Saboteur Part 2
by Maureen and Eleni

"Holy shit!" Azra exclaimed as the deck shook. She grabbed the wall to maintain her balance. "What the fuck?"

Kassi gasped from the ship's sudden tremor. Then, she realized what Azra had said. "Azra!" she cried.

"Nevermind my language. I'm a sailor, I can swear like one if I please. Besides, I want to know who the hell thinks they can blow up my ship!" Azra was fuming.

"Maybe that wasn't an explosion," Kassi said.

"Duh! That was an explosion. Wait another minute," Azra was waiting to make sure there were no other explosions or aftershocks. She had seen combat duty and while she didn't like the fighting, they were at war.

"Just wait, let's not do anything stupid, yet," Kassi said. "Wait for orders. Let's just stay here until we hear something from the Captain."

"C'mon! Grab a gun and let's go!" Azra pulled two from a case in the wall, tossing the second one to her friend. She pulled a third out and put it in the front of her pants. Kassi looked like the gun might bite her. Azra glared at her blithely, "It won't bite."

"I know that, I know how to use a gun... We just haven't been given an order, yet," Kassi said. "We don't even know if someone's attacked the ship, yet. Acting without orders can be yield a court martial!"

"And if we don't act, we could making a bad situation worse! I'm not afraid of a court martial!" she didn't have anything off-ship anyways, only her father. The rest of her family had disowned her years ago and she had almost no formal education. Jail would be better than a life outside of the military.

"Nobody's even been court martialed for following orders... or lack thereof," Kassi said. Azra rolled her eyes and walked out to the hall, where a thick cloud of smoke had accumulated. People were rushing around and yelling. "Where are we?"

"Yes they have! If you follow an illegal order knowingly you can be court martialed for the crime you helped to commit. And we're at security."

Someone came out of the haze. It was Fiona. Then, they saw someone being carried out. The face was too bloodied on the woman to recognize, and the other was a man who was choking on smoke inhalation. He fell to the grating, and hit his head. "Who was that?" Kassi cried.

"It's the Lt. Commander... and Lt. Scaros," Fiona said, collapsing into a coughing fit. She looked as though she suddenly passed out.

The girls were ushered out of the way as a medic team came through with several stretchers. The Captain ushered his way through and began speaking to the medic team. The Doctor was screaming at the nurses and medics, but the woman in the Commander's uniform wasn't reponding, neither was the man in the Lt's uniform. Fiona was being coaxed into laying down on the stretcher.

The Captain turned to Kassi and Azra.

"Seaman, Ensign, put your guns away and report back to your quarters. We'll call if we need you." Captain Fitzgerald was not upset that they responded, they were simply cluttering up the scene with useless people and he would make sure they were debriefed later.

Adrian strode into the MedBay, and headed at once to the critical care area. Brianna was there, checking on a now revived Becky. She saw the Captain approach,and went over to him.

"I'll be back in a minute, Becky."

She led Adrian off into her office. "How are they, Doctor?"

Brianna sighed. "Rushton is fine. A few bumps and bruises, nasty lacerations, but they're not life-threatening."

"What about Sucara?"

"I'm still going over her inital reports. We're going to see what happens," the Dr. said.

Adrian frowned. He noticed the missing report. "And Lt.Scaros?"

Brianna looked over at the small ICU, where John lay, eyes closed, a bandage around his head. "It's bad,Captain."

They walked over to him.

"He suffered serious cranial injuries," Brianna said.

"Meaning?"

"He's unconcious. I can't revive him."

"He's in a coma?"

Brianna nodded. They both looked down at the young Security officer, his scar even more prominent against the white bandage.

"Can we send him ashore?"

"I don't want to risk it. Moving him could aggravate the existing nerve damage."

"And?"

Brianna looked at the Captain. "It could kill him."

Adrian sighed. "Losing a key crewman,and a vital resource aboard this ship? Good start to my captaincy here."

Becky spoke from behind them. She was staring at John in the ICU bed, monitors and equipment surrounding him.

"If he hadn't gone, you would have lost two."

She turned, and went back to her bed.

Adrian sat in his quarters, later that day. He turned from the console displaying Scaros' record, and the draft of a letter to his mother and brother.

He sighed. Suddenly,a knock on the door drove him from his reverie. "Come in."

A Security officer entered.

"Captain, we've completed our initial investigation into the explosion."

"And?"

The officer sighed.

"It looks like sabotage."