“Can I see him?” he asked.
“Yes, but keep it brief,” she warned. “He’s in the corner,” she added, tilting her head to the right.
Nathan stood up straight, gathering his strength as he straightened his uniform. A few moments later, he was standing at the foot of the captain’s bed. His head was wrapped with a bandage that was soaked with blood where it covered his right eye. His right shoulder still appeared odd, and Nathan realized it was probably dislocated. He had a large, wet bandage laying over his right abdomen that was also stained with copious amounts of blood. He had several large bags of fluids hanging from the ceiling, all connected to an intravenous line that had been placed in his left arm. And there was a large bag of a synthetic blood replacement fluid connected to a tube leading to the one in his right arm. He was breathing on his own, through an oxygen mask that fogged up slightly with each exhalation. His face was swollen and puffy, and at first Nathan wasn’t even sure it was Captain Roberts.
Nathan stared at him for several minutes. He wondered what the captain would have done differently if he were still in command. Would he have killed two of his crew just to suck the boarders out into space? Would he have put the ship in further jeopardy by detonating that torpedo while they were still too close? Would he have allowed those strangers to come aboard and help repair the ship? But mostly, he wondered if the captain’s injuries had somehow been his fault as well.
He was about to leave, as the guilt was starting to make him nauseated once more, when the captain spoke.
“Lieutenant,” he whispered from behind the oxygen mask.
Nathan tried to come to attention, fighting back the nausea that was still swelling up inside him. “Yes Sir!”
“How’s my ship?” he managed to ask.
“She’s busted up pretty bad sir. But we’re still here, and repairs are underway.”
“How’s the XO?”
Nathan was afraid to answer, but knew that he had to be honest. “I’m afraid he’s dead sir.”
The captain coughed several times, which appeared to cause him much discomfort.
“Chief Patel?”
“Missing.”
“Who’s in command?”
“I’m afraid I am, sir.”
The captain flashed what looked like a smile to Nathan, but it was hard to tell with all the swelling. “Well, we’re still alive, so I guess you’re doing okay so far.”
Nathan felt his guilt swelling up again. “I don’t know about that sir,” he admitted. “I think I’ve just been lucky so far.”
“Nonsense,” the captain insisted. “You’re a natural born leader, Nathan. Just like your old man.”
The statement struck Nathan as odd. Although he was aware that the captain knew of his father, he wasn’t aware that he knew anything about him.
“Sir, I don’t know that I can do this,” Nathan admitted. The thought had been running through his mind since the moment that he assumed command. And it felt good to finally admit it to someone.
“Bullshit. Just remember, it’s not about being right and knowing all the answers. It’s about making the call.” The statement had taken a lot out of the captain, who closed his eyes for a moment to rest. Nathan thought for a second that he might have slipped back into unconsciousness, but then his eyes opened again, slowly. “Nathan, take the bars from my uniform.”
Nathan looked around, finally spotting the captain’s cut-up uniform shirt laying on the counter behind him. He picked it up and carefully removed the blood stained bars. He was about to hand them to the captain, when he realized his intentions.
“Put them on,” he ordered softly from behind the oxygen mask.
Nathan reluctantly replaced his lieutenant’s bars with the captain’s bars.
“I hereby order you to assume command of the Aurora, effective immediately.”
Nathan looked down at the floor, unable to look the captain in the eye. He didn’t want the captain to see the fear in his eyes. The fear for his captain’s fate, the fear for his own fate, and most of all, his fear of command. After a few moments, he managed to raise his eyes to meet those of his dying captain, stiffening and offering a salute.
“I relieve you, Sir,” Nathan announced quietly, but with far more conviction than he expected.
The captain could not return his salute. “I stand relieved.” A wave of calm seemed to wash over the captain at that moment, as he closed his eyes again. Nathan started to turn away to exit, when he felt the captain’s hand tug at Nathan’s shirt, stopping him.
“Get them home,” he stated emphatically as Nathan turned back to him. “Get the jump drive home,” he coughed. “It’s their only hope.”
Nathan watched as the captain’s grip on his shirt loosened, his hand falling back to the bed as his eyes closed. Suddenly, an alarm on the bio-monitor started beeping rapidly, startling him. Oh my God.
Doctor Chen had been watching the entire exchange as she cared for a nearby patient. Hearing the alarm, she dropped what she was doing and came running over. “He’s crashing! I need some help in here!”
Doctor Chen pushed Nathan aside as she rushed past, her eyes on the bio-monitor the entire time. “He’s in V-Fib!” she declared.
Nathan backed away, making room for the few people available to help the Doctor as she frantically tried to resuscitate the captain. But Nathan already knew it was too late. The captain had known it as well. That was why he had transferred his command to him.
Nathan exited the sick bay and began wandering the corridor, his mind racked with an overpowering combination of guilt and grief. The medical bay was packed full of people with injuries he had probably caused, and there was a pile of bodies, bodies of men and women, all of whom had sworn to serve their world just as he had upon graduation only a few short weeks ago. Is this what it’s like to be in command?
He wandered down the corridor, not really headed in any particular direction that he was aware of. He passed an ensign that was carrying supplies back to medical. Upon seeing the captain’s bars on Nathan’s collar, the crewman immediately stopped and snapped to attention, which was something that was only done for upper level command staff. At that moment, the lights in the corridor came back on. And suddenly, Nathan knew exactly where he was headed.
Minutes later, Nathan walked onto the bridge. A young marine armed with a close-quarters defense weapon snapped to attention as he passed.
“Captain on the bridge!” the marine announced. It was the first time Nathan had been referred to as captain, and it felt strange, but in a good way.
Cameron spun around from the tactical station, expecting to see Captain Roberts, miraculously healed and returning to take command and get them safely home. But instead, she saw Nathan, wearing a pair of blood- smeared captain’s bars.
“Sorry,” Nathan apologized, seeing the disappointment in her eyes. “It’s just me.”
“I guess it’s official, then,” she admitted reluctantly. She also knew what it probably meant. “Is he…”
Nathan didn’t answer. He didn’t have to, she saw it in his eyes.
“You might want to clean the blood off of them,” she whispered as they turned back to the tactical station.
“Maybe later.”
“Main power just came back on a minute ago,” she told him, noticing him looking at the tactical displays.
Nathan looked around the bridge, noticing that they had cleaned it up in his absence. “I see you tidied up the place a bit.”
“Yeah, well, with everything down there wasn’t much to do. And a few people showed up to help, so we moved out the bodies and as much debris as possible. And we got a tech to shut down the damaged consoles so we won’t have any more sparks or fires if you decide to bounce us around again.”
“How many systems are back up?” he asked, ignoring her sarcasm.
“We’ve only just started assessing things since the power was restored a few minutes ago. We’ve got most
