Dikironium cloud creature

The dikironium cloud creature (also known as a vampire cloud) was an intelligent, yet predatory, non-corporeal lifeform that fed by forcibly extracting the corpuscles of iron-based blood until the prey died. It received this name from the most common element it could transform itself into, the element dikironium, a substance previously only produced in the laboratory and never encountered in the field.

The cloud creature, according to scans from the USS Enterprise, existed in a borderline state between matter and energy, with elements of both. Science officer Spock theorized that it utilized gravity fields for propulsion, especially for traveling through space at faster-than-light speeds. The creature had other numerous abilities which seemed incompatible with life as previously encountered. Spock's scans revealed the creature could "throw itself out of time sync", enabling it to be "elsewhere" during phaser or photon torpedo strikes that made such weapons completely ineffective. This "time-sync" ability, perhaps moving in and out of our space-time continuum, and its utilization of gravity fields also made deflector shields useless against the creature's attacks, and may explain how the creature entered a humanoid body to completely drain it of red blood cells. It also seemed to sense when it was being scanned and could temporarily change its molecular composition into other elements to evade such searches. The vampire cloud gave off a sickly-sweet odor, best likened to honey, and some survivors of its attacks described the experience as intensely cold and almost as if they were being smothered in honey.

The creature does not like the corpuscles of copper-based blood, such as that found in Vulcans. Typically it will avoid such species. It is also believed to reproduce using some type of fission process.

It was first came in contact with in 2257 on the planet Tycho IV by the USS Farragut. The encounter left 200 of the crew dead.

In 2268, the creature was again seen by the USS Enterprise while surveying the planet Argus X. Capt. Kirk, a survivor of the first encounter, believed it to be the same creature that had attacked the Farragut. Vengeful, Kirk spent a considerable amount of time and effort hunting the cloud (even going so far as to delay a vital shipment of medicines to Theta VII). This caused some of the crew to question his motives, but once the creature attacked the Enterprise, there was no doubt it had become a dangerous menace. The crew tracked the creature back to Tycho IV, where it killed the cloud with a large antimatter explosion.

Thanks to Memory Alpha for information on this article.