Lieutenant Commander Ethan Suder - Chief Engineer
"Preperation Part II "

Suder grabbed a tool from his Engineering kit. Plenty of tools surrounded the kit and lay scattered on the floor around the work area. Ethan as usual, had the sleeves of his uniform rolled up. It could get quite hot when they were working fast.

Cadet Jason sat next tot he Chief Engineer, handing him the tools that were required. "I don't see what the problem is. It was working fine this morning." the Cadet explained.

"I'm not really interested in what it was doing this morning, Cadet." Ethan replied.

"Yes, Chief." the Cadet quickly replied.

"There's a problem with it now... and I think I see it." Ethan said as he reached into the console and grabbed something. The Cadet could see him pulling out something, and it was only when he applied a lot of pressure that the object came loose.

Ethan had pulled it a little too hard and caught his wrist on the edge of the console. Cursing under his breath, he quickly sat up and looked at the object he had pulled out. The scratch on his arm was irrelevant at the moment.

"What is that?" the Cadet asked.

Ethan turned the tiny object around in his fingers, trying to figure out what it was. "I'm not sure." he replied. Could have been something that 'Commander Mercury, or Samara placed here, but I'm not sure why." Ethan explained.

"Perhaps we should ask 'Commander Mercury then." the Cadet suggested.

"Since we can't get hold of 'Commander Samara, that would be a good idea." Ethan replied giving the Cadet an encouraging nod for the voicing of his own opinion.

Ethan got to his feet and continued to examine the small object whilst the Cadet began placing all the tools back into the Engineering kit.

Ethan tapped his communicator and cleared his throat. "Suder to Mercury."

=/\= Mercury here, go ahead. =/\= the old Chief Engineer replied.

"I've found something in one of the secondary consoles in Engineering. My guess would be that it was the cause of a slight system failure we just had. Only I've never seen something like this before." Ethan explained.

=/\= I'll be right down, Chief. =/\= Mercury replied.

"Thanks." Ethan replied tapping his communicator.

"Cadet, when you're done there, run a diagnostic on the other secondary systems."

"Yes, Chief." the Cadet quickly replied again.

Ethan smiled as he walked towards his office. He had told the Cadet not to be so formal, but in the end, it was good training. The next few years for the Cadet were going to be challenging and hard. But he was going to make a good Engineer.

On his way to the office, Ethan passed Michael who seemed to be working on something, but he didn't look at what it was. "Take a break Mike, you've been here a while." Ethan stated.

Lieutenant McDowell glanced at the Chief and nodded. He looked tired. Ethan had noted that he had been working too hard today. Maybe that was what he wanted to do. Keep his mind off things. Keep himself busy. But for whatever reason, Ethan wantde him to go on a short break, and that was what he was going to do.

Ethan continued on his course towards his office where he would await Lieutenant Commander Mercury.

“Solo at Ten Forward”

Ensign Drake Tarsonis
Helmsman, USS Galaxy

After that long talk from the General, Drake felt guilty. It was about fifteen minutes until the end of his shift, and he wanted to help a lot. He stood up and rang the bell to the captain’s ready room.

“Come in mate,” said Price.

Drake walked in the door and stood up tall.

“What is it ensign?” asked Price.

“It is near the end of my shifty, and I need to make up for what I did in the holodeck, sir. Permission to fly a shuttle in to aid in the search,” said Drake.

“I’ll have to think about that one, mate,” said Price, “I will ring you when I’ve come to a decision.”

“Aye, sir,” said Drake.

“Anything else ensign” asked the General.

“No, sir,” said Drake as he left his ready room.

Drake sat down, and the fifteen minutes were over. He stood up as another helmsman took his place. He went on the turbolift.

“Deck seven,” said Drake, heading for his quarters.

He went to his quarters and grabbed his trumpet case and went back to the turbolift. He went inside.

“Deck eight,” he said, heading towards Ten Forward.

He got to deck eight and walked into Ten Forward. He walked towards Electra.

“Got any room for a performer?” asked Drake.

Electra nodded, and Drake smiled. He’d been wanting to do this ever since he came on board. He stood up near the windows, put the mouthpiece on his lips, and began to play a jazz song he made up. It was a solo. He was playing fast and closed his eyes so the people wouldn’t look at him. He had been wanting to start a band, but Lt. Commander Brandis wasn’t here to help him, so he played his solo. He jammed away, and the end of the song finally came. Everyone clapped and smiled, and Drake ran down immediately.

“Good job,” said Nick Knight.

“Thanks a lot Nick,” said Drake.

He left Ten Forward with his trumpet for his quarters. While on his way, he spotted Ensign Ve’ryn Tival, the officer he has a little crush on, who was patrolling. He took a quick look then walked away. Drake got in his quarters, fell on his bed and smiled.

“Whiskey”

Ensign Drake Tarsonis
Helmsman, USS Galaxy

It was now the beta shift and Drake was getting bored, and due to him being banned from the holodeck for a month, he had nothing to do. He left his quarters and headed back to Ten Forward for a drink. He walked into Ten Forward, and saw Commander Thomas. He went to the counter and asked for a whiskey. The waiter gave him a small glass of whiskey, and went to talk to Commander Thomas.

“Hello, sir,” said Drake.

“I don’t believe we’ve met. Commander Christopher Kell Thomas,” said Thomas as he put his hand out.

“Ensign Drake Tarsonis,” said Drake as he shook his hand.

“I saw the stunt you pulled in the holodeck, it was stupid I have to say,” said Commander Thomas.

“I know sir. But in the holodeck, you look for a thrill, and when you’re climbing a huge mountain and you want to have your heart pumping, you deactivate the safety protocol. I deactivated the safety protocol for that exact reason, I need some fun you know?” said Drake.

“I know, but you have to follow the captain’s orders. Don’t worry though, this may stay on your permanent record, but Captain Price won’t be upset with you forever, and besides, almost everyone has done something bad on this ship,” said Commander Thomas.

“I see. Well, let’s change the subject. What’s it like to be the XO?” asked Drake.

“It’s tough, but I’ll get used to it. I like having some authority though,” said Commander Thomas.

“That’s very interesting. I’m hoping to get promoted myself, I’m trying as hard as I can. I volunteered to fly a shuttle to aid in the search, the captain said that he would think about it,” said Drake.

“That’s good, I’m sure you’ll get promoted, you just have to work as hard as you can. Work to the limit,” said Commander Thomas.

Drake took a sip of his whiskey before saying anything.

“Thank you for the advice commander,” said Drake.

“Don’t mention it ensign,” said Commander Thomas, “I’d better get going.”

“Aye, see you later commander,” said Drake.

“Bye,” said Commander Thomas while walking out of the door.

Just as the commander exited the room, Ensign Ve’ryn Tival entered Ten Forward. Drake got nervous and he blushed. He turned around right away and pretended he saw nothing. He guzzled down his whiskey and walked out of Ten Forward.

"A bit of down time."
By Ensign Peter Lockhart

"So, finally got rid of that half pip then Lieutenant?" Peter asked.

"Indeed Mr. Lockhart." Lieutenant Sanchez said, showing off her two full pips proudly in Ten Forward.

The pair where in Ten Forward again. Whilst neither particularly liked one another, they'd developed a mutual respect for each other over the last few months, and now made a thing of coming to Ten Forward at least every few weeks to chat. It sometimes turned into a slanging match between the two officers, but Peter quite liked the fight and he suspected Sanchez did too.

"Well congratulations then sir." Peter said. "But if you think I'm going to call you lootenant now, you'll be much mistaken."

"Leftenant then?" Sanchez said sarcastically.

"Leftenant." Peter echoed.

"So then Ensign, when are you going to get promoted?" Sanchez asked.

"Not this century." Peter snorted in reply.

"I'm not certain about that Mr. Lockhart. Don't think we haven't been noticing your attempts to move into tactical. Whilst I'm not impressed with your efforts, tactical is run by a bunch of idiots, so I'm sure you'll get in eventually and feel right at home." Sanchez said.

"Not a fan of tactical?" Peter said, shocked. Sanchez had always spoke highly of tactical to Peter previously.

"I'm joking Mr. Lockhart." she replied. "I just can't bring myself to say that you're a better tactical officer than security officer."

"Thanks." Peter smiled.

"I didn't say that though!" she said smiling.

"Of course. So why will not be an Ensign for a good while yet?" Peter asked.

"If you pass the entrance exam into tactical, I suspect you'll be made a jaygee when you transfer. You've been on the Galaxy over a year now. Seems like a logical extension to me." Heather said. "Of course, you'll have to turn up to Red Alerts a little more promptly from then on of course!"

Heather was referring to the last red alert when the Hutet had stormed into the sector. Red Alert had sounded during Commander Thomas' beta shift, and Peter had taken eleven minutes to read security from his bed on deck three.

"I didn't hear it!" Peter replied defensively.

"You didn't hear a red alert?" Sanchez snorted. "Big flashy lights and a foghorn going off in your ear! Didn't hear my ass!"

"Honestly lieutenant, I'm a deep sleeper." Peter protested.

"Well, try and sleep more lightly from now on. Your time sent the security average down the drain. Do you know Science was closed down before we were thanks to you? I don't want that ever happening again." Sanchez said, more angrily.

"Yes sir." Peter replied, going red a little.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, Peter unwilling to open his mouth for the moment (easily a first) whilst Sanchez just tried to calm down.

"So what's your take on the Rhemor and Xerxes?" Sanchez said. "I want to hear that famous Lockhart opinion."

"Easy." Peter replied. "The Xerxes and Rhemor collided. In fact, more specifically, the Xerxes rammed the Rhemor. The Rhemor then tried to avoid some plasma storm and failed and was destroyed. The Xerxes jumped to warp, and came out in a different location. She may or may not have been destroyed upon leaving warp."

"And your evidence for all this?" Sanchez said.

"Simple. The Rhemor was the escort on this mission. The Xerxes would've been following her. So unless the Rhemor reversed engines in a big hurry, there is no way the Xerxes could've been hit by her. However, the Xerxes could've simply cranked it up to full impulse in the badlands and clobbered the Rhemor before she could increase her own speed to compensate." Peter said analysing what he thought.

"So was the situation deliberate or accidental?" Sanchez asked.

"I'd say an accident. I can't honestly believe the Xerxes could've though she could've rammed the Rhemor in the badlands without suffering some major damage herself. As to the cause of the accident, I don't know? Helmsman fell asleep at the wheel? Problem in engineering whereby the engines went to full impulse without orders?" Peter said, shrugging his shoulders.

"So then, the Rhemor was destroyed by a combination of the collision and the plasma flows?" Sanchez said.

"Yup." Peter replied. "And the Xerxes, well, there isn't enough wreckage in the area, so she probably went to warp in time to avoid a plasma flow. However, when she came out again, she may still have hit one and been destroyed, just in a different part of the badlands that we haven't searched yet. It's a big area."

"So no deliberate sabotage? No Borg vessels? No shooting match between the ships?" Sanchez asked.

"Nope. The Xerxes accidentally hit the Rhemor. End of story." Peter answered.

"Well, obviously, you may be right, but Lieutenant Savat doesn't share your ideas on the open and shut case of the Xerxes. He's prepared a training simulation for a potentially hostile take over of the Xerxes." Sanchez answered.

"I know. I haven't tried it yet though." Peter answered.

"That's not like you." Sanchez said. "Usually you are the first one to use any simulation on the holodeck." she said and paused for a minute. "Wanna go and do it now? It's quite tough."

"Fair enough Lieutenant. Let's go." Peter said, glad of the opportunity for another mission on the holodeck.

The two officers quickly finished their drinks and headed out of Ten Forward towards the holodeck.

"Piece of Cake"

Ensign Drake Tarsonis
Helmsman, USS Galaxy

A runabout had returned, and Drake was waiting there. He say the pilot walking out and he went to talk to him.

"You're relieved of duty, lad," said Drake.

The Ensign nodded and walked away. Drake walked up the ramp and sat down in the piloting chair. He prepped the runabout for takeoff.

He pushed his insignia and said, "Permission to exit shuttlebay, all systems check, ready for takeoff," said Drake.

"Permission granted," said a voice through the communicator.

The shuttle bay doors opened and he engaged the systems and the runabout exited the shuttlebay. He flew the ship towards the other shuttles. When he got there, he was told to explore around. He went a long way away and began picking up something. He checked the systems to see if there was any malfuntion, but there wasn't.

He pushed the communicating button and said, "Is anyone else here picking this up?"

""Picking what up?" aske Lieutenant Commander Brandis through the communicator.

"Come to my coordinates," said Drake.

"Aye," said Lt. Commander Brandis.

A type seven shuttle arrived and began picking up the odd signature.

"What could it be?" asked Drake.

"It coul be an asteroid, or a ship," said Lt. Commander Brandis.

"The Xerxes," said Drake while smiling.

"Don't get your hopes up, Drake. That signature, like I said, could also be an asteroid of some sort. It is very faint you know," said Lt. Commander Brandis.

"Aye, sir," said Drake.

"Contact the captain and see what the orders are," ordered Lt. Commander Brandis.

"Aye, sir," responded Drake.

Drake disconnectede Lt. Commander Brandis and connected to the Galaxy.

-->Galaxy<--

"Sir, we're being hailed by one of the runabouts," said Lt. Richeson.

"On screen," said Price.

Drake appeared on the screen and said, "I've picked up a signature on my sensors, but it is very faint. Commander Brandis said that it could be a ship or just an asteroid. It could be the Xerxes, and I'm waiting for orders, captain," said Drake.

"Set coordinates for that position, let us know when you get there, ensign," ordered Price.

"Yessir," said Drake.

"Oh and ensign," said Price.

"Aye, sir?" asked Drake.

"Good luck, mate," said Price.

Drake nodded and smiled. He cut off communication and plotted a course towards the coordinates.

"I hope it's not an asteroid," said Drake to himself.

"We Need To Talk!"
By Lt.Bruce MaxWell
Chief Helmsman
USS Galaxy

Bruce sat in his quarters as he watched Shinat and Gavin finishing the rest of the moving in. He sat behind his desk and smiled watching his wife seem totally happy. He couldnt help realize that he finally had his happiness. Just then his padd chirped and quickly answered it.

Bruce began to read the report that came up. He started to see that it was a repromand report for Ensign Drake Tarsonis. Bruce had realized thru all the busy investigation that he really hadnt met the new Ensign or set up his schedule. He then slammed his hand on the desk seeing that it was for disengaging the safety protocols in the holodeck.

Shinta saw Bruce slam his fist on the desk and asked."Bruce, what is wrong?"

"I have a new Ensign onboard that decided to break rules of protocol in the holodeck!" Bruce said slightly angered.

"Now sweetheart dont go getting too mad, remember you did the same thing. I beleive as an Ensign not to long ago." Shinat said with a smile.

"Your right sweetheart, but I still need to do my duty and talk with him." Bruce said with a slight smile.

"Computer current Location of Ensign Tarsonis?" Bruce quickly asked of the computer.

"Ensign Tarsonis is currently not onboard the Galaxy." Answered the Computer.

"What! Computer where is Ensign Tarsonis?" Bruce stood up and asked pissed off.

"Ensign Tarsonis is currently flying a runabout, out in the Badlands." The computer answered.

Shinta looked slightly worried as she saw Bruce stand up straighten out his jacket and head out of the living quarters. The door reopened and Bruce stuck his head in.

"Sorry, My Angel I love you I will be back shortly." Bruce said as he headed out.

******Shuttlebay*******

Bruce entered the shuttlebay and headed over to one of the main terminals. The Ensign There looked quite uneasy seeing MaxWell definately pissed.

"Ensign, I need a channel opened to Ensign Drake Tarsonis runabout. And Ensign WHo authorized him to take it out anyway he was not on the flight schedule I turned in the only Pilots from the helm crew should be Myself, Lt. Gustavason, and Lt.Jg. Crowe." Bruce quickly asked.

"I am sorry sir. I beleive the Captain authorized him. I can still open the channel if you want?" The Ensign asked Nervously.

"What! The Captain. Open the Channel, Ensign and Thank you." Bruce asked while thinking to himself*WHy didnt the Captain notify me about the holodeck incursion and now this*

"Channel Open, Sir." The Ensign answered.

"Lt.MaxWell To Ensign Tarsonis." Bruce said trying to not sound to pissed.

Andy Smith
Bruce MaxWell
Valraxean@juno.com
Icq: 53393401

"I need that Helmsman, Damn it!"

Lt. Cmdr. J. Lucas Brandis
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galaxy

There was a precarious situation brewing out there and Lucas was tired of his desk in the Operations Department. He knew a thing or two about warp field dynamics, a few years of studying engineering at the Daystrom Institute assured that. But, now, he needed a helmsman.

"Lt. Cmdr. Brandis to Helm, I need a pilot with I.F. and lot of skill." Lucas said with a spark of excitement.

"Ensign Bak'va here, sir...I.F.?" The female voice replied.

"Intestinal Fortitude."

"Aye sir, I'll have Lt. Riggs meet you in the Main Shuttle Bay." The efficient Ensign answered.

"Excellent." Lucas tapped the comm panel to end the link.

* * * Main Shuttle Bay * * *

Lucas brought along some modifications and was already in the Type 7 Shuttlecraft making some power conversion changes. His pilot arrived five minutes later.

"What are you doing?" Lt. Riggs ordered to the person under the shuttle's port nacelle.

Lucas slide out from under the nacelle, the three pips on his collar bringing the young lieutenant to attention. "At ease, I was making some modifications to the power relays to make the lateral sensors a little more in tune. The Badlands are notorious for faking signals and ghost ships. I'm hoping an artificial intelligence interface linked with a warp relay will cut through the disturbances some."

"I'm pilot." Riggs replied, making it clear that he didn't care much for the technical aspects. "Ready?"

"Yes, I just need to close this panel." Lucas said, pushing the panel down. "Let's ride."

By: Lieutenant Jake T Olson

Olson sat, legs crossed, eyes lost. He wasn't concerned that he did anything wrong, he knew that he did do all he could for Rose. He had thought she was stable, that was his only mistake, he turned for a moment and crack! Jake had no clue how she managed to hit her head. But then, Jake knew little of medicine and less of psychiatry. That latter field was full of peculiarity at any rate, unconscious head bashing could be included.

Jake saw out of the corner of his eye Seth working on reports. Every now and then a single reptilian eye would slide over Jake. That one was even tempered at the moment, although when pissed his movements could be lightning fast just like the monitor like lizards that were his origins. A Human like him would have as much chance as a rat.

Absently, he noted that Murphy was this side of a kill frenzy. The possibility of domestic dispute hit a button within the doctor. The Trill was more level of mind about it, the mental jury was still out. Like a rat whom knew it was regarding potential snake, Jake went still. That kept Murphy, Jake was sure, of throttling him.

Jake wondered briefly if he was being kept here because of his apparent guilty appearance when he entered. Smart rat, or dead rooster, Jake knew what he was. At any rate, the decision of Jake's guilt or innocence was not in the volatile Murphy's hands ultimately. It was currently in the hands of Seth, whom Jake noted with some irony, was much closer physically to the proverbial snake of Jake's wool gathering.

"Closed in a box"
By Lieutenant Michael Jamson, Tactical Ops
USS Galaxy

It was one of those days when felt like nothing, one of those days when you wished to just stay under the blanke and stare at the stars through the window, above your bed. But in this case, or the Galaxy's case to be precise, that was different, and especially now. The shuttles were still searching the badlands for some evidence to show that the Xerxess was actually destroyed.

It was a total waste of time. It was a waste of time in the morning to to wake up, at noon to grab a bite, and in the afternoon to clean up. It was obvious the Xerxess was gone, it was only a matter of time before one of the modified shuttles will find something...what was the bloody point?

In the last couple of days, Jamson was irritated and nervous at most times, he felt like a caged lion, trying to break free and run away. Lucas has been away for some time now, but it seemed like ages. Michael wasn't used for all this responsibility. He was getting old, and soft, he knew it. A couple of years back, he would have performed his job flawlessly.

"Sir?"

"What is it Lieutenant?" Michael turned to Lieutenant Freeman. They were both on the Bridge, at the secondary Ops station, right next to Tactical. "Sir, I need you to review the latest power allocations and modifications we made, along with Engineering. Jamson raised his left eyebrow as usual, and sighed as he took the Padd from Freeman. Even the Lieutenant, which was a member of the Operations Department since the beginning, under the command of 'Commander Shelby, and a colleague of Jamson, could now tell the mood Michael was now in. "That's...fine" Michael tossed the Padd back to Norman and turned back to stare at the remarkable plasma storms which 'danced' on the main view screen.

"A beautiful day, isn't it?" Commander Thomas surprised Jamson and joined him at the station. He was now the first officer of this fine vessel. He somehow gained the trust of the crew, Michael couldn't understand it. He didn't know Thomas that well, but he knew Thomas came from Intel, and that was enough for him, "Not really". Thomas glanced to the main view screen and noticed the plasma storms as well "You don't get to see things like that back home....I wish I could be home 'Commander...don't you agree?", "I'd settle for my bed" Jamson replied. "Good one" Thomas answered with a smile, "Why don't you take some time off? you look like you could use some relaxation".

Michael's instinct told me to look straight in the eyes of the XO and decline, but this time for no particular reason, he thought twice before saying anything "Why not??? thank you Sir". And with that Jamson retired to his own personal cage and box, not before waving for Freeman to take over.

"Flying in more ways then one"

a joint post by
Ensign Bosco
Tactical Officer U.S.S. Galaxy
and Captain Price

Bosco was feeling pretty good about himself. He wasn’t very excited about being assigned as an emergency backup officer on the Galaxy’s Battle Bridge at tactical, but instead of brooding about it the Caitan stayed sharp and ran the scans that had detected the approaching enemy Cardassian warship. The feline Ensign’s fast thinking had given the bridge the advanced warning they needed to not be startled into doing something foolish. When Bosco'’ shift ended, he figured it would be a great time to head for Ten Forward, chug down a couple of synthetic drinks and see if he couldn’t get laid once again.

That was the plan anyway.

“Ensign Bosco?” a rather rube looking crewman called out.

Bosco stopped and turned to face the fellow. He was short and very thin. Bosco thought that if he was a pound over ninety, he’d be impressed. Walking past the Galaxy’s daycare ward the Tactical Officer had seen babies that were made of heartier stock then this guy.

“Yes, I’m Ensign Bosco. Who wants to know?” the golden maned Tactician asked.

“Crewman Peters sir. I have new orders for you sir. I was told to track you down and deliver them straight away.” The scrawny officer explained while handing a padd to Bosco. “If you’ll put your thumb print here to indicate you’ve received the orders sir?…”

Bosco knew the routine. Taking the logging padd, he placed his fur covered thumb onto the padd, being careful to press hard enough to let his pad touch the scanning area without letting his claw break the device.

Crewman Peters nodded, and took the padd back. He then began handing the Ensign a second padd. “Thank you sir. Here are your orders. The runabout Lansing is waiting to have it’s crew relieved of duty. You’ve been assigned to the away team.”

Bosco was surprised by this. “Really?” he declared reading through the orders.

“Yes sir. If you’ll excuse me, I have similar orders to deliver to Ensigns Tarsonis, Chen and Macellan.” Crewman Peters announced.

Then Bosco was disturbed by something, “Wait a minute, this has my normal duty rotation changed from Delta shift to Alpha shift?”

“That’s correct sir. I don’t know the reason behind that. You might want to ask your department head. I really need to deliver these orders sir. The runabout Lansing is standing by.”

Bosco nodded. “Carry on.” The Caitan then quickly hurried to the shuttle bay. He wouldn’t have time to stop by his quarters or even get something to eat before he was expected to relieve the crew on that runabout.

A few minutes later, Bosco was standing in the shuttlebay along with a bunch of other new Ensigns that he didn’t recognize. One was a rather large Irishman that reeked of whiskey. It turned out, he was the one that would be flying the runabout…

“Okay people. I know a lot of you are new to the Galaxy and are unfamiliar with away team protocol, so listen up. I’m Lieutenant Montel Carter. I’m in command of this mission. We are searching for what is left of the U.S.S. Xerxes to determine if she survived or if she was destroyed. This is a dangerous assignment, as we will be flying the Lansing through the plasma flows and eddies in our search for what happened to the Xerxes. Everyone needs to remain focused and do their duty. Now let’s get on board and begin.” The Engineering officer explained.

As the officers piled in, Bosco paused for a moment. He considered alerting the Lieutenant of Ensign Tarsonis possible inebriated condition, but he figured to give the burly officer the benefit of the doubt. Such a thing could ruin a young officer’s career in Starfleet. Had Bosco knew that Tarsonis had already been reprimanded by the Captain for disconnecting the holodeck safeties, the Caitan probably wouldn’t have even thought twice about reporting the excuse of an officer to the mission commander. But that infraction hadn’t been made general knowledge yet.

Reluctantly, Bosco just entered the runabout and took the seat next to Tarsonis, while Lieutenant Carter secured the door. “Tarsonis, clear us with the Galaxy for launch.”

“Aye sir.” Drake called back. A moment later the U.S.S. Lansing was cleared to launch.

Ensign Tarsonis tapped the proper controls in a very relaxed manner. His visit to Ten Forward and the alcohol he’d consumed had made him feel better about his screw up on the holodeck that the Captain had reprimanded him for. He knew this mission would be his way of redeeming himself. There was nothing to piloting a runabout through the deadly plasma flows of the Badlands that he couldn’t handle. Add a couple of stiff drinks to the mix and Drake’s courage was unstoppable.

The Lansing cleared the Galaxy’s hangar easily enough. After a faster than normal arching turn, the flight course leveled out and soon the Lansing was entering the heart of the plasm ridden Badlands. Just one wrong turn would spell certain disaster for the away team and the runabout. Near the back of the ship, Lieutenant Carter, who was an Engineer, was monitoring the extra shielding that had been rigged up on the Lansing to help her survive the weathering effects of raw plasma streams that would feather the shuttles hull. Montel wasn’t paying as much attention to the Lansing’s inebriated pilot as he should have been. Ensign Bosco had to take the blame for that. The Caitan should have said something upon smelling whiskey on Drake’s breath before they left the Galaxy.

Within twenty minutes of exploring the Badlands, Ensign Drake thought he saw something interesting on his scanners.

"Is anyone else here picking this up?" Ensign Tarsonis asked.

["Picking what up?"] asked Lieutenant Commander Brandis over the comm system. Brandis was on board the shuttle U.S.S. Yosemite, which was within line of sight communications with the Lansing at the time.

"Come to my coordinates," said Drake.

[“Aye.”] the Yosemite responded.

From the back of the Lansing, Lieutenant Carter came up front. “What are you seeing Ensign?”

Drake pointed to the reading. “These look strange to me sir. What could it be?” Tarsonis asked.

“It’s probably nothing. Just a sensory echo from the plasma fields.” Lieutenant Carter commented.

[“It could be an asteroid, or a ship,"] said Lt. Commander Brandis from the Yosemite.

"The Xerxes!," said Drake while smiling.

["Don't get your hopes up, Drake. That signature, like I said, could also be an asteroid of some sort. It is very faint you know,"] Lt. Commander Brandis explained over the open channel. In the eighteen hours since the search and rescue mission had begun, the various teams had come across similar signs that gave false hope.

“Aye sir.” Drake responded.

["It looks like it will be pretty dangerous taking a shuttle or runabout into that area. Contact the Captain and see what the orders are,"] ordered Lt. Commander Brandis.

“Aye sir.” Drake answered.

Lieutenant Carter pointed back the way they came. “We will need to exit the plasma fields to contact the Galaxy Ensign. Plot a course out the way we came in.”

“Right away sir.” Drake smiled.

Ensign Tarsonis tapped the controls, causing the Lansing to abruptly veer off axis and take a swooping U-turn. The course Drake had plotted took the runabout dangerously close to a raw plasma flow.

“EASY ENSIGN!” Lieutenant Carter shouted out as he grabbed the back of one of the chairs to steady his balance with the radical maneuvering.

“It’s okay sir. I have everything under control.” Drake called back fearlessly.

Bosco glanced at the glassy eyed human. He had spent enough time in Ten Forward lounge to recognize the signs of intoxication in Terrans. He’d counted on it numerous times to get his way with the female section of the species…

The runabout Lansing leveled off and soon cleared the plasma flows of the Badlands.

After a brief tongue lashing by Lieutenant Carter, Ensign Tarsonis contacted the Galaxy and reported the findings. The U.S.S. Lansing soon received clearance to investigate the readings to determine for sure if it was an asteroid or a piece of the U.S.S. Xerxes. The Lansing was soon heading back towards the plasma flows of the Badlands.

Ensign Bosco felt uncomfortable sitting next to the Irishman. He thought the smell of whiskey and Drake’s sluggish reactions from his intoxicated state was obvious to detect. But then it occurred to the Caitan that his feline senses were far more sensitive then those of humans. It was possible that Lieutenant Carter hadn’t noticed since Drake hadn’t breathed directly onto him, and he was unfamiliar with the Ensign’s normal piloting skills at the helm of a ship like the Lansing. Not knowing what to do, Bosco glanced back at the other officers that made up the runabouts crew. Each and everyone of them was placing their lives in the hands of this drunk Irishman. If Bosco didn’t say anything and Drake took a wrong turn,… he’d be as much at fault as Tarsonis.

“Sir, can I speak to you?” Bosco found the courage to say.

Lieutenant Carter glanced forward at the pilot & co-pilot seats where the Tactical Officer was seated. “What is it Ensign?”

“Sir, I don’t think Ensign Tarsonis should be piloting a ship right now. Certainly not inside the Badlands where those readings were found.” The Caitan stated evenly.

Drake looked over at his Feline co-pilot with Irish strife. “What are you talking about?!” Tarsonis demanded.

“Yes, what are you talking about Ensign Bosco?” Lieutenant Carter wanted to know.

It was evident that Bosco was conflicted to bring this up, but he felt it his duty to do so. "Sir, Ensign Tarsonis has been drinking. I can smell whiskey on his breath, and his reactions have been substandard at best while piloting the Lansing.”

The comment sent a rush of red to the Irishman’s cheeks. He was mad. Fighting mad. “Don’t listen to him sir! I’m fit as a fiddle and strong as and ox. The Ensign is just jealous to be flying second seat is all.”

Montel glanced at the Caitan and then back at Ensign Tarsonis. It was a serious accusation. “Then you deny to of had anything to drink prior to reporting for duty here on the Lansing Ensign?”

Drake was feeling like the world was against him. First his joyride on the holodeck had landed him in hot water with the Captain. Now on the assignment that was supposed to let him earn back everyone’s trust, he’d blown it again by consuming alcohol prior to piloting a dangerous mission. “No sir. I had a couple of drinks. But they were synthahol. Nothing to worry about.” Tarsonis lied.

Lieutenant Carter gave a sagely nod. “Full stop Ensign.”

“Sir? I told you…” Drake protested.

“Full stop, that is an order mister Tarsonis.” Montel stated firmly.

With a sigh, Drake brought the Lansing to a dead stop just outside of the plasma flows. “All stop sir.” Drake replied in a sharp tone reflective of his dissatisfaction with the turn of events.

“We can clear this up very simply Ensign. Mister Bosco here has a valid concern. A pilot that is under the influence should not be at the helm for this mission. If you consumed synthahol as you say, then a simple scan with a medical tricorder should show no alcohol content in your blood stream.” The Lieutenant explained.

Drake just brooded, crossing his massive Irish arms. He knew his goose was cooked. No sense in making things worse. After this, he’d be lucky if he wasn’t scrubbing the sewage system on some far off outpost station in the Beta quadrant. With spiteful eyes, Tarsonis just glared at that feline prick, Ensign Bosco.

“Hand that tricorder to me Ensign.” The Lieutenant asked of the medical officer.

After adjusting the settings, the Doctor handed the device to Lieutenant Carter. “just press here and run a quick scan. It’s already configured.”

Montel took the tricorder and ran it over Tarsonis. The Lieutenant’s expression told that the results were not going to afford the Ensign an apology any time soon. “It seems you have not been truthful Ensign.”

Drake piped in, “Sir I can explain…”

The commanding officer wasn’t willing to listen. “Save it Ensign Tarsonis. Consider yourself relieved of duty. Move to the back of the runabout.”

Giving a dejected grunt, Tarsonis began getting out of the pilot’s seat. As he turned to walk back to the rear of the Lansing, he gave Ensign Bosco a nasty glance.

Lieutenant Carter watched while Tarsonis took a seat behind the others on the runabout. Carter then took the pilot seat himself, making preparations to take the runabout into the plasma flows.

“We are still going in sir?” Bosco asked.

“Yes Ensign. But only to reestablish contact with ‘Commander Brandis team on board the Yosemite. They can check out the readings that were discovered while we return to the Galaxy to get another helmsman."” Montel explained.

Bosco looked away from the Lieutenant and at his controls. He felt bad for ratting out Tarsonis, but every officer on board the Lansing was counting on having a competent, alert pilot guiding them safely through the turbulent energy flows of the Badland’s plasma fields. Still the Caitan felt bad and his mood showed as he checked his station.

Lieutenant Carter placed a hand on Bosco’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You did the right thing Ensign.”

Bosco glanced back at the Lieutenant. “I don’t think Ensign Tarsonis feels that way sir.”

Montel looked forward as the Lansing began to enter the plasma flows. “Maybe not right now, but he will later.” Lieutenant Carter said, “He will later.”

The U.S.S. Lansing then entered the Badlands and reestablished contact with Lieutenant Commander Brandis’ shuttle, the U.S.S. Yosemite. Passing on the Captain’s orders, Jonathan had the Yosemite begin investigating the strange readings while the Lansing turned back around once again to return to the U.S.S. Galaxy with their inebriated helmsman, Ensign Drake Tarsonis.

Message in a Bottle
by LCDR Jeral Maas, CMO
reviewed by Captain Price

*** Primary Shuttle Bay ***

Walking on to the hospital-runabout Opaka, Jeral took command of the ship and crew. His goal was to search for whatever remained in tact of the Xerxes, but he also had another goal in mind. Namely protecting the other shuttles as much as possible.

Waiting a few minutes, pilot Toqoaq arrived, along with Lt Angela Dana from engineering and a middle-aged Vulcan from security. The team of the Hospital ship was limited to this small number. On the off chance she was lucky enough to find the stranded vessel, there would be more room for patients that way.

Soon, the crew had launched the shuttle into deep space

*** Space ***

To this end, the Trill ordered the course of the Opaka to be plotted as widening arcs. The ship would travel in a 180 degree semi-circle at an expanding radius, starting at .5 light years and expanding by .1 light year each time it emerged from the Badlands. This plan would be slow, but the ship would exit the plasma cloud several times with this scheme. Each time, it would be able to transmit data gathered on the plasma; the biological condition of the crew; and the strength (and weaknesses) of the modified shielding.

The experienced Trill hoped this information would help the Galaxy devise even better shielding for the next pass. He knew engineering was working on a method for penetrating the plasma field with sensor and communications gear. The information they collected might just give them the bits of data they need to command a breakthrough.

The first pass was not deep inside the cloud, but pressure on the shields did grow as expected. On board sensors indicated the plasma field dissipated much of its energy as heat. The Doctor considered engaging metaphasic shielding. If it could stand up to the heat output of a sun’s corona, it could certainly handle the lesser output of the Badlands. But that would leave other radiation wavelengths unshielded. Instead, the physician typed comments about his observation to the log which would be transmitted in a few minutes.

Engineering acknowledged the data and observations. They seemed most pleased about the information concerning the thermal conduction of the plasma. Heat was easier to shield from than hard radiation, which required blocking for biological protection from harmful wavelengths. The science representative on the bridge was also impressed by the gathered information. “Our next pass will take 2.3 minutes longer. Expanding search radius to .6 light years”, Jeral informed the others.

The Opaka disappeared from the Galaxy’s sensors, diving into the opaque plasma of the Badlands. 18 seconds later, the shuttle was faced with a large chunk of metal to large for the navigational shields to deflect. Reflexively, Toqoaq fired the phasers briefly to vaporize the debris. At the transporter console, the Vulcan from security collected a physical sample of the metal, through a micro-hole in the shields. Study proved this to be fragments of the Xerxes’ hull. The pilot noted the vector from the Galaxy was 23.4 degrees when the object was encountered. As with all the shuttles in the search, the position of this was logged, to be shared with others searching in the plasma cloud. Consulting the catalog of retrieved samples, the mass seen before vaporized was the third largest recorded. 1 other sample was located on an approximate vector of 22.8 degrees using the Galaxy’s position as a base of reference.

A few moments later, the Opaka entered the clearing where it could communicate with the Galaxy. Sharing its find of the debris, Commander Maas decided the next pass, rather than going to .7 light years in a semi circle, would proceed on a straight course along a vector of 23 degrees.

This proved to be a fortuitous choice. A few minutes after entering the cloud, Commander Maas ordered a full halt. Floating outside was a standard Federation recorder markings. Plasma flares had scourged the outside, but it was clearly from the USS Xerxes. Reluctantly, the doctor lowered all the shields long enough to recover it with transporters. The armor plating protected them for that short duration. Soon, the shields were back to full strength, and the Opaka was returning to the Galaxy at maximum speed.

Jeral took one glance at the recovered probe and saw it was too damaged to study under these conditions. Plasma streams had burnt all sides of the thing, except for a few tender areas. Being on a medical shuttle, he erected a level 4 containment field to protect the marker during its short trip to beyond the Badlands.

3.8 minutes later, the Opaka was once again in the clearing. Jeral asked for permission to dock. He did not elaborate, since the Cardassian ship was at station keeping right near the Galaxy.

*** Shuttle Bay ***

Commander Thomas was in the shuttle bay, wondering what was so important that the Opaka would abandon its search to dock. He was not disappointed, as they offloaded the badly damaged recorder marker. The Xerxes command insignia barely visible under the burnt splotches.

“Good work, Gentlemen”, he said, requesting an engineering and science detachment to study what was left of the recorder marker. Help was quickly dispatched. They found the recorder was too damaged to play back the message it contained. But the optical chip containing the message itself was intact. Engineering transferred the chip to a new reading device.

The gathered crew listened to the message in surprise. People were alive! It was such good news that the XO summoned the Captain to see this first hand. It took a while for Price to arrive. He was dealing with the testy Cardassians, whose growing list of complaints were beginning to wear down even his patience. “What have we here?” Price asked. Playfully, Thomas had withheld the nature of the news that brought him here. “A surprise from the plasma field Sir. Commander Maas’s team has recovered the recorder marker from the Xerxes.” He said. Price looked around, and saw the CMO had indeed returned.

“Were you able to play the message?”, Price said.

“All but a handful of words”, the answer returned.

“Let me hear them.”

The XO reached out, activating the reader. The Captain’s tension visibly eased when he heard the message.

=This is the *static* Xerxes. *static* people are alive. We are stranded approximately 15 light *static* from our entry point into the *static*. Approach with caution. A hostile *static* has taken over *static*=

People are alive! We know about how far the accident threw them, and it is reasonable the ship is further along the path the marker was found. The information about a hostile force is not encouraging, but now we know security’s concern about including security officers in the shuttles is a good idea.

The Captain reviewed the new information and smiled. His next communication with the Cardassians could include a carefully edited version of this news. As for the Opaka, engineering had developed a new shield modification based on the information collected from the Badlands. As soon as it was installed, it would venture out again.

"Plasma Hell, Part 1"
By: Lt/Cmd Ryak Sullax and Lt(jg) J.C. Skinner
USS Buster Keaton

The Buster Keaton made its way through the badlands trying to findout as much info as possible. Ryak sat at the science station checking over the data collected.

"Sir, the shields are holding. I am getting some feed back from the plasma storms but I am compensating." Lt. O'Neil one of the Galaxy's Deflector Shield specialist stated over the comm system from the engine room.

"Lt(jg) Okuda, if you can try to distance yourself from the bursts that would be appreciated." Ryak stated.

"I will try sir," Okuda stated from the Helm.

The runabout shook a couple of times as the runabout was hit by a tremor. Ryak worked his hand over the panels and tied the sensors into helm control.

"Commander," I am picking up a faint reading of another ship closing on the Galaxy." Lt(jg) Skinner stated from tactical.

"Let's stay focused people, the Galaxy can take care of itself. Mr Skinner keep an eye out for any attacking vessels. We will not have time to respond."

"Aye sir."

Ryak worked even harder as the ship moved deeper into the badlands.

"Sir we have lost contact with the Galaxy, there is too much interference." Skinner stated as the shuttle avoided yet another plasma eruption.

Ryak tried even harder to try and locate any type of ship. There seemed to be no way to get anything. All of the plasma eruptions where completely disrupting the sensors.

"I need some recommendations on how to proceed." Ryak stated, "The scenario is as follows. Sensors are only working far enough out to keep us from hitting a plasma eruption. There is no way to pick up a ship as the eruptions have metalic properties of their own."

"Sir, If I may speak, I think I have an idea." Sgt. Doresse stated.

"Very well Sergeant you may speak." Ryak stated to the team's triage specialist.

"I think that we should be looking for lifesigns. I was on the USS Templeton when we came into the badlands to find the Maquis. When we came to the badlands we switched over to lifesign detection to locate them and it was much more succesful.

"Your theory sounds plausible." Ryak stated as he looked around at the team.

"Sir, I agree. The only problem is that you will want to ensure that you get the right lifesigns. In the state we are in we may not be able to tell who we find before it is too late." Skinner stated.

"Sir, I can monitor the lifesigns. I have a whole lot of training in figuring out the subtle differences in lifesigns," Nurse Kenai stated.

"Very well. Take my seat." Ryak stated as he took the command chair in the runabout.

The runabout made its way deeper into the badlands and still with no avail they had not received a single shred of help.

All of a sudden J.C. jumped up from his seat. "Sir, I... I... I am just sensed a large bit of pain."

Ryak knew from his stay with J.C. at the academy that he was empathic. Ryak also could see that no one on their team was hurt. "O'Neil is everything ok back there?"

"Aye sir all is going well. The systems are still at 100%."

"All stop." Ryak looked over to J.C. and continued, "Mr. Skinner, it seems that we have found our way to detect the Xerxes. Nurse Kenai, I want you to monitor Mr. Skinner, this may end up being a great strain on his abilities and I do not want him injured."

The Buster Keaton began to move deeper into the badlands towards what they hoped was the Xerxes. About 2 hours passed before they had come across a ship.

"Move us into hailing range." Ryak stated as Skinner ID's the ship as the Xerxes.

Gamma Shift...terrible hours and no action, that is how Rayna felt about her shift. She hadn't gotten any acton in a long time. She walked the corridors of the ship...things seemed calm enough. She went back to her office and sat down.

An hour later about 0100 hours, a fight between two drunks in ten forward, "Ten forward to Security, a fight just broke out. Your presence is needed."

She sighed, "On my way."

Looking at the other two, "Ensigns Aaron and Salt, you're with me." They made their way to ten-forward and broke up the fight. It was again, as usual, over a girl. When would they learn? Ensign Salt had one in custody but the other one didn't. Rayna got in the way of a punch, hitting her in the eye. Rayna didn't wait for Ensign Aaron to restrain the guy, Rayna punched him back, knocking him out. The other two guards were very impressed and knew that they wouldn't have to worry about the ole girl.

"Get them out of here and take them to Ensign Lockhart. I don't want to see their ugly mugs for a while."

Rayna's eye was beginning to swell and she ended up in sickbay. Doctor Harper treated her eye.

Rayna Lamar, Security

“Beauty amidst Chaos”

Lieutenant j/g Adrian An’quinsos
Counselor
And
Co-Ten Forward Hostess Electra (NPC)

Many had seen the view in Ten Forward and shuttered at its sight. The scene almost reminded one from of Dante’s Inferno, minus the souls. The plasma storms themselves could destroy a ship in a heartbeat. It was dangerous, deadly and destructive. To one lone El-Aurian observer however, it was an awesome sight.

The plasma fields themselves reminded Adrian of something he had seen long ago, when he first came to this Quadrant, or perhaps this was the place that he remembered, who knows? Not many people can keep up with over a little over a century and a half of memories! His eyes followed the energy patterns closely, not missing one beat.

“Can I get you anything Quinn?”

The blue-eyed humanoid looked up with a faint smile. “A paint brush and an easel would do perfectly.”

The green-skinned Orion female raised an eyebrow, and then looked outside. “Adrian, I think a little bit of that plasma has fried your brain!”

“It’s amazing how something so awesome could be so…”

“Side turning?”

“Graceful.” He arose from his seat and approached the view-port. “The energy seems to dance in an almost rhythmical pattern. It’s constantly in motion, gracefully flowing in several directions.”

“All this talk of motion is beginning to give me space sickness!” She responded.

“It’s just too bad I didn’t give someone a camera to take a couple of pictures for me while they’re out there,” He jested. “Just think of the fun that would have been.”

“Yes,” She agreed with a small grin. “Scrambling around to take pictures for a Counselor, while trying to dodge the very thing they were photographing!”

“They would have to fly like… I think it’s a Chiropteran out of Tartarus?”

“Bat out of Hell.” She corrected

“Whatever,” He replied. “Yes, it would be rather fun!” He laughed. “Of course, no one in their right minds would have done it.” He leaned in. “Would they?”

“That’s the drawback about being a Counselor,” Lexi began. “Everyone else gets to do all the fun life and death stuff, and you’re stuck behind a desk, psycho-analyzing them!”

“Oh, but Lexi,” He grinned, “That’s where the fun REALLY is!”

“If you say so Quinn!”

"Picture Perfect"
By Lt(jg) Rose Isis MacAllen, Science Officer

::Rose's Room::

Rose walks back in from the holodeck, playing the Queen of Egypt was fun but very hard work. Then she found a message on her computer from her mother.

"Computer put the message though from my mother." Rose said trying to rub her neck..damn now she wishes her boyfriend was her with her now she misses him so much.

"Well it about damn time you got back to me." Michelle the Countess of Betazed said to her only daughter.

"Miss you too mother, so what are you calling about is that time of year again anyway where all the royal houses have a big party." Rose said with a grin.

Michelle looks at her daughter with a grin, "You know it is but I got your pictures back that you made while on Betazed I hope you like them."

Rose download her new royal pictuers to her computer, "Thank mother and please give my best to the Queen and the Gods." Rose closes the channel, she looked at her picture then she think it was a good idea to give one to the Captain to thank him for his help and to take the time to see she was ok.

"Computer sent this message to the Captain, Dear Captain Price, thank you for the talk we had a few days ago. Your like a father to me, I know it sounds stupid but I lost my father during the war and you remind me so much of him. I giving you one of my royal pictures as a thank you gift. I hope to talk to you soon...maybe we can have a drink together after the mission is over. Sincerly, Lt (jg) Rose Isis MacAllen."

Rose send the message hoping he will like it, plus she wrote letters to Lt Commander Dallas and her boyfriend long with the same picture.

"Surprise!"
by Lt. Ragnald Gustavson, helmsman
USS Galaxy

After another journey out in the badlands, the Buster Keaton made her way back into the Galaxy`s shuttle bay.

This time Ragnald was in a hurry. Several weeks ago his friend and gardener Gavin told him his mother was going to marry Lt. MaxWell to make him his new dad.

That day, Ragnald started to search the ship for mates who liked to play ancient instruments like bagpipes. You may guess, on a giant vessel like the Galaxy he found a few.

Now, the big day had come somewhere at the border to nowhere and the alert condition threatened to stick many of the musicians to their consoles. Ragnald and the Captain somehow managed to temporarily release almost everyone of them from their duties.

Just one instrument, Ragnald thought, was missing - himself. If anything worked the ceremony should be ...

"Computer, locate Lieutenant MaxWell, please!"

=/\= Lieutenant MaxWell`s current location is the Galaxy`s chapel. Remark: The DO-NOT-DISTURB flag is set =/\=

When the runabout landed, Ragnald felt a great relief. Ensign Tarsonis was standing there ready to take over the runabout`s helm.

Ensign Tarsonis was the only one of his new comrades (other than Lt MaxWell and Lt (jg) Crowe of course) Ragnald found qualified to safely maneuver a runabout under the current conditions so he asked the Captain to replace himself by the Ensign.

Ragnald took the bag he deposited at the shuttle bay`s entrance and produced an ancient viking hemlsman`s uniform - a shiny armor made of leather sheets connected by polished steel rings, a double horned helmet and his instrument. Then he hurried to reach holodeck 1 in time.

When Ragnald reached the holodeck most of the mates he expected to there were sitting in the darkness of the holodeck holding their instruments like soldiers waiting in the dark to have their surprise attack. A last time he corrected his dress, then he kneeled and waited for the couple to come.

"Kindred Spirits"
By Lieutenant Savat and Ensign Ve'ryn Tival

OOC: Just before the beacon from the Xerxes is recovered.

***Deck 38, Cargo Bays***

In spite of the state of alert and the search for the Xerxes, Savat still managed to find time to conduct his daily workout, although he made some modifications to his normal routine. Rather than heading down to the gymnasium or the holodecks, Savat decided to make use of the floor space in one of the relatively empty cargo bays on deck thirty eight. Not by coincidence, deck thirty eight was also home to the brig, the armory and the main security offices. By Savat's estimation, if the need arose, who would be able to make it back to any of the three security facilities in under thirty seconds.

He also decided to change his scheduled routine, skipping his Lirpa practice in favor of a more portable weapon.

Savat stood in the middle of the dimly lit cargo bay, listening to the quiet throb of the engines vibrating the walls. He had over four meters of clear space in every direction, more than enough for his needs. He reached under the hem of his duty uniform and undid a thin leather belt. Beneath the thick gray and black jacket, the belt had remained perfectly concealed. He let the soft worn leather slide through his hands, until he came to the tip of the seemingly innocuous weapon, and inspected the small leather encased weight, making sure it was intact.

Satisfied, Savat placed a small smooth black box in the middle of the floor and pressed an activation stud on its side. A cone of translucent gold light short forth, enveloping the Vulcan.

"Falikal" He stated, activating the routine. Three small holographic spheres of light rose from the device and began to swirl around in the cone of light in a seemingly random pattern, the first steps of the kata. Savat swung his ahn-woon in a semi-circular pattern, the belt whistling through the air as it picked up speed. The Vulcan varied the motions ever so slightly, causing the tip of the flexible weapon to intercept each of the three light bubbles in turn. As each burst, a single note from a Vulcan lyre played.

Additional holo-spheres rose from the device, a half dozen and then a dozen at a time. Savat kept the ahn-woon in a constant state of motion weaving a complex pattern that intercepted each of the spheres in a precise order and with precise timing, turning the series of generated notes into a full scale sonata that mirrored the hypnotic patterns of the weapon in flight.

Ve'ryn was walking down the corridor a little depressed that she had been beaten to the Holodeck for her early morning workout. She wore her one piece workout outfit that fit quite well to her athletic form. Even at the early morning hour, there still seemed quite a few people walking about the corridors. Standing proudly, she wore the traditional Andorian vest over her outfit as she carried her weapons clipped onto her belt. Suddenly she picked up something quite interesting as it sounded like a Vulcan sonata. The notes were from a classic Vulcan lyre that seem to be quite in sequence as Vee's senses pointed where to the sounds emanating from.

Minutes later, her trek lead her to one of the Cargo Bays as she finally arrived to her destination. Slowly doors slid opened as the Andorian made her way inside. She watched in amazement at the Vulcan who was training within as she watched from the shadows until he was aware of a visitor had arrived.

Savat, of course, had become aware of his observer the moment she had stepped into the room. Although he had yet to turn to face her, he had heard the quiet swish of the cargo bay doors and the tattoo of boot leather against the metal deck plates. He turned in a half circle, continuing his exercise as he gazed at the young Andorian who was standing in the shadowy recesses of a large cargo crate, watching him with keen interest. "It is called the Ahn-Ifla." He stated as his weapon spiraled through the air, continuing the chorus of sound. "It elevates the base exercise of weapon training into an expression of art. The ahn-woon, with its flexibility, is especially suited to this practice." A final burst of holo spheres emanated from the training device. The ahn-woon became a blur in Savat's hands as he attacked the spheres in precise order, bringing the music to a close with a final crescendo. Then, without missing a beat, he wrapped the leather belt around his waist and refastened it. With a tug of his duty uniform, the ahn-woon was completely concealed from sight. "You can step out from your hiding place, Ensign Tival." Savat continued. "You are more than welcome here."

"Thank you Sir, I didn't want to disrupt your exercise." Replied the tall Andorian as she stepped forward. She had only seen the Vulcan briefly throughout her first couple of days travels onboard. She was very excited when she found out that she had been placed within the Alpha Shift with the Vulcan. After all they did share the same kindred spirits but on opposite scales. "Lt Savat, I am quite aware of your Vulcan weaponry, as I have always enjoyed my visits to Vulcan." Replied Vee as she smiled politely at her Department Head. "I do find the ahn-woon quite an interesting weapon, as you could wear it on duty without anyone knowing its proper usage." Ve'ryn replied as she stepped closer, remaining on the alert even if she was talking to her superior officer.

"I do not commonly wear it on duty, unless there is a specific need." Said Savat. "However, it does offer options unavailable in most hand to hand weapons. It is not obviously a weapon when worn as a belt or sash and it offers non-lethal alternatives, unavailable with blades such as a Klingon D'ktagh or your own Chakras." He added, indicating the twin crescent blades clipped to her belt.

"Ah indeed, however, I do hold a few surprises of my own." Replied the Andorian as she pulled two pins from her hair as the blonde locks spilled over past her shoulders. They were about 10 centimeters long and the ends were decorated with her Clan House's Symbols. This lead to the balance and weight of the weapon that could be hurled with deadly accuracy. "These are Zenji Needles, like your ahn-woon, is very easy to conceal." Replied Vee as she place the pins back into her hair bringing her golden mane back into control.

"Impressive." Savat said with a curt bow. "We have not formally met. This is unfortunate, as we are now sharing a shift. My appointment to the position of Acting Chief has only recently been authorized. I have yet to find the time to meet with each officer under my jurisdiction. But I am pleased to make your acquaintance at this time."

Ve'ryn seemed a little bit surprised about his appointment. To her knowledge, she thought he was the Chief of Security, however, sometimes it did pay off to look at one's service record instead of experience. "Well, congratulations then Mr. Savat, I wasn't aware you weren't the Security Chief before now." Vee replied with a soft smile, she did indeed feel a little silly with the message she had sent him when she first arrive onboard the Galaxy.

Savat arched an eyebrow in response. Like many Vulcans, Savat held the Andorian people in high regard. It was the Vulcans, and not humanity, that made first contact with the Andorians and the two races worked closely together to bring about the founding of the UFP. Like the Vulcans, the Andorians had managed to overcome a period of intense violence and bloodshed that nearly destroyed them, reinventing their culture in the process. And while the Andorians found peace through ritualized duels, rather than the path of logic, there were definite parallels.

"I have been acting in the capacity of Chief in many regards since before your arrival. Perhaps this in part lead to the misunderstanding." He gestured towards the middle of the cargo bay. "As you are apparently prepared for a workout, and I have yet to complete my own, I invite you to join me, Ensign."

"It would be an honor Sir." Replied Vee as she stepped forward to stand closely to him, "What did you have in mind?" asked the Andorian as her own eyebrow raised in a questionable manner. Training with a Vulcan was always an experience. Despite their total control of their emotions, they were as fierce warriors as the mighty Klingons, or even the best Champions within a House's Clan.

"Since neither of us is familiar with the other's weapon forms, I suggest an exchange of information." Said Savat. "I will endeavor to educate you in the proper handling of the ahn-woon. In exchange, you can instruct me in techniques used for wielding your zenji needles."

"It would be an honor Sir." Replied the Andorian as she smiled at him, "However it would appear you are lacking some hair to properly utilize the needles to its fullest potential." Replied Vee as she made a teasing observation. "I do believe I would utilize the ahn-woon into its fullest potential." She smiled at him, a soft but warming one.

"A valid point." The Vulcan responded. "So let us begin then with the ahn-woon." Savat unstrapped his ahn-woon and placed it in the Andorian woman's hands. With the practiced patience learned in his many years as an instructor, he began to walk her through the motions, taking time to explain the philosophy, history and mindset behind the strange, flexible weapon. He taught her not just how to move with the weighted belt, but how to listen to the hypnotic sound it made as it whistled through the air and to use it to judge the timing of the attacks and defenses.

Following the Vulcan's instructions, she felt comfortable within his reach. One thing she had learned under her big Brother's tutorage was to listen and concentrate at the task at hand. Turan had taught her everything about Chako Tiaani, the fighting arts of Andoria. Her movements were a little slow at first, however, she was impressed on how quickly she smoothen the momentum. "This weapon is indeed spiritual." Replied Ve'ryn as she was mesmerize by its hypnotic sound, it indeed set the mood of the weapon.

"All Vulcan weapons are rooted in art and spirituality." Savat said as he gently adjusted the ensign's stance from behind. "To simply practice the art of war for war's sake would be illogical. Vulcans do not approve of violence, but we acknowledge that at times, that we may be reduced to violent means as a final option. Thus, we choose to mask the rituals of training in a more aesthetic, non-confrontational form."

Savat stepped back and watched with some satisfaction as the young woman adjusted her form as he instructed. She was a quick study and had the remarkable reflexes common to the warriors of her race. She would certainly make a fascinating training partner. It only remained to be seen if her performance as a Starfleet officer was of a quality equal to her martial skills.

The training was interrupted by the sound of Savat's comm-badge chirping. "This is Savat" he said, after tapping the badge.

[G'day Lieutenant] The Captain's voice resonated through the badge. [It looks like some of your concerns about the Xerxes may have been on the mark. One of the teams recovered a message beacon from the Xerxes. You should review it as soon as possible and have your people ready should we need to act.]

"Understood, Captain." Savat answered. I will attend to it immediately." He turned to Ensign Tival. "It would appear that our training is at an end for now."

"So it seems." Vee replied. "Another time perhaps?" she asked hopefully.

"I would welcome the opportunity." He replied. "For now, however, I suggest you prepare for duty. While I am not one to be driven by intuition, I might conclude from the Captain's message that there will soon be a need for our department's particular skills."

“What to do”

Ensign Drake Tarsonis
Helmsman, USS Galaxy

OOC: Continuation of Ensign Bosco’s story.

He regretted giving Ensign Bosco that face. He felt bad now and he wished he could go and apologize, but it seemed impossible. Drake wasn’t that kind of person.

He wished that he had ordered a synthehol whiskey instead of a whiskey, then he wouldn’t be stuck in this mess. He wished that he could’ve been the one to fly the ship to the reading he had picked up, but now someone else will get the credit. What would Captain Price think of him now? He had already gotten reprimanded for disobeying a direct order. That reminded him that he had to talk to Lt. Maxwell when he got back to the ship. He would also have to admit his drinking before him flying the shuttle. Not only did he feel guilty about the look he gave Ensign Bosco, but also endangering the crew. He realized now, that he didn’t deserve to fly the runabout, he didn’t deserve anything.

“We are making a turn back to the Galaxy,” said Lt. Carter over the intercom.

He still kept his head down and also thought about what the captain would say. He didn’t know the General very well. At the moment, he just wanted to put himself inside an airlock and push the button. He looked out the window and saw that the runabout was almost at the Galaxy. He thought of what to say. The pathetic thing was is that he no has gotten two reprimands within 24 hours. Realizing that he had no future on the Galaxy, he also realized that he had no future with Starfleet.

“We are now entering the shuttlebay,” said Lt. Carter over the intercom once again.

He looked out of the window, and saw Lt. Maxwell waiting behind a force field. He knew he was to be crucified by Lt. Carter, Lt. Maxwell, Commander Thomas and by Captain Price. He thought of what to do again. The runabout landed, and at that moment, he knew what to do. He thought of it hard, but he was sure that it was the only solution. He would resign his commission from Starfleet. He knew that then he wouldn’t be reprimanded for drinking, or for deactivating the safety protocol after he left. He also knew that it would keep his fellow crewmembers from danger. He knew it was the best thing he could do, so that’s what he was going to tell them.

Ensign Bosco entered the room.

“It’s time to go Ensign Tarsonis,” said Bosco, uneasily.

“Look, I’m really sorry for that look I gave to you Ensign Bosco; I just get angry sometimes. We’ll have a drink, and not alcoholic, before I leave,” said Drake.

“Before you leave?” asked Ensign Bosco.

“You’ll see,” said Drake.

They both walked off of the runabout and Drake saw Lt. Maxwell waiting for him. The moment of truth.

"Now what?"
Lt Mike O'Grady
Counselor

This ship was beginning to give him a headache, first off his patient list was increasing especially with the Xerses, plus now he had to deal with the discplinary reports coming in. One of them was a helmsman, perhaps they should have a chat.

A standard counseling note requesting them to make an appointment was sent. That would be his next project.

"Hello Again"

Lt. Timothy Richeson
Lt.Cmd Lucas Brandis

Lt. Tim Richeson took his first step off his Runabout. It was hard to believe for him. Last week he was stuck in a simulator giving instructions to annoying midshipmen that had nothing but the minimum of common sense. Tim could hardly wait to return to his old post. He set a small carrying box on the titanium floor of the Galaxy.

Ashes, Richeson's 'plump' cat pushed his pink nose out of a small air hole in the cage. He knew where he was, and could hardly wait to escape from his small cage and run around his old quarters. And surely his master would reunite him with his playmate next door. Assuming Ensign Webber had not moved out with his dark haired cat.

"Lt. Richeson, reporting for duty. Permission to come aboard?" Tim could barely keep himself from laughing as he stood before his old friend Lucas.

"Permission granted, Lieutenant. Welcome back old friend, I've assigned your old quarters. Crewman Barks here can take your things to your quarters." Lucas gave a slight nod for the enlisted crewmember to take Tim's things. "And go easy on the box, Ashes has one heck of a memory and attitude if you get on his bad side."

"Aye sir." Barks replied.

Tim chuckled. He remembered the first time Yazron Beq and Lucas met Ash. They found out the hard way that fat cats must be fed at all meals. How about we get a drink old friend? I'm guessing we still have something decent to drink on this tub? Or have we run dry to synthahoal?

It was great that Tim sometimes spoke in surface thoughts, recognizing that Lucas was a telepath. "Yes, well, Ten Forward has a fine allotment of some Betazed Sunsets and Door has recently discovered a human drink called, I believe, a Slow Southern Screw." Lucas stated plainly.

Maestro's eyes lit up. "You don't know what a Southern Screw is?"

Lucas wondered what the big deal was. "No, I can't say that do..."

"Ok lets go." Tim took his friend by the shoulder and started for the exit to the shuttle bay. "Let's see what good old Door has been up to since I've been gone shall we?"

* * * 10 Forward Lounge * * *

"So, then Deiran beams down to the Captain's resort hotel room and apparently, he's a little less than dressed." Lucas and Tim laughed at the mental picture. "I don't even want to know what my father-in-law, Admiral Casey was thinking."

'It's good to be home.' Tim thought to himself. So much had happend since he had left. At least the crew had seen a few laughs. Seeing Commander Casey's face in the hotel room, that would have been golden. "I wonder alot about what the high rankers think..." Tims voice trailed off and a slight grin emerged. "I'm sure he had a lot of shit on his mind at his daughters wedding." He gave Lucas a little nudge and took another sip of his Romulan Ale. Tim was still indulging himself since the embargo was lifted on the Romulan's durring the war.

"Well, I wasn't listening to their thoughts, but my wedding was a little different than most." Lucas motioned over to the bar, where Door was ready to take up an ale or brandy. Lucas normally did not like alcohol, but it was okay in moderation.

"How is the wife?"

"Ow, a direct question." Lucas responded, ordering up a Betazed Sunrise. "The High Princess of Betazed is doing as well as can be expected. She recently found out about a son I had that even I didn't know about. I don't know if you heard about that, but it's a mess. I don't have any idea how to be a father."

Richeson gulped down the last of his ale and almost slammed the glass down. "No, I didn't hear. You should'a let me know. Thanks buddy." he said jokng. "But anyways, your one of the most responsible people I know, and your a helleva lotta fun. Dont worry about this, just fallow your heart and you'll do fine. How old is he?"

"Easier said than done." Lucas took up is drink. "Five going on 600."

"Nah the hard part is all in your head. You've got a great wife and now a son. Your settled down. You should be proud of yourself." Tim's face turned very serious and sincere, somthing that dosn't happen very often.

"Well, I still have a wild side."

Maestro raised his hand, a hint to Door that he was ready for another Ale. Quickly he brought one over to Tim and retreated with Richeson's thanks.

Tim lowered his head a bit and took a swig of the blue ale. "Yeah... I know what you mean. I'm open to suggestions." he said with a hint of a smile.

"Well, one of the ambitious ensigns wanted to start a band. What do you think? Is 76 too old to rock out?" Lucas laughed heartily.

Richeson grunted and smiled. "Oh hell nah... 76? Your just gettin warmed up Lad!"

The two friends shared a laugh and began talking about old times. Tim told his friend he would think about his offer about the band. After another round of drinks and laughs the two decided to call it a night. Richeson barely remeaberd where his old quaters were and almost stumbled in, half drunk from his Ale.

Ashes had already found his old chair. Tim swore he had never sat in it because when ever he made a move for it, his furry friend claimed it.

"Computer, any messages?"

=One new message, playing......= said the cold voice of the ships computer.

=/\= Lt. Richeson, welcome back to the Galaxy Mate'. Im sure your as glad to be back as we are to have you back. Your shift assignment is Beta shift on the main bridge. Welcome aboard.=/\=

"Good Ol' Capin...." he said aloud. Richeson took a seat at his desk on lost himself in thought. He thought back to his first mission on the Galaxy when they we're forced to fire on the USS St. Louis. Or during the war, he almost broke a smile when he remeaberd when he and Yaz volunteered to fly the Klingon fighters in the final battle. Or when Lucas and him programed the holodeck character to flirt with Yaz at his wedding reception as a joke.

Tim's thoughts turned back the present. He thought about Lucas offer with the band. It sounded tempting. Hell he didn't have anything eles to do. Most of his friends were long gone and maybe it'll help get his ass back in the swing of things.

"Computer, Compose message to Lt.Cmd Brandis. Thank you for the warm welcome home old friend. It feels good to be home. And about that band you were talkin about.... What good is a band without a Maestro? Count me in!"

"Final challenge"
by Captain Robert Edward Lee Price

*** USS Xerxes ***

While an intense fire fight was going on in the background, Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander George Nugent, the chickenman, calls out at the top of his lungs, "YOU'VE HIT THE WARP CORE YOU IDIOTS! COME AND HELP ME OR WE ARE ALL GOING TO BLOW UP!"

The remaining members of the Terrorist group that called themselves the New Maquis stopped laying down suppression fire into the supply room where the injured Commander Eddie Brookland was hiding. These three are the last of the Maquis that hadn't been banished to death as the reward for their hijacking attempt.

Looking over at the towering warp core reactor, Rychord, the cell leader of the New Maquis, could see that this was no trick; The squeaky voiced Engineer was telling the truth. The Starfleet officer's shots had found their way to the connecting coolant lines that fed the warp core reactor and prevented it from overloading. "Do

what he says. He's not kidding."

Kelly glanced back from her position crouched behind hard cover. She was aiming her phaser riffle at the supply room where Commander Brookland was. She was the only one that saw his last position, and if he hadn't moved, she had him pinned in the corner. If he moved through her sights, she'd have the son of a bitch male Starfleet pig that killed her friends Suzan and Gervase.

Rudy, the most elder member of the New Maquis, looked at the leaking warp core with wide, knowing eyes. Rudy McArthee was ex-Starfleet, so he knew what leaky warp core coolant meant to the survival of the ship. Without hesitating, he started moving towards the core to assist the Chief Engineer in stopping a warp core explosion that would destroy the entire ship.

Rychord moved to help too. When he saw that Kelly wasn't budging, he called back, "Eveready, come and help."

"I have that bastard pinned down. I'm not about to let him get away." Kelly snapped back, still looking down the sight of her phaser riffle.

"Kelly, if you don't help, the whole damn ship is going to explode. Leave him, we can come back to it after the warp core is stabilized." Rychord explained.

"He's the one that hit it. He probably did so on purpose just so he could pick us off, one by one while we try to repair it. Then after we are all dead, they can eject the warp core and all is safe!" Kelly bit back with loathsome contempt for all things Starfleet.

Rychord was about to order Kelly to help, but he stopped and thought about what she had said. Though unlikely, it wasn't beyond reason that that was exactly what the Commander was trying to do. Walking back over, Rychord called out into the supply room. "Starfleet. The warp core has been damaged. If it's not repaired, the ship will blow up. Come out and surrender your weapons, and we will do what we can to stop it."

"ARE YOU CRAZY MAN?!" George hollered from the engineering station where he was monitoring the warp core. "THIS THING IS GOING TO GO CRITICAL IN A MATTER OF MINUTES IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING NOW!"

"Did you hear that Starfleet?" Rychord added. "Time is a wasting. We can't turn our backs on ya until we know you aren't going to try an ambush. Come out and surrender your weapon and we can do what we can to save the ship."

"You are really pissing the chickenman off now!" George declared. Rudy, one of the New Maquis was already helping out. But both Kelly and Rychord were still playing games with Commander Brookland near the supply room.

"What can I do?" Rudy asked.

"Grab those gloves there and see if you can plug off the holes in the cooling conduit for the time being. If we can get the pressure up high enough, I can get the ejection system working and we can try dumping the core." 'Commander Nugent explained. George then looked back at the other New Maquis members with disgust. Didn't they realize that their very lives, and that of the Xerxes was at stake here? Yelling loudly, George called out, "SURRENDER YOUR GOSH DARN WEAPON EDDIE AND GET YOUR BUTT OUT HERE OR WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

Finally a reluctant, "Yo, okay. Hold your fire, I'm coming out." was heard.

Both Rychord and Kelly watched as Commander Brookland hopped out of the supply room and handed over his weapons. Kelly had a smirk on her face. The Starfleet officer was exactly where she thought he was hiding. If things had gone differently, she'd of bullseyed him for sure

"Okay 'Commander. What is it you need us to do?" Rychord called out, moving Eddie's collected weapons to a safe location.

"Get over here and put on those gloves." George called out. He was frantically adjusting controls on the master situation pannel, and looked like the Wizard of Oz as he scrambled to keep his contraption, the great and powerful USS Xerxes, all in one piece.

Both Rychord and Kelly grabbed some protective gloves and put them on. Eddie started grabbing them too.

"What now?" Rychord asked.

George quickly pointed, "Get up there on the second level with Rudy, and try to plug up as many holes in the hydraulic line as possible. If we can get the pressure up, I can eject the core."

Eddie glanced up at the second tier and at the narrow access ladder that lead up it. With his injury to his leg, he didn't think it was going to be easy to make it. But he started hopping that way just the same.

George called out, "Not you Commander. I need someone to manually monitor the pressure so I know when it's high enough to activate the release mechanism."

Commander Brookland nodded and then moved towards the console.

Kelly and Rychord joined Rudy on the second level catwalk. They each pressed their gloved hands over the various leaks in the cooling system, trying to plug up enough of the holes to raise the pressure enough to allow the warp core to be ejected.

George watched his monitor, and adjusted the controls, setting things up for a manual release of the core when the time was right.

Eddie called out. "It don't appear to be working. The pressure hasn't moved one frigin' bit."

"Give it time Commander." George called back.

While the Starfleet officers worked on the machinery on the first level, the surviving three New Maquis Terrorists stood around the vertical hydraulic column that fed coolant into the warp core. Each one had their hands pressed firmly against the pole, leaving them very close to each other.

"I never figured this would turn out like this." Rudy commented out of the blue.

Rychord looked at the elderly man. He respected him quite a bit. Of all the New Maquis in the cell, Rychord thought Rudy had the most integrity of anyone. "Things were stacked against us from the beginning."

Kelly felt obligated to chime in. "For what it's worth, the movement will go on. We will be martyrs. Our small cell managed to destroy both a Cardassian warship and a Federation Starship. At least we have that."

****

"I believe I have it Captain." Lieutenant Commander Chin called out. "I can open the pressure doors on your command." Curtis explained.

Captain Victoria Curtis was glad to finally hear that. "Okay, everyone grab your weapons and get ready. We are going in."

Near the Captain, the rest of the Xerxes most senior officers began taking up their arms. Lieutenant' Lypglose delicately adjusted the setting on her phaser, being careful not to chip her fingernails. Jordan just looked at Jamie and rolled her eyes at the prissy beauty queen. Grabbing her own side arm like it was a piece of meat, Lieutenant' Agogo adjusted her settings as well. Lieutenant Brittany Bree was the most conflicted about taking up arms. She knew the Maquis had caused this disaster when they tried to hijack the ship. But she felt it was all some sort of misunderstanding and that it would be better to talk things out. It was the Counselor in her.

"Ready?" the Captain asked as her tall, athletic form stood boldly in front of the entrance. Victoria glanced over her slender but strong shoulder at her senior officers that all nodded. She then focused on the business at hand. "Then let's go. Open it Chin."

"Yes ma'am." Curtis replied as he activated the manual override.

****

*** USS Galaxy ***

A lot had been discovered in the last several hours searching for the USS Xerxes. A Cardassian warship, the Hutet, had arrived under the command of Gul Jolan, inquiring about the whereabouts of the destroyed Rhemor. The search and rescue teams had explored as deeply into the Badlands as possible given the dangerous raw plasma flows that illuminated this area of space in it's radiant, fiery glow. There had been a number of key discoveries. The latest and most promising one was the recovery of a flight recorder from the Xerxes by the USS Opaka.

Captain Price entered science lab two with his hands clasp behind his back. There were a number of scientists in the lab. All were studying the latest discovery, and working on recovering the damaged data contained in the mystical black box.

"Captain, I didn't expect to see you here sir." Ensign Takahashi greeted.

"No worries 'mate. I need to make a report to the Cardassians about our current findings. I was hoping to get an update on what was recovered from the flight recorder."

"I see. Well, we have been able to salvage a few seconds of the last recording made before this marker was ejected from the Xerxes." Asako stated while looking at the two foot long cube.

Lee's eyebrows rose at hearing this. "Ejected 'mate? You mean it wasn't blown off?"

"No Captain. The latch receptors here and here would be damaged if that were the case. They are designed to break away in an explosion to let the force of the blast throw the recorder clear. These receptors are intact, indicating the box was released in a controlled fashion." The science officer explained.

"Crikey! Then Chief Sullax was correct, the Xerxes did survive the initial entry into the plasma fields because of the warp bubble." Captain Price declared.

"It looks that way sir. It's more remarkable that this recorder didn't happen into a plasma flow and get destroyed. We were fortunate it found an area of space where it could survive." Ensign Takahashi explained. She then turned the monitor around so the Captain could see the small play-back display. "This is what we have been able to pull out of the memory banks thus far sir. Many of the crystals are charred and damaged. But what we have gotten off of it looks promising."

Lee watched as the science officer played back the recording. A fuzzy image appeared on the screen of an African woman in a Starfleet Uniform.

=This is the *static* Xerxes. Two hundred and *static* people are alive. We are stranded approximately 15 light *static* from our entry point into the plasma flows of the Badlands. Approach with caution. A hostile *static* has taken over *static* ship. We are fighting to regain control. =

Lee glanced at the Ensign. "Have you been able to identify that officer from Starfleet's records?"

"Yes sir. I believe it is Lieutenant Commander Cassandra Brown, Chief Science Officer of the Xerxes. I know it's not much better than before sir, but like I said, the recording crystals are badly damaged. I don't think we are going to be able to get much more information out of this."

"Bonzer job 'mate. At least now we know the Xerxes survived long enough to eject a marker or two. Possibly they found a clear spot to dewarp at. We have to keep searching until we know for sure."

"I've plotted the spot where we believe the Xerxes entered the plasma fields. And also the position where this marker was found. The USS Lansing has reported something at this position here. We still don't know what that is, but if it does turn out to be a part of the Xerxes, that would put it on a trajectory along this line." Ensign Takahashi traced with a finger. "From the recording, if we assume 'Commander Brown meant 15 light years, that would put the Xerxes somewhere in this region of space here."

"That is a long way in 'mate. Do you even think it is possible to get in there with one of our shuttles?"

Asako shook her head from side to side. "No Captain. Most of the runabouts and shuttles can't enter past five light years, even with the extra shielding. The Opaka, being of Bajor design can go a little deeper, maybe to eight or ten tops. The only shuttle we have capable of withstanding the pressures that deep into the plasma fields would be the science shuttle USS Buster Keaton." The scientist explained.

"I see." Lee gave a sagely nod while stroking his white beard. "I'll have the Lansing and the Yosemite finish checking out this area to confirm if this is a piece of the Xerxes or just another asteroid. The rest of the shuttles can be recalled to the Galaxy. Searching anywhere other than along this path that you've isolated is pointless and I don't want to risk any more lives then necessary on this rescue mission. Once we know for sure what the Lansing and Yosemite find, I'll know whether or not to send the Buster Keaton all the way in along this route to try and locate the Xerxes."

"That sounds reasonable sir." Ensign Takahashi nodded.

"Good work 'mate. If you'll excuse me, I need to contact Gul Jolan with an update. G'day Ensign."

Asako smiled and bowed her head slightly, a throw back to her Asian heritage. She then watched as Captain Price exited the science lab to go about his business while she returned to hers.

By: Lieutenant Jake T Olson Lt. J.G. Adrian An'quinsos JP

Adrian An'quinsos walked into the brig area knowing that Jake Olson was being accused of something nasty and put on ice indefinitely. That could cause problems, but when the counselor saw the Lt., the man was sound asleep!

"Lieutenant Olson," He spoke up, not wishing entirely to disturb him.

"Yes?" Olson was sleeping lightly. He yawned.

"Um, I'm Counselor An'quinsos. We met before in Ten Forward." He replied.

"Hello, good to see you again. What can I do for you?" Jake was sober yet friendly.

Down to the usual 'shrink' business', He thought. "I was sent here to do a sort of psych evaluation, to determine whether or not it was physically possible for you to have inflicted the harm that was done upon Ms. McAllen."

"OK, I share your concern. She's the victim of something, that's clear." Jake answered. "Is she receiving treatment? If I'm out of line, I'm sorry."

"No, no," It's a perfectly valid question. Adrian makes himself comfortable, by having a seta on the floor, not man Counselors do when talking. "I'm curious, rather a common trait for my people..." He trailed off. "what were the chain of events that led to this?"

"My baby reached out and grabbed her hair. He has quite a grip. I apologized, and she reacted like the incident was her fault in some way. I tried to reassure her, and then she took off down the hall. I became concerned and dumped Bud on Electra, asking that she drop him off at day care, and I ran down the hall with the baby gerry pack still strapped on. I found her on the floor, and she started talking about an incident and an ex boyfriend. I didn't know if she was discussing something in her mind or a thing that really happened. I soothed her as best I could, and I was going to get assistance for her. She then slipped and fell to the floor. I couldn't have known she was going to move that direction because it was unnatural. I heard 'crack' and realized she was in medical trouble. I called sickbay, we were beamed there. Treatment began, then I lost track of Rose because Murphy at that moment wanted to eat me alive."

"Sounds to me like a simple accident. Didn't anyone bother to ask what happened?"

"No. Murphy brought me down to the brig, Seth took my baby gear, and the ship's been busy with the mission. As Rose is in good hands, I fell asleep. I didn't say anything to any one because this incident brought out a past hurt of some kind in Murphy, she said something about 'Humans fighting all the time' so my guess she thinks this was a domestic dispute. I felt my best bet was to keep mouth shut and lay low." Olson replied.

"Lieutenant, please lower the force field." He responded to Brightspot. The officer nodded, and the force field was deactivated.

"Well, with this mission occupying almost everyone's mind, you might have been in here until the early part of 2477!" He paused as he put something down on a padd. "This looks to me like a case of mistaken identity so to speak. I believe you're being honest with me, and you bear no ill will against anyone." Adrian arose from the floor after getting comfortable.

"Lieutenant, please lower the force field." He responded to Brightspot. The officer nodded, and the force field was deactivated.

"Thank you for your help!" There was relief on Olson's face, as he was worried himself. "I just wish that Rose's problems were so easy to solve. Do you have any information on the status of this mission?" Olson took the jerry pack from Bright Spot with a smile.

"I'm afraid I know very little." He began. "As far as I know, shuttles have been sent out to see if the Xerxes really has been destroyed. However, other than that, and the Cardassian vessel. Galor class, I'm not entirely positive, is right by us. Other than that, I no very little right now."

"OK, I'm going to find Bud's location, then head to the lab and get up to date. Maybe we can get together when things get less hairy?"

"Sure, I have plenty of time!"

"If we find anyone, that can change," Jake's grin was wicked.

"I'm sure they'll be someone on the Metallic boat that can!" He joked.

Jake just grinned, not getting the joke but was still in a very good mood having just been sprung from jail.

Lt (jg) Michala Lynn
Lt.  Navarre-Maxwell Shinta

Michala had everything layed out in the lab before she went to Shinta's quarters to fetch Gavin.  She had decided she would be the one to fetch him rather then Shinta bringing him and had sent her a note appropriately.

She arrived ten minutes later and entered the quarters with a bounce in her step. She saw the small lad and smiled down at him.  "How is my bear?"

"The bear is fine." Gavin said.

"That is good, thank you!"  Michala got down on his level.  "Gavin, I have to practice in the lab today.  Could you help me with a test.  There is nothing that will hurt you and you won't have to stay.  Plus, I could use your help with my mircroscope.  I found a new organism I need to draw."  She smiled at him with encouragement.

"You mean you want to to do more tests on me, I am not stupid, aunt Mike. I do not like it, but I want to be normal like other children."

"Did I say I wasn't going to practice on you?  I did not mean to imply that.   However, Gavin, I really was looking forward to just the two of us doing the test together and looking at the results.  If you want to be like other children, then we have to find out why you get so sick?  Don't you agree?"   Michala came down to his level, speaking to him in a mature tone.

"I like going without Mom. She says she is fine, but she looks tired because of the baby." Gavin said seriously. "I do want you to tell me exactly when it is going to hurt, I trust you."

Michala stood up and smiled.  "That is the good thing about this test.  It won't hurt."  She took his hand and led him to the lab.  She had prepared a special cubicle for their tests and for him to play with the microscope.   Once inside, she smiled at Gavin.

She grinned at Gavin encouragingly.  "Why don't you see what you think of that organism I told you about."  She pointed to the microscope.  She knew that he would find it fascinating for it was in constant motion.

The boy looked into the microscope. "This is cool, aunt Mike. Is it alive?". He was genuinely interested.

Michala moved beside him as she layed out slides and other items she would need for the test.  "Yes it is.  It is a small amoeba from a planet we were near not long ago.  It has a longer life span then most and seems to be somewhat able to think.  Watch."   She waited till his eye was on the slide and then she took a small instrument.  As the instrument moved into view, the amoeba moved away from it.  

"Great! This is fun! I did not know that doctors did nice things as well. So are you going to take something out of me and  look at it? Can I look as well?"

"Doctors do wonderful things, Gavin.  Without doctors, many people would live very short lives.  As for taking something out of you.  I am not going to take anything out of you.  But, I will be taking something off of you."  The temperature was slowly rising in the cubicle.  "Would you like to know more?"

"I sure would, aunt Mike. "The hotter it got in the room, the more  alive the little boy seemed, he stopped coughing and wheezing altogether. "I like the temperature here. It's like  mothers special room, but I am not allowed in there." He said still looking at the microscope.

"I thought you might, Gavin.  There was a condition on earth called Cystic Fibrosis.  They cured it many many years ago.  When it was found, a baby could be treated immediately so it did not make them ill.  I have a suspicion that you have a mutated version of this disorder.  The reason you can breath better in the warmth is because your lung is expanding, allowing more air in." Michala explained gently.  Michala put a drop of glucose onto the slide.  The small amoeba immediately went for it.  Gavin was able to see it pull the glucose into its small body and dissolve it.

Gavin look at her his eyes large and and comprehending." Does  Mother have it to then? She feels much better when she is in warm rooms, that is why she has her  own little hot room. I am not allowed in there, because mother says I should grow up human. and she seldom coughs."

"It is possible.  I will speak to her about it."  She was surprised to see he did not yet have any sweat forming.  Michala could already feel the heat. "Do you agree with your mother?  That you should grow up human?"  She asked gently.

"I don't know. mummy Doesn't like to talk about her background. I think it is hard for her. She says it is safer for me to be a human child and easier. I do not want to hurt her even more, now that she is finally happy. "Gavin was really beginning to enjoy himself, now that the room finally had a nice temperature. "Can we play?"

Michala smiled, "What would you like to play?"  She was watching him closely and smiling at the readings her tricorder had just picked up.

"let's  play hide and seek" Gavin jumped up and down, he had not have this much energy in a long time.

At that moment Shinta came in. She had been surprised that they have gone off with out her,  Gavin was so afraid of hospitals, he should not be here on his own. But she smiled when she saw her son so happy. "Hello tiger, you're looking pretty happy. Has he been good, Mike?"

"He has been excellent.  We are about to play hide and seek, would you join us?"  Michala's tone was one of encouragement.  "I need Gavin to move about a little."

"Sure" Shinta said with a grin, and soon she was playing along with both of them. Both mother and son seen to be in their element in the excruciatingly hot room.

Michala was not however and was forced to get drinks of water often.  Finally, from the busy play, they were able to get a sheen of sweat on Gavin's skin. "Gavin, come help me with this test now. "  She smiled encouragingly.  

He came to her immediately, followed by his mother who was not sweating at all.

Michala held up a slide.  "All we need is a little sweat from your arm and we will look at it with this special base."  She smiled encouragingly.

He held out his arm. "Can I have a look too? Can you cure me know?"

"I am not sure let, lets look first."  Michala took a slide and a sample of Gavin's sweat.  She put it on the slide to look into the microscope along with the base she needed to provoke the reaction.  She had been right, the reaction was there but in a mutated form.  She smiled encouragingly at Gavin.  "Want to see the bug that made you ill?"

"Analysis"
By Lieutenant Savat
Reviewed by Captain Price

***Deck 38, Security Chief's Office***

In the short time since he became the Acting Chief of Security, Savat had uncovered many unresolved issues that would need his attention.

There had been another violation of the Galaxy's strict policy against removing the safety interlocks on the holodecks. Apparently, a considerable number of crew members chose to ignore the policy and he end results had been a sizeable number of injuries and the deaths of a group of children who had used the holodecks after the interlocks had been tampered with by a previous user. In the past, the Security Department had taken a reactionary approach to dealing with violations. Savat felt it was time to become proactive. With that in mind, he crafted and sent a memo to the Engineering Department with his suggestions.

There was also the matter of crew morale. Normally, such a thing would be under the jurisdiction of the Command and Counseling departments, but increasingly, security had become involved in a series of unfortunate circumstances. There had been an increase in reports of public drunkenness and assaults in the last six months. There had also been a disturbing number of suicide attempts, more than would be expected for a crew population the size of the Galaxy's. Savat felt that the underlying cause behind the increases bore investigation and that an increase in preventative tactics needed to be implemented.

But all of these action items took a back seat to the main puzzle that Savat had before him at his desk.

The elder Vulcan gently tapped a button on his console and replayed the beacon message from the Xerxes for a fifth time, listening carefully both to the tone of the voice and the sounds in the background. The message was willed with static, but with each new playback, he gained new insight.

[This is the *static* Xerxes. Two hundred and *static* people are alive. We are stranded approximately 15 light *static* from our entry point into the plasma flows of the Badlands. Approach with caution. A hostile *static* has taken over *static* ship. We are fighting to regain control]

"Fascinating." Savat remarked as he continued to take mental notes. A hostile force had taken over the Xerxes under highly unusual circumstances. If the crew of the Galaxy were to adequately prepare themselves for a possible rescue attempt, he needed to ascertain the likely composition of the threat force.

There were few facts on which to derive a conclusion, but logic could be applied to narrow down the suspects. It was now believed that the Xerxes collided with the Rhemor, damaging the Nebula class starship and destroying the Cardassian one. No signs of enemy fire had been found on the wreckage of either ship.

'And what does this tell us?" Savat asked himself under his breath. He looked down at the PADD in front of him and reviewed his notes.

1: The boarding tactics of most of the Federation threat races are well known. If one was attempting to capture a Starfleet vessel, one would target specific defensive and propulsion systems to prevent the vessel's escape and to blind its sensors before sending your boarding teams across. The recovered wreckage showed no evidence of such an attempt.

2: Had another ship appeared, one with hostile intent, the Xerxes would have raised its shields, preventing transport. Those shields would have needed to have been knocked down before boarding actions could have been taken. There was no evidence of this.

3: It is unlikely that had a third ship had appeared, even an additional Federation or Cardassian vessel, the Xerxes and Rhemor would have continued to maintain such a tight formation. At least one or the other would have likely broken off and assumed a defensive posture.

4: Had hostile forces attempted the takeover of the Xerxes and the Rhemor, it could easily explain a level of distraction that could lead to the collision, but only if the attack was a complete surprise.

5: The Chief Science Officer of the Xeres, Lieutenant Commander Brown, was a veteran officer who was known for her communication skills and attention to detail. She had also seen her share of combat with the Xerxes during the war. Yet she was vague in her message, referring to their attackers as "a hostile force", rather than specifically identifying the aggressor. Yet she had time to give exacting details such as the number of survivors on the ship. One might postulate from this that the crew of the Xerxes was uncertain as to the identity of their attackers.

6: The attacker's were not completely successful in their attempt to gain control of the ship. The Xerxes managed to jump to warp. Senior officers remained uncaptured and able to send distress beacons. Since it appeared that the element of surprise had been on the side of the hostiles, this indicated that the enemy lacked the resources or understanding to compromise all of the critical areas and personnel on the vessel at once.

7: There are few known threats to the Federation that choose to operate within the Badlands, a notoriously dangerous place for even the most skilled in space travel.

Savat leaned back in his chair and folded his hands across his chest. "Conclusions." He said out loud. "The Xerxes was likely attacked from within, either by a force that had already positioned itself on the vessel or by an unknown alien threat with the ability to mask their presence or transport long distances accurately. This latter possibility is unlikely, given the nature of the Badlands and its ability to disrupt such activities.

"A small force, either concealed on the vessel beforehand or hiding in plain sight as members of the crew, could have ambushed the bridge, and possibly engineering, explaining how a collision might have occurred in the chaos of the takeover. It would also explain the lack of battle damage on either of the vessels."

Savat continued speaking as the console recorded. "If we draw the conclusion that this was an inside job, then we must begin to look for likely suspects. There is a strong possibility that the makeup of the attackers was of mixed race, as Lieutenant Commander Brown did not specifically indicate the nature of the hostile force. After reviewing all of the known threats to the Federation who would have the resources to involve themselves in such an operation, a small list appears." Savat picked up another PADD and reviewed the data he had entered.

1: The Orion Syndicate: While they are perhaps the most well financed suspect, I can not conceive of a logical reason for them to involve themselves in such an enterprise as the capture of a Nebula class vessel. Such an action would serve none of their goals.

2: The Vulcan Isolationist Movement: I have dealt with this group personally and can safely say that the Xerxes would serve no logical purpose as a target in their eyes.

3: The Pakleds: While they certainly would consider the Xerxes or the Rhemor a prize worth having, they are known more for their brute force tactics. In past incidents in which the Pakleds attempted to capture Federation vessels, they used force of arms as their primary option. There is no evidence of this here.

4: Mutiny: This would certainly explain the element of surprise, leading to the collision, and the fact that Lieutenant Commander Brown failed to identify the hostile force. But is there any reason to suspect that a Mutiny was in the works? And what would the mutineers hope to gain by conducting their operation under such harsh conditions? Surely they could have picked a better spot than a vast expanse of plasma fields to conduct the takeover.

5: The Maquis: While this group was reported all but destroyed during the war with the Dominion, this sort of operation does fit their profile. They liked to operate in the badlands, they could assimilate themselves into a Starship's crew until the time to strike was appropriate and they harbored no love for the Cardassians and might have found the Xerxes current mission objectionable. But does the Maquis still exist? And if so, are they organized enough to attempt such an operation?

Savat uploaded all of his notes to a single file. "Computer, record the following message and attach it to my files. "Sirs, enclosed is my analysis of the distress message from the Xerxes. After reviewing the evidence, the most logical conclusion I can d

raw is that the Xerxes was subject to a hostile takeover attempt by forces from within their own crew, either in an attempted mutiny or by an organization with members sequestered amongst the crew prior to their current mission. While the hostile force is likely to be small, they will be hard to identify, and may look exactly like any of the survivors. We must exercise extreme caution during any boarding attempt, taking nothing for granted. We must also keep in mind that the forces involved likely had much time to prepare and that there could be additional acts of sabotage and destruction waiting to be unleashed."

Savat forwarded the file to the Captain and the First Officer and then returned to his analysis of the tape, hoping to uncover anything else that could better prepare his officers for what was to come.

*** ***

Lieutenant Savat
Chief Security Officer, USS Galaxy
AKA
David Friedland
ICQ# 5805168

Caught up in the Chaos
Lt (jg) Michala Lynn

Michala had been very busy the last few days. She was keeping on top of what the sick bay required on shift. She was taking care of Casey's children, though they were sort of hers too. She was trying to find the cause of Counselor Nivarre's son's illness. With all of that, she had not volunteered for any of the shuttle missions.

Her work with the Vulcan Doctor had increased her range of recall from her previous memories. In addition, her headaches were smaller and farther apart. She would have loved to go out in a shuttle, having refound a love of space in general. It was hard to believe so little time had gone by since she had been created, born.. whatever.

She entered her offices and called the nurse over. She handed her a PADD. "I need this infusion manufactured and tested. I need a month's supply at the dosage as instructed." She didn't wait for a reply.

Michala sat down to work on her reports. She was behind in her paperwork. The one thing she did not like about Starfleet was that there seemed to be a record for everything. As a doctor, her job was to record a major part of it.

The rest of her shift was spent analyzing the data she had gathered from Gavin. He had a unique makeup and a physiological condition that would require him to need chemical enhancement if he was not in a tropical type environment. It was frustrating to her that no one else had caught this sooner, especially given Shinta's need for a warm room now and then.

"More Power to the..."

Lt. Cmdr. J. Lucas Brandis
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galaxy

* * * USS Yosemite * * *

"Negative on that, Ensign. My ship can take a little more than yours. Rendezvous back with the Galaxy, I don't want that shuttle ripped apart by some of the currents. Good job scanning, we'll take it from here and try to see exactly what that is." Lucas ordered Ensign Tarsonis back to the Galaxy.

Lucas had decided on a bigger shuttle after a near hit with the plasma fields. Along with it the Captain had sent a small crew, one science officer, an engineer, and of course the helmsman with guts to spare. "Fire forward phasers at coordinates 12.32.32 Mark 6."

"Yessir." Ensign Chen replied.

Lucas had recently met the addition to his department and decided it was time to see what she could do. He was actually surprised. The resourceful officer had devised a way to deflect the plasma discharges by firing phasers. The discharge would then release the plasma where the phaser had hit. "So ingenious, I'm surprised I didn't think of it." Lucas joked, as Ensign Chen smiled.

"How's engineering doing?" Lucas called down the corridor, where the response came.

Lt. Mulv'av called back, "Sensors are at full, 'Commander."

"Perfect, Science." Lucas walked up behind the young science officer. "Getting the read outs now. We should move in a little closer, the interference from the ionic discharges are breaking up the subharmonic spectral analyzer."

"Helm, thrusters only, move us within 100 meters." Lt. Cmdr. Brandis ordered.

"Aye, thrusters only." Lt. Riggs repeated and followed through. "Mission accomplished."

"Anything?" Lt. Cmdr. Brandis paced the bridge of the Yosemite, the air of command and authority evident.

"Positive. Re-checking data for confirmation. Concurred, its a piece of the Xerxes, Sir." The science officer stated.

"Any evidence of what might have happened?" Lucas inquired, there had to be some reason. Something definitely happened to the Xerxes.

"There's some scaring on the debris, which looks consistent with phaser type IX fire. But, there's no way to know for sure without beaming a piece aboard and analyzing it further."

"Make it happen." Lucas ordered, lower shields for beam out and immediately re-engage them.

"Disengaging shields, beaming the piece to the cargo hold in stasis field, re-engaging shields." Ensign Chen complied and processed the beam out.

"Other than that, I think we should return to the Galaxy while Ensign Macalister analyzes the debris and makes a report for the Captain." Lt. Cmdr. Brandis proceeded to log the events into the computer. "Helm, mark coordinates into the log and leave a homing beacon to follow the streams. I think if we can project some sort of general current, we may be able to pin point to location more exactly."

"Aye, sir."

Lt. Cmdr. Brandis sat back down in the command chair, punched in a code and then ordered, "Bring us about and take us the heck out of here, full impulse until we get out into the open."

"Old Faces in New Places"
By Commander Thomas

Chris had meet with a few of the ships officer's among that list was Ensign Nicholas Knight who'd been on the USS Northstar when he took command of the ship. The man had decided like many to cut their losses and follow him, instead of joining a number of officers in the brig. Now of course many of the officers from the Northstar were either serving out prison terms or reassigned to the far reaches of the Federation.

*** Shutttlebay ***

Commander Thomas had been apprised of Ensign Drake's recent and reckless actions. The officer seemed to have no regard for his own life or the lives of his fellow officers. His actions weren't that of a officer, but a juvenile trying to impress someone or just to live out some adventurous life.

There was little choice left in this matter, Ensign Drake would be relieved of duty and escorted to the brig for his own sake.

Lt. Maxwell was standing next to the commander, they were waiting for Ensign Drake to exit the runabout.

"Ensign Drake." Commander Thomas said in a commanding tone. "I have reviewed your recent actions and it is my duty to inform you that you're relieved of duty effectively immediately and Lt. Maxwell here will escort you to the brig. You will remain there until a hearing regarding your actions can be scheduled." Commander Thomas said glancing at the Lt.

"Lt. Maxwell please see that Ensign Drake reaches the brig." Chris said.

"Aye commander."

"Ensign Drake, please come with me." Lt. Maxwell said signalling two other security officers to take up positions and follow them out.

Commander Thomas eyed Ensign Bosco for a moment and then he turned leaving for the bridge.

** Presently ***

Commander Thomas was waiting, along with the captain to hear any news from their search teams out looking for any signs of the missing ship. They'd found some more debris and were still under the impression the USS Xerxes was lost in the plasma fields of the badlands. This of course was a very bleak scenario because it meant they would have to find a way to get to them, once they found the ship that is to say.

Peace Offerings
by LCDR Jeral Maas, CMO
reviewed by Lt (jg) Rose Isis MacAllen
and introducing Lt Myrul, Medical Doctor (NPC)

*** Shuttle Bay ***

Commander Maas walked back to the shuttle. Angela Dana and an engineer the Trill did not recognize were both adding electronic shield components to upgrade the Opaka so it could survive deeper inside the Badland's volatile plasma flows. Noticing the senior officer watching them, Dana halted her duties long enough to give him a brief report. "The shield modifications are not complicated, Sir, but quite a bit of gear has to be installed. It will be at least 3 hours before we can finish, longer if more shuttles return for retrofit."

"Very well", he told the Deltan. "I will go do something else." The Trill went for a quick bite to eat down in 10 Forward.

It was time to check on Rose MacAllen. The Lieutenant made it clear she did not like being on sick leave. Accordingly, she used this determination to heal faster than normal. The monitors showed she was mending quicker than expected.

=/\= Dr Maas to Lt MacAllen=/\=

=/\=Yes Doctor, what do you want now?=/\= she replied with a tinge of hostility.

=/\=I have good news for you. The monitor I installed shows you are healing quite rapidly. If you meet me in Sickbay, I will give you a brief check up and remove it. You will be able to return to light duty tomorrow, and regular duty in about a week.=/\=

=/\=That IS good news Doctor, I'll be their in a few moments.=/\=

Rose sprinted into the sonic shower, she wanted to be relaxed when she met the doctor because of their previous terse encounter. *Maybe I should give him a token of appreciation*, Rose thought. The doctor was removing these infernal healing gadgets ahead of schedule, after all. But then she decided she was still irked at being forced off duty, and pasted a scowl on her face.

Jeral was calibrating medical kits and adjusting biobed settings for a sick Tellarite when Rose walked in. A quick tricorder scan confirmed what the monitor had already told him. The health problems which landed her in sickbay earlier in the week were now gone.

"Lieutenant, while in the Badlands I had a chance to read up on nightmares and dream suppressants. There are several herbal remedies from all over the galaxy which reportedly give pleasant dreams. I thought you might appreciate them, so I took the liberty of copying them to a wafer. I can personally vouch for the Trill Gadora tea. Deliz sometimes took it before troubling negotiations, but it is relatively unknown off our home world," the doctor commented while unfastening the monitor.

Glad to be rid of the device that made her feel Borgesque, the Lieutenant replied brightly "And here I thought you were trying to make my life difficult, but all along you were looking out for my best interest. I will try the tea and see if it helps".

Jeral looked up and saw a new member of his staff. Lieutenant Myrul had actually arrived earlier, but spent some of her accrued leave visiting friends that transferred to the Galaxy at the end of the war. Myrul was a serious but pretty doctor of middle age. She appeared to be a Vulcan, with Bajoran nose ridges.

Myrul’s heritage was unique. Her father was a Vulcan on a sole scout craft, who crashed on Bajor due to a random fluctuation of the wormhole. Before he completely healed, he entered Pon ‘Farr. Necessity dictated that he take a Bajoran mate in order to survive. Thus, Myrul was only considered a half-citizen of the Federation.

After returning to Vulcan, her father advocated that his half-Vulcan daughter be allowed to attend Star Fleet academy per her wish. Meanwhile, the young woman flew shuttles of medical supplies to support the Bajoran liberation movement.

"I am Myrul of Vulcan and Bajor. Please perform a boarding physical as prescribed by Star Fleet regulations", she said flatly.

Rose excused herself, seeing that the CMO had other duties to perform. Joyfully, she carried a PADD with orders clearing her for light duty down to her department head. The Betazoid wanted to make sure she was added back to the duty rotation in the morning.

Doctor Maas looked at Myrul, who was slated to replace Commander Lemur who had been promoted to CMO of another ship. The Vulcan/Bajoran had cross-trained in several specialities. A person like that would be invaluable on an away mission.

"You appear to be in above average health, Myrul." The doctor confirmed. "And your piloting skills can be useful. Your scores on the fleet piloting exam were impressive.”

"I am commanding the shuttle Opaka, scheduled to go out in the Badlands in a few hours. Now that you have checked in for duty, I would welcome someone of your skills on the upcomming mission. This would free the current pilot to fly another shuttle, and give us an extra doctor on the hospital ship."

Lifting his brow, Myrul said "Logic dictates that if I am the best person for the position, I should accept. Therefore, I would be honored to join you. If I might be excused, I shall retire to my quarters to pack gear for the trip."

Jeral turned the shift over to Doctor Bellen, and decided to nap in his quarters until the Opaka was ready to resume search operations.

'Combat Comrades'
by Lt Seth Zonhieb and Ensign Ve'ryn Tival

The drone crashed into the wall and slide down. Its power systems deactivated and another borg stepped up to take its place. A Large Gorn batted this one away like a fly and turn to rake his claws over another. The holodeck settings where on level three for the Gorn which seem just about right for the other combatant.

Her Hrisal, an Andorian fighting knife that is about 2 feet long and slightly has a backwards curve, flashed within the dark lighting that always seemed to be scattered about a Borg Cube. Moving very quickly, her Andorian quickness always kept her a step ahead of the Drones as she almost fought side by side with the big Gorn. "We need to isolate ourselves and find that power distribution node." Vee replied as she slashed at an incoming Borg cutting his arm right off at the elbow.

One drone grabbed a gold shirt and put the assimilation tubes to his neck this level too high for him. "Ensign Jones is removed from game. New Drone added." The computer announced. It immediately simulated the new human drone and started to try assimilating the rest of the group.

"Shit!" Replied Vee as she watched the Ensign beside her get over whelm by the attacking drone. She began to make her flight closer to the Gorn, if they were going to survive this thing, they had to find that node. Looking about, she dodge an incoming attack from a Klingon drone as his massive sabre like arm came inches from her abdomen. Being quite nimble had saved her life twice now, as the human Security Personnel struggled hard against the modified drones.

Again a drone dropped to its back as Seth tripped it. He jumped on top of the enemy while it was down. He reached for the borg's chest and activated its destruct mode. A dark shadow was left on the floor and the lizard turned to attack another drone. This one had its personal shield shimmer as the attacks landed harmlessly.

The drone tried to grab the green scaled monster and ended up with nothing but air. Seth dodged past the drone and disconnected the force field power feed from behind where the borg didn't shield. It wasn't long after that the borg was dead.

"Ensign Wellington is removed from game. New Drone added." Again the computer announce that someone else was overwhelmed and converted to the enemy. "Lt Junior Grade Buckman is removed from game. New Drone added."

The ranks on one side where falling and the borg where taking advantage of it. "Crewman Pope is removed from game. New Drone added." The three new drones converged on the last two standing.

Fire burned within her eyes as she watched the last of her comrades fall. 'Humans' she thought as she turned to see it was only her and Seth that remained. The Drones came in quickly as the Andorian woman looked about to finally see what she was searching for, the power distribution node. But, it was just her luck that it was located on the other side of the drones. "Quick Big Guy, I need a boost." She replied as she turned to Seth, quickly making her way to him getting enough momentum for her idea to work.

Seth grabbed the Borg's force field and tossed him into another to distract the attackers. Then he dropped to one knee to give the andorian a step up to his back and shoulders. He stood up at the right moment to give her extra lift. She flew over the line of fighting and twisted launching her dagger before she landed upon the upper level. Her aim was very accurate as the dagger hit home, plunging deep into the node cause it to short circuit.

Back upon the main floor, all the remaining borg converged around the lizard. Four piled on top of Seth as he fought them off others would climb on. Before any of them could attack again, the game ended fairly quickly.

"Next level has fewer simulation on our side." Seth informed the blue woman. His mouth was open to show all his dagger like teeth and the red forked tongue.

Looking down from the upper level she smiled. "Maybe I'm a little more advanced than you give me credit for Mr Zonhieb." Replied the Andorian as she climbed down the Borg elevator after all the Hologram minus the enemy was still active. "Now that was Team work." Vee replied as she ran her slender fingers through her long ivory hair. Beads of sweat easily evaporated as she wiped them off her sleeve, place her Hrisal within its scabbard that was attached to her belt. She looked up and smiled making sure her Gorn partner was ok.

"Off duty you can call me Seth." The Gorn didn't look any different from when he entered the holodeck. "Ms Vee."

"But of course Seth, and you said you didn't have any friends." Replied Vee as she straighten out her Starfleet Uniform. "So, what's next?" She asked with an innocent twinkle in her eye.

"Computer increase safety margin to Andorian maximum." Seth ordered. The cube reconfigured around the two and drones started appearing.

The lizards tail wagged slightly anticipating the battle. "Still lower then Gorn but it will do."

"Operations-In a glance"
By Lieutenant Commander Michael Jamson, Tactical Ops
USS Galaxy

Sitting in his quarters, Jamson reviewed the latest logs from Operations. It was a tough job, replacing Lucas, but now he was back. Of course, with the latest discovery, that the Xerxes could have survived the warp travel through the plasma storms, there was still a lot of work to be done.

Not many knew the Operations branch, which had most of the personnel on board vessels in the fleet. The Operations branch covered the widest variety of duties, from Engineering to Security to maintenance. Subcategories such as Advanced Tactical, Environmental systems, and Communications were also included. Flight Control, Mission Operations, Computer, Transporter and Medical technicians also squeezed in...so basically, Operations handled everything.

The Majority of the Operations personnel often chose to proceed into the Command branch, but even the Command personnel was known to switch back to Operations.

There were rumors that the Galaxy might be going in, through the storms towards the Xerxes. The shuttles' shields were not strong enough and only the Buster Keaton was able to make those 15 light years without being destroyed. Shields modification was required, and that's where Operations got in, well...Tactical Operations to be exact, and of course, Engineering. Power allocation played a major role in both Operations and Engineering.

Calculating how much power to divert from this system to that one, in order to gain some extra 'juice' for the shields was not an easy job. Michael had to review about a dozen padds from Engineering, Science, Advanced Tactical and Operations. His rubbed his eyes and stretched for the 5th time...it was clear he needed a rest, and that's after Commander Thomas told him to get some rest, but he wanted the ship to be ready if and when they will find the Xerxes.

He sat back in his chair and sighed when the doors suddenly chimed. He was surprised since he wasn't expecting any visitors, and there were no appointments scheduled for today.

The doors opened and revealed a young lieutenant. It was Lieutenant Chillemi, a member of the Operations team. "Sir, I brought the latest reports from Operations Management...I hope I'm not interrupting anything" she said with an odd expression on her face indicating she probably hesitated once or twice before coming to Michael. For some reason, the younger officers in Ops, were a bit worried to approach Jamson directly.

"No, you're not...I was just working on some energy modifications for the shields. I could use a break...". Anna just stood there at attention, silent. "Mmm..." Jamson reviewed the Padds slowly, "I see I have to go to Engineering myself...Oh well Lieutenant, would you like to join?".

Lieutenant Chillemi stared at him for a moment, puzzled, trying to understand if what she heard was right and not sure what to say "Ahhh...sure...yes, Sir...".

"Excellent, maybe you'll finally learn something..." Jamson was kidding, but Anna didn't seem to have a sense of humor, not when Michael Jamson, the furious ex-captain, stubborn egghead said it, "Aye...Sir".

-----
Dr. Andree Dothan, (Lt. J.G.)
Medical Dept, USS Galaxy
-----

***Cargo bay 2***

Andree was playing a board game with Christian Thomas, when he recieved a hail

=^=Dr. Maas to Dr. Dothan.=^=

Tapping his combadge, he replied, "Dothan here,"

=^=Prepare two medkits, and two radiation kits. We Will need them for a shuttle mission into the Badlands.=^=

"Got it. Anything else?"

=^=No, just bring them to Main Sickbay=^=

"Ok then, Dothan Out"

"Well chris, We'll continue this another time. Go get some sleep," Andree told the Petty Officer

"Well, Goodnight then," he said before leaving.

***Later***

Andree walked into cargo bay 4. Searching amont the various storage pods, he consulted his PADD.

Finding the Pod he was looking for, he opened it ant took out four empty medical kits, before walkint to the next Isle, cases in hand. Setting them down, he opened two of them up, and pulled two medical tricorders out of another pod.

The foam rubber padding in the cases was designed to be easy to shape to the equipment to be placed in the kits. Making a spot for the tricorder, and putting them in. Andree was ready to move on.

'Tricorders, Hypos, Dermal regenerators, Cordrazine, Hyronalin, Metrazene, that should do it.' Andree thought to himself, before closing up the specialized Medkits.

Slinging two over each shoulder, Andree headed for main sickbay.

***Sickbay***

Finding Dr. Mass working on an inventory, Dr. Dothan approached, and said "I've got those medkits Sir"

Dr. Maas opened the kits and inspected the contents. "Excellent work, but what's with the PADD's?"

Andree pulled one out and activated it, before handing it to his CO, saying, "they contain a checklist of supplies that are normally kept on shuttles, I figured it wouldn't hurt to double-check, and make sure the shuttle has the supplies we would expect it to." Andree was pleased at how thorough he had been in preparing the kits

OOC: takes place erlier, before Quark left the USS Galaxy on the Defiant.

“Fraternizing with a Ferengi”

Lieutenant (j/g) Adrian An'quinsos
With:
Co-Ten forward Hostess Electra
And
Quark
With
An unauthorized appearance form
Ensign Lockheart

“Now what was it that mom used to say about Feringi’s?” Adrian muttered to himself as he slowly trudged down the hall toward Ten Forward. The day had gone by slowly with barely anyone to talk to, and everyone was concentrating on the mission. Thinking about Feringi’s brought his mind back to something his mom found rather ‘interesting’ “Oh yes,” He muttered to himself with a grin. “She said a Ferengi could work through an entire community of Pakleds in less than six hours, leaving in his wake, a stream of empty wallets and faulty salad shooters!”

*** Ten forward ***

“So, have you heard anything from Zerhi?”

“You!”

Adrian turned around to see Quark entering Ten-Forward, and heading his way, with an inquisitive look on his face. The Ferengi Bartender had noted that when he first met the ‘young’ humanoid, that there was something unusual about him, the twinkle in his eyes, the smile, or possibly the fact that he acted older than he looked, who knows?

Luckily for Quark, the place had not been too busy, although Adrian did note

“You were aboard Deep Space 9!” He looked over at Electra.

“Yes Quark, he's a member of the crew.”

“I can see that!” He snapped. “So, what are you exactly?”

“Quark!” She regaled.

“Ship shrink; lost mind, will counsel!”

Lexi looked over at the blue-eyed humanoid and grinned. Quark muttered something about humans under his breath, to which Adrian heard very well.

“And no Quark, I am not… Huumahn!” He stressed with an almost Ferengi-like quality. “I’m an El-Aurian.”

“El-Aurian…” his face scrunched up a little. “I’ve heard of your kind.”

Adrian raised a brow. He didn’t know whether he was insulted or complemented by that off-handed remark.

“Quark!” Electra exclaimed.

“Your homeworld was destroyed by the Borg.” He replied re-calling what little information he had on them.

“Just too bad my homeworld was destroyed Quark,” Adrian said with a small grin. “Think of the profit the Ferenginar Trade Alliance would have!”

He paused and glanced over at him. “Now I remember…” His eyes grew big. “Now I remember,” He repeated. “It was a guy named… Martus”

“Oh know!” He mumbled under his breath with a groan. “On behalf of my people I would like to apologize for such an… annoying life form!” He replied. He looked over at Alexa, and mentioned something to her in El-Aurian. Lexi nodded and went into the backroom. “So Quark how has your stay aboard the Galaxy been?” He motioned the bartender to have a seat. Quark pulled out the seat and did so.

“Alright, if you like having someone watching over your shoulder!”

“Ah yes,” He leaned back a little on his chair. “Young Ensign Lockheart. I’ll expect he’ll be looking for you soon.”

“Speaking of young,” Quark began with a hint of curiosity in his voice, and wanting to change the subject a little. “How old are you anyway?”

“Age is a frame of reference, a measure of our abilities.” He looked over at the Ferengi with a grin. “In the meaningful humanoid sense, or the more traditional sense of the term?”

“I’ll settle for the ‘traditional’ to keep you from spouting off in riddles!

“I’ll turn 161 in approximately two months and thirteen days.” He looked past him, glancing out the window a moment. “I’m actually pretty young for a member of a race.”

Alexa came out of the back with a royal blue bottle. Stopping at the bar, she grabbed two glasses picking up the bottle, she carefully makes her way to the table. Both men fall silent as Lexi pops open the cork, and pours form it a pale green concoction. Closing it, she sets the bottle down, and slowly makes her way back to the bar.

“Call me if you need anything Quinn.” She replied.

“Will do Lexi.”

“What is it?” He asked with a suspicious look on his face.

“It’s a El-Aurian brandy.” The young humanoid answered with a small grin. “Usually, El-Aurians have a high metabolism and only on extreme occasions do you find on actually drunk. This brand in particular has a relatively low alcohol content, allowing the subject to actually enjoy the beverage.”

“It looks a little bit like sluggo cola.”

“It may look a little strange, however, it has an agreeable taste.” Adrian took a sip. “Sluggo cola isn’t that bad!” He retorted.

The Ferengi smelled of it a moment before taking a drink. He had a small smile on his face as he took a big quaff of the pale green concoction.

“Wow,” He responded rather loudly. “That’s pretty good! The taste is...

“Unique?” He suggested

“Where did you get it?” “Come, come, Mr. Quark,” Adrian chided. “We all have our sources!”

“Name the price.” He stated with an infectious grin.

“A while ago I inherited a castle on Betazed that belonged to my sister. Since then I’ve been receiving interesting odds and ends from Betazed, everything from unique textiles, to drinks of every sorts.” He paused as the Quark leaned in. “I’ll be happy to give you the several bottle I have. I’ve no real use for the stuff.”

“No price?”

“I suggest you heed the Rule of Acquisition, number 57.”

“Good customers are as rare as Latinum.” He responded as if he had the rules before him.

“You got it.” “Quark!”

The two humanoids peered towards the door, and noticed a young-looking individual at the door of Ten forward, approaching them fast. Adrian and Quark looked at one another with mixed expressions on their faces.

“Don’t worry Mr. Lockheart, he’s been with me this entire time.”

“I thought I you were in your Quarters!”

“I was, until I became bored and decided to do something about it!”

“Mr. Quark has been no trouble since he’s been here.” Adrian spoke up with a minor degree of firmness in his voice. “In fact, I’ve enjoyed his company since he’s been here, and look forward to enjoying it again!”

“Thank you...”

“Quinn.”

“Thank you Quinn.” He replied with a slight smile. “It’s good to know I have a friend somewhere.”

“Let’s go Mr. Quark, before the General has both of our heads!”

Quark and the security officer left the room with little time to spare. The El-Aurian glanced up with a somber expression on his countenance as he finished off his drink.

"Paperwork."
By Ensign Peter Lockhart

"You're SCUMBAGS!" Peter bawled, pacing back and forth in front of the brig cells. "You start a fight in Ten Forward and disrupt the peace. Only real scum do that!" he continued, on a false ego trip. "What are you?"

"Shut up Ensign." Crewman Kevinson replied. "You can hardly talk."

Peter halted in his pacing and stepped up to the cell. "What did you say Yeoman?" he asked coldly.

"I said, stop the act and just file the report." Adam Kevinson replied.

"Okay." Peter said, smiling and turning back to the desk to file the report about the barfight in Ten Forward that Lieutenant O'Grady had broken up earlier. In the other cell Crewman Lansing was sleeping off the alcohol he'd consumed before the fight.

"How long will we spend in here then Ensign?" Kevinson asked again.

"Ohhh... just the night I should think. It'll be recorded on your record that you were involved in a fight in Ten Forward, but I doubt that'll hurt your career much! Look at me! I did it and I'm still here!" Peter joked.

"You're still an Ensign though sir."

"I know, but by damn that reporter should count himself lucky." Peter said, totally oblivious to the fact that the equivalent note on his service record was hindering his slight chance of promotion. "So who was she?" Peter asked.

"Ensign Brooks from the Science department." Kevinson replied.

Peter whistled. "Maybe I'll just keep you two locked up here for a bit, whilst I go and explain to Ensign Brookes what happened. If afterwards, I invite her for a drink, well..... could be my lucky day!"

Kevinson's faced turned dark as he glanced at Peter. "You try it and...."

"I'm joking. Ensign Brookes is nice, but not my type..... uhhh.... I mean...." Peter said, continuing to dig himself into a hole. "She's very pretty!" he said, trying to extract himself, "but I've got my eye on someone else."

"No doubt sir." Kevinson said, and turned back towards his bunk. "I'm going to join Lansing and get some rest if you don't mind." he finished coldly.

"Be my guest. I've got some reports to fill in." Peter said tapping on his computer.

After a few minutes, once Kevinson appeared to have nodded off, Peter picked up a PADD and continued the game of Freecell he was playing, every now and then looking up to make sure he wasn't likely to be bothered.

"A Sudden Change"
Lt Eric Odin
Lt (jg) Michala Lynn

Eric tied the belt to his training outfit and began his journey to the holodeck to try out his newest training program. In his training exercises with increased gravity his speed had grown exponentially. He entered the holodeck after downloading the program into the main drive.

He then entered and the looked of a mostly plains planet with a few trees and some rocky and smooth hills around as well. he had programmed in the hardest possible enemy and he believed he could come out on top even though it would take something beyond that of his current level. he had a few tricks up his sleeve that might just get him the victory.

He then said, "Begin program." He got down in a fighting position as his opponent appeared. He ran towards him and threw a punch but the opponent dodged it a bit too easily. He then threw a flurry of punches and kicks. All were intercepted or dodged and he was surprised at how well he had done in the design of this opponent.

The opponent now went on the offensive throwing punches a kicks that were barely dodged and deflected. The last punch got through and hit his gut hard. Eric doubled over and quickly righted himself and backed away good 10 yards. He then pulled back both of his hands and fired an energy beam strait at the opponent. The enemy fired his own energy beam. Both of the energy beams collided in midair and both yelled as their energy beams went back and forth.

Eric couldn't believe how big both of their energy blasts had grown. he thought that maybe the ship would register a small energy spike in the holodeck, but changed his focus to winning. His blast was currently being pushed back and he didn't know how much more he could give. he was becoming enraged at the fact that more than just he could be hurt by this blast. he had not thought about it before, but with the size of both of their blasts the parameters of the holodeck would probably be exceeded and real damaged would occur.

He had to win, but he had lost sight of where the door to the holodeck was. He noticed that the opponents blast was nearly on top of him. he began to think of all that this could possibly injure and just as it appeared the blast would overtake him in a burst of rage and power he sent the opponents blast right back at him. The blast smashed the opponent and luckily only destroyed the inside of the holodeck as well as damaging the door very badly. In that fit of rage, and the energy surge that followed, something had changed inside Eric Odin. He could feel it.

This was more than he thought possible he did not even know anything like this was possible at all. He casually pushed the broken holodeck doors aside and looked out the door to check to see if anyone else had been around when that blast had occurred he wondered if this would have any effect on his abilities thus far.

"Eric, are you all right?" The voice sounded from behind him. Michala was sensing something from Eric that made the skin on her arms stand up. She looked at the holodeck and glanced inside. "Oh Eric, don't you learn? Didn't you get into enough hot water with the CO over the last override?" Eric heard the voice and turned to her and spoke almost as if two voices were speaking at the same time and said, "Michala, I did that destruction when I reached whatever I am right now." Residual static electric charges were still lingering around Eric's limbs as he pointed at the holodeck from where he came.

"Eric, you need to come to sickbay and let me see what this is; Before it is a danger to the ship." Her voice was low and hushed.

Eric answered her and said, "Sure let's go."

Michala led the way to the med bay and indicated a bio bed. The readings she was picking up on the tricorder was something she had never seen in either of her memories or life. "I was not aware that Trill's went through transformations of any kind Eric. Do you have any idea what this is? Did you expose yourself to any unknown element lately?"

"I was not aware of that either Michala. I do not know what this could be. I'm not sure what to make of it." he was still baffled himself by this incredible turn of events.

" Your readings here are showing high levels of neuro activity. In addition, the symbiant seems to be growing." She informed quietly, feeling a sense of panic at having encountered something unknown so completely.

"Growing?" He asked. Why would it be growing he ventured to himself?

"Yes, growing as in increased in size by 10%." She said with concern.

"Is anything being damaged?" He was happy to see Michala again. it had been awhile, but he was concerned for himself as well as others who could get hurt by this if he didn't find out what it was.

"Not yet, I will need to run some tests. Also, Eric, I am going to have to inform command and security. I hope you understand, it regulations." She said quietly.

"What regulations?," he asked not aware of them.

"As a doctor, I am required to report anything that could be a danger to the ship. Because I don't know what this is, Eric, I have to assume it could be. Especially after having seen the state of the holodeck. I would not be surprised to see Security beat me to it when they discover the state of that holodeck." Michala stepped back from the bio bed. "Computer, activate a level 10 forcefield on my authorization Lynn4529, lockout commands from Lt. Eric Odin." She commanded. She looked across at Eric, "Sorry! I will be back to run those tests as soon as I have reported to security and command." Michala made a mental note, she would have to let the new CMO know as well.

Eric laid there on the bio bed and felt slightly angered that Michala had set up a forcefield around him, but then understood that she needed to keep others away from him. He at least hoped that was her main reason why. She knew him and he hadn't changed as far as he knew so he couldn't hurt anyone. He would just have to wait her out. It truly was a pleasure to see her again though.

Michala was not pleased with having to isolate her friend. But she had never seen anything like what she had just witnessed and the readings were totally unheard of. She contacted security first.

"Meltdowns"
by Captain Robert Edward Lee Price

*** USS Xerxes ***

At literally the worst possible moment, the huge pressure doors that had sealed off main engineering from the rest of the ship were manually opened, allowing Captain Victoria Curtis and several members of her crew to come storming in, weapons at the ready.

On the deck level, Lieutenant Commander George Nugent was frantically trying to get up enough pressure in the damaged hydraulic warp core ejection mechanism to dump the warp core before it overloaded and destroyed the USS Xerxes. Not very far away, Commander Eddie Brookland was reading the control panel, calling out the current pressure.

On the upper level, the three New Maquis Terrorists where holding onto the hydraulic column with specially gloved hands, in an attempt to stop the leaks long enough to allow the pressure to build up and discharge the core to outer space.

When Captain Curtis and her band of storm troopers came charging into the main engineering deck, Rychord instinctively turned and saw what was coming. "I have to let go. It's up to you now Rudy."

The elderly Maquis member gave Rychord a dirty look. He would of much rather let go himself and let Rychord hold on to that damned pole, even if it meant he had to fight off an entire battalion of Starfleet officers. Adjusting his grip hastily, Rudy did his best to take up the slack where Rychord let go.

Rychord grabbed his phaser riffle and fired down at the approaching Starfleet Officers, causing them to seek cover.

Captain Curtis called out, seeing her wounded First Officer standing on just one leg, and 'Commander Nugent frantically operating the engineering console. "What is our status Commander?!" Victoria called out.

"Not very frigin' rosy at the moment Captain." Eddie called back. "Cooling system to the Warp core has been damaged along with the hydraulic ejection system. We are trying to build up enough pressure to dump the core now."

George jumped in, "YOU ARE NOT HELPING SIR. HAVE THE CREW STAND DOWN OR WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

Lieutenant Commander Chin, Lieutenant' Agogo, Counselor Bree had all taken up positions near the Captain with their weapons drawn and ready. Lieutenant' Lypglose was the last one to join the rescue party, she carefully brushed a lock of golden hair out of her way before scrunching down behind the Captain and taking a 'Charlie's Angle's' pose behind Victoria when she was finally ready. Jamie seemed to always be fashionably late wherever she went.

Raising a hand, Captain Curtis agreed. "Hold your fire."

On the second level, Rychord had taken a good position and was still laying down suppression fire to keep the Starfleet Officers at bay. "Tell your Starfleet buddies to stay out of here if they know what's good for them."

"Yo, take a chill pill man. You aren't helping by firing that phaser in here. That's what got us into this mess to begin with." Commander Brookland scolded up to the second level.

"What is the pressure?" George called out.

Eddie looked. "It's at one eighty and rising slowly."

"It's got to get higher, at least two twenty to activate the latches that hold the warp core in place." George explained. He then cursed, "Damn! The temperatures in the warp core are rising. She's gonna blow in under ten minutes at this rate."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Captain Curtis called out from the entrance to Engineering.

"Not unless you have a spare warp core cooling system in your pocket Captain." 'Commander Nugent replied.

"How badly is the cooling system damaged?" Chin asked.

"It's pretty bad. I haven't been able to look. I'm trying to stabilize the pressure from this station." Nugent explained.

Just then, Curtis got up and handed his phaser to the Captain. Victoria looked at the Operations Manager, reading his plans in his eyes. "Are you sure about this Curtis? They may shoot you on site."

"I'm willing to risk it Captain. Besides, if we don't get the warp core temperature down, we are all going to die anyway." Curtis said smiling as he usually does to hide his concerns and fears.

With a nod, Chin walked into main engineering. He held his hands open, with palms out in the universal sign of 'don't fire!'

"I'm unarmed. I can help." Curtis said as he walked across the engineering room floor.

Rychord took aim on the Asian officer, but when he saw he was unarmed and wanted to help save the ship, the Bajoran cell leader relaxed a bit and let him through.

"What can I do to help Chief?" Curtis asked.

"Go up to the second level and inspect the punctured coolant lines. See if they are repairable or not. We may be able to patch them and cool the warp core down if we can't get the hydraulics working to dump the core." George explained.

"I gotcha chief." Chin responded. He then started for the second level.

"Pressure is dropping!" Eddie called out, "It's down to one ten!"

Rychord swung around and could see that Rudy had let go of the hydraulic column as he was moving to the other side to allow the Starfleet Officer to pass by him.

Realizing his mistake, Rudy quickly placed his hands back on the leaving hydraulic column. "Whoops." Was all the oldtimer had to offer.

Curtis got to the coolant supply line and could see the damage that the phaser strikes had caused. Deadly coolant was leaking out of the lines. "It looks pretty bad, but it may be repairable."

"Be careful 'Commander. The coolant will eat right through your uniform and skin if it touches you." the Chief Engineer warned.

Looking over near the damaged coolant line, Curtis could see that the toxic fluid had eaten through the heavy support, causing it to crunch down on one of the hydraulic lines that supplied the release mechanism. "It looks like there is a support structure pinching off one of the hydraulic lines Chief. I think if I can find something to pry it away, we may be able to get the pressure up high enough to eject the core."

"Well hurry man! The temperatures are in the critical zone already." George declared.

Glancing around, Curtis looked for something he could use to pry the support beam away with. He located a lever used to manually secure the jefferies tubes and began using it as a pry bar. The beam was heavy, so 'Commander Chin needed to put a lot of his weight into it. He finally got it to budge suddenly. Too suddenly.

Commander Brookland blinked and then declared, "Pressure is rising rapidly. One sixty, one eighty, two hundred, two twenty..."

Curtis had pulled with such force, that the beam that was pinching off the hydraulic line was freed from the ledge that was supporting it, causing it to swing out a couple of feet. The sudden shift cause Lieutenant Commander Chin to loose his balance as his footing slipped out from under him, causing him to fall and get wedged in between the beam and the support... Right in line with the leaking warp core coolant.

Immediately Lieutenant Commander Curtis Chin began screaming in agony as the toxic warp core coolant began eating away his uniform, his flesh, his organs, and his bones. It was a grotesque site.

"Chin! No!!!!" Counselor Brittany Bree screamed with an outstretched hand.

George cringed at hearing Curtis meet such a horrible death, but he had a job to perform if he was going to save the ship and the lives of everyone remaining on the Xerxes so Chin didn't die in vain. Seeing the pressure of the ejection system had reached above two twenty, he began activating the ejection sequence.

"Let go of the column and back away!" the Chief ordered.

Red lights illuminated around Main Engineering. An audible warning signal sounded along with the automatic computer message, ["Warning. Warp core ejection sequence has been engaged."]

A shimmering blue forcefield enveloped the tall cylindrical warp core sheath. The mechanical sounds of the latches disengaging could be heard just as the central core was ejected out of the bottom of the Xerxes. On the second level, the Maquis members just got out of the way in time before the forcefield sealed off the warp core sheath. A moment later and one or more of them would have been sealed in with the warp core and ejected into open space.

Just three seconds later, the USS Xerxes shook from the shock wave of the exploding warp core which sent ripples through out the surrounding plasma fields.

The immediate threat eliminated, the tactical minded New Maquis Terrorists took little time to celebrate. Kelly had already taken up her weapons and was pointing them at the Chief Engineer and First officer while Rudy and Rychord held the Captain and the rest of the Starfleet officers back in the main corridor entrance to engineering.

Rychord called out. "Hold your position Captain, or your Chief Engineer and his friend will be the first to go."

Captain Curtis was angry. Who was this person to dictate terms on board her vessel? If it wasn't for these terrorists, the Xerxes would still be whole. The POWs would be heading home on board the Galaxy after a visit to DS9. Her Operations Manager Curtis Chin would still be alive.

"Hasn't this gone on long enough? You've lost. You are out numbers, and you have no where left to run to. End this and I promise you will be treated fairly." The Captain shouted back.

Rychord looked like he was thinking about it. This angered Kelly.

"We have the upper hand Starfleet. We have control of this ship. All systems are run from engineering. Everyone knows that. And we have engineering!" Kelly hollered back.

"You just ejected the warp core Einstein." Jordan called back, "What is there to control from Engineering?"

The statement pissed off Kelly. She fired her phaser towards the corridor out of spite.

***

*** USS Galaxy ***

Captain Price cleared his voice while he sat in his ready room before his monitor. The image switched to that of Gul Jolan on board the Hutet.

"G'day Gul. I have an update on our findings thus far in the Badlands."

Gul Jolan held his air of Cardassian superiority as he replied, ["I look forward to your report Captain..."]

"We believe that the Xerxes survived at least the initial entry into the plasma fields. Search teams have discovered one of the Xerxes flight records that was ejected by the crew. Though it is badly damaged, we have recovered some of the message that was last recorded on it before it was deployed." Captain Price explained.

["This is an interesting development Captain Price. Does it confirm that the Xerxes attacked the Rhemor?"] Jolan asked.

"Quite to the contrary. The crew of the Xerxes report that a hostile force had taken over the ship and they were fighting to regain control." Captain Price explained.

["How convenient Captain..."] Gul Jolan stated skeptically.

"I will transmit the recording that we have been able to salvage. At the time this recording was made, there were over two hundred surviving crew members on the Xerxes. The discovery of this flight recorder, along with other pieces of the starship's hull have given us an idea of her entry trajectory. We believe we may have pinpointed the route the Xerxes took. Though we are not certain that our shuttles will be able to enter deep enough into the plasma flows of the Badlands to recover her. If we are able to locate the Xerxes at all. Though we haven't given up hope yet." Price explained.

["Please keep me informed of your progress, or lack of it."] Jolan stated, ["Cardassian technology may allow a more thorough search should your Federation vessels be unsuited for the task."]

"I will keep your offer in mind Gul." Lee replied diplomatically. "I 'll have the new data transmitted to your ship and will contact you when we have more information or if any new discoveries turn up."

["I await our next communication Captain and shall inform my people to prepare to receive the new data. Hutet out."] Jolan closed.

Captain Price had just closed the channel when his comm badge chirped. Reaching across his chest, he tapped in. "Price here."

The voice of Lieutenant Bruce MaxWell was on the other end. ["Sorry to disturb you Captain, but this is important.]

"No worries 'mate. What is it Lieutenant?" Lee responded to the Chief Flight Control Officer.

["Unfortunately it's a rather embarrassing mess sir. Ensign Tarsonis has landed into another spot of trouble. If you could meet me in the brig, I can fill you in sir. I need to find out how you want this handled."] Bruce explained candidly.

Lee rolled his eyes. He just got through disciplining the Ensign for disengaging the holodeck safeties not a few hours earlier. He felt bad doing so, but knew it was important that the crew followed protocol when using the ship's systems and equipment to avoid unnecessary injuries to themselves or other crew members. In order to allow the new Ensign to make it up, he had seen to it that Drake would be allowed to relieve the search and rescue pilot of one of the shuttles, just to let the young officer know his Captain hadn't lost faith in his abilities to be a good officer.

"I understand 'mate. I'm on my way now." Lee responded moving towards the exit to his office.

["Thank you sir. MaxWell out."]

Lee exited the ready room and crossed the bridge to the turbolift. While riding in the lift, another hail came in. the General tapped his badge once again.

"Price here. Go ahead 'mate."

["Doctor Lynn here Captain. I am afraid I have to report a rather bizarre accident on the holodeck."] Michala explained.

Lee just about flipped out. *holodeck, holodeck holodeck!* he thought. The Captain wished he could just rip all of the holodecks out of the ship if it would cause people to be responsible and use the equipment wisely. "What happened Doctor?"

["I am uncertain sir. Lieutenant Odin was running a martial arts exercise program and it appears there was some sort of malfunction. Like a power overload or something. An energy bolt shocked Eric and resulted in the destruction of the holodeck."] Michala reported.

"Were the safeties engaged Doctor?" Lee immediately asked. If Ensign Tarsonis had forgot to reengage them, and another officer used the holodeck without checking that they were active....

["That is what I though too Captain, but Eric says they were on, and I've checked the holodeck logs and it shows that to be true. I'm no engineer, but it might have something to do with our location so close to all this plasma energy. Anyway, Eric is in sickbay now and is experiencing very strange neuro activity. I have him under observation, and have erected an isolation & containment force around his biobed until we understand what is happening to him."] Michala explained.

The Captain's lift halted and the doors opened. Lee stepped out and started heading towards the brig to see what Lieutenant MaxWell had to report about Ensign Tarsonis. "Is that really necessary Doctor? He only received a shock, isn't that correct?"

["I don't know Captain. To tell you the truth, I don't know what to make of this. The readings indicate that the Trill Symbiot inside Eric is growing in size. Until I know for certain he poses no threat to the ship, I will follow Starfleet protocol."] Michala reasoned.

"Sounds like a good plan 'mate. Keep me posted. If need be, consult with Doctor Maas. I can get him back on the Galaxy if you need him to examine Lieutenant Odin." Lee stated.

["I can handle it for now Captain. But believe me, if I need the Chief's help, I'll be the first to hail."] Michala agreed.

"Fair dinkum Doctor. Keep me posted. Price out."

Lee tapped his badge to deactivate it, and then started walking down the corridor towards the Brig where he was to meet with Lieutenant MaxWell about his new trouble Ensign Drake Tarsonis had managed to get himself into.

By: Lieutenant Jake T Olson Lt. j'g Seth Goneb JP

Only hours earlier Seth was training on the holodeck with the new Andorian. He thought of how ironic it was that his current companion would have been bigoted against her. "We will never make it across this desert in the time allotted at this pace."

"You decided to take me along." Scott panted. "Humans aren't designed for this environment." ~I am not a fucking lizard like you are Ass Face!~

The previous simulation had actually left Seth tired. Now the heat soaked into his scales and comforted him.

The security guard just swiveled one eye to look at the man. The gorn's assigned task was to give Scott some physical training for discipline. Nothing worked better then a long hike.

"Like I said, we aren't designed the same." Scott was trying to be diplomatic, and not say something bigoted. You don't fuck with the troops in their own church!

"That is why this simulation is so good." The gorn really didn't care what the man thought. This was the punishment prescribed and Seth meant to see that it was carried out.

"Whatchu mean?" Scott was getting annoyed. Slither Face was talking in circles.

"Humans don't fair as well in these conditions." The lizard explained. "While Gorn love it. That make it perfect punishment for you."

Scott was soon thinking of ways of how to roast himself some iguana stew! That's what this ass hole was, an oversized iguana! He was beginning to wonder if there would be a way to ditch this reptile. Unfortunately, he didn't know that this was not a vegetarian sun bather from Mexico. He remembered his little brother's pet 'dragon lizard'.

One of the lizard's eyes stayed on the human. Mostly just to freak him out while the two traveled across the wasteland. It didn't matter to Seth if Scott tried to run away. The human would soon find himself in more trouble if they separated. Besides the terrible smelling Ensign the forked tongue flicking out could also smell desert wolves.

"We ain't alone out here," Scott stared at the tricorder. "What the fuck did you cook up?"

"Realistic desert conditions." The gorn's other eye looked at the sun descending the sky. "There is a shuttle 50 kilometers away we should try to get to."

"Deserts don't come with dogs." Scott shot back.

"Wild dogs of your Earth's Australia live in desert." The Gorn pointed out. He had used this program before for practicing his tracking.

"Australia?"

"The Captain's home country." Seth was surprised at how little the human knew.

"Great." and knowing this ass hole, the 'doggies' wouldn't be friendly. And he was getting seriously tired of being stared at.

=^=Bright Spot to Seth=^= cut in on Scott's comment.

Seth tapped the badge on his barrel thick chest. "Go ahead."

=^=Sorry to cut in to your off time, but Jake Olson has been released and all charges dropped.=^=

"I'm sure Mr. Dunson will be glad to hear that." Seth wasn't thrilled about the interruption but when duty called the lizard was always ready. "He's in holodeck one with me now doing his training."

=^=Yes Sir=^= Bright Spot closed the connection.

"We will never make it across this desert in the time allotted at this pace. " the Gorn repeated his original statement. It wasn't really that great at motivating the human but it wasn't meant to.

"She said your off duty. What the hell are you doing here with me then?" Scott didn't understand this bastard.

"I need a good stroll in the desert." Seth said past all his pointy teeth that almost constituted as a smile. "You need someone to supervise."

Scott didn't have the breath to answer. He just muttered, too low to be heard or so he thought. "Just what I need, stuck in the desert with a half wit iguana!"

Gorn hearing was tuned to hunting and hearing the slightest rustle of predator or prey. So Seth heard every word of the man's muttering. This time he let the words pass. "You are lucky I'm on your side. You think these teeth are for carrots?"

"Your not vegetarian?!" Scott was honestly surprised rather than intimidated as the Gorn thought he would.

"I prefer my prey while its heart still beats." The lizard explained. He didn't know how anyone on the ship could confuse him for vegetarian.

"I thought you was related to the iguana!" Scott was gaping.

"Closer related to Komodo Dragon." The Gorn remembered his Earth cousins from his academy days.

"Ain't never heard of that one." Scott shook his head.

"Or the crocodile."

"Um, crocodile? You don't look like a newt to me." Scott said seriously. He was just too tired to make slander.

"Newts are amphibians." This humans skull must be thicker then a Gorn to not under stand some basic biology.

"This ain't amphibian country." Scott was mentally so lost. What was this iguana face talking about now?

Seth didn't consider himself a scholar by any means but now he was beginning to wonder how this man did his job. The Gorn could now see the connection humans had with other primates.

"Talk to Jake, he knows all about the slithering whatever that your talking about." Scott was wandering mentally.

The gorn still kept and eye on the man. "If ever I need stimulating conversation I know not to come to you now."

"I hear something?" Scott became alert. In fact, there was a rustle. One of the wolves came to investigate. The Gorn turned his body more then his head so the red forked tongue could smell the air. The wolf wasn't far away. In fact it jumped out of the rock cropping at Scott. Seth knocked the human out of the way so the wolf hit a green brick wall. The animal tried to jump at the human and it got claws raked down its side.

Blood sprayed on the sand as the wolf yelped and missed its target. It didn't even try to get up as it lay panting on the hard ground.

Seth heard Scott retching. "Fuck," That was the most disgusting sight the Human had ever seen. Scott's world wavered, and blacked out.

=/\= "Surok's Log number 1" =/\=
by Lt Cmdr Surok
Operations Officer, USS Normandy

*** Deep Space ***

The USS Normandy hurtled through real space at the extremely relativistic speed of point nine eight c. She was pacing a great glowing object, which was as long as one of the Normandy's nacelles and spinning as it went.

*** Bridge, Normandy ***

Kylie Udall, the Normandy's science officer, spoke up from her station. "Captain, the artifact's spin is altering flash rate again. It's going to change speed like it did last time."

In the center of the command well, captain T'Keth Molicgh drummed his stubby green fingers upon his chair's armrests. "Alright. We'll wait for another speed change and then cease this pursuit for a while. We can review our findings in normal-time. Surok?" The captain frequently asked Surok for his observations on unexplained phenomena; he often benefitted from the prudent logic of the ship's only Vulcan officer.

Surok stood at the Ops station aft of the captain. He was just over two meters in height, with reddish-black hair typical to the region of Vulcan from which he hailed. His ears were very long and pointed. "Provided the lieutenant's conjecture is accurate, I would advise that we can afford the continued relativistic effects. So far, we have only lost six days relative to Sector zero-zero-one," he explained. Due to the extremely high speeds of their chase, time outside the ship was passing much faster than time inside the ship; about seven times as fast. As a result, six days had passed outside that the crew inside never experienced.

"However," Surok went on, "Lieutenant Udall is basing her prediction upon the correllation between the last two alterations in flash rate and the last two alterations in speed. There is insufficient evidence to prove a causal relationship."

Kylie, accustomed to Surok's high standards of proof that so frequently threatened to stifle her sudden inspirations and theories, countered with her secret weapon. "Well then, 'commander, why don't we observe, and attempt to gather more supportive evidence?"

Surok nodded his agreement in the manner he picked up while at the Academy. In the predominately Human StarFleet, it paid to master Earth's non-verbal communication forms.

The commanding officer stopped drumming his fingers and barked out a seal-like laugh. He bore a slight resemblance to a sea lion, as a matter of fact. His people were amphibious sentients known as Brillayence from the planet Burrill. "You two never cease to humor me! It is settled then. We will observe the artifact for three more hours, ship-time, before letting it go on its way. After we review the datum, we can go back for more! That is, assuming our engines are not showing any signs of eminent failure?" he said in a questioning tone.

The engineer, ensign Borkk, turned to face the command well. "Captain, the engines are performing flawlessly. Chief Garrett informs me that we may remain at high sub-light speeds indefinitely."

*** about three hours later, in the Mess ***

Surok and lieutenant Udall sat across from each other at the small table below the large viewport in the Mess hall. 'Commander Surok held a mug of subtly-spiced Brunian leek soup between his palms. He was concentrating on the conduction of heat through the mug's walls. Kylie was slicing her synth-bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich in half using a broad-bladed knife. It made a crunching sound and small bits of crispy brown 'bacon' flew about.

Some of the 'bacon' landed in the leek soup. "Oops," expressed Kylie as Surok raised an eyebrow and peered into his mug. He considered only a moment before lifting the mug to his lips for a sip. "Salty," he expressed in a neutral tone. "Very salty and strongly-flavored as I would predict. But not offensive."

"It's meat," she blurted. He looked at her placidly. "Okay, it's not really meat. But I wouldn't think you would want to eat it because it tastes just like meat!"

Surok responded, "Modern Vulcans are descended from omnivores like your species. I am capable of digesting complex proteins if necessary. It would be illogical to avoid new experiences based upon a dietary rule constructed before food replication technology proliferated throughout society." Certain that she would make no further argument, he changed the subject. "I will advise the captain to discontinue our investigation of the near-lightspeed artifact."

"What??" exclaimed the science officer. "How can we give up this opportunity for study?"

"Our scans so far have revealed a very small amount of data. Our research capabilities are limited by the absence of our modular sensor suite," he stated. During the war with the Dominion, many research vessels like the Normandy were reconfigured for battle by removing modular science pods and replacing them with weapons pods. The USS Normandy thus became a fierce combat vessel; but she lost nearly all of her specialized sensors.

Kylie narrowed her eyes and prepared to argue her point. "We can configure our existing sensor pallets to refine our study. In a week of study, we will be able to acquire a considerable mass of data."

"And delay the replacement of the Normandy's sensor suite by several weeks. I will propose to captain Molicgh that the Normandy return for the replacement of her sensor pod and then return to the artifact for further study. With the full capability of Starfleet's finest sensor package, you will acquire greater data in much less time."

Lieutenant Udall scooted lower in her seat and bit a greedy mouthfull of sandwich. With her mouth occupied by toasted bread, veggies and mock-meat she said, "Your transfer came through! Didn't it? You want us to go to Deep Space Nine so you can jump ship!"

"A coincidence, I assure you." Surok lifted his mug again and sipped his soup. He paused for a moment to let the steam dampen his face. There were so many experiences...

NRPG: Takes place right after "Preperation Part II "
by Lt. Commander Ethan Suder, Chief Engineer

"Contained Emotions"

Lieutenant Michael McDowell
Asst. Chief Engineer

*** USS Galaxy, Turbo Lift ***

Ordered to take a brake. It was the least Michael had expected, especially in their current situation. So it was a bit of a mystery to him why Ethan he send him on his way just to take some time for himself. Besides, he didn't want to wander around and do nothing. Working mostly kept his mind off his personal problems instead of constantly thinking about them. But Michael couldn't say he had been very productive the last few days. To others it might have looked that way,...he knew better. Half of the time he'd been standing in front of a console doing nothing else then staring at the data being displayed, or he found himself at completely the wrong location of the ship.

It were signs that his problems took over his life. While he should concentrate on the job at hand there were times where his problems took center stage. And lately that happened more and more. Michael tried hard to settle back in after his coma but with little to no success. Dealing with the memory loss was much harder then he thought. At first Michael had reasoned that it would take some time to pick up his life again but that in the end everything would be alright. It proved to be a wrong assumption; it got worse. Every time again he was confronted with it. It could be while working or when off duty and, however strange it may sound, it were almost always trivial things that made clear he missed parts of his life.

There were days that all this made Michael feel lost and alone, with no real bond with anyone on the ship except Ethan. Maybe that was the most difficult part of all. He couldn't just go to someone, throw it all out and be emotional, because he just wasn't that kind of person. Before Michael would open up to somebody, and really talk about his feelings and what was on his mind, he or she had to be a really good friend with a shoulder to lean on. Although Ethan was his best friend and he would trust him his life without a thought if the situation called for it, Michael didn't feel like bringing his problems to him. Not yet. He had the feeling it would become some kind of discussion, analyzing his problem to find a solution, like they did when they had a technical problem. And Michael felt that then he would be forced to contain his emotions and that was exactly what he needed to let go. He wanted to cry, scream, a chance to get rid of all the raw emotion, and someone who understood what he was going through and would help him to get his life back on track.

Again Michael found himself mulling over his problems. Various emotions came to surface. First frustration, then desperation, and in the end it was pain and deep sadness that took over and stayed. Tears in the corners of his eyes appeared. Only a few minutes later Michael composed himself again, glad that he was the only one occupying the Turbo Lift at this moment. Some would consider this a weakness or maybe even a sign of selfpitty but Michael was someone with strong emotions, though he was careful to show them to the outside world, and they came out on times like these when he was by himself.

"Computer, reroute Turbo Lift to Deck 4."

Originally Michael's plan was to go to his quarters and put his spare time to good use, like cleaning up the place. Now he knew that wouldn't help since it gave him too much time to think about his situation. Anything else was better than that, including going back to work. So the idea was to head for the Main Shuttlebay which was a busy place at this time. No doubt he could help out in making shield modifications to the shuttles and it was also a good place to 'hide' from Ethan. If he found him working instead of taking some time off then he surely would start asking questions,...and that was something Michael wanted to avoid.

USS Galaxy "Mind numbing boredom"
Written By Ensign Kahn Nilani
Engineering Officer, USS Galaxy

Nilani sat in the main shuttle bay working on one of the runabouts, she had a theory and was intent on proving it. She lay with her head underneath a console, her hands working with a number of tools in order to improve the runabouts sensor array.

She fumbled and the tool landed on her forehead "Stupid God Dammed Bloody thing!" she threw the tool out into the main runabout and seconds later heard a satisfying thud.

She pulled another tool from a kit and ran it over the components "Thank you, you pain in the ass!" she shouted. Seconds later the console flashed powered up then powered back down. "BLOODY HELL!" she shouted, sliding out from underneath the console and kicking it.

The console powered up and displayed the sensor settings. "Thank you" she smiled as she sat down and ran a diagnostic.

"Computer what is the projected estimate of sensor readout?" she waited as the computer spoke.

=/\= Sensors are now running 60% above normal readings =/\=

"Computer is there any projected degredation of the Sensors?"

=/\= Negative =/\=

Lieutenant Commander Ethan Suder - Chief Engineer
"Priority"

Ethan stroleld around Engineering, as usual, with a data padd in hand. Most of the Engineers were still busy with different tasks. Most running diagnostics on the computer systems, some still observing the debris.

"Chief!" Lieutenant Jiiles called.

Ethan turned to look for the tall Bolian and then found him in one of the darker corners of Engineering. Ethan strolled over to him and raised an eye brow.

"Sir, one of the Holodecks seems to haev overloaded a short while ago." the Lieutenant explained.

"Cause?" Ethan asked.

"I'm not sure yet. We'll have to have a closer look."

"casulties?"

"One, Odin." Jiiles replied.

"Odin." Ethan repeated quietly.

"He's in Sickbay, under observation, he took quite a blast."

"Find a replacement for his shift. I also want an update of his situation every twenty minutes." Ethan ordered.

"Aye, Chief. What about the Holodeck?"

"I want all Holodecks off limits until we know why. No one uses one unless they have mine or the Captains authority. Let the Captain know." Ethan stated.

"Isn' that a little drastic?" an Engineer noted as she passed the Chief and Lieutenant.

"Ensign, one man is in Sickbay, one Holodeck is inoperable, how drastic would you like things to get before we act?" Ethan snapped back.

"I see your point." the Ensign quietly said as she walked towards the warp core.

Ethan turned back to Lieutenant Jiiles. "Get someone to look at that Holodeck, but it's not the main priority."

"Undestood." the Lieutenant replied.

Ethan nodded and returned to his work...

"No Tea For Me"
By Lt (jg) Rose Isis MacAllen

Rose walks back from sickbay to her room to get ready for her duties in the science lab. She is so happy about going back to work in the science lab, but she still pissed off about just doing light duties for a week.

::Rose's room::

After a relaxing shower she picked up the PADD that the new Chief Medical Officer gave here for some tea that will help her with her nightmares. Then she just broke in half and throw it across the room.

"No tea for me if I have nightmares for the rest of my life it is the will of the Gods...not the will of men." she said out loud to herself. She sits down and wrote a letter to Commander Dallas to asks her set up an appointment with her. Then Rose's wrote the most wonderful love letter to her boyfriend, Lt Ragnald Gustavson:

"My Dearest Ragnald, oh gods how I missed you. I hope to have dinner with you soon my love. And maybe you can spend a night with me for I feel very mad and scared from the nightmares I been having. Only been your arms will make me feel more safer and more loved. I miss you Imzadi come back to me soon. Love your Princess Rose Isis"

Rose sent the letter off and walks out going for her duties in the science lab.

::Science Lab::

Rose enter the science lab and looks around. She can feel all of the crewmen were very happy to see her again then a young Bajoran female crewman came up to her with a smile.

"Ma'am we are so happy that you are back alive we where so worried about what happen to you. Plus the doctor want to make sure your just doing to do light duty so we have to watch you." the Bajoran said with a grin on her face.

Rose grins back and said, "Be careful crewman I will be back on full duty in a week you enjoy your "time off".

Then everybody started laughing inclueding Rose, now she feel safe and happy to be back in the science lab and in her work...plus making some new friends while she at it.

-----
Dr. Andree Dothan, (Lt, J.G.)
Medical Dept USS Galaxy
-----
(And Honarary Engineer)
-----

Andree made his way down to the holodeck, where Eric Odin had been injured.

Arriving there, he found that all holodecks had been shut down. *A reasonable precaution* he thought to himself.

"Computer, override security lockout, on this holodeck, authorization Dothan-nine-four-seven-epselon and verify voice print"

=Lockout disengaged=

As the pressure doors opened, with their normal whoosh-hiss, that was about all that was normal about the holodeck. most of the holo-grid appeared to have been damaged by some sort of power surge. fortunately the arch appeared to be undamaged, or at least its exterior.

Opening a panel near the base of the arch, he instantly knew that there were burn't circuits insice, because he could smell the ozone. having a look inside, he found the data recorder to be charred, but otherwise undamaged. After removing it he addressed the computer "Computer"

Recieving no response, he theorized that more than just the Hologrid was damaged, and walked into the corridor. "Computer"

=Tweedle-beep=

"Make official log entry"

=Begin recording=

"I have removed the data recorder from Holodeck 3, in order to investigate an unusual injury sustained by Eric Odin while on said Holodeck." Andree paused, to give the computer a command: "End recording, and send copies to Chief Engineer, and Captain Price"

=Done=

With the recorder under one arm, Andree went back to sickbay

*** Later in Andree's cubicle ***

"Computer freeze playback." Instantly, the scene unfolding on his screen stopped. using his finger he drew a box on the touch-sensitive display. Automatically, the "camera" moved in, so that the box he drew covered the entire display. *Yep, I saw it right, but I still don't believe it.* Touching a control, a simulated Tricorder appeared onscreen. "What the!?!" Andree said, causing a few people to look at him funny.

Pulling out a PADD and a stylus, he began to compoes a report

-----
Patient: Eric Odin
Diagnosis: Uncertain

Comments: My inspection of the holodeck logs clearly shows that everything was functioning within normal paramaters. A visual inspection of the events on said holodeck, have revealed, what can only be described as a coherent plasma burst, fired seemingly from both a simulated and real participant in the simulated battle, (The aforementioned Eric Odin) I have yet to determine how Eric Odin was able to generate such a phenomenon, and I intend to question him on the subject shortly
-----

*** Main Sickbay ***

Michala, still pouring over records was interrupted by Dr. Andree, as he handed her a PADD.

"Deadly Beautiful"
by Lt. jg Anika Crowe
Flight Control Officer, USS Galaxy

***

The music drifted through the small room. With her eyes closed, Anika Crowe could almost feel it as if it were a tangible thing. It was beautiful. She'd picked up the recording back on Deep Space Nine along with a dozen others. She hadn't had a chance to listen to this particular piece yet and felt like kicking herself for waiting so long.

She search for the other ship, the Xerxes, hadn't gone as well as she'd hoped. But, then again, she'd had images of cresting one of the plasma flows and picking up the Xerxes drifting too close to one of the streams. She would have been a hero, praised by all. But, all she'd found was more plasma. And, then they'd been called back in.

Ani concentrated a little harder on the music. Her feelings were being jumbled by her memories of the search mission. It wasn't a failure. How could it be a failure if they didn't find a twisted wreckage that bore a striking familiarity to the Xerxes? They found evidence that the Xerxes wasn't destroyed right away. They could still be out there. They could still be alive.

The music reached a crescendo and Anika opened her eyes to the window looking out into the brilliant plasma fields surrounding the Galaxy. It was amazing how something so deadly could at the same time be so beautiful.

Anika sat up on the end of her bed and watched as the plasma shifted, pulsing in red and orange waves. It was unbelievable.

She realized with a start the music had stopped. The clock had jumped by an hour. How long had she just been staring out into the Badlands? It didn't matter at the moment. Shuttles weren't going out yet, and they were still looking for the Xerxes. She could afford the time doing nothing. She wasn't scheduled for the bridge for awhile yet. It would be nice to just watch.

Two's Company

by Ensign Ve'ryn Tuval
Introducing
Ensign Alyia Dyran (NPC)

The doors to Vee's Quarters slid opened as she made her way inside. The large Junior Officer's Quarters was split into a two apartment like abode as most Junior Officers without families shared quarters with a roommate. Entering the archway, to where her side of the Quarters was located, her bedroom had been quite nicely decorated with her collections of Andorian and Klingon weapondary. Atop of her bed she had the Code of Arms for the Tuval Clan. The large crimson banner held a bright golden sun and golden trim around the edges. Honor, Loyalty and Strength were written in silver letters of ancient Andorian text that stretched on either side of the Sun.

Making her way to the sonic shower, Vee turned it on and was about to get ready to take a shower when a new face made an appearance within the doorway.

"Good evening." Replied a voice from behind as the Andorian turned to face her. Her hearing had detected another individual within 'her' appartment, after all she was indeed sharing it with someone.

"Hello." Vee replied as she made her way to the Bajoran. The blonde came about chest level to the Andorian as she shook her hand in a friendly polite gesture. "Ensign Ve'ryn Tuval, Security Department, my friends call me Vee." Replied Vee with a soft smile. She had served with a few Bajorans on board the Thunderchild, but never lived with one.

"Ensign Alyia Dyran, Science Department, you can call me Dyran." Replied the Bajoran with a soft smile. In Bajoran Society it was proper to address one by their last name first.

"Well then, Im sorry if I have been such a stick in the mud lately. I have been very busy getting my duties onboard the Galaxy in order." Replied Vee with a smile. She had been quite busy trying to meet everyone within the Security Department to get a feel of all the Senior Ranking Officers within the Department.

"Hey not a problem, I fully understand your dilemma." Replied the Bajoran with a soft smile. She leaned against the archway that lead within the 'lair' of the Andorian.

"Please don't mind me, I have a few things to do before I can continue our conversation." Vee replied as she made her way back into her Bedroom. Reaching under the bed, she pulled out one big wooden box and one little one. Upon them were various designs of her family crest as well as wards enchanted within the woodwork as she opened their lids. She unclipped her duel Chaka's from her belt and placed the unforgettable three-bladed weapons into its purple velvet case. With one motion she removed her needles from her hair and placed them within the smaller case next to the larger one. Another half a dozen needles lay within sharpen by Andorian hands so the point can pierce light armor. Closing the lids shut, she made a prayer to Shi' va, the goddess of woman warriors within the Emasha Yul of the Andorian Religion. After a few minutes passed, Vee finished her prayers and placed her weapons back under her bed. The Andorian was well aware that the Bajoran had stood through her whole prayer and watched in awe as the Andorian had given praise to her goddess.

"Thank you for being patient, it is better for your spirit to give thanks to Lady Shi' va after each battle for one never knows what the next battle holds." Replied Vee as she smiled at her roommate, the sonic shower had ran for about 10 minutes now despite her interruption from her new friend.

"I totally agree. The Prophets have shine upon Bajor during the Dominion War and has provided us with protection against those who tried to take our lands from us." Replied Dyran as she was quite amazed at the whole ritual she had viewed. She hadn't spent much time with an Andorian, let alone a female one. So far the experience had been quite interesting.

"Well, I do believe you are right with that statement Dyran." spoke the Andorian as she began to remove her workout gear starting with her black knee high boots. She sat on the bed as the Bajoran seemed to be quite too friendly even if this was their first true encounter.

"I see your getting ready for a shower, I am happy to have met you Vee, I hope we can talk like this again." Replied Dyran watching the Andorian begin to unzip out of her black workout suit, the Bajoran was starting to feel a slightly uncomfortable.

"Thank you Dyran, it was a pleasure to meet you as well." Answered Vee as she looked over her shoulder to watch the Bajoran exit the room. The doors slid shut behind her as Vee finished taking off her work outfit and grabbed a towel on her way to her long awaiting shower.

"A Detour."
By Lt. Commander Evin Genestra

Whether it had been a matter of design or the particular machinations of the Chief Science Officer, Evin found himself remaining on the ship to assist in the search for the two missing vessels. After finishing on the Bridge the assistant science chief would take a stroll down to one of the cargo bays being used to house the pieces of hull and other debris being recovered from the vast expanse of the Badlands.

The half-Betazoid envied those currently on the search craft. Whilst he was naturally concerned over the welfare of his father, whom he believed to be on the U.S.S. Xerxes, it was frustrating for him to not be out there. Counsellor Dallas had given him several glances when on the Bridge: whether it was Karyn's way of expressing concern, or just her natural concern over the welfare of the crew, he was uncertain. Either way he made it a point that he would finally go to speak to her when the moment allowed.

There were several well-proportioned pieces that had been identified as being consistent with Cardassian and Federation starship construction technology. Genestra knelt down and placed his hand on what was identified by one of the engineers as a fragment of bulkhead from the secondary hull of the missing Xerxes. It was perhaps a vain attempt by the lieutenant commander to practise the archaic art of psychometry, hoping possibly that his empathic abilities might shed light. It was a futile but understandable attempt. Such things have been recorded in the past, no matter how unlikely it might seem in this instance.

As Evin studied the broken piece of bulkhead he did not happen to notice the Bolian engineers on duty walk up behind him. "Can I help you 'Commander?" the blue-skinned officer said under the impression that Genestra was there purely for professional reasons.

The empath looked up and managed a smile. "What do we know about this piece of debris?"

"There was a localised plasma overload. Not entirely sure how it happened yet, as you are more than likely aware, this region is full of high intensity plasma disruptions," the engineer explained as the scientist nodded, "but there the stress fractures along the bulkhead suggest an explosive outburst from the deck it came from. Not enough to render the entire deck uninhabitable, but enough to take out a small intersection at least."

Genestra nodded. "Thank you, Lieutenant."

The engineer nodded and returned to his survey of the other fragments.

Evin moved on to some of the other fragment recovered from the Badlands. Although he was no engineering expert, there were a few pieces of construction materials that appeared to be Cardassian. At least to the scientist that was the only likely conclusion since they definitely were not Federation in origin. Nodding his head he just hoped the search teams would turn up something soon. Not just for those concerned on the Galaxy, but also for the Xerxes, should there be anyone left alive to be found.