“I've got work to do,” she mumbled, but he didn't let her go. A second later the canteen door opened to admit the Thorian officer who was acting Captain when Dylan wasn't awake. Immediately, Ben lifted his hand off hers. Not wanting to give any of them a chance to say or do anything else, she hurried off.
It took her several minutes of walking through the ship's corridors for her heart to slow to its normal pace and along the way she almost crashed into the logistics officer, Trell.
“Oh, hello Auraylia, are you enjoying the book?” Trell asked in her usual overly cheerful manner.
She nodded before she remembered she'd left it in the canteen in her haste to get away from Ben and his friends. Both him and the Crime and Punishment overseer had looked at her like she was a toy to be handled.
Fortunately for Auraylia, Trell didn't notice anything wrong in her response and moved off along the corridor towards the bridge. Auraylia took several deep breaths and continued on her way to the engineering area. The Third Officer had mentioned something about needing help with the security commands for one of the storage rooms off the laboratory there. For now Trell's book would have to wait.
An hour later she stood outside the storage room pressing the buttons on the door's key pad as she was directed to by the officer.
“There, that seems to be the problem,” Beth said as she read the information on the device connected to the wiring. “It thinks it's locked from the inside by a member of staff.”
“Is that fixed easily?” Auraylia asked, hoping the answer was yes so she could go back and fetch the forgotten book.
“Very. I have a higher rank so I can override it.”
“That's all it takes?” Auraylia tried to hide the shock from her voice but wasn't sure she'd succeeded.
“Yes. Anyone can lock a door, but to be on the safe side, everyone of a higher rank can open it again. That makes it harder for crew to do anything out of regulations.” No sooner had the Third Officer finished explaining than the door shot open. Inside, the walls were covered in the black gun blast marks of errant fire as well as several repair bots working on a shielded hole on one edge.
“What rank am I?” she asked, a few minutes later when their tests of the door were done and it appeared to be functioning as normal again.
“I think you're probationary. It's not technically a rank, but if it was I guess it would be the lowest.”
Aware her task was finished, Auraylia asked to be dismissed and hurried away almost before she'd got her affirmative. Ever since her first moments on board this ship and finding out that low ranks all slept in bunk beds built into the walls of a common room, she'd lost her ease at being on a Unified Federations Fleet ship. The bunks had a metal panel that slid across to give the sleeper privacy and some sound proofing and there were a few cupboards built into it for possessions, not that she had anything besides the three uniforms she'd been given, but it wasn't private enough for her liking.
As soon as she'd realised where she was expected to sleep and the sorts of people around her, she'd decided she needed to find somewhere else. It hadn't taken her long to settle on a small half-empty cargo hold off the edge of the rear engineering room. While she thought she could lock herself in it had seemed like the perfect safe haven. Now the thought of being discovered and... She shivered and pushed the memory from her mind before it could fully form. Dwelling on the past wouldn't help her live through the present.
When she reached the empty canteen she searched every table, seat and aperture for the book she'd borrowed, but it was gone and it didn't take long to search the small room enough to be certain it must have been moved by someone else. She just hoped Trell hadn't found it abandoned there.
Before she could think of another place to search, the battle alarms sounded throughout the ship. Once she had gathered her thoughts and rubbed her shin where she'd banged it in her jolt, she hurried out of the canteen and back down the corridor to the engineering room, her official station in battle.
Two seconds later the Thorian charged the other way. When he reached her he stopped and handed her a small gun.
“Do you know how to use it?” he asked. She nodded. “What about hand to hand combat?”
“I've been in plenty of fights. I grew up rough.”
“Good, come with me.”
Without waiting for her to reply, he jogged onwards down the corridor and she had to sprint to keep up, his long legs taking two-thirds of the strides she had to. They reached the edge of the ship in time for them to duck down behind two supports and avoid the weapons fire of the alien race attacking them.
Until now she had only heard stories of the Myreen race and their grey skin, tusk-like protrusions and brute strength. They weren't like she imagined but were still ugly. The Thorian waited for a lull in shots and popped his head out to return fire a couple of times before she got the hang of what he was doing and joined him.
Each time she looked at their foe she saw more of them and her shooting did little to slow them down. Even when her blasts hit the creatures they rarely stopped their advance, their armour absorbing the energy or their tough skin blistering and charring but not causing enough pain or damage to slow them.
This exchange continued for several minutes, until the Myreen weaponry ran out of cells and they charged the defending pair. The Thorian came out of hiding, handed her his much larger gun and drew two large swords from the sheaths on his back.
As the enemy came pounding towards them she shot off as many blasts as she could into the mass of bodies and waited beside the Thorian for the aliens to get close enough to fight hand to hand.
Several Myreens dropped down, too injured to continue, but it wasn't long before the remaining were too close to shoot. The Thorian joined the fray, making it even more difficult for her to aim without risking hitting him.