EP2 ACT 1



VULCAN SHUTTLE, ABOVE HELUB SPACE PORT

Lirik and Professor Karnak together heaved the large piece of twisted console off of the Ambassador. As soon as it was clear, the Yeoman had his fingers on the Andorian's antenna.

"He's alive, help me move him, will you?" Lirik was looking out of the viewports, one of which looked mightily cracked in the corner, though the defense shield was holding it intact for now. The shuttle was adrift, falling toward the space port. While Qovakian and Federation vessels continued to be fired upon by the K'Tani fighters, the shuttle and several other civilian and non-military vessels seemed to be spared, he noticed.

Several minutes ago, drawn into the chaos of battle, Narli had been waiting for a suitable opportunity to pilot the Vulcan science shuttle aboard the USS Remmington. Lirik then said he had 'sensed' the wormhole had been destroyed and that a massive energy wave was approaching at great speed. If Narli hadn't acted upon this information, they'd have been slammed into the side of the Starfleet frigate, but as it was, Narli had moved the ship far enough away so that when the shockwave hit, they were merely flipped over several times without making any collision. Power relays had then dramatically overloaded.

Now, what power that remained seemed to be failing fast and they were rapidly approaching the Vekarian moon out of control. With Narli groaning in Karnak's arms, much to her silent discomfort, Lirik clambered over wreckage to the co-pilot's chair. Thankfully, this console was intact and still linked to the shuttle's main systems. The two Vulcan attendants in the cockpit were busy putting out fires where the FSS had failed, and seemed to trust the Yeoman's ability to pilot the vessel unaided. Either that, or they were still fearful of coming too close to his ambient Medusan energy, for fear of it rousing emotions within them.

"I've regained control, but we won't last long up here," the Yeoman said, more to himself than to the others, "I'm going to have to take us into the port. I can see several openings dead ahead."

Lirik deftly nosed the shuttle downwards and into one of the main entrances to the port - now made bigger and gaping by the attack. Many small ships were making their way out of the port and into space, but no K'Tani seemed to be either targetting them or following him down.

Passing through the entrance, Lirik could see the extent of damage to the upper sections. He glanced around to get a bearing from the tunnel's signage as Narli came to.

"Where are we?" he managed, looking up into Karnak's beautiful face. The Professor turned her head away and heaved herself out from under him.

"In the space port. I know this tunnel - I've been here before, it's one of the main transits to the Visitor area." Lirik glanced at the shuttle's damage readout. "We should be able to make it to Starfleet's Outer Zone Headquarters..." his voice trailed off as the shuttle turned a bend. Ahead, large pieces of the station had been pummelled into the transport conduit from above, blocking much of the path. It was clearly going to get worse before it got better. He added: "...or what's left of it."

* * *

STARFLEET CRECHE

In the lowest level of the complex assigned to the Federation and Starfleet, a woman stirred from unconsciousness. Water from an overhead pipe was dripping luke warm onto her cheek, and she moaned, letting some of the nutty flavoured fluid into her mouth. Taste buds jolted her into movement and she opened here eyes, squinting from dust gathered in her lashes.

"Ow!" she flinched, as she moved her left arm to raise herself to a sitting position. Not broken, just bruised, she thought. Contusions in shoulder - ow again!

Hair fell unceremoniously out of its once tightly formed bun as she looked about the room. Most ceiling plates had fallen onto the room's occupants, exposing conduits now ripped - steaming, bubbling fluids falling into the room. Lots of whimpering, crying and moaning noises now filled her ears. Only one emergency light on the wall behind her was working, casting a dim, eerie blue light about the twisted and broken metal and plastic heap that had been designated the Starfleet creche.

Nurse O'Hara carefully rose to a standing position, and saw that most of the children had gathered at the far end of the room, around the unconscious form of Crewman Lee. She crouched low, ignoring the pains in her body, her hands flailing around the sharp, dark mess on the floor for her medical kit. The still-open medical tricorder shone out to her and she called to the children.

"Everyone listen to me," she waved the colourfully lit device to get their attention, "I want you all to move to the doorway over there." O'Hara pointed to her left, then seeing that a group of older children were already there, trying to get the door open manually, unsuccessfully.

If there were any kids trapped under the debris, they were her first priority. "Is anyone hurt?" she asked, methodically scanned the wreckage for life signs. The faded vital signs of two small humanoids did not satisfy her. The Lieutenant picked up the debris and heaved it carefully aside as fast as she could, but when she reached them, brain activity had fully ceased, their small bodies broken beyond repair. She hung her head low, but only briefly, reminding herself there were still dozens of other children alive here, and that they would be counting on her to get them out.

"Miss?" It was a young Bajoran girl who indicated the still form of Crewman Lee. O'Hara reached her quickly, and made a scan. Lee's leg was badly broken in several places. She could treat the pain, but not the injuries - not here, anyway. Looking up, she saw that the steam had changed density. It was coolant.

Grabbing a hypo, she jolted Lee into consciousness, following up with another hypo for the pain. It still chafed. O'Hara called over to the children by the door, "Hey, kids, bang on the door loud as you can, see if you can get someone's attention."

The children shouted in unison, though it seemed to make the younger ones more fearful. O'Hara saw many minor injuries that could become major if she didn't treat them.

"Damn," Lee could hardly move herself, "what happened?"

"I don't know, perhaps something crashed into the space port." O'Hara scooted the Bajoran girl over to the other kids and lowered her voice. "Two of the children are dead."

"Oh, no..." Lee welled up and slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Come on crewman, keep it together. We have a coolant leak, we've got to get out of here right away." The Lieutenant put Lee's arms over her head and hoisted her up, causing the crewman to yelp and pass out.

With the unconscious crewman over her shoulder, fireman style, O'Hara stumbled over the debris to the door. "Come on everyone, we need to get out of here." She joined in the shouting and kicking. It seemed to go on for too long, coolant tickling O'Hara's nostrils and filling the entire room with its lethal fog.

Suddenly there was a noise. A slight movement and a thin crack appeared where the doors were joined. The long, sharp claw of a Bat'Leth slid through and began to prise the doors apart. In seconds, three Klingon warriors had the doors pulled back and were scurrying the children out. One of them, the largest of the three, deftly took Lee from O'Hara and led the children down the dark and smokey corridor toward the open section where the bar had been.

"Thanks," O'Hara said to the other men, one older and the other younger than the first man, "what happened?"

The old man responded first. "We are betrayed by the Qovakians, the wormhole is gone and the space port is all but destroyed by aliens."

"What?!!" O'Hara couldn't believe it.

"The K'Tani invade as we talk, and our comrades lay dead and burning in the docks," the other chimed in, sounding slightly mad as passionate Klingons often did. He was a thin, wiry man with wild, almost evil eyes. Yet his body language seemed genuine. "I am Kluless."

"Lieutenant O'Hara, Starfleet Medical," the nurse responded, supressing an untimely laugh at such a ridiculous name. She had learned to maintain a sense of humour, even in the most dangerous and unfunny situations, as a marine - where she had served as a field medic before changing careers and joining Starfleet. "And you?"

"Kidron," the older, fatherly Klingon spoke, staring down the blackness of the corridor. "My comrade Karless has taken your children to the people we saw gathering along there."

O'Hara looked into the messy, dust clouded corridor toward the vague noise of far off crowds, and then wondered about the bodies of the children in the room beside her. There seemed little point in moving them. If their parents were still alive, it was her duty to find them and tell them. Not something she relished. Casting a glance back at the crooked doorway and the little ones' final resting place, she followed the Klingon men toward the gathering throngs with heavy feet.

***

BENEATH STARFLEET HQ

Souveson felt sick again. The large piece of wire sticking out of her thigh was less painful now, but the thought of how far it penetrated was making her feel queezy. She lay on her side, legs outstretched, back against the wall with her phaser pointed at the Orion woman who sat calmly opposite her. Around them, debris lay scattered, but there were no more fires, the two had put them out when they gathered their senses after the explosions above.

"Look, we can't just sit here," Hedrik didn't want to rile the security woman.

"Someone will come," Souveson swallowed hard, her eyes fluttered.

Hedrik made a move toward the Canadian but the young Ensign snapped herself awake and pointed the phaser closer to the thief. Hedrik ignored her.

"This is ridiculous," she said, "you're wounded, you need a medic."

Souveson half smiled. "What, you think I'm going to let you go.. and get.. go.." she passed out.

Hedrik regarded the still young woman for a moment and carefully considered her next move. Ordinarily she would have bolted for freedom, but she couldn't leave the younger woman here amid this chaos. Taking the phaser and putting it in her own shoulder bag, Hedrik examined the girl's wound and took a decision. Gripping hard onto the wire she wrenched it out.

Souveson's eyes popped open as she screamed in agony - Hedrik instinctively embraced her, the young Ensign sobbing with pain and a heavy woeful feeling.

"Shh," Hedrik comforted her assailant, and helped her to her feet. Slowly, the two made their way toward the exit.

"Why didn't you just leave me?" Souveson asked when her sobbing subsided.

Hedrik replied with an unemotional expression: "You're my ticket out of here."

Souveson wasn't quite sure she understood, but then, she only knew about Orion women from what she had been told or what she had overheard from male colleagues.

* * *

FERENGI POD

"Captain Christian to Starfleet Headquarters, please respond," Christian had been trying repeatedly to raise someone since entering the spaceport tunnels, fiddling with the communications frequencies between each transmission.

Rebbik concentrated on piloting the pod safely through the labyrinth of fallen girders, wiring and caved-in roofing. In the outermost tunnels, they had passed some ships along the way, none of which were known to them, and none of whom wanted to stop and chat.

Moving toward the centre of the spaceport, however, things got a lot worse. There were no vessels passing them here, although a few ships had been ditched and abandoned on the floor. Damage to the tunnel structure was also more pronounced. Most disturbing, a number of bodies floated in the zero g vacuum of the transport conduits where bulkheads had breached.

Christian had pointed out some survivors within the space port, moving ominously behind windows that lined the walls of the enormous tunnels and although some had waved for assistance, there was little they could do without a docking port, and with no transporter aboard the Pod.

A conveniently placed sign indicating the location of Starfleet HQ had been spotted by Christian at one of the main junctions - a huge list of Visitor locations were there, including all the races present from their side of the wormhole.

Light faded as they moved ever on, the tunnel finally turning to total darkness. The nature of the debris towards the Visitor docks area indicated more severe damage - surface structures had fallen into or through the levels above. Clearly the K'Tani had targeted every point of possible resistance, including military headquarters and the docks that contained military (and Starfleet) vessels.

Rebbik hit the navigation lights which cast white, clinical circles of light on the path ahead.

"Captain Christian to anyone who can hear me," Christian tried again, sounding almost desperate.

A fuzz of static responded, as if someone were trying to get through. Rebbik turned to an almost elated Christian.

"Please repeat, your signal is weak," but Christian couldn't raise them again. Rebbik brought the Pod to a standstill - the tunnel in front was completely blocked by debris.

"Perhaps they're on the other side of that?" Rebbik suggested.

Christian reached behind the pilot seat, fumbling in his holdall. He retrieved a peculiar pair of binoculars of alien technology. Rebbik frowned.

"They were a gift from my last posting," Christian said, "ornothology is one of my hobbies."

More than that, the binoculars had tricorder capacity and a computer logic centre for deducing probabilities of the images it scanned.

"There!" Christian pointed at the high ceiling to the tunnel's right. "The barrier is weakest at that point, we might be able to nose our way through."

Rebbik was aghast. "Not with this Pod you won't," he resisted.

"Dammit, mister Rebbik, do you think I'm concerned about scratching your Pod's precious paintwork? Take us through." Christian didn't like pushing Rebbik, but there seemed little choice.

Rebbik snorted. "I'm not in Starfleet, you can't order me around. The deal was I bring you this far, and I think I've gone quite beyond what was required of me as it is. And don't think that I -"

He was cut off by Christian's raised hand. The Captain cocked his head, listening to the communication device still wedged in his ear. Without explanation, Christian hit the rear-view display and rear floodlights. At first, they saw only the tunnel walls disappearing around a bend. At first they noticed a heat haze, then a faint light which grew steadily brighter.

"Uh-oh," Rebbik powered thrusters and brought the Pod about to face the tunnel to their rear. The air was rippling with heat, distorting their vision.

As the light grew yellow-white hot, a massive wall of flame turned the far corner and came thundering toward them. Rebbik hit the accellerater advancing the Pod toward the flame. Christian gripped his seat. Just in the nick of time, the half-Ferengi turned the Pod in a sharp arc and flew back toward the barrier of debris.

"Where'd you say it was weak?" Rebbik asked above the thunder of engine and firewall, still accelerating.

"There!" Christian barely had time to indicate.

At just short of half impulse, with weakened shields, the Pod barely managed to punch through the wall of debris, tumbling low and continuing away from the wall lest it cave in and crush them. Thankfully, the barrier withstood the assault, its thickness fusing together in the intense heat, though a hefty plume of flame followed them through the opening they'd made like a jet exhaust.

The Pod was relatively undamaged - internally, at least. The burnished bronze was now a battered, dark, scorched hue. Ahead of them, the tunnel was a dead end, but below their position, to their left and right, ran smaller tunnel conduits. Holding position at the mouth of the tunnel to their left was what looked like an old-style Vulcan shuttlecraft.

"This is Yeoman Lirik, Starfleet Diplomatic Corps aboard the Vulcan shuttle craft T'Nass, identify yourself!" The English voice with heavy London accent came over the main speakers. It was the first friendly voice they had heard.

"Thank God," Christian whispered.

"Don't thank him yet, Captain," Rebbik replied, pointing up at the roof of the tunnel. It seemed the wall of fire had weakened the structures holding off who knew how many tonnes of debris.

"Vulcan shuttle, this is Captain Christian, Starfleet. Yeoman, I strongly advise you ask your pilot to proceed immediately through the tunnel to your rear, the structure above us is about to collapse," Christian nodded to Rebbik, indicating him to move forward. Reb needed no prompting.

* * *

Inside the shuttle craft, Narli was propped up at the engineer's station, conscious, but in some pain. Karnak and two aides stood silently to the rear of the cockpit. Lirik, dirt-smudged and sweating in the co-pilot's chair raised an eyebrow at the Captain's words and regarded the souped-up Ferengi Pod with contempt.

"Thank you Captain. I'll ... let him know."

* * *

ACT 2