Short Story

Alarms blared deafeningly through the station, flashing lights announcing a warning that had come too late. The station jolted frequently, its orbital stability destroyed by the repeated attacks. Hallways were sprinkled with forms that were still; far too still for anybody's liking. Some of them moved, trying to make a last-ditch effort to help, but most collapsed after a few moments. In the midst of these, a few personnel moved to find those who could be helped, treating wounds and shock even as they shook with injuries of their own.
A man walked through them, the lines on his face deepening with each of the fallen he passed. Underneath the burns and smeared blood, his uniform marked him as someone of importance, and he had somewhere important to be.
After a moment, he reached a door and went through it, brushing sparking wires out of his way. "Commander, I have a damage report." No response came. He looked around the control deck, seeing only a few upright officers, wide-eyed at their posts; no sign of his superior. "Commander?"
"He's dead, Riyel," a voice came from the corner, barely loud enough to be heard over the noise. The other stepped out into the decimated room, not daring to get too near to Riyel.
Riyel whirled around just as the alarms stopped; some technician had decided to finally cut them. The stark silence left behind was eery, almost as painful as the blaring alarm had been. Riyel's eyes narrowed dangerously as he glowered down at the man before him. "What are you doing here, Tolan?" He asked, no longer having to shout. "You're supposed to be in a holding cell."
Tolan shrugged, small shoulders rising and falling wearily as the station tilted again. "The third blast cut out the door's power down there."
"Too bad it didn't just blow up," said Riyel darkly, deriving a fleeting, savage pleasure from the hurt that flickered through the scientist's dark eyes. Riyel turned his head toward the main viewscreen.
"Where's the Commander?" He said.
"I told you," Tolan said, a small shake in his voice quickly controlled, "he's dead. He was when I got here."
Riyel gritted his teeth, stepping toward the seat in the middle of the room. The Commander lay silent, fiery eyes closed to the world. For a moment, Riyel closed his eyes with them. "Who would have done this?" He demanded, half to himself.
"Divan would," Tolan said softly. Riyel was in the man's face a heartbeat later, his expression pure anger.
"Never say that again," Riyel said, his words emphasized as he shook Tolan by his uniform.
"Do you understand, scientist?" He spat the word like an expletive, pouring all his rage into the three syllables.
Tolan's expression briefly flashed frustration and hurt, but it was replaced by the same depressed, slightly forced calm that he'd previously worn. "I understand, Sir," he said, the first time he'd referred as such to his friend outside of jokes. Riyel released Tolan's uniform, shoving him roughly away. The smaller man stumbled backward, colliding hard with a shattered panel. Riyel paid no heed, turning to the remaining command crew.
"According to protocol 1.27a, I'm assuming temporary command," he said, projecting confidence and strength. "Officer Yvanta, report," he ordered, grateful that no one contested his leadership.
The young woman jolted out of her shock, quickly tapping in something on her station. "Life support down to... twenty percent, shields at three percent." Riyel cursed mentally. They weren't built for attacks of that magnitude.
"How many dead?"
"Unknown, Sir," said Yvanta. "D-Doctor Polen'll get through soon."
"Good." Crisp, concise words only. "Brink, any idea what attacked us?" The sensor analyst shook his head, frowning.
"Sensor array was the first thing taken out, and it wasn't accidentally. I have zero scan capability." An apologetic shrug was accompanied by a quick wiping away of blood from above his eye.
"Forell?" He turned to the communications officer. "Any chatter from the fleet?"
"None," she said, blue eyes panicky. "But communications are partially down, so that could be why."
A small noise of disbelief came from behind him, and Riyel turned slowly. Tolan stood a few feet away, hand clasped over a new, bleeding gash on his left shoulder. Riyel's eyes swept over him dismissively, inwardly cringing a bit as he saw the injuries that had been inflicted on his supposed friend by crewmates who'd felt the anger and alleged betrayal most strongly. He pushed those feelings away rapidly, focusing on the current problems.
"Yes, crewmember?" Riyel said flatly.
There was a brief raising of one eyebrow at the new direction. Nonetheless, the scientist pressed on. "Permission to speak freely, Sir?" Several murderous glances were cast at the man from across the room at his daring to speak with his past record.
Riyel's eyes narrowed warningly. "Granted."
"If-" Tolan hesitated. "If Divan is behind this, then he'd have no trouble getting the fleet to help him."
"But-but the fleet is there to protect us!" Yvanta protested. Riyel dipped his head for a moment, thinking. The idea made sense, much as he was loathe to admit it.
"Try to get sensors and communications back on," he said to Brink and Forell.
"Yes, Sir," said the man with a nod.
There was a moment of silence, then Riyel turned to Tolan. In a deadly soft voice, he gave the man orders. "We can't afford to waste any hands at present," he said. "You're not forgiven, and you're certainly not off the hook, but you can be of use. Go check in with the support deck and medical, then come back with a report. Quickly."
Tolan nodded slightly, shaky hand still over the bleeding shoulder. "Yes, Commander." The brown-haired officer was gone without another word. Riyel sat down in one of the vacated stations and began to assist in diverting power to where it was needed, praying with all the others that the worst of this was behind them.
Unfortunately, this was not to be so. Their brief reprieve lasted for nearly an hour, and then things began to happen very rapidly. Tolan returned to the control deck, carrying grave reports of casualty numbers and damages. Communications were brought back up in a very small capacity, and just as this happened, Forell turned to him.
"We're being contacted, Sir," she said, her gaze a bit confused.
"By?" He asked.
"It looks like the fleet."
"Patch it through," he said.
It took a few moments, then a face came up on screen. Riyel's eyes widened slightly. "Divan?"
The blond man gave a thin, cocky grin. "Riyel. I see you've taken command of your lovely station. How are things down there, anyway?"
Riyel took a step closer to the viewing screen. "Did you do this?" He demanded. Divan didn't respond. "Did you attack an unarmed station?"
"Now, now," said Divan dismissively. "You're not completely unarmed." The grin returned, more dark this time. "Perhaps I did."
Riyel's hands trembled with anger, and he clasped them behind his back to hide it. "Why?" He asked, looking up at the very altered visage of a once-trusted advisor.
He was answered with a question. "Have you ever heard of the T'iari people? Anyone?"
There was a quick, frightened shaking of heads by most on the bridge.
"They're a race of warlike humanoids who spend most of their time exploring and conquering worlds," said Tolan quietly.
Divan raised his eyebrows. "Very good, Tolan," he said demeaningly. "I thought you'd be in a nice little cell somewhere, what with all those nasty rumors you've been spreading about me."
Tolan didn't respond, and Divan rolled his eyes.
"Now you've distracted me." He looked back to Riyel. "Well, Commander," he said mockingly, "your subversive scientist is correct. They're explorers. A few weeks ago, I received a communication from one of them. They were curious about what we were doing so near to their space, and when I told them, they were all too eager to get their hands on your research. You see, they've had trouble getting their ships to hold a steady orbit or sustained life support, so they can't travel as far as they like."
"So?" Riyel ground out.
"So, I sent a message back, asking what was in it for me if I got it for them." Divan's grin widened. "It was quite a lot, in fact. Your little pet there overheard one of my communications with the T'iari people, so I had to act faster while you took care of locking him away for his accusations. It was really very easy to convince the fleet to assist. Most of them, anyway. The rest had to be... taken care of."
"You're a traitor," Riyel accused, glaring.
"Labels," said the man dismissively. "But I've accomplished my goal, and now you have a choice."
There was a pause as Divan let his words sink in.
"You can either surrender to me, or I will kill every last person on that station. You have twenty-five minutes to decide."
The screen cut out, and Riyel turned away. "What will the repercussions be if those T-people get ahold of our technology?" He asked Tolan.
The man shifted his weight to one side, then winced and shifted it back. "They will move farther from their homeworld and begin to take over more planets," he said, eyes flicking to the viewing screen and back. "They destroy about fifty percent of the population on any world they land on. Eventually, they'd probably venture as far as Earth."
"Understood," he said, feeling a very heavy weight descend on his shoulders. He stepped closer to the scientist. "Tolan, I'm s-"
"It doesn't matter," Tolan interrupted softly, a sad smile flitting across his split lips.
Riyel nodded slowly and stepped over to Yvanta. "Do we have control over the self-destruct system?" He asked.
"Affirmative, Sir," she said.
"Bring it up," he ordered. "Forell, begin a station-wide broadcast." He paused before beginning. "Attention all crewmembers. This is your acting Commander speaking. The fleet has turned against us and an alien planet wants our station. We can't let them have it. I'm ordering an evacuation to the escape pods, effective immediately. You have less than twenty minutes to get there. Please do so in a calm and orderly fashion." He nodded and Yvanta cut the transmission.
Riyel turned to the rest of the command crew. "I want all of you to get down there, too. Quickly."
Frightened glances were exchanged as personal belongings were snatched up and well-wishes were murmured by the departing crew. Riyel stood in the center of the room, letting out a breath as he stared out at space. He heard a noise and turned. Standing a few meters behind him, looking small and beaten down but determined, was Tolan.
"Go with the others," Riyel said stiffly.
"C'mon, Riyel," said Tolan with a wry twinkle in his eye. "We graduated together, and you think I'm going to let you have all the fun alone?"
Riyel looked away, his skin hot with the forgiveness he didn't deserve. He stepped forward and raised his hand, his heart twinging when Tolan cringed away. Riyel laid it gently on Tolan's shoulder.
"Thank you," said Riyel, voice unusually quiet and sincere.
Tolan nodded. "What do you need me to do?"
"Sit over there at the lifesigns monitor, make sure everybody gets into the pods," Riyel said gratefully. Tolan nodded again, seating himself gingerly.
"Alright. Everyone's moving in the right direction."
"Good." Riyel accepted the information and brusquely began to bring up the self-destruct protocol. A red light flashed and Riyel cursed.
"What?" Tolan asked warily.
"I hoped this wouldn't happen," Riyel ground out. "The timed feature's been destroyed. It'll go off immediately when we set it."
"I figured it would be that way," Tolan said with a small shrug. "Any way to fix it?"
"You can try," Riyel said, the tone not showing much hope. "Keep an eye on the crew, though."
"Will do," Tolan said, already turning away as his fingers skimmed across the keys.
There were a few moments of tense quiet, and Tolan let out a breath. "I can't be sure, but I think that sort of fixed it," he said.
"How long?"
"Three minutes," murmured Tolan. "We'll have to run."
"Can you run?" Riyel asked, brow creasing.
"I'm not sure," Tolan said simply. "But you can."
"I won't leave you," Riyel said adamantly.
Tolan didn't respond, bringing up a display. "That's the last of them. We have two minutes before Divan's time expires."
"Alright," Riyel grunted. He began to input his code, quickly setting the timer for three minutes. "Ready?" He asked, looking over to Tolan.
"Ready. The pods are taking off." The scientist stood painfully.
Riyel nodded. "Go." He pressed the final key and they began their race to the last remaining pod. Tolan's breath was ragged as he fought to keep up. Riyel pulled the less injured arm over his shoulder, helping the man to run with him.
The two, panicked minutes passed quickly. They took off in the pod, the broadcast from the ship being wired to them.
"Time's up, Riyel," said Divan in a sing-song voice. "What did you choose?"
The ship exploded, cutting the transmission. Through the rear window, they saw the station and entire fleet go up in an orange blaze.
Riyel let out a breath of relief as he switched off the transmission and sent a message to the others, hanging his head. He looked to Tolan. "Just like old times, huh?"
Tolan laughed breathlessly, mopping up the some of the blood pooling beneath him. "Yeah. Just like old times."