Escape Pods Bay

The crew had returned with their escape pods after receiving the clear message from Damascus. The crew returned only to see remnants of the destroyed Devore ship. There was no trace of the large blood crystalline entity. But the Damascus had taken a beating for sure. The impact of the asteroid beat up the left front. The left engine was barely operational, and the overall hull had the marks of giant tentacles trying to rip through it. The ship had seen better days, that was for sure. 

“Good grief it is good to be back but what happened to the hull?” A crewman spoke to another.

“Don’t ask something you don’t want to know. Get back to your post and get busy with your duties,” Adrián orders. “Engineers, you have a hell of a job awaiting you, but the main priority is to get the warp core strength back up! Now move!” Slamming into each other hands, Adrián greeted Rami upon his return “Good to have you back, Lieutenant, the situation might be at ease right now, but we are not out of the woods yet”. Adrián looked at K’Nala, who stepped out of her pod “Follow us, Ensign, we got a lot of work to do”  He saw her nod and walked to the turbolift.

“Would ya mind getting us, up-to-date, Commander?” Rami followed Adrián “We were unable to witness what was going on precisely, but one moment we saw the Damascus getting on the verge of being destroyed only to see moments later the Devore ship getting blown up. What the hell did you guys do” 

Walking through the damaged hallway as Adrián pats a few crewmen on their shoulders to keep morale up and continues his path “You want to long or short version, Lieutenant?” He walked to the turbolift and waited for it to arrive. 

“The shorrrt verrrsion Commander” K’Nala suddenly spoke, arriving behind them at the turbolift, making them look at her “If…possible. We have a lot of worrrk to do” She pointed out.

“What she said” Rami pointed at K’Nala with a facial expression of curiosity to the longer version, but time was not in their favor after all. 

Turbolift

They all entered the turbolift as Adrián had already turned around and waited for them to get in. Giving the sign to the crew members that wanted to enter also, “Please the next” They both nodded “Thank you, bridge” the Commander ordered as the turbolift doors closed. He took a deep breath “The short version is that Captain Praugol ordered us to lower the shields. Meaning that she would get the full fury of the blood dilithium into her body” 

“Is that not a suicidal wish right there? What if she had gone mad, wait did she go maid?” Rami was confused for a moment. 

Shaking his head, “No, it was possible it would happen. Our good doctor was at her side, well basically they both were” Adrián also in reference to Silina. He leans against the side of the lift “They both moderated the behavior of our Captain, while I was off to do get our ship systems back online. Which is by the way a hell if you have to do everything by yourself. The results were more tricky than expected” 

“How so Commanderrrr?” “K’Nala was curious as to what had happened to their Captain. 

He looked at the Caitian for a second and then back at the door “The Captain was out cold, but for some reason, I think managed to lay a connection with the entity. Whatever happened, she managed to stop it and ordered Commander Ruslanovna to fire at the Devore ship” 

“Fire at the Devore ship? That is useless, their hull plating is way too strong. I don’t even think we have the right torpedoes to get through their shields?” A tactical observation of Rami as he shook his head with the disagreement of choice in the given situation.

Bridge

The door opens up as they walk all onto the bridge “That is what you would think. Your conclusion is right, torpedoes had no effect on the Devore ship whatsoever. But…” Adrián was then interrupted by someone else.

“The explosions of the two torpedoes were enough for the Blood Crystalline Entity to locate the Devore ship. We can only make an educated guess that the entity was under the restraint of the Devore and being used as a weapon. But only the Captain would know so,” Silina spoke from the science console looking at them “Ensign get into your seat, do a checkup on engines. Lieutenant Shew, get to your seat as well” 

Adrián looked annoyed at Silina “I was telling them the story. Why do you need to ruin my moment, Commander?” He walked to his console and started to get the latest updates. “Before you are going to ask, I already ordered the engineering teams to get their sorry ass to work on the power grid” He pointed out quickly, seeing Silina already backing off. 

Giving a small smile to Adrián, Silina nodded at him “Thank you, Commander. Now we need to get our ship ready to navigate through this forsaken minefield. Are you up for that, Ensign?” 

Just sitting down, letting her fingers go over the console “I should be able to guide us out of the dangerrr zone, Commanderrr. It might be trrricky with most of the sensorrrs out of commission. But if I can work with shorrrt-range sensorrrs I will be able to do it”  K’nala was trying to get the latest updates on the computer navigational system.

“Not out Ensign, we need to go in” Silina spoke as moved her finger up on the console, sending her helmsman information “We still have a mission to do”

Looking over her shoulder and blinking a few times “What mission? We have to get out of this location?” K’Nala was confused about the statement from her Commander.

“That is not the case. Remember what the Captain said when we entered the area. We received that SOS signal from that transport ship. We might be beaten up, but if the Commander believes we can do this, we will need to tow out that ship and get it to safety” Rami pointed out. This was a standard routine for them. If someone is in need of help. Sazra was always ready to divert her energy to it. 

Her eyes went from Silina to Rami “But we arrre in a worrrse condition, we would be lucky to get out alive?” K’Nala fear was acting up, she wanted to survive this whole nightmare. 

Taking a brief sigh of relief, Silina waved her hand to Adrián who wanted to comment “Ensign, there is something you need to know. Our Captain, your Captain is a person that will take the extra light-year if needed to do what is right. She is the kind of person that will never ever leave anyone behind. We already know for sure that if we would get a good scolding from her if we would leave them behind” Silina smiled at her. “I know that the given situation is anything but ideal, but it is our duty as Starfleet Officers to try to help those in need. Just put yourself in their shoes, they had to go through hell and back”.

“How….is the Captain?” She finally asked what was on everyone’s mind. K’Nala had noticed that she was talked about as if she was not here anymore. 

“She is under the care of our good doctor,” Silina said in a sad tone that made no one else prey any further “Get the ship ready all. We have a priority task to do” She ordered and focused back on the science console in front of her. Her mind was down at sickbay where Sazra was fighting for her life. After the large entity had left the grid and Silina managed to get the shields back up, Sazra was out cold.

Sickbay

The beeping sound of heart rhythm was heard from the panel behind the biobed where Sazra was lying. Kossaal had been monitoring her health for a while now and inducing certain healing methods to get her body back to strength. But even Kossaal had to admit that his Captain’s body was hit quite severely from the severe stress the blood dilithium had produced over time. He noticed some of the nurses that had returned and coming to a halt, looking at their captain lying there.

“Stop looking, start working” Kossaal spoke up, still focused on the data “Captain Praugol has been exposed to extreme amounts of blood dilithium resonate and exposure. Her brain activity has spiked for at least 30 minutes, placing her body under extreme pressure.” Kossaal had to admit he was glad that the staff had returned. “I need two of you to aid me in repairing her veins. The rest will focus on the wounded that will return to us” 

“Yes, Doctor” The four medical personnel spoke up and rushed to their stations. 

They started to work on Sazra on various key points, the nerve system, the vital organs, and the brain function. Kossaal had to admit that his prime focus was the Captain’s brain searching for everything that was still in one piece. The brain had suffered quite a significant blow. The Captain’s ears, eyes, and nose were bleeding from the stress she had to endure from that connection. From a medical stand of point of view, was this totally crazy. She wanted to learn more about what kind of person his Captain was. He looked at the panel and narrowed his eyes a bit. She was, for sure, a hero in the given situation. Her drive saved them all, but at what cost “Alright, get ready. If you experience any problems, report them immediately, so I can assist you in your task. This will take a few hours, and seeing the ship is going to shake a lot, it will not be that easy” He started on his part, followed by the others that started their delicate work on their Captain.