There was one noticeable absentee from the repair work going one; other than the captain and doctor.  Ensign Chad Harris, the other helm officer.   He was seated before a communications screen waiting for a video link.   The Federation sign sat at the centre of the screen with the words ‘Please Hold’ in white across the bottom. He’d been on hold a good seven or eight minutes.  But after the battle with the Dominion here at Farpoint; communication both military and civilian had more than quadrupled.

After another few seconds the image faded away to be replaced by a young Korean woman clearly sitting up in a hospital bed somewhere. “Been waiting long?” She asked in a soft almost whisper.

“Just a few minutes.  Its chaos around here right now.” Replied Chad. “How are you?”

Ensign Cho thought about her answer looking down at the tube in the back of her hand currently feeding fluids back into her system. Then she looked back up. “Getting there; doctors say I’ll be here another few days yet.”

Chad could see the lost look in her eyes.  He’d been allowed to read the report a couple of days ago, so he knew what she’d been through back on the USS Los Angeles.  Two week in a coma and most of that without any form of nutrition or treatment of any kind just slowly wasting away.  Had it not been for the Captains injury and an error made by the Changeling that had taken her place in regard to Lieutenant Takalla’s illness; the person it was originally pretending to be, there was no guarantee that either Cho or Takalla would have been found alive.

There was also the issue with all the tension and confusion between the Fourth Fleet and the rest of Starfleet which had meant the captain of the Los Angeles hadn’t been believed when he’d originally sent his warning.  So by the time they’d been contacted, the truth was already known to them.  ‘Trust no one but the fourth’ carried a hollow ring to it for Chad, when it had almost cost the life of the person he loved, if not potentially the whole crew of the Jax. Right now he just wanted to grab someone by the scruff of the neck, bang them against the nearest wall and scream at them.  But the young New Zealand knew that wouldn’t help matters.

“You look angry and tense.” Cho could plainly tell from the look on his face and the way he sat. “You can’t blame the universe or yourself for that matter.”

He sat back and let out a sigh. “I know, and I can’t even act out my revenge of the creature that did this to you.”

“Oh!  Why is that?” She asked puzzled.

“The Breen blew the shuttle up, she, it was in.” Chad paused a second. “Our shuttle in fact.  The Changeling and three Jem’Hadar took it.”

“Is everyone ok, did they hurt you at all?” Cho was extremely concerned by this news as the doctors had kept any information regarding the fate of the crew from her.  So this revelation came as rather a shock.

“We just got shoved around a bit.  The Jem’Hadar wanted to do more, but agreed to just leave a bomb instead.”

“Then how?”

“Well our new Tactical officer Tholakath managed to disable the device.”

“Sounds a bit Cardassian.  How did we end up with him?”

“I’m not sure entirely.  He’s good at his job at least, and the fleet does have one or two Cardassian’s who’ve come through the Academy. All part of building bridges and putting aside the past they say.”

“I look forward to meeting him. I miss you all. You the most”

“I miss you to.” Chad kissed the tips of his fingers and pressed them on the screen where her lips were.

Cho was starting to feel tired; despite her long enforced period of sleep she was still finding it hard to stay awake for any length of time.  Trouble was when she did sleep she saw the image of that other her.  Nose almost touching, just laughing at her.  How could anything laugh the way that thing did; it cut through your soul like a knife and even just thinking about it made the young Korean shiver.  She wanted so much to be in Chad’s arms right now, so needed to be back in her job, doing the thing she loved and had trained to do.  But was she still the same person; or had that creature taken more than just her face?

She kept her composure long enough to apologise for being tired and say goodbye.  Then when the Starfleet logo re-appeared on the screen by her bed, she buried her head in the pillows and cried.