He Who Fights With Monsters
By Thalia Drogna
Archer, T'Pol, Phlox, Major Hayes and a squad of MACOs had taken shuttle pod one across to the Rel Sevanne and managed to dock the shuttle at bay seven. It wasn't easy by any means, all the computer controls that would have helped them make their landing were offline and the bay itself was strewn with impact debris. T'Pol carefully set them down in the bay avoiding as many of the obstructions as she could.
Phlox had dosed them all with the vaccine for the virus as soon as they had arrived in the shuttle bay to make the journey to the Rel Sevanne. He had developed the vaccine along side the virus in case they decided that they needed to board the Vor Devrees after it had been disabled, but he hadn't expected to be using it in these conditions. He had brought more vaccine with him but he doubted it would be enough for all the Tien, however if they stayed away from the organic circuitry of the ship then hopefully they wouldn't come into contact with the virus. He didn't like leaving such things to chance but it might at least buy him enough time to manufacture sufficient vaccine to immunise everyone.
One of Shar Jen's engineers met them in the bay and escorted them to Engineering where they found the Artificer frantically shouting orders to her staff and anyone else who happened to come anywhere near her. The away team could clearly see the damage that had been done to the engines in the last attack run before the Vor Devrees had rammed the Rel Sevanne.
"The internal com system is down," said Shar Jen. "I have runners getting messages to the rest of the ship, such as it is, but communication is very slow."
"What the hell do you think you are doing here?" asked Archer, angrily.
"Trying to hold this ship together while we repair the engines," said Shar Jen, as if it was the most obvious thing that she could do. "We need to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"In case you hadn't notice half your ship is missing and the Vor Devrees has buried itself in your forward section," Archer said, his voice dripping with annoyed sarcasm. "You're not going anywhere."
"If I can repair the impulse engines then maybe I can get enough power to pull us apart," said Shar Jen, turning away from Archer to walk to another console.
Archer caught her by the arm and she turned to look at him a stunned expression on her face. "You don't seem to understand what's happened," said Archer with quiet menace. "Neither ship is going anywhere, they're both complete write-offs. The only thing you can do is get as many of your people off the ship as possible before the superstructure gives way."
"We are not abandoning the Rel Sevanne," said Shar Jen, carefully enunciating each word.
"You told me you're the last member of the Senior Council left. You have to start acting like it. You're in charge now, start looking at the big picture," said Archer.
Shar Jen gazed into Archers eyes and for the first time he realised why Trip had found this woman so difficult to ignore and why T'Pol had been so disconcerted by her contact with the Tien. He felt himself start to drown in her eyes as they tugged at his inner being and he looked away, letting go of Shar Jen's arm as he did so.
"What did you just do?" asked Archer accusingly.
"Looked inside your emotions," said Shar Jen. "I'm one of the strongest Tien empaths, I get glimpses inside a person's memories that go with an emotion, occasionally I can see their intentions regarding an emotion." She paused and looked at him again, but this time the intensity of her stare was gone.
"And what did my intentions tell you?" he asked.
"They told me that your advice is good, I should be concentrating all my efforts on rescuing as many Tien as I can. These engines are worthless now. I will issue the evacuation order."
"Have you been able to reach Trip?" asked Archer.
"We've tried to reach the computer room but the corridors around it are blocked. I've got men working on it but we would be grateful if you are able to offer us assistance," said Shar Jen. "Trip En has been silent ever since the crash and I can't feel his emotions. A little while ago there was a power fluctuation, but life support still functions and I pray to the Goddess that means that he is still alive. He gave the order to get everyone to the aft section of the ship but he knew he couldn't protect himself if the Vor Devrees hit us in the right place. He saved many Tien today."
"That sounds like Trip, perhaps we can save him too," said Archer.
"I truly hope so," she replied. Shar Jen didn't wait to be told twice, she decided to take the Enterprise officers to where they were needed herself, leaving orders with her subordinates to shore up but not repair. Phlox explained the problem with the virus now spreading to the Rel Sevanne and Shar Jen sent runners to pass on the word to stay away from the organic circuitry and begin the evacuation of non-essential personnel.
"What about Trip En?" she asked in a worried voice.
"We'll just have to hope that the virus hasn't reached him yet," said Phlox, but he knew that the virus spread quickly, it was how it had been designed, and it would be unlikely that Trip was not already infected.
Reed pushed his Kriel captive through the broken corridors of the Rel Sevanne. He knew he wasn't that far away from the computer room now, it could only be another couple of turns and he would be at the door. He'd had to make a couple of unexpected detours around blocked sections of corridor but apart from that had been making good progress. However, their options for reaching the computer room had now narrowed to one corridor, all the other routes were blocked.
Sharien had hardly spoken. She had complained about her arm and then spat insults at him for ten minutes before quieting down again. He gathered that his parentage was in question from her last two insults, or it could have been his ability to become a parent, he wasn't entirely sure which. He had ignored her in any case and after that she had got the hint and remained silent.
He rounded the final corner and was met by a wall of rubble.
"Damn," said Reed, surveying the blockage.
"What are you going to do now?" asked Sharien, taunting. "You have no way to reach your friend."
"In case you hadn't heard, I enjoy blowing things up," said Reed.
"What with exactly?" asked Sharien.
"Oh I have something that should do the trick," replied Reed.
Sharien did have a valid point. Reed knew he only had one option to reach Trip and that was to rig his phase pistol to overload and use that to dislodge the debris. That of course left him without his weapon, and Sharien's had floated off in the atrium when she had been wounded. He did, of course, have a knife tucked into his boot, no self respecting security man ever left the ship without a backup weapon. It would be a lot easier to keep Sharien in check with a phase pistol pointed at her back than without and Reed was loath to give up that advantage, but she was tied up and he should be able to handle her. He wondered if he was guilty of underestimating his enemy in the same way that Corvas had, but at the moment his choices were very limited. To be on the safe side, he tied Sharien to a piece of sturdy-looking pipe around the corner while he worked.
He pulled the knife from his boot, it most certainly was not Starfleet standard issue. It was a knife that meant business but was small enough that it could easily be missed in a search. He had never had occasion to use it in anger before, but there was always a first time and somehow he was not surprised that that occasion might be on the Rel Sevanne. He embedded the knife in the wall, within easy reach should he need it, while he adjusted the settings on the phase pistol so that a feedback loop was created that would overload the pistol and create an explosion. He set it so that the energy build-up would become critical in just over a minute and then placed the phase pistol as far into the rubble as he could. He reclaimed his knife and ran for cover.
The high pitched whine of the building energy within the phase pistol quickly cycled in intensity until it was so loud that it was unpleasant. Reed hid behind a pile of debris and ducked down even further just before the explosion happened. The noise from the explosion in the confined area of the corridor was tremendous and Reed could hear nothing except a high pitched ringing. Dust filled the air and Reed coughed violently, once again jarring his injuries and reminding him just how bad he actually felt. He was running on adrenaline and desperation at the moment. The good news was that there was now a hole in the obstruction and Reed could see the door of the computer room through the clouds of dust that had been stirred up.
He went to collect his prisoner and used his knife to cut through her ties to the pipe behind her. He indicated with the knife what would happen to her if she tried anything. She spat some insult at him but he couldn't hear what it was with his ears still ringing from the explosion. He pushed her forward, she tripped on a piece of rubble and fell. Reed knew better than to go and help her up, but he had forgotten how long her reach was compared to his. She stuck out her leg and swept his feet out from under him. He landed hard on his broken arm which caused waves of pain to run through him and dropped his knife. For a second he considered passing out, certainly it was what his brain was trying to persuade him to do, but he knew if he passed out now he would never wake up again. Sharien was already on her feet and had her hands around Reed's neck. Instead in one swift motion he made a grab for the knife, located it with his good arm, and stabbed it into Sharien's outstretched leg.
Sharien screamed a loud piercing scream that cut through even Reed's deafness. With complete military precision he gave Sharien his best right hook which knocked her completely unconscious and the scream stopped.
"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that," said Reed. "It's a shame I can't do it to your Rel Sevanne counter-part. That would have saved us all a lot of trouble."
He dragged Sharien's still body down to the door of the computer room where he tied her ankles together with more wiring and then secured her to a beam that lay across the corridor. The corridors aft were all blocked and that left him with only a limited number of options for getting Trip out once he'd got him. He set about trying to open the door to the computer room. The automatic opening mechanism had obviously failed but the manual controls didn't seem to be working either. He pulled off the panel that covered the wiring for the opening mechanism and wished for the hundredth time that day that Trip was with him and not trapped inside. The engineer was much better at picking locks and persuading machinery to do as it was told. The damn thing was jammed.
Behind him he heard a noise it sounded like digging and then, voices, shouting. He went over to corridor where the noise was coming from.
"Hello?" he shouted.
The noise stopped and he heard a muffled shout in return. "I can't hear you!" he shouted back. He started to remove debris from his side of the barrier as quickly as he could. A flash light shone through a gap in the pieces of ceiling support and other debris.
"Malcolm!" said the surprised voice of Captain Archer. "It's good to see you."
"You too, sir," replied Malcolm.
Another few minutes of shifting rubble and they had a hole big enough to crawl through. Archer climbed through the gap and was followed by T'Pol, Phlox, Shar Jen, Hayes and two of the MACOs. A couple of Tien continued with their efforts to clear the corridor on the other side of the obstruction.
"What happened? How did you manage to get here? The last time we heard anything from you, you were in a Rel fighter," said Archer.
"It's a long story, but basically I ended up crashing on the Vor Devrees. I was taken captive, but when we crashed into the Rel Sevanne I took the opportunity to escape. I have a prisoner," said Reed indicating Sharien.
"But that's..." said Archer looking between Sharien and Shar Jen.
"Yes, the likeness is remarkable. Her name is Sharien, she's the Kriel Weapons Master," said Reed.
Shar Jen went to look more closely at unconscious her double. She was obviously fascinated by her. "We knew that there were alternate versions of ourselves on the Vor Devrees but I never expected to meet one. What about the computer room?" she asked.
"Door's jammed," said Reed. "I tried to hot wire the controls but it doesn't seem to be working," he said.
"We brought cutting gear, Lieutenant," said Hayes and barked orders at the MACOs to get to work on the door. Reed stood back realising that he'd only be in the way if he tried to help.
"How badly is the Rel Sevanne damaged?" asked Reed looking from Archer to T'Pol.
"The damage is most likely irreparable," said T'Pol.
"The Rel Sevanne is missing most of its' forward section. We don't have casualty numbers but it isn't looking good. Some of the other MACOs are helping with rescue efforts in other parts of the ship. Trip did a pretty good job of getting everyone to the back of the ship but the impact was enough to do damage through out the ship," said Archer.
"We are currently barely keeping the ship together," said T'Pol.
"What does the Vor Devrees look like?" asked Archer.
"Pretty much the same, except Corvas didn't bother trying to get everyone out of harm's way. The casualties must be triple those of the Rel Sevanne," said Reed.
"Lieutenant, we should get you back to Enterprise immediately," said Phlox, who had surreptitiously taken out his scanner and been taking scans while Reed had been speaking.
"No," said Reed. "I'm staying until we have Trip out of here."
"What's wrong, Doctor?" asked Archer.
"Mr Reed has extensive injuries that need immediate treatment. Not least some internal bleeding and a broken arm," said Phlox.
"I'll live," said Reed.
"Only if you allow me to treat you," said Phlox, pulling out a hypospray from his kit.
"No drugs," said Reed. "I need to be alert."
"Lieutenant, you've obviously had quite a time of it. Perhaps you should go back to Enterprise," said Archer.
"If you don't mind, I'd prefer to stay, sir," said Reed, in a tone which lay carefully between insubordination and requesting permission, but obviously expected no argument.
Archer looked at Reed, really looked at him and realised that he was dead on his feet. He shook his head but he knew better than to try to shift the stubborn Armoury officer. If Reed wanted to stay then he didn't think it would make any difference if he ordered him back to Enterprise. Besides they would need Phlox to help Trip. "Patch him up Phlox and give him whatever he needs to stay on his feet, we'll get him back to Enterprise as soon as we can once we have Trip."
Phlox sighed. "Very well," he said. He pulled Reed over and sat him down on a girder that had fallen from the ceiling. He gave him a shot of painkiller, which immediately started to make him feel a bit better. Phlox pulled a piece of cloth out of his bag and looped it around Reed's neck to make a sling for his broken arm. "It's a clean break, it should heal without any problem, however I need to set it. This may hurt a little."
"Ow!" said Reed as Phlox manipulated the arm and positioned it in the sling. Even through the pleasant fog of the painkillers the pain had been sharp. At least it was receding now. "That was not my idea of it hurting "a little", Doctor," he added.
"If you had allowed me to give you a stronger painkiller I could have done that without any discomfort," said Phlox. He thought that Reed probably deserved a little discomfort for disobeying doctor's orders. He re-loaded the hypospray. "Now this is something to prevent the infection that you have building from getting any worse, but really you should be back in sick bay where I can give you a full course of antibiotics."
"Whatever you say, doctor, I just need to be on my feet a little longer," said Reed as he let the doctor administer the medication.
"I'll remind you that you said that when you're complaining about the length of your stay in sick bay. Which I can promise you will only be extended by your stubborn insistence to stay here rather than returning to Enterprise." Phlox loaded the hypospray for a third time. "This is the vaccine against the virus that we infected the Vor Devrees with."
"I am not a pincushion, doctor," said Reed, crossly. The doctor ignored him, cleaning the blood from his head wound and applying stinging antiseptic while Reed winced.
"We're through," shouted Hayes from the doorway. He and his men were busy hitting the door to push in the section that they had cut through. It gave way and Corporal Romero tumbled through into the computer room. Reed got to his feet and followed Archer, T'Pol and Shar Jen into the computer room. The sight that met them was worse than any of them had expected.
The lights were on red emergency lighting and flickered on and off. Small fires burned around the room, creating a thick, smoke laden atmosphere. A beam from the ceiling had fallen across the room and under it lay Kris Nor. T'Pol checked the Tien Exarch for life signs but no one had really expected to find him alive. T'Pol shook her head to confirm it. More smaller beams blocked their path to the black cylinder where Trip lay. T'Pol and Archer pushed them out of the way, Shar Jen and Reed following carefully behind.
The MACOs scanned for other life signs and under some fallen pieces of ceiling they located Nils Fen, the Tien Weapons Master. He was alive but just barely. Phlox went to him and started to tend to him, one of the MACOs acting as his assistant. The other MACOs continued to search for more life signs but they detected none.
T'Pol and Shar Jen reached the cylinder and Shar Jen went to the life support read outs.
"Well?" asked Archer, impatiently.
"Life support is still functioning but he's unconscious. His brain functions are dangerously low. We need to get him out of there now," she added urgently.
"That may present a problem," said T'Pol. Another beam had fallen directly across the side of the cylinder and was preventing T'Pol from getting the cylinder open. "Major Hayes!" she shouted back to where the Major was standing. "We require the cutting gear."
"And the virus?" asked Archer.
"I can't tell with these instruments," said Shar Jen. "His vital signs do not look good, and his body temperature is elevated, that could be the virus."
Archer hadn't wanted to hear that, but right now he couldn't think about what that might mean. The MACOs made their way to the cylinder, dragging the cutting equipment with them.
"Be careful," said T'Pol, "and remember that Commander Tucker is behind this panel."
"Yes, Ma'am," said Hayes and indicated to his men to begin cutting with caution.