=/\= Engineering, USS Gott =/\= Andy heard the familiar whine of a transporter beam, and saw the bluish white light reflect off the panel that he an Lynch were working on, monitoring the progress of restarting the warp core. Lt. Scott had taken a small team of ODA, and gone to sweep the Gott of X'Chi. Andy wished them luck ... hopefully a small detachment on an offensive mission would be able to do more damage than a larger group trying to defend a handful of techs. Still. Andy turned and was surprised to see a handful of Chimera engineers. Lieutenant Rogers explained that Cmdr. Guzman had ordered a team of engineers to a shuttle, and they beamed aboard to finish repairs to engineering and see out the final stages of restarting the Gott's core. It soon became apparent, now that there were several actual engineers here, that Andy was out of his element, which, frankly, suited him fine. He nodded farewell to Lynch, and turned to one of the other engineers, and requested a site to site to the bridge. The man nodded, and soon Andy felt his surroundings fading in a gauze of bluish white light. =/\= USS Gott, Bridge =/\= It had been about 3 hours since Andy was beamed to the bridge, and much had happened. There was now a large hull breach, spanning decks 3-5, where Lt. Scott and his team had apparently met their end, while taking out the bulk of the remaining X'Chi in the arboretum. Fortunately, no critical areas were damaged -- they'd lost the whole arboretum, lots of senior crew quarters, and the officers' dining room. Then again, there was no such thing as a "minor" hull breach, and Andy was thankful that the core was back on line to provide a stasis field, which served as an ersatz hull. The general was using him in his regular capacity, as an operations officer, and Andy couldn't be more relieved. He had no interest in fighting bugs, and the bridge was one of the better-secured areas away from those small pockets of X'Chi resistance that would periodically ambush other marine teams as they continued to secure the infested ship. They'd quickly closed in on the Chimera, and Andy saw firsthand what General Bretam had witnessed personally a few hours earlier by shuttle. It didn't take long to understand why the general had ordered a general evacuation of the SSF vessel, and why he'd immediately put Andy on mission ops duty. Coordinating mission ops was one thing ... when you had a staff. Quartermaster, ensigns and crewman collected data for you, and you were good to go once you had a report. It was a bit of a different matter when you *were* the department and full staff. And that of tactical, for that matter. The general ordered him to make a series of communications to the CMO, the XO, and engineering department of the Chimera, and coordinate transport of wounded, and the general evacuation of the Chimera. He then added that he should take a general inventory of accommodations and supplies on the Gott. Andy's list was growing longer by the second. Fortunately, a reprieve came in the form of a young Vulcan officer, one of the handful of Gott crew they'd found, eeking out a survival inside the jeffries tubes for the past several weeks. Her uniform was ragged, and she looked thin and gaunt, but offered her services nonetheless. The general ordered her to tactical, which was a relief to Andy, who was all too happy to give up his Chimera-monitoring duties whilst attempting to perform the myriad of other things the general would have of him. He nodded a greeting to the vulcan, figuring they could chat some other time to get to know each other. Andy listened with interest to the plan discussed between Cmdr. Guzman and General Bretam. An attempt to use the Chimera more or less as a planet buster bomb to keep the X'Chi from establishing a foothold on the world where they'd launched thousands of eggs, ready to hatch. Andy shuddered, finally processing over the past several hours, what, exactly the X'Chi had been up to, and also hearing about what had happened in alternate timeliness in the future. The earnest starfleet officer in him rankled a bit at the thought of destroying all life on an entire world -- were they suspending the Prime Directive by doing this? Where there any life forms on that planet already? Or proto-life, for that matter? Then again, should we just toss the whole prime directive in general in this situation ... that the X'Chi started it, did that matter? That Starfleet would no longer exist in the future by the X'Chi's actions ... that certainly seemed to matter. It was an interesting philosophical debate, albeit one Andy really didn't have time for. Several hours later, the evacuation was complete. All Chimera crew were accounted for -- Andy noted with some unease that the Gott's Cargo Bay 2 had been converted into a morgue, and it was thick with bodies -- most of the Gott crew, and nearly a third of the Chimera's complement -- the ride through the temporal rift must've been hell for them. Sick Bay staff were evenly mixed, some tending to the bodies, others, trying to get the Gott's Sick Bay operational once again. The general had withdrawn into the CO's ready room, looking haggard and tired, and Counselor Wellington had taken the bridge, sitting back, mainly simply allowing staff to do their jobs. The CMO had been in and out of the ready room a few times, and wore a troubled expression each time she'd emerge a few minutes later. Andy was double-checking the crew's complement, making sure no one was left behind on the chimera, after Cortez and his assistant came back aboard -- he thought he might double-check with the physicians in the cargo bay, to make sure they had an accurate body count. "Mister Foster?" "Aye, Ma'am?" replied Andy, turning to Athena. "Just checking on your status." "Tired, Ma'am." Athena suppressed a smirk. "Ship's status, Lieutenant," she clarified. "General Bretam's notes indicate you're making sure ship's crew is accounted for, and are doing an inventory of accommodations and supplies?" Oh. Andy reported, somewhat sheepishly, that he was getting a final double-count from the temporary morgue to make sure all were accounted for, but otherwise, preliminary figures indicated that they were. He had done what he could to account for the remaining quarters -- noting that Lt. Scott's final actions resulted in the loss of probably about 20 % of the Gott's personal living space. Things were going to be crowded. In the meantime, however, Andy had no hard and fast way to determine what kind of provisions they had remaining, and said as much. "All right," said Athena. "Let's get you an escort, and you can be on your way to go find out." Andy waited a few beats before he processed what she'd said. He was going to go back out into the bowels of the Gott, to look for ... any unopened tins of aspirin or cans of chicken soup. Lovely. Just lovely. "Aye, Ma'am," he replied, defeated, not really willing to contemplate how long it had been since he slept. --------------- Lt. Andersen Foster Operations Officer USS Chimera