LF Friends, Will Travel

Collateral damage: Part 1

Amander Blake awoke slowly, the general ache of her body being the first thing she felt. Instinctively she tried to take a breath, finding nothing but a sweet tasting gel filling her lungs. Panic coursed through her slowly awakening mind as confusion took hold, the unnatural feeling of breathing in the thick blue liquid driving her hands to the sky, breaching the surface of the gel in a single frantic motion. Fingers scrambled for purchase, finding nothing but empty space as with one violent movement Amander sat up: Spraying Medigel across the floor, coughing up handfuls of the nanobot infused gel and taking a first breath of actual fresh air.

She desperately looked around with confusion, at the spaceship she found herself in. A small craft that had definitely seen better days: half the consoles and display panels blank and powerless, many walls clearly having been rapidly patched together recently with quick fixes. Even now the sound of welding and the operation of tools sounded out from the various rooms that made up the space, various small drones doing their job to repair the damage of the attack.

"Her Ship. This was her ship. Her ship was... under attack?"

Yes, that was right. Amander could feel the post-stasis confusion starting to wear off, the numbing effects of the Medigel dissipating as the material quickly dried and started to flaking off on contact with air. There had been a Estorian Empire war cruiser out in the middle of nowhere and... the assholes had fired upon her little three person exploration vessel: "A Shining Star".

Which both did and didn't explain why Amander was currently sitting in a half opened medical stasis chamber.

"Sleeping beauty awakens. Welcome back to the land of the living."

The artificial voice of DRAKE, the ship's AI sounded out from an unknown source. A voice that sounded forced, the positive humoured greeting overlaying a more sombre tone. The AI would agree with the assessment that their current situation left little to be actually happy about.

A rasping sputtering sound erupted from Amander as she attempted to speak for the first time in weeks, grasping at the glass of water already being offered by one of the AI controlled drones and downing it in one go. Eventually being able to stammer out two words in a thick southern accent.

"St- Status report."

"'A Shining Star' was completing survey contract X55-66A-5B when it encountered a Estorian Empire war cruiser unexpectedly. The unidentified vessel fired upon 'A Shining Star' without warning or provocation, disabling several key components.

Upon attempting a repair of said components a second volley caused critical damage and injured one Amander Blake. Injuries included, amongst other things: 47 broken bones, a ruptured kidney, a deflated lung and a ventricular rupture. Death was prevented through the use of a medical status device. 'A Shining Star' has spent the last three weeks making repairs and getting ready for the assumed upcoming task."

This made sense based on the memories quickly returning to her un-numbing mind. She remembered the initial attack, attempting to fix the damage, then a whole chicken coops worth of pain.

But there was something suspiciously missing from that summary.

"Where's Fluur?"

Amander had been part of a rescue operation on a failed Zorthian colony, a little over two years ago. The Salamander looking amphibians had chosen an unstable planet as their first foray into the galaxy, causing them to require an emergency evacuation. Among them had been a brave little Zorthian called Fluur who had been manning the communication relays down to the last minutes, helping organise the impromptu Terran alliance rescue effort.