Chapter 1 #2
"We've never done it before, and we've scavenged hundreds of debris fields." Berg chimed in. “If we were going to be haunted, it’s probably already happened.” He nodded his head slowly as he pursed his lips. “Just saying.” He raised his hands in a slight shrug.
True. Sara supposed they'd disturbed plenty of space grave sites. If they were going to be haunted, it would have happened by now. Still, something felt off about this debris field. Maybe it wasn’t ghosts unsettling her, but something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
"Captain." Doug's voice crackled through the bridge speakers, pulling her back to reality.
"What's up, Doug?" Sara glanced at the timer. They still had a few minutes left before their check in.
"We've, uh, we've found someone." Doug sounded just as bewildered as Sara felt.
"Yeah, it's called a body." Berg chuckled. "There's probably a bunch out there." He chuckled at his own comments, like he was some big-time comedian.
"He's alive." Doug said ignoring Berg's comment, sticking to the business at hand.
"Alive?" Sara’s eyebrows shot up, her pulse skyrocketing inside her chest. She couldn't believe someone might actually be alive out there. Again, goose bumps raced down over her skin as if a warning system was blaring inside her body. Warning her away.
"Barely. He's unconscious.” Doug continued. “Do you want us to bring him onboard?"
Sara hesitated for a moment as her eyes drifted over to Cat and Berg, who had turned in their seats to face her.
"One second, Doug." She muted her side of the comm.
"Thoughts?" Sara asked, unable to decide when she felt the urgency to tuck tail and dart in the opposite direction. But someone’s life was riding on this decision, and she didn’t want to regret her choice later.
Getting some more opinions would help her.
Berg shrugged. "I say we leave him to die. No point dragging potential trouble on board our ship.”
Cat folded her arms across her chest with a frown. “I say we leave him to die.”
Sara chewed on the inside of her cheek, weighing their words.
Whoever blew this ship or station to smithereens clearly meant to kill everyone on board.
But if they accidently left someone alive, they might pay to get their hands on whoever this was.
No matter how slim the chance, the possibility of some easy credits couldn't be passed up.
"Bring the person on board and get them to the medical bay." Sara decided, shoving the nerves down.
Cat shook her head, but turned back to her console.
"Hunter, get ready for an upcoming injury. Not crew." Sara commed the medical bay.
"Rodger that. Any idea on injuries?” Hunter responded, his voice crackling through the comm.
"No idea. Doug found someone. Unconscious in the debris. Guessing they're wearing a space suit,” Sara replied, relying as many facts as she could.
Hunter chuckled. "Otherwise, they'd be dead."
Sara huffed a breath through her nose. "True. I'll be heading down in a moment to assess the situation."
"See you soon."
"Cat, you have the bridge. Keep your eyes on the space around us. Let me know when the guys are done poking around the debris field,” Sara ordered.
"You got it." Cat said, tossing her a thumb's up.
Sucking in a breath through her nose, Sara rose, and slowly let it out her mouth silently.
Time to go see who they were rescuing. She entered the lift, pressing the button for the level that the medical bay was on.
The lift shuddered under her feet as it began moving.
And then she felt it shift as the lift brought her three decks down.
When the lift lightly jolted to a stop, the doors opened with a hiss.
A narrow metal hallway was revealed, and she strode out of the lift and down the hallway.
Her ship wasn't state of the art, but it got them where they needed and it had yet to fail her.
Some people questioned why she didn't use her credits to buy a newer ship.
But this ship was sentimental. It'd seen her through a lot, and she didn't want to turn her back on it.
Reaching out a hand, she caressed the metal halls of her ship. A sense of grounding and calm came over her. He ship had and would continue to see her through the unknown.
When she reached the medical bay doors, she briefly stopped and waited as they slid open on a barely audible whoosh, and stepped inside. She popped her head into the first curtained room and stopped dead.
Her eyes slowly widened. "Is that a Vrak'rir?
" She asked the room, even though she clearly saw the naked form of the Vrak'rir laying in front of her.
Did she dare believe her eyes? His alien form was splayed out on the metal medical bed, his skin shimmering an iridescent blue under the lighting of the medical bay.
"It is." Hunter confirmed from behind her. He stepped up closer to the medical bay, his eyes seeming just as fixated as hers on the massive alien laying before them. “He’s not in the greatest shape, but it looks like his body is already on working on fixing him up.”
Sara's eyes roamed up from his feet, up his muscled legs, to his cock... which was a complete heart stopper. If he was a grower, he’d be massive.
Ripping her gaze from his cock, she found his face to be just as mesmerizing as the rest of his toned body.
Damn if this man hadn't been blessed by the universe.
Hunter cleared his throat, the sound sharp in the silence of the medical bay. "Captain?" He prompted, as he leaned his face ever so slightly into her field of vision.
"Huh?" Sara blinked as she shook off her moment of distraction.
Doug chuckled softly from nearby, having clearly caught her staring. "I don't think she heard you,” he said with a stupid grin, “but I don't blame her. I’ve seen a lot, but this man-" he gestured to the Vrak’rir’s body, “it’s quite something.”
Sara’s gaze flickered over to Doug, her expression tightening into a frown. With a roll of her eyes at his teasing words, she turned her attention back to Hunter, "What did you say?"
"Where did you want me to keep him?"
Vrak'rir could be bad asses. Immune to pain in some instances. Even though he currently laid sprawled out on a medical bed, she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of danger he might pose to her crew. It’d be so easy for him to storm her ship if she left him unguarded in her medical bay.
"Heal him and then get him placed in the brig. I want a force field between him and us." She turned on a heel to leave and then paused before tossing over her shoulder with a hint of humor, "And find him some pants."
"Too distracting?" Doug joked back.
"Definitely." Sara laughed as she exited the medical bay.
Walking briskly through the corridor, she approached a communications terminal. With a couple quick commands of her fingers, she paged the bridge. "Cat, get the guys on board and let's get out of here." Her voice was steady but urgent.
"On it." Came Cat’s prompt reply over the comm.
Satisfied, Sara headed up to the bridge, her mind lingering on the guest in her medical bay.
A faint uneasiness weighed at the back of her mind- an instinct that she couldn’t quite shake.
A part of her wanted to put him right back in his space suite and flush him right back into space.
But she dismissed the idea. She might be a scavenger, but she was no murderer.
With a shake of her head, she switched directions. Instead of heading back to the bridge, she headed to the hangar bay. She needed to see what the guys had brought in. It’d give her a better idea of where they would head next.
As she approached the hangar bay doors, she caught sight of her crew members bustling around the full cargo bay, sorting and digging through the junk they’d brought aboard. The hum of activity drew her in, and she moved in closer, eager to dig her own hands into the junk.