The Bridge

The two guards made their way wordlessly down the winding corridors of the ships main deck. Though they noted in passing the elegance and beauty of the ship, anxiety over the fate of their junior guardswoman kept them from exploring as much as they would have liked.

After several minutes of following the guide light they came to a large double door. “This must be it,” the lieutenant whispered to Eighteen. Taking a deep breath she stepped forward and with a faint hiss the imposing doors gave way to an immense room.

She had been on any number of ships before, from capital cruisers to freighters. Though they differed in size and shape the rule of thumb was that bridges were cramped, ugly and built entirely for efficiency with little or no concern for the crews comfort.

Such was most definitely not the case with this leviathan. It wasn’t simply the size of the room that shocked the lieutenant but the layout was both elegant and efficient. In many ways the bridge looked like it belonged in a theater rather than a ship. Hell, there were even balconies.

However, what interested the lieutenant was what lay immediately ahead of her on the main floor. A large comfortable looking chair, flanked by two smaller chairs directly in the center of the room. There was no doubt that this was the captains seat.

Hesitantly she walked up to the seat and lay a hand on the fabric. It was soft and supple, however she was unable to identify the material.

“Lieutenant?” Eighteen called from somewhere behind her, startling the ebony guard out of her reverie, “All of these consoles appear to be dead.”

The lieutenant looked around, noticing for the first time that although there was lighting, none of the literally hundreds of screens filling the room was active. “Perhaps there is some sort of command or action that must be taken to activate them?”

“Computer activate!” She commanded, but to no avail. “This might not be as easy as I thought,” she finally concluded after trying several other commands.

-

The hours dragged on by as the two guards utilized every technique they knew to try and get some sort of response from the ships computer. Frustrated and fatigued from her ordeal the lieutenant finally threw up her hands in defeat.

“What the fuck is going on here!” She yelled, slamming her fists on a darkened console. She initial adrenaline with having made such an amazing discovery and even the worry about Twelve had melted into a exhaustion. She had been nearly two days without sleep now and it was definitely catching up with her.

She wished she had been able to fall asleep in the pirate shuttle but after serving nearly eight years as a prison guard in a male prison she simply couldn’t bring herself to let her guard down in the vicinity of a man.

Sinking into the captains chair the lieutenant let her mind drift back in time to when she began her career as a guard.

Though she was now the lieutenant, the second highest ranking guardswoman in the prison, it hadn’t always been like that. When she had first come there all those years ago she had been given the designation Twenty, and, though she hated to admit it, she had been more than a little naïve.