====== Main Engineering, USS Chimera ===== Shane was pacing along main engineering like a cave tiger in a cell. He felt useless at the moment with having no real possibilities to do something, nor having a 'real' control over the ship. His anger level rised somewhat again and he took no notice that his presence in the main engineering level caused more disturbance then help. Especially the younger crew was more then a bit nervous with Shane pacing there and back (again) behind their backs. Ens Dexter rised surely to a hero status in the eyes of the younger crew when he dared to speak to the Commander. Dexter waited several seconds till Shane's walking route brought him just in front of him and said: "Excuse me sir" Shane glanced at the young ATAC and stopped. "Yes Ensign" he started, "I hope you have some good news for me ..." he said in a harsh tone. Dexter gulped slighty and replied: "Yes and no sir". Shane raised en eyebrow (in a real Oriana fashion) but said nothing and wited for Dexter to go on. "The good news is that we have inspected one of the torpedo's storage rooms and found out that it was hardly damaged at all. Out of the 24 photon torpedoes in that room are 20 still functional" Dexter said. "What about the bad news Ensign" Shane asked in a cloudy tone. "None of the torpedo launchers are functional sir" Dexter said, "nor do I think any of them could be repaired unless in a starbase facility ..." he finished. Slowly releasing his breath to stay calm Shane asked: "I still dont see the 'good' in your news Ensign" "Erm" Dexter said a bit abashed by the unfriendly tone of the XO, "the torpedoes are still explosive bodies. If we will find a way how to use them properly, they are still a deadly weapon" he finished in hope to satisfy Shane at least a bit. "Better then a hole in the warp core" Shane replied without much enthusiasm, "what about other storage rooms?" he asked. "The way is partly blocked, so we havent inspected it till now" Dexter replied. With a glance of hope he added: "But Science reported 5 minutes ago that they have started a probe to trace the X!Chi eggs and find out their exact location". That was a good news finally. When they will know WHERE exactly the eggs are and they will find a WAY how to deal with them, the future of the ship and most probably of all federation could be saved. "Good!" Shane said with finally a bit of joy in his voice. "I am ..." Dexter started when Shane raised a hand and silenced the young tactical officer. Shane looked around for one more time and was now certain that the Harker fellow vanished from his sight. Till now he was working in Engineering as expected and a minute ago he was still nearby ... but not now. Shane remebered Harker's last postion and fastly moved over there. Under a console there was an open hatch leading into a jeffried tube with a crewman standing next to it. "Harker?" Shane asked the crewman. The crewman pointed into the jeffries tube and said: "He went ..." Not listening to the crewman anymore Shane bend down and entered the jeffries tube. After a moment he heard two voices nearby talking fastly. Haker and Palmer! Vasting no time thinking about how Samantha got out of the brig he poked his head through the hatch and really seeing Harker and Palmer he said: "Commander, may I speak to you outside" looking much undignified. “Aye, sir,” Palmer replied, glaring at Nicolas and feeling like a schoolgirl caught making out on the sports grounds. ===== End of log ===== Cmdr. Shane Guzman XO USS Chimera