Aspen moved to the storage cabinets in the patient care area and began to prepare for mass casualty incidents. She pulled triage tags, tourniquets, bulky bandages, and whatever else she thought she might need. Putting the bandaging supplies to the side, she and Dr. Holt both donned high visibility blue vests labeling them as medical staff should they find themselves in a crowded area. 

 

Quickly going through the triage system she had been trained with in her mind, Aspen tossed aside the green tags from her tag belt and took only yellow, red, and black. Onboard a Navy ship there were no green tags, or walking wounded, if you were green, you didn’t get help and you could fend for yourself. Yellow tags were those who couldn’t walk on their own, and reds were those who needed immediate life saving care, such as the tourniquets she had gotten out, or airway help. And as for the black tags, well, there’s a reason the ship had the same amount of body bags as black tags. 

Aspen looked to Dr. Holt as he tapped impatiently at his tab, “David ought to be here soon, yeah?”

He nodded, “Yeah I’m trying to get ahold of him, and also trying to figure out what the fuck is going on.”

 

Aspen nodded, looking around the so far empty patient area, “What could have made the Meili shake like that? Did we hit something?”

 

Dr. Holt shrugged, a worried look on his face as he considered the question, “Honestly, I don’t know. We didn’t get a hull breach alarm and didn’t lose any atmosphere or there would have been bulkheads closing and the alarms would have stayed on… Whatever shook us must be serious enough to override the inertia dampeners and move the entire ship.”

 

Dr. Holt looked around, taking his lab coat off and grabbing his own set of triage tags, “And as far as hitting something… If Captain Marcus is asking for battle ready Marines, I’d have to say it’s more likely that we were the ones that got hit.”

 

Aspen shuddered at the thought, and tried to push it from her mind, reminding herself of what Dr. Holt had said about a hull breach - they would definitely know if that were the case. 

 

Aspen froze as the door to the Sick Bay waiting room opened, but instantly relaxed again as David entered. His usual lackadaisical demeanor now replaced with a grim seriousness as he strode directly to the patient care area, dropping his oversized headphones on a counter as he walked and began to don his triage gear. 

 

Dr. Holt grunted in greeting at the other SRT, “David, did you see anything on your way in?”

 

David shook his head, “No, but I heard we almost collided with something - fuck know’s what, though.” 

Aspen frowned, “Almost collided? What was that shaking then? Definitely felt like we actually collided.”

 

David shrugged, “I dunno, man. I’m no expert on rocket systems but I bet if they threw the Meili in full reverse even the inertial dampeners wouldn’t be able to overcome that.”

 

Dr. Holt cleared his throat, “Well, until we know what’s going lets try to keep the speculation to a minimum so we can stay focused on any potential patients” 

 

Aspen and David both nodded and responded at the same time, “Yes, Dr. Holt.”

 

\\\

 

A few hours later, Aspen paced nervously in the patient care area. No patients had yet to be delivered to them, and no word had come from the bridge as to the nature of what this emergency pertained to.

 

David had already put his headphones back on and was rocking his head with whatever beat he was listening to, and Dr. Holt bounced his foot anxiously as he tapped idly at his terminal. 

 

Aspen let out an exasperated groan, “This is some bullshit, they can’t just declare an emergency like this and then just make us sit!” 

 

Dr. Holt chuckled, “While I agree, the very nature of our job is that of a ‘hurry up and wait’ nature. Emergencies can’t be planned, but they can be planned for.” 

 

Aspen grunted, still pacing back and forth, “Dr. Holt, can I go see if there’s anything going on out there? I’m dyin’ here.”

 

Dr. Holt scratched his chin for a moment, then shrugged, “Yeah, sure. Keep your tab on full volume, just in case, though. If I need you back here you need to sprint.”

 

Aspen nodded, already halfway to the door, the automatic slider barely opening it in time before she made it through the frame.

 

Making her way into the hallway, Aspen looked left, then right. Both directions were devoid of people, which, while not abnormal for this area of the ship, still somewhat surprised her. Shrugging, she made her way down the hall towards the Search and Rescue bay. 

 

Approaching the bay, Aspen immediately noted that the red light above the bay’s airlock door was lit, indicating that there was no atmosphere on the other side of the door. 

 

Curious, she approached the door and stood on her toes to peek through the small viewport embedded in the door. The well lit room was occupied by several people in rescue suits gathered on the opposite side of the room, where a large airlock panel was opened and Aspen could see the blackness of space through the gaps in the crowd. 

 

Curious, she watched a bit longer as one of the Search and Rescue team members attached a tether to their suit and exited through the airlock panel, floating out of view. Several seconds later, another did the same. 

 

As she watched, one of the people in the airlock turned and moved towards an open locker near the door Aspen was watching through and spotted her. Waving at them, Aspen gave a “ok” sign with her hand through the glass viewing port. The person in the suit stopped, and waved back at Aspen, returning the “ok” sign, then retrieved a rifle from the locker. 

 

Aspen raised an eyebrow at this. Must not be too okay if they are pulling guns out.

 

The person in the suit checked the weapon in their hands, the oversized trigger guard and magazine release tested as they handled it with their suit’s large gloves. Activating a flashlight on the end of the barrel, they moved back to the group and attached the rifle to the tether leading from the Meili and sent it out into space. 

 

“Huh.” Aspen watched as this was repeated three more times, though the next items sent were a couple of toolkits, and a plasma cutter. 

No more of the Search and Rescue personnel exited through the doorway, the remaining crew standing in the doorway, watching something Aspen couldn’t see. Growing bored, she knocked at the window, and frowned when she was ignored. 

 

Oh wait, there’s no air there for them to hear my knock. Duh. Aspen rolled her eyes at her own idiocy and started down the hall. 

 

Pulling her tab from her pocket, she shot a quick message to Tara to see how she was doing, not expecting a response if the Marines were still in their combat readiness that Captain Marcus had asked for. Shortly after sending the message, Aspen walked down the hall towards the common room. She passed the occasional crew member as she made her way through the halls, their rushed paces keeping them from greeting her with anything other than a nod. 

 

Entering the common room, she moved towards the mezzanine railing and was unsurprised to see the cafeteria window closed, and the room empty. Glancing up to the display screen, Aspen was equally unsurprised to see it completely blank, the screen dark. 

 

Shrugging, she made her way down the stairs and across the room. Pausing in front of the cafeteria window, she heard muffled voices shouting from the other side of the panel, followed by laughter. 

 

Shaking her head and smiling, she continued on, happy that at least someone was getting some entertainment out of the current situation. As she moved along she looked around the common room, Aspen realized she had never seen the common room completely empty before. It was slightly eerie, but Aspen had never considered herself the superstitious type, and shrugged off the thought. 

 

Aspen walked down the hall towards the stern of the ship, the same direction as the gymnasium, the rest of the crew quarters, and so on. Approaching the gym, she poked her head in through the open door and looked about. Not seeing anyone, Aspen grunted to herself and moved along. 

 

Where would the Marines be mustered? The only places large enough that she could think of that would fit a bunch of Marines would be the common room or the gym, both of which she had already checked. Maybe... The cargo bay? That would mean the Marines would either have space gear on or Captain Marcus would have added atmosphere to the area for them. 

 

The space gear idea in Aspen mind seemed like the most likely scenario. She didn’t necessarily want to go to the cargo bay to check if her guess was accurate, and even if it was, she wouldn’t be able to go talk to any of them if they were suited up - she didn’t have a suit assigned and doubted it would be taken kindly if she pulled an auxiliary suit to chitchat. 

 

Figuring she could continue her wandering search, Aspen moved along the hallways. As she approached the engineering area near the stern of the ship, she was surprised to see a flurry of activity there. Engineers and other crew members moved back and forth with purpose, carrying tools and fancy looking diagnostic doodads that Aspen couldn’t identify. They spoke back and forth with each other using an interesting mixture of technical terminology and swear words.

 

An engineer stopped as they spotted Aspen, then shouted to the group of people behind them , “Did anyone need an SRT down here?”

A few scattered no’s came back as answer and the engineer turned back to Aspen, “Sorry, I’m going to have to ask you to leave. We had to emergency reverse the forward thrust on the helicals and it fried all kinds of shit, it’s a fuckin’ mess down here.”

 

Aspen raised her eyebrows, “Wow, okay. Good luck with that, I guess.”

 

The engineer started to turn back to their work, but turned back to Aspen, “Actually, you might want to head up to the bridge and check in there if you aren’t busy, I heard it’s a madhouse up there so who knows what’s goin’ on up there.”

Aspen nodded, and turned around, heading for the hallway with the lift for the bridge. The guard who would be typically sitting at the desk in front of the lift was notably absent. Frowning slightly, Aspen thumbed the button to call the lift down and entered. Riding it up, Aspen straightened her blue vest and checked her triage tags again, making sure everything was well displayed so she could be easily identified as medical personnel. 

 

As the doors to the bridge opened up Aspen immediately spotted Captain Marcus standing in his usual spot next to his seat in the center of the bridge, but was equally surprised to see the Marine Second Lieutenant also present. Both men were watching a screen at the front of the bridge which showed a first person view from a Search and Rescue technician’s helmet camera, a rifle in the point of view held at the ready as they stood in what looked like a dark ship’s hallway.

 

The crew members at their stations called out to Captain Marcus occasionally, pretty similarly to the last time Aspen was on the bridge, though she noted a hint of anxiety in the voices as they carried across the screen filled room. 

 

Aspen was ignored as she moved to a corner of the room and leaned against a wall, watching the same screen as the captain and the Marine. 

The camera’s view swung to the side, the lights on the helmet and rifle illuminating more of the dark hallway. Aspen could spot a second light source behind the camera’s point of view that lit up the ground in front of the suit camera currently being watched. Aspen raised an eyebrow as the person in the suit rounded a corner and entered a room, swinging their rifle from side to side as they cleared the small area, then watching them relax their grip as they saw the room was empty. 

 

Captain Marcus spoke into a microphone, “Keep making your way to the bridge, there’s gotta be someone on that ship.”

 

The camera view nodded, and a female voice that Aspen instantly recognized as Tara spoke back, causing Aspen to push off against her perch and move closer to the center of the room,, “Understood. I’m getting readings that the air in this ship is breathable, permission to desuit?”

 

The Second Lieutenant grabbed his own microphone, “Denied. Until we get particulate readings and a full scan you are to remain in suit,” Captain Marcus nodded in agreement to the Second Lieutenant’s side.

“Copy,” Tara’s voice crackled back. 

 

Aspen watched through Tara’s helmet cameras as the Marine slowly made her way through the ship, noting that both Captain Marcus and Second Lieutenant Washington did not take their attention away from the screens, even as reports were called out to them by crewmembers in the bridge. 

 

Tara stopped again and turned to the other person behind her, who Aspen also recognized as another Marine. She watched the other person’s mouth move soundlessly, their conversation not being transmitted through the speakers in the bridge, and then Tara turned back around. She continued forward, approaching a sign labeled “Bridge” which hung over an open hatch, the dark room’s contents not visible. 

 

Tara poked the rifle through the doorway and swung the barrel around, illuminating the room with her light. The light reflected off of the blank screens, illuminating the empty chairs in front of them. Tara checked her corners, then entered the room. 

 

“Nothing, sirs. There are like - supplies and stuff, though. Like someone just walked away from their station with intent to come back,” Tara illustrated her point by pointing her rifle’s light at a terminal which had a coffee mug sitting atop a notepad, “Not even bodies.”

 

Captain Marcus looked at the Marine next to him, and shook his head, “How the fuck does a ship appear from out of nowhere, completely empty?”

 

The Second Lieutenant shook his head as well, “Fuck if I know, Captain.”