=/\= USS Gott, Engineering =/\= Andy began a detailed description explaining the need to get the warp core back on line in order to get power to the interior force fields when Lt. Scott interupted him. "Okay, forget all the technobabble, what did the General say?" He bristled at the Assistant ODA chief's attitude, and for a moment wanted to adopt a condescending tone and say "Warp core -- off. Shields on, drain batteries. Bad," brighten, and say, "Warp core, on, shields up! Happy!" but decided against it. Instead, he imagined a chimpanzee wearing Lt. Scott's green trimmed ODA uniform, and felt somewhat mollified. Instead, Andy simply reported, "He's sending down Lynch. Together we may be able to get the core up in five, maybe six hours." He turned his attention back to the screen. Rubbing his forehead, Scott nodded. "And he wants a medic up there?" Andy nodded, quietly adding "better a medic climb eight flights of jeffries tubes than me." Scott grunted in acknowledgement, and began divesting himself of some of his gear, which clattered to the deck at Andy's feet, before calling over to and discussing something with some of his men. Alright, thought Andy. He input the special codes that Bretam had given him after the general had met with Stafleet intelligence in the mission briefing. The code configuration wasn't familiar to Andy, but he was pleased to see he'd gained immediate access to the computer core. That's when things started getting a little more complicated. Andy tried to get a command prompt using his current ID, (which should work for minimum access on any Starfleet ship), and was immediately bumped out. He then tried the Chimera's tertiery SSF code, the override function that all special forces ships have over certain systems on most conventional Starfleet vessels, and still no luck. Finally, he started mining the Gott's computer core for data ... anything that might look familiar to him as a former Nova-class crewman. Some kind of access, or backdo -- Aha! Original registry information! Andy went to a backup file, from the ship's original launch date, 249905.31, and sure enough, the command line was still there, buried in the Gott's memory. Andy meticulously tapped in the string of numbers and letters, and hit engage. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, except that the computer seemed to power down entirely. A sinking feeling began to creep over Andy, who began wondering if he'd made things worse, when finally, the screen lit up fully, and the familiar voice of a Starfleet general-issue computer called out: "Please wait. USS Gott, NCC-4121 main computer core coming on line ..." The rest fell neatly into place. Andy got control over sensors, life support, navigation, impulse thrusters, internal security ... he even got a prompt asking if the warp core should initiate matter/antimatter reaction. Andy double-checked that it had been shut down properly, and tappped "engage" again, glancing at the bottom band of the warp core, and seeing it just begin to get the faintest tinge of blue. He looked at the chronometer, and saw it would take 8 hours to auto-start the core. Not bad; hopefully Lynch would have a few things up his sleeve to speed that along. Finally, with a grimace, Andy carried out his second direct order. Activating shipwide sectional force fields. All through the Gott, the shields came under power, segregating the various sections of the Nova class ship. With that, he hit is commbadge. “Foster to Bretam.” “Go ahead Lieutenant," said the general with a voice that sounded like it expected bad news. "Tell me you have command control of the ship." "Yes sir!” Andy said, ignoring Bretam's tone, knowing he'd pulled off something to be proud of. "And I am enabling control to the bridge… now.” He then began sharing control with the bridge, enabling each of the stations quickly in succession ... command, ops, science, helm, tactical, engineering, navigation ... A brief pause, then the general called back: “Lieutenant, what did you do? I have a command code prompt.” Andy explained how he basically reinstalled the ship's operating system from a backup copy dating from the ship's launch inception. He shut down the computer core, restarted, and voila, they were in business. “Just enter any code sir," Andy concluded. "The systems think we are still in dock and needs the first captains’ access codes." He waited for Bretam to enter his codes, saw immediately it wasn't working, and knew why. “Sir. Since I used the old backup, and the ships chronometer is still set to present time, the computer might default to a level five scan before opening up a system.” “Understood,” replied the general darkly. The diagnostic finished, and Andy's ops panel lit up like a Solstice wreath. Not a surprise, really, considering how damaged the ship was. The poor computer must be going through kinniptions trying to puzzle its way through why a brand new ship was so horribly beat up. One by one, Andy began checking off the alarm systems. Warning acknowldeged. Warning acknowledged. Warning acknowledged ... when the sound of a transporter actually startled him. Four ODA members seemed to be taken by surprise as well, and with their heightened sense of danger, immediately leveled their weapons at the blue-white glow. Cortez noticed it first. "Hold your fire! It's Lynch!" There was a collective sigh among the marines who all cautiosly lowered their rifles. Andy looked dumbfounded at the marine engineering specialist for a moment more before he finally realized, and felt like an idiot for not thinking of it himself. Bretam obviously checked and saw that transporters were functioning, and ordered a STS transport. “Ok Lieutenant Foster, Lynch should be down there with you.” stated Bretam needlessly. Might have been safer for the guy if he'd told us that *before* you transported him, boss, thought Andy. “Yes sir, he is right here," replied Andy, and nodded to Lynch, seeing that the man had a makeshift bandage around a bloodied leg. "We will get the core on line immediately," Andy finished. Lynch nodded back. “Good. Bretam out.” Andy turned and raised his voice toward the cardassian medic. "Ra'Nar, take a look at that leg. Ramirez, get this man something to sit on over by this console," he said with uncustomary authority. "Good to have you with us, Mister Lynch," said Andy. "Glad to see you also didn't have to hobble down seven flights of jeffries tubes on that leg. Sorry; hadn't realized you were injured." Lynch shrugged noncommittally. "The boss tells us what to do, we do it," he said motioning his head toward the commlink where Bretam's voice had just come. " Hopefully, we get to have a drink in between." Andy smirked and got back to work while the marines tended to their own. He took a look at the operations datascreen he pulled up to monitor shipwide systems, and scowled, unsurprised at the red warning light that flashed insistently at him. It was as he warned. With all internal shields operating, at this rate, they would fail within 74 minutes, and would take everything with them ... computers, life support ... even reactivating the core. It can't be done without some kind of power for the computer to run the startup sequence. "Foster to Bretam," said Andy with a hint of peevishness. "Go, Lieutenant." "Sir, we still have the issue down here of running only on battery power," reported Andy. "As it stands, if we're going to power every partitional force field, we're going to be out of battery power in a little over an hour. Even if Lynch and I work a miracle down here, we're not going to be getting that warp core up and running for at least four hours." "Then," said the general evenly, though it was transparent that his patience was drawing to a close, "you're just going to have to find a way to work around that, aren't you Lieutenant?" "Sir," interrupted Lieutenant Scott, who had since approached Andy's console, addressing the CO, "all Chimera personnel, and our two guests are either in engineering or on the bridge, right?" "That's right, Lt. Scott," said the General, "provided you have all of Lt. Foster and Maj. Walsh's team accounted for." "Aye sir, we do," replied the marine. "Is there any reason you can't simply keep power to internal force fields around the bridge and around main engineering, and shut the others down? I mean, sure, the bugs would be able to run around the rest of the ship, but Lt. Foster and the others here could safely do what they need to, you all would be secure, and that'd free the rest of the ODA to perform our mission, sir -- cleaning the X'Chi out of this ship." Andy looked at Scott in a new light. That did make quite a lot of sense ... Andy supposed Scott looked at it from a tactical standpoint ... but from an operational standpoint, that was a simple, optimal solution. "Foster," barked the general. "If you shut down the rest of the shields, would that give you and Lynch enough time to fix the damned core?" Andy was already tapping away at a modified plan, and the numbers came back -- just powering force fields around engineering and the bridge extended their working window to approximately 355 minutes. Just under six hours. "About six hours, sir," replied Andy. "It'd be tight, but it's not the lost cause that the other plan would be." "Very well," grumbled Bretam. "Shut the others down." "Sir," added Lt. Scott, "do you still need that medic?" When the general gave an affirmative reply, Scott said, "Okay. We'll send Ra'Nar up. Site to site." He nodded to Andy, who then looked at Ra'Nar, and waited for the medic to give him a nod to indicate he was ready. A moment later, the cardassian vanished in a sparkle of light. Scott then continued his conversation with Bretam, following up on the secondary mission, while Andy turned his attention toward shutting down the remaining unneeded force fields and saving power to work on the core. ---------------- Lt. Andersen Foster Operations Officer USS Chimera