RSS Mei Zhou
206,546 kilometers from Queen World
“Captain? Can you hear me?”
The words repeated, sounding like he was hearing it underwater as they lingered on the periphery of his consciousness. Something terrible had happened, and he had to fight off the overwhelming urge to ignore it and go back into the deep sleep beckoning him.
He heard another distant question, more insistent this time, as he became aware of something touching and shaking him. He tried to move, but his body did not want to work. He felt paralyzed, and he could feel himself struggling to make himself move towards the sounds.
He made a herculean effort to break through the malevolent presence pushing down on him, and he felt his soul erupting from his noncompliant body before feeling himself rolling off the edge of something.
He cried out in shock at the sudden sensation of freefalling, only to find himself lying down on his back again and seeing Miriam’s face hovering over him as his eyes finally opened.
“Wha dha futh thas tha?!” He muttered as his dry tongue peeled itself away from the even drier roof of his mouth, feeling ten times its normal size. “Oh, thank God. You weren’t answering me or opening your eyes. I was just about to start smacking the shit out of you, Captain!” Miriam gasped out, her bloodshot eyes drilling into him with both relief and anger within them.
Leaning her head down until they were cheek to cheek, she spoke again, her low voice filled with raw hurt and worry. “You almost severed your tongue after biting down on it, and you started thrashing violently enough to warrant being injected with a paralytic. I am assuming you regained consciousness and suffered sleep paralysis before the reversing agent fully kicked in. I am never doing that again; don’t even bother asking next time.”
As she pulled away, he reached his right hand up and grasped her shoulder to prevent her from moving away any further as he croaked. “Ith I ath agin, juth thooth me neth thime.” It took her a moment to understand what he had just mumbled, but she shot him a quick smile as she resumed raising her head.
“Oh, I’ll do worse than shoot you. Just be still, Captain. Your serious injuries are mostly healed, but the medbots are still working on your tongue.” Looking over to the side, she called out a little louder as he brought his trembling arm back down onto the floor. “Bring some water; the captain is thirsty.”
Still staring at her, he felt an almost orgasmic relief at the mention of water, and his mouth immediately felt even drier than it did, which didn’t seem possible. He moved his eyes over to his right as he heard the loud squeaking sounds of combat boots approaching from that direction.
An ensign came into his field of vision as she reached over to hand the canteen to Miriam before scurrying off to the side as if she was afraid of being chewed out. Reaching down under his neck with her right hand, Miriam gently pulled him up a little bit as she brought the canteen to his mouth. “Take it slowly, Captain.”
He completely ignored her advice and greedily sucked on the mouth of the canteen, the precious, cool water mostly spilling down the sides of his cheek and soaking his chest. He did not give the slightest shit, and he continued to guzzle like a slob as he desperately tried to slake his thirst.
“Ahh!” he exhaled gratefully as she pulled the now-empty canteen from his lips and held it back up. “Ensign, more water.” He saw a hand reach over and take it from her, the same annoying squeaking sounds grating on his ears as the ensign walked off to refill the canteen.
Moving his tongue around his mouth, it felt like it was now less than half the size it was before, and he could feel the weird sensation of the medbots lessening. Maybe now he could speak without sounding like an idiot. “Pleath tell the enthsin to thiten hir boothlathes. I canth thandth the thweaking noith.”
Miriam crunched her face up as she tried to figure out what he said, which meant he still sounded like an idiot. As the ensign and the ridiculously loud squeaking boots returned, he saw understanding dawning on her face as she took the canteen before dismissing him.
Screwing his eyes shut as the annoying sound of the boots walking away resumed, he heard her voice whispering in his ear.
“Captain, those boots are too big for her. She was in corridor 2, junction 4, when the missile hit, and her boots were ripped off as she hung onto a zero-g handhold she somehow managed to grab when the corridor bulkheads were ruptured by the blast wave.
The fucking Insectoid warhead was a thermobaric bomb, sir. It caused a massive blast wave in the interior spaces despite the ship-wide depressurization for combat; they used some kind of potassium/sodium/oxygen fuel mixture along with something else we had never seen before that self-ignited and created its own negative pressure wave that sucked the nearby crew out of wherever they were."
She paused, and he started regretting what an asshole he was being about the boots as she resumed whispering.
“Her battle buddy was in the corridor with her, and he was impaled on a ruptured waste processing conduit as he was pulled towards the breach. She stayed with him and held his hand while he bled out after the emergency fields sealed the breach.
Before he died, he noticed her bare and badly cut-up feet and told her to take his. She did, and she has refused to take the boots off since then, even when I suggested she find a replacement that was the correct size. ‘I can’t do that, Commander. He told me to take them off his feet and wear them. He gave them to me before he died; please don’t make me take them off.’ What am I supposed to say to that, Captain? I didn’t bring it up again after that.”
Feeling like a massive jerk, he opened his eyes again as Miriam straightened back up and looked down at him. “Let her wear them until she is ready to take them off on her own, Captain, okay?” she asked, pleading in a low voice. He nodded, still moving his tongue around in his mouth. It felt almost normal now, and the tingling was practically gone.
“I want to get off my back. Help me up, Miriam.”
“Hold on a second; let me get the corpsman to scan you one last time before you get up,” she replied, not sounding happy about him wanting to move as she scanned the bridge before spotting who she was looking for. “Doc, come over here and scan the captain, please. He wants to get up,” she called out loudly, her voice clearly conveying her disapproval.
From behind them, he heard a woman’s voice replying, sounding not so pleased herself. “Aye, Commander, coming now.” A few seconds later, the corpsman came into view as she took a knee on his right and looked down at him. It was Nyugen, and he immediately knew she was going to give him a hard time.
Not bothering to hide the look of disappointment on her face, she started scanning him with the diagnostic wand, her almond-shaped eyes narrowing into slits as she alternated between looking at the scanning results and giving him dirty looks.
He withered under her stare and kept his mouth shut as she grunted disapprovingly at the small holo screen being projected in front of her by the scanner. He might be a senior captain, but corpsmen had a unique place within the Republic Navy rank and file that allowed them to get away with shit that wouldn’t fly anywhere else in the service, like the scowl she was currently giving him.
He flinched slightly as she began to bark at him while flipping the holo screen around so he could see all the damage he had done to himself. “What you did to yourself was dangerous and stupid, Captain. You are going to need to replace your liver and your kidneys within a few days, and your heart is going to need a regen to replace the cardiomyocytes that were irrevocably damaged by the emergency stimpak.
Your ribs, lung, and spinal cord have been repaired, though you might deal with numbness in your feet for a few days. Your chest is going to feel like smashed ass for a few days as well. You can get up, but only if you remain seated and get to Sickbay right away for a full workup as soon as the damage control teams clear the way.”
Turning her eyes away from him, Nyugen looked at Miriam and sucked on her teeth before lashing out at the second target of her rage. “Commander, What the hell were you thinking, injecting him with that shit? He could very well be in a body bag right now!” Miriam looked away and didn’t respond, which seemed to take some of the fire out of Nyugen as she resumed looking at the holo screen before addressing him again.
“You cannot overexert yourself until you get to sickbay, Captain. You are to remain in your chair and then immediately get checked out once the way has been cleared, okay? I will know if you don’t.” She added ominously as she stared daggers at him.
He nodded, and Nyugen rolled her eyes before she looked at Miriam. “I understand why you did it, but please do not use the stimpak on anyone ever again unless it is necessary to prevent them from dying and there is a medpod on hand.” Miriam nodded, and Nyugen snorted in disgust before wearily standing back up and walking away.
“Thank you, Doc.” He called out to Nyugen’s retreating back, who raised a hand in acknowledgment without bothering to turn around as she continued to head towards the little triage area she had set up along the far bulkhead of the bridge.
“That woman scares the shit out of me.” He murmured to Miriam, who quickly nodded in agreement before standing up and reaching down with both hands. “You ready, Captain?”
“No, but let’s do this.” He replied as he grasped her hands with his. Touching his hands to hers, he suddenly remembered feeling her bones breaking as he crushed it, the sound of her whimpering gasps of pain as she tried to get her hand out from the vice. He pulled his hands away, ashamed of hurting her and not being able to prevent it.
Miriam knew exactly why he did what he did, and she reached down and took his hands in hers again before quietly speaking. “My hand is completely healed, Captain. It was not as bad as it seemed. I know you didn't mean to do it, and I know you couldn’t stop it. Are you ready?”
He nodded, grateful for her trust and forgiveness for the pain he had caused her. Testing his legs for the first time, he felt sheer joy as they responded and began to draw themselves in just as he wanted.
They worked together slowly to get him up onto his feet, and she held onto him as he suffered a bout of lightheadedness. He swayed for a few moments before it finally passed, and she held onto his elbow as he made his way to his chair.
His chest felt like a bunch of Centauri farmhands had been beating the shit out of it with sledgehammers, and he thought of the happy smirk Nyugen gave him as she described his chest feeling like smashed ass. Goddamn psychopath, he thought to himself as he finally reached the chair.
He sat down in it heavily, feeling winded and exhausted from the barely three-meter walk as he leaned back and tried to catch his breath. His hands shook slightly as he reached towards the two holo displays positioned at the end of each chair arm and began tapping on them.
The right one was frozen, still displaying the last status update that was up before the missile strike, and the left one kept displaying error messages as it failed to connect to the mainframe despite his best attempts to reset it.
He felt lost without his usual way of gaining information about the ship and his crew, and he glanced at Miriam, who had taken her seat next to him and was fiddling with her own screens that refused to work, judging from her aggressive poking and furrowed brow.
“Gonna have to do this old school, I guess, Miriam. What’s the latest update?” He asked, wanting her to stop jamming her fingers against the screens before she really got mad.
She sighed in frustration before leaning back in her seat and turning her head to face him. “I set up a messenger relay system, and I get an update every five to ten minutes. Another runner should be here shortly with the latest update. There are no signs of any enemy ships from the observation ports, and 3rd Fleet is still drifting towards the planet.”
Reaching into her right pant pocket, she pulled out a small datapad and tapped on it, swiping through several screens before finding the one she wanted to show him. She flicked her fingers, and the datapad projected a 40-centimeter square holo screen in front of them.
“Last count was 143 confirmed killed, 84 missing, and 214 wounded. That’s only for the parts of the ship that have been able to report in so far.”
He stared at her for a few moments, feeling the flashback panic threatening to return before remembering his mantra. Fight for them now, grieve for them later. Fight for them now, grieve for them later. Fight for them now, grieve for them later.
Looking down at the deck, he touched two fingers to his lips before placing them over his heart as he uttered the solemn lament for departed comrades.
“Respect for the fallen.”
“Respect for the fallen.” Miriam intoned quietly in response as she kissed her own two fingers and placed them over her heart.
Looking back up at her, he spoke quietly. “Please continue, Commander.” Giving him a knowing look, she nodded slightly after a few moments before swiping to the next display.
“Naomi is still down, as is the main computer. The ship is stuck in lockdown because of the main computer being severed and the extent of the hull breaches on the port side activating the automated emergency bulkhead systems. The crew has been forced to cut their way out of the sections they are trapped in or wait for others to reach them.
The rescue shuttles from the Warspite all landed in shuttle bay 3, and the engineering staff and medical personnel have been working their way towards Main Engineering as they make repairs. The chief from Warspite has activated and released a shit ton of modified repair bots he brought with him, and they are working on getting systems back online.”
Staring at the maps and progress updates she put up on the holo screen, he could see the handwritten notes that she added and crossed out with a stylus as she received constant updates from the runners.
Miriam had beautiful cursive penmanship, an old art form that had made a resurgence in the last few decades, and she was rightfully proud of it, even entering and winning many contests. He saw no signs of that here, as the stressful circumstances made her revert to a barely legible scrawl more appropriate for a four-year-old.
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“The Warspite? Is it fresh out of the shipyards, Commander? The last Warspite was decommissioned and scrapped after the Kilthek border wars... what? Almost forty years ago?” She nodded as he finished speaking, tapping on the datapad and flicking a series of images up on the holo screen before speaking again.
“Sensors are down, but several of the crew saw the ship through the observation portholes and scopes, taking several pictures and scans with their data pads. Look at that thing, Captain. There is no way that monstrosity came out of one of our shipyards without the rumors reaching at least some of us in the officer corps while it was being built.”
He had to agree with her assessment as he stared at the images being displayed with an Independence-Class carrier next to them for a size comparison. The Warspite was an additional 300 meters longer, and though it had only a 275-meter beam compared to the 350-meter beam of a carrier, it had an estimated 27 decks while carriers had 19.
As he continued looking through the information, he did a double take at the estimated displacement, the weapons complement, and the strange alloys that comprised the obvious armor plating that covered the entire ship in a ten-meter-thick shell, which was absolutely mind-boggling.
It looked familiar, yet alien at the same time, and he found himself instinctively feeling like he was looking at a distant future warship made by humans that had somehow traveled back to their time period.
He had never seen a more beautiful yet deadly-looking ship ever before in his life, and he felt it calling to him, beckoning him like the deadly sirens superstitious spacers often fearfully whispered about when ships went missing in the uncharted regions.
An old memory came to the forefront as he remembered being enraptured while he listened to an old raisin of a spacer at a filthy, foul-smelling cantina when he was a young lieutenant on his first patrol.
The planet was New Scotland, a barely habitable world filled with unsavory denizens known for thievery and other pursuits of ill repute. The hoarse voice of the old geezer, who stunk like stale ale and piss, began talking in his mind, as clearly as the day he first heard it all those years ago.
‘Beware the Sirens, young man! They trick you, you see. They sing promises of a bevy of voluptuous, beautiful women at your beck and call and, even worse, of a beautiful ship in need of you to be its captain.
Many a lonely man has been lured off course by such, only to find their untimely deaths instead of their desires fulfilled. Good comrades and friends, I have lost to them; do not listen to their songs if you wish to live to a ripe old age like me, heh. Now buy me a drink for warning you; it may save your life and spare you from the clutches of those lying bitches!’
He gave a 50-credit chit to the publican to pay for the old man’s drinking for the entire night, which made the wizened spacer weep with gratitude. He fled from there immediately afterwards, creeped out by what he had heard and wanting to get away from the stench.
He shivered slightly at the memory before pushing it out of his mind as he focused on the images and scan results again.
According to the analysis, the Warspite had an additional 10 million tons of displacement over a fully loaded carrier and almost four times the number of weapons hardpoints of the Mei Zhou, which was an upgraded Dauntless-Class II Battleship and the most powerful warship ever created by the Republic.
The armor plating was composed of both known and unknown alloys, and the power generation readings were well beyond even the incredible output of the newest nullship battlecruisers with their six antimatter reactors.
“Where the hell did that ship come from? Are those power generation readings correct? The only ships we have ever seen capable of such readings are the massive Commonwealth transport carriers and Ma’lit vessels.” He asked as he looked away from the holo screen and towards Miriam, who emphatically shrugged before answering him.
“We’ll have to ask the chief engineer from the Warspite when we get a chance. The rest of the Warspite crew has refused to answer any questions regarding their ship when asked by our crew members. ‘Above your paygrade’ is all they would say, according to the runners.”
“Fair enough. What’s the status of 3rd Fleet? Have we had any contact with any of them?” he asked as she minimized the Warspite images and opened tabs with more damage reports and status updates.
“Comms are still down, so we have been coordinating with the fleet via tight beam lasers and signal lamp messages with Morse code. It’s slow going, but the ships that were hit with the missiles are dealing with the same issues we are, and some are worse off.
No ships were lost, though, thank God. Those missiles were at least twice as powerful as anything we have seen from the Insectoids before, and it’s a miracle none of our ships were destroyed.
3rd Fleet has assumed a diamond formation, and the damaged ships are in the center, including us. We are being towed towards the Queen World by the Fearless at 42,672 kph. Captain Tanaka has taken command in the meantime and is in constant contact with Bandit. The Hive Mother has asked us to orbit the planet and promised to protect us while we make what repairs we can until reinforcements and automated repair ships arrive.”
“I feel better about all this knowing Captain Tanaka has taken over. He is a certified badass and a master tactician. What’s the status of Skunk 1 and 2, Commander?”
“Captain, scopes have not detected any signs of Insectoid ships anywhere near us except for the loyal ships that were already in orbit. They were heading towards us at one point, and then veered off and burned back to the planet. The Warspite left almost immediately after; we do not know where to. Tanaka wanted to send shuttles over to help us, but we can’t land them; there isn’t enough space in Bay 3, and Bays 1 and 2 are half destroyed.
All the rebel forces have been neutralized, and Tanaka has reported additional loyal forces have been arriving in the system over the last hour. There are now over two hundred Hive ships and six hundred cruisers by his last count, and they have been giving us a wide berth so far. I think we can safely stand down and focus on the crew and the ship for now.”
He nodded, agreeing with her assessment on standing down as they worked on repairing what they could. It wasn’t like they could do anything else, flying blind and being knocked out as badly as they were.
A runner entered the bridge and stopped in surprise at the sight of the captain sitting in his chair again before hurrying over to stand in front of him and Miriam. “Captain, Commander.” He said before saluting them both. Miriam returned it and nodded for the runner to give the update.
The seaman pulled a datapad off his harness and flicked a holo screen towards them before using his fingers to move the lists around until he had it in the order he wanted.
“Sirs, we have freed all the trapped crew along the parts of the port side we could safely reach fore and aft; those who were uninjured or suffered only minor injuries have been treated and then folded into the damage control teams to help clear the way to others who are still trapped.
Moderately or severely injured crew were brought to the triage points set up by the medical personnel from our own ship and the ones from Warspite. Um... the Docs from Warspite are using medical tech none of us have ever seen before. I saw them revive Chief Soto with some really advanced-looking equipment... I found him and brought him to the triage point myself, sirs.”
He hesitated and then stepped forward two paces and leaned down until his head was level with theirs before continuing in a conspiratorial whisper after looking around to make sure no one else was within earshot to hear what he had to say.
“He was brain dead for over an hour, according to my med scanner, when we found the chief, sirs. He was blue in the face, and we brought him to the triage point tagged as KIA. One of the Docs from Warspite put him inside a strange pod before dismissing me, and I went down the relay points to collect updates to bring back here.
On my way back to the bridge, I passed the triage point again, and there was Chief Soto sitting on the deck while a different Doc from Warspite was scanning him. He’s alive, sirs. I was gone for maybe five minutes? I thought I was hallucinating until he called me over and shook my hand to thank me for saving his life. He was dead when I found him, and now he is not. It was creepy as hell talking to him, and I know for a fact he was truly dead, sirs.”
The seaman straightened up and stepped back two paces to his original position as Miriam shot him a look. Looking back at the seaman, he asked him to continue his report, not wanting Miriam to interrogate the poor guy in front of the rest of the bridge.
“The chief engineer from Warspite and his team have reached what is left of Main Engineering and are currently coordinating with his repair bots and the engineering other teams to get the primary systems and main power back online as they reroute everything to the secondary engineering bays.
He is confident he can get most of the systems back up and running shortly after the new lines and conduits they have been running are connected to the reactors. He said within twenty minutes or so, and that was at least ten minutes ago.”
The seaman cleared his throat, clearly not wanting to say what he was about to say, but Miriam was not having it. “Keep going, Seaman.” She ordered in a tone that gave him no choice in the matter. He cleared his throat again before he continued, his voice now trembling.
"The.. they only found six techs still alive down there. They were working on swapping out a plasma conduit in relay room 4, and the emergency bulkhead door sealed them in. They are the only ones who survived from the entire engineering compartment.”
Kissing the tip of the two first fingers of his right hand and then placing them over his heart, the seaman whispered, “Respect for the fallen,” as his bloodshot eyes became wet.
“Respect for the fallen.” He and Miriam intoned as they kissed their fingers and placed them over their own hearts, seeing all the others on the bridge doing the same after hearing the seaman confirm the loss of almost the entire engineering staff.
After a few respectful moments of silence passed, he spoke quietly again as he addressed the mourning runner. “Anything else to add to your report, Seaman?”
“No, Captain.”
“Thank you for updating us, and we appreciate the good work you have been doing. When was the last time you ate something?” he asked, thinking the pale crewman looked in dire need of nourishment.
“2230 last night in the main galley, Captain,” he replied, his voice faltering at the mention of food. “I want you to take a fifteen-minute break and get off your feet, Seaman. There are MREs, water, and comfortable seats in my office behind the tactical station; you are to report there and eat and drink until you can’t anymore. Is that understood?”
“Aye, Captain. Thank you!” the seaman replied gratefully as he came to attention.
“Go get some food inside of you. You are dismissed, Seaman.”
He returned the seaman’s salute and watched as he made a beeline for the captain’s office, practically forcing his way through the others to get his hands on some food. Looking at Miriam, he could see her watching the seaman’s passage as well, but for other reasons.
She wanted to know more about the Warspite and the new technology they had been told about. Her job as XO was the security of the ship, and he could see it plainly rankled her that people were bringing unknown technology onto the Mei Zhou and using it without her expressed approval.
Leaning closer to her, he spoke quietly out the side of his mouth as he pretended to point at something of interest on the still frozen holo screen at the end of the left arm of her chair.
“Miriam, I want you to go see for yourself what kind of tech the Warspite crew is using to bring our people back from the dead. Don’t interfere with them; just use a nano recorder and get everything you can on video.
After that, I think you should go and meet the chief who is repairing our ship to personally thank him for me and see what they are up to. Take a security team with you, and if your gut tells you something is off, I want you to do whatever you feel is right to protect this crew and the ship.”
She turned her head to look him dead in the eyes and nodded once, her cold expression all business as she got off her chair. Taking a step to stand in front of him, she leaned down slightly and shot him a warning look. “Captain, I expect to see you here when I get back, still in this chair. If you leave, it better be to go to Sickbay, okay, sir?”
“Aye, Commander!” He quietly answered, a lopsided smile on his face that did nothing to convince her. She narrowed her eyes as she scanned his face for any signs of deceit before straightening back up, still looking unconvinced that he would comply with both her and the doc’s orders to refrain from exerting himself.
“After what I put you through with the injection, I have no intention of being an ass and screwing anything up. I promise you, Miriam. I won’t be an idiot, and I will remain here until you get back, or I will be in Sickbay, okay?”
That seemed to mollify her, and she gave him an appreciative nod before turning around and heading for the bridge exit hatch. He watched her until she left the bridge before signaling the ensign with the too-big boots to come over.
He kept his face an impassive mask as she squeaked her way over to him, not wanting her to see just how irrationally angry he was getting from the noises her boots were making. He returned her salute and gave her a smile before asking how she was holding up.
She seemed appreciative of his asking, and he listened to her patiently as she updated him on the progress of her tasks on the bridge before asking him if he needed anything from her. He studiously ignored the dried blood covering her uniform, knowing it was not hers as he answered her.
“Actually, Ensign, I am positively famished. Can you please grab me a couple of MREs from the office and bring them here for me? Have you eaten yet?” She shook her head in the negative in response to his question before answering him. “I am not hungry, Captain. I don’t think I can eat so soon after what happened. I can’t...” she replied, her voice breaking as she trailed off.
Holding up a hand to stop her, he lowered his voice as he responded. “I understand, Ensign. Will you at least take a multishot to keep your strength up for the next few hours until you are ready to eat something?”
She nodded as she quickly wiped a hand across her eyes before replying. “Aye sir, I can do that for you. Do you have a preference for the meal choices?”
“I’ll eat anything except for the eggplant; whoever approved MRE #7 should be stripped of their rank, keelhauled, and then hanged for war crimes, wouldn’t you agree, Ensign?” He replied, hoping to distract her and lift her mood a little bit.
The ensign laughed out loud at that as she nodded vigorously before trying to apologize for laughing, which he waved away good-naturedly. “I’ll see what I can scrounge up for you, Captain. I’ll be right back.”
She spun around and headed to the captain's office, her bearing different now that she was on a mission to feed, and he tried his best to ignore her boots squeaking incessantly as she made her way.
There was a sudden, loud whine from the power systems followed by the bridge lighting coming back on. Everyone on the bridge erupted into loud hoots and applause as the workstations and panels came back to life and began rebooting themselves.
A familiar voice he missed terribly came over the speakers and addressed him, followed by more applause from the crew as they heard Naomi speaking.
~ Captain, my apologies for my absence. I have run multiple diagnostics and am pleased to report that I am fully online. May I do anything for you, Captain? ~
“Naomi, hearing you is like music to our ears, and I am so grateful to have you back with us. If you are able to, please try to get the holo tank back online and let me know what is going on inside and outside the ship. I want a full report when you are ready, okay, Naomi?”
~ I appreciate your kind words, Captain. I am currently reconnecting to the sensor networks and compiling a shipwide status report as I regain access to the systems. I will have an initial report for you momentarily. ~
“Thank you, Naomi.”
He heard the familiar beep she sometimes made to indicate acknowledgement in lieu of verbally responding when involved in tasks that required most of her processing power, and he smiled broadly as he saw the ensign exiting the office holding a tray with two steaming MREs on it.
She carefully threaded her way through the others until she was standing in front of him, and she waited patiently as he reached down and pulled out the small foldable table from its slot under the chair. She pretended not to notice the grunts of pain he made as he did so, which he appreciated greatly.
Once the table was locked in place, she carefully set the food down on it before pulling a full water canteen off her belt and putting it next to the tray. His mouth started watering as the smell of meat and vegetables entered his nostrils, and he pulled the spork off the side of the first MRE.
“Thank you, Ensign. I appreciate you making these for me,” he said as he looked back up at her gratefully. She beamed happily before saluting him and turning back around to make herself scarce so he could eat in peace, further increasing the growing esteem he now held for her.
He scooped out the first bite and put it in his mouth, moaning with pleasure as he closed his eyes and chewed slowly before swallowing. His body must be starving for nutrients to think an MRE tasted this good, and not caring if he looked like a pig, he began to rapidly shovel what tasted like chicken and dumplings into his mouth with gusto.
He quickly looked at the label to verify what it was, seeing MRE #4 in large black lettering, and below it in smaller font was Chicken and Dumplings in blue lettering. It had been years since he had to eat an MRE, and he scooped out a big dumpling and put it into his mouth as he saw the holo tank coming back to life.
~ Captain, I have compiled the initial report. Would you like to see it now? ~
“Yes, thank you, Naomi. Display it on a screen in front of me if possible.” Naomi beeped again, and two seconds later, a one-meter-square holo screen shimmered into existence in front of him and at eye level to accommodate his sitting height.
Reaching for the second package, he saw that it was MRE #3, Asian-style beef with mushroom and broccoli, which made him ridiculously happy as he shoved the spork inside to mix it up.
Glancing at the report, he started scanning the information as he scooped out a spoonful and brought it to his mouth. The food stopped tasting good, turning into a flavorless mush as he started reading the casualty report that Naomi had compiled.
Crew complement: 934.
Life signs detected: 677.
181 confirmed killed in action.
76 crew locator beacons activated and confirmed to have been ejected through hull breaches.
Estimated location: 76,346-81,497 kilometers aft of current location.
Med-chip scanning results: 138 seriously wounded, 87 moderately wounded, 112 lightly wounded.
He swallowed the now tasteless mush, barely able to force it down as his hunger fled, like he did from that filthy cantina all those years ago. 257 dead, almost a third of his crew. He felt the blood rushing out of his head as his fingers turned ice cold, the metal spork clattering against the table as it fell out of his grasp.
He heard his heart beating loudly in his ears before he suddenly became aware of his face rushing towards the tray, unable to stop it as everything began to fade to black.