"Well. We called them that. I don't know if that was their official name, or if they called themselves that, or if it just came because they ate life and made stars go out," Soldat says. "Maybe the scientist who summoned us to her dying world called them that because it sounded ominous."

They tilt their head back, looking up at the void through the greenhouse windows. "They were. Big. Dark. Sucked up light. Quadropedal, though we couldn't see exactly how many legs they had, so maybe hexapedal or something. Radioactive, maybe. Being too close to one made some of my hair fall out. Made some of the others want to hurt people. Whipped the spirits up into a frenzy of violence."