"Tell engineering that their diagnostics are suspended for a more suitable time later," said Guzman preparing the ship to enter the Spinward Marsh. Andy agreed with him in principal ... they needed all power to go toward powering the temporal shielding, and a level 1 diagnostic was an enormous drain on ship's resournces. Still, Andy agreed with Sean McTaggert's assessment that if ship's internal scans showed *all* systems functioning at 100 %, there almost had to be something amiss. Andy, generally a pretty cautious fellow, would have preferred to put off the continuing search for the Gott for a day or two, allowing engineering to finish the diagnostic and fix whatever was playing tricks with their monitors. He threw the XO one last questioning look, which was quickly countered with a firm nod. "Aye, sir," said Andy with a sigh and contacted engineering, receiving the expected barrage of angry protest by the acting CEO. "XO's orders," said Andy. "Trust me, Lt. McTaggert, I'm not happy with it either," he offered. "Aye, at least one voice of reason up there," replied Sean charitably, then adding with some bitter sarcasm, "can you do me a favour and tell them to step out of the airlock without EVA suits?" Andy bit his lower lip to keep himself from chuckling at McTaggart's outburst, seeing Guzman's sharp and disapproving head turn in his direction. "Just kidding," continued McTaggart before Guzman replied. "Breaking off Diags, let me know when we are able to continue, meanwhile, we'll have a tea party down here. That's pretty much all we seem to be allowed to do these days. McTaggert out." The ship entered the Marsh, under the delicate control of LtCdr. Harker at the helm, gently guiding them between temporal flux and eddies. There were several close shaves, but they were still in one piece when Andy's shift was over. The following morning, Andy found himself a little on edge from poor sleep -- he had breakfast in the mess hall, and bumped into the counselor, and complained offhand about being a little out of sorts. Athena nodded sympathetically and with understanding, explaining that the Marsh and its various time anomolies typically played tricks on the mind. It was even worse for the telepaths in the crew, she explained, and Andy smiled in sympathy. Later, on the bridge, the search continued. Scans were still turning up nothing, but it wasn't easy to penetrate the distortion of chrono-fields and temporal waves. Often it occured to Andy, as they made their way through the Marsh, they could be within a few kilometers of the Gott and never know it. Andy was helping go through the piles of scanning data, trying to catch any sign of the Gott, when his attention was diverted by a rapid beep from the tactical station. A massive temporal wave was approaching from their starboard aft quarter. Andy instinctively gripped the edge of his console, hoping Harker would be able to maneuver the Chimera away from the anomaly, but it became apparent from the helmsman's grimace that they weren't going to make it. Sparks flew from the secondary tactical station, next to Andy, and the ship rumbled and seemed to warp before stretching back into shape. "Report!" cried out Bretam in what appeared angry frustration, as he pulled himself back up to his feet. Andy quickly sorted through the incomping reports. "Temporal shields at 44% and rising, deflector output at 67%, I'm reading some buckling on the starboard nacelle pylon. Damage reports coming in from decks 7, 8 and 9, along with main power outages on those decks.” General, I'm reading a large gravity well dead ahead," added LtCdr Palmer from the primary science station, "it seems to be interfering with our sensors." Not a moment later, a different set of beeps blared out from the tactical station. Proximity alert. Bretam muttered something to himself and turned to Andy, “What is that damn proximity alarm for?” Andy got up from his chair and made his way over to the main tactical station on the other side of the back of the bridge. But before he was even halfway there, his attention was diverted by Harker, growling a curse. "Damn!" Andy could see, just as the rest of the bridge crew, on the main viewscreen: the distorted outline of a Nova class starship. Harker strained the inertial dampeners to bring the Chimera to a full stop. "I think we found the USS Gott, sir," stated the executive officer with irony. “Apparently,” replied Bretam sardonically, as the ship gently bobbed and tumbled in the residual waves. Bretam slumped back into his chair, laid the side of his chin against his knuckles and furrowed his brow. at the viewscreen. “Some one clean up that picture,” he glowered. Guzman turned to Andy and cocked his head toward him. Nodding, Andy got to work adjusting the ship's forward sensor arrays. Keylor asked Dexter, who was at the main Tactical station if the Gott had made any indication if they noticed the Chimera appearing right in front of them. “No sir," responded the junior officer, "it does not appear so. They are stationary. I don’t detect any weapons powering up, but their shields do appear to be raised, though I am getting some strange readings from tactical sensors.” Guzman went to look over Dexter's shoulder, and confirmed the inconsistent readings, guessing the anomalies were messing with sensor readings. Meantime, Andy had done about as much as he could with the main viewer. They seemed to be below and and portside of the Gott. Bretam frowned, squinting at the picture. “That is the best I can do, Sir.” Andy said. Bretam stood, and slowly walked toward the viewscreen, studying it closely. “What is the Magnification?” he asked aloud. “There is none sir," replied Andy, double-checking that they had, in fact, missed a collission by only a few thousand meters. "We appear to be right on top of them.” The General asked to back the ship away, but Palmer advised against it, citing that straying from their current position would probably land them in even more trouble with the gravitonic and temporal waves running rampant in the area. “Lieutenant," said Bretam, addressing Andy once again. "Evacuate the sections where the damage is. With the weakened shielding, and weakened hull I don’t want any accidents to happen. We can repair those sections as time permits." He went on to instruct him to contact Walsh to assemble the ODA teams and report to the shuttle bay. “Aye sir.” Andy quickly got to work, first notifying the flight deck that the three shuttles that had been on standby for the past 48 hours were now ready to be activated and readied for launch. Quietly, as not to interrupt the General's conversation with the XO, Andersen tapped his comm panel. "Operations to Major Walsh." "Walsh here," "Major, the General has ordered the Away Teams to assemble in the Shuttle Bay," said Andy, feeling bitter and nervous that circumstances had prevented him from being able to practice in the holodeck with X'Chi constructs. "Understood, Mr. Foster," replied Walsh. "Oh, and Foster. Get down here with enough time to be outfitted with a EVA suit and to meet your team. I don't want my marines to have to bail your ass out of a situation you get yourself into due to poor planning and a glass stomach." "Acknowleged, Major." Andy clenched his jaw and glared blankly at the viewscreen in front of him. Bastard! Poor planning?! Who was it who neglected to consider having the PADD-pusher even try ONE holo-simulation under a combat situation with his precious little marines. Andy's internal liturgy of angry frustration was interrupted by a strange and colorful pattern he saw on the main viewscreen out of the corner of his eye. Deep pinks and purples were swirling behind the Gott, making a sharp sillohette against the bright colors. Apparently the anomaly held the attention of the rest of the bridge, and Palmer and Bretam were in mid-conversation about it. "... would say that the Gott has been placed right in front of an extremely unstable temporal anomaly,” concluded Palmer. Andy guessed at the gist of the first part of the conversation. “Well we can’t sit here staring at this thing all day," grumbled Bretam. "The sooner we get going the sooner we can get it over with and get out of here.” He gave a few last orders, then turned to Andy. “Lieutenant I believe we have shuttles to fly. Once you are done here, Meet me in the shuttle bay.” Andersen nodded, and Bretam gave the bridge to Guzman, and left the bridge. Lt. Andersen Foster Operations Officer USS Chimera