Star Wars: The Ghost Ship
A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…
A small cargo ship floats through space, it's engines malfunctioning.
In the silent void the ship and it's crew are alone, or so it seems.
In the shadows another ship follows, waiting for it's chance to strike…
Ral Sentu sat at the captain's chair of his ship, the Rusty Bantha. The ship's engines had stopped working mid hyperspace jump and was torn out of hyperspace, leaving the crew drifting in space. Although he was annoyed, Ral was not worried. The ship was old and frequently broke. It would only take a few days and the ship would be running again. His crew was also very skilled in ship maintenance and had experienced things of the sort before. The cockpit door opened and Mariah, his second in command came in.
"Hyperdrive engine again?" She asked Ral, who nodded. Rolling her eyes she went to go tell the ship's engineer to fix it so they could get moving and deliver their cargo of blasters to an Imperial base on the planet Becryke. Ral was about to get up to check on the rest of the crew when the ship suddenly shuddered. The lights began to flicker and suddenly went out. Taking out his flashlight he carefully made his way through the dark ship to the engine room. There he found Mariah and Ganio, the ship's engineer.
"What happened?" he asked Ganio.
"I don't know. The hyperdrive engine looks undamaged and in perfect condition. The same with the ship's generators." He responded.
"Then what caused the ship to stop functioning?" He asked. Ganio shrugged. Suddenly the ship once again shuddered violently and began to move forward as if it was being pulled. Ral, Mariah, and Ganio ran to the ship's cockpit and looked out the window. Out of the darkness a ship appeared. It looked similar to a star destroyer except smaller with a large docking bay on the front of the ship. It was clearly heavily damaged with large chunks of the hull missing and with no power. The only thing that appeared to be functioning was the ship's engines. Ral quickly ordered Mariah and Ganio to gather the rest of the crew in the central commons area.
Soon the crew had been gathered, about eight of them in all. Ral quickly explained the situation to the rest of the crew. He noticed Anolo, the navigator/computer expert was very pale and seemed to be shaking. He asked what was wrong. Anolo was very superstitious man. He began telling the crew a legend that he had heard.
"I have heard that this region of space is haunted by a ghost ship. There are stories of starships and their crews going missing here, ships malfunctioning in this area, and a large ancient warship that is damaged and broken, just like the one you described. I should not have told you to take this route."
Ral rolled his eyes. "That is just more of your conspiracy garbage. It probably a abandoned ship whose tractor beam malfunctioned." Then the sound of the ship hitting solid metal was heard. "Come on, let's go find a way to shut down this tractor beam so we can deliver our cargo and go home." The crew put on enviro-suits and exited their ship. The hanger they entered looked demolished. Pieces of wall, ship parts, and old droids were scattered all over the floor. There even appeared to be other ships that had been stripped of their parts and then been pushed to the side. The whole area was dark and eerie. There was also the lingering feeling that they were being watched.
They made their way across the wrecked hangar and found a blast door. After several minutes they managed to pry it open. A horrifying sight awaited them. In the hall, scattered on the floor or leaning against walls were bodies. They were all well preserved due to being exposed in space for so long without any elements to decompose them. It was the same throughout the ship. There were many bodies with armor they had not seen before, some with civilian clothing, others wearing uniforms of the rebel alliance. There were clone troopers and stormtroopers and even what looked to be a jedi. The ship itself was also badly destroyed. Many of the hallways were collapsed or blocked by rubble. Pieces of equipment and droids littered the area. The crew continued to try and find their way around the ship. Suddenly one of the crew heard something. It sounded like cracking but before he could listen further the noise stopped. Thinking that it was their imagination the crew member continued on with the rest of the crew.
After about fifteen minutes of exploring the crew found a area with a atmosphere. It also had a computer terminal that was not damaged and was still connected to the ship's generators. After turning it on and pushing off the body that had been sitting at the terminal Anolo got to work, trying to figure out how to turn off the tractor beam.
"I found the name of the ship. It is called the Devourer."
"Where is the ship from and how did it get to this state?" Ganio asked curiously. Anolo began typing. He began to talk
"The ship's last log was.." He paled even more. "20 BTC."
"Before the Treaty of Coruscant?" asked Ral. "That is impossible. That would make the ship nearly four thousand years old."
"It apparently was a warship for the Sith Empire." Anolo told the others. "The last log was a distress signal that the ship was under attack."
"I don't like this." said Mariah. "Can you just shut off the tractor beam so we can get out of here."
Anolo once again began working. Then a confused look appeared on his face.
"The tractor beam has not been activated since the last time the ship was occupied."
"Then what pulled us here?" Asked Ral. Suddenly a strange sound that sounded like laughter rang through the ship. Then the body that had been sitting on the terminal made a cracking noise. The crew backed away in horror as the frozen body began to move. Slowly it got up and it's eyes opened. It turned to look at the crew, it's lifeless eyes staring at them. Then a earsplitting shriek boomed through the ship and what sounded like heavy footsteps came echoing through the hull. The body began of clumsily walk towards the crew, one of it's arms reaching for them. The frightened crew ran off, looking for a way out. The group turned a corner to find more reanimated bodies coming towards them. They ran in the other direction, only to find even more of the dead coming towards them. There was only one way to go. They began to sprint down the hallway and came to a blast door. They pried it open just in time to slip in. Closing it just as the undead came up to it they found themselves in what looked to be the ship's command deck.
The entire area looked relatively maintained and functional. Apart from the lack of power and the banging on the door behind them it looked like a normal command deck. However there was also one other thing that was out of place in the deck. In the command chair sat a single body. It was wearing a dark cloak and had a lightsaber still attached to it's belt. The crew began to search of another way out when suddenly the same evil laughter rang through the room. This time however it seemed to be coming from the body. Suddenly the eyes on the body began to glow red. The crew was pulled towards it and before they knew what was happening lightning flew from it and engulfed them, draining their life force. All of them fell on the floor, dead.
The spirit of the long dead sith laughed insanely to himself. Now with the life force of these five new people he was even more powerful. Soon he would be able powerful enough to inhabit his body and control his undead slaves at the same time. Then with his army he would take the galaxy and rule for all time.
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed my short story. I don't know if it will effect my other stories but I am thinking about having Imperius bind the spirit. Also I just want to clarify that this spirit had gone insane in it's time on the ship. The sith is just a random sith from the great galactic war that died in battle that was powerful enough to control the dead. Thank you for reading and once again I hoped you enjoyed.