Excerpt: The Apocalypse of Frank Evers

The door to the communications room had been sealed shut from the inside. Captain Evers motioned to the soldier who stepped forward and produced a gel applicator from the huge arsenal about his person. Quickly, efficiently, silently the soldier set it up and moved away exactly to the recommended safe distance. Inexperienced with such things, Kelly Qu tensed for an explosion, and got a small nervous laugh from the rest of the team when the thermal gel flared almost silently and burned through the seal of the bulkhead door. The soldier stepped forward smartly and grabbed the door as it started to fall, putting it to one side as easily as Evers would lift a clipboard. He looked through and nodded to indicate the room was clear and the team moved forward to peak in.
The communications equipment was still lit up, steadily relaying the transmission at full power to the galaxy beyond. A corpse was sitting curled up with head on knees, the pen held in his hand snapped by the stiffening of rigor mortis. Ink had dripped down slowly to pool on the corner of the small stack of paper that lay loose on the bare floor in front of the dead man.