Hunted

"No shit" Su-Ling replied as M'ara helped her up, her voice a little shaky. M'ara raised an eyebrow at her friend's colorful language but did not reply. The girls made their way out of the office and back to sickbay.

"Sickbay prepare for Casualties," Serin ordered once again over the com. Not even a few moments' later security personnel were bringing in injured crew members. The smell of scorched flesh filled the room and moans and screams of agony along with it. Dread filled M'ara as the realization that many of these patients were severely burned.

The only time M'ara shamed herself at the Vulcan healing institute by showing emotion was while treating a man with third degree burns all over his body. There was no amount of pain killer or meditation that could save him from the agonizing death. With each of his screams M'ara's emotional control lessened until she sobbed along with him. That is when she learned that emotion was unforgivable on Vulcan, even for the dying. Her compassion had almost cost her career, and her adopted families honor. If it had not been for Spock speaking to the council on her behalf, she very well could have been shunned as a traitor to the teachings of Surak. M'ara pushed these thoughts and emotions away and began to use her Vulcan mind to systematically calculate the best course of action to keep these young cadets alive.

M'ara sorted out which of the injured need immediate attention and then organized the other medical cadets to get to as many of them as possible. Su-Lin took the right half of Sickbay, and M'ara took the left supervising and deciding which cases were beyond the doctors who were attending them and she would needed to treat her self. Their work interrupted every so often by a violent hit on the ship making treatment difficult and tedious.

M'ara found a young girl, engineer that lay on the sickbay floor where the security team had left her having no time to do anything else. She had severe third degree burns all over her body. If her own parents were here, they would not have been able to identify her. M'ara's stomach became queasy and her breathing quickened. "I must do this" she thought to herself as she got her breathing and fear under control.

M'ara quickly picked up the girl and put her on the last available bio-bed and ran full internal scans. M'ara suspected internal bleeding from her color and weakness. This would hinder any prevention of infection of her severe burns. M'ara quickly gave the patient a hypo spray of a T-Cell stimulator since this would also help her if she had internal bleeding. The scans proved M'ara's theory about the woman's condition and she quickly prepped the patient for surgery. The patient's blood pressure was dropping so there was no time to lose. M'ara used an Auto-Suter to close the internal wounds in the young woman's abdomen and then closed her up using a dermal regenerator. The young woman's blood pressure was now low but remaining constant. After this was complete she quickly transferred the woman to a Bioregenerative Field to repair the burned tissue. Only after the patient was stable did M'ara realize how nervous she had been.

"Impressive, she should not still be alive," Su-Ling said, checking M'ara's scans and treatment report.

"I believe there are more patients we should be attending to," M'ara said to guide the attention away from herself. Su-Ling nodded and went off to treat the patients that had only minor cuts and burns.

"M'ara report to the bridge, medical assistance is needed" Serin's voice intruded through the Com.

With haste the young half Vulcan grabbed a med-kit and nearly ran to the nearest turbo-lift. When she arrived at sickbay she saw Serin at the Captain's chair holding his side with his right hand but his face was concentrating on the battle. His eyes were trying to hide the pain with complete calm. She quickly looked away from his face and scanned him with the medical tricorder. The results were as she suspected, three broken ribs, one dangerously close to puncturing a lung.

"Captain, we are being hailed" the acting communications officer informed, sounding tired and afraid.

"On Screen" Serin ordered sharply, his voice still steady despite his injuries, but weary. M'ara took that opportunity to give him a hypo spray to relive some of the discomfort. Serin gave her look of what could have been almost gratitude. The view screen then flickered to life and a Romulan male appeared, the captain of the opposing ship. He had long black hair that was tied back behind his pointed ears and bright green eyes that were bright with the idea of another kill.

"I am Captain Tomack. I want to speak to your Captain, boy" The Romulan said harshly.

Serin's eyes hardened as he looked at his enemy.

"I am captain of this vessel, following the death of my superior officer," Serin said, a little stronger now that his pain had lessened.

"Well, well, it seems I have been given a good fight by nothing more than a bunch of children" The Romulan captain replied with mockery.

"It seems captain, that children, with only a training ship, have rendered your warp drive useless and left you with only minimal weapons functional. Perhaps your training techniques in the Romulan fleets have become lacking. Regardless, you will answer me as to why you have attacked my ship. You do realize that this attack is an act of war by the Romulan star empire," Serin said with a deadly calmly.

"Too bad you will not live through this, a grand captain you would be indeed. I know the federation is probably already on its way with reinforcements. That is of little consequence to me since my crew and I do not represent the empire and will be long gone and untraceable by then." Tomack replied with a chilling smile across his face.

"I ask again, what is it you hope to gain from attacking my ship?" Serin said.

"Only your deaths good captain, nothing more. I just wanted to see the faces of those who fought so bravely to the end," With those words the transmission was ended. Serin stood up, slightly wincing and put his hands behind his back.

""Engineering, how much power can you give me to the thrusters and still have enough reserve for weapons to be functional?" Serin asked over the com.

"Minimal captain, I could give you more, temporarily if I cut all other power including life support,"

"It is ordered," Serin said turning off the com.

M'ara could not believe what she was hearing.

"Serin…" before she could finish her question Serin put up a hand to stop silence her.

"Unless I can get us safely to the planet below on the power that we have left, life support will no longer be needed," He answered patiently.

"When I give the order, fire." Serin said to the men at the helm.

"Aye sir"

"Engineering, are ready?" Serin quickly sent through the com.

"Every things ready here sir, life support is now off line, thrusters at maximum power, but not for long."

"Excellent, fire." Serin ordered quickly. The laser stream hit the side of the Romulan bird of prey.

"I hope this keeps them distracted long enough," Serin whispered, only M'ara could hear him with her Vulcan ears.

"Now, Mr. Hilk, as quickly as you can, drop the ship to the plants surface," Serin ordered sitting back in his chair, M'ara could tell that the pain was returning. Serin's Vulcan metabolism already had worked the medication out of his system. The ship roared with strain as the thrusters pushed them towards the planet at an alarming rate.