The ship was eerily quiet. To Harper’s surprise, there was absolutely no sound. She was confident that she could hear a pin drop. The silence only made her feel even more unsettled. What had they stumbled across? She pointed her phaser pistol ahead of her and motioned for the boarding party to follow behind her and her XO, LtCo Sili. They began walking slowly down the hall in front of them. They managed to make it maybe twenty feet down the corridor before Harper noticed a body on the ground in front of her.

Harper motioned for them to stop behind her. She knelt down and checked for a pulse. She could not find one, so she motioned for her Chief Medical Officer, Lt Redrol to join her. He inched his way from the back up to where she was kneeling. Lt Redrol managed to roll the body over to its side to reveal a very young looking orion male. He searched along the male’s clothes looking for signs of an injury. To his surprise, there were no signs of blunt force trauma, blood, or any other kind of fluid. He reached for the male’s neck and attempted to locate a pulse. He looked to the captain and shook his head. This male was gone and there was nothing he could do.

Harper turned from the Doctor and looked to her XO. The hallway split here, and she knew they would need to split up. She didn’t like that, but she didn’t have much a choice here. She pointed to the hallway to her right and signaled for LtCo Sili, LtCo T’Penne and three of the security team members to head that direction. She hoped that her look to them conveyed everything she need them to know. Until they found out what they were dealing with here, it was imperative that they stay together and stay as quiet as possible.

With a nod, LtCo Sili led her group down the right corridor. Harper turned back to her Chief Science Officer, Chief Medical Officer and three remaining security team members. She had them form up behind her and she began making her way down the left corridor. They moved as swiftly as possible but found themselves stopping every ten feet or so to examine another body on the floor. Most of the crew members they came across were deceased with no signs of conflict. However, they had found around ten or so that were unconscious. Lt Redrol examined them quickly and determined that they would likely remain unconscious long enough for them to accomplish their mission. Harper made the decision to keep moving forward and leave the unconscious crew members where they had found them. She planned to explore the rest of the ship to determine what had been the root cause of the ship’s lack of power and then return to deal with them later.

After making their way down the corridor for around ten minutes, Harper and the crew following her rounded a corner and spotted LtCo Sili and the other crew ahead of them. It appeared they had both followed their corridors and ran back into each other. Harper approached and whispered as quietly as she could to her XO. LtCo Sili reported that their findings along the right corridor had been the same as theirs. They found mostly deceased crew members along with a few who were simply unconscious. Harper turned back and shined her flashlight she was carrying directly in front of her. It seemed they had found the turbolift. Harper needed to make her way to the bridge, but the ship still had no power.

Captain Harper entered the turbolift and looked all around her using her flashlight. She spotted a maintenance panel directly above her head. She pointed to the panel and her Chief Engineering Officer, LtCo T’Penne stepped to where she was standing. She had this look in her eye that suggested she had an idea. Harper watched as she leaned forward and whispered directly in the ear of Commander Piya. He made a straight face and then let out a deep sigh. He then got down on to both his hands and knees and turned his face away from the captain as if he were embarrassed.

LtCo T’Penne proceeded to step up on Commander Piya’s back. She worked quickly and managed to get the maintenance panel unattached. She stepped down from the Commander’s back and lowered the panel down to the ground. She then turned motioned for Commander Piya to lift her up. He obliged and assisted her in reaching the hole where the panel once was. She grabbed a hold of the ledge and pulled herself up. T’Penne then laid down and reached back through the hole to assist whoever decided to climb up next. Harper realized that not everyone should go. She walked out of the turbolift into the corridor. She spoke softly to the security team and asked four of them to remain behind to assist the others up and also keep an eye out in the event the unconscious crew members woke up.

After Harper and her remaining boarding party entered the hole from the maintenance panel, they used a small ladder along the edge to climb their way up to their destination. It took longer than she had hoped but they took their time to make sure that everyone was safe. By the time they reached the door to the bridge, Harper was covered in sweat and beginning to lose grip on the ladder. She exhaled deeply when her feet finally touched the floor of the bridge. She was not surprised to find that the bridge was also without power. She drew her phaser pistol and began pointing her flashlight to look around the room. The room lit up fairly well from the light being provided from the culmination of everyone’s flashlights.

The scene in front of her spoke a very different tale from what they had scene in the rest of the ship. There were marks all over the wall behind where she stood. Phaser fire had occurred here. Lt Redrol began to make his way through the room and stopped at every crew member he found along the way. Harper let him continue his work and she began to make her way towards the captain’s chair. It looked from where she had been standing that someone other than an Orion was sitting in the chair. She found this to be odd because every crew member they had seen prior to this point had been an Orion male. She couldn’t tell for sure because the person’s back was to her, but it appeared as if a female was sitting in the chair leaning slightly forward.

LtCo T’Penne made her way to the engineering station. She noticed that a small light was blinking, and it drew her attention. She sat down at the station and began observing what she saw in front of her and that’s when she saw it. This ship had been sabotaged.

“Captain, you have got to see this!” T’Penne spoke a little too loudly before she remembered to speak quieter.

Captain Harper heard her Chief Engineering Officer, but she just held up her finger as if to say one moment and continued towards the captain’s chair. When she reached it, she gasped. This had to be who they were looking for. A bajoran female with a borg attachment to her left eye sat in the chair. She was barely in the chair as she was leaning so far forward that she looked like she would fall.

“Doctor, hurry!” Harper called out not caring if anyone heard them now or not.

Lt Redrol ran over to where Ipya was sitting and checked her over. “She’s alive!” He yelled even louder than Harper had spoken. He was able to find her pulse, but it was very faint. If they had arrived any later, she likely would not have made it.

“Captain, it appears that the ship has been sabotaged. I’m not sure who did it, but it appears to be quite intricate based on what I’m seeing here.” LtCo T’Penne spoke confidently.

What had happened here? She had every intention of finding out but her first priority was Ipya. She helped Lt Redrol get her out of the chair and laid down onto the floor. She reached for her communicate and contacted the Suasalito to prepare three to beam aboard and that one of them would be injured. She turned back toward her remaining senior officers.

“We are going to get Ipya to sick bay. She is barely conscious. I would like for you guys to stay here for the time being and try to restore power to the ship. We need to find out what occurred here. Keep your heads on a swivel and watch out for anything. Let me know as soon as you find something.” Harper spoke out loud but made sure to look each one of them in the eyes individually.

“Aye, Captain.” They all spoke in almost perfect unison.

“Three to beam up,” Harper spoke into her communicator. Please, let her be okay, was the last thought she had before she began to dematerialize.