Kaden took a step back from the bulkhead as the door finished cycling into the ceiling. The momentary lapse in composure washed away from her as she felt years of instinct and training take over. Adrenaline flooding her system drawing her sidearm as she side stepped to the right, shielding herself from the corridor with the majority of the bulkhead.
Before her, on the ground, raising the hairs all across her body was the still form of a fellow uniformed crewman laying face up. Substantial evidence of burn marks lay across the abdomen. A mixture of charred flesh and fibers blending in a grotesque macabre.
Looking down the corridor to the left from her vantage point, she repeated her examination from before. No movement outside of the klaxon. The door at the end of the corridor that compartmentalized this section of the ship appeared to be sealed. Leaving only a door similar to the one she just left, but much smaller, meant only for limited traffic. Appearing to be sealed.
Red… White… Red… White…
She shifted, balancing her weight onto her left foot as she slowly leaned out from the door. Laser pistol remaining firmly gripped between her hands as she followed her visual arc revealing more of the room. Finally leaning into the right hand of the corridor she was met with nothing more than another sealed bulkhead, and smaller door nearly symmetrical to the other side.
“Jack, are you seeing this?” Kaden strained with a whisper just loud enough to hopefully be picked up by her earpiece.
A somber voice played back in her ear, “Lieutenant, as stated before. I’m unable to access the internal sensors at this time. If you could perhaps describe to me what you are seeing. I might be able to help?”
“Jack…” Kaden replied. Still keeping her Alliance self defense pistol at the ready. Glancing again down both ends of the hall way before stepping out into the corridor. “There is a dead crewman outside of ‘the morgue’. I think they’ve been hit with an ASD.”
An air of silence settled into the link between her and the Frost’s central intelligence.
Finding herself not for the first time asking what was going on here. She stepped toward the downed crewman. Confirming her initial observations from the bulkhead previously. The body in front of her was definitely the result of a ASD or other small caliber laser weapon. With the center of their chest concave inward as a result of the high energy blast carving away at the skin and passing through toward the more sensitive organs inside. Before charring the edges and melding flesh and bone internally. The fibers of the uniform around the area of impact had been burned away, fused with the outline of the wound, sealing its edges. A valley of death laid out in plain view.
Transferring her gaze away from the very obvious cause of death, she began to cast a more critical eye. The crewman’s name badge was completely burned away from the blast, their caramel face devoid of any warmth. Golden brown eyes stared up at the ceiling, her expression a vague mixture of surprise and shock. The only identifying marker left was the shoulder patch. A half crescent of brown filled the lower half — dark soil, with a deep green sapling rising from the center. On either side of its trunk lay two leaves. On the right, an atom woven into the lines of the leaf itself. On the left, its mirror: a double helix shaped to match. The left leaf’s edges were charred, the biology burned away where the weapon had kissed it.
Kaden reached out toward the crewman’s belt and unfastened it from her waist. Grabbing her by the waist and rolling her to her side briefly as she slid it free. She rummaged through the pouches, and like her own belt, came away with some standard injectors for minor injuries, a different variant of her own scanner, and a small handheld electronic display pad. The pad was about four and a half inches in width and a vertical height of two and half inches.
She held the display pad up in her hand as she briefly checked her surroundings again.
Red… White… Red… White…
The display was cracked in several places, but none of the cracks seemed to be deep enough to cause any real damage. She tapped the front of the display and a small photo came up displaying the bright and smiling face of the woman laying before her, head resting on an orange and white tabby cat as they lay together. In text below, “Sarah Rogers” was listed. Followed by a small password box.
She tapped again and the border of the display went red as the device scanned her face and she evidently didn’t match the biometric it was looking for.
“Hmm….”
Kaden turned the display toward the crewman’s face and tapped the display again. The scan took longer this time, but ultimately returned the same red border denying her entry into the device once again.
“Jack, I’ve identified the body. It’s Lt. Rogers. Cause of death was definitely an ASD to her upper abdominal region. It’s created an indention in her chest and even started to burn away at the edges of her sleeves from the scoring. I would say based on the severity, her death was almost instant. It looks as if she were surprised by it.”
“Interesting Lieutenant… based on your description, the blast would have to have been from very close range.” The reply came back through her ear piece.
“Do you have any record on her available? The biometric scanner on her pad isn’t working on her face anymore.”
“A security feature of the pad, Lieutenant. It doesn’t detect a viable candidate for the biometric because her body must have gone cold enough. It was a preventative measure to prevent someone from using a badge photo or the like to trick the system.”
“Ah.” Kaden replied. “Can you give me access to the pad then?”
“No, Lieutenant. I don’t have that ability currently, and even if I had the functionality. It goes against Alliance policy for me to provide such access unless directed to by a senior officer, crisis, or next of kin.”
“Of course. Because a mysterious corpse in the corridor doesn’t check a box in your crisis list?”
Kaden took the display pad and slid it into one of the various pockets along the left leg of her jumpsuit.
“I’m sorry Lieutenant. Policy aside. I simply can’t do it at this time.”
With an exasperated sigh, “It’s okay Jack. What can you tell me about the other two rooms in this corridor? I wasn’t awake very long before being put into stasis. The last minute transfer also had me focused more on the general briefing rather than studying the ship’s layout.”
“That I can do.” Jack’s voice came back sounding more enthusiastic for the first time. “You are in the long term preservation wing of the Frost. Obviously you are familiar with the Crew’s stasis room. However, the two other rooms in this section of the corridor contain support for similar goals. The room on your objectively left of the stasis room, toward the main sections of the ship is long term storage for biological components. The room further away from the center of the ship, on your right, is for personal effects and spare clothing, and a small first aid station. Used for things that either didn’t fit in the pod’s on hand storage, or were deemed unsuitable for need immediately after a revival.”
Kaden took a moment to look at the woman before her. She swept the sweat-stained hair from Rogers’ face and slowly closed her eyes. A somber expression passed over her own as she whispered, “Who Dares.”
“Wins…” came Jack’s reply. Even and steady in her ear.
A motto that Kaden had structured her career around, which came as a bit of a surprise to hear returned to her by the Central Intelligence.
“How did you…” Kaden’s voice trailed off, leaving the question hanging in the air.
“Your file, Lieutenant. For some reason, it comes up several times over the course of your history. While I can’t recall a full account of your background. That seems to have stuck in my current condition. Though I admit, I don’t know the meaning behind it.” An inquisitive tone punctuated the ending of his observation.
She brought herself up to her full height and gripped her ASD pistol in a low ready position as she began to move toward the long term storage room further away from the center of the ship.
“It’s from one of the first special forces branches of pre-space Terra. I believe they were called the Special Air Service, formed during one of the great wars of that era. I read it during my studies before I joined the Academy, and it’s stuck with me ever since, I suppose.”
Having reached the door Jack had helpfully pointed out earlier, she held her wrist up to a small rectangular panel next to the door as the outside of the panel’s edge glowed yellow briefly and then green before the internal mechanism triggered the door to cycle and slide upward into the bulkhead. That was good, she thought to herself. The identification chip in her wrist still worked, and she seemed to have some level of access.
As the door came open, her hands raised in unison as she scanned the room before her. The overhead lighting in the room sparked on in a cool white as the door finished its retreat. Rows of lockers adorned the outside wall of the room. Three rows of wire frame shelving stood in the center of the room, with a table or bench listed every so often for equipment and personal to change gear.
With the majority of the room visible to her, she lowered her pistol as she stepped into the room.
“You know, you could have just called it a locker room, Jack?”
“Fair point Lieutenant.” Jack replied, almost seeming to have a touch of playfulness in the response.
She fought back a smile, settling on an impish grin. She cleared the few remaining sight lines of the room she couldn’t see upon entering and then holstered her pistol. She began to rummage through some of the lockers, but as Jack had mentioned before. Most of the stuff here was personal clothes, but toward the end of her search. One of the boxes on a wired shelf contained a handheld flashlight which she dutifully stowed using a small magnetic quick release link on her belt.
After doing a final passover for anything that she might have missed first time, finding nothing of immediate use. Kaden moved back out into the flashing corridor. She rested her right hand on her sidearm.
Red…. White…. Red…. White….
“Jack, are the lights because of the weapon discharge?”
“Unknown Lieutenant.” Jack replied, flat and monotone.
“Hm…” Kaden sighed as she looked at the sealed corridor bulkhead on her left. Not wanting to leave a door behind her, she walked across the corridor to the right hand side and placed her wrist against the access panel. The same cycle repeated as the door went yellow and then green as the mechanisms within began to activate, lifting the door up.
The room before was dimly lit by soft cool lights hidden along the edges of the room in recessed lights, bathing the walls closest to the door. In front of her, the room opened outward like the bell of a cone, its far end entirely given over to glass. Allowing star light to bathe the remainder of the room.
In addition to the large observation window, there was a small bar and several seating locations throughout the room, almost like one of the bars she would find laying just outside the Academy grounds. Yet, this one. While still feeling utilitarian, felt different.
She stepped forward into the room, relaxing her posture as she stepped up to the observation portion of the deck. Glass surrounded her on all sides as her footsteps went from the somber tone of metal to a light tap.
Colors shifted all around her in the starlight as she gazed out into a nebula the Frost was passing through. A thousand shades of blue and green cycled around her, almost as if she were a fish in a very large aquarium.
Off in the distance, lay two small red dwarf stars. Slowly circling each other in a dance older than all of the life known to have existed on Terra. Their combined light tinged the hull of the Frost and the observation deck whenever a significant enough gap in the wisps was pierced by their rays.
“I wish you could see this…” Kaden let out in complete awe.
“The observation deck Lieutenant?”
She reached out with her right hand and touched the glass in front of her, the cold seeping deeply into her hand as it began to greedily take her warmth.
“No Jack, the colors. The binary stars and this nebula… I’ve dreamed for so long, but nothing could have prepared me for this…”