Codename Alpha

Chapter 6

Max and I laid in the maintenance crawlway for quite a while before he said, "I think I should probably go see a medic. My wrists really hurt, in like... just in general, really."

"Want me to carry you?" I joked.

"How valiant of you." He said, almost immediately groaning in pain when he sat up. "Maybe when I'm promoted to admiral. For now, I can walk."

"You're a regular career officer, Max."

He winced as he got back in a position to crawl out and into the main shaft. The hatch was already opened, thankfully. The corridor seemed brighter now, albeit not as illuminated as D-Deck, but it was welcoming to no longer see the obnoxious bright green floodlights. We didn't have to go far to find a medic, as we quickly made our way to the recreation room turned triage center. Part of me dreaded opening the door inside, expecting to see the civilian field hospitals from the Kreml war, an all-too-vivid memory of my childhood.

The first thing I noticed in the already crowded room was a spotted wolf being lifted up on a stretcher as a tarp was laid over them.

"Oh, no..." Max whispered. "How many others are dead?" he asked.

"Too many for one day," I said.

Many other wounded crew members were either lying on furniture or on the hardwood flooring. Makeshift beds created from cardboard boxes and the blankets from crew quarters were scattered in abundance. Doctors and nurses were tending to whoever they could, but I could tell that even from a non-medical standpoint, a few of them weren't going to make it. I recognized Ensign Vance grabbing some jet injector capsules from the minifridge. From the brief look inside that I got, the drinks had been replaced with temperature sensitive medicines. Just less than a day ago, I had been playing games with Rostov and Max and a few other crewman on the flatscreen TV that now seemed to have been violently dislodged from the wall, alongside parts of the bulkhead itself, and set in a corner, with the screen shattered.

A doctor, with their fatigues folded at the waist, hurried over to Max and I, and began to question us both almost immediately.

"Do you both need help?" he asked.

"No, it's just me. I hit my wrist pretty hard during the disaster, and now it's hurting pretty bad."

"Alright, thank you. I'll take him from here." I nodded, and stood back as he led Max to a place where somebody wasn't already on the ground. "You're not feeling any symptoms of radiation poisoning, are you...?" he asked, but I tuned it out.

I awkwardly stood around in the corner of room, next to a spotted hyena who seemed to be either unconscious or dead. The room felt stuffy and cramped. Eventually, I slumped to the ground and rested my head on my knees. The longer I sat there, the more I felt like I was going to vomit. By the looks of the carpeting, everyone else had a very similar idea. Part of me wanted to sleep, but the horrific atmosphere of the area kept me from doing so.

An unknown amount of time later, I was bought out of my strange trance by the sound of the wall-mounted radio clicking in the "emergency" tone. None of the personnel in the room looked like they either cared or noticed, so I got up from where I was, and picked up the radio, careful not to step on the hyena laying under it. I pressed the receiver down and listened to whoever was on the other end. For a few brief seconds, nobody spoke, and I could've sworn I heard distant voices masked by static. They were quickly overpowered when a panicked voice began to yell over the radio.

"Bridge to any personnel, respond! Repeat, bridge to any personnel, respond! Please!"

I returned the favor by shouting, "Calm down! Thi-"

"Oh, thank god! " they yelled, sounding very relieved "We thought everyone else was dead. What's the condition of the ship? And what deck are you on?"