USS Galaxy Sim Log Stardate: 50106.10

After spending an extended period of time at a Starbase to undergo structural repairs and receive system upgrades throughout the ship, the Galaxy has been released to begin light duty patrols along the Romulan boarders of the Federation.

Things being still somewhat up in the air duty wise, we were going to have to cancel the weekly poker game I throw in my quarters. However, Lieutenant Commander Savat suggested that it might be a good opportunity to interact with some of the junior officers on the ship in an informal setting. So tonight's game will be hosting a bunch of newbies to the game.

Captain Price was shuffling the cards in a quite skillful manner. Glancing around the table, he smiled boyishly at the many new faces. To his immediate right was Lieutenant Commander Savat, the Vulcan Chief of Security who hands down had the best "poker face" of anyone in the game. One of the Senior staff regulars, it was Mister Savat's idea to invite the junior officers into the game to get to know them better. It also seemed like a logical alternative to not having the weekly game, which some how the Vulcan had come to enjoy. At the moment however, Savat was recalling just why there was a separate senior officers only game in the first place.

To the Captain's left sat Lieutenant Commander Ethan Suder, the ship's Chief Engineer and also a regular senior staff member in the Captain's nightly poker game. Ethan was delighted when Mister Savat suggested to invite the junior officers. He was looking forward to beating the rookies. Making a comment about taking candy away from babies. Which was a pleasant change, since most times Ethan was lucky to break even against the rest of the senior staff.

Next to Suder were the three members from the Tactical department that joined tonight's game. Lieutenant Tim Richeson, the Chief Tactical officer, and two of his Tac officers, Lieutenant junior grade Rebecca von Ernst, and Ensign Alisha Reno. Both relatively new to the game of Poker. Lee continued his shuffling and smiled at the ladies. It was nice too have some new faces to look at this evening.

Near Mister Savat on the other side of the round table, was newly promoted Commander Karyn Dallas, the ship's Chief Counselor. She wore her typical poker face while waiting for the Captain to deal the cards.

Next to the Counselor was Lieutenant Rose Isis MacAllen from the Science department, and Ensign Tarlyn McCauley from the Helm whom she had invited along.

Finally, from the Medical department, were Lieutenant Kira Murphy and Ensign Autumn Maeribeth Jamieson. Both Doctors filling the shoes of Doctor Maas who was unable to attend this evening's game.

The Captain finished shuffling the three decks of cards needed for so many players and began dealing them out as he spoke.

"The game is five card stud. Duces and Queens are wild..." Lee grinned, "...just because of the amount of beautiful ladies we 'ave here tonight."

After dealing the cards, Lee takes one of the blue chips and throws it in. "Everyone ante up."

There were a few looks around the table, but everyone quickly caught on as to what that meant... Unlike the first couple of hands that had been played.

After looking at their cards, some in rather swift, sophisticated fashion, everyone looked around at each other, trying to read their expressions.

Tapping the table gently, the Vulcan stated in perfect monotone, "I will check."

Turning her head at light speed, Ensign McCauley looked at Lieutenant MacAllen and asked, "What does that mean Rose?"

"It means Mister Savat is passing on the opportunity to bet Tarlyn." Rose explained.

Karyn casually grabbed another blue chip and tossed it into the pile. "We will start easy enough." She smiled. "need to see who's here to play, and who is here to watch."

Smiles and smirks went around the table, except for Mister Savat who just twitched an annoyed Vulcan brow.

Tarlyn was still unsure of the game. Looking to Rose she asked, "What should I do?"

Rose smiled, glanced around the table and saw no one objected, though Mister Savat raised an eyebrow as he began recomputing the odds in his head. "Let me see."

Tarlyn showed Rose her hand. The scientist smiled. "You definitely want to fold a hand like this."

"That's easy enough." Tarlyn said, placing her cards down and decalring, "I fold. I like this game. It's pretty easy."

Lee smiiled, then looked over to Doctor Murphy. "How about it Doc? You in or out?"

"I'll see the Counselor's bet, and dump it one." Kira declared tossing in two blue chips.

"Feeling adventurous tonight are we 'mate?" The Captain teased. "Fair dinkum. The bet of two goes to you Doctor Jamieson. How about it 'mate?"

"I think I want to stick around a spell sir... I'll call." Autumn stated tossing in two blue chips.

Ensign Reno went next, not even waiting for the Captain to prompt her. "I fold sir."

Rebecca looked at her cards, then at the faces of all the officers around her. She knew she was stupid for agreeing to come and play cards. When she was asked by Lieutenant Richeson, she figured crazy 8's or rummy or fish. But poker? She hardly knew the rules and there were so many variations. *what did the Captain say were wild? Twos and queens?...* Rebecca thought.

"Tim, how about it 'mate? Pot is beginning to look pretty good..." the Captain stated.

"I fold sir. As much as I would like to stick around, I know I can't with this lot of cards. Unless we are playing low ball?... I didn't think so. Fold." Suder said, tossing in his cards.

"Very well, I'll call." The Captain stated putting his chips in. That's two chips to you Mister Savat, and one to the counselor, assuming no one wants to raise?"

Savat shook his head in the negative direction as he took two blue chips of his precisely aligned stacks of chips with meticulous precision. In contrast, Counselor Dallas' chips were all mixed up in a pile just in front of her. She flicked through them with her decorated fingernails and found a blue one to toss in. "Call."

"Bonzer!" The Captain declared. Turning to Mister Savat he asked, "How many 'mate?"

Lee dealt three cards to the Vulcan, and then looked to Counselor Dallas. "And you Counselor?"

The deal kept going around the table until it reached Lieutenant' von Ernst. Rebecca was still deep in thought, staring at her cards, eating pop corn and trying to figure out how five card stud worked.

There was a chuckle around the table at Rebecca's comment. Knowing the Lieutenant' was new to poker, the Captain restated, "Do you mean you don't want any new cards 'mate?"

"Then select the two you want to throw away and put them in the middle." Lee pointed.

"Of course." With her tongue rooted in the corner of her mouth, Rebecca pulled out the two cards she wanted to get replaced with fresh ones and put them down.

"Oh cool, I got a set of Jacks," lays them down where everyone can see them, "I'm down to one card...UNO!" Rebecca declared.

"Congratulations Lieutenant', you've won the pot." The Captain stated, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I did?!" Rebecca stated in sheer surprise. "Noodles! That was easy." The Tactical officer declared as she scooped in her small pile of winnings.

"You know, you could have increased the size of the pot had you concealed your hand until another round of betting concluded Lieutenant'..." Mister Savat pointed out.

"Oh, I will ah... remember that next time sir." Rebecca smiled with a gentle blush.

Gathering up the cards, they were past to Mister Savat for reshuffling and a new round of poker. While that was going on, Richeson smiled at Suder. "Are you looking forward to testing the Galaxy's recent modifications sir? Everyone in Tactical can't wait to test out the new armor or the multi-phasic torpedoes we've been outfitted with."

"Aye. We also received a number of upgrades to the power systems, and our computers thanks to the data collected from the USS Voyager's databanks. I'm just glad all the changes and repairs are complete, and everything appears to be working once again." Ethan admitted.

Ensign Reno piped in, "According to the briefing's I've read, the new weaponry and armor should allow us to destroy an entire fleet of Borg cubes." The Tactical officer declared with shear appreciation of true firepower they now possessed.

"The Borg? Heck, with this new armor and weaponry, we can destroy just about anyone that should be foolish enough to attack us. The Cardassians, Dominion, Breen, Romulans... they are all toast on a stick if they cross us now with this technology. I hear Voyager obtained it from the future somehow." Richeson bragged.

Captain Price watched as Mister Savat performed his typical, precision shuffle of the three decks of cards.

"I would try to remain more objective if I were you 'mate. I'm sure the new tricked out hardware is some what of a marvel, but I'm not ready to go searching out a whole fleet of Borg cubes to test them out any time soon."

"Of course not Captain. But if it should happen, the Galaxy is gonna kick some serious booty!... sir." Tim smiled while flexing his biceps for the ladies that were present.

Mister Savat had finished shuffling the cards and began calling out the game and dealing. "The game is baseball. Seven card, no peak. Jokers are wild, fours will cost you one for a new card." The Vulcan then began dealing the cards to each of the players around the table.

["Sorry to interrupt Captain, but there is a hail from Starfleet command. It sounds urgent sir."] Commander Thomas reported.

Lee looked at the faces around the table as he got up, tossing his cards in. "Play this hand without me 'mates, while I take this call."

Walking away, Lee took a few steps over to his desk, and activated the computer monitor.

The image of Admiral Douglas appeared on the screen. ["Hello Captain. Sorry for the lateness of this communication."]

"No worries Admiral. I was just having a little card game with the 'mates." Lee indicated with a thumb pointing back over his shoulder. "What can I do for you sir?"

["Starfleet Intelligence has reports of a battle in the Gamma quadrant."] the Admiral stated.

["Yes Captain. And we believe the Borg."] Douglas stated evenly. ["Since the Galaxy is one of the first Starships in the fleet to be outfitted with the anti-Borg weaponry and armor, you have been selected to lead a reconnaissance mission into the Gamma quadrant with a small fleet of ships to investigate and assess the situation. Starfleet Intelligence believe the Borg are attempting to assimilate the Dominion."] Admiral Douglas explained.

["The Galaxy will be the Federation Flag ship for the recon mission. You will meet up with the other ships in your fleet on the gamma side of the worm hole. You and your fleet are authorized to exceed maximum warp speed limits for the duration of this assignment. Good luck Price, and good hunting."]

Returning to the card game, the Captain announced, "Sorry 'mates, but we've just received orders to head for the gamma quadrant. I'm afraid tonight's game is canceled."

Mister Savat was the first to speak. "We did not intend on eavesdropping Captain. However, suffice it to say we completely understand the urgency of our current orders."

Lee gave a nod. "From our present location, it will take nearly twelve hours to reach the wormhole at maximum warp."

"Then sir." Ethan stated as he and the rest of the crew members at the card table stood from their seats, "We had better get started."

The officers began exiting the Captain's quarters, mostly quietly, but you could tell there was a hint of anticipation and excitement, particularly in the Tactical officers that were present. Rebecca unknowingly held onto the bowl of pop corn as she nervously continued eating it while exiting the Captain's quarters with the others.

"All right! We are going to get a chance to test out the new weapons and armor in battle!" Tim chatted on the way out into the corridor.

When the last of the officers were leaving, Captain Price activated his communicator. "Bridge, this is the Captain. Set a direct course for the Bajoran wormhole. Maximum warp."

["Maximum warp. Understood Captain." came the response. The ship was soon under way.

"The New Stuff"
by Ensign Alisha Reno
The morning(kinda) after 'Queens Are Wild'
-=/=-

The console looked ordinary, just as ordinary as could be, but many personnel on board the Galaxy knew the secrets that could be learned from the diagnostics that Alisha was running, all by herself. She was tentatively assigned to the Delta shift, until the Chief decided to put her somewhere else.

But this was one of the times she really loved the job. She was able to see everything that had to do with the new weaponry and armor, and her mind reeled with all of the new information. The armor could take one hell of a beating, and the weaponry could punch through Borg cubes, not just impact and cause a reason for all of those drones to run around seemingly aimless, off to repair the impacted point.

Yes, just like she had said the night before at the poker game, the ship could now engage an entire fleet of Cubes, and win. Previous to this, entire fleets had been arrayed against one Borg Cube, and Alisha grimaced at the rememberance of Wolf 359. She had been only 15 years old at the time, but the deaths of 11,000 Starfleet personnel and the loss of 39 ships to one Cube had caused her to go over every detail of the battle that was available.

When the Borg returned in 2373, Alisha was in a class, Strategies of Ancient History. Alisha nodded, 'I was scared out of my mind... Hell, I was crying that I didn't want to be assimilated.. I was truly weak back then..' She shook her head to force the thought from her mind. This was the real thing. The real way to stick it to the Borg.

Her mind blanked out again as she recalled her class with Commander Shelby shortly after the Enterprise-E returned from the past, and saved the galaxy once again. After the class, Alisha had approached the Commander, before the Commander had to return to her XO duties on board the newly repaired USS Excalibur, and had began a discussion with her on tactics against the Borg. A program, more like a tactical learning situation, that Shelby had given to Alisha kept her busy even until now. The program that evolved each time it was defeated. Now, until it could be programmed to provide more cubes, it was useless.

But still Alisha marveled at the weaponry and shielding. Multi-phasic torpedoes, each one powerful enough to blow a Cube into shreds. And these phasers now had the punch to destroy the Borg as well, not to mention if they were used against any other enemy, these phasers would annihlate, no less. The armor, hell, on Voyager, it protected the ship from concentrated attacks by the Borg, and those weapons were more powerful than even Romulan disruptors!

And the best thing about all of this: There was no apparent interface problems with the main systems on the Galaxy, at least none that Alisha could find. So she put the console onto stand-by, and downloaded the report onto the tricorder on her left hip, she, Alisha, had to assimilate the information herself. She giggled as she told herself that, the borg term being used with weapons that would destroy them, what irony!

After being on ship for 10 weeks, he met with some crew and formed his opinion on them. It is easy to guess, that it was something like "Almost everybody here are idiots". He made only one friend for this time, it was ensign Torsag.

When he heard about the new assignment of Galaxy, he shouted, "At last something interesting! I'm so bored with this routine work!". Then he looked at the clock, "Oho, whole 2 hour left on shift... Well, what we've got here... Appendicitis??? And who is our patient... aha... ensign Knight"... He thought then that his shift may be not so boring. He turned form his PADD and called Specialist Smith. "Nurse, please go here. I'll need your assistance on surgery". Smith approached him, "What do we have, doctor?". Malgin answered her "Appendicitis. Please carry ensign Knight to surgery room. I'll be there in 10 minutes". After this words, he goes to toilet.

Suddenly, nurse calls him, "Doctor, please come here, and hurry! He is comatose!". Malgin quickly turns from the bowl and runs to nurse. "Let me check! What a.... He has got internal bleeding!". He turned to nurse like rocket. "Give me scalpel! Immediately!!!". Nurse does it as fast as she is being chased by devil. In 5 seconds he gave him scalpel. Biobed starts to signal heart stoppage. "Nurse, quickly administer cardiostimulator!".

Having combined their efforts, they successfully complete surgery. Malgin thought, "He'll stay alive...". Then he tried to calm down and pushed "Mail" button on his PADD.

------------------------------------
From: Ensign dr. Vladimir Malgin
To: Commander Christopher Kell Thomas
Subject: Hard surgery on ensign Knight

Sir, we've got a problem with ensign Knight of Tactical. He had appendicitis and just before surgery large internal bleeding has opened. We (me and specialist Smith) have conducted hard surgery and his chance to stay alive is 100%. But he won't be available for duty in his recovery period (2-3 weeks).

Its all a matter of perspective really. Who we are and what we believe is all a matter our individual surroundings and how we react to them.

Since the first heady days of Space Pioneers Yuri Gagarin, and Alan Sheppard��

Down through the years of Apollo and Sputnik, through the First fragile Space Shuttles, and the rickety DY-300 Sleeper ships��

Indeed from Zephram Cochrane's first step into the Trans-Einsteinian universe, and up until modern times.... there has been one universal reaction to a human taking their first view of Earth from Space.....

"Its�.so small...." Rebecca half whispered to herself as he gazed out the portal.

Runabout Saskatchewan was rapidly approaching Earth from high orbit, cutting a smooth path across the day/night Terminator, passing from one day to the next.

As it passed, Rebecca had the chance to get the first really good look at her homeworld from orbit since her Academy days a few years back.

(Of course back then she had been too busy trying not to throw up during zero-G training to do any sight-seeing.)

The birthplace of humanity was quite simply a lonely little blue marble adrift in the endless cold void of space. If you blinked at the wrong time one could easily miss the insignificant fleck of rock and water-vapor amidst the unending night that spread for infinity in all directions.

And yet to the great brown eyes of this small girl, the blue and white swirls of color crawling across the smooth surface of her home was the most beautiful sight in the universe.

It was not difficult to move the young redhead to tears, but the crystal sparkles that formed in the corners of her eyes now were full and sincere reflections of the stirring in her soul.

She knew that no matter where she went in the universe, she would carry a little of that small blue planet with her.

If Rebecca had been the literary sort she would have been moved to quote something appropriate for the occasion.

Instead as she gazed across the void down on the lush beauty that was her birthplace, the silent sparkles of awe in her eyes spoke of greater poetic honor than the greatest bard could ever pen.

In vain Rebecca's eyes sought out her family farm in Minnesota. Unfortuantely geography was not her strong suite, and she had difficulty even locating North America before the curve of the Earth pulled her home down under the Horizon.

"Excuse me Lieutenant?" a soft apologetic voice pulled Rebecca's eyes from the window, and her heart out of the swirling clouds below.

She stared blankly at the face of an Alien whose skin was as pale blue as the oceans of her home planet...A Bolian...the thought registered somewhere.

"Lieutenant von Ernst?" The Bolian asked again politely, "Of the Starship Galaxy?"

"Y�.y�.yes." Rebecca tittered in nervousness, suddenly realizing that the rest of the runabout was completely empty. Perhaps the blue extra terrestrial was about to yell at her for not beaming down with everybody else. Rebecca hated it when she got yelled at.

"A message for you in the forward cabin Ma'am." The Alien said instead. "We're being diverted to rendezvous with the USS Sommersby in Lunar orbit.

~~The Sommersby!?~~ Rebecca's mind whirled, ~~Why that was the personnel Cutter for �..(!) "

"It wouldn�t do to keep the Vice Admiral waiting Ma'am." The Bolian said with infinite politeness, but indicated that she should follow him back to the Cockpit.

Gulping, Rebecca timidly followed the crewman up to the forward cabin, noting as she went, how empty the Runabout seemed with everybody already transferred to the surface....like an old home with all the children gone....

Or more specifically, Rebecca thought as she remembered her own lonely mother far below....Like a lonely Minnesotan farm with the only daughter gone....

Shaking her head, Rebecca emerged into the Runabouts forward compartment and gasped.

The huge forward window revealed a stunning view of the earth in all its azure splendor. The curved outer fringes of atmosphere were shot through with a brilliant display of color and light, as the sun rose brilliantly over the coast of East Africa.

"Lt (j/g) von Ernst of the Galaxy." The Bolian reported to the pilot who didn�t bother turning around.

"I don�t know who you are El-tee." The human flight officer muttered as he re-plotted his course away from the Earth, "But you just had an Admiral re-route a whole flight to deliver you to his personnel ship."

Rebecca didn�t say anything, but stared in wonder as the blue curve of the Earth swung out of the view to be replaced by a swirl of stars that eventually centered on the distant 3 quarter moon 280,000 miles away.

The Moon��Man's first extra-planetary destination. A daring voyage that took the brave crew of Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong, over 3 days to complete��..

"Thar she blows ma'am" The pilot called out suddenly, "Cutter off the port bow."

Rebecca couldn�t figure out what was 'blowing' but bent forward to peer out the forward window.

Yes sure enough, hanging alow over the dusty lunar horizon, was the flash flash flash of standard running lights blinking in a steady pattern.

The stars swam a bit more as the Runabout re-adjusted its course, and before too long, the young redhead could make out the small streamlined vessel that lay silently in wait.

Streamlined and equipped with quad swept back Warp Nacelles, the Starfleet Cutter made a perfect personal vessel for the Admiral on the move. Lightly armed with only minimal shielding, basically it was all-engine. Designed for quick courier missions in shuttling the VIP passenger to and fro across the Federation at a speed that excelled everything except the new Prometheus Class Vessels��..Indeed the Quad-engine configuration was a design feature they had in common.

All of this of course was over Rebecca's head, as she would be clueless as to what was faster between a Miranda or a Sovreign.

[Uss Somersby to Shuttle Saskatchewan�.Come in. Is the Lieutenant there with you?]

"Affirmative Somersby" The Pilot answered as he traced the smooth lines of the cutter with envious eyes. "We've got one redheaded officer plus assorted baggage ready for transport."

Rebecca bit her bottom lip in apprehension as she waited a few moments before the cool tingly buzzing of a transporter beam swept her away. The last words she heard from the others n the cockpit was "Good Luck el-tee�Clear sailing."

The world around her resolved to reveal the interior of a modest sized 4-man transporter pad. A single Andorian Chief nodded to her in welcome, while two other Human males in Starfleet uniforms stood waiting at the foot of the pad.

The younger, a stern faced man in a Commanders uniform frowned at the tiny waif that appeared on the pad. Perhaps he wondered if the Chief neglected to beam over a full set of molecules from the Shuttle. Surely this tiny girl couldn�t be HER.

The other, a smiling elderly gentleman of perhaps sixty years bore an Admiral's pin at his throat, and stepped forward to greet Rebecca immediately.

"Rebecca, Rebecca!" he began warmly extending his hand to the skittish girl, "Welcome aboard my humble ship, my name is�."

The man seemed pleasantly surprised. "Ah so you do recognize me from all those training-holos I send you. How touching my dear. Touches my heart to think that a lowly man such as myself could have anything to teach a natural talent such as you."

Rebecca scrunched her freckled nose an shook the admiral's hand limply, unsu re of how to take the compliment.

The admiral turned to indicate the man to his right. "Excuse me my dear, but allow me to introduce my able assistant, and soon to be Chief instructor of the 359 School, Commander Edwin Zaletta�.Commander, meet you soon to be star-pupil Lieutenant (j/g) Rebecca von Ernst!"

The admiral placed his hands warmly on her small shoulders and gave them a reassuring squeeze, which in truth did NOTHING to relieve Rebecca's stress.

Commander Zaletta grunted a greeting , and quickly tapped his Comm Badge. "Zaletta to Bridge." He called, "Our passenger is aboard�.Take Somersby out of the Solar System and set course for the 359 School��Warp 7"

"And awaaaaaay we go!" Admiral Hoth smiled at Rebecca with a twinkle in his eye.

Mike checked on a padd before he realized he had a prenatal check up with Rayna and the message from Q made him wonder, what would Q's gift be, it could be something as weird as instant delivery, one-second she's OK, next second she's ready to deliver a baby. Or something else, but the doctors would tell them more.

Rayna on the other hand, it was more worry than wonderment. She didn't trust him. He could have done anything. She would be nervous until they saw the doctor. She was running late as usual. Nikki was in class and all Rayna needed was Mike to get there. She wondered if he had forgotten.

Finally bursting through the door was Mike, carrying a padd, "Sorry I'm late, I was buried in paperwork, I came as fast as I could."

She smiled, "It's okay, I was just ready myself. I'm not so sure if I'm excited about this check up. With Q, well, you know."

He gave her a suitable shake of the head, if the medical staff heard Q, they'd end up on a shuttle to Starfleet medical for months of exams.

"That's for sure. Well, let's go. Wondering and worrying about it isn't going to change anything."

She reluctantly went out the door and entered the turbolift, obviously nervous. She was very quiet on the way to the deck they needed.

Mike could sense that and slipped his arms around her to hug her. "I have a good feeling, I think everything's gonna be OK."

"Yeah right, he probably reincarnated Nikki's dad or made this baby so when it's born, it will age rapidly or some shit like that."

"Rayn, somehow I doubt Q is that cruel, I mean he's more mischievous, based on the data in Starfleet records."

"I know, I was being sarcastic. I know he wouldn't be that cruel. I only insulted him, that's all."

"So let's go see what he's gonna do." Taking her hand he kissed her gently as the door opened and they headed to sickbay.

At this point, her stomach was playing flip flops being nervous what Q might have done. Exams was not something she enjoyed and sickbay was the last place she wanted to be right now.

Mike smiled and held her hand as the doctor scanned her midsection, frowned and made some notes, "Have we discussed the possibility of multiple births?"

She was confused but only for a minute, "Q" came to her mind. She looked over at Mike to see his reaction.

The Doctor scanned her again, "So far I see two separate heart beats. It's two. You're going to have twins."

Rayna, well she was about to kill Q if it was possible. Twins? What was she going to do with twins on a ship? She was having trouble still accepting she was going to even have one, let alone, two. "Are you sure? Maybe your equipment is faulty or something."

The doctor shook his head but ran the test again with a separate tricorder, "You're going to have twins. I guess congratulations are in order."

Noticing she looked a little surprised that was the physician's clue to leave. Mike took her hand and kissed her again.

"Q is so dead...so dead." She sat up, "I'm sorry. I wasn't ready for this kind of news."

"Well, I guess we get another crib." Mike had to smile at that one, "And we work together to get ready."

She was wondering how they were going to handle two babies on a ship, "Can we go?"

"Sure." Mike took her hand and they walked out of sickbay. Once outside he tried a joke, "hey could be worse, he could have made it octuplets."

She didn't respond but got up and walked out. She wasn't sure how she felt right now...shocked? Upset? She waited for him outside Sickbay.

"I'm not sure. I guess I should be grateful it wasn't more than two." She would need to get used to the idea.

"We have 9 months to get used to the idea and begin getting ready don't we? And besides I'll help, I'm sure I can work a flexible schedule."

"Okay, just take me home. I need to let this sink in. Maybe once I...we, tell Nikki, I'll feel better about it."

Mike took her home, his arm around her, kissing her gently, lips and cheek, as they waited in the turbolift. "When do you want to tell her?"

"Now are you sure about this? I could apologize to Q. I'm sure he is somewhere, looking at us right now."

"You could if you wanted, but that might not change anything." Mike said, just then Mike froze and Q was in the turbolift.

"I guess I'll never learn to keep my mouth shut. Okay Q, what is he right about?"

"I didn't do this to be vengeful or even for spite, it really was a gift. And yes you and Mr. sunshine here." Q tapped mike on the chin as he stood there still as a statue, "are the parents, not me."

"Q, you didn't even ask me if I wanted twins. As usual, you acted without a mere thought of the other person's feelings."

"I thought you humans like having lots of little children, spreading your genes all over the galaxy. So I gave you two." Walking along he brushed some invisible dust off Mike's shoulder, "I mean this guy seems to accept it pretty good, but then he's so whipped."

Q shook his head then told her what it actually meant. "Well, you should still have asked me." She gave in, "But thanks for the thought. I guess you didn't mean any harm by it."

"No, I didn't. Regardless of what you may think, I actually like you two, you remind me of when I was a young Q just married and all that goodness, if you don't want the twins, I can erase any record of it and just have one, up to you?" "No Q. I'll take the twins. Besides, it'll save some time." She smiled at him, "Now, it's a little crowded in here. Shoo Q."

"Fine, fine." Q snapped his fingers and soon Mike was back in the time frame and the lift was moving. He looked a little disoriented.

"I don't know." Mike said and looked around, "I swear these lifts are getting slower."

She decided not to mention Q again, "I've never noticed. Anyway, what were we talking about?"

"We have plenty of time to worry about that. Let's just get Nikki prepared for it."

Mike nodded and took her hand, this was going to be one big change for the couple.

Nikki wasn't going to be out of class for another hour so Rayna would have time to figure out how to approach Nikki. She's intelligent. She'd probably surprise them as usual.

Mike immediately went to work helping out with setting the table then he walked over and began to massage her shoulders and neck.

She sat down on the chair. Q made her tense and with the amount of times she had met up with him, she was very tense, "You know that we'll have to name our son after him." She joked...her humor returning.

She laughed, "I guess we'll just have to spare the kid." She yelled out into the air, "Sorry Q but I'm sure you understand."

Mike smiled, "He will." Leaning down he kissed her gently, "So, you think he's still here?" She gave him a mysterious look, "He's always around. That's how the saying, "The walls have ears" got started."

"Oh?" Mike gave her a sly smile, "I'd say let's give him something to remember. But Nikki's due home soon."

"Sooner than you think." Nikki walked in and gave her usual cheery smile and a greeting that would even make the grouchiest person smile. Her hugs were even better.

"It was fun." She got a proud look on her face, "Teacher said that I get to be her helper tomorrow."

Rayna hugged her, "So am I." She let go, "Go take your stuff and put it in your room."

Walking back to the kitchen Mike began to plan dinner, they took turns cooking and tonight was his turn. "So what are you in the mood for?"

She looked at him, "Food." She was just giving him a hard time. Nikki heard the question too and blurted out her opinion, "Pasketti." That was what she like to call it in fun.

Nikki was full of opinions today, "Mommy is going to have milk. The teacher says it's good for mommies." Rayna made a face and shook her head no while standing behind her.

Mike chuckled at his daughter, "Looks like we have a budding doctor in the family. Well, why don't we ask mommy what she wants for dinner."

Rayna looked over at Nikki, "Spaghetti is fine but I'll skip the milk right now. Maybe ice tea instead. You can have my glass of milk." Nikki agreed.

Mike nodded and set out the parameters including garlic bread. Setting them down he poured a couple of glasses of iced tea and a large glass of milk for Nikki, "Dinner's ready."

Mike knew she'd understand, she always was a smart child, even when she was younger. Just skip the part about Q

She realized that Nikki didn't need to be handled with kid gloves so she'd just tell her straight out.

Mike went back to his dinner and his garlic bread. It was not gourmet, but it was filling.

"Nikki." Rayna started out, "We've got something exciting to tell you." Nikki smiled, her eyes wide, "What mommy?" Rayna continued, "Remember when daddy and me told you about me having one baby? Well..."

Mike looked at her and then over to Nikki, how would she react to twins? That would be the question.

Rayna decided that straight was best, "...sometimes mommies can have two babies inside her tummy at the same time. So, instead of you having one brother or sister, you are going to have two." Rayna could see the wheels turning in her head.

She started to flood them with questions but at the end, she was satisfied with the idea eventhough she still wasn't sure how it was possible to get two babies in her tummy. Rayna just smiled.

Mike took Rayna's hand under the table and squeezed it. "So, are you going to be ready to be a big sister for two now?"

"Uh huh" Nikki shook her head, "but now I have to make another picture." She finished, "May I go?" She was eager to get started.

Mike nodded, "Sure, put your plate and glass in the replicator and then you can go OK?"

"Okay daddy." She obeyed, hugged them both and disappeared. Rayna sat there, thinking about how smart she was, "I wouldn't mind having two more like her. These two have a lot to live up to."

"Yeah, but they'll be as wonderful as Nikki." He collected his dishes and recycled them. "So want some wine tonight?"

"No, I think I'll pass." She got up and walked over to the couch, "Twins. I'll be on maternity leave forever." She sighed, Early maternity leave."

He walked to her and massaged her shoulders. "So? I'll take early paternity leave too."

"I read somewhere that twins usually come a month early." Just thinking about having twins made her tired.

"They also said it's dependent on the parents, how was Nikki, was she early at all?"

"About a week early if I remember correctly. I was young, I didn't pay too much to the time."

"Well, I bet these kids will be like Nikki. But if they're early we'll just be early."

"You just seem to have this under control." She laughed, "You just wait until they are born."

"I don't think I do. In fact, I know I don't have any control." She kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the couch.

Mike moved down to where she had her head resting on his lap. "So my dear wife, when should we break the news to your CO

"How about in nine months, we'll tell him then." She wasn't ready to say anything yet until the 12 week period was passed...a superstition on her part.

"Well I don't see him guessing it on his own." Mike smiled and kissed her cheek, "Besides I always wanted a big family."

"Well, you got what you wished for. Next time, don't say out loud what you've always wanted."

"Well I think we said it was going to be three kids right?" He kissed her gently.

"Well we've always been different." He grinned and kissed her again. "But that's a good thing."

"I'll take the fifth on that." She was getting tired, something that was becoming more frequent.

"I'll be in a few minutes, let me go check on our daughter she's been quiet." He got up then helped Rayna to her feet, "Besides if you're tired turn in."

"I going right now." She was tired now which made her wonder if she could continue in her line of work.

Mike walked in to Nikki's bedroom after first knocking. She had climbed in to bed and was just waiting for Mike or Rayna to tuck her in.

Meanwhile, Rayna also got ready for bed. She had the lights dimmed so it wasn't bright, just pleasant.

After tucking Nikki in, kissing her forehead and actually telling her a story Nikki turned in and Mike walked in to the bedroom where Rayna was getting ready for bed.

Rayna climbed in bed herself, "You going to read me a bedtime story too?" She joked.

Mike smiled, "What sort of story do you want?" He began to flirt with his wife some.

"The story of how the poor, abused girl became a princess and is living happily ever after."

It was a joke of theirs that had started up when Nikki first moved in and begged for a story every night. "Well once there was this beautiful girl...." As he whispered the story to her he kissed her tenderly, "...and they lived happily ever after."

She got a kick out of it and continued to tease, "Now, if I only had a teddy bear to sleep with, I'll be satisfied."

"Well, then you'll do. I'll just snuggle with you if you don't mind." She smiled, "Or I can just get one of Nikki's"

She smiled, pulled the covers down on one side and patted the empty side, his side, next to her. "Then climb on in."

She returned his kisses, almost forgetting how tired she was just a few minutes ago.

But Mike could sense how tired she really was and he just cradled her in his arms and then kissed her one more time, "Good night Rayn."

"Thoughts of Home and of New Adventures"

By Ensign Autumn Jamieson

Music blared from the concealed speakers. The room was caos. Some of the many shelves was empty and their contents were on the floor, coffee table and even on the couch.

Two large boxes sat in the middle of the room. Autumn knelt in the center of them and lifted out a object. It was about 30cm tall and it was shaped like a faerie, with a long flowing green dress, clear green eyes, long flowing brown hair and bright pearly wings. She had been rearanging her room for almost three hours now and had almost finished putting up all her new statues and books.

Now all she had to do was find room for the rest of her things. 'Maybe I should put some of it into storage back on earth.. the things I don't want.' she thought.'What a shopping spree. I should never let Julia and Leslina use my credit account again, even if they did manage to find all the stuff I really wanted to have and read' She shook her head and glanced around. In her small lounge area most of the shelves were filled now with her newest posessions and trinkets. Most of her other stuff she now started to pack away in boxes. She stoped at a small book. "THE WORD" Was scrawled across its cover. Getting to her feet she walked over to the replicator.

"Computer" She said placing the book on the ledge."Disentergrate the book please. And disperse its particles into space"

Computer: Working. Task Compleate

"Good" Autumn sighed and headed back to her packing. She finished moving and re-aranging all the items in her room and she had hung a beautifull tapestry on the wall above the couch. The tapestry was of Paris in the winter time and she loved it.She loved Paris so much it was a shame that she didn't have time to go there. She couldn't believe the fact that nearly three hours ago she had been watching Rebecca VonErnst beat the stuffing out of the captian and the rest at poker and the girl didn't even realise it. When the call had come through about their new mission she had left everyone to their tasks and had returned to her quarters.

THE BORG.

'O goody. Just what I always wanted to face those technocartic idiots... Can't be any worse then the newest staff member on the medical Team' It wasn't that she hated the new doctor she hadn't seen enough of him to get to know him really well, But she had heard that she didn't really want to. He had only been on board for ten weeks and already had a rep for being a stuck up snob. She glanced at her Chrono and saw the time. 9 hrs til they reach the wormhole. 1 hour til her shift. Her room was almost tidy and she left the rest of it on the floor and headed for the shower.

Coming out of the shower ten minuets later wrapped in a towel, she headed for the

communicator.

"Computer Record following message : To Ltjg Quewenson, Science department. Was wondering if you feel up to a stint in the holodeck at about 11h tomorrow morning? Have found an old program that involves sword fighting and ships that might interest you. Please respond to this message if you feel up to it. Ensign Jamieson. Computer send message"

Computer:Acknowledged Autumn.

She ran into her bedroom and began to fix her hair for work 'Today is the day I start doing things right' She thought as she dressed in her uniform. She looked at her slef in the Mirror and thought 'Looking good Kender' She was walking out the door when her computer console chriped and the Computer said

: Incoming message for you Autumn.

" Transfer it to my desk in the Medical bay Computer. I'll take it there when I get there ok?"

Computer:Acknowledged

Autmn walked calmly down the corridor and into the turbolift. As the doors slid shut her mind began to wonder what the message could be about.

*******************/=^=\********************/=^=\*************************

The USS Hermes, a Nebula class vessel soared amidst a sea of spinning wreckage�� dodging in and out of the shattered remains of what once was her proud shipmates.

The single Borg cube, controlled by the assimilated Jean Luc Picard of the Enterprise slowly scanned the area of Wolf 359, taking note of how the small fleet of forty starships had already been reduced to barely half that number.

Like annoying little gnats the gallant little ships made repeated attack runs, diving in and out of range strafing the surface of the technological terror, but alas to almost no effect.

Captain Rebecca von Ernst winced as the USS Hermes shuddered from yet another blow along the port shielding, but refused to take her eyes off the complicated mathematical equations that danced across the forward viewscreen of the bridge.

"Helm! Divert course 27 degrees to Starboard increase to .75 Impulse, rotate on x-axis 5 degrees��..Tactical Full photon spread��now�.now�.now!"

Blazes of white hot Antimatter spat out of the Hermes overhead Weapons Pod in time with Captain von Ernst's commands as the ship twisted and protested its way through the torturous maneuvers.

Amazingly one out of the three torpedoes actually found a mark as something important blew out on the surface of the Borg Cube.

Rebecca ignored it however, and drew her short thin legs into the over-large Command chair and sat cross-legged. Resting chin upon hands, her lips moved silently as she ran and re-ran complicated attack vectors in her head.

Socially and physically she was a class-A dud. However, from her earliest days at the Academy, a certain group of instructors had latched on to the fact that while she failed miserably in most other subject, her combat simulation scores were off the chart!

"It�s the math" Captain Rebecca muttered to herself, as she ordered the Hermes into another gut-wrenching spin that apparently caught the Borg-Gunners off guard��their cutting beam missed them by 100 yards to Starboard.

It was all a matter of complex 3-dimensional vectors and future-cone probabilities , and spatial awareness��..A mental image that amazingly Rebecca had the ability to visualize in her head with relative ease. To her it was not so much about zooming around the galaxy and blowing up borg��.It was a simple Equation in probabilities with multiple variables that needed to be solved.

"Ok�.Helm, reverse your turn, and go to z minus 2500 meters, pitch down 2 degrees and micro-warp burst for point eight seconds."

Metal squealed and crewmen's stomached churned in protest over the micro-warp jump as Hermes zipped across the 359 battlefield in a microsecond, ready to approach the Borg from a new angle.

Pulling her legs in tighter, Rebecca sat like a pixie-queen atop her Command Chair throne and digested the new factors��.

------ USS Cheyenne off the port bow�.spewing deadly radioactive gas into space�.No survivors

------USS Melbourne ( The flagship) was burning in space�..rescue operations underway.

Rebecca sat up straight. "An assimilatd STARFLEET officer!! Holy Noodles that�s it!!"

Slapping her hand-rest Rebecca ordered, "Helm to 246 Mark 8 Maximum Impulse, Tactical�.Stand by on Tractor beam!"

Hermes shuddered again as a near miss crumpled, but did not penetrate the number 6 shield.

"Captain!" Tactical called, "Number six is offline! No casualties, but we are evacuating crew from that section."

"Captain!" Helm called interrupting, "Recommend altering course�..we're headed right for the Melbourne�.she still has survivors on board!"

Rebecca slumped, "Good��Tactical lock tractors onto the Melbourne as we pass�.lets take it with us."

A large jolt passed through the Hermes as it snared the tumbling Melbourne, and nearly everyone aboard was thrown to the deck, Rebecca included.

"Noodles�.." she grumbled picking herself up, "Helm to 125 Mark 4 now! Take us on an intercept with the Cube!"

"Captain!!" The Tactical officer looked aghast, "We're dragging the Melbourne CLOSER to the cube?"

The Helms man was similarly shocked. "Captain that course will take the Hermes directly through the radioactive debris field from the Cheyenne�..May I remind you our number six shield is still down and we have men in that section!!! They'll be fried!"

But Rebecca's eyes were turned inward, as yet another variable in the equation was solved for�..the math was almost complete�."You heard the orders�." She whispered.

And so it was��..Hermes, with the shattered Melbourne in tow plowed straight through the radioactive debris, and thus surprised the Borg Gunners again. Unfortunately as indicated the exposed crewmen in section six died a horrible screaming death as the deadly gasses penetrated the hull roasting them at their stations�..

"Casualties!!! Section Six!!" Tactical reported grimly and accusingly. "You let those men die!!"

"Just wait�." Rebecca said wearily as she plotted one final vector��The Borg Cube grew large in the viewscreen as the Hermes bore down on it with blinding speed.

The last variable slid into place, and the equation that danced in Rebecca's head was solved.

The two starfleet vessels roared down towards the Cube, and at the last second Hermes broke tractor and peeled off leaving the crippled Melbourne to continue forwards on a collision course with the Cube�..

Rebecca blinked as the Holographic simulation faded away leaving her alone in a cold empty Holodeck.

Alone that is except for the irate Commander Zaletta who stood in the arch, his face purple with fury!!

" You just FUCKING KILLED those people Lieutenant!!!!" he accused eyes blazing. "What the bloody blue hell were you thinking!??!"

Lieutenant (j/g) Rebecca von Ernst wilted where she stood. Her small shoulders slumped and her head drooped to the floor, a lock of red hair pulling free from her headband and falling across her eyes.

She didn�t. Rebecca kept her eyes glued to the yellow-grid floor of the Holodeck, and didn�t dare look up. Her innate shyness was now again in full control. It was easy to yell at holographic bridge-officers during a simulation��..but REAL people scarred her to death.

Commander Zaletta, Chief instructor of the soon-to-be opened 359 School was beside himself in fury. He sputtered for a moment looking for something to say.

"You�.you just MURDERED 400 of you fellow Starfleet personnel on a crippled vessel!!' he screamed at her from only a few inches away, His broad shouldered bulk dwarfing her own diminuative size, "You fucking used them as a damn over-sized Torpedo you dumb little girl!!! You ordered your own crew to remain at their posts in an UNSHIELDED section, and then KILLED them by running through a radioactive cloud!!!"

"That will be quite enough Commander!" A clear calm voice cut across the holodeck, and both Zaletta and von Ernst looked up to see the stern face of Admiral Jergan Hoth considering them both from the Arch.

"Admiral!" Zaletta breathed in relief, "Sir can you believe the total incompetence of this little��."

"I said that will be quite enough�.Commander." Hoth paused emphasizing the rank difference between himself and Zaletta.

Hoth considered the pair for a moment, before beginning in a cordial tone. "Walk with me please you two." He said, then turned on a heel and strode out.

Still red-faced with anger, Zaletta tugged on his tunic to straighten it, and followed, trailed by tiny Rebecca who still hung her head low.

Admiral Hoth led the pair on a slow meandering tour of the empty halls of Starfleet's new 359 School in silence.

The Huge Space-going Facility hung in the exact center of the Wolf 359 debris field, surrounded on all sides by the silent ghosts of shattered Starships and broken dreams.

The positioning of the school was purposeful. Indeed the School's Motto "Never Again�.." was reinforced by the presence of the graveyard.

The many halls and classrooms of the facility were designed with huge floor to ceiling windows that looked out upon the drifting wreckage. Reminding the dutiful student�.Don�t let this happen to you!

The School was conceived and designed by Admiral Hoth many years ago, and while it was not quite yet open for its first class, all the facilities were in place.

Numerous classrooms and lecture halls, Holo-simulators galore, as well as a few On-loan Starships from time to time for actual maneuvers.

The aim of the school was simple. Advanced Tactical Training. The TOP GUN so to speak for Starfleets Captains and Tactical Officers from throughout the fleet. Here the hard lessons of Wolf 359�..Sector 001�.Cardassia Prime�.and other events would be pounded into the best and brightest in hopes to prevent another starship graveyard from forming elsewhere.

"Its all a matter of perspective�" the admiral was talking softly to his silent companions, "When we find ourselves here among the stars�.amongst these ships, " He motioned out one of the many panoramic windows, "It becomes clear what our duty is. It becomes clear what the risks are, and what it rtkaes to make the hard decisions."

Hoth led the two to a comfortable lounge on the outskirts of the station equipped with a huge dome-like ceiling that provided a full 180 degree view of the 359 Battlefield. Rebecca noted how the smell of fresh paint still lingered in the air, and some of the furniture was still covered in plastic wrap from transport.

Motioning his companions to sit, Hoth settled himself in an easy recliner and folded his hands across his belly.

"You Rebecca�." He began. "You are the key to all this. You and people like you. The youth of Starfleet. People blessed with unbelievable gifts and strengths. You are the future of Starfleet."

Zaletta started to object, but Hoth over-rode him. "Rebecca please explain you r performance today. Why did you enter the radiation field? Why did you use the Melbourne as a missile?"

"Rebecca gulped and considered the floating wreckage all around her. "W�w�..we lost Wolf 359 because we used Starfleet's best and most advanced tactics against a man that knew them by heart. He knew exactly what a Starfleet captain would and would not do to ensure victory. He knew all the plays as it were."

"I�I�I wrote some new plays." She shrugged, "Starfleet hold s the highest revereance for the value of life and loyalty. We have the greatest aversion to senses of betrayal, and would go to the mat for each other right?"

"So I did the opposite. I avoided Borg targeting by flying through the radiation field, knowing Locutus would never expect a Starfleet officer to intentionally murder his crew. The same with Melbourne. Locutus would expect me to bravely rescue the 400 crewmembers��not to betray them and use them as a weapon! I�.it all just added up!"

Hoth considered this for a long silent moment and broke into a grin. "Morbid my dear child��but effective. In fact I suspect that if our rash Commander Zaletta had not prematurely halted the simulation, we would have found Using an Excelsior Class ship as a Super-Photon Torpedo would have been quite effective indeed��."

Hoth sighed, "I'm going to miss you my dear when you return to the Galaxy. Just remember our first Class begins next Semester, and I fully expect you to attend��.or who knows maybe even TEACH!"

Rebecca gazed out amongst the debris field around her, her brown eyes locking on one mangled shape tumbling in the darkness��.USS MELBOURNE.

Bruce awoke to the feeling of his skin being slapped upon. His face began to sting from the constant barrage of hands. Bruce began to open his eyes and look around at his surroundings. It was dim and dank. His eyes stung a little from the sweat that dripped into his eyes. Then a dulling pain surged thru him. He tried to move and found he couldn't. He looked at his hands and feet. They were attached to restraining devices on ther wall and floor. He started to make out and Image, then was smacked again.

"Wake up, Wake up......Filthy Human. Wake up, I said." A voice rang out at him again. Then another hit this time to his stomach.

Bruce gasped out for air at the hit. As soon as he caught a little breathe. "I am awake, you Bastard."

Bruce then met to another hit to the face. "I did not tell you to speak, I said wake up. Criminals do not get the pleasure of speaking when they want." The voice spoke out.

Bruce heard a door open and footsteps. He grinned as he began to get his bearings. He then heard another voice. "Sir, You have transmission waiting for you."

"Okay, I will be there in a sec. He is not going anywhere." The voice spoke again.

Bruce strained his eyes trying to get a fix on someone. He then heard the door. The sweat still pouring down into his eyes kept making it difficult. He strained to see who was near him that kept hitting him.

"Well, Criminal. We have finally waited patiently and we finally have you. In case your wondering, you have already been found guilty and will be killed when we are done with you. Do you wish to ask why?" The voice stated triumphantly.

"You are being put to death for your Crimes against Cardasia and Her People." The voice waited to see his reaction as stepped from the darkness near bruce.

Bruce's eyes let out the look of almost shock as he see's the almost reptilian skin of a Cardassian male step forward almost what seemed like smiling and land a punch straight to Bruce's face knocking him out.

Bruce went into dreams of what he did as a member of his special ops team. Incertion missions into various bases and instalations. Killing many of there warriors and blowing compounds sky high. He kept seeing the looks of the dead and still felt nothing for he was doing this for duty and for starfleet. Hours go by and his dreams continue to be reliving his missions. Then he felt a liquid substance thrown at him and wake him up with a start. He coughs then looks up having the sweat washed away from his eyes.

"Good I hope you were going to say something like that." The Cardassian stepped forward with what looked like a pain stick. He quickly jabs it at Bruce and pain courses thruogh out his entire body. Bruce holds up for at least an hour until he sets it on high. The Cardassian personel hear screams of pain and defiance ring thru the hallways and they all smile.

"Cowboys and Indians"
With Lt.(jg)Raven Darkstar, Security, and NPC Lt. Frank 'Tex' Richey

Location: Deck 14, USS GALAXY
Time: Just after setting coarse for the wormhole and engaging warp.

He had been standing near the turbolift doors, nervously waiting for the two security officers to show up for the last two minutes.

Raven Darkstar and Lt. Frank Richey walked ahead of the crewman, eyes focused on the open doorway near the far end of the corridor.

"I found her first then called you immediately. Couldn't have been more than 5 minutes, at best."

They stood infront of the open door and Lt. Richey looked at the fidgety Ensign. "Bubba, I reckon you better stand back here," he said pointing to a far wall.

Raven moved to the doorway and listened momentarily for movement inside. As a general rule he didn't carry a phaser if he didn't have to. He felt that it diminished ones physical attributes when you relied on weapons yet he still heeded the call of caution. After a moment he couldn't detect anything amiss.

He glanced at Richey, his black gloved hand resting on the but of the phaser he wore in a ridiculous holster on his hip. The cowboy nodded back, the brim of his equally as ridiculous, black cowboy hat wiggled as his head moved.

How the man was allowed to get away with wearing the hat on duty was a mystery to Raven. He wondered how Savat would react if he insisted upon wearing a full and formal headdress on away missions. Granted Richey was only assigned temporarily to replace the departed Seth Zonhieb and to help assist in tracing the source of unique homemade chemicals that had recently been found aboard the GALAXY, chemicals that have also been found in the bodies of 3 apparent overdose victims the last 4 weeks, yet in his opinion, the man should still be required to follow the ships dress code.

The Indian eased over the threashold and across the livingroom to a corner where he had the bedroom door in his line of sight. A slender arm could also be seen from behind an overstuffed green couch. He motioned to Richey and the older man entered, not giving the body on the floor a second glance until he and Raven were both satisfied that the room was secure.

For some reason raven had yet to begin to fathom, he had found himself as some sort of public liaison first to Leo Streely then now to 'Tex' Richey while he was onboard.

That he could handle. It was the idiotic western mannerisms and drawl that grated on him. Everything from the handle bar mustache to the bow legged walk.

His only saving grace, and what kept Raven from shipping the guy back on the first bus back to the starbase, where he was originally stationed, was that the man knew his stuff.

While he might project the typical country bumpkin image, Raven thought that it was just that -- an image. The man knew security procedure and slightly impressed Darkstar by his professionalism as they searched the room until they arrived at the couch as if their movements were pre-coreographed.

The Indian kneeled down and placed two large fingers upon the woman's throat. He didn't need to search too long to know that she was dead. Her skin was icy cold under his touch.

"Now that ain't no way for a lady to pass on," Tex said softly as he looked down at the woman's lifeless body. She was pretty in a girl next door way. That natural beauty was marred by dried white foam from her mouth and nose. Her eyes were rolled so far back that no iris was visible.

Raven brushed her curled black hair from her neck to reveal the bruises and self inflicted scratch marks that the other three victims also had.

Tex meanwhile, was using a tricorder to study the foam residue. He snapped it shut and announced:" Same traces as the others. I'd say, we got number 4 here."

"Darkstar to Sickbay...I need a post-mortem team at my location. We have another overdose."

After receiving an acknowledgment, he then called to security to send their forensics team down to comb the place. Tex was outside quizzing the Ensign who found the body when both teams arrived and began to work throughout the room.

He walked over to Raven and said:" The kid says she was just comin back from a holodeck game with some friends. He says he was supposed to be with 'em but couldn't get off duty. I got a list a names here. I reckon we ought to pay these folks a visit.

"That's more than we had yesterday.Besides, we're not any more help to her now.," said Raven as they walked away from the crime scene and heard the distinct sound of a bodybag being zipped.

"Message Received"
by, Lt. (j.g.) Wilhem Quevvenson
---------------------------------------

Coming in from dinner, Wilhem heard the beeping of his computer. There was a message pending. Opening it, he received:

"To Ltjg Quevvenson, Science department. Was wondering if you feel up to a stint in the holodeck at about 11h tomorrow morning? Have found an old program that involves sword fighting and ships that might interest you. Please respond to this message if you feel up to it. Ensign Jamieson."

Wilhem smiled. This was one of the few friends he had on board the ship. And he knew how to respond. "Computer: Begin message to Ens. Jamieson."

"I would be glad to attend this Holodeck opening. Thank you for the offer. Meet you there after my shift.

The swirling colors of what the Bajorans respectfully called the celestial temple faded away when the USS Galaxy exited the wormhole to enter the Gamma Quadrant. The Ship's twelve-hour trip at maximum warp had past quickly, laden with whispers of a possible Borg encounter in the Dominion sector of space.

Upon exiting the wormhole, a number of Starfleet vessels were already standing by, waiting to join the Galaxy's task force fleet to investigate the Intelligence information about the possible encounter.

"Hail the fleet. Find out if all the ships are assembled Mister Richeson." Lee stated.

Tim nodded, "Aye Captain." A few moments later, he returned, "I have Captain George Cartel from the USS Resolute on the channel sir. He wants to speak with you."

After hearing the sound of a pair of buttons being activated from the Tactical arch, the main view screen that showed a dozen or so starships of different classes was replaced with Captain Cartel's image from the bridge of the Resolute.

["Glad you could join us Galaxy."] the clean cut, dark haired, Captain Cartel greeted.

"G'day 'mate. Have all of the ships that are joining the reconnaissance mission been assembled Captain?" Lee asked.

["Mostly Price. We are still waiting on the USS Ironclad, she was even farther out then the Galaxy when our orders came in from Admiral Douglas. But other than Captain Jorgensund's ship, the remaining 14 ships, including the Galaxy have arrived and are awaiting orders sir."] Cartel explained.

Lee regarded Captain Cartel for a moment. He'd never had an opportunity to meet the man, who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties. It was difficult to tell since Cartel wore his hair in a tight, military style cut, which was reflective of his demeanor and style as a Starfleet Captain.

Cartel nodded. ["We have three Miranda class vessels in the Caladon, Bow River and ShirKahr. Two Steamrunner class in the Merrimac and Monitor; three when the Ironclad arrives. Three Excelsior class ships in the Lakota, Crazy Horse and Regina. The Lakota having systems upgrades to her weapons and shields. Then there's my ship, the Resolute, a Defiant class. The Wakizashi, a Sabre class. The Katana, an Akira class. The USS Akagi, an Ambassador class. The Antioch, an Intrepid class. And finally, your ship Captain, the USS Galaxy."]

Cartel nodded. ["Yes sir it is. But this is probably more then a recon mission. At least that's what everyone including Starfleet feels."]

"Aye. How long before Captain Jorgensund's vessel will be joining the fleet?" Captain Price asked.

["Last report put her a little more then an hour out from the wormhole on the alpha quadrant side sir."] Cartel stated referencing a datapadd.

Lee pressed his lips together as he thought. "We won't wait for her then. Captain Jorgensund can have the Ironclad catch up to the fleet. Have the Bow River remain here until the Ironclad passes through the wormhole. Then they can both come join the fleet."

["Captain Schmidt isn't going to like that. She's likely to throw a fit at being left out of the action if I know Lori."] Cartel commented.

Lee gave a grin. "Let her be mad 'mate. Truth of the matter is, a Miranda class vessel? If this does turn into something more then a recon assignment, there would be little such an old starship could do to help. But showing the Ironclad the way to the fleet... tell her it's an important assignment."

"Soon as my operations officer has coordinated with the other ships. Say in about ten minutes Captain." Lee explained.

["Very good sir. I'll see to it that the Resolute is ready to go."] Cartel stated evenly.

Looking over to Lieutenant Commander Surok, the Captain asked, "'Commander, I need you to pull and enter the ship registrations for each of the vessels in the fleet. Program them into the Galaxy's tactical computer system to help identify them as 'friendly' targets to the system. Also assemble a list of the latest command override codes for each of the ships, just in case we need to perform any emergency rescues requiring overriding of the ship's defensive systems."

A short time later, the fleet of 13 ships began pulling out, each one jumping to warp and following the USS Galaxy. Only the lonesome USS Bow River remained behind, waiting for Captain Jorgensund and the USS Ironclad to arrive before they could follow the fleet and head into Dominion space.

Captain Price sat in his ready room. He was studying the list of ships, registries, and the names of the Captains assigned to each of them that Mister Surok had kindly assembled. If this report of a possible Borg invasion in Dominion space turned out to be true, Lee wanted to know the men, women and ships he would be working with should a battle develop.

While studying the roster, the General's thoughts were interrupted by a hail from Commander Thomas on the Bridge.

["Captain, you may want to have a look at this sir. 'Commander Peterson has discovered something on the ship's long range sensors."] Chris informed.

Placing the padd down, Lee rose up out of his black leather chair as he spoke, "I'm on my way 'mate."

A short walk out his ready room doors and onto the bridge let Lee see that Commander Thomas was standing near Science station one where Kent was seated and studying what was on his screen. Heading over there, the Captain stood next to his First Officer. "What have you found 'mate?"

Chris looked at the Captain, and then at 'Commander Peterson's view screen. "Kent has been using the Galaxy's sensors to scan the area while we and the fleet head towards the Dominion system. He believes he has found something interesting."

The Captain looked at the Chief Science Officer and jogged his chin slightly. "Show me 'mate."

Kent cleared his throat slightly, and then tapped a few controls. "See this region here sir?, It looks like there has been a battle of some sort. I've scanned the entire area, including regions closer to the Dominion home world where we are heading, but have detected no signs of a battle anywhere but in this sector over here. I respectfully think we should check it out sir." Lieutenant Commander Peterson explained.

Lee gave a nod while looking over the readout that Kent was pointing to. "Starfleet Intelligence reported that the battle or suspected battle was in Dominion space. This is nearly a dozen light years away from where we are headed."

"Well, technically Captain, all of these sectors could be considered Dominion controlled space. Though Starfleet doesn't recognize that, the Dominion government definitely does." Commander Thomas piped in.

After hearing what Chris had to say, Lee gave a nod. "And you are certain you are not detecting anything in the Dominion system proper 'mate?"

"Positive sir. This disturbance here has got to be what the Starfleet reports were about. We can tell more once we get closer and can take more accurate scans. It's difficult getting high resolution readings while traveling at Warp." Kent pointed out.

"Fair enough. Alter the course of the fleet. Let's head for the coordinates Lieutenant Commander Peterson has so kindly located for us." The Captain ordered.

"Very good sir." Chris nodded as he made his way over to the helm to pass on the orders.

Soon the Galaxy, and the rest of the twelve ships accompanying her, changed course to go check things out.

"Approaching the indicated coordinates Captain." Gustavson stated from the helm.

Lee glanced over to the helm. "Signal the fleet to drop out of warp and proceed at full impulse."

When the USS Galaxy and the rest of the Federation fleet dropped out of warp, they came across a scene eerily reminiscent of what the Enterprise experienced at Wolf 359. There were dozens of bent, fractured, twisted ships scattered about; All of them from the Dominion. There was instant silence on the bridge of the Galaxy, as the command crew gave their fellow space travelers the respect they deserved; as if they were trespassing on a sacred burial ground now in the aftermath of what caused this.

Breaking the silence, Captain Price solemnly ordered, "Scan the area. Any life signs?"

"Checking Captain..." Richeson called out from the tactical station. After a moment, he responded, "Not from any of these remnants sir. But there does appear to be readings coming from further on ahead through the debris field."

Looking at the view screen, all that could be seen against the dark backdrop of space and stars, was the wreckage from the battle. In some places it was so thick, you couldn't see past it. "Cri-key,... there must be remains from over a hundred ships here."

"They put up one hell of a battle all right Captain." Thomas stated. "If it was Borg who did this, they may have taken the fight to them, rather then let the Borg come closer to their homeworld."

"Take us in 'mate; Slow and easy at one quarter impulse. Lieutenant Richeson, inform the fleet to spread out. We need to scan the debris for survivors and also signs of who or what did this."

Slowly the Federation fleet of thirteen ships fanned out and began to navigate through the wrecked Dominion ships, scanning for survivors and any signs of who or what had caused this battle to occur.

The Bridge was nearly silent while the duty officers observed the communication between captain Price and captain Cartel. Eventually, the captain ended, saying "Galaxy out."

Price looked to his operations manager and instructed, "'Commander, I need you to pull and enter the ship registrations for each of the vessels in the fleet. Program them into the Galaxy's tactical computer system to help identify them as 'friendly' targets to the system. Also assemble a list of the latest command override codes for each of the ships, just in case we need to perform any emergency rescues requiring overriding of the ship's defensive systems."

The Vulcan nodded. Surok felt that the Terran gesture facilitated communication. "I will see to it sir."

The captain's instructions were a wise precaution. Especially in light of the potential for battle with Borg and Dominion vessels. Potentially high numbers of targets in near-space, and potentially assimilated crews, demanded every precaution.

Surok immediately began the task of assembling the details. The tactical system took in all the data on friendly targets with excess room to spare. Upgrades to the system at Starbase 114 gave them a system capable of handling ten-cubed targets at full resolution. The tiny fleet of fourteen ships hardly warranted a Fleet Profile. Surok established default unit identity criteria for tactical. Lieutenant Richeson would of course create his own tracking criteria that suited his needs.

The ops manager then began assembling the command override codes for each ship in the fleet. The information was highly classified; Surok would have to treat it carefully. He first assembled the codes and linked them to the tactical Fleet Profile under an encryption. Next, he placed them in a temporary vocal subnet accessible to the Galaxy's commanding officer by voice command at any time during the mission.

When all the data were assembled, Surok created a secure file system on a PADD and encrypted it. The captain would have instant access to the information at all times. With that PADD, the captain could establish basic control over any ship in the fleet.*

The Galaxy cruised through the debris field, creating a wake of particulate matter as she passed bits of wreckage. The ship's scanners washed over the battered and broken hulks, seeking clues and survivors. The Galaxy's tactical system quietly watched the incoming data, attempting to identify known Dominion vessels. Passive scanners listened for distress calls and the radioactive cries of crippled-but-active reactors.

Surok took in the scene coldly. It resembled Wolf 359, but failed to dredge up any reaction from the Vulcan of an emotional nature.

He immersed himself in estimating Dominion casualty statistics. If the Borg had indeed perpetrated this damage, were the casualties dead, or assimilated?

* OOC: Per technical manual, a starship can be commanded from a PADD given the proper command override codes. Logically, that would be no way to send a ship into combat, of course!

Commander Thomas was on bridge watch when the orders from Starfleet Command came in to the captain. Chris turned his attention a message from one of the ship's doctors.

----
From: Ensign dr. Vladimir Malgin
To: Commander Christopher Kell Thomas
Subject: Hard surgery on ensign Knight

"Computer please record the following response to this message." Commander Thomas said as he decided a simple, but short reply was in order.

----
From: Commander Christopher Kell Thomas
To: Ensign dr. Vladimir Malgin
Subject: Hard surgery on ensign Knight

"Reconnaissance on a possible Borg, Dominion encounter. We're to observe and only interview if the situation warrants it."

Commander Thomas watched as the exchange between Captain Price and Captain Cartel it was rather a unique change for the bridge, but one that he didn't like the reasons for it occurring. If the reports were right it could be the greatest possible threat to the Federation, even with the recent advances in technology.

["We have three Miranda class vessels in the Caladon, Bow River and ShirKahr. Two Steamrunner class in the Merrimac and Monitor; three when the Ironclad arrives. Three Excelsior class ships in the Lakota, Crazy Horse and Regina. The Lakota having systems upgrades to her weapons and shields. Then there's my ship, the Resolute, a Defiant class. The Wakizashi, a Sabre class. The Katana, an Akira class. The USS Akagi, an Ambassador class. The Antioch, an Intrepid class. And finally, your ship Captain, the USS Galaxy."]

Commander Thomas began to formulate a deployment strategy based upon the recon makeup and the possibility of encountering Borg or Dominion hostiles in this sector of space.

Commander Thomas had called the captain to the bridge to have a look at something Lt. Commander Peterson had found very interesting or disturbing depending on your look. Either way it wasn't good.

"Captain on the bridge." Commander Thomas called out, as the captain stepped on the bridge.

"Aye sir." Chris said as he let the chief science officer fill the captain in on his findings.

Once Lt. Commander Peterson had filled the captain on his finding and brought the seriousness of the situation to him and they'd adjusted course, Chris felt it was time to relay information to the captain.

"Sir, Lt. Richeson and I have deployed the fleet based on best combat arrangement." Chris said as he brought the captain's attention to see the deployment. Which had the Caladon and ShirKahr in a unique position, they were flanking the fleet and orders to withdraw to the rear if they found anything of threat." Chris said as he continued to layout the formation. "Lt. Suder has sent an engineer from the galaxy to the Lakota, Resolute, Katana, and the Antioch right now to help upgrade their systems. In exchange we have an engineer from them to make sure we're not imbalanced."

Commander Thomas took a look at a coded message coming across subspace. "Captain Price, Admiral Douglas sent us a coded message set to activate once we were here in the Gamma Quadrant, for the duration of the mission you are hear by promoted to fleet captain until mission is completed." Chris said.

"Also included in the message that Admiral Douglas is preparing to speak with Chancellor Martok of the Klingon Empire. Additional details unavailable at this time." Chris said with a smirk. "A logical precaution."

"Aye Mate." Price said as he accepted the orders of being promoted to temporary fleet captain, nothing that they didn't know already. Only difference is that it meant he had a little more clout at the moment in the decision making process out here.

It would only be a short time now before the Galaxy and rest of the fleet arrived at the coordinates of the battle. This was it, everything could be on the line now.

"They put up one hell of a battle all right Captain." Thomas stated. "If it was Borg who did this, they may have taken the fight to them, rather then let the Borg come closer to their homeworld."

"Take us in 'mate; Slow and easy at one quarter impulse. Lieutenant Richeson, inform the fleet to spread out. We need to scan the debris for survivors and also signs of who or what did this."

Slowly the Federation fleet of thirteen ships fanned out and began to navigate through the wrecked Dominion ships, scanning for survivors and any signs of who or what had caused this battle to occur.

Surok took in the scene coldly. It resembled Wolf 359, but failed to dredge up any reaction from the Vulcan of an emotional nature.

He immersed himself in estimating Dominion casualty statistics. If the Borg had indeed perpetrated this damage, were the casualties dead, or assimilated?

Commander Thomas looked at the viewscreen which showed the battle that had occurred here, it was a massive scale. It..

"Sir, I am detecting what would appear to be a Borg signature in decay." Lt. Commander Surok said.

Lt. Richeson looked at his display, "Sir, this is interesting sensors are showing that there are hull fragments from Dominion ships, at least 3 I don't recognize at the moment and a Borg ship."

Commander Thomas raised an eyebrow this was a interesting situation, a Borg ship had been destroyed, but by who and how. "Full sensor sweep." Thomas said. "Captain I recommend we spread the fleet out farther, and have 2 ships pull back."

"Make it so." Price said as he waited to see what the sensor reports would turn up.

"Sir, we have something, the Merrimac is reporting that several Dominion ships are working to salvage what remains of the disabled Borg cube, to use it's technology to their advantage." Commander Thomas said as he read the report.

"I am detecting a Romulan ship, badly damaged, but operational at the moment. There are signs the Borg were attempting to assimilate the ship, but failed." Chris said. "And furthermore there are life signs on the ship."

Shinta felt a headache coming on, with Bruce on a mission, she had to do everything herself with the kids. Little Hope was still far from well, but that was not the reason why she wanted to see her boss. During the attack on the ship, she had felt so much anger, the urge to kill, and that scared her, so she knocked on the door to Karyn`s office.

Karyn smiled as she heard the knock on her door. Shinta was the only one who did that, others used the chime, but it was a sort of signal between she and her Assistant Chief. "Come in, Shinta."

"Gods, what in the universe is wrong with you?" she asked, reaching for her medkit. She kept it beside her for her nursing shifts and for emergencies so she could grab it in a pinch.

Shinta waved Karyn away, as she sat down. "I am not ill, Karyn. I just need to talk to you, and it is personal." She wrung her hands, ignoring the building pain in her head. "Do you think I am a violent person?"

Karyn let the medkit drop on the table beside her and looked at Shinta, a bit amused and puzzled that she would ask such an unusual question. "Of course not. Why would you ask me such a thing?"

"You know I was brought up as an assassin, I know it's in my file, and you have read it. When the ship was under fire, I did not feel an urge to help people, I felt an urge to kill. Karyn it was frightening. And I miss Bruce, he has not written once yet. What if he does not miss me?"

"He's your husband, Shinta, I'm sure he can't wait to see you. You know how crazy things get when you go to school. As for wanting to kill, you and I were in the same boat. Let's just say Madred and I parted on bad terms. You have to put things in perspective. We were fighting the Cardassians. I'm sure you weren't the only Bajoran on edge. I have a great idea, why don't you and I head over to Ten-Fore to talk and relax. If you and I are going to talk, it might as well be over decent hot fudge sundaes."

Shinta smiled slightly. "Maybe that is a good idea. I am sure that I am only imagining things, let's go Karyn. It has been awhile since you and I relaxed together.

The main corridor on Deck 2 was under normal circumstances used a lot to get from point A to B on the ship, mostly by junior Officers who resided on this Deck. Now it was completely empty, at least from section 21 through 23, because for now it was off limits except for Engineers and the Senior staff. This area had taken quite some pounding in the fight with the Cardassian warship Melot. Not really surprising since the sections were located relatively close to where the Observation Lounge was,...or used to be.

The lighting was sparse and in an odd way this created an ambiance like you often found in those mysterious yet pleasant old Jazz caf�s. Even stranger, though appropriate to this setting, was the Jazz music playing in the background on this Deck while no one seemed to be there.

An access panel was placed close to an open Jefferies Tube. Next to it was an opened Engineering kit, some tools were missing. From inside the Jefferies Tube, near the entrance, you could hear someone softly whistling the tune of the song that was now playing. Suddenly, without an apparent reason, it stopped.

The song was momentarily interrupted when the computer responded to the inquiry.

Michael nodded. "He's good. Computer, add the song to my personal music list and include all references to Chet Baker."

The Jefferies Tube lighting was operating at thirty percent, which was enough to see by, yet sparse for delicate work. Surok activated his wrist light and opened the scorched panel before him. He had pried himself from the Battle Bridge in order to continue his repairs to the subspace comm system. The main was working, but if the Saucer were to separate from the primary hull, it would have no subspace communication ability of its own.

He shined his light into the guts of the panel, noting the smoke that drifted out in tendrils. The junction was nearly as shattered as the one he repaired many decks below. The Vulcan opened his toolkit and accessed the schematic on his PADD.

Terran Jazz music filled the tiny space, echoing from around a bend where someone activated an audio circuit. It was statistically sound to predict that the listener was a human attempting to enhance his or her job performance through the use of music as a stress-reliever. The practice of enjoying music while working was encouraged by many Human- and Bolian-run private corporations. Many institutions of learning conducted studies to determine the efficacy of tonal and harmonic supplements upon laborious pursuits. Most results were negative for Vulcan participants.

Surok found himself listening to the unusual tempo changes and the atypical beat of the Jazz selection. Eventually, he heard the voice of the listener.

After a moment's reflection, Surok identified the man as Lieutenant Michael McDowell. The two men had not engaged in off-duty conversation yet, but Surok recalled the voice from his limited professional interaction with the Human.

He overheard the computer identify the artist as Chet Baker. *Perhaps I will seek out more of Chet Baker's work* he supposed. Satisfied that his prediction about the identity of the listener was proven correct, the Ops Manager returned to his efforts on the subspace comm junction.

The music played on while both men continued with their work. By now it had moved on to the solo part of the saxophone of the next track. Its warm and soothing sounds seem to change the environment of Tritanium and Duranium trusses into a more pleasant area to work in. That was how Michael saw it anyway. There weren't many opportunities to lsten to music while on duty and so he didn't want to let this one pass him by. He didn't bother anyone with it since, as far as he knew, he was the only one working here.

About 4 hours and thirty minutes had passed since Michael began working on the gravity system on Deck 2, trying to get it functioning properly again. When he first got here it was like he walked on the moon. It was quite obvious that the synthetic gravity generators were emitting a graviton field at only a fraction of the standard 1g. A quick diagnostic of the system had confirmed this and showed that the emitted field had a strength of 0.2g.

For one Engineer it was really an extensive job, but in this case Ethan didn't have another choice than to let Michael fix it alone. All other Engineers were needed for repairing systems that were higher on the priority list. Coordination of all those efforts was done by T'Zaq, Lieutenant Odin, and, if he remembered correctly, Lieutenant Gillings. Not seeing the need for an additional person to coordinate things Michael had volunteered to begin repair on other lesser important systems.

As so many times before Michael had used a top-down approach to tackle the problem he saw himself confronted with. First in making sure the EPS wave guide conduits were alright; at two locations conduits had exploded because of sheer overload. In turn the temporary, but highly intense, overload had damaged several gravity generators beyond repair and thus had to be replaced, which was a very time consuming process.

Finally, the system had to be tuned and tested on a local level. In short this meant monitoring the power flow to all generators in section 21, 22, and 23 as to make sure it didn't exceed nominal parameters. Besides that Michael had to keep an eye on the newly installed gravity generators. On rare occasions, about 1 in 1000, it happened that the software had difficulties to adapt and couldn't 'find their place' as it were in the gravity network. If this was the case the generators had to be reconfigured manually in such a way that they would fit in.

"Right, that's it. All should be okay now." Michael said when he closed a maintenance check point. Now that he had configured and checked the last of the Electro Plasma power flow regulators it was time to find out if it all worked like it should do. "Computer, stop music and bring local gravity network online in section 21, 22, and 23."

Michael heard a few soft computer bleeps coming from the maintenance check point, an indication that the computer accessed the systems responsible for generating gravity. After some moments the computer gave the final results on the systems startup sequence.

["Unable to bring system online. Failed to initialize gravity generators 02-21-074A and 02-23-076A."]

"What's this? Computer, run a level 4 diagnostic on those generators and report any failures."

It took about 10 seconds for the computer to perform the diagnostic. However, Michael still found he had to wait too long. "Come one,...I've been here long enough."

["Diagnostic complete. Interface error in gravity generator 02-21-074A and 02-23-076A."]

Michael let out a deep sigh while thinking about using some 'uncivilized language' to show his frustration. But in the end he decided not to, mostly because it wouldn't help him in any way. "Great! Just wonderful! Once in a thousand times they say. Yeah, and I just happen to have two failures at the same time. Why me!?"

While mumbling about the statistical improbability of the event Michael climbed out of the Jefferies Tube, grabbed the tools he probably needed to reconfigure the gravity generators and began walking towards section 21 where gravity generator 074A was located.

Shinta was sitting in her office, looking at the large pile of paperwork. She had always been a hands-on person, starting as a security guard. And she hated paperwork. Maybe she should hire somebody to do it for her, she knew that some of the other counselors did exactly that. But that was not her style either, she liked doing things for herself. So with the big sigh she went over to the computer again, and began to type. Part of her hoping that an emergency would come up, and she would have to postpone this, again.

While he replaced iso chips and repaired destroyed circuit pathways in the subspace comm junction, Surok attempted to occupy the parts of his mind that weren't called upon for the maintenance task. Chet Baker was as good a topic for study as any other, and the music was some he'd never before heard. He began to come up with an arrangement that could be performed with solely Vulcan instrumentation.

The resulting composition would win no shipboard contests for beauty. But a Vulcan audience would appreciate the oddly-matched Terran beat and Vulcan Lyre. Mathematically, Jazz was full of fascinating structures and phrases.

Unfortunately, the music ended abruptly and Surok overheard engineer McDowell giving verbal instructions to the ship's computer. When he heard the computer report the interface failure of two separate gravity generators, he noted the unlikeliness with far less irritation than the human voiced.*Lieutenant McDowell is probably unaware that he shares a deck with another crewmember. His outburst is natural for an illogical Human,* he decided.

The Jefferies' tubes on deck two were a very small network of passages, basically due to the small size of the deck. Had the engineer attempted to reach section 21 via the 'tubes, he would have had to squeeze past the Vulcan to get there. When McDowell reached his destination, Surok was again able to hear his vocalized frustration.

Michael threw his Engineering kit on the ground near the opened Jefferies Tube in section 22. It made a loud thud as it came down on the floor. It certainly was not the best way to handle the delicate equipment inside but he was just too irritated to think about that. He'd just lost another thirty minutes to this so called easy-to-fix problem.

After calling up the schematic of the gravity network on the wall display Michael isolated section 21 through 23 of the Saucer module and zoomed in until that specific area filled the screen.

"Well, let's give it another try, shall we?. Computer, bring local gravity network online in section 21, 22, and 23." Again Michael waited while the computer went through the startup Procedure, literally with crossed fingers.

["Unable to bring system online. Warning, critical error in gravity generators 02-21-074A and 02-23-076A."]

Michael was stunned when he heard the computer coolly announce the problem. "What the...!?" He was interrupted before he could say more.

["Warning, overload in gravity generators 02-21-074A and 02-23-076A. Generators will be shutdown and disconnected from gravity network."]

This time Michael came into action and took the appropriate actions. "Computer, shutdown gravity network in sections 21 through 23 and take it completely offline!"

"Geez, what's going on here!?" Michael said as he called up the status of both generators. One look at the red areas on the technical schematics and he knew that they were goners. "Oh no, not this. Computer, what caused the overload?"

["Overload occurred due to incorrect configuration of gravity generators 02-21-074A and 02-23-076A."]

Several series of beeps originated from the wall display. Michael watched at the growing detailed list that displayed the current status of both generators. He hoped that the computer could still retrieve the configuration he'd set. But that proved to be false hope. The major part of the list consisted out of messages that began with 'Failed to access sub-circuit...'.

Michael sighed and clenched his teeth. He thought that he had used the right configuration, but apparently he did not. Looking down for a few seconds Michael thought about how this could've happened. In the end it all came down to a few possibilities. One was that recently the design of the Gravity Generators had undergone a change he had not heard about. But that was highly improbable. He would've been informed about that. And so Michael was again forced to conclude that it was his incomplete memory, his heritage from the accident on Grainus VI, that had caused him to make this error. Maybe the design really had changed over time, but before his accident, and the memories about it were lost...just as so many others.

This wasn't the first time he screwed up, but it never was as serious as this time. His previous errors were mostly minor ones and were covered by other Engineers. However, they never told him that. Once Michael discovered it he made it very clear he didn't want to have a special treatment and that they should tell him when he made a mistake. This time no one had been around to do just that.

There were no casualties, no wounded, and the damage could be repaired again...but nevertheless Michael felt incompetent and ashamed. He felt that way every time he was confronted with his mistakes, and every time he got on with his daily life while trying even harder to avoid further mistakes.

Now, Michael knew that any errors he made (or any other Engineer for that matter) could have a disastrous effect. And that was actually the real reason why he declined the promotion to Lt. Commander he got some time ago; decisions made higher up in the hierarchy normally had a greater impact. He thought that was enough. Only now Michael saw that even in his current situation, being Asst. Chief and holding the rank of Lieutenant, he was an unacceptable risk to the crew. He shook his head. Deep in his heart he'd always knew this was true but until now he never wanted to accept that. And that's why he never talked about that to Shinta. Another mistake.

It was enough. It had to stop. He couldn't go on. Now it were 'only' a few damaged Gravity Generators, next time...who knows...Propulsion, Shields? And Michael didn't want to even think about people dying because of his lack of knowledge, experience, or however you want to call it. Slowly his hand moved in the direction of his commbadge...

Electra stood in front of the mirror in her quarters, smiling at her reflection as she placed her new black pip on her collar. She still couldn't believe that she had been promoted. She was amazed that no one had stopped the process on its way through the various channels. After the food fight and her shyness and general foolishness around the command officers, Electra had been sure she would be an ensign for the rest of her tour on the Galaxy. She had been positive that Surok would have stopped a promotion because of his opinion of her from the Academy. But, she had been promoted. She was thrilled. Even though it had been three days since she had received her new pip, she still grinned every time she put it on.

Electra grinned at herself again. It had been over a week and a half since she had been contacted by the creep who was harassing her. She had convinced herself that he had given up and she found that a cause for celebration. And she had not seen Charles Marx since he had been released from sickbay, another bonus. She had heard that he had been assigned to desk duty for a month. Electra glanced at the chronometer and decided to head to the bridge for her duty shift. Grinning, she stepped into the corridor and tripped over a box on the floor outside her door.

Glancing down, Electra frowned at the black box with her name written in red across the top. Her hands trembled as she reached down to open it. She flipped open the lid and gave an involuntary cry as her eyes fell on the doll inside. It was a rag doll, dressed in a red Starfleet uniform, long black hair flowing down its back. On its collar were a gold pip and a black pip. Through the upper chest was a pin, attaching a note written on black paper in red ink. Electra sunk to her knees on the floor as she read the words:

CONGRATULATIONS DARLING! A PROMOTION ALREADY. YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WILL CELEBRATE THIS ACHIEVEMENT VERY SOON. I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU WEARING YOUR NEW PIP AND NOTHING ELSE. I KNOW YOU WANT IT TOO. SOON, ELECTRA, MY LOVE, SOON WE WILL BE TOGETHER FOREVER.

Tears traced tracks down Electra's face as she sobbed uncontrollably into her hands. She dropped the box, turned and ran back into her quarters. ~I can't take this anymore. What can I do? I - I - I have to report this. Please, I want it to stop. Please, please...~

Electra went to the bathroom, cleaned her face and wiped her eyes, deciding to go to security after her shift. She opened the door to her quarters, looked down and grabbed the box. She put it on her desk and left her quarters, headed to the bridge. Five minutes later, the box and its contents disappeared in the recycling beam that emerged from the replicator.

It took a while for the newbies to the game of Poker to catch on to the rules, if you could call them rules. But here they were. So many of Starfleet's finest all sat around a table about to do battle.

To the Captain's left sat Lieutenant Commander Ethan Suder, the ship's Chief Engineer and also a regular senior staff member in the Captain's nightly poker game. Ethan was delighted when Mister Savat suggested to invite the junior officers. He was looking forward to beating they rookies. Making a comment about taking candy away from babies. Which was a pleasant change, since most times Ethan was lucky to break even against the rest of the senior staff.

After some playing the actual game began. Every officer seemed keen to be in on this one. But the cards Ethan had weren't exactly the best kind to have. He looked around and thought that most of the rookies would no doubt drop out anyway. So he waited, but then everyone was in.

"I fold sir. As much as I would like to stick around, I know I can't with this lot of cards. Unless we are playing low ball?... I didn't think so. Fold." Suder said, tossing in his cards. He looked around again, surprised to see so many of the newbies still in.

It didn't take long for an interruption. The Captain was called away and in his absence, speculation ran amongst the crew sat around the table. They all seemed to be eager to get on with another mission. Understandable since they had spent a couple of months at a Starbase.

"Wild speculation is for the young and wreckless. We should wait until the Captain informs us of the situation." Savat said.

"I second that, speculation won't get us anywhere." Ethan stated fiddling with the cards in front of him.

Returning to the card game, the Captain announced, "Sorry 'mates, but we've just received orders to head for the gamma quadrant. I'm afraid tonight's game is canceled."

Mister Savat was the first to speak. "We did not intend on eavesdropping Captain. However, suffice it to say we completely understand the urgency of our current orders."

Lee gave a nod. "From our present location, it will take nearly twelve hours to reach the wormhole at maximum warp."

"Then sir." Ethan stated as he and the rest of the crew members at the card table stood from their seats, "We had better get started."

Ethan had entered quite abruptly. The officers on duty looked surprised to see him. Some gave raised eye brows. But Ethan walked to the main console and cleared his throat before speaking.

"OK, this is the deal." he began. "We're heading for the Bajoran wormhole." he explained.

Ethan looked at the young petty officer and grinned very slightly. "Unless you'd like me to voice an objection with the Captain." he said. But the petty officer didn't reply. "I don't know the specifics yet, but we may be entering hostile grounds, so we need to be keeping an extra eye on all systems, specially the defensive systems. I want several officers to keep an eye on those partiular systems at all time on a rotaing duty shift."

The Engineers already knew what to do and snapped right to their duties. Ethan turned and looked at 'Commander T'Zaq. "I'll be on the Bridge. Trust you can handle things down here, mate?" Ethan asked doing hsi impression of the Captain. It was the first time he had used humour to T'Zaq, but then maybe he was beginning to lighten up.

T'Zaq gave a nod and looked slightly odd as if she were thinking about something, many things in fact. But she continued work when Ethan left Engineering.

Breaking the silence, Captain Price solemnly ordered, "Scan the area. Any life signs?"

"They put up one hell of a battle all right Captain." Thomas stated. "If it was Borg who did this, they may have taken the fight to them, rather then let the Borg come closer to their homeworld."

"Take us in 'mate; Slow and easy at one quarter impulse. Lieutenant Richeson, inform the fleet to spread out. We need to scan the debris for survivors and also signs of who or what did this."

Slowly the Federation fleet of thirteen ships fanned out and began to navigate through the wrecked Dominion ships, scanning for survivors and any signs of who or what had caused this battle to occur.

Ethan had mixed feelings. These people, these ships had once been the enemy of Starfleet, and a lot fo officers still considered them the enemy. He looked at the Engineering console and opened one of the communication screens. Since the Galaxy had met up with the Federation fleet, he had been monitoring communications between all the ships, specifically the USS Lakota. He had once served on that ship and was looking forward to soon meeting them in person again. But that was to come later. Right now, they were all probably as shocked as the crew of the Galaxy as all the ships flew threw the dead battlefield altering course to avoid drifting Dominion vessels.

Ethan remained silent and continued monitoring both communications and Engineering systems. He casually looked at the view screen every now and then and sighed slightly. The Borg, he was looking forward to meeting them again. He had some payback to do, but only if it came to that. If this wasn't the Borg at all, then fair enough, he would wait until the day the Borg were once again face to face with him. Who knew, maybe that day was soon...

Shinta felt completely numb after she had met with the captain. Bruce missing, maybe dead? She could not believe that, she did not want to believe it. And yet, he had been gone for over a month, without a word, that did not sound like him.

She entered her quarters, where Michala was babysitting. They were still worried about little hope, the girl was not doing much better. Shinta came to her friend, and could not keep the tears back any longer. "It's Bruce, the captain, he said Bruce is missing, they don't think he is still alive."

Michala didn't even speak. She stood up and went to Shinta and drew her into her arms. She could not imagine the pain that Shinta must be feeling, let alone the fear. She had two new twins. "I will move in here for a little while." She said softly.

"Yes please. I don't know what I am going to do." She moved of to her own room, oblivious to her crying children.

Michala went back to the children and quietly attended them. She knew Shinta would speak when she needed too. Besides, it took her mind off her own problems to help Shinta with hers.

A little later, gavinn came to her, and hugged her. "Daddy is not coming back? Mumm.y is in her room on the floor, and she scares me." The little boy was crying.

"We don't know that for sure Gavin. Daddy is missing and he MIGHT not come back. We have to hope for at least a little while. Do you pray?" Michala asked. She was uncomfortable with religion now but knew it brought comfort to others. "Do you pray to the prophets?"

"no. Mother does not believe that there are any gods, she said they let her down. I had better try to comfort her, but I don't really know how. Do you know how?" The little boy was at a loss.

"I think I can. Can you watch your brother and sister and come and get me if they need more then you know how to give?" She asked gently.

Shinta sat in a corner, not realizing what went on around her. Bruce was gone, and she was alone again, with 3 children, one sick. And she knew she couldn't do it alone. She was not ready to face the world around her.

Michala entered quietly. "Shinta? Hon, you are scaring Gavin?" She said gently. She slid down beside her. "Talk to me?"

"what is there to say? I am alone again. he said he would never leave me." She began to cry. "We were not together that long, but I loved him, I loved him so much, and I do not know what to do with out him, I do not have the strength to go on by myself. Mike, I am so scared."

"You are not alone." Mike whispered. Echoing Shinta's words after she had awoken from the sedative. Shinta had told her that repeatedly after the incident with the prophetess. She reached over and pulled Shinta in her arms. "YOU are not alone."

Finally Shinta looked at her. "It is not right. I should be helping you, are you sure you're up to this, Mike?" She asked. "If so, please just hold me, hold me close." She shivered.

Gavin appeared in the door opening, and watched his helpless mother with big frightened eyes.

Michala shooed him away with her hand and just sat holding Shinta. Finally she whispered, "Hey, if I am helping you, then I don't have to think about it every waking minute." Her voice held light teasing. "Besides, I can get practice playing mom."

Shinta smiled. "thank you for staying, Mike. I appreciate it. I need you right now, very much. It's strange for me not to have to face things on my own, but it feels good." She still sat on the ground, but she looked a little better.

"Don't give up total hope for awhile okay? Bruce, Bruce has this odd stubborn trait. If he can get back to you, he will." Michala said, remembering their time planetside together. She had never met a more determined man.

"You are right. I wont, I won't believe he is dead. He just wouldn't, he would not leave me alone." Yet Shinta did not know what to think, what to believe. She had been left alone by loved ones a little too often. "I will go and talk with Gavin now. Mike, I am so glad you are staying with me. Thank you."

She had lost track of Rose as they were cleaning up, but quickly managed to catch up to her in the hallways.

"Hey, Rose, thanks for inviting me," Wren said. They'd met just after Wren "communion" with the helm, she'd been coming off the bridge heading toward her quarters and she'd literally run head on into the science officer, who'd only smiled. They'd started talking and found they had similar interests: archeology and history, horseback riding, training sims.

"I'm sorry I was no good at it, I never played games when I was a kid, my parents didn't believe in them."

"Didn't believe in games?" Rose laughed. "What kind of Star Fleet officer was your father, not to teach you poker."

Wren grinned and shrugged. "The type who was always at the helm. Seriously... he took extra shifts, extra piloting assignments, it's really kind of funny. My father is one of those classic fly-boy loners, you know what I mean?"

"I think so," Rose said, nodding. "My parents split when I was young and I rarely saw my father, he was a captain... he was killed though, in the war."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Wren said, frowning, her forehead creasing. "Yeah... Dads never let himself be promoted past Lieutenant Commander, didn't want to be taken from the controls. Of course, he told me mother it was because of her. It's sort of funny really... he came home though; retired when I was ten. Taught me everything I know."

"What do you think about this mission?" Rose questioned as they stepped into the turbolift for the crew quarters. "Deck 3."

"Is that all you think about? Not about the Borg or the dominion or the risk factor? All you think about is, 'hope I get to fly'?"

"Hey pally, what do you want from me?" Wren questioned. "One track mind, that's all. You have your stars an anomalies and spatial rifts, I can my helm controls and speed. You heard the Admiral, we all did. He said: above maximum warp, it'll be fun."

"Of course. This is where I start to have fun." Wren grinned as the turbolift came to a stop and the two stepped out. Wren paused by the door of her quarters. "Hey, you want to come in, have some coffee, chat?"

Rose smiles, "Sure I love to." she said was Rose walks in and looks around. "Nice place you have here Wren." she said with a grin then sits down on the couch.

"Yeah, I suppose so," Wren said, grinning as she moved over to the replicator. "Quite a bit more barren than usual... my mother is quite big on presenting fronts, she's a politician, so that's what it's all about, but... she says that one's space should present well who one is. I wonder what this says about me." Wren chuckled, presented the coffee to her friend. "Oh well... no biggie really. Just have to make sure she never sees it. She would have me murdered."

Wren shrugged. "I don't either." She raised her coffee mug. "Here's to a beautiful friendship."

"... access all tricorder scans from the away team and transfer them completely to my personal database," the Chief Science Officer said as he sat down behind his office desk.

The computer beeped a few times as it found the files that matched the requested parameters. ["Transfer complete,"] the stoic female voice reported.

Kent reached over and tapped a button on the terminal. Accordingly the viewscreen displayed the access to his personal database and the newly moved files pertaining to the Stone of Tears. Accessing the files he began to delete them manually, one by one.

As he tapped the terminal button one last time the door chime to his office sounded. "Enter."

The office doors parted and in walked Ensign Samthia Wej. "You asked to see me Sir?" the bald-headed scientist said.

"Please, take a seat, Ensign," Kent said as he gestured to the chair opposite him. As the Deltan took a seat he reached over and turned off the terminal. "I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that your efforts have not gone unnoticed."

"As such I was wondering whether or not you would be prepared to take the position of Head of Stellar Cartography."

Peterson cleared his throat, "Ahem... yes, I noticed. The thing is that I need someone I can rely on. Your Oath of Celibacy is on record and your performance can only be described as exemplary." There. It was now out of the way. Lieutenant Commander Peterson then added with a smile, "How was the EVA," he said, hoping to hear how the recent away mission went.

"The mission was a success. All items have been retrieved and returned to their proper owner."

It was hard to tell if Ensign Samthia Wej was being serious or tongue in cheek. "Yes, um, well, these things happen." Was all he could manage. Returning to a professional manner he handed the Deltan a copy of a report he had taken from the Bridge. "Speaking of missions, the astrophysics department is preparing a survey of the Molaris Cluster. I thought it might be worth you providing them with the staff briefing tomorrow. It would also be good for both sub-departments to work together."

Sam's face darkened momentarily. "That region is renowned for the highly volatile gases, Sir."

Peterson leaned his chin on the back of his hands, his elbows on his desk. Wej's knowledge of the immediate area made him feel justified in his choice to lead Stellar Cartography. His eyes narrowed slightly. "And the Galaxy will be passing close to it. I'd rather be prepared."

Peterson checked the chronometer. It was twenty-one hundred hours. Leaning back in his chair he made a mental note to bring his new Head of Stellar Cartography a pot of coffee - he would still be up. He was one of those team-oriented departmental commanders - no doubt a hold over from his various sporting activities. Having kept track of the Deltan scientist, there was no doubt she'd be spending the night in the crow's nest. Given her remarks she would enjoy it too.

Michala put the finishing touches on her hair. She had put it up with small curls falling around her neck. The long dress she wore shimmered as she moved. Last she had heard, they had a new mission, so this might be their last chance to spend sometime alone together. One thing was for sure, she was going no where near visiting dignitaries. She stood back for a final look. The crossed bodice accentuated her bosom and fell loosely so as to hide her more evident pregnancy. She looked as good as it was going to get. For some reason, she really wanted to look special for John tonight. She smiled and headed for the holodeck he had reserved.

John stepped out of his cabin, a smile on his face. He could feel the two ensigns at the end of the corridor watching him. As he turned the other way, he glanced back and gave them a smile. The long coat he wore billowed slightly behind him as he walked. He had chosen a pair of dark blue, almost black pants and a silk shirt he'd found on DS9 before transferring aboard the Galaxy.

He reached the turbolift and called out for the holodecks. The ride was short and no one else joined him in the car. He hurried down toward the second holodeck knowing that Michala would be showing up soon.

He sighed with relieve when he didn't see her standing outside. He quickly called up the program he wanted to run and then turned to wait.

Michala stopped when she turned the corner. John was the most breathtaking man she had ever seen. He made her heart race just to look at him. She walked slowly up to him, a welcoming smile on her face. "I understand we can also celebrate tonight, Lieutenant." She said with a soft smile.

John felt a hint of embarrassment at the mentioning of his recent promotion. He grinned and moved to be near her, to embrace her. "I guess we can celebrate that if we want," he said. "But, I think we're a better cause for celebrating than an extra piece of tin on my collar." He kissed her gently. "But it does feel good to have it, I guess."

She smiled as they broke the kiss. "So where dear sir, are we off to this evening?' She said with a teasing poke at his chest. She loved that he was not full of himself or his accomplishments.

He grinned. "We are going to be going to a restaurant I always wanted to go to when growing up," he replied. "I never had someone to go with before. It's a small place on earth. I think you'll like it."

"Wonderful, I am famished." Lately, she was always famished and yet she seemed to be putting no weight. The baby must be taking it all, she thought with a smile. "Shall we?"

John extended an arm for her to take, and activated the pressure doors. As Michala slipped her arm into John's the doors parted to reveal a small dirt path leading to a building with subdued lighting. They started forward slowly, John not wanting to rush their night together. A man opened the door once they drew near. He met them with a friendly grin and showed them inside.

They were led into a room illuminated by soft lighting. The table was small, but cozy. John held the chair for Michala, then sat in his own. "So," he said, once they were settled, "what do you think?"

"Very quaint. I am impressed." She said with a soft smile. "I have to say you have impeccable tastes." She looked around with approval. "How do you find all these wonderful little programs of yours?"

John smiled. "This one was actually easy," he said. "I grew up just a few miles from here. I always wanted to come to the restaurant, but never felt comfortable going alone. But, now I have you in my life, so I brought you. The others" -- he shrugged -- "I don't really know. Just lucky, I guess."

"So, you have never really told me why a gorgeous guy like you has been alone?" She was curious about that. She sat back for an answer as she glanced over the menu.

"I had a girlfriend for awhile," he said. "When I was in high school. Things didn't really work out. I went off to the academy, she was interested in studying on Vulcan. After that I was pretty focused on getting through the Academy and my first assignment. Then I met you." He smiled.

"Wow! So I am only your second girlfriend?" She asked incredulously. She frowned at the menu for she didn't know what half of it even was.

He nodded. "Yes you are," he said. Noticing the way she was looking at the menu, he smiled. "They have both potatoes and chocolate on there. Do you know what you're in the mood for?"

She laughed. "Both? Actually, I don't know what some of this is. What do you recommend?" She didn't know much of the earth dishes, having more of a memory of Bajoran and Vulcan foods.

John looked over the menu again. "Well, they've got a few duck and chicken dishes, and a couple beef. I always heard the duck with marionberry sauce was fabulous."

"I have never had duck, so I will try that." She set the menu down with relief. "John, this mission with the borg? Will we.. will we have to worry about being boarded? I mean, do you know if we will be taking them on directly?" She was concerned, she had been doing updates on borg nanoids and countering assimilation techniques.

"I'm not really sure," he said. "It's possible we'll have to confront them. I'm not very comfortable with all the faith everyone has in this new technology they installed. I hope we can keep our distance. I hope this is just a recon mission. But, our new tactical systems are supposed to be top-rated. The captain's not going to endanger us against the Borg. We've seen what they can do enough."

She shivered, thinking of the reports she had been forced to go through on known assimilation technology. "Well, tonight, we are on earth, far from borg, drones and pesky nanoids." She said with a soft smile. She reached across and squeezed his hand as the waiter approached.

He gave the waiter their orders and asked for a bottle of wine to be brought out, making sure to instruct that the wine not contain alcohol. Once the waiter returned toward the kitchen, John turned and met Michala's eyes. He couldn't help smiling. "So, when we're finished eating, you want to go down by the marina?"

"The marina, that is.. a place with watercraft?" She asked carefully. "I have never been on a boat. I have only been in water." she said with a soft smile. "That sounds lovely. You said something about other things to celebrate? Am I missing something?"

"Oh nothing extra," he said. "I mean, just us. Being together, that's cause to celebrate. We don't have to go out on a boat if you don't want to. I just think it's always nice to walk along the docks with the moon out."

"No complaints here, I love the water." She said gently. Her eyes were light and mischievous. "I love you." She said, her eyes holding more emotion then her words. "I love these times. When I am working, all I can think of in my spare moments is when you will hold be again." Her confession made her blush.

John grinned, and felt himself blushing as well. "I know what you mean," he said. "And, there's a lot of spare moments when you're flying this ship."

She laughed lightly. "So.. will you still love me when I am fat and cumbersome?" She queried, drinking the wine. "Or will you run away with the guys and hide?"

John laughed. "I'm not one for hiding," he said. "And, I will love you even more."

She smiled, her eyes sparkled with unshed emotion. She sipped the wine thoughtfully. She wondered if they could keep this wonderfully feeling alive amongst different schedules, emotions and varying problems.

John watched Michala, his eyes taking in everything about her. Everything had happened so quickly, but that was just fine. He couldn't believe how close they'd become in that short amount of time. But, he couldn't imagine himself anywhere else. "I love you," he said, his voice soft, but the emotion coming through clearly.

"I cannot think of anyone I would rather have say that." She replied softly. She didn't know what else to say. Suddenly, she felt tongue tied and very self aware and was glad when the waiter brought the first of their food.

John turned his attention to the food, stopping ever couple bites to watch Michala for a moment. He couldn't remember a time in his life when he'd felt happier.

"Okay, you are making me nervous, stop that." She teased catching him staring at her. "What is on your mind? You are so quiet tonight?"

John grinned. "Just thinking about us and how much I love you, and how right this all feels."

She blushed. "I feel the same way." She didn't know what to say. "This duck is excellent, thanks for recommending it."

"Thank you," he said. "I'm glad you like it. I haven't had it very often, but it's always a treat when I do."

Michala wondered if this is how strangers felt on a first date. Why did she suddenly feel on edge and very aware of him. She pushed her plate away. "I am full."

John nodded and pushed his plate away as well. "I don't want to pressure you or anything," he said. "But, we've been spending a lot of time together, and I've been thinking about our living arrangements. If you're not comfortable with that, it's okay. It's just things I've been thinking about."

He had rushed out the words so fast that she missed his meaning. "What about our living arrangements?" She frowned lightly. Did he not like staying at her quarters? "And how would our living arrangements pressure me?"

"Well," he said, with a sheepish grin, "I was thinking more about consolidating. I mean, we spend a lot of time together. I thought, if you wanted to that is, we might be able to share quarters." He could feel a trickle of sweat working its way down his spine. He'd never thought asking her the question would be so difficult.

She didn't say anything for a long time. She remembered sharing quarters with Deiran. Would this be different. Finally she looked up, she could see the concern in his eyes. "I would like that." She said quietly. "Will they allow that?"

"We can see if they will," he said. "If that's what you really want. I mean, if you want to keep your own space for awhile, that's perfectly fine. Like I said, I don't want to pressure you. If you're not ready for this, we can wait."

"John, shhhhh." Michala said with a soft chuckle. "You don't make a lady an offer and then start back tracking." She stood up and moved over to him. "I would like nothing better then to wake up knowing that you are close by. My quarters feel so empty without you in them."

He grinned. "Okay," he said. "I just saw this look of almost-panic, and I guess I thought you weren't sure. I just wanted you to know that I'm not trying to make you do anything." His features softened and he smiled. "But, I'm glad you want to. It'll be nice to not decide where we're going to sleep each night."

She held out her hand. "I think you said something about a walk." She waited till he took it and they walked from the restaurant. "So the question is.. whose quarters?" She looked up at him. "Or do new quarters come with the rank?"

John grinned. "I'll have to check," he said. "But, since we'll be living there together, perhaps we can get new quarters that are bigger than what we both have now. I mean, I'm sure they'll allow a couple more space than a single." They strolled down the road, and as they walked, the computer adjusted for going to the docks. As they rounded a bend, the small downtown came into view. "You look very nice tonight."

"You say that everyday." She teased lightly. The air was warm and the moon bright. It was a perfect night program. She sighed with contentment. She was full, warm and felt very loved.

John grinned. "I mean it everyday," he said. "Except tonight, you look even more so. That's a beautiful dress. And, I like your hair like that. Especially with the moonlight."

Cattle Point and then up the north side of the island. He settled into one of the couches on the deck and pulled Michala down next to him. "This should be fun."

She grinned back. "I was hoping to tempt you. But first, show me the marina. Have you been on a boat? Have you been sailing?"

He shook his head. "I haven't," he said. "But we can go. We can have a hologram pilot the boat."

"It is on my list?" She said hopefully. She really wanted to go and yet was somewhat fearful of the idea. But she knew on the holodeck, they would be safe. "Could we, with wine and the moon?" The idea suddenly seemed very very romantic.

"Of course," he said with a smile. "I know the perfect boat, too." He led the way down the main street and down to the docks. He led them between the rows of small boats rocking in their berths. They moved slowly, taking their time. There was no need to rush. "I used to come down here when I was growing up. It's beautiful at night, especially with the moon on the water."

"Then how come you never learned to sail?" She asked quietly. IT seemed logical that if he grew up by water, he would learn such a thing.

John laughed. "I don't know," he said. "I always wanted to, but I was always doing other things. Maybe we can learn to sail together."

"That sounds fun, I am sure we can program a holodeck instructor." She said quietly. The idea began to catch and she smiled at him with excitement. "But tonight, lets let someone else drive?"

"I really like that idea tonight," he said, "because I won't be able to keep my hands on the controls."

John grinned. "Right down here at the end," he said, indicating the end of the pier they were walking along. Moored at the end of the wooden pier a small sailboat rocked in the black water of the marina. The moonlight glinted off the white hull. John stepped closer. "Here she is."

Michala looked at uncertainly. "Isn't it .. small?" She asked, looking at the broad expanse of water beyond the marina. "I mean, I know we are safe on the holodeck, but people go out on the ocean with that?"

John smiled. "Not far out," he said. "A few miles from the coast, maybe a little more." He put his arms around her. "You'll be safe."

John asked the computer for a pilot and some wine. When they appeared, he peeked around at Michala. "Ready?"

"It is so quiet?" The only sound was the sail snapping in the light breeze and the boat moving slowly through the water. The stars were bright and the moon seemed huge.

John nodded. "Yeah," he said, "no engines, or other equipment. It's very peaceful. I could get used to this."

She leaned back against him. "It is nice. I am glad we thought of it." She liked the feel of the wind and the motion of the boat. He was warm behind her and she sighed with contentment.

"Me too," he said. He looked up into the sky, enjoying the feel of Michala against him. He let his mind go, wandering through the happy memories he had since meeting her. "We should try to do this at least once a week."

"Sounds like a plan." She turned and nestled his neck and then kissed him softly. She pulled away and handed him a glass of wine. "A toast... to new beginnings and a loving future." She held the glass up to him and smiled.

"Computer. Display and magnify right ascension 7.36, decline �14.30 degrees." The cavernous room darkened momentarily and then the three-dimensional holographic display of M47 gradually brightened, filling stellar cartography with its glimmering, shimmering stars.

Or so it was named in the early 24th century. First seen from Earth in 1654 by Giovanni Batista Hodierna. He described in as �a nebulosa between the two dogs�. Unremarkable to the naked eye, it contained about 50 stars in an area approximately 12 light years in diameter. Two orange K giants resided there about 200 times that of Sol, 1,600 light years from sector 1. It swelled with gases and belched clouds of noxious, volatile plasma every 12 years or so. Her astrophysics professor at Starfleet Academy called it "the big fart."

Samthia�s fingers flew over the controls rotating the cluster and viewing it from all angles.

Between two dogs is an understatement. She thought to herself. More like between two pitbulls. Any Starship attempting to cruise between those giants would be torn apart by the gravitational pulls of the orange giants. She would recommend that the Galaxy give it a wide berth� a very wide berth.

She sat back in her chair, sipping the now cold coffee that Commander Peterson had so thoughtfully sent over about midnight. She glanced at the chronometer ticking the seconds away on her console. It was 0300 hours. She leaned back and re-entered new coordinates.

The 3D image of Molaris was replaced with another. One of which she was intimately familiar. It was her passion, her obsession. The ribbon of energy waved through the blackness of space like a fiery streamer. Samthia gazed at it lovingly, mesmerized by its beauty and mystery. She watched it until the she sipped the last drop of the bitter cold liquid then sighed. Looking again at the chronometer, she would have just enough time to file her report for Commander Peterson.

Sighing audibly, she reluctantly shut down the crow�s nest, locked out the controls, then descended the open lift, hopping off before it reached flush with the deck plating. Her heels echoed in the vast empty room as she crossed the floor to exit.

Commander Peterson accepted the padd from Ensign Wej. �I�m sure this will make interesting reading for the Captain.�

�I had a feeling you�d be needing it.� He said. Noticing the dark circles under her eyes, his face became a mask of concern. �Now I�m ordering you to take some R&R Ensign. Stellar cartography could live without you for a couple of days. Understood?�

�As a matter of fact, I think I�ll pull rank and book you some time on the holodeck.�

Peterson glanced down at his chronometer. It wasn�t like Ensign Wej to be late. Probably lost track of time in the crow�s nest, he though to himself.

Kent smiled. Well, at least she�s taking my advice he thought. And he could stand to stretch his legs himself. He left his office and strolled casually toward the turbolift that would take him to deck 11.

The doors to holodeck one opened and a gust of warm, humid air greeted him. Walking inside, he was momentarily disoriented and he wondered if he had taken a wrong turn as he found himself standing in the cavernous room of stellar cartography. Displayed on the walls was Ensign Wej�s favourite subject, the Nexus. But instead of the usual Starfleet consoles, Borg technology was everywhere.

Walking to the centre of the room, he stood at the foot of the crow�s nest, his hands on his hips.

The open shaft descended and as it reached his line of sight, instead of the Deltan Stellar cartographer, the Borg Queen, bathed in eerie green light, hopped off.

The likeness was incredible and Kent stepped backwards until he realized that it was Samthia, in Borg Queen attire.

Samthia�s eyes wandered around the room before answering. �A holoprogram.�

Commander Peterson studied the bald Deltan intently� �You�re running a simulation to see if Borg technology can be used to enter the Nexus.�

It was just too weird, even for Peterson, who thought he�d seen it all. �Computer, end program.�

Instantly, �stellar cartography� was replaced by the hologrid. The Nexus faded from sight as did the crow�s nest, the borg technology, and Samthia�s Borg Queen attire.�

Realizing his error, Commander Peterson stated the obvious. �You�re naked.� He said turning his back to afford Wej some privacy. To his credit, he didn't blush.

Samthia smiled and walked over to where her robe lay in a corner. �Commander, I am never naked� only nude.� She said, trying to keep the humour from her voice. She slipped her arms into the short white robe, its high collar reaching her ears. �You can turn around now.� She said as she fastened the belt snugly around her waist.

Guest Starring:
Ensign Tesaria Kay Polarasi, Operations Officer (NPC)
Lt jg Richard Carst, Security Officer (NPC)

Electra sat at OPS on the bridge keeping a close eye on the power distribution to communications and watching the sensor reports on the fleet. She had been watching these readings all shift. Not much was going on, the lights dimmed for night and the fleet secure. It was nearly 0300 and Electra wanted her replacement to come so she could go to the security office and find out if any progress had been made regarding her report from weeks ago. She had felt like a complete fool going to Security with the problem after she had returned to her quarters to find the box gone. But she had promised herself that she would do what it took to stop this harassment. The Security man assigned to her case had been skeptical and Electra didn't think he was really doing anything. She knew he had told some of his friends that she was a paranoid nut case who wanted attention. And to make it worse, since she had reported the incidents, the harassment had stopped. Electra shook her head. Maybe the guy had heard that Security was involved and given up. That was her hope. As a sigh escaped her lips, there was a tap on her shoulder and Ensign Polarasi was standing behind her. Electra rose and Tesaria slid into her place.

"There are really no problems to report. I've been keeping an eye on the distribution to ship-to-ship comm and sensor reports on the fleet. Everything is fairly routine."

The ensign nodded. "Good. Thank you Lt. I can handle it from here. Why don't you write up your duty log?"

Electra gave her a nod and went to the turbolift. She composed her report on her shift and dropped it by the OPS center. Then she headed to the security office. As she walked in, Lt jg Richard Carst groaned and rolled his eyes. Hearing this, Electra flinched and walked over to him. "Lt, I want to know w-w-what p-p-prog-gress has b-b-b-been made in m-m-my case."

The Richard wanted to stand up to be in a more powerful position but it defeated the purpose when the woman towered over him by at least 5 inches. Instead, the 24 year old sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. Looking up at her he drawled, "Your case? Well, we have found no evidence that any of the events you described ever actually occurred. There have been no incidents while we have been monitoring your quarters over the past weeks and no record of these...gifts...that you claim to have received has been found. My superior and I agree that you simply made this story up and we will no longer be allocating any Security resources to tracking down your "stalker". I suggest you get some counseling about this problem, as I've told you before. Now, I'd appreciate it if you would stop bothering me and the other officers with this fiction."

Electra's eyes had filled with tears at his tone after only a few words and the words themselves were causing her to shake, uncontrollably. "But, please....please....it all happened...please help me."

Richard shook his head. "You need counseling. Nothing ever happened." As he stared at her shaking, he scowled further. "I will have two of my men escort you from the office. Goodbye, Lieutenant Reece. Please don't come again."

Electra rose and shook her head. "I can f-f-f-find my own w-w-way out." She turned and hurried from the Security office and into a turbolift, glad she passed no one in the hallway, tears streaming down her face.

"Departmental Meeting"
By Lieutenant Tim Richeson
Lieutenant (JG) Rebecca von Ernst
Ensign Alisho Reno
Ensign Jessie Louisa Parry
Ensign Peter Lockhart

"..and so with these fleet deployments, and the Galaxy acting as local flagship, we clearly have some doctrinal policies to work out." Lt. Tim Richeson tapped the long wooden pointer on the final tactical display describing the current Starfleet activities in the Gamma Quadrant.

The Galaxy's Chief Tactical Officer had hastily arranged this little informal Staff Meeting soon after the discovery of the massive debris field of Dominion Warships. The Galaxy was spearheading a recon into unknown waters, and Richeson wanted to his Department to be ready.

"To sum up," he continued, addressing the small crowd of officers in the briefing lounge, "We have some rather complex issues to overcome during our stay here: A multitude of untested, unproven technological upgrades, status as flagship for the recon, which means we not only direct tactical for our own ship, but the rest of the fleet as well." Tim paused a moment to let that sink in a bit. "We also have the Borg." He finished. "A dangerous and unpredictable foe in any situation. We've got our work cut out for us people, but I know we can handle it. Questions anyone?" Tim waited patiently to see if any one would pipe up.

Jessie looked around the table and shook her head. 'The Borg. Oh that's just peachy' She thought.

Richeson frowned, "Good question but no. Odds are however that it will be one tough 'hombre if past experiences are any indication."

"That's up to the Captain really, but based on past experiences with the Borg, I'd say they'll be engaging us whether we like it or not."

Silence descended on the Briefing room as the Department registered that information.

"Well if there are no further questions," Richeson began packing up his stack of PADDS, "We've got one final item on the agenda: I've asked Assistant Chief von Ernst to address the group about the upcoming duty schedules, and as well as some items of interest from back home." All eyes turned to focus on the petite little redhead that had been hiding in the back of the room during the entire briefing. Gulping and turning a bit red under the sudden attention, Rebecca stood shakily, and (taking a deep breath for luck) began threading her way up to the lectern. Nervously depositing her PADDS on the table, Rebecca fumbled briefly with the stack, trying to sort them back into the correct order. Selecting the proper one, she moved behind the microphone only to discover the pick up was nearly a foot over her head, and that her pixie like stature was all but hidden behind the wooden lectern. Muffled giggles emanated from the back of the room as she was forced to reposition herself off to the left in order to be seen.

Jessie shot a slight glare at the gigglers at the back. Disrespect for an officer was a pet hate of hers.

"Umm...uh. Hi!" she began in a squeaky voice, "I..uh, I'm Lieutenant (j/g) Rebecca von Ernst for those of you who ...uh...are new I guess." She nodded politely to the two new redheads in the group. ~~Och.. they're so much more pretty than I am.~~ she agonized while maintaining a nervous smile. ~~ I bet they're going to hate me too. ~~

Clearing her throat, she scrunched her freckled nose and consulted a PADD. "I.. uh.. I've been asked by Tim....I mean , by....Lt. Richeson to relay my recent experiences at a new facility that... uh... may be of interest to those of us in the Tactical Department." The Department exchanged glances in curiosity. "I'm sure........uh.... all of you are aware of Starfleet's Advanced Flight Officer Training School stationed in the Moons of Saturn," Rebecca began reciting in a soft whispery voice, "Well.. uh.... In light of its great success, the Admiralty has undertaken to establish a similar facility aimed at Tactical Officers as well as Command School Candidates."

Picking up a control Rebecca turned to the display and clicked on a slide show display of The Wolf 359 Star Cluster. "Ummm.... ok so this is a picture of where it is ." she said intelligently before returning to her notes. "Conceived in part by Admiral Jergan Hoth of Starfleet Academy" She clicked and a picture of a grey haired human male in Uniform appeared, "Ok so that's like him.. uh nice guy.. I met him." Jessie smiled at this and kept her eyes on the slides. "And..... uh.... this is a picture." Another Click, "..uh a picture of the Orbital Classrooms...um... nice place.... lots of windows. Fresh paint" ~~Noodles I'm Babbling!!~~ Her ears burned.

"Ok...starting with the 2378 Semester, Starfleet will officially open enrolment for qualified Tactical Officers from the fleet at large to come here, and...uh...well.... learn to blow things up."

A nervous smile belied the small girls true turmoil.~~Oh Noodles I hate public speaking~~~ "Um..... Questions?" ~~Pleasenopleasenopleaseno...~~

Jessie glanced around unsure of her own position in the group and was hesitant about asking questions. So she waited.

Alisha half raised her hand, "What does it take to get into this tactical Academy? And what else besides blowing things up are taught there?"

"Well. I suppose I was a little vague in my description. I....uh was given a tour of the incomplete facility during our last layover, and I must say its a top notch place. So far as the course offerings, they will be gear to the individual depending on need."

She licked her lips before continuing, "For instance, courses in Standard Tactical procedures along with intensive holodeck-scenarios will be the back bone of the School for most Tactical officers. Seminars as well as practical demonstrations of the latest in Defence Technology will also be available.....especially considering recent developments in Armour and Multiphasic Torpedoes" Rebecca nodded to Richeson who had already briefed the group on the subject. "Additionally, Leadership Seminars will be available for candidates on-line for possible Starship Command, with an emphasis on Tactics." Rebecca paused. "In the last 6 years between Borg incursions and The Dominion War, Starfleet has lost over half of its front line Starships, and Nearly a half Million of its best and brightest Officers. The ships we can rebuild.......but the fleet is desperately short of qualified crewmen. The younger officers among us are being asked to step up to bat and assume our roles earlier than expected.."

"WOW!" whispered Jessie as she listened to Rebecca talk. She raised her hand and said with a smile "Where is the sign up sheet?" a couple of people laughed good naturedly and Jessie smiled gently at the Lieutenant to show that she wasn't laughing at her. "Hey I'm serious people" Jessie continued. She stood up and even though she was only a bit taller then the Lieutenant she hoped that Rebecca didn't notice it. "I mean if we don't sign up now, we will most likely miss out, if what the Lieutenant says is true." She sat back down and waited for someone else to speak.

Peter fidgeted slightly whilst listening to Ensign Parry speak. "It sounds interesting Lieutenant'." he said, "But I don't think it's quite where I should be heading at the moment."

"And where do you think you should be heading Peter?" Tim asked suddenly, allowing Rebecca some breathing time.

"Make Lieutenant Junior Grade first sir. Then consider it." Peter replied. He could almost hear the mental 'Never happen' coming from the other officers in the room.

When Tim merely nodded at that reply, all eyes focused back to Lieutenant von Ernst to continue or close the discussion.

Rebecca frowned and blushed. Ensign Lockhart made her nervous to the extreme. When they first met, she was kinda overwhelmed by his 'cute-ness', but since then his rather sarcastic attitude rather frightened her. The fact that she was Promoted over his head did not help matters any. She hoped she would never find herself in a position where she had to give him an order.

"Erm....well, last order of business then is in regards to our.....uh....new regulations on hand Phasers." Rebecca paused. "As you all know, we have a directive from the Captain himself that all Tactical officers will now be required to carry a sidearm while on bridge duty. In compliance with regualtions, our training and certification in this regard is to be monitored and regulated through the Security Department."

"What this Means to us..."Rebecca scanned the crowd with her eyes, "...is that we are responsible to Security Department so far as our training goes. If they dont sign off on us.....we dont get certified. All Tactical Department Personnel are therefore required to participate in Standard Security training sessions in the areas of Marksmanship and Physical Training at least once a week."

Another pause before Rebecca broke the bad news, "Our first joint session is tomorrow at 0600....Holodeck 1 for a joint Security/Tactical 5 mile run.........." she glanced at Ensign Lockhart, "We've been advised to wear comfortable clothing."

"Sir." Peter said, raising his hand. "I can understand and accept the marksman ship class, but why the additional physical training? We aren't security officers. The whole point of my idea to the Captain was to provide additional security on the bridge in times like these. If the Borg invade the bridge, 'Commander Savat and his motley crew are going to take about two minutes to get here. Whether they or we can run five miles is of little concern, cos they'll be in a turbolift most of the way and we'll be getting assimilated on the bridge." he moaned.

"You heard the lieutenant'" Tim replied, sparing Rebecca from answering. "Tomorrow at 0600."

"I wanted phasers, not five mile jogs." Peter corrected quietly. He wasn't certain if Tim had heard him (or chosen not to hear him) as the briefing was concluded shortly after.

Michala looked over the chemical analysis. There could be no doubt. There was definitely a chemical compound that had been introduced to the body before the time of death.

She moved back to the body and began to look over the superficial evidence. "Computer.. record.. Mouth and Nostirls show a white frothy dried substance on visual inspection.

The scalp, skull and meninges were normal, with no evidence of internal bruising or bleeding. Circle of Willis is normal. Neuronal necrosis was evident on microscopy in: Globus pallidum Hippocampus Cerebellar cortex and Cerebral cortex.

Moving down the body the throat shows signs of bruising as if by choking. Bruises show evidence of being self inflicted. Adrenals, pituitary and thyroid were normal.

In the respiratory system the larynx, trachea and bronchi appear normal. There are no focal lesions as far as I can tell, both lungs and pleura are normal - this is confirmed by histology Microscopically, lungs are normal No pleural effusions are present.

In the cardiovascular system. The heart weighed 380g, the pericardium was normal The right coronary artery showed minimal atheroma A section of the left anterior descending coronary artery showed severe atheroma with 75% stenosis of the vessel lumen The circumflex coronary artery also showed 30% narrowing by atheroma The cardiac valves were all normal The left ventricle, on slicing, showed this extensive mottled red and yellow pattern. Carotids showed mild atheroma. Renal artery, pulmonary vessels and superior vena cava were normal. No deep vein thrombosis was apparent

Mouth, tongue, pharynx all show signs of the same frothy chemical substance. The oesophagus, duodenum, small bowel and large bowel were normal. Liver weighed 1500g and had normal external and cut surface appearance. When the stomach was opened, a chronic gastric ulcer on the lesser carvature was found Gall bladder, billiary tree and pancreas appeared normal. Peritoneal cavity was normal.

"The reticulo-endothelial system shows the spleen was normal, weighing 120g, and had a firm consistency. Bone marrow appeared normal macroscopically. Lymph nodes were normal.

The Musculo-Skeletal System shows the bone of the ribs, vertebral bodies and spine appeared normal. No fractures were noted. However, upper left arm shows signs of repeated injections of an unknown substance.

Cause of death appears to be myocardial infarction caused by a foreign chemical substance in the body. Substance has unknown compounds and it is possible that the carrier fluid is the cause of death and not the actual injected compound.

Michala attached the correct images to the report and sent it over to security. She washed up and had one of the techs take the body to perpare for shipment back to the waiting family members. She was always fascinated by an autopsy. It was amazing how much one could learn about a patients life.

Even with the lull after recovering our missing crew members, there is much to do aboard the Galaxy. The people returned to us were disoriented after their ordeals on Delicia, but we have determined there appears to be no medical cause. Nurse Dallas, (also our chief Counselor) has made sure Counselors are available to those former adherents to the 'Word' should they experience further bouts of disorientation.

Commander Thomas is busy investigating the disappearance of ex Gul-Madred, and has not yet reported to Sickbay in order to restore his human appearance. He has an engineering and science team looking for evidence to discover who helped him escape.

Ensign Garg has returned from leave on DS9, where he sampled Oinkus from all over the Gamma quadrant. Since the Tellarite showed so much initiative on the last mission, I assigned him the task of gathering forensic evidence for the investigation. No facts have been forth coming, but judging the tenacity of the Galaxy crew something should turn up shortly.

Ensign Menlar has recovered from the anestizine injection, but remembers none of the events immediately preceding the attack. Her memories are too fragmented to provide further clues, but she does recall guarding the brig before the incident took place.

"Sir, I know you want to get back to your investigation as soon as possible. The surgery suite is prepped and ready. And the investigation team will continue to gather data while you are here."

Maas replied "With a longer life span, Trills have plenty of time to develop good habits."

The XO looked mischievous and replied "that also means they have time to develop bad ones as well."

Surgery proceeded without a hitch, and the Commander was soon wheeled into the recovery room. Chris wanted to get back to work, but safety dictated he be observed another half hour in case complications developed.

"Something for you to review. While we were orbiting Delicia, I finished the qualifications for Bridge Duty. But with the battle and the chaos getting our crew members back, no one has had a chance to review it.

I know how hectic things can get around here, so I took some initiative to make myself available permanently for Bridge duty rotation."

Secretly, Chris was glad for something to do, even though medical promised to release him soon. But he never missed an opportunity to throw in a jab. "Doctor, if I didn't know you better I might think you lured me down here intentionally."

Jeral recognized this verbal game and pretended to object "But Sir, you know this surgery was scheduled before you arrived in Sickbay. Having you review my scores is just a pleasant side effect. If you need something, use this button to call the nurse. I was making a log entry before you arrived, which I must finish.

Excusing himself politely, the doctor retreated to his office and resumed his log.

With the return and restoration of our crew, the last remaining medical issues from our mission to Delicia are resolved. A couple of new Doctors reported in, meeting up with the Galaxy at Star Base 114. I am currently adjusting the duty schedule to include our revised staff complement.

Computer, save and close log entry. Flag copies of this report to Commander Thomas and Captain Price. Notify me when they have reviewed this log.

The computer complied with the request, as Doctor Maas pulled up the personnel file of an ensign reporting for his first space assignment.

A Joint Post by Lt Michala Lynn, Medical department and Ensign Autumn Jamieson, Medical Department.

Autumn walked into the Medical bay early for the first time in the month that she had been on Galaxy. Nurses looked up in surprise and Autumn just smiled. She walked past the nurses and into her office. 'Argh paper work! Gee how I hate it' Glancing up she spotted Michala sitting at her desk. "Hey Michala! How are you feeling?" She asked walking over to perch on the side of the desk. Michala looked drawn to Autumn but Autumn had the politeness not to comment on it. "Have fun while on leave Michala?"

"Actually, I had a blast. I got to go places I have never seen and do things for myself that I only have memories of. We used .. bikes.. to see Bajor." Michala stumbled on the word still. "It was a fantastic free feeling. I mean, all my life has been in a confined space, so it was odd to be under the stars on a planet."

Autumn smiled and nodded. �Well then we shall have to take you camping in the Blue mountains back on earth.... when we get back there that is� she said with a sigh. �You�ll love camping out under the stars of the southern hemisphere. The mountains are just beautiful summer or winter.�

Autumn got up from her perch and moved slightly to her desk as the Padd began to BEEP!. "OH Goody I forgot about that. Oh well it can wait!" She turned back to Michala

"Oh a message came through as I was leaving my rooms and I told the computer to patch it through down here. I am waiting for information from earth. You see my parents have disappeared and no one knows where they are. I am waiting for the next report from the P.I. I hired shortly after our last mission� She shrugged her shoulders and changed the subject. "So what do you think of our new Doctor Michala?"

"We have a new doctor?" Michala hadn't caught that missive? "Geesh, go away for a month and every thing changes." Michala smiled at Autumn. "Aren't you concerned about your parents? You seem kind of casual about it"

"Oh I am concerned but with my Aunt Leslina worrying back on earth and all my family helping her I seem to be a loose wheel where they are concerned. Not that I�m not doing anything. I hired the PI like I said and I keep in constant contact with my family, They have been missing now for over two months now and I guess I�m just slowly accepting it� She paused and then continued "The doctor's name is Vladimir Maglin, he is Russian or so I have heard. But I haven't seen much of him� in fact now that I think about it, I haven't seen him at all... I've just heard about him. Apparently he is very rude to the nurses and seems to be quiet the snob" Autumn shrugged her shoulders and sighed. "Oh well we'll see how he handles this next mission."

"Well, if he is a snob, that is why we haven't seen him." Michala chuckled. "I guess time will tell like you said. What shift is he on?"

Autumn walked over to her desk and picked up her new duty roster and after consulting it she put it down. �Delta Shift� she said to Michala. �And I think that might have something to do with the fact that we haven�tseen him about�

She smiled. "Probably. Autumn, can I ask you something?" Michala had to ask and Autumn seemed the right person to question. She had been plagued by not only her own thoughts, but by the opinion of the crew.

"Do .. do people think I am.. I mean do they talk about what I did at the embassy?" She looked up, her eyes watering.

'Oh' thought Autumn. " Michala I really don't know I don't listen to gossip and anyway It wasn't your fault. Madame Kiye was to blame not you...though you did get awfully opinionated during that time" She added with a grin.

Michala blushed. "So I have heard. I remember all of it, but it is more like one of my prebirth memories." She said with a frown. "I am sorry I dumped so much extra on you though. I really wasn't in my own mind."

Autumn laughed and smiled at her, "Nothing I couldn't handle though Geoffry and Walter copped the rough edge of my tongue a few times.. I couldn't yell at you... though I wanted to at one stage, but I got over that after we figured out what was going on." She sat down and continued. "You should have seen their faces the day I took them to pieces.. they haven�t even had the guts to come and talk to me since but I�m sure by now they understand that I wasn't mad at them... well not entirely" She grinned again.

"Autumn, .. I - I haven't told anyone in medical but gossip has made it no secret. I am pregnant. But, other then the test to find out. I haven't checked.. " Michala took a deep breath. "With my unique physiology, I don't know if a baby would be normal?" She asked more then said. "I mean, I don't even know what race I am for compatibility purposes and then there is the issue of the four brain lobes that I have? Could you do a prenatal?"

Autumn looked at Michala in surprise, her mind flicking back over what she knew about Michala and said "OK I'll do it for you what time and when?"

"Whenever you can fit me in." Michala said with a smile. "If you need the time to look over my physiology, I understand, it is a little strange."

"Hmmm no I think we can do it today if you want Michala... I have a physical in an hour so after that I'm free." She glanced back at her desk. "If you can fit it in then?"

"I would like that." She said thoughtfully. "I have an appointment with the father later. I would like to be able to tell him something."

"OK Just give me the hour and I�ll see you then ok?" Autumn glanced out the door and saw an ensign waiting for his physical. "And there�s the appointment. Michala I�ll see you later ok." She grabbed her tricorder and walked out into the med bay.

"Fidgety."
By Lt. Commander Peterson
[With excerpts of dialog from Captain Price's "One Hell of a Battle."]

The lieutenant commander walked out of Stellar Cartography where he had just been meeting with Ensign Samthia Wej. The Deltan science officer had acclimatized well to her new position as acting head of that science department - something he noticed in the others officers taking over the contained scientific departments. It was something he took pride in - his department were working more as a team and adjusting well to the changes of the last two months.

["All senior officers to the Bridge,"] the internal comm system sounded as Kent turned in to the intersecting corridor.

The chief scientist stopped and sighed. Reaching across his chest he tapped his comm badge. "Peterson to MacAllen," he said, nodding to Ensign Quevvenson as he passed. "Report Lieutenant."

["We've just received a report from Starfleet on a possible Borg incursion 'Commander."]

Rose's gentle voice could not have soften the impact of the news that she reported from several above him. He dreaded to find out any more, but for the same token he needed to know. Kent swallowed. "Where?" he asked.

Lieutenant Commander Peterson placed his hand against the corridor wall as his legs began to feel numb and the muscles in his neck and shoulders tightened.

The thirty-three year old took several deep breaths before he removed his hand from the wall. "I'll coming Lieutenant," Kent finally responded. "Peterson out."

Kent had spent the last few hours quietly scanning the local vicinity around the Galaxy with short-range and long-range sensor scans. There was no sign of Borg ships or transwarp activity, no Dominion vessels or stations, no unusual readings of any kind. There was nothing except Starfleet vessels waiting for the mighty Galaxy-class vessel to arrive - that had already been an hour ago.

Captain Price had retired to his Ready Room to do some personal research and Commander Thomas sat in the command seat. There were whispers and other conversations around the Bridge, but the Chief Science Officer was too preoccupied to give them any notice. Kent just wanted this all to be over and be nothing more than the result of an over-active imagination.

As the lieutenant commander tapped away at the science station console, the corner display received a dark red border as the starboard sensor array picked up something on long-range sensors. Kent immediately invested all of his attention in the readings; not even finishing the computation that he had just begun.

"Computer, increase sensor resolution by 0.9 percent," the scientist said as he tried to get more from the sensors without reducing their range.

Peterson tapped the console a few more times to get as much information on the field of objects he was detecting. The higher resolution scan would take a few moments considering their range, but it would hopefully give him enough to report with sufficient confidence in his assessment.

The science station console began to beep again as the new sensor results came through. Scratching his head, the chief scientist began to run through as much of the data coming in to his terminal. Meanwhile, having heard the short intermittent whaling from the science station console, the First Officer was making his way up the ramp that ran by the tactical arch.

"I think you should take a look at this sir," Kent said as he showed Chris the readings.

Both men realized what it looked like - all indications were that it was the remains of a battle within Dominion space. There was no concrete evidence at that time to say whether or not it was the remains of a battle, nothing but the report from Earth, but if it were, then it appeared they were too late.

Peterson nodded, "Not at this range. We'll need to get closer to come up with anything we can use."

"All right then. Continue to scan as much of the area as possible," the Galaxy's Executive Officer requested, "I'll inform the Captain."

Chris reached across his chest and tapped his comm badge, "Thomas to Price," he said. "Captain, you may want to have a look at this sir. 'Commander Peterson has discovered something on the ship's long range sensors."

Eventually he heard Thomas talking to Captain Price who had just joined them from his Ready Room, "Kent has been using the Galaxy's sensors to scan the area while we and the fleet head towards the Dominion system. He believes he has found something interesting."

The Captain looked at the Chief Science Officer and jogged his chin slightly. "Show me 'mate."

"See this region here sir?" Kent began as he magnified the sensor scan results, "It looks like there has been a battle of some sort. I've scanned the entire area, including regions closer to the Dominion home world where we are heading, but have detected no signs of a battle anywhere but in this sector over here. I respectfully think we should check it out sir."

Captain Price nodded. "Starfleet Intelligence reported that the battle or suspected battle was in Dominion space. This is nearly a dozen light years away from where we are headed."

"Well, technically Captain, all of these sectors could be considered Dominion controlled space. Though Starfleet doesn't recognize that, the Dominion government definitely does."

Lee nodded. "And you are certain you are not detecting anything in the Dominion system proper 'mate?"

"Positive sir," Kent replied as he began to get fidgety. Pointing to another point on the higher-than-normal resolution scan, "This disturbance here has got to be what the Starfleet reports were about. We can tell more once we get closer and can take more accurate scans. It's difficult getting high resolution readings while traveling at warp."

Price turned around to the main viewscreen, which was streaked with the constituent wavelengths of light. "Fair enough," he said as he turned back to Thomas. "Alter the course of the fleet. Let's head for the coordinates Lieutenant Commander Peterson has so kindly located for us."

"Borg, Romulans and the Federation arms race"
by Captain Robert Edward Lee Price

Trolling through the sea of wrecked Dominion ships, the fleet of Federation starships, lead by the USS Galaxy, continued to scan for signs of life, survivors, and the ever dangerous Borg whom they suspected were responsible for this devastation.

Proceeding cautiously at one quarter impulse speed, within ten minutes one of the ships in the fleet had news to report.

"Captain, I have a report coming in from the USS Regina sir." Lieutenant Richeson reported from Tactical.

Lee pivoted in the command chair to look back at Tim at the arch. "What have they found 'mate?"

"Captain T'komm believes that there are remnants of a Borg cube scattered through out the debris field along with pieces of Dominion ships. They have transported a sample on board and are running some tests on it, but their preliminary findings give a strong indication that the Borg were here." Tim relayed the message to the Captain.

Borg. Lee was surprised how hearing Richeson confirm Starfleet's assumption made him feel. Somehow the General was holding onto the hope and possibility that the intel reports had been mistaken; that the assembling of a small fleet of Federation ships to investigate was just overkill on the Federation's part, and that some other explanation - an attack by the Breen or Romulans, could be responsible for this task force Price was now shepherding over on Starfleet's behalf. Somehow finding debris from a Borg cube - cold hard, physical evidence that the collective was involved here and had tried to assimilate the Dominion, sent a shiver down the General's spine.

"Signal the fleet to proceed with caution Lieutenant. Take us to Yellow alert and see to it that the shields are raised." Price ordered.

"Yes sir." Tim stated enthusiastically - as if he approved of the course of action. The Chief Tactical Officer then eagerly asked, "Shall I activate the Galaxy's amblative armor Captain?"

"Negative Lieutenant." the Captain stated, "Save the armor for battle. When raised it interferes with sensors and makes transportation impossible." Lee reminded. Having read up on the newest technology to be fitted to the Galaxy, he was aware of both the strengths and weaknesses of using the powerful armor shielding.

Another ten minutes past as the fleet, and the Galaxy, trolled through the wreckage. By now the estimated number of ships destroyed had risen to a hundred and fifty ships, just by measuring the debris mass alone.

"Sir, we have something." First Officer Thomas reported, "The Merrimac is reporting that several Dominion ships are working to salvage what remains of the disabled Borg cube, to use it's technology to their advantage."

Lee turned to face Chris while the Commander continued to speak. "And there's something else sir."

"The Romulans? What the hell is a Romulan ship doing out here, deep in the Gamma Quadrant and in Dominion space?" Lieutenant Commander Suder questioned, with more then a hint of prejudice, from the Engineering station.

Lee glanced over at Ethan who was standing near the rear of the bridge with his hands fisted and resting on his hips.

"That is a very good question 'mate. One I don't have an immediate answer to." The Captain paused.

Standing, the Captain walked over to where Chris was working. "Has the Merrimac been detected by the Dominion ships Commander?"

Chris shook his head. "She doesn't believe so sir. They are occupied with salvaging what's left of the Borg cube. It appears that they are preparing to tractor it back to the Dominion homeworld for disassembly."

"Very well. Have Captain Reinhart hold position and continue to observe the Dominion activity for the time being. Do we have the coordinates of the Romulan ship?" Lee asked.

"Yes sir. The Merrimac transmitted them in their initial report." Commander Thomas confirmed.

"Get them to Lieutenant Gustavson. We will head towards the Romulan ship and prepare to evacuate any survivors to the Galaxy." Captain Price ordered.

Chris gave a nod and then began walking towards the helm to carry out the Captain's order. Meanwhile, Lee stepped back towards the center of the bridge and activated his comm badge.

"Mister Savat, it appears that we are going to be hosting some Romulans on board the ship 'mate. I'll need security to take the appropriate precautions." The Captain explained.

You could almost 'hear' Savat's eyebrow crook upwards as he replied, ["Indeed. I will see to it Captain."]

"Bonzer 'Commander. Price out." Lee responded before giving his communications badge his patented double tap to both close the channel, and reopen another.

"Doctor, we have located a badly damaged Romulan ship that contains survivors. The Galaxy is moving towards the ship now in order to evacuate the people to our vessel. There are likely to be wounded, so you should prepare to receive them shortly." The General explained.

["My people will be ready sir."] the Trill Chief Medical Officer responded confidently over the audio channel.

"Good. I've already contacted security. You can expect to have added personnel coming your way when the Romulans arrive." Lee added.

Having delivered the coordinates to the disabled Romulan vessel to the Flight Control officer, Commander Thomas had stepped back over to the Captain's side and was waiting patiently for him to finish informing security and sickbay of the soon to be arriving Romulan survivors.

Captain Price noticed Chris standing there waiting, and looked up at him. "What is it 'mate?"

"Starfleet will need to be informed about the Borg cube Captain." Chris stated evenly. A sense of dejavu washed over him when he said it, since in some ways he felt like he was taking on his old role of Starfleet Liaisons Officer in reminding the General of his duty.

Fortunately the Captain wasn't offended. He didn't even appear to have noticed the similarity to Chris' old position on the Galaxy. "I know 'mate. It's next on my agenda. Lieutenant Richeson, open a secure channel to Admiral Douglas at Starfleet command and pipe it into my ready room. I'll speak to him from in there."

"Right away Captain." Tim responded as he began entering in the appropriate commands at his station.

Standing, Lee looked at Commander Thomas. "You 'ave the conn 'mate." he stated motioning at the command chair with a thumb over his shoulder while moving towards the ready room to speak to the Admiral.

Chris gave a nod and stepped to the chair and sat down proudly while the Captain exited the bridge and went into his office.

Sitting down, Lee activated his computer terminal and soon the image of Admiral Douglas appeared on the screen.

Price nodded. "Yes sir. We have positive confirmation, including recovered debris from a Borg cube Admiral. It appears one entered the system, and the Dominion responded. The Merrimac has located what's left of the Borg cube. Several Dominion ships are attempting to salvage what's left and bring it back to the Dominion."

Admiral Douglas didn't look pleased at hearing this. ["Well, it is good that the Borg cube has been destroyed. At least that is one less threat for the Federation to deal with at the moment. However learning that there is Borg technology remaining that the Dominion is attempting to salvage is something the Federation can't allow."]

The Captain's brow furrowed slightly. "I don't understand sir. If the Borg cube attacked and tried to assimilate the Dominion, and they defended themselves, destroying the threat and damaging the cube, certainly they are entitled to salvage the remains. We are in Dominion controlled space after all."

["Rubbish Captain."] Douglas responded flatly. ["If the Borg cube was in Dominion space, they wouldn't have their ships trying to drag it to their homeworld. It would already be there."] After a brief pause, the Admiral asked, ["How far away from the Dominion system proper are they Price?"]

The news appeared to please Douglas. ["Well there you go then. Anything beyond ten light years is not considered Dominion space and is free game."]

"Admiral, the Dominion doesn't see things that way. They did destroy the cube after all. Even inter-planetary salvage right laws would indicate that they have a claim..."

Captain Price was sharply cut off. ["Starfleet does not want the Dominion studying Borg technology Price. If they are allowed to do that, they could develop defenses and weapons equivalent to our own and upset the balance of power between our two governments."]

"Don't you mean level the playing field Admiral?" the Captain responded pointedly. From Lee's tone it was obvious that he viewed the new technology the Galaxy had been fitted with as being superior to anything the Dominion currently possessed. It seemed to him that the Admiral's concerns were not with doing what was right and just in this case regarding the salvage of what remained of the Borg cube, but instead in preserving the tactical advantage the Federation had just received thanks to the return of Voyager from the Delta quadrant.

["Fleet Captain Price, I'm giving you a direct order from Starfleet Command..."] Admiral Douglas started slowly and evenly. Douglas had been briefed on Captain Price's service record. He knew how stubborn the Aussey could be, and how he would always try to do the right thing. But he also knew Captain Price wasn't one to disobey direct orders from a superior officer. ["The Dominion can not be allowed to salvage what remains of the Borg cube. Do what you must to see that doesn't happen. You are free to use any and all means necessary to insure the Dominion doesn't secure what remains of the Borg vessel. Destroy it if you have to... just don't let the Dominion have access to study it and unlock Borg technology secrets that can then be used against the Federation and our allies."]

Lee leaned back. He knew there was nothing he could do but follow the orders... no matter how unfair he felt they were. With a sigh, the Captain agreed. "Understood Admiral. There is one other thing to report."

"We have discovered a Romulan ship out here along with the rest of the wrecked Dominion ships. It appears that she was attacked by the Borg during the battle. We are reading life signs on board of survivors. The Galaxy is moving to evacuate the Romulan personnel to the Galaxy as we speak."

["The Romulans?, out here? That is an interesting piece of intelligence..."] Admiral Douglas stated with a hand to his chin. Looking back at Captain Price, he added, ["Take every precaution Price. The Romulans can be rather devious if they are not watched closely."]

"I have already informed security to take added precautions. Hopefully once we get them on board we can find out more about what happened here with the Borg. That's all I have to report at the moment Admiral, unless there is anything more from Starfleet's end?" the Captain asked.

Admiral Douglas looked at Captain Price for a moment before responding. ["No Captain, that is all. Except... once you complete this mission, and are successful at keeping this technology from the Dominion, I'm sure Starfleet will be very appreciative of your service to the Federation. Admiral Douglas out."]

The General leaned back in his black leather chair. Behind him were flags from Australia, the Confederacy, and a United Federation of Planets adorning the back bulkhead of the Captain's ready room. With a long sign, the Captain wondered how the Dominion were going to take the news that the Federation wanted the remains of the Borg cube they intended to study, destroyed.

Standing, the Captain began heading out to the bridge, wondering how exactly the Romulans fit into all of this, and what they were even doing out here in the first place.