The transporter beam fades away, and the away teams are left standing in the midst of the shattered plaza of Haven’s Reach. What was once clearly a bustling marketplace now lies in ruins. Fires crackle throughout the ruins and smoke rises up to the sky. Children and women can be heard crying amongst the rubble. The smell of dust and scorched circuitry stings the air. Colonists all around the away teams rush about, their voices overlapping each other – some panicked while others try to take charge.

Captain Harper motions for her team to follow her and takes a step forward. She immediately feels the ground tremble faintly with aftershocks. Screams cry out all around her and she urges her team to move faster.

“Hey! Starfleet! Over here! We’ve got people trapped underneath these beams. We’ve been steadily trying to get them out for hours now with just our bare hands. Please help us….I’m not sure how much longer we can keep this up.” A man wearing a construction uniform and covered in dust called out to them the best he could though he spoke with panted breaths.

Harper turned towards the man and watched as he waved them in his direction. “Over there,” she yelled and took off running.

Lieutenant Redrol Roders immediately began giving orders and organizing his medical team to prepare for the injured colonists. “Bring the injured over here into the open. We can treat them here and even stabilize them before having to move them, if necessary,” he called out.

Lieutenant Commander Sili could barely hear the Lieutenant calling out over the sounds of colonists attempting to dislodge the rubble and the sounds of equipment being set up beside her. “What are you doing?” she asked Lieutenant Commander T’Penne as she watched her set a case down and begin to remove equipment and set it up.

“If it pleases you, I plan to set up a structural integrity field which will allow us to lift the debris and get people clear,” T’Penne spoke with a raised brow. The vulcan wasn’t used to being questioned and to be questioned now was not logical to her.

“That’s great thinking. I’ll stand by and wait for the all clear and I”ll help Commander Brady and Ensign Jablonski get the colonists clear. Just say the word,” Sili responded.

“Very well,” T’Penne didn’t waste any more time speaking and worked as quickly as she could manage.

It only took a few minutes and T’Penne had the structural integrity field set up. The crew worked well together lifting debris and escorting colonists to the medical triage area. Lt Roders and his team worked frantically moving all around each other in order to treat the many wounded being brought to them. Thankfully, there had only been a handful of serious injuries, and the team was able to stabilize them to prepare them for movement and surgery when the time came.

Commander Brady knew that there would be some dead among the debris, but he had underestimated just how many had been lost in the disaster. For every person they removed from the rubble, they found three bodies along with them. He watched as Ensign Jablonski moved alongside him and his usual joking demeanor faded away. He knew that Jablonski had more than likely never seen this level of trauma or death before and he wished he could stop and comfort the young man. That would have to wait though. They still had more people to rescue.

While working along side his team, Lt Roders overheard several different rumors and whispers of gossip. One in particular stuck out to him. He had been cleaning a cut on a young male who was in and out of conscious when the child’s father stated he needed to get some refreshment. Lt. Roders continued working but watched the man out of the corner of his eye. The man walked over to a station that had been set up by his crew. There was another man standing there that Roders recognized because he had just sent him on his way after clearing him with only a few bruises. The two started talking and spoke just loud enough for Lt Roders to overhear them.

“You know, this probably happened all because of him. I knew that letting him stay here was a mistake. I guess I should have spoken up louder,” the second gentleman spoke softly.

“Don’t say that!” the first man replied in a semi-raised voice. He noticed he had gotten louder and glanced around him before speaking a little quieter. “You know he has done so much for this colony, and he is loved like family.”

“Family? He is borg. How can he be family? Mark my words…when the quake hit, maybe the machine inside him finally took back over. Just maybe he’s the whole reason the systems failed in the first place,” the second man asserted.

“Shhhh!” the first man said urging the second man to talk quietly. He leaned in closer, “You mustn’t speak in such ways. There are people all around and what if someone heard you?”

“Let them, see if I care!” the second man called out.

It didn’t take much for Lt Roders to figure out that the two were speaking about the missing colonist, Taren. Apparently, the ex-borg was not as well-loved within the colony as the Administrator had led them to believe. He looked around and saw the captain sitting near a group of children still waiting for their parents to be found. He motioned with his arm enough to get her attention, and she began to make her way towards him.

“Did you need something, Lieutenant?” Captain Harper inquired once she had made her way over to Lt Roders.

Lt Roders relayed everything that he had heard to the captain. He didn’t leave anything out and even pointed out the two men to her in case she wished to speak with them.

“That is definitely interesting, Lieutenant. I wonder why the Administrator didn’t tell us all of that already. Surely, that information is already known….” Captain Harper’s sentence was cut short by a loud BOOM and a crashing sound.