Chakotay strode into Engineering, stepping over debris that hadn't been cleared yet. He spotted Torres buried underneath a console, her arm reaching out to a green young ensign who was assisting her. "B'Elanna?"
"Just a minute!" came her muffled reply. A loud clang followed a few moments later, trailed by a string of Klingon cursing. She slid along the deck until she was clear, then sat up. "Fres, see if you can get that relay stabilized."
"Me?" he choked out.
"Am I talking to anyone else?" she growled.
Chakotay felt for the man. He'd only been under B'Elanna's careful tutelage for about a month or so, and he obviously hadn't stopped shaking yet. The captain hid a smile when the ensign responded with a crisp, "Yes, sir!"
Figuring he'd save the youngster some grief, he laid a hand on Fres' shoulder. "The chief engineer prefers to be addressed as Commander, Ensign." Fres seemed to visibly relax a little. Probably because he's not afraid I'm going to break his nose, Chakotay thought. Now stepping forward to offer his hand to B'Elanna, he questioned, "Do you have a report for me?"
She let him pull her to her feet, absently wiping her fingers on her trousers as she straightened up. "Does it matter? As soon as I fix something, these bastards just blow it apart anyway." He frowned at her, so she re-evaluated her approach. "The warp core is stabilized enough to get you to warp five, but the slipstream is still out. Our replicators just aren't large enough to recreate the casing."
"It's that bad?" he asked as they slowly made their way through Engineering.
She nodded. "It isn't just fractured – it's shattered. It's full of hairline fractures that will take about four solid days to repair manually. But we can't even get near it because of all the more critical repair work." She heaved a sigh. "At least it's not leaking any radiation. It's just inert."
They circled the centre column, where the dormant slipstream component was a dull grey that encircled the blue flowing warp core. "I'll take what I can get, B'Elanna." He rested his hands on the railing that surrounded the core. "How's Miral doing?"
"She's okay. Doesn't like being bundled off to Sickbay every time we come under attack, but she likes all the shuddering and jumping around that the ship does."
He smiled. "She's going to be a daredevil, that one."
"Don't I know it. She just barely walks, but I've already caught her almost diving off the couch twice." Seeing how haggard her friend was looking, she asked, "You okay?"
"I'm fine."
Torres laughed. "What is that, the standard Starfleet captain's response?"
He smiled for what felt like the first time in days. "I learned from the best." His thoughts drifted back to Kathryn for just a moment. "I just hope our signal got out before they fried the communications array."
Vorik handed her a padd as he walked past, which she scrolled through. "Well, Sue's team seems to have it about fifty percent operational. We might be able to get something out if it holds at seventy-five."
He nodded. "Keep on it. I want to send a call to the fleet as soon as we can."
"Yes, sir." She started to go back to check on Fres, but then decided to give the kid a break and instead turned around and headed back to check on the weapons relays.
