"Thank you, Sir," she replied monotonously. As Stephen observed her face, he almost made out the vague image of a smile quickly cross her face.
They had done it. The odds were terrible, and they almost didn't make it... but that didn't matter. They MADE it. Stephen settled back into the captain's seat, ran his fingers through his hair and let out a deep breath of relief. The gamble had paid off. Cardassia was safe, the hostages were safe, and the Dominion was erased from the Alpha Quadrant... again. "I wonder how many more pockets of these guys are still left," Stephen wondered to himself. He decided against thinking about that any further. This was a time for celebration.
Elaine, once again, spun in her seat to face the commander. "Commander, I have Colonel Prichard on a video link." She was smiling.
"Put him on screen, Lieutenant," Kirk replied, smiling as well.
A frighteningly large image of the middle-aged, unshaven colonel filled the viewscreen. He noticed the smiling faces lining the bridge crew and let out a sigh of relief. "I take it things have taken a better turn since we talked last." Behind the colonel were several marines helping cardassians to stand. Apparently, part of the ceiling had collapsed sending several people to the room they were defending. From the lack of Jem'Hadar faces, it would seem their ordeal had ended successfully as well.
Stephen nodded. "We just cleaned up the last of them." He reconsidered his statement. After all, Starfleet had made the same claim last time. "Well, I think we did. I suppose something could still be hiding around here somewhere."
Prichard shook his head. "That's nothing for us to worry about, Commander. The hostages are secured, but a few of them have suffered some injuries. A couple of my men are a little chopped up, too. I don't suppose you could get us the hell out of here, could you?" He offered with a smile.
"Agreed. Are the Federation delegates with you?" Kirk asked.
Prichard reached forward, presumably to the communications relay. The image on the viewscreen zoomed out to encompass more of the room, which was a collapsed mess of fallen ceiling chunks and great ruptures in the floor. To Prichard's left, however, was a very dusty and uniform-ripped Admiral Picard, who was breathing heavily, but smiling. "We are, indeed, Commander... and in desperate need of a shower and change of clothes." Behind him, the other four delegates were cautiously making their way towards him, carefully side-stepping the rubble and debris along the ground.
"No problem," Kirk replied. "I'll have our transporters bring you aboard..."
"Oh, my god!" Elaine exclaimed from behind Stephen. Instantly, everyone turned around to face her. Lieutenant Davies was still staring at his communications relay display. After clearing a number of damage reports, injury reports, and section status updates, she had come to an automated alert indicating a lifesigns warning in the captain's quarters.
Stephen jumped over the rear guard rail and headed towards Davies' console as Prichard and Picard looked on from their relay with concern. As Stephen approached her panel, he saw the words 'Lifesigns failing. Death immanent.' on the details of the message. The time was eleven minutes ago. "Oh, no," he whispered.
"I don't know how I missed it," Elaine said, in shock. "I mean, we had warnings going off all over the place..."
Kirk hit his comm badge hard as he sprinted for the turbolift. "Kirk to Doctor Rass!" As he approached the sliding double doors, the slid open with a hiss. Kirk pointed to Richards. "You have the con! Get our people aboard!"
Kirk's badge popped. "Rass here. What's going... "
Kirk interrupted quickly. "I need you to meet me at Captain Bolerov's quarters immediately!" He jumped into the turbolift. "Computer, deck three!"