CHAPTER 4
Excalibur - 2 days later
Pain seared through Andris's left arm and down the side of her body. Her first waking thought was that the room was spinning.
"Stay still." Andris heard, though she couldn't quite place the voice.
The miniscule room, or was it a closet, slowly regained its composure. Andris was glad not to have the sensation of moving anymore. Now if her ears would just stop ringing. Opening her eyes slowly, she realized that her ears weren't deceiving her. Red-alert klaxons were blaring. "What happened?" Andris groaned.
"I'm not sure. But the turbolift isn't working and communications must be down too," the voice said.
"Admiral?" Memories of entering the 'lift from Deck 4 started to resurface. Janeway had joined her at Deck 3….
Kneeling beside the captain, Janeway tried her best to do a cursory examination in the midst of pulsing light. She noticed a large bruise forming on Andris's forehead.
"Are you okay?" Andris asked softly.
"I'm fine. But you're not. I think you have a concussion," Janeway said, looking into Andris's eyes.
"Sounds right. I feel like my head bounced off the wall," she said, finding her voice.
"It did. And your arm broke when you hit the ground." Only then did Andris register the warm trickling feeling of blood dripping down her fingers and the searing pain that accompanied it.
"We have to get out of here," said Janeway, standing to open the turbolift control panel. She fiddled with a few controls but nothing happened.
"Transporters and sensors must be down or they would have gotten us by now."
"Agreed. We're going to have to help ourselves. Can you stand?"
Andris nodded and took the Admiral's hand with her good side. Leaning against the wall, Andris waited for equilibrium to grace her with its presence. She choked back the nauseating feeling that emanated from her arm and permeated every cell in her body.
Janeway grabbed the manual handles and stuck them to either side of the lift doors, she then pried them open. As luck would have it, they were only about a half meter from the next deck.
"We're on Deck 2." Andris said as Janeway helped her up the large step. "I need to make it to the bridge." Andris was cradling her arm at its very awkward angle, trying to ignore the stabbing sensation.
"I think you should get to sickbay," Janeway advised. "I'll go to the bridge and find out what's going on."
"With all due respect, Admiral, this is my ship. My arm can wait. I need you in Engineering in case they need help."
"It's not your arm I'm concerned about Captain, you took a nasty blow to the head you could be bleeding."
Andris stopped dead in her steps. "If this were Voyager, would you go to sickbay?"
Janeway thought, then finally conceded. "No."
"Then unless you're ordering me, get out of my way. I'll contact Engineering as soon as I can."
Janeway stepped aside then watched as Andris broke into a painful run down the corridor and out of sight.
Admiral Janeway found Engineering on Deck 2 pretty much as she expected it. A blur of crewmen running in different directions and shouting at each other. Luckily, no one seemed to be seriously injured. She found Lt. Jenkins in the midst of the choking haze. "What happened?" She shouted over the sounds of gas venting and klaxons. "We got knocked out of the stream Admiral."
Warning. Warp Core Breach in eight minutes, thirty seconds.
"What can I do?" Janeway shouted.
Jenkins cupped his hands around his mouth so she could hear through the commotion. "Try to get a com-line open to the bridge. I need them to release navigation and sensor controls to me. I think we're rolling but I can't tell how badly," Jenkins shouted back. Janeway nodded and went quickly to do just that.
Running didn't hurt Captain Andris's arm nearly as much as she thought it would, but climbing up the Jefferies tube ladder was excruciating. At least it's just one deck, she thought. Maybe a small ship isn't such a bad thing. The sleeve of her uniform was now soaked in blood and she tried not to look at the way the fabric unnaturally bent around what she knew to be a compound fracture.
She reached the door to the bridge but it didn't slide open like it should. "Dammit," she swore. There was no way she would be able to pry it apart with one dead arm. Raising a fist she began to bang on the door. Andris was just starting to consider other options for gaining access when it creaked open.
"Captain." Lt. M'Taak, her rather formidable Klingon tactical officer, was able to get the door halfway apart.
"Report." Andris demanded, stepping onto the darkened bridge.
Commander Miller, her first officer, replied without looking up from his console. "We've been knocked out of slipstream. We've lost all main power. Communications, sensors, navigation, the whole package. This time it wasn't our fault, something happened on Galen. They should be nearby but we can't find them blind."
"We worry about ourselves first," Andris ordered. Miller finally glanced up at the Captain and winced when he saw her arm. Maybe it was the pulsing red light but he swore she looked awfully pale. His concern for her health evaporated when the computer interrupted his train of thought.
Warning. Warp Core Breach in eight minutes.
"I'm trying to get a line open to lower engineering," Miller advised.
"Give control of whatever we have left to them. Maybe they can prevent having to dump the core."
"Ensign," Andris said pointing to her science officer. "Go to upper engineering, you're our new com-system." The ensign nodded and moved to the back of the bridge through the small corridor and disappeared.
Andris grabbed M'Taak by the arm and pulled her across the bridge. "Open it," she ordered, pointing to her ready room door. M'Taak looked confused. "I need a window." The Lieutenant complied and once the room was visible, the captain's instincts were confirmed. They were rolling, hard to port and extremely fast. Andris suddenly had the very real feeling of being inside a blender.
"Listen up people," she commanded and every eye turned to her. "We can't eject the core in this roll. We have to stop it somehow. I need ideas now."
"Captain!" Ensign Harbach shouted from down the corridor. "Engineering needs us to stop the roll."
Warning. Warp Core Breach in six minutes.
"Tell them I'm open to suggestions," she shouted back.
"We have no engines, no deflector, no tractor beam, no weapons systems," Miller replied.
"Someone tell me what we do have," she barked.
M'Taak, back at her post, started rattling off ships systems. "We have emergency power to all four decks. Partial shields. Replicators. Photon torpedoes but no way to launch them, escape pods but we can't release them…"
Suddenly, inspiration struck. "You missed something Lieutenant." Andris shouted down the corridor. "Harbach!" A moment later the ensign appeared. "Have engineering route all available power, life-support, everything to the shuttlebay and tell Admiral Janeway to meet me there."
"I thought you were supposed to go down with the ship," Miller quipped.
"Not today. M'Taak, with me."
Still cradling her throbbing arm, Andris led M'Taak, her personal door-opener, to the shuttle bay. When she arrived, Janeway was already waiting. "I hope you're not planning to leave, Captain."
"Not quite."
Andris moved to the shuttle-bay door control panel. "Watch your stomachs." While avoiding eye-contact with the centrifuging stars, she quickly filled Janeway and M'Taak in on the details of her plan.
Warning. Warp core breach in three minutes.
A few moments later, Janeway, with Andris in the second seat, had maneuvered the shuttle to the very edge of the bay doors, yawed forty-five degrees to starboard. M'Taak took all the power available to the shuttlebay to erect a blanketing Level 10 force field over the shuttle's roof and nose, crudely, but effectively tying the shuttle to the floor. Then, as ordered, she left the bay.
"Almost done with the calculations, Admiral. Dammit it I need my other hand."
"Let me," Janeway jumped in.
"Computer, display aft camera on viewscreen," said Andris. "We have about 45 seconds," she advised calmly.
"Got it."
"Hangar door force field has been released," Andris confirmed.
Janeway tapped the computer panel to initiate thrusters. "Hold on," she warned. The shuttle shook and shuddered, fighting the force field as they waited for Excalibur's momentum to start to slow. "Hold, hold, hold…." Andris whispered, quietly willing the field to remain intact just a little longer. She knew full well that if it failed they would slam into the shuttlebay wall. Not that it would matter because seconds later the warp core would explode.
"Cutting engines in 3, 2, 1." Janeway tapped the console and the shuttle stopped its angry shaking and came back to rest on the floor.
From the viewscreen they watched Excalibur's warp core as it was ejected behind them. It was the last thing Andris saw before everything went dark.
"Doctor Chen?" Janeway called across the sickbay. "I think she's coming around."
Andris groaned and the thin, grey-haired gentleman made his way to her bedside.
"Try not to move too quickly," the Doctor said. She blinked a few times and the room around her came into focus.
"What…." But her voice was only a whisper.
"Welcome back Captain," Janeway said. Andris felt a warm hand on her shoulder. Memories came flooding through her.
"My ship!" she exclaimed, sitting up abruptly and then instantly regretting it.
"Excalibur and your crew are fine," Janeway assured, holding the captain steady.
"Ooooh…." Andris moaned and laid back down. She gently felt her arm, grateful it was no longer broken. "How long was I out?"
"Five days," Dr. Chen answered, waving a medical tricorder over her.
"Five days?" Andris was shocked. "Why?"
"You had a severe concussion that lead to cranial swelling," he replied. "I had to induce a coma to let things settle down a bit. You gave us a scare the second day, but you'll be fine now." Andris tilted her head to the side for the Doctor to administer a hypospray. "That should help with your headache."
Andris turned to the Admiral. "What happened to Galen? Where are we now?"
"Galen, was fine after a few minor repairs. Seems we have a systemic slipstream issue but it has been resolved. And we are almost home, about four hours from dry dock, under tow."
"The core?"
"Gone."
"Fantastic," Andris sighed. "Two months in and I lose a slipstream drive, a cloaking device and a warp core. I'm starting to this think ship is a lemon." Andris tried sitting up again, this time much more slowly.
Janeway patted her on the back then turned to the doctor. "Am I correct in assuming she will be released soon?"
Dr. Chen nodded. "Within the hour."
"Come find me when you're done here," she requested. Then the Admiral took her leave to the hallway.
Andris sighed. What that woman must think of me, I don't even want to fathom.
"You might be surprised," Dr. Chen replied. "I can tell you exactly what she thinks of you, if you'd like."
"Isn't that a breach of Betazoid protocol?"
"I don't need to be empathic to know she was genuinely concerned for your well being."
Andris snorted.
"I don't think she would have left ship operations to your First Officer and held vigil by your bedside for the last five days if she wasn't."
"You're kidding me." Andris deadpanned.
Dr. Chen raised a questioning eyebrow. "This surprises you? She gave me the impression that you were friends."
Andris considered his words. "Let's just say, the Admiral and I got off to a rocky start."
"Well at the very least she respects you. She remarked several times on your innovative thinking, calm under pressure and extremely high tolerance for pain."
"Doctor, I can't even tell you how much this thing hurt," Andris confirmed, rubbing her still slightly-tender arm.
"You don't have to. I had a compound fracture once. Rock climbing. I blacked out after two minutes. Combined with the blow to the head, I still can't quite believe you managed as long, and productively, as you did."
The doctor handed her a fresh, folded uniform.
"By the by," he continued. "The Admiral was also quite insistent that you remain for treatment on Excalibur instead of being transferred to Galen, which honestly would have been a better spot for your recovery. She said you would want to 'stay with your ship.'"
At that, Andris smiled. "She was right."
"Of course she was. You two are far more alike than you care to admit."
If you only knew. Andris thought. Then she barred herself from any further reminiscing while in his presence.