The ship had been boarded 20 minutes ago and here she was stuck on deck 11. The primary sickbay was in complete disarray. Turbolifts were down, warp nonfunctional and the red alert klaxon was beginning to grate on her nerves!

Thinking quickly at the moment shields had failed, Lt. Commander Don Abbott had locked down engineering, keeping the heart of the Intrepid and his staff safe. For how long that would last though, was an unknown. As Don shouted orders, his staff scrambled to follow them as quickly and efficiently as they could.

Counselor Kate Iasone and Lt. Commander XyberGate were in the secondary sick bay on deck 16. Kate had activated the EMH there and while she helped with the injured, Gate sought ways to scan for and beam additional injured crew to their location using the independent transporter in sickbay 2.

Keri knew her next best alternative was to find a way to get to the bridge. She tapped her combadge. "Computer, site to site transport. Beam me to the bridge." "Unable to comply. Transporter functions are off line." Great! She thought, just great! She wondered briefly why the programmers couldn't add a bit of personality to the somewhat cool, calm and collected matronly voice of a ships computer. Right now, she wouldn't mind hearing a little frustration mixed into the computers response.

Quickly, Keri slipped behind the bulkhead. She could hear someone approaching as she crouched down, phaser drawn and ready to deal with another Cardassian. Waiting, letting the enemy come to her, she tensed and prepared to fire. The moment seemed to stretch out until finally, the humanoid form entered her line of sight. Thumb poised over the firing mechanism, body tense and ready to dive behind a second bulkhead, Keri paused and lowered her weapon. She then revealed herself to the approaching form. Keri found herself momentarily staring at the business end of a class II hand phaser until it too, was lowered.

"Keri! I nearly shot you!" Fleet Captain Sybok raised one eyebrow as he noticed Keri's weapon and that he too had been a target. Keri grinned "Good thing I waited till I saw the points of your ears before fire....." Keri and Sybok turned at the same time to see 3 Cardassians charging down the corridor. In unison, they raised their phasers, took aim and fired. The Cardassians went down as Sybok shouted "this way!" and began running. Keri didn't waste time with words as she ran behind him, providing rear cover as he leveled his phaser to eliminate anyone approaching them from head on.

Dr. Saul and Dr. Jadzia had managed to make it to deck 12 after the Cardassians blew the primary sickbay. Jadzia was still fuming over the lack of honor the Cardassians displayed in blowing primary sick bay. "They are completely without honor!" She then muttered a few Klingon oaths with Dixon picking up only a few choice words. He couldn't help but smile at Jadzia's display, but deep down he agreed with her. Only a p'tag would do what the Cardassians had done.

As they entered the power distribution room, they sealed the door behind them and did what they could to help engineering get the shields and transporters back online.

Lt. Commander Kris Hendrickson, Lt. Sean Russ and Ensign Valdez Pakey were putting up a good fight to keep the Cardassians off the bridge. With more Cardassians beaming aboard, the trio stood back to back in the center of the room and dropped them with phasers set on heavy stun the moment they beamed in. Sean, in his agitated state would every now and then, hit a downed Cardie with another burst from his phaser just for good measure.

In Engineering, Lt. Commander Jim Abbott was desperately attempting to raise shields as well as keep the Cardassians from blasting through the doors. Looking over at Don who was maintaining the dual generators that powered the reinforcing shield that stood between Cardassian soldiers and the delicate interior of main engineering, Jim swore under his breath. "I swear I will put in for a month on Risa if we live through this!" Don looked up at his brother momentarily with a deadpan expression and spoke in a voice that betrayed the tension he felt within. "A month? I'll request a year! And they better give it to me!"

Stopping at a junction, Sybok tore away a panel that opened to a Jefferies tube access corridor. A nod of his head got Keri moving as she scrambled inside the narrow opening. Sybok quickly followed and they both made their way through the narrow passageway until they reached the first intersection. Keri stopped and turned "Which way now?" she asked. Sybok took only a moment to orient himself and pointed to the right. "Straight and then left. We should find the access to the stairway at the end." Stairway? Keri gave Sybok a look as she pondered his terminology for the narrow access ladder that would eventually, 10 decks later take them to the bridge. In a dry voice, Keri responded "Your sense of humor never ceases to amaze me my husband." Sybok smiled "It's just a short little climb." The smile became a wide grin. "Feeling out of shape my wife?" Keri took a deep breath and fought back a biting remark about shape as she took in Sybok's heavy breathing and the flushed look on his face. He hates confined spaces and I despise heights Keri thought as she too, took a moment to catch her breath. Glancing back at her bondmate, Keri smirked "I'm ready when you are!" Sybok nodded, fully aware of Keri's dislike for heights. "Let's do it!"

On the bridge, things weren't improving. The Cardassians were beaming in too fast for Kris, Valdez and Sean to handle with their hand weapons. With their charges dangerously low, it was only a matter of time before the Cardassians overwhelmed them. Seeing no other recourse, Kris directed his voice to the ceiling "Computer activate bridge lockout sequence, transfer all ships functions to Engineering. Authorization Hendrickson, alpha epsilon 167." The computer chirped once and waited. "Confirm, voice access Starfleet recognition codes." Instantly, the bridge lockout systems were implemented. Helm, science, tactical, security...all stations froze and locked. Kris looked at his fellow officers and in a raised voice, ordered them into the crawlway that would eventually lead to sick bay 1. As Kris covered them, Valdez and Sean entered the crawlway. Kris dove in after them and then used his phaser to seal the hatch.

Don was immediately alerted that all bridge functions had been transferred to engineering. He also knew that Kris, Valdez & Sean were off the bridge by now. "Jim, we need to get the shields up and transporters operational in 15 minutes. The Cardies will converge here next." Jim nodded and began rerouting power in ways Starfleet engineers had never intended it to go. The designers would have fainted on the spot if they saw what the assistant engineer was doing.

Don began shouting orders and went to the main transport array. As he began to rebuild the hiesenberg compensators, the door to engineering was blown in.

"It's just not enough! No matter what I try, I can't get that extra power to engineering!" Dixon was begining to feel frustrated. "Doctor, we can route more to the secondary sick bay! They can at least beam the wounded there using the independent transporter." Jadzia looked rather pleased with herself as Dixon smiled at her. "Yes! Here, you take the distribution node while I handle the flux parameters." It was several minutes later that the secondary sickbay received a nice little power supply package.

The EMH was methodically treating each of his patients while keeping up a constant monologue on Cardassians and their behavioral patterns. Running a dermal generator over a particularly nasty burn inflicted on a young ensign he continued "...and further, Starfleet intelligence has documented and confirmed that Cardassian children are..." Kate had enough! "Computer! Shut down EMH vocal interphase!" The EMH's mouth continued to work for several seconds before he looked up at Kate with a stunned expression.

Gate looked at Kate in relief. "If you hadn't done that I think I would have deleted the entire program!" He then paused "I have power! I am not sure where it came from but someone sent me just what I need for this transporter!" "Someone must know we are here!" Kate silently thanked whomever sent that power as she turned to help another crewmember to the recovery area. She looked at the EMH then turned to Gate "Can you establish locks yet?" Gate never even looked up "Initializing transport now." Kate rushed to help the injured lieutenant who was beamed in curtesy of Gate. She helped the young woman onto biobed 2 and gave her a mild painkiller before instructing the biobed to run a full scan on the woman. As the EMH stepped up to biobed 2, Kate ignored his glare and allowed him to silently do his job. Gate, still intent on scanning and establishing transport locks spoke in a monotone voice "You gonna give the EMH his voice back?" Kate never hesitated a moment. "Not until this is over!" Gate nodded once, his concentration fully on the task at hand as he tried to scan the 2 people who had just entered the access way. "Good, he was beginning to annoy me."

Keri & Sybok crept silently forward until they reached the proper junction, making their turn, they came upon the access hatch to the ladder and stood. Both took a moment to stretch before Sybok opened the hatch. "Ladies first." Sybok said with a smile. "You just have to...."

Fleet Admiral Dean's voice could be heard throughout the ship. "Computer! End Program!"

Sybok looked amused as he stood at attention with Keri on the now gridded holodeck. With the backs of their hands making contact, Sybok sent a message along the link he shared with Keri "Looks like you get out of facing your dislike of heights this time!" Keri smiled and returned his message with one of her own. "We won't mention your small phobia about enclosed places or how you get out of facing your dislike for them will we?" Sybok raised an eyebrow in mock stoicism then smiled and allowed his thoughts to flow into Keri's mind. "Indeed my wife."

Kate & Gate stood near the center of the room looking somewhat baffled but immediately going to attention upon seeing Fleet Admiral Dean standing in the doorway to the holodeck.

Kris, Sean and Valdez were still on all fours but immediately stood at attention upon realizing the simulation was over. Kris whispering to Sean and Valdez "Figures we would get caught in an indignant position just when the simulation is called!" with Valdez and Sean trying not to laugh at Kris' remark.

Jadzia and Dixon both watched as their consoles dematerialized in front of them and stood at immediate attention as they realized the simulation had ended.

Don and Jim both were wearing an expression of disbelief that they had lost but stood at attention as well.

Fleet Admiral Dean looked over the Intrepid crew members who participated in the simulation, his face belied nothing of the pride he felt for them. Only he knew that this was a no win scenario, since he designed the program himself. "I am quite pleased with all of you! You showed admirable cunning, creative thinking, managed to assist each other without the benefit of communications and kept cool heads during this simulation.

I can now tell you all that this was not to see whether or not you would defeat the Cardassians, but rather, to see how you all reacted in a crisis situation." Admiral Dean looked over at Don and Jim "Admiral Williamson will want to have a word with the two of you later. Some of the methods you used may be of value to future training simulations and perhaps even emergency protocol."

Don And Jim looked at each other and then at Admiral Dean, both wearing huge smiles. It was Don who chose to answer Admiral Dean. "We would be honored Sir!"

Fleet Admiral Dean nodded thoughtfully. "At ease. You are all free to join me in the Starbase 7 lounge, the drinks are on Admiral Braman!"