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It is the middle of the night on board the USS Saint George, the ship is en route to deep space thirty-seven for routine crew transfer, passenger ferry and supplies. Much of the crew is in the middle of their sleep cycle when they suddenly find themselves impacting with the hard deck floor as they are tossed out of their bed by a phaser blast rocking the ship. The red alert klaxon goes off and the First Officers voice comes over the comm system "Red Alert, Captain to the bridge! All hands to battle stations this is not a drill!" Scrambling to dress and get out the door they find hallways are dark, illuminated only by emergency lights. People hurry to their stations, the air is thick with emotion, almost on the verge of panic. Another phaser blast shakes the deck and people seem to rush around even more.
On the bridge First Officer Commodore Mike Stratton calls for a status report. The Operations Officer, Captain Tom Webster, steps off the turbo lift and walks over to his station. The Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Wade Wantoch, responds, “Sir, we have shields up at 86% and the attacking vessel has gone into warp.”
“Who attacked us?” asks Stratton.
“Sensor logs show an unidentified vessel sir.” Science Officer. Lt,J.G. Tom Schulte, replies, “The ship appeared to de-cloak off our port bow, fire twice with phasers and then went away at warp six.”
Wantoch adds, “Sensors show their ship used only fifty percent of their weapon strength, they had twice the firepower Sir.”
Sickbay was overflowing with corpses but little wounded. The Chief Medical Officer, Captain Wendy Urvand, was perplexed and disturbed. She had served during the Borg attack at Wolf 359 and the Dominion War, she swore that after that carnage that nothing would ever disturbed her so deeply again. She was wrong. “Sickbay to the morgue – we could use some help up here.” She began to scan the body of the young crewman in front of her, all scans showed the cause of death to be severe head trauma. “How can this little bump on the head have killed him?” She muttered to no one in particular. All of the dead crew had the same type of wound, what appeared to be a gash on the right temple. This was too much of a coincidence to not mean something; she knew the captain would want to know about it immediately. “Urvand to Captain Stratton” there was no response, “computer locate Captain Stratton.”
“Captain Stratton is in her quarters.” replied the computer.
Wendy paled at the news, she knew the captain should have been on the bridge and something was horribly wrong. She placed another doctor in charge of sickbay and headed to the captains quarters.
She keyed the door and, as she feared, there was no response. “Computer - Emergency over-ride for Chief Medical Officer Wendy Urvand”. The door slid open and Wendy entered the room to find the captain slumped on the floor in her pajamas with a gash on her head just above the right temple. She felt for a pulse and began her scans; there were no life signs.
The CMO tapped her combadge “Urvand to Commodore Stratton” she said in a tight voice.
“Bridge here Doctor.”
“Mike, can you report to your quarters please?” She said knowing the use of his first name would indicate to him there was a serious problem. A code they had worked out between them as XO and CMO ‘if there is a problem with the captain, use my first name over open channels’.
“On my way…” Stratton walked to the turbo lift, “Webster, you have the conn.” The faces on the bridge were pale and worried as the lift doors closed. Commodore Stratton felt the gravitational forces on the Saint George increase upon him as he struggled to keep from slumping against the wall. “…Jessica…” he whispered, fearing the worst.
The doors of their quarters opened for him and he found Wendy waiting for him. “Mike… I’m so sorry… “ She began, “The captain … Mike... Jess is dead.”
“How…” he looked helplessly at her, “…They didn’t even hit us that hard.”
“It could have been that many people were asleep and that first shot jolted them into something … I’ve got a whole sickbay full of corpses, it appears they all have the same injury, trauma to the head just above the right temple.” She placed her hand on his arm, “Do you want to sit down?”
He could only stare down at the lifeless body of his captain, wife and best-friend. Feeling utterly alone in the universe he mutely shook his head, silent tears began to trickle down his face. He knelt down besides his wife, took her hand and pressed it to his lips. It was a heart-breakingly familiar gesture that Wendy had seen him use since the courtship between him and her friend began.
“I’ll wait in the hall until you are ready for us to take her.” Wendy walked into the hall and patiently began to wait.
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