=/\= USS Gott, Engineering =/\= "Close these doors Tremain!" called Lt. Scott, and the main doors to engineering closed with a satisfying boom, and a comforting hiss as they heard that the pneumatic locks engage. The Assistant ODA chief approached Andy. "Time to get these systems going, Lieutenant." Andersen was still feeling a little nauseated ... first from the stench of the X'Chi, but also from the carnage that just unfolded before him. In all his career in Starfleet, he never saw a bona fide combat situation ... sure, he'd been injured before, even beaten nearly to death by a couple of drunk crewmen ... but he'd never actually seen others wounded or killed on this scale before. He began cursing Walsh again, out of habit by now, for never assigning him to a walkthrough with the holo-X'Chi in the simulation, but now stopped himself, remembering the horrible vision of a single X'Chi throwing the Major against a wall like he was some kind of rag doll, then impaling Gary Williams. The cardassian medic made it clear that Williams hadn't made it; Andy was unsure of Walsh's status. But in any event, he was finally being called to perform his function on this away mission, and, still shaking, he grabbed an engineering kit, and made his way toward a nearby panel, trying to ignore the various arthropod and human parts that lay scattered about the area. The place was a mess. He had to try three different stations before he found one he could power up. First things first, thought Andy, opening up an Operations datafield, is to get a level 5 diagnostic ... the most simple of internal scans, giving a very general overview of the ship. The diagnostic typically took only a couple of seconds, and Andy knew it was bad news when the results didn't appear immediately up on the screen. While he fretted and waited, his commbadge chirruped. It was the General. “Foster here, sir,” Andy replied. "Foster. Get cracking on the ships command systems," ordered Bretam, making Andy wonder if the General's team had made any success up on the bridge. The Chimera's CO went on to say that he'd tried his SSF command codes, but to no avail, suggesting either the ship's command database might be corrupted, or that Black Ops might have had a hand in encrypting the Gott's database beyond even SSF's knowlege. "Either way use those code I gave you before we left the chimera,” Bretam continued. “Once you have access, I want every force field on this ship active and engaged. Every bulkhead, every hatch way and door. I want every X’chi on this ship to stay put and not go anywhere,” said the general with a low growl. With a engineering console that's taking over a minute to run a level 5 diagnostic. Andy was beginning to seriously wonder his career choice. "Aye, sir," said Andy grimly, "I'll get right on it, though I don't have a lot of faith in these systems." "Once you have erected the force fields, get up here to the bridge. We need to get our eyes and ears open and see where we; and the Chimera, are," replied Bretam. "Don’t care how you get here," he said, impatiently, then pausing as if catching himself ... "just get here,” he added in a different tone, that took a measure of stress off him. "Aye, sir," said Andy, trying to give his voice a confidence that he didn't feel. He turned his attention back toward the console, and grew both more relaxed and more hopeful as he saw the diagnostic data start trickling in. Life Support Systems, functioning at 84 percent; Impulse engines were operational; the warp core seemed to have been shut down a while ago, but didn't appear to be damaged significantly. Computer systems functioning at 38 percent. Well. That would explain a lot. Andy skipped down a few lines, to the security sections, checking internal sensors and force fields. He didn't like what he saw. He hit his comm badge. "Lt. Foster to General Bretam." "Go ahead, Foster." "Sir, apparently the X'Chi shut down the warp core 2-3 days ago ... it's not clear to me why. Bottom line, however, is that everything has been running off the batteries, and without the core to run things, the ship is pretty low on power." "The shields, Lieutenant ..." "I can bring them on, sir, but it'd be an enormous drain to what's left of the batteries, to activate every intersectional force field ... they'd only stay up for an hour or two before we'd sap everything out. If we could get the warp core going, we could shift things over to that, but activating a cold warp core takes time, sir." "How long?" Andy closed his eyes, and ran a few numbers in his head. "With a full team of engineers, it could be done in about 4 hours. With just me?" Andy exhaled and looked around at the mess that was the USS Gott's engineering section. "Maybe 10 hours. Though most of that is hurry up and wait." Andy listened to the general mutter a few choice words in bajoran, then say something to someone near him. "Okay, Foster, listen up. I'm sending you down our engineering specialist, Petty Officer Lynch. He'll do us more good down there than up here. You two work together and get the damned core back on line asap. "Now what's the status of our sensors?" Bretam continued, "We have the main viewscreen up on the bridge, and I think we might have just passed through some kind of rift or wormhole. All I know is we aren't where we were. Different starfield." "Haven't gotten that far yet, sir. Internal sensors are online, but external sensors are ...." Andy spoke slowly as he scrolled his way to the diagnostic reading. "Whew. Sir, short range and long range sensors are both working at less than 40 percent efficiency. It looks like ... they've taken a hell of a beating in just the past hour, according to the historgram." "Forty percent? Lieutenant, your diagnostic must be off -- at least for short range sensors; we were able to get a good magnification, and confirmed the Chimera followed us through the rift." "The diagnostics are probably still valid, sir. A Nova class vessel working at 40 % sensor efficiency should still be able to hold its own against a conventional ship -- it's a science vessel, made to --" something caught Andy's eye as out of synch with the other readings. "What is it, Lieutenant?" "There's a whole subcategory of sensors here that I don't recognize, but they are running at near peak efficiency. It's bizarre. I can't even tell what they're tuned to." There was a pause, while the general seemed to think for a moment. "Check for chronoton particles ... temporal anomalies. That's the kind of research the Gott was engaged in. " Andy nodded, and confirmed that it did seem to be some kind of temporal instrumentation, though he had to admit, he couldn't make much out of it. "All right," finished Bretam, "use those codes, bring as many systems up as you can, and get the warp core up. I want control of this ship, mister." Lt. Andersen Foster Operations Officer USS Chimera