Chapter 13: The Discovery and the Wretched

The ships in the nebula were dark and cold. Most had been opened to space. Unknown to the Alderian navy there were seventy plus ships tumbling through the ice fields and they had just stumbled on this small handful. Some were completely gutted, while some were still intact. The surprises were just to come.

She watched them at the great dining hall, they were saying something but her mind was gone since she has not spoken to a living being in three years. She was dirty; her hair was in tangles and long from three years of isolation. She was running around naked as the day she was born, for the simple reason that her ship was always warm, because the heating system still worked. She thought her name was Amber but she wasn't sure. All she knew was she wouldn't be hurt like she was before. Turning she vanished back into the darkened ship and waited for her first trap to be set off.

Aboard the S.S. Swift, the Marines were in a state of shock as they looked into the room and saw all those people safe. Snapping his wrist up and activating his com unit. "Captain Giovanni to Glory put the captain on right now."

"Right away, Sir."

"Evens, here what you need William."

"Sir, we have just entered the mid bay dining room, and you're not going to believe what I am looking at. There must be six thousand people in here." William said as he looked at the stacks of people.

"What do you mean, don't you mean corpses?"

"No, Sir, they are all in a Hibernize coma and there is an active stasis field in the room. It looked like the doors were sealed before they left the Beseret system. On the ships log, the Captain convinced the pirates that the ship had a fire in the dining room and they were sealed."

Aboard the Glory, Captain Evens sat in shock. Then he recovered, and he said, "Alive! Edward, get me the flagship NOW!"

"Aye, aye, Sir," replied Ensign Edward Ward as he switched on the laser com.

On the bridge of the H.M.S. Swiftshire, Lieutenant Barlow was going through the sensor logs, while commander Valick was in the bathroom. Suddenly the laser com blinked on. Reaching over, he pressed the receive icon and the com came to life.

"Glory to Swiftshire, come in."

Sitting up from the data feed, he pressed send, and replied, "Swiftshire here, Lieutenant Barlow speaking. What may I do for you?" A different voice came over the speaker next.

"This is Captain Evens of th Glory. I need to speak with the Commodore, now!"

Thinking to himself that this must be very important because he was asking for the Commodore, instead of the Captain, he replied, "Yes, Sir, the Commodore is in medical, I will transfer you down to him. Please hold for a minute." Switching him to hold, he called medical, "Bridge to medical." As he waited for a response, and them the doc came on.

Doctor Johnson looked up as the com unit blared, reaching over he pressed the wall switch as he was filling hypo injectors, and said into it, "This is Doctor Johnson here, what can I do for you?" as he snapped the next vial in place.

"This is Lieutenant Barlow, I need to speak to the captain. It's important."

"Hmmm, I think he is still a sleep let me check," he said as he pulled the unit from its holder and walked to the door.

Doctor Johnson walked into the treatment area, where he saw the Captain sitting up and talking with the first officer, "No, he is awake, as well as the first officer," he said as he went over to Steven and he handed him the med com. "Sir, the bridge wishes to speak with you."

"Thank you, Doc," Taking the com unit, he lifted it up, and said into it, "Tallfeather here. Go ahead."

"Sir, I have Captain Evens of the Glory on line one. He wishes to speak with the Commodore. His words Sir, so I knew it had to be important."

Stevens eyebrows went up at Lieutenant Barlow words, "Put him through Lieutenant," Setting the com down, he picked up his shirt to put it back on when Captain Evens voice came through the com.

"Steven, sorry to bother you while your in medical, but you should know, my Marines have found six thousand survivors on the Swift, they are in Hibernize sleep and in a stasis field."

Steven's eyes went wide with shock at the news, and his shirt tumbled to the floor. He blurted out in surprise, "Oh my God! Are they okay?"

"As far as my men can tell, yes, they are just sleeping. What should we do? We cannot leave them there."

"Let me get to the bridge and I will call you back. In fact let's have a meeting of all senior officers." Looking at the digital clock on the wall, he continued, "Lets make it in two hours, aboard my ship if possible."

"Right away, Sir. Glory out."

As the captain was talking on the com, Lisa had blushed when she noticed she was naked except for the sheet and had slipped out of the room. Running down the hall, she stepped into the elevator and said, "Berth 6, Deck four, section 31." The elevator took off as she leaned against the wall. Her head hurt, but the headache was fading due to the pain meds. When the elevator came to a stop, she stepped out into officer's country. She walked down the hall, and stepped into her quarters and stopped as she stood there in a quarter inch of water.

"Shit, well I don't have time to clean it by hand," she said as she looked at her maroon Alderian weave carpet that was soaked. Going to her closet, she pulled out the remote cleaner and set it to dry and let the small robot go about its work as she pulled out a new uniform and then grabbed some underwear.

Back in medical, Steven picked up his shirt, and slipped it on as well as his jacket and flexed his shoulders, as he said, "You do good work doc."

"Not really, anyone can do it now. Basically all I am now is an engineer."

Shaking his head no at his friends words, he said, "No Doc, you need to know what type of injuries, how much of those miracle drugs to use and I bet if you didn't have the serums you could still do surgery on someone."

"Well yes we have the basic medical knowledge, but the serums have generally put us out of business. Now someone can call up their Docs office say what's wrong a quick scan with a hand scanner and they can order up the serum and off they go."

"Better then what they had in the twentieth century. I will take our modern medicine over that." Walking through the door, he stopped and looked back at the doc. "Thanks again doc, feels better then new." Looking around, he noticed Commander Nirisha was gone and he had not even notice when she left.

Steven walked along the corridor and up to the elevator, steeping in he said, "Bridge." as the elevator shot up, he wondered what the hell they were going to do.

On the Swift, the Marines were gathering outside the midlevel-dining hall. "Sir what do we do? We cannot leave them here they will die. When that generator goes they surely will die hibernize or not"

"Yes, its seems the woman and children were carried off into slavery by the pirates. All except theses few who were saved by the captain of the ship." he said as he looked once more into the room. Turning to his men, he activates the squad channels. "Okay I want a direct path to the hanger bays if we have to remove them. Clear the hallways of everything. Look for all the hover carts you can find. If there is a hole in the deck, plug it. Get the elevators working and if you cant you better have a good reason why not. If we move them, I want it done quickly and humanely. That is all."

Twenty-nine Marines come to attention and shouted, "AYE, AYE, SIR." and then they scatter down the hallways. Four of the Marines grabbed the plasma torch and ran down the hallway and quickly cut two doors off the wall and drop them over the four-foot hole in the floor. They quickly weld the metal doors to the deck and seal the hole and continued on sealing more holes in the deck with the doors off the cabins