You grab Riggs' arm as he motions toward the maintenance duct. 'Wait! What exactly are we dealing with out there?' you shout over the blaring alarms. The engineer's face tightens as another shudder runs through the ship's frame.

'Some kind of energy-based lifeform,' Riggs yells back, wiping sweat from his brow. 'Never seen readings like this before - it's feeding off our warp core like it's some all-you-can-eat buffet!' He pulls up a flickering holo-display from his wrist unit, showing swirling violet tendrils wrapping around the ship's outer hull.

The display crackles as the creature pulses with stolen energy, its form shifting between solid and gaseous states. 'If it drains much more, we'll lose artificial gravity and life support,' Riggs adds, his voice dropping to a grim whisper even as another explosion rocks the corridor. 'Chief thinks it might be attracted to our new quantum drive signatures.'

Through a nearby viewport, you catch glimpses of the creature's amorphous body undulating against the stars. Strange patterns ripple across its surface like lightning in a nebula. The emergency lights reflect in Riggs' wide eyes as he adds, 'And if we don't reroute those shields soon, the next hit might breach the hull.'