Eric stared at the flickering scanner display in front of him, watching a trace draw closer and closer to the centre. There shouldn't have been anything there, so far from civilisation, but he had reasonable faith in the scanner system, if not in its display unit. He rubbed the top of his shaved head, then spun his seat round to face the salvage ship's navigator station. "Hey, Alex," he called out. "We got a trace. Looks like a freighter. I can't get any life sign readings at this range, but it's drifting with no engine power." Alex nodded, keeping his eyes firmly on the navigation console. "Yeah, I see it, it's coming up on the hazard monitor now. You reckon we should check it out?" Eric grinned. "Hell yes. It's one damned big freighter. There's gotta be something worth having in the priority cargo bay if nothing else." A niggling doubt hung in his mind as he spoke, though. What was a civilian freighter that size doing drifting at the fringes of a lifeless star system that only pirates, smugglers, and scavengers ever went through? Alex tapped at the navigation console, then spun his chair round to face Eric. "Course set for standoff at a hundred km. I'll go start warming up the shuttle." Eric watched Alex head off down the ship's spinal corridor to the shuttle bay, and turned back to the scanner display. Data streamed across the top of the screen as the derelict freighter drew closer. He sighed with relief when the "LIFE SIGNS CONFIRMED ABSENT" message scrolled across. Whatever had done for the crew, it wasn't there any more. He looked over the rest of the data. No hazard beacon, no marker buoy, no Omega transmission, and the hull design looked to be over two hundred years old. Nobody was going to come looking for *this* cargo. * * * Eric watched nervously as the scanner trace of the shuttle moved out towards the freighter. They'd done this sort of thing far too many times, yet something about this one was still making him nervous. If anything did go wrong while the others were over there, he was going to be stuck on an unreliable old salvage hauler with no company and no suspended animation bays. Men went mad in those kinds of conditions, and he didn't want to go mad. The shuttle's scanner trace merged with that of the freighter, and Alex's voice crackled over the com-link. "We've latched into the freighter's left-side shuttle bay. Looks like it uses the old control interface, so we'll be stuck for a couple of minutes while I get the damn thing talking to the shuttle." Eric sighed with relief and tapped the "talk" button. "Excellent. Keep me posted." He pulled a cigarette from the pack in his shirt pocket and sparked up. He knew Alex didn't approve of him smoking at the scanner station, but the air filtration was working nicely right now and he wanted his nicotine hit. He leaned back in the chair and daydreamed about sleazy bars and dancing girls. * * * Alex led his crewmates into the freighter's embarkation area, gun in hand. He knew Eric had said there was nothing alive on the ship, but he didn't want to be the one who discovered a previously unknown kind of life by being eaten by it. He looked around for a few moments, then smiled. "OK, looks like we're clear. Air is... air is good. They built these life support systems to last. No microbes, no poison gas." Kara, the salvage ship's medic, flipped open the visor of her spacesuit. "Doesn't even stink," she noted. Eric's voice came over their com-links. "Hey people, keep me posted, OK? I don't wanna have to fly this crate home by myself and go mad." Alex chuckled, and snapped open his own visor. "You worry too much, Eric. You've said yourself this ship's dead." He turned to Kara. "Kara, see if you can find the medical log. Melanie, you come with me to check out the holds. Richard, go check out this thing's engine room and see if it'll move under its own power." * * * Kara resealed her visor before opening the medical bay's armoured hatch. Even if the ship was dead, there might be nasty fumes or something inside. The door slid open with a hiss, revealing two dessicated corpses locked together as if they'd been fighting with each other. She stepped gingerly through the hatch and sealed it behind her. "Guys, this is Kara. It looks like something really weird happened in here. These two dead bodies in the med bay look like they were fighting. I'm just looking for the log now." She released the com-link stud and started rummaging through the cupboards. Eric's voice crackled over the com-link. "Guys, there's a subspace energy surge in there. Looks like it's a couple of bulkheads forward of you, Kara." Kara grabbed what she was looking for - the armour-cased datapad used for medical notes - and turned it on. "Tell me later, Eric. I've just found the medical log." She stared in disbelief as she read the last few entries in the medical log. "November 14th, 113. Jettisonned the left side shuttle with Brennan and Callahan's dessicated corpses inside. I've never seen anything like this before. It was like every drop of moisture got sucked out of their bodies in a single instant." "November 16th, 113. Rodriguez went insane and tried to kill me. We subdued her and put her in a locked suspended animation capsule. There's something odd about her eyes." * * * Richard scratched his head as he looked around the engine bay. All the cable runs were sound, the engines looked like they were intact, there was plenty of power, and yet he couldn't even get the first-stage diagnostics to run, let alone bring the engines on-line. It was all far, far too strange for him. He walked back out into the corridor. On a random impulse, he tapped on the controls of one of the suspended animation pods mounted in the wall. Its shielding panel slid back to reveal a rather attractive dark-haired young woman in a somewhat scuffed boiler suit. He turned on his com-link. "Guys... there's a woman in one of these SA capsules. Status lights say she was alive when it got switched on." Alex's voice replied. "Let's wait until Kara finishes with the medical log before we unseal it. There's some mad shit in this cargo hold and it's making me nervous." "You got it, boss man." Richard shrugged, and went back into the engine room. There had to be *some* way to get the damn thing moving again. * * * Kara lay sprawled on the floor of the medical bay, a strange glowing ball of light hovering above her face. She could hear Richard talking about finding an occupied suspended animation pod, but couldn't make her lips move to say anything. The light pulsed and flickered, implanting strange thoughts on her mind. She snapped open her visor, and the light flashed downwards and vanished into her. She got to her feet. The other host needed to be released. Both of them needed to get back to the salvage ship. There was a whole civilisation to be filled with the light, and they were the only hosts remaining. She snapped her visor back down, and then grabbed the medical log datapad and crushed it with her suddenly titanically strong grasp. Kara opened the door and stepped out into the corridor. She made her way down to the suspended animation bays outside the engine room, and tapped the "unlock" code into Maria's bay. The pod hissed open, and Maria blinked unsteadily. Kara raised her visor, and the two of them looked into each other's strangely-coloured eyes, communing on a deep level. Richard emerged from the engine room. "Kara? What are you doing?" Kara turned to face him, her eyes glowing an eerie blue. He stared, transfixed, and she walked up to him. "I'm doing what I must," she said. "Let me take your mind off it." She took off her helmet, then his. She leaned forward and kissed him deeply. Blue light enveloped them both as her tongue explored his mouth. She could taste his life force pulsing inside him. He sagged in her arms as she drew it out, sucking every last fragment of his vital essence out of his body. Finally, she dropped his now-dessicated body on the floor. "There. Nothing for you to worry about." * * * Eric looked at the suit telemetry screen and panicked. He slapped the "talk" button. "Get the hell out of there! Richard just dropped dead! What's going on, guys?" Melanie's voice responded. "What? Shit! Alex, come on! We need to get back to the shuttle!" Eric watched the scanner display, desperately willing the shuttle to move off. Finally, Alex's voice came over the comm. "We're all on the shuttle. Kara's found one of the crew who was in SA. Launching *now*." Eric slumped back in his chair with relief as the shuttle's scanner trace peeled away from the freighter. * * * Melanie leaned against a bulkhead in the salvage ship's boarding area. Kara and Maria had vanished into the medical bay as soon as they'd got off the shuttle, and Alex had gone tearing down the corridor to the bridge. She reached into the thigh pocket of her spacesuit and pulled out the strangely carved figurine she'd retrieved from a crate on the freighter. As she contemplated its sinuous curves and angles, her comlink chimed. "Melanie? Could you come into the medical bay, please? And bring the figurine." said Kara's voice. Melanie blinked in surprise. How did Kara know about the figurine? She shrugged, and walked through into the medical bay. She was confronted with the sight of Kara and Maria both completely naked, their eyes glowing with an eerie blue light. The figurine began to pulse with the same light, and Melanie stood transfixed by Kara's gaze. Maria worked the door control, closing and locking the door, while Kara started to unfasten Melanie's spacesuit. "You'll have to help me get this off you, dear Melanie," said Kara. Melanie shivered with delight at the thought of being naked with Kara and Maria, and eagerly helped Kara remove her from her spacesuit and her clothes. As Melanie dropped her knickers to the floor, she felt Maria's hands caressing her naked arse. Melanie shivered with delight, then gave a low moan as Kara's fingers started to stroke and squeeze her nipples. A corner of her mind feebly protested that she couldn't possibly be enjoying being felt up by two naked women, but she ignored it. Kara and Maria's hands were doing utterly wonderful things to her, and she wasn't about to stop them. Kara pointed at the floor. "Lie down and spread your legs, Melanie. It will be much easier for us to do what we must, then." Melanie obeyed, an anticipatory thrill running through her body. Kara and Maria knelt to either side of her, Maria fondling her breasts while Kara's fingers stroked the already-wet lips of her sex. Maria leaned down to whisper in Melanie's ear. "We are going to fill you with the light. You will become its host just as we have." She picked up the glowing figurine and rested it between Melanie's breasts. "Then, you will fill one of your friends with the light, and he will fill the other." Melanie felt Kara slip two fingers into her sex and rock them back and forth, sending waves of pleasure through her body. Melanie's whimpers of delight were swiftly muffled, though, by Maria kneeling astride her head, her sex over Melanie's mouth. Melanie took her cue, and started to lick Maria's clitoris. Maria arched her back, groaning with delight, and Melanie felt Kara slipping a third finger into her wet and hungry sex. Melanie licked faster, flickering her tongue into Maria's sex, savouring the taste of her juices. Kara's fourth finger slipped into Melanie's sex, making her gasp. Maria ground down on Melanie's face, moaning with pleasure, and Melanie felt Kara's thumb enter her. Kara's hand curled into a fist inside Melanie, and suddenly a blazing yet strangely painless heat exploded outwards from her sex. She writhed and bucked, screaming in ecstasy, her sex pulsing rhythmically around Kara's fist, and suddenly she knew that taking the figurine had been the best thing she'd ever done. * * * Eric opened the hatch of his cabin and walked in. As the door hissed shut, he became aware that there was someone already in the room. He turned around to see Melanie leaning against the wall, naked, watching him with glowing eyes. She smiled at him, and he gave a helpless whimper as his cock hardened in his trousers. "M-Melanie? What's going on?" he asked, as she stepped up to him and unfastened his trousers. "I'm going to fill you with the light. You'll like being filled with the light," she said, pulling his trousers down and stroking his erection. He groaned with pleasure as she ran her tongue along the shaft of his cock and swirled it around the head. "I promise that this will be the best sex you've ever had," she said, standing back up. "Take me. You want my body." Eric grinned, pushing her back against the wall. He grabbed her by the arse and hefted her off her feet, sliding his cock effortlessly into the wet heat of her sex. She wrapped her legs around him and whispered in his ear. "Fuck my brains out," she ordered, and he started to thrust, pressing her hard against the wall as his cock pounded into her sex. She moaned with pleasure, squeezing his cock with the walls of her sex, making him thrust even harder. His balls tightened, ready to empty themselves into her. "I'm gonna come..." he groaned, thrusting even more forcefully into her. She kissed him deeply, and his cock started to pulse, sending come spurting into the depths of her sex even as a wave of heat exploded through his head. Suddenly, Eric became aware of his new duty to the alien light that now filled him. There was only one person left on the ship who did not bear the light, and that had to change. He opened the hatch and walked down the corridor, unbothered by the chill of the metal flooring against the soles of his feet. * * * Alex punched in the last coordinate set of the course for home. He wanted to get to a decent bar as soon as he could and drink himself stupid. He punched the "course engage" button and leaned back in his chair, eyes closed. He felt something bump against the seat, and then there were hands - large, manly hands - caressing his neck. He sighed contentedly. "I was wondering when you'd work out I fancy you, Eric. Keep doing that," said Alex, leaning into the caress. Eric's hands prodded and probed expertly, melting the tension in his shoulders and neck. Alex purred, sinking slightly in his chair and unbuttoning his shirt. "How are you?" "I'm very well," said Eric, leaning round the chair to kiss Alex. Alex eagerly explored Eric's mouth with his tongue, running one hand up his arm. "You're very naked, aren't you?" asked Alex. This was a turn-up for the books. "Yes," replied Eric, slipping one hand down inside Alex's unbuttoned shirt to caress his nipples. "And I want to give you the buggering of your life." Alex groaned as his cock hardened in his trousers. "I think I can live with that," he replied, kicking off his boots and unfastening his trousers. He wriggled out of them, then got to his feet and looked down admiringly at Eric's stiff cock. "I can *definitely* live with that." Eric pushed Alex over to the map table. Alex bent over, offering his arse. He felt Eric's wet tongue licking around his hole, pushing into it, channeling saliva into him. Alex groaned with pleasure, his cock twitching with every movement of Eric's tongue in his arse. "Oh god yes. That's wonderful." Eric stood back up, and pressed the head of his cock against Alex's well-tongued hole. "Ready, slut?" asked Eric. "Bugger me," replied Alex. He gasped as Eric's cock plunged forcefully into him, stretching open his ring and sinking into his guts. Eric started to thrust rhythmically, pushing deeper into Alex's bowels with each inward stroke. Alex groaned at the feeling of Eric's cock rubbing against his prostate. "Yes. That's it. That's it!" Eric thrust faster and harder, burying his cock to the hilt in Alex's arse. Alex whimpered, his balls tightening, pressure building up inside. He wondered for a moment why Eric had taken so long to get round to screwing him, and then Eric's cock started to pulse in his arse. Come spurted inside Alex's bowels, followed by a staggering explosion of heat that pushed him over the edge, sending his own come spurting across the map table. Eric withdrew his cock from Alex's arse and smiled. "You're with us, now. You are a host to the light. Everyone on this ship is a host of the light. And we're going to help take the light to the rest of mankind." Alex nodded, smiling. He was happy now. It was a shame that Richard had had to die to give the light enough strength to start spreading again, but that was just one of those things. He was going to the bar when he got to port, but drinking himself into a stupor would be a waste of precious time.