Aspen returned to her room and sat on her bed, and put her head in her hands. Her initial impression of Captain Marcus had just been obliterated by the interaction she’d just had with the man. She had him pegged as a nice older man who was quick to smile and would not raise his voice, and having never met any of her grandparents had him mentally labeled as a grandfather-type.

 

 

While he had not done or said anything spectacularly outrageous, his overall presence changed when he was speaking to her about the Marines. She could initially tell their presence aboard was a bit of an annoyance to the Captain based on his reaction to them when they had all first met, but the vibe she got was that of outright violence. Purposefully turning a cold shoulder to a tenth of the crew aboard the ship would be a large inconvenience, considering the size of the ship and how often she would run into them. Not to mention the fact that she was currently crushing hard on one of them. 

Aspen hummed to herself nervously as she idly tapped at her tab, opening and closing the messaging app to her conversation with Tara, wondering if she should tell her about her conversation with the captain.

Shaking her head, she decided against it. If word got out that the captain would order the Navy crew members aboard the ship to shun the Marines it would happen before Captain Marcus could give the order. Tensions would be high, and this soon into the Meili’s voyage that would be a recipe for disaster for the morale of the ship. 

But, what about Tara? Aspen bit her lip slightly and fell back on her bed, dropping her tab next to her. She had not known Tara very long, nor had she known Captain Marcus very long either. But, she did know that she was a member of the Navy before all other things… But she was also a citizen of the Federation of Sol, and was obligated as a medical professional to not let any harm come to those around her… She thought of what Dr. Holt had said in sick bay just before Tara had come in for her physical, his statement about the command staff making a little more sense since she had spoken with the captain.  Ugh. What an absolute mess.

Aspen sat up and rubbed her eyes with her fists. She would tell Tara, but in person. Not in any messaging platform or way that could be traced. Plausible deniability, in a way. She could tip off Tara and her Marines, hopefully in a way that wouldn’t come back to bite her in the ass if word made it back to Captain Marcus that they knew. 

Aspen grabbed her tab and typed out a quick message to Tara to meet her as soon as she got a chance. Deciding to try to clear her head a bit, she changed into her PT clothes and decided that a run on the treadmills would help her focus a bit. 

\\\

 

Aspen was about two and a half kilometers into her jog on the treadmill machine when her tab chimed, indicating she had a message. As she reached for it, she nearly tripped as the message screen was overridden by a flashing red screen and an alarm sound, the small digital cat on her background scrambling about frantically. Pulling the emergency stop cable on the treadmill, she opened the emergency message:  MEDICAL EMERGENCY, RESPOND TO SICKBAY.

Aspen bolted from the gym and down the hall, making her way across the mezzanine and towards sick bay, adrenaline coursing through her veins, any fatigue she felt from her exercise gone. Several people crowded around the entrance, most of whom made way for her as they saw her coming down the hall.

 

“Move, damn it,” Aspen swore as she tossed an elbow into the sides of the last few stubborn crew members in her way, and accessed the patient care area of sick bay, “Aspen here.”

Dr. Holt stood at the head of a man lying in a supine position on the exam table, holding his cervical spine straight,, “Good, we have a twenty six year old male who fell down the stairs while coming down the mezzanine. Obvious fracture on the left forearm and complains of neck pain.”

Aspen nodded and washed her hands quickly, put on a pair of gloves and moved to the patient, “I’ll grab a collar for his neck so you don’t have to hold.”

Aspen snagged a loose cloth-like strap out of the supply cabinet and loosely wrapped it around the patient’s neck like a scarf. Pushing a small plunger like button on the end of the strap caused it to inflate quickly and form around the patient’s neck, holding his cervical spine in place. Leaning over his head so that he could see her she asked, “Don’t try to nod or shake your head. Any difficulties breathing, or swallowing?”

The patient’s eyes moved around rapidly for a second before coming back to Aspen’s face, “No, it’s good.”

Aspen nodded, then moved towards the patient’s left  arm. Dr. Holt, now free from holding the patient’s hands, moved towards the patient’s uninjured arm and began to look for intravenous access. 

Aspen gently palpated the patient’s arm, and felt for a distal pulse, and upon feeling on at the patient’s radial, checked cap refill and nodded upon seeing it was good, “Distal PMS good, Dr. Holt.”

 

Dr. Holt quickly taped off the patient’s IV and nodded, “Let’s get an x-ray of the arm, and get a splint on it. Draw up fifty mikes of fentanyl and four of an antiemetic - your choice of which.”

Aspen nodded, moving towards the medication dispensers and keyed in Dr. Holt’s orders. A short second later, she received two syringes, one with a red cap indicating it was the controlled substance. 

Aspen pushed the two medications into the IV and flushed the line, then helped Dr. Holt align the x-ray machine. Dr. Holt reviewed the image on the machine’s screen and Aspen quickly splinted the patient’s arm, the synthetic orthopedic glass molding itself into place, then checked the patient’s pulses and capillary refill and nodded to herself when it was the same as before. 

Dr. Holt hummed as he reviewed the x-ray, “A clean break, non-surgical,” he turned to the patient on the table, “You’re in luck. Barring anything major with your neck, you will get out of here with just an arm splint.” 

Aspen busied herself with assessing the patient’s vitals and checking his body for other injuries as she worked, “Are you going to scan him right away?”

Dr. Holt nodded, “Yes, as soon as David arrives. That sorry assed excuse for an SRT probably dragged his feet more than usual knowing that you would be the one to jump to task when the alert went out. Good job, by the way.” 

 

Aspen smiled at the praise, “Thank you Dr. Holt,” she looked at her sweaty PT clothes, her smile turning into a slight grimace,  “Sorry for my appearance.”

Dr. Holt blew a raspberry, “Oh that’s nothing. I once did a chest tube wearing just a towel - trauma call while I was in the shower,” he turned to the patient lying on the table and leaned over his face so that he could be seen, “We will be doing a scan of your neck shortly. Hopefully we can get you out of that neck brace soon after.”

The man lying on the table mumbled his understanding and Dr. Holt patted him on the shoulder and moved to his terminal, “Aspen, you can go for now. David and I can finish up here. Good job, again.”

Aspen nodded, peeled her gloves off and moved to the sink and gave her hands and forearms a good scrub, “I’ll be around if you need anything else Dr. Holt.”

Dr. Holt grunted his acknowledgement, already dictating his care for the patient’s chart. Leaving the care area, she nodded at a few crew men who were sitting in the waiting room, one of whom she had elbowed, “He’ll be okay, just a broken arm.”

Several words of relief came about and Aspen smiled as she passed them by, pulling her tab from her pocket as she went. Thumbing open the messaging app, she frowned slightly upon seeing that she had not received a reply from Tara yet. 

Sighing, she moved to her room and grabbed a change of clothes and headed for the shower. A too-short and not hot enough shower later, she was fresh as could be after her workout and emergency patient. 

Now, she just had to figure out what to do.

 

Aspen walked down the hall towards the common room, her hands in her pockets as she walked. She hummed quietly to herself, nodding at the occasional crewmember as they passed her by. 

Descending the stairs to the ground floor of the common room, she sat down at an empty table and looked up at the large screens against the wall. 

Currently, the screens displayed the outside view of the Meili, an overlay providing information about the ship’s heading, speed, and so on. An information box popped up around each star on the screen as it entered the center view of the screen, showing its name, distance from the Meili, and distance from Earth. 

 

Aspen watched the overlay for a while, her tab on the table in front of her and her chin resting in her hand as she leaned forward on the table. Several people occupied tables around her, and more than a few made their way around her own table as they sought out their own seats, but none approached her. Not surprising to her, though, as it was outside of meal hours and there was plenty of room for someone to have their own table if they wanted. 

 

Perking up as her tab chimed, she checked her messages. Finally! A response from Tara!

• Tara: Hey, sorry for the late reply, I was caught up with the 2LT. 
• Aspen: no worries, i had something come up almost like right after i sent that 
• Tara: What are you doing?
• Aspen: in the common room watching the screen
• Tara: Want company?
• Aspen: sure, i got a table to myself 
• Tara: On my way!

 

Aspen tapped at her tab a bit longer and set it down on the table again. Returning her attention to the overlay on the screen, she watched as a small white streak made it’s way across the center view of the screen, the overlay identifying it as “???” in a deep red font. Just as Aspen tilted her head in confusion, the overlay feed flickered and the white streak and question marks disappeared. 

 

Her eyebrows snapping together, Aspen looked around the common room to see if anyone else had noticed what she had. None of the other crew members around her were reacting in the way she had, the quiet conversations and relaxed looks surrounding her continuing as though the giant screens hadn’t just shown… whatever that was. 

Aspen chewed her thumbnail in silence as she watched the screen a bit longer while waiting for Tara to arrive. The overlay on the screen showed its normal information regarding the stars the Meili passed as they made their way to the mission’s patrol area. 

Just as she was wondering if she had imagined the entire thing, Tara arrived. Smiling, she sat across from Aspen at the table with her back to the overlay, “Hey, Aspen!” 

Aspen looked down from the screen to Tara, just now noticing her approach, “Oh, uh, hey Tara!”

Tara cocked her head at Aspen, “Is everything alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”

Aspen shook her head, her hair bouncing slightly, “Oh it’s nothing - I probably just imagined it.”

Frowning, Tara leaned forward over the table towards Aspen, “You can tell me if something is bothering you.”

Aspen looked around her, eyeing the other crew members sitting around them, then leaned closer to Tara and lowered her voice, “I don’t know if I should be telling you this, but Captain Marcus basically told me that if he says so, I need to stop talking to you… Like, his whole attitude changed when he told me, too.”

Tara leaned back and her eyebrows came together, then leaned forward again, “What do you mean?”

Aspen sighed softly, and kept her voice low, “I just had an emergency patient so I’m trying to remember exactly what he said but, like, he said that like, the Marines and the Navy don’t have the same goals in the upper command levels. Then, like, what Dr. Holt said - he said that the command staff, uh, forget they are a Federation ship?”

Tara frowned, her eyes darting around, “We shouldn’t be talking about this here. We shouldn’t be talking about this at all, actually,” she stood and looked around the room, “Let’s go to that freight office.”

Aspen’s pulse quickened, and she nodded quickly, “That’s a good idea.”

 

\\\

 

Aspen and Tara made their way to the office in silence, Tara looking over her shoulder back at Aspen who followed along with her eyes to the floor as they marched down the hall. Aspen looked up at Tara and noticed her looking at her over her shoulder and gave a small squeak, her eyes quickly darting back to the floor. 

 

Tara giggled despite the heaviness of both of their thoughts and the conversation they were about to have. She opened the door for Aspen and held it as the shorter girl entered the room and pulled the locking mechanism on the door as she shut it behind her, and descended down the ladder to the freight manager’s a short time after Aspen. 

Once they reached the office, Aspen moved to that ugly orange couch and sat upright, her hands on her knees, and Tara moved to the desk and pulled the chair over to the couch and sat, facing Aspen.

Tara looked Aspen in the eyes and held her gaze until the SRT blushed and looked away, “The conversation we are about to have is between the two of us, and isn’t going to leave this room, okay?” 

Aspen nodded quickly, “Got it. Just us. No one else, yep. I, uh, I just want to know what the hell is going on.”

Tara chewed her bottom lip for a second, then sighed, “What I’m about to tell you could very well get me court-martialed, maybe killed depending on how it pans out in the end. I need you to understand that, and where you tie into this,” she cleared her throat, “and why.”

Aspen cocked her head slightly, “How do I tie into this? I just joined this mission… And we’ve only known each other for a few days?”

“Let me explain, and I can answer any questions you have at the end, okay?” 

“Okay, I’ll try not to interrupt.”

Tara sighed again, her shoulder slumping, “When I was told my squad was going to be joining this mission, they told us that we were going to be on-board security for potential anti-boarding maneuvers. As you know, humans are the only known sentient space faring species in the galaxy, and the Federation of Sol is the only organization flying ships in this system.” 

Aspen nodded along. 

“Well, why have a border patrol ship for a mostly empty system?”

Aspen cocked her head to the side and her eyebrows came together. Such a simple question hadn’t even entered her mind. She was curious as to what the ship’s function would be while they were out there, of course, but hadn’t put any thought into why they were out there in the first place. 

Tara continued, “The Mieli has the best sensor suite the Federation of Sol can create. We aren’t out here doing ‘border patrol,’ we’re out here looking for something. Someone.”

Aspen couldn’t help herself and had to interrupt, “Earlier, when I was sitting in the common room, I saw something on the overlay - it was a white streak marked with question marks, then the screen flickered and it disappeared. No one around seemed to see it but me.”

Tara nodded, “I’m surprised they don’t scrub the feeds before they make it to that screen. There’s some weird shit happening in this system, Aspen. The Marine and Navy command don’t agree with the way we should be investigating it, but they do agree that whatever is out there has high potential to be hostile.”

Aspen paled, feeling her pulse quicken slightly, “And how do I come into this?”

Tara leaned forward and grabbed Aspen’s hands, “Your parents.”