The ship shook again as whatever was attacking us fired in our direction.

“What’s happening, who’s attacking us?” Rel demanded to know.

“Unknown. Enemy vessels are too far away to identify due to radiation interference,” replied Starship Rex as we both hurried out of the room and into the corridor.

One way led forwards, towards the pilot’s chair, the other went back towards the bay I had first met Rel in only a few hours ago.

“I need to get yo my ship!” Rel told me, already turning away.

“What should I do?” I asked of her. panic was starting to set in.

I’d never been in danger before. Not like this.

“Go pilot your ship!” Rel replied exasperatedly as she turned away.

“I-I don’t know how to pilot it!” I replied.

Rel froze, her mouth dropping open as she was reminded that I had no background in any of this. I might as well have been born yesterday.

“I’ll get to my ship and try fighting them off. Just, see what you can do,” she told me.

With that she left me, heading back to the ship she’d arrived in.

I hurried through the ship, having to stop as another rumble sent me almost flying against one wall. They had fired on us again, only this time it came with a much larger effect. Whatever that was they must have hit something vital.

The door to the cockpit swung open for me and I all but jumped into the captain’s seat.

Two blinking red lights could be seen on the three dimensional radar thing.

“Does this thing have any, I dunno, blasters?” I asked.

“Affirmative,” replied Starship Rex.

“Then let's shoot back!” I suggested hysterically.

“Targeting orders must be input manually by the Captain,” Starship Rex told me.

“Damnit!” I cursed. “I don’t know how to pilot this thing, what makes you think I know how to target enemies!”

“Calculating.

I had to stop myself from being flung out of my seat as another attack must have hit us.

“Hurry up!” I shouted, finding a seatbelt and quickly fastening it around me. The straps went around my waist and shoulders and clicked together in the middle.

I saw out of the screen in front of me. A blocky, metal spaceship flew past, a large looking canon swivelling to aim in our direction.

There was yet another explosion. Only this was the largest ever and the wind was knocked out of me. It was only thanks to the harness I was wearing that I wasn’t sent flying.

“Ship designated Frozen Hand destroyed.”

“W-what?” I asked, dumbfounded to realise the girl I’d barely just met had just as suddenly died. “What happened? Didn’t she have shields or anything?”

“Shielding technology is currently inoperable due to the surrounding radiation,” Starship Rex reported.

“So we don’t have any either?” I voiced the thought out loud with worry.

“Correct.”

“Then what can we do?” I asked hurriedly as I looked at the radar. The enemy spaceships were coming back around, no doubt to finish the job with this spaceship too and I had no idea if whatever had brought me and Starship rex back to life would be coming back to do it a second time.

“This vessel is capable of acting on autopilot, but is incapable of carrying out combat activities without a pilot’s direct input,” Starship Rex told me.

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“But you can fly, can you get us out of here?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Then do that, get us out of here right now!” I shouted as the other spaceships began their approach.

“Initiating emergency faster than light in one, two, three.”

The ship lurched forward and I was thrown back into my seat.

Stars swam before my vision, blurring together after a few seconds into a blur of colours as we moved.

It was beautiful and that beauty was only compounded by the sense of relief I felt at escaping whoever had attacked me, us.

A sense of shame struck me then, even as Starship Rex exited faster than light travel. Rel had died, doing her best to save us both.

“There was nothing I could do,” I told myself quietly. I didn’t know how to pilot this ship and couldn’t have been expected to be able to do so either. The situation I’d found myself in prevented me of being any real help in this situation. Perhaps if Rel had qualified to command the ship, or I could fly Starship Rex then things would have been different. They would have been different.

I mentally pushed my self recriminations to the side. I knew intellectually there was nothing I could do. Right now I needed to take stock of where I was.

We had arrived in a solar system and right before me there was the round, practically glowing form of a planet. It was green and blue, covered partly in clouds and to one side the planet was bathed in shadow, on account of the positioning of the single orange star far away in the distance.

For a moment I imagined it was Earth, but it clearly was not. The landmasses I saw looked nothing like Earth, broken up into shapes that were nothing like my home planet.

“Incredible,” I said softly.

“Power supplies minimal,” Starship Rex interrupted my moment of awe.

A second later the lights in the ship started to wink out.

“Emergency power is unavailable. Commencing deactivation of all systems. This vessel will enter forced hibernation in three minutes”

“When you say all systems?” I asked. “That includes life support, doesn’t it?”

“Correct.”

It was just one thing after another. I brought a hand to rub my eyes.

“How long will the remaining oxygen last me?” I asked.

“Existing oxygen will allow two occupants to survive on board for six hours,” The starship’s AI told me. “Vital systems will be restored in three hours following hibernation.”

Well that was probably the best bit of news I could’ve heard, I thought as I let loos a sigh of relief.

“Wait, two occupants?” I asked, brow furrowing in confusion. Then my eyes widened.

If Starship Rex was talking about two occupants, then that meant Rel had to still be on board!

I ignored whatever it was the spaceship was saying as I jumped up out of the pilot’s chair and hurried out, going through the ship towards the cargo bay where Rel had doubtlessly been heading when I had last seen her.

I came through into the cargo room and immediately spotted her.

Rel’s crumpled up form was left leaning on the rear corner, furthest away from the doorway that had been leading to her ship.

“Smeg!” I cursed as I raced up to her. I didn’t know anything beyond the basics of the recovery position and I didn’t even know if that would actually apply to an alien’s physiology.

“Rel, Rel, can you hear me?” I asked, carefully pulling her so she could lie on her back. I cradled her head, feeling for any lumps or bruising.

There was definitely a lump there, but when I pulled my hand back I didn’t see any blood.

I looked towards the hatch that had been leading to her ship. The hatch leading out was shut, probably closing automatically. I’d found her in the corner opposite and to the rear.

At a guess she’d arrived in the cargo bay too late to get aboard, but just in time for whatever explosion had seen her ship destroyed coming through and knocking her back. Then when we had entered FTL she had been dragged back by the momentum of our acceleration and wound up here.

Her hair was singed, there was red blood from little cuts to her cheeks and head and her clothes likewise looked singed. It looked superficial but she wasn’t conscious, I had no way of knowing what might be wrong with her.

I put a finger to her neck and after a couple seconds of panic I found a pulse.

The artery, whatever its specific name was, was running up the left side of her neck where it would on a human. Her circulatory system was apparently the same, or at least similar, to a human’s.

I didn’t know what to do. I needed to get her medical attention but if the power systems were offline then I doubted that the medical room was going to be operational.

A groan from below caught my attention and Rel’s eyes opened.

“Lords strike it,” Rel said. It sounded like a curse.

“Careful,” I warned as she went to sit up.

For a moment Rel swayed and I braced myself to catch her if she fell but she recovered. Rel put a hand to the back of her head, hissing in pain.

“Are you okay?” I asked, asking the most helpful question in the world.

“I’m okay,” she replied, before making another noise of pain. “I got lucky, I think.”

As if the universe was in disagreement, that was the moment the lights in the room cut out.

“All systems now offline. Warning, this vessel is entering a gravity well and will impact the nearby planet in ten minutes. Please prepare for crash landing. Systems shutting down in three, two, one.”

The prevailing hum I hadn’t really noticed was there cut out, leaving us both in complete darkness and I could practically feel the now completely offline ship begin to accelerate towards the planet below us.