Pacifica #55"
By: Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 0115

It was dark in sickbay, only Teilani’s office was dimly lit. She had given the most of her crew some time off to prepare for the upcoming battle.

Undoubtedly they would say an extra prayer or at one of their favourite meals. Teilani could not afford herself to such luxury she had to be ready and she could only wish it would be over soon.

“Computer activate EMH.”

“Please state the nature of the medical emergency, “ the image of the EMH said as he appeared just outside Teilani’s office.

“There is no emergency Bones,” she replied. “I just wanted to check up on you.”

The holomatrix of the EHM shimmered slightly. “What is wrong with your holomatrix Bones?” Teilani asked. “Can you perform a self diagnostic?”

“What you think I am an engineer,” Bones replied gruffly.

“Just do it.” Teilani said smiling. “Computer check diagnostic of the EMH.”

“All parameters are within normal values,” the reply came. “Indeed Bones claimed. “I am working fine.”

Then again the images shimmered and Bones became translucent. “Bones, look at your self you are a ghost now.’ Teilani said with a worried look. *Just what she need now, she thought a malfunctioning EMH.”*

“Oh heck, I seem to be dissolving.” Bones said in his whiney voice. Teilani walked over to a console and pulled up the holomatrix parameters. According to her knowledge there was nothing wrong and yet the image became more and more translucent.

“Bones, I’m shutting you down o.k. I will have Ensign Tappert take a look at you.”

“Don’t make me disappear Doc,” Bones pleaded. “I refuse to become a ghost.”

“Yeah yeah, “ Teilani said with a sly smile. “You will be fine. Computer shut down EMH.”

With a small flash Bones disappeared and Teilani looked at the readings on the console. The program looked fine, there were not any flaws what so ever, not as far as she could determine.

Teilani tapped her combadge.

“Dane to Ensign Tappert. Sorry to bother you so late Ensign but I could use your expertise with the EMH. He seems to be malfunctioning. Could you meet me in sickbay please?”

Pacifica #56"
By: Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]
Krystal, Pixie Hologram , [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 0120

With a small flash Bones disappeared and Teilani looked at the readings on the console. The program looked fine, there were not any flaws what so ever, not as far as she could determine.

Teilani tapped her combadge.

"Dane to Ensign Tappert. Sorry to bother you so late Ensign but I could use your expertise with the EMH. He seems to be malfunctioning. Could you meet me in sickbay please?"

"I'll be right there, ma'am," Maxine promptly responded and grabbed her pack as she headed towards Sickbay.

"Weeee! Here we go! OH Wait.... He's the guy that tries to smack me with trays!" Krystal had to point out as she stood on Maxine's shoulder and clung to a lock of hair.

"Just behave," Maxine warned her. "Sickbay," she instructed the turbolift after stepping inside.

"I always behave," the pixie hmph'd.

"Roight... Sometimes I wonder..." the computer tech eyed the hologram.

"Hah! We're here!" Krystal announced when Maxine stepped into Sickbay a few minutes later.

"Ensign Tapert reporting, ma'am," Maxine ignored the pixie as she spoke to Dane. "What seems to be the trouble with the EMH?

"Hello Ensign, sorry for the late hour."Teilani replied. "Look this is what is happening."

"Computer activate EMH." she said a second time

"Please state the............" Computer mute," Teilani said'. As the EMH appeared he glared at Ensign Tapert and at the little Pixie. His mouth was moving but to Teilani's delight no insults etc were audiable.

"See his matrix seems to be destabilazing everytime. I have been unable to find out why."

"Oh dear..." Maxine watched the EMH with a quirked brow.

"He looks good that way," Krystal volunteered and gave the doctor a pleased grin. "You should keep him like that."

"Have you had anything unusual happen today, doc?" Max asked as she pulled open an access hatch to the control panel for the holoemitters and field generators, and began running a diagnostics on them.

"No nothing, he always worked fine," Teilani said watching Max working. The little pixie hovering next to her.

"Hmmm... I'm running a diagnostic on the holoemitters and field generators first," she explained. "In case it's an easy fix..."

Bones looked utterly displeased and gestured to his mouth. "There," Teilani said, "look it is happening again. It looks like some sort of a power failure."

Maxine moved to look critically at the EMH and hmmm'd again. "Or a disruption of some kind..." she mused thoughtfully, and accessed a terminal, pulling up the program to look at.

"Krystal, access the power grid and see if there are any fluctuations. Especially around Sickbay..." Max commanded softly.

"Aye, Aye, sir!" The little pixie saluted and the fluttered around the EMH a moment, dodging his hand before disappearing with a spray of golden dust.

Teilani smiled as she noticed the EHM trying to swat the pixie. She had to teach him that she was not a treat but only there to help him.

"The code looks good..." Maxine told Dane as her eyes scanned it. "So it has t'be something physical. Let me check the diagnostic routine I left running on the holoemitters and field generators..."

Teilani looked closely at the concentrated face of Maxine. She surely was good at her work.

"Hmmm.. Holoemitter and field generators look good too...." Tapert put away her diagnostic equipment and looked up when Krystal popped into view on top of her head and peer over to look at her upside down. "Got it...." she fluttered her wings and grinned at her creator.

"Which conduit?" Maxine asked with a quirk of her brow.

The little pixie 'hmph'd' before answering with a rather proud, "ODN Grid 5, Section S-31".

"You were right, ma'am; seems to be a misalignment of one of the ODN conduits. I'll just tweak it a bit," Maxine informed Dane and set about realigning it. "Let me know when he looks good..." Although her adjustment would be much more accurate than that.

Teilani looked at Bones which was still pacing around sickbay, his arms crossed infront of his chest and looking terribly cross. His apperance shimmered again, faded completely and then suddenly came back.

"Seems that he is fully operational again Max." Teilani said with a smile and a yawn.

She tapped a console to give Bones a voice again. "Finally he said in his prissy voice. "Do you know what it is like not hearing yourself. And what are they doin' here?"

The pixie preened her wings at the 'they' and wiggled her fingers at the EMH, making sure she stayed out of swatting range of course.

"Bones, they fixed your holomatrix. Seems like engineering made some error during routine maintenance."

Maxine put her tools away and stood next to Dane as she eyes the EMH critically. She finally grinned around the ever-present isolinear chip in her mouth. "He's kinda cute when he get all riled up like that, isn't he?" Leave it to Maxine to find a hologram attractive.

"That little fly help out as well." Bones said glaring at the pixie. "Hmmmpf suppose she could be useful."

"Hey! I'm -just-the-same-as-*you*-, you know," Krystal pointed out carefully and hmph'd at Bones. "Only you're bigger and I'm smaller and much prettier and I have wings." She preened some more and ran her little pixie fingers over the array of 'baubles' and sparkling 'trinkets' that decorated her hair and person. "I could make your hair pretty like mine," the pixie offered.

Maxine rolled her eyes and couldn't help giggling at the thought of Bones with decorated braids and dred locks.

Despite the late hour Teilani laughed. She too had the mental picture of Bones with braids and curlers.

"Thank you so much Ensign, Krystal," Teilani said. "Again I m sorry for the late hour. With a nod Max and Krystal left sickbay there was just enough time to get some rest.

Pacifica #54"
By: Ryan-Steven ‘Rusty Ryan’ Madriani, Marine CO, [PST]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 0600

Wright stood outside holodeck 2. He scanned the display and found that the marines were training on board an Akira class ship. Wright figured that they were running a boarding part simulation.

Wright entered the holodeck. He found himself standing in a corridor. There appeared to be no one present. Wright could hear the sounds of battle, so he headed in that direction. The lights suddenly went out. Wright groped his way down the hallway. A Phaser blast impacted the wall above his head. Wright instinctively crouched down and continued down the hallway.

The sounds of battle grew louder and Wright could now see heavy phaser fire ahead. As he approached, he was grabbed from the side. "Commander," said a marine, "Get down. What are you doing here?" The marine signaled to his men and they closed around Wright.

"I came to see how things are going," whispered Wright. Wright was impressed that the Marines did not even break role. They treated his arrive the same way they wold if it happened for real.

"You picked a bad time," he replied. A group of federation marines came around the corner. Madriani's men wasted no time in putting down the federation men. "I'm Second Lieutenant Wilkins said the young marine as he took the weapon from a dead federation soldier and handed it to Wright, "Here you better take this."

Together he and the Marines made there way through the the ship. They encountered several small skirmishes along the way. They were slowly making their way to main engineering. The closer they got they tougher the battle became. Finally, his small group met up with the larger force and descended upon main engineering. After an intense battle they proved too much for the federation men and took control.

Madriani entered the Engineering section and visually surveyed the scene. Forty-Six Minutes, execution was nearly perfect he noted. Except...Commander Wright was present.

One of the Marines promptly approached him with a salute. Engineering secure SIR!" A moment later his combadge chirped, "Bridge is secured Sir." Acknowledge he answered.

He approached Commander Wright, "Wilkins!" barked Madriani.

"Yes Sir?" he said snapping to attention.

"Status?"

"Sir we attained our objective and found the Zion's XO and secured him as well."

"Good Job Wilkins." Madriani turned to Wright, "Commander, how are you?" asked Madriani.

"Very good Major. I have been drilling with you men. I have to say that I am impressed," said Wright with a smile, "Very impressed."

Madriani smiled briefly, "I appreciate that Commander, but if you will excuse us, we have more work to do."

Wright nodded, "Carry on Major."

Madriani saluted Wright and turned barking, "Wilkins!"

Wilkins snapped to attention, "Sir!"

"Please assemble a team and get the XO to the extraction point ASAP."

"Yes Sir!" he replied with a salute.

A team of Marines promptly surrounded Wright. "Are you ready Sir?"

Wright nodded. The marines were ready, he thought, as they left engineering.

Madriani watched as the team escorted Wright to safety, he returned his attention to the drill.

Pacifica #57"
By: Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]
Ryan-Steven ‘Rusty Ryan’ Madriani, Marine CO, [PST]

Stardate: 58205.27 0630

Location sickbay

A soft snorring came from the doctors office, and anybody which would be looking around the corner would see Teilani fast asleep. Her head lied on the desk and her arms curled around it.

"Doctor!" yelled the marine medic who assisted the young marine who hobbled on one leg.

"Ma'am, we have a minor injury," said the medic, "Private Dunson injuried his ankle."

Teilani startled as she woke up, she had dozed off for a second and rapidly blinked. She got up and quickly walked to the door.

Trying to hide a yawn she re-directed the Marines to the examination room.

"Go sit on there Mr Dunson," she said patting one of the bio beds.

Obediently the young man complied.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Teilani asked, getting her tricorder.

"Yes Ma'am," said the Marine with a wince as Teilani examined his leg, "we were training, I fell off an engineering catwalk. If the safety protocols weren't on, I suppose it would have been much worse."

"I see, were you practising in the dark then." she asked. Madriani must be mad having these guys training in engineering in the dark.

"Uhm, no Ma'am, just regular training."

"What kind of training were you doing so early in the morning?" "Simulated take over of an enemy ship Ma'am, the CO wants us to be ready on a moments notice."

She carefully scanned the young privates ankle. "You have just sprained it. I can give you something for the pain and the rest is up to you. You need to have at least 3 days of rest. Keep your leg elevated and do not put pressure on it. It will be fine then."

The young man looked disappointed.

Suddenly Madriani entered sickbay he approached them. "Good morning Doctor," he said.

"Major," Teilani replied. Keeping her eyes on the young private. She grinned a little as she noticed the disappointed look on Dunson's face. He probably wanted some time off.

He nodded at the marine on the biobed, "How is he?"

"He will be fine in a few days, his ankle is not broken but severely sprained. I am afraid you have to miss him for a few days". Teilani administered some pain killers to the young private and then turned her attention to Madriani.

Madriani frowned. "Can he at least man the weapons bay?"

"I think he can. In three days that is. I might be able to make that 2 if he comes back tomorrow." Teilani responded placing her tricorder back at the little table.

Madriani's frown deepened more. He nodded at the two men, "Dismissed."

They gingerly left sickbay.

Madriani turned to the Doctor, "May I have a word with you in private?"

"By all means Major," Teilani said gesturing to her office.

She walked in and after getting her self a steaming hot coffee she sat down behind her desk.

"What can I do for you?"

Madriani held up his hand, "No thanks."

He cleared his throat, "I'll keep this brief..." Madriani looked the most uncomfortable Dane had ever seen him. "The last time we met, my behavior was less than exemplary. For that I apologize."

He stood somewhat at attention as if to permit himself to be judged by Dane.

Teilani scrutinized him, she had not forgotten the way he had treated her and her crew that time. She took another sip from her coffee and grinned. Let him sweat for a moment, she thought.

Madriani stood with out moving waiting for her to respond.

Then after a few moments she said. "Apologies accepted Major."

Madriani assumed an "at ease" stance, "Thank-you Doctor, if you will excuse me we have further preparations."

Teilani nodded and watched Madriani leave. She then leaned back in her chair and finished her coffee.

Madriani turned and left.

One more exersise"
By: Samantha Carter, Security Officer, [RNPC]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 0900

Crewman Hughes looked at the ground for some reason he could not get it right and come to think of it Carter seemed to have it in for him from the start. "Stupid bitch," he thought.

Wright was a bit surprised by Lieutenant Carter's lack of control. He made a note to discuss it with Chief Jarvis, perhaps Carter could use some remedial leadership training.

Sam looked at the security details, she had worked him pretty hard for the last couple of hours. She had made herself a vow never to let anything like last time happen again.

"Alright, clean up the mess and get yourself clean up as well. Briefing in 1 hour."

"Report Lieutenant," said Wright, "How are things going?"

"Sir," Sam said bearly able to keep the tiredness from her voice. "Despite some hickups the crew is ready."

Wright nodded but did not say anything. Sam smiled and contined with her evaluation of the training exercize. She guessed Ms Jarvis would want to have a look at it.

tbc

Why are we here?"
By: Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1015

Habitat. Environment. A place, not a thing, not a ship. A moving place. Instead of “I’m a citizen of this sector or that system, this planet, that outpost,” the answer would be “I’m a citizen of the Federation.”

Teilani could only hope that some day the war would end that there would be a place for everybody. That there would be a total unity within the Federation. The first step toward people’s being at home on a planet instead of only on a ship. The principle from the old United States, basically; it didn’t matter if you were raised in Vermont and lived in California. You were still home, still American.

A few decades of space travel, and the statement became “I’m a citizen of Earth,” and no matter the country. This ship, the Zion was that kind of first step. When the war had ended. Whether born on Earth or Epsilon Indi VI, you were a citizen of the Federation. The children on this ship would visit the planets of the whole Federation and feel part of each, welcome upon all. This star ship was the greatest, most visionary melting pot of all, this space going colony. Unique. Hopeful…………… and risky.

Teilani wondered why she suddenly thought of this. Was it the upcoming war, the pain she felt remembering loosing relatives. The uncertainty…….. she did not know. Turning back towards sickbay she finished her coffee. She placed the mug down on a console and smiled. Nobody was going to die, not while she was there.

Top Gun "
By: M'Ressha Mikaht, Fighter Pilot (NPC) , [RNPC]
Bart "Burner" Reed, Fighter Pilot , [RNPC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1400

Mikaht, known as 'blitzer' in by the other 'top guns' entered the briefing just before it was to start. He spotted Burner and took a seat next to him.

The Wing Commander stood up and addressed the squadron, "Okay listen up. The Zion has been ordered to assault a Federation invasion force consisting of several different classes of ships. You will find the information on your mission specs."

Blitzer picked up us PADD and thumbed through it quickly and glanced at Burner for a reaction.

Burner paged though the PADD. "We have some action," he thought as he smiled at Blitzer and have him the thumbs up sign.

"It is likely that Captain Hunter will give the order to deploy the wings," he continued. "Blitzer will be wing leader for Alpha squadron," he said looking at him and then shifting his glance, "Burner will be his wing man. Nova will lead Bravo Squadron TNT will be her wing man..Charlie squadron will..."

Blitzer finished looking through the mission. He couldn't remember a time they were against such odds.

"...Any questions?" asked the Wing Commander.

The squadron was silent. "Dismissed."

Blitzer got up and followed Burner out the door.

Burner grinned as they left. "This is what we have been training for Blitz, Let's light em up."

Mikaht squinted his eyes a bit as he smiled widely with a long-slow nod, "oh-yeah."

They entered the turbo lift followed by Nova and her wingman, TNT. "They are giving you boys ahead start," jeered Nova, "otherwise there'd be nothing left for you to shoot." Burner laughed, "With your records, I'm surprised they let you off the holodeck."

Blitzer scrunched up his face to keep from laughing.

TNT stepped forward to and attempted a comeback, "oh yeah, well.." but drew a blank. "See ya on the outside" said Burner, "Try not to wet yourselves," he said as the doors whooshed open. Blitzer and Burner walked across the flight deck to their fighters. "How are they looking," shouted Burner up to the tech working on his ship.

"You just bring my ship back in one piece flyboy," said the tech as she jumped down from the fighter. "Good luck guys."

Mikaht jumped into his fighter and went through the systems check. The ship's armaments were fully load. He initiated the fighter's impulse engines and ignited the main propulsion systems. The ship lifted off the flight deck and he maneuvered it into launch chute.

Now all there was to do was wait.

Burner, like Mikaht climbed up into his fighter and ran through the pre-flight check. When he was satisfied, he waved at the ground tech and followed her signals into the launch tube. "Alpha two at standby for launch," he announced.

Burner opened up his comm link. "Hey Blitz, you are real quiet today, you alright," said Burner to his friend in the next launch tube.

Mikaht broke his concentration and flipped open the com link. "Yeah, Burner, I'm fine. I just can't wait to... light 'em up."

Burner shrugged, "Ok boss, just checking." Burner sat quietly reviewing his PADD and listening to the rest of the squadron report their status. Waiting for the launch command was always the hardest part.

Mikaht closed his eyes and thought about the last night. His ears twitched a little, then he shook his head and focused. Mikaht was an excellent fighter pilot, his Caitian reflexes made it hard for humans to rival. There was only human who had ever been a match for him. He was just glad that human was flying next to him.

"Come on baby light my fire," sang Burner into the comm link. "Man I hate waiting."

Blitzer's ears flattened against his head, "Yeah, its almost as bad wailing" he said with a smirk.

Suddenly a ready light came on. The ship was under red alert. It wouldn't be long now.

Evaluation and T charts "
By: Samantha Carter, Security Officer, [RNPC]
Patia Zoei, Chief Counselor, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1415

Location counselors office.

Absently, Zoei shifted from side to side. Her toes grazed the floor as she rotated in her chair. Slowly, her fingers tapped a beat, the steady tattoo matched the rhythm of her heart thrumming in her ears. The subtle vibration of the ship filled her. Her eyes drifted closed as she attuned herself to the crew. It was a good day. Anticipation was high. Fear was at a minimum. The crew was at the ready. Her eyes snapped open. The next name on the roster was Sam Carter. Unbelievably, considering the time spent on her away missions and then her transition from Intel to Security, Zoei had never had the opportunity to meet with Carter, other than the brief meeting during dinner.

Zoei to Carter

Carter here, go ahead Counselor

When it is convenient, I have a review that needs to be completed for your jacket

Sam frowned as she heard the request. Review? "I will be on my way Ma'am. Carter out."

Leaving a brief synopsis about the training session for Ms Jarvis, Sam walked briskly towards the turbolift. "Counselor office.' she stated calmly.

"What would Ms Zoei want from her, she was in no need of phycologial aid."

The turbolift halted and Sam walked out. Greeting some other crewmembers she halted before Patia's office

She pressed the chime.

"Enter," Zoei called.

"Hello Ms Zoie. You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, please have a seat." Zoei gestured toward the sitting area of the office.

Sam looked around the office, clearly decorated to make everybody at ease. She stiffly walked towards the couch and sat down.

"The review is a process I go through for each crew member on the ship. I noticed, as I was reviewing files, I don't have one in your jacket. This is just an opportunity to chat about your thoughts and feelings and for me to be able to notate, for the record, your status. The first visit is a formality. If you have the desire for any further visits, that is up to you. The only exception to that would be if there was a situation which should have recommended you for an evaluation. Do you have any questions?" she asked.

Sam shook her head. "No Ma'am." Sam sighed inwardly, talking about feelings and thoughts were not her strong point. She was more a private person concerning that

The corners of her eyes crinkled slightly as she watched the security officer across from her. She found those in security and intel to be the most reseverd of the crew. This one had been in both.

"What kind of questions will you be asking?"

"Let's start with 'Tell me a little about yourself'" Zoei requested.

"There is not that much to tell Ms, " Sam started. "I grew up on a hars planet, my parents were sceintists so they did not have much time for us. That is my sister and myself. The planet we lived on was populated by pirates, gangs you name it."

Zoei nodded.

"I learned to defend myself at an early age. As well as protect my family.

"When did you decide to join the Maquis?" she asked.

Sam looked directly at Patia and then her gaze wondered off. "It was in our 5 year when the Federation seiged the planet we were on. We had not heard much about the war, it was far from us. My parents got arrested and we were put in an prison camp."

Sam paused before she continued. "Live was hard and many others died. We were lucky to survive but it took my parents all their savings and more to get us out of there. Then after some travels we ended up on Qultuq and thats where I decided to join the Maqui."

"Did you start in Intel?" Zoei asked.

Sam's eyes began to sparkle and she nodded. "Yes I did, according to my teachers at the academy I had a flare for finding out information, probably because I am so plain. You know, average."

"I love intelligence work, trying to find out what is going on by using just the tiniest bit of information. Using various contacts on off worlds, snitches etc.

"Do you miss it? Would you go back to it?" Zoei asked.

Sam blinked a few times. "I miss it very much. Don't get me wrong Counselor, security is good too but patrolling the ship and doin the daily training session with the rest of the gang tends to get boring."

"So to be honest, yes I would love to go back but I guess Miss Jarvis will not let me go."

"Why did you leave Intel? And have you asked Lieutenant Jarvis for a transfer?" Zoei asked.

"It was not my choice Ma'am," Sam said sadly. When we, that is Lt Atwood and myself came back from our mission, Captain Hunter found it better when I transferred to Intel."

"Understandable," Zoei nodded.

"I rather not talk about him, that chapter is closed now."

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she watched the repressed emotions play across the surface of Sam's face. They were restrained, and wouldn't have been noticed by anyone not specifically looking for them. "Have you asked Lieutenant Jarvis about a transfer back to Intel now that Lieutenant Atwood is no longer on board?"

Sam shook her head. "No, I did not ask and besides that archeology woman is in charge there. Sam's voice dripped with sarcasme. She normally did not judge another but she did not like that Northrop woman. Also I do not know if Ms Jarvis will grant it."

Sam looked away from Patia and tried to hide her emotions. She was jealous because Alyssa had basically taken over her job. She missed Intel but on the other hand she liked security too. She had made some nice friends there.

"Would it damage your relationship with Lieutenant Jarvis if you approached her regarding a transfer? Would it even be worth it to you, considering your current feelings toward the Chief Intel officer?" Zoei tucked her foot underneath her leg and propped her chin on her knee as she waited for the answer.

"Well me and Ms Jarvis get along resonably so she might not mind I dont know." Sam said hesitantly. Sam shrugged. "You know I do feel more at home at intell and I am a professional so I just have to set my feelings aside."

"But what do you think Ma'am," Sam asked in her turn. "Where do you think I would fit in better?"

"My opinion is, you need to decide where you are most comfortable, personally and professionally. You have reasons to want to return to Intel and you have equally valid reasons why you would not be comfortable there, at this time. Nothing you have said today would lead me to believe Security hasn't been a good fit for you, and wouldn't continue to be a good fit. It will boil down to your personal preference. Have you ever used a 'T Chart' for decision making?" Zoei asked.

"T Chart Ma'am," Sam asked. "I can't believe I did. What does it do exactly?"

"If you make a T, on one side place 'positives' and on the other 'negatives'. You would do this for both Intel and Security. Once you have the graph made, you can list all of the benefits and drawbacks of each position."

"Well honestly speaking I feel more at home at Intell. So if I use that chart will it not be predetermined then?"

"Not necessarily. As you write, you may find there are advantages to Security that are not readily apparent when you first think of it. This will offer you the chance to examine your decision, point by point, before you make it. The outcome may match how you feel about Intel currently, or, it may change how you feel about Security as a whole. Either way, you will be able to be confident you made the best decision for yourself in this time and place in your life." Zoei smiled slightly.

Sam shrugged. "I already have a lot of paper work." She hated paperwork and although she did not want to displease the counselor Sam tried to avoid having to complete the chart.

"I already know how I feel about Security and Intell." Sam said softly. "I ...... I am pretty confident in what I want. She paused. Sam let her eyes wonder around the room, it was like the Academy she plainly wanted to be the best.

"Then that is what you should pursue. A T chart wouldn't be an assignment, and it wouldn't be anything for anyone other than you to see. If it isn't going to help, though, don't feel like you should do it. Will you be talking to Lieutenant Jarvis soon, do you think?" she asked.

"I think it would be better to talk to her after the mission. But ehrm would you mind if you were there as well. As a buffer I mean. We both have some explosive.... well we can be persistant and such." Sam shrugged.

"I think that would be very wise to wait," Zoei nodded. "I would be happy to serve as an intermediary, although, I am sure it will be unnecessary. You are both well respected officers. I am sure it will be fine. Neutral ground is always good, though, so you are more than welcome to meet here."

Sam nodded and smiled. She tried to glance at her chronometer in a way that Patia would not notice.

Although the movement was subtle, it did not escape the attention of the counselor. The lieutenant before her hadn't been anxious for this meeting to begin with and was now more than ready for it to conclude.

"Would there be anything else Ms Zoei," Sam asked. "I need to get back to work."

"Nothing else, Lieutenant, good luck with your preparations." Zoei nodded as she rose.

Sam stood up and walked towards the door. "Thanks Ms Zoei. It surely was nice talking to you."

"It was nice talking to you as well. You are welcome to stop by any time."

Safe Haven "
By: Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]
Chester , Cat , [NPC]
Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1440

Chester had a knack for getting out of the Captain's quarters. It just wasn't safe, Hunter thought to himself. Not to mention the quarters on deck two were in one of the most vulnerable areas of the ship.

Scooping Chester up, he put him in an animal carrier and took him to deck eight. Stepping from the turbo lift Hunter quickly made his way to Sickbay.

Chester hated when Captain put him in the box. He decided that it was time to punish Captain. He would cut Captain off; no more pussycat for him. No purring, no instant adoration. From now on he could talk to the tail, thought Chester. Chester's tail swished to emphasize his feelings on the matter.

Hunter found Dr. Dane in her office.

"Excuse me Doctor, I have a big favor to ask you."

Teilani looked up and put her tricorder to the side. She smiled as she watched Hunter standing there with a carrier box in his hands. "Sure what is it?"

Hunter set the carrier on teh floor, "I was wondering if I could leave Chester in your office until the battle is over?"

Teilani sank to her knees and peered in the box. "Leave him in my office? Sure that will be no problem."

"Thanks Doctor."

"Hi Chester," Teilani said watching his whiskers moving.

"He can stay safely in my office. There will be a nice secluded spot for him to hide if the noise and the rocking become too much."

"Hopefully we'll see you later." said Hunter with a wry smile. Hunter took a couple steps backwards, and then turned and left.

Chester could not believe it. Captain just left, no goodbye nothing. To make matters worse he was left in the box. Chester began to growl and hiss. Someone would let him out of this box.

Teilani picked up the box and carried it to her office. She closed the door and placed the box on her desk.

"Hi Chester, you have to stay with me for a while," she said softly rearranging the indian blanket on her couch. Things will get nasty in a while and you will be save here."

Chester glared at the doctor but stopped growling. His only home was that she would at least let him out of the box.

"I know he did not say goodbye, now did he?"

Chester tried hard not to think about Captain's treachery. He would be made to pay for this. Chester could not think of a time when he was this unhappy.

"Come on," Teilani said as she opened the box. "It will be alright Chester."

Chester jumped out of the box and took up a position on the couch where he promptly turned his back on the doctor. His tail swishing in agitation.

Watching the cat's tail Teilani smiled and went back to her work.

There's a Shortage of WHAT?? "
By: Krystal, Pixie Hologram , [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1500

Maxine sat cross-legged at the main console in the Computer Core. Her neural interface was active and she tweaked a line of code as she worked on the program she was writing. She'd been running diagnostic procedures for the last forty-eight hours in preparation for the upcoming battle. Something was bothering the computer expert. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on. So she was writing a new diagnostic program.

"There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. T'would be a pity to damage yours."

What the hell? Maxine blinked and her focus shifted from the program code she was working on to the pixie hovering in the air before her. "What?"

"I said: 'There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. T'would be a pity to damage yours'," Krystal answered.

Maxine blinked again in total confusion. "You're goin' t'damage my breasts?"

Now it was the tiny hologram's turn to blink huge blue eyes as she looked at her creator as if she'd just lost part of her neuron synapsis functions. "Nooooo..." she giggled. "It's a quote. From a movie from 20th century Terra," Krystal explained.

"You've been in th' data archives again, 'aven't you?" Maxine accused.

"Do you think I have perfect breasts, Maxine?" Krystal cupped her small breasts and her wings fluttered as she turned from one side to the other so Max could get a good enough view to make an accurate assessment.

Maxine gave her AI program's Avatar a very strange look. "Did I program you with body consciousness?"

"You programed me with breasts. They're very nice. Pert. They call them pert. They feel nice too. Do you think they're perfect?"

Maxine's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Did y'find porn in the archives?"

"Porn? What's porn? "

"Never mind that. Erase it from your data banks. Did y'run a diagnostics on the power allocation sub-routines?" Maxine asked.

"Three times. No errors found," the little pixie reported and then disappeared with a spray of golden dust, an audible *pop* and an "Uht-OH!"

"Uht-oh? What th' 'ell is 'Uht-oh'? Krystal, get back here!"

"BONZAI!!!! BOMBS AWAY!" came the squealing yell as the hologram popped back into sight, divebombing straight towards Maxine at the very same instant the lights turned crimson and the Red Alert claxons sounded.

Maxine's arms flailed in total startlement, and as she instinctively reared back to avoid a collision with the pixie, promptly fell out of her chair, landing on the deck with a thud and an "OOF!!" She blinked, flinching as the hologram came within inches of her nose before veering off.

"ZOOOM, ZOOOM, ZOOOOOOOMMM! FIGHTER'S LAUNCHED!!! WE'RE IN THE ZONE!!! TARGET LOCK ACQUIRED!!!" The pixie circled in dips and swoops around her head.

"Computer! Execute emergency protocol: Roundup Alpha-Icon. Command authorization Tapert Charlie Nine Four Zero Zero One Nine One Playground."

"Executing."

"ROUNDUP! ROUNDUP!! YEEEEHAWWW!!! RIDE'UM COWBOY!! GET ALONG LITTLE DOGGIE!!" The pixie contiued to buzz around the room. "WELL HELLO THERE, LITTLE LADY.. WAAHUH!"

"Pixie! Execute Emergency---"

"FIGHTERS APPROACHING VECTOR--- Hey!" Krystal blinked and stopped mid zoom as she hovered in the air to look at Max. "I don't have access to the computer system any more!" she accused.

"I know. Execute Emergency protocol: Grounded. Command authorization Maxine Six Five Five Nine...."

"Grounded?" Krystal blinked and her wings drooped as she landed on the console.

"Grounded." Maxine sat back in the chair and tapped the PADD near the hologram. "To your PADD. Run a level one self diagnostics," she instructed.

"Grounded..." the little pixie plopped down and sat cross-legged, propping her elbows on her knees and her chin on closed fists. Such a forlorn sight. "Executing," she grumbled.

"Thank you," Maxine breathed a sigh of relief and settled back into what she'd been doing as she kept track of the computer resourses allocations.

This was it.... The Zero Hour. They were at Red Alert and preparing to attempt the impossible.

Can I go back to the computer now? "
By: Krystal, Pixie Hologram , [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1510

"Maxie! Maxie!! Oh My Nectar!!! I have WORMS!!!" The little pixie hologram coughed and sputtered until it yacked up a hairball that wriggled and squirmed on the console between them.

"Ewww...." Maxine blinked and wrinkled her nose at Krystal's over-graphical display of a computer worm. "That is roight disgustin'," she told her AI program. "I did *not* give you a sub-routine that looked anythin' like that."

"I saw a picture in a book I read," the pixie explained as she walked around the wriggling mass, careful to keep her distance. "But... But... Those aren't mine," she pointed and quivered a little, her wingtips fluttering for emphasis. "I got them by accident... Well, not by accident... I intercepted them... Can I go back to the computer now?"

"Oh yeah?" Now Maxine pulled her focus from the program that just finished compiling, to give it to the winged creature pacing on the console in front of her... and the ball of worms at her feet. "Where were they intended for?" Maxine asked curiously as she poked at them with her stylus.

"Don't do that!" Krystal waved Maxine's hand away. "Navigational sub-systems. Can I go back to the computer now?," the pixie started pacing.

"Navigation? Blimey.... Origin?"

"Alt.startrek.binaries... Can I go back to the computer now?"

Maxine blinked and looked up from the woms to Krystal. She was unfamiliar with that location. "What else is in that location?"

"Pert breasts," the hologram told her. "Can I get rid of them and go back to the computer now?" she pointed to the worms.

"Pert breasts? Oiy...." Maxine rolled her eyes a bit. "Did you get them all? And do you know what th' trigger was?"

"Affirmative, and affirmative... Can I get rid of them now and get back to the computer, huh?"

Before Maxine could answer here the Zion made it first sharp turn, causing the computer expert to hang onto the console and the data padd to slide a little.

"Battle Stations!!! Battle stations!!!" The pixie flitted over to Maxine and held onto her.

"Not now, Pixie!" Maxine reactivated her neural interface and began running a check on the status of all computer systems. "And get rid of those things..." she flicked a finger or two towards the holographic worms.

"They're gone!" Krystal sprinkled some pixie dust on them and they melted into sputtering, sparkling mass of color that simply dissipated into thin air. "Can I go back into the compter NOW??" she asked.

"Run a level one self-diagnostic again and use that new program that just finished compiling. I've downloaded a copy into your PADD," Max instructed.

"ANOTHER one???" The pixie groaned dramaticly. "Oh, Alright. THEN can I go back to the computer??"

"Run the diagnostic, Pixie."

The AI Avatar fluttered over to the PADD where she plopped down and sat cross-legged, propping her elbows on her knees and her chin on closed fists. "Executing.." she grumbled forlornly.

"Good girl..." Maxine barely got out before the ship took it's first solid hit.

Battle"
By: Giuseppe Silvio, Chief Engineer, [RNPC]
Patia Zoei, Chief Counselor, [PC]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]
Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1515

Commander Wright watched the main view screen. The stars flew by. They were getting close now; soon battle would be upon them and many would die. Wright briefly thought about the futility of this war. He did not believe it would ever end. Both sides had been so polarized by hatred for each other that no one was really trying to resolve the actual problems that started this war in the first place.

Wright's thoughts were interrupted by westfall...

"Commander Wright, Sir, we're closing on 100,000 kilometers to the enemy armada. Requesting permission to bring the weapons online."

"Easy Mister, let's wait until the Captain gets here," replied Wright.

Wright punched a button on the command chair, "Wright to Captain Hunter, please report to the bridge."

"I'm on my way." came the reply over the intercom.

Hunter entered the bridge and with a few quick strides sat down in the command chair Wright relinquished.

Hunter studied the data on his com screen. "Helm, match speed and heading,"

"Aye-aye"

He tapped his combadge, "Counselor Zoei, please report to the bridge."

On my way, Captain Zoei's voice crackled.

"Show time" said Hunter as nodded at Westfall, "Sound battle stations and designate your targets."

"All Hands to Battle Stations. This is not a drill, this is not a drill".

Zoei glanced around as she entered the bridge. Controlled chaos ruled the scene. The crew bustled efficiently through their assigned duties. She locked her eyes on the captain, and wound her way toward him.

Hunter stood up, "please Counselor, have a seat here," he said gesturing to the mission ops seat which was just to the left of the command chair.

"Captain Hunter, Sir, The crew is now at Battle Stations, we are prepared to engage the Federation Task Force on your order only. Weapons status: All offensive systems are armed, and locked. Ready to bring defensive systems on-line, all sensor arrays are at maximum sensitivity".

Hunter swiveled his chair toward Westfall, "are we picking up any of Mason's echos?"

"Negative, Captain," Westfall replied. "Nothing from Mister Mason's echoes?"

Hunter tapped his combadge, "Security, have Mister Mason brought to the bridge please."

"Designate your targets. For review we are attacking Two Galaxy Class, Five Akiras, Two Norway, Three Steamrunners and four Excelsior class ships".

Hunter watched on his console as Westfall's designations appeared overlayed on the chart showing the enemy's positions. He designated Enemy Craft as follows: Galaxy Class Starships G-1 and G-2 Five Federation Akira Class AK-1 through AK-5 Two Norway Class Ships Designated NO-1 and NO-2 Three Federation Steamrunner Class Ships Designated S1 through S3. Four Excelsior Class Ships Designated EX-01 through EX-03

"Transmitting Target Selection Criteria, to the fleet, now Sir"

Affirmative Captain. I'd recommend we match the targets' heading of 190, get in the middle of their formation and use a full-spread Quantum Torpedo attack from all tubes, rapid salvo. =From the middle of their formation, we stay tight and crowd both sides, they might just catch themselves in some cross-fire. Westfall thought to himself, "we are 'The Rabbit' the dogs of war want to trap. " He continued his explanation, "It's a variation of the Pincher Formation. Once they think they've got us surrounded, then all ships go "Weapons free to fire" and de-cloak and attack.

Hunter drew in a deep breath. Generally that was the strategy which was discussed. Westfall made some tactical modifications. "Helm bring us to a heading of 190 mark 0. Westfall, Multi-target firing solution, Quantum torpedos Maximum yield. I want us in a position to Minimize their effective return fire."

"Affirmative Captain, the firing solution is locked in, ready to launch on "Weapons Free" authorization. Our fleet acknowledges receiving "target acquisition" data. Synchronizing Firing mechanism with the cloaking device so the two event will happen virtually simultaneously".

"Riaan, report?"

"Sir weapons on-line fully charged, shields at maximum, sick bay ready for injured, marines on standby along with security throughout the ship in case of breach and we are boarded. All hands have reported in, damage control teams are on standby, along with engineering," as Riaan looked at Captain Hunter. "The crew and the ship are ready for battle sir."

Hunter nodded.

Hunter turned as the turbo lift opened and Silvio entered. He watched has Silvio took over the engineering station. After he was in position he asked Silvio for an engineering status report.

Silvio's hands hovered over the master control panel. It's readouts and monitors were all indicating readiness. "All systems are ready and at your command Captain."

One thing Hunter liked the about Silvio was: when he said the ship was ready, it was. "Thank-you Silvio."

Mason stepped onto the bridge with a security guard close behind him. He had not expected the be called to the bridge. He looked around, the tension was high.

Hunter motioned for Mason to come closer, then said, "Please make yourself comfortable in the observation lounge," he said gesturing in its direction, "I might need your assistance later."

Mason nodded and made his way to the observation lounge.

"Westfall, are we in position yet?"

"Thiry-seconds Captain."

"Helm, once I give the order to fire, I want full impulse toward the target G1. It will take almost 5 seconds for the shields to reach maximum. Put them between us and the rest of the fleet. I want some help. "

"Aye-aye Sir." acknowledged the helm.

Hunter sat back and collected his thoughts. "Well Number One, we ready?"

"as ready as we will ever be," replied Wright.

"Westfall," said Hunter gesturing toward the screen with two fingers, "give'em hell."

"With Captain's Compliments, Sir", he replied. Westfall initiated the shut-down of the cloaking device and watched the tactical display as the ordinance streaked towards their designated targets.

The Zion shimmered into existence on the stern of a galaxy class ship. Another galaxy class was just a dozen kilometers to the stern of the Zion. Before the Federation Captains could sound the alarm, eight quantum torpedoes found their mark on the bare hulls of each ship.

The first galaxy class was ripped to shreds. A torpedo blast ripped away a nacelle pylon while a subsequent blast ignited the venting plasma.

The second galaxy listed to the side as its systems no doubt were off line.

A large gapping hole was blown from the dorsal side of the saucer section all the way through the top. A plasma fire burned intensely where he main deflector array once was.

"Helm!" shouted Hunter, "now!"

The Zion turned sharply, and headed toward the molten mangled space frame of the galaxy class ship. As it did so, it narrowly missed a phaser blast from one of the nearby Akira class ships. The Second Galaxy Class ship promptly returned a phaser fire and launched two torpedoes which exploded against the Zion's shields.

"I think we've stirred the Hornet's nest," said Hunter.

"I think we stung them pretty good sir," said Wright. Wright watched his console. "Sir, the fighter wings report they are on stand by."

Because of the Zion's tactical position, every phaser bank had acquired targets and fired. The Zion erupted a volley of phaser blasts which found their marks on most every target.

Phaser blasts and torpedoes slammed into the burning wreckage of the galaxy class as the Zion put it between itself and the attackers.

A moment later the Zion's shields were fully charge. She peeled away from the debris field and made an attacking run on the nearby Akira.

Close behind the Zion, two Klingon Bird of Preys decloaked and engaged.

Up in front of the convey, a steamrunner class ship collided with an akira as it tries to come about. Both ships sustain moderate damage from the mishap. Then, the rest of the klingon fleet joined in.

The darkness of space was filled with a furry of phaser fire. Two of the steamrunners converged on the Zion. Both fired forward torpedos.

"Inbound Captain, two Steamrunners running at full impulse".

"Give them something to chew on Westfall," said Hunter. "Firing Photon Torpedeos at target S-1", Westfall said.

Both steamrunners launched a total of 4 photon torpedoes which blazed a path toward the Zion.

"Captain, four torpedoes launched, inbound starboard side...target a-01 through a-04"

The torpedoes impacted the shields causing the ship to rumble. With out warning the Steamrunners discharged their forward phasers, again the Zion lurched and rumbled from the hit.

"Status?" barked Hunter.

"Shields are holding. They are at 35%. Rerouting more power to the starboard shields," shouted Silvio.

"Launch the fighter wing" commanded Hunter.

Alpha Wing, you are cleared--immediate launch to your objectives, Beta Wing in T-5:00 *mark*, Charlie Wing in T minus ten minutes *mark*

Fighter wing Alpha has left the launch bay, Captain, Beta and Charlie on T minus four minutes, and t minus nine minutes respectively".

"All wings confirm "Scramble Order" Captain".

Hunter spun in his chair, "Helm, evasive maneuvers!"

The Zion turned as the Steamrunners charged by, firing their aft torpedoes. One of the torpedoes missed, the other impacted the aft shield.

"Helm, pursue the Steamrunners."

"Aye-Aye"

"Westfall, target their shield generators, fire when ready."

Suddenly one of the steamrunners veered away from the other one.

"Stay on S1" said Hunter, "Match course and speed."

"Aye-Aye" said the helmsman.

The Steamrunner began tactical evasive actions, the smaller ship was more maneuverable than the larger sovereign.

"Come on Westfall, Take your shot." said Hunter with concern.

Westfall targeted the first Steamrunner's Shield Generators, and launched two Quantum torpedoes to disable their shield generator and disable their warp core and simultaneously concentrated four of the forward phasers in a lattice-pattern of attack on the wildly erratic Steamrunner's hull.

Before the Zion's weapons could recharge to finish off the wounded steamrunner, the second ship turned and charged head-on.

"Sir, we're not going to recycle before S-2 does damage," Westfall said as calmly as if he were reporting: "We're out of coffee Captain".

The Steamrunner unleashed two photon torpedoes and phaser fire on the Zion which rocked violently.

Sparks erupted from an overhead EPS conduit and the lights on the bridge when out. Sparks and smoke erupted from various consoles.

Hunter found himself gasping for air after being thrown violently to the deck and having the wind knocked out of him. He grabbed the arm of the chair and lifted himself up to his knees. He looked over at Westfall, "Fire!"

Westfall looked grimly at the Captain, as he said in a coldly emotionless voice, "I couldn't light a cigar for you Captain," our entire offensive weapons array just went out with the lights".

Hell on Deck 5"
By: Petty Officer Cara Winslow , Engineer , [NPC]
Dr. Alyssa Caitlin Northrop, Acting Chief Intel Officer, [PST]

Stardate: 58205.27 1515

Alyssa sat at her desk as the red alert claxon and lights went off. She was armed as per regs, but she didn't really have anywhere in particular to go. On the wall screen she had the tactical display from the external sensors. Sometimes being the Intelligence Officer really sucked. Sure you got all sorts of information to distill, but in situations such as these....there was just no where for her go.

She watched the individual ships move....the Zion moving to take care of the largest of the enemy armada while the others moved in among the rest of the Federation ships. Tapping a few keys, she changed the view watched as the Zion opened up on both Galaxy Class ships....turning them into smoking, burning wrecks.

It didn't take long before the Federation Forces were able to regroup and return fire. Alyssa felt the deck plating shudder under her feet.....then watched in horror as the second Steamrunner veered off and the Zion followed the first. "NO!"

She had more than a bad feeling about the tactic. It was a very old battle tactic used for taking down larger targets when you had a man-power advantage. Have one man draw the target's attention, while the other or others lie in wait. Just as she thought the last part....the Zion slammed violently to one side and the lights died. The quick movement sent tumbling to the floor. The lights were replaced a moment later by the emergency lights.....just in time to hear the sound of more EPS conduits blowing out. Alyssa picked herself off the floor and looked up at the screen for a moment, Northrop saw that it was all static. Obviously the sensors were down. "Just Perfect."

Smoke began to filter in under the door and the temperature in the darkened offices began to rise. "Shit.....time to go."

Picking her pistol off the desk, she holstered it and then grabbed the hand torch out of her desk. There was a Jefferies Tube Access near the back of the office....but when she opened it the archeologist was greated by a the green and yellow light from a plasma fire. The heat coming out of the tube was horrendous and she quickly sealed the hatch once more. "Guess it's the hallway then."

Moving across the room, she stopped just before the door to the hallway. She could hear the door mechanism whirring in the wall, but the door wouldn't open. Placing her palms against the metal, she began to push, hoping to help the door along. It gave way with a sudden jolt...but only enough to be open halfway.

After squeezing through the door, Alyssa had a look at what had to be one of the closest renditions of Hell that there was. Thick, acrid, black smoke hung in the air. Fire light flickered all around her, casting shadows off the fallen debris that littered the hallway.

"Ok...let's move," she told herself.

Forcing herself onward, Northrop moved carefully down the hallway, listening for anything that might be dangerous. The last thing she needed was to get caught by an exploding conduit on a mostly deserted deck.

What she saw next was nothing less than awe inspiring. The hull was breached, which allowed her to see out into space and watch the unfolding battle. Maquis and Klingon Ships traded fire with the Federation ships. It was a symphony of silent color. It was actually quite beautiful...untill one remembered exactly what it was you were looking at.

The forcefield flickered a moment, which started Alyssa from her momentary reverie. It reminded her that she ought not to stay long here.....not if she valued her life. This section could further decompress at any time really.

Suddenly her head snapped around. There....she heard it again. It was a tiny sound....but it sounded almost like a person. Could someone else have been down here?

"Hello? If you can hear me.....make another sound!" Northrop yelled down the silent corridor. Her voice echoed off the hard surfaces that made up the walls. There was nothing for a moment, then the faint cry again...followed by a more metallic clang.

"Do that again!" she yelled again, moving in the direction of the sound.

The person got the idea because the clang became a steady rythmn which allowed Alyssa to home in on it. When she found the source.....she nearly began to cry. It was coming from beneath a large chunk of metal...which had apparently blown out of an interior wall. Moving quickly but carefully, she investigated the area...not wanting to cause anything to shift, which might crush the trapped person. After a few minutes, she found a hole. Inside was a woman. "Hey...hold on, ok? I'm going to get you out of there. Can you move?"

The voice that returned was weak. "Yes...I can move...just not very far."

As she began to look for a way in, she continued speaking, "That's good...what's your name? I'm Alyssa."

"Cara....Petty Officer Cara Winslow. I work down in Engineering."

"Ok Cara...don't worry. I'll get you out of here...and down to see Doc Dane." She smiled a little before vanished from Winslow's view. Part of Alyssa didn't want to get her out of there....afraid of what sort of damage may have been done to the female engineer. But...there was no way she wasn't going to get her to Sickbay.

"Cara....if I lift this bulkhead....do you think you can get out?"

"Honestly.....no ma'am." There was a little bit of laughter....but Alyssa could tell there was no humor in it.

"That's ok....don't move then."

Working quickly, Alyssa cleared away some of the smaller bits from on top of the pile. The larger ones were more of a challenge....but thankfully, she'd continued her workout routine onboard the Zion. It wasn't long before she was ready to move the bulkhead. "Ok here's the plan, Winslow. I'm going to use this bar here to lift up on the bulkhead. It's pretty long....so I should have enough mechanical advantage here. But I'm going to need you to do something for me, ok?"

"Yes Ma'am...."

Alyssa handed the injured woman a few chunks of metal that she'd picked up. Hopefully they'd be able to hold up the bulkhead long enough for Cara to be pulled free. "Now....when I move the bulkhead enough for you not to be pinned, I need you to ram those in so I can get you out of there."

"Archimedes," Winslow said with a slight smile.

"Excuse me?"

"'Give me a big enough lever and I can move the world.'"

"Oh...yeah." Northrop laughed a little. "You ready?"

"Yes Ma'am....ready as I'm going to get."

"Ok...here we go." Alyssa pushed up on the lever bar and felt the bulkhead begin to move. It was slight at first, but after a moment it began to move more. The bar itself looked like it was being tested to it's limit.

"Almost there, Ma'am......just a little more." She could tell that Cara was biting back a scream. The movement of the bulkhead must have been torture.

A moment later, there was a somewhat relieved cry. "That's it...."

Alyssa dropped the lever and moved around to the clearing. Reaching in, she grabbed Winslow by the shoulders and pulled her out. Once she was clear, it was more than obvious that she needed medical attention. Her leg was broken....as was one of her arms. Cara also had a couple pretty nasty looking gashes as well as what looked like a plasma burn. The bulkhead must have blown out when one of the EPS conduits ruptured. "Ok...let's get you down to Sickbay. God I hope the Turbolifts are working."

The engineer's only reply was a whimper. Lifting her up, Alyssa supported most of her weight and headed for the nearest lift. As luck would have it....it actually did work. "Sickbay."

Maybe ten minutes after she found the woman, Alyssa carried her into Sickbay. "Doctor Dane.....I've got a pretty bad one!"

=tag Telani=

Suicide is Painless "
By: Dr. James McIntyre , Doctor , [NPC]
Dr. Beatrix F. Pierce , Doctor , [NPC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1530

==Engineering==

Crewmen Spencer and Bush were assigned to man stations in engineering during the battle. The worked frantically to keep power routed to the important areas of the ship. The had been struggling to keep sickbay's power constant. Just when they were happy with the power rates when the ship was rocked by a torpedo blast. Suddenly every alarm on their console was red. This was not good.

"I'm showing a stuck plasma flow regulator and junction 71 Alpha," shouted Busch over the ringing alarms.

"I'm on it," said Spencer, grabbing a took kit he climbed up to a catwalk and entered a Jeffries tube with Busch following close behind.

"We really ought to call in a team to fix this, we do not have the right equipment," fretted Busch.

"Never mind that, we do not have time," came Spencer's reply.

As the approached the junction they would feel the heat beginning to rise. Busch knew this was not the correct approach, he could hear the blocked plasma conduit starting to moan under the built up pressure. "Jimmy, we gotta seal off this section and get out of here. This is suicide man."

"You are such a baby Kurt," he said, "We'll will fix this and be heroes." Spencer began trying to work on the very hot regulator.

"I'm getting out of here man, it is going to blow. If you want to kill yourself you can do it by yourself," cried Busch as he turned to leave. He got a few strides away when the conduit did give away.

***

==Holodeck 1 -- Triage Center==

Dr. Beatrix F. Pierce surveyed the scene. Injured and wounded people were slowly starting to arrive. On the floor in front of her were several patients waiting to be assessed. The holodeck had been divided into three areas, Triage, operating area, and recovery. All around her nurses and medics were running around trying to help the wounded and assist the doctors in the operating theater.

Pierce knelt down next to one patient on the floor. Taking out her tricorder she quickly did a scan, "Hello," she said in a clam voice, "I'm Dr. Pierce."

"Hi doc," said the man, "I think I broke my leg."

She smiled, "You sure did, but you will be ok. Hang in there." She clipped a green tag to his uniform and turned to her medic, "Give him something for the pain." Green tags meant that the patient was not in a life threatening way. Every effort was made to make them comfortable, however, they would need to wait until the more seriously injured were cared for first.

Moving the next patient she could see this one was more serious. Plasma burns covered his face, neck and arms. He was writhing in pain. Her tricorder indicated that the burns were severe but is vital signs were steady. It was an encouraging sign. She set a priority on a red tag and clipped it to his uniform. Red tags indicated the highest priority was needed. "This person is next," she said to the a nurse, "Whichever doctor opens up first. Get some pain medication in him."

"yes Doctor," replied the nurse.

The ship was suddenly rocked by as a federation torpedo smashed into it. Pierce instinctively found herself protectively covering her patient. Getting up she moved on to the next patient.

The next patient looked as if he had taken a direct hit from a torpedo. She could not make out who this person was. Discouraged, she scanned him with her tricorder and shook her head. Clipping a black tag onto his uniform she sighed and moved on to the next patient. It was going to be a long night.

***

==Holodeck 1 -- Operating Room

In the operating section of this makeshift hospital Dr. James McIntyre stopped what he was doing to hold on as the ship once again shook from an attack. "I do wish they would stop that already," said McIntyre. The rest of the doctors in the room chuckled. "Alright, I am done here," he said to a nurse next to him, "Let's move him into recovery." "Who's next," he shouted as he walked down to an open table. A pair of medics where placing another patient on it. This patient was wreathing in pain. "Didn't this man get anything for pain," asked McIntyre.

"Yes doctor," replied one of the medic, "We gave him as much as we dared. He is just in a lot of pain."

McIntyre plucked a hypospray from a tray and administered it to the patient. The man calmed down. McIntyre pulled the surgical screen down over top of him and activated it. He spent a few moments looking at the display, "This poor devil," exclaimed McIntyre as he watched the tiny glowing particles inside his patient. "He must have been standing very close to a plasma conduit when it blew. The shrapnel is still super heated from the plasma."

"Ouch," said a doctor working at a different table, "no wonder he was in so much pain."

McIntyre looked around for a nurse, however, none were available. He spotted a cadet in training as he was re-supplying the various operating tables, "You there," he said, "You are a medical student, are you not?"

"Yes doctor," said the confused cadet.

"Put those down, I need your help," he said as he began extracting the glowing hot fragments.

"Yes doctor," said the cadet as he put down his supplies, "What can I do?"

"Stand over there," he gestured to the other side of the surgical screen, "Keep and eye on his vitals."

"Yes doctor," the cadet did as he was told.

McIntyre carefully removed more glowing hot shards, "Is this your first cruise."

The cadet nodded.

"What do you think so far," asked McIntyre.

The cadet laughed nervously, "It is a lot different than Dr. Kensington's lab at QulTuq."

McIntyre smiled as he continued his work, "Take that dermal regenerator over there and start reparing the burns to-" he stopped, "Computer what is the identity of the patient on table 5," he asked.

"The patient on table 5 is Crewman first class Kurt Busch", replied the computer

"You work on Mr. Busch's facial and neck burns. We'll take care of his arms later." McIntyre had finished removing the shards of metal and was now repairing the damage to his internal organs.

The cadet began restoring the charred flesh around the man's face with the regenerator. Things were going smoothly until a alarm went off. The cadet looked at the monitor. "Doctor, his blood pressure and heart rate are dropping."

McIntyre reached across to a tray and grabbed another hypospray. Placing it against his neck he administered the medication. It did not seem to have a good enough effect. Busch's blood pressure continued to fall. "Hand me the cortical stimulator," demanded McIntyre, "We are loosing him."

***

==Holodeck 1 -- Recovery==

It was quiet, too quiet. He opened his eyes and the world was a big blur he could make out the face of a woman looking down at him smiling. His whole body hurt. He tried to talk but found that he was too week.

"It's ok Crewman Busch," said the woman, "I'm nurse Kelly, you had a rough go of it, but Dr. McIntyre pulled you though, you are going to make it. Just rest now, you will be fine." Nurse Kelly pressed a hyposray against his neck and peaceful sleep fell upon him once again.

Pacifica #67"
By: Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1555

[location sickbay]

Teilani had rushed in sickbay as soon as she got the call, she had been treating some minor injuries along the way. The nurses had already put the patient in cryostasis, and they didn't have a minute to lose. She put on the blue overcoat that hung near the sliding doors, and quickly tied up her hair in a knot. "Report!"

"The patient is Lt Rafelian. He received got hit by a plasma burn and when the console exploded he was hit by scrap from it. There are multiple wounds in the chest back and arms. We have managed to somewhat stop the bleeding, but he absolutely needs surgery if he expects to live.

“Doctor, we have a power fluctuation!!!.

Teilani hit the comm.. “Medical to Engineering, we have a power failure here.!! Get it fixed!

She then rushed and washed her hands and put on some sterilized gloves. She had already ordered the other nurse to get her the equipment she would need for the surgery, including anaesthetics, the cellular microsutures, and dermal regenerator.

Teilani scanned the patient and barely maintained her footing as the Zion received another volley of hits. From the far corner of sickbay sparks erupted from a console. “Get that fire out now!”

"Good, lets get started." Teilani said. She glanced at Rafelian and already knew how much time she would need. " McCambridge, apply the anaesthetics on Rafelian."

The nurses ran to execute Teilani orders, and they knew that tonight, they wouldn't be working with Teilani, the cheery doctor of the Zion but Doctor Dane, the bitchy, serious surgeon that did not want her orders questioned under any circumstances. She walked briskly to biobed 4, where Rafelian had been placed in cryostasis, and looked at his biosigns. Not good. Looking at the diagnostics the readings were fluctuating.

“Any news from Engineering,” she asked impatiently.

“ No docter, one of the nurses said.

“Keep bugging them,” Teilani bitched. “ We can not have it that all the power fails here.!”

She would have to act quickly, and with the major wounds first. "Laser scalpel. Micro sutures," she asked, extending her hand. She received them even before she finished asking for them. She smirked a bit. This was the efficiency she looked for in everybody working with her.

The wounds are very deep, but not wide enough so that she could work inside Rafelian's body. Thus she was forced to cut the wounds that were already there. She opened up the wound that was closest to his heart first. As soon as the scalpel made contact with Rafelian's skin, blood started gushing out and she was very soon covered in it. The nurses rushed in and gave him a shot of delactovine to stop the excessive bloodflow, while she wiped her face with her sleeve. She wished that she had not forgotten to put on a visor.

Again the Zion rocketed back and forth. “Get hold of the bridge, Teilani shouted. “Tell them to keep the darn ship steady I am operating here.!!”

She cut the skin a bit more to reveal his heart, which was still pumping blood, as if it had been slightly pierced by a knife. She looked at the biobed indicator for his lifesigns, and his blood pressure was well below normal, despite the fact that it had gushed out on her face and overcoat just a few seconds ago. She closed his heart wound with the microsuture device and checked his biosigns again. They were improving, but his blood wasn't flowing adequately to his brain. "God dammit. Dermal regenerator." Mccambridge handed it to her and before closing the flesh wound she noticed of his lungs had been punctured. She glanced at his chest, and saw another puncture right next to the one she had been working on. She closed the wound above his heart and immediately went to work on his lung. "I need a depressurizer."

"What for, Doctor?" one of the nurse asked. Teilani didn't pay attention as to who addressed her. She pointed at his lung. "Stupid girl," she muttered under her breath, as she run to the back and fetched the tool requested. As soon as she had it in her hands, Teilani applied it on his lung, and more blood gushed out of it, and stained her overcoat, the shirt underneath it, and some of it had landed on her hair. "Will someone make sure that he doesn't lose more blood?" she asked angrily. "I don't want him to die, for Christ's sake!"

“DOCTOR WE ARE LOOSING HIM” Mccambridge called out. “ I can not see his bloodpressure anymore!!

“Don’t panic! He will make it.” Teilani said firmly.

The bag of blood that was I.V.ed in his body was emptying itself quite rapidly, and the nurses rushed to get another bag of the A positive type, and replaced the empty bag. "I want one of those permanently close at hand," she said matter-of-factly, concentrating on her patient. Fortunately, the lung had depressurized, and had regained its normal size. Once she was sure it wasn't going to shrink again, she closed up the wound quickly, using the microsutures again.

The other wounds weren't as deep as these two so she was able to work with them fairly quickly, but there was a foreign object in the wound nearest the liver. She looked at it more closely as she opened it up just a bit. There's a piece of metal in here." And it was stuck deep in his liver. She would have to remove very carefully, to prevent more blood loss on his part.

She only saw a tiny bit of the metal piece, and she would have to cut through his liver to get it out. "Tweezers."

"Tweezers?" Yamaguchi asked. Teilani didn't even bother answering her, but gave her an icy look that would have turned anybody to stone, had she been a medusa. Nurse Yamaguchi shivered and went to get a pair of tweezers, and gave them to Teilani. She didn't even give her a glance when she received them. She widened the wound carefully with her index finger and her thumb, placed the tweezers between them, and grabbed the piece of metal. She pulled on it, careful not to tear it more than it already was.

A stream of blood erupted from his liver and landed on her cheek when she pulled out the first millimeter, but the nurses applied more delactovine, and she was able to pull it out, millimeter by millimeter, until it was finally out of his body, fifteen minutes later. She placed on the tray where the piece of tissue was, took the latter with the tweezers, and carefully placed it back where she had found it. She closed his liver up, then the skin above it. She took a look at the other wounds she had just closed up, and saw that they weren't healing as well as they should. "Get me a bioregenerative field here, here, here, and there," she ordered as she pointed to the wounds she had just worked on.

“Doctor we still have limited power. The field is destabilizing!!.

As the nurses worked frantically on getting the field up, and replacing the blood bag, Teilani worked on closing up the minor wounds, and they were numerous. There were a total of 9 wounds. As soon as the last wound had been closed up and a regenerative field applied on it, Rafelian's heart was failing. Teilani's eyes widened in surprised. She had just closed it up! Sure, he lost a lot of blood, most of which was on her overcoat, but there was no reason he would have a heart failure!

"Get me that cardiostimulator! Now! And 20cc of cordrazine!" she yelled.

She had received the cardiostimulator even before she finished her order, and quickly applied it on his heart, trying in vain to resuscitate him. When that didn't work, she applied the cordrazine to his throat, but there wasn't any reaction. His heart had stopped altogether, and there was nothing she could do. She had done what she could do to keep him alive.

"Computer," she said sadly. "Record time of death of Lt. Rafelian."

"Time of death of Lt. Rafelian, 2307 hours," the computer replied in its androgynous voice.

Teilani sighed as she put the tools to be sterilized to the side and ordered the nurse to put the Lt in the morgue. She took off her coat which was drenched in blood and changed into a clean uniform in her office. She then walked to the replicator and ordered her self a big mug of steaming hot coffee.

Just as she was trying to take a sip another crewmember came in supporting a female one, which Teilani recognize as Ensign Aloram Vas, one of the science officers.

“What happened,” Teilani asked as she helped Ensign Vas sitting down on one of the bio beds.

Battle II"
By: Giuseppe Silvio, Chief Engineer, [RNPC]
Patia Zoei, Chief Counselor, [PC]
Riaan, Operations Manager, [PST]
Jeff Westfall, Tactical Officer, [PST]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]
Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1555

Hunter climbed to his feet, holding the side of his chest. Looking around there was thick smoke and showers of sparks coming from several consoles.

Riaan turned and looked at the Commander, "Sir, I am reading power fluctuations ship wide. Damage reports coming from all over the ship heavy damage to deck 2, 3 and 4, forward sections hull integrity in that area is at 65%, weapon systems are offline, shields holding at 78%. We have a hull breach on deck 5."

Silvio was also thrown to the ground after the last attack. He picked himself up just as the dim emergency lighting came on. He looked at his station. Red lights flickered, pointing system damages. IN an instant he surveyed the system. His hands flew over the controls. "First things first, " he thought, "Gotta give Westfall his guns back."

Hunter watched Silvio has he worked on at the engineering station, "Silvio? Status," asked Hunter impatiently.

To Riaan it seemed like an eternity as waiting to see if Silvio could get the weapons back.

Luck was on their side, it was just a power failure. Ships like the Zion were built with redundant power pathways. Quick like lightning, Silvio began re-routing power to the weapon systems. "Re-routing power to the weapons systems," shouted Silvio. A heart beat later, "Done! Weapons are back online and charging."

"Confirmed Sir, weapons are back online." said Riaan.

Hunter turned to the helmsman, who had collapsed and was laying on the deck. He was still breathing but had a large gash bleeding from his head. Hunter motioned to Riaan to check out the injured crewman as he sat down at the conn. Navigational controls were still responding.

This is Riaan to sickbay, we need a medic on the bridge, crewman down, he is severely injured with a possible concussion and he has a deep gash to the side of his head. Pulse is fine.

After quickly accessing the helmsman Riaan turned to the Commander, "sir do you wish to take over the helm or do you want me to locate another helmsman."

"Yeah, get another helmsman up here, I'll take over until then."

Suddenly damage reports started flooding in from all over as her console began chirping off the reports. Heavy damage to deck 2, 3 and 4, forward sections hull integrity in that area is at 65%, weapon systems are offline, shields holding at 78%."

Zoei shifted in her chair. Tension was rising within the ship. She could feel the press of emotion as the bridge hummed with activity. She closed her eyes and focused her thoughts off of the Zion and onto the remaining ship. The confidence of the crew was waning. From the bridge, she felt the captain. He feared he wasn't going to win this encounter. He was becoming reckless and willing to risk far more than was wise.

"Captain," Zoei interrupted the work on the bridge.

Hunter, turned toward Zoei. "Yes Lieutenant?"

"Obviously, the Redmond is outmatched. This has not escaped the attention of her Captain." Zoei's dark eyes narrowed slightly as she watched the Captain for his response.

Hunter looked back at the screen.

Hunter maneuverer the Zion out of the Steamrunner's direct line of fire. Maneuvering thrusters were impaired and the ship was sluggish in accelerating.

"Westfall, can you give me a scan?"

"Affirmative Captain Hunter. Sensors are on-line and fully operational. The wounded streamrunner is adrift, with no power from its warp core, the other steamrunner is providing cover, guarding its position..

I show a Federation Akira leaving this area and returning to the main battle. Sensors sweeps of the wreckage and the debris field would indicate the Klingons have lost 2 B'rel class ships."

Hunter frowned, "Silvio, sheild status?"

"Forward shields are up to 78% Captain," said Silvio.

Hunter was impressed with the power of the Zion. This was the first real test of her abilities.

"Zoei, can you sense anything from the Rockwell?"

"Tension, more than I would expect given the circumstances. There is a concern regarding the stability of," she paused slightly and cocked her head, "the stability of the shields, but their tactical people are almost panicked. Their weaponry is failing."

"Let's go finish off the Redmond." said Hunter.

Hunter flew the ship, bringing it about and bringing it to an optimal firing distance from the Steamrunner.

"Wright, mind taking the helm?"

"Aye sir," said Wright as he took the helm controls

"Here's what we will do," said Hunter sitting back in his chair, "When the weapons are charged, fire on the damaged Steamrunner, try to finish it off. Silvio, reinforce port shields, we'll turn to port, Westfall you nail'em again with our port phaser banks. Wright, you bring us to all the way about and head back the way we came. If the second steamrunner chases us, Westfall will give'em a couple quantums to chew on from the aft torpedo launcher."

The ship rocked as both the steamrunners fired phasers.

"Sir, both the steamrunners are running with damaged systems, their phaser output is down to 59%, there is minimal penetration because of our modulated shield frequencies. Thanks to Mister Silvio,the weapons are back online.

"Then fire everything we got" said Hunter.

The Zion unleashed another volley of tremendous fire power at the steamrunner, It lurched to the side.

"Sensors indicate that the steamrunner, the USS Redmond, is disabled. Its warp core has been ejected and reserve power systems are inoperable. They're no offensive threat, unless we sail into them.

"Okay Commander take us out of here, hard to port."

Wright engaged the impulse engines and turned hard to port. The other steamrunner, the USS Rockwell, fired two torpedoes which detonated on the reinforced port shield. The ship rocked, but suffered minimal damage," reported Westfall.

The Zion accelerated to full impulse and, as expected the Rockwell gave gave chase.

"Launch aft torpedoes," commanded Hunter.

"Confirm aft torpedo launch, four Quantum Torpedoes and four Photon Torpedoes from the Aft weapons array, confirm detonation, direct hit on USS Rockwell's forward shield".

"Status," asked Hunter.

"Captain, their forward shields are down to 23%, they're severely weakened. S-2, the USS Rockwell has turned to port, they're trying to outflank the Zion, Sir.

"Commander, evasive maneuvers please," said Hunter calmly.

Circling starboard in a large sweeping arc, Commander Wright easily puts a good deal of distance between the Zion and the enemy ship.

"Captain, Forward torpedo tubes are re-loaded, and phasers at 100.00%," stated Westfall.

"Prepare to fire," replied Hunter.

"Commander, all stop, bring us about."

The Zion rapidly slowed down and reversed engines allowing it to quickly turn and face its oncoming attacker which now at taken advantage of the Zion's lack of forward movement, firing two torpedoes and its forward phasers.

The ship shuddered hard.

Then, in efforts to avoid the Zion's deadly forward weapon systems, the Rockwell attempted evasive maneuvers, turning to its starboard side. The Zion launched 8 more quantum torpedoes.

"Sir, we've inflicted heavy internal damage to all the critical systems on the USS Rockwell, she's running on emergency power, minimal life support, all of her primary weapons arrays are off-line. The quantum torpedo volley took everything but impulse power."

The Rockwell veered in attempt to speed by the Zion's port side. The Zion fires forward phasers as it approaches. The Rockwell's forward sheilds buckle and go offline.

Then as it passes, the Zion fires its port side lateral phaser array. The Rockwell sustains heavy damage from its attempt to run past the Zion. Then, lastly, Zion fires its aft phaser array and 4 photon torpedoes which detonated on its shields followed by 2 quantum torpedoes which detonate on its hull.

"Captain, the USS Rockwell is adrift, with no power signature, no shields, and no power to ship's weapons".

Zoei watched the ship, the silence deafening. Just moments before, the noise had been resounding. Deliberation, fear, resolve had emanated from the crew, but now, now it was quiet.

"Good shooting Mr. Westfall."

Cheerleaders, Cheerleaders; Ra, Ra, Ra. "
By: Krystal, Pixie Hologram , [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1555

==Computer Core==

"It's all a matter of robbin' Peter to pay Paul..." Maxine instructed as she planted her rear back into her chair and buckled herself in.

"Who's Peter and who's Paul?" Krystal asked. "Are they in Engineering?" A frustrated frown marred the little hologram's brow when she couldn't access the computer to look up the data.

"No, not Engineering," Max glanced over at the pacing pixie as she worked on shutting down some of the non-essential systems, hopefully giving Silvio the power he was demanding for the weapons. "It's an old Terran saying. It means taking parts from one thing and using them to fix something else," she explained.

"But then you have something that's broken," the pixie pointed out.

"Not broken. Just temporarily non operational. In our case it's taking power from places it isn't needed at th' moment and putting it some place where it is," Max continued to explain around the isolinear chip in her mouth.

"So where are you stealing the power from now?" This whole idea seemed to fascinate the little pixie and she perched on the computer display and watched with rapt attention.

"Not stealing. Borrowing," Max clarified.

"That's semantics because you didn't ask," Krystal pointed out.

"That's because I don't 'ave to," Max informed her. "Sonic showers."

"Sonic, what?"

"Showers. The Sonic showers in the Freshers are temporarily unavailable. See?" Max pointed to the graphical display and the little pixie's wingtips fluttered to keep her balance as she nearly lost her perch when she tried to get a better look from her vantage point.

"What if someone's in the shower?" Krystal asked curiously.

The ship rocked when it was fired upon by the Steamrunner's phasers and the little pixie started to tumble, catching herself with a flutter of wings.

"We're in th' middle of a battle, Pixie. If there's anyone in a shower it's time for them to get th' bloody 'ell out." Max snorted softly as she shifted her center of gravity to compensate for the rocking ship..

"Oh right... What are you taking power from now?"

"Replicators in th' personnel quarters..." Max spoke almost distractedly now as she rerouted some of the grid around the damaged conduits in decks 2, 3 and 4. "We've got a hull breech on 5..." she mused.

The Zion rocked as two torpedoes fired by the USS Rockwell detonated off the port shield.

"Crikey.." Max braced her feet to keep her own balance even though she was strapped in.

"Are we going to die?" Krystal blinked huge blue eyes at Max and fluttered over to cling in her hair.

Maxine chewed on her chip for a moment before answering. "Nah. Not today, Pixie." They both continued to hang on while the ship made a hard turn to port. "Th' computer is behaving beautifully and we're probably kickin' their butts," she grinned. At least she hoped they were kicking something.

"Yay!!! Go Zion, Go!!" The little pixie fluttered out of Max's hair as she gave a cheer, fluttering back to the top of the display only now she had a pair of pompoms in her hands and her hair was up in pigtails. "Ra, Ra, Ra."

The ship shuddered hard.

"Whoa!" Krystal fluttered in place, stopping mid-cheer. "Are you sure we're not going to die? I don't want to die, Maxie. What are you doing now?"

"Yup. Captain Hunter's good at what he does," Maxine reminded her. "And th' computer's marvelous. I'm putting th' unused 'olodecks in standby mode and making th' power available where it's needed. I'm pulling some of th' power from th' unused computer systems and putting it in th' same pool. Shutting things down that aren't being used like th' game room and th' gym, and letting that power be used by other things like Sickbay and th' shields and weapons,"

"OH Yeah! I should go check on Cappy," she announced and preened her wings in preparation.

"You can't. He doesn't have the right equipment," Max tapped one of her holoemitters. "And I wouldn't call him 'Cappy' to his face."

"Oh, right... We should get him one," Krystal nodded decisively. "Can I go back to the computer now? I can do all that stuff faster than you."

"Not by much you can't," Max tapped her neural interface. "And what *are* those?" She pointed to the pompoms.

"Pompoms."

"Pompoms?"

"For Cheerleading."

"Cheerleading?"

"I'm Capt'n Hunters official Pixie Cheerleader," Krystal announced. "Go Captain, Go!" she did a little cheerleader routine as she shook and waved the pompoms, and wiggled her butt.

Max blinked. Good gods.... "Uh... Does he know?"

"Not yet," the little pixie preened. "It's a surprise."

"I hope he likes surprises...." Max muttered

Happiness and bliss "
By: Craig Witmore, Engineer, [RNPC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1600

Frustration filled the air around Craig Witmore, as he tapped at one of many consoles in engineering. The ship wasn't exactly bring tossed around as badly as before, but the powerful inertial dampening field that this monster of a vessel could create should make it feel like they're floating free in a perfect and undisturbed void. Multiple hits has rocked the ship and various enginering teams were working around the clock to keep the ship afloat so to speak.

The tremors that sent the ship into it's sudden bucks like a bull in that insane Earth sport that was called "Rodeo" made Craig's head ache while he diligently worked on solving the problem. He was becomming more irritated by other officers lately, some asking him to get more involved in the social life of the ship, to get out of engineering and do something for himself. He would tell them he had things to do on his own, art to work on, previously made appointments to keep. In truth however, he'd been in engineering long after his shifts had ended.

And why shouldn't he? He justified this in his mind that his work was more important than anything else. The ship's tremors were inconveniencing everyone, why shouldn't he be working long hard hours to get it fixed? He was the best engineer on board of one of the largest and most advanced vessels in the Maqui.

It was his responsibility now, wasn't it? Still, this same job kept his head reeling as he tried to pinpoint the problem and solution, and while he worked he became more distant from the rest of the crew, he didn't even know what was going on outside the walls of the engine room.

People spoke with him less frequently, and when they did it was strictly buisness. Was this what he wanted? He thought this to himself for a few brief seconds before his mind was again on buisness mode. He told himself he wasn't happy, but this was the way it had to be, he was a Maqui officer, and he had a duty to perform.

Pacifica #76"
By: Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]
Gloria , Nurse , [NPC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1600

Location: Sickbay

"Hand me the cortical stimulater," Teilani called out to one of her nurses. She deperately tried the stelp the bleeding. Sickbay was croued after the Zion was struck by multiple phaserhits. The medical staff was running around attending to all the wounded. Triage was full, if this continued there would not be any place left.

"There is nothing I can do for him, get the ships chaplain." Teilani said as she covered the young Lieutenant with a blanket. "Rest in peace Lieutenant," she said. "May your soul shine bright."

***Flashback***

People were screaming, running around, burning rubber and lubricant smells reached Teilani's nostrils as she tried to make her way to the Kitty hawks sickbay. Although she was just guest she could be of use to the medical staff. She had been en route to Qultuq for a medical convention when the ship came under attack. They still did not know what happened. The red alert was flashing.

***Present***

"Docter, we are loosing her," one of her medics called out to her, trying to heal some plasma burns on a young female ensign. Teilani handed the medic the hypospray. "Not today we are not, give him 10 cc of cordrazine and 5 cc of Tri-Ox." She placed a neurostimulater on the young womans head. "Monitor her hartrate and neuro impulses every 10 minutes. She will make it."

***Flashback***

Screams reached her ears as Teilani ran thru the Kittyhawks corridors. She was violently smacked into a bulk head as the ship clearly made some evasive maneurvres to outrun those which attacked them. "Doctor please we need help here." A young woman pleaded, kneeling besided a young child. Teilani kneeled alongside the unconcious girl, she felt her pulse and it was rapid and shallow. A nasty gash was visible on the girl's head. Teilani's quick and cool hands tore her uniform to stelp the bleeding. "Press it hard, I will see if I can find an emergency medkit."

***Present***

She worked on autopilot. Stelping bleedings, fixing plasma burns and broken bones, she had lost count. She re-directed wounded to the holodeck for recovery. There was an occasional moment of rest and she tried to use that to sit for a moment, lowering her head and closing her eyes. So many wounded. How many were killed again, she had lost count. The morgue was slowly filling. She had been up for more then 36 hour and the fatigue began to take her toll.

***Flashback***

The alarm kept sounding in her ears, the warning; Abandon ship, abandon ship. Teilani ran, althought it seemed her movement were thick and slow. There had to be escape pods on this deck. But where? Suddenly a small group of people passed her. "Doctor, there are boarding parties, hide they take all sceintists. Run!!!. Teilani began to run........

***present***

Gloria shook Teilani's arm. "Wake up Doctor, there are new casualties arriving. She opened her eyes and shook her head. Her hair felt greasy and Teilani knew she had some cuts on her cheek from a blown console. "Right lets go people!!! she motivated her crew. "When this is over, all drinks are on me.!" For the next hour she and her team worked frantically. Setting broken bones, healing cuts and gashes. In her mind Teilani stood knee deep in blood and gore. Confronting families with the lost of their loved ones. Then as sudden as it had come the flow of casualties stopped and she had a moment to her self. It had been ages since she had coffee and as she collecting the mug from the replicator, inhaling the warm scent of the aroma, instead of the desinfectant her mind started to drift.

***Flashback***

The escape pod was small. Teilani had managed to secure one for her and another crewmember. He was hurt severly but she had managed to drag him in. When the escape pod launced from the Kitty hawk Teilani had a small but good view over the damaged ship. Its nacelles were damaged, venting plasma. The hull had multiple breaches and the ship was drifting in space motionless like a fly ready to be squatted. Then suddenly a big bright flash made Teilani cover her eyes for protection. When she opened them again there was nothing, nothing more then the blackness of space.

***present***

Gloria looked down at her Chief, who sat on the ground next to the replicator. Her arms folded around her knees and her head resting on top of them. A single tear appeared in her eyes and Gloria could only imagine what when through Teilani's head. Gloria knew about the Kitty hawk and how Teilani had come on board. This battle must have been bringing up memories. Gloria took a spare blanket and placed it over Teilani's shoulders. "Let her rest for 10 minutes," she said to the staff. "She earned it."

Battle Part III - Conclusion"
By: Giuseppe Silvio, Chief Engineer, [RNPC]
Riaan, Operations Manager, [PST]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]
Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]
Dr. Alyssa Caitlin Northrop, Acting Chief Intel Officer, [PST]
Jonathan Wright, Executive Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1620

"Captain, there is a hull breach on deck 5," said Silvio, "The ship's containment fields are holding." Silvio continued scanning his console, "We ahve power fluctuations all over the ship and our shield strength is holding at 70%."

Hunter listened to Silvio as continued down the damage report. He was hoping for a break in the battle to let the ship catch its breath.

Mean while, Riaan was on the COMM, "Computer, locate PO Samuel Manuel."

Computer: "Samuel Manuel is in the holodeck where triage is set-up.

Riaan wondered what Samuel was doing there but knew he was needed here more importantly he was the next best helmsman onboard the Zion.

This is Lt. JG Riaan to PO Samuel Manuel you are needed on the bridge now.

PO Manuel on the way.

Riaan and turned and looked at the Captain, "sir PO Manuel will be here to take over helm."

Hunter nodded.

Taking the Turbolift up Dr. Northrop, stepped out onto the Bridge. She stopped just outside the threshold. It looked nearly as bad as Deck 5 had. Hunter was issuing orders. Commander Wright was at the Helm...and Mr. Silvio was working frantically at the Engineering Station. And of course Mr. Westfall was more than a bit busy at Tactical.

A team of medics carried the helmsman on a grav stretcher and assisted a limping science officer off the bridge.

Riaan knew that Ensign Jonathon should pull through but she highly doubted that he would be back for duty for at least a week as made a mental notation to take him off the duty roaster when she submitted the next crew schedule to the Captain.

Northrop waited till there was a bit of a lull...then stepped up. "It looks like you could use another set of hands, Captain.....and as luck would have it, I happen to have a free pair."

It was a bit of gallows humor...but that was just her.

"Northrop," said Hunter as if he were taking inventory, "yes, man that science station," he said pointing to science station II.and get me a survey of what is happening with the rest of the fleet. Get it to Westfall.

A few minutes later PO Manuel arrived on the bridge and walked over to CONN, he snapped to full attention saluting the Captain, "ready to take over sir,"

Hunter began giving the helmsman his instructions when suddenly Westfall interrupted.

"Captain, I have an incoming transmission from the USS Livingston, "in the open" It's un-encoded, Sir".

"On Screen," said Hunter turning.

"This is Captain Sisko of the USS Livingston to the Maquis ship, surrender now and your crew will be spared."

Hunter stood up and replied, "Captain Sisko, this is Captain Ian Hunter of the USS Zion. I'm afraid I must politely decline your offer, but instead will offer you the same courtesy."

Sisko crossed his arms and replied with a genuinely astounded expression, "What? You are out numbered and out gunned you can't possibly..."

"No, no, no..." interrupted Hunter, "We're just the welcoming committee."

Hunter watched as there was a commotion behind Sisko, his tactical officer began to say something as Sisko made a gesture across his throat.

Then, suddenly the screen went blank and there was commotion from Hunter's tactical officer as well.

"Captain Hunter, we have Tango fleet de-cloaking 10,000 Km off our stern position".

Hunter wiped some blood from his face and muttered, "ah, the calvary, right on time."

"Sir, We're being hailed by the USS Sovereign on an unsecured comm channel" Westfall said, with considerable relief in his voice.

Hunter squinted trying to understand the rationale of using an unsecured channel.

"I'm sure it's meant to be heard by all listening ears "in the clear". Hunter looked at Westfall, "No doubt, well, on screen."

"Tonight's film special Coming up, Sir." Hunter looked at the familiar face which now addressed him. "Captain Hunter, did you save any work for us to do?"

Hunter mustered a smile, "Aye-aye Admiral Picard, we just softened them up a bit for you."

"Splendid." said Picard. "Do you require any immediate assistance?"

Hunter shook his head, "no, we'll be fine."

"Very well then, it appears our Federation friends are trying to leave their own party. We'll take it from here," he said with a reassuring nod.

"Oh, Sir, can you do me a favor?"

Picard turned back toward the screen, "and what is that?"

Hunter gestured with a nod, "if you run into Captain Sisko, tell him he should have at least taken a rain-check."

"Will do Ian, Picard out."

Hunter dropped himself into the command chair and took a couple of deep breaths.

Westfall said in the quiet interlude, "Sir, the Federation fleet is retreating, we've beat..." Before he could finish, his console beeped.

'Incoming transmision from Admiral Picard, on voice-only secured comlink'

"Go ahead Westfall, open the channel."

"Acknowledged, Sir," Jeff said.

"Captain Hunter, I have your new orders."

"Go ahead Admiral," replied Hunter.

"As soon as you are able, you are to proceed to Pacifica for reconnaissance and surveillance. We need to know what is going on there."

"Yes sir," replied Hunter, we'll get underway as soon as possible.

"Out of the frying pan, and into the fire we go," Westfall said, "We should have regrouped with the Alliance reinforcements and annihilated them ALL: personnel, ordinance and transport". He sounded hostile.

"Westfall!" said Hunter in a reprimanding tone of voice.

Then Hunter turned, "Helm bring us about to heading 101, one-quarter impulse."

"Aye-aye."

Hunter turned back to Westfall, signal the task force to regroup.

Hunter sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. It was over for now.

Pacifica #81"
By: Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]
Riaan, Operations Manager, [PST]

Stardate: 58205.27 1620

Riaan turned and looked at the Captain, "sir can I please be excused and help in assisting with the cleanup and finding temporary quarters for those that have any."

Hunter nodded, "dismissed."

Riaan excused herself and left the bridge, based on reports deck five was the heaviest hit.

Riaan entered the turbolift, "Computer: deck five."

=Deck Five=

As Riaan exited the turbolift she quickly accessed the area. The stench of human flesh burned was over whelming and there were conduits etc. down with trapped crew.

It appeared as if part of the deck was unassessable lights were blinking on the side panel displaying the deck she was on. There was a large hole in the ship where Intel once was and Riaan highly doubted that it would exist now. That area was sealed off completely, including the escape pod access. Riaan wondered how many crew died. The only thing accessible that Riaan could tell was the brig, security and the armory she needed to check each area carefully and get everyone out that she could.

Riaan figured that sickbay had a make shift morgue and they could tend to the dead on this deck and wherever else others had died.

As she stepped closer she spotted a young ensign in pain she knew that there wasn't' much she could do. She walked over to him and bent down. "Hello my name is Riaan I have come to help."

The ensign looked up and let out a last sigh of breath and his hand went limp. Riaan couldn't remember the last time she saw this kind of devastation.

Further down she saw a trapped crewman with a beam across his leg, this is Riaan to sickbay need help on deck five as soon as possible, trapped crewman, he has profusive bleeding and a steel beam on top of his leg pinning him, smoke heavy on deck five. As Riaan started chocking. She tried her best to cover her face with her uniform to prevent inhaling the toxic fumes.

Riaan tried to budge the beam but it was too heavy she needed to wait for help. Some slowly made their way to the turbolift. Riaan wanted to make sure this deck was clear before proceeding onto other decks but her priority was the deck heaviest hit. She needed a way to secure the Armory in case of further explosions which could tear the ship apart.

I'll lock onto their combadge and beam them straight to sickbay.

A few seconds later the crewman was gone. Riaan began checking for any other survivors but found none.

As Riaan tried to think in the dense smoke she knew that the weapons and what not needed to be stored else where and the best place for now was Deck 10 Combat Equipment Bay where the Marines where located safest place as any thought Riaan.

Riaan to Ensign Jessie Nolley, PO Erik Herford, Ensign Neil Pantaleo, and Ensign Avis Tripodi report to deck five I need you to get these weapons out of here and store them in the Equipment Bay on Deck 10.

Slowly everyone reported in and were on there way to start getting the weapons and what not out of here before further damage could be done whether they could access the weapons armory was unclear as Riaan was assisting another crewmember.

As the other Op's Officer arrived Riaan warned them all to be careful and not to set off any sort of explosions or fires or it could tear the ship apart.

The five proceeded towards the armory to begin transport of the weapons and what not.

As soon as they got close they realized they had a problem gaining access, the door to the armory was inaccessible and it was going to take a few minutes just to clear a path to the armory.

After not finding any survivors Riaan headed over to assist in getting the weapons off of deck five.

Debris was piled to the side. At least the transporter was still active that would help save time and get the hell of there in case any more ruptures occurred.

Riaan turned to PO Erik Herford, "have you scanned the weapons for any signs of leakage."

"Yes ma'am none this room was well designed it may have been designed with reinforced inertial dampening fields and if it wasn't for that this ship would have been torn apart by now."

"Good job Erik," as she smiled at him.

Riaan to transporter room lock onto our combadges and transport to deck ten equipment bay where the marines are. We are clearing the armory.

Ensign Thames here, understood.

Slowly the Armory became bare. It took several trips to clear the armory and everyone was sweating profusiously and the body odor was another story in itself.

As they gathered the last of the weapons Riaan heard a whining sound which didn't sound right possibly an air leak Everyone lets get out of here before the atmosphere deteriorates or something this deck is now insecure as she yelled at her crew.

Transporter room lock onto our combadges and get us out here.

A few seconds later Riaan was on standing on the transporter pad along with her five op's officers. Great job everyone we still have a lot more work ahead and if we keep pushing hopefully by the end of the day we should gain an upper hand. Spread out and see what needs to be done.

Riaan watched as her officers left and Riaan stood there for a few seconds catching her breathe.

Pixie Neurosis; Ala Freud"
By: Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]
Krystal, Pixie Hologram , [RNPC]
Kassandra Rayanne Whitman, Security Officer, [NPC]
Mitch Dean, Chief of Security , [NPC]
Jennifer Hailey, Commanding Officer, [NPC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1715

==Jefferies Tube 4B==

"Are we there yet?"

"No," Maxine told the little pixie hologram. "And that's th' fifth time you've asked."

"The first time doesn't really count," Krystal pointed out. "Cause I asked 'where are we going?' that time."

"I stand corrected... ooof..." Maxine grunted softly when she bumped her head. "Good thing m'not very big," she grumbled as she crawled through the Jefferies Tube.

"I'd know where we were going and how long it would take to get there if I was hooked up to the computer..." The little hologram pointed out.

"I know y'would," Max had to agree.

"So can I go back to the computer now?"

"No."

"But when? I don't like being blind, Maxine. I think I'm having a neurosis," she announced in a pitiful sounding voice. "Are we there yet?"

"PIXIE!"

"What?? What??" She fluttered around inside the tube and darted around Maxine's head, spraying pixie dust everywhere. "..what?"

"You're whinin'," Max eyed her. "Stop it. That is not in your programmin'. You *don't* 'ave a neurosis. You're a 'ologram. Y'can't go back to th'computer until *I* am satisfied that you're not infected with somethin'. And we're here. Where the bloody 'ell did y'learn about neurosis anyway?"

"From the library data banks. I was reading about Freud," the little pixie informed her.

"Freud? Oh crikey..." Maxine rolled her eyes and went to work taking off the access panel that would expose the ODN junction she needed to work on. "Freud was a ninny. He was fixated on sex and 'is mother and couldn't move beyond th'size of 'is bloody willy."

"What's a 'willy'?" Krystal blinked huge blue eyes at her.

Maxine paused in her task to gaze and the pixie and blink herself. "I am SO not 'avin' a bloody conversation about sex and body parts with you. I think y'need to reboot."

Krystal gasped and grabbed her chest dramatically. "You mean.... Sh-shut *down*?!?!?!?? Nonononononononono... Not that!!! Please, please, please Maxine! Not that!!!! What happens if I don't come back?? I don't want to diiiiiieeeeeeeee!!!!" she wailed.

"PIXIE!"

"What??? What???" the hologram jumped and bonked into the Jefferies tube, passing partway through it before squealing hysterically and splatting against Max's chest, clinging to her. "...what?"

Maxine choked and sputtered and coughed, totally taken aback by the current behavior of the AI's holographic Avatar.

"Aww, bloody 'ell! I swallowed m'blasted chip!"

Revenge of the Flyboys "
By: Nova , Fighter Pilot , [NPC]
Bart "Burner" Reed, Fighter Pilot , [RNPC]
M'Ressha Mikaht, Top Gun , [RNPC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1730

Burner adjusted his display. It had been a good little battle. "Hey Blitz, that was a nice little battle. Did you see them turn tail and run when the fleet showed up?" Blitzer raised his visor combed back his long whiskers. The helmet always made them itch. "Yeah," he replied, "its a long ways home for them, I don't think they'll get far." "Nah, Picard will get em," he said. "Dangerfield is gone, I saw him take a direct hit, I'm also getting some transponder beacons. Looks like they're from Bravo squadron. Let's go check it out." Burner also was seeing the downed fighters on his console. "I'm with you." Burner kept an eye on the location of the downed fighters and then he noticed a new reading on his console. "Uh-oh Blitz, I'm seeing one bogy bearing down on our brother pilots." "Must have been left behind, go smoke'em Burner, I'll cover ya." The Federation pilot took a couple shots at the life pod but missed. Burner pulled in behind the Fed and fired several shots with his phaser cannons. The Federation fighter broke to the right and Burner easily followed him and squeezed off several more shots. The Federation ship pulled up but not before Burner's cannon found their target. With it's shields fully degraded the fighter exploded. "Yes!" said Burner as he watched the fighter explode. He quickly adjusted his course and pulled up on Blitzer's right wing. Blitzer smiled. His quick disposal of the stray bogy reaffirmed his observation that Burner was probably one of the best human fighter pilots he knew. He flipped his comlink open, "Hoo! Haa! Burner!" Blitzer banked his fighter and circled back toward the source of the beacons. He slowed as he dipped underneath a large piece of debris floating in space. As he flew along it, his ship was small compared to it. Sections of decks jutted out from the remnant of hull. Plasma fires still sparked and sputtered. He glided his ship over and above another large piece of debris near by and came up to the escape pod. "Nova!" said Blitzer on the Comm-channel, "You look like you could use a lift." She flipped open her comlink, "Don't get your tail all in a knot." "They got Dangerfield," said Blitzer as he activated the tractor beam. "Yeah, I heard," she answered. "He was a good man. I had respect for him." Blitzer maneuvered about and engaged the impulse engines and headed toward the Zion. The scope of the battle was huge. He flew past the wreckage of one of the steamrunners. A Klingon ship was darting about, presumably beaming survivors from their escape pods. At least he hoped, because the ship was vaporizing the pods one at a time. The Zion loomed before them, it was a huge ship. Blitzer flipped open his comlink, "Alpha wing to flight deck, requesting permission to land." "Clear to land in shuttle bay one," came the response. Blitzer arched his eyebrows as he remembered the proper procedure, shuttle bay one was used for rescue landings. He'd never brought anyone home before, alive anyway. Blitzer set down his craft and removed his helmet and unstrapped himself. By the time he opened the hatch, a crew of medics were already lifting Nova from the escape pod. He got as close as he could to her, she looked pretty beat up. His sensitive ears listened as the medics discussed her injuries. "Lets get her to triage," one of them said. It sounded pretty bad to Blitzer. He moved closer still. "Blitz," she said weakly, "come with me... please." He managed to get next to her as they lifted her on a antigrav stretcher. Nova was a strong, stubborn and antagonistic human woman, but there was no reason she should have to die alone if she were hurt that bad. "I'm right here." he said solemnly taking her hand in his paw. As he followed the medics, he looked over his shoulder. Burner was landing. He had an escape pod in tow as well. Blitzer tapped his combadge, "I'm going with Nova to triage, where ever that is." "Let me know how she is doing," said Burner as he shut down his fighter. "Okay," said Blitzer. "See you soon."

Recon Part - I"
By: Dr. Alyssa Caitlin Northrop, Acting Chief Intel Officer, [PST]
Ian Hunter, Commanding Officer, [PC]
Riaan, Operations Manager, [PST]

Stardate: 58205.27 1730

Captain Hunter walked down the corridor of Deck 5. It was a mess. He stepped into Alyssa's office only to find Riaan and a crew sifting through debris. "Hello Riaan, I'm looking for Alyssa, do you know where she is?"

"Sir I have reassigned her to Deck Seven Officer's Quarters Room 4b," as Riaan looked at the captain

Hunter nodded and stepped back outside, he turned back toward Riaan, "How bad is the damage down here?"

"Pretty bad sir, it will take time to clean this area up. Will need engineering to repair the hull breach from outisde based on the information showing on the side panel. One section missing but we are safe presently but not sure for how long we are moving as fast as we can and then will have this area sealed off until the repairs are done.

I wish I knew more then that you need to speak with Engineering sorry sir, as Riaan looked at Hunter."

"Very well, carry on," he said.

"Yes, sir," replied Riaan "as she brushed some soot from her face."

Hunter got into the turbolift and took it down to deck 7. He found Alyssa's temporary office.

"Hello Doctor, do you have your mission specifications ready?"

"Yes Sir.....It's right here." Picking up a PADD, she handed it over to the Captain.

Hunter looked over the PADD. "Everything looks good, are you certain you are ready to leave so soon?"

"Time is of the essence, Sir. I feel I should get down on Pacifica as soon as I can."

"I agree," said Hunter scrolling through the PADD.

The brunnette hesitated for a moment then continued, "Would it be possible to get someone a little better with a shuttlecraft than myself? Just in case."

Hunter nodded, "Of course. I will see to it. "

Pacifica #78"
By: Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1840

**Sickbay**

A team was standing by as Teilani and her patient materialized. Quickly a team placed Nova on a bio bed and placed the diagnostic consol over her. "Hand me the dermo regenerator. Cortical stimulator. Calm but fast and sure Teilani handled Nova's injuries. Suddenly her eyes flew open.

Nova gasped as she clutched Dane's arm. "Wh-where am I?"

"Shhhht your going to be alright, just lay down for 10 min. Let your body pull itself together. Teilani administered some painkiller and antibiotics.

Blitzer entered Sickbay and found where Nova was being treated. One of the nurses told him to keep back. He watched as a red-headed doctor worked on Nova. He was grateful she got help so soon. Using his acute hearing he listened closely.

"Try to move your right arm, Miss." Teilani asked as she held the med scanner along Nova's body. "How does that feel?"

"A little better," answered Nova.

"You have some residual muscle strain in the back of your neck, I can give you some relaxant for that. However, I prefer not to.

"I'm fine." Answered Nova, trying to put on a more tougher exterior after spotting Blitzer pacing back and forth some distance away.

Suddenly Teilani looked up and smiled "I believe there is someone to see you." She gestured at Blitzer.

Blitzer took the Cue and approached the bio bed, "Hi Nova."

"Did they salvage my fighter?" she asked.

"Oh yeah," said Blitzer, "Flight Chief said they'd have it put back together in about 40 years." Blitzer gave Teilani a wink.

"You stupid cat, it hurts to much to laugh." she said with a weak smile.

Blitzer chuckled, "You look like you need some rest," he said to her.

"Yeah," she said, "I feel as bad as I look." As he turned to leave she said, "Blitz, thanks for bringing me back."

He just nodded and then turned and followed Dane, "Is she going to be alright?"

Teilani looked at Blitzen, she knew about Caitain's and had even met one, she could not remember the name but the caitain she had met was a member fo the USS Atlanta. Female caitains were gorgeous to see but male ones even looked better. Teilani coughed before she spoke and folded her arms over her chest. "Yes she will be, she took some nasty hits and all she needs is rest now."

Blitzer nodded, "good, thank you so very much for seeing her right awawy."

"You flyboys must have done some serious maneuvres according to her injuries." Teilani said as she placed a blanket over Nova who was now asleep.

Blizter studied the red-headed doctor descretly, taking in her scent and her mannerisms.

"We do are best ma'am." he said with a smile, "we like what we do."

Teilani smiled. "I know, anyway I am glad that the majority of you fly boys have returned savely. She placed the tricoder in her pocket and rubbed her eyes. "I'm going to get some coffee. Can I get you something as well?"

"That's okay Doctor, I'm on my way down to the messhall. Hopefully they are serving," he said with a hungry gesture."

Teilani looked around her sickbay, it was all pretty much under control and the worst cases were in stasis and the rest of the patients were recovering nicely.

"That sounds even better to me. I'm hungry as well. You want to join me?"

"M-me?" Blitzer looked around nervously, "I-I, sure..." he said with a shrug, "why not?"

Teilani smiled as she noticed Blitzers uncomfortablility. "Come on then, I could kill for a hot bowl of broccoli soup."

A Tail of Troubles"
By: M'Ressha Mikaht, Fighter Pilot , [RNPC]
Teilani Dane, Chief Medical Officer, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1840

As they entered the Messhall Blitzer took a deep breath. There were people eating all around. During battles the food was usually prepared without the replicators. Blitzer suspected they actually liked to do it that way, but all the same, the food smelled good. There was a small line in front of the serving area.

He looked over at Dane, "Ladies First,"

Teilani smiled. "Why thank you. Carefully she managed to elbow her way forwards. "Hey Jack, whats on the menu?

"We have some great chili Doc, with nacho pretzels." he replied.

"Ok 1 bowl of chili then. What will you have?" Teilani asked turning back at Blitzer.

"That sounds good, I'll have the same." He picked up his bowl and followed the Doctor to a table. "I bet things were a bit hectic in Sickbay." he said trying to make small talk.

"Oh yes they were, I will be so glad when this is all over, it seems that the only thing my crew and I have been doin' is stitching people up, sanitizing the biobeds and equipments and administer medicine.

Blitzer swirled his spoon in his chili as his nostrils took in the smell of the food, then he took a bite. His smile stated how good it was.

"I even smell like sickbay," Teilani said with a grin as she took a spoonful of chili. " Oh.... my this tastes so good!!"

"It is good," said Blitzer scooping another bite. "I was surprised the battle ended so soon. I thought it would drag out much longer," said Blitzer taking yet another bite of food.

Teilani nodded. "Well I am glad for it. Sickbay was getting crowded. But I guess we had them heavily outnumbered. The Zion is a strong ship." She took a small sip of some water.

"...yeah, it is a strong ship, and I don't think the Federation builds theirs as sturdy as we do," he continued. "...and when Tango fleet arrived, they turned tail and run."

Teilani nodded. "Yea we were lucky to have some help on our side. Where you always a pilot?"

"Yes Ma'am. My father and my Grandfater were fighter pilots to. My Grandfather fought in the Great Khzinti war.

"Not many Caitans are in the Maqui, don't you miss your clan?"

"Hmm... not really. You know there are those of us who are really grounded in their heritage and religious beliefs, but as for me," he said leaning back, "I'm just another guy...." Suddenly Blitzer squeaked loudly. "...another guy with a tail."

Blitzer turned and said with his teeth clenched, "excuse me." A young ensign turned and looked down and said, "I'm sorry, I stepped on your...."

"It's ok." replied Blitzer interrupting him.

His ears folded forward and he looked terribly embarrassed. "I-I am sorry..I..."

"Don't be," Teilani said softly. "It's alright I bet it happens a lot of the time. You want me to take a look at it?"

"It does hurt," he mumbled.

Teilani smiled softly. Poor guy getting his tail stepped on everytime.

Blitzer used his nail to pierce a small piece of meat left on the bottom of his chili bowl and put it in his mouth.

Teilani had put her bowl to the side and took her tricorder from her overcoat. " Give me your tail and let me look at it."

"Right here?" protested Blitzer standing up.

Instinctively Teilani sensed the discomfort in Blitzer. " No we can do it back in sickbay."

"Then I guess I could see how Nova was doing."

Suddenly Blitzer's combadge chirped. "Report to the flight deck right away." His eyes widened, "Excuse me doctor, I've enjoyed sharing a meal with you."

"Me too Blitzer, " Teilani said. Blitzer darted out the door.

Blitzer entered sickbay and was greeted by Doctor Dane,

"Welcome back, she said with a smile.

"Looks like you have to make sure to my tail is working after all." said Blitz with a slight grin as he handed her a PADD. "Seems I'm off on a recon mission and need need to get medical certification because of the anticipated length of the flight,"he said then stood at attention.

Teilani looked at the PADD, I see." she responded. "Well your here anyway so lets get on with it." She gestured towards the examination room.

Blitzer responded to her cue and walked toward the examination room.

"So, tell me, do you have any prior medical issues I should be aware off?"

"I'm healthly as a winthar, uhmm...horse. " he bragged.

Teilani grinned and took her tricorder and began to scan Blitzer, slowly she rotated the handscanner along his head, upper torso. "You have something metallic in your pockets or so?"

"Oh," he said pulling out a small round object, its just a good luck charm my sister gave me.

She adjusted some of the readings and smiled. "Well so far so good, now let me look at your tail."

"Okay." he said compliantly.

Teilani bent through her knees a little and took Blitzers tail in her hand, she scanned it and carefully feeling all vertribrais, "Ah does this hurt?"

Blitzer winced a little, "Its a little tender."

"Sorry about that, it is a little bit brused where ensign Platter stood on it, but there is no serious damage. It will subside in the next few days."

"It usually does." he said with a toothy smirk.

For some reason Teilani blushed and she pushed her hair back behind her ear. "If it hurts too much I can give you something for it but I rather let the body heal itself."

"Thanks Doctor."

Teilani loaded her tricorder readings in her medical database and compared it with the last time Blitzer had had his physical. "Besides the brusing your in good health. Try to increase your calcium intake and you are as fit as a fiddle."

Blitzer slid off the bio bed. "How is Nova doing?"

Teilani turned towards mainsick bay and checked the injured female pilot. "Come and see for yourself. She is doing alright. I guess tomorrow or the day after she can be released for here."

Blitzer looked at the PADD. "Well, I better get going Doctor, thanks again for sharing a meal with me," he said with a heartfelt grin.

He turned and waved at the doctor as he headed out the door.

Recon Part - II "
By: M'Ressha Mikaht, fighter pilot , [RNPC]
Dr. Alyssa Caitlin Northrop, Acting Chief Intel Officer, [PST]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 1945

Blitzer walked around the USS Tigris inspecting it. It wasn't like his fighter. It was absolutely huge. As he came around the side, Lt Granger was still fueling the deuterium. "Don't worry Blitz, she's the best Danube Class ship on the Zion. Blitzer returned his observation with a frown, "Its the only one," he said crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Look at this thing, Its a shuttlebus," he said.

Granger chuckled, "This is some serious equipment, look its got two FIB-3 Fusion Impulse Engines and two LF-7X2 Compact Linear Warp Nacelles." He shut down the fuel lines when the light on the discharge tube turned green. He disconnected the conduit clamps and continued lecturing, "it will do warp 8.3 easy."

"Armament" said Blitzer, as he ran his paw across the one of the lateral phaser banks, "...Six Type VI phasers, two forward, two aft, one starboard, one port."

"..and 2 micro torpedo launchers," added Granger.

Blitzer grinned.

He spotted from across the way one of his passengers. As she drew closer, he greeted her with a salute, "Good evening, Ma'am. The equipment you've requested has been loaded in to the rear cargo area. The manifest is on a PADD back there too. Just let me know when you are ready to go.

Northrop looked at the man for a moment. "Do I look like an officer to you? I work for a living. Drop the Ma'am crap."

Blitzer had an "Oh my" expression on his face, it wasn't the reply he was expecting.

Yeah, it was probably over the top a little, but she wasn't about to let some throttle jockey call her Ma'am. Walking through the hatch into the runabout, Alyssa headed into the back to look over her gear.

Several minutes later Blitzer spotted an ops officer. "You must be the flight crew," he said with a smirk.

Maxine looked up and shifted the isolinear chip a bit so she could speak without mumbling. ""You must be th'pilot," she grinned.

"I'm Mikaht. but everyone calls me Blitzer."

"Maxine Tapert, but everyone calls me Max." She had a pack slung over one shoulder and her long hair was braided into small braids and tied at the back of her head.

Then, Northrop's voice called out from the back, "Hey...let's go!"

Blitzer shrugged at Max.

"Roight y'are," Max nodded and climbed on board.

Blitzer sat down at the flight control station. In away he was actually going to enjoy this excursion, even if it was dangerous. When he finished his preflight check he looked over at Maxine who was running a systems check and glanced over to smile back at him.

"Ready here," she told him.

"USS Tigris to flight control, we are ready for launch."

"Acknowledged," came the reply, "you are go for launch."

Blitzer powered up the impulse engines and flipped on the comlink, "prepare for take off chief" he said as he lifted the ship off the flight deck. Despite its bulky size it handled quite well.

He moved the ship forward through the atmospheric force field and out into space.

"Accelerating to one-quarter impulse," he announced.

Blitzer nodded at Max, "engage the cloak."

Max's fingers moved over the console as she executed his order. "Cloak engaged and operating at one hundred percent," she flashed him a grin.

The runabout shimmered and faded away and Max's grin broadened. "I love it when that 'appens," she admitted out loud. "Makes me feel like Alice In Wonderland..." Although how she came by that analogy is anyone's guess.

"Changing course, heading 270 mark 3...warp 7," he said as he engaged he warp engines. He looked at Max, "its on auto, I'm going to go check on our passenger."

"A'roight," Maxine nodded and continued to run system checks.

Everything Alyssa sent down looked like it was in working order. Granted there wasn't much there, just a backpack with a couple of her more interesting toys inside. In addition to her holster and phaser pistol. Pulling the pistol out of it's box, she checked the charge on the power cell and then reloaded it.

Blitzer came back and found Alyssa. "Chief? we're cloaked and on course to Pacifica at warp 7. We'll arrive there about 1100 hours, about 12 hours from now."

Slipping into the shoulder holster, "That's fine. Thanks for the heads up."

"If you want to get some sleep go ahead and choose which quarters you want. I'll alert you if anything happens"

Alyssa nodded.

Blitzer turned and headed back to the runabout's flight deck."

Naked Worms"
By: M'Ressha Mikaht, Fighter Pilot , [RNPC]
Krystal, Hologram, [RNPC]
Maxine Lucinda Tapert, Computer Specialist, [PC]

Stardate: 58205.27 2330

Blitzer returned to the flight control station after briefing Northrop and made himself comfortable for the long flight.

Maxine glanced up from her PADD as Blitzer came back. Krystal was perched on the console in front of her, preening her wings and being unusually quiet. "I've begun passive scans for any sub-space communications and anything else that might hint at Federation activity," she told him.

Blitzer sat back down at the flight control station, "good." He turned and regarded the Pixie, "Is that some sort of toy?"

Maxine regarded the hologram rather critically before answering the pilot. "She's the 'olographic Avatar of my AI program," she explained. "And companion, would be accurate... When she's not giving me th'silent treatment," she added.

Blitzer cocked his ear and looked inquisitively at Krystal, "you don't say." Sitting back he said, "an Avatar huh... what does it do?"

Krystal looked up from the intense study of her wings and blinked at him. Huge blue eyes studied his features and she wrinkled her nose at him. "Krystal. I'm Krystal. hyper-Kinetic * peRpetuallY * suStained * quanTum * Accelerated * Logistics." She announced, writing it out in holographic pixie dust with all the proper letters capitalized and bolded.

Max looked between the two and quirked a brow at the hologram before turning back to Blitzer. "She processes, correlates, and manipulates raw data. She also runs diagnostics and constantly monitors for foreign code," she explained. "In her holographic Avatar state, she's a pig-headed pixie suffering from all the pixie parameters I could program into her...."

Krystal didn't look at Maxine as she recited, "Pixie: imPulsive * Insecure * eXcitable * Impish * faErie..." The K.R.Y.S.T.A.L. anagram was replaced with the P.I.X.I.E. one, again complete with emphasis on the correct letters.

Blitzer leaned forward and chuckled lightly as he inspected her, "It looks like a toy." he said nodding.

"A posable doll?" Maxine laughed. "At the very least a toy that talks back."

"I am not a toy," Krystal told Blitzer, completely ignoring Max. "But I'm cute," she grinned up at him and then had Maxine rolling her eyes when she announced; "And I have pert breasts."

Blitzer leaned forward, "Well indeed you do, nice to meet you Krystal," said Blitzer as he sat down at the flight controls.

"I don't know that much about computers," he said with a perpetual smile, "I just fly."

"I know how to activate the navigational systems and turn on the auto-pilot," the pixie offered helpfully.

"Ahem..." Max cleared her throat. "We don't know much about flying. We just work on computers."

Blitzer made some minor course corrections and then leaned toward Krystal. "Would you like to activate the auto-pilot for me?"

Krystal blinked and stared at him for a moment. "OooH! Yes!" she exclaimed and scrambled to her feet, bouncing on her toes a little and fluttering her wings in excitement. A shower of pixie dust accompanied her antics and she rose up on tiptoes almost expectantly, looking for all the world like she was going to take off... And then she just sagged and let out a heartfelt sigh... Her shoulders slumped and her wings drooped... Even her hair looked suddenly limp as the pixie portrayed the perfect picture of dejection. "Can't..." she scuffed her toe on the console.

"You can't?"

The pixie hologram extended an arm and finger, pointing them directly at Max and looking like the Accusation Faerie of Doom. "*She* won't let me."

Maxine looked over at Blitzer, shifted the isolinear chip in her mouth and smiled a little wryly as she shrugged one shoulder. "She had worms... Intercepted them in the Zion's computer and I had to take her offline," she explained. "I'm just running the final debugging program on her now."

"She made me... *shut down*," Krystal shuddered and Pixie dust shimmered around her.

"Worms!?" exclaimed Blitzer. "Why you poor thing," he said with a tone of voice that was slightly patronizing and totally lost on the pixie judging from the look on her face and the fact that she inched closer to him.

Blitzer tapped the console and activated the autopilot and then leaned back in his chair, "What were worms doing in the Zion's computer?" He said with a slightly confused look, "I don't get it."

"Some nasty little innocuous looking self-replicating code that 'ad all th'earmarks of that 'ack, Birkoff," Maxine told him. "Luckily Pixie caught it before it got into th'navigational system which is where it was headed once it was triggered."

"Birkoff huh? A bunch of us boys would have liked to get our paws on him," said Blitzer extending his claws from his paw.

Max and Krystal both blinked at the display of his claws. Krystal's eyes got huge and she uttered an expressive, "Ooooohhhh..." Maxine eyes got huge too, and she smirked as she uttered a, "Bloody cool. I'd like a piece of that blighter m'self," she snorted softly.

"So it made the little faerie sick?" he said with concern.

Krystal presented a pathetic looking picture and Maxine eyed her before nodding. "Aye, it did. She started exhibiting all kinds of erratic behavior. VERY erratic," Max clarified. "Then she hacked up a hairball of worms when I had her run a diagnostics..." She wrinkled her nose to show how odd *that* had been.

Blitzer shook his head and leaned closer to the pixie, "I hope you feel better real soon."

The pixie hologram blinked and grinned as she leaned closer to him. "Thank you. I feel all better now. Maxine worries. And she has to run a plethora of diagnostic programs," she confided.

"Speaking of diagnostics...in flight status?"

"Maxine looked up slightly before responding with, "Everything is well within normal parameters," she answered. "The scans aren't picking anything up either."

"All is well here," said Blitzer, "autopilot is deviating less than .001% which is normal for the gravimetrics of this region. He swiveled out of his chair. "I'm going to go get something from the replicator, can I get you anything?"

"Ooohh... 'ot chocolate, please," Maxine smiled at him.

"I like nectar," Krystal told him.

"Shush. Y'can't drink anyway," Max reminded her, and then totally distracted the winged creature by announcing, "but it looks like you're clean... Then she turned back to Blitzer. "Just the 'ot chocolate, please."

Blitzer returned with Max's order, a quick check of systems, all was well. He settled back into his chair taking care with his tail.

A long silence passed. Blitzer watched the stars blazing past. "So are you...uhm.. human?" he asked, "You have an unusual accent."

Maxine had been watching the totally silent pixie as she sat wide-eyed and unfocused while she re-accessed the computer system. Max was also monitoring her for any unusual signs. But Blitzer's question had her turning to smile at him, her body shifting so that she was now facing him more fully.

"Aye. Born and raised in New Zealand," she told him. "What about you? Do y'find it 'ard being in an environment that's predominantly geared for 'umans?" she asked curiously.

"I do okay" he said, "Federation uniforms take some getting used to of course, and the Zion has a custom LCARS configuration adapted to our paws." He paused and then felt compelled to add, "I'm really a fighter pilot you know," he said turning his head slightly toward Max."

Maxie shifted the chip in her mouth and shook her head. "I didn't y'know. M'not overly familiar with th'crew. I do better with computers and code," she admitted. "Is your jet geared to you?" She was very curious, but not obnoxiously so.

"No, not particularly, fortunately, the cockpit is spacious enough."

"Well, that's good... But can't it be altered?" she wondered. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head. "I don't 'ave th'slightest idea what th'cockpit of a fighter looks like..." she realized out loud. "I'll 'ave to look into that... But engineerin's not my thing really," she admitted and then realized she was rambling and stopped. "Sorry... I think aloud sometimes," she told him.

"Quite alright," said Blitzer, "It would nice if it could...." his voice trailed off.

"How about you? What do you like to do? I bet you write great holonovels or something" he said with a smirk.

That made her blink and then laugh as she shook her head. "Nono... Computers. And Code... I *love* code..." The emphasis on the word was almost sensual. "Did you know that everythin' can be reduced to code? Oh... And puzzles and climbing... I enjoy those too."

"I guess code makes the universe go 'round" he said. He turned to Max, "oh, oh.. It looks like we have some random concentrations of metaphasic radiation. See if we need to recalibrate the cloak matrix."

"Roight..." Max turned to the task as hand, her fingers hardly moving over the console. "It does make th'universe go 'round," she commented almost absently. And then she and Krystal began talking at the same time and saying the same thing, the pixie almost an echo of Max's voice. "Cloak matrix recalibrated by .0423 percent." Then Max's voice slowly died out and Krystal's continued. "Holding steady with the new harmonics frequency."

"You to make quite a team," said Blitzer leaning over to the pixie.

Krystal blinked and focused on him. A grin split her face a she leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially and with a slight flutter of wings; "She's my 'yes' man."

Maxine snorted and glanced down at the pixie. "You been in the data archives again?" she asked her and then looked at Blitz. "I think she found some porn the other day."

"Porn? Is that like worms too," asked Blitzer.

Maxine blinked and looked at the two faces gazing at her and looking for an answer. "Crikey..." she muttered and for the first time in years, her cheeks pinkened. "Probably... But they'd be *naked* worms..." she told him.

With an utterly confused look on his face, Blitzer looked at the pixie and then back at Maxine. His ears cocked forward and darted back and forth inquisitively, "Aren't all worms naked?"

Maxine looked from one to the other of them and grunted softly. "I.... Well... Technically yes," she agreed. "But it was more of a.... It's hard to explain... It's all about naked... And uhhh... you know... Sex..." she moved a hand expressively.

Krystal's eyes got huge and she listened, enraptured and in full -learning- mode.

"Perhaps sometime you can show me this...porn."

That made Maxine blink and her cheeks turned a deep rose. "Uhhh... I don't think that's a coed activity...." which was probably the silliest thing she'd said in a long while.

"But..." the little pixie hologram began, stopping at the look on Max's face. "She's turning red!" she squealed and pointed.

Blitzer looked directly at the pixie, "is she feeling ok?"

"I don't know!" the pixie answered in agitation as she began to pace. "I don't have tricorder capabilities," she told him. "You better check her.... Or call the doctor!!!"

"Crikey..." Max tried to sink further into her chair. "There is *nothing* wrong with me," she told them, making a face at the pair of them. "We just need to stop talking about porn is all."

"This porn, it seems to have quite an effect on you. Do all humans respond this way?"

"Oh god gods...." Max drew in a breath and gave them both a look. "I don't know... It's not like I ever *talked* to anyone about that kind of thing. I just thought she got into some because she kept going on about perfect pert breasts," she indicated the pixie who looked from her creator to Blitz.

Blitzer chuckled lightly.

"Maxine has perfect breasts. And they're pert," Krystal told him seriously and with a little nod and sparkle of dust.

Blitzer instinctively craned his head and looked at Maxine's breast and then turned back to the pixie, "...they are," he said, "for a human. And so are yours, for a pixie," he said with a smile.

"Gah!" Maxine just as instinctively cupped her breasts with her hands to cover them, while Krystal struck a pose that accentuated hers.

"Why thank you," Krystal preened.

"Crikey..." Max rolled her eyes. But now she was curious.... "What did you mean, 'for a human'?"

Blitzer stammered, "uhm, ah...well, ehem.. they're well...you know, uhm, human females, for example, tend to have larger breasts than say the females of my species," he said as he adjusted the collar on his uniform.

Oh good, now it was his turn to feel uncomfortable and Maxine couldn't help but wonder if Cait's blushed too. She knew her own cheeks were red. She shifted her arms to cross under her breasts as she regarded him, totally oblivious to the way it drew attention to them. "Do they only have two?" she asked, still curious despite her embarrassment.

"Well, sort of" said Blitzer matter of factly, "our females tend to have four to six nipples. The upper most pair look very similar to human breasts, but tend to be much smaller. The other nipples aren't as obvious."

He shifted slightly in his seat.

Maxine tried to imagine having all those nipples.... Then imagined what it would be like when she got cold... which made her own automatically respond... which was freaky and had her rubbing her arms over them to make it stop... "Crikey...." she grumbled. "Are they.... well.. functional?" she asked and shifted a little in her own seat.

"No, our anthropologist say it is an evolutionary throwback," he shrugged with a gesture, "whatever that means," he said glancing sideways toward Max.

Krystal was rubbing her hands up and down her rib cage. "I could do that."

Blitzer chuckled and shook his head, "silly little faerie..."

"Don't start sprouting more nipples," Max told her and glanced over to Blitz. "I think it means you're supposed to 'ave litters..." she offered. "Uhh... do ya?"

"Litters?"

Max blinked and looked at him like he just spouted six nipples of his own. But that thought had her wondering if he *did* have them because male cats do. And she couldn't help glancing to HIS chest and a little lower.... When she realized where she was looking she pulled her gaze back up to his face with a start... "Uhhh...y'know... more than one... like four or five...."

"Ah, oh... well," said Blitzer scratching his head thoughtfully, "I understand our reproductive behavior is similar to humans. We typically give birth to one, rarely more than two. The caitian gestation period is somewhat shorter.

"I'm no biologist," said Blitzer looking over Max, "...but I'd guess we're much the same....uhm..are you cold?"

Max's gaze went down to her chest and she grunted softly as she crossed her arms over her breasts when she spotted the reason for his question. "Uhh... noooo... I was just thinking about what it would be like if I *was* and had... yanno... lots of nipples..." She even shivered a bit and glanced down at his chest again. "Ummmm... do you?" she couldn't help but ask, and the question had Krystal peering at Blitzer's chest too.

"uhm, well... yeah...right here," he said rubbing a spot near the bottom of his rib cage, "some males develop six, but most just four." Feeling a little awkward, he added, "you can't hardly see them though."

"I can't see them at all!" Max squeaked and couldn't help looking where he was rubbing. Then she jerked her gaze away and snapped it up to his face. "I mean.... you're right, they aren't noticeable... I think it's a .... feline thing," she told him, and then out of the blue wondered if he purred... which was just a strange thought to have.

"Its ok..." he said, "there are many biological similarities through out the universe."

"Uh... I know... er... I mean I don't know.... Really..." Max stammered a bit. "I don't usually pay attention...."

Meanwhile Krystal was craning to see, leaning over and fluttering her wings to keep from toppling off the console as she looked at Blitz's chest. "Do they get cold like Maxine's?" she asked curiously, not in the least concerned with convention or anyone's embarrassment because she didn't understand the concept.

Blitzer chuckled, "I suppose."

If Max was anything, it was impulsive and rather vocal, generally talking before thinking. And now wasn't any different as the question kept repeating in her mind. "Do you purr?"

He took a sip of the beverage he brought back from the replicator, and sheepishly replied with a sigh, "our species purrs, but we learn not to. Its a mental discipline."

"But..." Max blinked in confusing. "Why not? I mean... why? I mean... crikey... what's wrong with purring?"

"Well, I guess we're taught that its not an appropriate display to off world cultures. I guess we do when our species is...you know.. intimate.

"Chester The Cat purrs. I like purring," Krystal announced.

"Me too," Max automatically. "I wonder why it's not appropriate?" she asked.

"Oh, Chester? the Captain's cat?" he said somewhat contemptuously, "I wonder how the captain would feel if I had a...." Blitzer slowed to say the word, "chimp-pan-zee."

Max and Krystal both blinked as they looked at him. It didn't take a rocket scientist to see that he was a little sensitive about the Captain's cat... "Having a cat's a bad thing, huh?" Max asked, uncharacteristically understanding. She usually just didn't notice stuff like that... But Blitzer just seemed to be somehow more.... expressive... or easier for her to understand..

"I'm sorry, the whole idea of keeping felines as pets is awkward to me."

"Heh... I can understand that," Max smiled. "Although I like cats....." She blinked and her cheeks pinkened. "I didn't.... I mean... uhh..." she let out her breath with a soft grunt. It was a testament as to how Maxine's mind worked that she went from cat's as pets to intimacy, but she somehow managed it. And then of course, the whole thought of 'his' species being intimate looped her mind back around to the beginning of their conversation in a sort of odd, convoluted way. "I'm not so sure that human porn is gonna be... uhhhh.... y'know... very interesting for a Cait."

Blitzer made a clicking-snapping sound with his nails, "I get it, porn is a visual representation designed to arouse the mating instincts."

"It DOES?" Krystal squeaked and looked at Max with a 'Wow! Can I see??' expression.

Max scowled at her and turned her attention to Blitz. "Yeah... pretty much... But I think it's mostly... y'know... a guy thing...."

"It still sounds better than naked worms, I'll have to ask my wing man about that when we get back to the Zion."

Blitzer's console blinked, he keyed some commands into he LCARS panel, and turned to Max, "Gravimeteric fluctuations returning to normal recompensate the cloak?"

"Roger," she smiled glad to be off the whole porn/intimacy/nipple/purring thing and back onto something she was WAY more comfortable with. It was only a moment before her and Krystal were dueting once again; "Cloak at optimum performance."

"What is that?" asked Blitzer.

"What is 'what'?" she asked, glancing back over at him.

"That thing on your head right there," he said pointing to Max's head.

"Oh..." her hand reached up and her fingertips ran gently over the small metal object shaped like a crescent moon. "It's a neural interface," she told him.

"What? Like a computer thing," he asked.

"Yeah, lets me talk directly to the computer," Max told him. "Y'can touch it if y'want," she smiled a little, surprising herself at the offer that just seemed to blurt out. She normally wasn't one for physical contact.

Blitzer scooted closer to her, his pad softly traced the external connector as he examined it closely. "Does it hurt?"

Max shivered a little at his touch. "Well... not really... I get lag sometimes cause m'brain goes faster than th'computer does... And then I get 'eadaches," she admitted. "But th'doc gave me something for them."

"So it connects directly to your brain?" he asked, letting Max's hair slowly sift back into place through his paw.

"Yeah..." Maxine blinked and looked sideways at him, not wanting to move and disturb his paw.

Blitzer looked awe-struck, "I didn't know that could be done. Did the Maquis do it for you?"

"My parents, actually.... Although th'Maquis updated it when I joined," she answered quietly.

"What's it like to talk to a computer through that," he asked.

"Like...." Maxine tried to think of how to explain it and her hand lifted back up to touch the device, her fingers brushing lightly against his when she did. The movement pulled back the sleeve of her uniform enough to expose the scars marring rather delicate looking wrists. "Like thinkin'... Only smoother," she told him. "Before I've formed th'coherent thought enough to say it in my head, th'computer is already beginnin' to respond to what I want."

Blitzer gently took her hand into his paw. With his other paw he gently caressed the area that was scarred. His nostrils flared and his pupils dilated, "Have you been tortured?"

She couldn't speak. No one had touched her like that since her mother and her fingers curled instinctively around his. Her eyes finally dropped from his face to her hand in his and after a soft grunt she shook her head. "No..." she answered with a whisper. "I did it... when I was ten. I thought I could.... become part of my computer system if I could just plug into it... It was my best friend, y'see.... Well, my only friend," she admitted with a wry little smile.

The caitian's heart went out to her, he was at loss for words. He squeezed her hand assuringly, "I understand," he said.

A long quiet moment passed while a myriad of emotions crossed over Max's featured. What he'd said actually surprised her and she looked at him in a rather strange way. He was the only person who had ever said they understood. And what an odd feeling that produced inside the computer expert.

Suddenly Max's console blipped and came to life. "What is it?" asked Blitzer.

Maxine turned her head to look at the computer console and her hands reluctantly slipped from his. "Ohhh.... Long range sensors are detectin' a Sovereign class vessel in orbit around Pacifica." It was the dual Max/Krystal announcement again, with the little pixie's voice just barely echoing Max's.

"That's impossible; the Maquis decimated the Federation's ability to produce such a ship."

"Maybe th'Federation didn't produce it," she glanced at him.

"I'd better go notify the Intel officer."

"A'roight. I'll see if I can get a registry ID on 'er...." she told him.

"I'll be right back."

Her eyes followed him as he slipped from his seat and headed towards the back of the shuttle. "He likes you," Krystal told her after he'd left.

Maxine blinked and gave her a *look*. "Oh, roight," she snorted and shook her head, going back to what she was doing.

"You like him," the little pixie added with a grin.

"Oh, go run a bloody diagnostics or somethin'," Max glared at her. "Better yet... compare that ship's signature with all known Sovereign class vessels."

"Aye, aye, Ma'am!" Krystal saluted. "You like him," she singsong'd and then giggled, blinking from sight when Max tried to swat her. "Bloody pixie."

Log Index | Go to Stardate 58205.28