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Once the port side cargo bay was repressurised, Chait stumbled out of the shuttle. He managed to park it almost square on but he was in a bad shape. He could only imagine what state his eyes were in. He understood the symptoms of oxygen deprivations. It had been a long journey from the remains of the Republic to the Atlantis.

Doing his best to control his paws, the muscles under the skin spasming, his tail twitching, blurred tunnel vision closing in he can just about see the feet of the crash crew running on the cold cargo deck towards him as he struggles for breath. He tries to inquire about the status of the crew but fails only manages to mumble.

He passes out before the CMO gets a chance to see him. He wakes later on in the Captain's cabin, with an oxygen mask over his face. The medical bay was working overtime and they needed beds.

Looking around he finds the strange surroundings of some other Captain's cabin, it felt like he just awoke into someone else's life.

Struggling to his feet, Chait makes his way to the Bridge to find whatever command staff might happen to be there.

"Report . . . anyone . . . don't care."

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Naranja stands to attention and snaps a salute. "Good to have you back sir!"

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Captain Chait returns the salute. "Back? This ain't the Republic son." The Caitian smiles.

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Naranja beams back. "With all do respect sir, it's just us out here . . . why shouldn't this be the new Republic?"

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Chait considers this for a while. "There's a lot of the Republic out there . . . A lot of parts we need." Chait looks to his new  Lucius. "I want two operations. One, we recover what we can of the crew. They deserve to be brought home. Even them two Vulcans. Next, we salvage what we can of our ship." He turns to Lieutenant Commander Shaw. "And we make the Republic-A something that those bastards can't touch again."

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Lucius  nodded and turned reached into his pocket to withdraw his personal communicator. "Abernathy to Bryerson. Take two teams to the shuttle bay. Have one take one pod to retrieve the members of our crew that are dead in space. Have the other grab an engineer and head to the hulk of the Republic and salvage what we can. Abernathy out." he said closing the communicator rather than wait for the Senior Cheif's reply. He knew the orders would get carried out.

Turning to the Captain he said. "Orders are underway sir. Good to have you back. Has the Doctor tended to you yet sir? That was a rather rough trip over."

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"Thank you Lieutenant Commander, I would imagine he has. I was kind of out of it at the time." Looking at the newly overhauled viewscreen . . . "I'm afraid 'hulk' is a little . . . ambitious. The saucer section got torn in two. And from what I have seen of the shuttlebay, we don't have pods, except for the one I arrived in, and that needs a roof. Speaking of which, the Commander . . . Mags. He's out there. Close to the ship. I don't know exactly what happened but I think he stopped the venting from the shuttlebay before he died. I want to be able to take him back home."

Chait fell quiet, then limped to his seat and stood behind it, using it as a support. "Any ideas on finding out who attacked us?"

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Lucius raised an eyebrow at being address as Lieutenant Commander but didn't press the matter right now. He was more concerned with the fact that they had no shuttle pods with which to effect recovery ops with.

"Well, if the thing has the juice in it, we can use the transporter. Only other thing I can suggest for getting over there would be donning EV suits and thruster packs and doing it that way. Same with getting over to Republic. As for who attacked us, that's going to be a bit. Even if I can get these outdated systems to work, they'll only be less effective than what we had aboard Republic. I just hope this thing can link up with Earth Command and get updated version of SVIR so that the computer doesn't think every new ship is an enemy."

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"Then make with the EV suits, recover what we can. I want crews working on the shuttle we have in the cargo hold, we'll use that as an impromptu shuttle bay and for the time being we can use the other as an airlock. Take stock of what we have on board and what we need. Grab as many weapons as we can from the old Republic. Also anything that is remotely useful. As many spares for the warp drive as possible." Going over the faint look of miscomprehension on Lucius's face . . . "And Lieutenant Commander? Try to recognise a field commission when you see it."

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Patches up and bypasses several systems on the shuttle to make it work as an

convertible shuttle. "It should work

relatively good. I've

prepared a list of things we can grab from the old republic which i can fit on to the new." Grabs a EV suits and gets ready..

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Naranja passes off a salute to the Captain and new Lieutenant Commander, "Permissions to pilot the new . . . uhm . . . that thing in the cargo hold?"

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Bruno nods, "Sure, follow Jeanie's lead, he's calling the shots. Keep both of you out of trouble. Bring back as many phaser emitters and torpedoes as possible."

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"Aye sir!" Naranja runs off and reports to Jeanie with an EV suit.

"This should be interesting. Never flown in a full suit."

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As Jeanie and Naranja fly out of the cargo bay to the strewn wreckage that was NCC-185 they are beset by bodies of over half the crew.

The crew assigned to the retrieval of the bodies are only rocking EVA thruster suits and so have a limited range. They can't quite make it out as far as the Republic, but they manage to bring the lifeless form of Commander Magnus Brougham back on board.

As the pair in the shuttle fly over to the Republic the sense of how little protection we have against the sheer cold vacuum even in our starship is overwhelming. We could have been wiped out completely. It's only by sheer luck the Atlantis was nearby and reasonably serviceable.

Bruno watches as Mags is brought reverentially on board. He would never cry in front of the crew, but there was not mistaking the damp patches of fur around his eyes when he walked in a room.