Malfunction

Everything was going smoothly for once, the recent malfunctions with the replicators had been handled quickly and efficiently by Engineering. The atmosphere on the Bridge was light and there were several conversations going on between the Bridge crew. Commander Harris was in the command chair, idly reading section reports from the pile of PADDs that he always seemed to be carrying around with him these days.

Lieutenant Rashad entered the Bridge and went to her Intel station. Harris looked up at the Lieutenant and suddenly the atmosphere on the Bridge changed, not everyone fully trusted Rashad. Lieutenant Barker and Lieutenant Toran had both raised suspicions to the Captain previously. As for Commander Harris, there were various rumors about a recent 'fight' between the two officers.

Trying to restore the more relaxed atmosphere, Chu turned to Lieutenant Hansen and said "So what's the story on all these malfunctions Jon ?"

"My repair teams didn't find anything psychically wrong with replicators, it would appear to have been a software 'glitch'. Obviously, something similar caused Lieutenant Shaka's 'accident', when she drank that poisoned water. The problem seems to have resolved itself." He replied.

"I saw Shaka earlier, she looks to be almost fully recovered, hopefully she'll be back on the Bridge soon. That's if the EMH let's her out of sickbay, She said that he was driving her mad." Chu remarked.

"What the...." Ensign Ambrose exclaimed from his position at the helm. He swiftly brought the Leviathan to a dead stop.

Commander Harris looked up and quizzed Kirk. "Why have we stopped Ensign ?"

"Sir, we've just lost the main deflector. Obviously, we can't continue to travel at warp until it's back online." Kirk explained.

"Mr. Hansen, what has happened ?"

Before Hansen could reply, the Captain came on the ship comm.

[Devore to Commander Harris. Why have we stopped ?]

"We've lost the main deflector dish. Ensign Ambrose thought it prudent that we stop until it's back on-line. We're looking into it at the moment Captain, I'll get back to you when I know more." Harris replied. "OK. Mr. Hansen, let's hear it." He said turning around to look at the Engineering chief

"All the deflector dish systems check out A.OK. We're just not getting any data from it."

"Is the secondary deflector on-line ?" The commander asked.

"It would appear so, sir. I'll take a look at the main deflector now." Hansen said.

"I'll give you a hand." Chu said. If it was another software problem, then there were few on the Leviathan with Chu's computer programming skills.

They both headed off towards the turbo lift.

"OK, Mr. Ambrose, let's get moving again. Half impulse." The commander said. *At least we'll not be sitting ducks, let's hope the main deflector is back soon and we can get back to warp. I've got a bad feeling about this area of space, a very bad feeling.*

From the slipstream station, a grin formed on *** Shadow's *** face.