The Ancient Virus

A short story, but very interesting. A ship is discovered in deep space—a vessel dead for two hundred years. With a single person on board. What happened to the ship? And where did the survivor come from?
When we found the landing path, followed it to the ship, climbed onto the armor, and cut it open, no one could have laughed, no matter how hard they tried. The first dried-out skeletons we found, we carried outside and laid on the ground. Then we went a bit deeper and realized it was pointless work—the crew aboard the dead ship was, if anything, fewer than ours, but not by much. It would have taken us more than one day to retrieve all the remains and bury them.
“Now what do we do?” I asked Morales.
“Nothing. Walk around, look, transmit the video data. Check safety around the perimeter. And the propulsion system, too. Also, find access to the control room. Don’t touch anything unnecessary. I’ll send down the research team as soon as you report that the object is completely safe. Waiting.”