Everything changes

Authors note: This is 3 LC's that form one long narrative, so I am posting them here under the collective title. It is set 16 days after One Night and a couple of weeks after the events of Steel River.





Captain's Log. The Sentinel is four weeks into the testing of her Interspatial Warp Engines, and all preliminary reports indicate they are performing better than this ship's predecessor's test, as well as providing extra stability to the fabric of subspace at high warp. More analysis is required, but this could mean a lifting of the Warp 5 limit in non emergencies. We are-


"Captain. I'm picking up a distress call."


Stunshock spun around in his chair to face Ensign Willie Wurz at Tactical, who had become the permanent stand in while Roderick recovered from his spinal injury.

"On screen."


The viewscreen flickered to a heavily static screen, but through the flickers could be seen a Vulcan woman on the bridge of an old NX class ship.



"This is******* Arwen of the Evens********** under heavy attack by *******rates. Shields are down and *********** boarded. Need help now************"

The screen cut out. Stunshock's heart leapt into his throat as he quickly turned back to Wurz.


"Where is she?"


"Korva cluster. Sensors are picking up heavy weapons fire, but can't get any more readings at this range."


"Jenna. Intercept, maximum warp. All hands, red alert. Prepare for combat."


As the Sentinel came about and charged to the rescue, Emony started tapping her finger on her console. There was something about the Korva cluster. Something she was supposed to remember. But what was it?






It took them ten minutes to reach the location of the Evenstar. As they dropped from warp, everyone was on edge.

"Wurz. Anything?"

There a slight pause as the ensign checked her sensors again.

"The Evenstar is badly damaged. Reading plasma fires through the entire engineering decks. Her power systems are nearly offline, but I am detecting numerous lifesigns, mainly concentrated in and around the bridge. There is no sign of the attackers."



"Maintain red alert. Take us within transporter range. Sickbay, prepare to receive the survivors."

"My teams are all ready Captain."

Luawra sounded as confident as ever over the comm. He could only imagine the flurry of activity that was taking place down there.


The ship moved up to the stricken civilian ship.


"Still no sign of the attackers Sir."


"All transporter rooms, I want everyone off that ship as soon as the shields drop."


Emony glanced over to Talaina, suddenly realising what she had missed.


"CAPTAIN! Remember when we were in Steel River a few weeks ago, and we saw the future version of Talaina?"


Stunshock nodded. He remembered. And he had hated seeing his First Officer and dear friend in such a horrific state of injury.


"Talaina told me that we must avoid the Korva Cluster. This is where she was so badly injured."

"But if I know that I'm going to be injured, I can avoid it."

"You don't understand. It wasn't just you Talaina, it was everyone that suffered. Sir, this is clearly an ambush."


Stunshock drew a deep breath. Emony and Stunshock had been the only two that had been in Steel River. They were the only ones who know how bad things would get if this was the point. But that was also his Life Mate over there. In addition to her, there was her crew, and this was a Starfleet vessel. They had responsibilities.


"Either this is a trap, or the attackers have fled. But either way, we are not about to abandon the crew of that ship."


Talaina leaned over her station.


"Sir. Suggest we deploy the Scorpions for cover before we drop our shields."


"Very well."


Talaina sent the commands and the 5 Scorpion class fighters all launched from the rear of the ship. They took up a defensive position around the ship.


"Still nothing on sensors."



"Lower shields and begin transport."


The instant the shields lowered, a bright flash on the viewscreen rocked the ship.


"REPORT!"


Wurz struggled to maintain hold on her console as the ship rocked from intense weapons fire, struggling to get the shields back up.


"Something just knocked out the shields! We're taking heavy damage! Shields are not coming back online."


Talaina ran over to Tactical to help Wurz.


"Jenna, evasive manoeuvres!"

The vessel was already trying to move, but the first volley had hit her impulse engines, greatly reducing her ability to flee.


Talaina slammed her fist on the console in frustration.


"Sensors are completely blind."


"Emony. Xui Li, see what you can do."



The ship rocked again, explosions ripping through the consoles at the rear of the bridge. Smoke started filling the bridge as fires broke out from the heavy weapons impact.


Another explosion at the helm sprayed young Ensign Jenna Jones, sending her to the deck in a shriek, badly burning her face. Stunshock jumped up and dashed forward, taking the helm. Without sensors or the viewscreen, they were flying blind, but he used the impulse engines to start a rotation of the ship.


The intruder alarm started blaring. Wurz brushed the matted hair from her eyes.


"We're being boarded! Gorn lifesigns across the ship!"


Stunshock made his way to his chair, punching a control.


"TRT. All security. Secure the ship, any means. All hands, we are being boarded. Prepare for combat!"


Another explosion knocked the Jeroan to the ground, breaking his shoulder from the awkward impact. The smoke on the bridge was getting thick, making it hard to see. The stench was burning his nostrils. Xui Li had laid Jenna away from the consoles as Talaina barked orders. Wurz tried to get the weapons systems online, but power was failing across the ship. The whine of transporters rang in his ears. Time seemed to slow as Stunshock rolled over, looking up at the already fading lights as a team of five Gorn appeared in the centre of the bridge, weapons drawn. They started firing instantly. A cry told him Xui Li was hit. One of them glared down at Stunshock, raising his foot to stomp on the Captain's head.



A knife cut through the smoke, embedding itself firmly in the Gorn's eye. He let out a growl and slammed his foot down, reaching up and yanking the blade out. Talaina leapt across the Bridge, planting a heel kick into the Gorn's jaw and forcing him back into the others. Landing on her hands, she kicked upwards, hitting the Gorn's crotch. Spinning around, she grabbed her knife and jumped off the Gorn's knee and up over his head, driving the knife down through his scales and piercing his brain. The attacker dropped to the ground, but Talaina didn't give up. She was already moving to attack another, although they had already realised what was happening and were outflanking her.



Wurz pulled her phaser and started firing at the Gorn. Flashes of weapons crossed back and forth across the Bridge. A hand grabbed Stunshock's shoulder. Emony started pulling her Captain away from the boarders. The sharp pain cleared the fog of his mind.



He waved Emony away and grabbed a piece of shrapnel, rolling over and stabbing it into the nearest Gorn's knee. The brute responded by kicking Stunshock across the Bridge. He smashed his head against the corner of a console. As blackness swarmed his vision, he felt the warm trickle of blood running into his eye from a heavy wound somewhere on his forehead. He struggled to get up, to fight back the wanting familiarity of unconsciousness, but couldn't. Why had the Gorn attacked Arwen's ship, and now his? And more importantly, he had to make sure his crew survived. Spitting blood from the exertion, he shifted enough weight to be able to stand. No sooner had he regained his footing, he felt the warmth of a Gorn blaster hit him square in the back. The sensation quickly spread throughout his body as he collapsed, knowing he would never be able to fight off this. The last thing he saw was Talaina ducking a Gorn's left hook, only for another one to grab her left arm and twist it in an unnatural way.


"I'm sorry...."









In Engineering, Bosip was cursing. It was only sixteen days since he had been demoted from Chief Engineer, and now the ship was falling apart. Gweevle, bless him, was trying his best, and under normal circumstances, would make an excellent Chief. But the ship had been boarded and something had knocked out the ship's primary power grid. A phaser fight had broken out in the corridor outside, the TRT doing what they did best. The older Andorian turned to the alien who now had his job.


"I'm telling you, we need to restart the entire power grid. Shutting down the core and restarting it will bring everything back!"


"We'd lose what shields we have! Life support, weapons, we'd be a sitting aquatic animal!"


The alien narrowed his eye as he read the pop up display on the eye piece he wore.

"If we channel power from the transwarp drive into the warp reaction chamber, that should give us the boost we need to get the systems back."


"NO! We don't have time to set up the relays! And one wrong input variable, we would invert the entire ship into subspace. Or some other blasted dimension. I don't want to go back to that blue universe."


"And if we do a systems restart, there's no guarantee it'll work. We don't know what the Gorn used to cripple us!"


Bosip punched the console, very nearly turning his anger on Gweevle. He paused, his antenna curling in frustration as he tried to remember the calming techniques Shalonda had tried to teach him.



"It will take less time to restart the ship than what you're proposing."



Gweevle wiggled his fingers quickly as he thought about it.


"Aaaaaaaah. Fine. Do it."


Bosip didn't even acknowledge it; he just went straight to work.









Roderick limped along the deck, carrying a Gorn blaster. He'd been trying exercises to recover from his spinal injury when the ship was attacked. And he would be damned if he was going to let the ship fall. The Bar was one of the 'safe zones' a place designated to head for if the ship was ever boarded by superior numbers, due to its ability to be properly defended. Up ahead, he saw Claudius, a fairly new addition to the Security Teams, kneeling behind debris from a blown wall panel. He was shooting at a group of Gorn.


"Commander Roderick. Nice tah see yer still around."


"Huh. No thanks to these lizards. Seen anyone else?"


"Nee one living. But I am picking up life signs in The Bar. Just need to get past tha one guy down there."


Claudius fired again down the hall and ducked. A hail of minigun fire chewed up the wall behind him.


"I may not be able to run, but I can still shoot."



Roderick and Claudius waited for the Minigun to finish before they both popped up and opened fire with a hail of phaser fire. The Gorn was heard scrambling away, breaking into a Jeffrey's Tube and moving away in the walls.


Roderick smiled.

"Didn't realise Gorn's were part chicken."


"Nah. Musta scared 'im good."


Roderick put an arm around Claudius and made their way quickly to The Bar. When they entered, they saw twenty crew members, bound and gagged. There were no Gorn in the room. At least, none Roderick could see, and tricorders showed only crew members.



"I don't get it. Why take so many prisoners, and leave them here?"


Roderick moved to the first group of hostages. He removed one of the gags and began untying the ensign.


Claudius was guarding the door.

"You hear that?"
"What?"
"That whine. It's getting louder."


"I don't hear anything."


"It almost sounds like..... Oh HELL!"


Claudius dove out of the room as the phaser that had been left among one of the groups overloaded. Roderick only had time to register the initial flash before the fire washed over him and everyone in the room.











Grimworm tossed a grenade down the corridor, ducking for cover as it ignited. The Gorn had also taken cover, and none were caught in the blast. Grimworm quickly came up firing his Minigun, Karry and Ttorkkinn flanking him either side. For some reason, although the Gorn had beamed onto the entire ship, they seemed to be focused on getting to Main Engineering. It was only due to that area being reinforced to prevent the Insterpatial Warp Drive from affecting the rest of the ship was it they were not able to beam directly in there. Or so one of the technicians caught in this fight theorised. It made sense to Grimworm, so he just ran with it. And if the Gorn wanted to get into Engineering, then Grimworm was going to stop them. Physically one of the few who could go hand to hand with a Gorn and stand a chance of winning, the Hulkanian was determined to safeguard his shipmates.







Talaina was in agony. Her left arm had been broken either side of the elbow, but there were still three Gorn on the Bridge. Wurz and some security officers had forced two in the briefing room, but the third was proving more difficult. Having taken cover behind one of the auxiliary consoles, he maintained fire. The smoke had reduced visibility to nothing; her laboured breathing was not helping. She had already ordered Emony and anyone else still able to remove the injured from the Bridge using one of the forward turbolifts. Talaina was stalking this one Gorn, and though he had the upper hand in strength, she knew the layout of the land. Which gave her the advantage.


Moving up the right side of the Bridge, she kept low, biting her lip to keep the pain at bay. The sound of phaser fire from the Briefing Room was slowing down. She hoped that meant Wurz had won. But she couldn't worry about that now, she saw a large shape moving in the smoke. Moving swiftly, she ran forward, sliding feet first between the shape's legs and driving her knife between its legs, pushing the blade into the tender scales as hard as possible. The Gorn roared in pain and swung a backhand, catching Talaina. The hit to her face exploded colourful spots across her vision, mixing into the grey smoke in a beautifully chaotic mosaic. But she forced herself on, kicking her legs up to spin her around and upper cutting the Gorn. Not the smartest of moves, but one that gave her a few precious moments to regain her senses. Unfortunately, she was not quite quick enough and saw a clawed hand coming to shred her face. She ducked down as fast as possible, one of the claws piercing her right antenna. The pain was unbearable now as the tip of the antenna flicked away into the smoke. Blood gushed out, staining her white hair a crimson blue. Dropping to her knees, she gasped for breath, her lungs burning from the smoke. The Gorn hissed at her. Talaina slowly raised her eyes, seeing her attacker, one of his claws on his left hand coated in her blood.


"You fight well Andorian."


"You die well, Gorn."


The Gorn raised his hand, only to suddenly explode. Emony stumbled through the smoke, carrying a large weapon that had been under development for fighting Borg. Essentially firing a high yield physical explosive, Talaina realised the Trill must have grabbed it from the science labs when she took the Captain and survivors below decks.


"Thanks Emony."



"Come on. Let's get out of here."


Emony offered a hand, helping Talaina to her feet. She turned to the turbolift, but Talaina had something to do first.


"Computer. Initiate Boarding protocols, authorisation Kazzur, Alpha Alpha Six One Four Two Omega."


"Confirmed. All computer systems have been locked down."


A squeal from Emony snapped Talaina round. A sharp stabbing hit her left side as she felt herself lifted up off the deck. The two Gorn had broken out of the Briefing Room and one of them had stabbed his claws through her. He held her close, growling.



"You die well, Andorian."








Bosip couldn't believe what he was seeing. The restart had worked, and power was back. The ship's shields were holding, preventing any more Gorn from beaminig aboard. But what he saw on sensors didn't fill him with hope. Surrounding the Sentinel and Evenstar were ten Gorn battle cruisers.


"How are we supposed to get out of this?"


"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!"

Gweevle started muttering in his native language, an indication just how stressed he was getting.


Suddenly, he snapped his fingers.


"AH! I have it! But we need helm control!"


"We can't get to the Bridge!"


"No no no. We can't. Computer, is anyone on the Bridge?"


"Commander Kazzur and Commander Bearlo are on the Bridge. There are two Gorn lifesigns on the Bridge."



"Ooohhh, that's not good. Computer, re-route helm control to Engineering."


"Boarding protocols are in effect. Authorisation required."


"This is Chief Engineer Gweevle. Authorisation Papa Seven One Four Echo X-ray. Authorise unlock."



"Command code accepted. Voice recognition accepted. DNA match confirmed. Helm controls are now routed to Main Engineering."



Bosip watched as Gweevle moved to another console.

"What are you doing?"



"We can't go anywhere. If we do, we leave the Evenstar to the mercy of the Gorn. And we wouldn't survive a sudden jump anyway, not with the condition the hull is in."


"So?"


"So we send the Gorn away. Power up the Transwarp engines."



There was a flicker of recognition across Bosip's features.


"Oh you evil, evil man. I love it!"











The Sentinel began moving, drawing the Gorn ships after them. However, one of the ships broke off pursuit and jumped to warp. The nacelles of the Sentinel began glowing brightly. The ship fired its thrusters, flipping over backwards. The power from the Transwarp Engines flowed through the ship, channelling into the main deflector dish. It began glowing with the same intensity, before a pulse blasted through space at the Gorn fleet. Explosions ripped through the secondary hull as power relays overloaded, the deflector itself fracturing into pieces. The pulse detonated with a bright flash in the centre, ripping open space and creating a Transwarp Vortex. The Gorn ships had no chance to escape. Each one was drawn into the vortex and flung to a random point. The vortex closed as quickly as it opened, leaving the Sentinel and Evenstar the only two ships left.






The Gorn held Talaina close, feeling her life ebb away. He flexed his claws, puncturing her internal organs.


"Your Captain is ours. We will take this ship back as a trophy. Its engines will allow the Gorn to attack faster than anyone thought possible. But you won?t be allowed to see it."


Talaina tried to spit defiantly at the Gorn, but a thin trickle of blood from her lips was all she could muster. The Gorn's communicator beeped.


"What is it?"


"I don't know how, but the Starfleeters have vaporised our ships."


"What do you mean vaporise?"


"I don't know how. But they fired a pulse that made all of our ships in the system disappear. Vanish."



"Can you take the engine room?"

"No. It's too well defended."


"Then proceed to the escape pods. We're outnumbered, but at least the Captain and the others will tell us how to build another of these engines."

"Yes Sir."



The Gorn looked at Talaina.


"Time to end this."



He reached up to grab her head and twist it off like a bottle top when an explosion made him turn. His other officer had exploded, and Emony stood there, weapon in hand. The smoke swirled around her as she reloaded and aimed at the Gorn.


"You wouldn't shoot me. I hold your shipmate."



"I've had a really bad month. And I am really, really starting to hate lizards."


She fired.















Ship's Log. Acting Captain Bearlo recording.


The Gorn ambush severely crippled the Sentinel. They knew we would respond to the distress call from the Evenstar. From what we have been able to piece together, they were after the Interspatial Warp Drive we have been testing. Though we were able to keep this technology from them, it cost us. The Sentinel is operating on minimal power. Gweevle has been forced to run the core on emergency power levels to prevent it from overloading our unstable systems. There have been numerous casualties from the boarding parties. Lt Frank Roderick perished in an ambush set up using members of the crew as bait. Lt Ernie Hauser lost his life ensuring the rest of the staff in his science lab escaped. It's..... it's too much to go into now. A formal report of the casualties will be made once we have made it back to a spacedock.


However, we did not just loose crew members to death. It appears the Gorn raided one of the 'Safe Zones' and captured Captain Stunshock and nearly a fifth of the crew. I can only assume they were onboard the Gorn ship that left the battle early. They could be anywhere now. We are in no state to go after them. We don't even have an operational warp drive.








Emony stood in sickbay. It was one of the few places on the ship that had received little damage. It was filled with the moans of the injured. Luawra's team moved as expertly as they could, but the toll was catastrophic. How Luawra was able to block out the pain from all of these people was a mystery. But she figured the Betazoid was used to such things, or she would never have become a doctor.


Arwen entered the sickbay. She approached Emony and looked at the prone form of Talaina on the bio bed.


"How is she?"


"Heavy internal organ failure. Broken arm in two places. Antenna ripped off. Massive blood loss. The Doctors had to put her into a stasis coma to preserve her until we can get to a spacedock."


"And the rest of your crew?"


Emony grimaced, and brushed some hair away from her face, revealing a nasty cut to her temple.


"We lost a lot of people. And the Gorn took many too. I... I don't know where. I'm sorry Arwen, but Stunshock was among those taken."


Arwen's eyebrows moved together in concern ever so slightly. She was trying to mask her pain, and seemed to be doing a good job of it.

"I see. If there is any assistance the Evenstar can provide, we will naturally be at your disposal."


"Thank you. But you need to get yourself repaired. Structural integrity won't hold up to warp speed, and we destroyed the Transwarp coils in that little stunt. I think the best thing would be for the Evenstar to get warp capable and head to the nearest starbase. Get them to send a ship out here to help us."


"Very well. We will proceed at best speed."


Arwen nodded and left the sickbay. Emony took in a deep breath, slowly letting it out. Turning, she made her way to her quarters. They were badly damaged, with shards of the glass table scattered across the floor. They crunched under her boots as she sat down on the couch. Roderick was gone. The brave man who had been with them since they had transferred to the Sentinel. But worse, Ernie was gone. They had been close friends for years. He had been invaluable to helping her recently during her confusion. She still didn't know exactly what to do. She had relied on Ernie to comfort her, to give her an ear to talk to. And now.... one of her best friends was gone. A lot of people's best friends were gone. Their brothers, sisters, sons, daughters. Blinked out. For petty greed. Emony rested her head in her hands. A tear slipped out as the grief overpowered her. It was better to grieve now, and appear strong to the crew. After all, she was the Captain now.

Mirrat and Gar stood in the burnt husk that used to be The Bar. The Jem'Hadar gazed around the room with quiet contemplation.


"Roderick died with honour."


Gar replied, prompting Mirat to turn and glare at the Breen.


"I antagonised him, abused him, fought him, but I always respected him. Frank Roderick had the spirit of a warrior. Even after his injury, he fought to stay alive. You will show him some respect."


Gar said something, then turned and left. Mirat narrowed his eyes. Perhaps he had misjudged Gar. Disrespecting a fallen warrior, either a friend or enemy, who died in an ambush trying to save his shipmates, was not the action of someone Mirat wanted to be friends with. Perhaps he would have to re-evaluate certain things.



"Sleep well Roderick."






In Engineering, Gweevle was busy directing people to fix the ship. The occasional shower of sparks erupted from the dormant Warp Core, causing panic among the technicians every time. Xui Li stood beside the alien, holding a PADD and making an inventory of what supplies remained. Gweevle moved over to Xui Li.


"I hear you got hit by a Gorn weapon."

"Yes. It was during the early stages of the attack. I, ah, was helping Ensign Jones and was shot in the back. I was, ah, lucky the weapons were only set to stun."


Gweevle gently patted her shoulder.


"I'm glad to see you're ok."


"And I, you. But there are many that are not."


"I'm sure Luawra will help heal everyone. She and her staff work miracles."



"Not this time. She has reported over fifty officers have died. And that, ah, does not include those taken."


Gweevle grimaced. He wasn't sure how to process this loss. Since the Sentinel picked him up in that pod, he had never really encountered loss of this magnitude. He didn't know how his shipmates would respond.


"I think Shalonda is going to be busy the next few weeks."


"Shalonda was, ah, among those taken."


Gweevle just blinked, not sure what to do next. He cleared his throat and looked at the damage report. It would take them months to get the ship back in shape, assuming they could get to a drydock. Which was not going to happen unless they could fix the warp drive and the structural integrity field. He fidgeted a bit before moving to a console and started working.





Ensign Willie Wurz sat at one of the auxilliary science consoles on the bridge. The stench of smoke still lingered in the air, even though the room had been cleared hours ago. Her left arm was in a sling from where a Gorn had torn open her arm. Luawra had set the bones and muscles back, but didn't want to use the limited resources to heal her completely once her life was out of danger. An understandable concern and one Wurz would have demanded on anyway. There were those in much worse shape. Like Jenna. Wurz cast a lingering glance over to the empty helm station. With a sigh, she turned back to the sensor logs.



Ttorkkinn came over.



"Any luck?"


"The data banks took heavy damage. I'm picking through them, but there were ten Gorn ships out there, it's hard to keep track of which one was which."


"We only need to know one."


"Yes, but I'm also trying to identify what they hit us with in the initial volley. It looked like it was some kind of subspace fluctuation pulse. It overloaded the sensors and shields at the same time."



Ttorkkinn nodded.


"Let me know when you have something."


The leader of the TRT made his way across the Bridge to pester someone else.



Wurz turned back to her console. She held back a sniff as she saw the last of their Scorpion fighters explode, yet another friend lost senselessly. They all signed onto Starfleet knowing the risks. But you would hope that if your time came, it would mean something. Saving a planet, the ship, even just saving your friend. Something. But the lives lost this day meant nothing. And worse, there could be more. She suddenly paused the recording and leaned forward. Checking the spectro-analysis, she smiled.



"Commander Ttorkkinn? I think I've found something."



Perhaps some lives could still be salvaged from this day.....

Captain's Log. Acting Captain Bearlo recording.



The Sentinel has been adrift in space for four days now, following the Gorn ambush that left us crippled and missing nearly a fifth of our crew. We have been able to restore atmosphere and life support to the damaged decks in the lower levels of the secondary hull, and rescue teams have started searching for any survivors in those areas, though I don't hold out much hope.



Commander Ttorkkinn has been instrumental in helping coordinate the repairs of the ship and keeping the crew focused. When we return to Starfleet, I'm going to recommend he is considered for a larger command position. I am also told that Gweevle and Bosip may have found a way to get us back to civilisation. Of course, having not heard from anyone in four days, I am left wondering what has happened to the Evenstar, who stated they were going to get help from Serenity Station.





Emony moved along the corridor towards Engineering, grimacing at the blast patterns and blood spatter on the walls. Even if they did get the Sentinel back to Serenity, the ship would probably be gutted, the damage was that severe. She skirted around some repair crews and entered Engineering. The Warp Core was dark, having been taken offline yesterday while micro fractures found in the casing were sealed. She approached Gweevle and Bosip who were hunched over an Engineering console.


"Bosip. Gweevle. You said you have something?"



The two Engineers turned. Gweevle tapped some last minute commands into the console before speaking.


"Yes Commander. As you know, we fused the Transwarp coils getting rid of the Gorn ships. Our warp drive is offline, and while we do have an operational Slipstream Drive, we have no Deflector Dish to create the slipstream."


"But, what we do have, is a couple of shuttles. And they do have deflectors."

Bosip tapped a few controls, bringing up a visual diagram on the screen before continuing.


"What we are proposing is to strip the deflectors out of all of our shuttles and mount them where our dish used to be. Connect them all up to form a makeshift Deflector large enough to open the slipstream."


Gweevle clapped his hands.

"Bajingo!"

Emony looked at Gweevle.

"Bingo?"

"THAT'S the one."


Bosip cleared his throat.

"Look, Commander, this is not going to be easy. And it's not even a guarantee it'll work. The Deflectors may not trigger. They may not connect into a large Deflector, instead maintain their individual operation, in which case we open up a series of tiny slipstreams and we scatter the ship across space."

Gweevle piped in.

"And if it does work, there's no guarantee we will be able to apply the corrections to maintain the stream. Essentially, there is a lot more reasons not to do this."

"But if we don't, then what? We can't sit here in space forever more?"

Bosip crossed his arms over his chest.

"No. No we can't. And if there was another option, we'd suggest it."

Emony looked at the warp core.


"What about standard warp drive?"

"No good. The starboard nacelle is badly damaged; we would never be able to generate a stable warp field."


Emony frowned, the cut to her temple healing, but feeling tight as her brow furrowed. The young Trill was only 28, she wasn't cut out for this type of command decision. If she made the wrong call, the entire crew would perish. She was the Second Officer, but only because of her seniority in the Science department. Talaina was much more qualified to make these kinds of decisions. She wouldn't even hesitate, she would know what to do. Emony had lead Away Teams before, but never had to make decisions like this.



"And there's no way we can get one of the other methods of travel operational out here?"
"No. Not unless someone selling spare Deflector Dishes or Warp Nacelles stumbles across us."

Gweevle started wringing his hands.

"Look, Emony, we need a decision. Until we get the core fixed and online, we're running on emergency power. And it's not going to last. That core is an experimental thing to begin with. We need to get started."


Emony drew in a deep breath, holding it as she calculated all the variables. Finally, she let it out.


"Ok. We'll do it. But be ready to shut it down at a moment's notice."

Bosip slapped his comm badge.
"All Engineering Teams not on critical Emergency repairs, report to the Main Shuttlebay."

Bosip moved to a locker and started gathering tools into a toolbox. Gweevle looked Emony dead in the eye.



"I hope that Andorian knows what he's doing."
"It was his idea?"
"It was."
"Then so do I."






A full day had passed, but the exhausted crew had finished their work. The front of the Secondary Hull had a patchwork of Deflectors from the remaining shuttles, connected by an intricate array of cables and relays, weaving a web like mesh across the ship. Emony stood in the centre of the Bridge. She hadn't felt comfortable taking the centre chair since the ambush, and she wasn't about to start now.

From the Engineering station, Bosip checked the instruments.


"Power levels are looking good. We have confirmed inter-connectivity. Relays to the Slipstream Drive are solid. Ready on your command."



Emony rubbed her top lip with a knuckle. This was the moment she had been dreading. The moment where everyone realised she was a terrible captain. It only added to the pain of the past week.

"Engage."

The small Deflectors glowed as power from the Quantum Slipstream Drive was fed through makeshift conduits. In Engineering, Gweevle reported that the drive was operating at standard efficiency. On the viewscreen, a white portal started forming. Emony tensed up. This was the moment where they would either slip into the corridor, or die.


The ship started shaking, the temperature of the hull increasing before a flash of light signalled they had made it into the slipstream. A cheer rang out through the Bridge. Bosip clapped his hands and cheered.

"I knew it would work!"
"Yes, but are we heading in the right direction?"

"Checking."
Ensign Wurz checked her sensors, slowly shaking her head.

"It's impossible to tell in Slipstream. Sensors are too badly damaged."


Xui Li turned from her Ops console.
"Then I suggest we drop from, ah, Slipstream and check our position. That will tell us if, ah, we are heading towards Federation space."

Emony slowly nodded.
"Bosip?"

The Andorian's antenna curled in frustration.
"I think.... we've got a problem."

"What..... kind..... of a problem?"
Emony moved over to read the console over Bosip's shoulder.

"I don't think we're in quantum alignment. Something's wrong. Something's terribly wrong."

Emony tapped her comm badge.

"Gweevle. Cut power to the drive."

"I can't! The regulators have frozen open! We're trying to close them manually."



"Well, this is an interesting development."
The soft spoken male voice caused everyone on the Bridge to whirl around. Before them stood an alien. Ttorkkinn leapt up to him, ready to defend his ship. The alien held up his three fingered hands.

"Please, I mean you no harm. I have come to help."

Emony stepped up the steps, past the command chair to up to the alien. She put a hand on Ttorkkinn to stop him.

"It's ok. I don't think he's going to hurt us."
"And how do you know that?"
"It's a feeling."

Ttorkkinn humphed, but stood down. Emony addressed the newcomer.



"Who are you?"

"My name cannot be spoken in your language. I am usually known as The Traveller."
"Welcome on board the Sentinel. I'm Commander Bearlo. But I'm afraid you picked a bad time to visit the ship."
"Actually, this was the only time I could visit your ship."

"Captain!" Bosip's voice rang out with worry. "Regulators are starting to overheat. If we don?t shut down this drive soon, we're going to lose power to the Deflectors, which will throw us out of slipstream too violently."

"Traveller, you said you came here to help. How?"


"Your quantum miss-alignment has slipped you into a plane of existence where thought has a powerful affect. I usually inhabit this realm, that is how I sensed your presence. Your crew must make a conscious effort to come together and will the drive to stop."

"You want us to think ourselves safe?"

"A crude, but apt description. I can help shut down the drive. If your crew concentrates on shutting down the drive, I can channel that energy and bring your ship to a stop."

"Please, anything you can do to help."

"Now hold on a minute."

Ttorkkinn interrupted.


"We don't know anything about this guy. For all we know, it could be another Gorn trick."

"No, I, ah, do not believe so."
Xui Li spoke up.
"I have been looking for references to, ah, a Traveller. The Enterprise-D encountered him, ah, a number of times. He was helpful in each situation."

The Traveller smiled.
"Yes, the Enterprise. That was where I met Wesley Crusher. Please, time is short."

Emony gestured to the Engineering console.
"Please. And Ttorkkinn, stand down. At this point, we have nothing to lose."

As The Traveller moved to the console and sat down, Emony activated a ship wide comm.

"Crewmates. I know you're tired. Exhausted. Not yet had chance to mourn those we have lost. But the ship is in peril, and I need everyone to pull together. We have a visitor on board, known as The Traveller. I'm asking all of you to think positive thoughts to him. Think about shutting down the Slipstream Drive. That needs to be your only thought. Thank you."

The Traveller placed his palms on the console and closed his eyes. Everyone on the ship started thinking. He could feel their energy flowing through him, giving him the strength. But there was a small bit of poison in the energy.

"Commander Bearlo. Please don't doubt yourself. You are in a situation you never thought you would be in. The burden is heavy on you, but you will succeed. I sense a powerful will in you."

"I've nearly gotten everyone killed. That's not the sign of a good captain."
"No, but you are trying everything in your power to get your crew home. That is."
Ttorkkinn put a hand on Emony's shoulder.
"We're all here to help. We all believe in you."

Emony half smiled, a bit reassured. The poison left the energy, and The Traveller was able to channel the energy properly now. He focused on the Slipstream Drive shutting down, harnessing the power of this plane of existence, the power of thought, to make his will a reality. The regulators closed and the drive shut down. The viewscreen showed the slipstream disperse and return to a normal starfield, spinning as the ship flipped through space. The Traveller sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"It's done."

Emony moved to The Traveller.
"Thank you."

He smiled up at her.
"I'm happy to help. Perhaps one day we will meet again. And remember to believe in yourself."

The Traveller started fading away.
"I'm drained. I must return to where I was and recover. Safe journey."

He faded from view.
Bosip frowned.

"Well..... I don't know how he did that. But I'd sure like to know how."
"Not now Bosip. Wurz, can you establish our position?"

"Yes Ma'am. We appear to be on the far side of Federation space, near the Klingon border. We look to be in a star system-"


She was quickly cut off when power went down. As Emony felt the lurch of zero gravity take effect, she tried to stay perfectly still so she wouldn't float off into the darkness. Bosip was not so fortunate. A clunk followed by cursing indicated he had banged his head on the roof.

"Now what? Dammmit Gweevle, I'm taking back care of my ship."

In the dark, he started crawling along the roof towards one of the Jeffries Tubes, disappearing towards Engineering. Emony looked at the blank viewscreen.


"Wurz? Did your sensors pick up any other ships before they went down?"

"Not that I saw. Just a planet nearby."

"Damn."





The Sovereign class ship slowly drifted through space, momentum from exiting slipstream carrying them towards the nearby planet....

Grimworm and Karry walked along one of the corridors, stepping over debris. The Hulkanian rubbed his belly as it growled. He held up a ration bar and bit a corner of the rectangular food.

"It's been a week on these things. They're far too small."
Karry looked up at her friend.
"Take it easy. We're still on emergency power. Those things are all we've got left."

"Unless Luawra's idea is right, and the Captain has a garden of veg in his quarters."
"Ha! Do you think they will even be enough?"
"There may not be much, but it's something. We're out in deep space, we don't know where we are or when people will find us."

Grimworm finished his ration bar and dropped the wrapper to the floor. He quietly munched it until they reached the door. It was ripped off its hinges, the entire corridor covered in matching blasting patterns.

"Captain wasn't in here, was he?"
Karry shook her head.
"No. He was on the Bridge."
"Ah. Then they didn't come in here looking for him."

Grimworm gripped the door and bent it off the hinges. Dropping the doors, he followed Karry in.
"I don't see a garden."
"I don't think we're going to find anything. The place is a wreck."
Karry moved into the bedroom.
"Ah. Found it."
Karry came out holding a little window box. Grim worm blinked at the tiny thing.

"That's it?"
"Yep."
"That's.... what, three potatoes? Come on, let's go do something useful."

Karry put the box down on the bed and stepped outside the quarters, smiling as Grimworm's stomach rumbled again. She pulled out one of her ration bars and opened it, snapping it in half. Handing half over, she bit a corner off her half. Grimworm looked at the offered food.

"You sure?"
"You need it more Grimmy."
"Thanks."

Taking the bar, he started munching when the lights went out.




Emony stood carefully on the spot, still waiting for artificial gravity to be restored to the Bridge. As far as she knew, power was out throughout the ship. Ttorkkinn could be heard in the dark issuing orders, but no one could see or move without floating off. A couple of people had managed to work their way towards some consoles where they were trying to reroute power from somewhere. Eventually power came back and Emony felt her insides drop down back to normal. Before she could say anything, Ttorkkinn strode across the Bridge.

"Diagnostic teams, get us a damage report. Wurz, where are we?"

The young ensign was already checking her sensors.

"It looks like we dropped out of Slipstream near the Klingon border. We are in a solar system, three planets, no signs of space travel."

Emony frowned.
"Even in Slipstream, we shouldn't have travelled that far so quickly."
Ttorkkinn let out a huff.

"I told you not to trust that Traveller. I bet he did it."
"Wurz, are we holding position?"
"The momentum from coming out of Slipstream has us drifting, but it's minor. We're in no danger."

Emony nodded as she took it in, Wurz continuing her report.
"At least we're near a planet, and have a better chance of being spotted. I'm detecting population centres around the continents, but no evidence of warp capability."
"Hopefully we won't be spotted by Klingons."

Ttorkkin nodded in agreement.

"That's a chance we'll have to take. Until power is restored fully, we have to ration ourselves. Xui Li, start distributing ration-"

"ENGINEERING TO BRIDGE! WE'RE FIFTY SECONDS TO A CORE BREACH!"
"What?"
"CORE'S GOING CRITICAL! I'm EJECTING IT!"

"Get us away from it!"
"Engines are not responding quickly. We're not going to clear the blast area!"

The red alert klaxon sounded as Emony ordered all hands to brace for impact.


The ship slowly drifted through the darkness of space. The scarred and battered hull casting an ugly yet elegant form in the light of the nearby star. A thin sliver burst forth from the entity, casting out the poison before it killed those whom it had once provided for, a giver of life now mere moments from taking it all. As much as the entity tried, it could not escape the fiery grip that followed the flash of its heart tearing itself asunder. Pushing outwards, it gripped the entity and pushed it outwards, tearing at the skin to crawl back inside where it was once safe. Taking it fully on its belly, the entity gave more of itself than it could hope to, leaving behind pieces of its skin, its soul in a desperate attempt to safeguard those who called it home. As the heat and passion faded to a distant memory, the entity burned through space, towards what could only be hoped to be salvation.

Emony pulled herself up by the arm of a chair.
"Report."

Xui Li was the first to respond.
"All power is, ah, offline. The underside of the ship took the full brunt of the, ah, explosion and has suffered catastrophic structural failure."

The lights flickered as the ship switched to emergency generators. Slowly power was restored to the key systems, but kept at a minimum to preserve them as long as possible. Ttorkkinn slapped his commbadge.

"Engineering. What happened?!"

The worried voice of Gweevle was almost drowned out by static.

"Micro fractures in the warp core casing were amplified by the stress of the Slipstream malfunction. When we tried to restart the core, it shattered the casing and caused a breakdown of the antimatter seals in the reaction chamber. We're lucky Bosip was able to jettison the core so quickly."
Bosip cut in over the comm.

"We've got enough power to keep us running at the lowest levels for a day or two, but after that, we're completely dead in space."

Wurz interjected.
"I don't think that will be a problem. The impact of the core explosion has pushed us towards the planet. We'll enter the atmosphere in ten minutes."

Emony's eyes widened.
"Ten minutes? Gweevle, can we get the engines back online?"

"With what? The Impulse fusion reactors are all the power we have left and they're barely hanging on with the damage sustained. Beside which, the Impulse engines are destroyed. They would need to be rebuilt from scratch."
"Are you telling me we don't have any kind of movement?"
"I can get you the reaction control thrusters, but that's it."
"They'll never be able to slow our descent. Not with only a few working."

Emony looked at Ttorkkinn.
"There must be something we can do."
The Saurian slowly shook his head.
"The ship is dead. We need to abandon her before it's too late."
"We can't just give up on her. She's more than a home, she's a member of the crew."
"We've lost a lot of people this week. Sentinel will be the latest. But at least she won't die in vain. Emony..... you have to call it."

She looked over the wrecked Bridge. It felt like she was looking at a close friend on life support, being asked to end her suffering. She nodded.

"Then abandon ship. All hands..... abandon ship."

As the evacuation alarms started sounding, Emony moved over to the helm. Ttorkkinn followed her.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to make sure she doesn't hit any populated areas on the planet."
"With what?"
"RCS still work. I might be able to nudge her on her descent."
"You won't be able to do that by yourself. I'll stay and man the sensors-"
"NO! I need you to lead the survivors. Ttorkkinn, despite what The Traveller said, I'm not command material. You are. Get the crew back to Federation space. That's an order."

Ttorkkinn nodded, then stood at attention and saluted.
"It's been an honour. Sir."
Emony returned the salute.
"Until we meet again."

Ttorkkinn turned and left. Emony watched the injured survivors shut down the ship systems and make their way to the turbolifts and Jeffrey's Tubes, heading for the escape pods and shuttle bays. With only two minutes before hitting the atmosphere, Emony watched as the crew fled into space, holding position to watch the Sentinel go down. She returned the view to forward, seeing the atmosphere rushing towards her. She took in a deep breath as the ship started rumbling. From this altitude, it was impossible to see if they were heading for any populated areas. Hearing someone stumble onto the Bridge, Emony quickly turned. Karry and Grimworm had crawled out of a Jeffrey's Tube.

"What are you two doing here?"
Karry brushed some soot off her shoulder.

"There wasn't enough escape pods. After the injured got loaded, the few remaining ones were too badly damaged to use. And don't forget, the Gorn took a few. So we figured the best thing to do was to head here."

"Ok. Get on sensors, tell me if we're going to hit anything. Grimworm, best take a seat."

The ship was shaking badly now, the leading edge of the saucer glowing fiery orange. Karry grimaced and looked up.
"We're too steep an angle. We need to pull up."
"I'm trying, but the thrusters just aren't powerful enough!"
"Then when we hit the ground....."
"I know, I know. The ships reactors will explode, taking us and anything around us with it. That's why we HAVE to get her flying level!"

The ship continued her death fall, plummeting towards the ground. Karry held onto the edge of the console as the vibrating only increased.

"Sir, looks like we're heading straight for a city. A large one, over three miles wide, surrounded by a thick jungle."
"We've got to pull up!"

Emony worked the console, firing the underside thrusters, but although there was a very slight shift in the attitude, it was obviously not enough to dodge the city.

"Ideas?"

Grimworm blinked, deep in thought. Suddenly he let out a cry.

"Shockwaves! If we use a shockwave to push us away-"
"Like the core breach. But we have nothing to do that."
"Torpedoes."
"Are the launchers online?"
Karry checked.
"Yes. But Quantum's won't have the explosive force to push us off target."

Grimworm smiled.
"No, but the Harg'pengs do."
Emony's eyes went wide.
"That'll spread radiation all over the city!"
""At this altitude, it should disperse into the atmosphere. But we'll get a full hit. The torpedo will have to detonate less than 2 kilometres under our front bow to work."

Emony quickly thought through the options. Radiate themselves, and possibly the city, or crash into it and kill potentially thousands. There really wasn't a choice, was there?

"DO IT!"

The blue weapon lurched from its launcher, detonating almost instantly. The blast wave slammed the ship, knocking the three remaining crew members to the floor and tearing open the underside of the saucer. As hull plating, EPS conduits and pieces of the Captain's Yacht rained down over the city, Emony forced herself back into the seat. The ground was closer, close enough to see the buildings. The architecture suggested a mid industrial revolution society.

"Forty Seven seconds to impact! Have we altered our course enough Karry?"
"We've raised our trajectory. We should hit near the outskirts of the city. But we'll still hit it."
"Fire another!"
"Can't! Weapons are destroyed. We've got nothing left!"


Emony set her jaw, determined they would not take out this society with them. Firing all remaining thrusters, she tried to angle the ship to the side, hoping it would arc their trajectory enough. Close enough now they could see the people on the cobblestone streets start running for their lives. The deck slowly pitched upwards on the right at a sixty degree angle, Sentinel finally starting to turn away from the city.


Grimworm started swearing, holding onto his chair as they came towards a series of small buildings with a tower in the centre. Hoping against hope, he closed his eyes and clenched.




The starship dropped down, trailing smoke from the nacelles, falling towards the city. It angled to the right, starting to arc it's turn. Birds squawked and flew out of the tower as the ship thundered past, mere feet from colliding. Angled as it was, the ship started levelling out its course, the edge of the saucer inching ever closer to the ground, slipping between the houses. They had been lucky so far. But the street came to an end, with a factory looking building at the intersection. There was no way to avoid it; the edge of the saucer clipped the roof, splintering the building. As bricks, mortar and tiles showered over the few small buildings behind, Sentinel dropped into the ground, kicking up a mountain of dirt. The saucer started digging in, building up a mound, causing the rest of the hull to drop. The starboard nacelle hit with an impact that shattered fracture marks up the entire pylon, ripping apart the outer casing. Fortunately, the ship slid out of the city as it started to lose the angle, the starboard nacelle lifting up into the air. A large, thick tree, one that had been standing for a millenia and larger than the ship itself found itself in the path of the nacelle pylon. Metal hit bark, but with the entwined trunk firmly embedded in the ground, bark won. The pylon tore off, casting the nacelle free. The rear end hit the ground first, smashing the front end down into a rocky outcropping, breaking open the Bussard Ramscoop and flipping the nacelle end over end, high up in the air. It spiralled over the forest, impacting harshly in the trees, breaking itself into thousands of parts, each one kicking up more dirt and trees, spinning away into the forest.


The main hull of the ship was jerked sharply to the right, keeping the secondary hull from impacting the ground. The ship was losing a lot of momentum now, almost ready to stop. But nature had one last cruel trick to play. The ground fell away, leaving Sentinel airborne over a cliff. As the trees and soil dropped away from the ship, it turned through the air, spinning itself around towards the ocean below. With nothing to stop it, and no momentum to make a safe water landing, the Starfleet ship slammed backwards into the water, breaking apart the rear of the remaining nacelle. As surges of water crashed out in all directions, the saucer dropped into the waves, flooding itself through the missing lower decks. The ship started sinking without pause, the salt water rushing in through all the holes, filling any gaps it could find. The water level reached up to the top of the ship's neck before it hit the sea bed, coming to a rest angled with the front of the saucer completely submerged, the rear of the ship sitting up in the air.

Finally.....




Finally it was over.




The blackness slowly started fading to a haze. Shapes started forming as Emony slowly regained consciousness. Coughing up blood, she started to get up, screaming as pain shot through her entire leg. Putting a hand on it, she felt something sharp and jagged. Fearfully, she looked down. Her leg was at an unnatural angle with the broken end of her thigh bone puncturing the skin. Panting to try and clear away both the pain and grogginess, she looked around the Bridge. The entire command centre of the once great ship was beyond salvage. Chairs and consoles had broken loose, destroying the viewscreen. Nothing was left working. The deck was angled slightly towards the front. The ship was obviously resting on ground. She wasn't sure at what point after the initial impact she had blacked out, or what had hit her leg, but she was glad to have survived mostly intact. Spitting globs of blood on the deck, she wiped her mouth with the back of her glove.


"Karry? Grimworm. You alive?"


There was mutterings of a stirring from a pile of wreckage on the far side of the Bridge. Slowly it shifted, revealing Grimworm. He was battered, bruised, and bleeding from a couple of spots but he was at least mobile.

"That was some landing."
"At least it's over. Can you see Karry?"

Grimworm moved around the Bridge, looking for his friend. Shifting some chairs aside, he frowned as he failed to see her. Rubbing the back of his head, he moved to the front of the Bridge and started picking through everything there. After a few minutes, he stopped and knelt down.


"Karry?"
He reached out, gently brushing the back of his giant green hand against her soft, blood soaked cheek. Emony pushed herself onto an elbow, wincing at the pain in her ribs.
"Is she....?"

Grimworm didn't answer as he shifted the rest of the wreckage off her. Gently sliding his hands underneath, he picked her up, carrying her to an empty spot and putting her down. Resting his head against her chest, he paused.


"She's breathing. It's shallow, but it's there."
Emony let out a sigh of relief. At least they had all survived.
"You're the only one who can move. Can you see where we are? What we've landed on?"

Grimworm took another look at Karry, then nodded and stood up, making his way to the Captain's Ready Room. The window in there would be the quickest way of seeing out. He stood in the doorway, peering out.

"It looks like we're in water, near a beach with a cliffside running along it. It looks..... it looks like the front of the Saucer is underwater."

"That makes sense, given the shape of the ship. Grimworm, first thing we need to do is secure ourselves. We don't know how long we are going to be here. Can you search for any medical supplies or food and bring it up here?"

"Sure. Just give me some time."
He turned, pausing as he only now noticed the bone protruding from Emony's leg.

"Ouch! You ok? That looks painful."
"The pain's sort of numb. I don't look like I'm bleeding out. But if you could find a medkit with some pain relief, it would be much appreciated."

Grimworm nodded.
"On it Captain."




Emony lay on her back. Her leg was wrapped in a splint, bandages covering the wound. It was two days since the crash. Karry had yet to wake up, giving Grimworm great concern. She was alive, but for all they knew, she had slipped into a coma. The indigenous life forms had set up some kind of ship blockade around the Sentinel, but they had yet to attempt to board. Their ships were apparently quite primitive looking. It seems the Prime Directive had been well and truly broken on whatever world this was. Grimworm was below decks somewhere. Emony was in a morphine induced state, as she had been for quite a number of hours now. She slowly looked around at the remains of the Bridge. Ghosts of yesteryear swept around. Xui Li showing off one of her tribbles. They had probably all perished sometime over the past week. Young Jenna Jones, not long out of the Academy, manning the helm, her fingers dancing over the throttle controls and thrusters, somehow making this great ship pull off impossible turns to outmanoeuvre enemies. Roderick over at Tactical, using his Maquis upbringing to their advantage in creating insane strategies. Talaina sitting on one of the chairs in the centre, intense passion burning in her eyes as she carried out the running of the ship. And in the centre, Captain Stunshock. A calm amongst the swirling storm. He never got angry. Never raised his voice. Gave the crew certain leeways in standard ship protocols. A father figure to many. And the life in the consoles, the hum of the engines, as Sentinel herself sailed into the unknown, facing down enemies tougher than she was, or pushing through unknown nebula and storms, always trying her best to get her crew safely home.


The ghosts whispered away. Most of the consoles were gone. The life was dark. Empty. Sentinel would never fly again. She had given her ultimate sacrifice to keep them safe. Emony sadly patted the deck plate beside her.


"Goodbye, old friend. Thank you for everything."



There was a bang from near the Turbolift shaft. Emony looked that way, trying to see Grimworm returning. But the person who crawled up onto the Bridge was blue, not green. An Andorian! And better yet, she wore a Starfleet uniform!

"Hello?"
The Andorian was followed by a human female wearing a Doctor's outfit.
"Commander Bearlo? Good to see you're alive."


Emony blinked, not sure if she was seeing a hallucination.
"Woa..... what? Who?"

The Andorian knelt down beside Emony while the doctor started checking Karry.

"Commander Ylzanov, U.S.S. Magpie. Captain Ellen Hare sends her regards. We picked up the distress call from your crew's escape pods and runabouts. The Magpie's in orbit. Starfleet wants us to help clear up the mess with the locals."


The doctor mentioned something about brain swelling. Emony closed her eyes as she heard the Andorian calling the Magpie for a beamout. As the familiar tingling took over her body, she smiled, relief in the knowledge the ordeal was finally over. For now.