The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [22]
“Me?” Yar asked. “I’ve received only basic medic training.” She glanced to Edal’s unconscious form. “I can’t do this.”
“It’s a simple process,” the doctor countered. “Ialona, go with her. I can talk you through it if necessary, but you need to go now.”
Yar seemed to relax, if only slightly, perhaps buoyed by Crusher’s crisp, decisive manner. Drawing a deep breath, she offered a single taut nod. “Let’s do this,” she said, reaching up to tap her combadge. “Yar to shuttlecraft Jefferies. Activate emergency transporter and lock on.” Kneeling beside Edal, she looked to Crusher, who turned toward her and offered an encouraging smile.
There was a brief pause before the feminine voice of the shuttle’s onboard computer replied, “Acknowledged. Transporter standing by.”
Yar waited for Daret to indicate that he had deactivated the quarantine fields surrounding the infirmary before nodding to Crusher one last time. “Three to beam to the Jefferies,” she said, gripping her purloined disruptor pistol in her right hand. “Energize.”
“Good luck,” Crusher offered as the transporter beam enveloped Yar, Daret, and Edal and the three of them disappeared, leaving the doctor alone in the infirmary with Daret’s assistants. As one of the nurses reactivated the quarantine procedures, Crusher exhaled in resignation. She was getting too old for this sort of excitement.
“Okay,” she said, “let’s get on with this.”
A shower of transporter energy swept away the Cardassian infirmary, replacing it with the shuttlecraft’s cramped interior. The tingle on her skin was still palpable as Yar confirmed that both Daret and the wounded Edal had made the trip with her.
She eyed the shuttle’s open door. “Keep a watch out. I’ll get the gear,” she said, moving toward the bulky cargo container at the rear of the shuttle’s passenger compartment.
Kneeling beside Edal, Daret waved a portable scanner over the unconscious Cardassian’s chest. “There’s not much time,” he said. “We must hurry.”
“There should be a portable sterile field generator in there, as well,” Crusher said, her voice distant and washed out as it was filtered through Yar’s combadge. “Once Ialona’s ready, place it on either side of Edal’s torso. The field should cover his entire upper body.”
“I’ve got it,” Yar said after a moment, gripping the generator by its molded carrying handle and extracting it from the container. Handing the device to Daret, she asked, “Do you know how to work this?”
The Cardassian nodded. “Doctor Crusher taught me how to use them on the Sanctuary.”
It took Yar an additional minute to locate the organ stimulator, even with Crusher guiding her. “Found it, Doctor,” she said, feeling momentary relief at the small victory but knowing the larger battle still lay ahead. “What do we do now?”
“First,” Crusher said, “you’ll need to…”
Yar flinched as the rest of the doctor’s instruction disintegrated into a burst of static erupting from her combadge, the chaotic hiss and pops echoing within the shuttle’s cramped interior. “They’re jamming our signals.”
“They know we’re here,” Daret replied as he set up the stimulator and activated its start-up diagnostic protocols. “We’ll need to be ready.”
Nodding, Yar reached for the Cardassian disruptor she had set aside while hunting through the cargo container. Daret’s simple statement had spoken volumes; there likely would be no way to know if whoever found them was loyal to Edal or Malir until someone shot at someone else. Though the weight of the weapon in her hand was of some comfort, Yar would have preferred the familiar heft of a Starfleet phaser. A sudden surge of isolation and fear reached out to grip her, a sensation that had been a fact of everyday life on Turkana IV but that also had revisited her on infrequent occasions throughout her adult life, despite her best efforts to bury them beneath training and experience. Clenching her jaw, she felt her muscles tense as she fought back the impulses.
You’re not a child. You