Thanks to the Quantum Slipstream Drive, the Sherman Potter arrived only minutes after the Dauntless, her crew ready to receive wounded or head down to the surface to triage patients on site. Even though they hadn't transferred all supplies from Canopus before they'd abruptly left, they were well stocked and would be able to handle almost anything that could be thrown their way.

After a brief discussion with the Carcosians, Pierce ordered the emergency response crews planetside and had made his way down to Sick Bay with his XO. Now all that was left to do was to wait for injured.

And scrub in of course.

“Nothing like jumping right in,” said Pierce as he entered surgery, already changed into scrubs. “Everybody ready for this?”

"Ready as we can be." Konrad replied with a smile that hid his anxiety. "One thing about surgery in Starfleet, it is like regular surgery with an unexpected plot twist."

"Ain't that the truth?" grinned Pierce, making sure his designated area was set up properly and double-checking the medicines on hand. "I always hope that the twist is a free chicken dinner, but somehow, it never is."

"Bridge to sickbay, the first wave of Carcosian wounded are being ferried to us. Their longboats have docked in the main bay, and their wounded are being transferred directly to sickbay by gurney. Looks like it'll be a busy day." The voice of the comm officer on the bridge reported.

"We're ready for them," replied Pierce. "Sorry boss," he added to Anjou. "Knee jerk reaction. I'll try not to do your job anymore."

"That's alright Doctor. Sometimes I forget that I'm in charge of surgery." Anjou replied. He started to work on a bloody young man. The casualty reminded Konrad of the Dominion War and how the red tide of wounded never seemed to end. Without words, he started into surgery.

Jayla was down to triple-checking her station when the first wounded came in. She wasn't entirely prepared for the state any children might be in, and so it came as a shock when a child of no more than seven was laid on the biobed in front of her, covered in dried blood and with a totally crushed leg and several other broken bones. The sight almost broke her, but she managed to hold on. "It's okay, sweetie," she said softly, patting the child's head. "I'll get you all fixed up." It didn't matter that the child was unconscious; she would talk to him all the same.

"Make space!" a Carcosian Navy medic in a white ship suit spattered with blood and char came in on a gurney, his hands working on the leg of a young sailor. "Anyone here a trauma surgeon or are we just shuffling the deck!"

Like the rest of the crew, Adina Maddox had been in her own little corner of space on this ship--squirreled away with a few of the latest journals of forensic medicine and one particularly exciting article on a recently-discovered pathogen--when the call came for all hands on deck, as it were. As intent as she was on her reading and thinking, she only heard parts of the call but hurried to main sickbay all the same.

She was opening her mouth to complain about being pulled away from her work when a pair of medics carrying a gurney pushed past her, shouting as they went, and she put two and two together to get a pineapple.

One side of her hyper-focused nature gave to another side of her hyper-focused nature. "Let me see him," she called after the medic, given she was right behind them. "Over here," she pointed to the one clear bed she could see in her immediate line-of-sight, following hurriedly and immediately starting triage.

Soon after the first wave of injured came the second. Nobody would be idle today, that was for sure. Pierce wondered grimly if they would be able to save everyone, but wasn't able to dwell on it as he had a patient waiting on his assistance.

The old man had been brought in by two young women. At first, nurse Haywood had thought he was another victim of the recent Reka attack, but as the women told their story, it was clear that he had been far away from any areas that had been hit. They kept directing Haywood to his leg, on which lay an ugly yellow and purple bruise.

“That should be easy enough to fix,” Haywood declared. “A simple bruise is all. It looks like his body has done most of the healing already.”

“But it’s not a bruise!” Insisted the younger of the two, who had identified herself as the man’s granddaughter. “The healers here treat him for it and in a few days, it reappears, even if he’s done nothing but sit in his chair and read!”

“Hm,” mused Haywood, brow wrinkling gin thought. She pulled out a tricorder and scanned the area, but found nothing. “I’m going to find a pathologist,” she decided. “Just in case. I’ll be right back.”

She found none other than Commander Donaurov not ten steps away. “Excuse me, Doctor?” she said as she approached. “I have a patient presenting with what looks like a bruise, but his granddaughter says that the bruise reappears whenever it is healed, even if he has done nothing at all. Would you mind taking a look? Maybe there’s a parasite or something, I don’t know.”

Donaurov, of course, was an epidemiologist, not a pathologist. But he was an infectious disease specialist, so this might be be right up his alley. Maybe.

"Let me take a look," Alexei said. "I'm Doctor Donaurov. I'm just going to take a look here, alright?" He put on gloves, a mast, and a faceshield. "Please pardon all of this, but I've found that it's better to be safe than sorry." He looked at the bruise. He scanned it with his own medical tricorder, then put the tricorder away. "Does it hurt on its own, when nothing is touching it?"

"I ne'er even notice it, 'less one o' them two point it out," answered the old man.

Alexei nodded. "How about now?" Alexei gently but firmly probed the bruise with a finger, applying pressure in different places on the bruise and around the edges. "Let me know if you feel any pain when I press on the bruise and around it."

The old man frowned and shook his head. "Nothin'," he replied.

"Hmm," Alexei said. "Very curious. So, let's eliminate some possible factors. Have you changed anything about your normal routine lately? Body soap, shampoo, laundry detergent, lotions, could their be something new in your diet?"

“Not that I know of,” answered grandpa. “She cooks m’meals,” he added, nodding to his granddaughter.

“I haven’t changed a thing,” answered the granddaughter.

"Is it possible something bit you? An insect of some kind?" Alexei asked. Alexei looked at the bruise again. "Taking a closer look at it now, it could be an insect bite. Here, let me check for something." He made several adjustments to his tricorder and then scanned the bruise again. "Ah ha!" he said. "There's traces of some kind of venom in the bruise. I'm guessing something bit you. The venom is interacting with the blood in the vicinity of the bite, causing the discoloration. It looks like a bruise, but isn't one. I'm not familiar with local insect life or all that familiar with local diseases, but one of your medical people did advise us of an insect sometimes found around medical camps, drawn to them by the blood, waste, and corpses. They told me it could spread parasitic infection, so let's see..." Alexei scanned the bruise again, and then scanned the man from head to toe. "I'm not detecting any parasitic infections at this time." Alexei put the tricorder away. "Tell you what. We've got a general antiparasitic. I'll give you an initial dose of that and a short course for you to take home with you, and I'll give you that shot to neutralize the venom in that not-quite-bruise on your leg. However, I want you to see one of your local medical professionals as soon as you can, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. Before you go, one of my assistants will go through a questionaire with you, just some background information that will help us determine if there's a larger public health concern." Alexei transmitted the medication orders from his PaDD to Haywood's PaDD. He pulled out a hypospray, loaded it with the antiparasitic, and injected the man. Then Alexei swapped ampule and shot the antivenom in to the man's arm. "There we go. Now, by the time you're done with my assistant, your take home prescription will be ready and Nurse Haywood will make sure you get your pills before you leave. The whole thing won't take more than five minutes. Before I leave you in Nurse Haywood's very capable hands, do you have any questions for me?"

"Don't think so," replied grandpa. "Thank you kindly, sir. I'll be sure to pass that information along to my healer. I hope there's no more of them buggers about."

"Yes, thank you!" agreed the granddaughter. "It's not often our healers are stumped."

"It was my pleasure," Alexei said. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

"Of course, doctor," said Haywood, who had retrieved the requested medicine. She went over the notes the doctor had transferred to her, gave them the medicine and sent them on their way. She then turned to see where else she could be of use.

"Incoming," came the call from a SAR medic and two security officers carrying a stretcher.

The triage area was already a buzz of activity as SAR teams straggled in with patients of varying degrees of injuries....some walking in and some being carried on stretchers and some being beamed from somewhere directly to triage. As busy as they were, Cate had managed to keep things moving smoothly. Two of her ED nurses and three corpsmen moved patients from stretchers to hover gurneys turned into biobeds, tagged them and from there to the Treat and Street area or straight into the Surgical Tent. So far there had only been a couple of severely burned patients and one with a skull fracture that needed to go to the surgeons. The rest were treatable with pain relief, dermal and osteo-regenerators. And only one black tag...which Cate deemed a miracle with all that was going on. She knew that wasn't going to last, though, having been in this situation before.

Wiping her hands on her blood stained scrubs she looked toward the "entrance" of triage. "Bullet," she said as she approached the SAR team.

"Tib/Fib fracture. Possible internal hemorrhaging," reported the medic. "Our tech wouldn't work so I can only go by his vitals. Unfortunately he isn't the most cooperative patient," he said as the patient struggled against his restraints on the stretcher.

Owing to a very unfortunate ancestry of just the right combination of Vulcan, Human, and Trill, Cal Jensen was, under the best of circumstances, very emotional to say the least. But in the current situation, he had whipped himself into a hysteria that had infected many other colonists. Even now he ranted and raved about anything his mind latched onto.

Which was bad news for the Starfleet personnel. As his eyes lit on them, they went wild and he shouted, "you!" One shaking finger jabbed towards the nearest nose and he took a ragged breath. "This is your fault! You brought them down on us! We've lived here for years in peace, then you show up and suddenly, those mad birds are all over the place! Don't touch me!"

"Kayolane, 3cc," Cate called over her shoulder. "You need to calm down so we can treat your injuries. No one is going to hurt you. We're here to help," she said in a soft soothing voice, her hand on his forehead.

"Help, my ass!" raved Cal, struggling against those who held him. "You're the ones who started this!"

A nurse rushed up with a hypospray. "Here Mother," she said.

Cate took the hypospray and placed it against the young man's neck and administered the sedative. "This will knock him out," she said, quietly, to the corpsman. "Get him on a hover gurney so we can assess his injuries." Then over her shoulder she called out, "and someone get the Counselor over here."

Cal fought sleep, but it didn't last long. The medicine was too strong for him to resist long.

But, even as he faded, those who believed what he said had already latched on to his raving. One woman with only a single broken finger took on the raving. "He's right!" she raved. "If they had just stayed in their own galaxy, we'd have been left alone!"

Several others shouted their agreement, adding their own protestations to the woman's.

Theo sighed. Sometimes his job was a mass of confliction, but today that went double. He wanted to be out with the team, but he'd had to come back to base with a casualty and now, said person stablised, he'd been about to head back to rejoin the SAR efforts when he heard dissention in the wounded. Beleagured nursing staff didn't need any more issues, saving lives was more than enough work to be getting on with. So, with a deep breath to centre his own selfish plans, Theo pitched in.

"Counselor's out with a team," Theo told Caitlin quietly. "I'll see what I can do."

With a slow confident walk over to the protesting civilians, Theo held his arms up in a gesture of peace and addressed them all politely. "We're here to help you," he advised them. "To fix your injuries and ensure you survive. You can hate us all you like, but you've got a better chance with us here than without. Now, lady, please don't point that finger so dramatically, you'll hurt yourself more. Let me take a look." Little things, Theo told himself internally, big differences make.

She pulled her hand away, protectively shielding it with the opposite arm. "How do I know you won't just make matters worse?" she demanded hotly. "This whole situation is totally your fault." She gasped suddenly. "Are you in league with the Reka?" she demanded, somewhat madly.

Theo kept his hands held up, palms out to show he had no intention of forcing anyone to do anything. Yet anyway. "Well, you'd have to trust me," he said, voice calm and caring. "It must hurt. Look, if you don't want me to touch it, just strap it to the one next to it, okay?" He smiled, wishing it was as simple as sedating the noisy ones. "No, ma'am, I'm nothing to do with the Reka. We're here with the Dauntless. We're medics. We came to help."

"Came to help, indeed!" spat the woman. "Brought us to the attention of everyone and everything out there, more like!"

Cate ran her bioscanner over her patient and looked at the results, then cast them to a PADD. She rescanned with a radiograph tablet and nodded. "Yup. This fracture's going to need to be reduced before regenerated," she said, casting the image to the PADD. "And there is definietly a GI bleed. Get him to the surgical tent," she said and handed the PADD, which now served as a medical chart, to the Corpsman and tagged the patient with a red tag. "Next," she called out.

"Where are our people?" demanded the mother who held a screaming baby. "Where are the Carcosian healers?"

"They're in the field searching for injured," Cate lied. She had no idea where they were. "Is your baby injured?" she asked softly.

The mother tightened her grip around her child. "Are you saying I can't take care of my own baby?" she demanded hotly.

"No. Of course not," Cate said, stepping back and putting her hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I just want to help. If your baby's hurt or sick, I'm a nurse and can help. If...," she made a wild guess by the baby's features, "...he is hungry, we have food. If you need medical attention I can help with that, too. Why don't you sit on this bed and let me help you? You can lay your baby in your lap. I promise I won't touch him without your permission."

The mother reluctantly took a seat on the cot indicated and settled the squalling baby into her lap. "Don't touch him!" she snapped fearfully.

"He's a handsome boy," Cate said with a smile. "What's his name?"

"Jason," answered the mother hesitantly. It was family name, having belonged to all the eldest sons in his father's family since the early twentieth century and she wasn't going to be the one to stop the tradition.

Cate picked up a bioscanner from the nearby utility tray. Turning it on she moved to stand close to the mother and held the device so the mother could see the screen. In a soft and soothing voice she said, "this is a device that will tell me what, if anything, is wrong with you and your baby and I won't have to touch you. I promise...it won't hurt. All I do is wave it over you like this," she moved the scanner slowly, keeping the screen visible to the mother, "...and it takes pictures of your insides and turns them into data telling me what I need to know to help you. See?" she pointed to the screen. "Jason has a fever."

"But, why does he have a fever?" demanded the mother frantically. "What's wrong with him?"

"From what my device is telling me, he has fluid in his lungs," Cate explained, keeping her tone soft so that the woman needed to lean closer to hear her. It was a tactic used my medical professionals when dealing with anxious patients. They actually calmed down in order to listen. And in this case, the mother's concern for her child overrode her need to rave. Which, of course, Cate was banking on, and...being a master of poker...she only bet on sure things. "He has an infection in his lungs. We call it bronchitis. He needs a breathing treatment to help bring the fluid to the surface so he can cough it out and he needs to be on some antibiotics to fight the infection," she explained. "Are you willing to let me treat him? To make him feel better?"

The tactic worked and the worried mother nodded. "How did he get it?" she wondered rhetorically.

"It seems he's been sick for a while. He may have caught it from the other children," Cate said and motioned to a nearby Corpsman. "Bring me a infuser with Cortifoxin and a nebulizer with a pediatric mask, if you can find one." She looked back at the mother. "Now as for you, my dear, that's a nasty cut on your head. Will you let me fix it for you?" The woman nodded and Cate gently cleaned the wound and used a dermal-regenerator to close it.

"The corpsman came back with the items Cate had requested and said, "we got lucky, Mother. There was just one in the bin."

"Start with the breathing treatment," Cate said. "I'll administer the infusion."

"Why do you call her Mother?" The woman asked as she allowed the corpsman to place the small mask over the baby's nose and mouth. "Are you her son?"

"Not officially," the Corpsman said. "We all call her that because she loves us when we're good, spanks us when we're bad and would take a bullet for us anytime."

Cate blushed and shrugged. "It's a gift and a curse," she said. "Now this won't hurt him it just looks scary," she said as she placed the infuser over his arm and targeted a strong vein. "This will only take as long as the breathing treatment."

Lt Donovan seemed to have this one well in hand, considered Theo gratefully. He turned his attention back to Broken Finger Lady and the rest of the fiesty mob.

"Does anyone else need some help?" He asked, keeping his stance open and his voice calm and friendly.

"My brother!" called a young man, struggling under the weight of a slightly older and much larger man. "He has a broken leg. And maybe some broken ribs. I don't know."

Theo picked up his pace towards the younger man and ducked underneath the free shoulder of the older to help distribute the burden as gently as possible. "This way," he said, indicating a free bed that they both aimed towards and guiding them in that direction. "It's not far, we'll help you lie down, alright? Then I can get a look and see exactly what's broken and what isn't. It'll be alright."

He kept talking, in assertively supportive tones until the wounded brother was lying prone on the bed and the younger was stood the other side. "Okay, here's something for the pain," Theo said, waiting for permission before touching an infuser to the elder's neck then discarding it for the bioscanner. "Now let's see what we need to do to fix you up." He positioned himself so that the younger brother could look over his shoulder if he wanted to.

Just as Theo started to work, though, a tall, proud looking woman stormed into the tent and gazed around, eyes flashing angrily. Her eyes lit on the younger man and she stalked over. "Why did you bring him here?" she demanded, taking hold of the older brother's arm and tugging. "Come on, Jerome, we're leaving."

"Vanessa!" protested the younger brother. "He needs medical attention!"

"We have our own mendicant officers!" she retorted. "These.... Federation types don't know what they're doing!"

At that moment, two women and an old man walked calmly passed, the old man limping slightly. "They figured out my re'currin' bruise," the old man supplied. "Ain't none of ours been able to." And with that, they were passed the biobed and headed towards the door.

"He's here now," Theo said, with an amicable assertiveness, his gaze directed to Vanessa. "Moving him again will hurt him and make things worse. How about you let me help, since he's already here." It wasn't really a question, but he raised his tone at the end to help it sound a little like one. His own hand rested firmly on the older brother's shoulder. "Please don't move," he told him. "You've got two broken ribs and a straight fracture of your right fibula - one of the bones in your lower leg - I can help if you stay still for a little while."

Vanessa opened her mouth to speak, but Jerome beat her to it. "Ness," he said. "The navy told us these people are here on their authority to help. Jacob brought me here because they're closest by several miles. Now let them work.

But, Vanessa wasn't having any of it. She dashed forward and attempted to pull Jerome off the bed. Jacob grabbed at her, looking as if he was terrified to touch her. "Take her outside, Jacob!" Jerome ordered.

With the help of a nurse, Jacob succeeded in frog marching a protesting Vanessa out of the tent, leaving the doctors to deal with his brother.

Theo frowned deeply, but let them move the distressed woman out of the vicinity without further comment. Seemed whatever they did here, they upset someone. Simple trauma and confusion in the face of strangers? Or something else? "Thanks," he said to Jacob. "Seems we're not that welcome here," Theo continued, conversationally, as he scanned the man's chest. "You'll heal just fine, there's no complications there, just some straight breaks and I need to set your leg so it mends straight."

Having finished with the mother and the child's treatment underway, Cait looked around. This in triage seemed to be under control and the Treat and Street area was, slowly, emptying. She walked over to Dr. Hunnicutt, wiping sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. "Where do you need me?" she asked.

"Ah, Caitlin, thanks. Looks like it's slowing down some." Theo noted, voice warm as she offered assistance. "This is..." He waited for the man to give his name. "Jerome. Two broken ribs, fracture of his right fibula." He studied Lt Donovan's face then for a moment, concern in his own gaze. "And," Theo added with a smile, "Jerome's the first co-operative patient I've had all afternoon. You doing alright?"

"I'm great," Cait said, as she snapped her fingers and gestured to the patient. As a corpsman came and moved the hover gurney towards the surgical tent Cait added, "just not used to the heat. Any idea why these people are so combative?"

"Don't worry, they'll look after you," Theo promised Jerome, then he turned to Caitlin and her question. The heat didn't bother him as much as the locals' open animosity. "No," Theo said, a frown creasing his brow more deeply as he had a little more time to consider this conundrum. "You too huh? I'm getting a definite 'we hate the new guys' vibe from pretty much everyone here and we're all working our asses off to help them. Someone start a Starfleet is evil rumour?"

"I saw something like this on Gilé III," Cait said. *But it was caused by a toxic gas that attacks the prefrontal lobe. They didn't say anything about chemical warfare in our briefing." She looked at Theo, questioningly.

Theo nodded. "No, they didn't," he agreed. "But we don't know everything they've been exposed to here either..."

"Excuse me, sirs?" said Jerome to the two medical officers talking nearby. "Er... is it okay to call you both sir?"

"No need to be so formal," Theo said, amicably.

"There is a small faction here that believes your people brought us to the attention of the Myriad and the Reka," Jerome explained. "I'm sorry to say that my sister belongs to them. She's taken it a step farther and suspects you're in league with the Reka. Ridiculous, I know, but there's no talking sense into her."

Cait furrowed her brow. "How small is a small faction?" she asked. "We have people in the field that have enough to deal with with the battle raging around them. They need to know that they may be under fire from someone other than the obvious enemy."

Meanwhile, Theo was checking his comm, but he couldn't reach anyone on the SAR team he'd left to be here.

Jerome took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "About thirty, maybe forty people," he replied. "No more than that. The rest of us think they're crazy." He paused, looking cautiously between the two of them. "They... they are crazy, aren't they?"

Cait smiled. "We medical types try and steer away from the term crazy," she said. "But they are mistaken. Very mistaken." She looked to Hunnicutt for confirmation and noticed he had moved off to the side and was looking concerned. "Excuse me, Jerome," she said. "Just relax. Our surgeons are the best in Starfleet," and she gave a nod to the corpsman who then disappeared with Jerome into the surgical tent. Cait walked over to Theo and touched his elbow. "Is everything alright, Dr. Hunnicutt?" she asked, quietly.

Looking up as Cait drew his attention, Theo frowned deeply. "Don't know," he admitted, his voice coloured with concern as he explained. "I figured I'd pass a warning about this 'faction' to Cipher and the team, but I can't reach them. Might just be a bad signal area... Gotta admit, I'm worried now though. I should let the Captain know, and we need to brief this information out to all the teams." His gaze locked with Cait's own, his brow still furrowed. "Jerome give you any idea why they've decided it's all our fault?"

Cait shook her head. "Just that there are about 40 of them. The rest think they're crazy. Why don't you contact the Potter? Maybe they have a fix on our SAR teams," she suggested.

Theo nodded. "Forty? Great, just great..." he said on a harsh exhale, but he attempted to contact the Potter direct. "Lieutenant Hunnicutt," he said when someone answered. "Need some help locating the SAR teams, please. Can't reach them on comm. Potential threat from the locals down here. Seems a number of them think we're in league with the Reka."

"Great," answered Lieutenant Commander Jacobs, the bridge officer on duty. "Just great. We'll send some extra security. Gimme a hot minute on the SAR teams." Bridge chatter came through the coms, but nothing especially coherant. "We can't locate them by their combadges. There's some sort of interference. I'm guessing they spread out, though, looking for injured. We'll keep looking and let you know if we find anything."

"Received and understood, Commander," Theo noted, politely. "Thanks." He was more worried now though, if the Potter couldn't pin down the teams either, that didn't bode well for the individuals concerned and his friends out there in the wider world and its ever increasing dangers.

---

---

Cipher darted between the narrow crevices amidst the wreckage looking for life signs. The anti-grav harness affixed to his belt allowed him nearly zero-G movement when climbing, pivoting, and shimmying.

"I think I found one," Cipher called back to his team. "He's below approximately five meters of debris. Someone make contact while I assess the structural integrity and determine a critical path."

"Received!" Shouted Ellaby, her tone stern as she made her way with brutal efficiency to the general vicinity. She tried one more time to summon assistance from beyond their little sphere of the nightmare, but as it had been the first three times, the signal failed to connect. "No response on the comm," she added, bitterly. "Coming to you..." With quiet and deliberate forethought, Ellaby looked for the most stable route to Cipher's position in her opinion, though she waited for his assessment before moving.

With Ellaby already on her way down, Kate watched with intense focus, waiting for further instruction. There was no point in Kate heading down there as well until a proper route has been decided. Besides, under the circumstances, she had to be prepared to go for help just in case. For good measure, she tried her badge just in case and found as she too could not raise communications. "How is it looking?" Kate called out.

"Crowded," Cipher said with a grunt. He was slowly cutting his way through the debris with a laser torch, carefully selecting his path as he went. The tricorder affixed to his helmet near his headlamp was churning algorithms a mile a minute, but he didn't need them. This wasn't the first shitstorm he'd navigated. "But doable."

Ellaby's route took her to Cipher's far right side and moved slowly so as to be a help rather than a hindrance. Hanging from her safety line, she scanned the rock and metal detritus for an alternative means of reaching, or at least communicating with the trapped soul. "Can you hear me?" She called as she placed both feet against a large chunk of something that used to fly. "We know where you are, we just gotta cut through. Won't be too long," she glanced in Cipher's direction, seeking a means to assist.

There was no immediate response from the victim, so Cipher risked picking up the pace.

She kept talking, hoping for something in response, and finally, as Cipher seemed to break through an elongated howl of pain sounded out into the world. Ellaby hung back, holding her safety line and looking up to where Kate waited. "Try the comms again!" She called up. "Anything?" She looked past Cipher to the space in which the wounded person lay and made unhappy face. The expression on her face as she looked to the Master Warrant Officer's spoke volumes. Then it added a postscript. We're not gonna move this one easily.

And then the ground seemed to grumble, a shout sounded from above, followed by a second. Angry voices, a rumble of rocks and the rock face cried out in pain as it shifted. The sign of life within the cliff's grasp flatlined, then blinked out on their sensors, but that was the least of Ellaby and Cipher's problems as the cliff itself became unstable, threatening their own position.

"Get clear!" Ellaby yelled, swinging out on her rope as the trapped wreckage whined and groaned.

Cipher typed his combadge. "Cipher to Sherman Potter - four to beam out!"

-----

Having finished with her sixth patient and leaving him in the care of a nurse, Jayla motioned for the next child to be brought over. This one, a small boy of about five, was conscious and terrified, with large crocodile tears streaming down his cheeks and sobs wracking his tiny body. "Aw, it's okay, sweetie," she soothed, reaching to brush his hair off his forehead. But, he turned away from her. "I'm not going to hurt you," she promised.

The child babbled incoherently for a moment, then whimpered, "where's mummy?"

"We'll find her, don't worry," Jayla promised, beginning to scan him. Minor fractures and a very mild concussion. His injuries weren't anywhere near as bad as the blood all over his clothing suggested. "We'll get you all fixed up and-"

"Don' understand!" moaned the boy.

Jayla's brow wrinkled. "You don't understand me?" she asked.

The boy just stared at her in confusion.

"Uh, oh," she breathed. She glanced around and spotted the chief counselor not far away. "Counselor!" she called. "I need some help, if you've got a moment."

Peregrine turned towards the call, raising her eyes in the classic, "who me?" query. She took in the scene at a glance. 'Poor little,' she thought. She headed over to them.

"Who's this?" she asked quietly, "and how can I help?"

"Well, I think his universal translator is broken," said Jayla. "Or he just doesn't have one. Either way, he is terrified and doesn't know where his mother is. Any ideas on how to communicate with him?"

"Oh, poor lad. I'll try a few things. Hopefully we can get a translator for him. Do we have anyone who is fluent enough in his language?"

Before Jayla could answer, Peregrine sat on the floor in front of the small lad. She tapped her chest twice. "Peregrine." She pointed at the boy, making an exaggerated look of query. "Who are you?" She repeated this twice more, and then took his hand in hers talking in a quiet voice as she did.

"Well, you've been in the wars a bit haven't you. You are safe. But I think you're going to have some nasty thoughts for a bit. You saw something bad?"

Very carefully, Jayla pulled her own translators out of her ears and listened to the boy as he muttered to himself, seeming to demand answers of the counselor. She caught a few Trill words, a few Federation Standard, and a few Vulcan words, along with a bunch that she didn't recognize. "Just what I was afraid of," she said, pushing the translators back. "It's a pidgin language. I'll see if Engineering can get us a child-sized one programmed for his language. It might take a while, though, if they haven't got the information already in the computer."

Peregrine did not take her eyes off the young lad. She spoke quietly, in a soft tone of voice. "Can you send someone to my office? There is a large green book on one of the shelves there. It's full of pictures. If we can't speak with him directly, maybe he can show us what he needs."

Jayla caught the eye of one of the nurses, who nodded and hurried out of Sick Bay.

The binder had been something she made on their way here, for just this reason. Each page opened up to a handful of pictures, grouped together in meaning. For one page, there might be pictures of different types of food. Another would have pictures of family. Yet another showed activities that were usual in self-care and personal hygiene. It was an old trick. But it worked, and she often used it in combination with universal sign language, teaching both at the same time.

She grinned at the boy, and started talking again directly to him. She slipped questions in, here and there. He didn't seem to understand more than a word in four, or less, but his body language started to relax a little. Every now and then, he'd look around at the people in the place, and his eyes would widen in fear.

Peregrine was almost certain that his mother was badly hurt.

"Jayla?" she asked, "can you see if there were any females brought in around the same time he was? He's looking, always looking."

"I'll be back in a jiffy," Jayla replied and set off to find out if any women were missing a child.

Meanwhile, a nurse returned with the book and quickly found the counselor. "Here it is, Lieutenant," she said, holding it out to her.

"Perfect, thank you." Peregrine took the book, and opened it. She turned it so that the boy could see the pictures, and then turned each page slowly. She stopped at the section for food, and pointed to a picture of someone eating. She pointed at him, and then at the picture again.

"Hungry?" she asked. Initially, he showed no interest, still looking around for someone he knew. She gently touched his hand, and brought it to the page of the book. "Hungry?" she asked again. "Show me?"

he stared at her blankly for a moment, then turned a few pages in the book himself without really looking. Peregrine smiled, and nodded. He turned another page, and then looked down at the section.

Emotions. He pointed at a picture of a face crying and then at himself. Peregrine nodded again, slowly.

"Mummy?" he asked.

"No luck," Jayla reported as she returned. "There are several unconcious women, and she might be one of them. Have you had any luck communicating with him?"

Peregrine glanced up at Jayla. Her expression was carefully schooled, so that she did not frighten the boy, but the tiny shake of her head answered the query.

"We're getting there though, aren't we?" she said. "Now, I think it might be good to get a scan of you, and see if there are any relatives to you on file here." She flipped the book open to a series of medical pictures, showing him one of a nurse using a tricorder. She pointed to him and then the picture.

"Can we do this with you?" She asked him. She repeated the motion, then pointed to a pair of icons that were on each page. The first, a green check mark, the second a red X. She touched the check mark, and nodded with a smile. Then touched the X, and frowned while shaking her head.

Jayla added to the question by holding out her tricorder and miming scanning with it. "Like this," she said, turning the machine on herself. She showed him the readout with her heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature on it.

The boy peered at the tricorder, and touched it with one finger. He looked at the pictures and babbled something in the mix of languages he spoke. He pointed at the check mark, and mimicked Peregrine's nodding head.

While Jayla performed the scan, Peregrine continued to try and communicate with him. She opened a section on food, and started trying to get him to show her what foods he enjoyed eating.

"If we can find out what he likes, that'll narrow down what languages to try next," she said quietly. It hadn't escaped her notice that he was still looking at every person who was anywhere near them. "he's got to have family somewhere." She didn't add, and hoped that Jayla would catch, that if he didn't, there was no good plan for what to do next.

And Jayla did catch it. "I've requested a universal translator for him from Engineering," she added. "No idea how long it'll take to program, though. At least he seems healthy," she said, nodding to her tricorder. "Aside from a hairline fracture to his right tibia and a very minor concussion." She thought for a moment. "I think I'll take care of the hairline fracture and see if that earns enough trust to stick a neural stimulator to his forehead." She took out the osteo regenerator and motioned to his leg. "May I?" she asked, holding up the small device and indicating his leg, which must be aching.

Peregrine nodded. Once they knew what he was saying, they'd be able to help more. Or send help to his family if that was what was needed. She glanced around the room, and wasn't able to see anyone else that needed her right at that minute. Sitting down beside him, she gently held his hand while Jayla worked on his leg.

"Tickles," she said when he looked at her. "Feels sort of funny while the machine fixes you up!" She smiled at him, and tucked her arm around his shoulders to keep him steady, and still. The way he curled up tighter against her told her a lot about how scared he was. She didn't comment on the slight shaking she felt.

Once Jayla was finished, Peregrine touched her arm. "I can stay for a while," she said quietly. "But we need to come up with a plan within an hour."

"Definitely," replied Jayla. "Except I don't have any idea what to do. Maybe one of the engineers can look after him?"

"He can't be the only one." Peregrine looked around the mayhem going on around them. "Alright, I need Cassandra. She's got a specialty in paediatrics. We give her some space, some food for the kids. Figure it out after things quiet down. How does that sound?"

"That would be great," replied Jayla, now taking out a neural stimulator and motioning to the boy's head. "Can I put this on you?" she asked, then demonstrated on herself. "Makes your head feel better."

While Jayla worked on him, Peregrine hurried away, and found Cassandra. It did not take long to explain the situation, and the nurse quickly took over with the young lad. As Peregrine watched, he began to relax, and was soon yawning. She smiled at him when he looked over at her. "That's good," she said to him gently. "Time to rest."

And, she hoped, by the time he woke up they'd have figured out a translator for him so he could tell them where to find his mother. She hoped, with the sort of deep down sense that it was futile, that they'd find a family looking for him and not the cause of all the blood on his clothes.

It had been a long day.

There had been more children in Jayla's surgery gallery today than she had seen in her whole career. Okay, so that was probably an exaggeration (in fact, it was) but even so, the state of some of them had hit her hard. Only two were being kept for observation, thankfully; Jayla didn't think she could have handled seeing any more of them in that state. The parents had been notified and were offered guest quarters on the ship, which they took. After explaining to the parents that their children were likely to fully recover, and also going over the worst-case scenario while stressing that she was optimistic, she had finally left Sick Bay to return to her quarters.

They had not had to keep many patients, and for that reason, Jayla had not been forced to vacate her quarters. Once she walked in the door, Lucas chittered at her from his latest web in a corner near the door and Silver yipped and jumped on her knees. "Hi, guys," she said wearily. "Daddy's not back yet, huh? All right, dinner," she agreed as Silver ran to sit under the replicator.

Once she got them both settled with something to eat, she decided to jump into the shower. Showers always made her feel better after a hard day. So, she shed her scrubs and fired up the shower.

Alex was beat. He'd been run ragged at the field hospital. They'd gotten overwhelmed quickly and Alex quickly went from supervising to supervising and wearing his Independent Duty Corpsman 'hat' (so to speak). Now, however, he was done and ready to see Jayla. He got to their quarters, opened the door, and... was not attacked by the furry dynamic duo they lived with? He looked around and found them eating, oblivious to the world. He listened and he heard the shower running. Alex grinned. He quietly stripped off his clothes and crept into the head and climbed into the shower behind Jayla. He slid his arms around her and kissed her neck and shoulder. "Security!" he whispered in her ear. "There's a naked woman in my shower!"

"And you want us to move her to your bed?" she replied cheekily, but with a weariness that betrayed her hard day. "Are you as exhausted as I am?"

"More so," Alex said. He took a washcloth and began to wash Jayla's back. "How are you? I heard things got pretty rough up here."

She made a noise that sounded like an angry cat. "You should have seen it," she replied. "Well, you wouldn't have wanted to. Seeing the adults wasn't so bad, but the children that came through my gallery!" She shook her head. "It's just... I had a hard time not crying every ten minutes."

Alex stopped washing Jayla's back. He set down the cloth, turned Jayla around so she was facing him, and pulled her into a hug, wrapping his strong arms around her. "I love you," he said. "I love you." Alex didn't say more than that. He knew Jayla was emotionally wiped from her day and just needed him to be there for her, like she would be for him, were their positions reversed. Injured children hit Jayla hard. And yet, when given the opportunity, Jayla jumped back into being a pediatric surgeon. To Alex, that made Jayla incredibly brave.

For a long time, they simply stood there, Jayla sobbing gently into Alex's chest, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. She was so thankful for him right now. Without him, she was certain she would have nightmares of the tiny boy who had been brought to her with one side of his rib cage completely crushed, bits of bone sticking out through his skin. She had saved him, but the sight was enough to shake anyone to their core.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, she pulled away. "Thank you," she said. "We'd better get out. I'm getting wrinkly."

Alex chuckled. "Okay," he said. "Wait one sec." And one second later, when Jayla stepped out of the shower, Alex was holding a towel up for her. "Hmmm... Jayla, you are very easy on the eyes."

She laughed, despite her tears. "That's good to know," she said, hugging the towel around her like it was a hug from her mother. Then she stretched up to kiss him gently. "So are you," she told him. "Especially after today. I've seen enough horror for a lifetime."

"I hear you," Alex said, holding Jayla in his arms as they talked. "And I couldn't agree more. So, how can I make your evening better than your day was?"

She considered many options- food, sex, sleep- but nothing seemed adequate. "I don't know," she said with a sigh. "I just keep thinking about those kids. The sight of them was...." She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Maybe I'm not cut out for this," she admitted. "Maybe accepting this assignment was a mistake."

"Jayla," Alex said, holding the Trill close and gently running his fingers through her hair. "You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for being, a lot braver, too. Don't sell yourself short."

“It’s just... those kids!” she insisted. “I can’t believe anybody- or any species- could be so cruel to children! I don’t know if I can look at any more children in that state and keep my sanity.”

"Shhh..." Alex said, continuing to comfort Jayla. "It's alright. If you really feel you need to ask to be moved to a different position, you have my full support. But maybe making this decision right now, while you're upset, isn't the wisest move?"

"No, definitely not," admitted Jayla. "And anyway, who would help the children? No, I'm a good surgeon and I'm great with kids. I'm not going anywhere. But I don't think I was really prepared for this assignment."

"It has been a while since you worked specifically with children," Alex said. "And this is a warzone. Give it time, love. You'll find ways to cope. One of them is to celebrate life as much as possible, to balance the pain, suffering, and death you encounter at work."

“I know,” she insisted, resuming toweling off. “I just have to remember all the lives I saved today. And the fact that I didn’t lose any.”

"Great Bird of the Galaxy!" Alex said. "Sorry, it's just that you are so gorgeous. Okay, if you want dinner before I take you to bed and make you forget all of your troubles, I should throw on some clothes and make that happen."

She grinned sheepishly, almost as if she was sorry he found her attractive. "Food is a good idea," she agreed, realizing that she had skipped lunch and it was now well past dinner time. "I don't feel like eating, but I really should."

Alex smiled mischievously, then pulled Jayla into a kiss that would have made an asexual, single-celled organism's toes curl. After a moment, he released her, turned her towards the door of the head, and swatted her playfully on the backside. "Go on," he said. "Go get dressed before my lust gets the better of me."

She giggled, but complied, finding one of his T-shirts that was snug on him, but she swam in it. She also pulled on a pair of her own sweatpants that were nonetheless two sizes too big and pulled the cinch strings to keep them on her hips. Big clothing was comforting in a way she just didn't understand, but accepted completely. Once clothed, she joined Alex at the tiny table that just barely left enough room for both of them to eat. "I never realized how much I appreciate being bored until I'm busy," she commented.

Alex chuckled. "So, lovely lady," he said. "What culinary delight can the replicator and I put together for you, and do you want a glass of water, wine, or something stronger?"

“Just water, I think,” she replied. “I’m afraid I’d throw up if I drank anything too strong.” She thought about food for a moment and found she had the oddest craving. “Pesto sauce on rotini. I know, weird combination. It sounds good, though.”

"Your wish, my command," Alex said. Within minutes, the table was set with a serving bowl of pesto on rotini in the center and two bowls full of the mixture, one in front of each place setting. There were also two glasses of water and a pitcher of the same. Alex took a seat across from Jayla. "Eat, drink, relax, put the day behind you."

"That sounds like a great plan," agreed Jayla wearily, tucking her feet up underneath her and picking up her fork. It was a comfort position for her, probably from when she was a child and couldn't quite reach the table. Whenever she was tired or worried or troubled, she invariably reverted to this position for meals. "I didn't even think about it," she said around a mouthful of pasta, "but I didn't think you'd be back tonight. I thought they'd keep you on the planet to guard the doctors."

Alex frowned. "Because I can shoot straight?" he said. "That would be a waste. Why tie up a trained medical profession pulling guard duty when Security can do the same thing? Nah. Serious mismanagement of resources."

"Good point," she agreed. "I'm glad I'm not the only person who remembers you're a medical corpsman. So how were things down on the planet?"

"Busy," Alex said. "And at times gory. I don't know if it's a good thing that I can sort of compartmentalize pretty well. There does seem to be a limit, but as long as I get some time to decompress, I'm usually okay. If it's back to back, wall to wall horror shows, then I start burning out and I start having nightmares and flashbacks and the like. I think I'll be okay this time around. If I start to feel shaky, I'll do something about it. I'm not actually too worried. Having you in my life grounds me, keeps me from going off course."

"Glad I could help," she replied with a grin. "Sometimes I envy you. You spent years training for this kind of assignment. I spent a couple of months. And you have previous experience. The worst thing I've seen is those creatures that took us over on Black Hawk. I can't even remember their name. But we beat them. And they didn't hurt any children."

Alex reached out and comfortingly took Jayla's hand. "Not witnessing horrors isn't a drawback, and being a witness to horrors isn't a badge of honor. You've done amazing work in your career, tackled enemies that I couldn't dream of defeating, and come out the victor. I choose my path based on the fact that I wasn't smart enough--don't look at me in that tone of voice! I don't mean I think I'm dumb. I'm just not academically inclined. So I chose a different path to help people, and I did it in a time of war. That put me on a violent path." Alex squeezed Jayla's hand and then released it. "Anyway, this assignment seems to fit me. I get the challenge of field work without the covert ops stress."

"Well, at least one of us is happy," she replied with a wry grin.

Alex set down his utensils and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "You clearly need cheering up." He got up from his chair and went over to the computer console. "No... no... nooo... well, yeah, that'll do!" Suddenly music started coming out of the suite's sound system. Lighthearted and fun music. Alex, wearing a t-shirt and shorts and a zip up hoodie, held out his hand to Jayla. "Come," said. "Dance with me.... no?" He removed the sweatshirt. "How about now? Still no?" He removed his t-shirt. "If not now, things are gonna get real!"

Jayla giggled at his antics and stood to join him. "Although, maybe I should let you finish that striptease," she laughed. "It was pretty entertaining."

"Later," Alex said, taking in his arms, holding her close and leading her. He kissed her on the forehead and then the lips and then just held her and danced with her. "I was serious, you know. If you want to leave, I'll be right their with you. But let's not make that decision tonight. For now, let's dance and decompress, and when you're ready, I'll carry you off to bed."

"That sounds like a good plan," Jayla agreed, settling against him happily.

TAG

Quartermaster Suzkar looked at the case of Romulan Ale and barrel of Warnog. He pulled out some gold pressed latinum and handed it it to the taller of the two Ferengi smugglers.

"Pleasure doing business with you two." Suzkar told the duo. "I don't know how you get that stuff out here, but keep it coming."

"Your money is always good, even if the Orions want your head." Choig joked.

"Keep that down." Suzkar anxiously told Choig. "The reason I'm out here on this tug boat of a ship is because of them. And I like my head attached to my body, thank you very much."

"He didn't mean nothing by that." Tsul tried to calm Suzkar down. "His mouth works faster than his brain."

"Yes, it does." Suzkar replied.

"Anyways, if you come across any Reka artefacts, pass them along to use. We'll totally make it worth your while." Tsul advised Suzkar.

"Are you kidding?" Suzkar responded. "Those are rarer than Klingon pacifists. And if I get caught smuggling one of those, Starfleet will hand me over to the Syndicate."

"Are you losing your interest in profit?" Tsul asked. "I think you have been in the Federation too long."

"I want to obtain profit just as much as..." Suzkar held up his hand. "Quickly! Hid behind those crates!"

The two smugglers scrambled behind the large supply crates as the doors opened and Sexington entered.

"Hello Lieutenant. Can I help you?" Suzkar politely asked.

"Cut the nonsense." Sexington curtly replied. "I'm here on business. You're a Ferengi."

"Computer," Suzkar prompted. "Computer: What species is Quartermaster Suzkar?"

"Quartermaster Suzkar is a Ferengi." The computer answered.

"It appears you are correct. I am, in fact, a Ferengi." Suzkar mirthfully told Sexington. "Starfleet Intelligence must be pining for you."

"Don't get cute with me!" Sexington tried to establish his dominance. "You're a Ferengi and therefore a thief."

"That's a stereotype!" Suzkar protested.

"A stereotype or not, I'm watching you. Fair warning, nothing gets passed me." Sexington told Suzkar.

From the corner of his eye, Suzkar watched Tsul and Choig slip behind Sexington and out of the supply room.

"Warning taken." Suzkar put his hands up in a surrendering motion.

"Good." Sexington snorted. "You have my attention Quartermaster, I'll be watching you."

Their first mission together, while fraught with peril and bumps along the way, had been an overall success. The crew seemed to work well together and had joined forces perfectly to assist the Carcosian settlement- which was now busy rebuilding with the help of their own ships as well as a few Starfleet ones.

Most of alpha shift and about half of Beta were gathered in the main area of Sick Bay, some on the upper level where they could hear their captain. For he had called them there, just for a few minutes, to tell them al how proud he was of their hard work.

“Well,” he started with a wry grin. “I can’t call what we’ve been through fun, but I’m glad to have gone through it all together. You’re all fine doctors, nurses, technicians, and medics. We did lose a few patients, but not as many as I had feared going into this. It looked bleak, but we managed. Whether it was through sheer dumb luck or grit and determination, I can’t say for certain, but whatever it was, you all did well and I’m very proud to call you my crew.”

Adina stood against one of the walls near the back--out of reach of most but within listening range--and she, well, did just that. She listened to the rousing little pet talk that was being given. Mostly. Her mind kept wandering to an experiment she had going about the rate of Jalosian bone growth when bombarded with element 775-alpha. She'd need to go check on it soon, but she also knew that she was expected to be here.

The words that did break through sounded nice enough, and from what she could tell, most seemed...pleased with it, although reading expressions and body language wasn't always her best trait.

Cipher sat as though paying attention, but in truth he was watching a news vid through his parietal implant.

Kate listened respectfully to the Captain's kind words. She didn't know him well, but she had no reason to doubt the words were insincere. Still, Kate was not a woman who was accustomed to hearing sincere and kind words, especially from a man, so the words were met with a mixture of appreciation and discomfort. Most often, Kate was focused always on the work and judging herself by her own standards. She'd contributed where she could but she wasn't sure she had contributed enough yet to be considered worthy of such praise.

Konrad sat languidly back in is chair. Sick bay hadn't been this intense for him since the Dominion War and he was at his physical limit. The crew had performed well under pressure and Konrad did like that Pierce was giving his crew a bit of praise. As long as that praise was honest. Konrad had noted a few areas that the crew needed to improve, but that would be for later.

Caitlin perched on a hover gurney with her back against the wall and looked at the faces of those around her. Most were stalwart but there were some that showed the emotional exhaustion of what they had been through. She knew those looks and made a mental note to touch base with each of them and give them some support. They needed to know that what they were feeling was normal and that situations like they had just gone through would, not necessarily get easier, but they would get easier to handle emotionally. The problem was that thin line between handling bad situations in a healthy way and handling them by becoming hardened and cynical. The latter generally meant the end of a career and she hated to see talented people get to that point.

Leant against the wall to the left of the Captain's field of view, Theo and Ellaby cast their gaze across the gathered crew and maintained a respectful silence. It seemed everyone was doing the same, tired, relieved or simply readjusting to the period of relative normality that followed the away mission and the hard, emotional work. Theo, stepping briefly away from the support to stand tall, raised his hand. "What's next for us, Captain?" He asked.

"That's a very good question and I'll be sure to let you know once I find out," Pierce replied with a grin. "In all seriousness, though, until there is something specific, we're supposed to make sure all the Carcosians know we're here and coordinate with their own doctors and hospitals where possible. I haven't yet found out if they have their own medical ships, but I'd be surprised if they don't. Immediately, though, we're going to stick around here and make sure everybody who needs medical assistance has gotten it."

Caitlin sat up straighter and raised her hand. "Excuse me, Sir," she said. "Their medical center was demolished. I would like to volunteer to take a team down to help them rebuild."

“An excellent suggestion,” agreed Pierce. “Can’t believe I didn’t think of it. See to it. I’ll coordinate with their team and let you know where they want you.”

"Thank you, Sir," Cait said. She glanced around the room at the staff putting together a mental list of people to recruit.

Konrad listened to Caitlin's words. Going planet side would give him not only a chance to get out of the confines of the ship, Konrad could also have a chance to enjoy the local culture. He might get a fresh meal, some good drink, a chance to play cards, and maybe pick up a girl. "Doctor Hunnicutt, I would also like to volunteer my services in the rebuilding effort."

"Coordinate with Donovan," Pierce replied. "I'm sure she could use all the help she can get."

"We could use some engineers, too," Cait spoke up, already on her feet.

“Absolutely,” replied Pierce. “Put together a full team and send the list to the XO. Any more questions?” He glanced around, waiting a few minutes to allow anyone else to speak. When nobody did, he concluded, “all right. We all have rounds to do. Let’s go!”

To call the small office a ready room was generous, and yet that’s what it said on the ship’s plans. It was more like a large closet complete with a tiny desk. There wasn’t even a replicator. But it was a place Pierce could do some paperwork and Mer with new crew. But only one other person at a time could fit in the room with its tiny desk and two small chairs. Any more than that and it would be claustrophobic. But, it was well lit and would serve its purpose.

This is where Pierce currently sat, sipping at a mug of coffee and reading over the new personnel files he’d been sent. Being in the middle of nowhere in a galaxy far, far away had lead Pierce to believe that he wouldn’t be getting new personnel on the regular, but here we are. He set down his mug and sat back in the only-just-barely-comfortable chair to continue looking over the files.

The door's to the closet ready room opened, and Damien Gardener walked in. Well, it was more of an animated shuffle. One leg dragged slightly, and he was leaning on a gods honest cane of all things. And whilst he had a big smile, a bright eye, and a full head of hair it did little to change the fact there were seams on his face. He stood between the two chairs, and tapped one of them with his cane.

"If you don't mind, to save us half a day and a call to the engineering department, best I not sit down. I hate getting called to the Captain's office only to have to call Triple A," he said with a light-hearted shrug.

Pierce grinned. Triple A, which had started out as an insurance company many centuries ago, had morphed into a service company, now offering rides to stranded citizens as well as housing to those displaced by fire, flood, or other natural disasters. They also completed emergency repairs, which is certainly what Mister Gardener was referring to. “Understandable, lieutenant,” he said. “I’d offer you a drink, but I don’t have any moonshine on hand and as you can see, they didn’t even give me a replicator in this closet.” He leaned forward on his desk, placed the PADD on its face, and laced his fingers together. “How are you faring, with all the prosthetics? Adjusting all right?”

"Considering I've had these for over a decade, I'd like to think I'm just wearing them in. Dominion War was a long time ago so they keep telling me," Damien gave a little shrug. "I mean sure it's annoying that I have to go for a physical in the engineering maintenance shop, but considering I head-butted a starship and lived when it didn't...I'd call that a win."

Pierce grinned. "As would I," he said. "I've known people who never really get the hang of one prosthetic, even after a couple of decades. I'm glad to hear you've adapted. I'm not sure I'd be able to."

"One moment I'm moving a critically injured patient to the escape pods, the next moment I'm a year or so downstream waking up from a medically induced coma with more in common with a beverage dis[enser. You get used to it," Damien shrugged. "To be fair I think the Dominion fighter got off worse, at least I didn't explode. Well, I mostly exploded but the important bits remain. Still have my appendix."

Damien sucked on his lips for a second.

"So this is the point where you, as my Commanding officer, make this big speech about how brave I am for overcoming what amounts to a full-body transplant, and how inspirational I am to the crew, yadda yadda, please have an office job where you won't hurt yourself and go from 68% mechanical by mass to 70%," he smiled at Peirce. "Am I close?"

"I had thought something like that, but you've put it so eloquently, I feel like I'd sound like a bumbling moron in comparison," Pierce joked. "Like it or not, however, you are an inspiration. Nobody likes being called a hero; it's at odds with everything we've been taught about humility. But, someone has to inspire the rest of us. It may as well be someone who has done something that most people haven't done."

"Lot of folks out there not dying, it's something of a commonplace practise if you are looking for an opinion," Damien added. "But I get what you mean. And what I mean is that I want actual doctor work, not make work. I was a trauma surgeon, I was a general medical practioneer. Just because my right butt cheek has Made On Betazed stamped on it doesn't make me less of a doctor. Throw me back in coach."

"You got it," agreed Pierce. "It's impossible to be assigned to this ship and not practice medicine. Even the engineers are all medics. But, you're a surgeon, you're assigned to surgery. I trust you- and all of my crew- to know their limits and take themselves off duty if it's necessary. I hope it's never necessary, but know that it's an option."

"An option to be sure, but not one I'd like to use if necessary. A year of sleep is enough for me," Damien turned to leave but paused. "Er, two things. First, am I excused? And secondly er, my duty station needs to be as far away from the impulse drives or fusion power plants. My...er...most of me, tends to bug out near strong magnetic fields."

"Luckily, so does medical equipment," replied Pierce. "The most high-tech areas are farther away from Engineering. We'll put you in the gallery farthest forward. And I'll have my XO earmark your quarters as unavailable for conversion. Our quarters can be converted to hospital rooms in case of an overflow of patients," Pierce explained. "And when that happens, we all get shoved into barracks near main engineering. That's not a good idea for you, obviously."

"It's okay for a short period. Just don't expect winning conversation," Damien said, teasing out the last word before pointing a finger at the door. "And the excused part?"

"Dismissed," nodded Pierce. "Great to have you aboard, Doctor."

"Been here since the beginning," Damien said with a wave of his hand. "Just down in the basement."

After making sure the Carcosian Colony was on the mend, the Sherman Potter had decided to take their time heading back towards their own station. They had no real mission; they were just meant to hang around in the area and rush to anybody's aide when needed. So, why not head back slowly and listen for chatter?

But, there wasn't much to listen to out here. They'd come across an interesting mini nebula, but since they weren't really equipped for scientific study- except of course infectious diseases- they had simply tagged it for a science vessel to check out later. Other than that, though, they were meandering and just waiting for something dangerous to happen.

Commander Arkady leaned back in the centre seat, big fingers playing on the armrests as he did what all great Russian's did: pondered the big questions.

"It is as was once said, a curse to live in interesting time," he said with a throaty grumble to his words. "So to be so lucky as to be cursed, no?"

"I've lived in interesting times before," replied Pierce with a sideways grin. "They're overrated."

"Only overrated if you do not live to wish for them again. Trust me, will not be long," Arkady said and stretched, his shoulders popping.

"You're probably right," sighed Pierce in mock regret. "Ah well. At least we won't be bored."

Ensign Kolb, the acting operations officer, spoke up. "Captain, I'm getting a strange signal." She announced.

"Scanning," Lt. Devlin said as his fingers flew across the security console, fine tuning the long range sensors.

“What kind of strange signal?” asked Pierce, brow wrinkling. “Is it short range? Long range?”

"Just past the short range limits, Sir," Devlin replied and put the image on the main viewer. "Unregistered vessel appears to be adrift. I'm detecting 14 life signs. Reptilian."

"Is unusual," Arkady said as he looked over the sensor data on his terminal. "Is not Reka, Myriad, or Concordance design though that last one is more guesswork given have not had major introduction. Is important note, ship is very hot, though appears to be cooling. Internal temperature is 51C and dropping."

"Reptilians are cold blooded," Devlin remarked. "So if it is cooling off they'll be in trouble."

“That’s true if they like The temperature to be a sauna. But being cold blooded, 51 degrees is just as likely to kill them. Most reptilian species prefer between 25 and 30 degrees. Let’s go check it out. Maybe they need help.”

"Will need environment suits. Exhaustion of rescue team not good for rescue of crew," Arkady said.

"Good point," agreed Pierce. "Have the trauma team prepare to head over. Not right away, though; I want to make sure it's safe before we head in."

"Should I power up the phaser banks?" Sexington asked from the tactical station.

Devlin, who was on the main sec/tac console, put up his hand in a stop gesture. "Slow down turbo," he said, keeping it light. "They haven't shown any aggression. In fact..." he sent the info from his console to the secondary console, Sexington was on. "...they appear to only have minimal weapons and none are activated. The ship is completely dead in the water...so to speak." He smiled at Sexington and turned his attention to the Captain. "Sir, I suggest a couple of security officers accompany your rescue team."

"And probably some of the corpsmen with infantry experience, too," agreed Pierce. "Put a team together, Mr. Devlin. Do we have an ETA?"

"We'll be up on them closer than flies on stink in just a moment," Sekhem reported.

Devlin nodded his acknowledgment and looked at Sexington. "With me, Lieutenant," he said and stepped away from the console. He tapped his combadge as he headed for the turbolift and called an officer to replace him on the Bridge.

=====Emergency Department=====

Caitlin sat at the nurses' station, sipping on a cup of coffee as she read over her notes from the latest staff meeting. There were two other nurses at the nurses' station, catching up on their charting as well as the Potter's latest gossip.

"Did you hear about Styles and Baker?" Connie asked, a look on her face that said more than she did.

After seeing the look on Connie's face, Taysha rolled her chair back a couple inches so she could turn to face Connie. "What? Oh you're kidding," she said. "I thought they hated each other."

Caitlin shoved her chair back a few inches further than Taysha's, leaned back so she could see around her and said, "there's a fine line between hate and passion."

Connie snickered. "Hated each other right into the supply closet in the Pediatric ward," she said.

While Taysha giggled, Caitlin took a last drink of her coffee and said, "well...they say opposites attract."

"Like oil and water opposites," Taysha said.

"Oil floats on water. I wonder which one's which," Connie said and winked, mischievously.

Taysha laughed and Caitlin rolled her eyes and she sat up and set her cup on the counter. "You're bad, Connie. Very, very bad." With that she stood up. "I've got to calibrate biobeds," she said and walked away, shaking her head and chuckling.

"Excuse me?" Damien said, stepping from the corridor and up to the nurse's station, a cardboard box in hand. He placed it down on top of the counter, the digits of his artificial hand tapping lightly against it. "I'm looking for the Nurses Station? I come bearing replicated fried geometries with a glucose varnish in lieu of a bribe I left somewhere back in the Milky Way."

Connie stood up and reached for the lid of the box. "Replicated fried what?" she asked.

"She doesn't know...well that won't do. Good nurse, good and humble maid of the dispensary, it seems I have come upon a Godless land in need of ministrations. Allow me to tell you about the good word of the humble Cronut," Damien said as he opened the box, revealing the fried pastry iced in a variety of colors. "It resides at the corner of Doughnut and Croissant and is neither brunch nor breakfast. It's a utility food for any occasion. And if you let it go stale, boy these things can run second fiddle to a door stop."

Taysha stood up and leaned closer to the box. "Smells divine," she cooed. "You said something about a bribe. What do we need to do to savor this yummy creation?"

"Help me find my wandering hand," Damien said with a sigh. After a moment he lifted up his prosthetic arm, the cuff of his coat hanging empty with a mechanical bracket where a wrist should be. "It dropped off. Now I'm pretty sure the little fella is gonna be attracted to the Nurses Station, lots of pens and nick'knacks for it to steal. I swear I don't know where Leroy get's it from. You try to raise a hand right, I feel like such a failure."

"Leroy? You named your hand Leroy?" Connie asked with a giggle.

"Well I'd have called him Lefty if he wasn't attached where my right hand used to be," Damien admitted.

Just then Caitlin came out of one of the trauma cubicles after calibrating the new biobed that had just been installed and she saw Damien at the nurses' station. She hadn't met the man yet but was aware of his..."uniqueness". She also noticed the blushing giggling nurses he was shmoozing and the bakery box in front of them. With a chuckle and a shake of her head she walked toward the nurses' station. "Dr. Gardner?" she said from a few steps behind him. "You really shouldn't tease my nurses. It never ends well if you don't follow through."

"Another heathen from the Godless land, have a Cronut and know true culinary salvation," Damien said, nudging the box with the stump. "And I'll have you know my Golfing handicap is pretty low too, so no problem on the follow-through."

"Split that among yourselves," Caitlin said to the two nurses. To Damien she held out her left hand in greeting. "Dr. Gardner...welcome to the Potter ED. I'm Caitlin Donovan, Head ED Nurse," she said with a smile.

At that moment, one of the many CNAs poked her head into the nurses's station. "Just heard from the bridge," she said. "Prepare to receive wounded. Also, trauma team prepare to depart. We're en route to a... well, they didn't really make that clear."

Caitlin went into work mode. "Connie, page the ARD, Dr. Anjou and Alex Rylan. Taysha activate the trauma cubes," (cubicles) "triage will be here," she motioned to two corpsman, "I want 10 hover gurneys lined up against that wall." Looking back at Damien she said, "I hope you're ready to go to work, Doc. No time for a proper meet and greet."

Having received word of potential patients with unknown medical and psychological needs, Kate's quickly made her way into the emergency department, being careful enough not to get in the way of the emergency teams and their practiced efficiency. Scanning the room, she saw a new face, a male face in fact, that she didn't recognize. That in itself wasn't unusual. Dallas was still getting to know everyone aboard and could easily find herself keeping to just a few decks when they were in the middle of a mission. "You have to love surprises to work aboard the Potter."

The Trauma team as well as an engineering team, complete with EVA suits, was beamed onto the alien ship in the area with the most life signs. Most of them knew from the Captain's briefing that there would also be a lot of dead, but they were probably not prepared for the state of some of them. Heads lay apart from their bodies, mangled limbs hung almost severed from torsos, and large gaping holes were just a few of the horrors they would see.

But, perhaps most disturbing of all was the fact that the beings bore a marked resemblance to Earth's velociraptors- at least the commonly accepted movie and holodeck version. They would have stood about five feet tall and had long ruffs on their heads. The mottled patterns on their noses were unique to each of them. It appeared that the biggest difference between these and the movie terrors were their forearms, which were longer and more muscular. But, the fearsome claws for which they were known were evident.

The team materialized on the bridge of the alien ship and Devlin, immediately scanned the area with his tricorder. Life signs were faint and no where near their current location, but the scene on the bridge was horrific and Jack wasn't about to relax. Whatever did this might still be on board.

The chief Engineer, Lt. P'ril, studied a nearby console, brow wrinkling and lips pursing uncharacteristically even for a half Vulcan. She held up a PADD in front of it and activated a translation program. “This will likely take me time to decipher,” she reported as if they weren't surrounded by so many dead bodies of reptiles. She nodded the other two engineers towards two other consoles and they held their PADDs up just like she had.

Caitlin also had her tricorder out and scanning. She avoided the horrors of the mangled bodies by reminding herself that there was nothing she could do for them and focusing on finding those she could help. Since there was only one way on or off the bridge, she moved towards it.

Alex grimaced at the mangled bodies. "I was really hoping the reason there were only 14 life signs was because this ship has a really small crew," he said. He looked over at Caitlin and decided to follow her off of the bridge. Before he left, Alex scanned all of the remains and transmitted the information back to the Potter. Then he set his tricorder to sort all of the various bits and pieces and make a whole person out of them. Then he followed Caitlin off of the bridge. He could be heard singing softly as he went. "Well, your toe bone connected to your foot boot, your foot bone connected to your ankle bone, your ankle bone connected to your leg bone, your leg bone connected to your knee bone, your knee bone connect to your thigh bone, your thigh bone connected to your hip bone, your hip bone connected to your backbone connected to your shoulder bone, your shoulder bone connected to your neck bone, your neck bone connected to your head bone! I hear the word of the Lord! Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, dem bones dem bones, dem dry bones..."

"Hold on you two," Jack said. "Don't go off on your own." He looked at P'ril and asked, "you got this, Lieutenant?"

"Yes," answered P'ril. "We will inform the Potter once we find the default settings on the environmental controls." She frowned at her PADD, which had begun to translate the runes on the console before her. It appeared to be a science station. Translating written language was far easier than translating spoken language and usually happened within seconds. Instead, the translation software was struggling. This didn't bode well for their in-ear translators.

Jack nodded and stepped in front of Caitlin and Alex, his phaser drawn.

Alex suppressed a chuckle when Devlin stepped in front of him. He knew why every security officer he'd encountered since leaving special operations did things like that. First, most didn't realize he'd been a Marine Raider, and second, nobody wanted to let the poor, fragile, defenseless Corpsman get hurt. It made sense. If the medic got hurt, then who would help everyone else. Still, Alex chose to find it amusing so he wouldn't find it insulting. Getting shot at just wasn't as big a part of his job description as it used to be. He'd have to get used to that eventually.

"Faint life signs ahead and below us," Caitlin said.

"Reptilians can sort of hibernate in extremely low temperatures," Alex said. "Whoever's lifesigns you're picking up could be alive but... dormant, for lack of a better word. Mind if I mosey on ahead and see what's what?"

"As someone who is keenly aware of the advances in prosthetic replacement technology, I'm not gonna argue over it if you want to go first," Damien said, as he awkwardly got up from one knee from studying one of the broken bodies. "I'm seeing crush injuries on some of them, blunt force on others. Like the ship just came to a very sudden and abrupt halt with the inertial compensators turned off. Would have turned every open space into a vertical shaft to fall down for a few seconds."

Devlin wasn't about to risk one of the team being ripped apart like the bodies strewn over the bridge but he also knew that arguing safety protocols to a medic would be an exercise in futility. As a compromise he fell in step with Alex and motioned for the others to stick close.

"Be careful, Alex," Caitlin warned in her motherly tone. "Does anyone know how many decks this ship has?" she asked as they moved along the narrow corridor.

"Don't worry," Alex said with his usual humor in the face of danger grin. "If I see anything suspicious, I plan to hide behind Lieutenant Devlin." Alex widened the scan range on his tricorder. That reduced its effectiveness, but he wasn't scanning for lifesigns right then. "Looks like eleven decks." Alex then reduced the range of the tricorder again and increased its scanning sensitivity. He frowned, then moved his head to shine his head lamps into an alcove. "Yikes! Well, I think I found our no longer leaping lizard!" And he had. There was a bipedal reptilian, crumpled on the deck, looking very much the worse for wear. "Ma'am, can you give me a hand? It's... actually, I think she's a she, is alive, but we have to get her warmed up."

Caitlin was already opening her Field Trauma Kit. She pulled out a tiny square that, when unwrapped, opened to a full size warming blanket. "Here," she said as she handed it to Alex with one hand and quickly scanned the reptilian with her bio scanner in the other. "Heart rate is 35. She must be in hibernation," she said and pulled an infuser out. We need to get warming fluids into her so she warms up from the inside then get her to the Potter." She hooked a bag of saline to the infuser and began to look for a vein.

Alex ran his tricorder over the hibernating reptilian. "Lieutenant," he said. "I think she's so cold that her veins might be too constricted for the IV infuser. I've got the gear to start an IO port that I could use to get a vasodilator into her system. Once it takes effect, you could use the IV infuser to get the warm saline into her blood stream. I've started IO ports in the field plenty of times. With you're permission, it won't take me long."

"Cait, Caitlin or Mother," Caitlin corrected. "Leave the ranks to the lay people. Go for it," she said. While he was doing that she fine tuned her bioscanner to check for internal trauma since there was no obvious external damage to the reptilian. "Whoa," she said, softly, and turned the small screen towards Alex so he could see it. "She's gestating," she said. The screen showed the presence of two eggs in the female's reproductive tract. "If those aren't viable she could be at risk for infection if they don't come out."

"Sure thing... Mother," Alex said with a grin. Alex took out a small infuser and set it to interosseous infusion. The IO infuser would drill a hole through the reptilian's skin and then through the bone of her hip. He loaded the infuser with a vial of a vasodilator and then scanned for the best location on the reptilian's right hip, then attached the infuser. When the infuser indicated it was ready, Alex attached a small bag of saline to the infuser and opened it up all the way. "Give it a minute. It'll open up her veins in short order."

As she waited, Caitlin finished scanning the female. "No internal injuries," she said. "I don't know that much about reptilians but she may have put herself in hibernation to protect her unborn eggs." She shrugged and put the bioscanner away. With the intravenous infuser loaded and ready, she set it to target and moved it over the female's neck, in hopes of finding a large vein. She ran it twice and on the second run, the infuser beeped, indicating it had found a target. Caitlin attached the device to the female's neck and triggered it then tucked the bag of saline solution into the warming blanket and zipped it up. She tapped her combadge and said, "Donovan to Potter....gestating female reptilian...no apparent injuries. We're warming her now. Beam directly to ED." With that she moved back out of the transport zone and began putting her instruments away. Two seconds later a blue beam surrounded the patient and she disappeared. Caitlin got to her feet and called out, "next," as a joke.

Alex finished packing up his kit. Standing and putting the kit on his back, he was ready to move again in no time flat. Alex's commbadge beeped and he answered. A Chief Corpsman named Babatunde, Alex's second, announced that he had two teams ready to transport over to the reptilians' ship. Two Corpsmen, two Masters-At-Arms. "Ma'am, as you've heard, Baba's got a couple of field teams ready to help us out. Mother, do you mind if they beam over and help clear these decks with us? You know, divide and conquer?"

Caitlin smiled when Alex corrected himself on what to call her. The nick name "mother" had begun as a joke among the nursing staff because she would take on a motherly tone when scolding or instructing them. They would respond with a sarcastic "yes Mother," and, once they saw she didn't take offense by the snark the nick name became more of one of affection. "As long as Lt. Devlin doesn't mind," she replied and looked at the ACSO. When Devlin shook his head, she said, "the more the merrier," and gave Alex a thumbs up.

Sexington beamed over with the rest of the team, assault phaser in his hands. "What the hell happened here?" Sexington asked as he looked over the remains of the crew.

"Those poor creatures. I hope whatever did that to them is still not on the ship." M'lyra replied.

"I, on the other hand, do hope it is on the ship. It would make a worthy adversary." Sexington told the medic.

M'lyra looked a bit surprised. "Your joking, right?"

Sexington let out a haughty laugh. "You must be one of them pacifist medics?"

The look on M'lyra's face went from puzzlement to grimace as she realized Sexington was serious. "Maybe we should let the away team know that we are here?"

"They are down that corridor. They'll probably be disappointed that they will have some competition in searching out whatever did that." Sexington told M'lyra.

"When they find out your here, disappointment may be the correct reaction." M'lyra quipped as they moved down the corridor.

"The rest of the teams went to search for survivors," P'ril informed them dispassionately, almost as if she hadn't even heard Sexington's comments.

"Chief," said one of the engineers from the other side of the bridge. "I've got the environmental controls. It looks like their temperature of comfort is between 30 and 34 degrees. It is currently 5 degrees and falling slowly."

"Can you find out why the temperature is falling?" asked P'ril.

"Working on it," he answered.

"I'm going to start sweeping the decks. I'll bring along this medic," Sexington motioned at M'lyra "In case I find any more casualties."

Sexington left the corridor followed by a reluctant M'lyra. They came across a ladder that allowed access to other decks. "If I was a crazed monster I would go down." Sexington told M'lyra before going down the ladder.

"Well, you are crazed, so I guess your halfway there." M'lyra said under her breath as she followed.

The corridor was dark and empty. "Alright creature, come out and play." Sexington announced as he moved down the hall. A frightened and anxious M'lyra resisted the temptation to shoot Sexington.

A dimly light chamber came into view on the left. Sexington silently motioned to M'lyra that he was going to rush the chamber. M'lyra nodded and readied herself as Sexington burst into the room.

"Well, this is a mess." Sexington reported to M'lyra.

M'lyra moved to back into contact. As she entered the large chamber, it appeared to be a large mess hall with table and benches. Body parts were strewn everywhere.

M'lyra pulled her tricorder. "I'll scan for survivors."

"Not now. I think I hear the creature." Sexington alerted the medic.

M'lyra readied her pistol as Sexington moved across the mess hall, assault phaser at the ready. The two slowly moved around the carnage. Sexington finally stopped and aimed his weapon at a prone and bloodied reptilian. The reptilian was slightly heaving and quietly babbling.

"Your making this easy for my, creature." Sexington proudly announced as he stood over his prey.

"Lieutenant, I think this one is a casualty." M'lyra told him as she pulled her medkit.

Sexington pulled his rifle up. "Yes, I agree." He stated, M'lyra oblivious to Sexington as she scanned to crewman.

"Oh, she is really hurt." M'lyra concluded. "M'lyra to Potter: I have another casualty the needs attention."

On another deck, Devlin motioned to his team and said, "let's move out." He quickly glanced at Caitlin's tricorder and headed for the nearest access to the lower decks, his phaser at the ready.

After transporting away the wounded raptor, Sexington was eager to get moving again. "Will you please hurry up?" He asked M'lyra. "I wouldn't want to miss any of the fighting. I want to bag whatever did this."

M'lyra gritted her teeth. If this fool wanted to be hacked apart that was his own business. How did she get stuck with him? "On my way, Lieutenant." She dutifully replied.

As they rounded a corner, they nearly collided with a squat Bynar and his robotic valet. "There you are," Cipher said. "I have a small room of survivors that's sealed off. Whether from the inside or by mechanical failure, the door controls are unresponsive even in diagnostic mode. As far as I can tell, it's climate-controlled, so I hesitate to cut through the door. Can I get some assistance from an engineer?"

"Why do you need an engineer?" Sexington asked, holding up a demolition satchel. "I can just blow the door open."

"Lieutenant, would not the explosives be better used against the creatures we might need to fight?" M'lyra asked.

Having just explained why he did not blow the door, Cipher only let out an exasperated sigh at the Security Chief.

Sexington thought for a moment and then smiled. "Yes, I do believe you're right. It would be fun to see a xenomorph explode in lots of bits." He then tapped his comm badge. "Send Petty Officer Graham up to my location. Tell Graham he has a door to open."

A young man with a repair kit slung over his shoulder soon turned up. Sexington looked to Cipher. "Lead us there."

"Follow me."

The Bynar led them through a couple intersections until they arrived at a nondescript door. "This is the one," Cipher said. "Don't bother hacking the controls. I tried. It needs careful disassembly, otherwise the internal atmosphere will vent out here. They're keeping it at a higher temperature for a reason, so we need to ensure we can reseal the door once we enter."

Graham put the satchel on the deck near the controls. "I can put a small environmental shield over the controls." He told them as he placed four small mechanical devices in a square formation round the panel. "These are used for damage control. If there was a hard vacuum on the other side of the panel, it will keep the components, and the technician, from getting pulled through. It should also work to keep the warm temperature in."

The engineer worked on the door for a moment. "Got it!" He told Cipher. "I can put another shield over the doors. That should allow you access to the room without letting the warm air escape."

Ironically he was used to mangled corpses - though the Jurassic theme was a new one - but mixing that very real scent of death and dismemberment with that sense of being adrift in the black had messed with Theo's head a little more than he wanted to admit right now. Screams. In his head he heard screams. Or was it roars? And why was his heart beating so damn loud...

Still, as he rounded the junction and heard familiar voices, Theo picked his pace and came to a steadyish halt beside Graham.

"No other entry points I can find," Theo reported to Cipher, then he looked to his superior to make the call as to when they opened the door. "They're alive in there, I know it." The Lt said at an out of loud, meant to say that in my head volume. Then, with more confidence. "Ready when you are, sir."

Cipher nodded. He was not one for the chain of command, merely preferring to get the job done. If they wanted his go-ahead, then he'd deliver. "Do it."

Once the door was opened, it revealed five more badly wounded, but obviously alive reptiles. None were conscious. It appeared that their injuries had triggered some sort of hibernation or another altered form of consciousness. A few had crude blood-stained bandages tied around their arms or legs or heads. The room on the whole appeared relatively untouched, as if the carnage had happened elsewhere and the beings had retreated here.

The sight of apparently unconscious wounded silenced any internal concerns Theo had previously endured. He moved into the room to quickly scan each reptiles, adjusting his equipment as he did so, then looked back to Cipher and the engineer. "They're all alive," Theo said, his tone considerably happier for that revelation. "Not that badly hurt, either. I'm not sure if it's some kinda shock, or temperature related, but injury-wise, we can move them. Think maybe we need to warm them up some more?"

Cipher shrugged. He was an extraction specialist, not a doctor.

Theo grimaced, at himself rather than Cipher, as he should know better how the other's mind worked by now. "They need to be kept warm and moved as quickly as possible," Theo stated. "We need to get them back to the Potter."

---

On another deck, Devlin moved slowly, leading his team in the direction of the life signs showing on Caitlin's tricorder. The scene was the same as it had been on the previous deck. Deep scratches along the bulkhead, blood spatters and in a few cases, tissue hanging from exposed conduit. It felt as if he had stepped into an old horror film that took place in a meat packing plant. The copper smell of blood wafted through the filter in his biosuit. At the end of the corridor was a narrow spiraling iron staircase that led downward. There was no other access to the corridor so Devlin held up his hand to stop the team. "Let me check it out," he said over his shoulder. With phaser at the ready, he stepped into the stair well and descended. His assumption that the stairs led to the next deck was mistaken. They descended into darkness and, after a few meters, he realized the stairs led past the next deck down. The air quality became heavy and he had to boost his breathing filter in order not to gag as he continued to the bottom of the stairs. Shining his light down the corridor he saw why.

"And that," Damien said looking down the spiral staircase, his lamp pack shining down through the metal grills and their gristly finery. "Is why you respect the inertial compensators when under thrust. You know, sort of reminds me of this Klingon's joint on New Bajor. Like gelato, only with more protein."

Lieutenant Jack Abraham, an engineer, had accompanied the doctor in hopes of finding more useful information for the doctors back on the Potter. But, he had remained at the top of the steps. "That's disgusting," he replied from where he stood. "And I'm not going down there. Any chance of survivors?"

Damien leaned out a little further. He reached up and tapped the side of his helmet, activating the lamp there and began to play it around the gristly scene.

"Well, probably not but we're not paid by the hour to-" he began to say before there was a muffled whimp! like sound and he rolled back, hands smacking at his helmet faceplate. A series of those moist hissing sound echoed from below, and cyan blue smudges of what looked like paint exploded on the ceiling. The bright smudges immediately hissed in the hot air, spikes of frost and condensation issuing from them. Damien rolled onto his back, hands wiping the blue material off his faceplate as a rime of ice began to coat his fingers.

"FUDGING FUCKETTY FUCK!" he bellowed. "That's cold!"

Devlin wiped frost off of the face shield of his helmet and moved through the carnage, scanning ahead. "Single life sign up ahead," he called back over his shoulder.

Caitlin stepped into the corridor and forced herself not to look at her surroundings. Since Devlin had her tricorder she had to ask, "how strong?"

"Not very," Devlin said over his shoulder. "But it's on the move." He worked his way a little farther along the corridor.

More of the frosty blue smears appeared on the walls, quickly turning to splotches of ice before the heat melted them away. Then from up ahead came the sound of moving debris, followed by what could have been mistaken for a sack of potatoes hitting the floor. If potatoes existed in this globular cluster.

The reptilian alien lay on the decking, propped up against one wall, with a chunky looking handgun in their clawed hand. The weapon was raised slightly, aiming down the corridor, but clearly whatever energy the alien had been running on was on its last legs. Its snout was buried into the neck lining of its uniform, a thick padded material. The ruff of scaled barbs atop its head flickered slightly, rising as a fin as the Starfleet personnel approached.

The weapon raised and then fell clumsily from its hands to fall on the floor, a blue pellet rolling from the barrel to fizzle and evaporate on the heated decking.

"Mother!" Devlin called out in a loud whisper as he squatted next to the reptilian and moved the weapon out of reach.

Caitlin moved quickly, motioning to Alex . "I'm here," she said, softly to Devlin and took his place next to the reptilian. As she knelt down she took out her biscanner and began scanning her patient.

Devlin stood up and moved out of the nurse's way. Stepping over the reptilian he glanced at the tricorder in one hand, his weapon at the ready in the other. "Whatever it is it's retreating," he said, tapping the comlink in his helmet. "Team 2...unidentified life sign headed your way," he said.

Sexington stopped and halted his companion. "I hear it." He told her as he took up a shooting stance.

The raptor lumbered into view. Sexington aimed at the creature before M'lyra interrupted him. "Don't shoot it! It's wounded."

"It's dangerous!" Sexington replied, pushing the medic away and reaming his weapon.

Before Sexington could take the shot, the creature collapsed to the deck. M'lyra quickly moved forward and scanned the creature.

"Coward." Sexington told the unconscious raptor.

M'lyra ignored him as she worked on the alien. "Several broken bones, a possible concussion, and shock." She read the scan. "Team 2 to Potter: Another alien needs to beam to sick bay. I'll send over medic scan."

=/\=Tag him and we'll pick him up,=/\= came the reply from the acting bridge officer. =/\=The engineers are having trouble getting their computers to translate, so we're going to get all the survivors and they're going to continue working over there with a small security contingent. Make another sweep of the ship and then we'll bring you back here.=/\=

But this would only be the beginning.

The tense waiting of the Potter crew was quickly turning into frantic defrosting of several casualties from the unknown ship. They appeared similar to Velociraptors of Earth’s prehistoric era- or at least the pop culture version of them- but with bigger arms. Nobody really knew what their stats should be nor what amount of medication to give any of them, so one doctor conferred with the ship’s veterinarian to base their physiology on that of alligators. They were guessing, of course, and nobody really had any information until the Engineers on the away team managed to translate the alien ship’s Sick Bay computers.

For now, though, there were the obvious wounds and broken bones to heal, which the crew were doing as best they could while watching the monitors closely for any signs of allergic reactions to the medicines or failing life signs.

Doctor Kij was busily helping with the female who was in egg. She had taken scans of the infants inside the two eggs and found them to be in good health- at least she thought so. They seemed to be where they should be with their mother in hibernation- for known reptiles, anyway.

A nurse handed Konrad Anjou his surgical laser. On the surgical table was one of the raptors. The creature's leg had been mostly severed and was now only attached by a few tendons. "Alright, we may not know everything about our patient. We do know how to reattach limbs." Anjou told his team as he began working. "Let me know if the patient starts having any erratic vital signs." Anjou told one of the nurses.

Another two lizards appeared in Sick Bay just as Pierce entered to scrub in. "The engineers are working on translating their computers," he said, eyeing the patients. "They've found their ideal temperature settings- 30 to 34. But that's all they have. Oh, thank you," he said to the nurse who held out gloves for him. He then followed her to the nearest patient. "Well, at least he's breathing," he said. "Or she. I have no idea how to tell." Without waiting for a reply, he set to work with a tricorder.

"I'm afraid I can't provide any clarity on that either," Kate acknowledged from close by. She was not a surgeon by training so she didn't feel comfortable scrubbing in, but she did want to observe as much of the procedures happening around her as she could. She had no idea if she would be able to communicate with their patients, let alone provide any comfort to them as she normally would in such a crisis, but if she had any hope of helping at all, she needed to understand what they endured at least physically.

Truth be told, the maternal Kate found herself drawn to Jayla's examination of the eggs. Glancing in her direction, but still focusing on the surgery about to take place, Dallas offered, "Discovering anything interesting?"

"Not really," Jayla replied. "Other than, if other reptilian species are any indication, she is due to lay these eggs at any time now. They seem healthy, especially considering that the mother has slipped into hibernation. So that's good."

A quick warning from the bridge and three more reptiles appears in Sick Bay. Jayla glanced in their direction, instinctively bracing for some horrible sight. She was not disappointed. "Nurse Amberton, monitor these eggs," she instructed the nurse who was assisting her. "Let me know if anything changes." With that, she hurried to one of the surgery galleries where an arm hung nearly severed from the reptile's shoulder. Though her specialty was pediatric orthopedic surgery, she was qualified to knit adult bones together. She knew some reptiles could regrow limbs, but they didn't know anything about these particular ones and as long as they could not be sure, she was going to try to reattach the bone here.

But it was all guesswork. Nobody really knew what to do as this was a new species. They could only take a guess based on what they knew about reptiles and hope it was good enough....

The engineers were still attempting to translate enough of the computer to start repairs. It took several minutes every time they turned to a new console and called up a new menu on the console they were facing. It was tedious work. Were P'ril less than half Vulcan, she would have found it frustrating. But, as it was, she knew the work was important and so she passed the time thinking up new melodies that she could later play on her piano.

As her PADD worked on yet another screen, she turned to the other two engineers. "Have either of you found a map of the ship, yet?" she asked. "We need to find Sick Bay and get health information for the doctors."

"I think I have found it." Rurmatog, the normally disagreeable Tellarite replied. "It is either sickbay or a meat processing center. Given the type of crew it could be either."

With his team having transported back to the Potter Jack Devlin stood watch over the engineers on the Bridge of the alien ship. It was still unclear what caused the carnage so there was still a chance that the threat was still on board and masked to Starfleet's tricorders. Hearing Rurmatog's answer Jack walked over and glanced over the Tellarite's shoulder.

P'ril also approached to see what the other two were looking at. In an uncharacteristically un-Vulcan move, she chewed her lip as she studied the description on Rurmatog's PADD. "Meat repair," she mused. "Odd choice of semantics, but I suppose it is descriptive. Let us proceed to the 'Meat repair' and begin translating there."

"I like that name. If anyone asks, I am assigned to the USS Potter, we do meat repair." Rurmatog stated as he gathered up his PADD.

Giving him half a smile for half a moment, P'ril turned to leave the bridge. "We do, at that," she agreed. "And now we must learn how to repair new meat."

"Take point, LaJaye," Devlin said and brought up the rear with his sidearm at the ready.

===Meat Repair===

Nothing looked at all familiar to P'ril, but she supposed that was due to it being an alien ship. She chose a console at random and held her PADD up to it, waiting for it to translate. "Can someone look for medications?" she asked vaguely.

Devlin took the right side of the room and began to clear the small alcoves and closets, leaving Sexington to clear the left side.

As he moved through the left side of the room, Sexington held his weapon in the firing position. He was careful to check every shelf and under every table. "Come out and face us you coward." Sexington told an invisible foe.

"There are no remaining life forms on board," P'ril informed him dispassionately. "Unless you are talking to me, of course."

"There are no remaining life forms according to sensors." Sexington snorted. "Even though these creatures are from a loser civilization they still should have had a better organized defense. What ever attacked them did it before they could properly react. And, to be honest, we don't know what we are up against. The creature could be looking at us and laughing right now. If you get your limbs ripped off you wouldn't be so proud of your sensors then now would you?"

"The Lieutenant may be lacking in diplomacy but he's right," Devlin said to P'ril, having just completed clearing his side of the room. "Our sensors might not be aware of a life sign but I'm not willing to take a chance. I suggest you and your engineers work fast." He motioned to LaJaye to take the door while he monitored the room.

“Fair enough,” allowed P’ril. “I have located medical logs. Shall we allow our in-ear translators to start working as well?” Without waiting for a reply, she started the logs to play in “meat repair” and almost instantly, gurgles, chirps, groans, clucks, whistles, and snorts filled the room. P’ril’s brow wrinkled. “It is not entirely unpleasant,” she commented. “It is a bit like being in a forest.”

"That's speciesist," Cipher noted. The language of the Bynars was not unlike the description P'ril had just given. "Do you need further assistance from me or have the ghosts been chased to Security's satisfaction?"

“I apologize, Mr. Cipher; I meant no disrespect,” replied P’ril. “If you have any ideas to make the translating go any faster, I would greatly appreciate it.”

"Gladly." The Bynar stepped forward and scanned the alien console with a tricorder. "This looks manageable." He pried open the front panel with a hydrospanner and started yanking around components until he found the configuration he desired. And then he connected a hardwire from the synaptic processor implanted in his skull directly to the makeshift data port he'd just created. "Stand by..."

Eyes aflutter as he processed the data. "Base-8. That is unusual. Perhaps it has something to do with the digits on their bodies. In the end, all communication is an expression of mathematics."

Cipher disconnected himself and then began running his fingers through the air as if encoding an invisible console. "I'm creating a translation algorithm that converts their language into binary code and from binary code to Federation Standard. The results will be stilted but comprehensible."

The console beeped, indicating the completion of his translation software's installation. "Proceed." With that, he returned to his corner.

It sounded like a good idea to P'ril, too, but it would still take some time. "I suppose we will just have to be patient," she said. "And speaking of patients, I believe I have found the information requested by the doctors." She tapped her combadge. "P'ril to Sherman Potter," she said.

"Bridgerton here, go for Sherman Potter.

"I have found the information the doctors requested," P'ril replied, recording the information on her PADD as she spoke. "The proper health standards of the reptilian species and what looks to be medicine dosages. But, the terms are strange. They may take some more time to decipher, but at least it is a start."

"Send it over when you're ready, Bridgerton replied. "Also, be advised that the Captain has placed the ship on Lockdown. You may be over there for awhile."

P'ril blinked and gave her companions a questioning look. "Might I ask why?" she asked after a beat.

" Apparently two of the reptiles escaped Sick Bay," replied Bridgerton. "Security is working on recapturing them. But, until we get them back or are able to communicate with them, we can't bring you back."

Devlin grimaced. He needed to be there instead of here.

"Understood," replied P'ril. "We're working on that front, too. I will keep you apprised of the situation."

"Likewise. Bridgerton out."

"... meat repair...."

P'ril blinked again. "Did the translation matrix just translate the name of where we are?" she asked. "Or did someone actually say that?"

"... six..."

"The binary matrix has a bit of a lag," Cipher explained, "but it appears to be producing results."

“Good,” replied P’ril. “It sounds like they will need help communicating with the lizards.”

All of the survivors had been pulled from the alien ship and the doctors were busy attempting to put them all back together. It was difficult and there was a lot of trial and error. Most frightening was when they overestimated how much sedative to give one of them and his heart stopped. They managed to revive him and the information helped them to do better with the next patient.

A team of doctors had just wheeled one of the raptors- for lack of a better term- into a separate room to run some tests- MRIs or something, Pierce hadn't really been paying attention to them- when the away team returned to Sick Bay to assist with the wounded. "Engineers still working?" he asked whoever wanted to answer.

Still in her bio suit but carrying her helmet, Caitlin nodded. "Yes and our security people stayed to protect them," she said. "Take that one to the burn unit," she directed a corpsman that took over the hover gurney she was guiding. "Where do you need me?" she said, turning back to Hunnicutt.

"Literally anywhere," he replied, glancing at all the casualties. "Actually, it looks like Dr. Anjou is down a nurse, if you don't mind."

One of the nurses helped Cait remove her suit and pointed to Dr. Anjou's cubicle. "Thanks," Cait said and walked into the cubicle. With a quick read of the monitor, she began to assemble the instruments Anjou would need and displayed them on a utility tray which she rolled to his side of the biobed.

Anjou acknowledged the new arrival. "Thank you, Nurse. This younger male has several internal injuries. His ribcage was smashed against his internal organs. This will be tricky as we need to patch up his organs while separating out fractured bone. Then while keeping his wounded tissue intact try and mend his skeleton."

"Can we get an engineering team down here?" Damien asked as he staggered in from a supply closet, a bundle of thermal blanket's in his arms with their power cords trailing by his shuffling feet. "These critters run hot and we're already maxing out the environment systems keeping the temp up. We're liable to blow out an EPS node if we plug any more heat elements in without an engineer or two pissing sunshine on it to cool it down."

"Hey, Engineering!" called Pierce into the room while he continued to work on the creature- being, actually- on the biobed before him. "We still got that open channel going?"

=/\=Yes, sir,=/\= came the reply. =/\=We heard. We'll have a team down there momentarily.=/\=

"I love this ship," commented Pierce with a grin.

Jayla popped out of a nearby surgery gallery and glanced around for a moment before picking out one of the returning away team. "Dr. Hunnicutt!" she called, then blinked. "I mean... the younger. We're going to have to do something about that at some point. Dr. Hunnicutt, can you assist? I've got one with multiple internal injuries and my specialty is bones."

"Theo," said Hunnicutt the Younger with a smile. "Just call me Theo, Commander, it's cool." He regarded the bubbly surgeon for a moment and pushed down the need for a shower and a hot beverage. "Sure thing," he returned. "Be happy to assist," he added with as much genuine enthusiasm as he could muster. "In there?" He asked, following Jayla as soon as she confirmed.

"Yeah," she answered, returning to the alien's side. "There's too much for one surgeon to handle. He'll die if we don't get this under control. At least I think he will. We just don't know much about them."

Theo followed, heading to scrub up first and taking a moment to look at Jayla's previous scans of the wounded raptor while he did so. "You're right, he's a mess in there," said Theo on a slow exhale. He raised gloved hands as he turned to face the other doc, then walked over to stand beside Jayla and grimaced. "Ready when you are. How do you want to do this, let's a lot to go at here?"

"I don't even know," she replied, looking over the scans while chewing her lips. "It looks like the second stomach is leeching acid. We should probably patch that first, or it's going to cause more problems."

Using the medical tricorder, Theo tracked the exact locations of the damaged stomach's outer lining. Small perforations, fixable but only one of many issues as his companion surgeon stated. With a careful incision and the delicate application of a protoplaser, he sealed the tiny wounds and resealed the site with a dermal regenerator. Serious in tone and expression he looked across to Jayla and the scans. "Next?" Theo asked, with a light frown. This was going to take a while...

Time passed quickly as the doctors worked to fix up the aliens. They were just getting to the last few patients when frantic voices arose from one of the side rooms, followed by a sort of clicking groan, then a metalic shriek and finally, Dr. Kij's voice sealing off the room.

"What's going on?" asked Pierce, not looking up from his patient. "Report!"

"We don't know, sir," answered one of the medical corpsmen. "We're trying to get the video feed now. Oh. Oh, shit."

Pierce glanced up. On the monitor next to the door appeared the scene inside the room. The alien had awaken and was not happy. It lashed out at a nurse, slashing its claws across her face, then her chest. The nurse fell to the floor in a silent scream and the alien roared angrily, turning on the other two people in the room.

Jayla and Theo.

"Theo," Pierce said quietly, his face blanching.

The alien looked directly at the camera then and seemed to be even more enraged- perhaps at the little red "active" light? It roared angrily and slashed at the camera.

The feed went dead.

"Almost finished here." Anjou told his surgical team, unaware of what happened to Jayla and Theo. As Anjou was closing up the reptile creature, he noticed a claw twitch. Before he could say anything, the creature lashed out.

A scaled arm slashed one of the nurses. She screamed as she fell back, trying to close the bloody wounds to her face and chest. The creature then tried to break free of the surgical bed. Anjou quickly threw himself over the display of the bed, pinning down the creature.

"See to her wounds!" Anjou shouted at another nurse as he struggled to contain the creature. The creature howled as it tried to break free. One of its claws managed to start tearing in Anjou's shoulder. Despite the wound, Anjou continued to keep the creature pinned.

"I can't hold this for much longer!" He warned.

Caitlin grabbed a dermal regenerator and dropped on her knees next to the injured nurse. "WE NEED HELP IN HERE!" she called out and began to mend the nurse's wounds. It only took her a few minutes and she got up and rushed over to the replicator. "10cc anesthizine hypospray," she said and when it appeared she rushed over to the reptilian and injected the anesthetic into its neck.

Pierce turned to issue orders, but his words stopped in his throat. All over Sick Bay, the aliens were stirring. "They're waking up!" he called. "Anaesthetic all around! Get this-"

His words were cut off by a strange sort of cry from the sealed room. Sort of a groaning nasally snort-like sound. "Durighash! Durighash! Durighash!" At the cry, several of the aliens pulled themselves upright and began growling at the doctors around them.

"Don't suppose you guys have translators, do you?" Pierce said to the nearest alien. When it narrowed its eyes at him, he said, "yeah, didn't think so. Anybody have any ideas that don't involve running for our lives?"

Now that their patient was sedated, Caitlin helped Dr. Anjou finish closing the reptilian's lacerations then she applied dermaplast to the burns. She could hear the chaos outside of the cubicle and she looked up at Anjou as she applied dermaplast to the last burn. "If we're done here, Doctor, I think I'm needed out there," she said.

"Yes, you are. Thank you, Nurse." Anjou respectfully replied. "Doctor Hunnicutt, you need to see to your son."

"We've got bigger fish to fry right now," replied Pierce nodding at the awakening reptiles. "Sedatives! Now!" Without a word, a hypospray was thrust into his hand and he quickly sedated the lizard on which he had been working. All around him, others were doing the same.

Caitlin stepped outside of the trauma cubicle and was astonished at the chaos. Wounded staffers leaning against walls trying to treat each other's wounds and a few lying on hover gurneys outside of cubicles. It looked like a war zone. Cait took a deep breath and grabbed a discarded Field Trauma Kit that was lying on the floor. She slipped the strap over her shoulder, cross chest, and headed for the nearest gurney. She visually assessed the nurse's injuries and didn't waste time mending her lacerations. "Corpsman!" she called out as she closed the last wound, "start a fluid replacing infusion and give her 5cc of Terakine." She looked down at the nurse and smiled. "You're going to be fine," she said and headed to the next gurney.

The only reptiles that remained upright now were two near the sealed door where three Starfleet Personnel were trapped with another. One hissed at the doctors attempting to get near enough to sedate them and the other backhanded a nurse and sent her flying into the nearest wall where she slid to the floor and did not move. Hopefully, she was merely knocked out.

"Security!" called Pierce into the open com link. "Security, where are you? We really need to keep phasers in Sick Bay from now on," he added in a frantic aside.

The creature who had back handed the nurse threw back its head and let out the same cry they had heard from the sealed room. "Durrighash!" The other swipped at the doctors and nurses surrounding them and then the two bounded towards the door.

"Computer!" called Pierce, taking a leaf out of Dr. Kij's book. "Seal Sick Bay level 5! Auth- oh, shit!"

They moved faster than he could have imagined, bounding through the doors and into the corridors.

Tapping his com-badge, Pierce braced himself for an announcement he had hoped never to have to make. "Attention all hands! Attention all hands! This is the Captain. Intruder alert! Lockdown! Lockdown! Two dangerous and very frightened beings have escaped Sick Bay and are on the loose. Do not engage. Security to Sick Bay Level five! Stun only! I repeat, stun only! Hunnicutt out." He turned to look around at everyone. "Get the rest of them patched up," he said. "Anybody not still working on a reptile, see to our injured. And can we get hypodrips on the rest of these at least until the engineers make some headway on translations?"

Alex heard the commotion and did a quick head count. Realizing Jayla was missing, he tapped his commbadge. "Commander Kij, Senior Chief Rylan. Where are you right now?"

"Hiding in a cupboard in surgery room twenty-seven," came the hushed reply. "Our patient came to and attacked the nurse so I sealed the room. We're working on a game plan now."

"You... sealed the room?" Alex said. "Well, that was brave. Dumb. But brave. Jayla, I need a serious answer. No bullshit. Are you okay? Can you two work this out? Because if not, I'm going to hack that door and deal with this myself. You rank me. Your call. Just understand that if you die, I'll kill you."

A tense laugh came through the coms. "We got this, Alex. Don't do anything foolish. We're about to move. Just... pray to the Great Bird of the Galaxy that the hypospray is exactly where I think it is."

Alex sighed. "Do what you have to do," he said. "I'll see what I can do to help out around here."

“Be careful. Kij out.”

Caitlin rushed to the unconscious nurse and dropped to her knees next to her. She quickly scanned the young woman. "Damn!" she exclaimed, quietly. "I need a hand over here," she called out as she finished her assessment. The bioscanner showed a skull fracture resulting in a growing intracranial hematoma and three fractured ribs.

Seeing as his reptilian patient was mostly healed, Pierce opted to allow his assistant to finish up while he went to assist Donovan. "Is it safe to move her?" he asked as he crouched next to her.

Caitlin nodded and grabbed the nurse's legs at the knees. "Just be careful of her ribs," she said, then, "on 3. 1..2..3."

Pierce, having stuck his arms under the nurse's arms, hefted firmly but carefully so as not to jolt ay ribs. Together, he and Donovan got her onto a biobed. Once she was there, he glanced around quickly as he took out his tricorder. "Anybody else hurt?" he asked.

"No lives lost, though," he mused aloud, examining the readout. "With those claws, they could have taken us all out in a matter of minutes. Let's take care of the hematoma first." With that, he went to work.

"Dad? Commander Kij is wounded, but we're both safe. Are you okay?"

"We're all right," he replied, breathing a sigh of relief. "Two of them got out of Sick Bay, but we subdued the rest. We'll get some help in to you as soon as possible."

Theo's sigh of relief was audible. "Don't worry about us. We'll be alright."

Pierce grinned as the connection closed. "That's my boy," he said proudly as he worked.

Cait smiled. "Yes he is," she said as she handed a laser scalpel to Pierce. "Time to get your hands dirty, sir," she said as she draped a surgical apron around him.

Jayla and Theo had been working hard to save the alien's life, aided by a nurse whose name Jayla didn't even know. She made a mental note to learn her name at the earliest convenience. But for now, she had to concentrate on stitching up the alien's left thigh muscle. "How's it coming?" she asked Theo. She wasn't even really sure what he was currently doing because she was so focused on her own work.

"Almost there..." A distracted Theo mumbled in response as he knitted up a mess of tendons in the raptor's shoulder. He heard rather than saw the motion in the corresponding hand - claw? - as talons tapped against the horizontal surface. Theo looked to Jayla with concern as said tapping repeated. "Looks like the anaesthetic's wearing off..."

"I'll get some more," she replied, finishing up with the alien's leg quickly and turning to retrieve a hypospray. By the time she turned back, the alien's eye was opened. "Uh... Theo..." she said. "You might want to step back."

The alien lifted its head and a gurgling sort of growl erupted from its throat. The nurse shouted something Jayla didn't hear and just as she was about to dart forward and administer the anesthetic, the alien pulled itself to its feet and let out a metallic sounding shriek.

"Computer," she said without even thinking. "Seal off surgery room twenty-seven. Authorization Kij three six Beta one India."

The doors swished closed and the computer replied, "surgery room twenty-seven is now sealed."

Theo didn't step back. He didn't question Jayla's actions. He stepped in closer. As the nurse yelled and the raptor shrieked, Theo rested both his hands firmly against his patient's shoulders, taking care not to make that open wound worse. "It's okay," he told the alien, his voice calm and confident in that moment, his concern entirely focused on the wounded reptilian. "You're hurt. We're fixing you up. It's okay."

The alien, however, wasn't listening. It pushed itself to its full height- a little over six feet- and took a halfhearted swipe at Theo. Jayla darted forward and attempted to press the hypospray to it anywhere at all, but the alien shrieked and batted her hand away.

"Maybe we should-" she started, but at that moment, the alien lashed out, striking the nurse whose name Jayla had not learned across the face. The nurse let out a horrified scream and then fell to the floor, unmoving, thought Jayla couldn't tell if it was because she had passed out or because she was dead.

Then the alien turned on Jayla and Theo.

Jayla cursed under her breath, but then the alien appeared to get distracted by something off to Jayla's right. The red blinking light on the camera seemed to enrage it and in the mere seconds it took to knock the camera off the wall, Jayla had pulled Theo into a nearby cupboard and slammed the door closed. Hopefully, it couldn't figure out how to work the handle.

Theo swore. The claw mark at his side had torn his shirt, grazed the skin beneath but like most minor wounds it stung far worse than it looked. He was far more worried about the nurse trapped out there with the furious critter. He glanced back to Jayla, then reached his hand out to open the door that was currently keeping them safe. "We have to help Kim," Theo said.

"I know," said Jayla, staying his hand with one of her own. "But first we need a plan. We can't just go out there without knowing what we're going to do or else all three of us will be dead."

He nodded, cast a studious gaze about the storage closet in which they were currently trapped, and picked up something Theo considered might work. "The light really pissed them off," Theo suggested. "This emergency torch has a stobe effect..." He raised both eyebrows as he regarded Jayla. "If I distract our friend, think you can jab them with enough sedative to put him down?"

Chewing her lip, Jayla tried to remember where the hypospray had flown when the alien had knocked it out of her hands. It had been in her right hand and she had been facing the door. So it shouldn’t be too far from the cabinet they were sheltering in at the moment. “I think-“ she started, but was cut off by an inhuman shriek from outside, followed by some sort of nasally guttural call that sounded like “Durrighash! Durrighash! Durrighash!”

She looked at Theo in the darkness, at a loss. “Do you think that means it’s angry?” she asked.

"No idea," he answered, facing the door as he flinched and tried to gauge something more than human intepretation from the reptilian utterings emanating from beyond their safe space. "This is the first one I've seen conscious." He rapped a knuckled fist against the inside of the door and returned his best imitation of the sounds. "Darrigesh? Dorrigush?"

A shriek and a hiss answered from the other side followed by a thump against the doors that indicated the reptile had slashed at them. Jayla flinched backward. "Okay, let's not do that again," she said. "What were we.... did you hear that?" It had sounded like shouts from outside the room. She blinked and listened, hearing more faint sounds of a scuffle. "It sounds like they're having trouble out there, too! Alex is out there!"

"Right, we're leaving," decided Theo, unwilling to remain here while others might be in danger - and that included their lizard patient. "Plan A - I open the door, throw in the torch - then I'll aim to tackle him while you stick him with the sedative. Ready?" He placed his hand on the door handle and steeled himself for the charge.

Jayla opened her moth to reply, but before she could, her combadge beeped. “ Commander Kij, Senior Chief Rylan. Where are you right now?"

Alex! He was okay! Jayla took half a moment to thank the Great Bird of the Galaxy. "Hiding in a cupboard in surgery room twenty-seven," she replied in a hushed voice. "Our patient came to and attacked the nurse so I sealed the room. We're working on a game plan now."

"You... sealed the room?" Alex said. "Well, that was brave. Dumb. But brave. Jayla, I need a serious answer. No bullshit. Are you okay? Can you two work this out? Because if not, I'm going to hack that door and deal with this myself. You rank me. Your call. Just understand that if you die, I'll kill you."

She gave a tense laugh. If she died he’d kill her. He always knew how to calm her down with humor.. "We got this, Alex,” she replied. “Don't do anything foolish. We're about to move. Just... pray to the Great Bird of the Galaxy that the hypospray is exactly where I think it is."

Alex sighed. "Do what you have to do," he said. "I'll see what I can do to help out around here."

“Be careful,” she told him. “Kij out.” She turned back to Theo. “Ready?” she asked.

It was surreal there for a moment as he listened to the two of them worry about each other, but Theo smiled a grim smile and waited and truly hoped that Jayla wouldn't ask for Alex to come rescue them. He wasn't about to admit this out loud right now, but he wasn't sure his ego could handle that. The sigh of minor relief he pretended was an preparatory exhale and he nodded as he answered the Commander's question.

"Ready!" Theo agreed, and he waited for Jayla's agreement, then opened the door. The light of the emergency torch rippled and pulsed across the walls of the room as it rolled over the floor, and Theo dove for the reptilian's legs in the hope of bringing him (or her) crashing to the ground.

With only a moment’s hesitation, Jayla dove to the right, where she thought she would find the hypospray. She hadn’t even started looking when the flailing lizard’s tail connected with the side of her head and she was slammed against the cupboard they had so recently been hiding in. She staggered, dazed and tried to resume her search. One hand went to her head as she tried to make her eyes focus.

And there it was. Right in the floor in front of her was the hypospray, loaded and ready. She reached for it and toppled to the floor with a whimper.

Meanwhile, the lizard was pinned on the floor. Though Theo was not heavy, the lizard’s arms were pinned in such a way that it could not get any leverage to push itself upright. It shrieked only frustration.

That whimper from Jayla cut through Theo like a sharp knife. Yet, he couldn't release his hold either. Over two hundred pounds of reptilian patient was being decidedly impatient right beneath him, calling out for freedom. First, Theo tried to quickly hook the hypospray with his foot, sliding on the floor in an attempt to reach it. Nope. Only one thing for it, then, because blood was running down Jayla's face from a long gash at her brow.

So, Theo let go. And the race was on. He grabbed the hypospray just before the lizard angrily grabbed a hold from behind and rolled him, turning them both over like an alligator in a river. Somewhere in that dizzy, weighted spin, Theo managed to connect hypospray to a tender spot and he felt the tension shift along with the balance in the 'fight. Battered and bruised, and clutching his ribs with his free hand, he extricated himself messily from unconscious alien and skidded across the ground to reach Jayla.

"Hey," Theo said, as he reached up to temporarily stem the flow of blood with his hand. Jade eyes looked deeply into her dark brown. "Jayla, look at me. Can you focus? I need you to hold your hand here," he said. While he grabbed the dermal regenerator from wherever that had been thrown in the confusion...

“But... the patient...” she gasped, looking towards the lizard now laying motionless- save for the steady rise and fall of the rib cage- on the floor.

"You're both patients now," Theo pointed out with a necessarily firm gentleness. "And you're bleeding. A lot." But still talking, and worrying about others, which he figured, spoke well of her mental state and lack of truly serious head injury. "Just put your hand here for a second," he insisted, calmly. "Now."

“Okay,” she replied weakly, finally placing her hand where he had indicated. “Comp- computer. Release exam room twenty-seven, Kij three six Beta one India.“

The computer confirmed that the room was open and the doors swished.

Theo sighed as he located and secured the piece of med-tech along with some antiseptic and a towel. Had they really needed the door open at this point? How many other lizard patients were loose out there? Seemed an unnecessary risk, but Kij was a superior officer, even if she was wounded. It wasn't worth arguing right now. "Okay, move your hand for me," Theo ordered in a soft tone, then proceeded to clean and slowly seal the wound on Jayla's head while keeping half an eye on the double-dosed unconscious alien.

"Dad?" He called Hunnicutt Snr over the comm-link. "Commander Kij is wounded, but we're both safe. Are you okay?"

"We're all right," came the relieved reply. "Two of them got out of Sick Bay, but we subdued the rest. We'll get some help in to you as soon as possible."

Theo's sigh of relief was audible. "Don't worry about us," he said, "we'll be alright." He looked up then as motion at the doorway signalled someone else coming to their assistance. "Chief Rylan's here now too," Theo added, then turned his full attention back to Ayla.

Alex entered and went immediately to Jayla. "From now on, Jayla, the agreement is going to be if you're hurt or killed , I'll kill you instead of just if you get killed. You should have told me a law degree was going to be required to be with you." Alex turned to Hunnicutt. "How can I help?"

“Isn’t he the best?” slurred Jayla, trying to joke with the two men. “Always threatening my life. Sweetest man a girl could ask for.”

Theo didn't turn to face Alex, but focused on Ayla for a moment longer. Her open wound was safely sealed, her bloody face now mostly clean at the expense of the sterile cloth, so Theo ran the bioscanner again and checked for any deeper damage and ignored the to and fro between the duo. Quietly, he rolled his eyes and smiled as he stood up and handed Alex the bioscanner.

"She's gonna live, and she's all yours, Chief," Theo told the other man happily. "Looks like she's got a concussion so you might want to sit with her and keep her talking. You know the drill, I'm sure." He flashed a brief grin and stepped out of their way, then jabbed a thumb at the unconscious patient across the room. "I'm gonna check on our reptilian friend..."

"Kim!" said Jayla suddenly remembering the nurse. "I have to check Kim. She's injured."

"No," Alex said firmly. "I will check on her, after I help you to a bed, where you will lay quietly until I come and get you. I'll check on Kim, make sure she's alright and I'll let you know. You will stay in bed until I get a break and then I'll take you back to our quarters where you will continue to take it easy."

“Yes, sir,” replied Jayla without thinking. “Hey, wait. I outrank you!” But she didn’t have the energy to protest any further. Her head was pounding and her brain was fuzzy. She didn’t think she could have argued with a well-behaved golden retriever at this point.

The alien patient still safely out cold on the floor, Theo moved to check on Kim. The nurse was still unconscious, her face cut with jagged wounds where the raptor had lashed out. He scooped her up onto the vacated bed and looked across to the two lovebirds.

"I've got this, Chief," Theo promised. "Better make sure Jayla's okay, she took a nasty bump there. I think for safety sake, better she's not left on her own for a little while," he added with a wry smile to Alex. It didn't seem like that would be too much for a chore for him, Theo considered. He waited for confirmation, then resumed his care of the wounded nurse.

"Thanks, sir," Alex said. He turned his attention to Jayla. "Okay, let me help you to a bed. I'll observe you here for a bit. Later, if you're still stable, I'll bring you home."

"Yes, sir," replied Jayla, still too dazed to really comprehend the seriousness of her state. She allowed Alex to help her to her feet and help her out of the room.

Caught up in his treatment of Kim, Theo made sure to keep half an eye on the unconscious raptor, hitting it with a sedative every so often until someone else came to assist.

Jayla had always found dealing with concussion patients difficult. They tended to not realize how serious their injuries were and often tried to either get up and get back to work or wanted to sleep and became very annoyed when you wouldn't let them.

But, she didn't have to deal with this particular patient this time. In fact, she was tha patient.

And fortunately for her, the attending physician was also the man she was sleeping with. Whether or not he would enjoy this as much as she did remained to be seen.

"I think this is the first time we've done it this way 'round," she slurred as Alex set her onto a bio bed to check her over. "Although... did I ever examine you? I can't remember. I mean," she laughed, "I know I have, but I meant in Sick Bay."

"No you haven't examined me," Alex said, grinning from ear to ear. "I didn't want you feeling tempted to rip all of my clothes off and ravage me in the middle of Sickbay when you saw just how perfect a specimen I really am. Now, lay back and relax. I'm going to set the bed to monitor you in case you aren't as hard headed as you seem to be."

She giggled. "Hard-headed," she repeated. "That's you!" Unfortunately for Jayla, being woozy made her intended lude joke come out adorable and innocent instead.

Alex chuckled. "Maybe later," he said. "Once you've had a chance to rest." Alex looked at the readouts. "Well, mild concussion, as expected." He slowing raised the head of the bed so that Jayla was reclining rather than laying down. "Okay," he said. "Your pupils aren't dilated, but you're dizzy and a little more out of it than I'd like, so you'll have to stay up a bit. There's some minor intercranial swelling and I'd like to see that go down. Normally, you'd need a doc to give you the meds for that, but SAARCs have to treat head injuries in the field so I've been trained to administer the drug appropriately." He fastened the biobed strap across Jayla's middle so she wouldn't fall out of bed, but he didn't leave. He went to the pharmaceutical replicator in the room and replicated an ampule of the med he needed in the proper dose. He loaded it into a hypospray, adjusted the setting to what he wanted it to be, and the 'injected' Jayla in the neck. "Swelling should go down steadily starting in a moment or two... there we go. Stay awake for a little bit, and when the swelling is down and you're not feeling so dizzy, you can close your eyes and get some sleep."

"You're so good to me," slurred Jayla. "Hey, why can't I talk right? Whadja put in this thing, anyway?"

"Exactly what I was supposed to put in it," Alex said. He kissed Jayla on the forehead. "You'll be fine. Just recline and relax." Just to be sure, Alex glanced at the biobed monitors. They all indicated the medication was working and nothing serious was wrong.

"If you say so," she slurred, her words becoming more clear as she spoke. "You're the doctor, after all. Wait. No. Ah, close enough. Hey, I'm feeling better already."

"See," Alex said. "I'm more than just muscles, a pretty face, and fun in bed. I actually know something about medicine. Not as much as you, but injuries like this? Old hat to me." Alex checked the diagnostic sensors again. "Yep," he said. "You'll be able to close your eyes and rest soon. First, though, you'll have to answer a few questions. Full name and rank, please."

“Jayla Kij, um... Lieutenant Commander,” she answered with a slight laugh. “That’s what I get for never using my rank like ever.”

"Excellent," Alex said. "What year is it?"

“2390,” she replied. “At least I sure hope so.”

"Great," Alex said. "What is your current assignment?"

“The USS Sherman Potter,” she replied. “Specifically, Pediatric orthopedic surgeon. But I’ve been doing a lot more than that of late.”

"Great," Alex said. He held up two fingers on his right hand and one on his left. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

“Technically all of them on that hand,” she replied cheekily. “But two are extended.”

"Very funny, wiseass," Alex said with a grin. "And how many fingers on the other hand?"

“Four,” she answered cheekily. “And one thumb.”

"If that's the case," Alex said. "I'm going to grab a neurosurgeon to take a look at you. Care to try that again?"

"You said how many on the other hand," she defended with a grin. "Not how many extended."

Alex sighed. "Sweetheart," he said. "Sweetheart darling dearest? You still haven't answered the question. Maybe I should go and grab that neurosurgeon..." Alex started to get up and leave.

“Okay, okay,” laughed Jayla. “Three. I love you,” she added sweetly so he wouldn’t be too upset with her.

Alex laughed and then kissed her on the forehead gently. "Okay. I'll let one of the docs know you passed the exam and if they sign off on you, I'll take you home when we're able to get out of here."

"Hopefully soon," agreed Jayla sleepily. "Can I go to sleep, now?"

Alex smiled. "Sure," he said. "Get some rest. I'll check in on you later."

Jayla's eyes slipped closed as she yawned again. "G'night, sexy," she muttered, and then was out.

It was getting late. Everybody was tired. But, they had reached the end of the tunnel.

The aliens had been dubbed the Durrighash, after the noise they had made while calling to one another through the locked door of the exam room. It was as good a name as any, Pierce thought, much to the delight of the nurse who had suggested the name. All of them were still unconcious, kept so medically. Nobody wanted to kill any of them if they could help it.

Their people were also mended up and most of them were back on their feet. The few exceptions were Doctor Kij, who had a concussion, and the nurse with the hematoma. (Pierce really needed to learn everyone's name.)

Most of the doctors and nurses were kipped out on cots as the lockdown had yet to be released. Security had cornered the two escaped Durrighash in a set of unused quarters but was having trouble apprehending them without killing either of them. Even the maximum stun setting on their phasers didn't seem to phase the reptiles in the slightest. They were currently working with the engineers to fashion a tranquilizer dart and gun. Why they didn't have these on the ship was a mystery to Pierce, but he trusted his team to get the job done.

"All right," sighed Pierce as the last patient was declared as mended as possible. "Let's try to get some rest. Hopefully security will capture our two fugitives quickly, but we may as well take advantage of the lull. Pull up a cot or spare bio bed and try to get some sleep. Delta shift and I will keep an eye on the patients for a while."

Once Alex had Jayla squared away, he found a place to sack out. His work with the Marines and with MARSOC had forced his body to learn to grab sleep whenever and wherever he could get it. It also taught him to sleep lightly enough that he could snap awake fairly quickly. He was asleep not long after his head hit the cot.

Caitlin made the rounds, checking on the injured and updating charts. She was at that point where she was too tired to sleep. She walked over to the nurses' station and started to sit down to finish charting when the ED comms sounded.

=^=Lt. Marsle to Medical. We need someone to sedate the escapees we have cornered in Waste Reprocessing.=^=

Anjou got up from his cot. "Doctor Hunnicutt, I'll get my kit and if another nurse tags along, we can deal with them."

"I'll go," Caitlin spoke up and grabbed a Field Trauma Kit from the cabinet behind her.

"I'll go, too, if that's okay, Lieutenant," Alex said, having woken up not long ago. "I could use the exercise."

"A team is on their way, Marsle," Pierce replied. "Keep us posted."

Pierce was about to start on his rounds when a beeping caught his attention. One of the Durrighash was showing signs of waking up according to the bio bed scanners. He crossed to it and checked the hypodrip to make sure it was still administering the appropriate dosage; it was. With a frown, he checked the monitors again. This one was definitely waking up. "Nurse," he said to the nurse who had joined him, "get me... let's try axonol. For the drip," he added, nodding towards the hypo.

Another beeping distracted him and he turned to see the same thing happening at another biobed. A third biobed started beeping then. "We're trying axonol over here," he told the doctors hurrying to assist the other reptiles. "Let me know what you're using and how much success you're having."

Meanwhile, a nurse was busily waking the doctors who had gone into side rooms to catch a few hours of rest. “Doctor Langford, Doctor Hunnicutt, there’s a situation,” she said, waking the two men in exam room 7. “They’re waking up! Hurry! We need assistance!”

"Huh... wuuuuh... wha?" Managed Theo ineloquently as his dream was interrupted and unwanted consciousness flooded his brain. "Already?" Came the next question as the words 'waking up' filtered through his waking moments. "Does no one ever sleep..." He let that thought wander off on his own and, still fully clothed, rolled over and off the bunk he'd crashed out on and sought footwear. "Where d'ya need me to be?" Theo asked and wandered into the corridor to find out.

"Surgury galleries!" called the nurse over her shoulder as she ran into the next room to wake the doctors there.

"Right," said Langford, rubbing one eye sleepily as they hurried to the galleries. "I can't believe they're waking up again. We gave them enough to knock them out until tomorrow morning at least!"

"Well," muttered Theo. "We thought we did. Unfortunately for us, these guys are kinda an unknown entity, right?"

As they arrived at the surgery galleries, the chaos became apparent. All of the Durrighash were sluggishly moving and the doctors present were attempting to sedate them. Nurses ran back and forth, retrieving different medicines for the doctors.

"We're already down to cocktails," Pierce told the newcomers. "Pick a couple of anesthetics and see what happens."

Dr. V'Luth grabbed a vial of tetrovaline and one of sonambutril and removed the caps. Using an empty vial from a used hypospray, he mixed the two sedatives together and shook the vial. "This will either kill them or knock them out," he muttered and loaded the hypospray with the concoction. Placing against the neck of the nearest Durrighash, he administered the cocktail and stepped back to watch the results.

Theo raised an eyebrow at his father's quick update, but didn't argue and took the man at his word. Cocktails were not something he'd been encouraged to attempt back in med-school, however this was more life and death than training had been and the younger Hunnicutt picked up swiftly on the imminent threats present. 'Dinosaurs' were waking up and while he had no intention of killing any of them, Theo needed them to be safe. All of them. With help, he tracked down midazolam and propofol, then added a follow-up dose of doxacurium, making sure to keep track of the measures.

This only served to irritate the Durrighash in question, however, and it growled groggily at Theo, attempting to roll itself off the biobed, but only succeeding in thrashing his tail around a bit.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kate Dallas was doing her best to assist the medical team in sedating their unruly guests while trying not to worry too much about her injured crew mates. The doctor in her found it difficult to believe that none of the medicines they were administering made much of a difference in keeping their guests calm. The counselor and her was dismayed that she couldn't do more to help get through to them. Dallas could only imagine when they finally could get through to them, how angry and confused they might be. It was times like this that made Kate sorry she didn't possess any true telepathic or empathic abilities. If she did, she just might be able to get through to them in a way traditional methods couldn't. She briefly wondered if a less hi tech method could be useful, but the scientist in her truly wondered whether anything so simple could work when nothing high tech had shown any change at all.

In fact, nothing the doctors were trying seemed to be working. There were medicine names being shouted all over and nobody was making any headway. Finally, Pierce nudged his combadge with his chin. "Hunnicutt to bridge," he said. "How are the engineers coming on the translations?"

"I honestly have no idea," came the reply. "We lost contact with them a few minutes ago. We're still reading their bio signs over there, so we know they're alive. But, we're waiting on a report. What's happening down there?"

"The four horsemen of the apocalypse decided to pay a visit," replied Pierce. "Once you hear from them, tell them we need translations immediately. Hunnicutt out!" This was turning into a mess they couldn’t clean up. “Please let the engineers have translations ready!” he muttered at the ceiling.

Being that the security teams aboard the Potter were having difficulty capturing the aliens, the away team had decided to work on attempting to repair their ship. They had managed to get life support back online, but little else. It was difficult to repair a ship when nobody knew how to read their runes and translations circuits struggled to make heads or tails of them.

But, at least they could all take their EVA suits off. It still wasn't quite warm enough, but at 15 degrees, it wasn't freezing anymore. And working without the suits was much easier than working with them. "Okay," said P'ril to the others. "Life support is sufficient. If you wish to remove your suit," she said, taking her helmet off, "now is the time to do so."

"Negative," Cipher said. Removing one's EVA suit while on assignment in a hazardous environment was suicide in his mind. "Is the translation protocol completed?"

P'ril blinked. She had turned down the volume on the ship's logs while they worked, the idea being that the translation matrix could continue to work even while they did not listen to what it was doing. She glanced at the console for a moment before raising her PADD to translate it. It was much quicker to translate now and in moments, she had the volume turned back up.

... in the moments before. Top reptile would appreciate faster work, but we have no claws. I do not know how we will manage the slings if we cannot use our eyes...

"It appears so," she replied. "Although it also appears we may need a lesson in their culture before we fully understand."

"Slings?" Jack asked as he deactivated his helmet. Shaking his head he said, "I think we need to know more than just their culture." He felt antsy. He wanted to be on the Potter helping in the search for the escaped aliens before they hurt anymore of Potter's people. Moving away from the group he tapped his combadge. "Lt. Devlin to Lt. Marsle. Report," he said.

"We have the two escapees cornered in Waste Reprocessing," came the reply. "Stun setting does not work. So for now we've used a force field to keep them where they are and we've contacted medical. Hopefully they can sedate them."

Devlin sighed. "Keep me posted," he said, resignedly.

"Copy that, Boss," came the reply.

“Perhaps we-“ but P’ril did not get any farther in her thought when an odd sort of buzzing/dinging sound began repeating and the console before her flashed white. She held up her PADD to translate. “Unbelong,” she read. “Does- does that mean intruder?” Her question was answered by doors sliding out from the walls to trap them into the small area where they were currently clustered. “Suits back on!” she ordered, pulling her helmet back on and sealing it to her suit- just in case. Nothing else seemed to be happening, though.

Cipher let out a triumphant grunt as he had never removed his helmet in the first place. This allowed him to access the interface while everyone else was scrambling to keep up with the Unbelong Alert. It wasn't difficult to locate in the registry since everything was essentially locked out.

"Full lockdown is initiating," he reported, "but, oddly, that is not doing much here..." Preferring finesse in most instances, Cipher found himself in need of using brute force. It didn't take much for him to access the alert status and change the value from "Intruder_status=True" to "False," at which point the computer system froze.

"There is good news," said the Bynar, "and there is bad news. The good news is that I have deactivated the alert. The bad news is that the ship's internal sensors do not know what to make of us now and so ship systems are suspended in some sort of limbo. I can attempt a system refresh, but I honestly cannot tell what that might do. At this point I suggest beaming out all nonessential personnel, including any survivors we wish to rescue, and allow a recon team to investigate the ship further if desired and ascertain what the Unbelong Alert is protecting. As it stands, continued exploration may put every soul on this vessel at risk."

"I believe they already removed all survivors," replied P'ril. "And the Sherman Potter is still on lockdown. They cannot beam anyone in or out until the captain releases it." She chewed her lower lip for a moment, contemplating what Cipher had told her. She glanced at her personal life support monitor and saw that she still had a little over three hours of life left. "How are everyone's batteries holding up?" she asked.

"53%," replied Devlin. "It's just us," he added. "I don't think we need to explore anything. The least amount of energy will stretch our batteries and we have no way of knowing how long we will be stuck here."

"Agreed," added P'ril. "We should conserve our battery life for survival. If we all have at least fifty percent batery life, we can attempt to reboot the ship's computer."

Devlin walked over to Sexington and placed his hand on the Lieutenant's shoulder. "Take a breather, LaJaye," he said. "We're the only ones here. No need to stand watch."

"Okay Lieutenant, but if we get killed you'll be held responsible." Sexington replied in an ambiguous tone, still clutching his phasor.

Nodding at the commissioned officers, Cipher set to work. He was a grunt and he knew it. "Preparing the system reboot now. I suggest securing yourselves to something in the event we lose artificial gravity." There were other more dire warnings he could give, but none of them required precautionary actions on part of the away team. If the worst proved true, they would not live long enough to reflect on it. "The computer system is ready to reboot on your order, Lieutenant."

P'ril first activated her boots' magnets and was pleased to find the metal that made the floor was indeed magnetic. "Everyone ready?" she asked, glancing around at them all.

Sexington activated his boots next to the corridor wall. He braced his arms against the wall and waited. "I hate zero gravity."

Once everyone had confirmed they were ready for a possible loss of gravity, P'ril nodded at Cipher. "We are prepared, Mister Cipher," she said. "Reboot."

"Initiating reboot now." After he did so, Cipher felt a spike through the system that nearly overloaded his synaptic processor that made his eyes roll back. "St-st-st-st-stand by..."

Lights throughout the ship flickered on and off like a Christmas light show. The hum of the engines cut short, then surged before slowing dropping to the normal hum. After a moment, everything seemed to stabilize back to normal. Cipher, however, stood upright in a frozen rictus.

"Oh, dear," said P'ril in a monotone that did not properly convey the full depth of her worry. She glanced at the nearest console, which was rebooting and held her PADD up to it. Returning to life. She was again reminded of how odd this language was. Turning back to Cipher, she used the peculiar roll step that would allow the magnetic boots to release from the floor as she wasn't sure if the gravity was still active. Once she stood in front of him, she pulled out her tricorder and began scanning him, looking for a failure of his processor or some clue to tell her what may be wrong with him. She also came with EMT-3 training, so she could also manage most emergency medical situations that would arise.

Binary code shot up on her tricorder.

01100110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100110 01100101.

Having not studied binary for many years, P’ril decided that instead of attempting to decipher the code herself, she would have the tricorder’s translation matrix do it for her. When she saw the translation, she frowned. “That is not helpful,” she said. “Mister Cipher, can you hear me?” she asked, hoping this was him attempting to communicate.

More binary code. It came in rapid fire bursts almost too quick for the tricorder to display.

01101001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01100101 01100001 01110010 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101100 01110011 00101110 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01100011 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100101 01100011 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101011 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00101110 00100000 01101001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101001 01100011 01101000 00101110.

Devlin looked around and saw nothing floating so he let go of the cabinet handle he had been holding onto and waited a few seconds to make sure he wouldn't float. When he didn't he made his way over to P'ril and Cypher. "Did we lose him?" he asked.

"Not yet," replied P'ril grimly. Then to Cipher, she asked, "if we disconnect you, will it kill you?"

The feed cut out, deactivating the console where Cipher had connected himself. Dropping to the floor, the little Bynar started twitching.

Devlin dropped down next to Cypher and used his tricorder to scan him. "Several circuits have fused together," he stated and showed the screen to P'ril.

“Can they be replaced?” she asked, almost to herself, as she searched her kit for the right kind of parts. “Can we even remove them? I don’t know enough about Binars to say for sure.”

"You must be out of your depth, Lieutenant. Your doing two things a Vulcan would never do: You admitted to not knowing enough and you're using contractions." Sexington observed. "To be honest, I didn't know Binars could be alive as one person, so I'm way out of my depth."

"I'm human as well," admitted P'ril off-handedly.

Whirring sounds began to vibrate their way out of the back of Cipher's head. In a moment, his eyes fluttered open. "Why didn't anybody reboot the system?" he asked from his supine position on the floor. "I specifically requested it."

P'ril blinked, confused. "I... was under the impression that you had done that," she said. "Or did you mean your system? I do not believe I would know how to do that."

"Of course not," Cipher said. "How foolish of me. I truly must have been panicked." Getting himself up to his feet, he gave the back of his bulbous lilac head a rub. "Fortunately it was a vestigial connection port that connected me to my pair..." He trailed off, having reminded himself once again that his pair had died.

"If you were panicked, you had every right to be," replied P'ril, now back to her usual composed self. "Are you well now?"

"Were I paired to another Bynar, I'd probably need cyberneural surgery," Cipher said. "As a solitary, I should be fine."

Devlin sighed with relief. "Ok....can we get out of here now?" he asked. This place was giving him the creeps.

"Am I the only one disappointed we didn't get to shoot anything?" Sexington sincerely asked.

"I'll give you extra time in the Holodeck so you can shoot anything you like," Devlin said with a chuckle. He tapped his combadge and said, "Devlin to Potter...are we clear to return to the ship?"

=/\=Away team, this is the Potter. The captain says he needs those translations. Our patients are waking up and angry. And they’re having trouble sedating them. How’s it coming?=/\=

“We have,” replied Pr’il, already removing one of her universal translators and syncing it to her PADD to reverse the translation. “Although some of their expressions seem culturally related, we can understand their spoken language quite well. The trick will be getting one of them to actually use the translator.” Reversing the translation took very little time and P’ril held the reversed translator up to her ear as she said, “we’re ready, Potter. Beam us over when you’re ready.” She was satisfied to hear the clicks and grunts and squeals from the translator and nodded as the transporter beam enveloped them.

=^=Lt. Marsle to Medical. We need someone to sedate the escapees we have cornered in Waste Reprocessing.=^=

Anjou got up from his cot. "Doctor Hunnicutt, I'll get my kit and if another nurse tags along, we can deal with them."

"I'll go," Caitlin spoke up and grabbed a Field Trauma Kit from the cabinet behind her.

"A team is on their way, Marsle," Pierce replied. "Keep us posted."

Anjou nodded at Pierce as he left. "So, first time sedating a dinosaur person?" Konrad asked Caitlin as the went down the passage.

"No," Cait answered. "I gave one 10cc of anesthezine and it knocked him right out." Unfortunately it can only be used in a hypospray and that requires getting up close and personal with a very scared and pissed off reptile."

"Well the good news is that I'm also a cosmetic surgeon. So if the creature rips my face off, I have the skills to reattach it." Anjou joked. "Those are words I never thought I would say when I was in med school."

As they approached the doors to Waste Reprocessing, Cait took a deep breath and hit the button. The doors slid open with a whispering hiss that was echoed by a duet of hisses coming from the other side of the reprocessing unit. "Lt. Marsle?" she called out. "Medical team has arrived."

"About time you got here," said a grumpy, officious male voice, followed by the appearance of an unpleasant looking Chief Boatswain's Mate in an Operations Gold utility uniform. He didn't smell any better than he looked. The sound of roaring and hissing echoed from the depths of Waste Processing. "Watch your step and don't touch anything. Except for the lizards. We do important work down here and we have very sensitive equip---" the man stopped suddenly when he saw Alex Rylan and a scowl formed on his face. "YOU!"

Alex looked equally shocked, then it became clear he was trying not to crack up. "I don't believe it. Lieutenant, Meet Shitz. He used to be my favorite first class BM, but now it appears he's the Chief BM. His parents must be so proud. Shitz and I go way back. You might even say I've been through some serious shit with Shitz. Isn't that right, Chief?"

"Laugh it up, Senior," Shitz said. "You maybe a big shot up in medical, but you're in the Shit House now, and this is my domain and the sooner you and Security and those Gods be damned lizards are out of here, the better!" He scowled again. "Lieutenant Marsle's team is over this way. Try and keep up."

Alex chuckled as looked at Lieutenant Donovan and shrugged. "Good ole Shitz," he said. "Oh well. Where angels fear to tread and all that jazz." Alex started to follow Chief Shitz through Waste Processing, headed towards the sound of the cornered lizards.

Cait looked at Alex and lifted an eyebrow. "Shitz? Really?" she whispered. "Talk about type casting," she said, teasingly.

"Over here," Marsle called out. "They're secured by our security field."

Sure enough, from behind a forcefield came a shriek followed by the sizzle of said forcefield as the Durrighash behind it threw itself at it, perhaps testing for weaknesses.

"We hit them with level 4 stun but it had no effect," Marsle reported.

"Too bad we don't have a blow dart handy," Caitlin said, only partly joking.

"Were the Durrighash effected by cold?" Anjou asked. "If so, can we change the climate in here? Even if it just slows them down, I can still try and hit it him with a hypospray."

"Worth a try," Alex said. "But maybe I should try to hit it with the hypospray? Or at least help? I'm trained for the up close and personal rough stuff." Alex pulled a PaDD out of a pocket on his uniform. "I can access the environmental controls from this. I use it to test the system when I'm doing health and safety inspections. We'll have to go slow. A sudden, rapid change in temperature could harm or kill it. A gradual change, assuming it's like any other lizard, would cause it to start to enter a dormant state. It's a survival mechanism. But it only postpones death from the low temp. So again, we need to go carefully and monitor its condition. Once it starts to slow down, we make a go for it. We can't wait until it keels over, unfortunately."

Cait stood close to the force field and waited...a hypospray loaded and ready.

Alex started lowering the temperature slowly. As the temperature lowered, the lizard's movements became more sluggish. Then it began to stagger. Its skin began to turn an unhealthy looking gray and Alex began to worry that it would die before it dropped. Finally, it fell over and lay still.

"Lieutenant Donovan," Alex said, drawing his phaser and aiming at the near comatose lizard. "I'm going to deactivate the forcefield. When I do, jump in there and hit it with the hypo spray." Alex moved to the side so he'd get a clear shot at the lizard if it tried to attack Cait. "Go on three. Ready?"

The force field disappeared and Cait said, "three," and stepped in, quickly administering the drug then stepped back so the field could be reactivated. Over her shoulder she said to Alex, "what'd I say about the lieutenant crap?" In a joking tone.

The Durrighash in question flailed pointlessly, attempting to knock the doctors off their feet. But it was pointless, of course. Not only were they beyond his reach, but the cold and the drug were taking effect.

"Where's the other one?" asked one of the security officers charged with chasing them down. She attempted to peer through the force field and look around for it.

With a roar the saurian hunter jumped on Anjou and plunged its talons into Anjou's shoulders. Anjou fell on his back, the creature on top of him. One talon was on Anjou's neck, the Durrighash raised its other talon to bring down on the supine doctor. It was then the lizard humanoid collapsed in a heap on top of Anjou, the sedative doing its work.

A bleeding Anjou looked towards the others. "Hey, good news. I found the other one."

Cait dropped to her knees next to Anjou and opened her FTK. She grabbed an ABD pad, tore open the package and shoved it against Anjou's wound. With her free hand she fumbled in the kit for the dermal-regenerator until she felt the familiar device. She pulled it out and lifted the bandage so she could begin to close the wound. "Alex...start a fluid replacer," she said.

"Aye, aye... Cait," Alex said. He got down next to Anjou, opened his own field kit and got to work. "Okay, Lieutenant Anjou, just like your first lover, your going to feel a little prick and then it'll finished in a second. And... there." Once Alex had a line started, he attached the fluid replacer. "See," Alex said. "Nothing to it."

"Actually my first girl friend's words were 'You're done already?" Anjou tried to be funny while wincing in pain. "Can I switch out that replacement fluid for a bottle of Burgundy? I know my blood will thank you."

Alex laughed. "Can I give him a little something for the pain, Cait?" he asked Donovan.

"Yes," Cait said as she made the last pass over Anjou's wound. "2 cc Terakine," she said and examined her handiwork. For a temporary fix it wasn't bad. "OK, Konrad. You know the drill. You're on your way to the ED to get a surgeon to make sure I didn't connect your ear to your chin." She tapped her combadge and said, "transporter room...beam Dr. Anjou directly to the ED Trauma bay and alert them they have incoming."

=/\=Uh.... last word out of Sick Bay was that the reptiles are all waking up and can’t be sedated,=/\= came the reply. =/\=I’m not sure they’d appreciate incoming wounded right now. And also, you could get eaten. Or something.=/\=

"That's okay, I'm good." Konrad tried to reassure Cait and Alex.

Konrad then tried to stand up, only to collapse to one knee. "Wow. Getting attacked by a dinosaur really hurts."

Caitlin slipped her arm under Konrad's and helped him to his feet. She steered him over to a control console and helped him back down, with his back against the console. "Stay here. I want to make sure those things are out," she said. "Alex...give him another hypo for pain and monitor his vitals."

"Yes, Ma'am," Alex said. He gave Konrad the shot and opened up a medical tricorder. "Well, you're not dead. I'll let you know if that changes."

Caitlin approached the force field that had been reactivated and squatted down near the Durrighash closest to the field. Scanning the creature she detected slow life signs. It wasn't completely out but it was immobilized. The other one was too far from the force field to be scanned by a bioscanner so she could only assume it was in the same sedated state as its companion. She stood back up and joined Konrad and Alex. "How's he doing?" she asked Konrad.

Alex grinned mischievously.

"He's alive," he said. "With a forecast of staying that way if he gives up space lizard wrestling. If not, I predict broken bones, scratches, and bite wounds, with a chance of passing beyond this mortal coil. Pushing up daises. Buying the farm. Developing rapid onset terminal horizontalism even."

Caitlin placed her hand on Alex's shoulder in a motherly fashion and gave him a gentle squeeze as she looked back at the Durringhash behind the force field. "Hopefully it won't be much longer," she said.

The engineers and security team had returned to the Sherman Potter only moments ago. Armed with the now reversed translator, some of them made their way to Sick Bay while others went to assist with the two now subdued creatures in Waste Reclamation.

The scene in Sick Bay was on the verge of chaos. All over, doctors were attempting to tranquilize the Durrighash and it was just not working.

P’ril cursed. “This is going to be tricky,” she said. “I have an idea. Mr. Devlin, can you distract this smaller one long enough that I can set the translator next to it?”

"Umm....sure," Devlin said, rather dubiously. He looked around to make sure that no one would be in harm's way but him and glanced back at P'ril. "Ready?" he asked. Not waiting for a response, he picked up a small box containing tubes of dermaplast and lobbed it at the creature then ran in front of it, waving his arms and yelling. The box hit the Durrighash on the nose, getting its attention, and it lunged for Devlin as he dashed in front of the creature. Luckily, Devlin's reflexes were quick and he placed himself into a slide that took him under the Durrighash and he leaped to his feet behind the reptilian.

Darting forward, P'ril placed the translator on the biobed, then backed into her previous position. Now to get the Durrighash to turn around again....

"Cipher!" called Pierce, spotting the Binar among the group of newcomers. "Make sure that translation matrix syncs to the ship's computer as quickly as possible!" But that was all the time he had for conversation because the Durrighash he was attempting to subdue was waking quickly.

"The syncing is already in progress," Cipher said with the bored monotone of someone who was just ordered to do something that was nearly finished. The computer sounded off a tone with a melodious ding. "It is finished."

Tiny beeps rang all across Sick Bay as the translators of everyone wearing one received the new information. Suddenly, the clicks and squeals and grunts were replaced with a cacophony of new voices.

"Why do they tie our tails?"

"This one is damaged."

"Do not kill them!"

"Fiends! They have severed our tongues!"

P'ril didn't know what else to do, so she called to the Durrighash now following Devlin's moves. "Hey!" she shouted, then kicked the biobed to create some noise. Hopefully it would look her way.

"What tongue do you hiss, scaleless one, that your unsibilant words are known in my ear holes?"

Without a word- for talk would have done no good to one who could not understand- P'ril looked pointedly at the translator laying on the bed, then back to the Durrighash. She slid her second translator out of her other ear and held it up. She looked again at the other translator, then turned her head and placed the second one in her ear. She then nodded to the translator on the biobed, then to the Durrighash.

The Durrighash hesitantly put the earpiece into the proper hole against its head and squealed. "You ssspeak my language! How? You lack the forked tongue! What marvelous technology you have!"

For the first time on her life, P’ril was 100% unabashedly grateful that she was Vulcan. Not that she had been ashamed of it before. It had simply been a neutral fact. But now, it meant that she was able to keep herself from laughing in pure joy. “Please tell your comrades to stop fighting,” she said in an even tone. “We mean you no harm.”

Devlin moved slowly behind the Durrighash, so as not to startle it. He glanced at P'ril to make sure his movements weren't distracting the creature.

"You will not harm us if we stop fighting?" the Durrighash asked. "We will never surrender!"

“We will not,” P’ril promised. “Captain! We must stop trying to subdue them!”

Pierce glanced up from doing just that and shot her a look that suggested what he thought about her sanity. “What?!” he said.

“We must,” she repeated. “It is the only way.”

After several seconds’ hesitation, Pierce stepped back from the Durrighash he had been holding down on the biobed. “I sure hope you’re right,” he muttered almost to himself. “Everyone! Stand down!” he ordered.

The Durrighash withdrew in proportion to the Starfleet officers' withdrawal. "We accept your surrender," said the one who had spoken previously to P'ril. "I am Zkriyzs and you are transslithering on my vessel."

“Well, actually, funny story,” started Pierce. “Actually, you’re on our ship. We brought you here because you were injured and we could find your sick bay. Um… hospital,” he added, concerned that the term sick bay was a little too cultural for the translators. “You are absolutely not prisoners and are free to return to your ship any time. We were just saving your lives.”

“Another hour and you all would have been dead,” agreed P’ril. “Your ship lost life support. You would have frozen to death.”

Holding his hands up to show surrender, Devlin moved around the Durringhash and took up position next to P'ril. He kept his hands visible to the creature but was ready to grab his sidearm in a heartbeat if needed.

It took a moment for the litany of new information to process within the dinosaur's brain. Raptor-like eyes turned cat-like as the pupils narrowed into diamond slits. "So... you have captured us..." The Durrighash bowed its double-jointed knees. "We are your slaves. Honor our peaceful surrender and we will not devour you in your sssleep."

"You misunderstand," replied Pierce. "We do not take slaves. We brought you here only to heal your injuries. And, if you would like assistance, we can help repair your ship."

"Then you mean to eat us?!" The Durrighash recoiled in horror. "In that case, I resssscind our surrender!"

“Definitely not,” replied Pierce, shocked.

“We mean to befriend you,” offered P’ril. “That is why we healed you- to show you kindness and friendship.”

“Yes!” agreed Pierce. “What she said. We wish only for friendship.”

"Friend-ship," the Durrighash said curiously. "So you wish to merge our crews together into one vessel? I do not think our engineering could accomplish such a feat."

"No," said Pierce with a slight grin. "Friendship means that we help each other when we can. And if we meet by chance, we say hello and tell one another what we've been doing while we were apart. It means we trust each other fully."

The Durrighash cocked its head from side to side in what may have been his species' equivalent of a nodding gesture. "Yes, yes, yaaasss! We shall forge a mighty friendship that will trek through the stars!"

"That we will, my friend," agreed Pierce with a friendly grin, careful to keep his lips closed lest the reptile think he was baring his teeth.

The other Durrighash had only understood one side of the conversation and were still wary of the Starfleet Personnel. Some continued to hiss menacingly, unsure of what was going on.

"Don't suppose you can tell the others," added Pierce, nodding towards the uneasy reptiles nearby.

"Very well..."

Turning to his compatriots, the Durrighash began hissing and growling. Most of the others cocked their heads back and forth, except for one who lunged forward and put their teeth around his neck.

"They accept all terms," said the Durrighash with strained enunciation.

"We usually shake hands," said Pierce, eyeing the second Durrighash, "but I think we've got a Klingon in security if you insist on a bite."

"What's a Klingon?" asked the Durrighash. "This was unrelated to present circumstances. She just intends for us to ... mate later."

“Congratulations,” replied Pierce, barely able to keep from laughing. “But for now, I believe it may be helpful if we can get you all some translators- the little device in your ear- and then we can help get your ship back in order.”

Stepping forward, P’ril produced a number of translators the engineers had managed to adjust for the Durrighash and laid them out on the biobed. Sharing technology wasn’t usually allowed, but if they were going to get the reptiles on their way again, it was necessary.

They hissed at one another for a bit, but finally the Durrighash all placed the translation devices into their ear holes.

“If you will follow me,” said P’ril, “we will take you back to your ship. I am afraid we set off an ‘unbelong’ alert and were forced to reboot the computers. I believe we did it correctly, but translations were difficult…”

Her voice trailed off as she led the lizards into the corridor.

Pierce breathed a sigh of relief as he watched them go. “I suppose that could have been a lot worse,” he said to nobody in particular. “All right. Let’s make sure our wounded are on the mend and then get some rest.” He took a single step, then stopped and tapped his combadge. “All hands, this is the captain,” he said. “End lockdown. And if you see a Vulcan leading giant lizards through the corridors, ignore them. Hunnicutt out.”

The outrage.

The indignity.

The perfidiousness.

Cipher was so livid that he could barely contain himself, which of course meant that it barely showed. His usual flat mouth was curled into a frown beneath eyes that blazed with the wrath that only an aggrieved individual could summon.

He didn't have to ask the ship's computer where the captain was. He maintained a wireless link to the mainframe via a special quantum interface that he used to piggyback on Starfleet subspace comms to surf the infonet.

And that was the problem. It was his interface. No one else's. The captain would see reason. He was odd but that was normal for his species. Surely he would take Cipher's side in this matter.

Walking into the ready room unbidden, Cipher began speaking.

"Captain Hunnicutt, I must report a problem with the computer network that requires command level authorization to remedy."

Pierce glanced up from the report he was reading- or trying to read, anyway. Reports were boring and the fact that he had to read them all was one of the down sides to being captain. “If this is about the hot plates in the officer’s lounge, pretend you didn’t see them,” he joked.

"No, this is a personal matter that may or may not affect cybersecurity," Cipher said plainly. "When I came aboard the ship, I installed a quantum interface to the main computer that would allow my parietal subprocessor to remotely access the computer as needed. Now it appears my interface has been subverted through unauthorized access and is currently infested with malware from this."

Presenting a PADD, Cipher pressed the button to play a video file. What commenced then was a grisly scene of several naked Klingons and Nausicaans who were eating gagh from one another's bodily crevices in a manner that could only be described as demented. Cipher tossed the PADD onto the desk where it continued to play the obscene video right beneath Pierce's nose.

"As you can see, this is most unacceptable." The taciturn expression on Cipher's face belied the wrath of his voice. His somber eyes were alight with fiery rage. "I require command authorization to initiate root level scans in order to identify the perpetrator and bring them to justice."

Pierce had all he could do not to laugh out loud. He bit his lips and wrinkled his brow, forcing his grin into a frown. "I seriously doubt this is malware," he said once he had thoroughly schooled his features. "It's probably a prank. Someone discovered your uplink and decided it would be funny to put this into it." He tapped the PADD, halting the video, but it was paused at a very precarious part, so he quickly turned the screen off. "It is, however, inappropriate," he continued. "Quite apart from hiring actors to impersonate Nausicans and Klingons- because I refuse to believe real ones would participate in... weird activities- it's against very basic moral code to force someone to watch it."

"No, you misunderstand, Captain..." Cipher took a deep breath and prepared his respectfully condescending voice. "The video isn't malware. The accompanying code embedded in the video is malware. Unsavory people create content such as this in order to slip malware into otherwise secure systems. Someone is a major pervert and their fetish has compromised the entire computer system because they used my personal interface to circumvent normal firewalls." Pausing a moment to let the silly captain catch up, Cipher concluded, "I can run a deep-level diagnostic that will require shutting down all major systems one at a time, but I had assumed you would be more than amenable to authorizing a command-restricted root scan instead..."

Pierce nodded slowly, mind working a mile a minute. "On one condition," he said. "When you find them, do not confront them. Instead, bring me their name. And then we're going to prank them back."

"Done."

Of course Pierce would want the name. Cipher fully expected the captain to formally reprimand the perpetrator.

"Initiating root scan now," Cipher said with a twitch of his head.

The subprocessor that had replaced the parietal lobe of his brain dialed out to the ship computer via the quantum interface several decks away. His access was blocked by a challenge protocol which be rerouted to the local processor within the ready room.

"Authorization required to initiate root scan," the computer said.

"Hunnicutt, Alpha-5-4-0-2," replied Pierce.

Cipher blinked incredulously at the captain. "That... that is your command authorization code? Well..." The Bynar made a mirthless chuckle and shook his head in disbelief.

"Root scan complete. The unauthorized access to my quantum interface has been via the navigation subsystems... curious..." His eyes began fluttering as he processed the data. "Somehow the autohelm functions which collate short-range sensor readings into a course that diverts the ship around stellar debris without being manually guided has been repurposed into a backdoor for my interface."

Looking at the captain, Cipher said, "Whoever did this is a master programmer of unparalleled skill. And here is their face." He flicked a finger at Pierce's desktop computer display as he sent the personnel file directly to it with his processor.

The face that appeared was that of Ensign Sekhem chim Peth, Chief Flight Control Officer.

"Isn't that the Tellarite who vomited all over the bridge when we first arrived in Messier 4?" Cipher asked, brow raised. "I take it back. She must have an accomplice. Or perhaps her ident-credentials were spoofed."

“With what we just saw, I would have thought she’d have had a stronger stomach,” muttered Pierce. “Maybe she’s smarter than we give her credit for? It’s not easy to hack credentials. I think the only two people on the ship who could do it are in this room. And I don’t trust one of them. Humans are tricksy characters, after all. You can expect us to use that knowledge usefully.”

Cipher shrugged. "Whatever the case, she needs to be punished. Shall I notify Security or do you wish to have the honors?"

"I have a better idea," said Pierce with a wicked grin. "Here's the plan...."

---

Strolling into her quarters, Sekhem felt her stomach rumble. It had been a few hours since she last ate, so she was starving. Well, she did have some catchup work to do, but first thing's first.

"Rigelian sausage," she told the replicator. "Double linked, heavy on the hot sauce, side of pickled daikons, side of steamed clams, and clagclod soup and visceral meringue pie a la mode."

One after another, the various dishes and bowls appeared in the replicator. Sek pulled them free and set them onto a large platter that she then carried to her table. Sitting down, she pulled a napkin out of her pocket and wrapped it around her neck. The smell of the meal was...

Well, no, it wasn't tantalizing. Not at all. In fact, as Sek took a bigger whiff, she found the smell of it rather revolting. She took a closer look at her full spread of food, and the texture looked right. The sausage. The soup. All of it was the right size, shape, color, and everything. It just smelled like vole shit.

Taking a nibble off one of the sausages, Sek nearly gagged as she spat it back onto the plate. "This tastes like vole shit!!!" She tapped her combadge and said, "Peth to Ops. I need a technician down here right fuggin' now so he can tell me why my fuggin' replicator is feeding me vole shit!"

"I'll be right up!" answered Lieutenant O'Reilly. "Give me... two minutes. And fourty-five seconds."

"Make it snappy!" Sek barked

Once admitted to Peth's quarters, O'Reilly approached the replicator. "So what seems to be the problem?" he asked.

Sekhem flung the shit platter at the technician. "I done told you the problem!" she shouted. "So here's a face full. Now fix it! I don't want any more shit coming out of my replicator!"

The reason O'Reilly was chosen for this particular task was because he had almost no sense of smell. Yes, he smelled what she described, but only just barely. "Hm," he said blandly, looking at the mess on the floor around him. "Smells okay to me." He turned to the replicator and called up the settings. He scrolled through the code for a bit and then said, "hm, I think I see the problem. Have you been downloading porn through a wireless interface?"

"What?!" Sek put her webbed hand against her chest and gasped in offense. "Excuse me, sir, but I am a LADY! How dare you?!"

"Come on!" replied O'Reilly. "Everybody watches porn from time to time. Ladies or no. Even the stuffiest nobility from the stuffiest planet. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Unless, of course, you downloaded it while on duty. That might get you in trouble."

"Keep talkin', Fats! I'll report you to your chief!" Sek threatened. "There is no porn in here, so fix my fuggin' replicator already!"

"It's just that, you know, when you watch shit, everything turns to shit," started O'Reilly nervously. "It-"

He was interrupted by the door chime.

"Who in the tittyfucking hell is that?" Sek shouted. "Go away, whoever you are!"

But the door opened of its own accord, obeying a command prompt from the Bynar who had overridden the controls.

"It's okay, O'Reilly, we'll take it from here," said Pierce as he entered with Cipher. "Miss Peth," he greeted somberly.

"Captain Pierce..." Sekhem said, taken aback at the unexpected visit. "Who's the purple twink?"

"I am designated Cipher," said the Bynar, "and you have aggressed me."

Sekhem pulled at her braids and screamed through gritted teeth. "Ugh! All I want is to stuff my face in peace! Captain, can you please make this dumbass fix my replicator?"

"I'm afraid there's only one person on this ship who can fix it," Pierce said regrettably. "But we need to have a chat first. Sit down." He nodded to one of the chairs by the little table.

Without a word, Cipher stood behind Pierce. He and Sek were near the same height, and he wanted to look down on her.

"We know you've been using Cipher's uplink to download porn while on duty," continued Pierce. "I don't know why- porn isn't illegal. You can download it into your quarters any time you like. I also don't know how. But, that's beside the point. I'll give you 24 hours to get rid of any contraband you may have that helps you get into mister Cipher's uplink. At that point, I will authorize a search of your quarters. Make sure they don't find anything."

"I don't know what you're talking about and you can't prove nothin'," Sekhem quipped with only mild indignation. "So until you get some proof, you and your purple peepee eater can shut up and get the fuck out of my quarters."

"I'm going to ignore the insubordination," Pierce advised. "But just this once. As I said, you have 24 hours to get rid of it. We have enough proof to search your quarters now, but I'm giving you a chance to keep a clean slate. Or would you rather we search now?" he added in a bored tone, raising his eyebrows at her.

Sek stood up to her full height, which was still not saying much. "YOU WON'T FIND NOTHIN'!"

"Are you sure about that?" asked Pierce, completely not intimidated in the least.

"You can't prove--"

Before Sekhem could complete her additional outburst, Cipher pulled a device out from behind a light fixture he'd detached from the wall. "Found it," he said with droll condescension. "Hiding it behind the light fixture might have fooled a tricorder's general scans, but anyone who has ever worked on a starship infrastructure would know how to separate power emissions from transceiver signals."

The Tellarite's face paled. "That isn't mine," she said through a grimace.

Pierce sighed. "Great," he said. "Now we have to have you arrested."

"Shit! Not again!" Sek squealed.

"Captain Hunnicutt, if I may..." Cipher leaned forward and whispered into Pierce's ear.

Pierce nodded slowly, expression remaining stern. "Not bad, not bad at all," he muttered. "Yes, I think... Miss Peth, I have a proposition for you."

"Captain, no!" Sek exclaimed. "Not since the Academy, so you just keep that snake in its cage!"

"Nothing like that," he assured her offhandedly. "No. I might be willing to defer the charge in exchange for information on your supplier."

"But snitches get stitches," Sek whined. "Okay, fine. There was this Orion on Canopus Station who hooked me up nice. Said that if I could find an unsecure comms relay then I could run my own private subspace channel. When I saw the eggplant's quantum interface, well, I figured that would be even better since it ain't even a stock part of the ship, is it?"

Cipher narrowed his eyes at the Tellarite. "No, but it's still approved. Unlike this." He held up the damning device. "I'll be holding onto this for safekeeping until we return from our cruise, at which point I'll have hacked it to pieces inside and out and have a full report for the cybersecurity division of Canopus Security." Leaning over her, the Bynar said, "From now on, stay out of my stuff!"

"Jeez, you already got my shit! What more do you want?" Sek snorted.

"For you to promise to stay out of the relay," answered Pierce. "And download porn to your own quarters on your own time."

"Is that an official order?" Sek asked. "Are you going to sign off on it and put it in my file with your name on it?"

"If you'd like, but I didn't think recreational activities needed orders," answered Pierce. "Just keep it off duty."

Sekhem glared at the man. "Yeah. I think I do. I want you to put your fuggin name on your stupid order not to download porn. Make sure it gets all the way back to Earth where everyone gets to know how you run a tight, prude ship."

"Those weren't my orders," replied Pierce. "My orders were to only download porn on your own time and in your own quarters."

"But that's exactly what I did!" Sek shrieked. "How many times I gotta tell you?"

"Except you hijacked my interface to do it," Cipher said, "and it entered into my dreams while asleep. I...I can never unsee some of it."

"Yes, stay off the uplink," added Pierce. "I don't know why you felt the need to be sneaky about it. Porn is legal. Just download it the normal way."

Sek's eyes darted back and forth between the captain and the Bynar. Suddenly she looked very suspicious. "Fine. I will download porn like a normal person from now on," she said almost robotically.

"Don't worry," Cipher said. "Whatever you were really doing when you exposed my quantum interface to your degenerate filth will be uncovered during my forensic diagnostics."

"You won't find anything!" Sekhem blurted like before.

Cipher had heard enough. "Save it for JAG," he said, turning around and heading for the door with the device in hand.

"Good luck, Miss Peth," said Pierce, slowly following after Cipher. "You're going to need it; he's very determined."

Sekhem watched the captain follow the nosy Bynar out of her quarters, at which point she pounded the table. "FUCK!"

Up until about fifteen minutes ago, Jayla's plans for the evening were to get into her snuggliest pajamas and curl up with a good book. Alex was on the late shift tonight, so it was just her, Lucas, and Silver. And since the spidermunk and horned fox were the early to bed sort, that left just Jayla.

Luckily, it appeared that someone had some holodeck time and was keen to share it. A CPO Stanwood Whaley had sent an open invitation to a pool tournament on the holodeck tonight. So, instead of changing into her snuggliest pajamas, Jayla was changing into a pair of ultra stretchy, yet form-hugging red pants and a white sleeveless top with black flowers printed on it. Comfortable and mildly sexy.

It had been a few years since Jayla had played, but she had been middlingly good at it. And anyway, the point was to have fun, not to win. Not that she wasn't going to try very hard to win, but she had no delusions about her odds.

Unless of course, everyone was really terrible at it.

She pulled on a pair of black ballet flats, gave Silver a scritch behind the ears, checked that Lucas was safely on the other side of the room, and headed out the door.

Upon entering the holodeck, she glanced around for anybody familiar. She recognized a couple of nurses and waved at them, but did not head over. No, there were far too many new people here and she needed to meet them. In fact, there was a Tellarite woman that she was fairly certain she hadn't met yet. At least, she was fairly certain she hadn't met her. And as she'd only met a handfull of Tellarites in her life, she supposed she would remember. As the other woman was near the rack of pool cues, she had a reason to head over. "Hi," she said with her typical grin as she approached. "I'm Jayla."

"Yes, darling, I would like a refill!"

Sekhem handed her empty cocktail glass to Jayla and climbed back onto the little round café table to resume her dance. All five feet of her fell into an easy rhythm as her upraised hands swayed in rhythm to her body. The mid-thigh red romper she wore showed off her more than shapely legs and wideset hips.

"Woooo!" she hollered to the music.

With an amused grin, Jayla asked the computer to refill the drink. It wasn't even alcoholic, but something told her that was a good thing; this girl should probably NEVER drink real alcohol. "Here you go," she said, trying to hold back her laughter.

Rather than drink it, Sekhem tossed it onto her lady humps and started shaking her chest. "WOOOOO!" she screamed all the louder. "Now it's a party!"

Glancing around, Jayla realized that just about everybody was ignoring her. The only person- aside from herself- that wasn't was a Bolian with a distasteful look on his face. "Are you playing?" he asked the dancing girl with a decidedly weary tone to his voice. "Or would you prefer to dance on the tables all night?"

"I would if I knew how," Sek shot back. "You wanna teach me?"

With a long-suffering sigh and a roll of his eyes, the Bolian slowly turned and walked away.

“Guess that’s a no,” said Jayla. “I’ll teach you, though!” She was, it seemed, too nice for her own good. Still, she needed to make new friends. Maybe this Tellarite was more fun if she was occupied with an activity. Maybe they’d get along really well.

Then again, maybe Jayla would want to stab herself in the eye before the night was out.

"Now that's the tits!" Jumping down from the table, Sek then ran for the pool cues lined up on the wall. She grabbed one at random and started swinging it around like a staff. "Where are those balls? I'm gonna whack me some!"

"No, that's not- no, stop!" exclaimed Jayla, catching the cue mid-swing. "You're going to put an eye out. Now come over here and I'll show you," she added, motioning towards the nearest table.

"Damn, girl, chill out! I'm just having some fun!" Sek protested. "Now you gonna show me how to play or not?"

"Absolutely," agreed Jayla, already regretting the decision. "This table is already set up. Now, the trick is to prod that white ball with the cue and hit the other balls into the holes. You see how some have stripes and some are solid? That's how you know which balls are yours. You can call which one you want, but most people just take whichever happens to go into the hole first. Follow me so far?"

"Yes, grab the pole and pop the balls," Sek said mischievously. "I know this game well, so let's get goooing!!!"

"Then... then why did you ask for help?" asked Jayla, completely flummoxed.

"I meant the other game of stick and balls," Sek said as she took the opening shot. "Sounds like the skills are transferable."

The break sounded off with a hard clack, and the balls were away, rebounding off all sides of the table. None of them found their way to a pocket, though. "Maybe they don't..."

Jayla rolled her eyes. "Not much for subtlety, huh?" she said, examining the table. She chose the 13 ball near the side pocket. "Lewd jokes work better when you're already in a relationship," she added, stretching across the table to hit the cue ball into the orange striped ball, which fell satisfyingly into the pocket. There were no direct lines from there, so she attempted to ricochet the cue ball off the side and into the 10, but succeeded only in moving the ten into the six. She stood back to let Sek take her turn.

"Are you hitting on me, Spots?" Rushing up to the table, Sek made a hasty shot that missed the red ball and sent the white one off the table. "Hm. That was a bad shot..."

"Ya think?" grinned Jayla, retrieving the ball and returning to the table with it. "And no, I'm actually in a relationship. And neither of us is into threesomes. Which is really weird, considering I'm a joined Trill. We're usually up for all kinds of kink." She picked her spot and placed the ball the width of the butt of the cue stick away from the wall of the table and took her shot, successfully sinking the 11 ball. She missed the 10 again, nearly sinking it in the corner pocket, but it stopped just short. "Oh, come on!" she complained at it.

Sek clapped. "Good job, but now I'll get to finish it. Take this!" While she did successfully sink the 10 ball, the cue ball followed it straight into the pocket. "Um... that still counts, right?"

"Afraid not," said Jayla, an honestly regretful, yet amused look on her face. She went to retrieve the cue ball. "Although at least this time I'm limited where I can put it. And all by balls are at the other end of the table, so...." She shrugged as she placed the ball in the best place she could. Sure enough, she knocked the solid yellow 1 ball into the side pocket. "Oh, well. Makes your job all that much easier."

"So...is it my go?" Sek asked. "'Cause I'm gonna knock that one right into the fuggin' hole!"

"Yes, it's your turn," answered Jayla long-sufferingly.

"Hot damn!" Sekhem made another table scratch. "... it to hell!" The cue ball made a loud clack as it hit the floor. "Do-over! I get a do-over!"

"That's not the way it works," replied Jayla, retrieving the ball and choosing a place on the table. She was able to sink two more balls before missing her last striped ball. "You've got some catching up to do," she said.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" Sek pointed at the far corner of the pool hall and had her eyes wide with horror. But with her off hand, she swiped two balls and deftly pocketed them. "Ugly ass decor, that's what!" she said. "Now, let me see..." She circled the table and looked for another shot as if she had not just cheated.

Jayla had, of course, not fallen for it and merely gave Sek a withering look. "That's not how it works," she said, exasperated.

"How what works?" Sek asked innocently.

"Fine, whatever," said Jayla. She only had two more balls- the nine plus the 8 ball- to sink. And it's not like this was an actual match. She'd just have to warn whoever played Sek to keep an eye on her. "Just take your shot."

Another hard CLACK resounded from the table as Sek actually made contact with the cue ball rather than sending it off the table. The orange 5 banked four separate times before it finally found its way in the side pocket.

"HOLY SHIT I GOT ONE!" exclaimed the Tellarite with eyes wide. She threw her hands in the air and let out a hoot.

Because Jayla was a naturally cheerful and encouraging person, she couldn't help but grin. "Woohoo!" she exclaimed cheerfully. "Don't stop now! Try another one!"

Sek hopped up on the table and sprawled out over nearly half of it in order to get the cue tip right up next to the ball. "EAT IT, STUPID BALL!" Her enthusiasm led to another table scratch as the cue ball followed the intended one into the corner pocket.

Jayla only sighed and went to retrieve the cue ball. "Bad luck," she said, silently hoping that she could sink the last striped ball and the 8 ball to end this game quickly. She chose her spot and placed the cue on the table. The nine was near the side pocket. If she could graze it just right, she could push it in the right direction. She carefully aimed and then hit the cue right into the nine. The nine rolled slowly towards the side pocket and paused on the edge before falling into the pocket. "Woohoo!" she exclaimed happily. Then she examined the table and found the eight at the far end hiding neatly behind another ball. Scratching her chin, she decided to bank the cue off the side and attempt to get the eight into the corner pocket. "Eight ball, corner pocket," she said, nodding to the pocket in question. Then, taking careful aim, she hit the cue in the right direction.

As the ball sank, a chime sounded.

"What's that mean?" Sek asked. "Is the game over? But I still got balls left! What am I supposed to do with them now?!"

"Practice by hitting them in," answered Jayla. "I think the chime was the beginning of the tournament, though. Yeah, looks like everybody is gathering. You gonna join?"

Sekhem blew her tongue out at Jayla. "Fuck no! I'm here to party!" At that, she climbed back up on the table and started shaking her voluptuous porcine curves as before.

Jayla took a huge breath and glanced around to see the Bolian again gazing at Sek in mild disgust. "I took my turn," she said. "She's your problem now." And with that, she went to join the rest of the group getting ready for the tournament.

"WOOOOO!!!" Someone had been foolish enough to put more drinks in Sekhem's hands. If anyone had asked her the next morning about the tournament, she would have asked, "What tournament?"

During her time at the academy, P'ril had gotten the somewhat insane idea to qualify as an AEMT as well as majoring in Engineering. She had figured it would come in handy if an engineer was injured. The quicker they got medical care, the better, after all. And she had been right; it had saved at least two lives of which she knew for sure. And because of this, she had managed to be in some of the same classes as Theo Hunnicutt. Had she been paying less attention to her surroundings, she likely wouldn't have remembered him, but it was the eyes. She had, of course, noticed those pale green- almost grey in the right lighting- eyes the first time she saw him. They were, as she had noted to a classmate later, quite aesthetically pleasing.

So Vulcan of her.

But, this was important because now, when she was overseeing some upgrades to Sick Bay and had been instructed to coordinate with Dr. T. Hunnicutt, she knew exactly who to look for. Not that most people didn't know the Captain's son, but it helped that she was familiar with his face. Well, okay, she was familiar with his eyes.

Close enough.

Walking into main Sick Bay, she glanced around a bit before asking a nurse where to find him. She was directed to the third level, where she found him along with several other nurses and doctors, all busily doing whatever it was nurses and doctors did when there were no patients. "Dr. Hunnicutt," she said as she approached. "Lieutenant P'ril. We are to go over the upgrades to Sick Bay."

Theo put down his poker hand, laid the cards face-down on the makeshift table, stood up and turned to offer his hand to the newcomer. "Theo. Call me Theo," he insisted quietly, and flashed a shy smile at the little blond bombshell. "Sure thing," he agreed. "Right now?"

He remembered her well enough, Bronwyn P'ril. Whether she knew it or not she'd been a great comfort to him at times during their mutual studies at the Academy, and he still hummed the tune to some of those complex melodies she'd written when anxiety raised its brutish and ill-timed head during those quieter moments on board the Potter. A ship, out here in all this vast expanse, with who knew what waiting to destroy them... yeah... Theo pushed down that recurring circular thought.

"Right now," he said again, with far more certainty. "I fold," he told the gathering, and gave P'ril his full attention. "Where do you want to start?"

“Surgery monitors,” replied P’ril decisively. “A few of them still do not have holo-monitors. I am not sure which ones, however.”

"Sounds great," said Theo, a little less so. "C'mon then, let's make a start. I'm sure," he added as he moved to check his PADD. "There's a ship-wide list somewhere, but we can start with the ones I know about." He led the way and pointed them out, then checking the labels, added. "Need the serial numbers?"

She nodded, making notes on her own PADD. “In case they decide to walk away,” she added with the merest hint of a wink.

"Heh," Theo smiled. "I guess I'm just used to having to record the minute detail of everything. Maybe the curse of a doctor huh?"

"Engineers, as well," agreed P'ril, scanning the serial number codes into her PADD. "Failure to do so can result in catastrophic consequences for both careers."

An overt shiver briefly rattled through the man's form as the young woman uttered those first two 'c' words and Theo's gaze dropped to the floor which suddenly seemed a little uneasily unsteady. His brain had just conjured up some vivid imagery of just what could go wrong around here. "Sorry," he mumbled as he tried to grab a grip on his phobia. "Be alright in a sec..."

Being human meant that P'ril was able to recognize certain body language. Being Vulcan meant that she was also extremely observant. Put the two together and P'ril recognized the signs of anxiety right away. Though she couldn't have guessed what exactly had brought on the anxiety, she still knew what was happening. "Shall we take a break?" she suggested, keeping a passive eye on his facial expression.

"I'm fine," Theo lied, gaze still downward as he tried to bring that fear back in check. Echoes of old explosions and those nightmarish screams threatened at the edges of his consciousness, and he slipped back into the breathing techniques he'd been taught as a teen. "Just... uh... probably ate too much earlier..." Yeah. That sounded lame even to his own ears.

Devlyn Selek's voice suddenly sounded in her voice, his animated nature making the statement louder and more obnoxious than P'ril could ever hope to do. And so, when she repeated the words she heard in her brother's voice, they were far less interesting than if he had been here to say them himself. "You are a terrible liar, Theo," she said evenly. "Come with me. This can wait for a few minutes." And without waiting for him to reply or argue, she directed him out of Sick Bay and towards the crew quarters.

Crap... thought Theo, as he allowed himself to be shepherded out of the vicinity of the others. The corridors were a slow motion blur as P'ril controlled their immediate destiny and he didn't have the energy right now to change that. Intrusive thoughts filled his head and fought for his full attention. "Where are we going?" He mumbled in a moment of coherence, but his visual focus was still downward. Was the ship lurching? Or was that just overactive imagination?

“To relax,” she answered as they arrived at her quarters. The doors parted automatically- having sensed her bio sign- revealing the same sparse quarters everyone had. There was one small addition, however; a small digital piano that could be easily and quickly disassembled and put into a wheeled carrying case sat in one corner of the room, crammed between a small table and the adjacent wall. “Sit,” she instructed, nodding towards the chair as she pressed the power button on the piano and sat on the accompanying stool.

Relax? Was she joking? Theo thought, the words not escaping his lips as he fought the demons in his own head. He saw nothing but floor as P'ril instructed him to take a seat, then noticed the chair and aimed himself at it. The whole room seemed to spin in at least three opposing directions and Theo wondered if he'd throw up. He grabbed the piece of furniture as if his life depended on it and sat on it the wrong way around, his whole body curled forward about the back of the chair, head sheltered beneath his own crossed arms.

Without preamble, P’ril began playing the most relaxing piece she could think of- Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No.1. Soon, even she was more relaxed. Playing did that to her- took to her own little universe where only she and the music existed. It was both comforting and relaxing.

Theo's headspace slowly calmed, little by little those nagging alarm bells and shouts to panic and flee quietening down to that familiar dull roar. He hadn't moved yet, still curled in a seated ball with the chair as his protection, but his shoulders showed less tension and his breathing returned to normal. His eyes remained shut for the moment and his mind processed the music, time shifting backwards to shared time at the Academy.

"Thank you," he mumbled, embarrassed to all kinds of hell.

He needn't have been, of course. Both humans and Vulcans took mental health very seriously. "My pleasure," replied P'ril honestly. She enjoyed playing and didn't mind taking a few minutes out of her day to do it. Once the first piece came to an end, she started Sir Paul McCartney's A Leaf, first movement. It was one of her favorite pieces from twentieth-century Earth. "We all have our moments," she added softly.

P'ril kept playing and Theo was eternally grateful for that musical continuation. He didn't - couldn't - talk right now. He hated that the tiny reference had triggered him and he needed time. Time to regroup mentally, time to not take any drugs or say something stupid, time to not curl up in a ball on his bunk and cry. Music... overrode all those panic signals and soaked into his very being. While it couldn't undo the events from his past or bring his mother back, P'ril's special power was a peaceful journey, a rescue mission of the mind.

Finally, Theo relaxed enough to open his eyes and muster up a faded half-smile.

After Chopin's Nocturne in E flat major and Debussy's First Arabesque, P'ril finally turned to see how Theo was doing. "Better?" she asked simply.

A soft smile took up residence on the young man's face, and Theo's gaze lingered on P'ril's own with a definite theme of warm gratitude. "Better," he said. "I don't know how to properly thank you. But thank you." He stood up, walked across that short distance between them and offered up his arms. "Hug?"

Though Vulcans were not prone to physical contact, P'ril was also human. Her mother's voice sounded in her head, telling her that she was just as much human as she was Vulcan and she should explore both sides of her personality. So, she stood and allowed Theo to hug her. "I am certain I can think of something," she said, half teasing. Teasing was a human thing, right?

Theo wasn't sure how that would go, hence requesting permission first, but he made the most of that consent when it was given and enveloped his old Academy friend with a quietly enthusiastic fraternally close hug. He didn't linger too long, but allowed himself just enough time to ensure P'ril knew she'd been thanked.

"Well," he said as he stepped back. "When you think of something, tell me. I can't even vocalise how much your music helped," he admitted, baring his soul a little more than he usually would. "You always helped settle my anxiety back on Earth." Theo's eyes looked deep into P'ril's. "I just... I don't have the words..." She knew, already, at least enough of the detail of his mother's passing to understand why.

“I understand,” she replied, giving him one of her almost smiles. “Are you ready to return to your duties?”

That hit like a punch to the gut, and Theo's expression reflected his surprise. "I guess." A pause. "Yeah. I think so." Then the guilty realisation crashed into his brain - he was slowing P'ril's work down right now. "Sorry," Theo said, lowering his gaze. "Yes, I can work, let's get back to it." What had he been thinking?!

His reaction was not lost on P'ril. "There is no hurry," she replied. "If you need more time, we can certainly take it."

In the presence of someone he considered a friend, even if it had been a while since they'd spent any personal time together, Theo opted for honesty. "I'm able to return to my duties," he clarified. "I just realised I'd been enjoying this time we were spending." There was apology wrapped about those words - duty was more important - and Theo looked mildly guilty about his admission.

P'ril afforded him with half a smile for half a moment. "I have enjoyed it as well," she replied. "Do not dwell on guilt; mental health is far more important than any tasks we have to complete today."

That return smile was a little coy, absolutely genuine and guilt-free. "You're right," Theo confirmed with the same resolute attitude that had brought him all the way out here despite his fears. "Let's get this job done."

It had been years since Pierce had had the opportunity to cook. He had tried to make it happen today, but this ship was just too short on living space to have anything even remotely resembling a kitchen on it. So, he'd done the next best thing.

He'd programmed the replicator to exact specifications for his son's favorite meal.

At least, he hoped it was still Theo's favorite. These were the sorts of things they really didn't talk about anymore. Why did fathers and sons stop talking about their favorite foods and their favorite colors after the son hit his twelfth birthday? Did mothers and daughters talk about them? For that matter, did fathers and daughters? Having had only one child, Pierce was left with a lot of questions about other parental relationships.

Well, it didn't really matter. Someday, when he met a mother and daughter, he'd have to ask them. For now, he would just have to resolve to talk to his son about his favorite color more often.

The smell of the spicy food hit Theo's nose as he approached his father's quarters, making him close his eyes in a moment of deeper, sensory recall. Old times. That aroma took him right back to old times, he'd been what - 4 or 5? - and his mother had made jerk chicken and rice, extra spicy just the way she liked it, then left it out on the counter while she answered some shipboard call to assist. Little Theo had been up far too late, curious and not at all sleepy, and had reached up to try it.

It had been his favourite ever since. Simple, hot and utterly delicious, though it came with all the memories these days, that happiness and that unfair loss.

To find both here, on this ship, meant only one thing to the younger Hunnicutt. His father was trying. In a good way.

"Hey Dad," Theo said, as he stepped into the room. He mustered up a genuine smile and pushed down the tougher emotions. "That smells amazing!" He admitted with an easy honesty.

Inwardly, Pierce breathed a sigh of relief. Outwardly, he just grinned. “The replicator isn’t as good,” he admitted, “but can you believe there’s not so much as a hot plate on this entire ship?”

"I dunno," Theo replied, happily. "It smells exactly the same!" A frown followed. "Really?" For some reason he'd never considered this, but also, Theo had the nagging suspicion that someone somewhere had illicit student-level cooking kit. "I don't believe you," he said, amicably. "We always had a grill or a toaster or something in the dorms."

"If anybody knows how to hide and find any illicit appliances, it's Lieutenant Junior Grade Pierce Hunnicutt," replied Pierce proudly. "And since I used to be him, I'm confident I still have the skills."

Theo chuckled. "Sounds like some good stories there, Dad," he suggested with hope in his eyes as he regarded his father. "Care to tell me one?" It had occurred to the younger man many times since his father had abandoned him to travel the galaxies that there was a great deal he didn't know about Pierce Hunnicutt.

Pierce gave his son a lopsided grin and gestured to the table. “You mean you want to hear about your dad participating in not exactly legal activities?” he said cheekily as they sat.

Taking his seat, Theo looked back up to his elder and captain. "Hell yeah," he said, wondering how many stories there were exactly. It had been a while since they'd shared any, but he put that thought to the back of his mind for now, and placed his hand over his heart. "I promise not to tell anyone else," Theo added with a warm smile.

"Let's see," mused Pierce as he poked at his foot idly. "There was the time I smuggled Romulan ale in an attempt to impress the Captain. No! Even better! I once modified the replicator's recycling function so we could get away with smoking cigars. It was nearly two years before anybody discovered it."

At that thought, Theo laughed gently and shook his head. "Those things will kill you, y'know," he pointed out, if amicably. A serious look took up residence then, as he cast his mind back. "I'm not sure I've ever done anything illegal..."

"You've got to be kidding me!" laughed Pierce. "My own son, never involved in less than legal activities. Your Uncle Simon would be so disappointed."

Uncle Simon. Theo wondered what the roguish man was doing right now. Last time he'd seen him, it had been during the usual festive gathering, the meeting of families at Christmas back on Earth.

"Ah!" Theo admitted, recalling something from way before that. "Well, maybe not never," he said with a guilty smile. "Uncle Simon did kinda rope me into one of his schemes when I was still in High School. He snuck us both into a black tie corporate event once as wine waiters. We ended up dancing with a couple of older ladies... I think I walked all over her shoes, but Simon was twirling his partner about the floor like he was competing for a trophy."

Pierce laughed at the mental image of Simon cutting a rug with someone old enough to be his mother. "Gate crashing has to be one of his tamer occupations," he said. "You know, I half expect him to end up out here one of these days."

"Wouldn't surprise me if he found a way," Theo agreed, grin bright in his eyes. "Hey, remember that time he turned up in the shuttle, all dressed up like Santa with a freezer full of snow? I thought it was really cool, but I was probably only about six... Where did he get that from? I remember Mom yelling at him when I was supposed to be asleep. Did you guys get in trouble?"

"Of course," answered Pierce with a grin. "I knew he was coming. Your mother was so angry that I didn't warn her. She liked Simon, of course, but the manner in which he arrived was a bit too much." He grinned a bit wistfully, remembering the good times. "I wish I knew where he got the snow. I'd get some for the ship. I suppose frozen crystalized water can't be too hard to find, though."

The thought of his dad in trouble was enough to make Theo chuckle, though he didn't remember his momma's fury - that must have been reserved for a more private moment - and he barely recalled her ever showing true anger. Frustration, yes. Real temper? Not around him at least. "It's definitely doable," the younger man agreed. "But might be considered frivolous I suppose. Still, it made my day back then. We had some good times, huh?" Theo prodded an old wound, the subtext hanging in the air in his mind's eye. Before you sent us away.

“We sure did,” Pierce replied catching his son’s unspoken meaning. In truth, Pierce’s only regret was that he didn’t send Theo and Donna back to Earth sooner. By putting it off, had he sealed her fate? There was a war on, after all. He should have sent them as soon as war was declared. Instead, he had waited, hoping it wouldn’t last or that they would somehow escape battle. He should have known it was a bad idea, but of course, hindsight is 20/20.

And of course he knew that Theo didn’t see it that way. He had been only 15 at the time and there was no fighting anywhere near them, so the war wasn’t as real to him. Perhaps Pierce should have taken more time to explain it properly, but there was no changing the past. “I really thought I was doing the right thing,” he said soberly. “Send you and your mother to Earth. I thought you’d be safer there, that we were too close to the fighting. I suppose I should have realized that our enemy was clever and had probably already gotten to Earth and the rest of the galaxy.” He paused for a moment. “Every day, I think how close I came to losing you both and beat myself up over the decision,” he finished.

'I really thought I was doing the right thing.' Theo grimaced. He'd promised himself when he'd found out his place here was secure, that he'd find the right moment for a serious chat with Captain Pierce Hunnicutt. He wanted to talk about this face-to-face in person just as very much as he'd wanted to have a real family dinner with his old man. Now he felt a little guilty for ruining the latter with former, but the guilt faded at those first words.

"The right thing would have been keeping us all together," he countered, with emotion that wasn't pure anger, but a deeply felt regret for how his father's plan had turned out. Theo sighed, a heavy gesture that echoed through his entire body and attempted to push the wrong emotions down and allow reason to bubble to the surface. "Nowhere was safe, not really. I hated that you sent us away, that you didn't want us with you. I didn't hate you, Dad. But I hated that decision. I never understood it. I don't think I ever will. But the war wasn't your fault. What happened to Mom, wasn't your doing."

"I know," replied Pierce. "But knowing it and believing it are two different things." He paused a moment and looked his son directly in the eyes. "You're wrong about one thing, though: I wanted you with me. I wanted to keep both of you with me every second of the day. I thought I was being selfless, sending you to Earth. Turns out I should have been selfish after all."

That direct look focused Theo's thoughts in one single direction, to one burning question. A question that had spiked in his mind for 15 years and would likely never have a satisfactory answer because of that sheer length of time.

"How could you do it, Dad?" Theo asked. How could the elder Hunnicutt have sent them both out into that unknown? He'd never talked about in any depth with his father, he'd always avoided the detail, shared the trauma with paid professionals and family who had been physically present. "It was... so bad."

"I thought I had to," answered Pierce, voice tinged with anguish. "And when you think you have to do something, you do it, no matter how hard it is."

Theo considered this for a long moment in silence, then took a deep breath. His father's response was simple, but made a messed-up kind of sense. He'd done what he thought was best. It hadn't been, and now they were both stuck living with that unwanted outcome. That pain.

Slowly, the younger Hunnicutt reached his arm across the space between them and rested it atop Pierce's own.

"Thanks for letting me come with you this time," Theo said. Another simple response, but one coloured with honest, sincere emotion.

The smile that crossed Pierce's face was tinged with a bit of sadness, but it dispelled quickly. "I wouldn't have it any other way," he assured his son.

Theo noticed - that subtle colour of sorrow in Pierce's expression - and he saw part of himself reflected back in his father's expression. That complexity of emotion they both owned and mostly kept private. He chose to draw attention to this only obliquely, as he had always done in the past, not wishing to push this wonderful meal into sadness for any longer.

"I didn't think I'd be able to do it," Theo admitted. "It was sooo difficult to even contemplate being this far from Earth, with no real way back. But that was also the reason I had to be right here with you. I couldn't lose you too, Dad. No fear was worth that."

Both of Pierce’s parents were still alive and kicking, so he had no idea what it was like to lose a parent. But, he had a feeling that losing his only son would be far worse than losing both of his parents and all of his brothers on the same day. So, when he replied, it was perfectly honest. “I know how you feel,” he said. “I couldn’t bear losing you, either. I’m glad you found a way to make this work. Whatever it is, keep doing it.” He paused for a moment, then continued thoughtfully, “how do you manage? Meditation? Take Kwon Do? A girl? A guy?”

He blushed. Theo didn't like that reaction, but his body didn't seem to care. Caramel skin picked up more than enough crimson to be obvious and he smiled awkwardly as he looked back openly to regard his father.

"Well," the younger man admitted. "Sometimes I don't manage. Sometimes I'm curled up in a little ball in my bunk. But as coping mechanisms go - I use the holodecks to climb, hike, dive..." There was something else too, and Theo suspected that particular something would interest his father far more than any hobby might. "And there is a girl, but not in the way you're thinking. A friend from the Academy. Her music..."

Pierce wracked his brain for a moment but realized he didn't know the crew well enough to know which women may be musicians. "Well, oftentimes friends are far more important anyway," he replied. "I'm glad you've found ways to cope."

"Thanks, Dad," Theo returned. "But while friends are definitely important, family still vastly outranks them."

Pierce had to agree with that whole-heartedly.

There were only two holodecks on the Sherman Potter, which meant times had to be reserved well in advance. Kayla had put it for a time a week from today, but as it happened, one of the nurses had to cancel for one reason or another, so Jayla was happy to swap with her. This meant that Lucas and Silver could run around and play a whole week sooner, which was good because they had been getting antsy.

“Alex!” she called, running into their quarters and right into a huge spider web. “Oh! Lucas! Can you stop doing this?” she complained to the spidermonk, who was nowhere in sight. “Alex! Good news!” she called again.

Alex stepped out into the living area. "Hey, sweetheart," he said. "What's up!"

"Nurse Benson was going to have to forfeit her holodeck time, so I offered to trade for ours," she announced. "We have to be ready in twenty minutes, but it means these guys can go to their home planet for a bit," she added, bending to give Silver a scratch behind the horns.

Alex grinned. "I'm ready when you are," he said. "Should we put Lucas in his carrier? Or should I just carry him."

"He usually stays on your shoulder," she answered, heading for her closet. "Let me change out of my uniform first. Have they had their dinner, yet?"

"Yup," Alex replied. "And Lucas hasn't had any apples, so he won't be sounding off the whole time." Alex whistled and Lucas ran up onto his shoulder. "Good boy!"

"That's good," she laughed in reply, choosing a pair of multicolored leggings and a solid pink shirt. "I can't bear Lucas on apples. Silver, lay down!" she added to the prancing horned fox. "We'll go in a minute."

Silver then proceeded to trot over to Alex and make a strange bubbling yip-yip-yip up at Lucas, then prance around some more.

Lucas chittered back at Silver while Alex crouched down and pet Silver and scratched the animal behind the ears and between the horns. "Good boy." Alex turned his head and called out to the sleeping alcove. "We're ready when you are!"

“Almost!” called Jayla, pulling the short dress or long shirt- she wasn’t sure which is was meant to be- over her leggings. “Okay! Ready to go!”

Alex grinned. "Awesome!" he said. "You look great." He held out his arm to Jayla. "We're off!"

“Come on, boys,” she said to Lucas and Silver. “Oh, my goodness. I just realized that I’m the only girl.”

"Yeah," Alex said. "And I've been meaning to talk to you about the conditions in the harem..."

She giggled and punched his arm playfully. “A harem of one is gonna have to be enough,” she said. “Anyway, let’s go! Ready boys?”

Silver yipped and did his little prancing dance that meant he was super excited.

Lucas chirped indignantly.

"Lucas says to tell you that the boys are the ones in the Harem," Alex said. "But he and Silver are only for cuddling. They leave all of the conjugal duties to me." Lucas chirped again. "Oh, and yes, he's ready to go." Lucas skittered over to the door and waited impatiently. "Okay, okay! We're coming coming!" As Alex and Jayla and Silver approached the door, it opened. Lucas went skittering down the corridor and Silver pranced off after him, Alex and Jayla walking behind them.

"Did I ever tell you I found out why the two of them get along so well?" Jayla asked as they followed their excited kids.

"Nope," Alex said.

"Apparently, they come from the same planet," she replied, "where they have a sort of symbiotic relationship. The spidermunks build webs over the entrances to the horned foxes' lairs, keeping them free of insects, and in return, the foxes protect the spidermunks from predators. And they play together in their spare time."

Alex laughed. "That's amazing!" he said. "And probably explains why Lucas sometimes covered the door to our quarters with webbing when that insectoid Ops tech came by to fix our replicator!"

“Huh,” said Jayla, recalling the incident. “I hadn’t even considered that. I just figured he was being weird again.”

They walked and chatted as they walked and when they finally reached the holodeck, Silver was standing in front of the door and Lucas was on the hull above the door. Lucas looked at Alex and chittered impatiently.

"Okay, okay!" Alex said. He entered the code for the animals' favorite habitat and opened the doors. "Go on." Before Alex finished saying 'on', the two pets dashed inside. Alex laughed. "After you," he said to Jayla.

“You’d think they’ve never done this before,” she commented, following their kids into the holodeck. “Though I have to admit, it does feel good to pretend we’re off the ship for awhile.”

"It does," Alex said. Then he frowned. He thought he'd seen something out of the corner of his eye. Something bipedal and... blue??? And very short, not more than three apples tall... wait... why was he measuring something in apples??? Alex shook his head and looked more closely, but whatever he was looking at was gone. Hold on, Alex thought. Is that another one? "Um, sweetheart," Alex said to Jayla. "I'm going to preface this by saying that I haven't imibed alcohol or any hallucinogens, nor have I hit my head recently. With that in mind, when you look around, are you catching glimpses of little... um... blue... ahem... people... not more than three apples tall?" There I go again! Measuring things in apples!

"Three... apples? Did you say apples?" replied Jayla, looking in the direction Alex indicated. "Are you s- oh!" she exclaimed, spotting one of them peeking out from between some flowers. "Aren't they cute! Hi, sweetie! You can come out; we won't hurt you." The last was said as if to a shell-shocked teenager hiding after her home had been flattened by a bomb.
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