In the framework, an elderly ship's doctor recounts a strange event that happened to him some years earlier, in the context of discussing his ideas about a fundamental life force that can manifest itself in the presence of proper materials.
Upon boarding the vessel, the investigators discover that it is encased in a thick fungus-like encrustation.
In order to go below the deck, the captain kicks the encrustation, which begins to spurt a reddish fluid, and a rhythmic thudding like a heartbeat is heard.
As events escalate, the lantern is dropped and extinguished; in the frantic attempt that follows to escape the vessel, a crewman is killed as he falls on the undulating surface and it envelopes and dissolves his body.
The doctor believes that the particular combination of cargo aboard the derelict, as it decayed, may have resulted in spontaneous generation of a new life form.