Slowly opening her eyes, bright light emitted from every corner, but the shapes were familiar, yet strange. Sazra slowly rose and noticed herself sitting on the ground. She pressed her hand against the side of her head, feeling that piercing pain of a headache crawling up and coming to flourish to become the migraine she rather avoided. Taking a deep breath, she looked around slowly, seeing the bridge in its natural perfect state but covered with a light blue-white crystallized layer. Certain spots had crystals growing but strangely different colors: purple, red, or orange. 

Taking a deep breath, Sazra carefully muttered, “Is this death?” She was trying to get up from the floor but noticed she was stuck. Her eyes looked down to the floor, seeing the crystal floor growing slowly onto her skin. She took a deep breath and gave a brief facial expression of acceptance. If this was it, she wondered what was waiting for her at the other side, or was this the other side? What would happen next was a better question.

“Brace Brace Brace…” 

Sazra could hear the echoes of her voice that made her look around.

“All energy to shields above the Mariner, Captain!” 

Her head turned in the direction of where Miki would have stood. Her eyes diverted slowly downwards, and she saw the crystal crawling up her skin, the cold wave reaching her fingertips. 

“It's too big. I can't avoid it.” 

The pity and sad voice of K'Nala echoed from the navigation console. Sazra shrugged at the echo and knew damn well that K'Nala had done everything she could have done to prevent the ship from getting hit. It was a wild ride, and they would have been ripped apart if it had not been for her pilot skills. Sazra smiled softly, grateful as she could feel the cold, numbing feeling crawling up her legs as the crystal form grew up her leg. 

Taking a deep breath once again as she closed her eyes, now fully accepting and feeling the growth of coldness crawling faster up over her whole body. 

“Captain,” the familiar voice of K'Nala sounded and echoed in the light blue and bright bridge. “Captain!” It became louder. "Come back to us!” That was not a particular sentence Sazra remembered as one of her final moments on the bridge. Come back to where? Was this not death? The afterlife? Sazra wondered if Kobahl was with her right now.

“Please…Wake up!” The voice echoed through the bridge. The crystal color started to change from light blue to darker red, and cracks were shown. That was Asipa? Why was she crying out to me? Sazra opened her eyes, seeing the blurry sight as the crystal had covered her face, but the cracks expanded. “Asipa?” 

With another bang, the bridge shook as pieces of crystal started to drop, and suddenly, everything went black. There was a loud gasp of air as Sazra opened her eyes, seeing the broken ceiling and flickering lights. A wet, dripping feeling fell upon her cheek as her vision improved, seeing Asipa holding her head with tears rolling down her cheek. “Captain!” 

A sharp pain came from her chest as Sazra growled lowly in pain. Her eyes diverted down to the source of the pain, seeing K'Nala in a CPR position with her paws over her chest. “What….” Sazra coughs and feels her ribs painfully there in place.

K'Nala quickly took her hands away and checked Sazra. “Stay calm, Captain. Good to have you still with us. Your hearrrt stopped beating for a few seconds, and we had to perforrrm CPR on you to get yourrr hearrrt beating again”. K'Nala would never forget the cracking sounds of her Captain's ribs, as they were marked into her memory for the rest of her life. 

“Status….report.” Sazra gets pushed slowly up with the help of Asipa, only gasping for some air, seeing the bridge's condition much worse than she had wished for. The screen was broken, and some consoles were offline, sparking as the lights flickered. The front of the bridge had a collapsed ceiling, and there were quite some serious wounds. 

Drata looked up from treating one of the crewmen. “We are alive somehow.” He didn't want to sound sarcastic, but the realization of his final moments was still sinking its fangs into him. Drata looked at his injured Captain. “I have no possible way to conclude the ship's condition right now, but I could gather that we are running emergency power, systems are down, and that also counts for communications. Miki is trying to get a clear path as the turbo-lift is down, so using the old fashion tubes” 

“As the Lieutenant said, systems are down. That also counts for navigational systems. I did my best, Captain… I am sorry,” K'Nala said with tears forming in her eyes.

Looking at the young Caitian reminded Sazra of her own insecurities. She placed her hand on her furry cheek. “You did good. Help Drata with the wounded. Asipa, get communications back online. We need to know what the status is of the rest of the ship.” Sazra blinks, noticing that Asipa is refusing to move. She holds her grip tied on Sazra. “Asipa?” 

“No…you heard what Drata said, systems down, you just had a heart attack….your heart stopped, and we almost lost you, Captain.” Asipa's emotions were seen in the big Ferengi eyes. “You need to lean on us to do the job. You need to rest and get medical attention as fast as Miki gets a way out.” 

There was little argument about that fact; Sazra looked around, and some officers who could function looked worried at her and briefly nodded. “Okay, those that can help, help Miki find a path out of the bridge.” Then, the realization dawned on her, Silina was still on the middle decks during this whole ordeal. Sazra wanted to get up,  wanted to find her loved one, wanted to make sure that she was still alive. But her body didn't permit her to move, to work, to look as the pressure of reality sank in that her body had endured quite a bit on such short notice. “Damn…”