Static stepped out of his quarters, the purple avali yawning idly. Unlike the rest of his crew, his body had been augmented with synthetic materials supplanting most of his organic tissues, an experiment in wider temperature tolerances for suitless travel. His body was glossy, a contiguous surface rather than the fluffy feathers of the rest of his kind. His wings were soft and sculpted, appearing to be made from flight feathers but truly being a single piece.
He also had been sleeping since before the avali vessel docked at Aval Theta.
The intercom nearest his door lit up, speaker coming to life. A low, wet sound mixed with a trembling moan escaped the device before the connection closed and the light turned off again.
Static tilted his head, his ears spreading out into an x shape as he tried to process what that just was. He tapped the button on the intercom. "Uh, what was that?"
The intercom stayed silent.
Frowning, he walked over to the nearest computer terminal with a series of quiet squeaks and squirks from his glossy surface rubbing against itself. "Computer, diagnostics on intercom system?"
The terminal did not respond.
Feeling increasingly nervous, he started walking quickly down the corridor, looking around. He tried to tell himself that most of the crew must be on the station, that's why it's so quiet and empty. But it was too much for that. Usually, a couple of crewmates would be hanging out onboard, or someone would be stuck on duty in the comm center.
The door to said department was half-open, as if the actuator had failed for one of the two sliding panels.
Breathing a bit faster, he reached for his personal communicator. "Captain, I think the crew should return to the ship, something's wrong."
No reply.
"Briggs, you done stuffing your face at the commissary?" He smiled nervously, hoping that there was an innocent explanation for any of this.
Briggs didn't answer either.
Static trembled, eyes darting around for any sign of something out of the ordinary beyond the malfunctioning door. He pivoted in place, eyes trailing back down the corridor towards his room and the terminal he'd poked at earlier...
He froze.
The screen on the terminal had changed shape. It was as if something on the other side was pressing outward. The form was continuing to jut from the wall, extending further into the corridor with every moment. Shortly it was too heavy to keep probing perpendicularly and curved towards the floor. Then as if the surface tension had failed, glossy black ooze gushed forth from the makeshift faucet. It splashed onto the decking below, swirling and regathering up onto itself instead of spreading out like a proper fluid.
Features started to form, dark blue faintly glowing among the mass. A head rose, having four ears like an avali, but the snout was far too long. And a horn pressed into existence. The moment that added feature finished shaping, a glowing ring of energy formed around its midsection, floating in midair without touching. A long, sleek body followed, with lanky, slender limbs and an equally long tail going off behind. Another ring of energy formed near its tip as the creature fully detached from the now once again flat screen of the terminal.
Static took half a step back, towards the half-open door into comms.
That.
That was Eclipse.
How was that possible? He knew many of his crewmates believed the stories, whole ships left adrift, empty yet fully functional. Signs of a hull breach that had been sealed over with some synthetic material, but no loss of atmosphere. Sometimes the computer system was still intact, other times it had been compromised.
A bogeyman had been coined to identify the cause of these mysteries. A rogue entity named Eclipse.
And this intruder on the ship matched every physical description he had heard of her.
Eclipse turned her head, glowing blue eyes turning towards him. Her jaws were parted slightly, showing the myriad of sharp teeth within even all the way down the corridor.
Static's eyes widened. Suddenly, his mind hit a hitch in the midst of its racing, tumbling over a hurdle and right on into the proverbial gutter. Oh no, he thought.
She's hot.
All fear melted from his countenance as he stepped away from the door, trembling as he walked back down the corridor towards her.
The menacing expression on Eclipse's face dropped as she saw him approaching. Her lips covered her teeth once again, seeming almost to fuse into a contiguous smooth snout when fully closed. Her brow was lightly furrowed and head tilted.
Static's lips tugged up into a smile, the synthetic avali gaining a dreamlike reverie on his face, the trembles fading as he approached her.
Slowly, Eclipse's mouth opened again, teeth showing as her eyes narrowed. With her long legs, her smooth, stalking steps crossed the remaining distance quickly, stopping just in front of the glossy little raptor.
"Eclipse..." He said dreamily, a tremble running up his tail to the spot amidst his ears.
She had one of her claws on his chest and pushed him down, claws digging into the floor on either side of him as she loomed.
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Static sat in a corner of the architecture, rocking back and forth.
The airlock leading to the station suddenly opened.
"This ship looks just as empty as the others. What could have happened here?" A voice was speaking, muffled by a space suit.
Distantly, the other end of the comm could be heard as well. "Try the computer, but if it's anything like everything else it's probably fried."
Static stood up, a faint blue glow in his eyes as he approached the rescuer.
"Holy shit, we have a survivor!" The creature in the suit said into his comm.
The glossy avali spread his arms in a gesture of peace, his lips pulled back in a smile that went all the way to his ears, but never touched his eyes.
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