Vox hadn't gotten far when something slammed into the side of the ship, rocking it violently. Alarms screeched, lights flickered, and the crew scrambled to set things straight. With much swearing and frantic typing, you'd started running checks.
"Fucksticks and a half. Everyone, this is Gooden, report in! What's the damage?"
"Ginny here, outgoing comm systems are flickering in and out, but seem to be stabilizing."
"Liz here, some of the cargo has gotten tumbled around, but overall things are fine. Guns are intact!"
"Captain Dolori reporting, looks like we took a solid hit to the back end, and Vox is a little scattered, but x is reporting its doesn't seem too bad."
"A'ight. Vox, get us in range, we're going for a death blow. Liz, fire up the guns. Dolori, give Liz the signal when we're in position to fire. Sara, report in!"
A chorus of 'Roger that' filled your ear piece, followed by silence where Sara's voice should be. Pushing away the beginnings of gnawing worry, you try hailing her again.
"Reynolds, report! How're the engines?"
Static is the only response that comes through, so with a few quick taps at the keyboard you pull up a vid screen of the engine room Sara had last been in. Smoke drifts in the background, and there is no sign of the mechanic, so you'd try the headset again.
"I repeat, Reynolds, report in! What's going on down there?"
Still no response from her, but you hear Dolori inform Liz that you're in position and on the count of three to fire. You wait for the count down to end, then call up your Captain.
"Dolori, report back to me when Liz is done blasting them, lemme know what the damage is. I can't get Sara on the headset and she's not anywhere to be seen on the vid screen, if I don't hear from her in another minute, I'm going down myself."
You wait for them to acknowledge the command before trying to reach Sara one last time. After a moment of silent static, the mechanic finally answers on the headset.
"Sara here, sorry. Engines took some damage, nothing that'll hobble us permanently, but we should get to port as soon as possible for repairs. Also, there was a blow out in sector 52, I've got it under control, but, well..."
At this point she came into view on the screen, and it becomes apparent what the trail off was about. Sara's left eye has been damaged, crushed or something, you couldn't really tell over the screen, blood trickling down her face and sparks twitching out from the damaged eye.
"Sally fuck me sideways! Reynolds, stay put, I'm coming down."
You barely wait for a response before you're out of your station and tearing down the corridors and stairs, heading for engine room B, headset still going.
"Captain Dolori reporting, target has been blown out of the water, so to speak. Did you reach Sara?"
"Yeah, she's taken some damage, so have the engines. Gin, you there? See if you can raise Clementine, tell her we'll be portside in a couple of hours, have a mechanic and a medic on standby, someone who specializes in cyberorganic parts. Voxie, prep the med wing and have Dolori meet us there, then get us the hell outta Dodge and to port as fast as you can manage!"
You are not panicking. Panic is so unbecoming, and besides you have too much to do to be even bother with it. Sara's still sitting in in front of the screen when you get there, and she gives you a thin smile as you kneel down and inspect the ruins of her eye. Not as bad as it could be, Dolori could do a decent patch job until you got to port. You're avoiding running the numbers to figure what the cost will be for a med bill like this, because this is not the time or place.
"Mmkay, lets get you up to sick bay. Is there anything down here that I need to put a bandaid on until we get to port?"
"Nah, I took care of that. Just come back down here and keep an eye on it until we get there."
You nod, and help Sara up to the hospital bay, a generous name for a spare room with a few extra beds and as much medical equipment as budget and theft allow. Once you'd left her in the capable hands of the captain, you'd headed back down to the engine room to keep an eye on stuff and to brood over many things, including what you did wrong this time.
This is not the first time a crew member has been injured during a raid, and it will certainly not be the last. And this is not the first time you will beat yourself up for it, and it will certainly not be the last.