Excerpt of Wreck of the Nebula Dream by Veronica Scott

Back pressed against the half-open door, he stood for a
moment, assessing the current situation in the corridor.
It now added up to pandemonium in any language. The
alarms were continuing to blare, inciting some passengers
to panic and immobilizing others. A prerecorded voice
urged calm, in flat, female tones, speaking in a rapid
rotation of Basic and the five other primary Sector
languages.

No one was paying the slightest attention. People ran in
both directions, shoving past each other. Some were half
dressed, others were burdened with luggage. There were no
crew members at all.

Frowning, he waded into the crowd, going to the left and
staying as close to the wall as he could. Since a Special
Forces team’s survival depended on familiarity with all
aspects of their environment, Nick had noted the location
of the nearest lifeboat portal relative to his cabin upon
arrival the first day. Now he worked his way aft to get
there.

With supreme – if sadly misplaced – confidence, the
captain of the Nebula Dream had not seen fit to order a
lifeboat drill in the first few days of the cruise, not
even after the middle of the night engine anomaly. Lack
of a drill, which was mandatory per the Interstellar
Commerce Commission regulations, was adding to the panic,
Nick had no doubt. Most had probably not even paid
attention to the short holo on safety the Ship played on
first entry in each cabin. Now the civilians were
clueless, desperate, and those charged with
responsibility for their safety were nowhere to be seen.

As he came up to the lifeboat portal, Nick was astounded
to see the light flashing red, indicating the LB had been
launched. What the fuck? There couldn’t possibly have
been time since the sirens came on to fully load and
deploy a boat, even assuming a full complement of SMT
crew had been standing by, waiting to usher passengers on
board.

Continuing down the corridor, Nick wondered who took the
LB, and how many people had managed to escape with it. He
suspected he wouldn’t like the answers much, but he
intended to find out, after this was all over. For an
event of this magnitude, an ICC investigatory hearing was
a foregone con¬clusion.

The crowd increased in size, and the screams and yells
became more specific, the closer he got to the next LB
davit. Since Nick was a tall man, he could see over the
heads of most of the crowd. Despite the fact the alarms
had been raging for a good five minutes standard now, he
could see the indicator light was green; this LB had not
even been unlocked.

“No one’s boarded yet?” he said, half to himself.

“Two idiots up there, fighting over who gets on first,
and neither one has a clue how to open the damn thing.” A
stout woman in a garish pink and orange robe spun to face
him, her voice disgusted but shaking, tears glistening in
her eyes. “They wouldn’t listen, not to me or anyone. I
watched the safety holo my first day on board, so I know
how to open the portal, but would they let me try? No,
they would not. I got out of the way when they started
throwing punches.”

Nick wished for a squad of Space Marines or even one
other Special Forces operator. I could sort this out and
get people loading. There was no time to waste. Disasters
in space tended to be abrupt, over with in a violent
moment. Whatever had happened to the Nebula Dream, it was
nothing short of amazing they weren’t all dead already.
Can’t push luck too far.