Barrier 346

Life at the Station had ceased to hold any drama. The only enemies were boredom - a psychic inertia - and the innate weakness of the human element. Reading and samplings, data analysis and stereotyped daily radio reporting filed the long bleak hours. Suddenly they lost all contact with the outside. No radio...No television...No physical contact with patrolling ships...Nothing... Their universe had contracted until life was bounded by the beryllium alloy fuselage of the Station. Martia, the assistant astro-physicist, woke from a strangely deep sleep to find herself unable to get out of her cabin. None of the others could reach her... When the door was finally cut away Martia had vanished. One by one other crew members and scientific personnel disappeared until Kersh, the radio-operator, found himself alone on the vast echoing station...