Working in zero-gee was not his favorite pastime.
Despite being one of the most qualified engineers in Starfleet, not to mention one of only four or five actively serving Andorians, Lieutenant Commander Drahn loathed spacewalks. Starfleet EV suits were not designed for his Andorian physique and, as a result, his head always hurt as the helmet bore down on his antennae; but that wasn't why he hated it. It wasn't the upending vertigo he always experienced when facing the endless starfield, either; nor was it the sense of how small, how truly inconsequential and insignificant he actually was that he felt when staring into the glittering expanse of space. His engineering knowledge was particularly troublesome during these excursions; knowing exactly how little pressure was actually required to tear the EV suit only served to make him even more cautious, more hesitant, and considerably more jumpy. No, it was none of these things that made him hate zero-gee operations.
It was all of them.
As he stared at the exposed core of Vigrid Station, he fervently wished he could have tasked this duty out to his 2IC; Lieutenant Hamilton Riggs derived an unnatural pleasure from spacewalks and had all but begged to take this one. At any other time, Drahn would have gladly, eagerly pushed it off onto Riggs, but the lieutenant hadn't yet acquired the necessary touch for this kind of work.
Neither, for that matter, had Drahn.
He'd spent the last three and a half hours watching with interest as Lieutenant Commander Eisler worked, using two hundred kilograms of detonex (acquired from where, Drahn couldn't say) to fashion a ring of explosives that would cause the station core to go critical. It was fascinating to observe: the various charges were tied in together and were intended to detonate in a sequential order, creating a cascading effect that would rupture the core and force it to go critical. Had he not seen Eisler rigging the explosives himself, Drahn would have thought that nothing short of a photonic torpedo could create such an effect. It did irk him somewhat that, so far, all he had been needed for was to disable the security measures around the station core and carry the detonex. He hated feeling useless.
"I didn't know we carried detonex on Endeavour," he said in a possibly vain attempt to start a conversation. Compared to Eisler, Commander T'Pol was positively vociferous.
"We don't," the tactical officer replied sharply and Drahn gave him a dark frown. He suffered the silence for a long time - at least a minute - before venturing another opinion.
"You know a lot about explosives," he said hopefully and indeed, the human was a veritable genius in that department. Eisler glanced in his direction, his expression annoyed, before returning his attention to the charge before him. Long minutes passed in absolute silence as the human worked. Just as Drahn was about to say something, his scanner beeped. Giving it a quick once-over, he spoke.
"Radiation levels are rising." It was to be expected; with the containment field offline, the core was beginning to become dangerously unstable.
"How long?" Eisler asked as he set another charge. By Drahn's count, that made one hundred and eleven.
"Six minutes to lethal exposure," he replied, and Eisler grunted. "Is there anything I can do?" Drahn asked.
"Being quiet would help," the tactical officer snapped. He pulled the last charge from the carrying case and briefly consulted a PADD anchored to his EV suit by a mag-line. Moving as quickly as the suit allowed him, he traversed several meters, his eyes glued to the PADD as he walked. Stopping abruptly, he resecured the data device before kneeling. "Time?" he inquired once more and Drahn could hear the frustration in his voice.
"Four minutes, forty seconds." Without a word, Eisler planted the charge and consulted the PADD once more. He tapped several buttons, finally nodding as he rose.
"Re-initialize the containment field," he ordered. Frowning at him, Drahn tapped several keys on his wrist-comp. Immediately, a faintly visible force screen snapped into place. "Lieutenant Commander Eisler to Vigrid Station," the human said into his helmet comm as Drahn cycled through the various start-up programs. No error messages could be found, and he let his breath out softly.
"Administrator Maddox," the station reply echoed through their helmets.
"Charges are set," Eisler announced, "and you have the ball." Drahn filed that particular bit of slang away for future use; he hoped he understood what it meant. "Don't let us down ... this time. Eisler out."
"This time?" Drahn asked as he began gathering their gear. It mostly consisted of carrying cases with magseals on their bottoms, but there were a couple of specialized tools that Eisler had brought along with him.
"I warned that ... I warned the Administrator about the bombers before the Green Sector op." The human's tone was dark, angry, and Drahn realized what Maddox must have done in response: nothing. Eisler activated his comm unit. "TAC-Six to Endeavour." The reply was nearly instantaneous.
"Endeavour," came Marie's voice, and Drahn smiled. He rather liked hearing her voice so close to his ear.
"ENG-Six and I are done, and are RTB." It took the Andorian a moment to translate the acronym to 'returning to base' and he wondered why the man didn't just say so. "ETA twenty minutes," Eisler finished and Drahn realized the tactical officer was staring coldly at him.
"Acknowledged," Lieutenant Devereux said.
"TAC-Six out." Eisler hefted his three cases and began the long walk toward the airlock.
"Is it the skin color?" Drahn asked abruptly, tired of the human's reaction to him. "Or the antennae?"
"What?"
"You obviously have a problem with me, Eisler, and I want to know what it is." He was pushing, but couldn't find it in himself to care. The tactical officer gave him a brief look.
"Don't take it personally, Commander," Eisler said, not even slowing his stride. "I don't like anyone."
"That sounds ... lonely." Drahn couldn't imagine living like that and, incredibly, found himself feeling pity for the cold-eyed human. He hoped that it didn't leak into his voice; no male, regardless of species, wanted to be pitied. Eisler said nothing as they continued the walk toward the airlock, didn't even acknowledge the comment, and Drahn struggled to find something else to say.
Ever since defecting to Starfleet, the Andorian had tried to integrate himself into the human organization as quickly as possible. At first, he'd faced some serious prejudice within the ranks and had quickly tired of being treated as 'The Andorian.' Despite his experience as the assistant chief engineer on an Andorian cruiser, he had first been assigned to Spacedock and given light administrative duties. It took several weeks for him to realize that the humans didn't entirely trust him, and depression had just begun to set in when he ran into Tucker again.
They had met once before aboard Enterprise, when Commander Shran had made a gamble to seize the prototype Xindi superweapon. Drahn had been surprised that Tucker recognized him, but found himself enjoying the human's company so much that, before he knew it, he was confessing the sorry state of his career. Three days later, Starfleet Command cut new orders for him: Chief Engineer of Endeavour, under Captain Tucker. Happier than he'd been in years, Drahn had gleefully reported to his new commanding officer.
He had very nearly resigned when he learned that he would be serving under a Vulcan.
In her defense, Commander T'Pol had gone out of her way to avoid antagonizing him and had, on several occasions, backed a few of his proposals to the captain, but it didn't make things much easier. He had lost his temper with her more than once over inconsequential disagreements and, when the captain had reprimanded him, even Drahn agreed that he had been wrong. The captain's decision to create a specialized bridge engineering position just to keep Drahn in Engineering suited the Andorian fine; he preferred tinkering with his engines to visiting the bridge anyway.
Drahn still didn't know what to make of the odd relationship between T'Pol and the captain; the idea of romance with a Vulcan was just ... wrong.
"Endeavour to TAC-Six!" It was Devereux again, and she sounded stressed. Eisler keyed his comm.
"TAC-Six," he replied.
"Stand by to be beamed aboard."
"Negative!" Eisler shouted into the comm. It was the closest Drahn had seen him to losing his temper. "Do not use-"
The rest was lost as reality fuzzed around them. Clenching his eyes shut, Drahn waited for it to be over. He really hated that device.
"Scheisse!" the tactical officer snarled as they materialized on the transporter platform. "What idiot ordered that!" Eisler yanked off his helmet to glare at the lieutenant manning the controls. "That could have set off the detonators!" Recoiling from his fury, Lieutenant Ricker opened her mouth to respond when Marie's voice echoed around them.
"Tactical alert! All hands to battle stations! This is not a drill!"
Seconds later, an alarm began sounding through the ship corridors.