Second Chances: Chapter 66

Stardate 52573
October 2375
San Francisco, Earth

Lt. B'Elanna Torres wasn't sure if it was the sudden blaring of the alarm klaxons or the streak of a projectile flying down from space outside her window that she noticed first, but she jumped to her feet, her eyes wide as they took in the sight she was seeing.

It was a missile. Headed right for the Presidio, and she watched in strange detachment as it impacted a building. Starfleet Medical, a voice inside her head pointed out needlessly, and then she snapped out of it.

They were under attack.

They had drilled for this; she knew that she was supposed to file out of the building in an orderly manner and knew where they were supposed to muster. She ignored all of that and ran. She ran like she hadn't run since the Federation Championships more than five years before. Granted, there had been fewer torpedoes and less debris when she had been on that track for those last 1500 meters of her collegiate running career.

She came to an abrupt halt as close to Starfleet Medical as she could get, her eyes wide at the destruction she saw and the people stumbling out of the debris. She rushed forward to help a young medic, escorting him toward what appeared to be a muster area.

She never thought she would see destruction like this, not on Earth, not in San Francisco, not on Starfleet grounds. She looked around her again to see other buildings in similar states of destruction, buildings she had seen intact out of her office window not fifteen minutes before. She wondered if any Starfleet building had been spared.

Izzy. Izzy's preschool was in a Starfleet building.

"Torres to Sima," she said as she tapped her combadge, gingerly making her way back toward the ruins of Starfleet Medical to offer what help she could.

*We're okay, Lieutenant,* Izzy's teacher said with a patience that made Torres sure she wasn't the first parent to comm in a panic. *We've taken the kids on a fun field trip to the basement holodeck!* Her voice was falsely chipper, and a second later, in a lower tone, she added, *They don't know anything is amiss.*

"Thank you," Torres said with a relief she hadn't realized was possible. She looked around again. "Things are pretty bad here. I'm going to help out as long as I can. If I'm not there to pick up Izzy by closing time, please call Alicia Paris and ask her to pick her up."

*I will,* Sima promised, *but I'm guessing we're going to be open pretty late tonight. Be safe, Lieutenant.*

Torres escorted a woman, this one likely a patient, to the same muster area as before, and this time, saw a familiar face. "Lieutenant Torres!" Commander Ao boomed. "Thank God!" One of her fellow professors in the Engineering department at the Academy, Ao's full-time job was the Chief of Damage Control at Starfleet Corps of Engineers; she was pretty sure he was here as the interim incident manager, if he hadn't been named the incident manager already. She didn't know anybody who knew more about controlling, clearing, and repairing a disaster scene than he did.

At least this one had the benefit of not being in space.

Ao waved her over to him. "You're now my deputy incident commander," he said. "Our first priority is safe evacuation. I'm putting you in charge of personnel. Good Samaritans are going to be lining up wanting to help. Your job is to make sure that nobody gets near the scene who isn't qualified."

She blinked. "How do I know who's qualified?"

"You'll know," he said confidently.

"Why me?"

"Because people listen to you," he said simply. "Put together teams and put the people who can help to work. Try to think of menial, out of the way tasks for those who have nothing to offer. Send them to the mustering site if you have to, but try not to make it look like we're turning people away," he said. That was perfectly clear. "I'm not asking you to run triage, but if anyone gets to you that looks like they need medical attention, we'll have an infirmary set up real quick here. Does your supervisor know you're here?"

She flushed; she had completely forgotten that she ran away from her building without letting anyone know. "Torres to Harkins," she said, tapping her combadge. "I'm assisting Commander Ao at Starfleet Medical."

She knew the comm had connected, but she was met with a pause. *Glad you're okay,* Commander Harkins finally said. *Ask Commander Ao if he needs anything from the CRC.*

"A comms team," Ao said, hearing the conversation. She relayed the request, and Harkins promised to pass that along.

Just as Ao predicted, people began trickling in, most asking how they could help, some just heading for the rubble that had been Starfleet Medical and needing to be redirected. Quite a few were helpful, but Torres had a lot more people 'helping out' in the rest tent than people resting in said tent.

Several hours had gone by before Commander Ao appeared at her side. "It's time for a break," he said in a voice that brokered no argument, and for once, she didn't have one to give. She was exhausted.

"Admiral Huang is the incident manager of the overall disaster," Ao commented as they walked to the rest tent. "There are five sub-manager, one at each of the worst sites."

"How many?" Torres asked. Ao sighed and shook his head.

"Headquarters was hit first, Starfleet Medical about thirty seconds later. You saw what this looked like." He gestured vaguely at the hospital. "Headquarters is even worse. The Golden Gate Bridge now has a chunk missing. Your building was hit, but I think it was evacuated completely or almost completely by then. A couple of buildings at the Academy. Not Scotty Hell, unfortunately." She snorted at that, and he smiled thinly, and then frowned. "Over a thousand dead, and still counting."

"Do we know who did it?"

"The Breen," he said flatly, and she frowned.

"The Breen," she echoed, her voice just as flat. She thought back to the intelligence report from the "They'd been in talks with the Dominion, but there was nothing that indicated…" Of course there was nothing that indicated that the Breen would attack Earth; nobody was looking for evidence of an attack. The Earth hadn't been attacked since, what, the Xindi? The Romulans? One of those conflicts before the Federation was even formed. In over 200 years, they had somehow gotten the idea that the Earth was impervious to attack.

They entered the rest tent and immediately headed for the replicators. "You're good at this," Ao said as they took their food to a table. "Once things are settled down, I want to send you to the Incident Manager's course."

Torres snorted. "Just what I need, sir. Another responsibility."

Ao gave a crooked smile and seemed to drop it. "You're still teaching at the Academy," he commented.

"I like it," Torres said simply. "I didn't think I would, but stranger things have happened."

"Your students like your classes," he said. "We're glad that Pathfinder is willing to share you. It's been good to have you on the faculty. I'd love to have you teach more classes, but I know that that last semester of your master's was a pretty big load, with you leading a team at Pathfinder and all."

She nodded. "No offense, sir, but while I like teaching, I don't like teaching enough to do that again."

Ao smiled at that. "Someday, Torres, you'll get your husband home and we'll be able to rope you into teaching full-time."

"I don't like teaching enough to do that, either, sir," she replied. He chuckled and rose.

"I'd love to have you helping out again tomorrow, but I'm sure they'll need you at Pathfinder. It was good to have you on my team, even for such a short time. And I'm serious about training you to be an incident manager. Once this excitement dies down, I'm going to start bugging you about it."

She smiled thinly up at him. "I have a pre-schooler, sir. I've had a lot of practice saying no to people bugging me."

He nodded slightly. "Good night, Torres. Get some rest."

"You too, sir."

After he left, she also rose to recycle her tray, but stopped at the sight of Jason Sanders at a nearby table, his usually well-styled hair sticking up in every direction and a look of exhaustion on his face as he nursed a coffee. She changed direction and took the seat across from him. "Didn't expect to see you here," she commented. He gave her a tired smile.

"My DMART team got activated," he explained. She had forgotten he was on a civilian medical response team. "We just came off shift. I needed coffee." He glanced down at his chronometer. "Nicki should be out of surgery soon," he commented.

"I guess it's hard to be on leave when your hospital is attacked," she replied, "but I would think they would have enough surgeons with your civilian teams here that they wouldn't need a pediatrician."

He frowned, then shook his head. "Wrong side of the table," he said. "She was here during the attack and got caught under some rubble. They extracted her about an hour ago and took her straight to the OR. Some hemorrhaging and internal bleeding, but she'll be fine. You know how stubborn she is."

B'Elanna stared at him in disbelief. "Kahless, Jason!" she exclaimed. "You can't—You just—"

"Relax, B'Elanna," he said soothingly. "She's in good hands. She's going to be fine. I saw her before they took her into surgery. She was joking with her rescue team. And she specifically asked that nobody tell Alicia until she's out of surgery," he said emphatically. "You know how Alicia can be."

"Kahless," she muttered again, rubbing her forehead. "Where is she? Can I see her?" He sighed and rose.

"They'll take her to recovery when they're done," he said. "I'll take you there. But you can't stay long, and again, no saying anything to Alicia. By the way, Syd's at the main incident command center and all the kids are the Paris'. Including Izzy."

She nodded her thanks and followed him to the recovery area, and only a few minutes later, Nicki was brought to an empty cot. "Hey, babe," she said to Jason, her voice slurred and her smile looking like it did when she was drunk. Her eyes traveled over to Torres. "I heard a rumor that there was a half-Klingon ordering people around," she murmured. "Glad you're okay. Gods, I chose the wrong time to check back into work."

B'Elanna bit back a laugh, surprised to feel the sting of tears in her eyes. "Kahless, Nicki," she managed.

"I'm fine," Nicki said, her words probably as emphatic as she could make them. "I'm tired, and drugged, but I'll be back to my usual smartass self in no time. I'm glad they're keeping me overnight so I don't have to deal with Mom until I have my wits about me again."

"When don't you have your wits about you?" B'Elanna asked. Nicki gave a tired chuckle and grimaced.

"Ribs are still healing," she breathed. "Best not to laugh." She caught the look on B'Elanna's face and shook her head slightly. "Don't give me that look," she said. "I don't even know how many people died today. An overnight in a field hospital isn't so bad." Her eyes closed for a long second before she opened them again. "Go home. Give Izzy a kiss for me. Tell Ainsley not to worry and that I'll see her tomorrow." She reached her hand out for Jason and gave it a weak squeeze. "You should go home too, babe. You look like shit." Her eyes closed for another long period. "And I'm really not good company right now," she murmured.

"I don't know about that," he joked. "You're easier to handle when you're unconscious." She wheezed out a laugh and grimaced.

"I told you not to make me laugh," she protested. Jason smiled and kissed her forehead.

"I'll see you in the morning," he promised. "I love you, Nick."

"Love you too, Jason. Good night, B'Elanna."

B'Elanna bid her good night, and then she and Jason headed out of the recovery tent. "The transporter stations here and at Headquarters are both out," he said. "They set one up a few hundred meters this way." He yawned deeply, then shook his head quickly as if to clear it. "Fuck. What a day."

Those four words pretty much summed up how B'Elanna felt about the situation. A day that started so routine, and now she had no office, Nicki was in temporary field hospital as a patient, and she had no idea what the future would hold for her. If the Breen were now allied with the Dominion, what did that mean for the war? What did that mean for her part in it? What did that mean for Pathfinder, for Voyager, for Tom?

Those were tomorrow problems; she decided that she was going to listen to Nicki for once. She was going to get Izzy and give her a big hug, and then they were going to go home and go to bed, and they'd figure out the rest as it came up.