The final taurran solider fell to the floor as Wood's shot found it's mark, and he had a clear run to the room they suspected was the weapon's control room. He hurried across to the door, putting his back to the wall and triggering the release mechanism. He held position for a moment as he listened carefully for any sign of life on the other side, before quickly pushing off the wall and entered the control room.

He made quick work of checking his surroundings to make sure he was relatively safe before turning his attention to the control panel. He shouldered his rifle to properly focus on the control panel so that he could set to the task of rerouting power from the weapon. He knew his way around a ship's systems, or at least a USEP ship's systems. Now he was up against a completely unfamiliar interface in an unfamiliar language. Even with his scanner translating it and setting his visor to overlay the results it still meant everything took longer than usual.

He was most of the way through when he heard a scream, an angry scream in taurran. The translation protocol results on his visor were focused on the console, and it had been too fast, distant or garbled for his uniform's algorithms to translate. He wished he'd known what it was about but couldn't risk the delay. However, now he was fully alert and on edge again, he picked up his rifle again as he carefully moved to check around all the bulkheads, instruments and consoles a second time. He didn't find anything so he returned to his task, only stopping again when he heard more alarms going off and instinctively looking up.

"Yeah, the taurrans and I have had a little disagreement. They decided to run after I unleashed a nasty little toxin into the air," a voice stated calmly from behind him. Wood whirled around with his rifle raised to see Bert Barker causally leant against the bulkhead opposite him, partway between him and the doorway.

"Why?" Wood asked through gritted teeth, itching to pull the trigger but he knew the likely consequences. He knew Barker wasn't stupid enough to put himself into too much danger.

Barker looked entirely too smug with himself, Wood thought, as he ignored the question. "You won't shoot me." Barker shrugged calmly as he stood up straight. Wood raised an eyebrow as if to ask why not. "Shoot me and you kill Alice." Wood didn't so much as blink, though it was still strange to hear her called anything but Ali. Instead he half shrugged - to avoid losing his aim as his rifle moved - in a way that was mostly a tilt of his head and an indifferent expression. Barker didn't know him nor did he know how he was involved in all of this, let him think he didn't care. "You'd actually kill her just to take me down?"

"She'd happily tell me to," Wood retorted as Barker took a step towards him. "Come any closer and I will shoot you," he added firmly. Barker didn't need to know where he'd shoot him, he didn't have to kill him to take him down.

Barker did stop but he didn't look too concerned. "I don't think you have it in you."

"Is that a risk you're willing to take?" Wood challenged.

For a moment the two men stared each other down, Barker self assured calm as Wood's eyes narrowed down the sight of his energy rifle. The lull was finally broken as a flicker of discomfort washed over Barker's face - confused and horrified from the change in the dull throbbing at the back of his mind - and Wood took the opportunity to strike.

~-x-~

Ali gasped as she finally broke through Barker's hold on her, pushing herself up on the bunk to the sound of shouting and beeping instruments. The bunk rocked as the ship took another hit and she heard a frantic shout of orders in response. She unsteadily tried to get to her feet as she grappled with the safety restraints.

Suddenly a hand was on her shoulder urging her to sit back down on the bunk. "Ali, please, sit down. I need to check you over," Narla ordered in her most gentle and reassuring voice.

Ali shook her head in an attempt to both to disagree with Narla and to clear her own head. She felt hazy, as if she hadn't properly woken up or was incredibly hung over. "Tell Grey to tell Wood to shoot the bastard," she said as her handle on reality started to cement around her.

Narla didn't need to ask who Ali was talking about. Few people had angered the young woman enough to merit such a title. "Not until I know you won't die if he does," Narla resisted.

"I'll be fine," Ali replied. "I always would've been, he just wanted it to look like it would've killed me. Insurance," she explained.

"I saw your vitals, Ali, I know it was possible. Now stop arguing," Narla objected sternly as she continued to check over Ali's vitals, no matter how much her patient would rather complain about it. Both women grabbed the bunk as the ship rocked beneath them again.

"I need to get to the bridge," Ali decided, hopping to her feet and only just holding her balance as another tremor buffeted the bulkhead. All things considered she thought she did pretty well.

"You should remain here," Narla argued, "you aren't fully fit yet."

"I'll be fine," Ali replied, sounding far too blasé about her health for Narla's liking, but she didn't give her a chance to object because she knew it wouldn't be a suggestion this time.

Ali half ran to the bridge, having to grab hold of bulkheads and handrails as the Endeavour continued to take hits from Barker's defences. She half tumbled out of the lift due to both the ship shaking and her own unrecovered wits. "What's happening?" She asked when she regained herself.

"Ali?" Grey was shocked as he wheeled around in surprise at the sound of her voice. He was dishevelled and bruised from the damage they'd taken. Frost was busy working away in her attempt to avoid the worst of the attacks, frantically tapping and swiping away as she instinctively ducked away from the loud noises of damage bulkheads and sparking consoles. Chopade had lost his chair at some point as he tried to man two of the sciences consoles at once, dusty and anxious but working furiously. Ali almost missed Lartyne at first, until she spotted the young ensign half obscured because she had pulled a panel from the bulkhead and was busy helping to make emergency repairs before resurfacing briefly to relay an important message from the earpiece she was still wearing.

"I'd say you found trouble whilst I was out," Ali joked as she threw her arms out to catch her balance again.

Grey was about to ask her if she really should be out of medical, but given their situation he quickly decided it was irrelevant. "Take weapons," he decided and Ali made her way down to where the ensign who'd replaced Wood was frantically trying to do the job of three people. She nodded to him with a smile as she took a seat at the main console, allowing him to focus on running auxiliary support. It didn't take her long to disseminate the ship stats and instantly diverted half the weapon power to the shields before setting to analysing the rest of the data feeds. "Well, do you know what the plan is?" He asked.

"On the basis that Wood is on Bert's ship I'm assuming we're using the back-up plan," Ali replied. "Whoa…" She added as she finished processing the full extent of the damage they'd taken. Spud was probably all set to murder them all for that. "What did I miss?"

"Too much damage," Grey replied. "Taurran weapons might not be able to take out a planet, but they're doing a number on our shields."

Ali resisted commenting on how obvious that was and instead focused on working with Frost to take out their enemies whilst avoiding taking damage. "There's debris littering the battle zone…" She observed out loud as she realised what the data was telling her. "You didn't..?" She asked with wide eyes and a horrified tone.

Stolen novel; please report.

"We didn't," Grey confirmed, though he suspected she knew that really, "the taurrans launched the escape pods and we've done our best to avoid them. The debris is from them getting caught in Barker's crossfire."

"In his mind if you're not with him, you're against him," Ali muttered to herself as she took aim at the weapon generators on Barker's ship, though her aim was off as she was deliberately playing it safe as to avoid the weapon array itself. She didn't want to know the definition of beyond dangerous she would find if she hit it.

"He does seem annoyingly resilient," Frost cut in as she executed a particularly harsh swerve. "He's one man, surely they outnumber him?"

"Yeah, but he turned a bunch of them onto his side and released some sort of nerve agent into the air," Ali corrected. She hadn't had a full window into Barker's mind, but it was enough to know the basics of what he'd done whilst she'd been struggling to free herself. Grey turned sharply. "He's fine!" Ali assured him as she quickly skimmed over the latest telemetry from the ships they were fighting to look for developing weak spots. She could feel Grey's concern for his crew. "It'll give humans a headache but that's about it," Ali explained a moment later, once she'd picked a new target.

"Why would the taurrans have a toxin that only works against themselves?" Chopade asked.

"No idea. It might just be less effect against mammals rather than reptiles, or Barker used a synther so he had an emergency backup," Ali said, though she wasn't really focusing on it as she primed the weapons as Frost started another offensive manoeuvre. "Don't think about it too much!"

Frost and Grey chuckled despite the situation. "Barker is normally a few steps ahead," Grey agreed wryly. The ship buffeted again from another onslaught that Frost couldn't entirely dodge. Ali managed to mitigate some of it by quickly diverting some power to their shields. "What the hell is taking Wood so long?" Grey demanded a moment later.

"Bert found him," Ali explained, not even looking up as she targeted another of the ships. Grey didn't need to ask how she knew that, it was the same way she knew about the toxin. He also saw the worry and panic written on her features that she usually hid so well, even if she was still focused on taking out their enemies. "The shields are still down on Barker's ship, how many people are left aboard?" She asked, flicking her fingers to charge their weapons to full power before taking another shot.

There was a delay as Chopade had to move to a different console to bring up the data. "Only two," he confirmed

"Do you know which is which?" Ali asked hopefully, taking advantage of Frost's latest evasive manoeuvre to take a pot shot at another ship's shield generators.

"What're you thinking, Ali?" Grey demanded as he strode to stand in front of the station she was manning.

"I can, but it doesn't matter, they're too close to distinguish for beaming and they keep moving," Chopade explained, cottoning onto Ali's idea.

"Then get a security team down to the beamer and bring them back," Ali decided as she stood up. "I'll beam across and finish the job because I'll be the only person over there," she explained, stepping into the lift and the door slid shut in front of her before Grey had a chance to object to the plan she'd just suggested.

"If she survives I'll kill her myself," he muttered and Frost grinned despite their situation. "Lartyne, get security down to the beamer," he ordered and she popped back out of the bulkhead long enough to relay the orders before darting back in to continue with the repairs.

~-x-~

Wood hadn't hesitated to take advantage of Barker's distraction, rushing to close the distance between them and letting go of his rifle - it had been on a setting high enough to deal with taurrans rather than stunning the lone human - to jab at Barker's head to distract him from the uppercut to his gut.

Barker was a more proficient fighter than he had initially anticipated, blocking the jab and stepping back enough to lesson the impact of the uppercut. Barker's own pistol now pointed at the ceiling from where he'd raised his arm to block. Wood drew his left hand back enough to close his fist around the wrist below the gun, using his strength to control Barker's arm enough to keep the gun out of the way. In the same moment - before Barker could swing a left hook at him - he stepped through to plant his foot behind Barker's leg and his right hand surged up to replace his left so that he could trap the arm whilst dragging Barker to the floor.

Barker realised what was happening just before his centre of gravity was pulled backwards and Wood tripped him. He pulled the trigger.

Both men looked up to see what he'd hit before diving apart as a shower of sparks rained down on where they had been. Wood glanced out of his cover as he lowered the setting on his gun to avoid killing Barker. He could see Barker's pistol still abandoned in the open space between them. He spotted Barker hunkered in his own cover and thought he could hear the sounds of a console being accessed. He didn't wait to find out what kind of surprise Barker wanted to pull on him, and shot at the console.

As predicted Barker lurched out of his hidey-hole because of the dangerous, sparking electronics. Wood quickly adjusted his aim to shoot at him, but the ship rocked beneath their feet and his shot only grazed Barker's leg as both of them stumbled to regain their balance.

There was a creaking sound behind Wood and he turned just far enough to see part of the control panel behind him swaying and he rolled forward out of the way before it fell on him. He didn't think they'd taken that much damage, then remembered that this thing had been buried for centuries, it probably wasn't in the best condition.

In his distraction Barker had made a limping break for his pistol. Wood raised his rifle only for it to click in malfunction - apparently it didn't like taking his full weight - and he discarded it and lunged at Barker to stop him getting to the pistol. They collided as Wood tucked his head and tackled Barker with his shoulder. They tumbled to the ground with Barker still struggling, refusing to admit defeat. In an effort to stop Wood getting a grip on him, Barker kept squirming and kicking before throwing a wild punch towards Wood's head. Wood easily blocked it as he leant his knee on Barker's injured leg, distracting the man as he snapped a fist at Barker's temple with just enough force to knock him out.

For a moment Wood didn't move as if he suspected Barker was just pretending, before raising himself just enough so that he could slide back to reclaim his gun. He had just wrapped a hand around it when he felt the peculiar sensation of a beamer.

~-x-~

Ali ran the whole way to the beamer once she was out of the lift. "Ali, you're beaming across first, that way you won't get caught up in the rumpus on either side," Grey came in over the comm as she was checking her weapon, new scanner and new communication device. She wasn't daft enough not to stop at the armoury on the way.

"Okay, sir," she agreed. By the time she arrived at the beamer the technician on duty had already established a good set of coordinates for her to arrive on Barker's ship. She jumped up onto the plate and reaffirmed the grip on her pistol before nodding to the technician. He nodded back and a moment later she was suddenly facing dark bulkheads lit by flashing lights. She cast out her senses as she carefully turned to make sure she was alone. She instinctively backed up against a bulkhead as she used her scanner to ascertain where she was.

Soon she was hurrying along the corridor, her energy pistol raised and intermittently checking the scanner to make sure she was still heading in the right direction. Other than the alarms the ship was quiet, and apart from the occasional body still bleeding out over the corridors, completely deserted. As she found the door to Barker's control room she backed up again, not wanting anything to sneak up behind her and casting out her senses again and raising her scanner to do her level best to make sure no one was waiting to ambush her. Nothing showed up under any of her tests so she opened the door and did a sweep of the control room. It was empty. That seemed suspicious but she couldn't doubt herself now.

She holstered her pistol and hurried to what her scanner suggested was the main control panel. Due to her telepathic abilities she had a natural affinity for languages, including taurran, so she didn't need her scanner to translate the console for her, allowing her to work faster than Wood could.

Despite the fact that every out of place noise had her turning and reaching for her pistol she quickly finished deactivating and rerouting the systems she needed to. Another thing about sending a scientist was that she had a more extensive understanding of the systems she was manipulating and could do a more thorough job than was strictly necessary but ultimately safer.

She put the scanner back on her belt and grabbed her communicator. "Grey, everything's set," she reported in, "have you still got the shot?"

There was a moments pause before he opened the channel to reply. "Yes."

"Okay, just finishing up now," Ali explained as she quickly finished her work. She'd had to make so many bypasses she knew that there was every possibility that it wouldn't last for long if they didn't have the shot. "Done," she confirmed as she clicked her communicator off and attached it back to her belt. She took a few steps back as she watched the console, half expecting everything she'd just done to undo in front of her, but it held so she ran back to the point that she'd beamed in. She didn't get that far, however, before she was beamed away from that ship.