USS Malinche NCC-38997-A

ON: <USS Malinche, Main Engineering (Section Gamma), 1400, Day 3>

Peters frowned at the orders that had just come down from the main Bridge. The captain wanted full visual and audio transmissions from the Engineering crews aboard the Sirion. It probably wouldn't hurt to have the Security team headed over from the Sentinel equipped with a transmission source as well. The visual and audio part was easy... transmitting them through the pea soup of the nebula was harder... and making them holographic made it a nice little pickle for him to chew on.

"Better chew fast," Peters muttered to himself as he tried to brainstorm the best way to make the idea work.

"Sir?" one of the other engineers asked.

"Nothing... just thinking out loud. I just need to pull a tribble out of my hat..." With a dismissive wave, Peters looked back at his console. "Hrm... it would probably be best if we use a piece of standard equipment to transmit... A Tricorder! We'd just need to program it to continuously transmit rather than store data..."

Tapping his commbadge, Peters tapped a quick design into the console's memory. "Peters to Akios... if you're not too busy, I have a bit of a project for you..."

In the Engineering compartment of Malinche's alpha section, Akios acknowledged Peters' hail. "The Engineering unit here isn't as well equipped as your section, though, sir. It's not something big, is it sir?"

"No, nothing large at all." Peters smiled as he continued, "I need you to modify a couple of tricorders for me to transmit everything they pick up on the visual and audio spectrums. The receiver will be my job. Basically I'm thinking disable the tricorder's usual processing systems and give it just receivers, transmitters, and storage. Basically turn it into a heavy-duty commbadge."

Akios listened to Peters' plan. "Sir, the tricorder would be able to transmit with increased bandwidth and strength, especially if an external power supply was added, but... given the conditions, do you think that will be enough to maintain a continuous signal?"

Peters frowned. "No, I'm sure we'll need some form of booster. Have anything in mind?"

"When I was aboard the Andromeda, We were able to 'clear a path' for transporters and communications by modifying the bussard collector field output to sweep an area clear of interference. However, to achieve the effect, it was necessary to take the warp nacelles offline, and required hours of modifications."

"We don't have hours, we have minutes." Peters sighed, "I don't think we want to be without warp drive for any period of time, either. Got anything else under your feathers?"

"I attended a broadcast symposium once on the subject of maintaining contact with vessels that had somehow been put outside of normal communications range--variations on the Voyager scenario, essentially. One of the methods that was discussed was to set up a permanent communications link using two field emitters linked by quantum entanglement. Unfortunately, for a quantum entanglement link to work, it would have to be set up in advance--the two ends of the link had to be together when the link was created, but once the link was established, the field emitters could, theoretically, be moved an unlimited distance apart. Kind of like two cans connected by a wire running through a wormhole."

"It wouldn't be easy, but I think we might be able to set up something like that. I'd need to pull up the records of that symposium. Making the link strong enough to carry the kind of data you're talking about, though, we'd need more than just a tricorder. I believe it would be possible to modify an emergency transporter unit and link it to the transporter system of one of our sections, and use the tricorder only as a communications relay. However, the section linked would have to take its transporters offline--the quantum link would require exclusive use of the annular confinement beam emitter. Also, the linked unit itself couldn't be transported without breaking the link, and there'd be additional power requirements. Probably need one of the larger portable power units. Not easy for someone on the move to carry. It would probably have to be set up at a secure location, but once it was, anyone on the ship should be able to communicate normally with us through the link."

Peters was a bit leery of doing without transporters as well. "That sounds like a good solution for a long-term monitoring situation, but I think it's a little heavy for what we need. But I think you've given me an idea for a way to work this."

"What did you have in mind, sir?"

"Well," Peters started, "Holographic transmissions take a lot of bandwidth... and the higher the bandwidth, the more data can be garbled by the effects of the Nebula... so what if we expand the Tricorder's memory units, or take along a portable memory unit for the tricorder, and then have it transmit at regular viewscreen quality. In order to help keep the signal clear from that, we can 'bounce' the signal off of one of the sensor probes we've launched."

"If you say so, sir. The probe would have to be reprogrammed to relay the data stream. Do you want me to get to work on that also?"

"No," Peters replied, "I'll take care of the probe. You just make me four or five tricorders and figure out the memory expansion for them. And be ready to transport over to the Sirion when the Sentinel's security team sends the call for salvage teams. You and I are going over there to have a look around."

One of Akios's brow tufts went up. "Aye, sir, I'll get right on it. How much time do we have?"

"Figure on about twenty to twenty-five minutes at most." Peters grimaced. "Sorry to put you in a time crunch, Ensign."

"Not a problem, sir. I'll have them ready."

"Then let's get moving. Peters out."

OFF:

A JP With:

Ensign Turu'asta Akios
Engineering Officer
USS Malinche

<USS Malinche, Gamma Section, Deck 11, Bathroom, MD03, 1407>

The water felt good on his face, refreshing, and it helped to ease the feeling of shaking he was experiencing over his entire body. Already what had happened on the bridge was starting to feel like a dream, the feeling was already starting to fade, as if the memory of it was being pushed away into oblivion.

What had it meant? He had been raking his brain to try and make the connection between that word and any significant memory, but he couldn?t make one, nor could he work out if the word he had seen had really been there or if his mind had been playing tricks on him.

He stood up straight from the sink and looked at himself in the mirror, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, he wanted to get to his desk and see if his files held any reference to Arcturus that he had forgotten but with the mission at a critical stage he knew he wouldn?t be able to.

Though of course he would need to live through the mission before he could do anything about it too, even though he lacked the fear of the Borg that many on the crew had, he had never had any contact with them and nor had anyone he had known personally, he was still able to appreciate the inherent danger and the strong feelings manifesting amongst the crew.

He took one last deep breath and turned to the door, he walked back into the corridor and began the short journey to the control room, the away teams would be leaving soon and he knew the real danger was about to start...

ON:<USS Malinche, Beta Section>
<Day 3, 1507>

It was the first time Mason was in actual command of a section of the famous prometheus class starship. Sitting in that cold command chair seemed awkward to him and a bit unerving but he had a job to do and needed to put his being uncomfortable aside and focus on the tasks at hand. Suddenly heard the sensor alarms at the engineering console go off that prompted him to race over to see what was wrong.

"It seems we have a major problem with the main deflector. Several relays are going offline and the gelpacks are functioning correctly. We can't function like this and we don't have the CEO aboard not to mention anyone who is familar with gelpacks." said Mason. "Ensign, open a channel to Lieutenant Cheetara coded priority one."

=/\=Hunt to Cheetara come in please=/\=

{Gamma Section}

Cheetara sat at her console checking readings when a message came from Cmdr Hunt on Beta Section+Cheetara here, go ahead Commander+

"We are having problems with the main deflector, gelpacks are not functioning but the emitter arrays are going offline. We could use some help here."

"Did your engineers change the specifications to my perameters?"

"Most likely Lieutenant."

Cheetara always doubted the work of underlings. "I doubt they did Commander. Otherwise you shouldn't be having problems. Unless they are having problems understanding my algorithms because they are still new."

Mason laughed and smiled back at her. "None the less would you mind beaming over to have a look that is if your CO allows it?" asked Mason.

"Him?" Cheetara laughs. "Commander, all you have to do is order it. He is after all, only lieutenant."she paused. "Besides, it is my calculations as well, so he couldn't refuse. Nor could the Captain argue. I need to be there to fix them"

"Very well, I am sending you the order now. When you get it present it to the Lieuetant and signal me when you are ready for transport."

"Mr. Quaid, I am to go to the Beta Section for problems they are having. Here are my orders" Cheetara showed them to Quaid. Before he could respond Cheetara tapped a few buttons and transported herself to the Bridge of the Beta Section.

{Beta Bridge}

Appearing on the Beta Bridge, "Commander Hunt. I have come. Show me the full reports on the operating specs" she ordered

"Of course Lieutenant right this way." he said showing her to the engineerng console where two ensigns had been working. We need a fully operational deflector otherwise this section will be useless in this mission."

Cheetara looked over what the engineers had done and grew an angry expression on her face. "What is this?!" she almost shouted. "Are these engineers clueless?"

"I will leave you to it Lieutenant. Keep me informed." said Mason making his rounds.

END: JP BY

Cmdr Mason Hunt
Executive Officer

and

OFF: Okay, big plot twist for Mali. If this doesn't give you something to do or some ideas, I don't know what will. However, if you need someone to JP with or you do need a suggestion, just ask. Enjoy.

ON:

<<Alpha Section Bridge, 1510, Day 3>>

Isabel felt a little better after her talk with Nora. She'd had a difficult time speaking with counselors about her husband - it was a hard subject for her. Luckily, though, she felt rather at ease with her new Chief Counselor, which she took as a good sign. "Anything new to report, Ms. Sovak?"

The Vulcan shook her head, "No Captain, not at the moment. Lieutenant Quaid tried to contact you though."

"Ah, alright, open a channel to the Gamma section," Isabel ordered, looking over at the young Communications Officer. Seeing the young woman nod, Isabel said, "Something I can do for you, Lieutenant? Or some news?"

"Captain, have you heard anything from Commander Hunt with regard to Beta section's systems status?" Jake asked as he repeatedly looked from the data coming in on the helm console to the main viewer.

Isabel looked over at Sovak, who shook her head, "No, I haven't Lieutenant. What's going on?"

"Well ma'am, Lieutenant Thundera was just contacted by the Commander, he reported that Beta section is suffering from systems malfunctions," he explained as he began transmitting the same data to the Captain's console. "From the looks of these readings, they're going to need some assistance quite soon."

She nodded and tapped at her console looking at the information. "Hmm. Do they have anyone working on it?"

"Well, Thundera just beamed over to see if she can help... apparently the problems they're having are to do with modifications that she had ordered," Quaid replied as his hands danced over the helm controls for a few moments. "Their deflector is down, as are 43% of the bio-neural circuits situated throughout section Beta."

"Forty-three percent?" Isabel raised an eyebrow - that was an awful lot of circuits to have non-operational. "I wonder if the nebula is affecting our systems..."

"Well, if the nebula is somehow compromising the Beta sections systems I believe we have only two options. Both operational sections can vent warp drive plasma to try and disrupt the nebula to give everyone on Beta section time to correct the problem," Quaid suggested, "Or we can disengage the Multi Vector Assault Mode and channel the power through the main deflector to ensure all three ships are protected until Beta sections systems are repaired."

"I don't feel comfortable leaving Beta section in that condition. Let's get out of MVAM. Miss Holtman (NPC), let Commander Hunt that we're rejoining in five minutes to help expedite repairs," Isabel said. Tapping her commbadge, she said, "Crew, this is Captain Kersare. We will be rejoining the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma sections in five minutes. Kersare out."

"You heard the lady," Quaid replied as he closed the channel and began his calculations for manual docking. He wasn't about to risk using the automatic docking system while the Beta sections systems fluctuated so rapidly. "Quaid to all hands, prepare for manual docking. Damage control teams, stand by to assist your Beta section counterparts."

Quaid gently manoeuvred the Gamma section below the ventral side of the Beta section, his hands manually calibrating the RCS thrusters to compensate for the interference the nebula was currently causing. "Quaid to all sections... prepare to engage docking latches on my mark," he said over the comm as the Gamma sections docking clamps and allignment sensors went active. "Watch your descent angle Alpha... your coming in too steep..."

Joshua (NPC) checked his angle and adjusted it quickly but gradually, "Sorry about that sir, should be alright now."

Quaid found himself holding his breath as the Gamma section continued to ascend towards Beta, his fingers continued to dance over his manual controls but at a much slower pace now. "Captain, use the Arrowhead's port thrusters to align Beta section with your docking clamps... their RCS thrusters are shot. The alignment is off..."

"Ensign, fire the port thrusters in short bursts until we're aligned with Beta section," Isabel said. She watched closely as he followed her orders, seemingly a bit nervous.

"Steady now... steady..." Quaid said as they continued the lengthy and risky manoeuvre.

<Bridge, 5 minutes later>

With the ship back together, Isabel tapped her commbadge, "Kersare to Quaid and Hunt."

Quaid couldn't believe what was going on. As soon as the docking clamps locked down and the various ports between the sections opened up, the Bridge consoles and lighting began to fluctuate, on and off, on and off. Quaid's combadge chirped suddenly, tapping it, he could barely hear who was calling. He managed to make out the words 'to' and 'Hunt', and they were said in a feminine voice. Obviously Kersare was having similar difficulties. "Quaid here Captain... if you can receive me, I'm going to attempt to boost power to the main deflector to try and counteract the nebula's hold on our systems."

"Quaid, Hunt?" Isabel heard some crackling and some words that were difficult to decipher. "Crewman Holtman, what's going on?"

Caitlyn (NPC) tapped at the console hurriedly, then looked over at Kersare, "I don't know, everything seems to be fluctuating."

As if on queue, the lights went out, then started to flash on and off. Isabel sighed, "Great. Quaid and Hunt, if you can hear me, get to the bridge immediately."

"I can barely read you Ma'am... the communication systems must be affected by the Nebula... I suggest that you contact Captain Lange and inform him of our predicament... our connection to the probes has been lost," Quaid explained as he frantically tried to counteract the effects the nebula was having on the ship by emitting warp plasma though the deflector dish.

She heard some crackle, then what sound like "Nebula", "Lange", "probes" and "lost". None of which sounded good. Isabel turned to Sovak, "Anything of interest from the probes, sensors, or nebula?"

Sovak shook her head, "I'm not getting any information at all from the probes. Sensors are scrambled.."

"Crewman Holtman, send a message to the Sentinel - set it to repeat every minute - 'Malinche experiencing severe technical difficulties, possibly due to the Nebula. Proceed with caution. Will notify upon change of current situation.'," Isabel ordered. She saw the young woman nod as an alarm screeched.

"Life support failure. Life support failure. Life support failure. Life support failure. Life supp-"

"Computer, shut off alarm and warning message," Isabel nearly yelled over the sounds of the alarm. "Sovak, what the hell is going on? Did we actually lose life support?"

The Vulcan's hands raced over the consoles, "Yes ma'am, but only in certain sections of the ship. All of Deck 7, Deck 8, and Deck 12, and portions of Deck 11 have lost life support."

Isabel rubbed her temple and paused to collect her thoughts a moment, "Any theories?"

"It could be an area of Twisted Space or it could have been Dark Matter causing transient currents to pulse through our systems," Sovak offered.

"Spectacular. Doctor Zeral, would you be so kind as to go to Sickbay and let Doctor Lovestreet know what's going on? Morris(NPC), go with her. See if you can round up some more Security/Tactical officers on your way and try to help out the crewmembers on Decks 7, 8, 11, and 12. Sovak, try to find Thundera, Peters, Akios, or Hawkins. We need to have this resolved....if the Borg come..." Isabel didn't finish her sentence. It was a grim situation. Hopefully Hunt and Quaid, at the least, would find their way to the Bridge...

OFF: JP brought to you by:

Lieutenant Jacob Quaid
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B

and

ON: <USS Malinche, Main Engineering, 1510-ish, Day 3>

The time Peters had expected to get a call from the Sirion giving the all clear had come and long-since gone. That had actually turned out to be a good thing, as it had taken Peters nearly an hour to modify the probe properly. He had just returned to Main Engineering from launching the probe when he received word that Beta section was suffering from severe malfunctions and that the Malinche would be terminating MVAM operations to try to sort the problems out.

The docking went smooth enough, but that was where Peters' nice day ended. All at once, not more than 30 seconds after docking had been completed, alarms began wailing all around Engineering. Systems Monitoring panels began flashing varying shades of red, orange and yellow. They could just as quickly revert to their blue or green states, then flash to another warning color within seconds.

The first thought to flash through Peters' mind was that it had to be an issue with the main computer. The second thought was that if it wasn't the computer, he had about 3 seconds to figure out what it was before something actually went critical and blew the ship apart. He didn't have time for a third thought, as the Life Support Failure klaxon sounded before he could finish his second thought.

"Damn it! Everyone out! Move it!" Peters exclaimed as he instituted an emergency Level 3 Diagnostic on his panel. As soon as the panel indicated the diagnostic had begun, Peters ran to join the rest of the staff retreating from Main Engineering. Given his choice, Peters would have rather gone with a level one diagnostic on the Main computer and key systems, but he just didn't have the time, and the Malinche was not in a situation where he could safely take all the systems off line to run the diagnostic.

The Level 3 Diagnostic scan would override any other priorities for a few moments while it ran, but it should be enough to find anything other than a very good act of sabotage or a few deeply ingrained programing faults. Any of those, Peters thought as he ran down the corridor towards the nearest Jeffries Tube, would have shown up a good while ago.

"Where are we headed, sir?" one of the Engineers asked. Peters paused a moment at the Tube hatch, then made a decision.

"Deck 5. We'll set up shop in Beta Section's Engineering."

OFF:

<Beta Bridge, Day 3, 1512>

Cheetara had started working on the new problems caused by the incompetence of the two engineering officers when the order to reconnect the ship was ordered. She tried to send a message to let the others know that wasn't neccessary, but it wasn't going through. Just then, multiple systems started shutting down all at once for no reason.

"What the hell?", she mumbled to herself. She knew that couldn't have been caused from her configurations. She started digging deeper into the algarhythms to see what could have possibly caused those problems.

Cheetara noticed teams beginning to repair different stations in the engineering sections. She reconfigured and realigned her specifications that had been messed up. She had wondered if maybe they got jumbled in the transmission until she uncovered a new algarhythm buried deep under the surface.

"I wonder who put that there?" she muttered while checking to see if her security codes still worked from her previous position she held. "Ah, perfect."

Cheetara couldn't believe that Morris would do something like that. She knew she would have to show this information to the Captain and Lieutenant Caz, not to mention Commander Hunt. Cheetara finished correcting her calculations and documented what she had found on a padd. It was gonna take some time, however, to fix the damage done caused by the virus.

=/\=Cheetara to Kersare, Hunt, and Rodgers. I have information about what happened. Please meet me ASAP=/\= She announced over the comm.

OFF: Tag

[ON]

<<USS Malinche, Alpha Section Engineering, MD03 1410>>

When Peters signed off, Akios got to work.

"S'erak, take over here," Akios said to the vulcan as he vacated the seat at the main Engineering station. "Kylie, contact Ens. Tamlin and have him warm up the holoprojectors. As soon as I've finished modifying the tricorders, I'll want to make sure they can link up with the communications systems. Altin, give me a hand."

"Aye," the vulcan said, moving to the vacated station, while Ens. Dirland gave Cadet Altin a squeeze on the shoulder before returning to her station.

Because of its global holoprojection matrix, the Malinche's bridge didn't need to use a dedicated projection unit for communications, although it had them available. As in the meeting room, the 3D projected image could appear anywhere--in a seat, by the captain's chair, or wherever it was wanted.

Akios pulled a container of tricorders out of a storage locker, and he and Altin set to work making the necessary modifications. The tricorders' sensor arrays and data trasmission circuitry had to be replaced with the guts from a holocommunicator, so the modified tricorders wouldn't be useful for normal scanning or data relay. From repair supplies they added an extra power pack to each tricorder, the same that each already had internally, and while checking that all of them were fully charged, Akios programmed the replicator to produce the modified cases. Pulling each tricorder's isolinear storage unit, they replaced them with holographic buffers. While it was possible to construct holograms from tricorder data, for a live data stream the existing storage just didn't have the throughput necessary. The downside was that it effectively limited the tricorder's storage capacity to a few minutes.

While he was modifying the tricorders' controls, Akios also added a speaker. If the modified tricorders were going to work like amped up combadges, it was a good idea for them to have two-way capabilities. That way they'd serve as full backups for the away team's combadges. The control panels ended up mostly blank--the tricorders would work just like combadges, with a few simple touch commands.

"Akios to Ensign Tamlin."

"Tamlin here."

"Ready to test holographic transmissions."

"Stand by... Go ahead, Mr. Akios."

Akios switched on all five of the five tricorders he had modified. After a few exchanges with Tamlin, he had corrected a problem with channel overlap.

"How much of an image are you getting?" Akios asked.

"The focal area of the holograms have a radius of roughly eight feet, Mr. Akios."

"Let me see if I can boost that," Akios said, and started adjusting one of the tricorders.

"Hold it," Tamlin's voice said from the speaker. "The image is starting to degrade. That gives you... a maximum radius of fifteen feet."

"Acknowledged." Akios set the limit on the image processors, but otherwise left the tricorders as they were. An eight foot radius seemed like a good starting point. Once they were aboard the Sirion, under actual operating conditions, he could make further adjustments.

While the aurelian was working with Communications, Altin took a holographic memory module and began modifying it, first adding the receiver circuitry for the five streams of holographic data it would receive, then an image processing unit to convert the holographic data to the standard visual format for communications, and finally the holographic receivers and visual transmitter. The memory module's internal power supply didn't need modification.

Akios boxed up the modified hardware, and notified Peters that he was ready. Nothing to do now but wait...

<<MD03 1515>>

The Engineering crew in alpha section stood at their stations as the sections came together, ready to stand down. The ship's computer would automatically handle the tradeoff in control from the auxiliary systems to Main Engineering as the connection was established. The captain's announcement hadn't said why Malinche was suddenly being reassembled, though Quaid's announcement to the damage control teams was a bit unusual.

There was the expected bump as the structural integrity fields merged, and the various control panels switched over to secondary mode. However, at the same time, the master systems display lit up red, as did several system monitors.

"What the hell?" Akios asked no one in particular. "Dirland, are we having a linkage failure?"

"I don't think so, sir," Kylie said, her fingers fluttering over her station. "System synch looks normal, but it looks like there are multiple anomalies in beta section, and... sir, they're spreading..."

"Beta section?" Akios tapped his combadge, but it buzzed the failure tone.

"Kylie, try to isolate the main computer. We have to keep this from spreading to it if we can."

"I can't from here!" Dirland said. "This station has relinquished control to Main Engineering, and it's not accepting my authorization!" Kylie Dirland was a computer systems specialist, so if the computer wasn't accepting her override, the problem was even more serious. "The computer core is a deck below us, Turu. I'd like to go down there and see if I can get direct access."

"Hang on a minute. S'erak, my panel is showing failures throughout all systems. I have life support failures reported on four decks..."

"Warp core appears stable," the vulcan said, "as do the impulse engines; however, control pathways for those systems appear to be among those affected."

The aurelian nodded. "At least we're not going to blow up right away." He got up from his station and hurried to the box with the modified tricorders. Opening it, he started setting up the memory module that had been modified to receive the holographic transmissions and retransmit them as a normal audio-visual signal. Before bringing it online, he deactivated the link to ship's communications.

"Got an idea, sir?" Kylie said, coming over to where Akios was working.

He took out one of the tricorders and handed it to her. "Since these don't use normal communications protocols, they're effectively independent of the ship's systems, and since they're meant to punch through the interference from the nebula, they should be able to handle whatever's going on now." With the relay unit set up, he pulled out another tricorder and activated it. "I'm glad now I added a two way circuit to these."

"Looks like it's working," Kylie said. She could see Akios on the tricorder's display.

"Good." Akios passed the third tricorder to Cadet Altin, and the remaining two to S'erak. "Kylie, I want you to climb up to the bridge, give that tricorder to the captain, and see if you can do anything with the computer from there. If not, the captain will decide whether to have you access the core directly."

"All right sir," Dirland said with a shrug.


"S'erak, we need to try to get tricorders to Cmdr. Hunt and Lt. Peters. Unfortunately, the way internal communications are going offline, we may not be able to tell where they are. Main Engineering is one of the sections currently without life support. Deck seven is also offline, and Environmental Control is there."

"Indeed," the vulcan said, and took a pair of unmodified tricorder out of the case, handing one to Akios. "If we can get within tricorder range, we should still be able to identify them by their combadge signatures. Also, it is possible that the communications failure is temporary or intermittent. We should continue trying to contact the others as we move."

"Right. Altin, I want you to stay here and monitor the readouts. Use the tricorder to keep Capt. Kersare and us informed about anything you see on the readouts here, and start modifying some more tricorders."

"Yes sir!" Altin got another box of tricorders and brought it over to the main console. Meanwhile, Dirland went to the Jeffries tube junction and started climbing up the ladder.

"Okay, S'erak," Akios said, "we need to figure out the best way to intercept Peters and Hunt. Hunt will most likely make for the bridge. I think Peters will head here, but with ten decks between us and no telling whether the turbolifts can be trusted, he'll probably try the Jeffries tubes. What's the most direct route between there and here?"

"I do not believe the lieutenant will be coming here directly," S'erak said.

Akios paused. "How so?"

"The beta section engineering unit on deck five is the equivalent of this section. Since it is closer, logically, he will try to go there first."

"But the system anomalies originated in beta section," Akios countered. "Won't those systems be more seriously affected?"

"That is possible; however, since he would have to pass deck five to reach here in any event, he will go there first. If that system should prove inoperable, he would then continue here."

"All right. What about Hunt?"

"If he does not choose to risk the turbolifts," the vulcan said, heading for the Jeffries tube, "then it is probable that we will meet in the Jeffries tube. Auxiliary control for beta section is on deck four. We should go there first."

"Right," Akios agreed. He took the unmodified tricorder S'erak had given him and programmed it to scan for combadge signals, and to sound an alert a member of the command staff came in range. Slipping it into a belt holster, and the modified tricorder into another, he went to the equipment locker, took out a toolkit and a pair of phasers, and handed one to the vulcan.

"What about me, sir?" Cadet Altin asked.

"I'm not expecting any danger, cadet," Akios said, "but we might need to burn through a hatch or two. If there's any trouble here, grab the relay and head up to the bridge."

While Akios was talking to Altin, S'erak pulled an emergency kit out of another locker, removed three breathing masks, and passed one each to Akios and Altin.

"I hope we won't need these," Akios said.

"Since there have already been life support failures, it is a prudent precaution, sir."

Akios nodded. The mask itself wouldn't actually fit his beak, but if he needed it he could pull the gas exchanger out of the mask and breathe through it directly.

The vulcan started climbing down the Jeffries tube ladder, and Akios followed. "Deck four it is, then."

[OFF]

<tags etc.: PO Dirland going to the bridge, Akios and WO S'erak in the Jeffries tube, heading for the beta section bridge and looking for command staff.>

NPCs Dirland, Serak, Altin, and

<USS Malinche, CIO Office, MD03, 1525>

After evacuating deck 11 Jack had made his way back to his office, while part of him knew he should try and help uncover what was going on, or at the least try to help fix the problems, but his skill set wasn?t exactly much use on this situation, he was an intelligence officer, not an engineer, he doubted interrogating the computer would yield much useful information.

He sat down behind his desk and leant back in his chair, taking a deep breath he ran his hands over his head. He could here teams of engineers roaming the hallways trying to trace the cause of the problems, was it the Borg on the Sirion, was it the nebula, or was it something altogether different.

He leant forward again and activated the console in front of him, the familiar LCARS layout greeted him, he had decided to try and look through his personal files for any reference to Arcturus then maybe check with Starfleet Intelligence.

?Computer, search my personal files for any reference to the word Arcturus...?

The screen scrolled through all of his personal files before the screen changed displaying a message the computer vocalised at the same time ?No reference found within current search parameters?

Jack sighed, though in honesty he never expected it to be quite that simple, ?Computer, initiate a subspace link with Starfleet Intelligence, and search their primary databases for the same word?

He was expecting a beep confirming the link up and then the same response as before, however instead he got a beep signifying a failure followed by a text message, he read the text message and then pressed his combadge, ?Hawkins to Bridge, we might have a problem, apparently we just lost all long range subspace communication...?

There was no response, just some intermittent static, after he tried again to no avail he stood walked to the door and started to head to the bridge.

<USS Sentinel, Probe Storage, MD03, 1452>

"Ok, Sebastian is ready too!" Samas closed the tricorder and 2 engineers loaded the probe into the launcher system. They closed the hatch and pressed a series of commands into the console next to the opening, several seconds later there was a series of clunking noises followed by a "whoosh".

It had taken the better part of an hour but the probes were finally all finished, at least all that could be, and now the team was checking each one a last time before putting them into the launcher, at which point the operations officer on the bridge would fire them into the correct position.

The next probe was placed in the rack by Kilana and a young engineer, "Ok so who have we got here?"

Kilana hesitated slightly. "Um....George?" Apparently she would have to brush up on her probe naming skills. George? What kind of probe name was that?

"George?" He looked at Kilana, "Seriously...?"

He smiled and checked over the next probe, checking the circuit pathways and that it had everything it needed, "Ok, 'George' is ready to go."

Claudio(NPC) brought over the next probe with Toby(NPC), "Okay, we have Jim-Bob here. He's all ready to go!" Once the probe was loaded, he petted it for a minute and said quietly, "Go with George, Jim-Bob."

Kilana raised an eyebrow. Where in the Universe did they come up with these names? Jim-Bob? At least they were good engineers...Prophets help them if they ever had to name children or pets.

Samas wiped an imaginary tear from his eye, "They just grow up so fast..."

"Mr. Marot, how many probes are left?" Mikaela(NPC) watched as a bit of a line formed - Operations and Engineering personnel carrying additional probes. Hopefully they wouldn't run out of names...though they could switch to female names.

He looked back along the line, "Maybe 14? Hopefully that'll be enough...Kilana can you check the console there and make sure all the ones we've launched so far are working properly?"

"Absolutely Samas," Kilana said as she moved over to the console. Her slender fingers slid over the console, bringing up the statistics and readouts on the launched probes.

He opened the tricorder and began running the checks on 'Archibald', making a mental note to send the operations officer who named him off for psychiatric evaluation.

Frowning slightly, Kilana turned to Samas, "All seem to be working fine except for 'Al' - his position is slightly off and the information he's sending is delayed by almost two minutes..."

?God dammit Al!? he closed the tricorder and handed it to the nearest Lieutenant, ?Take over Toby?, he walked over to the console and began assessing the situation.

Near the probes, Mikaela looked at the one that had just been set down, "Okay guys, is Sally ready to fly?"

Toby looked at her, "Sally?"

"Yes, Sally. You don't want the boys getting lonely out there, do you?" She gave him a mischievous grin.

Claudio laughed, "No, we certainly can't have that. Who's next?"

Samas ran his eyes over the diagnostic on Al, ?Ok, I think it?s a problem with his location, Al there is surrounded by a denser patch of gas, its causing interference and putting him out of position. Any ideas??

"Well...," Kilana began, her mind working quickly to try to think of a solution. "We could adjust his position based on how much the gas is affecting it, for starters. Boosting the signal strength should help with the delay; if that doesn't work we could try changing the frequency and phase to see if that helps it get through the density."

?I worry about running out of power if we boost the signal too much, you adjust the position and I?ll try adjusting the signal to compensate?

"Sounds good to me," Kilana replied. She brought up a more detailed display about Al's position. The x-coordinate was only off by about 1.5 meters and the z-coordinate was off by 14 meters, but the y-coordinate was off by 127 meters. Her fingers danced over the console as she inputted the adjusted coordinates and sent the instructions to Al. Slowly the x-,y-, and z-coordinates adjusted, showing that Al was moving back into position.

While working to adjust the frequency Samas attention was caught by an argument going on behind him.

"Absolutely not! We are not calling her that!" Claudio said, a little too loudly.

Mikaela looked over at him, "Why not? What's wrong with Claudia?"

"It's too close to my name. It's like you're sending me out as a girl," he replied.

"You can't be serious. You must be stressed out Claudio. It's a PROBE for goodness sake!" Mikaela shook her head, disgusted.

Claudio shot back, "Right, right, and I'm just a microchip."

Finally Toby broke in, "For crying out loud, just call it Tara or Vanessa or something!"

"Hey hey hey! Guys, what's the problem?" Samas said making his way across.

Mikaela sighed, "This probe was going to be Claudia, after a friend of mine from Academy, but Claudio here got this idea that we think he's a girl and we're shipping him out."

"We'll just name it Tara, no worries, Mr. Marot," Toby chimed in.

?Well then the answer is simple, this next one is Claudia, then the next will henceforth be known as ?Claudio is a girl?, a mouthful but I think it has a nice ring to it, don?t you Claudio?? He winked at Claudio and turned back to his work.

Kilana watched the whole scene and looked at Mikaela then the others, raising an eyebrow. She could tell they got the message by their body language - much more subdued. "Everything solved here?"

The three nodded.

"Alright good. We need to be working together," she gave them a nod and a slight smile, "Back to it." Kilana turned to Samas, "Al is back in position. How are you coming along?"

?Nearly done I think, just one more minute...? He continued working at the console, and two probe launches later spoke again, ?There we are, try Al now...?

Kilana tapped at the console to bring up the readout on Al. After looking over it a few moments she looked up, smiling, "Looks good now. Nice work Samas."

?Nice work team? he smiled and held his hand palm out in the air, ?Come on now, don?t leave me hanging...?

Mikaela jumped right in and gave Samas a high five with a grin on her face, "We did it!"

He then looked at the display himself, before speaking far too loudly ?And oh look, there?s ?Claudio is a girl? transmitting loud and proud!? He winked at Kilana as chuckles emanated from the loading area

Kilana chuckled and smiled, then looked over at Claudio, who seemed to be taking it fairly well. He shrugged with a grin on his face and she nodded to him. They had done it.


OFF:

A JP by

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

and
_________________
Lieutenant Samas Marot
Chief Operations Officer
USS Sentinel NCC-74673

ON: <USS Sentinel, Transporter Room, 1400, Day 3>

Lange walked into the Transporter room and was surprised to find Keane waiting there with the security personnel. "Commander, you're not scheduled for this team. Once the security personnel and I have made sure the Borg aren't going to pose a threat to the Engineering personnel, you're more than welcome to beam over, but you'll have to wait ten to fifteen minutes. And you'll want to bring more of your people than just you."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned away from Keane to face Daggerd and his security team. "Have the phasers been modified to rotate frequencies with every shot? And how many shots can we expect before they adapt?"

Daggerd responded ?Yes sir all of the phasers have been modified to alternate frequencies, we were able to boost the modulation programs efficiency so we should be able to get about sixteen shots, depending on how quickly the Borg are able to adapt to the enhanced program?.

"OK, so we use them sparingly. Alternative weapons?" Lange knew there weren't many, other than the possibility of bladed weapons or projectile weapons, neither of which were proven to work for long against the Borg.

?We have also replicated two TR-116 rifles equipped with micro-transporter which we hope will be able to transport the projectile through a drones shield but we are unsure how quickly the Borg will be able to adapt to this weapon as it has not been used in the field.? Daggerd was not satisfied with the lack of testing of this idea but he was confident the principle was sound. ?Aside from that we have your basic standard issue combat knife should close quarters combat become necessary."

"It's been a long time since I've even thought about fighting with a knife... maybe if the Sirion's replicators are functioning and it becomes an issue..." Lange trailed off. "I hope it doesn't become an issue, but if it does we could try replicating an old-style pistol."

Blake nodded ?That would be a viable backup should our phasers become completely effective, but that's a few hundred years beyond my training? Blake smiled.

Lange nodded. "Alright then, let's go."

Lange stepped onto the transporter platform and straightened his jacket out of reflex as the others joined him. He nodded to the transporter operator and felt the familiar tingle of dematerialization. The view of the transporter room faded out, only to be replaced by the dark, obviously damaged bridge of the Sirion. Unfortunately, there were Borg present. Only three of them, but Borg nonetheless. All of them looked like they had been human.

Jeff had by now, managed to get his team lost. They had been back tracking to lose some Borg drones that had made it into the crawl space. Jeff realized where he was at.

"Damn!" he shouted. He looked back at the men who were following him, expecting him to know what the hell he was doing.

"Sorry gang. I brought us back to Deck one." said Jeff.

He heard a familiar whine, the sound of someone transporting; they must have gone onto the bridge. Jeff motioned for the others to stay put while he moved around the corner to the hole he'd made in his office earlier. He saw two, perhaps three Starfleet officers had beamed onto the bridge.

?Damn I was hoping we could put off our introduction to the Borg for at least a couple of minutes.? Blake surveyed the Borg around them. He looked with interest at the drone sin his vicinity ?It fascinating how these life forms can be transformed into something so different from their original design.? With that Blake focused his attention back on the task at hand and turned to the captain for instruction.

"Spread out... try and appear non-threatening for now." Lange looked at the Borg drones carefully. "I think those are what's left of their uniforms under the Borg technology. If we can we need to try and figure out a way to save them."

Jeff brought his small troupe out from the XO's office. He started slow, his phaser only slightly raised and pointed towards the borg drones that were on the ship, however, he was facing an officer who appeared to be a Starfleet Captain. "Glad to see you sir."

"What the hell?" Lange swore as several Starfleet personnel came into the small bridge. "Well, at least someone's left unassimilated on this ship. Name, rank, position?"

"Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Stevens, Executive Officer, USS Sirion; or what's left of her, sir."

"Glad to see you in one piece, Commander. Captain James Lange, USS Sentinel. We're here to, um, salvage the ship and deal with..." Lange gestured towards the drones, "well, them. If you have any thoughts on how to save your assimilated crewmates, I'd love to hear them before we dive in with phasers blasting."

"Well, not much sir. Seems they are assimilating them rapidly. I'd say the best thing would be to put them out of their misery."

"I'm not ready to do that," Lange replied. "But as long as they're not actively trying to assimilate us, let's look around. Maybe we'll find your CMO still alive and he'll have some theories."

OFF:

A JP With:

Lieutenant Blake Daggerd
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Sentinel NCC-74673

&

Lt Commander Jefferson Stevens
Executive Officer
USS Sirion
_________________
Tony
AKA
Captain James Lange
Commanding Officer
USS Sentinel NCC-74673
Task Force 22, Horizon Fleet

[USS Malinche, Deck 4 Auxiliary Control (beta section), MD03 1525]

Akios and S'erak only needed to climb down one deck to Deck 4, where beta section's control center was located. Nevertheless, they were just crawling through a hatch into one of Deck 4's corridors when Dirland's voice came from the tricorders they were carrying. "Akios? S'erak? Can you hear me?"

Akios opened one of the tricorders. "I hear you, Dirland. Something wrong?"

"No, I just reached Deck 1 and wanted to do a com check before I went to the bridge and gave this to the captain." Dirland's voice continued to come from all three of the tricorders the aurelian and vulcan were carrying.

"Okay. S'erak and I are on Deck 4, heading for Auxiliary Control."

"I can hear you too, sirs," came the voice of Cadet Altin from the tricorders.

Akios touched a control on the tricorder's console, switching the display from Dirland to Altin. "...right. I guess I must not have tied the audio into the channel discriminator circuit correctly. Well, that just means these five tricorders will be monitoring all audio traffic. Altin, make sure you don't make the same mistake with the others you're modifying."

"Aye sir."

"Well, that's slightly annoying," Akios said as he and S'erak continued down the corridor to beta section's Auxiliary Control. The vulcan had no comment.

When they entered, everyone Akios had expected to be there seemed to be there. They all seemed extremely busy as well. In the cramped quarters, Akios would've had to body-check someone to get through to Cmdr. Hunt. Turning to a lieutenant at a nearby console (Thundera), he said, "Excuse me, lieutenant, but I need to get through to... whoahhh..." He trailed off as soon as he spotted the lieutenant's borg implants.

S'erak, who had been trying to find a way to Hunt in the other direction, turned to face Akios and said, "Ensign Akios, Lieutenant Thundera. EX-Borg. Communications are down. We have a replacement communication system for the commander."

<Tags: Thundera, Hunt, or Rodgers>

Warrant Officer S'erak (NPC)

and

ON: <USS Sentinel, 1400hrs , MD3>

The Sentinel flew through space, sweeping gracefully around and through the slices of green phaser fire from the Borg sphere behind her. The bruised and scarred hull flashed green as it flew, clouds of smoke and gas from the hul breeches streaming behind as she went.

On the bridge, what was left of it, chaos reigned. Fires erupted from consoles, the dead and dying lay slumped over chairs, railings, and workstations. Rhys struggled to keep the sweat out of his eyes as he fought with his failing flight control stations to keep the Sentinel going. His warp engines were offline, one of his impulse engines was dangerously close to giving out, and the shields had been rendered useless long ago.

"It's firing again!" came the call before a double ribbon of green phasers appeared in front of the ship. Rhys slammed his hands down on the controls to turn the ship, but it was too late. The Sentinel exploded in a shower of sparks and fire as the Borg weapons cut clean through the ship.

"Simulation terminated," came the cool voice of the computer and Rhys found himself, for the 37th time, sitting in the middle of the holodeck. He kicked the holographic control panel, shouting obscenities, and then swearing even more as his toe told him that the control panel, while holographic, was still hard enough to hurt anything foolish enough to come in contact with it.

He sat down with a sigh, slumping forward and resting his forhead in his hands. He had been at this for hours and hours, and the results, sadly, were always the same.

"There's got to be SOMETHING!" he shouted, to no one in particular. "Did you input ALL of the data from StarFleet into the flight scenario?" he barked, having lost his charming, pleasant persona long ago.

"Yes, sir," came the reply, as the dark headed crewman flinched slightly. "Everything's in there... there's just nothing that's been effective against them. Maybe if we had a fleet of ships, but not with just two... even if the Malinche's in MVAM."

Rhys swore again. They HAD to find a way. "How long did we make it this time?"

"Fourteen minutes," someone called. Rhys closed his eyes and rubbed his temple. They could probably get more if they were running weapon scenarios as well, but he had set up this program to strictly test the navagational and maneuvering capabilities of the two ships and their crew. And so far they hadn't been able to make it past 17 minutes of survival from initial engagement.

"Get me some cheese, and reset this stupid thing. We're going at it again."

Whether by intentional ignorance, or a miracle in favor of the crewmembers in the room, Rhys appeared not to hear the murmer of frustration and complaint that quietly and briefly sounded. He was too busy running yet another scenario through his mind.

"Carter!" Rhys shouted, perhaps a little too loudly. The dark headed crewman scurried over. "Send all the data from the last simulation over to the Malinche's CFCO. See if he's having any luck figuring things out."

As someone hurridly placed a plate of cheesesticks in front of him, Rhys took out his frustration on one and waved his other hand, motioning for the program to restart. It was time to go again.

It only took eleven minutes this time. As the ship "exploded" again, Rhys looked for something to throw, but found only the plate of nearly cold cheese. As angry as he was, he decided to eat the cheese instead of waste it.

"Someone get me the readout on the last five simulations... give me any analytical information you have."

A few moments later, a PADD of information was handed to him, and Rhys wearily glanced at it. He sighed again.

"Alright everyone... take an hour break. We'll start again then." As everyone file out, Rhys wiped his forehead, defeated. He was out of ideas, and didn't know where to go next. If they engaged the Borg, he didn't know how they could survive, at least, not from a navigational standpoint.

He exited the holodeck, taking a walk to clear his head.

OFF
_________________
Lt. Rhys Monroe
Chief of Flight Control
USS Sentinel

<USS Malinche, Bridge, MD03, 1525>

What had been anger a few hours previous had not turned to something Logan hadn?t felt in a long time, fear. The Borg were something unknowable and to a Intelligence Officer that made them a dangerous thing, he liked having the upper hand, knowing more about someone than they knew about themselves, being able to use that knowledge to get the better of them.

The Borg, as he sat at the communications console he said the word over and over in his head, this was supposed to be a simple straightforward mission, keep an eye on this ?Jack? and maintain cover as a lowly communications officer, no one said he?d be lost in some godforsaken nebula on a malfunctioning ship that could have Borg walking around in the bowels for all he knew.

?I?m getting too old for this...? he said under his breath, a second later a panel on his console started flashing, he looked around to see that no one was looking and enlarged the screen, it has a copy of what was being displayed on the screen in the Intel office. Logan had set up a system that would flag certain words anytime Hawkins used them, and this one was a doozy, ?Arcturus?.

Logan had been told to enter this word for a flag but those he took orders from hadn?t elaborated as to why, and any attempts by him to find out had been blocked, when something was classified to his security clearance then it was something big.

The screen showed that Jack had tried to search his own database for the word and then tried to activate Starfleet Intelligence, it made Logan curious, why would he need to search for it, what connection did it have to the Intelligence Officer?

The question wouldn?t get answered though, the database held no reference to the word and the connection to Starfleet Intelligence hadn?t gone through...a thud of dread hit Logan, he closed the screen and attempted to access the long range subspace transceiver array, there was nothing coming to or going from the array or backups, they were cut off.

?Oh shit...?

OFF:


Ensign Simon Logan [PNPC]
Communications Officer

<<USS Malinche, Bridge, 1522, Day 3>>

It wasn't too long before the Turbolift doors screeched open, instead of revealing the cars passanger however, all you could see was his head. "Uh... little help?" Quaid said with a small frown.

Isabel raised an eyebrow and saw Joshua(NPC) jump up and run over to help his Department Head. "Glad to see you, Lieutenant. Report?"

"I managed to stabilise the main deflector for the moment from Gamma's Bridge... I figured I'd be much better use to you here now," Quaid explained as two crewmen pulled him onto the Bridge.

"Good thought. That's actually what I was trying to say when I contacted you and Commander Hunt." Isabel replied.

"I'm sorry Captain, if I hadn't suggested we re-dock, we wouldn't be in this mess," Quaid sighed sincerely as he moved over to the helm, "I should have tried to run more thorough scans... but with the sensors being like they are, there was no time."

Isabel held up a hand, "No need to apologize. It certainly sounded like the best idea at the time. Besides, for all we know it could've happened when we were still in MVAM - especially if this is due to Twisted Space or Dark Matter as Sovak(NPC) as theorized. At least now all our resources are on the same ship...even if we have to take unconventional routes."

Quaid nodded with an appreciative smile, "What are your orders Captain?" He was relieved that she didn't find him responsible, he didn't want to cross Kersare so soon after joining her crew, there definitely wasn't room for mistakes now.

As Isabel was about to respond, she heard a noise off to the side. It was Mason - who had apparently made his way to the bridge.
Mason arrived holding an arm; it was fairly sore from what he was not sure. He went over to the closest terminal that had a ship wide status report.

"Captain, sorry if I'm late. What's going on?" asked Mason.

Isabel sighed slightly, "Too much. Communications are down all over the ship, as are the turbolifts as you've obviously noticed... Life support has failed on Decks 7, 8, 11, and 12 - just portions of Deck 11 though. Consoles have gone haywire - flashing on and off. Ms. Sovak thinks Twisted Space or Dark Matter may be to blame." Gesturing towards Jake she continued, "Lieutenant Quaid just arrived and I briefed him on the scientific theories."

"And they seem to be the best possible answer at this point," he replied, "Until we can get sensors back online, we won't know exactly what we're dealing with, but this isn't the first time I've had to deal with Dark Matter. Back when I was working with SSWAT, my team had to assist in the evacuation of a freighter that found itself caught in the wake of a dark matter eddy, although the effects weren't as serious as this the characteristics are the same."

"As far as a plan... We need to get communications re-established first off. Without communications, it'll be much more difficult to know how repairs are even going and there will be no way to warn the rest of the crew of any other potential problems. We'll obviously need to get life support re-established on the affected decks and get the consoles in working order again. Some of those may be futile efforts if we don't find and remove or counteract whatever's causing this though," Isabel replied.

"I can try an old trick I picked up when we needed to manipulate computer terminal functions without being seen. With a few modifications to a Tricorder you could transmit your command codes to the needed Bridge consoles and control them with the Tricorder's interface," Jake explained. "It may take a while to establish connections what with the power fluctuations... but it's more helpful than trying to work with blinking interfaces."

Mason nodded and agreed with Jake's assessment, "Agreed Captain these terminals are designed to have back diagnostic tools. Perhaps we could somehow modify them to gain access to the protected files in the port sided computer core. It may not get all the stations up and running but it would help along with the command codes." He said with a few tools in hand.

Isabel nodded, "Yes, that would help."

"Jake, since there is no way to tell what the status of the life support systems are at this time. How much remaining air do you think we have up here? Asked Mason.

"Well, the Bridge modules life support systems would usually take over automatically if the main system and the backups fail. But in our current predicament, we can't be sure if the modules systems are working correctly without running a diagnostic. For that, we'd need to get the computer online or use a tricorder," Quaid replied, "But if I had to estimate, we probably have an hour, maybe 45 minutes until the air in the Bridge module is exhausted. So we need to work fast."

Isabel nodded, "Sounds like a plan, Lieutenant. If we're really lucky and some Engineers make their way here, you may get some further assistance with that as well."

"Let's hope so, sir" Quaid replied as he moved over to the equipment storage lockers built under the Engineering console. As he bent down to retrieve the Emergency toolkit from the locker so that he could assess what tools he'd have to work with, the Jefferies tube access panel between the helm console and the main viewscreen was unlocked and opened to reveal an exhausted and sweaty crewman Kylie Dirland as well as several Engineering and Science personnel.

Quaid placed his kit down and went to help the new arrivals onto the Bridge, they looked as if they had been crawling through maintenance tunnels and turbolift shafts for a while.

"Is everyone alright?" Quaid asked as he helped Dirland (NPC) to her feet.

"Yes sir, I think so... we received orders to make our way here and try to establish what's happening," Kylie explained.

Quaid looked at the equipment harness she wore and smiled. "Give me your tricorder."

Taking the device from her, Jake shooed the new arrivals over to the Captain so that she could issue orders while he made the preparations to turn the Tricorder into a basic LCARS interface.

"Captain, I have some working of my terminal." Said Mason.

After giving Mason a brief nod, Isabel turned to Kylie, "Anything to report Ms. Dirland?"

Kylie held out a second tricorder and offered it to Isabel, "Ensign Akios wanted me to give this to you. We started modifying it to use when the Engineering team goes over to the Sirion, but it can also work here until Communications are fixed."

"Thank you Petty Officer. Could you please give Lieutenant Quaid and Commander Hunt a hand?" Isabel asked, turning the tricorder over in her hand.

"Absolutely ma'am. The other tricorders should be going to Lieutenant Peters and...well, Commander Hunt is here. I'm not sure if the others were able to reach Mr. Peters yet," the young engineer replied.

Isabel nodded, "Alright, thank you." Seeing Kylie head over to where Jake and Mason were working, Isabel addressed whoever was listening, "Lieutenant Peters? Anyone else who's listening? This is Captain Kersare, please respond."

OFF: Tag anyone with a specially modified tricorder...

JP brought to you by:

Lieutenant Jake Quaid
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B

and

Commander Mason Hunt
Executive Officer
USS Malinche NCC-38897-B

and

ON: <Beta Bridge, Day 3, 1525>

Cheetara was still working on repairs. She kept trying to get through to Hunt, Kersare and Rodgers, but nothing was working. She knew that she needed to bring this to the Captain's attention ASAP, however, she had to get things settled first. Moments later an ensign walked up to her.

"Excuse me, lieutenant, but I need to get through to... whoahhh..."

Cheetara recognized this to be ensign Akios, one of the engineering officers. She ignored the end of his question. "If you're looking for Commander Hunt, he is on his way to the main bridge."

A warrant officer turned around and gave the introductions. "Ensign Akios, Lieutenant Thundera. EX-Borg. Communications are down. We have a replacement communication system for the commander."

Cheetara's ears perked up. "Let me see that"

She looked over the information on the tricorders. It was interesting to say the least, but it gave her ideas on repairing the communications within the sihp.

"Thank you", she in a monotone voice while handing back the tricorder. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got work to finish and a saboteur to find."

The two officers walked away and left her be. She was a little disturbed at Akios's reaction. After all, many former Borg's have been implemented into starfleet. She began working on making the modifications to her tricorder in order to be able to speak to those that already had one. After finishing, she began trying to transmit a signal.

"Cheetara to Kersare, Hunt, or Rodgers. I have important news about what has happened. Please meet me on the main bridge."

She didn't know who had the modified tricorders she didn't want to give out too much information. However, she was sure that whoever had them would atleast be able to relay the message to them. Cheetara gathered her data and began making her way to the main bridge.

OFF