"Keep talking and I'll amputate your tongue," Carter hissed as he walked by the big security chief.

All around Sick Bay, doctors and nurses were busy tending to their patients. Dr. Lana, a Klingon surgeon that was arguably the best the ship had to offer, was busy trying to save CHENG Dra’ul from circling the drain. Assisting her was the Orion nurse Dera. A quick inventory told Carter he was the only doctor not engaged in the crisis, the only one not attempting to mind a wounded crewman.

"Your lucky day, Brown," he said as he and D'Wkin got the injured chief to a gurney. "I'm your doctor. Hopefully for you, my hangover isn't that bad."

A quick slice from his laser scalpel cut off the portion of Brown's tunic where the injury lay.

"It looks worse than it is," he said with a glance up towards Brown. "But a few inches to the left and it would have been so much worse. I'm talking major artery and you dead in two minutes flat worse. What hit you, Brown? Be as detailed as possible and be as quick as possible."

All around them there was movement. Brown wasn’t used to being in the Sick Bay at times like these. Usually he was out there, phase in hand, doing the fighting or by Captain Vaella’s side on the bridge. He’d seen so much death over the years that he’d almost lost sight of what it meant. Here amongst the Orion’s wounded, its women and children, Brown felt uniquely vulnerable. Down here in the Sick Bay he felt mortal.

“One of the Jem’Hadar tagged me with a plasma rifle,” Brown mumbled as he played the firefight back in his memory. “Felt like nothing to begin with but the wound won’t stop bleeding. Must be some kind of anticoagulant.”

The Jem’Hadar were warriors through and through but their choice of ammunition spoke to their true nature. Though they excelled at war the Jem’Hadar’s real currency was death. They were killers. It wasn’t enough to shoot a man. They wanted to make sure he bled out sooner than allow him to escape. There was no end to the Jem’Hadar’s cruelty and Brown himself now found himself on the receiving end of it. The Security Chief smiled weakly as he recalled the Jem'Hadar First falling victim to his cruelty.

Malachi looked to Cole with a grimace. “Do whatever you need to do, Doc.”

"I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker."

Carter injected Brown in the neck with a hypospray. A coagulant shot through the security chief's veins in an effort to counteract whatever the hell he'd been infected with. He looked through the collection of utensils beside the gurney and picked up a small pen like object with a glowing red tip.

"While that serum tries to clot your blood, I'm going to cauterize the wound."

The pen glowed red hot with a high-energy output of several hundred degrees.

"Just lay back and think of England." Carter shifted his mouth and spoke in the posh, upper-crust accent he'd learned. He took a deep breath and prepared to cauterize the wound on Brown's arm. "Stiff upper lip, chap."

As the pen made contact with Brown's wound he grimaced. Half from the pain and half from Cole's English accent. It wasn't often that Malachi felt homesick but being in the presence of other humans reminded him exactly how far from home they all were. A decade ago he'd been running laps around a park in South London and now here he was. It was surreal to say the least.

"Was the Captain here earlier? I thought I saw her leaving when I came in."

A slight grunt slipped from Brown's lips as the heat intensified. Somehow he could already feel the serum at work beneath his skin.

For a moment Malachi's steely front wavered as his thoughts drifted to Vaella. "She's not hurt, is she?"

"She's just banged up," Carter mumbled as he worked the laser cauterizer up Brown's arm. "A console or something exploded on the bridge and she was hit by some shrapnel. Cuts, burnt skin, and some shrapnel in her arm. You're worst for the wear than she is."

Carter pulled the pen away from Brown's arm and inspected his handiwork. A two-inch vertical line of burnt flesh went up the security chief's arm. He looked closely at the now closed wound and was satisfied that it was neat and straight.

"Doctor Cole," one of the nurses called. "We need you over here."

"Stay here," Carter said, pointing at Brown to accentuate his point. "The wound is closed but that serum I injected into you may take some time to work. In order to prevent any internally bleeding, you need to stay still and let it do its work."

Carter gave the security chief one last, long look before he went away to solve the next crisis awaiting him.

Catherine woke up in the medical bay groggily and with a minor dull ache in her head, her eyes trying to adjust to the damnably bright lights in the room and all of the yelling and shouting. She remembered being flung to the ground, but she did not know what happened next. Her tongue brushed along the inside of her mouth: good. She did not bite her tongue off and did not bite anything off inside her mouth. Either that or the drugs she could be on were quite excellent. She tested her limbs slowly, making them twitch and fingers clenching and unclenching. It was then she noticed she was quite parched. "W... May I please have some water?" She cleared her throat and swallows to get some hoarseness out. "How long was I out? Do I have a concussion?"

The Bridge:

"Captain Vaella to the bridge, I'm moving from Sickbay to Main Engineering, with the CHENG down I need to review what we got from the Dominion boat. If the Venture doesn't show up in ten minutes, drop the warning buoys and take off to Vulcan, warp 6."

"Acknowledged." Lt. Alton answered into her com badge. Even as the order came in one of the guys from engineering stepped off the turbo lift. The young man stopped hesitantly on the bridge.

"Good. Dex, show him the breach."

"Yes ma'am." Dex chimed as he stood up from his post at Environmental controls. The two disappeared into the back.

"ETA to the arrival of the Venutre?" Linda asked as she turned her attention from the retreating duo.

"Two minutes." Op Management piped up.

"Good. Hail them." Linda told Cadet Smith.

The young man got the Venture on within a few seconds. It was a quick matter to brief their captain on what had happened and to inform them that the scene was now theirs. Technically Lt. Alton should have ran it through Captain Vaella, but Linda took her previous orders as an okay to drop everything in the Venture's lap.

When the communication ended Linda instructed Ensign Avery to taken them to Vulcan, warp six. At that speed Vulcan was nearly an hour away.

Engineering:
Lt. Junior Grade Cutler was back in engineering after he heard of Xyrx Dra’ul being taken to sick bay. His loud, stern voice was heard all over the site directing people to get repairs underway. When he heard the turbo lift open he turned and snapped out. "About time! Those Couplars..." Cutler trailed off.

"Jesus! Captain. I'm sorry. I was expecting someone else." Cutler apologized, embarrassed.

The data from the Dominion Jem'Hadar fighter was extensive. And the crew hadn't even started working on it, having been distracted by the state of their own ship. It would take around an hour to decode and make repairs of any fragmented data. The actual data on their mission was sparse. The most that was determined was that their destination was somewhere in the Taugus Sector, possibly even as far over to the Romulan Empire. But if the latter was their destination, why go through Federation space and all that trouble?

Vulcan:
When the Orion finally arrived at Vulcan, there was a small contingent standing by. It was comprised of the two Ambassadors, the two Admirals, and a few other Vulcan Federation Officers. The greeting committee was just outside the Federation Building in a small discrete court yard rock garden. At least by Vulcan standards. It was encircled by pillars or red stone that accented the brown walls of the building.

Admiral Johnsan fully expected the Captain to be apart of the Orion's crew that beamed down to the planet. According to the reports she had received, it would take at least seven hours to fix all the damage done to the Orion. Which meant the ship was now officially behind schedule. Something that didn't sit well with her. The Federation was putting a lot of pressure on this mission. Almost as much pressure as the Dominion was putting on Vulcan.

When the crew members of the USS Orion finished materializing the woman didn't hesitate to jump right to it.

"Report."