Things That Go Bump in the Night

Posted on Tue Oct 20th, 2026 @ 5:12pm by Lieutenant Viviana Del Rio & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant Commander Imik S'Niohun & Lieutenant Commander Callie Raven-Grayson & Lieutenant James Phoenix

1,524 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Creatures of the Night
Location: Derelict Ship

The away team materialized aboard the derelict ship. Gravity functioned, but it was dark, only light from emergency lighting and moonlight that streamed in like silvery rays illuminated the bridge. The air was breathable but stale, as if the ship was a sealed tomb that had not been opened in centuries.

For her part, Viviana tried to remain calm despite the overwhelming sense of dread she felt in this place. She opened her tricorder and took readings, the light from it offering only a tad bit more illumination. Beyond her readings, all she could see was the that the bridge appeared covered in an inch of dust. "Atmosphere is thin but breathable. I would suggest getting life support active again, otherwise we'll need EV suits to stay over here for more than 20 minutes."

"On it" Phoenix said before he jumped behind the operations console and tactical consoles; the latter was mostly defensive systems since it was a civilian registered ship. The former was inactive. He tried to turn it on but failed, so he ducked under it and tried to make an attempt to fix it.

Imik stood where she had materialized, her senses were going ten to the dozen. So far she can sense nothing, but that had happened before so she didn't move for now. When James moved suddenly she flinched, but slowly Imik moved to the wall her back brushing it. Memories of another derelict now flooded her mind her left arm ached, the problem this time was she had no fighter to retreat to.

Jon materialized on the bridge, his eyes compensating for the dim light as he slowly looked around the bridge. He made out the other members of the away team and some bridge consoles around them. The air was heavy, musky, stale. "How's coming with lights and life support James?"

Callie looked around, the whole feel of the place gave her serious creeps, a chill running down her spine. “I hate the feel of this place, it’s creepy.”

Callie's statement made Imik do a double take, "Creepy Commander? I fail to understand the context, I sense nothing as yet but the possibility of surprise or attack is in my mind high." She glanced around the bridge, "I know of certain species who use things such as this to lure their enemies, I have suffered such a deception."

Callie smiled. “I meant creepy as in ghostly, or scary. It’s silent, still, and so far pretty dark.”

"Alright, let's not let our imaginations run wild. We're here to check out this ship." Jon reminded everyone.

James called out to Jon from under the console. "I think I'm getting closer to bringing it online-" he got interrupted by a small shock from one of the wires he was working with. He cursed rather audibly. "Apologies for the language, should be a few more moments."

Callie walked around the bridge just looking around, almost leaping out of her skin as she took a step slightly back and backed into a chair cursing herself for being silly. “Gees! Get a grip it’s not a haunted house.”

Jon looked to her and quickly moved to her side. "You alright Callie?" His voice full of concerned over her wellbeing. "Once James gets the bridge lights on, it will be better."

The lights flashed on suddenly and Viviana let out a short but intense panicked screamed. "Apologies" she said as she composed herself and then walked over to the skeleton she had seen sitting at the helm. She didn't need her tricorder to know the obvious. "All this dust, it is the remains of the bridge crew." She began scanning the corpse, "Strange..."

James had managed to make the console work again. Shortly after he did he had gotten the lights on and basic life support. "Sorry doc, didn't mean to startle you" he turned to Jon. "Life support is stable for now, but I don't recommend staying here for too long. I've tried to safe guard the system as best as I can but its so old and damaged enough that we could lose it at any moment."

"Recommendation noted." Jon replied crisply as he moved a body at one of the secondary stations. Unlike Viviana's skeleton this one looked like a dried up corn husk. The skin withered and pulled tightly over the bones. "Strange." Jon muttered. "One skeleton and one dried up husk of a body. Any ideas Viviana?"

Viviana walked over and scanned the one by Jon. "Very strange..." she muttered. "Both of these bodies have been exsanguinated. And it wouldn't surprise me if the exsanguination was the cause of death. But no signs of struggle." She continued scanning, attempting to glean any bit of information from them that she could.

Imik had heard Viviana's report, and moved towards Jon, "Commander, there are species that survive in the fashion described. If I remember correctly, Humans have a legend of one called Vampires. Could it be this crew either were of that kind or unknowingly encountered one? And if so, what happened to it?" She looked around the bridge then continued, "1701 USS Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk, encountered a being that extracted salt from the blood of its victims. The planet was M113, but I am unsure of the system or distance from this location."

"Vampires?" Jon repeated. "I am familiar with the Earth legend of vampire. They supposedly suck the blood of their victims. The creature Captain Kirk encountered was a salt vampire, who drained the salt out of it's victims. If there are logs we can access them and hopefully stop speculating and know for certain what is going on.: He looked at the others, "No one goes anywhere alone. No one, no exceptions."

“Understood” Callie nodded. “I’m guessing we’re going to find more bodies as we go through this ship, I’d be surprised if we find anyone alive. If there was someone I’d be sensing them by now.”

"Good point Callie, I still want everyone alert and aware of what's going on around them. Lets see if there are any logs to give us a better understanding of what happened here." Jon replied.

Turning to Callie, Imik made a comment. "Due respect Commander, if there is something like a Vampire here we may not detect or sense it due to it being in hibernation. if my memory serves correctly, those creatures can enter a hibernation type state awakening only once body heat is detected by them. Which means it could be anywhere on this vessel, if indeed there is such a creature." Imik now turned and pointed to a set of doors leading off the bridge, "If our present suspicions are correct, in which direction did it arrive? Did it enter from below the bridge and make its way here? Or did it appear on the bridge and work its way downward?"

Viviana shook her head. "I don't think Betazoid telepathy or empathy works that way. Anything alive, even something a monstrous and mythical as a vampire would still be detected, especially with all the work the Commander has been doing with Cmdr Celes. I would suggest she would at least sense a presence, even if she couldn't read them." Viviana looked to Jon, "If you guys are going, to check things out, just leave Phoenix here with me. And see about finding some garlic and holy water. ¡Vampiros, Dios nos salve!"

Callie took a deep breath as a chill ran down her spine again, for a moment she wasn’t sure if she was right or wrong, before she shook it off and looked towards Jon. “Let’s get moving before I change my mind.”

"I really hope we aren't dealing with another mythological creature. The Academy didn't prepare us for such things" Viviana noted, returning to her work.

James continued monitoring the life support and defensive systems. "You would think they'd have a class on the weird, timey wimey, mythological stuff" he quipped without looking up from his work. "I thought being frozen for three centuries was weird, now I'm dealing with dragons, vampires, and cybernetic beings, and I don't mean the Borg."

"James will indeed stay with you Viviana. As I stated no one goes anywhere alone." Jon replied before glancing at James. "Indeed. Perhaps you should suggest it to command."

"I will sir" James nodded. He knew it was more of a quip, but it wasn't a bad suggestion. Too many cadets went into the fleet without grasping the idea that the unknown and strange occurrences of space travel could get deadly. Sure some classes taught this, but it wasn't enough for what ships like the Washington and Enterprise dealt with on a day to day basis.

Jon nodded. "Good man." He replied. "You and Viviana stay here. We're going to find this ship's med center and see if we can get any answers."

"If you find the sickbay, let me know. I will happily go over medical records to take my mind off this eerie locale" Viviana noted.

Jon nodded, "Will do. We'll keep you posted."


TBC

 

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