Andreja was working on Deck Three when she saw the Ghost.

At first, she had been excited to grab an Engineering assignment as part of the detail sent aboard the infamous ‘Phantom’ (everybody in the Mess-hall was calling it that), even if it was just running diagnostics on the decades – old EPS manifolds threaded throughout the mysterious ghost ship.

Her career in Starfleet hadn’t quite conformed to her expectations of high adventure and discovery, that had so fired her imagination when she had applied to Starfleet technical- School.

Sure, she had learned a trade and was justly proud of her acumen and grasp of Power – Distribution – Systems. She remembered how proud her parents had been when she graduated as a Technical Specialist and wondered where that thrill had absconded to and why it had left without informing her?

Not for her was a life bravely voyaging amongst the stars, discovering new civilizations and forming the spearhead of First Contact as part of a cadre of the Federation’s best and brightest.

Although her career was in its infancy, Crewman Gallow’s reality of life on the great frontier had, to date, largely consisted of endless days of boredom and routine, only occasionally interjected with periods of bowel – tightening frustration as Petty Officer Maylen found some aspect about her performance that brokered another insufferable round of performance review.

Andreja had been starting to consider that even a transfer to duty aboard Starbase 72 might be less crushing to her dreams and career aspirations – when all of a sudden – scuttlebutt about a mysterious lost ship was all that the younger – members of the crew could (and would) talk about. You couldn’t walk three feet down a companionway without being drawn into the orbit of conjecture.

~ “Was it Cardassians? I heard that it was Cardassians?” ~

~ “Does anyone know what really happened to it?” ~

~” I heard that it was a Black Op gone wrong, all very hush – hush!” ~

~ “Is it true that the crew were really all dead?!” ~

~”I heard that they found a survivor. She’s being kept under guard in Sickbay.”~

~”Maybe she murdered everyone aboard?”~

~ “Well, where has it been all this time? Can anyone answer me that?” ~

~ “Do you think that the replictators can be reprogrammed to produce Spam – Fritters? My mom used to make them for me. How hard can it really be?” ~

As it turned out, her ‘adventure’ was just another (rather chilly), boring anonymous EPS maintenance panel, in another (quite dilapidated) Jefferies Tube on another mundane day in a very long line.

As she listlessly scrubbed the carbonization away from a flange-head of the thirteenth phase – inductor, in as many hours – Andreja was presented with the irrefutable and uncomfortable truth that, even exploring a mysterious lost ‘ghost – ship’ could be a disappointing extension of the abject drudgery and day-to-day tedium of Starfleet life.

Andreja sighed and put the component down and pulled a wet-wipe from her toolkit and did her best to banish the greasy – residue from her hands.

Her life was supposed to be so much more…. more…. than this.

Sighing, she tapped her commbadge and called out to her supervisor.

“Gallow to Petty Officer Maylen.” Andreja sent and peered at the housing where she had removed the EPS manifold from. There was carbon scoring from a massive plasma surge that had occurred at some stage in the assembly’s life.

“Maylen here, go ahead.” Came the terse reply, Petty Officer Tara Maylen had little time for her subordinate, who she considered undisciplined and prone to slipshod work.

“Ma’am, I’ve removed the manifold from Junction Alpha – Three – Seven.” Andreja reported leadenly as she keyed the results into her PADD. “It’s the same as the others – oversurge really crudded everything the – hell up and it’s total burnout. Unsalvageable.”

“Very well Crewman – move on to the next Junction and check the next unit.” Maylen conceded, so many of the systems of ‘Hull – 3185’, were either burnt out from energistic overload, hopelessly out of date in comparison to modern systems or (worse yet) seemed have been cannibalized by someone at some point – in a desperate attempt to ‘Rob – Peter – to – pay – Paul.’

As Andreja nodded dejectedly to herself and gathered her tools – she began the awkward shuffle down the cramped confines of the Jefferies Tube towards her next (thankless) task. She reached for her commbadge to confirm that she was moving on.

As she went to do so, the claustrophobic dim enclosure of the Jefferies tube was suddenly suffused with a distant, gentle blue glow.

Andreja paused.

~” That’s odd?” ~ she thought.

As she peered into the gloom, the gentle blue glow seemed to increase in intensity – as if someone was approaching from the junction ahead – climbing up the ladder that led to Deck – 4.

“Hey Maylen….” Andreja frowned.

“That’s Petty Officer Maylen to you Crewman.” Tara’s voice retorted and Andreja rolled her eyes, wondering for the millionth time what she had done to be saddled with such a Shrew?

She gritted her teeth and responded, “Apologies, ‘Petty Officer Maylen’, Ma’am – but is there anybody else working on this deck – I thought it was just me down here?”

~’Holding down this shitty – detail!’~ Andreja though sourly.

There was a pause, and then Petty Officer Maylen sent. “No – just you Crewman. Leading Crewman Marx is on Deck – 2 still trying to coax the environmental systems into some semblance of order – last I checked? Maylen to Marx – you are copying this?”

 The glow was starting to strengthen, implacably, as Andreja shifted nervously as he co – workers engaged in banter over the comm – channel.

“Yeah – I copy you Ma’am.” Came Declan Marx’s rough South – London accent, as the stocky man obviously struggled with some physical aspect of his task on Deck – 2.

“Any joy with that coolant line?” Maylen asked as Andreja’s frown deepened and, despite herself, she could not quite dismiss an uncomfortable feeling in her gut as the blue glow persisted at the end of the junction, slowly growing in radiance.

“No ma’am.” Marx reasoned. “Most of the circulatory retention has bled off or the intermix has degraded & dissipated over time through leakage and secondary contamination – juice just ain’t worth the squeeze. I’d say we have to charge the whole system afresh. Right pain up the arse it is.”

Maybe it was the fact that her co-workers weren’t really listening, or that the implacable blue glow was getting really-quite-fucking-bright-now, but Andreja seemed to have broken out into goosebumps – which didn’t make sense if Marx hadn’t got the environmental systems online. Ship was a bloody ice – box at the best of times – despite all of the frozen corpses that were rumored to have been removed by the Med – team to thaw out in the USS Valley Forge’s morgue.

They said that something ‘unnatural’ had happened to the people that used to operate this vessel, all those years ago, and it was these macabre and unhelpful thoughts that seemed to dominate Andreja’s mind as she began to unconsciously withdraw from the growing light – some part of her animalistic brain – stem instigating activity in her “fight-or-flight” autonomous reaction towards the better part of Valor.

“Are you guys sure that there’s no one else on this level?” Andreja’s voice had a note of uncertainly now – the entire Jefferies tube seemed to be alive with the wandering blue glow now – it was impossible to dismiss as the emanations of a work – light from an approaching colleague now.

“Say again Gallow, your signal’s ………” The reply was lost to a sudden and overbearing haze of static – leaving Andreja effectively alone in the perturbing light.

Her heart began to beat heavily in her chest as she looked around and began to move back down the Jefferies Tube in the direction she had come for – her toolkit suddenly forgotten.

A chiming noise from her hip, wrested her attention away as she withdrew the PADD and peered at the data streaming there. The instrument was recording a faint, but steady rise in Tachyon Radiation coming from the direction of the blue glow.

Despite herself, her eyes widening and her pupils beginning to dilate – even as the blue glow reflected in them, Andreja’s hand searched around for something, anything, with which she could improvise as a weapon.

As she did so, she was startled to see a hand reach up from the shaft in the Jefferies tube, the mustard chevron of a Starfleet Engineering member evident on the sleeve as its owner began to draw itself up from the ladder below.

Andreja let out a shuddering, grateful laugh of relief.

“Fuck, man!” She laughed, obviously this was just some stray member of the Engineering Team – blinding the shit out her. She shook her head, “You scared the actual living shit out of me, you know that?!”

As Andreja relaxed, the figure drew itself more fully from the upward – junction. Strangely the blue glow did not appear to have any definitive source of origin – rather the man (and it was a male, human – of African origin) seemed to be suffused with that strange clinging, blue light – that moved with him.

The man said nothing but proceeded to begin to crawl fully onto her level and then make his way towards her.

Andreja held her hand up to shield her eyes, to protect them from the light that seemed to intensify the closer it came. Again, something in her hind – brain started clamoring a warning – but she laughed nervously and called out.

“Seriously! Point that damned work light somewhere else will ’ya? It’s really intense.”

Exorably, the man continued to crawl towards her. Suddenly the cramped interior within the Jefferies Tube seemed beyond claustrophobic, the walls seeming to crowd in on her and Andreja found that it was difficult to breathe deeply anymore. It was like her lungs had grown too small.

The man seemed to be both looking at her and at the same time – right through her, like she wasn’t even there.

“The actual fuck?!” Andreja wondered aloud – now aware that something was terribly wrong.

The glowing figure seemed to pause and consult a PADD of his own, before mouthing something wordlessly that she could not hear – even though she was only scant meters away. The figure shrugged and then proceeded to come closer.

“I’m warning you man! Stay the fuck away from me, alright!” A rising note of panic in her voice.

On he came. Ever onwards. Those glowing eyes seeming to bore into her soul and right out of the back of her head. Onwards he came and Andreja felt tears come unbidden to her eyes and her bladder began to loosen all on its own.

“STAY THE FUCK AWAY!!!!” She screamed miserably, throwing her arms up in desperate and pointless defence.

And the unheeding figure passed straight through her (the blue glow faintly receding with him) as he continued along the Jefferies Tube that seemed to both echo and muffle her screams.

She was still screaming when Maylen finally got to her position….