Codename Alpha

Chapter 5

The air in the aeroponics bay was dead and unfathomably cold. On a starship, you'd expect to hear sounds like the idle hum of the warp engine or a conversation between some nearby crewmen. Instead, I could hear the superstructure of the ship creaking and groaning, as if it was alive, and in intense pain. I stayed still, curled in the corner, until my vision cleared up enough so that I could see more than just vague shapes and faint lights in the dark. It was all deeply disturbing.

I remembered walking into the aeroponics bay, where Lieutenant Sozonov and a fox I didn't know were talking about something. He said something along the lines of "Well, someone's up early, huh?" when the lights suddenly went out and there was an explosion that seemed to be only a room over. Everything immediately after was a mess of explosions, shaking, and smoke.

Out of the tinnitus, I could've sworn I heard his pained cussing from across the room. "Marya? Are you still there?"

"Sozonov, is that you?" I managed to say, in between staggered breathing.

"Pearce? Thank god, you're still alive. Do you see Marya anywhere? She was trying to get the door open just now." His voice was understandably strained.

I slowly and awkwardly stood up and looked around. I felt far lighter than usual - artificial gravity on the ship seemed to be operating on emergency power. The only source of light was from an emergency supply cabinet next to the door, glowing in a faint green light.

"No, no... I don't..." I rubbed my head, trying to get the headache to go away. As my eyes adjusted, I carefully shifted myself upwards. I suddenly remembered something major - some sort of power conduit in the bulkhead had exploded, and very forcefully at that. I stood up and stumbled to the emergency cabinet and picked up one of the flashlights, and flicked it on.

"Listen, man," he drew in a sharp breath. "I got hit pretty hard when the wall exploded. You know first aid?" He sounded like he was in less pain than before, but still nonetheless in pain. The memory of some component in the wall doing just that came back to me.

I shined the flashlight in the direction I heard his voice. I could only see his head, the rest of him was blocked by metal panels and other parts of the destroyed wall. The aeroponics racks had been blown over by the force of the explosion, and now water was spilling across the floor, mixed with the destroyed remnants of plants.

"Oh, god..." I muttered to myself. "How badly hurt are you?" I grabbed the medkit from the supply station as well, and then made my way to the caracal on the other side of the room.

"Damn shelf is crushing my... my left arm. I think I'm bleeding, too, but my head is stuck, and I can't get a good look."

I carefully stepped across the pieces of metal on the floor and made my way to where he was.

I came to a dead halt when I saw that there was a massive gash along his torso, most likely caused by one of the collapsed aeroponics . I felt like I was about to vomit, but I tried my best to hold it in. "Oh, god..."

The Interstellar Navy has an unfortunate reputation for being 'the weak man's navy,' to put it lightly, and far more tastefully. Although it technically was a branch of the military, it was common knowledge that it was quite possibly one of the least militaristic organizations out there. Only a pawful of ships in the navy were anything that could be considered a military force, and so far, they had mainly just been used for asteroid demolition or as a testbed for military training operations.

Although anyone who joined had to go through firearms training, first aid, survivalist expeditions, it was still widely accepted that one only really joins it if they were a scientist looking to explore space, and not someone looking to shoot things, to put it bluntly. I knew this when joining. But one thing was for certain, especially in this moment. No matter how many simulations, or how whatever amount of first-person shooters I had played, nothing ever prepared me for the sight of heavy injuries in real life.