The pain in Tanna’s arm was almost blinding now as she sat on the roof, her back against a cooling unit. Her breath came in ragged gasps, each inhale sent bolts of pain through her shoulder.  She blinked, trying to clear the fog from her eyes as her phaser was trained on the hole someone had made in the roof, every muscle tensed in an effort to keep it steady. She had to make sure no one made it onto the roof. The other four remaining were watching each side of the office, huddled against a small walled ledge that surrounded the top of the lab, occasionally peeking over the side and firing off a phaser blast or two.

It was getting lighter now, and the rain was letting up as well, but that was little comfort for the quintet of survivors, who were hungry, tired, and soaked to the bone. The wind was still cold in the early light of dawn, and Tanna could see her breath rise in front of her. The fingers gripping the phaser were numb, but she could not put it down. She knew there had been Remans inside, and soon enough they would come for her and the rest. She heard one of the others tapping their comm badge, looking to pick up the ships stationed somewhere in orbit, but there was still no response.

A pair of gloved hands appeared on the edge of the hole, and Tanna held her breath. The grunt of effort that followed told her that one of the terrorists was trying to get to them. A moment later a pale bald head, with sharp, angular features and pointed ears appeared, screwed up with the effort of hoisting itself onto the roof. It’s eyes widened with surprise as they came to rest upon Tanna, who squeezed the trigger of her phaser and watched the ugly, surprised face disappear in a small cloud of dust.

Tanna spat at the space where the Reman had been. The pain, the cold, the hunger and thirst, and the loss of Abigail had solidified into a deep loathing for these people. She hated them for who they took from her, and for what they did to her. She didn’t know if her left arm would ever work again. She didn’t even know if she was going to make it off this roof, but she knew she would hate Remans as long as she had breath in her lungs. She tried to take a deep breath, but it was cut short by a stab of pain from her presumably broken ribs.

She heard the other person trying to get in touch with the Cromwell again. “This is Ensign Whitney to the Cromwell. If you can hear us, we’ve been attacked by Remans. I repeat, we’ve been attacked by remans. Most of the ground crew have been killed. There are five survivors on the roof of the lab building. I repeat, five survivors on the roof. Please send help.”

This time, instead of silence, there was heavy static, and through that she could hear a voice. Affirmative Whit……. The sto…………still to heavy, we can’ …………..ransporter. ……………shuttlecraft………….. Hold on, We’…………….o get you.

Tanna let out a sigh of relief, and she could hear the other give quiet whoops and cheers. Someone had finally heard them, and they were going to be rescued. Tanna refocused as another Reman poked it’s head up through the hole, and was also vaporized. “There can’t be many more of them, can there?” she asked over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off the hole.

“Who knows how many are hiding out there.” replied Whitney, peeking over the top of the wall and firing a few volleys. “But I’ve managed to take out two or three myself.”

“It doesn’t matter how many there are.” said the Romulan Centurion sternly. “All that matters is we survive. They’re trying to drive a wedge between our governments and it is up to us to prevent that from happening. We’ve come too far in the name of peace.” Tanna nodded her head in agreement. This was quite the occasion, Romulans and Starfleet working together like this, and if it failed, both governments would be quick to blame each other. Luckily, however, a message had been delivered to the waiting ships, so the sabotage was out in the open, and one of the survivors was the Romulan who was placed in charge, so he could verify the events.

Another set of hands. This one must have been stronger than the last two, because he had managed to hoist half his body up onto the roof before Tanna got a shot off and his body disappeared, like the rest. A wave of pain het Tanna, her head swam, and she dropped her right arm. She tried to lift it, but couldn’t. Unable to keep her eyes open, her head lolled to one side. Somewhere through the mirth, she heard another grunt. I need to open my eyes, she told herself. I need to open my eyes and save these people. 

With every ounce of resolve she had, she wrenched herself back up and opened her eyes. The Reman was on the roof, hurrying to ready his weapon as he got to his feet. She raised the phaser with a yell, forced her numb fingers to respond and fired, just as the end of his disruptor rifle came level with her face. The rest turned to face her, looking to see what had happened. She slumped back against the cooling unit, breathing heavily despite the pain in her ribs. That should have killed me. She thought angrily to herself.

She noticed now that the rain had stopped completely, and there were shafts of sunlight breaking through the clouds in the distance. Then, as if on cue, a voice came in over her Comm badge. Ground team, this is the Cromwell, please respond. The storm has broken up enough we have clearance to transport you aboard. How many survivors are there?

Ensign Whitney tapped his badge and responded. “Still five, thankfully” he said, shooting Tanna a concerned look. “Ensign Irovin is bleeding pretty badly, though. We should send her directly to sickbay.” Tanna looked down at her left arm. The clean white bandages were stained a nasty shade of reddish black, and blood had been dripping off her elbow onto the roof beside her, mixing with the rain water. Her head swam again, and she dropped her phaser. Her vision was going dark at the edges now, and she was tired. She slumped over onto her side as she listened to the response from the ship.

Affirmative, Whitney. You’re all being sent directly to sickbay. Stand by……………. Tanna’s vision went dark. The sounds around her became distant, as if she had fallen down a deep well. Bright lights flashed and strobed behind her eyelids as she fell into unconsciousness.

The first thing Tanna noticed when she came to was the warmth, and the fact she came to at all. Soft blips and chirps from computers and monitors could be heard around her. Covered by a heavy blanket that seemed to be radiating heat, and dim lights behind her eyelids, she knew she must be back on the Cromwell. She opened her eyes, but she had to blink a couple times to get them to focus. Looking around the small sickbay, she didn’t see any of the other survivors. When she tried to sit up, however, she found she had been restrained to the bed by straps at her knees, waist and chest. “Hello?” she tried to call out, but the sound that left her throat was little more than a hoarse croaking noise.

From inside the small office, she heard a rustling of someone getting to their feet. A moment later the ship’s doctor appeared in the doorway, and a look of relief crossed his face. “I’m glad you’ve decided to re-join us.” He said in a warm, somewhat fatherly tone. “You’ve been out nearly a week.” He walked over the the biobed and whipped out his tricorder. He waved it over her head, then to her left shoulder. “Everything looks pretty good.” He said, putting the tricorder away. “How do you feel?”

“Hungry.” Tanna said flatly.

The doctor gave a small chuckle. “Yes, I imagine after that much sleep you would be quite hungry. Let me get these restraints off.” He tapped at a screen on the biobed, and the straps holding Tanna down whooshed across her to disappear into the underside of the bed. “Take your time, and get up slowly.” He said.

Tanna flexed her fingers. To her surprise, she could feel the fingers of her left hand clench and unclench into a fist. She took a deep breath, and sat up, looking down at her left shoulder. In place of the usual olive skin, there was a sleek, silvery metal device, gleaming with the reflected light of the sickbay. She ran her fingers over its cold, metallic surface. She traced the edge of it down over her shoulder blade, across her bicep, and back up over her collarbone. “Doctor” She said slowly, swinging her legs over the side of the bed, “What is this thing?”

“Ah, yes. That.” He replied. “By the time you made it back here, your arm was in a very bad state.” He placed the tips of his fingers under the edges of the device, and lifted. With a small hiss it released, and he placed it down on the bed beside her. What was under that piece made Tanna gasp loudly, and she covered her mouth in surprise. A twisted knot of healing scar tissue and small silver dots made up what was left of her shoulder.  The scarring ran down along her side to the middle of her ribs, and across her back like a spider’s web.

“A lot of the tissue under the bandages was dead, and starting to turn necrotic. We rushed to remove as much of it as we could to keep it from spreading further. The result, unfortunately, was a complete breakdown of the nerves in that area. You’ve probably noticed by now that your left arm is now completely numb.” Tanna nodded as the doctor continued, “So what we had to do was create a way to re-connect them. If our sickbay was better equipped, we would have had access to a dermal regenerator, but since we don’t, we created this device in the replicator. This piece” he said, motioning to the cover, ” contains synthetic nerve pathways that connect to these pips on your arm.” He replaced the device on her shoulder, and like a limb that had gone to sleep, Tanna’s whole arm began to tingle with pins and needles. “It’s quite secure once it’s in place. We tried our hardest to make it as small as possible so you can still put your uniform over it.”

Tanna stood slowly, swaying a little before steadying herself. “Thank you doctor.” She said in a low voice. “May I be released?”

“I see no reason to keep you.” He said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “But I want you to come back next week for a check-up, and if you have any problems with it.”

Tanna pulled on her tunic and left the sickbay, still flexing and unflexing her left hand. She stopped quickly in the mess hall for something to eat, but she have much of an appetite anymore. Eventually, she gave up on her meal and headed back to her quarters to deal with everything in there. As soon as the door to her quarters closed behind her she locked it, and collapsed onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.