===== Bridge, USS Chimera ===== Shane wondered: "Tin?" That type of an alloy was not used within the federation ship design for centuries ... Shane knew only about a handfull of things that actually were made of tin, but none of that could be expected in space. "What is it Commander?" he asked. Palmer did her best not to chuckle: "Bottled beer's plugs, tin bottled beer's plugs" she said. {What the heck!} Shane thought, {whats that? A flying circus or something?} he cursed mentally, {or is this some kind of a freaky message I dont understand} Shane looked at the empty seat on his left side where Athena used to sit more or less often {Where's a psychologist when one needs 'em} Looking a bit annoyed at his helm officer her asked: "No bottle opener there Commander?" Palmer tapped her console and replied within few seconds: "No sir, no opener, just 16 pieces of plugs". Shane shook his head. {At least there's no opener ... that would be too freaky even for me}. Looking back again at C'el and thought of asking her to beam a sample of those plugs to Science for an analyse, but thought better of that ... Oriana's time was too precious for jokes like that. Especially with a cloacked shuttle lurking somewhere out there. It was again Foster who interrupted Shane's thoughts. It looked like the guy LOVED to report things when Shane was thinking. "Commander, I've got a report from transporter room one that A member of the away team, Sergeant Harvey was beamed on board by a request of Commander Summers. The Sergeant is badly injured. They have to move him manually to the sickbay cause the transporters just went off line" {Damn it!} Shane thought, "Whats the sergeant's status?" he asked. "No details about his condition given sir" Andy replied. "What about the away team?" Shane asked again. Foster shook his head: "No report from the away team since the initial one". "Can we contact them?" Shane asked. Foster checked his console: "No sir, interal and short range communication is off-line, only the subspace comm is working and the away team is now inside the facility's perimeter and the COMM is jamed by the inhibitors. Unless they will leave the perimeter or contact us from the facility's COMM System we are unable to contact them". Shane could only nod. It was now that the understood General Bretam a bit more. While he was in command of the (old) Chimera it was his doom to stay on the bridge. All the CO could do was making decission and waiting for others to do the work. Lives were in danger ... the ship was damaged ... and still the place of the CO was on the bridge. Shane clenched his teeth. After a minute or two the door leading inside the bridge opened and a male ensign wearing a blue collar entered the bridge. It was obvious that she wasnt used to visit the bridge, cause first she looked around ... and only then went towards Shane's seat. He intruduced himself and handed him a PADD: "Sir, Lieutenant Oriana sends you this informations about the polaron technology and about possibilities of detecting the cloacked vessel." Shane took the PADD and started to read it fastly. {Damn it!} he thought again. For a brief moment he realised that he was cursing more and more with every day passed while in command ... but today WASNT a good day by far. Anyway, his initial suspection was confirmed by his Chief Science. The traces of polaron technology were created by a ship's weapon and all odds pointed on Domion technology. The question was now it there was a 'real' domion ship in play or if there was dominion technology used on Einhoften. There was no way how they could find that out from the orbit ... that was a thing only the away team could make clear. Shane hoped that they would not pay a too high price for that knowledge. A good news was Oriana's suggestion about how to find the cloacked shuttle that was playing games with the Chimera. She suggested Antiproton scans like the USS Defiant did at Star Date: 48212.4. That idea could work even if the area for scaning was big and the shuttle they were searching for small ... but it was a start. A joint effort of Science and Engineering could do wonders here. "Did you inform Engineering about this?" Shane asked the ensign who noded: "Yes sir, the Chief send Lt. Hinderman to Engineering". Shane noded and handed the ensign the PADD back: "Give it please to LT. Foster for recording and please tell the 'Chief' that she did a good work ... but I need more ... I need the shuttle to be detectable". The Ensign noded and rushed away. ===== Some laters ===== Shane seemed to be patiently wating for anything new but he wasnt. He felt nervous. He knew little to none about the away team, the ship was still infected by some freaking virus and the shuttle was STILL lurking somewhere out there. Shane's finger almost jucked from the desire to do something. Again ... it was Foster who broke the relative silence on the bridge. "Sir, Lieutenant Versey just send a word that all ship's systems are functional now and that the virus sis safely removed from our systems. The only potentionally unsafe system are the transporters. The Lieutenant suggest not using them unless an emergency for a certain time". {Great} Shane thought at the begin of Andy's speach ... {Damn} he thought at the end. {Transporters are what we need the most} he thought. "Very well" he noded to Foster, "tell please the Lieutenant to go ahead with Oriana's idea of detecting the cloacked shuttle and ... can we contact the away team now?" he asked. Foster shook his head and Shane could swear to hear him sighing: "No Sir, the COMM is still blocked by the inhibitors in the facility. Unless they will contact us from the facility COMM station or leave the facility's perimeter, we cannot communicate with them" Shane was about to say something nasty when the COMM went alive. +TAPS+ Captain, Ra’nar here. + “Got any news for me doctor?” Shane asked. +TAPS+ I’m sending you some information. It may be best not to ask where I got it from, but it appears that the Jem’hadar no longer need White to survive sir.” + Shane rolled his eyes and fall in deep thought. Now it was quite clear who used the "secured" subspace communication several miutes ago. It was C'el who detected the communication. It was authorised by Omega access that belonged to noone on the ship and the source was located on deck six. The Cadet was unable to trace the exact destination but it was directed into Cardassian territory. And now their cardassian CMO spoke about got-out-of-nowhere informations. But that was ot his concern, even if he made a note to speak with the CMO about security clearance codes, his worry was the fact that the ex Super-soldiers of the dominion no longer needed the Ketracel white drug. Without that addiction, there was no easy way how to distinguish a Jem'hadar (or now called Marduk) that was chirurgically altered from a common fed citizen and the greatest weaknes of the Jem'hadar forces was now removed. It was not clear how it was exactly achieved or what effects it did have on the Jem'hadar and their physically and mentally atributes but Shane had a feeling of great troubles coming their way. {Damn it!} he curced mentally once again. ===== End of log ===== Cmdr. Shane Guzman CO USS Chimera