Sleight of Hand "
By: Samantha Carter, Security Officer, [RNPC]
Taylor , Marine , [NPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]
Keighlee Alexi, Engineer , [NPC]

Stardate: 58209.11 1622

From the command center's viewport of station TR-035, Sol looked small and insignificant. Keighlee closed her eyes and tried to re-energize the memories from a 12-year old girl.

She was waking on the beach in the warm afternoon sun, hand-in-hand with her mother. A pin-hole of sunlight shined through the center of a sand dollar which she held up, blocking the sun.

"That's a good one," said her mother, as Keighlee put it into the basket which had shells and other artifacts they had picked up on their morning excursion.

The memory faded away to the blackness of space that surrounded the the tiny pin-light sized sun in the distance. From here she could see Saturn and Jupiter. The view was magnificent, a view she shared for the moment with Sam Carter.

"Its beautiful," she said out loud to her.

"Indeed it is," Sam replied. "It's somehow... mysterious."

"Have you ever been to Earth?" asked Keighlee.

Sam shook her head. "No I can't say I have. Always wanted to go but never had the time and with the fighting and such.. Have you?"

She turned toward Sam to respond, "Yes I lived there until I was twelve."

"I heard it must be beautiful, lots water and patches of land."

Keighee sighed, "I don't remember much. But the holodecks seem pretty close to how I remember it."

She paused, "Where did you grow up?" she asked.

Sam giggled. "On Risa. As a matter of fact my parents traveled a lot, but we stayed on Risa most of youth."

Keighlee folded her arms and turned, leaning against the viewport. "Risa?" she smirked, "I've only heard stories. Tell me more!"

Sam smiled again.. "Ok Risa, aka the Pleasure planet. That is where most people come for a relaxed vacation. Ferengi come for Oomox, Humans for short time relation ships etc. The temperature is always constant. It only rains at night.. thanks to a weather control system. White beaches and palmtrees.

"Sounds like paradise."

"Of course there is more, but the main goal is for the Risain people is to show the visitors a good time.

"You mean as in....?"

"Risa is most noted for the frank and open sexuality of its native population." Sam continued. They are identified by a decorative emblem on their foreheads between the eyes, Risians often initiate or respond to the desire for sexual relations through the use of a small statuette called a horga'hn, the Risian symbol of sexuality or fertility. "

Keighlee blushed a little, "I've heard of that..."

If you display of a horga'hn announces that the owner wishes to participate in jamaharon, a Risan sexual ritual..."

Their conversation was interrupted by Keighlee's combadge. Max was ready for her.

"Perhaps we can continue this discussion later?" said Keighlee in a coy voice.

"Sure," Sam replied. "We could be here for sometime before the Zion arrives, so feel free to join me in the rec room sometime."

"If you could call it that," she said with a smirk, folded her arms and turned to go.

The station was tiny. A mere 3 decks, too small for turbolifts or even a transporter pad. She walked to the back of the command center descended a set of treadplate stairs which led to the deck below.

She paused and took a quick look up and down the short corridor. Eight tiny crew quarters lined one side. On the other, the mess hall and rec room. Then she continued on down to the engineering level.

This area of the station was, by itself, larger than the rest of the station combined. Amid the conduits and generation systems the constant thrum of plasma coursing from the station's tiny warp-core heart.

"Max?"

"Over 'ere!" the redheaded computer wiz called out.

Keighlee took a few steps in the direction of her voice and peered around an over-sized tandem EPS conduit and surveyed the area.

Bundles of taps and leads led from Max's make-shift workstation to various pieces of equipment where they were primitively patched into place. Max had been working relentlessly for the past 24-hours ensuring that there where no hidden security systems and that the Maquis Intel information about the tachyon system was accurate.

"What did you find?"

"O'roight," Max smiled at Keighlee. "I've checked out everything," she announced. "The blighters 'ave done some upgrades since our last intel," she continued. "I 'ad t'rewrite some of my subroutines, and the compiling process is just about finished," she nodded to her 'laptop' where the progress of the compiling routine was displayed on the screen. "Should be done in about five minutes. In the meantime... what I thought we could do was create a ... alternate tachyon grid," she grinned. "Then I'll jumper it in and voila! We'll be ready t'go."

She smiled at the computer tech, "sounds good," she said, "but reflectors t45 through t49 will have to mirror back to station T37 how..."

"Well... We'll use a rasterized array t'..." Max waved to the screen.

She was interrupted by Max's gesture, she paused as her eyes caught Max's idea on the display console.

"Interesting, so we're going to flood the tachyon emitters with a rasterized array of polarized photons. Will that work?"

"Should," Max nodded. "It sounds easier than it actually is," she admitted. "It's all really sleight of hand," she told Keighlee. "We show them what they want to see with this hand," she waggled a hand. "And make the hole over here with the other one." She dutifully waggled the other hand.

Keighlee brought up a display screen next to the one Max was using. Technical displays began to fill screen. "The station has triplicate redundancies."

"Shifty 'blighters," Max looked over Keighlee's shoulder. "That would explain why Engineering is so bloody big."

"We can pair the redundant generators to make it work. This will be better than the original mission specs because we won't have to drop the grid at all."

"Which will make our jobs a whole lot easier," Max agreed and then called out for Lt. Taylor.

Taylor heard his name being called as he slid down the stairs. Landing on the deck with a soft thud Taylor made his way toward the sound of his name. "You called?"

"I think we're ready, Lieutenant," Maxine nodded and looked to Keighlee for agreement.

Keighlee nodded, "Yes, I think it will only take a 2 or 3 hours to set up everything and make it work properly."

"Good work," said Taylor. "Once your modifications are complete go ahead and send 'the Signal'." The signal was a pre-arranged communications event that the away team would send to the Zion that would tell them that the door would be open.

She looked back at Max and nodded, "yes Sir!" she said smiling from Taylor's approval.