Oakland was a mess. As the ship’s XO sprinted down the hallways between the transporter room, turbolift, and bridge, everywhere she was dodging repair teams, groups of medical personnel, dangling wires, flying sparks, and on at least one occasion, came within a hair’s breadth of having a ceiling panel drop straight on her head. Even from within, it was clear that this brief exchange of fire had hit the ship harder than a Cali like her could really handle.

The bridge, at least, was somewhat more intact, beyond a few lights flickering and the science console unleashing a steady stream of smoke, panels cracked from whatever power surge had overloaded it. She paused at the doorway, sucking air into her starved lungs, and almost immediately found Maising standing by her side.

“Are you hurt, Commander?”

She shook her head, puffed a stray curl away from her eyes, and straightened up. “Negative, sir. Y’got us in the nick ‘a time. Wha’ happened?”

“Presumably? Whoever hit Rain Runner showed up,” Maising replied, standing aside as a team of engineers stormed out of the turbolift and swarmed the busted science console. “Dropping our shields to transport the away team was exactly the opening they were looking for. Damage report states we’ve got sizable hull breaches on decks nine, ten, thirteen, and eighteen through twenty-one. Heavy casualties down in engineering…” His voice trailed off, face grim.

“… and what, sir?” Charlie asked, trepidation more than evident in her voice.

“… without power, the impacts on Rain Runner forced the hulk directly into one of the nacelles,” he continued. “With the damage to Engineering, nobody can even find Lieutenant Commander Brawley, much less get a solid read on whether we can repair the nacelle. Lieutenant zh’Treva is already confirmed KIA. With both the chief engineer and assistant chief gone, I’ve given T’Vara a field promotion to lieutenant and ordered her to do what she can, but until then…”

She finished for him, and even the former security officer couldn’t hold back the dread from showing on her face, or in her voice. “… we’re dead in th’ wa’er, ain’ we?”

“Indeed.” The two senior officers finally stepped away from the turbolift and headed for their chairs. Charlie sank into hers with an exhausted huff, the seat creaking under her weight very suddenly dropping into it like a sack of potatoes. Maising continued, after a moment of silence. “At least, for the moment. We still have the other nacelle, but Engineering still has to finish sorting itself out before they can judge whether we’re able to make at least half speed at warp. And while we’re stuck in this nebula, calling for help is going to be difficult at best– there’s too much interference for our comms to get through clearly.”

“E’en a spo’y distress call’s be’er ‘n nothin’, sir,” Charlie replied, sinking further and further into her chair. Any more and she might become one with it, merge with the fabric covers until Charlotte MacColgan became Chairlotte MacColgan. “Nae t’ mention, we’ve nae found anyone on Rain Runner. Whole bloody ship’s empty- er, was empty. Nae much ‘a ‘er left after that collision.”

“On the one hand, it’s a relief to know there were no casualties aboard when she was destroyed…” the captain muttered, before dragging a hand down his face. “… but on the other hand, if her crew is gone, that means they’ve likely been taken prisoner. Most likely, by the same pirates who just showed up to hammer us into oblivion. This entire fiasco was a trap all along, and we flew straight into it.”

“… an’ now we cannae fly out.”

A heavy sigh left Maising’s lips, hands pressed together as he thought. “We’ll try a distress call. We’re lucky- some of those hits were very close to the communications suite. If I had to guess, that pirate was trying to render us mute and unable to run. If we’re any luckier, maybe enough of a transmission will get through for Deep Space 47 to send someone, at least to investigate.”

“An’ in th’ meantime, we’d be’er be ready fer the fight ‘a our bloody lives,” Charlie responded, trying to at least sound like she had enough fire in her belly to turn a California-class utility cruiser into something that could defend itself from a probably much more heavily armed and maneuverable pirate vessel. She likely wasn’t very successful. These were long odds to say the absolute least, even if Oakland wasn’t handicapped with half her engine power gone. She was a big, bulky, slow, and poorly-armed target- it’d be almost more of an accomplishment for the enemy to miss.

“Indeed. If they’ve only fired to disable… that means our pirates have a dream of taking a Starfleet vessel as a prize,” the captain muttered, rising from his seat. “We won’t let them take us easily. Helm, bring us hard about, bearing 030 mark 025, ring up full impulse. Once Engineering confirms we have any warp capability left, punch it, as best as she’s able. We have to get out of this nebula.”

As the helmsman replied in the affirmative, the battered Oakland groaned around them all as she slowly hauled her bluff prow around. It sounded like even this lazy maneuver was stressing the hull beyond what it was capable of.

“… sounds like the SIF needs a bit ‘a TLC,” Charlie muttered, half to herself, before turning to Maising. The Scotswoman really hoped she looked more hopeful than she felt. “Guess I’ll head down tae Tactical, figure out what we got fer weapons. How close ta th’ edge ‘a th’ nebula d’ye think we’ll make it ‘fore our friends show up?”

Maising’s glum face just about said it all. “Not far at all, but it’s our best shot. The closer to the edge of the nebula, the stronger our signal will be and the more likely DS-47 will pick us up. I’ll head down to Comms, see what we can do to boost the power. Time to hope this old engineer still has a trick or two up his sleeve.”

A nod. “Godspeed, Cap’n.”

“You too, Commander. Let’s work quickly- we don’t have much time.”

The two senior officers headed for the turbolift, and Charlie could almost hear the clock ticking in her head. The race to save Oakland, much less the crew of Rain Runner, was on- and whoever was out there, they had a hell of a head start.