The vox hisses static as I rest my head back up against the ornate rest of my command throne. I'm drifting, drifting throuh the void. It's a dull trip. All I have are my own thoughts and ghosts as I slip along the path between worlds.

Seven days now. Seven days sitting in this chair, occasionally checking dials and watching the view stretching over my ship. Five hundred lengths long, blocky, ugly. Quiet. I don't know what my cargo is this trip. Something worth the expense of space transit, nothing interesting enough to require more than a handful of distant crew and a solitary captain. Thinking about it occupies my mind for seconds.

The vox hisses and the coughs, as if it has just missed a signal. It's probably nothing, a burst of interference from the local star. It gives me something to do. I reach over and start playing with the controls, scanning the frequency left and right. There's nothing there. I lean back again.

The vox coughs again. This time I hear words, to faint, to broken to understand. I reach forwards again, start adjusting the vox, carefully, slowly. I know there's something there now.

I find it.

"...someone there? ..any.ne there? ..please.... please...?"

My hand freezes on the controls, the voice breaks up, sobbing. I listen.

"...there's... is someone there? ...please... is someone..."

My hand is steady, my face impassive.

"...ir is running o... oxygen reserves at..... lve percent. please... repond..."

Her voice is young. Maybe her early twenties. She can't be a captain, not at that age. Lieutenant, maybe. Ensign, most likely.

"...out there? please... i'm cold...scared..."

My hand shakes a little. Her voice is so small. Lost and afraid.

"...why can noone hear me... why is noone listening... i'm so scared..."

My hand shakes. A tear runs down my cheek. I look away from the speaker grill. Guilt rends my soul.

"...i'm alone... save me...please...save me..."

The ship trembles as it hits the debris field. Fist sized lumps of metal hit the forward shields, their deflection silent as the grave in the void. Whatever was here was big, maybe a transport or a light cruiser. Whatever it was it was only a hulk now, drifting silently past the port side. From the looks of things, the plasma reactor had gone into critical overload. The radiation leak would have killed everyone onboard instantly.

"...please... save me... please..."

I look away from the hulk, tears in my eyes. The voice is growing fainter now as we pull away from the wreckage. The vox is breaking up. The voice is a whisper.

"...save me... i'm scared... alone..."

The voice breaks away into static as the auger scans return from the wreck. No life signs.

"...please..."

The vox hisses static as I rest my head back up against the ornate rest of my command throne. I'm drifting, drifting throuh the void. It's a dull trip. All I have are my own thoughts and ghosts as I slip along the path between worlds.