It had been the hardest thing that the young ensign had ever had to do in his life. It felt bad enough that he should be allowing someone to be taken prisoner without making any attempt to save them.  Worse that it was a fellow Caitain with whom he’d just formed a bond with on their short journey to the planet.  But that is exactly what C’Rren had done. 

‘If you get captured or killed, who’s going to rescue me?’ 

Those last words she’d spoken to him, hung in the air, for twenty minutes he’d waited.  Someone had boarded the shuttle. He’d heard the thud of boots on deck plating, boxes and containers moved, C’Rren had held his breath fearing discovery at any moment, but the search had been brief and half-hearted at best.  Still though he’d waited; just in case the Devore hadn’t really left.  At some point he felt they must have gone, there had been no sound of movement for several minutes.  Eventually emerging from his hiding place C’Rren cautiously looked around, before heading to the shuttles cockpit. 

He made several unsuccessful attempts to make contact with either of the two ships up in space.  C’Rren had stood in for Ensign Cho and knew how to operate and adjust the settings of the sort of standard Federation communication equipment this shuttle was fitted with.  The only conclusion was that the storm was interfering with everything.  And from the noise outside the storm was only getting stronger.

It was beginning to look like he might need to take off, and with the wind gusting as it was, that seemed a daunting task to say the least.  The last time he’d flown any form of shuttle was at the Academy, and that had been on a perfectly calm cloud free day, with perfect visibility.  Right now he couldn’t see beyond 100 metres.  The hillside and cave entrance were out there somewhere, he just couldn’t see them; and when you couldn’t see something that just made them fell closer, bigger and more dangerous.  

He spent another five minutes convincing himself he could do it and another twenty more familiarising himself with the controls, whilst looking at the manual.  He briefly looked up from the screen, as something large and dark flew up into the sky; he’d only caught a momentary glimpse out of the corner of his eye, but for a second C’Rren was convinced in was a person.  But that was just stupid, and the result of an over active mind playing tricks.  If he was going to attempt any sort of take-off it would be now. 

The shuttle Teohari’s engines slowly hummed into life, as his fingers moved over the control surface. He’d watched how effortlessly M’Niia could fly this thing, now it was his turn.  A part of him felt that this was abandoning her, but with help he would come back and rescue his fellow Caitain and the others, he just had to.  More power and the hum increased in volume; it wasn’t loud barely audible above the wind raging outside, but it was enough to reassure the young Caitian.  As the Type 6A shuttle lifted up it was buffeted almost dragged sideways, more power, engines, 60%, 70%, it was still being pulled.  At 80% he was finally pulling away from the immense forces of nature acting against the shuttle. 

Racing skyward, C’Rren took the small craft out of the planet’s atmosphere and into space.  As soon as he did so, the ship was picked up by the Jaxartes and he heard the welcoming voice of Ensign Cho asking if he was ok.  He quickly informed everyone about the Devore and the massive storm above the planet.  Finally rather sheepishly he asked if anyone could possible dock the shuttle as he was feeling less than confident about doing so. 

Roughly five minutes later he heard the noise from the emergency transporter pad come to life, as it received an incoming signal, moments later a single column of light resolved itself into the figure of Lieutenant Stuart, who promptly stepped off the pad and walked towards the cockpit. “Someone order valet parking?” She asked with a smile.  What she got though in response was a big hug from the young ensign. “Hey easy, you’re ok.”

“I left her, left them all.” He half sobbed into her chest. 

Stuart lifted his head up. “You did the right thing coming back. Now get yourself checked out by the doc, whilst I get this thing parked, ok.”  He simply nodded. “We’ll get them out of there, just you see.”

            ********** 

A few minutes later he was in sickbay aboard the ‘Jax’, with doctor Andrianakis running a few scans over him as he sat on one of the bio-beds.  The Betazoid and Chief Engineer was still occupying the second bed in an inducted coma, but his vital signs had been showing hints of an improvement, these past couple of days. A positive sign that he would recover, but it was still a long road ahead. 

“Other than mild shock, you seem to be in good health.” Andrianakis reassured the Caitain. “You can carry on with your duties.” 

Just then the Vulcan Commander walked in. “How is the patient?” He enquired.

“Fit, well and I’m sure eager to do all he can to help.” Was the Doctors confident response. 

“Good, just what I like to hear.” Salan replied. “I will fill you in on the details of our plan.”

            ********** 

To say the SS Alchemist was big was an understatement; this ship was huge, and it wasn’t just any vessel.  This was one of the prides of the Fleet Auxiliary, a space bound factory, an industrial complex with a warp drive.  Also it was probably one of the ugliest things ever to grace the heavens.  But then this misshapen lump of engineering knowhow had been built for a purpose, not to win any beauty awards.  With the majority of equipment it carried being automated; despite the size, the crew numbered less than two hundred. 

On-board, two of the largest industrial replicators found anywhere off world or at a major orbital facility.  They were capable of creating a vast array of equipment.  Harvesters and grain silo’s for farming communities; shield generators, power converters, orbital defence satellites; you name it, with enough time and resources this ship could create anything.  It could even replicate a complete and fully functioning Runabout, in less than 48 hours! 

The Alchemist could also repair and refit vessels as large as the Nova class, using its external gantry system, which sat three quarters of the way back along its length, making it look as if some giant ‘space shark’ had bitten out a chunk of the ship, leaving the bare bones behind.

The main advantage of this ship was the ability to go almost anywhere within Federation territory and do almost anything when it got there.  The down side was that it was so agonisingly slow, with a maximum speed of warp 3.7; only the fact it was heading this way already, meant its timely arrival the following morning.  

            ********** 

On the bridge of the Jaxartes, Ensign Harris carefully brought the Raven class corvette alongside the immense vessel that totally dwarfed it. In fact up close, it seemed to dwarf the planets, stars, even space itself. “Wow, does this thing ever end?” He exclaimed in wonder.  “It just goes on, and on!”  Eventually though, they did reach the gantry; a pair of tractor-beams, helped guide the ship into position, before magnetic claps locked it firm.  Shortly after that an extendible docking arm moved into place and formed an airtight seal over the ships docking hatch.   

******** 

Five minutes later Commander Salan was standing at the hatchway of the Alchemist as it hissed and groaned open.  Waiting on the other side, all smiles and warm handshakes was her commanding offer.  “Welcome aboard the Alchemist. I’m Captain Johnson.”  The tall dark skinned Jamaican born Captain and engineer announced.  “Everything you requested is being sorted out as we speak.” 

“Thank you.  We are glad of your assistance.” The Vulcan replied before turning to the Orion next to him.  “This is Lieutenant Stuart. She’ll be dealing with the aperture.” 

“So you’re the one who drew the short straw then.” He responded light heartedly.  “There’s a shuttle set up with Quantum’s in Bay 1.”  He pointed to a short grumpy looking Tellarite; who was eager to have them follow him.  Stuart thanked Johnson and signalled for Ensign Tholakath to follow her.  As the Cardassian passed the Jamaican, he received a pat on the shoulder and was wished good luck.  The plan was that whilst she flew the shuttle that Tholakath would be responsible for firing a spread of high yield quantum torpedoes with the aim of collapsing the opening, saving Vargus III from total devastation.

Whilst that dangerous and important task was taking place.  Lieutenant Devron, Ensign C’Rren and Doctor Andrianakis, along with three crewmen, would be heading down in a large Type 20 shuttle, with the rear cargo section converted into a passenger cabin.  A possible second entry point into the tunnel system had been located after an orbital scan by the Cuyahoga Valley. 

Everything was ready, now all they had to do was undertake a successful mission and bring those held captive out safely.