Tara sighed. 

 

The worst part of exciting things happening whilst in the military is sitting around talking about it after the fact. Debriefing - in a word - sucked. 

 

Talking about what you did, even though literally everything was recorded. 

 

Talking about what you could have done better, even though she knew she did literally everything as well as she could have. There was no half assing in her Marines. Nope. Full assed effort, only. 

 

She knew the worst part of the debrief had yet to even start, even though it was almost done. The paperwork. Reports to be written, reviewed, submitted, kicked back, addended, and resubmitted. She knew that the Second Lieutenant would be more than happy to push that bit of mindless work upon her. She’d accept the task, of course. She wasn’t one to gripe or complain, at least, not out loud. As a Corporal, she liked to present a “can do” attitude. Set an example for those she led. 

 

 Accepting a file transfer to her tab from the last Marine giving their verbal report, she scanned it quickly and saved it for closer review later. She looked around the room, noting each Marine appeared to be antsy to be anywhere other than the small meeting room they had been assigned, and chuckled, “Alright y'all, get out of here. Find something productive to do.”

 

Tara watched the Marines make their hasty exit and sighed again, leaning back in her chair. She gave her tab a glance, seeing Aspen’s message again. What could she want that was urgent? She’d never said anything like that before… Well, whatever it was she couldn’t just drop what she was doing and run across the ship to get her. 

 

Tara pulled her tab closer to her and gave the Second Lieutenant a call.

 

Answering on the first ring, the officer’s voice emitted from the speaker, “Corporal, done with your debrief?”

 

Tara nodded, then rolled her eyes realizing the man couldn’t see her, “Yes, sir. I have everyone’s initial reports and I’ll have them submitted after review. How are things going on the bridge?”

 

“They’re going. I managed to talk the Captain into letting us post a person at the hallway before Search and Rescue to keep away the tourists, but otherwise I’m not making much headway with them up here and figuring out what we are going to do with this ghost ship.”

“Well, let me know if you need anything while you hash it out up there, I’m going to go get some grub.”

 

“Copy that, Corporal. Likewise.”

Tara hung up the call and stood, stretching her arms above her head and grunting. Several hours of adrenaline pumping through her veins while in a vacuum suit followed by several more hours of sitting on her ass in a conference room was not her idea of a fun day. She needed to pick up something heavy.

 

Sending Aspen a message that she was available, she left the room and made her way to her bunk and changed clothes. Changing her fatigues for her gym shorts and PT shirt, she poked idly at her tab as she walked down the hall.

 

Tara leaned against the wall outside of the gym and waited.

 

And waited.

 

It wasn’t like Aspen to leave her hanging like this, especially since she had said she was on her way. Deciding to make her way towards the general direction she knew Aspen would be coming from, she started off. 

 

Tara was walking quietly down the hall when a high pitched shrieking sound reached her ears. Slamming her hands over her ears at the sudden sound, she dropped into a crouch, shocked by the sudden loudness that leaked through her hands and into her ears. 

 

Unable to discern the source of the deafening sound, Tara got back to her feet and began to move down the hall cautiously with her hands over her ears. The lights in the hallway had begun to flicker, and she felt slight tremors in the floor that she had never felt before. The klaxon alarms began to sound, nearly drowning out the screeching sound she wasn’t able to source. Eyeing the emergency lights which began to flash she became wary of a possible hull breach, she slowed her pace. 

 

As she reached an intersection in the hallway, she was suddenly thrown against the wall as the Meili shook. Bouncing off the wall and splitting her eyebrow on the metal frame she caught herself before she hit the ground. Grunting as she stood, she was suddenly aware that the only sound she could hear was the klaxon sirens. The high pitched screeching had stopped. 

The klaxons silenced themselves, and Captain Marcus’ voice sounded through the speakers in the ceiling, “Emergency personnel report to hallway 7B, unknown damage. Atmosphere present.”

 

Tara looked at the signage on the wall at the interaction she stood in and swore, the hallway she was facing was 7B, and was also the direction Aspen would have been approaching her from.

 

Setting off down the hallway at a sprint, Tara flew down the hallway, slowing as she saw an unexpected sight. 

 

A section of the hallway was darkened, the lights had been destroyed and the metal walls had been twisted and torn, as if pulled inward by a sucking cyclone. Coolant steamed out of a burst pipe jutting from the torn wall and condensed on the ceiling, dripping to the floor. 

 

Just beyond the jagged metal walls and pool of coolant, lay what Tara easily identified as the prone form of Aspen. 

 

“No, no, no,” rushing forward, Tara ducked under the jagged metal in the hall and crouched over the smaller girl. Seeing the small pool of blood the SRT lay in, she felt the girl’s neck for a pulse. A rapid pulse pounded against her finger as she pressed against her carotid. 

 

Carefully rolling Aspen over, she inhaled sharply at the sight of the blood on the other woman’s face.. No telling what could have caused it, but the amount of blood on the floor and on Aspen’s shirt let Tara know that the bleeding had been somewhat heavy. 

 

She was unconscious, had a pulse, and was breathing, though somewhat shallowly. Sighing in relief, Tara felt a small tear roll down her cheek. 

 

Tara held Aspen in her arms until others started to arrive to help. Handing her over to David and Dr. Holt, Tara followed a step behind as they carted Aspen off to sick bay, staring intently at the dried blood on her face and shirt. 

 

Dr. Holt forbade her from following them into the care area, stating he needed to be able to work on her without the distraction of having Tara hovering over his shoulder. She wasn’t happy about it, but bottled her emotions and sat down in one of the chairs in the waiting room and crossed her arms. 

 

Her tab rang. Looking at the screen, she saw it was the Second Lieutenant and swore. She had no choice but to answer his call. Thumbing the answer button, she put the man on speaker, “I’m in sick bay, can this wait a bit?.”

 

The Second Lieutenant’s voice sounded uncharacteristically tired, and he seemingly ignored what Tara had just said, “The ghost ship is gone.”