Derelict

Andersen was down to freeze-dried beans and the emergency water supply for the fuel cell. Almost time to turn his ship around and admit defeat. The low grade ore in the hold might pay his debts and get him back down to Earth, maybe.

Mining the asteroid belt had sounded adventurous, or a good way to get rich. Turned out to be boring, with fits of excitement when equipment broke down. Until he saw the light.

A blinking blue light, first noticed by the ship’s collision avoidance system, quickly expanded into a black shape, blocking out the stars. Too big ... Andersen hadn’t even heard wild rumors of anything this big being built. Alien.

He quickly turned around and matched velocities with the ship. It was slowly spinning, tumbling, out of control, featureless except for that blinking light, a candle in the window to Andersen.

Using the same skills he used to land on the space junk left over from the formation of the planets billions of years ago, he parked the ship over the blue light and began to suit up. The laser range finder put the alien ship at almost a mile long and a third that around. But there were no other lights than the blue flashing one.

Andersen left the airlock, staring at the derelict, dreaming of fame for being the first to discover an alien ship. Then he thought of the money to be made off the technology and his faceplate began to fog up. He was rarely the smartest in the crowd, but being lucky was always better in this profession. It wasn’t until he was halfway across the empty space between ships that he began to ponder what the blinking blue light might mean.

Lighthouse ... danger ... stay away ....