The Haunted Freighter Part 1

Posted on Sat Jan 31st, 2026 @ 4:45pm by Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan & Lieutenant Commander Eirly Andersen & Lieutenant Commander Xalanth & Lieutenant JG Sakkar & Ensign S'Niri
Edited on on Sat Feb 7th, 2026 @ 2:58pm

1,601 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Peril at the Unification Accords
Location: Nidean Freighter "Katreen's Hope"
Timeline: MD 09, 0910 Hours

continued from: The Freighter That Wouldn't Wait

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Sakkar cast his small, handheld light around the cramped cargo bay. In his other hand he held the tricorder, whose display he glanced at every few seconds. "The cargo manifest indicated that the ship is carrying obsolete tools, machinery, computer parts, and other such items for scrap or reclamation. Visual inspection so far confirms that." His light swept across the hull of an old, tracked vehicle. Its treads removed; its paint and markings long since faded and covered in dust. Strange that they would be headed for the uninhabited Acrux IV, he thought.

Realizing that the rest of the away team was moving on without him, Sakkar picked up his pace to catch them. He suddenly recalled another detail about Acrux IV. It was known by that name only on Federation star charts. To the Romulans it was known as Vekon. It was in the Neutral Zone.

The Vulcan had taken only a few steps before he stopped in his tracks. In the periphery of his vision he had noticed something. Sakkar walked back a few steps. He had almost missed it. Several meters back from the walkway, amidst the labyrinth of scrap, a figure was standing motionless in the dark. Watching.

"You there!" Sakkar called out. He pointed his light in that direction. Suddenly, whoever had been standing there was gone. "Stop where you are!" He ordered. He held up his tricorder to scan for life signs. There were none. Sakkar arched his brow in puzzlement. He was certain he had not imagined it. He swept his light across the now vacant space.

"Sakkar, report," Xalanth said from the front of the column of crewmen, though the lizard kept his eyes facing forward.

"Someone was watching us from the shadows," Sakkar reported from the rear. "Humanoid figure. Possibly male. But he vanished as soon as I called out to him." He stole another glance at his tricorder. The next part was difficult to say. "At present...no life signs in the room other than us." He searched for the logical explanation. Perhaps a dimensional shift transporter? He would need to adjust the tricorder to scan for evidence of quantum inversion.

Sakkar began adjusting the controls on his device, when a phaser beam shrieked from somewhere overhead and hit the bulkhead next to him. The helmsman hit the deck and took cover.

The comm crackled open before Xalanth could answer.

[--Away Team-]" Garo's voice pushed through, thin and uneven, as though he were shouting underwater. [This is Hakobyan... bridge--you copy?]

The channel spat static. A metallic whine laced through the frequency, high and unpleasant.

Eirly had heard the shots being fired and instinctively crouched down, looking to see where they had come from. "Sakkar, are you okay?" She called out. Last thing they all needed were injuries or deaths that could be avoided.

While waiting for his response, Eirly tapped her commbadge, "Andersen to Hakobyan, we hear you. What's going on? It sounds like you're underwater." She waited for a response but after a moment there was still none, nothing but the static. What on earth was going on?

Turning to Xalanth, "I'll try and get us back in contact with Hakobyan and Williams, even if I have to go back to the Bridge myself, you’ve got the rest of this mission."

S'Niri wrinkled her snout in displeasure as she glanced around the room. "I don't smell anyone." She growled, tail flicking uneasily. "Not anyone that I don't already detect - no offense to anyone."

The comm opened again.

[I am--khhsh--locked out... power trunks to your deck... khhshrrr... security program running...]

A burst of noise swallowed the rest of his sentence and then the comm closed completely.

"There could there be something that is interfering with the coms in the cargo containers. " Xalanth pondered out loud, though he kept his eyes firmly down his phaser sights. "Jakie, you go with Anderson and get back to the bridge," he said, running his eyes across the upper gangway. There seemed to be no movement, not even footsteps.

Meanwhile, Sakkar moved in a low crouch to where he had seen the first mystery person. He studied his tricorder. No, there was no indication of a dimensional shift transporter.

Another phaser blast lanced through the darkness. Then a second. They were firing at the people trying to get to the bridge. Sakkar looked up at the upper catwalk just in time to see a dark figure standing there. One of the Marines below took a shot, briefly illuminating the person. Sakkar drew his phaser and took his own shot.

Then the figure vanished like a ghost. Sakkar was certain he had hit him in his upper torso. A solid kill shot.

Sakkar searched his belt for his light. As he did so another voice called out from somewhere in the cargo bay. "Help! I'm shot! Somebody help me!" It was a female voice. Eerily similar to Commander Andersen's.

Eirly had heard the voice too - it was a good mimicry of her own, but there was still something off about it. "Andersen to Sakkar, that's not me. Someone somehow has managed to replicate my voice. I'm okay."

Sakkar turned his handheld light on and pointed it at the overhead. It took only a couple of seconds to find what he was looking for. "Mister Xalanth!" He called out, hoping the reptilian would see what his beam of light was pointing at.

A holo-emitter. One of many.

All at once the cavernous compartment erupted. Phaser blasts from all directions rained down. Sakkar flattened himself as multiple shots struck around him. His light fell from his hand and clattered away.

"Take cover." Xalanth yelled into coms as he threw himself into the best cover that he could manage. "Target the holo emitters and take them out," he said before jutting out and firing down the corridor. " Sakkar get to cover." he added.

The cargo bay had quickly become a geometry of fear. Light stitched itself through the dark in hard blue and orange lines, each bolt snapping from behind crates, catwalk struts, and the sleeping hulks of machinery that seemed stacked around like old dinosaur bones. The security program's fire had no rhythm--no rise or fall--only intent: forcing the Away Team flat and to retreat.

One hologram perched from an upper beam, pointing its phaser downward. The bolt screamed low, coming toward S'Niri.

Yep, it just had to go sour. It just had to. It wouldn't be Starfleet otherwise. S'Niri acted without thinking, leaping off to the side and firing at the the holoemitter directly above her head - and ignoring the slowly growing reddish spot where the phaser bolt had grazed her boot as she dived out of the way. "Damn holograms." She hissed, already preparing for the next volley.

Phasers continued to bark desperately, the smell of burnt metal and ozone rising into the stale cargo bay air. Shots chewed into empty shadows where cover had been a moment before. Nothing advanced. Nothing retreated. The holograms just held the space, a tightening net of light and pressure. They were programmed to repel any advance toward the lower compartments of the freighter.

"They seem pretty determined to stop us from advancing." S'Niri hissed. "Must be something pretty important for them to care this much about protecting it."

"A logical conclusion," Sakkar replied, taking cover next to her. He had crawled on his belly to rejoin the away team. "Most of the emitters are embedded in the ceiling," he said, flipping over onto his back. He aimed his phaser upward, searching for one to take out.

Two humanoid figures, caught by the strobe-like effect of the phaser fire, hovered near the ceiling, looking down. Then, like phantoms, they disappeared again. Sakkar's mouth fell open. The program that controlled the holograms was probably repositioning them, but the sight was admittedly unnerving.

Reaching into his belt, the lizard drew something. It looked like a cylindrical grenade even though it seemed to be made from a mixture of hardened flesh, bone and carapace. " Fire in the hold. Switch off all electrics. " He yelled as he switched off his own weapon and implants before chucking the dragonian EMP grenade down.

It smacked and flew across the ground before it slid open, letting out a blinding burst of blue light. More fire came back toward them from the emitters, imprecise, but effective.

~TBC~

Lt. Commander Eirly Andersen
Second Officer
USS Astrea


Lt. Commander Xalanth
Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea


Lieutenant J.G. Sakkar
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Astrea

GM as obstacles on the Nridian ship

Ensign S'Niri
Tactical Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of Thivi)


Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan
Transporter Specialist
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)

GM as obstacles on the Nidian ship

 

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