AN: Here we are, another piece to this one.
I hope you enjoy! If you do, please do let me know!
111
"It's time to go. Now."
Beverly heard Mirah as she approached.
"She's barely stable," Beverly said. "Moving her will cause damage. It'll undo at least some of what I've done. She needs to remain still…she needs care. She's not out of the woods."
As Beverly spoke, she found herself stroking the hair of the Romulan woman who was still—probably mercifully—unconscious. This had become personal, and Beverly was powerless to explain it, even to herself. She had to save this woman. She simply had to.
"She will survive. She is not going to die."
Beverly was well enough accustomed to Mirah to know that she was asking, really.
"She has to live," Beverly said. "She's going to live."
"But she will not live here," Mirah said. "No one will. The last communication I received informed me that we will must leave, immediately. The supernova is imminent. We have only enough time to get our ships out of range. Everyone else has gone except for our three ships. The shuttle was waiting for final survivors."
"There's nobody else," Beverly said, looking back at Laris.
"Then we'll move her to the transport," Mirah said.
"No!" Beverly said. "She'll die on the transport."
"She will die here or there," Mirah said. "Her chances of survival are better there."
"No," Beverly said, shaking her head. "She isn't ready to be moved."
"If you can explain that to the supernova," Mirah said, "then, I am willing to stay with you. They have already loaded excess supplies on your ship. You have to leave. We all do. She will live or die on the transport. Romulans believe that those who should survive, do survive."
"If you send her to Heridian, and she does survive the trip, they'll send her to a Romulan colony," Beverly said.
"That was the plan from the beginning," Mirah said. "Hardly anyone is currently sympathetic to Romulans—not with the state of things. They will not want Romulans to remain on Heridian for now."
"She's dressed as Tal Shiar," Beverly said. "If she was one who turned against her own and refused to follow orders, then there's no reason to believe that she won't be punished there."
"Provided they are aware of what took place, you are not incorrect," Mirah said.
"I will not just abandon her to die here," Beverly said. "I will not send her to her death, either."
Beverly heard the anger in her own voice. She saw the slightest response registering on Mirah's cat-like features. Mirah looked at the injured Romulan woman, and then back at Beverly. She blinked slowly.
"You would like for something else to be done," she said. "Something that we haven't yet considered."
Beverly drew in a breath and let it out. She dropped her hand from where she'd been somewhat absentmindedly stroking Laris's hair, and she took up her hand—one of the few parts of her body that seemed not to be injured. She squeezed it gently. Laris was unconscious, at the moment, and she probably couldn't feel it, but Beverly did believe that the body and the brain had ways of registering things like comfort in these moments.
"I will help your Rangers. Whoever is left. I want her brought aboard my ship. I'll take care of her."
"You have to leave the area," Mirah said. "Time is limited, and you have to get beyond the danger zone."
Beverly smiled at her and nodded.
"Don't worry," Beverly said. "The Eleos is fast, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve. As soon as she's loaded and stable enough, as stable as she is now, I'll get as far away as I can."
Mirah placed a hand on Beverly's shoulder.
"You are certain of your chosen path forward," Mirah said.
"I am," Beverly said, nodding. "I'm certain that it's what I have to do."
"We will load her on your ship," Mirah said. "You will stay back and protect your bub."
Beverly smiled at her.
"Thank you, Mirah," Beverly said. "I'll help make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible."
111
According to Beverly's downloaded manuals, the Eleos's maximum speed was 8.7. Thanks to a few tweaks that she'd made with a little guidance from a few Rangers, the Eleos's actual maximum speed was 9.3.
The little bit of supplies that Beverly had left over was already loaded when they brought Laris aboard the ship. The sickbay on the Eleos was not a sickbay, really. As a vessel meant for the rapid transport of medical supplies and not for treating patients, a sickbay was an unnecessary use of cargo space. As a result, it was built with only the most basic emergency needs in mind, and Beverly's supplies was critically low after several rounds of helping in Romulan conflicts.
Beverly was flying alone—or, at least she had been until she'd brought Laris aboard—and she didn't have anyone to man a single control while she monitored her patient. For that reason, she'd made the decision to put Laris directly in the makeshift bed she'd already placed in the control space so that she could monitor the ship at all times—even while she slept. It wasn't very comfortable, but it was what she had.
The transfer from the tent to the Eleos had not been good for Laris, but Beverly knew her time was limited. She'd done what she could to stabilize the woman.
"I have to get us out of here," Beverly said to Laris, despite the fact that she probably couldn't hear her. "You have to stay with me…and I have to get us out of here. Then, we'll figure out what comes next. Just—hold on for me."
Whether or not Laris heard her and understood her, she did what Beverly asked. During the time that it took Beverly to get the Eleos beyond the wake of the supernova, Laris didn't threaten to crash even once. The small monitor that Beverly had connected to her—a portable monitor for vitals only—registered a steady and rapid heartbeat…a fairly healthy Romulan heartbeat…that became a welcomed background noise to Beverly's work.
When they were safely beyond the wake of the supernova, Beverly found a place to let the Eleos move idly along with the auto-controls on, and she made sure that Laris was as stable as she appeared to be.
Beverly fought her own exhaustion and hunger. There would be time for that when all the other critical needs had been tended.
"Your pulse is much stronger than it was," Beverly said, dragging out her own personal supplies—items she rarely took to any emergency situation. She checked the oxygen on the portable breather. "I think that damage to your lungs is mostly healed thanks to the regenerator, but I'm going to leave this on a little longer. Maybe tomorrow, when you're a little stronger, I'm going to use the osteo-regenerator to help on that arm." She injected Laris with another round of hyposprays, telling her what each was for as she did so—something for pain, a sedative to keep her calm and still, and something to help her body replace the blood that it had lost. Without blood to offer her, the extreme loss of blood and the inability to replace it was what caused Beverly the most concern.
As though the fates could somehow sense Beverly's fears and wanted to torture her with them, the alarm on the monitor sounded. That healthy heartbeat wasn't healthy anymore. Beverly immediately went to work bringing Laris back into safe ranges.
And, then, one of the console alarms on the ship sounded.
"Son of a bitch!" Beverly spat. "Shit!"
She got up, scrambled to solve the Eleos's problem and move the ship away from a small planet it was drifting too close to while the auto-controls ran things. The small planet had an asteroid belt that would damage the ship if they got too close. Beverly wanted to be on the far side of the little planet. She was sure that they were out of harm's way for the supernova, but…
Before she could steer the ship too much further away, she saw it—the bright burst of light. It might have been beautiful, if it hadn't meant the loss of so much. Instead of thinking that it was beautiful, Beverly found herself first feeling grateful that she was far enough away from it and, then, feeling sad for the loss of it all.
When the sound of the vitals monitor jarred her out of her thoughts, Beverly cursed again. Her throat ached from the sadness, the overwhelm, and, perhaps, from so much more.
"Damn it!" She spat again, choosing anger over the suddenly suffocating desire to cry. "Please, Laris!"
If the woman heard her, she was powerless to fight against what was happening to her. Her body wanted desperately to shut down. It wanted to shut down as desperately as Beverly wanted to keep it from shutting down.
Beverly knew that she could save Laris, but she was one woman, and she couldn't do it all. She certainly couldn't do it all at once.
Beverly found a place she could safely engage auto-controls again, and she rushed back to Laris. In a scramble, focusing as completely as she could on stabilizing the woman, Beverly got her back to the point where she'd been before.
"That stimulant will kick in soon," Beverly told the woman, brushing her face affectionately and hoping to offer some comfort, if Laris could register any of it. "Once we get your blood volume up, you'll be doing much better."
Beverly found herself stroking Laris's hair again, as she sat beside her on the pallet that they would both have to call a bed. When she was strong enough to maintain consciousness, Beverly would have to tell her that she had lost her husband, any family that she might have known on Romulus or any of the surrounding planets, and her home. She had lost everything.
She was entirely alone in the world except for the baby she carried—a baby that was very much at risk while its mother was fighting for her life. Beverly hadn't yet scanned the baby. She hadn't had the necessary equipment on the planet, and she found that she was hesitant to do it now. If it was bad news, she wasn't sure she wanted to handle it just yet. At the very least, Laris's body was showing no signs of actively rejecting the baby.
"We have a lot in common," Beverly told Laris. "You and me. We're not alone, though. And—I'm not going to leave you alone. We'll figure this out."
Beverly slipped her hand in her pocket. She pulled out the communication chip and rolled it around in her palm. She activated it.
"You have survived the blast."
Beverly smiled.
"We're safe," Beverly said.
"Your patient is not dead."
"No," Beverly said. "She's here. With me."
"She is conscious."
"No. She isn't. She won't be until her blood volume is higher. She's not strong enough to stay conscious for the time being."
"You are not finding it difficult to handle all your tasks."
"I am," Beverly said. "That's just it. Mirah—I need a safe haven. Somewhere temporary where I can take Laris and get her what she needs. I need to build her strength up. Then, I'm sure we'll have no problem running everything on the ship."
"You intend for the Romulan to remain aboard the Eleos."
"She's alone, Mirah. Maybe she won't want to stay, and I'll respect her choice if that's what she wants, but…"
"You would like for her to stay."
"For now, I'd like for her to live," Beverly said. "I need a safe haven, Mirah. Somewhere to set down for a little while. Somewhere nobody would think to look for me. For her. What can you find for me?"
There was silence, but the chip hadn't made any sound indicating disconnection, so Beverly was patient. As she suspected she would, Mirah returned before too long had passed.
"Beverly—with relations with the Romulans being what they currently are…and what they have been in the past," Mirah said, being delicate enough that Beverly knew that it was being done only out of respect for their friendship, "there are not many individuals that are going to be sympathetic to your cause."
"My cause is saving a woman's life," Beverly said. "Saving her baby's life. As soon as she's healthy, we'll leave. Surely you have someone that's sympathetic enough to Romulans to allow me that. All I need is somewhere to lay low and treat her a little more efficiently."
There was silence again. Beverly waited, dosing Laris again with the stimulant that would help her body produce more blood—though she was also acutely aware that she had little to offer her, until she could maintain consciousness, that would nourish her body enough for the stimulant to work well. It was a catch-22 that nearly made Beverly nauseous at the moment.
"Beverly, you are still connected."
"I'm here," Beverly said.
"I will make inquiries," Mirah said. "I may have someone in mind."
"Please," Beverly said. "Make inquiries. Make calls. Whatever you need to do. Anywhere will do. We just need somewhere safe for a short period of time, and we'll move on."
"I will be in contact as soon as I have had a chance to reach out to the possible Romulan sympathizers that might be willing to host you temporarily. Keep your communication line open."
"I'll keep it right beside me," Beverly assured her. She thanked her and disconnected. She injected Laris with one of the few remaining nutrition capsules she had, and she moved to the replicator to choose something for herself. After all, she had to feed herself and her baby, too. All of them were relying on her now. "Hold on," Beverly said, settling back by Laris with her food. "We'll find somewhere safe soon. We'll get you back on your feet. And, then, maybe you'll find that the Eleos isn't a terrible place to call home."