Stardate: 71007:1800
Title: Worse than a Date with Troy
Author: Chief of Operations Autumn Falls
Time: Current
Scene: Rennas Homeworld / USS Horizon


There was no peace in knowing that the end would be soon, and Autumn could take no comfort in the fact that she was wearing clean underwear! Instead, as the pain vibrated through her brain and Lily’s hand gripped hers more tightly, Autumn was angry. There was no mistaking that this planet was pretty, but the Chief of Operations wasn’t ready to die; she had too much to do and too many things she wanted to tell those she loved.

With an irritating mutter she cursed as she imagined the bridge crew on a coffee break. It was difficult to stay conscious, she wasn’t sure how long this whole assault had been going on for or how long her unconscious periods had lasted. That was probably why, when she saw the figure ahead, she assumed she was delusional from pain. She recognised the sounds she heard, but couldn’t comprehend their meaning.

“Fear not, I am here to save you.”

As the comforting blue transporter light encompassed her, tears of relief mixed with the blood trickling from her eyes.


=/\=USS Horizon Sickbay =/\=

The COO didn’t rebound as quickly as Emma had. In fact, the unaccustomed note of panic in the CMO’s voice made Autumn more worried about her situation than the perturbing palpitations she felt all over. With an effort she opened her eyelids to find Nurse Bunter swabbing away her blood and Ted injecting something into her neck.

“Try not to move,” Ted said as he ran a scanner over her head.

“Lily?” Autumn managed to croak.

“Unconscious, but stable. Stay still.” Ted’s authority and confidence was back in his voice and so Autumn closed her eyes.

She must have drifted off for when she came around she noticed a change in the atmosphere in sickbay. There was a lot more movement and a feeling of anxiety in the air. Looking around there were other people being treated and she recognised a lot of them as being members of the away team that had went to the banquet. They seemed to have similar bleeding to herself, but on a lesser degree to what she had experienced.

Alex was perched on a chair next to her bed. The Operations Officer smiled as their eyes met.

“How are you doing?” Having worked together on the bridge a lot, Autumn didn’t give him the usual party line of ‘I’m fine’.

“I feel like I have been on a date with Troy.” They both laughed. “What has happened?”

“Towards the end of the banquet, this loud noise filled mine and the rest of the crew's heads; it was excruciating. The Captain had us beamed out.” Autumn started looking around the sickbay to see if she could see Scott.

“Don’t worry, Autumn - Scott didn’t seem affected.” Not many people knew that Scott had anti-telepathy abilities and, if Alex was right and the noise was inside people’s head, the Captain would indeed be unchanged.

“Why does Ted look so worried? Is Lily worse?” Autumn asked as she observed the furrow of the CMO’s brow crease further.

“Lily is still unconscious, but she’s stable. Gabriel is in a pretty bad state though – he has some unidentified fluids in his system and Ted is struggling to stabilise him.” After a few minutes silence of thinking about their comrade Autumn’s mind clicked onto the practical.

“I don’t think Ted is going to let me leave, Alex. Are you fit for bridge duty?” Autumn didn’t want to leave the Captain short-handed.
“I'll go now, but I will leave you with the results of my testing on the planet. Perhaps you can pass it on to Dr Matthews when he has fewer casualties to see?” Autumn nodded as she took the offered datapadd.

With Alex gone, she sat up and looked around the room. With tentative steps she made her way to Lily’s bedside. Who was this woman? Had her cry of ‘mum’ meant something? Or was it just an instinctive reaction in a life-threatening situation to call out to the one who has protected you the most?

Autumn knew the answer, but the implications were overwhelming and so for now she was willing to engage in a little denial.


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Lt Commander Autumn Falls
Chief of Operations
USS Relentless
NCC-72400
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