Lt Commander Samantha Palmer Ship's Helm Officer USS Chimera NCC 96899-A = Samantha's Quarters = Samantha was awoken by the second explosion. She lifted up her head and realised that she must have fallen asleep. The room was dark, with the exception of the red alert glow that issued from the emergency lights. As she stood up from the bed, she remembered that she had decided to lie down for a few minutes before getting ready for the Halloween party. According to the chronometer, those few minutes had turned into a few hours. Not bothering to check herself in the mirror, she rushed out of the door and made for the turbolift. The corridors of Deck 2 were empty; most of its residents were either at the party or already on the bridge. When the turbolift doors parted, she stepped inside and announced her destination. A second later the doors opened and she walked onto a darkly lit bridge with red alert flashing on several terminal screens. =93Glad you could join us, Miss Palmer; please take your station,=94 Commander Guzman said as she walked passed him to the CONN. She gave him a second glance when she saw he was wearing what looked like a suit of armour=85 perhaps it was his party costume. Not giving the CO's strange dress code anymore thought, she took her seat from the ensign who had been monitoring the helm. =93Keep us in steady orbit,=94 Guzman ordered, and Samantha adjusted the ship's position slightly; whatever had caused the explosions seemed to have shifted the ship out of geosynchronous orbit. She quickly pulled up a shipwide report on her terminal to find out what was going on. According to it, two detonations caused hull breaches on Deck 11. The cause of the explosions was still under speculation, but Tactical was conducting a tachyon sweep to detect any cloaked vessels. There was also an added note that impulse radiation had been detected near the hull, with a Federation signature. A warning beep from the helm console drew Samantha's attention, informing her that the ship had shifted 0.63 degrees out of orbit. Frowning, she accessed the geometric specifications of Sidos and compared them to the orbital trajectory and speed. The two matched perfectly, but then when why would the ship shift out of orbit? According to the damage report, the explosion didn't affect the navigational computer. Perhaps the information on Sidos was incorrect. Any recent large geological activity could have affected its geometric specs. Readjusting the orbit, she stood up and quickly moved over to the unmanned Science terminal. Accessing the sensor information on Sidos, she requested a new scan; it yielded the same information that was already in the database. So that rules out any planetary changes, she thought to herself. When she got back to the helm, the orbit had shifted by 0.45 degrees. What was going on? The computer was supposed to compensate for any orbital decay by calculating the geosynchronous trajectory and continually monitoring the orbit of the ship. Perhaps it was just a glitch; brand new starships were usually full of them. =93Sir, the navigational computer is having problems sustaining our orbit. It's decaying by 0.2 degrees every 60 seconds,=94 she said, swivelling around in her chair to face Guzman. =93My best guess is that it's a glitch that still had to be fixed before the ship left spacedock.=94 =93Have Engineering take a look at it as soon as possible,=94 he said, nodding towards her. =93It won't do to have a brand new ship crash landing on her maiden voyage.=94 =93Aye, sir,=94 Samantha said, turning back to the CONN. She still had trouble looking Guzman in the eye after what happened with the previous mission. His reasons for allowing her assignment were still a mystery to her, but she was sure he had his own personal reasons. Many times she had wondered just what exactly had happened to him when he had been caught inside the temporal anomaly during their past mission. He must have experienced something that profoundly affected him. Shrugging the thoughts of the past behind, she focussed on the situation at hand and put through a request to Engineering that someone run a diagnostic on the navigational computer and the helm station. Silently she hoped it was nothing she'd done=85 what an idiot she must look like if she couldn't even keep a steady orbit! =