The silence continued unabated. It seemed like even their footsteps couldn’t break the oppressive nothingness, swallowed up within it like a single lightbulb in a pitch-black pit. Charlie MacColgan had been, before she was a first officer,  a security officer for plenty long enough to know that nothing good ever comes from silence like this.

Flashlights swept across the walls as she and Lieutenant Commander sh’Insynaph closed on the bridge, lighting up stark white that had been… scribbled across. Crayon and marker scrawled across the walls in a child’s best attempt at art, countless stick figures on a cartoonishly green world, the background scribbles of purples and pinks, a badly-drawn but heartwarmingly adorable attempt at drawing Rain Runner hovering above.

Charlie wasn’t sure what she disliked more- the pang in her gut at realizing at least one child used to be here, living a far more fulfilling and loving childhood than she… or the fact that there was at least one child who used to be here and no longer was.

She caught sh’Insynaph staring, too, for a moment.

Charlie expected to have to pry the bridge doors open, but surprisingly, they already were. Strange- they should’ve closed automatically while the ship had power. The bridge itself spread before them, horrifically cramped in comparison to Oakland‘s- consoles crammed up against each other, pathways just big enough for one person to pass through, the ceiling just low enough to make even the normally short commander want to duck a little. sh’Insynaph, significantly taller, almost actually had to, her antennae almost skimming the lower sections of the ceiling.

“… nobody here either, huh?” the Andorian muttered, probably mostly to herself.

“Does’nae look like it,” Charlie grumbled in return, splitting off to one side while sh’Insynaph took the other. The beam of her flashlight moved across the empty chairs and old carpets, swept up across old, dark LCARS displays and black marks in the steel wall-

Wait.

She popped the light back up, illuminating clear and obvious scorch marks. “Ay, C’mmander! Think I got somethin’.”

sh’Insynaph was by her in a second, a deep frown on her face- no, a grimace, and Charlie unconsciously matched it. “Gunfire. What do you think, friendly or hostile?”

“Phaser, mae’ likely,” She ran a finger along the blackened groove. “There’s nae smaller marks like ye’d get from plasma, what wi’ th’ meltin’ steel. ‘n disruptors-”

“-would’ve penetrated deeper,” sh’Insynaph finished.

Both of them froze for a second, staring at each other. Right. Two security officers, for all intents and purposes. Of course they both knew the same things.

“… aye,” Charlie relinquished with a quiet little huff of a chuckle. “Phaser on kill, methinks. Tae deep fer stun, yeah?”

“You really think a bunch of civilian scientists would’ve set a phaser on kill?” The Andorian shook her head, turning her light on a different spot on the wall- and revealing more scorch marks. “This is an awful lot of fire. I don’t think this is the scientists’ work. Whoever boarded them must’ve been armed with phasers- and they were boarded. I think we just tossed any chance of this being anything other than foul play out the airlock.”

“Could’nae agree more. Ge’ on the line wi’ the others, I’m phonin’ it in.” Charlie stepped aside and tapped her commbadge, leaning against a console and scowling at the wall. “M’Colgan tae Oakland.”

Maising’s voice was quick to respond. “Oakland here. What’ve you found, Commander?”

“Rain Runner was boarded, sir. We found phaser blast marks on th’ walls, set on kill. Nae crew on th’ bridge. Whoe’er did this, they must’a took th’ bodies- ‘n any survivors.”

“Understood, Commander. If you can find any evidence of who did this, report back immediately. Oakland out.”

Charlie sighed, leaning over one of the dark LCARS displays- then almost jumping out of her skin as it suddenly lit up beneath her. The bridge lights overhead flickered to life, and finally the bridge door slid shut automatically.

“… well, power’s back on,” sh’Insynaph commented, hand on her hip. “Almost surprised the lights still turn on.”

“Ye ‘n me both.” Charlie was already rapping away at the console, trying to access the security logs- only for a password request to greet her. “Ach, fooken’ ‘ell. S’curity’s locked, ‘n I’m nae confident th’ password’s written down on a sticky note somewhere.”

“‘Course. Someone’s gotta protect their… hours on hours of footage staring at a bunch of purple gas.” The human woman could almost feel sh’Insynaph’s irritated eye-roll. “Frickin’ eggheads sometimes, I swear-”

Her complaints were cut short with all the violence of a gut-punch as Rain Runner suddenly bucked under their feet, the entire frame of the starship shuddering around them. Charlie toppled over, barely avoiding slamming her face on the LCARS screen, and didn’t get an opportunity to get back up before another hammer blow sent her sprawling to the ground, the wind knocked from her lungs.

In the time it took her to grab a chair and haul herself upright, three other impacts had rattled the ship. “Ugh… C’mmander, damage report! Wh’ th’ hell’s hittin’ us?”

“Gimme a sec-” the Andorian shouted over the din of bursting power conduits and another two sharp hits, staggering over to the engineering console. “Uhm- damage across the entire dorsal side, something’s hammering us from above! Hull breaches on… decks two and three, both warp nacelles took hits. And we didn’t even have shields- a few more hits and we’re done for!”

“Whoe’er did this came back tae finish the job,” Charlie grunted, smacking her commbadge again. “M’Colgan tae Oakland, we’re bein’ hammered o’er ‘ere! Beam us up!”

“We’ll need to drop our shields, and that’ll leave us vulnerable!” Maising replied, voice stressed. “How long can you hold on?”

“We cannae stay here any longer! This damn ship’s nae got shields up!” Another jolt sent MacColgan back to the floor, and poor sh’Insynaph facefirst into a chair.

“… understood! Away team, prepare to beam up! We have to make this quick!”

Charlie pulled her face away from the carpet, eyes wide at the sight of one of Oakland‘s warp nacelles closing at far too rapid a pace. As the transporter finally snagged her, the XO’s final grim thought: Some bloody search-‘n-rescue trip this is. I should’a knocked on wood ‘r somethin’.