"The Training Wheels Come Off"

1Lt. T'Shani a'Akledorian
CO, SFMC Furies

2Lt. Branwen London
XO/Staff Psychologist, SFMC Furies

2Lt. Gregory Ward
Blue Team Leader

2Lt. Jebidiah Baile
Red Team Leader

NPCs:

Lt. Coja Rembala, Furies Intelligence Liaison
SgtMaj. Carl Johnson, Furies Command NCO

== Deck 4: Furies' Mission Briefing Room ==

T'Shani a'Akledorian stood behind the small dias at the front of the Furies Mission Briefing Room, or "MBR". Last night--among other events--Cass had informed her that the Furies would be performing S&R maneuvers planteside. She had intended to brief her Lieutenant that evening, but Cass had wanted her to hold off and wait to see what happened after the dinner Captain M'Kantu had with the Hydran Commander. All had gone well (so far), and their mission had been green-lighted.

Also, Tish had had somewhat of a "Night From Hell", anyways, with *both* Corran and Cassius. She was in NO mood to think about that now; she had a mission to run, damn Cassius and the rest.

Branwen was the first to enter the room. She was excited. Everybody had noticed the battlecruiser, and speculation was rife. She was hoping for a chance to prove herself in action.

"Lieutenant London reporting for duty, ma'am." As XO she was glad she got there first.

Greg was walking through the corridors to the briefing room with his platoon XO in the form of Pete "Wrong Way" Stacker. The young Gunnery Sgt had earned the nickname following a firefight during the war with the Dominion when Stacker accidentally caused the artillery to hit Ward's own unit which was also Stacker's. Every so often, Greg would often ask the younger officer where "North South" was on the artillery orders just to give the younger officer hell because he was his friend.

Greg's mind was partially focused on the return of one Lieutenant JG Naranda Sol Roswell. She'd apparently went underground after someone tried to kill her or that's what Digby told him prior to the short woman's transfer off of the Galaxy. Greg had felt a unique connection to the younger woman but right now, as he and Stacker closed in on the Mission Briefing Room, Greg's mind slowly started to crawl into the dark part of it's self as he motioned for Stacker to get a squad of his Blues ready while he went into the briefing room himself. Once inside of the room, he came to attention and said in a clear voice Blue Team Lead, Second Lieutenant Ward reporting for duty." before giving Lieutenant London a nod before moving to his spot at the table.

"I want Red One and Red Two ready in twenty minutes. Full combat gear and on standby." Baile instructed his gunny as he headed towards the briefing room. "I want Nitro to take as many shrapnel grenades as he can find as well as jumpers. Each man carries double water rations and a backup weapon. Keep the backpacks at around 100 pounds each. I want them mobile, not fucking crawling like maggots."

Furji nodded and saluted his CO as they reached the briefing room. Baile himself was already in combat gear, or rather he looked like he always did. Green BDU-pants, black t-shirt with the USMC insignia and with his sidearm strapped to his thigh in a holster. And of course - the hat. But this was business time. Now the only thing that existed in Baile's mind was the work to come. "Lieutenant Baile reporting in." he said after coming to attention for the briefest of moments. The focus in his eyes couldn't be missed as he sat down. Anyone messing with the Marines this day would die.

A few moments later, Johnson, Asaki, and Lieutenant Rembala entered in as well, taking up seats near the back of the room.

"All personnel accounted for, Lieutenant," Valentine informed as he tapped a few things into his padd.

"Very well," Tish acknowledged. "As most of you are aware, we've got company in the Mirusa system."

Branwen just nodded.

Greg looked over at the Andorian woman and gave her a half-smile. It didn't matter if it was the Hydrans, the Q, the Borg or whatever-nothing was going to fuck with the Galaxy's crew anymore.

Tish bobbed her antennas in agreement. "Now I know your feelings the Hydrans, especially what happened during Havras. And believe me," she leaned forward on the dias, "I've had plenty of run-ins with them, as well." Briefly, her mind flashed through the events from a year and a half ago, at Rel'kessan.

Bran had not seen any serious action yet. She was excited, yet also a little bit scared.

Greg looked over at Tish and nodded gravely as he kept his attention on the young Andorian woman.

She continued, walking out from behind the dias to stand beside the viewscreen at the front of the room. Looking to Valentine, she nodded once. A moment later, the viewscreen lit up as several dossier's--with pictures--flashed across the screen, then shrunk to each corner of the screen. The last one--a picture of a thin-faced man with a long nose and old-fashioned wire-frame spectacles--stayed zoomed at the screen's center.

T'Shani indicated the picture with her hand, "This is Doctor Nicholas Jericho, Site Director of the Mirusa Six Exploratory Project. Some of you may recognize him on his recent work with the Iconian Project that was detailed in *Scientific Galactica* a few months back."

"Okay, I take it that he lost something and we, being the talented finders and removers of Starfleet, have to find it?" Greg said in a questioning voice.

"Yes, his team *is* missing," T'Shani confirmed. "And we get the lovely job of finding them. Amidst a full platoon of Imperial Guards."

"Ma'am where can I find more information on the Hydrans?" Branwen blushed. She knew it was probably a stupid question, yet it was even more stupid for her to go away and without any information. "Why, for example, would they go after these people?"

"I can answer that," a voice rumbled from the back of the room.

Greg turned his head just enough to look over at the unit's new intelligence officer. Coja Rembala took the position after his predecessor, Private First Class Salu Digby left the unit in order to obtain full intelligence operative training so that she could be more capable of doing the whole "spook" aspect of her job.

The new Kenyan Intel officer assigned on detachment to the Furies stood up from his seat next to Johnson. The tall, muscular Masaai looked to T'Shani for permission to speak. Nodding once, Tish yielded the floor to him.

"It is no secret that the Hydran boundary is less than two sectors away," his richly-inflected basso voice rumbled. "As such, they've become very interested in Doctor Jericho's findings in this system, especially those on Mirusa VI."

Coja's large hands touched at a few controls below the viewer, replacing the dossiers with a bird's-eye sensor capture of the planet's surface.

London watched the display. There wasn't much to see at first, and then she saw some pyramids. Nothing that interesting to an aliens species she would have thought. "Any idea what they are after?"

Greg looked over at Coja, "If you need my help Mister Rembala, I can speak Hydran thanks to one of the previous hosts that my mother had due to the time that the symbiont spent as a linguist." Greg said, not arrogantly or in a manner that he hoped that the Intel officer didn't think he was showing off, as the trill wanted to be helpful.

Greg's combined marine and special ops training took over then and he quickly took in the outline of the buildings and the general area around them. Even though the special operations troopers that was in the furies were now evenly spread around the Galaxy's marine detachment and one of them, Digby, had left-it wouldn't hurt to see if the first LT would want them in the field for this.

Coja simply nodded deferentially to Lieutenant Ward, indicating that he would solicit the Blue Team Leader's expertise, if needed.

Turning back to London, "We are not sure, Lieutenant London, but the discovery of several of the gollums that are found within the main structure's entryways seem to have an uncanny resemblance to the Hydran species."

That was interesting Branwen thought.

Coja relinquished the floor back to T'Shani. "In addition to our own missing personnel, the Hydran's are missing some of their own guards." Drawing a breath, she tried to push out the feelings of unease she felt in her next words.

"Commander Henderson will be leading the expedition, and will act as the Commander In Charge on the ground. We will be tasked with actually searching the main structure--with the cooperation of the Hydrans--to find the missing scientists and guards.

"Blue Team will secure the perimeter, base camp, and inner entrance ways. Red Team will perform the structural search. Standard drop ship insertions. Questions?" She stole a glance to each of her Lieutenant's: London looked excited and nervous, like one of those small lap-dogs just waiting to perform. Baile seemed to be impatient, yet focused. Ward was hard to read. He sat, unblinking, looking at the screen.

Turning her gaze up to Johnson (who had just been promoted to Sergeant Major), Tish continued. "Major Johnson will brief you on our operational parameters, now." She stepped aside as the tall, solidly-built Los Angeline marched to the front of the room.

Briefly, Johnson caught Jeb's eye and gave him a "here comes the shit" look, before starting in.

Greg was a professional with several years of being both a marine and being one of just under one hundred troopers trained as a special operations Marine or an Advance Recon Commando as the official term was. Those trained as ARCs would often be sent into the field separate from the others to handle any kind of problem that might or would come up that would counter the unit's current mission. Thus his attention was focused solely on the screen in front of him.

"This is a standard S&R op. Since most of the structure is unmapped, we don't know how tight space may get, so only minimum gear is to be carried: Tac Suits, hand phasers, and BR55s, plus any other "toys" you may think necessary," he smiled, knowing that Baile would get the joke.

Greg smiled for a moment, just a moment as the briefing continued. Maybe it was time to break out some of the new equipment that they were given by the Colonel when he visited a while back at the appointment of Tish to the post of detachment head.

"Signals are as follows: 'Green' is go. 'Blue' is objective found. 'Yellow' is hostile contact. 'Red' is hostile engagement. 'Black' is abort. 'White' is retreat. Any questions?"

Greg shook his head and his focused turned back to the Andorian LT.

Johnson turned to T'Shani, "Ma'am," he nodded, then marched off again to the back of the room.

"All right, Furies. Colonel Gessekensett told me you are the best, and from your training, I believe it. Now the training wheel's come off. Let's find our scientists, and get off this forsaken world as quickly and efficiently as possible. Dismissed to your Teams. Have them strapped in thirty, departure in forty-five. Questions?" she looked around. "No? Good. Dismissed, Marines."

Greg stood up and walked over to Tish. He was a good four inches shorter than the six foot six Andorian woman but even he had to appreciate the woman's strengths as a Marine.

He waited until Tish noticed that the normally quiet Marine was standing next to her before asking, "Do you think that the special operations troopers that are spread among the detachment are going to be needed, ma'am?

"You have--aside from myself--about six fully-trained advanced recon commandos in the Furies that could also add to the quickness of the search, Lieutenant." Greg asked in a tone that he knew that Tish could hear him in because asking the head of anything if the ARCs were needed was not something that you asked for everyone to overhear.

Tish's antennas perked, in contemplation. "Send an ARC with each fire team, to assist in the operations, Lieutenant. I will rely on your advisory role to keep me abreast of their ops." And with that, she turned to get ready for departure.

((OOC: Science Team Members - Feel free to organize yourselves into pairs or go solo. You can either help dig, help go through files, help extend base camp, or go exploring. The choice is yours. Feel free to ask me questions. - Laurel))

"Coming to an Understanding"

by Lt. Jasmine Heloi
Chief Science Officer/Vanguard Exec

& Dr. Nicholas Jericho [Frank]

------ Mirusa Project Base Camp, Mirusa VI ------

The first thing that she noticed as the transporter beam released her was the heat. To use some poetic license, it was the type of heat that could drain a body of all moisture in five seconds tops. Jasmine could already feel a sheen of sweat form across her brow and she restrained the urge to wipe it off with the back of her hand. The desert survival uniforms that supplies had provided all the teams with helped some, but for someone such as herself that was from a more moderate climate it did not help nearly enough.

The Betazoid shaded her eyes with her hand as she glanced about the planet surface. "Dr. Jericho?" she called, addressing the bald man standing to the side of the landing area. The Betazoid stepped forward holding out her hand, "I am Lt. Jasmine Heloi, Chief Science Officer on the Galaxy. We," she gestured with her free hand towards her team behind her, "Would like to extend an offer to help with your work."

Doctor Nicholas Jericho was not having a good morning. First the sudden flood of Starfleet and Hydran 'Investigators', and now this? He wasn't going to get any work down, with all of his diggers distracted by the sudden influx of new people. He turned around and frowned. "Lieutenant, I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to answer truthfully. Are you trying to steal my find? Take my funding? Because if not, what purpose do... you... Are you Adora Starfire?"

She was never, ever, ever getting away from that identification. Maybe she should consider hiring a plastic surgeon just to avoid situations just like this one. Glancing towards the heavens in an obvious plea for assistance, the Science Chief used one of her famous smiles as she nodded, "Once upon a time, I was on that show, yes, sir." The Betazoid quickly changed the subject before he continue speaking about Starfire, "However, to answer your questions I have no intention of stealing your find or taking your funding. My Captain instructed me to place myself and my team at your disposal to aide in your research until such time as we locate your missing team members."

"Ah..." Jericho nodded, as if he'd made some sort of discovery. He'd thought she'd looked familiar. Serving in Starfleet? Probably some kind of publicity stunt. "Well, 'at my disposal' I can work with. I could use some extra diggers... and somebody to reorganize my files. I'm afraid they're terribly disorganized."

"I'm sure some sort of arrangement can be made, Doctor," she knew that they were not glorified 'gofers,' however what information they could glean from Jericho's records would be helpful.

"Excellent," he replied, features softening for a moment. Jericho was a tough old bastard, but... credit where credit was due. "I really do appreciate the help Miss Sta... Lieutenant. We are somewhat understaffed."

Heloi nodded, "Its our pleasure, Doctor. And it's Lt. Heloi or Jasmine. If you could outline where we can be of most use to you, I'll deploy my people so we can get to work." The Betazoid glanced back and caught Shay's gaze. She had an idea where the two of them might be of the most use - namely going through Jericho's records. To 'organize' them, of course.

"Well, definitely my records... Ah... If you have any engineers, we could use some help expanding the settlement, so that it's more protected from the elements. My project engineer, Mr. Obaleshe, has been wonderful, but he doesn't have the resources of a starship," Jericho replied. Yes, this could have it's advantages. "Otherwise, have them report to my dig manager. I'll have her teach them the basics of excavation and recording."

"Like I said, Doctor, we can definitely come to an arrangement. I'll leave you to your work for the moment, Doctor, so I can deploy my people. I'll speak with you again later about what you've found here on Mirusa and where your missing people might have been when they disappeared."

"Excellent," Jericho nodded, "Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to supervise our excavations for the day. We're starting on the temple block surrounding the main temple."

"Of course. Thanks again, Doctor," Jasmine nodded, before turning back to her team to deal out assignments. This was certainly going to be an interesting venture. Then again, whomever said that away missions were boring weren't in the same Starfleet she was.

"Regarding the Naked Andorian That Ruined Our Evening"

Commander Cass Henderson, Executive Officer

Lieutenant Commander Ekoma Janx, Head Tactical Analyst/Starfleet Tactical Liaison

****

Lt. Commander Janx's Quarters,
Deck 5,
USS Galaxy

Cass woke up early and exhausted. After the game of Strategema and the message to Mouse, he'd only gotten about four hours of sleep. He knew that he had to beam down to the planet in a little over two hours, but he had something he *needed* to take care of before he went. There was no way that Cass was going to leave things as they were with Ekoma, after the *disaster* the previous night.

So he switched into his combat fatigues, which he had decided would be ideal for this away mission. Midway between the standard duty uniform and the combat armor, the fatigues would give the Hydrans an impression of waryness, while still being light enought to let his body breath in the desert heat. Then he walked down the hall to Ekoma's quarters, where she was no doubt getting ready for her shift.

Janx sighed inwardly, a conflicting array of emotions battering against the young Trill. The events of the last night had been...*horrendous*, to say the least. Everything had been going so well, so *perfectly*. The man she was pining for had made it clear that he had wanted to make love to her, something that she had *yet* to experience. Being a virgin definitely sucked. Especially at her age.

She *had* been looking forward to giving that up, last night. But then the Blue Bitch--'Lieutenant T'Shani a'Akledorian--had ruined everything, and Cass seemed a little too nonplussed about it, in Janx's opinion. Instead of kicking the intrusive femmalien out, he stood there...*negotiating* with her!

It had been too much for Ekoma; she bolted as soon as she could. A part of her felt bad about it, but another felt righteously indignant. However, it was the former that was winning over the latter.

~Maybe I should...~ her mind wandered at the possibility of going back to Cass's quarters. What would she find? Him alone? The Andorian dominatrix holding him hostage, strapped to his bed? Or would he slyly wrap his arm around the Marine commander's hips and smile sweetly, while telling her to 'get lost'?

*BEEP BEEP*

Her mindrush stopped at the sound of the doorchime. "Come in," she called back into the main room from her bathroom, where she was still trying to get her short-cropped blonde hair to set right.

Cass entered the room slowly, not exactly sure what his plan was. He wasn't exactly sure how to go about convincing her that what had happened the previous night shouldn't change thier feelings, just that he knew that he had to convince her. He took a moment to look around her quarters, before calling back to her. "Ekoma? Do you have a moment?"

Ekoma froze, trying not to let a surprised "Eeep" from escaping her mouth. ~Dammit!~ she swore to herself, resolving once again to *always* check the security screeen before letting anyone into her quarters. She did *not* want to talk to him, not yet anyway.

Clearing her throat softly, she tried to sound stern by using her 'bridge-voice': "Please leave, Commander."

Cass sighed. It was to be expected. Perhaps he wouldn't be too dissapointed to see T'Shani transfer away. Not that he even remotely believed that whoever she was working for would allow it to happen. And not that it was going to help his current situation.

He shook his head. "If that's how you want it, Eko. I'll miss your company."

Cass turned around and headed for the door. He did have an away team to run.

"Wait, Com--," she sighed heavily, her heart caught in her throat, especially when he had used her nickname, 'Eko', that he had given her the other night, on the holodeck. "Wait Cassius," she turned back to the central living room of her quarters. "What...what happened, last night, Cassius?" she asked sincerely as she slowly approached him.

He caught himself before he could pass entirely through her doorway, turning around and walking back inside. Well... He didn't exactly want to talk about Tish. But if it meant salvaging his relationship with Janx, which was far better for him than his experiences with Rima Pennington had ever been, then he'd do it in a heartbeat. "Do you mind if I have a seat? This is going to take a moment."

She sighed, looked at the wall-chrono, then motioned him over to a seat. "I've got thirty minutes, before Beta starts," she informed.

"Yeah, me too. I'm leading the away team to the surface today," he said, gesturing to his surface fatigues as he sat down. "Though... I told you that last night."

Ekoma only nodded in silence, waiting for him to tell her what had occurred between him and the Andorian ~...bitch,~ her mind supplied. She knew not to rush Cassius; he'd say what he needed to say, when he needed to say it.

"To be perfectly honest, it's not entirely *her* fault," Cassius started... How was he supposed to explain the Rel'Kessan mission? It was classified, but... "She and I were assigned to a classified mission over a yeah ago, before the Battle of Havras."

"In the course of this mission, I saved her life," he continued, getting closer to the important part. "I'm fairly sure she started having feelings for me as a result. I figured out that she did a few weeks ago, but didn't say anything. I wasn't sure what to say, truthfully."

"As for last night," he replied, "I guess she decided that it was time to tell me how she felt. Why she was naked... I have no idea."

It made sense. Well, at least part of it. She still felt as if Cassius weren't telling her all of what had *really* happened, but decided to let it go. "What did you tell her?" she asked meekly, though her green eyes met his.

"I ordered her to explain herself," he replied. Her body language told him that she still wasn't totally sure of the completeness of what he was saying. But there wasn't much he could do about it. Even *Rima* didn't know who he really worked for. "She gave me a half answer and left. There's something more going on there, but... It's more complicated than I care to guess at."

Janx had to ask the next question, her body shifting at her unease. "Do you love her, Cassius?"

"No," he replied. That was an easy question. "Tish, though I do consider her my friend, would have to do a lot of changing for me to even consider her in that way. I'll admit that she's physically attractive, but she's too unstable emotionally to be truly appealing. One of the things that I like most about you is that you're fairly grounded."

Ekoma's breath caught, for a brief second. She wasn't sure if that was to be taken as a compliment, or not. She had learned--from his tutoring her during the Bridge Command Certification training--that Cassius usually looked at things very directly, and also voiced them as such. He was being honest, true, but wasn't apologizing. But, she realized that she shouldn't expect him to, either.

"Cassius," she said while trying to keep the exasperation from coloring her tone. She leaned forward, taking his large, long-fingered hands in hers, small and delicate. "I like you...alot," her skin flushed a little brighter, "I think that was, um...evident, last night," she tried to keep the hot blush from growing across her face, to no avail. "But if we're going to *be* anything, I want to know exactly *what* you want that to be."

She sat back again, though still holding his hand, her thumb caressing his fingers. "Lovers?" her eyebrows quirked high. "Friends with benefits? Acquaintances? I need to know this Cassius. I've given my heart away before, only to have it handed back to me because that man decided to chase someone more--I don't know--*exciting*."

She shook her head, chuckling to herself. "Hell, I haven't even told you, Cassius, I'm still a virgin. Can you believe it?! At my age? I guess I'm waiting for the right guy. And last night..." she trailed off, her eyes wide and meeting his, seaching; hoping for some understanding. ~Don't hurt me, Cassius. Please, don't hurt me.~

"... was incredible," he finished for her. "It was the best evening that I've had in... since the Academy, really. Well, it was before T'Shani showed up. I want to have a real relationship with you, Eko. Everything that's happened to us so far tells me that we'd be good for each other. And don't knock yourself. 28 is still very young. You have plenty of life left in you yet."

She smiled brightly at his acceptance and kindness. Her friends, back in her Trill home province of Jehnak, had always given her a hard time about being the resident virgin; they had all "made it" by the time they had started high school. But Ekoma had come from a very old-fashioned family of rapeg farmers. With a religious zeal, her mother had instructed her (and even *scared* her into) keeping her virginity intact until she had decided on a lifemate.

It didn't help that her mother, Belma, was joined. Kem--her 400-year old symbiont--*always* set rules and regulations and other restrictions that the young Ekoma thought of as being "unfair". It wasn't really until she had started her studies at the Academy on Earth that she even began thinking outside the social "box", as it were. By the time she graduated from Starfleet Academy, and with some very *interesting* experiences provided by her Deltan dormmate of all four years, she had gained a much more open view of other's cultures and social views.

But still sometimes, especially when it came to matters of the heart, she was still that small, shy, backward girl on a little rapeg farm stuck back in the sticks.

"Thanks, Cass," her voice piqued with sincere feeling. Quickly, she wrapped her arms around him, hugging her body to his. Looking back into his eyes, she smiled again. "I may have plenty of life left in me, but I'm no *h'ijak mev*," she pronounced the Trill word for the symbionts. "I might as well not wait too much longer, huh?" she said a teasing smile crossed her cute, dimpled face.

"Not too much longer," he echoed (excusing the pun) her sentiment, wrapping her smaller frame in his arms. "I think that's one of my favorite things that you do... right there... that smile. It lights up your face."

That comment only caused her to beam brighter, her jade-green eyes dancing with playful happiness. "Well, go on your mission, mister, and you might just have something *special* waiting for you, when you get back," she smiled seductively, while snaking one hand slowly up his inner left thigh.

"Well Miss Janx, I'll look forward to that. It'll make this away mission that much more bearable," he replied, and leaned in to kiss her goodbye for the time being.

"Good," she relished the kiss, and considered acting upon the urge to go for more. But, there would be time for that. And if she really *was* going to give herself to him, she wanted the night to be special. She'd wait, then.

As he got up and started walking to the door, she kept his hand in hers. Just as he reached the door, she tugged on his hand, turning him back to her. "Cass, take care of her. I may not like her, but she's hurt, even if she doesn't show it."

"I know... I think I feel more fatherly about her than anything else. I'll keep my an eye on her," he nodded, pulling her into his arms again. "Take care of yourself, Eko. I'll be back before you know it."

He kissed her again, and headed off to lead the away team.

"We need more men...and women"

BY Lieutenant Michael Jamson, Operations Officer
USS Galaxy-A

Appearances by :
Lieutenant JG Tarin Iniara, Chief Of Operations
Lieutenant Ella Grey, Asst.Chief Engineering
Ensign Catherine "Angie" Donalds, Operations Officer - NPC(New)
Ensign Parks, Operations Officer - NPC
Lieutenant Cameron Bartlett, Operations Officer - NPC

**** Stardrive Section, Deck 9 - Operations Center *****

"Make sure you adjust the main sensor arrays with enough power, divert scans and schedule it for the proper usage for all the departments. Don't forget to check the service board both for collisions. Both Science and Engineering Labs require main sensor scans for research, and if we're not done by tomorrow morning, we'll have the usual rain of complaints and bickering, not to mention Iniara would chew me up for breakfast" Jamson told Ensign Parks. "I'll try to do my best" Parks replied. "I'm sure the Chief would be satisfied".

"Of course" Jamson replied with a slight apathy in his voice. Michael had no doubt in Parks' abilities, he was a fine officer, but the latest shortage of human resources what was annoying him and wearing him out as well as his colleagues. Even though operations was a big department, and not only included Engineering, but also Tactical, and Security, after the last mission, too many 'core' ops members were transferred off the ship or into other departments which left a lot of work to be accomplished but no manpower. The heavy load of duties forced ops crew members to make double and even triple shifts.

"Michael..." Lieutenant Tarin, the Chief of Operations jumped behind the weary man as he rubbed his eyes slowly and yawned.

"Yes, Iniara?" Michael turned to face her, surprised.

"We have a new officer on board" she sighed in content. It wasn't easy running the largest department on the ship with so little manpower.

"I'm aware of several new ops officers but-" Jamson spotted Ensign Donalds.

"Yes" Iniara smiled. "This is Ensign Catherine Donalds, our new officer in the department".

"Nice to make your acquaintance" Jamson nodded in, surprisingly, without any glimpse of contempt.

The young Ensign didn't waver "Great to be here sir".

"I want you to show her around and let her accompany you for awhile" Tarin said.

Jamson looked puzzled. He raised his hand in question towards Catherine "Would you please excuse us for a nano second?"

"By by all means" She said a bit surprised not expecting Jamson's reaction.

The tired Lieutenant took Tarin aside "Iniara...I am loaded with work! with all your assignment for the past couple of days, in addition to last weeks' reports, the last thing I need right now, is to babysit a new officer, who's experience doesn't even match the Vorka plant in my room!". As much as he was glad to finally have some help around, he had better things to do than to run tours for new operations officer.

"Mike...I don't have to tell you we're short on man power. I have the entire department running double and triple shifts! so unless you want to spend the entire weekend covering for others and scrubbing and scraping the shuttlebays' floors" She grinned, "You don't have a choice, that's an order".

Jamson was annoyed, and expressed it by growling "You're enjoying this...aren't you?", he looked straight into Tarin's eyes. He knew she was, by the looks of her smile. In spite of the fact she was his commanding officer, they've spent considerable amount of time together, mostly at the holodeck or the lounges, but that didn't interfere Iniara to give him orders and sometimes just tease him around. For the experienced fighter, it was a chance to develop his humanity and make 'friends' as Karyn Dallas described. It was yet another phase in his never ending struggle to learn more of his personality. He was proud to call Iniara a 'friend' but, sometimes, he felt like he was about to explode.

"You have no idea..." Tarin remotely tried to control her laugh.

"Fine!" Jamson gave up, handing his personal padd to Iniara and moving to Ensign Donalds. He then turned back to his commanding officer who was quite amused by his little childish charade "You're aware of the fact that this is simply not fair?".

Tarin just nodded and pointed in the direction of Catherine..

Jamson who was now simply dead tired, was boiling up like a pot of hot steam, waiting for the right moment to burst. "You know we need more men!" He moved towards the doors expecting to say the last word. "And women!" Tarin corrected him out loud.

'I meant more personnel....' he thought to himself. "Ready to go...?" he asked Donalds in defeat. There was nothing he could do, and he knew it. It didn't add to the turmoil of feelings in his stomach.

Ensign Donalds nodded in agreement and the two headed outside the Ops center.

***** Turbolift, Underway to the Bridge *****

"Where are we going?" Catherine was curious to know.

"We're heading to the bridge, I want to show you our stations. Then I have to get to the main shuttle bay, main Engineering and the lateral sensor and communication subsystems on deck 39". He had a lot to do, and Catherine had to follow him around. He didn't stop and think how she felt about it. Maybe he was just too hard in his act, he as sure she too, had better things to do, then to follow him around.

"Lateral sensors sounds just fascinating" Ensign Donalds giggled while trying to make a conversation.

"Oh, really? Do you specialize in Sensors?" Jamson replied instantly. He felt a bit bad for putting on such a show on Catherine's first day at Ops. She seemed to be comfortable around him and not edgy like the rest of the crew. That only contributed to his growing sense of guilt.

"Yep" She smiled. "I've majored in Sensor networks and communications back home".

"Starfleet?" Michael asked hoping he could talk on the 'good' old days at the academy.

"Nope. Prior to that, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I was one of those kids who assembled a portable subspace radio transmitter in the back yard. Before joining the Academy" She answered.

"Interesting. That's exactly what we need, I don't remember having too many sensors specialists since I came aboard, not in OPS anyhow. I have to be honest with you though, I've always found sensors...dismal" He said. "No offence made, of course..." He didn't mean to offend her, but sensors were a science by itself, to an engineer and other technical experts from science. RF and IR sensor pallets, higher frequency waves, dozen types of sensor probes, it wasn't his cup of tea.

"That's ok. I guess sensors aren't just not for everyone" she said sarcastically.

Just as Donalds finished her words, the doors swished opened and revealed the center of the hive, the Galaxy's bridge. "Welcome to the bridge..." Jamson said keenly. He adored this place, especially this particular bridge. He had a special place in his heart for this place. Spending many years on this remarkable ship, he had the luck of serving with many great people in this very place. He missed the captain's chair so much, and wanted to believe one day he'll have a second chance. When the Galaxy was heading to starbase 212, Commander Henderson gave Jamson command, but Michael, knowing he would have to sit in the captain's chair, stayed at the ops station and didn't budge. It was literally, too painful.

The bridge, the center of the ship, was as always, very busy "Let's start with the mission ops" Jamson moved quickly to the Mission Ops station, right behind tactical, and next to the science station.

"Is this where we monitor the ship's away teams on mission?" She smiled pretending naive.

Jamson was relieved he didn't have to explain the Ensign about missions ops. She seemed to know more than he gave her credit for, as if she was already onboard a starship before. Little did he know that she graduated 8th in her class and served aboard the USS Crazy Horse prior to joining the Galaxy. "Moving forward to main the Operations console" he made sure Catherine was following before continuing "This is Lieutenant Cameron Bartlett. What's up 'Cam?".

"Hey Mike...How goes it?" Cameron replied.

"He looks tired" Catherine remarked.

"Well yeah...we all are. We're very short on personnel at the moment, so we're all running double shifts. That makes you kind of a blessing, doesn't it? This is Beta shift, and I'm supposed to be here, but 'Cam is replacing me. It's his second shift today, and he's covering for me" Jamson said to the Ensign and glanced to the commanding officer's chair once again. He noticed Lieutenant Ella Grey from engineering but not Karyn Dallas who was suppose to be there for Beta shift. "Where's Karyn, 'Cam?" he asked.

"I don't know, I think she's tied up. Ella came and said she was replacing her. She's the shift first officer anyhow, so she's covering bases" Cam typed gently on the LCARS system. Apparently, Lieutenant Grey passed the infamous bridge officer certification program, otherwise she wouldn't be able to replace Karyn on the bridge.

Cameron was looking at Catherine, who in her turn glanced to Michael with an awkward look.

"'Cam, this is Ensign Catherine Donalds, the newest addition to Ops. She'll be helping us around at Ops" Jamson moved on.

Bartlett was really tired but was able to squeeze a tiny smile for the new officer "Cool. Another night bird...finally, I might even get some sleep!".

"Don't bet on it. Call me Angie." Linda replied and shook his hand.
"What's up?" Lieutenant Grey said in her mechanical voice as she approached the group.

"Fresh blood..." 'Cam joked. He was, of course, referring to Ensign Donalds.
"It's about time Ops members stop working so 'hard'..." Ella said, remembering how Victor's furniture and personal effects had been delayed because Operations hadn't checked their program.

Michael became a bit irritated "You know Ella...I've heard Tarin talking to Lieutenant Commander O'Shea about lending some officers from Engineering to help Operations. I believe I've overheard your name at the top of the list...".

She arched an eyebrow. "I usually am." Ella winked and then turned to Donalds, "Anyway...nice to meet you, Ensign. I'm Ella Grey."

"Nice to meet you Lieutenant" Ensign Donalds extended her hand. "I hope we'll have a chance to work together".

"I hope so too..." Grey answered back.

"Yeah me too...if you wish to design new shuttle crafts, Ella is the one you should turn to" Michael said sardonically.

Ella shrugged. "If you want something that actually works, then yes I am."

"I'd love to stick around, but unlike the Engineering staff, I have things to do..." Michael grabbed Ensign Donalds tenderly, waved to Ella and Cameron and the both of them marched to the turbolift.

***** Turbolift, underway - Main Shuttle Bay *****

"By the looks of Lieutenant Bartlett and yourself, It seems like everyone on the department are making an effort and exerting themselves" Donalds noticed the obvious.

"Yeah, the long hours are taking it's toll" Michael said to the young Ensign. He wanted to apologize for his behavior, but that damn psychological barrier was preventing him from doing so. His first impression from Catherine, was that she was plain nice and got along with everyone. Not a social being himself, he somewhat envied her, it must have been so easy to get along with everyone. He wasn't like that when he first joined the USS Ranger, or the Galaxy. He was shy and kept to himself, and didn't make too many friends. When he climbed through the chain of command and earned the much desired ranks, he didn't need many friends, he could just order people around and concentrate on his job.

"I hope this would be over soon. Not that I have anything against hard work, it's just that, I didn't expect to start like this" she smiled. "Not the typical 'soft' landing you'd expect for a new officer". Catherine, among other things, meant to the 'welcoming committee she witnessed back at ops. She had little time to accommodate and was already thrown into action.

"I...well...I'd like to apologize for my rude conduct earlier, I'm just not used to having people around me" he all of a sudden hesitated. "Well...I usually have people around me, but you know, I never get too much attention, unless I happen to demolish a holosuite or two..." Jamson couldn't explain himself, he lost himself in words and feelings, but never the less found himself opening to Catherine. "Damn..." This was somewhat more easy to him, maybe because he didn't know her that well. Who knows if not knowing her helped, or was it Karyn's sessions that did the job. Anyway you come to think of it, it's a shame no one had a camera in the room to commemorate the moment, Lieutenant Michael Jamson, the everlasting and proud 'mule' was apologizing, moreover, to a junior officer.

"Don't mention it, sir" Catherine said surprised, but didn't make a big deal out of it.

"Could we just forget this little 'pathetic' and miserable revelation?" He was at it again, unknowingly.

"Consider it forgotten" she said seriously.

The doors again swished open and revealed the huge shuttle bay. Ensign Donalds smiled "Look at these shiny floors...."

"An ARChed Conversation"

Featuring: 2Lt. Greg Ward Blue Team Leader/ARC Operations Lead-USS Galaxy

Cpl. Richard Simmons (NPC) Infantry/Red One Alpha/ARC

Cpl. Mike Tucker (NPC) Infantry/Blue One Bravo/ARC

PFC Franklin D. Donut (NPC) Infantry/Red One Bravo/ARC

Cpl. Dexter Grif (NPC) Infantry/Red Two Alpha/ARC

LcCpl. Grace Waldron (NPC) Infantry/Blue Two Alpha/ARC

PFC Leonard L. Church (NPC) Sniper/Blue Two Bravo/ARC

**********

Marine Briefing Room,
"Marine Country"-USS Galaxy

In the briefing room that was usually set aside for the meeting of the marine department heads but in this case it was set aside for something else entirelly. In the room at that moment was the seven members of the Adavnce Recon Commando branch of Starfleet Marines, seven men and women that knew that part of their job was to get the job done and make sure that any headaches for Intelligence was lessened...

...Plus it paid a hell of a lot better!

Second Lieutenant Greg Ward was sitting at the head of the briefing room table, the thoughts about the USS Akula crashing into the surface of his homeworld still made the trill spots on his neck burn with anger but he had to put that anger into something more creative, which is why he stepped forward to Tish and suggested that she use the ARC's on board, hence why this meeting was called.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, and Donut. We have a mission put forward to us by the Lieutenant. As you know, there are a batch of Hydrans and regular fleet techies down on the surface below in apparentally some ruins. Now I know that somre of you are still kind of smarting from Havaras but this is not the time to try and avenge those lost in that battle as we have a mission to do and I intend for us to do it well." Greg said as he started the meeting, his eyes landing on each person in the room.

"Now, aside from the usual duties that we will be performing as marines. The Lieutenant has requsted that we assist in the regular operations that the fleeties have us do which will no doubt be search, rescue and recon. Now, I've been hearing some rumors that some of you don't like being in red team with Bailie..." Greg started to say but Donut piped up with something which made a question cross Greg's face to which Donut repeated it.

"He is a Shiong-muh duh duang-ren Kuh-ooh duh lao bao jurn, Sir." Donut said loud enough for everyone to hear that made both Simmons and Grif snicker while Tucker just blinked as he didn't speak Chinease let along the slang of that country on Earth and as for Waldron and Church, they just sighed and shook their heads sadly.

"That may be, Donut. But he is still your superior officer in the Red Team and I don't want to hear anything about trying to teach him a lesson again, do you understand me Donut and company?" Greg said flatley as he looked at the Red Team members in the room who simply and quietly nodded. Greg then leaned back in his chair and held up a data PADD.

"Now, as you know that when the Colonel arrived earlier this month and put the LT in charge of the detachment, he also dropped off some new toys for us to work with. For instance we've been issued the BR55 Enhanced Compression Rifle from Enigma Sector R and D. It packs a hell of alot more kick and it has more modulations than your standard compression phaser rifle. Meaning that if the borg show up, they'll be in for a real surprise. Further more, the new M90's are here to which as some of you might recall is basically starfleet's answer to the old terran shotgun. The M90 shots out a burst of compressed phaser energy much like pellets from a shotgun used to in a spread pattern so that it can cover a larger radius." Greg explained as the two weapons appeared on a holo-projector built into the table.

"Greg, what are our current standing orders while being in the teams? Do we cut from them and go about or own orders or what? " Church asked. Like the others in the room, they knew that Greg was capable of forgetting where he was going in a briefing sometimes. "I was getting to that, Church. I want you all to stay in your assigned units. But the LT wanted me to make sure that you cordinate with me so that I can cordinate with you in the field. Knowing my luck I'll be stuck watching the rookie so to speak." Greg said, adding a little joke at the end to try and get rid of the tension in the room.

There was a smattering of snickers from the room and then Greg said "alright, you have your orders. Dismissed." and the various ARC officers left the room with the expections of Donut and Church.

"Donut, first off I wanted to congradulate you on making it to PFC. I know that Bailie was a bit of an ass to you on that and even though you're not under my direct command at the moment, you have to remember that not everyone knows about what you've been through. Give him time and he'll understand how useful you are to his unit. Also, Church..Donut. We got the new S2 AM's in along with the other weapons and you two will both be issued one along with your regular gear while you're in the field. Remember, among other things you two are my primary eyes in the field, especially for this mission. Something...something just does not feel right about this whole set up, you know?" Greg told his two officers.

"Yeah, I understand boss. Something 'bout the Hydras being here really makes me worried about glowing blue spiders and stuff like that you know?" Donut said looking at his superior officer which made Greg wince. During the last few months of the War with the Dominion, Donut had been badly injuried by a Dominion Plasma grenade which had some kind of attachment unit which had hooked it's self to Donut's armor and had put him in the medical ward of a Dominion/Cardassian/Breen POW camp during a major battle of the war. Donut then spent the next few months as a "guest" of the Breen when the Dominion and Cardassians had buggered out and it had been Donut's own squad that had liberated the Breen POW camp and saved one of their own. To this day, Donut would often make the "glowing blue spider" comment as his way of dealing with the stress.

"Alright, you two get ready to head into the field. If you see those Hydrans move one inch towards hostile towards anyone from Starfleet, I want you to put a shot clean through their frelling heads and you'd best not be seen when you do it, do you understand me?" Greg said

"We understand you sir." both Church and Donut said in unionsion and then they both left the briefing room and left the ARC unit lead to his thoughts before hee too left the room to finalize getting ready.

OOC Translations: Shiong-muh duh duang-ren means Violent lunatic. Kuh-ooh duh lao bao jurn means Tyrant.

"That time of the month"
By Lieutenant Michael Jamson, Operations Officer

Appearances by :
Lieutenant JG Tarin Iniara, Operations Chief
Ensign T'Ashaya (The Vulcan Tsunami), Operations Officer
Ensign Filip Parks, Operations Officer - NPC
Lieutenant JG Cameron Bartlett, Operations Officer - NPC
Lieutenant JG Moe Branson, Shuttlebay Chief - NPC
Chief Petty Officer Joe Klein, Operations Specialist - NPC
Petty Officer Second Class, Operations Specialist - NPC

**** Stardrive Section, Deck 9 - Operations Center - 0830 hours *****

"Good morning everyone" Tarin greeted the majority of the Operations department. It was the daily departmental review, a must on every starship and starfleet facility. It was a mandatory regulation that an inspection was held once a day by the department's head, usually taking place when the Chief of the department started his shift. Although the time of the meeting was up to the officer in charge of the department, not all the officers in it had to attend. It was comprised mainly of the officers in charge of each shift and sub division. All the duty officers were there, along with the team leaders of the diagnostics, communications, sensors, and power grid teams.

This meeting allowed officers to report the status of their tasks, individual areas, as well as bring up new ideas, issues that required special attention and to share one's thoughts. The Department head then shared it's information with everyone, and gave out the daily roster which was approved by the Executive officer onboard and contained tasks as well as duty shifts.

The doors hissed and into the center of OPS entered Michael Jamson, and he was late. This has become quite a habit in the last couple of days. Lucky enough for him, he wasn't the only one. Operations members' were working harder than ever in their attempt to complete the gaps created thanks to the shortage of personnel. "I'm sorry I'm late...bad night" he jumped to his regular seat, right next to Tarin who was sitting at the head of the small sized conference table.

"Right...." The Chief of ops moved on. She shook her head and yawned like the rest of crew members under her command, a clear sign they were all working too hard. "Now that you're here Mike. I was just about to ask everyone to report their activities and status" she turned to Ensign Parks.

Filip Parks was all tidy up, and eager to report. He pulled shifts like every other ops member in the last several days, but had no signs of fatigue whatsoever. He's been working on the power distribution schedule for the main and lateral sensors arrays. "I've finished the scheduling of the sensors arrays for the departments. Aside from Science, always the 'deprived', everyone accepted and approved it" he continued to read from his padd, "Other than that we've had a slight power fluctuation in the starboard EPS manifolds, the internal sensors...I've diverted it all to Engineering and asked them to run a diagnostic".

"Good Ensign. Keep me updated if anything emerges. Michael? Communications?" Iniara continued on and asked.

"Well...that's Petty Officer Second Class McTee's area" Michael raised his head and looked her up, but she wasn't there.

"Don't bother lieutenant, she's on the bridge, but will be in here in no time. She's on a watch shift and will be replaced soon, so I've asked her to join us before we're done. I've arranged for someone to replace her while we're here" Tarin assured Jamson all was well. "We'll get to her once she's here. Anyone else?" the Chief looked around and found her next victim. "Lieutenant Branson? what's the status of the shuttle bays?".

Lieutenant Moe Branson, the Trill shuttle bays chief. If it wasn't for department meetings, you wouldn't have felt his existence, so unless you were taking a shuttle ride, you didn't know he was there. He was always at the main shuttle bay, taking care of the shuttles and making sure everything was at peak efficiency. "As usual Chief, everything at 100%, nothing unusual". This didn't came as a surprise to anyone, Moe was a fanatic when it came it 'his' shuttle bays, who had everything under control. Nothing, and it was well known that simply NOTHING at those bays could escape his pursuing eyes. It was rumored that he once conducted a search and destroy 'operation' against Grazerite microscopic dust mites that ate their way through the ship's ODN fiber network. They clutched a shuttle on it's ride back to the Galaxy and started their journey inside shuttle bay 2. He chased and eradicated them all.

Next was Chief Petty Officer Joe Klein, one of the more experienced Operations member on the team, Klein was in charge of many things, including the Transporters. It was Chief Thomas Jensen from Engineering who was really in charge of the transporter rooms and systems, Joe was OPS's representative and worked closely with Jensen. Michael rememberred Thomas, and quite well. He was surprised to hear he was still running the transporter systems. It's been a long time since Michael talked to him, years...and back then, he was the XO of the Galaxy under captain Price.

"During my revaluation of the reports in the last everal days made by the maintenance crews on the transporters, I have found several strange entries in the logs. They were all coming from the mass cargo transporters on deck 5. At first, I thought it was a simple problem with the pattern buffers and targeting scanners. Ater running diagnostics, I didn't find anything unusual...the buffering tanks were fine, the Doppler and Heisenberg compensators were performing right quantom corrections, the computer assured that the outer safety margin was set exactly to 301 seconds. Along with Chief Jensen, I've ran more diagnostics, but found nothing unusual" Klein sounded a bit frustrated.

"The Cause, Chief PTO?" Tarin asked in interest.

Joe leaned against the table with his elbows "It could be the Molecular Imaging scanners, because the quantom state information is derived from the molecular structure of living entities and passes along to the energizing coils. Meaning, it might also be the energizing coil or phase transition coils. The first, has ACB coils which emits a 2 stage unidirecational spiral matrix wave to allow the process of dematerialization to begin. Standard Starfleet transporter technology. The second, in the chamber platform at the top above the energizing ones, decouples sub particle binding atomic energy by utilizing narrow focus quark manipulation. That means, the matter stream, or the reoriented partciles that form a string can be moved in the pattern buffers."

"What about the biofilters?" Ensign T'Ashaya asked from the back.

"Unlikely" Klein replied. "Biofilters are nothing more than a filtering or 'fishing' net for hostile bio material and contraband."

"Biofilters only have 52% of known biological forms and illegal cargo in their database. Is it possible it was damaged or infected in any way by a biological agent?" T'Ashaya continued. Protocols, after all, stated a scan of the biofilters should occur in cases like these.

"I really don't think so, but I will check," Klein acknowledged.

"And the emitter pads?" Tarin persisted.

"Again, unlikely. The stage 1-3 EPS conduits are all functional with no problems" Joe rejected this theory as well.

"Very well..." Iniara punched a key in her personal padd before turning to Cameron Bartlett, known as 'Cam to many. Lieutenant Bartlett was a known figure on the ship, quite popular in many ways, he had a striking sense of humor and the ability to draw himself away from attention at any given time or situation. He followed Electra Reece to the Galaxy and stayed up until she was injured and was sent back to Earth for treatment. After reviewing his future options, he decided to stay on the Galaxy and continue his service for the time being. Jamson knew Electra for awhile, not that well, but he remembered her and tended to ask 'Cam about her every now and then.

"Cameron? what do you have?" Tarin asked away.

"Well, I-" Just as Bartlett started his report and the doors swished opened, revealing Petty Officer Second Class Cynthia McTee who came back from the Delta Shift on the bridge. "Sorry I'm late" She added and took a seat next to Cameron. Bartlett waited for her to settle down before he continued "As I was saying, the other day, on the bridge, I was monitoring intraship data traffic, ship to ship, ship to station and subspace packet transmissions communications at the bridge ops station, and I saw what appeared to be unencrypted starfleet information passing through the commercial network and ODN datalines from our ship to one of the relays in the sector".

"What do you make of this?" Iniara questioned.

"I believe we might have a problem with the isolinear and gelpak encryptions, might even be the related antenna arrays, but Communications is not my poison..." Bartlett removed himself from the situation.

"Petty Officer McTee?" Tarin turned to Linda.

"Isolinear encryption chips and gelpaks are divided into six shipments when sent by a Federation courier, and not by secure transmissions. Decoding encrypted information is a daunting task if not impossible. Starfleet is using private keys, through the commercial network as well, at 2.38 x10`2 numerical operators for most sublight communications. Also, Starfleet routinely and randomly changes the codes, so that, in my opinion leaves out the idea of someone listening in to the transmissions" Cynthia knew her material well.

"What if those transmissions are diverted to a determined force who wants to decode it?" Jamson jumped in.

"It is unlikely that the communications could be diverted that easily. There are antennas all over the sectors controlled by Starfleet and the Federation, monitoring strange activities of movement, data and voice. Most subspace communications cannot go beyond the energetic signal of 92/22 with the help of a single technology. In warp terms, that's 9.9997 and 22.65 light years in distance before data and signal loss. However, it is possible break the codes, but I'm betting this is not the case" She answered.

"What do you think this might be?" Cameron asked.

Cynthia replied in grace "It might be the ship's RF transceivers or even IR emitters. I believe the ultrahigh subspace transceivers could be held responsible. However, even though they are linked to the regular starfleet communication nodes, it is separated from the commercial nodes for logical reasons. The STA device in charge of subspace communications is made of molded polykeiyruium, with separated voice and data architecture and contains 4 circuits at the data section for better operation. Connected to all, is the encryption device, located within the ODN fibers. It was also integrated within gelpaks in recent years for better performance. I believe everything I have mentioned should be checked thoroughly, starting with the subspace transceivers on the commercial and starfleet networks, then to focus on the STA and ODN fibers, as this is not an ideal situation...".

"Fine...anyone else have any more thoughts on the situation? I want to get going, I have a meeting with the first officer and a watch duty coming up" Iniara said.

No one nodded or lifted a hand.

"Ok people...it's that time of the month" Tarin said out loud and caught everyone's attention. The entire cast looked amazed for a moment, as no one really understood what she was talking about. Jamson was confused. 'What the hell was she talking about?' he thought to himself but didn't dare to stare at his commanding officer, he kept to himself and his padd, but not some of the others who looked puzzled and gazed at Tarin.

"The level 2 diagnostic project!" Tarin yelled and everyone moaned, and for a few seconds let out sighs of relief. Some even giggled.

One of the many officers' daily duties onboard a starfleet ship and station was to run maintenance and diagnostics. Certain systems like the transporters required a daily level 4 diagnostic and a weekly level 3 diagnostic. Other systems like the computer cores required once a month, a level 2 diagnostic, and every 3 months a level 1 diagnostic and inspection which was coordinated with all the departments and senior heads on the Galaxy.

"Michael..." Lieutenant Tarin was about to announce the winners. "I want you and Ensign T'Ashaya to work on the computer core diagnostics. I know you have some experience in the matter, so run it with Engineering, as I've already spoke to Lt.Commander O'Seah and she'll be sending her own team to aide. Ensign Parks would be working on the ODN network but since both are related and based on one another, you'll be in charge of that as well. Take whatever resources you need".

Jamson's past experience with core systems and isolinear chips was hunting him. A computer core diagnostic? that would take all day! maybe even the whole week, depends on what they find. It was a dirty job, and he was in charge of it. If he only had more human resources, this would be done in an instant, but that's wasn't the case. He would have to lift his sleeves and drown in the sea of type 3 isolinear chips and and ODN fibers "The Optical Data Network-ODN, and it's thousands of optronic fiber cables are stretched all around the ship. We have several computer cores, all part of the CPG-Coprocessors and Peripheral Group. It's a primary system that all others rely on, and let's not forget it's backed up by a secondary superconducting control cabling. If we're going to run diagnostics on the cores, and to find the problem within the communications, I suggest we run a level 1 diagnostic on the entire system".

"But that would mean shutting down the systems...." Parks claimed.

"Yes. And that's unaccepttable" Iniara summerized it up, "Level 2 should suffice".

"Very well. Ensign T'Ashaya?" He asked Tarin. He certainly didn't expect the figure standing up at the edge of the table, on the other side of it.

It was the Vulcan from the swimming pool. Michael's heart almost dropped to his pants, and he missed at least one heartbeat. Was she an OPS member? how could he overlook that. 'Of course!' he thought to himself again, she was a Vulcan, and he's read Tarin's report on the new enlisted personnel, which included a Vulcan. There was only one other Vulcan in OPS, Lieutenant T'Rehn. "I...." he mumbled "I guess...fine by me. We'll get it done and notify you on our progress".

"Excellent" Tarin moved on. "Klein. I want you working on the transporters diagnostics with engineering, try to solve those 'problems' by today, will you? that's a top priority, with the upcoming mission on Mirusa, I'm positive we'll need them online and working most of the time". Klein nodded as Iniara glanced to Lt.Bartlett and PTOSC McTee "Cynthia and Cameron, I want you too to work on the Communication arrays, subsystems and internal sensor arrays. Make sure you read Park's report and consult with engineering. Since this is also ODN related, Parks and Jamson should be notified too. Cynthia, I'm counting on you for this one, as this is your area".

"Don't forget to take a look at today's roster for your shifts and watch duties" she concluded. "Oh, and one more thing...before I release everyone to their duties, I wanted to talk about the upcoming mission and the last few days" she stood up and leaned towards the table taking a less formal stance. "I know it's been a hard couple of days, but with the new addition to our department, I'm sure we can pull this one off. I know everyone are tired, but so am I and so is everyone else on the ship. Just keep on doing the best work you've been doing up until now and I promise to speak to the captain and executive officer about a shore leave after this mission is over". "That brings me to the upcoming mission on Mirusa IV. I'll be needing some volunteers for an away mission. This 'adventure' would require you to adjust your daily duties, so consider this mission as a 'bonus' to your regular work and adjust your priorities accordingly. Aside from that, we have to muster up some resources for the away teams, this is going to be a big one".

Everyone sat in their chairs and listened to the Chief, no one moved a muscle before she gave the tone to get back to work. "You're dismissed" was an awakening alarm for everyone to start their busy days. Jamson, who was especially tired stayed in his chair for an extra minute. He had a long day coming up, and had to work with no other than T'Ashaya, known to others as the Vulcan Tsunami. He didn't know her nickname, nor did he know that she would prove to live up by this name as they worked along.

"Lieutenant?" T'Ashaya stood right behind him.

"Ensign...T'Ashaya" Michael slowly rose from his chair, "We meet again".

"You seem disappointed," she replied to his odd yet tired look. "I would have thought you would be looking forward to 'round two.'"

"That's the least I could say..." he whispered.

"It is clear to me, that neither of us are logical choices for this assignment. But since we have our orders, I believe we have no other options," the Vulcan suggested.

"I'd hate to admit it, but you're correct. When Lieutenant Tarin decides something, she's quite persistant. I guess we're stuck together..." Jamson complained.

Of all the eligible crew members in OPS, and there weren't too many, Michael had to tag along with T'Ashaya. The Vulcan infuriatingly didn't seem to care about him one way or the other, he on the other hand had no problem marching into Tarin's officer and protest, but he knew it wouldnt help.

"Are you coming?" The Vulcan Tsunami stood at the entrace and waited for Michael to join her. "We have a task to perform, and we already late on our schedule".

"We already have a schedule???" Michael rushed to her.

"Yes, we have a schedule. Lieutenant Heloi has already requested my services down on the planet. According to the initial geologic reports, Mirusa IV once had vast oceans, akin to those of Delta or Earth. The Lieutenant wants my assistance in discovering what happened to change that." She handed him the roster padd Tarin gave everyone earlier, already dutifully displaying the division of duties between the two of them. She said nothing as she led the way.

It made no sense to complain about the double duty. She had been told to expect it, that it was always assigned to Vulcans because no one thought they needed sleep. Jazz, of course, knew somewhat better, but T'Ashaya secretly suspected that this was Jasmine's way of secretly sneaking T'Ashaya into her department. It was the only way the entire situation even resembled logic.

"Great...." Michael sighed once more as he tried to keep up with T'Ashaya.

"Hot Rods" Pt. 2

Lt. Cmdr Brianna O'Shea, Chief Engineer/SEC (Trey)
Lt. Michael Jamson, Operations (Bob)
Lt. JG Naranda Sol Roswell, Engineering (Lori)
Lt. Jiiles, Engineering Officer. (Dru)
Ensign Marcus Slayton, Engineering Officer. (Will)
Ensign Richard "Ringo" Langly, Engineer (martin)
And Quentite Ambassador Turan Trelar (marco)

:: Holodeck IV, Continuing story....

"We took the design into consideration. As you can see we micro-compressed ours. Plus, these can be fabricated more easily then our standard chipset we use now." Anna said, standing there for the moment. Just answer questions and enjoying watching how they seemed to like what the SEC was giving them.

Jiiles looked over at Jamson. If he had eyebrows he would have raised them, instead his eyes widened at the comment for a moment before returning to normal.

"I've had the chance of working on some Cardassian systems in the past" Michael checked the rods again, "but they were composed from multiaxis chromopolymer lithography. Quite similar to isolinear chips, but differ in 1mm photon amplification coating which enhanced the input" he turned the rod around and added "The main difference is in the chemistry of the
polymer and the lower data density, 5.37 kiloquads per cubic centimeters for the Cardassian and 6.51 for the Starfleet standard isolinear chips. The Chips also operated on faster light pulses, 68,913 nanometers than the Cardassians rods, at 46,238".

"Someone gonna get a brownie, hell, I'll be generous, brownies on me when we finish for the day." The chief engineer said, then nodded to Jamson.

Nara smiled and shook her head. If one thing warmed her up to someone...it was chocolate. It was her only weakness. Ok not her only. Saul was another. So was anything with tiny pointy legs. And mines. Sometimes she'd dream of the mine field she saw during Havras. Ok, so she had a few weaknesses. Brownies was one of them.

"The Gelpaks are going to replace the regular ODN fibers? That means we'll have to disable the in transit error checking...and I simply have no idea how to do it, in a gelpak..." Jamson confessed.

"As you know Starfleet first started using the gelpaks on the USS Voyager. Since then it's becoming pretty standard on smaller class vessels. Only now, these new gelpaks are to go in starships that compare in size to the Galaxy." Anna said, then paused to walk around some as she talked. "These," she said indicating the gelpak. Their speed is larger then 800-900 kiloquads per second.. I'm sure you've all heard the problem of burned out paks. These paks as a limited self healing, before you think that it's like regeneration. It's not." Anna said. "What it is limited ability to isolate damaged clusters within the affected gelpak. Each gelpak has over a thousand clusters. One cluster is burned out for whatever reason. It rebalances itself and disperses it into the other clusters." Anna explained.

Nara nodded approvingly, "Efficient."

"The speed of the gelpaks is larger than 800-900 kiloquads per second? I'm impressed..." Michael was yet again astounded.

"I was part of the team that designed the new gelpaks.. to many years to get them to this stage of working operation." Anna said, slightly proud of them.

"I'm guessing that you have already run simulations on this? Do you have the data?" Jiiles asked.

"Yes, we have and I do." Anna said, tossing a data padd over to Jiiles.

Jiiles caught the padd and began to thumb through it.

"I suggest that we run a series of diagnostics while the system is working properly, to gauge the normal operating functions. Then run a battle simulation, during which we need to run a simultaneous diagnostic on all systems. Hopefully we will be able to pin point the moment the touch screams stop working and why. If we run a sub systems check we should be able to gather data from each system, even the non essential ones. We should be able to find out the cause that way.?" Jiiles suggested.

"Okay, any other suggestions before we began?" Anna asked, as she looked around her team. "Don't worry, we aren't trying to solve this in a hour. Got something to say, throw it out there and lets hear it." Anna said, picking up her raktijeno cup and taking a drink.

"I'm with Jiiles..." Michael glanced from Commander O'Shea to Jiiles before continuing, "Run a level 2 diagnostic, get a 'baseline' performance, then
monitor it and the effects".

Nara nodded, "I agree."

The doors to the holodeck opened and Marcus, filling
out a PADD before handing it to a marine who took it
and headed in the opposite direction. "Sorry about
being late, there was a request to help with something in the marine section with engineering." Marcus said as he walked in, looking at Anna.

Richard eagerly inspected the new gadgets. Turning it around and upside down, making sure he didn't miss a single detail. After he was done with that he looked around the futuristic looking Bridge and all that was in it. "Wow dude...this is freaking cool." A big grin appeared on his face. "I say we skip the 'blah blah', plug in, and start hacking."

"Ensign..." Jamson raised an eyebrow. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is not the Liaison Corps not Merchant Marines organization. You are a Starfleet
officer, and WE have rules, regulations and directives. We are expected to follow it to the latter. We cannot simply 'plug it in' as you suggested!".

Nara almost giggled. She was dying to just plug it in too, but she even
knew that protocol.

Rules and regulations. Richard, or Ringo as almost everyone called him, already heard that a thousand times. How boring. Who wants to follow rules and regulations when being in this playground the were in now? But, of course, it would be tiny bit reckless for him to just say that to a
superior. He slumped his head and shoulders a bit. "Yes, sir. Of course, sir. Whatever you say, sir."

When he noticed Marcus, he pointed to Jamson in such a way that Marcus would see it but Jamson not, and mouthed 'What's his problem?'

Apparently, Ensign Langly wasn't used to following rules and regulations. As a former captain, even Jamson used to bend some of the rules when it was necessary. In fact, as stated in General Order 4 - 'Starfleet Authorizes any and all commanding officers to countermand Starfleet regulations in the event of an extreme threat to Federation security'. But this wasn't the case, and besides, there were so many General orders, regulations, directives and guidelines. It was easy just to 'forget' and 'plug it in'. Forgetting or not following the normal
guidelines, could cause catastrophe, as Michael
has experienced it before and lost 2 commissions because of it, he wouldn't want to see this happening again.

Marcus went over and patted his friend on the
shoulder. He was still impressed with man's ability to stay cool under fire during their work to bring the Galaxy's teeth back during the DIIS' attack and he smirked at Langley's comment. He then went around and the general bridge layout and then raised a very
Vulcan-ish eyebrow and asked

"I thought that this layout was still in the design stages." Marcus asked
curious.

"Computer, remove table.." Anna said, and the table she was using vanished. Looking toward Marcus she nodded. "This is one of several designs being planned out. I want to remind everyone, what you seen in this... program, isn't to be talked about outside here. SCE works with Starfleet Research and Development, at times we have to see classified projects.. this is one of those." Anna said. "Now if there is nothing else, lets began running some tests and see why the interface isn't working." Anna said, then give a nod before moving over to the console where sciences would be stationed.

"Hot Rods" Pt. 3

Lt. Cmdr Brianna O'Shea, Chief Engineer/SEC (Trey)
Lt. Michael Jamson, Operations (Bob)
Lt. JG Naranda Sol Roswell, Engineering (Lori)
Lt. Jiiles, Engineering Officer. (Dru)
Ensign Marcus Slayton, Engineering Officer. (Will)
Ensign Richard "Ringo" Langly, Engineer (martin)
And Quentite Ambassador Turan Trelar (marco)

:: Holodeck IV, Continuing story....

Nara had been listening and absorbing it all. She would do her own thinking and theorizing later. She would put some questions to ask on a PADD as they came to mind. But now, well, now was play time! She pressed the buttons, watched the screens display and almost giggled with delight, but she kept herself in check, only allowing herself a very large smile and a few gasps.

"Marc, you, Nara, and... Ringo, began running level one diagnostics on the entire system. Jills and Jamson, your with me over here... we are going to check the core of what the program is run on... the isolenier lines." Anna said, "Lets see some asses and elbows moving guys." Anna said, then smiled as she knelt down to remove the panel on the console.

Nara tried not to roll her eyes at the last sentence. Sometimes the clichés were just annoying. She turned to see who this Marc and Ringo people were.

Marcus nodded and agreed with what Anna was saying.
He'd seen the concepts for the Excalibur class' bridge during his days at the academy in the theoretical design course. He rolled up the sleeves on his uniform jacket and nodded to Ringo who smirked and nodded back, then Marcus looked at Nara and motioned for her to have first crack at the system's controls fully. He watched with a slightly critical eye because he'd heard mixed reviews about Nara from a number of people on the engineering staff but he wanted to wait and make his own opinion about the young woman.

Jiiles glanced up from the padd and nodded. Following the chief he continued to scan the padd. "When were these preliminary tests done?" he asked her.

Anna paused and looked over at Turan. "You can come over here... you can help us." She said, then turned her attention back to the console. Hearing Jiiles question, she paused and looked at him.

"This project has been going on for about two months, last series of tests was three weeks ago. Preminary runs on it though didn't meet the expectations it's suppose to." Anna said, then turned and keyed in some numbers.

"Watch out.." She said, as a sled slid out from the console and had about twenty four of the rods in bedded inside. "each console has twenty four of these, except navigation, tactical and operations, they have double." Anna said pausing.

Jamson was overwhelmed "Damn...24 and 48 rods per console?! That's nothing...I am getting old! I'm used to several hundreds". He remembered working on core data storage which required 100,000 rods and chips arranged in groups of 50's and 100's.

"Well these rods hold more then the current standard, Lieutenant. Cores on the new ships could have as few as 50,000 rods. All depends on the starship and what it's mission." Anna said.

Nara was already consumed in the new system. She had taken a tricorder, scanning the inner compartment where O'Shea had pulled the rod tray out. After she had pulled the tricorder back and stood up looking at the small screen, her face took on a look of concentration as she studied the readings.

Turan remembered the console he worked at, helping Lt. Eshe. Gee, this one was different to that one. This one made the old one look ancient - even for a Quentite's eyes. Reverently, he took a step back.

"It's far above my knowledge, I must admit. Never seen things like those before. How should I be able to help you?" he addressed O'Shea.

"Don't worry, you'll do fine. Just stay beside me and remember. Tinkering is fun." Anna said. "You can hand me tools as I need them. How about hand me the rod wrench.. want to pull some rods so I can check the connecters." Anna said then nodded to the man.

"Rod wrench? Ergh ... Yes, Sir" Turan looked around searching for anything what could have been the right tool to work at a future-design space ship console.

Jiiles studied the sight before him his brow furrowed into a frown. He looked over to O'Shea, "What was the desired outcome from these previous
tests?" he asked. The obvious answer was that it would work without any problems, but he was looking for more detail than that. With any new program it is expected to have teething problems, he was wondering what sort of hurdles they were expecting from the onset.

Brianna paused when she heard Jiiles question. Hearing Nara, she looked over.

"Maybe we could..." Nara mumbled as she bent down again and touched the wire. Something about the wire seemed to take her concentration as she ran her fingers along the connectors. She often thought to herself ignoring what others were saying. She tried to listen as well, being that she often embarrassed herself by repeating a solution they agreed upon already.

"I didn't want to tell you how the simulations ended cause I don't want you to all get discouraged. Might help you see the problem." Anna said, sitting now on her behind there on the floor. "Ever test, every simulation we've done the connectors fuse themselves together. Like wielded. Then the interfaces become offline. Power spike is then formed by the consoles, send back through the system. Spike hits the gelpaks, them slams into the warp core. The core can not handle the energy that it's hit with... the core breach's. All hands lost. Every time." Anna said, looking at their faces. "SEC has several teams trying to figure it out." Anna said. "

"We need to figure it out soon. Ships waiting for this system." She added then.

"Have they considered changing the wiring?" Nara asked still looking at the wires.

"Tried that. There wasn't a difference. The energy spike hit the warp core." Anna said. "What about if we tried to either shield the core better or created a buffer of sorts? Surely all of us can come up with something to protect the warp core?"

Nara nodded, "We could try different connections as well. Maybe too narrow for that amount of data or maybe too wide and overwhelming the other systems."

"We need to think of new connectors then." Anna said, looking over at the others.

Jiiles looked at O'Shea for a moment as he took on board what she had said. His mind began to tick over the possibilities, "So basically we already know what the problem is.... the gelpacks. That is what we must modify.. if we can figure out what exactly sparks the gelpacks connectors to fuse during these tests, we might be able to fix the problem. Or modify the gelpacks." the frown returned to Jiiles face. turning from O'Shea he walked across the room and to a consol. bringing up a diagram of the gelpacks and its components.

The screen light up with a cross cut display of the gelpaks and related information on the. When he hit a button they began to unlayer and he was able get probably more information then he needed on them. Everything from how often they should be interchanged, to the rotation so there's not a complete failure at any given time. There was a link there that he hit and it brought him to a page where the gelpacks were the new version of the bio-neural packs installed on the Intrepid Class starships.

Turan scratched his chin. Somehow, the problem looked well known to him. But that was in an earlier life home at the farm - in a galaxy far far away.

"Did you record the direction, pressure and amount of the energy flow?" asked the Quentite giant. "And did you search for unexpected peaks?"

Anna nodded. "Yes, it was all recorded. When the ship was attacked in the simulation, the energy the shields absorbed, it the gel packs, more packs it hit the larger the spike got until it hit the core with a pressure that wasn't expected."

"What about radiation?" Jamson suddenly asked. "It is known the Gel packs... being organic and biological, even though incorporated with neural fibers and computer systems, could be effected by infections such as bacteria" he paused and continued. "So what if these new IV class gel packs are sensitive to a particular type of radiation? There were recorded cases of standard gel packs failing when operating under subnucleonic radiation".

"That's something that hadn't been tested for.. your thinking that when the packs get hit with the energy discharge, their thinking it's a organic infection and their trying to get rid of it... there by throwing it onto a track straight for the largest incinerator on the ship... the warp core.." Anna thought and studied it.

Jiiles turned back to Jamson, "You know I think you might be on to something there." He paused for a moment nodding all the while. Turning back to the schematics Jiiles smiled, "I have a plan." he concluded.

Anna was about to get everyone to work when some of the people present was called up for. When She heard Henderson calling for engineering support, Anna sent Nara and Ella, then watched everyone needed for away teams depart holodeck IV.

"Tea Time"

Ensign Sh'laran
Stellar Cartographer, USS Galaxy

With a crew of over one-thousand personnel, it was difficult to be lonely onboard a Galaxy-class starship. Sh'laran had managed to find a way, though; Become the stellar cartographer, and you could be as solitary as you wished.

Of course, if you didn't wish, you were still stuck in a giant thirty-foot tall semi-spherical room, alone on a platform, for eight hours a day. Sure, there were a pair of lab techs on the ground level below, but they avoided speaking to you as much as possible (because they hated you), and none of the other science officers dropped by for even so much as a cup of tea.

The Andorian didn't really like tea, anyway.

He was, however, planning on heading down to the surface of Mirusa, which would be a nice respite. He hadn't been off the ship (except onto a starbase) in months. He hadn't even gone down to the serface of Trill, having been stuck onboard feeding information on the Akula's course to the intelligence people. He really hadn't noticed when the ship had been attacked - it really did strike him as a bit of a non-event.

Something about the archeological mission was a bit unsettling, though. Perhaps it was the fact that it was way outside of his specialty, though he had heard rumours about some terrific - if a bit ancient - starmaps down there. Or maybe it was the thought of being around other science officers, tea or no tea.

Or maybe it was the Hydran cruiser in orbit.

Yeah, that was probably it. The last time he'd seen one of those things, it was barrelling toward the half-destroyed saucer section that he was attempting vainly to fly. That sort of thing was enough to sour someone on a species that they'd never heard of until the proverbial bullets started flying.

Giving up on this train of thought, he turned back to his console,trying to distract himself until the chief called.

"Tears In The Sand"

Lt.(jg) Naranda Sol Roswell, Engineer

Lt.(jg) Saul Bental, Intelligence/Lily Squad Leader

***Holodeck 2***

Nara had decided to try to see if Saul was ready to talk yet. She had stopped by Intelligence CIC and left a message with the young Ensign to pass to Saul at a convenient time. It had simply stated that she would like to meet him in Holodeck 2 sometime after his shift.

She wasn't sure how busy he was or if he would be there in time before her time was up. She brought up a common seashore landscape program. She had on a long flowing shirt and a loose, yet flattering tank top with a wide scarf made of the same gauzy fabric as the skirt over her shoulders. The climate control was somewhat warmer, but not uncomfortable. Just warm enough where you would wear light clothing rather than the wool-like uniform.

She was hugging her legs with her bare toes wiggling in the sand as her mind wandered, yet at times went to what she would say to Saul and how. ~Oh please let him be in a good mood.~ She pleaded in her mind.

It was a long while until the arch finally opened. Saul stepped into the holographic reality, his cloths apparently changing according to the default settings Nara entered earlier. He looked somewhat hesitant, even... guilty?

"Hey," He said.

Nara turned and stood to her feet, feeling somewhat unsteady on the shifting sand. "Hi. I just figured this would be more..." She smiled nervously and shrugged, "Relaxing." She had intended it to be that and nothing more, almost opting for another scenery so as not to imply she wanted anything romantic to happen. Though, she knew she also partly wanted to recreate that same calm they experienced on the Sakarian Sea. It was the first and one of so few times they actually seemed at ease with each other.

"Ah, sea wind," Saul said, gazing ahead stoically. "Too bad it's not real... Princess, I've just had the crappiest day, starring my CO who was accusing me of trying to KILL you, of all things... I could use a real ocean right now."

Nara smiled slightly, "Wish I could provide one." She chose to ignore the earlier comment. She had let go of her own paranoia for peace sake already. She stepped closer, "At least we won't get sunburn as we would from a real sun."

"We never got sunburns back on Utrecht III.", Saul indicated. "The sun was too weak and the atmosphere was too dense. You know, if you could ask a kid from the 14th century what color is that sun, he would tell you that it is yellow. Me, for me the sun is red... I'm still trying to get the hang of yellow suns."

Nara smiled at the rambling, "A red sun would be interesting to see. Would you like something to drink?"

"Anything cold without alcohol or synthol would do.", Saul said. He sat down where he stood, then stretched and brought himself to a complete horizontal position. He narrowed his eyes at the brilliant artificial sunlight.

Nara had gone to the beverage booth. She got two replicated lemonades and sat by Saul, handing him a glass. There was obvious awkwardness in the air. Evidenced by Saul's coming question.

"How... how is it going?"

Nara ran a finger along the gathering condensation of the glass, causing the tiny drops to combine and drip onto her skirt or the sand. She was half tempted to flick some of the water at Saul, but she knew she would just be stalling what she knew she needed to say. "Things are different since before Trill, but good." She had not looked up from watching the glass and her face now turned thoughtful, almost amused, "I think having Saia around has done some good for me." She looked at him, "I guess that's another reason to thank you. I doubt I would have even met her otherwise. How are you?"

"As I said, crappy. Too many bad things happening at once."

Saul resisted adding 'But at least I'm filthy rich'. Nara already had about a thousand reasons to hate him, and knowing how righteous she was, if he would tell her about the profits he made thanks to the 'sudden shifts' in the Ferengi stock exchange, she would have reason 1001.

Instead, he glanced at her. She looked slightly funny from his position on the floor, but then again, the entire world seemed slightly funny when you look at it from below.

It was then that he decided to ask a question that should've been asked a long, long while ago.

"Nara, what do you think about me?"

She blinked at him, smiled nervously and looked down, "You just kind of made this easier." She shrugged, "Except I wanted to ask you first."

Saul shrugged, and after another moment Nara's smile faded as she thought how to phrase her words, "At first I didn't know what I thought of you. More like feel about you. I've only felt remotely like that before and I was as scared then as I am now of it." She took a breath and finally looked at him, "I think of you as a good officer with a hidden part of himself. That used to bother me. Until I decided I'd rather..." She shook her head, ~know some part of you than none,~ her mind finished.

"I understand." Saul said, trying to persuade her to say more.

She wasn't sure where THOSE words came from, "I mean, I've decided to not let it bother me. I do think I'd like to get to know as much of you as you'll let me." She looked down again. "But I know you're with Bran. Whatever the real story is, SHE thinks you're her boyfriend. I just had to let you know how I feel...Just so..." She shrugged and looked at him, "Just so you'd know." She then brought her legs up to hug them.

Saul's immediate instinct was to say 'crap', but that would be inappropriate in too many layers.

"Me and Bran... we spoke only three times last month. I'm not... I'm not sure about her, or anything. And she knows it," He confessed. Well, the third time wasn't much about talking as it was about kissing in romantic places, but that was beside the point. "So what you're saying is..."

Nara shook her head amused. "You're not going to let me be vague are you?"

Saul shook his head. "I think our lives would be easier if the two of us were less vague. No?"

She looked him in the eyes, searching for something she wasn't sure of. "You're the second person I've known in my life I would like to know intimately, and to know me intimately." She feared how that must sound, so quickly added, "Emotionally." Before looking down hoping she wasn't blushing.

Saul slowly closed his eyes. Deep inside, he was hoping that Nara would give him the infamous 'Let's just be friends' speech. It's not that he made up his mind, but it would leave him with only two choices - Bran, or remaining single. But life, much like Commander Henderson, wasn't going to let Saul get away with it.

"Nara, I... why didn't you tell me before?"

She gulped. She felt vulnerable. She hated that. She shrugged, "I was scared I guess." She raised an eyebrow looking at him, "And remember, on the way to Trill, you weren't exactly letting me talk to you."

She rested her head on her knees, "I wasn't sure how you felt either. The whole avoiding rejection thing, ya know?"

"I know...," Saul said quietly, not daring to look at her. "I'll tell you the same thing I told Branwen - I have no idea how you even TOLERATE me after all we've been through."

Nara shrugged and looked at him laughing, "That's a very good question." She was silent looking at him a moment, "Because I think I'm glad it was you I went through them with and I don't want to stop going through things with you. We tick each other off. We both know that. For me it was a way of fighting these feelings." She smiled, "And I'd rather fight with you than anyone else. Cuz let's face it, I'm pretty much going to fight with everyone whose part of my life eventually."

She looked down, "Except Bran. Darn girl's so agreeable. I couldn't pick a fight with her if I tried." Nara felt her heart fall. "I don't see how you put up with me. There's Bran, who’s pretty much ready to jump off a cliff to show you her love, and here's me...who’s all but ready to jump off a cliff to avoid being that vulnerable."

She looked back at him, "But I think I'd be ok with being vulnerable with you." She put her head in her hands, "Oh shut me UP!"

"Yes ma'am.", Saul said, and without spending a moment to contemplate on the consequences, he leaned forward and kissed her gently on her lips.

"That should do the trick...," He mumbled as he took a step back. Much to his dismay, he could actually feel himself blushing. Intelligence officers aren't supposed to blush! They're supposed smirk, have hidden superpowers, drink Vodka Martini, and keep poker face at all times. Or at least three of the items on the said list.

Blushing wasn't on the list. It was on the other, black list.

Nara had tears threatening to cloud her eyes, and that kiss didn't help. She looked at him, trying to ask why, but she could barely move her lips still feeling the relics of his on hers.

"Listen, I'm being very unfair here toward someone, possibly two people, and most likely three...," Saul told her softly, referring to her, Bran and himself. "I've vowed to Branwen and to myself to make up my stupid mind until tomorrow. And... and if I were one of you two, I would toss the Intel guy out of the airlock for just putting me in such an awkward situation."

Nara shook her head, finally finding her voice, "You did nothing to put us here, Saul."

"You're wrong," Saul shook his head, "I did something very stupid, something I did a lot back on Utrecht III but never during my Starfleet service. I waited for something to just go away. Listen, I... I'm glad we finally spoke, and... I promise you an answer tomorrow, all right?"

In the back of his mind, Saul realized that by tomorrow they'll be orbiting Mirusa, and he might be unable to speak with Nara or Bran... a decision should be made, tonight. It took long enough as it was.

She looked at him, "That's not fair." She spoke it softly, almost a whisper.

Saul only gazed at her. She could read the curiosity and anticipation on his face.

"You kiss me and tell me that we may or may not be in a relationship later." She looked down and sighed. After a moment, she looked back up smiling and shrugged, "Yet, I wouldn't take that moment back for anything even if it's the only thing we'll ever have."

Saul just shook his head, as though he was contemplating something, deeply. There were several things to say, and none seemed right. None seemed totally wrong, either, but everything could cause damage. Then again, wasn't the damage already done?

"I should leave now," He said, stepping forward. He stopped next to her, not daring to look in her eyes. "Tomorrow, I promise."

Nara looked at him, "Would it be inappropriate to have just a hug?" It may have been some primitive thing. To be held when everything seems so topsy turvy.

With the same silence that followed the last moments, he came near her, and embraced her without a word. Even devious Intelligence officers need to hug and be hugged once in a while.

Nara couldn't tell for how long they were locked, embraced, but eventually it was Saul who gently pushed her away, then requested the arch to appear and vanished through it.

Nara sighed and sat back down closing her eyes trying to concentrate on the warm breeze rather that the tears flowing from her eyes.

"Love, Pain,and Friendship."

Commander Cassius Henderson
Executive Officer

Lt. Dr. Klaus Fienberg
Cheif Medical Officer

~Hmmm...Maybe I should head for the transporter room now.~ It was about damned time some good old fashioned exploring again. The halls of the Galaxy seemed dreary with the recent conflicts, especially the disaster on Trill, but finally something was about to happen, dare he say "fun?" But something about an open crew quarters door caught his attention, or maybe it was the man exiting them. "Cass?"

"Yeah," Cass Henderson said, exiting Ekoma's quarters after their pre-shift chat. He was pleased that she'd decided not to let the previous evening's disastrous interruptions negate her interest in him. He was rather enjoying their fledgling relationship. "What can I do for you, Klaus?"

Klaus' hand point at Cass, then slowly over to the door, which had

now closed, then it drifted back to Cass. He did this several times as his brain wracked. "Are those.....Ekoma-something's Quarters? I'll be damned if I can remember her rank and full name right now."

"Lt. Commander Janx," Cass nodded, motioning for Klaus to join him as he headed toward the turbolift. He'd been pushing being late by staying with her as long as he had, so he needed to keep moving. "She's our liaison to Starfleet Tactical, as well as our Head Tactical Analyst."

"Ah, Yes, of course...hmmm. Does this have to do with some strange rumors I've heard as of late? I never thought they had any relevance, and we have some gossipers on this vessel, but this at least confirms some involvement of you and Ekoma...but...Hmmm."

Klaus thought for a moment. "Cassius...I feel the need to say that you should tread carefully. I understand that you likely already are, and my attempts to help are redundant, but just a helpful thought from a friend."

"Yeah, Ekoma and I are seeing each other," Cass said, arching an eyebrow. "I appreciate that, Klaus, though I'm curious as to why you felt the need to say that."

"Intuition, observation. Sometimes I wonder if I'm healing the right part of the person.....But even I have problems." Klaus suddenly became nervous and started to watch his flanks and over his shoulders.

"Don't we all," Cass asked offhandedly. He passed the doors of his own quarters, steping inside just long enought to grab the desert fatigue jacket and his equipment. Locking to door, he continued down the hall to the turbolift door.

"Yes...I'm having...an attraction, and I probably shouldn't have it." If it wasn't already obvious, he diddled with his ring again. "I don't understand. Kay is all I've ever needed, wanted, but another invades my mind like a parasite I can't get rid of."

"Really? May I ask who's caught your eye?" Cass said as they stepped into the turbolift. He reached over to program the lift manually, not wanting to interrupt Klaus. This couldn't be easy for the guy.

"I...Can-n't.....Uh..Lieutenant Naranda Sol Roswell." Klaus looked around to see if anyone heard, even though safely inside the turbolift. "We've become close friends, and have our 'Significant' others, but..." Klaus composed himself. "It can't be. She has Saul, for whatever that nonsense is worth, and I've been married to Kay for about 2 years now." Quickly and sternly, as if all of the wisdom he seemed to have accumulated in his lifetime had simply slipped out an airlock, he professed the following. "There is nothing that can be done. I still love Kay, and that's all that matters!"

"Nara Roswell," Cass looked at him like he was crazy. Which he patently had to be. "Yeah. You're a lot better off with Kay. Nara... Nara doesn't seem to know which end of the chain of command she answers to, and that irks me, given that she's an experienced soldier. There's something about her that's just off."

"She's been through alot my friend, and I respect her endlessly, But you're right, and I'm right. I can only hope this passes, and neither of them find out." He knew, however, that it wouldn't just pass. And then Klaus nodded. "It's not going to 'just pass,' shouldn't kid myself. Hopefully learning about the past of an enemy will keep my mind off of things. You know, when you know your enemy well, You pity him instead." Klaus smiled. "And that pity turns to...turns to...uh..."

"Right," Cass nodded as the turbolift shot down toward the transporter room. "So how are things with Kay at home? It's been two years now... Are you guys considering kids?"

"Things are well. Work does lessen contact, and she seems detracted now that Countes..whatever friend of hers gone. Commander something." Klaus chuckled. "Damn my memory. But anyways, I know she would go for it, but I myself am unsure. I would prefer to raise a child in the stability of a Planet, such as Earth, or Betazed, hell even Q'onos would do. But I don't want to leave Starfleet, even for parental leave. My work is not done. This is my life."

Cass nodded. "I can sympathize." Juggling his duties as the XO of the Galaxy and a handler for SFI took away an incredible amount of time away from other things. Not that he would mention that. "If I were you, I'd have the child here. Of course, I'm biased. I grew up the USS Callimachus. Stability never seemed to be an issue there, and the Callimachus was heavily involved in the early Cardassian War."

"I suppose it's just having lost my mother on the Rennville." Klaus just stood there for a moment. "I don't know...." His thoughts drifted back to the Rennville. "I remember that the Rennville has been missing for about 2 years now. I wonder if you have heard anything on the matter?" Ikoma Frank says:

"No," Cass lied. The Rennville was one of several dozen ships assigned to SFI on a semi-permanent basis. It's entry onto that list in 2380 had necessited the ship's official 'disappearance'. He found it distasteful to have to keep the knowledge from Klaus, but orders were orders, and they existed for a reason. "I wish I could help you... on any of this. But as my own life has proven again and again, lately: I don't have all the answers."

"Understood. So, what do we know about Mirusa. I requested this assignment to get away from the normal drudgery of sickbay, since my staff can handle things with out me, especially with Axl, but I wonder if there is the possibility that my skills will actually be needed on the surface. I know I'm trying to hope for the best, especially with the Hydrans around, but whos to say they've actually done any harm. The Hydrans, to me, seem kind of like the less violent of the three powers. The Breen have proven their....combative nature, as have the T'Kith'kin, and the Hydrans."

Klaus was unsure if this was the right thing to say. "But in my study of history, the Hydrans, for a time, were a trusted and well liked ally."

"Your skills may be needed," the executive officer admitted. He'd had his fair share of encounters with the Hydran Sovereignty, and didn't trust the blue imperialists any farther than he could throw them. "Given that the last time the Hydrans were heard from was around 2310, we have very little feel for how they have changed in the past seventy years. And I'm not sure I would use the phrase 'trusted and well liked' when it comes to the Hydrans. It was an alliance of necessity."

"Perhaps. I realize this is true. Call me a pacisifist if you want, but that is just 'how I'm built.' Well, I'm glad that I decided to do this. But personally, I do not have a bad feeling about this."

"Well, then you're in the minority," Cass replied, "I certainly can't say that I'm remotely comfortable this close the Hydran border with a tactically ambitious flag officer onboard."

"I trust in the captain's, and your, judgement on the matter." Klaus motioned to his belt. "I have broken from the norm and brought this along." It was a type 2 phaser. "I just hope it's on the proper stun setting for Hydran Physiology.

"You're the doctor," Cass shrugged as the lift slowed to a halt. Not too much longer now. He wasn't relishing the thought of facing Tish so soon. Cass, of course, knew the proper setting, but he was curious how much effort Doctor Feinberg was willing to put toward his pacifism. "You tell me. Is it?"

Klaus seemed...in pain from his lie. "No. Even I know when it's time....time to discard one's ways for the 'greater good.' For the defense of what you stand for."

"Set your phaser to stun, Klaus," the exec cautioned. "I agree that the greater good has to come first, but there's no reason to start a war here. Not today. Not while the Federation is so woefully unprepared."

"Yes. I know. I don't know why I did it. It was one of the most painful decisions I've made since....Well, My past has it's own 'covert' side to it. I don't know..." He quickly reset it. "Maybe the Vulcans are right, Emotions, and more importantly Passions, may very well be the end of us someday."

"I have to disagree. They're what define us," Cass said, stepping out of the turbolift and heading toward the transporter room. "Those passions and feelings are what make us willing to fight for what he love and believe in. Without them, we wouldn't be whole."

The memories still plagued him. Occassionally they would still creep up. He nearly collapsed to the side of the turbolift, leaning on it. He quickly shook it off, saying "All behind me. The pain is all behind me." He righted himself, and asked "What do you know of *my* past I wonder?"

"Not a lot," Cass said, "And to be honest, it doesn't look like the pain's behind you. Have you been seeing Councelor Dallas recently?"

"No. Just a memory. A memory of one of 3 cardassian stations." He smiled again. "At least they're space dust now."

"Really?" Cass paused in the corridor. This would bear hearing before they descended to the planet. "Tell me about it?"

"Well. All 3 missions were a joint venture within the alliance. Two teams on 2 cloaked romulan shuttles. I was team one's medic, and Gunther Engleman was team two's medic." He scratched his chin for a moment. "The reason he and I were chosen, both fresh out of the Vulcan Medical Institute is likely obvious. The similarity between Vulcan and Rihannsu physiology. The rest of the team was a mix of tactical, security officers, and marines. The first mission was the hardest, we lost 3, but the station was destroyed, successfully. It was as simple as it sounded, save for the fact that it required an EVA boarding opperation. Team two took the bridge and deactivated all of the station's security systems while we placed explosives on the main reactor. We lost....a few. But we were soon transported out, and like green eagles, we soared away as the station promptly exploded. There is something else to mention. I *have* killed before." This was the thing that pained him the most. "It was on that day....."

"I remember reading the report about that," Cass nodded. It was no secret that he'd worked for SFI in 2375. "You and your fellow officers did the Federation a great service."

"I do remember one horrible Site. Jorik and his damned Mek'leth. Skilled warrior, but the sight of cardassian blood on a klingon blade LONG after we left, made me want to vomit."

Cass closed his eyes for a moment. It really was the little things that got to you in the end. "I know what you mean. Well Klaus, I need to get dirtside. I'll see you down there?"

"Well, I'm on your Away Team, so I think we'll see each other *very* soon." He let out a hefty grumbling laugh.

"Peace be with you, then," Cass said, and took his leave, ducking into the transporter room.

Klaus thought to himself. ~Wait, yes. I did forget my other equipment....~ Of all the things he forgot, he forgot his medical kit. The heavy desert field jacket, his phaser, tricorder, all there. "Wonderful." He quickly ran back to the turbolift, shouting "Deck 12." before he even had both feet in.

"Martial Arts 101: Legs and Jumps."

By Ensign G'Bat'ea
Tactical Officer

& 2nd Lieutenant Branwen London
Furies XO/Psychologist

G'Bat'ea had been kicking a rather large red punch bag to one side of the gymnasium. He had finally braided his hair so it no longer clung to his face when he moved, much less distracting. With every kick the braids flew before his face then quickly retreated from whence they had come. His loose forest green martial arts suit let him move freely and the air to flow around his body beneath it. He was ready...

Bran's long hair was also bound in a ponytail and that was wound in a tight bun on the back of her hair. She was clad in a simple training outfit and was now in the gym stretching and getting ready for the fight. She smiled at the large man.

"Hi." She said. "You look cool that way."

G'Bat'ea was uncertain of how to take that, he had not quite mastered when a human was being sarcastic. "It is practical," he conceded. "Now, name your martial art of choice."

She wasn't sure, something in which she could use her quickness might be an option. "How about human style karate?" She suggested.

"As you wish." G'Bat'ea turned from the punch bag and gave her a quick bow before stepping onto the matting designed for these types of bouts. "I will try my best not too hurt you." Perhaps it sounded arrogant, but G'Bat'ea genuinely feared putting the smaller built woman in sickbay.

Bran giggled. "I am not made of glass, G'Bat'ea." She hoped she pronounced it right.

"Nor are you made of tritanium, Ms. London." G'Bat'ea sized her up with a snarl on his face. "Remember that."

"I know. But remember I have always trained against people who are bigger than me. I plan to use my speed. Ready?"

"Ready." G'Bat'ea agreed, getting into a defensive posture by bring his arms

up before him and bringing his weight onto his back leg.

Branwen decided to try to impress him especially when she was still fresh. So she made a couple of quick moves, and even managed to touch him making sure it was light.

G'Bat'ea took a couple fo steps back. "Impressive speed, Ms. London." With that he came forward with renewed speed, attacked her frontally with a few kicks and a hit, all of which she blocked. Then he jumped, rolling over the top of her - landing in a crouch position he spun around, leg outward to take her to the floor. Standing back he grinned. "Nausicaans are suprisingly

agile for their bulk!"

"Fascinating!" Branwen said. "Can you teach me some of those moves? I am always in for new things."

"Certainly." G'Bat'ea extended his hand to help Branwen back to her feet. "It should be rather simple to learn for someone of your speed and frame, as long as you have strong legs..."

"I think so. How do we test it?" She was really getting into the spirit now.

G'Bat'ea let go of her hand and stood in a defensive posture again and grinned. "You hit me with your best kick." He put his arms up in a standard block.

She hesitated however. "are you sure? This might hurt."

G'Bat'ea shifted his weight back and forth and took a deep breathe. "I am certain."

"Alright then." Not holding back she marshaled all her strength and then slammed straight into him.

G'Bat'ea managed to absorb most of the blow with expert lack of expression, only a stray 'oomph' and a slight movement onto his back foot betrayed it had affected him. "Okay, well I'd say there is definitely enough strength there, so what says we try and put that together with your speed and agility?"

"Great!" She actually jumped up and down like a little girl with excitement. "I really love learning from aliens. So show me!"

Not only Branwen's actions but her choice of words seemed to seethe with immaturity and closed-mindedness. A strange trait for a counsellor perhaps, but not so much so when one considered she was also a marine. Nonetheless, training was what he had offered and training is what she would get.

"Ok," G'Bat'ea hoped she could transfer her enthusiastic childishness into concentrated energy. "I want you to use your legs and jump over me." He knew it would take some training of the muscles and time before she could properly achieve this, but crouching down he hoped for the best, whilst ready to block any failure.

She judged the distance took a little leap and jumped. She almost made it, almost. Just that last half centimeter.... Her right feet entangled in his hair and with a little yelp she landed in a heap on the other side of him.

His hair caught, G'Bat'ea fell onto his back, millimetres away from Branwen.

Tugging his braids from under her, he rolled sideways and regained his footing. "That was not bad, for a human."

"Thank you." She giggled nervously. "I hope it didn't hurt you?"

"It did not." G'Bat'ea agreed, a slight scowl crossing his features as he helped her once more to her feet. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"Oh no, don't worry. I don't hurt that easily." She smiled at him. "Shall I try again, I think I can jump a little higher."

"Alright, one more." G'Bat'ea cleared his throat and returned to the crouching position. "This time, try not to resort to hair-pulling, Lieutenant."

She giggled again. "I will try not to." Then she got ready for another jump. This time Bran just made it.

"Impressive." Perhaps he had underestimated this woman. "How did it feel?"

"Great! It gave me a kick. I didn't know I could do that." Bran was smiling at him. "What is next?"

G'Bat'ea could feel her enthusiasm beginning to half-intrigue, half-annoy him. She certainly was persistant in a young sort of way. "Well, in order to

progress you need to practise that move until it becomes useful on a fully standing opponent - which means exercising your leg muscles."

"I can do that!" She paused.