Lakahn woke up with the mother of all headaches to see Glinn Ledrec and Gul Narat standing over him. Neither looked any better than he felt; in fact both looked haggard and tired in addition to their injuries. Ledrec's face was covered in blood and a piece of shrapnel had lodged itself just under his right eye. Lakahn also noticed that he stood off-balance, not putting any weight on his right leg. His armour was dented and scarred in many places. Gul Narat's face and hands were covered in burns and his uniform had several holes in it.
He tried to sit up but the motion made his head buzz. Dizzy, he lay down quickly and waited for the room to stop spinning. "What happened?" he asked. The last thing he remembered was a flash of bright light and then the sudden, impenetrable darkness.
Gul Narat raised one burned hand to gesture around the room. They were in the Gavran's sickbay. Lakahn had seen it before during his orientation. At the time, he'd been impressed by the meticulous organisation of the medical supplies and the overall neatness and cleanliness of the room.
Now, it was a dark mess. Injured Cardassians lay everywhere, on the beds and on the floor. Some were burned like Gul Narat, others bloodied and bruised but none of the injuries seemed fatal. One man's thigh was impaled by a twisted piece of metal nearly a foot long. Curiously, Lakahn thought, they were all silent and for the most part motionless. Those that could tended to themselves; the others held their own wounds and rocked quietly in place, clearly in pain as they waited for one of the stronger Cardassians. These, too, were bloodied and in one case missing some fingers, but they did their duty.
Once in awhile one of these would come over and try to tend Gul Narat's wounds; he waved them away impatiently and they departed only reluctantly. "You've been unconscious for several hours, Commander. Are you all right?"
Lakahn nodded. "As well as can be expected, I think. I'm having trouble remembering, though. Where... where am I?"
"We were pursued by the Borg," Gul Narat said in answer to Lakahn's question. "Do you remember that?"
Lakahn tried to concentrate through the fog clouding his mind and nodded, hesitantly. Gul Narat, on the other hand, exuded confidence even in the face of this latest catastrophe. "Then you also know that we created a transwarp blast to destroy the cube." Despite his condition, Gul Narat spoke in an unhurried tone, as easily as if they were sitting comfortably over lunch. Lakahn remembered that he hadn't eaten since arriving on this Gavran and his stomach rumbled. Gul Narat continued: "What you don't know is that I ordered this ship taken to n-space. I'm afraid the physics are rather complicated, but suffice it to say we left real space somewhere behind us." For the first time, the small Cardassian gave a grunt of pain at the end of his sentence but quickly covered with a smile, and Lakahn suddenly understood that he was coping with his pain by ignoring it. He wondered how long Gul Narat could keep it up. "As far as the universe is concerned, we've just disappeared into thin air.
"Now, as for the damage to the ship, the Gavran was never made for five-dimensional travel and the technology is still in experimental stages. This is our first test under fire, as you would say." He paused, chuckled. "As you can see, our scientists haven't quite worked out all the kinks.
"We were only able to raise forty-seven percent shields and the hull took the brunt of the impact from the transwarp blast. We had numerous breaches and I'm afraid I lost most of my crew, if not during the actual escape then during the past few hours. What you see here is what's left." Lakahn looked around. Barely half of the Gavran's original crew remained. "The others are dead or soon will be. They're being tended to, of course, but I'm not optimistic." Gul Narat paused for a moment, dipping his head as if to honour the sacrifices of his crew, then continued. "As far as you're concerned, Commander, you were quite fortunate compared to the rest of us. Maybe there's something to these Prophets of yours after all." The Cardassian flashed him a brief smirk. "You've been unconscious for several hours. We were starting to worry, but you have only minor damage to your skull and what must be quite the raging headache. Non-life-threatening, in other words. Other than that and a few cuts and bruises you're all right."
Lakahn considered getting up again, but on second thought he decided to remain right where he was. The very memory of the last time he'd tried made him nauseous. "What now?" he asked.
"Now, Commander?" Gul Narat flinched and grimaced as if a wave of pain had come over him, but he straightened even as Ledrec moved to assist him. Waving the giant off, Gul Narat looked Lakahn up and down and shrugged. "Now we repair our systems. I regret the deaths of my crew, but I certainly have no intention of joining them just yet."
"Can we get back?"
Gul Narat chuckled. "Back? Ha, ha! I wasn't expecting that from you, Commander. I thought you'd be more concerned with my callousness in the face of so many deaths. Whatever happend to your precious morality, your Federation values?"
Lakahn was about to reply when he realised that the Cardassian wasn't attacking him but just teasing. Nonetheless he was somewhat offended. "I still have those values," he asserted, "but I'm not stupid. You're not interested in hearing about ethics."
"True," Gul Narat admitted. "Now, your question... We were discussing that before you woke up." Lakahn had seen exactly how much discussing went on aboard the ship and could only assume that it was either a euphemism or Gul Narat's idea of a joke. "I don't know the extent of the damage so far, but once again I'm not overly thrilled about our prospects. Every system on the ship, including life support in all areas but the two currently occupied by my crew, has been deactivated in an effort to conserve power. External communicators are burnt out. Our warp core is very nearly depleted and I highly doubt the Gavran has enough power to return to real space."
Lakahn's face fell as he realised just what their situation was. With very little power and much of the crew dead, stranded in an otherwise empty... space... it seemed there was nothing to do but wait for death.
"There's an alternative." Lakahn turned his head towards Glinn Ledrec, who'd spoken. Gul Narat did the same, and his expression said clearly that he'd have preferred the giant keep his mouth shut. But Lakahn was curious and Gul Narat seemed to sense that he wouldn't rest until he got an explanation. The small Cardassian sighed resignedly. "One of our shuttles is still operable. It's small enough to make it to real space under its own power, or should be," he explained. "But it can only carry five or six people, and it would take a superb pilot to make it over in one piece.
"It's a last resort," he added quickly. "Whoever takes the shuttle could alert Central Command to the situation and request a rescue operation. But it would mean leaving the remaining crew of the Gavran behind and I doubt they'd take kindly to that idea." Indeed, even as Gul Narat outlined the plan, his back was getting venomous glares from those crewmembers who were close enough to hear what he'd said. Lakahn didn't see the Gul look around, but he must have been aware of the stares, because his next few words were clearly addressed to the crew: "I've programmed the shuttle to respond to my commands only. We wouldn't want anyone to try to take matters into their own hands. We must all keep the entire crew's interests in mind before making any decisions."
"We could send an unmanned probe with an automated message," Lakahn said. "It doesn't need to get over in one piece, it just needs to get the message to real space. Surely your chief engineer could put some sort of autopilot program together...?"
"Gil Ressol is dead," Gul Narat said unceremoniously. "Her console exploded when circuits powering the n-drive overloaded and she lost her head. Quite literally. It wasn't pretty." He paused and smiled grimly. "It's not a bad idea, Commander. An autopilot program isn't difficult to write, and the n-drive itself is relatively undamaged. It could be done. But there's another problem."
"Great," Lakahn said, throwing up his hands in frustration.
"Gul Jecett managed to send us a message at what must have been a colossal expenditure of power. I'm afraid the contents were... less than friendly. I've no doubt she'll destroy us if she can. She can't follow us because she doesn't know our coordinates, but you can count on her being ready and waiting to intercept anything or anyone we send back."
Lakahn sighed and touched a hand to his forehead. Gul Narat might like the sound of his own voice, but as far as he, Lakahn, was concerned, it was getting old fast. And yet he couldn't even get up without feeling faint, much less help in any way. Another nurse came over with a Cardassian tricorder to inspect Gul Narat; she, too, was waved away impatiently. She turned to scan Glinn Ledrec, who ignored her. Lakahn noticed the nurse taking discreet scans of Gul Narat at intervals, but if he was aware of it he chose to ignore it. "So we can't turn to your government, is that what you're saying?"
"Exactly." Gul Narat nodded, and Lakahn considered.
"Then I don't suppose there's any chance we can contact the Orion?" he asked finally.
Gul Narat widened his eyes slightly, this time in what Lakahn supposed must be the Cardassian equivalent of raised eyebrows. He took it as a sign to continue. "We have a large engineering department. Ranka Tyreth, our chief engineer, knows something about Cardassian technology. If we could establish a link she could give us a hand with repairs." And best of all, she wasn't Cardassian.
In the meantime, Gul Narat's face had assumed a calculating expression. Lakah could practically see some convoluted scheme forming in the small Cardassian's brain. After a long consideration, he nodded thoughtfully. "It would be easier if Gil Ressol were alive, of course. The n-drive will have to be installed in the shuttle, and that will take time..." Gul Narat trailed off, considering. "Excellent idea, Commander."