As most bad things start, they start small. A small ping, in an engine that goes away for a little bit. That one little bump on your neck that gets ignored. That one spot of mildew on the drywall.

And so it began here. Small and innocent, undiscovered for now, but still the beginning of a bigger problem. It started with a simple spike in the environmental controls read out in operations.

NE Glastonberry narrowed her dark brown eyes at the monitor before looking over her shoulder around the room. “Lieutenant?” she meekly asked, seeking help from one of the more senior engineers. It was momentary but it was still there, something caused the temperature in one of the cargo bays to drop, ten degrees, for two minutes before it warmed back up.

GM Wombat