It’s been 24 hours since I spoke to Miller, many civilians had to be put in holding cells because the idiots thought getting angry and trying to destroy the place light years away from Earth was a good solution.

I’m lying in my accommodation- currently empty as the three others I bunked with joined in with the chaos, when a loud beep emits from the speakers.

“This is Admiral James speaking,” The Admiral had a very gruff and distinctive voice, I could almost feel the fury rolling off him through the loud speaker “as many of you know, two human ships have vanished in the last week. All the Admirals were told when the two ships failed to check in and were advised to remain on standby in case it was due to technical errors, since the alert a small team of Deus operatives have investigated the disappearance and yesterday confirmed that the vessels were taken off course by unknown assailants.” Well, shit. The Deus sent their own guys to investigate this? This is not good “Yesterday after getting the go ahead, I was debriefing the crew on the situation when a mole leaked the information, causing chaos before I had the chance to personally fill everyone in in the situation, please be alert this mole will be caught and punished severely for their crimes. For now, everyone remains in their rooms until further notice while we deal with this little incident. James out.”

As soon as the loudspeaker went quiet my stomach let out an angry growl, I was absolutely starving. All rooms have a small stash of food which is replaced daily, naturally my asshole room mates cleared it out before joining in with the fray, only leaving a few bags of jerky behind,

I walked over to the communications console and typed in the number for the crew office- maybe someone there can send me down a bite to eat. A long dull beep put an end to that dream, it was engaged. Wait a minute, the crew all have personal communications on them, maybe I can call that soldier from yesterday… Anderson? Flicking through the directory I found his name and punched it.

“Um, hi? Who is this?” Anderson asks

Oh, thank god I sigh “Hi, I’m the civilian who shot you in the head yesterday, look I’m sorry for calling but the crew office is engaged and I’ve gone almost 24 hours with only eating a pack of jerky, do you know if anyone will come around will food at one point?” I crossed my fingers, calling one of the soldiers to request room service is incredibly cheeky, even by my standards!

There was a long pause “Baxter, right? Well to be honest I’m stationed in the holding cells right now, and the rations are meant to be enough for 48 hours in case of a lock-down, so I will call Miller to see what’s going on with civilians. Just um, wait a minute.” And with that he quickly hung up on me.

I lay back on my cot and stared at the grey metal ceiling. What happened to Silas yesterday? After he ran off, there was so much chaos I didn’t even try to look for him! Knowing him he went to look after the women and children I snorted in amusement, he’s just a walking cliché.

Maybe ten minutes after making the phone call to Anderson, the communication console began to ring, I charged over to it and jammed my finger in the button. “Hi, yes?” I gasped, please be food, please be food, please be food, please be food.

“Baxter, it’s Miller” I took an intake of breath, I certainly wasn’t expecting a personal call from General Miller about my rumbling tummy! “I’m ashamed to say it’s been bedlam around here, some of my own soldiers have been put in holding cells. I’m sending someone to open your door, get to the canteen and start distributing food to all apartments from 1 to 50. If you know of any civilians who will be sensible enough to help, let the officer who is coming to your room know so they can help with the remaining rooms. Understood?” My mouth was agape, like he was giving me a choice?

“General I thought I told you I wasn’t interested in joining any militia, why are you asking for my help exactly?”

He took a frustrated sigh “Baxter, I have my hands full here and  if Anderson hadn’t got in contact with me I wouldn’t have thought about the rations not being enough, you made the call therefore you deal with the consequences. Miller out.” The slow beep alerted me that he had hung up.

I punched the button a few times in frustration, stupid military conscripting me like a goddamn dinner lady!

A solid click indicated my door was now unlocked, so I hurried through the door and smack straight into a solid chest. I let out a squeak and looked up to what man-wall I walked into, it was a very angry looking middle-aged soldier, he steadied me then thrust three small cards into my hand

“I was told to give you these cards- it’s a temporary key to unlock all civilian doors.” He gave a quick salute, spun around and was gone.

As soon as I gathered my thoughts I went down a floor to Silas’ room, I know he would love to dish out food to all the poor and needy civilians. With a quick swipe I kicked the door open, causing Silas and his two roommates to promptly shit themselves. I threw one of the cards at Silas- which he deftly caught and pocketed the other two

“Silas, I need your help distributing food, come on!”

Three hours later and the deed was finally done, between the two of us we had somehow managed to feed an entire ship with very few issues.

I threw myself back on my bed with a sigh, Silas sat on the edge of my bed and gave out a small laugh “I’m glad we got to help out all these people- they don’t deserve to be caught up in all of this craziness” his expression suddenly went sombre “Hawking was over double the size of this vessel. I know Blackman is only a science ship but that’s still another 100 people. What kind of cretins would steal almost 1000 humans?! Why?!”

I could see tears shimmering in his eyes, so I reach over to where he’s sat and touch his arm gently “Silas don’t think about it, please. The Dues will find out who did this and get our people back, we are worthy to be a part of this alliance, there’s still hope.”

He looked up and gave me a watery grin “You’re right pom, of course you’re right” He looked down at my hand on his arm and opened his mouth to say something else when an alarm started blasting through the speakers.

Oh shit.

We both leapt up- what the hell is happening now?

Over the scream of the alarm, the voice of our Admiral came through, “This is a ship-wide emergency, we have been sabotaged, I repeat we have been sabotaged. Please evacuate to your assigned escape pods immediately.”

What felt like ice spread through my chest, I couldn’t breathe.

Thankfully Silas was more put together than I was, he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my room and into the hallway which was full of screaming civilians desperately trying to reach their pods.

“Go Silas! Your pod is on the other side of the fucking ship why the hell did you come to my room and not yours?!” Panicked tears rolled down my cheeks as Silas gave me a wild look and let go of my hand, charging in the direction of his pod, as soon as I could tear my eyes away from his shrinking form I sprinted in the opposite direction.

As I reached the emergency elevator a shudder rippled through the ship causing the crowd I was caught in to be thrown in all different directions and the lights blinked out, plunging us in darkness. It was like time had stopped, I could see the outline of people all screaming in terror, but I could hear nothing, the shudder had thrown me against the wall where I smacked my head onto a console of some kind and someone was standing on my leg. Broken? It’s numb. Everything is numb.

What felt like an eternity and a millisecond all at once passed.

A strong arm yanked me up roughly, pain radiated from my leg and I let out a yell, I looked behind me to see Miller release my arm and march past me, pushing through the panicked people, hauling up the fallen as he went.

“Listen up! Escape pods 3-5 are down so all civilians from this sector return to your rooms and brace for impact!” This was met by more screaming; a few civilians even threw themselves at the general in their fury. He easily batted them away and yelled again “TO YOUR ROOMS NOW!”

Almost as a unit the crowd dispersed, I could see many injured in the crowd, an arm bent the wrong way, blood pouring down a face, limps. All these people had a supportive arm around them as their friends and family helped them return to their rooms. If only I had that luxury I thought bitterly as I dragged myself towards my room, after a few very painful steps I was hoisted up over a broad shoulder as Miller yanked me up, again roughly I may add and jogged towards my room.

“Are you stalking me sir?” I let out a pained laugh in an attempt to forget the deadly situation we were in for a second. Without escape pods the 30 of us left behind will more than likely perish, this isn’t a warship.

“Shut the fuck up.” He snapped back, causing heat to burst across my face in humiliation. Never mind then.

I heard the woosh of my door opening before Miller threw me down on my bed and slammed his hand on the emergency button in one graceful motion releasing the hidden harnesses tucked in the wall. Before I could even start to pull myself up he yanked me up and almost threw me into one of the chairs, locking me in tightly, I hissed in pain, one hand going to my possibly broken leg and the other to my possibly broken head.

“Roommates?” He barked at me, his chest heaving.

“Um, locked up what-” He sat down and swiftly secured his own harness before looking back at me expectantly “Um… yeah what W-Will happen to them?” I manage to get out through chattering teeth, I didn’t particularly like them or know them but the idea of them dying caused panic to shoot through me. Almost ironic considering the holding cell was probably in a safer position than we were at this moment.

Miller’s eyes darted over my body while he spoke, assessing my injuries “In case of an emergency situation, civilians in the holding cells are released three minutes after the ship wide evacuation is called, we got word of the bomb destroying the pods just as the civilians were released so anyone designated to the destroyed pods were quickly escorted back to their cells where they will be in the same position as us.” Satisfied with his examination he looked back into my eyes “at the same time another bomb set off destroying comms, so Admiral James couldn’t warn this sector, I was close enough that I came personally to deliver the message.”

I stared at him with what I can assume is a horrified expression on my face. Bombs? Someone on board- a human had planted bombs on-board our ship. Why? Before I could say another word, a massive boom rocked through the ship, I squeezed my eyes shut as the whole room started shaking violently, Admiral James had set us on a collision course towards the nearest planet, I hope it’s unoccupied.

We started shaking harder and harder, things flying all over the room, there was a loud bang quickly followed by a grunt as Miller was hit by something but still my eyes remained tightly shut.

An image of Silas appeared in my mind and my heart skipped a beat, he’s my best friend please be okay. I started repeating that line in my mind like a mantra.

Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay.