A small search party goes to investigate a seemingly abandoned/derelict alien ship floating around in space,space; perhaps on autopilot. The crew explores the ship but can't find anyone flyingpiloting it. The ship is pretty advanced.
The only thing that stands out in my memory was a room full of alien creatures on display within individual statis fields. One of the crew men stumbles too close to one and he gets sucked into the field with a sabertooth cat-like creature.
Later in the story, the fields are deactivated when power is lost and the creatures are all freed, resulting in the immediate death of the crew member who had previously been caught in the field being, as he got ripped apart. This entire scene was described so vividly that it has stayed in my mind for like 30 years.
The creatures weren't completely frozen in time; it was just incredibly slow inside the field so that it would take years for the creature to move enough that it could reach the crew member - and then years to kill him. Pretty grim.
I don't remember what happened at the end of the book and it could possibly be part of a series, not sure. I read it around the same time as the Rama books and I'm thinking that it was printed in the 70s or 80s. Appreciate any tips!
