**** Sickbay * USS Chimera **** Rangi picked her way across the debris to the medical lab. She stood in the entrance, surveying the room from right to left.Most of it had been destroyed. "Excuse me Ma'am?...we came to help?" Sally Schumann stood a few paces away accompanied by a second med technician. "Well....You're more than welcome!" Rangi said, stepping back and indicating they look inside. Sallys eyes widened in surprise "Oh" she said and glanced at Rangi."There's not much left is there!" Rangi shook her head and smiled at the understatement. "No theres not." "We can clear it up at least" Sally said and turned to her companion."Can you find us some brooms?" George Pucker nodded, his expression resigned.He turned away and headed for the storage area. "If we salvage all we can...try and get it back to some kind of order...we can restock from the cargo containers" Rangi said moving into the room. Sally followed. George returned with two brooms, a dustpan and a large collapsible recycle container which he set up near the door. "Right...lets get to it then" he said in a business like fashion and then realized he was talking to the CMO as he noticed Sally frowning at him but Rangi took a broom and didnt seem to notice any informality. "We'll see what we have left " she said and moved to the far end of the lab. "When were you last off duty?" she asked them as she prepared to sweep. "Just got back." Sally replied promptly."We met Sam Weaver...he's the that red headed cadet..you know...the one with a twitch? We were in Jefferies tube...twentytwo was it?" Sally glanced at George with the question but not waiting for an answer looked back at Rangi. ".....somewhere near there anyway.We'd gone down two levels hadnt we George?" Again the fair head turned to her friend and then back to Rangi before he had chance to reply. "And when we came out of the hatch, there was Sam! ...and he said why were we crawling around in there when the turbo lifts were working. Well..that was news to us wasnt it George?" This time Tech Pucker managed a nod of his head. "I said to Sam..it would have been good to have been told and he..twitched a bit...you know how he does..and he said he thought the message had gone out..and I said it hadnt but never mind I quite 'like' crawling around in tubes..not!!" Rangis eyes shifted to George who gave a sickly smile as she remet Sallys earnest face. "Any way...we asked about this place and Sam said the engineers were in here and all the deck was safe so I said to George 'Lets go and see what damage there is...we might be able to help' and George said...." She came to a sudden stop, looked at her friend who adopted an apprehensive expression and turned back to Rangi. "...'yes why dont we?' ...so here we are" she finished. Rangi nodded slowly. "Riiiiight" she said and after a moments pause began to sweep the shattered containers into a heap with great concentration. Sounds of sweeping broken glass filled the room. "Excuse me Commander." Rangi looked up. Varaans tall figure stood in the door way. "If you would care to see the restored equipment?" he said clearly expecting her to follow him. She stood her broom against the wall and walked swiftly to the door. "Be right back" she said to the two technicians. Sally smiled politely and George frowned. "Didnt I tell you we'd end up pushing brooms?" he whispered to her. Sally gave him a withering glance. **Main Sickbay** "Thats amazing" Rangi said, seeing the transformation. Varaan had been true to his word and sickbay looked like...sickbay. Inclining his head in acknowledgement he explained: "The four biobeds in the ICU are fully operational...as is the surgical bed." He walked in slow strides into the main bay as he spoke, Rangi walked quickly to keep up. "Unfortunately the main sensor cluster is not yet fully operational." He looked down at her face, his own typically free from expression."The secondary bio sensors are only at 68% readiness...I estimate another twenty eight minutes before it is complete." Rangi nodded thinking that he seemd to think it might be a problem to wait that long. "The surgical support frame was ...smashed..beyond repair.." he said "...but a replacement is on its way." "Thankyou" Rangi said, surprised that he would go to the trouble of organising that himself. Again he inclined his head and strolled away toward the nearest work station. "The relays here...6, 8 and 9....will be online shortly...otherwise you have 100% access to medical systems...histories..data..pharmacuticals and so on." He turned to face her."Your sickbay is 92.8% operational commander...not I admit..as much as I intended at this point." Rangi beamed at him. "Mr Varaan....you have worked a near miracle...its far more than I had hoped in so short a time." He raised his eyebrow and looked as astonished as its possible for a Vulcan to look. "I said three hours doctor there is still another twenty two minutes to elapse." Rangi paused,opened and closed her mouth, then said "Yes..quite.......I'll get back to the lab then...thankyou." **Med Lab** The two technicians had cleared almost all the mess and were beginning to take stock of the remaining undamaged items and supplies. "We have an almost fully restored sickbay" Rangi told them as she entered, satisfaction plain on her face."We can have patients transferred here within an hour." For a few minutes they worked together making inventories of supplies intact and those needing to be replaced. "Excuse me Ma'am." Sally said when George finished listing amounts of resusitives."But is it right that we were attacked by a Romulan ship?" Rangi set down her checklist seeing the concern on Sallys face.George moved to stand beside her. "A Warbird?" he asked. "Yes" Rangi replied. "But why did they fire on us?..I mean...we didnt infringe their space or anything did we?" Sally looked from George to Rangi. "No" Rangi shook her head." I dont know what brought about the attack.All I can tell you is that the Romulan ship appeared in front of Chimera..and without warning or reason,opened fire on us." "And then it disappeared?" Sally asked. "It cloaked before we could finish it." George said relaying the current rumour on the decks."It was all but dead...but its cloak was working." Rangi looked from one to the other. "I really dont know." she said truthfully." Both ships suffered severe damage.The Romulan vessel disappeared...thats all I can say." "You mean...its still there?" Sally asked, her eyes growing wide."Its repairing itself and might come back?" "We're underway Miss Schumann" Rangi replied and gave Sally a small smile. "If they were fit to fire on us...well they've had more than a few hours. We should be at the Kzenti homeworld soon. They're not likely to strike on us there." Sally looked at George whose expression plainly stated.'I told you that' She turned to Rangi. "I dont like Romulans much" she said. Her words were hardly spoken before the peace was shattered by an alarm. Through the open doorway, the trio could see flashing red lights. Rangi ran to the door.Sally clutched at Georges arm. "They're back" she said, and desperately looked around. Siezing the brooms leaning against the recycle container, she thrust one into his hands. "Do something!" she told him. In speechless astonishment he looked at the broom. *** End Log *** LtCmdr Rangi Summers CMO/AXO USS Chimera & Sally Schumann/George Pucker Med.Technicians & P/O Varaan Engineer (npc)s Rangi