<<Going back in time a bit, logwise, but I actually think it's only about a day, ship's time>> =/\= Engineering, USS Chimera =/\= Andy made his way back to the bridge after working several hours in Engineering with Kirkland. They'd attempted to make a localized phase disruptor, a device away teams could use to project a field around them that would play havoc with several subsytems of the Kzenti's body armor. They made quite a lot of progress on it, but still had the issue of making it small enough to be portable. Kirkland told LtCmdr Summers, and leaving it in engineering's capable hands, Andy left Engineering. Shortly after Andy returned to the bridge, things on the planet started heating up. Cpt. Walsh was expelled from the conference (why didn't *that* surprise him), and in reporting back to Cmdr. Summers, suggested that he head an away mission to the kzenti research station on the asteroid from which those troubling scans had originated. Shortly thereafter, a general alarm went up -- the counselor had gone missing, and romulans were suspected in a kidnapping. The talks on the planet were breaking down. The next morning, Andy spent several hours plotting a course through the asteroid field. Not being a navigator, Andy did his best to set a course to move the shuttle under the cover of one asteroid to under the cover of another another, hopping quickly from shield to shield. He had his doubts about its success, and hoped the shuttle pilot could think on his feet in case things went south. He touched base with engineering to find no further progress on the phase disruptors, and was disappointed to find that Walsh was taking his team in and was prepared to go without them. Idiot. Soon enough, the away team was ready, and the bridge received a call. "Walsh to Bridge. Permission to embark?" "You have a go Captain Walsh," replied Andy, coordinating with flight ops. He still felt that Walsh was being too hasty, but in retrospect, that shouldn't surprise him, given the man's impulsive behavior. And suddenly everything was turned upside-down again ... one of Athena's captors apparently activated the counselor's transponder, and beamed himself to sickbay. The romulan was promptly turned over to the brig, and Guzman returned to the ship, armed with the news that the counselor was, in fact, a prisoner of the Romulans (confirmed recently by the CEO). He coordinated with Rangi and medical staff to disguise a second away team as romulans, and beam aboard the Warbird to rescue the Counselor. Several hours passed while the shuttle slowly made its way toward the asteroid field, while the ODA team and support personnel went under surgery to resemble Romulans. Eventually the second away team were beamed over to the warbird. Making a gentle scan of the Romulan ship, Andy nodded to himself. He turned in his chair and addressed the CMO. "Away team has successfully transported to deck fifteen of the Warbird, Ma'am." "Very good, Mr. Foster," she said, imperceptibly relaxing. "Keep a close eye on our people there, Ensign Dexter. Lieutenant," Rangi continued, addressing Andy, "What's the status of Captain Walsh's shuttle?" "They're nearly in range of the station, Ma'am. Approaching the second of four waypoints," he replied, as he saw it draw slowly closer and closer toward the asteroid with the kzenti station. "ETA to the asteroid should be about 4 hours." "Status of the defensive systems on the asteroid?" "Weapons are still powered down, Ma'am," said Andy, glancing back toward Rangi, who sat pensively in the command chair, absently fingering the trio of pips on her collar. Several moments passed before her response came. "Very well," she said finally, standing and tugging on the bottom of her tunic, smoothing down the front of it, "keep me informed of any developments." With that, she left the bridge to Andy, and told him she would be in Sick Bay, to return in about fifteen minutes. Little changed as Andy monitored the progress of the shuttle, and Rangi returned promptly, followed closely by Consul Guzman, who asked to see her in the ready room. A few moments later, they emerged together, exchanged a few amicable sentances, and the ambassador retreated back into the turbolift. Rangi re-took her seat, and Andy took the tactical station; his customary ops console was being used by Ens. Dexter to keep watch on the away team on the Warbird. Time seemed to pass slowly, and the silence was starting to get to Andy. What was even more unnerving, was the tendency for all sorts of bad things to happen in clusters ... and by the lack of anything untoward happening in the last seven hours, the excrement was due to hit the fan any time. Sadly, Andy's fears were rewarded precisely on schedule. A rapid beeping coming from the Ops console was the first. "Commander, the Romulan Warbird just activated its cloak," said Dexter, jolted into unexpected attention. "I dont have it on the sensors anymore!" Rangi had a series of rapid-fire questions for the hapless ensign ... time, communication, transport ... all responding with increasingly unpleasant answers. At last, however, Dexter had a flash of inspiration: periodic tachyon scans should probably let the general location of the warbird be known. the Commander instructed him to go ahead, and soon the main deflector dish was flooding the area with tachyon emissions -- enough to create a ghost image of the warbird, which, curiously, hadn't moved. Just then, his own console started going insane. Andy looked down at his screen and counted in horror. One, two, three ... four. Four weapons platforms were charging, and taking a bead on Walsh's tiny shuttle. "Commander! Weapons systems charging on the Kzenti research station asteroid!" Before she could respond, two blasts rocketed past the shuttle, barely missing the small vessel. The following two, however, hit home. Andy's scans showed the shuttle's sheilds were nearly breached, and the flight plan was taking them beyond the asteroid that was their third waypoint, toward their final destination. The shuttle swung around the far side of the asteroid, out of scanning range, and the weapons platforms charged anew. Four more blasts rang out, and everyone waited in tense silence. Finally, Andy began to pick something up on his sensors ... debris. Two large clusters of space junk, definately federation in origin. They were too far away to scan in any great detail ... but something about it just struck Andy as somewhat wrong. The only sounds of the bridge, the persistent beeping of the tactical station, alerting them of the presence of four fully-functioning phase cannons. "Lieutenant Foster," said Rangi, finally breaking the silence. Andy turned toward the command chair. "Ma'am?" "Is there any sign of them?" Andy kept looking through the area just beyond the asteroid where they lost contact with the shuttle, and finally shook his head. "No Ma'am," he said, "just the two traces of debris, nothing else." There was a long pause before she responded, instructing him to continue scanning. He nodded, turning back to the tactical scan, and pursed his lips, his brow knitting in mild frustration. There just wasn't enough evidence to fully convince Andy that the shuttle had been destroyed. Not enough debris, no biomatter, no signs of hull. It wasn't likely. Still, where *was* the shuttle? Rangi had Dexter to continue monitoring the Warbird, preparing another tachyon scan, in case it was going to move. Curious, it cloaking, but then not move. Several tense moments slowly passed, and the Commander finally spoke up. "Lieutenant...go to yellow alert," she said, "and prepare to raise shields." Andy wondered what she had in mind, but dutifully flipped the yellow alert to "engaged" and the emergency lights began flashing yellow with a deliberate rhythm. ---------------- Lt. Andersen Foster Operations Officer