“This is the part I really hate,” Tikva muttered, mostly to herself, but just loud enough for the Romulan beside her to hear. As Vilo Kendris turned to her, an eyebrow raised in query, she continued. “There is literally nothing you can do, you can’t even talk to your people who are in harm’s way and you just have to sit and wait.”

“Have you experienced it often?” Kendris asked.

“More than I care to think about,” she answered.

That inspection while commanding the Haida for one.

Oh! Don’t forget the Appleton Incident while on the Jutland.

Or the time we almost lost Captain Denevan too.

This sucks.

Yup.

“Twice myself.” Kendris’ admission was more than Tikva had hoped for. “Both times against the Empire. But I knew then that my people would either be dead or come back to me, even if I had to mount a rescue mission to get them back. But the Borg…” Kendris trailed off, then offered a slight smile. “I am sure Commander Gantzmann is fine.”

Tikva leaned over the arm of her command chair, elbow resting on the chair’s arm. “She knows I’d kick her ass if she wasn’t.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Kendris answered, then turned her attention forward sharply as Rrr laughed. They’d taken over at Ops and finally sent Samantha Michaels off duty against the young officer’s own wishes to stay. “Something to add Lieutenant?”

“Never underestimate a Gaen’s hearing,” the large officer answered. Rrr’s rocky exterior, which was just that, gave people a first impression of a large, ungainly and possibly slow individual. In truth, Rrr was Atlantis’ resident gossip, with some filters, and aided by excellent hearing, keen eyesight and the last Tikva had asked the ability to lip read no less than five major Federation languages. “Second, ma’am, if the captain says she’s going to kick someone’s ass, she means it.”

“Even if I have to find a ladder?” Velan chipped in, leaning over the tactical rail. But before any retort could come his way, he continued. “Shield generators just spiked their power draw.”

“CR-718’s shields are collapsing,” Lieutenant Kurtwell said from Velan’s left.

“How’s the storm outside looking?” Tikva asked, turning in Gabrielle’s direction.

“We’re past the worst of it. We’d be fine now even without the shields. Still won’t catch me doing a spacewalk though.” Gabs looked over her displays once more, then turned to the bridge as a whole. “Subspace comms are still out of the picture and I wouldn’t fancy radio in this muck right now either.”

“Radio?” Kendris asked, then waved any responses away. “Science ship. Awfully well-armed science ship.”

“Welcome to Starfleet,” Tikva joked, pushing herself to her feet. “T’Val, edge us in closer to the station, please. Actually,” she spun, turning to Velan, pointing at him, “could we match shields with CR-718 now?”

“Assuming there’s no Borg shenanigans going on anymore, we could.” Velan thought for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders with a nod before heading back to the bridge Engineering station. “Rrr, can you pull up 718’s nominal shield specs? Let’s see if we can’t make this work.”

“Fantastic!” Tikva announced, then turned to the viewscreen once more as she stepped up behind Rrr and T’Val’s stations. “Take us in right close T’Val. Bring us alongside to dock on the starboard side.”

“Assuming this isn’t a trap,” Kendris said, appearing at Tikva’s side with no warning. “We should have security ready to either repel boarders or assist any injured.”

Tikva nodded, once, then flicked her head to the turbolift door, a silent order to make it so that Kendris heard clearly as she nodded herself and then turned to leave.

As Vilo Kendris rounded the final corner to Atlantis’ starboard docking port along the saucer’s edge, a blinking guide light on the wall panels leading her true, she came across exactly what Lieutenant Ch’tkk’va had said they’d do – no more, no less. She’d called them for a security detail at the starboard docking port and they’d responded by saying Gold and Bronze Hazard teams would be there, waiting. A few of them were even sporting longer weapons she didn’t recognise, but which they were handling like they were intimately familiar with them.

“Lieutenant, are we ready?” she asked as she approached the Xindi-Insectoid, festooned with their unique body armour. The design lineage with the rest of the body armour on display was obvious, but allowances had been made for the Insectoid frame.

“Yes Commander,” Ch’tkk’va answered. “I would feel more comfortable if you stayed back until we are confident it is safe.”

Now that sort of behaviour she recognised – centurions seeking to protect senior officers, politely requesting them to stay back. But she knew it was also a racial and cultural issue with the Xindi-Insectoid as well. “I’ll stay shipside until you give the all clear.”

“I would prefer you stay a section back from the airlock as well.”

“I will vacate if I need to,” she answered.

“Bridge to Ch’tkk’va, ready down there?” The captain’s voice came out from the security officer’s communicator with only a short series of chips to indicate a call was incoming.

“As you wish ma’am,” Ch’tkk’va replied to Kendris first, then to Captain Theodoras via comms after a double tap of his comm badge. “Aye, ma’am.”

“Excellent. We just managed to pass through the station’s shields. One minute. Bridge out.”

Ch’tkk’va turned to the rest of the hazard team members assembled. “Gold, Bronze,” they ordered, with quick hand movements to indicate which side of the airlock they should form up on. They weren’t in the airlock itself, but the large section just before it. It served as a welcoming space, or when at a starbase as a large thoroughfare that Security could set up to verify visitors coming and going.

And make a nice ambush point for any potential Borg drones that might spill out from the communications station.

“Well this is a right mess,” grumbled Doctor Terax as he and two nurses approached, though the nurses had the decent sense to stay back when one of the Gold Hazard members suggested they do. None of them even attempted to divert the Edosian doctor, whose height towered over all if stood up and not in his near-permanent grouchy slump.

Kendris was halfway to asking her question when he interrupted her. “Someone is either hurt or about to get hurt and I don’t want to waste precious seconds if I’m fighting Borg nanoprobes.” Then he looked at her, brow furrowed as he studied her. “No, Edosians are not telepaths, you’re just young.”

“I’m sixty-seven,” she answered, which drew a few looks from the nearest security team members, shrugging it off when they spotted a pointed ear or recognised her face.

“Child,” he shot back.

Finally the door chimed, an indicator light blinking brighter red a few times, then yellow, before going green, another chime to let people know the airlock was safe to open. And before Ch’tkk’va, putting themselves in danger by being so close to the door, could reach out to open the door, the hissed open on its own accord.

“Injured man here!” shouted Amber Leckie as she led the way through the airlock, Brek and Rosa Mackeson both supporting a bleary-eyed and rather battered-looking Gavin Mitchell through the airlock.

Things moved quickly from there, Bronze Team pushing through the airlock, the nurses moving forward with a stretcher, loading Mitchell up and after Terax’s examination departing at pace towards sickbay.

“Possible concussion, fractured skull, dislocated shoulder,” Terax’s diagnosis continued as the medics, Amber included, disappeared from sight.

“Lieutenant Mackeson,” Ch’tkk’va spoke up, “addressing the seniormost member of Silver Team still present. “I count four.”

“I count five,” Adelinde Gantzmann declared as she stepped through the airlock finally. In one hand she still carried the spear she’d crafted, the other she held the sword that Rosa had wielded. She stopped just inside the airlock, raising her chin briefly to Rosa and Brek.

“Five come home,” both of them answered her challenge.

“Damn straight.” That done, Lin approached Kendris and stopped, banging the spears butt into the floor with a muffled thud. “Commander Kendris, I’ll be happy to give you and the captain a debriefing on what happened.”

“How about after a shower, Commander?” Kendris offered. “And maybe A quick visit to Sickbay as well?”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Lin answered, then turned to Rosa, offering the sword to her once more. “It’s yours, keep it.”

“Uh, thank you,” the Orion woman answered as she took the weapon.

“See you tomorrow in the holodeck for some lessons with it, yes?”

“Oh, certainly!” Rosa replied.

“Now, let’s do as the Commander suggested and see Doctor Terax then have a shower.” Rosa and Brek nodded at Lin’s suggestion, but Rosa’s face twisted some as Lin started smiling. “We save the drinks for after Mitchell is back on his feet.”