Alarms blared on the Ezekiel which gave Garrick hope that his unit was making his way to him. He moved to the door and reloaded his sidearm as he did so, but the movement made him grimace from pain in his shoulder. Luckily the beam seemed to have only grazed him, so while it hurt like hell, he could still move. He pulled the door shut and used the panel on the wall to lock it before he shot the panel through, just to be sure, though in reality he had no way of knowing whether that would keep the door closed.

Now Garrick pulled out a set of binders from his pocket to tie up XO Pierce to make sure she couldn't get anywhere before he crawled over to Peterborough. The Captain wasn't in a good way; he had multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and his pulse was weak, but Garrick didn't rush to his aid--he needed to keep Hennessey alive. Hamasa's voice wouldn't leave his head. "Just remember what the cost would be if you don't get the answers you need."

Hennessey lay crumpled behind the conference table clutching a wound to her knee, but Garrick saw she had also had a wound in her abdomen. He pocketed her fallen weapon and dropped to the floor to apply pressure to Hennessey's wound.

"Why are you helping me," she said through gritted teeth.

"I need you as a witness, stay still." He pushed harder to try to stop the bleeding.

Hennessey screamed in pain. "You're a heartless bastard, Karn."

"You're not helping yourself."

"Are you honestly leaving Peterborough to die?" She panted, sweat ran down her face.

"He is replaceable, you and your answers are not."

"This is why the Alliance will collapse." Her eyes started rolling back in her head.

Garrick shook her awake. "The Alliance will survive because there's people like me making the difficult calls, the sacrifices that need making."

"What... makes you the... judge of that?"

"I'm willing to die for the Alliance, and I'm willing to let others die. I'm what the Alliance needs, now stay awake!"

"Deluded... deluded," she whispered.

He gave up speaking to her. He had a confession of sorts but he hoped Hennessey would stay alive long enough for further questioning. If Okoro and the others didn't make it soon... He tried to contact them but there was nothing on the link but static. The crew on the Ezekiel must have jammed all transmissions. Garrick smiled--that would harm them more than him. His unit knew where to find him already; those opposing had to coordinate efforts to catch them.

Garrick heard the tearing thunderclap of weapons fire and shouting through the door. He prayed it was Okoro, but scanned the room to look at what cover he had just in case. If he could flip the large table that might give him something to work with, but that would mean leaving Hennessey which was a risk he couldn't afford to take. Garrick kept his good hand pressed down on the wound on her stomach and tried to draw a weapon with his injured arm. The pain caused stars to appear in his vision but he succeeded in at least holding the gun.

If they come through, even if I shoot blindly it might make them think twice.

Silence fell in the corridor, Garrick tried to shift himself to get a clearer view of the door should someone try and enter--and someone tried.

It shifted open. He held his breath, but there was no one on the other side.

"Garrick? You in there?" Okoro's voice called out.

He sagged with relief. "Yes I'm here, I need a medkit now."

Okoro came through the door, rifle raised, followed by Fabian and Ramsey, who had his rifle trained out through the opening to take care of anyone coming after them.

"This is a shit situation sir," Okoro said. "This room is indefensible--we need to get out of here." She dropped to Peterborough's side.

"Leave him," Garrick gasped. "Bring the kit here."

"But, sir--"

"There's nothing you can do. We need to save Hennessey to get her back for interrogation."

To Okoro's credit she didn't question him again and instead brought her field medic's kit over to Hennessey's side and went about applying a dressing to her stomach.

"We need to move, sir," Ramsey said. "They're regrouping."

"How long do you need?" Garrick asked Okoro while Fabian bandaged his shoulder.

"In an ideal world, about half an hour, but I know I'm not going to get it."

"Just get her ready to move."

"She'll need two people supporting her--not including you with that shoulder, Commander."

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"You and Fabian can do it. I'll hold up the rear."

Garrick tried to get to his feet but almost collapsed before Fabian grabbed his good arm to steady him and help him over to look at Peterborough. The Captain lay dead on the ground in a pool of his own blood. It surprised Garrick that he felt no remorse for Peterborough's death. Instead, there was just an overwhelming sense of rightness, of duty to the Alliance--Peterborough was expendable when compared to that.

Okoro took off her bloody pair of disposable gloves, her face grim. Hennessey looked worse though. She was a sick grey colour, and her chest was barely moving. "You can move her," Okoro said. "But we need to get her to a proper doctor. She hasn't got long left in this world otherwise."

"Get her up." Garrick eased down and searched Peterborough's body taking his service tags and starting a wrist link to download the cache his implant had stored, filing it for later.

Garrick heard a moan when Hennessey was lifted by Okoro and Fabian, but it wasn't from the wounded Captain. It was coming from Pierce.

"I forgot about her," Garrick said. He grabbed a jug of water from the table, somehow still intact despite the gunfight, and threw it over her. Pierce woke up with a start. "You're coming with us Pierce."

"Like hell I am," she slurred.

"I've got her, Commander." Fabian stepped over to picked up Pierce and dump her over his shoulder.

Garrick nodded a thanks before staggering over to help Okoro with Hennessey. "Let's go."

"Stand back." Ramsey threw two stun grenades around the corner.

There was two loud bangs and a series of flashes; Ramsey stepped out with his rifle raised. Garrick heard several gunshots, then silence. "All clear," Ramsey called out.

They left the room and stepped into the chaos beyond. Bodies of the Ezekiel's crew lay scattered over the bloody floor. Some were moving and crying out with pain, while others were still and immobile, contorted in whatever position they landed. Garrick still didn't feel any regrets. It's worth it if we can get some answers out of Hennessey. He tried not to slip on the bloodied floor. Pierce screamed in protest, but Fabian was twice the size of her.

Ramsey kept a steady pace forward, making allowances for those behind him. At every corner he stopped and checked around it before signaling for the others to follow him. There was little resistance as they made their way through the ship which surprised Garrick--he had expected more from the crew of the Ezekiel.

"We're coming up on the hanger now. It's a safe bet that they'll be waiting for us in there," Ramsey said.

"Scout it out. We'll wait here," Garrick said.

Ramsey obliged and set off at a jog. It pained him to wait as Garrick knew that they couldn't waste any time; he was feeling faint from the blood loss so he dreaded to imagine the state Hennessey was in. She couldn't have long left alive, but rushing in would get them all killed.

It took the better part of ten minutes for Ramsey to reappear. "There's about twenty of them inside the hanger. Our hopper looks intact, but who knows what they've done to it. There are other ships in the hanger if we needed another way off."

"Where did you see all this from?"

"Hanger traffic control centre one level up. There were two people inside, but I took care of them."

"Well done." Garrick considered what he had said. "Take us back, I've got a plan to get us out of here." The six of them sneaked past the hanger and up to the control room. Garrick left Hennessey with Ramsey and Okoro and sat himself down at a control panel.

The crew of the Ezekiel had made a fatal, though not unexpected mistake, and Garrick was determined to capitalise on it--they were all stood inside the hanger, with only a force field between them and the deadly vacuum of space. It didn't take him long to override any safety settings in the hanger systems, and with no hesitation, Garrick dropped the field and watched the officers get sucked out into space.

"My God," Pierce said.

To Garrick's surprise, even Okoro looked repulsed, and Ramsey had an uncertain look on her face. Why should it bother them? It's no different from shooting them all. Garrick put those thoughts to the back of his mind and reactivated the field. "Let's get them out of here."

They exited the control room and hurried down to the hanger. Okoro ran over to the hopper and swore when she saw the state it was in. "We're in trouble Commander. They shot the engines up, there's no way we can use it..

Garrick didn't falter like others might. "Spread out and check the other ships."

Fabian stayed with the prisoners, but the rest of them moved from ship to ship in the hanger. They didn't have long, but the Unit was at its efficient best.

"I've got one," Ramsey shouted from the other side of the hanger.

Okoro ran over to see if she could get it serviceable. "We're in luck. Give me two minutes and I can get this working."

"We don't have that long." Fabian pointed at the corridor they had just come from. "We've got company!"

They dropped behind the hopper and fired at the soldiers coming in. The hopper didn't have much of a profile and it was a tight fit behind it. Garrick could feel the heat from the beams as they shot past; the noise of the beams was deafening in the echoing hanger.

"Got it!" Okoro shouted as the hopper hatch slid open.

"Get them in--now!" Garrick tried to make his voice heard over the screeching gun fire.

Fabian ran in, dumped Pierce, and a split second later was back at the hatch returning fire. Garrick helped Okoro lift the stricken Captain Hennessey inside and onto a chair to be strapped in. Ramsey jumped in after them and went for the pilots seat. Garrick stretched for the hatch and set it to close. It was almost shut when a beam shot through and struck Fabian in the face. He dropped to the floor with a faint smell of seared flesh.

Garrick reached down to check his pulse.

Fabian was dead.

"Get us out of here!" Garrick said.

Ramsey gunned the engines of the hopper to launch it at the field which parted around the ship--they had made it.

With a glance at Fabian, Garrick limped towards where Hennessey sat at the rear of the hopper. Fabian knew what he signed up for, and he had paid the price to better the Alliance. Garrick respected that. The same couldn't be said for Ramsey and Okoro, however, who both had tears in their eyes. Okoro came over to put a sheet over Fabian's lifeless body.

Garrick checked on Hennessey. With a stab of rage, he saw that she too was dead. This had all been for nothing, unless Pierce revealed something during interrogation. He wasn't looking forward to explaining this to the Admiral.

Ramsey jolted the ship violently causing Garrick to crash into the wall to his left. "They're firing on us!"

"Signal the Phoenix Rises. Get them to scramble their fighters or disable that damned ship." He tried to walk towards the copilot's chair but Ramsey's manoeuvres threw him into the walls. His vision started to fade out, he felt faint, nearly blacking out from the pain.

"No response," Okoro said from her station.

"Keep trying--and try to draw their attention."

Ramsey put the hopper through a dizzying array of twists and turns to avoid the beams being fired at them from the Ezekiel. Not for the first time, Garrick wondered whether they'd make it out of this alive.

Mercifully, the Phoenix Rises fired its own more powerful weapons at the smaller ship. The firing stopped and Ramsey guided the hopper into the welcoming hanger of the Phoenix Rises.