A clang that shook the entire ship jolted her out of her meditation. She gasped, regretting it a moment later as she remembered her oxygen conservation techniques. Was she being rescued? Or was it just another piece of space debris hitting the ship?

Not space debris. She heard the clang-THUMP-thump of a boarding umbilical mating to the airlock. She rubbed her eyes, shook her head. She wasn’t hallucinating again, was she? Surely she wasn’t. It felt real.

She slowly made her way toward the airlock, located amidships, and was waiting there when it opened.

The man on the other side of the door was wearing no uniform she recognized, and his eyes widened at the sight of her. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

“Slowly running out of air. I don’t know who you are, but thanks for responding to my distress call.” The air from the umbilical was unbelievably fresh! It smelled so good, she took breath after breath of it.

He stared. “What distress call? This is a derelict ship. It’s been dead for fifty years.”