Dark Dweller

 "You think you know darkness?

You don't. Not real darkness.

That moment at night when you wake from a terrible dream and lay in the gloom, afraid and soaked in sweat? That's not darkness, and certainly not fear.

Shapes still emerge from that gloom, sounds still echo from some deep crevice.

For you, these gremlins may make the skin crawl and your heart beat faster but for me, they would have been welcome in that void. Old friends to embrace and never let go."

--Kara Psomas, psychiatric interview, record number: 1-alpha

***

Captain Kara Psomas was pronounced dead when her research vessel slammed into Jupiter. More than a century later, the crew of the Paralus, a helium mining freighter, find a pristine escape pod with a healthy young girl nestled inside. A girl who claims to be Kara—and she brings a message of doom.

She says she has been waiting in the dark for that exact moment. To be found by that particular crew. Because an ancient cosmic being has tasked her with a sacred responsibility. She claims she must alter the Fulcrum, a lever in time—no matter the cost to the people aboard—or condemn the rest of civilization to a very painful and drawn-out demise.

She sounds convincing. She appears brave. She might well be insane.