[USS Charon, somewhere on Deck Five]
"Have pride in your ship and faith in your fellow crew. You have not been abandoned. What am I? A gung-ho Marine?" Vara clutched her phaser rifle and sighed, looking even more lost than she felt.
Right, so, you could hardly blame the Klingons for being … well, Klingon. They had a field day out here, big fluffy freight trains that they were. But it would have been nice to check if the poor Trill tagging along with them was actually keeping up as they thundered down the corridor to introduce some Romulans to their Bat'leths.
"Let us retake our ship. Do what you must. All nice and well, Captain, but a manual would have been helpful, you know?" Unfortunately, no answer was forthcoming as she was still alone in the corridor, stalking cautiously towards the sound of phaser and disruptor fire. And then that was gone, too.
Now what?
"Great, Vara, just great. Keep toddling about the ship while everyone else is useful, why don't you? I'm sure someone will let you know when it's all over." Airlock. Somewhere down that way. Well, they sure weren't tossing people into space any more so playing hero there was a scratch. Not that she likely would have stood a snowball's chance in hell.
Her mumblings were interrupted by a very odd noise, something … squeaking? Munching? What in the … "Kahless! Bad tribble!"
The little ball of fur purred happily in response but didn't deign to stop cutting a swath through the Lorvan crackers that had spilled out of a broken crate, littering the corridor outside cargo bay four. Sure looked like the Klingons had been through here. But Vara could hardly leave Mr Jilani's pet here all alone, someone might step on the poor thing. Sighing deeply, the young Trill stuffed the tribble and a handful of crackers into her uniform jacket and hoped those pointy ears would be confused enough by the happy squeaking noise to not immediately realize there was a phaser coming along with it. "You know Kahless, maybe your owner is on to something. With their attitude, the Rommies need counseling, a drink, something cute and fluffy and they most definitely need to chill. I mean, come on. What's with crashing everyone's parties, blowing stuff to high havens and … oh, crap."
The latter was aimed at some dead specimens of the formerly mentioned, and the reason Vara knew they were dead was that there were few species who could live without a head attached to them.
"I think I'm going to get sick."
The tribble's purr took on a soothing timbre, but it helped only a little when Vara carefully tiptoed around the bodies, trying to avoid the green pools soaking into the carpet. "Guess being a hero by valiantly aiding the injured is a scratch, too, … whoa!"
Her rifle swung around and she came within an inch of accidentally blowing off a head that was decidedly still attached to its owner, and more than that, sported some familiar spots. "Holy ... sorry about that. Who the hell are you?"
Landon stood before the fellow Trill, slightly humored and a little surprised that he now had weapon pointed at him. "Well hello to you too. I'm Ensign Neyes." He casually took a finger and moved the tip of the rifle towards the side.
"Vara. Vara Siddon. Archaeologist with a gun. And a tribble. How do you do?" If she was sounding a bit silly, Vara figured under the circumstances that was forgivable. Honestly, what were you supposed to say when you met a total stranger while standing amidst dead Romulan invaders? And with Kahless purring in your jacket? There was an idea for yet another manual.
Then the fact she hadn't seen this particular face around, not ever, finally sunk in and there was a hopeful expression lighting her face as she finally remembered to lower the rifle.
"Please tell me you're part of some big, no huge, Starfleet rescue fleet or something. And you just got lost on your way to the victory celebration."
Neyes walked past her and looked around the corner of the far corridor. He normally preferred to move alone if the opportunity presented itself, but assisting a fellow officer was just as high on his list of priorities. "Well, I wouldn't exactly call it 'big'." He said, turning back to face her. "There are quite a few of us, including the new crew replacements. Myself included." He picked up a hand disruptor from one of the Romulan officers and fired it into one of his moaning associates. The man groaned and again fell silent. This was Landon's first experience dealing directly with the greenish pointy ears, and he wasn't really looking to test his combat abilities if he didn't have to.
"Quite a few. That's good. I mean it's better than just a few." Oh-kay so the man knew how to shoot and had no issues doing it, either. "Here, how about you take this." Vara held out the rifle to the taller, blue eyed male and nodded encouragingly "Looks like you would actually hit what you're aiming at rather than make more dents in the ship. Rehu's miffed enough as it is."
Very carefully she picked a disruptor rifle from a headless guy in full armor and for once was rather happy she hadn't had a good meal in days – hard to get violently sick when you had an empty stomach.
With a little reassuring smile Landon, tapped on a broken wall directory. It flickered and died. "I don't suppose you could take us to Engineering. You know a clear path?" He wasn't going to help win back the ship with knives and phasers. For anything really effective, he'd need to claim his rightfully unbridled access to the ship's inner workings he was due as Chief Engineer.
"Do I." For the first time in what seemed like ages, Vara actually smiled and the devil that always seemed to lurk in her warm, dark brown eyes resurfaced for an instant. "Dear Mister Ensign Neyes, you are looking at the protégée of Robert Tisdale himself though you probably haven't the faintest idea what that means." Patting her jacket reassuringly to stop Kahless from squirming the young Trill waved the large Romulan weapon towards the corridor that led to the impulse engines "You got yourself a guide, and don't you worry about clear. Just do me a favor and ignore any items you might come across that look like someone tried to hide contraband."
Finding Romulans and then figuring out what to do … had been a problem. This? This was easy.
He nodded and began to follow her lead. "Three decks up, you'd think I'd be able to work my own way down, but it looks like someone's been locking down Jefferies tube access."
"Yup, at least to those tubes where the Rommies could get in clean and make a mess of things. A few of our people have been hiding out in there and given them a hard time, so they're like to just dump a container of grenades on everyone's heads if they got the access hatches open. Don't you worry though, Vara has her little back alleys." She peeked around a corner and nodded when everything looked clear, though once more there was the sound of shooting and screaming in the distance. "So, you're one of the fix-it guys then?"
Edging along the wall Vara tried very hard to look like she knew what she was doing and wished she had paid better attention during those damn security drills. But the long, slightly curved corridor remained blessedly empty until she backed into the cul-de-sac that would lead them to the impulse assembly. This had been the dangerous part. Now came the tough one.
"Chief fix-it-guy, actually." Landon tried another console along the wall. He paid no mind to the sounds of gunfire and screams in the distance. As far as he was concerned, getting to Engineering was the one and only thing on his mind worth thinking about. Failing to activate yet another terminal, he continued to move down the corridor with the squirrelly Vara. She was oddly personable given the circumstances, but he appreciated her help none the less. He'd have to remember to thank her once this was all over, provided they survived of course. He eyeballed the end of the corridor and gave her a quizzical look. He had to restrain himself from simply taking the lead and finding the most probable route to Engineering, it certainly would have been nice to be able to take charge for once. He didn't know how far gone the ship was, however, and he'd planned on killed as few people as possible today.
"Really? What in the world have you done that they would … I mean, congratulations and all. You sure won't get bored on this ship, I'll tell you that. Savant, dearest …" the latter was inexplicably spoken to a wall panel that for all intents and purposes appeared dead. Until you touched it and strings of code flashed across the black, disappearing to leave but a small blinking light "… I know you're terribly busy and all, but if you'd just open my escape route and deactivate those little surprises for a bit I promise I'll stop bothering you." There was no reply, but the doors hissed open and Vara grinned, pulling the other Trill into the high-ceilinged room where the poor impulse engine sat cold and quiet.
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"You know, if a Rommie had tried getting in here this might have not gone so well. Though I'm not sure I want to know exactly what would have happened."
Without missing a beat, Vara shouldered the rifle and pried the cover leading to a Jefferies tube loose. "We should scramble, Mr Chief fix-it guy – I don't know how long sweetheart Savant will keep her nasty surprises offline. Oh, and where in engineering exactly did you want to go? Your office? Upper level? We might drop into a firefight down there, though if I know our Marines they already cleaned up one mess to leave you another. Calhoun damn near had a heart attack last time …"
A kid-like grin appeared on his face as she said the words 'your office', and he did his best to stifle the growing anticipation of seeing the Engineering he'd be spending a good deal of his career in. At least in theory. "Just get me inside. We'll take care of the Romulans once we get there." Landon's voice was calm and focused, soft enough to be above a whisper. If there were in fact Romulans inside Engineering, there was a surprise he thought they'd enjoy. A trick he'd been dying to try ever since learning about it from a Ferengi trader. Neyes lightly touched the walls, feeling their cold and metallic texture. It was at the very least comforting to know Savant was indeed nearby, in some manner, despite his feelings about her. Oddly enough, as he understood it these cold walls were much more to her than he could imagine. Her support was no doubt instrumental in their retaking the ship. Experience told him the odds of the crew managing to elude the Romulans for so long was unlikely without the extra assistance. It wasn't like this was his first stroll through an enemy infested labyrinth, but he had to keep a sharp eye in order to ensure Vara didn't accidentally step into something unpleasant.
"See, that's why I like engineers." Vara smirked as she carefully navigated her way down another ladder, making soothing shushing sounds to a once more restless Kahless "No fuss, and always thinking about how to fix stuff, no matter how screwed up …" speaking of … those pointed ears were alarmingly good at picking up even the oddest noise. Pondering the issue for a second, the young Trill frowned and then made a sharp turn into some soot blackened crawlspace, muttering under her breath until they came out at the junction she had been looking for. Just a few more meters and … ah.
"From what I understand the Marines will have a hard time getting to Engineering. The Romulans are guarding it fairly well for whatever reason. How, by the way, are we getting inside?" He stopped and raised an eyebrow.
"Clearly, you haven't met our marines yet." Vara chuckled quietly and turned around in the narrow space which ended just about an arm's length from her hindquarters as she rolled onto her back and pulled her knees nearly up to her ears. "Living out on the frontier for a bit gives you skills they don't teach at Quantico. Should, though. And I like your spots, they look good even upside down. Always wanted darker ones. As for how we're getting inside…" she craned her neck a bit which under very different circumstances would have made her look either like a woman in a most compromising position or a cheerful Chihuahua rolling in something naughty and giving her owner an innocent look. "... soon as I kick open this hatch I'll either get shot in my lovely behind or we emerge in your empty office. I'm hoping for the latter, really, and not only because I have an aversion to getting shot. Chances are, you can access at least some systems from in there but we'll have to ask Savant to release the command codes which might be a bit of a problem. Or not. I really haven't a clue."
Neyes cringed and held out a hand to stop her from kicking out the hatch. For some impossibly lucky reason they hadn't been detected moving toward Engineering yet, and he wanted it to stay that way. If she smashed out a panel in the wall, someone would probably hear it even if no one happened to be in the office. With a slow gesture, Landon motioned for her to move back toward him. "Just for kicks, do you mind if I risk getting vaporized?"
"And here people say chivalry is dead." The young archaeologist snickered quietly but moved willingly enough. Rank and other poppycock aside, the guy simply had that 'I know what I'm doing' air about him and even if it was just a front, it was more than Vara had to offer. Therefore she concluded following the man with the plan was a smart thing to do and started edging forward. Getting past the other Trill proved a bit of a problem in the tight confines but she solved it by simply sliding under his stomach and squirming onward. If to an onlooker her antics might have seemed a tad awkward if not outright suggestive, Vara seemed utterly oblivious and merely shushed the Tribble who squeaked with glee at the funny ride.
"Nice legs. You run a lot?" another half meter and bruised shoulder blade later the young woman was far enough from the hatch to let her new pal get to it without having to sit on her and stretched to see what he was up to.
"Can't help but noticing though you are hardly phased by the fact some pointy ears might put a bad dent in you day. Is that because you haven't seen them cranky yet or are you just like that?"
"It's the dark spots," he grinned. Landon slipped past her in the crowded crawl-space and slid one of his daggers out from its holster. The tritanium blade slightly scratched at the edge of the hatch as he prepared to pry it open. Ideally he'd be able to drop in on anyone in his new office and deal with them silently. Unfortunately nothing ever happened like he hoped. "Come over here with your phaser. Fry anyone not wearing our uniform."
"Uh, yea, about that …" Vara waved frantically, her expression that of a woman who just remembered something really important and feels a bit silly for not mentioning it sooner "… I mean, you do know a good fifty of our own people are Romulans, right? And they happen to look just like the bad guys unless you count the armored ... whatever they're called. Now the tactical lady is likely having fun getting to the bridge but Lhoell tends to pop up where you least expect him and if you see a blue eyed guy with a face like he just bit into a lemon, well … he's one of yours. Not exactly a party animal but a devil with a hyperspanner."
Edging a little closer, she did her best not to disturb whatever Neyes was doing and aimed the gun as best as she could "Maybe we should sort of … I don't know, come up with a signal? Like, I see one of ours and say 'blue' or kick you in the shins? Shia will not be happy if we accidentally start shooting our own crew."
"Who's idea was it to let Romulans keep their own uniforms?!" Landon fumed, his voice striking just above a whisper. He wasn't angry, just frustrated that Romulans seemed to be the constant pain in his ass all of a sudden. He seemed to sensing a trend. "Do they work for us or not?" He knew his irrational string of logic was just a outburst of his frustration, but it didn't stop him from doing something that was probably not the most conservative of actions.
With a forcefully swift yank, Landon sent the door to the hatch sliding off across the wall of the office. It spun off to the side out of view. He was out and on the floor before it landed with a soft impact against the cushioned sofa. There was only the muffled thud of his boots hitting the ground as he ejected himself from the small opening. A single Romulan soldier stood against the terminal, and Landon was already moving up on him as he turned around. The man immediately scowled and drew his weapon, something Landon had believed to be the most clichéd move anyone could try. Who survives standing on one place as an attacker sneaks up on you from behind? Both daggers in hand, Landon cut them first up and then across together in a single motion, slicing the pistol out of the Romulan's hand before a single shot was fired. A swift spin-kick to the chest sent the intruder flailing up against the wall. The effort was minimal and Neyes had the man up against the wall, both daggers crossed at his throat.
"Vara." Landon called out to the open access shaft. "Is he one of ours?"
"Uh…" peeking out of the hatch and keeping her rifle pointed vaguely in the direction of the office doors the young Trill tried to catch sight of the obviously fuming Romulan and found it slightly difficult on account of a rather broad shouldered Neyes being in the way. "Ah … mneani nhyrh? No that's not it … ahrrein'firh?"
"Khoi-udt!"
"Nope." Vara replied cheerfully and made a less than graceful exit from the hatch. "Lest I'm mistaken I was just told to drop dead and none of ours would be that mean to me. They don't admit it, you know, but they adore me."
--------------------
She picked herself of the floor and looked the bewildered and really quite unhappy Romulan over once more. Of course Kahless chose that moment to peek out of her uniform jacket – though Vara hadn't the faintest idea how a Tribble actually peeked, what with having no eyes – and the look of utter surprise on the enArrain's face settled it. "That one's definitely not ours. And yea, our boys and gals will skewer our invaders like you wouldn't believe. Territorial, they are. Besides, they got this funny honor code, mnaha-sake or something…"
In all honesty, Vara was impressed. Not only that they had made it this far, which was probably just dumb luck, but with the way their new Chief fix-it guy handled the mess he'd dropped into. One could think being overrun by the 23rd Fleet was just another of those days for him.
"Anyhow, … what do we do now?"
An odd expression came over Landon's face, and without another word he brought the daggers together in a swift sweep and eviscerated the Romulan. The man didn't make a sound before his body crumpled to the ground, green blood flowing from his neck. "First things first," he stated calmly, "we take care of all those guys out there. I can safely assume the 15 Romulans outside this office don't work for Starfleet." A window looked out into the area by the pool table, Landon had seen a group of Romulans trying (probably in vain, knowing Savant) to access the Engineering master computer. He cleaned off his daggers and walked over to the command station behind his desk. It wouldn't take much to bring the whole room apart, and vaporize the Romulans, but he needed to be able to repair the engines. Blowing up all the consoles wasn't going to get him anywhere. A quick glance at the body he'd just terminated left a little sinking feelings in his stomach. No matter what he did, that blood stain was never going to come out...
"Safely … yea." If it hadn't been for the Tribble's comforting purr, Vara just might have started retching after all. It's one thing to know intellectually that a race preferred death over surrender. It was entirely another to see someone granting that wish in front of your nose.
The door to the office sealed shut with a click, and a forcefield erected along the main entrance as well as the access panels of the Jefferies tubes doors. The flurry of confusion that followed only quickened Landon's resolve. The Romulan troops started barking order and one, hoping to see what was the matter with the security fields, came up to the office door. A quick pound on the door let the two Trill inside know they were discovered. "Just another second..."
"Good." The young archaeologist stuffed Kahless back into her jacket, ignoring the squeak of protest, and aimed her rifle at the door. "Because I don't think we have a lot more than that. Did I mention I can't hit a starship standing still and tied to a spacedock?" Well, at least the imminent threat of being vaporized took her mind off the dead person on the floor.
A weapon fired. Landon started to key in commands faster. Now that the group knew there were Starfleet in the office, they had begun shooting their pistols at the locked door. Thankfully, the door was made to withstand a little more punishment, on account of being inside Engineering, but it wouldn't last long.
"Uh, Neyes? I don't want to be nagging or anything but …" this was not looking good. If Vara was any judge the pointy ears out there were rapidly running out of patience and in another minute or so would bring in the big guns. Big as in 'office? You mean there has been an office there?'. Suddenly it seemed just a tad stupid to stand there with a rifle and a Tribble. "Go tell the Spartans, passerby…" Crap. This was not exactly what Vara considered living history.
Neyes laughed a little out of frustration, partly at being under attack in his new office, and partly because the Romulans had actually managed to disassemble a great majority of the Starfleet security protocols. Whoever these people were, they were prepared to get the job done. He was going to have to see that a more harsh security system was implemented once the Charon was back on her feet. He typed in a few more commands, trying all the tricks he could think of to coax the computer into giving him unlimited access, his fingers flying across the command terminal as he attempted to regain control. As of that moment, all he had control of was the sensor grid, the ODN secondary relays, and the helm controls. The latter being useless until the engines were back online. "It's not working..." he exclaimed, a little bit of worry creeping into his voice.
"Ah. Yea. I can … oh will you stop it out there. And my mother would never have … whatever it is you said." Risking a glance over her shoulder, Vara tried to get a peek at precisely what it was that wasn't working but it was all ancient Bajoran to her. No, actually, Bajoran she could have figured out. "I sort of figured as much. Can I help though? I mean, what … what is that supposed to do?"
"I'm trying to reroute the command pathways so I can take care of the Romulans, but they've locked us out! Bastards managed to get into the computer somehow. Looks like they've manually started to pull computer boards in order to get around whatever Savant was doing to keep them out. Looks like they've started a series of diagnostic protocols to put the system back into play; to see where they can take control." The door of the office started to buckle. He shot a forcefield around behind it, but it wouldn't hold for much longer.
Nodding sagely, the young Trill almost managed a tiny smile. "You know, I actually understood half of what you were saying. Like the words 'pull' and 'bastards' and 'whatever'. But keep going. Sometimes it helps to think out loud …"
Suddenly it hit him. "The helm controls!" Neyes' face lit up with a boyish confidence. "I can access the helm controls and uncouple the magnetic constrictors through the injectors. The core would begin a cascade overload, and any diagnostics would immediately come to a crashing halt. I'd regain access and they'd stop their shit cold."
"Not trying to dampen your spirits here but …" there was a lull in the noise outside that made the hair at the back of Vara's neck stand up and then orders were shouted. Yup, they were so done for. So … "even I know the words warp core and overload in the same sentence are a bad thing. You are sure about this?"
He shrugged. "We might explode, I suppose it's possible." His face suggested he wasn't all that worried about it. The chances that he couldn't recover the core temperature and reinitialize the constrictors was highly unlikely. Since it wasn't as much an overload as an unrestrained flooding of matter and anti-matter into the core, he simply needed to reinstate the restrictions. All he'd need to do would be lock the core in place and disengage the safety fields around deck 13. Once the core started it's ejection sequence, the outer bulkhead airlock would open to launch the core, but instead it would simply vent the atmosphere from deck 15 and main engineering. The core wasn't going anywhere. His finger slammed against the console to scan for life-signs in bowels of the ship. Nobody. Good! "Hold onto something, Vara. This is probably gonna rattle the ship a little." His eyebrows shot upwards to take the point home. It was going to be more than a little bump.
"The last time an engineer told me to hold on, the damn shuttle crashed." Despite it all, Vara's voice sounded almost cheerful as she shouldered the rifle and looked around. The desk offered itself for holding on, as did Neyes, but clinging to the good engineer like a small frightened squirrel might hamper his ability to … well, tap at the console and do miracle things. A bit.
Finally the young woman settled for gripping a part of the desk that looked unimportant enough and pondered whether she could not simply curl up into a ball underneath it until Neyes told her it was safe to come out but somehow that felt like letting her new pal down in some way. "Do your thing, Mister Ensign Neyes. I'd cross my fingers but I kinda need them now. Sure Kahless would though if he had fingers."
"Here goes nothing..." He tapped a single, final command and the console beeped in response.
At first nothing happened, and Landon started to cringe as the Romulans continued to obliterate the two's only protection from the soon to be harsh vacuum of space outside the door. Hopefully. A moment passed before a series of massive interlocks could be heard disengaging in the depths of the ship. The sounds roared upwards through the bulk heads and caught the attention of the Romulan mob. Their weapons ceased to fire as they tried to figure out what was about to happen. A shrill sound of something powering up rattled the walls of Engineering. The warp core was beginning to flood. Gas discharge began to pour out from the shaft beneath the core. It took only a few moments before the stable ship suddenly became chaotic.
The echoing klaxon of the computer blared out into the room. "Warning. Warp core overload in 30 seconds." A console blew out somewhere outside the door. Landon gripped the side of the desk in an effort to keep from being thrown around when the core didn't eject. He motioned for Vara to do the same.
"It's gonna get rough." He shouted, trying to raise his voice above the shrill sound of the core. The ship began to rattle. He hurried over to her side and kept her from being thrown about the room, using his augmented arm to brace them.
Another jolt shook the ship when a massive fiery discharge launched out from beneath the core, and as if on cue, the computer called out another warning. "Warp-Core containment has been compromised. Auto-Ejection in progress. Evacuate Engineering. Warning. Auto-Ejection in progress. Evacuate Engineering." The Romulans abandoned the effort the break down the door, choosing instead to shout and move towards the main entrance of Engineering, ready to flee the scene. They escape attempt was deflected by the forcefield Landon had put into place. The hurried and aggravated shouts continued as they tried to figure out what to do.
"You call this rough?" nearly thrown of her feet if it weren't for the friendly arm keeping her upright, the young archaeologist snickered to hide the fact she was more terrified than ever before in her life. "Remind me to let M'Riarr teach you how to dance Caitian style. Now that is rough … uh, is it supposed to do that? The sparks and things? Oh …" her voice nearly drowned by all the noise, Vara would have very much liked to cover her ears but could only stare in horrified fascination as outside the large windows Dante's inferno was breaking loose. Romulans racing about, shouting some very rude things about Neyes' heritage while others kept working on consoles with that determined look to them … two slid across the tilting floor and recovered with a near feline sense of balance, only to be fried alive by another violent discharge. The hum and whine of the great ship seemed to make Vara's very bones ache in sympathy and then …
A loud clanking thud sounded beneath the core, and the hiss of air whistled outside the office. A shocked and suddenly scared Romulan team became instantly aware of what was happening, but by then it was too late. The two Trill watched as the atmosphere was vented out of the room. Romulan officers broke into a chaotic and terrified rabble as they were whipped around inside the swirling air. One man was dragged across the floor towards the warpcore, his hands grasping desperately at the deck plates for something to grip to, only to get trapped between the core's walls and the grate that kept objects from falling into the shaft. The remaining few moments for the intruders was brief, as they quickly succumbed to either injury or suffocation. Neyes watched worriedly as one Romulan took up his pistol and fired a few shots off at the warpcore, only to miss entirely as he fell to the ground gasping. Landon assumed it was some last-ditch effort to destroy the ship. Romulans... he thought. No concern for their own people left on the ship whatsoever.
For some reason Vara had always believed in the dumb old saying of life flashing before your eyes. Obviously it was nonsense because the only thing flashing as the Romulan took aim at the warp core was the gun and a brief thought concerning Miss Betty's pancakes. And the bar catching fire during the 'Hooray we're still alive' party. The young Trill would have very much liked to have another one of those …
He missed. And missed again.
"How you like them bananas!"
In a minute here she'd be laughing hysterically. Or crying. Maybe both.
But they weren't out of the woods yet, were they? The ship was still shaking like a bucking bronco, and even though every last Romulan out there seemed very much dead now … "You can fix this, right?" Vara's voice sounded odd in her own ears, all upbeat and optimistic. Her stomach though begged to differ.
Upon seeing the neutralized intruders, and a non-habitable Engineering room, Landon stood up and began to work the controls at the command station. The core quickly grew quiet, and the shaking stopped. With a concerned sigh, he brought the environmental controls online and re-pressurized Engineering. Air wafted through the vents outside the office. Nothing but the two Starfleet officers, and the wind-swept clothes of the Romulans moved in the entire section. The office door slid open and the forcefields inside the engineering room dropped.
Oh-kay. Steadying herself against the desk, Vara took stock of the dead quiet out there and came to the conclusion this was at least better than being vaporized. "Wow. It worked. It actually … you know, I might throw up now. But I don't want to make an even bigger mess of your place."
The young Trill blinked rapidly and wondered if there was time to find one of the stockpiles of booze, then dismissed the thought.
"I don't know where they found you, Neyes, but damn am I glad you're here. Wow."
Landon continued to work on the console and wiped a little sweat off his brow. "I do what I can. And when I can't ...can. I make it work." He made a little face as he fumbled the words.
Cautiously moving towards the now open doors Vara did her best to not look at the bodies littering the floor but cautiously eyed the now calmly glowing warp core and the blinking consoles. Oy, what a mess. The other Trill however seemed hardly unsettled, or maybe that was just her reading into things … he sure seemed determined to get out there though and do whatever it was engineers did in a situation like this and it was just plain dumb luck he was in range for Vara to kick his shin as without warning the main doors slid open and the dour face of a Romulan appeared "Blue! Ours! Holy shit, Sesket you scared the …"
"Fvah dha'nia Kholairlh-a nahi?"
"Don't look at me, your boss did it."
"I see."
Vara nearly laughed after all when the tall engineer stood at attention in the middle of this mayhem while his face suggested he'd very much like to give a good walloping to whoever had messed up his domain. There was still some phaser fire far off out in the corridor and a Marine in PT clothes stuck his head through the door to grin broadly at the Starfleet uniforms before inquiring if anyone needed help but … "We did it? Neyes, we … I should let you get to work. Never mind me, I'll just curl up in a corner and … anyone up for some coffee? It'll take a bit to brew it from scratch but …"
Vara's mouth snapped shut and she gave her new pal a wan smile. "Babbling. I know. But I'm serious about the coffee."
Landon was already underneath the warp core, a freshly seared pointy ear corpse moved out of his way. A beam had shook loose near the pool table and several consoles had taken the form of broken windows, but the littered debris from the explosions made it look much worse. The small engineering crew began to get to work when suddenly a tight gasp came from the Trill engineer's direction.
"I tore my vest!" Landon quickly descended into a rant, flicking his finger around the hole in his uniform, spoken entirely in Trill.
=/\= END LOG =/\=
Ens. Landon Neyes
Chief Engineer
USS CHARON
Something. Vara (something, I don't know the name yet :) )
Archaeologist
USS CHARON
