admiral 1

admiral archer is assigned to a new post as captain of what he has been told is a shipping tanker whose logistics deal in private contracts. being a very By The Book person he doesn’t feel the need to look into it further, he’s just here to do his job and initially trusts that others will as well. he eventually notices, however, that his fellow staff members are... odd, to say the least. sometimes they speak to him in a way that makes him feel pandered to, or coddled, which leaves an uncomfortable imprint on him. it eventually becomes so much that archer’s suspicions have been raised enough to do a little investigating.

all of the contracts look legit and while the volume of product changing hands doesn’t quite make sense, he wants to assume it’s just something over his head. he’s not an accountant, but he can see these deliveries are regular. one day, he notices an area of the ship he’s definitely never been in. it looks like a sterile, science lab or hospital setting. as he gets further down a long hall way, he starts to see strange looking equipment and locked,  curtained rooms. he almost turns around and leaves, but a feeling in his gut convinces him that there’s more to see.

PERSONNEL ONLY

#43
HIGHLY VOLATILE

these posted signs make archer’s shoulders tense. this ship isn’t an ordinary delivery service. this he knows right away. white knuckled, he slowly opens the door. he’s come this far, after all.

this ship and everything and everyone on it are his responsibility. it’s time to see what he’s gotten himself into.

the room is bright, almost blindingly so. there are gentle mechanical humming sounds, accompanied by a low, steady beeping. there is a figure on the floor, arms held behind their back by restraints. dark, wavy hair obscures their face as their head hangs down. there is a tube, which archer imagines is connected to their face, and IVs and sticky white pads connected to one of their arms — that’s where the beeping is coming from, it’s monitoring their vitals.

they look good, at least.
blood pressure seems a little low.

the person looks up at archer, registering his footsteps as unfamiliar. their eyes immediately change from a dark blue to a bright violet and though their mouth is covered by a mask, it’s like archer can almost hear them gasp.

it’s then that archer realizes that he’s seen them before.

at an intergalactic checkpoint in the next galaxy over, while archer was headed back to central command... he remembers passing them in the opposite line. he thinks of how they locked eyes for just a moment and archer was mesmerized just by how beautiful he found them. it was clear that they were some type of alien, but not a species he was familiar with.

seeing them now, chained up and captive makes his blood run cold. when they shift in obvious discomfort is when archer’s eye line travels downward. they had been covered up before, hunched over like that, but now... archer can very clearly see their heavy, rounded out middle, their light hospital gown clinging to it. it looks painful.

archer feels nauseous.
cautiously, as if this person is made of glass, he approaches them and gestures that he can take the mask off. they nod weakly and archer removes it as gently as he can, though as what is undeniably a feeding tube snakes up their throat they can’t help but erupt into a series of dry coughs. quickly, archer hits the lock on the restraints and their arms slump forward — they hiss in pain as stretched muscles return to their normal position and they somewhat clumsily wrap themselves around their stomach, curling in and groaning.

archer doesn’t know what to do. softly, he places his hands on their shoulders, trying to steady them, but also provide some sort of comfort... they flinch just a little before their shoulders relax and their voice rasps as they try to get it into a usable state.

archer can feel them tremble and he honestly can’t see how this person could be labeled as volatile. when they look up at him and their eyes glitter, archer is sure that he knows them. it has to be them.

“it’s you...”

a quiet, wheezing voice cuts through the sterile silence. archer’s heart hurts in this moment.

“it’s... it’s not safe here.”

“i can’t just leave you.”

though archer’s tone of voice is resolute, they weakly shake their head and slump forward. archer can see a qr code on the side of their neck.

“they’ll take you too if they see you here.”

archer wants to say that’s not possible, that he’s the captain of this ship, but it’s in that moment that he sees a dark green hat crumpled in the corner of the room. it looks exactly like the one he wears now.

this is what’s happened to the last captain of the ship. the one who supposedly abandoned his post.