Commander Thalissa Zheen dared to look down towards the one hundred and eighty or so meter drop below and let the thrill wash through her nerves.  The jagged edges of stone digging into her fingers were making them feel numb, but there was still a ways to climb yet.  The Andorian clung to the sheer cliffside, taking a moment to bask in the view below and behind her.  Wind whipped past her face, and despite her eyewear she found herself blinking away a speck of dust that had found its self somehow laughing in the face of physics to get under one of her eyelids.  Her hands were too occupied to wipe away at the irritant.  But it didn’t get in the way of appreciating the vista laid out before her.

In a strange way, the view invoked a sense of longing in her.  The feel of staring out at this empty, arid world and its desertscape bore a striking similarity to the lonely Andorian tundras of the moon she grew up on.  The air lacked the cold, snappy bite and the colors were all wrong.  But otherwise, she found a strange appreciation in the scene.  Below, the utility vehicle that had delivered her to this treacherous location looked like a child’s toy in the distance.  The two figures that stood next to it might as well be small figurines, who held their hands up to shade their eyes against the harsh glare of the Pieris system’s sun as they watched her progress.

“What’s wrong, Commander?”  Kiran Nivar’s voice came from the combadge at her breast.  The Bajoran would be too gruff to admit it, but Thalissa suspected the extreme heights skeeved him out.

“Nothing at all, Lieutenant Commander.” Thalissa assured him with a grin.  “Just taking a moment to savor the view.  Still time to change your mind and catch up, if you want to see it for yourself.”  She may as well rub it in.  She could see the form next to him mirthfully remove his wide brimmed hat and slap a knee.  The distance would be far too vast for the sounds of his guffawing to carry.  Montana Colburn, the colony’s own chief engineer, was down there with him monitoring her progress.

“No, thanks.  Somebody’s got to remain down here and stay comfortable.” Nivar quipped.  “You can keep your view all to yourself, Commander.  One hundred thirty-three meters to go.”

Thalissa snickered quietly to herself.  “Glad to have your blessing, Lieutenant.”

She did need to keep going, however.  She turned back around and gripped another anchor to drive it in to the rock face above.  Then she reached down to unclasp a carabiner from the anchor below to move it into the newly placed one.  Afterwards came the careful probing, as first her left foot finally found purchase in the sliver of a ledge.  Next, her right hand slid up and found temporary relief from the sharp bite of the rock face before she found another trustworthy handhold and pulled herself up just a little more.

The progress was slow going, but it marched on.  The cliffside was three hundred and sixteen meters to climb in all.  But it would be faster than driving for the miles and miles of distance to take the long way around in order to reach the top.  Thalissa had offered to make the climb and cut their driving time down.  She’d accompanied Kiran Nivar and Montana Colburn as they set out to replace more sensor cores and install the shunts that the Fresno’s engineering team had put together to protect them from further burnouts.  She could use the practice installing the things, she was one of the very few senior crew of the Fresno that did not have much experience in engineering matters.  She was also the only one out of them at the moment who was qualified to make this climb.

It was also something to do while they waited.  There wasn’t much else to do now but wait for another surge to go off.  The shuttle Huntington had arrived to Pieris IV mere hours ago, bringing Dren Lor, Revek, and Lenara Rix with it.  Lieutenant Commander Dren Lor had briefed them regarding what had been found aboard Ardent Dawn.  A virus had caused a surge that had specifically targeted its navigational sensors, the same way a virus was causing deliberate surges to burn out the ground sensors being distributed around the Pieris IV colony.  Thalissa suspected that the ground sensors in particular were simply collateral damage and that the true target had been the sensors the colony relied on in order to detect the arrival and departure of nearby vessels.  The idea would be to mask the activities conducted in this system made by the mysterious vessel that the recovered logs of the Ardent Dawn had pinged right as its sensors had blown.  Director Nigels had been negligent in mentioning his issues with the colony’s spaceward sensor systems up in orbit, his focus was more on the worry of his ground sensors and his research progress.  Mentioning the entirety of his issues at the beginning might have allowed the crew of the Fresno to connect the dots faster.

“Jackass…” Thalissa muttered as she considered the head civilian researcher.  Clearly, recognizing potential security threats to the whole Pieris system ranked just under utilizing optimal worm productivity in his eyes.

“Uh-oh, that definitely sounded like something wrong this time.” Kiran’s voice came back over the comms with a hint of concern.

“Nothing to worry about.” she said irritably.

She hadn’t even realized she’d said that out loud.  Her mind was on what they’d find next.  Captain Dart had returned to the Fresno along with Dren Lor, Revek, and Linara Rix.  Fresno had stayed in orbit just long enough to repair the sensor array satellite that orbited the world and to purge the virus out of that system, and then they had gone to warp in order to depart the immediate area.  They were now hanging just barely out of range, powered down in order to present the smallest sensor profile that they could while they waited to observe.  Thalissa had stayed behind to oversee things while Kiran Nivar helped shore up Director Nigels’ precious ground sensors against further surges.  Vorak and his security team had also remained and were busy isolating the virus from the colony’s systems and adding in an addendum that would hopefully allow them to better trace the source and identify the mystery vessel that was sending the brief burst of commands that triggered the virus’ process.  Doctor T’Lan was also still here, she had initially shown interest in wanting to go over the data regarding the researchers’ attempts made at successfully synthesizing a successful batch of the worm enzymes so that they wouldn’t even have to keep tracking them and harvesting it directly.  But when it became apparent that they would have to purge the entire computer system of the colony, she had redirected her efforts towards helping the researchers back up all of their studies first onto isolated data modules that would not interface with any systems until it could be verified by Vorak and his team that they were virus-free.

Thalissa’s breath came ragged by the time her hands found the top of the cliff face, and she triumphantly pulled herself up.  She honestly hadn’t expected to receive this manner of rigorous workout when they had first arrived at this world, but she welcomed it.  She would probably find the circumstances in which she’d be utilizing her physical training to be few and far between with this new rank and posting.  She was glad to be able to still draw on those skills for this first assignment of the USS Fresno.  The tall framework style structure of the sensor was just ahead.  She paused a moment to unhook her safety line and then reach for her canteen.  She pulled a rewarding and long overdue draught of cold water past her lips.  Then she started for the small structure.  She crouched at its base and unslung the pack she had made the climb with.  The shunt and replacement sensor core would be contained within the bag.

Tapping her badge, she crisply checked in.  “Alright, I’m at the base of the sensor.  What first?”

“That panel there at the bottom visible?” drawled the unique accent of Montana Colburn.  “Get ‘er popped.”

“Panel?  I don’t see any-” Thalissa stoped mid sentence and rolled her eyes at herself.  She reached a hand out and swept at the dirt under the tower of framework.  The wind was so fierce this high up that the access point had been completely buried in dust and small rocks from the strong gusts.  She eventually uncovered a small access hatchway.  Thalissa engaged the locking mechanism and pulled, to no effect.  She grunted and pulled a second time.  “I found it, but it seems to be stuck.  Had a pretty deep layer of dirt over it.  It isn’t coming free.”  Thalissa hadn’t brought much in the way of equipment with her in order to keep things light for her climb.  She had been assured that the only thing she’d have to do was perhaps clean some scoring off of some contact points after pulling out the fried core.  Everything else would be as easy as plugging it all in.

“Well, shit fire and save matches.” muttered Montana’s voice over the comms.  Thalissa’s antennae twitched in confusion at the curious phrase.  “It’s this goddamn dust.  Don’t rain much, but when it does, that stuff’s finer than flour.  Soon as it gets wet, it’ll set up harder than a mule kickin’ at a brick wall.”

What a strange man.  She sighed and looked around for ideas.  Her eyes rest on a stone that was just a little larger than her fist.  Grabbing it, she began to pound at the hatch and pull at the same time.

“Sweetheart, are you serious right now?”  Her combadge must have picked up the rock striking the panel.  “You can’t just go bangin’ on delicate equipment like it’s some kinda barn door!  There’s a reason we’ve got tools, Commander.  Quit before you break half the shit we’re trying to fix!”

The Andorian growled in irritation, vowing to wring the man’s neck when she got back down from here.  “Correct, you mean the tools you assured me I wouldn’t have to drag up this sorry cliff.” she snapped back coolly.  But she stopped.  Hitting it like an angry Klingon wasn’t breaking the seams loose, anyways.  This was going to require a little more finesse.  A moment of eureka struck her as she reached for the phaser at her hip.  An old and comfortable presence from the days of security that were indeed only literal days behind her, she hadn’t even considered the prospect of removing it when she had been conscientious of minimizing weight for the climb.  Now she was glad for the oversight.  She tapped away at its settings before firing it off, tracing a path around the seams of the panel.

“Jesus tap dancin’ Christ, sugar!” came the next exasperated shout.  “If the surges ain’t killin’ it off then you’re sure dead set to!”

“Calm down, already!” she snapped back, her temper now flaring.  “It’s on the lowest possible setting.  It’s as harmless as phasering off sludge from a carbon filter.”  And the idea was much the same; melt off the sunbaked claylike substance to free up the panel.  Even as she finished up the job in irritation, she couldn’t help but wonder who this Jesus Christ person was or why they might wish to tap dance.  The other humans she served with never said any of this weird crap.  This guy was just stringing words together like the incoherent ramblings of a Ferengi that’s had too much Hupyrian beetle snuff.

It was Kiran who barked a short laugh at her improvised solution over the transmission.  “Never send up an irate former security officer to do an engineer’s job.”

The panel pulled up easily.  “I’ve got it, now.”  She reached inside and gave a twist to unlock the old core.  She pulled its burnt husk up and set it down next to her pack.  She’d rappel back down with it when she was done up here so that it could go back into a matter reclaimer.  She pulled out the replacement sensor core and inserted it.

She was just about to twist the core and lock it into place when Kiran Nivar’s voice came yet again through her combadge.  “Don’t forget, the shunt should probably be applied before the new core goes in, you never know when the next surge is going to come.”

“Commander?  Lads?”  Vorak’s voice came over the comms.   “Watch yourselves.  They’re back, got another surge comin’ right now.”

For the love of everything unholy, it was as though Kiran’s dreaded suggestion of the prospect had summoned up the fabled banshee of the ice caves that very young Andorian children would try to call forth on a dare from their siblings and peers.  It was moments like these that made Thalissa wonder if that miserable bitch weren’t real, after all.  She lunged for the fresh core she’d just deposited into the receptacle and yanked it back out as fast as she could.  A cold pit fell in her stomach as she stared next at the old burnt out core next to her bag.  Without it inside of the receptacle to absorb when the surge would hit…  Energy began to arc at the charred empty contact points.  It started slow at first, slowly building up to a crescendo.  She swore vehemently and desperately kicked the cover plate shut.  As fast as it slammed shut, it was flung back open and a wayward arc of energy shot out just as Thalissa was diving for cover.  Like a targ licking the face of its master, the very tip of the arc gently caressed her arm like agonizing fire.  The contact was milliseconds brief, or else it would have been fatal.  The pain was both as hot as a thousand suns, and as cold is the darkest depths of Andoria its self.  She cried out so loud, she was sure the others could hear her all the way to the bottom of the cliffside.  “Damn it all to hell!”

“Commander Zheen!” Kiran’s voice was now tinted with just a trace of panic.  But beneath it was a hard edge that also spoke of someone who was no stranger to taking over in a crisis.  “Can you respond?”

“I’m hurt.  But, alive…” she finally managed.  Her antennae drooped now, pointed to either side like a wounded canine’s.  She assessed the damage, sucking air through gritted teeth in pain as she tore off what was left of her sleeve and then gingerly touched the burnt flesh.  The skin was still there, just charred rather nastily from elbow to wrist.  She marveled at how it was beginning to feel both numb and excruciatingly on fire at the same time.

“Stay put, sir.” Kiran said sternly, as though she were the subordinate under her care and not the other way around.  “We’ll find a way to get up to you quickly.”  She had to commend him on his manner of grabbing the Makra by the fur and taking charge.  They definitely had the right man running Engineering aboard the Fresno.

“No.” she waved him off, then winced at the pain and cursed herself for the unnecessary movement.  Kiran couldn’t even see the gesture.  “The fastest thing to do is rappel down.  I’ll do this damn thing, and get down to you guys.  Just stand by.”  He wasn’t going to be happy with the order once she got down there and he saw her arm.  But it was her call to make.

“Understood, ma’am.” came the reply.  He already didn’t sound pleased with her, but wasn’t going to argue with his superior officer.

She glared icy Andorian daggers at the fresh sensor core as she approached her pack.  It wasn’t the objects’ fault.  If she’d have left the faulty core in and done the shunt first, then the arc would have had something else to go into rather than seek her out.  It was her own fault, but she had to direct her anger at something.  She hefted the thing up with her one good arm, and slammed it down into the receptacle.  Hard.  The shock of the angry, violent movement sent another wave of pain down her burnt forearm.  She growled through it as she gave the thing a twist, noting with irony that yet again she neglected to first install the shunt.  She understood now that the agonizing pain was definitely affecting her focus.  Too bad.  Let another surge come and fry the stupid bastard.  She highly doubted one would come so fresh off the heels of this last one, anyways.  Turning now to deal with the shunt, she slid the hand of her good arm into her bag and withdrew the infernal thing.  This next part would be tricky.  Thalissa was going to need two hands to do this.  She found herself wishing she’d been born Aenar instead, so she could just telekinesis this whole job right up.  It was a ridiculous sentiment.  Aenar were telepaths, they didn’t possess the ability to just levitate things around at a whim.

“I don’t give a damn.” she muttered out loud, not caring one whit that she had been continuously broadcasting during the duration of this entire task and that she now sounded completely and deliriously out of her gourd.  “As long as I’m wishing in one hand and shitting in the other, then Aenar are also telekinetic.”  Her combadge chirped and then played silence over the open air before cutting out.  A sign that Kiran was about to ask her what the hell she was talking about but had changed his mind at the last moment.  She maniacally laughed outright at the twinge of sorrow she felt for the poor son of a bitch, he was now outnumbered by companions that spewed utter nonsense.  Yeah, the intense pain was affecting her, alright.

Focusing her gaze back towards the fresh sensor core in the receptacle, she followed the path where the contact points would be under the core and followed the wire-like conduit up until she identified a linkage.  The conduit would be broken up into smaller parts to easier facilitate the replacement of bad sections.  It really didn’t matter which of the two sections the pulled apart.  The shunt simply needed to be in the middle of two sections of any of the conduit that fed power to the sensor, and it would perform its job of absorbing and bleeding off the excess energy surges before they could reach and overload the sensor.  She just needed to simply reach out to the closest linkage, twist, and separate them.  The shunt would go in between, and the two ends of the conduit would twist back on to either end of the shunt the same way they were detached from one another.  Sure, nothing to it.  It’ll be fine.

She reached for the closest linkage of conduit and grasped the bottom one with the hand of her good arm.  Bracing herself, she took a few quick and shallow breaths.  Then she forced herself to reach with her bad arm and grasp the end of the top conduit.  The pain in her forearm intensified tenfold as the muscle below her wrist flexed with the grip.  She twisted and screamed, louder it seemed than she did when she had been struck.

Her combadge chirped again.  “Commander…  I think you should come down.”

“Stow it, Lieutenant Commander!” she snapped shrilly.  “I don’t give two squirts of piss right now!  I’ll come down when I’m done!”

She held the shunt now, and repeated the agonizing motion twice again with just as much verbal expulsion as she carried each task out.  With a few more ragged breaths, the deed was done.  She hefted the bad core back into her bag with the good arm, and didn’t even bother zipping it back up as she was quite finished with tasks that involved the use of both hands.  She briefly considered just throwing the goddamn thing over the edge.  Maybe it’d strike that annoying human with his inane phrases.  She finally just settled for slinging it over the shoulder of her good arm.  She let the injured one hang limply as she walked back to the edge of the cliff.  She grasped the rappel line built into her harness, and clipped it to the last anchor she’d embedded to the top of the cliffside during her climb up.  Thalissa backed down until she hung over the edge, and gripped the mechanism that controlled her decent in both hands as she squeezed.  She kicked off and fell in controlled freefall for a short distance before her feet landed on the cliff wall.  The jarring shock of the impact sent another wave of pain up her numbed forearm.  “Motherfu-”  The curse didn’t even fully escape her lips as she fumbled her grip on the control mechanism and began an uncontrolled freefall along the cliff wall.  Luckily a deadman’s function kicked in, and her fall slowed as the mechanism’s reel tensed up and allowed her uncontrolled fall to proceed at a safe velocity.  She slid down the rest of the cliff at a somewhat more controlled pace, spitting out more vile curses each time she spun in a manner that caused her wounded arm to make contact with the rock wall.  Kiran Nivar and Montana Colburn were both there to catch her as she reached the bottom.  The Fresno’s Bajoran engineer unclasped her line right as all of their comms chirped.

“Commander ye won’t believe it, but a ship exited warp right here on top of us!” Vorak’s animated voice came.  “The bloody thing landed planetside somewhere.  They were pretty casual about it, probably don’t know the jig is up and that we’re not so blind, anymore.  Fresno just dropped out of warp after they disappeared.  We got the bloody buggers, now!”

Thalissa allowed herself to be led to the back of the utility vehicle.  She reached awkwardly with her good arm to tap her badge in response.  “Good.  We’ll see what Captain Dart has to say, but I’d advise readying your men.”  She winced as she climbed up into the rear seats.  Kiran climbed up with her, and began to gently examine her injury.  “Oh, and tell Doctor T’Lan to prepare to receive one casualty.”  She’d rather have their own doctor treat her than any of these colonist fools.  She might be unfairly biased thanks to the only two buffoons she’d met so far; that ignorant Director and this babbling engineer.  She also might be irrationally angry from the intense pain and allowing that to affect her judgement.  She could care less.

Montana Colburn climbed into the driver’s seat and turned to regard her injury fully for the first time.   He let out a low whistle.  “Well shit, you sure didn’t come out unscathed.  But damn if you didn’t get the job done!  You’re as tough as a bullfrog in a frying pan full of bacon grease, I’ll give ya that!”

She fixed him with a glare sharp enough to cut glass, the boiling rage and irritation he seemed to be invoking within her coursing through her veins like a batch of Romulan ale gone bad.  “Listen, you lunatic!  If I have to endure another one of your mindless verbal gymnastics, I swear I’ll rearrange your face with my fist!  So for the love of all that’s holy, just shut the hell up!”

“Okay, Commander!” Kiran Nivar said gently, holding up a hypospray he had been preparing from the medkit that was stowed with the vehicle’s supplies.  He pressed it to her upper arm, just above the wound.  “Just calm down and let this run its course.”

Montana held up his hands defensively.  “Whoa there, darlin’!  I promise I didn’t mean to poke the bear!  You’re as fiery as a jalapeño in July!  No need to go swingin’ fists!”

As the numbing combination of painkillers and tranquilizers ran through her veins, Thalissa fought to make good on her threat.  She didn’t manage it as their vehicle started its way back to the colony.  Instead, she slumped into exhaustion like a leaded weight sinking into quicksand.  It was a bizarre, disembodied feeling as she watched with fascination the gnawing pain twist what little rational thoughts she had left into a deeper sense of aggression.  Why waste this rage on the pink-skinned fool at the driver’s seat when the real culprits were close at hand?  Wait, pain?  What pain?  The road back to the colony felt less like a rocky, uneven slog and more like a surreal float through a hallucinogenic dreamscape.  The meds were definitely kicking in.  Good, let the agony fade into oblivion.  It made room for the thrill of dispensing the sort of justice that would make the Q weep.  She might be wounded, but her spirit was revved up and ready to drag those responsible through hell its self.   It was all building up to some great climax, like the moment before lightning strikes.  She let that vengeful thought swirl in her mind, a twisted comfort as her eyelids drooped like dead weights.  Sleep took her, pulling her down into the chaos of dreams and delirious musings.