An intruder!

A blaster pointed toward me and I shot up, awake. "What?!" I blurted out before the intruder shouted at me.

"Get up!"

I held my hands up and stepped out of bed, feeling naked and ****. The intruder was wearing a dark outfit fitted with pouches and belts. From the shape and voice, I guessed it was a male, but his face was covered with a mask.

"Outside. Now!"

"Can I at least get dressed?" I asked.

"Out! Now!" the intruder commanded, then prodded me with the tip of the blaster.

I felt myself become even redder as I was **** out of my room without and clothes. Out in the hallway the rest of the residents on the deck were present and being guarded by a small contingent of mercenaries. They all wore the same outfit as my visitor. Jenny raised an eyebrow when she saw me strutting out to the group in my birthday suit and I had to suck it up. It wasn't the time to criticize fashion choices anyways. From my quick glance around at our group, I was the only one caught with her pants down. That made me feel special the the embarrassed way.

When the deck was cleared, we were all guided down to the cargo bay where the rest of our crewmates were being held. There we waited as the guards watched us silently. There were no demands or declarations made, they simply held us prisoner.

"What do you think they're waiting for?" I murmured to Jenny.

"I haven't seen the bridge crew yet and not everyone has been accounted for... maybe some of us got away..." Jenny murmured back.

I did a quick look around and the bridge officers were indeed not present. Neither was Doctor Akira or Chief Engineer Bethan. That gave me a little hope. My quick look around revealed that everyone else had clothes on, which sank my spirits down again. Just one more person in my predicament would have eased my tensions a little, but I stood naked among my crewmates and stood out like a sore thumb. Thankfully we were in the middle of the pack so I didn't have to be exposed in front of the boarding party. They guarded us stoicly, so I could not tell if they'd react anyways. The one who took me out of my room didn't seem to care much.

Finally, someone from the invading band entered the bay. He dressed differently, his outfit was more refined, cleaner and higher quality than the others. I took it that he was the leader. He stepped with purpose as he paced around us, then pulled off his mask. His face was a pale green, humanoid with sharp eyes. They were slitted like snake's. He also didn't have a visible nose, adding to his serpentine look. He held one of our communicators and spoke, "Captain Lance. This is Vorgul of the Zenalta Nebula Mercenaries... Surrender your ship to us now or we will begin executing your crew, beginning with this one!" He reached out and grabbed Kari. "Computer: Identify the crew member I am holding!"

The computer chirped, "Ensign Kari Westland."

"You have ten minutes to comply, captain!" Vorgul announced.