Out of the Frying Pan

Posted on 19 Oct 2013 @ 6:42pm by Lieutenant JG Tykhin Vess

1,270 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Sickbay, Jeffries Tubes Deck 4 and 3
Timeline: MD 03 - 0145 hrs

[ON]

Tykhin blinked several times. There were flashing yellow lights and he
felt dozens of minds near him.

This isn't the escape pod, he thought.

His vision began to clear and he realized he was in a medical bay. It was crowded and there were people sitting on the floor with doctors and nurses moving their way through them. He frowned, confused, and then the memories started coming back to him. Tykhin sat up, then reached down to touch his chest. His uniform jacket was gone, taken off in the escape pod, but so was the pain.

"You're up?"

Tykhin looked over and saw a young nurse looking at him. He opened his mouth to answer.

"Good. If you can sit, that means the rib fractures knitted the right way. Now get off the bed, I need for other people," she said curtly.

Tykhin did as he was told and looked around. Across the sickbay, he saw Lt. Cameron lying on another bed. He picked his way over to her.

"Alice. You look awful," he said flatly.

"I feel worse. I don't... I barely know what happened."

The two intelligence officers were quiet for a moment and looked around the room.

"How many made it?" Tykhin asked.

"A hundred, maybe, that's what I heard the nurses say."

Tykhin's expression was grim. "At least we're still..."

The sickbay rocked violently. Lt. Cameron flew off the biobed into Tykhin and they landed in a pile on the floor among medical staff, patients and equipment. There were screams and the panic of over two dozen people pounded at Tykhin's mind. He was stunned for a moment.

"...khin! They're back!" Lt. Cameron shouted, struggling with her uniform jacket. Tykhin shook his head and helped her pull it off.

"Four gods and five hells," he cursed and threw the jacket aside.

The last thing either of them wanted was to be identified as intelligence officers right now. The ship shook again, and again and all they could do was hold on. Some people screamed, others looked grim, and some had blank, dazed looks on their faces. The medical staff were scrambling. To Tykhin, it all seemed to happen in slow motion.

"Intruder alert. All decks, intruder alert."

Fear rippled down Tykhin's spine and his stomach turned. "This isn't happening."

Tykhin saw a doctor run to his office and another doctor lock the sickbay doors.

"That won't help," Alice said and looked at Tykhin. "They can't..."

"I know," Tykhin said, looking around. "Come on."

Alice could not walk on her own and he half walked her, half dragged her to one wall of the sickbay and started prying at one of the panels to the Jeffries Tubes.

"Hurry up," Alice said, looking toward the sickbays doors.

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying," Tykhin muttered.

There was a loud bang at the sickbay doors and more screaming. Tykhin could not sense anything in the corridor, but he had read a report about that. There was nothing to sense with the Borg. Tykhin pried frantically at the panel and it came loose. He slid into the tube and pulled Alice in after him. There was screaming and phaser fire.

"Come on!" he yelled. He vaguely saw someone else climbing through the hatch before he started moving. In moments he felt sickening terror from minds behind him in sickbay, and then they just started to disappear.

"Four gods," he swore.

Tykhin led the way through the tunnels with no idea where he was going, or where it would even be safe to go. When he looked over his shoulder he saw Alice, pale and sweating, doing her best to crawl with one arm. There were two others behind her, wide eyed and terrified.

"Are you two from this ship?" Tykhin demanded. The first one, a young brunette woman with ensign's pips and a yellow uniform nodded.

"Y-y-yes, s-s-sir."

"Is security on the same deck as sickbay?"

"N-no, security is... up one..." she said and struggled not to hold back a sob. "I saw them, they grabbed..."

Tykhin looked at her a moment and then ahead to the junction.

"Let's go," he said and then added. "We'll be fine." He hoped it sounded convincing.

Tykhin stopped at the junction and listened. There were muffled screams, but they were from the hallways. Carefully, he climbed up the ladder and opened the hatch to the next level. He looked around and listened but did not hear or see anything.

"Clear. Come on," he said. Tykhin climbed out onto the decking and laid down. He saw now the other person with them was an ensign in a medical uniform, and he and the ensign from operations were helping Alice to her feet and up the first few rungs of the ladder to where she could reach out her good hand to Tykhin. He took hold of her and smirked.

"I told you I'd lift up your career before I retired," he said.

Alice rolled her eyes. "You're twisted," she said.

The decks thrummed and the lights in the Jeffries tube dimmed for a moment, then the ship shook violently. There was a rumble and a blast of hot air blew up into Tykhin's face.

The medical ensign looked behind him. "Oh god!"

"Tykhin!" Alice screamed as the operations ensign let go of her and started trying to climb up her to get to the ladder.

"I got you, don't let go!" he shouted and pulled as hard as he could. There was an orange flash, a scream and then a hiss and the floor hatch snapped shut. Tykhin stared uncomprehending at his hand. Slowly, the hand he was holding slid out of his grip and fell onto the closed hatch doors, still attached to most of Alice's arm. He started to shake violently and then threw up.

Tykhin rolled onto his back and looked up at the piping and just a couple of feet above him. The ship shook again and then was still. He felt terrified minds throughout the ship going silent.

They can't take Alice now, he thought. And I can't let them take
me... I should have stayed in Diplomatic Branch...

Slowly, Tykhin reached up and put a hand on an emergency venting handle for the plasma conduit. Technicians who did not want to die were supposed to hook up bypass tubing at the junction a few meters away before pulling a lever like this, but Tykhin knew from his training it was also great way to rupture a conduit. He hoped it would not hurt for long.

Tykhin took a breath and his mind cleared. He blinked and realized it was not peace that he felt, but the absence of terror. There were still minds on the ship, but now he sensed... fear... confusion... revulsion... shock. He closed his eyes and focused.

...Status report...

...shields down...

... Emily... I'll kill them all...

...oh god it let me go, oh god it let me go, oh god it let me go...

...tractor beam, damn...

Tykhin opened his eyes and took his hand off the venting handle carefully. Whatever had happened, the Borg were not assimilating the crew right now, or not all of it, and that meant they had a chance. He rolled back over onto his hands and knees, carefully avoiding looking down at the hatch below him in the juncture. He looked up.

The bridge is up, right? Always up... he thought to himself, and
started to climb.

[OFF]

Lieutenant JG, Tykhin Vess
Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

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