‘Finally. What’s a guy gotta do to get your attention around here?’ Nate Beckett knew this came out more as a whine than a witticism, but was in too much pain to muster some discipline and salvage his dignity.

‘Have an emergent medical issue, or arrive before Sickbay must contend with seventeen more pressing injuries,’ came Doctor Starik’s smooth reply as the Vulcan finally stepped over to Beckett’s biobed, medical tricorder in hand.

‘Lieutenant Jain just hit his head,’ Beckett pointed out as Starik scanned him.

Starik did not look up. ‘Head injuries are considerably more dangerous than what appears – and remains – a posterior glenohumeral dislocation. Doubtless uncomfortable, but not life-threatening.’

‘You just gave Jain a painkiller and sent him on his way.’

‘I’m not at liberty to discuss Lieutenant Jain’s medical treatment.’

‘I saw you do it!’

‘I am aware. You protested at your alleged neglect the entire time.’ Starik snapped his tricorder shut and looked up. ‘You will not require surgery.’

Disguising his relief, Beckett stuck his nose in the air. ‘Imagine if I had. Then you’d be sorry for de-prioritising me.’

‘My protocol has been textbook,’ was Starik’s unimpressed reply, just as the doors slid open to admit Commander Thawn.

She looked around quickly, and Beckett tried to pretend the sight of her didn’t make him feel better as she hurried over. She looked more rumpled than he had when he’d last seen her, dashing off for main engineering, her cheeks smeared with soot. ‘Are you okay?’

She’d extended an arm, and he rocked away. ‘Nonono not the shoulder -’

‘Oh, I – I thought you’d been seen to!’ Thawn gasped, apologetic.

‘He was a low priority concern,’ said Starik, full of the quiet frustration that only Vulcans could harness so subtly.

‘See!’ Beckett looked triumphantly at him. ‘She thought you’d have me patched up by now.’

‘If Commander Thawn were truly worried, I anticipate she would have escorted you to Sickbay herself.’

Beckett worked his jaw. ‘…you don’t know she was there when I did this.’

‘You said you fell out of bed when the ship was struck.’ Starik looked him up and down, still resplendent in his pyjamas. ‘I extrapolated.’

‘It was an engineering emergency,’ Thawn protested. ‘I couldn’t detour up here, and he could walk.’

Starik’s eyes fell on her, appraising. ‘You had time to don your uniform.’

‘Yes, that was very hurtful,’ Beckett agreed, ‘and you’re very funny, but I’m still in a little pain here.’

‘Mn.’ Starik glanced between them. ‘Do I have permission to discuss your medical situation in front of the commander?’

‘Yes – get on with it, Starik, come on.’

‘Very well. Your injury caused a temporary compression of the axillary nerve, which ought to explain numbness and tingling. This will be resolved by treatment.’

‘Starik, I wish it were numb. For the love of God, put it back in and give me a painkiller.’

‘As you say,’ said Starik, and only too late did Beckett realise he maybe should have suggested an anaesthetic before, rather than after, as the Vulcan’s strong hands took a grip on his arm.

‘Hang on -’

It was not this instruction that made Starik stop, but the doors sliding open to admit, this time, Captain Valance and Commander Airex. Valance’s eyes swept across the room before they headed over, the captain’s gait brisk, focused. ‘Commander. Doctor.’

Thawn straightened, plainly guilty for being in Sickbay instead of at her post, but that just meant Starik assumed control of the situation.

‘Eighteen injured crewmembers reported to Sickbay, Captain. A further twenty-five injuries reported across the ship that have received treatment from the designated first-aider and proceeded to their duty stations. Those in Sickbay have been treated, and the other twenty-five will be instructed to report here once relieved. No serious casualties.’

‘Those in Sickbay are being treated,’ Beckett muttered resentfully.

Valance gave him the briefest of glances – she’d never known how to cope with his humour – before nodding to Starik. ‘Good. Commander Thawn?’

‘Sorry, Captain – the situation was stable in main engineering and I did leave Nate behind with a dislocated shoulder when I ran off to respond…’ Thawn’s voice trailed off as Valance’s eyebrows went up an inch. She cleared her throat. ‘No change. The warp core has been throttled down to sixty percent. I don’t want to raise it without repairing or replacing the compromised EPS conduits. Forrester is diagnosing the extent of the damage, I was just popping up here to -’

‘It’s fine, Commander,’ Valance said at last, raising a hand. Beckett could see she didn’t want to have to manage Thawn’s feelings. ‘You’ve saved me going down there myself.’

The doors slid open anew, this time to admit the rumpled figures of Kharth and Caede. The XO headed over, brow furrowed in consternation. ‘Everything alright, Captain?’ They’d plainly come looking for her.

Valance gave a small sigh. ‘We’re fine. I was checking in with the doctor and Commander Thawn.’

‘Sickbay,’ said Starik levelly, ‘is not a meeting room.’

‘My apologies, we’ll -’

‘I welcome the explanation on this occasion and I must see to Lieutenant Beckett. I simply ask you do not make a habit of this, Captain.’

Only a doctor, and a Vulcan to boot, could get away with telling off Valance like this, and Beckett made a small, pathetic noise. He’d have liked to pretend this was to distract from the tension, but that was a lie. ‘Can you work and be explained to, Starik?’

‘What happened?’ said Kharth as Starik put his hands on Beckett’s arm anew.

‘We couldn’t have foreseen it.’ Airex spoke at last. His hair was as wild as his eyes, which were bright and enthusiastic despite the calamity. ‘It’s because of the Borg.’

Thawn’s eyes widened. ‘It’s what?’

‘The Cube and the collapsed transwarp conduit last year,’ elaborated Valance, a little long-suffering. ‘Unsurprisingly, there are long-term implications for subspace.’

‘Underspace can’t have helped,’ grumbled Caede.

‘Quite,’ said Airex. ‘There are still pockets of unstable subspace caused by the transwarp conduit’s collapse across the sector, and, it seems, within the Mesea Storm. When Endeavour approached this pocket, our warp field interacted with the gravimetric fluctuation to cause a cascade effect, resulting in a highly concentrated plasma bolt being ejected from the storm. I couldn’t have begun to anticipate this manner of plasma-gravimetric interaction -’

‘Is he always like this when space tries to kill us?’ interrupted Caede, looking at Kharth, ‘or is he just covering for not seeing this coming?’

Airex scowled, but Beckett caught Kharth trying to smother a smile. ‘He’s always like this when space is trying to kill us,’ she said, and the hint of amused affection seemed to stun Airex out of offence.

‘Tearing everyone’s attention away from my terrible injury, which Starik will doubtless see to at once,’ said Beckett, ‘is this going to happen again?’

‘Remain still,’ Starik instructed. His hands had been on Beckett’s arm for some time without motion.

‘It might,’ Airex admitted. ‘Though remaining at low warp will reduce chances.’

‘Presumably, as we get the hell out of here for repairs,’ said Kharth.

Thawn made a small noise. ‘That’s the problem. We can leave the Storm, of course, but we’re a long way out from Gateway and these repairs are serious. I don’t recommend we go above Warp 5 outside of emergencies, Captain. That’s a month’s travel.’

Caede hesitated, working his jaw as if chewing on something he didn’t like. ‘We could make for Nemus Station,’ he said at last. ‘It’s on the Republic border, it’s closer.’

‘Do they have the facilities to oversee our repair?’ said Valance. ‘I know it provides such services to the Republic…’

‘Your EPS conduits aren’t that special,’ drawled Caede. ‘But Nemus prioritises Republic assets and needs. Which have been a lot more desperate than Starfleet. You’ll have to be convincing.’

Kharth raised an eyebrow at him. ‘You can’t be convincing?’

‘I’m just a Centurion.’

‘Nemus is still ten days away,’ said Thawn, who’d been hammering furiously on her PADD.

‘Son of a bitch!’ exclaimed Beckett – not at the journey, but because Starik had, without warning, manipulated his shoulder for a sudden, sharp, precise reduction of his injury. ‘You don’t give a man painkillers first, Doc?’

‘You explicitly directed on painkillers after,’ Starik reminded him, letting him go and straightening. ‘You -’ He looked at Beckett, then the others, then back. ‘Do I have your permission to discuss your medical -’

‘Yes!’

‘Then I will apply ten milligrams of anesthizine, as you seem in distress,’ said Starik, loading a hypospray.

Kharth gave Beckett a look. ‘What happened to you?’

‘I heroically -’

‘He fell out of bed,’ sighed Thawn.

‘And she left me there.’

‘It was an emergency!’

‘Vor,’ spat Caede. ‘Ten days crawling our way back through the sector with this. Why does this crew keep getting stranded?’

Starik pressed the hypospray to Beckett’s neck, and relief instantly flooded through him. With it came a dose of sudden, happy clarity, and he smirked because he had the opportunity to be smug.

‘Don’t worry, Centurion,’ he said. ‘I have a much better, and nearer, suggestion: Rencaris.’

Airex cocked his head. ‘Rencaris is a former Star Empire world, currently unaligned. Why would we go there?’

‘Because Rencaris wants to stay unaligned. Despite overtures from the Republic.’ Beckett inclined his head to Caede. ‘It’s a well-populated system with a heaving and balanced industry. Self-sufficient. They benefit from trade, but they don’t need aid. If they want to stay independent, and they don’t like the Republic, they need friends. We could be friendly.’

Caede scowled. ‘It’s ruled by a pack of reactionary authoritarians who want to build their own little Romulus-away-from-Romulus, who were heartbroken when Rator fell. If you help them, you undermine everything the Republic is trying to build in this sector.’

‘Calm down,’ drawled Kharth. ‘We’re talking about asking to berth up in their dockyard for a bit so we can do repairs somewhere safe. That’s not going to destroy the Republic’s credibility.’ She looked at Valance. ‘I think it’s a good idea, Captain.’

Valance’s eyes were on Beckett. ‘You think they’ll help us?’

He’d been gurning smugly, but sobered under her gaze. He nodded. ‘I think we can negotiate help. They were open to discussions around Underspace. Swiftsure did some work nearby clearing up the Borg mess. The best thing for a world like that to do in a region like this is be a place you can get what you need for a fair price, no matter who you are.’

‘It is,’ said Thawn quietly after consulting her PADD, ‘only three days away.’

Valance nodded. ‘Then it’s a good plan, Lieutenant. Commander Thawn, can you make us ready to get underway?’

‘I’ll want to finish appraising the state of our EPS conduits so we can make sure we’re bypassing all damage in the power network,’ said Thawn, ‘but I don’t anticipate that taking more than a few hours. I’ll head down now to oversee.’

‘Good. Airex, appraise the plasma discharge more, make sure we’re doing everything we can to not be hit again.’

‘I will. But I can’t stress the significance of this data, Captain. We still understand very little of the state of subspace in the sector. This could be critical for life going forward in the region.’

‘So we get to be the lightning rod,’ grunted Caede. ‘Don’t sound too excited.’

‘Better us,’ said Valance, ‘than someone less prepared. Patch us up. Then we go to ground. This latest run of exploration is over.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Beckett cheerfully, hopping to his feet. ‘Did I mention that no Starfleet officers have actually set foot on Rencaris soil or facilities before?’