoke next,

"Because of it's trajectory we're pretty certain it's external to the solar system. Possibly it pulled itself loose from a star but because of its velocity, which is pretty high, we think that it somehow survived the destruction of its own star to be propelled out into space."

"Have you sent out a probe?"

"Yes, three, stationed along the route of the flyby. Because of it's speed we can't be sure to get one on the surface and we don't have any equipped for a landing anyway. It's not something we expected to have to do. We're hoping to get them to swing into an orbit around it and fly with it for as long as possible. The first should begin transmitting tonight. The object is at its closest in 3 days time. This gives us about a six day window altogether."

"Wow." Sarah uttered the word involuntarily but seeing it there and listening to the preparations she could not think of anything else to say.

"Yes." came the reply.

"So what goes in the report?"

"We composed a preliminary study and analysis of what we've got so far. It's in your inbox."

"And what time does it all begin tonight?"

"About 3 o'clock. Everyone is staying up for it. This is one of the biggest events in human history since the Mars landing."

"What about solar side? Won't they have seen it?"

"Not likely. Despite it's size it's really our position this far out that allows us to see it, combined with the sheer luck of even noticing it in the first place. The truth is there could be hundreds of these flying along and we wouldn't know it." He hesitated, unsure of the boldness of his statement, "Of course we don't think there are hundreds of them."

Sarah looked at the serious, excited expressions on them all, like an infection. The nature of their work was to be interested in things most people found either boring, took for granted or could not be bothered to think about. When something genuinely interesting, like this, occurred the effect on them was quite bizarre. They were wrapped by hyperactivity and a focus of concentration she had only seen summoned up in times of crisis amongst crews she had worked with before.

She was tired and it showed. Jack, the young American, looked at her sympathetically.

"It's about shift end now, we're about to join the others for food. Want to come?"

Evening meal was the one ritual shared by all, everyday. It marked the switch from the day shift to night for everyone on board and it was a chance for them all to get together and discuss anything that might have happened or been discovered. This way everyone was aware of each others work and anything that might be gained from cross-fertilisation of ideas sprouted. Sarah herself had initiated it within the first week as an attempt to overcome not only the barrier between herself and the scientists, but between the scientists themselves.

"No, I need to get this report off and I think I'm going to try and get a couple of hours sleep before the main feature. Ask Mikhail to wake me before it begins."

BANG. She awoke with a start from a dream of a dark falling, naked in her bed and totally relaxed despite the strangeness of sleeping in the pull of the station's light gravity. Mikhail called through the door.

"Hey, it's time. Come on in there."

She pulled herself up with difficulty managing an inarticulate reply. She pressed open the door then remembered her lack of clothing. She felt a brief pang of embarrassment but Mikhail did not even appear to notice.

"Give me a moment to get something on." She muttered, hitting the door shut again and turning to collect the grey two piece jump suit that passed for standard issue.

"I'll go on" Mikhail offered, his voice muffled by the barrier.

She slipped into her clothes and, running a hand through her hair, she moved back to the door. Mikhail was already gone but from up the corridor came Noriko, one of the Japanese, who smiled

"Welcome back, Captain Sarah. Are you coming to see?"

Sarah nodded and stepped out, closing her door behind her. "Where's the main event?"

"They rigged up a big vue in the mess after dinner."

They set off together, collecting a couple of others on the way. When they arrived they found they were the last, except for David who was still in Medical. She saw Elkan and indicated a hello with a brief movement of her head. He replied in a like manner. Everyone else suddenly cheered. Mikhail's voice came out over it all:

"Quiet please. First I think we'd all like to welcome back to the Captain." Everyone looked around to her with a smile and she felt a flush of self-consciousness across her face again. "Now, together, we are here for another first." He seemed drunk, although there was no alcohol on the station, and Sarah realised he was just as infected by the excitement of the event as the astronomers were, as much as it was against his character. "That is a first beyond both the fact of our existence against all odds of probability and that we might find ourselves out here, further than any human has ever dared to be before." This truly was something they could feel excited about, and for the first time since arriving back she felt the little knot of anxiety in her stomach melt away. Involuntarily she found herself shouting

"Get on with it" and there was a raucous response.

Suddenly they all quietened down. The screen that covered up the hole where the food was served had come on in a burst of silver static. Someone booed, jokingly, at the lack of image but the silence overcame him and the lights were turned down. Mary sat with a panel, hitting icons and patterns with her old fingers in a ritual attempt to bring the image up. Everyone came to focus their attention on her instead of the screen as over a minute passed.

Images on consoles flicked up in windows in the main screen. Suddenly it switched to the familiar view of the object from the station. Mary stopped tapping and looked up at them, the disappointment written in lines of distress, tears almost forming in her eyes.

"Sorry, everyone. I just can't raise it at the moment. From the last few bits of tracer transmission we have it looks like some kind of EM pulse."

This caused a stir amongst both the engineers and astronomers, grumblings that were starting to become discussions.

"Isn't there any chance of getting it back?" Sarah asked.

Mary just shook her head. "We'll keep trying but this data seems to show we've lost it." More quiet ,anxious discussion erupted around them. Sarah ignored it trying to focus on Mary. "We might be able to save the next one, though, if we can position it correctly, set it up to hard wire some systems, shut down others. We just weren't expecting this kind of interference."

A couple of astronomers and engineers had pulled out their own consoles to tap at and were sat in huddles talking and examining the evidence. Sarah looked at the stable image of blackness on the screen with the now ominous looking red dot in the centre. People milled about or studied consoles for half an hour or more. When they got to the point when there really was no hope Sarah looked over to Mikhail, who was stood over the shoulder of Elizabeth while she tapped away, and waved to get his attention. She walked up to him and said,

"I think I'm going back to bed. Wake me if anything happens." Then, louder, she spoke to everyone else, "I recommend that anyone who isn't on shift now or who has nothing to do get back to their rooms and has some rest. Looks like we're going to have to wait until tomorrow before we see what a new planet looks like." A few people grinned wryly, although the shared disappointment was obvious, and started winding up their conversations. Mikhail slapped Sarah on the back,

"Off you go, then, captain. I'll keep an eye on this lot."

She scowled back at him with a smile and headed back to her room.

The first part of the next day passed quietly. Sarah completed her return report and detailed what had happened, including David, for appraisal by whoever was currently claiming responsibility for them on Jupiter Moon. It would be at least a week before anyone replied and that was if someone noticed it and considered it urgent.

Mark came into the office, flustered, "Captain, you need to come to astro quick" and then he dashed out of the office again. Sarah chased after him realising that she still was not comfortable being back in gravity, her body aching slightly after a poor nights sleep. When she arrived at the office the familiar view of the red dot dominated over everyone working.

"What's up?"

"It looks like a small chunk has broken off from the main and it is heading straight for us."

"What? When did this happen?"

"Wait, there's more." She noticed Mikhail, who had arrived before her, standing with his usual glum expression but with a puzzle behind his eyes. "Not only do both pieces appear to be decelerating, which is impossible, but we out radio also picked up this beam communication. A noise like a kind of static played loud in the room. Sarah listened carefully to try and pick out the pattern. "We thought it might have been some kind of reflection or something like the pulse suspected of knocking out the probe but it isn't. It's some kind of communication, and we don't know what."

The information slowly filtered down into their consciousness. Mikhail spoke first.

"You mean this is some kind of spaceship?"

"I don't think any of us is keen to accept that, but it does seem to be the only explanation. Something is causing these pieces to slow down. Something sent that transmission."

The excitement of last night was now replaced by a kind of high-pitched fear coupled with a necessity to carry on.

"What about a translation?"

"We've got people working on it. But that kind of thing can take a lot of time even with a known language never mind this."

"Jesus. What do we do? Send back some kind of reply?"

Thoughts ran through her head: First Contact, here, now, watching it, being a part of it. She began to turn her mind to the protocols, buried deep from training, that none of them had taken seriously, ever. Even as she tried to recall it she knew it was just a bunch of made up crap invented by a bunch of psychologists and instructors who probably had not even been spaceside, and who paid as little credence to the possibility of it ever happening as the students did. Her thoughts turned to David and she cursed. If he was not insane she could have used him now.

"I should go and see David." she said. Mikhail raised an eyebrow. "If he were sane he would be able to help. Perhaps we can get some sense out of him."

"OK" Mikhail reluctantly agreed.

Sarah turned about on her heels, almost spinning too far. "In the meantime I want as many people as possible working on translating this communication. And someone dig out the protocols for first contact from the computer. Have a copy on my PDA by the time I'm back."

Mikhail stayed with the astronomers as they continued to busy themselves on the new set of problems. She walked in to find Elkan sat in the same position as the day before, guarding over his patient. He smiled up at her.

"So it appears we have visitors." He began. Sarah saw that he was monitoring the events in astro on his vue. "Any news on whether they're friendly."

Sarah shrugged. "The truth is we're not even sure if they are visitors. I want to talk to David about it. See if there's anything he can help with. If it wasn't for his breakdown he could have been very bloody useful right now."

"Sure. I wouldn't expect too much, though. He didn't even recognise me earlier."

"Is there anything you can give him to bring him out of it? Even for a short while?"

Elkan shook his head. Sarah took a deep breath and walked through the door. David was as she had last seen him, strapped to the bed, covered by a grey blanket. He appeared to be asleep. She pulled the chair up and as it scraped across the tiles on the floor David's eyes snapped open, craning his head up and around to get a better view.

"Ah, Captain. Are our guests here yet?"

"What?" Sarah stood up in shock, his words too knowing, and she knocked the chair with the back of her knees causing it to top over and bang to the floor.

"Our guests. I heard you and our dear Doctor talking." His head twisted and his face distorted into a grimace that hinted at an expression of intimacy. In a whisper he continued, "I've been expecting them. They're here to see the bugs."

Sarah looked behind her, Elkan was standing shoulder against the doorframe.

"He's still obsessed with the bugs whenever he's coherent. Well," he offered, "whenever he recognises where he is."

"Hey" David shouted, struggling, "Didn't you hear me? It's the fucking bugs, it's the fucking AI, it knows it feels, it's waiting. You must believe me. Check the logs. Check them." His struggling got worse and he appeared to be causing himself pain as he moved against the straps that just held him more firmly. Sarah stepped back afraid of what he was doing to himself. "Check them. Watch them. Damnit, they aren't here for us, they're here for the bugs."

"I have to sedate him." Elkan said, moving over with an expression of his own distress. He reached out his hand holding a tiny silver hypo and pushed it against David's twisted, reddened neck. All at once the mania stopped. Slowly David's body relaxed, his eyes closed and finally there was silence.

"What if he's right?" Sarah asked.

"What do you mean?"

"About the bugs. What if he spotted something."

"He was obsessed with the AI long before this thing appeared."

"I know." She walked over to the small console and punched in a request for the astro lab. "Mikhail, check that transmission against the bug language."

He looked back at her from the screen, his blue eyes glowed, staring back at her, seemingly on the verge of his own mania.

"Too late, we already have." He stopped to look around him. "And it looks like there's going to be trouble."

"Trouble?"

"We're just now pulling out some transmissions that actually go out to the spacecraft or whatever it is from our station. They're coded and look like they were sent by the AI. Looks like David was right, yes?"

Mikhail almost permitted himself a smile. Sarah felt herself going deeper into shock as the impact of the past couple of days overtook her. She could hardly move. "I'll come over."

"I'll be waiting." The vid screen snapped off and Sarah felt herself almost buckle. She realised she had hardly eaten since her return and the gravity even at a fraction of one g pulled at her to give in and collapse to the ground. She felt Elkan's arm reach out to hold her.

"I'm OK," she managed.

"No you're not. I'll give you an energy shot. You look like you need it. Sit down." He ordered.

She sat on a nearby chair, realised that the one she had knocked over was still on its side by David's bed where he lay firmly under the grip of his medication. She looked over to the dispensary where Elkan had pulled out another hypo and was filling it with a pop-in vial. She hardly knew him, really. He'd kept pretty much to himself the past two years, too many of them had. Loneliness seemed to be a habit with practically everyone on board. She closed her eyes and heard him walk towards her, then the cold press of steel and the weird feeling of the push through skin of the spray.

"It will take a minute or two to take effect. Stay seated until then."

She did as he said and slowly felt a warmth move through her, spreading out, a chemical joy and spark of purpose grew. She stood up and opened her eyes again. Elkan was sat back at his quiet vigil behind his desk.

"Thanks," she said.

He nodded that peculiar nod of his. "Keep me informed" she heard as she walked out the door and began running back to the lab.

By the time she got there the alarm had begun.

Sarah pushed her face against the window. There was no sign of the station or any alien spacecraft in the direction she could see. They had been in the shuttle for three days now, all of the crew were dispersed amongst the formation of five small ships that were drifting their way back solar. She could see a couple of them, their lights illuminated their green shielding and the various tags of governments and companies involved in the project. These sponsors were probably not going to be very happy with what happened. It could even lead to her being grounded somewhere, a thought that occurred to her with unpleasant regularity.

When the alarm had sounded Sarah had continued on her way to the astronomy lab. By the time she got there every monitor on the station held a statement issued by the AI asking them to evacuate. She had been studying the copy of it held in the black box log on board trying to decide what she could learn from it. In the clipped language of the AI it explained that the invitation to meet the visitors was extended only to itself and for reasons of safety the crew should leave. At the end of the statement was a simple sentence: "You do not belong here." When the message had appeared and been digested everyone began to make their way to the shuttle bays, trying to recall the emergency schedule that they were supposed to practise weekly and had not bothered with in over two months. When they got there they found their things neatly packed by the bugs and stowed on board waiting for them.

"Get the feeling we're not welcome?" Mikhail had said

Now the green pod-like shapes of the shuttles gently propelled them towards the unmanned base that hung in an inner synchronous orbit with them in case of emergencies. David, she had heard, was doing much better, the worst of the mania seemed to be gone resolved under the tensions of the evacuation. Elkan was still keeping him sedated much of the time, though. The enclosed space of the shuttles was not a good place for someone to turn crazy.

She pulled herself away from the port and drifted over to the intercom. The others on board, a couple of American astro-physicists and the geologist Simon, were asleep. She punched up the intercom for Mikhail's ship and waited to see if he would answer. His face came up on the screen and she could not help but smile.

"Hey, it's good to see you."

"Sure, because we only talk five times a day."

"I know. It's just. I'm worried."

"Da, but as we've already discussed, what else could we do? Our first concern is for the crew, not the metal. And hell, we just survived humanities first contact with an alien race."

There was a pause as the conversation took the shape of a familiar pattern from the past few days.

"Do you suppose our AI was alive? I mean, really alive, self-aware or whatever?"

"I don't know. Perhaps. I wonder if it was some signal from the aliens that made it that way. Maybe it did just grow, perhaps from some accident of its complexity. Of course it might not be alive at all and the programmers are right that it can't be done. The station was just reacting in an unplanned way to an unusual situation and these aliens just saw whatever it is they want to see. That's for the scientists to decide."

Sarah laughed. "In that case, who's to say we're not a self-deluded mistake too?"

Mikhails face remained stern on the screen. He seemed to digest her words carefully before offering a reply.

"Perhaps you are right. These aliens didn't seem to think we were worth contacting anyway."

Sarah looked around her, taking in again the metal shell that encased and held them from the void. The gentle hum of machinery was ever present and despite herself she felt that she was somewhere else, maybe on the alien ship itself.

"Goodnight, Mikhail. I'm going to bed."

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The Painter Man - Invasion - Last Stop 45