Lt. Commander Shelby opened his eyes and looked around. "Doctor Rousseau . . .what happened?"
Jacqueline finished patching up a young man’s arm, then turned to Shelby, who was now sitting up in the bed next door. She opened her tricorder and began to scan him.
"You were injured on the Hydden. Nothing too serious, but I wouldn’t try a game of Parrises Squares for a few days, either."
Shelby nodded, smiling slightly at the doctor’s comment. Then he looked around. "Are these the Hydden survivors?"
Jacqueline nodded. "Most of them. Jamson and his team are still over there."
She finished scanning him, then looked over the results. "You’re doing fine, but I do want you to stay here for awhile. I’m not quite convinced you’re ready to go anywhere under your own power yet."
"Given how I feel like a squashed grape right now, I’m inclined to agree."
Jacqueline gave him small smile and a nodded, then turned her head back toward the flurry of activity behind her. "If you’ll excuse me . . ."
She left Shelby and reentered her very chaotic realm.
Dr. Jacqueline Rousseau
Price looked at his Counselor and nodded. Shivok could almost "hear" Prices tension and transmitted him thoughts of peace and calm. It felt like a mental shower to Price and he followed the Counselor with thankful eyes on his way to the turbo lift.
*** Sickbay ***
Activity and professionalism was the first impression Shivok got of the sickbay. Doctors, nurses and medical aid personnel buzzed around fixing broking bones here and healing open wounds there. All beds were occupied and some of the better off patients had to lay on field stretchers. Lt. Liito was already there and took care of the still shocked people from the Hydden as well as from the Galaxy.
It didn't take him long to find Dr. Rousseau, but it lasted longer until she had the time to focus her attention on him. He found her in her office going through the medical data. She looked up, when Shivok entered her office.
"Counselor, what can I do for you? You see, I'm busy."
"Doctor, is there anything I could do for you?"
Jacqueline gave him that specific glance, she always had, when she was suprised by something. She had not expected that from the person she was challenged most at the Academy.
"Ouhh...yes, most of the survivors are still suffering from the experiences they had on board the Hydden. I gave them the medical care they needed to survive, but my powers are limited in matters of psychic traumas." And she continued to fumble with the different patients data sheets.
Shivok already knew that, because he had a telepathic exchange with Lt. Liito, and he had also identified the ones who needed his help most. And that's the reason, why he wanted to talk with the doctor.
"I will put together a plan with Lt. Liito on this matter. But they are not the only ones who need help." He let the last words sound like an accusation, with the desired effect: Jacqueline rose her head again and this time her eyes were filled with furiousness.
"What do you mean by that?!"
"Doctor, you have been on duty for more than 24 hours now, you need some rest!"
Stephane, aka Counselor Shivok
"Waugh? Capizzi? any ideas?" Jamson asked.
Noam Brosh aka Lt.CMD Michael Jamson
OPS
"Suggestions?" Jamson asked.
"Well...by looking at the insulation and circuitry patterns on this ship...and how it's so corroded and decayed from some form of radiation that we should probably watch out for...It's possible we could burrow our way through a lot of it. And come out on another side...wherever that may be."
-Ensign Waugh
"Come again?" asks Jamson.
"I can create a program on my tricorder to see where the Hydden crew's transporter idea went wrong."
"Try it."
(Ten minutes later...)
"Sir, I have it. Either there was an energy fluxuation in the power grid
or the parasites got to O'Breen."
Lt. JG Steve Capizzi
Cheif Engineer
U.S.S. Galaxy
Lt.Coe stared at the viewscreen and watched as the Hydden floatted amoung the stars. This particular mission was not one that Coe had a lot of work for so he maintained his post and continued to initiate the systems diagnostics for the ship that was general protocol for a red alert situation. He shook his head and and tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Although it was difficult, he felt everyone else was getting all the action and this was hard for Coe to accept, especially by the fact that he was eager to impress his new Captain. He had also not slept for many hours which made concentration all the more unreachable. He looked back at his consol and saw that the diagnostic was only part way through and so he refocused on the Hydden that still stood moving ever so slowly on the viewscreen and began to wonder what the away team was doing at that exact moment.........
Chris N
AKA: Lt. Johnathon Thomas Coe
Chief Tactical Officer USS Galaxy
"Ok everyone, listen up" Jamson said as all the crew members of the away team looked at him.
"Let's review the situation. Our objective is to save the remaining Hydden crew members on the other side of engineering. Now, The main corridor is sealed off because of the gauntlet, so we can't use the corridor. There are Jefferies tubes that are connected to the warp nacelles, I want to use them but..."
"The pressure bulk heads are all closed" Lt.Capizzi interupted.
"Exactly. What I want to know is if there is any way we can open the bulk heads?" Jamson asked.
"Yes we can Sir, manually. But if one of them is exposed to the outter hull breach..." Capizzi answered. "I understand Lt.Capizzi, but we must try to use the Jefferies tubes. I want you and Lt.Waugh to work on it."
Jamson turned his look to Ensign Sterner, "Ensign. You did a good job evacuating the Hydden personnel. As soon as the Jefferies tubes will be ready..., if they will be ready..., your job will be securing the other section of engineering."
"Understood?" Jamson asked and everyone nodded.
"Good. Let's go!" he said and everyone started working on their tasks.
"Jamson to Galaxy." he tapped his comm badge and added : "Captain I am going to use the Jefferies tubes to access the other section of engineering."
Noam Brosh aka Lt.Commander Michael Jamson
OPS
USS Galaxy.
Captain Price listened to Lieutenant Commander Jamson over the Comm channel as he stared at the USS Hydden on the main view screen.
"All Right Commander, I trust your judgment. Be sure to use a Tricorder to obtain environmental readings at each bulkhead just to be safe."
Jamson responded. "Aye Sir. I'm rounding up the men and equipment as we speak. Please tell Lieutenant Coe to hold off on transporting the Gas canisters until we see if this is going to work. That will be our back up plan."
"Right. And Jamson... don't forget, we haven't got much time left 'mate."
"Understood Captain. Jamson out."
The Comm channel closed and the Captain sat back in his chair. Ensign
T'Lein turned and looked back at the Captain. Their eyes meet momentarily,
and exchanged glances. Without a word each relayed that they felt helpless
and tired of the waiting. The tension was high on the bridge, as everything
grew silent except for the sounds of the computer consoles. As the bridge
crew waited, and stood by.
(Flashback)
The day I arrived on the USS Galaxy was very good.. This was
the second ship I have served on and after the horrible incident, I was
scared of the Transportor system. Fortunately I am a man who doesn't let
fear get in the way of my work.
I was able to meet the Captain and most of all the other officers, but I really didn't get a chance to talk with them as as much as I wanted to because I was immediately given a task. The task was simple, just transporting cargo from one cargo room to another. I was able to do that in a couple of hours and I took the rest of the evening off. I just went to my room and sat down to enjoy a nice hot cup of chocolate....Canadian Style.
Steven Benson
University of Puget Sound
National Communication Coordinator
Email: sbenson@ups.edu
"What do you expect me to do with my patients? I can’t just leave them. Besides, I'm not tired."
Then she yawned.
"Are you saying your staff is incapable of handling the current situation?"
She shifted. "Well . . . no."
"Then why are you unable to leave sickbay for a necessary break?"
She’d recognized this line of reasoning. She had to use them on her former commanding officers often enough.
"All right, Counselor. You win, I’ll go rest."
She walked out of her office, stopping Dr. Leah Huntson on her way out of sickbay.
"I’m taking a . . . . forced . . . break. I expect to be notified if anything happens, understood?"
Leah nodded, then watched as her boss headed out.
Commander Jacqueline E. Rousseau, M.D.
CMO, U.S.S. Galaxy
After Capizzi and Waugh completed their work on the Jeffries tubes, all remaining members of the away team looked at Ensign Sterner.
"It's your turn now, Ensign" Lieutenant Commander Jamson said to him. "Be very careful over there, we don't know what will await you in the other engineering section. Once you find some more survivors over there, order them to come here. We'll wait for your return, before we all beam aboard the Galaxy. Good luck."
"Thank you, Sir." Joerg answered and checked his equipment. He had with him a tricorder and a phaser, which was set to "kill".
He carefully entered the Jeffries tubes and crawled forward. He was hoping that Waugh and Capizzi had checked out everything correctly. After a short time he reached a sealed bulkhead. He took his tricorder and checked the bulkhead. The tricorder readings were normal so he decided to give it a try. He returned his tricorder and took his phaser, just in case, he thought. Then he opened the hatch.
Seeing the port engineering section he was partly relieved. Now all I have to do is find possible survivors, he thought. Slowly climbing down from the Jeffries tube, his phaser still in his hand, he reached the engineering section, or what seems to be left of it. Several dead bodies could be seen lying on the floor. Nearly all the computers and terminal stations were burnt or otherwise rendered useless. What on earth could have done such a mess, he was thinking.
Trying to communicate with the rest of the away team he tapped his communicator. "Sterner to Jamson" he said. But there was only silence.
"Sterner to Jamson, do you hear me?" Obviously not, so he abandoned his communication attempt. A thought suddenly came to his mind, perhaps there are some survivors here, but they could be hiding somewhere. He started to search around. After a short while he saw some "corpses" behind a computer console. He slowly sneaked there, his phaser ready for action.
He suddenly looked into the scared faces of three injured crewmen. "Don't hurt us." they said to him.
"I won't hurt you. I'm Ensign Sterner from the USS Galaxy. We are here to help you. Our away team beamed over to the other engineering section and there we were told, that they communicated with you over here. But some time ago the communications stopped. Do you have an explanation?"
"I'm Ensign Ramirez." one of the crewmen started to tell Ensign Sterner. "We had some difficulties over here. But the communication with the other engineering section still was operational. Suddenly without reason Lieutenant Hobson drew a phaser and fired at the consoles, thus destroying our communication link. He turned around a started to shoot his crewmates." He paused and it was obvious that it must have been a terrible experience for him. After a few moments he continued. "We had no choice but to try to kill him. After some phaser shots we did hit him and he sank to the ground. Shortly after that we saw some small being leaving his body. We tried to fire at it, but we missed. We are just engineers after all. It escaped through one of the destroyed panels over there." He pointed towards a destroyed computer console. "After that we just hid here and hoped that someone would do something to save us."
After hearing the story, Ensign Sterner felt it was time to leave his place. "Would you please all crawl over to the other engineering section through the Jeffries tubes. Our away team will await you over there, so that we can finally beam over to the Galaxy." he said, assuming that since the communication didn't work the transporters would also be useless.
Showing the way to the Jeffries tubes, Joerg looked around nervously. I hope this creature isn't about to come back, he thought. One after the other they climbed into the Jeffries tubes with Ensign Sterner being the last. They made their way slowly through the tubes and Joerg carefully closed the bulkhead hatch to the port engineering section, so that nobody could follow them. After a few moments they reached the end of the Jeffries tubes where the whole away team awaited them.
"Good job Mr.Sterner." Lieutenant Commander Jamson welcomed Joerg.
Ensign Sterner
USS Galaxy NCC-70637
Joerg
T'Nevin makes his way down to his lab on deck 12. Ensign K'saol should be waiting on him there. He enters the laboratory, K'saol observing the samples through an optical enhancement device. She turns towards the doors as they slide open.
"The cultures have been started?" T'Nevin stands and waits to hear what K'saol says.
"Yes. I have isolated 3 growth strands of the healthy tissue and 3 of the affected tissue. The normal tissue cells are dividing fine, but the affected tissues are growing at a much slower rate, even in the hyper growth medium." K'saol points to the monitor that contains the pictures of the strands.
"That shouldn't matter too much. All we need to find out is the differences between the two. Have our test subjects arrived?"
"Yes." K'saol faces the observatory. "I asked them to wait in the science observatory until you arrived."
"Good. Set up a caryokrypesis bypass lattice to extract their respective female hormones. We can freeze them in a stock solution and experiment with them to see what types of effects, if any, arise from the presence of female hormones. Thank you." T'Nevin walks towards the observatory.
***In the observatory***
T'Nevin walks in. The 4 women are milling about, looking at this and that. Ensign Darma jumps off the couch she was sitting on with an anxious, happy, anticipated look on her face. T'Nevin pretends to take no notice of it. The ladies step in closer.
"Thank you ladies for your interest in helping us to take better control of this situation. All we will need from you is a little bit of your respective female hormones. The extraction is very quick and painless. Since the intruders have not yet affected any women that I know of, it is possible that female hormones inhibit the effects of the parasites. And when we find that out, we will be that much closer to solving this problem. Any questions?" The room holds silent. "Good. The equipment will take about 15 minutes to prepare, so feel free to relax and we will begin as soon as possible." T'Nevin turns and exits the room.
On his way out of the science lab, he stops at K'saol who is preparing the equipment. "Ensign, I am going up to check on Ensign Vo. Let me know when you have finished."
"Sure thing."
Lt. jg T'Nevin, acting CSO
USS Galaxy NCC-70637
"Good job Mr.Sterner." Jamson said and added, "What happened over there?"
"Everything in there is a mess, bodies all over the floor, computer burnt out." Sterner replied.
Jamson then turned his look to Ensign Ramirez and asked "Are you all ok?"
"My hand..., I think I broke my hand." Ramirez said.
"We will beam you to the Galaxy as soon as possible but can you answer a few questions?" Jamson asked.
The young Ensign suffered, his arm was broken and he was in shock so Jamson decided to leave him alone for now.
"Mr.Sterner." Jamson said while he was still looking at wounded Ramirez.
"Yes Sir?" Mr.Sterner answered Jamson and approached Ramirez trying to help him.
"What about the other 2?" Jamson asked.
Sterner looked at the other 2 and said "They are in shock Sir, I recommend beaming them out as soon as possible."
"Of course." Jamson said and tapped his comm badge "Mr.Jensen, beam the 3 crewmen up."
"But what about the away team Sir?" the transporter chief asked.
"In a few minutes Mr.Jensen. Jamson out." then Jamson turned to Sterner and asked "Mr.Sterner. Why did the 3 crewmen stop communicating?"
"Well Sir, they told me that one of their engineers got crazy and started shooting everything." Sterner answered.
Jamson tapped his comm badge again "Jamson to Price. Sir, Ensign Sterner found 3 crewmen in the other Engineering section. They are now aboard the Galaxy."