Roleplayer, Writer, Friend

Chapter 3: Never Alone

She awoke with a jolt, finding herself tangled in her bedsheets, on the floor of her apartment. While the nightmares were nothing new, they were still rather jarring to wake up from.

Of course, that would make sense as most of them ended with her dying. So, that was great.

She lay there on the floor for a long moment, looking up at the ceiling as she tried to calm her breathing. She knew after that, there was no getting back to sleep. There was no point in trying.

She forced herself to sit up, running a hand over her face to try and will away whatever tiredness was left. Her gaze flicked towards the clock. 3am. Wonderful.

A small sigh escaped her as she untangled herself from her sheets before getting to her feet, tossing the crumpled fabric onto the bed.

She could always get to work, start going through the plans on where to build what and when, though at this moment, she found herself unwilling to do so.

Maybe some fresh air would help. She doubted anyone was up at this time, might as well take the opportunity to actually go outside without the layers of her uniform.

She moved over towards the door, slipping on her boots and a hoodie, figuring the hood would give her enough cover in the dark if someone happened to be up and about. She would even be able to hide her hands in the front pocket if she had to.

Slowly, she made her way out of the apartment, pulling the hood over her head as she started to walk, making sure to avoid any of the guards that happened to be on duty. She didn't feel like talking to anyone at the moment, far too lost in her own thoughts.

She found herself heading towards the dining hall, thinking that maybe a cup of coffee would do her some good.

She slipped inside, walking through the dimly lit building towards one of the coffee machines, a bit surprised to see that it already had fresh coffee in the pot.

So, someone else must be having trouble sleeping....

She poured herself a cup, doctoring it up the way she liked before turning to head back outside to drink the hot beverage, only to notice a light coming from one of the lanterns that sat on the tables in the designated outdoor eating area.

While she wanted to be alone, if someone on her crew was having trouble sleeping, she wanted to help. It was her job after all.

A small sigh escaped her as she made her way towards the doors to the outdoor tables.

It didn't take her long to recognize the hunched over form that was staring into their coffee mug.

''Trouble sleeping?''

The form jumped at the sudden voice, looking up in her direction and she was met with the exhausted and haunted gaze of her head engineer

''Captain?'' He asked softly, shaking his head some "No I just....there is a lot of work that needs to be done and I-"

She held a hand up "You know you can call me by my name. We're not exactly on the clock right now." She gave him a small, forced smile as she moved to sit across from him, though she made sure that she stayed mostly in the shadows.

"Right, sorry Cap- erm.... Vaz." It was a lot to get used to, calling the captain by her actual name rather than her title.

He mearly got a nod in response before Vaz continued. "Last I checked, nothing here in the mess hall needs your expertise, and I'm pretty sure staring into a mug of coffee isn't exactly work.... What's on your mind?"

Mark flinched at the question, keeping his gaze anywhere but on his captain. "A lot of things....It isn't something you need to worry about though. It won't effect my work, I give you my word on that."

"I'm not asking you as your captain, Mark. I'm asking as a friend. You....haven't seemed yourself the passed few days."

He seemed to perk up a bit when she mentioned asking as a friend. He had been lucky enough that the captain forgave him. He had been so sure that the chance of any relationship passed a professional one, had been lost.

''As a friend?" He asked, unsure, getting another nod as his response

"Of course you're my friend, Mark. After everything we've been through together.... There is no one I would rather call as such." She assured him, keeping her voice soft. "Now, what's going on?"

A brief silence fell between them as she waited for him to speak, his gaze once again going back down to the dark liquid in his cup, the warmth of the mug on his hands only doing so much to calm his nerves. Should he really be talking to his captain about this? Then again, she was the only one who knew what he went through.

She had insisted that they were friends.

"How can I make up for what I did....when no one even knows about it?" He finally asked, his voice quiet. In fact, it was quiet enough that he was sure she wouldn't have heard it.

''You have nothing to make up for. What happened wasn't intentional. You were just trying to help everyone get to this planet as quickly and as safely as possible. You didn't know what the warp core could do." Vaz spoke, keeping her gaze focused on him.

"That's the point, I didn't know what it could do. I used it anyway. Not only that, but I built the damn thing to begin with!" His voice began to raise a little and he flinched at his own tone. "All those people....all those realities...."

"Mark...." It hurt to see him like this, the guilt he held within him was beginning to consume him. Then again....was she fairing any better at this point?

"You built it to try and fix things. You never once intended for everything to get out of control. You didn't want anyone to get hurt, did you?"

He glanced up at her then. It was only for a second before he quickly looked back down "You." He muttered "I wanted you to get hurt. I-I was so sure that you had caused all this. That I had to be the one to stop you. The one to play hero...." his hands were trembling as he spoke, and without thinking, Vaz reached over to place hers over his.

This had him look up at her, the light of the lantern shining in his tear filled eyes.

"There were no heros or villains in this story, Mark. Just people who lost sight of things. We both found our way back, didn't we? We both managed to stop the destruction." She gave his hands a small squeeze.

"You're the one that stopped it. Not me. I was just going to start the cycle all over again. I thought I knew.... Captain, I'm just.... After everything, you shouldn't forgive me. We should have told the crew the truth. You should have me locked up and left me to rot for what I did."

She knew it probably wasn't safe to talk about all this here. There was a chance, although slim, that someone could overhear. Last thing they needed was for the crew to start questioning them.

She shook her head, finishing her coffee before getting to her feet. "Walk with me."

"Captain?"

"Come on, we can keep talking. But here isn't the best place to do so." Honestly, she may end up spilling to him about her own problems. That was yet another reason she didn't want to risk others overhearing.

When he didn't move, she gave a small sigh. "Well? You waiting for me to say Captain's orders?"

He got to his feet then, not entirely sure where they would be walking to, but he didn't have the energy to ask. Or to even argue.

"Lead the way."

Vaz nodded then, knowing just the place to go to talk where no one would overhear them. Where they could just....clear the air about what was troubling them.

Heading outside of the safety of the forcefield that surrounded the colony, she began to lead him deeper into the forested area.

"More than once I've found myself unable to sleep, so I decided to wander a bit." Vaz admitted softly as they walked.

This concerned Mark, as they didn't exactly know what could be out there. She shouldn't be going off on her own.

"Probably not the best idea, I know. But I can handle myself." She assured him before allowing silence to fall between them. She used the time to think on what to say to him.

He shouldn't blame himself for what happened. She had just as much part in it as he did. She could have easily vetoed him using the warp core, and that would have kept this whole mess from happening.

"I'm not the one who figured out how to stop it, you know." She finally spoke, going back to the conversation they had been having before they started their walk. "In fact, I was completely clueless on what to do."

He glanced over at her then, brows furrowing some "What do you mean it wasn't you? Who else could have figured it out? Was it that Lady?''

Vaz shook her head some "No. She was just as clueless as I was." She stopped walking when they reached a clearing in the trees, the moon bright enough for the both of them to see clearly in the night.

"Then who could it have been? She was the only other one able to follow us...."

"It was you, Mark. You were the one who figured out how to stop things. You were the one that figured out the cycle."

"I....don't understand. I wanted to go back and fix things from the start. How could I have been the one to figure it out?" It was clear that he was confused by what she had just said.

"It's....a bit hard to explain. But it was an older you that told me not to let you go back. He may not have been the you standing before me right now, but he was the you that you would become. He wasn't some....other version. No....he was you."

He looked at her for a long moment, as if trying to process what she had just told him. "That....makes no sense, you do realize that, right?''

"With all we went through, an older you is the one you find hard to believe? Dear God, wait until I tell you about the other yous I ran into."

''I guess not." He muttered. He was silent for a long moment, looking around the clearing they had stopped in. A small stream trickled through it, the soft trickling of the water was rather soothing when combined with the soft chirps that sounded similar to Earth's crickets.

He shook his head some, a small sigh escaping him. "Even if I did figure out how to stop it, I caused it. Nothing will change that."

"Well, no. But if you want to blame yourself, you're going to have to blame me as well." Vaz spoke, moving to take a seat on the ground by the stream. "I could have easily denied use of the warp core. I didn't."

"Because you trusted m-"

She held up a hand, looking up at him. "Look. What happened, happened. We fixed what was broken, and something tells me that throwing that crystal into that wormhole, reset everything."

She found herself rubbing at the scar on her hand as she thought about the crystal that had embedded itself into her.

He opened his mouth to argue, though quickly shut it and took a seat next to her. "I'm sorry...." He muttered. "I know you say that things were fixed and that it wasn't completely my fault. But we can't be sure everything was reset.... And there were things I did that were my fault. Things that I had complete control over."

He waited a moment to see if she would say anything before continuing. "I doubted you. Began to hate you. Each time I died in that place, the resentment grew. I....I wanted you to know how I was suffering." He took a shaky breath then.

''Any time I saw you, I did whatever I could to stop you, not only because I was so sure of myself that you were the one that needed to be stopped, but also because I was so angry...."

He looked down at the hand that she was rubbing, flinching a bit when he saw the scar.

"I didn't give you a chance to explain. I took the crystal from you and...."

Vaz reached out and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, much like how she had done the moment she realized everything was over.

"I thought once things were fixed....once we got to the planet....I could forget. But I....I'm just so...." a few tears escaped his eyes and he looked away.

"I know Mark. I am too." Vaz pulled him into a hug, needing the contact. If he pulled away from her than so be it, but they were both spiraling. "I'm tired too...."

It was a bit of a surprise to her when Mark tightly wrapped his arms around her in return, returning the hug with one of his own.

A silence fell between them for a long while, in fact, she wasn't entirely sure how long they stayed there like that, holding onto one another as though they were each other's life line.

She could feel him trembling now and again, as if he was attempting to hold back his tears. She felt a few of her own tears escape her as she tightened her arms around him some.

They were both so exhausted at this point, it was hard to keep in all the emotions that threatened to drag them under. They both had kept things bottled up for so long.... It was about time they both let it all out. They deserved that much. They deserved peace.

"Here I am wallowing in my self pity, when you went through just as much shit as I did...."

"Mark...." her voice was soft as she spoke, slowly pulling away.

The head engineer roughly wiped away the tears that fell on his sleeve. "You have trouble sleeping too, huh?"

She opened her mouth to say something, wanting nothing more than to finally release all the negative thoughts and feelings she had been experiencing.

A chance to finally  talk about everything that was constantly on her mind. But would it be fair to unload all of this onto him? He was going through enough as it was. Did she really want to add to it?

Before she had a chance to say anything, both of their communicators crackled on. "Captain, Mark, I need you in Cryo, as soon as possible."

A small sigh escaped her then. Well, at least she didn't have to decide now. "We'll be right there, Celci."

She looked back towards Mark then, a small frown tugging at his lips at the interruption.

"We can continue this later....sounds like Celci needs a hand. She wouldn't be contacting us this late otherwise." Vaz got to her feet, holding a hand out to help him up.

He gave a small nod, taking her hand and hoisting himself up. "You're right.... Let's go."

They both headed back towards the colony as quickly as they could. "I'll meet you at the shuttle. Don't want to show up to work in my pajamas after all." Vaz spoke, already heading towards her apartment.

Chapter 1: Solid Ground

The multiverse is littered with the corpses of your failures.

She had been right about that. As much as she tried to forget the awful string of events that happened just to get them on this planet, every time she closed her eyes, the fear of finding herself in that damn cyro pod kept her from properly falling asleep.

In fact at this point she had been working until she could no longer physically keep her eyes open. While it helped her fall asleep, it didn't help with the nightmares. Even now her thoughts seemed to be pulled towards the memories of something that no one else on this planet even knew happened.

Well, everyone but Mark.

They had decided to keep the truth of what happened from the crew as there was no real reason to potentially stir up memories that they themselves may have. It wouldn't be fair to them.

They deserved to live in blissful ignorance of that nightmare.

"Cap? You hear a word I said?" A male voice pulled her from her thoughts, just as a gloved hand waved in front of the visor of the helmet she had yet to take off.

"Hm? Oh, sorry Gunther, got lost in thought. What was it that you were saying?" She turned her attention fully towards the gun man, shaking her head some to clear it of the clutter of thoughts that seemed to have settled within her mind.

Gunther mearly smirked "Damn Cap, here you go on about making sure we all get our rest and here you are, sleeping on the job." He teased lightly, she mearly shot him a look, though she wasn't sure how well it came across with the helmet hiding most of her features.

"What I was saying, is that the ADS is all set and ready to go. Gave it a few upgrades just in case any alien lifeforms rear their ugly heads, so base should be safe."

As much as she liked Gunther, the man still made her rather nervous, what with his outlook on extra terrestrials. She herself was one after all, not that anyone on the ship knew, which was why she hid herself behind her helmet and jacket, keeping any and all hints of her inhuman nature safely covered.

A small sigh escaped her and she mearly shook her head "Just make sure it doesn't shoot at every little thing that moves. Last thing we want to do is kill off a bunch of harmless animals."

She paused a moment, seeing the man pout at the extremely light scolding he had gotten "But good work. I suggest that we still keep guards posted however, just to be safe."

That seemed to be enough to keep him from getting into one of his foul moods in which he would grumble for the rest of the day "Sure thing Cap, I'll set it up."

She mearly nodded. "Right, well, I should probably go and see if anyone needs help around here. Can't have people thinking that I'm little to no help now that we're on solid ground. I'll see you around Gunther." She gave the man a small wave to which she got one in return before she headed off in search of something to do.

Each step away from the head of security had her tense muscles relaxing until she was finally a safe distance away to release the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

Okay, maybe it was a bit ridiculous to be nervous about her own crew, but after the shit she had gone through, could anyone really blame her?

She took a moment to look at her surroundings from where she had stopped, finding everyone hard at work.

Hell, even Danny and Brian weren't goofing off. Everyone was pulling their weight around here and they had been since they had landed, every crew mate more than excited to finally start settling in on the new planet.

They still had quite a ways to go before they could slowly start to wake the civilians. Last thing anyone wanted was fighting over lodgings. It had been her call to wait until there were at least some buildings avaliable.

Another thing she had decided on was limiting the amount of buildings that were built. Humans had a way of....overdoing things when it came to infrastructure. They built and built until there was nothing left. Until all the forests and jungles were destroyed. Until their very planet started to wither and die fron their own actions.

She had made a promise to herself to do what she could to limit such actions here on this new planet. The last hope for the humans as it was only a matter of tine before that one's that remained on Earth had died off.

The thought was a sad one, but the damage done to their planet had been too much to be reversed. She was just glad she was able to be a part of the mission to save some of them.

Again she had to shake her head to clear it, mentally scolding herself for getting lost in thought again, as she was apt to do.

She needed to focus, there would be time later to get lost in thought. After all, it wasn't as though she slept all that much anymore.

As she had told Gunther, she threw herself into any work that needed to be done. If a crew mate needed help, she was there to lend a had, even if a lot of the time it seemed like the person she was helping didn't even really need help at all, but mearly wanted to show off around her.

Humans were strange.

The day passed by rather quickly however, and before she even knew it, everyone was meeting up for dinner, sitting around and talking to one another, laughing joyfully. She joined in now and then, though she mainly stuck to listening as she scanned over her crew.

Everyone was there, unwinding and simply enjoying themselves, everyone but the Head Engineer. She noticed Mark sitting a little ways away on his own, picking at his meal, half listening to the conversations going on around him.

The sight was heartbreaking.

The few weeks she had known him before the Invincible ll set off, he always seemed to be one of the ones joking and laughing. Now he just seemed....

Tired

Could she really blame him? He had been through hell and back. They both had been.

She was about to excuse herself to go and speak with him, when he had gotten up, passing the rest of his food off to another crewmate before ghosting off to his apartment.

It had been a few days since she had been able to speak with him. If she were being completely honest with herself, she would say he was avoiding her for some reason. That was something she wouldn't allow. She was the captain for God's sake. He couldn't just avoid her.

Though she didn't want to come off as pushy. Insist that he speak with her. As far as she knew, he was just having a bad few days.

She decided then and there that she would approach him tomorrow. Just as a check in.

For now, she wouldn't bother him. Hopefully he would be in a better mood by then. Still, she hated the fact that he might be suffering.

After dinner, she bid the rest of the crew goodnight, wanting nothing more than to turn in early and at least try and get some form of rest, even if she knew it was highly unlikely that she would be able to. If anything, she would at least be able to take the suit off and relax a bit.

She trudged her way up to her apartment, finding herself more and more tired with each step, though she knew all that exhaustion would be gone the moment she tried to lay down and sleep.

With a small sigh, she placed her hand on the scanner to open her door, quickly slipping into her room before shutting it again, being sure that it locked before pulling her helmet from her head.

She was quickly coming to hate the uniform she wore, constantly having to use it to hide her less than human features. The only real time she was able to just...be her self was when she was in the comfort of her own lodgings. But again, she knew it was for the best.

She tossed aside her jacket and gloves as well, moving through the apartment, towards the bathroom.

A quick shower to wash the day away, the  prepare for bed. Hopefully she would be able to get at least a few hours tonight, before she was woken up by those nightmares.

Once in the room, she turned the shower on, cranking it up to nearly scalding, looking at herself in the mirror as she waited for the water to heat.

She was paler than she remembered being, making the intricate lines that made up her markings, seem darker.... More noticable. 

Her red hair was pulled up into a tight bun to keep it out of the way while wearing the helmet, though this only revealed her pointed ears. Hell, she couldn't even smile properly thanks to her unnaturally sharp canines.

These were all little quirks that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to hide them while she took this form.

Oh, how much easier things would be if she could.

She stared at herself a moment longer, taking in the dark circles under her deep green eyes. Even before the events of the wormhole, she hadn't been someone that slept all that well.

She had seen more than enough shit in her lifetime.

With a small huff, she pushed herself away from the sink and the fogging mirror, moving back to the shower to make sure the temperature was good enough before she finished undressing and stepped in.

Her quick shower became a rather long one, as she stood there, lost in the many different thoughts drifting through her head, her right hand coming up to rub at the scar left on her palm from the warp crystal.

The area still ached from time to time, though that was to be expected, after all, the power from that crystal had been strong enough to drag her through countless of realities. She was lucky the only side effect was it aching now and then, and the color of her markings on that arm having been changed to that same blue color.

Dragging herself from her drifting thoughts, she finished up her shower only when all the hot water was all but gone, quickly stepping out onto the mat and grabbing a towel to dry herself off before changing into a pair of sleep clothes and finishing up with getting ready for bed.

She eyed the piece of furniture as she stepped out of the bathroom, a part of her finding it rather amusing how something that should bring comfort only brought a lingering sense of dread.

She hated not knowing what memory she would be thrown into the moment she drifted off, but she knew....

She needed to sleep.

Chapter 2: Not so Sweet Dreams

Confusion, panic, fear. A sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach tugged at her as she awoke back in the cyro-pod she had just stepped into what felt like seconds ago.

"Good morning Captain, we are currently ERROR years into our journey;" The computer chirped happily, quickly snapping her out of the haze she had been in.

"Computer, clarify...." she ordered, though her request was ignored as it continued to speak.

"Coffee is on route, current ship status is.... Absolutely Catastrophic." The normal calm, blue glow of the computer became red as sirens started to blare. Panic set in once again as she tried to look for a way out of the pod "I-I-Initalizing Wakey-Wakey Protocol." The computer began to glitch.

She knew asking for clarification would do nothing for her, so she braced herself as the door to the pod  opened and she was more or less shot out of it.

She managed to catch herself before slamming face first into the ground, but just barely. She didn't even have time to notice the pain shooting up from her wrist as she quickly scrambled to her feet over to the main controls. The whole system was glitching out as she desperately tried to set things right.

"Reviving Head Engineer."  She heard the computer speak again, though just barely as a loud explosion racked the ship.

Thank God. Maybe Mark knew how to fix this. He built the ship after all, and all her override codes were doing absolutely nothing. She looked to her right as she heard his cyro-pod hiss open, though the force in which he was flung out was a bit too strong, having him crash into the main window.

She flinched, though he seemed relatively okay, other than a bloody nose.

He swayed a bit on his feet, looking just as confused  as she was sure she did. "Captain, what the hell is-"

"They system is shot to hell, everything is glitching and as of right now, every code I've put in has come back with an error. I'm completely locked out." She answered quickly, just as another explosion racked the ship.

"On it, Captain!" Mark quickly started to move towards the controls when he paused, hearing the creaking of cracked glass starting to spread. She heard it to, noticing the damage to the main window just a second too late as she lunged for her Head Engineer "Mark!"

Just a half an inch too far. She couldn't grab ahold of him. She had been too slow and now watched as her friend was ripped away from her, into the unforgiving darkness of space.

"Hall breach detected, sealing bulkhead." She could hardly hear the computer now as a large metal shield blocked her view of her friend's corpse, floating away from the ship.

"No!" She ran towards the thick metal, pounding a fist on it, tears leaking from her eyes. She had gotten rather close to the Head Engineer. He had been the first to welcome her,  the first to actually offer friendship rather than just loyalty as crewmates should have to their Captain, and now....

This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. This had to be a dream. That's it. A nightmare of some kind.

She whipped her head around when she felt heat on her back, the control panel erupting in flames

"Fire on the bridge."  Did that damn computer ever have any good news? In the event of this not just being some horrible nightmare she wasn't going to just let this place burn. There were lives at stake.

Quickly she rushed over towards the fire extinguisher, pausing just in reach of it when the computer spoke again.

"Error, life support systems failing"

She didn't know what to do. Surely putting the fire out first was the best choice. If it was left unchecked, it would spread. There had to be enough oxygen left for her to be able to get to life support after handling the flames, right?

She gripped the extinguisher and pointed it towards the fire, being sure that the flames were completely out before rushing off towards the door.

Something wasn't right. The walls were warping around her, it was getting increasingly hard to breathe. But why? There should be more than enough oxygen left. There had to be. She could hold her breath longer than a human anyway, so why was she struggling?

She pushed forward, stumbling towards the door to life support, reaching for it as little black dots began to dance in her vision "N-No...." She muttered, falling to her hands and knees in front of the door.

"No...."

No, things couldn't end like this. She couldn't fail again, she couldn't let all these people down.

She collapsed onto her side as she took in the last few breaths she could. The blaring of the alarm starting to sound so distant....distorted as though it were underwater. Darkness encroached on her vision even more before it was fully taken over by black then....

Nothing.

She was so sure that was the end, that she had failed another race of people and lost her own life in the process.

That was until swirls of blue surrounded her, followed by a sensation of being pulled by something. She could hear several overlapping voices, all familiar to her, though she was unable to make out what was being said.

Then everything went dark again.

"Don't give up...."

That was the single voice she heard before she once again awoke within the cyro-pod, gasping for air and frantically looking around her.

She was alive? So it had been a dream? Nothing had actually happened. She was safe, so was Mark and the others on the ship.

"Good morning Captain, we are currently ERROR years into our journey;"

Everything came to a screeching hault then, a sense of dread washing over her, making her stomach drop like a stone in water.

This couldn't be happening....could it? 

She ignored the computer for the most part, trying to calm her breathing and focus on what the hell was going on. Maybe this was just a sense of

Déjà vu. That had to be it, right? As far as she knew, her people couldn't see into the future.

"I-I-Initalizing Wakey-Wakey Protocol."

Again she caught herself as she was ejected from the cyro-pod, though this time she was able to land without hurting her wrist.

So far, everything seemed to be the same. She attempted to type in the codes again, with the same results. She was completely locked out of the system.

"Reviving Head Engineer."

Panic. She couldn't watch Mark be ripped from her again. She wouldn't.

If her mind wasn't running a thousand miles a minute, she would have noticed that even Mark had managed to hit differently when he was thrown out. His nose wasn't bloody like last time, though he was rubbing at his shoulder

"Captain what-"

She didn't give him a chance to say anything, lunging at him and grabbing ahold of his hand tightly just as she heard the glass cracking. She gripped tightly onto the control panel with her free hand,  anchoring the both of them as the window finally shattered.

The force that was pulling on him was almost enough to make her lose her grip, but she refused to let go. She wouldn't lose him. Wouldn't fail him.

"Hall breach detected, sealing bulkhead."

Mark hit the floor and she stumbled backwards as the metal shield was lowered.

"Thank you...? Captain, what the hell is going on?" Mark asked as he forced himself to his feet. She mearly shook her head at the question.

"Don't know. Go and check on life support, quickly!" She moved towards the fire extinguisher, grabbing and aiming it at the control panel.

"But-" He started.

"Go!"

Mark jumped into action just as the control panel erupted into flames.

"Fire on the bridge. Error, life support systems failing."

She unloaded the extinguisher onto the fire, dropping the canister only when the flames were finally out.

It was then a voice that had the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, spoke out.

"Captain...."

It sounded like Mark, but when she spun around to see what was wrong, the ship seemed to warp and change.

The alarms were gone, the flashing red lights.... In fact, all the lights were gone other than a dim glow coming from her cyro-pod. The ship itself seemed to be in complete disrepair, scribbles and drawings plastered to it's walls.

'Don't wake the captain'

'Sleepy head'

'My air'

She found herself slowly approaching the pod as the glow grew brighter. Something began to move within it, turning to face her as two glowing eyes looked back at her and a hand slammed against the wall.

Her head throbbed, it was hard to make sense of things. The ship warping around her again. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to will away the nausea.

When she opened them again, it was back to normal.

"Captain! There you are!"

Mark

She looked towards him, a part of her unsure if he was even there at this point.

"I got life support back on line and I still don't know what the hell is happening, but we seem to have this situation all under control." He grinned, giving her a thumbs up.

"Good, we'll need to get to work looking into how all this happened, and why I'm locked out of the system. We don't need something like this happening agai-"

The ship rocked with another explosion, making her stumble into Mark, who quickly caught her. Those damn red lights and alarms going off again.

"Impact detection."

"Computer, activate the Astroid Defense System!" She shouted, steadying herself on her feet.

"Analizing.... No."

She blinked, opening her mouth to ask it to clarify, though Mark beat her to it "What do you mean no?!"

Another blast shook them "Computer, what's wrong with the ADS?" The engineer asked

"ADS Offline"

"Why?!"

"Offline"

A rather irritated look crossed Mark's features "Computer, what is wrong with the-"

"Offline"

He glared up towards the speaker the computer spoke through.

"Forget it, come on, we still have the guns, we can do it manually." She grabbed Mark's arm, rushing off towards ADS.

"It doesn't make any sense. Astroids are hitting the ship but our guns aren't shooting them down."

She reached out towards the scanner once they reached ADS "Well, at least we still have guns, it can't be too hard to just point and shoot.... Get down!"

She quickly pulled Mark down to the ground as the drones started to shoot towards them. The rapid fire continued until the door slid shut again.

"That's new.... Somethings gone wrong with the computer."  Mark spoke as he got back up to his feet, holding a hand out to pull her up with him.

"Oh, you think?" She shook her head, looking towards the door "We need to get in there, and quick. I'm not sure how many more hits we can take." She looked down at the tablet on her wrist, pulling up names of the crew. "Gunther should be able to handle it. It's his area after all."

She typed in a few things, waking Gunther from cyro, relieved that she was at least still able to do that.

"Should be here in a few-" She started 

"Got a problem Cap?"  She turned  to see the head of security, giving a small nod towards him. "I hear you've got a bit of a problem on your hands. Well don't you worry, I've been through hundreds of battles, fought through hundreds of traps. A few rogue drones ain't gonna get the best of me."  He spoke as he waltzed towards them.

"That's great, now I need you to get in there and fix-"  The ship around them began to shift and warp again, and in a blink of an eye, Gunter was no longer there.

In his place was an old woman, who honestly didn't seen to surprised to be there, holding a plate of cookies. "Ms.Whitacre?" Last person she expected to show up was the woman that took her in and helped her get this position on the Invincible ll in the first place.

"Not my first choice, but we need you to go in there and-" Mark started as though Gunther hadn't just been there and was replaced with the woman.

"Hold on a second, we're not sending her in, she isn't even qualified! What-" Another hit to the ship.

"It's alright dearie, there is nothing a plate of cookies can't solve." The old woman spoke, tapping on the hand scanner to open the door.

"Wait, what? No, they're drones they can't-" She started, staring at the door as it slid closed.

"Hello darlings!" She heard Ms.Whitacre spoke cheerfully from the other side of the door.

The drones, of course started firing, followed by a 'thump'  of the old woman's body hitting the door, that blood was now seeping out from under.

Both her and Mark stared  at the blood for a long moment, she could feel Mark turn his gaze to her as she continued to stare, mouth agape as she tried to process what had happened. "No, this....this doesn't make sense. Gunther was here and...."

"Captain...."

She looked over towards Mark about to say something when the computer spoke up again.

"Warning. Large object on collision course with the ship."

"Fuck."