1 Liberation

I'm on board the stellar vessel Erika, it can travel at speeds fast enough to catch up to light. I've recently received a distress signal from a mining ship named Cleyton, it came 2 days from here. No other ships are available since they are in different sectors of the Galaxy. It doesn't suit a simple scouting vessel with a 10 man crew, me included, to go to a mining ship thrice our size . Alas it's our job to do this.

"Captain, let's dispatch immediately to the signal, waiting any longer could result in lives lost" I reported, "Very well, Nicolas set the destination towards the distressed ship". I quickly readied up the ship to go to the signal hastily not messing one thing up, "all crew, ready for a jump" I said on the intercom. I pulled the leaver to go into hyperdrive mode, from there I sipped a cup of coffee. "don't worry captain, the mining ship probably just doesn't have enough donuts" he gave a hearty laugh as I did too.

-1 day later-

We are only a day away from the Cleyton, we finally got a message from the Cleyton expecting it to be some sort of joke, the message was corrupted and looped. It repeated "don't", me and captain both shrugged it off, since miners have the tendency to make jokes. A mechanic came from below "hey'a cap, sooner or later we're gonna have to make a stop to get some gas, you think the Cleyton could give up some gas for their savior's" Wolfgang snickered, "yeah, they probably have enough for us and more", Captain retorted. "Maybe they could PASS us some gas" I winked awkwardly, it was painful for me too. They both tried to hide their snickering expressions, eventually they both started to laugh.

-1 hour away from the Cleyton-

The signal stopped, we can see the Cleyton clearly, perhaps they too, but it's highly unlikely that they'd turn off the distress signal. Me and the crew were sitting around at a table playing poker, Peyton throws down a full house, collecting all of the money at the table "better luck next time" he jingled. While the rest of the crew sighed, the captain spoke up "look sharp, we're approaching the Cleyton". We were approaching the Cleyton when Wolfgang shouted "we are dead in the water without fuel!". The captain wasn't nervous at all, he'd been in more skin tingling situations before. "Full sail ahead, glide through space and dock the Cleyton", it was at this point a cold sweat ran down my neck, I'd wiped it off 'i got this' I kept thinking.

We had docked the Cleyton, even from the outside we heard alarms ringing. The captain was taking people to go to the Cleyton, Captain pointed towards me. "You, me, Jordan , and Isiah will go into the Cleyton. If anything happens on the Erika tell us immediately. Alright, wish for safe voyage men." With that we left the Erika, and entered the slowly opening door. With it closing behind us we knew it'd be a while before we could see the Erika again. Finally the door to space closed, as the air compressed, a ear ringing screech rang through the entirety of the Cleyton. We had no weapons, this was probably our one mistake.