Sometimes, life didn’t make narrative sense, and this was probably one of those moments. The Cardassian vessel had been hit by a part of another ship, which had turned the tides in the Cupertino’s favour. Perhaps Gul Dan felt like talking now that they no longer had the upper hand.

Just when Saffiya was about to hail them yet again, sensors picked up distress signals from the Cardassian ship. It was clear that the storm had inflicted more damage on them than anticipated, and that diverting power from the shields had been an utterly stupid move. But then, a lot of that the Cardassians had done in the past hours had seemed “stupid” and almost random – but was it really? They would have t find out later.

Saffiya Nassar’s eyes narrowed as she studied the readings on her console.

“Lieutenant Sydin, status of the Cardassian ship?” Nassar asked.

Sydin’s fingers moved over her console as he relayed the information. “Their shields are down, and they’ve sustained significant structural damage, their sickbay is affected. Their life support systems are failing in multiple sections. They have injured onboard, Captain.”

Nassar took a deep breath. “Ensign Leski, open a channel to Gul Dan.”

Leski nodded, and the screen flickered to life, revealing Gul Dan’s tense and weary face. The anger from before was still there, but now mixed with a hint of desperation.

“Gul Dan, it appears your ship has sustained heavy damage,” Saffiya said. Her voice was firm but compassionate. “We can offer assistance.”  
The Gul gave a nod. “We have injured, and no one to tend to them. If you send over your medical teams, we-“

“No.”, Saffiya cut him off right away. “I will not beam over anyone to you again.  We can however take some of your injured onboard the Cupertino.”

His eyes narrowed, suspicion evident. “Why would you help us again, Captain?”

“Because we’re not enemies by choice, Gul Dan. And because it’s the right thing to do,” Nassar replied, her tone earnest. “Whatever your objective here is, I very much believe you want to keep yourself and your crew alive. So do I.”

There was a tense silence as Dan considered her offer. Finally, he nodded curtly. “Very well.”

“Prepare to beam over the injured, and receive our aid. We are on our way. Nassar out.”

The screen went dark, and Nassar turned to her crew. “Lieutenant Sydin, keep a close watch on their ship. Any sign of hostile activity, let me know immediately. Lieutenant Silveira, I need a way to extend our shields to the Cardassian vessel, or merge both shields once they are back. Work with them to get that sorted. Doctor Trova, I am well aware sickbay is already overwhelmed, but we can’t just leave the Cardassians without medical help.”

Trova nodded. “Got it. I’ll make it work.”  

The crew sprang into action, and within minutes, the Cupertino’s transporters were humming with activity. Emergency supplies were beamed over to the Cardassian vessel, and several injured Cardassians were transported to the Cupertino’s sickbay.

 ((Sickbay, USS Cupertino))

Doctor Trova didn’t love having Cardassians on board, but she had found them to be not as bad as she had previously thought. And when she entered sickbay, she was greeted with several familiar faces.  
“Doctor Duran.”, she exclaimed, rushing to the aged Cardassian female she had worked with just a moment ago.

Duran had sustained several fractures in her right arm and left leg. The scans revealed compound fractures in the femur and radius, indicating that these injuries were likely caused by a heavy impact or collapsing structural elements during the storm, and there were additional microfractures in her ribs and clavicle. 
Luckily the scans indicated no significant internal bleeding. It wasn’t much of a win, but Nichelle would take it.

Neritalor Zorkal, the Cardassian engineer, hadn’t been as lucky. He was in critical condition, though his injuries differed from Duran’s.  Scans showed extensive bruising and contusions across his torso, suggesting he had been subjected to repeated blunt force trauma. There was some internal bleeding – it wasn’t severe, but it was evidence of traumatic impact injuries that suggested he had endured a beating of considerable force.

“What happened here?”, Nichelle whispered, but didn’t receive a response. The injuries were consistent with a violent assault, and why would the Cardassians attack each other? Fine, it didn’t strike Nichelle as out of character for them to turn on their own kind – she had heard stories about the Obsidian Order and the generally ongoing power struggle – but she… well, kind of expected them to just shoot each other and stuff the remains into a matter reclaimer.

“Okay team, let’s help our Cardassian friends.”, she sighed. She could ask about whatever this was about later.