=En route to computer core= =U.S.S. Chimera= “I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. I graduated from the academy two years before you did and yet you make j.g. before I do. I can’t believe I’ve gotta call you sir.” Ensign Hector Gomez just kept shaking his head as he walked next to Rick down a corridor. “And to top it off, they put you in command of beta team,” Gomez continued. “Do you want a job on beta team?” Rick asked. “You’re damn right I do,” Hector responded. Rick just smiled at his friend, “I’ll see what I can do about getting you transferred to beta. It shouldn’t be a problem.” “You know, I think it was being stuck on that damn starbase,” Gomez said. “That’s why I’m still an ensign.” “Hitting on that ambassador’s daughter during your senior year at the academy probably didn’t help matters,” Rick said. “She was pretty sexy,” Gomez said. “And she was the one hitting on me.” “That’s not how I remember it,” Rick said as they entered the turbolift. “Shouldn’t you be somewhere else doing something ...?” “I’m following you to Deck 12, then it’s off to the lower shield controls,” Hector said. They were quickly deposited on Deck 12 and they arrived at the primary computer core. Rick entered the room, while Hector went on down he corridor. “Report,” Rick said, speaking to the three crewmen from his team that were currently in the room. “So far we’ve come up with nothing,” Weathersby said as she held a tricorder in one hand and punched in a few commands on a console with the other. “There has to be something,” Rick said. “You’re acting like you want to find a problem, sir,” she said with a smile. “I’d feel better about these modifications if there was one,” Rick said. “And there is a problem. Not knowing what it is means that there’s no way we can fix it.” He was concerned because something could happen to the ship’s at any moment and they would have no idea why. During the past few days, Rick had gained a better understanding of the modifications that were added by the starbase engineers. That didn’t mean, though, that he was any closer to knowing why the ship’s systems were working at a hundred percent efficiency. Rick had a bad feeling that, the moment they found out, it would be too late. To top that off, the longer it took to complete the diagnostic, the more likely they would run into the X’chi. Rick didn’t know that much about them, but he did know that having problems pop up while facing them was unacceptable. He took a seat at one of the consoles directly connected to the core and got to work. Lieutenant (j.g.) Rick Rodgers Assistant Engineering Officer U.S.S. Chimera and Ensign Hector Gomez (npc) Assistant Engineering Officer U.S.S. Chimera and Crewman Jo Weathersby Engineering Specialist U.S.S. Chimera