Free Space Rescue One by Atk. Butterfly

noticed that she didn't even appear conscious. He pushed on the cabin door.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â The man inside stopped undressing Shelly and turned toward the opening cabin door. He lunged at it, seeking to keep out anyone who might interfere or discover the truth.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Richard felt the door hit him hard. He fell backwards as the door almost reached the jamb. The shoe with its steel safety inserts in the toe caught between the door and jamb. Before it could be removed by the man, Richard launched himself from the deck and against the door with as much force as he could muster. The man fell back into the room. Before the man recovered his feet fully, Richard kicked out once with his own steel-capped shoes, catching the man in the jaw. The man jerked up and fell back in a heap farther inside the cabin.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Seeing no more resistance from the man, Richard quickly checked to see if he was alive or not. Satisfied that the man was alive and not in danger of dying, Richard turned his attention to Shelly.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â It took a few moments to pull her clothes back into place after discovering that she was truly unconscious as he'd suspected. He retrieved her shoe and replaced it on her foot. Taking her arm over his shoulder, he half-carried and half-dragged Shelly out of the cabin. Reaching the corridor, he gently let her slump down against the bulkhead to the deck. He turned and closed the cabin door, satisfied that he had sufficiently punished the perpetrator for what he attempted. Richard felt sure that the man would likely have to nourish himself with liquids for several weeks. Richard turned to pick Shelly back up.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â In the dim corridor light, a distant voice came to him. "Hey, you! What are you doing? Security! Security!"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Unsure of how he looked to others, Richard thought of his job first. Without his job, he didn't have a chance in the universe of fulfilling his obligation. He paused for only a mere moment of indecision before he quickly walked away from Shelly, leaving her to be found by the ship's security personnel.

    ***
    Chief Dickson exited the bar sooner than he planned when his name was paged over the intercom. In a way, he felt blessed to be called away. The questions the passengers wanted answered were embarrassing and insulting. Despite his polite answers and equally polite denials, several passengers had accused him of everything short of mass murder. He turned the corner in the corridor intersection only to almost bump into Technician Saber.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "Going to the bar? It's back the way I came from," he said as the two of them continued on in the same direction.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "I heard you being paged. Thought you might need some help, so I changed directions instead of going to bed," Richard replied.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "I guess I misjudged you again. Sorry."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "What's up?" Richard asked.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "I don't know yet," Isaac answered.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Isaac glanced at the bandaid on Richard's right hand. "Fall down while drunk?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "No, I didn't. I tried to go through a door while someone else was going the other way."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "Oh."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â The two men continued to walk toward the sick bay area where a doctor was exiting one room and happened to spot them. "I'm glad you got here fast, Chief. I've got one of your people inside. She's okay, near as I can determine. My preliminary estimate is that someone drugged her. Her clothes were somewhat open at the seams. It's my guess that she was probably about to be raped when she was found. She's lucky that someone happened along at the right time to alert security. The man who did this to her got away though. Security is trying to identify him from passenger photos with the help of their witness."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â "One of my