Chapter Four
Sabrina Williams was seeing stars. She was bent over on the floor, her face ground in the carpet. Her teeth were clenched tight and she was trying hard not to scream. The transporter malfunction felt as if it had ripped her internal organs out of her body through the pores in her skin... she could not begin to explain the pain she was experiencing. After a few minutes of controlled breathing she finally willed herself to a crouching position. She looked to her left and then to her right and came to the conclusion that she was still aboard the Voyager.
"Williams to Zodiac... what happened?" She whispered into her badge as she attempted to stand up. She was met with silence. Reaching up to tap her badge again, she noticed her hand had charred marks on it. She quickly inspected her body and realized she was covered. The transporter malfunction must have been worse than she thought... and then the thought crossed her mind that she was probably bleeding internally. "Computer, where is sickbay?"
"Current level, four doors from your present location." The system responded sluggishly.
"Thats convenient." Sabrina muttered as she started in a limp down the hall. She entered the room and looked around for an emergency medical kit... then she thought of something better. "Computer, is this ship equipped with an EMH?"
"Affirmative."
"Thank God. Activate it." She crashed down onto the main bio bed. She looked up when an EMH Mark I initialized in front of her.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." He asked as he snatched a tricorder. He frowned slightly as he looked her over. "Who are you?" He asked as he begin to scan her.
What an odd question for an EMH to ask. Sabrina thought. "I'm part of a rescue team aboard your ship."
"Rescue team?" The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "You are wearing a Starfleet uniform! Are we back in the Alpha Quadrant?!" He stopped talking when he consulted his tricorder. "Oh my you need surgery right now."
"What... what's wrong?" Sabrina asked as she sat up.
The Doctor pushed her back down on the bed. "You have massive internal damage to most of your organs and you are bleeding internally. What happened to you?" He asked as he ran around the room gathering supplies. "And what happened to the crew of Voyager?"
"I'm the survivor of a transporter accident apparently." She muttered. "Look, I need to get back to the Aerios, it's holding position right here in this sector. Our sickbay would be better suited-"
The Doctor cut her off as he prepared a hypospray. "You wont live long enough to make it back there unless I do emergency surgery on you right now." He started to press the hypo to her neck when Sabrina realized something and bolted up to stop him.
"This ship is running on emergency battery power alone... I don't know how much longer the power will hold out! I would hate for you to be operating on me when the power-" She stopped and her heart sank when the EMH fizzled out of existence. All but a few lights deactivated, and the computer screens went blank.
"Warning, emergency reserve power is almost depleted. Emergency containment fields will fail in five minutes. All systems except life support have been deactivated."
"God damn it." She muttered to herself. The clock was racing against her and she had no idea what to do. "Sabrina to Zodiac, please come in!" She said quickly into her badge. She was met with an empty response. "Sabrina to anyone on this ship… please respond!"
The comm system remained silent. Sabrina came to the quick conclusion that if she was going to survive at all she needed to get to engineering and fast. She knew however that it was several decks away and there was no way she could make it in her current condition. "Computer, enable emergency site-to-site transporters and beam me to engineering."
The thought crossed her mind that she was in no way healthy enough to undergo a transport – however she didn't see much other option. Sabrina closed her eyes and took a deep breath in when the blue light started to shimmer around her. A moment later she opened her eyes and exhaled. She was standing in the brightly illuminated engine room of the Voyager. She gasped as she stared straight ahead… the warp core casing had shattered and there appeared to be some form of self-contained energy field right in the heart of it.
The bright red light rippled as she stared at it – almost taunting her to come closer. The scientist in her knew better though, for she sidestepped to a panel and picked up a tricorder. She flipped it open and glanced at the readout. On the other side of the energy field was a completely different oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere. The energy field seemed to be a portal to another location.
"Warning, emergency reserve power has been depleted. Emergency containment fields will fail in sixty seconds."
Sabrina gripped the tricorder tight and started walking forward towards the bright light. She suddenly heard the doors swish open behind her.
"Stop!" Someone yelled as she turned around quickly. She was staring face to face with Commander Darren Henderson.
--
Perry Highland woke up slowly. He could feel the groggyness lifting from his head as he squinted his eyes open. He was lying on the main biobed in the Zodiac sickbay. With a quick glance around him he could tell that he was alone… and he sensed a strange feeling around the room. It was dead silent around him – so quiet that he could hear his ears buzz. He stood up slowly and looked down at himself – he was standing in his underwear. "What the hell?" He muttered as he looked down at his near naked body.
"Ah your awake!" A voice said from around the corner. Perry jumped with surprise when the EMH walked into sight.
"Good lord you scared me half to death." He put his hand over his heart and felt it pumping fast.
"Sorry. You need to replicate some new clothes, I had to cut yours off of you and perform emergency surgery. You had massive damage to seventy-percent of your internal organs." The EMH replied.
"How long was I out?" Perry said quietly as he walked over to the replicator.
"You have been asleep for the past twelve hours." The EMH replied as he watched Perry clothe himself.
"Oh shit. Do you know what happened to the crew?" He asked as he clipped his comm badge on the new uniform.
"I was hoping you could tell me," the EMH started his reply as he ran a tricorder around Perrys head. "After the surgery was complete I tried to contact the bridge with no luck – you have a clean bill of health now, Mister Highland. You are free to leave sickbay."
"Thanks for patching me up. Computer deactivate EMH." Perry watched as the hologram fizzled out of existence. He walked out of the medical bay and took a left. He tapped his badge. "Highland to anyone on board, please respond." For some reason the empty response didn't surprise him. He entered the turbolift on the right and glanced up at the voice receptor as he spoke. "Deck nineteen – weapons locker."