Counting on Krystal "
By: Krystal, Hologram, [RNPC]
M'Ressha Mikaht, Fighter Pilot, [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.28 2025

Continued...

"Oh shit! Oh shit! I'm too late!" Max fell to her knees and grabbed hold of him, shaking his form with a strength that was belied by her size. "Blitz! Blitz! Don't you DARE die on me!!! Wake up dammit!!!" When he remained utterly still and unresponsive, she stopped shaking him long enough to press her ear to his bug gut-covered chest......

She was shaking and closed her eyes. "Be beating.. be beating.. be beating..." she repeated over and over again and had to finally stop talking in order to hear....

Nothing....

"Oh shit!!! What do I do??? What do I do????" she screeched, panicked now and any life-saving techniques she might have known flew right out of her head for the moment.

"Chest compressions," a bedraggled looking Krystal with skewed pigtails peeked out from a smashed console and offered helpfully. "And it's about time you two got here... Leaving me for bug food...."

"Roight... roight... Not now, Krystal!" Max raised her hand and made a fist which she brought down on his chest with a 'thud'.

"You're not supposed to beat him..." Krystal coached.

"Mouth to mouth..." Max muttered and bent to position his head and clear his airway.

"Five chest compressions first," Krystal offered.

"Oh, roight..." Max pressed the heels of her hands to his chest and counted to five, leaning her weight into the compressions with each count. Then she moved to breath into his mouth...er... snout... "Breathe... breathe... Damn you, Blitzer! Breathe!"

Blitzer slowly opened his eyes. When he did, he saw Max's face just inches from his. He lifted his head and kissed her, laying his head back onto the deck.

Max blinked and sat back on her heels.

He sat up on the floor. "Did the message get sent?"

"Yay!!! Rah, Rah, Rah!!! Go Blitzy Go!!" Krystal cheered.

"Uhhhh...." Maxine stared at him for several heartbeats and finally just nodded.

"We got to get back," insisted Blitzer.

That's when she reached out and punched him in the shoulder. "Don't you EVER die like that on me again! Damn you." She punched him again for good measure. Then she straightened her uniform and =eyed= him.

"You're right," she let her breath out in a soft grunt. "We need to get back. But you'll have to use my PADD to fly this thing..." she told him more calmly and after a moment of configuring it, handed it to him.

Blitzer studied the PADD. It was just like his LCARS panel only smaller. He leaned against the wall and began to fly the shuttle away from the station.

The shuttle turned and accelerated to full impulse. He was beginning to put in the coordinates when suddenly the proximity alarm sounded. "Collision course." "Deflectors!" said Blitzer as he fumbled the PADD.

"Brace for impact" said Blitzer.

"Impact?!?" Max blinked in confusion and peered over the edge of the console.

He looked up at the front view port. He tried to alter course but the object out there seemed to change course as well. "Its a ship." said Blitzer.

"Too small for a ship," Krystal announced. "It's the size of a torpedo!"

"That's not a torpedo! It's a BUG!!!" Max pointed.

Blitz and Krystal looked at each other and then Max. "A bug?" Their voices were in perfect harmony and shattered when Max shrieked!

"Shields!" shouted Blitzer, "Structural integrity field at maximum!"

"Shields at 100 percent!" Krystal called out.

Like an ancient Kamikaze, the monster dived head on. The ship jolted slightly as its body smashed across the view port.

Maxine jumped and screamed when the bug hit them.

"Ewwww... bug guts..." Krystal wrinkled her nose and watched slimy bits splatter across the view port.

Blitzer leaned his head against the wall.

"Bloody 'ell..." Max trembled and stared out at the stars as if expecting another bug any moment.

Blitzer was tired, but he had a moment of clarity and quickly computed the course back at warp 8. He pressed the button and engaged the warp drive. "At top speed, we'll be there in 5 minutes."

He drew a deep breath. He hurt everywhere. He knew he was suffering from something similar to what humans called "the bends." Fortunately for Caits, their cardiovascular system were less demanding.

He handed the PADD to Max, "Check the cloak matrix."

Max let out her breath in a soft grunt and leaned back against the wall beside him as she took the PADD. A moment later she handed it back. "We're good... and you're hurt," she pointed to his lower body and moved to locate the medkit.

Blitzer used the PADD to drop the runabout out of warp. He took up his 'usual' parking place at Pacifica's pole and handed the PADD back to Max. "Be sure to re-check the cloak."

"Roight..." she tucked the medkit beside him and took the PADD, checking the cloak before setting it back down. "We're still good..."

Even though he felt extremely queasy, He laughed as if he were delusional, "pigtails." He picked up his blood soaked tail by the tip and let it slip from his grip. It landed with a thick splat on the deck. He couldn't bring himself to look at his leg, He didn't want to know how bad it was. He and wiped his paws through the pool of blood and held it up in front of his face, vaguely focusing. "Uhg," he said, I'm a mess.

Inside he felt like he was swimming in his own mortality, he knew he wasn't safe yet, but didn't know what to do about it. His strength was fading. "I'm thirsty." he said weakly.

"You're in shock..." Max told him. "Krystal, turn the heat up in here," she ordered and opened the medkit. "Just hang on," she kept eyeing him as she tried to stop his bleeding and do what she could for him. "Dammit... I'm not very good at this... I think I need to get you into bed," she told him after a moment.... "And I need blankets... And I can't see anything for the uniform..." That's when she pulled out the scissors a moved to cut his pants off him.

He watched her remove his blood soaked uniform. "Rah, Rah...." he said dryly.

He shook off the foggy thoughts, and gently took hold of her arm and pulled her near his snout, "..help me.." he said softly, "..get to.." Blitzer closed his eyes and swallowed dryly. "...Sickbay..."

Max blinked and searched his face, her breath warm as it washed over his fur. "Sickbay?"

He spoke softly, as if in a trance, "USS Tigris current configuration, Chassis Section 1, flight center module FCM 1011. Section 2c..." he drew a breath, "mission control module MCM I192... Section 3a..." he drew another shallow breath, "Sickbay module SB39..." He mustered his strength and stirred. That's what he was searching his mind for, "Three- three A," he said.

Max didn't move from her close proximity. "Krystal! You 'eard 'im! Beam us the 'ell into Sickbay!" she called out and wrapped her arms around Blitzer. "You just 'ang the 'ell on. Don't you dare die again," she muttered as they both shimmered into the blue particles of the transporter and reformed in one of the bio beds in Section 3a....

The room was small but efficiently configured. He leaned back into the bed. "I don't feel so good," he reminded her. He felt like thrumbolian parasites where swimming through his blood. "W-water..."

"'Ang on...." Max looked around and pulled a blanket over him. "Water... water.... Wait.... Sickbay module SB39?" she blinked and her eyes widened a bit. "Activate EMH..."

System Interface Error. Program will be terminated. The computer told her as the program crashed.

"Interface error?" Max questioned and then accessed the computer and the EMH program. "Ahh 'ell... it's gonna take an 'our t'repair!"

"Uhhh... Maxie? Blitzy doesn't look so good," Krystal pointed out. "I think he's turning white..."

"White? 'E's covered in fur... 'Ow can 'e do that?" Max's gaze swung around to him. "Oh shit! Pixie, activate EMH program and substitute Krystal 'ologram for the EMH interface," Max commanded.

Krystal blinked and giggled before disappearing and then reappearing again only in a size that was equal to Max. With wings. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency," she offered the standard EMH greeting.

"'E's dying!!" Max reached out to grab the hologram and pull her to Blitzer.

"Hey! Don't grab," Krystal swatted at Max's hand and moved to examine Blitz. "Uht-oh... he is..." she agreed.

"Well DO something!" Max told her and watched as Krystal interfaced with the bio readouts and after a moment began running a dermal regenerator over his wounds to staunch the flow of blood.

Blitzer winced in pain.

"Oh this is not good...." Max chewed on her bottom lip and went to get water from the replicator and a rag and then back to offer a sip to Blitz if he was still awake and then she started using the wet rag to wipe away the blood from his fur.

Blitzer sipped the water and took a deep breath.

"What can I do?" she asked Krystal.

"Stay out of my way," the hologram fluttered her wings and sounded like those snippy EMH's. Krystal prepared an injection and administered it, keeping Blitz from going into further shock.

"Work around me," Max told her. "I'm not moving."

Blitzer opened his eyes. The corner of his lips curled into a slight smile, as he gazed at the over sized pixie. "Hula-angel." he said. His eyes rolled over to Max, "Pizza girl."

Krystal giggled and administered an anti-toxin to combat anything the bug might have left along with an antibiotic. "I'm an angel," she announced and giggled again and started treating him for decompression sickness.

Max rolled her eyes and gazed down at Blitz. "Don't you dare leave me, Blitzer," she warned softly as she continued to wash the blood from his fur. "And no bloody dying."

"I can't die..." he said weakly, "..I have warrior toes."

Max blinked.

Krystal broke out into peals of delightful giggles.

"There is something very wrong with an EMH that giggles," Max observed and rubbed at Blitzer's fur with her rag. "Warrior toes, 'uh?" She had to smile at that. She couldn't help it. "Bloody Warrior toes at the moment," she pointed out.

The fluids being fed into Blitzer's body made him start to come around a little. He lifted his paw in front of his face and flipped it back and forth. "Ugh," he said setting it back down.

Blitzer starred at the Pixie. It made him feel disproportionate, which added to his queasy feeling. He gagged a little and coughed, "uhg." He said with a deep breath.

"Ooohh! I have something for that!" Krystal announced and gave Blitz an injection for nausea.

"Would you stop filling 'im full of drugs?" Max demanded and took Blitz's hand to wash the blood from.

"Hey.. who's the doctor here? You want him to throw up all over you?" Krystal asked.

"Ugh..." Max blinked and looked down at Blitz. "You're not... are you?"

Blitzer shook his head 'no' as his gaze was transfixed on his paw that Max was washing. He was pleasantly surprised that she seemed to know how to extrude his claws as she thoroughly cleaned his paw. However as he looked, his brow furrowed with a slight frown of concern. "Damn," he said, "... I broke a nail."

Max paused to study the broken claw, maintaining the gentle pressure to keep it from retracting. She didn't laugh because that would be impolite, but she did snicker. "I'm sorry... that just sounds so =wrong= coming from a guy," she explained and picked at the claw a bit. "I think it'll grow back soon though... Maybe Krystal could fix it or something?" she offered helpfully as she spent a little extra time cleaning it.

"I could try a deep tissue regenerator," Krystal offered helpfully.

The sound of Krystal's voice made Blitzer's head turn toward her. He regarded her. "How did I get so small" he asked.

Krystal giggled. "You're not small. I'm big," she told him.

"Oh, well.. what did you eat to get so big?"

"The EMH," the hologram giggled and rubbed her tummy. "He was tasty and good with ketchup."

Max snorted and kept cleaning the blood from Blitzer.

Blitzer motioned for Max to come closer, his eyes widen, "Storage module SM266, Section 3b"

Max blinked and looked at him with a mild bit of confusion, wondering if he was alright.

He leaned forward close enough to plant a kiss on her cheek. "Thanks for saving my life."

"Oh... 'ey..." she blushed and let out her breath in a soft grunt. "You'd 'ave done the same for me..."

He motioned for Krystal to come close. He gave her a kiss on the cheek too. "and you too."

Krystal giggled and touched her cheek. "I got a kiss! My first ever!" she announced.

He took a sip of water and closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

"Is 'e okay?" Max asked when he drifted into unconsciousness.

"Yes. Just sleeping from the pain medicine probably," Krystal told her as she kept working, making sure all his wounds were healed and that there was nothing adverse going on.

"Oh... that's okay then... I guess..." Max kept diligently cleaning the blood from his fur. "'E's so soft," she commented.

"You're not supposed to be noticing that," Krystal pointed out.

"I'm not? Why not?"

"Because," the hologram gave her a look. "Medical personnel are suppose to be immune to noticing stuff like that."

"Oh... But I'm not medical," Max smirked.

"Oh... right... then I guess you can notice," Krystal told her.

"Thank you very much," Max grinned at her. "You finished with 'im?" she wondered.

"Yahuh. He's all done," Krystal nodded. "Just needs to sleep."

"Alright then..."Max finished up and stood to take the basin and rag back to the replicator. "I'm going to go see what's in Storage module SM266..." she informed the hologram and slipped from Sickbay. "Call me if anything 'appens!" she called back.

"Will do!" Krystal called after her and then blinked down into her normal size to perch on Blitzer's chest.

Meanwhile, Maxine rummaged around in Storage module SM266 and found the parts she needed to repair the LCARS. With a light whistle she made her way back to the flight deck and pulled the damaged one out before settling down to repair it.

The repairs didn't take too awfully long... Mostly replacing what had been damage. Soon enough she had it back in place and was running it through a diagnostics to make sure everything was working properly. Sensors first, just to make sure they didn't have any more company than before and to make sure all the nice Cardassian ships were where they left them.. Not to mention the Yamoto..

She paused what she was doing to call back to Krystal; "'Ey, 'ow's our fly boy, Pixie?"

Krystal peered at the sleeping Blitz and examined the readouts of his biosigns. "Still sleeping," she announced from her spot on his chest.

"'Oller at me if 'e wakes up," Max told her and went back to work.

It wasn't long before she got lost in the world of binary data as she monitored the comm. traffic to see if there was anything going on or if they'd noticed their presence at the Relay Station. She passively scanned the Yamoto, checking to see if she still had the same number of life signs which would indicate if she still had a skeleton crew aboard or was gearing up for anything.

After a while she propped her feet up and leaned back, getting comfortable and working on a PADD... She had an idea....

Blitzer's eyes fluttered open. He had a bit of a headache, but his stomach felt good, as did his leg. He looked down and saw Krystal sitting on him. It struck him that he could feel the hologram sitting on his chest. "You've gained weight," he said with a smirk.

Krystal giggled and fluttered her wings. Then she poofed out her cheeks to look fat. "Like this?" she giggled some more. "You better?"

Blitzer looked confused, he poked the pixie, "No,..your're not a hologram anymore, you're a real girl!"

Krystal squeaked and giggled at the poking. "I'm a *real* girl!" She poked him back.

Blitzer's mind search for an answer, he turned his head sideways slightly to ponder the situation.

"Maxie's been worried about you," she told him.

He rubbed his eyes with the backside of his paws, "Uhh.. what time is it?" he asked.

"It's 0200," Krystal watched him with her head tipped a bit to the side.

"Am I going to be alright?" he asked the pixie who was somewhat nested into his furry chest. A chest that had been, unbeknownst to him, braided a bit.

"Yahuh. I fixed you really good," Krystal assured him. "Maxie didn't know what to do."

Things started to come together in his mind, "So you can be an EMH too?"

"His interface was broken so Maxie had me take over," Krystal preened proudly. "He crashed. I'm better than him."

Meanwhile, up on the flight deck, Maxine started chuckling as she worked on her PADD. "'Ey!" she called back to Krystal. "When's 'e gonna wake up, Pixie?"

Kyrstal giggled and looked at Blitzer to see what he wanted her to say.

Blitzer squinted his eyes and made a, "shhh!" gesture. He slid out of bed, and looked down. "Oops," he said softly. He pulled a blanket off the bed to cover himself. He smiled unsuredly at Krystal as he wrapped himself up.

"Pixie?" Max called back. "Are the comm's dead? You there?"

He put a little weight on his injured leg. It hurt like a great deal, but it was tolerable. "You do good work Doctor Pixie."

Krystal giggled and wiggled her fingers at him.

He crouched down and went stealthly out the door toward the front. He spotted Max leaning back in her chair with her feet propped up working on her PADD.

"Oh great... now the comms aren't working...." she muttered.

"I'm here, I'm here!" Krystal called back up.

"'Bout time... Now about our Fly B---" Max started and never got to finish.

With cat-like moves he got right behind her and with a soft breathy voice he said, "hey.."

Max screamed and fell out of the chair. The PADD when flying and she tumbled onto the deck with an "ooff", landing on her ass. She started to scramble back and suddenly realized that bugs wouldn't say 'hey'... Would they? That's when she turned and spotted Blitz. "YOU RAT!!" she launched herself at him. "You scared the shit out of me!" she accused, ready to smack his chest when she reached him.

"Whoa! Kidd-o!" he said unclutching the blanket and holding his hands out defensively, just in time to catch her.

"Gah! I thought you were a bug!" she accused again, but didn't smack him.

He loosened his hold on her arms and let the weight of her body lean her in closer, "I meant to surprise you, not scare you," he said wrapping the blanket around both of them now as he pulled it back up from where it had fallen.

Maxine let her breath out in a soft grunt. "You did surprise me," she smiled up at him a little wryly, her hands on his chest keeping her from actually laying against him. "I'm just glad we're not dead, y'know?"

He squeezed her tightly. "We make a good team," he said.

"Oh sure... I scream and you kill the bugs..." Her fingers tightened in the fur covering his chest and she let her weight rest more on him. "Thanks for not letting me get dead."

Blitzer was pretty happy, hard as he could he couldn't hold back a soft purr.

That made Max blink and then laugh softly. Her fingers flexed a bit and then flexed a bit more, only now they were rubbing his chest and stroking his fur. She looked down to where her hands covered him and she blinked again. "Uhhh.... You 'ave braids..." she told him, trying to hold back the laughter that wanted to escape as she fingered the fur around his nipples.

Blitzer took a deep breath and chuckled as he rolled his eyes, "That little...how'd she..." he laughed more when felt the tiny little braids.

"Cause she's solid in the Sickbay," Max laughed... "Oh my... she was =busy=. Probably bored while she watched you sleep," she grinned up at him. "She does that to me too." She indicated her hair were there were some very tiny braids.

He sifted his paws through her hair. They were full of small braids. "uhh.." he reached up and sifted his paw through his mane, "...yep."

Max could help leaning her head into the touch of his paws. It was an unconscious reaction. Then she quirked a brow at his 'yep' and moved her hands up to run through his mane as he'd done to her. Her soft laughter filled the flight deck when she felt the tiny braids mingled in with the silky softness of his hair.

Blitzer nuzzled Max's hair and hugged her close, but it was only a brief moment until Blitzer's sensitive ears detected the inaudible clicking sound of micro-relays in the device which emitted Krystal followed by the quiet digitalized sound of wings fluttering.

Max blinked because what he was doing felt so ....nice... And she hadn't expected it to. Nor had she ever had anything that felt quite as nice as that. She decided she liked having her hair nuzzled and let out her breath in a soft contented grunt... But then he stopped and she blinked again, looking up at him with questioning eyes, her ears definitely not good enough to pick up the minute Krystal signs.

He leaned close to her ear, "Your Imp is watching us."

Max shivered and looked at him, her eyes finding his. "What's she doing?"

He leaned over slightly to peer around Max, "grinning," he said.

"Where is she?" she whispered back, not making any motions to move away from him.

"She's flittering over your console."

"The busy-body," Max whispered back and then slowly turned, unconsciously careful not to disrupt the blanket still around them, until her back was pressed against Blitz. "Are you spying?" she asked Krystal who just giggled and wiggled her fingers.

"I was bored," she told them.

"I think she needs a hobby," Max told Blitz.

"Oh? Braiding doesn't count?"

"I was thinking of something that didn't *include* braiding though..." Max pointed out. "Y'know... something productive..."

"I can do productive," Krystal offered.

"Yeah?" said Blitzer, "I bet you can't hand count all the cottonballs in the jar by the bio bed in sick bay"

"Can too!" Krystal defended herself.

"Oh dear gods..." Max laughed. "Out loud?" she added with a snicker.

"Humph!" Krystal glared at them both with her hands on her hips, and disappeared in a poof of golden pixie dust.

"Oh, that was bad... so bad," Maxine laughed. "She'll be back."

Blitzer coaxed Maxine around and leaned toward her. His lips were just inches from hers.

"One..." came the little pixie's voice from Sickbay.

Max's eyes were huge as she looked up at him and blinked. "Uhhh.... Are you going to kiss me?" she asked breathlessly.

"Two..."

Blitzer's eyebrows arched affectionately and he nodded a a couple times.

"Three..."

She swallowed. "Uuhhh... How many cotton balls are in there?" Max couldn't take her eyes off him.

"Four..."

"It's a big jar." he said with a smile.

"Five..."

"OH!" Max blinked and her eyes widened. "Then that'd be a pretty long...."

"Six..."

Blitzer rolled his eyes upward thoughtfully, "Yeah... I guess it could be..."

"Seven..."

"But if you don't..."

"Eight..."

"No, no... I do..." Max offered a hesitant smile.

"Nine..."

Blitzer smiled back, "Okay..."

"Ten...."

"Good, uhm...."

"Eleven...."

Blitzer positioned her slightly, and slowly bowed his head once again toward Maxine.

"Twelve..."

"Uhhh... Wait..." Max pulled back a little.

"Thirteen..."

"What?"

"Fourteen..."

"Don't I 'ave to get ready?"

"Fifteen..."

"Ready?"

"Sixteen..."

"...No, just close your eyes and...."

"Seventeen...."

"I can't watch?"

"Eighteen..."

"Watch? Uhm...Okay..."

"Nineteen..."

"A'roight... I think I'm ready now..."

"Twenty... Hey you guys! I got twenty already!"

Blitzer tilted his head back so he could see down the corridor, "That's great!" he said in a loud voice, "Count on, Krystal!"