Destined | Christopher Pike

Chapter Ten

"Emma?"

Someone was shaking her.

"Emma! Get up!"

It sounded familiar, but she didn't want to open her eyes. The pain in her body was too much to cope with, but something inside of her was saying to wake the hell up. It took a minute for her eyes to fixate on the person in front of her. Chapel. She looked around as she ran a device over her body to check for injuries. Debris was everywhere. The ship was still shaking indicating they were still being hit.

"You're okay." Chapel tried to calm her down.

Emma continued to look at her surroundings while she woke up. Bodies laid everywhere. Some alive, some were not so lucky. There was blood. So much blood. She could hear screams of agony. Finally, she looked to her right to find the sleeve of her uniform covered in blood. Was she hurt? She didn't feel any pain there, but then again she was probably still in shock from the explosion.

"Chapel..." Emma attempted to speak.

She shook her head. "It's not yours."

Wasn't...hers? She glanced again next to her and that was when she find the dismembered body next to her. She couldn't tell if it was a man or woman. It laid in pieces next to her. She felt her stomach churn and she turned to get sick on the floor. Chapel extended a hand to help her up.

"You okay?" She asked.

Emma nodded.

"Good. We're going to need you help. Let's get to sickbay." She told her.

The emergency alarms blared loudly around them as they ran which didn't help her headache. They had lost most of the power as well causing the lights to be off. If Emma thought the hallway was bad, the sickbay was even worse. Injured people laid everywhere; on beds, the floor, makeshift gurneys. There were crew members hurt as well as the colonists.

"Our medical supplies took a major hit." Doctor M'Benga told the two of them as they walked inside. "Power is down which means we can't use the synthesizers to make more supplies or perform major surgeries. We're going to have to get creative."

"You picked a bad day to start your rotation." Chapel murmured to her. "Come on. You can help me."

Emma followed her to the first patient, a young colonist. The little girl had a piece of shrapnel in her arm that needed to be removed. They gave her a small dose of numbing medication, wanting to save it for the ones in worser pain. While Chapel removed it, Emma laid out the some gauze and wound cleaner. She could tell the young girl was terrified and she tried to think of way to distract herself.

Her eyes landed on a worn, stuffed bear she was clutching tightly too. "Does your bear have a name?"

The little girl looked at her untrusting, but nodded her head. "I named him Charlie."

"Charlie? That's a great name. Who gave it to you?" Emma asked.

"My daddy did before he..." she trailed off and Emma could tell she was trying not to cry. "The monsters took him away. Are you going to stop the monsters?"

Emma gave her a reassuring smile just as Chapel finished wrapping her arm up. "We're going try. You did very good. Why don't you go sit over there and get some food and water?"

"Good job keeping her calm." Chapel complimented her.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I get anxious when I'm around doctors and nurses. I can only imagine what she's been through. Is it hot to you in here?"

"Well, all systems are down including life support which means no air circulation. Dr. M'Benga said we're inside a gas planet right now trying to escape the Gorn. It's only adding to the heat."