675: As We Know It

by Paxton Briggs and February Grace
81128.23
During and after Child's Play
Soundtrack: It's the End of the World As We Know It by REM

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-=USS Serendipity-=

-=Quarters of Grace and Reece=-

February's eyes flew open as the musical alarm set to wake her from her nap began to sound.

*Interesting song choice,* she thought groggily, *Dabin must've left the 'shuffle' feature on.*

"Computer. Discontinue alarm."

The computer beeped cheerfully, as it ever did. That was something that had always amazed February about Federation ship's computer systems or more specifically, their vocal synthesizers.

They could be telling you the temperature of your sonic shower, reciting the parameters of your favorite holodeck program, or informing you that you were going to die an unfortunate and inescapable death in twelve seconds when the self destruct engaged. Regardless, it always sounded pleased with itself, and the situation.

She climbed out of bed and shook her head. Time had seemed to slow to a near halt the moment that she'd been relieved of duty. It had rolled to a complete 'all-stop' the moment Reece had left the ship.

The only way she could think of to help make it go faster was to sleep through as much of it as she possibly could.

She padded across the deck in thick, fuzzy socks. She was dressed in pink from head to toes, comfortable jogging pants with a matching hoodie; the perfect wardrobe for the person meant to do nothing more strenuous than turn the pages of a book and take frequent naps.

"This would be great, if I was you." She looked at Sparrow and he blinked at her with irritation at being disturbed by the alarm before lowering his head back down onto the couch and going back to sleep.

Bru maneuvered her feet into her Converse. She was allowed a short walk and some time out of quarters each day and her time for today had finally come.

"Come on, baby girl." She said gently, patting her stomach. She and Dabin were still in the 'heated debate' phase of picking a name for their daughter, and she only hoped that he'd let go of 'Ophelia,' already, by the time he got back from the Away mission. "Time for us to go and talk to Jariel's flowers."

She replicated a nutrition bar and a bottle of juice and headed for the arboretum.

As she walked through the space, she couldn't help but pause at Jariel's angel sculpture and, in her way, she sent him all the good thoughts and hopes she could that everything on Bajor was going to turn out all right.

She had done some digging, but been unable to obtain any specific information about him, her attempts frustrated at every turn.

She thought back again to the call she'd made as soon as Dabin told her about the situation, and that the Alchemy was on the way to try to help.

"I understand that communications in the region are difficult, Prylar Chem," She had said, speaking to Camen's old friend at the Central Vedek Assembly. "But we're very concerned. We can't verify Vedek Jariel's location and with the fever outbreak at the orphanage where he grew up, so near his last known location,"

Chem had shifted uneasily. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant Grace. But as I told you, we cannot get information in or out of Altaan at the moment. Hopefully when your ship's relief team arrives, they will be able to tell you more."

"I understand. Thank you for your time, Prylar. If you hear anything from Camen in the meantime,"

"I will do my best to see the information reaches you." Chem said, half-heartedly. "Good day."

The screen went black, and February sighed. "Sure you will."

She hadn't held out much hope that she'd hear back from Chem, and so far, her instincts had proven correct.

Just as she had settled in on the swing under the gazebo and prepared to enjoy watching the afternoon irrigation cycle, the ship suddenly shook mightily, and in the distance she could hear the familiar wail of Red Alert klaxons.

She did a little bit of quick figuring and came to the conclusion that if something was really wrong, that they were going to need all the help they could get on the bridge. With Hok gone as part of the Away Team, they may even need the best pilot still aboard ship to navigate.

She wondered how she'd explain to the medical staff why she'd disobeyed their direct orders.

Even more, she wondered how she'd explain it to Dabin.

She looked down at the barely visible bump at her midsection and worried for the safety of her baby. About Grace's safety...

The ship shook again much more violently, almost throwing her out of the swing.

"Da-amn!" she cringed. Then, clear as day, the voice of Grace rang through in her head. *You're a Starfleet officer, and your ship is in trouble. You know what to do.*

Hurrying as quickly as she could considering the way the ship was listing and shaking, February got to the nearest turbolift and, dressed even as she was, proceeded directly to the bridge.

"February," Sue Tenney looked up from communications in surprise upon her arrival. "You're not supposed to be here,"

"Where is Commander Salvek?"

"He's in the ready room with some Commander from Border Station Indigo." Sue replied.

*Interesting,* February thought at first, but then she became concerned. *This is bad. If he's drafting visiting officers into service...* "Commander Blakeslee?"

Sue shook her head sadly. "Hurt. Bad. They just took him to Sickbay."

"I have got to help Engineering with the sensor fix," Ensign Nye said, rising from the Science Station. He knew that the previous Grace host had been a scientist. "Lieutenant, if you wouldn't mind,"

February gulped. Wen had been a Starfleet Science officer, but she was only joined to Grace for a year before she died. Of all past hosts, she was the that Grace, to this day, felt the most disconnected from.

Still, memories and knowledge were memories and knowledge, and Bru could run the sensors. Besides, after a year of listening in on Dabin's thoughts, she had picked up more than a little from his brain as well, that may help them in a pinch.

This situation was already so far beyond 'pinch' that she honestly felt there was little to lose by her trying. She settled in at the proper station, and for a moment, she realized that no one was talking about the Away Team.

She closed her eyes, her fingertips hovering over the panel where Dabin spent a great deal of his on-duty time...and she hoped with all of her heart that he would be all right. All that she could do was try to help Salvek keep the Serendipity together so that he had a home to come back to.

She began reading the sensor logs and her mouth fell open.

*Romulans...one lifesign less than before the attack...* "Oh no," she whispered, horrified at the discovery of whom that lifesign belonged to "Arie."

For a split second, even though her baby hadn't even been born yet, February considered the panic that Salvek must be struggling to contain, knowing that his daughter was in the hands of the Romulans. She also knew that when Lair Kellyn found out, that it would take a dozen people to hold her down and prevent her from trying to take on the entire Empire herself to get her child back.

Salvek suddenly reappeared with a very tall, very blond man behind just over his shoulder. She gave him a wave to try to reassure him, but sure enough the very first thing the Vulcan did was question her presence here.

"Lieutenant Grace, you are confined to bed are you not?"

"Doctor did say I need to get up and about a few times a day. I'm merely following his advice."

"This is not the arboretum," Salvek responded flatly, knowing she was well aware of her restrictions.

"You are short several science officers. My last host was a science officer.”

Salvek thought about the risk to her child, and her own life, as well as that of the Grace symbiont if she disobeyed the ‘off-duty’ order. He also considered that due to her current standing among her people, if anything were to happen to her, Grace would perish along with her.

Knowing him as well as she did, February lowered her voice, and addressed his unspoken concerns.

“Sir, the situation is grave, and f the ship comes apart, then that won’t be very good for the baby either, will it?”

Salvek, for the first time she’d ever seen, averted his eyes and sighed.

“I need to help my crew, Commander. I need to help you."

"So be it," Salvek finally agreed.

"Orders, sir?" February asked.

Salvek made no reply; instead, the man called Briggs responded instead.

"I have assumed command of this vessel. You will be taking orders from me now, Lieutenant."

February's jaw dropped, as everyone on the bridge froze, and looked at Salvek.

"Commander Briggs has, rightfully, relieved me of Command. Each of you will follow his orders," Salvek did not look at anyone as he spoke; he merely kept his eyes on the display before him.

"Alrighty then." Grace tried to break the tension by clapping her hands together once. "Well, Commander you should know that I am the ship's Senior Flight Controller. As you can see I'm not properly dressed, but as the Vulcan just told you, I'm not supposed to be here. So my question to you is, where can I be of more use to you doing what I'm not supposed to be doing? Helm or Science?"

Briggs analyzed the thin, babbling Trill. "Science for now, if you're qualified."

February nodded. "I think I can handle things at least until Ensign Nye returns."

"Very well." Paxton circled the bridge, knowing that if he came anywhere near Zanh Liis' Captain's chair, he may have a full blown mutiny on his hands a moment later and that was something he couldn't afford.

"Orders Sir?" Grace asked once again.

Briggs glanced at Salvek and then to the bridge staff. “Some one give me a damage status report up on the main viewer. Engineering, I need you to concentrate on getting the transporters back online. Tactical, you get that shield array back online.”

He saw that most of them responded by simply standing around and staring at him.

He waved his arms. “Well get going, people.”

"Very good." February had already set to work, and as Briggs also ordered everyone else finally began their tasks.

Briggs sighed and leaned down, way, way down, to speak to the Trill softly. "What did you say your name was, Lieutenant?"

"February Grace." She replied, not glancing up at him as she hurried to retrieve the data he'd requested. She allowed just the hint of a sympathetic smile to curl the corner of her lips as she considered his situation, felt badly for him, and hoped to ease the tension. "And from the looks of it, I'm your new best friend."

Paxton smiled. “I wouldn’t doubt it.”

“Damage report on main screen, Commander Briggs.” Bru reported.

Paxton walked over and stood stared at the schematic with his hands on his hips. The Sera was a mess.

Shields were down to fifty five percent, they had expended almost half of their photon torpedoes in the fight not that it mattered as the forward launcher was destroyed, less then half of the phaser arrays were online, they had two hull breaches luckily in non-critical areas and the emergency force fields were holding.

Engineering was estimating three to fours hours to get the transporters back online, six to eight for the shields. The launcher and the phaser arrays were beyond help with out a space dock. The hull breaches could be fixed, but they required a space walk to do so which meant dropping out of Warp. Engineering was content with the force fields to hold the breaches closed, but if they were to lose power for any reason they could lose the ship.

Not to mention they had no CEO, CMO, CSO, second officer, or captain.

They were not ready for another confrontation.

He studied the Sera’s schematics again then turned around to face the bridge staff.

“Helm, take us out of warp. Engineering get to work on those hull breaches and make it fast.” He ordered.

Salvek spun on his heel to glare at Briggs at the mention of dropping out of Warp and out of pursuit of the Romulan ship. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by Briggs.

“I can’t justify sacrificing an entire Starfleet vessel for one non-Starfleet person.” He sighed. “I am sure that I do not have to explain the logic of that to you Commander.” Salvek said nothing in reply.

“However, I cannot stand by and allow a precious artifact that was rightfully claimed by the Federation to be stolen and a citizen of the Federation to be abducted by criminals.” He added quickly.

He turned back to the schematic on the main viewer and pointed to a spot on the lower saucer. “Commander Salvek, assemble a command crew, assault team, and continue pursuit with the Polaris.” He tapped the silhouette of the Sera’s Aerowing.

Salvek blinked with the sudden realization of what the Commander was saying, and the fact that he had forgotten about the craft completely.

“According to this the Polaris can do warp 7.5, has four type-VI phaser strips, pulse emitter, and two MK-25 micro torpedo launchers and is ten times more maneuverable then their ship.* If the Romulans are as damaged as we are and according to the last sensor scan before they took off they were, the Polaris should be more then a match for them.”

Paxton turned back to Salvek. “We’ll join you as soon as possible.” Plans already formulating in his mind, Salvek remained frozen in place for a moment.

“Go get her back.” Briggs urged, nodding to Salvek. “That’s an order,”

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Commander Paxton Briggs
Second Officer, Border Station Indigo
Currently in Command of the
USS Serendipity NCC- 2012

and

Lt. February Grace
Senior Flight Controller
USS Serendipity NCC-2012