Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire

Posted on Fri Feb 3rd, 2017 @ 4:14am by Brigadier General Christopher Mitchell & Commander Andrew Knight & Lieutenant JG Lexxa Sereion

Mission: Another Day in Paradise
Location: Various
Timeline: During the Initial Moments of the Borg Attack on Starbase 900

=====Bridge of the USS Zumwalt=====

Drew stepped onto the bridge of the USS Zumwalt and started for the tactical station, but stopped abruptly, as he bumped into the newly appointed Marine CO, Lieutenant Ja'xon.

"Excuse me, sir." The Marine said as he was also approaching the tactical station.

Drew looked from the tactical station to the Captain's Chair. He changed direction and headed towards the latter. He took a deep breath and sat down. He knew there was no time to waste. They had to get into the fight to allow time for the relief force to arrive. He looked at the display to the left of the chair and saw that the ad hoc crew thrown together to crew the ship were aboard and the airlock had been secured.

"Lieutenant Knight, or shall I call you Captain?" Ja'xon spoke up from the tactical station, "Either way, everything looks good to go over here. Shields are operating efficiently and all of our weapon systems are functioning properly."

Drew shot a look at Ja'xon and simply shook his head. "Lieutenant Knight will suffice for now. Start charging phasers and get quantumn torpedoes loaded. Raise the shields as soon as we have cleared the starbase." He looked at the flight control officer already at the helm. "Release docking clamps and take us out Ensign. Please set a course to rendezvous with the Combat Air Patrol and engage at full impulse once clear of Starbase 900."

The ensign at the helm swiveled around in her chair and her hands darted over the controls. The metallic sound of the docking clamps being released reverberated through the ship. A heartbeat later the ship began to move. It only took seconds for it to clear the station and go to full impulse.

Lieutenant Ja'xon tapped his com badge, he wanted to speak to his men, "Lieutenant Ja'xon to Marines," he started, "Moments like this are why I am proud to be a Marine. We are out numbered, our forces have been divided, but we will head into battle none the less. We will complete this mission. First squad- fire team 1, report to the bridge. Fire teams 2 and 3, report to engineering. Second squad, I want each fire team to act as QRF (Quick Reaction Force) on Decks 2 through 4." Two squads, six fire teams, 26 men. This should be enough to minimally defend this vessel if we are boarded. He thought to himself. "Have faith Marines; faith in your training; faith in your brothers and sisters next to you; and have faith in me and the orders I give. We do these things and we will not fail." He took a moment to breathe, "Beers on me tonight. Ja'xon out."

Drew spared a moment to glance over at Ja'xon. "We pull through this alive, you and your marines will drink on me tonight." He looked forward. "You to ensign." Drew used the panel on his left to activate the ship-to-ship hail. "Zumwalt to close CAP, form up in flanking positions and prepare for fast strikes. Drifter one heavy and a dozen Valks will rendezvous with you at Rally Point Gamma for coordinated counter attack. How copy, over?"

Chris toggled his cockpit communicator. "I read you loud and clear, Zumwalt. Stand by for form up." Switching over to another channel, he addressed the remainder of the fighters. "All fighters, all fighters. Section One, take the port side. Section Two, take starboard. All others, form Section Three and cover aft." Banking hard to port, he rolled his fighter into position as the lead for Section One and locked his navigation system to match the Zumwalt's speed and heading. "CAG to Zumwalt. Section One is in position and standing by for your order. Sections Two and Three are completing form in one-zero seconds. Confirm."


=====Docking Port for the USS Hopper=====

Ashley was struggling along the corridor filled with people preparing to board the USS Hopper. Somebody bumped into her and the bag in her arms went flying. She tried to dart after it, but the two heavier bags on her shoulders prevented a speedy chase. She finally got to where the bag had landed and found it in the hands of a rather cute young man in a marines uniform.

Justin had noticed the stunning young woman when she was further down the corridor, so when she'd gotten bumped and her bag went flying he stepped over to where it had landed and picked it up. "Here you go miss. Better get aboard."

Ashley nodded and even gave the young marine a shy smile. "Thank you...."

It took a moment for him to realize she wanted to personally thank him by name. "Justin...Winter.... Private Justin Winter."

Ashley's smile grew slightly. "Ashley Knight." Suddenly, the press of more bodies in the corridor swept her away an into the USS Hopper before she could say more.

Justin took a step to resume his post several meters down, but felt something squish under his first step. He knelt down and found a stuffed toy monkey. He looked at the airlock entrance and realized the toy must have fallen out of Ashley's bag. He stuffed the toy into his tunic with a silent promise to himself to deliver it to Ashley later.


=====Nearest Borg Cube=====

Three of Eight, Secondary Adjunct of Unimatrix Three became activated with the rest of his unimatrix. All eight Borg drones walked out of their alcoves simultaneously and filed out in a single file line. They were getting prepared to leave the cube and board the Defiant class Federation star ship that was approaching. Each drone went through their version of a systems check to ensure that they were operating a peak efficiency. All were silent in their preparation, words were an inefficient way to communicate when you were apart of one collective mind.

Preparations complete, they stood silent, like a squad of grotesque statues as they wait for the opportunity to infiltrate the Federation vessel.


=====Medical Deck=====

The lights were beginning to flicker as systems were shorting out. "We may not have 20 minutes," Cara said to Meredith. "EVERYONE....OUT! EVACUATE NOW!" she yelled and motioned toward the transporter and doors. Just then the medical companel crackled and the Borg's announcement echoed through the ER. Cara's face went white. "Meredith...get to your family. GO!

Meredith shared in Cara's fear. She took one last look around the Medical Center. Only staff and a few fully ambulatory cases remained. She bolted for the door and ran behind the rest of the staff as they made their way to the Hopper's docking ring on the same level. Bedlam seemed to reign in the corridors as members of medical and engineering made their way to their designated evacuation vessel.

From the medical transporter, Ens. King called out, "boss....we have a problem!"

Cara hurried around the nurses' station and saw that the last non-ambulatory patient lay on a gurney on the transporter pad and the ensign was desperately attempting to initiate transport but each time he tried nothing happened. "The transporter's down," he reported, looking panicked.

"Help!" came a call from just inside the ER doors. Cara turned to see a man holding his arm that was wrapped in a blood soaked towel. She turned to Ens. King and said, "if our transporter is down we have to assume the stations are as well so take her...," referring to the patient on the gurney, "...to the docking port. Go!"

"What about you?" King asked as he rushed over to the hover gurney and grabbed the control.

"I have a patient," Cara said. "Hurry. Good luck," she added and rushed over to the young man with the injured arm.


=====Crew Deck, USS Hopper=====

Ashley entered the quarters the Duty Petty Officer had sent her to. She dumped the three bags belonging to her and her family on the sofa and looked about the cramped space. It was hardly big enough for one person, much less a family of three. Ashley, without anything better to do, took a seat in the stuffed chair at one end of the coffee table and waited. Her mom and dad would be there soon and things would be better, of that she was sure.


=====Docking port, USS Hopper=====

"Geez, Ensign, what do you have in this bag?"

Grace and Senior Chief Podolsky, along with other members of the Operations and Engineering Department, were both directing individuals onto the USS Hopper, as well as prepping the vessel for launch. Along the way, Ensign Dark Wolf had snatched up a bag of what she called her gedankenexperiment, though some of them were too solid to be purely thought based. The first time he had seen it, Podolsky had asked Grace why the bag held so many objects; a light blush appeared on the Ensign's dusky cheeks as she admitted her occasional inability to think sequentially. As Grace monitored the coupling connections between the Hopper and SB900, Podolsky had picked up the bag to move it out of the way.

"You know, stuff," Grace answered evasively. "Models and PADDs and prototypes and...stuff."

Podolsky knew PADDs meant the Mass Gap Paradox of the Cochrane Equation, something that Podolsky didn't understand the explanation of in articles aimed at the general populace, much less what was being debated in the scientific community.

"If we're still here when the Borg board, I hope you have something in that bag that'll help," Podolsky said as he sat the bag down in a safer place.

"Maybe," Grace answered, as she made adjustments on the panel she was monitoring.

=====Space=====

The Zumwalt and a dozen Valkyrie fighters came upon the far CAP that had been performing a fighting withdrawal from the Borg attack force. Drew activated the comms again. "Colonel, I'm going to try and draw fire from that front Borg cube. If you follow us in, maybe you can pinpoint the weapons emplacements and take 'em out."

Christopher responded. "Roger that, Zumwalt. Give me a target and we'll go for it." he said , adjusting power to his microphasers and armed the remaining torpedos on the racks. This was not looking good- over 40 percent of the squadron had been lost in the initial attack and the rest that weren't damaged had been scattered.

Drew looked at the main viewer as the Borg cube grew larger and larger on the screen. "Helm, cut across their bow. Mister Ja'xon I want you to fire aft torpedoes as we pull out."

Ja'xon gave his affirmative, "Aye, sir." and carried out the orders.

The Zumwalt made a running pass across the bow of the lead Borg cube. True to form, half a dozen energy beams lanced out from the hull of the Borg cube. The Zumwalt veered off before any could connect.

"All met their target, Lieutenant." Ja'xon said from the tactical station. Pressing a few buttons he pulled up a damage report on the cube. "But there was minimum to no damage. If we want to even dent this thing, we need to coordinate with those fighters out there and hit the same mark."

Christopher pushed forward after he saw their initial salvo hit including one of his own microtorpedoes. Checking his own sensor data, the Cube was barely scratched. "I think we're going to need a new target.

Ja'xon words struck a chord with Drew. He turned to the command display to his left and keyed in a few commands. Targeting information used by the task force at the Battle of Sector 001 came up on the monitor. He sent the information out of a data stream to the squadron of Valkyrie fighters and to the Zumwalt's tactical station. "Concentrate fire power on these targets."

"All fighters, this is drifter. We'll head straight in with a staggered formation, fire torps and peel out. Save your phaser power for these fighters their sending out. Good hunting, boys and girls. Drifter out." Flicking switches

Doing as Ja'xon was ordered, he fired phasers at many fighters that crossed their path and waited until the right time to fire the torpedoes just before they turned and pulled out.

Drew looked at the main view screen, a moments worth of satisfied expression on his face. Though the Borg cube had not been destroyed outright, it had been disabled for the time being.

=====Mess Hall, USS Zumwalt=====

Three teams of Borg drones found their way on board the Federation vessel. They specifically chose areas on the ship with no strategic value and were minimally guarded. Calculated to be the best way to get on board without incident.

One of these teams landed in the Mess Hall with their mission being to reach the computer core, which was located on the same deck. This team consisted of eight Borg drones, and they filed out of the Mess hall in two columns heading to the computer core.

As the Borg boarded the ship the computer alerted the tactical station, "We have Borg on board. All hands," Ja'xon taps his com badge, "We have intruders on board. Repeat, Borg are located in the Mess Hall, Cargo Bay 3, and Shuttle Bay 2. Marine QRF teams head to those locations now. Everyone else, defend your posts."

The marines on Deck 2, on their way to the mess hall turned a corner and ran right into the Borg drones. They were out numbered 8 to 4 and immediately began to engage in close quarters combat.

The fighting was brutal, but the Marine quickly realized that only 5 of the Borg drones were of the soldier variety. It appeared that the other three had non combative functions. They focused their assault on those drones first and disabled them quickly. The fighting continued and was brutal, however the Marines ended up being the superior force. One of the Lance Corporals called out to their CO, "Lieutenant Ja'xon, drones on Deck 2 have been neutralized sir, however, Corporal Eichen is dead sir."

Ja'xon was monitoring the fighting as best he could while running the tactical station, not being in the fight with his Marines was tearing him apart. He was receiving reports from his teams. "Thank you for reporting in, I want you to take over as team leader. Take your men to cargo bay 3, our men are pinned down in there."

=====Docking Port, USS Hopper=====

Private Winter was trying to usher evacuees along as fast as possible, but there always seemed to be some jam up that occurred at the transfer tube every other minute or so. He looked over to the single officer and the senior chief that seemed to be her companion. The senior chief looked a lot like a drill instructor he'd had in basic so he approached him first. "Hey there senior chief. Don't suppose you could use that authoritative set of lungs on you and get some order to this cluster f...," Winter paused with a look at the young female standing next to the senior chief, "...um charlie foxtrot."

Grace smirked at the marine. "It's okay, private," she assured him. "My brother is a marine, so I'm fluent in both high and low marine. I got this, Senior Chief," Grace added, nodding at the controls she was monitoring. "The bridge on the Hopper has everything under control as it is. I'm just here for the sake of redundancy."

Senior Chief Podolsky gave his ensign a nod, then headed over to the logjam blocking the transfer tube.

"FREEZE!"

The flow of humanity trying to press itself into the Hopper came to an abrupt halt at the barked command of the senior NCO.

"Make a space in the middle! Now! I want a space for sickbay! Then I'll call for dependents! Then everyone else! But I will have order!" Podolsky barked. "You will not move unless you are called. Sickbay and injured, load now!"

"That what you were looking for, private?" Grace asked Winter as she acknowledged a report on the panel she was monitoring.

Private Winter reached up and scratched his head and nodded. It was always amazing to see a non-commissioned officer, especially a senior one, be able to stop everyone in their tracks. "Yeah, pretty much." He looked at Grace and realized what he had just said to a commissioned officer. He stood a little straighter. "I mean yes sir."


=====Medical Deck-ER=====

Cara finished mending her patient's laceration and started to usher him to the doors when she heard something in the nurses' station. She turned and looked and saw Mac trying to secure the medicine room. "Mac! Come on. We have to go," she called out. "Go to the docking port," she told her patient who didn't need to be told a second time and ran through the open doors.

"It won't lock," Mac called out, trying to punch the code in again.

"Leave it," Cara yelled. "Let the Borg have it. Let's go!"

Mac gave up and turned to leave when a bright blue light appeared between her and Nichols coming from the ceiling. It was so bright she had to shiled her eyes. When the light dimmed she dropped her hand and, standing just a few feet away were two Borg drones.

"We are the Borg. You are to be assimilated. Resistance is fultile," one of the drones said as it moved towards the head nurse.

Mac had no where to run. She looked at her boss and grinned a devilish grin then she looked back at the drone. "Yeah? Well mother @#$%&...let's go to hell together," she snarled and grabbed a handfull of electrical conduit that connected the medical communications system to its power source and gave it a big yank. The ends of the conduit sparked and bolts of small electrical current leaped out of it, searching for a connection. Mac stepped forward as the drone stepped closer and grabbed its arm with her free hand, shoving the end of the conduit into its chest plating. The drone began seizing as the electrical current surged through it...as did Mac. Both drone and nurse began to glow until the current finally burned out and both dropped to the floor.

Cara stood, watching in horror as her friend sacrificed herself. The second drone moved toward the first and seemed unaware of Cara's presence so she took the opportunity to make her escape and ran out of the ER.


=====Docking Port, USS Hopper=====

Cara stumbled through the docking port and one of the Hopper's security officers grabbed her by the arm to keep her from falling. Breathlessly, she said, "Borg. On the Medical Deck."

Senior Chief Podolsky immediately barked at those still waiting to board to remain calm before making his way to the redheaded doctor. "Anybody left on the Medical Deck, Doctor?"

Cara shook her head. "No," she said, sadly. Then she looked around at those gathered. "Meredith," she said. "Meredith Knight!" she called out. Not hearing anyone respond she called, "Ashley?" The Knight family had to make it out. She couldn't stand to lose another friend.

Private Winters heard Cara call out for Meredith and then Ashley. He scooted around the edge of the crowd and came up along side Cara. "Sir? Your looking for the Knight family?"

Cara hated being called sir, but she let it slide this time. "Yes. Do you know where they are?" she asked the young man.

"Private!" Podolsky interrupted. "You're clogging the inflow. Get the doctor on board and then get back here. If the Borg are on the medical deck, they could be heading this way." Podolsky conferred with one of the security NCOs, who established a perimeter at the edge of those still waiting to board.

"Ensign, you got something in your bag that could help?" the Senior Chief yelled.

Grace frowned, dug into her bag and pulled out something that fit inside the palm of her hand. "Maybe. It's a prototype. A concept device. I don't know if it---"

"With respect, ma'am, please get your backside moving and follow me," Podolsky answered. Grace grabbed a couple of other items from her bag and got moving. "Private, anyone wants a reunion, let them do it on the Hopper. Keep the crowd moving. The Ensign and me are just going to head down the corridor and stick our head around the corner."

Private Winters swallowed a large lump in his throat that had manifested the moment the Senior Chief had addressed him loudly. He pulled Cara out of the main flow of bodies boarding the Hopper. "All I can tell you is that Ashley boarded about 15 minutes ago, maybe 20, but I haven't had anyone ask me about her since I have been on duty here."

"Do you know where Ashley is?" Cara asked.

Private Winters shrugged, his arms splayed out in an I dunno gesture. "All I can say is she's aboard the Hopper. There is a petty officer of the watch just inside the airlock though. He might know."

"Thank you Private," Cara said and gave him an apologetic smile for having gotten him into trouble. She joined the throng of people making their way through the airlock. Once she made it through the door she squeezed through the crowd and fought her way over to the Petty Officer who was making an attempt to log everyone in. "Excuse me. Petty Officer. I'm Dr. Nichols. The station CMO. I'm looking for the Knight family. Meredith? Or her daughter Ashley?" she said.

The petty officer looked up from the list of names scrolling at a fast rate across his PADDs display screen. He saw the Lieutenant's pips on her collar. He keyed in the names to his PADD. "There is an Ashley Knight. She was one of the first ones aboard. She's been directed to quarters. Deck Two, cabin B-25." He shook his head as he searched for Meredith's name. "Sorry sir, but no Meredith Knight has boarded as of yet."

Turning against the flow of traffic, Cara said, "I have to go back."

The petty officer placed a tentative hand on Cara's upper arm to halt her. "Sorry sir, but I have instructions to send the first department head to come aboard to the bridge. Base command says you are to go there and assume command of the ship until a more senior officer is aboard."

"I'm not leaving without Meredith," Cara said, yanking her arm out of the petty officer's grasp. "I have to find her," she repeated.

The petty officer looked at the ship side hatch leading back into the starbase. People were streaming in two, three, even four abreast. He turned back to Cara. "Evacuation protocols are in effect, no one aboard ship is allowed to return." He gestured to the men, women and children streaming aboard. "Your the senior officer. They ... are all your responsibility now."

Cara looked around and suddenly felt overwhelmed. She looked back at the Petty Officer and raised her arm. Pinching up her sleeve she said, "in case you're color blind, Petty Officer....this is teal...not red. These people would probably be better off with you on that Bridge than me." But Cara knew that her argument was futile. Much like the Borg assimilation. So she held up her hands in surrender and muttered, "fine. Whatever," then headed for the Bridge.


=====USS Zumwalt=====

Over the next 30 minutes the fighting continued but eventually came to an end, and Ja'xon gave his report to Lieutenant Knight, "Sir, we have successfully taken out the Borg threat on board. However, we have significant casualties." He paused for a moment reviewing the list, "13 starfleet personnel are KIA and another 5 have major injuries and another 10 have minors. Eight of the KIA, 3 of the major injuries, and all 10 of the minors are Marines."

Drew heard the news of the dead and injured, but he was a bit occupied with still fighting the ship. He simply gave Ja'xon an acknowledging grunt at the casualty report. The Eleventh Carrier Wing and Zumwalt had been able to significant slow the advance of the Borg force, but now the fighting was nearing the starbase itself. It was simply becoming a war of attrition and the Starfleet forces were on the losing side.

Ja'xon addressed his men, "Marines, consolidate teams the best you can. Get those with debilitating injuries to the medical bay and make sure every wound is treated. We are likely to be boarded again, stay on red alert, we aren't out of this yet."

Three of Eight was among the drones on deck 2 laying on the ground inoperable. However, this drone was not dead, he was in a deactivated state and would remain that way until someone discovered that this drone was still alive and reactivated him.

Drew glanced at his monitor and noticed new contacts dropping out of warp, contacts that were Starfleet vessels. He gave a joyful shout out.


====Corridor leading to docking port of USS Hopper====

"What exactly is that you're carrying, Ensign?" Senior Chief Podolsky asked. The Senior Chief was leading the way, phaser in hand. Not that he had any delusions of defeat a group of Borg single handedly. If he encountered a group, he planned to fire a couple of shots then warn security at the docking port while he beat a retreat.

"It's a Borg bomb," Grace answered, trotting behind Podolsky.

"You've been here less than a month, and you invented a Borg bomb, because..." Podolsky asked incredulously.

"I accidentally invented a Borg bomb," Grace answered. "I was trying to reverse engineer ---"

Grace's convoluted explanation was interrupted by Borg drones making their way up the corridor.

"Run, senior chief," Grace shouted as she tossed the object in her hand in the general direction of the advancing Borg. The object had sailed three meters away from the two engineering personnel when it was replaced by a large, anthropomorphic odd-toed ungulate wearing livery and carrying a halberd. The creature in question charged the Borg, who began firing upon it in return. Grace and Podolsky barely made it around the bend before a bright light lit up the corridor.

Podolsky kept his phaser pointed toward the bend, but nothing appeared. The two carefully went back around the bend and found the dead Borg drones scattered about the decking.

"What exactly was that you threw, Ensign?" Podolsky asked.

"An attempt to use Yaderan hologram technology to reverse engineer mobile emitter technology. Unfortunately, I haven't been successful with the power source, so it ends up blowing up, and incidentally emitting a blast of omicron radiation...which has dissipated," Grace hurriedly added.

"Remind me to have a long talk with you, Ensign," Podolsky said, as he led to the two back to the Hopper.

A haggard looking Meredith came into view from a cross corridor. She was holding a young child in her arms. She saw Grace and the Senior Chief and called out to them for help.

Before Podolsky could respond, Grace turned to him and said, "Senior Chief, could you check the corridor behind them?"

Sometimes, Podolsky mused, a butter bar will surprise you by understanding the situation and doing the right thing.

"On it, Ensign," Podolsky said, heading down the cross corridor Meredith had emerged from.

"Take a breath, ma'am," Grace said, stepping up to Meredith and guiding the other woman so that she was leaning against the wall. "Is there anyone coming behind you that we need to help?"

Meredith set the young child in her arms down as she leaned against the bulkhead and tried to catch her breath. She gave a sad look at the way she'd come and shook her head. "Only ones that way...are beyond help." She tried taking shallow breaths to calm her hyperventilating, but every few moments she had to take a deep gulp of air. Her hand rubbed a knot of pain in her side.

"Just relax," Grace instructed the other woman. "We're going to get you two out of here."

Podolsky returned at that moment. When he caught Grace's eyes, he shook his head, a grim look on his face.

The little girl, who couldn't have been any older than four or five, tugged on Grace's pant leg. She cast a suspicious glance at Meredith before peering imploringly into Grace's eyes. "The bad woman took me away from my mommy and daddy. They had fallen down asleep just outside our home. Please, take me back to my mommy and daddy?"

Grace went down to one knee, placing her hands on the little girls shoulders. In as soft a tone as she "Your mommy and daddy want you to be safe. That's why they wanted you to go with this lady. She's really a very nice lady. And this is a very nice man," Grace continued as Podolsky came trotting up. "His name is Podolsky. He's going to take you and this nice lady to a very safe place."

Podolsky gave the little girl as an open a smile as he could as Grace stood back up.

"Nothing back that way," Podolsky whispered. "Nothing good, anyway."

Grace nodded, and whispered back. "Take these two back to the Hopper. I'm going to make one quick sweep and I'll be right behind you, Senior Chief."

Podolsky was about to argue, but he saw that look in Grace's eye that said his ensign wasn't going to be argued out of her plan of action.

"Make it quick, Ensign, or I promise to put my foot up your backside so far you'll be able to quench your thirst from the water on my knee," Podolsky said in a low tone, with no humor in his voice.

Grace gave a quick nod and trotted down the cross corridor as Podolsky herded Meredith and the little girl toward the Hopper.

Meredith pushed off the wall and started down the corridor with Podolsky, the little girl walking on the Senior Chief's far side away from the bad woman.

The trio had gone no more than 50 meters down the corridor when Meredith had to stop and rest again. The pain in her side refused to subside, causing her to lag behind Podolsky and the little girl. She bent over, hands on her knees and released a low moan of pain. She gave Podolsky a wave. "Go on ahead. I'll catch up to you in a minute." She stood there for a minute catching her breath. It was the last time anyone saw her.


=====Bridge of the USS Hopper=====

Where as the bridge of the Zumwalt had only one person when Drew and Ja'xon arrived. The same was not true of the Hopper's bridge when Cara arrived. Flight control just in front of the Captain's Chair was manned by a Helmsman First Class (PO1). Surrounding that area along the bulkhead was several other station. Starboard side saw Primary Tactical had a Chief Gunner's Mate (CPO) with an Ensign sitting at the Science Station just forward of that, a Hospital Corpsman Third Class stood at the Life Support monitoring panel sandwiched between the science station and main viewer. Only two individual sat along the portside station. The Engineering Station manned by an Engineman Second Class and the Tactical Two Station by a Torpedoman's Mate Third Class.

The Chief Gunner's Mate was the first to see Cara arrive. He'd been informed by the in port Petty Officer of the Watch she was on her way. He stood up and called out "Acting Captain on the bridge."

The entire way to the Bridge Cara had been searching her memories for what Bridge training she could remember from her days at the Academy. But that had been so long ago and her focus had always been on medicine that most of what she had learned had been filed in brain cells so remote they might as well not even been in her brain at all. Her palms were damp as the turbolift door opened and she caught her first sight of the Bridge. Rubbing them on her pant legs she stepped across the threshold and stared at the Command Chair as if it were an octopus waiting for her to sit in its grasp. She tore her eyes away from the chair and looked at the CGM. "Who has been in command?" she asked.

Chief Taggert hitched a thumb towards the ensign at the science station. "That'd be Ensign Palmer sir." His voice was grave and clearly indicative of how little confidence he showed in the young officer.

Ensign Palmer, hearing his name, turned to see who had called him. He saw Cara and her lieutenant's insignia. He stumbled to his feet, knocking over the seat at the science station. "Ma'am! Ensign Palmer reporting!" The young man looked hardly old enough to shave, much less have graduated Starfleet Academy.

Chief Taggert looked from Cara to Palmer and then back to Cara again with a see what I mean expression.

Cara raised an eyebrow then sighed. "Reporting what, Ensign? You haven't said anything yet," Cara said as she looked at the main viewer. Taking a deep breath she said, "I need to know as soon as those airlock doors close. I also need to know what's out there," she said pointing to the viewing screen. "Is there a way out of here that won't get us killed?"

Palmer turned back to his station, almost eager to be able to answer some of Cara's questions. "Well, the Zumwalt and Air Wing Eleven were able to destroy or disable 5 of the 20 Borg vessels so far. Their currently falling back to Starbase 900 now that a force of Starfleet vessels have arrived and are engaged with the Borg. Commander Knight up in the Ops Center wants us to get under way in five minutes or less. Orders from him are that Zumwalt and the relief force will cover our retreat as Hopper takes on the remaining fighters from the Air Wing. Our escape vector will be course 300 mark 250 at maximum warp."

Cara walked over and stood behind the helm, leaning down. "Do you have any experience flying fancy evasive maneuvers, Petty Officer?" she asked, quietly.

The Petty Officer cleared his throat, nervously. "Only on the Holodeck, ma'am," he answered.

"Looks like you're going to get a chance to see if all those pretend flights paid off. What's your name?," Cara whispered in his ear, patting his shoulder.

"Carl, Ma'am," The helmsman replied.

Straightening up Cara said, "Well, Carl, be ready to release the docking clamps as soon as those airlocks are closed." She looked over at Palmer and said, "get me an ETA on those air locks, Ensign." To the CGM she said, "put us on Red Alert and get ready to fire at anything that gets in our way."


=====docking port of USS Hopper=====

"Hold! Hold! Hold!" Grace shouted as she came running down the corridor, a bundle in crook of her left arm and a bag in her dangling right hand. Senior Chief Podolsky, who had been simultaneously keeping an eye out for Grace and getting the Hopper ready to shove off, waved for the enlisted to stop their work.

"I don't remember either of those being in your bag of tricks, Ensign," Podolsky said, getting Grace on board. One of the enlisted relieved Grace of the bag in her hand. "If you had missed the boat because you were picking up souvenirs, that would have reflected poorly in your training records," the Senior Chief deadpanned.

The bag that Grace had just been relieved of made a whimpering sound, and one of the bag's sides popped off, revealing thin bars with a beagle puppy looking through them. At the same time, the bundle in the crook of Grace's made a gurgle, revealing the source of the noise as a small human infant.

"They're going to need to take that from you, Ensign," Podolsky said gently to Grace, who was now cradling the baby with both arms. "They'll need both of us in Engineering. We got lots of hands on board, but not that many trained."

Grace nodded and handed the baby to a petty officer from Operations, with the instructions to "Let me know where she ends up" before heading to engineering. With everyone safely in the Hopper, Podolsky hit his combadge. "Bridge, airlocks are sealed."

=====Bridge of the USS Hopper=====

Ensign Palmer swiveled in his seat to face Cara in the Captain's Chair. "Airlock has been sealed."

The Helmsman didn't wait for the order to release the docking clamps and begin to clear the station. With Palmer's coordinates programmed into the helm, Carl thrust the throttle to forward and began weaving around weapons fire coming from both Starfleet ships and the Borg.

Cara had no choice but to sit in The Chair as the ship swung right then left. Gripping the arms of The Chair, she said, "as soon as you are clear, Carl...turn so we can provide cover fire for our other ships." She glanced at the CGM who was already preparing a firing solution so he would be ready when they were in position. Cara looked over at Palmer and said, "get a head count of evacuees."

"Yes ma'am, sir...ah...Captain." Palmer brought up the evac figures on his monitor. "Looks to be...1473 persons. Just shy of our maximum emergency limit."

Carl maneuvered the Hopper away from the starbase in a wide arc that would allow them to come into a fighting retreat formation with the Zumwalt and remaining fighters from the Air Wing, but put them on the escape vector at the end of the arc.

The Chief Gunner's Mate acquired a lock on half the Borg fighters engaged with the remaining Air Wing elements. "Targets are acquired."

"Fire at will!" Cara said, watching the main viewer. 1473 she thought to herself. That is only a third of the base's inhabitants. Adding the fighter wing, the crew and Marines on the Zumwalt....that's only a little over half. She closed her eyes for a second. The Borg collective had just expanded by approximately 1500. She opened her eyes and the sadness had been replaced with vengeance. "Take them out Chief....blow the sonsofbitches to hell," she said, vehemently.

The Chief hit a series of buttons on his tactical console. Half a dozen forward phaser arrays fired multiple bursts, eliminating over a dozen Borg fighters pressing hard on Christopher's Air Wing.

=====USS Zumwalt=====

The Zumwalt swung tightly in and dispatched another three Borg attack ships with weapons fire from its pulse phasers.

Christopher swung his fighter around, narrowly avoiding the phaser pulses and watched as the sleek fighters disintegrated under the sheer force of the phasers. Locking on to the final four fighter, he fired a short burst of phaser fire, striking one in one of the mechanical tentacles and causing the phaser burst to bounce off harmlessly, like a laser bouncing off of a mirror. The fighter suddenly rolled and pointed it's sharp, diamond shaped head back in Chris' direction.

"Drifter to Zumwalt. We have a slight problem out here- these Borg have adapted and I have one on my tail-" Chris was cutoff midsentence as his fighter shuddered and his cockpit illuminated crimson. "I've been hit." he said, attempting to keep his voice calm as he tried to avoid further fire and failed, his fighter vibrating as more phaser blasts struck him. Checking his status display, Chris saw the entire outline of his fighter blinking red. "Zumwalt this is Drifter, requesting emergency beam out!"

The Zumwalt changed course immediately, bearing down on Christopher's fighter and that of his pursuers. A barrage of phaser fire and quantumn torpedoes lanced out from the small, but powerful warship.


=====Bridge of the USS Hopper=====

Cara and the rest of the crew watched the General's ship as it tried to outrun the Borg fighter. "Can we get a lock on him?" she asked.

"No. He's moving too fast for our systems," the CGM replied. "I can't even get a weapons' lock on the fighter."

"Captain....we have incoming," Palmer announced and on the main screen two torpedoes could be seen heading their way.

"Evasive manuevers," Cara ordered. Then she heard herself say, "deploy counter measures," and she wondered where that little piece of knowledge came from.

The CGM deployed the CMs and, as the Hopper banked right, the incoming torpedoes turned in the opposite direction to follow the decoys.

:OFF