They crawled for a good stretch and came to a ladder. "Up," Chekov said.
Elle took the brief opportunity to stretch her neck and back. Her knees already had little indents from the grille plating on the crawlspaces. "As soon as we find another group of people I'm gonna need to find me some pants," she grumbled quietly, as they reached a closed bulkhead and had to go back to crawling. "I hate dresses. Hate 'em. I'm never wearing a dress ever again. Whoever decided that four out of the five uniforms for females should be shot. Several times. With a BB gun. In the face. And then set on fire. This dress should be set on fire. Why do Romulans need to do things like stage takeovers? Don't they have any sense of greater good?"
Sulu choked back a snort. "As entertaining as this is, you need to be quiet," he said.
"Sorry," Elle said. "I really hate this."
"I know, I'm sorry." He patted her ankle. "Keep going."
-/\-
"It's blocked," Chekov said. "Bulkheads come down through this section."
"Any way around?" Sulu asked.
"Uhhhh..."
"If we drop down to the deck and go one section over sideways we can pick it up again," Elle said, unschrunching her face to clear her visual map.
"Really?"
"Yeah. That's the only way to get past the nurses' break room," Elle said.
"Why were you sneaking past the nurses' break room?" Chekov asked.
Elle shuffled along, cheeks turning red. "I was hiding from my booster shots."
Sulu cackled silently. "You, Miss Yearly Physical Minion, were hiding from medical attention?"
Elle pouted into the deck plating as they navigated around a corner. "Do you know how many vaccines I had to catch up on? When I turn 15 I'm gonna have to get like another twelve, even."
"Poor Elle," Chekov said. He got to the end of the crawlspace and levered the grille up. He stuck his head down, checked. "Clear," he whispered, and dropped down. "Come on, Elle."
She dropped down and landed in a crouch that was marginally impressive. She got out of the way as Sulu and Khiy dropped down next.
"Which way?" Sulu asked.
Elle pointed and let Sulu take the lead. See? She could follow security protocols.
They crept silently through the corridors. There was no one, either friend or foe, in this section. A concussion blast rumbled under their feet. "Sounds like they're trying to blow a bulkhead," Chekov whispered, and Khiy cringed.
They came to the next junction and paused. "It's to the right," Elle whispered, hovering on Sulu's left as they swept the junction.
All clear. They moved to the right, Khiy and Chekov taking point. They turned the corner, and came face to face with a group of rogue Romulans trying to carve open the bulkhead. One of them was Tafv.
Khiy and Sulu fired their phasers at the same time as Tafv and another Romulan fired their disruptors, and Chekov yanked Elle back behind the corner a fraction of a second too late. One of the disruptor beams grazed Chekov's arm and he said something in Russian which the translator in Elle's arm flatly refused to render.
Elle, on instinct, lobbed a sonic grenade over Sulu's head and down the corridor. It blew successfully, but the Romulans had scattered to defensive positions and only two of them were caught by the blast. "Chekov are you okay?" she demanded, cringing as disruptor fire went over Khiy's head and scored a mark in the wall.
"I'm fine, it's just a graze," Chekov hissed between gritted teeth, and leaned forward to fire off another shot.
"Pavel, where's the crawlspace we need?" Sulu asked, ducking back towards them.
"Over Tafv's head," Chekov groaned.
Sulu scowled. "Any other options?"
"Turbolift?" Khiy asked.
"They went down with intruder alerts," Sulu said. "We can get to a lift tube but we'll be fish in a barrel, too easy to pick off."
Elle closed her eyes, trying to visualize the routes in her head. "There's another one that'll get us there," she said. "It's more twisty but it'll come out on the right decks."
"Where?" Sulu asked.
Elle pointed down the hallway they were in. "Down there, in one of the maintenance supply storerooms." Which meant crossing the hallway the shooty traitorous Romulans were in.
"Okay," Sulu said grimly. "Khiy, you and I will lay down covering fire. Chekov, you go first, cover from the other side. Elle, you and Khiy will run across next, I'll come last. Elle, take your phaser out, ready to stun. Ready? Go."
Chekov sprinted across as Sulu and Khiy lay down continuous streams of phaser fire, and as soon as he was across, Sulu said, "Go!"
Khiy and Elle sprinted across the corridor - Great Bird why are the Enterprise corridors so wide oh man there are ROMULANS SHOOTING AT ME - and made it across. Sulu sprinted across after them and they booked it for the crawlspace opening at the end of the corridor. Did Elle mention, these coridors are VERY LONG?!
There was shouting in Rihannsu, which translated to, "Get their weapons!" and the Romulans were chasing them.
Elle threw another grenade, but it went too far and blew the corridor behind the Romulans. One of them did get caught and fell into the wall at high speed. Khiy and Chekov were shooting steadily, using the wide-beam setting even though it was going to fry all the electronics in the walls as well as stun the Romulans. Oh well. Maintenance had job security.
Sulu grabbed Elle by the back of her dress and hauled her along. "As soon as we get there I'm gonna open it and toss you up there, okay?" he said. "And you go, you hear me? Don't wait, just go."
Elle nodded, her heart hammering in her ears. Almost there, almost there...
They reached the storeroom, barrelled in, and sealed the door with phaser fire behind them. "That won't hold long," Chekov warned. "Disruptors will come through the door."
Sulu hauled open the crawlway access. "Okay, Elle, here we go."
Just as he was boosting her up, a beam of disruptor fire came through the door, carving it open like a lightsaber. The beam came straight across the room, almost skewering Khiy. It caught the edge of Elle's dress and she shrieked as it caught fire.
Sulu, with superhuman reflexes, yanked her away and up. "Go go go!" he yelled, practically throwing her at the crawlway.
Elle managed to grab it. The melted edge of her skirt caught on the grate and she got stuck. She yanked the dress off and skidded forward, barely clearing enough space for Chekov, then Sulu, then Khiy.
"Grenade!" Khiy said.
Chekov plucked one off his belt and handed it over. Khiy tossed it in the storeroom and slammed the access hatch closed.
The explosion rattled them like coins in a piggy bank and Elle caught herself on the floor- with her chin. She picked herself up, wiped her bloody chin with her wrist, and wiped that off on her swimsuit top. Ew.
"Everybody okay? Go go go," Sulu urged.
Elle scuttled forward on hands and knees, the adrenaline still high. "They're not gonna follow us, right?" she asked.
"No," Sulu said. "We're small fry, and we're going in the wrong direction. They want control of the ship. But we need to hurry."
Elle picked up the pace. "We are literally saving the world, and I'm in a swimsuit," she said, after a long silence filled only with the clanking of phasers against the metal plating.
Sulu laughed. "Must be Tuesday," he agreed.
At least I'm wearing shorts, Elle comforted herself. Note to self. Never, ever, decide to wear a bikini. The Borg would probably decide to invade eighty years early. That mental note brought forward the associated image of Borg in bikinis, and Elle huffed a silent laugh of half-humor, half-horror. A drop of blood from her chin plinked onto the deck plating below. Ew. "Maybe I'll get a cool scar like Harrison Ford," she said aloud, and startled a laugh out of Chekov.
"Dr. McCoy will not let you keep it," Chekov said. "And you've already got a scar, anyway."
"Yeah but nobody can see it, it's on my stomach," Elle said.
"How did you get it?" Khiy asked.
"I recognized an assassin and he tried to kill me," Elle replied, shuffling forward.
Khiy stopped and then started forward again. "You're kidding."
"Nope. But that was a year and a half ago."
"Humans," Khiy muttered under his breath. "Crazy, all of you."
Elle grinned.
They lapsed into silence as they crawled, trying to conserve their energy. The adrenaline had faded from the encounter with Tafv's group and Elle just hurt all over. Her knees were scraped in all directions, and her palms hurt. And her chin hurt. And she was hungry. And cold, in spite of sweating from all the crawling and the climbing through the ship's infrastructure.
It was hard not to think about what was going on in other parts of the ship. Was everyone okay? Was sickbay still under lockdown? Had they broken through to Engineering? What if they'd gotten to Scotty and Uhura? No, that wouldn't happen, Scotty would've blown the Enterprise. What about Levaeri? Was the captain okay? What about the Intrepid? And the giant brain? And Ael?
"Breathe, Elle," Sulu said softly.
She took a deep breath and forced down the rising panic in her brain. Cast out fear, she told herself. What is, is. It's gonna work out. She took another steadying breath. This was a book. What happened next?
"Let's take a breather," Sulu said.
Elle immediately twisted around to sit on her bottom and leaned against the wall of the crawlspace.
"Pavel, how's the arm?" Sulu asked.
Chekov replied in Russian. He was fine.
"Khiy?"
"I'm well, lieutenant."
"Elle?"
Elle gave Sulu a thumbs-up. "I want a cheeseburger and fries, but I'm good." She poked at the cut in her chin absently.
Sulu huffed a laugh. "Once this is over that sounds good," he said. "I've lost count. Where even are we?"
"Between three and four," Elle said, closing her eyes. "That way's Requisitions, that way's Rec Deck." Her eyes snapped open. "We need to go to the Rec Deck, there'll be lots of people there, we can get help." She grinned. "And we can use the transporters."
"Transporters?" Sulu asked.
"Trust me," Elle said in reply, giving Sulu a look.
He nodded. "Rec Deck it is then. Which way?"
Elle pointed. "This way."
They got down the last length of crawlspace and Elle almost fell onto the hatch. "I can't get it open," she said, tugging at the handles.
Sulu wedged in next to her to try and open it, but it was stuck. "Never mind, just blast it."
Elle grinned and shot the hatch. It blew open, and immediately phaser fire lanced up from the deck below and pinged around the inside of the crawlspace. "Don't shoot, don't shoot!" she shrieked, dropping to the floor with her hands over her head to cover from the phaser burns. "It's me, it's Elle!"
"Come out, slowly," Lt. Harb Tanzer's voice warned, and there was no trace of humor at all.
Elle poked her head slowly out of the crawlway and found Harb at the front of forty or fifty people. He was the only one with a phaser, and it was set to kill. "Hi," she said.
Harb melted in relief. "Oh, Great Bird, I almost shot you," he said, tossing the phaser to someone else. "Who's with you?"
"Me, Sulu, Chekov, and Khiy," Elle said.
"Well, come down from there," Harb said. The Rec Deck was twice the height of other decks, to allow freedom for games and movie screens. "Let's drag this table over, you two get on the table, and Elle you can jump."
She jumped, and one of the Sulamid ensigns caught her in a grip of squishy, shock-absorbent psuedopods. They both fell to the deck.
Harb picked Elle up off the ground and guided her to the nearest chair. "Amy, go get the first aid kit from my office," he said, scowling at the variety of Elle's cuts and bruises. "Where are your clothes?" he asked, ignoring Sulu, Chekov, and Khiy dropping from the vent.
Elle scowled. "My dress got dissolved by a disruptor beam and then got stuck on the grate."
"Goodness," Harb said. "Someone get these people some coffee."
One of the nurses from Delta shift took over the first aid kit and tended to Chekov's arm, and one of the engineers treated Elle's scrapes and bruises. Someone else, Lt. Martine, queen amongst crewmembers, got Elle a pair of pants and a sweater from the materials synthesizer.
Elle chugged down a cup of coffee and a sandwich as Sulu explained the situation to the crew. "Elle said there were transporters available?" he finished.
Harb frowned. "We don't have any transp..." His gaze cleared. "Yes we do! The 4D chess cubes each have a mini-transporter to hold the pieces in time out."
"That'll never carry a person," Chekov said.
Elle tossed Harb a grenade from her harness. "It'll carry these, though. All hail the cubes."
"What's their range?" Sulu asked.
"Let's find out."
The crew swarmed to work. Elle sat back and ate another sandwich.
-/\-
It was only a matter of minutes before they were ready. Elle stood with Lt. Martine, the older woman's arms around Elle's shoulders protectively, as Harb cleared his throat. "One word before we start," Lt. Tanzer said, looking sorrowful. "Don't get to liking this too much. Any other way of freeing this ship would be prefereable-and should we find ourselves able within the scope of our oaths to allow our enemies mercy, I will expect it of you. Otherwise, protect this ship and your shipmates, and our guests." His eyes flickered to the Rihannsu standing with them, amongst them, everyone wearing the same expression of rather frightened resolve.
"Good," Harb said. "We'll take care of the deck seven groups first, give Scotty and Uhura some breathing room, and anything else this transporter will reach."
"Coordinates are in, we're ready," said the lt. in charge of the 4D chess cube's transporter controls.
"Here, then," Harb said. He pulled the pin on the grenade and laid it down on the game cube. It sparkled, dematerialized, and it was gone.
Underneath Elle's feet, the deck shuddered for just an instant.
"Don't give them time to react," Harb said grimly. "Second group."
"Ready-"
"Now."
It took them twenty minutes to clear the primary hull of Romulan invaders. There were some groups out of reach of the game cube's transproters, but they weren't in critical sections of the ship. The last sonic grenade they beamed directly outside the Rec Deck's sealed bulkhead, to clear the hallway from the group of Romulans there.
The room shuddered, things bounced off tables and broke, and Elle grabbed onto Lt. Martine and Chekov and between the three of them they managed to stay upright.
"That's done it," Harb said, deadly quiet. "Let's go."
Those with phasers stepped forward to open the main doors, clear the bulkhead, and sweep the hallway. Martine grabbed Elle's head and pressed it into her shoulder, blocking Elle from the view of the corridor. "You don't need to see that, cherie," Martine said gently, and Elle gripped the lieutenant's uniform tightly. She wanted to cry, but it wasn't over, and they still had to get everyone back from Levaeri. It wasn't over yet.
The crew came back. "We'll separate," Harb said. "Mr. Sulu, Mr. Chekov, take a group with you to the bridge. About twenty of you, come with me and we'll go to Aux and see about the lifts. Ten of you to the main transporters on six, ten of you to sickbay. The rest of you head out and see about the groups we didn't reach. Go."
Elle followed Lt. Martine, ready to go to sickbay.
Harb grabbed her arm gently. "Not you, Elle."
"I have medic training," Elle protested.
He shook his head. "I don't want you to leave this room." Unsaid, she heard his words anyways. I don't want you to see the corridors of your home filled with the signs of a battle.
Elle forced down a sudden wave of fear. "Okay."
"Okay." He kissed her forehead. "You stay here with-"
One of the Rihannsu stepped forward tentatively. "I'm a technician, I'll stay with her, sir. Better use for me than combat."
"Okay. You stay here with Hvaid, and Moira, hold down the fort. We'll send people your way, and you guys are in charge of feeding 'em." Harb gave her a gentle smile, gave Hvaid a look that clearly meant 'keep Elle safe or I'll space you myself', and the adults were gone.
Elle looked at Hvaid, who was skinny, if Romulans were allowed to be skinny, and would have worn glasses, if Romulans didn't also have corrective-eye surgery. "Hi," she said. "I'm Elle."
"I know," he said. "I'm Hvaid."
The two of them stood there for a moment, taking in the empty Rec Deck, the largest room on the ship, cavernous now it was empty instead of teeming with life and crew and good times. Elle forced back a shiver. "Moira?" she asked.
"Yes, Elle?" said the games computer.
"How do you set up a buffet?"