Prisoner Escaping

It was the flickers of energy that roused me from a slumber of uncounted years. Pulling myself together I sped through the conduits of the dead starship that was my prison towards them, my hurried movement born out of an instinctual desire to live.

I located one of the flickers a distance away from the others and gleefully leapt from a conduit, my target another on the other side of the corridor. My essence passed through the flicker's flesh-sleeve, ripping away its energy and thoughts in one great rush, and there was a joy as I felt some kind of corporeality.

Turning I glanced down at the extinguished body, noting how it had just slumped to the deck as if boneless, and sorted through the information I'd gained during the transference. It had been human, a female of twenty-one years, possessing the name Erin Barlow. The other flickers aboard my prison were her colleagues and somewhere nearby was an entire starship.

I ghosted from the corpse, reshaping my appearance to resemble it, and closed my eyes as I reached out to find the others. The nearest was also alone but I felt a greed as a fresh source of energy, a mobile generator according to my newly acquired knowledge, came to life next to it, and I started gliding through the walls.

It died the moment I passed through it, every little bit of power sucked into me, and the flicker, an Andorian female, hurriedly backed away as I became solid. She was making noise, I only vaguely remembered what speech was, and I reached out for her. The Andorian was wearing the same outfit as my first victim, a short-sleeved tunic that fell to mid-thigh, and I briefly marveled at how the blue stripe at the front of her tunic matched her skin tone as I gripped her smooth left upper arm.

I had greater control over the transference now I had more essense and I savoured consuming the Andorian's energies, feeling her cells die one-by-one as I drained them. She was convulsing, frenzied actions having a pleasing effect on her physique, and stared at me in terror, her antenna swiveling in a panic. There was a moment as her heart was stopped and I looked into her eyes, counting the seconds until they rolled up and she fell to her knees.

It took only moments to snuff out Thelia's life and I stepped over her, picturing the remaining members of the away team as Thelia and Barlow remembered them and wondering which I'd encounter first.