Beverly Crusher was staring at the same padd she had been staring at for 20 minutes now as she moved around the biobed River currently occupied. It was incredible at the amount of brain activity River was submitting while she slept, more so then anyone she had ever seen awake. Where parts of her brain had been removed or deactivated, over areas and more were used to help cope with the loss. Whoever had managed to do this, she couldn't help but be in aware of, had their talents been put to better use, they could really have been somebody (if they weren't already and were simply doing this in their free time).
"Excuse me Doctor, I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Simon appeared beside her, a padd in his hand.
"Oh, of course not," she placed her own padd down and inquired "what can I help you with?"
"It's just……" He trailed off, looking somewhat uncomfortable. "I feel like a nescience always here, in the way. I'm a trained Doctor and I was wondering if maybe you needed an extra hand." He finished, smiling a sweet smile. For a moment, Beverly didn't know what to say. She was flattered somewhat by his offer of help, as she smiled back and nodded.
"It's just, I don't quite understand how to use the computer, if its OK, could you show me some simple input instructions?" His voice sounding truly interested.
"I don't see why that wouldn't be a problem." She led him into the adjoining room just as Mal and Zoë edged around the corner to River's biobed. Mal fiddled with the needle Simon had given him (they were using one from Serenities infirmary as they weren't aloud to access one from Enterprise due to procedure), and injected its contents into River's arm. Waiting a few minutes for the drug to take effect they listened intently, trying to make out the conversation going on in the other room, but it was too quiet. Simon was doing a good job. River's eyes snapped open just as Mal placed a hand on her shoulder to shake her awake. He jumped back in surprise but quickly regained his composure as she looked around Sickbay, seemingly unsurprised at their presence.
Her face quickly changed to one of pain and confusion as her hands gripped the side of the bed. Mal placed his hand over her mouth to stop her from crying aloud and giving them away, as he helped her down.
"Shh. Don't go screaming that high pitched scream of yours before we can get the hell outta here." Mal told her, only after she nodded in understanding did he move his hand away. They made their way out of Sickbay, making as little noise as possible. As they rounded another corner, heading towards the docking port where Serenity sat, River began pulling back.
"What the hell is it now?" Mal asked, annoyed at her protests.
"This way." She insisted, tugging at Mal, leading him to engineering.
"Why the hell do we want to go that way?" Mal protested as River tugged him along. As she reached her destination, Mal's eyes sweeping the corridors, checking that no one saw them, they entered the engine room, that at this time, was almost empty (for those that were there, they were on the far side of the room, out of sight). River made her way to a console and began typing in commands as fast as he had seen Data.
"What the hell are you doing?" Mal asked leaning over her, trying to make sense of the station they were at.
"They won't listen. They don't understand." Was the brief answer she gave as she continued on.
"Sir," Zoë said from the door way. "Someone's coming." She whispered. Mal turned back to River and, making gestures he hoped she would understand as 'hurry up', grabbed her hand and pulled her away. She let her hands fall from gracefully from the console, as she finished what she was doing and all three Serenity members snuck form the soon to be filled room.
When Doctor Crusher found River missing from her bed, she sent for security and moments later, Lieutenant Worf and of his selected officers were in her Sickbay, trying to understand what had happened. When they could not find the 17 year old girl after combing the most likely places, a ship wide announcement was sent out. Mal had approached Captain Picard, explaining that she had awoken, and in fright, had made her way back to Serenity where she was currently at that moment and where she was ordered to stay by himself so as not to cause further trouble. Picard had augured of course. Doctor Crusher still needed to run all kinds of tests, she had assaulted an officer which warranted her with time in the brig though Mal had pointed out that they were dealing with her punishment in their own way and that Simon was more then capable to take care of her as he had been doing since they had been aboard Serenity. Captain Picard could not argue this point. It was also at this point that an intruder alert screeched through Enterprise alerting everyone to an unidentified ship that had just been located on long range sensors. The Serenity crew had decided to stay on their own ship while Enterprise handled this situation.
"Sir, the ship has just been identified as a Romulan cruiser, heading in this direction at warp five." Data relayed the information from his console.
"On screen." Picard ordered and the Romulan ship T'mor appeared before their eyes. It was more then a little scratched. By the looks of its side, the Romulan ship had been docked with another ship, and this had not gone well. It appeared to have completely ripped another ship its dock, most probably the one they had found floating in pieces not too far away.
"No response to our hails Captain." Worf reported as their communications went unnoticed.
"Sir, they have increased their speed, they are now heading towards us at warp 7 and should reach us in 11 minutes." Data said.
"Raise shields." Was all Picard said as he thought, his hand placed under his chin."Any ideas number one?" He finally asked Riker.
"None Sir." He shook his head, staring back at the screen as the minutes ticked by without any answer to their building questions.
By the time the ship reached them, they had tried hailing them a total of nine times, but they remained unanswered. When it was within firing range, the T'mor armed its weapons and let a volley hit Enterprise as the crew held on tightly to their stations.
"Fire phasers!" Picard almost shouted as Worf quickly keyed in the commands. Letting a volley of their own weapons loose. This did not seem to stun their attackers as they hit back with as much force as they could.
"Sir, they are preparing to dock!" Worf's surprise could be heard in his voice as the T'mor turned to its side (the side with the docking port still whole). As two more blows racked the Enterprise there was a flicker of light that could have been glanced as Enterprise's defences where taken down. "Shields are down!" He cried adding, "They're docked!"
"What the hell is going on up there?" Wash asked swiverling around on his chair, to see if he could get a better look out the window. Zoë and Mal, who were with him in the bridge also leaned forward as there eyes made contact with a large, well constructed looking curser. "Think the Captain has visitors?" Wash asked.
"If he had visitors, wouldn't they use that transporter thing to zap them over to the ship instead of docking? That would be quicker right?" Mal thought.
"I don't think their friendly visitors sir." Zoë shook her head. "I think all that jolting before was weapons fire."
"How can that be? Weapons fire like that and we'dve been blow outta the sky." Mal scoffed.
"They don't look friendly." Wash raised his eyebrows.
"They're not who they think they are." Came the soft, quiet vice of River Tam form behind them. Mal visibly jumped in surprise that he hadn't heard her make a sound.
"Don't jump up on me like that." He said.
"Who's not who they think they are?" Zoë asked River.
"They'll come and kill them, just like they did the others." River seemed to be becoming more upset, as she raised her hands to her head as if she could block out the voices and thoughts of horror that was filling her mind.
"Who homey?" Zoë tried in a soothing voice, trying to understand the little girls ranting.
"Reavers." Was the answer she gave as their faces turned the colour of ash. "There here."