The night shift was terrible.

I hated it, but being the newest and lowest rank member on the cargo ship, the night shift was thrown on me. There were a few perks. Like sitting in front of the controls that flew the spaceship, but I couldn’t touch them. Before the actual pilot went to sleep, he had put the ship on autopilot, and it would remain like that until he woke up.

So, I sat there. Eating some thick oatmeal that I wished was a burrito.

“Computer,” I said through a mouthful of bland oatmeal.

“Yes Nova?” the female voice said through the speaker.

“How many hours until I am off duty?”

“Five hours, forty minutes, and thirty-five seconds.”

Great, I had only been on duty for an hour and twenty minutes, but it felt like hours.

I went back to my bowl and watched the stars twinkle by. They all sparkled and winked at me, enticing me to go off autopilot and chase them. My eyes spotted an unusual star. It looked as it if was glowing green, not white.

“Computer, scan the surrounding area.”

I waited a moment before the computer responded, “Scanning surrounding area: zero results.”

Setting down my spoon, I leaned closer to the window. The small green dot seemed to grow larger. “Are you sure?”

“I do not understand.”

I rolled my eyes, forgetting the computer was not a real person. “Test again.”

“Scanning surrounding area: zero results.”

I sat down in the seat, watching the green thing. It grew closer and closer. Whatever the green blob was, it should have been picked up by the computer. It was so close to the ship and...

It was gone. I sat up in the seat. The blob was almost to the ship, or maybe it had touched the ship. And now it was gone.

A second later, there was a bang behind me. Turning slowly, I stared hard at the door. Maybe the captain was up, or the engineer, or maybe the pilot. But there was this uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I stood and walked to the door. Opening it, I found the source of the sound. The little green blob was in the ship. It stood there, actually stood in the middle of the hallway. Though it didn’t have a face, I knew it was staring at me.

“Hey little buddy,” I said, walking toward it. The lime green blob glowed slightly and moved like jello. The tip of the blob looked up at me as if had a head.

I took one more step and then it vanished. Well, not vanished-vanished, but vanished by zooming down the hall to the open door that led to the common room.

I ran after it as it zoomed through the common room, through the kitchen, and down the stairs to the cargo hold. All the while I ran after it, hoping it wouldn’t decide to play hide and seek.

“Computer,” I yelled as I ran into the cargo hold.

“Yes, Nova?”

“Can you detect the green blob on board?”

“There is no such thing as a green blob.”

I ran down the stairs and stood in the middle of the cargo hold. Crates upon crates were placed around the area, for a moment I could not see the green thing.

"Well I can see it, so therefore it is a thing now. Look it up!” I needed to get an idea of what this thing was.

“There is no information of a blob.”

I rolled my eyes. “Look up…” Oh, what was another name for a blob? “Flubber, look up flubber.”

“Flubber, a movie made in 1997, Robin-”

“Not helpful!” I shouted at the computer. I needed to know what the thing was. This green blob. Was it toxic to the touch? I needed to capture it, but I didn't dare touch it.

“Advice,” the computer said, “Wake the captain.”

“Pick another piece of advice,” I snapped. Eyeing the blob in the corner of the hold, I grabbed the nearest thing which was a rod that was a meter long. Okay, this could work.

I walked slowly to the corner where the blob was. It either saw me and didn’t care, or its back was to me and I was sneaking up on it. It didn’t move as I stood close enough to raise the rod above my head and swung it down.

The rod fell directly on top of the green blob.

And it split into two.

“What the!” I yelled as I jumped back. There were now two blobs staring at me.

“I see that worked well,” the computer said sarcastically behind me.

My eyes turned to the little speaker, giving it a dark look. “Dear god, you has a personality.”

“And you have bad aim.”

“Hey, I did hit it.” I turned back to find the blob gone. “Ah, crap.”

“Advice, do not take your eyes off the blob.”

I walked closer to the two crates the blob had stood between. Nothing stood behind them. “Are you sure you can’t detect it?”

“I am sure,” the computer said. I turned back to where the stairs were, and I froze.

The two blobs stood at the top. The two pieces morphed together just as easy as I cut it apart with the rod. The little thing turned and zoomed away.

“Hey!” I ran up the stairs. At the top, I couldn’t make out if it had gone back the way we had come or if it went through the other open door that led to the engineering room.

A loud bang from the engineering room was my answer. I ran toward the sound and to the blob.

Skidding into the engineering room, I held the rod up ready to strike. Really, hitting it would not help. It would only slice it into two. I needed a cage or some sort of box.

A sound of a metal tool fell to my left. I looked over at the workbench to see the blob looking at me as if it was a cat that just pushed a cup of water over a table edge.

“I gotcha little buddy,” I whispered as I crept over to it. It stood still, watching me. I raised my arms, ready to strike it, but the blob fell to the floor. Jumping toward it, I tried to smack it with the rod, but it zoomed between my legs.

Turning to the door, I watched it not zoom through the door but into a vent.

“Nova?” the computer said. “I am picking up something on the ship.”

“Oh,” I dropped my arm that held the rod, “Now you sense something.”

I walked out of the engineering room. “Where is it located?” I asked.

“In me,” the computer had said the words, but the voice was not the computers. It was a deep male's voice. “Oh, I like this voice.”

“I’m coming to help.”

I stepped into the cargo hold. Before I reached the hatch that led back to the rest of the ship, the hatch slammed shut.

Running to it, I tried to open it by squeezing my fingers between the crack of the hatch. “Computer open the hatch”

“Locking hatch,” it said.

“No! Unlock hatch!”

“Opening cargo hatch.”

“No!” I screamed at the computer. Alarms started to blare as the large cargo hatch behind me started the process of opening. “Close the hatch! I will get sucked out!” My fist banged on the metal. With luck, one of my crew members will hear me and stop the computer.

The alarms seemed to grow with intensity as the computer started to count down to when the hatch would open.

“Ten,” the male’s voice sang. “Nine.”

I ran to the staircase. Quickly, I undid my belt and with shaking fingers and tried to loop it around the staircase pole. “Computer try to stop it! Try to stop the blob! You can fight it.”

“Six… Five…”

“Computer!” I screamed. Before me, I watched as the locks in the hatch started to unlock. I’m going to be sucked out for sure.

“Three… Two… One!”

The hatch opened and all the air was instantly sucked out of the cargo hold. My eyes were shut tight. The wind tore at me, and I could feel my arms slipping as they tried not to let go of the metal staircase pole.

But the wind was too strong, I felt my arms start to slip. My body was drawn toward the open hatch. The belt around my waist broke.

My arms broke free of the pole, and I screamed or tried to scream as my body flew toward the open hatch.

There was a loud bang as the hatch closed and I fell like dead weight onto the floor.

“Nova, how are you feeling?” the computer asked, its female voice was back to normal.

Looking up, my foot was only centimeters from the hatch. A few seconds too late, I would have been floating outside. “I’m okay.” I pulled myself up. The hatch at the top of the stairs opened behind me. When I stood, I could already feel the bruises on my body from the fall. “Where did the blob go?”

“I cannot detect it. It is not in my system.”

Rolling my eyes, I ran up the stairs. It couldn’t be too far. Unless if it went outside, which hopefully it did. The rod I had dropped still laid on the floor beside stairs. The railing had stopped it from flying out of the hatch. I grabbed it quickly.

A loud smash in the kitchen had me sprinting. I crashed into the room. The blob was zooming around it. It somehow opened cupboards and knocked out everything inside. It hit the table, flipping it on to its side. Chairs were pushed or kicked over.

My eyes tried to focus on the zooming blob. I held the rod up like a baseball bat. The first swing, I missed the blob. The second I missed.

But the third time, I swung the rod. Hitting the thing right on the nose, that is if it had a nose. The blob went flying and it splattered against the wall.

“Yes!” I yelled, holding the rod up in the air in triumph.

The blob trickled down the wall as if it was water.

“What are you doing?”

This time it was not the computer talking.

I turned, the rod still over my head. “Ugh, hello Captain.”

The captain was not looking at me or the blob that was on the wall. He was looking at the wrecked kitchen.

“The blob did all that,” I said.

The captain looked up at me, an eyebrow raised. “The what?”

I pointed to where the blob was behind me on the wall with my thumb. “It’s right there.”

The captain looked to where I was pointing. “Nothing is there.”

Spinning on my heels, I found the captain was right. The blob was gone.

“It can’t have gone far,” I started to pick up the pieces of furniture and cups and plates. The blob couldn’t just be gone.

“Nova, you are dismissed to your quarters.”

“But no, it was here! Computer, tell the captain.”

“I do not sense an intruder,” the computer said.

“What! It was in your system! You had a male’s voice!”

The captain took a step into the kitchen. “I recommend you go to your quarters. Now.”

“Fine.” I dropped the rod.

As I walked by the small kitchen window, what I saw made my jaw drop.

There was the blob. Floating away. As if it didn’t just ruin my career on the ship. Before I could turn to tell the captain I was not crazy and that the blob was right there, the blob disappeared.

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