Star Trek: Defiant

"Absolute Zero" - Part Four

Written by T'Mal

Myah Wolfram was losing her composure. The part of her that loved to joke around also caused her to be highly sensitive to certain things.

"He's not..." she started to say, "Not...dead, is he?"

"A death during faithful service is an honor." Barak stated.

Matute glared at him and answered Wolfram's question with an emphatic "No, he isn't. He's going to be all right." She wasn't sure if she believed it, but if force of will could make him survive, he'd be fine.

"Get him to sickbay, Jen, and Myah, you go with her." Bridges said. "Adam, Chad, Barak, go see what the hell is going on down in Engineering, see what you can fix! Computer, locate Admiral Tourles!"

"Internal sensors are off-line."

"Then we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way. Come on John, I may need you to keep me from killing an Admiral." Stupid Admirals, stupid Starfleet, stupid test. Locked up in the holodeck while something like this happened? Idiots like that didn't belong on his ship!

"I will toss whoever did this out of the nearest airlock!" Bridges stewed, all the way to the nearest turbo lift and beyond.

Hardin was almost as angry.

SICKBAY:

"Rael! Dr. Laine, we have a medical emergency!"

Matute deposited her charge in the nearest diagnostic bed and looked up, expecting a flurry of activity any second. By this time, she knew Bedard was gone, but maybe they could still do something to bring him back.

Sickbay was alarmingly absent of any activity. In fact, it was alarmingly absent. Equipment that should have been there appeared to have been torn from the walls in a rush. No personnel were to be found.

They stood on opposite sides of the diagnostic bed, confused and frustrated. Flipping a switch, Wolfram turned on a stasis field that would keep Bedard, good or bad, exactly like he was now until the Doctor could be located.

"Where could she be?" Wolfram asked unhappily.

"Well, if she's not here, she might be in her quarters, but..." Matute gestured at the room, "For some reason, I doubt it."

"We'd better start looking, then." Wolfram decided.

MAIN ENGINEERING:

"The Warp Core is in a stand-by mode. It usually supplies a lot of the light, but you're right, it's too dark. They must have blown a few relays." Lebin said.

"If that were true, why isn't anyone here, trying to fix it?" Barak asked.

"That's a very good question."

Lebin moved farther into the normally spacious room, now crowded with hulking masses of extra equipment. It was more like climbing in, and he realized that the descriptions Bedard had given him of the mess hadn't done it full justice. Remembering Bedard, he worked with a sense of urgency.

Mackowick, following behind him faithfully, tripped over a large conduit running from one of the hulking masses to an opened access panel. He tried to keep his balance, but in the eerie light he missed the grab he made for a nearby console, and fell, twisting his ankle painfully in the process. As stupid as he felt lying there, he realized he had fared better than Ensign Joel. She was partially covered by a dicarded panel, and her neck was twisted at an extremely odd angle. He hadn't known her very well, but it was still a shock.

"Adam, Barak, you'd better come look at what I found!"

"Humans are so fragile." Barak observed, taking in the scene from atop a large blinking box.

Now Mackowick glared up at Barak, wincing as he tried to put weight on his ankle.

"Can't you exhibit a little compassion, Barak? One of your crewmates is dead!"

"I suspect there is more than one. I have more compassion than you will ever know, but dead is dead, and the time for mourning will come later. Now there is work to do."

Adam appeared beside Barak, noticed the pained look on Mackowick's face, and asked him if he was all right.

"I'm gonna limp for a while is all, I'm ok."

Barak reached down and pulled Mackowick up to sit on the box.

"Maybe you should take a rest. I'll help Lebin."

The box they were occupying gave off a steady stream of dim, randomly blinking lights. Reflecting off the slight smirk of Barak's face, it made him look rather demonic. Mackowick swallowed the reprimand he felt like giving this young Romulan Lt., but decided against it. They were in this together, and it must be hard for Barak to live among humans as he did. He knew he didn't mean anything by it, and he had a point, dead is dead.

"Go, I'll watch your backs."

"Take this." Barak leaped off the box, disappeared for a moment, and returned with a phaser. "Ensign Joel won't be needing it anymore."

"Come on, Barak." Lebin said. "There's a weapons locker over there, and I think we should try to get internal communications working first, so we can tell the Captain."

TURBOLIFT 1, BRIDGE STOP:

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