"Captain? Commodore?" she called out. With the damage sustained it looked like at least a couple of decks had collapsed; they would've had to have survived quite a fall amongst the explosions and debris. "Captain Freeman?" she called out more urgently. "Commodore McCovey?" She then pressed her comm-badge on the off chance her voice could not be heard. "This is Commander Yilaan. If there's anyone alive in sections fifteen through twenty on decks two through five, respond please."
"Cecilia I'm here," the weak voice of Captain Freeman replied. "I can't believe this damn thing is still working," he continued breathlessly.
"What is your status Mark," she asked quickly.
"As it is I had to practically snap my wrist in two just to reply to you," Freeman rambled.
"Captain your status?" Yilaan replied with growing apprehension.
"Oh, I'm okay Commander. I've just got this really heavy thing on top of me. And I think my leg is broken. Or maybe my arm. Maybe my head too," he replied slowly and laboriously.
Yilaan swore under her breath. "Captain, I'm going to try and make my way down to you, okay?"
"Oh sure. That's very sweet of you," Freeman replied, his voice becoming slurred. "Cecilia," he continued after a pause, as if he'd been trying to remember her name.
Yilaan made a face and went over to a wall panel to grab a tricorder and medkit. It was as she tried to open the panel with her left hand that she cried out in pain; her left wrist was clearly broken and her left shoulder was dislocated, no doubt from her being propelled to and fro across Ops during the attack. With her right hand she then finished opening the panel, placing a tricorder and medkit within the folds of her robe and pajamas. She then found her way down a metal ladder, wincing as she proceeded from rung to rung, until she arrived at the deck Freeman was lying on.
"Commander Yilaan to Sickbay; we need medical teams on deck five. There are numerous casualties in the destroyed sections," Yilaan called out as she pressed her comm-badge. When no acknowledgement was sent, she tried to page some of the Bristol crew on the station. "Yilaan to Doctor Giovanni, come in," she called.
"Commander, go ahead; it's good to hear the sound of your voice," Giovanni replied eagerly.
"Are you okay?"
"More or less. What happened?" she replied.
"It would take too long to explain. Can you grab your medkit and join me on Deck Five? There are numerous casualties here, including Captain Freeman, and I can't get an answer from Sickbay," Yilaan said.
"I'll be there as soon as I can Commander. Giovanni out."
Yilaan began to pick her way through the rubble of deck plates and ceiling struts as she continued her communications. "Yilaan to Ivanovna, come in." There was no reply, but it may have been just as well; Yilaan had happened across the broken forms of Commodore McCovey and his First Officer and was too busy suppressing her gag reflex to have held a conversation just then.
Yilaan quickly continued on her way, regaining her composure as she went. "Yilaan to Lieutenant Reiv, come in."
"Reiv here," his voice squeaked.
"Are you okay, Lieutenant? You don't sound so good," Yilaan replied.
"I've been better Commander," Reiv said simply.
"I don't know who's alive and who's not on the station," Yilaan reported, getting to the point. "I need you to find your way to the secondary command stations on deck forty-eight and send a message to Starfleet; the Bristol is a renegade and must be stopped at all costs. Tell them our sensors picked up no life signs aboard so it may be a computer malfunction; and there may be a couple dozen Starfleet personnel incapacitated on board."
There was a long pause. "Understood Commander," he replied at length and the comm channel closed.
She then pressed her comm badge again to address the station. "To everyone alive on this station, this is Commander Yilaan. Senior officers please report in. Damage control teams focus on stabilizing life support and clearing debris for medical personnel to move about. Engineering, restore main power as soon as possible and divert extra power to reinforce the structural integrity field." There were several acknowledgements to her orders; amongst them she found that the second-shift duty officer was still alive, so she put her in charge of the station.
Moments after this was accomplished, she stumbled across Captain Freeman, who was lying face up and partially covered with large chunks of twisted metal and loose cables. "Captain!" she called out as she quickly moved to his side.
The captain's eyes fluttered open somewhat and he smiled weakly. "Oh, hello there Cecilia. Is it morning already? Time for our breakfast? I recommend the spinach omelette...." he rambled, his voice trailing off.
Yilaan knelt by him and scanned him with her tricorder. "Captain it's not time for breakfast. We've had an accident, remember? The base was attacked and you fell about sixty feet."
"That's not true," Freeman replied, his voice slurred. "I grabbed onto something aways up but it broke."
"It may have broken, but it probably saved your life. As it is, I show two deep puncture wounds in your back. Four of your ribs are broken and you have a bad concussion," she said bluntly. She took a hypospray and injected its contents into the captain's neck. "This will help with the pain, but I can't do anything else until Doctor Giovanni gets here," Yilaan told him. The captain didn't reply and there was silence for several moments as Freeman's eyes began to close again.
"Captain, you need to stay awake," Yilaan stated flatly.
"Talk to me," Freeman mumbled with a bit more clarity than his earlier speech, his eyes opening a crack.
"Okay," she agreed. "What should I talk about?"
"Anything," Freeman suggested. "Tell me about your dart game."
Yilaan smiled at him as she sat by her captain. "Well sir, I defeated Giovanni handily again. She finds it very aggravating that I'm virtually unstoppable when we visit Starbases; I think it's pretty funny actually. Maybe I perform well under pressure or something; on board ship it's usually just her and I, but in a place like this there's usually a crowd on hand to watch."
The captain managed a weak smile, but it quickly gave way to a coughing fit. Yilaan put her hands on the captain's shoulders to prevent his attempt at sitting up. "Captain try to rest; Giovanni will be here as soon as she can."
"Tell me something else," he breathed. "Can I ask you a personal question?"
Yilaan leaned back and appraised her captain. "I guess so."
"Something I've wondered about, something others have wondered about, but we just figured it was none of our business, so if you don't want to talk about it, just say so," Freeman said.
Yilaan pushed a lock of hair out of her face as she leaned over Captain Freeman. "What is it?"
"Why are you hesitant to use your telepathic powers? What is abhorrent to you about it?" Freeman asked, his eyes locking with those of the Bristol's First Officer. He almost imagined that he could see those deep dark eyes of hers glaze over with annoyance as the expression on her face clearly changed from one of benevolence to that of defensiveness.
"You're right sir, that isn't anyone's business," she replied abruptly. "Nobody's at all. And I'd thank you and this 'everyone else' you mentioned to not talk about me behind my back," she continued, getting up suddenly and moving across some debris to look up through the holes in the ceiling. With the reminder, she thought back to that time in her youth, that time that had resulted in her current disdain for her telepathy, and she clenched her fists as she stared at the damage to the station while trying to put those memories to the back of her mind.
The two shared a silence broken only by the occasional shout or grind of debris and bulkheads being cleared away. The voices and sounds varied; some were far away and but a whisper, while others felt very close. At length it was Yilaan herself who spoke, "Mark I'm sorry; I should not have snapped at you like that. You weren't there; you had nothing to do with it. It wasn't your fault."
"No, I'm the one who should be sorry; I deserved your reaction. I should've realized that the reason no one knows the answer to my question is because you don't want them to know. You obviously had your reasons and didn't need me to bring it up," Freeman apologized.
"It doesn't matter truly," she replied with attempted indifference. "Perhaps another story would suffice," Yilaan continued, recalling that her captain's condition was grave and that he was more in need of comfort than she. "Some Betazed myths, perhaps? You might find these interesting, considering our mutual enjoyment of swords and medieval mysticism," she offered, forcing a smile as she turned back and poked through the debris to sit by her captain again.
"Cecilia are you okay?" Freeman inquired softly upon her arrival.
"My arm is dislocated and my wrist is broken, and they hurt very badly when I move. Now do you want to hear the stories or not?" she reproved.
"Yes."
With that, Yilaan spent what seemed like an eternity telling stories which kept Freeman's mind focused away from her problems, and his own, until eventually a damage control team managed to cut their way onto deck five and clear a path through the debris for Doctor Giovanni and Lieutenant Lofton to attend to the captain.
"Commander, how is he?" Giovanni called out as she scrambled up the mound of debris to where the captain lay injured.
"In bad shape. He's got a concussion and numerous broken bones, including a couple of deep puncture wounds in his back. He's probably lost a lot of blood," Yilaan reported.
Giovanni did a quick scan while Lofton looked around. "Is there anyone else alive in this mess?" he asked, taking out his tricorder and beginning to scan.
"Not as far as I know, Lieutenant," Yilaan replied.
"Captain Freeman is in bad shape. I need to get him into surgery. You were wrong about him losing a lot of blood; he hasn't lost much as that which punctured his back is still lodged there. However, it also partially punctured one of his lungs. And that concussion of his needs attention; I show massive pressure building on the inside of his skull. If we could just move this thing," Giovanni reported, feigning an effort to lift the giant metal strut that kept the captain pinned in place. "We may have to risk the transporter, though I wouldn't otherwise recommend it. What I can do for him here is limited."
"I guess we don't have a choice then," Yilaan replied. "We're certainly not going to be able to move this thing, at least not without greater risk of injury to the captain."
Giovanni eyed Commander Yilaan warily, "Not in your condition especially. Let me take a look at that arm of yours."
Yilaan pulled back. "I'll be fine Doctor; the captain is more in need of your immediate attention," she told her firmly.
Doctor Giovanni nodded and pressed her comm-badge. "Transporter Control, this is Doctor Giovanni; please make arrangements to beam a survivor and part of the surrounding debris to Sickbay. I'll give you the exact coordinates to beam in just a moment."
"Acknowledged," came the reply from one of the transporter rooms.
"I'm going to beam him with part of that debris that's still in his back," Giovanni noted to Commander Yilaan. "We can then remove it safely once he's in Sickbay."
While Giovanni readied her calculations and reported them to the Transporter Chief, Yilaan knelt again at her captain's side, putting her good hand on his chest. "Regarding what we spoke of earlier," she said to a barely conscious Freeman, "when I'm ready to talk about it, I'll look you up." With that she smiled at him and crawled awkwardly back over the debris to give room to the transport.
"Transporter ready," the Transporter Chief reported.
"Energize Chief," Giovanni replied. Freeman and a section of the debris disappeared; that which was on top of him fell an extra foot with a solid crash. Giovanni and Yilaan exchanged looks and the two, along with Lofton, made their way to the station's Sickbay.
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