In one of the Wolverine class vessel’s two hangar bays, the troopers of the Might of Fortitude were helping load supplies. The crates had been unloaded from the supply shuttle and were being prised open with crowbars and their contents stowed away into every unused crevice of the boat. As Streeter, Yuni, Dunbar, Coloroso and Shimmins sweated with large cans of baked beans and bottles of ketchup, Vinny had other, more important things to do. He was sat, cross legged, on top of one of the packing crates. In his hands he held a magazine; a real, paper, magazine. Paper books and magazines hardly existed these days. They were quirks of a bygone age. Some eccentrics still liked the feel of a print book, rather than the coldness of a tablet or a holo-doc. Paper was expensive and had become a luxury item. Leading Spaceperson Vincent “Vinny” Vaughn could certainly be described as “eccentric”. He had a neat moustache, a posh English accent, gelled down hair and a penchant for all things paranormal.

‘Hey, Vin!’ Yuni shouted. ‘Put the bloody book down and get some of these crates shifted, will you?’

Vinny didn’t look up from his magazine. He licked his thumb and turned a page. The cover was garish, brightly coloured and had the title “Void Myths Monthly” splashed across it.

‘Vin!’ Yuni shouted again, louder this time.

‘Huh?’ Vinny mumbled as he finally glanced up.

‘Get to work, you wee fannybaws!’

The yelled insult had come from the Scot, Dunbar.

‘In a minute,’ Yuni protested. ‘You should really give this a go. It’s fascinating.’

‘What’s got you so engrossed?’ Coloroso asked.

‘There’s an article in here about Reaper spheres…’

This caused everyone to drop what they were doing and stare at Vinny. The attack on the U.W.S.S. Scales of Justice, near Arkhangelsk, was well documented. A mysterious glowing sphere of pure energy had killed Captain Daniel Stevenson and every single member of his crew. The sphere had even sucked all power from the vessel, leaving it a lifeless ghost ship, floating dead in space. The incident was etched into every sailor’s mind. It had earned the ghostly sphere the nickname of “Reaper”.

‘What’s it say?’ Streeter asked as he wiped a glob of sweat and snot from the end of his scarred nose.

Vinny cleared his throat and began to read out loud.

‘Strange, glowing spheres have been seen in the skies above Earth for as long as there has been oral or written history. From the legends of the native American Indians, to the infamous Roswell crash in nineteen-forty-seven, or the Washington invasion in nineteen-fifty-two, other-worldly craft have been spotted in the heavens. In world war two, American pilots reported seeing “foo fighters”, named because they imagined the strange craft were sent by the Imperial Japanese enemy. From the tic-tac shaped object seen by fighter pilots during naval manoeuvres in two-thousand and fifteen, to glowing orbs spotted surrounding the Hub space station while under construction, or the “flaming hot-dogs” seen by the first voyagers through Watters’ space, this phenomenon simply will not go away. Could the attack on the U.W.S.S. Scales of Justice be the latest in a long line of sightings? Does the attack signal a sinister change in tactics for the extra-terrestrial visitors? Our reporter, Derek Boyes, says yes, and is keen to find out…’

‘You’re so full of shit!’ Shimmins observed.

‘Why am I full of shit?’ Vinny reacted, affronted. ‘This is an article in a magazine.’

‘Which you believe,’ Shimmins retorted. ‘That magazine is more full of shit than the head after McGagh has taken his first dump of the day!’

A chorus of giggling went round the shipmates.

‘Hundreds of thousands of people believe in U.F.O.s, Shimmins,’ Vinny retorted.

‘It’s complete bull,’ Shimmins said, shaking her head and running her hand through her sweaty, green Mohican.

‘So, what’s your explanation of the Reaper spheres?’ Vinny countered.

Shimmins shrugged.

‘I don’t know. Government secret weapons development. Pap-Corp is into some really shady shit.’

‘That makes more sense than “little green men”,’ Yuni observed.

‘Why does everyone automatically think these things are spaceships holding tiny aliens?’ Vinny asked.

‘What do you think they are?’ Coloroso asked.

Vinny shrugged.

‘I think the Reapers are some kind of entity. A being that lives off pure energy and spends its life voyaging between the stars, absorbing power.’

‘Then why did one attack the Scales of Justice?’ Streeter asked.

‘I don’t think that was an attack. I think it was a misunderstanding. The Reaper was simply feeding. It may not understand what organic life is, in our terms.’

‘Utter rat shit,’ Shimmins exclaimed.

‘Makes for interesting reading, though,’ Vinny finished.