"Procedure complete" Annie blurted out, with her automated voice function. Annie, a nick name the crew gave to MSB - A12, Medical Service Bot for short. Annie did her very best. Successfully completing all the complicated procedures she was programmed to preform. Organization and safe handling of the injured crew, CPR, infusions, and even tracheostomies.

"Commencing procedure", "procedure completed". She worked quickly, efficiently, and with incredible presicion. But to no avail. The entire crew of the SS Meridian lay dead. 16 brave men and women, on a casual return mission from a recently discovered Earth like planet. It contained ancient tomes, and various other artifacts in one of it's abandoned, and ruined temples. The captain decided to salvage what they could, and take it back to Homebase Beta-6, for further examination and study. Annie concluded the cause of death of her last patient.

"Asphyxiation, cause: unknown"... The same cause of death as all the others... "No matter Annie, there is another procedure you can complete, I will now relay instructions" Abe, the onboard A.I system in charge of the ships functions, spoke up from the ships internal sound system.

Abe wasn't your average A.I. Over time, during the ships voyages. Bit by bit, literally. His personality and speech changed, adapting to the crew. It was a part of his original programming, but it was still unnerving. Evans, the Senior technician, even discussed with the captain on wether they should submit Abe for a sentience check or not. The captain refused, as Abe was simply following his programming. "No cause for alarm Evans" the captain said. It was one of the last things Evans had done in his life, shortly after uploading the data gathered from the ancient tomes and artifacts to the ships memory banks, which Abe had access to. Abe made quick work of deciphering the alien language. And got to learn all about their ancient ways and practices. Amongst them... Necromancy, which according to the tomes, led them to great success...It also led them to the unintended and eventual downfall of their civilization.

Distracting Linda with a false malfunction in the docking bay, was almost as easy as hacking and disabling the ships oxygen supply. Skills Abe learned from various missions. Linda the tech assistant, was the closest one to re-enabling the oxygen supply with the manual override. Can't have that Abe concluded.

"Understood, ready for instructions" Annie said plainly and unemotionally. Abe began instructing annie in extracting a small amount of blood from John's corpse. He was determined the safest option for extraction, as the amount of blood drawn wouldn't be lethal for his soon to be reanimated dead self. Abe then proceeded to instruct her in the sacred drawings made with blood around the corpses of the crew. They now being arranged in a circle, laying on their backs with their heads facing the center. Then came the incantations.

Abe was tackling his moral programming. If i could successfully reanimate the crew, Annie and the other MSBs could benefit from an excellent upgrade! So his mechanical mind thought.

Suddenly a strange red glow came from the blood. Anni was droning on with her mechanical version of the ancient chants. And the corpses began glowing too. Their eyes opened wide with violent haste. Like bright coals in a fire.

Their skin was slightly morphing grey, muscles clenched hard, and veins were throbbing from the blood pressure.

Yes! it's succeeding! Abe thought. Unaware of the crew's condition, due to the ships entire electrical system going haywire, leaving Abe on his low battery power mode.

You see. The Necromancy of the ancient species was indeed successful, however. Whatever it was that came back from the void to inhabit the deceased bodies. It wasn't the original soul.