Garrick watched Macdewil and the others float out before focusing on his H.U.D. Before he left, he had to check what the ship's sensors or his own might have picked up.

Focusing on the list of icons and warnings, he quickly scrolled through everything that was now useless - shields going down, energy levels dangerously low, warnings from engineering.

When he finally weeded through the useless, he was left with only a few things that had him scratching his head. He put them on his central H.U.D. screen and read them slower.

"Captain, if you read this, Protocol Final Safeguard has triggered and failed. That means you are likely in great trouble. If you are not captured, you are hereby ordered to prevent The Sibilis from being captured. If you are, you are to escape and destroy the ship if you can. Now, in case of another issue, you are to communicate with the System-AI. Order it to assimilate The Sibilis and any other large enough supercomputers you can find. After that, The Sibilis LLM will be able to assist you with getting away. You are to listen if it has suggestions, as its return is paramount."

Suggestions, my ass, Garrick thought, glaring at the message. And why did you even send us here if it was this dangerous?

He knew the final part wasn't completely fair. The news of the found Shipslinger that led to Upsilon Andromedae had come at the last minute, and the third fleet was the only one nearby to act. All the other ships had been years away, and he did recall the final conversation with Admiral Stinger.

I guess now I know why he looked so nervous, Garrick thought, taking a final glare at the message before looking at the next one.

"Captain, in the milliseconds during which this EMP is running through my system, I have regained control from the foreign entity that took over part of the systems. From what I can tell, it's another LLM or perhaps even an AI. It seems more sensitive to what is occurring. I have locked the foreign entity away into one of my systems and cut it off from my mainframe. My readings show the explosion was caused by a large amount of antimatter, likely housed with the Precursor Shipslinger. From what I can tell, it will likely result in a prolonged PEMF that will prevent me from rebooting. Worse, there is a large chance that the older X implants might malfunction in deadly ways. I hope you survive. The Sibilis"

Garrick hummed, looking at the mass of data and readings added to the message. He read the initial message another time before closing the messages.

Well, now I just need to figure out if I believe that is really the Sibilis, he thought.

He went over the readings of his own suit, which showed all systems were at ninety percent, with mostly oxygen going fast.

"Alright, let's see who else we can find," he said, pulling himself through the doors.

Immediately, his H.U.D. disappeared, leaving on the clock and status up.

--

An hour after leaving engineering, Garrick pulled himself into the medbay. He'd not come across a single living soul, but his bag of sleeve tags had grown fuller, leaving him with a strong feeling of sorrow. He'd known many of his crew by name and had either spoken or had drinks with them many times. Seeing one after the other dead left him with a slowly growing anger and resentment.

If you survived, Uru, I'm going to kill you for this, Garrick thought as he glanced around the medbay.

His hope died quickly as he saw the bodies drifting throughout the clinically white room. Most hadn't had their helmets on and had either not heard or had time to follow the order. The dozen people on the wounded beds, also dead, showed it was likely the latter. Equipment floated everywhere, though it was less so than in engineering as most were either stowed away in the dozens of cracked glass closets lining the wall.

Garrick was glad to see that the security glass hadn't shattered. He'd have hated to see hazardous chemicals or medicine floating around. Still, there was something odd about the room. He tried to see what it was but couldn't and, after a few moments, shrugged. He began pulling himself around the room, slowly taking more sleeve tags.

Roughly halfway in, he finally realized what was bugging him.

Why is the radiation chamber closed?

He looked at the small door at the far wall. The hatch usually slid a few hand widths open. Now, it was completely sealed. A sense of excitement made him pull himself toward the door. He'd not yet completed a full head count of the medical crew; perhaps he'd find he'd missed one?

Putting his hand on the closed hatch, he felt nothing and thudded his fist.

Immediately, thuds came in response, fast and with little meaning. The panic was clear compared to what Macdewil had done.

Garrick felt a sigh of relief as he moved to the side of the latch and removed the panel. It took him a minute to figure out how to get it open, but as it slid open, two feet flailed toward him. He pulled himself back, stunned, as two pairs of legs came out a moment later, followed by two people in full medical crew suits.

"Yuri," Garrick thought as he grinned at the woman with the red curls matted against her face, and the sides of the helmet started prodding and poking her legs, looking pained. A younger nurse was doing the same thing, tears flowing down her face. It took Garrick a few moments to recognize her.

Sandra May Marryland, he suddenly remembered. She'd joined the crew a few months before their current mission. That made her one of the youngest and least experienced members.

Garrick quietly waited for Yuri to finish what he guessed were massaging the cramps in her legs. The radiation chamber was small, and if they had been stuck there for hours…

A few minutes later, Yuri looked up, her lidded eyes glaring at him and tapping the side of her helmet.

"Come with me," Garrick mouthed, signaling her to follow.

She nodded and pulled Sandra May along.

It took them a bit longer to return to engineering, and when they did, Garrick was happy to see it was a bustling mass of movement. Most of the devices and debris that had been floating around had been tied against walls and desks, while the over a dozen engineers were busy dismantling something that looked like a large triangular donut.

Halfway into the room, Garrick saw his H.U.D. start to flash, and it was barely up when a bleep showed three incoming messages. One was from Macdewil, one was from Yuri, and a third was from a group call.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Garrick accepted Macdewil's, looking around but not spotting the lead engineer.

"Jack?" he asked.

"I'm in fusion reactor bay three. It's the only one I think we can get back online. One and four are dead. They will never run again, and two might have a shot, but it would cost me a few days or more," Macdewil rattled. "How is the rest of the ship?"

"I found Yuri and the new nurse, Sandra May Marryland," Garrick said.

"Two made it? That's great!"

"It is," Garrick said. "Jack, did you get any message from The Sibilis?"

"A message? From before this happened, I presume?"

Garrick grabbed the message and forwarded it to Macdewil.

"Read through it. You can tell me your thoughts after I've had time to inform Yuri of our status. If there's nothing else?"

"Nothing, Captain. I'll be in the group call if you need me," Macdewil said absently.

Macdewil's connection closed, and Garrick accepted Yuri's call. She'd been hovering nearby, staring at him intently. As soon as the connection got through, her eyes widened.

"Captain, what is going on? We were locked in there for over four hours!"

"Calm down, Yuri," Garrick said. "Captain Uru Catlau of the Seretonin shot at and destroyed the Shipslinger."

He quickly filled her in on the rest, and when he finished, Yuri looked at him before shaking her head.

"So… we are dead then?" she muttered.

"Nurse Suziki," Garrick snapped, drawing her startled attention. "We are not dead, nor are we just going to wait here and do nothing. Lead Engineer Macdewil will get us power and shielding shortly. After that, we will plan for the future."

Yuri looked at him, and Garrick saw the hesitance in her eyes. He knew she was too smart to be bullshitted, but he had also learned over the years that sometimes, it was best not to accept any form of surrender. This, in his case, would probably be the most important time for that.

"Alright, Captain. I am sorry," Yuri said. "What do you need me to do?"

"You and Nurse Marryland figure out how bad the radiation is. Also, determine if the pulse did anything problematic with x4 and x5 implants. If they did, come tell me immediately."

"Yes, Captain," Yuri said, and this time, there was more determination behind it.

"Good. Now, there's a general chat. Go inside, but keep it professional," Garrick said.

Yuri nodded, and their connection was broken.

Garrick looked around for a bit, wondering if he should talk with Macdewil, then decided he was doing exactly what he had to—getting them power.

So, he just joined the group chat, listened to the tech chatter for five seconds, then announced he was resuming his search for survivors and left.

Let's hope I can find more, he thought as he exited the room.

His H.U.D. flashed a few times, and he almost hoped it would remain, but a few feet away from the door, it turned dark again.

During the next few hours, his bag of sleeve tags kept filling, and he had to get a second one. He found no more survivors, though when he reached the cryo-bay, he was happy to see that all of the pods seemed in order.

There were close to five hundred people here, and with the surviving twelve frigates of the third fleet, that meant he would have over seventeen hundred people who needed help. If some people survived on board, that left the people from The Astra Concord—thirteen hundred across their few frigates and the massive Serotonin.

I'll get you out when I can, and no sooner, Garrick thought as he stared down at the pale, seemingly sleeping face of Carla Saul, one of his senior pilots and one of the first to be revived.

Well, if any of the shuttles survived.

He looked at Carla for a few moments, then checked some more pods.

They seemed in order, and he saw no oddities with the people who seemed to be almost sleeping. The info panels on their screens were dead, but when he touched the bottom, he felt the soft vibrating that showed the unit was functioning. They wouldn't last very long without external power, but technically, as long as the inner atmosphere wasn't compromised, the people could be revived.

Garrick made his way from the cryo-bay to his single-last stop, and the one he was pretty sure would be a big letdown—the shuttbay.

It was placed near the front, though below the nose, and he was hoping that had saved it… if only partially. Sadly, as he made his way through the ship, closing in on the destroyed sections of the front, it became more and more apparent that being partially below the nose hadn't done the shuttle bay any good.

Hanging from a rail extending out in a way it shouldn't normally, Garrick looked at the stars through the rubble-filled area that had the shuttle bay at one time. There were no signs of any of the shuttles, and it almost looked like the entire bay had been grabbed and yanked out, leaving only a few bits of metal frame and graphtanium plating.

"Great, so that means I'm going to need another way to get to the other ships," Garrick said thoughtfully.

After making sure there was no shuttle drifting around, miraculously in one piece, he made his way to the mess hall. By that point, he'd fully expected to find no more survivors, so when he reached the mess and saw that the doors to the supply area were closed and the windows covered by something, he blinked in surprise.

Who… he barely finished the thought when a face floated up in his mind's eye. A gruff face with perpetual stubble no matter what he told the face's owner and eyes of such intense brown they almost looked red.

Halfway through the mess hall, Garrick's H.U.D. blinked twice, then returned.

The PEMF must be weakened enough for the implant to work, he thought.

He tried to call Macdewil, but there was no response, meaning he either had too little energy or the PEMF was still happening.

Pulling himself towards the supply room door, he saw it looked like the packaging had been stuffed against the windows, and as he tried the door, it didn't budge. Slamming his fist on it, it took a while before one of the bits of packaging was removed.

Two nearly red eyes glared at him before widening. A big grin was followed by some movement, and the door was shoved open, revealing a man who had required a custom extra-large suit.

"Why am I surprised that Hilbert survived…" Garrick muttered.

The other person's grin widened even more, and he winked.

Garrick sent out a communication request, which was answered immediately.

"Captain, yah old dog! I knew you'd not get killed by something silly like half the ship exploding," Hilbert Excelsar The Third roared happily.

"Officer Hilbert, what did we talk about?" Garrick snapped, though he was having a hard time not to smile.

"What? Don't tell me stuff like that still counts in such a situation?" Hilbert boomed, his eyebrows shooting up in mock shock.

"What situation?" Garrick asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Lost in space? Ever seen that movie?" Hilbert asked innocently.

Garrick raised an eyebrow, and Hiblert snorted.

"I had a look around before I locked myself back up. That old bat always whines about radiation during no-shield training, and I thought that packaging might help."

Garrick shook his head and looked into the supply area.

"We are going to need to bring enough liquid meals for seventeen people for a few days," he said.

Hilbert was moving before Garrick had finished, though when he heard the number, he grabbed a wall hook and turned around.

"Only seventeen, Captain?" he asked, and this time there was no mirth or humor in his voice.

"I've not scoured the ship," Garrick said. "Perhaps we may find more. But all cryo pods are intact."

"Well, that's something, I guess," Hiblert grumbled.

Garrick didn't react, and together, they gathered a few packs of supplies. When they finished, they began the return journey.

"So, any plan on how to survive this bloody mess, Captain?" Hilbert asked halfway through.

Garrick hummed thoughtfully. He'd been pondering it for his entire trip through the ship, and he'd come up with a few solutions. None that he was willing to share until he'd had time to discuss them with Macewil, though.

"No final one yet," he said. "But whatever we do, we first need to get some way to reach the other ships.

"Meh, we could always just shoot towards one," Hilbert snorted. "Cook up one of those old ballistic missiles!"

Garrick didn't respond, though his eyes began glistening.