The Begining of the End

Posted on Fri Apr 28th, 2017 @ 10:00am by
Edited on on Sat Apr 29th, 2017 @ 4:12pm

545 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Unknown Life, Unknown Dangers
Location: Freighter Civic
Timeline: 1 Week Ago to present

The life of a freighter was wrought with perils from something as dangerous as pirates to something as simple as tariffs and fees. Still there was a need for the service and every major race and power used such a service to some degree or another. Cargo could be a variety of things from machinery to supplies and even people seeking to travel the stars to far off planets and systems.

This particular run was no different, hauling supplies to a remote regions under contract from the Federation. Most were happy to work for the Federation as they paid reasonably well and if one was lucky, they might slip in some routine maintenance free of charge when docked to take on cargo. On this run however things were far from routine, an Ion storm forced the Civic to divert course which on its own would be a normal and unremarkable thing. What proved remarkable however was the micrometeorite shower that lashed the ship as the storm passed. Minor damage, a clogged vent that needed to be purged, an intake manifold blocked by debris but it was not what was known that was soon to be the cause of all the problems, but the unknown.

Soon after random power fluctuations plagued the freighter and at first the crew were at a loss as to why, that was until one of the engineers entered the manifold junction, from the instant he opened the doors infection had taken place but the damage was already done. Feeding off the power conduits of the ship the organism spread, power, radiation, any kind of energy it could absorb was a target. The infected engineer unaware of his impending demise went about his duties trying to remove what ever was growing on the systems but they were just a freighter, not a dedicated science ship and soon systems began to fail.

Communications, navigation, engines. One by one systems failed until life support dropped to minimal levels but the true extent of the problem was discovered when the infected crewman was found missing from his shift, he was later found near the warp core as the infection within took hold and slowly fed off the power the reactor was generating.

With options running low the crew knew they had to abandon ship, unaware that they too had been infected but knew they had to shut down the power. In a demonstration of intelligence by the organism just before the final valve was closed all the airlocks and cargo bays were opened venting the entire ship, the crew and cargo into space.

With no power the organism lay dormant, the ship drifting lifeless devoid of crew and cargo, waiting.

*** Present ***

With the Dreadnought now swiftly underway William began to dig into sensor logs, records and anything he could lay his hands on that might shed any additional insight as to what happened to the missing freighter. His efforts were rewarded with very little beyond what he already knew, with his information filtered between his department heads in the hope they may yield him extra information, all he had to go on was very little indeed.

"Tea, hot and extra sweet." He spoke as he pondered, standing next to the replicator waiting for his beverage.

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