A/N. Hello, lovely people! I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this story, but if you're still with me after all this time, thank you kindly for your patience. After an extended break from fandom, I finally feel ready to come back. I think?

As always, huge thanks to my amazing alpha/beta Insanity-Red.

Chapter 7

Nagilum hadn't liked that Hermione and Harry refused to play along with its game.

"She tried to escape like the other one," it said evenly when the group hastily stumbled into the cockpit after hearing Krell's desperate plea for help, "but I put her here instead. She pays the price for your disobedience."

With that, Nagilum's 'face' disappeared from the viewscreen.

Krell, whimpering and shaking, was suspended helplessly on one of the walls. Hermione realized pretty quickly that their teammate's body was being used as a plug for whatever hull breach their systems had previously indicated. She put up a magical shield between Krell's body and the vacuum of space, thereby releasing her from her prison.

The hole in the wall turned out to be only about five centimetres in diameter, but even that, when surrounded by the vacuum of space, was more than enough to draw someone violently towards it and cause significant damage to the exposed part of the body. For Krell, it turned out to be her upper back, the area just above her right shoulder blade.

Hermione immediately took Krell to their makeshift medbay to begin treatment. She was in the middle of a healing spell, when she heard Harry's voice.

"Erm . . . Hermione?"

She looked up from her unconscious patient and saw Harry's silhouette through the privacy divider.

"You can come in, Harry."

He peeked around the curtain uncertainly, his gaze flickering between her and Krell.

"How is she?"

"She'll be alright," replied Hermione, rummaging in her medkit in search of the healing salve of her own creation. "I sedated her so she'll sleep through the worst of the pain, but she should be awake in a few hours. We got to her in time, so there thankfully won't be any permanent damage. But it'll take some time for a full recovery," she finished, wincing at the sight of Krell's unnaturally swollen upper back—the exposed skin was coloured a deep red, nearly black.

"Good to know."

She carefully began applying the salve.

"Any sign of Nagilum?"

Harry shook his head, fully stepping inside the area separated by the curtain. "Not that I can tell. I stopped feeling its presence after the hull breach. But we're still in the void, so I imagine it's around. We just can't see—or feel it."

"Raix?"

"Still searching for him. So far, unsuccessfully."

"And the hull breach?"

"Already fully patched up."

Hermione nodded and bit her bottom lip. Beginning with the last leg of the exam, nothing had gone as planned. The whole treasure hunt wasn't supposed to take longer than five days, and it had already been at least that long. Or had it? There was no way to tell whether time outside and inside the void flowed at the same rate, so it was entirely possible that Starfleet didn't even know they were in trouble. And even if they did realize that when their team failed to check in as they were supposed to on an hourly basis, what would they do anyway? How would they get an extra-dimensional being to release them from the void? Ask it nicely? Somehow she doubted it would work.

She gave her head a shake and looked up to see her friend lost in his own thoughts. His eyes were clouded over, as if he felt he'd never see sunshine again. She knew that look well.

"Harry, how are you holding up?" she asked carefully.

Picking up her wand, she cast a quick Muffliato around them—Shev didn't need to hear this conversation.

The question seemed to startle him.

Harry blinked. "How am I holding up?" he asked, and scoffed.

Then he crossed his arms and continued, "Well, let's see. A member of our team is missing, and another is injured because of me. We're in a void—"

"Because of you? Wait a minute—"

"—created by an extra-dimensional being, who is treating us like rats in a maze trying to find the cheese—the cheese being an exit out of this void, and—"

"Harry, please!" She set the salve down with more force than was strictly necessary and rose to her feet.

She waited until she was sure she had his full attention before continuing gently, "It's not your fault Krell's injured."

"Yes, it is," he insisted. "I was the one who suggested the scenario was just a trick—"

"—which it was—"

"—and now Krell is injured and—"

"—you don't get to take responsibility for that!" she shouted over him.

Then, before he could get another word in, she continued quickly, "Imagine the following scenario: we played along with Nagilum's game and escaped in pods. We'd be all scattered in the void for it to mess with us any which way it wanted, and the probability of us ever getting out of here would have been that much closer to zero."

She took a breath and made her way around the bed towards Harry.

"What happened to Krell is truly unfortunate," she said, "but if you really need someone to blame, then you're going to have to blame us both. We made the decision not to play along with Nagilum's scenario together. Do you hear me? Together."

They stared at each other for a moment, and then Harry finally nodded.

She exhaled and pulled him in for an embrace. She needed a hug right now, probably just as much as Harry did.

"You know," he said, holding onto her tightly, "I did initially come here to ask you about your head."

"My head?" She pulled away and stared at him.

"Yeah." He studied her intently. "I want to know how your head is."

She shrugged and winced slightly at the pain the motion had caused. "Fine. Why are you asking?"

"I saw how hard you were thrown against that terminal, and I know you hit your head, and . . . Well, I don't want anything bad happening to you."

Like it did to Darian Oprel, Hermione added mentally, knowing that it was the incident Harry was thinking of at the moment.

Darian Oprel had been a command track cadet in their year, who'd fallen and hit his head during training. He'd skipped out on his instructor's orders to go to the infirmary straight away and have it checked out, brushing it off as no big deal and claiming he'd felt just fine. Later that day, he'd gone to bed early, complaining about a headache. His roommate, who hadn't been aware of his accident earlier in the day, hadn't thought much of it (headaches weren't such a rare occurrence for Darian) and gone on to pull an all-nighter at the Long Range sensor lab. When he'd returned the next morning, Darian had already been gone. Cause of death: epidural hematoma—bleeding between the inside of the skull and the dura.

His death was a tragedy that had shaken the entire Academy and served as a reminder that even something as seemingly innocent as a simple fall can kill you. No encounter with hostile aliens necessary.

Hermione let out a slow breath.

"Believe me, Harry, I don't want that either," she said, gently squeezing one of his shoulders. "I'm alright, really. You needn't worry. I've already run some scans, and apart from a small subdural hematoma, I'm fine."

"A what?"

"Subdural hematoma. It's when blood gathers between the inner layer of the dura mater and the arachnoid mater."

"I'm no healer, but that sounds pretty serious."

"It can be, yes. In my case, it's small enough that I don't even need surgery to remove the blood. The body will gradually reabsorb it."

"Isn't there a spell you can use to speed up the process? Or remove the blood?"

"There is. But it's very tricky—actually, impossible—to perform on myself. I wouldn't want to risk permanent brain damage."

His brow furrowed as he contemplated her words for a moment. She could practically hear him offering to learn the spell and perform it himself. He already knew a few healing spells; nothing to perform a surgery with, more of a magical equivalent of first aid. All Aurors had to learn them during their training. Hermione had also taught him a few more spells—just in case.

But removing the blood inside one's brain was not merely fixing a broken bone. And Harry knew this as well.

Which was why he instead said, "Then why not use one of the Medbay's devices?"

"I would if I had the one I needed. This isn't a fully equipped Medical Bay, Harry."

He opened his mouth—perhaps to try and talk until they found a third option, as they often did—but Shev's voice, carrying from the cockpit, interrupted him.

"Guys! I think I found Raix's escape pod!"

Hermione and Harry exchanged a glance, and as one, moved towards the cockpit.

"The pod systems are optimal," said Hermione, quickly scanning the pod. "His vitals are good."

"I'm moving us in closer," informed Shev. "Then I'll use the grappler to retrieve him."

Hermione and Harry exchanged another glance, silently agreeing that they had something better. But when Shev began deploying the grappler, they decided to let the man try.

He missed the target.

Not bothered, he immediately retracted, reset, and deployed the grappler again. And then again, and again. By the time he deployed it for the seventh time, he began swearing.

"Erm," said Harry, retrieving his wand, "if you don't mind, I'd like to try my way now."

"Be my guest," he replied, annoyed.

Harry pointed his wand in the direction of the escape pod. Nothing happened for a few long seconds, but then the pod began slowly moving towards their ship.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Shev, leaning back in his seat. "How are you even doing that? It's not like the pod's two meters away."

Harry, concentrating hard on his task, didn't reply.

Therefore Hermione supplied: "Think of it as a magical tractor beam. Sort of. But not really."

"Magical, huh? Is that what you call your abilities? I thought—"

Hermione never found out exactly what Shev thought about magic. Her console, currently displaying the data on the pod and Raix's vitals, began beeping and flashing red.

"His vitals are dropping! Pod's systems are malfunctioning!"

Harry immediately lowered his wand. "My magic shouldn't be causing interference, right?"

Magic and technology didn't always get along, but that was usually the case with more powerful and complex spells. Not a simple Summoning Charm.

Hermione let out a breath, letting the tension in her shoulders relax.

"It shouldn't be," she agreed.

"Nagilum?" asked Harry, picking up on her thoughts.

"Most likely."

"Bugger."

Their suspicions were confirmed, when seconds later the pod simply vanished without a trace.

"It is not much fun when my scenarios don't play out the way I envisioned them," said Nagilum, its 'face' appearing in the viewscreen once more.

Hermione rose, flicking her wrist to let her wand fall into her grasp from inside her enchanted bracelet. The beginnings of an idea began forming in her brain, of something that might potentially help them escape the void.

Or it might just piss Nagilum off, and they'd all pay the price for it. But they couldn't remain in the void forever, and Nagilum didn't seem to have any intentions of letting them go.

"Sorry to disappoint you," she said, not sorry at all, "but we're done being your lab rats."

Being careful not to give away her idea and mentally reciting the ingredients and instructions for brewing Polyjuice Potion, she met Harry's gaze. He'd also retrieved his wand and looked at her questioningly.

"Remember the only spell I ever had trouble with?" she asked.

"Yeah, but what makes you think—"

"Just a feeling, Harry. Just a feeling. Unless you have a better idea?"

Harry didn't.

Hermione adopted a wide-legged stance for stability and raised her wand. Taking a deep breath, she focused on a happy memory and cast a nonverbal Patronus Charm. A silvery otter burst from the tip of her wand, circled around her, and disappeared through the viewscreen. A moment later, it was followed by Harry's stag.

Nothing happened for a short eternity.

And then, Nagilum let out a pained roar. Their small vessel rattled violently. Lights flickered, and the warning klaxons went off again.

"Shields!" Hermione yelled, making her way back to the makeshift medbay to secure Krell to her bed and cursing herself for not doing it sooner.

Thankfully, the Caitian hadn't fallen off it. As Hermione finished securing the last strap, she heard Harry call out, informing her that they were out of the void. A moment later, the warp drive engaged; however, by the time she got back to her chair and buckled in, she was pushed back in her seat as the ship dropped out of warp again.

"You will pay for that!" Nagilum roared.

"No," replied back a familiar, melodic voice. "You will pay for what you've done. You're not supposed to be here."

The voice brought with it a tingling feeling that began somewhere in her crown and travelled down her spine and onto her arms and legs. Hermione shivered, looking out the viewscreen to find nothing but white. She polarized the screen but still could see nothing definitive.

"Amerisis?" said Harry incredulously, casting his gaze about, as if he might see her standing only a few feet away. Her voice certainly sounded that way.

"Nice of you to show up," added Hermione.

"Had fun, did you? Watching us being treated like rats in a maze?"

"I take no pleasure in such things," Amerisis replied firmly, and the ship jolted once more. "I told you to call me if you needed aid."

"Call you?" Harry scoffed. "I wasn't aware you had a number we could reach you at."

"I believe my exact words were: 'Names have power. You know mine. Don't forget to use it, and I'll do what I can.' You really must learn to pay more attention."

"Oh, sorry. Your name isn't the first thing I think of shouting when we're in trouble."

"Attitude," reprimanded Amerisis.

A sudden lurch nearly made Hermione bash her head against her console.

"Ugh. Would you stop that?" asked Hermione, her stomach churning.

But her only response was Nagilum's angry shouting and more of their vessel's rattling.

"You have no business showing up here! You and your people are supposed to leave me alone!"

"And you are supposed to be elsewhere," retorted Amerisis. "Forever. You and your kind were banished!"

Her last words were accompanied by a powerful jolt, followed by the explosion of the Engineering console. A few EPS conduits overloaded, making the sparks fly out of them. The image on the viewscreen indicated a raging battle; the swirling of light and darkness, moves and countermoves made up a mesmerizing dance. Hermione might have even called the image 'beautiful', had she been merely observing it from afar. But as anyone stuck in the middle of a storm, she'd definitely use a different word.

"Great," said Shev, "now we're caught up in someone else's fight."

"We're surrounded by a field of sorts," said Hermione, consulting her readings. "It seems to be protecting us from the full force of the light show outside, but it's also affecting all of our systems. We're losing our structural integrity fields."

"We can't stay here," said Harry, using spells to extinguish a couple of fires that had been caused by the overload. "Shev, can you get us out?"

"I'm trying. But I can't engage the warp drive."

"What about impulse?"

"Same thing. I can't do anything. We're dead in the water until we get out of this field."

"Hey, Amerisis!" Harry yelled into the ceiling. "Thanks for trying to help, but would you mind getting us out of here? Like, really far away would be nice. Preferably home. If it's not too much trouble, you know?"

Harry's sarcastic comment didn't get any response.

"That's just bloody typical," he grumbled.

Hermione closed her eyes to think of their options for a moment. They were damned if they stayed in the field, and damned if they left it.

Shev's words kept running through her head.

Dead in the water.

Dead in the water.

Dead in the—

She opened them abruptly, quickly consulted the sensor readings once more, and began unbuckling her seatbelt.

"We need something to pull us out," she muttered to herself, an idea solidifying in her brain.

"What are you doing?!" asked Harry.

"Can you bring the grappler online?"

Not waiting for his response, she headed to the back of the cockpit, speaking very fast: "I'm going to enchant and then eject one of the escape pods. It'll have higher tensile strength, as well as velocity than usual, so make sure you catch it. Theoretically, that should pull us out of this field, and then we'll be free to leave."

"Theoretically?" repeated Shev.

"Yes! Theoretically. We haven't exactly been in this kind of situation before."

Reaching the nearest escape pod located just outside the sliding doors of the cockpit, Hermione went to work on preparing it for deployment.

"And what about the grappler cord?" asked Shev. "Are you sure it'll hold out?"

"Already on it," said Harry, rising from his seat. "I'll go and magically refortify it."

"Sure, you do that," said Shev sarcastically. "And what about the battle of those two . . . whatever they are? Won't we be destroyed the moment we leave the field?"

"It's a possibility, yes," replied Hermione as she began casting the necessary spells, all the while trying to remain on her feet in the ever-rocking vessel. "But we haven't really got a choice. We'll die for sure if we stay here."

"Would be nice to have your shield generator here, Hermione."

"Yes, it would be," she agreed with a quick nod at her best friend. "But as it is, we'll have to—"

"Transfer all remaining power to shields?" finished Harry.

"Emergency power included," added Hermione. "But that still might not be enough."

"I can refortify them. Magically," said Harry, and then shrugged. "It's a small enough ship."

Hermione nodded again. "Just don't overdo it, or you might fry all the electronics."

Harry nodded back and disappeared into the Engineering compartment.

Shev, who'd been watching their exchange, his gaze comically flicking from one to the other, stared at Hermione. She felt his gaze on her even as she went back to casting her spells. Several times the ship's rattling knocked her off her feet and once nearly threw her backwards against the wall, but she was ready for it this time, using the Cushioning Charm to avoid injuries.

Shev cleared his throat and held out a hand to help her up. She gazed at it for a moment, then slowly extended her hand to take his.

"You should be monitoring the sensors," she said, once on her feet and back to work. "And be ready to fly."

"You're welcome," said Shev dryly. "And I'm always ready to fly. Don't you worry about that."

When she didn't say anything in response, he added: "And there's nothing new on the sensors. Same old, same old."

She remained silent, choosing to focus on finishing her task.

"Look," Shev began again, "I know now isn't the time, but I need to talk to you. Alone. Can we? Sometime later?"

"Alright," she agreed, throwing him a quick glance. "I'm done here. So as soon as Harry—"

"I'm done too," he said, emerging from Engineering.

"Let's do this then."

Seconds later, she ejected the pod and Apparated back to her seat. Just as she finished fastening her seatbelt, Harry easily caught the pod with the grappler. Everyone was pushed back in their seats, and the ship trembled as it made its way out of the energy field.

Every second felt like an eternity as they held their breaths, eyes fixed on the little pod steadily pulling them ahead. The shields flickered, barely holding against the forces raging around them, until . . . finally, they were clear.

"Aaand we got warp back!" informed Shev.

The alarm blared for the umpteenth time that day, this time alerting to the imminent failure of the shields.

"Anytime now, Shev!" Harry yelled at him impatiently when seconds ticked away, and they still weren't at warp. "Do you want me to take over?"

"I got this!" the Andorian yelled back angrily. "Just making sure we don't explode!"

The shields failed nanoseconds before Shev engaged the warp drive, but they were still able to make the jump. Although, it was very different from all the other jumps that Hermione had experienced. There was nothing smooth about it. No stars churned past the viewscreen, and the ship rattled with even more force, threatening to fall apart. Metal scraped against metal with terrible, clattering violence.

Thankfully, the jump didn't last long. Near-deafening silence settled in the cockpit, followed by three simultaneous sighs of relief. For a long moment, no one said anything.

And then: "We can't leave Raix behind," said Harry.

"Are you serious now?" said Shev, incredulous, turning to stare at Harry. "You saw what just happened to our ship. We barely got out! And that's with you two doing your thing. Do you really think his escape pod would have the slightest chance of surviving that?" he finished, jabbing his thumb in the general direction of everything they'd left behind.

Harry was conflicted. Any other person would have been unable to pick up on that, but Hermione had known him for more than half of her life: the tightening of his jaw, his lips pressed into a thin line, an intense look in his eyes as he tried to decide—should he stubbornly insist they at least try to save Raix, or should he focus on putting distance between them and the battle, thereby ensuring the safety of those aboard their ship?

"What do you think, Hermione?"

She knew the question was coming even before Harry opened his mouth. After all, this being no longer part of the exam and in the absence of a formal acting captain, protocol demanded that any and all decisions had to be voted upon by all the members of the team. With Raix missing (just missing, she told herself, unwilling to accept anything else just yet) and Krell currently incapacitated, it fell to the three of them to make any further decisions.

And more than that, she and Harry had always looked to each other for advice when they were fumbling or indecisive.

"I'll have to agree with Shev on this one," she said after a long pause, throwing Harry an apologetic glance.

Shev, who sat there with the look of someone who had already lost the argument, perked up.

"Well, that's a first," he said somewhat giddily. "I didn't think you two disagreed, like, ever."

" 'The needs of the many' ," she continued gently, ignoring the Andorian.

She picked up the transceiver from the communications console and inserted it into her ear. "I'll inform Starfleet Academy Command centre about everything that's happened. We'll come back, and I'm sure that using my shield generator, we'll be able to find Raix."

"If he survives that long," inserted Shev.

"Would you shut up?" Harry snapped at him. "For someone who ordered him to abandon ship in the first place, you don't seem to be bothered at all. You're just fine leaving him behind!"

Perhaps it was the look on Harry's face—or the palpable indignation that he gave off—but Shev, after opening and closing his mouth a couple of times, had enough sense to keep it shut.

Wise choice, Hermione thought, turning her attention to her terminal. She flicked a few switches and pressed several buttons, her brow furrowing at the deafening silence coming from the transceiver.

"Oh, right. Comms are still down."

"I'll get on it then," said Harry, rising from his seat.

He didn't make it very far before the vessel gave a sudden jolt and dropped out of warp.

"Oh, come on!" yelled Shev. "Not again!"

Taking a few moments to analyze the readings, Hermione announced, "It's a gravimetric shear."

"Source?" asked Harry.

"It's coming from . . . a subspace sinkhole of sorts."

"It's pulling us in!" said Shev.

"Can you go back to warp?"

"Negative. I can't establish a stable field."

Hermione wanted to curse. Will this trip ever end?

"Then we need more power to the impulse engines!" she said snappishly.

She knew she was being unfair. It wasn't Shev's fault all of this was happening, but she couldn't help feeling angry. She was so tired and so ready to finally get off this bloody ship.

"That won't be enough," said Shev. "We have to find a way to counter the gravitational pull."

She quickly ran through their options in her head and made some quick calculations.

"Shev, vent three thousand isodynes of plasma from the nacelles," she ordered. "Harry, reverse shield polarity."

Her orders were executed swiftly and without any arguments. The ship shuddered, as if unsure which way to go, and slowly began moving away from the sinkhole.

"That was a good one, Hermione," said Harry, a relieved smile on his face. "We're clear."

"Where did you learn how to do that?" asked Shev, impressed, turning to look at her.

"My guess would be some light reading," said Harry with a smirk.

"Something like that," Hermione agreed.

In truth, this knowledge didn't come from any textbook that she'd personally read, but rather the ones that James had consumed during his years at the Academy and afterwards. During their conversations and in messages that they frequently exchanged, he'd often present her with different scenarios and ask her to describe her course of action. The scenarios ranged from an encounter with a Nausicaan pirate ship to being caught in a gravimetric gradient. All to help them be better prepared for what was out there, James claimed. She was certainly thankful for it now.

Shev let out another string of curses before alerting them to another gravimetric shear.

"We aren't out of the woods yet," he said. "Any more tricks up your sleeve, Granger?"

She bit her bottom lip. "Maybe. I'm going to have to take life support temporarily offline."

"I'll give you a hand," said Harry.

"Shev, don't waste any time going to warp, alight?" she said, before heading to the back of the cockpit.

Their ship was being pulled in with even more force than previously. Hermione had barely made it to her destination when they lost artificial gravity. She pressed her hands against the walls to try and keep herself grounded, only to feel her ankles jolt as gravity kicked in once more. She shook it off, and prepared to execute her plan.

But she never got the chance.

The vessel rattled and shook, its engines roaring and blasting at full force.

By the terminal, Hermione began inputting the proper commands, but a moment later found herself halfway across the room, pulled as if by an invisible force. She was quick enough to figure out the nature of the yank—a hull fracture.

She immediately raised a magical shield between their ship and the vacuum of space.

Harry shouted something, but she couldn't make it out due to all the noise of the rattling ship and exploding EPS conduits.

And then her brain registered an intense pain, originating somewhere in her upper back and spreading towards her fingertips.

As she finished fortifying her shield and making sure that it encompassed the entire hull fracture, another plasma conduit exploded right next to her.