Matthews pulled himself up and out from under the console he had taken shelter under and immediately ran over to Miller. 

“Miller?!” He said desperately checking for her pulse. He felt nothing, Miller lay lifeless where she had fallen.  “No no no no. C’mon mate, don’t die on me” 

Matthews clambered on his hands and knees over to a medical kit that had been knocked from its position on the bulkhead wall during the commotion. Returning to Miller he fumbled with its locking mechanism and unclasped it, opening it and grabbing the medical tricorder from inside. Hastily he flipped the tricorder open and it let out a steady continuous tone.

“Damn it!” He exclaimed, setting the tricorder down next to Miller, “heart, got to get your heart going. We’ll worry about the rest after.”

Matthews placed his hand inside the kit and removed two small square devices and attached them to Miller’s upper torso. Picking up the tricorder he tapped it’s controls, causing a surge of electricity to pulse between the two devices. Millers body contracted into a momentary spasm before again going limp.

“Come on!” He shouted, smacking the controls again and again sending another shock through Miller’s body. 

“Yes!” He shouted as the tricorder’s continuous shrill tone changed to a sequence of short beeps.

Matthews picked up the tricorder and hastily tapped at the controls while cautiously moving it over Miller. 

“Okay, okay. You’re not dead. That’s good. But we’re both going to be unless I can get this bloody ship running.” Matthews looked around the darkened room towards his torch which lay on the ground several feet from him.

Jumping to his feet he ran over and picked it up, it’s beam illuminating the room as he moved. Matthews made his way toward the doorway into the next compartment stopping just before he went inside. He turned and shon his torch toward Miller who lay unconscious on the floor. 

Matthews knew something had happened in this room and he felt a wave of anxiety come over him. Pressing on Matthews pushed the doors further ajar and went inside, moving his torch around the room, it’s light casting shadows on the wall from the debris that lay strewn throughout the compartment.

Locating the power cell, Matthews picked it up and moved back through the room toward the doorway. The cell was cumbersome and difficult to carry, causing Matthews to drop the torch as he stepped through the door. Rolling on the floor the torch came to rest illuminating Miller as she lay on the deck.

Not stopping to retrieve it, Matthews left the torch on the ground and walked over toward the console he had previously been working on. Gently lowering the power cell down next to the console’s interface, Matthews knelt down and connected it.

Just as he was about to bring it online, he heard a noise behind him, turning to face its source he saw Miller standing directly behind him holding a length of dislodged metal piping.

Miller swung it, connecting with his head and causing him to collapse to the ground and lose consciousness.

…

Matthews slowly opened his eyes, the bright light took a minute to adjust to. His head was pounding and the gentle noise of the doctors and nurses going about their business around him felt like someone was stabbing his eardrum with a needle.

A figure stood over him and began to speak, struggling to bring their features into focus. Matthews grimaced and raised his hand to shield his eyes.

“Take it easy,” the voice said reassuringly, “you’ve been through quite an ordeal.”

 “Wh… what happened?” Matthews said, his voice breaking as he did so.

“We were rather hoping you could tell us, Lieutenant,” said the stations chief medical officer scanning Matthews with a small medical probe from his tricorder.

Matthews pulled himself to sit up on the bio bed. 

“The runabout, Miller? Where’s Miller?” He said looking around sickbay hoping to see that she too was being treated.

“We don’t know,” the doctor replied, “when you didn’t make your scheduled check-in we sent out a search team. Your runabout was founding drifting in space, you were the only one onboard.”

Matthews stared at the doctor, he didn’t know how to explain what had happened.