Entry 46: Dikironium Vampire Cloud
Occupation: Monster of the Week
First Appearance: “Obsession” (TOS 1967)
Summary: A mysterious organism with unknown origins, this strange creature had a number of unusual traits. While composed of dikironium, it could sense scanning instruments from a distance, and temporarily alter its molecular composition to an alternate form to evade detection. It fed on hemoglobin, and ingested red blood corpuscles to get at it. People who were attacked by the creature died in agony, and not a mark was left on their bodies as it drained their blood cells. Organisms with blood systems that were not based on iron – such as the Vulcans, with their copper-based blood – were generally ignored. It also had a strange ability to manipulate magnetic fields, allowing it to propel itself through space at high warp, and used a temporal phasing ability to dodge nearly any attack that was sent at it. The only warning most people had of its approach was the sweet smell, not unlike honey, that surrounded it. Apparently, it also had some rudimentary telepathic abilities, as it gave an invariable impression of deliberate malice that was reported by its surviving victims.
At one point, it attacked the Federation ship USS Farragut in orbit above Tycho IV. It slew 40% of the crew, including Captain Garrovick, but left a young Lt. James Kirk alive. Eleven years later, as a Captain, Kirk would have his revenge, wiping the horror out of existence with an antimatter bomb that left a thousand-mile-wide crater in the surface of Tycho IV. The creature was never seen again, but we never learned much about it, and it left many questions in its wake – what was it? Was it really native to Tycho IV, or did it come there from somewhere else? Was it a mutant, a product of natural selection, a genetically engineered abomination, or something else? And most ominously… Spock suggested it went there to reproduce by fission, into thousands of smaller entities… if the bomb hadn’t killed the thing in time, would the Federation still exist?