Shuttlecraft
Telamon
:
Sasha changed course once more, avoiding getting caught in the crossfire. She could have put it in the proverbial hands of the autopilot, but the battle around them kept shifting, far more quickly than even a computer can handle.
Oh, and now you're superior to a computer, Bubulah?
She told herself.
You couldn't even tell that your boyfriend wasn't a Section 31 spy.
In the back of the shuttle, Chief Maryk was finishing strapping an injured Jim Madison down, while trying not to bounce around the interior. "Do you want me to vomit, Lieutenant? Because this is how you get me to vomit."
"Shut up, Chief," Madison groused, face pinched in pain despite the sedative Maryk had given him from the shuttle's medikit. "Sasha's busy. She knows what she's doing."
Sasha grunted, happy that one of them at least had confidence in her abilities. She had hoped that they would have managed to get close enough to the
Surefoot
to beam over by now, but despite the orders from Tattok for the Fleet to retreat, the
Surefoot
had lingered to collect the last of the survivors from the wrecked and destroyed starships around them, despite the efforts of the enemy to drive them off, or destroy them. At least the
Ajax
was still around, keeping off the majority of the enemy, though they couldn't do this forever-
Seven Hells...
she watched one Scarab vessel make an obvious suicide run towards her Dad's ship. The
Ajax
was firing on it, and even she was arming the
Telamon
's weapons; the Chaffee-type shuttle was only equipped with low-level phasers and microtorpedoes, but-
The Scarab erupted under the
Ajax
's pulse phasers.
But a piece of it continued regardless, striking the
Surefoot
's Shuttlebay doors...
Mother's Cubs!
*
Within the Shuttlebay, the scores of survivors screamed and ducked as debris struck, ripping a three-metre-wide hole into the metal, and opening the interior to space.
The results were both inevitable and instantaneous.
With the roar of a hundred hurricanes, the pressure within sought to equilibriate with the vacuum outside by blowing the air out of the Shuttlebay.
People screamed and cried out, grabbing at each other and at whatever was bolted down, or not, as blankets, equipment, possessions of all kinds were picked up by the air and carried out into the hole in the Shuttlebay door.
People with nothing to hold onto, or insufficient strength, followed out into the void.
*
"Collision!" Neheru shouted. "Shuttlebay Door 2! Breach into space!"
Hrelle felt his heart stop as the viewscreen image changed to the location of the impact... with bodies flying out along with inanimate objects and debris. "Where's the damn force fields?"
The Kelpien's long, slender fingers raced over his station controls, eyes wide with alarm. "Systems Failure! We can't raise a field over the breach!"
"Keep at it!" Over his shoulder towards the Engineering Station, he roared, "Pump oxygen into the Shuttlebay and raise the temperature to maximum to compensate!" To T'Varik he added, "See if we can lock onto anyone blown out and beam them back in!"
The Vulcan had already moved onto an auxiliary station before he had finished his orders.
Hrelle could only stand there helplessly; the blast doors into the Shuttlebay from Deck 4 would have automatically closed and locked on detection of the breach, so those inside couldn't even get out. He was supposed to have protected those people...
*
Eydiir had been about to administer a stimulant to Giles when the hole appeared, and now she struggled to bend over and protect him, though she had nothing to hold onto for an anchor. The roar of the air filled her ears, and she could feel the pull towards the breach, dragging her and Giles to death-
Until something landed on her, pinning her down, one hand wrapped around her. She looked over her shoulder to see it was Kit... and behind, holding onto him, Jonas, with Neraxis holding onto her husband, and others behind her: a living chain of people she knew and didn't know... even the execrable Captain Sakuth.
Others weren't so lucky. And she wasn't certain how long they could all hold on.
*
"
Bozhe moi,"
Meryk was whispering, staring over Sasha's shoulder at the horror.
Sasha was biting her lip until it bled.
Come on, come on, where's the damn safety fields already...
Unable to wait any longer, she sent the
Telamon
down, hurtling towards the breach, as if in echo of the debris which had created it.
"Lieutenant..." Maryk muttered.
"Hold on," was all Sasha advised.
*
The temperature was racing with the atmosphere to see which could deplete quicker, and Eydiir's mind went through the expected symptoms: ebullism, the formation of bubbles in body fluids due to reduced ambient pressure; hypoxia, the rapid deprivation of adequate oxygen supply at the tissue level causing flaccid paralysis; hypocapnia, the state of reduced, uh... carbon dioxide in the blood; decompression sickness; hypotherm- thermia, and, oh yeah, something about disorientation, and you really shouldn't have had that Betazoid sundae for gondolas, you couldn't ferment how oblong the granite epididymis was-
A roar, and a shudder like the ship had been attacked again, made her sick to her stomach, but she quickly regained her cognisance. She was still lying over GIles, and Kit was sprawled over her, one arm wrapped around her, cupping one of her breasts. She gasped as she forced the thin air into her lungs. "You... You may cease your groping, Kit."
The reptoid gasped, releasing his hold on her and rising. "Forgive me, Best friend Eydiir! No intimacy was intended!"
"No doubt." She rose, checking on Giles again -- the boy could probably sleep through a supernova -- as she rose weakly to her feet, her legs shaking; the air remained thin and cold, though the ambient environmental systems were noisy with their attempts to restore acceptable levels. "You are unaffected by the air?"
His breath ghosted in the air from his nostrils. "Not as much as many, Best Friend; my people require less oxygen."
"Then begin checking everyone you can." She looked towards the Shuttlebay doors, fully expecting to see a force field finally erected over the breach.
She did not expect to see most of a Starfleet shuttlecraft wedged into the breach at an angle, with only the tail section and its external engine pods on the outside of the
Surefoot
. The gull-wing door on its portside was rising, and Sasha and Maryk emerged from within, supporting Madison as Sasha called out, "We could use a hand over here!"
*
Neheru recovered quickly with everyone else from the second impact, and was the first to report, "Captain! Lt Hrelle's shuttle struck us-"
"
Sasha?"
His heart sank.
No, no, no not his little girl too-
The Chief Ops Officer's expression was one of naked astonishment. "She crashed her shuttle into the breach! She's sealed it, and is using her shuttle's shields to reinforce the local structural integrity!"
Hrelle stared back, not sure he heard correctly.
Then he punched the air, roaring, "THAT'S MY DAUGHTER! BALLS OF PURE TRITANIUM!"
*
Sasha helped lay Madison down, before retrieving her weapons bag, strapping her Kaetini sword to her back and her firearms to her sides. "They'll take care of you, Jim. I have to go."
He looked up, nodding. "Thanks, Sash. For everything."
She nodded back and joined the others, brightening as she saw Jonas, Neraxis, Kit, Eydiir - and even GIles, looking disoriented but otherwise alive. All they needed now was Rrori leering at some of the nurses, and Alpha Squad would be reunited! "I can't seem to get away from you guys."
Then she was quickly joining them in examining those injured following the breach, as Sasha's combadge chirped, and Neheru's voice cut in, albeit punctuated with static, "
Lieutenant- attuned- Captain- you- in charge down there- you need?"
"The ship's taken damage," Jonas informed her. "And there might be further interference from the Jem'Hadar."
"Where are the medical teams?"
"We're on Level 3 Lockdown," Neraxis told her. "They haven't secured the corridors between here and the Sickbays!"
"They'd better, and soon," Eydiir warned them. "We have too many people in critical condition here to manage without help!"
Sasha nodded at that and tapped her combadge. "Bridge! Bridge, are you there?"
*
USS
Ajax
:
"Captain," Kohanim reported. "The Jem'Hadar and Cardassians are regrouping, and we're detecting no more viable escape pods in the area!"
Weynik nodded. "Hail the
Surefoot
." When the viewscreen image changed to something less vast, he announced, "Did Sasha and the others make it safely, Wide Load?"
The Caitian turned to him and nodded, grinning, "