December 28th, 2261. 07:35 Lambda Bootis System. CNS Des Moines – CNC
John walked into the mess that was CNC. He had been heading to engineering but he wanted to see if anyone, or anything, was left in his department. The door slowly opened and required him to push it open. Inside he saw that Eileen was at the far-right wall putting out a fire. Beth was slumped down on her chair and gave a week thumbs up to Eileen.
“Eileen, when that fire is put down bring Beth to sick bay. Who else is here?” John hollered.
Beth saw John and pointed at the station behind where he sat. He ran over and saw Billy sitting in a puddle of blood holding onto what remained of his left forearm. John looked over to where Eileen was and there was a long piece of metal that was still glowing red hot. He ran over to pick it up and returned to where Billy was.
“This is going to hurt like a motherfucker but it’ll stop the bleeding,” John said a millisecond before grabbing the stump and pressing it onto the hot metal.
The sadly familiar, to John anyways, the smell of burnt and cooking flesh filled his nostrils. Billy screamed out in pain and tried to wiggle out of his vice-like grip to no avail. He passed out after ten seconds. John swore he would tell Billy that his holding out that long under that much pain impressed even him. The chunk of metal was rolled over to ensure the wound was fully cauterized.
“Crewmen, get him to sickbay immediately.”
Eileen then walked over to John, “He’s…”
“Hugo’s dead, I know. I need you to get Beth to sickbay, then head to the secondary bridge,” John then grabbed her and looked at the bump on her head, “I need you there to help coordinate efforts to triage the ship.”
“We’re not abandoning ship?”
The crewmen had pulled a pole stretcher from the wall and came back to where John and the others were. They were ignoring the conversation and carefully loaded Billy onto the stretcher. They picked him up and slowly made their way out of the room.
“Not if we can avoid it. Besides, we don’t want to be their POWs. We just killed their friends and fucked that battleship up something fierce. Our escape pods will likely be used for target practice.”
Eileen nodded and walked over to Beth. She put Beth’s arm around her shoulder and the pair walked behind the two crewmen helping Billy. John looked around the room and shook his head. When the door closed, and it was just him and four dead bodies he spoke.
“I fucking told you this would happen, you gutless wonder. You succumbed to the same vain glorious bullshit your friend did.”
John turned and walked out of the room. He took a right at the door and headed to the stairwell. He went down a level but stopped when he heard his name be called out of the speakers in the hallway. The terminal across from the stairwell was blinking. He walked over to it and pressed the red button.
“Lief here.”
Lieutenant Perry Guetta groaned a bit when he started to speak, “Crews are beginning to inspect the ship. We’re using terminals to read atmospheric pressure inside. The port side and forward sections of the ship are properly fucked up. The starboard and aft sides are in pretty good shape altogether.”
“What do the passive scanners show of the enemy?”
“They appear to be licking their wounds and undergoing a rescue operation. They lost at least another cruiser possibly more trying to tow one of the stricken ones that were hitting the upper atmosphere.”
“And our orbit?”
“That’s a bit of good news, if the models are accurate, we were well above the escape velocity. We’re heading into the void. We also have a friendly frigate and destroyer near us that are going the same speed.”
“How close are they to us?”
“Uhm, two and three clicks respectively. They are closing the gap really slowly though.”
“Time to impact?” John was pacing back and forth.
“Thirty-six to forty hours.”
“Hold position, do not engage thrusters. We may need to harvest some armor plates from them.”
There was a short silence on the other end, “Ok, you’re playing four-dimensional chess and I’m playing checkers. Got it.”
“Send engineering updates with what you find.”
“Already on it, sir.”
John turned and headed back to the stairwell and went down one more level. He walked out into the hallway and headed down the hallway to his right. A large double door, his destination, was at the end of the hallway. He pressed the red button and the door slowly opened.
Inside main engineering was bustling with activity. There were black sooty scorch marks polluting the gunmetal walls. But no smoke, which meant no fires here. The core itself appeared fine to John, though internally who knows how badly dinged up it was. At a glance, the slipstream controller module also appeared to be physically fine.
He walked over to the gaggle of men and women receiving orders. Ana Silva, the Chief Engineer’s second in command here, was handing out orders. One after another the men and women scampered off to handle the task they were assigned. If John didn’t know any better this was just any other day in engineering. Unfortunately, it was anything but an ordinary day for all of them.
“And you…” Ana pointed at John’s chest and then looked up to realize who he was, “Oops, sorry sir.”
“How bad is it?”
Ana took a deep breath, “The chief shut the core down just in time. A transformer overloaded, it’s already been replaced by the way, which caused all this black sooty shit to coat this fucking room. We’re in the process of cleaning it too because otherwise, it will make working here fucking miserable.”
“Are the core and slipstream generators functional?”
“The core is yes. We’re running on minimal power from the backup generator. I’d prefer not igniting that,” Ana pointed at the main core, “Until we know we’re ready to get underway.”
“Did the water reclamation system take any damage?”
Ana puffed out her chest and smiled, “We had to seal some valves, but the system itself is intact and fully functional. And best of all, we have spare parts for days. And before you ask it the atmospheric scrubbers and generators are good too. Though the scrubbers took a hell of a beating because of all the fire. By the way, do you know half your face is bloody?”
John grinned and turned his head, “Yeah, I think a chair did this. Pretty sure it was a chair. Whatever it was it knocked me the fuck out. I’ll get out of your hair; I’ve got people in the secondary bridge…”
“Yeah yeah, they are sending me updates. The marines are going room to room inspecting everything.”
“Good work, I’m going to head to the sick bay and see how bad things are. And get this fixed maybe,” John gestured to the gash on his head.
“Sir, a moment. Our FTL communication systems are gone. The jury’s out on the tight beam system though.”
“Why is that not surprising. Keep up the good work,” John said as he headed out of engineering.
08:45 CNS Des Moines – Sick Bay
John walked down the corridor and stopped to press the door button. As he leaned down to do that the door opened. Two crewmen that were assigned to the medical department, both of which looked highly emotional, were carrying a body bag. John noticed a marine down the hallway.
“Marine, with me. You two, please set them down carefully. We’ll take care of this one, sit down, and collect yourself. I’ll find some other work for you to do later.”
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The crewmen that were carrying the deceased body at the legs both had thousand-mile stares. The one next to John sniffled a bit and tried to but failed to compose herself. She fell to the floor and began sobbing.
John kneeled down and put a hand on her shoulder, “None of this is your fault.”
“We’re placing the bodies in the airlock over there,” the other crewmen said, “I’ll help her.”
John and the marine picked up the body bag and carefully brought the bag to the airlock. Neither was ready for the site they saw. Fifty decedents were laying to rest in the room. Someone had turned off the temperature in the room, so it was fairly chilly compared to the hallway.
“Jesus Christ,” the marine said.
“Let’s do this carefully,” John said as he turned back to the marine.
“Aye aye, sir.”
The two men slowly and as respectfully as they could place the body bag on the pile. They stepped back and John pressed the door close. The marine had been looking at the crew they were just relieved but was taken by surprise when a thunderous bang rang out on in the hallway. Hatred and rage radiated off John, the formerly cool and collected officer. His fist was still pressing against the wall.
John stepped back from the door as he shook his hand and took several deep breaths. The marine didn’t know what to say or do and wisely chose the silent option. When John turned back to face him it was as if the flash of anger had never happened.
“I’m going to ask you to do something terribly shitty,” John said firmly but quietly.
“I’ll get one of my peers and take over for those two, sir.”
“Good man, treat them with respect.”
“Always, sir.”
The marine ran down the corridor. By the time John walked into sickbay, he had a pair of marines flanking him. If the site in the airlock was bad, what awaited them here was a house of horrors. Every bed was filled with unwilling amputees, burn victims, people who had suffered deep gashes, smoke inhalation, chemical burns, or combinations of the above.
John could see Billy resting in a cot on the floor. There was a new stump where his left arm once was. The medical recording device showed his vitals as stable. John called a nurse over.
“The two helpers, I want them prescribed something to help them sleep and then I want them getting eight hours of rest,” John said quietly as he pointed at the two crewmen.
The nurse nodded and walked over to them.
John waited outside one of the surgical rooms for the doctor. First Lieutenant Lya Blanchet was putting the finishing touches on a skin graft on one of the many burn victims. Synthetic skin did an amazing job at propagating skin growth, reducing the amount of scarring, and pain management. The last piece of skin was placed on the unidentified officer, then she took the arm carefully and put it in a medical plastic wrap.
Lya walked out and called out to one of her nurses in her distinctive French accent, “Room Three is done. George would you please wheel him out.”
She then walked over to a medical trash bin and began throwing her gloves and other disposables away, “I see you are our acting captain now.”
“How bad is it?”
“Which airlock did you see?” Lya continued to methodically take off the protective and sanitary gear.
John was surprised by that question, “2C.”
“Well, 2A and 2B are full,” Lya had walked over to the big sink and was washing her hands before she held both sides of the sink and looked straight forward.
John’s eyes bulged at that, but he wasn’t given a chance to talk.
“Based on my internal ship readings we lost two-hundred-fifty-eight of the crew in the initial attack. Virtually everyone has suffered injuries of some sort. We’re up to sixty-five serious physical casualties. Twenty-two more passed away in here from trauma.”
John noticed the pair of marines came back into the room. He waved the two over to him. They both jogged over and stood at attention.
“At ease, did your sergeant make it?”
Both men nodded but the man he initially called over spoke up, “All of us survived. Somehow.”
“Ok, I want you guys to be working on a rotating hourly basis here. I don’t want anyone to be burnt out doing this.”
“Aye aye sir,” the marines saluted then immediately got back to their duty.
“Captain, sit down. I need to get you patched up and cleaned. You look a bit ghoulish.”
John grunted, “I have things to do.”
“Do I need to pull rank or medically restrict your duties?”
“No ma’am.”
Lya grabbed his shoulder hard, “Call me ma’am again and I’m going to hurt you.”
John nodded. Lya then got to work on his gash. The dried blood was quickly cleaned up. The wound itself was cleaned thoroughly. Then a foaming gel was placed over it. The annoying sting the wound had generated was gone, though John thought he looked fucking ridiculous with this half-inch thick white streak of medical goop on his head.
“And that should do it. Easy-peasy. Hang out here for five minutes or so to let the gel set and the rest to evaporate,” Lya paused and looked back at him, “By the way, that was quick thinking on your peer.”
“Seemed the only reasonable thing to do to stop the bleeding.”
Lya leaned in and whispered, “Are we going to get out of this?”
John looked at her and nodded, “If I have to get out and drag this ship to Confederate space I will. We are going home.”
Lya nodded then turned back to begin treating another patient. John looked around the room. So much pain and suffering. He began to loath himself, had he committed a pair of assaults or murders this whole thing could have been avoided.
“Lieutenant Lief, over here,” Deniz said painfully as he raised an arm.
John turned and noticed the Chief engineer laying down on a cot. Deniz’s shirt was gone, like burned off or worse melted onto his skin. Artificial skin was covering most of his chest and neck. His right arm was generally fine, but his left arm was covered in burns.
“I imagine I look better than I feel.”
“Well, you look like a fucking crispy critter, sir,” John deadpanned the response but was grinning, “But you're alive, so there’s that too. That shit should patch you up just fine eventually.”
Deniz let out a belly laugh but groaned, “Don’t me laugh, it hurts too much. I officially cede my position in the chain of command to you due to injuries sustained.”
“Good thing that you had that excuse. Didn’t have to put ‘Hell no I don’t want command,’ in the official log.”
Deniz grinned, “Ana is sending me updates. I’m running diagnostics on this thing. The problem we have isn’t the engines. It’s our structure.”
John nodded, “I was assuming that. If we began welding some of the debris would that help any?”
“Debris?”
“There are two wrecks that are within spitting distance of us. Plus, our armor plates that are still in our orbit.”
“I’ll get working on what we’d need to do and see if that would work. I hadn’t thought of that.”
John looked at the mirror and the weird medical goop was mostly gone. He wished Deniz well and said a couple of words to the sleeping Billy. One more critical place had to be checked before he went to the secondary bridge.
09:35 CNS Des Moines – Officers Mess
John walked into the mess. It was far busier than he had ever seen before. Several crewmen were struggling to get out of their seats to salute. John quickly shut that down and motioned them to continue as they were. He walked into the kitchen.
“Chef, sorry for bothering you,” John said.
“Cap! Good to see you. Apologies for opening this up to the crew without permission but…”
“Damage?”
“Engineering doesn’t think they are going to be able to reroute power to the crew mess.”
“Don’t worry about that. This is your room, your rules.”
“Aye aye. Now I’m sure you’re here to ask about food stores.”
John nodded.
“The fridge at the crew mess does have power, so we haven’t lost any food. We had an extra three months’ worth of food onboard. That can last a lot longer now, heard from the doc already. If we ration, we can push it even farther.”
John took the information in, “No rations for the next few days. Use the food from the crew fridge, if the power goes out, I’d rather burn through those stocks. Right now, I need the crew running on full bellies. It’s going to be a hell of a lot of work to get this heap jump worthy.”
“We’re also going to move what we can into this one.”
“Save everything. Leftovers are on the menu. But let’s not cook more than we can expect to eat though. I don’t want us to get into a bad position too early on.”
“Understood. You can count on my team and me,” the chef said proudly.
“Carry on.”
John smiled as he walked out of the kitchen. He strode out of the kitchen as confident as he could. If nothing else, he needed to maintain an image that he was in control. Unlike what he had done the previous hour. Steeling his emotions away was doubly necessary now. Things would get so much worse before they get better. The crew needed a pillar to rally around.
December 29th, 2261. 14:15 St. Mary’s Station, Commercial Ring
Alice was walking through the commercial district after her shift. Though calling it a shift of work was a bit of a stretch. She took three tests and mostly did homework during the rest of her shift. Her tablet began beeping.
“Oh, hi mom. How are you?”
“We are well. Your father and I are actually traveling to Manchester for a business opportunity. We are going to set aside a day to come visit you and John.”
Alice’s smile turned to a bit of a frown, “He’s still deployed. He was supposed to be home mid-month, but they extended their mission.”
“We are so sorry to hear that,” Kate said, “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine. Admittedly I’m a bit annoyed with his deployment change but we knew this was coming. A couple of my work friends and I did Christmas together. Our spouses were all deployed at the same time.”
“You’ve always been one to be resourceful around the holidays. Your father and I weren’t very reliable on that front.”
Alice chuckled to herself as she got to the residential wing, “No, no you weren’t. But you did provide everything we could want, except for your presence at important times.”
The conversation that Alice and her mother had continued as she walked through the hallways. Eventually, she got to the stairwell and began hiking up to her floor. Once on the correct floor, it was a short walk to the unit she shares with John. The conversation with her mother continued unabated as she stepped into the condo.
She smiled when she looked at the fully decorated condo. John was in for a shock to see how much Alice had changed their condo. When he had left it was a very spartan residence. Alice then noticed the red button on the main viewscreen.
“Oh mom, hold on a moment. I have a message. I want to see who it’s from,” Alice said as she walked over to a terminal, “It’s from John. Don’t worry I’m sure it’s his standard, ‘Hi honey, how are you?’ that he sends me all the time.”
“Dear, don’t mock that. He’s being charming,” Kate sounded slightly disappointed in her daughter.
“Mom, I am not mocking that at all. It is very sweet.”
Alice began the playback of his message. Her happy-go-lucky attitude and smiling face changed instantly when she saw how serious John looked. She cautiously began playing back the message. Her world changed when she heard John, the love of her life, say ‘Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I am likely dead now…’”
Her tablet fell out of her hand. Alice fell to the ground crying and screaming out in anguish. The message continued in the background, but she heard none of it.
Meanwhile, Kate, who couldn’t hear John’s message clearly, tried to get her daughter to talk to her, “Alice. Alice, honey. What is wrong?”