Chapter 6
2364
She realized it was a very high risk to get outside but after waiting there for another five minutes, she decided she just could not stand it anymore. The Romulan ship was there, so was hers. Her crewmates were probably there too at the Romulans' hands. Even if they were questioned, there was nothing they could say. She was the only one who knew about the real reason they were there. For now, if they hadn't detected her incursion, and apparently they had not, Starfleet Intelligence's interests were safe. But her fellow officers were not. She was already in big trouble with Captain Pucer, she realized she would probably get in big trouble with Admiral Kennelly too, but she was going out and she was going to try to reach the two ships and she was going to try to save her away team.
With that resolve in mind, she stood up and walked purposely towards the first station again, to ensure that the Romulan ship was still at the same place.
She frowned deeply at what she saw, though. Because the Romulan ship remained landed at the very same location, but their suttlecraft had taken off and was going up through the planet's atmosphere. Had her team been able to defeat the Romulan agents and were now fleeing away? She felt a surge of pride for them. Maybe the disastrous mission was not disastrous at all.
With her spirit lifting, she watched intently the screen as her crewmates escaped, and then her heart sank again as the suttlecraft made an unexpected maneuver, turned around and started to fall down at full speed. She contemplated the scene in sheer horror, as the suttlecraft's speed only increased pulled by the planet's gravity and no one onboard could apparently compensate. Her mind went over all the instructions the pilot should be following but inexplicably they did not. She strained to yell at them what to do, she strained to be there at the suttlecraft's helm, trying to save them all. But she only stared at the insensitive Romulan screen control as it registered their crash. With her phaser momentarily forgotten over the controls, her hands gripping the console, her teeth clenched, she closed her eyes in despair, and then glared at the enemy ship. There have been no fire exchange, but she knew anyway they were responsible.
She did not have time to go after the Romulans, either. Next, their ship took off too. But this time it neatly crossed the atmosphere and reached outer space. Ro monitored their course only for a few minutes, to ensure they were far enough from the planet than even if they were equipped with the most advanced sensors they would not be able to scan her. She counted down the seconds, and when the moment came, rushed for the transporter room.
She had memorized the coordinates where the suttlecraft had crashed. It was far away from her position. She ran and ran and did not let the increasing exhaustion lower her speed. All the Romulans seemed to be really gone, because no one came to take her down. She did not really care about the Romulans anymore, she only cared about the other team members.
Ro realized that maybe they were not at the suttlecraft. Maybe they had been taken prisoners. Maybe they have been able to hide and they were safe. But maybe they were on the suttle and they needed help.
It took her an hour and a half to arrive at her destination. She struggled with the abrupt terrain and stumbled twice, but she sprang up and went on.
The vision welcoming her was not a comforting one. The suttlecraft was badly damaged and her fore side was partially buried in the crater the violent crash had caused. The once pristine white hulk was now blackened and smoke still raised from it.
She shouted out her crewmates' names but no answer came. She pushed herself up to the aft side to try to get inside, only to find that the hatch's controls had melted down. She tried to force it open with her hands, but it did not budge. The surface was still hot.
Setting her jaw, she adjusted her phaser's setting and pointed at the damaged door from her precarious position. The time it took to break a hole through was an eternity for her. When the irregular rectangle she had cut on it was done, she kicked it down and stormed inside. Hell welcomed her.
The smoke was dense inside the suttlecraft. A part of the small ship was still on fire. Her crewmates were sprawled over the suttle's seats, motionless. Some were covered in blood. Her nostrils flared at an acrid smell she was very familiar with, because it was the one of her worst nightmares: burnt flesh.
No, no, no.
She reached for the closest of her fellow team members. She recognized the bulky form of Ngata. She called him, shaking him lightly. His body swung to the side at her touch. She checked his pulse. There was none.
No, no, no.
The despairing words echoed in her mind. She did not utter a word. She choked down a gulp as it formed at her throat while she checked for the next one.
Muller. Johnson. Thran. All dead.
She coughed. Her eyes wet. Breathing was getting difficult. She struggled to find a way to reach the fore of the suttlecraft. She grunted as her hands and her legs burnt while she tried to move forward, discarding debris away, but she hardly registered the pain.
Van Dick. Her body twisted in an unnatural angle. She remembered her naive happiness during the brief time they were together.
Sakamoto. Almost too disfigured to discern his identity. She inwardly thought of his baby and his wife.
At the copilot's position, his head crushed against the control, lied Salok. She could see his characteristic green blood soaking his charred uniform, but she had hope. He was Vulcan. Vulcans were strong. Vulcans had special abilities. He may be in a healing trance. He may be saved.
She looked for his pulse. She looked for his breathing. She noticed her hands were shaking. Salok had been so very young and promising... and now he was dead.
She did not approach the pilot seat. A side glance to Fourgeroux's snapped neck was enough for her to know that he was also gone. There, in Garon II, as a puppet of a mission that was not his own, had ended all his hopes to rise in Starfleet's ranks.
Ro bent down, almost fell to the floor. She realized she was about to faint. If she did not get out of the suttlecraft immediately, she would be dead too. The smoke was suffocating her.
She crawled her way out, injuring herself again as she hit the scorched and broken equipment that blocked her way. She reached the hatch and let herself fall to the ground on all fours. She stayed there, coughing heavily, trying to catch the planet's clean air. Once her breathing leveled a little, she sat up and reached for her combadge once more.
"Ro to Wellington", her voice almost broke. "Ro to Wellington".
She was not expecting an answer.
She raised her eyes to the sky and wondered who would come to rescue or capture her and when. As she thought of the Romulans returning, she remembered she had registered one of them with her tricorder while she was trapped in their facility. If anything about the disastrous mission could be salvaged, it was that the Romulans still could not know they have been discovered. It should remain that way. So she unholstered both her tricorder and her phaser, placed the tricorder on the ground and burnt it to ashes.
Once the task was done, she managed a grim smile and next, she collapsed, completely exhausted. She was still holding her weapon when she was found.