Jonathan Arel

The perfectly silent stillness of space might be found relaxing to some. If sound

could travel through space, however, the perfect silence outside the spaceship would be

broken by alarms blaring and panicked shouts among the crew. The Cuttlefish had just

been fired upon by multiple enemy ships. The number of enemy ships didn’t matter,

however, because either way, they first had to get the ship back online.

The crew was rushing around frantically to make repairs. The shields were barely

holding off the attacks that blasted every five minutes. This species of alien loved

playing with their food.

All around, sparks flew and smoke spewed out into the corridors. Crew members

filled the halls, rushing back and forth. As soon as the repairs for the Medical Bay were

finished, Dr. William Ethier expelled the repair team and turned to ready the Med Bay to

receive any injured. He barked instructions to the other medics before organizing his

equipment. Ethier knew the Captain counted on him to be the best doctor in the galaxy,

but he worried that the Captain’s expectations might be too high this time. He was a

very good doctor, but he was still plagued by self-doubt since that one incident two

months ago.

The doors to the Med Bay opened and an unconscious Enlist was carried in and

laid on the bed. Ethier had no choice but to shrug off his worries and started working to

stabilize the crew member and treat his wounds. He knew things were about to get

chaotic.

Things weren’t much better in the lower decks. The engineering crew was

rushing to plug leaks and repair systems. Chief Rebecca Lore was a perfectionist. She

knew it wasn’t always a good thing, but it has saved their lives a few times. This was her

ship, after all. She served on this ship as an engineer since it was ready to launch into

space. No one knew it as Lore did. The only thing about it she disliked was the name.

Lore looked over all the systems. The weapon systems were down, but life

support was holding. The cloaking device was shot; that would need at least a week to

completely repair. The computer was still functional. Primary power was about to fail.

Lore knew she had to focus on the weapon system. The Captain needed them ready as

a last resort. She knew he generally disliked violence, but he used it if necessary. Lore

set her engineers to work on the weapons and then focused on primary power and

shield strength.

Right outside the engine room, Chief Simon Richards was sending his men

around the ship to gather the injured. This isn’t something Security usually did, but it

was all hands on deck right now. Richards had just left the bridge a bit ago, so he knew

how bad it was about to get, that more injuries were about to occur. The Security team

split up to cover the whole ship, not only to gather patients, though. They also were

looking for any major damage to report to the repair teams. Richards was a very

efficient and quick thinker. This had gotten him into trouble with the Captain a few times,

though, and he’d almost lost his job. If it wasn’t for the previous Security Chief, he

might’ve been on a transport freighter instead of the Cuttlefish. Despite all that, he knew

the Captain respected him and his hard work. After all, the Captain had later promoted

him to Chief. He realized then that the Captain believed in his abilities and this was no

time to let him down and have him regret his decision. He pushed the Security team to

work faster.

Richards almost bumped into Enlist Kiana Theeve while rushing down the hall. It

was Theeve’s first week aboard the ship and she had barely just gotten over her

homesickness before this attack happened. She wasn’t exactly sure where she was

needed most, so she ran around assisting where she could. She didn’t want to fail in her

duties. The last thing she needed was another talk with the First Officer and Captain.

She remembered how the Captain had sat in silence while the First Officer castigated

her. She hadn’t realized until that point how badly she’d messed up. She knew if she got

into trouble again this soon, it would probably be the end of her assignment on this ship,

and she’d studied too hard for this opportunity. Everyone back at school knew that this

ship was very hard to get on, but she wanted to be assigned to it and no other. Her

thoughts were broken by another violent shake to the ship.

The bridge doors opened for an injured crew member to be carried out. Inside

the bridge, the pilot attempted evasive maneuvers while the rest of the bridge crew did

their best to keep the systems online, giving updates to the Captain who was sitting in

his chair with a frown.

Their Captain rarely stopped smiling, so if the crew ever needed a reminder as to

how serious the situation was, they only needed to look at his face. The Captain

resigned himself that he would soon have to retaliate to save his ship and crew. This

wasn’t the first time he’d been forced into such a decision, but that fact never made

things any easier the next time.

An update told him the weapon systems were fixed, and the Captain silently

thanked Lore. He knew what he had to do as the ship turned to face the enemy.

Fleeing was no longer an option.

The Captain knew he couldn’t hesitate for a second. Everyone was waiting for his

command. Despite his hatred of violence, he knew they had no choice but to fire back.

The ship moved within range.

Captain Travis Scott took a deep breath, and shouted the command, “Fire!”