Chaos Rising

7

"Captain, are you alright?" a synthetic voice asked over the bridge PA.

"What? Who's that?" Sei'rik asked. The ensigns didn't move off the floor.

"My name is Winter," the voice replied. "I'm on Deck 3. I've hacked into the shipboard computer. I can open the door whenever you'd like."

"But, the pirates-"

"They're returning to their ship," Winter replied. "I've sealed off the antechamber beyond the bulkhead, but you need to move. The ship doesn't have enough power to sustain the environmental shield around that drill once they pull it out."

"Talara, get everyone up and away from the drill," Sei'rik ordered. "Winter, can you, uh, give me a report on what we've lost?" The Captain didn't even care that this woman had had hacked into her ship.

"Certainly. 72% of passengers and crew have been transported to the slaving vessel. There are Gnarl on every level except Deck 1 dragging the living and the dead back to the docking tubes and shuttle. Observation - Deck 1 - has been cleared completely. Apart from the bridge, Deck 2 there are a only a few passengers remaining. I've locked them in their rooms and cycled the airlocks to keep people out. On Deck 3, the dorsal corridor and two of the arterial corridors have been emptied. Deck 4 is being used as a staging ground for the pirates. There's a shuttle docked with the port-side bay. The rec rooms on Engineering - Deck 5 - have been emptied but the engineers have holed themselves up in the engine rooms and there's heavy fighting. Medical - Deck 6 - is currently being cleared. The pirates are even taking people on life support. Deck 7 - Stores - has been emptied. The worker drones are loading the ship's supplies into the slaver's docking tubes."

Talara and the other ensigns walked solemnly over to Sei'rik. "Come on," Sei'rik said to them. "Winter, open the bulkhead." It dawned on Sei'rik that Winter wasn't a crew member she could boss around. "Please."

The bulkhead groaned open and the six Techara bundled into the birghtly lit antechamber. Officially, this was an R&R room for tired bridge crew, but the crew had called it the Vent, due to the fact that most of them used it as a place to get work issues out of their system.

"So many people..." one of the ensigns whispered.

"Karai, could you get us all some water," Talara asked the girl who had spoken.

"Uh, yes," the girl nodded, moving over to the tiny kitchenette.

The Captain looked at her five surviving staff members and felt helpless. The three shocked interns were sitting on the floor in a fugue state. Talara knelt beside them, trying to keep them occupied. She was such a brave girl. Was this all Sei'rik had left of a crew of 600? She'd lose more than her position for this. Sei'rik remembered her Security detail who protected her. She ran back through the open bridge bulkhead and checked for a pulse. Yes! It was faint, but it was there. The Jargol hadn't killed them. Sei'rik's eyes widened. The Jargol hadn't killed them. Had Alee wanted... No... She'd wanted them to have to eat living people to survive...! Sei'rik felt like throwing up. Choking it down, she grabbed the unconscious officer and pulled her out to the Vent.

The other three officers were also only unconscious. Sei'rik was thankful for the chance to make her failure up to them. A better captain would have handled this so much better.

"Winter, you can close the bridge bulkhead now," Sei'rik said to the open air, hoping the woman was still in the camera feeds.

There was silence.

"Winter?"

"Sorry, Captain," the synthetic voice replied. "The slavers just launched the shuttle on Deck 4 and cut the power for the whole deck. I'm working on keeping any stragglers alive. Closing bridge door now."