Chapter 34
Flight or Fight

Seven watched in horror as Chakotay fell into the energy flux and vanished in a flash of light. She looked up at Tuvok who had also been watching.

he stalwart Vulcan again began to fire at anything that moved while keeping his side of the room relatively clear.

Seven looked up at the Frain woman beside her whom the Gullina young had stopped eating when Chakotay had attacked. She was also watching everything that was happening around her. She seemed slightly hysterical which made sense since her skin was covered in bites and contusions.

Using what strength she could muster Seven started to twist her body to her right. The webbing partially allowed her to move without freeing her completely. She grasped her right hand around the phaser and fired it directly along the webs edge, burning it slightly.

She then readjusted her aim and fired once more, this time she severely severed the webs hold on the ceiling. She and the Frain woman both fell to the raised platform Chakotay had tried to reach.

Quickly Seven began to tear the webbing from her body the best she could, and noticed the Frain woman was doing so as well.

A phaser blast passed by Seven's shoulder and she heard a sudden crack behind her. Turning she saw a dead arachnid in the corner. She looked up and nodded to Tuvok.

However, Tuvok seemed to be preoccupied with something in the crawlspace behind him.

"We can't get out this way, its being blocked by webbing." He yelled to her as he started to crawl out of the opening.

She grabbed the Frain woman by the arm and started to pull her towards the ladder to the lower area where the engine room entrance was. The Frain woman partially followed and partially pulled away.

"We have to get out of here," she yelled at her reluctant companion who seemed to change her mind and began to cooperate.

Tuvok leapt from his vantage point and began to make his way towards the door as well, pushing back many arachnid with his phaser as he moved.

Both Seven and Tuvok were spraying fire about the room and it seemed as though they were starting to thin the arachnid's numbers.

Upon reaching the door, which was still closed from the outside, Seven ripped a panel off the wall and began to attempt to open it. Tuvok moved into position behind her continuing to fire at their attackers.

Seven bypassed the emergency shutoff and reattached the power coupling. She then aimed her phaser at the power input connection and fired.

There was a sudden dimming of the emergency lights in the room as a momentary power boost was created in the backup system.

The door began to slowly open. The Frain woman noticed this and scrambled through the small opening between the doors before it seemed large enough to pass through. Once she was all the way through, Tuvok motioned for Seven to go next. She turned, fired one more shot at an approaching arachnid and then backed through the opening, followed closely by Tuvok.

"We have to feedback the actuators!" Seven yelled to Tuvok.

She aimed her phaser at the open paneling on the right of the door and Tuvok aimed at the left. Both fired, causing a feedback to force the door to shut. Seven knew the circuits were now fused and nothing would open this door again.

Seven looked to Tuvok and wondered what had become of Chakotay. If he had survived the transition to the other side of the energy flux, what had he found once there? And, she knew if he was ever able to find a way to return, they had just sealed his only escape.

The Doctor was working quickly. He had come to the bridge wearing his mobile emitter and was seeing to Sil's injuries. The Captain was pacing, which in the Doctor's experience was never a good sign. She stumbled slightly and caught herself on her center chair.

"Captain, I suggest you try to calm down, you are showing signs of stress related fatigue." he said while searching his database for the correct procedure to repair the wound on Sil's forehead. Her Species had been unfamiliar, but they were similar enough to humans. The Doctor had of course taken note of this upon seeing to the one named Ret the day before.

One of the few differences he had noticed was the type of blood cells present in the Frain circulatory system. What were normally red blood cells in Humans, were instead blue blood cells, which accounted for the color of their blood when they were wounded. He had seen that they also had a slightly higher white blood cell count than that of humans, meaning they would be resistant to most sickness and disease. However, most curious of all, was that he had discovered yet another type of blood cell, one he had never encountered before. The third type of blood cell, which was a greyish color, seemed to transmit data to the brain not unlike the nervous system. It seemed almost like a backup. If the spinal column was severed. it was entirely likely that the subject could still move their body but at a reduced speed of reaction. This probably also gave the Frain the ability to have faster reflexes when both the spine and the blood cells were working in conjunction with each other. It was likely that the blood cells had been engineered to do this long ago, when the Frain had been genetically created by the Gullina.

"Doctor, can you help her?" Harry asked as he lifted a piece of debris off of the conn station's control panel so he could assess the damage there.

The Doctor, raised his tricorder and began to scan once more. He couldn't determine the level of damage to her cerebral cortex.

"It's too early to tell, I need to get her to sickbay."

His patient stirred slightly and whispered something aloud. Sil seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness.

The Captain had apparently heard what Sil had whispered, because she grabbed his shoulder and gave him a look of sadness and despair. "Help her, do whatever it takes." she said to him and then turned and walked towards her ready room.

The Doctor looked down at his patient as she breathed weakly. He waved an ensign over to help him lift the stretcher they had placed her on. As they hoisted her she whispered again.

She had again said the same thing she had a moment before, The same thing in which the captain had reacted to with serious emotion. From all his work with Seven on her emotions and knowing what people felt and why, he understood why it had upset her so. He planned on giving Sil the chance to say it again.

Harry chimed the captains ready room door. After the Doctor had left with the ensign carrying Sil to sickbay it had left Harry alone on the bridge yet again. The previous repairs had been almost completed before the new damage had been sustained, setting them back yet again.

"Come." He heard the captain say after a moment. He entered carrying a padd with the list of damaged sectors of the ship.

The Captain was sitting on her couch which lined the windows of her ready room. She was staring out over the ocean water and biting a nail on her left hand.

Harry had seen the Captain upset only a few times before and he had made sure to never say anything about it to anyone, not even the Captain herself.

She looked up at him, and saw the padd in his hand.

"Is that the damage report?" she asked holding out her hand. He handed it to her without a word. She looked over it briefly and then lobbed it onto her desk with a bit more emphasis than normal.

"I don't know Harry, everything was starting to look up, and then this happened. Sil didn't ask for any of this, none of the Frain did. And neither did we." she said standing to her feet.

Harry just watched her as she walked the length of the room. He knew normally she would be talking to Chakotay or even Tuvok, but right now he was all she had.

She turned to face him again.

Harry stared in silence a moment and then realized she was waiting for him to say something. He swallowed hard and tried to form a sentence in his mind.

"Captain, I know you will get us through this," he said, that being all he could come up with.

She smiled slightly at that and then turned away to look out over the water again. She whispered something to herself, and Harry couldn't quite hear it.

"Captain?"

"Did you happen to hear what Sil had whispered?"

Harry had thought he had heard her say something on the bridge while the Doctor was looking over her, but he hadn't heard exactly what.

"No, Captain."

Janeway turned and faced him again. And then she smiled. But before she could say anything more the comm channel chirped and the captain tapped her combadge.

"Janeway here."

"Captain, this is Ensign Maxwell. Tok has escaped his cell. And Captain, he has my phaser."

Janeway exchanged a glance with Harry and Harry felt suddenly overwhelmed. They couldn't catch a break and he knew the captain was feeling the same way.

"Understood, security teams, intruder alert." she said and the red alert klaxon sounded once, then went to silent red alert mode.