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| - I stepped into Holodeck 1, and inhaled deeply; it was morning, time for training again. I turned as Christopher and Tabora entered the room. “Alright, today you two will be practicing escort training,” Tabora said, “You’ll be guarding a transport vessel using two shuttles. The transport vessel isn’t armed, and has very weak shielding; you will have to take the brunt of the attacks, or it will be destroyed. You will be traveling from one planet to another; it will take roughly 23 minutes to reach the rendezvous point. Once you arrive, the planet’s defenses will take care of any enemy vessels.” She paused to look us both in the eye. “You may now begin.” We nodded and the simulation began. We entered the two shuttles, and began the startup sequences. The two of us exited the hangar, and took up positions beside the transport ship as it moved away from the planet. Moments later, two Klingon Birds-of-Prey decloaked directly ahead of us and opened fire. I smiled at the ancient warships; once they had been formidable ships that sent armies running in fear of their sheer power and stealthy cloaking technology. Now, they were relics. It was routine now for ships to watch out for cloaked vehicles, and the once advanced weaponry was now easily matched by any federation starship. I reminded myself that I was only flying a shuttlecraft, and was probably no match for this ship in terms of weapons. I moved in and took the first blast. Although my weapons weren’t much good against their shields, their blasts only managed to drop my shields by 5%. Christopher mirrored my movements, taking the second blast, and we continued alternating back and forth, giving one shuttle enough time to regenerate its shields while the other shuttle took the hits. If this was all we had to do, it seemed we would succeed easily. My sensors began flashing warnings, and I watched as a third Bird-of-Prey decloaked behind the transport ship. ‘Looks like I spoke too soon.’ I thought to myself. The third ship unleashed a volley of shots that struck the transport ship, almost completely knocking out its shields. Christopher dropped back to protect the transport ship from the new attacker, leaving me with the other two Birds-of-Prey. I continued to block their shots, but without Christopher to cover me, my shields didn’t have enough time to recover, and were quickly dropping. I glanced at my nav board; we were still two minutes from being in range of the destination planet’s defenses. I tapped my combadge. “Christopher, my shields are almost gone!” He replied, “We’re almost to the rendezvous point, hang in there!” I answered, “I’m not gonna make it, my shields just gave out!” I closed my eyes and braced myself, preparing to be vaporized. All at once, I heard a whooshing sound, and my eyes snapped back open. Christopher’s shuttle flew in front of me, taking the blast. I cheered as I spotted the rendezvous zone, but stopped as I felt the shuttle shake as something exploded behind it. I turned my gaze to the aft monitor, and watched as the transport ship burst into flames. The planetary defenses unleashed dozens of photon torpedoes upon the attacking vessels, but it was already too late. Even as the Birds-of-Prey exploded, the simulation ended, and we were left standing in front of Tabora. The lt. looked disappointed. “You sacrificed the lives of hundreds of civilians on that transport ship, all to save a single one of your comrades.” Christopher straightened up and responded, “I couldn’t just leave her there to die.” Tabora shook her head. “Sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice the life of one, in order to save the lives of many.” Christopher was about to respond, but before he could, a female Bolian cadet wearing a security gold uniform entered the holodeck. “Hey guys, we’re having a phasertag tournament in Holodeck 2, you wanna join us?” I glanced at the Lieutenant; she sighed and then nodded concedingly to me. Christopher and I followed the security cadet down the hall to the other holodeck. As we walked, I turned to Christopher and quietly said, “Thank you.” His face remained cold and he replied, “I would’ve done the same for anyone on this ship.” I was surprised, and slightly hurt by his response. “Of course; so would I.” We entered the holodeck, and I saw four command cadets and five more security cadets in a line. The Bolian girl, Christopher, and I lined up next to the others, leaving us with a total of twelve cadets. Four security officers--including Lieutenant P’Trell--stood in front of us. There was also a male Trill with two pips--signifying the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade--as well as two ensigns, a Bajoran man with dark brown hair, and a bleach blond-haired human woman. P’Trell paced back and forth in front of us. “Alright, I’m going to split you up into two teams of eight. Red will be with Ensign Martin,” he pointed towards the blond woman, “And blue will be with Ensign Danoel,” he pointed towards the Bajoran man. After being split up, I ended up on red, along with Christopher, the Bolian girl--whose name was Bavelyn--as well as a male Andorian, another male human, and the orange-haired command cadet I had met yesterday, whose name I learned was Irene Walter. The lt. JG Trill walked over to P’Trell. “Come on P’Trell, the blue team has a huge advantage with the Klingon and the Xindi both on their team.” I realized he must be referring to Denarchia, and as I scanned the members of the other team, I spotted her standing between a Klingon and human. I waved to her, but instead of waving back she just glared at me. P’Trell replied, “Well Zik, if you think red’s at such a disadvantage, why don’t you join their team and help them out?” Zik smirked and raised an eyebrow. “Only if you join blue.” P’Trell responded--a smirk also forming on his face-- “Then blue will have the advantage again.” Zik cracked his knuckles. “Oh, we’ll see about that. Loser has to take the night shift tomorrow.” P’Trell nodded. “Deal.” The simulation began. My uniform was replaced by a skin-tight gray jumpsuit with a red stripe across the chest, and two more stripes, one around each wrist. Zik turned to us. “Arch, Carver, Bavelyn, you’re with me. Sam, you take the rest of the group and attack P’Trell head on.” Ensign Martin nodded, and headed in the direction of blue’s camp, followed by Irene and the other two security cadets. Moments later, we heard phaser shots, and Zik motioned for us to follow him. He led us up a hill, and through a small patch of trees. He stopped us as we reached a ledge that overlooked a clearing. I saw the rest of our teammates battling down below. The Andorian and human security cadets had already fallen, and I spotted Samantha and Irene pinned down behind a rock. Zik pointed his phaser rifle down towards the clearing. “Everyone, aim for their heads.” He fired down on the clearing, picking off a blue cadet who had begun to advance on the cover where Irene and Samantha were hiding. Irene and Sam looked up at us and cheered as they lept out from behind the rock, attacking the rest of the blue members head on. Within moments, all of the blue members in the clearing had been downed. Zik tapped his combadge. “Sam, did we get them all?” She replied, “I only count five, and P’Trell’s not one of them.” I heard phaser blasts behind me and whirled around just in time to watch Bavelyn get gunned down. P’Trell, Denarchia, and the Klingon came running out of the woods behind us. Zik dove for cover behind a rock nearby as P’Trell fired at him. I screamed as the Klingon ran up to me, preparing to shoot me. I felt something slam into me, and my eyes widened as the phaser bolt whizzed past me, only a centimeter from my ear. I turned to see my rescuer, and was only half surprised to see Christopher. He fired up at the Klingon’s chest, and he fell to the ground incapacitated. Zik jumped out from behind his cover and shouted, “Stay down cadets!” He fired at P’Trell and clipped him, but a blast from Denarchia struck him in the arm, causing him to drop his phaser rifle. A second shot from P’Trell dropped him. I turned as P’Trell and Denarchia aimed their phasers at Christopher and me. Then, before my eyes, both of them fell to their knees, revealing Ensign Martin and Cadet Walter behind them. ‘We won.’ I thought to myself. My hands were shaking as the simulation ended. A voice came over the speaker, “Piloting and command cadets to the bridge, we’ve discovered a wormhole off the port side of the ship, science cadets, report to the lab.” We exited the holodeck, and our uniforms changed back to normal. I overheard P’Trell and Zik arguing. “Hey, you went down before I did.” P’Trell said. “Doesn’t matter, we won.” Zik replied. We headed towards the turbolift, and as we walked, I glanced at Christopher again. He had said he’d make sacrifices for anyone, and yet, I always seemed to be the one who he decided to rescue. Christopher and I stood beside Tabora as Chekov moved to the front of the room and stood between the helm and ops stations. “Well, I’m sure you’ve all enjoyed a little fun, but now we’ve got to get back to your training. I’m going to give the command cadets and the piloting cadets a chance to work on the bridge together, so-” Chekov was cut off as the ship was buffeted by an energy blast. I fell to the floor, slamming my head against the captain’s chair as I went down. I struggled to get back up, and managed to make it to my knees. Lieutenant P’Trell had been the only one to keep his footing, and the tall Andorian shouted, “Three Shadow Warbirds decloaking to port!” Chekov got back to his feet and slid back into his chair, not even noticing me as he did so. “Red Alert, shields up! Hail them!” Lt. Cmdr. Forrester turned. “No response Commander!” Another blast struck the ship, and P’Trell shouted, “Shields down to 70% sir!” Chekov replied, “Lieutenant P’Trell, ready phasers! Lieutenant Tabora, take the helm! Cadets, head down to deck 2 and wait there!” Lt. Tabora moved to the helm station, and one of the command cadets turned headed towards the turbolift. “The lift’s not working sir!” Another volley of energy blasts struck the ship, and Chekov shouted, “Return fire, aim for the nearest ship!” The phaser banks charged, and I heard the familiar sound of it discharging as a beam of energy struck the left-most warbird. “Their shields are still holding Captain!” Tabora turned to the commander. “Sir, may I suggest entering the wormhole?” Chekov replied, “No, it’s far too dangerous. We have no idea where it leads.” Tabora countered, “With all due respect sir, chances are it leads to somewhere safer than where we are right now.” Lt. Cmdr. Forrester nodded. “I agree with the Lieutenant. We don’t have much of a choice.” As if to affirm the direness of the situation, another blast struck the ship. I watched in horror as the helm and ops stations exploded, sending Forrester and Tabora flying backwards. In that instant, I saw a blur of motion as a figure lept to the smoking helm console; it was Christopher! He shouted to the commander, “The console is still working Sir! Should I head for the wormhole?” Chekov stared for a moment, and looked as if he was about to argue. “Shields are down to 20% Sir!” P’Trell shouted. Chekov looked back to Christopher and nodded. “Engage, Cadet Arch.” And with that, we shot forward at full impulse into the wormhole…
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