“We’re above the compound,” James reported.

And as suddenly as he said that, the Dragon stopped lurching from weapon’s impact.

K’Taul looked around, waiting for the ship to be hit one last time, one to many times…

But it never came.  “Shields are at twelve percent,” Perry said, the relief in his voice echoing K’Taul’s thoughts.

He sat back in the command chair and let his body melt into its form.  “All right…R’Sharn, scan the compound.  Anything new on sensors?”

An alarm went off, telling K’Taul that something was up.  He stood up from his seat and looked back to the Andorian.  “Sir…the containment field just went down.”  She frowned, her antennas moving in what K’Taul interpreted as confused wonder.  “We’re receiving a hail…”  She looked up with a smile.  “It’s the away team!”

“Put them through!”

He turned around to look at the view screen, even though he knew the communications was audio only.

“Away team to Dragon!”

“Go ahead, Commander!” K’Taul responded.

“We found the field generator and disabled it.”  Weapons fire could easily be heard above his voice, making K’Taul wonder just what was going on down there.  “We need you to find their primary lab, that has to be where their cure for the virus is stored.  Transport us there the moment you have the coordinates.”

K’Taul nodded quickly.  “Understood.  Do you require any more assistance?”

“More officers would mean only more targets for them to hit,” he replied, his voice now strained.  “But if we need more officers, we’ll call.  Could you have some armed officers waiting in the transporter room, ready to go at a moment’s call?”

“Of course, Commander.  We’ll begin scanning immediately, Dragon out.”  He spun around to look at R’Sharn and nodded, letting her know to begin her scans.

He looked back at the view screen to see that it had changed to show the compound below.  Something was happening down there…some sort of battle.  He sat down in the command chair again, his fingers twitching, wanting hand-to-hand combat instead of this ship-to-ship combat they’d engaged in over the past few months…

If only he were a Commander instead of a Captain…he wouldn’t be restricted to his ship in situations like this.  I’m already missing those days…

A gold beam lanced past Chris’s head, almost singing his hair.  Knowing that he had an opportunity, he didn’t duck back in surprise.  He simply took aim, and fired.  A ball of plasma energy shot out of his rifle and hit the Vrol square on the…chest, or whatever one would call it.

The officers had all managed to secure their positions, and now were holding their own.  Another team had beamed down just when they thought it had been over, but so long as their weapons didn’t lose power, they’d be fine.

Suddenly, an all-too familiar scream resonated into the chamber from the hall.  Several of the Vrol outside the chamber started shouting in alarm as more weapons fire could be heard.  A few gold beams lanced by the door, then on Vrol chanced it and ran past.  Suddenly, he flew right back the other way, a blurred creature right on top of him.

The few Vrol that had managed to enter the chamber ran out, not caring about plasma fire following them.  One was hit, two more made it out, only to also be hit by creatures.

Chris’s heart suddenly leapt into his throat.  That one we killed earlier was hard enough…let alone two or three…

“Chris!” Vendar shouted in alarm, startling him.  He jumped up and aimed his weapon at the door.

“I know!”

“There’s at least four of those things out there, possibly more!”

He clenched his teeth in frustration, knowing that the next few moments would be difficult…

He tapped his comm. badge as quickly as his hand would move.  “Harriman to Dragon, we need that transport, and we need it now!”

“We still haven’t located the primary lab,” K’Taul’s tense voice responded.  He probably wants to be in battle right now instead of stuck up on the ship.

“Well find it fast, cause we have more trouble down here!”

“Do you need those officers on stand by?”

“Unless you hurry with that transporter, they’ll simply add to the corpse count down here!”

There was a pause on the other end before K’Taul replied, “Understood, we’re hurrying.”

With that, the first one came through the door.  The way it did so, Chris swore they were intelligent.  Its strides were long, seemingly full of provoking one emotion alone: fear.  Long, lanky arms that swung back and forth, bloody claws extended at least a half a meter, almost touching the ground.  The green mottled skin was only broken by glowing gold eyes, which could only mean heightened sensory perception.  Its strength was also heightened, as its bulging muscles displayed.

Another came around the corner of the entrance, bearing its teeth.  The first one stopped and looked around…and Chris swore it grinned, then it moved.

Speed and agility he’d not known was possible came from nowhere as it launched forward towards it’s nearest victim.  Everyone brought their pulse rifles to bear and fired, almost everyone hitting their target.  It flew back and hit the wall hard, smashing consoles, causing sparks to fly everywhere.  That, however, was only the first one.  The second one was on its tail before they had fired, managing to bring its claws down on the security officer’s face, not just splitting it open, but the head as well, allowing brain matter to splatter all over the floor.

The second creature also flew back and hit the wall hard, but it wasn’t dead.  It let loose a new screech that Chris hadn’t heard yet.  No sooner did it do so than did several others from the outside corridor respond.  That can’t be good…

Then they came.  One after another, non-stop, they came charging through the entrance, all heading for any target they could find.  Five, seven, ten, they were filling the room up and closing on their targets fast!

Over the past three years, something strange seemed to always occur.  Whenever a situation was bleak, hopeless…when ever he was ready to die…something happened.  Someone always came to the rescue or something natural interfered with that death, that hopelessness.  This situation was no different.  He was even almost disappointed when the familiar sensation of transport filled his senses.

A moment later, the remaining away team was standing in a completely different chamber.  This one did not contain any sort of generator, but instead, several different forms of lab equipment, containers of different ‘materials,’ and computer readouts of who knows what.

The lab.  He looked around to get his bearings, then set his eyes on Vendar.  “Get on a computer and find out where they keep the cure.  And fast, because…”

Several high-pitched screeches interrupted him.  He looked to the sealed door as he heard weapons fire from outside…as well as the now-familiar screams of the Vrol.  “We don’t have a lot of time…”

Ensign Tal Celes sighed as she stared at the data.  It was still frightening to her, all of that binary information that translated into gravimetric anomalies, pressure readouts, and plasma levels.  It wasn’t a terrifying monster like it used to be…but still…

“Are you still pouring over that data?” Lieutenant Commander Kellis asked, the grin on his face almost making her smile, if only because of the line running down the middle of his blue face.

She shrugged easily, but didn’t grin.  “We’re in the middle of a battle,” she replied, her voice sounding more tired to her than she meant.  “There’s nothing for us to do in astrometrics.  Besides, you never know: there might be something out there that could help us with the battle.”

Tal continued to look over the data, trying to find anything that could keep her attention.  Particle density, ionization…

“Yeah?” he asked, leaning back against the console and staring up at the ceiling.  “Like what?”

Her eyes went wide as she re-read the data on particle ionization of the clouds.  “Like clouds of this composition with this kind of ionization!”

He looked down from the ceiling and at her with a frown.  “What are you talking about?”

She raised her eyebrow as a smile came across her face.  “Come here, look at these readings I took!”

His frown increased, the crease on his face somehow becoming even more accented.  He looked over her data, then nodded approvingly.  “Looks like you took accurate readings.”

She looked at him, dumb-founded.  “I’m not asking you whether I did it right or not this time!” she said, almost wanting to cuss at him.  “I’m asking if you see what I see in the ionization of those particles!”

He frowned yet again as he looked at the readings, then shook his head and looked at her.  “I don’t see anything special.”

She rolled her eyes, glad she paid attention to everything in the academy, not just her field.  “Look, what’s the ionization frequency of the warp field on Quantum torpedoes?”

He raised his eyebrows in both surprise and confusion.  Shrugging, he said, “I don’t know.”

Once again, her eyes rolled back.  Shaking her head, she opened a comm. channel to the bridge.  “Astrometrics to the bridge.”

“Quantum torpedoes emit a warp field?” Kellis asked.

“Go ahead.”

“Captain, I think I have an idea on how to get us out of here…”

They were keeping them at bay for now, but any moment, those creatures could break through their line of fire and enter the room…

“Vendar!”

Clearly frustrated, she continued to look at a wall full of containment units, her head and no doubt her eyes darting back and forth all across it.  “I know, I know!”

“Dragon to away team!”

He lowered his rifle long enough to use one hand to tap his comm. badge.  “Go ahead!”  He took aim and started laying down his firing pattern again.

“The Vrol seem to have lost interest in preserving their compound!  Fifteen seconds before the first torpedo hits!”

Fear hit him hard.  “Vendar, we gotta get out of here now!!”

“Got it!”  She jumped up and grabbed one unit that was at the top.  It slid out and came down with her to the ground, but to his relief, did not break when it hit.

“Energize!”

“The away team is aboard!” R’Sharn said.

“Engage!”

James nodded and immediately hit the key.  One gold torpedo flew directly in front of the Dragon, barely letting it fly right through its wake.  Shockwaves from explosions rocked the Dragon…but the rocking, to his relief, wasn’t from weapons impacting on their shields.  Not yet, any way.