<span style="font-weight: bold">17 Hours Ago,</span>the warm hum of warp echoed through the corridors of the massive thousand meter long Odyssey Class Dreadnought known to most as the USS Imperious. It had a single mission, test a mysterious device designed by a Federation Scientist that was said to be able to power an entire ship with a theoretic Zero-Point Energy reactor. The idea of it being able to work was unfathomable, they'd be able to reach even faster than light speeds which would make the Federation almost invincible. There was no way any other ship could be tasked with this mission, too many people would be after this kind of technology. Anything from Ferengi to Romulans, especially Romulans, would be trying to grab this. The question was, what would happen if this new Zero-Point Reactor failed? Why were they going so far away from the typical testing grounds of the Federation? Just how dangerous was this thing?<br/><br/>Breaking out of Warp, the massive vessel came to a complete stop and brought itself into orbit around a barren world. The star charts for this region were classified, unknown, it was likely that it was a place where they knew there was no known life to be found. Oh the irony of which they chose their location. Not only was the planet below them barren, but it was also a tomb planet, one which had suffered some sort of atomic extinction event.<br/><br/><span style="color: #8080FF">"Captain on Deck!"</span>A woman's voice sounded as the automatic doors of the ready room opened, revealing a man with a dark perfectly trimmed beard and layered jaw length hair, dressed in a Duster and Federation Uniform. Everyone on board wore a specific uniform, padded with armor with a single holster for their pistol-styled phaser weapons. It was 2405, the beginning of the Klingon War with the Federation and this was Captain Aomine of the USS Imperious.<br/><br/>Waltzing out on his own, his coal colored hues locked on the first officer as everyone was standing at their stations.<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #40BFFF">"At ease,"</span></span>He said with a calm and collected demeanor before glancing over towards the Scientist which was sitting in his chair. Walking over to the command chair, he stared down at the man who almost froze after being caught in the Captain's gaze.<span style="color: #40BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">"Civilian, out of the chair."</span></span>Gekko would state, and as the scientist would slowly begin to move out of the chair, the Captain helped them out with a single grab of the arm and a light shove to the center of the bridge.<br/><br/>Sitting down with one leg over the knee of the other, Gekko would stare at the Scientist as he was fumbling his Personal Data Pad before letting out a sigh.<span style="color: #40BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">"Report to Engineering, your reactor should be installed momentarily."</span></span>The man would state with a mundane and annoyed tone this time around and watched as the Scientist silently nodded to him and went scurrying off. Once the man left the bridge, he looked towards the others whom seemed relatively silent. When they were off duty, everyone was friendly, but on the bridge everyone was so serious.<span style="color: #40BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">"It's hard to believe someone such as him came up with a way to make the reactor work just from a theory..."</span></span><br/><br/>Now that everyone was seated, the experiment would begin. Within ten hours however, there was a sudden short of energy which traveled throughout the ship. The reactor was working, the ship was being powered on its own without any real tangible fluid or mass, just the vibrations of space and the interior of the ship. The only problem was it seemed there was a constant state of flux, it wouldn't calm down and become stable.<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #40BFFF">Captain to Engineering, the energy reactions are causing fluctuation up here. Are you getting anything?"</span></span><br/><br/>There was no response, what was going on down there?<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #40BFFF">"This is the Captain Speaking, Engineering please respond."</span></span>Again, there was nothing coming from the communications, then there was a shocking and gruesome sound, the ripping of raw flesh and the crushing of bone. Then there was silence again, as if whomever was pressing the bottom moved away from the speaker.<br/><br/>The bridge crew were all looking at one another, the Captain seemed unbelievably confused. Did he miss something? Closing his eyes, he stopped suppressing his empathic abilities and almost immediately covered his mouth slightly as he heaved forward. Hunger, despair, fear. Usually emotions never really overcame him like this, but this feeling was overwhelming on its own. He kept hearing an overlapping thought,<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="color: #FF4040">Devour! Devour! Devour!</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Seven Hours Later, present day,</span>everyone who was sent down to the engineering section of the ship stopped responding, some of them having sent their screams through their communication badges. It was increasingly disturbing that the fact was, just because of an experiment, he was losing his crew. There was over a thousand people on board and everything was going to hell. How was he going to protect his crew from some sort of monstrous cannibalistic threat? The ship was now dead in the water, engines unusable due to lack of power, there was no escape other than the shuttle bay, but the bay doors were open and the entire hangar was vacuum. He had no choice but to enact a Quarantine alert on board his own ship.<br/><br/>Soon enough other areas of the ship seemed to stop responding to hails within the hour, whatever was spreading, was spreading quickly. How come this had to happen? It wasn't even suppose to be a dangerous mission!<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #40BFFF">"You have the bridge Commander,"</span></span>Standing from the command chair, Gekko would walk over to the ready room and sit down in his chair Sitting down with an uncomfortable feeling in his gut, he was suppressing his empathic thoughts once again. He didn't want to hear the suffering, he didn't want to hear his failure to protect his crew.<br/><br/>The Bridge was on lock down, there was no way to get to it through the typical turbo-lifts, though there was still the Jefferies tubes and the transporter. So far no one had reached them it appears as no one has come up through them. At least, that is what he believed. That bought a question to his attention though, if the Engineering section was cut off, how was this all spreading? Were they using the Jefferies tubes? His eyes glanced up from his desk as he held a model of the Enterprise E in his hands.<br/><br/><span style="color: #40BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">"And here I thought I'd one day be commanding a Flagship of the Federation,"</span></span>He muttered to himself as he thought aloud, standing up once again. However just as he reached the door to reenter the bridge, he heard a shriek from the first officer as one of the maintenance hatches opened up and a figures of death began to rise out of it.<br/><br/>Narrowing his eyes on the figure, he noticed it was someone familiar. A bit disfigured and torn, but it was definitely someone he knew. The scientist? What? Everyone on the bridge would draw their pistols and take aim; firing shots ever so wildly in the large space of the bridge. Most of them hit pretty well, only the weapons were on stun and it wasn't effecting it at all. The creature that was so familiar to everyone made a croaking sound with its insane fleshy expression on its face. Just as it was about to tackle the first officer whom was standing the closest, the Captain shot it with his phaser on its maximum setting. The creature was vaporized within seconds, but there was more coming out from below.<br/><br/><span style="color: #40BFFF"><span style="font-weight: bold">"Computer, this is the Captain, seal off all jefferies tubes leading to the bridge!"</span></span>He shouted and near immediately afterward, bulk heads would begin to slam shut from bottom to top of the tubes leading to the bridge. Then just as a zombified creature began to climb out, the bulk head crushed its head in, jamming it partially open.<br/><br/>Looking about the bridge, everyone seemed to be fine, at least except for one of the people. Blinking a few times, he noticed a small trail of blood leading over to the OPs station. Arching a brow, his eyes narrowed upon the man standing there, attempting to stop his hand from bleeding. The man standing there was missing his thumb and index finger. He was the one who opened the tube when he heard the sound of someone knocking on it.<br/><br/>The Captain would watch as the man then collapsed a few minutes later and watched as the skin changed in color. The observation was uncanny and disgusting, but he was forcing himself to watch the transformation. Then just as the creature began to move, he aimed his phaser and pulled the trigger. Vaporizing it right there without much of a qualm, then looked towards the other bridge members.<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #40BFFF">"This is an order, Abandon ship,</span></span>again they silently obeyed his order despite visual reluctance.<br/><br/>They filed out of the bridge area and moved to the escape pods nearby, however as they were all about to enter their respective pods, one of the doors leading out of the room fell open. Screams could be heard down the corridor and the Captain turned his head slightly, staring at the door as the first officer began to forcefully seal it. He could only stand there, his eyes locked with hers, and then once the doors were closed he only heard a single phaser blast.<br/><br/>He needed to get off this ship, but he couldn't let whatever was going on here spread anywhere else. Activating the maneuvering thrusters, he began to put the ship into a deteriorating orbit around the tomb world. Even if he didn't make it, the ensuing explosion should destroy whatever these creatures were along with the ship. The lights all across the board seemed to be going in and out. It was like a ghost ship, but still, he just sat there in the captain's chair. Contemplating his escape.