'Shit shit shit!' shouted Cadet Tilly as alarms went off all around her. 'I can't contain it Admiral, it's set off some kind of..'

Her words were cut off as a massive explosion rocked the cabin of the small shuttle and Admiral Cornwell flew across the room to land unmoving by Tilly's feet.

'Shit!' repeated Tilly, taking one last look at her readings before running to the aft lockers and pulling out several bags. Throwing these over her shoulders, she returned to the inert body of the Admiral and hauled her as upright as she could manage. Flames were licking their way up the console Cornwell had been working at and steadily engulfing everything in their way. 'Computer, emergency beamout to the planet's surface, now!' The shuttle dissolved around them and then Tilly felt solid ground under her feet.

The first thing Katrina registered as she came to was the sound of birdsong, which was unusual enough for her to notice. The second thing she registered was a blinding headache which came into being as she tried to sit up. She fell back to the ground with a groan, noticing several other aches and pains as she did so.

'Hey there, take it easy Admiral,' a voice said suddenly beside her and she opened her eyes again. The concerned face of Cadet Sylvia Tilly was hovering over her, her hands brandishing what looked like a medical tricorder which she was waving slightly ineptly at Katrina. 'You've got a mild concussion and some pretty bad bruising.' Tilly made a sympathetic grimace. 'Can't catch a break, huh?'

It all came flooding back; the Klingon ship, the rescue, the emergency surgery and the transfer by shuttle back to Starbase 46. Except they clearly hadn't quite made it there. More slowly this time, she pulled herself into a sitting position and winced.

'What happened, Cadet?' She winced again at how hoarse her voice came out. Tilly handed her a flask of water before answering which she sipped from gratefully.

'I'm not exactly sure Admiral, we hit some kind of explosive which took out our engines and sent us on a collision course with the planet. You were knocked unconscious when your console exploded but we still had transporter control so I grabbed a couple of kit bags and beamed us down before it was too late. I hope I did the right thing.' Tilly was gnawing on her lip with worry.

'You did very well Cadet, I'm impressed.' Katrina smiled at the look of relief on the redhead's face and took another sip of water. 'Do we have any pain meds?' Tilly rummaged quickly inside a satchel lying a few feet away on the ground, emerging with a hypospray that she promptly held to Katrina's neck. Katrina heard the hiss and sighed in relief a few moments later as the medication took effect. 'Thank you.' Tilly smiled. 'How long was I out?'

'Just a few minutes sir, I've started the emergency beacon and I was working on getting the tent set up.' Katrina followed her gaze over her shoulder to where there was indeed a mess of fabric and poles lying on the ground. Hiding her amused snort, she looked back at Tilly.

'Not done much camping have you?' she said with a grin and was entertained to see the blush spread across the girl's cheeks. 'At ease, Cadet, I'm just messing with you. I'll give you a hand.' Ignoring Tilly's half formed protestations, Katrina eased herself into a standing position and waited for a moment for the spinning to die down. Making her way gingerly across the clearing, she looked at the 'tent'. With much pointing and correcting from Katrina and running around from Tilly they got the thing erected and stood back to survey their handiwork. It was a basic four man tent, just high enough for the two women to stand in, with a rain porch and a plastic window on one side. The clearing they were in had a kind of rocky shale underfoot so they'd cleared as much of this as possible and aimed the door in what they thought was the opposite direction from the prevailing wind. It would do.

'Not bad for a first timer,' she aimed at Tilly with a wry smile before turning her attention to the other bags. 'Any ideas what else you managed to grab?' Tilly headed over to her and knelt down next to them.

'This one should be emergency rations,' she said, indicating the square grey one nearest her. Pulling it towards her, she opened the zip to reveal the unmistakable packaging of the Starfleet issue bars. Both women breathed a sigh of relief. 'This one is medical supplies,' Tilly indicated the open satchel with the medical tricorder she had been using earlier on top, 'and I'm not sure about the last one. It was in with the tent.' Katrina stooped for it and found a small bag containing a couple of blankets and some extra clothes.

'Very well done Cadet, this should be more than enough to keep us comfortable until we're rescued. Full marks for quick thinking.' Tilly blushed again but met Katrina's eyes and replied with a formal thank you. A gust of wind blew through the clearing and both women shivered. 'We should get a fire going,' muttered Katrina, looking around for a good spot. 'You check the beacon's working properly and I'll get started on that.' Instead of agreeing, however, Tilly planted her feet and looked Katrina in the eye.

'With all due respect, sir, you have a concussion. You should sit down and rest while I get the fire started.' Katrina started to argue, but Tilly's words brought her headache to the forefront of her thoughts again. With a grimace and a nod, she made her way over to the door of the tent and sat down. Tilly frowned.

'Is anything hurting still? I didn't have a chance to do more than a rudimentary check and I'm not medically trained..' she trailed off as Katrina raised an eyebrow.

'Luckily I am,' she smirked, watching the blush yet again on Tilly's cheeks as the girl realised she was talking to one of the highest ranking doctors in Starfleet. 'Hand me that tricorder and I'll check us both out.' Running the device over the cadet she was happy to note nothing worse than a couple of scratches. Turning it onto herself, she was less pleased. The concussion Tilly had mentioned was there, which meant she'd have to take it easy for a couple of days when she'd rather be exploring her surroundings. She also had severe bruising and a few abrasions down one side of her body, presumably where she'd landed after being knocked out. Still, neither of them had any problems that required more serious medical attention which was a relief when they were stranded miles from civilisation. That reminded her of another question and she turned to Tilly. 'Any ideas where we are, Cadet?'

Tilly paused for a moment to aim her phaser at the pile of wood she'd amassed and fire, aiming a steady stream at the middle until it caught alight. Placing the weapon back on her belt she turned back to Katrina.

'Yes sir, we're on the fourth planet of the Ceti system, I'm guessing on the Northern continent from the climate and the landscape.' Both women looked around them, Katrina taking note of their surroundings for the first time. She mentally scolded herself for not looking earlier, before remembering that she was suffering from a concussion and wasn't quite functioning normally. They were at the foot of a gradual incline, in a small clearing about four times as large as their tent, surrounded by tall trees that reminded her of pines. In the distance she thought she could see mountains. The sky was a pale lavender colour and she could see two moons in the sky already.

'Ceti IV huh? I suppose we could have picked a worse spot for a holiday,' she grinned at Tilly who responded with a smile of her own. 'Any ideas how long it'll take for Starfleet to pick up our signal?'

'I was planning on working on that tomorrow, sir,' she responded. 'I'm guessing we don't have much time before sundown and I wanted to finish getting set up before night falls.' Katrina nodded.

'Go ahead, Cadet.' She watched as Tilly busied herself with collecting more firewood, checking the beacon and getting all the bags into the tent. By the time she had finished, night had nearly fallen and the temperature was dropping. 'That's enough for tonight,' Katrina called to Tilly who was adding more wood to the fire. 'Let's get inside.'

Tilly crossed the small distance to the tent and clambered in. Once Katrina had joined her, she activated the torch from her belt and zipped up the door. 'All set,' she said with a smile. 'What's for dinner?' Katrina barked a laugh.

'I admire your spirit kid,' she said with a grin as Tilly handed her one of the ration packs and a flask of water.

'A little bit of optimism never hurt anyone,' Tilly remarked. 'A situation is only ever as bad as you make it.'

Katrina had a sudden vivid image of herself lying on the floor in a Klingon prison cell. Tilly's voice seemed to be coming from a long way away as she saw her torturers coming for her, felt the sting as their knives cut through her uniform and sliced her skin. She would not give in, would not tell them anything..

'Admiral!'

Gasping, Katrina came back to the present. She was sitting on the floor of the tent, sweat dripping down her face and shaking violently. She took several long slow breaths and forced herself to look into the worried face of Tilly.

'Sorry,' she rasped out. 'I'm still suffering from the after effects of the trauma. I was supposed to be going for another psych eval when we got to the base but..' she trailed off, unable to continue. Slowly the shaking abated and her breathing returned to normal. She became aware that Tilly hadn't moved and her expression was still frozen. 'I'm ok. I just need a minute. Are you?' Tilly seemed to shake herself.

'Uhh yeah, I guess so. What was that?! You were completely gone, just all of a sudden, you were here and then you weren't!' Katrina chuckled darkly.

'You've just described the effects of a PTSD attack very accurately for someone with no medical training.'

'PTSD?' Tilly asked, confusion still etched across her face. Then realisation dawned. 'Ohh.. you never had a chance to process your experiences on the Klingon ship before we landed here.' Katrina nodded, still not totally in control. Tilly's expression cleared. 'Then you'd better teach me how to help you come out of it so I can help next time.' Katrina huffed a laugh.

'You make it sound so simple.'

'Why can't it be?'

A short while later, after Katrina had got a hold of herself again and had something to eat and drink, she talked Tilly through the best ways to help someone in shock. Tilly listened to it all with a serious expression, nodding and asking the occasional question as she absorbed the information. Afterwards, Katrina had her repeat everything back to her and was impressed to note the level of understanding behind what she said.

'We should get some rest,' Katrina said when they had finished. 'Let's get those blankets out.' Tilly located the bag amongst the rest of the kit and made them some makeshift beds. There was a slight awkwardness as they both lay down on opposite sides of the tent and Tilly turned her torch off. After a moment's silence, Katrina spoke.

'I should probably warn you, I'm still suffering from some pretty bad nightmares,' she said quietly. 'I'll probably wake you up by screaming a couple of times in the night.' She heard the rustle of blankets and saw the dim outline of Tilly rolling over to face her.

'That's ok,' she replied. 'My little brother used to get night terrors so I'm kinda used to it.' After a pause, she added, 'I snore pretty loudly.' Katrina snorted and she could hear Tilly's answering laugh from across the tent.

'I guess we'll wake each other up then,' Katrina responded. 'Good luck.'

The first time they woke up, it was to Katrina sitting bolt upright with a scream that scared even her. Drawing in ragged breaths, she tried to focus on Tilly's voice as the girl reassured her that what she was seeing was not real, that she was safe. Gradually her heartbeat slowed, and eventually they both calmed enough to lie down again. Shortly after that, Katrina learned exactly what Tilly had meant when she said she snored loudly.

The second time they woke up, Katrina's screaming took longer to stop and dissolved into body wracking sobs that wouldn't stop until Tilly scooted across the small space separating them and put her arms around the older woman. Katrina responded without thinking about it, clinging to the redhead and gasping into her shoulder as Tilly stroked her hair and whispered calming words into her ear. After a few minutes with no sign of improvement, Tilly manoeuvred them both into a lying down position and Katrina clung even closer. Eventually however, the crying turned to whimpers and her breathing evened out, still resting with her head on Tilly's chest.

That was how they woke up in the morning.

I'm aware this might seem like a weird pairing at first, but stick around to see how it turns out. Let me know what you think!