Scavenger

Scavenger is the first story C.M. Weller gave out for All Hallows' Read. You can obtain your free copy here.

Plot
Alex is part of a salvage team going through a interstellar dumping ground for decomissioned and abandoned space vessels. The surroundings are familiar enough to be haunting by their lack of population, light, or activity.

There's some signs that something has taken up residence. There are mysterious threads randomly throughout the structure. They appear to be high-grade silica-based fibreoptic filaments.

When Alex reaches the hold, they discover that there is something living in the ship. A hunter that uses the faintest zephyrs of the atmosphere to home in on its prey. It's completely harmless to Alex, but that doesn't stop a natural reaction when they land on hir faceplate.

They look something like a spider. If a spider had ten legswithh a fine coating of fur. They're enthusiastic and hungry and all over Alex's suit. And the boss wants the web-spinners. Alive.

Alex gets one, but also gets covered in spiders.

And at the end of the trip, it's not the web-spinners that are valuable to the station owners, but the spiders.