“Everybody, sound off,” he said, turning. In quick succession—though accompanied by many moans and groans—Lavena, Rager, Jaza, Deanna, Vale, Akaar, Tuvok, the Rossini twins, and three other members of the bridge crew called out their names.

Which left only Keru.

Riker turned to see Tuvok kneeling beside one of the aft consoles. “Captain, your tactical officer is badly injured.”

Riker tapped his badge, as Deanna and Christine rushed to the upper level. “Riker to sickbay. Prepare for incoming wounded.” He sighed, and turned to Jaza as the science officer moved back toward his station. “Status report.”

The Bajoran ran a shaky finger across his console’s monitor, following as he read. “Titanwas turning when she was struck. We were lucky. We appear to have sustained only minor hull damage. There’s a small breach on deck five, and emergency forcefields are already in place. But our shields were overloaded by the impact.”

“How badly?”

“They’re down to thirty percent, Captain. Sir, we can’ttake another hit like that.”

“Will.” Deanna was calling him from the upper part of the bridge, aloud this time.

“Contact Khegh, Rager. We’re going to need the Klingons protecting our flanks.”

“Will!”Deanna’s voice had become more insistent. He moved in behind her, steadying himself against a console as he looked down.

Ranul Keru lay in a crumpled heap, contusions about his face from the console circuitry into which he had crashed. But of far, far more serious concern was the spanner that protruded from his chest. Deep red blood oozed out around what he recognized as one of Ensign Rossini’s tools.

Then he noticed that the large Trill was not breathing, either.

Simultaneous to this observation, Vale tapped her combadge. “Vale to transporter room four! Beam Commander Keru directly to sickbay. Sickbay, prepare a trauma team. We’re beaming Mr. Keru directly to you. He’s critically injured.”

As the shimmering curtain of energy surrounded and dissolved Keru, Deanna stood. Riker saw that her eyes were wet. “I could barely feel him, Will. I don’t know if he’s going to make it.”

Not caring how the gesture would look to Akaar or anyone else, Riker gathered Deanna into his embrace. He looked over her head at Vale.

“Let’s get this ship running again,” he said grimly.

SEVERAL MINUTES EARLIER

Olivia Bolaji had screamed so much that her voice was hoarse, and not even all the asinolyathin in sickbay seemed to be of any help.

Ogawa checked the biobed display again, then kept her voice as low and calming as possible as she addressed her infuriated patient. “I’m sorry, Olivia. I don’t see any change. If we don’t get your baby out now, we’d be risking both of your lives.”

Axel Bolaji stood near the biobed, his dark-hued hand now purplish from the hard squeezing Olivia had been giving it. “He’s four months early. Will he survive?”

“There are always risks, but we’ll make certain they both do fine, Axel,” Ogawa said. Though it was rare in modern Federation medical experience, human babies still occasionally arrived prematurely.

“Noah wasn’t premature, but he had a difficult birth,” Ogawa said, giving Olivia a small smile. Calling thirtytwo hours of labor “difficult” is a bit of an understatement,she thought. I was ready to yank him out with a tractor beam if he’d taken a minute longer.

“You’re sure the transporter won’t hurt him?” Olivia asked, wincing.

Ogawa shook her head side to side. “We’ll be using a small, confined transporter beam. It’s the least invasive procedure we can do.” She gestured out toward the rest of sickbay. “I’m going to need Dr. Onnta’s help though, since he has the most experience in this arena. I’m going to go get him now. The sooner we get this done, the better it’ll be for the three of you.”

The Bolajis nodded, and Ogawa turned and exited the OB/GYN room, deactivating then reactivating the bio-isolation field as she left. She made her way to Surgical Three, where Dr. Onnta and Dr. Ree were working on Lieutenant Denken. The young Matalinian had been grievously injured during the raid on Vikr’l Prison, and lay unmoving in the surgical bay.

Ogawa was about to ask how the surgery had gone when she noticed that Nurse Kershul was wrapping Denken’s severed right arm up in cloth.

“You weren’t able to save his arm?” she asked.

Ree shook his head, the sensor cluster’s bright surgical lights making his scales look almost iridescent. “Whatever they cut him with in the prison was poisoned. We were barely able to stop it from spreading throughout his nervous system. Another five minutes and he would have lost seventy-five percent of his mobility, another ten and he would have died.”

“He has that to be thankful for then,” Ogawa said. She was always careful to be positive around trauma patients, even those who were sedated or even apparently unconscious; she knew that their subconscious minds often heard everything being said in the room, and that their waking minds might later access those memories.

The red-alert klaxons suddenly came on, startling everyone in the room. Although the klaxons were quieter here in sickbay than up on the bridge, they were no less effective.

“Bridge, what is the nature of the emergency?” Ree asked, speaking into a wall-mounted companel.

“Just being careful, Doctor,”answered Lieutenant Commander Jaza. “We’re pretty close to some ship-to-ship combat between the Romulans and the Remans, and we don’t want to be drawn into it.”

Ree’s double eyelids blinked several times in rapid succession. “Is Titanin danger, Commander?”

“I really can’t talk now, Doctor. I’ll try to get back to you. Bridge out.”

Onnta sighed heavily. “Let’s hope we won’tbe engaging in any battle either. Whatever beef the Remans have with the Romulans, it isn’t our fight.”

Ogawa nodded. Ever since Andrew had died fighting the Dominion War, she’d had little stomach for armed conflict, and an increasing contempt for those who were too quick to resort to it. She excused herself for a moment to call Noah, to make certain he stayed put in their quarters.

Back to the matter at hand, Alyssa,she silently chided herself. There’s a new life about to be born. Try to focus on that.

“If you’re available, Dr. Onnta, it’s critical that we deliver Olivia Bolaji’s child as soon as possible,” Ogawa said, gesturing toward the OB/GYN room.

“Yes, of course,” Onnta said, doffing his bloody surgical gown. “Mr. Denken is sleeping soundly. Have you prepped the equipment?”

“Of course, sir,” Ogawa said, nodding. She liked the gold-skinned Balosneean doctor well enough, despite his often absentminded air—and the fact that he often spoke to her as if she were a second-year med student. It only bothered her slightly now, but if his attitude didn’t improve soon, she’d find the time to share with him exactly how much field experience she’d had after nearly a decade of service aboard two starships named Enterprise.

“I’d like to come along to observe,” Dr. Ree said, his tail switching to one side behind him. He scratched at his chin absently with one of his long, multijointed fingers. “I have been treating Mrs. Bolaji regularly, but found no warning signs of this premature labor.”

As the trio strode toward the OB/GYN room, Onnta let out a sigh which Ogawa took to be one of relief, though it could as easily have been born of frustration. “Busy day. I’m glad every shift isn’t like this,” he said.

Both Ogawa and Ree nodded. In less than an hour, they’d treated not only Bolaji and Denken, but also the various nicks and scrapes that other members of the away team had suffered. And then there was the large, unconscious Reman, whose injuries had apparently been less severe than Ogawa had originally feared. Remans, it seemed, were made out of pretty stern stuff.