730: From Above

by -=/\=- Zanh Liis
90102.19
Soundtrack: South Side, by Moby, (featuring Gwen Stefani)
Concurrent with the ending of Last Stand: Two

-=Romulan Vessel=-


Zanh Liis paced the hall outside of the Engineering department on the Romulan ship as though she were an animal in a cage. She hissed, she growled, and she was ready to snap at anything, or anyone, who came near.

She had waited too many years for this, and she didn't want to take any chances this time. Not with Salvek, not with the Sera and her crew, and not with her Away Team.

"Reece!"

[Yo.]

"How are we coming on those transports? Are we finished yet?"

[There are half a dozen Sera officers still to beam back, Captain, we're going as fast as we can. The transporter in Room One is still inoperative.]

As Reece spoke, Will Lindsay and TC Blane sighed in unison. Hearing the sound of the other's exclamation of concern, both men stood a bit taller and exchanged a look.

"Is there a problem, gentlemen?"

"Just the longer it takes, the less I like it, and-" Will spoke up, giving voice to Blane's worry, as well. Suddenly, Zanh was giving a clear hand signal for him to stop talking, and Lindsay halted mid-sentence. Liis pointed toward the ceiling.

"Did you hear that?"

"No." Will shook his head. "What did you hear?"

"Thomas?" Zanh inquired next, and Blane began to scan the overhead access tubes with his tricorder.

"I'm not reading anything, Captain." He knew however, that in situations like this, one's instincts should take precedence over seemingly standard readings on a mere piece of unfeeling technology. "What was it you thought you heard?"

"Just...something." Zanh complained. "What the hell is taking so long? I should have just put her out of our misery." The words sounded harsh, but the three men flanking Zanh forgave her for them. They each knew that Taris had been the cause of most of the suffering Zanh had endured through decades of linear and non-linear time. She had a hard time feeling any sort of sympathy for the woman now, after all the damage she had done to not only Zanh's own life, but Salvek's, that of his brother Sacul, Lair Kellyn and Lair Arie...Keiran...

The list was long and, Zanh was just as certain, also littered with the names of untold, loyal Romulan soldiers who had died doing her bidding over the long years of her dark and misdirected reign. Taris' hands were, in Liis' opinion, indelibly stained with the blood of innocents.

"Her lifesign is fading fast." Keiran advised softly, holding his tricorder to the door and scanning beyond it. "His is steady."

"Not fast enough." Zanh mumbled to herself, Every second more they spent here was another second in which someone could get hurt.

[We've got everyone over here and the prisoners are on the Polaris, Captain.] Reece advised, nervous that Zanh and her team had not transported back themselves yet. [Orders? Can I...say...oh, I don't know...bring you home now?]

"Patience, Reece, we're waiting for-" Liis stopped herself from speaking now, again sure she had heard something. "Damn. There it was again. You mean to tell me that none of you heard that?" She raised her eyes to the ceiling above. Blane, Lindsay and O'Sullivan shrugged, and she sighed.

"I'll have a look." Blane moved toward a panel in the wall and prepared to remove it to get to a ladder leading up and into the access tubes between decks.

"Not alone. Will, go with him." Zanh allowed her rifle to come to a rest against her shoulder as Will moved to join Blane on the opposite side of the hall, and when she did, she heard another small sound.

*Clank*

Both Blane and Lindsay stopped moving.

"What the hell was that?" She reached up and touched the shoulder of her uniform, and immediately discovered the device.

"A transponder," she declared, without even having to look down at it. She knew what it was simply by running her fingertips over it. "All right, which one of you two put there? It had to be you or you," she jerked a thumb toward Blane, and then Lindsay, before inclining her head in the direction of O'Sullivan. "Because he hasn't touched me since I got here. Who was it?"

Neither man spoke, and Zanh's eyes flashed fire as Keiran offered his opinion.

"Whoever did it, I'd say it was a bloody brilliant idea and I'd like to buy 'em a pint."

Before Liis could begin her interrogation anew, the door opened, and Salvek appeared. He looked more exhausted than Zanh could ever remember seeing him, and she was anxious to get him back to his wife and daughter.

“It is over.” Salvek solemnly lowered his eyes.

“Are ya all right?" O'Sullivan spoke concern that was clearly felt by all present.

“I am going home to my family." The Vulcan nodded slowly. "I am all right.”

"Good. Let's get the hell out of-" Zanh began, but before she could finish, there was a much louder version of the scraping noise she'd heard previously overhead, and the brilliant flash of the green beam of a disruptor.

"Down!" Blane shouted, rolling out of the way of the first volley of fire.

Liis felt herself being thrown to the ground and realized that Keiran had managed to grab hold of her and was now shielding her with his body.

She also became aware of a searing sensation in her left shoulder. She'd been scraped by a very close shot, likely one meant for her head.

She struggled to see through the clouds of smoke created by the firefight as powerful disruptor blasts took out lighting and wall panels. The ceiling also began to groan and then give way at weak and damaged points beneath the weight of the people hiding in the tubes overhead, and rained down on the heads of the away team.

She felt something pierce the skin of her arm anew, and winced involuntarily, managing not to cry out in pain.

Lindsay and Salvek drew their weapons again and began to return fire toward the direction of the shots but they couldn't see clearly enough to determine how many assailants they were up against.

"There's more than one!" Will shouted.

"Weapon or sniper?" Blane called back in question as he also fired up into the tubes above.

Keiran had managed, given the cover created by the others, to drag Liis and himself along the deck down to the next door in the corridor. He pulled her back into Engineering and reached for his combadge.

"O'Sullivan to Serendipity!"

There was no response.

"Liis," he opened and closed his eyes, desperately trying to clear them from the smoke and grit that obscured his vision. It was then that he realized that his hand was wet and sticky. His heart began to race with fear. "Liis, darlin', you're bleedin'."

He assessed her wounds quickly and discovered she seemed to have taken some shrapnel that had done more damage than the glancing blow from the disruptor as it grazed her shoulder.

"It's not bad." She insisted, trying to reach up to tap her own badge but finding her left arm uncooperative. Her whole left side seemed to burn. "Try to...hail with mine."

A moment later, Salvek burst back into the room, the hall beyond completely obscured now by smoke, and fire.

"Will and Thomas?" Liis asked, sitting upright.

"There were driven down the other end of the corridor, Captain, and appear to be cut off from us."

"The Romulans?" Keiran worried that they would start firing through the duct work in Engineering next, and risk damage to the already fragile warp core.

"They stopped firing and retreated through the tubes."

Liis groaned, her vision doubled as she struggled to get up from the deck. Keiran and Salvek each put an arm around her and assisted her.

"We have to find them,"

"Captain, you are wounded. We have to," Salvek protested, but Liis raised her right hand to silence him.

"I'm not leaving without either one of those men. Now move!"

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-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC 2012