And There Was Another✔️

Chapter 01: Hard Landing

Seth Kast opened his eyes to a rusted, corrugated ceiling, and was surprised to be opening his eyes at all.

For several moments, he remained still, waiting for a cascade of pain to hit him like a tidal wave, but he felt nothing save for a general yet vaguely distant ache across most of his body. As he allowed himself a small ration of hope and belief in the fact that the pain was not going to strengthen into saw-edged agony, thoughts began to drift across the vast, almost wholly blank expanse that was his mind, like ships sailing in perfect quietude across the infinite starscape he sometimes saw when he looked out the windows on whatever starship he was serving on.

He was supposed to be dead.

The battle aboard the Endar Spire had been going horribly. He had a flash of fighting through the steel corridors that snaked through the large Republic vessel, surrounded by the dead and the dying, exchanging volleys of blaster fire with men and women in shining silver suits, their faces hidden entirely behind mirrored visors. The effect made them eerily insectile, almost closer to droids than beings of flesh and blood. Or, when the fighting got too close for comfort, sparks would fly as metal met metal in vicious sword fights.

A voice came to him from somewhere nearby, a strange voice that spoke with a curious cadence and an oddly wet, guttural quality. Although he could tell they were speaking Galactic Basic, he could not make out the words, nor place the species.

Where was he?

His train of thought momentarily derailed, Seth instead focused on gathering clues from his surroundings. He heard that same voice, and, as he focused, others, somewhere nearby. No one was shouting, no orders were being given. Just quiet talk. He could smell something now, as well, a bad smell. Garbage, old meat, overcooked food, a faint whiff of kolto, and something else. Something he couldn't quite identify, but definitely something bad, whatever it was. Slowly, Seth propped himself up on one elbow, waiting for the pain to flare up.

It did, a bit, but not as much as he was afraid it might.

He was avoiding looking at his body, which was almost entirely covered in a tattered old threadbare blanket. He was in a simple shack with a doorway and small window cut out of the basic corrugated metal plates, neither of them able to be closed, given there was no glass, nor no actual door. And wherever he was, it must be night. He saw no sunlight, just an ugly white artificial light. Thoughts began to crowd in again, but once more they were batted away by the situation at hand: the voices had fallen silent...

Footsteps were drawing closer to him now.

A shadow fell across the doorway. Seth clenched his fingers, feeling his body tense up beneath the old blanket.

Who was coming to see him? Friend or foe?

A selkath stepped into the shack. "Oh, you're awake." A female, he assumed at least. This was the voice he had heard speaking earlier. She shifted closer to him and he saw that yes, she was a female. She had tendrils hanging from the back of her head and he remembered that this is what differentiated the two genders of the aquatic race, some factoid he'd picked up out there in the galaxy, serving the Republic.

"Who are you?" he asked.

She came to stand beside the bed he was laying in, studying him. "My name is Serilda. I saved your life. Well, I helped. You can call me Seri," she replied, reaching out and pulling the blanket back with that same kind of detached manner that most doctors seemed to have. He sighed, realizing that he was almost naked beneath the blanket, but made himself relax.

He didn't think she was hostile.

"Thank you," he replied, then coughed. His throat was dry.

"You are welcome. And thirsty." She turned and crossed the room, then crouched by a battered gray footlocker. Unlatching it, she propped it open and began rooting around in it. Seth looked around the room. There wasn't much in it, although he could see a table scattered with medical supplies. Some of it looked pretty old and dirty.