ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust

when shit hits the fan

If there was one thing Rain hated, it was zombies. Well, he didn't really hate them per se, he just saw them as an unfortunate but inevitable inconvenience to his missions. His crew had never actually suffered an attack (thank the gods), but it wasn't exactly pleasant sitting in pitch-black zero-grav waiting for their ships to pass by. Luckily, infected ships were few and far between. Rain had only had a couple encounters in his first few months as cargo commander. Unluckily, this particular encounter would change the course of his life forever.

It was morning, or as morning as it can be in space, when Rain was dragged out of his sleep by the ship's deafening proximity alarm to find he had once again  fallen asleep at his station. Great. Now, on top of having to deal with whatever was outside, he'd also have to go about it with a stiff neck and a sore ass. Yawning, he leaned over and pressed the little green comms button on his desk.

"Abigail, report?"

"Zombies again, sir. Lights out as usual?" A voice responded..

"You got it. They'll probably pass us by as usual."

Rain got up and made his way to the front of the bridge, rubbing his neck as he did so. A few of his colleagues greeted him as he passed, and he offered a lazy smile in return. Don't be mistaken, he loved his job. Carting weapons and fuel back and forth from planet to planet was his passion. He had trained half his life to become a cargo commander, and no number of infected ships would stop him from doing his duty. Except for this one, of course.

As Rain reached the ship's front windows, the fuel cut off, leaving him weightless in the dark. The only light came from the giant windows in front of him, through which he could see a large ship approaching. The closer the ship got, the more obvious it became that the ship was no longer occupied by anything sentient. Cracked hull, stained windows, rusty engines. It was a miracle the thing still ran.

While Rain was busy pondering the mechanics of the ship before him, two levels down someone (or something) had gotten the bright idea to flip the fuel switch back on. Immediately, the cargo ship was bathed in light again, and simultaneously thrown into chaos. Those who had floated a little too high came crashing down, the proximity alarm began blaring once again, and the ship lurched forward as if something had come up and hit it from behind. That something being another zombie cruiser.

Now, one zombie ship Rain could handle. There would only be fifty, maybe sixty, infected on board  versus 90 very angry crew members with guns. But two ships full of the infected was a whole other ballgame, especially now that the lights were on. Rain struggled his way back to his station, nearly tripping over one of the pilots, who'd had an unfortunate fall and could not move his fingers, and slammed the comms button once more.

"Abigail, report! What's going on down there?"

"I'm not sure sir, someone touched the switch but we don't know who! What do we do?"

He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. This was not going to look good on his progress report.

"Just stay calm and find somewhere to hide. They'll be boarding us any minute now that they know we have fuel. Make sure you have weapons in case things get ugly."

"Yes sir."

"Oh, and Abigail? If it comes down to it, don't let them catch you alive."

With that, Rain got up and went to assess the damage and offer what little help he could. There were always at least 3 medics on board, which offered him a small comfort as he himself had no idea how to set a broken arm or stitch up a cut. Thankfully, none of the injuries his crew had sustained seemed too bad, which meant everyone got a nice big gun to play with.