Redshirts

body?” Kerensky said.
    “What?” Dahl said.
    “Do you think the switch worked?” Kerensky asked, glancing at Dahl.
    Dahl looked back at the body on the stretcher. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe?”
    “‘Maybe’ works for me,” Kerensky said, stopped the shuttle’s evasive maneuvers and jammed it as fast as it would go, straight toward the Intrepid . All around them Forshan spacecraft fired missiles, beams and projectiles. The Intrepid lit up like a Christmas tree, firing all available weapons to shoot down missiles and disable beams and projectile weapons on the Forshan spacecraft.
    “This is a bad idea,” Dahl said to Kerensky, who was grimly staring forward, keeping the Intrepid squarely in his sights.
    “We’re going to live or die,” Kerensky said. “Why fuck around?”
    “I liked you better before you were a fatalist,” Dahl said.
    A missile erupted starboard, knocking the shuttle off its course. The shuttle’s inertial dampeners flickered, hurling Hester, Duvall and Hanson around the rear of the shuttle.
    “Don’t fly into missiles!” Duvall shouted.
    “Blame the writer!” Kerensky shot back.
    “That’s a shitty excuse!” Duvall said. The shuttle rocked again as another missile scored a near miss.
    The shuttle ran through the gauntlet of ships, breaking through toward the Intrepid .
    “The shuttle bay is aft,” Dahl said. “We’re not aimed at aft.”
    “Here’s where we find out just how hot a shuttle pilot that writer thinks I am,” Kerensky said, and threw the shuttle into a reverse Fibonacci spiral, over the top of the Intrepid . Dahl groaned as the Intrepid wheeled and grew in the view screen. Missiles vibrated the shuttle as they zoomed by, narrowly missing the arcing shuttle. Dahl was certain they were going to smash against the Intrepid ’s hull, and then they were in the shuttle bay, slamming into the deck. The shuttle screeched violently and something fell off of it outside.
    Kerensky whooped and shut down the engines. “ That’s good television,” he said.
    “I’m never flying with you again,” Duvall said, from the back of the shuttle.
    “There’s no time to waste,” Kerensky said, changing his demeanor so suddenly that Dahl had no doubt he’d just been gripped by the Narrative. “We’ve got to get Hester to sick bay. Dahl, you’re with me on the left side of the stretcher. Duvall, Hanson, take the right. Let’s run, people.”
    Dahl unbuckled and scrambled over to the stretcher, unexpectedly giddy. Kerensky had used Hester’s name while under the influence of the Narrative.
    As they raced through the corridors with the stretcher, they heard the booms and thumps of the Intrepid under attack.
    “Now that we’re on board, all those ships are attacking the Intrepid, ” Kerensky said. “We need to hurry.” The ship shook again, more severely.
    “Took you long enough,” Medical Officer Hartnell said, as the four of them wheeled the stretcher into sick bay. “Any longer and there wouldn’t be a sick bay left. Or any other part of the ship.”
    “Can’t we bug out?” Dahl heard himself say, as they maneuvered the stretcher.
    “Engines have been disabled in the attack,” Hartnell said. “Nowhere to run. If we don’t get this message out of him fast, we’re all dead. Lift!” They lifted Hester’s body and put it onto a medical table. Hartnell flicked at his tablet and Hester’s body stiffened.
    “There, he’s in stasis,” Hartnell said. “He’ll be stable until all of this is done.” He looked at his medical tablet and frowned. “What the hell are all these fractures and brain trauma?” he said.
    “It was a rough shuttle ride,” Kerensky said.
    Hartnell looked at Kerensky as if he were going to say something, but then the entire ship lurched, throwing everyone but Hester to the deck.
    “Oh, that’s not good,” Duvall said.
    Hartnell’s phone activated. “This is the captain,” Abernathy said through the phone. “What’s the status of the carrier?”
    “Crewman Hester’s alive and in stasis,” Hartnell said. “I’m about to take a sample of the invasive cells to start the decoding process.”
    There was another violent shudder to the ship. “You’re going to need to work faster than that,” Abernathy said. “We’re taking hits we can’t keep taking. We need that decoded now.”
    “Now isn’t going to work,” Hartnell said. “How much time can you give me?”
    Another shudder, and the lights