Dark Matter

Dark Matter is a short story that imagines humanity's first quest to another galaxy and what happens in the void along the way. The following is an exciting preview:I thought there must be a black drape over my window. Whatever was tapping had to be right there in plain view! And then I looked once more at the light. This time the trails of light were longer. They were going farther. And I understood. Whatever was out there was sucking up all the light. It was like it was... eating it. Or absorbing it. My room was darker without switching off the lights. The lights ran at full capacity, but this... thing outside my window gobbled up every last bit.It struck me that if this thing was sustained by light and if it lived in such a void between galaxies, surely it would be gorging itself on this artificial food source. What would happen when it was full? Would it stop? If not, would it explode from over-feeding? Not wishing to find out, I turned off my light.All was now utter blackness. There was no light to see, no light upon which to feed. This... entity... this new discovery... surely this was dark matter. Its existence appearing only in theory and mathematical equations, now it's knocking on my wall! If only I could see it. If only I could see anything. I wanted to understand this creature. A new vitality was awoken in me. I was knocked from my cynical nature by an overwhelming desire to know the truth of this new being.I felt my way up to the wall again. I knocked four times.It knocked four times back.And then...BANG! It struck the side of the ship with a loud thud!"No, no, no, no!!" I yelled, as if it could hear me.Then it struck me... how could it hear my taps? Sound doesn't travel in space. Does this creature have sight so advanced that it can see vibrations on a hard surface? Surely such an advancement in sight would help a creature so deep in dark space.BANG! It struck the ship again.How was it moving?? Did it somehow expel some kind of gas that propelled it across space? Did it have an ability to ripple space like our warp engines?BANG! I was knocked from my delirious examinations with the cold hard fact that this thing may be trying to kill me.