So I dive a little deeper into the story and introduce some temporary and secondary characters and finally you get the bloodshed you may or may not want. (Whichever suits me fine.) Hope you enjoy this and subsequent chapters.

Part 5: Blood Spilt.

For several seconds, he couldn't exactly believe it, despite the showers of sparks and shaking of the ship that threatened to toss Bernhard from where he lay in the jefferies tube. He rolled back onto his front and began to climb up to the deck above. The tube spilled out into an air shaft that soon fed into the sickbay. He gazed out and couldn't see anything at first, but soon a body, running, rushed into the room and was hit by a greenish white bolt of energy. She screamed and fell to the floor, back smoking from the wound. In the far corner, Bernhard could see the other nurses and the doctor cowering in the corner now. The doctor stood and brought his hands up, signaling that he surrendered. It was no good, the man was struck by an intense beam of green, he was swallowed in a cloud of green light, blasted into oblivion by the rifle of the Klingons who walked slowly and devilishly into the room, their guns at their hips, both rifles and pistols. The nurses, both men and women, tried to hide and surrender but nobody listened.

As Bernhard shimmied backwards to the last junction, he averted his eyes from the flash of the disruptors as they dealt swift blows to the medical staff. It was all made more diabolic by the sound of a Klingon's laughter. Bernhard put the sorrow aside and cleared his mind, considering his options.

It was a training cruise, very few non-tactical cadets would be wearing weapons; in fact, most weapons would be locked in the armory on the different decks. Bernhard found the junction and moved forward, squeezing and finally thankful for his small stature, if his shoulders had been an inch wider he would never make it. Eventually he came to a sprout off, he knew he was over a main corridor because of the constant sound of weapons fire below him, which would hopefully be something better than sickbay. He was right, it was a locker room, hopefully a room containing weapons. Except the air duct was protected and heavier armored in this location, keeping him from easily breaking into the room easily. That didn't stop him, a few times smashing his shoulder against the corner knocked the bolts loose and he suddenly fell through and violently landed on his back.

He lay stunned for a second or two before he gathered his strength and opened the door. This section of corridor was silent of any fire, but he could hear the tapping of someone trying to open the door. He went to the closest locker and found he was in an armory, he took a phaser pistol and it's tactical belt from the locker, complete with slots for an extra energy cell and two grenades, and opened the next to find a number of full auto rifles inside. He slung the rifle, not giving any thought to grab a full tactical kit, and drew the pistol from it's holster. He approached the door and triggered the release, aiming the pistol out. He dropped it immediately.

"Auch, donee shoot us laddie, we a' be Starfleet, ya know!" A short Ferengi, with a strange accent much like a number of human cadets at the Academy. He was accompanied by a Trill and two Vulcans, all of them either had a gold or blue stripe on their Academy uniforms.

"Who's in charge here?" He asked.

The Trill huffed. "In charge, I don't even know what system we're in, or if this is real or not!"

Bernhard signaled for them to get in the room, grabbing the Ferengi and tossing him in. When they were in he closed the door, locking it. "It's real, bloody hell it's real." He leaned heavily against the bulkhead and slid down, he dropped his rifle to the side.

"What happened Mister Morris?" Asked a Vulcan, calm and unemotional as usual.

"What happened? What happened?" Bernhard was on his feet, face becoming red with fury, primarily at the tone of the Vulcan. "Klingons that's what! Bloody killed the whole sickbay crew! Every damn one, they were surrendering too!"

The second Vulcan's eyebrows tilted in, she showed concern for Bernhard. "Then maybe," Something evil was behind her eyes, "we should pay them the same favor, eh?"

For a second he wasn't sure what she meant, then it hit him, her lack of emotion while speaking was offsetting, he grinned as well. Reaching over, he knocked the door to the nearest weapon locker open and took out a full tactical kit and strapped it on. "Gear up." He said.

The Trill, Ferengi, and second Vulcan began gearing up, but the first stood back, arms crossing her breasts, staring cynically at the second as she suited up. Bernhard approached. "Gear up, Cadet, we have some Klingons to kill."

"I'm a deflectors officer, Mister Morris, I'm not trained in combat on the ground." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Bernhard tilted his head in question. "And that matters how much?"

She straightened and dropped her arms. "Well don't you see," her raised voice caused the other cadets to look at her as they finished gearing up. "none of us, not even you, have taken anything beyond basic tactical experience, nor the advanced phaser course. We're scientists and engineers, not marines!"

"It'a be simpla' lassie," spoke the Ferengi, brandishing his beam rifle, "justa' aim and shoot."

The Vulcan shook her head and was about to protest when Bernhard turned, stopped shortly to put a number of grenades, mainly stun, on his gear, and walked to the door. He triggered the release and leaned from the doorway, checking both ways with his pistol held up. When he thought it was clear he leaned back in.

"You can stay here, but you didn't see a dozen defenseless cadets murdered less than five minutes ago." He waved his hand for the group to follow him. They secured the section of hall and were kneeling as they formulated a plan.

"Security offices are aft of here, near Main Engineering, T'Kira could be barricaded in there." The Vulcan said, calmness had returned to her voice.

"Good idea, but we need to get to a panel and contact either the bridge or someone who can help us." He looked at the faces, they eagerness was gone and fear was beginning to show in their eyes.

"The Sciences, it's forward and down two levels. It could be swarming with Klingons," the Trill had a gold stripe across her jacked symbolized the engineering department. "I may be able to hack into the computers if you can get me to a semi-important console."

"The siyback?" Bernhard couldn't tell if the Ferengi purposely pronounced sickbay that way, or just did and didn't realize it.

"I heard fighting along that corridor, but it's not far." they could hear the fighting even now.

"Not to mention, fire means friendlies." said the Vulcan.

Bernhard nodded. "Sickbay then." He ordered the Ferengi to the back with the Vulcan behind him and the Trill behind Bernhard leading. As the began to move slowly he secretly dreaded visiting sickbay for the image of the Klingons hovering over the helpless medical staff. The sounds grew louder and Bernhard held up a fist for them to stop. He lowered it and they all knelt as he crept forward, gun against his left shoulder, head tilted with one eye gazing down the sights. He slowly moved against the inside wall of the corridor's turn. Eventually the back of a Klingon came into his sight, a few more steps and he could see several more. He edged back again.

The Vulcan was lying flat on her belly, out a meter or so from the group, aiming down the hall as Bernhard told them what he saw.

"An'ea ideer what they be shootin' at noaw?" Asked the Ferengi.

"Negative, but I think they're some kind of rearguard, they didn't seem to be taking any cover, just staring."

"I say we take 'em, kill them all nice and quick." said the Trill.

The all agree, and they spread across the corridor, sweeping about the curve until they saw the full group of five or so Klingons, staring down the hall as if they didn't what was behind them. Bernhard took aim at the far left warrior, at outside edge of the curve, and squeezed his trigger. Three orange bolts flew free and knocked the Klingon to the floor, back smoking just like the poor bugger he had seen killed earlier, the same happened to three others at the same time, leaving the final Klingon to turn and see four phaser rifles looking straight at him. They didn't expect him to surrender, and they never gave him the chance. The kept moving around the curve and saw several more Klingons crouching behind support frames as they fired on down the hall at a group of Starfleet obscured by the curve of the hall.

They moved up again, quickly but silently. Bernhard signaled for them to crouch and unhooked a photon grenade. Primed, he tossed it into their midst. The explosion of brilliant white light dissipated quickly and they moved forward, checking for any survivors. Bernhard leaned out into the turn and shouted that he was with Starfleet, a short figure appeared, a Caitian, cautiously approaching with her weapon at her shoulder.

"Identify yourself." She called. Bernhard could tell she was a tactical cadet by the red stripe on her jacket.

"Sensor Officer Bernhard Morris."

The Caitain moved closer and lowered the rifle, "Sorry about that friend, can't be too careful." it was hard to read the feline expressions of Caitians, but he was sure she was giving a hopeful grin. "Junior NCO of Security Rrash." No matter how friendly she seemed, she was always glancing about, both hands tight on her auto rifle. She looked back and called all clear, a team of two Bolians, a Saurian, and a Andorian. "May I present to you: Junior NCOs Kes Ch'rhiarrohr," She pointed to the male Andorian with strangely long hair. "Chehis Arad and Crash Regit," She pointed first the female Bolian, then to the male. "And finally Torpedo Ballistics Cadet Tekz." She looked at Bernhard, he realized she was expecting him to introduce his own crew.

He suddenly realized he didn't know a single name among his group. The Vulcan saved him: "Officer of Deflectors Sakup." She said, nodding as she hefted her beam rifle.

"Arripak, Damage Control." Said the Ferengi.

The Trill stepped forward and offered hand. "Vossen Kabod." Rrash didn't accept the hand, she turned and cocked a head at Morris.

"Do you happen to have a battle plan Mister Morris?" She asked, he didn't exactly like the tone of her voice, but he did like how she purred his name, extending the r's and sounding sexy while she did it.

Bernhard bit his lip. "We were heading to the sickbay and access the core computers there and hopefully either contact the bridge or hack into the Sciences and fire up the distress beacon."

She nodded slowly, considering the plan. "Hell of a first day eh?" they all nodded and huffed somewhat sadly at the fact, they knew that this was a bugger all and was bound to have many unfortunate outcomes. "I'll follow you, we didn't come from that far though, we were making for the torpedo lockers forward and maybe make a way up to the bridge, but I think your idea is better, we can rally help in the sickbay if we need."

She signaled for him to lead and fell in step behind him, Crash and Tekz brought up the rear with Arripak. Bernhard didn't bother to tell her what he had seen in sickbay and moved alongside her in their large group. It wasn't far to the sickbay entrance and stopped outside. They could hear a crash inside. Rrash ordered Kabod and Crash out into the corridor ahead and told Arad and Arripak to hold the rear, leaving the rest to rush down the hall into sickbay. They found a four Klingons, Bernhard was sure they were the exact same ones, going through the medical supplies and stashing bags full of what they could grab. They were dropped in a few seconds, all dead. One had been stunned by a blast from Rrash's pistol, Bernhard took his own gun and shot him in the head.

"What the jumping hell?" Rrash's head moved back and forth quickly, shocked at his display.

He pointed at where the sickbay crew had been cowering last he looked, there was a number of smoldering bodies, but there was a large presence of black ash across the previously spotless hull. "You see that, that's what the hell I'm doing. I don't care about intelligence or Section 31, I'm not going to give any quarter to any of the bastards who did this."

Rrash looked with some shock at the location as Bernhard turned away and told Vossen to access the mainframe. "It will just take minute or two."

Bernhard turned back and saw Rrash looking at one of the bodies, it was another Caitian. He placed a hand on her shoulder, when their eyes met he could see a tear inside them. There were no words to comfort her, he just grabbed everyone but Sakup, who was helping Vossen, and walked out to secure the hall. On the bulkhead panel he pulled out a floor plan, checking through it.

Rrash had dried her eyes and was leaning over the panel along with Bernhard and Kes. They were wondering what to do next, whether to move aft and take back the Security Office, when Sakup called them back. Only Rrash and Bernhard walked over.

"Sitrep, Vossen." He ordered.

Vossen looked up from the panel and brushed a stray hair back. "Damaged all to hell, and just as bad on the Klingon front. No contact with the bridge and we're being jammed by something bloody powerful."

Rrash looked at him. "Well?"

He gave her a look wondering why she was trusting all the responsibility to him. He looked back. "What about the distress beacon?"

"Disabled from the bridge, looks like it was giving us due to a radiation cloud that is hiding us from enemy ships." Vossen's voice was becoming shaky, almost scared.

Bernhard considered it. "Fire it up and focus it in the direction of Earth and intensify it in the surrounding sectors, sacrifice range for cutting power."

Vossen worked the and was soon done. "It won't be long we could be under fire again."

"Bugger fire, we can't clear this ship alone without help, and they won't blow us up unless they know they can't capture us."

He would have continued if not for the outburst of fire and a call from Tekz. The four guards were now crouching in the shelter of the corridor as disruptor blasts tore at the opposite wall. They rushed to the location. Rrash looked at Bernhard and nodded to the grenades on his belt, he had a stun and a photon left, they unhooked them and primed them. The counted, tossed, and charged after their explosions with war cries and screams of terror.