No Rest For The Weary.....

As another hour passed in his quarters, Lieutenant Lucas Taline relentlessly continued to page through his third book on Federation shield generators. As with the first two books, he found nothing. As he and Lieutenant Hansen suspected, the generator found amongst the debris wasn't Federation. He put the book down wearily and turned to look at the sketches and schematics of the generator he had loaded into his computer database.

*Hmmm.....* He thought as he examined the generator. *.....Maybe I'm looking under the wrong subject.......*

Lieutenant Taline had a hunch. He dragged himself over to the replicator on the far wall. He spoke in a scratchy voice. "A book, any book, on Barien vessel."

He cleared his throat trying hard to remove the frog in the back of his throat. "And coffee black. "

In less than a moment the book and the cup of coffee materialised. Lucas took the book and the coffee cup and walked over to his coffee table. He grudgingly picked up the table and dragged it in front of the computer screen, then finally plopped down in his chair pulling the table even closer. Taline rubbed his eyes and opened the large book grabbing his coffee taking a sip of coffee. He buried his face in the large book, first page - the table of contents. He saw the number of pages in the large reference book and groaned as he thought to himself. *It's gonna be one of those nights*.

Forty minutes passed and Lieutenant Taline was still reading. Occasionally, he looked up at the screen to see if there was a match to the mysterious generator and the one described in the book, but none were matches. When he hit halfway in the book, someone arrived at his door. "Come in." He said as if he were a thousand light years distant.

A young woman entered his room. It was one that he had met from his tour of the ship. He didn't bother to look up. If it weren't for his eyes scanning the pages like a machine, he seemed lifeless.

She walked over to the table, "Hard night ?"

No response from Lucas. She touched the half-full cup of coffee. It was cold to the touch. She said to herself softly, "Guess so...." She left his quarters.

The weary Lieutenant's eyes never left from the pages of the book. He turned the page. His eyes widened as life flowed into his body. He quickly turned to the screen. He held up the diagram in the book to the diagram on the screen. They were one and the same. Quickly Taline tapped his combadge."Taline to Lieutenant Hansen."

[Go Ahead!]

"Sir, I have something to show you !" Taline said excitedly.

[Fine. Come to the Rec Room. Hansen out.] The voice responded.

"Yes sir." Lieutenant Taline picked up the book and rushed out of his quarters. He blew threw the hallways of the ship like a hurricane and finally arrived at the Rec Room. Lieutenant Hansen was playing a table top game involving small, levitating balls. Lucas panted as he spoke to Hansen.

"Sir, I think I've found it." He pushed the book to Lieutenant Hansen and pointed out the diagram.

After a moment of looking at the diagram realising what he had found, Lieutenant Hansen tapped his combadge. "Lieutenant Hansen to the Bridge."

[Go ahead Lieutenant.] Devore answered.

"It seems that we've found an interesting piece to the puzzle." Lieutenant Hansen answered.

[Good. What is it ?]

"Well sir." Hansen began. He went into what Taline found and relayed the information directly to the Captain.

Taline realised something crucial. He said abruptly, interrupting Hansen, "Sirs, I don't think we've one the battle yet. I think we should check for alien spacecraft nearby."

"Captain, Lieutenant Taline suspects that we may have company. Recommend increased scans of the area." Lieutenant Hansen suggested.

[Yes. Make sure to let me know what is going on out there. In the Beta Quadrant, what we don't know can kill us....]

Lieutenant Taline followed Lieutenant Hansen to Engineering.

*Things just started to get interesting....* Thought an eager new Lieutenant.