Somewhere deep inside the Gamma Quadrant floated a spaceship. Adrift, unpowered and apparently dead, the ship's hull showed considerable damage. The ship appeared to have been involved in a major battle. Nearby, was a second ship. Was this the inflictor of the damage? That seemed to be the only logical conclusion. The state of the two ships seemed to clearly indicate who had been victorious
However, there was much debris floating around. Far too much. The damage to "losing" ship did not seem to be to be enough to account for all that debris and the damage to the other ship was minimal.
A disaster zone . Those were the first words that would pop into mind of anyone who would somehow happen upon the bridge of the Even Odds.
Nothing seemed to be in one piece. Large parts of the ceiling had collapsed, as had many of the wall panels. There was not a single screen intact and there seemed to be wires strewn everywhere. The only part of the bridge that seemed to be intact, for some reason, was the captain's chair though even that had fallen over.
Every few seconds there was the unmistakable sound of sparks from some open circuit. Aside from that, there was not a sound. The bridge seemed sounded as dead as it looked.
Pain, disorientation and more pain. That all he could feel. His body felt like it had been hit by a stampede of giant goolabeasts. His mind felt blank and numb and he could feel himself slipping in and out of consciousness. Where was he? What had happened?
Dez lay there for a time while his body adjusted to the situation and his mind tried to work out exactly what was going on. All he knew was that he was buried under something and could barely move. He tried to look around but couldn't even turn his head. He had somehow ended up on his back with bits of rubble pinning down his legs and torso.
Slowly, very slowly, his mind cleared and he tried to remember what had happened. Knowing that panicking would get him nowhere he took a couples deep breaths in order to help his mind clear.
Now that he was settled and calm it all started to come back to him. He had been on the bridge. That much he was sure about because he had been sitting in his seat.
They had been stationary, effecting small repairs after their last job, when they were attacked. He couldn't remember who the attackers were or why they were attacked but that didn't matter; it was irrelevant to his current situation. The only thing he knew for sure was that they had come out of nowhere and started firing without warning. The crew didn't even have a chance to react. Even if they had, they were so greatly out-gunned that it wouldn't have made any difference. The fight was over almost before it started.
Slowly recovering his wits, he remembered being thrown from his seat when the first bolt hit. By the time he had stood up to give orders they had been hit again. After that, everything seemed to be a blank and the next thing he knew he was waking up in the position he was in now.
His hands had been covering his face so presumably he had raised them to protect himself when the ceiling collapsed. He had no memory of that at all.
Well, no point just laying here and feeling sorry for myself, he thought. I have to get out and see what the situation is with the ship.
He managed to move his hands and he noticed that there was a massive beam just to the left of his head. A few millimetres to the side and he would have been dead.
He knew that he had to get out of there fast so he started to start digging up with his hands. There was always the danger of the rubble collapsing on him but staying down there was not an option. After much effort, he managed to move some of the rubble that was on his torso and, by a bit of wiggling back and forth, he managed to free his legs as well. Eventually he managed to open up a space large enough for him to flip over. Now he could dig forward rather than up. It might be a bit extra to dig but there was less danger of something falling on him.
Nevertheless, every movement resulted in bits of ceiling tiles raining down on him. Luckily, none of them was big enough to cause any further injury.
Even after ten minutes of digging he still couldn't see any light and he realised that getting out from there was going to be far more difficult than he had expected. Of course, he might be closer to the end than he thought. The lack of light could just mean that the illumination on the bridge was out. Nevertheless he would have expected to have seen some sort of glow from the open circuits he could hear crackling in the background.
That was another thing he had to be careful of. Touching an open conduit could be fatal or, at the very least, very painful. He was in a bad enough shape as it was and didn't want to make it any worse.
After a many more painful minutes of digging he finally managed to find a way out into the open area of the bridge. Slowly, he crawled out from under the wreckage and then collapsed on the deck. He lay there for a few minutes trying to get his breath back and to recover from the exertion. I really need to get more exercise, he thought to himself as he rested.
He looked himself over to try and judge how bad his situation was. He saw that he had cuts in multiple places with his shirt almost completely torn away. His trousers didn't seem to have fared much better and he only had one shoe. Otherwise, he seemed to be in good condition considering what had happened. The only downside was that his right ankle hurt.
Dez sat up and took a quick look around the bridge and saw that it had not fared well at all. He was not surprised.
What a total mess , he thought to himself. Is anything left at all?
Were this not his own ship, Dez would have considered it as a wreck in space and "fair pickings" for a smuggler and "procurer" such as himself.
Then another thought struck him! What about the crew? Was he the only one to survive? He listened carefully but could not hear a sound besides the sparking of open circuits.
This isn't right , he thought. As captain, I am the one who is supposed to 'go down with the ship', not the other crew members.
No captain is happy to lose his ship, to say the least, but that is nothing compared to the possibility of losing even one member of the crew. Even more so with someone you are really close to.
"Facity! Talk to me!" he called out. He knew that it was wrong to feel different about one crew member than another. As members of the crew they all had the same standing. However, it was only natural to worry more about someone with whom you had a close, personal relationship.
Again he called out. "Anyone! Someone! Answer me."
Now he was getting seriously worried. Could I really be the only one alive? he thought. He had to start hunting. Maybe there were survivors buried under rubble like he was.
He attempted to stand only to collapse into a screaming heap. A broken ankle - that's all I need, he thought to himself.
He crawled forward over the broken panels, taking care to avoid sparking cables. Ahead of him, Dez saw a green furry leg poking out from under another pile of wreckage and rushed, if crawling quickly counts as rushing, towards it. Dragging pieces of singed metal out of the way, he uncovered the body of Pif, the dog-like Aarruri alien. Dez shook Pif, trying to wake him but there was no reaction. With trepidation, Dez reached up to Pif's furry neck and sighed with relief when he found a pulse. Pif didn't look seriously injured though he might have some sort of internal injury.
Across the bridge, by the rear wall filled with spluttering cracked screens, Dez heard muffled moans and grunts and immediately headed in that direction. As he approached, Facity- the Wadi first officer - dragged herself up from the floor to a sitting position. She looked down and saw that her skimpy outfit was badly torn and quickly covered herself up. No reason to give Dez a cheap thrill. She put her hand up to her head and found she had quite a bump. Other than that everything seemed to be whole and in the right place.
"Wha…. what happened?" she asked, still shaking from shock.
"Facity! You're all right!" exclaimed Dez - trying, totally unsuccessfully, to hide his smile of relief.
"Well, that depends on your definition of all right."
Facity looked around the devastated bridge with great trepidation. She could clearly see the look of worry on Dez's face.
"How about everyone else?" she asked, as she looked around at the bridge. "Are we the only ones to survive?"
"So far I've only found Pif," replied Dez. "He's down, but alive."
"What about the others? Neane? Coamis? Srral?"
"I don't know but don't worry," replied Dez. "You stay there; I'll keep searching"
"I'm coming with you," replied Facity, quickly adding "No arguments!" before Dez could even reply.
Upon reaching the other side of the bridge, Facity found someone face-down. Covering half the body was one of the ceiling panels and it was obvious that the screen at that station had exploded most probably causing massive plasma burns to whoever was manning the station. It did not bode well.
Facity knew who had been there and, with trepidation, she turned over the body to confirm her worst fears. It was Neane, a Labrai female who had joined their crew only recently. Her exact past was not clear and she seemed to have a lot of worries on her mind. She hadn't offered up and information and no one asked. If she had wanted to share she would have done so. As far as the crew was concerned she was an extra pair of hands and, as such, was always welcome.
Her face was totally disfigured from burns. There was no memory of her shining orange face and deep-blue eyes. All that remained was a charred look. Her eyes seemed to be looking into space and asking "How could this happen to me?"
Facity grimaced and barely managed to avoid vomiting at the smell and sight. She has seen death before but you never get used to it.
"I hope you managed to find in death the peace that eluded you in life," Facity whispered with tears in her eyes and then proceeded to close Neane's eyes.
A crackling, distorted, synthetic voice issued from a small speaker located somewhere in the room. Dez looked around to see where it was coming from and found that it was coming from his chair - or what was left of it.
"Captain Dez... Facity... are you there?" said the dismembered voice.
"Srral! Yes, we're here! Are you okay?" replied Facity, beaming with delight.
"Affirmative. Well, mostly."
Dez joined the conversation. "How bad is it?"
"Much of the ship is heavily damaged. I was only able to find this one system intact enough for me to communicate with you."
"How about the crew? Any signs of them?" inquired Facity.
"Negative. Internal sensors appear to be disabled."
"Yeah," replied Dez as he looked around the bridge. "I'm not surprised."
Suddenly, there was a loud bang that caused Facity and Dez to jump back in shock. A hatch burst open in the deck and Brad, the giant female Dosi crew member, appeared. She squeezed through the tight space, hauling a cloth bag through the hatch after her.
"Gee Brad," said Dez, "You scared the life out of me!"
"Yeah, well at least we have a life to be scared out of" replied Brad with a wry smile.
Brad looked around the ruined bridge.
"What a mess! How did ANY of us survive? I was sure our number was up."
"To be honest," replied Dez "I have no idea. We should all be dead. Did you come across anyone else?"
"Only Glessin and he is a mess," replied Brad. "He was curled up in a ball and talking to himself. Did you find anyone else?"
"Well, there's the two of us plus Pif who is unconscious," replied Dez.
"Still, I supposed we should be happy that any of us survived," said Facity.
"You saw who was attacking us - right?" asked Brad. "They are not the sort to break off an attack before the job is done".
"I think I may have an answer."
"Go ahead Srral," said Dez.
"Well, in the last few moments before external sensors were lost, they registered more incoming ships. I assumed they were coming to join the attack on us, but instead they fired on our attackers. In the ensuing fight between them, we appear to have been forgotten."
"Well, I have never been so pleased to be ignored!" quipped Dez.
"Are they still there?"
"Affirmative"
Brad dug into her bag and pulled out a random collection of phasers. She handed one to Facity and another to Dez.
"I brought weapons, just in case somebody decides to try boarding us."
"Good idea," replied Dez. "Can you fetch Glessin? Pif needs medical attention."
"I'm not sure he is going to be much help. I think the poor guy's gone crazy," replied Brad.
"He is NOT crazy!" protested Facity.
Their argument was interrupted by Srral.
Detecting incoming transporter signal.
"Weapons," shouted Dez. "Take cover!"
Facity and Brad rushed to hide behind pieces of equipment leaving Dez, who was unable to move, stranded in the middle of the bridge.
They watched as someone slowly materialised on the bridge. As the materialisation continued they could make out the scaly face and the mini-horns sticking out of from the chin and up the two sides of the head. As transport completed, depositing their visitor on the bridge, Dez, Facity and Brad stared in horror at their "visitor".