Part Five: R-E-S-C-U-E
Kathryn's eyes burned against a hot white light and she put her hands up to shield it. She feared she'd been captured again, her tormentors back for another round. She gasped as she felt cool metal touch her neck.
"Admiral, it's alright." The Doctor's voice whispered as the hypospray released a muscle relaxer into her blood stream.
She eased her arms down and squinted again. "The light…"
"Computer, lower lights, 15%."
They dimmed and she opened her eyes completely.
"Welcome back. I lost you for a full 8 minutes."
Kathryn moaned as she tried to move more than she should have. "I've been dead before, Doctor."
He nodded. "Well, yes, but you need to relax. I repaired the broken ribs and the damage to your right lung as well as an infection in your upper thigh from dirty weapons… barbarians." He mumbled the last and she shook her head at him.
"I have to help Chakotay."
"No, you don't." He pushed her down easily and held her their. "Doctor's orders."
"Order's be damned." She hissed and forced his arm off. "Doctor, unless you can tell me the crisis on Romulus is over and I'm on my way back to my classroom, I'm going to that Bridge."
"I can't tell you it isn't." He suggested hopefully as she pushed past him, arm holding her side tight.
She swore he caused more pain than had been there. She hurried down the corridor to the turbolift, entering at the same time as two other officers.
Both stood in silence, exchanging glances with each other before the man spoke. "Admiral, what are you doing on the Cornelius?"
Kathryn shrugged. "It's a long story, Lieutenant."
He nodded. "I suppose it all is."
The three emerged from the turbolift onto the Bridge.
Chakotay didn't turn as he ordered the two officers to take the living Reman off of the Bridge. He was working at the conn station attempting to assess the Asteria visually as his fingers numbly removed plating from the console.
"She's a tough little ship." Kathryn whispered as she came up behind him.
He turned to her and a grin escaped. "I didn't think you were going to make it." He stood and wrapped her in his arms, holding her as tight as he could for a long moment.
"A people enslaved by the Romulans are hardly my worst enemy, Chakotay, have some faith."
He laughed. "Are you okay to be up here?"
"Not according to the Doctor." She groaned as she eased down at the conn where he was. "However, if you got to sit while working at this station, it's what I want to work on."
He handed her a hydrospanner and smiled. "As soon as we have control of vital systems again we should be able to get on board her."
She looked from him to the Asteria, still adrift from the massive assault the night before. "I hope they're okay." She breathed. "I had three kids on there."
"Your students?"
She nodded before easing herself lower in the chair to get under the console with the hydrospanner. "If something happens… I mean, Admiral Paris left it up to me… they were my responsibility." She grunted out each line as she fought the bolts on the bottom of the console. The plating finally dropped into her lap and she sighed. She looked up to see Chakotay still watching her.
"Are you close to them?"
"Well, no the semester just started, but that's not the point."
"I know it's not, but it wouldn't help any if you were."
She gave him a wry smile, realizing he was trying to ease her mind. "Nice try."
"Thanks." He smirked as he set his hand gently on her arm. "We have to hurry, it's only a matter of time before they try and contact someone here."
She nodded, agreeing with the urgency and set to work.
Val grinned as the fo rce field overloaded from the sudden crossing of far too many wires. The panels on both sides of the Shuttlebay doors exploded into a shower of sparks and the doors opened and shut a few times, before settling to a stop halfway. She spun around on her heel and bowed low. "Thank you, thank you."
Eva jumped up to join her as the others stepped to the side warily.
"Ensign!" Justin whisper was loud enough.
She slipped up against the wall, Val moving to stand beside her.
"Protocol has not dropped. You will be cautious of every move. They may or may not be monitoring us."
Ena nodded her understanding and Val inched closer before peeking around through the partially opened doors. She deftly motioned behind her, but did so without turning.
Justin eased past the others and stood opposite Val. "We need to take this one step at a time. They have no idea how to contend with a hostile takeover."
She nodded as she slid out into the corridor, Justin behind her, motioning for the others to take up positions just inside.
Val inched down the straight corridor, mindful of the doors scattered about. The two on her right would not trigger automatically, but the one on the left to the small Sickbay would. She pointed at it, mouthing her thoughts to Justin. Someone could easily be in there.
He pressed his hand slowly against the wall behind him, pointedly making eye contact with each officer following him. They did as he silently commanded, pressing against the wall, each barely avoiding the sensor net that triggers sickbay upon approach.
When they reached the turbolift, Val leaned back to Justin. "I can get to engineering and disable voice commands. They won't be able to use the ship against you, but you can't either."
He nodded. "Take the Jeffries tubes to get there, and take Andrew with you. Something tells me he can vandalize a ship with the best of 'em."
She grinned and reached behind Justin to grab Andrew's arm. "You're with me, kiddo."
"Damn!"
Kathryn jumped at Chakotay's sudden and loud invective. "What is it?" She whispered, turning almost completely around to face him.
He was staring at a flashing gold light on the panel at the ops station indicating a hail. He raised his eyes to stare at her and blinked, her inquiry not registering.
"Chakotay?" She eased carefully out of the chair and made her way back to him.
"We're out of time." His focus cleared some and he held his hand up to stop her. She was still weak and didn't need to come all the way up.
She ignored him and stepped to his side. "Beam me over."
He shook his head as options ran through his mind.
"Chakotay… now. If anyone's alive over there, they won't be after you answer it. Beam. Me. Over."
He held her eyes with his for a moment longer before allowing himself to reach over and touch the bruises on her neck and traced his fingers up her cheek bone to where the deep cut ran across her temple. He turned to the panel, not wiping the errant tear trickling down. He reached beneath the console and unhooked one of the phasers and shoved it into her hands. He than looked back up at her and pulled her into a fierce hug, ignoring the gasp as he undoubtedly caused her pain. "Spirits help them if they so much as touch you."
When he pulled back, she saw more tears chasing the first down his cheek. Last time she'd seen such sadness on him was when she had watched herself die in his arms, many, many years ago. She used the very tip of her fingers to wipe them away before nodding behind her to the Tactical station. "If you don't hear from me… the Remans can't keep her… she's heavily armed, and more advanced than theirs by a hundredfold. You will be forced to destroy her. Please, for me, don't hesitate."
He nodded cautiously as his finger waited over the site-to-site transport button.
"Energize." She whispered as confidently as she could, fingers gripping the phaser with every bit of strength in them. As the blue deconstructed her matter, she saw the tears harder.
Chakotay felt like his legs were going to give out as he let himself down into the seat behind him. He had beamed her into engineering, the shielding there was patchy enough to get her through, but there were life signs, although he couldn't make them out as Reman for sure. He watched the light continue to flash. He had to stall them.
Valerie led Andrew down the access ladder to the connecting points of the Jeffries tube. Fifty more feet of tight spaces and closed air and they'd be in engineering. She hit the last release on the final hatch and choked on the steam that gushed forward at her.
Andrew grabbed her by the waste and pulled her back in.
She fell against him, her hands covering obvious burns from the hot steam and she bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood. If she gave in, the screams would alert the Remans. She cupped both hands over her mouth and sobbed quietly before a low moan of pain escaped.
The pained sound triggered a reaction from someone in engineering and they heard the sound of boots on metal rushing towards the Jeffries tube. The someone climbed the ladder to the second level of engineering above them.
Andrew had stripped the top layer of his uniform off and he wrapped it around Val's hand.
She watched quietly now, not having realized her hand had been hit as well. The vision in her left eye was blurry and she imagined the steam having singed the cornea as it hit her face. She gasped again despite her effort to hold back.
"Val?" The whisper on the other side was deep and familiar as it replaced the sound of hot steam being forced through a cracked pipe.
Andrew forced the door open and practically leapt over Valerie and into Kathryn's arms. "Admiral! You're alive!"
She smiled, despite the pain from the stronger hug than Chakotay had given. "Ssh…" She whispered as she removed Andrew's arms. "Mostly." Her eyes sparkled at the slight joke.
Andrew grabbed Val's arm and helped her out, Kathryn supporting her other side.
Val wanted to curl up in a bal and die, the pain was growing worse as the hot air from the uncirculated systems hit her.
They got her away from the dead core and open vents and eased her down against a cooler bulkhead.
Kathryn looked up at Andrew. "Find an emergency med kit, probably on the other side of the access ladder."
Andrew did as he was told and returned moments later with the kit.
She popped it open and fished for the dermal regenerator as Val's nails dug into her knee. She ignored it, having felt much, much worse in the past 24 hours . Turning it on she held it carefully near her eye, letting the laser heal the burnt tissue.
Bit by bit the pain was subsiding and Valerie released her grip from Kathryn.
Kathryn helped her sit up straighter. "Can you see out of that one?" She asked quietly, covering Valerie's good eye.
"Not well, but a little."
Kathryn groaned. "If I try and do anything with it, I'm liable to blind you."
Val looked up at the older woman and tried to chuckle. "Than by all means, leave it be."
Kathryn nodded at the attempted humor before turning to Andrew. "Va'Ler and Phoebe?"
He shrugged. "I don't know, Admiral. The last I saw them was on the Bridge before I went to the galley for dinner."
She exhaled, expecting as much. "What about everyone else?"
Val supplied the answer. "There's only a dozen officer's left. Justin took the rest to the Bridge to try and retake the ship, Andrew and I were going to vandalize it if they couldn't."
Kathryn returned her attention to Andrew who was studying her injuries closely, including the large blood stains still on her uniform. He looked concerned. "I'm alright." She whispered, catching his eye and staring at him hard.
"It's… my fault." He confessed. It was one thing to have told Justin and the other intelligence officers, it was another entirely to admit it to someone he admired and looked up to, someone he'd caused so much pain. "I had to start it all. I-" He choked on that one.
Kathryn was giving him her full attention, wondering how much of Justin's fears about Va'Ler really applied to Andrew.
He swallowed hard and continued. "I told Va'Ler and Phoebe about your contact with the Enterprise. My dad doesn't know anyone on board, I don't even have a father. I made it up. I had to play it, get Va'Ler to want to be involved."
Kathryn couldn't believe it. This lazy cadet had her from the beginning. "I don't know what to say, Andrew, except that Starfleet's not going to take well to this."
His head dropped at her subtle rebuke, knowing it would have been far worse had she not been caught so off guard. He regretted hugging her knowing she thought it all fake.
Kathryn stood. "Stay here with her. Don't move, Andrew, stay put." She looked at Val who was watching Andrew with a sympathy Kathryn didn't understand. "I'm going to help Commander Gardner." With that she left.
Chakotay keyed the comm link, the small visual popping up in front of him at the ops station. He had found most of his composure again and remained silent as the image of the Reman commander on the Asteria appeared before him.
"Where's Ratheel?" He seethed.
Chakotay didn't not respond for a moment. He braced one foot against the base of the chair and rocked himself to the side as though he'd been kicked. He growled a curse under his breath.
The Reman studied him a moment before smiling. "They're putting you to work?" He laughed, a cold menacing sound. "Ahha! Well, I was wondering, Mr. Chakotay… have you seen your Admiral? She was beaten well."
Chakotay didn't have to fake the flash of pain as he remembered watching them beat her mercilessly. "Reman, PetaQ!" He ground the Klingon curse out, meaning it.
The Reman sobered his expression. "Okay, enough of these games. Ratheel!" It was an order, not a request and Chakotay realized his time was up.
As he was about to attempt furthering the ploy, he saw two Starfleet officers emerge from the turbolift, phasers firing at all on the Bridge.
He jumped to his feet. They must have already been out, Kathryn hadn't had enough time to find them, not from engineering, but there she was right behind them, her phaser trained on the Reman who'd been talking to Chakotay.
"Look at me." She hissed.
The Reman turned slowly, a sort of fear in his expressions.
"I want to know your contact's name. Is it Andrew Starlin?"
He laughed, the sound void of any feeling. "No, but we've killed his sister. Spared no pain, spared no suffering. You can tell him that his failure caused that. Caused her a violent end."
Kathryn felt some confusion, but maintained her stance as Justin clamped cuffs over his hands and held him tight. Kathryn dropped the phaser to her side and approached them. "Explain yourself." Her voice was tight as she began to realize what Andrew had endured.
"Someone had to transmit commands to our contact. He was the bridge." The Reman seemed unconcerned with sharing information, clearly not trained to withhold anything.
"You took his sister to get him to work for you?" She didn't need to ask. "Can you confirm she's dead?"
"A fifteen year old child can only endure so much…. Physical duress, Admiral." His cracked and graying teeth showing in his snarl as he spit at her feet.
Justin shoved him toward the turbolift, taking command of the situation regardless of whether Kathryn was finished with him or not.
She breathed slowly, steadying herself against the admission of what had become of Andrew's sister. Finally she turned to the view screen and smiled at Chakotay who was studying her carefully. "They didn't need me."
He laughed. "I'm just glad your still alive Admiral. I fully expected never to see you again."
"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, Captain, you can't get rid of me so easily."
To be continued…. It's not over yet…. The Renegade is still out there.
