Lost And Found (JM with USS Sentinel/Peacekeeper)

[Akios]

ON:

<<USS Malinche, Crew Quarters, MD01 2145>>

Ens. Hackerson's quarters were halfway around the deck from where Akios's and Drochlo's quarters were, but it didn't take Akios long to spot the nametag on the door. She shared quarters with Ens. Melat, it turned out, and their quarters were located on the inward side of the corridor. While that meant that they had no windows, it also meant larger quarters and a higher overhead.

Siri (Ens. Melat) opened the door in response to Akios's chime. "Haven't you finished eating yet," she asked, seeing the large tray Akios was carrying.

"I brought snacks," he said, lifting the cloth cover to expose assorted disks, squares, cylinders, and other objects. "I didn't want to come empty handed. Drochlo should be here in a minute--he went to the lounge to pick up something to drink."

"Oh, that wasn't necessary," she said, showing Akios in. "We have a replicator, you know. Just set it over on the dresser."

"You think you play poker well, eh?" a familiar voice said.

"Hello, Sojarick," Akios said to the tellarite. He circled the table to set down his tray. "I thought you were on beta shift?"

"Moved to gamma after ship left dock. I have three hours to win all your chips."

The door to the room opened again, and Seline Hackerson entered, followed by Drochlo and an unfamiliar bajoran. She looked around the room. "Okay, where's Chris?"

"Ens. Fields called," Siri said, "to say that he couldn't make it. Emergency transporter maintenance, he said."

"He heard I was here," Sojarick said.

"I guess six will have to do it, then," Seline said. "I don't want to spend any more time rounding up players. Everyone know everyone? No? Okay, Kelv Drochlo, Derak Beran, Turuas'ta Akios, Rel Sojarick, Siri Melat," she said, pointing to each in turn. "Let's get started!"

They drew cards and the first deal fell to Turu, but when he picked up the deck, Rel objected.

"His claws--they will ruin the cards! Not play with marked deck!"

"Polymer caps," Turu said, waggling his fingers. "You should be worried about my eyesight, not my hands."

Kelv pulled an end table over, set down the bottle he'd brought with him, and went to replicate glasses. Siri, who was sitting next to Kelv, picked up the bottle and looked at it.

"This is bajoran writing, isn't it? Some kind of beer?"

"It was replicated from a program of mine," Beran said. "It's still synthehol, but I think everyone will enjoy it."

"Beran was kind enough to lend it to me in the lounge. I was having trouble finding something appropriate," Kelv said, setting down a tray of tall glasses. Once Siri had passed the bottle to him, he opened it and poured.

"Maybe I should not," Rel said when a glass was passed to him. "It synthehol, but maybe night watch commander not like to smell on my breath?" He picked up the glass, sniffed, and took a drink. "Maybe I tell him not to sniff around, eh?"

Once everyone was seated and had anted up, Turu asked, "Any objections to five card draw?" and then dealt. "Let's start off easy--any pair or better to open."

"So, anyone hear anything new about the mission?" Seline asked, bidding two chips.

"None of the senior staff were back yet when I went off duty," Turu said.

"Still on course for Direidi system; should get there in another day if course not changed," Rel said, putting in his chips.

"People are getting jittery," Beran said. "Nothing serious, yet, but just the thought that we could directly confront the borg on this mission is giving some people nightmares."

"We fight the borg?" Rel asked.

"Well, the sensor data collected last mission suggested the borg were involved in Sirion's disappearance. If the borg ship is still in the Direidian system when we get there, I'm sure we'll investigate it. The only reason we didn't last time was because of all the damage."

"Jaran's 'letter of resignation'" Rel snorted.

"Well, that's one way of putting it," Kelv said.

Everyone put their chips in, discarded, and Turu dealt out the new cards.

"That's something that's bugged me," Turu said.

"Jaran's actions?" Beran asked.

"That's a whole 'nother issue," Turu said, "but it's not what I was talking about. I mean about the borg."

"How so?"

"It seems like atypical behavior. Why attack a Starfleet vessel at that time? They consider our technology inferior and our crews as nothing more than potential drones, if that much."

"The Nova class is a recent design," Seline said, starting the next round of bidding. "Maybe it's the first one they've seen?"

"Maybe the borg ship was damaged, and they needed raw materials?" Kelv suggested.

"Doesn't work for me," Turu said. "If they needed new drones or raw materials, Direidi was right there."

"The borg aren't known for being subtle," Siri said, "but they also don't seem willing to stand toe-to-toe against the entire Federation. They've attacked some of our remotest worlds and have attempted two preemptive strikes directly against the planet Earth, but it seems to me they're reluctant to provoke us in any way that gives us time to respond. If they assimilated Direidi, a Federation world, that would be provocative."

"I don't mean the entire planet. If the borg needed to replace fifty or a hundred drones, they could probably manage do scoop up an isolated town with no one noticing for hours or even days," Turu said. "And the population of Direidi is small--lots of places on the planet where they could collect raw material without detection."

"Unless the Direidi are more advanced than we think," Hackerson said.

"Well, that's a possibility," Turu said.

"It doesn't seem that far-fetched to me," Beran said. "If for some reason the borg needed materiel, whether they took from the planet or captured the Sirion, it would be likely to come to the attention of the Federation and provoke just the response we're giving them."

"You think maybe this response is their goal?" Rel asked.

"It's possible," Beran said, "but they couldn't predict the exact response that Starfleet would make. If Voyager or Enterprise had been in the sector, I could see them setting a trap, but not for a random group of ships. The borg don't throw dice."

The tellarite snorted. "Maybe they want to capture Prometheus class vessel for study, eh?"

"I still don't see our technology being of interest to them," Turu said.

Seline showed her cards. "Three fives."

"Full house," Rel said with a laugh, and raked in the chips. "Need bigger bets next time!"

Turu collected the cards and passed the deck to Rel.

"Maybe Sirion was equipped with some new technology that the borg were curious about," Kelv said.

"I've been doing some digging," Turu said. "If there was anything like that going on, there's not a hint of it in any of the records I've seen."

"All of you seem rather calm about the prospect," Beran said while everyone anted.

"Too early to think about," Rel said, dealing. "Plan, yes, but not think about. If I was klingon, I would sharpen my betleH. But then, I would sharpen my betleH anyway."

"That's not a bad attitude to have. Wish I could convince a few of our patients to think like that," Beran said.

"I think we'll hear plenty about it tomorrow," Kelv said. "If there's any serious possibility we'll directly confront the borg, I'm sure Engineering will be spending the entire day getting ready. Probably the other departments too."

"I could use another drink," Turu said.

"Wait until hand finished," Rel said.

The game continued late into the night.

OFF:

A bunch of NPCs, and

[Starbase 386 Crew]

<<USS Sentinel, Main Engineering, 0745, Day 2>>

Kilana walked into Engineering a little before her shift was due to start. Having the duties of 2-3 people certainly took a toll on her time, but she was determined to at least be on time, if not early for her shift in Engineering. That, and she was just glad to have the opportunity to be there.

Things were winding down for the night shift, so Kilana headed for the Chief Engineer's office. She'd cleaned most of it up the day before - PADDs and assorted other items had been piling up since the last mission. Now there were just a handful of PADDs left, including some with the latest diagnostics.

Sitting down, Kilana picked up the most recent one. Warp drive seemed to be functioning well. It could use some fine tuning, of course, but it was well within normal limits. Her eyes scanned down the list - everything looked fine, other than some problems with one of the consoles...

Frowning slightly, Kilana picked up her toolkit and headed for the door, just as Mikaela (NPC) tried to enter. Surprised, she said, "Good morning."

"Morning Kilana," Mikaela smiled. "You're here early. How was the dinner?"

"Nice. Everyone seemed to get along fairly well and the food was good, albeit a bit eclectic," Kilana replied. "How was your evening?"

Shrugging, Mikaela said, "Nothing exciting, really. Stopped in to check on Jon (NPC), and he hadn't fainted yet, so I took that as a good sign."

Kilana shook her head, "Hopefully that doesn't happen again. Perhaps if we block communications from his mother...."

Mikaela laughed, "I'll see what I can do, if you mean it. Where are you headed?" She noticed Kilana's toolkit.

"One of the consoles was acting up, so I was going to investigate," she replied.

Mikaela quirked an eyebrow, "Why don't you just have Deren (NPC) do it? I'm sure you have better things to do than fix a console. Or, seeing as how I'm the Damage Control Officer, I could take care of it."

Kilana grinned, "I know, but I'd like to do it. It's been too long since I've fixed something myself...other than minor things in my quarters anyway."

"Understandable - it's all yours," Mikaela smiled as she stepped out of the way. "I'm going to talk to Marc (NPC)."

Nodding, Kilana turned and headed toward the console that was supposedly damaged. Nobody was currently working on it, which wasn't surprising since it needed repair. Setting down her toolkit, Kilana ran her fingers over it and got no response. "Hmm..."

She bent down, opened her toolkit, and began removing the panel below the affected console. Shining a light into the darkness, Kilana's eyes searched for the problem. Nothing immediately obvious, unfortunately.

Pausing to shift her position so that she was now lying on her back, Kilana moved closer and looked in once again. Almost right away she saw the problem, "There it is. Now to fix it.."

OFF:

Lieutenant JG Mikaela Breland (PNPC)
Damage Control Officer
USS Sentinel NCC-74673

and

Chief Petty Officer Kilana Nira
Captain's Yeoman, Chief of the Boat, Acting CEO
USS Sentinel NCC-74673

[Hawkins]

<USS Malinche, Jacks Quarters, MD01, 2045>

It only felt like yesterday that Jack had unpacked his bags into his, now smelling, room, and now he was packing his bags again. Moving to Tupalovs room didn?t concern him too much, besides since he had joined the Malinche he hadn?t spent many nights in here anyway.

He chucked the bag containing various nic-nacs and his skates over his shoulder and walked into the bedroom, placing a small mint on the pillow of the fish covered bed, ?Have a good stay Chief? he uttered.

He reached the exit and pressed the door release, as he was about to exit the room he made one last order for the Chief, ?Computer, increase ambient temperature by 7 degrees and humidity by 10 percent?, he figured such an environmental adjustment might make the smell Marco created just that little bit worse.

Jack left through the door of his quarters for the last time in a while and walked down the corridor without looking back as the doors slid shut, sealing the smell inside as well.

He decided to head to dump his luggage in Marcos quarters, via an industrial replicator to acquire some weed killer to remove the vegetation from his new home.

While he was waiting for the carpet to clear he figured he may as well head to his office to get some work done, to check the daily reports from Starfleet Intelligence and see if he had been sent to reply to any of his repeated requests for information about Jarans death. And knowing him, tonight would be another night spent sleeping at his desk?

OFF:

[Kersare]

<<USS Malinche, Kersare's Quarters, 0542, Day 2>>

It was much too warm for her tastes, but then again, the situation she was in wasn't exactly to her tastes either. Isabel ran a finger between her tunic and her neck, as she felt the sweat beginning to collect there, then looked back at the others in her away team. They all looked nervous.

And why shouldn't they? They were on a Borg infested ship - only one deck hadn't been completely transformed.

Isabel held her breath as a drone walked past them.

Another walked by.

Then another.

She could feel the tension building, especially in the young ensign in the middle of their group. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and fired at the drone who had just walked by. Once the first shot went out, it was like a line of dominos, the others couldn't resist firing either and soon the last two drones that had walked by were killed.

Immediately the other drones turned towards them. Isabel's mind raced as she turned back to her team, "Get back, we have to get back! They'll have adapted to that frequency by now!"

As they turned to find an escape route, they were met by another group of drones. They were surrounded.

Just as Isabel started turning back to the first group of drones, one had a hold of her. In that horrible moment, she realized she would become one of them....

"No!" Isabel sat up sharply. Her breath came in ragged gasps as her fingers clenched the sheets in her fists. Slightly damp with sweat, her pajamas clung to her body as she tried to regain control of herself.

Just a nightmare... A terribly vivid nightmare, though. It was one she'd had fairly often after Derek's (NPC) death, though it had been months since she experienced it last. One tear, then another rolled down her cheek as Isabel tried to brush them away.

Even four years later, the thought of her husband nearly being turned into a drone still affected her. And why shouldn't it? While he didn't end up as a drone, he was still dead... Death was perhaps 'better', in a way, than being a drone, but he was still gone forever.

Knowing she'd never get back to sleep, Isabel slowly climbed out of her bed, glancing over at the picture of she and Derek on their wedding day. It had been a happy day, but the feeling was now tainted. Sighing, she turned and walked into the bathroom to take a shower.

<40 minutes later>

Showered, in a fresh uniform, and done with breakfast, Isabel felt slightly more at ease. As at ease as she could feel, considering the Malinche's mission anyway. Might as well get to work. Her eyes purposefully avoided looking at any of the pictures with Derek as she left the room.

<Bridge, 0657>

The turbolift doors swished open as Isabel stepped onto the bridge. The gamma shift bridge crew was still there and glanced over as she arrived. She nodded to them and started for her Ready Room, turning back at the last moment, "Ms. Holtman(NPC), has there been any news about our rendezvous?"

"If everything goes as scheduled, we should be rendezvousing with them around 1430 hours, ma'am," Caitlyn replied.

Isabel nodded and turned back to enter her Ready Room. Hopefully the Dorado and Dawes would have some form of good news. She wasn't holding her breath though.

OFF:

[Hawkins]

<CIO Office, MD02, 0315>

Jack walked through the revolving door and into the art deco lobby, there was no one on the reception desk or anywhere else in the room, but he did hear music in the distance, he walked across the marble floor towards a set of double doors, his footsteps echoing around the large entrance hall as the music got louder.

Jack opened both double doors, pulling them open allowing the music to fill the entrance hall as well, In the mood by Glenn Miller he seemed to remember.

He stepped into a large function room, his eyes drawn to the high and decorated ceiling and chandelier showing light downwards, it wasn?t until his eyes drifted down to the dance floor a few steps below him that he saw all the people dancing to the music weren?t people at all, but Borg, dozens of them laughing and dancing.

He surveyed the scene, there were more at the bar, some sat at tables around the outside and some milling about, yet despite the presence of some many of them, he wasn?t scared, it felt completely natural, one Borg walked towards him, whirring as he went, various lights blinking across his armoured body, the Borg smiling at him as he passed to exit into the lobby, Jack returned the smile.

Something seemed out of place, Jack felt like he was being watched, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, a dark figure he couldn?t make out seemed to be staring at him from the other side of the room, no sooner had Jacks eyes fallen upon him then the figure turned and fled out of a fire door to his side.

Jack quickly walked down the steps to the main dance floor and pushed his way through the dancing Borg, trying to make it to the door to give chase, he barged his way through, weaving in and out of the Borg finally making it across the room.

The door flew open as he hit the release bar and he stepped out into an alleyway, it was poorly lit, only one single bulb at the end, casting long shadows from the boxes and bins the occupied the area, the door shut behind him with a heavy clunk, the music and laughter becoming muted in the process. He listened, trying to see if he could hear any sign of the man he was following.

From the shadows he say a flash of movement, a phaser and hand visible for just a second in the bulbs light before it was fired, the beam striking him square in the chest, searing his flesh and causing him to stumble backwards, falling against the wall. He sank to the floor, feeling his life slip away from him, his chest feeling like it was on fire.

As he was about to lose consciousness and man began to emerge from the shadows, Jack struggled to focus as the man raised the phaser once again, ?You never should have come looking for me Jack, I thought you knew better??

The phaser was fired at Jacks heart, the beam lighting up the alley just enough for Jack, in his last moments, to finally make out the face of his killer, it was his own?

[Hunt]

ON:

[USS Malinche, Hunt?s Quarters, 0700 Hours, Day 2]

It was a rough night for Mason, tossing and turning about not being able to sleep in his bed and even tried sleeping on couch and that didn?t help either. He finally swallowed down a pill that he was given months before but hesitatant to use it to put him to sleep. He woke up refreshed and ready for work.

The computer replicated his favorite breakfast and he took it over and enjoyed the morning starring out the window eating. Now being full of his meal he headed for the bridge by means of the turbolift.

?Main Bridge.? He said fixing his tunic realizing it was folded wrong.

He got off the lift and headed to his seat. Normally his first stop would have been to his office but he missed being on the bridge to much to go there. The seat alone was cold and hard as if it was newly installed. Hunt paid it no mind and turned to his console.

It brought up the daily crew roster as well as the department head reports. The list was long to say the least but he quickly labeled each to be read later on. Not paying attention to the center chair, he turned and was about to speak when he saw Kersare was not there.

?Computer, current location of Captain Kersare please.? Asked Mason.

=/\=Captain Kersare is currently in the ready room=/\=

At first he was going to get up and pay her a visit but it was early and she probably needed to get her bearings before taking on the day. He knew that the Malinche was due to meet up with the Dorado and the Dawes that morning.

?Mr. Nostra(NPC) let?s run a sweep of this sector. I know one probably was already done but just to be on the safe side of things.? Said Mason.

<Tag Crew Malinche Or Sentinel>

OFF

[Peters]

ON: <Main Engineering, 0500, Day 2>

Peters walked into main engineering, ignoring the strange looks the night shift personnel gave him. He was rarely in main engineering between 9PM and 8 AM, and it was unheard of for him to be walking IN at 5 in the morning.

But he had no place better to be, and he'd already run out of things to do in his quarters since giving up on sleep a few hours earlier. Normally he'd just read a good book, but he was a bit too enervated from his nightmare. On top of that, none of his collection of old movies seemed to strike his fancy this morning, which left him here, getting to work early.

Walking into his office, Peters keyed the door to lock behind him. He didn't want to be disturbed for a little while. With a thoughtful expression on his face, he settled into his chair and activated the terminal on his desk. "Computer, transfer all available information on Borg Nanoprobes to this terminal."

The computer beeped acknowledgment and Peters settled in to read.

<Some time later>

"Well," Peters mused to himself, "We could flood the ship with Omicron particles..." He called up all the information available on Omicron Radiation and its effects. After a moment he grimaced. "Bad idea... that's inimical to half the people on this ship."

Peters stood and paced. He couldn't find a simple solution to deal with the Borg's Assimilation technologies. That figured, however, as if there were a simple solution, someone would have thought of it already. And the Borg themselves would probably have anything obvious taken care of... that many minds didn't generally miss things.

Still, there had to be something that could at least slow them down... Unfortunately, he only had theory, as the only source of nanoprobes to experiment with was not available to him... or to anyone not on a ship named Voyager. Which meant he had to simulate his results and hope for the best when and if they ran into the Borg.

After a few more moments of mulling ideas while pacing, Peters stopped and snapped his fingers. "That's it... we fight fire with fire... Computer, new simulation parameters... Presume that a human male has been injected with Borg Nanoprobes...."

The computer bleeped.

"Further, assume that within 30 seconds after injection, said human was injected with a dose of nanites programmed to attack the nanoprobes..."

OFF:

[Roh]

<USS Malinche, COO's office, 0745, Day 02>

Lieutenant, junior grade Trayven Roh was in his office preparing it for the meeting with his staff this morning. Luckily, he only had 5 staff members or they would have to find another venue. He had yet to receive an assistant but was sure he would get one as soon as they completed this mission. At the current moment, he didn't need one.

The first member of his staff to arrive was Lieutenant, junior grade Joey Summers. "Good morning, Lieutenant Summers," Roh said.

"Looks like I'm the first to arrive as usual," Summers said with a smile on his face. "Good morning, Lieutenant."

"Have a seat and would you like something to drink?" Roh asked.

"No thank you, sir."

The next one to arrive was Vir Borlat, boatswain's mate. The last three arrived shortly after the Bolian. Roh was pleased to see his staff knew the importance of punctuality. He asked them if any wanted drinks. "Well, now that that's out of the way. For those of you who don't know me, I am Lieutenant, jg Trayven Roh, your new Chief Operations Officer. I plan on running my department differently than your last COO. I feel that I am a very approachable fellow so if any of you ever have any problems, please come to me. My office door is always open. Questions? Comments."

"Lieutenant, how many departments have you headed?" Mara Sorenski asked.

"To be honest, I have never been a department head before but I did serve as interim Chief of Operations on the Damocles before. So I am more than qualified to head this department, besides Captain Kersare took me on this ship so I have her full backing. Anyone else?" Roh asked.

"I think I speak for us all here when I say that we are pleased to have you on the ship," Joey Summers said.

"And I thank you for that, Mr. Summers. I am reassigning you to Beta watch ops officer," Roh said to Summers.

"Thank you, sir."

"Don't thank me yet...Beta watch is much different than the night watch. But I have confidence in your abilities. Well is that's all, then consider yourselves dismissed."
As his staff left, he said to himself, "That went well, if I do say so myself. But now, I need to report to the Bridge to start my day." So Roh left his office, locked up and made his way to the Bridge.

OFF:

[Sovereign]

<<Yrel's Quarters, 0702 hours, Day Two, USS Malinche>>

The sonic shower was usually a blissful experience for a fresh start to the morning, and a preparation for the coming work load of duty. But between a slight lack of sleep, a horrid nightmare, and the plaguing symptoms of pregnancy, Yrel wasn't all that thrilled with this morning. She woke up with a sharp headache and another heavy spell of dizziness that nearly tumbled her to the floor and woke up Cameron. Not a pleasant event to have had to go through, to be sure. Any half-assed explanation would have been seen through in no time by the good Doctor.

Especially since she was hoping to distract his attention away partially with the letter to Linnens about the bio-chemical containment of Ba'Ku's regenerative energies. Surely with the investment Cameron was putting into Yrel, that he wouldn't at all be too pleased with Yrel's efforts to take on a new role with the former co-worker, at the cost of possibly being close to the pervert. No man could. And while he got in huff over it and brought it to head as the conversation piece between them for a couple days, Yrel could coast through getting a little more pregnant, scot free...

...no pun intended, of course.

With the shower past, and Yrel getting into standard uniform, which in fact would be likely down graded soon as she got to the lab, she headed for the table and grabbed for the PADD. She hadn't accumulated all that much yesterday since receiving the message, and none of it seemed right. It was far too laced with sexual inuendo and a personality of a desperate woman that was not Yrel Sovereign. It would have to be rewritten. Something to convey interest at first, and then slip in some subtle comments about getting together. It was a delicate balance.

Yrel made one passing look back to the bedroom, Cameron still sound asleep, and left her quarters for another day of duty...

[Akios]

<USS Malinche, Main Engineering, MD02, 0800>

Akios hurried into Engineering, just barely making it before his shift was due to begin. That was unusual for him--usually he was up at 0600 or earlier, and generally reported for duty with at least half an hour to spare. The poker game hadn't ended until just before midnight, and then only because Melat had started to fall asleep over her cards. He'd actually slept until Drochlo's alarm went off, for once.

He'd gotten dressed while taking a sonic shower--one of the few true advantages of the waterless system, and had eaten what he could grab on the way in. He hoped that the hasperat he'd stuffed in his jacket didn't show. He didn't think it did, given how loose his clothes normally were. With luck, if things were quiet enough, he'd be able to eat it while he worked.

As far as he could see, nothing new had come up during the night, just routine maintenance, except for a couple of odd cleaning requests from crew quarters. Not Hackerson's quarters, he was thankful to note.

He spent a few minutes reading the most recent warp core diagnostic, and then drew out a padd and began working his way from station to station, collecting status data on the ship's systems.

Eventually he worked his way around to the Chief Engineer's office, and seeing that Peters was in, decided to say hello.

"Good morning, sir," he said, poking his head in. "I have status reports for you."

[Rayne]

ON:

<<USS Malinche-B>>
<Ensign Rayne's Quarter's, 0500 Hours, MD02>

"Noooo!"

They were back, the nightmares, those vivid revisitings of events that she had witnessed durring the dominion war. Sara was forced to watch as every one of the members of her team fell as they ran towards the shuttle waiting for them at the extraction point. She had been the only one to make it that day. Sara hated the nightmares, wished they would go away, but they always seemed to catch up with her no matter where she went. All of those people were still listed as MIA, a small tribute to the members of the Echelon Inititive that fell durring the war.

Now that she was awake there was no sense in trying to go back to sleep. Sara figured that she might as well head over to where the Pheonix Dawn was and check on things there before she headed over to the Intel Department. It took her just a few minutes to put on a fresh uniform before she headed out from her quarters for the turbolift. When she arrived at the turbolift Sara found that it wasn't working. It was a minor inconvenince for her at the most, but she still took the time to call it in to Engineering.

=/\=Ensign Rayne to anyone available in engineering. There is a turbolift out on deck 5-B near the forward section. I figured I'd call it in since no on else seemed to have run into it yet. =/\=

With that said Sara walked over to a jefferies tube access and started on her way to the auxilliery shuttle storage.

OFF: Tags Engineering.

[Hunt]

ON:

[USS Malinche, Main Bridge, 0705 Hours, Day 2]

Mason was still on the bridge awaiting the results from the sensor scans. He looked at the duty roster schedule and saw that Roh was due on the bridge any moment. He had never meet the new chief ops officer was excited to meet him. The yeoman brought over a tray of coffee to those in the command center. The XO could smell the sweet aroma of vanilla roast with nutmeg. That was his favorite of all coffees he had ever had.

Activity on the bridge was beginning to amount, and the noise level being filled with additional computers being brought in and chatter brought a sense of slight distraction to the XO. He wanted very much to pay a visit to the Captain but she had not come out or summoned him to her ready room. Although the noise level was distracting he could sat there watching the viewer from the center chair.

He was becoming concerned that she had been locked up in there for a good while. So he got up and decided to stroll the bridge until Roh arrived.

<Tag Roh, Kersare>

OFF

[Starbase 386 Crew]

ON: <USS Sentinel, Lange's Quarters, Day 2, 0730>

Lange looked out his window at the stars. It had been awhile since he'd just stood and looked out into space. Years, in fact. He couldn't remember spending time looking out into space just for the sake of it since he'd given up his command in the Merchant Marine to rejoin Starfleet.

Depending on the speed, acceleration rate, and location of one's vessel, staring out into space could be anything from soothing to mesmerizing to nauseating. It was said that even many pilots found the instant of transition to warp speed unbearable to watch. Lange, having been born in space, had never had that problem. He found space beautiful in all ways, even such dangerous anomalies as plasma fields and ion storms.

Unfortunately, Lange had other things to do to day besides staring off into space. He was due on the bridge in just a few minutes. The good thing about having given his XO the night shift was that he didn't have to see the obnoxious man quite so often. Lange made a mental note to do something to make it up to the night shift bridge staff whenever he managed to get rid of Davenport.

Lange turned back to the decision that had sent him to staring out the window... What uniform variant to wear. He was more in a mood for something less restrictive than the full duty uniform. Ordinarily that would mean that he would just wear the tunic... but he would have to speak with the COs of other ships today. And that meant he had to look like a Captain.

Which, given that he doubted he'd have the opportunity to run to his quarters for his duty jacket before the rendezvous, meant a compromise. With a small sigh, Lange pulled on the Captain's vest over his tunic. It at least was cooler than the full jacket.

Lange shook his head once more at whatever braincase at HQ had designed a 3-layer duty uniform with long sleeves. The atmosphere aboard ships was kept cool, but even still that many layers tended to become stuffy throughout the day. And that meant that Lange avoided wearing the jacket whenever he could get away with it. And that, since he had become a Captain, was quite often... but not often enough.

With a slight smile, Lange headed out the door and into the corridor. It was time to relieve Commander Davenport.

OFF:
_________________
Tony
AKA
Captain James Lange
Commanding Officer
USS Sentinel NCC-74673
Task Force 22, Horizon Fleet

[Starbase 386 Crew]

<U.S.S. Sentinel, Bridge, Day 2, 0725>

On duty for half an hour now, Megan was just now finishing reading the reports from the night shift. Many of the upgrades and adjustments she?d ordered were coming along well, completed, nearly completed, or at least underway. Although a few she felt would need to clear first before proceeding.

She would need to speak with both the Acting Chief Engineer and the Chief Tactical/Security Officer, even though most of the adjustments she wanted to make involved programming rather than equipment. Still, the last thing Megan wanted to do was step on any toes before even being on the Sentinel for a week.

Lieutenant Garrett had been very pleased with the Malinche Chief of Operations and was looking forward to comparing notes on potential upgrades again. It was rare to have someone on the same page, but that had happened, and they had worked well together.

With most of the basic upgrades completed or underway, Megan had prepared a padd detailing what had already been done, as well as what she wanted to do for the Captain?s approval. A few changes in the codes that determined shield and phaser frequencies could potentially make a remarkable difference if they ended up in a confrontation with the Borg.

The Hansons had also had some brilliant ideas, although the Borg already had access to them. With a few inventive modifications to their original designs, they could once again become effective tools. Megan had come up with a few ideas, and talking it over with Ensign Roh had created a few more. With the input of a few more people, the modifications could be even more powerful.

With most of her administrative work currently complete, the ops officer turned her attention to the sensors keeping an eye out for anything unusual. One could never be too alert when it came to sensor readings?or the Borg.
_________________
Lieutenant Megan Garrett
Chief Operations Officer
and Second Officer
USS Sentinel, NCC-74673

[Starbase 386 Crew]

<<USS Sentinel, Engineering, 0924, Day 2>>

Normally Jon (NPC) wouldn't be in Engineering for the day shift, but ever since he'd fainted right in the middle of Engineering he felt the need to prove that he was perfectly capable of his job. It was just that he was so nervous...

The others had to think he was incompetent; couldn't even handle a conversation with his mother. Not that she should be calling while he was on duty, but then she never did have good timing. Hopefully his fellow officers didn't think too much less of him.

Maybe he should pay another visit to the counselor... It didn't seem to help all that much before, but at least the counselor listened to him. That was nice. Someone to talk to who didn't think he was totally worthless.

For now though, he should concentrate on his duties. The past few days he'd been working at least a shift and a half, sometimes two. Jon had gotten a few odd looks from those working on the shift he wasn't normally a part of, but nobody questioned him. Probably because he kept busy, not that that was difficult.

There was so much to do. They had to be ready for the Borg, after all. Goodness only knew what they would find. If his mother knew about their mission, she'd be worried sick...

His mother... Surely she wouldn't...

Jon stood up, abandoning the console he'd been working at and walked quickly out of Engineering.

<Waters' Quarters, 0948>

The room was dark as Jon entered, "Computer, lights."

As the lights turned on, Jon walked over to his desk to check for any messages. He'd received a few, but they were nothing extraordinary...and none from his mother. Jon smiled, relieved. "Computer, record message."

Hearing a beep, Jon began, "Mother, If you're receiving this message, you've tried to contact me. Unfortunately right now the Sentinel is on a very important mission and I can't receive any communications for the time being. I'm perfectly fine, don't worry. I'll contact you as soon as the mission's over. Take care Mother."

"Computer, end message. Store and send this reply should a communication from Elizabeth Waters come in. Authorization Delta Delta T-"

The door chime sounded, interrupting Jon's train of thought. "Enter."

Olivia (NPC) smiled as she walked through the door, "Hello, Mr. Waters, I just wanted to see how you've been getting along."

"Oh, thank you for dropping by, Counselor, have a seat," he returned the smile, his previous task forgotten.

OFF:

Lieutenant JG Jon Waters (NPC)
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Sentinel NCC-74673

and

Ensign Olivia DaLizi (NPC)
Chief Counselor
USS Sentinel NCC-74673

played by:
_________________

Chief Petty Officer Kilana Nira
Captain's Yeoman, Chief of the Boat, Acting CEO
USS Sentinel NCC-74673