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Story - Star Trek: Disavowed Chapter 2

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WelshAvenger, Tue 05 Jun, 2018 7:16 PM
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    #1
    "A Little Talk"


    It wasn't as if it were the first time.

    Kendra had had to talk to people she'd sent on dangerous missionsbefore. She'd had to talk to people who'd been hurt because of these missions. Because of her. So why was this particular talk finding her so tongue-tied?

    Tawnia sat on the end of the biobed, kind of staring at Kendra. Giving a mental shrug, Kendra leaned against the biobed and gave it her best shot. "How are you feeling, Tawnia?"

    "Like I've been shot out a photon torpedo tube. But, other than that, just peachy," she said drily.

    Kendra nodded. "Well, that's understandable." She shifted her foot a little. "What happened down there?"

    The security woman shook her head and stared at the floor. "It's still a little fuzzy..."

    "I know. Just tell me what you remember," she said gently.

    "Well, I had just made it onto the Marine deck," she said slowly, as if concentrating on what she was recalling. "It was quiet; too quiet. Pardon the cliché. But there was no one around, there was no noise, there was no nothing. Then I heard something behind me. I turned around and no one was there so I turned back around. And there she was."

    "'She'?" Kendra asked.

    Tawnia nodded. "Yeah. Asian looking woman that came in with one of the SEAL teams I think. I can't place her name..."

    "That would be Aspen Sato. Half Human, half Risan. She's the 2inC for SEAL Team 2. She was one of the Dopplegangers"

    "Okay," Tawnia nodded. "Like I said, she was just there. She grinned at me and punched me in the stomach. My God, I thought she had just stuck her fist right through me. She was so strong. I kept thinking, 'I know she's a SEAL, but no one is that strong.' She started laughing at me. Then I threw myself at her and we fought. I remember managing to get off a couple of punches, but it was nothing like she did to me. And then suddenly the room started spinning and it went black."

    Kendra nodded. There was something she was holding back. "There's something else," she said.

    "No, that's everything," Tawnia insisted.

    "I'm a Betazoid, Tawnia. You can't lie to me," she simply explained.

    Tawnia took a deep breath and turned to face Kendra. The look on her face caught Kendra off guard as it gave away the young security officer's coldness before her emotions did. "Why did you send me down there? Those are Marine decks; I had no authorization to be down there. Even if she hadn't been.... Anything could have happened down there and nothing would have been done about it. I damn near died down there."

    Kendra stared at her. "That's not true. Something could have been done about it," she said evenly, coldly.

    "You're right," she agreed. "Your ass could have been nailed ot the wall."

    "You forget yourself, Ensign," Kendra said warningly.

    "You asked what was wrong, Commander," she replied, stressing every syllable in her rank. "You have no one to blame but yourself. Just as you do about what happened down on the Marine deck." Kendra opened her mouth but Tawnia cut her off. "Are we done now? I'd like to go to my quarters for a little while. Get some rest. I've been through a lot, you know...."

    Kendra held her jaw tight. "Of course. We'll see you back on active duty when Doc clears you again." And with that, Kendra spun on her heel and walked out.

    It was a short walk to her quarters, and Pig greeted her with happy chirps. "Well, at least you're happy to see me," she said as she flopped down on her sofa. She pulled one of the pillows over her head and let out a long sigh. What a fun maiden voyage.

    And then the computer console beeped. Her sigh turned into a groan of frustration. "What is it?" she called out, pulling the pillow from her head. There was a message from the S31 headquarters. Apparently, Doctor Cushing had just been promoted to Lieutenant Commander. He had already been informed and now she was as well.

    At least something good came out this mission, right?


    ------------------------------


    Arriving at HQ took less time then everyone estimated, of course they were engaged at higher warp speeds than they were used to using. Hawkins hadn't waited around on the Apocalypse too long after they docked, he was programmed to be at least fifteen minutes early to everything. As he walked out the large station, he admired all the workmanship and protocol the members of Section 31 displayed. They worked together like a well oiled machine, flawless, no mistakes whatsoever. It was definitely clear why S31 had chosen his troops, and yeah even Summers.

    It didn't take him too long to find Gantz's office, or 'Director' as everyone called him. Westley had certainly moved up in the world. It was in Curtis' opinion that they couldn't have chosen a better guy for the job. His assistant however was very unorthodox, but she wouldn't have her position if she hadn't earned Gantz's trust. He rang the klaxon of Westley's office.

    "Enter." a semi-loud voice said.

    Hawkins walked into the office and snapped a salute at Gantz.

    "Drop the bow and come in, Curt." Gantz said and stood up to shake Hawkins' hand. "How's things?"

    Hawkins shook Westley's hand and sat down in a chair in front of the director's desk. "Not bad. Still adjusting to the whole situation."

    Gantz nodded. "That was expected. Took me awhile to adjust myself. Don't let it overwhelm you, Curt, it's not all 'make a mistake and your dead' type stuff. We're pretty relaxed, but not too relaxed. Let's just say we're a big family here. You'll be loved and praised, but you'll get punished when you screw up."

    "That's understandable." Hawkins replied. "Now getting off the subject for a moment, where the hell is Summers?"

    "Right behind you," Kendra said as she entered the room. Having been in the Section 31 Headquarters before, she knew right where things were. She knew this was the Director's office, but she hadn't actually met the man at all during her six month training period. Hell, the mysterious woman with the purple eyes had been her 'handler' the majority of her stay and she still didn't know her name. Kendra just referred to her as 'Commander' and that was it.

    Hawkins turned his head a little to see the Co-CO walk into the room and take a seat beside him. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to show up at all."

    Kendra tossed them a faux smile. "Oh, I wouldn't have missed this meeting for the world. Is the Commander going to be joining us?"

    As if on cue, the door slid open one more time and in walked the purple eyed woman. "I apologize for my absence. I had to take care of something," she said curtly, looking directly at Gantz. Whatever it was, he knew about it and they were not inclined to share it with Hawkins and Summers in the room. Kendra wasn't sure she would want to know anyway.

    The woman took a spot beside Gantz. She was obviously waiting for something big to go down. Her knowledge of what was to come was not hidden well on her face. Kendra knew that it was only because she let it slip out. Damn, the woman was infuriating. "Kendra," she said, nodding to the Betazoid. "Major," she said, nodding to him as well.

    Hawkins looked at her. "Commander."

    Gantz leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his desk. "As I was telling Major Hawkins earlier, we're a big family here. You'll be praised when you do good, but you'll be punished when you mess up. Let me break it down like this....you both messed up.”

    Kendra raised an eyebrow. "'We' messed up?"

    "Curt, four of your highly trained men were captured. Why was that?" Gantz asked.

    Hawkins sat upright. "Intoxication while on Risa. I usually allow the men to drink only on their off time, but this was a special occasion."

    "And that special occasion almost cost you four men." Gantz replied. "From now on, drinking will only be on their off time and only on the ship."

    Hawkins nodded. "Affirmative."

    Gantz nodded. "I also understand that there was some difficulties between Commander Summers and yourself."

    "That's an understatement," Kendra muttered. The woman with the purple eyes shot Kendra a look.

    "I've always known there was one fault you have. You don't ask for help when you need it. I've always thought that you feel you have some obligation to prove to everyone that you don't need help, that you and your men are too qualified for assistance. Once thing I've learned," Gantz said. "is to accept help when it's offered. I want you to work on that and we'll evaluate you in another month or so."

    And that was when the Commander spoke up. "The Director said that you both messed up. Kendra, why did you disobey protocol and send a security officer down to the marine decks?"

    "I sent her to the marine decks to investigate something my Doctor discovered. We had no way of knowing whether Hawkins was somehow involved or not, so I thought that secrecy was the best policy," she replied.

    "That course of action led to your crew member being critically injured. She almost died, Commander," she continued.

    Hawkins furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Almost? From what Summers reported to me, the girl was terminated."

    "Oh, I see you weren't aware of that, Major. No, she did not die. Ensign Gordon is very much alive," the woman said, with a small smile of amusement.

    Hawkins turned his attention towards Kendra, who at the moment was avoiding eye contact. "Oh that's screwed up." Hawkins replied, leaving protocol at the door. "How the hell are we supposed to have a decent crew, if the CO's hold back info?"

    Westley looked at his XO. "Zana, I think you've created a monster."

    "I created nothing," Zana replied nonchalantly. "She was already like that. I trained her for certain things, but that behavior is something she brought to the table on on her own."

    "That still doesn't solve the problem though." Hawkins replied. "I feel the Commander needs to learn about the finer points of protocol."

    "Look Curt, that why this meeting is taking place. We have to correct the bad situations we're going through. So just relax and everything is going to be taken care of."

    "Yeah, let's get some things taken care of," Kendra interjected. "Like let's stop making our people jump through hoops just so you can sit back and laugh."

    Zana turned back to Kendra. "And you're temper, Commander, needs some work. We cannot have that kind of insubordination among our people."

    Kendra's temper flared once again. "You wouldn't have any kind of insubordination if you didn't give us these types of ridiculous tests," she growled.

    "The tests are part of your training, Commander. Every single person in Section 31 had to put up with the same amount of BS you are going through. So don't think we're pin-pointing you on purpose." Gantz said.

    "If you hadn't done it in the first place, it wouldn't have happened! Our crew was put in serious danger and we had no clue! But you did! Innocent people could have died because of this...this game you were playing!" Kendra shot back vehemently.

    And that was when Zana began to laugh. The sudden sound so caught Kendra off guard that she froze and then stared at the woman. "Innocent?" the exotic woman finally managed to get out between laughs. "How can you possibly say that anyone on that ship is innocent? Hawkins and his men were pulled out of jail and you were pulled out of a mental institution. All of you were serving sentences for crimes against the Federation. You think Sabien and his men are innocent? They're the ones that come to you in your worst nightmares. And even your Doctor is a convicted mass murderer!"

    "Well, you were the ones who pulled us out for this assignment," Kendra said stiffly.

    Zana leaned forward and smiled sweetly. "And we can put you right back," she said coldly. "Do I make myself clear?"

    If looks could kill, Zana would have been vaporized. "Crystal," Kendra replied.

    Gantz leaned back in his chair, thinking how the worst was just about over. "So, do either of you have any questions?"

    "As a matter of fact I do." Curt said. "Let me get this straight, there are two CO's, correct?"

    "Correct." replied Gantz.

    "Well in that case, tell Ms. Fleeter over here to stay out of Marine and SEAL business. If we need their help, we'll ask. I fully understand that her curiosity got the better of her, but she should've waited for me to brief her."

    Gantz nodded. "Does make sense. Commander Summers?"

    "No."

    Gantz sighed softly and threw his last comment of the 'worst part being over' out the door. "Why 'No', Commander?"

    "My 'curiosity' got the better of me because I wasn't kept abreast of what was going on. I had to act in the best way I saw fit with what information I had. If he wants me to stay out of Marine and SEAL business, he's got to keep me informed," Kendra explained flatly.

    "That's when you ask him to relay info to you. If he refuses, you write an official report. And another thing..." Gantz stopped in mid-sentence when his secretary came into the room with a coffee pot in hand.

    "Guter Tag, Herr Direktor. Wurde Sie mogen etwas Kaffee? " she ask in her pretty German voice.

    "Kein Inga, aber ich denken, daB unsere Gaste konnten einiges wunschen." Gantz replied and looked back at the others. "Anyone want some coffee?"

    "Yes please." Hawkins said and allowed Inga to fill his cup.

    Kendra nodded to the young woman. "Thanks," she smiled. She thought it was a little odd for this woman to come in right in the middle of the meeting, but she said nothing. One thing was for sure, Zana didn't like her worth a damn. She was sending off enough hostile energy that anyone even remotely empathic would sense it for three decks. But Zana was keeping herself under control enough that Kendra couldn't tell exactly why she had so such negative emotions towards Inga. She had her suspicions, but the Betazoid was going to keep them to herself. She was in enough trouble already without opening up that can of worms.

    Zana watched the woman with a raised an eyebrow before addressing the issue. "You do realize that what you want is impossible. He can't tell you absolutely everything he knows. Some information is strictly for Marine and/or SEAL eyes only." She stopped Inga from giving her a cup of coffee. "No thank you, Inga. You may go now," she said tersely.

    "You're lucky your security officer is still alive." Gantz said warmly, but his eyes gave away the seriousness he felt. "She is considered unauthorized personnel on the marine decks. For all you could've known the SEALs might've been planning a top secret raid on a nearby planet and your sec officer's presence would've jeopardized their mission. Depending on the severity of a mission, any outsiders that hear a seconds worth of info would be disposed of."

    Hawkins fought back a smile at that point. He would've loved to see Summers disposed of at that minute.

    Kendra really had to fight the urge to roll her eyes. "I know that he can't tell me everything. I accept that. What I cannot accept is when things are kept from me that pertain directly to the ship. If it has a direct bearing on the safety of the crew, I want to know about it." Kendra turned to look at Hawkins straight in the eye. "And I will do the same for you, Major."

    Zana had to suppress a small smile as she turned to look at Gantz. "And *that* is why I chose her for this project," she quietly enough that only he could hear him.

    "Agreed. Just no more covert ops on my decks. Ok?" Hawkins said to Summers.

    "No more," she agreed.

    "And with that, I'll bring this meeting to a close. Go round up your new people and kick back for a few days. You'll be briefed on your new mission on Tuesday at 1300 hours. Dismissed."
    WelshAvenger
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    #2
    Confrontation

    "Listen very carefully, Admiral," Christopher said quietly, "the only reason your genitalia is still attached is that I have a very persuasive Captain. 'It's classified' and 'You don't need to know' are not good enough. Yesterday, I discharged a very loyal S31 operative from sick bay after she had almost been killed by one of these things, so I'm not going to ask anymore. I want that data, now."

    The Admiral fumed behind his desk, "You think you can come in here and tell me what to do? You people make me sick. In three seconds I can have twelve security officers in here who will tear you apart on command. So don't think you can come in here with your new rank pip and make me nervous."

    Christopher smiled disarmingly, "Look down admiral."

    Admiral Selleck glanced into his lap to see a red dot nestling between his legs.

    "This is a mark seven laser scalpel with an extended range. Your security men may be good, but I am an exceptional surgeon. I can remove everything from between your legs in two seconds. Yes, your men will probably kill me, but you'll have to rethink your relationship with your wife for the rest of your life. Your rank doesn't scare me either, just your ineptitude. Now, I'm going to leave and you are going transfer the data to the ship. If you don't, just remember that I know where you live."

    Christopher left the sweating Admiral and headed back to the ship.
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    #3
    Stupid, stupid, stupid.


    She was aware instantaneously that she wasn't alone. Kendra had just awakened in her quarters, her eyes not even open yet, and she felt a presence beside her. Slowly, she opened her eyes to face this unknown and was confused. There was someone in her bed... Her eyes slowly focused in the dimly lit room and she began to make out the features of this person. And slowly, ever so slowly, she realized who it was. If she didn't already have mental problems, this would have pushed her right over the edge....

    She stared in shock at Taylor, who was peacefully sleeping beside her. She looked down the length of his body, the sheet covering him from the waist down so she couldn't see if he truly was.... God, she couldn't even bring herself to think it. But she had to know. She took a deep breath, bracing herself. Slowly, Kendra reached down and grabbed hold of the sheet. Lifting it ever so slightly, she peeked under and found her fears were confirmed. This was more than just him sleeping peacefully beside her, as if they were merely sharing the bed. They shared more than just the bed apparently.

    The memories came flooding back to her mind. Kendra closed her eyes, seeing it unfold before her. The kissing, the touching, the passion.... She opened her eyes and found herself reaching up to his face. But then something came over her... Something unexplainable and she froze. Kendra sat up and slid out of the bed. She had to get out of there.

    ****

    The office was quiet. So wonderfully, beautifully, forgivably quiet. Kendra sat behind her desk with her head laying on her propped up arms. To the onlooker, it would have looked like the desk had suddenly grown a curly mass of red hair. Thank God there were no onlookers. That's what was so lovely about these ready rooms.... The CO could go there and just relax. Get away from it all.

    And that's when her console beeped.

    She groaned. Her silence was suddenly shattered and it sent her reeling back to reality. And reality, at the moment, was pretty damn awful. Without even raising her head, she moved her hand up to the console and turned her towards her. Then she pressed the button to receive whatever communiqué it was she was receiving. "This communiqué contains sensitive information," the computer suddenly announced. "It requires command level authorization to be opened."

    Kendra didn't even raise her head. "Authorization: Summers alpha-one-one-alpha." All this cloak and dagger crap was really beginning to grate on her nerves. Every little damn thing that came to or went from the ship needed some sort of authorization. The computer finally complied and only then did Kendra make some movement to see the computer screen: she raised her face but let her head remain supported on her folded hands.

    The mysterious document that required command level authorization was the latest set of crew transfer orders. She scrolled through the list of names and found that there were two highlighted. She raised an eyebrow and sat upright now. She tapped her fingers on the console. "Lieutenants Ivy Green and Steve Hollins, please report to the readyroom immediately." She got a couple of affirmatives before cutting the link. And then she sat back and waited.

    Shortly, the bell chimed for entry. "Come!" Kendra called out.

    In walked a woman with long red hair. Her hair was a lighter shade than that of Kendra's own hair and hers was naturally straight. She couldn't have been more than 25 years old. And she had an air about her. Something in the way she projected herself told Kendra that this Ivy woman had the potential to be a handful if she wanted to be.

    And then in walked Steve Hollins. He took two steps inside and then froze, staring at Kendra. "Is there a problem, Lieutenant?" Kendra asked sternly, trying not to laugh.

    He shook his head. "Uh, no. No problem, ma'am," he stuttered before moving to stand beside Ivy. Ivy rolled her eyes and then turned her attention towards the Commander.

    Kendra looked at the both of them and motioned for them to sit down. When they were seated, she leaned forward on her desk. "Well, I've never really been one for small talk so let's cut right to the chase, shall we? As I'm sure you both are keenly aware of by now, you are aboard an Intelligence vessel. A Section 31 vessel to be exact. All the rumors and what have you are true; we do exist. Whether that comes as a surprise to you or not, I personally don't care. What I do care about is this: you know of its existence." She paused, letting that statement sink into both of them. It was entertaining to watch them squirm. "I realize that it is not your fault. You were both brought here by forces beyond your control, but the fact remains that you are here. And we cannot simply allow you to return to your regular post. So, I have been authorized to offer you two a choice in this matter."

    The both of them just sat there, staring at her. It was all so much to take in all at once. That, and they were waiting for her to continue. Finally, Ivy couldn't take it anymore. "And what is this....choice?"

    Kendra leaned forward onto her desk and interlaced her fingers. "Well, you can join Section 31. Anything you have done up until this point would still appear on record, but then you would effectively disappear. You cannot communicate with anyone outside of Section 31 again because it could compromise the organization itself."

    The two Lieutenants swapped glances. "What's the second choice?" Steve asked.

    "You both came undergo surgery and have your memories wiped. Keep in mind, this is still a very experimental procedure so they might not be able to cover such a specific memory."

    "What's that supposed to mean?" Ivy asked.

    "It means that there is the possibility that they could erase more than just being here. It is possible that you could lose it entirely," Kendra explained nonchalantly.

    Again, the two swapped sideways glances. "Well, when you put it that way... Where are my quarters?" Ivy asked.

    "And mine," Steve added.

    Kendra smiled. "I thought you'd say that. The quarters you've been staying in are all yours. You'll have computer access within the hour, so you can then report to your department heads. Welcome aboard."

    "Thank you, ma'am," Ivy said as she and Steve both stood. They headed towards the door, when Steve kind of lingered and let Ivy get ahead of him.

    As soon as she cleared the door, Steve spun around. "Kendra?" he said incredulously.

    Kendra had moved moved around the desk. She was now sitting on the edge on the guest side of it, grinning. "That's 'Commander' to you now, Steve."

    Steve ran forward and practically crushed her with a big bear hug. "I can't believe it's really you!"

    "Steve... I can't breathe..." Kendra choked out.

    "Oh!" he said, letting her go immediately. "Sorry. I just don't believe what I'm seeing! Last time I saw you, you were being hauled off after your court-martial. How in the hell did you end up commanding a vessel?"

    She shrugged. "Apparently, I had friends that I wasn't aware of. And they thought I had talents that could be of better use here."

    Steve was grinning from ear to ear. "Wow. I just can't believe it..."

    "I know. You keep saying that..."

    "I just never thought I'd get to see you again. I thought I'd lost my best friend."

    She shook her head. "Steve, you'll never lose my friendship. It just took a little vacation, that's all."

    "Sounds like a good way to put it," he agreed. "And I know it's been two years since we last saw each other, but you're looking a little stressed right now..."

    Kendra stared at him curiously. "Okay, either you just know me entirely too well for your own good or I'm looking really bad..."

    "I just know you too damn well," he grinned. "So what's wrong?"

    "That's what I like about you, Steve. Right to the point."

    He shrugged. "I can be when I want to. So spill it."

    Kendra walked back around her desk and plopped down in her chair. "Well, by now I'm sure you know that there are Marines and SEALs onboard. Hawkins' people, to be exact."

    "I wondered if this was some kind of convict ship..."

    "It is in a way..." she mused. "But anyway, you remember that one Marine that just drove me nuts? Taylor?"

    "I think so. He still driving you crazy?"

    "Oh, that's one way to put it..."

    It took him a full minute to process what she just said. "No you didn't!"

    Kendra flopped her head back down on the desk. "I didn't mean for it to happen. I swear. I had a really crappy day, we were drinking, and then he took off his uniform jacket so I could see his arms. He has such well-toned arms, Steve..." She looked back up to see Steve with an amused look on his face. “What?"

    "Sounds to me like someone's in l--"

    "No!" she said, cutting him off. "Don't say it! We were drunk; we weren't ourselves."

    He shrugged. "If that's all it was, then what's the problem? You both should be able to look at this like adults."

    "Since when have you known Taylor to act like an adult?" she replied rolling her eyes.

    "Since when have I known you to act like an adult?"

    Kendra stared at him for a moment, studying him. "Touché."

    "Did you talk to him afterwards?"

    "No, I just kinda left him asleep in my quarters. Slipped right out. He never even woke up."

    Steve's eyes got wide. "Woah, you just left him. Kendra, that ain't good...."

    "I know, I know. I just freaked. I didn't know what else to do," she groaned. "I keep expecting him to burst in here, demanding to know why."

    "And on that note, I'm going to leave. I definitely don't want to be here when that hits the fan."

    "Steve," she said, feigning shock. "I can't believe you're going to abandon me in my time of need."

    He turned back to smile at her on his way to the door. "I'm not abandoning you. I'm just going on a little vacation, that's all." And with that, he left her alone in her office.

    Kendra stared at the door for a moment. It was good to know that Steve was onboard. She had missed him over the past two years. He'd been under her command when she was a Security Chief back on the Illustrious. They'd been through a lot together, not all of it good, and she was frankly amazed he was so happy to see her. He was extremely loyal. Like a puppy....

    Suddenly, the office felt small and stuffy. Kendra had to get out. Her shift didn't really start for another hour; she was just hiding in the office to stay away from Taylor. But she had to go somewhere else. And
    with that, she did.
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    #4
    Information Overload

    Christopher sat in his office reviewing crew fitness reports when the computer chimed in, =/ Incoming transmission\=

    "On screen." Christopher said, not paying much attention.

    "CUSHING!," yelled Admiral Selleck, "at least have the common courtesy to face the screen when I call you."

    "Well I didn't realise that it was you calling, if I did I would have got my scalpel ready." replied Christopher.

    The admiral's face paled significantly and he seemed to lose some of his bluster, "Anyway, I'm sending you the files you requested."

    "Requested, Admiral?" Christopher shook his head and laughed, "and there was me, thinking that I had to threaten you to get them."

    "Watch your tongue commander. You may have had the upper hand in my office, but now is different. Space is a very dangerous place, wouldn't you agree?"

    Christopher's smile vanished and the room seemed to chill by twenty degrees when he replied, "Indeed Admiral. Before you threaten me, just remember who I am and, more importantly, what I am. If anything should happen to me, there's a hidden cannister of Xenox 206 ready to unleash itself on you and your family, don't bother to try and find it, the cannister is made of duranium so sensors won't pick it up. So, if I were you, I'd be very mindful of what happens to me. End transmission"

    "You've really hidden Xenox 206 in his house?"

    Christopher spun towards the doorway to his office to find a young Asian woman wearing a medical uniform leaning on the door frame.

    "Of course not, but he's going to be very polite to me from now on. Pardon my manners, I'm Christopher Cushing." he said, holding his hand out.

    "Amanda Ogawa, your new head nurse." she said, shaking his hand.

    "Well, you would be, wouldn't you? You're the only one we've got. There's the EMH but she's a bit stand offish."

    "She?" asked Amanda.

    Christopher smiled, "Long story, tell you another time. Take a seat Amanda"

    Amanda shrugged her shoulders, apparently satisfied, "So did you know that I was coming? Only you looked a bit surprised to see me."

    "That was probably one of the things the Admiral neglected to mention. The Admiral and I have a Hate-hate relationship." Christopher explained.

    Amanda laughed, "He does rub people the wrong way, doesn't he?"

    Christopher tapped his comm badge, "Cushing to Summers."

    =/ Summers, go ahead Doc \=

    "When you have a moment, could you come down to Sickbay? I've just received the data on our uninvited guests from Admiral Selleck."

    =/ Be down in just a minute Chris, Summers out \=

    Christopher looked at his new nurse, "Amanda, why don't you get yourself settled into your quarters for tonight. There's not much happening while we're in spacedock, I'll look after the place for now. I'll see you at 0800 tomorrow, I'll bring you up to speed on our situation."

    "Okay sir, see you at 0800." Amanda rose from her seat, "Is there a bar on this ship?"

    "Are you kidding?" Christopher laughed, "Just follow the noise and the armed security teams and you won't miss it."

    --------


    Christopher heard the doors to sick bay open and watched as Kendra flopped into the seat opposite him. She sighed hugely and seemed preoccupied.

    "Tough day?" Christopher asked.

    "You have no idea." she replied, picking at the arm of her chair.

    "Would you like some tea?" he enquired.

    "Why not."

    Christopher touched a panel on his desk, "Tea for two, blend Cushing 7, hot." he said. The replicator behind his desk hummed slightly and he took the pot and started to pour.

    Kendra sniffed, "What is it, smells weird. No offense intended."

    "It's a blend of thirteen herbs," he replied, "it's a natural pick-me-up."

    "It's that obvious?" she asked.

    "I wouldn't be much of a doctor if I couldn't make a diagnosis on sight." he laughed.

    "True," Kendra nodded, "so, what have we got from the Admiral?"

    "Well, why don't you take a look," he said, sliding the PADD across the table.

    Kendra picked it up and started to read. "Oh my God," she said. "This is a race that Voyager encountered in the Delta Quadrant. Species 8472 or whatever the hell that Borg Lady called them."

    "I see you're familiar with them." the Doctor said.

    She shrugged. "They wanted me to read anything and everything I could get my hands on when they had me training for this job. The Dragon Lady thought it would be important."

    A smile tugged at the corner of Christopher's lips. "'Dragon Lady?' Sounds to me like someone else is having problems with the upper echelons..."

    Kendra rolled her eyes. "I'm having problems of all kinds of proportions."

    "You wanna talk about it?"

    "No, not really," Kendra said, sitting back in her chair. A silence hung in the air for a few moments. "Have you ever just done something that you knew was really, really wrong but, yet, felt so right?"

    Christopher remained silent for a long time, "Can you keep a secret?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

    Kendra noticed the seriousness of his voice and the look on his face, this wasn't like the doctor she had come to know, "Yes."

    He took a deep breath as if struggling to release the words, "After I graduated from the academy and took up my first post, I took a leave of absence. During this time I travelled on cargo ships where I traded my services as doctor for passage. I ended up on the planet Orion. I tracked down a pirate that murdered my sister. He was playing Mon’dA’ReE at a table in a cantina. I joined the game. He had no idea who I was so I played him along a little." Another deep breath, "The stakes got pretty high and he lost everything in front of his friends. He came to the hotel where I was staying, crept into my room and found me."

    "Is that where you got your scar?" Kendra asked softly.

    Christopher absently touched his face, "What? This? No, that was something else. Anyway, he found me waiting for him in my room. I shot him through the stomach before he could react and as he lay on the floor, trying to put bits back inside himself, I told him who I was and who my sister was. If it's possible for an Orion to go white with fear, he did. I looked him straight in the eyes, told him that he was dead and raised my phaser. He begged, pleaded, offered me his ship, even his sister if I'd let him live. He then asked what I wanted. I told him that I wanted my sister back and then vapourised him. It was a horrible thing to do, Kendra, but afterwards it felt good. I had avenged the murder of my sister and I felt righteous. I returned to Starfleet and no-one ever found out, until now."

    She just sat there, sort of in a state of shock over what he just told her. "Wow," was all she could manage to say.

    "Just wow? No 'what the hell is wrong with you?'" he asked.

    She shrugged. "No, I'm not condoning it, mind you. But I do understand it. What I find interesting is that it didn't consume you. Most people either feel so guilty after revenge related things unless they're a little off in the head..."

    "That would seem to be a pre-requisite on this ship." He smiled slightly, "When I was imprisoned for poisoning the Cardassian planet, one of the federation prisoners that was rescued came to see me in my cell. He just looked me in the eye, nodded once and said "Thank you." That made the whole thing feel like I did right. I told myself that it was justice, not law, justice. They deserved it, same goes for the Orion that killed Jennifer. That's what keeps me sane."

    "Well, as sane as the next person, which is me and considering my history, that isn't saying much." she quipped.

    That brought a real smile to his face. "So you see, there can't be anything worse to tell me than mass poisoning, murder and revenge." A worried look crossed his face, "Unless you've poisoned the replicator system! That's it isn't it? Gaakk! You've poisoned my tea! *cough*" he started to make strangling noises, smiling even wider. "Sorry." he said looking slightly embarrassed.

    Kendra smiled a genuine smile. With the past couple of days she'd been having, she'd almost forgotten what it felt like. She took a sip of her tea and made a face. "I don't think you should worry about me poisoning the tea. You did that very well on your own..."

    Christopher feigned a wounded expression. "You don't like my tea?"

    Kendra shook her head. "No."

    He just kind of looked at her for a moment and then grinned. "Well, at least you're honest."

    "I try," she replied. "Regardless of my employer...."

    Christopher smiled, "Seriously, Kendra, you're my friend, and I hope think of me the same way. If there's anything I can do to help, apart from trying to poison the tea, I will."

    "I know, Doc, and you are my friend." she sighed. "But some things have to be dealt with personally. If it goes horribly wrong, I'll be back here."

    "Okay then," Christopher said, satisfied, "Now onto this species 8472, says here that the only way to stop them was to use borg nanites against them. I don't know about you, but I'm fresh out."

    Kendra was about to reply but was interrupted, =/ Bridge to Summers \=

    Kendra let out a sigh before she hit her commbadge to respond. =/ Summers here. Go ahead. \=

    =/ We need you up here on the bridge. Something about needing your authorization before the new crewman can even enter the bridge... \=

    Now she groaned out loud. It wasn't like this on a regular ship. As long as they were on the roster as authorized personnel, they didn't have to go through all these security checks. She understood why, given the nature of the ship, but it was still infuriating. =/ On my way. \=

    "Sorry Doc," Kendra apologised on her way out, "another time?"

    "I'll be here." he replied as the doors shut. "Computer, access Section 31 quartermasters stores inventory and search for borg nanites."

    =/ Working ..... item found. \=

    "Excellent, now order a sample to be delivered to the ship, CMO's office."

    =/ Order complete \=

    Christopher started to search for the schematics of nanite weapons, determined that they wouldn't be helpless again.
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    #5
    More Fuel to the Fire



    The beeping door chime caused Kendra to groan. She'd told the bridge that she was in her quarters if they needed her and then flopped down onto the couch to fall into a restless slumber. She sat up, her curly hair wild and fuzzy, and tried to focus on the room. Pig chirped at her and she gave him a dirty look. "Don't talk to me. Where the hell were you last night?"

    The gray ♥♥♥♥atiel chirped again. If birds could smile, she was sure he would have had an evil little grin on his face.

    The door chimed again. "Just a minute!" she called out, running her fingers through her hair to make it slightly more presentable. It didn't really work too well. "Come!"

    Curtis Hawkins walked into the room and gave Kendra an amused look. “Sleeping, Summers?”

    Kendra gave him a sour look. "Yeah, I was, Hawkins. What's it to ya?"

    He bowed mockingly. “I do apologize, your royal highness. If a peasant like myself only knew how busy your glorious schedule is, I could've planned my visit more carefully.”

    "What do you want, man?" she asked as she lay back down on the sofa, burying her face in a pillow. She took a deep breath, realizing that she could still smell Taylor's scent in the material. She very quickly sat back up.

    He picked up her tunic from a nearby chair and threw it at her. “Suit up, we have a meeting to attend in my office.”

    Kendra raised an eyebrow. "Your office?"

    “Hard of hearing, Summers? Isn't that what I just said?”

    "Isn't that 'our' office? Otherwise known as the ready room?"

    He just stared at her blankly. “Well excuse me, I really meant our office. Even though the meeting will be taken place on MY side of the room. But if you want to be technical, then yes smartass, we'll be in the ready room.”

    Kendra turned and started towards the door. "Yes, we've established that I'm a smartass. Did that a long time ago. Why do we need to retread over the past?"

    “Will you shut the hell up?” Hawkins said scornfully. “Why the hell are you always doing that?”

    She shrugged. "It's fun to annoy you."

    “Yeah well get you jokes out then.” He replied. Hawkins turned to walk out of the room, but he stopped suddenly and turned back towards her. “Oh, Taylor had some nice things to tell the boys.”

    The smile immediately erased from her face as she went stark white. "What? What did he tell you?"

    “Oh, didn't say much. Just how you to left the bar the other day and you two had a good time.”

    Now she felt her face turn red. "I can't believe he told you!"

    He smiled. “So you two had fun, huh?”

    Kendra buried her face in her hands to try and calm herself down. It didn't work too well. "He had no right to tell you about that! We came back to my quarters and we were drinking... That's how it happened. I stumbled, he caught me, and then one thing led to another... God, I can't believe he was bragging about it!"

    He held up hands in a gesture that he wanted her to lower her voice, “Relax Summers, I'm not making judgment on anyone. What you do on your own time is your own business. I was just trying to make conversation.”

    "Hell of a conversation, Hawkins," she said harshly. She took a moment to calm down before speaking again. "I know that it's my own business, but it's not really anymore. Taylor's telling people that we slept together. It wasn't something I would have done otherwise. I told him that it was a one time thing but he didn't react well. It was a mistake and I never meant to hurt him. Not that way. Do you understand?"

    Hawkins nodded. “I respect that. I really do. But can I please be honest with you?”

    "Be honest about what?"

    “I only actually knew about the bar thing. But thanks for confirming what happened.” He gave her an evil grin and walked out of the room.

    Kendra froze in her tracks, her jaw practically hitting the deck. Pig chirped right at that moment and, if she hadn't known better, Kendra could have sworn he was laughing.

    ***In the Ready Room***

    Kendra walked into the office they shared to find him sitting behind his desk, his feet on the table. He was smiling. "You lousy son of a bitch."

    He grinned. “What? Did I do something wrong?”

    "Look, I don't want anyone to know about it, okay?"

    “Well I don't know.” He replied with a shrug. “Something with a sheer amount of magnitude like this would be bugging me on a daily basis to blab at the mouth.”

    Kendra slammed her hand down on his desk. "Dammit, Hawkins, it's not just about me! Regardless what you think, I'm not completely selfish. I don't want to see Taylor get hurt. Yes, it's embarrassing for me, but I've done more embarrassing things and brushed them off. Taylor was not happy at all. This would not be good for him if this got out."

    “Then why not admit you have feelings for him?” he asked.

    "Are you trying to ruin his life?" she asked harshly, evading his question entirely.

    Hawkins slammed his hands down on the desk and flew out of his seat. He swung around his desk and walked up to her. “You don't think I know how it would affect him if I ran my mouth and told everyone?!”

    "I know that you know how it would affect him. The question is, do you care? Do you really care about what happens to Taylor?" she shot back.

    Hawkins grabbed Summers under her armpits and lifted her so that she was eye level with him. “His name is Dan! He has the utmost respect for you, so why don't you do him a favor and call him by his given name! Dan is more than my subordinate, he's my friend and friends don't screw each other over. So if I blabbed, then I screwed over a great friendship.” His eyes were glazed over with an almost utter madness.

    "Put me down!" Kendra said, struggling in his arms. He caught her off guard.

    “Please Kendra, for the love of God; swallow your pride and admit you like him. You always put on this act, like you don't like something you do. This man has shown you and is willing to lay down everything and treat you how a woman should be treated.” He said. “You sleep with him and lead him on to some kind of false hope and then you shut him down? If you don't want to be with him, just tell him. Break it off and make it a clean break. But if you have some kind of feeling for him, then you shouldn't pass up this opportunity.” He stared at her a moment longer and slowly lowered her back to the ground. “A person's emotions’ are nothing to play with. You wouldn't like it if somebody treated you like this.”

    "No, I wouldn't. But neither would I expect to persue something with someone who...." she trailed off. "I just wasn't expecting to for this to happen in the first place, much less let it concern me. I just don't know how to handle this."

    “How precious. I just adore it when to bitter enemies can finally come to terms with their friendship.” Said a voice coming from behind them

    Kendra jumped and turned around. "Why can't you people use the door like normal people?"

    Gantz and Walken strode up to Hawkins desk and nodded at the two ship COs.

    "Okay, so what do we owe this pleasure?"

    “You know, the usual visit and briefing we always give you two.” Gantz said

    "This isn't going to another one of your fun little tests, is it?" Kendra asked. "I think I'd like a little study time this go around."

    Zana gave her the evil eye. "Your sarcastic comments are not welcome, Commander."

    Kendra simply looked at her, not giving away any expression.

    “We received a distress call from a civilian ship. Seems they have a problem and are in need of help severely.” Gantz said.

    "So what exactly is it that you want us to do?" Kendra asked.

    Gantz took a seat on Hawkins’ desk and stared at the Starfleet officer. "Find the vessel, infiltrate it with a SEAL Team, rescue the passengers, and bring them back to us. That simple.”

    "Well, gee, that's no fun for us 'fleeters, now is it?" she replied. "Sounds simple enough."

    “You want both Teams to go onboard?” Hawkins asked.

    Gantz shook his head. "No, just one. We don't know what we're expecting, so we'll leave one Team on standby.”

    “Which Team will go out?”

    “Team two is the most logical choice. Black Ops is better trained for hostage rescue, unlike the Anti-terrorism boys. So let Sabien's Team handle it.”

    “Affirmative, sir.” Hawkins replied.

    Kendra eyed them curiously. "There's no catch with this one, is there?"

    "Why do you always have to question everything?" Zana asked tersely.

    "I don't know. You taught me," Kendra said without hesitation.

    Gantz and Hawkins glanced at each other, both with an amused looked on their faces. Westley leaned close Hawkins and whispered “Sounds like an old married couple, huh?

    Zana stared at her for a moment, then seemingly softened. "Touché, Commander."

    “Now with that out of the way, anyone have any questions?” Gantz asked.

    "I already asked my questions. You have any, Hawkins?"

    Hawkins shook his head. “No, I'm clear on everything.”

    Westley stood up. “Good, you'll be cleared for departure in two hours. Get your people together, brief them, and go do your jobs.”

    "Will do," Kendra said.

    The two operatives actually walked out of the office, instead of doing their disappearing act. Hawkins looked over at Summers and sighed. “Vacations go by too quick.”

    "You can say that again," she said with a sigh. "But I do tend to get in trouble on my vacations.... So at least it's over now." Kendra hit her commbadge. =/\= Attention all senior staff. There will be a briefing in the conference room in 1 hour. =/\=

    And with that, she left to go relax before the meeting.
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    #6
    First Impressions


    Lieutenant Mahala Patamon adjusted the worn leather bag on her shoulder, and stepped off the transporter pad. Her belongings had been presumably already sent ahead to her quarters, and after a quick inquiry of the computer, Mahala headed in that direction as well. She watched as the few crewmen going about their business gave her quick nods, or bare acknowledgements, or ignored her altogether. No matter - she hadn't been drafted to this ship to please anyone, let alone some random ensign.

    She worked her way through the corridors, taking a turbolift here and there until arriving at her final destination, the crew quarters deck. It had been a long time since she had served on board a starship, any starship. It had been a long time since she'd done anything but become more and more depressed, staying inside of her apartment for weeks at a time without talking to anyone or venturing outdoors. Jonathan was dead, and she felt mostly responsible for that. If only she'd arrived a few days earlier - if only she veered the shuttle towards the equator instead of the northern continent - if only she had convinced him to come with her on board the George Washington-B instead of taking off for gods only know where in the first place.
    Her musings were interrupted as she finally approached her door. She made a mental note to change the door tag to read "Molly Patamon" instead of "Starfleet Assistant Medical Officer," and stepped in. Molly slung her bag on the nearest chair, glancing around briefly at the lack of decor, and sighed.

    "Well - I guess I have my work cut out for me," she said aloud to no one in particular. She grabbed the nearest box, carried it into the bedroom, and began her unpacking effort. Clothes went into the dresser, PADDs stayed in their box to be taken to her office, and half of her plants were quickly displayed on a low bench near her desk. A few tribal ornamentations and Risan symbols were put up on the walls before she decided to take a break and head to her office. The doctor quickly shed her travelling clothes and pulled on a cream colored tank top, a soft brown leather skirt and a pair of brown slip-ons.

    "PADDs and plants and files, oh my," she mumbled, getting things situated in a small carrying case. Satsified that nothing would bend, break, fall or spill on her trip to sickbay, she exited her quarters and headed for sickbay.

    _________________

    Molly was busy setting a few things up in the AMO's office - a few strange types of plants on the back shelf, along with a few books in various languages, and a photo of herself and her brothers on her desk nearby.

    Meanwhile, Shea stumbled in with the help of a Corporal, bleeding from a large cut over her eye and from her hand, which looked rather smashed. The Corporal helped the grumbling Shea over to a biobed.

    Having just barely reported on board earlier that morning, Molly glanced up at the commotion in the outer room. She set her things down, pulling her hair back up into a ponytail and heading out to assist ... only to find the chief medical officer not present.
    Looking out her office door at the two Marines, the newest officer on board the Apocalypse guessed that this would be her first 'test' to see if she could handle herself. She moved over towards the bed, glancing at the woman seated there.

    "What happened?" she asked as she examined the gash on Shea's forehead.

    Shea grumbled lowly, "It's just a scratch." Pushing the Corporal away, she ordered, "That is all, you're dismissed."

    "Well if it's just a scratch perhaps you'd also like to diagnose the injury to your hand." Molly stated, expertly raising an eyebrow as she began to scan her forehead for any further injuries.

    Shea looked down at her crushed hand and deadpanned, "Just a bump?" Shea looked up at Molly with a ♥♥♥♥y smirk.

    Molly was not exactly in uniform yet, wearing a cream colored tank top, a short brown leather skirt and a smirk of her own. "Very good - you'll be a proficient medical professional in no time," she said with a roll of her eyes, healing the wound on Shea's head.

    Shea lifted a brow as well, deciding to be a smartass too, and feigned a serious look. "Are you the new 'nurse'?"

    "Hardly. A nurse wouldn't have my bedside manner or delicate touch." She worked carefully so as to make sure no scar remained on Shea's head, and began working on her hand.

    Shea watched her intently. "You're the new Fleeter medical officer huh?"

    Molly didn't respond to that at first nor did she look up from the injury. "You've broken four - no, five bones in your hand - and if that's what you want to call me. But you might want to try calling me Dr. Patamon - at least while we're on duty." the doctor said with a grin, running an osteoregenerator over the injury.

    That comment caused Shea to tilt her head to the side and slide a charming smile on her face. "Well Doctor, do you think there will be an occasion when I get to call you something else?"

    Molly kept her eyes trained on the work she was completing. "Perhaps - if they keep me around a while. My first name is Mahala," she said. She glanced up to let their eyes meet for just a second, assessing this woman who seemed so entirely full of herself. She continued, "But my friends call me Molly."

    Shea held out her uninjured hand to Molly, "Lt. Shea...I don't have any friends but I would guess they'd call me Kennedy."

    Molly gently shook Shea's hand. "Well - Lt. Kennedy Shea, I think you're going to be just fine, as long as you stop using this hand to punch holes in concrete walls, that is," she said with a smirk.

    Curiously Shea looked down at her hand, then back up at the Doctor. "And why do you think I was hitting walls?"

    Molly stated matter of factly, "The breakage pattern suggests you hit a large, unmoving object - and since two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time ...,"she said trailing off, smirking but still continuing to repair the injury.

    Shea just laughed. "He was just a little quicker then I expected; damn shuttle was behind him."

    Molly looked back up at Shea again and gave her a grin, "Well this should teach us a valuable lesson then, shouldn't it Lieutenant?" she said sweetly, a little bit of that Risan charm showing through.

    Tilting her head to the side, Shea studied the doctor. "I guess it should Doctor. Want to tell me what lesson that might be?"

    "Don't go punching people when there's a large, unmoving object behind them?" Molly stated with a ♥♥♥♥y smirk, putting her instruments away. She continued. "Might be tender for a few days, but the bones will be fully healed by the end of the day. Just go easy on it for now."

    Shea flexed her hand a bit, wincing only slightly, "So it'll be completely functional soon?"

    Molly nodded, "I'd probably forego the rest of your ... workout, such as it was, but yes - you'll be just fine."

    Shea put on an adorable little pout. "But I'll be able to get back to my uh 'workout' soon?"

    Molly peeked up at Shea almost getting taken in by that look. She grinned slightly. "Tomorrow morning would probably be ideal - but if you were so inclined, you'd probably be able to get in a bit of time this evening..."

    Shea chuckled, "Hmm....here's hoping." she said with a wink, then slid off the biobed. "Thanks a lot Doc."

    Molly nodded to her, "No problem." she said watching her go. She muttered to herself, "Now there's a lot of egocentrism in a well built package." A few moments later, she wandered back to her new office to finish putting things away.
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    #7
    The Briefing



    Hawkins was the first to arrive to the briefing room. He set his PADD and beret down on to the desk and walked over to the replicator. "Three pitchers of ice water."

    The soft hum of the replicator filled the room and brought forth Hawkins' request. He took the water pitchers one by one and walked them back to the desk. He heard the doors open and when he looked up, he saw Chris Sabien walk into the room.

    "Curtis." Sabien said with a nod.

    "Hey Chris. How was your leave?"

    The SEAL sat down in his usual chair and filled his glass with water. "Not too bad. Spent a lot of time with 31's local head shrinker with Tod."

    Hawkins nodded and took his seat. "How's he doing?"

    "He's getting better. I think with the drugs they gave him, he'll be ready for active duty in no time."

    "That's good to hear, Chris. We need a good man like him back on the Team."

    Sabien smiled a little. "Yeah, I hear that."

    Kendra walked into the room then. "Hello boys. So nice to see you." She walked across the room and plopped down in her chair. Spying the ice water, she took a glass and filled one of her own. Then she sat back and waited for the others to enter the room.

    ****Meanwhile****

    Christopher sighed and got up from his desk in Sick Bay and walked into the main treatment room to see Amanda.

    "Why is it," he asked, "that breaks don't last long enough?"

    "If I could answer that one I'd be a philosopher not a nurse." She replied.

    "I suppose you would, I'm going to the bridge. If anyone comes in and it's urgent, activate the EMH and then inform me."

    "Very well Doctor. Enjoy yourself." she answered with a smile.

    Christopher grinned and walked to the nearest turbolift, passing crewmen and junior officers who he greeted by name as he went by. The turbolift took him straight to the bridge which was remarkably quiet.

    He noticed that Ivy Green was at the helm and Tawnia was at tactical. He walked over to Tawnia.

    "Hi there." she said.

    "Hello Tawnia," he nodded towards the briefing room, "anyone in there yet?"

    "Captain just went in, the Major's in there and the SEAL Lieutenant." she replied.

    "Right, guess I've got a few minutes left before they start screaming for me." Tawnia chuckled at his comment. "So, would you like to come round for dinner this evening?"

    "I don't know what my boyfriend would say about superior officers asking young ensigns into their quarters for dinner." she replied.

    "Oh I don't think he'd have any objections, in fact, bring him along." Christopher joked.

    "Go into your meeting, see you at eight." smiled Tawnia.

    Christopher walked into the briefing room, smiled at everyone and sat down next to Kendra. "Morning all." he declared and waited for the rest of the staff to arrive.

    Shea walked in, black hair pulled back into a tight braid, scanned the room, then took her seat next to Major Hawkins. She squared her jaw, sizing up each and everyone in the room. Unconsciously, she reached up and rubbed her slight nose ridges, a habit formed from when she was a child and self-conscious about her mixed heritage. Finally, she sat back and awaited the briefing.

    As soon as everyone filed into the briefing room and all the opening greetings were exchanged, Hawkins cleared his throat and stood up. "Ok people, Commander Summers and I won't take up too much of your time and we'll make this visit as painless as possible. We've received orders to go investigate a distress call from a badly damaged civilian ship."

    Kendra nodded. "We've received the coordinates of rendezvous, but unfortunately the details are sketchy. According to the reports that we've been forwarded, all we basically know is that the vessel is badly damaged and they are sending out the SOS call. It's automated, and no one seems to be able to reach them through the normal subspace channels. That, and they're near the Neutral Zone. We're gonna need everyone to be on their toes for this one."

    "The Marines are to be on full alert for this one." Hawkins replied. "We don't know what the hell we're going into so all of you need to be prepared."

    "When we say we want everyone on alert, we mean it," Kendra concurred. She looked at the PADD the new Ops Chief gave her, searching for a name. "Lieutenant Eisenreich, I'm going to need you to scan the areas immediately around the disabled ship. See if you can figure out who or what happened."

    "Ja Kapitän", Ilse replied, subconsciously reverting back to her native German. There was a pregnant pause in the air, and Ilse pretended to clear her throat. "Aye, Captain. I'll make the necessary adjustments and coordinate with the Science Officer. I'll be doing scans for any hull or surface damage, hull breaches and the like. I can also scan the surrounding area for any warp engine or tachyon particle emissions. It may yield some clues, yes?"

    "Lt Chandra, be prepared at the helm in case anything unexpected happens and we need to get the hell out of dodge. We may need you to take the SEALs over the ship in the shiny new shuttle S31 gave us." Kendra explained.

    Miguel grinned slightly. "Yes Ma'am. She'll be armed and ready."

    Hawkins turned to the SEAL commander. "Lt. Sabien, all I want from your Team is to go in, secure the area, evac the personnel, and get out. You shouldn't be expecting any hostiles over there, but stay aware nonetheless."

    "Affirmative." replied Sabien.

    "And speaking of possibly injured people, that brings us to you, Doc," Kendra grinned. "Keep sickbay on standby. We don't know what kind of shape those people are in over there."

    "We'll be ready. Cargo bay two will be allocated for triage, as it's empty at the moment." stated Christopher. "If team one isn't going, I'd like to borrow Lance Corporal Peterson to help with the wounded. If that's alright with Major Hawkins."

    Hawkins nodded. "That would be quite alright, Doctor. As a matter of fact, Dr. Peterson is getting pretty antsy for work at the moment. I guess vacation was too much for some of us SEALs."

    "I understand, I'll see him in the cargo bay after the meeting." Said Christopher.

    "Okay, I think that about covers it. Any questions?" Kendra asked, looking around the room.

    "Just one," Christopher looked over to Sabien, "Could I have a word with Sergeant Monk before you leave?"

    Sabien furrowed his brow and sighed at the fleeter. "Actually Doctor, things will be pretty tight on our end. If you need to report anything to one of my men, then-"

    Hawkins cleared his throat and glared at Sabien. Sabien stared back at the Co-CO and nodded stubbornly, then looked back at the Starfleet Doctor. "Alright Doc, just keep in mind that Team 2 is on a tight timeline. Monk is not only a Medic, but a valuable part of the Team. He needs to be briefed on the warfare part of the mission."

    "I have some medical supplies that may help him on the mission, nothing bulky or likely to make a noise. It'll also make Dr Peterson's and my job a whole lot easier if he can tag them for transporter triage." replied Christopher.

    "Agreed. He's all yours up until them. Just have him back within an hour." Sabien said.

    "He'll be back in thirty minutes tops."

    Kendra nodded. "Any more questions?"

    Ilse felt uncomfortable about this last, but felt it was within her rights and responsibility to ask. "Major, it will be necessary to assign communication relay frequencies, and make sufficient preparation to monitor the tricorder telemetry of the Away Team."

    "Make it so, Lieutenant," Hawkins replied.

    She looked back at her Captain. "I can also look at the available personnel and put sufficiently trained replacements on standby, should you need them."

    Kendra nodded. "Sounds good, Chief. Go ahead and do that, too." New people were always so good.... "Okay, I think I think that about wraps things up. Anything else? No? Alrighty then, dismissed."
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    #8
    Getting Underway



    Hawkins walked out of the turbolift and made his way over to his chair. He sat down and looked over at Summers with a giddy expression. "You ready for this?"

    Kendra, who was sitting in her car, eyed him with a little smirk. "Uh, yeah, I'm ready. Why do you seem so happy?"

    "Why? Because it's been awhile since I've been in a combat situation. So I'm sorry if I'm a little excited."

    She simply nodded, humoring him. "Someone's a little trigger happy," she muttered under her breath.

    One of the MP's stationed on the bridge walked over to Hawkins and handed him a pad and a glass of water. "Thank you, Private."

    The MP saluted. "You're welcome, sir."

    Hawkins quickly saluted in return and dismissed him. He studied the information on the pad and handed it to Summers.

    "Hmmm... This looks familiar," Kendra commented after a moment.

    "Same stuff we already know. It's just a reminder briefing." he replied.

    She nodded. "Well, in that case, Helm lay in a course for the Neutral Zone. Warp 6."

    "Warp 6?" Hawkins asked. "Why not Warp 8?"

    "That'll put us there in about two hours, why?"

    "Want to take the scenic route, huh? Ever figure that if we get there sooner, we can finish the mission early and we can put this all behind us?"

    She shrugged. "Well, we don't want to attract too much attention, especially if we're dealing with some pissed off Rommies. That, and their distress call is automated and, according to this, it was at least a couple of days old when Section 31 got hold of it. They've probably given up on rescue, so we don't want to scare the hell out of them either."

    He shook his head. "Our methods differ so much, Commander. I guess this is one thing we'll have to deal with at a future time." He sat back in his chair and crossed his ankles together. "Alright. Warp 6 it is. Just wake me up when we get there."

    Kendra sat there for a moment, staring at him. "You can't be serious," she said after a while.

    He peeked open one of his eyes and looked at Summers. "What? I'm relaxing. Want a fresh Marine CO for the battle, don't you?"

    "Well, yeah. But somehow I don't think sleeping on the bridge is such a good idea. I would say to go to the ready room, but that's where I was going," she said as she stood up with a grin. "Looks like you've got bridge duty. Stay awake!"

    Taylor walked over to Hawkins from the Marine comm system and handed another padd to Hawkins. "Message from Hothorn, Major. Says he wants to have a private briefing with you an hour before we're in range with the vessel."

    That caught Kendra's attention. "Private briefing, huh?" she said as she took a step backwards and peered at the PADD.

    "The information is for Marine personnel only, Commander. Please don't look over the Major's shoulder." Taylor said quietly.

    Kendra started to look up at him, but then stopped. One, he was right and she couldn't really yell at him for doing his job. And, two, she didn't want any eye contact with him. Instead, she simply stepped back.

    Hawkins turned his head and looked at Kendra. "Were you peeking at my pad?"

    "Nope," she said innocently.

    He grinned. "Liar."

    "Yup," she grinned.

    He grinned. "Told you I'm always right."

    "You have the bridge, Hawkins," she smiled as she turned to head back towards the ready room.

    "And where do you think you're going, Commander?"

    Kendra shrugged. "I'm going in there to do paperwork. Gotta fill out some of the new recruit forms and stuff. Call me when you need to have your meeting or if you need anything else."

    Hawkins shook his head. "Yeah...right." he replied and watched as she disappeared into the readyroom. Hawkins looked up at his Senior NCO. "What do you think she's doing, Sarge?"

    Taylor diverted his gave fro the readyroom door to Hawkins. "Going to take a nap, sir."

    "Yeah I thought so too. Well, I guess we should get the show on the road. Send Corporal Andrews to see if the men are preparing."

    Taylor nodded. "Yes sir." He walked over to the Corporal and did as he was intructed.

    Hawkins sat back in his chair and watched as the platinum stars soared past on the viewscreen.


    --------------------------


    "So what the hell do you think he wants?" Sergeant Steven Monk asked at he walked side by side with his medical cohort Lance Corporal Matt Peterson.

    Matt grinned at his friend and slapped him on the shoulder. "Well according to Major Hawkins, the Doc wants me to help him out while you boys go do your jobs. As for you, my friend, I haven't the slightest."

    The duo walked into the sickbay and took a look around. They noticed a few bodies on the bio beds and the Asian nurse that was running scans over them. Monk took the initiative and spoke up. "Excuse me, Ma'am, but can you tell us where Doctor Cushing is at the moment?"

    Amanda looked up at the newcomers, smiled and said, "He's with a patient at the moment, we've moved all of Sickbay here so it's pretty hectic. He'll be here in a minute."

    Steven smiled at the pretty Asian nurse and began to walk up closer, but was suddenly held back by Peterson. "You know, if you are ever curious about learning combat medicine, come see me."

    "I doubt that there's ANYTHING you could teach me, in fact, I bet I could teach you a trick or two, but not today." Amanda laughed.

    Peterson suddenly saw Dr. Cushing out of the corner of his eye. "Hey Doc!"

    Christopher looked up from treating a crewman's leg, "Hi there, come on over you two."

    Monk looked over and seen the fleeter, he then looked back at the Asian and smiled. "Talk to you later."

    Steven and Matt walked up to the Doctor and saluted. "How are you Doctor. Sergeant Steven Monk and Lance Corporal Matthew Peterson reporting as you requested."

    "No need to salute me, call me Chris, please. It makes things a lot easier."

    "Very well." Monk replied. "Nice to meet you, Chris."

    Matt smiled. "I agree with my partner. It's a pleasure to meet you. So getting down to business, what do you require from us?"

    "Matt, can you help Amanda while I have a word with the Sarge here?" Christopher asked.

    "Affirmative, Chris." replied Peterson as he walked over towards Amanda

    "Steven, have you ever used one of these?" asked Christopher, handing over a slim looking device.

    Monk eyed over the thin metal object. “No. What is it?"

    "It's an advanced triage transporter tagger." Cushing explained. "It has four settings. Red will transport straight away, for severe injuries with a chance of survival. Yellow is for patients with severe injuries that aren't life threatening. They will have to wait until we signal the transporter room for them. Green is for those who are only walking wounded. Blue is for the dead or those who won't survive the hour. If you can tag each of the wounded you come across, that'll help enormously."

    "I see. You do know that it will slow me down when I should be securing an area. Even though I'm a doctor, I'm also a soldier and the soldier part of me comes first."

    "I realise that it's a hell of a decision to make in a combat situation, but just contact me and give me their symptoms if you need help."

    Monk smiled and nodded nicely. "Agreed Doctor. I will transport any injured or dead person over. Even though I'm a SEAL, we are both Doctors, right?"

    "Yep, got my hippocratic oath around here somewhere to prove it." Christopher said, patting his uniform as if looking for something.

    "Good." Monk replied. "Is there anything else?"

    "No, that's it really. Sorry to keep you from the Team briefings and prep time. Don't worry too much about the wounded, if an area has been declared as secure, we might be able to beam in a med team or beam casualties out. Depends on how much of a pain in the ass our orders are."

    "I like you, Doc. I'll be honest with you about that. You got a good head on your shoulders. Here, take this." Monk said as he handed the Doctor a long, plastic object."

    "What is it?" asked Christopher.

    "It's a homing beacon. This will tell us where you are in case you're in danger. You're alright with me and I'll protect you if need be. You just have to do me one favor."

    "Well, seeing as you've just offered to save my ass it's the least I can do. Name it."

    Monk blushed and smiled. "Put in a good word for me with your ACMO."

    Christopher laughed, "Amanda? She's my head nurse but I'll do it, I'll make sure your friend Matt doesn't spoil your chances as well. I'll assign Amanda to me and Matt will get a male crewman to assist him. I'll speak to her privately. How's that?"

    Monk smiled and gave the Doctor a nod. "That would be great. Now if there isn't anything, I'll catch up with you later."

    "Give 'em hell Sarge." Christopher replied.

    "See ya, Doc." Monk replied and made his way out the door.

    "Right then people, let's get this show on the road. Don't want to disappoint the brass now do we?" Christopher announced to the entire medical staff. "We'll be receiving serious casualties first. I want Dr Peterson and crewman Russell to take beds 1-20, Nurse Ogawa and I will take beds 21-40. Crewmen in sickbay will receive the walking wounded. Let's get to work."
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    #9
    "Rendezvous"

    The ship came out of warp just in front of the small Churchill class vessel. It hung in space, seemingly
    lifeless. "Are there any life signs over there?" Kendra asked tactical.

    "Affirmative." came Tawnia’s response.

    She turned to Hawkins. "Well, at least we know somebody's home." Then she turned back to the view
    screen, watching the ghost ship. "Well, I guess we need to go over and see if they can come out and play. What do you say, Major?"

    “I say Team 2 is more than ready to go over there and perform a little SAR mission.” He replied and looked at Sabien, who was standing nearby. “Isn't that right, Lieutenant?”

    Sabien nodded and held a steady watch on the view screen. “That is correct, Major.”

    Kendra nodded. "You'll probably want to use that fancy new toy that Section 31 gave us along with Lt.
    Chandra. Go find him and tell him he's been drafted to take Team 2 over there."

    “Begging the Commander's pardon, but I guess that you, like most other fleeters, fail to realize that SEAL Teams are trained as just that, teams. I don't want some poorly trained flyboy, with little or no combat training, to accompany my Team. Besides, Sgt. Sato is a more then qualified pilot, I think she could handle it on her own.”

    "You guys may be able to do it later, but as of right now, he's the only authorized pilot for it," she
    replied tersely. "He goes."

    Sabien glared at Summers. He knew she had problems with the Marine NCO, but she would learn later on that he is the last person she wants to mess with. “Let's get one thing straight right now. This will be the only time that he comes along for the ride. He will not board the vessel with us, he will not do anything
    to jeopardize this mission, if he does, I'll shoot him myself.”

    "Fine, he'll stay aboard the ship. All he needs to do is fly you there anyway," Kendra told him.

    “Just remind him that he's under my authority for the remainder of this mission.” Sabien replied and walked into the turbolift.

    "Yes, sir," she said as she mock saluted him. Sabien simply glared at her and then walked off the bridge.

    Hawkins watched the lift's doors close and when they did, he leaned over to Summers. “Summers please, for the love of God, stay on his good side. If you thought Taylor was bad, you should get a load of my cousin.”

    She rolled her eyes. "I've dealt with people like him before. Thinks they're hot stuff. He ain't nothing."

    “Just keep in mind that you can't boss him around and I can't boss him around.” Hawkins replied. “He reports to the higher-ups himself.”

    She turned to look at him. "I'll keep that in mind, Hawkins, thank you."

    Hawkins beamed. “That’s all I wanted to hear.”

    Kendra nodded and tapped her combadge. "Summers to Cushing. We've just made our rendezvous with the ship. Stand by for possible wounded."

    "Affirmative, Commander. Cushing out," he replied, cutting the comm.

    “So I take it that’s my cue. I’ll inform the grunts to go on standby in Shuttlebay 2.”

    "Okay," she said. "Let's rock and roll."


    ---------------------------------

    The doors of the mess hall opened with a hiss and in walked the six members of SEAL Team 2. Lt. Chris Sabien led his band of commandos further into the eatery and began to scan the room for the man he was sent to retrieve. It only took a matter of seconds before Sabien spotted the face in the crowd of people.

    Miguel rested a hand against his chin as he read through a PADD containing recent information of past operations. His eyes were getting tired from all this reading, and he was looking forward to hit some space. "Whenever that'll be..." He muttered. He rested the padd down and took another piece of his meal. For Section 31, this food was very good.

    The Team made their way forward to the helmsman. The man's back was turned and didn't see the SEALs coming; it appeared he was too busy looking at a PADD. Chris placed his hand on his shoulder and turned him around. "Lt. Chandra, come with us."

    Miguel turned around and examined the group of SEALs. "I'm not finished with my meal..." He said simply.

    "You really don't have a choice in the matter. Let's just say that you've been drafted." Sabien replied. "Now if you will be so kind, why don't you follow us out the door so we can carry on with our mission."

    "Mission?" His eyebrows rose. He took another moment to consider the situation, he would be leaving with a bunch of SEALs who which probably hated him already. "Oh yeah..." he immediately put his food down. "What, your pilot wasn't available?" He asked, surprised that he wouldn't sit on the ship this time around.

    "You are the only one authorized at the moment to fly the shuttle. Now I'm not going to waste my time going into a long conversation with you." he said. "Pack your gear and move your ass."

    "Now!" Wilhite yelled, drawing a few stares from the other patrons.

    Miguel waited a moment before rising from his seat. "Well since you asked nicely."

    Sabien let the pilot walk ahead of him and out the doors. "We'll be heading to the shuttle bay from here. From what your CO says, your job is to be our escort service. You will fly us over and you will fly us back. That simple."

    "While all you guy's have the fun?" Came the rhetorical question.

    "You will not leave the pilots seat." Sgt. Sato spoke evenly. "You are not trained to infiltrate the vessel, hence you are a hazard to the Team."

    Miguel continued in the walk, but froze his glaze to Sato. "With all due respect ma'am, if you assume I am not trained in infiltration, then you haven't done your homework... ma'am."

    "Marine type of infiltration is nothing compared to SEAL infiltration, Lieutenant." Sabien replied.

    "Yes, we've done our homework." Schoenick added.

    The seven people walked into the turbolift and all grew quiet the entire ride down to the shuttle bay. When the doors opened again, Sabien led the group out and over to the shuttle. "You're job is simple. Just follow the rules and we can get back to our lives. Do you understand?"

    "Gee, do I get a lollipop if I do a good job?" He joked to the icy group. "I have you lieutenant, and I'm no noob to this job, I won't become a hazard to the team, and you can expect me to be wherever you need me to be at a moments notice." Ooh boy he was looking forward to knocking the crap out of these grunts on the ride over. Inertia dampers were such a fun thing.

    "You can do us all a favor and drop that smartass comments, Lieutenant." Sabien said and looked over Chandra. "We are being harsh and speaking fast because we have a job to do. Now if you have some kind of a personal vendetta against us, then we can settle this right now with fists flying. Now if you want to be a man and follow orders, like you just said you can, we can finish this mission within the next hour and go back to keeping our distances."

    Miguel shrugged. "Sounds like a good idea to me."

    "Good, now go fire up the Warhammer."

    Miguel grinned, he knew he'd probably get his ass beaten in the next few minutes, but he had to have a little fun with these guys before the flight. "I don't believe the chain of command allows you to give me a cold order like that lieutenent."

    Sabien turned back around and took Chandra words into mind. "Fine then. Pretty please, with sugar on top, go start the god damned Warhammer."

    ***Shuttlebay 01***

    "Welcome to today's flight ladies and gentlemen, my name is Miguel Chandra and I will be your pilot for today. Before we launch I'd like to point the barfbags on either side of your seats, and remind you that this is a non-smoking flight."

    Buzzed a communication from inside the cockpit.

    Miguel cut the communication and chuckled lightly to himself. He had managed to relate to the marines on the Blackhammer, and he had hoped to relate to the SEALS in the same way.

    "Please fasten your safety seat, the Warhammer Gunboat will be launching in 5... 4... 3... 2..."

    With that, he kicked the thrusters to maximum, sending the Warhammer into full impulse. A jolt that, if not expecting, would send anybody to the back of the ship.

    The trip itself took only a few moments, but was a sight to remember. The starship they were intended to rendevous with for a S&R operation was completly battered, and torn. "I'd be surprised if anybody survived this..." Miguel muttered.

    "Alright SEALS, we're about to dock, please report to your designated exit, and trust me."

    As soon as all the indicators were green, telling Miguel that the SEALS were in position, he activated the docking seals and opened the doors. Sending them into what would probably be hell.
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    #10
    Nasty Surprises

    The members of SEAL Team 2 emerged on the damaged vessel. Sabien's head scanned from left to right and back again. "Scan the area. I want everything from possible lifesign readings, to the ship's status, and possible hazardous leakage." he said to Monk

    "Yes sir." Monk replied and pulled out his tricorder and began to scan.

    "Wilhite, I want you in the Jeffries tubes. Follow above us the entire way."

    Dan nodded. "Yes sir."

    "Connolly, you have the rear. Aspen, you have point."

    She nodded and moved in front of the group. "Yes, sir."

    "Yes sir." said the newest member of the SEAL Team, then fell back to guard their rear.

    "Schoenick, you're with me." Chris stated to his specialist. "Ok, let's move out."

    Aspen held her weapon ready and began to move quietly ahead of the Team. She didn't want to be unprepared for any surprises.

    Dan Wilhite strapped his weapon over his shoulder and unhinged the cover to the Jeffries tubes. He climbed in quickly and replaced the cover from the inside. "Lieutenant, can you read me?"

    Sabien, as well as the other members, heard Wilhite through their earpieces. "Read you loud and clear, Wilhite."

    Aspen came to a corner and rounded it quickly, attempting to catch any unsuspecting bad guys off guard. "All clear," she said quietly in the microphone/earpiece attachment. The area looked normal, as if nothing was wrong. No sign of damage or of a struggle. It was all perfectly fine.

    Sabien rounded the corner after Aspen and was followed by the rest of the Team. Things seemed well, but one thing Chris learned over the years was to always expect the unexpectable.

    "This is weird. What the hell were they sending out a distress signal for? There doesn't appear to be anything wrong here," Aspen said.

    “Picking up two life signs.” Monk said and pointed. “A half a hundred metres to the north of us.”

    “Let’s move.” Sabien said and raised his HK in a defensive position again.

    Aspen rounded the corner again, scanning the area quickly with her eyes. And they fell on the bloody heaps in the floor. "We got two bodies over here. Get Monk over now." The rest of the group quickly rounded the corner. "It's a mess over here," she warned.

    “Holy ♥♥♥♥.” Connolly said rather loudly.

    Sabien’s hand shot out and covered the new SEAL’s mouth. “Will you keep your damn voice down? You’re going to give away our position.”

    “Sorry sir.”

    Chris kneeled down with Monk and looked over the body. “Don’t be sorry, just be quiet.”

    “Pulse OX is low, BP is 170/90, brainwaves are erratic.” Monk said, occasionally looking up from his medical tricorder. Judging from the mark on his forehead, he might have a serious concussion, maybe even a more serious head trauma.” He moved over to the other injured person, a woman, and ran his tricorder over her. “She’s not in any better kind of shape. She has broken leg, a ruptured spleen, and minor abrasions and contusions.”

    “Alright Monkey, tag them and get them out of here.” Sabien replied.

    Aspen looked around the room for the way out and headed that way. It seemed the lights were out on this end of the ship as she stepped into the darkness. Quietly, cautiously, she stepped down the hallway. There were burn marks on the walls, like there had been some sort of firefight. She felt like she walking down the corridor of a catacomb.

    Monk put two transmitters on the injured crewmen and opened a line to the Apocalypse. “Monk to Apocalypse, two to beam up. Energize.”

    The SEAL Team moved forward when the two crewmen were beamed away. They approached a pitch black corridor, so dark that they were forced to put on their night vision goggles. “Aspen, report.”

    "Lights are out from here on out, it looks like. There are signs of a struggle; phaser burns and the like. Haven't come across anyone else yet," she said through the microphone.

    “Anything else, Monk?” Chris asked quietly.

    Monk slapped the tricorder once and shook his head. “Negative, sir. The ship is giving off a lot of electrical interference. I’m having trouble picking up anything.”

    “See if you can find out were engineering is.” Chris said.

    Monk was quiet for a few moments and then spoke again. “One deck below us.”

    “Good, let’s get there and see if we can solve our problem.”

    "Okay, I'll meet you guys there," Aspen stated.


    **Cargo Bay 2 – Triage**

    =/ Transporter room 2 to Cushing, two incoming wounded \=

    "Cushing aye, biobeds 1 and 2 please."

    =/ Beds 1 and 2, understood. \=

    "Okay everyone, this is it. Treat your patients and move to the next. If you need any assistance, shout out and either myself or Dr Peterson will be right with you. I know that this is the first time some of you have seen combat triage so if you feel the need to throw up or faint, let nurse Ogawa know and she'll escort you into the corridor outside. Don't try and be the hero and treat someone on your own if you have any doubts. Good luck everyone." Christopher stated, feeling his heart rate increase in anticipation of the mayhem to come.

    Two figures materialised on the beds, a man and a woman, both looking in pretty poor shape.

    Amanda looked down at the padd in her hands, "Male yellow tag, female red tag." She called out.

    "Matt, take the yellow patient, I'm on the red."

    "Gotcha Doc." Peterson replied and lifted the injured victim on to a gurney and quickly examined him. He had several third degree burns on various places on his body, obviously from multiple phaser blast set on high stun. Those wounds were superficial, but it was the hunk of shrapnel sticking out of his neck that worried him. "Nurse, hand me a regenerator and a laser scalpel." Matt slowly cut the man's wound open a little more and removed the long piece of titanium. Grabbing the regenerator, he sealed the wound.

    "His vitals are still dropping." The nurse said loudly Matt's brow furrowed and wonder what he missed. It was then that he looked upon a fine tear in the man's uniform. He ripped open the man's duty-wear and found another piece of shrapnel poking from his chest. Running his tricorder of the wound, Matt was now faced with a crisis.

    Christopher rushed to the woman's side running his tricorder quickly over her body, broken leg, ruptured spleen and several ruptured blood vessels in the abdomen. Grabbing a tissue regenerator he called, "I want two units of plasma and an osteoregenerator here." He began working on the woman's spleen, fusing ruptured tissue and repairing the traumatised organ. A medic brought the plasma and bone regenerator to his side. "IV the plasma then work on her leg." He commanded. The medic worked silently and didn't get in Christopher's way as he worked to save the woman's spleen, he made a mental note to thank the medic afterwards. The bed's bio readout showed that her spleen was recovering, but would never work at 100% again. "Okay, take her to recovery." He said to some crewmen waiting nearby.

    The crewmen gently lifted the woman from the biobed and carried her to sick bay on a stretcher.

    "How you doing there Matt?" Christopher asked.

    Shrapnel pierced this man's aortic valve. Bleeding is getting under control, but I think it's too much damage to repair.

    =/ Transporter room to Cushing, we have incoming wounded, thirty in total\=

    "Okay, sort them according to their tags, the computer will show you which beds are free." Christopher replied.

    =/ Aye sir, ♥♥♥♥ens out \=


    **Seal Team 2 – Civilian Ship Engineering**

    “Dammit!” Schoenick said from under a computer console. “Most of the circuitry is fried, I’ll be lucky if I can restore any kind of power to the ship.”

    “Keep trying, Tod.” Sabien replied, then looked at Monk. “How’re we doing?”

    “All done here. Thirty were beamed over, the rest of the 66 we’ve seen are dead. I’d personally like to know what the hell happened over here.”

    Chris nodded. “Me too.”

    "What I want to know is--" Aspen started, before she was cut off.

    “Sir, I’m picking up voices.” Connolly said as he squatted near his comm/spy devices. “Can’t really make out what they’re saying, but I did overhear one of them saying to get phasers.”

    Aspen knelt down beside the newbie to listen as well. "Uh, they just said something about the group in engineering..."

    “How the hell could they know we’re here?” Wilhite said over the SEAL comlink.

    Schoenick pulled himself out from under the console and stood up to punch in some commands on it. “They probably still have some power on the bridge. Maybe they had the computer try and locate if they had any intruders on the vessel.”

    “How many decks on this ship?” Sabien asked.

    “Fourteen, sir.” Connolly said

    “So that means that they’re on deck one.” He said and thought for a second. “Wilhite, get to deck one and tell us what you can see.”

    “Affirmative.” Wilhite said.

    "We haven't checked out other parts of the ship," Aspen suddenly said.

    “Like where?” Connolly asked.

    "Sickbay," she stated. "If we've seen this many people just in the corridors, who's to say how many are in sickbay?"

    “Sickbay probably has emergency generators running though.” Monk said evenly.

    She shrugged. "If they're like the rest of the ship, they've got no power either. Could be some people in really bad shape in there."

    Schoenick snatched Monk’s tricorder from his hand and plugged it into the console. “One way to solve this.” Tod stood still and read the information as it poured out into his tricorder. “Only three life sign show up, all are on the bridge.”

    Aspen turned to Sabien. "Orders?"

    “I think that explains what we have to-“ Sabien started, but was cut off in mid-sentence by Wilhite over the comlink.

    “Sir, we have three lifeforms on the bridge. I can’t make out two of them, but the third has…”

    “Has what, Corporal?” Sabien said strictly.

    “Borg attachments on his face.” Dan finished.

    The SEAL merely stared at each other. “Oh crap.” Sabien muttered and opened a link to the Apocalypse. “Sabien to Hawkins. We have an Alpha Code Red situation on board. Prepare SEAL Team 1 and the Marines for a full on assault.”
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    #11
    “Oh crap.” Hawkins muttered. “Go to red alert.”

    Kendra had had her leg draped over her armrest, her back to Hawkins. She leaned her head back to look at him upside down. "Red alert? What the hell for? I'm not familiar with that code...."

    Hawkins disregarded her and tapped his combadge. “Major Hawkins to SEAL Team 1 and all Marine personnel, standby for immediate assault on the defiant vessel. This is not a drill.”

    She threw her leg over the chair and turned into a normal sitting position, feet flat on the floor. "Hawkins! What is an Alpha Code Red?"

    “An Alpha Code Red situation means we have a Borg attack.” He said sternly.

    "Dammit, who the hell invited the ants to the picnic?" Kendra muttered under her breath. "Okay, what's your plan?"

    “I’m preparing our troops for an immediate transport. Seeing as there are Borg on the vessel, there must be a cube somewhere out there coming back to reclaim their MIA’s.”

    “Sounds good to me.” She hit her commbadge for an all call. =/\= Attention all Starfleet personnel, please report to your duty stations immediately. Things are about to get sticky.... =/\=

    **Cargo Bay 2 – Triage**

    Christopher hardly had time to reset his tricorder before the whine of the transporters started to fill the cargo bay. Lights blinked on the end of the biobeds as they indicated the state of their patients. Christopher rushed to the nearest red light. The tricorder bleeped in alarm. "Prep this one for surgery right away, surgical bed 1, move!" Christopher urged, moving to the next patient, scanning continuously.

    "Amanda, seal the wound on this patients leg and send him to sickbay."

    "Yes doctor." Amanda replied, already reaching for a hypospray.

    Christopher was already onto the next patient, applying an arterial patch to keep him alive until the medics could concentrate on him. The next patient he encountered was giving a medic some trouble. The young medic was weeping while working furiously to patch blood vessels and infuse plasma. Christopher glanced at the light on the end of the biobed, blue, which meant that the patient wouldn't survive the treatment. Placing his hand gently on the medic's shoulder Christopher said soothingly, "Nancy, it's no good, there are others here who need our help and have a better chance of surviving."

    Crewman Nancy Gilmore looked up into Christopher's eyes, her own filled with tears, "I can save him, sir."

    Christopher admired the determination in her voice, "It's alright Nancy, go and help Amanda, I'll take care of this one. If we can save him, I promise that we will." Nancy wiped her eyes and walked to Amanda's side.

    Christopher pressed a hypospray to the man's neck and injected a large dose of painkiller into the man, who smiled weakly, understanding the situation completely. Christopher squeezed the man's hand gently and waited with him until he had passed away, no one deserved to die alone and in pain. Looking up, he could see Matt working quickly through the wounded. 'Commendation for that man' he thought.

    =/ Major Hawkins to SEAL Team 1 and all Marine personnel, standby for immediate assault on the defiant vessel. This is not a drill. \=

    Christopher cursed and looked up from his patient, "Go Matt, we'll have to cope without you. Thank you and good luck."

    “Damn it!” the SEAL said and through down his instruments. “Watch this one over here. He’s critical.” Matt took off his scrubs and ran out the door.

    By the time Molly arrived in sickbay a few moments later, it was chaos. The injured were already taking up every available biobed, with portable units lining most every bit of corridor outside. Nurses and doctors rushed here and there, barking orders and 'yes sirs! back and forth, as patient after patient was beamed in, triaged and either treated, moved to a walking wounded area or beamed to the morgue. All in all, the newest doctor found herself very overwhelmed. She handled herself well, she felt, even though in a black sleeveless dress she was not exactly prepared for such an influx of injured.

    But she'd been through bad situations before, many of them requiring her services. Mahala grabbed a lab coat, slipped it on quickly and reached for the nearest tricorder as she moved towards the nearest patient. The man was already being treated by a tall male with jet black hair, whom she quickly identified as Lieutenant Commander Christopher Cushing. She hesitated to introduce herself in the midst of such chaos, and instead moved towards the next patient – a male, appearing to be approximately twenty-two years of age on the human scale.

    She scanned him briefly, as she visually identified most of his major injuries: two black eyes, a broken nose and possibly a broken cheekbone; a left arm that would have to be amputated if not operated on quickly; and most likely internal injuries. The tricorder continued what her eyes had already told her – massive internal bleeding, a punctured kidney, and four broken ribs. Molly grew sick at the sight but forced herself not to look away.

    "Nurse!" she barked out, and the nearest unfettered nurse scrambled her direction.
    "Yes ... doctor?" The woman asked, unfamiliar with the new face.
    "Dr. Mahala Patamon," she said quickly, trying to get the introductions out of the way. "Get me an osteoregenerator, find out if a surgical bay is free, and find four units of plasma. Where are the sedatives and other medications kept?" The nurse pointed across the way, hurrying out to gather the requested supplies. "There."

    Christopher thought that he was hallucinating. He had his hands around a patient's heart desperately trying to massage it back to life. The last thing he expected to see was a woman in an evening dress come walking into a blood stained cargo bay. He looked away and concentrated on his patient.

    "Amanda, log the time of death and have him sent to the morgue." He said wearily.

    Mahala made her way across the room, grabbed several hypos and filled them with various meds that she knew she would need, slipped them in her coat pockets, and turned back towards her patient. However, she made the unfortunate mistake of not looking first, and bumped into her new commanding officer.

    "Sir! My apologies!" She said quickly. "I'm Dr. Patamon - I know I should have come to you sooner, but..."

    Christopher knew he wasn't hallucinating, "Hello doctor," he glanced down, "a little overdressed for the occasion aren't we? Don't worry, I'm not going to complain. Go see to your patient."

    Molly glanced over towards her patient, who was still in obvious pain. "Maybe we can talk after this is settled?" She said quickly.

    "Sure, I'll either be in my office or my quarters. Either way it'll be with a large bottle of something extremely alcoholic."

    Christopher smiled as Patamon walked away, remembering how he'd been embarrassed to meet the first officer on the USS Indomitable. It was after a lengthy shore leave and the XO had been less than careful when choosing a variety of escort. Christopher had never been able to look the man in face after that. Shaking his head, Christopher turned to his next patient, wondering who or what had caused such horrific injuries to these poor people.
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    #12
    Sabien and his Team were hurriedly checking their weapons and securing their gear. It had been quite some time since they fought the Borg and he wanted to make sure that they could kill them off before they adapted to their onslaught. “Alright people, this is it, it’s time for war. We go in as a group and two of us each target a Borg. We want to make sure that they are stone cold dead before they adapt.”

    “And if they do?” Connolly asked.

    “They we switch to grenades and if they adapt to that then we switch to blades, and if that doesn’t work, we beam out and blow up the vessel.” Sabien stated at cocked his HK. “Either way they’re all dying today.”

    "And it's a good day to die," Aspen added, as she cocked her own weapon.

    “Please don’t say that, Sarge. I don’t feel like dying today.” Connolly replied.

    She rolled her eyes at him and smirked. "Them, not us, you idiot." The new guy was more than a little green and it showed.

    Connolly wrinkled his nose and smiled. “Sorry. Think you should clarify more in the future.”

    "Whatever. Back of the line, Newbie. You frighten me," she said sarcastically.

    As Connolly did as he was told, Chris took point this time around. “Let’s move it, people.”

    Aspen fell into step right behind Chris. She was followed by Monk, Schoenick, and then Connolly. She turned around and saw the look on the newbie's face. "Hey, I was just screwing with you back there, kid. Just concentrate and you'll be fine."

    Sabien shoved the turbolift’s doors open, walked in, and began to remove the ceiling cover. “Just remember Connolly, these guys hit hard. You got to focus and take them out as quickly as possible.”

    "Between the five of us, we should be able to take several of 'em, if not all of 'em," she told him.

    Sabien jumped up and pulled himself on to the top of the lift. He stuck his hand down and started helping the rest of the Team up to where he was. Once everyone assembled on to the lift’s ceiling, Chris started climbing the ladder to the other decks.

    Aspen grabbed the rungs just after Sabien and started up. It would a bit of a climb; thank God for keeping shape. She wondered how new guy was gonna handle his first mission....

    **Outside the bridge**

    “Are you in place, Wilhite?” Sabien asked quietly through his headset.

    “Yes sir. Ready and waiting.” The sniper replied.

    Sabien leaned his back against the wall, a few feet from the door of the bridge. He took a few deep breaths and opened his comlink. “Sabien to Hawkins, standby as we enter the bridge.”

    “Affirmative Sabien, keep the link open.” Hawkins replied through their earpieces.

    Sabien looked Sato and kissed her quickly. “You ready for this?”

    She smiled. "Ready as I'll ever be."

    Chris spun around and faced the door. “On my count. 3..2..1.”

    The SEAL Team barged on to the bridge with weapons held steady. The air vent on the wall came flying down and crashed on to the floor. “Federation SEALs! Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!” Sabien yelled.

    The rest of the Team flooded into the room, weapons up and ready to fire. Aspen was just waiting for them to fire the first shot.

    To their amazement the trio dropped their weapons and raised their hands.

    “SEALs! By the Prophets, don’t shoot!” replied one of the men.

    “Identify yourselves!” Schoenick said and moved forward a little.

    The person closest to Schoenick spoke up. "Master Chief Petty Officer Ben Miles!"

    Sabien lowered his weapon a little. “What the hell happened, Chief?”

    "There's been an accident..."

    “No really?” Monk muttered.

    "Actually, it was more like sabotage..." said the next person.

    "And who are you?" Aspen demanded.

    "Helmsman Garrett McCormick."

    “Well then, Helmsman McCormick, pack your gear and let’s go.” Sabien said.

    He shook his head. "Who are you people first? How do we know you aren't working for them?"

    “Guess you’ll just have to trust us.” Sabien retorted.

    McCormick stared back at the SEAL. “And if I don’t?”

    “Jesus!” Connolly muttered.

    Chris raised his voice. “Then we’ll stun you and take you anyway! Now shut your mouth and prepare to be beamed over.”

    “What about Terry?” Chief Miles said quietly.

    “Who’s Terry?” Sato asked.

    “The Borg.” Said Wilhite from the vent. “He just seemed to collapse before you guys got here.”

    Sabien turned back to the two crewmen. “Will you please tell me what you guys are doing with a Borg on your vessel? You know what? Forget it. I’ll just find out later. Connolly, get on the horn and tell them our situation.”

    The two crewmen walked over and picked up Terry. Soon after Connolly reported in to the Apocalypse, the trio were beamed away.

    “Mission accomplished.” Sabien said and opened a link to Chandra. “Team 2 to Chandra. Prepare for departure.”

    "Confirmed team 2” As Chandra waited, he took another careful look at the sensor screen, making sure there was nothing approaching.

    Nothing was... yet...

    Within a short amount of time the entire SEAL team was aboard, and the Warhammer took a hard swerve to the side to begin its rendevous with the Apocalypse. "Anything interesting?" He called through the subcom system in the aft section of the ship where the SEALS waited.

    "A borg." Replied Connolly.

    Miguel's eyes furrowed. "A borg? What are they doing here?"

    "Apparently, he's a member of their crew... I could barely tell he was one of them though."

    Miguel took an inward sigh. "Alright, we're almost there..." His voice seemed a bit distant. The Warhammer runabout was designed to battle the borg, but in numbers... it carried the most sophisticated ECM systems to delay or distort accurate enemy sensor readings. But it wouldn't take much time to find a single runabout. "What are the borg doing back here?" He asked himself silently.


    **USS Apocalypse Docking Bay**

    =/\= Hawkins to all Marine and SEAL personnel. Please disband from docking bay 2 and report back to your duty stations This has been a false alarm. =/\=

    Scattered groans echoed through the docking bay in that moment. Nothing was more displeasing to the troops, then gearing up then being called back. Sgt. Dan Taylor strapped his weapon over his shoulder and turned around to leave the bay. “Alright people, you heard the Major. Fall out.”

    The Marines turned around and followed their NCO out of the docking bay. Enroute back to the barracks, Taylor ran into Lt. Shea and Corporal Peterson. “Guess you just missed the call. We’ve been ordered to cease and desist. False alarm.”

    Shea muttered under her breath, "Well there went a perfectly good evening."

    “Damn.” Peterson muttered. “And I was set to go blow some things up. Guess it’s back to triage for me.” He turned around without another word and made his way back to his previous post to lend a hand.

    Shea sighed, "Can you let the Major know I'll be in the armory if he needs me. I just want to make sure we're ready just in case next time turns out to be the real deal."

    “Yes Lieutenant, I’ll make sure he gets the message.” Taylor replied and returned a salute. He turned away and continued down the corridor. When he reached the turbolift, he enter and called for the bridge. The trip up only took a matter of seconds, so he didn’t have to wait long dwelling in boredom. When the lift stopped and the doors opened, Taylor walked out and made his way to where Hawkins was standing with Summers.

    Hawkins and Summers were looking over the data that the SEALs retrieved from the ship. From what Hawkins could see, there were definitely signs of sabotage, but there were no traces of the saboteur. “Not even a spec of organic matter shows up. I guess that means we can rule out a counter attack from the ship’s crew.”

    "This just keeps getting weirder..." Kendra said thoughtfully. She looked up and saw Taylor heading their way. "I take it all you people got the dismissal order..."

    “What’s the news, Major?” Taylor replied and saluted Hawkins. He looked at Summers and gave her a little salute as well. “Commander.”

    She smiled faintly at him. "Gunny."

    “Still trying to figure that one out, Sergeant.” Hawkins replied. “We’ve all decided that what we’re dealing with is sabotage. But we can’t find any trace of the people to did this.”

    “What about a second ship?” the Gunny asked.

    “Negative. Sensor logs from the ship shows that there was no contact with another vessel.” Hawkins replied. “They had to be stowaways.”

    Taylor thought for a minute. “What about escape pods? They could’ve left before we came.”

    "We thought about that already," Kendra answered. "There were none missing. No one went anywhere."

    Hawkins nodded. “Besides, escape pods from a Churchill class can only travel at impulse. We would’ve seen them or picked them up with our sensors.”

    "Exactly," she replied. "So that means whoever it was is still poking around somewhere...."

    “You know,” Hawkins said. “They could be one of the dead bodies.”

    “Or one of the victims Team 2 rescued.”

    "Or they could still be on the ship..." Kendra suggested, drawing stares from the other two.

    “How’s that possible?” Hawkins asked. “The internal sensors would’ve picked them up.”

    "True, but this person is very clever. What if the sensors can't see them?" she said, thinking aloud.

    “Then that is new technology that I never heard of.” Taylor commented. “But she could be right.”

    "If they've got some way of masking their lifesigns, they could be anywhere on that ship," she said. "Does that thing say exactly how bad the ship was damaged? There's no chance that they could run off with it, is there?"

    Hawkins handed her a padd. “Weapons are shut down, they have about 1% of power working for them, and life support is almost depleted. I say we put a tractor beam on it, just to make sure if we missed anything, they won’t go anywhere.”

    Summers nodded and gave the order to the Tactical officer. “So what now?”

    Hawkins began to walk towards the turbolift. “Let’s go interview some of those survivors.”
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    #13
    Kendra and Hawkins stepped into the cargo bay and stepped into chaos. There were wounded everywhere; doctors and nurses ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, desperately trying to help as many of them as they could. People lay bleeding and bruised, in pain and some even dying. "What in hell had happened over there?"

    "Beats me." he said. "I was about to ask you the same question, Commander."

    "I know as much as you do," she shrugged. "You see anyone you recognize? Maybe we can get hold of them to see who's well enough to talk to..."

    Taylor followed closely behind, scanning the room the entire way. "There's Doc Cushing."

    "Looks like he's busy." Curt replied.

    "He knows better than the rest of us who's able to talk..." Kendra replied.

    Christopher looked up from his current patient. This one wasn't as critical as the last four and he was glad. He saw the group coming his way and he waved them over. "Welcome to hell. We’ve had some losses, but we managed to save the majority that were transported over. I’ll have some numbers for you later."

    "What about that Borg, Doc? I wanna know what the hell they had a Borg onboard for." Kendra asked.

    Christopher’s features softened slightly. "He’s stable and on biobed 16."

    He led them over to the biobed and Kendra looked around the room once more. Whatever happened over there was bad. Very bad. The group stopped moving, but her attention was still with the wounded.

    "He’s unconscious right now. But I assure you that he's harmless." Christopher said.

    Kendra turned her attention back towards the group and her eyes fell on the Borg for the first time. "Oh my God!" she said suddenly, the color draining from her face.

    Hawkins stared closely at the sleeping man's face. "Is that Lt.Terry O'Conner?"

    She nodded. "Yeah, it's him. I don't believe it..."

    Dan remembered the conversations about good 'ol Terry O'Conner and he expected the commander’s surprise. What he didn't expect was the fact that the man was a Borg.

    It was at that moment that she registered that Taylor was standing there with them. She looked at him carefully. "He was on the Illustrious with us. I don't think you ever met him," she explained quickly. She turned back to Cushing. "Wake him up."

    "I know who he is." Taylor muttered softly.

    Hawkins pointed at Cushing’s hypo. "You heard the lady, Doc. Bring sleeping beauty back to reality."

    ***

    Darkness, a void surrounded him. It was a terrifying place to be in, there was no sound, no color, no light. It was just darkness. He couldn't hear his footsteps or his screams. But suddenly, out of nowhere a faint echo could be heard in the distances. Muffled conversation, and familiar voices. He could feel his torn body become light, as he began to float into the air, towards the light. A familiar presence awaited him.

    ***

    "Good morning, sunshine." Hawkins said to his old acquaintance. "Welcome back to the land of the living."

    Terrence O'Conner's eyes opened up with a flutter before he began to identify who were surrounding him. The first two he didn't recognize, a doctor and a marine, but the second... he recognized all too well. "Hawkins?" He asked sternly, trying to find out if he had only been kicked into another fantasy.

    "Yeah it's me." Hawkins said. "Looks like you went on one hell of a ride."

    Terry squinted his eyes in an attempt to regain focus. "What happened?"

    Kendra hesitated momentarily, but then chose to speak up. "We were hoping that you could tell us that, Lieutenant."

    Terry was surprised to see Hawkins again, but torn to see Kendra. He could feel his eyes begin to water up, so much searching, so many questions, he could never find out if she was dead or not after the incident on the Illustrious. His breathing became slightly sporadic, and began to shake lightly. "Kendra?" Slipped a light voice of air from his mouth.

    She gave him a weak smile. "Hi, Terry..." she said softly.

    Terry was unable to say anything else, he could only help but watch her, miss her, and love...

    "There will be time enough for catching up later," Kendra told him. "Right now, we need to focus on the situation at hand..."

    Taylor stepped forward. "What happened over there, Lieutenant?"

    Terrence O'Conner, hesitated. Kendra would probably have been furious with him for taking on such an assignment. "We were responding to the possibility that a new borg threat was approaching, bigger than ever before. Our mission was infiltration, I was supposed to be *captured* and re-assimilated by the borg collective. What they wouldn't know is I was carrying a virus designed to cause a cascade failure... it's the same code the Enterprise D planned to use when they discovered the Borg probe that had crashed."

    Kendra looked stunned. "I remember reading something about that. Something similar to that occurred on Voyager..." She couldn't believe that Starfleet would do something like that. She couldn't believe that he had allowed them to use him like that.

    "Jesus wept." Hawkins muttered. "Any idea if the virus is contagious? If so, we have to isolate the ship. Who knows who Team 2 or Chandra have spread it to."

    Terry shook his head, and with a broken voice he replied. "No... we tested it for four months, it hasn't had an effect on other biologicals."

    "So, obviously something went wrong..." Kendra cut in, trying to stay focused.

    Terrence nodded his head with a slight wince of pain. "We don't know what happened first, but before everything went bad we had three crewmen claim to have seen a shapeshifter... none of them could give an accurate description though."

    Hawkins sighed and shook his head. "This is just great. Look, I think I take Delta and Echo squad over to the vessel. We have to hunt this thing down and destroy it."

    "Agreed. I'll have ship's security on alert over here as well. Just in case," Kendra replied.

    Hawkins looked at Taylor. "Ready the men."

    "Yes Major." Taylor replied and looked at Kendra before he left. Oh did they have a few things to discuss. If there was one thing he hated more than anything, it was the borg.

    Kendra watched him go and then turned back around. "Okay, so are you saying that a possible changeling is responsible for this kind of damage? Single handedly?"

    "We don't have any confirmation that it was a changeling, but we had three people say they saw something." He paused. "But Starfleet Intel believed a single changeling could seriously sabotage DS9, so what's to say it couldn't do the same to us."

    "Paranoia breeds violence," Kendra sighed. "That's just peachy. We've got a bunch of wounded people here who more or less turned on each other..."

    Hawkins put his hand up to stop Summers. "You have to think of one thing. A changeling can become whatever it wants. That right there makes it the perfect assassin for a mission like this. I personally don't think the crew turned on each other out of paranoia, the changeling could've easily taken them out itself." He replied and stopped her from talking again. "But for the sake of argument, It is still a reasonable thought that the crew blasted each other. All I'm saying is let's take it out before it finds a way to reach its people."

    Terrence agreed, as he began to force himself out of the biobed. "I can help..." He said in a weak tone. "Whoa there, pal," Kendra said, stopping Terry from getting off the biobed. "I don't think the Doc has
    released you yet..."

    Christopher, who was keeping an eye on the meeting, walked up and pushed O'Conner back down on the bed. "Sit back down, Lieutenant. You're not going anywhere just yet. We still have plenty of tests to run on you. Plus the engineers want to pick that borg brain of yours."

    "See? Not just yet. Don't rush things..." she told him.

    Terrence hesitated, he glared at Cushing first, but then returned his attention to Kendra, nodding slightly.

    "I'll get some quarters assigned to you, as well as the rest of the injured crew," she promised. "Anything else?"

    There was so much Terrence wanted to say, so much he wanted to ask. But he knew this wasn't the time, or place. His heart dropped, but he shook his head.

    "I'll be on my way to go and kill the enemy." Hawkins looked at Summers. "I think your people will be a good addition to the away team. Have your friend Hollins brief them and send them to docking bay 2. We'll go out from there." Hawkins nodded to Summers and patted O'Conner on the knee right before he turned and left the sickbay.

    Kendra looked up at Christopher. "Keep me informed, please," she said, giving Terry a small nod. And then she walked out as quickly as she could.
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    #14
    Christopher sighed and finished dealing with the last patient, "Okay Amanda, have him transported to sick bay and put under observation. Then, go get some rest, you've earned it."

    Amanda merely nodded, obviously exhausted, "Very well doctor, I'll be back in six hours to check on the patients."

    Christopher managed a smile, "That's alright, you don't have to come in until tomorrow morning. On a personal note, if you're thinking of spending some time unwinding, you could do a lot worse than ask Sergeant Monk to join you for a drink."

    "The MARINE?" she exclaimed.

    Frowning, Christopher said, "Look past his uniform Amanda. Believe it or not people aren't all like the stereotype we have in our minds. Give him a chance."

    Smiling, Amanda replied, "Is that an order?"

    "A suggestion," corrected Christopher, "and I'm going to be in my office with a large bottle of something very alcoholic and, in all probability, very illegal."

    "Our secret then." She replied with a wink.

    **CMO's office, twenty minutes later>**

    Christopher poured a shot of Aldeberan whisky into the tumbler on his desk, it's rich mahogany colour sparkling in the light. "Cushing to Summers." He said tapping his comm badge.

    =/Summers here, go ahead doctor. \=

    "Kendra, I have the figures from triage for you." He said, hating this part.

    =/ Go ahead, Christopher. \=

    "Out of the thirty two wounded transported aboard in total, we lost three. Four remain in critical condition, one of which I don't expect to survive the night, we've done all we can for her. All the rest will be up and about in the morning with a bit of luck."

    =/ I understand, thank you Christopher, I know you've done your best. \=

    "I'll fetch the official report up later, I just thought you should have an idea of numbers." Christopher said, staring into his glass.

    =/ I'll have some strong coffee ready. \= Summers signed off, obviously sensing his intentions.

    He stared at the glass for a long time contemplating, knowing that one drink wouldn't be enough but it would be one too many right now. He was startled by the door chime sounding.

    "Come on in." he said aloud.

    Molly Patamon, freshly showered and changed into a uniform, stepped into the CMO's office. She still had that slightly haunted look that comes with losing a patient, and her eyes were beginning to show just how exhausted she had become. She bit her lip.

    "I thought now would be a more appropriate time to formally introduce myself," she said, stepping just to the desk and stopping. "Lieutenant Mahala Patamon..." she trailed off, wrinkling her nose slightly at the scent of the alcohol her superior was not quite consuming. "Did I catch you at a bad time, sir?" Again?, she thought to herself, remembering all too clearly just a few hours before, bumping into her blood-soaked superior in her black evening gown.

    "Not at all Lt," Christopher said following her gaze to his glass, "It's to remind me not to drink at a time like this. Please have a seat."

    Christopher pushed the drink away as Mahala sat down.

    "I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet before everything shot to hell. Remind me to have a word with Admiral Selleck at S31 Medical HQ." Prompted Christopher.

    A look of concern passed over the lieutenant's face. "I'm sorry sir, did I do something wrong?"

    "Not at all, I just like to remind the Admiral that I don't like the way he runs the medical side of S31. Please don't call me sir. You call me sir and I expect to see my academy instructor over my shoulder. Doctor if you want to be formal, Christopher if you don't."

    Molly smiled, immediately taking a liking to this man. There was just something about his overall personality that told her they'd get along just fine. "Alright, Doctor ... Christopher. I'll keep that in mind." Her posture in the chair relaxed.

    "By the way, congratulations, you did good work in there today, especially since you were in an evening dress. The medics and Amanda noticed how well you coped and remarked upon it several times to me."

    "Thank you, very much - I just got so into the work at hand I forgot what I was wearing," she blushed slightly. "I promise I won't make a habit out of it. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?"

    "Oh, before you leave, I'd better tell you about the EMH. She's a little abrupt but she's very good. Just don't upset her or I'll never hear the end of it." He smiled.

    "I'll keep that in mind. I've never worked with an EMH before; never had the chance to. The Washington-B was just going to be equipped with one when I ... when I left. And thanks - I'm sure we'll get along just fine." She flashed him a smile of her own, and turned towards the exit. This was going to be one interesting assignment.
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    #15
    Hawkins walked into Engineering and quickly spotted the CEO. He swiftly walked up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Lieutenant, I need you to come with me."

    Reina stood up from where she was sitting going over a simulation of the Apocalypses Subspace Field Geometry "Sorry. I didn't see you come in Sir" she said indicating the display panel. "I was trying to boost WCE again. What do you need?"

    "I feel it would be wise to have a certified Engineer over there to repair the computers and power systems. All I can afford is a few marine specialists."

    Reina nodded and grabbed the engineering away kit and another roll of smaller tools and hefted them over her shoulder She looked at the other tools "Any indication of the state of the systems" she asked, picking up a portable computer buffer "Any information would be appreciated so I don't have to call Du Bois over to bring some tools"

    "Major hull breach, but that area has been contained. Main power and life support is almost depleted." Hawkins replied. "That's our main area of concern right now. We need you to get those systems running. Other than that, the Marines and Security will take care of the threat."

    Reina ditched approximately half her tools into an untidy heap and gathered a few more into her kit.
    "Shouldn't be a problem." she grins. "In most ships there’s usually a couple of redundants before you have to rely on the backups. The main problem is power, but that usually has a couple of redundant systems as well. In most designs people find it inconvenient for the power and the life support to run out at the same time. All I have to do is reroute to those systems and Badda bip, badda boom we have ourselves air and gravity. This is provided they haven't fried all everything too bad otherwise you'll have to learn to breath vacuum, quickly" She winks at Hawkins showing complete disregard for formality "Do we know if there are Contingency Supply Modules on the ship?" She began almost talking to herself. "Well I can get the Photosynthetic Processors and Particulate filtration units online quickly enough...but there’s no guarantee of humidity or full temperature control...." she looks back at Hawkins "In other words I can probably get her up and running, just don't expect it to be a holiday on Risa"

    "There are reports of a shape shifter on board."

    "Oh goodie" Reina said extracting another tool from the locker almost as an afterthought and stuffing it in her pocket "That should be a lot of fun."

    Hawkins held out his hand and gestured towards the turbolift. He waited until he walked ahead of him and he followed. Once in the solitude of the lift, he decided to strike up a conversation. "How are you enjoying the ship thus far?"

    Reina thought about the question "It's quiet" she admitted "Although coming from where I did, that’s no real change. The Apocalypse is a good looking ship with good looking systems. She's a pleasure to be working with. Of course I haven't had time to fully gauge Burt and Ernie’s real capabilities yet, but they will show their real personalities given some time." She grinned her evil grin "I haven't met everyone yet, but those I have seem like good workers "DuBois is proving to be a good worker, almost a natural in fact"

    He nodded at her positive remarks towards the crew. "We have a tight-knit crew here on the ship. Hardly any reported problems. I think you'll make a lot of new friends rather quickly."

    "I hope so sir," Reina says "Otherwise I might have to branch into robotics....but then again Mother said I should always 'make' new friends, although I doubt that’s what she had in mind." She laughed genuinely with a shimmer of mischief in her voice, her ice cold eyes surveying Hawkins carefully. "Tight knit crews are more fun to work with" she says sobering up a little "I prefer to work with friends rather than officers, but don't worry. I may have slightly un-orthodox manner of approaching people, but I run a tight engineering room and I DO respect rank." She waved her hands "I'm easy enough to get along with provided you respect that while the CO had command of the Ship, I'm the Queen of the Boiler Room"

    He stopped and backtracked to one of her earlier remarks. "Wait a minute. Who's Burt and Ernie?"

    Reina actually blushed. "Weeeeeellll" she said looking a bit embarrassed. "Since such a lot of a ships functions depend so highly on the warp core, and because it tends to have such a prominent position, I find it almost rude not to name them" She looked up at Hawkins "If you spend enough time around them you often find Starships and their engines develop personalities all their own. If you don't go through a certain procedure sometimes it will get real sulky and decide to 'not go' And when you consider that without some systems we’re effectively floating in a giant metal coffin, you DON'T want things to stop working." She grinned, "Just call it an eccentric throwback to ancient Terran maritime tradition of saluting a ship before you step on board."

    He chuckled lightly. "That's clever. I like that."

    Reina looked honestly relieved "You don't know how happy I am to hear you say that." she said "My previous superior officer and the other engineers thought I was stark raving looney to keep talking about the engines as if they were alive". She stared at him for a longer moment her scarred brow crinkling slightly as she regarded him before looking back down the hall processing other thoughts for a moment. It had been the first time someone hadn't looked at her like she was a madwoman. She was a woman of course, but she resented the nickname she had earned on Utopia Planetia "The Mad Engineer of Warp Lab 4" Another reason this posting was important to her. It was a chance to start over.

    Hawkins walked in silence for a few moments as he collected his thoughts. "We try not to be judgmental around here. If you haven’t noticed, Lieutenant, a majority of us on this ship have a checkered past. So no one really has a right to label a person because of their differences. If that were to happen, they’d be susceptible to the same rough treatment.” He rounded the corner leading to the docking bay and slowed his stride a little. “Either way everyone is basically an equal on this vessel…to an extent.”

    "I can respect that" Reina says equably "And if you'll pardon me, Who gives a flying frogs nest that most people have a chequered past?...Aside from the tight assed officers with too much gold braid on their uniforms for their own good. Everyone is the same when you lock em into a box" She grins "I'm not what you call a model officer, you may not have noticed, Sir."

    He stopped in mid-stride. “Alright one thing, I’m not your Commanding officer, so you don’t have to refer to me as ‘Sir’. You only have to refer to me as Major, or Major Hawkins.” He looked at her for a second and studied her. “You may also call me Major A Hole from time to time.” He jokingly added. He continued forward and walked up to the docking bay doors. “So are you ready for this?”

    Reina adjusted the strap over her shoulder. "Sure thing" she says "Its what I was meant to be doing, and I'm itching to do it." the doors opened "Oh. And you can call me Reina, when you're not too busy being a Major....or an A hole" Her eyes sparkled with mischief and good humour as she winked at Hawkins and turned to face her mission ahead laughing. This was going to be an interesting assignment

    "Smartass." he muttered and walked into the docking bay. He pointed to the shuttle bay they'd be leaving on. "You can stow your gear on that one. We'll be leaving as soon as my men arrive. See you on board."

    "Just got to grab some things from my quarters and I'll be right on board." Reina said as she dropped her tools into the shuttle.
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