[ WP ] Three astronauts are stranded on a space station orbiting Earth . After a failed experiment with un-identified bacteria found on an asteroid , a fourth astronaut has gone mad , becoming a psychopathic murderer , hunting the three .

Black. That's what it is. Maybe it's my poet soul, or maybe the sickness is catching, but I swear I can feel the darkness growing in the corridors and access ways, in the spaces between the bulkheads that have become my refuge, even in my own skin. I think I read once that high intelligence is correlated with mental disorders. That would explain what happened here. After all, they do n't choose just anyone to work in this kind of environment. 
 
 Carrie is alright, I guess. She certainly had the imagination to run a DoD contracted research and development firm. Unfortunately most of her best ideas were incidental to her main plans, and for some reason she never took the easy route. Like instead of just unplugging the damned mainframe she kept adding on to it when the AI got out of hand. And she had this weird obsession with this crazy researcher from the 60's. When I was selected I actually got to see the inside of her office, and it was covered floor to ceiling with memorabilia about this guy and his company. I do n't understand it; the guy was definitely a crackpot. Went from hiring folks like us to random bums on the street for research candidates. Anyway, Carrie is obsessed with finding out why he died and now I'm miles above anything normal trying to stay alive because of it. 
 
 I met Pete and Ben in the planning room the day before launch. Carrie was communicating through an intercom, which is apparently how anyone has ever talked to her. Doug was there too. I worry about that guy a little less than I used to. Guess I have different standards about what'unhinged' means now. I was n't too happy with having him as our ground contact, and I could tell at first glance the others were n't either. Play enough in the sandbox, you get used to picking up when your soldiers are uneasy about a mission. I just thought it was about Doug. Never realized they knew more than me about Carrie and the Crackpot. 
 
 I'll be honest, I kinda spaced out during the brief. Ben was a doctor, specializing in parasitic relationships and infectious disease. Pete introduced himself as a doctor of geology, and I made a joke about finding a rock's heartbeat. Should have been a clue when nobody laughed. What an arrogant prick I was. They were geniuses as much as I am, and they used it to advance our society. I squandered mine flying grunts to shoot other human beings. And I thought being a pilot made me somehow superior. Yep, ignored everything that was actually important. Blah blah, pick up asteroid fragment, blah blah, think it might have killed the old man, blah blah, not moon dust. Whatever. Get a rock flying at a few thousand miles per hour and get it to the nerds while I brag to the guys back home. Like I said, total jerk. 
 
 Launch went fine. I was a bit concerned with using a refurb outdated space shuttle, but we made it through the pickup. Did my little tango and acted like an ass for days, relaxing and making myself a frozen steak for every meal while the others actually applied themselves in the research module. I think I drank the last three bottles of wine before the conference call to Carrie where Pete and Ben confirmed the asteroid contained something that killed the old guy. If only I paid attention. But no, I remember thinking Carrie's mom voice sounded hot before blacking out. 
 
 Three days later Ben started acting odd. He was always focused, but he started snapping at us, insisting in fits of yelling that salvation lie within the rock, and that we must cultivate the microbes. His skin darkened on the fourth day, and by the sixth he'd been reduced to screaming unintelligibly from the research module when we locked him in. On the seventh Pete found a hole had been purposely cut in each of our hazard suits and locked himself in with Ben. On day ten the power failed and the locks opened while I was checking on them and the only reason I escaped was the sudden loss of gravity meant they lost traction. It's been a fortnight now, and I'm not feeling well. At all. 
 
 Listen, Manny. You're the station's maintainer, and you've been floating up here longer than any of us. I bet you know these maintenance spaces and crumple zones like last month's issue of Playboy. If you're reading this, then you probably got my note at the airlock and still have the PAC-6 suit on. It'll filter out anything to the virus level, and it ca n't have been sabotaged since you were on that satellite recovery mission. I've stashed food throughout the inter-bulkhead spaces so they ca n't just sit on the kitchen and wait for you to get hungry. Pete began work on an antigen before turning. There's a few samples around the ship as well, but they wo n't protect you for long the way these buggers mutate. Use them wisely. 
 
 I was never kind to you, so I can not call you a friend. But I hope in some way that my preparations can help you survive until the recovery ship arrives next week. Godspeed. 
 
 -Cpt. Iassac `` Inky'' Masterson 
 
 http: //www.chrisroberson.net/2008/05/pac-man.html
