"Suffering Of A People You Don't Know" a Star Trek Picard Story

Prologue:

"It's bad to kill. Guns kill. And you don't have to be a gun. You are who you choose to be. You choose!" Hogarth Hughes, the Iron Giant.

In a sector of uncharted territory near Federation space, a Cardassian Freighter called the SS Refuge, repurposed into a private transport, is adrift with no power to its engines or defensive systems. The emergency power packs are barely enough to maintain the vessel's life support, and the 500 passengers onboard pray for their lives and a miracle. The Transport was attacked by two Orion Interceptors seeking to prey on defenseless starships and find new slaves to sell at the Slave Market on Orion, the capital of the Orion Syndicate. Thankfully, the Transport is equipped with heavy armor plating to give it stronger protection against any incoming fire. On the barely illuminated Bridge of the Transport, with debris all over the floor and destroyed consoles sparking, the Captain named Trevor Harrington tries to restore what power he can to the propulsion systems, but he and his crew have been unsuccessful. The damage is too severe, and they don't have enough supplies to repair every damaged system. Some of the Engineers have to cannibalize several components just to fix a broken plasma conduit or one of the life support units. Luckily, the Transport is stranded in an asteroid field with large amounts of minerals that can be converted into resources using the only remaining refinery and assembler. Captain Harrington assigns two of his engineers to go into the asteroid field in mining pods. Upon their return, the engineers process the raw materials in the refinery and construct new tools and components in their assembler. Within two hours, most of the Transport's primary systems are restored. The only major system that they have trouble fixing is propulsion. Since the SS Refuge is an older model, most of the components needed for propulsion don't exist anymore. Captain Harrington's first officer, Janine Satie, a dark-haired woman with brown eyes, gives her report to her Commanding officer.

"Captain," said Janine Satie softly. "Repairs on the primary systems are complete, but we still need to conserve as much power as we can and we're still having trouble getting propulsion back online," Captain Harrington sighs, as he works on his console.

"Understood," replied Captain Harrington. "Give my compliments to our engineers on their skills," Captain Harrington, a grey-haired man in his late 50s dressed all in black, sits in his command console trying to restore power to propulsion. He too has trouble trying to restore the impulse engines and warp drive. Most of the crew believe that their Captain is still unfamiliar with his ship; Even after 25 years of owning the craft.

"Has there been any response to our distress signal as of late?" asked Captain Harrington. The crew continues to transmit a distress call, but there is no reply. Not from Starfleet, or any other organization willing to offer humanitarian aid to a civilian ship far from home.

"I'm afraid not, Sir," Janine replied sadly. "We're continuing to broadcast the signal but I doubt anyone will come for us," Captain Harrington turns his chair to face Janine. He's not willing to give up just yet, and he tries to encourage his first officer to do the same.

"You must have hope, Janine," encouraged Captain Harrington. "Someone will come,". Captain Harrington was a former Starfleet Officer who was honorably discharged from the service after suffering from severe PTSD. He wanted to continue doing the things he liked, hence his decision to join the Earth Cargo Service. So he can continue his quest to help those in need, even if they don't want it or ask for it. 

Trivia: 

The Earth Cargo Service (or ECS) was the primary trade organization operating across multiple sectors in the first half of the 22nd. It was governed by the Earth Cargo Authority. Ships needed a license to operate under the ECS, which in some cases could be lost if a was missed. Since warp drive did not have greater speeds during the 22nd century, most of these ships traveling from one planet to another took years to reach their destination; With whole generations of these "space boomers" growing up in space, and the captaincy of ships often passing down to those next in line.