Jayme sat in her berth on the light cruiser, they were on their way to a Thermoplyea when they were diverted, to a coordinates where they were receiving a distress signal from a freighter. Jayme sat on her bunk, legs crossed, eyes closed with the calming stone in her hands. Shed found the a note, the stone, and a PADD, stuffed in her pack. At first she there was no change; slowly she decided to lower the extra shields she'd placed, to keep Tiyanna from picking up on her exhaustion both physical and emotonal. Soon she felt a warmth penetrate her mind and her muscles relaxed. The thought crossed her mind that since she was basically a passanger until they ran into trouble to reached Thermoplyea and now would be a good time for her to catch up on her sleep.
Jayme lowered a few more layers and continued to meditate, and then the flash backs began, from the toughest parts of her training, survival school, and then her tour of duty on Europa Station...she raised those shields back up and opened her eyes and climbed off the bunk soaked with a cold sweat...damn! she thought. She was cleaning up when the yellow alert lights came on and the intermittant buzzing of the alarrm. She dried off and threw on her clean set of fatiues and headed to the bridge.
The ship they were sent to investigate was still emitting its distress signal. F'lak turned to Jayme. "We're not picking up any life signs. The hull has been breached and there is no atmosphere. Take you team and investigate."
She went down to the troop deck and yelled over the din . "Alpha team suit up 'zero atmosphere and meet me at the lock in fifteen!" No one moved and she looked around, "move your asses!" Jayme moved to the locker that held her suit and in record time was dressed, armed, and at the lock waiting for her squad to arrive. She was waiting impatiently when the last of them joined her. "Next time, I have to stand here and wait for you sissies--you'll find yourselves spaced without your suits. Do You Understand Me!"
"Yes, Ma'am!" they answered in unity.
"What we find will no doubt be grizly. We need to find out what happened and get our asses back here! Touch nothing without consulting me first!" The airlock cycled and they stepped into the lock and the door closed and depressurized and they manually cycled the freighters doors and entered.
After three hours of horror they'd checked the main crew levels finding evidence of phaser fire, demolition charges, and some of the bodies showed signs of physical violence. The whole in the hull had been inflicted from the outside. Jayme stopped and analyzed a blood sample from one of the dead crew men and found high levels of 'dust' metabolites, "for the record please not the crew appears to have been using 'Dust'. Here and there she tested other and found the same. "These people were dead before the hull was blown." She said into her recorder and to her crew of twenty.
From another area one of her troopers called. "Captain."
"Yes." she answered noting the stress in his voice.
"I am about to unseal the lower hold. Request that you join me down here, ma'am."
"On my way." she said and signalled to the rest of her team to join them. There was a technical group who was pulling the comm logs and engineering ones, they'd already gotten the 'ships captains log'.
At the lower holds they'd found a mega shipment of dust--several of the canisters had been opened...she shook her headed and knew where the rest of the supply had gone. She made eye contact and nodded to the nco who was waiting to open the other holds. The doors opened and inside were over a hundred dead G'kar. If that wasn't bad enough there were obvious signs of assault and raping. She heard over the open channel someone retching. "Some one help him and make sure he doesn't aspirate his own vomit!" Two crewment had already moved to help before she'd completed her order. She moved further into the hold, saddened but knew this was just one of the many unpleasant sides to war. She hit her record button and noted some details and 'they were dead before the hull was blown also.'. They'd videio tapped and recorded her observations and they all headed for the other corridor.
<Capt. Alcon to Capt, F'lak.>
<F'lak here.> he said. He'd been tied into her communication and video net and seen everything.
<Do we fix the hole and repressurized and send it in to be salvaged?>
<No, I want you to set the brigman charages and get back here and we'll blow the ship from a safe distances...sending all our peoples souls home.>
<Understood. Setting charges and returning.>
Her people had been monitoring the orders. "You heard the Captain, set the charges with remote detination. Everyone off in thirty minutes! Move it!"
"Give me a count!" she ordered.
"All twenty accounted for," her senior chief confirmed. They were all back on the Dark Fury and moving away from the dead ship. She stripped and checked on her crew and then headed for the bridge. She arrived on the bridge and watched the crew work and waited for the F'lak to finish his conversation with several senior staff.
He turned to her, "I saw the carnage, I'm sorry I had to send troops over there!"
She nodded and took several breathes, and then locked her eyes on his and said, "They had better get used to this...its war."
"You're almost as much a virgin when it comes to this kind of carnage as they are, don't deny that. It was hard for me and I've been to the concentration camps and have seen other slaver ships."
"I didn't say I wasn't affected, Sir! But, I've been trained and know to expect it." How long until you plan to detenate the charges?"
"Soon."
Forty minutes later she watched as the ship exploded into tiny little pieces. "Sir, if you'll excuse me I am going to go down to the troop level and see to my teams.
"Dismissed, Jayme."
The next day they arrived at Thermopylea where her teams debarked and she supervised another team move in. She ran into Rae the CMO on the Darkl Fury, "Captain--dinner is in an hour at Mer'ans and Issiras quarters. That was an order from on high."