===== CEO's office, USS Chimera ===== Shane was sitting behind the CEO's desk quietly grumbling under his nose while holding a tricoder in his right hand. In his left was a cup of water that was served him 5 minutes ago by an NCO from some emergency rations. He slamed teh cup down on the table hard and some of the liquid poured over his trousers. "Damn!" Shane grumbled again. He discarded the tricoder and with a loud "thumb" it landed on the table. In disbelief Shane shook his head. The reason for such a 'good' mood of the ship's XO was a report from the Science department, namely LtJg. Oriana and Ens. Terek. {They must have gone crazy!} he thought. The begin of the report was a good one. They've reported the exact Chimera's location : "Actual position of the USS Chimera is sector 0596 directly in the place, where will be the Spinward Marsch and 2 000 kilometers from our last position in the future. We are 5 LY from the Federation frontier, even if the Federation is not existing in this time frame." The rest of the report catched Shane unprepared. He asked Science to provide him with suggestions how to deal with those X!Chi eggs that buried themself some 100 meters beneath a nearby planet's surface. He could not believe his eyes at first and had to reread the report twice. The ASCiO ... an Ensign suggested to use the ship ... the USS Chimera, stuffed with a dozen of activated quantum torpedoes and a warp core set to overload as a one big torpedo and so eliminate a whole half of the planet and the other half rendering unhabitable for any life form ... and the CSCiO approved that suggestion! {Thats ridiculous!} Shane thought. He stood up from the chair and paced there and back again in the little office pondering in his mind. He was half decided to ask Rangi to make both Science officer a mental health check. {It wouldnt even work!} he thought at first. But well, Shane was an ex-Tactical officer and the longer he considered this option the more she looked better. The fact that the X!Chie eggs seemed to be scattered over an area of hundreds kilomenters made the use of aimed torpedoes unefective. They would have to shoot one torpedo at each egg ... and the Chimera never had more then 50 torpedoes on board ... and there were some 100+ eggs expected. It was obvious that they needed to destroy a large area of the planet and ensure that the eggs wont survive there. But the only assurance that no egg will survie was only yo render the planet unhabitable for life ... something no SF officer would be happy about. Luckily the planet the bugg's eggs took cover was quite ideal for such an action. From the scans obtained from their probe network they discovered that there was no animal life on the planet, just a vast variety of flora ... and therefore there was no chance of inteligent life there. The planet was not even federation territory so the chances that it later (in 10.000 years) will host a federation colony were small as well. Another point was the fact that the Chimera was really not much more then a wreck at the moment. The majority of the major ship's systems were not working, the EPS network was mostly destroyed and the chance that the engineers will manage to get the ship to working condition was very small. Without other energy sources and spare parts for the damaged systems were even the Chimera's best engineers powerless to help their 'baby'. On the other hand ... according to Athena and Dexter there still were some 30 torpedoes useable and combining their destructive power with the power of an controlled warp core overload would create an explosion mighty enough to destroy a large moon ... or to make a little planet unhabitable for large millenias ... But hey! ... passing this suggestion along to Bretam was an another story. He knew the Bajoran General for some years by now and he knew how strongly he felt for his ship. The Chimera was now for Bretam like a home ...a home he lost long time ago on Bajor. Suggesting the destruction to Bream was even of telling a Klingon that his father lost a fight with a Ferengi woman. But well ... there was one thing more that mattered more to the General then his ship ... and that beeing his crew ... and Shane bet his head on this thought. He added his little comment of approval to the report of Science department and suggested a total evacuation of the Chimera's crew on board the USS Gott. Then he plugged the tricoder to a small device he was given before and accessed the intership communication established through the Chimera's shuttle comm system. He adressed the report to General Bretam and labeled it with the 'For the Captain eyes only' label. He pressed the "SEND" button and hoped the best. ===== End of log ===== Cmdr. Shane Guzman XO USS Chimera