Calendula
A research vessel, owned by Lysani Laboratories. The ship is a hoop-type ship with an official mission to research new formulae for industrial dyes.
When the ship falls out of communications, a Sternmore Intergalactic internal compliance officer by the name of Dalglee Hash recruits a number of people on Murdok to investigate the ship.
It turns out that the ship's research mission was either compromised or grossly misrepresented. Instead of research into dyes, it seems like performance enhancing combat drugs were being tested on animal and human specimens. There was also a mole on the ship (the ship's astrogator, by the name of ???), who was leaking information about these drugs to a rival, non-Sternmore company by the name of Butler Chemicals.
Whether on purpose or by accident, the drugs appeared to have been released into the ship's population, to disastrous effects. It caused photosensitivity in exposed humans, as well as either extreme aggression or extreme fearfulness.
Some of the ship's crew resorted to cannibalism, exposing them to extreme dosages of the drugs, thereby prolonging their effect.
Three survivors were recovered: Pent Stavro, Engineer, human Jan Vartha, Chief scientist, Vargr Holly Ezrahm, Science assistant, human