The Fallen
Posted on March 28th, 2003 by Adam Drake

The corridors were lonely at night, especially now that half the crew was still stranded on Alexandria with the five remaining Romulans determined to be Tal Shiar operatives. Drake walked by himself down the endless supply of hallways. The light was reduced, as it wasn’t a primary system, to be restored when they rebooted the power. Engineering on deck sixteen was left in the far more than capable hands of Ensign Fabrizio Axelrod – a new ensign fresh out of the Starfleet Aerospace Force.

As he rounded the final bend to the double doors into the morgue he grimaced. Even in the thick of battle, when enemies lurked around every corner and when there was still danger at every turn it still was hard to lose someone. Whether or not they were under your command was irrelevant, it was about losing a friend that hurt him the most.

Hissing open the room was even darker than he’d expected. There was only one body presently in there, lying casually on the bed from which whatever nurse or officer had left it. A delicate flower was laid across the torso of the covered corpse. He folded his arms as he stood there, looking at his deceased friend. In all actuality they hadn’t had the closest relationship, but she was still a colleague nonetheless; that made the friend.

Doctor Jzryn McCorvich was now on her way into the mysterious beyond. From what he’d heard, which wasn’t a lot as most people weren’t willing to talk about it or seemed to focus on other tasks, she’d been hit twice in the chest with a disrupter from the Romulans that had invaded the bridge shortly after the warp core had been powered up. No doubt it was an attempt to secure the Atlantis into their control, but it failed miserably.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t just a loss for them; the Atlantis crew lost one of their own.

The Chief Medical Officer, whom he had visited several times throughout his career at Alexandria due to holodeck programs, simple engineering accidents, or just to get a check up she’d always treated him respectively and professionally.

“Jzryn McCorvich, may the Gods bless you more in the next life than they did in this one. And let your death, however noble it may have been, not have been in vain.” Drake bowed his head, thought for a moment and said another pray to the Gods and then turned to walk out of the morgue.

Striding out he tried to put his mind on the task at hand and not his fallen friend. Too many times had he’d lost a friend or someone close to him to the art of war. This wasn’t the time to let it get to him, Engineering needed constant monitoring and therefore he was off to assist.

The new ensign, Marlowe, had his work cut out for him in Sickbay.