Nelson entered the Bridge as the captain was unbuckling himself from his seat. Stevenson noted Nelson had a bump on the side of his head and he was cradling his left arm to his chest. He gave Nelson an inquiring look but Nelson said nothing, instead he went straight to Stacey.
The two men converged on her to check her wounds. The first thing Nelson did was administer painkillers. He removed her headset so he could get a better look at the burns on her face. Nelson sprayed her face with an antiseptic to help protect her from infection and it would also help deaden some more of the pain. Her gloves were badly burned and he could see a few patches where the material had melted, so he decided to wait to remove them in sickbay. She’d been lucky; her space suit had protected her from most of the explosion.
“Captain, we found Robert. He didn’t make it. It looks like he was in the path of that energy bolt. The blast took out part of the kitchen and all the mess deck, leaving a big hole,” Alex stated over the intercom.
Nelson and Stevenson could hear Jim retching in the background.
“Help me get her to sickbay, please. You can contact me there if anyone else needs medical assistance,” Nelson said to Stevenson, bringing him out of the shock of losing his old friend.
Nelson unpacked the stretcher from its locker near the hatch. The two men carefully moved Stacey from her seat to the stretcher and then carried her to sickbay. The captain stayed long enough to make sure Nelson didn’t need him for any else, then hurried off to inspect the damage to the ship.
Mac sent Sara forward to the damaged section to assess what systems would need repairs. The airtight doors opened freely now that they didn’t sense a pressure difference, so getting to that area wasn’t a problem. She stepped into the mess deck, intent on finding out how much damage the bolt had caused and the coppery smell of fresh blood made her gag. Nothing Sara had ever seen or read could have prepared her for the sight that awaited her in the galley. The room was a total mess: blood and small pieces of burnt flesh covered most of the walls and floor. The table was split down the middle and the chairs had been blown into the walls with enough force to bend them into twisted wreckage. The energy bolt had punched right through the galley, leaving man-sized holes as it blasted through the room.
Alex yelled, “Sara, get out of here!” His main concern was that she would add to the mess like Jim had, but he also wanted to spare Sara the trauma of seeing the room. But it was too late, the image of that room was going to haunt her for a long time. Slowly, Sara forced herself to turn and leave the way she’d entered. Then she just stood there, pale and shaking, trying not to think of what had happened to poor Robert.
The captain reached the galley just as Sara was stepping out. He took one look at her and knew what was waiting for him inside. He moved carefully to the center of the galley and stood there in silent respect for his lost friend. Alex had looked up when he entered, but said nothing.
Stevenson told Alex, “I will keep everyone out of here while you clean up. If you need anything, let me know.” Not expecting Alex to reply, the captain turned and left the room.
Jim was comforting Sara in the passageway. They both looked up as the captain joined them.
Stevenson looked at Jim. “I don’t want anyone but Alex in the galley until Alex says it’s clear.” He turned to Sara, who was bravely getting herself under control. “There’s nothing you can do here. Go back to Engineering and see if Mac needs any help.” Stevenson instructed in a compassionate but commanding voice.
Sara nodded, trying to focus on what needed to be done as she walked down the passageway with the captain, who needed to talk to Mac. When they reached Engineering, Mac was nowhere to be found, so the captain called him on the intercom. Sara started checking the reactor for damage. Mac didn’t reply to the captain’s call so he left to find him.
Stevenson didn’t find his chief engineer anywhere near Engineering; in fact, he wasn’t even in the ship. Mac was outside setting up the perimeter guns. He was just starting to set up the fourth gauss canon turret when the captain joined him. “Don’t you have something better to do?”
“Nope. Someone has to get these set up before we have unwanted visitors and since Jim and Alex aren’t doing it, I figured I would.”
“What about figuring out what’s wrong with the ship and starting the repairs!”
Mac wasn’t affected by the anger in his captain’s voice; he knew what was causing it and that the captain wasn’t really mad at him. “Help me finish setting this one up and then I’ll go find Sara and see what she’s come up with.”
The captain took a few seconds to think of all the things he could say before concluding it would be faster to just help set up the turret than to continue arguing. It only took them a few minutes to finish with the turret and then they started walking back to the main hatch.
“There you are. I was looking all over the ship for you two,” Nelson stated as he stood at the top of the cargo ramp. He examined Mac as they walked toward him; when he was satisfied Mac was uninjured, he relaxed a bit.
“How’s Stacey?” Stevenson asked as the three men entered the cargo bay.
Mac looked up from the controls to the ramp and hatch, interested in Nelson’s reply.
“She’ll be all right. I have her sedated in sickbay for now. I was checking the rest of the crew before putting her into the regeneration chamber. Jim told me we lost Robert, but everyone else seems to have made it through with just minor bumps and bruises.”
“Good. Mac, I want a status report as soon as you can get it to me. Nelson, do you need help getting Stacey into the regen tank?”
Mac didn’t wait to hear Nelson’s reply, he’d heard enough. He had work to do in Engineering. “Yes, please. She should be healed up in a few hours. Most of the burns are first- and second-degree which will regenerate quickly. She does have a few nasty third-degree burns on her hands and some slight nerve damage to her eyes, but the tank should fix them up, too. Luckily, she doesn’t have any broken bones or serious damage.”
4
Faust Grayson looked up in time to watch the small ship as it screamed by, it wasn’t coming in smooth and looked like it was leaving a smoke trail; it was a ship in trouble. The design of the ship was different from any of the Federation ships he’d seen before.
He stood there watching the sky for a long time, thinking about his plan and wondering if it would work. He’d been preparing for the next few days for the past ten years. He’d started to wonder if Angelica’s dream was ever going to come true. And now it seemed it was.
Angelica had awoken from a nightmare/vision and told him that a man and a woman were coming to town. She had been crying for all the townsfolk the stranger’s robot had killed in her dream.
Faust had listened very closely to the descriptions of the couple and their robot. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out that the robot was actually somebody in military-grade powered armor. According to Angelica’s dream they had come to town to buy something and the mayor had made them angry so they killed everyone who’d tried to stop them from taking what they wanted. The man was hurt in the fighting, but no one could hurt the robot. The three left the town in flames and corpses littering the streets.
Faust had thought the three were most likely smugglers who’d come with hopes of finding salvage from the old base or city. Angelica hadn’t been sure what they were after but she did know that the woman had a list of whatever it was. Faust knew Angelica had the ability to see flashes of the future and a lot of her special dreams came true. The trouble was he had no way of knowing how much time he had before the smugglers arrived. He’d spent most of that night and the next day thinking about how he could use the information to get his family on the smuggler’s ship when it lifted off.
Faust had not talked about the dream with Angelica again and she had forgotten it in a few days. Faust had started scouting a way back to Discovery City with Daemon, who possessed the ability to sense the presence of Ri
ft demons, which was a big help in avoiding most of them. They had only faced a few—which was when Faust learned just how dangerous his son really was.
The first demon they had encountered had terrified Faust to the point he couldn’t move. Daemon had dropped the rifle he was carrying and attacked the thing with the ax he always carried. The fight hadn’t lasted long: Daemon had just chopped the monster into pieces before it realized he was attacking it. The boy was only eight at the time.
In a few months they had figured out how to get all the way to town and were able to sneak into and search a few of the buildings for items Faust thought would be most valuable to the smugglers. He prayed he’d be able to collect enough of to buy passage on their ship.