She moved through the lounge space as the red alert flashed in the half-it space. Others around her were picking themselves off the floor and helping friends to to their feet. The lounge wasn’t crazy busy for 2000 hours, but then again it was a small crew. Busy was relative.

Dressed in a cadet uniform (the ship didn’t currently have any cadets), the young woman slipped behind the bar to grab a medkit.

She screamed.

“Oh my God, oh my God! No!” She dropped to her knees disappearing behind the bar.

The young security cadet was wide-eyed as she knelt beside a bloody body. He lay prone with an engineering brace coil sticking out of his chest. His brown eyes were wide and lifeless. Others of the Ogawa crew would recognize him as Ensign Branson Hart from Engineering.

Reaching out, she checked his pulse and then looked up at the sound of people approaching. Chest heaving, she stumbled over the words, “He’s dead.”

~Mischief Maker