Needless to say, the last few days had been somewhat exciting, and strange at the same time. The Virgo still orbited the asteroid with the tridanium deposits, yet, after what had happened to the first away team sent there, Captain Maruu has been hesitant to send anyone back there. The only source of information, the original away team composing of Commander Lataro, Lieutenant Tomme, and Lieutenant Benton had turned up nothing. Mostly due to their memories having been erased by an unknown source.
Feelings were also running ramped on the ship. Garek was walking down a corridor towards the Mess Hall when a sudden sense of confusion passed over him. It was Jenara Tomme passing him fairly quickly. Garek about faced, and hurried to catch up with her.
"Hello Jenara. You seem to be in a hurry."
"Garek, I can't talk right now. I'm busy." She quickened her pace, trying to escape the miniature interrogation by the Chief Engineer.
Garek stopped, not wanting to make her uncomfortable with questions. "Well, you're obviously confused and upset about something!" he called out after her.
She stopped, turned and walked back towards him. "How did you know that?"
"Well, besides the fact that you're face is slightly flush, and you're just giving off those emotions as if you were venting plasma from a nacelle." Garek smiled to attempt to calm her down. "I'm sorry if I'm prying, but when you're part Betazoid, you can just sense these things."
"If you must know," Jenara started, "I am upset about something. I'm sorry I was rude, but I just don't want to discuss it right now."
Garek through his hands up. "All right. I'm not here to interrogate or anything. However, you don't want to walk around always being upset. Believe me, it tears away at your insides, and you then begin to isolate yourself from the world. Talk to Lieutenant Zano or someone. It'll help you. Or, if you're really desperate, you can always come and talk to me." He offered another smile.
"Thank you, Garek." Jenara smiled and then turned, heading off on her original course.
Well, hopefully that helped somewhat.
"Dweezle! What's the problem?" Garek entered the Mess Hall, seeing Dweezle picking at the replicator circuitry.
"Hi, Chief." Dweezle replied. He put down a piece of machinery and walked over to wash his hands in a sink behind the counter. "It's the replicator. I sent in a notice to a...Ensign Celchu?" Dweezle looked at Garek, hoping he got the Ensign's name right.
"Yes, that's right. Jacob Celchu."
"Well, anyway, I sent a notice into him asking if he could send an engineer to come and fix it. I didn't know he was going to send you."
Garek grinned. "Actually, I was on my way here to get something to eat, but since you're having a problem with it, I'll try to help out." He walked over to the broken terminal, and then picked up the piece of equipment Dweezle had yanked out of the wall. "I hope you know what you did."
"What did I do?" Dweezle asked. A small look of concern crossed his face, and Garek could start to sense anxiety coming from the alien. This was his chance.
"This is an emergency power relay. By removing this from the wall, it'll disrupt energy transfer throughout the whole ship, causing massive power failures. Helm, tactical, sensors, everything will go offline in a matter of seconds!"
"Oh my!!! Fix it, Chief! Fix it! Hurry!" Dweezle started to panic.
Garek couldn't help but start to chuckle. He then broke off into laughter.
"What? This isn't a time to be laughing!"
"Sorry Dweezle. I couldn't resist!" Garek wiped away a small tear of laughter from his face. It was funny to see him go hysterical. "It's just a replicator memory bank for this terminal. I'm sorry. You should've seen the look on your face."
Dweezle walked over and gave Garek a small hit on the back. "Don't EVER do that again." Dweezle began to smile too.
After gaining his composure again, Garek took a deep breath, and then began to figure out what was wrong. "Dweezle, what exactly happened when you tried to order something?"
"Well, there was a small whir, and then the whole terminal just went black. I'd have to reboot the terminal. Then, when you tried to order, the same thing would happen."
Garek thought for a moment. "It could possibly the power relay. However, the replication matrix could also be out of alignment. I think I know what it is. I'll have this thing running again in a few minutes."
"Thanks, Chief. You're a lifesaver. The next crowd of people is do in in twenty minutes." It was coming up on 1600 hours, and Alpha shift would be coming off duty soon, expecting to get a hot meal in the Mess Hall.
Garek nodded, smiling, and then reattached the library module back into it's rightful position. He then removed two more access panels and began to look over some circuitry. "Here's the problem. Low power feed. It doesn't help that we are only running off the fusion reactors. It's about time we start rigging the ship to be more energy efficient. That, and I'll have to talk to the captain about getting more dilithium for the warp engines and tridanium for hull plating. However, since I'm here, I might as well start rigging the ship."
Opening another panel, Garek removed an engineering kit. One of many that were stored aboard the ship in different panels as an emergency repair kit that one can use while they were waiting for repair crews or engineering teams to arrive. Pulling out a fusion torch and a hydrospanner, Garek began a few modifications to the replicator. After a few minutes of tinkering, he stood up, and activated the counsel.
"Computer, display energy intake through this replicator terminal."
<Accessing.>
Garek stood, waiting for the information to come across the screen. Then, it popped up. "Oh my," Garek said, nearly not believe his eyes. "Computer, display previous energy intake." After a few seconds that information also came up. "Very interesting." Garek tapped his com badge. "Ensign Antilles?"
[Yes, Sir. What can I do for you?] Ensign Jennifer Antilles replied. The new leader of the Alpha Team had grown accustomed to her new job, not to mention the new workload as well.
"I want you to look at the information I am sending you now." Garek tapped a button, and the information that was on his screen was sent to her.
[Is this a simulation, Sir? Those numbers can't be right.]
"They're right, Ensign. I just did the adjustment to a replicator terminal, and those are the numbers I got. I want to know if this can be down with virtually all the systems on the ship."
There was a slight pause. Garek could here the comments from a few other people in Engineering. A small group had probably formed behind Antilles, and were looking over the information. [I think that it's an assignment that Alpha Team can take care of.]
"Excellent. I will talk this over with the Captain. In the meantime, start preparing people to carry this task out. Loran out." Garek tapped his badge, closing the signal. "Dweezle, it's been fun, but I have to get going."
"Oh. Sorry you couldn't stay, Chief. Get back when you have time, huh?"
"Count on it." Garek replaced the engineering kit, transferred the information still on the replicator screen to his tricorder, and then shut the terminal off. Next stop, the Bridge.
The lights in the turbolift flickered slightly. Great. Another problem to look at. Hopefully this little adjustment should help. The turbolift crawled to a halt, and the doors hissed open. Garek stepped onto the bridge to see the entire bridge crew at their stations minus K'Lara who was now on restricted duty and maternity leave.
"Garek. Good to see you come to the Bridge. Finally manage to crawl out of that hole of your called Engineering?" Valdago smiled, and waited for the reply of his friend.
"Very funny, Johnathan. I don't see you enjoying your position up here. Perhaps, you would like to make a turn to our side?" Garek grinned. "Is Captain Maruu in his ready room?"
"Yes. With Commander Lataro. Who knows what they're talking about in there." He then addressed a small beeping light that popped up on the counsel.
Garek took a look around. I wonder what it's actually like in that chair. As if he was creeping across the Bridge, Garek made his way to the captain's chair and sat down in it. The upholstery was soft to the touch. Much better then the chair he had down in his "office" in Engineering.
The door to the Ready Room opened suddenly, and Garek stood, as if there was a spring in the seat of the chair.
"Lieutenant Loran. I hope my chair is to your liking," Maruu said sarcastically.
"Oh. Uh..." Garek wasn't exactly sure how to answer the question.
Maruu gave a small laugh. "What brings you up to the Bridge, Lieutenant?"
"I was doing a few modifications to the replicators and came up with these numbers." Garek handed Maruu his tricorder, which was already set to display the appropriate figures.
Maruu stood there and looked over the information. "That is quite a waste of energy. Do you believe you could make the proper modifications to all ship's systems to conserve energy?"
"I believe so, Sir. However, it could take time. Not to mention the fact that we've been running off the fusion reactors for a long time, and they were meant to function with the help of a warp drive. Are we going to be pulling the dilithium crystals off this asteroid?"
"That question is still in debate right now. However, I'll be sure to keep you appraised of the situation. In the meantime, please make the modifications to the Virgo's systems for the necessary power saving.
"Aye, Sir." Garek took back his tricorder from Maruu, and made his way back to the turbolift. Destination: Engineering. With the fact that he had gathered, Garek, with his engineering teams, would be able to reduce the access energy output by 85% and make the Virgo more energy efficient. This would allow the ship to function on only about 50% from each reactor, yet still be able to function within the normal parameters of acceptable energy levels, giving the ship twice as much energy to use.