Chapter Zero

In every society, there are those who stand in the way of danger. Those who, when challenges arise, and people are threatened, step forward, and protect those that they can, while avenging those they cannot. Sometimes, they are called heroes. Other times, they are called saviors. But they need no title, no recognition, to do what they do. They do it because if they didn't, people would die. This is not to say that they didn't do it originally for glory, or for fame, or other recognition, but at this point in their lives, they have chosen to do it because they believe in what they are doing. In most species, these people are outliers, generally the stuff of legend. But not humans. Humans are different in regards to this. Humans stand up for each other, and try to protect everyone they can.

This is the story of a group of those humans, the ones who stand in death's way.

Chapter One

DSC (Dominion Space Craft) It Takes Two

"Paramedic Johnson to the bridge, Paramedic Johnson to the bridge, please." boomed the PA system.

Walking through the aft corridor, Irwin Johnson groaned. "Not again," he said. "That's the fourth time this week!" His stride picked up though, and he stepped into the nearest lift. "Bridge, please," he said to the computer controlling the lift.

"Affirmative, Paramedic Johnson," chirped the computer. "Estimated time to arrival: Thirty seconds."

The lift jolted, and began to move quickly towards the center of the ship. Thirty seconds later, the lift slid smoothly to a halt at the bridge, and the doors opened with a "swoosh." A crewer stood at the the entrance to the lift and started babbling as soon as the doors opened.

"Paramedic Johnson, come quickly! Sev'lys slipped and fell over by his console!" shrieked the crewer.

"Calm down, let's see what happened," replied Johnson. He picked up the medpack from its locker located next to the lift, shouldered it, and followed the crewer over to where Sev'lys had fallen. He walked around a row of consoles, and found... an alien sitting on the ground, holding a hand to his head.

"All right, what happened?" asked Johnson.

"I stood up, stepped on a pencil I dropped earlier, slipped, and hit my head against my desk." groaned Sev'lys.

"That must have hurt," remarked Johnson, while pulling a penlight out of his breast pocket. "Can you follow the light, please?"

He moved the light around, watching Sev'lys's pupils intently.

"What time is it?" asked Johnson.

"Uh, it's halfway through third watch." he replied.

"What's your name?"

"Sev'lys."

"Where are you?"

"I'm on the bridge of It Takes Two."

"Have you lost conciousness at any point?"

"No."

Johnson reached into his medpack, and pulled out a white package. He cracked it, shook it a few times, and handed it to Sev'lys.

"Put this against your head where you hit it," he said. "Now if you could sign these forms, please..."

About fifteen minutes later, Irwin Johnson walked off the bridge, and headed back to his quarters.

---

The door to his quarters slid open, and another human walked in.

"Hey, Angela!" said Irwin.

"Hey yourself, Irwin," she said. "I heard you got paged to the bridge there."

"Yeah, some crewer slipped on a pencil and hit his head."

"Anything good come of it?"

"Ice pack, refusal form. Y'know, I signed up for this job thinking that I'd be treating injuries in exotic locations, handling gory injuries, y'know, sci-fi stuff. But instead, I'm doing the same job that I've done for the last ten years, just on a spaceship.