"Whoa." Cora stopped and took in the sight of Io, Jupiter, the Sun, and the other half of Odyssey Station rotating around her. She spent a few seconds measuring the station's motion. The spin wasn't fast enough to tear the rest of the hull apart, but it could still present some problems while launching. One good whack from a piece of the station could damage the ships enough to prevent the rescue of the crew.

Likhachyova's heavily accented voice came through Cora's internal comlink. "Hey, anybody there?"

"Easy, Ludmila. Do you remember where you are?"

"I'm on Boner's transport, but I don't remember boarding."

"I had to take you outside and enter through the transport's forward hatch. The station's docking hatch was bent by the impact and wouldn't open, but the ships can still detach."

"Ah. Thanks for that. How is everyone else?"

"There are some injuries among the crew, but everyone is alive. The team unloading our cargo is waiting aboard our transport. Boner is on her way to you." Cora began recording a video clip with her optics and swept her vicinity for the object that had collided with the station. "What day is it?"

"Monday. No need to test me for brain damage. I remember my name, too -- Ludmila Likhachyova. My callsign's 'Brawn Hilda' because I'm built like a brick shithouse."

"Still better than the shuttle pilot we met last time we were here," Kim said as she finished giving the other pilot a piggyback ride to her transport. A tether connected Boner to the station's hull just in case something jolted her loose. "He got the nickname 'T-Bone' because he crashed his plane directly into a cow during a training flight."

Likhachyova laughed and then groaned. "Ow. I haven't had a headache like this since the morning after my callsign ceremony."

"Won't be long before we get you into a nice, comfy bed in the med-bay on Leonov Station." Cora found the crescent-shaped object overhead. Some of its windows had gone dark, lights in others flickered randomly, and electricity -- or something -- arced across a gash in its forward edge. "That must be where the discharge came from."

"Huh," Kim muttered. "Never thought I'd see a UFO way out here."

"It's more of an unidentified crashing object, but yeah," Likhachyova said. "The universe is so big, there has to be someone out there, assuming this really is what I think it is. Just never expected to find one in our own backyard."

"It's turning. Not just tumbling, I mean. It's stabilizing."

Cora watched the object's lights flicker back on and remain steady. It came to a stop, turned, and faced its forward edge away from both halves of the station. Cora turned in place to keep the object in sight. Now that she could get a more or less steady look at it, she zoomed in and started scanning it with every instrument built into her. "I'm getting video and sensor data."

"So am I," Kim said. "Nobody would believe us without it."

Likhachyova snorted. "A lot of people wouldn't believe it no matter what. There are still idiots who insist we never even landed on the moon, much less explored the rest of the solar system."

"Oh, don't even get me started on those chucklefucks," Kim grumbled. Likhachyova snickered.

"The energy signature is unfamiliar. I'm picking up a series of small power spikes." Cora kept her optics on the object -- ship? -- and spotted tiny flares coming from ports in its hull. It turned sideways and accelerated. "Probably RCS thrusters. It's moving away."

"Okay, so, it comes out of nowhere, plows straight into us, then leaves without so much as an 'Oops, my bad'?" Kim let out an exasperated grunt. "Are you kidding?"

"Hold on." Likhachyova's tone was suddenly hushed. "It's not heading for Earth, is it?"

Cora calculated its trajectory and shook her head. "Unless it changes course later, it's moving out of the solar system." She wanted to try to communicate with the ship, but the Odyssey crew still needed to be rescued. That had to take priority.

"It's leaving the scene of an accident," Kim almost growled.

The ship increased its speed, dwindled gradually to a dot, and vanished. Cora stopped recording. Kim extended both middle fingers in the direction the ship had gone and turned away.

"Well, that's just peachy."