Jayme had taken eighteen of her medical corpsmen onto the Iwo Jima for some ship bound training and drills. Fifty-eighth marine fighter unit was onboard for the three days doing qualifications on the ships main boards, as they maintained qualifications on both the I. J. and the Hammerheads. Major Boyle was in command, OP's was under the direction of Captain Morgan, Jayme was medical officer, and everyone else was to take shifts working various shipboard stations.
"Captain Alcon respond to the bridge." Jayme grabbed her portable med pack and tricorder and walked the short distance from the sickbay to the bridge. Captain Morgan sat in the command chair and swiveled to meet her when she arrived. "You have the com." He nodded and walked off the bridge. Jayme stunned stood there and several of the bridge crew turned and looked at her with their jaws dropped. Jayme moved to stow her gear. She paced the bridge stations and knew Roxanne Cummings-who was on for communications, Lt. Ryan who was navigation and helm. And there was a face she didn't know who was standing the engineering/ops station. She smiled at the young woman and said, "I'm Captain Alcon. You are?"
The Vulcan woman was tall and lean with short blonde hair, "M'tsen, Ensign--engineering tech." There was a glint in the young woman's eyes as she stood and waited. Captain Alcon nodded and she walked over and took the seat that Morgan had left. She'd had some experience on the Federation Scout ship that the Engineering Core used and also had done two runs on the 'Dark Fury,' but had never actually sat the station was more of an observer. She pulled up the small computer screen by her knee and started studying the schematics and all shipboard regulations.
She knew the ship was headed into the no-man's land to run some scientific scans of the nebula.
Corporal Cummins turned in her seat and her fingers flew over the communications console. "Ma'am." She paused and then added, "I have a distress call."
"Replay the message." In G'karen the message played and Jayme sat with her eyes closed translated most of the message; then the universal translator played the message in standard. "This is the G'kar vessel 'Dark Fury' we are under heavy fire from three Mullurians heavy craft andseveral fighter type ships. We request Federation assistance. This attack is in the neutral zone."
The Dark Fury, was a converted heavy freighter with all of the scavenged arms and military grade hardware it could buy or steal. It's Captain was F'lak, and he commanded one hundred and twenty-nine crew. It's medical officer was Rae, mate to F'lak, and both were friends of one-thin-skinned-human Jayme Alcon. They had been sitting dark on the edge of the Mullurian/G'kar neutral zone for almost a week and had helped several Nausicaans and human allied ships make it to safety before they were discovered and attacked. Jayme had visited with them when they were at SB901 just prior to this mission.
"Helm plot a least time intercept to the 'Fury,' Corporal Cummins broadcast that we are enroute." Jayme looked at the controls on the arm of the command chair and found the com controls. "Captain Alcon to Major Boyle."
Major Boyle sat at the large desk in his quarters. He hit the accept button, "Go ahead Captain."
"Sir, we have received a distress call, the 'Dark Fury's in the neutral zone is under fire from three Mullurians ships."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and blew out a breath, "Plot an intercept, and I'll be up." He looked back to his computer screen and saved the file, before standing and heading out. He could feel the change in vector and speed. He arrived on the bridge and Jayme stood and relinquished the chair to him. "What orders have you given?" He barked.
"Sir. I've ordered the course change, we've broadcasted that we were responding to the call from help. Since the original message indicated the new small fighters were involved, I've ordered two pilots--Vansen and Tigre are on yellow alert in their cockpits."
He studied her for a minute and then nodded. "Have we received any further information from the ship in trouble?" He turned to the communications office, "Cpl. please try to hail that ship and get an update."
"No, sir." Jayme said. Captain Morgan stepped onto the bridge.
The Iwo Jima hurled its way through space, and when they were in sensor range, the two hammerhead fighters were launched. Captain Alcon moved to the communications console and picked up a headset and in G'karen attempted contact with the 'Dark Fury.' Silence continued even with her personal attempt. Jayme walked over to the science/ops station and watched as a scan of the 'Fury' formed up. The ship was a mess. "Sir, I'd like to take a team and board the damaged ship and render aid."
Boyle looked over at Morgan. Morgan looked at the scan and then volunteered, "I could accompany the Captain's Team." Boyle shook his head, "Permission granted." He watched as Jayme and Morgan both exited the bridge. Jayme went to the bunk room and rounded up ten of her corpsmen and everyone moved to the transporter room.
Two of her crew insisted in going ahead of both Captains, and then when they entered the ship it was filled with acrid smoke. Control panels and electrical runs were sparking and arcing. Power was fluctuating. The team split into two man units and spread out through the ship. Jayme and Morgan worked their way to the Bridge.
On the bridge Jayme found F'lar brandishing a fire extinguisher to put out a fire. Jayme immediately pulled out her tricorder and started working on the three unconscious G'kar and Human crew members. Morgan grabbed another extinguisher and assisted in putting out the fires. Jayme and her team had their own internal communication sets and she was hearing the reports from other teams. Engineering was intact but there were three fatalities and four other Major injuries. So for the total injured was twenty five and teams hadn't covered all of the ship. One team finally reached sickbay and found another dozen injured that have been carried in.
Jayme was close to the deck when a high pressure pipe in the ceiling blew sending Morgan reeling and totally blasted F'lar. Jayme grabbed F'lar by the arms and dragged him out of the blast. Morgan had recovered enough to find the shut off valve. As soon as the valve was closed Morgan slid down the wall and rested his head on his knee. Jayme assessed F'lar and there wasn't anything she could do for him at the moment, and she moved and tried to scan Morgan only to be pushed away, "I'm OK. How's the Captain?" Jayme wasn't dissuaded and scanned Morgan out of arms reach. "Jayme reached into her bag and pulled out a dermal generator and a bottle of spray on antimicrobial. She spritzed it on the side of Morgan's face and then his arm. Then set to work with the dermal generator. When she was done she pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to him.
She took her gear and moved back to work on the captain. Two G'kar crewmen stumbled onto the bridge. They were startled to see the damage and their captain down. Captain Morgan looked at the two and ordered them to take stations. They looked at him and again at their captain and frowned. Jayme looked over at Morgan and then continued to work on F'lak. Morgan asked, "Do they not understand Standard?"
"They understood, just not following your command, sir." She said as she sat back on her heels and wiped her forehead with the back of her uniformed arm. Morgan attempted to climb to his feet but slid back down the wall. "You should just sit there and move as little as possible or I'll have the Iwo Jima lock onto your combadge and transport you back to our ship."
Morgan tried to gain his feet a second time and decided Captain Alcon was right. "I can help from here, if I can get them to follow my orders." Jayme shrugged and admitted, "I don't think standing is going to fix that and standing and passing out even less so."
Jayme stood and in G'karen ordered them to take stations. They moved and took positions but looked at each other while they moved. In G'karen she worked out how to ask for a status report from the four bridge crewmen. While she waited for the report she checked on the two working wounded. "Morgan, we have impulse drive to impulse, weapons are out, navigation computer is crashed but they are working to bring it back up--estimate an hour for repairs. Scan isn't functioning, but Iwo Jima can be our eyes and if they can't get navigation up I figure they can call us over course changes. Communications are subspace only. Life support is only working at one-fourth capacity."
"Thank you, Captain." Jayme moved over and Morgan placed his arm over her shoulder and she wrapped her other around his waist and helped him stand and stumble over to the command chair.
Two of Jayme's corpsmen stepped onto the bridge. "Ma'am those blankets you ordered." Jayme handed one to Morgan who rapped it around his shoulders. She gave one to each of the other wounded, and placed one under F'laks head and one over him. "Do we have a count on wounded?" She asked the two corpsmen.
"There are thirty-five abled bodied crew members, plus the ten of us." Everyone is patrolling and treating patients. The sickbay is overwhelmed and asking for more help."
"I want six people to help move everyone to the core area's of the ship and shut down area's that are damaged and not absolutely necessary to survival or movement of the ship. Four of you I want to stay in sickbay and help treat patients." Jayme placed both hands on her hips and debated on leaving the bridge to go to sickbay to help.
"Ma'am what about having the rest of our team come over and there are some supplies that we are running short of." Sgt. Berke asked.
She nodded her head no. Before she could say anything captain Morgan announced. "We are down to twenty-five percent life support and if we need to launch the other three fighters then Major Boyle is going to need them to crew the Iwo Jima. Jayme nodded her head affirmative.
There was a short cheer from their right, and the tech announced in broken standard, that the navigation computer was back up. Jayme immediately ordered, "compute least time course to Thermopylea at impluse.
"Fourteen hours ma'am." Jayme looked at Morgan who said something in Klingon that made Sgt. Berke raise an eyebrow. Jayme didn't ask.
Morgan looked at Jayme, "We need to get an engineer to work on the life-support equipment... going to need more then twenty five percent, even if another ship scrambles to help us. Jayme looked at Berke, "Find an engineer and call me back." Both corpsmen moved to search for an engineer, and treat people on the way. Jayme crossed her arms over her chest and chewed her right thumb nail and noted that the room temperature was dropping slowly.
"Set course and begin the trip to Thermopylea." Morgan ordered and she verified. After an hour of watching the Captain fidget in his chair she moved around and ran a scan on him and pulled a hypospray out of her pocket and dosed him with a pain/sedative cocktail. Several minutes later a team arrived and gathered up captain F'lak and took him to sickbay. Jayme left the bridge and walked into sickbay. Rae's color was dull, and her spots faded. "Rae?" Jayme asked, "You should take a break and let my people finish up."
Rae looked at her, "Is that what you would do in my place?"
"No." The human admitted. Rae did take a seat beside her mate. Jayme moved and talked to a few of the corpsmen and one of the G'kar medical team and they left and returned with a large tankard of marlot and a MRE bar. Jayme moved in and handed her friend the wine, "Drink all of it." She watched as the other slowly drank the wine. "I have to get back to the bridge ; but I want you to eat this MRE bar, and make sure that the chair doesn't start floating around the bay."
The third hour into their voyage, the communication tech called Jayme over, and handed her the earpiece and mic. Major Boyle, asked, "Status?"
"Captain Morgan's been injured. The 'Dark Fury's ships Captain is still unconscious, I have forty-five able bodied crew out of 129, 25 percent life-support, and still only impulse engines. I have command here, sir."
"Understood." He clenched his teeth and added, "The Ronin has been dispatched to our location and will arrive and take the wounded off of the 'Dark Fury,' that should help your life support issues. They should be able to beam a few extra engineers. They will be here in less then four hours. I have been in contact with Mer'an on Thermopylea and he is sending on the 'Orion Star' out with extra crew to relieve your team to return to the Iwo Jima. They are six hours from arriving."
"Yes, Sir, four hours. My crew and I will help with the transfers and return to the Iwo Jima." Jayme had one of her basic medics beam Captain Morgan over to the Iwo Jima. She walked onto the bridge and gave instructions to the three crewmen there in G'karen and took the captains chair. She watched the time and finally got a call from engineering that they had partial helm control and life support back on line to the sections that weren't vented into space. One of the bridge crew was under the console tinkering and scan came back up....and there were six ships on the screen and he was being hailed by Major Boyle.
"Sir, I see US, the Iwo Jima, the Ronin and the Orion, and what appears to be two Mullurians heavy cruisers." She said as she watched the tech take his seat. She asked him, "Can weapons be slaved to your scanners for Firing control?" he nodded no. "Damn she said to herself."
"Confirmed. We hare turning to cover the aft section and to give the federation warning. Do you have any engines up at all?"
The tech sitting at the engineering station nodded and held up a closed fist. "impulse to level 3." Jayme said. "We will make best time and speed toward the Orion and have the Ronin move to assist you. As I have no weapons capability, Sir."
"Approved." She stood and watched over scans shoulder the Iwo Jima move and make her rotation. "Best speed to 204.45 mark 7, " She found the ships open communications button, "and in standard and G'karen she informed the crew of the danger and their destination and gave instructions to secure all lose items, secure all life-support spaces, and arm themselves in case of being over taken and boarded. " She then sat in the command seat and watched the display. She was hailed by the Orion twenty-eight minutes later. So far the Iwo Jima was guarding their backs and hadn't fired a shot but both Mulluria ships were trying to slid by them...in doing so would violate the neutral zone.
"Orion Star, this is Subaltern Alcon in command of the Dark Fury. We have over one hundred wounded--please send over supplies and as many techs as you can spare. We have impulse engines only and no weapons control. We are going to make best speed for Thermpolyea base, request you continue on to help secure this boarder."
"Received, supplies and assistance is on the way." As soon as Jayme had learned they'd been beamed over she changed their heading slightly. She watched the distance between them and the Orion Star increase. She saw on the large tactical display the whole battle field and on the far corner Thermopylea. Twenty minutes later they made contact with the Ronin who immediately went to warp and joined the Iwo Jima and Orion Star on the boarder of the neutral zone. Several phaser shots had been sent into one of the Mulluran vessels when it crossed the line, but it retreated back to it's side.
Jayme smiled, they were thirty minutes from the asteroid field that house the Thermopylea base. "Subaltern Alcon in command of the Dark Fury, requesting approach vectors and instructions." Her throat was getting sore from speaking the guttural language that she hadn't kept in much practice. Soon Mer'an was on the line and gave the instructions and the crew immediately followed through ... soon they docked and help rushed aboard to take the wounded off the ship and provide more medical care then they'd been able to receive on the Fury. Jayme and the 45 other able bodied crew walked off last and she saluted and then was bear hugged by Mer'an and Issira. It was a short reunion. "Major Boyle to Captain Alcon."
"Yes, Sir" She said after taping her communications badge.
"Mission accomplished. We are due back TO SB901 with a report. Prepare to beam up."
"Yes, sir." She said with a sigh. "I'll come back and visit another time." She touched her combadge as her team assembled and said, "Nineteen to beam up." They were brought up in groups of five starting with Jayme.
Captain Morgan was waiting in the transporter room. "Welcome back captain. We are headed for SB901 at warp to make our report to Captain Mallory, and Colonel Tarik. Please get some rest and food and be ready for the briefing. He winked and headed out. Jayme stayed and took inventory of her staff as they came aboard. She nodded satisfied that the blood on their fatigues wasn't their own. She sent them all off to shower and rest.