“Right there,” Titus ordered, positioning himself at the top of the talus slope.
Nev Reoh nearly knocked over the sonic cutter as he and Starsa hung on to stabilize it. Titus swore under his breath at the Bajoran. He had tried, but the cutter was too powerful for him to stabilize it himself. And it took too long for the others to climb down and join him.
Water poured into the first cavern and coursed through the crevice just below the ledge they had to use to get to the next cavern. Titus practically ran to the rear of the second cave, working on the assumption that the top of the talus slope was the narrowest point of the barrier leading into the next cavern.
Moll Enor adjusted her safety glasses. “Are you sure about this?”
Titus took hold of the handles of the sonic cutter, snapping to Reoh, “Get it locked, will you! We’re running out of time.”
With more brute force than was usually necessary, Titus aimed the cutter at the rubble near the ceiling of the cave. Dust and bits of rock were flung back and caught in the stasis field, hanging in mid‑air until he shut off the cutter for a moment to see his progress.
Reoh clambered up peering under his arm. “How far?”
“You think I know?” he demanded, taking hold of the cutter once more.
With another everlasting flurry of stones and the straining whine of the cutter, Titus kept the beam pointed at the rocks long after he should have paused and checked his progress. “Come on!” he muttered through gritted teeth. “Give!”
“Wait?” Moll Enor yelled through the rumble of cut rock. “I see–”
Titus was suddenly pulled forward as the sonic cutter broke through the rock. Leaving the beam on short intensity, he swiped around at the rock to widen the gap.
As soon as the cutter was deactivated, Moll Enor ducked through the hole ahead of him. “Bobbie Ray! Jayme! You okay?”
Titus pushed her through and with one pass of his handlight, he knew. “It’s not the right one.”
Moll Enor splashed down into the water. “Jayme! Bobbie Ray!” Her dark skin made it difficult to see her in the dim light.
Nev Reoh poked his head through. “Are you sure they aren’t there?”
“Pass that cutter in,” Titus ordered. He had been afraid they weren’t in the next cavern–it was even lower than this one. “It’s the next cave.”
As he set up the sonic cutter, he didn’t add the words that rang through his head– I hope it’s the next one.
“The water is rising in here,” Moll Enor murmured behind him.
“Yeah, and every cave is lower than the next one,” Titus explained.
“Why are you going through this part?” Reoh asked, even as he helped.
“The ceiling’s collapsed in the next cave. We’ve got to aim lower or we’ll just bore through rock over the top of it.”
“Oh.” Reoh looked frightened, standing knee‑deep in water. Starsa clutched him, practically pulling him off balance to keep herself from falling into the water. Reoh steadied her and aimed the tricorder at the wall. “I don’t read any lifesigns. Do you think they’re okay?”
“I don’t know,” Titus said as he opened up the power on the cutter again.
“You better try it,” Bobbie Ray told her, gasping in the depleted oxygen. Their faces were bobbing near the ceiling now. “Before we run out of air.”
“We would have already suffocated if there weren’t air seeping in,” she countered.
“The point is,” Bobbie Ray reminded her, “you can’t breathe underwater.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll take my chances.”
Numbly she looked at him, those big golden eyes, the orange fur plastered to his face. “I can’t leave you here!”
“You have to try to get out.”
Desperately she glanced down at the hole, nearly ten feet below them now. “I don’t know if I can make it.”
“You have to try,” he insisted.
“I’ll try only if you follow me.”
For a moment Bobbie Ray seemed about to refuse, then he suddenly nodded. “Sure. Maybe I can make it if I follow you.”
Jayme narrowed her eyes. “You serious?”
“Sure, why not? Die here, die down there–what’s the difference?”
She hardly believed him, but in their current situation, what choice did she have? “You better follow me,” she ordered. “Or I’llkill you.”
Bobbie Ray actually smiled at that. “Yes, sir!”
“Okay, breathe deep.” They both took deep, cleansing breaths, five or six each. “Ready? Then here we go–”
Jayme ducked underwater, but she heard the rumble and saw a bright light glinting through the water. When she broke surface, Bobbie Ray hadn’t even submerged. Instead, he was pointing to the side wall near the ceiling. A hole was opening up, and they were drawn along with the water pouring out of the cavern.
“Hello?” a frightened voice called.
“That’s Moll Enor!” Jayme cried out. “We’re here! Enor!”
They started swimming toward the hole and were easily sucked through with the water. Sitting on the rocks, hip‑deep in water, looking up at Moll Enor, Nev Reoh, Starsa, and Titus, all she could say was, “What took you so long?”
“Hey,” Titus said defensively. “I told you I’d take care of everything.”
“Well, at least you’re working together now,” Superintendent Brand told the Quad as they stood in a row in her office. “That’s some progress.”
Bobbie Ray and Starsa looked pleased with themselves. Even Reoh relaxed. But Jayme, Titus, and Moll knew better.
“You would be good cadets if only you could work toward something constructive,” Brand added. “Since T’Rees is on field assignment, he won’t receive the formal reprimand that will be placed on each of your records.”
Titus was glad to hear he wouldn’t have to explain this to their Vulcan quadmate. He thanked whatever gods there were that T’Rees was temporarily on field assignment at Starbase 175.
Brand’s severe tone eased somewhat. “Because you conscientiously notified the authorities about the cavern you discovered containing the calcified human bones, I have decided notto place you on probation.”
Titus finally began to breathe easier. They had just barely gotten off probation from their first Quad reprimand, and it felt like he’d been waiting forever for the next tryouts to join the Parrises Squares League.
Titus shifted. “Excuse me, Admiral?”
“Yes, Cadet?”
“I checked before we went down, but there are no rules against entering the access tunnels.”
Brand raised one brow. “No, but there are rules against doing something that can get yourself killed. You doadmit you nearly got yourselves killed?”
He swallowed. “Yes, sir.”
Brand turned to Moll Enor and Nev Reoh. “And you doadmit that taking a sonic cutter down there was dangerous? The maintenance workers have to shore up that region. You could have destabilized the entire fault zone.”
“Yes, sir!” they both answered immediately.
Brand considered them seriously for a few moments. “I won’t ask what possessed you to venture into the caverns in the first place, however it was a smart move to have a backup team ready.” Titus couldn’t look at the smirk on Starsa’s face. “But I warn you that another Quad reprimand will require that you re‑do this academic year–the same class, same Quad next year.”
“Oh, no!” Starsa exclaimed, then quickly put her hand over her mouth.
“Oh, yes,” Brand assured her. “In Starfleet, we either win together or fail as a group. Here at the Academy, when a group regularly fails together, then we find that it serves in the long run to give them additional time to work things out.” She actually smiled. “It saves wear and tear on your fellow officers later on down the line.”