Iconian Gateways: Part 2

Posted on Tue Feb 20th, 2018 @ 2:50pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy & Ahreva Malana & Maica III 47 & Aewia Larani & Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott & Commander Mal Xustos & Lieutenant Commander T'Pral Jordan & Lieutenant Commander Eneas Clio & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Vaemyn & Lieutenant JG Telair Rybeena & Akira Zhuri & Lieutenant Marci Ulfred & Emergency Medical Hologram (Adam Power) Mk X & Master

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: USS Hera

***BRIDGE***

On the bridge of the Hera, the Emergency Command Hologram was still working at restoring power when the first of the crew started boarding on deck 12. "Well, I guess that means my message got through... Computer... Nevermind... I'll take care of it myself."

Heading over to the command chair, the ECH pressed the all call button. "This is the ECH speaking. I've been able to restore auxiliary systems, but the core systems in engineering still need to be purged of some sort of isolytic radiation that disrupts our systems, including my matrix when I get near. Biological systems should be fine, however. If one of you could please come to the bridge and relieve me however, I would be very appreciative."

Suddenly, a Jefferies tube hatch flew open and a the head of a man with a very impressive set of horns came through, followed by the rest of the man's body. Either this man had been recently cuckolded, or (more likely) he was Commander Mal Xustos, the executive officer of the Hera. The latter assumption would be the correct assumption.

"I think I just won the gold medal in the Olympic Jefferies tube climbing contest," Mal said, pulling a handkerchief from a pocket in his utilikilt and wiping the perspiration from his forehead. He'd shed his uniform jacket and overshirt before his record breaking ascent and pinned his rank pips and commbadge to his black t-shirt. "Excuse me a moment, Eeech."

Mal went into his Ready Room and stepped behind his desk. There he found that his cooler had stayed shut through the crash landing. Pleased, he took a bottle of water from the cooler and took several drinks from it. Once he was sure he wasn't going to pass out, he came back out onto the Bridge.

"Alright, Eeech," Mal said. "I relieve you. But don't go anywhere. I may still need your help. Has Captain Telvan been brought aboard yet? We need to get her to Sickbay ASAP."

Moving to the Ops station, the ECH reported. "As of yet, no. Sensors are still at around ten percent and only emergency transporters are online. If I could purge main engineering remotely, I would have main power back online, but being photonic has precluded that possibility for me. I've been able to maintain a basic sensor lock on the crew as a whole, but picking out individual lifesigns is more than I've been able to coax out of the systems. As for life support, I got it to the point it's stable and no longer a drain, but it too will need to be purged of radiation."

"Understood," Mal said. "Xustos to Sickbay. I know you're busy, so you don't have to respond now. Please keep me apprised of the condition of Aewia and Captain Telvan."

"Well, Eeech," Mal said. "Now we wait for the Geek Squad to get us back online."

Mal didn't bother calling T'Pral. He assumed that she'd make her way to the Bridge once Aewia was secure. If she didn't arrive in due time, then he'd call around looking for her.

***SICKBAY***

T'Pral knew the EMH would be able to heal Aewia better than she as she laid the woman down on a biobed. She paused as she recalled that the EMH should be tied into auxiliary systems in the case of an emergency. Going over to a nearby console, she input several commands that brought the EMH Mk X online. "Aewia here was hit by a Swarmer. She needs immediate medical help."

As the EMH activated, he moved to get busy immediately. "Ah, my favorite patient. It looks like she's been through a rough time though. A swarmer, you say? Do you have any more details? What kind of attack it was, perhaps?" As the EMH started the scans and started up the biobed, slapping it when it flickered and died immediately due to lack of power, he shook his head and resigned himself to using hand tools. "I'll have to have a word with Engineering... Computer, lights at full please." When they failed to respond, he nodded and just progressed with his tricorder and whatever he had handy. "I suppose this means the ship is in dire straits and you're needed elsewhere. Don't worry, she's in capable hands now. I just hope my power remains stable."

T'Pral never liked EMHs. They were far too talkative for her liking that bordered on annoying. "She was struck by a stinger bolt and yes, my presence is most likely required on the bridge unless you require my presence here."

"No, I think I can handle things here now. Thank you. If you see any other medical personnel though, please send them my way." As the EMH focused on healing Aewia, he promptly ignored T'Pral as it seemed she no longer needed his services and Aewia needed his full attention.

T'Pral nodded before turning and exiting sickbay, stepping quickly.

***Engineering***

Thex head was killing her again having landed on her damaged antenna. Even still her hands were typing faster than she could see as she furiously tried to get the main computer back online. " Come on girl please don't be difficult. " She hissed to her self in the dark computer core room. With a button press, the screen light up as code began flooding the screen and a familiar noise filled her ears. The isolytic radiation levels began flooding out of the room as the scrubbers got to work. Standing up the andorain tapped her combadge =^= Thex to the bridge. Radiation is being purged from engineering. I'm going to get the warp core and main power up and running. =^= She stated hoping someone had heard her.

=^=Bridge to Engineering,=^= Mal said. =^=Copy that, Lieutenant. Please advise when main power is back online.=^=

=^= Will do. Might take a while. I need to see if the emergency warp core shut down damaged anything.=^= Thex replied already standing up and heading to the warp core. As the console light up she smiled as the results crawled across the screen. Some of the warp core's fail safes had been triggered, but it was nothing that the backup's couldn't handle. Power would be restored in five minutes.

***BRIDGE***

After hearing the report from Thex, Mal called Akira.

"Miss Zhuri," he said. "Lieutenant sh'Zoarhi has cleared main engineering and is working on getting the engines online. Can you do what you need to do to the main computer using auxiliary power, or will we need to wait until we get the engines back?"

***Environmental Control***

Marci had been alone on the ship for what had felt like a long time. When the transporter beam had whisked the crew away, she had been in her lupine form. And she'd stayed that way, not sure what to expect. But now she'd heard a voice coming from somewhere in the corridor? Curious - but still suspicious - she flicked her ears and trotted toward where she'd heard the sound from. Rounding a curve in the corridor, she found what appeared to be some sort of Iconian being in front of her. Growling, she lowered her body closer to the deck and prepared to pounce.

=/\="Uh, sir, I kind of ran into, uh, a hitch.... I'll get back to you later...."=/\= Akira said over her built-in comms, staring at the white beast growling at her. "Nice doggie...." she said warily as she slowly backed away from the dog; while she liked to pretend that Moriko could understand her when she spoke, she held no allusions that animals were in fact intelligent enough to understand humanoid speech, but for some reason the words simply came out regardless of logic or reason. "Just let me by so I can fix Life Support so the nice biologicals on this ship don't die."

Still snarling, Marci listened to the words. The being looked Iconian, but it talked about fixing the ship. It was confusing, and Marci couldn't use human speech in this form. Which meant not being able to ask questions. After a few tense moments, she decided to take a chance and gradually retook her humanoid form. "Who are you?"

"Oh my stars, you're a person!" Akira exclaimed. "If the situation were not so dire, I would be squealing with excitement and bombarding you with endless questions, but right now I need to flush the radiation from Life Support!" It wasn't until after all that she realized that the dog-person had actually asked her something. "Oh, and I'm Akira Zhuri; don't mind the appearance, it's temporary. Anyway, gotta go!"

"Do you need some help? I mean, I'm not an engineer, obviously." Marci motioned at her teal-accented uniform. "But jobs like that go faster with two people. I do know that."

"Uh, uh..." Akira muttered as she looked down the corridor. "Okay, but be careful with what you touch, Environmental Controls are very sensitive," Akira cautioned, then continued down the hall to Environmental Controls. Once there, Akira accessed a console to check the state of the system, then looked to the dog-lady. "Uh, find the controls for the air vents, make sure they're all wide open; I'm going to try to flush the all radiation in one go," she said as she worked.

"Air vents, got it." Maybe Marci wasn't an engineer, but she could read the panels well enough. Finding the one that controlled the air vents for the environmental system, she looked at the readout and then opened the ones that weren't open yet. "That should be all of them. What else can I do?" It dawned on her then that she knew Akira's name, she hadn't shared her own. "I'm Marci, by the way. Marci Ulfred."

"Hi Marci," Akira said distractedly. "Okay, I think I have the air circulators working, so monitor the O2 and radiation levels while I try to get the purifiers back up. Uh, just let me know when things change; O2 should go up, radiation should go down," she continued, then proceeded to practically rip a panel off the wall that wasn't meant to come off that way, then her upper body disappeared into the wall as Akira attempted to re-polarize fused relays behind the consoles.

"Okay..." Marci watched as Akira halfway disappeared into the wall, shaking her head slightly. Returning her attention to the oxygen and radiation readouts, she hoped the robot woman wasn't going to end up stuck inside the wall. She'd have to call engineering to get her back out, and that was not something she wanted to try explaining.

"How's it looking? Any changes yet?" Akira called out, her voice echoing off the duratanium.

"Oxygen level is rising, but no change in radiation just yet." Marci glanced over at Akira, shaking her head again. "Are you sure you should be in there like that?"

"No, probably not, but we don't have time to do this the 'right' way," Akira replied. A few more modifications later and hopefully the radiation would be lowering. "How about now?" she asked as she started to wiggle her way out, only to stop, then try again. "Oh no," she said when the realization struck her. "I think I'm caught on something... I'm stuck."

"Radiation is dropping." Marci couldn't help snickering a little at Akira being stuck. "So. How are going to get you out?"

"I don't know," Akira admitted in a somber tone. "If I was still just a hologram, I could disable my forcefields or simply appear somewhere else, but I don't know how to get out of this body!" she added with frustration. "Look around, see what I'm caught on. If the stick on my back is stuck on something, don't touch it; it fires an anti-proton beam and we can't have anymore damage to the ship."

"All right, keep still." Leaving the console to help Akira, Marci stuck her head just far enough into the gap to take a look. At first, she didn't see anything, but after a moment or two the darkened area came into better focus. "Well, it's not the stick. You've got an armor plate jammed under... something." Marci slipped her hand up Akira's back, steering clear of the weapon. Reaching the wedged armor plate, she gently pushed Akira forward and down. "If you stay low, you should be able to get out."

"Right," Akira said, then with Marci's hand on her back to guide her she carefully eased herself out. "Goodness, that was embarrassing," she said once she was finally out and standing tall. "Thank you for the help; that would have been quite awkward if I had to manage all on my own." Then Akira turned her attention to the console to see how the oxygen and radiation levels were doing. "Excellent! As long as the system keeps this up, we should be clear of radiation soon, and once the computer has been rebooted, everything else should start kicking on automatically without the radiation's interference," she said with a pleased smile. Or it might have been a smile, the Iconian faces didn't emote the same way humanoid faces did. "And the sooner we get the computer back at full power, the sooner I can get out of this body! Now, are you Science or Medical? Uh, nevermind, either way you should probably get down to sickbay; once the crew starts gating back to the Hera, they will need all the help they can get down there as we have several injured."

"Medical, and I was headed to sickbay next anyhow. It was nice to meet you, Akira." Marci quickly scurried away, leaving environmental control to go to sickbay. She didn't know what sort of injuries to be expecting, but she knew sickbay would be filling up quickly once the rest of the crew began arriving.

Akira made a few more checks on the environmental systems before finally departing as well; the heat wasn't working properly, there was a problem with power distribution hindering the heat, but thankfully it was working out to prevent the crew from freezing to death, and hopefully once they sorted things out with power and the computer then it should return to normal functions on its own.

=/\="Zhuri to Xustos," Akira said as she walk back to the lift tube to being the climb once again. "Apologies for the delay in the status report, I got held up at Environmental Controls. Life support is operating within levels to sustain the whole crew and the radiation affecting the ship is being filtered out; it may be a bit cold for a while longer, but we'll survive," she reported. "I'm about to check in with sh'Zoarhi to see how the computer is doing and once that's good to go I'll assist with power distribution."=/\=

***Bridge***

"Copy that, Akira," Mal said. "Quick as you can."

Mal turned to the ECH.

"Eeech," he said. "As soon as we get sensors functioning, start keeping an eye out for the Master's ship. He said we had two hours to get the Hera up and running and ready to fight him, but he's not exactly the most upright, decent, or honest person in the galaxy. I wouldn't put it past him to show up early."

The ECH resumed his position at the operations station. "I'll keep working on restoring long range sensors then. I almost had the pod flushed and operational so it shouldn't take much longer. I'll just need main power online."

**Deck 12**

T'Pral entered the jeffries tube through the access hatch not too far from sickbay as looked at the vertical shaft and the eleven decks above her that she would have to traverse to get to the bridge, as recalled the layout. She tapped her comm badge. "Lieutenant Commander T'Pral to Commander Xustos, I am on Deck 12, having drop Aewia off at Sickbay. I am heading to the bridge via the jeffries tubes. I should arrive in approximately 4 minutes." She then began her long climb to the Bridge.

=^=Copy that, Commander,=^= Mal replied. =^=See you when you get here.=^=

***Deck 12***

Back on deck twelve, those that were still on the sphere had gotten the gate re-secured and reopened and were filtering through a few at a time starting with Enalia and a small team of engineers and medics. Tapping her com badge, Enalia reported her status to the Bridge. "Telvan to the bridge, we're starting to filter through the gate now, if that's ok. I'll be in sickbay for a while and I'll send the few I brought through with me initially with me to help with getting the ship running."

=^=Copy that, Enalia,=^= Mal said. =^=Anyone who can help is welcome.=^=

***Engineering***

Telair emerged from Access Hatch 3F in Upper Engineering looking much worse for wear, tossing his toolkit onto the floor before extricating himself. =^=Rybeena to Thex. More bad news...RCS thrusters are totally off-line. The primary Control Interlink Junction is a mass of fused components. The ODN Relay is down as well, and there are also a few hundred ISO Chips burned to hell. The EPS Manifold through that section appears to be intact at least, so restoring primary power is possible without any major rerouting required. =^=

" Down here." Thex called from her position in front of the warp core. Her good mood was now replaced with frustration as with more power the full amount of damage the ship had sustained. Her head was still stinging causing her to look up and call out. " Can you toss down the medical kit?"

Telair leaned over the railing to see Thex on the main level. "OK boss...hold on a sec." He made his way to the the damage control cabinet and retrieved one of the portable med-kits from within. Returning to the railing he shouted; "Heads up folks...coming down." Making sure that Thex had eye contact and nobody was in the path, he tossed the kit down to her. "I'm going to go to the main breaker room and see what all has tripped. I'll let you know what I find as soon as I can."

" Good idea." Thex said as she caught the kit with ease. " Be careful I'm getting no response from the starboard plasma pulse matrix. If it's blown and we fire up the ship we could blow the starboard nacelle off. " The blue-skinned officer said as she looked and the ever-growing list of systems that weren't responded.

It was then that Thex's communicator sounded off. =/\="Zhuri to sh'Zoarhi, I managed to get Environmental Controls to start filtering the radiation ship-wide, so you should run into less interference soon," came Akira's Iconian voice. "Were you able to get the computer to reset or do I need to make a stop before coming to Engineering?"=/\= she then asked.

=/\= Zhuri I have the main computer working, in main engineering, but i need to make sure nothing critical damaged before starting up across the ship. Can you get someone to the starboard nacelle and check the state of plasma pulse matrix? It's the first thing you encounter when you step through the door. If it's damaged and we power up it could blow up and take the nacelle clean off. =/\= Thex replied feeling slightly better at hearing Zhuri's voice.

=/\="Roger that, I'll head there," Akira replied, then changed her route through the ship to get to the starboard nacelle pylon. It kind of amazed her how training could simply take over and override any fear or anxiety that existed in her, and she couldn't rightly tell if it was her own training or the remnants of her father's memories within her, but either way she was thankful for it all now. "We should have more crew coming through the gate at anytime to help relieve the workload, but until then it will take longer to find someone than to just do this myself."=/\=

=/\= Roger as soon as we get more people i can get this girl moving. Telair how's the breaker room? =/\= Thex stated as she tapped her badge.

=/\= "There are a lot of tripped circuits down here. Most are not important at the moment, but Circuits J-L16 through J-M 34D are all tripped and locked. Something in the starboard nacelle has some serious issues. We need to get eyes on as soon as possible, and definitely before we try to restore flow to the nacelle." =/\=

Just as Thex was about to reply she looked up as the door slid open as a few more engineers arrived. Nodding to the most senior to take over in main engineering. Grabbing another kit from the locker she hurried out the door.

=/\= Telair get the tripped circuits fixed. I'll head down to the starboard nacelle to help Akira get whatever broken up and running.=/\= She said a she took of at a run.

Telair didn't bother to answer...he immediately started to run diagnostics on the EPS Power Relays that were tripped. it was not going to be a fun time.

*** Starboard Nacelle ***

When Akira reached the starboard nacelle, she was surprised to learn that with enough emotional shock that all the air could be sucked from her android body; Aunt Enalia was gonna kill her when she saw what happened to the Bussard scoop! Thankfully, the nacelle could work with the scoop damaged as it was so long as the other one was functional, and she really hoped that it was otherwise she was REALLY going to be in trouble! But, her body finally took a breath as she refocused on the task at hand, which was to find and assess the damage to the plasma pulse matrix and make repairs. Finding it was easy enough, it was right where it was supposed to be, but assessing the damage would be a bit tricky as the atmospheric vents for the nacelle were still partially closed, so the radiation was not being properly siphoned out, so there was enough to interfere with the diagnostics functions. She took a moment to fix the vent, then attempted to access the scanners built into her many eyes to see if she could diagnose any issues with the pulse matrix that way. It took a few attempts to figure out how to make her eyes worked the way she wanted them to, but finally she started to get some usable feedback from her sensors; the matrix itself seemed to be fine, but her sensors were reading an obstruction with the line, which would cause an issue if power was restored before she could find the obstruction. And so she went searching through lines of conduits to find the obstruction so they could get the nacelles operational once again.

Thex zipped through the door at speeds most officers would think was impossible. Her blue eyes started looking around the nacelle. Her working anttena started buzzing as she heard a slight alteration to the usual hum. Hurrying along the long chamber she noticed Akira imminently though she was rather hard not to notice. " It sounds like something's broken off and blocked the line. We need to find it and remove the blockage." the andorian said as she ran up.

"I think I've found it," Akira said as she hunted down the elusive gremlins in the lines. And there it was, a conduit with a fragment from another conduit stuck inside! "Check around for a broken conduit or this whole line could rupture when we restore the plasma flow; a shard like this can't get too far down the line, so the segment you're looking for should be nearby," she said as she uncoupled the conduit and worked to fish out the obstructing fragment. And they were lucky the damage wasn't worse! There was still damage aplenty, but considering this nacelle took the brunt of the impact, Akira was thanking her lucky stars that the damage wasn't any worse than it was.

Thex grinned as Akira pulled out the mangled remains of one of the filters. " Well if that's all it was we are luckily. Get is sealed and i'll make sure it works properly. " The andoran stated as she ran back towards the controls the annoying buzz gone from her hearing. Her hands rushed over the controls as the computer thankfully showed a working nacelle. She let herself breath slightly before she began powering up as the Akira finished re-coupling the conduit. Looks like the girl would be okay.

*** Sickbay***

Enalia was paler than usual as she finally entered sickbay and flopped down on the nearest biobed. Glancing over at the EMH as he worked on Aewia, she grunted. "Is she going to be ok?"

"Yes, though with a black blood infection, I'm going to keep her sedated until I'm finished. She's also had some rather extreme neurosynaptic... Ahem... Her brain looks as if it's been rebuilt while she was out of our care, and with technology far superior to ours. I would be impressed if I wasn't so worried." As the EMH worked, he spared a glance to the Captain. "You don't look so well yourself. Nurse Ulfred, could you please see to the Captain?"

Marci had only just made it to sickbay when Enalia and Aewia arrived, but she moved quickly to Enalia's side when she was called by the EMH. "Come with me. Let's get you situated on a bed so I can take a look at you." Her touch was gentle yet firm as she put one hand on Enalia's arm and the other on the captain's back. "We'll go over here where the EMH can help us if we need him, but we'll be out of his way."

Getting back up, Enalia let herself be guided to the biobed and laid down on it without complaint. "I've been having stabbing pains in my abdominal region. I think it might be symbiont related because I'm cold and clammy and I've always been told that that's a sign of host rejection."

"That sounds serious. When did this start?" Picking up a tricorder, Marci used it to scan Enalia's abdomen. Some of the readings were a bit unusual, even for a joined Trill, but none of them screamed anything specific... except the isoboramine level. It was low, and slowly dropping lower.

"After we were abducted. It's been getting worse since then." Enalia groaned and broke out into a cold sweat as the stabbing pains started again. After a few seconds they subsided, but she felt even more drained than before.

"Sounds like your symbiont doesn't like Iconian transportation technology." Saving a record of her scans, Marci quickly consulted the medical computer, using the terminal next to Enalia's bed. "I'm going to try an isoboramine infusion and see if that helps stabilize you and Telvan." Even if it didn't heal Enalia, it might give them time to find the actual problem and fix it. "Don't run off. I'll only be a minute." Without waiting for an answer, Marci darted away and quickly collected the necessary supplies and medication. Bringing it back to Enalia's bedside, she set up the infusion device before turning to the captain again. "Okay, I know this looks super old-school, but it's the best way to get your levels stabilized and keep them there. I'm going to hook you up to it, but it shouldn't hurt any more than a hypospray injection."

Enalia smiled weakly. "I trust every member of my crew with my life, This may be a chance to prove it."

Marci smiled warmly. "All right, we'll get started then. Hopefully, we'll get you feeling better in a bit." With deft hands, Marci connected the hypospray adapter to her infuser and gently placed it to Enalia's neck, so it could infuse into the jugular vein. Mentally crossing her fingers, she turned the infuser on and silently prayed - to any deity that might be listening - that this would work.

After a few seconds Enalia relaxed a bit. She didn't feel so cold and alone, but she still felt horrible. It was an improvement at least.

***BRIDGE***

T'Pral climbed out of the jeffries tube hatch on the starboard side, grateful to finally be back on the bridge. She spotted Commander Xustos as she crawled out and decided to announce herself. "Lieutenant Commander T'Pral reporting for duty," she replied in her typical stoic Vulcan tone as she got to her feet and began to make her way to her station.

Barely seconds later, another hatch on the port side opened with the purple-skinned Vaemyn clambering out. The Vorta lieutenant was sweating profusely, his uniform jacket open, although he sprang to his feet with surprising alacrity. He looked at T'Pral in amazement, glancing at the hatch that she had just emerged from.

"Well, there's coincidental timing," he said with a rueful grin at the security chief. Glancing at Xustos, he added more properly, "Lieutenant Vaemyn, sir, also reporting for duty. Sorry for not checking in. There's some kind of EM interference around the mission pod and I couldn't get a comm signal out. I did some quick and dirty maintenance, so as soon as main power is online, we'll have some long range sensors up and running. I got the torpedo launchers in the pod online as well."

"Impressive work, lieutenant," T'Pral commented with a slight grin as she logged into her station.

"Welcome, both of you," Mal said. "If the Master sticks to his schedule, we have about one hour and forty minutes until he arrives. We need a functional starship by then. Commander Jordan, if we engage the Master's vessel and manage to damage it enough for a boarding action, I'm going to need you and Commander Enaes to arm yourselves with the weapons we got from Hephaestus and join the boarding party. To be clear, if we are able to board the Master's ship, you and Commander Enaes are to go over there and kill him once and for all. Is this understood?"

"Understood, Commander," T'Pral replied as her fingers danced across her station. The weapons seemed in working order, they just required the power to make them lethal which was up to engineering.

Vaemyn moved over to the console manned by the red-shirted ECH, nodding at the hologram. "I guess you're the one who's been working on the mission pod remotely?"

"I have been. I've been the only... living thing, loosely speaking, on the ship that's been working towards getting things back online since the crash. After I secured enough life support to make sure the ship's pets didn't die... I focused on power systems and sensors." Tapping a few more controls, the ECH finally brought the pod systems back online. "Commander, the pod has been flushed and fusion reactor three is coming online. We should have fifty percent pod functionality in less than a minute. Lieutenant Vaemyn, if you check sensor platforms nineteen through twenty three, they should now have enough power to locate the remaining crew."

Just then several darkened bridge consoles lit up, displaying full library computer access and the computer spoke over the bridge speakers. "Library computer access restored. Processing. Authorized biologicals detected aboard USS Hera. Cancelling Celium Protocol 3. Self Destruct cancelled. Welcome back."

"Well, that's nice," Vaemyn commented with a shrug.

A few minutes later the turbolift doors opened and Enalia hobbled out with Marci in tow. "All right all right. I'll rest, but I'll rest on the bridge. The Captain's chair is very comfy, you know." With a sigh, Enalia flopped down in her chair and relaxed into it like molten Trill.

"This does not count as resting!" Marci's tone was one of pure exasperation, and it was no wonder. They'd be arguing this same point since leaving sickbay. "At least go to the ready room. The bridge is too stressful for someone in your condition."

"Too late. I'm already sitting." Enalia slumped lower into her chair to seemingly punctuate her reluctance to move. "As for my condition, there's a medical station right over there. As Ventaxian biology seems to have been incompatible with Iconian tech and we've lost yet another Chief Medical Officer, this time to a gruesome bodily inversion, you are now the ranking member of a nearly one hundred member medical department. I recommend you either find a way to save me or find a new compatible host for the Telvan symbiont aboard the crew of the Hera while I rest here where you can see me and I can see my ship."

"I swear, you're going to be the death of me." Feeling the wolf within her rising, Marci took a few meditative breaths to keep her wilder instincts at bay. "There is no one on board that can host Telvan. So your orders are not to die before I find a cure for... whatever that Iconian death transporter did to you."

"Then I'll let you know when I start feeling cold and alone again. That probably means my isoboramine levels are too low." Enalia smiled weakly at Marci. "Just do your best. I trust you."

Somehow, that didn't make Marci feel any better, but arguing certainly wasn't getting them anywhere. "I can do you one better. The medical station has integrated scanners, for monitoring the health of... well, everyone on board. I'll know before you will."

"In that case... What's our status? Will we be combat ready when the Master arrives?" Most people may not find this sort of thing relaxing, but Enalia did. She worried less when she knew what was going on.

"Phasers and torpedo launchers are in working order," T'Pral reported. "They should be fully powered within 5 minutes as I am currently running a Level Three diagnostic to ensure they are in perfect working condition and I am calibrating our targeting computer as it seems to be off by two percent. Shields are still offline, however, they should be operational within fifteen minutes."

As the senior staff present on the bridge began their status reports, Marci went over to the aforementioned medical station and sat down. Bringing up the integrated medical scanners, she set them to keep an eye on Enalia. It wasn't as good as having the captain in sickbay, but at least it would give her early warning if something started to go wrong.

"Long range sensors are now online," Vaemyn called out happily, working the science console to analyse all the new data. Then over the next few seconds his enthusiasm dimmed, and he visibly gulped. "Uh...captain, we have a ship on approach at very high warp. Its warp field is cutting through spacetime with a severe angular power coefficient...we can detect it clearly already, even from this distance. If this is him, he isn't being subtle."

Enalia closed her eyes and tilted her head back at hearing that report, seemingly at peace with it. "Let me guess. The ship is around seven hundred sixty meters long, eighty meters wide, has several armatures coming off of it... That would be our guest of honor. Make sure our boarding party is ready with the special weapons. T'Pral and Clio heading up the team. If either one of you get a chance at a killing blow, take it. As for support, take Nexi. Mister Pickles looks like he might be able to distract his own hellhounds long enough to give you an opening. As for more people... I think that's going to have to be it but find Crewman Dedjoy as well. She's figured out that transport system in the pod we got from Section 31 so let's use it. Also, I'm permanently transferring her to Intel. Please inform Clio."

Mal hit the comm on his chair.

"Commander Enaes, please report to Section 31 Transporter Room, armed with one of the weapons loaned to us by Hephaestus," Mal said. He switched channels. "Staff Warrant Officer Nexi, report to Section 31 Transporter Room kitted out for a boarding action."

Mal rose from his chair and went to the tactical station.

"Commander Jordan," he said. "As best you can, please cobble together a boarding party and have them report to Section 31 Transporter Room. I assume that Commander Enaes will be using the sword, and I assume you've been training with the spear? Grab the spear and report to Section 31 Transporter Room ASAP with as many boarding teams as you can assemble and prepare to board the Master's ship. I think I can remember how to handle your station. If I remember correctly, I was once a CSTO myself."

Mal said this last part with a smile.

T'Pral nodded, already knowing which officers to take. "Aye, Commander."