"Ran Akwai got my ship," Erik muttered to himself as the crowded bridge occupants looked on in relative horror. "I think you all should leave. Um, return to your stations," he commanded, trying desperately to regain his composure.
Mechanically, the engine and maintenance crews began filing out, while the Rostran and bridge crews remained.
"Well, not you, you, or you. Stay." He pointed to Emil Nahko and Martin Ulrich. He also indicated Hamid Ursa, who also tried to leave with everyone else despite being a crucial member of the bridge crew. The bridge door, which had been cut down by Nahko, had cooled and was lying on the floor next to the hole from which it was cut. It was safe to touch once again, so Nahko and Ulrich tried their best to heave the heavy door back into place as if that were the one thing to fix that would repair the situation and pull the Hellbender out of danger. However, the way the jagged seam had cooled gave the door and the doorway slightly different shapes. After three attempts, each time resulting in the incredibly heavy, jaggedly cut door crashing back to the floor, they gave up. There would just have to be a hole.
"Ulrich," Erik said as he paced the bridge nervously. "You were going to tell me something. It was something about the ship, but then you were knocked out. I could tell earlier that you were thinking about it.”
"Yeah, I was," he responded, looking at the floor. "It's nagging me, but I don't quite remember what it is.” He scratched at the wound on his head. Blood had dried in his hair, giving a small part of his hair a dry, straw like quality. "Is it weird that I'm seeing floating lights?"
“Are you serious?” Erik asked.
“I think I need some time to think,” Ulrich said. He then meandered his way off of the bridge. When he was out of hearing range, Erik said, “Yuriel, do you think you can follow Ulrich? You know, find out what he’s up to while he gets his thoughts in order? Time is of the essence, you know.”
“You want me to spy on him. I think I can do that, but why don’t you just go down there with him and find out what’s going on?”
Erik pointed at the glowing, pulsing, Ros Altanna. “That’s fucking why. Now follow the man.” He felt bad about commanding Yuriel in such a harsh way. He cursed himself for being harsh with her, but it was only because he could trust her to think like he did. He felt a connection with her, and to him, that connection was invaluable.
She stood up from her chair and traced the steps of the rest of the crew. After ten seconds of watching Yuriel walk until she faded out of view, Erik took one step toward At’hala and said, "Tell me about cloak detection.'"
"Captain," the Rostran said, "you have much to learn about the galaxy you live in. Outside this disk of stars and dust, the rules change. I bet you also think this is the only Universe, don’t you? What do you believe in, Captain?"
"You're not answering his question," Nahko said. He had moved to sit on the floor, still clutching his blaster weapon. Alsin remained in her pilot's chair pretending to do her job. Since the ship was still dormant, there wasn't much pretending she had to do.
"Actually I am," he said. "Humans, yes, you are a people who live and die by your technology. If you can't engineer it, steal it, or buy it, it must not exist. Other races are
willing to look past just what we can see. Your comrade Captaining the Dreadnaught Mercury asked about our cloak detection abilities. He referred to it as 'technology’. Would he understand if it weren't something for us to give?"
"What are you suggesting, At’hala?" Erik asked as his eyes glanced over the broken pixels on the view screen. They somehow made the looming Ros Altanna more menacing.
