S:5 E:13 - Dominion Rising Part 2

[Renley Banwell]

Chloe busy though she was, had the time to give the doctor an appreciative smile at his mother's wisdom.  She assigned Dr. Banwell to deal with the next serious case.  Minor injuries, aka the walking wounded - were being handled by the junior nurses and required little more than time with a dermal regeneration.   But the serious injuries would require time in a biobed to sort out the internal injuries or mend the broken bones.

As head nurse, Chloe made excellent use of her staff.   No sooner had one patient been seen to and dismissed to either return to work or sent to recovery, than Chloe was directing another patient towards that doctor or nurse.   Her sickbay though it looked like chaos, had an order to it.

Dr. Banwell's question was a difficult one to answer.  It all depended on how long the battle went on and how fierce the fighting got.  She shrugged.  "Unfortunately, things can always get worse, so you do the best you can with what you got at the moment."

Though she'd lost count as to how many patients their department had seen today, each patient they couldn't save weighed on her.

When the Captain's voice sounded throughout Sickbay, Chloe didn't pause in her triaging.   She glanced over to Dr. Banwell, and head nodded towards the intercom.  Clearly indicating for him to 'answer that' on behalf of the department.    She did a quick assessment of the available doctors and how far along in their current treatments they were.

"Tell the Captain, we can spare 3 medics as an away team." She'd downsize the recovery ward care to provide the personnel.

[USS Challenger-A - Sickbay]

Dr. Banwell followed nurse Chloe around sickbay for a short time before he heard the captains voice over the intercom requesting the availability of crew for an away team should the need arise. "Sir... Dr. Banwell here. Looks like we can spare 3 medics should you need them. We will prepare our gear should you need us." Renley found himself rather nervous speaking to the captain with everything going on.

Renley got back to work triaging and treating the patients sent his way from nurse Chloe. For the most part nothing to serious, mostly bumps and bruises but thankfully nothing to serious had been sent his way. With the battle raging on Renley was optimistic that the captain and bridge crew had everything in hand. He walked over to one of the triage rooms and made himself useful examining patients as they came in.

[Nira Said]

[Ops - Melek Nor]

Jess hissed in pain as Savar pulled her to her feet and when he commented that her wounds weren't serious, she snapped.

"Easy for you to say, from my point of view it's bad enough!"

Angry as she might have been, she did lean on Savar as they made their way toward the turbolift and hopefully to soon leave the station which was clearly not doing well going by the rumblings that were getting louder.

[Turbolift - Melek Nor] - [Dr. Jessica Fellows]

Jess leaned against Savar and gritted her teeth against the pain of the disruptor burn. She was content to stay in that position until they beamed out, until Nira made it to the turbolift dragging the severely wounded Rahab into the car. At that point, her own pain was secondary to treating someone else's. She pulled free of Savar and knelt next to the Cardassian woman and began applying pressure to the abdominal wound and shouted.

"I need a dressing! Anything you have a sleeve off of your uniform will do. I have to stop this bleeding!"

Jess' eyes met those of Nira's and she added.

"I have to get her to a sickbay or she's not going to make it!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

As the small task force was on the outer edge of the battle, things had quieted down marginally, they were still taking occasional fire, but if any Breen ship dared to get to close, they were met by the combined firepower of four Starfleet ships and considering one of those ships was an Akira, which could lay down a barrage of twelve torpedoes on any axis, the Breen only tried to attack the squadron once and paid for it with the loss of two cruisers reduced to rapidly cooling plasma. Content the battle was under control, Ian hit the comm on the command chair.

"Bridge ta sickbay, stand by ta receive critical casualties and make arrangements ta form an away team should Discovery ask for help."

Looking at the larger battle, Melek Nor was looked decidedly the worse for wear and that made Ian cringe and growl.

"Come on Nira, evacuate, you nae have much time."

M'nia saw the decapitation and it rattled her a bit. She had never seen anything like that

M'nia summoned up her fortitude and headed to the turbolift. "Let me help you!" she helped with Rahab. "Lousy creep! Don't worry. The doc will get you fixed up soon. She's one of the best I hear!" she said trying to put on a cheerful demenor.  Zook, kyan, come one! Molly,savar, let's go!"'

[Lieutenant Kyan Mackenzie | Ops | Melek Nor]

((Concurrent with the Events of Nira's post))

The young jem'Hadar's eyes were filled with the arrogance of youth. A smirk played at the corner of his mouth as he considered the small opponent before him. He knew that he was a superior warrior. He'd long thought himself the best fighter in his unit, and nothing thus far had shown him reason to doubt it. He had only had a handful of matches against his comrades in the training pit, but he'd won all of them. This would be no different. And after today, he'd be promoted. His First was dead, as was the Second. He didn't know about the Third, but considering that he'd beaten him in training, why would they promote him. And he was probably killed anyway.

It was his first real battle, and thus far he'd aquitted himself well. He hadn't gotten any kills personally, but he'd assisted others. During the fray, he'd gone into the prefect's office to see if it was clear. Seeing no one, he turned to leave but stopped. Kneeling in front of him over a dead Cardassian was a human child. He'd missed him on the way in. The First would not have been pleased about such a lapse in concentration. But he was dead, and Arak'agar was about to get his first solo kill in battle. He adjusted his grip on the kar'tarkin. From what he could tell,  the little human had dispatched the Cardassian soldier from behind. The Cardassian never even saw him. "œYou fight like a coward."  The jem'Hadar offered as a greeting. "œYou Humans are so weak."

The boy rose to his full height, jerking the punch dagger out of the Cardsassian and glancing at it before narrowing his eyes at the jem'Hadar. "œFirstly, I'm not a Human." Kyan answered pointedly. "œAnd for second"¦ wait." Kyan looked the young jem'Hadar up and down, appraising him. "How old are ye the now anyways? Ye canne be more den two or tree?"

Arak'agar bristled at that. "œI am four years old, and have seen many"¦"

"œYer a wee bairn ye are!" Kyan laughed.

"œI am a jem'Hadar warrior!"

"œYa sure." Kyan nodded with a laugh. "œYer all jem'Hadar warriors so ye are, but"¦."

The jem'Hadar interrupted him. He wasn't accustomed to talking to his enemies, and definitely not used to them laughing at him. At a loss for words, he paused and then  asked a little too plaintively "œWell how old are you?

Kyan shrugged. "œSure and I dinnae keep track. Once ye hit four hundred it's a lot of math."

Shock replaced the arrogance in Arak'agar's expression. "œFour"¦"¦"

"œHundred, aye. Probably getting close on tae four fifty." Kyan chirped. "œAnd the secret is dat for every enemy killed off, the Powers let me skip getting older for a year. Probably skipped ten or fifteen years just off today. Sure an they might gimme two fer that big Cardie!"

"œYou were the one that killed Melot?"

Kyan gave a cheeky, self satisfied grin and nodded. "œAye, got him good and proper so, Got him with this." He raised the punch dagger. "œYous guys know how tae make a good weapon so ya do."

Arak'agar almost didn't believe him. After all, he had seen the giant Cardassian in action. To say that he, and the other jem'Hadar were impressed would be an understatement. And this one beat him? Several seconds went by before he spoke again. "œI"¦. I could kill you."

Kyan raised an eyebrow. "œAre ye sure?"

The jem'Hadar nodded. "œI am not a Cardassian, I am jem'Hadar wa"¦.."

"œAye"¦ yer a jem'Hadar warrior so ya are. Big and strong and blah blah blah. Victory is life"¦ whatever." Kyan was getting impatient. "œSo have at it then ya wee sprout. Come an kill me then." Although he was goading the jem'Hadar, he didn't change his posture, which was casual; hands down, feet shoulder width apart. He could get to a stance quick enough, but this was interesting. And honestly, he'd never spoken to a jem'Hadar for this long before.

"œI will."

Kyan gave him a questioning look. "œToday?"

"œStop talking!"

Kyan grinned. "œOh right! Sorry boyo. I'll let ye work up to it. You just hauls your horny toad arse over here and take a swing when yer ready. Just"¦ I don't have all day so"¦ hurry up."

Arak'akar frowned. "œI will kill you on my own terms! You do not dictate to me.."

"œWhat's your name baby jem'Hadar?" Kyan asked, casually leaning back against a table on the wall by the door.

This further confused him. "œMy"¦name.."

Kyan nodded slowly. "œYea boyo"¦ I'm Kyan, Kyan Mackenzie. And you are"¦.?"

"œWhy is that important?"

Kyan shrugged. "œS'not. I just figured you'd like to know the name of someone you might get around tae killing something soon, and I could know yours. So when ya kill me, I can tell the Powers who done it."

"œMy name is Arak'agar!" the young soldier replied. "œAnd now you will die!"

Kyan glanced back to see the Challenger's away team heading for the turbo lifts. When he turned back toward Arak'agar the young soldier hadn't moved. This was definitely weird. A hesitant jem'Hadar wasn't something he was expecting. But honestly, he was getting pretty worn out from running around and fighting all day so it was a welcome weirdness.

He smiled over at him. "œWell Sprout'agar, looks like ye missed yer chance tae slay me so. Me boss says I gotta go home the now."

"œRunning like a coward!" the jem'Hadar jeered, a hint of the old arrogance coming back.

"œYeah, sure." Kyan shrugged dismissively. Then with a cheeky grin, "œMaybe we can set something up in the future. Have yer Vorta call ahead tae see if'n I can come over tae play ok?"

Arak'agar's answer was lost to him, if he even answered at all, as he ducked out of the office and headed toward the lift, stepping over the bodies of fallen Cardassians and jem'Hadar. More than once he stopped to collect a kar'tarkin or a punch dagger still in it's sheath on a jem'Hadar corpse. He was bending down to grab a Cardassian disruptor rifle when M'nia's voice rang out.

He scooped up the rifle and got over to the lift as the others were getting on. He'd collected three kar'tarkins and two more punch daggers, as well as a pair of Cardassian disruptors; a pistol version and a rifle; which was slung on his back. Kyan had stuffed the punch daggers in his pockets still in their sheaths.

"œHad'ta get some spoils before we blow the place up so I did!" he offered, looking up at the assembled teams. "œNever know when we'll get the chance again so we don't!"

[Lieutenant Junior Grade Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Ops | Melek Nor | Panora System - in the Kuiper Belt | Badlands]

Zhuk's eyes saw double, no, triple when he came to be. His ears rang, and he felt nauseous, yet he was still aware enough to gaze at the Jem'Hadar preparing to give him the coup of grace as he loomed above him. His hand moved to try and fire with his disruptor, but he did not feel the weapon in his grasp anymore. He still had the kar'takin he had "recuperated" from that other fallen warrior, however. He tried to swing the weapon like an axe, aiming for the arm of the Jem'Hadar to hopefully disarm him as his enemy tried to stab him. However, his strength was still sapped, and for a moment, a cascade of fear came awash over him.

Suddenly, though, the Jem'Hadar froze, as a furious set of stabs to the side of his head proceeded to leave him out cold. As momentum was lost, it allowed Zhuk to parry the weapon away, though the alien's body did not stop from falling towards him, especially at the last brutal pierce into his skull. Zhuk grunted in pain and discomfort as the full weight crashed into his slender being, though at least, he would not be cut.

His savior turned out to be none other than Kyan, and he couldn't help but chuckle at his comment. With everything but his head and his left arm buried under the Jem'Hadar, he offered a nod. "S-Sounds... g-good to me... a-agh... thank y-"

He couldn't finish, as he saw Kyan grabbed from behind and tossed toward a console. To his astonishment, however, the Cardassian that attacked him did not proceed to finish him off in his vulnerable state, a couple of shots from a disruptor forcing him to retreat, as he was out of a weapon, and already wounded. It allowed Zhuk to let go of the kar'takin momentarily, as the battle ensued, everyone too distracted to properly focus on the hurt Caitian. Trying to push the Jem'Hadar off proved to be a challenge: his shoulder throbbed each time he attempted to do so, and he could notice that it was bleeding.

He steeled himself, knowing that, if he remained there, he would not survive the conflict. Gritting his teeth, wriggling, and little by little, he finally managed to free his right arm, and part of his torso, which allowed him to finally escape. He panted from the effort, and took hold of the kar'takin with his right hand, allowing his wounded extremity to rest for now.

As he carefully squatted and took cover behind a fallen piece of furniture, his attention quickly turned towards the glass door that led into Sherem's office, as it cracked into a thousand pieces, by a flying kar'takin. Amongst the dying and the still fighting, his attention was then taken by someone he could recognize, Savar, quickly moving towards another position. Curious, he made sure that no Jem'Hadar or enemy Cardassian followed after him, before he sought to find Kyan, wondering if he was alright. His eye once more scanned the room, yet he couldn't quite find him.

He heard Lieutenant Said through the comms, informing everyone to head over to the turbolift, just as several rumbles shook the space station. He decided to head there, following after Savar, who supported Doctor Fellows, escorting them, albeit lagging behind due to his own injuries. On his way out, though, he made sure to attach his kar'takin to his belt, in order to acquire a Cardassian disruptor rifle, and be better able to defend himself and the rest of the officers.

He was relieved when he saw Kyan, an arsenal on his body. He couldn't help but offer a soft chuckle before he walked inside and saw how badly harmed his fellow crew were.

At the request of Doctor Fellows, he proceeded to lower his weapon, placing it against the walls of the turbolift, as he used his claws to remove a piece of his pants, offering it to her, "I-I hope this is appropriate..."

He couldn't help but notice her own injury, and pointed it out, "You are also wounded, Doctor Fellows. Should I produce another strip for you?"

He tried not to concentrate on the fact that Rahab was in a critical condition, nor waited on an answer from the Doctor, instead pulling out another strip, this time of his jacket, and doing his best to wrap it around Jess, hoping she would not mind. Then, he proceeded to tend to himself by breaking more of his clothing, exposing the reddish-orange fur on his legs, and wrapping the piece around his shoulder with some difficulty. The scorch on his navel, he decided, did not require any bandage, as the wound was already cauterized. And not that deep.

It hurt bad, though, as his adrenaline levels slowly began to descend. He also felt weak, his ears and gums, if anyone were to properly gaze at them, losing their pink coloration, instead having turned pale.

[Commander Nira Said | Ops | Melek Nor]

Once the team had assembled and the turbolift arrived, Nira gestured the team inside, firing at any stragglers, whoever there were left.

As the Old Man fired at the team heading for the turbolift, one of his remaining officers saw something on the console and exclaimed, "Sir! Station structual integrity is down to fifty percent! We're sustaining heavy damage!"

"Intensify all station turrets, batteries and torpedo batteries!" snarled Sherem, his attention diverted momentarily. "They have to stop keeping the damn ships from sneaking through!"

Indeed, with his intense awareness, he had kept noticing how Federation and Cardassian ships alike were flying past pylons and taking shots. Meantime, he kept snaking closer to the turbolift.

"Structual integrity at forty percent!" came the call.

"INTENSIFY ALL FIREPOWER, DAMN YOU!!!" screamed Sherem, whirling around.

"I'm trying, sir, I'm trying to divert power to the weapons, it's getting sluggish...! NO! IT'S TOO LATE!!!"

That last shout caused Sherem to whirl breifly around in time to see an enflamed Hideki diving bombing toward Ops on the viewscreen.

The team had just gotten into the turbolift when Nira looked up to see Sherem running for the turbolift, with a burst of speed surprising to see in an old man, along with the Hideki on a collision course and heading...

"EVERYBODY HANG ON TIGHT! HURRY!" she screamed.

Molly saw what Nira meant and with one hand, she embraced Rahab with one arm and wrapped the other around one of the front railings. Savar did the same, one arm around Jess and the other around the other front railing, and everybody else in the lift grabbed onto the railing on the back or in however much space there was on any of the front railings.

Nira was the the last to get on, but Sherem grabbed onto her. Realizing she had nanoseconds, she leapt to a railing and wrapped her arm right tightly while Sherem grabbed her left wrist, and tightly, just as most of Ops broke apart in flames, debris, and then blowing air out into the vacuum; it was instantly now like hanging onto a cliff to keep from falling downward.

Still clutching her blades, Nira looked back and seethed as she stared back at the old man, determined to hang on. Her expression was terrifying, her teeth grit. He glared defiantly back at her.

"I WILL SEE CARDASSIA RETURNED TO THE DOMINION! THE DOMINION WILL TAKE BACK THE ALPHA QUADRANT!" he shouted.

His hand got so tight on his wrist, Nira let out a guttural cry and brought her right hand bringing her other blade on his own wrist, but with her strength diverted to hang onto the railing, she could only manage to hack at his wrist multiple times, but all around her, kar'tarkins were stabbing into his shoulders and collars like spears, perhaps from others of the team with their own commandeered kar'tarkins clutched in their free hands, but he still wouldn't let go. Nira kept on hacking at his wrist, roaring back at him as she did so.

"I! HAVE! HAD! ENOUGH! OF! YOU!!!!" she roared, and with the last word, his arm was severed from his wrist. Nehor Sherem seemed to take an eternity to plunge into the vacuum, and it took little imagination in Nira to picture him falling downward, one hand missing. Time seemed to slow, Nira taking it all in so she would remember the memory of the last of the Dominion influence of Cardassia purged in a firestorm and a hurricane of decompression.

His plunge into the void took all but a handful of seconds and then the forcefields activated around Ops, an automatic measure for a hull breach, but owing to the loss of power, the activation took a tad longer than usual, but it was too late for the old man, he was well past the forcefield. And a moment later, his body was snatched by one of multiple torpedoes from a passing Akira, and Nira could see that particular torpedo heading into a pylon and blowing a part of it to kingdom come, and Nehor Sherem along with it.

Everybody took deep breaths, almost like from swimming underwater, and understandable so, given oxygen decrease. Nira shuffled her way into the turbolift, looking at the battle above them. Roughly half of Ops, along with most of the ceiling, had been shorn away. Nira was amazed they were all alive, or if that Hideki was off a few degrees in its collision course. Once she was in, Rahab sat up, grunting in pain as she did so, pressed a button, and the turbolift descended amidst rumbling.

Nira looked around in the turbolift, relieved to see none of the team had been literally blown into the void. She looked down at her own blades, one of them stained like it had chopped an inkwell, and she sheathed them both. It was time to get off this abomination that seemed like an evil twin of Deep Space Nine.

She pressed her comm badge and breathed heavily as she spoke, her lungs still recovering from the brief decompression.  "This is Commander Nira Said...to any available ship...we are in need of extraction...beam us up..."

A moment later, a call came from a very familiar voice.

"This is Admiral Kira on the Valiant. We got you, Commander, we'll get you aboard."

"Thank you, Admiral," Nira breathed in gratitude. The turbolift had opened to an explosion in ops just as the air simmered and they all disappeared in molecular light...

[Commander Nira Said | Transporter Room | Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B]

...and they all appeared, packed together, in the transporter room of the Valiant. A Bajoran at the transporter controls called in.

"Transporter room to Bridge, we have the Challenger away team," he said.

"Acknowledged," called Kira. "Welcome back, Commanders and ladies and gentlemen. We'll get you back to your ship as soon as possible."

A second later, a medical crew arrived, led by Doctor Bashir. Naturally, Molly rose up at the sight and rushed over to him to embrace him.

"Julian!"

"Hello, Molly," said the doctor warmly.

"Salaam, Doctor," said Nira, giving an Arabic greeting. "A lot of us are in need of medical attention. Especially Legate Sherem here," she added, gesturing at the fatally wounded Rahab.

"Then let's see to the treatment," said Doctor Bashir. "I'm afraid, though, full treatment will have to wait for the infirmary back at Deep Space Nine."

Nira sighed in relief, and as she looked down, she was surprised to see the old man's dismembered hand still clutching tightly to her wrist. She unclasped it with disgust and followed Doctor Bashir and Molly to Valiant's Sickbay.

[Lieutenant Commander T'Kel | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

T'Kel suddenly noticed a message through the comm channels. Even though Nira's breathless call for extraction was heard on Starfleet hailing frequencies, she logically felt that the Challenger was too far away, but the message gave reassurance.

"Captain, we have word from the Valiant," she said. "Admiral Kira's picked up Commander Said's team."

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian sucked in a breath when he got a good look at Discovery's damage and hoped the casualties didn't match what the ship looked like. He'd never seen Discovery looking so broken before and it pained him to his core to think about what she'd been through.

"Bloody hell, she's paid the devil this day."

He muttered. The command chair pinged and Ian read Ruth's message, which, despite how he was feeling, made him bark a short chuckle.

"A bollickin' is the least of my worries. Ops, contact Discovery and see if'n they need repair crews or medical assistance. Let them ken our sickbay is at their disposal."

As the small task force was on the outer edge of the battle, things had quieted down marginally, they were still taking occasional fire, but if any Breen ship dared to get to close, they were met by the combined firepower of four Starfleet ships and considering one of those ships was an Akira, which could lay down a barrage of twelve torpedoes on any axis, the Breen only tried to attack the squadron once and paid for it with the loss of two cruisers reduced to rapidly cooling plasma. Content the battle was under control, Ian hit the comm on the command chair.

"Bridge ta sickbay, stand by ta receive critical casualties and make arrangements ta form an away team should Discovery ask for help."

Looking at the larger battle, Melek Nor was looked decidedly the worse for wear and that made Ian cringe and growl.

"Come on Nira, evacuate, you nae have much time."

[Lt. Ruth Sigurdsdottir, CSO: Bridge - USS Challenger A]

Ruth grinned at Ian's comment, but that quickly was silenced when she saw the state of the Discovery on the viewfinder.

"I'm no medic but I've had field training and also served  ah... you know when ¹ in Medical.  It looks like all hands to the pumps.  If you think you can spare me I'll go and help in Sickbay.  While we have plenty of medical staff more qualified, you need very few qualifications to triage, do minor injury repair and wield a dermal regenerator."

She was thankful that the Challenger was mostly in one piece, but then she'd always had faith in 'her' ship...along with the Captain and crew.  If it was her day to actually ride with the Valkyries, then she would go with good grace, but she now knew she'd live another day.

¹ Ruth is referring to the time (a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago, when she was a mere Ensign and given 'puke and poop' duty cleaning and doing grunt work as punishment for some misdemeanour, in Sickbay.  The CMO decided it would be more use since they weren't in battle and most people coming into the Sickbay were coming for routine medical checks or simple mishaps, to teach Ruth something beyond the rudiments of field medicine.

[Neva Cordon]

Neva grabbed the kit strap of her Engineer's kit from her knee & slipped it onto her shoulder. As she sprinted to Main Engineering, she hummed the song playing from everywhere around her. She'd only just transferred to the Challenger, so this was new to her. This war scared her to no end, but this was what she signed on for. She'd only just laid down from her shift when all hell broke loose. Thankfully, she hadn't changed out of her uniform.
She stopped short when she realized she was about to bang into the doors of her destination. Straightening her uniform with a blown out sigh, she walked inside.
Neva walked up to the Chief Engineer and gave a soft cough. "Cadet Cordon reporting for duty, Sir. I know it's not my shift, but I'm at your disposal just the same." She gave a shaky smile.

[Ian Galloway]

[Commander Nira Said | Ops | Melek Nor]

Once the team had assembled and the turbolift arrived, Nira gestured the team inside, firing at any stragglers, whoever there were left.

As the Old Man fired at the team heading for the turbolift, one of his remaining officers saw something on the console and exclaimed, "Sir! Station structual integrity is down to fifty percent! We're sustaining heavy damage!"

"Intensify all station turrets, batteries and torpedo batteries!" snarled Sherem, his attention diverted momentarily. "They have to stop keeping the damn ships from sneaking through!"

Indeed, with his intense awareness, he had kept noticing how Federation and Cardassian ships alike were flying past pylons and taking shots. Meantime, he kept snaking closer to the turbolift.

"Structual integrity at forty percent!" came the call.

"INTENSIFY ALL FIREPOWER, DAMN YOU!!!" screamed Sherem, whirling around.

"I'm trying, sir, I'm trying to divert power to the weapons, it's getting sluggish...! NO! IT'S TOO LATE!!!"

That last shout caused Sherem to whirl breifly around in time to see an enflamed Hideki diving bombing toward Ops on the viewscreen.

The team had just gotten into the turbolift when Nira looked up to see Sherem running for the turbolift, with a burst of speed surprising to see in an old man, along with the Hideki on a collision course and heading...

"EVERYBODY HANG ON TIGHT! HURRY!" she screamed.

Molly saw what Nira meant and with one hand, she embraced Rahab with one arm and wrapped the other around one of the front railings. Savar did the same, one arm around Jess and the other around the other front railing, and everybody else in the lift grabbed onto the railing on the back or in however much space there was on any of the front railings.

Nira was the the last to get on, but Sherem grabbed onto her. Realizing she had nanoseconds, she leapt to a railing and wrapped her arm right tightly while Sherem grabbed her left wrist, and tightly, just as most of Ops broke apart in flames, debris, and then blowing air out into the vacuum; it was instantly now like hanging onto a cliff to keep from falling downward.

Still clutching her blades, Nira looked back and seethed as she stared back at the old man, determined to hang on. Her expression was terrifying, her teeth grit. He glared defiantly back at her.

"I WILL SEE CARDASSIA RETURNED TO THE DOMINION! THE DOMINION WILL TAKE BACK THE ALPHA QUADRANT!" he shouted.

His hand got so tight on his wrist, Nira let out a guttural cry and brought her right hand bringing her other blade on his own wrist, but with her strength diverted to hang onto the railing, she could only manage to hack at his wrist multiple times, but all around her, kar'tarkins were stabbing into his shoulders and collars like spears, perhaps from others of the team with their own commandeered kar'tarkins clutched in their free hands, but he still wouldn't let go. Nira kept on hacking at his wrist, roaring back at him as she did so.

"I! HAVE! HAD! ENOUGH! OF! YOU!!!!" she roared, and with the last word, his arm was severed from his wrist. Nehor Sherem seemed to take an eternity to plunge into the vacuum, and it took little imagination in Nira to picture him falling downward, one hand missing. Time seemed to slow, Nira taking it all in so she would remember the memory of the last of the Dominion influence of Cardassia purged in a firestorm and a hurricane of decompression.

His plunge into the void took all but a handful of seconds and then the forcefields activated around Ops, an automatic measure for a hull breach, but owing to the loss of power, the activation took a tad longer than usual, but it was too late for the old man, he was well past the forcefield. And a moment later, his body was snatched by one of multiple torpedoes from a passing Akira, and Nira could see that particular torpedo heading into a pylon and blowing a part of it to kingdom come, and Nehor Sherem along with it.

Everybody took deep breaths, almost like from swimming underwater, and understandable so, given oxygen decrease. Nira shuffled her way into the turbolift, looking at the battle above them. Roughly half of Ops, along with most of the ceiling, had been shorn away. Nira was amazed they were all alive, or if that Hideki was off a few degrees in its collision course. Once she was in, Rahab sat up, grunting in pain as she did so, pressed a button, and the turbolift descended amidst rumbling.

Nira looked around in the turbolift, relieved to see none of the team had been literally blown into the void. She looked down at her own blades, one of them stained like it had chopped an inkwell, and she sheathed them both. It was time to get off this abomination that seemed like an evil twin of Deep Space Nine.

She pressed her comm badge and breathed heavily as she spoke, her lungs still recovering from the brief decompression.  "This is Commander Nira Said...to any available ship...we are in need of extraction...beam us up..."

A moment later, a call came from a very familiar voice.

"This is Admiral Kira on the Valiant. We got you, Commander, we'll get you aboard."

"Thank you, Admiral," Nira breathed in gratitude. The turbolift had opened to an explosion in ops just as the air simmered and they all disappeared in molecular light...

[Commander Nira Said | Transporter Room | Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B]

...and they all appeared, packed together, in the transporter room of the Valiant. A Bajoran at the transporter controls called in.

"Transporter room to Bridge, we have the Challenger away team," he said.

"Acknowledged," called Kira. "Welcome back, Commanders and ladies and gentlemen. We'll get you back to your ship as soon as possible."

A second later, a medical crew arrived, led by Doctor Bashir. Naturally, Molly rose up at the sight and rushed over to him to embrace him.

"Julian!"

"Hello, Molly," said the doctor warmly.

"Salaam, Doctor," said Nira, giving an Arabic greeting. "A lot of us are in need of medical attention. Especially Legate Sherem here," she added, gesturing at the fatally wounded Rahab.

"Then let's see to the treatment," said Doctor Bashir. "I'm afraid, though, full treatment will have to wait for the infirmary back at Deep Space Nine."

Nira sighed in relief, and as she looked down, she was surprised to see the old man's dismembered hand still clutching tightly to her wrist. She unclasped it with disgust and followed Doctor Bashir and Molly to Valiant's Sickbay.

[Turbolift - Melek Nor --> USS Valiant] - [Dr. Jessica Fellows]

Jess grabbed the offered piece of cloth and quickly packed Nehor's wound as best she could. As Zhuk bandaged her, Jess grunted when he tied of the equally make-shift dressing and muttered.

"Thanks."

Moments after that, Jess felt the tingle of the transporter and she sagged in relief that they'd been rescued.

[Lieutenant Commander T'Kel | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

T'Kel suddenly noticed a message through the comm channels. Even though Nira's breathless call for extraction was heard on Starfleet hailing frequencies, she logically felt that the Challenger was too far away, but the message gave reassurance.

"Captain, we have word from the Valiant," she said. "Admiral Kira's picked up Commander Said's team."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian watched the viewer as the surviving Breen and Dominion ships scattered and cringed inside as Melek Nor blew apart. Ice clutched his heart until T'Kel reported the away team had been rescued.

"Praise be ta the Maker."

He offered in gratitude and spoke to Ops.

"Coordinate repair and medical teams with Discovery's Ops. Stand down from red alert, but keep us at yellow alert with shields up and you can stop broadcastin' Scotland the Brave."

[Lt. Ruth Sigurdsdottir, CSO: Bridge - USS Challenger A]

Ruth grinned at Ian's comment, but that quickly was silenced when she saw the state of the Discovery on the viewfinder.

"I'm no medic but I've had field training and also served  ah... you know when ¹ in Medical.  It looks like all hands to the pumps.  If you think you can spare me I'll go and help in Sickbay.  While we have plenty of medical staff more qualified, you need very few qualifications to triage, do minor injury repair and wield a dermal regenerator."

She was thankful that the Challenger was mostly in one piece, but then she'd always had faith in 'her' ship...along with the Captain and crew.  If it was her day to actually ride with the Valkyries, then she would go with good grace, but she now knew she'd live another day.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian looked up, tired now that the battle was over and the adrenaline had begun to drain simply said.

"If'n you think you can be of assistance, I'm sure they will appreciate it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Neva grabbed the kit strap of her Engineer's kit from her knee & slipped it onto her shoulder. As she sprinted to Main Engineering, she hummed the song playing from everywhere around her. She'd only just transferred to the Challenger, so this was new to her. This war scared her to no end, but this was what she signed on for. She'd only just laid down from her shift when all hell broke loose. Thankfully, she hadn't changed out of her uniform.
She stopped short when she realized she was about to bang into the doors of her destination. Straightening her uniform with a blown out sigh, she walked inside.
Neva walked up to the Chief Engineer and gave a soft cough. "Cadet Cordon reporting for duty, Sir. I know it's not my shift, but I'm at your disposal just the same." She gave a shaky smile.

[Engineering - USS Challenger] - [LTCMDR Dashlish Tharn]

All things considered, the ship had come through the fight mostly undamaged. I few conduits overloaded, but other than that, damage was minimal considering the nature of the battle they'd been in. When an unfamiliar voice interrupted her assessment of the ship, Tharn, growled, which was her default manner of speaking, unless she was actually angry, then she became far worse.

"You're who? Oh right, Gamma shift. Right. You think you can help, then be careful what you ask for. Find that worthless sack of poodoo Lahr and lead his repair team over to Discovery and try not to embarrass us with your stunning lack of knowledge. Now get!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[USS Challenger-A - Sickbay]

Dr. Banwell followed nurse Chloe around sickbay for a short time before he heard the captains voice over the intercom requesting the availability of crew for an away team should the need arise. "Sir... Dr. Banwell here. Looks like we can spare 3 medics should you need them. We will prepare our gear should you need us." Renley found himself rather nervous speaking to the captain with everything going on.

Renley got back to work triaging and treating the patients sent his way from nurse Chloe. For the most part nothing to serious, mostly bumps and bruises but thankfully nothing to serious had been sent his way. With the battle raging on Renley was optimistic that the captain and bridge crew had everything in hand. He walked over to one of the triage rooms and made himself useful examining patients as they came in.

[Sickbay - USS Challenger] - [Chief Petty Officer T'ealc]

The Vulcan Charge Nurse was in her element, tracking new cases, discharging those already treated, and monitoring communication is a symphony of multi-tasking. She noted the arrival of the new doctor and made a decision.

"Doctor Banwell, Discovery requires medical assistance. You are to take charge of the three medics that are available and transport over immediately with whatever medical supplies you can carry."

[Neva Cordon]

[Turbolift - Melek Nor --> USS Valiant] - [Dr. Jessica Fellows]

Jess grabbed the offered piece of cloth and quickly packed Nehor's wound as best she could. As Zhuk bandaged her, Jess grunted when he tied of the equally make-shift dressing and muttered.

"Thanks."

Moments after that, Jess felt the tingle of the transporter and she sagged in relief that they'd been rescued.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian watched the viewer as the surviving Breen and Dominion ships scattered and cringed inside as Melek Nor blew apart. Ice clutched his heart until T'Kel reported the away team had been rescued.

"Praise be ta the Maker."

He offered in gratitude and spoke to Ops.

"Coordinate repair and medical teams with Discovery's Ops. Stand down from red alert, but keep us at yellow alert with shields up and you can stop broadcastin' Scotland the Brave."

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian looked up, tired now that the battle was over and the adrenaline had begun to drain simply said.

"If'n you think you can be of assistance, I'm sure they will appreciate it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Engineering - USS Challenger] - [LTCMDR Dashlish Tharn]

All things considered, the ship had come through the fight mostly undamaged. I few conduits overloaded, but other than that, damage was minimal considering the nature of the battle they'd been in. When an unfamiliar voice interrupted her assessment of the ship, Tharn, growled, which was her default manner of speaking, unless she was actually angry, then she became far worse.

"You're who? Oh right, Gamma shift. Right. You think you can help, then be careful what you ask for. Find that worthless sack of poodoo Lahr and lead his repair team over to Discovery and try not to embarrass us with your stunning lack of knowledge. Now get!"

Neva nodded and actually bowed her head to the Chief in her haste to do as ordered. "Aye, Sir. On my way."
She wasn't sure who Lahr was, but she was sure she'd find out. That in mind, she turned away and headed for the turbolift. Hitting her Communicator, she called out "Lahr? This is Cadet Neva Cordon. The Chief Engineer said I should-" she cleared her throat before continuing. "She said 'find that sack of poodoo" her voice went up in questioning mode "uh...'Lahr & lead his repair team to the Discovery.' What Transporter, Sir?"
Neva suddenly stopped. 'Oh Hells! I'm LOST!' She whined to herself and threw up her hands in frustration. In any case, she leaned against a wall & waited with crossed arms over her chest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Sickbay - USS Challenger] - [Chief Petty Officer T'ealc]

The Vulcan Charge Nurse was in her element, tracking new cases, discharging those already treated, and monitoring communication is a symphony of multi-tasking. She noted the arrival of the new doctor and made a decision.

"Doctor Banwell, Discovery requires medical assistance. You are to take charge of the three medics that are available and transport over immediately with whatever medical supplies you can carry."

[Kyan Mackenzie]

[Escape Pod | Prefect's Office | Melok Nor]

With a grunt, Arak'agar heaved the unconscious form of his jem'Hadar brethren into the escape pod. He had managed to pull two others into Sherem's office before ops was decompressed. As he prepared to enter the pod, he looked out the doors in time to see Gul Sherem's last desperate moments before the Cardassian was sucked into space. "He deserves it." the young jem'Hadar thought aloud, turning back toward the escape pod.

Sherem had allowed himself to lose sight of his objective. His personal feuds and connections had blinded him. His ambition had outgrown his ability to make that ambition reality. As he boarded the pod, Arak'agar wondered what he would do now. Where would he go? He wasn't a Vorta, certainly not a Founder. He wasn't even a First. He supposed that he ought to stay here and die. But something in him said that was wrong.

The jem'Hadar maxim was that "Victory is life." But one could not achieve victory if one was dead. Sherem's conflict was over. He had been defeated. His disgrace was set. His mistakes were his own. The jem'Hadar had done what they were ordered to do. They fought for Sherem's cause. They died for it. But Arak'agar wasn't dead. "First, I will live. I will ensure that my brothers live. Then we will have victory."

But what victory? What struggle? Just to live? He and the others were programmed to serve the Vorta, and through them, the Founders. But he had no Vorta. The Founder was gone. Maybe after the others were well enough to fight, they could seek out a Vorta, or even a Founder to give them guidance. But first they would have to survive.

These thoughts echoed in his mind as he boarded the pod and closed the hatch.

[Lieutenant Kyan Mackenzie | Transporter room | USS Valiant]

After his molecules had reassembled, Kyan sat down on the transporter padd. Exhausted and glad to still be alive, he closed his eyes for a moment to offer up some thanks to the Powers for not letting him get sucked out into space with Sherem, which they had allowed during his last mission with the Discovery.

As he sat cross legged on the padd, his head leaned back against the wall of the Valiant's transporter chamber, he felt a blanket being wrapped around him, which was fine by him. It was positively freezing in here now that he took time to notice it. "Thanks." he muttered to whomever it was giving him the blanket. "I'm just gonna......"

Before he could finish he was hauled off the deck and thrown over a shoulder. "I'm taking this one to sickbay." a female voice spoke up.

Normally Kyan would have been opposed to such an indignity. But he was honestly too tired to care much now. "Whatever." he thought, but added as the woman carried him toward the door. "Dinnae leave me stuff here. Someone bring it to sickbay."

"It's ok buddy, I've got you." the female offered sweetly. "And we'll get that smell off you too."

"Buddy?" he thought, almost opening his eyes to see just who the hell he was being toted around by. But he didn't. Instead he just dropped his head on the medic's shoulder and went along with it.

"Whatever." he grumbled sleepily. "Just dinnae let no one steel me stuff."

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck Five - Corridor 5B73-2 (Damage Control Team One)]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian watched the viewer as the surviving Breen and Dominion ships scattered and cringed inside as Melek Nor blew apart. Ice clutched his heart until T'Kel reported the away team had been rescued.

"Praise be ta the Maker."

He offered in gratitude and spoke to Ops.

"Coordinate repair and medical teams with Discovery's Ops. Stand down from red alert, but keep us at yellow alert with shields up and you can stop broadcastin' Scotland the Brave."

Having just reported in to his team lead that he'd finished up repairing the conduit line in corridor 5B73-2, Lahr was gathering up his tools listening to Bridge chatter when he overheard T'Kel's report.  The Andorian paused a moment before giving a holler of success. They'd done it!

Lahr, didn't need to see the destruction of Melek Nor.  That the Captain ordered his 'banner' to be stopped broadcasting, meant that it was defeated.  Now it was just a matter of clean-up.

With his gear packed, Lahr made his way back up towards the staging area for the DCT1 until they received their next orders.  As he walked to the turbolift, Lahr found himself humming the catchy battle tune to himself.

Lahr could recall a time when it was an entirely different tune that had been played during battle moments.   Ruth had preferred the classic Ride of the Valkyries as her banner song.  But it had been nearly two years since she's been in Command.

In his mind, he wondered what a mashup of the two might sound like...

[Engineering - USS Challenger] - [LTCMDR Dashlish Tharn]

All things considered, the ship had come through the fight mostly undamaged. I few conduits overloaded, but other than that, damage was minimal considering the nature of the battle they'd been in. When an unfamiliar voice interrupted her assessment of the ship, Tharn, growled, which was her default manner of speaking, unless she was actually angry, then she became far worse.

"You're who? Oh right, Gamma shift. Right. You think you can help, then be careful what you ask for. Find that worthless sack of poodoo Lahr and lead his repair team over to Discovery and try not to embarrass us with your stunning lack of knowledge. Now get!"

Neva nodded and actually bowed her head to the Chief in her haste to do as ordered. "Aye, Sir. On my way."
She wasn't sure who Lahr was, but she was sure she'd find out. That in mind, she turned away and headed for the turbolift. Hitting her Communicator, she called out "Lahr? This is Cadet Neva Cordon. The Chief Engineer said I should-" she cleared her throat before continuing. "She said 'find that sack of poodoo" her voice went up in questioning mode "uh...'Lahr & lead his repair team to the Discovery.' What Transporter, Sir?"
Neva suddenly stopped. 'Oh Hells! I'm LOST!' She whined to herself and threw up her hands in frustration. In any case, she leaned against a wall & waited with crossed arms over her chest.

Lahr was just meeting up with others in the Observation Lounge when his comm chimed, followed by the most unusual message he'd ever received.... and given Ruth was his girlfriend ... that said a lot.

Sack of poodoo!? The Andorian huffed at the insult, even knowing that it was a Tellarite that had made the comment.  Lahr knew that his working relationship with Lieutenant Commander Tharn was thorny at best because of things done during the polywater incident.  However, he knew, she knew that despite that he was a good engineer - even if somewhat quirky; which was why she called on him and DCT1 to go assist Discovery.

Lahr looked around the Observation room for Ensign Jones, the usual leader of the team, but couldn't see her anywhere.  He noted Petty officer third grade T'roth, the female Vulcan of their team approaching along with their Caitian teammember,  Crewman Maranxx-ii.  The Vulcan no doubt having overheard the call, even across the room.

The 'cadet' calling had asked what transporter room so Lahr offered up one of the closest to his location.  It was odd to have a commissioned officer calling him 'sir'.  Even at the top enlisted rank Lahr could achieve on ship, the newest of commission officers technically outranked him.  The engineer was obviously brand spanking new.

"Let's meet at Transporter Room 3 on Deck 4."

Lahr offered the Deck number in his reply because he recognized that being new might mean they were unfamiliar with locations still.

Muting his end of the comm, Lahr looked to the arriving two team members, in concern.  "Where's Kasey?" he asked then realizing he was talking to the ship's most unimaginative Vulcan, he clarified. "I mean, where is Ensign Kasey Jones?"

"Ensign Jones has been taken to sickbay." The Vulcan answered blandly without offering any additional information, despite Lahr's prompting look.

Recognizing that they should get moving to meet up with the commissioned officer, Lahr led the way back towards the turbolift, all the while questioning the Vulcan as to what happened.  By the time they arrived, the only information he'd managed to extract from the Petty officer was that she'd been injured while doing her repair on the EPS conduit.  That Kasey had hurt her herself was not at all surprising, Kasey was rather clumsy and often uncoordinated.

So that he could recognize the officer who called him when she arrived, on this PADD called up the latest listings on the WaR board. There he noted that Cordon wasn't a cadet at all but rather an Ensign, and a Betazoid one at that.   Hmm.  He'd have to be careful to censor his thoughts.  Having her pick up things like he thought she was cute, could get him into trouble, not necessarily with her, but rather if Ruth caught wind of it.

When the Ensign eventually arrived Lahr, called the team to attention. "Chief Petty Officer ShranLahr ch'Verret, and Damage Control Team One, ready and at your service, ma'am."  He then offered a quick round of introductions of Petty Officer T'roth and Crewman Maranxx-ii to the Ensign.

"Do you know who we are reporting to once we arrive on the Discovery?  If not, I know someone that can help get us going."  Of course, he was referring to the ship's Chief Engineer, Lek.  A close personal friend of his.

He stepped up onto the transporter PADD and prepared for beam out, nodding towards the Ensign as the officer in charge to give the order to energize.

NPC Lieutenant JG Chloe Davies, Head Nurse
[USS Challenger-A - Deck 7 - Sickbay]

[USS Challenger-A - Sickbay]

Dr. Banwell followed nurse Chloe around sickbay for a short time before he heard the captains voice over the intercom requesting the availability of crew for an away team should the need arise. "Sir... Dr. Banwell here. Looks like we can spare 3 medics should you need them. We will prepare our gear should you need us." Renley found himself rather nervous speaking to the captain with everything going on.

Renley got back to work triaging and treating the patients sent his way from nurse Chloe. For the most part nothing to serious, mostly bumps and bruises but thankfully nothing to serious had been sent his way. With the battle raging on Renley was optimistic that the captain and bridge crew had everything in hand. He walked over to one of the triage rooms and made himself useful examining patients as they came in.

[Sickbay - USS Challenger] - [Chief Petty Officer T'ealc]

The Vulcan Charge Nurse was in her element, tracking new cases, discharging those already treated, and monitoring communication is a symphony of multi-tasking. She noted the arrival of the new doctor and made a decision.

"Doctor Banwell, Discovery requires medical assistance. You are to take charge of the three medics that are available and transport over immediately with whatever medical supplies you can carry."

Hearing T'ealc, Chloe gathered the three medics.  Petty Officer T'Varn - the only transgendered Vulcan Chloe had ever met and also one of the more friendlier Vulcans.  Petty officer Heesou - the medical department's only Orion presently, who voluntarily took an inhibitor shot once a week to prevent the production of her pheromones; and Crewman Zallao sh'Kaathren - a recent Andorian recruit that Chloe was still just getting to know.

She introduced the medics to Dr. Banwell, then pointed him towards the stock room where the enlisted medics began loading up with gear and medicine to take with them.

"Good luck over there!" she called out to Renley before returning to her triage task.

[Neva Cordon]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck Five - Corridor 5B73-2 (Damage Control Team One)]

Having just reported in to his team lead that he'd finished up repairing the conduit line in corridor 5B73-2, Lahr was gathering up his tools listening to Bridge chatter when he overheard T'Kel's report.  The Andorian paused a moment before giving a holler of success. They'd done it!

Lahr, didn't need to see the destruction of Melek Nor.  That the Captain ordered his 'banner' to be stopped broadcasting, meant that it was defeated.  Now it was just a matter of clean-up.

With his gear packed, Lahr made his way back up towards the staging area for the DCT1 until they received their next orders.  As he walked to the turbolift, Lahr found himself humming the catchy battle tune to himself.

Lahr could recall a time when it was an entirely different tune that had been played during battle moments.   Ruth had preferred the classic Ride of the Valkyries as her banner song.  But it had been nearly two years since she's been in Command.

In his mind, he wondered what a mashup of the two might sound like...

Lahr was just meeting up with others in the Observation Lounge when his comm chimed, followed by the most unusual message he'd ever received.... and given Ruth was his girlfriend ... that said a lot.

Sack of poodoo!? The Andorian huffed at the insult, even knowing that it was a Tellarite that had made the comment.  Lahr knew that his working relationship with Lieutenant Commander Tharn was thorny at best because of things done during the polywater incident.  However, he knew, she knew that despite that he was a good engineer - even if somewhat quirky; which was why she called on him and DCT1 to go assist Discovery.

Lahr looked around the Observation room for Ensign Jones, the usual leader of the team, but couldn't see her anywhere.  He noted Petty officer third grade T'roth, the female Vulcan of their team approaching along with their Caitian teammember,  Crewman Maranxx-ii.  The Vulcan no doubt having overheard the call, even across the room.

The 'cadet' calling had asked what transporter room so Lahr offered up one of the closest to his location.  It was odd to have a commissioned officer calling him 'sir'.  Even at the top enlisted rank Lahr could achieve on ship, the newest of commission officers technically outranked him.  The engineer was obviously brand spanking new.

=/\= "Let's meet at Transporter Room 3 on Deck 4." =/\=

Lahr offered the Deck number in his reply because he recognized that being new might mean they were unfamiliar with locations still.

Muting his end of the comm, Lahr looked to the arriving two team members, in concern.  "Where's Kasey?" he asked then realizing he was talking to the ship's most unimaginative Vulcan, he clarified. "I mean, where is Ensign Kasey Jones?"

"Ensign Jones has been taken to sickbay." The Vulcan answered blandly without offering any additional information, despite Lahr's prompting look.

Recognizing that they should get moving to meet up with the commissioned officer, Lahr led the way back towards the turbolift, all the while questioning the Vulcan as to what happened.  By the time they arrived, the only information he'd managed to extract from the Petty officer was that she'd been injured while doing her repair on the EPS conduit.  That Kasey had hurt her herself was not at all surprising, Kasey was rather clumsy and often uncoordinated.

So that he could recognize the officer who called him when she arrived, on this PADD called up the latest listings on the WaR board. There he noted that Cordon wasn't a cadet at all but rather an Ensign, and a Betazoid one at that.   Hmm.  He'd have to be careful to censor his thoughts.  Having her pick up things like he thought she was cute, could get him into trouble, not necessarily with her, but rather if Ruth caught wind of it.

When the Ensign eventually arrived Lahr, called the team to attention. "Chief Petty Officer ShranLahr ch'Verret, and Damage Control Team One, ready and at your service, ma'am."  He then offered a quick round of introductions of Petty Officer T'roth and Crewman Maranxx-ii to the Ensign.

"Do you know who we are reporting to once we arrive on the Discovery?  If not, I know someone that can help get us going."  Of course, he was referring to the ship's Chief Engineer, Lek.  A close personal friend of his.

He stepped up onto the transporter PADD and prepared for beam out, nodding towards the Ensign as the officer in charge to give the order to energize.

[USS Challenger-Corridor]
Neva nodded, pushing herself away from the wall. Hitting her comm she answered "Uh, ok see you there. Cordon out"
With a quick request of direction from the ship,  she found the nearest turbolift and asked for Deck 4. Thankfully, the turbolift was close.

~~confusion...amusement...cockiness~~ Despite her nervousness, she found that last one quite interesting.  'This should be fun' she thought as the doors opened. She swallowed hard and tried to smile. "Hi, I'm Cadet Neva Cordon." She said simply as she looked at the assembled group.

When heard Lahr give his full rank and called her "Sir," she blushed hard and stammered a reply as she noted each person introduced to her. "Uh...ok...good to meet you all." She then looked back at the one called Chief Petty Officer Lahr with a grateful smile and said "yeah, if you know who to go to that would help so much, thank you!" Neva stepped onto the transporter pad and settled her gear. She then stood to her full, if diminutive at 5'4", height. "Energize when ready please."

[M'Nia]

[Commander Nira Said | Ops | Melek Nor]

The team had just gotten into the turbolift when Nira looked up to see Sherem running for the turbolift, with a burst of speed surprising to see in an old man, along with the Hideki on a collision course and heading...

"EVERYBODY HANG ON TIGHT! HURRY!" she screamed.

Molly saw what Nira meant and with one hand, she embraced Rahab with one arm and wrapped the other around one of the front railings. Savar did the same, one arm around Jess and the other around the other front railing, and everybody else in the lift grabbed onto the railing on the back or in however much space there was on any of the front railings.

Nira was the the last to get on, but Sherem grabbed onto her. Realizing she had nanoseconds, she leapt to a railing and wrapped her arm right tightly while Sherem grabbed her left wrist, and tightly, just as most of Ops broke apart in flames, debris, and then blowing air out into the vacuum; it was instantly now like hanging onto a cliff to keep from falling downward.

Still clutching her blades, Nira looked back and seethed as she stared back at the old man, determined to hang on. Her expression was terrifying, her teeth grit. He glared defiantly back at her.

"I WILL SEE CARDASSIA RETURNED TO THE DOMINION! THE DOMINION WILL TAKE BACK THE ALPHA QUADRANT!" he shouted.

His hand got so tight on his wrist, Nira let out a guttural cry and brought her right hand bringing her other blade on his own wrist, but with her strength diverted to hang onto the railing, she could only manage to hack at his wrist multiple times, but all around her, kar'tarkins were stabbing into his shoulders and collars like spears, perhaps from others of the team with their own commandeered kar'tarkins clutched in their free hands, but he still wouldn't let go. Nira kept on hacking at his wrist, roaring back at him as she did so.

"I! HAVE! HAD! ENOUGH! OF! YOU!!!!" she roared, and with the last word, his arm was severed from his wrist. Nehor Sherem seemed to take an eternity to plunge into the vacuum, and it took little imagination in Nira to picture him falling downward, one hand missing. Time seemed to slow, Nira taking it all in so she would remember the memory of the last of the Dominion influence of Cardassia purged in a firestorm and a hurricane of decompression.

His plunge into the void took all but a handful of seconds and then the forcefields activated around Ops, an automatic measure for a hull breach, but owing to the loss of power, the activation took a tad longer than usual, but it was too late for the old man, he was well past the forcefield. And a moment later, his body was snatched by one of multiple torpedoes from a passing Akira, and Nira could see that particular torpedo heading into a pylon and blowing a part of it to kingdom come, and Nehor Sherem along with it.

M'nia watched as sherem plumeted into the void below. She was glad to see the last of him but everything was starting to get to her. She was holding on but it was taking all she had. All this was getting to be too much for her! She had managed so far but she was just out of the academy for K'tal's sake! She wasn't experienced at dealing with stuff like this!

Everybody took deep breaths, almost like from swimming underwater, and understandable so, given oxygen decrease. Nira shuffled her way into the turbolift, looking at the battle above them. Roughly half of Ops, along with most of the ceiling, had been shorn away. Nira was amazed they were all alive, or if that Hideki was off a few degrees in its collision course. Once she was in, Rahab sat up, grunting in pain as she did so, pressed a button, and the turbolift descended amidst rumbling.

Nira looked around in the turbolift, relieved to see none of the team had been literally blown into the void. She looked down at her own blades, one of them stained like it had chopped an inkwell, and she sheathed them both. It was time to get off this abomination that seemed like an evil twin of Deep Space Nine.

She pressed her comm badge and breathed heavily as she spoke, her lungs still recovering from the brief decompression.  "This is Commander Nira Said...to any available ship...we are in need of extraction...beam us up..."

A moment later, a call came from a very familiar voice.

"This is Admiral Kira on the Valiant. We got you, Commander, we'll get you aboard."

"Thank you, Admiral," Nira breathed in gratitude. The turbolift had opened to an explosion in ops just as the air simmered and they all disappeared in molecular light...

[Commander Nira Said | Transporter Room | Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B]

...and they all appeared, packed together, in the transporter room of the Valiant. A Bajoran at the transporter controls called in.

"Transporter room to Bridge, we have the Challenger away team," he said.

"Acknowledged," called Kira. "Welcome back, Commanders and ladies and gentlemen. We'll get you back to your ship as soon as possible."

M'nia sank to her knees! All the emotions she had kept in check were flooding in. The fear, the anxiety, the revulsion. She couldn't help herself. Tears began falling as she began sobbing. It was coming out now that they were safe. She just wanted to be herself, not pretend to be some ambassador! She had seen so much! Too much! So many terrible things! There were a lot of innocent people on that station. She didn't know if they got out in time or not! Then those 'drones' for lack of a better word! How horrible for someone to do that to someone else! It was overwhelming her! Right now she just wanted to go home! She wanted to forget all the horrible things she had seen

A second later, a medical crew arrived, led by Doctor Bashir. Naturally, Molly rose up at the sight and rushed over to him to embrace him.

"Julian!"

"Hello, Molly," said the doctor warmly.

"Salaam, Doctor," said Nira, giving an Arabic greeting. "A lot of us are in need of medical attention. Especially Legate Sherem here," she added, gesturing at the fatally wounded Rahab.

"Then let's see to the treatment," said Doctor Bashir. "I'm afraid, though, full treatment will have to wait for the infirmary back at Deep Space Nine."

[/quote]

[Zhukdrashar Mrekrerhas]

[Lieutenant Junior Grade Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Ops | Melek Nor | Panora System - in the Kuiper Belt | Badlands]

[Turbolift - Melek Nor --> USS Valiant] - [Dr. Jessica Fellows]

Jess grabbed the offered piece of cloth and quickly packed Nehor's wound as best she could. As Zhuk bandaged her, Jess grunted when he tied of the equally make-shift dressing and muttered.

"Thanks."

Moments after that, Jess felt the tingle of the transporter and she sagged in relief that they'd been rescued.

[Commander Nira Said | Ops | Melek Nor]

Once the team had assembled and the turbolift arrived, Nira gestured the team inside, firing at any stragglers, whoever there were left.

As the Old Man fired at the team heading for the turbolift, one of his remaining officers saw something on the console and exclaimed, "Sir! Station structual integrity is down to fifty percent! We're sustaining heavy damage!"

"Intensify all station turrets, batteries and torpedo batteries!" snarled Sherem, his attention diverted momentarily. "They have to stop keeping the damn ships from sneaking through!"

Indeed, with his intense awareness, he had kept noticing how Federation and Cardassian ships alike were flying past pylons and taking shots. Meantime, he kept snaking closer to the turbolift.

"Structual integrity at forty percent!" came the call.

"INTENSIFY ALL FIREPOWER, DAMN YOU!!!" screamed Sherem, whirling around.

"I'm trying, sir, I'm trying to divert power to the weapons, it's getting sluggish...! NO! IT'S TOO LATE!!!"

That last shout caused Sherem to whirl breifly around in time to see an enflamed Hideki diving bombing toward Ops on the viewscreen.

The team had just gotten into the turbolift when Nira looked up to see Sherem running for the turbolift, with a burst of speed surprising to see in an old man, along with the Hideki on a collision course and heading...

"EVERYBODY HANG ON TIGHT! HURRY!" she screamed.

Molly saw what Nira meant and with one hand, she embraced Rahab with one arm and wrapped the other around one of the front railings. Savar did the same, one arm around Jess and the other around the other front railing, and everybody else in the lift grabbed onto the railing on the back or in however much space there was on any of the front railings.

Nira was the the last to get on, but Sherem grabbed onto her. Realizing she had nanoseconds, she leapt to a railing and wrapped her arm right tightly while Sherem grabbed her left wrist, and tightly, just as most of Ops broke apart in flames, debris, and then blowing air out into the vacuum; it was instantly now like hanging onto a cliff to keep from falling downward.

Still clutching her blades, Nira looked back and seethed as she stared back at the old man, determined to hang on. Her expression was terrifying, her teeth grit. He glared defiantly back at her.

"I WILL SEE CARDASSIA RETURNED TO THE DOMINION! THE DOMINION WILL TAKE BACK THE ALPHA QUADRANT!" he shouted.

His hand got so tight on his wrist, Nira let out a guttural cry and brought her right hand bringing her other blade on his own wrist, but with her strength diverted to hang onto the railing, she could only manage to hack at his wrist multiple times, but all around her, kar'tarkins were stabbing into his shoulders and collars like spears, perhaps from others of the team with their own commandeered kar'tarkins clutched in their free hands, but he still wouldn't let go. Nira kept on hacking at his wrist, roaring back at him as she did so.

"I! HAVE! HAD! ENOUGH! OF! YOU!!!!" she roared, and with the last word, his arm was severed from his wrist. Nehor Sherem seemed to take an eternity to plunge into the vacuum, and it took little imagination in Nira to picture him falling downward, one hand missing. Time seemed to slow, Nira taking it all in so she would remember the memory of the last of the Dominion influence of Cardassia purged in a firestorm and a hurricane of decompression.

His plunge into the void took all but a handful of seconds and then the forcefields activated around Ops, an automatic measure for a hull breach, but owing to the loss of power, the activation took a tad longer than usual, but it was too late for the old man, he was well past the forcefield. And a moment later, his body was snatched by one of multiple torpedoes from a passing Akira, and Nira could see that particular torpedo heading into a pylon and blowing a part of it to kingdom come, and Nehor Sherem along with it.

Everybody took deep breaths, almost like from swimming underwater, and understandable so, given oxygen decrease. Nira shuffled her way into the turbolift, looking at the battle above them. Roughly half of Ops, along with most of the ceiling, had been shorn away. Nira was amazed they were all alive, or if that Hideki was off a few degrees in its collision course. Once she was in, Rahab sat up, grunting in pain as she did so, pressed a button, and the turbolift descended amidst rumbling.

Nira looked around in the turbolift, relieved to see none of the team had been literally blown into the void. She looked down at her own blades, one of them stained like it had chopped an inkwell, and she sheathed them both. It was time to get off this abomination that seemed like an evil twin of Deep Space Nine.

She pressed her comm badge and breathed heavily as she spoke, her lungs still recovering from the brief decompression.  "This is Commander Nira Said...to any available ship...we are in need of extraction...beam us up..."

A moment later, a call came from a very familiar voice.

"This is Admiral Kira on the Valiant. We got you, Commander, we'll get you aboard."

"Thank you, Admiral," Nira breathed in gratitude. The turbolift had opened to an explosion in ops just as the air simmered and they all disappeared in molecular light...

[Commander Nira Said | Transporter Room | Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B]

...and they all appeared, packed together, in the transporter room of the Valiant. A Bajoran at the transporter controls called in.

"Transporter room to Bridge, we have the Challenger away team," he said.

"Acknowledged," called Kira. "Welcome back, Commanders and ladies and gentlemen. We'll get you back to your ship as soon as possible."

A second later, a medical crew arrived, led by Doctor Bashir. Naturally, Molly rose up at the sight and rushed over to him to embrace him.

"Julian!"

"Hello, Molly," said the doctor warmly.

"Salaam, Doctor," said Nira, giving an Arabic greeting. "A lot of us are in need of medical attention. Especially Legate Sherem here," she added, gesturing at the fatally wounded Rahab.

"Then let's see to the treatment," said Doctor Bashir. "I'm afraid, though, full treatment will have to wait for the infirmary back at Deep Space Nine."

Nira sighed in relief, and as she looked down, she was surprised to see the old man's dismembered hand still clutching tightly to her wrist. She unclasped it with disgust and followed Doctor Bashir and Molly to Valiant's Sickbay.

[Lieutenant Commander T'Kel | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

T'Kel suddenly noticed a message through the comm channels. Even though Nira's breathless call for extraction was heard on Starfleet hailing frequencies, she logically felt that the Challenger was too far away, but the message gave reassurance.

"Captain, we have word from the Valiant," she said. "Admiral Kira's picked up Commander Said's team."

"It was... no problem." He replied to Jess, hoping that the makeshift bandage was not too tight on her.

After assisting Doctor Fellows, Zhuk was forced to duck as several disruptor shots almost reached him. He quickly scrambled to grab his Cardassian rifle, smashing himself against the metal walls, weakened by his injury, as he prepared to fire back and defend the incoming Commander Nira - before gazing at a bewildered Sherem running towards the turbolift alongside her. And a flaming ship on the viewport of the station, about to crash against it, after Nira had audibly warned them.

Great.

Zhuk quickly used the rifle sling to secure the Cardassian weapon to his shoulder, before he turned and reached down to secure his arm around the railing on the front of the elevator, wrapping his elbow around it, before grabbing it hard with his other hand, which had much more strength. The claws on his hands and feet popped out, hoping that it would give him further grip. He took a deep breath, just in case.

He barely had enough time to do anything, as an explosion suddenly rocked Ops, and everyone was then getting sucked out into the vacuum of space. Yet, Sherem proved to be rather resilient, as he grabbed onto the turbolift, unwilling to allow himself to be taken by the void. As Nira desperately tried to get him off by hacking against his hand, Zhuk decided to join in, his anger against the man taking hold of his better judgment, as he let go with his good hand, feeling his body sway from the loss of attachment. Not allowing this to deter him, he proceeded to reach for his kar'takin, and offer uncoordinated, uncertain stabs and slashes against Sherem. All the while, he roared with what little air he had left:

"My mother was wrong! Cardassia was great WITHOUT the Dominion! People like YOU and Dukat could have shifted EVERYTHING! Made it better! BUT YOU WERE TOO FOOLISH AND WEAK TO REALIZE THIS! _Ack!"

His air ran out just as Sherem was sent flying off the turbolift, one hand less. The Caitian coughed and sputtered, though did not let go, his muscles straining under the effort undertaken. He choked for a moment, hearing a soft crack from his shoulder. But then, a protection barrier returned some air into the room and normalized the atmosphere. He collapsed, taking in big drafts of air to recover.

At hearing the request for aid, though, he shakily stood up, barely able to do so, as soon enough, his molecules found themselves being transported somewhere else.

[Lieutenant Junior Grade Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Transporter Room | Melek Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B | Panora System - in the Kuiper Belt | Badlands]

Zhukdra'shar soon fell over the transporter pad, his legs sprawled in front of him. He took deep, labored breaths as he gazed around at a welcoming, warm room. He managed to gaze at Doctor Bashir who had come over with a medical crew, a weak, tenuous smile coming on his face as he both recognized such a distinguished official and saw Molly's reaction to him.

This was the worst he had felt in a long time, and had a hard time remaining properly focused on what was happening around him. His eyes squinted to take the scene, his ears were flat on his face, and his whiskers were straight and moving forward. He was in pain.

When he glanced over to Rahab, though, he felt a chill down his spine. At least he wasn't dying. Not yet at least. He was glad that Bashir was here and stabilizing the Cardassian, as he was not too sure that any medic could salvage such a grievous injury.

[Lieutenant Kyan Mackenzie | Transporter room | USS Valiant]

After his molecules had reassembled, Kyan sat down on the transporter padd. Exhausted and glad to still be alive, he closed his eyes for a moment to offer up some thanks to the Powers for not letting him get sucked out into space with Sherem, which they had allowed during his last mission with the Discovery.

As he sat cross legged on the padd, his head leaned back against the wall of the Valiant's transporter chamber, he felt a blanket being wrapped around him, which was fine by him. It was positively freezing in here now that he took time to notice it. "Thanks." he muttered to whomever it was giving him the blanket. "I'm just gonna......"

Before he could finish he was hauled off the deck and thrown over a shoulder. "I'm taking this one to sickbay." a female voice spoke up.

Normally Kyan would have been opposed to such an indignity. But he was honestly too tired to care much now. "Whatever." he thought, but added as the woman carried him toward the door. "Dinnae leave me stuff here. Someone bring it to sickbay."

"It's ok buddy, I've got you." the female offered sweetly. "And we'll get that smell off you too."

"Buddy?" he thought, almost opening his eyes to see just who the hell he was being toted around by. But he didn't. Instead he just dropped his head on the medic's shoulder and went along with it.

"Whatever." he grumbled sleepily. "Just dinnae let no one steel me stuff."

NPC Lieutenant JG Chloe Davies, Head Nurse
[USS Challenger-A - Deck 7 - Sickbay]

Hearing T'ealc, Chloe gathered the three medics.  Petty Officer T'Varn - the only transgendered Vulcan Chloe had ever met and also one of the more friendlier Vulcans.  Petty officer Heesou - the medical department's only Orion presently, who voluntarily took an inhibitor shot once a week to prevent the production of her pheromones; and Crewman Zallao sh'Kaathren - a recent Andorian recruit that Chloe was still just getting to know.

She introduced the medics to Dr. Banwell, then pointed him towards the stock room where the enlisted medics began loading up with gear and medicine to take with them.

"Good luck over there!" she called out to Renley before returning to her triage task.

He saw Kyan be carried off by a female Medical officer, and he let out a small chuckle. By this point, he would have liked such a treatment, too. There was someone in particular that he wanted to treat him, though he was unsure that would happen. He did see that Orion and his fur bristled slightly, hoping that she would not come near him. He did not quite have any energy left to back off or away if she did, though.

He wanted to see Chloe again. She was the only one from Medical that he fully trusted. For now, though, he sat tight. Waiting.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian looked up, tired now that the battle was over and the adrenaline had begun to drain simply said.

"If'n you think you can be of assistance, I'm sure they will appreciate it."

[Lt. Ruth Sigurdsdottor, CSO: Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ruth nodded briefly at Ian and gave him a sympathetic look.  "A wee dram in the Ready Room would probably be appropriate around now!" she said in a low voice so only he could hear.  "I'm sure someone else could sit in the big chair for a while to give you a little break, Sir.  You've been on full alert a while now!Medicinal!" and gave a wink.

As she stepped into the turbolift she offered up a sincere prayer of thanks to Odin and Freya that the Discovery had made it and a second to Eir¹ to hold those injured in her healing hands.  Ruth wanted so badly just to run to Lahr and have a cuddle but professionalism must be observed so instead on the way down she sent him a message to his PADD

TO: CPO Shran'Lahr ch'Verret
FROM: Lt. Ruth Sigurdsdottir, CSO
EYES ONLY LAHR

Hoping you're ok, babe.  Missing you.  I'm going down to the Sickbay to see if I can help triage or anything.  I'll try to find out what I can about Nevir, Hrafn and the kids, anyone else you want me to ask about?  See you when I can.  Remember Á©g elska Á¾ig²

~MESSAGE ENDS~

[Sickbay]

As the CSO arrived at the Sickbay she looked around in dismay at the people injured.  Spying someone in teal she gave a sort of hopeful look in their general direction and smiled.

"Lt. Sigurdsdottir, CSO... I hoped I could be of some assistance for general menial tasks.  I'm no brain surgeon but I can triage, fetch things, hold things, field medicine and such...make use of me how you can!"

¹ Norse Goddess of Healing
² I love you in Icelandic

[Nira Said]

[Lieutenant Kyan Mackenzie | Transporter room | USS Valiant]

After his molecules had reassembled, Kyan sat down on the transporter padd. Exhausted and glad to still be alive, he closed his eyes for a moment to offer up some thanks to the Powers for not letting him get sucked out into space with Sherem, which they had allowed during his last mission with the Discovery.

As he sat cross legged on the padd, his head leaned back against the wall of the Valiant's transporter chamber, he felt a blanket being wrapped around him, which was fine by him. It was positively freezing in here now that he took time to notice it. "Thanks." he muttered to whomever it was giving him the blanket. "I'm just gonna......"

Before he could finish he was hauled off the deck and thrown over a shoulder. "I'm taking this one to sickbay." a female voice spoke up.

Normally Kyan would have been opposed to such an indignity. But he was honestly too tired to care much now. "Whatever." he thought, but added as the woman carried him toward the door. "Dinnae leave me stuff here. Someone bring it to sickbay."

"It's ok buddy, I've got you." the female offered sweetly. "And we'll get that smell off you too."

"Buddy?" he thought, almost opening his eyes to see just who the hell he was being toted around by. But he didn't. Instead he just dropped his head on the medic's shoulder and went along with it.

"Whatever." he grumbled sleepily. "Just dinnae let no one steel me stuff."

M'nia watched as sherem plumeted into the void below. She was glad to see the last of him but everything was starting to get to her. She was holding on but it was taking all she had. All this was getting to be too much for her! She had managed so far but she was just out of the academy for K'tal's sake! She wasn't experienced at dealing with stuff like this!

M'nia sank to her knees! All the emotions she had kept in check were flooding in. The fear, the anxiety, the revulsion. She couldn't help herself. Tears began falling as she began sobbing. It was coming out now that they were safe. She just wanted to be herself, not pretend to be some ambassador! She had seen so much! Too much! So many terrible things! There were a lot of innocent people on that station. She didn't know if they got out in time or not! Then those 'drones' for lack of a better word! How horrible for someone to do that to someone else! It was overwhelming her! Right now she just wanted to go home! She wanted to forget all the horrible things she had seen

[Lieutenant Junior Grade Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Ops | Melek Nor | Panora System - in the Kuiper Belt | Badlands]

"It was... no problem." He replied to Jess, hoping that the makeshift bandage was not too tight on her.

After assisting Doctor Fellows, Zhuk was forced to duck as several disruptor shots almost reached him. He quickly scrambled to grab his Cardassian rifle, smashing himself against the metal walls, weakened by his injury, as he prepared to fire back and defend the incoming Commander Nira - before gazing at a bewildered Sherem running towards the turbolift alongside her. And a flaming ship on the viewport of the station, about to crash against it, after Nira had audibly warned them.

Great.

Zhuk quickly used the rifle sling to secure the Cardassian weapon to his shoulder, before he turned and reached down to secure his arm around the railing on the front of the elevator, wrapping his elbow around it, before grabbing it hard with his other hand, which had much more strength. The claws on his hands and feet popped out, hoping that it would give him further grip. He took a deep breath, just in case.

He barely had enough time to do anything, as an explosion suddenly rocked Ops, and everyone was then getting sucked out into the vacuum of space. Yet, Sherem proved to be rather resilient, as he grabbed onto the turbolift, unwilling to allow himself to be taken by the void. As Nira desperately tried to get him off by hacking against his hand, Zhuk decided to join in, his anger against the man taking hold of his better judgment, as he let go with his good hand, feeling his body sway from the loss of attachment. Not allowing this to deter him, he proceeded to reach for his kar'takin, and offer uncoordinated, uncertain stabs and slashes against Sherem. All the while, he roared with what little air he had left:

"My mother was wrong! Cardassia was great WITHOUT the Dominion! People like YOU and Dukat could have shifted EVERYTHING! Made it better! BUT YOU WERE TOO FOOLISH AND WEAK TO REALIZE THIS! _Ack!"

His air ran out just as Sherem was sent flying off the turbolift, one hand less. The Caitian coughed and sputtered, though did not let go, his muscles straining under the effort undertaken. He choked for a moment, hearing a soft crack from his shoulder. But then, a protection barrier returned some air into the room and normalized the atmosphere. He collapsed, taking in big drafts of air to recover.

At hearing the request for aid, though, he shakily stood up, barely able to do so, as soon enough, his molecules found themselves being transported somewhere else.

[Lieutenant Junior Grade Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Transporter Room | Melek Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B | Panora System - in the Kuiper Belt | Badlands]

Zhukdra'shar soon fell over the transporter pad, his legs sprawled in front of him. He took deep, labored breaths as he gazed around at a welcoming, warm room. He managed to gaze at Doctor Bashir who had come over with a medical crew, a weak, tenuous smile coming on his face as he both recognized such a distinguished official and saw Molly's reaction to him.

This was the worst he had felt in a long time, and had a hard time remaining properly focused on what was happening around him. His eyes squinted to take the scene, his ears were flat on his face, and his whiskers were straight and moving forward. He was in pain.

When he glanced over to Rahab, though, he felt a chill down his spine. At least he wasn't dying. Not yet at least. He was glad that Bashir was here and stabilizing the Cardassian, as he was not too sure that any medic could salvage such a grievous injury.

He saw Kyan be carried off by a female Medical officer, and he let out a small chuckle. By this point, he would have liked such a treatment, too. There was someone in particular that he wanted to treat him, though he was unsure that would happen. He did see that Orion and his fur bristled slightly, hoping that she would not come near him. He did not quite have any energy left to back off or away if she did, though.

He wanted to see Chloe again. She was the only one from Medical that he fully trusted. For now, though, he sat tight. Waiting.

[Commander Nira Said | Transporter Room | Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B]

Nira looked up to see Kyan being carried away. She saw Zhuk's envious look as well. "Medic, I think Mister Mrekrerhas may be tired as well, from the exertion."

The nurse that had accompanied Doctor Bashir, one of the medical officers of the Valiant, a six-foot bald-as-an-egg Deltan, nodded. "Why, anything for the wittle kitty," she said in a humorously babyish way and she then draped Zhuk over her shoulder in like fashion.

Nira patted a hand on M'Nia's shoulder; she had sensed the surge of emotions from the Caitian when they came aboard.

"It's okay, Ensign, it's over now. You did a phenomenal job," she said.

"We all did," added Molly with equal reassurance.

[Admiral Kira Nerys | Bridge | Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B]

"Admiral, there's some kind of transmission being sent to all friendly ships!" called Nuyu. "The Breen base is about to blow!"

"Order the fleet to pull back," said Kira, and Nuyu worked frantically.

[Lieutenant Commander T'Kel | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Ignoring Ruth Sigurdsdottir's banter and Captain Galloway's favored motivational battle music, T'Kel kept her focus on the battle, and not just with firing weapons. She looked up in time to notice the new swarm of Jem'Hadar fighters, corvettes and even a couple more battleships emerge from docking maws...for want of a better word. She noticed a particular Jem'Hadar fighter breaking formation...and then the transmission.

"Captain, we're getting a fleetwide order to pull back, the Breen station is ready to detonate. That must be Commander tr'Lhoell's team," T'Kel added logically.

The friendlies got clear of the proximity just in time; even the Legacy had to break off its bombardment. The explosion was enormous enough to bear semblance to a supernova, and plenty of enemy ships weren't so lucky. Any ship caught in the blast had no chance, but there will still plenty of enemy ships left, though a good deal of them had been flown apart or split apart by the shockwave, like the carrier. Melek Nor, its Ops sheared mostly off, was sent flying by the shockwave, a pylon ripped off in the process. Given it wasn't directly above the Breen station and wasn't very close to it, it was the reason why.

In spite of its being flung about, the station was mostly intact and its automated turrets kept on firing. Pirates under Sherem - the remaining forces, spread somewhat more apart - were rallying remaining Jem'Hadar and Breen forces...at least, under them, given Breen and Dominion forces were mostly in retreat.

"Sir, Melek Nor is still intact," she said. "Sherem's pirates are rallying around it. I recommend we next target the transwarp reactor, it should well and truly finish it off."

[Escape Pod | Prefect's Office | Melok Nor]

With a grunt, Arak'agar heaved the unconscious form of his jem'Hadar brethren into the escape pod. He had managed to pull two others into Sherem's office before ops was decompressed. As he prepared to enter the pod, he looked out the doors in time to see Gul Sherem's last desperate moments before the Cardassian was sucked into space. "He deserves it." the young jem'Hadar thought aloud, turning back toward the escape pod.

Sherem had allowed himself to lose sight of his objective. His personal feuds and connections had blinded him. His ambition had outgrown his ability to make that ambition reality. As he boarded the pod, Arak'agar wondered what he would do now. Where would he go? He wasn't a Vorta, certainly not a Founder. He wasn't even a First. He supposed that he ought to stay here and die. But something in him said that was wrong.

The jem'Hadar maxim was that "Victory is life." But one could not achieve victory if one was dead. Sherem's conflict was over. He had been defeated. His disgrace was set. His mistakes were his own. The jem'Hadar had done what they were ordered to do. They fought for Sherem's cause. They died for it. But Arak'agar wasn't dead. "First, I will live. I will ensure that my brothers live. Then we will have victory."

But what victory? What struggle? Just to live? He and the others were programmed to serve the Vorta, and through them, the Founders. But he had no Vorta. The Founder was gone. Maybe after the others were well enough to fight, they could seek out a Vorta, or even a Founder to give them guidance. But first they would have to survive.

These thoughts echoed in his mind as he boarded the pod and closed the hatch.

[Thot Malgh | Transporter Room | Breen Cruiser Gal'Gor'Gut]

Thot Malgh had been surprised at the arrival of the Cold One, and he had spent a surprising amount of time rescuing Jem'Hadar and Breen escapees, much to the Cold One's frustrations. The latest batch brought in a few young Jem'Hadar who immediately abased themselves before the Cold One in gratitude.

"Founder," they all said. The Cold One shrugged, bored with having to greet troopers, though the young ones certainly needed some guidance. He noticed one, Arak'agar, he remembered.

"Honored warriors, I am glad you have returned to us," he said. "We will grant you the victory you deserve..."

Then the explosion flared, the Thot and the Cold One whirled to see. Melek Nor was sent flying.

"Founder, our station has been destroyed," Thot Malgh said.

"Then it's time we made our complete retreat," said the Cold One. "We'd best make our way back into Breen space. We may have lost here, but the rise is only beginning...and will continue."

A relay of the orders told the Thot differently.

"Most of our forces have acknowledged. However, there are still ships staying," he said. "By orders of Sherem's remaining men."

"By all means, let them," snarled the Cold One. "Let the Federation have confidence in spilling our blood for the time being. We have plenty more."

[M'Nia]

[Commander Nira Said | Transporter Room | Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B]

Nira looked up to see Kyan being carried away. She saw Zhuk's envious look as well. "Medic, I think Mister Mrekrerhas may be tired as well, from the exertion."

The nurse that had accompanied Doctor Bashir, one of the medical officers of the Valiant, a six-foot bald-as-an-egg Deltan, nodded. "Why, anything for the wittle kitty," she said in a humorously babyish way and she then draped Zhuk over her shoulder in like fashion.

Nira patted a hand on M'Nia's shoulder; she had sensed the surge of emotions from the Caitian when they came aboard.

"It's okay, Ensign, it's over now. You did a phenomenal job," she said.

"We all did," added Molly with equal reassurance.

Slowly, the sobs subsided as M'nia was able to let it all out. It had been an ordeal. She was slowly processioning everything. Slowly her strength returned. When she was finally able to talk she said, "Th-thanks Commander Molly." At least sherem was dead. He deserved to die! Slowly she struggled to her feet. "So what happens now commander?"

[Zhukdrashar Mrekrerhas]

[Lieutenant Junior Grade Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Transporter Room | Melek Deck One | USS Valiant NCC-74210-B | Panora System - in the Kuiper Belt | Badlands]

Zhukdra'shar's ears swished a bit as he swore he could overhear Commander Nira telling someone about how tired he was, and that he required some help. He glanced over to her to try and determine what she meant by it, but before he could even gather his thoughts properly, he was scooped up by some surprisingly strong set of arms.

He slowly raised his head, being met with a tall, beautiful female Deltan. He was momentarily left out without a breath before she commented upon him being a 'wittle kitty'. Zhuk frowned, as his ears were flushed red, and he glanced away, unable to suppress how embarrassed he was at that statement. Even then, he embraced her gently, allowing himself to be taken to the Medbay. He felt a sense of relief, the discomfort flushing away from his body, almost as if it were magic. It made him blink slowly, and he felt compelled to place his head on her shoulder.

"Mm... this feels... nice... thank you..."

He could only mutter, as eventually she was regaled with a vibrating sensation from him. He was purring, and rubbing against her like any Earth cat would. For now, the idea that he might be degrading himself went out of the window. He just wanted to hug her and never let go...