Axeline was busy in cargo bay eight checking the equipment that had recently been installed. Now the cargo bay was kitted out with three treatment beds so that in an emergency, the cargo bay could be turned into a second sickbay. All this had been done on the advice of Axeline, with the assistance of Admiral Wallace.
Cargo bay eight had been chosen because it was one of the least used of the cargo areas onboard and also because of its close proximity to the Bridge. Axeline shutdown the treatment beds and stowed them back into the wall cavity, before leaving and heading back to sickbay.
Axeline stepped into sickbay and looked around. The place was very quite, the last of the injured had been released the previous day, so it was back to the old routine of being on-call and waiting.
Axeline stepped into the office and spoke to Lieutenant Wolf.
"The treatment area is fully operational." He announced. "Let's just hope we never need to use it."
Although the attacks on the Hornet had been weeks ago, he still felt responsible for the injured crew. He'd even taken the risk of taking the Captain's yacht with a number of seriously injured to get medical assistance. Of those he'd taken along, three had died, one enroute and the other two at SB 901 and those deaths had unnerved him. There were so many questions left unanswered, had he made the right decision, why had the Hornet not been able to cope with the injured. The treatment area had been Axeline's way of attempting to make thing right.
"Well everything's quite here." Tyrran replied. "I hear we're going on some kind of diplomatic mission to a Bajoran colony."
"Go get some rest and I'll see you in ten hours." Axeline replied.
Wolf rose just as the Hornet started to accelerate.
"Looks like we're on our way." He commented.
Moments later, sickbay was rocked as the Hornet started to shake violently knocking Wolf off his feet and Axeline against the desk.
When they both regained their composure, the emergency lighting made them realize that main power was off-line and something was definitely wrong.
"Sickbay to Bridge." Axeline stated tapping his comm badge, but all he got was silence.
"Looks like the comms are out." Axeline remarked. "Tyrran, get to cargo bay eight and set-up the treatment area, we'll probably have casualties on the Bridge."
Lieutenant Wolf picked himself up and brushed off the debris from his uniform before heading out of the door.
Five minutes later, the first casualties started to arrive in sickbay, mostly from Engineering.
"What happened ?" Axeline asked of a young Engineer who had brought one of his colleagues into sickbay.
"I don't know, the ship appeared to accelerate away from our projected course and the warp core overloaded. That's how most of the crew got injured, we also had a couple of fatalities in Engineering." The Engineer replied. "Propulsion is off-line and the warp core looks like it's been heavily damaged. Looks like our diplomatic mission is going to have to wait until we reach spacedock."
[Wolf to sickbay.] A voice announced.
"Good to hear your voice Tyrran." Axeline replied. "Looks like we've got ship communications working. What's your status ?"
[We've got a number of injured and three dead. What about you ?] Wolf replied.
"Two dead and three serious injuries in Engineering. I'm also receiving minor injuries from throughout the ship." Axeline replied. "Nothing we can't deal with down here."
[Once main power and the turbolifts are back online, I'll start to transfer the injured down to sickbay and give you a hand. Wolf out.] Wolf stated.
Several hours passed and Captain Sharpe had called a conference to explain the Hornet's dire situation. Axeline was one of the first to arrive in the dim lit conference room and the Captain inquired as to the casualty list.
Axeline had given the Captain the numbers, six dead, three from the Bridge, two from Engineering when the warp core overloaded and a third engineer who'd died of his injuries in sickbay. Added to those figures, there were another sixteen casualties still in sickbay recovering and numerous minor injuries that had been treated and released.
"The new treatment facility worked well Captain." Axeline reported. "We could have had a couple more fatalities through not been able to gain access to sickbay."
"Good." Sharpe replied. "We'll be starting the briefing soon Doctor."
The rest of the senior staff started to arrive and once everyone was seated, Captain Sharpe gave them the bad news.
"There is no easy way to say this." Sharpe started. "According to the computer we are 28,765 light years from Earth. We are still however in the Alpha quadrant, just an unexplored region of space. "
Sharpe paused and scratched his chin, he could feel the days stubble on there already.
"Chief please continue." Sharpe said sitting in his chair.
Matthews stood up and walked over to the computer monitor.
"With the trans-warp drive we could reach the edge of Cardassian Space in thirty-six months. The problem is that the tesseract we encountered caused our warp coils to almost burn out. Our dilithium supply is also almost used up. If we used trans-warp drive now, we'd deplete our remaining dilithium within three days, but the warp coils would be worn out within two." The chief stated. "With most of our long-range sensors off-line, we've launched three class VI probes to help us locate what is out here. Lieutenant Okul and I will go over the information when it comes in. Finally, we must start to conserve as much power as possible, no replicators at all !."
Matthews looked around at the entire senior staff seated in the conference room and gave a very serious look.
"I'll have all our main systems back on-line in about five hours. That is all I have for now. " Matthews finished and walked out, headed to the turbolift to finish the repairs.
Sharpe then leaned back in his chair and saw the look of uncertainty in his staff's face.
"Listen, we have nothing but ourselves to depend on now. I think we need to keep our sense of formality. But we need to be more open in here and only in here. This will be a long journey, but a beneficial one. Dismissed."
The crew filed out until only the Captain, Commander Wolf and Axeline were left.
"What can we do for you Doctor ?" Captain Sharpe inquired.
"Are things as serious as Chief Matthews made out ?" Axeline asked.
"At the moment, yes they are." Commander Wolf said.
"As CMO I would have to protest at the shutting down of the replicator systems. I have patients that require regular medication which will need to be replicated." Axeline stated.
"I'll have a word with the Chief and see if we can re-route power to the replicator in sickbay, so long as you only replicate the exact amount of medication required." Sharpe offered.
"Understood." Axeline thanked the Captain. "Now to my second point, with replicators off-line we'll be on emergency rations. I don't need to tell you that rations were been designed for short-term use only, I'd be worried about the entire crews health if they were to be on rations for more than two weeks."
"Doctor, in two weeks time all the emergency rations will be gone and without the replicators the health of the crew will not be a concern, because we'll all be dying of malnutrition." Sharpe replied. "Let's just hope that we don't have to reach that position, I hate emergency rations. Hopefully, the information from the probes will give us access to the resources we required, both to repair the Hornet and to stock-up on fresh supplies."
"I'd suggest turning over the airponics bay to the production of fresh fruit and vegetables." Axeline recommended.
"Already underway Doctor." Sharpe replied. "Anything else ?"
"No. Thank you Captain." Axeline replied.
He rose from his seat and headed back to sickbay thinking. Was history going to repeat itself. Would Axeline be the sole survivor of the USS Hornet, lost January 25, 2385 presumed destroyed.