"Enter," Captain Maruu called from inside his ready room. The Virgo was cruising along at Warp 5, towards a nearby nebula for study. The "Inbox" of report PADDs was empty, and he held the last of them in his left hand.
Through the door stepped Lieutenant Commander Garek Loran. A scruffy goatee was starting to grow. Garek was going for a new look, and figured that this would suffice. Right now, however, it was nothing more then stubble, and felt like sandpaper to the touch. Garek admitted it wasn't the best right now, however, he kept telling himself it would get better.
"You called for me, sir?" Garek asked.
"Yes, Garek. Please, have a seat."
Garek walked over and took a seat in one of the chairs across the desk from Maruu. Instead of sitting, Stephen rose and walked around his desk behind Garek, where he started to pace.
"Are these reports accurate?"
"As far as I can figure," Garek replied. "I've been going over the inventory, and the Borial gods just packed us up with all of the supplies we could've needed. We have such a surplus of dilithium crystals; we could warp back to the Alpha Quadrant, and back here at maximum speed."
"I see." If Garek new Captain Maruu, he was chewing this situation apart analytically, and coming to a decision. Being a Betazoid, Garek could've just read Maruu's thoughts, however, he didn't believe in probing the thoughts of others without their permission.
"You bring up an interesting idea. Not that any of your other ideas are boring, however, this one is truly fascinating."
"Thank you, sir."
"You say that there would be enough tridanium left over to be able to put 15 inches of ablative armor on the Virgo?" There already was ablative armor on the Virgo. However, it only covered the bridge, Main Engineering, Sickbay, and the Holodecks. That, and the armor was tempered from the less strong duranium metal used in starship production. By covering the entire ship in tridanium ablative armor plating, it would definitely give theVirgo a tactical advantage in combat.
"Well, my engineers still have to finish lacing the warp nacelles with the tridanium when we drop from warp, however, after discussing with with my team leaders, they agree that it can be done." Ensign Eric Wiley, leader of Gamma Team even jumped at the idea of getting out in a modified type-9 shuttle with the tridanium to do the welding of the metal to the hull. Of course, Garek thought, he'd be cozy in his shuttle, shuttling the metal out into space while his engineers, and some of the support crew, were in zero G work suits doing the most of the welding.
"How long of a time do you project it will take to finish?"
"Well, a few factors have to be taken into account. One: the time. As far as we can estimate, it could take as long as two to three weeks to finish lacing the hull with the multiple layers of tridanium plates. Secondly, if we were to do it in phases, applying the armor when we stop to get supplies, we have to take in the possibility that the Virgo could have gone into battle with a whole slew of enemies. This could flake away the armor, and we wouldn't be able to readily replace it in the field without going out and mining more tridanium. Lastly, if we were to stop and put this all on at one time, we'd be somewhat sitting ducks until we get my people onboard. We'd have to find a suitable moon or planet we could orbit that would disguise our energy signature from normal shipping lanes and such."
Maruu thought for a moment, still pacing across his office. True, the idea of having an extra 15 inches of a strong metal for protection was a great advantage to the ship and crew. However, the time it was requiring was immense. He finally looked over at his Chief Engineer.
"Garek, as much as I'd like to have that extra layer ofprotection, the time it is requiring is too great right now. I just want the ship to be able to withstand the pressures of transwarp flight at this point. You have already laced the leading edges of the ship with tridanium?"
"Yes, sir," Garek replied, a little dejectedly. He was looking forward to spearheading this project and making it work.The less damage the Virgo sustained in battle, the less he had to worry fixing later. "Three weeks isn't a long time to wait to have this type of armor applied if I might add."
"I know, Garek," Stephen replied. "However, we don't have the time to stop and do this type of work."
"Normal technicians at a spacedock could take nearly five to six weeks to apply only a foot of duranium! We are constantly at threat here, and that layer of protection really helps. All I can ask is that you just look over the advantages and disadvantages of my plan again."
"I will, but right now I just can't allow it. Maybe once we're in a little safer position..."
"Forgive me for saying, Captain, but once we're in safer space, it's not going to make that much of a difference now would it? What are we gonna do with it? Go beat up some Steamrunners or something?"
"Commander Loran," Maruu called out sternly. "My decision is final. Your plan is not needed at this point in time. When we stop, I want those nacelles lined with tridanium, and that's final."
"Yes, sir," Garek replied. He had an evil glare in his eyes as he took the PADD back from the Captain.
"Dismissed." Garek about faced, and exited the Captain's ready room.
"Hello, Garek," Commander Lataro said, as he exited the turbolift. Garek gave him a casual glance and grumpily entered the turbolift, the doors closing behind him.
"What's his problem?" Lieutenant Commander K'Lara shrugged as she made a small course correction at the helmstation.
"Main Engineering," Garek said sternly. The computer replied with the familiar beep, and the turbolift started on it's way.
Garek could see some of the reasons why Maruu wouldn't let him lace the hull of the Virgo with the tridanium. However, with the tactical advantage that having this extra layer of protection would give them, how could he refuse? It was insane. Garek leaned up against the back wall of the turbolift listening to it hum on it's way through the shaft towards the stardrive section of the vessel. Garek could feel the inertial dampeners compensate as the turbolift came to a halt.
The doors opened revealing the portside wall in the main "foyer" of Main Engineering. Garek exited the turbolift to see that Beta Team had just came on duty. A few stragglers from Alpha Team were finishing up a few of their experiments, observations, etc. before heading off to get lunch.
"Hello, sir," Jacob Celchu called from the railing thatran around the warp core. Garek didn't glance at Jacob, but held up a hand for a wave as he walked into the Chief Engineer's Office.
When the team leaders saw Garek do this in recognition of their call, they knew that: A, something was going wrong, or not to his liking, and B, he wanted to be left alone.
"Great," Jacob said to an ensign that was next to him. "The boss is ticked off about something."
"Computer, privacy mode." Garek said upon entering his office. With that, the doors hidden inside the bulkheads that made up the entrance archway to his office shut, and the glass windows from which he could see the warp core fogged over. It wasn't the best thing in the world, but it gave Garek some privacy in Engineering that sometimes he felt he really needed. For the past few days, Garek's empathic abilities had started to, for lack of better words, become more hyperactive, flooding his consciousness with emotions from everyone he passed buy. He could sense the slightest bit of resentment, joy, happiness, sadness, madness, anything that a person was feeling. Garek had been working to repress these emotions as soon as they hit him. However, now, they were becoming too much, and Garek, was at times, becoming a little to overemotional. Especially when it came to being angry. Garek breathed heavily, trying to clear his consciousness and to restrain himself from exploding. However, it just wasn't working as well as he hoped it would. The main thing that really bothered him was that he didn't know why this was happening.
After spending nearly half an hour in his office by himself, Garek finally brought himself back under control.
"Computer, normal mode." The office restored to its normal openness. The glass defogged revealing the warp core init's 'out of warp' mode. The matter and anti-matter feed was at 10%, which was the the level at which the warp core powered systems of the vessel along with the fusion generators.
"Chief, I have something for you to look at." Jacob said, as he walked over. He held a PADD in his hand.
"All right. Let's see it."
Jacob handed the PADD over to Garek, and stood back, as if expecting Garek's head to explode.
"Ease up, Jacob, I'm not going to blow up." Garek looked over the PADD indicating that they were having slight problems setting up the transwarp inducer, and that the the EPS feeds into the portside warp nacelle were functioning at sub par. "All right. I'll look over the transwarp induction system when I come back from the Bridge. Also, the EPS feeds have been acting up for the past few days. I'll request we stop for awhile to get them fixed."
"Thanks, Chief." Jacob retreated back over to the construction they had on the side of the M/ARA chamber, scanning it again with a tricorder. Garek made his way back into the turbolift, heading back towards the Bridge.
The turbolift doors opened, revealing the Bridge. Garek stepped onto the Bridge quietly, hoping that he would neither be seen nor heard. He had little chance of success, but it was worth a shot anyway. "Welcome back,
Garek," Commander Lataro said. He was behind Garek, standing at the Tactical station.
"Thank you, Commander. Is Captain Maruu in his ready room?"
"I believe he is."
"Thank you, sir." Garek made his way around to the otherside of the Bridge and pressed the door chime.
[Enter,] came the captain's voice over the small intercom by the door. Garek stepped through the doorway.
"I don't have time to argue with you again, Garek. My decision's made up."
"I have something to say, Captain. I'm sorry for my behavior earlier." Maruu looked up from his personal display, a little surprised. "For the past few weeks ever since we left Xenon III, and that time that I spent in that alternate universe, my empathic abilities have been running rampid. I've been absorbing feelings, thoughts, and emotions from everyone off this ship anytime I pass by someone. The problem is, I don't know what in the hell is causing it! It always feels as though my head is going to explode from the pressure that it's under. Needless to say, during this time I've been highly objectionable, but this thing is just getting the best of me. I apologize, sir."
Maruu rose from his seat and straightened out his uniform jacket. "I understand completely, Garek. At least, what it feels like. Why don't you go to Sickbay and have Dana check you out? Then, take the rest of the day off, and get some rest. I'll confer with her on the best way to handle this." Garek nodded.
"If that's what you think is best."
"Get better, Garek."
"I hope to." Garek the turned, and left the Captain's ready room on his way to Sickbay.