The Fall

by Wedjatqi

ALLIANCE FIC – 2 weeks after the events of 'Interlude 4' and Atlantis continues to search for Janus' secret lab; Teyla, still feeling slightly unwell, is aboard the Sythus on its way to hunt down the elusive Skerti out beyond the Alliance border. And in the Training Facility, Oneakka continues his recovery while struggling with new developments regarding Seeal.

35. Act 2 - The Beacons

Note: Thank you all for your kind congrats on the promotion; I didn't expect that, thank you. I'm mostly getting used to the new duties, though it's currently THE busiest time of year for our industry, but after a few more weeks things should calm down (hopefully!). I hope everyone is well.

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ACT 2 – TRUTH

Chapter 35 – The Beacons

Oneakka shuffled the tall stool Massa had given him closer to the console, setting the points of his elbows on the edge of the display screens as he watched the Military Fleet ships appear as three separate bright dots on the sensor map above Saoka's planet.

All three ships – The Solon, the Warspite and the Honos – where heavily armoured and experienced battleships, carrying battalions of troops, multiple wings of Fighters, and vast arsenals of weapons. It had taken five hours for them to arrive, but finally military support had arrived in the system.

He watched and listened as the Commanders of the battleships altered courses, each ship focusing on their assigned target and missions.

"All civilians ships, this is the Fleet Ship Solon, break away from previous course and begin flight towards us, coordinates being broadcast now. Launching Wings One through Six to engage enemy and provide escort and protection."

"Solon, this is Deployment Station, understood."

"Deployment Station, this is the Honos, we are heading to planetary orbit to begin seek and locate mission."

"Honos, this is Deployment Station, understood."

"Deployment Station, this is the Warspite, we are fast approaching the grounded and boarded Trader Ship, Travisarch. Currently detecting no power signatures or response to link calls from the ship."

"Warspite, this is Deployment Station, we lost link response from the Travisarch ten minutes ago, repeat ten minutes ago prior to which they reported power failures."

"Wings moving in for sweep around Travisarch and visual inspection."

"Deployment Station this is Solon, all civilian ships on incoming approach to our muster point, enemy ships are breaking away. Half, repeat half, are fleeing out of the system. The other half are on their way towards you and the planet, Honos."

"Solon, this is Honos, understood, incoming enemy Fighters detected. Deploying Wings One through Four to engage."

Oneakka watched the shifting screens in front of him, all now in vivid and immediately accurate detail thanks to the improved sensors and link connections with the three Fleet ships. Now, he could see live, clear images and sensor readings. Could see a cloud of Wraith Fighters swarming across the system, all clearly headed towards the planet, looking for the protection they believed the planet and it's scattering atmosphere would provide them.

He watched the Honos' Fighters appear on the sensor map, moving out from and around the Honos in well-rehearsed formations, weapons-fire already beginning as they worked to break up the incoming enemy swarm. Oneakka looked from the Honos feed to that from the Solon, seeing that most of the civilian ships were already converging with the Fleet Ship, eager for support. The crews on those civilian ships had done excellent work in evading the Wraith for so long, but they all had extreme damage and two ships were already requesting full evacuation of their crews to the Solon.

"Deployment Station, this is the Warspite, Wing One reports three, repeat only three, Wraith Fighters docked in the bay of the Travisarch, but there are multiple enemy Fighters latched onto the ship's outer hull. Sensor readings imply hull breaches in those locations, so we expect there to be far more Wraith onboard the ship."

"Understood Warspite," the clipped efficient voice from Deployment Station replied. "Begin troop deployment."

"Already underway, Deployment Station," the Warspite's Commander replied. "Troop Transport One is launched and heading out with wing escort."

Oneakka knew the clock was ticking on that Trader Ship. The Wraith onboard would no doubt now know that Alliance Military support had arrived, so they had little time to take control – if they hadn't already – of the Trader Ship and get its engines working. If they had been able to work around the Traders' own sabotage attempts, then there was also the chance the Wraith could get the hyperspace engine working…

"Deployment Station, this is the Honos, we have reached upper orbit of the planet and are in contact with Auxiliary Command on the Cruise Ship, which is in low orbit of the planet."

Oneakka shifted his attention to the sensor map of the planet, the planet itself, despite the more advanced sensor input from the Fleet Ships, was still a blank mass of a sphere. No sensors could get through the scattering atmosphere, though here and there he could see small dots of the former Station's Fighters rising up and out of the atmosphere as they continued their hours' long engagement with Wraith Fighters.

The Cruise ship, which had arrived previously, full of volunteered retired Military personnel, had taken command of the former station's wing of Fighters. It had helped the defence considerably at first, with the Fighters being able to coordinate refuelling and replacing several exhausted Pilots, but the Wraith had realised what was happening and had started targeting the Cruise ship. Some of the Station Fighters had had to turn their focus to defending the Cruise ship, and link contact had been broken from the Cruise ship half an hour ago.

"What is status of the Cruise Ship, Honos?" Deployment Station's rotation Commander asked.

"Cruise Ship is intact, but has taken severe damage to aft weapons banks and communications relays, and has reduced engine capability. They remain in established short-wave communication with the Fighters, so have remained coordinating, but do not have enough power or working relay to connect to the links network."

"Understood Honos, take command of the defence over the planet and supply all support to Cruise Ship."

"Underway, Deployment Station. We have possibly twenty-five enemy Fighters rising in and out of the atmosphere targeting us and the Cruise Ship. Incoming wave of enemy Fighters from the Solon's direction are splitting their approach. Half our wings are engaging and rest holding protective formation around us and expanding now to Cruise Ship. We have three Station Fighters requesting docking due to damage, and they are heading to our secondary bay now."

"Understood, Honos."

It was all vital and important battle work and information, but absolutely none of it did anything for Raven or any other survivors on the surface. With the Wraith knowing help had arrived, and a vast number of their Fighters running scared now for the planet, they would do exactly what Oneakka feared: they'd gather forces and pick up what food they could on the surface. The Alliance Fleet had done plenty clean up work on planets with far easier and clearer atmospheres, and sometimes it took weeks to locate and remove any stranded and/or hiding Wraith on a planet. The Wraith were surprisingly good at hiding, their ability to hibernate removing them from sensor detection, but with the use of Seekers, mop up work was usually thorough.

But this planet had its useful, yet also annoying, sensor-scattering power.

So he had no idea if anyone was alive on the planet.

If she'd made it to the surface alive, and, if she had, was she under siege by Wraith?

Or, had she already lost her life?

He reached up to run an anxious hand over his mohawk and licked his dry lips. Massa had set a mug of a hot drink near him some time ago, so he glanced at it, surprised to see steam still drifting up from it. Surely more time had passed since Massa had put it there?

"Deployment Station, this is the Warspite, Troop Transport One has been able to part land inside Travisarch's open bay and space-ready suited troops are deploying into the ship."

"Understood, Warspite."

"Wing Fighters are also reporting visual sight of weapons-fire through porthole windows of the Travisarch, Deployment station."

That was good news then, it meant it's crew – or some of them at least – where still alive in the powerless ship. Holding their own still.

"We have several Wraith Fighters detaching from Travisarch hull," the Warspite Commander added hurriedly. "Wings are engaging. They know we're here," he added with some glee in his voice.

Oneakka switched his gaze to the Warspite's sensor map and watched as multiple dots began separating away from the civilian hull, but there were plenty of Fleet Fighters right on then. Enemy dots began disappearing as quickly as they had appeared on sensors.

"Troops on Travisarch report they are in active engagement with Wraith. One injury and several enemy kills reported."

"Deployment Station, this is the Honos," the other Commander interjected over the fast rapid back and forth, his feed crackling with some static. "We are now in low orbit of the planet. Cruise ship has docked to our port emergency hatch and crew are evacuating. Wings Five and Six are now launching down into planet atmosphere."

"Understood Honos," Deployment Station replied. "Primary target remains identification of Portal Beacon then Secondary targets of the three BreakAway Beacons."

"Understood, Deployment Station. My technicians and conversation with Cruise Ship Commander have identified the outermost layer of atmosphere where communications become possible, so we are holding above that location and the Wings are deploying down into atmosphere. Wing Five will return with reports of initial identification of any broadcasting Beacons on the surface."

"Understood Honos."

Oneakka realised he was leaning right over the console section in front of him, as if being closer to the screens could speed up the report arriving from the planet. The Wings of Fighters would need to get down into the atmosphere, keeping in visual distance from each other as they wouldn't be able to communicate in any other way down there. They'd need to run a long sweep over a vast area to detect the Beacons if they were still broadcasting.

Despite having looked at the information many times over the last five hours, Oneakka switched his attention to a side screen with the schematics and technical details of Saoka's former station. The Beacon broadcast systems had been built to withstand as much as possible. They had their own direct powercells, and could access support powercells so that the Beacon could run as long as possible. He pulled up the images of the bulky box designs that housed each BreakAway's Beacon and backup computer. The boxes were based on Fleet Ship emergency system boxes, so they should have been resistant to the heat of entry into the planet's atmosphere and even the impact that might have followed. Housed at the very top of each BreakAway they were located to get the best possible line of transmission. But that was assuming the BreakAways hadn't broken up in the atmosphere or tipped and flipped, crushing everything into…

He sat back from the console. He was letting his fears take control again.

He needed to stay focused on what he could control, to be patient…

He shifted his gaze to the steaming mug and reached for it, lifting it to his dry lips. As he took a sip of the warm liquid, he realised it was Raven's favourite Athosian tea. Had Massa realised he'd picked her favourite?

Massa was currently out of the room, having had to quickly leave to collect Aki from the Infant Care supporters who had kept Aki far later than normal. Oneakka checked a screen that displayed the Facility's time as he took another sip of the tea. Yes, it was technically now late evening and Aki' caregivers needed to sleep.

"Deployment Station, this is the Hotep in command of sixteen Litan Defence vessels, ready for your orders," A new voice announced as seventeen small dots appeared on the sensor map.

"Hotep, we receive you and we are sending sensor readings taken by the Solon. Please deploy to follow escaping Wraith Fighters heading out of the system. Eliminate with full prejudice."

"Deployment Station, we have coordinates and are on the hunt."

Oneakka set down the tea as he watched the new dots breaking into four groups and turning, heading out of the system in sublight pursuit of the Wraith that thought fleeing out into the stars would save them. He reached out and set about tagging each ship onto the Elite console system, adding their involvement into the Facility's official log.

"Deployment Station," Aedii stated from Oneakka's far left, "This is the Elite Facility. We have two further support ships about to arrive, I suggest we contact them and deploy along the same."

"Agreed, Facility. Please oversee deployment of all support vessels."

Oneakka shifted his gaze over to Aedii who was already tapping on the main screen, selecting best locations for the soon-to-arrive support ships to join the hunt.

Not needing to help with that, Oneakka switched his attention back to the sensor map. The sensor reading of the Honos, even though the ship was only in low orbit and above the main scattering effects of the plant, was still glitching. Like the Honos Commander's audio link feed, there was static on the live camera feed from the ship and the sensor readings of its position above the planet.

Abruptly something buzzed against Oneakka' right thigh.

Shocked, he looked down, only to remember that he'd left his personal electronic pad on his lap. The small pad's screen had lit up with a text link. As he reached for it, for one foolish moment, he wondered if the text link was from Raven. That maybe there had been a mistake and she'd gotten off the station before the collision, that she was safe somewhere else..

But, of course, that wasn't true and, as he activated the pad awake, he could see it was instead a text link from Raven's friend, Amel. The list of those known to be on Saoka's station had made the rounds of the Facility and Amel had spotted Raven's name despite the late hour. In her message, Amel asked if it was true and if he knew anything, and then apologised for contacting him directly.

He tapped a quick reply confirming that Seeal had been on the station, that Saoka had safety procedures for the station's fall into the planet's atmosphere, but that it would likely be some time until they would hear anything about Raven. He finished by promising her that he'd let her know when he found out anything.

The text link sent, he set the pad back on his leg as he rechecked the sensor map. Only for the pad to vibrate again and the pad's screen lit up with an instant response from Amel. She thanked him and said she'd let Ru know as well.

Ru.

The name ran hollow and caught sharply inside Oneakka's middle. The source of the fight he and Raven had had before she'd stormed out of the Facility.

A gross bitter anger towards the other male rushed in amongst the fear, worry and barely controlled panic. Moments of his and Raven's argument flashed through his head unwanted.

He'd thought it best for their friendship to end, but now….

What if she was lying dead on that planet, or near death, alone…afraid…

Thinking he didn't care about her…

"Deployment Station this is Honos," the ship's Commander cut through all the other chatter and snapped Oneakka's attention instantly to the static-filled feed from the Honos. The firefight was still ongoing close to the Fleet ship, the images directed towards the engaging Fighters rather than down towards the planet.

"Wing Five report they have detected Portal Beacon and all three BreakAway Beacons; repeat, all Beacons are detected within planet atmosphere."

He heard those in the room around him let out a sigh of relief.

It was some news at least.

"Understood Honos. Do Wings have any visual contact yet?"

"No, Deployment Station. Wing Five returned to report as soon as all Beacons detected. Both wings will need to deploy lower into atmosphere for precise locations and then visual inspections. All Beacons though are on this side of the planet, on the dark side under cloud cover, which implies that all three came down reasonably close to intended pre-planned landing points as per the station's emergency Fall Protocol."

"Excellent news, Honos."

Oneakka looked up as Aedii filled the largest screen with the protocol's various landing points spread in a line along the protective underground tunnels that led to the dried-up seabed that was Saoka's pre-planned muster point. If she was down there, if she'd survived the BreakAways' fall, and if she was physically well enough to escape, she might be on her way to that muster point with other survivors.

Or it was possible that, though the BreakAways' Beacon crash-proof boxes had survived, that didn't necessarily mean the people onboard the three BreakAways had. Unlike people, those boxes were immune to fire, loss of atmosphere, high impact crashes…

His relief at the limited news was instantly lost in renewed worry.

"Wing Five and Wing Six ready to scout and locate all targets."

"Understood, Honos, if hierarchy of search is required under threat, prioritise the Portal within BreakAway One."

"Received, Deployment Station. Wing Five now redeploying back into atmosphere under those orders. Note that we remain under continuing fire from enemy Fighters in orbit, but we have confirmed sixty-five enemy Fighters destroyed so far."

"Excellent news, Honos."

"All Commanders," Aedii interjected into the conversation. "This is Elite Facility, six more support vessels are due to arrive in three minutes. I have deployed two to assist Litan Defence in hunting down fleeing enemy Fighters, the other four will be available for full support, primarily to Honos."

"Received and understood, Facility."

Oneakka reached up to his hair, running his palm back and forth over his mohawk again, the old soothing habit helping a little. If Raven had been in BreakAway One then she might be one of the first group of survivors to be located, but that was the BreakAway that should have responded first after the landing, getting the Portal operational again. But Deployment Station's repeated dials into the Portal remained blocked, which meant the Portal was buried. Buried meant the landing hadn't been good.

If she'd been in there…

Or if she'd been in the other two BreakAways…one of them having been in the worst state following the collision with the Wraith ship…

He made himself lean away from the console again and take a calming breath. Getting panicked about things wasn't going to help. He couldn't do anything to help her yet…at all.

He leaned forward again and jabbed at the list for the ships to deploy Healer support from the Facility and saw that his name remained on the list, so no one had taken him off. Meiyo either then didn't know, which implied she'd taken off the alert on him joining any active emergency deployment, or she was letting him go. It was an emergency situation, all hands needed and he'd only be support on the ship, only sent in once the planet and the muster point was secured.

That eventual moment felt disturbing far into the future.

For now, all he could do was watch and listen, and pray to the Unnamed God that Raven had survived the landing on one of those BreakAways, that she was okay.

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Seeal wasn't overly impressed by the tunnels that had been the promised safe evacuation route.

In fact 'tunnel' was a more accurate description, no plural for now, and she'd been in cellars that were deeper underground. The tunnel's ceiling was just over a metre above her head and, here and there, there were patches of the night sky visible through the small holes where the roof had fallen in. As 'cover' went, she didn't feel all that covered really.

And the tunnel was pretty narrow in places, forcing the long line of tired evacuees to bottleneck up so that the long walk had gotten pretty slow.

She didn't like the tight press of people around her and the trolley, not because anyone would do anything – everyone looked far too tired – but because it went against all her instincts to be so enclosed and confined. If a Wraith did drop down through one of the holes in the ceiling, well it would be panicked trampling for everyone and easy snack time for the Wraith.

The tunnel's floor was at least smooth, which made pushing the trolley easier than before. There was absolutely no doubt that the tunnel had indeed been carved through the rock by an ancient underground river. Every surface around her had the smooth curves sculpted by the water's flow, but it also meant that the tunnel's path also flowed, never quite moving directly forward. It also resulted in the occasional turns to get around, presumably when the former river had had to flow around some more resistant type of rock. That led to more hold ups in the walk while she and Nanuet waited for enough space in the press of people to be able to navigate the trolley around the bends in the tunnel.

She'd eaten, at least. She'd had a whole packet of dried kita fruit the second she'd gotten into the tunnel, and then recently, when the line of people ahead had slowed to a stop at another bottleneck, she'd broken out one of the Alliance emergency rations packs from her bag. It had contained coated strips of reconstituted something that the packet had promised was full of all the protein and nutrients required in a meal. She wished it had tasted like it had everything she 'required in a meal', but it had actually made her feel better. She felt like she had more energy, and the water bottle she'd been sipping at since entering the tunnel had also helped.

So, things weren't too bad, if you ignored the constant breathlessness from the alien air, the worrying tight press of people in the confined space of the tunnel, and the threat of Wraith attack through the nice handy feeding holes in the ceiling!

Yeah, it was almost a holiday.

She snorted out a chuckle, but didn't bother voicing the sarcastic joke out loud to anyone.

Oneakka would have found it funny, probably given her one of his controlled smiles; where his lips stayed together but his eyes laughed.

But none of the survivors currently around her would likely find the joke amusing, many of them probably never having been in a situation like this before. Not that she had been in one exactly like this, but she could think of a few close examples. To help pass the time and focus on something other than pushing the trolley and the light breathlessness, she had spent some time considering the top few.

There had been that time she and some other street kids had hidden in the overflow pipe network of an aqueduct on one particularly notable planet. The aqueduct had been made by the Ancestors, and though the town used it still to bring in fresh water and send wastewater out of the town, they hadn't been great at maintaining the thing, so it had been something of a death-trap. Still, being small and willing to take the risk, a group of them had used the pipes for fast getaways off the streets. Then the Wraith had hit in a devastating culling, and she and the other kids had had to hide in the pipes for over a day, wandering around the pitch-black network, listening to the distant sounds of screaming and destruction.

Then there had been the time she'd been on a planet tracking some undesirables for Creass when a mega-storm had hit. She'd been forced to join a large random collection of locals hunkered down into a tightly packed storm-shelter for several days. It hadn't been an awful shelter except the others in there had included the three undesirables she'd been following. Fortunately, the three males hadn't known who she was, though one had kept frowning at her suspiciously like he had been trying to place where he'd seen her before. She'd done her best to play the role of a 'worried visiting trader who had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time' card. That had been a long and uncomfortable few days, but the more observant undesirable had never identified her, and the locals had at least had the shelter well stocked with food.

But, she decided, the top contender for 'most like this mess', had been when she'd been on a planet that had once been 'near' the Alliance border, though it was now well within Alliance territory in the years since. As a consequence of being just outside Alliance protection, the planet had been hit by a massive culling just when she'd happened to be there. The large market town she'd been visiting had been two day's travel by cart from the Portal. The Wraith had attacked, and she'd had to run into the surrounding forest-covered hills with everyone else, but the Wraith hadn't just taken what they wanted and left; no, instead they'd landed their ships and followed everyone into the forest for days. She hadn't known the Wraith sometimes hunted for sport in prolonged cullings, and she'd learnt how unfortunately good they could be at it. It had probably been her childhood experience of surviving in a forest that had given her the skills to survive those horrible days and nights. Along with her climbing skills. She'd spent a considerable amount of those days and nights climbing up and down trees to hide. Eventually, after at least three days, she had worked a long loop through the forest, over cold hillsides and through pouring rain, to get back to the Portal and back to Dream.

The line abruptly stalled ahead of the trolley, so she paused her pushing and internal listing, and glanced down towards Saoka on the trolley.

She was getting worried about Saoka. Shortly after they'd gotten into the tunnel, they'd noticed that blood had started soaking through his already thick bandages within the splint around his broken leg. She suspected it had been the bumpy path out of the valley and the trolley having been overturned that had perhaps dislodged the splint and perhaps Saoka's leg within it.

Not wanting to disturb the existing bandages that were likely helping hold back even more blood leakage, she and Nanuet had worked to add several more bandages to his leg, though it had taken a bit of time working under his leg without hurting him too much and around the straps holding the stretcher to the trolley. Nanuet had then retrieved a spare blanket from under the trolley - most of the spares previously packed in the storage compartments already having been handed out to other survivors – and had shoved the blanket and then his own coat under Saoka's leg to help elevate it as much as was possible within the straps. A member of station Security who had been checking on everyone down the line had given Saoka his own blanket, which Nanuet had carefully covered Saoka with, tucking it in and under all the straps to keep in all the warmth.

That the air in the tunnel felt cool to her suggested that it was likely much colder for everyone else, and she suspected that Saoka was feeling it even more so thanks to being immobile and probably having lost quite a bit of blood from the leg break.

And his pain meds were also clearly wearing off.

She'd overheard Nanuet telling him that they needed to wait a couple more hours before it would be safe for him to have another dose. Saoka had nodded stoically, but she could see the drawn look to his face visible above the top of the blanket, and she could hear the pained ragged edge to his breathing that wasn't simply explained by the worryingly thin alien air.

She was getting vaguely used to being constantly breathless, but it was still worrying. Everyone was feeling the effects, people noticeably coughing a lot along the echoing length of the tunnel crammed with scared and tired people.

Glancing away from Saoka, she considered those immediately around her. Jarra and her boys were now somewhere further ahead since she and Nanuet had had to hold back to take care of Saoka. But the injured Engineer and the elderly couple were still close by, nearly always behind her and Nanuet. Seeal glanced over her shoulder to check on the elderly couple. Both were keeping up, not that the line was moving right now, but she could see both were breathing heavily and looked heavy on their feet.

Behind the couple, the line continued, crammed with people, but Seeal fancied that she could see the end of it as there was a reasonably straight stretch behind them. The two Security with the small electric lights who had been stood at the entrance to the tunnel were clearly now in the tunnel following everyone else, so that implied that was the very back of the line.

Looking ahead again, Seeal rose up on her toes to peer up and around the dark heads of those crammed in further down the tunnel. There were small faint lights widely spaced along one wall of the tunnel, the glow low but enough to get some idea of the long distance ahead. She wondered how they were powered, suspecting it was probably solar cells up on the thin roof above. Or maybe there was some electric power line Saoka had run down here.

She realised there was an extra light now, one moving through the people ahead. As it moved closer, she realised it was a lantern held by one of the former Station's Security.

"Everyone, we're taking a short break," the Security male announced in an authoritative voice, loud enough to be heard by those around him, but not too loud to carry too fair and be heard by any Wraith outside…hopefully.

"Please rest as best you can. It'll just be a short break," the male continued as he neared, gently pushing through people, clearly having been repeating the same instructions for a while. "There is a well point just up ahead, so have your water bottles ready to be refilled from the pump's tap. "Rest while you can, it'll be only a short pause," he repeated.

A rest sounded really good, so she did as many others around her were doing, she lowered herself down to the tunnel floor. The ground felt cool under her backside as she sat down, letting out a relieved sigh to be off her feet for even a short while. Turning her back to the trolley, she leaned back against it and let out another sigh as she closed her eyes, willing her body to relax for as long as possible.

The sounds of the tunnel around her stayed loud in her ears, filled with whispered nervous conversation and breathless coughing. It felt good to close her eyes, to let her senses rest as much as her body for this short break. It was a skill she'd learnt early from the pit fights, where she'd had to grasp what breaks she could between fights, recharging body and mind as much as possible. She focused on her breathing, in and out, even if it felt a little shallower than usual, but her mind began to quiet and still. Little moments of half-awareness told her she was getting tiny, short snippets of naps while never fully dropping into proper sleep that every part of her craved right now. Any particularly louder cough or shift of someone against the stone of the tunnel brought her instantly back to clearer alertness, but she kept her eyes closed, resting as long as she as could.

She became aware of Nanuet's voice talking softly to Saoka on the far side of the trolley, could hear someone snoring.

What she wouldn't give to be back in the Facility, back in her ridiculously comfortable bed with its sleep-inducing mattress. She'd sleep for an entire day if she…when she got back.

To the right, she heard the elderly male let out a particularly deep wet sounding cough, so she blinked open her eyes and glanced towards him. The couple had moved to lean against the tunnel wall rather than sit on the floor, which made sense as she guessed their age and reduced mobility meant that getting down and up from the cold floor wasn't an easy job. The male looked like he was listing a little on his feet where he was leaning, clearly needing to properly sleep. It looked like his legs were hurting him. Her own legs were feeling tight and uncomfortable, and she was probably more than half the male's age.

She shifted on the floor and stretched her legs out directly in front of her where there was just enough space to do so. The cool ground instantly helped soothe her aching calf muscles and hamstrings and she leaned forward, reaching out to the toes of her boots to stretch out the muscles. They resisted a little, but her life-long trained flexibility meant she could still easily fold herself forward, touching her forehead to her straight knees and then sat up straight again. She then rolled her aching ankle around in several rotations. One direction felt more sensitive, but the ankle was working, which was all the positive she could find right now.

Still, she was already feeling a little more recharged from the rest, so she glanced to her left, only to find that the likely-military male who had helped take down the Wraith Fighter was sat near her. He was sat crossed-legged and was eating small pieces of unidentifiable food out of a packet.

No longer stood observing the line like outside, he looked far more like a normal civilian now.

He glanced up as he chewed on his snack, noticed her looking at him and nodded to her.

She nodded back.

"You're Military or Security trained?" She asked him, keeping her voice low so it wouldn't carry too far. People were chatting as they rested, but no one was loud, out of worry but also the breathlessness.

The likely-military male's chewing became a half-smile as he looked down to his snack. "Something like that," he replied as he picked another piece of food out of the packet.

"Ahh," she smiled back at him and his lack of clarity. "Military Enforcement perhaps then?" The police of the Military, like Smee had been?

The male looked up as he popped his next piece of snack food into his mouth. "No," he shook his head.

She considered him more closely. He was very average looking, slightly shorter than her, average build, brown hair cut into a standard short cut for males on many planets. From what she'd noticed outside in better light, he had mid-brown eyes and no distinguishing marks. If he hadn't been behaving the way he had outside, keeping watch on everyone, she'd not have thought him to be anything interesting at all.

Which suggested then the most likely answer.

"Division?" She asked.

He lowered his eyes as he chewed, glancing away with the faintest smile across his profile as he shrugged.

Definitely Division then. He made sense as an intelligence operative; good training, but not someone who was very memorable.

"Were you working when you were on the Station?" She asked curious.

"Just a regular person visiting the marketing halls," he replied, but there was that little touch of amusement behind his words as he met her gaze in the low light.

"I take it you know who I am?" She asked, suspecting it to be the reason why he was being more revealing than a Division operative would normally be.

He smiled back. "Who are you?" He asked as he chewed on another bit of food.

She chuckled and shook her head at him. "Typical Division. Please tell me you don't work with Robiah."

The Division male shook his head, but said nothing out loud.

A thought occurred to her. "You weren't following me, were you?"

"Why would anyone need to follow you?" He returned, but this time there was a faint frown creasing his brow in the low light. "You're not a threat," he added but there had been the tiniest hint of a question, as if he was checking that she agreed.

"Of course not, I'm just a regular person who was visiting the marketing halls," she replied using his former phrase.

He grinned at that as he looked down to his snack, ferreting out one of the last pieces of food inside the packet. "I don't know you at all, but I don't think anyone would describe you as 'regular'."

"So, you have read my file," she pushed, seeing if she could get the spy to give something away.

He crumpled up his now empty snack packet and shoved it into a Station branded coat pocket. "What file would that be?" He asked.

She let out a long, exaggerated sigh. "You people are all the same."

He grinned again. "Which people would that be?"

She rolled her eyes and glanced away. At least the Elite were direct when you asked them something.

A deep pang of emotion hit hard in her chest. She recognised the feeling only because she'd had the same pangs when she'd had to leave Dream for the last time. Dreamstation had been the one and only place she had felt had been a true 'home' and which she had missed with a real weight in her heart. Now it seemed she was feeling homesick for the Facility and those in it she trusted. Where people were all experienced and spoke directly, and where the mattresses were blissfully comfy.

"You've shot down many Wraith Fighters in your time?" the Division male asked.

"Nope, my first one," she replied. "But they always say you never forget your first."

He chuckled lightly at that and then coughed slightly, the breathlessness affecting him like everyone else. "Well, you did a very good job."

"Well, I had some good instruction."

The male nodded. "I guess if you're going to learn to take down Wraith, you should learn from the best."

Oh, he definitely knew who she was and that she now worked for the Elite; that he had all but admitted it was quite a big thing from a Division operative.

She held his gaze and lowered her voice further. "Is there anyone in these tunnels that we need to watch out for?" She asked seriously.

He shook his head immediately, glancing away as he coughed, but he looked back, maintaining eye contact. "As I said, I was just visiting the marketing halls."

She narrowed her eyes at him. Her read was that he was being honest about there not being a threat, but she didn't believe the simply shopping on the station routine.

"Fine, I'll hold you to your word on that," she told him firmly.

"You don't know my name to find me if it isn't true," he countered, but there was that smile again.

"Well, you know where I work and who for, so…" she said the rest with a shrug.

It was a common enough phrase among many that even the Elite couldn't track Division operatives, who were infamously said to be able to insinuate themselves in any cultures unnoticed and then disappear like ghosts, but she'd be interested to know if Oneakka could find him. Given the Oaf's past single-minded determination to hunt down anyone Iketani had even breathed near, she wondered if he'd be able to track down this operative. Or maybe Oneakka was too direct and obvious to find someone like this male; maybe it was more her skillset.

The Division male coughed a little and glanced away. "I just wanted to thank you for helping with the Fighter."

"What else would I have done?" She frowned at him.

He smiled back at her. "Maybe run away? Hide behind something as cover?"

"Taking out the threat was the best option at-" she started to say but a voice rang out from a few metres away.

"Everyone, we need to get moving," the Security male with the lantern was back, now working his way forward down the line. "Everyone, let's get moving."

As the Security male headed through those closest by Seeal, she set her hands on the tunnel floor and pushed herself up, reaching up to the trolley handle to help her up. Her legs felt better for the short rest, though still a little stiff. She shook them out as she reached for her water bottle, drinking down the last sips inside as she watched Nanuet work on tucking the blanket a little more securely over Saoka. She could see Nanuet's worry in his focused frown as he worked.

She set her empty bottle back in its contained shelf, the lid loose ready for the refill when they reached one of the apparent several wells along the tunnel escape route.

Nanuet moved around the trolley to the handle, his elbow brushing against hers.

"He okay?" Seeal asked with barely a whisper as ahead the line started moving forward.

Nanuet nodded, but said nothing as he started pushing the trolley.

Still too early for the next dose of pain meds then.

Seeal took a long step forward to catch up and set her hands on the cool metal bar of the trolley. People were shuffling slowly forward again after the far too short rest, but it looked like the break had done some good. Ahead, the Security male's voice gently echoed down the tunnel ahead, encouraging everyone to get moving again.

She looked to her right and then over her right shoulder, but the Division male was gone.

She frowned as she peered between people behind her, and then forward and spotted perhaps the right shape of male moving among the rest ahead, but then he was gone within the dull light and crammed tunnel.

Like the ghost his types were said to be.

She guessed he really had just wanted to say thank you and now he was off.

Leaving her with no one around to talk to who wasn't desperately scared and worried.

Well, all she needed to do was keep walking and keep pushing the trolley. Get Saoka to the medical help he was clearly in need of, and then….well, if she got off this damn planet, then her soft Alliance bed was waiting for her back in the Facility.

She was going to sleep so much when she got home.

0000

Oneakka worried on the inside of his lower lip as he watched the screens flowing with activity, voices flowing back and forth across the links communications.

There were now three other Military Fleet ships in the system above Saoka's planet; two of them had joined the hunt tracking and destroying the Wraith fleeing from the system at sublight, but one had remained behind to carefully investigate the large debris field near the former station's original position. So far there were absolutely no signs of any remaining pieces of the Skerti Seed Ship - its detonation pointedly thorough in Oneakka's opinion - no hints of any Slug Robots, and no surviving Wraith in the drifting broken remains of the front-end of the former Cruiser that had hit the station.

"Twelve more taken down," a voice reported from one of the Litan Defence ships pursuing the running Wraith. "All targets now removed from this sector chase."

"Come in with us, we've got some twisters breaking formation, trying to split our focus," another Litan accented voice replied.

"We are turning and incoming with support."

"Deployment Station, this is Warspite," the more clipped Fleet Battleship Commander's voice interjected. "Reporting that entire Travisarch crew have been located within the Trader Ship and are secured. Four enemy reported still onboard and unaccounted for; Troops are tracking them down. Otherwise, Travisarch is under our command."

"Warspite, this is Deployment Station. Excellent news, received. Can you report on damage and injuries yet?"

"Only one crew member is severely hurt, requiring evac to Warspite. Medic Pod is en route to Travisarch to collect him and three others with lesser injuries."

"Understood, Warspite. Glad no fatalities."

Oneakka had been on plenty of similar missions to predict the relieved delight that ship's crew must have shown when their rescuers had arrived.

It was just that no one on the planet surface had anyone incoming to rescue them yet.

"Troops report Travisarch crew did an excellent job on fortifying and protecting their crew in the engine room. Though the extensive sabotage they had to inflict on their own ship will likely require significant repairs."

Oneakka glanced from the sensor map back to the live, static-filled feed from the Honos in low orbit of the planet. There was still nothing in from the wings of Fighters seeking out the BreakAways.

"Deployment Station, this is Solon. We require some additional support for evacuated crew off three of the civilian ships, and one ship's engines are registering at rising, near dangerous uncontrolled levels. We are moving all other ships out of range in case of detonation while our Engineers assess the ship."

"Understood, Solon."

"Solon, this is Elite Facility," Aedii added into the conversation from the end of the console. "We are deploying two commercial freight ships that volunteered to assist, both ships were en route to their next collection so have plenty of available space for ship evacuees and their Healing Bays are ready for you to utilise. I am sending link frequencies to you now and recommend you take command."

"Received, Elite Facility," The Solon's Commander replied before there was a pause. "We are now in contact with the freight ships and are commandeering them."

Oneakka switched his gaze back to the Honos' feed. There seemed to be less movement around the Battleship, the Fighters within the views of the camera feeds seeming to have fewer Wraith Fighters to deal with in the battle.

To the right, Massa hurried back into the room, Aki a large lump within the sling attached to Massa's chest.

"What's the news?" Massa asked as he hurried back to his place next to Oneakka.

"Honos' Fighters have detected all the Beacons on the planet, but we are waiting to find out where they are and in what state," he reported quickly as Massa reached the console.

"No contact with the surface then," Massa frowned, his eyes shifting over all the screens to take in the larger update. Below his chin, within the blanket tucked inside the sling, Aki turned his head and sleepy eyes focused on Oneakka. The boy's lower face was hidden behind the blanket around him, but Oneakka could see the creases around Aki' eyes that said he was smiling. Oneakka managed to smile back at the babe before swinging his attention back to the screens.

"Deployment Station, this is Honos," the long-awaited Fleet Commander's voice abruptly cut through the chatter. "Remaining enemy Fighters are disengaging and heading down into the atmosphere. Repeat, full disengagement of enemy in orbit."

"Understood, Honos."

Oneakka let out a long, frustrated breath. The Wraith had seen the turning tide and were now all running down into the protective scattering atmosphere of the planet, from which they could run sneak attacks on the Fleet Fighters as they moved down through the atmosphere. Might even start targeting the wings of fighters down there trying to locate the BreakAways.

"Deployment Station, this is Solon, all ships have been relocated to safe distance from damaged civilian ship. My Engineers onboard report they have identified issue and are addressing."

"Understood, Solon. All ships to remain at double safe distance from the damaged ship."

Various voices reported agreement.

"Deployment Station, this is Honos," the Fleet Commander's voice entered back into the conversation. "Wing Five have returned from atmosphere with all locations of the Beacons. Repeat, all locations received. Sending coordinates to all now. Note, Portal Beacon is with BreakAway One's Beacon, so Portal deemed to still be inside that section of the former station. Wing Five are returning into atmosphere to work with Wing Six on visual inspection flybys over BreakAway locations."

"Coordinates received, Honos," Deployment Station rotation Commander replied.

Oneakka looked up to the largest screen over the console and watched the coordinates arriving and instantly overlaying the Fall Protocol's pre-planned landing points. Oneakka leaned sharply forward, gaze sweeping over the large display, quickly assessing the new coordinate distances to the prepared points, the escape tunnels, and the planned muster point for the Portal.

None of the dots matched any of the pre-set landing points, but two were very close. The last dot though glowed out alone.

"Noted that all three BreakAways are not at any planned landing points," Deployment Station voiced what everyone was seeing. "BreakAways One and Two are close to last chance landing points listed for them, but BreakAway Three is way off any landing point.

"But closer to the muster point," Aedii quickly noted the positive in that fact. "And still within viable walking distance to the escape tunnels."

"Agreed, Facility," the voice from Deployment Station replied.

"Deployment Station, this is Honos," the Commander's voice interjected with more urgency in his voice now. "Wing Six have reported in already, BreakAway One has been visually located and is clearly occupied by survivors but is under current immediate attack by the enemy, both from air and on foot. I'm sending Wings One through Three back down with Wing Six, but requesting additional Fighter wings to our command."

Oneakka snapped his eyes to the dot that was labelled as BreakAway One. It sat as the middle of the three dots, the Portal Beacon glowing alongside it.

"The Wraith might know the Portal is in there," Massa voiced out loud what Oneakka was instantly thinking.

"Honos, this is Solon, sending our Wings One through Four to assist you, please take command of them as you require."

"Understood Solon."

"Honos, this is Warspite, I'm sending in three wings to assist and more on standby ready for your call as you require."

"Received and understood, Warspite."

"The Wraith shouldn't be able to detect the Portal on that planet, especially while it is deactivated and likely buried," Aedii considered across the small room. "Unless the Wraith can detect the Beacon transmissions through the scattering atmosphere?"

That was worrying, really worrying. If all of the Beacons could be detected by the Wraith…

"Or they tracked the Portal from orbit as BreakAway One fell into the atmosphere," Massa suggested. "They might have tracked it visually down onto the surface."

"There were Wraith Fighters close to the BreakAways when they went into the planet's atmosphere," Oneakka nodded. "The wormhole was still open at that time; the Wraith might have been able to track the open Portal from close by."

"Extra wings incoming and deploying into atmosphere," the Honos' Commander reported. "Wing Six is leading deployment to engage around BreakAway One."

Oneakka dropped his attention to the screen displaying the specifics of the Fall Protocol again. If Raven had been in the marketing halls of the station, she could be in the besieged BreakAway One.

And she wouldn't be cowering inside, no, she'd damn well be in the forefront of that firefight helping hold the BreakAway.

She'd be defending and fighting.

Against who knew how many Wraith were converged on BreakAway One.

If the Wraith had tracked the Portal, then invading BreakAway One and gaining control of the Portal was the Wraith's only way off the planet. They'd be brutal about it too, knowing full well it was their only hope.

And she'd be wraith shitting in the middle of it.

Perhaps fighting for her life…

Or already fallen…

"Deployment Station," the Honos Commander's voice echoed again. "Wing Five have arrived out of atmosphere and report they have visually located BreakAways Two and Three."

Oneakka held in a breath, holding it in through the long second it took for the Commander to continue.

"BreakAway Two is reported with signs of harsh landing, but the majority of the BreakAway is intact and surrounding area is quiet. Pilots observed clear visual signs of mass evacuation from the BreakAway to local entrance to the escape tunnels."

Oneakka snapped his attention back to the Fall Protocol specs. If Raven had been meeting with Saoka in his office at the time of the impact, then she'd have been in that BreakAway.

"Fighters also reported some heat signatures within the BreakAway, though in small numbers suggesting injured barricaded in. There were also two downed enemy Fighters close by, so Wraith are aware of location; repeat, enemy are likely aware of location of BreakAway Two."

"Details of BreakAway Two received, Honos."

"Fighters report BreakAway Three is in a far worst state, but are unable to determine if much of the damage was due to the initial station collision. One side of the BreakAway seems intact, but there are strong heat signatures suggesting fires still ongoing within the BreakAway. However, there are also signs of evacuation across the ground towards the local entrance to the tunnels. Wing Five recommend immediate revisit to properly assess if any civilians trapped in the wreckage."

"Details of BreakAway Three received, Honos."

This time Oneakka didn't look down to the specs. BreakAway Three had been the section of the station the Wraith Cruiser had hit even before the fall to the planet. The chances were hopefully less that Raven would have been in that BreakAway, as it had housed the docking sections, mechanical repairs and trading storage. Unless she had gone for a walk in that area of the station, or perhaps Saoka had been in that section, so she'd met up with him there?

Or, maybe when the Cruiser had impacted the station, she'd gone into that end of the station to help?

So, she could have been there…

Still trapped in there…

Or had she already been burnt up inside BreakAway Three's fires? Maybe all that was left of her were her charred remains?

"Honos, this is Deployment Station. Direct response as you see fit. Troop Transport down to all three locations authorised, with preference for under siege BreakAway One. We suggest attempting to stagger ships down through the atmosphere to work as a relay to allow more immediate communications if the atmosphere interference allows it."

"Understood. We are readying available vessels to work in that capacity. Requesting all still available wings and Troop Transports be deployed to us."

"I've got four Troop Transports and two more wings for you, Honos," the Warspite's Commander stated. "Launching them now."

"I can spare four wings, but only two Troop Transports for now," Solon's Commander replied. "Authorising launching now."

"Notice received gratefully, Warspite and Solon," Honos replied. "I am directing seventy percent of total deployment capabilities down to BreakAway One to assist and defend, and secure the Portal. Twenty percent to properly assess BreakAway Three, and ten percent to monitor the quiet area near BreakAway Two and retrieve those few barricaded inside."

"Understood and received, Honos," Deployment Station replied.

Oneakka pursed his lips together.

It all made sense and was an appropriate response. The primary focus had to be assisting BreakAway One and securing the Portal, then a close second was helping BreakAway Three with its possible high numbers of injured inside. If Raven was surviving in either of those BreakAways, then help was finally on its way to her.

He shifted his gaze back to the Fall Protocol and the diagram of the former station.

But if she had been in or near Saoka's office at the time of the collision, then that would have put her in BreakAway Two; the one that was going to get less support and attention, and had come down the furthest from the muster point.

If she had been in there but badly injured, then she was barricaded inside and medical help was at least on the way to her…

And if she had made it into the tunnels, it meant she had been unhurt, but that was assuming the Wraith hadn't also made their way in there too, hunting and killing the weakened survivors.

Or she was lying dead already in one of any of the three BreakAways…

The frustrating sense of uselessness rose up hot in his throat, and he realised he had his forehead lowered into one hand, his eyes tightly shut.

He had to be patient. There was nothing he could do but wait for news to arrive.

As he sat on the side-lines, once again not there when someone needed him the most.

In the frustratingly long moments of rapid back and forth over the audio links, Massa's hand settled on Oneakka's left shoulder and squeezed tightly in shared support.

Because there was just nothing to do but wait.

0000

The long walk along the seemingly never-ending tunnel had reduced to a slow shuffle forward.

Everyone was clearly tired.

The low glow from the occasional dull light fixed along one wall of the tunnel was only adding to the soporific feeling.

Shifting the trolley forward a further few inches, Seeal looked up towards the closest ceiling hole ahead of her. The sky and its cloud layers were no longer visible up there, the blackness almost impenetrable except for the occasional suggested twinkle of a star here and there. The air drifting down into the tunnel held the deep coolness of the middle of a night, and though she had no idea how the day/night cycle on this planet related to the Alliance Standard used in the Facility and on Saoka's former station, it felt like it was past everyone's usual bedtime.

But instead, they were all walking through a gloomy tunnel on an alien world, with bad air and too many Wraith likely looking for them.

She was pretty sure that fact was weighing on everyone, because glancing around her, everyone in view was walking with their heads hanging slightly forward and shoulders slumped.

The tunnel was pretty quiet too – if you excluded the breathlessness breathing, wheezing from a few, and the regular echoes of coughing down the length of the tunnel. There was next to no conversation between people now, a few too many yawning, and an almost depressed vibe seemed to hang in the air.

Everyone's spirits were as sapped as their energy reserves.

It probably explained the slow progress forward too. Yes, the long line of perhaps thousands ahead of them were stopping at wells along the way to refill water bottles and use the very basic toilets, and there was the squeezing the large number of people around bottlenecked turns of the tunnel, the injured and elderly gradually accumulating back here towards the far end of the line of evacuees, but the sleepy exhaustion was clearly also to blame.

On any other day or any other planet, stopping for a proper rest would be the smart choice right now. Everyone could catch some sleep to recharge, rest their legs and build up some more positive morale again. But every hour spent on this planet was another hour exposed to the effects of the bad air, and besides, they needed to get as much distance between them and the BreakAway as they could. The long easily followed line of tracks through that artificial valley and into this tunnel wasn't exactly going to be difficult for the Wraith to find, which was a fact that had been playing on her mind for…

How long had they even been in this tunnel now?

She could find out, knowing Nanuet had a timepiece, but what was the point? What difference would it make right now?

The only thing to do was keep walking forward, away from the known threat back at the BreakAway and towards the promised Portal muster point to get off this planet.

Someone coughed to her right, the noise sounding rough against what was clearly sore throat. As well as the bad air, there was next to no moisture in the air either, which was clearly not helping. It was like everything on this planet was designed to be as irritating as possible.

Well, no, at least there wasn't any snow or ice; that would be the worst.

The line slid to another stop, so she reached down to the packet of dried kita fruit she had tucked in behind her water bottle. She pulled out a strip of kita and tore it off a small piece and popped the piece in her mouth. The regular small bits of the chewy sweet fruit were a decent way of keeping a steady flow of sugar into her system and she reached for her water bottle next.

The bottle felt cold against her hand as she lifted it and sipped a little water down, keeping her throat and body hydrated on this sucky desert planet.

As she slid the bottle back into its little shelf set into the back of the trolley, she glanced towards Saoka. She was pretty sure he'd fallen asleep at last, his head moving faintly with the motions of the trolley as Nanuet pushed it on a few more paces. Moving forward to catch up, she lifted her hands up into the low glow from the nearest wall light.

Her palms were starting to bother her. Hours of pushing the trolley's thick metal handle were making her palms sore, but as she peered at them in the low light, she couldn't see if they were red. They certainly felt sensitive as she rubbed her right thumb over her left palm. With no doubt hours more to come of this endless walk, her hands were only going to get worse.

What she really needed were some gloves or hand wrappings like she'd used in pit fighting training. They'd mostly been to protect her knuckles, as the rule had been to try to reserve most of the bare-knuckle work for the actual pit fights, but the wrappings had also stabilised her wrists and given protection from the hours of practice. If she could find something now to pad her palms…

Glancing ahead, she could see that the line seemed to have completely stalled again, so she took the opportunity to move round to the side of the trolley to the storage space underneath. There were several medical packs in there, so she crouched down and reached for the largest one. The hardcase was light as she pulled it out and moved back to her place behind the trolley, setting the case on top of the trolley handle. Releasing the clips, she opened the box and peered inside as, to the left, she could hear Nanuet's whispered words to Saoka, who was clearly now awake. She tried not to listen in or react to Nanuet's quiet announcement that it was still too early for Saoka to have any more of the powerful pain meds.

Lifting packets out of the medical box and tilting them to let the limited nearby glow shine over the various Alliance languages describing the contents, she found antiseptic wipes, eye patches, quite a few packets of bandages – which would be too thin for wraps and they really needed to be held back for Saoka if his leg started bleeding again. Then her fingers found a thick packet at the base of the box and she pulled it out, tilting its label into the light to see that it was a sling. That could work.

She broke open the seal on the packet and pulled out a thick wad of material, which she unfolded over the box. It was a thickly woven fabric in the shape of a large triangle; perfect. Some more exploring of the medical box located some scissors strapped to the inside lid of the case, so she set about cutting the big sling into one long winding inch-wide strip of fabric.

As she worked the scissors round the sling, the sound of some distant conversation from further along the tunnel caught at her attention. One voice among the others had a loud sharp edge to it that spoke of some stress breaking, but the voices were clearly some distance ahead, so she returned her attention to the sling.

In short work, the sling became a very long strip of fabric, so she found the rough middle point and cut it in half, resulting in two long strips. As she then cut into one end of each strip to create ties, the distant voices were rising again, louder and definitely sounding angry now. It was all too far away though to make out any of what was being said.

Returning the scissors to the inner lid of the medical box, Seeal moved to close it, only to glance towards Nanuet still stood beside Saoka.

"Nanuet?" She called quietly. "Do we need any more bandages?" She asked. With Saoka covered in the blanket, she couldn't see if the latest layers of bandage they'd applied to his leg had been soaked through again.

Nanuet glanced towards her and then reached down Saoka's stretcher, lifting the far end of the blanket to look at Saoka's leg beneath. "We're okay," he concluded after a moment and set about tucking the blanket back around his boss and friend.

Seeal wasn't entirely convinced by Nanuet's emotional tone in that assessment, but it wasn't like he'd say no to more bandages being applied if they were needed. It would just be his growing concern for Saoka, and he was probably just as tired as everyone else. She wondered how long he'd already been on duty before the station's fall.

But she trusted his word on Saoka's needs, so she set about closing and returning the medical box to the storage space.

As she straightened, she heard the distant voices rising sharply into now rapid aggressive tones that told her a fight had, or was about to break out somewhere further up the tunnel. Peering ahead over moving heads of those ahead, who were also trying to see what was happening too, provided nothing useful.

None of it was close enough to worry about right now, so Seeal focused on setting the end of one of the fabric strips between her left thumb and finger and started wrapping the material around her left hand.

The voices abruptly rose in pitch and multiplied, the fight clearly now kicking off as tempers reached breaking point. Whispering among the rest of the survivors ahead started up, news clearly travelling down the line as to what was going on.

She suspected she knew the basic answer though: tiredness, prolonged stress and a challenging situation. It was a common enough problem to all trained in Security: you could put even the most reasonable, patient people into a dangerous, prolonged stressful situation and they could lash out.

The primitive animal side was always there, ready to defend and attack if needed, and some people had no idea how to control that part of themselves even on a good day. It had been a significant problem with the scum on Dream, most of whom hadn't been close friends with self-control.

There were other voices joining in with the noise ahead now, full of more controlled and level-headed tones as people stepped in to tame the situation.

As she continued wrapping her hand, she could already tell it wasn't likely there was any real violence going on. The voices were still loud, but they'd turned from threat to arguing with clear edges of emotional exhaustion.

She still couldn't hear what was being said, but the whispering gossip had made its way to the area around the trolley.

"Someone pushed a man's wife over," someone whispered over their shoulder to someone behind them.

"I thought they'd said that she'd pushed him over?" someone queried from beside the first person.

Seeal smiled faintly at the variation in the gossip; who knew if the story was even vaguely accurate now it had been whispered down the tunnel.

She turned her left hand as she worked the fabric strip around the base of her thumb and then around the back of her hand again, making sure everything was layered properly. It was old skill so inbred that she barely had to think about it, though she was adapting it to add more padding to her palms rather than her knuckles.

There was something almost therapeutic about it actually, an old preparation that seemed strangely soothing for her.

The distant argument had finally died down now, the situation apparently resolved. If there were smart heads up there, then the different sides of that argument would be kept well apart for the rest of the trip.

Her left hand successfully wrapped, the end of the strip arriving, she adjusted things a little for comfort and used the cut ends to tie the wrapping in place.

The whispered gossip in the tunnel had also died down, the brief subject of interest over, and everyone was back to the sullen tired silence broken only by coughing.

Left hand done, Seeal tested her palm against the trolley's handle and it felt good and padded, so she started on her right hand.

Next to her, Nanuet shifted back to his position at the handle and reached down to lift his bottle of water and his own open packet of dried kita fruit from the little shelf.

Wrapping her right hand had always taken a little more effort, given she had to use her non-dominant left hand, but the old skills were still there. She applied tension by pressing her right hand against her middle and used her teeth occasionally to hold tension as she adjusted the wrapping layers.

The line started moving slowly forward again while she was still working, but Nanuet pushed the trolley forward alone as she focused on the last layers around her right hand. She caught up with the trolley as the line stopped again, and she rested her right hand on the handle, working the final ties around a little awkwardly; the low light wasn't exactly helping.

Nanuet's large dark hands suddenly moved into her view. "It'll be easier if I do that for you," he offered.

She held in her initial protest that she could do it by herself, because that felt petty given it was an oddly nice offer from him; a former enemy. "Thank you," she replied simply as she lifted her hand. He tied up the ends of the strip with a nice firm knot and then let go. "Thanks," she repeated as she flexed both her hands, the wrappings both feeling good and secure. She tested both padded palms against the trolley handle and almost sighed at the new cushioning sensation.

Right now, even something so simple felt wonderful.

The line moved forward a few more paces and, once again, stopped.

Then moved on another pace and stopped.

This was starting to get annoying.

She held in a frustrated sigh though, knowing her own tiredness was fuelling the impatience.

Any progress forward was still good.

The line appeared to have entirely ground to a halt again though it seemed, so she folded her wrapped hands on top of the trolley's handle and glanced up to the only interesting thing to look at in here anymore: another hole in the ceiling up ahead. She couldn't see any distant potential twinkle of stars from this angle; instead, it was just a dark open window allowing in a soft chilled night-time breeze.

And fortunately, no Wraith dropping in so far…

She frowned at the realisation that she'd stopped checking the ceiling holes for attacking Wraith some time ago. That was a bit worrying; she shouldn't be letting her guard down that much.

It was probably the tiredness and having gotten a little too comfortable of late living in the safe place of the Facility. Prior to that, she'd been living in an almost constant state of hyperawareness, and she didn't like the thought that she might be losing that edge.

Along with other self-control issues that she'd let slip of late.

Letting emotional things get the better of her.

She winced at the memories of pursuing Oneakka down that corridor, the fight exploding out of control just like those unidentified people up ahead in the tunnel. How was she any better?

It was just that Oneakka had a way of…no, he had been to blame for the way he'd treated Ru, but, perhaps, she'd not handled it all that well.

Demanding answers had been a normal part of being a Security Lead, but that probably wasn't supposed to be how you treated your friends.

And she'd clearly pushed him into saying his own stupid things, like accusing her of comparing him to the Glisi. That was just plain crazy, though, she could maybe, perhaps, kind of see how he might have misunderstood things. She was well aware that the way the Glisi had treated her when she'd been young had informed her stance on standing up to bullies in her life.

To face threats rather than run away from them.

Except she'd long ago realised Oneakka wasn't a threat. He could be grumpy and sullen when he was injured, and pretty uncompromising when he thought he was right. Yet, despite his intense warrior training, she'd never seen him be violent towards anything other than in the heat of battle. And even then, he was shockingly accurate and precisely controlled in his fighting, never exhibiting the uncontrolled violence that she'd witnessed from so many throughout her life. In truth, he was probably far more dangerous than most of those she'd had to deal with over the years, but he wasn't a threat.

She understood what he was, respected the weapon the Elite had forged him to be, but she'd never seen him ever turn on anyone the way he had done to Ru. It had still been precise and focused, but it had been aggressive and weighted with intent to harm with his words and authority over the poor Engineer.

It had been shocking…upsetting.

And maybe she had reacted a bit too uncontrolled herself as a result.

Fallen back on her own weapon as a Security Lead.

Then he'd told her to leave.

And she'd told him she didn't need him.

What she wouldn't give for him to appear over that gap to the night up ahead, reaching down to offer rescue, safety…to appear out of nowhere and make things better as he'd already done a number of times for her.

And among the just plain eagerness for rescue right now, were The Feelings. Stirring, imagining him appearing up there, reaching down towards her, to draw her up to safety, to him…

She winced at her own overt obviousness.

Falling for an Elite Warrior was just stupid in the first place, but Oneakka?! He was just too much. Too heroic, too demanding, too enjoyable.

But he'd told her to leave; to 'go live her life'. He'd clearly meant away from him the way he had gestured past her with both his hands. He wasn't the most expressive with his hands normally, so when he physically gestured something, it was significant. It had been like he'd been encouraging her to leave him alone, showing her the way out of his life…

People often said things they didn't mean in arguments, just getting caught up in it and trying to find a way to win, but, sometimes, people also blurted out something that they really meant but wouldn't normally say. It was a major component of interrogations after all, to push people, get them flustered so they would blurt out a truth, or at least something that hinted at a concealed truth.

Maybe that was what Oneakka really felt?

Perhaps their friendship didn't mean as much to him. Maybe he was fed up with her being around all the time.

She'd thought Oneakka was like her though: that he spoke his mind without restraint. But he still hadn't told her about Pampata, his casual lover – or rather his ex-lover if Halling and Massa were right.

He'd been behaving unpredictably the last few weeks, so maybe she'd didn't really know him as well as she thought she did.

And his treatment of Ru in that Project Room had also brought a troubling, niggling fear into the light that she'd been trying to ignore these past weeks. The little whispering voice of experience that took in little things he said, the way he moved, the fleeting expressions on his face that all seemed to conclude that he didn't want to be around her anymore.

Only then he'd go and do something nice, like his frank apology for their fight by the Portal after those idiots had jumped on Saoka's station, or the beautiful raven brooch he'd given her. And the way he'd gotten all protective about her in the chilled cabinet experiment.

But maybe there was a difference between wanting someone in your life and just caring about someone's safety and hurt feelings – as an Elite that was kind of his job on a large scale anyway: to protect lives. He clearly cared that much, but…

It was The Feelings again.

The stupid soft feelings wanting more; not that she actually did want anything more from him and clearly neither did he.

Falling for a big Elite Oaf who'd only go get himself properly killed the next time he decided to stupidly go walk into an irradiated Hive that was collapsing around him! Idiot male.

And she hardly wanted to tie herself to another male, especially another idiotic one. She'd promised herself repeatedly that she'd not do that again.

But the annoying Feelings, it was like they had a life of their own, completely detached from logic or reality.

A depressed sense of anxious sadness shifted in her chest and she frowned at the dark turns her thoughts had taken. It was just because she was tired and maybe being breathless all the time was doing something to her brain.

She cleared her throat and forced her attention back down on the tunnel around her, back to practical realities.

She didn't need him to turn up and save her, she was doing just fine.

Maybe some more food was a good idea; yes, maybe it was dropping blood sugar that was making her all emotional. She dug into the trolley shelf and pulled out another small piece of kita fruit from the packet. She chewed eagerly on the small strip of dried fruit, drawing out the flavour and, hopefully, getting the fruit sugar out into her bloodstream quic-

…a sound registered on her attention.

She frowned at the distant, but noticeably growing noise.

Not again…

"EVERYONE QUIET!" A voice echoed abruptly down through the tunnel. Everyone gasped, but silence descended quickly, everyone freezing in place, all eyes moving to the closest hole in the tunnel roof.

Wraith shitting...

The buzzing was growing more audible by the second, though the noise arrived strangely down through the ceiling holes, making it sound like the buzzing was coming from multiple directions, including from further down the tunnel.

People shifted nervously around her, fast breathing ramping up into cries and whimpers as people started crouching down to the floor or pressing themselves towards the sides of the tunnel. With the already tight press of people, the walls fast became lined with an at least three-people-thick layer of huddling coating.

Abruptly, the faint glowing wall lights shut off, plunging the tunnel into darkness and everyone gasped louder.

"SHHHHH!" Nanuet ordered loudly to Seeal's left and the whimpers of fear died down, but the buzzing wasn't.

It was clearly getting closer…and it wasn't just the acoustics of the tunnel anymore; there was clearly more than one Wraith Fighter moving around somewhere up there.

With the tunnel lights off, the formerly dark holes in the roof started to become the lighter patches, faint starlight glowing down with the cool air seeping in.

There were at least two sets of buzzing, moving though, not a simple sound of incoming Fighters. Perhaps the ships were banking, slowing and accelerating or…

One set of buzzing was growing louder among the others, and further ahead down the dark tunnel Seeal heard people crying out as the buzzing ramped up in volume and, through the distant patches of starlight glowing in, she saw pebbles and dirt scattering down into the tunnel, felt the air washing down along it.

She crouched down against the back of the trolley, pressing the edge of both her hands against her forehead to create a roof over her eyes so she could keep her gaze up towards the closest ceiling hole as the buzzing grew rapidly louder.

Then, through that hole, she saw the rapid flash of light highlighting the cascade of small stones and dirt raining in as a buzzing Wraith Fighter flew past just above the tunnel.

The air gusted down and around Seeal, smelling of the alien air, dry dusty soil and cold night, as she pressed up closer to the back of the trolley as the roaring noise of the Fighter filled her ears…and was then echoing in from the ceiling holes further down the tunnel behind her. A few people abruptly cried in alarm from back there as a small rumble and crash sounded like part of the tunnel ceiling had fallen in.

Still covering her face against the dirt-filled stirring air, Seeal looked round, peering through partly closed eyelashes to see that one roof hole further down the tunnel was indeed bigger, but not by too much. It also didn't look like anyone had been badly hurt.

The buzzing was sliding away outside, but a moment behind it, another rush of fast-moving air blasted down into the tunnel, though there was no buzzing this time.

Loud echoing cracks of sound followed…weapons-fire.

The air stirred again, more buzzing rising loudly and more bursts of light flashed down through several ceiling gaps, briefly lighting up the tunnel in shifting shades of blue and white.

Seeal focused back on huddling as close to the trolley as she could manage as she felt dry loose dirt falling on her hair and shoulders.

Then all the noises were moving away, the air slowly stilling again.

She peered out from her curled up crouch. Impact noises, a distant crack of the sound barrier being broken pounded down loudly, and then blaster-fire all echoed rapidly from above.

The damn firefight had clearly come down closer to the surface then. Wraith crap, because it had been bad enough trying not to freak about it happening up high in the clouds, now it was just above their heads!

It wasn't sounding like a nice easy battle either, no clear sounds of a simple winning side. Straining her hearing, she was pretty sure she could now hear at least four sets of Wraith Fighters buzzing out there.

It could be a coincidence that they were above the tunnel, the firefight a constant moving thing. Or had the Wraith tracked the tunnel from above? The stupid damn holes in the ceiling would be the cause if that was the case. Sensors didn't work on this planet, but a helpful line of lights probably stood out nicely in the night for the Wraith to follow. Someone had clearly had the same thought as her and had turned off the low-level tunnel lights.

Blaster-fire snapped loudly above again and a rough noise that followed could have been a small explosion, and then a rush of air pushed down through the holes again.

Damn it.

If one of those Fighters crashed on top of the tunnel…

She rose up a little to peer up over the top of the trolley, her eyes adjusted enough to the tunnel's darkness to see the shapes of everyone anxiously hiding up ahead. No one was moving forward, they were all cowering, listening in fear.

"Those aren't Station Fighters up there," a voice stated off to the right and Seeal switched her gaze round to the blood-stained bandaged face of the Engineer with the headwound who had been sticking close to the trolley.

"Military Fighters?" Saoka's voice rose from the trolley.

"Yeah," the Engineer replied quietly. "Our Station Fighters have the old intake that vibrates, especially with prolonged flights. Those Fighters are far too quiet and manoeuvring really quickly. Only ships I've heard do that are close-quarters Fighters used by the Fleet."

"You worked in Military engineering?" Seeal asking him quietly.

He nodded his pale hollow-eyed face. "Ten years repair crew on a handful of Military Fleet ships before moving to the Station, saw various generations of Fighters being sent out on their flights."

Good experience then, trustworthy, and it explained his earlier willingness to help with Saoka despite his own headwound. Saoka again tapping experienced Military skills for his station.

"The Fleet is here!" A female voice uttered with a relieved almost manic edge, clearly coming to the same conclusion that the male knew what he was talking about. Immediately, eager whispers started spreading among the huddling survivors.

"A handful of Fighters doesn't mean the Fleet is here," Seeal tried to tame the spread of the idea.

"They could have come through the Portal," Saoka uttered, pausing to cough. "That's part of the Protocol. The Portal may be already up and working at the muster point."

Seeal was pretty sure she heard some doubt in his voice, or it could just be the pain he was in.

The air shifted in the tunnel again and a rush of fast passing buzzing echoed down from ceiling holes further along the tunnel.

Seeal looked over her shoulder towards the back of the line further down the tunnel. If the Wraith had spotted the tunnel before the lights had turned off, then if any of the Fighters landed or crashed up there, getting down in here would be a good place to hide, especially as the tunnel was full of tasty food.

She shifted to peer back over the trolley again. No one was moving still.

She switched her attention over to Nanuet who was partly up on the trolley, an arm and shoulder protectively over Saoka as he watched the ceiling with worried wide eyes.

"We need to get moving again," she insisted. "We can't stay here."

"The Alliance Fighters will destroy the Wraith," the unidentified female voice put in. "Then they'll come down and get us."

"And if one of those Fighters crashes above this rickety roof, we'll have a cave in on everyone," Seeal continued towards Nanuet.

Nanuet glanced down at her, his skin glowing faintly in the starlight from above. "If it is the Fleet, we may be able to be rescued here rather than keep walking to the muster point."

"We don't know the situation up there," Saoka put in.

As if on cue, more blaster-fire echoed from above, sounding closer again.

"…and there is no guarantee our Fighters up there will win," Saoka continued. "We need to get moving, keep the lights off and keep moving."

"Tell me the tunnel gets deeper ahead," Seeal asked Nanuet.

"Not for a while yet," Nanuet frowned as he climbed off the edge of the trolley, looking down the tunnel ahead. "Everyone!" He commanded in as loud a whisper as he dared. "Everyone needs to get moving again. Pass the word down the line. Get moving. It's Saoka's orders."

There was some initial less than enthusiastic expressions peering back in the gloom, but enough people began to get up from their protective crouches. To help, Nanuet moved around the trolley to Seeal's side as she straightened up, and he started pushing the trolley forward.

Ahead, people started shifting forward as the air stirred roughly down through the ceiling 'windows' again.

Seeal fixed her eyes on the closest gap as the trolley started rolling under it.

Reaching round to her lower back, she wrapped her hand around the butt of Nanuet's expensive Litan blaster tucked into her waistband. Keeping her gaze on the gap of starlight, ready to react if anything stirred up there, they rolled the trolley under the patch of dark sky.

Peering up cautiously, Seeal saw several sets of faint lights flash past high above, then two flashing lines of weapons-fire. It was lower than she'd hoped, but not right above the tunnel, so that was something at least.

The multiple buzzing sounds of the Wraith up there was still itching at her nerves, and she could feel the anxiety of those around her as the line moved forward, in fact everyone was moving noticeably faster now than earlier.

She could see the dusty soil drifting down into the tunnel through the next ceiling hole which was the largest she'd seen so far. She watched the space worriedly, tightening her grip on the blaster as they walked under it. Most of those filling the tunnel were walking as close to the walls as they could, but pushing the trolley required her and Nanuet to be in the middle…easily visible from anything peering down into the hole…

Despite the dirt drifting in the air, she kept her eyes upwards as they passed directly under the larger gap.

She could hear her own breathing was louder and faster than it should be as she tried to assess all the angles outside the roughly round hole, but there were too many to cover…

But she, Nanuet and Saoka passed under the hole without anything dropping in or firing stunners down at them.

She kept her eyes on the gap for a couple more paces though, then switched her attention ahead to the next one.

A non-buzzing Fighter abruptly rushed by above, the tunnel ceiling itself seeming to rattle and more dirt showered down over everyone.

Seeal heard Saoka coughing, lying unprotected on the top of the trolley. She glanced towards him to see he was burying his face into the top edge of his blanket and Nanuet was reaching forward to help him create a tent of fabric over his turned face.

Happy he was okay for now, Seeal switched her attention back up to the next approaching gap in the thin roof over everyone's heads.

There were too many openings down this damn tunnel, too many unknowns up there.

She slipped the Litan blaster out of her waistband, holding it ready as they pushed the trolley under the next ceiling hole of potential death.

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TBC