Chapter Six

Survival

M'ara awoke slowly, her head throbbing as if it was protesting her coming back to consciousness. M'ara stood up carefully, regaining her balance. Her eyes stung from the dripping blood from the gash in her head. All of the events that had taken place over the last few hours sinking in. She remembered the attack of the Romulan ship, and the crash landing on the science colony Prometheus. Her heart raced as she thought of Su-Ling and Serin, injured or worse.

"Serin!" M'ara called, but received no response. She found several others of the bridge crew who began to regain consciousness. It was difficult to get the five young men and women untangled from the warped medal and wires but she managed it. Using her med-kit she treated them, luckily it seemed bruising and cuts were the only wounds they had received.

"Where is the captain?" M'ara asked one of the young men as she treated him for a deep gash on his shoulder.

"Before we crashed he left the bridge, something about getting the dampeners on line so we wouldn't be crushed to bits when we landed."

M'ara froze when she heard the cadets answer. Immediately after she was finished treating him she left the bridge to check and see if he was in sickbay. Navigating was much harder now that the ship with all contorted into an odd angle, and no turbo lift. M'ara had to crawl through several places and then squeezed through the main shaft to reach sickbay. When she finally got inside, she found Su-Ling looking tired and battered with a bandaged wound on her leg, but alive. M'ara sighed with relief.

"Where have you been, there is no power and most of our patients are still alive but they will not remain that way unless we get them off this ship," Su-Ling reported, relief in her eyes to see M'ara alive. It seems that Serin's plan to get them to safety had worked, he saved every one," M'ara thought as he heard her friends report.

"Star Fleet knows what has happened they will be looking for us soon. We will just have to do what we can with what we have until then. I must ask, has the anyone seen the Captain?" M'ara asked trying to remain calm. Spock's plea for her to take care of his son rang through her ears as she waited for Su-Lin to answer.

"No, Captain Kelson was brought in right after you left, but he was already dead. Acting Captain Serin hasn't been through sickbay, I think there are enough people working here for now if you want us to go look for him," Su-Ling said.

"I will go alone, it will be dangerous, I have a suspicion that he is in engineering," M'ara said and turned to leave. M'ara felt a hand grab her shoulder and turn her around.

"Hold it, now I know you may be new to this whole friendship thing but I believe it goes two ways. I can make up my own mind when it is too dangerous to help my friend," Su-Ling replied her voice stern and resolute. M'ara looked at her friends eyes; they were stubborn, and very human. She knew she had no time to argue with her about this.

"Very well, grab a med-Kit and follow me, there may be other injured that need our help."

Su-Ling quickly grabbed her kit and they both went out in to what was left of the corridors. M'ara quickly as possible, lead them through the tangled mess of tunnels that ran to main engineering. M'ara and Su-Lin after and hour and a half of trudging through the destruction, dropped from the tunnels into the third deck of engineering. They walked around the circular deck, being careful not to trip over the debris and took the ladder to the lower deck.

Motioning for Su-Ling to search the left side of the deck, M'ara took the right. It was not long before her sharp Vulcan hearing picked a muffled moan. She followed it to the very back of the engines, where the manual controls were located. The moan became weaker but she could still follow it until she pinpointed that it was coming from a pile of dented and warped metal. M'ara motioned to Su-Ling who had not found any other survivors to help her remove the large chunks of what was left of the engine. The pieces were easier to lift the closer they came to the bottom.

There underneath the last remaining scraps of debris was Serin. M'ara nearly gasped as she saw that he was still alive, his breathing was shallow, but he was alive. His face was covered with oozing blood from deep gashes. His uniform was nearly shredded from the sharp metal that had been thrust upon him.

"We have to get him to sickbay," M'ara told Su-Ling while using the tricorder to scan for internal injuries.

"How, you know what it was like getting us through, it will be almost impossible to carry him," Su-Ling said.

"You will not… carry me," Serin interrupted in a weak voice, his eyes opening. Su-Ling jumped at the unexpected intrusion to the conversation. Serin then used his hands to help him stand against the wall. M'ara knew that she had little time to discuss this, if within a few hours Serin was not in sickbay undergoing surgery he would die.

"I will give you a stimulant, and then you can try to walk," M'ara suggested looking at Serin with the authority of a doctor.

Serin only nodded, to weak to speak again. M'ara gave him the hypo-Spray and then grabbed his arm and put it over her shoulder. Serin was able to walk, not on his own, but he would be able to make it to sickbay. Su-Ling helped take his other arm when it was needed, which was quite often given the rough path to sickbay. When they finally arrived, Serin's knees buckled beneath him for he was unable to stay conscious any longer.

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"M'ara, he's waking up!," Su-Ling's voice boomed across sickbay. M'ara walked over to her friend. "Go see how he is I will finish treating these last few," Su-Ling said as she held out her hand for the reports. M'ara wondered if Su-Lin Suspected that she knew Serin before Star Fleet. Now was not the time for that discussion she decided and gave over the reports. With a thank you M'ara left Su-Ling and walked over to the bio-bed where Serin laid, a heavy blanket covering him up to his neck to keep him warm so his body would not go back into shock. His eyes were closed, but she could tell by his breathing that he was awake. She decided that if he did not wish to speak to her then so be it. She took out the medical tricorder to check his vitals and blood pressure. M'ara was pleased to know that her treatment had worked, Serin was now stable and recovering. She put the tricorder away and was about to leave when Serin's hand caught her wrist. M'ara looked up at him, his eyes were now open and alert.

"Thank you," Serin said as he let go of her wrist. His deep dark eyes were softer, more readable than she had ever seen them before. She could not think of anything to say, so she nodded gently.

"I need…," Serin began and the after a pause continued "Your help. The Romulan's on the ship wanted our deaths. It is only logical that they would send others down to the surface to see if we survived the crash. We are in danger here. I have to be able to be Captain." Serin said not taking his eyes away from M'ara's. She too had come to the same conclusion but had not voiced it. There was enough fear on the ship without spreading more.

"You ask for Vulcan healing, Serin? " M'ara asked in Vulcan, making sure he understood fully what he was asking.

"Yes, I can not heal my self by meditation rapidly enough. I need another's strength," Serin admitted, in his native language. His face was Vulcan, unreadable. M'ara knew however that it was hard for Serin to admit that he needed help. Like his father, he had a lot of pride. M'ara put her fingers on Serin's face in the proper position to find his Katra.

"My thoughts to your thoughts, we are one," M'ara chanted.