United States Space Command // Internal Incident Summary
Station 13
A psychological sci-fi horror novel by J.A. Raithe
Four crew members. One commander. A sealed deep space station where the security feeds can't be trusted, and neither can the person watching them.
Commander Anna Dimitrovic is six months from home aboard Deep Space Research Station 13, where a routine electromagnetic survey begins to unravel. Security feeds show intruders no one can locate. Strange frequencies begin spelling warnings. One by one, her crew starts to change in ways she cannot explain. Anna has survived collapse before, and she is determined not to lose her people again, even if protecting them means crossing a line she can never come back from.
Mission Summary
Station 13 was supposed to be simple. Six months of research, four crew, one commander, then home. But the mission begins to break in quiet ways first — a flicker in the camera feed, a pattern in the signal, a hesitation in the voice of someone Anna has trusted for months.
The fractures widen. Every corridor narrows. Every conversation carries a second meaning. Anna knows what collapse looks like. She has seen it before, in herself, in others, and she knows what it costs when a commander waits too long to act.
On Station 13, protection becomes suspicion, suspicion becomes control, and the thing wearing the face of duty may be the most dangerous presence on board.
Recovered Excerpt
I checked other feeds quickly. All crew in quarters. No emergency alerts. Nothing obviously wrong. But Camera Seven was flickering, steady pattern now, static for exactly 2.3 seconds, then clear for 4.7 seconds. During the clear moments, I could see into the corridor.
It wasn't empty anymore.
The figure stood at the far end, near the central junction. Motionless. Watching. In the brief windows of clarity, I could see it was wearing what looked like a station uniform, but something was wrong with the proportions. Too tall, or too thin, or both.
I pulled on my uniform and moved for the door.
The corridor was empty when I stepped into it...
Incident Flags
- Flag 01 // Visual Anomaly Security feeds report corridor movement inconsistent with confirmed crew locations.
- Flag 02 // Signal Deviation Electromagnetic readings display repeating patterns interpreted as intentional warnings.
- Flag 03 // Personnel Instability Behavioral drift among crew raises questions of contamination, psychological fracture, or both.
- Flag 04 // Command Threshold Commander Anna Dimitrovic exhibits escalating protective response under mission stress.
Before You Read This
Everything in this file comes from her. Her logs, her camera reviews, her account of what happened. There is no independent record. Keep that in mind as you read. What she wrote down and what actually occurred may not be the same thing.
I've been through it twice. I still don't know.
Where to Start
Read The Line first — it's free and it tells you who she was before the station. Then sample the main file before committing. If you prefer audio, Renee Robbins narrates the Audible edition. Print also available at Barnes & Noble.
The order matters. Don't skip the prequel.
Content Advisory
This psychological horror novel contains themes of military trauma, isolation, and mental health crisis. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues, support is available through the National Alliance on Mental Illness at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or nami.org, and for veterans through the Veterans Crisis Line at 988, Press 1.