"Patience"
(Previous Post was Brian's "Never Doubt")
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Stardate: 60340.1200
The young woman in her chair at the back of the Command Pit… her eyes
locked on the main view screen while her thoughts travelled days ahead to
their destination and target… SURIAL III.
The planet which had been home to a Cardassian/Romulan prison camp had been more trouble than it had been worth from the first moment they had laid eyes on it. As if tit had not been sufficient for the planet to be surrounded by an ionized atmosphere which made transporting impossible, an impressive array of *cloaked* orbital defence platforms had been set-up to protect the planet from unwanted visitors.
The ANUBIS would have been more than capable of taking care of a few
such defence platforms if it had not been for the damage that they had
suffered prior to their arrival in orbit and the discovery of no less than a
hundred of those invisible platforms. Those 2 elements combined with the
general need for urgency to rescue the crew of the MERCURY had severely tipped
the odds against them. Nevertheless the crew, thanks to some amazing
thinking and resourcefulness, had managed to disable the orbital platforms and
reached the planet's surface before Zulot and T'Preel had been the wiser.
Unfortunately this had not been the end of their troubles… in fact that was when things really began to fall apart. With the ANUBIS' CEO under the influence of the spirit of his dead twin brother which had embedded itself into his mind, and the inability of the ship to assist the Marines and members of the away team who had been sent to the planet, Enaii had decided to intervene.
The plan had been a simple one… to use the now inoperative orbital
platforms to boost a transporter signal through the atmospheric interference. If this worked, help would be able to be given to the troops on the planet, but time had been short, so with the help of the CSciO, the Intel Operative
attempted the transport with herself as the test subject.
The young woman's grasp of her chair increased several folds as she
recalled the next agonizing moments in which the transporter pattern of the
ANUBIS' ILO, who also was the CO's life-mate and the biological mother to
Talia, dissipated beyond retrieval. There had been no way to explain then or
now why what happened next happened, leaving some to think that it had been
a strange coincidence while others thought that maybe the ILO's had
affected this in some way. What was known was that seconds after the
transporter accident, the interference caused by the atmosphere vanished allowing for easy transport to and from the planet surface.
Of course the young woman had quickly subscribed to the later possibility despite there not having been any proof, wanting for Enaii's death to have counted for something other than a failed attempt. This had served in
a very minor way to help Sabrina deal with the loss of her life-mate, a
void that she still felt the full sting of even after several weeks.
"It appears that the HATHOR has completed their first set of drills."
1st Lt. Pravat, the Marine CO and now the ANUBIS' Sec/Tac officer reported
having observed the ship returning to a standard formation after having
drifted off course. The change had not been important enough to
mention, but the MCO had kept a close watch on things… just in case.
The redheaded woman thought for a moment… Prav had likely said this to hint that they should also be performing some sort of drills in view of their return into Cardassian space, but that given the last exercise he had been involved with, a direct suggestion had seemed a little too much. Although the CO agreed in principle with the idea and reasons, the young woman's mind had not been on battle drills and she suspected that her ExO felt the same way, both of them consumed by the scientific aspect of their current mission.
"Lt. Pravat… do what you feel is needed… I need to check on something.
The Bridge is yours." The announcement made by the young woman took the
Sex/Tac officer by complete surprise and by the time the Marine had grasped the full meaning of what had been said the redheaded CO had already left the
bridge.
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Normally the ExO of a ship would be found on the Bridge or performing some personnel related task, but in the case of the ANUBIS, Lt. Cmdr. Maya had been found in one of the many labs onboard the vessel… a location which best suited the Shillian. After the discovery of the protected pattern in the computer's memory and the talk the 2 women had shared, it had made perfect sense for the CSciO to pursue a more scientific approach to their mission.
"How is the research going?" The young woman inquired as she stepped
into the room, having found the ExO amidst what appeared to be a storm of
PADDs and computer displays showing things that the CO could not understand
despite her background in science.
"Based on the information that was made available, and on the process
that we will have to use once we reach SURIAL III, I am still working on us
being able to get a lock on Enaii's bio-matter. The dispersion of the
pattern throughout the planet's atmosphere is making things extremely
difficult… leaving me with trying to figure out a way to either store part of the pattern into the buffer while the ship orbits the planet, or for us to
extend a transporter beam to reach all the way to the far side of the
planet." The Explanation given by the Shillian had actually been
precise and short, something that the young woman had appreciated.
"Keep working on it… I have no doubt that you will be able to find a way around that problem." The CO stated certain that if anyone could find a
way to get this done, Maya had been that person.
With that aspect of their mission in good hands, the young woman decided to pay a visit to Ens. Halliwell who would have the task of insuring that all of the medical needs of the ILO would be taken care of once Enaii would be brought back from oblivion. Based on her own medical experience, Rikar could only guess as to what problems a reconstituted Enaii would face after having spent so many days in a state of detached atoms floating through a sea of ionized particle caught in the atmosphere of a planet light-years away from home.
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The ANUBIS' CO found the ship's CMO where she had expected to find her,
sitting in her office looking over the medical history of Lt. Cmdr.
Enaii… or at least the parts which had not been classified out of the reach of
the vessel's personnel.
As Rikar sat in the chair opposite to that of the CMO, the young woman
noticed a look of bewilderment engraved on the Ensign's features. The
CO had made sure to include Ens. Halliwell in the research process
involving the bringing of the ILO back, but obviously the scope of the
undertaking had been somewhat overwhelming to the aCMO.
"That bad?" The young woman offered, trying her best to lighten the
mood even if only by a little.
"You could say that. We are looking at locking onto over a billion of
atoms scattered through the atmosphere of a planet and using the transporter
to bring it back into a single unified form. It would be like putting a
Lemon Meringue pie through a blender, scattering the goo over kilometres of
sandy beach and then trying to put the pie back together while making sure
that not a single grain of sand is picked up." Elizabeth explained as she
rubbed the back of her neck clearly showing that she had worked long and hard
to try and see how this could be accomplished.
"An interesting analogy…" The CO commented as she gradually realised as
to just how accurate the description had been.
"Even if Lt. Cmdr. Maya manages to find a way to gather all of the
bio-matter, there are no guarantees that the transporter will be able
to make sense of the matter stream which will likely have parts missing
and other parts added to it that should not be there in the first place."
The CMO explained as she sighed heavily, all of her knowledge and training
telling her that such an attempt would be doomed to failure.
"Healer… Captain… Please forgive the intrusion, but I could not help
but overhear your conversation as I walked in." The giant CEO admitted, the
Oltharian looking utterly apologetic."
"No problem Elan, what can I do for you?" Elizabeth inquired as she
stood from behind her desk, looking actually grateful for the opportunity to
focus on something other than the impossible task of bringing the ILO back
together from her current state.
"While working on one of the primary power transfer conduits, Crewman
Ednie suffered burns following a minor explosion. I brought him into Sickbay
to receive care." The Oltharian explained prompting the CMO to rush out of
her office and into the main treatment area to take care of the injured
man. While Elizabeth attended to Crewman Ednie, the giant turned to the
redheaded woman and offered a reassuring smiled.
"If you have any words of encouragement, I would be more than happy to
hear them." The young woman stated, obviously feeling the effect of her
conversations with Maya and Elizabeth.
"I have known Enaii for a very long time… and know one thing to be
beyond the shadow of any doubt… when this universe comes to an end, there will
be only three living souls remaining… you, Talia and Enaii fighting off
the enveloping darkness keeping the 2 of you safe from the collapsing
universe." The Oltharian offered in a tone containing such peace and tranquility that the redheaded woman could only smile and hope that his perception of the ILO had been correct.
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"We are Grey, we stand between the Candle and the Star, between the
Darkness and the Light" 2006 post #026
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Bridge
Stardate: 60340.1215
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Astrometrics Lab
Stardate: 60340.1230
Setting: USS ANUBIS, CMO's Office
Sabrina Jones {sabrina_sweet@hotmail.com}
Captain Sabrina Rikar
Commanding Officer
USS ANUBIS, NCC-18501
-Entilza Delenn, Babylon 5
