It was the following morning. Merrick had the shuttle in the bay, waiting for his co-pilot and Fleet Commander Vorik.

During the prep to get the shuttle started, Merrick found a listening device that hadn't been there the previous morning. Commander Vorik arrived first. As he stepped into the shuttle, before he could say anything, Merrick formally greeted his superior officer, then quickly pointed to the listening device.

Fleet Commander Vorik looked at where Pilot Merrick was pointing and understood, nodding. "Where is your co-pilot?" he growled out, making sure he sounded angry.

"He has not yet arrived, sir," Merrick stated formally.

Fleet Commander Vorik looked out the shuttle door and then at the listening device. "His orders were to be here. Council Leader Tosh ordered him to be here. If he doesn't show up in the next ten minutes, he's going in the brig for disobeying orders. He's disobeying mine and Council Leader Tosh's orders by not being here on time!" he growled. "It is not prudent to disobey orders of our leader."

Merrick couldn't help the small smile as it spread across his face. Vorik smiled back and shrugged.

Five minutes later, co-pilot Renn came strolling in, taking his time.

Merrick got into his pilot's seat and prepared to take off, not saying anything.

Just as the shuttle's doors closed, Commander Vorik slammed Renn up against the wall of the shuttle. "You will not disobey an order. You will not be late for your duty, even a second late, or I will have you whipped, demoted, and thrown in the brig. Do you understand, Co-pilot Renn?" Vorik hissed. "You heard the order for you to come with us." He yelled, squeezing his neck tighter. The co-pilot was turning a funny color from lack of oxygen. "Your lack of respect will get you demoted, whipped, and thrown in the brig. You are disobeying my orders and Council Leader Tosh's orders."

Vorik knew he was repeating himself, but he needed to make a good show.

Vorik threw Renn against the wall by his throat, then turned and went to the co-pilot seat. Renn sat on the floor of the shuttle, gasping for air. There was a bruise already forming around the co-pilot's neck.

"Sir?" Merrick asked Vorik, not looking at anyone.

"What?" Vorik snapped, making sure it sounded like he was pissed. He was putting on a show for the listening device and whoever was listening.

"If co-pilot Renn is going to search the dome for zombies, do I stay with the shuttle, Sir?" Merrick asked.

Vorik looked at the listening device and out the window, mainly to see its reflection of what Renn was doing. He was bending forward, listening, which was expected.

"We have found no zombies in the last two searches, but I want you to come with us since there have been reports. I would rather have a competent backup if zombies attack us. Unfortunately, your co-pilot is incompetent." Vorik growled.

"Yes, Sir," Merrick responded formally.

The rest of the flight to the surface was quiet; no one spoke.

Merrick and Commander Vorik geared up, dressing in full armor with their weapons at their sides as if they were going into battle; Renn chose not to prepare at all. Once ready, they left to start their search.

They did the same thing as before, only spending much longer looking for physical evidence. Renn wandered off a few times, but Vorik caught him and forced him to help with the search. Renn didn't think that he had to do anything.

That wasn't the case. Instead, Vorik made Renn do a lot more than he could have had him do, trying to keep him busy.

During their search of the border, they found two border guards examining a portion of the plasma grounding wall.

When they approached the two guards, the guards looked up, signaling for them to come closer. On one panel of the dome, there was a large tear. Something had forced it open in order to get in.

Merrick and Vorik studied the ground around the breach in the dome, finding multiple sets of tracks. They both immediately unholstered their blasters. The guards, seeing this, did the same. Renn had no blaster because he didn't think he needed one.

"There are multiple sets of tracks; there are either humans or zombies in the dome," Vorik stated. "Watch your surroundings. Zombies smell toxic." He advised, scanning the area, his blaster raised.

Peering down at the tracks, he followed them. They led through the city to the opposite side of the dome and went through small streets and between homes. The tracks stopped on the pavement.

"Where now, Sir?" one guard stated. He was one of Tosh's men. Vorik didn't trust him.

"They went onto the pavement here. I need two of you to go left and the others to go right. Look for their tracks coming off the pavement," Vorik ordered.

They separated, going in each direction on the other side of the paved road, looking for the tracks. It took them a while to find any. But once they did, they regrouped and followed them.

As they followed the tracks, the toxic smell of zombies flooded their senses.

Renn ran behind a bush, trying to hide. Several zombies came from behind the building where he hid, heading right for him.

Everything happened at once. All the border guards started shooting, trying not to hit the incompetent co-pilot, who screamed and fought with his fists. The zombies went for him, seeing an easy target, taking flesh chunks out of his arms.

The blaster fire echoed through the area, as the zombies shrieked from getting hit, and the screams of pain from Renn all mixed into one sound.

"Aim for the neck!" Merrick yelled to the border guards. This was the guards' first zombie fight, and they didn't know that the best way to kill them was to take off their heads.

Vorik shot with precision, taking one head off after another. The border guards got the first look at their Fleet Commander's skills. He was shooting calmly with perfect aim. It took two shots with each zombie to take their heads off their shoulder.

One by one, the zombies fell.

Once the last one fell, Vorik and Merrick dragged the bodies into a pile. "We need to burn them," Vorik stated.

The border guards quickly helped, and once all the bodies were in a pile, they set it ablaze.

Vorik and Merrick looked at the co-pilot. "Get him up; he needs to go to the medic. Now!" Vorik yelled. "The medic needs to drain the toxins out of his blood before he turns into one of those things."

The two border guards picked Renn up and dragged him to the Medic. Vorik and Merrick followed close behind.

They could already smell the toxins in Renn's blood when they entered the med bay.

The medic looked like he didn't know what to do with Renn, wanting just to clean the wound and bandage him up. However, Vorik had seen the blood cleaned and knew what they used, so he quickly stepped past the medic, grabbed the device, set it up, then shoved it into Renn's arm and turned it on. Renn screamed in pain. It was a painful process.

Grabbing the scanner from the medic, Vorik scanned Renn, keeping a close watch on the readout on the small screen. The smell of toxins faded, then vanished as Vorik continued to watch the scanner. Finally, with satisfaction, Vorik pulled the device out of Renn's arm and shut it off.

Vorik turned to the medic. "The first thing that you have to do is take the toxins out of the bloodstream, or the toxins will turn them into a zombie, and that will infect everyone else. His blood should be clean. Now you can tend to his wound. When there is a zombie attack, cleansing the blood is the first thing you have to do. There is no time for anything else," he explained.

Vorik scanned the border guards, who were watching him in awe. "Do any of you have a scratch or any of the zombie's blood in your system or on your skin?" he asked.

"No, sir," one guard stated, bowing in respect. "We were far enough away not to get hurt. The only one injured was Renn."

"Did any of you get Renn's blood or the blood of the zombies on you while you helped pile the bodies to burn?" Vorik asked them. "The blood is toxic."

By the end of the inspection, the medic scanned and cleaned up the guards, Merrik and Vorik.

Renn looked over at Vorik, not saying anything.

"Next time I give you an order, you will follow it. You would not have been injured if you had followed my order and geared up!" Vorik growled at him while the border guards watched. They had an all-new respect for their Fleet Commander.

Renn uncharacteristically looked down in shame and wouldn't look at Vorik.

They may have come with Council Leader Tosh, but they were finding that Vorik was far more than Tosh was making him out to be. Unlike Tosh, who would have let Renn die, Vorik went out of his way to save him.

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