Chapter Thirty-Six: Welcome The Falling Sky

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In the aft cabin of the Jordan there was life. Kensie was all over the laps of her Aunt and then her cousins. The Doctor was the only one about with strength enough to manage the toddler.

In the forward cabin of the Jordan there was life of another kind. E'ron straightened his jacket as he placed a phasers and grenades in each place he could find then strapped on a field pack and shouldered a phaser rifle. "I'm leaving you in charge of the Ship Ed." he moved to the transporter pad. "I have some business to finish." He keyed in the command and was gone.

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Voyager slipped beneath the clouds of Setaris letting out bursts of drones from her torpedo tubes. It had taken two hours to replicate the first batch of drones and then every few hours after that the ship had made another run at the surface delivering more.

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"How much of the population centers have been covered now." Paris asked Lyssa Campbell.

"Thirty-seven percent, Sir." came the reply.

"Paris to Sickbay." he called.

"Kaz here, Commander."

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The Trill Doctor placed a the last few things in his medical case. "I have medical teams ready to start beaming down to Topaz Command, and start working on things from there.

"Mr. Kim is waiting for you in transporter room one." Paris said.

"Understood, Kaz out."

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E'ron circled the building remains then ducked behind the wall. There were two figures on the floor of the quonset hut.1 Each with a dart embedded in their side.

He turned the first one over and felt for a pulse. It was a human looking woman with blond-white hair half in a long braid. She was breathing and came awake at his touch.

"Who are you?" she asked with a croak of a voice.

He pulled a water pack from a pocket in his knapsack and held it out to her. "I'm crewman Delina."

Phillipa looked up into purple eyes and understood. "Ona's mate."

"Yes." E'ron moved to the next figure and identified it as Captain Chakotay. He was breathing, but needed a medical help. E'ron pulled out a tricorder. "I don't think the Captain here is in any shape to be moved." he moved back to Mathias. "Is that the Commissary over there?"

Mathias nodded as she pulled the dart from her side. "What happened?"

"Antigen dart." E'ron said. "They've been sending out drones loaded with them from Voyager since mid-morning." he trained the tricorder on the Commissary. "I'm only getting two readings from the Commissary but neither one is clear."

"I hope that one of them is your wife." Mathias said.

E'ron jumped though a hole in the wall without saying another word. The frontal approach to the building was the one he chose. He kicked the gate open and vaporised the door. There were no darts in here just the bodies of men who had drawn weapons on themselves in madness.

There was movement in the far corner. He trained his rifle on it and moved forward. It was the Ktarian. There was hole smoking in his back and he was sheltering something. E'ron rolled him aside and there in a ball was Ona. He lifted her from the floor and kicked the dead aside so he could look at her more closely. Her tunic was ripped at the sleeve, but there was not a mark on her. Her breathing was very shallow.

Just then the room filled with Security each training a rifle on E'ron. The leader of the group was the yellow skinned Human E'ron had seen on the bridge of Voyager.

"She needs a Doctor." E'ron yelled.

Kim lowered his rifle. "Get Dr. Kaz. He yelled back."

Kaz entered the building and knelt by Ona with a Psylograph2 that he had packed just for this patient. "I think she will survive." he shook his head. "Though this scan is worthy of a medical paper." he gave Ona a shot from a hypospray and her eyes began to fluter.

"Krendrar." Ona said hoarsely. "He saved my life."

Kaz moved to the Ktarian and looked at the tricorder of a med-tech. "I need to operate right away. I'll transport up with him." he stowed the psylograph in his kit. "They've already transported up Captain Chakotay and Commander Mathias. I'll have a shuttle sent for the Ambassador and her husband."

The orders were given and Kaz and the Ktarian were gone.

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1. Quonset huts are prefab buildings made of corrugated metal.

2. A psylograph is a Trill specific bio-scanner designed for use when the patient or quarry is a joined Trill.

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