=/\= USS Chimera, Bridge =/\= The damage seemed unsurmountable, and as Andy sat in the commander's chair, he wasn't overly thrilled with the prospect of being in command of a ersatz bucket of spare parts. Casualty reports continued to come in from all decks, which Andy dutifully condensed into a single report, along with repair progress and estimates from engineering details. He looked over at his Ops station, wishing nothing more than to return to the pleasant confines of data collection He let is gaze travel along the edge of the bridge, frowning briefly at the crimson stain on the carpet in front of the secondary science station, between his and Acheson's consoles. He hoped Ens. Oberlin would recover; he liked her. Hopefully, she was in good hands; MaiKai had been up earlier to collect her from the bridge and gave him a confident nod, indicating that the ensign should be alright. Mercifully, Guzman returned before anything untoward happened, and Andy happily returned command to him. As he took his seat, Guzman asked him to report. Andy tapped several times on his console, bringing up the report he'd been compiling while the Commander was inspecting the ship. "Life support 95%, shields 40% provided by the lover shields generators, one forward phaser array and three torpedo launchers operational, one quarter of impulse speed, short range scanners with 56% efficiency, no long range scanners, short range communication operational but no subspace communication, trasporter room 2 operational." Andy looked up, and Guzman nodded for him to continue. "Lifts are working on some scetions on deck 1 to 4, 7 to 13, sickbay should be operational in one hour. Replicator netwok functional on 75%, Shuttle bay one opearional, secondary coputer core operational" "Thank you Mr. Foster," replied the commander, taking his seat before having a conversation with engineering. All told, Andy was pretty impressed with the speed in which repairs had been made, considering the beating they'd taken from the warbird. Foster then heard Guzman instruct the helmsman to make their way to the Kzenti homeworld. Andy knew that sensor readings were more than adequate (and probably superior to) the main viewscreen, but it gave him the willies nonetheless to be flying the ship without the benefit of a visual. "Course set," replied York, "one quarter impulse. ETA 56 minutes". "Engage," said Guzman with a nod, and Andy felt the minor lurch against the inertial dampeners. Yet another thing on engineering's list of things to do. In the meantime, Andy felt he might put himself to good use, and start giving engineering staff a break by trying his hand at repairing the main veiwscreen. Grabbing a toolkit, Andy made his way toward the front of the bridge, removed an access panel from under the base of the screen, and peered inside. With any luck this might be something simple. A couple of fried relays later, Andy neared completion of his task, and he overheard Lt. York report that they were nearing high orbit of the planet. A moment later, Andy finished the last few repairs to the main screen, and heard the satisfying hum of the screen powering up. As he crawled out, he heard a faint beeping from the far side of the bridge, near tactical. "Sir, I am picking the signature of a Romulan Warbird," reported Acheson tensely. "It's thirty thousand km away in front of us." Acheson tapped his console again: "I am reading heavy damage on that Warbird, but its weapons are charged". Damn! thought Andy, and he peered at the screen, trying to judge where the warbird was, off in the distance, as Guzman called for Red alert, and instructed Acheson to hail the Warbird. Thirty thousand km could be closed pretty quickly, but without magnification, they weren't going to see the warbird on the main viewer. Andy's work, however, did go to good use, for Acheson's hail didn't go unanswered. The space field in front of them was replaced with the image of an extremely agitated Romulan commander. "How dared you to attack us without warning or any war declaration," thundered the romulan commander at Guzman. "This will have a very negative effect on the relations between the Romulan Star Empire and the foul Federation. And you Captain will be blamed for all of that". Andy carefully watched Guzman's reply, somewhat relieved that he didn't let himself be overcome by sputtering outrage or confusion at the accusation. The two continued an exchange for some time, while Acheson quietly made scans of the vessel, while Andy did what he could to route extra power to scanners and astrometrics to help him out. Eventually, it came out that (a) this wasn't the ship they'd been fighting; yet (b), they had definately recently been in a fight with a federation vessel. The counselor, who had accompanied Guzman when he returned to the bridge, upon hearing the second conclusion, asked if any Romulan or federation ships had disappeared in the region. Guzman threw a questioning glance at Andy, whose fingers danced over his console, accessing sectory flight history. "Two trader ships from the federation around SD 240211 ... and one steamrunner class ship, the USS Steam on SD 240409. But none were directly in this sector". Nodding to Andy, Guzman returned his attention to Athena and shook his head, noting that steamrunner class ship would be little a match for a Romulan Warbird. The debate continued unabated for another minute when Andy's eyes bugged slightly as he saw two ships decloak off their port bow. Acheson reported them instantly. To thier relief (or at least to Andy's) they didn't seem to be interested in a fight. On the contrary, it seemed their "hosts" had decided to send out a welcome party, such as it was. They cut the connection with the warbird, and accepted a transmission from one of the Kzenti vessels. Andy swallowed hard at the borglike creature who stood before them, who instructed members both SSF and RSR vessels to rendezvous in less than two hours. They stood down red alert, and things went back to normal for a bit ... Andy continued to help science and tactical get sensors fully operational. Soon afterward, however, something caught his attention. "Sir, I am reading a strange signal coming from the asteroid belt between the third and fourth planet," he reported. "I cant get exact readings but its without doubt an artificial signal. Quite a weak one, but a steady one". "Anything we should be concerned about?" asked Guzman. Andy shrugged. "I am not sure Commander, I would like to do some more detailed scans of that signal ... just to be sure". Shane nodded, and instructed him to coordinate with Lt. Oriana to get some more detailed scans, before asking for one final report on repairs. Foster tapped his console and replied: "Repairs still going on in all damaged sections. Engineering reports that we should have warp energy in about 6 hours". Shane noded: "Very good, please keep pressing on engineering to speed things up. We might need that warp energy sooner then we think ...". "Aye, sir," he replied, not really liking how that sounded. Lt. Andersen Foster Operations Officer USS Chimera