<USS Avalon> Sick Bay Under Seige by Sussanna McEntire, Li Nalas, & Fothen Tress

Smiling gently at the new family, Anna backed out, "I've got to get back to  
Sick Bay, we might have casualties.  Lilin, stay here, take care of  things."  
Without checking anything more, Anna strode out, pausing only  briefly to 
pick up her old phaser from when she'd been Special Ops.

The scene in Sick Bay made her flinch.  Half a dozen men and women  were 
taking up biobeds, another dozen or so walking wounded were slumped against  
walls 
or sat on the floor.  Her nurses were doing a fine job but just as  she 
entered, another group of three staggered in.  A thin, scrawny boy of  no more 
than 
nineteen was being carried between the bulky mass of a huge black  man and 
her Bolian from earlier.  The gaping hole in the boy's chest  brought a flash 
of 
memory of... something to Anna's mind before her  training kicked in.

"Get him to that biobed," she pointed at one of the  few remaining.  Even 
before she activated the arm, she plugged his wound  with wadding to try to 
stem 
the bleeding.  "Fucking hell, boy, you're lucky  to be alive."  She glanced up 
at the other two who were now heading back  out.  "Oi!  First you tell me 
what sort of weapon they used, then you  give a report on the level of 
fighting, 
THEN you can go,  alright?"

Grunting, the human just nodded as Fothen Tress saluted.   "It was some kind 
of energy weapon that we've not seen before.  Some had  what looked to be 
advanced TR-116s too," Fothen said.  "It's fierce, the  fighting, they keep 
advancing and it's getting closer to here.  Ma'am,  please..."

Before he could continue, he was interrupted by weapons' fire  outside.  The 
pair of them instantly took up positions at either side of  the door, their 
rifles directed at the only entry point.  Anna swore loudly  as yelling broke 
out just outside and one of their own people was blasted in,  half his face 
missing.  Before she could say anything, another round of  fire exploded within 
view.  She pulled the young man to the floor and hit  the deck.
 
Li Nalas swore viciously under his breath.  He cast an apologetic  glance at 
his daughter and the nurse.  That sort of language had no place  at such a 
joyous time.  Ming was sitting next to Vilya on the bed, his arm  wrapped 
around 
her and their son protectively.  They'd be fine.   Cleric or not, his 
son-in-law was well trained in the arts of war.  The  doctor, though, had a 
point.  
Get ready to help.  
 
"I have to go," he said suddenly.  "I think your doctor needs a little  help."
 
"Daddy!  No!" Vilya protested.
 
"Wait, Vilya," Ming said as he eased himself from her side.  He could  hear 
muted sounds of fighting in the distance.  He understood what the man  wanted 
to do.  His blue eyes, usually so warm and comforting, were grave  and fierce 
as they looked into the older man's dark ones.  "Your grandson  needs you.  
Don't do anything stupid."
 
Nalas smirked.  Well, he is looking right at me now, isn't he.   "I have no 
intentions, son.  I have too many reasons to love the life the  Prophets gave 
back to me.  I'm just not about to sit around and not do  something to keep it."
 
"Smart man," Ming said.  He made a gesture with his hand that Nalas  didn't 
quite understand but that he'd seen before when the young man  prayed.  He then 
simply hugged Nalas.  "Go with God,  sir."

Crawling over the dead Starfleet officer, Anna dragged the  body out of the 
way.  Not that it mattered, but she tried to find a pulse,  she'd seen people 
survive worse but there was nothing.  A shrieking began  behind her and she 
glanced over her shoulder.  Synthia was standing and  pointing, in full view of 
the door, as one of the attackers burst in.  The  shot couldn't have been more 
than automatic but as the little nurse slumped to  the ground, Anna rolled and 
fired her own weapon, missing by an inch.  "Out  of practice," she muttered.
 
Instinct.  It hadn't been beaten out of him at Hutet and his years of  being 
with the Prophets hadn't dulled any of them.  He'd crouched and ran  back the 
way the sweet Bajoran nurse had led them and arrived in time to see one  of 
the invaders firing a weapon.  He reached from behind to grab the man's  chin 
then jerked hard to one side. The neck cracked sickeningly  then the  body 
dropped to he ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.  Nalas  grabbed 
the 
man's weapon and dashed inside, sliding to the cover of one of the  beds.  He 
smiled grimly at the doctor.  
 
"You did say get ready to help," he stated.

"Good of you to join the  fun," Anna grunted as she crawled back across the 
floor.  "Don't get  killed."  Muttering as she reached the limp corpse of 
Synthia, she  sighed.  "Too much of it going around today already."

Fothen and his  companion fire out the doors, not hitting much but keeping 
more people from  getting in.  Anna gripped her phaser tighter, wishing she'd 
kept her  training up.  Lissi would be mighty pissed about now.  "How's it  
looking out there?"

"Three of our guys are down," the huge human said,  "but so are three of 
theirs."  He flashed milky white teeth at her.   "Some of ours are moving, none 
of 
theirs are."

"Fuck, more death."   Anna looked straight at Nalas.  "You up for a little 
stretcher duty?"
 
"I'll do what needs to be done, Doctor," Nalas replied, returning Anna's  
gaze directly.  "I don't like this carnage any more than you do but we're  
talking home and family now, just as when we fought the Cardassians.  Tell  me 
what 
you want done."

"We need to get all the wounded onto stretchers  and into here, then we need 
to seal those doors and stop more people getting  in."  With a shrug, Anna 
slowly got to her feet, using one of the beds as  cover, suddenly infinitely 
grateful for the arrogant Bolian and his  partner.  "It means we'll be stopping 
more wounded from getting in too, but  Secondary Sick Bay can pick up the 
slack."  Darting to a storage area, she  grabbed three stretchers, activating 
their 
anti-grav units.  "You're going  to need to cover me, our two lovely 
assistant," she indicated the security  officers, "can give us cover fire until 
we get 
out there but after that, you'll  be my only protection.  You okay with that?"
 
"Perfectly," Nalas said as he hefted the weapon he'd taken from the man at  
the doorway.  "But I shoot to kill."

"I don't give a flying fuck  what you do, " Anna said as she nodded curtly to 
Fothen.  He opened fire,  aiming the pulses just above her crouched head.  
"Just so long as you don't  hit any of my people.  We're the ones in the 
uniforms," she said with a  wink as she darted out into the corridor, the 
stretchers 
gliding behind  her.
 
Fothen, he noticed, was aiming high.  Nalas aimed lower.   Experience told 
him that people eventually learned to duck and that they could  be just easily 
shot high as they could low.  "I take it the intruder alert  protocols disable 
the transporters from intraship beaming?" he asked.   "Prophets what I 
wouldn't give to be allowed to throw some old fashioned  grenades..."

"Yes on the disabling of transporters and no on the  grenades.  For a start, 
they'd blow a bloody great hole in the side of my  Sick Bay and secondly, 
you'd likely hit me as anyone else."  Anna continued  to scuttle along, the 
first 
of the Starfleet down in front of her.  She  knelt by the body, checking the 
pulse: weak but there.  Pushing the first  stretcher down, she rolled the man 
onto it.  He was losing a lot of blood  and needed immediate attention.  "Can 
you take this back?  I need to  get to the others."
 
Nalas nodded and grabbed hold of the stretcher, thanking the Prophets for  
antigravs.  Lot easier than travois along the ground, he told  himself.  "Easy, 
friend, we'll get you seen to," he said crisply, even if  his eyes were kinder 
than his tone.  "I'll be back, Doctor.  Let me  know if you change your mind 
about the grenades."  Incredibly, he offered  Anna an easy smirk as he moved 
off at a fast jog.

The other two injured  were close to each other.  As Anna approached, a blast 
exploded by her head  and she froze.  "Where are you going?" taunted a voice 
from further down  the corridor.

"I'm a doctor, let me see to these men."

"Will you  tend our injured too?" the voice sneered.

Anna glanced briefly back at  where she knew Fothen to be but she was too far 
out of range.  "If I need  to."

"Ah, but they're all dead, how are you going to cure them  now?"  With a bark 
of laughter, they opened fire.  Anna shuffled out  of range, managing to pull 
one of the bodies with her.  She crawled around  a corner, leaving the other 
man in the open.  Within moments he was  obliterated.
 
Nalas was covered in blood from helping move his transported patient back  to 
Sick Bay.  He couldn't tell if the man was even conscious but he patted  his 
shoulder before he left, wishing him good luck.  As he snuck out back  into 
the corridor, he spied the Bolian ensign cowering behind a bulkhead  outcrop.  
"Where's the doctor?"
 
"That way," Fothen said, pointing up the hall.
 
"You're supposed to be covering her--what the hell are you doing  here?"  
Nalas asked, wide-eyed.
 
"I'd be outnumbered," Fothen replied as if it were perfectly obvious.
 
"And if you had half a brain, it would be lonely," Nalas snorted as he  
pushed by him, heading toward where Fothen had pointed.  "Idiot..."   He began 
laying down waist high fire as he advanced.

Anna panted as she  glanced down at her patient.  She was breathing and 
vaguely  conscious.  Her eyes roamed around and then finally fixed on Anna.   
"Where's Max?"

"I don't know.  Lie still."  Anna tried to smile  as she laid a gentle hand 
on the woman's chest.  "You've been shot," she  said, examining her wound.  
"There's a projectile stuck in there, once we  get you back to Sick Bay, I'll 
get 
it out."  She put pressure on the  bleeding.  "Don't move."
 
"Doctor, back up very slowly," Nalas called out.  "Keep your eyes  forward.  
I'm looking where you are so if you see  somebody--duck."

As Anna did as she was intructed, pulling the injured  girl with her, the 
Maquis opened fire.  Shuffling faster, she reached Nalas  and grinned.  "Ever 
heard the human expression 'a sight for sore  eyes'?"
 
Nalas aimed for the comm panel where the intruders stood then fired a  single 
shot.  The panel exploded in a shower of sparks, providing them with  a 
greater cover .  He grabbed the other end of the stretcher and looked at  Anna 
from 
a blood streaked face.  "Better sore eyes than sore bodies.   Are there any 
more out there?"

With sadness, Anna shook her head.   "Not alive."  Her hands were soaked with 
blood, her eyes haunted as they  hurried back to Sick Bay.  Once in, she 
turned to the wide eyed  Bolian.  "Seal the door, keep them out."  Once the 
woman 
was on a  biobed, Anna crossed to the nearest comm-point.  "Bridge, this is 
Main Sick  Bay, we are under seige, all entry and exits points have been 
sealed, 
please  send further casualties to Secondary Medical.  Jame... err... 
Sussanna  McEntire out."

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