Doctor

A sleek interstellar liner glides through the void, ferrying a bustling crowd of women and children to the orbiting Star Queen. Among the passengers, the ship’s doctor monitors each traveler with a meticulous eye, weighing health slips against subtle signs of illness. His authority extends to the ship’s quarantine bay, where a mysterious, self‑replicating molecule—dubbed chlorophage— threatens to upend the complacent confidence of humanity.

The story opens with humanity’s grand scale, conquering suns and storms while ignoring the tiny forces that could reshape everything. When a single molecule on a distant world begins to multiply, it becomes the most feared entity in the cosmos. As the doctor surveys the newcomers, he senses something off in a young woman’s complexion, hinting that the unseen danger may already be aboard. The tension builds between the routine of space travel and the looming specter of an invisible, unstoppable contagion.