Sean listened half heartedly to the Generals speech. He had seen something like that coming in any case, the Spinward March was a fatal place, that for some reason atracted the Federation over and over again. The Intrepid, his prior ship, had had its mission there, barely coming out in one piece. His brother had faced the March and lost an arm there, the ultimate result being Angus frozen, and noone really knowing how to bring him back. The new shields and gadgetry invented by those Bragg bastards wouldn't help the Chimera either, Sean knew that in his heart. There would be complications, and the problem with that was, that every time there were complications, lives were lost and friends were put at unneccesary danger. Acceptable level of collateral damage was the technical term, thought Sean with bitterness. Of course, it wasn't any of those highranking Generals and Admirals that went there, it was always the bulk, the working men that exposed themselves, over and over again. Sean was a soldier, he would accomplish his duty, but he knew already, there would be no happy end to it. The March would never allow it. Like a giant, hungry creature, it sat there, in the middle of the inmensity of space, waiting for new victims, and SF command happily supplied them, seeing only numbers and studying the corpses afterwards. It seemed now, that not only the Federation had laid it's claws on the March, but all the species on the Alpha Quadrant. Sean had never heard of the X'Chi, but the information delivered to his PADD while the General spoke was really just the cherry on top. Insectoid race, collective hive-mind, strong, resistant exoskeletons, it sounded like a walk in the park really. Sean was still studying the scarce data recollected by the USS Coronado, when the General nodded at him and told him to expose his report. Sean stood up and looked around. "Thank you, Sir." he started and took another PADD from the table in front of him. He remained silent for a moment, as he discovered to his surprise a plate with a steaming beef in front of him. He hadn't realized this was a "work lunch" but suddenly, he felt very hungry. "Ok, we've managed to get almost everything done. The schedule is at 95% completed, even though we will not be able to comply to the given deadline, we should finish the final tests in three days tops. We have all the data necessary, kindly supplied by MCapt. Garsha to complete the job. There still are some modifications performed on our tactical systems, the parts that involve engineering will be worked out in a joint effort of Ens. Dexter, Ens. Rodgers and LtCmdr. Palmer, as scheduled. We should have the finals on that in 24 hours." he resumed the status. "Shield and Deflector systems will be fully operational in 8 hours, testing is to be performed starting then. I'd like all the involved personnel to cooperate and file a report to have a good overview. The modifications have already created problems with many ships systems, including science sensor arrays and replicator systems, therefore I need to know of any inconvenience asap to counter it quickly." Sean paused a moment and noticed that many of the assembled staff were hardly paying attention, focused on their plates. His tone took a slightly sharper note. "Even though I've given my personal opinion on this several times, I can't stress enough the importance of these modifications and how much they can play against us if not taken seriously. These are prototypes, and as such they are potentially faulty and dangerous. We have to be careful, all of us. I wont take any chances with them on this ship, and I wont allow any of the crew to do that either. Thank you" he finished and sat down harshly. The rest didn't seem to impressed and Seans mood went below freezing point. Even the steak didn't seem to be that yummy and with a rude gesture, he pushed the plate aside and placed a small plate filled with grapes in front of him. Absentmindly, he started to play with them, while listening to the other reports. He noticed one of the grapes to slowly roll to the side of the plate and tried to stab it with his fork, but as soon as the fork touched the grape, it flew from his plate and, describing a graceful arc over the whole table, landed straight in the new Helm officers left eye. Sean looked embarassed over to the officer called Harker. He hated when something like this happened. It seemed that physics always turned against you in the worst of situations and left you out in the cold. "Sorry" he muttered and pushed the plate aside, listening to the final reports with crossed arms. --------------------------------------------- Lt. Sean McTaggert DCEO (NPC) USS Chimera