Star Trek: Season 10

[Shelby D]

Joint post by Jen, Just X, Crystal, Hawkeyemeds and Wraith1701. 2 of 4.


Sitting at the security station, Shelby kept focused on everything related to the ship they were approaching. To say that she was, skeptical of their welcome, was an understatement. Needing distraction, she shifted her gaze to the Chief of Security, thinking about her time with him so far. It had been interesting to say the least and she had yet to figure D'Callan out. A sensor went off on her console redirecting her attentions and she reported.
 
"The ship's gradually losing atmosphere from one of the cargo bays. Sir. Some sort of containment failure from the looks of it. It isn't much compared to what else is going on but that puts us on the clock even more."
 
Returning her attentions to the vessel outside the transparency Daelen knew without even needing to be there, what the away team's reception on the ship would be. They would not be appreciated by some immediately, there was little that could be done though to change such minds; despite whatever they thought. They needed help.  
 
The vision of the cloaked ship was ominous, dark and foreboding. Lines which usually flowed along into elegant curves were abruptly cut off or merged into the blackness of space. It had almost a magical quality as if an invisible hand had swept a paintbrush across a large section of the craft and then left it. The edges of her lips curled at the absurdity of her thoughts. Breathing inwardly the ensign sat back and continued to monitor the situation.  
     
Aeric's eyes grew distant as they approached the wounded vessel. Instinct guided him where sensors registered empty space. He had no expectations for what would happen next. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. People needed saving and the task had fallen to them.

"I believe that I've located the shuttle bay," Commander James said softly and plotted a course into one of the voids. He had a sense for technology that went beyond words. It was an insight that allowed him a very accurate talent of knowing how the various components of something came together to create a new whole. His eyes glanced towards the security station then he directed his words to the security officers.

"Mr. D'Callan and Ensign Daelen, once aboard the ship, I want you to provide security for Doctor Drett. We are here to help and I don't want there to be any misunderstandings on our presence. I want everyone to keep their weapons holstered unless we find ourselves seriously threatened. Let's try to win them over with kindness and keep the shock and awe as our backup plan."  
 
"Aye Sir." Shelby said with an affirmative nod.  

Joseph sat looking at the itinerary that the XO had given them all. After a moment, he glanced up from his PADD to look at Aeric. D'Callan nodded at him and moved his holster a little bit behind him so he could draw it easily enough, but it would not be on show for all to see. He thought the first officer looked calm. Joseph wondered if on the inside, he shared the nervous feelings that he himself currently had. K'tan, who was seated near by him, looked eager. His left leg shook gently. Shelby had her head up but her eyes closed; she was concentrating. He took a deep breath, he had no idea what Dr Drett was feeling... probably anxious at all the patients she would be seeing.
 
Part of him wanted to get this mission over with and return to the ship, but the other part ached for the excitement. A drop of perspiration dripped onto his boot from his forehead. It was either getting hot or his adrenaline was pumping harder than usual. Tapping his PADD, he checked over the security measures he had left for his department. Lieutenant Dunn was manning the shuttle bay, ready for their return.

The others would be positioned out of sight but still around the ship. He looked forward to seeing if he could get a good view of what was going on beyond the port,  but K'Tan's hair was in the way. Joe gave up, sat back and closed his eyes. He'd make the officer tie his hair back in five minutes—he thought that would lighten the mood.

[X]

Joint post by Jen, Just X, Crystal, Hawkeyemeds and Wraith1701. 3 of 4

K'Tan pulled back his hair and Joseph was able to view of their destination, his mouth dropped slightly. "Oh my," D'Callan  whispered to himself.

Opening her eyes again, Daelen studied the alien vessel carefully, while the shuttle's engines hummed in the background and carried them to a position where they could land on the foreign flight bay. It was additionally, an odd thing to wrap ones head around when one 'knew' that at some point you would become part of the vast blackness of space; upon slipping under the cloak which still camouflaged certain portions of the ship.    

Ryla straightened as the Presidio entered the Romulan craft. The bay seemed to inhale all light and breath out a dark haze that swirled in the sterile air as their runabout sliced through it. The Trill could see that no one was standing ready to meet them and wondered what awaited beyond the bay. She rose, gripping her med kit, as the shuttle set down on the deck plates. A passage separating the fore and aft compartments, slid open and the security portion of their rescue team stepped through and proceeded to the main hatch. The ramp opened slowly as Aeric and K'Tan entered the compartment and motioned for Ryla to follow the security detail. She was no stranger to peril, but that did not mean she lacked a healthy dose of fear. She drew a quiet breath to steady herself and followed the security officers down the ramp. The acrid smoke that hung in the air burned her eyes and throat. She coughed on the bitterness as they continued edging forward.

Joseph kept his eye on the scene in before him. Making sure both he and Daelen were in front of the other team members. As they walked, he arched his ear for any sounds that would indicate danger. D'Callan turned slightly and looked at the doctor then nodded to Aeric and K'Tan who stepped behind the Trill. He took a whiff of the air; something smelled wrong. Normally he'd have his phaser in his hand and ready for any sudden movement, but on Aeric's orders he kept it holstered. Joseph knew this was going to be delicate. The reaction from the Romulan, when permission was granted for the shuttle to come aboard, was not favorable and this made him nervous. But nerves should not be a factor in any mission that involved diplomacy.

"Where is everyone?" Asked Ryla in a hush meant only for the officers flanking her. Aeric James answered in an equally quiet voice, "sensors pinpointed twenty survivors in the engine room." He opened his tricorder and began scanning the bay.

"Good question..." murmured Shelby as she walked forward a few more steps, while making sure her hand was free of her side-arm and openly displayed. Her gray orbs touched on each minute detail that caught her eye, looking for little things that might indicate what had taken place. There were no visible signs in the shuttle bay of a fight. Still, there were some things; an access panel had been removed and discarded haphazardly against one wall. There were signs that some breathing apparatuses or medical supplies had been taken from a nearby wall cabinet and a dully flashing lens beside the door throbbed green.

[wraith1701]

Joint post by Jen, Just X, Crystal, Hawkeyemeds and wraith1701. 4 of 4


K'Tan glanced at the flashing panel.  "On Romulan vessels, red is a safety color. Green indicates danger."

The Trill Doctor eyed the access panel, as they carefully approached the exit, and assumed that its contents had either been defensive or medical in nature.  "It looks like they took everything in a hurry," she uttered absently.

Aeric quietly surveyed the bay and inhaled the the humid air before kneeling and placing his hand to the deck plate. "Begin a scan for any lifeforms positioned outside of the cluster initially detected."

With a nod, K'Tan activated his tricorder.  As he stepped over a length of scorched cable coiled on the deck, the tricorder gave a brief beep, then fell silent.  He stopped, studying the device in puzzlement.

"Found something, Mr. K'Tan?" asked James.

"I'm not sure Sir.  No change in life-sign readings, but I detected a quick energy spike."  He slowly rotated in place, holding the tricorder out before him.  "Whatever it was, it isn't registering anymore."

"Keep your tricorders on active scan. There are more people here than we're picking up," Aeric whispered and craned his neck as if listening to something unseen. "There are a few places on this ship where sensor echoes and shielding mask lifesigns.  It will be helpful to know if something decides to join our little party. Otherwise, we should continue to engineering and retrieve our guests and some answers. Doctor Drett, Mr. D'Callan, Mr. K'Tan you are with me. Ensign Daelen, I want you to return to the shuttle and secure it. We don't want to mount a rescue only to return to a sabotaged vessel."

With a nod Shelby understood the importance of the XO's request. Her eyes went to D'Callan who was now standing next to the doctor and she briefly wondered if this was his idea of a joke; after all he had tended to give her the 'nobody else wants these jobs' detail lately. None of it mattered to the young ensign though as she listened to any other directions the Commander might give.

"I know it doesn't need to be repeated," Aeric made sure he made eye contact with each of his officers, "but keep your phasers holstered and on stun. Do not draw any weapons unless placed in life threatening harm. Phasers will remain on stun unless I give specific orders to the contrary."

[Feathers]

Joint post by Feathers and Jen

Sitting back, Galdar rubbed a hand across the top of his orange head. Exchanging a final glance with the engineer beside him, the Lieutenant turned slightly in his chair.

"Captain," he called, "there's something else I think you need to be aware of."

Turning from Zremm's report, Sevryll leaned forward.

"Please extrapolate Mr. Galdar."

Swivelling his chair fully now, Galdar straightened as much as he could. He'd been aboard Arabella for a while but the ship hadn't seen action in that time. As a result, the Ferengi was still a little ill at ease amongst the bridge crew and hadn't really got a good feel for his captain, or her reactions.

"Captain, I've been monitoring some strange readings from the vessel in front of us." there was no apology in his voice although he hadn't been ordered to the task, "When I saw the first spike, I thought it was just some stray radiation but I caught it again as the runabout entered the cloaking field. I had no idea what it meant but with the help of Ensign Frida here I've narrowed it down to one possible source."

"Continue."

Glancing at the engineer for conformation, the pilot looked grave. "Ma'am, it looks like containment of the singularity at the heart of the vessel's warp drive is failing. The cloak is masking it from us at this angle, except when it's penetrated, but if we were to move the ship we should be able to get a clearer picture for the engineers to analyse."

Sevryll's stolid expression did not waver though the tension she felt within lapped at her composure.

"It's not going to fail imminently", Frida stepped in briskly, "but the evacuation is definitely a time-limited exercise. We want to be well away from here when she blows." Realising he'd just effectively issued an order to his captain, the ensign closed his mouth and coloured slightly.

"How much time do they have?"

Galdar looked nervous. "Ma'am, we can't perform a full analysis from this angle due to the effects of the cloak but from the readings we have obtained, our initial estimate is no more than one hour but maybe as little as thirty minutes." Swallowing, Galdar continued "I'm sure a proper Engineering team could refine the estimate further..."

She thanked the officers before addressing the away team, "Arabella to Commander James."

"James here Captain."

"Mr. Galdar has exposed a deviation in the Romulan ship's warp core. Please conduct your evacuation with the utmost vehemence.

[Meds]

Cocking his head to one side as the Captain warned Aeric, Joseph raised his tricorder and did some more calculations. He was getting interference, nothing in this area but definitely life signs ahead. He shook his head slightly and looked around the area and then at K'Tan, "not much of a party". He turned to the Commander and raised his brow.

[Bryancd]

Nalah's heart sounded like thunder in her ears as she eased along the corridor wall. She had slipped out of the cargo hold as soon as she heard of the impending arrival of the Starfleet shuttle. No one had noticed her departure. She would sooner die than fall into he hand's of the hated Federation that had brought so much pain and ruin to her family. She though back...

Pardek had been a friend of her father's, a Warbird Commander who had served with Jalok for many years. Following her fathers betrayal, he had been the only one to offer any support to her dishonored family. As a child, Pardak took an interest in Nalah's education. Any daughter of Jarok's must be trained in the family business, he would joke. He taught her the basics of flight dynamics and eventually Nalah and become a skilled pilot of various small craft. It had been the only time Nalah ever felt free as she and Pardek would glide through the emptiness between Romulus and Remus....

...But a Federation shuttle was of similar dimensions to the Talon class ships she had learned to pilot and she hoped the controls would be intuitive. Either way, she was going to leave on that ship, either alone or dead.

[X]

"Arabella to Commander James," Came Sevryll's distant voice.

Aeric slapped the device pinned to his chest, "James here, Captain."

"Mr. Galdar has exposed a deviation in the Romulan ship's warp core. Please conduct your evacuation with the utmost vehemence."

"Aye captain," Aeric said and began to recalculate his plan. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a change in the mission objectives. We're running short on time and we're going to have to approach this mission from a different angle. In addition to treating the wounded, I want main power and their cloaking device offline. We should be prepared to jettison the core to make it happen. If we eliminate the power, we should be able to remove the transporter interference. Mr. K'Tan and Doctor Drett, please head to engineering and see if you can treat the wounded. K'Tan, also see what you can do about shutting down the cloak from there."    


Aeric took a deep breath and retrieved his gear bag from the runabout. Inside the small soft sided black duffel bag was a collection of equipment that he had learned to bring after decades of being in the field and on the front line of the Federation war efforts. On his hip was his decidedly non-standard issue pistol-styled phaser in all of it's hand crafted uniqueness. Taking a small metal case from the black bag, commander James opened it to reveal a variety of optional parts that could be fitted to the weapon. Deft hands quietly added a small black box to the weapon under the barrel and forward of the firing trigger. When activated, the accessory would generate a ten centimeter long laser cutting blade that might be required to get past the bulkhead doors of the engineering area.

Aeric also retrieved two of the six photon grenades from their place within his bag before tossing it back onto the ship. "The support team should have included further charges and a few cutting tools on the shuttle. I'm still not sure how much it's going to take to disable the power and cloak on this bird, but gear up accordingly."

He had given specific orders to the flight deck on what to include on the shuttle, but like any other war veteran, Aeric found comfort in packing his own chute. He gave his orders to stock the ship with equipment that his people might need for the current mission, but when he packed his own gear, it was for a completely separate objective. He packed his gear to facilitate in the survival of his team and their return home. Rations, electronics, accessories to his weapon, spare power cells, and even bladed weapons that did not require power had found their way into becoming part of his standard away mission gear.

"Primary objective hasn't changed. We get everyone that we can help off the ship. The Presidio is still our main point of exit. I would like to get this dampening field off line and use the transporters, but we should work like it's not going to happen. We get to the people and move them to this shuttle bay. If we're able to get a transporter beam to work, we'll alter plans. Activate the locator beacons in your uniforms and have your life signs data sent to the runabout. Shelby will keep an eye on them and relay any major changes to the doctor."

Aeric had become quite fond of the latest starfleet issue uniforms and the integrated technologies the illuminated and enhanced clothing provided. He was also quite happy that they chose to include an off switch for the lighting when stealth was required.

[Feathers]

Chief Engineer Tolok strode briskly into shuttle bay 2 and looked about him in what could only be described as satisfaction. From what he could already see it was clear that the conversion was going well; the empty hanger deck was rapidly taking on the form of a temporary accommodation centre.

With the shuttles gone, the space was vast on a starship scale but for the number of people it was being equipped to cope with, it would still be a squeeze.

Replicators along one wall would cater for the refugee's material needs while sleeping and communal areas were being constructed across the remainder of the deck. It wouldn't be a luxurious way to travel but it would at least be safe.

Were he human, Tolok would have to admit to having mixed feelings about taking on so many Romulans. As a Vulcan, however, all he could do was question the logic of the decision. It wasn't that he hated Romulans - that would be illogical and far too emotional a response. He was aware of Romulan involvement in the destruction of Vulcan, however, and that made his logic in these matters...complicated.

Filing the conundrum for later analysis and resolution, he turned to the approaching Beta Team leader.

"Lieutenant. Your progress so far appears acceptable. Is there anything further that you might require in order to complete the task?" he asked.

[Jen]

The lights carried K'Tan and Ryla pierced the thick haze like radiant lances seeking an elusive target. They swept the contents of the Engine room, occasionally crossing one another, before passing over a mass of people huddled on the opposite side. Tension mingle in the air with the contaminants their tricorders detected... neither had been unexpected.

The doctor's eyes briefly studied each of the group, before settling on a man laying on the deck with his head cradled in a woman's lap. Ryla slowly approached them as introductions were made by Lieutenant Commander K'Tan. She knelt beside the injured Romulan before turning her eyes on the woman holding him, "may I?" Once the stern looking woman had nodded a curt response, Doctor Drett opened her kit and removed a medical tricorder. Her patient's caretaker said nothing, but watched her with keen eyes—waiting for any sign of treachery from the Starfleet officer. Ryla activated the device and silently absorbed the readings it gathered. After a moment, she closed the tricorder and reached for a hypospray resting within her kit. As her fingers found the implement, the Romulan woman clasped her wrist with a powerful grip. A slight gasp of surprise called attention to her situation. K'Tan turned to see the kneeling doctor in the Romulan's clutches. "I'm alright..." Ryla uttered in a voice she rose high enough to be understood, yet not so loud as to upset the 'peace' in the room.

While preserving a calm demeanor, she attempted to reassure the agitated woman, "this will reduce the swelling and ease his pain. I won't hurt him."  Despite her attempt to repress it, the doctor's voice held a notable tremor. Fear was not its source—instead, it was the acute pain associated with the unyielding clamp fixed to her wrist. She drew a sharp breath and let her assurance out with the exhale,  "I can help him...please...allow me to do so."

Though she was unsure of Ryla's honesty, the woman slowly released the chief medical officer. Under the Romulan's intense gaze, Doctor Drett tried to focus on her patient... yet the enduring pain she felt suggested a fractured bone. As she continued her work, the Trill promised herself that she would tend to it after the survivors were cared for.

[Shelby D]

Shelby was by no means worried about staying alone with the shuttle. Rather she understood the reason for it. Inside the vessel, the Ensign worked to link the life sign detectors, on the team's uniforms, to her tricorder so she could monitor them from the small device. Upon finishing the half-romulan woman walked back out into the bay and started to scan it for anything of interest. Going first along the wall she kept her sharp senses on at all times.

Passing the panel which had been left exposed Daelen could see that in what appeared to be desperation, someone had been switching and removing some of the crystals. Then she began to read a slight build up; it wasn't enough to worry about at this point but she would keep a close watch on it.  Upon finishing the scan the ensign clicked back to the team's life signs again.

She additionally noted the time and was surprised a little by how much of it had gone by since the others had left to take care of their respected rescues. Soon they would be coming back or calling for transport. There were no signs of trouble yet but that didn't mean anything. Moving over to the shuttle Shelby checked inside it then came out and stood guard beside the entrance; waiting. It wouldn't be long now.There were no signs of trouble yet but that didn't mean anything. Moving over to the shuttle Shelby checked inside it then came out and stood guard beside the entrance; waiting. It wouldn't be long now.

[wraith1701]

In the engine room, K'Tan struggled not to rush Ryla while she dealt with her Romulan patients. Commander Jame's last message indicated that time was of the essence, but he trusted the doctor's judgement on how best to handle the triage.  Biting his tongue, he took a quick inventory of the room.

The commander indicated that deactivating the cloak might buy us some time, he thought.  

Thanks to the brief, tenuous alliance shared by the Klingons and Romulans during the 23rd century, there were many similarities between the technology used by both races.  Most notable was the fact that  on both Romulan and Klingon ships, the intense power demand of the cloaking device required that it be tied directly into the deflector shield grid. In fact, this was the primary cause of the most well known fault of cloaking technology-- A ship could either deploy shields or engage the cloak, but never the two simultaneously.  

Drawing on his limited knowledge of Romulan writing, K'Tan tried to locate a maintenance access for the deflector shield grid.  Within a few minutes, he spotted a panel marked with a bright-green rendering of the Romulan glyph for 'danger'; directly beneath it was the symbol for 'shields'.  

K'Tan turned to the seated Romulans.  "Our ship has detected an instability with your power system.  The drain being caused by your cloaking device is exacerbating the problem.  Unless we deactivate the cloak, this vessel could explode at any moment."  

As if to punctuate his statement, a harsh alarm-klaxon suddenly erupted, accompanied by the rhythmic pulsing of sickly-green warning lights.

"We're running out of time."

K'Tan paused a moment to glance at Ryla, then hurried over to the access panel.  The hatch opened easily, revealing a dimly-lit crawlspace reminiscent of the Jeffries tubes found on Federation starships.  Activating his palm-light, he crouched down and began crawling.

As he made his way into the tunnel, K'Tan's heart felt like it was syncing itself to the muffled wail of the Romulan alarm.  I'd better hurry, he thought.  Moments later, he smiled in relief as he spotted the familiar shape of the deflector hub.

Following a series of cables leading from the shield grid regulator, K'Tan came to a fork in the crawlspace.  He followed the cables around a bend to the left, and was rewarded with the sight of a horizontally oriented cylindrical device.  The meter-long object vaguely resembled a torpedo; it tapered at each end, with the cables he had followed flowing into the nearest end.  This must be it, he thought.  It's certainly a lot shiner than a Klingon cloaking device.  

The device was encased in a series of interlocked metallic panels of alternating silver and matte-black.  After a moment of study, K'Tan inserted the tip of his d'k tahg into the join of two of the panels.  Using the knife as a lever, he applied gradually increasing pressure until one of the black panels popped free.  He then shimmied forward until he could peer into the opening, and activated his palm-light to reveal a translucent hemisphere capped by a metallic plasma-conduit housing.

This must be the projection matrix.  

He followed a faintly glowing plasma conduit to a small cylinder surrounded by a series of highly-polished metal rods.

And if I'm lucky, this is the tetryon compositor.  

He slipped his blade beneath the conduit connecting the two units, and began to apply pressure.

Severing the connection should short out the compositor, taking the device off line.  Either that, or it will shoot enough volts into me to let me find out first hand whether or not Sto-Vo-Kor is real.

As his fingers tightened on the knife, K'Tan broke out into a cold sweat.  After a moment's pause, he gave a mental shrug.  

Oh, well, he thought, and slashed his blade through the cable.

[iceman]

Dr. Casey Peterson arrived at deck 5 with his rose in hand and stepped off the turbo lift, he headed down the corridor to sickbay and entered. Myella was standing by a computer console finishing her inventory of surgical supplies.

" Hi Dear, Myella responded as she finished her last entry. Casey smiled as he handed her the rose replying " For you dear, Since I have a few days off before my first shift I though I would come down hear and give you a hand just in case we have some injured personnel coming in on the shuttle.

Casey smiled at his wife as she took the rose and put it on the desk beside her work station. Casey walked by her and said "I am going to set up the surgical bays with supplies so that they will be ready in case they are needed.'

" OK Myella responded as she watched her husband disappear into the surgical area and begin setting the bays up for wounded Romulans.

[Feathers]

As Galdar sat watching the bridge view screen and tracking the ever changing course projection on his console, a ripple seemed to pass across the space before him. Where there had previously been nothing but stars, the remainder of the crippled Romulan vessel now appeared, her battered and torn hull revealing the extent of the havoc that had been wreaked upon her. Whether revealed by a technological failure, or by the hand of one of those on board, the Ferengi couldn't tell.

Over to his right, Ensign Frida was already bent to his own displays, analysing the relative wealth of sensor data now suddenly available from the damaged containment systems at the heart of the vessel's engine core. Where before it had only been possible to provide an approximation of the time remaining to the ship, now the ensign should be able to determine a figure to a much greater accuracy.

Frida looked tense, Galdar thought, but then as with many of this crew this was his first time aboard this ship and probably his first bridge duty shift. Galdar smiled slightly at the thought. While he was also new to the Arabella's bridge, he had served on the Tiberius with many of these officers so he had the advantage of knowing them at least by personal reputation, if not personally.

As a shuttle pilot he'd worked his shifts away from the bridge and close to the flight deck of Tiberius which meant he knew Commander James quite well. Indeed, it had been that relationship that had brought him from the Luxembourg to the Arabella and gained him the second shiny rank pip on his uniform. Knowing the Commander, however, was not the same as knowing his wife which was why Galdar himself was still a little unsure around the captain.

Feeling himself observed, Frida sat back and looked across at the Lieutenant. He smiled slightly before taking a deep breath as if steeling himself for something.

"Captain", he called, "with the cloak disabled I've been able to get a better reading on the rate of singularity containment decay. It's not as bad as our initial estimate suggested but with the power drain of the cloak out of the equation, that's to be expected." He paused for breath again. "What we're looking at now is a worst case estimate of fifty minutes with the best case adding another half hour to those figures."

[X]

Aeric smiled as interference faded and a collection of life signs became apparent in a cargo bay previously protected by the cloak of this ship.

"Mr. D'Callan, I have a hit in the cargo bay." the commander said and altered their course for that direction. He continued to wave his tricorder over the systems of the ship as they moved forward. "Once there, we should get them out as quickly as possible. As soon as this interference clears, we might be able to use the transporters on the Arabella."

[Jen]

"We're running out of time." K'Tan's heavy statement of fact dominated the restless assembly, causing their murmurs to abruptly cease. Ryla turned her gaze to him as she moved to the next injured Romulan. The Terran's eyes met hers just as the alarm-klaxon began to pound, making an echo chamber of the engine room. The pulsing blood-green light that followed, gave their concerned expressions a nauseous contrast. K'Tan's glance lingered for a heartbeat then the light faded. Before it could strobe again, he had turned on his heel and disappeared into a crawlspace—leaving the Trill alone with the host of distressed passengers.  

Before her, a puncture wound oozed on a woman's chest. The whir of the tricorder was muted by the alarm's inexorable bray as Ryla studied the analysis of her medical instrument. She started as a voice from behind spoke up, "Senator Nevhash's decision to allow your boarding was not met with wide-spread acceptance." The man knelt beside her and gestured to the patient the doctor had previously attended. "Yet Senator Ketleck's disfavor was greater than our sum and he attempted to kill her for dishonoring us all. I had to strike him with this to stop his onslaught." He presented Ryla with the small metal globe at end of his staff, but the Trill did not pause her work to look at it.  

In spite of the pain in her wrist, the doctor moved rapidly over Nevhash. If the Romulan's life was going to be sparred, the Senator would need surgery. She turned to the man crouched beside her, "press your hands against the wound." He stared at her a moment then moved his palms to cover the hole that grinned at them from below the woman's collarbone. Fortunately, the blade had missed her lungs but the flow of blood would kill her if they did not leave soon.  The doctor pushed a hypo to the woman's neck and flicked her hazel eyes to the Romulan acting as her medical aid.  "I'm going to check on the others. Keep your hands over the wound." She tried to smile, "Hopefully we will be out of here soon and your efforts to save her will be successful."  He nodded in understanding as Ryla shuffled away—the slow beat of the green warning lights uncovering her rapid progress every other second.