Ensign Hayley Green had been appointed the Chief Engineer of the USS da Vinci, less than twenty-four hours ago; her current task was that of solving the mysterious death of a fellow engineer.  In Green’s mind, things just didn’t sit right, she just wished she could put her finger on the reason why everything about what happened, felt wrong.

This was the reason why she was crawling through a Jefferies tube on deck 6.  She was wearing a pair of yellow coveralls, still relatively clean; the sleeves of which were rolled up to just above her elbow, and a pair of sturdy boots.  One hand clutched a tricorder; calibrated for engineering, as opposed to medical or scientific use, in the other hand she held a small canvas bag with an assortment of tools.

“Computer can you confirm all power has been rerouted away from junctions J6 17 and J6 18.” She asked, upon noticing a flickering of light across the pipework ahead.

“Confirmed, all power has been redirected away from junctions J6 17 and J6 18, as per your request.”  The Computer answered in its usual manner.

“Then what’s the source of the light I’m detected.”

“There is currently insufficient data to answer your enquiry.”

Hayley smiled to herself, that was the problem with ships computers, no imagination; they only really knew what they’d been told already.  So give them an unexpected situation, and they couldn’t  give you an answer.  She moved further forward, approaching with caution.  Not entirely sure what she was going to uncover.

The light moved, reflecting itself on a different section of the pipe; though as she drew closer, Green had the impression the light was emanating from more than one point. Almost as if someone was holding a pair of torches.

Ensign Green cautiously poked her head around the corner; where she was confronted by two small glowing orbs of light.  Like fireflies on a breeze, they danced and wavered.  “Hello my little friends, and who might you be?”

“Chief, who are you talking to?”  Ensign Sparrow’s voice called out from the service hatch, Green had entered the Jefferies tube via.

“We appear to have a couple of uninvited guests.” Hayley answered back.

“Well the ships sensors haven’t picked them up.” Sparrow informed her.  “You don’t suppose they have anything to do with what happened to Martin do you?”

“I’ve no idea what to make of them.” Ensign Green looked at the reading on her tricorder; these objects, didn’t register, it was like they didn’t exist. “Well I can clearly see two little fireflies, with my own eyes, but they don’t show up on any form of scan.”

Thermal, x-ray, gamma ray, electro-magnetic, and many more; but not one thing other than her own eye sight, proved these things were actually present.

“Should I call security or someone from the Science Department?” Sparrow called nervously.

Green considered those options for a moment; the two fireflies didn’t appear to be hostile, but then she was smart enough to realise that taking an unknown entity on face value, wasn’t always the safest option.  She’d had the chance to assess the damage to this small part of the ship; or rather lack of.  Crewman Cooper had come here to fix some damaged cabling and had died of electrocution.  So where was the damage he’d come to fix?

“There’s something very hinky going on.” Ensign Green shouted. “And my little firefly friends here know way more than they are telling me.”

The two glowing orbs seemed to sense she was talking about them.  They glowed a little brighter and whizzed about in front of her; performing an elaborate and intricate aerial dance.

Ensign Sparrow stood by the hatch waiting for any other comment from the newly appointed Chief Engineer.  At first he’d thought the whole thing was just her idea of a joke.  No one got along with Lieutenant Yolanda, it was his whole manner and attitude to everyone, that had made engineering a genuinely depressing place to work.  But despite that, no one expected the Captain to actually strip him of the post.

There were things that had been said about Commander Anacostia-Bolling, some of them far from complementary, and most of them from members of her previous crew.  That included Yolanda and several other members of the command staff.

He like a lot of the newer crewmembers had discovered a captain, far removed from the one the rumours portrayed.  She’d gained respect from them by her words and actions.

“Chief are you ok in there?” His words were met by silence.  “Green, answer me!”

He tapped his combadge. “We have a possible emergency on deck 6.”

The reply told him to hold position until backup arrived, but instead, he entered through the hatch and followed the route Ensign Green had taken only a few minutes before.

The first thing he spotted was the young women’s boots; splayed out motionless.  Ensign Sparrow scrambled forward shouting; and once he got close enough, grabbed her left leg just above the ankle and shook it; there was no response.  “This is Ensign Sparrow, requesting an emergency medical beam out for Ensign Green.”

As the Chief Engineer’s body was enveloped by the transporter beam, Sparrow could hear the noise of two people talking.  From the tone, it was Lieutenant Grav and a member of his security team.  The engineer looked around him, but could see no sign of what the Chief had referred to as fireflies.

There was something very wrong about this place, something very wrong indeed.