Moving through the darkness, her face illuminated by the lights she passed, Selara surveyed Sickbay. Sukal and Mendez recovered so many crewmen. “I'd be surprised if there were any crew left elsewhere on the ship,” she said with a chuckle. Selara moved to the doors of Sickbay.

“Crewman, how are things on door duty? I apologize, but I couldn't give you a more exciting assignment,” she said with a smile.

Crewman Fearne Popples had been manning the door since the tag team of Sukal and Mendez had found her in a corridor on her way to Sickbay a while back. Since then she'd been getting a nice workout from manually opening and closing the door every few minutes and was helping keep spirits up with her slightly inane cheeriness.

“Pretty open and shut, really," Fearne couldn't help but joke in reply to the Doctor's question. “I mean…” she continued with a grin, “…what else am I gonna do in here? Assist with surgery? Sure if you want your nose where your finger should be and like, three butt cheeks by all means let me help with surgery.”

Selara laughed heartily, she so enjoyed Fearne being in Sickbay to lighten the mood. “I don't think three butt cheeks would be preferable by anyone.” She sighed, “I guess there isn't much for anyone to do. But I suppose that preferable to something being on fire and chaos." She stopped, "Come to think of it, we haven't heard from them in a while.” She turned to Korren's station, "Ensign, how long since known contact with the ERT?”

“A little over an hour and a half ago,” Korren replied. “At their current rate of movement, provided they haven't run into trouble, they should have almost cleared Deck 3 or 4.”

A loud bang drew the attention of everyone in Sickbay. Selara turned to see two men grappling each other. “Crewman, secure the door. You're with me," as she started walking towards the men.

Fearne did so quickly, re-stowing the manual release, and took a few fast steps to catch up with Selara. Her mind was already working, sizing up the two men, analysing their uniforms to see if they may have combat training, their size, weight, or any obvious weak spots. It wasn't a nice thing to think about, especially when it was colleagues rather than enemies, but if it came down to it she might have to break things up with force. The fact they were men wasn't too much of an issue. Fearne was in the top 1% of Starfleet human females for sheer strength, bench pressing in the region of 100 kg. Allied to that she had been training in martial arts and combat for well over a decade.

The two women quickly closed the distance to the two men. Selara could see the two of them more clearly: A human dressed in a red uniform and a Bajoran dressed in a yellow one. They were locked at the biceps, each trying to force the other to the ground. Neither noticed the crowd dispersing to allow Selara and Fearne to pass. 

Acting quickly, Selara recalled her Ryadam training and struck the closest man on the side of his head. This stunned the Bajoran and forced him to break the grapple, allowing Selara to come between the two men. “What in the hell is going on here?” Selara yelled in the voice of a mother scolding children. “We're floating adrift with no power, limited rations, and god only knows what's going on in the Bridge. And you're fighting like a couple of schoolyard children!”

The other man, seeing an opportunity to continue the argument, began raising his fist to the back of Selara. Fearne, who had been standing a couple of paces back from the three reaped the benefits of her youthful reaction times. She gripped the raised wrist of Selara's would-be attacker with her right, braced his upper arm with her left, and twisted the whole arm behind his back in one quick movement. The sole of her boot met the back of his knee and he dropped to kneeling with a yelp, thoroughly subdued. 

“Can't let you hit the doc, sir,” Fearne told him authoritatively, swiping his other wrist behind his back and using her elbows to put some weight on his shoulders to keep him facing the floor.

Selara turned and saw the human handily subdued by Fearne. She nodded, “Thank you, Crewman Popples,” she said with gratitude. Never turn your back on a hostile, Selara chided herself. She took a step back, keeping both men in her line of sight. “I don't care who started the fight, or what it was about, this will end immediately.” She turned to Fearne, “Lock them in the extra offices; it's the closest thing we have to brig cells.”

“Yes ma'am…” Fearne replied. “Come on sir, time for.. oh shit…” Her charge managed to wrestle free and Fearne dodged an angry flailing fist before one of her security colleagues stepped in and the man in red was manhandled away towards the offices, a security member on each arm.

Selara made way for them to pass. She turned to address the gathered crowd. “I know this is rough. We'll all scared and concerned for our friends, loved ones… ourselves. But things like this,” she motioned towards the two men being escorted away, “doesn't help anything. Cooperation is the only way we'll effectively make it through this.” With that, she walked away. “I'll be in my office,” she said to Korren as she passed his station.

With her charge safely locked in Fearne made her way back to door duty. Selara had moved to her office and Fearne inferred she wanted some space as a result. The young crewman knew from being told many, many times that she had a habit of chattering a bit much so had learned not to insert herself into situations. She did like speaking to Selara though. The C.M.O. responded kindly to her jabbering, rather than giving her the slightly amused or confused expression a lot of others did.

With a groan, Selara flopped in the chair behind her desk. She turned out her lights and sat in the darkness; the closest thing to privacy she had with an open door. Selara sighed and rubbed her eyes. The expectation of being in tense combat situations was part and parcel of Starfleet, but how do you fight an enemy you literally can't see? Moreover, how do you fight an enemy that comes from within? She closed her eyes in the darkness and listened. It had gone quiet. A natural reaction to the boil over. How long would the peace last? How long would she last?