It wasn't even five minutes after Harb and the others left that the Red Alert began to whoop.

"What now?" Hvaid asked, almost dropping the plates of sandwiches.

Elle ran over to the nearest console and pulled it up. The blood drained from her face. "Oh no." She'd forgotten about this part. "Three Romulan ships have just arrived." Captain Kirk and the others would have to make their way to Intrepid somehow; there was no way the Enterprise could drop their shields. "Better secure everything and brace for impact," she warned Hvaid, just as the first shots hit.

The battle was more like a strategic retreat - the Enterprise hovered just long enough for Intrepid to start, and Bloodwing faithfully on their heels, the three ships leapt in the direction of Federation space, the Romulans hot in pursuit.

To distract herself, Elle looked around the Rec Room, cataloguing things that had fallen, things that needed to be replaced. Her eyes caught on a tan pile of shards and she went over. "Aww." She knelt down and began to pick up the pieces of her two clay pots, both the Ugly One and the New One. "They broke." She stacked the shards up carefully into a container.

"You can fix them," Hvaid said. "With shimmer glue."

"Shimmer glue?" Elle asked.

"Adhesive with microfine gold powder," Hvaid said. "When something breaks, you use that glue to put it back together."

"Then won't everybody see the cracks?" Elle asked.

"That's the point."

"Oh." Elle contemplated this. "I guess. Moira-" She paused. Moira went offline during red alert to conserve power. So did non-essential synthesizers, like the craft ones. "Well, when this is over, I'll find some. It'll make 'em look cool, anyway." She pulled a lump of wet clay out from its stasis unit and pressed it under her fingers. "What's a bloodwing, anyway?" she asked, to distract herself from the fact that they were in danger of being killed any second. "Some kind of bird?"

"A bird, yes," Hvaid said, sitting across from her and accepting a small lump of clay. He rolled the earth in his fingers, examining it. "It's the sigil-beast of the Commander's House, a big, ugly scavenger. But once it's in the air, flying, nothing can match it."

Elle nodded slowly. "Like a vulture?"

"I would not know," Hvaid said.

Elle decided to make one out of clay. She steadily ignored the flashing of the red alert and focused on the lump of clay in her hands, on the low volume of the intership comm as it relayed what was happening on the bridge, on the Intrepid, on Bloodwing. She braced herself and her tools as the Enterprise swooped towards the nearest star.

Hvaid cringed. "What are we doing?" he asked.

"Probably starting an ion storm," Elle said, as Intrepid joined them on the dive so close to the star that the windows blacked out before anyone could melt. "To trap the ones chasing us."

"Federation-ers are crazy," Hvaid grumbled under his breath.

Elle laughed. "Yeah." There were some quiet cheers over the comm as the maneuver worked, and they blasted away from the ion storm, barely missing the leading wavefront. Elle's stomach rolled as inertial dampeners strained to compensate. "Ugh, I hate ion storms." She pinched out a neck for her bloodwing statue.

"You have more calm than seasoned centurions," Hvaid said, admiringly.

"Thanks. I just know everything's gonna be okay." Elle held up the chunky blob of clay. "How's it look?"

"Longer wings," Hvaid said. "And a larger underbody."

"Copy that."

The ship's internal gravity swooped again and Elle glanced out the window. Intrepid was flying lose, really close, Bloodwing nestled between them. "Huh. Merged warp fields." She snorted. "Scotty's going to have a fit once this is over."

"We aren't going to make it to the Neutral Zone," Hvaid said, pulling up course calculations.

"We will," Elle said. "There's only Battlequeen after us."

"Three ships in two warp fields," Hvaid said. "One lucky shot and Battlequeen will destroy us all."

"He won't," Elle said again, trusting in Captain Kirk's penchant for amazing tactics. "Something'll happen."

"And if it doesn't?" Hvaid asked.

Elle looked down at the lumpy blob of clay. "Then I hope we die in a blaze of glory," Elle said. "No offense, but I don't want to end up a prisoner."

"None taken," Hvaid assured her. "Neither do I." He gave her a grin. "The Commander was right, when she said we could trust those of the Enterprise to act honorably. It was an honor to serve with you."

"And you," Elle said, wondering if she was going to die here, in an empty Rec Deck with clay in her hands, with a friend who should've been an enemy. "What does your religion say about dying in battle?"

"That it's an honorable death," he said. "We'll see each other again in the Elements."

"Good to know," Elle said, giving him a smile.

The ship shuddered, and shuddered again- and Elle gaped as Constellation and Ineau came blazing towards them, decelerating from warp in a screaming burst of light and radiation, hammering at Battlequeen with phasers. "Yes!" Elle crowed, jumping up from her seat. "Yes, yes, yes!" She grabbed Hvaid in a hug, and he hugged her back, and they got clay all over the back of their shirts, but it was worth it.

"You were right," Hvaid said, beaming at her. "How did you know?"

"You know your commander, I know my captain," Elle said, fairly bursting with pride. She did a little victory dance to top it off as the Federation ships and Bloodwing make it safely out of Romulan space and into Federation space. "Woo!"

Hvaid laughed at her, but he did give her a high-five when she explained the gesture to him.

-/\-

Elle ended up trapped in the Rec Deck as someone (thanks, captain) had come back, seen the state of his ship and promptly freaked out, refusing to allow Elle to leave the safety of the Rec Deck until the worst of the damage (the bodies) were cleared away. Point being, over the next few hours she managed to finish her little statue of a bloodwing, set it to bake, have another sandwich, and take a nap in one of the empty alcoves.

The sensation of being watched startled her awake. "Whuh-?" Elle sat up sharply, flailed, and caught herself on the edge of the beanbag. "Bones!" She stood up and threw her arms around him in a hug.

He kissed her temple and hugged her tightly. "You're okay?" he said.

"I'm okay," Elle assured him. "Are you?"

"Tired as I can ever remember being, but I'm fine," McCoy said, drawing back to examine her. "Corridors are mostly cleared, you can go back to your quarters now."

"Cool."

He was a mother-hen; he walked her to her quarters, just in case. Elle saw nothing terrible, a few scorch marks on the walls, a few lines scored clean through where people were using phasers or disruptors set to vaporize, but her quarters were just fine and Simba was purring away in his environment.

"My tribble clan!" Elle realized, paling. "The Intrepid!"

McCoy huffed something that sounded like a laugh. "I'll comm Sehlik, ask him about the tribles," he said. "I want you to sleep six hours, minimum, you hear me?"

Elle set her alarm for six hours. "Yes, sir." She hugged him again, took her shoes off, and collapsed into her bed.

-/\-

When she woke it was a natural progression, not a reaction to an alarm. Elle listened for it, wondering if she'd somehow woken up at exactly five hours, fifty-nine minutes. Nothing. She almost drifted off to sleep again, waiting for her alarm to go off, and then she rolled over and saw the time.

"What!" She sat upright, ignored the dehydration headache that burst to life, and glared at the chrono. It read 0737. She'd been asleep for twelve hours. No wonder she was groggy. Elle struggled to get out of her mess of blankets and tripped over her boots. "Ow."

She arrived in the mess hall twenty minutes later, showered, dressed, and hungry enough to eat a small horse. She found McCoy in the mess hall, talking to Lia and one of the Rihannsu doctors. Elle made a beeline for them with her tea and oatmeal. "Bones."

"Good mornin', darlin'," McCoy said, in his best Southern charm. Oh, it was definitely him. "Sleep well?" His blue eyes twinkled merrily.

"You turned off my alarm!" Elle said.

"It was going on night-cycle, you needed the sleep," McCoy said. "Teenagers need sleep. Teenagers who'd just fought off a home invasion and survived an infiltration into enemy space, doubly so. One might even say, triply so."

Elle gave him her best Captainly Stink-Eye. "You've been hanging out with the Vulcans too much," she muttered darkly into her oatmeal.

McCoy and Lia just sniggered at her.

Elle ate her oatmeal and listened to the doctors talk about 'Regenerative neurons' something or other. When they got to a good pausing point, she piped up. "Hey, Bones? Did you ask about the tribbles?"

McCoy rolled his eyes and gave her a fond smile. "Yes, I did. S'task got back to me and reported that the tribbles were considered non-essential and were basically left alone. None of them died, and none of them breeded."

Elle's sigh of relief blew her napkin away. She scrambled after it with a grin. "Nice."

She finished eating and went to find the captain. He was talking to Scotty, who was very calmly not-angrily-at-all-no-sir explaining what exactly happened to mah-puir-undeservin-bairns during the whole incident and how long it would take to repair them multiplied-by-four. Elle leaned on the nearest blank console and grinned.

"And you," Scotty said, turning to her.

Elle got her elbows off the console.

"Well done," Scotty finished, and gave her a hug. "You are a trooper, fine as any officer, lass. Oh, and your wee robot is gettin' a commendation."

Elle blinked. "My shuffle-bot?"

"No, the maintenance droid. Commander Stabby."

Elle grinned. "Why are you giving Commander Stabby a commmendation? What'd he do?"

"It recognized there was an intruder alert, ordered Lt. Chanax in Requisitions to give it a real knife, and chased down two Romulans trying to get into one of the armories," Scotty said, beaming.

She burst into laughter. "You're kidding!"

"I am not," Scotty said. "I didn't know you'd given it defense protocols, lass."

"I didn't," Elle said, and they eyed each other. "I gave it a learning protocol."

"Intelligent little thing," Scotty said, and shook his head.

Kirk held up a hand. "I'm sorry, you're saying that your maintenance droid is scooting around with an actual knife strapped on it?" he asked, disbelief choking his tone.

"I mean I can take it off," Elle said. "Sir."

Kirk's disbelief twisted into a sly smile. "Let's leave it," he said. "If you're not aware enough of your surroundings to notice a bright orange droid, you deserve to get shanked by a vacuum."

Scotty choked on a laugh. "Aye, sir," he said. "I'll put the word out. Elle, if you wouldn't mind, Maintenance is lookin' for all spare hands to help out."

Elle nodded. "Cool."

"I'll walk with you," Kirk said. "Thank you, Scotty." He offered Elle his arm and they left engineering. "How are you?" he asked.

"I'm okay," Elle said.

Kirk gave her a look. "You got shot at. You defended this ship against intruders."

"I know." Elle bit her lip, contemplated the floor for a moment. "I don't feel weird about it. I probably should, but it hasn't hit me yet."

"When it does, talk to someone," Kirk ordered gently. "Bones, or one of the nurses, Spock, me. Somebody."

"I will." Elle leaned into his shoulder. "When are we parting ways with Bloodwing?"

"They're only staying long enough to do repairs, so sometime tomorrow, if you want to say goodbye."

Elle nodded. "What're they gonna do?"

"Become space pirates," Kirk said, poker-faced.

"Are not!" Elle protested, outraged.

"Are too," he teased, and they shoved each other playfully. He sobered. "No, they're going to the outreaches, somewhere the Empire won't think to look for them, until they're needed again."

"The Romulans are going to be too busy trying to cover their own behinds than to look for Commander Ael," Elle predicted.

Kirk glanced down at her with a curious smile. "You know something, Elle?" he asked.

She grinned. "I know a lot of things. I know she's my favorite Rihannsu empress."

"Fine, keep your secrets," he sniffed disdainfully, worthy of a Shakespearian actor. "And Captain Suvuk, before they left for Starbase to drop off all the data, said to give you his regards, and acknowledges that the Intrepid is now doubly in your debt, should you ever need more logical assistance than you will find on the Enterprise."

Elle laughed so hard she started to hiccup. "Awesome."

He left her in the Maintenance department with a wave and a smile. Elle donned a coverall and was immmediately put to work with a team rebuilding various pieces of equipment that had shattered during the last few days.

By the time she emerged from the depths of Maintenance, it was time for dinner and then bed again. Most of the Rihannsu had cleared out by now, slowly returning to Bloodwing in preparation for departure.

Elle said bye to Khiy, gave him a hug. She found Hvaid talking to Lt. Freeman about holograms, and gave Hvaid a hug, too. "It was fun," she said. "See you around the galaxy."

"If the Elements wish it so," he replied, and they bowed to each other. "Did you ever finish the little sculpture?"

Elle bit her lip. "Yeah, I did. You think..."

Hvaid gave her a small smile. "I think so."

Elle nodded firmly. "Thank you." She waved goodbye, and went to the ceramics cupboard with her name on it. The little bloodwing sculpture sat, perfectly preserved, ready to be painted. She spent the next thirty minutes painting it black and red, giving it silver highlights on the tops of the wings and the head, and pronounced it done. "Not super good, but good enough. Moira, where's Commander Ael?"

"On the Observation Deck," Moira replied.

"Thanks." Elle gingerly picked up the statue and headed for the Observation Deck. The best spot in the house to stare at the stars, and at Ineau and Bloodwing, hanging off the bow of the Enterprise.

Ael was there, sitting on a bench, chin resting on a closed fist. "Elle," she said, smiling.

"Commander. I'm glad you're back safe."

"I am, too," Ael said, eyes twinkling. "And I hear you had a hand in repelling the intruders on your ship."

"Kinda," Elle said, shrugging. She sat next to Ael and pulled her feet under her. "Are you guys gonna be okay?"

"We will be well," Ael said. "Those of us on Bloodwing who are left are loyal to me, to our honor, fragile as it is, and to the honor of the empire. We shall be well."

Elle looked down at her cupped hands that still held the statue. "I'm sorry about Tafv."

Ael's mouth twisted in a frown. "I cannot fault him for it," she said. "He was following his own call to mnhei'sahe, just as I was. But his betrayal... it is very hard to lose a child."

Elle thought of her own parents, and didn't cry. "I, made you this," she said, and held out the little sculpture, which now seemed stupid and crude in the light of the stars. Her ears burned, but she couldn't take it back.

Ael reached out to take it. "A bloodwing," she said, mouth curving in a smile. "Made out of earth."

"To keep you grounded," Elle said. "When you're out in space."

Ael reached over and hugged her. "Thank you, child." She cupped Elle's face in her small, strong hands. "You have been such a friend to us, one might almost say you were never an enemy." She met Elle's gaze. "You're a seer, aren't you?"

Elle froze. "Commander?"

"You see the future." Ael released her, let her stare. "I knew, as soon as my sister's-daughter told me about her conversation with you. No child, let alone one scared and under threat, would look up the things you did without knowing them beforehand. I knew when you attended the first briefing I had with your captain. You weren't surprised to hear of the plot to make Vulcan mind control. And I knew when you knew about Tafv. I was his mother, his commander, and I didn't even know. No matter how good you are, you couldn't have known."

Elle cast her eyes down, stayed silent, nervous.

"You don't have to confirm it," Ael said gently, firmly.

"It's not like that," Elle said, and cursed herself for opening her mouth. "I only know some things."

"Like you knew to trust me," Ael said.

"Yes."

"What's our future, do you know? The future of my crew?"

Elle shifted uneasily on the bench. "I know," she said slowly, "that you and your crew will always do what is best for Romulus, I mean, ch'Rihan, and for your people. You won't fail in doing so."

Ael smiled. "Thank you." She stood, the bloodwing sculpture carefully held in her hands. "And thank you for this. I will treasure it. Until we meet again, young one." She placed her hand on Elle's hair in silent benediction, and walked away.

Elle sat there, and breathed, and watched as Bloodwing angled away, into the Neutral Zone, into the depths of space.