Sillika glanced at Keryl.
"So, we're done?"
"For now," the other Shee snapped her gun back onto her arm, and motioned to Jay to give Sillika's back, "But the state this ship's in..." She cut off suddenly, expression hardening. Sillika felt a shot of worry.
"What?"
Keryl was silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"Nothing. I just thought... You know that weird prickling feel you get when something bad is about to happen? That."
Sillika shivered, and looked round. Nothing seemed to have changed, but she couldn't dismiss the memories of how many times Callum's 'feelings' had been right. Callum... She felt her eyes getting hot again, and blinked it away. Now was not the time.
She turned to Jay, and met his gaze. He flashed her a smile and handed her gun back.
"Come on, we're not dead yet."
Sillika held up a hand.
"Every time in my life I've heard someone say that, things have always become a hell of a lot more complicated."
Jay shook his head.
"Look we're - "
Then the world seemed to explode. Hissing bolts for laser speared out from every direction, and Sillika felt pain flare at the side of her face as the energy took off most of her left ear. Pain barely registering, she lifted her gun up and fired blindly twice, trying to see anything through the dust cloud the impacting bolts had flung up. Something gripped her arm and she was yanked backwards as Jay pulled her, his jaw set in the familiar grim determination.
"Where are they?" He yelled, as Keryl appeared out of the dust, blood oozing from a blackened slash across her cheek, eyes gleaming with fury.
"All around us! I don't know how they got here without me spotting it!"
Jay nodded, seeming not to notice as another blast sizzled past his ear.
"Talk later, as for now... Run like hell?"
"Agreed," Keryl gestured to Sillika, "Stay between us. GO!"
They started running, firing blindly at the dark shapes that loomed out of the dust. Most of which were rocks, but Sillika thought she saw a bright flash where one of Keryl's blasts hit. Fear pulsed through her, the sort of hunted terror she had hoped she'd never feel again. Her feet pounded the floor, Jay's hand almost unbearably tight on her arm, dust sending tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, Keryl skidded to a halt, then turned back, her face ashen.
"We can't get back to the ship!"
"What?" Jay yelled, the tension in his voice clearly audible, "What the hell do you mean?"
"I need a few minutes to de-activate the field and open the door! They'll see us!"
Jay ducked as another round of blasts narrowly missed his head, then nodded.
"Split up. Keryl, head for the ship, me and Sillika will try and divert them."
"Are you mad? Those things have scanners! They..."
"Your jammer took out *our* scanners! I'm hoping these guy'll have the same problem."
Keryl opened her mouth as if to argue, and Sillika could almost feel Jay's temper snap.
"GET BACK TO THE SHIP LEUTENANT! THAT IS AN *ORDER*!"
"Y..."
"NOW!"
Keryl darted away and Jay began to pull Sillika in the other direction. She shook her arm free.
"I can run unaided you know."
"Sorry," he was still breathing heavily, "Come on, I've got an idea. And keep ducking."
Sillika was about to speak when a figure suddenly seemed to materialise out of the dust. With a yell of surprise she pulled the trigger. A blue-white blast erupted from her gun and slammed into the dark shape. What she could best describe as a corona of electrical short-circuiting flared up around the Borg and it crumpled to the ground. She felt a shot of terrible satisfaction, which she quickly buried as she darted after Jay. Thinking like a Grendel wasn't going to get her anywhere.
They kept running, Sillika's lungs beginning to burn as she tried desperately to get enough oxygen to her complaining muscles. Six months of peaceful inactivity on the Discovery had taken its toll on her fitness. If... *When* the got back, she was definitely joining a gym... She was jerked back to reality as Jay flung his arm onto her chest, bringing her to an abrupt stop. About to yell at him, Sillika looked down and the shout died in her throat. They were on the edge of yet another cliff.
"What is with this planet? It's all *vertical*!"
Jay began edging quickly round the edge, beckoning her after him.
"I spotted this just before we reached the ship. If we can get them to the edge, we might be able to..."
"Duck!" Sillika dragged him down, as another round of laser narrowly avoided his face. She turned, and swung her gun up as three more Borg finally lurched out of the dust cloud. She raised her gun, but too late, the lead Borg's arm was already up, light suddenly flaring at the barrel of the gun as... Jay wrapped his arms around her chest, and threw them both backwards. Sillika stifled a yell as they started to fall, shock numbing her for a second. *They'd just jumped off a cliff!* Fear was just starting to penetrate her mind again when they came to a suddenly, jerking halt. Jay's arm dug into her stomach, and Sillika clamped her mouth shut, trying to avoid crying out or throwing up. She inched her eyes open and immediately wished she hadn't. Below her was about a hundred-metre drop, straight down. Risking a half-gasped breath, she turned her head upwards very slowly. She had to force herself not to jump. Jay had one arm clamped round her waist, the other straight up in the air above his head, face twisted in concentration. Sillika's gaze strayed further up, before alighting on the reason they hadn't fallen any further. Jay's callband, the thick, inch-wide band that was always strapped round his wrist, seemed to contain more than just a basic communicator. A thin wire was sticking out of it; a small grapple embedded into the cliff above them. It looked almost too small to hold it's own weight, but somehow, impossibly, it was supporting both of them. Jay glanced down at her, and flashed a slight grin.
"Standard issue, emergency grapple. It's not really built for both of us, but should hold."
Sillika stared at him, resisting the urge to kick him.
"Anything else you've forgotten to tell me about?" She yelled, anger and shock overriding her fear, "Next time you throw me off a cliff, could you at least give some warning?"
"Er..."
Something painfully bright sizzled past them, and Sillika automatically brought her gun up, firing blindly at the top of the cliff.
"We're literally hanging by a thread!" She yelled, "Don't you bastards ever give up?" The gun jerked repeatedly under her fingers as she fired again and again, hands shaking madly. She just wanted them to DIE. Suddenly, two brilliant flashes jerked her back to reality, her wide eyes finally focusing clearly on one of the Borg. As it plunged down past them, tiny flashed of electricity still running across its jerking form. Sillika fired one last time before the leaden ache in her arms forced her to bring the gun back down, the pale oval hanging at her limp wrist.
For almost a minute, there was silence. The lack of sound was very strange after the chaos, and it probably took that long for them to unfreeze.
"Well," Jay said at last, his voice still shaking slightly, "It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it worked."
"Yes, it did," Sillika replied dully. Her mind seemed... Numb was the only way she could describe it. Not calm, not relieved, not even shocked. Just numb. Jay frowned at her for a second.
"You okay?"
Sillika didn't answer, mainly because she wasn't sure. She couldn't quite identify this feeling, it was almost... Disappointment? No, that wasn't it. It was more a sense of... Hollow victory, a false relief. That was certainly closer. And she knew why. She swallowed hard. Even after everything Keryl had said, everything Sillika herself had seen... She'd been half-hoping to see Callum again. Even if he was... Even if... She couldn't finish the thought, so didn't try. She glanced up at Jay, and gave him a weak smile.
"No, but I will be. Let's get back to the ship."
"Yes ma'am," Jay grinned, but Sillika could hear the note of concern in his voice. It was comforting somehow. Although, she thought, her stomach lurching as she looked down again, she'd feel a lot more comforted when she had solid floor under her feet. Dangling from cliffs was becoming a little too common an occurrence for her liking. Jay tapped something on his wrist and the wire jerked unpleasantly. Clearly seeing the look on Sillika's face, he grinned at her.
"It's just winding in."
Sillika nodded, deciding her voice wasn't up to a vocal answer right now. They slowly began to rise, Jay's callband whirring quietly. Sillika ignored the rock scraping at her shoulders; it was still better than just hanging there. There was a light click, and their momentum stopped. Sillika glanced up, frowning.
"What's wrong?"
"That's as far as it winds in without cutting the grapple," Jay's voice had an undertone of worry again, "But..." He trailed off. The end of the sentence wasn't needed; Sillika could see the problem all too clearly. They weren't close enough to the edge of the cliff to climb back up.
"You can reach, can't you?" She asked, hopefully. Jay hesitated, then set his jaw.
"I'll damn well try. Er, this is going to sound a bit... well..." He trailed off again, his ears reddening. Sillika blinked.
"What?"
"You'll, er, need to hold my waist pretty hard," the blush was spreading down his face now, and Sillika couldn't contain a slight grin, "I'm going to need both arms..."
Sillika waved a gun-free hand.
"No problem. I don't mind."
"Er... Good," Jay coughed, then set his expression back to determination. Sillika suppressed a slight grin as she carefully wrapped her arms around his waist, until she had a good enough grip for Jay to move the arm holding her up. In this position, Sillika couldn't see what was happening, just a close-up view of Jay's stomach - not that she classed that as necessarily a disadvantage - but she could hear him grunting slightly as he stretched upwards. A thought hit her, sending a shiver of ice down her spine. What if they couldn't get down from here? Would they just have to wait until the Borg... The thought cut off as they started moving again. A few seconds later, Sillika was able to look up. She blinked as she scrambled to her feet, thankful of the solid stone under them.
"Keryl?"
The other Shee grinned, one hand resting almost nonchalantly on her hip, face streaked with dust and sweat as she let go of Jay's arm.
"Oh come on, you didn't think I'd leave you hanging there?"
"I though you were headed back to the ship..." Jay started, but Keryl cut him off.
"I was, then realised none of the Borg were following me. I kinda guessed you'd be in trouble."
"Good thing you did," Sillika joined in, thankful of the slight release in tension. Keryl smiled again, and flicked a loose strand of copper hair behind her ear.
"Indeed. Oh, and Jay?"
"Yes?"
"Don't even *think* of trying to pull rank on me again."
Jay laughed.
"Deal. Now, shall we get back before any more of these things turn up?"
Keryl nodded, shooting a final, satisfied look across the area.
"We'll be okay for a bit, you took out those two pretty well. It'll be a while before their buddies can find us again."
As they headed back to the ship, Sillika tried to rid herself of a strange, nagging doubt in the back of her mind. *Two* Borg?