Svet'teti lay in her bunk, restlessly staring at the ceiling.

I might’ve just killed someone. I don’t know how to feel about that.

“Svet’teti?”

She turned, the silhouette of her husband leaning against the doorframe.

“Are you doing ok?” He stepped towards her slowly, crouching down to get closer to eye level. She could feel tears starting to well in her eyes. She couldn’t shake the feeling of dread when she’d seen the other ship with holes as thrice as large as the USVs the Prata carried along its hull.

“I could see through the ship,” she choked out. “When we stopped firing I could see all the way through it. What if there were people? What if we killed people for no reason what if I killed people what do we do people might be dead because of us were not humans were not equipped to deal with this I just wanted to mine rocks and make money I just wanted to mine rocks I just wanted to mine rocks I-”

He lifted her out of her bed into his four arms. They sat there on the floor for what felt like hours.

“You'll be okay,” Ktr'Elota said. “You did what you had to do. You did what you had to do to keep us and our ship safe.”

“I feel so defeated. I never wanted to hurt anyone.”

“I know. I know.” They sat for a few more minutes. “I already contacted Mekora, sent them some footage. They said we're in the right and gave us a claim for sweep, clear, and rescue. Already got some USVs sealing up the hull.” She nodded.

“Okay. Do what you can.”

Ktr'Elota sat at the engineering console, watching thirty different angles of the strange ship they'd found themselves against. Every time a bee patched a hole, another two found four more. Amazingly, there was still oxygen in the ship despite the rapid decompressions. It was leaking out the largest holes in a manner which suggested bulkheads which hadn't properly sealed on the inside. He sent a few bees in to search for the unsealed bulkheads.

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“Unidentified ship, please identify yourself and any surviving crew.” A quick scan of the ship's computer system showed low, but functional power, and what appeared to be processed commands.

“Guess there's nothing over there.” He sent a few new commands to the bees, telling them to enter through the airlock, shift to treads mode, and begin S&R protocols. He watched the first bee's camera feed as it approached the airlock. Once seven bees entered the airlock, it automatically cycled. A good sign for the computer. Means it's automatically working fine.

The bees split into pairs, two moving in each direction with one staying and sealing small breaches behind the main pairs. The bee he was watching showed a smaller, narrower corridor than what they had on the Prata, and thermal imaging showed very high amounts of heat moving behind the walls. The gravity was just under .3 standard human, a whole .4G less than what was comfortable for him. Every ten meters, guides for heavy bulkheads could be seen extruding from the walls. Doors embedded into the walls looked sturdy enough to hold atmosphere even in a corridor breach, much less whatever the heavy bulkheads could do. Team 2 reported a blocked corridor which lined up with a hull breach on his ship map. He recalled them to the airlock. Team 3 reported a split, he told them to split up.

The team he was watching was slowly moving towards the bow of the ship, soon to pass through the ship's core, just above the hole they'd punched straight through. They patched a panel beneath them when they passed it, a stray bullet having gone rogue through the ship. He sent a command for one of the airlock bees to try to interface with the ship’s computers, hoping to pull some more data from the ship's systems.

A large airlock guarded a central chamber which had taken a medium breach, but still showed oxygen. The two bees breached and quickly began patching the hull. Ktr'Elota saw two figures huddled in the corner.

Humans? What the hell? The two humans had small masks over their faces, connected to oxygen containers at their feet. A small blanket covered them. As the bees sealed the final holes in the command room, the, so far, dim lighting suddenly came to life, brightening the room to a comfortable level. Consoles whirred to life, reporting the multiple major hull breaches in the ship with large red triangles and flashing human text.

Is this the crew? I haven't seen anyone else. Suddenly, a human in standard military dress appeared in the center of the room. A small pistol was at its hip. Despite being behind a screen, Ktr'Elota still jumped at how sudden it was.

“Vacate the bridge immediately.”