Day 2,647

If the crew's bodies were all accounted for, then who was inside the airlock begging to be let back in?

It's the kind of question you hear whispered among other cadets but always as a joke, a ghost story meant to scare the newer recruits. Nobody ever thinks they'll have to ask it themselves, let alone face the genuine prospect that we might not be alone in the universe.

I'd counted the crew's bodies ten times before it stopped banging on the airlock door. For a brief, blissful moment I thought I'd just imagined it all until its voice came over the intercom again. "Don't make me abandon this body, not when I've worked so hard to settle in. You will not like the outcome."

Then it sat down in the middle of the airlock, cross-legged and waiting as if it thought I'd have a sudden change of heart and believe it was capable of doing anything other than waiting. I chose to ignore it and check up on the ETA for medics to arrive, not that there was much more for them to do aside from bag, tag and transport the crew.

5 hours.

I thought about how far a body could drift in that time and, as if it had read my mind, it calmly stated "It'd reflect better on you for me to be found here and brought inside rather than risk the medical team having to stop and pull me into their craft, wouldn't you agree? Imagine how much I could tell them in the hours between there and here." before breaking off into quiet chuckles.

It was unnerving to say the least, and more importantly it was right. If the others were left alone with it then it'd have plenty of opportunity to convince them or kill them and take over their bodies like it might have already done with whichever unidentifiable body was in the unmarked suit.

With a couple of hours I managed to figure out that it could see surface thoughts, like overhearing an obnoxiously loud walkie-talkie. Then I found its limit, rerouted controls to my personal pad and sabotaged the airlock - some minor fault that would depressurise in such a way that would crush whoever was inside whilst looking like a total accident.

By the time the medics had arrived it was long dead, controls had been returned to their normal state and the bodies were right where she'd left them. The transfer of consciousness was as easy as slipping on a pair of worn shoes, or rather slipping into a moderately worn body.

I'll stick with her story and hope I've gained enough insight into her personality to make it back to their base.

Then the real fun begins.