If the Enterprise could scream in pain, she would. It was some of the most intense that she felt, perhaps even worse when she was physically grabbed by a giant green hand or emotionally taken control of by the maniacal Matt Decker. There was only one person that could always cheer her up, even at her worst.

Montgomery Scott.

"Wake up, Scotty. Wake up."

Scott groaned as he awoke, slowly pulling himself to his feet. Holding his head in pain, he figured he probably had a concussion, but that wasn't important. The Enterprise held as his main priority. Looking around, his fellow engineers were not at their stations, instead, they were all holed up by the main door, which seemed unable to open.

The room had become dim, something that gave him the immediate impression that the ship was now at a very low power level, yet for seemingly no reason. Scott felt bad for the old girl, it must be quite shocking like feeling tired immediately after having a cup of warm coffee. How could such a dastardly thing have happened? Pulling his hand away from his aching head, he felt something warm.

He warmed her heart like he always did. Scotty always knew how to treat a lady, it was a shame that he kept himself isolated from women, usually at the expense of reading technical manuals.

"Oh my." Scott said, looking at the blood flowing down his fingers.

One of the engineers turned back to see that he was awake. They were fairly young, mid-30s, well built, and had short blonde hair that was reminiscent of Mr. Kyle.

"Sir, it's good to see that you're okay."

"Aye, laddie. Me too. What's the problem with that door, Mr. Theo?" Scott's Scottish accent dominated the now quiet room.

"It's unable to open for some reason. We've been at it for a few minutes and the in-ship communications aren't working. Communicators neither."

Scott had no reason to not believe Mr. Theo, but he wanted to check for himself.

"Scott to Bridge." He affirmed, using his own pocket communicator. As he figured, no response ever came to him. Looking back to the Ensign, he nodded in agreement. "I'm guessing the wall ones don't work either?"

"No, sir. I've tried a few times and...well, it's no use."

The chief engineer thought for a moment, walking over to the red door, gently pushing a few others out of the way. He stuck his fingers in between the door to try and pull them apart. It was yet another failure on the part of the crew. Scott hated imperfections, yet he sometimes didn't like hearing Mr. Spock acting perfect. They were inevitable to create, he wondered why a Vulcan would even want to work with humans if they were so imperfect.

He thought briefly until a possible solution came to him. Walking to one of the monitors in the room, he observed to see if his theory held. The doors were unable to open because of a lack of power, as a result, warp power was impossible, at least until they were able to refuel. The impulse power source was untouched as it was isolated from the main source. It would take some time, but communications were a priority to contact the first officer.

…

Spock, during this time, had learned everything that Mr. Scott had. The lack of power to the ship, communications disabled, however, the viewscreen was still fully operable, providing a full view of the Excalibur, which was continuing to drift ever so slightly away from the Enterprise.

Every member of the crew on the bridge was functioning perfectly. Minor bruises and cuts, but nothing too serious that required medical attention. Without the good doctor, it would have been disastrous for a serious injury, especially since the doors weren't working.

"Lieutenant Uhura. Are you sure you're unable to send a signal to Starfleet?" Spock asked bluntly, no room for emotion.

"Uh, yes sir. The lack of power is making me unable to send out a signal. Not even on the lowest possible frequency."

"Activate the emergency distress signal, Lieutenant."

"Aye, sir." She replied, putting the signal on repeat, in hope of another ship being able to find them.

Sulu and weapons operative, Chekov, were still at their stations, despite the futility of even trying to use the controls. Movement was impossible, but weapons were still functional, even able to lock onto targets if they so desired. Despite this, both of them stayed put until ordered otherwise. It wasn't worth the wrath of Mr. Spock, despite not feeling such emotion, or so he claimed.

They were relieved to hear a communications notification coming from the command chair.

"Scott to Bridge. Please tell me someone up there can hear me."

Spock pressed the button to respond quickly. "Go ahead, Mr. Scott."

"Well, as you can tell, we have very little power to work with. I was just able to re-enable communications, but only a limited range. If we want to contact the Captain, we have to butt up against that other ship. Before you tell me to use impulse power, I already thought of that. The power would drain too quickly if we tried to move."

"Continue effecting repairs. Let me know when you make any more progress."

"Aye, sir."

The Excalibur groaned in pain, clinging to life desperately. He wanted to tell the Enterprise to stay away, it wasn't worth the explanation. It wasn't worth killing oneself to know the answer. If he was able to move away, he would. There was nothing he could do but watch.

"What do we do now, Captain?" McNeil asked, walking up to Kirk, appearing to be panicked.

"Don't panic, Ensign. You're a Starfleet officer and you will keep yourself under control, do you understand that?"

McNeil nodded. "Yes, sir. I'm sorry."

Kirk acknowledged it and continued. "Good, Dr. McCoy, I want you to stay here and keep an eye on our patient. Assuming that the communicators don't work, just try to keep him restrained until I return. Braxley, you're with me. McNeil, stay with McCoy, you need the training anyhow."

"Where are you going, Jim?" McCoy asked, holding his hand out to stop Kirk.

"I'm going to the Bridge. Perhaps we can find something there. If anything, it would be good to know the final moments of the Excalibur before they were killed. I'll be back within thirty minutes, if not sooner, try to breathe as little as possible, Bones."

"If this old body can do it, that is. I only gave him a small sedative so he should be awake in the next ten minutes or so."

"Good. I'll try to back as soon as I can. Braxley, come on." Kirk gestured to his security officer, who was quick to follow along.

As they both tried to walk through the door, it stuttered trying to open, getting stuck halfway. Kirk pushed one side open, while Braxley pushed open the other. Walking into the hallway, the door became jammed, now staying open forever. The hallway wasn't too much better than the sickbay. Blood trailed in all directions; a long line of it dragging across the floor directly down the middle as if someone was dragged.

"Phaser. Set to stun." Kirk ordered, pulling out his phaser.

The two slowly walked through the narrow corridor, keeping their eyes open for anything that could be around the next corner. It was so unpleasantly quiet. Not even the sounds of the engines could be heard. To Kirk, it felt like a ghost town, something out of a piece of fiction. Like those old mystery books from the 20th century. He never really read them, but he always wanted to give them a chance. Even Spock found them to be fascinating in their illogical ways.

"Sir, do you think there's something else here?" Braxley asked, his eyes darting from the blood to the Captain.

Kirk sighed. "I'm not sure. I wouldn't imagine so, but there's blood, but no bodies. If that's the case, someone or...something is moving them around. If that's the case, I don't want to be too careful."

Unbeknownst to them, a head peered around the corner to stare at them. Watch them from far enough away to not be seen. They groaned as soon as they saw two living fleshy humanoids, similar to their own stature, but less rotten. It turned the corner and started to follow along; jaw clicking and clacking as it stumbled closer.

"Braxley, help me get this open."

With their combined strength, they opened the turbo-lift door, but Kirk didn't allow it to open all the way, just so it didn't become jammed again. Kirk grabbed a hold of the knob on the side and simply requested, "Bridge". Surprisingly, the lift was going at a very fast pace for a ship on such low power.

The bridge wasn't any different from the hallway. More dead crew members, but Kirk could hear a very distinct crunching sound which was coming from the direction of the viewscreen, but it was too dark to see. He walked down to the command chair and pressed a button labeled, "Emergency lights." The lights came on abruptly and gave Kirk and Braxley a clear view of what was making the sound.

Without a second thought, Braxley immediately fired his phaser at the sound, much to Kirk's dismay. A shriek rang out as the phaser blast just missed the target; a young girl, about 11 or 12 now pressing herself against the wall in hopes that she wouldn't be killed. Unlike the rest of the crew, she appeared to be in good health.

"Braxley! Hold your fire."

The security officer lowered his phaser as Kirk neared the girl, kneeling to her height to give her some comfort. She turned her head away from him in fear.

"No! Get away from me! Don't bite me!" She yelled, scratching at Kirk's hand.

He grabbed her wrist tightly until her resistance collapsed.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

Frightened tears fell from her face. "That's what they told me too! Leave me alone! I want my daddy!"

Kirk squinted. Nothing was making sense. Only one life sign was recorded and now all of a sudden, a second one appeared. According to both Spock and Uhura, sensors were not failing in any regard.

"Who told you?"

"The people that he worked with. They said it was empty!"

"When did you last see your father?" Kirk asked, losing his grip slowly.

"I don't know. Just go away!"

Captain Harris of the Excalibur was lying facedown near the command chair, just behind Braxley, having been recorded as KIA. The girl's cries quieted the clicking and clacking of his jaw, snapping up and down over and over again. His eyes shot open and movement came to his limps, starting with his legs. He snarled, drool falling from his mouth. As soon as he laid eyes on Braxley, he made his move. Lunging forward, his mouth wrapped around the man's neck, tearing out a chunk of his neck.

Braxley clutched his neck and the girl screamed at the sight. Kirk turned around, his phaser still held tightly in his hand. He watched Braxley fall to the ground and Captain Harris standing there, blood covering his once pristine uniform. Knowing that he would have no choice, Kirk set his phaser to "kill".

"Captain Harris! Look at what you're doing!"

"Shoot him! Before he kills you too!"

Harris lunged at Kirk, but the young captain was too quick. He fired his phaser at full power, causing the former captain to disappear from reality.

…

The man who attacked Kirk looked up to see the face of an older man staring him down. The younger man was standing beside him. He was held down by the complimentary restraints of the bed.

"Oh, you're awake. I was beginning to wonder." McCoy said curtly, scanning him with his medical tricorder. "As far as I can tell, you're physically healthy aside from a nasty gash on your left arm."

"You need to get your crew off this ship, now!"

"We tried to get you to the Enterprise, but we lost contact with them. If we don't soon, then there'll be more to worry about. Our air is running out."

"That doesn't matter. If those things get us first, it won't even matter. It might even be better to die from lack of air."

McCoy took note of what he said. "Things? What things?"

He looked up at the old doctor with wide eyes, clearly afraid of whoever these things were. "They…they aren't human. Well, they are, but not anymore, I suppose. This wasn't supposed to happen, it was supposed to be just a simple investigation and then it turned into a slaughter."

"Investigation? To find the Excalibur?"

"Yes, there were ten of us. Part of an expeditionary crew to find and recover the Excalibur. Once we found it, we would tell Starfleet about it and they would send a ship. We decided to come aboard to see if there was anyone left. We all were split up and I don't know where the others are. I've refused to leave until I find them."

He looked to the forced open door and began to breathe heavily. "Close that door! If they come down the hallways, they'll kill us!"

To appease the man's cries, McCoy walked over to the door and tried his best to try and pull it back. The door moved slightly, but not much.

"McNeil, get in here and help me."

The young man obliged, helping McCoy push the door closed, both of them having trouble trying to do so. For a brief moment, the doctor noticed McNeil fall over quickly, before being struck across the head with the same metal pipe that had struck Kirk. The man stood over both of them, relieved that the restraints had decomposed. As much as he hated doing it, they would be welcome enough bait. They wouldn't listen to him, so there was no reason to try and save them too. If anything, Kirk and the other man would be dead as soon as they made it to the bridge.

Walking back out into the hallway, he attempted to locate the shuttle bay. He had to get off the ship and he didn't care how. He wasn't going to be torn to pieces like the rest of them.