Posted by Commander Amelia Manning (Executive Officer) in Main Sim: Manning’s Quarters
It had been the best two weeks of the past year, and Amelia didn’t exactly know how to thank Harris for them. She hadn’t had the opportunity to see Peter for over a year and having him for even a small amount of time had been magical. But now that she had found herself back at lonely ship life, Manning had found it much harder to readjust.

The previous night, Amelia had put on her favorite silk nightgown, rolled up on her favorite blankets, laid down on the couches and put on her favorite movie. Accompanied, of course, by her favorite drink — 15 year old Laphroaig Single Malt whisky. And she had a whole new stash that Peter had brought with him! There were a lot of reasons why that man was perfect. And that had been only one of them.

Eventually, the Dresden’s Executive Officer had fallen asleep, viewscreen still on, and probably having poured way more whisky than she should have into her system. The truth was, it was hard. After having him around for those weeks she had gotten used to life as a couple again, and with him gone the hole in her heart had grown bigger.

After a heavy and dreamless night, Amelia woke up with a start as the first explosion threw her off the couch and into the coffee table before landing hard on the floor. The whisky bottle toppling and shattering beside her in the process. Red alert klaxons came into life, making her feel like someone was cutting her brain with a knife.

Holding on to the couch to get to her feet, the succession of explosions that followed brought her back to the ground. Her head was pounding with the force of a thousand hammers, all hitting her at once.

Something was not right.

Getting up as fast as she could, Amelia slipped on her previous day’s uniform before wiping the whisky off her face with her sleeve, only to be surprised by the bright red liquid on her hand. Taking her fingers to her left eyebrow she realized she had cut her face on the coffee table, along with a few small cuts in her hands left by the glass fragments. Quickly grabbing a clean cloth, she tried her best to stop the bleeding.

Hurriedly, Manning pried open her door and ran to the Bridge.

Cmdr. Manning, XO

As the doors parted, the relatively benign and disturbingly normal looking corridor of this third highest deck greeted her. Containing only hers and the Captains quarters, there was little to see beyond the single corridor with turbolift shafts at either end. That was at least until a gold-green transporter stream appeared further down the hallway, in front of the door to the Captains quarters, resolving into group of four large humanoids in black EVA suits, with tinted helmets. Two raised their rifles as the door to the Captains quarters opened, the Colonel himself appearing momentarily in the doorway, a third spinning left, his rifle towards the turbolift shaft at the end, the fourth turning directly towards Manning, his own rifle rising

SGM